Weekly Report

 Well Good Morning Family,

I hope all is well and everybody is doing good. It sounds like Shawn and Tommy had fun hunting and had some good success with the 4 antelope, badger, and fox, that's cool. Well life in the fast lane is going good.
Yesterday we went on exchanges and I went with Elder Beckstead, from Mesa, and it was really fun he's only been here about two weeks, so it was fun to be in charge and plan all of our activities for the day. He's a really cool guy and we had a lot of fun getting to know one another. It seemed about one of the most productive days since I've been out. Maybe just cause I was picking everything we did but sometimes my trainer isn't the best at utilizing our time and I hate to be doing unproductive things. So, I thought we didn't have any wasted time yesterday I planned a good day and I was a lot happier yesterday because we worked hard all day and the day went by really fast. I was wishin I could be with Elder Beckstead everyday. Hopefully I can help my trainer see some of the things that aren't really of any benefit to us. But it's hard to talk to him about that because I'm just the "junior companion." I guess I'm just about ready for a move. But life is amazing.
This week I think my favorite highlight was general conference. It was amazing!!! It seemed like all of the messages were meant just for me. It was weird watching them at different times of the day though. One of the major themes I got throughout the whole conference was about simplifying our lives and living for today. Something I struggle with at times, not just counting down the days and weeks until I get home. I loved President Monson's talk on Sunday Morning. "If we don't live for today we will wake up tomorrow with a lot of empty yesterdays." I was kind of bummed that we didn't get to watch the Sunday afternoon session because it was on from 9-11 at night here and we have to be in by then but I will be excited to get the Ensign to read it. Anyways it was just really good. We actually were able to get a Less Active to take us on Saturday night, (it's about a 20-minute drive to the stake center). His name is Sean Neary and he hasn't been to church in years so hopefully it made an impact on him and he will want to start coming back to church.
Well, we are continuing to work with Joel, the 16-year-old African, he had a baptismal date for this Saturday, but we moved it back a week to next Saturday the 18th. We feel like he needs a little more time to kind of accept everything. We don't want to rush him into it but he's pretty close to being ready. He's a good kid and it is fun to work with him and the understanding that he is getting little by little.
Sunday night after conference we stopped by Frances and Nigel Keane Armstrong. The lady who had a dream about us giving her a blessing. Anyways and we shared some of the messages of General Conference with them. Then we kind of worked through why they don't come to church anymore. A lot of it is because they work a lot of Sundays but then Nigel continued to tell us how he had been offended and I think we were able to get past those concerns and we talked to him about how the people in the church aren't perfect, but the church is. Afterwords he took us home and as he dropped us off, he said, "There's no reason you shouldn't see us at church on Sunday" So I hope that they begin to come to church again.
Because we struggle here in Ireland to find new investigators we work a lot with less actives. And one of me and Elder Greers goals for this transfers was to completely reactivate two people and we have been praying about it so maybe these are our two!
Well as usual life is going great. It doesn't seem like I have a lot to say this week we kind of had a weird week last week because two of our biggest days for lessons, Saturday and Sunday, we were at general conference so we didn't get as much done.
HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY TO SISTER GRECO!! I'm not sure what day it is I just remember it is in October sometime but sister Bigler you will have to tell her for me. Think of the things that she has seen in her life since her birth in 1908, amazing.
Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RAYLEE this coming week I can't believe she is already 1. I wish I could see her walking around. I better get a lot of pictures of all these growing kids that I am missing out on!
Thanks, this week for the letters, two from Mom and Dad, one from Jamie and Aunt Carla. Thanks also to Jamie, Tommy, Shawn, and Grandma Kathy for the emails.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!
Wacey Ray,

"Rain drippin off the brim of my hat, It sure is cold today"
Charley Pride