Elder Maradiaga and I have amaaaaaaaazing lessons together!

Hellllooo!

Well, thank you for all the updates once again! And I got lots from ya this week, so thanks! It is very good to know that the earthquake didn’t touch you guys. Was there much damage done there? Anyone killed?

My shoulder is all fine now, but it was sore for almost a week! I’m a soldier, though . . .

I’ll try to get a package sent home to you next week maybe . . .

My trio has been amazing! Elder Mortensen is doin’ great and is continuing to learn while I am learning a lot from Elder Madriaga. He’s a really good missionary. He is a pretty smart guy and boy! We have had some amaaaaaaaazing lessons together. We were just going back and forth on people sharing scriptures. There was soooooooo much power and knowledge in our lessons. This companionship with him has been a dream as far as teaching and, really, as far as everything goes! We had FORTY lessons this week! That is definitely a record for me! We got to a point this week that we had 13 baptismal dates just in our area! Just in our area, though! Amazing, huh? Unfortunately, a lot feel out for different reasons and we are back down to 7, but that’s still more than 99% of companionships have! Elder Maradiaga had an interview with President this last week and President said a big part of us being in a trio is so that I can learn from him. All of my companions have worked hard . . . But I’m positive that President recognized that Elder Maradiaga has a lot to teach me and that he placed us together for that reason. Last night, Elder Maradiaga and I talked for almost 2-1/2 hours just ‘bout mysteries of God and a lot of doctrinal stuff and then we talked about ties for like half an hour in between! LOL! I’m such a missionary! If I talked for 3 hours for someone before my mission, it was about girls and sports! Weird how the mission changes us! But, yea . . . Everything in this companionship is doin’ amazingly and I’m not stressed at all anymore about not being a District Leader. I’m a happy young man . . .

I’m very excited to see a picture of Dylan and his girl . . . LOL . . . Get that to me asap, por favor!

Tell Ashley and Tom to be safe on their trip for me, will ya? Thanks!

Okay . . . More of my updates now . . .

Bad note . . . I lost my camera . . . So sad, dude. I was pretty mad for a li’l while. In the taxi ride home the other day, I was taking pictures ‘cause we pass by things that we never see in our mission. After I took the pictures, I put the camera on my backpack. Well, we were in a rush to get out and get to work when the taxi pulled up in front of the house, so I didn’t’ even think ‘bout the camera as I took out my backpack and I’m sure my camera just fell on the floor of the taxi and I didn’t even realize! It’s Guatemala we are talkin’ ‘bout so it’s gone . . . I lost like 90 pictures, too. Pretty sad. So, yea . . . Ummmm . . . When ya can, I guess . . . Could you send me another camera? Maybe as an early birthday present? Just as soon as possible, please . . . I’m really, really, really sorry, though. If you can’t get me a camera right now, though . . . Don’t stress . . .

Happy Birthday to li’l Ryan!

Ummmm . . . Another really sad thing from this week . . . We were supposed to have a baptism, but the lady started workin’ on Sundays. So, we could have baptized her and should probably would have gone inactive, but that would have been just drinking condemnation to her soul and mine and my companions’ too . . . So, I talked to her for like 45 minutes to convince her to drop her work ‘cause the commandments are more important and God won’t ever give us a commandment that we can’t complete. It was really hard ‘cause she’s 3 months in debt to her landlord. She asked me what I would do if the landlord came by and started throwin’ out all my stuff ‘cause I hadn’t paid . . . Wow! What a question . . . I told her that I couldn’t say with 100% surety what I would do, but I told her that I do know that the Lord will bless us greatly if we strive to keep allllll of his commandments. And that means making big sacrifices. Anyway, she said she would leave her work behind as we promised to use all of our power to help find another job that didn’t require her to work on Sundays. So, she had her interview and passed. Then, on Saturday, we never found her. It was really a bad feeling. To put in all of that work and have her basically run away. We had gone to the Church and filled up the baptismal font, prepared the chairs and the agenda . . . A bunch of members were there waiting for the baptism and we had to tell all of them that the baptism wasn’t gonna happen. Not cool . . . It happens, I guess, though . . . We will go back to her soon. We are just gonna give her a li’l space for a few days now, though. It will all work out. I hope I didn’t pressure her way too much. But she needs a true baptism to live with our Heavenly Father again and she knows it! Dang it! Oh, well, though . . .

Anyway, I really am doin’ great and continue to grow. Thanks for all of your love and support!

And, Dad . . . I read all the talks that you sent me in DearElders. They were amazing! I loved ‘em and took notes on them! Thank you! Whenever you do that, though, make sure you put the talk in two letters ‘cause a lot of the talks got cut off. I imagine that the DearElder just doesn’t hold that many characters. Just talk to Mom ‘bout it, LOL . . . She’ll know what I mean.

And, Mom, keep me posted on everything through DearElder too, please! Oh, and now that the lottery is comin’ up, Dad, could you go to NBAdraft.com and send me that list so I can see who my Clippers prospects are?

Thanks for everything! I sure miss you millions! Love, love, love you all! Tell Aaliyah I say hello and that I love her!