Bad dogs get chained up. Good dogs are free.

Ha, so Mom kept telling me that I would be in Waterbury till I liked it. Surprise surprise I like now I'm leaving! I'm going to Hamden, which is down south of me I believe. Its a big area, I think I cover all the way down to the ocean in West Haven, which will be cool because I haven't seen the ocean in almost a year! I don't know why that would bother me, I usually go years without seeing the ocean. I guess it doesn't really bother me that much. So - new address -

640 Mix Ave Apt 4D
Hamden, CT 06514

Perty sure that's it. I can't believe I'm getting transferred. I was completely not expecting it at all. I don't know why, cause it makes more sense for me to get transferred than Elder Reynolds, but I was totally thinking I would stay. Ha, ah man though, I'm going to be companions with Elder Tanner, who served in on the other half of Hartford the 6 months I was there! So we're good buds and I can't believe how blessed I'm being with companions! First Elder Reynolds, who I am super sad to be leaving because he is great and this past transfer has been awesome for so many reasons, and now Elder Tanner. He's the one from Ririe. Anyway, its a blessing. Elder Tanner goes home next transfer, so I'll be in this area at least two transfers, and get another new companion next transfer too. Times of transition. I feel so extremely grateful. This new area will be a big learning experience for me though. I'm excited for the challenge, but don't know too much of what to expect. But I'll figure it out. Of course I will! Ha.

I'll be sad to leave Waterbury. Its been a good area. I'm glad to be in a place (mentally) where I'm sad to leave. I think its always good to leave a place wanting more than dying to get out. Maybe thats obvious. There's some awesome people here. We have some good things in the pipeline too. Seems it so often is the way in the gospel that as soon as you get something figured out, like callings or areas or whatever, you are released. Learn what you gotta learn and move on I guess. Go learn some more!

Well its been a good week though. Wednesday we taught this couple this awesome lesson. It was perfect. Seriously it was a 98% perfect lesson. The spirit was totally there, the people were intelligent so they understood what we taught (we didn't have to simplify it big time), they accepted our commitments, they were really interested, they asked good questions...it was great. It was a Preach My Gospel lesson. We're told what to do when we teach people, but it seems like so often people have these wild circumstances that keep things from flowing like we wish they would. People talk for hours or have kids going crazy or someone keeps calling them or SOMETHING to make teaching hard. So we got two sweet new investigators. We found this lady a few weeks back tracting. We asked her what she thought the purpose of life was, and she didn't know. We talked for a bit, gave her a Book of Mormon, and now we are teaching her. Its great. I don't know what will happen with them, but it seems that the Lord really prepares people to hear us from time to time. It is so wonderful to find these people.

We had an awesome district meeting on Thursday. Elder Taylor talked a lot about the Apostasy. The Apostasy is such an interesting piece of doctrine. Its kinda like the missing puzzle piece. If people new there was an Apostasy, they'd understand that the truth had to be restored. There's this little spiel in this book about how its either Mormons or Catholics basically. Either the church has endured since the time of Christ - making the Catholics true, as they claim, and that would in turn make all the off-shoots and protestant faiths branching out from it not entirely correct - or the church was lost and had to be restored. Or its something else and if its something else I think you have to completely disprove the Bible. You'd have to disprove everything about our faith too, which would make Joseph Smith an absolute cunning genius. Book of Mormon, Doctrine & Covenants, etc. To see that all dictated by the power and inspirations of men...nope. So I guess that makes me think that most folks just don't think all this stuff through, which I can't blame them too much because there is a lot to think through and if you don't have a guide it would become extremely confusing! Plus people are real busy. Ha everyone is busy. Anyway, I love the doctrines of this church. They just fit. I find the more I learn, the more it makes sense. Its so cool. To know and put my trust in truth.

I was reading in Luke this week a little bit. Luke 18, the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. That is a great parable. I have learned so much from that parable since I first came across it. Parable's are incredible. There seems to be SO much more to learn from them than meets the eye. So much to dig up and learn from them as I learn more about the context of different things and history and such. I found it pretty amazing how the Lord is so much more willing to accept a humble and repentent sinner than an outwardly righteous prideful person. Even if we are keeping the law, as the Pharisee surely was, it seems to be of little worth to the Lord if we aren't doing it with the right heart. God requires the heart. Moroni 7:5-9, give or take, expounds on this. At least for me it does. The scriptures continue to amaze me and I think of it as one of the greatest blessings of my mission to have found a great passion for them. Something I never had before.

We set a baptism date with this funny fella Dave. He's been investigating for years. Comes to church every week. But can't quit smoking. A while back Bishop recommended maybe we try giving him some smaller commitments. We hadn't really worked too hard on him because he seemed pretty unwilling and unmotivated to progress. So I felt it wasn't worth our time in great measure to focus much on him. But we started to. It was hard because he's a stubborn guy, but slowly but surely we got him to quit coffee first. It was great. Its very fulfilling to help people over come addictions. Well he's down to about 2-3 puffs on a cigarette each day now. Its been such a slow road, but I think he just needed someone to push him. We set a date/goal for him to quit smoking forever by, and a baptism date about 2 weeks later. He's got the right idea, he really understand what making a covenant means and doesn't want to make it till he's sure he's ready. I think we've helped to bring the spirit into his life just enough to help him move forward. Its been cool to watch, even though it was a pretty slow process. I guess its a good example of not giving up on people and how sometimes they just need a push or an invitation to act or something like that. But now I'm leaving! Nevertheless its been good.

Gosh it really has been a good week. Some things I won't get into, but I've just been so blessed out here its unbelievable. Lindsay sent me this great talk that I had some cool realizations while reading. We have so many little things happen that help us to keep going and feel good. I feel like the Holy Ghost has been more present in my life from day to day lately. Its so nice! I feel like I can feel the Spirit just from little things like someone reading a scripture or talking about something simple. Elder Reynolds and I set a goal about 2 weeks ago to just have good attitudes. Its fun, we'll be going around and something less than ideal will happen and we'll just be like man, we are so happy. Happy happy happy. I can't believe how happy we are. And we'll kinda laugh about it and move on. My gosh its so good to have a good companion. So I think thats been a big part of things going so much better. Good company. People are so important!

Avocados are good right now, I made a great omelette with em the other day. And grapes just got real cheap and I love good grapes.

Well yes, things are good as of late. I sure hope they stay good, but I guess its when they aren't so good that I grow. Maybe I can finally learn to step up without having to by circumstance. Maybe, who knows. Its all with in my own power.

I think thats all I got so I'll talk with you again soon!

Okay - Love you all so much!

Daaaavid