Greetings from Stockton, Missouri

Baptism of Gary Simmons: me, Gary, E. Davis

Gary Simmons with his parents, Agnes & Gary Sr.

We received the following e-mail from Elder Justin Goodale today. Subsequent to this e-mail, too, he sent a note to Michelle that his new companion is also a member of the National Guard, with a lot of experiences similar to Christopher's. Cool stuff.
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Hey everybody! Greetings from Stockton! This is such an awesome area! It's even smaller than Ava (the sign says 1900 people), but it's not quite so out in the middle of nowhere here... Still pretty secluded though. But it's a really interesting place. Probably the most unusual place I'll ever serve in... In addition to the typical Baptist and Pentecostal religions around here that I'm used to dealing with, in this county there are pretty sizeable groups of polygamists, amish, and white supremecists. It's been fun. The ward is great though, and there are alot of really great people here. It's another little no-stoplight town where everybody knows each other. I love serving in these small towns! The town is built around a beautiful lake, too. It's a really nice spot. And on Friday when we got here, we found ourselves right in the middle of the annual Walnut Festival, which is a HUGE deal! We were here for the last 2 days of it, and it was a really good opportunity to walk around and talk to everybody and get to know basically the whole town in one day. It should be a fun couple of transfers here, I'm really excited. I've pretty much adjusted to all my District Leader responsibilities, so I'm ready and excited to just get out and work! My companion is amazing, too. He doesn't even need to be trained... (just like last time I trained! I've been way lucky) His name is Elder D. Scott Moxon,

he's from Provo Utah. He's an amazing missionary and we get along great. Well I'm just about out of time, but here's our address:

Elder Justin Goodale
PO Box 877
Stockton, MO 65785

Love ya!