Elder McKlayne Marshall
Let me just tell ya, that time in a mission,DOES NOT EXISIT! Its october, Nobody told me that! The work here in Trujillo, Peru is going great! Im loving my time and am super humbled at the oppurtunity to serve the Lord everyday! So my Parents said to tell ya more about my Comp
Elder Kaelin was born on Sept 6, 1994 in SLC, thats were he lives currently, well his family! He has 20 years. He loves to sing, like constantly he is always singing, which is awesome cause I also love to sing, i may not be good, but hey that makes it better. We get along just great, Hes super weird just like me, He desires to only serve, and to only be obedient, there is no other way in the compship! Hes been a real great help with my spanish, which is slowly progressing, I can definantly speak better then type, thats why i dont type much in spanish, plus it takes time to do that sort of thing! Um, i dont know what else to say about him, ahhh he loves movie quotes, which is great, but im not the greatest at movie quotes so thats a fun game. He quizess me on movie quotes, i quiz him on where scrips are and what the references are! were getting pretty good! this is our second change together, changes are every six weeks. WE believe this next change he will be leaving me cause he is been here in this area for 4 changes, which is like 4 months I think!
One of my Favorite things in the Mission is Study Time! ohh its so Wonderful. Im learning so much. I usually take about 30 min to read the Libro De Mormon en espanol, which is steller im in 2 nefi 10, its sort of a slow process because its became a coloring book! but goodness, people, the book of mormon is sooo wonderful, Challenge, REad it! everyday. Also, I would encourage you to read it but first Turn off your Cell phone, any electronic device, and any other distraction, and then just read it! Its such a great book, and you can only get closer to one person through the fantastic book and that Is Jesus Christ. I testify of this with all my heart, It is the Most Powerful book that we have as man kind. Use it! A great read I finished today is 2 nefi 9...wow. The brother of Nefi, Jacob, is the type of teacher Im trying to be like, but woof, hes the man!
Alright,
UPDATE
Francisco, received the aronic Priesthood this past sunday, he is doing sooo good! IM so proud of him and know he will continue on this path forever.
Carlos, We are reading with him in the book of mormon and he is doing steller, hes also doing family prayer which is soo cool. We invited him to get baptized on the 8th of Nov, which is magically his Birthday! The lord is awesome and it was pretty cool when I said hey We should invite him on the 8th, to my comp, it wasnt my idea!
We have been getting alot of new investigadors, but are still working with all of them to progress.
We also had an ALMA RESCATADA this past week, which is a menos active that we saved! Her name is Sandra, she is great and shes going strong!
Okay one awesomely funnny story! About a week ago, My comp and I, went to this cita, it was this crazy lady, anyways we knocked on her door, she said okay hold on wait a min, so we did, she came back out with cardboard and 2 ladys sunhats, she had this cement slab in front of her house on the sidewalk, she slapped down the cardboard and said sit here, it was also very sunny this day, so we sat down and then she handed us these two hats and said put them on, now we are to male missionaries, and these are two very feminane sun hats with like purple pokki dot ribbon on them, so what did we do, I put mine right on, it was fantastic, my comp had a struggle with is, but I just want you to imagine 2 missionaries in the middle of peru, teaching this lady wearing this awesome hats! I felt pretty Boss!
Well, thank you so much, all for all the emails and the prayers, Please keep sending questions, anything you want to know, ill try and respond with a great answer. And thank you for your love, I just desire to share with you that Christ Lives, I know this, Ive seen this here in Peru, He suffered for You and for me, and through him we WILL live in an eternal life of Joy and Happiness. 2 Nefi 9:21..i think.
Les Amo BASTANTE
Elder Marshall
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Elder Joshua Nieman
Everyday is a freaking rollercoaster. haha I miss lagoon. One day I totally understand and I can talk and there are no problems and then other days I start talking and the people give me a weird look and say they dont understand. haha it sucks but I love it and I like messing up cause that is how I am going to learn. YES¡¡¡ I finally made someone cry. I think every begining missionary wants someone to cry because of the spirit. haha no just kidding but it was really cool this week cause I taught a lesson on diligencia. Wow I didnt even notice I wrote that in spanish. Diligence. haha my spelling sucks. But yeah we go up to the door and this married couple who are members invite us in and when we get done with the opening prayer my companion turns to me and just smiles. haha I was totally caught off guard. Well it took a while to start but when I started to go I could feel the language just spit out of me. I dont even remember what I said but I guess it was really good cause they felt the spirit and actually learned something from me. It is super cool when we put all our trust in the lord and really come closer with him through prayer and studying the scriptures he will help us. That was the first time I felt like a tool for the lord. It was also a really good confidence builder but then the next day it was really hard to talk and understand. haha oh well I will keep on trying. All of our investigators are progressing and they all came to church on sunday. Me and my companion were pretty pumped and it looks like we will be getting some baptisms soon. It is really exciting and I am so happy to be here and just helping people. Even on the bad days and it feels like all is coming to an end I can still feel the spirit. I love our heavenly father cause he is helping me so much. I feel like everything is going well and this week I will have the oppurtunity to go to the temple. I am so excited to go to that amazing place.
Other things that happend this week was Elder Martinezs birthday was this week. It was intresting to see how they celebrate birthdays and just how they do stuff. haha after the celebration my roommates found the hand sanitzer and got some matches and started to light their hands on fire. They really wanted me to do it but I looked at their hands and they were all burnt. Yeah I quickly declined that offer but it was really funny to see them freak out. Oh my there cake is the best thing I have ever tasted. I really cant describe how mean of a cake they bake. A lot of the food here is so good and then there are some other things that arent so good but hey I will need to get used to that. HAHA when I get finished with my food at the pensionista they ask if I want more and when I say I am alright, they just laugh and bring out another plate. haha So much food and it is so hard to finish it all but that is ok cause I like the food. Update on me getting fat nope. It is never going to happen. This is so random but This week I thought a lot about you all and how much love you give me through all your letters. It really helps me out and I just want to say thank you. This has been difficult but it always lifts me up to see all your letters. I truely with all my heart love all of you guys. I know I say that every week but I just want you all to know that I mean it and you guys are the best. I couldnt have asked for better people in my life than you guys. Well that is all I have for this week and I will talk to you next week.
