3/19/12 Email

I have some scary news to report. As of last Wednesday, I have been suffering from a case of getting older. Last Wednesday was my 6 month mark! Where did the time go!?! It feels like I just got to Houston and yet I am already 1/4 of the way done with my mission! This is really just ridiculous.

 

This last week was much the same as last week. The time goes by quickly. We have talked with a lot of people. What the mission goal (and its relation to a promise from an apostle) is for each missionary to talk with at least 10 people in purpose driven effort to share the gospel each day. If we reach that mark on a day, we get a "key". So the goal is to get 7 keys a week. Up until this point I've never gotten there. The week before last I got 4 which had been my highest, but last week I had 5. It is a real goal to reach that mark of 7. Those promises come that if we talk to that many people every day that we will always have someone to teach. We really need that. Right now we dont have much of anybody to teach. So that is one of our main focuses.

 

This last week was enjoyable (for the most part). The one problem that we are having is that I have bed bugs! Ahhhh! Not fun, at all. So today we have been doing stuff to take care of that. The mission office has supplies at the ready for us. So I am excited to get that resolved because it isnt fun to go to bed at night when you know that you will wake up with bites all over. I'm not even going to tell you how many bites that I have, mainly because I dont know. There's a lot. They'll go away fast enough.

 

Saturday was a branch activity. It was called a Spring Fling. It was a really good time. It allowed me to get to meet more of the members of the branch. It was a really good activity. There was food and some games and just a good social activity. I know that I had a lot of fun and that the other members and investigators and friends did as well.

 

I did some translating for sacrament meeting this week. If was the first time I have ever translated from Vietnamese into English. It went very well, though it was the other elders, Elders Robison and Wilkinson, that spoke. It is a lot easier to understand them than a real Viet. Oh well. It was good.

 

We are looking foward to some good things happening this week. Besides just the missionary work, today we are planning on heading over to the King Tut exhibit that is here in Houston. It should should be pretty interesting. I'll be sure to send some pictures next week.

 

Well, I think that is about all that I've got for now.

Have a great week!!

 

Love,

Elder Phong Manhardt