Baby Puppies

Hello All,

I love being able to write you! Something fun happened this week! We were visiting a less active woman in the ward, and one of her dogs had six little puppies recently. I have never seen such young puppies before, and we got to play with them all throughout our visit!!! As missionaries, we can't hold babies, but we CAN hold baby animals! Anyway, one of her bigger dogs took a liking to us, and remembered who we were when we came back into the neighborhood to visit some referrals later in the week. He went tracting with us! He'd run up to the car and then follow us to each doorstep. We'd try to shut the gates so that he couldn't follow us...but he would JUMP over the fence like a deer!!! It was cool to have such a friendly dog follow us around for part of the day.

Oh! We extended our first baptismal commitment this week. Sister Crossley wanted me to be the one to ask the guy to be baptised on May 2, but I warned her that I would probably get nervous, and be too scared to do it. The lesson went well. I was able to teach fine for the most part. But sure enough, after teaching about baptism and why it's so important...I just looked at my companion and made her extend the baptismal commitment. I don't know why I got so scared! Anyway, it was exciting. He couldn't commit to May 2, but knows he needs to be baptized, and he thinks that that time frame would probably give him enough time to prepare. I think I could probably extend the commitment next time we do it though, because if you think about it...it's just inviting people to come unto Christ....and it's a huge part of fulfilling my purpose as a missionary. We pray for these investigators so much, that it's important to give strong commitments.

Sister Crossley's Birthday was on Saturday. Some members from Farmington drove down and kidnapped us at 6:30 in the morning to take her out to breakfast. My companion asked if I knew anything about their plans. I told her "Sister Crossley, if I knew anything about this, you can bet your life I would have gone to bed with make-up on and my hair done." But it was fun. Later that night, we went out for Chinese food with some missionaries from our distinct since none of us had dinner appointments. One of the Elders we saw was with me in the MTC, (one of those silly ones I wrote about). It was so fun just to laugh that hard again.

I love the letters you've been sending. I often quote them in lessons...especially what Dad wrote me about President Calderwood's talk to the women of the stake who don't feel worthy to go to the temple. One of our investigators/less actives doesn't think God loves her because she's not good enough to get to the Celestial Kingdom. That letter had a lot of things that could pertain to her.

We volunteer at a nursing home here. On Friday, they called us saying that one of our sisters was dying and to please come over. We called the elders to come with us to give her a blessing. (All of the leadership from our ward was down in Albuquerque for a stake temple trip.) I've never seen anyone so near death. But we went back on Saturday and she seems to be doing a little better. Her roommate is also LDS and she told us when we first met that it's hard being there because there are only two of the residents there who can actually hold a conversation with her. "Everyone has lost their mind!" she said. It reminds me of the silly people we saw when we visited Grandpa Waters. "Hey! Do you want to see an asthma attack? It's cool if you've never seen one!"

It's weird not being able to see the news. The economy seems to be getting worse and worse. It's scary! How is everything back home? It seems like every day we meet someone who got laid off that morning. People hear about the LDS cannery, and ask us if they can go. It just goes to show how important food storage is, and how inspired the prophets really are. Their role of preparing the people for danger is so much like Noah of old.

Lots of our appointments cancelled this week, so there isn't much news there. This email is probably pretty devoid of anything super uplifting, or entertaining. I contemplated just sending a one-liner this week saying: "The work is progressing, but nothing exciting to report. I'm doing fine.." ...But you all know that I can't resist writing letters, given the opportunity. I still have about 20 minutes, but can't think of anything else that is interesting. I love you all, and think of you often. Let me know if there's anything you need to know.