Week of Aug 22-28

We have had a cool down here. Last week the temperatures stayed at 99 degrees or below. This is suppose to continue for another week. For some reason most people mow their lawns very short almost scalping them. We don't know why.
We have been buying flowers every week to brighten our apartment up and give it a little decoration.

A couple times I have forgotten my name tag. I almost feel naked without it. Our name tags have become part of us. We wear them on the left side over our hearts because we are called and set apart representatives of Jesus Christ and the name tag helps us remember who we are and what we represent. Of course, our name tag lets others know who we are also. One day last week we went out to lunch at Habit (a hamburger place) with some of our co-workers. When the young man at the counter saw our name tags, he got excited and told us he has been investigating the church.

Our mission had zone conferences on Tues, Wed, and Thurs of the last two weeks. We attended our first zone conference on Thursday. It was great! Look at those smiling faces of the missionaries in these two zones. It seems like the missionaries are always smiling and full of pep and energy. President and Sister Layton taught the missionaries about preparing people for baptism and confirmation and enduring to the end from a mission president's seminar that Elder Renlund gave. He said, "If we find those who will receive us, we will build up or establish the Savior's church." We all learned how to do a direct approach, teach & testify, and invite.

Sister Gallacher (on the left) is from Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Her stake president is Ralph Walker who I went to high school with. Her dad called the mission office the other day to inquire about something, and we discovered he knows our son, Tony, and used to do business with him.

We went with Elders Olsen and Bennett to visit Serena. She was a self referral and is a very spiritual person. Years ago her father found some scriptures (a triple and a Book of Mormon) in a case on a bench. He gave them to her. She read some of the Book of Mormon back then, but got confused. A few weeks ago she contacted the church. The missionaries visited and gave her another Book of Mormon. She has already read to Jacob and says she believes it and feels pure and close to the spirit when she reads it. She has a strong belief about not worshipping on Sunday because she believes that it is a pagan practice. Nonetheless, we invited her to go to church with us and hope she will call. She did call and said she didn't feel ready to go to church on Sunday yet. She said she is looking forward to our next visit though. James has been out with the missionaries several other times, but this was my first time to go. It is amazing the spirit the elders have and how they are able to answer her questions. James also goes to visit members with the High Priest group leader and has given a couple blessings recently; one to Jilleen Bingham and one to John Drake, who was in the hospital.

Friday two new missionaries arrived from Mexico. Elder Jarmillo is from Monterrey and Elder Velveer is from Puebla. They have been serving in Mexico City for the last six months waiting for their visas. Everybody was thankful that James can speak Spanish and was able to talk to them and help them get oriented to the mission here and fill out the paperwork.

It is weird not to have visiting teaching and home teaching assignments while we are on our mission. That has been part of our lives forever and will be again when we get back.

THE LORD LOVES YOU AND SO DO WE!