Hello people, Among many other things, I am thankful for the week I just had. On Wednesday we helped for a big event called "Eat and Be Well" hosted by the city of Fontana and a lot of different churches. The event was to help homeless and needy people get a thanksgiving meal. Though there were many volunteers involved, The guys in the white shirts and the name tags stood out. :)We had our entire zone come to volunteer serving food. It was an awesome opportunity for missionary work. It was funny to see 'higher ups' from other churches staring at us like we had come from a distant planet. :) Though a few tried to razz us a bit, we didn't have any problems. :) On thanksgiving day we had two full blown meals! Luckily they were spaced out a bit. The first was at one and the other was at six. One O' clock was with the Taylor family. Sister Taylor was just made the head of the School board here. She was the one who gave us the idea to help with the event. The second dinner was with Keith and his awesome family. That was one of my favorite dinners I have had. During dinner we were laughing so hard at different stories everyone had to tell. After dinner we got our Keith's nice telescope and did some star gazing. We were also able to watch a mormon message with the family, which is the closest Keith's family have allowed us to teach them so far. I am thankful for so many things. My mission hasn't had the grandeur that Ammon's did, nor has it been enjoyable all of the time, But there is no way I would give up the experiences I have had. They have shaped my perspective in astronomical ways. I do not see through the same eyes.(alma 32:40) I hope you gave thanks to God this week as I was able to. Until next week. Elder Roos

Drum roll please.............................................................. This week the San Bernardino Mission broke our record for the most baptisms in a week! we ended at about 28 baptisms! (eight of those coming from the Fontana Zone) For us Saturday felt like a baptism marathon. At eleven a family of five got baptized in the Palmetto Tongan ward! I loved that baptism. Elder Sevison and I taught Koko and her family the first two lessons. and then when Elder Allen came to be Elder Pauga's Companion we stepped out of the picture. I have never been to a baptism where more tears where shed. The Tongan people are so loving and so sensitive to the spirit. Towards the end of the baptism Bishop Tu'itupou got up and brought a young girl with him. He told us that she was the one who invited Koko's family to the Luau, which put them on a fast track to baptism. Think again if you were under the impression that a single invitation to a seemingly uninterested family will not make a difference. Of course we had to stay and eat a lot of food after the baptism as well. :) Towards the evening there were three others baptized in the Randall Spanish ward in the Baseline Ward. It is great to see how well our zone is doing in taking those with baptismal dates all the way to the font. We had a fast a few weeks back that we would be able to do so. I feel like our faith was a factor in this successful weekend. On somewhat of a side note Keith told us something that he hadn't before that almost grounded me. He told us that one night before he met us he was reading and pondering the Book of Mormon. He told us that he thought to himself and to God "well how do I know if this is true." As he thought that he opened the Book of Mormon to a random page. He turned to precisely Moroni Chapter 10 verses 3-5, where he read Moroni's promise. He prayed and now knows it is true. He is currently having some financial problems with his law firm, so please pray for him. We are teaching him a lesson tonight with a future missionary who was called to the Omaha Nebraska mission. We were able to be at the Wildons while Daniel opened his call. That brought back the funny memory of me opening my call. Anyway I will have more to report on next week. I am still loving my mission. I am where I need to be for me and others. Thanks for reading. -Elder Roos

Dear fan, The zone did an amazing job this week. And what I hear from the APs the mission as a whole took an unexpected jump in almost everything we report on! For us in Fontana we had very high member present lesson and new investigators. Those are two of the most important things we do. One reason our finding efforts have been so solid is that Elder Sevison and I instituted a game for our zone. We have a giant white board with a football field drawn on it. For the amount of Contacts, Member referrals requested, and new investigators you get you gain yardage towards the en zone. We also have surprise plays and hail marys etc. during the week to gain extra yardage. Everyone has been working hard to gain yards. Aaron you would love it. :) Sadly for the Elders in the zone the one sister missionary companionship is winning! The winner gets to go on an extra temple trip with lunch at Cafe Rio on us. :) This has really spiced up this transfer. Speaking of sister missionaries when we were at stake coordination our mission president filled us in on some interesting statistics from Salt Lake. He said that it is predicted that in a year we will have 90,000 missionaries throughout the world and fifty percent of those will be sister missionaries! Those statistics will be reflected in our mission as well! He went on to say that every ward in our mission will have multiple companionships. It will be interesting to see how those predictions pan out. Either way there are going to be a lot more sisters in the coming months. The first nineteen year old sister will be in our mission in about a month! As for my area we are on the search for new investigators. We have been sifting through the area book like we are looking for the tiniest speck of gold. We have found a few that ended being a little on the iron pyrite side. :) These efforts have not gone in vain. We found a family that took the lesson two years ago, and who want us over again. They have amazing fellowship in the ward and after our first lesson they committed to come to church. Guess what, THEY CAME! We hope to invite them to baptism this week. I pray it goes well. Thank you for the unfailing support. that one guy in california, Elder Roos