May 22, 2017

This week:

Magnificence, free ice cream and dang-good bacon!

It's cool to hear that you met Sis. Hopkins at the temple! I can't say that I ever knew her much though. It also sounds like despite you guys being empty nesters, you're finding a lot of opportunities to house folks. I guess you guys are situated pretty well though, given being between Las Vegas and the Northern counties. Hearing about that High School choir and the service melodies did bring back a few memories. But mostly the knowledge that the End-of-year Banquet occurred on Saturday, which is signaling that another school year is coming to an end. Well, that was fast...

In terms of life up here, things went supercalifragilistic! Of course, there were the downer moments at the beginning. But by overcoming, life was pretty good!

It's kind of hard to think of a place to start, but on Tuesday we got to see Bill and his GF Megan. We weren't able to get through the whole Restoration with him, but he super-promised us that he would read the pamphlet before we went back tomorrow. You could tell that what the Spirit was telling him had an impact on his heart, even though he had some questions that still needed answers. Then right after that got together with Bro. Miller and hit the road to Wilbur to meet with Jessie and Austin, the unbaptized daughter and fiancé of the Kershaw family.

And let me tell you, that, was an awesome lesson! Jessica already has expressed that she wants to be baptized! Turns out her Mom was actually a convert (something I did not know about Sis. Kershaw), and at her baptism Jessie felt the spirit tell her that this was the path for her. Everything about the Restoration just came too for her, and she totally accepted to work towards June 17 to be baptized, it being a week after she and Austin get married. He is also keenly interested, and while he's not on-board as his fiancé, you could tell that the Spirit was working on him pretty well. And then they, along with Nakai, made it to church yesterday! Jessica even participated in Gospel Principles with enthusiasm. Go humanity!

Mitzi is still doing really well too! We're helping her overcome the time barriers stopping her from reading The Book of Mormon. And she really appreciates that as well! You know it's funny, given her age, we had supposed that Mitzi was the matriarch for the Nanamkin family, a very well-known Native name up here. We actually tracted into her niece, Leslie a few days back. And while our affiliation with Mitzi wasn't the main reason for a great contact-turned Potential Investigator, it was cool to see how us knowing her helped us there.

The rest of the week saw more driving. I think you would really like it up here Mom. Once you ascend to the top of the valley you get a view of rolling grass fields and big sky. Makes for some pretty good sunset pictures! One of our travels took us to Coulee city. On top of killing a bird on the way down (oops), tracting there only ran us into the abrasive and uninterested. Seeing a few of our PI's there helped us feel better, but while heading back North we decided to stop to get gas and ice cream. It hit just the spot! Adrian, the guy who manned the counter, told us his step-Dad was LDS, and he really likes what we do, and the fry cook there also told us that. Then he paid for the ice cream too! Then I'll just make mention of the dinner last night at the Getchers home, who literally live on the river next to the mission boundaries.

I'll tell you this much, hearing those waves crash on the river shore brought back memories of McCall. And then they served us some of the best bacon I think I've ever had. Oooohhh man that was good bacon! They even gave me the recipe too! I'll be certain to save it for the reunion or something. Yeah, life is good here in Coulee Dam. Tomorrow at interviews, for the sake of kicks and giggles, I think I'll ask President if I could go to the Coulee Dam July 4th fireworks show. Just a thought, but we'll see what happens. Until then, know that I love you all. It was so amazing to talk to you guys on Mother's Day! I guess back at Christmas I did say how May was a while away. Well heck, now there's July. Still, the Lord's going to do some pretty incredible things here then and beyond. 

Until then, love you all!

Michael

Thought I'd include a more formal pic with a more un-formal one. That's My Plan (post-mission prep training) that came up on my portal as I logged onto emails this morning.