Sandpaper Walls

So you know that awful coarse wallpaper that it seems every one of our church buildings have? It also works great as sand paper. We were helping some investigators with sanding down their back patio, and one of the sanders ripped the paper it was using. For some unkonwn reason this family had some carpet scraps/whatever-that-can-classify-as in their garage (nobody has basements here; the water level is too high) and just for kicks and giggles we tried sanding the wood with that. We couldn't get it into the sander because it was too thick, but if you had nothing else and a great deal of time I'm pretty sure you could sand a porch down just fine. It would be hard and incredibly inconvenient, but possible.

I have also found the joys of using BYU addresses in my studies. A great many general authorities will give a BYU address on the same topic as General Conference, but because it is a college address where they are basically celebrities they are allowed to speak for as long as they want. Translation: 9 pages of a talk spoken by Elder Holland. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I'll add a link to the bottom of the email for all y'all who want to read it.

Jason is finally getting baptized! *Sports reference, confirmation of points received*. In case you didn't get that, we are a tad bit happy for him. (<-- Litotes) He is set for the 10th, and to be completely done with smoking by the 5th. He has the will, now we just need to help him stay busy. To aid in that we will be going fishing with him today. And probably again next month, if not sooner.

We had an event in our mission this past week called Going Vertical. When I first heard about it I was hoping it had to do with rockets, fire, or explosives, preferably all three at once, but it was not to be. What it actually was is possibly even more awesome than these (for a missionary); we got an extra 2 hours of personal study time wherein we were to come to know and understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ, his sacrifice for us, more perfectly, and then to accept it more fully into our own lives. It was awesome.

I also had a chance to talk with President Peterson for about 30 min. He gave me some good scriptures to use for Going Vertical (2 ne. 9 and Alma 7 among others) but he also told me that it will most likely be me who is staying in Cabot and Elder Clason who will be leaving. Which is good because I really don't want to leave just yet and E.Clason is going a bit stir crazy again. He's never had a companion for more than 12 weeks at a time and he likes it that way. Of course this isn't set in stone yet, but I'm pretty sure now that it will be me who stays.

Love you all, and DFTBA! (Don't Forget To Be Awesome)

Elder Jayden Barker

Le address: http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1819