Monday, March 25, 2013

Great week!!!

Today's email was fabulous.  He is doing so great!!


Hey everyone! How are things going back home? Hopefully everything is going really well! Things here are great! I had a really good week so that was good!
Yesterday we had a baptism of a little girl named Alondra that we have been teaching. It was a really good experience! She is 10 years old, really smart and funny too. She wants to be a missionary someday too so that is pretty cool! It was a really cool baptismal service too because there were 3 other baptisms from the other Elders that work in the same ward. One thing that District Leaders do is that they inteview the people who the other missionaries in their district teach before they can be baptized, so I got to do 3 baptismal interviews this week. That was a really cool experience because it was an opportunity to see how these people's lives have changed by deciding to start going to church and following commandments and stuff. It was definitely one of the coolest experiences that I have had on my mission.
There were a few other things that were really cool this week too. We did some service for this old guy in the ward who is a WW2 veteran that was stationed with the people in Japan when they dropped the Atomic Bombs. It was crazy. He has a ton of cool stories and pictures and stuff. He also has a lot of health problems from all the radiation, and one of his eyes, the pupil and iris have just almost completely disappeared. Talking to someone who was a part of something so huge in history was a really sweet experience.
There were also a couple of Ward activities this week that were fun. We played basketball, and had a Ward Family Home Evening, and then had a luncheon thing at a nautical club so that was all good too.
Well that is about what has been going on here! It was definitely overall a very good week! Hope that yoúr's was the same! I love you and miss you all. Talk to you next week!
love,
Elder Searle

Monday, March 18, 2013

Transfer!

This is the email we received today!  He is doing great:)


Hey Everyone!
Sounds like the week for everyone was pretty good so that is great! I hope that you are all doing great! And I hope that it is warming up a little bit for you out there! It is crazy that Kylie is 18 and that Brooklyn is driving now. A lot changed in the last week haha. 
Well a lot changed here too in the last week. I got transferred from Arroyo to Salinas. It wasn't a huge move, I am still living in the same house, but now instead of going 7 miles to the east to get to my area, I go about 11 miles to the west! It is still sunny and dry, but I have a car now! So we usually take the car out to the area and leave it in a member's house and then ride bikes for the day! And I got my bike back so that is great! So far it has been a lot less biking than in my last area! I am going to have to be careful to not get fat haha. My new companion is Elder Garfield. He is from Springville Utah and this is his last transfer in the mission. He is way cool and I was way excited to be companions with him. So now for the first time I have a companion who has been on his mission for more than a year, and someone who speaks English!!! So far it has been great! All of the people in Salinas are super cool, and something that is fun about being with an American companion is that everyone tries to speak to us in English. Sometimes it ends up pretty well but sometimes it doesn't haha. 
I was pretty happy to be transferred. I kind of got the best of both worlds this transfer, I got to move to a new area, that is a lot bigger than Arroyo, but I didn't have to move to a new house or anything! I think that this transfer is going to be a lot of fun. The only bad thing is that I am still in the same place that doesn't let me send pictures home in emails haha, but oh well you can't win them all. 
Right now we are working with a couple of people who want to get baptized and they are just waiting on getting married first, so hopefully they will be able to get that done in this week, and we will have their baptism within the next two weeks. 
Well that is about how it is out here! Hope that you all have a great week! Talk to you next week. Love you and miss you all
love,
Elder Searle