Monday, December 28, 2015

A really big snow cave

Hello! 

This week was a much better week that the others since I have been here. Yes, it was Christmas and that is always good. But we had a lot more lessons than we usually do. You know about most of the week from the skype call, but I'll just write it again. 

We had district meeting on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. It was the most powerful district meetings that I have had in my whole entire mission. The spirit was totally there, no doubt about it! The zone leaders where there as well, one of them gave a role play on asking inspired questions. usually the first role play is a bad example and the second is a good example.  The first role play that he did, the person was not keeping his commitments and he wanted to do other "more important" things. One of the questions that he asked was, "well, is that more important than your salvation?" it was definitely the boldest thing that I have heard on my mission! The second role play was super powerful though. The spirit was definitely felt. Near the end of the district meeting we had a testimony meeting. Everyone (including me) bore their testimonies on the atonement. The spirit came stronger and stronger into the room every time someone got up. By the end of the district meeting, I felt like I was in the temple! District meeting ended up going just over 3 hours instead of the usual 2 hours. But it was definitely worth it. Then we switched companions and went on the exchange. Elder Pett came with me and we went straight to browning. 

The reservations are pretty interesting. There are dogs EVERYWHERE! They don't even care. You can be driving, and they will walk in front of your Car for no reason. Sometimes, they will be sitting in the middle of the road and you will drive up to them, and they won't even budge. One of the funny things that we saw while we were driving was a car driving around (that's not the funny part.) As we passed the car, we saw some kids on a sled that was being pulled by the car! So we took a picture really quick before they passed us. (Attached) 
we taught a few lessons there, which we normally don't do. Then we headed back to Cutbank. When the exchange was over the next morning. We drove all the way to Conrad to switch back. It was a really good exchange. 

On Wednesday we did not have a dinner. We went out during the day from 3-6 shoveling random peoples driveways we shoveled 4 then headed over to brother C. He is a really good member, he always asks how the missionary work is going and if we got fed. We told him that we did not have a dinner and we hadn't had dinner yet. He then got up out of his chair exclaiming, "Jimmeny Christmas!!" Walked over to the kitchen, and put in a pizza. While we waited for the pizza to cook we played a board game which I don't know the name of but here is a diagram of what it looks like. He made it himself. Each of the dots are holes where the marbles can sit. And there are 4 colored marbles that you use. It was a pretty fun game. 
Then the pizza was ready, he said that if we ever did not have a dinner, then we can come over and he can feed us "in 22 minutes and for only $2.50!" he is funny! He always complains how none of the members feed us. He says every time, "all they have to do is get $2.50, grab a pizza at the store, put it in the oven for 20 minutes and then have you over for dinner. It's not that big of a deal people!" 

Christmas was really good. It was pretty cold in the morning. And got colder throughout the day up until it was -20 at night. Skyping home for the last time was really good. 

On Saturday we went to East Glacier to go find some people since we had not been out there before. Some of the people we met were really surprised that we were out there. The missionaries had not been there for almost 20 years from what the people said. There was so much snow there! The cars were all drifted over with snow and had 2 feet piled on top of them. We met some Indian kids that recognized who we were. They were building a snow cave out of a giant pile of snow. So we offered to help them. We ended up getting to the point where we could all fit in the cave. It was pretty fun. We talked to them for a little bit before we had to head back for dinner.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Week before Christmas service

Seasons Greetings!

This week was pretty good. We had our lesson with M. on Monday night and the lesson went really well. She told us that she understands now how the Book of Mormon explains more and answers more questions than the bible does. That is a HUGE step for her to know that! She now has a testimony of the Book of Mormon!

On Tuesday we went to Shelby for the doctors appointment for Elder Masauo. Even from the bloodwork,  they still didn't know what was wrong. The doctor said everything was normal. I have no idea either what is going on. We then went to browning to go and see T, but when we got there, she was sleeping. We rescheduled for Friday this week, She said that, "it would definitely work." We gave a blessing later that night to a member who is going in for a knee replacement. 

Wednesday we gave a blessing to another member who had a doctors appointment in the morning. Then we got ready to go out and do some service shoveling snow since it snowed the night before. We would go and shovel the persons driveway without telling them, and when we were finished we would leave a pass along card on the door. The last one that we shoveled was this old lady. Right when we were finished, she came out and told us, "stay right there", we both knew that she was going to try and give us money, which we were right. But she was astonished when we would not take the money. We told her that it is a service that we were doing. "Well, can't you give it to some charity or something?" She said. We told her that Jesus Christ served without getting paid and that we were representatives of Jesus Christ. "Are you sure I can't give you anything?" She asked. We replied in a kind tone, "gratitude is the best thing you could give. Merry Christmas!", and then we left. We then drove to Conrad to stay the night with the elders for the Christmas zone conference the next day. 

Thursday was a very long day. We had to wake up at 4 to be at the Great Falls stake center at 6:20 AM. I did not fall asleep the night before till about midnight. So I only got about 4 hours of sleep, and I was the one driving. I ended up having to drive all the way to Helena as well. The Christmas zone conference was amazing! It was probably the most fun that I have had in months! To start, Me and sister Stacey had no idea when we were going to play in the conference and we had planned to practice and warm up during lunch. But they called us up right at the beginning! It was not too bad though. During The conference, when President Wadsworth spoke. He said, "Christmas zone conference is the only time that dignity and decorum can totally be thrown out the window." He then demonstrated what he meant when we were all reading our letters from home. He came barging in the room and he starts yelling and saying that Santa was coming, it was pretty funny. We sang Christmas songs and all that good stuff. It's was a very long day. We did not get home till bedtime due to travels and eating. I was super tired. 

Not much happened Friday. We went to Browning and went to see T. again. Sadly, when we went there, Nobody answered the door (we knocked many times and rang the doorbell). There were people definitely inside the house, not to mention that their car was running outside. I think some people think we are not smart...

Church attendance was very small this week, probably because everyone is going out of town for the holidays. 

That's a day in the life of a missionary in Cutbank this week.
Happy holidays!


Elder McKade Daniels

The people we meet

Seasons Greetings!

As you probably already know from all the letters that I write, My week was pretty good. This letter is going to be a pretty long one because a lot of things happened this week that I want to write about.

