September
2, 2013
Dear
Family:
Hi!!
I had a good birthday week!
Monday
I Might have written about last week, but I don't think I did. We went to the
mall after P-day activity with the zone and I used some B-day money to buy some
Nike half calves. I have miss places a pair or two of socks so I needed a few
more. After that we went to a music shop and looked at some guitars. I had a
few picked out that I really liked, but I didn't have enough money. I was super
excited when I got the card from Dad and Mom saying they put money in my
account! Also the birthday money I got from other people will be a huge help
too! I don't think I told you guys I wanted a new one, so that was really fun.
The one I have now is pretty bad. We are going to go look at them again today
and pick one out. 
Elder Lappara, Elder Wood, and Elder Beeston
Tuesday
We had an appointment set up with Sandy. We took Kevin with us, he is a member
from a part member family we found that is preparing for a mission. The lesson
was a little different. We were all geared up ready to teach the first lesson
and then we had to change our plans. She didn't have a lot of time so we had to
keep it short. She was super emotional, she was about to leave to go to a
doctor's appointment. She is going to be a hard one to teach. She is hard to
catch and doesn't want to talk about anything foreign. After that Kevin took us
to the mission office so we could go to our district meeting. After that the
office assistants had stuff they had to do in the truck so we got to take
the car. We covered a lot of ground trying to chase down some names we were
given while we had the car. After dinner Elder Hawkins set up an appointment to
go see Rob Gifford. He is a podiatrist in our ward. Elder Hawkins didn't really
tell me why though. When we got there Rob had Elder Hawkins take his shoe and
socks off and I saw why we were there. He had a pretty good ingrown toenail. So
I got to sit there and watch while Bro Gifford took it out for him, that was
pretty cool.
Wednesday
We had exchanges with Elder Allen. He is a missionary that came in with me. We
have been in the same zone our whole mission. The day was pretty uneventful,
but it was fun. We had a lesson with Steve. He is a weird dude. Pretty sure we
are going to drop him. He knows the Book of Mormon is inspired, he just has no
desire to act on it. While we were driving to and from the exchange and at our
apartment we listened to a talk by J. Golden Kimball. It was pretty good, Brett
might remember him from the institute class we took. He is better known as the
swearing apostle. I made a copy of it ha.
Thursday
was the temple trip! It is weird that just the short drive to Redlands we were
out of our mission boundaries. Brandon Hodges took us. His dad is the one who
is a helicopter pilot. The temple was awesome as always. If anybody hasn't been
in a while they should go. We went to Cafe Rio after! I loved that. I haven't
been to one of those for a while. When we got back a pretty good sized storm
hit. It broke some pretty good sized branches off. The storm was weird though,
some places in Riverside like UCR and RCC (colleges) Got flooded and had a few
feet in parking lots and then other parts didn't even get any rain. The day was
pretty much shot. We had dinner with the Hodges family. They are huge Utah
State fans so Bro Hodge complained the whole time he had to record the game. He
texted us when they lost. I would have known anyways because of that number
Brett gave me where I can check weather sports and stuff.
 |
| Temple Trip |
Friday
was a normal day. Might have a few good potentials from the day. That night we
ate at Marie Calendars with Anita (Elder Spencer's recent convert). Hopefully
you got the picture she sent. Anita surprised us and bought us all a pie. So we
have 4 pies sitting in our fridge ha.
Elder Haslem (from Vernal) and Elder Wood
Saturday
was of course my birthday! Sister Peirce is one of the office Sisters and she
asked me the day before if I wanted to go out to lunch or breakfast. We went to
breakfast at IHOP. She brought the sisters in the zone and one of the other
office Sisters, so we had like 10 people. The Sisters made me a pillow that
looks like a fish and then wrapped it up. It was hard to open, they used like a
half roll of shipping tape ha. I wasn't expecting anything though, so it was
really nice! After that for the most part it was a normal but good day! While
we were out on our bikes we found this really cool place that some pro bike
shop around here built. For dinner we ate with a younger couple. He used to
play on the BYU volleyball team, I don't remember his name though. After that
we had a lesson with the Silva family. They are recent converts of 5 years we
are helping get to the temple. Somehow they knew it was my B-day so they had
donuts and ice-cream waiting. When we got home the guys I live with got me something,
which I wasn't expecting. Elder Cook gave me some sweet brown loafer kind of
shoes earlier that week because his mom saw them in a picture and said he
couldn't wear them anymore. So for my B-day they got me some IBC cream soda we
had a good time drinking and a nice belt. It is double sided so it is both
brown and black. I had a really good birthday! I enjoyed the cards that
everybody sent to me! You are all the best! Thank you so much!! It made my day
great!
Elders Wood, Cook, Spencer and Hawkins
Elders Cook, Wood, Spencer and Hawkins
Well
that has pretty much been my week! It was a really good one, mostly because of
how awesome you all made my birthday. This next Saturday we get transfer calls
so we will see what happens! I easily could still be here. Elder Hawkins only
has two more transfers though (3 months) so that makes it even harder to guess.
Well I will let you know what happens! Love ya tons!
Elder Wood
Elder Cook doing Service after the Storm
Elder Wood and his Bicycle Cross Track?
