WeEk FiVe of the 9th TRANSFER

So if this week 5 is anything like all the other week 5's of my mission then it is going to fly by so fast....every transfer i ask myself..."what happened, why is time going so fast?" not that it is a bad thing, it's just that my mind cannot comprehend it. we had the baptism of the family that i mentioned in my last post. it was one of the best baptisms i've had on my mission, and the first family that i have baptized :D transfers are in 2 weeks (the 7th) and i have decided that i am not going to make any predictions on whether i am staying in lakewood or not...cause i seem to be bad at those kind of predictions haha. a part of me wants to stay, but i kinda want to go to a new area :D

miss you all

JACKIE B.

miracle baptism this weekend :D

so two weeks ago my companions and i had only found 1 new investigator, but we average 6-8 every week so we were really bummed out that sunday had come and we didn't have new people to teach.....until......elder lewis went in to the clerks office to grab a pair of scissors, he met the ward clerk in there who told lewis that there was a message on the phone that we would might want to hear. apparently that was i family that used to live up in the puyallup south stake in washington who was taught by the missionaries, but had moved to cali...they eventually moved back up to washington and moved here to lakewood...they were supposed to get baptized the thursday they were going to move up here, but the missionaries in cali told them to wait until they got to the ward they would be living in :D so we are having a baptism of a 3 piece family this weekend which was an absolute miracle :D

PLAY BALL!!!!!!

So today we (about 20 missionaries) went to a baseball game....it was the Tacoma Rainiers vs. the Las Vegas 51's. I of course was cheering for Vegas cause i love it there plus that is where one of my comps is from haha. the score ended up being 6 to 2 for vegas which was really exciting, though the game it self was a really slow-paced game. haha i should have worn a jacket to the game cause it was really cold, but i guess i can't complain.

as for missionary work things are going fairly good...we had a baptism last weekend and we had a miracle happen on sunday.... there was a guy who moved up from california who was visiting the missionaries down there and was going to be baptized last thursday, but the missionaries told him that he should wait to be baptized in the ward that he was going to be moving to...so i guess that means a free baptism for the Lakewood area :D

that's all
JACKIE B

EATING MY OWN WORDS

So i guess i have been blown away yet again by my transfer call last saturday...president bowen has been trying out some crazy stuff in the mission, but now that i think about it, he is like the smartest man in the western hemisphere....i would laugh except it's true. i really don't know why i am with the zone leaders again, but i guess i can learn a whole lot from them that i can apply in my own life. I am super excited for this transfer cause it is looking to be amazing...even better than last transfer, we have a goal for 12 baptisms this transfer and it is looking extremely possible. not much else to say right now, but i hope to hear from you all soon :D

JACKIE B

The UT-STG Mission

I found out that St George is getting it's own mission this year which is really exciting for me cause when i get home i can just help out the elders there while i get used to the home life....but i guess i still have a year so i won't think too much of it haha :D So i got a letter from a member in my home ward, sending me a pretty random "how are things going" letter. He asked me if i knew about the new mission in utah and mentioned that the hurricane stake had gotten a whopping 23 baptisms last year.....i first looked at that number in absolute DISGUST...then i thought about it a little more and i realized that Hurricane isn't really "booming" with non-members....unlike the WA-TAC where the stakes roughly average 20 to 30 baptisms a month so 240-360 a year (just a little more than the Incredibly small 23 of hurricane) but then again the WA-TAC mission has a pretty high reputation. another reason i realize that hurricane got so few baptisms is that i recall not really ever seeing the elders very often in hurricane....maybe like once every couple of monts... so i'm sure that the numbers will go up once missionaries are in the area :D miss you all so much, but don't worry...i'll be back :D ......in a year that is.

ELDER JACKIE B.

LakeHOOD

so life back here in the city is pretty crazy...after spending the last 10 months in the country and the northern booneys you begin to feel that the world couldn't hold very many people....but now that i am back here in lakewood i realize that there can be a boatload of people crammed into a tiny place. being here again really forced me to get out of my comfort zone and start talking to everybody, which is still hard sometimes, but i guess nothing bad will come from it (hopefully)...don't worry no guns have been pulled on my yet but i have been threatened many a times. sorry if that scares anybody :/....but im still alive and kicken :D life is so different but it feels the exact same.....i know i'm about to hit my "hump day" but being back in the Hood makes it feel like month 1 again, but i guess i will only be here for 2 more weeks (yes i will get transferred..i just don't know where yet). anyway probably should get going soon..hope to hear from you all :D

seeya

ELDER BARTLETT, JACKIE B, MANGO, HURRICANE!!, BBQ, JUNIOR BACON.
(lol just a couple of the nicknames i aquired haha :D)

11 months

so these last eleven months have been indescribable...i never thought that my whole life could change so fast.... it is like i am a completely different person. i remember when i got the call from the post office just like it was yesterday, and was pretty much freaking out that i was finally going on a mission. words cannot tell how these last 11 months have been, they have just gone by so fast, but so long at the same time, and it is just hard for me to comprehend that i will be coming home in a year.....it is almost like i have gotten to a point where i don't really wanna come home :/ i have no idea what i will do with myself when i am back, I really like how my behavior has dramatically changed while i have been out, i'm really glad that st george is getting its own mission, cause i probably would go crazy not doing any missionary work when i get home haha.

well i will try to post a new blog every week or other week if i get done emailing in time...and i hope to hear some comments from you all ( probably because i will be more blunt about how i am really feeling, rather than just telling you guys that things are going good )

miss you guys lots

ELDER BARTLETT