TEACHING LIKE CRAZY!

Dear Family,
Hey! Thank you so much for the treats! Nothing gets better for a missionary than to find cookies, poptarts and candy corn amongst his shirts and suit! That was an awesome treat! As a missionary we're kept on a pretty tight budget so we can only afford what will get us by for the month! But yeah...thanks so much. Those home baked cookies took me right back home.
Well, it's my first p-day so this is the first chance I've had to sit down and relax and write! I'm so busy every other day!
The day we flew in to Colorado we got off the plane and met President and Sister Pfile and then we all went to the mission office and ate a meal and then we were out tracting! Yes, it felt rushed to me! That night we went to the mission home and talked for a bit about everything and then went to bed. The next day was training in the morning, tracting for a few hours and then more training! I don't remember the order very well I just remember going from one thing to the next. Anyway...on Wednesday the 7th I got to meet my trainer (first companion). His name is Elder Oakes. We were both kinda reserved at first but the last few days we've been cracking up! lol We're having a great time learning together.
When we arrived at the apartment on Wednesday he said to get a few things out of my bags because I needed to go buy some food for myself and then we had to go to a teaching appointment, so I only had about 20 minutes to unpack.
I was like: "What!? Teaching appointment? Are you crazy? It's my first day out in the field!"
But I guess he wasn't crazy because I went and taught my first lesson on the first day out!
It's been really busy but really fun. So far I've taught 17 lessons and I've only been out for four days! What's really neat is that last Friday I got to extend the commitment to a father and daughter to be baptized! We have their date set for November 6th! That was a neat thing to be a part of.
We've also been working with a bunch of other people. One lady is so close. She wants to be baptized but she doesn't want to give up smoking. Another family really wanted to be baptized but then a friend got them all anti-mormon. So, it's hard to work with some people. You know...we start teaching people and then Satan goes crazy. He knows that we're teaching truth and that the spirit is witnessing of the truthfulness of what we're teaching, so he does everything he can to put a stop to it.
Well, let's see...Oh, here's a funny story. So you know how we had that teaching appointment the first night? Well, we got done teaching and went to get on our bikes to go to our dinner appointment and my front tire was flat. My tire went flat within three hours of me arriving in my area. So we had to walk about 5 miles to our dinner appointment!
Dinners have been really good so far actually! Of course part of that may just be because it's real food! haha! But yeah, I've had potato and chili, chicken, salad, rolls, spagettii (or however it's spelled!) and burgers and tater tots. So I'm surviving!
Every Wednesday we go over to the Gogarty's house (Brother Gogarty is a ward missionary) and have dinner with our investigators and then we have a gospel lesson/discussion. The Gogarty's are super nice! They remind me of the Masons! I mean, we had no place to do our laundry this transfer and so we asked them if we could do it at their house this p-day. They said, "Oh yeah...use it whenever you need it. If we're not here just come in anyway!" Really nice people.
Um...the first two days here were pretty warm, like in the 60's or so but yesterday we were out riding our bikes and tracting when it was down to 26 degrees! So cold! In fact...you know that neck warmer that I said I wouldn't want?...I want it now! If you wouldn't mind sending it sometime that would be awesome!
Oh, mom. Do you remember you replaced my scriptures because I was missing some of the Book of Mormon? Well, I was looking up a scripture today in the bible and I saw that my bible is all messed up! Ezekiel (pg 1048) jumps to Jeremiah (pg 1017) and then comes Lamentations and then it repeats Ezekiel up to pg 1048. So I have two books of Ezekiel up to chapter 17 but then I'm missing the rest of the book. And then pg 1048 jumps to pg 1113 which is Daniel chapter 8 and then I have all of Hosea and Joel and then Amos comes back from chapter one until chapter 8 and then it skips back to Daniel chapter 8 and then repeats Amos 1 through 9! I can't believe it! Two quads in a row all messed up! I didn't think that was possible.
I like the idea of themes for Friday night movies, but, um...yeah I think dad should be in charge of picking the theme at least six out of the twelve months!
Well, I know how Emma likes to know little details about my mission, so here are a couple.
First of all, we have no cold water! It is either room temp or hot, so if we want cold water we have to refrigerate it or leave it outside.
Also, after flushing the toilet you have to push the handle two more times or the flap won't seal and it will be trying to fill the tank forever! But if you push the handle a third time it won't seal. You have to be very precise with this toilet!
Also, since I got here I have been sleeping without a pillow. I guess they don't provide those and so I just stuffed my bathrobe into the pillow case and used that! lol I went out today though and got a pillow!
Well, I'm glad to hear that everything is going good at home. I was sad to hear the news about Aunt Sharon but I can only imagine how happy she is to be home with Uncle Carl. That's the beautiful thing about our Savior's plan. There is really no need for us to ever be sad! He always provides a way for us to be happy!
I hope you all know that I love you and miss you and pray for you often. Don't get me wrong... I love my mission but that doesn't mean I don't miss home! Keep writing as often as you want. I could never get enough! I love hearing from all of you!
Love Ben
P.S. Hey Sam, good luck with all those petri dish experiments. That sounds fun!
P.S.S. Mom, let grandma and grandpa know I said hi and that I love them. I'm glad they're getting better! I keep praying for them. Oh, and I think I'll do that same activity in Alma 5. That would be a good personal study activity for me!
Love you all and thanks again for the package!