First Baptism

Monday. Elder Agad and I went fishing at 4 in the morning at Jim

creek. It was so pretty. Across the creek we could see this massive
glacier field off in the distance. Unfortunately we didn't catch
anything but the people that took us did. They just packaged it and
will be giving us some soon. We also went to a bishops attic. I got
these really cool ties I'm going to make skinny. If I can find the
time.

Tuesday. We taught this lady the first lesson and she also accepted to
be baptized. Elder Agad and I have been so blessed with many people to
teach and haven't had any time to go tracking in our area. We've only
spent two hours knocking on doors so far and it has been in the
sisters area because they keep asking us to help.

Wednesday. We went over to teach one of our investigators and after we
had gotten done talking about life he asked to say the closing prayer
but we hadn't even said the opening prayer. We pretty much assumed he
was a bit drunk. But everyone has their challenges and we haven't
gotten to the wow lesson yet. He actually is a really nice guy. His
life story is pretty sad. He is a forced retired veteran. He was a
sniper and on the way to a new area the car he was in exploded. Every
person in the vehicle died except him because he got thrown out of the
car. Because of this accident he has a learning disability but he
loves learning about the gospel. He has the nicest heart ever. He
spends so much time giving service. Nearly everyone here is a veteran
and it's crazy hearing all their stories.

Thursday. Elder Agad and I took a little field trip in the mountains.
I won't say how long we spent exploring because I know I shouldn't
have but its so hard not to. Our area is so big. It would take over
probably an hour and a half to drive to the other end of our area. We
have so many mountains and glacier fields in our area. I survived my
first interview with the president and his wife. Talking with sister
Robinson was more stressful than meeting with president Robinson. She
wrote down everything I said. I also can't get enough reading in for
the day so I spend and extra 30 mins each night reading. Right now
I've been reading the teachings of president David O. McKay a lot.

Friday. We got a new referral. They are a couple. They are Baptist and
apparently the wife wasn't very nice when talking to the missionaries.
The man gave them a 10 page paper on why he thought the 13 articles of
faith are false. I'm really scared to meet with them. I haven't even
bothered to read the paper. I just keep staring at it. Elder Agad on
the other hand has stayed up every night studying it. He's writing his
responses in on the side and plans on handing it back.

Saturday. Marcellus had his baptism. I did teach him some of the
lessons but not all. He's not one of the people I mentioned last week.
He's nine years old. He lives with his grandma, dad, and his little
sister in a small house. The dad isn't active at all. He smokes a lot
but it's good that he wants his son to grow up in the church.
Marcellus comes regularly with his grandma. We had the ward mission
leader baptize him because we wanted someone who would be an example
in his life and be there as he grew up. We also visited the less
active and once again we met a very interesting character. He lives in
the forest in a run down trailer house/shack. He went on for two hours
about conspiracy theories with the government and the Bible. To say
the least he was very interesting.the bishop keeps asking him to be
temple worthy but he said he won't give up his pot and coffee.
Seriously he had pot all over the table and a big flag with a
marijuana leaf on it. We helped a family a little in building their
house. They are so nice and gave us two bikes to ride around. They
have very little of everything. They live in a trailer right now with
two little kids. I can't believe how nice they were to give us these.
They don't even have enough money to buy church cloths. They come
every week in rugged pants and t shirts. I also put nair on my
armpits. Nair is this stuff that you rub on your legs and it burns
your hair off. Some of the elders have done it for fun so I thought I
would try my armpits. That was not smart at all. I thought it would be
funny but man it started to burn into my skin. Yesterday and today
have been so painful.

Sunday is always great. In ward council we talked about chopping down
trees and cutting wood for 20 mins. It's a serious thing here.

It's been pretty chilly in the apartment so I've started wearing my
snow caving boots around. It's pretty nice having that.

Elder Ogden