Apostolic Visit

Hi Mom and Dad,

First off, happy belayed birthday Dad! Sorry I forgot about it last week. I am emailing you this week because of several reasons. 1) is because of mother’s day and skyping, and 2) I need to ask a favor of you.

What time do you have church right now? We have church here from 11:30am until 2:30pm which would be 1:30pm until 4:30pm your time. So any time after 5 your time would be good for skyping right?

This week has been phenomenal. We were able to meet with our investigator John and committed him to a new, postponed baptismal date so he can come to church a few more times.

With transfers coming up, I’m kind of hoping that I get transferred out of this ward. While it has been great for finding people and teaching, the people of this part of the valley, the ward included, are a bit crazy. It has also been tough not having dinners most of the weeks either. We’ve been averaging 2 dinners a week, making it a struggle to have enough food financially plus enough for other basic needs on the mission.

We had exchanges this week with our district leader which was a lot of fun. We finally got in contact with one of our other investigators after not being able to for several weeks plus being able to teach one of our returning members, Oscar.

On Saturday, in the first time in what feels like forever, we helped the community by doing some service. We started in the morning by planting trees for the city of Los Angeles. Afterwards, we helped a nonmember move some stuff out of her apartment before returning home so we could change for our mission conference.

Saturday afternoon, we had the chance to be instructed by Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy (who spoke in the Appleton Stake some time in 2010 or 2011), and Elder Gary K. Wilde of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy (who visited the North Hollywood Ward on the same Sunday I spoke there).

During our mission conference, Elder Hallstrom instructed us on how what we do on our mission helps us for the rest of our lives and that our service does not end when our mission ends, but is merely a beginning. Elder Andersen spoke about how we go and meet with people to build their faith in Jesus Christ and how we should quote scriptures spoken by Jesus Christ in our lessons, mostly found in the New Testament.

Yesterday at church, we had Elder Wilde come to our sacrament meeting. He spoke briefly on the importance of this same meeting and the sacrament itself. It was a fantastic closure to a week filled with lots of chances to feel the spirit.

A quick update on my diet and exercise program. I have now lost 40 pounds so far. I run 2 miles, 5 days a week, plus biking definitely helps. My diet consists of food that are high in protein and extremely low in carbs (my daily limit is about 30 grams of carbs each day). So, yes, my diet pretty much is mainly meat.

My other favor to ask of you is this: my bag I use for proselyting has broken and am in need of a new one as I have no other bag to use for this purpose. Also, my tennis shoes are about due for replacement. I feel they might be fine if I got new inserts for them but perhaps out replacement might be best. Another pair of my shoes are fine, but I do need new inserts for those.