January 19, 2016 - Now It's P-day - Joshua, Texas

Dear Family,

Sorry I had to let you know I wouldn't be emailing yesterday on such short notice. I totally forgot last week but we got permission from the zone leaders to tell you yesterday.

As I mentioned, we had a giant multi-zone service project so our P-Day was moved. The reason it had to be yesterday was because it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and there was a huge service day put together in downtown Fort Worth to celebrate. There were a ton of different churches involved but ours was best represented! That definitely made for an interesting experience though. The project began with a religious service at the African Methodist something or other church. There was some singing and swaying, a few speeches, and some prayers accompanied by the organ and drums. There were some amens interspersed in there as well. It was something to remember for sure.

From there we split off into several groups and did different projects. My group went to the food bank and started by sorting bread into "sweet" and "regular." After that we made some 40 pound grocery boxes. Each one had to have 10 cans, 5 condiments, and however many other groceries it took to make the box about 40 pounds. Suffice it to say that our Tetris skills have been greatly improved. At the end they told us we had sorted enough food to feed about 1400 people.

The rest of the week was fairly routine. Did some knocking, taught some lessons, you know. While knocking one street we saw some geese in one yard, some turkeys in another, and large dogs in just about every other yard. Passing by one house, Elder Balser pointed to a large German Shepard and, first making sure it was fenced in, said, "you wanna see a scary dog, that one can tear you to pieces!" ...There was a hole in the fence. We both kept a calm-ish facade and kept walking as if there was not a killer dog out. Luckily it didn't follow us. Its little buddy that was an 1/8 it's size did though. The little ones always do. I still have all my limbs though, no worries.

Well, I hope y'all are enjoying winter up there. I know I'm enjoying it down here! Take care and drive carefully!

Love,
Elder O'Brien (the younger)