My Family!!

Wow, so where to begin?? I agree with Tyler, it's hard to decide how to tackle an email home. Well, how about I just give you a quick run through of the week. On Tuesday we got to teach Derek Dillons. He's the one that just got accepted to Med school and is dating a recent convert. He and I get along really well and end up spending a lot of the "how have you been" time talking about all of the things he did in order to get accepted and what he's planning on doing after he's done. He's been working as a successful engineer for the last couple of years, but decided that he didn't want to do that with the rest of his life. So what did he do? Decides that he wants to be a doctor, takes a couple of pre-req classes, rocks the MCAT, and gets accepted to med school...ha it's pretty impressive. But what's more impressive is his recent love of the gospel. When you're on a mission you occasionally hear about these mythical creatures called "Golden Investigators". Normally they're spoken of in awe and hushed voices because they're quite rare to find. Well guess what...Derek is one of them. He called us a couple of days before his lesson asking us for scriptures that he could read to prepare for our lesson on Tuesday, informed us that the scriptures are currently on his iphone, oh and he has an app on his phone for recent conference talks....Haha the guy is amazing. We taught him the second lesson, which discusses the Plan of Salvation, and the whole time he kept saying how it just seems to make sense. Music to my ears because I feel the same way. I really hope that we get to keep teaching him before he moves to go to school. Another person that we were able to come into contact with is Linda Morrison. She's a trip to deal with. Whenever we talk to her in person she just seems to soak it all up, but after we see her the doubt suddenly seems to cloud in. She's called us twice now over the last couple of days to say that she needs more time, but then we'll get a voicemail saying that she's changed her mind and she does want to talk to us now. We try to instill some confidence in her, but she's really struggling with the concept of organized religion. She's 62 and has been a bit of a free spirit all her life, so when she sees herself going to church it makes her feel tied down. Well she committed to going to church with us, but when we showed up on Sunday to pick her up no one would answer the door, and the phone just kept on ringing. This is the second week in a row that we've been stood up by investigators...and I'm not a big fan of it. Ha Elder Johnson keeps telling me to get used to it. Church sounds good to them during the week, but when we show up at 8:40 am to pick them up it's a different story. Persistence is what missionaries are made up of I guess, so I'm working on my patience haha. It just kills me because we come into contact with so many people that have issues that guess what?? The church can help with! One lady that we're visiting every now and again tells us how she's kinda lonely because she's working at home all day because she's on disability and has a handicap daughter, and that she wishes that she could have help keeping up her yard and house because she's getting older...every time she says that stuff I just want to say "Come to church and your problems will be solved!" haha she loves God and talking about him but she's had some really bad experiences with churches in the past. Everyone in life is taking this test, and it's like we have the answer sheet but people don't want to look at it! If people could understand the importance of the church and the amount of change it would have on their lives I'd end of standing in the baptismal font for two years. Haha I know this is stuff you all know, but it just kills me sometimes. Oh and the last person that I want to tell you about is John Saxon....wow, I'm not even sure where to begin with this guy. Actually I'm going to tell you a few of the things he told me, and you can come to a conclusion for your own. Just a few things: He's a prophet, the garden of Eden is in Tarpon Springs, Florida, he's Swiss royalty and is currently in the process of trying to get his castles back, Zions national park is where the Jewish nation is supposed to gather, Poseidon and his merpeople created all of the creatures on the earth, etc...it was a trip talking to this guy. Haha definitely one of the most interesting people I've ever met in my life. Oh the people you meet out here.

You all sound great, though! I really appreciate all the letters from the family. And ma, I did send you a letter this week! I sent it with the cd of pictures...so now I'm hoping that it didn't get lost, or that I put enough stamps on it. Hopefully it gets there today. And Whit I'm so proud of you!! A 26?? Yes, you'd better take it again! But I'm thinking you should get a tutor this time? And it's called the Ambassador Scholarship, and apply for that one too. I'd love having you at school with me! Keep me posted on what you decide, and everything else. Mom, I'm glad to hear that you're getting taken care of! Are you in a cast right now? I'm praying for all of you and know that I love you soo much.

Elder Kade Bryan Bartschi (sounds pretty official, huh? Ha)