I (heart) The Bus!

Hey famines,

Oh man, its nice and early this p-day to be writing a letter and I'm not so stoked about writing earlier. None the less, I’m super stoked to write you guys.

How went the week? I’m sorry I forgot to give you a shout out, Dad, but happy birthday! Wow, celebrating 50 years of Joe Allphin. I’m only imagining they threw a roast in your honor with guests such as Lewis Black, Gilbert Gottfried, Cloris Leachman, and for some reason, Mr. Smith (the ex-principal that is). I hope it went well and everyone took it easy on the jokes. I look forward to watching it on Comedy Central.

WHATLKUGL!? Abby’s getting married?! Do send me a pic of the guy if you would and send my wishes and best to Abby.

So you guys saw the world-wide training yesterday huh? We did too! We traveled like 2 hours and all to see it but it was legit. We learned a lot of stuff that we are gonna apply in the branch here and all. I loved it!

In sad news: The Familia A______ did not get baptized this past week. The Hermana got Über sick and the Hermano got last minute doubts. I prayed and fasted for them this past weekend a lot but alas, it didn’t go through. We are praying for this week, though. The Hermano feels more sure now and they are looking forward to this Saturday and I hope and pray and pray and ppp-rrr-aaa-yyy that everything will turn out well. Do pray for those guys too.

We traveled a lot this past week. We took 3 buses to get to our zone conference (which was amazing!) I saw all my good mission buddies there and we learned a lot of things to apply in our areas. It was nice. The first presidency came out said that the missionaries can have more callings in their districts and branches now. So with that, I got called to be elder’s quorum president in Yuto which means I’ll be over the....ummm....3 elders that are attending and the 178,687,276,567,238,645,679 and 1/2 that aren’t...mehhhhhhherrrrrrrr!!! It’ll be a lot of work but I guess its ok. After all, Hank Hill is all about joys of responsibility and the burden of obligation...

Its super, mega, cold, cold, cold here in Yuto because, I guess, it’s officially winter now. There’s no escape with this kind of cold. It’s a damp kind of chill that seeps into your bones. It’s a pain but it’s all good.

The district’s doing all right. It was a bit of a slow week for everyone but we did all have zone conference and the capacitation so guess I can see why. We’ll have a better one this time. Not much else to say for this week, I’m afraid but there are always questions.

• Did you pick up the package we sent with the Carlsons?

YES! I forgot to mention that last week. I got the 2 packages you sent me. The one from the Carlsons and the other with the Rolos, toothpaste, and all. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I've been scheming about making No-bake Cookies all week with the peanut butter (Homer Simpson drooling sound).

• Do people in Yuto farm for a living?

Yeah...kinda. There aren’t many jobs here. Its like, you can work during the sugar harvest, in the bakery, as a taxi driver, or you can drink a lot. Most everyone goes into Ledesma for their work more than anything.

• Since you have to travel so much do they give you extra money?

They give me $200 which does absolutely nothing!!! They are supposed to give us more money soon because the travels rob us dry.

• Are the buses air conditioned?  Have they stopped blocking the roads with burning tires?

Yeah. It doesn’t matter if it’s hellishly hot or horribly cold—the buses always will be colder than Christopher McCandless's bus. As of late they have been rather chill and have not been blocking our route (which I’m more than happy about).

• When does Elias go on his mission?  Will he be going to the MTC in Brazil?

He goes in October 2nd and yes, he’s going to the MTC in Brazil. It’s supposedly super nice there, I hear.

Well, that’s about it for the week. Sorry. Kind of a sucky week on my part. But meh, I’m hoping it’ll be a better one this week and we’ll get that family baptized. Do pray a whole bunch for them. I explained to them as plainly as I could about the prayer roll in the temple and that you guys put their names in. They were so touched that it brought them to tears. So way to go, you made them cry. Thank you very much for being amazing and going to the temple, I must say. I hope you all have a good week, full of greasy girls camp dreads and such. A most happy birthday, Mom (on the 26^th, that is) I hope it’ll be the tops. So you guys go head on over to Wendover and hit up the Ron White show and the early-bird breakfast special or whatever you guys do for a combined birthday celebration--even the idea of you doing that makes me laugh.  I am sure you can find something equally classy  to do and have a wild time! I love you guys more than you can imagine. I love and miss you all! Till next week. I love you. It’s all good!

Con Amor,

Russ

Russ and his district

 

Birthday Greetings