Name Tag

Hey Everybody! This last Friday, I hit my year mark. I have been a full time missionary for more than a year now. While I was getting dressed to go to church this Sunday, I put my suit jacket on and realized that I left my name tag on my other jacket due to the cold. As I looked at myself in the mirror, with my suit on, but without a tag, I thought that the sight before me was very strange. It was like I was a whole different person. I thought to myself, is this what I'm gonna look like in a year's time? I can't even imagine myself without the tag on. It's almost as if the tag contains my whole identity, and my identity is summarized thus: ELDER CALL LA IGLESIA DE JESUCRISTO DE LOS SANTOS DE LOS ULTIMOS DIAS Yep, that's who I am. It's interesting that my Dad and my older brothers all had the exact same thing written over their hearts like I do, although for one of them it was written in English and for another it was written in Cebuano. It marks or marked us as servants of the Lord, and soldiers in His army, continuing the battle on Earth as it was in heaven thousands or maybe millions of years ago. It's hard to imagine me as the sweaty wife beater and baseball cap clad stone factory worker or the long haired high school student. The change that has been wrought upon me is remarkable. Today I got an email from my Mission President. He said that our mission complement has increased from 190 missionaries to 250, and that every mission in California has been increased to that number. They haven't arrived yet, but still. He also said that "Elder Marcus A . Aidukaitis of the Seventy told us this past week that the average for missionary applications per week had been averaging 300 per week and there were 4500 the first week after General Conference, 4700 the second week and another 2700 half way through the third week!! Instead of about thousand applications since Conference, there probably have been close to 14,000!! Now that is a true hastening of the work!" It excites me to see that many warriors coming. Many of my friends have already applied or plan on it soon, and I am proud of them. This is a great time to be a missionary! I love you all! Joe

Age

Hey Everyone! So how bout that age change of missionaries? I feel like every girl I know is now preparing to go on a mission. We estimate that there might be 100,000 missionaries in the field in about a year or less. What a time to be in the mission field! My mission president gave us a talk about this, and it got me very pumped up. Good things are happening over here in Lone Pine. The work here is pretty slow right now, but I'm sure that with the Lord's help we'll get it going. There is a lot of work to be done out here. It snowed up on the mountains last week, and the weather is sort of Minnesota-ish. It's gettin kinda cold, but I am well prepared. I hear the work picks up here in the winter. By the way, I have not been transferred. I will stay here for another 6 weeks. Have fun everybody! Joe

The Hundred Jerks

Hey Everybody! Not a whole lot has been going on here in good old Lone Pine. My companion and I recently had one of those stereotypical missionary stories. We were knocking on doors in a small trailer park, and we talked to this guy who told me that the whole place was under construction, so we decided to leave because we thought the trailers were unoccupied. we walk past one, and my companion says that we should knock on the one that we just past. We did, and the lady invited us right in. We started teaching her, and she looks promising. It's amazing to see all these little miracles that happen all the time in missionary work. It makes you forget the hundred jerks that rejected you before that, ha ha. But, life goes on. Have fun, everybody! Elder Call