Week 16 Hard Work / 7 Jun

We found out that our son Conner needed to have surgery to remove a large cyst in his mouth. Thomas refers to this when he says he will pray for him.

I knitted some accessories for Thomas' stuffed llama that he took on his mission with him. The llama is named Rudolph. I made him a little scarf and a red tie. I can't wait to see photos of Rudolph with his new outfits!

Dear Family,

This was quite possibly the most exhausting week so far on my mission. We had a neat 40 hours of finding time, with only 2 new investigators, and they were from our former investigator records. Going through the area book is taking a little longer than it should, mostly because its in a right state, with huge gaps between organized missionaries who actually kept the records. There's a set of records from 05-early 06 and then another set in late 08. It makes me wonder what missionaries were doing in between those times? Beverly has been open to missionaries for quite a few years.

We've been recommended to work with members and recent converts a lot more, and Dad's email just cemented that idea in. It's definitely something that needs to be done in this area. The youth in this ward are absolutely amazing, more so than any ward I've ever seen before (not to put down Council Creek Ward youth, of course, but these kids are going out of their way to consistently bring people into church). Right now we're teaching a family of 3 because of a referral from a 13-year old girl in our ward. How amazing is that? Youth in England really struggle because of the constant, blatant immorality that seems to prevail, but these kids are sticking together and somehow pulling through.

I'm so sad that I don't have much to report here. A lot and a lot of knocking on doors and biking around on our broken bicycles. At least we have the members who never let us down. The weird thing is, there are no ward missionaries called right now. I don't think the bishop sees the need for ward missionaries, since the members are doing a considerable amount of missionary work already.

For 3 days this past week, it was burning hot and dry. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were so hot we shed our jackets and went around in white shirts, and we still felt toasty! Took some pictures just to prove it. Unfortunately, rain and cold set in yesterday again, and so we donned our jackets and coats. Today seems like another cold day. I can't get over the fact that this is basically Oregon weather. It's like I never moved at all, except the people speak funny.

I don't know if I ever mentioned this, or you might have already known for yourself, but our mission president is leaving this transfer. We're meeting the new president at the end of this month. President and Sister Stock have been an amazing mission couple. They are so powerful, it's just incredible how much the missionaries love them. Everyone is very sad to see them go. I have no doubt in my mind that great callings are ahead for President Stock.

Looking forward to letters and llama accessories. Praying for Conner. Going to take up all of dad's suggestions regarding missionary work, I feel it's exactly what we need right now. Until next week-

Love,

Elder Alsop