Happy New Year!

Hello Utahns. How was everyone's New Year's 2012? According to the Mayans, this year is blah dee blah dee whatever. No man knoweth the Second Coming. Even if it does happen, I'll be in the best place doing the best thing. I feel pretty safe.

Scratch one item off my Southern bucket list. Last Night I had GUMBO. It was ok. A bit too much sausage for me. Apparently, there's a thing down here about cooking only instant rice. The only place I've seen a rice cooker is at the Asian buffet we've got here. 

It's been a week of service and the members pulling our arms to get us over for holiday wishes and stuff. We finished constructing Caleb's barbed wire fence, putting a large gate on the final opening. It was fun putting it all together.

On Thursday, we went down to Mississippi with Bro. Pennington, as usual. We gave four Priesthood blessings to the sick and afflicted. Four in one day. It was crazy, but it was cool to do. That was the first time I had given a blessing. It was short, I guess... I'm just hoping I said what needed to be said. There are lots of good people down in Mississippi. A good chunk of them are members, but they don't come to church. It's been a large project for the ward to try and bring them back to church. The missionaries, home teachers and ward mission leader are all in it. It's working, slowly but surely.

With the slowing holidays, we're hoping and praying for better luck with our potential investigators, too. They've been busy running around too much. A lot more of the missionary work can come through members introducing us to their friends. We've been working the last couple months with getting a ward member team-up routine going, and we're finally getting the final steps in for the program to start. We're very excited for it, and we know a lot of good will come of it.

Hope you guys are doing well! I love you all, and Happy New Year!

-Elder Staib