St Paul Minnesota Temple

St Paul, Minnesota Temple

Happy Birthday- Facebook for Missionaries- Menuka my Nepali Mom is visiting Utah 6/24/2013

June 24, 2013

Hi Family,

Part One:  

21 years old. It feels weird when you are in the body of a chubby teenager! I can't believe it has come. 1 year ago I got my mission call. I was just like whatever, I might as well go on a mission. I didn't have too much purpose in my life. Don't worry I still haven't felt to much personal purpose, but that is OK I know what the purpose of the Lord is. I love meeting people even if they talk forever about anointing oil at the age of 13 and laying on hands and healing the sick. Having visions of Jesus Christ. I have met so many people that say stuff like that and we taught a woman this week who wants to be a minister that said all that stuff. Me and Samir had an hour and a half restoration lesson with her, it was terrible. I even loved meeting her and trying to share the gospel with her.

I don't have plans tomorrow as I am still a missionary, but I am going to be playing soccer with all of the Nepali guys that play soccer. That is something I have wanted to do so I will wear normal clothes and play soccer there! Maybe dinner somewhere else that I requested. I know some people well enough to request dinner and funny thing is they are not the members and Nepali family would love to feed us but hopefully we will have dinner at Jane Walton's. Chrissy's mom! Chrissy is doing OK I don't see her as much as I want, she works a lot and always is tired! Also she is dating  someone, but I have faith she will figure life out eventually! This week was good we had a lot of meetings. No District meetings I don't like giving them. This week we have a District Meeting. But we did have a 3 zone training with our Mission President. We also had the opportunity to attend the Temple again, and then we attended a Leadership/Missionary Worldwide Broadcast from the Marriott Center with Apostles and our Prophet President Thomas Monson. We will soon use the internet in proselyting and they wanted us to work with Ward Counsels and Ward Members a lot better.

  

Part Two:  

Freak- I just wrote 3 paragraphs and deleted them. It was actually a good email better than most I have written lately, but now you all get a crappy email. Just kidding, kind of. Man, I turn 21 tomorrow  Weird feeling especially when you feel like a 17 year old in a 21 year old chubby body! Man being a buck 80 is sweet! Ha ha, I get to play soccer tomorrow and we are playing sports today.  So I will get some workouts in. I don't workout hard in the morning ever. I do crunches like crazy actually but it's the food I eat, that people feed me. This Nepali family fed me 3 servings of food this week in one sitting and it was past 9pm!   Haha Samir had super spicy stuff added to his food. Goat curry. Nothing like it! I am gonna be a curry master when I get home.

Tomorrow I am gonna dress up and play soccer, I just realized I sent that last email so that is slightly re-living my week now, so this is part two. A girl we taught and handed off to other missionaries is getting baptized. Emily Hang- she is friends with a member in our ward and her parents are Shaman spiritual ancestor stuff and they are opposed to her baptism. We had a lesson with her because we heard she was getting baptized and just encouraged her to go through with it on that date. So she is. That is exciting we are actually playing some sports with her at the church today with some member friends.

        

I should probably mention the weather was terrible this week. Like super flash rain and constant thunder! Trees fell over everywhere.  We were at someones house and ran to the car on the street. We were literally soaked as if we had jumped in a pool. I have never seen it rain so hard. Peoples power went out, I realized I left a window open, and driving through rivers was fun! We put on our rain coats and used the light on my bike which Dad sent.  Elder Mumfords old boots helped as we went around the lightless Nepali people's apartments. 

PS a woman named Menuka is coming to Utah this week. I hope you have the chance to meet with her. Her son Paywon speaks English. She is staying in Salt Lake. She is my Nepali mother although she won't admit it. She makes me food. Sews my pants and talks to me in Nepali. She knows no English. You should totally visit her and bring her a Utah shirt or something! Ha, I love her. She said she is really busy while she is visiting in Utah, but would love to meet you guys. I am having a blast guys. I hope you don't worry about me anymore! I am loving my mission. I know all of you played a huge role. Although my Mission is mostly for me and my personal growth, families are essential.  I could still be with my family forever without going on a mission but probably wouldn't have understood it that well. 

