Brady's Baptism (October 14-20)

On Monday we had the Duluth Zone Leaders over, and they spent Pday with them. We played Villainous a couple times, and I got them hooked on it too! They said that they never thought that board games were that hype, but then they realized you just got to play the right ones. For our proselytizing time we had a service project for a member, and we stacked wood for 2 hours. He then fed us some really good Mexican food! Afterward we went back to Aitkin and played games, talked and wrote letters to family. It was a great PDay.

Tuesday, I had my exchange with Elder Harline, and it was interesting. He is allergic to things Minnesota is known for... Cats and Dogs, dust, and Mold! If you didn't know, every house here is moldy somewhere, because of the intense humidity and constant rain. If you don't run fans then your place will get moldy, which I think is really dumb. Anyways the reason I mention this is because Elder Harline had a rough time. Our bathroom this last week had gotten really bad with mold, (see the before and after pic) and so when he took a shower it gave him really bad congestion. Then we went and saw Stan, and he has a really hairy dog. Then after lunch we traveled down to Crosby. We visited a member there and their grand kids were making a blanket and every time they lifted it up to straighten it out, it would move all the dust over in Elder Harline's face. I felt bad, but it was pretty funny.

Wednesday, we took it upon ourselves to clean the mold off the ceiling again (we had done it just a few weeks earlier too). I attached a before and after picture so you could see the difference it makes. The only way we have found that works for cleaning it, is using a foam mop, to scrub it. We also had our weekly planning and called up a lot of people that we had needed to. That night we went out tracting, and that was a good time.

Thursday, I started the day off with District Council and we had a good time with that. We had a training by some pretty funny missionaries, so they had a good time teaching us. After District Council we had a member take us out to McDonald's, and then we had them take us up to their house. We worked on building a lean-to on the side of their house. We got the roofing frame all finished up, and cut the 2x4 in the way the member needed them. It was a good time, and we helped them out a lot. When we got home we discovered that one of our outlets was molding out too! The apartment has just been falling apart it seems. We didn't have much food in the apartment so we ended up going to DQ for dinner, which ended up being inspired, because someone named Mary was there. We had met Mary last Saturday when we did the wood stacking project, and she is a friend of one of the less-active members here. She is super nice and pretty quiet but she said as we talked to her last night she really enjoyed it, and wants to meet up again! I guess satisfying my hunger for Ice cream is a really great thing!

Friday, we had a lesson cancel on us but we still had some service to do in Crosby. It was really awesome though because at the end of our service project, this inactive member, we have been helping, asked us if we would teach her daughter! It just goes to show that if we support the lost Sheep, that they will reach out when they feel ready. After our service we went back to Aitkin and we cleaned a blind lady's backyard up. We cleaned up her dog's poop and then mowed the lawn. Then we cleaned her white fence up. After we had dinner and Maddy and Tyler came over and we ate together and had a lesson with them. It went super good and she asked a lot about priesthood blessings. She wants to get baptized so bad! She just has to wait on parent permission right now.

Saturday, I got the opportunity to go back to Brainerd! We had a flat tire that we had to go fix so we went and fixed it in the morning before the baptism. We went over to the church early. We helped set up, and I talked to some of the members before the baptism. It was so good to see them again. Elder Coombs came up from Hudson Wisconsin, and was able to baptize Brady! I was so happy to see him again, and was happy he was able to baptize Brady. It was just amazing! After the baptism we went to lunch at the China Buffett, and a member paid for all of us! So nice of him! Then we went back home to Aitkin and we visited with Grandma Piecek and she put us right to work. We cleaned out her cupboard for her and it was full of random things, for us to sort out. 

Sunday was Elder Layton's Birthday, so after church we went home and he opened up his presents. After that we went out tracting for a bit, and did some weekly planning. Nothing really that noteworthy, other than a birthday.

Love y'all

Exchange with Elder Harline

Mold Clean up

Mold before and aft

Brady's baptism