{week 1 email}

The first week has had its ups and downs but definitely more ups than downs! One thing that is really tough out in Utah is that most of the people we tract or OYM (open your mouth) have already been talked to by missionaries and they aren't interested or they grew up in the church and fell away and aren't interested in coming back. As you all know, my companion is Elder Ferguson (Megan Cancienne's Cousin). We get along very well! We both love playing sports and being active! We also like a lot of the same stuff like food and music! Every Thursday night, we go play basketball with some non-member and less active teenagers. We let them play with us in the stake center as long as they let us teach them a lesson. Me and elder Ferguson are always on opposite teams because we are so much shorter than all the other guys that play. We also play dodge ball every Friday night with less-actives, members, and non-members. We've figured out that it is a great way to get a bunch of people together and have a good time and be able to teach them a little bit about the gospel. One way that we found to be very helpful in getting baptisms is going back over to less-active families and talking to their children about being baptized because most of them haven't been baptized. We actually have 4 people on date to be baptized on February 21st. A 9 year old named Bryce, a 9 year old named Haden, an 8 year old named Kayden, and Kayden's mom. We aren't sure who is going to be baptizing them yet but soon we will find out and i will let you all know! So that means i will be sending back that yellow tie that bishop gave me very soon (; We get fed at members homes every single night except on Tuesdays because Tuesdays are p-days. All the members really like Elder Ferguson and I because we are both pretty outgoing and we both love sports. One of the members from one of our wards we cover wants to take me and my companion out golfing when it gets warmer so im pretty excited about that! Elder Ferguson has never played golf but he said he has always wanted to try so we'll see how it goes! Most them members out here love the Utah Jazz and when i tell them i like the Lakers, they always make fun of me because they hate the Lakers and the Lakers are doing so bad this year but then i just bring up who has more NBA titles and they usually don't say anything after that hahaha. The food they have been feeding us has actually been really good! We've been fed a lot of chicken so far and i love chicken so that's great! I forgot to tell you guys that the other night we were talking to this guy on the street and he fell away from the church and he has joined a new religion so we were talking to him and all he wanted to do was bash us about everything and we just didn't want to bash so we said we were sorry and we wish him the best and then he left... then about 20 minutes later we were walking around the neighborhood and he caught up to us again and he told us that he was sorry for bashing our religion and being rude to us and then he said he would love to meet with us sometime! We were shocked because he was bashing us like crazy and telling us how wrong the church was and how he hated missionaries and then he wanted to meet with us! So we scheduled an appointment and we weren't surprised when he missed our appointment so we just kind of figured he wouldn't contact us again... Then 2 days later, we were walking around the same neighborhood then we heard someone honk at us in a huge white truck and we had no idea who it was but it was that same basher guy and he told us he was sorry for missing the appointment and he would love to meet with us again and he gave us his phone number and we gave him ours so we would be able to meet with him. So the next day, we met with him and we taught him a little bit and he told us why he left the church and stuff. Then we gave our testimonies about church and our mission and you could tell he felt the spirit. Then at the end of the lesson, he told us he would like to meet with us again sometime and he told us that he wasn't against joining the church again but it was going to take him some time. That is where we are at right now, i will keep you all posted on how everything is going! Love you guys!