On Monday we had a zone preparation day in Great Falls. It was super fun, we played some Podball(which is a twist to the classic game of dodgeball. Its a mission made game) I drove the 1 hr 45 min to great falls after lunch and then after having our zone preparation day for 4 hours, we all had dinner with the stake president and his wife. We had a fun time playing the "christmas story pass around" game (or whatever it's called.) That took the rest of the night, then I had to drive back to Cutbank. I was pretty tired when we got home. I wasn't tired driving though, which was really good!



On Tuesday we went to Browning. We went to see D. who was (to no surprise) on another hangover. We didn't really teach him because there is no point in teaching something to someone who is not going to retain anything because they are drunk. After we left his home, we hurried over to T house for our lesson with her. T, is the person that we found last week that wants to be baptized. When we arrived there, we walked into the home (after knocking of course)and everyone had this look of astonishment on their face. When they saw us, they realized that they had forgot they had the lesson planned today. T, was not even there anyways. So we set up a return appointment for this next week.

After our dinner with the Ericksons the same day, We went tracting for the new initiative called "A Savior Is Born". There are two funny stories that I have from this. We tracted into this guy that said right from the get-go, "guys, I am a 'die-hard' catholic, so you are going to have to kill me to convert me." Then right at that moment, Elder Masauo jumped out from behind me towards the guy and said, "Do you believe in Jesus?!" It was pretty funny. The guy just said something like, "not interested guys. stay warm." We laughed about it for a while. Then a few houses later, we Tracted into a Jehovah's Witness lady. She was a very interesting lady. She was talking with us and she was asking us some weird off-topic questions such as, "do you believe in war?" I felt like she was trying to catch us in our words just like many of the people did to the prophets in the book of mormon. She proceeded to try and put us down by saying that we only do our missions for 2 years and that she does her's for life. Thats when I had enough and I spoke up and corrected her in the most polite way that I could summon. I said, "let me stop you right there. You are right, In a sense. Yes, we do this for two years. But for those two years we do this from the time we wake up, to the time that we go to bed. nothing else. We gave up our lives to do this all day! Then, after our two years are over, We do exactly what you say you are doing for the rest of your life, We continue to share the gospel while still having our lives." After I finished speaking, She had no other comment for a little bit. I could tell that the spirit was working on her pretty good. The spirit was testifying so strong from the testimony that I had given her. We then went to leave and I told her, "merry christmas!" (completely forgetting that I knew that they don't believe in any holidays because 'they are pagan') I then told her that I was sorry and that I forgot they dont believe in it. Then before we left again, I unintentionally said, "happy holidays" to her. Long story short, It was a very awkward situation. But thats why finding can be fun, you get some funny stories!

Then Wednesday we had district meeting in Shelby, I gave a discussion on our purpose as missionaries. The only problem was that the district leader forgot to give out the assignments until the night before. So I gave the discussion with very little preparation. It turned out to be a pretty good discussion. After district meeting, Us and the sisters went into the chapel so me and sister Stacey could practice a song for the Christmas zone conference this Thursday. Here is a little backstory, During the zone preparation day, Sister Stacey remembered that I could play the piano. She needed somebody to accompany her and she didnt know who. So I got roped into it. We practiced for a little bit and made our little arrangement of "o come all ye faithful", and then went home for lunch. Then later that night we got invited by one of our investigators to come to an advent service at her church (there was a dinner as well) so we went. The people there were really nice, They welcomed us. The service was interesting though. Everything was scripted in a little booklet that they passed out. All of the songs and what the pastor (who was a woman) had to say was in the booklet. It was very scripted.

Thursday and Friday we didn't do a whole lot because elder Masauo was not feeling very well again. But we went to dinner with some members in East Glacier. We got stuck behind a couple snow plows with their lights flashing most of the way back to Cut bank. Our heads were hurting a lot from the super bright lights flashing.

Then on Saturday we drove down to Great Falls in the morning for interviews with the mission president as well as going to stake conference after. Luckily we didn't have to drive all the way back to Cut Bank that night and back down to Great Falls in the morning for the Sunday session. We stayed at the zone leaders house for the night.

That was my week. It was pretty busy and pretty fun as well.

Happy holidays!


Elder Daniels

Tracting for miles

Hello everyone! 

This week was pretty good. We had the doctors appointment in Shelby which went fairly well. The doctor didn't really know what was going on, But she thought that it might be pre-diabetes (which is what everyone else we told thought as well) He did some blood work and we are going back on the 15th to see whats up. After the appointment we drove back to Cut Bank and we went to go and see sister  and her husband who is not a member. We helped them clean out their freezer because they were getting a new one. While we were there the fridge guys showed up and it got really hectic so we left. 

Wednesday night We went tracting for a few hours walking down the highway towards Canada. We knocked on all of the houses that we passed by. We didn't find a whole lot of people nobody was really interested. We found this one lady that said she had been to every single church in town, but she had never been to ours because she was never invited. So needless to say, we invited her. (but she never showed up on Sunday) 

We went to Browning on Thursday and tried to see all of the investigators that we have there. Sadly, we met with none of them. But when we went to go see A, he was not home but Sister S (a less active) was there with her daughter. She told us that her daughter was not baptized yet and she was wondering what she needed to do to get her baptized. So we told her that she had to take the missionary lessons and get interviewed and come to church as well. So we were able to find a new investigator that is probably going to be pretty easy to teach and get baptized.

On Friday, we had a zone training in Great Falls. So we drove down early in the morning. From Cut bank to Great Falls it is about 1 hr 45 min drive one way. So after the 3 hour zone training, I drove back the 1 hr 45 minutes to Cut Bank. It was a long day for me.

On Saturday we went walking down the highway again. We started between mile marker 1 and 2 and then walked and tracted all of the houses between there and mile marker 4. So we walked about 6 miles today in the cold and tons of wind. Your probably wondering why we were walking for so long in that kind of weather. Well, we are going to be driving to great falls for Stake conference this next sunday as well as meeting for the Christmas zone conference. So we are going to try and use as little miles as possible. While keeping elder Masauo's health in good condition. He loves walking. After tracting, we went over to the church to go to the Christmas party for the branch. It was a pretty good Christmas party. There was a lot of food and we were pretty hungry. But we got loaded up with so much leftovers of turkey and mashed potatoes and ham that we probably wont be having to shop for the next week or two...