Idk we have some Baptisms in July coming up, will send pictures later!  Ya we had the Leadership Worldwide Conference it was good stuff. President Monson had a sweet old school video that I really enjoyed! Love you all!  I am gonna go. Oh ya it is Elder Wolz last p-day. He has been on his mission 25 months and is a really good example and leader to me. He learned the Karen language fluently and he doesn't even have legs. (Barbara Thibaudeau told us a cute story.  When Elder Wolz was a boy his Primary would sing "I hope they call me on a Mission, when I have grown a foot or two" and because he did not have feet, Elder Wolz believed he could not serve a Mission unless he actually grew a foot or two feet:)  He is a stud. The Karen Language is like Nepali no learning material from the Church, no nothing. Bibles that probably talk about the Trinity. It is the best. Oh we didn't want Nepali people to come without a translator, so we practiced translating into Nepali. That is Samir and I and it was funny. It was good practice. I am doing alright at the language, but as District Leader, I study it only two hours a week. But that is OK it is not my priority. There are 50 verb conjugations. I sometimes understand people, it is sweet. The Lord is real and he is helping in his work at this time, I know that to be true.   I love you all!!!

Bye

To Mom,

Thanks Mom,

Yes, I did hear you were at the Broadcast. We will use the internet, probably not for a while.  We are not having a change in our Mission today. Nepali people use the internet, they like it a lot. They type to each other in broken English or English illiterate Nepali. It is super funny. Nepali names are super common, I would hate Nepali Facebook. I'll bet Karen people use Facebook a lot too. Sweet thanks so much!  Looking forward to a quiet birthday. Love ya mom!

Pictures! 6/17/2013

Still living in the ghetto. Still loving it! 6/17/2013

This week has gone well. Nicole a person who wants to get baptized on the 6th of July finally came to church. The Slaughter daughters didn't come to church as of now they do not have a date set. I think things will work out, we are seeing them tonight so we will throw down on them. I had an exchange with Elder Abbot. Hung out with Nepali people. Only 2 came to church this week it was lame. Yes we did have Elder Holland and the boys come. It was pretty good we got to take a picture with the General Authorities (Bishop Stevenson, Elder Doobaye, Elder Callister of the Seventy Presidency) they were cool. It was a good conference. Elder Holland gave the "Don't go home or don't go home and be less active" talk that he always does. It was good. Elder Reynders heard him do the talk twice before. It was still really cool to have him and I know all the Missionaries are super motivated by it. Man Missionaries are so goofy. I love missionary work but all the Missionaries are too goofy. A little too much for me. People get pretty weird out here. I will send the picture! Bishop Stevenson talked at our Stake Conference I actually really liked him. Elder Doobaye is from Africa. Elder Callister was really good as well. Fathers Day! Happy fathers day! Sorry I have never taken Fathers Day too serious but I really do love you Dad! Thanks for all you do. You are the only Dad I get!:) Man Season is getting a boy! Is his name gonna be Donald is that already decided? Just like his grandpa? Grandpas name is Donald right? That is exciting! He has big shoes to fill. (Referring to Myles of course!) I love Myles a lot. Now it is going to be double trouble. Things are going well. Satan works hard when people want to get baptized. Every single time, but God works things out. I have seen it. How imperfectly I orchestrate things and God always fixes them! Thanks for the stuff. Man I am 21 next week. Don't go crazy! save it til I am a normal person! I am super old! Can't believe it. It is weird when you feel like you are 17. But I won't worry about it. I have another p-day before my Birthday. I am totally going to go play soccer with all the Nepali people, they play soccer every night. I saw Tanner at the conferences and stuff. Our whole mission was there! Except 6 Missionaries serving in Canada. Tanner goes home in 3 weeks. Home sounds so weird. It is gonna be totally different I would probably hate it. I think I want to extend. President Clements isn't doing extensions any more, but I end on a different Mission President. I will ask him for one:) We went to the Mission Presidents fireside with a Nepali family last night. I love the Nepali people but they need to act in faith. Its hard! Ha my language has stunk since I have been a district leader. I don't think I like it too much. Exchanges are kind of a perk. But numbers and district meetings and stuff aren't that cool. Although we did role plays(acting) in district meeting this week and I brought props it was pretty funny. I am doing well. Still living in the ghetto. Still loving it! Til next week. Fayree Vaytoula!

President Clements 6/17/2013

Thanks mom for the materials, love ya. My Mission President, President Clements is pretty consecrated! He is a good leader and wants to do everything he can and use all his gifts to accomplish the purpose that God has given him. And at times he is funny too.

I have my own Nepali Bible! 6/10/2013

Thanks mom, I ended up getting all the packages. We just never got a slip telling us they had come. But we got them and are enjoying them this week. They help a lot. I like have my own Nepali bible! I wish I could understand what I read but I have been marking it up with cool scriptures in the Bible. We actually had a Nepali class yesterday! We had 6 Nepali come and 4 Nepali investigators. Suraj who is the only active Nepali member, his fake birthday is today and we are going to celebrate we are actually the exact same age and his birthday is June 25th. When he came from Nepal they gave him a new birthday. We made brownie cake and are gonna round up some Nepali people and celebrate today. We had 8 investigators to church. That is the most I have had. A bunch of people bailed out too. So pretty decent turnout. Although Nepali people are cheating a little bit they are usually twice as willing to come to church. Our date sets, Avayah and Astasia didn't come to church we went over right after church and talked to them. I am on exchanges with our zone leader today Elder Abbot. We are going to be super bold. We have been getting to know a lot of Nepali people and have new English investigators so things are going well. Last night a Nepali lady sewed all my pants that are messed up for free. I tried to hide money around their house but they got mad. Nepali people are so funny. I love them. I just wish they had more purpose to their life. I also wish I could understand them! After the classes at church after 2 hours all the Nepali left but one guy because of his ride. So he came to Elders Quorum with us he is an old guy but he is super awesome, he wants to be a citizen. But I managed to paraphrase and translate the elders Quorum lesson. Probably terribly. I asked if he understood me and he said yes. So that was cool. Although what I don't know is so scary, compared to what I know. I am also just winging it as a District Leader. I don't like it much other than I get to go on exchanges with the District but I see them a lot anyways. I am the busiest I have been as a missionary and I think it will be like this until I go home or until I stop working. I hope it is the former. I feel so unorganized and insufficient but I am supposed to do all this- so I try my best. I used to think at some point it would be really calm and I would know what I am doing, but I don't think it will ever be that way I will just keep trying really hard and will feel inferior to what I should be. It is hard though! I am doing good. I love my mission. I have been blessed with amazing areas. When I first got to Mankato City I thought it was the coolest area. College Campus and I would teach way sweet kids my age. I didn't think it would get better. Now I don't know if I would want to go back.... I don't want to go to a stixy area again. I probably might. If I do ever go back to English work I want to go where Al and his wife live. Edin Prairie if I remember. I know we have a lot of mutual friends over there. Oh dad. I have a favor to ask. Can you send me a picture of you when you were young and getting into the church. I am doing a baptismal interview this week and that picture would be really cool for it. I went to leadership conference and went on an exchange so I wasn't around the area most of the week so sorry the update isn't too good. Chrissy is mad I got a haircut without her:) She is doing good she hates primary, she quit it yesterday the kids would make her cry. I love Chrissy. She is one of my best friends out here. I am grateful to have stayed around her. She is far from perfect and I am sure she gets judged a lot by the way she looks. I also went to some graduations this week. Which I was in one of the graduations and I totally remembered that Wany was graduating too. So I kind of got that experience a little bit. We went to Suraj's graduation. Only got there in time for pictures. But while on exchanges we went to a girl named Salina Po, a Karen member in our ward. Salina helps the Karen missionaries out a lot. She is planning on a mission really soon. She was the only one from her class who got all the awards. A scholarship and a bunch of stuff. She will be the first "Karen" missionary. Suraj isn't planning on a mission, but we will see what we can do. Man people are so mean, all our less active boys are getting super antid by Christian boys. I will send graduation pictures next week. So I kind of felt like I was getting the experience of Wany's graduation. Elder Holland comes this Saturday and our whole mission,but 3 teams will have the opportunity to go. It will be exciting. He might slap some missionaries around or something:) I wonder what he will say and I will tell you all next week. I am doing really good. I love you all. Thank you for supporting me even though I am far away I feel your support. Man I am almost 21 soon. I am old. It stinks being a 17 year old in a 21 year old body. Maybe I will mature on my mission! idk but til next week!

