September 12, 2011-Email & Pic

Hey Everybody How are you doing today? Well this week has been exhausting! I swear we spent more time out of our area then we did in our own area. It was awesome though a lot of good stuff happened for us and me. The first part of the week was slow and then all of a sudden thursday hit and then it was all of a sudden it was today. Thursday we went did service at the library, we shelved 100's of books i swear. After that we drove up to Ada and started the exchange up there. It was fun one of the missionaries up there really annoys me so it was ok. They live about 60 miles away and then we had District Meeting again and thats another 40 miles and we were there for a while and then drove back to Ada to do a baptismal interview, which went really good. Then we spent another night and then on Saturday we woke up early and we drove back down here to Ardmore and helped one of my favorite families move house. There pretty funny they said that they have pretty much adopted me into their family. Then i got a random call that said that Starlin, my investigator in my last area, wanted me to come back up there and baptize her. So after we helped them move we took off up for Oklahoma city for the baptism. It took about 2 1/2 hours to drive up there about 150 miles. It was probably one of the best baptism's i've ever been too which is awesome. The spirit was so strong from the time that i got there till the time i left. We got there a little early and she came a few minutes later and she came rushing in and gave me a big hug and said i can't believe your here. It was a big surprise that i was coming i guess. I had to give the baptism talk too so it was interesting i've never done that in my white clothes before so it was a different experience. Then i went to go baptize her and she came down and i was about to say the prayer and i couldn't get it out. It took me a minute to say it and when i did it was a huge rush of the spirit, its as if Christ himself was there watching it all. And all of her family that worked with her before that had passed on. It was amazing! The whole rest of the program was awesome, her whole family showed up even her family that wasn't talking to her and they even asked for a book of mormon. It was an awesome day! Then we talked for a while and she had to go because she was about to collapse and we had to go because we still had a 2 hour drive. I think we left about 7 or 7:30 and didn't get home till about 9 or a little after and then i just passed out on my bed. It was awesome but all in all i think i drove about 500 miles in the last couple of days. Then sunday was fun we didn't have anybody there sadly but i have a hunch that in the next few weeks this area will have a bunch of potential. Now your probably wondering how long i will procrastinate or hold out to tell you if i'm staying or not haha. Well i got the phone call last night and it said....... I'm staying and elder ferguson is leaving to go up to the north part of the city. Which i was excited about. The only downside is i got another interesting companion. And guess what hes only been out 3 months. Thats 5 in a row that have been under 4 months for me. I'm getting kind of tired getting tons of real green missionaries. I think though that we will have a few more baptisms in the next couple of weeks. The weather is doing awesome, i wish we would get some rain, but i'm not complaining about the 80 or 90 degree weather. I really hope this new kid is somewhat normal and i can get along with him. I really am hoping for that so i can have some fun this next 2 transfers. I have a feeling though that i will stay one more and then i am leaving somewhere else for the last one. I'm glad your getting the stuff figured out with dad! The roof and everything looked good. Well thats about all the good news for this week. I'm rushing today we have to leave at 11 to go up to norman for pday. It should be fun we are going bowling and then playing 4 square and basketball. So i'll talk to you guys next week.
Love y'all
Elder Downs
P.S. Heres a picture of me and starlin