My First Zone Leader Council

December 11, 2012

Dear Family,

We went to Pittsburgh this last weekend for Zone Leader Council. We went down on Thursday and had our council on Friday so we ended up staying with Elder Nelson in his apartment because he is the zone leader in Pittsburgh.  It was really fun to catch up on everything that has happened since the MTC.  He and I have pretty much had the same mission experience with a few differences.  We both want to serve together again so we kept hinting to President Topham to let us serve together.  He has also had some major girlfriend problems on his mission, which we were able to talk about.  He is also going through the same challenges that I have with learning Spanish so it is nice to talk to someone that knows what I am feeling.  I think it is cool that we will be coming home on the same day to the same airport to the same town.  I hope we can work something out to where we can go to the same university.  Oh, also transfer dates have been changed so I will be coming home a week earlier than what was expected, July 31 2013.

I am adjusting to being a Zone Leader.  It has been pretty much the same except we do more paper work and we have to go to Zone Leader Council where we talk about the rules of the mission and things we need to do to make sure the mission stays close to the Spirit.  We are also trained by the AP's and president on stuff that we have to train our zone to do.  The meeting at my first council meeting was good and the Spirit was strong.  We learned about rescuing less actives and getting them to the temple.  We also did some role plays on how we should use members in teaching less actives and how we can have that less active have a friend in the ward.  We will be having zone conference this Friday where we have to do an hour of training on the stuff that we learned in zone council.  Hopefully everything goes well and Elder Spohn and I can teach well together.  

Yesterday as we were E-mailing, the Gettysburg elders called us and said that they had an emergency.  They had been in a car accident and asked us to call President Topham.  We called the president to let him know and then we went out to the scene of the accident because the car was totaled and they were going to need a ride back.  It took us awhile to find where they were located but we eventually did.  As we pulled up we saw several cop cars two ambulances and a fire truck.  Yes it was pretty serious...  We got out and went to go see what had happened.  Elder Munoz who was the passenger was fine, he just had some bruises.  Elder Paralta was in the ambulance because he was having bad pain in his shoulder and neck.  The lady that hit the elders was also in the other ambulance and was being rushed off because she was in the worst condition.  The Gettysburg elders went off to the hospital in the ambulance and we ended up going to the hospital two hours later to give Paralta a blessing.  We got to the hospital and had to wait until the nurse called us.  Paralta ended up being fine.  He just had some strained ligaments in his shoulder.  I was amazed that they had no serious injuries after seeing their car.  They were both truly blessed.  We don't know about the other lady but we are trying to figure out how she is doing.  We heard her leg might have been broken.  

How the accident happened:

Elder Paralta is a very obedient driver and had stopped behind a stop sign.  He looked both ways and then pulled out into the intersection.  As he did, he was hit broadside by a jeep going anywhere from 45 to 55 miles an hour.  The elders ended up getting pushed about 30 yards from the 2 way stop.  The side air bags came out in the elders new Ford Fusion and the front air bags came out in the Jeep.  Both cars were totaled.  It is the fault of Elder Paralta because he didn't pull out far enough to see around a bush that was blocking his view.  If he would have pulled up a little farther he would have been able to see around the bush and prevented the accident.  I feel really bad for him because crashing sucks!!!

Both the Gettysburg elders speak Spanish fluently, so I can practice with them and we will be going on exchanges with them.  I will also being trying hard to find some new Spanish investigators so I can practice my Spanish.   

The work is going well we have some investigators that remind me of the Kramer’s and we also have Michael a 22 year old that wants to be baptized and a guy named Paul who is very interested.   

Love you!!

Elder Mouritsen