Blistered Fingers and Butcher Knives

Its been another great week in Columbia! Great and crazy and really stressful.

So to begin. I'll be staying here for probably another three months. I'll be training a new Zone Leader, Elder Hogg (yes you pronounce the "O"). He was in St. Charles when I was in St. Peters, so he's been on team ups with me. Second, there was this family that we started teaching a few months ago. Well anyway they are in the midst of a divorce and so she moved out. Then he went off the deep end and moved in with his crazy sister. Well they have been harassing her and really making her life miserable filing crazy law suits and what not. Well the other day, they started harassing us as well. Obviously we aren't answering but they leave us nasty messages. If you'll remember though, Pres. Laton in the mission presidency is one of the best lawyers in the state and really high up in the government, we talked to him about it and told us what to do. Its a whole lot more complicated but thats the run down, oh yeah, now he's on the run from the cops. Anyway prayers are always helpful.

We've been on a bunch more team ups this past week trying to get to everyone before the transfer ended. We've also done service just about everyday this week. I have seven blisters on my hands three of which are all around my left thumb. It took a while to get use to them all but as long as I don't get any more, I should be fine. During all that I edged someones entire yard with a butcher knife. The edger stoped working and she really wanted it done, so I did it.

Mom-I sent the thing about my bag along with Nicks letter. I'll resend it though today I dont have it with me right now. Then if you could have them send it to the Tia's that'd be best. Tell Tyson congrats thats really exciting. As for my birthday....maybe a new tie, hehe. As for my ipod. if you cant figure it out dont worry about it.

Dad-just remember not to let Josh drive with mom (if you know whats best for both of them).
Oh man. I almost forgot. some of our members, the Palmers, were having a late easter party with their family and neighbors. Turns out that Bro. Palmers family grew up in Vancouver. His mom's sister was Marline Archer. She said that she grew up with all your sisters. She also married Kipp Poyfair and now lives in Colorado. Then Bro. Palmers mom said that she graduated in 64 from Hudsons Bay. I couldnt remember if you went there or not before your senior year. She recongized your name when I mentioned it. Of course by now I've forgot her first name but oh well. She also mentioned that she knew Marvin and Alberta Egan that lived there too. Those names didnt sound familiar so I thought I'd swing them by you.

Josh-good job on everything. Don't let all this affect your grades now.

Love you lots,
Elder Egan

Teamups, Football and Investigators......

Its been another great week in Columbia!

Our week was crazy. Like I mentioned last week, we had two team ups at the beginning of last week. One with one of the District Leaders and the other was with the Assistants. You learn so much when you get to work with other missionaries all on different levels. While with one of the Assistants, we were talking about prayer and got a lot of good insights about not praying in vain and how prayer, like baptism, is an outward expression of our inward commitment to God, just something to think about.

Saturday was a fun day. We woke up and went and played football at the university with a bunch of people, members, nonmembers, and missionaries. it was a lot of fun. Then we went and taught a lesson to our Korean investigator. We went and did yard work for our recent convert, Hollie. We were cutting and raking the yard. It was a lot of fun, even though I got burned and multiple blisters. That evening Pres. and Sis. Briggs were up here in Columbia for a spanish fireside. We took our Brazilian investigator with us. It went really well. After Pres. Briggs was done we were talking with some of the members and found a family that was from Brazil and some others that served in Portugees speaking missions.

Mom- I've got enough contacts right now. I'll double check for next week though just to make sure.
Dad-thats great about the temple. It doesnt look like we'll be able to make it this transfer. I was so use to being right next to the temple in Chesterfield that it was easy to take it for granted. But now being so far away, it is truly a blessing to be able to go.
Josh-make sure that between everything that your doing you make sure to take time and read your scriptures.

Well, transfers are next week. We're not sure whats going to happen. Anything and everything is possible right now, so we'll see.
Love,
Elder Egan

Miracles Always Happen

Its been another great week in Columbia!
Conference was great like always. We watched it at the Ti'as. Their great people and do so much for us. It was also Elder Taylors birthday yesterday, so we celebrated that there too. On top of all that, we were under tornado warnings last night. The rain and lightening were awesome. We were driving to go take numbers and I could hardly see the road, it was raining so hard. We saw some people walking in it, so we pulled over and gave them our umbrella. The rest of our week went really well too. We found some new people to teach and tracted quite a bit.

Oh, and by the way, our stake president was called to be an area 70, Michael J. Reall. We heard his name and just looked at each other. Funny thing was, is that we were supposed to have a stake meeting on Thurs. We showed up but no one was there. So we gave him a call and left a message. He calls us back later that night and tells us that he was in Salt Lake for some kind of meeting and apoligized and we didnt get the message. Needless to say that there is lots of excitement about it and who the new stake president will be.
We've got two team ups this week. one with the Columbia ward elders, and then the Assistants will be down towards the end of the week. I always look forward to team ups. You get to learn alot and miracles always happen.

So just my luck. I took off my suit last night only to find a huge whole under the back pocket. So I'll be needing some new ones for my black suit. Anyway, I was thinking the other day about how my one year is up this month and couldn't believe how quick it's gone and was wondering where all the time went.

Anyway,
Love you lots,
Elder Egan

Tender Mercies

Its been another great week in Columbia!

We had team ups with the Jefferson City Elders again this week. They needed a baptismal interview, so we went up for that and our team up. The new Elder up there is great. His name is Elder Horlacher, from Vegas. He is just a really great missionary and Elder Westfall and him are getting a lot done.

We also had Zone Conference on Friday. It went really good and since then the Zone has been on fire. We've just about doubled our baptism dates and our numbers were really good. Elder Taylor and I had a little bit of a slow week, but good nonetheless. Last night some members invited their friends over for dinner and then we had a lesson with the dad after. It went really good, he is really open and wants to learn. His kids also were intrested.

In order to save miles we decided to ride bikes/get rides two days a week and park the car. Its been really nice for most of the week too. So on Tues we were riding down a narrow road and a car came up behind us. We switched lanes really quick to let him pass. I saw the truck go by and I started getting back into our lane. I didnt see the trailer that he was pulling though. His wheel well was sticking out a foot or so and ran right into me. I flew into the air a good three of four feet before I hit the ground. I'm fine, but it scraped me up just a little (talk about tender mercies). It was all fun though. We finished riding to our appointment and taught a good lesson. But then on the way home my gears weren't working right so we had to call for a ride home.

Dad-There are 22 Elders in the Zone and 4 districts.
Mom-don't have too much fun on spring break.

Love you lots,
Elder Egan