On sunday, We had a potluck at the Browning church after the meetings. Some of the food was leftovers from the Cut Bank Christmas party. But it was still good food. One lady made a cake that was pretty good. She then told us what was in the cake. Pinto beans!

That was my week this week, I hope all of you are enjoying the christmas season and remembering that christ is the reason for the season. 


Elder McKade Daniels

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Greetings

Greetings from the coldest spot in the nation! 
This week was pretty slow, probably the slowest on the mission so far. The first few days of the week we were able to do some missionary work, but the latter part of the week elder Masauo was feeling pretty sick. So we ended up staying home from Wednesday until the present time. He said that he has felt sick for a while but it was worse this week.
On Monday we had our lesson with M. She is such a solid investigator, but all she needs to do is come to church and think about baptism. She accepts everything that we teach and she says she believes it all. She just needs to take that step of making time to come to church and to get baptized. Our lessons are always great discussions. I think we just need to be more patient. 

On Tuesday we went to browning because we had a lesson scheduled with D. We were supposed to get a big winter storm that was said to be pretty bad. We did get a little snow during the morning, but the worst part of the storm hit great falls and all of central and south Montana with massive amounts of snow up to 8 inches! I am actually surprised that It did not hit us at all. But We got a voicemail from the assistants to the whole mission saying that we should stay off the roads if at all possible and to use our best judgement and common sense during the transfers on Wednesday. Good thing we were not getting transferred! Anyways, the lesson with D was not the best lesson. He said that he was not feeling very well, and he said that he was "hungover". I remembered that he had said that sometimes during our lessons he was drunk, but we did not notice. But this time we noticed for sure. He was VERY out of it and groggy.

After our "lesson" with D (I say "lesson" because I don't know if he got anything that we said) we went and saw k. We showed up to his house and it was really cold outside, I'm sure that it was at most 0 degrees outside. He was about to not let us into his home because he had something in 15 minutes. We told him that we could share our message in 15 minutes. So he let us inside. We sat down and shared with him the restoration, he did not interrupt us until we got to the part of Joseph Smith. When he would interrupt us, he would go on some really long tangents where he would just babble on. (haha i just thought of Babylon with babble on because it sounds the same. I guess babbling on and on is something in babylon. haha JK!) Ive focused on not interrupting people when they are talking, but when we have a message to share in a short amount of time that they gave us, and they are not letting us share it because they are talking too much, I don't really have a choice and I have to interrupt them or else we were not accomplishing our purpose. But when we walked out of the house after the lesson, We were there for almost an hour! But I thought about the lesson for a while and I realized that we did in fact share our message in about 15 minutes total time throughout the hour. So I felt good about the lesson. The spirit was definitely present as well. It was a good lesson despite the interruptions.

Then from Wednesday until now, elder Masauo was feeling sicker than he has before. Some of the members that we had dinner with checked his blood sugar, and it was 405 when it should be somewhere around 150. So that probably explains part of the sickness. We have an appointment Tuesday the 1st (tomorrow) to see what is wrong.

During the time that we have stayed home, I have started to run out of things to do. I finished reading the Old testament the day after thanksgiving. Which, by the way, means that I have read the whole standard works of the church in one year. If you remember, I started reading the New Testament the day after thanksgiving last year when I had nothing to do because my companion (Elder Graham) sprained his ankle. After finishing the New Testament, I started the Doctrine and Covenants. Then I read the Pearl of Great Price, and then the Old Testiment, all while still reading the Book of Mormon at the same time. Ive come to know the scriptures more during the past year of reading them all. It was a pretty hard task to do, and it takes lots of dedication. But I know that it is possible to do. I accomplished  my goal to read all of the standard works on my mission. Not to mention that It was a year to the date! Now i've started to read the church handbook from cover to cover. Partly because I am running out of things to do while Elder Masauo is sick, as well as I want to know what the church's stance is on things because Ive gotten a lot of questions about things like that on my mission( especially during these changing times). Plus I get to know how the church works and everything. Then when I finish that, Ill probably start to read Jesus The Christ. Ive hated reading my whole life but now it doesn't bother me at all.

Im actually surprised that this letter was longer than I expected, I was expecting it to be pretty short because there was not much that happened this week. I hope I didn't bore you at all. I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and that you remembered all the things that you are grateful for,  and especially those things that you normally don't think about. I tried focus on those things that I normally don't think about. It got me pondering a lot! I got into a deep thinking mode for a while. Deep thinking really blows your mind sometimes! I want you to try it as well. You will be blown away at the simplest things that you have never thought about being grateful for. Anyways, I hope you have had a great thanksgiving holiday and a great week as well.

till next time,
Elder Daniels

Sunday, November 29, 2015

one more freezing cold transfer i'm staying

This week was an interesting week. It seems like I have had a lot of
interesting weeks here in Cutbank. It felt like we were so busy, but
we didnt have a whole lot of lessons. We had another lesson with
M. on Monday. She is a really good investigator because she asks
a lot of questions as well as she accepts everything that we are
teaching and she believes it all. She had struggled with reading the
book of mormon in the past, but last time we met with her she wanted
to have a chapter that would "give peace to her soul", as she said it.
Last time we taught the plan of salvation, so we gave her alma chapter
40 which talks about the afterlife. When we came over last monday, she
said that she read alma chapter 40 and she loved it so much that she
read on to almost chapter 42. Its too bad that she is not technically
progressing because she has not came to church yet. We keep inviting
her but she is always busy on Sundays, but she is trying to come.

On Tuesday, we went to Browning to go and see some of our
investigators there, but the wind was really bad when we got into
Browning. It was so bad that we could hardly stand up straight just
walking. If we stood up straight, then the wind would blow us back off
our feet. We tried a few people but with no success, we just went back
to Cutbank. But the wind had picked up there as well. We had a really
good lesson with sister K, and her husband in their trailer house
(which we thought was going to blow apart) but we read a passage of
the book of mormon and the sprit was definitely there. She usually
interrupts us during the lesson and goes off some really long
tangents, but that lesson she didnt talk at all!
We didnt do a whole lot on Wednesday or Thursday because elder Masauo
was not feeling very well. So again, all I did during the day was just
read the scriptures and studied. It was a really long day for me, But
I learned a lot!
On Friday we went back to Browning and we tried to see C. again,
but to no avail, She was not home again. It is so frustrating when
this happens. But we also tried to see D, but the whole time we
were there, Everyone was running around doing different things. We
never got to a lesson, but right before we were going to leave, D's
wife  started asking us questions relating to the afterlife part
of the plan of salvation. So we taught her and shared some scriptures
from the book of mormon as well as some mormon messages. The spirit
was definitely there, and the distractions were less than before. We
then had a dinner with the W. family who live WAY north of
Browning. They probably live 10-15 minutes from the Canadian border.

