11-16-2009 E-MAIL

Subject: Flying first class...er...maybe not

Hey everybody, Santa Cruz was so great, we didn’t have any general authorities come… but we had President Maynes. He basically retaught us how we should be teaching. He wants us to teach with questions that make the people think hard, or express their feelings. And I'm reallllly bad at it haha. But we really tried to ask more questions this week and the spirit was way stronger in our lessons and testified to the investigators, it was awesome.But ya the conference was great, on Monday we went and ate Mexican food at a restaurant called... MEXICAN FOOD haha. My buddy Elder Evans showed up with his zone, so I got to talk to him. Then after we were able to go to a grocery store that sells a ton of American products, so I picked up some Listerine and some ´Degree deodorant. Then on Tuesday we had our conference and I saw two of my favorite people in the world, Elder Meredith and Elder Jacobsen, they’ve both been in the same zone since we showed up in Bolivia. The conference was so amazing, President Maynes teaches like a mad man. Then after the conference he said that we are probably going to be coming back to Santa Cruz for Christmas. We ended up staying in Santa Cruz an extra night and flying home because there was a blockade in a town in between us and Villamontes. Pres Manyes told us we were flying home and one of the missionaries got all excited, then President Maynes said ‘’you haven’t seen the plane’’. We flew from Santa cruz to Tarija (outside of the mission,don’t tell anybody) and that flight took about and hour and a half, and everything was great. We flew in a 20 passenger plane, so it was little rougher than normal. BUT THEN… we had just a 20 minute flight from Tarija to yacuiba (next to Villamontes), and we hit a bunch of turbulence. Now I pride myself on never throwing up in planes, or boat, or roller coasters. ButOHHHHH MANN, those were some of the longest minutes of my life.’ JUST LAND THE PLANE, JUST LAND THE PLANE’’ was all I was thinking. One Elder got sick,that wasn’t too cute. It was a rough time. But ya after all that we finally went back to work in our area. The weather has been crazy here, it rained last week from Saturday to Tuesday, then we came back and it was back at 115 for a few days. But last night it rained like crazy and right now its cloudy and cool. We had five people come to church yesterday so we are pretty excited about that. But at the same time we are frustrated because the two people that have dates for this month didn’t come. But I know they’ll get baptized,they just need to strengthen their faith a bit more. We taught the young men their class yesterday, without notice again. I really like being with the young men, I hope I get the chance to work with them after the mission. We talked about faith and about every 5 minutes we said ‘’ you can show your faith by going on a mission’’.We also have been deacon hunting this week because we just figured out that I am in charge of the deacons quorum. There are 9 in the ward but I only know 2, so we are going to help those little guys start to come with their families.I'm kinda bummed right now cuz my buddy Elder Allred is going home this week, he is such a goofy kid, and probably the best zone leader I've had. Then 3 weeks later my other zone leader Elder Hanks is finishing too. Crazy. Two funny stories. So last night we are walking down a dark street after a rainstorm and we can’t see anything. And normally theres huge puddles in the street, and we both say, ‘’oh no, we can’t see if there’s water or not’’BOOOOM a huge lighting strike lights up the sky and the road and we see that everything is clear…. It would be funnier if you were there. Another thing we are trying to do is ask the people to kneel down with us and pray about the Book of Mormon. We’ve had some really good expericene with it. After the pray we ask them how they feel, and almost always they say something like ‘’ peace, or love, or joy’’. We prayed with a man named Ronaldo and I asked him how he felt and he said ‘’nervous’’. But it kinda caught me off guard, and I had no idea what to say, so we just sat there on our knees staring at each other for a bit. A tad awkward. But ya everything is going well here. Thanksgiving is almost here, and I get to call you guys in 41 days.
Valynn-Suit coat? Never. I’ve warn it two times since August. Kyle makes me laugh.
Mom-Elder Holland? So jealous. Tell Vince hi and that I love him and tell him not to get married till I get home. I got the 4 packages. My zone leader called me and told me he hated me cuz of the mail I get. And don’t worry I read the news only when I have spare time.
Mason- We didn’t have a GA come this week, but I think next month we will. Not sure though.
Crystal- Anthony is our cousin right? If I were you I'd send the package a little over a month b4 the day you want it here.
EE-good luck having a baby!

Mike