Week 2 - November 21, 2011

Hi family,
 

Another week in Kentucky already over. Everyday here is an adventure. For example, last night we spent the night in the hospital. Before you freak out, we were there with a recent convert, Manuel. We had called him on Saturday to see how he was. He said he had a hernia that was bothering him. Well, we went to see him after church and it was a really big bump on his lower abdomen. So we insisted that he went to the hospital so we took him to the ER in Frankfort. They admitted him and performed surgery. We spent the night in his room, sleeping on the couches they had pulled in for us. We're still in Frankfort wearing the suits we wore to church yesterday. The Elders that live in Frankfort picked us up. Crazy, huh? At first I didn't think we needed to be there and I was not looking forward to spending the night there. But Elder S loves the people so much, and really wanted to help him. I think that's the thing he's teaching me the most -- loving the people. It was a kind thing for us to do to stay and translate for him, and I'm learning that that's what we do as missionaries! Once I stopped being a brat about it, it was a good experience.

Our setup in the room with Manuel. I took my journal and letter writing stuff so I would have something to do. We also watched a ton of cartoons. Manuel said he likes them since he never had any TV growing up.

Elder S loves to exercise. We went on an early morning bike ride last week, and the temperature was 28F (according to the fancy clock Kyle gave me. Thanks!). What?! That's just crazy! But it actually wasn't too bad. My butt hurt really bad the next day, but I'm glad I'm getting some practice now before I'm in a bike area. Also, I bought a bike from an Elder that is about to leave. I bought it after the transfer meeting that first day when everyone told me it was a bargain -- $30. I spent $100 to get it fixed, so for $130 I should be squared away for a while.

It's been rainy and misty the last few days. I like it, since we don't have much continual rain in Arizona, but I don't like walking through it in nice clothes. I'm just happy we have a car right now. Haha

Gorgeous fields

Things with the people were really interesting this week. The people I like the most are the ones I understand the best, so naturally they're white inactive people. Haha. Kidding. But we are talking to an inactive family, the Petersons. They live out on a horsefarm, and it is so amazing out there. I guess Brother Peterson manages the labor for the whole farm or something. Anyway, we got in contact with Sister Peterson when we went to visit a member, Sister Hatchett. Sister Peterson and Sister Hatchett have lunch or something once a week, and we didn't know that. We were excited when Sister Peterson was there, so we talked with her about her family. She said we were an answer to her prayers -- her son had just told her the day before that he wants to go on a mission! They haven't been active in a while, but we're meeting with them once a week, just talking to them about how to get going on that whole process. We really think we can get Sister Peterson and her son Traven back to church full time, so we're excited about that.

We have two baptisms on Saturday -- Shalonda and Jubileo. For whatever reason, the church lost her records somewhere, so she needs to be rebaptized. Elder S said I'll do that one, so after less than three weeks I'll be in the font with someone! Cool, huh? Also, Jubileo speaks Spanish, and I basically understand nothing. But he was at church yesterday, and I sat next to him in Gospel Principles. We have a few bilingual ward members, so we have the class in Spanish! Irma, the recent convert, brought a cousin or something, so that was great! We read the talk from the last Conference about the Book of Mormon, and it was really cool to watch all of them answer questions and better understand the book's importance. I understood almost everything, too, so that was exciting! There is real potential to build a branch here in this area. There's only one ward in all of Frankfort, but soon enough it could be one ward and one Spanish branch! :)

We see the capitol quite a bit from the freeway, and a few times we've drive right by it.

I had a dream last night, and Max was in it. It made me miss him a lot. Hahah. Sometimes I see a truck like Dad's or something and think of home, but most of the time things really are going well. I'm not very outgoing in Spanish yet, but I am building relationships with people with the broken Spanish I do have. They're so kind and humble. Why isn't everyone that way?

Anyway, thanks for everything y'all do for me! Mondays are so fun because I get to hear how everyone is doing. Keep attaching pictures -- they're so fun!

Much love, 

Zac