New Area . . . New Comp . . . New People

Hello my family!

Well I'm emailing you from a new location again. Ha I feel like I've been transferred so many times on my mission. Elder Moffett and I figured out that including packing when I left home for the MTC, I'll probably have to pack a grand total of 12 times in my 2 years. I've since decided that I will never be moving when I get home. Sorry Ma and Pa.

But things here are actually really great. Elder Nemelka is from Centerville, Utah and is actually the first companion that I've had that's taller then I am. I was a little disappointed. Ha but he's a really good guy, and is actually hoping to go and play football at the University of Utah when he gets home. He talked to the coaches before he left and they asked him to see if he could leave early on his mission. Well they requested it, and it was approved. So he actually went into the MTC at 18. He's a really hard worker, and that has made the work roll forward here.

So I'm in the Seffner ward, but basically it's just a little south east of Tampa. The area includes parts of Brandon, Valrico, and a little bit of Tampa. I think that's pretty cool because it's the first time I've ever had part of Tampa in my area. Even though it has some city in it, overall it's a fairly rural area. There's a lot of communities and neighborhoods, but there's still big open fields around. The ward is really great as well. There are a lot of really good families and people that are will to help us out. Right now the teaching pool is a little shallow, but we're working on building it. We have one investigator that's pretty solid and her name is Andrea. She's married to a member and has been investigating the church for a little while. We had a lesson with her on Saturday, and decided to go back over the lessons. Andrea gets off topic easily, but it ended up being a good lesson. She really does want to get baptized, so we set a date with her for July 9th. Smoking is something that is currently keeping her back, but she is really determined to quit this time for good. Other then that lesson, we've pretty much tracted a lot of the time. We have talked to a lot of really positive people through that. Also, we're working on some of the less active families in the ward as well. Last night we had a lesson with a girl that's 22 and was raised in the church and then went away from it. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and the Spirit was so strong. Elder Nemelka and I both testified that we know that this plan makes it possible for each and every one of us to make it back to live with our Heavenly Father. It's the only completely fair way so that all of His children could have the chance to accept the gospel. I really hope that she was able to realize how much knowing that will bless her life.

Other then that, we'll keep working hard. There's people here that have been prepared to hear the gospel message, it'll just be a matter of us getting out there and finding them. Oh, and I wasn't able to make it back to Seminole yesterday, but James got baptized! Elder Moffett said that it was really neat and he was able to get confirmed in sacrament meeting. I was bummed that I couldn't make it back, but I'm so glad that it happened. I'll email you some of the pictures next week that I get from Elder Moffett.

Well I love you all! Have a great week, and 4th of July!

Love,

Your Boy

Elder Kade Bartschi