Week 14 in Cali - plumbing problems, appointments dropping like flies, and an explosion on the way, and some other stuff

Hello family and friends.  This week was just weird, frustrating, and still awesome.  Before we get more into that, thank you to Emmy, Mom, and Dad for the emails, and thanks to Hermana Tara Franklin, G&G Christensen, Millrace #11 and Uncle Clayne for the letters.  You all are fantastic.  Oh, to all my friends I have some good news.  Apparently Salt Lake has said that it is okay to email whomever you'd like now, so if you want to shoot me an email, I will be allowed to respond from now on! Woot!  The email address is tanner.christensen@myldsmail.net.  So ya.

So I think we'll start with the bad and steadily work toward the awesome.  We had a plumber come by our house 4 different times this week.  We had to wait for him a lot, so we got a lot of extra studying done.  That was kind of frustrating.  Thinking it was fixed, then having it not fixed.  Then everytime we would flush the neighbors would have issues.  It was awful.  We would drive to the other Elder's appartment every time we had to go to the bathroom.

It felt like appointments were dropping like flies again this week.  I am starting to wonder if that is normal and we were just super blessed during my first few months.  It admittedly is kind of tough not getting discouraged when that happens.  Sin embargo, estamos siguiendo adelante.

So here is some "mas o menos" news.  Jaime came to church!  At first we were super, super stoked.  So I go down and sit next to him.  About 10 minutes into sacrament meeting, I realize he is drunk.  I had no idea what to do.  I was admittedly having a tough time.  The bishop and the Elders Quorum President had a chance to talk to him, so hopefully that will help.  

On Saturday we helped a sister from our ward move a bunch of stuff from a rented storage shed.  We realized after we go there that she is officially a pack rat.  We tried as hard as possible to convince her she didn't need 98% percent of the stuff that was there, but she told us to leave it all outside and she would go through it all.  She was really torn about it all.  Her new appartment can hold about 40% of all the stuff if it was packed in every nook and cranny.  It was tough to see her in that position.

Alright, now the awesome news of the week.  Javier has a baptismal date and he essentially asked us what he needed to do to be prepared.  It was fantastic!  Also, Raul and Rosy are now officially engaged.  Raul bought her an engagement ring and roses this week.  We have finished teaching them everything.  We had the lesson about obeying and honoring the law, and they were asking about illegal immigration.  It sounded like they were about ready to pack up and go to Mexico.  It was so cool!  They are now officially more converted than I am.  They have almost got all the way through Oct 2012 Conference and are super excited about the April 2013 conference coming up.  General Conference is the first weekend of the next transfer, so hopefully I will get to stay for that.

We have gotten a fair number of member referrals that have some solid potential.  I know I've been talking about potential for the last few weeks, but hopefully this week will be the one that everything starts moving.

So I hope that all is going well there.  Thank you for the birthday wishes.  I've got two days left as a teenager!  Weirdness.  Maybe I'll do something crazy like buy tacos de tripa or tacos de cabeza.  Nope, nevermind.  That won't be happening.  Hopefully you all are reading in the Book of Mormon daily.

Love you all and thank you so much for your prayers.

Elder Tanner Christensen