Notes from Sam -- 25 June 2008

The District -- Elders Pimentel, McIntosh, Davies, Adams, Phillips, and Pettersson -- Helping do a primary school's garden

Dear family,

Transfers is today. Elder Adams and I are staying together in Sale, though (the first time ever that neither I nor my companion has been moved), so we have a regular preparation day today. Elder Pettersson and Elder Davies are both leaving, however, so we have some changes in our district. I don't know either of the arriving missionaries very well, but by next week I should know them quite a bit better. We also have a new zone leader, Elder Frogley, who's from my MTC group and served near me when I was in Runcorn.

It's kind of nice to get another transfer with the same companion in the same area. Since there's relatively little new stuff to get used to, I can focus a lot on improving what I'm already doing. I'm going to focus in particular on being diligent this transfer - I'm feeling like that's something that's really crucial to my missionary success and that I can improve on significantly in the next six weeks.

Good news for the ward - one of the Altrincham elders' investigators, a young guy named Callum, has just managed to get work off on Sundays. He was ready to be baptized many weeks ago except that he had to work during church. Now that it's sorted out, though, he'll be baptized very soon! Exciting stuff. Our investigators are not quite so ready to be baptized - a lot of things are popping up to keep them from coming to church and meeting with us - but we'll persevere. There's a lot of potential in our area and there's great support from the ward, so all we have to do is learn how to use those resources and be patient. We'll get there!

We taught a really great lady in the ward this week, Sister Davidson. She joined the church almost a year and a half ago. Although she has tons of health problems and is confined to a wheelchair, she is a really positive person and she finds lots of ways to serve others. In particular, she's an AMAZING member missionary. She runs an Internet chat room focused on issues faced by disabled people, and she shares the gospel with others through that. Apparently about 6(!) people that she's talked to on the chat room have later been baptized as a result of her efforts! She finds it hard to focus on reading the scriptures for a long period of time, so instead she reads periodically throughout the day in short sessions. She also keeps the Book of Mormon by her computer so that she can flip through it and find inspiration as she talks to people in her chat room. Wow! We're working on getting her a copy of Preach My Gospel - that's about the only thing she's missing.

This week one of the families we are teaching gave us a bunch of fruit, including a papaya and a couple of mangoes. This morning for breakfast I made myself a fruit salad with papaya, orange, and mango. The mango was really nice, really tart and juicy. It reminded me of eating mangoes all the time in Egypt and Sudan, and it also made me think of Ruth eating tropical fruit in Guatemala. Her summer there sounds like a WONderful adventure. A bit like a mission in some ways . . . I hope she has a great time and learns a bunch. Ed's summer also sounds really exciting - I'm glad he's getting so much great exposure to research already. Plus research with ants sounds especially interesting (if a bit more painful than most other kinds). How was girls' camp, Mom and Emma Lucy? And how did the rest of the week of clean house - perfect obedience - yummy food - great fun go, Dad, Isaac, and Ellie? I hope you were able to spend more time worrying about the latter two. : )

Happy third birthday, Ellie! The other night I was lying in bed thinking about where I was exactly a year ago, two years ago, three years ago, etc. and I was remembering when Ellie was born and I got to come in and see her right before I left for the airport. Also, happy birthday to Mom this week!

Love,
Elder Pimentel