now i think that's a riot.: December 9, 2013, Passaic

Half of Zone 3

Snow and rain the past two days. Only light snow but cold rain that followed which made everything icy.

Jazmin got baptized yesterday in cold water. We didn't realize the heater takes a horrendously long time to kick in if it's bitter cold outside so the water was around 55 degrees. Poor Jazmin. Just like when I baptized John Michael last October (first baptism!) she came up and let out a big breath letting everyone know how cold the water was. As she came down the back steps of the font, Vicky, who was holding her towel for her, started busting up laughing because she was shivering and exclaiming how cold it was. Jazmin's daughter, Andrea, didn't want to get baptized because she's a little afraid of the water. But after seeing her Mom get baptized, she now wants to. So we'll have another baptism in 2 weeks. Hermano Bello came up to me right before the baptism and hugged me (as I was wearing white) and said "This is why you stayed man!" Jazmin would have got baptized anyway because of her open heart and how well prepared she was, but it was a huge blessing to be able to baptize her and continue to bless the Garcia family and all their extended family. That family is doing their fair share of missionary work and it's really cool to see how many people are coming unto Christ because of Hermano and Hermana Garcia's willingness to open their mouths and tell everyone about what's made them happier than anything else in their lives.

I got nasty sick on Friday morning, the same morning I was supposed to give a training in Short Hills on "effective exchanges" to all the new District and Zone Leaders in the mission. I woke up at 5:45 feeling ok but then walked to the bathroom and hurled my guts out for the next 3 hours. Blasted Thanksgiving leftovers. I shouldn't have trusted that ham and potato salad. I still TRIED to get ready so I could give the training, but in the middle of a conversation with Elder Nielsen saying "Maybe you should give the training for me..." I booked it to the bathroom and destroyed the tub with some projectile vomit. It was orange that time, because I drank a little Sunny-D to try to get the barf-taste out of my mouth (I hope you're all picturing this by now..). So I stayed home and Elder Nielsen gave the training for me. Elder Dahl and Murray came over from Paterson and stayed the day with me. I just slept and threw up more, slept and threw up. I don't think I ate anything for about 48 hours and I lost 6-7 pounds.

Funny story: on Thursday, Elder Nielsen was DETERMINED to memorize Helaman 5:12 (poor guy really struggles with memorizing scriptures and it's our goal from Elder Carballo) in Spanish. So he locked himself in the workout room for 5 hours and swore he wouldn't leave until he had memorized it. After about 3 hours, he came storming out of the room with his hair all messed up, his tie undone, his shirt untucked, and a crazy desperate look in his eye saying, " I can't memorize this stupid thing!!!!" I made him stop and take a break. We missed an appointment. Finally after about 5 hours, he got it and was able to say it, without help

, word for word. It was pretty hilarious for me. I just cleaned the house, ate lunch, called people, organized stuff, and played hymns on the guitar.

Well that's about it for the week. The gospel is true. You know that I know it.

ps - Elder Hoyt (now Kurt) came back to Jersey and we went and visited the Bello's with him and he came to church in Passaic. He's doing great back in UT.