Oct 21, 2012

Hey Dad,
After sending a weekly email for the past like 60 weeks, I feel like you guys must be bored of hearing about the same old stuff. I don't always know what to write... I guess there were a couple crazy stories this week. Stuff always seems to happen in the zone and now we are supposed to deal with it. A companionship in the zone is working with a lady and her 12 year old son. They had to go to hospital friday night because they though the son had appendcitis. He was a complete mess and screaming at everyone and said he would only take his blood sample is Elder Diaz was there. So I get a call at 815 from Diaz saying they need to go to the hospital and help this kid. I said if they can get a member to drive them they can go for it. They call me back at 9 and say they couldn't find a member. They said they are on a bus going to the hospital (it is a 40 minute bus ride) and I tell them to get off the bus and go home because it is way too late. Diaz tells me he promised her over text they would be there. If you knew Diaz this would make more sense.. he is only 18 and is really hyper and talks non-stop. He is a really nice kid though just a bit lost sometimes. So they go to the hospital. I had been up all night the night before talking to Elder White on exchange as it was the last time I will see him. So I am exhausted and just to tired to deal with it. So Perry and Atkinson go to the hospital to find them and bring them back to our flat to spend the night. I called them at 11, because they still weren't home and apparently Elder Diaz's phone had died but last they heard they were still waiting for the doctor to turn up. I decide to go to bed. I am woken up at 215. 215! Apparently Perry went in and tracked them down. They waited for hours to the doctor to come. When the doctor came, he said that the kid is alright and doesn't need a blood test and can leave now. Flippin NHS. We all acted like we were really upset with Diaz and stuff but really it was a pretty funny night.
The only other thing that happened is we taught Alice and Keith. We taught the WOW. We committed Keith to live it, and he said he would start by cutting out tea and coffee and work towards quitting smoking after. We then asked Alice, and she said she would quit everything right now. They got in this huge argument. They were like yelling back and forth with us sitting there. Keith was trying to convince her that she can't quit smoking because her son is really misbehaved and if she quits she might die because without smoking her body can't deal with the pressure and stress. We kept assuring them it was possible and they finally settled down. Every time we give them a big committment absolute chaos erupts. I wish I could film some of these teaches.
The brightest ray of hope for our area is a referral we got this week. A YSA guy who I have gotten pretty tight with gave us a friend of his to teach. We stopped by him, and he was really open and we have an appointment to see him. We will try to get the YSA friend with us also. Members refferalls is where it's at. Also I am really excited for Saturday. The bishop asked us if we could organize a sports activity. He is really worried about his son who is going less-active. So we are playing basketball saturday morning with the young men, most of the ysa guys and some of the other men in the ward. We got less-actives coming and if we can make it a regular thing we can start getting investigators and get members to bring their non-member friends along.
So ya that's pretty much it. Sorry I didn't send the photo you want. I'll try to remember this week.
love Elder Steed