Sounds Like Things Have Been Crazy!

Hi Family!

Wow! Sounds like things have been crazy! I'm glad you all have your power back. 8 days.  Wow.  I think I would die without air conditioning here.... Lol.  Someone told us it's fall now and I couldn't believe them. We're still in the 90-100 or more. There's no way it's fall yet.  Thankfully, we don't do a lot of tracting.  Thank heaven we have members to help us find!  It's way more effective to talk to the members anyway...

So this week has been eventful.  We have still been struggling with people bailing on lessons, so we're gonna have to do some re-evaluating, but all is well.  Know why?! Because the huge Media Blitz that happened in NYC is happeneing HERE!!!! AHHH!!! It's gonna be awesome! The way that it's gonna work is on October 3rd, it's gonna hit.  For the first month there will be billboards, tv commercials on prime time tv, taxi cabs (well, they were on cabs in NYC. There's not a whole lot of cabs here) but there's just gonna be all of these ads done by the church. Guess what they'll say?! MORMON.ORG And on TV they'll be the "I'm _(name)_. I'm a ________. I'm a ________. And i am a mormon" commercials. They're the ones you can watch on Mormon.org.  So. The first month, the area is going to be FLOODED by these ads. Then, over the next 5 months it will slow down and kinda die off.  But the purpose is to dispel myths about the church and to show everyone that we are normal people, without horns and tails. In the first 9 areas that the church did this in, statisitics said 50% of adults were asked what the church is doing, while 100% of the youth were asked the same question.  But the biggest flaw in the first 9 areas was that the church didn't informs it's members and the missionaries.  So. Test run over. Part 2 is about to begin and in every ward, we are having combined meetings to explain what is going on and why the church is doing it.  SO COOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!!!!  The work is gonna EXPLODE!  This is like THE PERFECT way to present missionary opportunites.  No effort on the part of the members except to know how to answer what is is going on and to be prepared to answer questions.  HAVE I MENTIONED THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!?!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!?!!!!!!? I can't wait!  You can learn more at boncom.com/mormon or something like that. It's the church's official communication thing.  Bonville communications.  Or something to that affect.

Ok. Other happiness. Ready for this?  Sister Kiernan and I got to go to a private concert with Alex Boye and Clyde Bawden (Who is our WML)!  It was SO GOOD. It's was at Bor. Bawden's house (where we live). And we could go because there were people there that we're trying to teach and get to know.  Less actives. etc.  We tired to get an investigator there, to no avail. And the night before we got to go meet Alex personally and we had this awesome discussion about the work and what it means to be members of the church. He has so much energy!  And such a passion for the gospel. I thought "No wonder people like him!  He's on a spiritual high 24/7."  So inspirational. and genuine.  I asked him on the first night if Sister Keirnan could sing a song with him, and he said that he would sing with her the next night.  So, after the concert, as people were getting ready to go, I reminded him and he jumped on it.  They sang "I know that my Redeemer lives" and afterwards I told her that now when she gets discouraged with school (she's going into music ed) she can remember that she sand with Alex Boye. She told me afterward that she had a ew respect for him because he "went down to her level", which i think is untrue in the way that she is amazing and while she is a bit more timid and shy at first, she's got talent.  She's also out of practice since being on the mission.  So. yeah. But she said that she noticed he would not over power her voice and if she had sung louder and "for the camera", he would have also.  So that shows the great amount of humility he has. And it was really cool to be able to act on behalf of my companion to ask Alex (she was too nervous to) and Bro. Bawden to sing/play with her and to be able to give her that "gift".  Her reaction after we got home was worth it. She was so happy and so excited.  Oh, I'll have to have ask Sis. Bawden to send a picture of us with Alex....

Ok. That's about it. I need to write to president still...  Love you all! I'm glad everyone is ok!

Love, me