Hello my amazing, wonderful, fantastic, exceptional, Mathuzanistic, crazy beautiful, smart, growing, fun-loving, super, superb, suave, sophisticated, sweet, smart- I already said that- strong, simply amazing Family!!!
Thank you so much for you emails! :) every time I read them I have a huge smile on my face afterwards! It is the highlight of my whole week! :) and Holy Cow! It is already happening! I wasn't sure when it would be it has happened. When contemplating coming on a mission, the same though kept coming to me; “if you leave, then you will not be home to see your family grow and change” :( but as I have continued to work and to write and to live and to laugh and to love and to grow and to preach, I had yet to see many changes come upon my wonderful family waiting at home. But the time has come!! I mean wow! Kaden is on a soccer team, Xoe needs to get glasses?, Luke is starting school, my dear Mother is starting a nursing program, my wonderful father is working a new job and an EMT program, Austin is in deep bewilderment on what foxes say…………? O.o things are just changing so quickly! :) sniffle sniffle!
But now it is my turn! You’ll never guess what has happened to me this week! HA, didn’t think so! My week started last Monday with a super great preparation day. After email and shopping and lunch, the real fun started. You see, being here in Roanoke Rapids, there is not much to do……..at all! The only entertainment found in this small town is a movie theater with two screens! So it is very hard to entertain ones self. The most entertaining preparation day activities I have done so far are going golfing in Rocky Mount, which is 40 minutes away. And going fishing on Lake Gaston, which was pointless because I didn’t catch anything. So I was in a very bleak predicament. What should I do to keep my sanity? So this is what we came up with; let go to the Mall! Yay! Roanoke Rapids has a tiny tiny shopping mall with about ten stores in it and the biggest one being a JC Pennys. So we went shopping! YAY! When we got there however, we discovered something that just made me cry; all the stores but one are closed on Mondays…….:( so we went into JC Pennys so we could look at the ties. It was great though, while we were looking through the ties they were playing music over the speakers which made me smile! It was great music that I use to listen to in my past life……. O.o so it helped my keep my sanity. And after the mall we then ran home so we could relax! Tuesday was great, we had a correlation meeting with my ward mission leader at Carinis again, I ordered Spaghetti with Italian sausage! :) I also had a chance to teach a nice lady at the non-prophet store I serve at. She is very nice and she is very interested. Wednesday was great as well, most of my time was spent with some of my investigators at there home, we helped him with some struggles he has been having with his arthritis, I then traveled down to Rocky Mount to do a baptismal interview for one of the investigators there because Elder Jones is the district leader! Thursday was great, Thursday was an exchange day with Elder Barber from Wilson. We taught Mr. Anthony Hicks and then ran over to the Swanson’s to teach them a lesson. I was able to get a promise from Sister Swanson that she would come to church on Sunday and She Came!! I was told that she hasn’t been to church in almost a year! It was a big deal for quite a few members to be able to say hello and to give her a hug after so long! It was a great Sunday! And then comes Friday!Friday was probably the best day I have had on my mission as of yet! :) Friday was Zone Conference with President and Sister Baker! I drove to Goldsboro and was able to be with the Bakers for about six hours! And my goodness was it a great meeting! These last few weeks have been a struggle for me in a few different areas so I was very eager to receive some revelation and inspiration from my wonderful Mission President! And I can tell you this, in every single area that I have had struggles, it was addressed at Zone Conference! Every Single One! It was such an amazing meeting. A few of the others things that made it such a great meeting were that I got to sit right next to President Baker for Lunch and that he asked me to give the opening prayer for the last session of the Conference! It was humbling and so spiritual to be there and to have everything feel great again! They have also come out with this new booklet for missionaries. It addresses, in great detail, how to adjust to missionary life! It focuses on physical, emotional, social, and intellectual challenges faced by missionaries and how to best deal with them. I don’t have many problems with the other three but I am very excited about the section dealing with physical challenges. These past three months have been hard for me for a few physical reasons. The first being the morning workouts; we are suppose to workout for thirty minutes each day, which I don’t have a problem with; it’s the time they want us to work out which is the problem. I love to workout, as I am sure you know. But when I was home I would normally workout in the afternoon. For missionaries, we are required to wake up, kneel for prayer, and then drop to the floor for pushups………. We are also required to do only ten minute of strength and then twenty minutes of cardio, every time. So on the morning when I wake up and just drop to the floor to do pushups and am really great, I can only get ten minutes of strength in………and then I am running up and down the stairs or jumping rope. But as I was contemplating this, this being a minor thing for me, they then came out with this new health guide and in it, it gives much less strict requirement for workouts! :) Yay! Now I can work out the way I want to! I can actually get a good workout in! I am super excited about that! The other physical challenge I have been facing is that this last week and a half I have been very sick! My appetite had all but disappeared, my stomach hurts a lot, and I have had trouble sleeping. But after Zone Conference I just felt great! I feel great today and I am feeling better and better as the days continue. And then comes Saturday!Saturday was a fantastic day. Saturday was the Ducky Derby in Weldon and the 21st of September!! Earth, Wind, and Fire!. So a few weeks ago we had seen a billboard advertising the ducky derby last Saturday, so we pulled some strings and made some calls and guess what! Last Saturday we had set up an information booth and for five straight hours we were giving out church material, talking to people about the church, and getting information for potential investigators from loads of people! It was such a great day! After the Ducky Derby I then ran over to the Tupper’s Home to give brother Tupper a blessing! And then comesSunday! Yesterday was just so wonderful. I didn’t have any investigators come to church but it was still fantastic, it actually made it more of a relaxing experience for me. I learned about being a Heavenly Rescuer! And I was able to say hello to Sister Swanson! And hen after church I was invited to Sister Jerry Jones home for dinner! And wow, she has such an interesting house! It is a dome with connecting triangles! It was super good cooking too! I ate some of the most delicious pie I have ever eaten in my life! Mother, I will send you the recipe! So I had such a great week! Things are just going very well for me! I love the people here too! They are just so amazing, and here is an example! Yesterday at church something funny happened that proves what kind of people live here! So yesterday my companion was talking to a Brother Baraccado while I was talking to Brother Fortier not seven feet away. Elder Jones told brother Baraccado that he liked his tie clip so, quick as a flash, brother Baraccado grabbed his clip and put it on Elder Jones tie and would not take it back. Well I had a similar experience. Without knowing what was happening with my companion, I walked up to Brother Fortier and patted him on the shoulder, I then told him that I liked his watch and then it went well with his suit. Well quick as a flash Brother Fortier had taken his watch off and tried to hand it to me, seeing what he was trying to do I simply refused to take it but I did not succeed, he ended up stuffing it in my pocket and refused to take it back with a firm determination. I thought I would win but no! The way Brother Fortier likes to put it is this, “when you’re calling Jesus from the South, it’s a local call! When you’re calling from anywhere else, it’s a long distance call” I love these people so very much! And so now I have another watch………
I love you all so very much! :) and I miss you terribly! Hey, you should tell everyone to write me! I mean real letters! I have received a total of three letters out in the field, and two of them are from uncle Mike! :) it would be very nice! :)
I love you so very much!! I LOVE MY FAMILY!!
Elder Anthony Robert Zonts
