Hey Mom!

Hey mom!
Yeah I can see the grass. The weird thing is that it's still green. I'm used to having the grass be yellow after the snow melts. The snow has been melting pretty fast because it's been raining the past few days.

That's great that you finally got rid of the white car. I'm surprised that Jake or John didn't want it. I thought that they wanted to drive. Are Jake and John still planning on going to college? Don't they need a job to go to college? I mean to pay for the books and everything.

WHOA! More TV Channels? Do we have Cartoon Network? Have you seen any of the new movies lately? I heard that Avatar was bigger than Titanic when it came out.

That's great that Ian got his Eagle! Alec had a guy friend and they're spending lots of time together? Sounds like a serious commitment! Glad your back is doing well.

I had interviews with Pres. this week. He said that my release date will change. I can't remember if I told you, I probably did, but the mission is splitting. The Cherry Hill Stake is going to the Philadelphia mission and the East Brunswick Stake is going to the Morristown NJ mission. Depending on which stake I'm in, I'll have a pretty good idea by April which date I'll have.

This week has been pretty busy. On Thursday we had our regular office meetings all day. Then on Friday we had Zone Conference and that lasted until 4pm. After Zone Conference we went on an exchange with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Beeston in Vorhees and Elder Okamoto went with Elder Howard in Moorestown. We didn't trade back until 4pm Saturday. We had to go pick up Elder Pfost and Elder Johnson for a dinner appointment at the Dun's. Then on Sunday we had PEC early in the morning at 8:15am then church started at 10 as usual. Elder Bunker, who was a missionary who had served in this mission when I was younger was at Sacrament Meeting just visiting. After church we had a dinner appointment with the Sikahema's and then we went to a youth fireside that we were invited to attend. It was about missionary work. Then on Monday we finally had time to do weekly planning (We're supposed to do it on Thursday usually, but we don't get around to it until Friday) So we planned out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then we went to the office to take inventory of all the supplies that we have so I can make a projection of what we'll need to order. Tuesday we had Interviews and then District meeting right afterwords. Then right after District meeting, we ate a quick lunch and made our way to an appointment with an investigator. That turned out to be super weird. Then we stopped by a potential who wasn't home. After that we when to pick up the other Elders to go to Bible Study at 7. And Today was P-Day. We went and played basketball, then came home and had lunch and showered and then I got a really bad migraine. I thought I was dehydrated from basketball so I drank lots of water, but then I got nauseous. My migraine went away not too long ago, but I still feel a little bleh.

Love,
nicknackpaddywackzackzack

Congrats Spencer!

I just got my mother's pin for Spencer earning 1st Class in Scouts. He caught up to Mike!
Congrats Spence! I'm very proud of you! (hope I'm still proud after I go to parent/teacher conf. tomorrow!) :)

Hey Mom!

Hey mom!

Happy valentines day!

The snow is melting rapidly! We're supposed to get a little bit of snow tomorrow and then we're supposed to have another big storm on Monday. I think New Jersey got 72 inches this winter so far. Which is a record. I think NJ usually gets a quarter of that. (Our snow fort is still there)

San Diego sounds like a blast! Don't forget to take pictures.

Not too much has happened since my last email. This morning President Winegar came to help us remove a couch that was stuck in Elder Pfost and Elder Johnson's bedroom. We tried to get it out, but it's half an inch too big. So we ended up destroying it. It took us about an hour. It was a well built couch, that's for sure. We finally tore the back off and took it to the garbage in President Winegar's new truck. He got a blue Chevy Colorado.
Still keeping busy with the office. We've been doing a bit more tracting to try to find some more investigators. We've found a few, but we still need to find more.

Elder Pfost and Elder Johnson got to use the assistants' car. The assistants are using the Silverado to help move missionaries around and move furniture.

Well I don't know what else to talk about. The mail is still trickling in. I've got 3 letters to write today. Oh, Heather sent me a letter finally. I guess she had her hands full with her bf, Justin. It was good to hear from her again. I also got a letter from Kyle a few days ago.

Love Zack

Where have you been all day?

Guess the city!

Played racquetball this a.m. Didn't beat Dave, but played doubles with some of my other racquetball buddies and won a few games, then played with Dave against them and won a few more. Then a chiropractor visit, then a funeral for my cousin's child, Nicole. I left the house for the funeral a little after noon, didn't get back until 5:35 pm. Although I explained to Mr H. where I was going several times, he wondered where I had been all day. This is what I get for living with an old man! haha

Although the circumstances were sad, it was great to see so many relatives I don't get to see very often. What a blessing it is to have family! I was talking to my mom and asked her the name of one of our relatives that was at the funeral. She said she didn't know, then called me Audrey...lost cause.

