19 Dec 2016

This week was bananas.......

Monday- Everything was pretty normal. We played some board games for p-day and chilled with the other missionaries; our lesson fell through because kids caught the flu. Usual stuff.

Tuesday- we went and saw a referral in the nursing home. One of the more awkward encounters I’ve had. She was almost completely deaf. Like I could yell and she still wouldn’t understand what we were saying. She was very nice though. We had a lesson with Shaylee, a less active who wants to be more involved with the church. She said she didn’t understand much about the gospel it turns out she only knows who Christ is and that he died for us she doesn’t even understand why.  So we are starting very basic. But she’s been coming to church and making a lot of progress!

Wednesday- There was a snow storm so we went around and shoveled a lot of sidewalks and that was most of our afternoon. Then we had to head down to Poce to get ready for zone conference on Thursday and this is where it gets crazy. There was a second snow storm. It was a lot worse than the first. So I drove up because the other elders are from Arizona, Arizona and Florida, so we felt it was best that I drove. We made it safe and sound then spent the night at the assistant’s house with the rest of the Soda Springs zone. Luckily everyone was safe on the way up.

Thursday- We had our Christmas Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun, except I would have preferred that we didn’t have an hour long explanation of why we have Tiwi (our car governors). The vehicle department came up from Salt Lake and inspected all the vehicles; this will tie into some weirdness later. So we went about Zone Conference had trainings by president and the assistants and Sister Hancock. Met with all the missionaries and talked about how old areas are going and such. It was an awesome time. Afterwards we went around Poce to pick up something we couldn’t get in Montpelier. Then, and going around town we never got over 35. When we started leaving town we noticed if we hit 35 that the truck started to shake. It started doing that yesterday but we thought it was just the storm. Then when we hit highway speeds the whole truck started to violently shake. So we turned around told the office we were staying a night to have the truck checked out and went in trios around where the assistants are. It was Elder Welling’s last day so we picked up his companion Elder Horn who will be with us for the next three weeks. But anyways that makes up most of today.

Friday- we took the car into the dealership and sat around for a few hours. They came back with some results and it turns out that bolts were missing from the truck.... I don’t know how we had a mission wide vehicle inspection (they even drove them around) and they approved our truck. But I’m also thankful that we were safe. Nothing was holding in the transmission and the truck could have fallen apart, but the Lord kept us safe. So we picked up a new Toyota Tacoma and I mean new it had 18 miles on it. I will never get to drive a vehicle this new ever again. So we get that until our truck is fixed. We made it back to Cokeville safe and sound. Another prayer answered. There was supposed to be a snow storm worse than the night before, and it was there for a while but it cleared up and we headed off and we had no snow on us the whole way down.  We could see it snowing all around. We got back into Cokeville in time for a baptismal interview that Elder Welling and Horn set up. So that was perfect.

Saturday- we spent most of the morning preparing Howy's baptism and then had the service. He's an awesome kid in kind of a rough situation with his family, but he is a really good kid. We met with a couple of families in Cokeville that night; one of the families seems really promising. They got really excited at the mention of eternal families and they want the gospel but a couple of things are just keeping them back right now.

Sunday- we had Howy's confirmation and that was really good! Then we headed back up to Montpelier for the rest of the day. Saw the Ruuds shortly. Had dinner out in Dingle and got to meet Justin and Trinity (a referral) and they were very nice and there is some potential there but we will have to be a gentle nudge. Then we saw Barbara and Blaine and they are doing really well! We shared the Christmas initiative the church put out and it was a really good day.

This week has been a little insane and it’s also pretty crazy having two companions but I love it and things are going really well right now! I hope things are going good for you guys back home or wherever you are!

Love all of you guys.

12 Dec 2016

This felt like a really fast week but it’s been pretty good.

I want to talk about Christmas though. I love the initiative that the church put out called light the world. It’s about doing service each day leading up to Christmas. I would encourage everyone to check it out on mormon.org. But thinking about the video and the purpose behind the initiative and the scriptures it references, I think it’s amazing to think that we as church members have the opportunity through the gospel of Jesus Christ to be the light of the world! In Doctrine and Covenants Section 50 we learn in in v24 that, that which is of God is Light, so as we follow the gospel and live according to the teachings and principles of Christ we become light. In v25 it says that we are given the power to chase of darkness. On my mission I’ve seen families and individuals that struggle and need that light. As David A. Bednar explains to the very basic Characteristic of Christ is to turn outwards. No matter what His circumstance was what he did was always for the benefit of others. Follow the example of Christ this Christmas season I encourage all of you and find someone who you can uplift, then strive to make this a pattern of living though out the rest of this year. This Gospel is the guide to living a happy and fulfilling life, and if we live it that joy will by nature of the gospel extend to others.

I love all of you and I hope you enjoy this Christmas season!

Elder Hoffman

Also to the family, I'm sure all of you have pictures with little Maverick and I did want to feel left out... so I did the best I could with what I got!

5 Dec 2016

So this has felt like a really long week and im not sure why, but it’s also been a good week.

Monday- not much happened

Tuesday- we went to Poky, Elder Graham needed a military dependent I.D. We went over with our ward mission leader and we tried to tell him we needed to go to the National guard, but he kept saying don’t worry I know where the VA is.... So he took us to the VA and they couldn’t help at all and then we went on this goose chase to figure out where National Guard place is. Anyways got that all taken care off. I guess I gave some people a scare though. So we had a suit case that Elder Curtis left in Montpelier long story, but he is back in the mission so we dropped it off at the mission office. Well there was a district leader meeting, and a bunch of people saw me out side with this suit case so they started freaking out thinking that I was going home. But I’m not. The rest of the day was pretty slow we saw Barbara in the evening she’s been having a rough time so we wanted to check in and make sure she was doing ok. I think it was a good thing we stopped and gave her a checkup and it sounds like there are some ward members that did the same so it’s good to know she is being supported.

Wednesday- District meeting it was Elder Welling’s last district meeting; it was mostly focused around planning. In honor of his last district meeting we gave him a funeral, I don’t have the pictures but there was a lot of mourning to say the least. Then we got back to Montpelier and turns out we forgot some stuff the Cokeville Elders needed so we went to Border and stuff and then we got back in town and it was like dinner time already so we lost like half our day. But yea not a whole lot happened after that.

Thursday- Super busy day.  We saw Craig an older gentleman that we are teaching; he is trying to give up smoking so that he can make it to the temple. He's got quite a few health problems but is still fairly mobile. We read Alma 7 with him and talked about how the Lord knows our trials and about how we can turn to him in prayer and scripture study. Then we saw Barbara in the evening and had a lesson about following Gods will and trusting in him. We shared the will of God Mormon Message it’s about a farmer who prunes back this bush drastically so it can bring forth fruit and they us that as like a parable. Im not going to explain the whole thing, but it really helped Barbara with the trials that she’s been facing and just to face them with confidence and trust in God. Then we met the Reamers, they are a kind of less active family kind of not, and we got to know them and encouraged them to make sure they attend church. Our message was about maintaining our faith. You don’t fix a roof when it’s raining kind of deal.

Friday- We helped one of the young men with his Eagle Scout project which was setting up hobo fires for this street kind of Christmas block party deal that the town was putting on.  After we helped we went and visited a few folks and then tried to do some street contacting at the festivities. Im so glad im in a mission where we work with referrals, street contacting is so tough, that and 80% of the people there where members.

Saturday- Awesome miracle happened today most of the day was fairly slow but night came around and we were saying a prayer after dinner and we got a message from Ryley a kid we are teaching. We haven't been able to get a hold of him for like 2 weeks and he asked if we wanted to Ball it up. So we went to the gym and played some ball with him and his friend. We left with a message about why Christ came to earth and focused on the example he showed. We talked about baptism and he said that he was talking to his mom and they think February he will be able to, we feel he could a bit sooner but we will talk to mom and figure more out before we say that for sure. But it was a good day

Sunday- Always good we enjoyed fast and testimony meeting and got to teach one of the youth classes. We talked about service and serving others. Then we had studies to catch up on until dinner. Between church and meetings we have to reschedule study time on Sundays, but then we had dinner with the Biesingers one of our ward mission leaders, and watched the Christmas Devotional with them.

All and all it was a good week, and I’d like to invite everyone to look at mormon.org and check out the 25 days of service activity.

28 Nov 2016

Its been a good week and winter is upon Idaho. We've got some snow. Temperature isn't bad yet its still around the 20s and 30s. Elder Graham isn't a huge fan of it... but he'll adjust or he'll suffer through it, one of the two. I should be more compassionate but it was funny. We were on a door step and it started to snow and it was probably about 25 out, and he looks over at me and asks, "Does it really get worse?"

Monday- pretty chill day we did all the usual stuff and just played some card games at a church building. We had a great lesson with Ryley that night. So three months ago when I was getting transferred down here Elder Hale told me to find Ryley. We've spent three months trying to meet him and a week or two ago Elder Horn and I caught him outside and played some football with him. Anyways so we had a lesson with him and it went really well. He remembers most of the stuff the other Elders taught him and he came to church this week! 

Tuesday- I don't remember what we did on Tuesday

Wednesday- We had a lesson with Betty and we will probably back off for a little while. She is an awesome lady but just doesn't want to progress right now so we are going to give her some time to just think, and maybe make a short visit now and again. Umm it was transfers but that didn't affect us at all, except our district split back in half, but in like 2 weeks it will combine again.

Thursday- I think this is when the first of the snowfall came and I decided to drift around a corner and Elder Graham didn't like that. Aside from that, we actually were productive that day and oh yea it was Thanksgiving. That slipped my mind. Somehow we ended up with three lessons set up on Thankgiving and then they all cancelled because I don't think they realized what day the lesson was on. But we enjoyed the holiday at the McDonald's. That's a family not the restaurant. Then we spent a bit of the evening with Bishop Payne.

Friday- another day that I cant recall at the moment.

Saturday- ummmm I'm drawing a blank here too. We got new planners and I don't have my last one with me.

Sunday- pretty good Sunday we went to church out in Dingle. Then we had a couple lessons out there it was a good day.

That brings us to now. Anyways things are going well out here. So there is the 25 days 25 ways to serve thing on Mormon.org and one of the ways is to call your parents.  President has just informed us we are not to do that. So sorry Mom and Dad. but Christmas is coming up anyways.

Welp have a good week! Love all you guys!

21 Nov 2016

I don’t know how I should start this e-mail but it’s been a pretty good week!

Monday- Pretty usual Monday shopping and all that good stuff. For p-day we went and played some volleyball. We were supposed to have a couple of lessons but they fell through.

Tuesday- pretty good day we had district meeting and our district got big suddenly. A couple of Elders got moved out of their area and now our district is combined. District meeting was pretty good though. It was focused around studying for our investigators. In the afternoon we stopped by Eunice. I’m not sure how to spell her name.  She’s a friendly old lady.  She has stopped attending church since her husband passed away. She still holds a good faith. We’re just working on getting her to sacrament meeting.

 Wednesday- Definitely an odd day for us but also really good. Elder Welling went to his departing temple trip so I got to have his trainee for the day. In a couple weeks Elder Welling will be home and I’ll most likely pick up Elder Horne for the last three weeks of his training. So today I had double duty for 12 week. Then we had a lesson with Betty. Another sweet ol' lady, but she just isn’t progressing. She has some hold up and is very sensitive about sharing it but she always invites us back. We are hoping that she will start accepting basic commitments like prayer.

Thursday- The food bank! So once a month we help with a local food bank and its pretty fun. We meet a lot of people. It was pretty cool. They managed to get a bunch of turkeys for Thanksgiving. Then after the food bank we exchanged so Elder Welling spent the day with me. Things just went awesome. We had a lesson with Craig, a less active guy. We stopped by his house and we haven't had many chances to actually talk to him, but he invited us in and said he wants to get to the temple and get back into church. So we had a good lesson with him and have another scheduled. Then we stopped by the Eborn's. We only met sister Eborn and she was super friendly. It was a little bit of an awkward interaction at first but we just spoke up a bit and she said that we can start coming by for lessons. Then we saw the Gillies and they are an awesome family. The couple is trying to get to the temple they have both been less active for a while. We are on the second temple lesson and things are going super well. We were talking about tithing and he told us something he heard. He had always had questions about if you pay net or gross, and someone answered him, ‘Well do you want net or gross blessings?” I thought it was funny and pretty accurate. It was just an awesome day

 Friday- Pretty busy day, we ran around town making sure everything was prepped for Barbara's baptism and honestly we ran around for almost nothing. Our ward mission leader took care of almost all the details which is a first. Normally we end up being the one printing programs and filling the font and everything else. But this time the ward had everything set. We then had a final lesson with Barbara as an investigator. We talked about the plan of salvation and I love Barbara but sometimes it’s hard to keep her focused. She will start a story and get really off topic. But nonetheless it was a really good lesson.

Saturday- The big day! We didn’t do much today except for attend the baptism and share a brief message during it. The ward was very supportive and it was a great experience for her.

Sunday- Had talks in the 1st and 4th wards and luckily we filled the time. I ran the worst case scenario in my head and I was left with about 35 mins to speak, but the youth speaker actually talked for probably 12 minutes. Sunday was just crazy busy but we got to set up an appointment with Ryley and we stopped by the Higlee's and it turns out his grandpa had just passed away so we shared a message of Gods plan and it was a really good opportunity.

Anyways this has been an amazing week and I love being in the lords work! I hope you all are having a good week at home!

Love you guys

14 Nov 2016

 Another great week out in Idaho! Im not sure if anything really cool has happened this week but there’s been a lot of blessing and miracles!

Monday- We had a pretty sweet P-day we went up Raymond Canyon and climbed up a hill and the view was awesome.​ Coming down was a little tough there were a lot of loose rocks and we ended up surfing down more than walking but everyone is ok!

Tuesday- Kind of a slow day we didn’t have a whole lot happen but we got some things set up.

Wednesday- We had a lot of stuff scheduled but about half of it fell through. We did have a lesson with Betty, a sweet old lady. She’s been taught for a while and she has hold ups but seems to believe in the church. She doesn’t explain much to us so helping her is kind of tough but hopefully with the spirit we will figure out what to do. We also saw woody, has an old guy out in dingle who is back and forth in activity and he seems to be wanting to get back out to church. I love visiting him; he has a lot of stories and a good spirit.

Thursday- Another pretty slow day more setting things up and weekly planning and such.

Friday- We exchanged so I was with Elder Horne and it was a pretty good day! We tried a few times to get a hold of Barbara the last couple of days but couldn't get a response. So we just stopped by her house and, she has been struggling a bit but also had a couple of tender mercies and little miracles. So we shared a lesson and it’s awesome to see how excited she is for her baptism.

Saturday-We planned to go to a ward cleaning because it was supposed to be like a big event but no one showed up except like the bishop and a couple other people. So we didn’t exactly get to meet as many people as we hoped. To be fair they planned this on the day of the semi-final football game. The team has never made it this far ever before, and one more game and they would have been state champs. Sadly they lost.

Sunday-busy day we had talks in Pegram and we had 2 days’ notice to prepare these. Luckily next week we have talks planned and they were the same topic so it wasn’t too bad. Plus Pegram only has like 15 members, so they are pretty lenient with the length of their Sacrament meetings.

Then later in the evening we had Barbara’s interview and now she’s all prepared to be baptized! So we are really looking forward to that this week.

It’s been an awesome week and miracles are still happening. I hope you all have an awesome week back home!

7 Nov 2016

Things this week have been exciting and pretty fun.

So last Sunday the week before this previous one, was the Star Valley temple dedication so that replaced our regular sacrament meeting. But it was an amazing experience. I've never had an opportunity to see a temple dedicated and it was awesome. The day before they had the cultural celebration and that was a pretty spiritual even too. They had like a closing number and they had this guy dressed up as captain Moroni waving around the Title of liberty. I was pretty jealous of that kid. I wish I could have been Captain Moroni.

Monday was pretty amazing too. We went to Soda Springs and the entire mission got to watch Cokeville Miracle. The movie itself was awesome. I haven't cried at a movie in a while. But the really cool part was that afterwards we got to have a fireside with Ron Hartley, the sheriff at the time of the Cokeville miracle. The reason president got us all together for Halloween is apparently Idaho has a problem with people dressing up like missionaries and vandalizing various things. So if all the missionaries are in one place we can’t get in trouble. Ha.

The rest of the week was just awesome. We had three nights in a row that we had several lessons so elder Graham got some good experience and he even had the opportunity to extend a baptismal invitation! We have had a lot of miracles this week and the Lord is definitely hastening his work!

This Sunday for testimony meeting a little 12 year old, bore his testimony that the church is true. But this was different than the typical 12 year old. He had just finished reading the Book of Mormon and had spent awhile praying and got discouraged because he hadn’t felt that he had received an answer. Then one day before he got on the bus, he said one more prayer and had an overwhelming witness of the truth of the church. It was awesome to see such a young kid who could seek so earnestly.

This church is awesome more than that it’s true! Even a 12 year old can know that!

Love you guys and I hope you have a good week!

31 Oct 2016

Well I guess I’ll get this out of the way, but it’s been one year since I entered the MTC.... Super crazy to think about it doesn't feel like that. A lot has happened in that year I wish I would have journaled better so I could remember everything. But most of all this time out here has helped me solidify my testimony that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ and he is our head, who works through a Prophet on earth today! It’s an exciting thing to know and blessing flow from following it principles. I guess that wasn't the most of all part though, even greater than just knowing it is to see it bring blessings into the lives of others. The hard part about being rejected isn't the actual rejection but that people don’t understand what it is they are rejecting they think we are just another sect looking to increase the numbers in our congregations, but this is the restored Gospel the fullness of the Gospel lies with in what we teach and it brings salvation and gladness to all those who head it. I don’t know if I ever got a mission plaque, I don’t remember giving a favorite scripture for it, but I love D&C 128:19 not ever one I read it seems to understand what I see in it, but I find it poetic in a way just in the way it describes the joy of this gospel, the verse reads:
"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of 
mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of 
gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains 
are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy 
God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!" 
I don’t know how to properly describe the feeling the spirit gives as I ponder upon this verse, but how great is it to know the truth of this message, how great is it to know that our God reigneth, how great is it to know that the dead shall rise and all that is lost shall be restored! That the knowledge of God can and will descend upon those who seek diligently! In verse 22 of this same section it follows up to say:
"Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, 
brethren; and on, onto the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the 
earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King
Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem 
them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free."

