1-22-09

Dear Family and Friends,                                                                                   

Sorry for not getting a letter out last week. The last two weeks have been busy. Zirker and I have probably driven 1200 miles around the zone and down to Everett and Mill Creek for meetings since we got transferred. I didn’t realize so much driving was involved in this position. I’ve been able to get to know the Zone better and all the missionaries so I’ve enjoyed it for the most part. I didn’t realize how good of an area Mt. Vernon was until I left it. With about half as much time in our area to work as before we’re able to get as much done as just about anybody in our zone. It’s great. Elder Zirker lives to tract which is good because aside from our on-daters, we are in a big-time finding mode. He likes to work so things are going well. He’s been out for 18 months so I’m learning a lot from him, and he’s hilarious so we have a good time.

We’ve got two baptisms coming up this Saturday with some good guys—Tony and Jessie. They’ve turned their lives around from being in the homeless lifestyle and it’s exciting seeing them taking the right steps.

I’m still meeting with Brian but it’s been hard getting him out to church, so he isn’t progressing a whole lot. Last week I gave his son, Jonah, some lemon juice because I heard if you dipped cigarettes in it and smoked them, it’s nasty. So Jonah was all over it. We made a secret handoff and a couple hours later I got a call from Brian all upset saying he wants to invite us over to dinner so he can feed us a bunch of food full of laxatives that we can wash down with lemonade. At first I thought he was really mad and that I’d screwed up, but he was joking. I guess it worked, he said it was really bad and he couldn’t figure out what it was, but then Jonah started laughing at him and threw us under the bus. Good times.

So since Zirker and I have both put on some mission weight, we’ve gone healthy. So we got a bunch of produce from the market and made this shake to kick the whole thing off. We put some spinach, lettuce and a carrot in the blender and made up the swampiest concoction. It looked like chunky swamp water full of algae, but we put it down and we’re never gonna do it again. My stomach was moaning all day and it wasn’t pleasant. I’d like to think it added a few years to my lifespan, but even then it wasn’t worth it. We make fruit shakes now with a lot of blackberries—it’s great.

Deception Pass is in the zone so I drive over it a couple times a week and I’ve got some photos I’ll send soon.

Thanks for the letters—everybody who’s written me—thank you. I’m not the best at remembering to get back, but I’ll try.

All’s well. I’m being blessed.

Love,

Elder Packer