"I like turtles."

Well, this past week was interesting. We're putting a lot of our efforts into training the leaders of our little branch in using the Toolbox in their classes and their lives. It's been slow. People are canceling appointments on us left and right, and we fill our time the best we can. We've already got our ward mission leader on board.  There is a lot of doubt in others' minds about how well this Toolbox will work. It's nothing new to them, apparently. There have been many attempts at these sorts of methods. We'll just keep pushing to make it all work.

On Friday, as we were driving out to the country towards a small town called Proctor, an isolated and very scared turtle lay curled up in the middle of the road. Elder Kowalk and I did the Christ-like thing and put the turtle in the car so we could deliver him to a pond. Luckily, the member we were about to visit had property that shared the shoreline with a lake, and she let us release it there. On our way back home, we found another turtle willing to risk its life to cross the pavement, and I didn't hesitate to hop out of the car and pack it in the car. The turtle didn't like the idea very much, though, and it urinated everywhere. We ended up letting it go in a less peaceful manner. We tossed it into a shallow swamp. Better than being roadkill, though.

I had a very special experience on Saturday. An older couple that was baptized a little over a year ago, the Fosters, were sealed in the temple, and they invited Elder Kowalk and me to go with them. They also invited Elder Allen, the missionary who baptized them, to attend, which he was able to do. Elder Allen's current companion is -- ta da! -- Elder Faleao. It was really great to see him again. I was very excited to go to the sealing because I had never seen a sealing before, proxy or live. I learned so much. It was a great blessing for me to be able to attend. It answered a lot of questions I had at the time.

We're working with a few part-member families, recent converts, and some investigators that have been taught for months now. It's great to answer their concerns and help us learn ourselves. We have our car this week, but next week we're back on bikes... Bluh... It's not gonna be very fun. The weather is heating up, and the humidity is getting higher. I hope I can endure it well.

-Elder Staib