Elder Kurt K. Mooney Oregon Portland Mission

Dear Family,

DANGIT!!! I can't believe that someone beat me to the punch on the "Steak Center" idea.... I'll have to meet whoever came up with it and kick their butt haha. Naw its not such a big deal... I'll just have to make money some other way....that's why there's med school :-)

Okay, so starting off with all the excitement of this week, first of all, after I got done with my email last p-day, we went and did some shopping, which included a trip to Zumiez for a little bit, because I'm now looking for a lighter bag that doesn't totally kill me during the summer.... to make a long story short, I made the biggest impulse buy ever, and got a pair of VonZipper sunglasses haha. I love them! I won't tell you how much they were, or you'll fly out here and back-hand me, but they were totally worth it haha. After that, we met up with the english elders and two elders from our spanish district to go golfing, and it was sweet! It's been funny, because with that little golf game you sent me, elder Rivera has been practicing up, and has dubbed himself "mini Tiger Woods!" Luckily, this golf trip was a good time for me to *ahem* humble him so that he can continue being a good missionary haha just kidding....kind of haha. Naw, but it was a total blast going golfing there with all those guys.

After our golfing adventure on monday, we set to work this week... holy crap we tore it up running around like chickens with our heads cut off haha. We found several families knocking which we are now teaching. One Martinez family, and another whose name escapes me, mainly because I dont' know how to spell or even say it haha. Dang Mayan dialect names haha. Aside from that, we're working with Juan who is set to get baptized on his birthday (the 22nd of September), and Flor who is set to get baptized on the 8th of August. It's super sweet because she's really feeling support from her dad and her sister through all of this. Aside from her, we're teaching Felipe and getting ready to get him married to his convert wife so they won't break the law of chastity haha. Their wedding will be on the 30th of this month. Oh! Speaking of weddings and baptisms, Miriam my cuban abuelita got baptized on saturday! I'll include a photo on this email so you can see what she's like. She's super awesome... ah I love her. Not only that, but her hubby is getting ready to get baptized too!

Okay, aside from them, we're teaching three recent convert families and getting them ready for the temple. No wait, four families haha because the Perez are now baptized. Oh! Speaking of the Perez, Ivan, their son, asked me to ordain him on sunday... that was really cool. He's gonna be a great kid as long as he stays in the church. But yeah all of those families are sweet and are progressing a ton.

Aside from that, and actually jumping back to the Perez, after teaching a lesson to them with the Ruybals, they had us over to lunch to get to know elder Rivera a little better, and guess what they made.... NAVAJO TACOS!!! Oh my gosh i was so freakin' excited! I'm not gonna lie, it made me kind of trunky for home haha because the only other person in the world who makes navajo tacos like that is you mommy :-). Ah it was so freakin' good. I've decided you guys have to meet them. Dad, next time you're up here and you go to Silverton, you've gotta visit them so you can meet them. Best people ever, I promise ya.

Other than that... I'm trying to remember what else was exciting from this week.... Oh yeah! Michelle sent me a sweet french cuff shirt to go along with my sweet cufflinks that I couldn't use until now haha. Not gonna lie... looks pretty legit. Haha and aside from that, we walked some monster dogs this week for an english member... OH MY GOSH! They're the biggest dogs I've ever seen! One of them, I kid you not, he looks like a friggin bear! His name is Balto. The other one is a rottweiler (sp?) mixed with a black lab, so he's just a big, fat, tank of a dog that will drag you for five miles if you're not careful with the leash haha.

Anyways, that's about the excitement here... I'm super jealous you guys got to go to fish lake! Man I'm excited for that trip! Anyways, I love you guys and I'm so grateful that you're there for me. Have a great week, okay?

Love,

Elder Kurt Mooney