Another Week...

Hello Family and Friends,

Another week has gone by. Tim just let me know that he has only 7 more weeks. Yeah, missions go by fast. We have had a great week in Niceville. Tuesday was ZLC, followed by a trade-off with Elder Buticofer in Crestview 2nd, and to finish off we had 6 people at church and set a BCD with a boy named Forest Peart. Its been a pretty good week.

On Tuesday we met with President Jensen and Sister Jensen, with all of the other Zone Leaders. However, this time I didn't have to drive for 3 hours to get there. Only a half an hour. Quite a difference if you ask me. President Jensen and the Ap's announced our new mission statement, 'Our Standard of Greatness'. It was awesome, because President Jensen talked to us Zone Leaders about how to incorporate 'Our Standard of Greatness'. He told us that we were the leaders, that this is our mission, and as missionaries our people. President wanted to let us know, but also every missionary in our mission. We have the power and authority to receive revelation for our investigators, just like Dad receives revelation for us in the home. President Jensen then talked about being creative in Uniting our zones. Funny how it all works out when you have the Spirit. Elder Merkley and I had already started to work with our Zone in being creative. We have our own flag with the signatures of all the missionaries. We also took a picture and gave it to President and Sister Jensen. They loved it and have asked us to bring it to Zone Conference. It seems that making the flag was the right thing to do.

As for our area, its doing alright. We are flourishing in some areas and struggling in others. Finding is really a hard one, but we are working on finding ways to find. Teaching has been great. The Chabot family is really moving along. We have been over there at least once every day to keep in contact and help them out. We teach them twice a week in between each visit too. All of it has really moved them along. Seth, the oldest son, has made the biggest changes. He hated us coming over and teaching, he wasn't reading the Book of Mormon and didn't want to go to church at all. It was tough, but we found a way to break him in. A 'Rubik cube'. Cool huh. Every day we have been going over and Elder Merkley has been showing him the different steps to solve the cube. Every time we show up Seth has been ready for us, and has opened up in other ways too. He trusts us. He knows that if we tell him we'll help him with the Rubik cube, it sets us up to be honest. Because when you do show up he knows we're telling the truth and that we're not lying. Somehow it has transferred over into our teaching. When we talk its not just a bunch of stuff that Seth's not interested in. He listen's, makes comments, and asks really good questions. He is still as stubborn as can be, but we are making a lot of progress with Seth. The other boys, Matt and Zack, are awesome. Zack's birthday was this weekend. He got a lot of Lego's for his birthday, so guess what I did with Zack. ;) Matt just started scouts, so guess what I do with Matt. Allie and Kelsey (Allie's friend) just keep making fun of me, but I'm used to it. I've been a missionary for too long not to be used to it. All of this is just working out perfectly. We went over the first half of the Baptismal interview questions with them. They answered very honestly, which made it easy for us, because we know exactly what to teach now. The Chabot family is awesome and they will be baptized soon.

We set a BCD with Forest Peart. He is a 9-year-old boy with a crazy mom. We went over last Monday night to teach him. Every question we asked him he would just shrug and wait for his mom to answer for him or until she got mad at him. It was a really awkward lesson and we felt bad for Forest. His mom is really pushing for this, and he just doesn't want to be pushed. Yesterday we taught him after church, he asked his mom to leave! So we just taught Forest, his brother Aaron and their friend Riley. We gave them a puzzle without the box to show that Christ's church was destroyed and how hard it was to put it back together without the big picture. It was an amazing lesson. Forest gave us answer's. If he didn't know it we would teach him and he would pick it up really really quickly. No pressure at all from his mom and Forest was golden. He is getting baptized next Sunday. Yipee!!

This week has been great. I did get my package and it came at the perfect time. I'm still waiting for my cards, I had to buy a new one, because I realized I sent both home. Anyway, the new card is ready to be sent home. It has pictures of the beach!!

I forgot to send my letter to ties that bind, but I'm sure you can find something good, right? haha, just sent my list or something.

Chase and Ashley Manwaring are a lot of fun. We go over there every Friday night. Chase and Clark have so many similar traits.
Love Ya'll
Elder Call