Love you all forever
Elder Nieman
Everyday is a freaking rollercoaster. haha I miss lagoon. One day I totally understand and I can talk and there are no problems and then other days I start talking and the people give me a weird look and say they dont understand. haha it sucks but I love it and I like messing up cause that is how I am going to learn. YES¡¡¡ I finally made someone cry. I think every begining missionary wants someone to cry because of the spirit. haha no just kidding but it was really cool this week cause I taught a lesson on diligencia. Wow I didnt even notice I wrote that in spanish. Diligence. haha my spelling sucks. But yeah we go up to the door and this married couple who are members invite us in and when we get done with the opening prayer my companion turns to me and just smiles. haha I was totally caught off guard. Well it took a while to start but when I started to go I could feel the language just spit out of me. I dont even remember what I said but I guess it was really good cause they felt the spirit and actually learned something from me. It is super cool when we put all our trust in the lord and really come closer with him through prayer and studying the scriptures he will help us. That was the first time I felt like a tool for the lord. It was also a really good confidence builder but then the next day it was really hard to talk and understand. haha oh well I will keep on trying. All of our investigators are progressing and they all came to church on sunday. Me and my companion were pretty pumped and it looks like we will be getting some baptisms soon. It is really exciting and I am so happy to be here and just helping people. Even on the bad days and it feels like all is coming to an end I can still feel the spirit. I love our heavenly father cause he is helping me so much. I feel like everything is going well and this week I will have the oppurtunity to go to the temple. I am so excited to go to that amazing place.
Other things that happend this week was Elder Martinezs birthday was this week. It was intresting to see how they celebrate birthdays and just how they do stuff. haha after the celebration my roommates found the hand sanitzer and got some matches and started to light their hands on fire. They really wanted me to do it but I looked at their hands and they were all burnt. Yeah I quickly declined that offer but it was really funny to see them freak out. Oh my there cake is the best thing I have ever tasted. I really cant describe how mean of a cake they bake. A lot of the food here is so good and then there are some other things that arent so good but hey I will need to get used to that. HAHA when I get finished with my food at the pensionista they ask if I want more and when I say I am alright, they just laugh and bring out another plate. haha So much food and it is so hard to finish it all but that is ok cause I like the food. Update on me getting fat nope. It is never going to happen. This is so random but This week I thought a lot about you all and how much love you give me through all your letters. It really helps me out and I just want to say thank you. This has been difficult but it always lifts me up to see all your letters. I truely with all my heart love all of you guys. I know I say that every week but I just want you all to know that I mean it and you guys are the best. I couldnt have asked for better people in my life than you guys. Well that is all I have for this week and I will talk to you next week.
Love you all forever
Elder Nieman
Elder Tyler Peterson
Hey everybody!
So I know I start all of these emails the same way, but how are you doing? The weather's really nice down here! Elder Gómez put on a sweater vest this morning, and Elder Layton´s been wearing his Boise State hoody around it a lot, so I guess it's getting cold haha :) Believe it or not, I HAVE seen people wearing coats around here while I'm still sweating! Crazy!! But, I bet it's colder up in Utah ;)
This week was pretty interesting... and I almost went crazy! But I'm good, and there's so much I want to say! We found these really cool abuelitos, they're named Zipliano and Lucia, and it's gone really well with them! (Also, they're OLD! Super sweet, but Zipliano really can't move faster than an inch an hour! Robyn, if you remember Tim Conway and his super old guy act, that's Zipliano!!! If it wasn't real, I'd be laughing SO hard!) But he came to stake conference, which in itself was super cool, but the conference itself was kind of disheartening... The speakers themselves weren't terribly exciting, and when we asked the ward mission leader to come greet Zipliano, he literally said no. I couldn't believe it! :0 So... the ward's not exactly helpful at all, but that's not news :/
Something that was crazy, then I'll get to the good news! We were visiting some members that were celebrating the very soon departure of a misionera, when Elder Gómez took Elder Layton and they ran back home (bathroom probs ;) no, he actually crapped his pants!!! Ojalá that never happens to me!!) but I was left with Elder Fitzwater to talk to this drunk inactive who walked by, and we had an exciting conversation about how she wants to get baptized again, with sandals and robes just like Jesus did! That was fun ;)
Good news!! One, Elder Gómez finally was able to buy some new shoes today!!! :) Due to the water, his other shoes broke, he had TERRIBLE fungus (imagine feet that look like a brain! Baaaaddd!!) and his feet were killing him! But, now he's a happy camper :)
Two! WE ARE BAPTIZING THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!! :D :D I'm so happy right now, and we still have a ton to do, but I know we'll get there! Irvin, 9, is super stoked, he trusts us a TON and he just really wants to receive the happiness of the Gospel which is so so real!! :) We just figured out that our area hasn't baptized for six months, so it's about time I figure!
Elder Gómez and I have frankly struggled with the whole exact obedience thing for the past couple of weeks, not that we've been like fritos, but we haven't really been the most effective either, but then I remembered that the MTC was so so effective for me, and I really believe that that came from being exactly obedient! (D&C 130. 20-21) So we've been praying, finding faith, and we're ready to change our ways and really start cranking! :)
Everyone be good! Keep the commandments, read the Book of Mormon, and seek the Spirit! Love you all and thanks for everything!
Elder Tyler Peterson
Hey everybody!
So I know I start all of these emails the same way, but how are you doing? The weather's really nice down here! Elder Gómez put on a sweater vest this morning, and Elder Layton´s been wearing his Boise State hoody around it a lot, so I guess it's getting cold haha :) Believe it or not, I HAVE seen people wearing coats around here while I'm still sweating! Crazy!! But, I bet it's colder up in Utah ;)
This week was pretty interesting... and I almost went crazy! But I'm good, and there's so much I want to say! We found these really cool abuelitos, they're named Zipliano and Lucia, and it's gone really well with them! (Also, they're OLD! Super sweet, but Zipliano really can't move faster than an inch an hour! Robyn, if you remember Tim Conway and his super old guy act, that's Zipliano!!! If it wasn't real, I'd be laughing SO hard!) But he came to stake conference, which in itself was super cool, but the conference itself was kind of disheartening... The speakers themselves weren't terribly exciting, and when we asked the ward mission leader to come greet Zipliano, he literally said no. I couldn't believe it! :0 So... the ward's not exactly helpful at all, but that's not news :/
Something that was crazy, then I'll get to the good news! We were visiting some members that were celebrating the very soon departure of a misionera, when Elder Gómez took Elder Layton and they ran back home (bathroom probs ;) no, he actually crapped his pants!!! Ojalá that never happens to me!!) but I was left with Elder Fitzwater to talk to this drunk inactive who walked by, and we had an exciting conversation about how she wants to get baptized again, with sandals and robes just like Jesus did! That was fun ;)
Good news!! One, Elder Gómez finally was able to buy some new shoes today!!! :) Due to the water, his other shoes broke, he had TERRIBLE fungus (imagine feet that look like a brain! Baaaaddd!!) and his feet were killing him! But, now he's a happy camper :)
Two! WE ARE BAPTIZING THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!! :D :D I'm so happy right now, and we still have a ton to do, but I know we'll get there! Irvin, 9, is super stoked, he trusts us a TON and he just really wants to receive the happiness of the Gospel which is so so real!! :) We just figured out that our area hasn't baptized for six months, so it's about time I figure!
