Holy Frostbite Batman!

Well, this week was crazy! It was great, but it was a change. I already love Simi Valley! The ward is great, and the area is good. I can already tell that I am going to love it here! There are a couple things in the district that I didn't feel like were in complete harmony with the mission rules... apparently a couple of the Elders have gym memberships to Gold's Gym??? I was kinda confused with that one... but yeah, we are working all those kinks out (: It was sooooo cold this week! It was down into the 30s! that probably sounds warm to you guys right now, but it is freezing here! And in this area, every other day we are on bikes... so my wee lil' fingers get a bit chilly sometimes (: ha. And yes, as you know my knee hurt a little bit. I haven't read what you said in your email, but basically I am waiting for the doctors opinion on it. I think no matter what I will just endure to the end of my mission if I do need surgery, but I guess we will find out. Yeah, this week we didn't have a cell phone... Elder Payne, Elder Gray's last companion, accidentally took it with him when he got transferred to Santa Maria, which is like 2 hours + away..... poo. I never realized how hard it is to do missionary work without a cell phone! I don't know how you did it dad ;) I got a lot of respect for ya! 

Oh! while I still remember, what would be a good time to call home this Christmas? I think we have a dinner scheduled, so around 5-7 would probably be the only time that wouldn't work. So just let me know what time works good for you guys (:

My new comp is Elder Gray. He is from 30 minutes south of Denver. We are getting along pretty well. He has been out for about 4 and 1/2 months and our distict is so tiny compared to my last one! and it's all ELDERS! Yessss!!! (no offense to women at all... (; ) sports are a lot more fun since we can just go all out. but I really have to take it easy with my knee. but It's awesome being around a bunch of Elders again! 

I was able to meet a couple of the investigators. I met Ian Minns. He has a pretty hard life... We usually just go over and share thoughts with him to uplift his spirits. His wife died not too long ago, and the government isn't being to fair towards him to say the least. He has a lot of really bad health issues, so we are really praying for him on that.  We do a lot of service for him to help him out. His backyard is like a massive service project! it's crazy, but it's fun. 

Our investigator with a date, Jack Genchi (jaynkee), expressed to us that he didn't want to be baptized on his date anymore. ): He told us that he feels nervous and we think he feels really pressured into doing it, since his family is relying on him so much to be baptized. In our lesson we basically just testified to him and tried to help him feel the spirit. He told us that he doesn't feel like he has a testimony of this church. We promised him that if he read and prayed about the Book of Mormon that he would soon come to find out that it was true. I shared my experience of how that "burning in the bosom" didn't come right off the bat, but I just had to be patient for it to come. He is still set with that date, and we are going to do our best to help strengthen his testimony by that date. Please keep him in your prayers that his testimony will be strengthened by his date of Jan. 4th! 

We taught the Hartkop family along with their friend Rainbow. The Hartkop family is awesome! Sis. Hartkop is a member, and the son Scott is a member, but Bro. Hartkop, and their daughters Sarah and Alana aren't baptized. We are really trying to help Alana! She graduated this year, and she basically lives all the standards of the church, and she actually has a calling in the nursery.... So we are just trying to help her get to the water (: But they are all so great! they love the missionaries. but It was a great lesson and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. It went really good! Rainbow was there as I said earlier. She's around 30 I think? But she looks super young, and she has a daughter named Heaven. Her ex husband is Paul Rodriguez a famous skate boarder, so that's pretty cool (: Haha it was a great lesson. 

I got to speak in church yesterday about missionary work briefly. It went really good, at least as far as I know (: ha. Before church the bishopric asked me to speak, and he said that the ward needed more excitement for missionary work, so I did the best I could to "pump them up" (: haha. But it was great! 

I think that's all that's happened this week... my mind is kinda going crazy right now! mondays are busy days (: haha! But thank you so much for all that you do! it really means a lot to me just how much love and support you give me. you are in my thoughts and prayers alll the time! I love and miss you (: Talk to ya in a couple weeks! 

Elder Teeples 

My new district.