Elder Holland is coming- 6/3/2013

This has been an alright week. Not the best but not the worst. Our English work is going alright and the Nepali work is hard. We had one investigator to church, we had the sisters whitewash English work this week. They are both new to the area Sister Riley and Jensen. They will do good though. We are getting to know the Nepali people. We even taught some of a new family that just got here last week. This 16 year old girl and the wife of the new family want to come to church so hopefully they do. We need to start getting them all back to church! We are working with the Slaughters and a 28 year old lady named Nicole. That is how our English work is going. Nicole wants to get baptized the beginning of June and the Slaughters should get baptized the end of this month. They didn't come to church today not sure why but we see them tonight. We taught Melissa slaughters sister this week too. That was a cool lesson. Karen work in our ward is going well. They combined and are in a trio and are doing a bunch of work. The sisters even got some people to church! The cool thing is we are all in the same ward and we are almost like 1 big companionship! I got a haircut earlier today. We went to transfers this week just to pick up a car. I saw elder Shreestha, I love him! And I have a leadership conference tomorrow not sure what that entails but I guess I will see. I haven't received the package so maybe I gave you the wrong address for the Mission home if it comes back my address is 1345 Western Avenue Apartment 36 St Paul. Sorry I can't remember the Mission home address. We are meeting a few Nepali people and trying to help them write Nepali some of the less active boys and the mom of one of the less active members, we will help her with English! Things are going well! Oh also on June 15th we are having a special Missionary meeting and Stake Conference the 16th. Elder Holland, Elder Callister and some other random dudes are coming. That is pretty cool. Hopefully we get to hear the feed my sheep talk again! No Elder Holland is super hoss! I love him. It will be a good month. The summer is definitely better than the winter! Love you all have a good week. You know where I am!

Write to me! 5/27/2013

So just so everyone know I have been in a trio the last three weeks and I Knew who my companion was gonna be. Still Elder Reynders (Samir) from Fresno California. I got a call this morning though and I am going to be the District Leader. It is just pretty intense cause this is a good ward. The Karen are going into a trio and we already knew that. Elder Wolz (no legs guy only member in the world that has the Melchizedek priesthood and is fluent in Karen and English) still has 30 days. Elder Mumford leaves tomorrow morning. That will be kind of nuts. He has been a big part of my mission. We are really good friends. Wednesday we get 2 sisters too. I wasn't too excited when I first heard about that, but it will be fine. One of them came out with Elder Weatherford and she seems nice. I don't know the other one. They are whitewashing my old English area so iIwill probably be helping them out a lot. The Nepali is coming alright. We have been really busy. Even though I am going to be District Leader I think things will slow down and I can focus on that a little bit more. I am memorizing things with flashcards and stuff. Elder Mumford leaves with his Nepali book. But I think me and Samir both have packages with those books waiting for us at the mission home. It was a good Memorial day we went to a Ward activity with food and sports this morning. We taught a lot this week as well but Elder Mumford was saying goodbye to everyone. I was on exchanges three times this week. But it has been a good week. Just a little bit of change. Wany is graduating that is cool. Hope everyone is doing well. I am doing really good. Just write me:) Love you all!

