Mariana's Baptism & Transfers

The past two weeks have flown by so quickly I can't beleive it. I didn't eat lunch 4 out of the 7 days of the week because we didn't have time. The past 6 days I've actually eaten lunch 5 out of the 6 so there is an improvement. My companion Elder Scott went home on the 20th of September and he had a baptism on the 18th and a confirmation on the 19th and then flew home the next day. What an end to your mission! That's what I want to do. That'd be really fun. I can't believe a year has already gone by. I feel weird when people ask me how long I've been out. I feel like I have to pretend I didn't hear the question. Don't ask me why... I guess it's a missionary thing. We have another baptism on the 23rd of October and one on the 30th both of which I am excited for. It's fun to see them learn and connect with the ward. The university wards have the best fellowshiping in the mission. I love the singles. It's so fun to serve in a college ward. Especially right now with school starting. There are activities everyday this week and FHE is a picture scavenger hunt tonight and we have some investigators coming as well as Mariana, our recent convert. We have to miss the Friday activites because of zone leader council but I guess I can't have all the fun right?

In other news my new companion is Elder Bunton and we actually came out together! We were not in the same disctrict but we came out in the same group. I sat next to him on one of the 3 plane flights from Salt Lake to Seattle. If you don't recall we had a lot of problems with the planes we boarded. He is an excellent missionary and he is from Raleigh, North Carolina. He has a very sucessful family with brothers and sisters going to harvard, researching scientific things and making life altering discoveries! haha He actually studied Neuroscience at BYU and then deferred to come on a mission. He turns 22 in March so he's a little older. Luckily he is extrememly clean and neat and we have the same work ethic and so on. I've been really lucky the past couple companions I've had. Elder Scott was NOT clean at all but he was such a good missionary and I loved serving with him. He was a great influence and taught me a lot. I wonder what he is doing right now? Probably catching up on all the movies he missed the past two years. He had a long list of things he wanted to catch up on.

In last news we had Elder Kikutchi of the 70 come speak to our mission last Monday and that was so powerful. He did a training with us on contacting people and boy did it work! We had 12 new investigators this week and 4 church tours. We have two people on-date for baptism and our zone is doing amazing. Our mission is finally getting out of this rut that we've been in. Our mission president is a lot more liberal on his rules. He gives us a LOT more stewardship over our zone and lets us control a lot of things. It's so different than what I'm used to but I like it. I still ask him things all the time but he always lets me know it's okay. So different. That is definatly the plus of being a zone leader. You get to work with the mission president all the time. I see him at least once a week if not more. This blog is getting longer and longer so I better calm down. Thank you for everything you do for me and all the prayers I get. They are working.

Elder Bottema

Fast Week!

This week went by so fast and it feels like I am going to be so busy the next two. Especially since I have a companion going home. Elder Cameron Scott from Draper, Utah, he goes home on the 20th.

Another reason this week went by fast is because we had to go on two exchanges and then yesterday I was on one with Assistant Adams from Cedar City, UT. He actually went to middle school with me. That was fun. The reason I'm e-mailing today instead of preparation day is because today is temple day and I was privileged to do a session. There is nothing cooler to me than seeing a temple I was able to help work on. Even though I wasn't endowed at the time I love seeing all the stone base on the upper floors. It looks really good. Feel proud Bottema Tile!

Our Investigator Mariana is doing amazing. She is still on for September 18th 2010 and she wanted to do a 24 hour fast with us this Sunday AND she paid her tithing even though we told her she didn't need to pay until she was baptized. She keeps every commitment that we extend to her. All we have left to do is cover a couple more commandments from Preach My Gospel and start organizing her baptismal program. School starts soon thereafter she is baptized. I have never been so anxious for school to start in my life. I'm ready to talk to all the new people coming in. As of now there are between 8,000 and 10,000 students on campus right now and starting September 29th 2010 there will be around 45,000. I am SO excited! I am ready to baptize everyone in my path. I'm really pumped because I'm really sick and tired of the institute being so slow. Thank goodness we've found ways to stay busy.

Some of you have asked if I was able to do anything or see anything besides missionary work.... not that I can think of. I was able to meet the assistants in my first area last night which was really weird. I felt like I was at home. I really can't think of anything. Our mission president changed our schedule in the university wards. We no longer have a specific schedule and we can now have dinners any day of the week. I was excited at first and then remembered I was in a singles ward. I would have LOVED dinners everyday in my last ward. Oh! They were so awesome and made such good food. Mmmm.... how sorry I am that my time has passed there. We are still required to contact/tract 4 hours a day but we can choose when to do those. Other than this news the mission president hasn't really changed anything else. He's full of ideas and very fun to talk to but we've only been able to try a few of his ideas.

I've enjoyed the letters and such but I'm sad to say little time to write back. Let it be known I love reading them.

I love ya all!

Elder Bottema