Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Photos in Alabama

First off, the address.  Xander has sent us 2 different zip codes, and we're just now learning that letters and packages will be returned with one of the zip codes.  The following address appears to work correctly:

114 Crabapple Lane Apt. F
Birmingham, AL 35214
(35204 is the wrong zip code that was posted for a while)

Xander and his companion, Elder Dansie


Gotta' appreciate him representing the proper bicycle brand even while on his mission


The missionary apartment.  Looks fine from the outside.

Ew.  Gross.  Saggy, ugly, ripped sofa.  Boxes stacked in the corner?



Not too bad for a missionary apartment kitchen.


I guess this is where they study

Xander knows I can't stand a mattress with only a sheet (missing a mattress pad).   He did not like me forcing a brand new bulky mattress pad on him when he went to college.  But a bare naked mattress is so much worse.  I can only hope that maybe he was washing the sheets?  The clutter.  The need to vacuum.  The ugly Ninja Turtle blanket.  I did my best.  That's all I can do, right?

Fresh new haircut.  What a nicely shaped head.  Basketball on P-day.

I think they're taking that song, "I'm trying to be like Jesus" a bit too far.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Bingo Was His Name-O

I've been eating like a polynesian lately.  So much food!  and I'm still always hungry :) it's fun though, I've lost fat anyway from biking so much. 


I've been awful about writing people back recently.  We play basketball on P-Days and they play so long that I don't get an opportunity to write hardly at all, so if you could apologize for me, I'd appreciate that. 

We do a lot of service.  This week we helped a woman move.  We volunteer weekly at the library here and also at the old folks home.  At the library we do random funny jobs, like organize DVDs or make gift bags.  At the old folks home we do Bingo for the old people with fake money.  They seem to like it.  We've been to an awful old folks home that was disgusting and stinky, but the one we volunteer at is a lot nicer.  I still will do everything to keep my family away from a place like that.  There is very little joy there. 

So yes, lots of humanitarian work.  I don't think Elder Dansie likes it as much as I do.  We helped this guy move a couch into his apartment.  The couch looked like it had had dogs living on it for about 15 years.  Nasty, but we got it in. 

We do this cool thing a lot called "inspiration tracting."  If we have spare time like an hour or two, Elder Dansie and I use the map and pick 4 streets in an area.  We pray and ask to be lead to which road people are ready to hear the gospel.  Then we each pick 3 from the total list of 8.  Usually we each pick 1 or 2 of the same streets.  In so doing, we allow the Holy Ghost to tell us where to go knock on doors.  Every time we do this we find someone, at least one person, to teach.  It's pretty cool. 
Well I'm going grocery shopping now, Love you!