September 26, 2016

This week:

Math puns, weed forests, old friends, and...not too many other exciting phrases. Sorry.

In terms of logistics, my shoes are holding up fine. I think. Funny, I think the most damage they received was actually in Vegas just from how hot the pavement got at times. But then again, in Yakima and Ephrata they saw a fair share of action. Both of them have a different pair of shoelaces to replace the broken ones, and I may need to relace another due to wear-and-tear. And the tread is worn down on the front sole and outside heel, so much so that it's practically slanted. And dang! They're still holding up great! I still do kind of wish I could've gotten those black-fatigue boots that they sold at missionary-mall, but the goulashes will come in handy soon enough when winter roles in. 

Speaking of which, Autumn's here! There's been great weather the past few days, and it's been great to wear a sweater or two. those are doing great too. I can't wait till it starts to snow again, I'll be able to get my Newsie-cap out. I kind of started to recognize mid-April that it's more of a winter cap. 

Apart from that, other supplies are holding up great, my sanity not so much. Nah, just kidding, but things have been a little crazy this past week. For starters, we got the chance to sit down with the Dormandy's, a family in the ward. Bro. Dormandy is a professor of Latin American studies at CWU, his wife is a chemist. The conversation was going pretty well, and in honesty I can't remember too well how, but at one point Sis. Dormandy worked a math pun in there by saying "I'm in tangent with you..." or something like that. A few sentences later I said "I'll co-sine on that saying!" which then jumped too someone saying "It's quite positive,"  followed by some other punny dialogue that ultimately ended in me telling Elder Ackerman, "If you want to share a scripture on math, you may want to start in numbers." It went from there. Great visit though! They're an awesome family.

If you're still groaning from those, now you have a feeling at what humor we settle with out here. 

Other than that, we found ourselves helping out an elderly lady named Bonnie this past week. Us and the 2nd ward elders went and pulled these giant weeds out a small section of fenced area. I kid you not, these weeds were huge, but rooted shallowly. Definitely took some time to pull all of them out, and to give you an idea how thick it was, I was waiting for like the alien or predator to jump out and tackle me, which would've been a bummer. Considering I wouldn't have gotten the chance to cover myself with mud and scream "come get me!" into the sky first.

On a more teaching side, got around to meeting with Cassie and Turk this past week, and I have to say, they're super prepared! Turk's only 7, but told us he wants to be baptized as soon as he turns 8, and Mom said that she would be baptized with him. Go humanity! We got to meet with them twice, in the process we taught The Restoration and Plan of Salvation. For Turk, had to keep these simple. Teaching the first of the two we made a plastic-cup pyramid with Christ at the top to describe Priesthood authority and the way that God speaks to prophets. Cassie's friends, Sis. Haysom and Sis. Van Quill really helped bring the spirit when they bore testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith and continuing revelation from God to a prophet on the Earth today. Both lessons were felt really well, they're going to be baptized on the 5 of Nov., the first Sat. after Turk's birthday.

Later on we tried by Oliver's again. All his roommates were there that time, so we got to talk to all of them briefly. I enjoyed being there because it gave me a chance to flex my more social side, since they were guys and gals about my age. Oliver invited us to stay for dinner, but we passed since we had already eaten. But then one of his friends walked in and said, "hey, did you live in Yakima?" I told him yeah, and he asked if I ever visited him on 45th. Ave. It took me a while to connect the dots, but then I remembered the scene as clear as a bell, it was Andrew! Elder Beatty and I tracked into him and he was super chill, talked to him for about a half-hour then. We passed him off to YSA then due to his age and never heard from him again. It was awesome to catch up with the guy, maybe we'll get to sit down and visit with him sometime? Either way, maybe Oliver tracked us down for a different reason than we thought too.

Yep, that was the week in a nutshell. Learned I and Ackerman are staying in Ellensburg for another transfer. So it'll be great! Surprising to hear how another wood party has passed or at least coming up. Winter'll be a blast, but Autumn is already! Love you all. Thanks for all you've done Mom, don't know what I'd do without you!

Michael

Kind of a funny sign I saw. Meh. Gets the point across well I guess...