July 23rd

Hey Mom!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Haha as per usual, I sang a song. Elders Kriser and Wood were good sports and jumped in with me. That's part of the reason why we all busted up laughing towards the end, but hey, we weren't called to be in MoTab. Haha Elder Kriser would be proud of you for getting your country on though, he's a big time country boy haha. I'm glad to hear you celebrated in style though, it sounded like a good time. 

It also sounds like you guys have a pretty crazy week coming up haha! I'm excited to hear how it all goes. Have fun with the fam!

We had another pretty crazy week. It's been fun to be so busy so often haha, it's something I'm not used to! We're learning some new time management skills haha, that chapter of Preach My Gospel is finally coming in handy! Kidding, it's always been good, but prioritizing meetings is a new one for us all haha.

I guess to start it off, Elder Kriser took off for the north zone conference on Monday. We were missing him for a couple days while we were on exchange. In the meantime, we started meeting with an investigator on the Stop Smoking Program. Addictions are really hard, but it's so cool to help people work through problems that they've been struggling with their whole lives. Christ really can break those chains. Monday night we met this really cool guy that also happens to be really good at basketball. To make a long story short, I destroyed him in a game of 21, and now we're playing together this Saturday in a FIBA basketball tournament. 

That's not the end of our sports contacting for the week! On Tuesday, Elder Wood and I entered into a 5k! Haha we ran in our white shirts and ties, which obviously attracted a lot of attention. We wrote the Church website on our backs, and handed out pass-along-cards along the way! Haha we finished pretty well, but I was definitely out of shape! Still some of the most fun I've had on the mission though. I almost forgot how nice the cross-country crowd is! Everyone was willing to talk to us after the race! We also got interviewed by a news crew! Haha there were professional photographers taking pics of us and everything! Crazy! We're looking to do the exact same thing on Saturday, but we're hoping to actually win in basketball!

Elder Kriser came back on Wednesday, and Elder Wood took off for the south (and I was a little jealous haha). Elder Kriser and I had quite a few meetings. One of our investigators is doing really well. He's actually been around ever since I came to Warsaw. He's pretty much a homie, but lately, he's gotten serious about changing his life. We're going over the lessons again, and he's just getting everything. It's pretty cool to be a part of. 

We had our own zone conference on Thursday, that was a solid one. Sister Hansen made us some M&M cookies, which pretty much made the meeting hahaha.

On Friday we met with a really, really cool couple. They took us out for ice cream (get it, cool? I'm kidding, that was terrible), and we talked about their experience with the Church. She's done quite a bit of research, and actually listens to General Conference talks every morning. That's not something you hear every day haha, we were pretty blown away. He's not as familiar with the Church, but they're both super interested, and they are so excited for more meetings.

Saturday was kind of an interesting day. Some of the other elders were meant to have a baptism scheduled, but it got postponed that day. We were all pretty bummed, but used the time as an opportunity to meet with all the investigators in the city and talk about the Restoration. We watched the video, answered questions, and pretty much just got real with them. It turned out to be a pretty cool day. We had sports with them after, and I taught them all how to shoot a basketball. Form here is pretty poor, but we're making progress haha.

All in all a pretty good week. We're excited to see what happens next week, especially with that bball tournament!

Love you Mom, hope you had an awesome day yesterday!

Elder Haskett