Airport pictures 1

Just coming out of security.

Mom gets the first hug.


Then Dad gets a hug.


Followed by my sister Christi


And then Grandma Donna.

Airport pictures 2

Grandpa Milt gets a hug

Niece Grace has grown since I left.

Christi and Westin.


My family.


The whole crowd that welcomed me.

Not much to say... (12/07/2010)

I don't have much to say. Edgar and Lilian got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. I had the privilege to baptize Lilian while Elder Tom baptized Edgar. It was a very beautiful service. They then were confirmed at church on Sunday. They both seem really content and happy. We now, are teaching Lillian’s sister, Karen, who came to church on Sunday. She is really cool. She has a couple of kids and husband but I guess she and the husband are having a lot of problems. We are trying to help her out. She really wants to get baptized but she is scared. We are trying to get her baptized on the 14th (that just happens to be the day before I go home). We will see though.

We are also working with 2 boys named Christian and Xavian, they are cool kids. Their mother has been inactive for a number of years. She is trying to make her way back at the moment. They too will hopefully be baptized on the 14th. We will see though.

Things are still happening here.....even without a car. Life is good though. I can't complain.

Thank you for all you do.

I love you all

Well Hello! (11/30/2010)

Things are cold here in Pasco. It has continued to snow and has only been above 32° a couple of times. It mainly has hovered in the high teens with a wind, which makes it cold. It really isn't that bad except the fact that someone slid on the ice and rear-ended us so we are without a car for a little bit and we have to walk everywhere. There have been times where there will be a gust of wind and I just have to stop and close my eyes and hope it stops. It is soooo cold. But, I would not change it for the world. The Lord has extremely blessed us. He is aware of us and at times, I feel like we were supposed to loose our car so we could go out and walk and talk to people. By the way, no one was hurt in the accident.

Things are going well here in Pasco. Edgar and Lilian were able to purchase their wedding license yesterday and are all set to get married on Thursday, then baptized on Saturday. They are an awesome family. They want Lillian’s sister, Edgar’s sister-in-law to be baptized as well. We have an appointment to meet them on Wednesday. It should be good. They are a really good family.

Thanksgiving was fun. We had a couple of dinners, one day we ate tamales, which is what the Hispanics usually eat for their special meals, and then we had the usual turkey and mashed potatoes. It was really good and a fun Thanksgiving. I have, though, never been so cold on Thanksgiving before. (It has been cold if you haven’t noticed!)

Francisco and Maribel are members that live here in Pasco. Maribel is Joel’s twin sister. They have also helped us with Erika and Edgar and Lilian. Well they are going to get sealed in the temple on the 11th of December and they asked me if I would be a witness. I was honored but I didn't really think President Greer would let me go. Well I called him up this morning and he said I could go. I am really excited. I have never been to a live sealing before. And it may be one of the few times I get to witness a sealing where a child is sealed as well.

Anyways. I better get going. Thank you for all you do.

Have a great week!

It is COLD!! (11/23/2010)

It has progressively gotten colder this week. It has been kind of fun to walk around in the cold weather surprisingly. I have definitely put my big heavy jacket to good use this week. And it seems as though I will be needing it for a while. It snowed last night and it is supposed to snow again soon. The forecast for the low on Wednesday morning is -1° F not C. I couldn't believe it. That is just down right chilly. It has been kind of fun though.

Well we have some very exciting news. Edgar and Lilian are going to get baptized on the 4th of December. They came to church again yesterday and stayed for the whole three hours. Which is awesome. They have always wanted to but with their son Justin being autistic they were always worried. He did pretty well for about one and a half meetings and then his dad had to take him outside. The other day we went over there and Lilian asked if the church married people and we said yes and we found out that they are not married and they said they want to get married and what not. So we told them to get their license and everything and the branch president will marry them. They got excited and said they would. We then asked them after they got married if they would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and before we could finish, he said, "Yeah, I mean no body has told me this is true, like God didn't come down and tell me but I just know that it is. I just have this feeling that it is the right thing to do". It was awesome. He said well for me at least I don't know about Lilian. And she said Yeah I want to do it too. It was awesome.

So we are working on getting them married for this week so they can be baptized on the 4th of December. It should be awesome. Last night we went over the second lesson which is the plan of salvation. The Plan of Salvation is absolutely beautiful and when understood is amazing. But at times, can be very hard to understand. So we were going through the second lesson and Edgar just kept saying it makes sense. It makes sense that we lived with God before this life. It makes sense that we don't remember it because then there would be no test in this life. It makes sense we want to return with God and live with him. It was amazing. She is just happy and giddy all the time. She understands a lot as well, but more importantly she knows this will bless her family. She told us that they have gone through a lot of missionaries but they haven't felt anything until now. They always liked them coming over, they just didn't feel it. We told her that God has timing for everything and this just must have been their time. I also told her that ever since I have met them, when I knew they had an autistic son, I was very interested. To me, it is a very interesting disability. Plus, Alex has it and I just knew a little bit about it. Not a lot but I understand it. So Sometimes, God just puts us in places that will benefit everyone involved.

Well that’s about it. We have been doing a lot of tracting of late trying to find new people to teach. Please remember Edgar and Lilian in your prayers. Keep doing what your doing because your doing really swell. I love you all, Happy Thanksgiving!

From the windy city (11/16/2010)

It has been very windy here in Pasco the past couple of days. I mean extremely windy. This morning, driving to the library, there were a few signs and trees that had fallen down yesterday. It was pretty exciting.

So we actually had an extra baptism that we weren't expecting this week. Gerardo decided to get baptized on Sunday rather than wait for next Saturday. So he was baptized on Saturday and he will be confirmed next Sunday. He really is a good guy. He understands a lot and has really opened up lately. He has gone through a lot of trials in his life that have been difficult but he has really changed. He will be confirmed on Sunday and will probably receive the priesthood on the same day.

The baptism of Karen and Daniela went really well. I got the privilege of baptizing Karen and Elder Tom baptized Daniela. It was really neat. There weren’t very many people there but it was still very spiritual. Then on Sunday Elder Tom and I switched. I confirmed Daniel and Elder Tom confirmed Karen. They are doing really well

Erika's baptism went awesome as well. I was also privileged to baptize Erika. It was really cool. Once she walked out of the font, she just stopped and started crying. It was really neat. She was confirmed by a member in the branch at her baptism because she had to work on Sunday. Well then she showed up to work on Sunday. They gave her the day off because it wasn't very busy and they knew that she wanted to go to church so she was very happy. She is really progressing well and has been reading and praying every day which is awesome.

Edgar and Lillian came to church again on Sunday. They are doing awesome. We are working with them still. Lilian wants to get baptized but Edgar wants to know 100% so he is really searching. We will be patient with him. There is no need to rush. But they are still doing really well.

Anyway, that’s about all I have. Thanks again for everything.