October 12, 2011-Email & Pics

Hey Everybody, its been a great week. They changed alot of stuff recently in the mission, so its been an interesting week to see the changes and how it changes alot of what our focus is now when we go out. They changed the numbers that we report to very few so its not like we have to force things on anybody, but rather to try to really talk to them and get a return appointment. Things have changed so much in the last year and a half. Its not the same mission that i came out to 2 years ago, which i'm kind of jealous i wish it was like this when i came out, but oh well. I found the kid thats from bountiful north stake. I think his name is elder townsen or something like that. i met him yesterday and he said that he was from bountiful and went to viewmont. That makes about 5 from viewmont out here right now. i don't know if i told you about them or not but i knew 2 of them. One of them i was pretty good friends with. It was my goal to serve with him before i leave but i don't think its going to happen, they usually don't listen to me, which i wonder why sometimes. haha... we went on exchanges this last week with the zone leaders which was really fun. It always fun to have other people around to excite things. This week i have to do exchanges with one of the pairs i am over. I'm really not looking forward to it, they are starting to get on my nerves alot. But oh well i can't change it. Oh i don't know if i told you or not but next week we have a mission tour coming through. Elder Allen Packer from the 70 is coming. Its on the 19th which i thinki is next week, i really have no idea i still think were in august so i'm out of it. But that should be interesting, he had all of us write a talk and send it to him. And a few of us will have to give the talk at mission conference. And knowing my luck i will end up doing it. . I think i've said more prayers at church then anybody else. Speaking of the ward its doing ok, hangin in there. Yeah alot of drama is going on which is sparking alot of arguing and side taking so its bad news. Were getting pulled into it too which i saw coming but i'm trying to stay as far out of it as possible but i feel like it will probably end up with us in the middle. I'll have to tell you more about it when i get home, to much to type and my fingers are kind of lazy. We have found some pretty awesome people this week. 2 that i think will go pretty far. One of them, told us that he talked with 3 other sets of missionaries and said he is still trying to find the path that he needs to go down, so we are trying to help him recoginze the answers that he is getting. I'm really excited about that and the other one seems pretty cool too so we will see what happens. We should have a baptism on the 22nd. It is someone that i have been teaching since i've been here and has been taught by others for months. The missionaries before didn't think he was accountable but we asked for outside opinion and they all said that he was, and we both think that he is so we set a date for the 22nd. Hes really excited and is willing to give up coffee to go into the temple and be baptized. My birthday was good. We really didn't do anything special, and didn't have a dinner so it was just a real chill day just normal. We did have fun yesterday though. We had our zone pday in norman with the whole zone. So we went up there and i wanted to go to the OU stadium so we did. I took some pictures but i forgot my camera again... sorry... but i will e-mail them tomorrow. That was really fun, then we went and played a version of dogeball, which was fun. Then after that we showered and had a mini zone conference with out president. That was really awesome, funny thing was that they stole some of the stuff that i said in district meeting the friday before, but oh well. We got another car which is awesome. The car that we had was on its last leg. That was also why we went up to norman yesterday. So i will be talking on the 18th... whats the topic going to be on? Any idea yet? Nope i haven't got my flight stuff yet i bet they come in a few weeks so i'll let you know when i get it, but you will also get it so you'll know when i know. Everybody usually flys out at about 6:30 or 7 so that will put me there in utah at 8 utah time. Give or take a few min. My companion and I are doing good. We get along well so its not to bad. Hes willing to go out and work and we are seeing the blessings from it. This week/transfer we have been focusing on flooding our areas with the book of mormon and so we gave about 9 away this week, but with one of them it was a miracle. We tracted this street after we prayed to see which one we needed to and so we didn't really talk to anybody and we knock on this one house and she said oh i'm ok i'm baptist so no thanks have a good day. Were like ok... and went to the next house after we finished knocking and no one answered we started to walk down the driveway and that lady came walking over to us and said i know i said that i didn't want that book, but i changed my mind can i still get it from you. Were like for sure and gave her one and we asked if can we come back and she said yeah sometime next week. That is a first... someone changing there mind after we talked to them. Something must have been hitting her hard for her to do that. A total miracle in my eyes especially after praying to see where to go and picking this random street at the bottom of the town. Well thats about it for this week. This week should be fun and interesting also. Well have a great week, talk to y'all later!
Love ya
Elder Downs

Heres the pictures you wanted... the first 2 are of me at the ou stadium. and then the last one is me and elder tesina. one of the kids thats from viewmont that i was friends with.
elder downs