Monday, January 20, 2014

Enduring to End in Bellevue ;)

Hey Family! 

I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry this email is getting
 out a bit late but we weren't even planning on emailing today with the holiday. But seeing how we have a computer lab in our apartment office, we decided to take advantage of that while we don't have anything to do. Mostly because we don't have a car and it's really windy and crappy outside. It was in the 60's yesterday though haha. 

This past week was pretty good. I mean it wasn't the greatest but we
 did get to see Tom and he's still doing good. He just needs to come to church. His wife is not helping in that aspect. They've been to church once and she thinks it's too boring. She like the "Christian Calvary Church" because it has rock bands and free coffee. I think I'vealready mentioned all of this but whatevs I'm doing it again. Tom mentioned he doesn't want to split up the family by going to a different church so Sylvia just needs to quit being so stubborn. 

Other
 than that nothing too crazy happened. Just another week. I'm getting a little sick of Bellevue so my motivation has taken a hit, but I know I need to keep working and stop worrying about it. I'll get a change of scenery soon enough. But in the meantime I'll make the best of my stay here. 

We had a nice talk with a less active member this week. John
 Peoples. I believe I mentioned him before. He says he's really good at basketball and we clarified with him and he said he "used to" be able to dunk but can't anymore. He's only 29 but I guess he broke his ankle a while back among other things. But he opened up with us and we had a nice talk with him. That was on Saturday and he said he know's he needs to make it to church and said he was going to but he didn't. Why is it so darn hard for people to make it to church? I mean I understand if you have work or something, but if you don't and it's at 11 I can't think of many excuses to not come. But whatever hopefully we can get him to come next week. 

Oh but another less active member did come to church
 today--Danny Rameriz. He is a pretty cool guy. I think his wife was the main underlying reason behind his inactivity. She is on vacation in California or something and now he's pretty easy to go and see and he came to church. Weird how it works out like that. 

Speaking of less
 actives the Brosnan's have not come to church for a long time. I'm pretty sure it's because they're smoking (we've asked them about it but they denied it) and are ashamed or something but since they're denying it, it makes it a pretty tough situation to go about. 

But yeah
 anyways today was a pretty decent day. We played basketball pretty early since no one else is doing emails today. After basketball we went to old market in downtown Omaha and browsed around a bit. Antiques are cool and all but I get pretty bored of them after about 30 minutes. Oh and we did get some lunch at a cheesesteak place called Pepperjack's and it was expensive so sorry about that. But was pretty good so that's neat I guess. Not as good as DP though. We're going tohave to hit that place up when I get back but in the meantime Pepperjacks will suffice. 

We don't have the car this week so it should
 be a fun one. Hopefully we can make it out to the further out places and try to see some people. I'm going to close this up. 

I love you
 all! Have a wonderful week everyone! I hope all the people who are in California are having fun. 

Oh I did catch part of the Seattle and 49er
 game last night. I'll definitely be rooting for the Bronco's haha. Especially after that class act showing by that cornerback in the post game interview. Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Elder Ballif

Monday, January 13, 2014

Still in Bellevue :)

Hey Family!

How is everyone? I doing pretty well. This will probably be a short email this week but I'll try to make it decent. So this week was transfer week. I'm still in Bellevue haha. Probably 1 more transfer here. That will bring me to February 21st

Well anyways this week has been a fun also because we have lost our car. We got put into a car share which kind of sucks but whatever. We've done a lot of walking the past few days. Which is fine. I could probably use some more walking. 

We have not been able to see the Vigil's this week. Things seem to be cooling down with them. They don't answer the door when it seems like they're home and they don't respond to texts or anything. So yeah that is pretty nice. Whatever I'm sure it'll all work out. 

Someone that is doing good is Tom Perry. We brought along a couple in the ward with us to see him. He is doing good. He's still reading (listening) to the Book of Mormon and is praying more. We had a very good lesson with him. It was the Webster's that came with us and Sister Webster is a convert of 2 years and Brother Webster is one of the smartest people in the gospel that I've met. He's very into Church History and all that jazz. We have some deep gospel discussions sometimes so that's fun. 

That's about all that is new. This week wasn't very eventful. Other than losing the car and having to walk everywhere. So we should have a car every other week. But yeah I'm doing good. I am a little homesick though. Well I always am but I think the holiday season magnified it. But don't worry about me I'll be fine. 

I hope everyone is doing good. How is Austin doing? I have not heard from him for a bit. But anyways I love you guys. 

 I have read the first 25 pages or so of the book Dad sent on the Prophet Joseph Smith. I like it a lot. Some very interesting stuff. It makes me feel not as bad that I goof around seeing that the Joseph Smith did as well--especially with kids. 

Well I'm going to play some ball. Love ya! Say hi to everyone! Have great week everyone.

Love,
Elder Ballif





Monday, January 6, 2014

It Is Cold

Hey Family

How is everyone doing? Things went pretty well this last week here in Bellevue. And to answer your question, Mom, I'll probably be here till February 21st like I've said many times haha. I mean there is a slight chance I could get transferred, but seeing how I'm training that probably won't happen. You're generally locked in for 2 transfers when you're training. But I'm alright with that. 

So things here are really cold. And Jenn I don't want to hear your complaining haha. It's -9 right now with a real feel of -30 and it could possibly be -40 later on tonight. Last night I think it got to -13 or so. So yeah it's really cold. Good thing today is P-day. But yeah I guess they canceled school and stuff. They're saying if the proper precautions aren't taken frost bite and hypothermia can occur. I'm dressed pretty warmly and shouldn't be outside too much haha.  We're going to play basketball again so that'll be fun. As you may have guessed.

Our investigators are doing well. We found out the name to the mystery guy. He said to come back in 2 weeks though because he said things were pretty busy. His name is Tom. So we have 2 Toms now haha. The original Tom is doing good. He is now in 2 Nephi so that's pretty awesome. He was concerned about the whole Nephi beheading Laban but hopefully he can get over that. We did explain it a little to him but hopefully he accepted the answer or either gets answer from Heavenly Father. So yeah he's doing good.

Also Celeste is doing good. She did say she was going to make it to church but she didn't so that was a little disappointing but Joseph did have work so that probably would've been a little scary for her to go. So hopefully next week. But with her not coming her baptismal date will need to be pushed back since you need to have gone to church 3 times before you can get baptized, at least in this mission. So February 1st could be the date. We'll have to figure that out.

I had some really good finds at goodwill today. ;) I found the suit I've been looking for, for my entire mission. It's a very light gray suit and it's a Chaps. So it's an almost brand new suit and it was 8 bucks. I think it would have been around 300 bucks originally. And I got a nice purple argyle sweater. It's pretty neat. So yeah I'm still hunting for things at goodwill. Oh and I got some almost brand new black dress shoes. Gotta love Goodwill. 

This week we had a Trainer/Trainee meeting so that was fun. The trainers and trainees split up and got trained on things pertaining to what they're doing. And we got pizza afterwards so that was nice. 

Well I need to get going. Sorry if I wasn't able to answer any questions or respond to enough things. Maybe you could highlight some of the things you want me to address and I'll see what I can do. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful and safe week!

Love,
Elder Ballif