Halloween

We try to get the priests out with us as much as we can - good kids.

I will read 2 Nephi 9 - it's a good one indeed father. I remember FHE's - i miss them. we don't get those on our missions - and the ones in singles wards are not the same. It'll be awhile till i will get to have them.

To Mother's questions: I love the piano - I am doing making up stuff for hymns and it's really fun. Didn't really realize it till I was out here - my wife better be able to play the piano to teach my kids - that or the violin - nah probably the piano. But Elder Bird likes to sing - he's got a deep voice on him which is cool. But he will only sing if I play - because neither of us are too good. I'm not sure if Al came to church - I would doubt it - he's a long way out. Mark may get baptized on the 13th of November - he has some issues that are tough - so we'll see if he can get them all sort out in time. And Riley's parents know that I have an older sister with Downs. We've chatted a lot - It's cool because I know all the adults fairly well here now -been here for 9 months. I thought my talk went fairly well - President Beck e-mailed me and said, "Thank you so much for your outstanding presentation on how to hold an effective District Meeting. You were terrific and great to hear of the continued great progress in your area and District." So that was nice of him - I have found the power in complimenting - you can never compliment enough and it goes a huge, long, phenomenally great way.

I already got the Carrie Underwood song - so no worries there.


25 October 2010 - We carved pumpkins for Halloween today. It was the sisters idea - I carved a Georgia G on mine. My family is in Hawaii.


26 October 2010 - We had to wake up at 4:30 to make it to a breakfast at the Stake President's home at 6. Out whole district meets with him and President Beck was there too. We had some egg/hashbrown casserole which was decent. Wonderful grapes though. Then we talked about our investigators & how we need more member involvement. Had some good visits today. Went out with Bro. White on splits after correlation tonight. Had 4 auxilaries there - most in a long time.


27 October 2010 - So on Sunday night, Elder Pickett (Assistant to President - attended my district meeting last meet) called and asked if I would give a talk in our leadership meeting which happened today. It was on "How to hold an effective district meeting. Since we are going through a transition in the mission with implementing "Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel, Teaching More Effectively" district meetings have changed a bit. So they wanted a refresher for everyone on how to do district meetings with the new policies, teaching models, etc. So Sunday, he told me to put an outline together asap so he and President Beck could check it to make sure all was good before I taught it. So I worked on it that night and then e-mailed a really rough draft to them on Monday morning. So he got back to me on Tuesday morning and changed one thing and then President changed one thing and told me Tuesday afternoon. So that night (yesterday) I looked over it again and reviewed it again this morning. Dropped Elder Bird off with 2 other Elders and went with the Zone Leaders to our meeting. Wasn't nervous, just not 100% comfortable since I hadn't reviewed as much as I'd have liked too. It went well I thought. Then I came up and taught a couple lessons in Anthem with some splits and then went down with the other Elders and Elder Bird and spent the night with them.


28 October 2010 - Had part 2 of the leadership meeting. I got paired up with Elder Mendenhall in our Zone who is training - he is like the nephew of Bronco - BYU head football coach. We got to practice teach Elder Farnsworth (used to be in our district - love him) and Elder Wilson (from Parker, CO - so we know some of the same people). Lunch was fun to chat - President Beck sat with us. So at the end of this meeting President Beck stood up and handed out my notes from my talk the day before along with a sample district meeting agenda I had made up - Cool thought that something I made up will be used by the mission - cool helping out. If I had known that- I would of changed some things ha. Had a lesson with Madison Shaw.


29 October 2010 - We had a district meeting this morning. We did a lot of practice teaching. Then we had weekly planning and I went on exchanges with Elder Campbell. We're up in Anthem. We went to the Anthem Ward Halloween Party - good times. We were some of the judges for the chili cook-off. My top three were 1)A bar-b-que chili 2)A spicy chili and 3) A traditional, meaty chili. We drove back with the Spensers who are doing great.


30 October 2010 - Lot of tracting with Elder Campell. We swapped back and went to the Gavilan Peak ward Halloween Party - we had one of our investigator families show up and a lot of less-actives/non-members. It was fun. We drove there and back with one of our Bishop's who is just great. The wards here are awesome. I've developed good relationships with them. Yvonne Ogburn and her family were there - good times seeing converts doing so well.


31 October 2010 - Church was great. There was a musical number of "Come Thou Fount" which was awesome. I wish I could play the piano better. We gave a short presentation in Elder's Quorum about how they can help with missionary work - used L. Tom Perry's waterwheel effect. It was great. In between wards we came home and taught a family who came to church. After church, we went to an investigator's home who is going into surgery tomorrow and gave her a blessing and then the member invited them over for dinner - so we stayed and had dinner - then we had to come back to our apartment - no contacting outside on Halloween.


So overall a good week.
So I thought hard and here are some things I could use: 2-3 new slacks (I have 4 now and 2-3 are looking old. My only good one is a solid black one and a brown one looks ok). A Christmas CD - maybe Motab and the "Kings Choir" or something like that "Kings men/choir/group". Come Thou Fount sheet music or some cool hymn sheet music. Ummmm....not really sure what else.
Maybe a cheap new suit - something I can wear to district meetings every now and then to keep my nice ones good for church and bigger meetings. Some pages from my blog so I can see what that's like. My memory card so I can take some pictures. maybe a cheap sweater that I can wear under my suit coat during colder days at church/meetings.

Hope all is well.

Elder Perkins