On the drive back home, the wind was starting to pick up and blow snow
across the road which already had a lot of ice on it already! It would
have taken almost an hour to drive home, but we went slow and steady
to be safe. It almost took an hour and a half to get home.
Sunday was interesting at the church in Browning. About halfway
through the sunday school class, some people walked in to the church
and sat down, I could tell that they were not members. So the first
thought that I had in my mind was, "sweet! we just got some new
investigators!" But after church, we were talking about it with the
member who we got a ride from. He said that he has been in there many
times before because all he wants is money. So it kinda ruined my
hopes of getting a new investigator. The numbers in church have been
depleting every single week. People are moving out almost every week.
I dont think that it is because it is winter and they are turning into
snow-birds. I think they are actually moving out for good.

Well that was my week. I hope that your week was better than mine
because not much has been going on here. We are trying to keep the
work going here, but it does not help that we cant find people during
the day because they are all working or in school. Also, that the sun
is going down just before 5 every day and people do not want to answer
the door because it is dark. This time of year is always hard to do
missionary work, but we always try our best. We also got out transfer
calls this past week and we are staying in the coldest place in the
nation for another transfer!



Elder  Daniels

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Transfer has gone so fast!

Hey everyone,

This week was a very busy week. We ended up traveling a lot to different areas. We did a lot of service as well because we have had a lot of snow storms lately. On Monday, after preparation day was over, we walked outside and we had about 6 inches of snow on the ground when earlier in the day we had nothing! Our car was covered with snow! 
So the next day we needed to get some shovels to do some service. So we called up the E. and it turns out that they were going to call us because they didn't know how they were going to shovel all that snow. So it all worked out where we shoveled their driveway and walkways for them and we got to take their shovels for the day and do some service. God works in mysterious ways; let me tell ya!

While we were in browning the same day, we met this guy named K. K. is an interesting character. The elders had previously met with him before and Elder Masauo told me that he was saying that he is an apostle. So I thought that I was going to be in for a ride. But when we met with him, he was not saying that he was an apostle anymore. He was saying that he is the prophet! I thought it was really interesting and I wanted to see his reasoning for it because I was curious, so I let him keep talking for a few minutes.  The odd thing was, he was talking about (in other words) the apostasy and how "the body of Christ has been changed by man." He was also talking about the restoration (in other words) how "the world is going to be cleansed by god and when the world is cleansed, then god is going to join the body of Christ back together. and that is going to happen soon, so get ready" The odd thing about everything that he was saying was that pretty much almost all of what he was saying was true. besides the fact that he said he was the prophet and that the restoration of the church was going to happen soon. I would say he was about 95% true with everything he was saying. When he finished talking, I jumped in and told him, "You know, I really like some of the things that you said. I want to tell you that we are on our missions to testify about Jesus Christ as well as to tell people that the church, Or 'the body of Christ' as you called it, has been brought back. It has the same organization as Christ set up. It has a prophet, it has 12 apostles, and it has 70's the same way Christ set it up! This church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the 'body of Christ' you are talking about. We are the only church that has the true priesthood of god, and we want to share that with you so that you do not have to look anymore. It is here, and it is here to stay." It was a really good doorstep lesson/testimony. He is really prepared and we are definitely going to go back and teach him. 

On Friday we went to browning again. The wind today was super bad. If you didn't know yet, The wind on northeastern part of Montana is really bad sometimes. The wind can get up to 50 mph, and the gusts can reach 80+ mph! today was one of those days! On the way to browning, a highway patrolman zoomed past us with lights and sirens going full bore. Upon arriving into browning, there was a semi that had flipped over while trying to turn a corner when a big gust of wind must have came and turned it on its side. I couldn't get a good picture of it. 
on the way back from browning, the wind was still bad and there was another semi that blew over, as well as a regular truck with a trailer. There was a lot of accidents having to do with trailers that day. 

On Saturday, we had to wake up at 5:30 to get ready to go to great falls for zone training. Cut Bank to great falls is about a 2 hour drive one way. we left at 6:30 to get there at 8:30. But I forgot that they changed the highway speed limit to 80 instead of 75. So we got there almost a half an hour earlier than expected. Then we had zone training, in which I gave a discussion on how I have seen gods hand in my mission. zone training lasted for 3 hours and then I got to drive the 1 1/2-2 hours back to Cut Bank. I was pretty tired that day. 

Then finally on Sunday we were assigned to give some talks in church. Elder Masauo spoke on service and I spoke on gratitude. So this week I had to prepare for my talk as well as the zone training discussion. 

It is Slowly starting to become more and more like winter. It is becoming colder and colder (mostly because of the wind), as well as this is the last week of the transfer! I cant believe how fast this transfer has gone! It is amazing how fast some transfers are and how slow they can be too, even though they are the same length of 6 weeks. Come to think of it, I only have 3 more transfers until the end of my mission. Its a mixed emotions kind of thing. 

have a good week!


Saturday, November 14, 2015

First Snow

Hello!

This week was one of those in-between weeks. The first half of the week was really good. We had a lot of lessons. But the second part of the week was slower. On Monday, we met with one of our investigators named M. She had not been taught in a while, so we decided to go in and see how she was doing and just get to know her. While she was talking with us. She brought up some things in her life that had to do with the plan of salvation. Which ironically enough was the next lesson that she had not been taught yet. So we taught her the plan of salvation and it was a really good lesson because she was soaking up everything that we were saying and she was understanding it all. 

