Hi Dallin,
This will be a shorter letter. I'm a little behind in time.
We are excited to hear where you are now. I hope you work as hard in your new area as you did in the last. Only one thing is certain in life and that is Change. There a others in your new area who need your spirit and love. You will be fine and your friends and investigators in your last area will be watched over. That is the Lord's way. It happened all the time with Paul in the New Testament. He was always so sad to leave the area that he was teaching in because he loved the people. But there are always others.
As you probably know, Beau leaves today for Alaska. We are full of excitement, anxiety and tears (well, maybe the tears are only mine:) ). We had a nice get together last night with Ben, Caleb, Chase and Vander. They shot guns from the back deck and played the usual stupid war game. We all look forward to the day when all of you can have a great reunion. You boys have made great life-long friends here. Gwendalyn made special cinnamon rolls for him.
Dad is getting busy with his work. We will be continuing to orgainze the house. We are feeding the missionaries faithfully. We still have the sister missionaries. They are both brand new to the ward. Do you have sister missionaries in your area?
Well, tell us about all you are doing. We pray for you and you companions.
We love you-Be happy and thankful!
Mom
Hey!
I am sitting in my new area. Oh man!
I am in Keokuk Iowa ( get a map this is cool). Keokuk is in the southeast tip of Iowa right on the Big Sippie. Just north of us about ten minutes is where the saints crossed the river into Illinois and built the Nauvoo Temple. When driving on the freeway, which runs along the river, you can look straight across at the Nauvoo Temple up on the hill. Ill get pictures soon. It is a miraculous view to look across the massive river and see that. Now, if I were standing and looking at the Temple like that, then directly behind me, or directly across from the temple is a plot of land where they have found ancient ruins underground with some sonar technology. The church does not want to dig it up, but supposedly this is where a city named Zarahemla was, not the capitol, but a city. They have also found lots of artifacts with Reformed Egyptian characters on them, such as the ones on the Gold Plates. A man in the Keokuk branch owns this plot of land! We will soon be having dinner at his house and I guess he knows a ton about this whole thing, so I should soon have some cool facts for you all.
My new companion's name is Elder Holmes. He is from, you guessed it, Utah, and he is the District Leader. He is awesome though. We have a lot in common, music, rock climbing, backpacking, the whole thing. He likes competition swimming and water polo though. He is a great missionary and I can learn alot from him, but he thinks I will be the companion to help him rely on the spirit more, and loosen up a bit. I am learning alot about missionary work from him that I did not know before. I am so glad I didn't train, and I know that the transfer was meant to be. I am excited to see what we can do together this transfer.
We have a pretty extensive "battle plan" drawn up.
This area has a little branch with about 100 households on the roster. about 30 of them are actually active, so needless to say we have much work to do. I am so fired up! I am trying to control my fire though and work smarter, not harder. I would draw a parallell with engines. If I could harness this fire into something useful, like an engine does with fire, then I could be like Ammon! Any missionary could. Thanks for your prayers with studying! I am loving it. I am discovering how to harness my fire!
Also I recieved a call from President Jergensen. He interviewed Patricia himself to be baptized. He said he wants me to make it a priority to find a way back to Iowa City for her baptism! I found a ride! So we will most likely be going if all goes according to plan, I am so excited for that. Her family will be there from Wyoming and everything. He NEVER does this so there must be a really good reason.
In this area I will be working on a lot of Word of Wisdom issues. It is a small town. The smaller the town it seems the bigger the beer cases and cartons of cigs here in Iowa.
Also this is a real Mississippi River town. I havent seen one house yet that is younger than 60 years.
The whole town is like a moist, ghetto version of the old tree streets in Billings.
Love you guys!
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