Many people do not yet understand the glory in the Gospel we Share or do not understand it to a full extent, it’s something that I myself cannot teach anyone, but they must seek to find through the spirit. But when we obtain this understanding, when we come to see the glory of the work of God, how can we not take courage? To spread his word abroad that all may rejoice! This world is full of darkness and difficulty.  I’ve especially seen that in my time of service. Christ is the light of this world. I don’t know how else to explain it. This is the work of the Lord. There is joy, comfort and strength in the Gospel and in affirming your faith in it. It is an anchor for our soul. The fullness of God’s plan and gospel is on earth again restored through a prophet. Now the great work is to bring it unto all that they may have joy! I say this in the name of Him, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I apologize for not giving an account of my week, but for my year mark I wanted to share a testimony. Friends and family I urge you to come closer unto Christ. In the scriptures it says Christ had no apparent beauty. I don’t think it meant his appearance, but the doctrine and principles he taught. They do not seem immediately pleasing but as we seek to understand and comprehend His teachings we will see the beauty that lies within.

I love you all! I hope you guys know that!

Elder Timothy D Hoffman

P.S Happy Halloween 

24 Oct 2016

 Monday- P-day was pretty fun, we went up Bloomington canyon. We were going to go up to the lake but it snowed a few inches Sunday night and the Sisters said their car wouldn’t make it so we just spent some time in the snow. Snowmen, snowball fights; all that jazz. It was still like 40 degrees out so it was pretty enjoyable. Then we had a family home evening we had to get over to. It was a pretty fun day. At the FHE we shared D&C 128:19, 22 a couple of my favorite scriptures.  Just talking about how awesome the gospel is!

Tuesday- We got a new investigator! Her name is Barbara and she talked to the bishop about joining the church. So we didn’t do much except go and talk to her. She's had missionaries in the past but it seems like there has been hold ups before. So hopefully if there are still any problems we can help her out.

Wednesday- we had our first district meeting as the Cokeville district. Elder Welling is an awesome leader and since there’s only two companionships and both are training we kept the meeting pretty focused on training. We met Whitney. She's in her mid-20s and we helped her parents and her move something for them. Turns out she is trying to get back in the church and we were able to share a good lesson with her about overcoming obstacles.

Thursday- We helped out at the food bank. It’s a pretty cool experience you meet a lot of the people in need that live in Montpelier. All the food is donation stuff and some of it is pretty good. Other stuff stores have to get rid of it because it’s at the sell by date and it’s a bit questionable. Then we had weekly planning and 12 week. So by that time it was dinner. We had a good experience though. We met the Gillies family and they are less active but want to get to the temple so we are going to start helping them!

Friday- By the way, by this point all the snow had melted :( But Friday was a pretty cool day; the snow storm broke a bunch of branches around town like every other yard had busted up trees. But we helped a couple people clean them up and take them to the landfill. We helped a couple other trucks unload while we were there. We met the Lyngars; a nice couple, a little crude, but very friendly. We talked with them for a while and there was a pretty spiritual point then the husband started asking questions that didn’t really make sense. He got into some anti Mormon stuff online and doesn’t believe in the Book of Mormon now. Most of what he said I’m pretty sure wasn't even factual but he was a little upset when we didn’t seem troubled over what he was saying. They have had missionaries in the past and don’t seem like they really want to progress, like they might but they mostly just want to have hang out buddies instead of missionaries. We'll try a couple more times and see where things go. Hopefully we can get past the rough exterior.

Saturday- was a pretty slow day, we did meet another less active family though and they invited us back for lunch! Im not sure why they are less active they seem to like the church the guy kept talking about how he loved his mission and all that. Nevertheless they are a good family, and hopefully they will start receiving the blessings of the sacrament again soon.

Sunday- we went to the dingle ward, really good sacrament meeting mostly about charity and it sparked a couple of ideas for some talks we have coming up in the wards. My pen died so I couldn’t wright half way through my thought. Hopefully I can remember the rest by the time I get new pens.

This week has been super good and it’s amazing to see the work of the Lord progress. Keep nourishing your seeds of faith, heck if it’s a tree already don’t stop. Our spirits will begin to wither if they aren't nourished, it doesn't matter what stage of life we are in or how far we have progressed in the gospel.

Love you all!! And have an awesome week.

17 Oct 2016

The start of this week was pretty odd but it’s been an awesome week! I'm training again!!!! Elder Graham is my new companion and it’s been great this last week!

Monday- We said a few good byes for Elder Curtis and that was most of the day. He is now at home and will be returning to the mission in about three weeks.

Tuesday- super weird day.  So we dropped off Elder Curtis and I hung out with the North stake Elders for the day. We found a dog named Virgil running around the streets, so we spent like 20 minutes earning his trust. We got him in our truck bed and called his owner. That was fun.  The highlight of the day was teaching Max.  He  is a less active and his wife is a non-member. They are pushing 60 or so and he realized he needs the Church back and she loves the missionary lessons. The lesson was awesome. We taught the restoration and focused on the atonement. It was a really good lesson!

Wednesday- A STAR IS BORN!!!!! Elder Graham, my first full son has arrived! Anyway he’s a really awesome Elder and we've been getting along super well! For his first day we were visiting some ward leaders then we went to see a less active family. Just before we left the dad said, “Wait you have to get your nose hairs waxed. It’s a tradition we have.” No idea if that’s the truth but they did it with us. So for Elder Graham’s first day we got our nose hairs waxed. It didn't hurt too bad but I had to do it a couple of times. The wax broke off the stick in my nose...

Thursday - Lots of planning and studies. We visited a family we helped move in and a couple of other elders helped.  They set up a dinner to feed us all. They were very confused on the fact that we helped them for free.

Friday- So the family gave us a meal and the other Elders couldn't make it so we had like 3 times as many tacos as anyone needed. The family was super nice and they actually made it to the Star Valley open house last week. We talked a bit about it and kind of why Latter-day Saints are the way they are. Then they started to get off topic and started bashing the Jehovah's Witness pretty hard. No one there was a JW, but the family did not seem to like them.

Saturday- we were out in Dingle and we found a less active family that wants to go to the temple and be sealed. So that was awesome. They had their family over so we just shared a short message and planned a time for next week to see them.

It’s been a pretty great week. A lot of studies with Elder Graham being a new missionary, but it’s helped me get back to the basics of the gospel. It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of help.

Hope all of you are having an awesome week!

