Hey family,




Glad to hear you're ok. We didn't hear much about the earthquake, just that it was big and a couple of people were killed of the coast of CA.

Yep, Mike's baptism went well and so did his confirmation. He is now a fully-fledged member. We've already talked to him about the priesthood and he is going to start meeting with Bishop so he can get it in the next couple of weeks, right as I'm leaving.  From the secret zone leader itinerary it says I'm going to be in the Madison zone. Its one of the only 2 zones I haven't served in yet, so I'm pretty excited about it. I've also been called to be a district leader now. I'm really glad about that for a couple reasons; I don't have as much responsibilty (gets old after a while with all the meetings and such) and I get to do trainings and other DL stuff. So there really aren't a lot of reasons, but its something new, so I'm happy. Elder Warr is going to get one of the Milwaukee North ZLs and Elder Saunders is training ANOTHER new missionary (poor guy).

O, very important, before I forget. I have 2 large packages I'm sending to Nanny and Papas full of random papers and baptism programs and planners and stuff. If you could tell them not to open them until I get there and that I'll just sort out all the stuff myself that would be great. Also tell them THANK YOU!

Thanks for the prayers, they're helping of course. We found a lot of potentials in miraculous ways. Now it's just a matter of Elder Warr and his new comp teaching them all. 2 part member family's records have very recently popped out of nowhere even though they have been living here for 2 years and 9 years. Both of those families (including the non-member parts) are willing to take the lessons. So thank you for the prayers.

Well the parking meter has about 5 min left so we gotta go. Have a great week.

Love

Hey family,


 A beer brat is a brat cooked in beer. I was joking.

Mikes baptism went really good. We had a lot of support from the ward and some of them even brought cookies :O There weren't even any hitches like people forgetting towels (has happened at nearly every baptism). Elder Warr did the actual baptism and I gave a talk, then Bishop will confirm him next Sun. He wasn't confirmed this week because we had a regional conference. Elder Cook, the presiding Bishop, and Pres. Eyering spoke (broadcast from Utah). It was a really good conference. Melisa's (Mike's now wife) son is going to be baptized next week in Neenah, which ish nieshe. The only problem is now we have no progressing inv. so thank you for your prayers.

No I don't mind keeping my moving date for the 15th if it will jive with the plan better. It'll be good for you to support James as a family.

Thanks again for all the stuff for my B-day. I hung my banner up above my bed and I'm going to leave it up until I leave.

O ya about the picture with the dancing gorilla. There are a few famous dancing mascots in Appleton, the gorilla probably being the most famous. I always thought the gorilla was as tall as me, turns out he/she is a midget. Anyways whoever it is is pretty funny. The dancing staue of liberty lady is next.

So I don't have a lot to say, not alot happened. O I did go back to Oneida for the last time, got to say goodbye to everyone there. It was really good to know I made an impact, people still remember my name :O I even got to help out at the stable one more time. I took some pictures of horses and stuff and got to say goodbye to Scott.

Have a great week! Hope Abby gets better

Love

Hey family,


Thanks for all the birthday wishes and for the pizza and everything else you've done. The toppings on the pizza were great and it was even papa johns. Whats funny was that 10 min before I got it I was like "hey, we should order some pizza" At that point everyone (Elder Saunders, Loder, Warr) was already in on the plot and said "na, thats ok we'll just make something here." Its was pretty good timing. The cake was surprisingly good. I had a great b-day yesterday. No it doesn't feel any different to be 21, although Dad did give me a good idea, beer brats. I'll have to try that out tonight.

Mikes doing good. Hes more ready for baptism than we thought. His date is for the 5th and we have 2 more lessons with him before that. We had a really good man to man...to man with him the other day about why hes doing this and if he understands its a life long commitment and such. So far everything is falling into place.

As for new inv. we did find a couple of new ones. One man, Manuel, we found when we were trying to find a LA lady. Hes speaks only a little English so me and one of the Spanish Elders went over to teach him. Turns out he used to be taught by missionaries in CA, but when he and his wife split up and he moved here he lost all contact with the church. Just so happens we 'accidentally' found him and now he has a date for the 26th of March. Of course, now hes the Spanish Elders' inv. but I'm ok with that, at least we found someone who was prepared in Appleton.

About the whole leaving 6 days later, I'm happy I get to stay a little later, really sad I don't get to leave with Elder Allred, Lyons, Smalie and everyone (big going away dinner, testimonies, telling stories, flight back with everyone, etc.), happy I get to see everyone at the airport. I think i would have rather left as normal and just seen you later, but this way is ok too. At least this way I can have the classic 800 people there to welcome me back thing (even if its only 8 or 9 :)

Thank you all for the prayers, we need every little thing we can get.

Have a great week!

Love