Week #60 - Barbies

Hey Everyone!
I made it through the first week of Ukiah. I was a little disappointed to realize out that my expectations of cooler weather up north were completely wrong. It's pretty toasty up here...and it sounds like this week will be even hotter. But, hopefully the winter weather will settle in soon. It's been great to take over the area- whitewashes give you plenty of work to do and they also give you a great excuse to go meet everybody in the ward. We were able to set a baptismal date with an 11 year old yesterday which was excellent. We went through the interview questions and he knows his stuff. Other than that, there's really not a whole lot going on in the area all of the "great potential" left for us in the area wasn't nearly as golden as the missionaries made it sound...haha. Many people dropped us right on the spot and others mentioned the fact that "the other missionaries just came over and messed around with us" but they weren't interested in learning anything. The area's good though- I'm sure things will happen soon!

We've got some good ideas for the zone this transfer- I'm pretty excited. We have our leadership council tomorrow so we'll see what all President's got up his sleeve this time. He never ceases to amaze us and get us way fired up each time he speaks. Then on Wednesday we have our Zone Conference which I'm sure will be awesome as well.

My highlight of the week was probably being asked to go to a dance club with a woman in her mid thirties. My companion an I went for a walk at the end of the night last Thursday and a group of ladies were standing outside of the club- and the one asked me if I'd go in and be her partner. At first I figured it was another clever joke by someone who obviously realized we were missionaries and we would never do that, but I quickly realized she was totally serious. The beer in her hand may have had something to do with it, but either way, it was a tempting offer. Something about people with fifteen years on me...if only I weren't a missionary.

Our new apartment is small and I found an unopened can of Grizzly (chewing tobacco) in my desk. Anyway, things are great! Ol' mission life is fantastic, and also- my first son (Elder Bush...the first one I trained) just got called as a district leader in this zone- so that's been way cool. Have a good week- much love!

Oh and just so everyone knows, in his first week in the new area, my companion received seven letters. Mail EVERY DAY. Something to keep in mind.

Elder B