Zone Activity and other stuff

Hey dad and everyone else. First of all tell grandma that I enjoyed her cookies she sent and so did the other missionaries in my zone haha. And thank you for the money.

Things that happened this week and other random stuff :

-on Friday I went to a festival called "farmers market" with our investigators. They are both in their  60s and they wanted us to come so we got permission to go. It was pretty fun.  There were a lot of different vendors selling fresh fruit, vegetables and food. Mostly everyone was selling organic stuff so I bought a couple peaches and plums. I saw the Leon family from my old ward there too and we said hi them. I got a couple of free goat soaps from some members so that's pretty cool.

-on Saturday we went out to dinner with Elder Scott and Elder Hartshorn, We went out to Applebee's. As we were about to pay for our food at the end, the waiter said someone has paid for your food so your free to go.....how awesome is that!! We were looking around trying to see if any members we knew were there but we couldn't find any.

(we are so lucky and thankful for those people who bought our food.)

-tell the Gagne's to tell Elder Gagne that a member brought us out to Red Robin for dinner, Elder Gagne loves Red Robin haha. I thought of him because I went there for a lot of his birthdays.

-we had a baptism planned for the end of the month but the girl didn't go to church so we are going to set the date back. Her parents are less active members and we are activating them while helping her be baptized.

- Yesterday we had a zone activity with my old zone. We played Fresno East vs Fresno North in dodge-ball and ultimate Frisbee. Today my arm hurts from throwing so much! haha But it's ok. We had a great district meeting too, we talked about following the promptings of the spirit and as long as it's a good thought it's the holy ghost speaking to you.

I will talk to you soon. love you all.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

August 14, 2012

Hey dad how's it going? I will start off by answering your questions....

-my first area was in the Fresno North Stake and I was in the city of Clovis and my new area is in the Fresno East Stake.  So I'm still in the city of Clovis just on the east side. It was funny when I told the members I was moving there because they were like "oh you are just 5 minutes away haha". My ward is called the "Clovis7th ward" and I technically live in my old area. I have to bike a mile to even reach the new area I'm in. I can't remember the address but I live in a apartment complex and its pretty small.  We want to try and live with some other elders because they have a big apartment with more room. My new area is 3 times the size of my old area and it's a wealthy area.

-my new companion is Elder Braithwait.  He's from Michigan but he grew up in Utah most of his life. I get along with him really well. His dad works for Ford and gets to have the new cars that come out with so he showed me the car he drove back home and it was a 2010 Ford Mustang....it was really nice. Anyways he's been out for a year and he's going to school in Utah.

-I'm still in a biking area, but if we need a ride the YSA Elders from the Academy ward (Elder Hartshorn who was with me in the MTC and Elder Scott who is from Australia) help us out.

-there are not as many members here but we hope to reactivate a good amount of them.

 Things that happened this week:

-On Sunday  my companion and I were biking around when this dog was coming at us and behind it was a woman. The woman yelled at us to get the dog.  I got off my bike and grabbed the dog by its collar. The woman said she was chasing her dog for a mile and couldn't catch it. She asked if we would watch it till she went home to grab her car...we said sure. Before she left to get her car she said "if you watch the dog for me for a second , it will help strengthen my belief in you Mormons".(i was laughing when she said that). Anyways.... while she was gone for 10 minutes we played with the dog and I gave it some of the water I was drinking. Finally she came back and started talking to us. She told us how she didn't like Mormons but now she likes them a little bit more. We talked with her about the church and she wanted to know why God lets bad things happen to people. We gave her a Book of Mormon and a specific chapter to read and told her to call us when she finished reading it. She accepted the invitation. We hope to meet with her soon to talk more with her. It's funny how heavenly father puts certain people in your path and you never know how it's going to be done.

-While biking to the church on Thursday a red car went past us and someone yelled out "DEMARCO!!!" . The car then pulled to the side and it was Connor Stokes one of the young men in my old ward (peachwood) . He said I will be seeing him later that night because his grandparents live in my new ward. So later that day we went to the Stokes house for dinner and I saw Brother and Sister Stokes of the Peachwood ward and I was really happy to see them. I didn't   know that they had family in my new area. So that was a pretty cool and I also met other members of my old ward later that day.  I guess they have a lot of friends in my new ward.

 That was pretty much it for the week.  We had a zone conference all day on Saturday and President Gelwix talked about the importance of being exactly obedient and how there's 3 types of obedience....the first one is FEAR, you do it because you are scared of the consequences .....the next is ROBOT, you do it because you are told too and lastly you are obedient by CHOICE because you love your heavenly father.  I never knew how important it was to have that type of attitude for the commandments we've been giving and we receive more blessings when we are obedient by Choice.

I got to go so tell Joey and everyone else I said HI....I will be emailing now every Tuesday because that's when the computer room in the church is open. Hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Elder DeMarco