November 28, 2011

Dear family and friends,

          Things have been going pretty good this week. We got to teach Rex a little more this week and help him prepare for his baptism. He's definitely ready for baptism on Dec. 10th. He's come to church every week, participates in class, and he definitely shows a real intent.

 We didn't get a chance to see Josh this week because right before our appt., his wife called us saying that he wasn't ready to have people over yet, which is kind of weird. We'll definitely go back over sometime this week.

We had a lesson with Lynn also this week. We set her for baptism also on Dec. 17th, but her only concern is that she barely lives in the Needles area and so she would have to go to church there, but for some reason she doesn't like the ward there.

We also had another person come up to us at church last week and she said she wanted to learn more about the Church. So we had a lesson with her on Friday and we also set them for baptism on Dec. 17th. Although she hasn't brought it up in our lesson, we could tell that she has problems drinking and smoking from her breath, and also one of our members mentioned to us that she asked our bishop for rent money and he gave it to her. So hopefully she's not just in this to get some money. We'll see how it actually turns out.

           We also had interviews with our mission president this week, and those turned out well. Sis. Neider gave us her usual training on how we can stay healthy during the holiday season. In fact, my companion hasn't been feeling well as of today. Last night he started throwing up and he hasn't been feeling too well since. We already gave him a priesthood blessing and that'll help.

           We also had to teach the Gospel Principles class for this week because the usual teacher was on vacation and at lesat he gave us a day's notice. So it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, or as bad as past times we've tried to teach the class.

           We had a pretty good Thanksgiving this week. We had an early Thanksgiving dinner with a member in the other Elder's ward at around noon and then we had another dinner later on at around 5:00 like we usually do.

We've also had a couple of problems with our showers as of these past couple of days. First, our shower had a leak and so we bought some parts at Ace to try and fix it and then it just made it worse and water was spraying everywhere and so we temporarily stopped the water until we could find the shut-off valve. Then the next day we didn't have any cold water and so one of our members offered one of their workers to come over and fix the water heater. And then yesterday, the other Elder's shower started having water shoot out of theirs, too and so my companion went with a member back home to turn off the water. So hopefully, everything is good now; we've just been stressed out a little, haha.

 Elder Parker was also studying for a college interview that he was going to do (through Skype), and so he was a little nervous about that this week, but now he's okay. It's funny because Elder Parker also has a twin brother that is serving in the Idaho Pocatello mission, so if any of you guys are going back to Pocatello anytime soon, try to look for him.

          That's crazy with what happened on the way to Cincinnati. I'm glad that everything turned out okay (it always seems to). Tell Andrea Happy Birthday for me!

          If you guys really want to get me something for Christmas, I wouldn't mind some treats or some more ties (maybe even some more black socks, but no more shirts). If you want, you can also get some more Motab music for me, or some CD's of Alex Boye (a member of the Motab that sings individually). The mission's rules about music have actually relaxed a lot so pretty much anything about the Gospel or Jesus Christ is okay now. That's all I can think of for this week.
   
I love you!

Elder Meiners