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10-5-2010

Viernes:  Crazy day!!  So in the morning I got food poisoning, AGAIN!  Boo.  This is the 4th time on my mission.  Sabado:  General Conference!!!  Woot!  It was at the stake center in Carlsbad. … took us over there and the first session didn’t have translation, so I had to translate it.  Whew, that was hard.  Live translation is tricky, especially conference talks because they use such big words.  But I had done a lot of practicing before, so it wasn’t too bad.  And a temple in TIJUANA!!!!!  All the members were freakin’ out!!  It was so exciting!  This is soooo good for the church down here.  We pretty much partied at the stake center all day and watched them all in Spanish.  Gotta love conference.  It was interesting because there are a TON of general authorities that record their own translations.  It was really surprising.

10-12-2010

Sabado:  Still on exchanges.  In the morning we went down to the ocean and taught … a part member family.  We are teaching … who is the husband, and he has a date for the 1st of January.  Then we taught … and then we exchanged back.  Elder Colby and I went over to … a 9 yr old son of a member and we set a date with him for the 13th as well.  We came home early because Elder Colby was really sick and then we had BUNK BEDS!!!!  Hallelujah, we finally have beds and we aren’t sleeping on the floor.  It took 7 weeks, but they came.  YAY!!

10-19-2010

Jueves:  In the morning a TON of things fell through.  And I had some bike problems, so I had to fork out another $70 on bicycle repairs.  Boo.  I got some new tires, and some other work done, and it runs a lot better now.  Then after that we went to this less active, and we gave her a blessing, and then she gave us 6 referrals!!!!  Sweetness.  Viernes:  …we went to one of our focus-15 people, …, because her husband isn’t a member.  After that I got a flat, so I had to repair it and then we did the long bike ride home from the ocean.   Sabado:  In the morning we biked down to visit …  It has been really rainy and stormy since about Thursday (still rainy and stormy today), and so we got really wet riding down.

10-26-2010

Tuesday:  RAIN!!!  Holy cow.  After I wrote ya’ll we went to Carlsbad for interviews.  Big news:  So I talked to President about school, and coming home early to get into school, and he agrees with me, and we have it planned for me to come home in the November transfer next year instead of the January.  So that means that I am only going to have one Christmas away, and only one birthday, but probably two Thanksgivings, but we will see.  So yep.  LOTS OF RAIN!

Some quotes from Brian’s letters:

September 7, 2010

Friday:  Zone Conference!!!  Wow, it was really long since we have had one, since we are only doing it every other transfer.  It was the Cook’s first one and it was amazing!  I played piano for it which was really fun.  It had a lot of emphasis on the prophet Joseph Smith which was cool.  Saturday:  We did a TON of biking.  This area is double the size of my last area with half of the people and triple the hills.  Whew, it is tough.  Monday:  Still on exchanges.  His area is ON the ocean, which was BEAUTIFUL!  Man, it doesn’t get better than that.

September 14, 2010

Thursday:  District Meeting in the morning.  I talked about the power and role of the Book of Mormon in conversion.  I thought that it went really well.  President Cook and the Zone Leaders both came to the meeting.  We are doing it in puro español so that is pretty fun too.  Saturday:  So the big news is that Elder’s….. bike broke.  And because of that we walked.  All day.  It took 2 hours to walk to one appointment and then 2 hours to walk back, and so that took up our entire night.  A lot of walking.  My bike has not had any problems in 4 weeks which is a miracle.  We are gonna keep those prayers coming.

September 21, 2010

Saturday:  Wedding of….!!!!  The service was great and I ended up playing piano for it.  This is the third wedding that I have arranged on my mission.  I am becoming a wedding planner. Sunday:  So we went to church and had 5 investigators!!  Then we went over to the California building to get things set up for the baptism.  We got the font filled (a little on the chilly side), and got everything ready.  The baptism got started late, but it was a great experience.  I baptized….. and I also played/sang.  The arrangement was one of my mine and it was very spiritual.  The whole family showed up to the baptism and it was a powerful experience for everyone.  So exciting!!

September 28, 2010

Wednesday:  Leadership training in Vista!  Great, awesome spiritual experience.  I had to get up at 5:30 to get ready and over to Vista in time for the conference.  It was ALL of the leadership in the entire mission.  We started at 8 and ended at 4:30.  I was asked to perform a musical number, so I played piano.  President was really grateful, and said some really nice things.  Thursday:  Day 2 of Leadership training.  So there are about 60 missionaries that are at this thing, and it was fun to see and hang out for a little bit with all of my friends.  Today it was in Carlsbad.  I was asked to write an arrangment of Come Thou Fount, that Elder Kim was going to perform, so I had to wake up even earlier to write it (4:00) and then we performed it at the conference.  It was really good!  Monday:  BLAZING hot today, 108.  Whew.  And Humid.