Week 17 September 23, 2010

Dear family,
Yesterday was my exchange with Elder Thornton, one of our zone leaders, and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be because he doesn't speak any Spanish, so I had to speak all the Spanish. As I went through the day, I realized that the Spanish didn't matter so much as having the Spirit and I think Elder Thornton saw that when we went through the day. We did get a lot of work done and it was fun to listen to him try to pronounce the words in Spanish.
We set Luis for baptism on the 16th of October and he's still doing great with continuing to not smoke and drink. He's gone at least 3 weeks or so and it's awesome. He still knows that he has some weaknesses and he's trying super hard to overcome them and feel strong. He can speak a little bit of English and he told us that he really likes reading the Triple, especially the D&C.
We also set Arlene for the 9th, but we want to set her for the 16th because the 9th is Stake Conference. She was planning on visiting family in Mexico on the 10th for a couple of weeks, however, she's applying for a job here in Vegas and so if she gets that, she won't go to Mexico.
We wanted to visit Pedro Pacheco yesterday, another one of our investigators because we had Pablo, one of our recent converts there to help us teach the lesson, but Pedro wasn't there so that was a bummer.
Things are going good. Elder Parker has really been having some bike troubles and now it's to the point where he doesn't have a working bike anymore (he's been through 3!). We'll try and get it fixed as soon as possible, though so we can get right back to work. He even asked to borrow one of my extra bike tubes and he broke that, too so he owes me one. He's been through so many problems, it's like he can't even go a day without a flat tire. I would've thought that my bike I got for free would have more problems, but I guess not. I found a small wooden flag on the road yesterday, so that's my "title of liberty" and I'm going to hang it above my bed.
Mom is always trying to paint the house, so it wouldn't surprise me if the whole house was painted by then. I tried to resist my room being painted, but I actually like the color schemes we did with Grandpa Vic's painting. That's good though because I remember the walls in the library being kind of dirty.
I still don't think I got the addresses of everybody that's off at college and whatnot. I'd like those so I can send my own family some letters, haha. That's the only thing I can think of that I'd like. I love you!

Elder Meiners