Sept. 21, 2015

Hi Family,

This week was pretty exciting. Denver is awesome the weather is great. The area I am in (Bible Park) isn't quite like where we live it’s a lower income part of town and there are a lot of apartment complexes. There are some homes but the majority is apartments. There are also some pretty interesting things about the stake there are a lot of inactves. The ward with the highest activity rate is 50% and some wards have as many as 700 inactive members it’s kind of crazy. The ward I'm in has a lot of young families the bishopric look like they are all in their twenties and there are a lot of old folks as well. They combine YM and YW with another ward which means we have sacrament meeting third hour. So there is definitely a lot of work to be done.

Tuesday was a little rough we were trying to get a bike and my debit card locked up on me. So long story short and we spent a couple hours driving around with the Zone Leaders to ATM and my card wouldn't work the nearest Bank of America was Downtown but before that I was finally able to call the Bank and have them take the Security Locks of my card and so I was able to purchase a bike. It’s a pretty nice bike. One of the Zone Leaders, Elder Fisher was a Bike mechanic so that was helpful and by the way my other Zone Leader, Elder Sundwall is from the Scott's ward in Katy and I'm pretty sure he is also the Foster's cousin. Anyways... after we got my bike we went to a dinner appointment and when I was locking our bikes around a pine tree I got sap all over my arm. I didn't get it off till that night when I used a wire sponge to scrub the sap of my arm and I'm pretty sure I lost some of my arm hair. It was a pretty funny experience. Wednesday was very busy I had to wake up at 4:00am for a 6:00am session at the temple it was great. The Denver temple is awesome and it’s cool to see the differences between temples. After that we had zone meeting. We've spent a lot of time tracking and teaching less actives. Saturday was great I punctured a tire but while we were tracking I had a great experience. On Saturday when Elder Sevilla and I were tracking in an apartment complex we knocked on two doors on the bottom floor and no one answered. We walked away from the complex and I turned to my companion and said why don't we try the two apartments above. We went up the stairs and knocked and a lady named B opened the door. As we talked to her and taught her the first discussion we realized that she was prepared and we are so excited to follow up with her. This has been such a great experience, so far and I am really excited for this week.

So on Saturday I ripped the front of my brown shoes. I was borrowing a bike because mine had a flat tire. This bike was terrible and I was going down a hill and as I was pedaling and my chain slipped and my foot slammed on the concrete and ripped my shoe. Is there a warranty for when we bought them or some way I can get them fixed? If there isn't anything that Mr. Mac can do about it then I will probably take them to a shoe repair store or if you have any suggestions.

I took a picture of it so if you could check with Mr. Mac that would be great. Or if you have any suggestions I would appreciate it I'll wait to hear back till next week.

I love you guys very much and I am praying for you guys.

Love,

Elder Blackham