Happy Mother's Day!!

Hey my family!

Happy day after mother's day! Well, I'm not sure if I have anything new to tell you. Ha it's kind of a let down to email you all the day after I just got to Skype with you. But just for the record, I'll pretend that we haven't talked about it all and let you know how my week went anyways. It was so good to talk to you all yesterday though! It's nice to see that my family is how I left them. Sure there's subtle differences, but overall you're the mom dad and siblings that I left.

So to start the week off, I sprained my ankle pretty bad. Last Monday we were playing basketball and I was running down the court with my head turned so I could see the ball. That means that I wasn't watching where I was going, so when I turned and looked to see where I was headed, I ended up coming to a stop on top of someone's foot. I felt it pop and it began to swell up immediatly. One of the sister missionaries was in the nursing program at BYU before she came out, and so she knew what to do. I got it checked out a couple of days later by a doctor in the ward and he said it's just a bad sprain and I'll have to take care of it. That made it really hard for us to do a whole lot this week. Basically we could just go out to our set appointments, and then the rest of the time I had to be laying down with my foot elevated. What kept us sane though was teaching Mike. We had a lesson with him on Tuesday and taught about the set up of the priesthood. He was really humbled by the thought of having the authority to act in God's name. It was a good lesson and he felt like he learned a lot from it. We also had our last official lesson with him on Thursday. We showed him the Finding Faith in Christ DVD and answered any last questions that he had before baptism. He loves the church movies, and the Spirit was really strong and Mike was able to identify that. We promised him that the step he was taking was going to change his life for the better. On Saturday Elder Ames came up from Gulfport and interviewed Mike. Everything went well with that, and Elder Ames said he was awesome. Well leading up to Sunday was a little stressful. The program was all organized and put together, the only issue was my ankle. Ha Mike had asked me last week to baptize him, and thanks to the sprain I wasn't sure if that would work out. Well we waited things out, and then on Saturday I decided that my foot would hold up. We filled the font extra high, and fortunately it went just great. The talks on Baptism and the Holy Ghost were great, and I didn't end up dropping him in the font. All good things. Mike's wife came to the service, and she really enjoyed it all. I know she could feel the spirit during his baptism and also when he got the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was such an awesome experience. Mike is now a member of the church, and hopefully his wife with notice the big change in him.

Well it has been a good week. A little slow at times, but Mike getting baptized made up for all of that. I'm so grateful that Mike is bringing the gospel into his life, and I'm so happy I've been able to be apart of that. I love you all, and hope we all realize how fortunate we are to know about the restored church of Jesus Christ.

Have a great week and know that I love you!

Elder Kade Bartschi

The St. Petersburg Zone

Elder Moffett and I with the other set of Seminole Elders taking pictures with some of the signs in the area.

Mike's baptism!

Me with a couple of the missionaries in the mission office.

Me on crutches with Elder Moffett.

A couple pictures of my ankle swelling up.

The is a snake that I accidentally ran over in our car. It's called an indigo snake, and it was actually alive when we walked back to it. I think it was dead at the point in the picture though...hopefully.

President’s Letter

Dear Sisters and Elders,

I feel much love and gratitude for you this morning. I love our Book of Mormon reading. Some of us accepted the challenge to ‘let virtue garnish our thoughts’ for one whole day. The Book of Mormon helps us do that. The Book of Mormon testifies: “…turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and …serve Him with all diligence of mind…” President Monson gave this prophetic promise in the April 2010 conference: “Brethren, fill your minds with good thoughts and your actions will be proper.”

I testify that there is no better way to fill your minds with good thoughts than daily feasting on The Book of Mormon. I repeat: there is no better way to fill your minds with good thoughts than daily feasting on The Book of Mormon. Please lay claim to the promise that “your actions will be proper” by daily feasting on The Book of Mormon. In the April Conference of 1980 we were taught these prophetic words: “The great overall struggle in the world today is, as it has always been, for the souls of men. Every soul is personally engaged in that struggle, and he makes his fight with what is in his mind. In the final analysis the battleground is, for each individual, within himself. Inevitably he gravitates toward the subjects of his thoughts.

Ages ago…was stated this truth: “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he”. If we would escape the lusts of the flesh and build for ourselves and our children great and noble characters, we must keep in our minds and their minds true and righteous principles for our thoughts and their thoughts to dwell upon…If we would avoid adopting the evils of the world, we must pursue a course which will daily feed our minds with and call them back to the things of the Spirit. I know no better way to do this than by daily reading The Book of Mormon.”(President Marion G. Romney) I know there is a power that comes into our day each and every morning that we feast upon The Book Mormon. This power allows us this very day to: do good, love and lift others, resist temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary and to stay on the straight and narrow path. This power insures that today’s actions will be proper. This power insures that today’s thoughts will be garnished with virtue. And if your actions will be proper this day because of your feast in The Book of Mormon, then why not make every day’s actions proper by a similar daily feast.

I know we are reading the Book of Mormon together at this time. I plead with you to continue to read it every day of your lives. I remind you to look for the promises in the Book of Mormon. Remember this: Read the Book of Mormon with those you teach. I believe in your capacity to act properly. I believe in your capacity to let virtue garnish your thoughts. I love you and I believe in you.

President Summerhays