July 13 E-mail

Well, I just sent you pictures of the toenail situation. The left nail has been bugging me for a few years, ever since it got lifted up by the backyard door and almost died and fell off, and the other one was a little infected because, while I was asleep, I put my foot in the fan. It actually turned out that both toenails on both sides were largely ingrown. I now have naked toes, but naked toes that don’t hurt. We went to the office and sister Gary (a licensed nurse) numbed me up and ripped them out. It killed for the rest of the day and I was definitely screaming in pain that same night and yelling semi death threats at our neighbor. (He’s a member. He told me to shut up and not be a baby while I’m in a cold sweat and groaning from the intense pain, so I proceeded to scream at him a plethora of choice words in Spanish and English, but I did not cuss. Not even in Spanish--threatened to kill him and beat him up,yes, but swearing, no.) But now there’s no pain, and they feel lots better.

We had 2 investigators at church. Oscar, who lived in L.A. in the 80's, a coke dealer, and Graciela, a 15 year old girl that loves everything we’re teaching her, and she wants to get baptized.

This Sunday I had the privilege of hearing one of my converts (nauhm - baptized 2 weeks ago) say the opening prayer in sacrament meeting, and also I took part in sustaining him to the office of a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. He’s 23 and is gonna serve a mission in a year.

Good news!!! I don’t have a change. It’s the first change where I haven’t had one, and I get to stick around with my best comp! The gingo!
We’ve been having some rough times in the mission and our area when it comes to baptizing, and the possibilities for this month look really grim; Graciela is our only real possibility for the month, but she won’t be here for the last Saturday/ Sunday of the month, but can get baptized this weekend either because she needs to come to church one more time at least, so it’s all looking a tad bit more complicated. I have never gone an entire month without baptizing, so we're working our butts off to not have the month of July be my first dry month.

Everybody back in the swing of things then I assume. Enjoy the 114 heat. We have 89ish with a million percent humidity so it’s a lot worse here...
Love you!