Elder Gómez and I have frankly struggled with the whole exact obedience thing for the past couple of weeks, not that we've been like fritos, but we haven't really been the most effective either, but then I remembered that the MTC was so so effective for me, and I really believe that that came from being exactly obedient! (D&C 130. 20-21) So we've been praying, finding faith, and we're ready to change our ways and really start cranking! :)
Everyone be good! Keep the commandments, read the Book of Mormon, and seek the Spirit! Love you all and thanks for everything!
Elder Tyler Peterson
Elder Kasey Crafts
Dear Friends and Family,
I'm officially staying in Fort Hancock for a little while longer! wahoo! I'm really excited because I love this area. A lot of really great things are going to happen this next transfer! my address and everything is the same. I'm also officially out of training now. New missionaries have a 2 transfer or 12 week training program to learn how to be a missionary. When missionaries are in training they have about another hour of Companion Study in the morning to learn the "ins and outs of missionary work".
This was sure a great week full of miracles! We have tons of great members that love to go out and help teach the gospel. There are about 7-8 that come out with us quite regularly. This is very important because when members have an opportunity to share the gospel with people it strengthens their testimony, their family, and eventually the branch as a whole.
One thing that happened this week that was a miracle was we were praying to find an investigator that we could go teach because we had time that wasn't filled. We were driving and we saw a non-member friend of Tyson. We stopped to talk to him and he said he was going to Tyson's right now if we wanted to come teach him! it was great. He's already been to church a few times, he just needs to have the lessons.
We've been working a lot also with less active people. One thing we're going to try and do is have some less active people come out with us and help us teach some lessons. Nothing will strengthen your testimony of the gospel more than sharing it with others. And after that hopefully their testimony will rekindle.
One thing we've also been focusing on this week is The Book of Mormon. Because in reality that is the key in finding out if what we are saying is true. Sometimes we'll go to an investigator and they haven't read, and we'll just read with them because the only way to know Joseph Smith really was a prophet is by reading The Book of Mormon and taking God up on His promise in Moroni 10. The only way for someone to make lasting commitments in the church and to serve faithfully is they have to know The Book of Mormon is true and a strong testimony. If they don't, a little whistle could blow their testimony over.
I love ya'll a lot and I hope you have a great week!
Elder Crafts
Dear Friends and Family,
I'm officially staying in Fort Hancock for a little while longer! wahoo! I'm really excited because I love this area. A lot of really great things are going to happen this next transfer! my address and everything is the same. I'm also officially out of training now. New missionaries have a 2 transfer or 12 week training program to learn how to be a missionary. When missionaries are in training they have about another hour of Companion Study in the morning to learn the "ins and outs of missionary work".
This was sure a great week full of miracles! We have tons of great members that love to go out and help teach the gospel. There are about 7-8 that come out with us quite regularly. This is very important because when members have an opportunity to share the gospel with people it strengthens their testimony, their family, and eventually the branch as a whole.
One thing that happened this week that was a miracle was we were praying to find an investigator that we could go teach because we had time that wasn't filled. We were driving and we saw a non-member friend of Tyson. We stopped to talk to him and he said he was going to Tyson's right now if we wanted to come teach him! it was great. He's already been to church a few times, he just needs to have the lessons.
We've been working a lot also with less active people. One thing we're going to try and do is have some less active people come out with us and help us teach some lessons. Nothing will strengthen your testimony of the gospel more than sharing it with others. And after that hopefully their testimony will rekindle.
One thing we've also been focusing on this week is The Book of Mormon. Because in reality that is the key in finding out if what we are saying is true. Sometimes we'll go to an investigator and they haven't read, and we'll just read with them because the only way to know Joseph Smith really was a prophet is by reading The Book of Mormon and taking God up on His promise in Moroni 10. The only way for someone to make lasting commitments in the church and to serve faithfully is they have to know The Book of Mormon is true and a strong testimony. If they don't, a little whistle could blow their testimony over.
I love ya'll a lot and I hope you have a great week!
Elder Crafts
Elder Kyler Olsen
Hey you all!
This week was super cool, had a 70 come to teach us, Elder Waddell, and wow. I learned sooo much! I dont think I have ever taken that many notes in my life! 2 whole pages! (I never ever take nots haha) He told us some stuff that really helped us in the rest of our lessons, about making sure that the people know their motivation, la vida eterna! And listening to the spirit better, to teach with better clarity. Really, this week I am in such awe of how amazing the each part of the gospel tie together. And one thing that I super loved is that after every hour, (we had a break every hour) He tied what we learned back in to the atonement. It truly is the center of our whole gospel and ties everything together.
Cool stuff. Shout out to Austin Jarrett who got his Call to Mexico City! #Españolbro!
Happy birthday to Reggie last week sometime, I dont remember the exact day.
Last week I got hit by a truck.
But it was only going in reverse like an inch per hour, haha but it surprised me for sure. And Elder lopez beats dad in the Christmas music race, we already listened to some tswift and david archuletta navidad on Wednesday... what a disgrace! And I sleep talked in spanish!!! I never remember my dreams, so ya that was super cool, e lopez told me that it was clarito! haha. And we did divisions with the assistants, super awesome, learned a lot, had fun, Elder Lalli is like 6"4 and gringo, and super funny, nice to have a little bit of home with me for a couple hours.