Training Letter

Dear Elder Timothy Hoffman ,

Congratulations on accepting an assignment as a trainer. To be a trainer of a new missionary is one of the most important assignments in the mission. With this assignment, a great deal of trust is being placed in you. Your example in this assignment will set the course for  your companion's mission, and will have a large impact on the rest of his life. Please remember the following expectations for missionary leaders:

*  Strive every day to be exactly obedient to the standards of missionary conduct found in the Missionary Handbook.

*  Faithfully follow the missionary daily schedule.

*  Have effective personal and companionship study every day.

*  Be diligent, humble, and effective in your work.

*  Have effective weekly and daily planning sessions including follow the 13 planning guidelines and updating the area book.

*  Love your companion and foster a spirit of love and unity in the companionship.

*  Lead the companionship in staying focused on our purpose for being here as missionaries.

The Lord has asked you at this time to fulfill this sacred stewardship. Remember that this is the Lord's work and you are His servant. I trust you will work to your full capacity, using all of the abilities and skills with which you have been blessed.It is a privilege to serve with you.

Love,

Gene E Hancock, PresidentIdaho Pocatello Mission

10 Oct 2016

Monday- pretty usual Monday shopping and stuff. Then we took Brother Turners hawk hunting again. This time we had a rabbit ready so we didn't have to worry about finding anything. we may have picked a little to big of a rabbit though. The Hawk latches on with its talons, so ideally it grabs the neck and crushes it.... but it grabbed its back, then the rabbit took off, the hawk refused to let go, so it was flailing its wings around to stay on. It looked like a rodeo, but the hawk had this helpless look on its face like. what do i do! It was a lot of fun

Tuesday- District meeting, plus a district cook out, we have a couple of people going home so we sent them off with a party. well as much of a party as our budget and time would afford. Then we had a lesson with an elderly lady named Betty. Shes been taught forever like years before I even got on my mission, she likes to see us but doesn't want to progress... then we went and headed down to Cokeville. Saw a couple, the wife is struggling with her testimony so we are trying to teach them, as we were talking she got an ambulance call and headed out to a car wreck. (somehow a deer crashed through the back window of the vehicle)

Wednesday- we moved Cokeville stuff into a new apartment to prepare for the new elders going in there, then we went and saw Joe and his family. It was a good day.

Thursday-Train the trainers!! So I will be training again so we went to Soda to have our train the trainers meeting. It was awesome there will be another fairly large group of new missionaries coming in. about 11 new elders and 3 new sisters, and that's on top of the 26 or so elders still in training. Anyways the meeting was awesome a lot about turning outward, and loving them enough to correct them. There was a big question asked about how to lovingly rebuke someone. and one elder gave an answer that I thought was awesome, it was about coming to where they are at. so before you tell them what they are doing wrong ask them questions until you are at the same level of understanding, I don't know how to explain it Elder Anderson did a really good job at it. Then when we got back to Montpelier we had weekly planning! that took up most of our day.

Friday- Lots of area book work, with the transfer coming we have to make a new one for Cokeville so fun. Our lesson with the Hunsakers fell through the kids had to go to there dads.

Saturday- We had a lesson with a recent convert, we shared Lehi's vision and talked about enduring. then we headed over to Cokeville, to get ready for church there in the morning. So no longer my area but one of the Family's I was teaching in Pocatello (the Nielson's) She got baptized and her husband was able to do it!!! When I had left we had taught them the lessons set the date and all that was left was interviews, mostly the husband and the bishop. I also got word that Mark who we had been working with for about 3 1/2 months when I left, has now accepted a date for the end of October! So I'm kinda bummed that i couldn't attend her baptism and I probably wont make Marks but Its awesome to know that those who I met, helped and taught are still progressing!

Sunday- An awesome fast and testimony meeting, we said a lot of good byes around Cokeville. That was most of the day, just seeing those we came to love and sharing a last testimony.

All and all its been an awesome week, lots of good news. I love this gospel, to see the change and miracles it brings into the lives of all those who apply it. there was a testimony this 

Sunday and the guy started off saying, I've been asking myself does the gospel make life easier. I personally have a testimony that it does, not only in temporal blessings and trials that we can avoid, but when we are faced with adversity, we have a faith and hope for a better day and a brighter future, the hope is well described in a Mormon message featuring a message from Russell M. Ballard. titled Mens Hearts Shall Fail 

them. Also expressed greatly in D&C 128:19. I know this gospel was made by a loving Heavenly Father who wants to see us succeed! This is His Church I bear this testimony in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love you all and hope you have an awesome week!

3 Oct 2016

Another Great week to be on the Lords errand! Things were a little odd, there never seems to be a week that's similar to the last.

Monday- So I don't know if i mentioned this before but Brother Turner a less active we meet with, has his falconry license, so we took his hawk out hunting for P-day, it was uneventful we couldn't find any rabbits.

Tuesday- we had exchanges so i went with Elder Castorana (that could be spelled wrong) and did work in the bilingual area. i knew about 10% of what was spoken for most of our meetings. I contributed where i could.

Wednesday- still exchanges still not speaking English... But we met a family that is re-activating and they mostly spoke Spanish, some spoke English and so spoke English about as well as my Spanish. The spirit was still in the home and even though i barely talked they said they liked the spirit i brought.

Thursday- I don't remember much besides my companion skyping home. He was having a re-assignment for his mission. Just the way his mission is working, its different than the usual but not in a bad way.

Friday- we got to take a family to the star valley open house! They enjoyed it, they said they weren't expecting everything to be so perfect inside. then we went back and helped them split some wood. They had a wood splitter but we had enough people that we were using axes too so i got to work on my swing a bit. Then we got talking to a foreign exchange student that they were housing and he was confused abit he was like so this is all you do is help people. We said yea we do service and teach the gospel, he thought it was super cool.

Saturday- Conference!!!! and we did service for some non-members in between sessions and they were super thankful it was pretty cool.

Sunday- we watched more conference and did some more service for some non-members

It was a really fun week! Plus conference was awesome, The two big things i got out of it was prioritize the Book of Mormon and repent! repentance is tough but its not bad. Its like climbing a mountain its tough but the view is worth it.

Love all you guys! Hope you have a good week!

26 Sep 2016

12 Sep 2016

I don't feel like typing much so I'm going to summarize.

Monday- We taught The Hunzeker family and things are going well there.

