Dad,

Ha Ha. I pretty much started to laugh when you were telling me about having kids cry at football practice. I wish I could have seen it. Football is starting back up here as well. It doesn't get more serious than Texas football. Have you hear anything about Buddha? Like how he is doing at BYU and what not? I would love to get an update about him and maybe an address that I could write him.

So this last week has been good. Elder Peterson and I have 20 other elders and sisters in our zone. So with us there are 22. There are a lot of good elders that I have never met. That means that I'm getting old in the mission. I'm the kind of zone leader that really doesn't correct anyone. Because obviously I have my faults and I'm not here to act like I'm the boss of any of the elders in the Zone and so therefore I just work hard and worry about myself and try to be the example. My companion on the other had he is the one that corrects elders and sisters and I'm too laid back for that. It does drive me crazy sometimes because it seems unnecessary to me but whatever...

We had a real good week this last week. We stand with 9 people that have a baptismal date. Only 1 of them came to church yesterday which was disappointing but it happens. We have been inviting people to be baptized every single first lesson that we teach. Which is very powerful! Of those nine people 2 of them have a date for the month of September.

Mason Le Var is one of them. He is a stud! We went over there on Saturday because they invited us to a BBQ. While the food was being prepared and what not we talked with the parents some and we played some tackle football with them. He and his two other brothers, they are 13, 14, and 14. We had a lot of fun. It's been good for them, I think, for me to come to this area because I'm into sports and we can just talk about sports and have some fun with it. They didn't make it to church yesterday because of the parents. The dad is being weird and isn't really interested in making the changes to come back to the church and so it is frustrating but we are planning on doing some service with him this Saturday and so hopefully it will soften his heart a little bit.

We were really led by the spirit in order to find one of the 9 investigators that have a date. His name is Zach Darrow. Elder Peterson taught him about 6 weeks ago and him and his wife came to church once. They loved it and then they kind of just fell off and they didn't have much contact with them after that. Well on Friday or something like that we were driving in a neighborhood, the one that they live in, and Elder Peterson really felt like we should go by and see them. So we did. Well it turned out that his wife had left him 5 days ago and that he was just feeling all bummed and doing nothing. Drinking and smoking his life away. We had a real good lesson with him about trials and how coming closer to Christ will help him more than anything. He said yes to a baptismal date and we left him with a Book of Mormon. He was supposed to come to church yesterday but he never showed and we don't know what happened. But we are meeting with him on Tuesday. We are excited about him.

The other investigators that we have found have pretty much been by knocking. We are praying for them and doing what we can so that they can feel the Spirit and accept the gospel. We really, really emphasize prayer. I love bearing testimony that I know by the power of prayer that these things are true. Without prayer we would be lost souls walking around on earth, and I would not know that these things are true.

I had a crazy experience yesterday. We had dinner with the Benson family, who are members. Well we are driving up and we see all of their cars and they have Wyoming license plates on them. So I was thinking OK, this is cool. It had a number 5? Which you know what county that is. Well I got talking to them and they said that they were from Laramie. I told them you, Dad, were from Wyoming as well and that Grandma and Grandpa Harvey live in Lovell. Well I guess he grew up in Lovell or he lived there for a little bit. I think he still has family that is there. I tried to explain where everyone lives but I have forgotten and so I'm asking you to give me some information. Like where you grew up? Where your sisters live? etc... Bro Benson was saying, "I bet we are related down the line." And I was like, "probably".

The funny part was the story that I told them about when you and Mom moved into that house in Logan and the Bishop visited and found out you were from Wyoming he looked at your tennis shoes and asked, "Where are your sh*t kickers?" They laughed pretty hard at that one. I did as well. But their family is really sweet. They remind me a lot about us. They have three daughters that all play volleyball and so I talked to them about Katie and how good she was and what not. It was a fun day because of that experience and I'm glad that I have found a family in the Ward that is sweet like that.

That is about all that happened for the week. More to report on our progressing investigators next week. Love you all!

Elder Harvey