that is awesome that you talked to Andrew coffman! he is great. he was the assistant when i first got to the mission. he actually some how got my number and texted me on Sunday and told me that he had seen and visited with you all so that was really cool to hear! that is so awesome that Jared Stewart is getting married. i better be getting a announcement from him or i will be mad! haha. that is great, i am so happy for him and hope all goes well. maybe i will have to drop him a letter next week.
I got your sweet package at the mission home on Friday at zone leader council. i loved it and it was great. i am stocked up on sets for a while. i got quite a few set in a box. thank you so much. i loved the jerky. i ate the first one and i guessed that it was Phillip 66 jerky but didn't know for sure until your tape. that was great as well. i love hearing how things are from your voices and it makes me smile. i will buy some tapes next week and i will get you one going! :) thank you so much!
So I am officially jealous of your weather. this week it hit 118. miserable. i honestly never thought that any place in this world could get this hot and if it did i wouldn't think that anyone in their right mind would live there! haha. i just feel really blessed that i am in a car. the car gets really hot and by the time it starts to cool off we get where we need to be so you get the raw end of the stick either way but i am being blessed. really hard to stay hydrated and keep cool but some how I am managing. :) the power did go out for about 4 hours last week and talk about miserable. it got so hot really fast. everyone was freaking out looking for generators and water and all the necessities of life that we all take for granted. but it came back on and no one died! haha
so transfers went really well. it was really hot out on the asphalt moving luggage but all went well. it was a really long day but we finally got to AJ and got a few things settled. AJ is like nowhere i have ever been before... our area is right in the middle of the city and it is all trailers pretty much. there are a few residential areas but for the most part its all lower end. there are a ton of really wonderful people that we are teaching right now. we have a really good teaching pool and have received so many blessing just since i got here. its great. we actually have 2 baptisms coming up this weekend. the first one is a sweet lady named Mary. she has been meeting with missionaries for a while and is just now ready. she has been coming to church and doing all the things that she is supposed to she hasn't felt like she has been ready. with in the past 2 weeks she has made so many amazing changes in her life and it is great to see. her boy friend Karl is also investigating but isn't quite ready. just a few more minor things that he working though and he should be moving along really fast. probley with in the next month!
then we also have Brad who is getting baptised on Sunday. he is 16 and really awesome. One great thing about AJ is that there are a lot of people who are not able to work for different reasons so we are able to meet with them on a regular basis. i have got around and know most all of our investigators so far and really look forward to working with them all! :) Church is completely different as well. 3 of our 4 wards are really small. like 60 people in sacrament. way different than mesa. haha. one of wards that we cover has been assigned by the stake to be the ward where all the convicts and sex offenders and any one with a problem attends so needless to say we have quite the interesting congregation! :) we cover the Merrill creek ward, meridian ward, ocatillo ward, and the signal butte ward. all of our bishops and ward mission leaders are really awesome and there is a lot of work going on in the stake right now! :) you should ask what ward Charley and Judy cook attend and let me know. and i will keep my eye out for a Charley Raspenson. its not too big of a city so you never know! :) and the church makes it alot smaller! :)
A huge miracle is that we have a member in one of our wards who has been dating a nonmember girl from phoenix and she has been meeting with missionaries in the other mission. well they got married on Friday and her and her daughter are moving into our area this week and then getting baptised next weekend! Its awesome to see so many people who have been prepared and are ready to make these sacred covenants!
So ya...AJ is officially CRAZY. there was a nasty looking coyote running down the side of the road on the way to church. lots of road runners and other wild life. the people are completely different and there are a lot of needy circumstances in our area. that does make people humble but it is really difficult. Lots of nasty stuff. i am so great full for the awesome family i have and the area i was raised in! it is great.
kinda crazy but i am the oldest missionary age missionary in our zone. hard to believe that i am to this point in my mission. elder Davis is one of the District leaders in our zone and the other district leader has dated the same girl as me! haha. remember that girl named Brooke from Star Valley that i did alot with at collage, well they went to High School together and dated there! haha, kinda funny. we have a really good, hard working zone and it will be alot of fun. i am really looking forward to it. i love elder derenthal. he is a few transfers behind me and then elder hay has been out 8 months. it is really hard being in a 3some. teaching is hard, everything is more difficult. we are getting by though. we have no idea how long elder hay will be with us. could be a few more days, end of the transfer of even another transfer depending on what president wants. he is one of the most inspired men i have ever met. i have no doubt that i am here in this new area for a reason and there is something great that i need to learn. i am excited! :)
this whole week we have the leadership meetings from 8-4 Tues-Fri so it is going to be a crazy long week and there is lot of other things that we need to get done in our area! haha, so it should be a little stressful but we'll get by. then the next week we are stacked with lessons and big zone meetings. kinda crazy and it makes time go by so fast. but i love being busy! better than the alternate!
I am doing well. new areas take patience and some adjusting but it will be great and i will look back on this time 6 months from now and be so thankful for the things i have learned! i love my mission so much. thank you so much for all that you do in making it all possible. your great and i love you all a lot and know you are doing well there as well. hope that the spraying goes smoothly and you can get all you need accomplished. give Katie and Wes my love and i will keep them in my prayers. there isn't really any one that i know of that you could let know so just be sure and let me know next email. i will be anxiously waiting the news! :) hope you all have a wonderful week and take care. keep healthy, safe and COOL. I'll do the same!
Love
Elder Dalan Lerwill
Elder Derenthal, Elder Hay, Elder Lerwill
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