March 15, 2010-Happy Birthday, Paige

hey everyone,
alright so first of all i want to wish paige a happy early birthday! can you believe that you´re gonna be 16?! thats so crazy to me ...i also wanted to thank you guys for attaching that list of 20 things. i definately got a laugh at all that. my favorite was definately #1 hahah. i still remember that morning...once again, i apologize to rachel for her having to see that. i´m sure she saw me in a new way after that...incident hahah.
dang this week was probably one of our best ones since being in this area without having a baptism that week. we´re really trying to focus on having lessons with members. thats something that has always been really hard in this area because the members don´t get too excited about leaving with us alot. but i think that the last few baptisms that we´ve had have kind of gotten them excited and they seem more willing to help us out. i never realized how important it is to have members in lessons. they can really relate to the investigators in certain ways that us as missionaries can´t always do. especially converts...they can be huge helps for us. but yeah it was a really exciting week because we were able to take out a baptismal date with this guy luis. i don´t know if i mentioned his name the other week, but hes a really awesome guy that has known about the church for a really long time. he almost got baptized a year or so ago, but something happened and it didn´t work out. but he´s just another chosen son of God. he´s super prepared and really loves the gospel of Jesus Christ. so we put the baptismal date for the 27th of this month, which is like the last week of this transfer.
sara and valeria are doing really well also. they´ve come to church every week since we found them, which is crazy. they´ve got such strong testimonies of this church. we´re just trying to help sara get married. her and her ¨husband¨ were gonna go to the registro civil this week to set a date to get married, but the husband had to work and wasn´t able to do it. but i´m thinking that what really might help them would be to set a goal for a baptismal date. if we do that, then they´ll know that they have to get married before that time. so hopefully that will help them to go and take out a marriage date. but we´re super excited about them too. mortensen and i see all 3 of these investigators as people who are going to be really strong members throughout their lives.
ok so i´m either gonna try to mail the memory card tomorrow or next monday. if i can do it tomorrow then i will. but if we don´t have time to do it when we´re in el centro, then i´ll just probably go next monday. but i´m excited to get that sent to you all because i looked and some of those pictures were from when i was in bosques. i was just thinking how long ago that was...it feels like its been forever since i was there. its crazy how fast the mission feels like it goes sometimes.
well mom, i haven´t gotten the package yet, but i´m thinking that it might be in the offices right now. i don´t know when i´ll get it, but i´m definately looking forward to it. it´ll be awesome to hear from you all. thanks for doin that for me. dad, hows the missionary work goin back at home? sometimes i think that it would be sweet to leave with the missionaries back home and try to give some pointers or something...but hey i´ll bet you´re gettin ready for baseball season comin up in a month or 2. you´ve gotta be sure to get a game or 2 in for me when it all starts. sean, dude i definately recognized that quote from ¨Starsky and Hutch¨. yeah dude thats a classic for sure. it sounds like the wedding plans are going really well too. mom says that you put up a gazibo (i know that i´m wayyy off on the spelling there haha) where the sand pit is. i definately want to see pictures when the time comes. i don´t remember if you´ve told me already, but what is the official date of the wedding?...as far as sports go it sounds like things are pretty good. hopefully the chargers can get some guys to fill the holes that we have on the team. i´m hoping that the lakers will get it together...it would be awesome to just start dominating again right now...dude i´m definately stoked to hear the new angels cd when i get back. it´ll be way tight. too bad by then you´ll probably be over how awesome it is. paige, thats sweet that cheerleading tryouts are starting soon. i´m really excited for you. hey happy 16th birthday too! do you have any plans to do something cool? you´ll have to tell me next time if you end up doing something fun. bridg, it sounds like your party last week was alot of fun. thats way cool that you got an ipod nano! i can tell that you´re really excited about that. don´t have too much fun.
i was gonna try to attach some pictures, but this usb port isn´t working. so sorry about that. i´ll try to send you some next week though. but i´m glad to hear that all is well and that everyone is havin fun. it sounds like the wedding plans are going well. i love you all. i hope that this week is as good for you all as last week. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall