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