I LOVE this district!

The weeks are going by faster and faster... The first 6 months of my mission went by SO SLOW. Every day felt like an eternity. Now we're struggling to get everything done that we need to in one day! It's awesome! And I'm almost at 7 months! WHAT?! Craziness. I love my mission, don't get me wrong. But being on your mission makes you so excited to get back and start the rest of your life.

Mother- Why would I, a missionary, go to a home decor store?? haha! I don't think that's an effective activity. Especially when I'm no where near Nampa right now. :P What do you think I do all day?! Shop?! haha

You should send me some cute missionary stickers! I love decorating my letters/envelopes with stickers. And every transfer we decorate our missionary planners. :) Thanks for sending that package- I'll look for it today. :D I'm sure that I'll love whatever is in it. :D

Yay! School is starting up again! I'm not sure if I'm happy for that or not... Summer time is great for missionary work (for the most part). People tend to be home more. I hope that the boys enjoy school though! It'll be a great year!
Sorry that Nana and Papa won't be able to visit SC. I guess we'll have to move closer to the west coast! ;) I'd be totally cool with that. haha Saves me some money with having to travel to and fro after every semester. ;)

I really don't ever see my mission president- besides at interviews (which happen every 3 months). He's more quiet... And he doesn't do a lot of trainings at zone conferences or anything. Most of the time he shares a parable from the scriptures and then talks about it. He's a nice guy. I'm sure if I ever became a Sister Training Leader I'd get to know him a bit more. Normally you really only ever get to know him if you're having some issues.... Soooo, maybe I need to get some issues or something? hahahaha! I did ask him for a blessing once, after a zone conference a couple months ago. And it was really nice. I've felt more focused after that experience.
And his wife is really quiet too. She's really nice though. She's a good listener... Because that's really all she does- LISTEN! They're awesome people.

 6:30 am morning workout!
Sister Pritchard and I have been working out a lot more this week. We've been going to the church at 6:30am with Kristey (the one who's sent you pictures this week) and doing Zumba. It's been a lot of fun, and a great workout! (Btw, we should totally go do those Zumba classes at the YMCA when I get home. I'm going to need to lose some mission weight. haha) I've been feeling a lot healthier... and a lot more tired. Mostly tired actually. :P But hopefully, after a couple weeks of working out, I'll get used to it and not want to fall asleep during every lesson we have.

 The missionaries helped make these love bears to be donated.

 Sister G (as she is called) was studying for a lesson she would be presenting to a newly baptized member.

We had our first district meeting of the transfer on Wednesday! I LOVE this district. :) They're my kind of people. (A lot of changes happened in the mission this transfer- with missionaries moving around.) But I'm finding that- even at 6 months- I'm starting to be known as one of the "older missionaries". There's only 2 other missionaries in the district (Elders) that have been out longer than I have- in a district of 10 Elders and Sisters. So, it's kind of cool actually. :) I don't feel like a "useless greenie" anymore. :)

Ready for the awkward tracting story of the week?! We had a zone tracting blitz in Ontario on Saturday. This house had a door covered in frosted glass (so you couldn't see right through it, but you could see movement) and there was an open window right next to the door. We went up to this door, knocked, and we hear this little kid yell, "Grandpa! Someone's here!" ...no answer. "Evan! Someone's here!" ...then we heard a whispered, "Shh, just come here. Don't answer the door." And then silence for a while. (RUDE) I was about ready to walk away and give up, when Sister Pritchard sees the little kid through the frosted window of the door and says, "Hi! How are you?" The kid had been caught. hahahaha All of a sudden, this teenager pops up from underneath the window and opens the door. He had been laying down underneath the window and trying to hide from us! Are you serious, people?! Come on. Our conversation was short, they obviously weren't interested. But I was trying REALLY hard to not saying anything about it. haha Who hides underneath a window?!?! Like that's not obvious.

Service for the week: We helped Kyna pick up horse poop again this week. It was a lot better, now that it wasn't 106 degrees outside. haha! We also went back and dug up huge weeds in the Reeder's backyard. (work out!) And we also attended a Relief Society humanitarian night. We made backpacks for kids in need, stuffed love bears for the hospitals, and tied quilts for families. It was a lot of fun.

We had another 2 lessons with Mariah and Dallas this week... We are seriously their only friends. And it's kind of sad. So our lessons have turned into marriage counseling sessions. I think they forget that I haven't been married... haha I don't know what I'm talking about half the time. I'm a missionary- not a marriage counselor. haha! But they are continuing to grow in their faith and in their testimonies. So I can't complain!

Did I tell you about Jesus Delarosa?? He thought he was a member? Well, we found out on Sunday that he's not. He just received a blessing when he was in prison. So, now we have a new investigator! haha YAY! But, yeah, he's been in prison and done who knows what in his life... so if he were to get baptized, it would probably take a while. He's an interesting guy. But he came to church and stayed for 2 hours yesterday! :)

The Stewart's have accepted the invitation to prepare for baptism!! We went over there for our first lesson, after they had been attending church for 3 weeks straight, and they are awesome!!! They have already noticed so many blessings from coming to church and from making little changes in their lives. They had a brother pass away in 2012, and they love the plan of salvation and the temple. At first, they were a little uneasy about listening to the lessons. They had attended church and heard things that didn't make sense. But after explaining things more simply and more in depth, they accepted it. And they all committed to reading The Book of Mormon and praying together and individually. They are just an amazing family.

Sister Gubler

 They found these glasses at the church and were being silly with them.