Happy Mother's Day!

Family! 

It was nice to see/talk to y'all yesterday.

So this week has been good, full of adventures. 

Elder Browne and I have been really working with our recent convert who was baptized just 2 weeks ago. Because of our presence in their home, the whole family has started being more and more interested in what our message about Christ has to offer them. We have since started working with J's step-father and getting him back to church, his mother who never has a whole lot of time at home, but we are starting the lessons with her this week, J's little sister A, who is ten, and takes care of her 2 little sisters all day every day and is going to be a spectacular mother someday. We are also working with their family-friend, who lives there with her daughter. We were able to, last week, sit down and read 2 chapters out of the Book of Mormon with the entire family. After reading, Elder Browne and I both bore testimony on the truthfulness of it. The spirit was so strong, and by the end, we were able to extend the invitation for them to be baptized on the 30th of May, to which they accepted. :) It was so great, and we are both so excited for them. 

Elder Browne and I don't always have too many activities to do in Union, because of how small the place is. We usually go fishing at this little pond/lake (Bigger than Camp Tomahawk's puddle) near our house, but we went there to fish, and it was closed. We were bummed out, but we looked on my gps, found the nearest body of water we could, clicked it and hit "Go", We drove about 2 miles on this tiny, very windy road that lead us through thick trees and some of the prettiest wooded areas. We got to this little lake with a big log cabin house nearby. We knocked on the door and asked if it was a private lake and if we could fish there. The lady was very nice and told us that would be fine. Elder Browne (who bought a fly rod last week and was eager to try it out) and I got set up and started fishing. 

We immediately started to catch some brim (Bream? However you say it) glorified perch. There. haha But these ones put up quite a fight. When they took that fly off the surface, they meant it, and they pulled and pulled while we were reeling them in. They ended up being 2 or 3 times the size of what we are used to catching, so we were very happy. 

Well, after catching a couple more fish, I got a bite and from how hard it was fighting, I could tell it was smaller. It was sticking pretty close to the surface, and splashing just a little bit. While I was getting it closer to shore, I saw a much bigger splash right where my fish was, and there were bigger waves and ripples than anything my fish could have made. So, I kept reeling in and when I got my brim/bream/perch to the shore, probably 3 or 4 feet out, but close enough that I could see it was only about half the size of my hand, I saw another huge splash and wave and then I saw a fish with a mouth big enough that I could probably have fit my foot in, take my fish and my fly and swim away, I let some line out in excitement because I wanted to catch that fish so bad! 

Well, it pulled very very hard, and then my line went dead....I pulled, and nothing...I brought my line in, and there was my tapered leader, tippet and fly, but no fish. :( I tried so hard to catch another, and I was just going to let it stay in the water a little longer, but whatever that other fish was (probably a large mouth bass) scared all the other fish away, and we didn't really have any more luck for the rest of that fishing trip. We did make off with 4 decent sized fish, and I can already tell that they will be tasty. :)

Thank you for sending my fly rod!

We are getting ready to go play ultimate frisbee with the zone now, I'll be praying for y'all!  

Love y'all!  

Tell the family I love them too!

While we were on Skype, the wonderful family that hosted Elder Barker found a baby bunny in their yard. So, typical Joel, he hauled us all outside with him to catch a bunny!

Safety first!
Sounds like Joel, right?!