Elder Findlay Under the Sun: Salt River Cleanup Week 11

Hello from Mesa!!!

I need to start remembering the weeks better but they just fly by! Nothing too exciting happened this week but a lot is coming up this next week. Next week we have a bunch of Halloween parties in our wards and so that will be fun, and a great way for us to do missionary work! Also if you remember me talking about Carlos and his family, he and his wife are getting married at the church on Saturday so we are helping prepare for that. I am happy for them.

So on Tuesday We had a pretty awesome day. We really do a lot of work with the returned missionaries in our wards and that makes it a lot of fun. Ryan Kelly and Jake Jerman are some returned missionaries that help us out and they are both really cool. We did splits with them and then they took us to dinner to a place called Nandos and it was super good Mexican food. Its funny because Ryan relates really well with G talking about video games and kind of nerdy stuff haha. Jake and me really get along well because we love sports and cars. Jake is probably one of my favorite members here, if I am allowed to have favorites;) His mom, Sister J, is like my grandma here in Mesa. She is constantly trying to make me happy ha! She takes super good care of me:) Anyways on Tuesday night we went to the Visitors Center on the temple grounds and we watched Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration with a couple of investigators. It went really well. My testimony of Joseph Smith the prophet and the restoration of the gospel has grown so much since I became a missionary . I just can't deny it, I physically couldn't do it. I love learning about him and his testimony. The spirit testifies so strongly to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he was chosen to help restore the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth.

Thursday was our most busy day this week. We had back to back lessons so we had to get rides with members so we would be on time to them. We were able to have dinner with an investigator named Saundra. She has had a very hard time because her husband took his life about a month ago and so we have been trying to help her out and get back on track because she is super depressed. Its really hard because we don't really know what to do so we are just giving her company and hanging out with her kids. She really really appreciates it when we come over but we still cant get her to church! We went over to her house again on Saturday and that was an eventful visit. She has two people living in her basement and when we were there they were both crazy drunk and then her son showed up and she has a restraining order on him. So you could imagine it was not good. Its a story for another time but it was definitely the most crazy thing that has happened on my mission.

Anyways I also got a haircut on Thursday night, and my pal elder Parra gave it to me. Chileans know how to cut hair! He did a great job!

Yes I'm sure you've been getting texts from members haha they love doing that, especially when they have a son or daughter on a mission. We were with the Daniels that night you got the picture from Cold Stone. They really spoiled us that night. We went to Fuddruckers for dinner and had some bomb burgers. Then we went to Cold Stone after and that was super good as well. If you remember they were the first family I had dinner with here in mesa.

So Saturday we had a huge service project for most of our mission. It was called the Salt River cleanup project. It was over by Red Mountain way out in the boonies. It was the farthest I have gone from Mesa ha! There are so many cacti and oh so badly I want to set my hammock up between two of them. I would have to buy some straps that could get destroyed but it would so be worth it! Anyways the Salt River was super low and a ton of people tube it every year so you can imagine people have lost things in the river and left trash everywhere. So we went along the river picking up trash and weird things that people have dropped in the river. Like a frying pan that I found haha. It was actually really fun because President Townsend and his wife were there and most of the missionaries from the mission. Then after that a bunch of us went to Jalapeño Bucks for lunch, sooooooo gooood. They have the best Brisket, plus missionaries get 50 percent off. (mom note: this missionary definitely isn't starving!~)

Well sorry about the sort of boring email, nothing out of the ordinary happened this week aside from Saundra's house haha. I love hearing about how things are going at home. Mom, you asked if there was anything you could do to help me and the missionary work...One thing that I would love you to do for me is if you see missionaries, please o please help them out. Buy them a drink, send them a referral, anything. Have them over for dinner, I cant tell you how much it means to missionaries! I know I appreciate it so much! It's good people like that that make an missionary work a little easier. Service has been something I've been focusing on in my studies recently. Service is probably one of the most important things we can do as members of Christ's church. Every time we serve we bring ourselves and others closer to the Savior. Service can turn your day around just like that!!

Have the best week! I love you all!

Love Elder Findlay