Voice recording Jan 2 part 5

♪♫What would you do-oo-oo for a Lion bar? ♪♫   Good morning mom! Well, evening for me.  Just finished nightly planning and I decided to open up one of the Lion bars that you guys gave me.   Oh, you’re so freaking wonderful, thank you.

So, it’s just been super crazy,  I haven’t really made any voice mails this last week.  It’s crazy, it’s Sunday night, literally.

Oh my goodness, Anthony was confirmed today.  That was wonderful.  I even got to be in his confirmation circle.   Holy cow, the spirit has been so strong around him.  So he was baptized yesterday, and we’ve been working with him for the last two months.  Super, super amazing investigator.   I’m fairly certain I’ve told you guys about him.   He’s a wrestler here at North West College, and he had some friends of his just invite him out to church.   It took him a couple of times, but he finally came.  He felt the spirit and loved it, so he started going to institute.   Came almost every week and loved it.   He started taking lessons from us, right when Elder Tucker got here.   And we’ve taught him just about every week.  He did take a three week break during winter because he was heading back to Arizona!  Lives in Phoenix.   But funny enough, actually got snowed in and stuck in Greybull.  I didn’t know that, or else I would have went and taught him.   But he’s completely changed his life around.  Loves the church, was baptized yesterday and confirmed today and later today we took him to a lesson with Talena, who’s been really struggling to be baptized.   And oh my goodness, it was so strong.   He hadn’t really told her anything, but he felt impressed to let her know about how you don’t need to be perfect to be baptized or to be a member of the church.   We’re members of the church because we’re imperfect.  That’s why we take the sacrament, that’s why we’re baptized, we need to repent.  And that us members of the church aren’t perfect.

It also helps that this last week, Talena’s daughter Brooke has been, she just started reading the Children’s Book of Mormon like crazy.  She’s 9.  LOVES it.   I mean, in the ride to Cody which is only a half an hour, read up to like chapter 12 in it, which is I think King Benjamin.  I’m like “Holy Crap!  That’s up to the book of Mosiah!”  So, her daughter’s been reading and is like “Mom! I want to get baptized!  When are we going to get baptized?”  And she wants to get baptized super bad.  The last few times that we’ve been to their house, the spirit’s been really strong and Talena’s loving the church more and more and more and feels the spirit and knows it’s true.   Just needs to get over that last final doubt.   Satan’s really got a good hold on her.  At least fear-wise.   She’s just afraid that she’s not worthy, that she’s not ready.  We’ll get her there. Bless her heart.  Love meeting with them.

But yeah, wonderful day. Oh, the spirit’s just been so strong.  Anthony is baptized! And he wants to go on a mission in a year.   So excited for him.  It’s awesome. (Sounds like he’s getting emotional and choking up a little bit there.)

Let’s see what else has happened.   Oh yeah Nina, she’s a member over in Cowley, Elder Hatch introduced me to her.  Cowley is about 40 minutes from here.  Closer to the border of Montana.  You go through Lovell to get there.   She was the member that sang with us every week.  Super, super awesome lady.  Been like another mom to me out here.  Been going through some hard times, but oh she’s the best.  Well, she dropped off my Christmas/Birthday present the other day, a little late, but oh my goodness was it worth it,  I didn’t even know she was planning on it, I need to figure out what to get her at least as like a thank you or something.   I can’t remember what she called it.  But it’s like a, take like a pillow, no it’s like a quilt, but you can fold it up into a pillow.  And she just made this for me, and the best part is that she’s a huge Doctor Who fan, and it’s Doctor Who themed.  On one whole side of it, I’ll take a picture of it, it’s that Van Gogh picture of the Tardis exploding, and on the other side of it, it’s just like a bunch of these Doctor Who symbols.  You’ve got Daleks, Tardises, sonic screw drivers, bow-ties, gas masks, I don’t even remember what that dog’s name was, but all sorts of stuff, and sayings from it…. It’s super, super cool. 

Oh! My jerk of a companion just came downstairs. (grunts, groans, random guy noises) Oh man! He’s been really abusive to me!  Get me out of here!  He just taught me how to play Black Jack the other day. (Elder Tucker mutters something about feeling bad if this is to his parents…) Or, he taught me how to play 21 the other day. How’s that? (Elder Tucker – “We’re being responsible!  I was teaching him his numbers.” )  I’m leaning better, I can count to 21 now.  (Elder Tucker- “He says since he’s been out on a mission his multiplication and his math has really been struggling”)  So I’m getting better.  We’re getting there.  We’re hoping to move up to division next week. Laughs.

But things have been going really good here.  I still can’t get over Anthony’s baptism today that was just so awesome.  Or confirmation today.  Oh, crap.  I got a loose string hanging off these pants.  Didn’t we just get these fixed? (Elder Tucker – yeah, but she fixed your crotch, she didn’t fix your legs.) Yeah… 

I went through the picture books, two of them again today.  There’s no way I could go through all those books, I’d way too homesick.  But I went through two of them today and they were awesome.  Again, so thankful for those.

Elder Tucker and I just had an awesome lesson with a family before we got home. (Companion – “What’s their names?”)  His name is Lao? (Elder Tucker – “What’s their last name?”) It starts with a T? I don’t know how to pronounce it… They’re Polynesian? Or Tongan? They’re from one of those islands.  (Elder Tucker lectures Nick on the difference between “Polynesian”  and “Tongan” and how to pronounce their name.) Lao Talufa.  His wife… It’s an American name, I don’t even know what it is, I can’t remember… It starts with an A? Alyssa and Lao Talufa are this couple that we just started teaching.  They just moved from Salt Lake like a week ago, and they are looking to go to the temple.  They just asked that we come over and help strengthen them on their way,  um, read the Book of Mormon with them…. Super, super Awesome.    That was a fun lesson.

Oh, earlier today we had dinner with the Lee’s.  They were the family that uh, I don’t think I ever told you about the Lee’s.   I’ll have to write that down and remember to tell you about them.  Thank goodness for notebooks, right? 

But yeah, it was a really good day today, and I can’t wait to email home tomorrow.

Love you guys!  Bye!