A New Companion

     It's been a pretty good week. Transfers were yesterday and............................... I'm staying in Gainesville!!! I am very glad to be staying. The members are amazing here, and I still feel I need to accomplish some things before I leave.

    My new companion is Elder Cooper. He is a 6'11" black man from East LA. I'm kidding. After transfer calls I asked another missionary in my district about my new companion and all he said was he is black. I told a few people in the ward, but when he showed up I was a bit dissappointed. He is actually white, about 6 foot and from Sacramento area. He has been on his mission for about 7 months now and seems to be a very good missionary and a hard worker. He spent some time up at BYU-I and then worked back at home at      In 'n Out. Speaking of In 'n Out, if you could figure out how to keep a double double fresh through the mail that would be amazing.

     Elder Taulanga has been sent to Arlington and was called to be zone leader for his last transfer. President Thurston said that people are never called to zone leader for their last transfer, but he wanted to let Elder T gain some leadership experience. He will be missed, but I was ready for a new companion. Before he left he wanted to say good bye to a bunch of members, so now me and Elder Cooper are playing catchup for the week. I am finding out about a lot of things that Elder Taulanga did that we probably shouldn't have. Nothing major, just a lot of time wasted. It is great that I have an opportunitiy to serve with a companion with a bit more of a work ethic.

     Last night we tracted for a bit, and ran into a lot of Spanish speakers. I'm able to use bits and pieces of what I picked up working for the bee keepers. I know how to apologize for not speaking much Spanish, and how to tell them to call a number to get a DVD or Book of Mormon for free. I would love to serve in a zebra, so I could pick up a bit more Spanish. After tracting we went to check on Junior. It had probably been about three weeks since we had spoken to him and I was ready to drop him, but he answered the door and was excited to meet with us again and he is still excited about baptism. He had been really sick recently and had been in and out of the hospital. I'm very glad that we found him again.

Love y'all very much,

Elder Rindlisbacher