A New Vision

This week has been so crazy. Now I do recognize that I say that about every week, but please allow me to explain. President Arredondo (mission president) came to town this week and we had to run around doing so much stuff. Apart from preparing baptisms and trying to fight with some investigators to go to the church to get their temple dedication tickets, we had to set up a District Priesthood Conference; all of that on top of the work that I am currently doing with the Branch President to help divide the units here. We got a lot done, and there is still so much to do that it astounds me. I know that we can get it all done and I am so excited to go out and start a new phase here in this fantastic place.

We had two meetings with President as a zone, and I had three meetings apart from that. It was really fun to be able to work with him in a different setting. I enjoyed being the only youth in a room with a Mission Presidency, a District Presidency and my Branch President. They kept teasing me because of my age and the kind of work I was getting involved in during my mission. To be honest, I thoroughly enjoy this kind of work: the nitty-gritty, number-punching, time-consuming, stressful work. It is kind of delighting to have to do that instead of walking around in this lovely heat all day long. There's nothing better than enjoying the air conditioning after walking around in the heat all week. The main thing that I have to do now is prepare my recent converts, and any inactive males to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. The goal is high, but working together as a district anything is possible.

After working with President all week I have received this new excitement to go out and reactivate people and baptize really cool people. We baptized two really neat families this week and we are going to baptize two more this week (we'll see how that one turns out). ;) I am just so excited to help build the Kingdom here in this place. The promise of a Stake is so near at hand...theoretically. This place is progressing so very quickly. I want to be part of the miracles that are going to happen here very soon: the creation of another branch, the picking out of three possible lots for new buildings (two are definite, three is a maybe). President told me, "Well, Elder Bolton, if you want to get out of here you just have to let me know. However, the Lord needs you here to work a little bit longer. Can you handle it? Can you also be my eyes here? So much stuff happens here that I need to know about and nobody lets me know. I need you to be my eyes. Okay?" I was somewhat stunned.

I am excited to be here and to help this place to grow. The important thing is not being able to speak perfectly to the people or being able to be the best or highest baptizing missionary, it's using talents to their maximum and being a strong tool in the hands of the Master. I am love this work and know that the Lord is guiding this Church today. He guides even the weakest of missionaries to receive inspiration on how to progress His miraculous work: the Apostolic and Angelic ministry. I am truly blessed to be part of this. Now, I am also kind of nervous because a lot of responsibility is falling on my shoulders, yet I know that I can handle this and that I make the necessary changes in myself and this place in order to please my Heavenly Father. 

I love you all. Work hard. Love harder. Read your scriptures. Pray frequently. GO TO THE TEMPLE! Be successful. Be miraculous.

P.S. No body aches or anything this week. Just suffering from this weird heat rash that I get combined with the well water rash. Fun stuff. Hahahaha.

Love,

Elder Bolton

Neighbor Kids

One day, when I was a pre-schooler, my next-door neighbor friend, Frank Ruzzuto, who was near my age, was playing with the rest of the neighborhood gang and my boy cousins.

The cousins would, most likely have just been Garth and David. Cousin David was just a baby and Richard was not born until I was 11.

At any rate, Frank decided that he would pretend to be the father and would go to the store in the family car. The car was sitting in front of his house and, of course, was unlocked. (I don’t think people locked anything back then. At least, none of the people I knew did.)

I climbed into the front seat on the passenger side. I was always the gullible one. 

Frankie, whether on purpose or by accident, did something to the shifting column that allowed the car to move forward. 

We lived on the south side of Carbon Avenue in Price, Utah, at the time. The roadway sloped towards the end of town. Of course, we started rolling, gaining momentum as we went. 

I don’t know, to this day, whether Cousin Garth, a couple of years younger than I, just screamed or whether he actually ran to get Aunt Renee. Perhaps it was neither and the noise of the other neighborhood kids alerted her or, perhaps, knowing how children behave, she just looked out the window to check on us, 

Whatever caused her to know about the danger, she responded. She came running alongside the car, jerked the door open, slammed on the brake and slid behind the wheel of the car in what seemed one fluid motion.

Thankfully, the car stopped. She then moved it back to the side of the street and got the two of us out. 

Mrs. Ruzzuto claimed Frank and I was taken into my own house. I was scolded, told never to get in a car without an adult inside ever again and had to sit in the corner for what seemed like forever. 

Needless to say, I didn’t ever quite trust Frank again. I did, however, trust his sister, Mary, and his little brother. 

Still, with all that, Frank and Mary managed to cause trouble for all of us once again. 

We used to love to eat Jell-O powder. We would get a package from one of our parents and would open it and pour a bit into one hand. Then we would lick it off and repeat the process until the Jell-O was gone. It was easy to share a package. You just poured some into your friend’s hand and they licked it away.

One day, when we were all outside playing together, Mary and Frank came outside with orange-flavored Jell-O. It was a bit lighter in color than the usual orange we were used to but not enough to really attract special attention.

After we consumed the Jell-O, we all found out that what we had really eaten was permanent wave powder.

My goodness! We all had excited adults at that point. 

It seems that Frank and Mary climbed up into the cupboard and got what they thought was Jell-O. The lesson: always let an adult get the treat down. Don’t be sneaky.

Dr. John Frank Colombo, the family doctor of most of us, was called and each of us had to drink lots of milk. That was usually fine, we all liked milk, but in this case it was punishment and all of us were unhappy and unwilling. It must have worked, however, because we all lived.