Update

We had some big changes in the leadership in 2nd ward this week. We've had a lot of move outs and ins recently including our YM President and 2nd counselor in the Bishopric. The other night I had a dream. It was about the Hales in our ward. Brother and Sister Hale are an active family but in the dream Brother Hale was Bishop but he wasn't a member. Sister hale told me he wasn't a member but it was a secret and I couldn't tell anyone. The reason he was Bishop is because it was a cover up for not being a member. So we had dinner with them the other night and I told them about this dream. Then 2 days later at church, Brother Hale was sustained as our new 2nd counselor in the Bishopric ha ha ha. I went up to Sister Hale after sacrament meeting and said "this just proves he isn't a member". It was pretty funny. They told me never to have dreams about them again ha ha ha. Funny family.

Our new YM President has only been in our ward for 2 weeks so I don't know him at all. Crazy that he moved in two weeks ago and is already the YM President. They got him quick.

It was a really really bad week for numbers all throughout the zone... We struggled to teach lessons. And Elder Burgess and I are back to 0 on date again for the first time in a long time. We are kinda starting over. But we do have a lot of potential coming up. We had 6 people at church on Sunday which was great.

Michael Kelly came to church. It is an interesting story as to how he got interested in the church. We tracted into him and he told us about how he has been meeting with a couple sisters in Richland at the Family History center there. He has a desire to find out where he came from and who he is. I think it all stems from the fact that he has a poor relationship with his father. He is trying to find a different path than the one set out by his father. So finding through family history actually works! That was crazy. We told him we had a smaller family history center at our chapel that he could use if he came to church on Sunday, so he came. During the second hour of church he spent time in there on the computer organizing some of the information that he has gathered. He is so excited about his family history! It's really cool to see.

Sandra and Catrina also came to church as usual. I don't think they have missed a week in about 3 months. Sandra quit smoking. She has been off cigarettes for 5 days now. She also moved to Kennewick but is going to continue attending Pasco 2nd ward. I think moving helped with her desire to quit smoking. If she can continue to stay smoke free for 1 more week then we will baptize her! She really wants to get baptized because she wants the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She knows it will help. We are almost there with her.

Michael Votaw came to church as well. He bought a white shirt and tie on Saturday for the occasion! That shows me that he is in it for the long haul. I love seeing that. He is a good friend of Bishop Pierce. They go fishing together often. He is most definitely going to be baptized. It's just a matter of when. His wife is an active member in our ward. He just doesn't quite feel completely comfortable with everything quite yet. He is getting there though. He's doing everything right.

The other two investigators that came to church were Olivia (11) and Zack (9). Their mom is a recently reactivated member. They were all actively attending New Hope Baptist church for years until about 3 weeks ago. Tonia, the mother, made the decision to go back to the LDS church because of her boyfriend, Danny Groce. Brother Groce is a convert of 6 years and actively attends 4th ward. Tonia and him have been dating for over a year now and she had no intentions of coming back but because of brother Groce's patience and persistence she has found her testimony again. She made the decision to come back on her own and her and Danny will probably be married soon. Her kids aren't members but it is tough for them to make this transition so quickly. It is especially tough for Zack. He really misses his old church and doesn't understand why they made the switch. But they are great kids and Tonia is a great mother and they obediently follow her to church each week. We have a lesson with them tonight over at our WML's home (Brother Thorn).

That was everyone that came to church. Hope to get more next week. We've done a lot of dropping recently. We went from 50 investigators to 30 investigators in the past couple of weeks. It is much better this way. The pool that we have now is much more focused.

With the recent change in missionaries' age requirements President is thinking that we will get more missionaries. And due to that change he and other leaders have been talking about splitting our area. I thought that might happen before they changed the age because of how busy we have been but now it just makes it more likely for me. It may happen this transfer but I'm not sure. I doubt I will be here to see the split. I expect to leave Pasco on Halloween which is the next transfer day.

We also had a Zone Conference this week. It was great as usual. I wont bore you with details.

That's all I got. Sorry if it didn't answer questions you may have had...

Love,

Elder Paxman