*Whew* This Week

     SORRY!!! Last week was a national holiday, and none of the missionaries in Santa Rosa were prepared to go to a members house until it was too late to do so. We had to go out with the Greenies that came in last week at 2:30 and we didn't hear about going to a members house until 1:00. We were dirty and sweaty and I still needed to give myself a haircut. Needless to say last week was ridiculous.

     Transfer day was just as crazy since my companion Elder Grandela finished his mission last Wednesday and is extending for 4 weeks to serve a little extra. So he went to the farewell dinner while I hung out with Elder Abbot (yes from the Abbot family in our stake) and Elder Busch from my BYU days. It was fun, but I felt out of place and was shuffled aroudn between companionships all day long. Yeah, there's too many things that I could say that happened, but not enough time to say what happened. Regarding mail, Elder Knowles graciously promised me that he'd find a way to forward any mail that goes to the Santa Rosa address. and for everyone here's my new address:

     888 Verano Ave
     Sonoma, CA 95476

 

     Blurb (of my letter to the mission president):
Elder Grandela and I have only really worked from Wednesday to Sunday of this week, because the festivities with the missionaries going home. I felt like  a third wheel between all of the companionships that passed me around until Elder Grandela came back that evening. It was nice to get to know the area though.

     We never got around to making goals since we started so late in the week, so we started to get to know all of the members and start visiting all of the old contacts that we have. It was sad that we found as many records scattered in random places in the apartment as in the area book itself. I would not have them if it wasn’t for Elder Grandela. This week we have found quite a few people through the members and through tracting that we are very excited to get to work with. The first is Elizabeth Ramerez who was referred to us by Sis. Perez. We taught Elizabeth in Sis. Perez’s home and it was a sweet lesson. Sis Perez bore strong testimony of the things we taught and how it blessed her life. We also found a family by tracting, Miguel and Evalia. We had an appointment pretty soon afterward so we taught a quick short and powerful lesson about the Restoration. We hope to figure out more where they’re at this coming week.

     Sorry that this letter isn’t so well organized, the connection is really slow and not working so good this week. I hope it improves this coming week. Things are going good out here, and I’m learning a lot from Elder Grandela, and I’m sad to see him go before this transfer ends, but he’s served his time, and has other missions to fulfill in his life.

     Your Missionary,

     Elder Mackelprang

     PS: I promise to get some funny stories out next week about biking and crazy people that I've run into... remind me to tell you about the guy who saw 7 different virgins in dreams and about other experiences. Like i said I'm out of time and I can't really write more because of the library limit :P

     I read the other emails and I'll write a quick couple of letters to answer your questions from your emails last week
I love you all! Keep up the faith!

Elder Richard Mackelprang