Week 72

Hey hey family!

Scott was stung on his little toe by an Arizona Bark scorpion
last weekend.  He's fine, but what a surprise!  Here's an pic from the
internet....  and Scott wants to keep it as a pet?  Eeeewww!    ~June

Man!  That is one crazy story about Scotty and the scorpion!  Did you read what he sent me?  Seriously, it was the funniest thing ever - just the way he described it - haha!  Maybe it's because we're boys, but I would so keep that as a pet as well!  'Atta boy, Scotty!  Hope he's doing okay!

The extra hour of sleep was nice.  It was really strange though, waking up and seeing some light - I thought I slept in!  It will start getting dark around 4-5pm - which is crazy!  Washington is really interesting... but I've grown to love it here.

I got the package!  Thank you so much!  :)  Seriously, you know me too well!  I got sick this weekend, and I needed some medicine.  It was so cool to see that you sent me that in the package!  I feel better now.  Bishop gave me some "green smoothie" which was full of vegetables and what not - it was really tasty and healthy!  It inspired me to be eating healthier and not stuffing my body with trashy things.

Cricket was my Green Rump Parrotlet that came home with
me in 2001.  He died unexpectedly Sunday evening.  Cricket
was full of sweet personality and playfulness.  I miss him,
but I know I will see him again in Heaven.    ~June

That is such a bummer hearing about Cricket.  It's so true how so much change happens while you are on your mission - and that is a type of change I wasn't expecting.  I'm going to miss that little fella chirping it up, laughing, feeding, and running around in the cage...  Aaahh, good times. 

So I've been wanting to tell you about some pretty cool stuff about our family history!  There are two members in the ward I'm serving in who love doing family history, so I asked them to do a little bit of research.  Well, it turns out that a little bit turned out to be a lot!  Annand is a Scottish last name.  With what we can find right now, it goes back to the late 1700's to a man named John Annand who was born in Scotland!  Isn't that so cool?!  I can't wait to do the temple work for these guys!  I'll have to send you all the paper work that we have found for these guys - it's so neat!

This week was pretty good.  Aside from getting sick over the weekend (and I wasn't able to go to church either), it went well!  Elder Thompson and I have been teaching a less active member who just had a baby about 2 weeks ago.  It has been an amazing experience for he and his girlfriend, and they had the baby blessed just yesterday at church!  I heard it was a really powerful experience for them.  The non-member girlfriend is now interested, and we will be pushing for them to get married, then baptized!  Then, in a year from that moment, they can be sealed as a forever family!  :) 

Last week, we had some extra time before going in to the apartment, and we decided to walk around to see if we could find anyone interested in the gospel before ending the night.  It turns out that we did! We found a woman named "G" who has a two year old daughter.  She is searching for religion and is trying to get her life back on track - a complete miracle!  She's doing great!  :) 

Well, I gotta get going.  My shoes are super torn up, so if I have the opportunity today, I might end up buying a new pair of shoes.  I love you guys so much!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Alexander J Annand