Email: December 3, 2018 - Nothing is as constant as change

Hello everybody. This week was amazing because it was super busy and I was feeling rushed every single day. I haven't felt that in a while and honestly it was kind of fun!

To start on Monday we had an awesome P-day we bought some ugly sweaters. Took a picture with a Santa and went to Denny’s so it was pretty great. The Santa picture will be my Christmas card this year. 

On Tuesday we had a regular finding day, not much else to note.

Wednesday we had an interview with our mission president and as well we got to do a temple session.

We had a zone meeting with President Haynie before our interviews and he announced the area presidency if the west coast would like us missionaries to stop having member dinners Monday - Friday and have our dinner done by 5 so we can spend as much as time in our area as possible. So, time to start losing weight! 

My interview with President Haynie was really good and he gave me a lot of inspired counsel. It helped that I actually wrote down questions rather than trying to think of them on the spot. As we were in our interview though, Sister Haynie came into the room and told me I had to end the interview so I could catch our temple session. The way the schedule worked out, and the way the zone leaders planned it, Elder Mora and I got placed in the same temple session with all the sisters (which normally doesn't happen. President and Sister Haynie like to keep the Elders and sisters in different temple sessions) 

As I was rushing to the temple, I realized I didn't print out the family name that my mom had saved for me. But if I printed it out, I wouldn't make the temple session, so I just grabbed one from the office. 

After all the rushing and hearing a bunch of jokes from the Sisters about how Elder Mora and I are the newest sisters in the mission, we went home. Again, in a rush, because I had to go give a baptismal interview in an hour, but we got stuck in the rush hour traffic on the 405

 

The interview went well, and the candidate asked me to baptize her after the interview which was really cool. 

Thursday was slow. We had our ZLC meeting, weekly planning, and cleaning our apartment for inspections.

Friday we had district council and apartment inspections. Nothing else noteworthy

Saturday was Vira's baptism and it was a really good baptism. I was grateful for the opportunity to baptize her and I only had to do it once this time, so go me!

Sunday we announced to the Relief Society and the Elders Quorum about the dinner changes. The Relief Society was asking a bunch of questions that we didn't know the answers to, but the Lawndale ward is so amazing. They figured if they can't have us over for dinner, they can at least buy us groceries. So, rather than a dinner calendar, there is now a grocery calendar going around the ward. In less than an hour of us announcing it, they had it going around and had people signing up and I suspect we are going to get even more food than before. 

Also on Sunday, we had an awesome fast and testimony meeting and they announced that all the wards in Torrance North Stake were going to have their boundaries redone starting the new year so we will see what happens.

I'm am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be on a mission and I am so grateful for Jesus Christ who has given us the gift of repentance and a Heavenly Father who has given us a promise of eternal life if we repent. This plan is so simple and that is the beauty of it. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week 

-Elder Barton