Too cool

Thanks for the General Contractor info Dad, please feel free to input that kind of stuff any time. Maybe in 13 months I will have to go to work with you for a few days, because that will probably be all I have time for before school again. But I would like to get more hands-on and see if that is what I would like to do, I still do not know but I think it is a good idea if nothing else. I am not obsessing over it at this point, but it does sound like it could be really fun and rewarding.

You want to know about the duties of being 2nd Counselor? Hmm. It does not conflict with missionary work much at all - I just make a more concerted effort to reach out and try to visit with less-actives (LAs). There have been a number we have been able to sit down and teach the past few weeks, the hardest part of meeting with LAs is meeting with them on a consistent basis. Really, LAs know why we are there (to help to bring them back to activity), and they get to determine their own destiny. What is neat about missionaries reaching out to people is that if an individual denies the missionaries, they really are denying the Church, the Gospel, whereas if they deny a normal person they may just be denying that individual. There certainly are some people that can only be reached through missionaries, but there are also certain people that can only be reached by "normal" members, so do not let that deter you from your member-missionary duties! I still attend a Branch Presidency as I did before. Now on Sundays I sit up in front with the Branch Presidency. Weird. The new branch president is Pres. Stetzor, who is in his upper 30s and just moved to I-Falls about 6 months ago. He is such a great, spiritual guy. The 1st Counselor is Elder Cutler, a senior missionary, who (and his wife) also is a wonderful person that supports us younger missionaries so well. Elder Bodily is not really affected too much at all. I really hope that this will increase my chances of staying an additional 6 weeks, which would have me being here for 9 months. Oh, I like the sound of that: serving in a foreign mission but spending over 1/3 of my mission in the U.S., yet still within my mission boundaries. Oh ya.

Gross story--we were at a recent convert's (Linda Ludwick) place and she has a dog, and Linda told us that her dog has had a few ticks the past few days. I immediately thought, well I have had fleas, mosquitoes, bed bugs...but no ticks, I sure hope I don't get a---yup, I got one. When I got in the car I noticed a tick on my arm and freaked out. Sheesh, I killed that thing so fast, it didn't stand a chance. Lucky for me it hadn't bit me yet. Stupid parasites. Those things are nasty. Now I have had it all, right? Probably not...

So Elder Bodily and I had a really good week. I feel really good about our efforts. We took Mike Wilcox on a church tour, and brought a member along who really seemed to click with Mike. Oh they sure did click. Mike should be able to make it to church this weekend, keep those prayers coming. He is gradually cutting back on smoking, thank goodness. Smoking is so gross! Ugh, so gross. I just don't understand why anyone would ever want to smoke, because that garbage kills you and your wallet. NASTY! There is so much more smoking is small towns! Anyway, more on Mike: we taught him the Plan of Salvation--he loves it, who couldn't? His brother Larry that we met with before is coming back from a nursing home where he was on Intensive Care after nearly dying from being too drunk. Stupid alcohol! Oh, I have to tell you that Elder Bodily and I nicknamed Larry, "The Rock" because he was so out-of-it that we joked he was rock-solid and that became Larry "the Rock" Wilcox. So with him coming back, we have coined it The Return of the Rock. Oh, I am excited to meet him sober; it will be like meeting him for the first time again. We are hoping to meet him later this week.

Ferrari is building a wagon? I guess if you are Ferrari you can do whatever you want, eh?

Do you know much about Carl Walsh and how he is doing since he was baptized last year? I thought about him this week. I bet the Elisons would know a lot. Would you mind asking them how Carl is doing? I would love to hear from him.

Last Monday Elder Bodily and I spent $5 to go play racketball for an hour. It was so fun! We were totally winded from running around, and I didn't know what I was doing, but it was way fun! Loved it. Might try it again today.

That is about all I got. Thanks for the hiking stories and the Mariners info. Go M's! I am still trying my best up here in the Great North. 75F is pretty hot! I'm so glad that I am not in a hot mission...But I do have a goal to have tracted in a huge temperature spectrum. If I knock doors in about 100F, then I could say I knocked doors in -40F and 100F, 140F difference, sheesh!

Anyway, if anyone has not got a letter back for a while, it might be me, but it also might be because I have not gotten mail in about 6 or 7 weeks, and then it can take 2 weeks to get to anywhere in Canada, and that is if the Canadian Post service is actually working. Rumor has it that they are on strike...stupid. Whatever, all is well, I am going to enjoy the heat wave.

Love,

Elder Galbraith

I finally caught Little Red in action. The little sneak! He goes and grabs a peanut and runs down the ladder and just sits there. I just happened to start the camera when he scampered up the squirrel bridge. And we knocked on a door this week and a lady asked if we were the "boys" with the squirrel bridge. Stuff gets around fast in a small town! And then, a few days later, a big grey squirrel "Old Grey" came up part of the ladder--now that is a first!

All the pictures and fun from this week.