MORP

Here is Jake & John ready for their dates to come! They're not excited or anything! lol

Here are their cute dates, Melinda and Kayli. They said that had a blast!
Good Times!

More NJ news!

Hey mom!

The truck Looks good! I wonder who is going to be driving it. You have the van, Dad has his Honda, Jake and John have the white car.... Oh! Looks like there's only one person who doesn't have anything to drive... ME! LOL! The license plate says "Z19". It is obviously meant for me since my name starts with 'Z' and I'm 19 years old. I mean it just makes sense! I am so blessed to have such loving and generous parents! Of course I will wait till next year to drive it, seeing as it is over 2500 miles away.

Mike isn't scared of the four-wheelers anymore? Wow! I'm impressed that he learned at such an early age too. It sounds like it was the perfect day to go four-wheeling.

I'm pretty excited for Hector's Baptism. I hope all goes well. If you want to get technical though, I was referring to the fact that I hadn't baptized anyone ON MY MISSION/ in New Jersey. So technically I haven't baptized any one yet. However I plan on doing many baptisms after I get translated. lol

We finally cleaned out that ol' apartment. It took us a few hours. We had to clean everything well enough to eat off of it(but we didn't eat off of it because then we would have had to clean it again). I got to clean the refridgerator this time. I never realized how nasty everything was because it hadn't been cleaned that well in probably a decade. I was kind of hoping that we could linger longer and stop by Sis. Parke and Sis. Phillips one final time, but they weren't home and if we did stop we wouldn't have time to do emails. We did see Sis. Phillips when we were getting on the train, but we couldn't stop and chat because the train wouldn't wait for us so we just waved and left. I know how to clean an apartment when I have to close them. We had Sis. Winegar, Sis. Johnson and Elder Johnson and then Elder Davis and I. It took us about 3 hours with the 5 of us. It probably would have taken even longer if it was just me and Elder Davis like I thought it would be. I'm glad that Sis. Winegar and Elder and Sis. Johnson helped us when they didn't have to.

Today, my companion bought a GPS to mount on his bike. He had a 75 dollar gift card at Target so he went and bought a GPS so he wouldn't have to use a map.He said that he's going to sell his bike for $200 with the GPS so that he can buy an Ipod when he gets home. I told him good luck. We will see what happens. We have an exchange coming up and I look forward to trying out his new GPS.

I'm pretty excited about General Conference coming up! Who do you think will be next in the twelve apostles? I think Elder Christensen, one of the presidents of the quorum of the seventy. I've learned from last year that if you have a question you want answered and you pray and feel good about it, then at least one of the General Authorities will answer your question. I've only tried it once and it worked so I'm going to do it again. I feel like I get so much more out of General Conference when I have a question I would like answered.

Well I gotta go. We still have to eat dinner. Sorry it took so long to send this email, but it was a hectic day.

Love,
Zack

PS poke mike for me will ya?

What's New with Zack?

Dear Mom,

Don't let the cold get to you. I hope you're feeling better soon.

The weather the last few days has been kind of bleh. It was low 50's all last week and part of this week. It was warm enough on a bike to not wear a jacket, but at the same time it was too cold to not wear a jacket if you know what I mean. Today is quite nice though. NO JACKET! YAHOO! except in the evenings.

We have a baptism scheduled on the 29th of March, and possibly another one on April 5th. Hector will be baptized on the 29th, Robert will be on the 5th. We also have 2 more people that are working towards baptism and have said that they want to be baptized. Hector is from Uruguay. He was taught everything and he agreed with everything and he still hadn't be baptized, so we committed him to baptism for March 29th. We're still working out the program, but Elder Quatel said that if Hector didn't have a preference for who baptized him, I could be the one to do it since Elder Quatel has already baptized someone and I haven't. I thought that was pretty nice of him. I'm pretty excited! I still haven't met Robert yet, but hopefully this week I will. I was supposed to go clean the Bordentown apt. today, but it got rescheduled for next Wednesday. Apparently we didn't clean the apartment good enough. Which surprised me because we spent our last two days cleaning. I think its only a few things though. Just the stove/oven, the refrigerator and the cupboards. Maybe we'll get to see some members/friends that live nearby.