Pictures 5/20/2013

Pictures 5/20/2013

Elders cook salmon:) ! 5/20/2013

Man one week until Elder Mumford leaves... crazy. We are working hard. We have taught a lot this week. 16 investigator lessons no way I could tell you all of them but it was good. The best part about this week was that Deanna Danielson got baptized! It was so good. She has been searching for this. There were also a lot of trials as she accepted this into her life. As I think there always is. I will send a picture of the baptism after I write my email. Trios are super fun. This morning me and Elder Mumford pretended to be making salmon we literally had nothing, we were just shaking spices and making noises with our mouths then we acted like we over cooked it an hour later cause the fan was still on and opened all the windows and fanned the "smoke out" Elder Reynders was so confused. We mess with him a lot cause we love him. I think we call him Samir 90 percent of the time over Elder Reynders it's so funny. His Nepali name is Samir. We did an exchange and Elder Mumford was gone. We taught 2 Nepali people. It was terrible but one of them a granddaughter translated. I have the writing down and know the vowel/consonants sounds but I need to work on grammar. Then after that I need to get vocab down. I have only had 5 language studies too, which is crazy but that is how a mission is! We are getting sisters in the district next week after transfers and the 2 Karen missionaries are combining. Elder Mumford goes home. so it's possible I might be the district leader which will stink cause I want to learn the language so pray I don't. Deanna's baptism was sweet. Her new best friend is in the ward and she spoke, my companions did the restoration interlude and I baptized her. She was so happy. President even came for a little of it. Luckily not for the ordinance cause he doesn't like when missionaries baptize he wants the members to do it! She will hopefully come teaching with us this week. We taught some new English people we will see where they go. And I think the family (badminton girls) that we work with will get baptized next month. I might not work with them but I will be in the ward. On the 29th! We had a super rainstorm/thunderstorm yesterday. Not too bad but pretty good. It is definitely getting humid! Thanks for all your support. I am loving my mission. Even though it has major ups and downs, it is the best. I hope I am growing and I know I am still the same punk a little bit. But I will try not to be! I love you all!!! Mu maya gurchu mayro pureebar! Ruh mayro sahtis! I love my family and my friends!

