E-mail dated 2/23/09

Ow di bodi,

This week went by very fast. It seems like all the weeks are going by so fast these days. I don't know if that means I'm lost in the work or if the world is speeding up and time really is going faster. Or maybe I'm just getting older. We had a great day at church yesterday. We had 12 investigators at church!!! The past couple of weeks we only had like 5 and 6 (I know that sounds like a lot to everyone else on missions) and I was really feeling like a crappy missionary. But this week completely brought me out of that phase. I was so excited to see all of these people there. The three sisters that we are plannin to baptize this saturday were there and all participated in the Invesitgators class (in which I led a great discussion on repentance). I'm so excited to continue serving these wonderful investigators.

So this past week I got something like a staff infection on my foot. I'm pretty sure it was just a crappy boil but walking around in shoes really hurt. After getting some serious antibiotics from the hospital I was on a no shoe order. That meant I was proselyting in flip-flops for a couple of days. I didn't like flip-flops at home and this experience didn't change that. I was hiking up and down mountains in sandals. My feet were completely black (which made me fit in) by the end of the days. No worries now, My foot is completely healed and my affection for sandals is still the same.

We have been giving a lot of priesthood blessings lately. And everyone tells us the next time we see them that not to long after we left they were healed. My companion loves helping others and looking for opportunities to serve others (other than teaching them).

I also met a sierra leonean from Ogden. Yeah, Ogden! That one city in Northern Utah. I was so suprised when he told me where he was from. He actually worshipped in my branch on sunday and is attending a funeral here and will go back in a couple weeks. If I see him again I will give him your number and tell him to call you when he gets back. Cool huh?

I have just finished a book by Neal A. Maxwell titled "All these things shall give thee experience" It is really good and has some really good ways in which we can improve our lives. One chapter talks about how God really does know everything and Wow. We are literally nothing compared to him. He is so smart!!

I can't remember all your questions because I'm replying to the one that mentions Richard's mission call. And what the heck. You think that living next to each other for 19 years would deserve a break from each other. But nope. All I can say is that God's ways are not our ways and I know that both of them need to be where they have been called. If that would have happened with me and CJ . . . . wow, God was smart to separate us.

Elder Degen