Hi everyone!
Well it's safe to say that this week ended up being a lot better than last week. We're still dealing with some of the aftermath of the last couple weeks, but we're doing ok. A big obstacle right now is finding. We've picked up a couple new investigators the last few weeks, but not a whole lot. And at the rate we keep baptizing, our teaching pool is shrinking. Of course, we do continue teaching after baptism, but it's just not quite the same. They become the ward's responsibility and we're there more in an assisting capacity rather than the primary source of their spiritual needs. And we have to report all our lessons and stuff, and though lessons to recent converts definitely count and are important, they aren't our main focus. Just about every number we report has to do with getting people to baptism and confirmation, except lessons to recent converts and less active members. So lessons to nonmembers is really the backbone of our teaching. We're working on getting our splits system going again (it hasn't really happened the last couple weeks) and applied to the whole stake (not just a few
wards). Hopefully that will help us find more people to teach.
We actually had some good things happen this past week. Reagan is progressing really well, and will probably be baptized either this week or the week after. And we started her on the Stop Smoking Program. And on Saturday, we got Jose and Alexis baptized, and they were confirmed on Sunday! Finally! After last week's total letdown with everything, it was a nice victory. I'll include a picture in this email. Unfortunately the lighting was really bad so the picture didn't come out the best. In addition to those things, we did a pretty good job keeping busy all week and did a fair amount of service.
And I'm getting the hang of being a district leader again. So that's good. In addition to picking my area back up, I've been working a lot lately to help the Red Cliffs Elders' area out. They've been in a sort of investigator drought, and they've had trouble getting the members motivated. I've met with them a few times and talked about a game plan, and they're going to be starting to go out with leadership more like we do. And I've also talked to some of their ward mission leaders and they said they're in on this as well. They also have a really good High Counselor over missionary work who is actually a former mission president who has some really good ideas to benefit the area. So I'm pretty optimistic. Hopefully Red Cliffs will start doing better, and hopefully Snow Canyon (my area) will continue making a comeback. I think a lot of good things are going to be happening in this district here in the next few weeks. I've also been collaborating with another district leader (Elder Robinson, who's really awesome) on ways to make all of this missionary work simultaneously more effective
and more fun.
Well, changing topics, the weather in St. George has taken a turn. The last few days have been around 107 degrees. The Fires of St. George have returned. I think that has been the hardest part of this past
week. Everything else missionary-wise actually seemed to work out pretty well, and the trials that plagued us the last few weeks weren't really present a lot (well, for the most part at least). But then I
guess God decided to turn on His incinerator. Haha. It looks like we're "out of the frying pan and into the fire". Before breaking 100, the high temperatures were in the 80, and sometimes low 90s. That was nice. Then all of a sudden, one day the temperature jumped up to 104. And it was all downhill from there. It's been kinda painful getting used to it (or trying to do so). A few days ago, Elder Burt actually got some heat exhaustion and dehydration and we had to come in early. It really does seem to just suck the life out if you. Being out in it even for just a few minutes makes me feel tired (not to mention quite uncomfortable). And it makes my face feel weird (like that feeling you get after sitting around a big campfire for a while). And getting into the car after appointments is REALLY bad. It gets so hot in there! We have to be careful what we touch lest we burn ourselves. The seat belts and steering wheel are especially good conductors of heat. And so are sunglasses. I tried to put my sunglasses on the other day and felt like I had just branded my face. Anyway, I guess I'd probably
better get used to it because I'll probably be here most of the summer. Good old St. George. Haha, at least I'm not in Mesquite. I heard it got up to 117 the other day!
Well, that's about all for now. The weather's definitely against us, but at least just about everything else is looking up. And this week is looking pretty good too.
I miss you guys! Have a great week!
-Elder Oswald
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