3 May 2011

Hi Family!

Last week we had Elder L. Tom Perry, his wife, and L. Whitney Clayton and his wife come speak to us and the San Diego Mission. That was a really uplifting experience. I don't have my notes with me so I can't tell you everything they said, but they talked of course a lot about missionary work, how members need to involve missionaries in their missionary work, and how the missionaries need to use all their resources.

Just before that meeting, President Cook met with just our mission (he asked us to show up an hour earlier than San Diego). There, he announced some changes in the mission boundaries. San Diego mission is short on units (wards/branches) and the missionaries are getting crammed. They have requested more area, so we gave them two of our stakes (2 zones). We gave them Penasquitos Stake and Poway Stake. Mira Mesa, my last area, was part of the Penasquitos Stake, so my last area is now out of our mission. Now the Escondidio Stake (I was in the Esco South stake, but on Sunday they combined with Escondido Stake to make one Escondido Stake) is one of the southern borders of the mission. No missionaries will be changing missions. We lost 38 missionaries' worth of area, so to balance that out, the Riverside Mission is giving us the Temecula Stake. Now Temecula is in our mission.

I am being transferred today from Escondido. I've been here 6 months and I've really loved it. The members and investigators have been great. If any of you come with me to visit later on, you'll be able to meet some of them. I've loved the people and the area. I'm sad to go, but it was expected because I've been here so long. Elder Bailey is staying, probably for just one more transfer (6 weeks). I'll send you pictures soon. Mom, I hope you got the pictures I sent last week. I don't want to lose a 3rd SD card!

Elder Lynn G Robbins came to the stake to help reorganize it, since they were combining. On Saturday we had the Mormon Helping Hands service project (I don't know if they even do it in Utah), and all the missionaries in the stake went. He showed up, as well as Elder Haynie and the new Esco Stake President. Elder Robbins shook all of our hands and took pictures with the missionaries. Look for a picture in the next Ensign! We did our service project in a local park, Kit Carson Park. Us missionaries had 2 jobs-- first was to rake and spread out some very thick mulch that a front-end loader dumped, and second was to cut and clear giant reeds around the pond. I got the job of being a reed cutter. A few minutes in, the mud got really thick and mushy, and I started to sink! I went to another spot to cut and got more stuck. I tried to get out, but just got further stuck in the process, so I decided to just cut all the reeds around me while I was stuck. There were 3 of us that were brave enough to go into the deeper water (we got permission, don't worry) and cut. I ended up going the deepest in mud. At the deepest, I was up to my thigh in watery mud and on top of that, up to my waist in water. Needless to say, I got pretty messy! I used one of the rakes to pry myself out, and upon getting out of the water, I realized our phone had been in my pocket the whole time, as well as our keys. The keys still worked, but the phone was dead. We took the phone home, showered, and tried to dry it. We put it in a bowl of rice and brought it to Ren Livingston's house (he's a nerd with electronics skills!). We took it apart and dried it. He gave it a 10% chance of living. We left in in a bag of rice all day, and thank goodness, it was working by night time! Whew! The main light doesn't work, but everything else does. We have to go in a dark room to read texts, but it's okay.

That's about all for this week. I hope you all are doing well. Congratulations Joe and Daniell! Y'all have a good week, I'll talk to you (at least some of you) on Sunday. I don't know what time, it depends on when my new wards' meetings are in the morning. I don't know where I'm going yet, but I'll find out in about 5 hours.

Love,

Elder La Follette