you'll just feel a little sting.

The removed toenail.
That little hook thing was what was digging into my flesh, 
causing the pain.  It looks real soggy there 
but it was a solid piece of nail before then.

Remember when I went and got my toenails cut all fancy like and was given specific instructions on how to care for them and not make them worse and cause great pain on my large toes? Long story short I had my left ingrown toenail removed last week. We had to go all the way to Petersburg to do it but it was a very well trained podiatrist so I figure it was worth it to get someone who was good at it. I went in cause the toe actually started "leaking" for the first time so Elder Christensen basically told me I had to go get it fixed as soon as possible. He's had 3 similar operations on his mission so he knows what's up. But the doctor did a pretty good job. The only pain I experienced during it was the needle going in all 3 times which hurt a whole lot. The subject line is a very large understatement.

My foot, post-operation, during its twice daily soak.
It looked worse before it got in the water.

But really I was walking on it that day which was good/bad cause we did an awful lot of walking. My bandage was just covered in blood. It's doing better now cause they have me soaking it twice a day in vinegar water, which is good cause we're still doing a lot of walking. We are pretty low on miles and all the male members of the branch are just super busy with stuff right now so we're stuck hoofin' it. That means we get to talk to more people though. Yesterday we had a guy flag us down to talk to him cause he knew we were "church people". He had some choice questions about why there's so many churches and why they can't all just get along. We had some choice answers. He also had some interesting comments about his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend that we didn't need to hear. We also talked to a guy while walking down this super long and skinny dirt road. We saw him coming down like 100 yards away so it was like that "well you can't avoid us now" situation. He was really cool though. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and I had one in my hand and he was like "how do I get me one of those" and I was just like "well you can have this one its for you". It wasn't quite like that but you get the idea. It was a good couple days though walking around. We've had some rough weeks but I think it's starting to pick up again.

Our church from the outside.
I hope I haven't sent this already.

Scott the super referral is getting the priesthood tomorrow which means he'll make it to the youth temple trip this Saturday. It's crazy that just over a month ago he wasn't even a blip on the radar screen for us or the branch but now he's being welcomed like a king. Plus we're pretty sure his dad loved the baptismal service. We didn't get to talk to him afterwards but we plan on asking about him.

Hm, what else. No meetings this week cause we didn't get transferred. You probably don't like hearing about those meetings anyway. We've been going at the McDonalds Monopoly game pretty hardcore. We've found like 16 pieces just from walking around and finding them on the side of the road. We haven't won anything cool yet but we're working on it.

Oh, our primary program was this week too. It was hilarious. One of the kids was told by his mom to sing real loud and he certainly did. He just did it like 3 measures off of everyone else. Everyone was laughing. Next week is the missionary week. I hope we're not expected to speak cause no one's asked us about it yet.

I think that's really it this time. I'm still working on the tape. I haven't been real diligent with it so I'll probably do some more today. But yeah that's all I've got.

-Elder Ryan Michael Parker