Mothers Day Skype:) 5/13/2013

It was good to see a lot of you yesterday! Especially Myles and Sky and Tay. I love them and I really miss them. Myles looks the same so he is not growing up too much. Also man Olive loves me. That is always sweet! I love and miss Olive, Eleanor, Lucy, and Donald. Things are going good. I have improved a lot on my mission but you would be surprised how much I feel like I am just flying by my seat and holding on. The cool thing I know is it is just going to get harder the rest of my mission. Ya will you send the Nepali bible and the "Lonely Planet" Nepali phrasebook and dictionary. Blue and grey. Will you do that today?? I have 2 weeks to learn the language before we are on our own. So that would help a lot. It is pretty urgent so do it today:) Thank you so much. Remember to do it today. I hope you all had a good mothers day. After I got off Skype we went to a Nepali families and had Chaparti some crazy Nepali food. I don't like the food too much except Curry and Roti(sweet bread) but I guess I will get used to it. The Nepali curry is totally different from the curry rice and stuff that you think of, it is way good. Speaking of curry Stephan Curry is lighting it up. I hear he just drains em. Doesn't even touch the rim. He signed my shoes. Colby don't wear those. PS will you send that stuff today that would be sweet. We have a busy week this week as well. We kind of planned for it. I just hope I can learn a lot of the language in 2 weeks. Blah its lame but I have already learned to read and write in a few days so I know the lord will help me out more. The call went super fast. I feel like they are gonna get faster. I am perfectly content being a missionary. Honestly, those calls I feel like are for you guys way more than me. Obviously it is awesome for me. But I am so busy I have to work as hard as I can for 2 years cause it's not that much time. You guys will always be around. I won't be a missionary again. I really do love my mission a lot. It has been really random but I have worked hard and have seen success. Not all the time. There have been a lot of challenges. Especially with missionaries that are struggling cause I don't know how to help them other than get over it, the mission is just going to get harder. I am not a very good counselor for missionaries. This ward is sweet, I will be here for at least 9 months, hopefully more. Usually at least with English work you are somewhere for maybe 2 or 3 transfers. It is not unusual for a missionary to have 10 areas or so. I have only had 2 so far. North St. Paul keeps missionaries a long time. Unless they are my companions:) Next transfer I want to push for a Nepali baptism. Cause there has not been one since Elder Shreestha got here. That would be a huge miracle. Pray for it. There is a lot of church opposition among the Nepali community and a lot of anti. So it is probably important that I have a Nepali bible and phrasebook. They are the nicest people. We just walk into their homes, it is the best. There will be a cool zone conference tomorrow that is really cool. I will see Tanner. He goes home in 2 months. Elder Mumford is super ready for home. He loves his mission but he is just funny. I wonder how I will be in 15 months. I hope dad gets feeling better and that you all do something fun this week! Send me a letter if you want. Colby is almost 25 this month. Man that is old. Not like way old. But a considerable amount. I am 21 in a month. It is so weird. Mission birthdays stink but Hopefully I will be spending it with some cool Nepali people. The 26th is Avayah Slaughters birthday. Then after that on the 29th Avayah 10 and Astasia 13 the girls we played badminton with are getting baptized. They are a family that I have worked a lot with. I am glad that I am going to be here for that. I won't be teaching them after this transfer I bet. But.. I know that I will be in the ward. So I can be at their baptism. I love them a lot. I think North St. Paul will be one of my favorite areas for sure. We might come here sometime and you will meet a lot of cool people. Elder Mumford wants to have a North St. Paul farewell and give a talk and have food at a members house and stuff ha he is so goofy. He is writing is goodbye or his what I learned letter to President. It is called Elder Mumford's greatest adventure. I have grown a lot. I am really grateful for this opportunity. I definitely was supposed to be here! I know and the lord knows each and everyone of us. I know I am not the most spiritual in my letters, and probably a lot different than the average missionary letters. But I don't believe I should be anyone other than myself. Be yourself, everyone else is taken. Right Dad? Man I love you all. I don't know what I am sure of, but I am working hard and trying to live the gospel I preach. Don't ever stop being like Christ! He is such a good example. I am starting up "Jesus the Christ" again. I only got 100 pages into it when I first started reading. It helps with context of Christ's life, a lot. Namaste! Funny thing is Namaste us pronounced Nuh-muh-stay . You also want to smile like crazy when you say it! If you do that people will love you! Til next week! Elder Hall