On Tuesday we did our normal routine of studies and getting ready for the day. I Don't have a view of the outside world where I study. So when I got up for lunch, I looked outside and I noticed that it was snowing pretty good and the flakes were HUGE! After lunch we headed out to browning to go and see some people. On the way to browning, the snow storm kept getting worse and worse. We met a few people while in browning and most of them thought that we were crazy for being outside during the cold winter storm. Also, a few times while we were about to get into our car to go somewhere else, a drunk person would come walking up to us asking if they could get a ride to the bar because it was cold outside and they didn't want to walk. As a missionary, we are not allowed to give rides to anyone. So I proceeded to tell this one guy that we were not allowed to give him a ride. But he (thinking he could convince me in his drunken state) started to say he would pay for gas money and he would always say, "c'mon buddy..." It was kinda funny how hard he was trying to convince me (since I am the driver). But after a few minutes of him trying to convince me, he just turned around and walked away and gave up. Some people are funny. On the way back from browning, The snow storm proceeded to get worse as we went. We were going 40 in a 70 mph zone. But we made it home safely and cut bank had about 4 inches of snow. It was a really good first snow of the season.  The attached picture is when I first noticed the snow coming down. 

On Thursday, elder Masauo was not feeling very well. So we stayed home all day and since he was the one that was sick, he rested all day and I didn't have anything to do after studies in the morning because we cant do a whole lot on a mission that we would do back home. So I tried to find stuff to do. I caught up on my journal and also washed all the dishes and that only lasted a few hours. So I was still stuck with what to do for the rest of the day, I finally came to the conclusion that I was just going to read the book of mormon. I started around 3 Nephi chapter 5 and I by the time the day was over, I read all the way to the book of Ether. While I was reading the last couple chapters of the book of mormon (in the book of mormon), I was understanding a lot of it and I started to realize that Mormon in chapter 7 was pretty bold with some of the things that he said. One thing that I liked was this, "Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews (a.k.a the bible), which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you. For behold, this (a.k.a the book of mormon) is written for the intent that ye may believe that(the bible); and if ye believe that (the bible) ye will believe this(the book of mormon) also;" But even though Mormon was pretty bold, Moroni, his son, got much bolder in chapter 8 and 9. In chapter 8 Moroni basically says that he saw our day and he describes what he saw and it got me thinking, because a lot of the things that he was describing, it is actually happening today! It was very eye-opening. There was a lot that stuck out to me. Here is one, "For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted." Is that how today is? How many people in this world fit that description? I know I have at times. Most people I would say love money and our nice clothes and stuff that we have, rather than showing compassion and love to the poor and sick people. But wait, it gets better!! In chapter 9, he really gets bold! Verses 1-6 he calls out the "atheists" and basically asks them if they will still not believe when the second coming happens right in front of them. Then from verses 7-20 he really hits hard on those people that say that god does not work with miracles or revelations in the latter days. He says, "He that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the scriptures; if so, he does not understand them." I don't know if anything that I tried to describe made sense to you. If not, I would invite you to go ahead and read it yourself and you will see what I mean by lots of boldness! =) Anyways, long story short, it was a really good 9 hours of studying the scriptures! 

On Friday, we had a bunch of lessons lined up every hour of the day between 1-5pm. but the sad thing was, EVERY SINGLE ONE FELL THROUGH!!! UGH!! The first appointment we had was with the person we have on date. But she would not answer the door and we heard people inside. The second one was a new investigator that we found last week, and the wife was being kinda rude to us and saying that he was not home and that she didn't know when he would be back. but I am pretty sure that I saw him Inside. The last one that we had was really frustrating, one of our investigators said, "could you guys come back some other time because I am getting my son ready for the day?" (but this was at 4pm???) So we asked her if we could come back in half an hour, she said that we could. So we did, and there was people inside, but nobody answered the door. We knocked about 5 times pretty loudly and still nobody answered. So we left. 

I also finished the book of Mormon this week on Saturday, I have come to know the book of Mormon fairly well as this is the 4th time that I have read it on my mission. I have started on my 5th time and I am almost done with the book of 1st Nephi. I know that it is true. 

Have a good week. I hope you are staying warm this winter season. 

Monday, November 2, 2015

Stormy week Way to much wind!

Hello all,

This week was a little bit better than last week. The work in this area is getting better and better as time goes by and we keep working, but it is still slower than I am used to. I am used to just hopping from appointment to appointment and having lots of lessons during the week with our teaching pool being really full. Here is different; It is basically like we just opened the area, We are struggling to get in with people to teach lessons and find people to teach. The branch is getting smaller and smaller as the weeks go on. Thee last branch president only served for about a month and then he moved out as well as other families. It is by far the smallest branch that I have been in. Dont get me wrong; I love it here, It is just a lot harder work than the others. Ive looked in our area book recently and it looked like most of the people have not been taught in over 150 days on average. So we have been doing a lot of "weeding out" trying to find those that are actually interested and those that are just being a time filler. Every Time we are at a doorstep with somebody and I ask if we could come back at a specific day and time; their usual response is, "well.....you could come back.....whenever." Thats usually when I straight up ask them, "so are you interested in what we have to say or not?"(typically in a nicer tone than you think) Thats when they say, "well, to be honest, im not really interested." When they say that, I thank them for being honest with us and that we dont want to waste their time and keep bugging them if they are not interested. It sounds like a pretty bold approach, but it works and people don't get mad at us. they say that just because they dont want to be rude and they say that we could come back. 

Ever since I have been on my mission longer and longer I have found ways to "weed out" the interest of people really fast, to help people understand and fix false information that they received from another source(typically anti stuff), and i've learned to (in bashing situations) have comebacks that will stop people in their tracks. We always try to stay away from situations where we bash with people, but it will always come up sometime or another. So you have to be ready for it just in case. =)
I haven't had any bashing situations for a while. But if we do happen to come across one., I found a perfect scripture in the bible that will stop it immediately. it is found in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 16. It states, "but if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of god." that is usually the scripture that stops people in their tracks as I previously described. 

I just noticed that this letter is not like any of the other letters that you have received from me. I didn't know what I wanted to write for my letter this week. So I just started to type, and this is what I came up with. I know that studying, especially in the scriptures, is important for us because we receive a knowledge of truths and guidance in what we can say and do. I don't think I could have been out on my mission this long if I did not study or read the scriptures. Oh, and by the way, today marks 19 months on my mission thus far. It has flown by so fast! I cant believe that it has been this long. When I was 5 months out, I thought, "this is going to be the longest 2 years of my life!" But now I look back and I ask myself, "where has the time gone? I only have 5 months left. this has been the fastest 2 years of my life!" I've also noticed that I am not the same as when I came out. During the course of my mission, I have not realized that I have changed all that much. But a mission really does change you whether you know it or not, and its for the better; not the worse. 

