July 21

Hey!!!

This has been a really awesome week!! On Saturday RayAnn was baptized which was awesome. The ward really embraced her and she will do great. It was a really small baptism but I really think that it was perfect. I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and honestly I had no idea what I was going to say when I got up there I did have a few scriptures that I wanted to share but other than that I really didn't know what I was going to say. When I stood up I just felt the spirit come and then the words flowed. Honestly I cannot tell you what I said but afterwards Elder Irvine said that it was awesome and that he had never heard that analogy before (I didn't remember using an analogy so he had to share it with me). Anyway it went really well. 

Also this week Elder Irvine and I had Coordination meetings with both of the Stake Presidencies (Forest Grove & McMinnville Sakes). Holy cow those were sweet!! I guess that I should tell you that Elder Irvine and I didn't get transferred but they did however split our zone. We will stay in banks and we will be working with the Forest Grove Stake and McMinnville will now be its own zone. Anyway we were in the meeting in Forest Grove and we started to talk with them about vision. They got really excited for it and now as a result we are going in two weeks to their Presidency Meeting and they are giving us an hour to teach them about vision and then a couple of weeks after that they are having us come to their "special" bishopric training meeting and we will  have an hour to an hour and a half to teach the bishoprics, ward mission leaders and assistant ward mission leaders. We are really excited about it. We talked with President Samuelian when we we at the mission office and he is going to come to both of those meetings with us. He told us that most of his zone leaders still haven't caught the vision but that we had. So what he wants to do is to take what happens in our stake and zone and clone it through out the mission. He is super excited about it. He also wants to have Elder Irvine and I take a major part in MLC because we actually understand it and are implementing it.

 

So as far as I know the extension is finalized. I am not sure if it has to go to Salt Lake or not. We will just have to see. At this point in time I am just going forward with the October release date. I think that it is probably best for me to fly home at this point in time. Just with all the changes and stuff I feel like it is going to be the best plan of action. We will just have to make a road trip up here in the near future. 

I am now full time driver rather than every other day. You know that broke my heart. I love to ride in the car..... I have actually gotten a lot better about it but I still prefer the drivers seat. Especially if it is my Subaru rather than a Corolla.

 

I love you all!! Thanks for all that you do for me!

 

Dustin