Spectacular Bicycle Crashes

       

Gilbert Arizona Temple

           This week has been crazy.  Gilbert didn't really get real rain, but we did the other week.  It was really fun because we got to ride our bikes through the flooded parks on the way home.  One was deeper than we thought and our feet were going under the water.  I don't know why, but I keep crashing on my bike in funny ways and I always go over the handlebars.  The last time I crashed was on Thursday or Friday when we were out past curfew.  We were about to go home when we decided to help a nonmember family move into their house.  As we were leaving, one said, “Ride safe!” and I responded, “I will,” and 2 seconds later I crashed.  I was carrying an extra bag of stuff.  The extra bag I had got sucked into my front wheel.  At this point they couldn't see me because I was on the other side of the moving truck.  All they could hear was “OH CRAP!!!” (insert crash sound here) Elder Ramon and I had a good laugh.

          We were both sick this week on Thursday and Friday where we had a stomach thing.  We never found out what it was.  For me it started with stomach pains in the middle of the night and I had a headache all day.  That day we had interviews with President Natresse.  He is a really awesome man. We got home from that at 2 and I slept in my suit because I was so tired.  I woke up at 7:00 pm, ate dinner that some members brought over and crashed again. The next day, Elder Ramon had the same thing.  It stunk, but we got out at the end of the day.  On Wednesday, we had a traveling AP come with us all day.  After doing a service project digging mud out of the basement of some members in our zone, we gave a blessing to a little girl.  That’s probably how we got sick, but we feel better now.

           I don't have much time, but I want to tell you about my area real quick.  I cover 2 wards and they are called the Chaparral and the Cooley Station Wards.  They are in a nice neighborhood.  Half of Chaparral is rich large houses. Both wards have half of the Mesa ASU Campus, so we are over there a lot.  It’s old military housing. It is a half hour bike ride over there.

          ---Elder B.

Mesa ASU Poly-Technical Campus

Cousins Serving Missions

           By December, there will be three missionaries serving at the same time from our family.  Elder Chase Acheson is currently serving in the Adriatic South Mission.  He spent about a year in Albania and is now in Kosovo.  Elder Mitchell Bailey is serving in Gilbert, Arizona.  And now Elder Race Acheson will leave on his mission to Lyon, France in December.  We are so thrilled that these honorable young men have chosen to serve missions.

Elder Chase Acheson with street display in Kosovo

          Mitchell and Race recently graduated from High School and Seminary.  Mitchell decided to leave soon after graduation for his mission.  Race decided to work for six months to help earn the funds for his mission.

Future Missionaries at Seminary Graduation in May 2014

Mitchell was present at Elder Chase Acheson's ordination and setting apart for his mission.  Race was present at Elder Mitchell Bailey's ordination and setting apart for his mission.  So, with no brothers left to be there for Race, Mitchell's brothers came for Elder Race Acheson's ordination.  Of course, they were there for the other's, too, along with more cousins.  It is so great to have supportive family!

An awesome group of men at Elder Race Acheson's ordination in September 2014

Flooding in Central Arizona

          We did not hear from Elder Bailey this week.  We think that it has something to do with the excessive rain and flooding the Central Arizona area has had the past week.  We learned that many folks were out sandbagging around their homes and businesses.  The pictures we have seen look devastating.  I am thinking that the missionaries may have been out doing service checking on people and helping them sandbag around their homes or clean up the aftermath of the storms.

          These pictures are from posts on the internet about the flooding in Gilbert earlier in the week.  Monsoon rains in the desert cause flash flooding and are very dangerous.  Looks like there will be a lot of clean-up to be done.

          Hoping and praying that our Elders are safe and dry!

          We did find out that he sent a short message to his sister Katelyn and Brother-in-law Brendan this week.  He said:

        My comp is super cool.  We get along and sometimes we wrestle.  He is Pacific Islander (Micronesian not Polynesian).  They are all just super tough, so I lose all the time.  But is super fun.  Your friends (College friends of Brendan's) are not in my wards, but you should ask them what Stake and Ward they are in.  The work is going awesome.

            --Elder B.

First Transfer in the Field

Transfers went very well.  My new companion is Elder Ramon from the island Pohnpei.  He is so cool and is very wise and humble.  He wants to be in the US Navy and be a fisherman.  He is an awesome teacher and has been teaching me well.  I want to be like Elder Ramon because he is humble and has solemn dignity. 

I got transferred up to Gilbert.  We are in the temple view zone and we are really close to the temple.  When we got out on our bikes we rode around meeting people in the wards we are serving in, the first house we got to they told us that the younger brother’s girlfriend wanted to take the lessons right then.  So we rode over to the dad’s house and we met Rosie and talked to her.  Then we taught her the first lesson.  She and her boyfriend (a less active member and younger brother of a member of the ward bishopric) have been reading the Book of Mormon and she likes it.  We "soft committed" her to baptism and got her to pray about the Book of Mormon.  It was super awesome.

One Year Anniversary of the Arizona Gilbert Mission.  Elder Bailey is in there somewhere.

In this mission we have a missionary from Albania and we have another from Perpyon, France (I probably spelled it wrong).

It is monsoon season, so it’s raining crazy hard right now.

I also found a camera that works and is kind of fun to play around with.  I took a bunch of pictures with it that I want to share but I can’t because it has no SD card. I can’t figure out how to get the pictures off the camera.  I found the camera while cleaning out an old missionary apartment and it seems like the previous owners of the camera had gone home because nobody knew who they were so I took it.  It’s mine now.  Oh, and no pictures this week.

Elder B.

My first area was a walking district.  Sandstorms, monsoon rains, 108 degrees