A guy from Rotterdam, NY - What?

We got a great letter from Jared today.  It's always fun to hear from him.

He said that he was fully recovered from the food poisoning he had the previous week and was feeling MUCH better.  He said that everyone in the congregation where he is serving heard he had been sick and was asking him how he was doing.  He said he just wanted to stand at the pulpit and say:   "It was bad Laulau everyone.  Bad Laulau."  He said that then they'd all understand what he meant.  I looked up laulau in the Pidgin English dictionary and it said that laulau meant traditional Hawaiian dish that consists of salted pork, chicken or fish wrapped in ti or banana leaves and steamed or baked.

Jared said that his week was pretty interesting as a whole.  He said P-day was spent driving around.  They had to go to Honolulu West stake to pick up an air mattress, then they went to Honolulu to pick up some commissary (not sure what that means - maybe they got some stuff from a member at the military base), and then went back to Kapolei.  He said the zone was supposed to go bowling but after following an elder (who swore he knew where the bowling alley was) for 30 minutes, they decided just to go to the stake center and play basketball.  

On Tuesday he had a district meeting in Waianae, which is a 40 minute drive away from where Jared lives. Since is was the last district meeting of the transfer they played the traditional game of jeopardy.  He said it was fun, and that he found out that he really knows his Old Testament and Doctrine & Covenants material.  After the meeting he and his companion had a baptismal interview for the Kalaeloa ward missionaries in Nanakuli.  When they got there only one of the kids was there for the interview.  So Jared's companion interviewed him while the other elders went to find the other kid.  Along the way the other elder's car broke down and Jared had to go wait there until a tow truck came.  Then they ended up driving the other elders to an appointment they had in Kapolei and were lucky enough to have dinner with a very nice family.

Jared said that he's been able to spend time with their bishop's son, who recently returned from a mission and that that was enjoyable.  He said they spent a lot of time contacting part-member families and tracting.

Being a zone leader involves a lot of paperwork and administrative things which tend to keep Jared and his companion busy.  He said they spent quite awhile doing some paperwork for the stake about names and numbers and that it took a long time.  But that the stake leaders really appreciate it.

Jared said that he's really trying to "finish strong" and trying to do as much good as he can for the zone so that when he leaves it will be a good zone for someone else to take over.  He said that two talks have been really motivating to him.  One entitled "Jesus the Perfect Leader" by Spencer W. Kimball and the other entitled "My Mission" by Jeffrey R. Holland.  He said that they've probably changed his life and his outlook on things.  With that kind of recommendation I guess I'll have to read them both.

He has eight new investigators, two of whom have dates to be baptized.  And he told about a great experience he had. He said:  "And then a miracle happened.  A girl that just moved into the ward brought her boyfriend with her and he had been meeting with the missionaries in Hon-west, received 3 lessons and had a baptismal date set.  He said that he wanted to finish the lessons and get baptized! BLEW MY FREAKING MIND!  Heavenly Father certainly blessed us with that one.  And guess where he's from?  NY!  Guess where in NY?  ROTTERDAM!  So cool!  I'm hoping that my last convert in the mission will be someone from my home-stake:)"

It's always great to hear from Jared!