Anyways love you all a ton, thanks for all you have done for me, keep on keeping on, and tell me what goes on in life! the exciting and bad things. ¡Sonríen siempre! :)
Elder Olsen
Hey you all!
This week was super cool, had a 70 come to teach us, Elder Waddell, and wow. I learned sooo much! I dont think I have ever taken that many notes in my life! 2 whole pages! (I never ever take nots haha) He told us some stuff that really helped us in the rest of our lessons, about making sure that the people know their motivation, la vida eterna! And listening to the spirit better, to teach with better clarity. Really, this week I am in such awe of how amazing the each part of the gospel tie together. And one thing that I super loved is that after every hour, (we had a break every hour) He tied what we learned back in to the atonement. It truly is the center of our whole gospel and ties everything together.
Cool stuff. Shout out to Austin Jarrett who got his Call to Mexico City! #Españolbro!
Happy birthday to Reggie last week sometime, I dont remember the exact day.
Last week I got hit by a truck.
But it was only going in reverse like an inch per hour, haha but it surprised me for sure. And Elder lopez beats dad in the Christmas music race, we already listened to some tswift and david archuletta navidad on Wednesday... what a disgrace! And I sleep talked in spanish!!! I never remember my dreams, so ya that was super cool, e lopez told me that it was clarito! haha. And we did divisions with the assistants, super awesome, learned a lot, had fun, Elder Lalli is like 6"4 and gringo, and super funny, nice to have a little bit of home with me for a couple hours.
Anyways love you all a ton, thanks for all you have done for me, keep on keeping on, and tell me what goes on in life! the exciting and bad things. ¡Sonríen siempre! :)
Elder Olsen
Elder Dominique Rogers
So this week has been pretty awesome, one thing that I am very happy is over is voting. haha, Voting here is crazy, here it is required, the presidents that run get paid for every vote they recieve. So for the past month here we have heard the same music (music that they use for the canidate.) over and over again all the missionarys know it by heart because we have all heard it so much so I am very excited that it is over.
So one really cool thing that has happened this week is we have gotten some really good lunches this week I don´t know why but the lunches have been so good. I am so glad that most of the time we get fed by members because if we didn´t our lunches we get pretty boring.
Last Monday me, my companion and the zone leaders that live in the same house as us, we all went to Asegua, Brasil. So cool we can go there because that is part of our zone, our zone only has a little town in it. To get to Asegua it was about a 50 minute bus ride we went to asegua ate some really good food, then went shoping there (because Brasil is a lot cheaper than Uruguay), One of the things I bought was stuff so I could cut my hair, I´m going to cut my own hair today so I´ll see how that works out.
Have a great week!!!!!
Sincerly,
Elder Rogers
So this week has been pretty awesome, one thing that I am very happy is over is voting. haha, Voting here is crazy, here it is required, the presidents that run get paid for every vote they recieve. So for the past month here we have heard the same music (music that they use for the canidate.) over and over again all the missionarys know it by heart because we have all heard it so much so I am very excited that it is over.
So one really cool thing that has happened this week is we have gotten some really good lunches this week I don´t know why but the lunches have been so good. I am so glad that most of the time we get fed by members because if we didn´t our lunches we get pretty boring.
Last Monday me, my companion and the zone leaders that live in the same house as us, we all went to Asegua, Brasil. So cool we can go there because that is part of our zone, our zone only has a little town in it. To get to Asegua it was about a 50 minute bus ride we went to asegua ate some really good food, then went shoping there (because Brasil is a lot cheaper than Uruguay), One of the things I bought was stuff so I could cut my hair, I´m going to cut my own hair today so I´ll see how that works out.
Have a great week!!!!!
Sincerly,
Elder Rogers
Monday, October 27, 2014
Elder Clay Rawlins
I never know what to write in these emails! Ha i never thought i would be writing emails in the most gehtto walmart next to three other dudes in the same outfit.
Its gotten super hot here just in time for christmas in a couple months its like 30 33 Celcius here every day and just getting hotter haha on christmas i think i am going to die its like we are walking in a oven. Enough of my complaining... I had a great week here in argentina. What more could i ask for? Crazy thing happened this week though we had to drop our best progessing investigators cause she wouldn´t commit to a baptismal dated again. somthing i got out of it was that i need to have patience like christ and that he gives us trials for our benifit to strengthen our faith and patience.(Mosiah 23: 20-21 if i remember right) I dont have much time to write but i just want to say that when we go through trials in our life that the lord is there for us telling us to take his yoke. THat doesnt mean he is going to take all your trails and hardships away its just means that he is going to be there right beside you waiting to help! i hope you all have a great week!
elder Rawlins
I never know what to write in these emails! Ha i never thought i would be writing emails in the most gehtto walmart next to three other dudes in the same outfit.
Its gotten super hot here just in time for christmas in a couple months its like 30 33 Celcius here every day and just getting hotter haha on christmas i think i am going to die its like we are walking in a oven. Enough of my complaining... I had a great week here in argentina. What more could i ask for? Crazy thing happened this week though we had to drop our best progessing investigators cause she wouldn´t commit to a baptismal dated again. somthing i got out of it was that i need to have patience like christ and that he gives us trials for our benifit to strengthen our faith and patience.(Mosiah 23: 20-21 if i remember right) I dont have much time to write but i just want to say that when we go through trials in our life that the lord is there for us telling us to take his yoke. THat doesnt mean he is going to take all your trails and hardships away its just means that he is going to be there right beside you waiting to help! i hope you all have a great week!
elder Rawlins
Elder Kyle Andrus
Hey Everybody!!!
This week was interesting! We tried to do a lot of finding this week, but elder battles got way sick and we had to kind of rest. We still found a couple of people! A kid named lin and a guy named wang! They were pretty cool!
We talked To our good friend Shi Cong.He decided to give up smoking. That was pretty awesome. He is so sick. We had an amazing lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is a Catholic and he said that he is going to pray about it and it is a big decision for him. So we are praying that he can recieve the answer to his prayers.
We also met Wien Qien. She is so cool!!! She has a lot of awesome questions. She seems to love what we are teaching. And She is praying for an answer to see if the book of mormon is true. She is so cool and i hope she can be able to know that this is the true church.
Jing Hui Is the best. She is so hilarious. She is doing way well. We tought her about temples this week and she cant wait to be able to go into the temple.
There really wasn t alot this week. Elder battles got sick so we had to stay in for a couple of days... But we are going to go kill it this week. Sorry for the short email this week!!!
