July 29

hey guys sounds like you had a cool week, and as a matter of fact our stake had a pioneer day picnic and that was pretty fun.  I got a chance to try my hand at stick wrestling (stick pull, Joseph Smith played it in the movie "Joseph smith: Prophet of the restoration") and I never got thrown and there were some pretty big guys that I pulled with.  I miss the fireworks though, but anywho, I think its cool that you've got the oven going again, that will be useful should the power go out or something along those lines.
It is a interesting thing, the stake and mission leadership have really been urging us to have our emergency supplies ready, so on that note, we have been told to have our own personal 72 hour kits or "Grab Bags" ready just in case something happens and so currently I don't have one and when I asked president cook about it I was told that we are to use our personal funds to arrange the bags and their contents, and also it was suggested to use like an older backpack or something like that instead of dealing with the hassle of having to go buy a brand new one, so I thought it would be a interesting Family home evening activity if you all got together and everyone prepared their own and if you could, a suitable backpack would be appreciated, well anyway we'll see about that later.
 so moving on, I didn't get transferred like everyone thought I was going to be so it looks like I will be in my greenie area for at least a little over a quarter of my mission specifically 7.5 months for sure, looks like I am one of those supposedly rare missionaries that is put in one area for a long while, its likely that I will be transferred next transfer but we will see, about the driving record I checked out the site and it looks like I could do it through the site but I think it would be most efective if you to put the money for the fee on the card, the card is very low and I am trying to keep a bit of spare cash on it just in case of an emergency, however I am aware of the fact that money for you guys is not a unlimited commodity, but thankfully and strangely enough members in our area are prone to giving us cash for us to get our dinners with instead of having dinners with them, but we do have some dinners with members during the weeks.
So about the driving record, what I read on the site that it can be done online and it also mentioned doing it through mail but the online way seems easier so please get back to me on that, also you mentioned a 9 dollar fee, the site said 6 when I read it, but if I just missed where it said that then okay but there's that, also I am not sure about weather or not you got back to me on what I need to do with my shirt that has the ripped pocket, please let me know, having to deal with only having 6 good short sleeve shirts is making things a little awkward(wearing a long sleeve shirt on a hot day to a appointment is not exactly comfortable and/or presentable when its got sweat marks in the most inconvenient spots on the shirt) also, on that same note, how much do the short sleeves cost at M&M(Missionary Mall) because from my calculations at least one more shirt would be very useful.
anyway, it looks like we might acually have a baptism or two in the up coming weeks, now that is sweet, hopefully they will stay active in the church, because it seems like there are to many people that are getting baptised into the church for the wrong reasons and some times they don't even understand what it is they are getting into, not that we are wanting them to be experts or scriptorians before baptism, but it seems like a lot of people just do it and then forget about it, part of  the problem is because of some of the members don't do their duty to keep the new converts involved and active, yea it is a choice to stay active but if the ward doesn't step up and keep them going at least for the first year or two then they just drift away and  join the "lessactive or inactive" group, some even leave, and another problem I am noticing more out here is that there are starting to be (in my opinion) to many members who are being judgemental or critical toward people and critizing others on things that it isn't their responsibility to judge or whatelse they try to do.
but I am sort of dragging on now aren't I, so on the last few things I need to mention, I am running short on time, thanks for all your help so far, and I will get the letters and other things that I said I would send sent either this week or next week, and a little study idea for randy and don(just a thought if they want me to send them a little suprise;-}) ask them to identify between 1,2 nephi or alma, who speaks on baptism and heavenly father the most? any way gotta run, love you all, tell sherie and keith hi from me and here are some more pics, no need for concern with them No real weapons or animals were harmed in the taking of these photos, although some missionaries had some fun and went a little overboard;-}

LATER;-}

Elder Edward C.D.Parker