Dear Parents,
Another week. They go by way faster than you think. The Days are long like a 12 hour shift at work but the weeks happen all at once.
Nothing visually interesting happened this week, so no pictures, but next week I will be in Laguna Beach again, but for 48 hours with a Zone Leader this time. So who knows what is in store for me.
This week I realized a lot about how I have changed just from being on my mission and from being here in Orange County. Also I have realized why I have been assigned to this area that I am in right now. I don't know why I was called to the Carlsbad Mission yet, because I could still be re-called to the Irvine Mission. I think our Mission President, President Cook is already trying to receive inspiration on who he should have be sent into the new mission because he said to all of us through the Zone Leaders "To those who will be Irvine Missionaries in the new Irvine Mission; I am not sending you there because I think you are not fit to serve in the Carlsbad Mission, It is because the Lord wants you to be in that Mission." I know it is still a little ways off, but it is in the back of everyone's mind, which mission they will serve in for the remainder of their mission.
Things have been a little rocky. As a mission we have set a goal for 300 baptisms by July, 1st. That is when the mission will be split. If you break that down, it means each companionship needs to supply 2-3 baptisms in the next 3 months. Our area has had 3 baptisms in the last 4 years. The people we are working with now are really touch and go, it is really hard to tell how they are progressing. But we are moving forward in faith to do the things that we have been counseled to do. Things that lead the lord to trust you with someone who is prepared to change their life.
I don't really know what else to say, I feel like the exciting things that I wrote about before are still happening, they are just becoming a part of my life now. I think it is really easy to get jaded as a missionary, I want to work on making sure I don't overlook all of the little things that are significant.
There is a member named Paul Pucillo in my ward, he is probably in his 60's and he has over 106,000 names on his family tree. He has connected himself to tons of celebrities like Brad Pitt, Jennifer Anniston, Audree Hepburn, Johnny Cash, and he has linked himself to all of the Presidents of the Church as well. He asked me if I could get him some of my names to do my genealogy so I gave him a 4 generation chart.... last week he gave me 2 reams of paper of genealogy from Great Grandpa Nelson all of the way back to Adam and Eve. haha He said the church didn't have a ton of records for any of the other names I gave him, but they had a ton for the Nelson side. He has this really rare chart that the church used to make called the Royal Line or something like that, and if you can trace back to anyone near the bottom of it, he can take you back to Adam. We specifically come through a line through one of Judahs twins, Zarah I think? the story is in Genesis 36 if I am not mistaken. Its a pretty funny story, you should read it, if I am wrong about the reference, it is somewhere around there, the other twins name is Parez, and he is the line where Joseph comes from, and you can find that to cross reference in Matthew 1.
Well, I gotta go, love you!
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