Email Letter - June 25, 2012

Hey all! Things are good here in the hills of California. This week was qutie the interesting one. I handled my first marijauna bud, learned how noah's ark and the ark of the covenant really represented the sun and the moon respectively, and had a big cottage meeting with a bunch of people that don't have grass but in stead pot for their yard. And that's just in Hayfork! Let me explain. When we got to hayfork on thursday, we went to visit a part member family and since the member wasn't home we got to talking with her husband and he showed us his garden. First he showed us the tomatoes, then the peppers, and a few other things. Then he showed us his Nor-cal gold. We learned a bit more about uses for the marijuana, like putting it into beeswax and using it as chapstick, or bathing in it to relieve aches and pains. We also learned that each individual plant is worth 2-4 THOUSAND dollars. How bout that?
The cottage meeting was really good, we had it in town at a member's house and enjoyed meeting these people. They live in a place called trinity pines, where there is no electricity or running water. Everyone has generators and hauls in water in large buckets. Each person we met had a great story about how they ended up in the Hayfork area and what is going on in their lives. We even met a family of 7 that we're hoping to begin teaching this week or next. It's fantastic! I love it there in Hayfork. I wish that it wasn't such a drug ridden little community though. It's kinda sad.
Anyway, life is good, and the work is going great. We were stopped by a few people as we were riding our bikes over to the library this morning and were able to set some appointments and share the gospel and all that good stuff. It's pretty wonderful. It just goes to show that no unhallowed hand can stop this work, even if they try really really really really hard.
Love you guys have a great week!

Email Letter - June 18, 2012

Hey there everyone. Sorry I'm on the late side today, things just turned out that way. This week went alright. We went down to Redding a couple of times for our weekly district meeting and then again for Stake Conference. There wasn't a visiting authority but it was still excellent. The themes that really showed up during the conference, in the adult session and the general session was changing yourself to be more like Christ, parenting, and true conversion. It was interesting because none of the topics were really assigned, at least that's what the Stake President said, and there were a lot of people that shared the same scriptures as each other and things like that. It was pretty cool to see how the spirit really worked with the people that were speaking to help them prepare messages that the congregation needed to hear. It was impressive.
Something I've noticed about here in Trinity county is that no one has any sense of comittment. This week alone we had about 6 appointments that when we showed up the people we were planning on meeting just weren't there. It was super frustrating. To me that is the worst thing that could happen because we just wasted 30 minutes of the Lord's time traveling to your house and you aren't there. Not only that but the members that came to help us, their time too. It has been rough, now that summer is here. Everyone is out on the lake all day. So no matter what time of week, or day, no one is really home. It's hard to be productive because of that.
Other than those couple things though life is good. Elder Bennion and I are happy and working together well even though the work is going slowly.  Really what it comes down to is having the patience to trust the Lord to help you find the people that need the word and are prepared to hear it. And that's what we've been working on the most lately as a companionship. Maybe that's why nothing is happening. You can't pray for patience and expect it to come right away right? Oh well, we're looking forward to this next transfer and are excited to be together for at least another one barring some conflict either between us or one we have to facilitate. In any case, it's going to be a glorious transfer! I love you all, take care and have a wonderful week!

Email Letter - June 11, 2012

Hey all! things went good again this week. We spent a lot of time in Hayfork actually, most of the week even. Basically we did service all day one of the days and finished up the next day. It was a whole lot of fun, we built a staircase for a mobile home of one of the members out there. That place sure is interesting. It's too bad it's known for not so great things. Like how much pot comes out of there every year. You can definitely tell which houses belong to growers too. 6 foot wood panel fences and barking pit-bulls and boxers behind them. Definitely growers there. There are a few other things too, but I won't elaborate. The area is still wonderful. We even broke 20 for sacrament meeting there this week! That was really cool because that hasn't happened in a very long time. That branch will grow yet! Basically if it doesn't while Elder Bennion and I are there it will be closed down. So it HAS to grow, we don't want that weighing on our conscience. That would be a real bummer for the people there. Some people already drive over an hour to get there, and it would be an hour longer if it closed. We can't have that now can we?
In Weaverville we started teaching our Relief Society President's niece and nephew and set baptismal dates for them at the end of this month. WOOHOO! That'll be fun. They'be been attending with their aunt for a while and have been really wanting to get baptized, so it's been a long awaited event. The ward is excited and so are they, and so are we! It'll be great! It's good to see some success again, especially since we've been working so hard for it.
Anyway, that's it for this week, I love you all, take care!

Email Letter - June 4, 2012

Hey all! Another good week here in Weaverville, just the usual. I guess the usual is a bit different now though isn't it? Well let me give you a break down. Eat, sleep, drive, proselyte. That's about it! I guess the only real difference is drive in stead of bike.
Anyway, things were good this week. We had an exchange with our zone leaders so they could throw some suggestions at us for our area. It was good. Do you guys remember Elder Tigges? My wonderful, fearless, red-headed district leader from Yuba City? Well now he's my wonderful, fearless, red-headed zone leader, and we were on the exchange together. It was a blast. I love the guy and it was good to serve with him again for a day.
So the pictures include a few different things. The deer at the church, a couple of the views from around the area, a deer that was about 8 feet away and a sandwich I ate the other day. It was delicious.
Anyway all is well and things are great. I love you guys! take care!