5 October 2010

Hey family!

I hope this week is going well! The 4th is my Monthday! I've officially been gone for two months already. I'm already 1/12 done. Crazy isn't it? Time goes by so fast.

This week was awesome. The weather was a lot better. In fact, the past couple days it has been super cloudy, and we had a misty rain yesterday that we don't ever get in Utah. It was almost like warm snow, just droplets floating in the air. It felt so good!

There's been an air show going on recently at the airbase, featuring the Blue Angels. It is so. cool. Holy cow! Several times they flew right over our apartments, so close that we could read "US Navy" on the bottom. It's always been a dream of mine to see them, and now I've seen them four consecutive days! There was lots of lightning and thunder the first day they came in, which was really neat. It was the first time Elder Hinds has seen lightning since he's been here in CA.

Sunday night we had dinner with a young, fun family. They fed us chili, which I was really excited for. We get dinners every night, but this one was fun because of the chili. She likes to put spice in the chili to give it flavor, which is good. Her husband and her took a bite of it first, and said she'd put way way too many peppers in it. I figured "how bad can it be?" I took a bite and it felt like my head burst into flames. It was SO hot! I immediately started sweating and snot started coming out of my nose. It was really funny, we all had the same reaction. She didn't finish hers, and her husband dumped a huge amount of yogurt in his to douse the flames. He said he never thought he would put yogurt in chili. The whole thing was really funny.

The other night we were short on our standard street contacts (20 people a day), and we were running out of time. We were a long way from our apartment, and still had 8 people to talk to. Elder Hinds sped a little bit driving around, and the first light we came to turned red just BARELY before we got to it. I said a quick prayer and looked up, and it immediately turned green. It was so cool! This happened for 4 consecutive red lights. We were eventually able to barely get our contacts and get in the apartment on time. It was so cool to see Heavenly Father watch out for us in such a simple, but awesome way.

Two nights ago, we had just finished contacts for the day and were about to head in for the night. We walked down a really dark street to our car, when I felt a really strong tugging inside, feeling really unsettled. It was very uncomfortable. I then felt fear, that didn't generate like it usually does, but it felt like the feeling was placed inside me from somewhere else. Elder Hinds felt the same thing. We knew it was a warning from the Holy Ghost, and we went in a quick direct line to the car. I am glad we followed the warning. I don't know what was going to happen, but I know that we were being warned of danger.

General Conference was awesome! We were able to watch all 5 sessions at the stake center. There were about 14 of us missionaries and like 4 other people. It was fun. Our YSA branch president's son is first string on his football team on offense, defense, and special teams. They had a game Saturday night, during Priesthood session. He chose beforehand to miss the game so he could go see the session. His coach obviously wasn't happy, but the kid was really happy he made the right decision. I thought that was really neat, and a very hard decision to make.

Well we have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday. Charles so far has been clean from smoking for a few days, something he hasn't had since he was 13 years old. I think he is finally done with that, which is wonderful! Marvin still isn't married, but he is trying to get it all figured out. We are really leaving it in the hands of God.

Time for me to go, but I love you all very, very much. Good luck with the move, and don't forget to ask for help. Wish I could be there to help. Give Cliff a pat for me. Have a good week

Elder Jon La Follette

PS- Camille, my baseball glove is at a kid's house named Carson Rawle. Go on facebook and talk to him and see if you can get it back. It's a really nice glove. Thanks!