Companion Life

with Elder Sheppard

The apartment

Modesto sunrise

Here is Elder Shepherd's armory of Nerf guns (yes, that whole suitcase is full of Nerf guns) and that cake on the blue bin we dropped off to a recent converts house that I will have to tell the story of sometime. (Elder Sheppard baked it...it is "German chocolate cake")

 Elder Shepherd falling asleep during Weekly Planning and me stacking nerf bullets on his head. He falls asleep all the time and I can't wake him up.

Ya, Elder Shepard is a weirdo. He even admits it. That is how he wants to be remembered! Every time the Mahna Mahna song comes on in the car (don't ask me why that song is permissible) he taps the beat with the brakes. WITH THE BRAKES. It is so annoying! I will never be the same when that horrible song comes on. So guess what I figured out? Yosemite National Park is in my mission. Next week for Preparation Day I'm going!!! How cool is that??? I hope school is going well for everyone!! I'll admit, it is really weird seeing all the school kids. Interesting fact of the day: schools in Modesto don't have hallways, all the classrooms open to the outside! All the walkways are just covered. Isn't that weird? And then they just put a fence around the whole school. Crazy. Our third investigator, who I didn't mention in the big email, is named Janice. She is actually a great grandma, and the majority of her family is LDS but her and her son aren't and they smoke a ton. Anyways, Janice also speaks 7.3 million miles an hour. Her son smoked us some fresh bacon! I cooked it today and, despite getting burned all over from the excessive amounts of popping grease, ate a fantastic breakfast. Dad-apparently Modesto had a 2.9 earthquake two days ago, but I couldn't feel it at all. Mom-I sent you a card in the mail, can we pretend it came like 3 weeks ago? Sarah-I can't believe you are a Junior!!! Hey, at least not a Squashmore... Mary-still can't find the quarter collection? I found a quarter I don't have, I can send it if you find it. Christian... Just kidding buddy! How is the big third grade?? (again, just kidding) Hope soccer is going good! I'll send a few pictures of my companion Elder Shepard, my apartment, and a California sky next week. Love you all!!

-Elder Hawkes