How half full or empty is your glass?‏

Man I'm kicking myself today. I felt totally awesome for remembering to bring my camera. I got here and looked in my pocket and realized I forgot the usb cable for the computer. *sigh* so unfortunately no pictures this week but alas I must carry on. I don't know how much letter writing I'll get done today my P-day is pretty packed but I certainly appreciate all of the letters and such. Certainly brightens my day when I see them. But I will try my best to write back, I like to make it a priority to write back to people who take time to write me.

Arizona has been hot this week. Not as hot as it could be but pretty dang close. Saturday was pretty brutal. We had our baptismal service for Robin lined up at 7 and we were going to be at the Stake Center by 6ish. The day started out good and we finished eating lunch at 11. We had several appointments lined up for the day and we gave the other Elders the car for the day. We had 6 scheduled appointments and all of them fell through except for one. We biked from 11 to 4:30 in 105 degree weather. It was actually pretty funny we went taught at the apartment complex full of African refugees. We asked a family if it was easy to get use to the weather here because it must be a lot hotter in Africa. To our suprise they said Africa is much cooler than it is here in Phoenix. They don't like to be outside much here because of that.

Thursday and Friday were really weird days for us. Thursday was rough, we were having no success. Everyone on the streets told us to go away. All of our appointments fell through except for one. It was blazing hot and to top it off some members were yelling at us for some dumb reason. But that night we had a great lesson with a woman named Diana and we commited her to come to church with us on Sunday. It really helped Elder Yates and I, it made the day worth it. Friday was more interesting. In regards to the subject of the email; we decided to try the suposed law that it is illegal to deny someone a glass of water if they come to your door. So we decided to test it out in the square. We went to an apartment of a guy who hates mormons but his family like us quite a bit. We showed up and he said that his family was out and began to shut the door. Then Elder Yates said "Can we have some water". He said "Its just out of the tap" and he began to shut it again. Elder Yates responded "Well do you drink from the tap?". He grunted and slammed door. We waited and he returned to disgusting mugs. He said "Well drink" then shut the door again and opened it when we were finished. Not exactly the way we hoped it would go but we can definitely drag out a conversation if we need to. Anyways we rushed off to the other side of our area because we had an appointment in half a hour. We were going down one of the main roads on the bike paths. We were quite close to our destination. Elder Yates decided he'd go onto the this small dip where the sidewalk dips briefly in the road. He did it fast so I tried to follow. My front tire made it but my back tire caught the curb. That was the slowest split second I've had in years. You know like when your life flashes before your eyes in a life or death situation but not nearly as dramatic. Anyways my back tire caught the curb and I flew off straight into the concrete. My knees and head took the blunt off the fall. I was a little confused and woozy getting up. I had hit my head hard enough that my helmet had popped off and was about 5 feet from me. I got up and I had no idea my helmet was off until I saw it. My knees were a different story. One was a bit bloody and the other was just sore(I think I may have a monster bruise there). My bike took a bit a bit of damage too but luckily were taking it in for tune up in a week or two.

Wow that was a long paragraph. I got to go to the visitor's center on Friday which was lovely. We took Sammy and her sister there. We watched the Joseph Smith movie which was really really good. I may have seen it once before but I don't really remember it. The Mesa temple is sure something else. Its just awesome. The visitor's center is really good just by itself. Speaking of Sammy we've pushed back her baptism date. I'm not sure if it's going to happen but I'm optimistic. She's been really umm... weird the past week or so. She didn't come to church last week. She hides from us when we come over. We sat down with her last week and she said "She doesn't think she believes in God" and asked who made God. We think her family may be fueling some of these questions because they aren't supportive. She wouldn't come to the baptism on Saturday and when we sent people over to her house on Sunday this week she didn't want to come to church. And to top it off their family is moving on the 31st. It's been a dramtic turn from a few weeks ago which is saddening. We're teaching her on Tuesday so we're hoping for the best.

Sunday was a little disappointing. None of our investigators came to either ward. We were expecting about 5 of them to show. But alas not so good. We were really disappointed that one of our most promising investigators didn't show up. We went over to her house later and no answer. But, all of this doesn't matter. Enough sadness because! Robin's baptism was Saturday night! It was phenominal! There were so many people there. We actually had to move the service into the chapel, my estimation is about 80 to 100 people showed up for it. It was truly incredible and it just reminded me why this is so important. Plus its a great spiritual boost! I really wish I brought that usb cable so that I could show a picture of him.

This next week looks awfully promising. We have no meetings, no doctor appointments, no holidays. Just a regular week, as it gets. I have expectations for this week which probably means I'll be way tired which is so good!

It was way nice talking to you guys last night. I'm glad Sarah enjoyed SNL so much it sounds like that will become a classic. Stay healthy no one needs sickness right now. Yeah just send that package to the mission home when you can. I'm really warming up the ukalali(spelling?) idea. I'm going talk to President Bassett about getting my guitar or a guitar. I don't want to have a lot of junk that I have to lug around but I am really missing that thing. If I can only play hymns on it then I don't care I just want it. Some of the members here said they would give me one of their old ones for a bit but I want to clear it up with the president before I do anything like that. Oh well a ukalali would still be way cool I have some hymns in mind for that. Sarah enjoy thr rest of the school year! Send my regards to Mr. Bauer and Mr. Traenkle if you see them! Dad be ready for that final I'm sure its not as bad as you think. Mom feel better.

I hope that my letters are grammatically correct. I also hope the sentences make some sense. I don't have spell check on this so I'm never quite sure if I make any sense. By the way I want to hear from Steve, if you hear from him tell him to send me a letter or an email. Farewell from the desert.

love,Elder Caywood/The Southwest Son(Eh, I thought I'd make something dumb up but its kind of a cool play on words get it Southwest "son" its like sun bahaha oh well I'm rambling)