May 26 Letter

Greetings!

So, Elder Holt and I would often joke that the area slowed down simply because he was here. There was no good evidence of that, aside from coincidental timing of when things started stalling and when he arrived. Nevertheless, it made for a good joke. Haha that joke took a whole new turn on Tuesday morning, though, literally an hour and a half before we were going to drive Elder Holt up to transfer meeting. Right in the middle of our studies, we get a whole stream of texts from.... can you guess who!?

Shane!

Haha he explained that he'd become overcrowded with work and was starting to notice the effect it was having on him spiritually. So, we have an appointment set up with him at the Steele's for Tuesday! Shane is back in action! Haha Elder Holt, who had really only even said hello to Shane once in almost three months, was a little irritated, but I am stoked.

Transfer meeting was fun, though. Most of the missionaries I've developed friendships with out here were getting moved, so everyone was there in Rochester. When we were listening to the testimonies of all the missionaries who were leaving, I realized how hard/scary it is to imagine that I'm next. I also noticed something really interesting. So many of the missionaries, both elders and sisters, really seemed glad to be leaving. As hard as it is to imagine going home, it's even harder to imagine being happy to leave. That doesn't mean everyone should be miserable and depressed and hopeless as they head out, obviously... but at least act like you enjoyed your mission! I hope that by the time the transfer comes to a close that I'm still in a state of mind where going home, while exciting, is still going to feel at least a little sad.

Aside from that the week was mostly tame. We were able to meet with Mallard and Diane again, which was good. It's just tough because they are (or at least he is) big time born-agains, and it's not that any of our conversation every becomes contentious.... It's just that I don't know if they realize we are trying to offer something different than what they have. It's like they think we are affirming every bit of what they believe, and not recognizing some of the stark contrasts, even when we try to overdo it's starkness to make a point. Oh well... at least they are listening! We think if they'll just get into the Book of Mormon than the wheels will start turning for them.

We weren't able to meet with Jared this week, unfortunately, but he's reading the Book of Mormon and loving it again!! Hopefully we can meet up this week. That would make it so we had appointments with him, Shane, and Mallard and Diane, which would be phenomenal.

We also finally made a set schedule with Vinnie. A while back he asked us if there were any classes that explained the Book of Mormon, and we explained to him that that is what we did. But, between his ADHD and his move that fell through, all of our stops since have just been casual chats that haven't really gotten anywhere. But, now we are planning on meeting up at a set time everyThursday, so I hope that helps things along a little bit.

Other than that, I don't know of much excitement to announce.... Oh! I went running a lot this week! Elder Moulton is a cross country runner (actually he ran with Wesley in Grantsville for one year, I think!) and so we've been waking up each morning and going running. Haha I'm really out of shape... I was also jump roping every night, but then my jump rope completely snapped right in half. How? No idea. So I guess that's not going to happen anymore. Buuuut, hopefully with running and trying not to only eat Dr. Pepper and soft serve ice cream I can be a little less fat by the time I get home haha.

Well... That's about all for this week folks!

I love you but I don't miss you!

Elder Allen