Isaac's Mission e-mail

I can hardly believe that my mini-mission is already halfway over. I have just started to get to know people and make friends, and I will have to leave them in only three weeks! :( Oh, well, that's part of mission life too. Anyway, on to the news.


Monday was interesting. Elder Jacobsen had been kept up at night by the sounds of a MOUSE. It had chewed a hole in his corn-filled heat pad and was noisily chewing on the corn under his bed! (I slept right through it, so that is all his account) In the morning he moved his bed away from the wall to discover a big pile of chewed corn in the corner. We set out some traps to try to catch the mouse, did our laundry, complicated but not stopped by a malfunctioning dryer, did our shopping, and went about doing missionary work.

Tuesday was a tracting day. We found a few potential investigators, and did some of our laundry as the dryer had been fixed. We visited Bro. Jones, who is making gradual but consistent progress with his leg, and then tracted some more. We also visited with Bro. Randall, who has a few concerns but is making rapid progress.

Wednesday was a good day. We tracted some, then went to do our service at the Humane Society, which you know of pretty well by now. After that, we went to the ward priesthood dinner. They had good food, and we got to know the priesthood better. Bro. Randall was there too, and it was a good experience for him. After that, we went to talk to Shelby and Shane. Shane left for his deployment in Afghanistan on Thursday, so this was the last chance to speak to the two of them together. In an interesting story, Shane gave Elder Jacobsen his WWI replica trench knife, as a way of thanking him for all he has done to help them. It's a pretty neat weapon, but Elder Jacobsen is going to send it home, as it is WAY too dangerous for missionaries to have lying around. We later found out that Shelby and Shane got engaged right after we left! He had it planned all along!

Thursday, we started out with tracting. after lunch, we went to teach Bro. Randall, which ran over schedule quite a bit, as Bro. Randall had a lot of good questions. He's a golden investigator, not without problems, but with a genuine desire to become a better person. Then we went to Hutsonville, and taught Sis. Skaer, who is coming back to activity. Our appointment with Sis. Bray fell through, but because it did we actually found out that her mother, Sis. Shimko, lived barely a minute away, so we went and taught her. Sis. Shimko is inactive, but would like to return to activity. She just needs a ride to church. So everything turned out well, even if not according to plan.

Friday was also a good day. We helped the Kunzelman's move a very large, very fragile window, part of their preparations to move out in a little while. Then we did our weekly planning. After that, we went to Ste. Marie, did some tracting there, and finally tracked down Mary Lybarger's house. We tracted into her last week where she was visiting her grandma, and it took us this long to find her house. The problem is that it is right on the border between three cities, so it has the address from one, zip code from anouther, and phone number from the third. This had severly complicated the process of finding it. After that, we went to our dinner appointment with the Valberts, and I got to try out lamb for the first time. It tasted pretty good, different from other meats but yet similar. You know how hard it can be to describe tastes.

Saturday, we started out with our district tele-conference. We then went tracting, and checked on a couple potential investigators. Then we headed out to teach Bro Randall. We continue to work with him to overcome problems. Then we went back to the apartment to have our coorelation meeting and apartment inspection. Then we went out to see Shelby, who is always fun to visit because of her personality. After that, our day was done.

Sunday was good. Bro. Randall came to church, and so did Bro. Weber, someone we had never even met before, who knows some of the members. We plan to track him down and follow up soon. Then we did some tracting, and came across Sis. Norton, who accepted a Book of Mormon! She has a hard time reading, but we plan to visit again in the near future. Then we went and taught Shelby, as well as Joey. We had dinner, then went to teach Bro. Randall. We have had to set his babtismal date back a week to Apr. 9, but we are confident that he can make it. He is still a golden investigator.

And Today has barely started!