Feb. 23, 2010-Email

hello everybody!!
wow another week has gone by! can't believe it! February is almost over! and it feels like it just started just a few days ago! it feels like I've been e-mailing home almost everyday! so yeah if this is a little short i apologize. lets see this week. nothing really much happened this week. besides the normal 4-6 or more miles biking everyday to get to appointments or dinner. yeah so you know how i don't like lasagna... did i tell you i've had it i think lets see......... 4 times since i've been out here and that doesn't include spaghetti which i think i have had about 6 or 7 times. and alot of other things that i didn't really want to eat but oh well see i will eat everything. for me and my cooking the most i have cooked would be eggs... pancakes... and grilled cheese. oh wait i cooked some cookies and am giong to cook some brownies this week. oh and i cook the muffins which isn't bad at all and yes its the one package of the great value i like. they don't have those at our walmart i looked for like 10 min. but yeah my usual eating consists of the tortinos pizza or the frozzen burritos. which is really cheap and easy. haha i'm glad they have those hear or i would be having so issues. um lets see we go to members about 3 or 4 times a week on a good week. this last week we only had 2 which is sad because we had the entire week filled up... people just cancel on us. which is kind of annoying but oh well. you asked some of my favorite people here... i would have to say brother erickson is probably my favorite. he is in the 1st counslor in the bishopric and is divorced but is just awesome. hes been like everywhere. and michael guess what he has.... his own plane. he uses it all the time well when he can. he lives about 200 yards away from our apartment complex so its really easy to get there. he feeds us a few times a month so its was cool. lets see who else. oh yes i would have to say sis stephens and her husband walter. he isn't a member but they are so funny. we go over there every other monday for dinner. walter is this i would say about 5'6" inch man who probably weighs about 120 and has huge glasses and i would consider him as a nerd. but he is a huge football fan. like through and through. more then anybody else i have ever heard of. its so funny to see him talk about things. he drove us to help somebody move a couple weeks ago and i would say that was the funnies 15 min. he gets so mad at everybody it just makes you laugh. and sis stephens is way awesome too. she is a really good cook in fact we were there last night and guess what we had.... lasagna. she cooked the stouphers kind or however you spell it. and anybody else i can think of oh yes the hernandez brothers. they are both in the ward and are both married. they are both are halirous. they are hispanic looking but they have can't speak spanish even though they try too haha which is funnty to see them try. but yeah rodney hernadez's son is on a mission right now too and guess where he is... ogden he is an AP and theres another guy in our ward, OKC 2nd... thats there too. its was funny we just switch elders. but yeah those are my favorites here i definetly will have to keep track of brother erickson though. he is somebody that i would definetly come back to see and the other ones too. umm lets see what else should i say oh yeah elder bednar. he came this last weekend for a fireside for the stakes around us and us on sunday night. it was way cool it was just a big question and answer period. which is way cool. they asked some pretty good questions i'm not suppose to tell you about them but they were way cool answers. then we went to a misson conference with every missionary in our mission. it was so cool and it was basically a big group discussion for 3 hours. it was a great experenice. he is so normal you wouldnj't believe it. he was cracking jokes and everything. haha its one of those things were you think that they know every single thing but they don't just like us. its like the notion before i got here was that missionaries konw everything which i can tell you is far from the truth. but yeah at the end everybody went up and shock his hand! which was awesome. i stopped and talked with him for a second. i aksed about my friend brandon bednar who is his nephew by the way. he i guess got his mission call to tokyo japan! how cool would that be? it was pretty funny to see him like oh really you know him! but it was so intimidating talking with him haha i didn't get to ask him any questions. every time i got one to ask someone either asked him or he moved on to another subject. but he really hit hard on faith is an action. you have to act before something will happen like with joseph smith. it was so cool to listen to him answer questions and know exactly where the answer is in the scriptures. i wish i knew them that well! haha hopefully one day. then we got a zone picture with him which hopefully they will send to us cuz i want it. but yeah i will send it home when i get it. well thats about all i got for this week. oh yeah your questions i don't want any short sleave shirts quite yet. i'm fine with the stuff i have for right now till it gets way hot so hold off on those. yes i use my electric blanket i've used the heating thing 3 or 4 times its way nice. yes i got my package! thanks for all the goodies and everything. except for the face stuff leaked but it wasn't too bad so its fine. no i haven't seen a camel bag. we don't go to stores at all. if i'm lucky once a week. and sometimes not even that. so find one if you can. that will be good for me in the summer and will last me my whole mission and then some. but make sure i can get my scriptures in it. march 17th is transfers not to long away which is crazy. so yeah stop sending letters to my address the week before. i haven't been back to the flee market yet but i will find our some prices and stuff when i go next which hopefully will be soon. yeah they got your letters yesterday. i gave it to elder glazier who just laughed and elder romero who was jumping for joy it was awesome. oh cool yeah i would love that. and when your looking if you find a cheap copy of the phantom of the opera soundtrack that would be awesome too. but not big rush or worries. well i better be going i have to go play volleyball not to long from now. and i can't miss that. so question. me and elder glazier where discussing this this morning. but all the people that acendded into heaven enoch, elijah, and then the people who are still on the earth like the three nephites and john the revelator. will they ever die? because it says that in 3 nephi 28 that they shall never taste death but don't you have to die to be reserructed? ok let me know what you think or know. i will study it out and ask some people so i'll tell you next week
well have a good week! talk to you next week
love elder downs