Pasco, WA (10/12/2010)

Hello from Tri-cities, Washington. I am in the heart of the mission now. I am serving in Pasco, in the Pasco 5th Branch which is the biggest branch in the mission. There are about 200 people who attend in non-fruit picking season, and it has three sets of missionaries covering and it is keeping us busy.

My new companion is Elder Tom. He is from Marysville, California. His heritage is Native American, Navajo to be more specific and so that throws the Hispanics here for a spin. His Spanish is really good for just coming out to the field. He has progressed a lot in the week that he has been here and I am sure it is due to 1) hearing real people speak it fast, and 2) Not being so nervous and just talking. He is a good Elder and ready to work hard.

The work here is great. We have three baptisms coming up. One is a brother of a member. His name is Joel. He is awesome. He has had some struggles in his life with addictions and other related things but he is so willing and ready to change. Both times we have gone over there he has asked to say the closing prayer and both times he has asked for forgiveness. We challenged him to do it on his own too. Then the next time we asked him how it went and he just got this big smile on his face and just said great. He is awesome. He is scheduled for the 23rd.

The other two are young girls, Edubijes and Daniela. They are daughters of a Recent Convert. They are cool girls. They have been going to primary so they know the answers. They are going to be baptized on the 31st of October

The Pasco stake is awesome. They have set a goal to have 110 baptisms but the end of the year. Well as of right now they have had 68. We had a meeting last Thursday with the stake presidency and all of the ward mission leaders to get things going. We are going to work as hard as we can as a stake to get the 42 baptisms that we need. It should be a lot of fun a really rewarding.

Things are going great. Thank you all for all you do. Have a great week.