I have never lived like this!! (10/06/2009)

Why hello everyone. It is getting down right chilly here. I went out to the car at 8:00 this morning to get something and the temperature read 37° and there was frost on the grass. I am excited for the cold and have been hoping that it would be really cold this winter but I may be regretting that by spring.

So, first updates on Connell. Sunday, Samuel got baptized. He was the son of the member that we found in the garage. I haven’t heard how it went but I am sure it went well. Nancy, the one that was supposed to be baptized at the end of August has said that she really wants to be baptized now so we will see how that goes. There is another man named Adolfo. Now Adolfo has worked for a member for many years and has been talking to the missionaries for over 7 years. The man he was working for is now serving a mission in Texas but I think he gets home this month. Anyway, he called up Elder Mendez and I guess he had been talking to Adolfo and he told him that he wants to get baptized. So Elder Mendez went over there and Adolfo said he and his wife want to get baptized now. So we will see how that goes. Then Veronica now wants her 8 year old daughter baptized and they are trying to see if the dad is totally okay with it. So a lot is happening in Connell right now.

Now for General Conference. Conference was great as always. I did notice that the chorister in General Priesthood meeting was not singing. I thought that was interesting. I really liked President Monson's talk about anger. That was really good. When we stood and sang Praise To that Man for halftime for the priesthood session, it made me think of the time that dad left to go to the bathroom and then came back and said "When I came out of the bathroom I noticed that I was in the girls bathroom, I figured it wouldn't matter much". I also liked Elder Ballard’s talk about Fathers and sons. You also have to love Elder Holland’s talk on the Book of Mormon amazing. All-n-all it was amazing. We watched all sessions at the church.

Now for the work here in Toppenish. It is starting to pick up. The Solis family is Seventh Day Adventist. What that means is they focus all their attention on the 10 commandments and essentially still live the Law of Moses which had the Sabbath on the last day of the week. They are doing well. We haven’t been able to make it out there. They kind of live far away so we can't just pop in.

Every Friday we do something called weekly planning where we plan for the week, easy enough. Elder Viera and I have decided that I am in charge of the Spanish work and he is in charge of the English work, we still have input on both but we are just in charge for that. So I was looking over the names on the branch roster for the Spanish and this one name just kept sticking out to me. Sergio Morales. So after a little bit I said lets put him down to go visit this week. So Saturday night we head over there. They let us in and we find out that Sergio was baptized when he was about 13 down in Monterrey and is now 40. He said he hasn't been to church in a long time. But he mentioned that he had a brother who served a mission. Anyway, we were talking and Sergio’s wife, who is not a member of the church, was saying that just that morning she was talking with her daughter about how with all the trials they are going through in their lives, they need to find God. Well look who showed up that night. Then we challenged them to have family prayer together every night and when we were talking about that, and how you can work out your trials together with our Heavenly Father, Sergio was tearing up. It was awesome. We had an appointment for last night but I guess they have horses and they got loose so she called and asked if we could change it so we are going back on Wednesday. It should be pretty good

I was thinking the other day, I have a few scriptures that I like better than the one that is on my plaque right now. I was wondering if I could change that or if that is set in stone.

Well I think we are starting to work hard and I think it is starting to pay off

P.S. Mom, or Dad, or whoever wants to. I would like those tan slip-on shoes that Lady gave me for my birthday or Christmas one year, and the belt that I bought to match it and also that brown sweater I have. Scott probably has at least one of those things if not all three. But if I could get those that would be great.