Week 54 Yeah, We Have a Truck

Hope you're enjoying Labor Day! We're having a BBQ with some members today so it should be a good time! This week had some adventures so read on: 

Tuesday

We got roped into some mean service. It was such an adventure. I'm just amazed we didn't get pulled over. Hah these members needed some help and heard we had a truck.... That's never a good thing. We found ourselves at Home Depot with 16' of wood in the back of the bed. All for the love of the game. I was on exchanges with Elder Halsey which just made it all better. I'll throw in some pics but it was crazy!! We taught some lessons earlier in the day, but nothing compares to that experience. 

Wednesday 

Exchanges round two with Elder Bryner. We taught an awesome lesson to Merl and invited him to be baptized! He wants to progress but struggles with work and all that stuff! Poor guy is making 9$ an hour doing yard work all day. District meeting was good and we're focusing a lot as a mission on finding! Gotta keep looking for the gold.

Thursday 

We did a lot of stuff in the office to wrap up the month of August. We have a bunch of reports we have to do so we spent some time on those! We'll be in the office a lot these next couple weeks with transfers and everything. Better get comfy! Highlight of the day was dinner with this part member family! They were great and we made our own pizzas on the grill! Our spiritual thought was centered around the temple and it was a cool conversation. The husband isn't a member and he apparently has said he would join when the Steelers win the Super Bowl... Steeler football is the real deal. 

Friday

We said goodbye to the Gardners in the office! They have been in charge of the housing and finances for the whole mission for the last year and they're going home! They're the best. I think this was their third mission and they just love serving the Lord! I admire their example! We met with President and went over a lot of things for the next few weeks and it's always good to be working with him! 

Saturday 

More office work. It's a grind. We had dinner with the Bortz family at a cool Mexican Restaurant. I keep getting a pork burrito at all these Mexican places and nothing comes close to Cafe Rio.  They were super nice to feed us and the boys in the family are at a key point in their life! I hope we can have a good influence on them! 

Sunday 

Church was a surprise! Merl came with his mom!! Hah definitely not what we were expecting! It's the best to see people at church! It honestly makes me super happy. The Stake Patriarch fed us for dinner and that was awesome. People like that just amaze me. His house looks like a temple on the inside and he was super quiet and reverent even in dinner conversation. He had 6 of his grandkids over and they were all PERFECT. It was almost too good to be true. The Crossleys have 6 kids that all went on missions and married in the temple. They're pretty incredible and I was just in awe. I felt like if I laughed too loud I was going to be punished... I definitely have a long way to go. Gotta keep trying and repenting right? 

Random thoughts 

• "Of all the people I like least in the world, David Stern has to be at the top of the list." -President Johnson (Some of you basketball people will appreciate this.)
• We sent out our huge stake president report and I messed it up a little bit so I had to resend it... Embarrassing. I'm such a rookie assistant.  Only way to learn is to make mistakes right? 

Last week of the transfer starts today and we'll be doing a ton of work this week to prepare! We have 26 missionaries coming and only 9 going home!! Time to get to work! 

Go cougs, 

Elder Halls
Picture: This was an adventure. Never doing this again; Elder Liston made me a crown