Email of July 15

Hey,

This week was good. The baptism was super good. We had two investigators come and see. They felt the spirit for sure.

Mom, don't feel sorry for being concerned for your baby boy who hurts. I would have kept it to myself and probably never had any help. Thanks for being a good mommy! My headaches are easily treated, it just takes time. I've had to deal with them since middle school. My back is...eh. My meeting with the President was short. What I got out of it was I'm going home in the Spring and I can last that long. Then I'll get some real treatment. I figured that would be good enough. I really don't like taking time out of my week to go get an adjustment. My body is addicted to the feeling of popping. After an adjustment, my body aches in need of twisting and pulling and hyper-extending. I lasted about 2 days of aching before I gave in and popped everything. Well...it still aches. I wonder if the future will have better ways of figuring out a medical problem and solving it sooner. That would be nice.

President Smart sent a quote to us. I like it:
“The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?" Pres. Kimball.

We were trained on expecting miracles and increasing our faith to baptize. The Assistants trained on testifying and teaching by the spirit. It was really good.

So last night, we came home from dropping off a team up and pulled in the driveway. I saw a black hand, tip-toeing across the cement. -It wasn't a hand. I searched in the trash can for something to catch him in. A small, empty butter container was perfect. I quickly placed it on top, careful not to squish his legs. I jumped for joy and shivered with fear knowing that I had just put my worst enemy in a slippery situation. ;)
I carried him through the house and onto the back porch. Then I let him crawl on me.
What was I thinking?!?!?! Holy moly!

Um...I was going to write more but I had those pictures to send. So I thought I'd write the rest on another email. I kinda forgot what I was going to say though. . . hmmmm
Here's pictures of the baptism. :)

I can't stop thinking about that spider...

anyway...I'm getting along with myself better than usual. So that's good. I miss a lot of people and things and places now. Even people on my mission that I haven't seen in a long time. I want to see them again. As far as people back home, everything is changing. I'm emailing some friends. They are getting married, having kids, working like crazy, going to school...etc. I'm so lucky I don't have to deal with that. If I could serve a mission the rest of my life...I probably would. I get a place to stay, free dinner, free gas, I get money every month on a little card, I see so many benefits from being a missionary that simply cannot be if I were home. The best part though, is all the experiences and people that I meet. I would probably never meet people if I weren't serving a mission. It's super great.


Brian