The Big 20. And Leprosy.

Ok so we had a pretty crazy week down here in Sanford. Some good things, some bad things, and some painful things. But before we get there...

Yay! I'm 20! No longer a teenager. It feels weird. Thanks to everyone for all the cards and gifts, I've been very blessed! I loved the fuzzy peaches (as did my companion) and the Bacon Chocolate bar, and all the cards, and the Israel Defense Force shirt! That thing is amazing! So thank you so much for everything!

So I'm going to start with more of the temporal stuff, and then get into the more spiritual stuff. We did have a pretty cool miracle this week, but I'll save it to the end. First off: When in the high altitude of the San Luis Valley, it is imperative that you wear sunscreen. Unfortunately, the UV rays here are pretty dang potent, and wreak havoc on unprotected skin. This week we were going out to do some service, and as I was walking out the door felt distinctly impressed that I should grab some sunscreen. I shook it off because we were in a hurry and my companion was waiting for me. Oh how I wish I had heeded the prompting. As I type this, my skin is on fire. I got pretty burned on Wednesday and then we did some more service on Saturday and I doused myself in sunscreen this time, but it got a wee worse. So now I look like I have leprosy or something, because my skin is all peeling and raw and red and blistered and gross. I hate to go into that story, but I will never not wear sunscreen again. Every time I ignore promptings bad stuff happens. Like when I felt I should take off my glove to bike home with my Sonic Milkshake and didn't and hit a bump and spilled it on the ground. Even for silly things, we can be guided.

Also, we've discovered some interesting things in our house. Black Widow and Brown Recluse spiders. So that was a little scary, and then we found a whole bunch of eggs in the closet, it was straight out of the movie "Alien" or something. So we made some calls and the exterminator is coming today to clean it out. The past couple nights have been difficult sleeping though, I keep thinking I'm going to get bit or something, but it's all taken care of now.

And now onto what I will be doing for my birthday. Yesterday was Memorial day, and President was inspired that we should work that day, so we did. We biked out to a town called La Sauses (8 mile bike ride) and helped a non-member with some service, painting her house. That was pretty cool, and we managed to get a ride home so that wasn't too bad. It was pretty windy. I wore a long sleeve T-shirt and a scarf around my neck so I didn't get any more burnt. We'll be going back to help with some more, so hopefully we can find some teaching opportunities. Then we came home, got dressed in clothes and went out trying to visit people. Unfortunately everyone was pretty much out of town. Up camping in the mountains. So that was hard, and then our dinner never called us back so I had a memorable Ramen (like those ichiban noodles) dinner. I put an egg in it to "spice it up". It was good though, all this rough stuff is far outweighed by how awesome P-day is going to be next week. We can't do it this week because La Jara doesn't have enough miles. But here goes:

When I received my mission call, I took a look at what was in Colorado Springs on Wikipedia, but didn't really look at what was in all the parts of this mission. It's pretty diverse, you could be eating Lobster from the gulf of Mexico with the former CEO of Nestle who happens to be a member, then go indoor skydiving, then play a couple rounds of golf on a private millionaires golf course, and tract into the owner and CEO of Remax International (who isn't a member). That was my companions last transfer by the way. He has some crazy stories. But anywho, you can go from there to the dust bowl where there is nothing. So I didn't realize that when I looked at my call. Now, another thing I thought was that, "well, there's no good movies filmed in my mission, so I can't go to any famous movie sites or anything." I mean, I was thinking Lord of the Rings:New Zealand. Jurassic Park:Hawaii. Star Wars: Tunisia, Guatemala, and other places that aren't in Colorado. BUT THINK AGAIN! You will not believe what movie was filmed in Antonito Colorado, about 13 miles from our house. Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade. Yep. I know. Amazing. At the beginning, when Indiana runs in his house and Sean Connery tells him to count to 10, and then he gives that cross back to that guy? That house is in Antonito. Still standing. With a plaque to commemorate it. Next Monday, I will walk where Sean Connery and Steven Spielberg have walked. So needless to say I am super excited about it. Some of you might think that's lame, but whatever. It's cool and probably going to be the best activity i've had on a P-day. Also, I found out the movie "Red Dawn" was filmed in Can(~)on City in our mission. But yeah, it's going to be AWESOME!

So this week, we met with a referral that we got from a member. It's this guy named Chris and he's awesome. We set a baptismal date for the 19th of June for him, and will hopefully meet with his daughter on Wednesday and teach her as well. So that was an awesome miracle and is really helping to build the wards trust in us, because they don't know us that well yet, so this is something that doesn't happen often, that is an amazing miracle. We have a lot of cool things waiting in the wings as well. And one thing we're doing is we're going to meet all the members of the ward council and different presidencies of the ward and talk about missionary work, and share some spiritual insights with them. Hopefully we can start getting things off the ground here. It's going to be an amazing week! Looking forward to it!

Also, mom and dad remember that apple pop we had in Mexico? I bought some at wal-mart last week. Yep, it's in the "Hispanic Food" aisle of wal-mart here. mmmm. Apple pop.

Elder Gibb