I'm coming HOME!!!!

Yes, it really has been 2 years!!!! Michael is coming home on Tuesday, November 2. For anyone interested in meeting him at the airport, he will be arriving at 8:36pm on Delta airlines....so if you don't see him then, he'll catch up with you later.

April 5, 2010

Dear Family,
Elder Bowthorpe and I took pictures last night at this sign...because Elder Bowthorpe got transferred :-( and we wanted to make sure he got a picture next to the sign "Welcome to Boring, the most exciting place to be!" Isn't that fantastic?! Anyway, yes, Elder Bowthorpe was transferred and he's actually in the Salem/Keizer area now (just an area or two away from where I was when I was in the Fairgrounds ward). Anyway, my new companion is Elder Goodliffe from Rexburg, Idaho. Cool beans! Also, his tranier was Elder Nelson - who was my second companion! I don't know if you remember anything I said about Elder Nelson, but we both had similar experiences with him, kinda cool we've ended up companions!

We had a miracle! Just this morning, at about 10:00AM while we were waiting until we left to go to Transfer's (transfer's were today) we got a phone call from a random number we didn't know. Elder Bowthorpe answered the phone and it was a lady who basically said something like "I know you probably don't get phone calls like this very often, but I would like to have the missionary lessons." We know her name but that's about it. No idea how she got our number or anything. Just that she wanted us to come over and teach her. SWEET!!!! Is it not?! Anyway, I'll let you know what happens with that and hopefully we'll have something good come of it! I love how the Lord blesses us with things as we give over ourselves to Him. It's awesome to have the blessings of the Lord in our lives. It's fantastic! I'm hopeful for the future. I love being a missionary!

Thanks for everything. I REALLY enjoyed conference! I love y'all so much!

Have a fantastic week!

Hurrah for Israel!
-Elder Michael Starks

Surprise Pic

We received an email from a member visiting the area where Michael is serving and she forwarded us this un-posed, action packed photo! Apparently he and his companion were tracting a street and caught up with the neighbor of the member's mother. The sister who sent the picture to us said she and her sister had taken a walk by the bay and happened to catch this "photo-opportunity" and decided to share it with us. She has a daughter serving in Texas so maybe we'll have the opportunity to return the favor sometime.