5 March 2012

so first of all: nelson got baptized. it was great! logistically, not everything went as smoothly as i would have hoped but that doesnt really matter! what matters is that he has made a really important step in his life! its cool to see!

second: we met this wonderful lady named Sylbie. She is Brazilian. she just moved here from Idaho. in idaho her and her husband were taking the lessons from the missionaries. but then, about 4 weeks ago, her husband got sick and passed away :/
she had to move here very quickly because she found a job, and she wasnt able to get baptized in Idaho. we talked to her on the phone this past thursday. met her on friday. had an interview for her baptism on saturday. and then she came to church sunday! already people in the ward are making friends with her and really taking care of her!  She is so strong to make such a big change so soon after her husband died. but she says a new start will be good for her and she is really excited to be here. I'm just excited i got to meet her. shes awesome!

The other big news that we got this week is that on July 1st the nevada las vegas west mission is basically getting split in half! instead of having 2 missions in nevada there are going to be 3. so i could be stuck i the heat of las vegas for the rest of my mission, or i could spend the rest of my mission in the cooler northern parts of nevada (what im hoping) we'll see! that'll be in a couple transfers.

so heres a funny story for you: this past weekend both the mens and womens BYU basketball teams had games in vegas and all the players ended up coming to my ward! it was cool to see them all at church along with them (who i kinda recognized) i also kinda recognized someone else. he was an old man. i thought he might be from ohio. so i went up to him and introduced myself. we spent a little bit trying to figure out how i knew him. finally he said that his name was Samuelson and that he worked at BYU. It was President Cecil O Samuelson! the president of BYU! i was pretty embarrassed lol. i apologized and told him it must be because im a missionary and am focused on other thing. he said that was a good excuse. It was really funny!

I hope you all have a wonderful week this week. dont get blown away by any tornadoes!

love,
elder donovan :)