Monday, September 2, 2013

My 20th Birthday!


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
 
Sunday was pretty normal. Elder Spencer talks a lot about home. He only has a week left though. We got in an argument about who's mom was the better cook. I won ha. They might try and say otherwise, but they don't know.

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?