It looks like my e-mail is working very slowly today. Hopefully it 


works just enough to send  off a letter. If not, maybe next week.





It was a busy week this week. We had a Mission Tour with Elder Jones 


from the 2nd quorum of  the 70. I received some extraordinary 


personal revelation. We also had interviews with  President Seal. 


Friday I went on exchanges with the zone leaders, and Elder Kaneko 


was able  to go with Jamode and Wanita to get a marriage license. 


They were married Saturday,  interviewed on Sunday, and now we just 


need to get a baptismal program and a set of clothes  for them. It 


looks like I'll be baptizing Jamode. Elder Kaneko will perform his  


confirmation. Elder Maldonaldo will baptize Wanita. I'm not sure who 


will be perfmorming her  confirmation.





So, we have two baptisms for Saturday. Hoepfully we'll be able to get 


some more next month.  I'm not sure what will happen to me for a 


while, nor do I really care too much. I'm too  worried about the task 


at hand. With this transfer, I will have been in Springdale for 7.5  


months. Another transfer will make it 9 months. Already, I've only 


been in two areas my  first year. And I only moved up one county.





I was able to see a couple of 12-year-old Marshallese kids that I 


hadn't seen for 6 months,  and they told me that my Marshallese has 


really improved. But I'm still not really able to  teach that much or 


that well.





Looks like the e-mail is working now. In response to your letters: I 


could use another set  of green slacks. Puritans, size 38. They don't 


have any green slacks out here. Everything  else is holding up. I 


bought a couple of cool orange ties from Wal-Mart last week from TJ  


Maxx and Wal-Mart. We had to get permission to go to TJ Maxx, as it's 


in Fayetteville.  Fayetteville is very much a college town, and it's 


a good thing I'm not serving there!





In the way of suggestions about Partiarchal blessings, I'm not sure. 


Mine is mostly a  spiritual guideline (it explicitly states so!). But 


there is one thing that I will share:  "The Lord desires every young 


man that is mentally, phsycially, and spiritually strong to  serve a 


two year mission, if at all possible." I feel that this not only 


applies to me now,  but I've been told in other blessings that I will 


be working with the young men, and so I  feel that it is to help me 


later on in life as well, and to help them. Most everything in my  


Patriarchal blessing deals with the future, or some basic things to 


consider or continue  doing.





Oh, it looks like Preparation Days will be changed. One missionary 


noticed on Labor Day that  there were a lot of people out, and he and 


his companion called President Seal and asked to  have their 


Preparation Day later in the week. He agreed, and they were able to 


get a lot  done. President Seal realized, just as I did, that most 


national holidays are on Mondays.  That's when people are out and 


about, perfect days for proselyting, and we can't e-mail  anyway, so 


I expect Preparation Days to be moved to Tuesdays or something in 


October. I'll  keep you posted.





Thankfully, time is beginning to fly by. Does anyone realize it's 


only three months to  Christmas? I've nearly have just a year left. I 


feel ready to go home, and I also feel "at  home." Maybe I'm just 


getting used to this place and being a missionary.





See you next week!