My Week in Grand Prairie!

Dear family,

So we're emailing early because they want us emailing at the church to spend more time here, or something. I'm not really sure, all I know is that there's no time limit here and we can come earlier than 1pm so here we are!

This week I went to Grande Prairie 3 different times it was wild. I feel like I spent more time out of my area than in it!

On Tuesday we drove in to meet President Manion haha he's sweet! He's definitely different than President Campbell, but I like him a lot. We had our interview and we spent quite awhile talking about Portland because he spent a lot of time there negotiating contracts for Verizon. He talked a lot about how liberal Portland is haha. He'll be super good for the mission though, he's got a lot of ideas. I tried to subltley ask if I was getting transferred haha but he didn't say anything. So who knows what will happen in two weeks!

On Thursday we drove in again for Zone Training Meeting. It was pretty good! Afterwards Elder Thompson and I went shopping for satchels, side bags, whatever you want to call them. I got one that I'll honestly probably use when I get home. It's sweet! They changed quite a bit about the dress code. We can now wear khaki pants and light grey suits! It doesn't really do much for me but it's nice to know that I could if I wanted to :)

On Friday we drove to Valleyview and met the Zone Leaders for exchanges. I went to their area (in Grande Prairie) with Elder Stevens. He just came from Vermilion, one of the areas we blitzed when I was a zone leader so I've been on exchanges with him before. It was way fun. They play basketball every Friday night at the church with a bunch of non-member Filipino guys. It was actually a good finding opportunity. We talked a lot with the people there and plus we got to play basketball it was so sweet. We don't have a hoop anywhere in High Prairie so it was nice to play again.

On Tuesday it rained so hard! We were out walking to go tracting and we were probably about a mile away from our apartment. All of the sudden a thunderstorm hit and it started pouring rain. Elder Thompson had a jacket with a hood but my jacket didn't have one so we walked home and I was so soaked haha. Just thought you should know.

So we got a bunch of puzzles from the retirement home that we volunteer at, and we had this genius idea that we would solve them and put them on our wall with sticky tack! So we already did one but it was just a little 500-piece that frankly, was pretty easy. But now we're working on a 1000-piece puzzle it's so hard. I'm so stoked to put it on our wall though! I wish you could see our apartment, it gets homier every day! Haha

Naomi is doing well. We met this week and invited her to church, but she's still pretty hesitant I think. The member that we bring is super good for her and calls and invites her so that's a good start. We'll see what happens! We're still praying for a family to teach. This branch needs it big time.

Okay have a good week my friends! Love you all!

Elder Read