Hello!

So, the work in Olalla is REALLY slow! But, we have someone on date. Rick Johnson. His wife is a member, and he has been coming to church for over twenty years. They recently moved from Colorado to our ward. Paula, the wife, and Nick, their son, went in for interviews with the bishop for Patriarchal blessings. Rick sat in while they went on, and after Paula talked to the bishop about getting a temple recommend, Rick turned to the bishop (Bishop Theel) and said, "I want to get baptized. Can you send the missionaries over to re-teach the lessons?" Rick has been through over forty different companionships, and been to church hundreds of times. Finally, he decided it's what he wants to do.

The problem is this. Nick doesn't have the priesthood (he's 15) and Paula has this weird idea that Rick should be baptized on the same day the Nick was. Which is July 30. Which is at the end of NEXT transfer. Yup, in eight weeks. That's a long time for some one to wait to be baptized. But the family wants their extended family to come, so the grampa can baptize Rick and ordain Nick to be a Teacher. Yup, Nick was sustained in church yesterday. Dang it! He totally could have gotten the priesthood yesterday, but NO...Paula has to be difficult. Oh, well, at least it's happening.

The Wilson's are getting closer to baptism. At least the kids. Tianna (the oldest who is 15) isn't sure about all of it. God, Jesus Christ, prophets, and Joseph Smith. But she's going to girls camp and reads the Book of Mormon and Bible with her aunt. Stetson (12) knows Joseph Smith is a prophet, and knows that what we teach is true. Jessie (8) is eight. They all love coming to church, and missed church yesterday because Yolanda, their aunt who is adopting them in a week or two, was sick. Yolanda is getting closer to quiting smoking but is no where near not drinking coffee. But she says she is considering baptism and wants to do it. Greg...is no where near baptism, period. But they're a great family and I totally love visiting them. I'm praying we can dunk the kids before the end of the transfer and Yolanda next transfer.

Besides that, the work is going slow. We mostly visit less-actives. Before I showed up, Elder Brown and his companion would just go to a series of peoples houses and watch tv and movies. But I'm working on getting that completely out of the missionary work in Olalla. We visit two of them, and I ask them to turn off the tv, and the old fart we visit, well, he won't turn it off, so we don't visit him that much anymore. Elder Brown is getting up and 7:15 now. Also, he is doing a half of an hour of personal study before he curls up and goes to sleep on the couch, and we do about 20-30 minutes of companionship study. When ever he gets lazy and sits on the coach and whine and moans, I take over and plan out the rest of the day so we can be productive.

Elder Brown is getting on my nerves though. We're good friends and sometimes actually talk. But his issue is that first, he's lazy and second, he's so negative. He whines and complains about everything! Oh boy. It makes me feel bad for doing that when I was a kid and teenager. But when I say everything...I mean EVERYTHING! If it rains, he complains. If it's cloudy, he complains. If it's sunny and hot, he complains. He blames his problems on everybody else and never takes responsibility for his own mistakes. I just ignore it and don't comment. That usually shuts him up. But I'm getting to get along with him better and better.

I joined the ward choir. I'll probably be in the ward for a while so I figured, why the heck not. My favorite member, Bro. Knapp, is the choir president and so I sit next to him and we sing hymns. It's pretty fun, but I suck at breathing (I haven't been in band for four years) and I can't sing tenor line by myself. But it's a blast.

Sounds like you had a great sibling retreat. How was Pirates? I see trailers for it all the time when people have their tv's on. It looks good. Also, did you see Super 8 comes out soon? Seriously. Tell me what you thought of it. it's being directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg. It's gonna be good.

Brock dated Amanda? WHAT?!? I asked her out on a date and she said, "No." Dang, fetch, oh my heck, what the holy scrud. She asks Brock out on a date? She's like 18. Argh. Oh well, she wasn't meant for me anyways. Ha. No, but I'm glad he had a good time.

Yes I did get your letter with the "treat" inside. I loved it. Got myself some clothes to last me for my mission. Thanks for sending that, it meant a lot. I'm proud that Aaron is going back on a mission. Hopefully he'll stay on it. Just stay busy. Work, work, work. If you work, you have the Spirit. If you have the Spirit, you will be less likely to break the rules. I laughed so hard when Alyssa happened to get strep throat on the day of her first date. Ha, ha, ha. If that's not the hand of God, I don't know what is. That's hilarious.

So, I need to apologize. I have not been sending you letters lately. Long letters at least. But I'm losing my will to. You know. It's just hard when you want to but.... I hope you don't mind. I made this e-mail longer so you didn't feel jipped and maybe that's what I'll do. Just e-mail you and occasional write a sweet letter. I hope you don't mind. If you do, tell me, I write you.

Well, it sounds like everything is going great back at home. I'm doing fine. It's hard but I just passed my four month mark and things are starting to speed back up. So, thank you for your support. I love you all and am so grateful that you guys rock and love me so. Enjoy the week. Good luck. Loves, hugs and handshakes to you all.

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Elder Courtney Casselman