Picture Overload! Sept. 1, 2014

Well, This week was pretty great. My first District class was a little awkward just because they didn't know me but this weeks should go much better. Tuesday after my class, I had splits with the Zone leaders. They are pretty cool and one is going to finish his mission at the end of this transfer. He taught me more about my responsibilities as a district leader. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were all normal days. We started working and found some new people to teach. Saturday we were contacting and we knocked on a door and a man answered. His name is A. He told us that he had assisted before but for one reason or another he had stopped going. I'm still not sure if he's a less active member or not a member at all but the cool thing is is that we talked to him Saturday but he wouldn't let us enter his house because he was busy, but the next day (Sunday), He came to church. It was a pretty cool sight to see. So this week we will work hard with him. 

Also today, we went and climbed another mountain. Three times the size of the other one we climbed. It wasn't as bad because we started earlier so it wasn't nearly as hot. We woke-up at 5 to start climbing by 6. We got to the top around 10-10:30. WITHOUT A GUIDE!!!!!!! I was frustrated because our Zone Leader is from Utah and is a mountain biking/hiking freak so he thought he knew everything about the mountains. I'm a kid from Idaho and I'm pretty sure I know more about mountains than he does but that's another story. So what happened is that there were a ton of trails to take. A member told him what way to go and we took that route. But we are about an hour from the top and the trail stops and basically we start climbing the face of the mountain. I wanted to go back because I didn't want to get lost. Well, we didn't and we kept hiking. After we got to the top we started heading back down. Did I mention that this trail was all CLAY and ROCKS!!!!! It was nearly impossible to climb up and to hike down was even worse. I got dirtier going down than I did going up. There were times where it was so slick we had to slide down on our butts to make it safely. But that's not all, this "know it all mountaineer" takes off ahead to scout out which path to take but he doesn't come back to tell us, he just waits until we follow him. I didn't say it but I was thinking, "Do you know the definition of a scout" It means that one goes and comes back to inform the group, well he didn't.  Then as we are descending, we get lost and wind up taking up a different trail than the one we started. His words were these "All the Trails connect so it doesn't matter what trail we take." uh....I'm not a big mountaineer but even I know that not all trails reconnect. The good news is, is that after 3 hours we finally made it down safely and covered in mud. 

Anyways, on a more spiritual note, I'm starting to get the hang of this District Leader thing. The sisters are more responsive and have more confidence in me. This week we should have a lot of success. Thanks for everything and have a great week. Love you all.

Elder Dial

PS There is a sister from Alabama in my district and shes a big Auburn fan. At least there's some one else in my district that likes college football.