Matt: Sep. 13th 2010

Dearest family,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY (tomorrow) DAD!!!!!! Gosh where has the past 2 centuries gone so fast? ha ha jk you're only like 89
So this week has been pretty good. I asked this pretty much golden investigator if he would be baptized and he said yes. So that was AWESOME! We didn't set a date though, cuz he has a crazy work schedule that includes flying around the country and being gone for like a month. But he rocks and he will get baptized. Other than that not a lot happened.
Remember those hives I was telling you about? Well it turns out that they are either caused by the laundry detergent I use (which is made by a member from scratch...hey it's free) reacting with my sensitive skin; OR it is in fact bug bites, caused by bed bugs. So yeah. I honestly don't know which one it is though, cuz the elders that slept in that bed before me haven't ever had bed bugs, and I've been using this detergent for 7 weeks, and I've only had hives for 2....So yeah. Plus I found a bug in my bed, that kinda fits the description of a bed bug, but I was told if it was in fact bed bugs they'd be all over and it wouldn't just be the one. So I don't know what the deal is. I could have leprosy or the plague for all I know, but I just know I itch like crazy.
So those ribs that the hot sauce store owner smoked me were right nice! We were on bikes that week so I had to carry this super hot tin foil pan thing with 2 giant racks of ribs (covered up of course) in one hand while I steered my bike with the other for like 1/2 mile crossing the street twice to get back to our apartment. Boy was it worth it though! I went to pick the slab up by the bones and they just came right out. ha ha ha it was awesome. They were super tender and fatty and greasy and they mostly tasted like smoke, but I loved having some real southern bbq.
As far as the work goes, things are alright. Elder Smith went on exchanges with the zone leaders (one of whom is an Alta High alumni) leaving me and Elder Barnes/Grayson Brogdon 2.0 to fend for ourselves for a day and a half. It was terrible! We taught like 2 lessons in that time and just biked for years and hardly talked to anybody (cuz as the acting senior comp I REFUSED to go tracting) and it was hot and awful and my tire blew out, so yeah it just sucked. But once Elder Smith got back he just started working us hard cuz that elder from alta is like the best missionary to ever serve 2 years, and he inspired Elder Smith to get us back on track so that's what we've been trying to do lately.
What else? Thank you Nate, Nick, Candace, Devin, Jordan, and Rhett for the letters. They rocked. I'll try and get back to you all in paper format, but it might be a while, so don't hold your breath.
Al- Holy cow, Abby in kindergarten! Caramba. You have a lettter coming your way so get excited! Did that make anybody else cry? Maybe just me.
Well that's pretty much all I've got. Make sure you go home teaching and visiting teaching, and don't get divorced, and don't smoke, and don't stop going to church.

Oh yeah I almost forgot... This week we went to WORLD OUTREACH!!!! ha ha ha it was a party. The violin player Charlie Daniels wasn't there, but it was saturday night and Tennessee and Alabama were both playing so it was pretty empty. Freak, this place (meaning the central tennessee area/South) shuts down on saturdays. The streets are deserted, if people answer the door, they're usually pissed, or they make you wait til commercials...Thou shalt have no other Gods before me ha ha

com muito amor, Elder Matt Gagon