Bozeman II

Hey Family,

It sounds like you are all doing pretty well. It was awesome to be able to see all the pictures from Cutler and his trip. Spencer and I have been waiting for those all week, we've been talking about how excited we are to hear about how everything went so GET THAT LETTER OFF SOON!! haha, we want to hear. I hope it was a wonderful experience.

Mom, Congratulations on having your houses up for sale, thats awesome! I'm so excited for you and you really are great at your job, you always seem to get the great offers and they often pay more than you are asking for haha! How crazy is that, when does that happen?

Dad, have lots of fun in all of your meetings while you are there in Utah and then in SJ, =) but really, there is always a bright side to things... somebody taught me that....

Mom, I can tell that you have a little bit of time on your hands because you went through all the old pictures and sent them to us haha! I had never seen one of Dad on his mission, that was awesome! I am excited to talk to him about it when I get back.

Lindy, I haven't heard from you which is probably a good thing haha, I hope it means that you are so busy and are enjoying yourself so much that you just forgot=) I want to know how your cruise was and what you have been up to for the last couple of weeks! You kind of are experiencing a mission in a way because you have a companion, Rachel, who you are with 24/7! It can be fun and it can be tough sometimes too, just don't get caught up on the little things that bug you, dont focus on the negative and this is what sister Essig always said, (it is her home motto) No Eat, No Sleep, No Talk. So if you havent eaten, and/or slept for a while (if you are tired) Dont talk! haha, its great advice. I hope you are having a blasst!

Time has gone by fast and slow. The pace of things here is definitely very different from things down in Chile. Surprisingly, it seems that there was more to do down there! We are trying out a bunch of different ideas that I picked up in my mission though and are just trying to rely on the Lord to give us people to teach.  It honestly, has been a bit harder to get back into this swing of missionary work than I thought it would for lots of different reasons but we are getting there. We met a couple of really cool people this week who should be good to work with.

We have been really trying to get members to do more work and to work with referrals from them. We identified an area that we wanted to work in and a couple of members that we wanted to work with that are younger couples that we clicked with pretty well so we are excited about them.

One of the great people that we met this week though who lives like a half hour away from us up this gorgeous canyon is named Mike. He lives out there with his family and it is a beautiful piece of property.  Fun fact about him, is that he raised a 700 pound black bear for 9 years =) crazy right? But he is a nondenominational christian but he studies the bible more than most people that I know. He has a lot of his facts straight and has a bunch of the right ideas. It is really cool to see. He has a friend from church (Steve, who Spencer met in 3 forks) who has talked to mike a bunch about the church and mike has been surprised by how much there is in common with what he believes. He is really smart and it is going to be interesting to see how he progresses!

Also we went to contact a referral the other day and as we were driving up to the house and parked, there was a man just a few trailers down that kept looking at us and then he would go inside and come back out and look at us and then go back in. We saw him do it a couple of times and decided to go contact him, his name is Alex and he just got out of prison. He is Mormon and he told us that he is ready to make the changes he needs to in his life so that he can come back to church and straighten out. We went over to his house yesterday and had a really great lesson with him and his girlfriend, sammy, and we are excited about them. We think that they are going to do great and are going to progress really well. We set up another appointment with them and we are going to go back with one of the young couples that we selected to work with.

It has been challenging but good to be up here in Montana. I am still learning like crazy, it is amazing how much there is to learn everyday and its amazing how much the Lord is willing to teach and show us everyday.  Im grateful to be out here and it has been really cool to see Spencer and all the changes that he has made in his life. He really does want to do what is right and to serve the Lord with all his heart might mind and strength and it is really cool to see that in him. His life is a miracle and the changes that he has made, I am so blessed to be here with him and am grateful for the opportunity to serve here with him.

Have a wonderful week and we'll talk next week,

Love,

Jar