Won a trip for 4 to San Diego off one of the local radio stations! That was a fun phone call to receive! Just made our hotel reservations today. I am very excited for the whale watching trip! I'm hoping we can sneak some time at the San Diego Temple. That would be a great addition to our trip!

New Jersey Snow!

Hey mom!

Sorry it's so late, but it's better than nothin' right?

Yeah we got blasted with a couple of snow storms. There was a storm on saturday and that dumped about 18 inches I'd say. Then that melted a little and we got another storm on wednesday. Well it was more of a blizzard as they say, but really it just snowed all day with some slight winds. The snow was so heavy and wet that we could hear tree branches breaking and falling to the ground. During both storms we had to stay near our apartment. Since our area was no where near our apartment, we couldn't go visit them, so we decided to play in the snow instead.

On Saturday we did everything we could think of to keep ourselves entertained. The other elders decided to take naps, but I couldn't sleep so I decided to go shovel some snow from the car. when I got finished shoveling our car out I wasn't very cold and I still had energy so I started shoveling another car out. I shoveled 3 cars out before my back started to get sore. I went back inside and laid down for a bit and used a hand-held massager to get some of the knots out. After a few minutes I went back out there to shovel the rest of the cars. Elder Pfost traded off with me. After a little bit, everyone started to come out and dig out there cars and they were helping each other out. Lending shovels or helping to dig out eachother's car. It was cool. I haven't seen any thing like that since I got here. We did that for a couple of hours and then we decided to go play in the snow. And eventually it was time to go inside.

Then on Wednesday we stayed insided until after lunch. It was snowing all day Then we went outside and started to build a snow cave. We built a small one that could fit 3 people, but we wanted to make it bigger so we started to build a tunnel to another snow cave. We got most of it digged out so that you can crawl in the tunnels. We didn't get the other snow cave dug out though. While we were working on it, a lady asked us to help push her friend's car out. So we did and they thanked us kindly. Then we went back to work on the snow cave. at about 6PM, the power went out. We could still see though because of all the light pollution bouncing off of the clouds. Like I said the branches of the trees were falling everywhere, and our car was parked under some trees. Across the parking lot there was an empty space, but it had to be dug out. So i started to dig out our car again and I put all the snow on the snow cave. Then I dug out the other parking space while the other elders dug out the snow cave. Finally I got it to the point where the car would fit. So we moved the car into the other parking space.

By the time we parked the car, we were all soaked and cold so we decided to go back to the apartment and warm up. We went to find some flashlights and we took off all of our wet clothes. I didn't realize it, but when I took off my wet clothes they weighed like 20 pounds. Elder Howard took a warm shower in the dark with a flashlight. I was halfway through my shower when the lights came back on. The snow is melting pretty fast, but our snow cave is still there. It's supposed to snow again on Monday and maybe Thursday.

The picture that I sent home that Okamoto drew, I think it was an original. maybe. If I looked at it I could tell. Sister Winegar might have just taken it and made a copy for all the missionaries and Elder Okamoto might have wrote I love reeses on the back of all of them.

Today we moved a lot of furniture to Monmouth Juction. One of the Senior couples is going home so we moved their furniture (actually the mission's furniture) to another apartment because another senior couple was moving in later today. Then after that we got showered and came to the office.

I heard about the missionaries that died a few days ago. That is pretty sad. I guess the Lord needed there help with something else. I also heard about the earthquake in Haiti. I guess the news gets to us fairly quickly in some way or another.

Well that's all I can think of to write now. More later.

Love,

Zack

Sorry!

No letter from Zack this week. I will post a snippit from his last letter though. I got a note from him today that the state was in a "state of emergency" because of the snow, but perhaps he will be able to email me tomorrow.

Yes today was transfers. Which reminds me. Today President Winegar said that the mission would be splitting and combining with the two adjacent missions. The Cherry Hill stake will be assimilated into the Philadelphia Pennsylvania mission. And the East Brunswick stake will blend into the Morristown, New Jersey Mission. The New Jersey Cherry Hill mission will be no more when President Winegar goes home. This means that I'll be serving in two missions. But not really since it only takes effect my last 3 weeks.

What a nice day!

The day started with my beautiful little friend, Emily getting baptized. It was one of the most special baptisms I have ever attended.

Then I took Dave down to see Uncle Jack. We drove up to the cabin and this deer was standing about 25 feet in front of us. There were tons of them wondering around the farm like they were invisible. Uncle Jack was having problems with the deer getting in his hay barn so he put a taller fence up to keep them out. As Dave and I were leaving, we found a deer trying to get in.

Dave trying to get the lights to work on Uncle Jack's trailer so he can haul some cows on Monday.

Uncle Jack.

We had a hard time getting through the snow up to the cabin, but with my awesome snow driving skills, we made safely there. We had a great time visiting and playing cards. I'm so happy we took the time to make some fun memories with Uncle Jack. Good Times!
He will be 83 next month.