Love,
Da Zackinator

Weekend in Jerusalem

So we took our 4 wheelers down to Uncle Jack's to test drive them before we hauled them too far away from home. This is Dave giving Michael his first driving lesson.
This is Uncle Jack's new dog, Collie (black & white pup). She is just a pup, but every time we would go riding, the dogs would follow and Collie would try to herd Molly the whole way! It was hilarious to watch!

Dave & Uncle Jack

Jake using a grocery bag full of suckers for a back pack. lol

Mike on his first solo ride.

We had a blast riding around in the beautiful weather!
Friday night we had yummy home made Chicken Noodle soup with bread sticks and brownies, then we played cards with Uncle Jack all night. We had a lot of laughs playing spoons!
Good times!

The New Truck

We had to get something for the boys to drive and to pull the 4-wheelers, so this is what we ended up getting this of ksl.com. It was through a "slum" dealer, and wasn't the truck they advertised but Dave said it was still a good deal. We had to fix 3 lights, put a new horn on (Thanks Rhett & Kyle!) and we had to pull the tint off the windows. Then at 5:20 p.m. I found out that the DMV is not open on Fridays so I had to book it to get there before 6.

Now I have to make cookies for Rhett for giving us the horn and Kyle for helping me fix everything and putting the horn on for us!

Didn't think that one through...

Since we got our shower in I've been trying to keep the glass and metal parts wiped down and clean after I shower and towel off. Well, I noticed there was some water underneath the handle. I wondered if the handle came off so I could wipe it off, so I pulled on it....DOH!

Zack attack!

Dearest Mother (Mom),

Haddon Heights is pretty cool! There is a little bit of every class here. The ghetto part is more toward Camden (go figure). Elder Quatel is pretty awesome. He teaches me random useless skills sometimes. (ex. pen twirling) We get along pretty well. I still write letters to Elder Okamoto lol. (I've not been doing so well in the 'letters' department =/) We've been pretty busy this last week so I still haven't been able to send the package. I will most definitely send it before this weekend though. FYI thus far I've been in Woodstown, Pennsville, Bordentown, and Haddon Heights.

I was surprised myself, that my pants didn't fit me any more. I didn't think I had gained that much weight... I looked this morning though, and I weigh 170-ish which is probably closer to the weight I should be at, given my height, although it does fluctuate between 170 and 160 so I weigh some where in there give or take a few pounds... Don't ask me how that works because I have no idea. I went out and bought some pants that was just a size bigger 34X36 (or was it 36X34?) I think it was the former...which ever it was I went up in width and length one size. Fits pretty nice. the length is just a little bit too long, but I improvise.

We have a few people that are preparing for baptism. Sis. Hand (who feeds us every Sunday) has a granddaughter, Jennifer, and her boyfriend, Shawn, who seem very interested. We just met them last Sunday and Jennifer already expressed a great interest in being baptized. She said that she already knows that this is the true church. She used to go to church with Sis. Hand when she was little. Jennifer and Shawn are in their early 20's I think. However they have some problems that we need to talk to them about so we will have to work with them and see what happens. We also have 2 others that already have a baptismal date for April 5th. One is Hector and I haven't met Robert yet. Hector is pretty cool he takes notes when we teach him. I think he is pretty solid. I think there is one problem we have to tell him about and I think he will be ready.

I got to take my jacket off last weekend! I was very excited for that. The weather was perfect! Not too hot and not too cold. I hate wearing a jacket when I'm on a bike because it acts like a parachute and I have to pedal harder to keep my momentum.

WHAT? JAKE AND JOHN ARE GOING ON A DATE?????????? HOW CAN THIS BE? Their FIRST date! WOW! I can't believe it.... I hope to receive a very detailed report back on how it goes! This is BIG NEWS! I'm excited for them! I hope they take lots of pictures (or maybe the girls will take lots of pictures if J&J don't). Congratulations to Logan!

Kyle looks good in the pic! I think he looks better with shorter hair. Actually I wrote to him about it in my return letter. Did he get my letter BTW? Sometimes I get paranoid that the mail lost my letters and they never get to where I send them... I actually found a scripture in the bible about men having long hair... I can't remember the reference but I'm pretty sure it's in the New Testament. I will send it with my letter and package.