This week, we did some tracting for a few hours. There was not much that we did this week because of the halloween holiday as well as some really bad storms the past few days. We found a few people tracting, but you wont BELIEVE how hard it is to get someone to commit to do something SO simple like reading a small verse. Ill try to describe a situation to you to show you what I mean. So we found this person and we shared a lesson with them and invite them to be baptized. They said, "well, I guess I could be baptized." then we would ask them if they would prepare to be baptized, and they would say, "I guess so." Then we would try to set a date for them and they would agree the date and then back down and say it is too early of a date (but the date would be about 2 months down the road?) That is one instance that shows how uncommitted people are. That is not just here, but that is almost everywhere. 

On Friday, we had the branch halloween party/trunk-or-treat (apparently the trunk-or-treat is not just a utah thing). It was a super windy though, so they did the trunk-or-treat inside the church. and for halloween on saturday we did nothing because we were supposed to be inside when people were trick-or-treating

For the past few days, there has been some storms that have been really bad. Just to give you an idea how bad they are, the wind speed has been about 30-50 mph with gusts up to 70+. Its really hard to walk around because you walk right into the wind for about a block and you are so beat because you used all your strength just to get there. We went to the store one day because elder masauo ran out of food, and when I opened the door I completely forgot about the wind and the door flung open and almost dinged somebodies door really badd but i caught it just in time. 

That was my week, sorry if the letter was kinda weird. 


Elder Daniels

McDonalds lesssons and DQ! I love shakes!

Hey everyone!

This week was a better week than last week. I didn't really know the
area when I got into Cutbank, but now I have been here for a week and
a half and I am starting to know the area. The first of the week was
pretty slow. Wednesday was when the work started to pick up for the
week. We went tracting on Tuesday night and we tracted into this guy
that told us to come back and see him the next day. So we went back on
Wednesday at the time he told us to come back and he walked right
outside and told us that he was going to take us to McDonalds. He said
that the missionaries stopped by a while back and he said that he
usually takes them out to McDonalds and meets there because his house
is a mess. So long story short, we went over to McDonalds and he
bought us some shakes and we sat down and we talked with him. He has
heard pretty much everything about "the mormons" from the missionaries
and he loves what we are doing. He then asked us if we would be able
to listen to his presentation of his buisness that he just started. So
we listened to him. The business was pretty cool I thought. He
basically works his own hours, and whatever he sells he gets money in
1 oz gold bars on a card and he can trade it for money or they just
put the money on his mastercard. but he gets a better deal when he
gets the gold instead of the money because gold has more value than
the dollar. he said in one day he made almost 500 dollars. I dont
quite understand it, but it sounds interesting.

After That lesson that we had with him, we were supposed to go to
dinner but the member was not home and he texted us a couple hours
later saying that he was never going to be home. After our dinner that
we had at home, we got ready and packed up our stuff because the zone
leaders told us that we were going to stay the night in Conrad with
some other elders. So after we packed we headed out on the road to
conrad and got their about an hour later. you see, on the highline
(which is basically highway 2 on the east side of montana) the time
between each town is AT LEAST an hour or more. We stayed the night at
their apartment and then we all got up at 4 in the morning to get
ready for the day and go down to great falls to meet up with the rest
of the zone at 6:30. Then we Carpooled with the zone all the way to
Helena where we had a Mission leadership training from 9am-4pm. It was
a very long meeting. We talked a lot about the sabbath day observance
and other things of the like. One thing that President Wadsworth
mentioned in the meeting was that elder holland said at one time that,
"this church is only one generation away from extinction" That phrase
got me pondering for a little while. During the Mission Leadership
Training we had a breakout session where we got together as zones and
we had a Zone Leadership Training meeting. It was a really spiritual
meeting for me. One of the experiences that I had in the meeting is as
follows. There was a discussion going on by some of the sisters.
During their discussion, I had this phrase of scripture come into my
mind. I shrugged off the Prompting and kept listening to the
discussion. Not even 10 seconds later the same phrase of scripture
came into my mind, so I new that it was from the spirit and I was not
thinking of it myself and I looked it up and as soon as I found it, I
raised my hand and I shared the scripture with everyone and It really
shed some light on the subject. I can testify that the spirit works in
many ways, and one of those ways is promptings. If we heed to the
promptings of the spirit, we will be blessed as well as be a blessing
to other people. Anyways, after the meeting ended, we headed back to
great falls and then went to lunch at DQ because we get it there for
free. I got it a lot when I served in great falls over a year ago. But
after dinner we had to drive all the way back home which was about 2
hours. we didn't get home till 9 at night. So by this time I had
already been up for 17-18 hours and only running on less than 5 hours
of sleep Wednesday night. You can imagine that I was pretty tired.

On friday, We got a call from the second counselor in the Branch
presidency. He was calling because he wanted to know if I could speak
in church the next sunday. He wanted me to speak on the sabbath day
using one of the talks from last general conference. So I said I
would. On sunday, My talk went pretty well. He asked if I would speak
for about 10-15 minutes, but I ended up talking for about 30 or more.
I was pretty bold in my talk as well. I mainly focused my talk on the
talk by elder M. Russell Ballard called, "God Is At The Helm" In that
talk, Elder Ballard was pretty bold and straightforward. As I was
Preparing my talk, I remembered that President wadsworth said a few
things about sabbath day observance. So I took portions of his
discussion as well. Everyone loved my talk. I think they gave me the
assignment of me speaking in church so that I could tell everything
about myself before I gave my talk so that everyone could know who I
was. But when I got up to give my talk, I did the exact opposite. I
just taught straight doctrine and ended my talk. I have found
throughout the course of my mission that the best talks are the ones
that teach straight doctrine and truth.

After church we went over to the previous branch presidents house (he
was only branch president for about a month and then moved). He said
that he had some boxes that he didn't need. so he gave them to us
because we were going to give them to an investigator that said that
they were looking for some boxes so they could move. We showed up and
we got way more boxes than expected. The investigator(i dont remember
his name) thanked us for the boxes and he said that it was going to
get pretty cold in the next few weeks. he also said that he had some
extra parkas that he owned and he would give them to us for free so we
could stay warm because cutbank gets pretty cold.

well that was my week and I hope that the work progresses even more
because right now the work is kinda in a drought and there is not too
much people to teach.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

FACIALS FOR THE ELDERS

Hello family! 

