The Days Are Flying By

Hey Everybody!

This week has been awesome! We helped the part member family that we had Thanksgiving with put up Christmas decorations because they are both in wheelchairs. We had lots of good lessons, but didn't really get as many contacts as we should have. But its going good, we are still looking for referrals from the members, but they usually only give us less active referrals because out of the 500 people in our ward, only about 120 are active. So we have a lot of work that way but not really any investigators right now. We have the part member family, the McNiels, and another investigator named Mike. Sister McNiel is progressing pretty good, but Mike is living with his girlfriend, and they couldn't get married because he was getting a divorce that hadn't gone through yet, but it finally went through last week, and then they decided they were gonna wait to get married until his girlfriend turns 50 so they can get social security. I'm not quite sure how that works, but I do know that she is only 47 so if they go through with this he won't be able to be baptized for 3 years, which makes me wonder if he really wants to join the church or not, because they don't really keep commitments or anything. Oh and his girlfriend that he is living with is a less active member. So anyway, that's how its going.

I looked up Grandpa and Betty's community last week and they are in my zone but not my area. My area is the Cherry Glen ward. But I'm hoping that I can get put in the Willow Glen ward at some point. That would be pretty cool. My area is a car share area with the Dry Creek elders who are the ward right next to us. So we get the car tuesday-thursday and they get it friday-sunday and we basically do all our p-day stuff together so that works out good. When we don't have the car, we either walk or use the light rail trains, which are basically Trax, because we get bus passes to share every month with Dry Creek. In my apartment its just me and Elder Benner. I like it. Its a pretty decent setup. Elder Benner's last companion, Elder Dixon was kinda messy, and he went home the day I got here. When he left it was pretty bad so Elder Benner and I spent our last p-day cleaning, so it looks much better now. Dad, our mission office is that church that we went to. I drive past Andrew Hill High every time I go there. Its pretty cool, people get kinda surprised when I tell them that my Dad went to high school here.

Did you guys watch the Christmas Devotional last night? I hope you did cause it was awesome! We watched it at a family's house where the parents are very active members but the 2 daughters are from the Dad's previous marrige and their mother won't let them be baptized until they are 18 so thats too bad, but they still come to church and activities and stuff. I can't believe its been 2 weeks already and I also can't believe that its only been 2 weeks. It feels like I just got here, but it also feels like I've been doing this forever. Its funny, I thought it was gonna be different and kinda hard doing nothing but "church stuff" all day every day, but its actually really cool. Personal study time is always my favorite time of the day. I wish I had 3 more hours to do that. So far I'm about 200 pages into Jesus the Christ and I'm in Jacob in the Book of Mormon. Reading the Book of Mormon now is so much diffrent from when I read it before I came out here. I love reading it so much! Not that I didn't before, but it seems like its way more meaningful now then ever.

Oh and Happy Birthday a few days ago Mom! Hope it was a good one for you! What are  you like 48 now? Jeez, you better hurry up and have a ton of fun 'cause you only have 2 more years until you are old, and having fun becomes too hard for you. Grandma sent me a really nice Christmas card and a letter and her letter was really funny, she put in it that she is staying out of trouble because she can't move fast enough to get into trouble. I really thought that was funny, but ya thats how I've been. Dad, thanks for all the news updates and things, I really enjoy those, Im really glad that the DOW is up 1000 points, thats awesome! Mom, yes please tell me who won the Sing Off and anything else you think I might care about except anything about new episodes of Psych and Burn Notice. If you were planning on sending me a Christmas package, could you maybe include a big like comforter blanket or something? Its just been a little chilly at night, even though its been around 65 or 70 during the day. Thank you all for your support and let everyone at church know that I really appreciate them thinking about me. Oh and Mom, when you put Hurrah for Israel, in my first e-mail, you spelled it hoorah, which made me crazy and I just really wanted to correct you on that. But thats all I have for now, the mission is going good and the days are flying by. I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,

Elder Spencer Harbold