Hi All:

(We asked Brad to come up with a word for the year that he will live by)  So before I forget my word for the year is FEARLESS. It is something that I feel a leader needs to be and something that people can look up to.

So this week has been a pretty good week! We did do lots of service again! It has been snowing here as well and today there is supposed to be a big snow storm! Thats always exciting!

It has been a good start to a good new year! On Monday we went to the stake center and played basketball and that was super fun! I really am getting lots better at playing and I have found that I am quite competitive. Then we went home and did lots of laundry and did alot of cleaning. We decided we were going to deep clean our apartment, so we pulled out the oven and the fridge and mopped the floor and cleaned the bathroom and we shampooed our carpets. It was needed! Our apartment was already clean to begin with but we thought we would make it even more clean! There is really nothing better than to come home to a sparkling clean house! (from the mom: Who is this kid?)

Tuesday we had District meeting and I was given the topic of goal setting and accountability. So I talked alot about goals and how they are important in a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly aspect. That we need to always be setting goals that we can 1. attain  2. are reasonable 3. you will progress with. 4. enjoy.  We talked alot about all that good stuff. I really don't like talking about goals for an hour and a half just because there is really not alot you can really say that will make the conversation progress, but we did talk about how our district can receive 81 lessons taught a week. That means all they would have to do is to teach 3 lessons a day for 7 days and we can reach that goal. They are going to be working on it for the rest of the transfer and we will see how that goes. I made sure to really emphasize the word Accountable because I told them that when they set a goal they need to be accountable for reaching that goal or not reaching it. and why they didn't reach it. What was it that was making them not be able to reach a short term goal and if they didn't why? So Elder Stuver and I want to teach at least 20 lessons a week so we set a goal for 3 lessons a day. Monday we were not even close to 3 lessons and on Tuesday Elder Stuver was sick and on Wednesday I was sick so for 2 days didn't get any lessons! We said we are going to have to teach 5 or 6 lessons a day til Sunday night to reach our goal of 2 because I want to be accountable to the district in my part for teaching the correct amount! We did it! It feels so good to be able to reach these simple attainable goals! 

This weekend we went to a part member families house and we had J-Dawgs and they were SUPER good! We put a new grill together for him so he made us dinner and they loved that sauce! It was so good!! This family is awesome. He is just a chill guy and he has an awesome personality and loves to talk cars so that means not only do I get to go over for amazing food but I also get to talk cars!  I really like going over there and this upcoming Thursday we are going to play volleyball with Doug so that will be good and we are eating at their house again on Tuesday and he is making chicken riggies. I guess they are super good! They come from New York! So we will see how that goes!

Oh and there is a family that lets us come over whenever we want to get Italian sodas and when we were driving to their house we saw a snowman that can only be found in the state of Idaho... so you will see what it is! I thought that is was pretty funny! so hope you like it! 

That's about it for the week! love you guys!

Elder Riley