Week #48 - Sparta vs. Athens

Hey everyone!
It's been an insanely busy week. Unfortunately, the majority of the work done was stuff for the zone and errands and whatever else, so not too much happened in our area. The good news is that we picked up a new investigator yesterday and taught him a lesson which was pretty cool. He was really nice and wants his wife to meet with us too. We'll see what happens there.
So looks like Jim Pruitt has finally set a solid date for his baptism back in Benicia. He wants me to go back and sing for the service on the 27th- so hopefully the new president will be cool with that. I'm really excited to see it.
Everyone's pretty excited about the new mission president. I can't wait to see how he runs things. It'll be nice to be here and see him all the time. No one really knows much about him at all yet so it'll be a surprise for everyone.
I'd like to remind everyone that I'll be hitting my one year mark on Thursday, so please be prompt with congratulatory letters, packages, and videos of praise. :-D
I really don't have too much else for today. Life's just been really busy. It's good though- I'm way pumped for the transfer. Elder Norton and I are going to tear it up together.
Have a good week!!
Elder B

Week #47 - Singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

Singing "Nearer My God to Thee"

Week #46 - Congratulations!

So as for news out here, the mission's going to the Oakland Temple tomorrow! I'm way excited. The next day is all mission conference which is cool as well. There are going to be 23 departing testimonies this time which is a bit above average. That also includes our mission president and all of the office staff. Crazy. Lots of changes will be taking place in the next month. As expected, the ol' companion is getting a little trunky. I can't really blame him. He's doing really well for only having two weeks left. He's still awesome and we're having a great time together but he's quickly losing his drive. Haha. He at least feels bad about it. Elder Chaichana (the one who always plays piano for me) got emergency transferred here to Santa Rosa from Benicia. So, it's pretty awesome to have an accompanist in my zone again! I was pretty excited to hear he was coming.

We had some pretty amazing experiences this week with handing out copies of the Book of Mormon. On Saturday our zone did and all-day "blitz" where all the missionaries tract in one companionship's area for a couple hours and then go to another area and do it again. We covered three areas so we went from 10am to 5pm. Lots of success and the grand total was 64 for the day. It's also kinda fun because in each area we switch who we go tracting with and we get to see a lot of different methods. Anyway, in the first area, I was getting pretty annoyed and upset over the majority of the people we talked to and the lack of success we were having. We had handed out one and it was a really weak contact and everyone else had been a little more rude than they needed to be to say the least. I was constantly praying in my head for help to stay positive and help to have faith that we'd at least hand out one more before we finished tracting. We got down to the last three houses on the street, I saw a guy watering his lawn and went to talk to him. He was interested, accepted a copy, and we talked for a little bit- it was a good conversation. The next house, my companion talked to a man at the door who was interested and took a copy. The next house was mine- the last house on the street- the contact was pretty golden and we talked about about five minutes on the doorstep. She was really friendly and excited to learn more. Awesome! The last three houses were all friendly and willing to talk AND accept copies. Prayer works.

That's about it for the week. Thanks a lot for all the mail and have a good week!

I love you all! Elder Al

Week #45 - Weather Tools and Watches

Hi Everyone!
I have very little time today. Sorry- lots of craziness this morning with finding a place to do email. But, the week went really well and life is fantastic. Nothing incredibly exciting has happened lately, but things remain awesome.Jonny has my correct address- so wherever he's been sending his mail is the right place. It's the same one the Mom sent in her email. It's a different building in the same apartment complex as the other elders which is why it's 3717 instead of 3737 or whatever you had. Anyway, if there's any confusion, ask Jonny. He's been sending to the right place.
We picked up a new investigator this week. She actually came to church and loved it. She's read the Book of Mormon before too and really enjoyed it. Who knows what'll happen there. An insanely rich member of our ward had me play his Steinway Piano in his home which happens to be the most incredible one I've ever played on. He explained all this fancy stuff about how it was mades special in order to make the keys have almost a "bell" sounding quality and stuff. It was amazing. I'm hoping he'll let me have it before I get transferred.

Other than that, there's not much else to update on. Things are great!
Sorry it's so short- have a good week!
Elder B