Elder Gage Black's September 16th email - "One Year Older and Hopefully a Little Wiser Too :)"

First off, I am so grateful for all the great letters and gifts I got for my birthday!! I am so grateful for all the amazing support I have. I got the package from you guys that had the letters from all the family which was amazing, and then Tanner sent a package that had letters from all of my friends in it. I loved reading those so much on the night of my birthday. I started crying a little bit while I was reading all the letters. Not because I was sad or homesick, but because I realized how much support and love I am getting from home. It was so amazing to feel all the love from everyone back home! My birthday was a great day. We spent the morning eating the birthday waffles we made and cleaning. We have an apartment check this week so we are cleaning lots. haha We went out to work and we went to a referral that we had received. they ended up being an old Pentecostal couple that were really nice, but ended up just bible bashing. We wasted the whole afternoon there. When we finally got out, it was already time for dinner. We went to the Macllory's house for dinner, who is an awesome member family. I hadn’t met them before, but when i walked in, there were balloons that fell on me and the whole kitchen was decorated for my birthday. They had a big birthday cake, and by the end of the dinner we grew really close. We already have a boating day planned in 2 years when I come back after my mission :) Overall it was a great birthday, though I was super busy!

The week was great too. We had a new missionary meeting where all the missionaries that came in with my group met up and the president came and talked to us. It was awesome seeing all my friends from the MTC there and seeing how they were all doing out in the field. We learned that the Sacramento mission is the 3rd highest weight gaining mission in the world. So that is pretty exciting. :) Haha

We have stayed super busy this week. We did a ton of service. Dug a lot of ditches for underground power lines and sewer pipes. We spend one day with a Cop/Swat Sniper in our ward helping him with his sprinkler system. He is the manliest man. He is massive and was telling us stories from his swat life. they are pretty crazy. One of the days we were digging we got wrecked by mosquitoes. I have bites all over me. Apparently there is a problem with west nile around here so hopefully i don’t get it and die. We went and taught early morning seminary one day at 6AM. We had to get up at 5. On a scale of 1-8, it was rough. It was awesome teaching them and we had a great lesson, but it was so early. Haha all the service and seminary teaching eventually hit my body and by Friday i was so tired and my body was basically shutting down. I didn’t have energy for anything. So on Friday during lunch we had a nice appointment with Dan. (Daily Afternoon Nap) :) 

We have had a lot of people to teach though which is awesome. There is Gavin Wilder who just turned 9. His family in inactive but he decided he wants to get baptized. Since he turned 9 we have to (get to ) teach him all the lessons before he gets baptized. It is awesome because it has been a great way to get his family back to church too. They actually came to church yesterday which is awesome. We are headed back tonight to teach him more, so we are really excited for his progression! We have a few more people that have accepted to listen to our lessons, so hopefully this week will be full of great lessons! The members here are so great at finding us people to work with. We have stayed very busy. Last night my companion said I’m getting some gnarly bags under my eyes, and asked if I’m sleeping okay, which i am. I guess it is just all the work we have is wearing me out! It is great though. I would much rather be super busy than have no work at all! A lot of what we teach is about God's love and today during personal study I came across Romans 8:38-39. It is a great scripture that I love. Feel free to look it up :) 

The mission life is still great! I taught my companion how to play Clocks by Coldplay on the piano and now that is all i ever hear. He plays it every time he sits down to the piano. It is just lovely. Haha No one has threatened us yet, but we have had some dogs attack us. That is always lots of fun! but it isn’t too hard to take care of dogs. haha There are lots of balding men out here, probably because they are all such hard workers. Because of that, I get lots of comments on my hair and how thick it is. We had one dinner where the majority of the conversation revolved around my hair..haha!

I am feeling nice and healthy. Wilton is mostly hay, grapes, lots of grapes, tons of livestock, and then just little random things people want to plant. :) 

We asked the prez about the ipads and stuff, and he said we should get them by the end of the year. We are super excited for that. It hasn’t really cooled off. it was still over 100 a few days this last week, but it has gone done to the 90's for the past few days. I hope the rain starts soon! It will be like the storms you got, but all the time here! they say that when it starts, all the massive ditches on the side of the road are always full of water and it hardly ever stops raining during the winter. So that will be exciting! But i will get working on my weekly update :)

I love all you guys so much! My family and friends are what keeps me going during the hard times! Thanks for all you do for me! 

I hope it is a great week for everyone!

I love you more than the desert of Utah loves all the rain it just got! 

XOXO,

Elder Black :)