Dear family and friends,

well, this has been a shaky week! Friday we were sitting in our kitchen having some dinner and all of a sudden the whole building had a large jolt. it felt like a huge truck had hit the apartment complex and just budged it. then 2 seconds later there was another one and im pretty sure it would be impossible to hit a building without any noise so we figured it was just another earthquake. It turns out it was like a 3.1 so no wonder we felt it haha.  later on saturday there was another one like a 2. something but i didnt feel it. i think we were on the move.

So Saturday we had Mormon helping hands, it was a really cool experience but i think the last one was a little more fun. this time we went to a neighborhood and pretty much just walked around and picked up trash in the streets and alleys. (it seemed a little pointless because the street sweepers come by like once a week) we also went down the alleys and they were quite possibly the nicest alleys i have seen in my whole mission. most of the ones you see around here are either dirt or decrepit roads with potholes and broken glass, as well as branches, truck loads of garbage dumped everywhere and an odd chicken running around. these ones were paved in cement and looked better than any driveway ive seen. so we all kinda felt like it was a little silly and pointless but nonetheless we were happy to be helping.

this week we got some rather disappointing news from one of our best investigator's family member. she is a member who helps us out with them. she informed us that their parents had kinda stopped supporting them in taking the lessons because they had come across some anti or something so that has been kinda a bummer. they were our best prospects for baptism and everything was depending on how the parents were going to be. So, we have turned our attention to working hard getting our less actives to church and working with formers to get our game back on. we will see what happens.

Sunday we had the confirmation of our investigator... luckily! i say luckily because out of all the seats in the chapel the only ones really open were right in front. we were going to just stand in the back but i thought we might as well sit up front. (not even as a missionary do i like being in the front hahaha) as the bishop went over the announcements he completely forgot about the confirmation (we were supposed to remind him Saturday but we couldn't make the meeting) so luckily, i whispered to him and reminded him so we still got to do it.  It always feels great to get that done.

The work continues!

I am super excited for mothers day so we gotta make sure to set up when to do that. it should be sometime in the afternoon because we got church till about 1. We should have beach p-day on the 13th so pray for good weather for me. ;)

I love you all and pray for you.

Hasta la proxima,
Elder Channing Winterrose