E-Mail 5/27/13

Jamari is going to be baptized on June 8th.
We have not had many teaching experiences so far. We have found a few potential investigators through having lessons with members, however, we haven't been able to schedule very many lessons. That is our biggest challenge right now - finding people to teach. Apparently President Neider has instructed the missionaries not to tract. I believe most of the baptisms have come through member referrals. This week we have a few appointments scheduled with potential investigators. However, in past weeks, most of our appointments have fallen through. It is a lot of work to find people, and so far our efforts haven't seemed to be paying off. On a positive note, President Neider gave Elder Hearne and I a car a couple of days ago (we were spending the majority of our time biking). Hopefully things will begin to pick up speed soon.
Yes we are teaching Melissa, but I can't remember what I said about her in my letter. We have mainly been joining the Dahl family's scripture reading twice a week with Melissa up until this week. This week we did some yard work for Melissa (she has been sick and she may have cancer and she keeps herself busy - basically she wasn't able to mow her lawn or take care of the yard for a while) and we invited her to start coming to church again (she has a long history of working with the missionaries). She came to church yesterday, which was wonderful.

My schedule is consistently inconsistent. However, here is the basic outline:
Wake up at 6:30 (unless we decide to attend morning sports in which case we get up at 5:40)
Prepare for the day (eat breakfast, shower, etc)
Studies from 8-10 am
The 12 week program at 11 am
Lunch 12 pm
Then we visit members of the ward from 1 - 5 pm (we go off of a less-active and part member family list that the bishopric put together)
Dinner around 5 pm

Then we probably just return to the list until 8:30 - 9 pm
We return home around 9 pm and then plan for the next day (I usually get to bed around 10:30 pm)
(We had really hoped to have more people to teach at this point to fill in our schedule, however, for now we are just going to try and get to know the ward better)

I have found that there are a ton of inactive members in this ward, but the members that attend church regularly are very strong families who are actively engaged in missionary work. We have found that they really have been doing all that they can to help out their missionaries. This will be an easy ward for fellow-shipping investigators and new converts.
We have been fed nearly every night since we have been here (with the exception of the first week or so due to the impression that the last missionaries left). Occasionally members will cancel dinner appointments on us, however, as we have gotten to know the families better, we have found people who are always stepping in to help us out when members cancel. One family invited us over tonight to join their barbecue since our original appointment failed. It is the same family where we skyped from a few weeks ago. Also, there is another family that fed us twice last week that cooked us two of the most delicious meals I have had in a long time (they believed that if they fed us well then their daughter who was also serving a mission would be fed well).

My companion is a lot like Tyler - he wanted to do the same thing the other day - he said that he wanted to catch one of the jack rabbits here and bring it back to the apartment as a pet. I pointed out that we couldn't keep pets and he resolved that he would just catch one and then cook it into a stew. I guess he isn't as friendly as Tyler.
That is funny that you would say "keep being obedient and you will be blessed" because yesterday my companion and I had to teach the Elders quorum lesson and the talk we used was Thomas S Monson's talk "Obedience Brings Blessings" from this last conference.