Best Fourth of July Ever

It's been quite a week. I got to go on an amazing exchange with Elder Pihl, pronounced peal, who has been in Merritt Island for as long as I've been in Rockledge, so we are really good friends. It was one of my favorite exchanges. We found some new people to teach, had some great lessons, and learned a lot.

The 2 highlights of the week though were the Fourth of July and meeting our new mission president. 

This honestly was one of my favorite Fourth of Julys ever. We started the day by running a 4k and having a breakfast with the ward. The 4k was interesting because I had to stay with my companion, who is not a runner. For lunch we went to a big community event with tons of people and tried talking to people and handing out cards. It was super hot and not many people wanted to talk, though. It prepared us for that night though. 

We were going to do basically that same thing, but on a much larger scale, that night. There is a huge firework show that people come to from all over the place right here in Rockledge. We were going to have 6 Elders there talking to as many people as possible. We decided to bring water to hand out for free and then try to talk to the people we give it to. It went great. We handed out all the water and also gave away well over 200 pass along cards. We also found 3 new people to teach. And even if we didn't find anyone or hand out any cards, there were literally thousands of people who saw us with our name badges handing out water. It was a major success, plus we got to see the fireworks which were fantastic. 

The other big thing this week was that we got a new mission president. His name is President Ashcraft. He is very different from President Clark, but in a good way. He is more laid back, he is a comedian, but he also has an amazing spirit and has great plans for our mission. We had some time on Friday to meet him and get to know him a little bit. One interesting thing about it is that he has two 12 year old twins that he took with him from Idaho, so it will be interesting to see how that changes things having kids living at home with him. 

In other news, we have 2 baptisms this week. Jake and Alyssa Califano are getting baptized on Saturday. They are super excited and we're super happy, too. Should be another good week. 

I just want to end by saying that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. You will be blessed so much as you take time to read it. There are so many amazing truths in there and it holds the answers to all of life's great questions. We just need to read it! It has helped me with my testimony and helped those I teach so much these past 9 months. I don't know where I'd be without it.