October 23rd :)

I have to say I pretty much have been waiting on pins and needles since Josh's email didn't come yesterday! Now I can breathe a sigh of relief....silly mom I know. Anyway, have a terrific Tuesday everyone! Thanks for your support for the missionaries! It means so much to them and to their mamas! :)

Howdy ya'll
I'll try to answer questions first so I don't miss out on anything. The bike is good. Elder Hopkinson won't let me pay for it though so I figure I'll just return the favor and give it to somebody else when the time comes. Yes mother, you can do what you're doing with sending me emails by mail. That way there is at least one day in the week that I get mail! Yes, I have received the box, the pictures, and other things as well. If you ever get around to sending another package I request that you send those puma soccer cleats that don't fit Cam because we play flag football mostly on p-day and also I request (you're gonna think this is weird) a pair of onesie garments for onesie wednesday. My dad says I need a pair so I better listen right? Right. So those are my only requests and I probably won't need/want much more for a while! I forgot my camera but I was gonna send a picture of my dad and our sweet watermelon that was given to us. I'll take pictures of the hilly terrain of Rio Rancho too. Something funny about Rio Rancho is that the highest point of the city is the dump. We went there for service and it was awesome! Also, I am glad to hear the Packers are getting things going and that the Ducks are still undefeated. I heard that the Yankees got schooled. Everybody who is a baseball fan here was really happy about that.Thank you for the sports updates Jake and Cam. Jake, you should be receiving your letter sometime this week or next week. I have like 10 minutes in the morning while Elder Jacobs is showering and that's when I try to respond to letters so it probably takes like 3 days to finish a letter. Family can email though too. Anyway, I hope that is all the things that ya'll have asked about.
Well, this week wasn't so glorious... at all. Appointments fell through and some people's doors that we knocked on were really rude. "Don't knock on any of the doors on this street, everybody is sick of you guys! Tell the other ones not to come here either!" Yeah that was kinda frustrating. Probably the most frustrating thing of all is that we couldn't meet with T.J. and Roxy! Both times we had scheduled meetings with them something was going on so that was disappointing. But on the bright side, in the brief moments that we spoke to T.J. he said he has read from the BoM and is hoping to find the answers to his questions in it. He will find the answers for sure! I know he will, and Roxy will too!
We did have one really super awesome experience though! There is a less-active family called the Elsmore's and we don't visit them very often but everytime we do sis. elsmore says that she really needed us to be there. Her grandpa is dying and he lives in Las Cruces and there are a lot of family members down there in Cruces that don't go and help take care of the grandpa at all but she makes the drive down there pretty often with her little daughter and she just feels like she is the only person doing anything to help at all. She is also really sad that he is dying and even with her knowledge of the Plan of Salvation she is scared that she might not see him again. Elder Jacobs pulled out his bossness and shared a sweet scripture in the BoM and she knows that her grandpa was a good man and will be resting in paradise so that really comforted her. She started crying. When people cry and you are a missionary a lot of the time it is a good thing because it means they are feeling the spirit. The spirit was very strong in the room and I just felt full of joy and that I was really helping someone! I almost shed a tear bearing testimony that I know the Plan of Salvation gives us all comfort and that it is true. Then she asked for a blessing because she is really stressed and being part of blessings is always awesome! Bro. Elsmore gave the blessing and it was soooo awesome to see them feel the spirit together. Now they need to get their butts in gear and in church EVERY SUNDAY!
Speaking of church, I had my first almost normal church meeting in month and it was great! It was ward conference and our investigator until proven member Shari came so that was awesome! She always has really good questions to ask and she is really excited about learning more about the gospel. If she isn't already a member she will be pretty soon. She just needs to marry Geno. We try to talk to Geno sometimes so that we can talk to them both together about marriage. I can't wait for her to be baptized. I just wish everyone was as ready to receive the gospel as she is! That would be really convenient. I was talking to one of the other missionaries in our district and he said that the reason we call it missionary work is almost everybody will have problems like word of wisdom and law of chastity. We have to work hard to get them to the point where they are willing to give those kinds of things up. It's crazy stuff but it's worth it. I think the thing I've learned about the most so far actually being in the field is that if you don't love the people where you are serving no matter what, you won't be able to lose yourself in the work. I really pray to develop more and more charity all the time.
I read about Moroni today and it really inspired me. If everybody was like him, Satan would n't have any power over anybody. That was very inspirational to me and I'm trying to be a mini Moroni. The church is true! It's either the greatest hoax of all time or it's the greatest blessing of all time! Guess what? It's the greatest blessing of all time! Everyone can receive that witness through the power of the Holy Ghost. Moroni told me.
Ya'll will hear from me next week!
Love,
Elder Black
P.S. the internet went down in the library yesterday so that's why you got this today.