Monday, May 4, 2009

Greetings and Salutations from the great country of Texas

Hey Everyone,
This week has been awesome. We baptized Ellen on Saturday, and we have another lady that is committed to be baptized a week from Friday. We a had a pretty safe week. Only a couple of interesting people ;)

So on Saturday, we baptized Ellen. It was really awesome. The spirit was really strong there. She was so easy to teach too. She accepted most of the things pretty easily. The only thing that she had to change about her lifestyle was drinking an occasional cup of coffee. She was prepared by the Lord, a lot. I got to baptize her. There was a little confusion because I got nervous but once I started the prayer it all went well. When we went down in the water she panicked a little and twisted just a bit. I still got her up though:) I'm glad I didn't drop her. That would have been horrible. We had a nice simple meeting and a couple people from the ward attended. On Sunday, Elder Kleinman did the confirmation.

The other lady we have committed is named Mary. She is in her fifties or sixties but she is a very healthy person so she looks younger. She is a very soft-spoken, sweet person. She is kinda eccentric in her own way, but that's OK :) She likes to garden a lot and she gave me and my companion a big pot with some plants in it yesterday. We put it on our little porch thing by our side door. We are going to have a little problem with finding a good time to baptize her because she insists on being home in the evenings (she goes to bed at 7). We'll figure something out.

The ward here is pretty good. All the people are fun and awesome. We need to find a way to get them more missionary minded though. Any suggestions?

A bunch of the high school kids in our ward get this week off school. One of the teachers got the swine flu so they have the school on lockdown al week. But besides that I haven't heard much at all about the flu.

So how are things back home? I have a hard time not bragging about all you guys' awesome accomplishments. That is awesome about Ashley and Erik's accomplishments. I love hearing every little detail. You two are awesome (you too, Justin). Erik, you beat my freshman PR by a second. I could never get faster than a 1:03 that year. Good job! So to answer your question Erik, with the 400, I come out of the blocks as fast as I can and maintain an almost full out sprint (about 95%, I believe), then on the backstretch I maintain that speed and stride it out (don't slow down at all). Then when I hit the next curve (200 mark), I start picking it up. At this point you start realizing that you're tired but you just got to ignore it. When there's about 150 left I'm still picking it up. You want to hit it full force with about 150-120 left. You wanna come around that last turn with full speeed. Lay it all on the line from there out. A lot of times races are won and lost in that last 100. Pick and ending point a couple feet past the finish line so you don't slow down a step too early. This is about how I did it most of the time. But remember, everyone runs different so do what works for you. Hope that helped some. Also remember to work hard during the season and in the off season, too. Read 1 Corinthians 9:24 and you can apply that to anything, especially track.

And answering your other question: With scripture reading you just have to make time to do it.
I know its hard and I slacke a lot in the past. But you just have to make time for it. Maybe read them for 15 minutes when you first get home instead of when your tired at night. Also, try to make your reading more interesting. Mark scriptures, write down cool things, etc.

Congratulations with your class officer elections. You two will do great.

That is awesome about Corry Brown going on a mission. Where is he going?

Have the best darn week and stay close to the Lord.

Love,
Elder Gray

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