June 1, 2010
Hola familia,

Transfers

Transfer day is this upcoming Wednesday. I will be staying here in Vancouver but I will be getting a new companion. Elder Uribe is going to be serving in Kennewick. My new companion is Elder Bair, pronounced bear. I served around him in Pasco while I was with Elder Godinez. We always called him Elder Osito, which is the animal bear in Spanish.

Punchbowl falls hike

Our hike last week was amazing. We made it up as far as we wanted to. There were two upper falls that were about 6 miles from the parking lot. You could go back behind both of the falls. I got lots of pictures. Elder Montoya and I did a lot of running. We probably ran 4 to 5 out of the 12 miles that we hiked. It was a really good workout. It was really tiring especially with a backpack on full of food and water.

Digging trenches

We did some service for the Woodland family in the branch the other morning. We were digging a big trench around his garden to cut out tree roots. It was some good physical labor. There were some nasty roots that we pulled up. A few that were even made of metal. haha. Afterward we ate breakfast with them. We ate pancakes and Mexican scrambled eggs and bacon. It was delicious. Especially after working for a couple of hours digging a trench.

Dad, my hands are a lot more beat up and not so much like city boy hands. That's great, huh!

BBQ with the Boyle's / pressure washing

I've done a lot of yard work for the Boyle's and that's helped as well. One day I dug up a huge stump with a shovel and an axe. That was a lot of work. It was the stump of a cherry tree that Brother Boyle had cut down before I ever came to Vancouver the first time. The roots on that tree were almost bigger than the trunk itself.

The Boyle's take such good care of us. We didn't have a dinner the other day and they prepared a meal for us. We had, I don't know how to spell this, Shish-ka-bobs? And french bread buttered and cooked on his grill. I love the Boyle family so much.

This last week Ricardo, an investigator that I taught while I was here before, came out with us a couple of times. He did an awesome job of teaching and committing people. He even bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and other things. He is a really awesome person.

Les quiero mucho. Sigan firmes en la fe.

Elder Ben Arnold