TRACTING-SNOW-POOL

Hey everyone,
So, it's P-day and I'm over at the Boyds house writing this letter.
This morning we went over to the Barks and cooked them breakfast. It was a fun way to start the day. We made home-made tortillas and then cooked up some farm fresh eggs and cajun bacon and had breakfast burritos. Oh, and there were some potatoes involved as well! So we got done eating and then Brother Barks had to go to work and Sister Barks had to take Kynzee to her horseback riding lesson and Kyrstyn to get her car. So we headed back to the apartment. Then we decided to go to Wal-mart to get a couple of food items for the week and then we stopped by the Boyds to see if we could play some pool. They said we could so we played a few rounds and then we decided to just go chill with them. So we just talked and laughed for a while. We got to meet one of Kaileys friends who's name is Amelia. She's really nice and super funny. She's not a member and so we asked her what she usually did when missionaries come to her door. She smiled and said, "Oh, I usually just let the dogs out!"
It was funny because just yesterday someone did that to us. We had knocked on this door twice and no one had answered and so we left and walked down their really long driveway. We had almost reached the end when we heard barking and turned around to see two dogs come tearing towards us from the house! We kept walking and turned onto the road and the dogs kept coming. So we were just thinking about running when the two dogs stopped at the end of the driveway (like Jackson does). Lucky for us!
So yeah, that's why we thought Amelias comment was so funny...because it just happened.
So then Sister Boyd had to take Amelia home and go to the store with Kelsey and Kailey and so she said we could just hang out until they got back! They just said, "There's food in the fridge, pool table downstairs, just make yourself at home." So that's why I'm writing at the Boyds.
O.K. So the other day...yesterday...we tracted for seven hours! About the third or fourth house we knocked on this lady opened up the door and so I said, "Hi. We're the missionaries from the Church of..."
Then she just cut me off and said, "Oh, come on in boys."
So we went in. We found out that she had looked into becoming member of the church before but had decided not to. We asked if we could teach the first lesson and she said yes. We got to the point where we were going to share the first vision when a truck comes up the driveway. The lady says, "Oh, that's my husband...he doesn't like religious people very well."
Here I am thinking, "Great...we're about to share the first vision and invite you to be baptized and your husband doesn't like religious people! Well, that's just awesome!" Not!
Anyways, Elder Torres got about 3/4 of the way through the first vision when her husband walked in.
"Well, who do we have here?" he asked.
We introduced ourselves and he seemed really nice. Then he went out to read the paper on the porch and so we finished the first vision and asked her if she'd prepare to be baptized on the 10th of April. She said she would!
We're really hoping that she'll come to church this upcoming Sunday. She also said she would listen/watch General Conference. She seemed really sincere.
We also went to teach a guy named Joe and we taught him the first but he refused to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and so we dropped him that same day. We told him to call us if he decides to read and pray.
That's about everyone we're teaching right now. That other couple I told you about, with the two little girls, they dropped us for now because she's super stressed out with a dance performance that she's putting together. (She owns her own dance studio.) She said she'll call us back in 4 weeks so we'll see if she does.
Last Sunday there was a recent convert fireside in Colorado Springs that we got to go to. It was really neat. We were able to get Bryton there and so he got up and shared his conversion story. It was super spiritual hearing different peoples stories. After everyone was done all of us missionaries...there were probably about 50 of us) got up on the stage in the chapel and we sang 'Till We Meet Again'. There was a lot of people crying and a lot of people singing along.
So you did burn a tie at six months...that's neat. Here I guess it's tradition to burn a tie at six, a shirt at twelve, a pair of pants at eighteen and a suit at twenty-four months. I don't know about that though! I'll only burn them if I can't wear them anymore! I may just stick to a tie every six months.
So it sounds like this trek thing will be really fun. At least the scenery fits huh! That's neat that you got to go with the Criddles. It was always fun going on trips with them. I still remember our last one very well...over on the dunes. That was fun!
Wow! 30 investigators at church in the stake. That's awesome! That's one of the hardest things for us to do. To get people to actually come to church. I hope the missionaries there will have a lot of success of it though!
Oh, mom. You'll be happy to know that this last week for St. Pattys day we had a green dinner. (Iknow how you always go crazy with the whole green thing on St Pattys) There was a lady in the ward who was so excited to feed us a green dinner. We had corned beef, green potatoes, cabbage, green jell-o, and green cool-aid. It wasn't bad but let's just say that I missed your green meals! It was fun though. Elder Torres and I were so exhaused though because we tracted for four hours and it was a really warm day and we forgot water! So we were super thirsty and no one was answering their door so we couldn't ask for any water. So anyways...here we are, dying of thirst, and then we look at the time and we have thirty minutes until we're supposed to be at dinner! So we start booking it (walking really fast). We walked 3miles in 30 minutes! It was pretty fast!
Well, now I'm back at our apartment writing at my desk. It's been a fun P-day. We just had dinner at the Hales. They're an older couple but they're really fun. He has a pool table (it seems like a lot of people have pool tables here) and so we play a few rounds of cut-throat whenever we go over there to eat. I would just like to mention that I won one of our two rounds!
So then we were getting ready to leave and she checked the weather for us and it looks like we may have six to twelve inches of snow by tomorrow afternoon. They said that it wouldn't start snowing hard until about midnight but it's 8:45pm right now and we already have about and inch of snow...and that's just within 45 minutes! I'll be excited to see what it looks like in the morning. I'll try and remember to put a little 'P.S.' at the end and let you know what we get.
How are things going with Laura? I hope they are going good for her.
Well, I better let you all go now. I can't think of anything else to write about. Hope your all doing good and staying happy! You are all in my prayers each day.
Love you lots.
Love Ben
P.S. We did get a lot of snow! It is about 12 inches in some places. An it's still snowing a little! Tracting will be fun today! lol I bet it's nice and sunny in Eugene!