It is Cold!

Dear Family,

So quick recap on the weather: it is really cold. Average for today is 22 with the chill factor at 11(humidity and wind) and tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid teens with a single digit chill factor. But we will just keep keeping on and hopefully people will let us into their house so that we do not turn into ice cubes. There is one sister in me district that I am afraid she might die in the next couple days with the cold. She is from Hawaii and I have never seen her without a huge parka on, even when we are inside she never takes it off because she always says that she is cold. The cold really hasn't bothered me at all but I am a little afraid of what the weather has in store for us for the rest of the week.

So President called us last night to tell us about transfers next week and Elder Rhoton and I will be staying together for another transfer which I am really happy about. He is was fun and I am sure that we have a lot of success in store for us this coming transfer. I was going to be really sad if we got broken up but it looks like we will be able to stay together for at least one transfer more.

I got the tape and the letters from everyone, thanks a bunch. It really picked me up after a pretty hard day. The only thing that is hard about being Elder Rhoton's companion is that he gets a ton of mail. A package a week and at least a letter every other day. It does kinda start to get old, but your letters really helped me out. The only person that writes besides you family is Janelle Cab. so you can always suggest to others my mail address.

But I will stop being pathetic and tel you some of the cool things that happened to us this week. We have tried to find a lot of new people this past week. So we went around to a lot of different houses and to different streets trying to talk to people. One of the funny things that happens when we knock on a door is that people usually ask us if we are afraid to walk around outside on their street. There are some pretty bad places in Camden but I am not afraid to walk anyway during the day with Elder Rhoton; so we usually tell the people we are not afraid and then tell them we are missionaries and the then tell us we are crazy. It always makes me laugh when people tell us how dangerous their street it for two reasons. The first reason is that everyone seems to think that they live on the most dangerous street in Camden and the second reason is that everyone tells we are crazy for walking on their street but they are the ones that live on it. Maybe they just never go outside(which is true for lots of people). I just think that it is funny that people tell us to avoid all of these parts of town but those places turn out to be some of the places where people are most willing to talk to us.

The work is going really well. We have about three people that are really close to baptism and we are hoping that it will happen in the next month. All of them are Dominicans and so we are going to try to have a big Dominican party (family night) where we get all of the Dominicans from the branch together and all of our Dominican investigators with them. We are hoping that will make some strong ties in the branch. I really like all of the dominicans in our branch and I like dominican people in general a whole lot. It is fun to talk to them because they have a really cool accent and they all love baseball. They are really fun people to be with.

Well I have to go becuase we are going to go to the aquarium today and I have to run back to the apartment to grab my camera and my scarf. I hope that everyone is doing really well.

Love,
Elder Haslam

PS Dallin and Tal this is for you. I think that you guys should start preparing for your missions right now and I think that the best way that you can do that is to fulfill all of the priesthood responsibilities that you have right now. (dallin that you will have in just over a month) I really liked Elder Oaks' talk in this past conference about the sacrament. You should both read that talk and then teach the family about what the sacrament means and how you as priesthood holders should look, think, and act so that you can have the privilege of blessing and passing the sacrament. They way that you prepare to administer the sacrament takes all week and is really a daily process versus just waking up in the morning sunday and combing your hair. Your prepare by the way you treat those around you during the week. (do you talk about people behind their back, do you do something kind without being asked and without seeking something in return, does virtue garnish your thoughts). A great man and priesthood holder is able to forget about himself and follow the example of Jesus Christ. And all of that starts by fulfilling the responsibilities that you have been entrusted with. So in other words treat Mom and Kendall with kindness throughout the entire week and work hard with Dad in the yard. You only have a limited amount of time when you can do those kinds of things. And most of all remember to have fun. Life is not supposed to torture you and you have complete control over you happiness.