Grave Digging and the Geek Squad

Service project working on a members' bathroom.

All masked up and going in.

Apparently I have a way with felines.

Doing some service in the rain.

Peacocks just run around free here in Lake County.

Surf and turf dinner at the Alexanders

Ciao!

Hey everyone! I had a pretty fun week. I can't believe how quickly it's going by... Time is flying right before my eyes. Well let's get right into it!

On our P-day last Monday,  Elders Yepez, Hacking, Smittenaar, Merrell, Francom and I went to a member's house in my area and we played pool and Kan Jam. Kan Jam is this really fun frisbee game we play a lot. Basically it's just throwing a frisbee at plastic trash can looking-things and you get different amounts of points for how you hit the Kan with your frisbee. You just have to look it up, it's hard to explain, but it's super dupes fun!!

On Tuesday Elder Yepez and got some work in at Chris Alexander's. We spent a good 3 hours digging holes for his "garden" and it was pretty exhausting. At least I have a promising career as a grave digger ahead of me if I so choose to pursue such a path. Digging holes is the most tedious and mundane job to have. I don't mind doing it for service purposes, but I can't imagine making a career out of something so labor intensive. Get an education everyone! It's so important! I don't want to dig holes for a living!

Wednesday was completely ridiculous. Basically all we did all day was be the geek squad for elderly people struggling with technology. We helped a less active activate his credit card on his phone, we also helped him figure out how to find his contacts in the phone and showed him how to turn it on... we basically did the same for the other member we helped. We taught her how to make and call contacts in her phone... I'm sad to say being tech support was a majority of our day.

The Alexanders fed us on Friday and something really special happened while we were there. Ashley was sick and hadn't been feeling well at all lately, so Chris gave her a blessing. Not only was it the first blessing she has received from him in about 7 years of marriage, but it was the first blessing that Chris has ever given. Ever. It was a really special moment for the both of them, and for Elder Yepez and I also. There was definitely tears being shed in the room. I have such a testimony about the Priesthood and the miracles it can perform.

So I've got some bummer news. Two of three of the Aponte family members haven't been coming to church so they won't be able to be baptized as scheduled. Also, we called the Napa Zone Leaders and apparently my investigator, Daniel, didn't make his baptismal date. They had to reschedule for another date. I was kinda bummed to hear that but Daniel is still going strong and is still taking the lessons and hasn't lost his desire. So it's all good!!

We spent just about all of Saturday doing service. First we went to Sister Crites' house and dismantled her bathroom. I mean we literally destroyed or removed everything in there. Only the walls and the ceiling survived (I say that because the floor did not.) After putting in a few hours there we book it to Chris's house and start helping him erect his fence. Those couple of months I worked construction for Jeremy were really helpful. It's pretty nice to be given some tools and already be competent with them. My dad never taught me how to use tools while I was growing up so that time with Jeremy really comes in handy. At least now I know which end of a hammer hits the nail and which end stays in your hand. So like I was saying, we already had the fence posts cemented in from another day, and Elder Yepez had just finished measuring and skill sawing the support beams when it started to rain a little. It didn't bother me one bit... that is until it started to absolutely POUR, and then hail. That's when we decided to wrap it up. Then, of course, it stopped raining as soon as we dried off. So we went back out and finished the half of the fence we were working on. Not bad so far!

We had something really cool happen on Sunday. A youth choir came up from San Jose and alternated between singing and bearing testimonies. It was super powerful and they sang amazingly. They were like a mini MoTab. I had goose bumps the whole time. We were suppose to serve food before a dance they had on Saturday with the stake, but we didn't know they were still going to be half naked from the pool party they had hours prior - so we ex-nayed that idea. But they sang wonderfully! I was close to tears on "Bound for the Promise Land".

We had an awesome week; I can't believe the transfer is almost over. It continually perplexes me how fast time goes. Well, I hope everyone has an awesome week!

Love, Elder Hayden Ellis