Also: One of our investigators, Ken, said that he would take us to the aquarium in Camden on a P-day! Elder Quatel showed me some pics and it looks Awesome! I want to go pet the sharks! I also heard that you can swim with the sharks for a low low price of just $149! If only I had an extra $149 that I didn't need.... I will definitely take lots of pictures of that. I forgot my pictures today... (oops!) I put the 4GB card in my camera because it can take pictures faster, but the computer won't read it so I have to transfer the pictures onto my camera and then onto one of the smaller cards and I didn't do it this morning. Sorry I'll try to remember next week. =S

If I can get away with cutting my own hair, I will. No sense in wasting money...

Well I gotta go finish up some letters!

Love,
Zack (attack)

Note from mom: I'm pretty sure he's not allowed to go swimming with sharks on his mission, so please do not start up a collection to allow him this fantasy!

Zack News

Dear Mom,

I got transferred to Haddon Heights. Its kind of by Camden and Cherry Hill. I'm back down south in the Cherry Hill stake. Bike area again! My new companion, Elder Quatel, says that its not as hill-y and its pretty much all city. This pleases me. I don't like riding my bike UP hills. So far it seems like a cool area from the 2 hours I've been here. When Elder Quatel talks about this area, he makes it sound like it's a lot more missionary-work-activated than Bordentown. Which pleases me also. It was hard to stay motivated when you're working hard and nothing happens. I think that I'll enjoy this area.

Elder Quatel is from Brazil. He speaks/understands at least five languages. English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and sign language. and also a little bit of Japanese. He's pretty cool! He likes soccer and basketball and rafting. mostly out-door sports. He comes from a family of 5. He's the youngest. He has an older sister and an older brother. I look forward to serving with him this transfer.

My new address is:
112 8th Ave. 2nd floor
Haddon Heights, NJ 08035

It's a smaller apartment. No washer or dryer or dishwasher. No drawers for clothes (at least I haven't found any yet). It feels very small to me because the ceiling is shorter than I'm used to. However, Elder Quatel tells me that we might be moving to a different apartment sometime this transfer. I will try to confirm that this Sunday when I see the office couple. I don't know the date yet, but I'll try to find that out. I hope we get one with a washer and dryer...

I'm going to send a package home containing my jeans. They don't fit me any more. They were way too tight around the waist. When I wear them, every time I pick something up I keep expecting them to rip(but they haven't). I picked up some jeans a few weeks ago, so I'm still good for p-day clothes. I will send my reply to both you and mike in the package so you'll at least get something out of it.

We got a pretty big snow storm on Monday! President called and said that we shouldn't ride our bikes or drive our cars. So we spent the first half of the day shoveling snow in the apartment complex. It took us about an hour and a half. Then we went over to Sis. Parke's house and played Monopoly. Actually, we've played Electronic Monopoly(way better than the original monopoly) with and without(if they weren't home we couldn't play with them) Sis. Parke and Sis. Phillips on P-days. Its fun and I usually win! :P


Lots of love,

Zack

First Dates!

Jake and John got asked out on their first date by two very cute girls! The boys were so excited they laminated their invitations so they could keep in their Book of Remembrance! They have been so creative in creating a Stop Motion Video to give their reply. They get to go on their first dates together! Awe...Precious!

Fun FHE!

FHE Bowling!

Mike has his own bowling technique. He bowls with light!

The big boys all broke 100 on the second game!

That Wii bowling has really helped my score! I had the highest score the first game and the last game I got 3 strikes in a row with my Wii technique! lol We had a great time together!

Weekend Update!

This was our room at Red Moose Lodge.

Very nice! You can't see the jetted tub in the corner.

Second day, snow shoeing for the first time ever! It was a lot of fun!

There was about 3 feet of snow that we were walking on.Dave vegging out after a long snow shoeing day! Resting up for dinner.

Last day, sleigh ride. This is a herd of Elk. If you look close or click on the picture, you can see big round circles on the head of the second elk from the right. That was a bull moose that just lost his horns. My battery was dying so I couldn't get a pic of the huge horns laying on the ground on the left of our sleigh.

This was a very friendly 3-legged dog that jumped on the sleigh and took a liking to Dave right away! He rode with his head on Dave's knee for most the way.

I just realized I didn't get a pic of the horses pulling us. Sorry, I was running out of battery. We had a great time. I would recommend the trip to everyone!