I love all of you guys!!
Elder Andrus
#beingsickonthemishkindastinks
Hey Everybody!!!
This week was interesting! We tried to do a lot of finding this week, but elder battles got way sick and we had to kind of rest. We still found a couple of people! A kid named lin and a guy named wang! They were pretty cool!
We talked To our good friend Shi Cong.He decided to give up smoking. That was pretty awesome. He is so sick. We had an amazing lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is a Catholic and he said that he is going to pray about it and it is a big decision for him. So we are praying that he can recieve the answer to his prayers.
We also met Wien Qien. She is so cool!!! She has a lot of awesome questions. She seems to love what we are teaching. And She is praying for an answer to see if the book of mormon is true. She is so cool and i hope she can be able to know that this is the true church.
Jing Hui Is the best. She is so hilarious. She is doing way well. We tought her about temples this week and she cant wait to be able to go into the temple.
There really wasn t alot this week. Elder battles got sick so we had to stay in for a couple of days... But we are going to go kill it this week. Sorry for the short email this week!!!
I love all of you guys!!
Elder Andrus
#beingsickonthemishkindastinks
Elder William Hansen
Hey everybody! How is everybody doing this week?
This week was pretty short for us as we were in jakarta for zone conference but we definitly learned alot. Lesson 1. DONT MISS YOUR FLIGHT. which we personally learned as we tried to fly home to medan. we were late and they wouldnt let us on! Thankfully we didnt have to pay again but im definitly not gonna do that again! super scary but the mission president wasnt too upset when we got tickets for the next morning for free.
This week was kinda tough. when we were proselyting thursday, we were just getting shut down left and right. then to top it all off, we were walking by a street by a river houses on one side, river on the other, and when we were walking we came across about 6 men sitting and standing on this road. we walked up to them and started talking to them, only to realize, they were shooting up on heroin in broad daylight right before our eyes! Just telling us they were addicts and needed help and couldnt stop. and they were in a bad state, some looked blue and not alive, but we had to get out of there. That whole rest of the day, we both just felt down and empty and the Holy Ghost was not with us. It made me really grateful for the influence of the Holy Ghost that i feel in my life everyday. I try to never do anything to make myself unworthy of its presence because of the power that the holy ghost has as a member of the Godhead. What a blessing!
We did a lot of talking to our previoius contacts and investigators, and tried to find a lot. not a ton of success, but We are working hard to find people that God put in our path, becuase it has been promised that the field is ready right now to harvest. And we all are doing our best to do His work on the earth!
Another fun thing this week. our power shut off in the middle of the night (normal) so our ac was off and our house was maybe a miilion degrees. Elder Barlow woke up, and then heard me reciting the first vision in indonesian in my sleep, and after he woke me up, he said he has never heard me recite it so well before, with such good accent and intonation. Too bad its not that good all the time.
Hey you are all awesome and i hope you have a solid week! Take care!
Love
Elder Hansen
Hey everybody! How is everybody doing this week?
This week was pretty short for us as we were in jakarta for zone conference but we definitly learned alot. Lesson 1. DONT MISS YOUR FLIGHT. which we personally learned as we tried to fly home to medan. we were late and they wouldnt let us on! Thankfully we didnt have to pay again but im definitly not gonna do that again! super scary but the mission president wasnt too upset when we got tickets for the next morning for free.
This week was kinda tough. when we were proselyting thursday, we were just getting shut down left and right. then to top it all off, we were walking by a street by a river houses on one side, river on the other, and when we were walking we came across about 6 men sitting and standing on this road. we walked up to them and started talking to them, only to realize, they were shooting up on heroin in broad daylight right before our eyes! Just telling us they were addicts and needed help and couldnt stop. and they were in a bad state, some looked blue and not alive, but we had to get out of there. That whole rest of the day, we both just felt down and empty and the Holy Ghost was not with us. It made me really grateful for the influence of the Holy Ghost that i feel in my life everyday. I try to never do anything to make myself unworthy of its presence because of the power that the holy ghost has as a member of the Godhead. What a blessing!
We did a lot of talking to our previoius contacts and investigators, and tried to find a lot. not a ton of success, but We are working hard to find people that God put in our path, becuase it has been promised that the field is ready right now to harvest. And we all are doing our best to do His work on the earth!
Another fun thing this week. our power shut off in the middle of the night (normal) so our ac was off and our house was maybe a miilion degrees. Elder Barlow woke up, and then heard me reciting the first vision in indonesian in my sleep, and after he woke me up, he said he has never heard me recite it so well before, with such good accent and intonation. Too bad its not that good all the time.
Hey you are all awesome and i hope you have a solid week! Take care!
Love
Elder Hansen
Elder Kyle Jensen
Well, this week I'm two months in country! Haha, time is such a crazy thing, I hate thinking about it so that's all I will say haha. Stemming from conference, I had a really sincere interest in acting on helping the meek and lowly, the poor in spirit because it was expounded and exhorted pretty hard from conference. A special experience I had last week dealt with listening to the spirit and helping the meek and the lowly. We were walking down the streets of Anseong and stopped to talk to a guy selling some dried snacks. These snacks looked less than appetizing and were expensive for snacks. Anyway, while talking I had an urge, a thought that seemed good to buy these snacks from this guy. At first I thought, "Hey this guy needs some extra help with money, so I'll buy some snacks from him." That may have been the case, but Heavenly Father had another idea in mind too. I bought these snacks, really not knowing why, going off on what I thought was good. Later as we were returning home for dinner, I saw an elderly Korean man with a walker. Again, I didn't think much at first as we were passing him, but then the Spirit started shooting thoughts into my head. I stopped in my tracks, and realized I needed to give that bag of snacks to the man I saw. I immediately took the bag to him, without saying much other than, "Do you like snacks," handed the bag to him and went my way. I'm not totally sure what God had in mind for him, but God needed me to bless that man. I had an instant surge of warmth enter my heart, which was the reaffirming feeling of the Spirit, testifying to me I had fulfilled something that God had in mind that day for that man. I am incredibly thankful that I can live my life to feel the influence of the Spirit; it's something I always want and am willing to sacrifice much for.