This week has been an interesting one. We didn't do much the first few days because I was packing up my stuff because I was getting transferred. I stopped by the J. family to go and say my farewell to J, who was the most recent convert that I have had. We talked for a while and then it was time for us to leave. But while everyone exited the room that we were in, J. started asking me some questions and we talked a lot about the temple and I told her that I was looking forward to the day that she is going to go through the temple and get sealed. It was a really good conversation that we had. After seeing J. We headed over to the G family, who was the other recent convert family that I had while I was here. When we walked into their home, there was a bunch of women having what looked like a Mary Kay party. It was kinda weird to walk into that. What they were really having was an arbon party.  I also saw sister B from the  ward there as well. It turns out that sister B and sister G are best friends. The next thing that happened I had to think about really hard. All of the women (especially sister G) wanted us to get what they called a "facial" which is a beauty treatment for the face. Me and elder Grizzle didn't really want to do it at first. But after talking about it for roughly 20 minutes, as well as sister G pushing us to do it, because it would make a great mission story. 😃
We came to the conclusion that we would do it because most of the women there were from Pinesdale and if they saw us do it. They might be more open to us and the gospel. (which is probably the dumbest reason for doing it) So long story short, we ended up doing it. After the G's, We went over to the C. famlies because I needed to get the rest of my suit pants. She was so kind enough to fix the hem in my pants that was coming undone. 

On the day of transfers; We drove down in the morning to Missoula, then got everything packed into the trucks and drove to Helena. By the time we had arrived in Helena, I had already been on the road for 3 hours. It took a while to get all of the luggage situated in the trailers of the transfer van. But I was handed keys to one of the cars that was going to great falls and I drove all the way there and all the way to Cut Bank. it was a very long day.

Cut Bank is a pretty cold. We haven't been doing much lately because there is not a lot of work here. There are not a lot of people in the teaching pool. This area is way different than Corvallis. 


Well my week was kinda boring. But it will get better as the weeks go on. 

ELDER DANIELS

Monday, October 12, 2015

Transfer to Cut Bank

Good morning everyone! 

This week has been crazy. on Wednesday we had a our last district meeting for the transfer. We all took a picture with the whole district which I guess it is something that everyone does. They always take a funny picture too...

We then went out and ate lunch together. 


Later that night we went over to the A .family to finish the commandments but we didnt get them done so we were going to go back to their house on Sunday. 

On Friday we had a lesson with C. it was an interesting lesson because when C. showed up to the 
church. She had another guy in the car as well. We thought that it was her boyfriend and he was going 
to stop her progression towards baptism. But we later learned that while C. was heading over to the church, she saw this guy on the side of the road and she said that she felt that she should pick him up. So she did, and she brought him to her lesson with us. and the interesting thing is, he was  interested in what we had to say. He said that he was going to come to church that next sunday. and that next sunday, He was at church and he loved it and had a lot of questions. so I guess that it all turned out that C. had a missionary moment and she gave us somebody else to teach. 

On Saturday we woke up early in the morning to meet at the church with most of the elders quorum. We were going to go with all of them and go into the woods and get some wood for a firewood service project. We had 7 trailers to put all the wood on. The road up into the mountains was pretty crazy, it was super steep and we stopped at the top of the mountain and we started cutting logs and rolling them down the mountain to the trailers. Some of the Logs were pretty heavy but it was super fun.
We got about 20 cords of wood. Which is about 6 trailer loads. but when we were coming back down out of the woods, one of the trailers got a flat tire and we had to load it onto the other trailer that was empty. We were pretty tired at the end of the service project. 





Also, I am getting transferred. I am sad to leave Corvallis. I love the people here. I am going to miss everyone that I met and worked with. But I know that I will be back someday. I am headed to cutbank Montana. I'm going to be with elder masauo he is from Micronesia. 

Monday, October 5, 2015

flu Week and confrence10/2015

 

 

 

Elder Daniels

 

On Oct 5, 2015,

Hey

everyone!

This week has been an interesting week as well as a very eventful week! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. To start it all off, we got our flu shots on Saturday (the 26th)

The rest of our day was pretty normal, we had dinner with a member

family. But dinner had to go a little quick because the mom and the

daughters were going to go to the church to watch the general women's

session of conference. We stayed a little longer at their home because

we new that it was going to be broadcast just like the priesthood

session. For part of our lesson that we shared with them, we watched

the beginning few minutes of the women's conference. It  is cool now

that the women's session and the priesthood session are broadcast like

all the other sessions of conference. I hope that all of you who watch

the women's session all the way through enjoyed it because we only

watched the first speaker. I thought that it was cool that they

actually showed videos during the conference as well. The rest of the

night after dinner was pretty slow. We didn't know what to do, so we

went over to the church and the women's session was just getting over

and they were cleaning up all of the pie and dessert that they had.

They graciously gave us some of the leftovers.

 

 

Sunday is always a very busy day! I woke up on Sunday and I was not

feeling very well. It seemed like I had come down with something.

(ironically after I got my flu shot the day before) church was pretty

good. We went to priesthood for the 3rd hour and guess who was

teaching the lesson! Brother Got, our recent convert! It's was a really

good lesson. after church, Z. (one of our investigators that showed

up to church) asked if we could teach him one of the lessons. He

proceeded to tell us that he would like to continue the lessons just

by himself without his girlfriend (who is a member.) He knows that he

wants to take the lessons for himself. He also expressed to us that he

feels like he can open up more to us without anybody else there. We

are so excited for him, he is progressing very well. We dont know

when, but he will definitely be baptized soon. We met with the W.

family and their kids were not home, so we got the chance to ask them

individually if they have any questions, which they did. Brother

W. asked a question about polygamy and why it is discontinued. We

answered the question with a passage of scripture in Jacob 2:27,30

which says, "Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word

of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one

wife; and concubines he shall have none;...30 For if I will, saith the

Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people;

otherwise they shall hearken unto these things." We explained that it

is something that was done in the past, but since God has commanded us

not to do it at this time, We listen to what he said. He understands

it now. 

