Springing forward
March 29th, 2010
Well everybody, welcome back to the best missionary blog ever! (Whoah, do I sense a little bit of pride there? How about the best missionary-in-california blog? That’ll do.) So anywho; I’ve got two weeks to catch up on now, so let’s not waste any time!
We had a fantastic Zone Conference last Wednesday, March 17th, which coincidentally was St. Patrick’s Day! So the luncheon was appropriately themed. The few lucky missionaries with four-leaf clovers stuck underneath their plates won some cool prizes. But silliness aside… the Zone Conference really was amazing. The theme was, for the second time in my mission, The Atonement. A powerful topic. And I loved it. President Jardine spoke about the power, effect, reach, love, and limitless potential of our Saviour’s eternal sacrifice. The spirit there was so strong, I think it was even better than last year’s Conference on the same topic.
We’ve continued to teach Michael (aka. Mike) these last two weeks. He’s working towards April 10th for baptism! We’re so excited for him. He’s still struggling to find a job, but he knows the decision he is making is right, and that things will work out somehow, Let go, let God he says (a phrase he got from his LDS friend Keith). We also got to meet his mother in law this last week as well, she’s so sweet, and very faithful in the church. Aside from Michael, things are a little slow, but we’re working hard to try and find more sheep to bring into the fold!
I went on my first District Leader exchange this last week, on Tuesday. I was in my area (Tracy Ward), but I brought in one of the spanish missionaries, Elder Flores (from Idaho). We had a really great day! One of the best parts was encountering spanish people while biking from place to place… because he could actually talk to them! Normally I say some lame thing like “Hola, somos los missionarios de la iglesia de jesus cristo … bla bla…“ and then give them a pass-along card. Yeah, like I said, lame. I wish I could speak spanish.
We also had interviews with President Jardine this week. Always a great experience. You really know he cares because he asks about how you and your family are doing, and then offers a sincere and heartfelt prayer for them before you leave the interview. It was a little different this time, since he had some comments and questions about the district that I’m responsible for. There are some pretty young missionaries in the District, so there is a lot of teaching, encouraging, and leading opportunities to be found!
I’m getting closer to filling up my second Journal now. So I’ll need a new one sometime soon, *hint *hint mom and dad* — It’s weird that at this point I can actually look back to see what I was doing a whole year ago… as a missionary! Journal’s are great. Everyone should do it.
Last of all I want to do a shout out to the future Elder Arnett, from Arizona, who will be coming to this mission in early June or end of May (I’m guessing). He found my blog while googling his soon to be mission (Rats! I guess I can’t hide forever…) and shot me a very friendly email. Gee, I guess that makes me like… famous or something! (Whoah, there goes that pride again… what’s the deal?) – Well Tyler, you got the best mission in the world. You must have done something right!
I love this area, this mission, and these people here in Tracy.