Branch Picnic...Number 2!

Family,

Another wonderful week here in Dayton Ohio!  However, this may have been the first 4th of July ever where I haven't seen fireworks...  I heard a lot of them, but I never saw any...  Crazy to think that last 4th of July I was in the MTC!

This week we organized a huge service project with all the missionaries in our zone.  We went out to a house that one of our investigators is fixing up and spent a few hours helping them scrape paint off of the outside of the house.  We had a great time, and the family we helped out really appreciated 16 missionaries and some members helping them out!

For the 4th of July we were asked to gather together as zones in local parks, draw out the plan of salvation with chalk on the ground, then talk to everyone who walked by about the drawings.  We started at a park in Dayton.  Everything was going really well until a guy came who was in charge of the park fountain.  He told us we had to stop because the chalk was going to change the pH of the water...  So we were rejected from that park.  We went and drew it out at another park though, and it looked really cool!  It was a 4th of July party!

We had a zone meeting this week as a Spanish zone!  Usually we meet with the English zones near us, but this week they had all of the Spanish missionaries gather to have some specialized training.  There's only 18 Spanish missionaries in the mission, so we all know each other really well, and we're like one big family.  Out of those 18, there are only 7 that I haven't served with or gone on exchanges with.  

Well, as the title of this email says, this week we had our annual branch picnic.  And yes, this is my second picnic here in this branch!  We had 6 investigators who came, and we had tons of fun!  We ate, played a branch-wide soccer game, and I had the chance to play catch with some lacrosse sticks!  One of our investigators is from Costa Rica, but he just recently moved here from New Jersey, where he played lacrosse!  It was awesome to get to play after over a year of not playing!

This week I learned a bit about Wilford Woodruff and the importance of journals.  He diligently kept a journal for 63 years! (if I remember right).  He would say that he would hear a sermon from Joseph Smith, and until he had wrote it down he would feel super uneasy.  But as soon as he would write it all down (and he was blessed to be able to remember these sermons almost word for word), he would feel much better.  His journals became important resourced for compiling the history of the church.  This helped me realize even more the importance of making a record of the things that we do.  It might not seem too important now, but in the future it might make a huge difference.

One last thing.  This week I saw a white squirrel!  It was crazy!

Have a great week!  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Foote

Chalk Plan of Salvation

Elder Foote and a Branch Family

Fourth of July Package

Fourth of July Bar B Q

Fourth of July Service Project

Ladder Transport