From: Austin Ipson
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 9:27 AM
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 9:27 AM
There you go it's the New Year! I've now been out for a year.... Shouldn't I feel old? Hmm, oh well....
So we are finally starting to get snow out here. So far the winter has been pretty mild. Through December the temperature seemed to hover around the 40's. The New Year came around and we instantly had to bite the 26 degrees that were waiting for us out side. Elder Ramsey and I say that the Arctic Monkeys have declared war against us! Elder Garner keeps making fun of us Desert Rats. Elder Ramsey and I are quivering and trying to hide from this cold, but he simply taunts us! I may be dying in the cold here in Kentucky, but I thank my lucky stars that I'm not serving in Cleveland, up on the lake!
This past week we've been trying to spread out our area of work. Lately we've had a lot of work in the Florence area. We've knocked some of the complexes to the ground... Ooops.... So with our knocking efforts we've shifted our focus now, in finding in Erlanger, Kentucky. We go out looking for the Dish 500 satellites with two prongs on them (95.9% chance of Mexican) We found a whole street with this style of satellite. We're ready to go out in the snow flurries and get it done!
We are still working with the Martinez family. Sister Martinez has been a great member missionary. Just last night she asked us for a Copy of the Book of Mormon, because she has been talking with a friend at work about it! We're very excited for her and the work she is doing!
While at the Martinez's house we got to see Daniel. You can tell he is a bit down about what has happened. Please keep him in your prayers.
The question of the week: Do you trust the Elders with paint?
One of the less actives of Elder Ramsey and Homewood pondered upon this question! Hector Pantaleon (Brother to Benito Pantaleon) has been in the process of getting his rental home cleaned up and taken care of. He was trying to get everything taken care of before the New Year. That's when it needed to be done for him to get his deposit out. Before this service project Hector had been a bit stand-off-ish. He didn't really want much to do with missionaries. However this apparent need came right in front of Elder Ramsey and he took it! He also recruited us to come up and help as well! We bussed up to their apartment (out of miles) and made a 4 way missionary convoy to Hectors house, on bikes! It was a spectacle I'm sure to see 4 twenty year old in jeans, dress coats, and helmets on bikes. This project took a good deal of time. Requiring us to paint an upstairs and basement, confronting the landlord, and winning the hearts of the natives... I mean less-actives. By the end of it all we got Hector to jump out of a closet and scare Elder Homewood! So, by painting his walls we were able to break down Hectors walls (something like that).
This week I gave a talk at church. I'll be sending that talk home for you all to read. The general topic was repentance. I took a different route so you wouldn't get the typical missionary on a soapbox calling people to repentance.
Interviews are this week. I'll tell you how it goes.
That's what I have to report this week! Tell Quick hi, and don't let him freeze! (Clean the Kennel por favor)
Les amo Muchisimo
("I love you so much")
Para Siempre,
Elder A. Ipson