There were many other things that we did on Sunday, but there

was nothing else that stuck out to be important to write.

 

Monday was a normal preparation day schedule. The only difference was

that I was getting worse from my sickness. We went to the store to get

some medicine for me and it helped a little bit. At the end of our

night we went to the C. family's home because they invited us to

come over for family home evening. The only problem was that it did

not turn out like the way that it was planned. So we just shared what

we had planned for the lesson and it turned out to be just what they

wanted to hear. It was a good way to end the night.


Tuesday was probably the worst day that I have had on my mission. We

had our apartment inspection in the morning (which was not the worst

part). Then we had all of our appointments fall through and we had

nothing to do today. When dinner came around, we went to the J

 to have dinner with them. Dinner was

amazing!!! Sister J. made breakfast for dinner! Her pancakes that

she made were super thick, the bacon was sliced thick, everything was

amazing! I ate just enough to get myself almost full. When we sat down

for the lesson. We were just talking and I was not feeling very well.

I waited for a while, thinking that I could wait till after we left.

But I couldn't wait any longer and so I asked sister J. if It's could

use the restroom. (you can probably see where this is going to end up)

needless to say as soon as I got into the bathroom, I found the toilet

and everything came back out the way it came in. While I was in the

bathroom, they were all wondering what was taking me so long. Elder

Grizzle was joking around with them and said, "maybe he fell in..."

When I walked out, elder Grizzle asked me if I was okay. Me thinking

that they heard me in the bathroom, I told him, "yeah, I threw up..."

*but the thing is that they never heard me throw up* and elder Grizzle

looked at me with the biggest face of astonishment! He couldn't

believe that I just did that in a members home! Everyone knew that I

was sick when we had dinner, and elder Grizzle looked at me and said

that we were going to go home for the rest of the night. But I told

him that I was fine, and we went and did missionary work the rest of

the night like nothing had happened. I've never been sick on my

mission until now. At least I have been to the J. home a few

times to where they knew me. It would have been really bad if it was

my first time being there and that was their first impression of me.


But I am over it now, elder Grizzle is starting to get it though.

On Thursday we went to Darby to help the sisters with their weekly

planning. We didn't pack anything for lunch, so we went to this

restaurant called "Montana cafe" It was really good food. Elder

Grizzle got this burger that was huge! **now see if you can imagine

this since we did not get a picture of it** its a normal bacon

cheeseburger. But instead of the normal buns on the top and the

bottom, its two grilled cheese sandwiches! from bottom to top:

grilled cheese sandwich,burger, lettuce, tomato, sauces, pickles,

bacon, topped with another grilled cheese sandwich. It was probably

really bad for your health, but it looked amazing!


General conference was amazing! I took so many notes from all of the

speakers. For some reason I've noticed that every time that we have a

70 come to the mission to speak to us, they seem to be one of the

speakers in the next general conference! Last October we had elder

Carlos A. Godoy come to the mission and then he spoke in the October

conference. then we also had Elder W. Craig Zwick come in march to our

mission, then he spoke in the April conference this year. Then we had

Elder James B. Martino come a few months ago, and he spoke in this

last conference.  I feel so bad for President Monson, It was hard to

watch him struggle giving his speech right near the end. I hope he has

a few more conferences under his belt.


We went Hiking this morning up the Blodgett Canyon Overlook. It was a

really beautiful hike. It was dark when we were hiking up. But when we

got to the top, it was a really nice sunset here are some pictures of

the hike.

I know my letter has been really long this week, but I think that I

wrote everything that I wanted to write. I hope you enjoy my letter

this week and it did not gross you out too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elder Daniels

9/28/ 2015 exchanges


Hello! 

This week was a pretty good week. We didn't do a whole lot at the beginning of the week. We mostly did a lot of finding. On Monday we went over to a less actives home and when we showed up he was drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. When he saw us he walked up and said, " Oh no, you caught me being bad!" He was pretty funny about it. He is a pretty funny guy. He likes the missionaries and he is slowly making his way back to the church. Since we met with him last (a few weeks ago) he has came to church every singe week since then. So there is progression with him.

Wednesday we started the exchange with the Hamilton elders. After district meeting in the morning we had to go to one of the zone leaders lessons because elder Grizzle had to give a baptismal interview for the zone leaders. But we ended up being late to the meeting because district meeting ran later than usual and we also gave two of the sisters in our district a blessing because they wanted one. Elder Grizzle did the baptismal interview and then we went to lunch with the zone leaders to Moose Creek which is an amazing restaurant that serves authentic southern BBQ. I've had their super hot BBQ sauce a few times and it is really good. 


But after lunch we went on the exchange and I stayed in Hamilton with elder Ward. It was only until the next day. it was a pretty short exchange. but I found some feather quills, I asked elder ward if Its could take them because It's have a calligraphy set at home and it would be cool to have feather quills. So he let me take them home. But unfortunately they did not work, So I improvised and Its put some ink cartridges of regular BIC pens in the feathers,  They look great and they write great as well. On Wednesday we had a lesson with one of our investigators that we have not met with in a while, It was a really good lesson. We talked a lot about the temple and other things. Near the end of the lesson, his wife asked us for a blessing. so we gave her one, I was voice. 

On Thursday we had a lesson with the P. family.  If don't know if you remember in my letter last week I told you about how she shared her conversion story. Well this time she asked if her kids would share their conversion stories as well. After all of us had shared our testimonies, the spirit was so strong in their home that it literally felt like we were in the temple. It was a very good lesson. 

On Friday we had interviews with President Wadsworth. It's really like the interviews. I talked with him about Pinesdale to help him understand a little of what is going on there since he is somewhat brand new. But If talked with him about C. He said that he could interview her if she came to the Stevensville  church before 4. So we called C. and she said that she could make it barely.  She got there on time and was able to be interviewed. She said that it was a really cool experience. Now all she needs to do is get interviewed by a general authority. Then she can have baptism!  So we are going to wait until that happens. It probably wont happen for a while since general conference is this weekend. haha! 

I'm excited for general conference! It's  going to be a very interesting conference because there is going to be three new apostles called since L Tom Perry, Boyd K. Packer and, Richard G. Scott died fairly recently. I hope you had a good week. Mine was pretty awesome!