Week #40

Hey Mis!

That's cool that you had a good Fathers Day with Dad. Those are some cool gifts that you guys got him! I still can't believe Dalton and Sammy got married. But, good for them! Oke looks ridiculous haha. She probably gets spoiled haha.

This week has been verrrrrry interesting. First off, my new area is a couple of small towns. We live in Parker, which is the largest town in the area. It has a whopping 3,000 people. My area actually goes into California a bit. The Colorado river runs right down the middle of my area. The ward is small (maybe 110 people). I live in a trailer park, and yesterday it reached 121 degrees. However, this area has a LOT of potential. 

When I was talking with the members, they were saying that it's been a rough stretch of missionaries the last 6 months, so hopefully it'll turn around! We had a couple people that were progressing in this area, and so we focused on trying to find more people to teach. We visited some former investigators, one of them whose name is Ronnie. He's a really good guy! We visited him twice his week, and he said he wants to get baptized! So that was pretty sweet. He'll most likely get baptized near the end of July. 

One of the investigators that is progressing is named Randi. She's been doing well, except she's still trying to quit smoking. She's cut back a lot though, which is really good! She's supposed to be baptized July 2nd, so hopefully she'll be able to make that! 

My new companion's name is Elder Peterson. He's an interesting guy. He was born in Idaho, lived in Kingman, AZ for 5 years, and then recently moved to Alabama before his mission. Since he's been on his mission, his family moved to North Carolina. He's been out for 7 months, and came on his mission when he was 18. He reminds me of Dwight Schrute from The Office. He's very matter of fact, and blunt. It's sort of amusing how he goes about his business. I have had to remind him a couple times to relax this week. When he first picked me up from transfers, we were driving down to Parker, when we started to see signs for Needles, CA. Peterson realized he was driving the wrong way, and got frustrated and pulled over. After looking at a map, he figured out where we needed to go, and started to pull out. The problem was, our tires were moving, but we weren't going anywhere. He had parked in some deep sand, and we were stuck. So, we tried digging the wheels out, and I pushed while he steered, but to no avail. Then after about a half hour, a member from the Needles ward luckily pulled up. He and his family took some mats out of the truck, and stuck them under our wheels. We all pushed while Peterson steered again, and luckily we were able to get out. It should be an eventful 6 weeks! 

I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Day. He's serving in Blythe, CA. He's a really cool guy. He's from Washington, and has been out the same time as Peterson. I got to meet most of his investigators, and when we did the baptismal interview for one of his investigators, it was really fun! That guy was super prepared. It's funny because Elder Day and I both had parents that met on the mission while they were serving, and we both have an older sister who served a mission. So that was a neat little similarity. Tomorrow we have our first meeting as a whole zone, and afterwards I'm going on an exchange with the ZLs, so that'll be interesting!

That was pretty much my week. It's an interesting area, but hopefully

it'll still be fun! To answer your questions:

1) It's small, but big. Population, 3,000. Lots of drunk Natives. Roughly 40 miles across each direction. Ward of 100-120 active members, including children. I live in a trailer.

2) He's an interesting guy. I gave pretty good background in the paragraph, but I can learn a lot working with him. I feel like I've already gotten a little more patient haha.

3) I told you about Randi and Ronnie, we're also teaching a family named the Diaz's. They're an awesome family of four, and they came to church yesterday! Besides mom, because she had to work :( there's a lot of potential here!

4) The ward isn't actually huge into missionary work. Rees a few members who are super solid in helping us out, but overall the ward isn't too missionary-minded. Hopefully we can change that! Also, if you send any mail or packages or anything, send it straight to my trailer. The ZLs don't get mail from the mission office. If it gets sent to the mission office, they'll forward it to me, but it takes longer. So, my address is 425 Bluewater Drive, Parker, AZ 85344.

Are you guys doing anything fun this week! Have a good one!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Steve and Laura Clauson. He's the ward mission leader in Castle Ridge, and she's the Stake Relief Society prez. He's super sarcastic and scowls all the time, so we were making fun of him in this picture. But he's an awesome guy, and I had a lot of fun working with him! (Sent 6/20/16)

Steve and Julie Baird. He's the ward mission leader in Shadow Canyon, and she's a ward missionary. They're some of the nicest people ever. It was awesome working with them as well. Sis. Baird is one of the sweetest people I've met! She always sent us home with groceries and toiletries and stuff haha, they're awesome! (Sent 6/20/16)

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