Another fun activity we're incorporating each week to our proselyting efforts is bread jeondoeing haha ^^ There's this bread lady that sells super good bread for really cheap and so we buy some of this bread and trust in the Lord to guide us to people that need the bread that day. It's always confirming when people accept the bread, or any other gift or food for that matter. Korean ettiquette for accepting stuff is to always always always deny it at first haha, but if the person persists that you take it, you NEED to take it or you will hurt their kibun, which is pretty much like a feeling type of conscience, there's no english translation for the word. Anyway, through this activity it's been super awesome to find people in need of this bread and to tell them a little bit about what we foreign missionaries are doing in Korea haha.
We met a Chinese person the other day, and he ended up turning into a potential investigator. We met with him the first time, and that's when we found out he was Chinese haha, he looked and spoke so much like a Korean. Anyway, finding him came from talking to everyone. They don't have that in PMG for nothing under step 10 of the weekly planning haha. Anyway, he was genuinely nice as we first talked to him and had an interest in the book we carried around. It's quite amazing to me how God blesses us so freely, and I'm glad I get to take place in these small miracles.
Had zone conference this week as well and oh boy, that was super exciting. It's like a mini general conference specified for our zone haha. Our president, President Morrise, is an incredible man of God. I love to talk to him and tell him about what's going on, and he's genuinely considerate about everyone. Anyway, this conference we changed some pretty big things, mainly dealing with our key indicator goals, but anyway, the goal of the conference was for us to LIVE BY THE SPIRIT. There's a talk we read in preparation for this conference called, Receive the Holy Ghost by David A. Bednar. People, if you want a spiritual uplifter and ideas to act and receive the Spirit better, I strongly EXHORT and of course, INVITE you to find it, read it, and apply what he has to say. Without the Holy Ghost, we cannot gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, without the Holy Ghost, we cannot know the Father's will for us, thereby we can't know all things. The spirit is the foundation for the best learning, in spiritual growth and day to day knowledge. Living by the Spirit is required for us to live righteously and one day coming to live with God again. So like I said last week, if you don't have a goal to invite the Spirit into your lives each day, DO IT! Write it down and put some action and effort into it. I know without a doubt it will individually bless your life AND you will gain joy from blessing the lives of others who needs God's blessings. The most joy I've experienced so far on my mission is being able to be His hands. I make mistakes, I get discouraged, but through Jesus Christ and His Atonement my head is lifted up, I'm wrapped in arms of mercy and love, and I get to continue in the work, doing the Father's will. tHat's one thing that really stood out to me this week in my studies is realizing that Christ was a perfect being because He perfectly knew what our Heavenly Father wanted for Him. I know without a doubt when we put forward diligent sincere faith, our lives will be guided by the Holy Ghost and we can feel joy like we've never experienced before. I want all of you to feel that joy as well, so please, do something everyday to invite and maintain the Spirit in your life. Love you guys! ^^
Elder Jensen
P.S. I ate some squid this week in some sort of Korean food haha. Pretty chewy, nothing too gross though ^^
Well, this week I'm two months in country! Haha, time is such a crazy thing, I hate thinking about it so that's all I will say haha. Stemming from conference, I had a really sincere interest in acting on helping the meek and lowly, the poor in spirit because it was expounded and exhorted pretty hard from conference. A special experience I had last week dealt with listening to the spirit and helping the meek and the lowly. We were walking down the streets of Anseong and stopped to talk to a guy selling some dried snacks. These snacks looked less than appetizing and were expensive for snacks. Anyway, while talking I had an urge, a thought that seemed good to buy these snacks from this guy. At first I thought, "Hey this guy needs some extra help with money, so I'll buy some snacks from him." That may have been the case, but Heavenly Father had another idea in mind too. I bought these snacks, really not knowing why, going off on what I thought was good. Later as we were returning home for dinner, I saw an elderly Korean man with a walker. Again, I didn't think much at first as we were passing him, but then the Spirit started shooting thoughts into my head. I stopped in my tracks, and realized I needed to give that bag of snacks to the man I saw. I immediately took the bag to him, without saying much other than, "Do you like snacks," handed the bag to him and went my way. I'm not totally sure what God had in mind for him, but God needed me to bless that man. I had an instant surge of warmth enter my heart, which was the reaffirming feeling of the Spirit, testifying to me I had fulfilled something that God had in mind that day for that man. I am incredibly thankful that I can live my life to feel the influence of the Spirit; it's something I always want and am willing to sacrifice much for.
Another fun activity we're incorporating each week to our proselyting efforts is bread jeondoeing haha ^^ There's this bread lady that sells super good bread for really cheap and so we buy some of this bread and trust in the Lord to guide us to people that need the bread that day. It's always confirming when people accept the bread, or any other gift or food for that matter. Korean ettiquette for accepting stuff is to always always always deny it at first haha, but if the person persists that you take it, you NEED to take it or you will hurt their kibun, which is pretty much like a feeling type of conscience, there's no english translation for the word. Anyway, through this activity it's been super awesome to find people in need of this bread and to tell them a little bit about what we foreign missionaries are doing in Korea haha.
We met a Chinese person the other day, and he ended up turning into a potential investigator. We met with him the first time, and that's when we found out he was Chinese haha, he looked and spoke so much like a Korean. Anyway, finding him came from talking to everyone. They don't have that in PMG for nothing under step 10 of the weekly planning haha. Anyway, he was genuinely nice as we first talked to him and had an interest in the book we carried around. It's quite amazing to me how God blesses us so freely, and I'm glad I get to take place in these small miracles.
