Ghost Pepper Chili

 10-27-14

   So this week went better for us and we were able to keep a lot more busy working and teaching.  We met with that family that we found a few weeks ago and talked about baptism and they all seemed really excited about it, but the mom has a concern about the age of accountability.  We told her that it was eight years old and she feels that that is not old enough to be able to make a decision like baptism.  She said that she would pray about it though, so hopefully, she will get her answer.  We are going to meet with them again later this week.
   We had some cool finding opportunities this week by knocking on some doors around the church and offering church tours.  We found a few people who might be interested and set up some appointments.  We also walked down along the bay with all of the piers and talked to some people who were fishing and crabbing.  We are going to try fishing next p-day down by that area.
   Sundays have been a lot crazier at church because we are following up with every member that we have extended invitations to to do missionary work and seeing what we can do to help them.  We also have been interviewing some members about missionary work and seeing what they can do to invite people.  It's definitely uncomfortable and different, but it works.  Before we started implementing "Sunday Gameday" the most the mission ever received for referrals on a given Sunday was 30.  Last week the mission received over 700 referrals on Sunday!
    Last Sunday the Bishop asked me to talk about my mission in sacrament.  He wanted me to speak about what lead me to my mission and what blessings I have been able to realize.  I talked about those two points for about the first five minutes of my talk, but then I saved the last five to talk about member missionary work.  I referred to Elder Ballard's talks given on missionary work back in April 2014 and October 2013.  I think it was pretty straight forward and to the point that we need them to help us find people to teach.  I got a lot of compliments after the meeting, but no one mentioned anything about missionary work.  Haha.  I hope that I was able to help someone in the meeting know how to be involved in missionary work.
   We have transfer calls coming us this next Sunday, so I will find out then if I will be staying or leaving.  My guess is that I'm leaving, though.  We do have a chili cookoff and a trunk or treat activity coming up this Wednesday.  Elder Swallow and I are going to make some hot chili with ghost peppers from one of the less active members that we are teaching.  Our ward mission leader told us that if we end up doing that, that we have to put a caution sign on it because he doesn't want any of the old people eating it and dying.  I'll let you know how it turns out, though.  Love you all!

Love,
Elder A. Whaley