Are We Back to the Pranks?

My nephews and niece wanted to be have a sleep-over New Year's Eve, but since it was a Sunday the next day I told them they had to wait a day.  Well we had the sleep-over and they brought silly string.  (Yes, that means trouble).  So we wait until about 9:15 and here come Elder W and Elder M driving up the driveway.  We oops, I mean my niece and nephews... wait for the elders to get out of the car and that seems to take forever, but they finally get out of the car.  Yes, the elders got sprayed with silly string the whole way in the apartment, it's tragic because they had to get their key out and unlock the door to the apartment :), so we (er, I mean my niece and nephews) had an extra few minutes to get them.  It was great fun, but tomorrow is p-day and I am afraid they might plan on finding some way to get even...  If they do, I will let you know, although it will be hard to match the prank Elder B2 and Elder U got me back with, the manequin head, that was classic.  (If you don't remember this one, read my Sept 11 blog entry - I jumped out of my chair 'nuff said)

Don't think that just because I am still a bit on the adolescent mode that the missionaries who stay here are.  These guys work hard.  Wednesday I got to go on splits with Elder M because they had two lessons scheduled for the same time.  What an awesome opportunity it is to go with the missionaries when they are teaching the gospel.  I keep wishing that I could be ninteen years old and go be one of these guys.  The lesson I was in was a bit tough for Elder M because the person we were teaching was a talker and by the time we got to the lesson there was very little time, but Elder M did a great job.  The cool thing about these guys is that even though they are young and inexperienced, you can feel the spirit with them and you can't deny their testimony. 

Thursday we had a missionary focused meeting at the Stake Center and President Miller of the mission presidency spoke.  What a great man he is.  These elders have an awesome leader, no wonder they do such great work.  Anyway in the meeting the mission president had Elder W and Elder M stand up and was asking them some questions about the work here.  One thing that came out of their conversation was that they aren't teaching enough lessons, and the Mission President (in a loving way) chastised us for not providing enough opportunities for these great elders to teach.  Our Stake President also told us that we are slacking a bit and that because of that we have had to share our missionaries with a neighboring stake and the stake president does not like to share his missionaries.  -- so, interesting observation by my mother today... "I haven't seen much of the elders these past two days.  -- maybe our stake was listening???  I hope so.  (I guess that means that I need to pick up the pace myself -does this blog count, I hope so?).

Wait, I have rambled on forever here and said almost nothing.  Today I am fasting for our stake's missionary program, along with every other member of the stake.  The goal is to get more missionaries ready to go out from our stake (it is one of the largest stakes in the church) and to get more senior couples as missionaries too - we only have two couples from a stake of 12 wards, that's pretty sad.  We are also fasting for the success of the missionary effort right here at home.  The elders are currently teaching a couple who recently moved here from Texas.  Our Stake President said that their ward prayed them there, because they didn't have any possible candidates to teach.

Okay, really I am done.

Be especially Awesome this week it's really that important. 
Welcome home to Elder U  I am very proud of you. 

May the Lord Bless all of our missionaries, and all of us, for are we not all missionaries?  (OK you can call me a weirdo now)!