Christmas Adam

Hello hello!

Well what a fun week this is, huh? Christmas is great :) I think it has the ability to put just about everyone in good spirits.

Megan told me she got to speak! Cool :) cuz I got to speak too! We had dinner with the 1st counselor in the bishopric on Saturday and before we left he asked us to speak the next day since one of their speakers was going to be missing. I spoke for about 10 minutes without any notes about the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of Christ. I talked about the gift of the atonement and how using it, following Jesus Christ, and sharing it with others is the best way we can express our gratitude for that priceless gift.

I just read back through my "sermon" paragraph from last weeks email. I don't remember saying all that. But it sounds cool :) haha.

 

So remember how a car got stolen? That same car got stolen AGAIN on Thursday. Different sister missionary, same car. Poor girls. The police still haven't found the car so we brought the sisters another on Friday.

 

We've been super duper busy and have had like no time to visit people. There haven't been accidents with any vehicles but there have been 3 or so flat tires, 2 dead batteries, and a bunch of other repairs needed this week. We've had to switch the car we're driving 4 times now. We took our truck in to get the bumper repaired since a member backed into us when it was parked, got a headlight replaced, got an estimate on the car that was in the hit and run, took a cruze in to get the side skirt fixed, a truck with higher mileage that feels like it's misfiring, and we swapped out 2 more cars from indio on Saturday. Whew!

 

There was also an issue with one of the gas cards. Someone must have put a reader on the gas pump that these missionaries used and suddenly they had milked $800 worth of gas off that card. Luckily the cards have a limit on them so they weren't able to keep spend spend spending. haha. So I had to clear that up this week.

 

We really don't get to teach much which is a bummer. We got some more info that would help Cameron in his process towards baptism. I still haven't explained that situation to you fully. He's not really male or female. In a way he's both but at the same time neither. Anywho, it's been a long process trying to figure out what needs to be done in order for him to be baptized. Because he was born listed as a female and has a feminine disease, the 1st presidency said he could be baptized as a female, no problems. However, if he wanted to be baptized male, he would need to meet with several doctors and have some hormone treatments to more fully make that transition. He's prayed about it and feels like it would be wrong to decide to just go as a female and feels like his spirit is male. He won't be listed as transgender since he's not really either. So, he has to go through that medical process and will probably get baptized early this spring.

 

Whew again! haha. My wrist hurts with this typing. I showed someone a "flagpole" the other day (just think derek clement) and tweaked my wrist when they asked to see me do it again.

 

I kind of wish I wasn't spending the end of my mission in the office and was instead out teaching, but i guess this is where I'm needed. I really don't feel like I know much about cars. At least until recently. Most missionaries don't ever know what's going on with their car and ask me what's wrong. haha. They'll bring it to the office to have me look at it on occasion. So far I've been correct about every issue. We'll have to see if I was right about this misfiring truck. Oh! One of the managers at one of the auto body shops we go to asked if I wanted a job this morning. If it was in Rigby idaho I'd definitely take it!

 

So I might skype instead of just calling. The thought of just calling sounds much more boring. You lose a whole aspect of communication when it's just audio. Plus I think it helps get the whole family involved more with the visual aspect. And since time is limited, I thought that skyping would be better. President has budged to an hour tops so that gives a little more leeway too.

We're having our zone breakfast at 8:30 and we should be cleaned up around 10. I'm planning on skyping at 10:30 which would be 11:30 your time.

 

Love you guys :) Merry Christmas!

Elder Nelson Browning