March 29, 2010 - Week 33 - Dog Week

Hello Everyone,

So today has been crazy with email and stuff. Tomorrow is interviews so our p-day will be on Wednesday. We decided to email today like we usually do but when we went to the library it was closed because the librarian was sick. So we are emailing at the church right now and I literally only have 30 mins which really stinks. So I will have to hurry this week.

So I called this email dog week because dogs have just been crazy. The first thing I will tell you is about Larissa Janovich. She is on date to be baptized on April 17th but the biggest hold up is her job. She works on Sundays and she can't go to church. She and her husband are very young and just had a baby so their financial situation is really hard right now. She spoke to her boss and she told her that because they are staffed so low right now she can't get Sundays off. We really didn't know what to do for her and had been praying about it all week. We decided that she would just have to make the sacrifice and quit her job. We stopped by her house to say hello one night and she goes, "OH I’m so glad to see you guys! Guess what? They just hired a new girl at work and she needs to have Tuesdays off so I switched with her and now I have Sundays off!" It was a miracle! So now she can be baptized on April 17th and she will be able to come to church every week. We were so happy we were laughing. We are walking home and its way dark and then we come around a corner of a street. We are still way excited about Larissa, but then this dog comes out of nowhere. It was a mix between a Rottweiler and pit-bull I swear. It just starts charging at us and snarling. I'm about to take off and then Elder Buchanan grabs me and we just stand there. Then the dog just stops running and sits there. We turn around and slowly walk away. It was crazy! We got home and from the news about Larissa and the dog our adrenaline was pumpin and we could not go to sleep.

Then this whole week it seems like we have been running into so many dogs. We haven’t been chased by any but there have definitely been times where we walked a different way because we saw a dog in the distance. But then the last thing was we have Hank Huxoll. He is 10 years old and is on date to be baptized April 17th too. He needed to come to church on Sunday or he couldn't be baptized then so it was huge. He just got a new dog because his old one got hit by a car so he is really nervous about leaving him alone. We talked him into leaving his dog for one hour and coming to church. So we go to his house on Sunday and we are going to meet him and his ride we arranged for him just before church. We knock on the door and his sister answers, but then his new dog goes darting out the door. E. Buchanan and I start sprinting after the dog and we can’t catch it. Then we see Hank running as fast as he can yelling "Don't run after it! Walk towards him!" So we start walking but the dog is still running and he starts running towards the highway. We are just praying, "Please heavenly father, make sure this dog doesn't get hit today, please" So he runs up to us and in desperation hands us the leash and says, "You have to run as fast as you can." We are like okay, for you Hank, and we start sprinting. Then his ride pulls up and we just jump right in and start yelling "Go go go turn left." The ride is so confused but does it. We finally find the dog and get him home. We were 10 minutes late for church but we got Hank there and all was well after that. So that’s my crazy dog week. It’s definitely been a good one.

In other news, I am proud to say for the first time on my mission I got sick. I went 7 1/2 months without getting sick. And it wasn't even bad. I just had a cold I think but we thought it would be best if I didn't go out so I didn't get other people sick. But I’m doing fine now. I have a little cough and stuffed up nose, but I'm doing pretty good. What’s also cool is we put another person on date to be baptized. He is schizophrenic and has a big problem with smoking so its gonna be a tough one, but with the Lords help we can do it. We have 5 people on date for baptism right now! We are leading our zone! The whole zone collectively has 9 and right now we have 5 of those. The people in this area are just ready for the gospel. It’s amazing. We are working with a few other people who are looking really good and are really progressing. I can't think if anything else happened this week. We are just working our butts off right now. We always say to each other, "We are going to be 100% obedient" and then whenever we don't want to do something really pointless, like backing out the person in the car when its pouring rain, we just say to the other one, "Oh it’s okay I guess we'll be only 99.9%. I'm sure the lord will still bless us." Then we feel bad and go do it. But we really are doing everything we can do be 100% obedient. It’s really hard for missionaries to do. I love it.

Well you guys had a few questions that I will try and answer right now. There are a few towns that are nearby Dayton and Waitsburg. We drive to a few of them, but a lot of time we don't do much. I guess E. Buchanan and his old comp tracted out a whole town in an hour one day. We don't have a lot of miles on our car because we have a limited amount so we have been driving to Dayton and then parking it and walking the whole day. We are trying to not go over our limit which will be the first time since anyone has ever come to Dayton. Our living place is really nice. We have the whole basement to ourselves and can do our laundry and stuff. We share the kitchen with the members but that’s fine. Thanks for that March Madness thing. That’s so funny. How’s it going anyway? Am I winning? Probably not. I had all the number 1 going to the final 4 and I hear a lot of them got knocked out early on. I just can't have Jesus or Heavenly Father losing. Come on. And I put myself going pretty far too. Did you see that?

K time is short we have a dinner appointment with an investigator. Umm. With the gps just make sure it has a car mount and a car charger. You can send dads cell if you want. That’s a good idea. I’m good with my pants. I will write you guys this week okay. I love you guys so much. Sorry if I can't respond to all of you. I will do my best. But when I’m busy that means time goes by faster, I’m happier, and I’m having success so that’s good. Love you all. Take care.