10-17-11

Hey! I'm doing great. we have a PO box 6321 but it would probably be best to not send stuff to that after December 8th or so because my 12 weeks training ends on December 18th so I might be getting transferred out of here a week before Christmas.... which would nooooot be fun at all. This week has been busy busy. It's been crazy how many people we've been talking to. We have 3 baptismal dates and one conditional one and another soon to come. We had 6 investigators at church yesterday... it was crazy. We got a new investigator last night who is a native and he's his tribes historian and he's spoken to Harvard and met with the Pres. a couple of times. It's cool hearing about their culture and cultural beliefs and differences. We actually just got invited to be witnesses for one of our Investigators marriage. I'll try to attach a couple of pictures to this email but I haven't taken too many here because it's been so busy and it's aallllwwwaayyss raining ha. So there are like constant waterfalls down the mountain and on the side of the road it's pretty cool. But we get very wet. We had splits on Friday and I taught a lesson with just me and a member and it was interesting. I felt like I talked sooo much ha but it went well. I get to teach the Sanchez family in Spanish once a week and a Recent Convert who only speaks Spanish I’ve taught a few times recently. But he's way hard to understand. He chops off words and stutters and stuff. We taught almost 20 full lessons this week which is our mission’s standard of excellence so we're getting close to getting there. I can't believe it’s still ,wait...I take that back I can believe it's still warm in Texas but since I’ve gotten here it's been like a steady 40 and raining ha. It’s so different down in SE Alaska than even in Anchorage where I’m pretty sure it's freezing now. Ice here will present quite a problem in driving. Everything is a hill and everything is parallel parking down hills. I've never even heard of studded tires but we're putting them on the car soon. Oh and you know rain boots are called Ketchikan tennis shoes here ha. But anyways this place is awesome, the people are awesome and I have no idea what Pres. Beesley was thinking sending me here first. I’m feeling soooo spoiled ha but I’m grateful for it. I love you all. All is well in Zion.

                                 Love,
                                        Elder Waddell