Had zone conference this week as well and oh boy, that was super exciting. It's like a mini general conference specified for our zone haha. Our president, President Morrise, is an incredible man of God. I love to talk to him and tell him about what's going on, and he's genuinely considerate about everyone. Anyway, this conference we changed some pretty big things, mainly dealing with our key indicator goals, but anyway, the goal of the conference was for us to LIVE BY THE SPIRIT. There's a talk we read in preparation for this conference called, Receive the Holy Ghost by David A. Bednar. People, if you want a spiritual uplifter and ideas to act and receive the Spirit better, I strongly EXHORT and of course, INVITE you to find it, read it, and apply what he has to say. Without the Holy Ghost, we cannot gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father, without the Holy Ghost, we cannot know the Father's will for us, thereby we can't know all things. The spirit is the foundation for the best learning, in spiritual growth and day to day knowledge. Living by the Spirit is required for us to live righteously and one day coming to live with God again. So like I said last week, if you don't have a goal to invite the Spirit into your lives each day, DO IT! Write it down and put some action and effort into it. I know without a doubt it will individually bless your life AND you will gain joy from blessing the lives of others who needs God's blessings. The most joy I've experienced so far on my mission is being able to be His hands. I make mistakes, I get discouraged, but through Jesus Christ and His Atonement my head is lifted up, I'm wrapped in arms of mercy and love, and I get to continue in the work, doing the Father's will. tHat's one thing that really stood out to me this week in my studies is realizing that Christ was a perfect being because He perfectly knew what our Heavenly Father wanted for Him. I know without a doubt when we put forward diligent sincere faith, our lives will be guided by the Holy Ghost and we can feel joy like we've never experienced before. I want all of you to feel that joy as well, so please, do something everyday to invite and maintain the Spirit in your life. Love you guys! ^^
Elder Jensen
P.S. I ate some squid this week in some sort of Korean food haha. Pretty chewy, nothing too gross though ^^
Sister Hannah Walker
Helloooooo to the family and friends that I count as family :) Hope all is well wherever you are, whether it be at home, at school, at work, or in the mission field...(I think that's everyone)...Man there's lotsa love being sent yall's way! :) This week was a great one, like always. Taught more, which was great :) haha There are a few highlights that I'd like to share :)
Tuesday morning we were getting ready after having run around the block a couple times (man this weather's been great for running :) ). I was eating oatmeal when I hear a really loud meowing at the door...Now, the neighbors downstairs and to the right of us have a couple litters of kittens and a couple moms, and just a bunch of cats. Typical Georgian family right? So I thought it was one of their outdoor cats. I opened the door a crack and a little white paw shot in! haha next, I see a little white nose try to push it's way into the apartment! Well, it wasn't any of their outdoor cats, so I thought it might've been one of their little kittens that found a way out. So we go downstairs and this little kitten (it was more like pre-teen) follows us. The lights were off and they weren't awake yet, but we couldn't leave the kitten outside alone!! ....so we might've had a little friend accompany us into our apartment...haha I always say that it doesn't count as a pet unless you keep it for more than two meals! ;) this little friend happened to be very curious and insisted on telling us all about his explorations. His meowing didn't stop the entire three hours that we had him in our apartment. Haha this normally wouldn't bother me...except that these three hours were during our study time. And I had a training to prepare for District Meeting. After a while he quieted down a bit, but goodness...by the end of those hours, we were slightly frustrated with his little voice box. It's a good thing he was super cute..
except I'm pretty sure he had fleas...haha oh well :) Our apartment is fighting off plenty of bugs anyway...so then the neighbors wake up and we find out that it wasn't there cat...whoops! Well, we head off to district meeting and come back at the end of the day to find him still there! He stayed up on our landing for a good three days!! We didn't know where he came from, but every day he tried to come into our apartment and whenever he knew we were there, he'd meow. Eventually at the end of the week, he followed us out to the car and as we were getting in, a neighbor girl runs over and says "Muffin!!!" haha I had never been so happy to hear the word muffin.. anyway, his home is found and he's safe and happy :)
Wednesday was an interesting day as well...so we had had someone named Stan call to tell us that his mother had been taking lessons from the missionaries a while back, but that she was going in a home now. She had mentioned to him that we helped out with cleaning and service and stuff so he called wondering if we'd be interested in helping him and his sister clean their mom's home. uhh DUH!!! that was the first service we had been asked to give since being here! and I loved it :) The home was big and very southern and beautiful...but with very tiny doorways...haha but it was awesome :) These people weren't members, but they wanted to pay us. They insisted on buying us lunch the two days we helped them out...they were just so happy and the sister wanted to write President Cottle asking to keep us. haha I was just so grateful for the opportunity to serve these people...They were super nice and great :) Wednesday night was also interesting...so we went to dinner at this member's house and were taking their daughter out with us after...well we were going to go see this one guy that had potential, but we felt really uneasy when we got to his place. So we decided to stop at this gas station and give the woman working there a pass-along card....well this gas station had on the counter three huge pickle jars...but they weren't filled with pickles. The brand was "Hannah's" (haha cool right?:P). One had pickled pig's feet, another had pickles eggs, and the third had pickles sausage. The woman working had us smell the pickled pig's feet and it. was. disgusting. nasty.. gross. haha but even better...I decided to try a pickled egg. Now, I am a big texture person...if something doesn't feel right in my mouth, it's not going back in. haha and I knew that a pickled egg would probably have a funky texture, so you might ask, why did I do it? well the answer is simple.. to say that I did ;) hahaha The member that was out with us sent my mom and dad some pics and a vid. I'll have them attatch it to the email because I don't have any pics. haha man though! it was super nasty. It felt like a hard boiled egg that had been left out on the counter in utah and turned stale (things don't turn stale here no matter how long you leave them out. we left out a brownie once for a week and it was still nice and soft. gross) haha so now I can say that I've tasted a pickled egg :)
haha now how about our investigators...because we finally have some that are keeping return appointments!! :) they're doing awesome. We had many in church yesterday which was great...haha but more will come about them as they continue to progress.....I feel like the reason we got most of them to come to church though was because Sister Anderson spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday. She did awesomely too :) Haha guess what else!? The organist happens to be our old Ward Mission Leader's wife, and they were out of town for the weekend...so guess who she got to sub for her? This little one right here :) me! haha goodness, I have never played an organ before in church in my life! haha I am so grateful for the talents that God has given me...haha soo it was really funny because I turn it on and everything before the meeting starts and the young man who was assigned to do prelude just played on the piano. So you know, the meeting starts, all is well, then I go up to play the opening hymn. Well, my fingers are playing the keys, but there is no sound coming out. The switch is on, the volume up, and still no sound. Haha my first thought was "great. just great" I look up to see that none of the stops were down (that means that the buttons you push down to give the organ it's different sounds were all up). Now, remember how I said that I had never played an organ in my life? Well, that also means that I have NO IDEA which stops make what noise! I had enough common sense not to push the trumpet ones...haha can you imagine? oh goodness... anyway I push six random ones down and said a big huge prayer with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. haha the ward had already been waiting a good 30 seconds. It's a good thing God answers prayers! haha the sound came out! It didn't sound the way I wanted it to, but it worked so I wasn't going to mess with it! Haha that whole experience resulted in me blushin like a fool all the way through the Sacrament. haha it was hilarious though :) I think everyone forgot about it by now...but yeah! I can now say that I have played an organ in church :) awesome.
