Received Mon, Jan 5, 2009

Happy birthday Zak!!!

I totally didn't realize last week when I was writing my e-mail that your birthday was going to be that week. Then the next day as soon as I wrote down the date I realized it was your birthday! So have you been working on getting your drivers license? I procrastinated a while and I don't think I got mine until the end of my Junior year. I definitely would at least get started on getting your permit pretty soon though.

Hooray...we finally got to go out and work this week. We did really well too. We found 13 new investigators and we had 6 people at church yesterday! As a whole district I we had 10 or 11 at church, so it was a pretty successful week.

On Tuesday one of the APs (assistants to the pres) spent the day with us. His companion was in Texas City with those Elders trying to solve some problems going on down there. Elder Zolman is the one who was with us. He served in Galveston for the first 11 months of his mission, so he knew the area really well and knew a lot of members. Hes one of my favorite missionaries out here and I really learned a lot from that day. We were pretty bold with a lot of people. We started talking to some guy said he was an alcoholic and he wants to start changing his life around. We asked him if he wanted to stop drinking and he said yes, so Elder Zolman was like, ok well lets start by getting rid of your beer. Surprisingly, this guy actually did it. He took his huge bottle of beer and we watched him pour it out into his front lawn. He looked pretty sad pouring the beer out, but he did it anyway.

Throughout the whole day we saw lots of crazy stuff and got a lot of laughs. We actually taught a lesson on some guys doorstep while one of his buddies was sitting on the steps with a big bag of drugs. After we taught the guy Elder Zolman looked at the druggie guy said how's it goin' or whatever. He said, Well I'm gonna make some money tonight. Elder Zolman said, "Oh really, where do you work" The guy was like, well I work for myself. Then Elder Zolman said "Hey whats in the bag." The guy was like "Tobacco." Elder Zolman said something about how that was some weird looking tobacco. There's definitely a drug problem in Galveston. We had a lot of good experiences though.

Oh yeah, we set up a baptismal date for Montanna. Her date is for January 10th which is this Saturday. Unfortunately there is a ton of drama going on in that family right now. Her new Dad (or stepdad or whatever he's called), Abraham, is super stressed out and hes severely bipolar, so he's exploded a lot of times and there are a lot of problems going on there. Kim moved out because she couldn't take it anymore and Paulette is really depressed too. Were going to focus on reconstructing this family this week. Its actually pretty stressful for me and Elder Pedersen to see all these things happening, but I'm pretty sure everything is going to be alright. I told Paulette and Kim that as long as I am here I am going to work as hard as I can and do everything possible to help them out and get Abraham some help. So that was the drama for the week.

For New Years Eve we went and ate dinner at the Rabago's, which is where we ate for Christmas Eve too. They are one of my favorite families I've met out here. They always take good care of the missionaries. They are the ones who are in charge of feeding us every Sunday after church too.

Now to comment on Mom's e-mail...How did everyone like the hockey game? I remember I went with Russell and his dad. It was fun for the first half, then we left. I did get to see 2 or 3 fights though, that was the best part. The whole reason you watch hockey games is to see fights, at least in my opinion. Same thing goes for nascar too, the only reason you watch nascar is to see the crashes.

Haha...anyway....So the Chargers won?? Someone actually told me that at church yesterday. Chargers are goin all the way this year!!

I have to say, I find it pretty that Mom and Kylie are winning in the Gridiron thing. Yes I got the package full of pictures and I loved it.

Ok, well that's all the time I have this week. Our area is still on fire and were seeing miracles happen here every day. I'm definitely going to miss this area when I leave. There are so many good members here and I have so many memories. This is the last week of the transfer too, so next Monday I find out if I stay or go.

Ok I love you all!!! Have fun in school! Study hard and get good grades!

Love,
Chase