Tuesday- don't remember much of it, we had district meeting and that took like half the day (driving time, our district is pretty spread out for the usual of the mission) Oh and we met a falconer, he has a red tailed hawk. He is a less active we are working with.

Wednesday- got moved out of Cokeville, that is saving tons of miles for us.

Thursday don't remember much

Friday- did some tracting tried to meet bishops too.

Saturday- we had a wood cutting service project. I thought we were splitting but it was just cutting down the trees and stacking the logs (unsplit) They said we stacked about Ten cords. it was a lot of wood but we also had about 30 men helping. Then stake conference started and that was pretty good.

Sunday More stake conference.

Love you guys!

Sorry the letter is so short but i hope you are all doing well!

Training assignment

Dear Elder Timothy Hoffman ,

Congratulations on accepting an assignment as a trainer. To be a trainer of a new missionary is one of the most important assignments in the mission. With this assignment, a great deal of trust is being placed in you. Your example in this assignment will set the course for  your companion's mission, and will have a large impact on the rest of his life. Please remember the following expectations for missionary leaders:

*  Strive every day to be exactly obedient to the standards of missionary conduct found in the Missionary Handbook.

*  Faithfully follow the missionary daily schedule.

*  Have effective personal and companionship study every day.

*  Be diligent, humble, and effective in your work.

*  Have effective weekly and daily planning sessions including follow the 13 planning guidelines and updating the area book.

*  Love your companion and foster a spirit of love and unity in the companionship.

*  Lead the companionship in staying focused on our purpose for being here as missionaries.

The Lord has asked you at this time to fulfill this sacred stewardship. Remember that this is the Lord's work and you are His servant. I trust you will work to your full capacity, using all of the abilities and skills with which you have been blessed.It is a privilege to serve with you.

Love,

Gene E Hancock, PresidentIdaho Pocatello Mission

cc  Parents, Stake President

5 Sep 2016

Well, things are different. So I no longer live in Idaho. So the stake I cover now is in the very bottom of Idaho and covers Cokeville Wyoming (where I am now living) so it’s pretty cool but way different. So Cokeville, for those back home, is about the size of Gresham only even more populated with Latter-Day Saints. It’s about 90% and most of them are active members. We also cover the Geneva ward which is not a town it’s a stretch of High way and a couple of farms make up the ward. Then there is dingle it’s like Geneva only it’s a bit more populated. Then we have Montpelier which is like the size of Clintonville, and we only cover half of the town. So it’s taking some adapting from serving in the middle of the largest city in the mission with the lowest percentage of Latter-day Saint, to where I am now.

Monday- I was still with Elder Magallon and we burned his tie, played some b-ball for p-day, and saw a couple of families to let them know I was heading out. Said good bye to my man Charles, funniest guy we taught well, mark is right up there with him.

Tuesday was pretty busy, we had a district meeting before transfers, it was pretty cool, and since everyone was training we focused it around training. In the afternoon we did stuff but I don’t remember what. The evening was crazy busy, we had said by to the Stoddards, Had a lesson with the Nielsons, it’s a bummer to leave those two.  I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it back for her baptism. Then we had a goodbye party kind of thing with Mark. We and his fellowshipper came over and we had Pie and stuff, Mark is the funniest guy. He got us a Chocolate cream whipped pie. Super rich. Any ways he cut it in fourths and decided to eat it with us. And he's diabetic and that pie was like pure sugar. So we kept telling him to stop, but he insisted because it was my last day there that he had to eat all of it. So I hope he didnt end up dead shortly after I left.

Wednesday-Transfers!! It was crazy, so many new missionaries I don’t think there is one companionship that stayed the same except for the APs and the ones already training from last transfer and even some of those changed. So we spent the day getting everything all organized and people moved around. I met my new companion, Elder Curtis. He is a straight up cowboy along with like 90% of Cokeville. It’s like real cowboys though they ranch and herd cows and stuff.  Elder Curtis is a rancher from Wyoming so he basically is at home in Cokeville.

Thursday- Trying to figure out how this area works, meeting a lot of the leaderships; stuff like that.

Friday- Zone training, it was super good and we have the biggest zone I’ve ever seen. There are about 35 missionaries in it. That might change soon but one of the exciting things is that living in this zone we will have an awesome opportunity to work with the Star Valley temple!  We did have a lesson today and it went pretty well. We taught the Plan of Salvation. It’s a strange part member family. The daughter is a member; mom isn’t and I don’t think the rest of the kids are. Mom has been to a lot of different churches and was always told crazy things about the Church. The kids are going to be helping with the ceremonies for the temple. They are in one of the dance things for it.

Saturday- stuff happened I don’t really remember

Sunday- Good wards. Had some pretty good fast and testimony meetings in Cokeville. It scared me at the start. This old lady got up there and started talking about the election and how it was freaking her out but the rest of them were more spiritual. After we taught the young women class about how our words have effects. We had tried to plan for this a couple of times but couldn't figure out what to do, then as we were about to start I got an idea for a demonstration (thank the Spirit for that one) But I did a missionary role play with the teacher. And sat there in silence for a bit. Asked her how she felt, she just said awkward; handed her a Book of Mormon didn’t say anything, same answer. Then bore testimony and talked about the gospel. Asked her again. This time she said she felt the spirit, peace, joy (see fruits of the spirit see Galatians 5:22). Then we talked about the influence our words can have and how as much as they can bring the Holy Ghost they can bring the spirit of contention. Hopefully it helped. Then we met the Farmers for dinner. Cool family, they have like a prodigy son on the piano. He composes his own music and has since he was 12 maybe even a little before that. Then we met with one of the bishops. Turns out they were having a family reunion so we didn’t get to talk to him as much as I would like to have. Then we crashed another family reunion and the Grandma made sure everyone was gathered so we could leave with a message. So we talked about the blessings of the gospel in our families. and about how we can’t lose hope for any family members who have chosen a different path. It was a pretty good Sunday.

 A district farewell.

 My man Charles

Dingle. Capitol of the world?

29 Aug 2016

So things are going good in Pocatello, but changes are coming! So this Wednesday I will start second half training Elder Curtis in Montpelier. So I'm going to be transferred. Basically nothing is staying the same in the mission. 43 of our 55 companionships are going to be in training this transfer. It’s a little crazy but it’s going to change the mission for sure. 