Namaste 5/6/2013

So check it out. I am going to be doing Nepali work for at least 9 weeks. Elder Cluff had a really hard week. We had interviews with President and 2 exchanges where he did not do very well. He is pretty sad. While on exchanges Saturday during companion study Elder Smith got a call from President Clements then he handed the phone to me. Because so many new missionaries are coming out a lot are going home because of health reasons, being too fat or mental health reasons. So I guess a few are going home. Elder Cluff is going to Plymouth a suburb of Minneapolis and he is serving with Elder Checkett's who goes home in 6 weeks. His uncle owned RSL, but recently sold it. He was my zone leader for a while. And I am going to North St. Paul Nepali. They teach English and we will still teach all the English people that we have been teaching for 3 weeks until the new English team comes in I presume. Then after that President told me I would be with Samir(Elder Reynders the new Nepali Elder who has been in 3 weeks) the next 6 weeks and be in a trio with Elder Mumford and he then replace Elder Mumford when he goes home. So Me and Elder Reynders have to figure out Nepali work by the end of the transfer. So I am with Elder Mumford and I am killing him. He goes home in 3 weeks. I will be learning Nepali. I just bought a bunch of flash cards and a notebook to write words in. If you could send me a Nepali Bible and a Nepali learning book "Lonely Planet Nepali, with phrase and dictionary" that is what it is called. If you could find that online and a bible that would be sweet. If Colby could do that today that would help a lot. Try to send it today if you can. Send it to the mission home. 5931 96th st W Bloomington, Mn you should have the address. I moved apartments this morning. So that is what is happening in my life. That would help a lot if you could do that quick! like today. Will you do that? For mothers day we are going to try to do it around 6pm here Skyping or whatever. So what is that 7 o clock there. I would hold 7 clock to 8:30pm to be safe. I hope to talk to all of you. It is going to be crazy I am going to try to learn the language a lot. I have to learn how to write it then that will help with the consonants and the vowel sounds. It is written in Sand-script. so pray for me as well. It is a tall order, but I have been learning to be very dependent on the lord lately and giving up my will. So hopefully this will be an addition to that. It is going to be hard. I am going to love it, I think. Man dad maybe we can go to Nepal after my mission!:) It has kind of reverted back to winter lately snowing a little bit. It is about 50 degrees today and kind of feels like spring. Things are going well. I am gonna have a crazy/fun 3 weeks before Elder Mumford goes home. He is so weird you guys don't even know but we get along pretty well. Mero Nom Zwala ho. My name is Zwala. Ya I don't know too much maybe like 12 Nepali words. That's better than zero I guess. I am excited to talk to all you guys soon. Remember if you write me send it to the mission home... and send me that stuff please. Go eat some Curry! Danubat!

Badminton with the Slaughters- 4/29/2013

It is an awesome day! The snow is pretty much gone. It is seventy degrees out. We have been doing a lot of biking. It is pretty good. Elder Cluff keeps wrecking his bike though. Man mothers day is kind of soon. But that's weird. My week has gone pretty good. We had 7 people to church. That was really cool. A Karen investigator brought her friend to church and we are teaching her Friday. A bunch of people were sketchy that we stopped by before church even a lady who we are getting furniture today got mad at me she was like you shouldn't be so pushy about church. I was just like I don't care if you come to church its between you and God. It is important to come to church. We are getting her mattresses and stuff today. So that is good. She has been sleeping on the floor. People in poverty can be pretty prideful it is weird. But ya Chrisy's mom came to church we taught her this week. Freddy a funny black dude came. Deanna. She is getting baptized may 18th!! Quaya her family 30 year old single mom and her 18 year old cousin. Also a Baptist lady named Sharon. It was sweet. Things are going well. I taught like a banshee this week. We through down. A 17 year old black kid also tried to bash us. I told him He doesn't pray to God about things. He doesn't know the bible and he needs to repent. I also made him read 2 Nephi 29 "thou fool that shall say a bible a bible we need no more bible... know ye not that there are more nations then one" He read it and was like this ain't the bible!! These names ain't the bible. Then I told him to repent. Will you repent. No i didn't do anything wrong. I would repent man. So that was sweet. I might be getting a farmers tan. Things are going well though. I think Minnesota is going to get pretty hot in the summer, I used to doubt it. Thanks for the stuff I have to hurry, I am helping that lady. Here is a picture of us playing badminton with the Slaughters; Avayah(10) and Astasia(13). I love you all. Hi Elder Hall, It was such a treat to meet Barb Thibaudeau, what an energetic and amazing support system you have in your ward. I am so glad she took time from her short family time here in Utah to visit and tell us a little bit about you and the work you are blessed to be a part of. She even brought us yummy cookies! They say you are a thoughtful teacher and ask good questions. They all love you very much. How tall is Elder Cluff? Have you been able to play more basketball on P-days? You can really influence those boys playing ball. Love Mom