Missionary Slim wonders, " Mama Mia, that's alotta Pasta! ", in his best mafia style voice. (Week 55 in Pennsylvania, Week 19 in Washington, PA)

I hope yinz aren't tired and bored of hearing all the food stories. 'Coz here's another one.

Monday, in honor of the break up of our wonderful companionship, I made spaghetti for my two soon-to-be-ex companions. It was delicious, with beef, onions, garlic, green peppers, lots of spices, and of course, cheese. It was to die for (at least, as far as spaghetti goes).

That evening, we were going to dinner with Dolores, a wonderful recent convert with a heart as big as the world. She enjoys church, being a lunch lady (and she loves her kids) and babysitting a little less-than one year old. Yep, she's a gem. Well, we get over there, and she has the entire table set. It looks wonderful. She was in the corner stirring something. And then, she brings it over.

Spaghetti. 

It was good spaghetti. Really good. But twice in one day? That was a little much.

Thursday, we had dinner with Lisa. Lisa is not a member, but she's been with the Mormons for ages. She's wonderful as well, and loves feeding the missionaries because "If I had one of my boys out there, I'd want somebody feeding them" and "I love to cook for whoever loves to eat, and I haven't met a Mormon yet who doesn't like to eat." (Also, "If I were to become a polygamist, I'd be the cooking wife") Anyway, she always feeds us something good. This time was no exception.

Spaghetti.

Granted, it was spaghetti with meatballs, sausage, and ground venison, but the pasta was pretty much the same as usual.

Friday, we had dinner with Sister Brown, a slightly eccentric member of the ward who lives about as far away from town as you can get. After a long drive, we come in to smell garlic roasting in the oven, and in a bowl on the counter...

Spaghetti.

Sunday we go over to Brother Britten's home, a VERY eccentric member of the ward who love to crochet (he's right now working on making temple altar cloths. His work is very fine) As usual, he had arrayed a very large (VERY large) assortment of goodies (chocolates, cakes, candies, cookies, nutter butters) surrounding the main dish, which was...

You guessed it.

Spaghetti.

Please..... No more. Not for another week or so.

We had a very exciting visit with Sean Southern and family. Becky, the mom, is really excited about joining the church, but their daughter, Mary Faith, is SUPER excited. We came over on Tuesday and she gave us a big card that read "THANK YOU FOR TEACHING ME ABOUT HEAVENLY FATHER AND BAPTISM!" And, if you couldn't tell, those were in big letters. It was adorable. It warmed my heart to the brim.

Oh, and speaking of which, I did get myself my new companion. His name is Elder Swanson. He's a native of good ol' Sin City, and has been on the mission for around 7.5 months. He's a dandy fellow, a right jolly old elf, a man of few words, and when spoken, they sound like a down pillow. 

That is to say, he's a soft-spoken individual, but generally very happy and content. I think we'll get along just fine.

We had a cool visit with an investigator named Aja. She's single, has a young daughter, and has had very little church in her life. So much so that she doesn't even know if there is a god, or if Jesus really did anything for her. She prayed for the first time a few weeks ago (which was an awesome thing to witness, how sincere and honest it was), and we just taught her about baptism this week. We invited her to be baptized, and her response was so good. She sat for a moment, got a little nervous, and said,

"When?"

She was a little scared because she still hasn't gotten an answer about the Book of Mormon or anything. She's just barely getting into the Gospel at all. Even still she exercised her faith and said that when she comes to find out that the things we teach are true, then she'll be baptized. That was about the best answer I could get.

One more thing:

Yep! You didn't even realize it, but I went all the way to Pleasant Grove and back this week! And I did it in a day!

"But wait," you ask, "Where are the mountains?"  "What  mountains? Pennsylvania doesn't have mountains." That's right, this past week I found myself in Pleasant Grove, PA, the ironically named town here in Washington Co. It's a dainty little village  with very few inhabitants. It doesn't even have a Purple Turtle! But as soon as I saw it on the map, I decided I needed to go there and make pilgrimage, and finally got the opportunity this week.

And for those of you still scratching your heads, wondering why I even care about Pleasant Grove, PA, my home town is also named Pleasant Grove, in Utah. As for the Purple Turtle, you'll have to figure that one out yourself!

Take care, and remember: "The hardest choices in life are best answered before the question is asked."

Love,

Elder Alex Anderson, AKA Missionary Slim