October 1

Moms and Pops,

So, news first... I got my pink slip this week... I'm not sure if you know what that means, but it is a landmark in a missionaries life. It means that the church is getting ready to purchase my plan ticket home... So, I need to know some info for all of that. First off, I've prayed about it, and I think that I'm just going to come straight home. I feel like that would be best. I can stay in touch with people through email, FB, and phone calls (which I can't do while I'm here). I'm really good at changing my mind aren't I? Is our home stake the St. Louis, MO Stake? Is our home ward the Rockwood 1st Ward? Also, what is the name of the airport that I will be flying home to? I need you to confirm those for me ASAP please. Crazy to think that it is getting to be that time... AND it's already OCTOBER! Wow!

So, Nathan was baptized on Saturday! He asked me if I would baptize him, and Elder Weisenburger confirmed him. It was a great service, a lot of people showed up to support Nathan. It was great! I am excited to go to baptisms when I'm home to just support people. I wish I would of done that more often, but then again, I didn't understand the gospel nearly as well as I do now. It's a miracle that Nathan was baptized because he doesn't have much longer to live, he's pretty frail... The Swank family is still on top of things! They came to church again yesterday, we gave Lisa (the mom) and her husband, Jim, blessings after church and taught the kids. Lisa has a baptismal date for October 27, and one of the kids expressed her desire to be baptized as well. We're teaching them again tonight, so we'll get a little deeper into it. I love that miracle of teaching a family! It's the best!!! It's what every missionary dreams and prays for, and it is such a blessing to have all those prayers become a reality. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a blessing straight from God Himself. It is truly incredible.

We also got a referral this week from the MTC for this lady who requested a missionary visit from Mormon.org. Her name is Monica and she has studied our church for a long time. She has been searching for the true church and she said that she narrowed it down to 2 churches: The Jehovah Witnesses and us... and she's met with the JW's and she knows that they aren't the true chruch so she said it must be us. What a blessing! We taught her twice this week, she came to Nathan's baptism and she came to all 3 hours of church yesterday! The only downside... she's 25 and belongs to the Singles ward. But, she has a baptismal date now for November 10. She WILL get baptized. She is so excited for it. We're going to teach her again this week with the sister missionaries that cover the YSA ward so that we have a smooth transition. They were thrilled as you could imagine. So many awesome things are happening right now! Miracles are coming every day.

Things are going okay with the Elder Weisenburger. We are quite different in many regards but very much alike at the same time. That an make things difficult at times. He is very much so a perfectionist, similar to Elder Christensen, and he stresses sometimes if things don't work out perfectly. I have definitely learned the value of good communication.

We had a Zone Leader Council this week again. It is crazy how fast those things come around. I only have 3 more (if I stay a ZL for my last 2 transfers). Time sure does fly. We talked all about having faith and about shifting the paradigm. We watched an AWESOME video called "The Butterfly Circus." You should look that up and watch it, I'm sure it's on youtube. But that impacted me a lot, it was great. We went to Panara Bread on Saturday before the baptism, yum! Reminds me of Ohio. On Saturday we also ran about 2.4 miles! Woo! There was some huge bike race that morning too, it made me think of XOBA and riding my bike with you pops, across Ohio. Those were fun times. I will not do that in Missouri in the Summer....

Anyway, life is good. Things are going great. Time is flying by and it's hard to imagine that things are going to come to a close a whole lot quicker than I'd like. Again, I'll just fly straight home, you don't need to come pick me up. That will all work out one way or another. I asked President Alba about it and he said that it's not encouraged for parents to come pick up their missionaries. So, I just figured that I'd come straight home. I love my new shirts, they are very nice... I could use some long sleeve though. 2 of my long sleeves are thrashed, also a nice raincoat would do well. I lost mine somewhere a long time ago... also, maybe 1 or 2 long-sleeve thermal shirts because of the weather and it'd be nice to wear in the morning. We are having a 3 day all-mission conference at the beginning of November out in the middle of the wilderness at what's called Camp Liahona, and it's gonna be chilly and i don't have any long-sleeve t-shirts, and i only have 1 sweatshirt (it's impressed me how long that thing has lasted considering how much I wear it). I will also be sending home some things here in the future... now whether that future is a week, or a month, or even 2 months, I'm not sure... but it will happen.

I love you both very very much. Thank you for all of your support and all that you do for me. Have a great week and I hope everything goes well. And when you find your priesthood lineage, just send me mine if you could! Now that I know you're looking for it, I'll quit asking. Love you both!

Love,
Your Missionary Son