One month to go!

Rob had a good week, including Nutella Cheesecake. Gotta get his recipe! Here are his notes from St. Lucia: “Hey! Well, I’m glad everything went well with Nana’s surgery! [Roger’s mom had oral surgery last week.] I was worrying about that and hoping it would be okay! Congrats on the 45^th wedding anniversary, though! That’s cool you guys got to have some time for that. Sounds like things have been very busy over there. Hope you get some time to yourself every once in a while. :/ Maybe I can help with that when I get home! As for the snail mail, I usually get it like a month later or sometimes just a few weeks, but ya, it’s usually way later when I receive it so don’t worry about it. You have a lot to do as it is and I always know you care about me. I’ll try to send more pics your way! I’ll do better this week, promise! [Still waiting for pictures.] But I need to be selective as to which ones I send now, so that I don’t get my uglies on Facebook anymore [See last week’s post]. Hahaha! Glad you got the info about the departure date [March 2]. It sounds pretty solid but with my history I try not to get my hopes up, ya know? I don’t think 4 weeks qualifies me as a short-timer, but I am hoping to finish strong! This week Elder Hendricks and I made a cheesecake for an investigator. Bahaha. With a LOT of help from Sister Tasha! She made it look nice and pretty. Lol. It’s a Nutella cheesecake. :O So bomb! Haha. And again, I have a lot of respect for all the cooks and chefs in the world! You guys are truly amazing. I don’t know how you do it. But we made two cheesecakes because we needed to make sure the other one tasted good, you know?! ;) We are going to give it to her either today or tomorrow, and hopefully she likes it. Her name is Kiki, short for Kianna. She is a less active member’s daughter. Thanks for all your good ideas on finishing strong. I will be sure to put it into practice in this last month. I’ll crank it out hard for the last little bit! Love you guys! I hope you have a great, stress-free week!”

Success in Rodney Bay

Here are Rob’s notes from St. Lucia this week. Counting down to March 2^nd:

“This was actually a really good week! We were able to get a less active out to church and she brought her 12-year-old UNBAPTIZED daughter with her! :D Haha. Notice the emphasis there? ;) Also our friend Link (yes he is named after the Zelda games) was able to make it out. His whole family is baptized and VERY active except him but he comes to church and sits in with the FHE's and all that. We're hoping he starts to soften his heart here pretty soon. :P SO! 2 investigators at church this Sunday! Not too shabby :) I’m hoping one of them will get baptized by the end of next month (hopefully before I leave.) Yes, our little area of Rodney Bay is seeing some success! The branch is getting a LOT bigger! The new branch presidency is being run by the senior couple missionary, Elder Leavitt, and it seems super smooth these days. We had 61 at church on Sunday, too! :O that’s huge compared to other places :D Johnathan and I got to go on splits twice this week which was really cool! He also came out with us on Saturday and we had a lot of fun! He’s an excellent person to take out teaching with you!

That’s nice that you guys got some rain though! I rarely get to hear about that. I was just thinking the other day about how I miss actual cold rain that lasts for more than 2 minutes. Haha. Normally here it'll rain for a few seconds then be blazing hot, then rain for a few seconds, then be blazing hot, etc. You get the picture. :P The pics I sent happened when we were going to teach a lesson but the investigator (Pinky) needed a few extra minutes. We asked if we could help but she said she didn't need it so we went on a little adventure. Lol. We found this big tall grass field and took it for a photo op. Haha. And yes, I am trying to not be too trunky but it is difficult. I’d be lying if I said I didn't think about it regularly. Luckily I have a diligent companion who keeps the work strong. :) I’ll do my best though. Thanks for everything! Love you guys!”

A Better View

Photos from the climb up the cell tower.

Good news on Rob's return to San Diego in this week's email: "Heyyyyy! Happy P-day! Things here are pretty good! So just an update: President Herrington has decided to give me 3 weeks early. I think I’ll be able to go home March 2^nd, which is cool. Patience and humility is the name of the game. Other than that the work has been going all right. We committed two people to come to church on Sunday but none showed up, which was kind of a bummer. :P But we’ve been teaching some really cool people and hoping to see some success in terms of baptisms for the  month of February! Hopefully all goes well.  It’s been really cool to be able to see Johnathan again. I’m glad things worked out the way they did, just wish I had a better apartment is all. Haha. The companionship is doing a lot better, but unfortunately we have a gnarly cockroach problem which is REALLY gross. So sick of roaches, I can’t even begin to tell you. I guess Dad is used to that though. Haha. I cleared out ALL the cupboards and wiped them down and then sprayed all the cabinets all over with this stuff called Permetherine? I don’t know if you’ve ever used that stuff, but I guess it’s supposed to work :/. Hopefully we can get it working. We got our A/C fixed :D and we transformed the beds into bunk beds. Haha! So I’ve been able to get some good nights’ sleep, which is AMAZING. It is also nice that Elder Kuru is the new AP. He’s a good kid and deserves it for sure. They have a baptismal goal of 240 for the year, which is pretty impressive considering we have had 90-100 this year. This week we ended up dong the hike like we said, and I ended up climbing up a cell phone tower. Got some good pictures! I have to go. Just know I love you guys and miss you a lot. I’ll be praying for you. Thanks for everything. Tell Baxter I’ll be home soon and that I love him!
PS: Tell Trisha I have heard of banana ketchup, but haven't had any. Sounds different. I'll look for it."