Portland!

Elder King and Elder Jewkes getting styled right!

The first week in Portland was JUST peachy.  Have seen at least 6 or 7 strip clubs and only about 3 churches (including ours).  Have chatted with more people in half a week than I did in about a month of working in the forest of Castle Rock.  Met a man who worships Thor and is a little bit frightened for the new Star Wars movie.  That same day we met a few members of the YSA ward where we are serving.  The next day we had a great meeting down in Vancouver with a bunch of other missionaries that took up a good chunk of our day.  Been preparing for like 3 different meetings that we had to train at and also we had to compile stake reports for correlation with the new stake.  This took around 5 hours to complete because we really sucked at figuring everything out.  When we finally finished the reports looked DANDY!  We were all ready to print them Sunday morning before the meeting.  We showed up at 8:45 to print and the printer was out of paper.  The printer froze and after 5 hours of work we could only get three stake report packets ready to share.   Usually you need around 10... BUT GUESS WHAT? Amongst all our stresses / grief & foolishness only two people were at the stake meeting this time.  It seems as though when you do what you're supposed to & try your best the Lord makes things simply.. Work out!  We also had a baptism! The elders serving here before us lined up a baptism this last week so we could swoop in for the kill.  Taewoo Kwon entered the waters of baptism just this past Saturday.   One of the great tender mercies of the Lord happened when Bobby (one of our investigators) showed up at the baptism to see what it is all about. Bobby then came to church the next day & wants to have all the lessons. He specifically asked "how can I get to the Celestial kingdom?" & WE HAD SOME STUFF TO TELL HIM! Bobby is GONNA get baptized soon mark my WORDS.  Speaking of that we stopped by an investigator named Tyler that is looking for changes in his life.  He told us he wants to start over again and wipe away some old sins. WE ALSO HAD SOME SERIOUS STUFF TO TELL HIM.  He wants to be baptized on the 16^th of January.  Good things happening here in Portland.  Today my beloved companion dropped his I pad on the ground after 17 months of successfully not doing that.  The rage was explosive.  Chairs were thrown and things were punched.  Poor guys mom told him "now remember for Christmas this year we are buying your I pad for you." WHOOPS!!!!!! He is the best companion though.  Not a whole lot to report on.  Got a Michael Buble Christmas album and I am sounding / looking more and more like him every week.  Slowly, but surely I will have his physique.  Merry Christmas to all, look for our Christmas card.