Week #34 - Fischer Price A La Carte

Hey everyone!

This was a pretty amazing week. My trainee is way solid and he's a really cool guy. He's not very green either which is a major plus. We had a way good week this week too- we picked up three new investigators who are both really promising at this point- in fact, one of them called us and said she wanted to be baptized. We told her how she needed to come to church and take the lessons, and she was more than happy to. We'll see what happens!

Other than that, I found out that everyone in the zone had no one for dinner on Saturday (stake conference) and I organized a zone dinner in Benicia at a place called "Little Thai" to celebrate Elder Chaichana's heritage. (a Thai [legit Thai- accent and everything elder in our zone.]) He's hilarious and he's in the other Benicia ward. He was in my Fairfield zone too. He loved it and talked to all of the workers in Thai. The food was AMAZING. It was a way fun night- we had a really good time. I'm thinking about moving to Thailand.

Stake Conference was a broadcast with Elder Ballard and Elder Uchtdorf. It was EXCELLENT. There was a big focus on building stronger stakes- and they talked about how we don't need to move to find Zion- Californians Zion is in California (lots of people are moving to Utah to be out of here before California is destroyed). It was really good though and very inspiring. They directed a lot towards the missionaries here too.

Life's amazing. It's been a busy week but it's been spectacular. Missionary work is the bomb and the gospel's true.

Have a good week and send me lots of mail!
Cordially,
Elder B

Week #33 - Minced Ice and Building Blocks

Hello from Benicia!
And a very Happy Valentines Day, especially to friends who didn't send me anything (guilt trip...). Thanks to the family though for sending me stuff! The chocolate covered strawberries were an excellent surprise, as well as the cookies. Transfer information is out in the open. I'm pretty excited- Elder Shaw's headed to Santa Rosa and I'll be sticking around Benicia. My new companion will be a brand new greenie so I don't even know his name yet. I kinda had a feeling I'd be training this transfer so I'm pretty pumped but still a bit nervous. They're splitting my area into two so we're getting two more missionaries, which means fourteen total in the zone. I'm not really sure why they aren't splitting the zone up into two districts (right now I'll be a solo district leader for the zone) but it'll be cool. Our zone's awesome. So, I guess it's high time I started following the rules so I can teach my greenie how to be a stellar missionary. I might even start waking up before noon and going to church every so often. Just so everyone is aware, though, this is important: Odds are, because he is brand new, he'll get mail just about every day. Unless you want me to feel small and insignificant, feel free to send me TONS of mail this transfer. TONS.

Anyway, this was quite the weekend. On Valentine's Day, I was fortunate to get to play piano for someone's funeral, and then two hours later I got to play for someone's wedding. It was quite the contrast. I played a lot of Jon Schmidt so I really enjoyed myself. I didn't know the man who died and I also didn't know the couple who got married but they seemed in love which was good.

Not that we didn't have other pressing appointments with investigators and families who REALLY wanted to meet on Valentine's Night, but Saturday night Elder Shaw and I were invited to a singles ward social that was in Benicia. Some nonmembers were expected to be there anyway but I was expecting this to be WAY awkward given that it was Valentine's Day in a SINGLES ward and everyone wanted to be married. However, it was actually really fun. Elder Shaw knew them because he served in their ward when he was in Napa (we're in the Napa Stake) and it was really fun. There was a guy there who knew some insane card tricks that I had nightmares about later and at the end we were asked to serenade everyone by singing to guitar and piano stuff. It was awesome.

Anyway, I'm excited for the new transfer. We've got a lot of potential work at this point, so hopefully we'll start seeing some things happen soon.

Have a good week (and cross your fingers that I won't get a weird companion)!

Elder B

Week #32 - The Mormon Cricket (see Encyclopedia M-N for details)

Last week of the first transfer in Benicia! Anyway, kind of a lame week. Elder Shaw got a pretty severe cold/flu type thing on Monday and then I was lucky to pick it up from him around Wednesday. I only got a pretty bad cold though- I seemed to have dodged the flu for now. We're doing much better though and we even got to sing at a baptism on Saturday. We made an arrangement of Nearer My God To Thee and Redeemer of Israel that Elder Shaw accompanied on the guitar and it sounded pretty awesome. We tried recording it a few times on my camera but it's REALLY hard to work out the sound. I've also tried playing piano and singing and I've been getting really fed up with how hard it is to get the sound not to blare on the camera or have one thing drown out another. Pants. So, aside from that things are good.

It's been a little disappointing lately as far as the work goes; pretty much all of our investigators are kind of weak right now and one of them who seemed really promising at first is turning out to be a very odd person (understatement). But, ol' Elder Shaw and I are working hard to be way obedient and trying all that we can to improve and increase our teaching pool, so hopefully the Lord will bless us with more people to teach sooner or later. The lady across from me in the library just shoved my computer toward me. I don't really know if she realized it or not but my keyboard is now almost hanging off the desk.

I'm so excited for this week (Valentine's Week) because I'm sure I'll get a TON of letters from everyone I know wishing me a Happy Valentine's Day. I'm just assuming I will because all of my friends are really friendly and always send me mail for Valentine's Week. Anyway, sorry there wasn't a whole lot to update everyone on this week- it was kind of slow due to more sickness. But, despite colds, flues, and other stuff, the gospel's still true, Christ is our Savior, and I know this work is what the Lord wants done. Word to your mother. Oh- everyone in northern California uses the term "hekka" as in "That sounds hekka cool!" or "I'm hekka excited!" I refuse to ever let that word slip into my vocabulary and every time I hear someone use it I think about throwing something at them. I've been hearing it ever since I got into the mission.

Much love and a Happy Valentine's Day!
Elder B

Week #31 - Freep Who?

Happy My Seven Month Mark!

So life is fantastic in Benicia, AND I received mail EVERY day last week. Thank you to everyone who contributed. That's how it should be. :-)

It turns out I am no longer in a threesome companionship, but it was great while it lasted. Elder M. was emergency transferred to Crecent City (the northernmost area in our mission...I'm currently serving in the southernmost) because the loser companionship that was up there was sleeping in until ten or eleven every day and not doing anything. So, one elder was taken out and stuck with another two elders and the other will stay up there with Elder M.whipping him into shape (hopefully). Crazy Elder P. He came out seven months ago with me and now look at him. Sleepin in and what not. What a doof.We ran into some apostates on Saturday. One was a less active woman who says she's "no longer a member" because of a book she read. It was quite the experience. It's pretty amazing how good the ol' adversary is at twisting things and hardening people. Elder S. is quite the companion. No matter what we'll be splitting up at the end of the transfer which is kind of sad. We get along really well and we can teach really well together. Also, he's a good singer and is way impressive on the guitar. We've done a lot of our own arrangements of hymns for members and church stuff (I'll be taking video of some and sending them home). So, it's been a really good transfer- I guess it's just a six week relief from the past few months. That's about all I've got for today. It's been a bit of a crazy week with the whole emergency transfer stuff so not much has happened.

Anyway, thanks again for all the mail and have a good week!

Elder B