Hey family!

I'm glad to hear that you all made it back from Denver. The tournament is a lot of fun to go to, but I never have been a big fan of that drive across Wyoming. I remember the year that Dad, Whit, and I went, I was driving at one point and there was ice on the road and the wind was blowing snow right across it the whole time. Ha it was a little stressful.
Well things have gone well here in Seminole this past week. We've kept busy and done some fun things. Early in the week we went up to Hudson to work with a couple of hours with the missionaries up there. Elder Moffett served there at the beginning of his mission and we got to visit some of the people that he had worked with as well. On our way back down to Seminole I decided that we had to stop by Cheryl Comini's house. She's in Palm Harbor and was the one that got baptized right after I left the area. Ha so I had to rack my brain to figure out where she lived, and after a phone call to Elder Johnson (my trainer) I was able to figure it out. Their family is so cool awesome! Haha Cheryl screamed when I got out of the car and made us come inside so we could talk. They're all active in the church still and they are doing really well. I love their family and it was so great to be able to see them all.
We also had a lesson this week with the Barron family. Their daughter is 15 and babysits the kids of the young women's president in our ward. Sister Feger (the president) is really awesome and got it all set up so that we could have dinner with them all and then talk about the church. They're a really nice family and respected what we had to say to them. The dad is pretty catholic, but he's not active in it and said that he would be willing to learn more about the church. Bailey, the daughter who babysits, has been going to young women activities for the last couple of weeks and really enjoys all of it. We talked to them about possibly teaching them and although they didn't give us a specific time they said we could drop by sometime. Bailey showed up to church this Sunday so we were excited about that.
Also this week we went on a blitz down in Gulfport. Since Elder Ames is the district leader there we went down to go tracting with them for a little while. Ha it's crazy how much of a different world it is there. There's not much diversity here in Seminole so it was pretty fun talking to a bunch of the people there. I miss people saying to us, "Preach me the word!". Haha but they are a lot more spiritual there as well. They're a lot more willing to hear what you have to say.
We had a big service project that we went to on Saturday. The stake here in St. Petersburg has organized big service activity that they do at the Veterans Hospital in our area. Lots of members throughout the stake showed up and they had us doing everything from putting mulch down in the flowerbeds to putting together PVC pipe in the greenhouse. It was a lot of fun to do, and all the missionaries in the zone showed up to help out. Oh, also, the zone leaders over in Tampa came and stayed with us on Friday night and went over on Saturday morning. One of them is Elder Daniel Cook from Shelley. Ha I finally figured out who he was when he said that he was the one with the clear plastic face mask on their basketball team because he had broken his nose. He graduated in '08, so that was a pretty cool connection to make.
We also had a pretty good Sunday. Paige has been really busy with a job that she picked up, but she was at church, Bailey showed up, and then Tony is back in town and he showed up. It was great to see them all there, and it turned out to be a good group of meetings. Also, I met someone that served in Grandma and Grandpa's mission in Oakland. Ha the Spanish branch meets at the same time as us, and their ward mission leader and I were talking and it turns out he even lived in the same complex as Gma and Gpa for a little while. Pretty cool.
The work here is continuing to progress and I know it's because the Lord is preparing the way. People are ready to hear what we have to share with them and given the chance they'll accept it. I'm grateful for this message that will bless everyone that hears it and acts on its teachings.
Have a great week and know that I love you!
Love,
Your Missionary
Elder Kade Bartschi