October 28

Thanks for the package, we enjoyed the candy, and we actually wrapped some in Pillsbury biscuit dough, & deep fried it. I'm also liking the granola, I had no idea it was homemade, it's good. And thanks for sending those shirts & the pocket watch. I remembered I had one, I just didn't say anything because I was so worried I left that at one of the hotels.

I don't think I mentioned, but one of our best investigators who's a divorced mom in her early 50's I made a plate of cookies for, she said that in the 8 years she's lived in the neighborhood no one has brought her treats. She thanked me, and said that was really sweet and gave me a hug. Which isn't a big deal, but she hugged me again before sacrament meeting when I gave my talk. Elder Oler thinks she has a soft spot for me. We've made a good relationship with her, in a way she's kinda like our aunt.

My talk by the way went pretty well. I talked about scripture study. I had a lot of great quotes from apostles & scriptures. One of them was from a message on LDS.org by D Todd Christofferson titled Daily Bread. I did get a little stage fright, like always, and so with me and the other speakers, we fell short 10 minutes which turned out fine, because the branch canceller was prepared to add a Few comments.

This week we went on trade offs with the zone leaders. They're both awesome missionaries. Elder Louis & I had a chance to go Proselyte on CMU campus. There are so many students just walking around from place to place. For a little while I struggled to talk to people. It was similar to how Adam was walking down the streets in Brazil. Except we were in a trio, and we could talk to other people as long as we were in sight. Eventually I convinced myself to go out and talk to the first person I see. I told myself I got nothing to loose if I make a mistake, or if they aren't interested, I could talk to the next person I see.

Yesterday, as we were finding in an apartment complex, we saw one guy who looked pretty drunk struggling to walk straight. A few seconds later I hear a something and I see the man fall face first in a rock bed right above the curb. Elder Louis inspected him and gave him a couple of band aids. He fell a second time, this time on a car. Elder Louis then helped him walk to his girlfriend's. And after a little bit he said "I don't need help walking." I can't think of anyone I met more out of it than he was.
That day of finding went well, we found 3 people who said we could come back.

Since it's starting to get darker earlier we've decided to ask members if we could visit when It got to the point where everyone's not interested in hearing us because they were getting to bed. So this Sunday we went to one of the family's in the branch. They're one of the 3 family's in the ward, and all the kids love having us over.

One more thing, Preston met a Tre Candland in Mesa. He wanted me to ask you if you guys knew her, or of any relatives down there.

Love you guys,
Elder Candland