Week of 11/28/11

Family,

This past week has been pretty good. It was Thanksgiving week so it is harder to see people and useless to tract because no one wants to let you in to talk bc they are with family or something. We spent Thanksgiving going to the turkey bowl. It was so sweet. There was like 6 missionaries there and like 30 more people from 3 diff wards. I loved it. Did pretty good. Dominated on defense with like 7-8 interceptions but overall it was fun to get out and play football. It was like in the 30s but it wasn't really windy so the weather was perfect. Then when we got back, we were invited to like 4 peoples houses and we were trying to decide who to walk to when we got a call from this recent convert (Ed, 80 yrs old or something) saying he was on his way to pick us up. So we rushed to get ready and went to his house to have lunch. It was nice. We met all his kids and grandkids. They were all very nice. Sweet to be in that family kind of home. I enjoyed it and the food was pretty good. The rest of the day we just chilled and watched church movies and planned. No one else wanted to see us bc they were with family so thought it best to just chill and not bother everyone. Rest of the week was tougher. Not many people to teach, lots of people out of town, and not interested. This coming week should be good tho. We have a couple part-member families that we are working with and hopefully reactivate them and get them to come back to church and get the rest of their family baptized too. That is were you find the most success. Members who have other family members that don't go to church or no real religious background. So we get to invite people to come closer to Christ and at the same time bring families closer together and more unified. I am excited for a mutual activity I have got together with the YM/YW to have a missionary oriented activity and lesson by us and challenge them to not be so afraid to talk to their friends about the gospel. People want to hear about the gospel by people they know and trust so if we can get members to open their mouths and talk about their beliefs, then investigators will be more open and receptive. Spanish for me is pretty stagnant. I don't really have an opportunity to talk much in spanish in this area but I still try and learn or read the scriptures in spanish. I also like to say prayers in spanish. We have a part member family tho that is spanish and I get to talk to him for a bit. I also got to talk to this spanish elder from Mexico who knows like no english for 1 1/2 hr. That was fun. He said that my spanish is perfect, better than he has heard from us gringos. That was sweet and motivated me to study better so one day I can go on exchanges with him in his area and be able to speak spanish all day to people. That would be pretty legit.
All is well here. Windy and cold, but all good. The other day we could hardly walk straight with how strong the wind was blowing. I enjoy it tho. Cant believe it is already almost Christmas. Time is flying and with our schedules we don't ever know what day it is so holidays and such sneak up pretty quick. Thanks for the love and support. Good to hear from y'all.
Love
Elder Roe