03/02/2015

Dear Family,

The first thing before I forget. I can't believe that I didn't mention this last week. Elder Aguirre is from Herriman, UT. His parents recently moved, but when he left on his mission he was in Doug's stake and Doug interviewed him to get the Melchizedek Priesthood! Just another crazy connection! He definitely is the Vanderhorst type of workout guy. Also, tell grandma that I got her letter and money and thanks.

So remember last year when I got really sick for a few weeks right during basketball? I started to come down with that again in Portland. I was coughing and coughing at night and whenever I would be up and moving around. This went on for a couple of days and I thought it would go on forever again. Then I got a blessing and I never had a problem with it again. I have been healthy ever since.

Our main investigators are Jeff, Mike and Reine. Jeff is a recovering alcoholic and he still smokes. He is in a humble stage right now and wants to follow Christ. He came to church for all three hours yesterday so that was cool. Mike has trouble keeping commitments, but he wants to get baptized. His less-active girlfriend is the only thing holding him back. Reine is from Togo, Africa and doesn't speak a word of English. She speaks French so we bring a member from a different ward who speaks French to help us out with translation. It is really hard to teach, but we make it work. She was really close to baptism, then she backed off a little bit. We are working with her now to come back.

I found out why I moved from Portland. There was an emergency transfer this week. Two elders up in the Longview zone were ready to kill each other Ha Ha!

President had to move some things around. Elder Woodward (my last companion) got moved from Portland to Longview. The missionary in Longview went to Cherry Park. I think he has really struggled with his testimony and overall the whole missionary thing. I really hope that the success in Cherry Park will help him out.

One cool thing about being a zone leader is that I get to go on exchanges quite a bit. I get to learn so much from the other missionaries here. Even though some of them have different personalities (and some of them waaaaaaaaaaay different:) ) I am learning to recognize the good things about everybody here.

The regional conference sounded so good. L. Tom Perry is so awesome. Sometimes we think of the general apostles as laid back kind, gentle sweet old men, but they are so passionate about the gospel. They will tell you how it is. I am glad that you learned some things from that conference.

Thanks for the sports update! Congratulations on the wrestlers. That is so cool. And hooray that Sugar didn't make it to state! I am glad about that! HaHa. I can't believe that baseball is starting up. Time goes by so quickly!

I think that is about it for this week. Thank you so much for the email. Thanks for all the love and support that you give me. I know that it helps me. I know that this gospel is true! Jesus Christ lives and He established his church in the latter-days through Joseph Smith. Everybody have a great week! I love you!

Love,

Jaxon