God continues to put us in situations that make us stretch and grow.

January 6, 2014
We went on some good P Day adventures today. It was a hoot. I got myself some

early birthday presents. Can you believe it, your baby will be 20! I got the package today,

I'm actually at the office a lot more now taking care of some stuff for the Zone so I may

get mail a little quicker, if I catch it on the right days!

That's cool that you are all getting together, tell everyone that I
say hello and I look up to their boys. Wait some chicken tortilla soup
in my behalf and a grilled cheese with pesto!

The new responsibilities are going pretty well to this point!  But I'm liking it! It 

really shows that God continues to put us in situations that make us stretch and grow.

 Whenever I start to get complacent The Lord throws me something a whole lot bigger than me.  

I survived my first week in the car. There were a few close calls but
nonetheless I arose victorious. I can hardly remember Monday and
Tuesday... It seems like that was so long ago. I do remember that we
rode in Brother K-- (the Ward Mission Leader in the Monument
Ward) car. He has a Shelby Cobra... That thing is ridiculously fast. I
missed the new year since we were in bed by 1030 but that's ok.

On Wednesday I was united with my newest victim, Elder C---. He
is from Denver, he has been a Zone Leader for three months, and he
goes home in two transfers. We are still in the get to know you stage
but he is pretty legit. Super funny and really cares about people

which rules. I'm super stoked to be with Elder C----- because he feels 

like he has really figured things out and he is ready to go. These last few

 months are going to be his best, He is teaching me a ton!  We sat through

 transfer meeting which lasted from 10 until 12  and afterwards we changed

 into our non Proselyting attire. I don't remember if I told you but President planned an 

all day New Years party. We had lunch and then we played field games for a few

hours. After that each of the Zones were given a scripture story to
reenact in three minutes. We had Moses parting the Red Sea so we had
Elder A---- (from NZ) be Moses and he parted the Red Sea by doing
the Hakka. It was pretty sweet. After that we had dinner and cleaned
up. The rest of the night was spent making sure that our Zone was all
settled in and everyone knew where to go.

On Thursday we had Missionary Leadership Council. This is where all of
the Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, AP's, and president get
together. As Zone Leaders we each are accountable for the amount of
baptisms are zone had for the past month, and how we tried to
accomplish it. We also set an inspired goal for January and three ways
we want to accomplish it. Our goal for our Zone is 5. The three things
we are focusing on are making sure that our missionaries understand
the principles of faith & repentance, they are teaching it, and living
it. We also want to make sure that the missionaries build up their
Wards to sustain the work they do, so it doesn't just die when the
missionaries get transferred. Lastly we are putting an increased

emphasis on accountability to ensure that we are being accountable to the Lord.

After MLC we called an emergency Zone Meeting for Friday where me and
Elder C---- laid it down. We basically told everyone that we have
immense potential in our Zone but in order to reach it we must be
clean so that The Lord can trust us. It was with a lot of love though

and the Spirit was definitely there. It has been awesome to have so many

awesome missionaries to pray about.

We've already had to plan about four meetings... Haha. It's been
really fun though. Tomorrow we have Zone Training Meeting and we feel
that it will be pretty good. We made one assignment and the Sister
told us that she had been thinking about what we assigned her to talk
on for a couple weeks! The Lord has definitely helped us out.

We had some excitement on Sunday. One of the Elders in our Zone ran
away in the middle of the night! President called us in the morning to
let us know. Luckily he turned up again and I'm super happy because
after talking to President he decided to stay.

My new area is in the Mesa East Stake in the 34th Ward. It's kind of
dead right now. It's a lot like my first area. Basically we have
awesome members but they are pretty apathetic towards missionary work.
It's just not a priority. But seeing as we only cover their Ward now
they better jump on it! I'm excited though. We ate dinner with an
investigator, O---, and his wife last night. She made us Wassacaca
and Empanadas... She's Venezuelan. It was heaven. So good, I can't
even explain it.

Well, I better get going. Thank you for the birthday wish and package.

They have a birthday party planned and Jeffery R. Holland will be there!

I'm really grateful for all of the support! Wish me luck tomorrow, I'm
going to have the AP tagging along with me all day!

Love you all!

Sent from my iPad