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
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| Chalk Plan of Salvation |
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| Elder Foote and a Branch Family |
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| Fourth of July Package |
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| Fourth of July Bar B Q |
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| Fourth of July Service Project |
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| Ladder Transport |