September 23, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad,

          I do have some good news. I will be able to save you at least $15 every month and I will tell you how. Another missionary that lived in the apartment before me left a hair cutting kit behind, like the one we used to have. Now I know that this would be the cause of some concern to you, me cutting my own hair. That is why I decided not to tell you about it until after I used it. I cut my own hair this morning and it came out pretty good actually. Messed up in some spots but you can only see it if you pay close attention and even then its not a big deal.

Some bad news, some of our investigators it seems probably won't be keeping their baptismal dates unfortunately, but we had a great experience last night. We went over to a members house for dinner, The Mitchel's. Brother Mitchel is a very smart guy and him and Elder Call get into deep gospel discussions all the time and Brother Mitchel will quote talks given from the 70's if he has to, he is basically a scholar. Anyway we had a revelatory experience when choosing which members to see that night which I will explain in a letter later this week. The first place we stopped at was a family that we caught at just the wrong time. But they gladly had us in for a lesson. During the lesson Brother Mitchel had a scripture he wanted to share but he wanted me and Elder Call to find our own that we thought would be good for them and he said he wanted to see if we could get the scripture he had. Elder call had one already in his head, which was not the one Brother Mitchel had, and started talking about it, while I had no idea what to bring up. I drew a total blank. I pulled out the Book of Mormon and thumbed through it but it didn't feel right to me. I then pulled out the New Testament, now I love to quote Matthew so I figured I would go to Mark and change it a bit. Opened to Mark didn't feel right. Then went to John, still didn't feel right. Then I said fine and went to Matthew.I was reading the chapter summaries when one thing stuck out to me in the summery. It was chapter 11 and I found the 3 verses that would fit perfectly for the family, Verses 28-30. After Elder Call finished Brother Mitchel then asked me to share. I said what it was and then Brother Mitchel stopped me and said that the scripture I found was inspired because that was the exact same scripture that he had and that he wanted to see if we would follow the promptings of the spirit and find it.So I thought I would share that story with you.

Everything is great here. One last thing, go to www.chasewinfieldsculptor.com. This is a gentlemen in our ward that we are pretty good friends with, we just got back from lunch with him actually. He is pretty well known as a sculpture and did a horse trophy for the guy from dirty dancing, Patrick something. He also did a bronze bust of Richard Petty that is in the Richard Petty Museum. Look at his work and you will see how amazing it is. If you see the one of  the Last Ruler of Russia before the communist days, I have seen it up close. I love you all so much and can't wait to talk to you all at Christmas.

Love,

       Elder Matthew Pena

P.S. I got the package and my car is not that bad to drive.