29 July 2009

Transfers are in two weeks again! Time FLIES! Sorry about last week! It was rough. We biked out to library because we didn't have miles, and the remnants of the hail from midnight were still golf ball size at ten. We had a nasty storm... It killed peoples gardens and the library servers were all down, so they shut down the library last Tuesday. On top of that a load of expenses have hit! I had to buy more cold and allergy medicine, I had to buy jeans before the conference, I tore one pair apart hiking and one doing service, so I had none left. I dry cleaned my second suit and then two days later found out theres a place that wouldve done it for 9 bucks instead of 17, and then I've been out of missionary funds for about a week and a half. And I got new short sleeve shirts at kohls this month too. I've concluded with how a mission is panning out that I would rather have money in my account than packages with candy and stuff for special days.
Thanks for the letters. The encouragement is fantastic.
Zone Conference was awesome. We drove out to ragged mountain, close to Paonia in the mountains. We got there, were assigned cabins, then had huge sub sandwiches for lunch. We then went on a hike to a natural spring, climbed over the fence and got some fresh ice cold water. Then we went out into the wilderness on our own and had personal study. President gave us a packet of talks and scriptures to read, told us to pray for strength, and gave us wooden blocks to write everything thats holding us back from being the best missionaries we can be! We then went back and threw all our blocks in a bag president had hiked in and we sat down and had a sacrament meeting in which we took the sacrament obviously and we talked about the significance of the Lord communicating with his servants on mountains and referenced different occasions. We then leisurely hiked back to camp and took pictures. When we got back to camp we had a little break then we had Prime Rib for dinner. We then went back to the auditorium and had a literal fireside, where we burnt all the pieces of wood with the things that are holding us back from being the best we can be and we got rid of those things. Then we got homemade ice cream and had a testimony meeting about the power of the spirit in teaching. Then we went to our cabins and slept with a sleeping bag over hardwood bunks, which made my neck hurt, and then to top it off the sleeping bag I borrowed from a member had a broken zipper, so I slept in the cold as I was getting over a cold, which is always good, right? haha
The next morning we had breakfast and trainings, then lunch and then we made a quick vidwo then headed home! It was waywayway too fast.
We also got to go to lookout mountain with our stake for Pioneer Day, which was awesome, but we got stuck taking down, so we were in a nasty storm and them members who took us back were old anyway, but I couldn't even see more than a yard or two in front of the car... It was interesting.
Yesterday we helped a part member family clean out the garage to surprise the nonmember husband, by making it so he has a workspace again. He came home in the middle and was very surprised, but very happy. We helped him take a 600 pound granite countertop upstairs at a client of his home too. It was way awesome. Tomorrow we should get missionary funds again thank goodness.

Well anyways, I love you guys... Hope all is going well, hope dad can get his practice sold, and I hope Eliza decides to leave next week! She'll not get fat in the MTC that way! lol
Take care of yourselves and we'll talk with you soon!

Love you guys,
Tom