February 2010

Elder Page




It was my companion´s birthday last week, so one of the families in our ward had a barbeque for his birthday. And yes, he ate all of that food, plus we didn´t get pictures of one of the plates of chicken wings that he had. Yeah, my companion is a monster, he is 6´8´´.

February 15, 2010
Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had a great day, it sounds like Lauren planned something special with you in mind. I can´t believe you´re not making sugar cookies this year. Just to let you know, that is not going to fly next year when I´m back, I´m going to need some of your homemade sugar cookies.

Anyway, things are going good. As you already know there are a lot of gringo families in my ward here, and we had lunch with one of them this last week. And the grandma of this family is from Salt Lake, but she was here visiting and she is leaving on the plane tonight to go back to Utah. I mentioned that it was your birthday this week during lunch and she offered to take a birthday present back to you. So she is on her way back to the States with a gift for you. I gave her your address, phone number, and e-mail, so I don´t know how she is going to get a hold of you. But be expecting a Sister Eagan to get a hold of you in the next little bit.

About the lady that we taught that was involved in gang violence and all of that, she wasn´t at her house when we went back for the return appointment (like almost everybody we´ve been teaching lately). So we haven´t been able to get a hold of her lately. But at least we helped her feel a little bit better that day we talked with her. As far as the missionary work has been going, it really turned around in this last week. The months of January and February are always really hard because it´s really hot, and it is vacation time for everybody here. Especially in the city, because everyone goes to the beach. So things have been really slow for the last few months and this last week our numbers shot up a lot. We taught a lot more, and our zone went from having nobody with a baptismal date to seven people with baptismal dates. So that has been really good to see everybody in the zone doing a lot better.

I got the package this last week. Everything arrived just fine. Thank you so much, the shoes fit me perfectly, and they are about one hundred times more comfortable than the other pair. We had changes last week, but I´m staying with the same companion in the same area. At the end of this change it will be four and a half months with my current companion, Elder Page. So that means that in the last nine months, I´ve had two companions. I don´t know about you guys but that seems crazy to me. Well, thank you for everything. I love you. Have a good week.

Love,
Matt

February 1, 2010
I haven´t gotten the package yet, but I think it will be this week when we get our mail. Sounds like you guys are pretty busy painting the house. To be honest, I don´t really remember the house very well because we only lived there a couple of months before I left.

That´s cool that you guys had dinner with Briggs. You´re going to have to let me know where he´s going to go on his mission.

This week went pretty well for me. It was really hot, and it´s been hard lately because it´s summer down here and everyone has been going on vacation. But we put together a fun ward activity last friday. We watched a video for the spiritual thought, and we played human foosball for the game. We pretty much played soccer, except for instead of running around, there were a couple of pvc pipes that everyone had to hold on to, just like in a game of foosball. It was fun, also a young man from the ward I´m in is leaving on his mission to Antofagasta, Chile. So we´re going to have a ward farewell party for him because he is a convert from a year ago, and the only member in his family, so he doesn´t really have support from his family. He´s a really good kid, I can´t believe he´s going to go on a mission after only one year of being a member, that sounds crazy to me.

Well, we´ve got one more week until changes, although I think I´ll stay in the same sector, but I´ll probably get a new companion. Things are going good. Thanks for everything. Love you.