November 22, 2016

Hey Mom!                                                                               November 22, 2016

I was kind of surprised to hear about the progress of the house already. Heh heh, I guess I'm just so used to only Dad and I working for weeks on one large project at a time that it baffles me to think about how fast the job goes when there's more than just 4 hands!

Still, I hope that all goes well with the move back to Alton. It's incredible to think how fast time has flown the past 5-ish years. I still remember walking through PVHS's "kill zone" to the quad shortly before my freshman year. Man, how we've progressed.

In terms of the present though, things in Moses Lake are going incredibly well! I guess the funniest thing that happened was we got another Seahawks-related insult the past week. We knocked on a "rough-crowd" street when we got talking to this one guy who clearly had no respect for us. The first thing that deduced that was me asking if his blue and green porch lights were for law enforcement and veteran support. His response was an aggravated "No, Seahawks man! What are you, from Bay area?" I guess he missed the memo for that one. But still, I guess as long as they're doing well, the 12th men are always happy. I can't even imagine what it was like for the elders who served on 2 Feb 2015, they probably had to dodge a couple of riots...

Yeah, the world rolls along. It's pretty funny whenever we get a world report of some kind and it seems like nothing has changed, or at least nobody's focused on the positive side of things. We already heard about the nation's reactions to Trump's victory. Not too surprised. Still, I guess spreading the Gospel's about the most positive message we got! The past week we met with Ian's group (He, Martin, Mae, and Jason) again for a very spiritual message on feeling the Holy Ghost and why we should read the scriptures to refine that search. All 4 of them have copies of the Book of Mormon, some in mandarin. You can tell that they all have had a profound change on their hearts ever since listening to the missionaries. We took them to a baptism on Saturday too for someone in 2nd ward. Later on Martin told Bro. Bowen that he felt something "magic" in his heart when Sis. Rasmussen, a Sister missionary, played "come thou fount..." on the violin for a special musical number. They'll be going back to China soon, but you know, I'm not too worried about them forgetting what they felt over here. 

Monday's Zone Conference had a couple of central themes: one was the true Testament of Christ the Book of Mormon was. We spent a good deal of time as a whole tri-zone simply finding different prophecies of Christ from 1 Nephi to Helaman in the Book. It was very insightful, because it helps a lot with short and powerful statements from the Book of Mormon. We also did a lot of role-plays on street contacting using the Book of Mormon, Plan of Salvation, and Family History. We had a chance to later implement that night, and we actually got a return appointment with a fellow named Tyson for family history! Heh, Tyson reminded me a lot of a local Valley boy; it was fun mentally translating his response of "ah...heck, why not?" to "well, I can't really see why it's that important, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try!" 

They also introduced us to the new Christmas Initiative, which is sweet. I would definitely recommend sharing it with anyone and everyone. It's very service orientated, and you know, for the upper-class build of Moses Lake 4th ward, would fit right up the alley! 4th is particularly good at their emphasis on missionary work. In the course of our brief follow up visits on their efforts, two families asked us if we could give them copies of the Book of Mormon and/or pamphlets to give to their friends! We also were biking around the past week and stopped to help a move that was taking place. Bro. Bright from 7th ward was there helping his friend and family move. It was a big truck, so we got to help them out. Bro. Bright's friend, Matt, was very appreciative of our efforts, and we got to visit briefly over pizza afterward for lunch. While we were talking someone rang the doorbell, and it was a little girl from next door who had come to play with her friend. Rather tragically we had to explain to her that her friend didn't live there anymore. Yeeeeeeaaaaahhhhh, we all felt pretty horrible after that one.

Other than that, a lot of biking in cold weather. I'm also recovering from a cold right now, I caught it about mid week. But, we stay layered up, I finally got to break out the coat again ever since Yakima, and that felt good. It's always nice to have a reliable coat on you. Everything else in logistics is in ship-shape condition, but my shoes are taking a whole other form of punishment from the bike pedals. They'll hold though. And to answer your question, yes, the gloves are still holding up great!

Yeah, let me know how the move goes and everything. I'm excited to see that you guys are going to be living at the ranch again for winter. Favorite time of the year in a more favorable spot of earth! I really do love you though, dear Mother. And I really love all of you guys who I got to know in Vegas too! It's a terrible clock now, though. I only have something like 30 or so emails left though. Sheesh, that's a scary thought. There is still so much that I need improvement on, and so little time left. Still, make the most of it, you know? Anyhoo, hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, my dear family, puppies and kittens, imagination, the 1st and 2nd amendment, and Old Spice. 

Love you all!

Michael

PS The picture is with Elder Taele, who's basically the coolest guy in the mission ever. Kind of like The Rock, but with hair.