Found my bike

Hey,

It's crazy, the last six weeks is finally here. That's funny, we were actually talking about my living situation at dinner last night and that reference came up! I was thinking about that the other day. Lots of these little things I don't have figured out. Surprisingly, I am not feeling really overwhelmed about it. At the end of the day, I'll have a place to sleep and something to eat. It will work itself out (eventually).

Our Halloween was pretty enjoyable. We couldn't go out after six, so we went to the church with the Raleigh Hills elders. Turns out, the stake does a fifth Friday "open mic night". There's a lot of really talented people here, all aspiring musicians (hopefully some day their bands will finally take off!)

The people we're teaching are progressing, some more quickly than others. Our friend, Leslie, has been doing really well. She had gotten a call from her sister, and she was telling her all this crazy stuff. She told her that the women from the church would come and white-glove check her apartment to see if it was clean enough, and if not, then she would be shunned and excommunicated! Haha, it was hilarious, but she was pretty upset about it. So we just decided to come by and drop off some things for her to watch/read right after the phone call. We sat down with her and talked her through it and helped her feel much better. She said it was perfect timing for us to come by. A great moment that shows God takes care of us and gives us what we need when we need it..!

Besides that, things have been pretty standard around here. Transfers have brought some interesting things - like a new set of elders to proselyte downtown. Before, elders from another area covered the Market Street Branch but now they have some elders living right in downtown. Because of it, the rest of our district meetings will be held downtown at the institute building! That's going to be pretty awesome. The Pacific Branch is losing it's set of missionaries and is being covered by our zone leaders again. Soon their apartment (which is right next to the church and has a washer/dryer) is, as far as we know, vacant. Needless to say, we're trying to move in! It would be a much better apartment.

So, my bike was a subject of much frustration over the past month or so.. When I got to this area, I asked the office elders to put the bike in the mission storage and not to borrow it out or anything (because elders treat those loaned out bikes like garbage). Well, they misplaced my bike and then loaned it out to somebody. But they didn't know who it was they gave it too... So, because of it I had been working with them to find it and they were little to no help. So, I started calling all sorts of elders and posting pictures, etc. on Facebook trying to find it. But, after a month, I have finally found it! Even better, was the pedals were replaced and the derailer had been fixed (wasn't broke when I had it, but it got fixed) by these random members in the Aloha area. The elder who had it called me and told me the bike was still in great condition and I was so grateful. A little miracle for me, because I was so frustrated with the whole situation. I hate when I lose things, especially expensive bikes.

Loved the Halloween pictures. That's great, Kayleigh is going to be a make-up artist someday! She should do that for movies! That would be sweet— especially if she did the make-up for like orcs/werewolves, etc. That would be great.

That's my pops! Getting fired from every calling he ever had, I bet he's going to get an even greater responsibility! Like an elder's quorum president or something! Singles ward bishop! Hahah! All I hope for is to be the ward librarian for the rest of my life. I would have the BEST library in the entire church!

Well, tell everybody I joined the French Foreign Legion, or that I am going to work on a oil rig in the Atlantic. Make up something cool.

Well, I love you guys. Talk to you next week!

- Elder Samuel A. Burge