I don’t feel like doing a day-to-day of this week. Things have been awesome. We had a lesson with the Nielsons and they are still going strong. We actually had two lessons this week with them. We taught all the commandments and they are already following most of them. They are just ready to go. They have been preparing for several years and they just decided now is the time.

Then we also had a lesson with Mark. We knew this would be my last lesson with him so we made sure that it was a good one. He likes the church so much. He is just like a step away from really committing to the church.

We had an awesome Fireside last night but none of our investigators were able to make it. A couple people shared their conversion stories, they were pretty intense stories, but they were awesome none the less.

I'm pumped to be training it should be a fun experience especially since I don’t know the area at all. But the Lord will help me out.

Have an awesome week!!!

22 Aug 2016

So Pretty good week. Well a really great week.

Monday- so for p-day a couple of Sisters said they set up capture the flag and when everyone got there it was a service project. But we did play capture the flag afterward so it wasn’t really a lie. The trees we were playing in were a menace though, everybody left with cuts, I messed up one my hands with a pretty deep cut but it wasn’t too bad. Plus the whole area was covered in horse apples. But nevertheless it was a lot of fun.

Tuesday- We tried to watch Jeffery R Holland's devotional with Mark but he got a bit busy. The highlight of today though was talking with the Nielsons. So they want this to be low key but I don’t have anyone from the area on this message. But anyway we were having our lesson with them and first things first. While we were talking, their little three year old puked out of nowhere. That may have distracted from the Spirit a bit, but we got back on track.  We now have a date for sister Nielson to be baptized, and it set so that Brother Nielson has time to get worthy to baptize her! They are pretty close to the ward (they both grew up in it and they have family in the stake leadership) so the people that we have let know are just stoked. Like 5 years of prayers are being answered. Bishop was ready to party once we told him. But to be clear, this is really nothing of our own doing. They just finally feel the church is something they need in their life. We were just in the right place at the right time.

Wednesday- we finally had our first lesson with the Klye's. We met this family almost 2 months ago and they are a bit flaky at times, so lessons have never gone through. So another miracle!!!

Thursday-Super weird day so we spent all morning planning, we decided to do some work on organizing the area book. At like, 2:00 a guy knocked on OUR door. Felt so backwards. But this guy is a less active that fell away from the church. We met him a while back and his sister served a mission so he knew our apartments have the Jesus picture. Anyway he was trying to say it wasn’t bashing us and said oh you’re doing good things. But then told us basically the church is leading us to hell. He was a big "saved by grace" guy and said for whatever reason our belief in Christ won’t save us but all you need to do to be saved is believe in Christ. We tried to discuss with him, but from the get go I knew it wasn't going to go anywhere. So we lost like three hours trying to help him understand. Like the thing is we believe that we are saved by the grace of God, But in order to obtain that grace, we need to follow Christ, which entails that we keep commandments that we can and work to have a Christ-like nature. But yea it’s tough when people won’t consider the things you say. But above all else..... HAPPY B-DAY BENNY!!!

Friday- Had a lesson with Mark, He loves the Word of Wisdom. We told him transfers are coming and he said and I quote "Maybe we should get this thing done before you guys leave." He hasn’t accepted a date yet, but he will get there.

Saturday- mostly met with leaderships and talked about how to help out individuals

Sunday mostly went to church

Enjoy your week everybody, and save periodically when typing long messages.

15 Aug 2016

This week flew past, like its a blur, Sunday was awesome though we had 3 non-members come and there were like 5 less actives that came to church!!

Monday- I don't remember anything

Tuesday- we got Elder Magallon's bike tire fixed; then it popped two hours later... Oh that day we also met a kid named Draven who was baptized in I.F and is trying to find the church. So we talked to him and he got there this Sunday!

Wednesday- we had district meeting. We also had a lesson with a couple the Spanish Elders are teaching. We were trying to figure out who should be teaching them. The Spanish Elders are going to keep teaching them. They had a litter of puppies and they were adorable!

Thursday- Tons of planning like usual, We had a lesson with the Stoddards and just reviewed what baptism is with Ducky. Then ended the night with a correlation meeting and the ward missionaries seem pretty excited about doing work. So I wont be shocked if good things happen there.

Friday- Crazy day, We had 5 members present set up and 3 fell though but it was an awesome day. We met with Mark and had a super good lesson.  He was trying to fix his DVD player when we got there and he said "yea it was barely working last night but... I think it just gave up the ghost." We find it funny when people talk in scriptural terms. That's part of what makes Mark so great. This week he had a lot of questions about how we perform baptisms and things of that nature so we are hoping that is a good sign! Then we had a meeting that I'm not going to go into detail about. Then we had a late dinner with a family who wants everything to be a bit low key, but they are going to get baptized. Nothing sketchy is happening. They just don't want everything publicly announced.

It was a pretty good week everything kind of built towards the week end but its time to get headed out for me.

8 Aug 2016

So I’m writing this in like no time at all. We got a new solid investigator. He is just out of juvie and attended the LDS services there. He called us over while we were walking by. Jesse is a pretty cool kid and is super interested by the Atonement. We took Mark to Sacrament and he joined us in a fast. Mark is diabetic so we had fruit snacks and stuff prepped in our bags but he had some awesome faith going in. He just said I’m doing this for God so nothing will happen. I really hope he commits. He's such an awesome guy and he's pretty enthusiastic about the Book of Mormon.

We had zone training this week, and it was pretty awesome. We talked about desire mostly and overcoming our natural tendencies to serve with 100% conviction. So at the end we all wrote down something we wanted to let go of and tied them to some balloons and released them. I think it was supposed to be like the Anti-Nephi-Lehis but in reverse. Instead of putting them under the earth we sent them over.

This week had one of the most special and near to my heart events of my mission.... A&W was giving away free root beer floats. Anyway, aside from that we also had a picnic with the Gwen ward. We spent the morning handing out flyers and kids from around the neighborhood started taking them and running around telling all their friends about it, so there was an awesome turn out. The big draw was a zip line and a hundred foot slip and slide. One of the best parts was that we had an investigator family show up (well the mom is less active). They came and the kids made a ton of friends and got along great with the ward.

All and all this week was pretty great and I hope you all have an awesome week!

25 Jul 2016

So this week was Pioneer day and apparently that’s a thing. I honestly don’t remember much of this week maybe it’ll come back while I'm typing.

