Pass Along Cards - The next generation of pokemon cards

Alright, sorry this is late, but we had leadership training Monday Tuesday so P-day got switched to Wednesday. Fun times.

So last Monday, we went to wal-mart for shopping, and a couple people asked us where stuff was. Apparently as missionaries, we look like wal-mart employees. It was pretty funny. But what wasn't funny was when we went looking for a new battery for my companions camera. And walked past the video game display case. That's always good for the old focus.

We were tracting out in the country this week, and met my most unkind person yet. He was all swearing at us, and didn't have a shirt on (which was gross) and yelling from his window. But the best thing to do for people like that is just to look at them like Jesus would look at them. And then you just feel bad. And hope that someday they will come to a knowledge of the restored gospel.

But, when bad things like that happen, brace yourself because something awesome is just on the horizon. On this particular day, we tracted into an "Earthship". For those of you that don't know what an Earthship is, wikipedia it. It's basically a house that is made completely of tires, and is built so that it is heated by the sun. They pay no heating/ac bills, it only costed 50 grand to build, and it looks really cool. Also, the husband is RLDS and really good friends with a member, but he wasn't there so we'll probably make our way back to see if we can teach him. I've only taught one RLDS person, and it is way different than teaching anyone else. So i'm looking forward to when we can contact him.

Also this week I was trying to get this little dog to come towards me, so I could pet it and make sure it knew I wasn't a threat, when all of a sudden it snapped and started barking and chasing me around. So I started running around in circles, my companion was laughing at me as I was hastily trying to escape the jaws of the predator. It almost bit me, but I ran away.

Some of you may remember the story I told about those 2 guys coming off the street into that guys house, and then the owner came home and kicked us all out. Well, I met those 2 guys again, at Community Corrections. Basically like a form of house arrest, it's a halfway house between jail and society. But they waved to me, and I waved to them. The things you learn in Alamosa...

Also, we went out with the bishopric and went to visit some less actives, and the guy I was with was an anesthesiologist, and he answered a burning question of mine. When i went under for my appendectomy, the doctor told me that I would taste garlic in my mouth. Well i tasted garlic, and no doctor has ever been able to answer my question, or at least the ones I asked, as to if that was just a funny joke that doctors play on stressed out patients, or a real scientific thing. Well apparently it's real. Which was nice to know, that I wasn't on the receiving end of some operating room prank.

We had dinner at this less actives house, and we had real Louisiana shrimp. He got it right before the oil spill happened. It was so good, and he started talking about the different ways you could make shrimp. Shrimp creole, shrimp stew, shrimp pasta, shrimp kebob, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp and steak, breaded shrimp etc. It was like a scene out of a movie or something.

And some bad news for the week: Nathan, my first committed baptism in the field, dropped us this week. It was a sad day for me and my companionship. All week we kept trying to see him, and he wasn't home, and then finally his girlfriend answered the door and was fairly rude to us and told us to come back later. So we came back later, and he walked out of his house to meet us as we parked our bikes. As soon as I saw his face, I knew it was done. And as he was talking to us, his girlfriend was staring from the window at the whole exchange. But ya, we'll keep trying to see him, but it was rough. BUT right afterwards, as we walked through the valley of the shadow of death, biking around aimlessly in a state of shock, I saw this guy that was in an alleyway, a little out of our way, but he was raking leaves. So I felt like we should go over and talk to him. We did, and it turns out he was this former investigator that used to be really solid, but for some reason was never home. Well we got his number and are going to start teaching him!

Also this week, I was on exchange with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder McCleod. It was a great experience, and I learned so much. But later that night, we decided to make phone calls at a members house (our phone doesn't have many minutes) and I picked a part member family off the ward list that lived close by. So we called and they said we could come over. The wife is less active, and the husband a nonmember. He was in his room, but she was really glad we came over, and we got to give her a blessing, and it turns out she is really less active, which I didn't even know when I picked them. Crazy times!

The kids in Alamosa all know us and love us! Some of them ask us if they can hand out pass-along cards, it's so funny! We talked to this one teenager, and offered him a card, and he was all like "yo man, I've already got this one". Apparently he collects them and keeps them above his door in his room. After seeing that, my guess is that pretty soon we will be able to have pass along card battles. Actually, that will never happen. But it's cool to think about.

AAAND it was daylight savings time this week, The MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR. I went to bed early, and therefore got a glorious 2 HOURS EXTRA of sleep. It was truly the most amazing thing ever.

Russell M. Nelson came on Sunday which was awesome. We drove to Springs, had our faces blown off by how awesome it was. I won't go into too much detail, but I was 2 rows from the front, and he told the story about dedicating Hungary for mission work, and one of the other GA's that was there had a son that served in Hungary and he started crying and oh man it was just so awesome. I took like 3 pages of notes. And we were permitted to ask questions so that was cool. Someone asked "How do we fight doubt?" and Elder Nelson was like "Gout? I don't know". Or when someone asked him to repeat what he just said and he was like "I can't. I don't remember it". Good Times.

Also, a word of advice. When giving a priesthood blessing, men, make sure that you don't tilt the container up too much. Otherwise all the oil goes rushing out. And it can be embarrassing.

Elder Gibb.