Monday- Pretty busy, we couldn’t find a ride. The guy that we planned to have drive us around locked his keys in his car along with his spare keys. So we walked to a nearby grocery store. Then found a ride with someone else but that ended up taking like 2 hours. Anyway it was a pretty good day we had a meal with a part member family. We aren’t sure how to help the husband progress. He accepts the Book of Mormon and basically the entire church but he just isn't willing to commit at this time. Then we had a lesson with a recent convert. It was a little hectic. She has one child with mild autism and the other kind of instigates him. But eventually we got a little bit of order and we were able to get the Spirit in there. It helped that it turns out our member was a special needs teacher back in the day (we had no idea).

Tuesday- We had district meeting a day early so we could do it before transfers and even though it’s an eternity away, one thing that stuck out to me was just making sure my mission doesn't end when I go home. Especially since this is a place where we focus so much on member missionary work. It would be crazy hypocritical if I went home and never assisted the missionaries. The afternoon was pretty lazy - lots of trying to make contacts. Then we had a lesson with the Green family and it went pretty well. The one we are teaching there is a nine year old and she has had lessons in the past so it was pretty cool she brought out all these papers she had of the plan of salvation. Then we had a super late dinner, we ate at 8 o’clock so we were starving. It may not seem that late but it’s a long time for us.

Wednesday- Transfers and well nothing really changed for us. I don’t recall much of the day though.

Thursday I don’t recall much from today either.

Friday- We had a lesson with Mark, He's our most serious investigator and we brought up baptism last time we saw him. He made a letter to organize his thoughts and he gave it to us. He said he felt no need to be re-baptized but we explained to him if he studies the Book of Mormon more and gets an answer it’s not a re-baptism but a baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ. So he is going to continue studying and searching for that answer. I shortened it up a lot but it was a two hour lesson. Well I suppose about 15 mins of that was him and our member present talking about gluten allergies though.

Saturday- Pioneer day! So there used to be a whole parade for this that the entire town went to, like it was bigger than the fourth of July. But the city got mad because Pocatello is a little sick of Mormons. So now the stakes just put on individual celebrations. They had a mini parade and stick pull and someone made sarsaparilla, it was a pretty good day. Sadly our investigators didn’t attend. Later that day we had a meal with one of our bishops who has been the busiest out of them all and we finally had a chance to sit down and really meet him and get him involved with our work. Also they are calling a new ward mission leader and we don’t know who it is, but the bishopric has been hyping him up big time. We are just excited because it’s been a month and a half since we have had a ward mission leader.

All and all it was a pretty good week. And I hope you all have a good week!!

18 Jul 2016

 This week has been pretty cool. A lot of working with ward leaders and it feels like there is a new excitement about missionary work in the area, hopefully that fire keeps burning. Also I was slightly misled by president. So within the next two transfers everyone but 2 elders will be training. So I'm staying were I am for the next six weeks. But I'm happy about that. We just started getting the wards excited I don’t want to miss out on what might come.

Monday was super busy. We had a service project in the morning so we missed like half our p-day so we were short on time. Then we had a lesson with a recent convert and she has a kid with Aspergers, It was just a little chaotic. But all and all the Spirit was still there especially when we got him to calm down.

Tuesday- We finally got Elder Boatwright and Vogt out of our apartment!!! No I'm going to miss those guys but it was a little crowded, and Elder Boatwright was running low on food so we had to share. The rest of the day was pretty good. One thing we learned is that in old town they have a lot of houses and apartments in the alleyways not on the streets so it fixed a lot of issues with finding people. Also we figured with all the space in the apartment now we are going to dedicate one room to making a giant map of old town. It’s going to be legit.

 Wednesday- So we almost flipped out this morning we were told that the other Elders might be moving back into the apartment.... But luckily all the problems got solved! Today was interesting though, I learned all about Pokémon Go. We stopped at a house and someone talked to us for about 40 minutes on Pokémon Go.... then after that we were walking down the road and this truck drove past at about 5 miles an hour with four people on their phones in the bed playing Pokémon Go.... The game sounds interesting but it’s weird to watch people play it. Also apparently every ward building is a gym. So we think that might be a new way to get people to church but we probably won’t be pushing that.

Thursday- Today was awesome. We had three good lessons one was with the Stoddard’s and we are still trying to figure out how to get permission for the daughter. Then we had a church tour with Mark and that was awesome. We got super sidetracked when talking about the sacrament but brought it back around plus it was all about things relating to the church. But the end was awesome Mark committed to prayerfully read the Book of Mormon and he said he would have an answer by Sunday. I'm not sure if he has gotten the answer yet or not but he is searching for sure. He was the designated driver for some friends Saturday night so he didn’t make it to church in the morning. But he is progressing really well!

Friday was a pretty short day not a whole lot happened

Saturday we did exchanges and it was a little crazy. Like I don’t know what was with everyone but I had never been cursed at as much as I was today. At least 5 different people flipped us off, several people yelled at us through their car windows, but it was a good day and it all paid off when we met Mickey. She may or may not be baptized but she has an awesome spirit and we had a basically a 40 min testimony meeting. But it was awesome. Totally worth being cursed at consistently.

All and all it’s been a really good week. Hope everyone back home is doing well!

11 Jul 2016

Sorry everyone for all the delays in emailing. So two weeks ago we went to Yellowstone on p-day. We get the chance once, well we used to now we are in a different mission. Then the fourth of July everything was closed so we had very limited computer access. But it was fun. We went on a big hike and just enjoyed a nice easy day.

So a week and a half ago the mission split. Nothing too crazy has happened yet as a result. But the craziness is about to start.  The influx due to the new mission will be so great that everyone except for the zone leaders will be training. So it will be an exciting transfer. I'm pretty excited about training!

This week has been really slow. Everyone has been out of town or just too busy for us. So we have spent a lot of time meeting with ward leaders and we have been seeing a lot of good results out of it! The only other thing is that we no longer live with members. We got moved into an apartment with two other Elders and they have had like four dates that they were supposed to move on but it keeps getting postponed. They should be out by Tuesday.  Hope it doesn't sound like I'm rushing them out, They are super cool guys but living with four Elders is always a little cramped.

Hopefully next week I'll be able to sit down and give a better report but things have been really  busy the last few weeks, and with the mission changing so much it might not stop.