Soo that's pretty much all that happened this week. At least the highlights :) So how'd yall's week go? Hope it went great :) Oh!! one more picture for y'alls entertainment this week.....this is what the elders found this morning when they opened the door:
this is a better view of what they had in store. haha and that was filled with water. ohhh yeah. haha prank war started ;) gotta love being on a mission :) haha these people are amazing...I promise that we are teaching some awesome people... we gave a church tour and had some awesome lessons. More to come on them :) Lovin life, lovin the work, lovin this Gospel :) It blesses lives! :) I promise :)
Love
Sister Hannah Walker
Helloooooo to the family and friends that I count as family :) Hope all is well wherever you are, whether it be at home, at school, at work, or in the mission field...(I think that's everyone)...Man there's lotsa love being sent yall's way! :) This week was a great one, like always. Taught more, which was great :) haha There are a few highlights that I'd like to share :)
Tuesday morning we were getting ready after having run around the block a couple times (man this weather's been great for running :) ). I was eating oatmeal when I hear a really loud meowing at the door...Now, the neighbors downstairs and to the right of us have a couple litters of kittens and a couple moms, and just a bunch of cats. Typical Georgian family right? So I thought it was one of their outdoor cats. I opened the door a crack and a little white paw shot in! haha next, I see a little white nose try to push it's way into the apartment! Well, it wasn't any of their outdoor cats, so I thought it might've been one of their little kittens that found a way out. So we go downstairs and this little kitten (it was more like pre-teen) follows us. The lights were off and they weren't awake yet, but we couldn't leave the kitten outside alone!! ....so we might've had a little friend accompany us into our apartment...haha I always say that it doesn't count as a pet unless you keep it for more than two meals! ;) this little friend happened to be very curious and insisted on telling us all about his explorations. His meowing didn't stop the entire three hours that we had him in our apartment. Haha this normally wouldn't bother me...except that these three hours were during our study time. And I had a training to prepare for District Meeting. After a while he quieted down a bit, but goodness...by the end of those hours, we were slightly frustrated with his little voice box. It's a good thing he was super cute..
except I'm pretty sure he had fleas...haha oh well :) Our apartment is fighting off plenty of bugs anyway...so then the neighbors wake up and we find out that it wasn't there cat...whoops! Well, we head off to district meeting and come back at the end of the day to find him still there! He stayed up on our landing for a good three days!! We didn't know where he came from, but every day he tried to come into our apartment and whenever he knew we were there, he'd meow. Eventually at the end of the week, he followed us out to the car and as we were getting in, a neighbor girl runs over and says "Muffin!!!" haha I had never been so happy to hear the word muffin.. anyway, his home is found and he's safe and happy :)
Wednesday was an interesting day as well...so we had had someone named Stan call to tell us that his mother had been taking lessons from the missionaries a while back, but that she was going in a home now. She had mentioned to him that we helped out with cleaning and service and stuff so he called wondering if we'd be interested in helping him and his sister clean their mom's home. uhh DUH!!! that was the first service we had been asked to give since being here! and I loved it :) The home was big and very southern and beautiful...but with very tiny doorways...haha but it was awesome :) These people weren't members, but they wanted to pay us. They insisted on buying us lunch the two days we helped them out...they were just so happy and the sister wanted to write President Cottle asking to keep us. haha I was just so grateful for the opportunity to serve these people...They were super nice and great :) Wednesday night was also interesting...so we went to dinner at this member's house and were taking their daughter out with us after...well we were going to go see this one guy that had potential, but we felt really uneasy when we got to his place. So we decided to stop at this gas station and give the woman working there a pass-along card....well this gas station had on the counter three huge pickle jars...but they weren't filled with pickles. The brand was "Hannah's" (haha cool right?:P). One had pickled pig's feet, another had pickles eggs, and the third had pickles sausage. The woman working had us smell the pickled pig's feet and it. was. disgusting. nasty.. gross. haha but even better...I decided to try a pickled egg. Now, I am a big texture person...if something doesn't feel right in my mouth, it's not going back in. haha and I knew that a pickled egg would probably have a funky texture, so you might ask, why did I do it? well the answer is simple.. to say that I did ;) hahaha The member that was out with us sent my mom and dad some pics and a vid. I'll have them attatch it to the email because I don't have any pics. haha man though! it was super nasty. It felt like a hard boiled egg that had been left out on the counter in utah and turned stale (things don't turn stale here no matter how long you leave them out. we left out a brownie once for a week and it was still nice and soft. gross) haha so now I can say that I've tasted a pickled egg :)
haha now how about our investigators...because we finally have some that are keeping return appointments!! :) they're doing awesome. We had many in church yesterday which was great...haha but more will come about them as they continue to progress.....I feel like the reason we got most of them to come to church though was because Sister Anderson spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday. She did awesomely too :) Haha guess what else!? The organist happens to be our old Ward Mission Leader's wife, and they were out of town for the weekend...so guess who she got to sub for her? This little one right here :) me! haha goodness, I have never played an organ before in church in my life! haha I am so grateful for the talents that God has given me...haha soo it was really funny because I turn it on and everything before the meeting starts and the young man who was assigned to do prelude just played on the piano. So you know, the meeting starts, all is well, then I go up to play the opening hymn. Well, my fingers are playing the keys, but there is no sound coming out. The switch is on, the volume up, and still no sound. Haha my first thought was "great. just great" I look up to see that none of the stops were down (that means that the buttons you push down to give the organ it's different sounds were all up). Now, remember how I said that I had never played an organ in my life? Well, that also means that I have NO IDEA which stops make what noise! I had enough common sense not to push the trumpet ones...haha can you imagine? oh goodness... anyway I push six random ones down and said a big huge prayer with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. haha the ward had already been waiting a good 30 seconds. It's a good thing God answers prayers! haha the sound came out! It didn't sound the way I wanted it to, but it worked so I wasn't going to mess with it! Haha that whole experience resulted in me blushin like a fool all the way through the Sacrament. haha it was hilarious though :) I think everyone forgot about it by now...but yeah! I can now say that I have played an organ in church :) awesome.
Soo that's pretty much all that happened this week. At least the highlights :) So how'd yall's week go? Hope it went great :) Oh!! one more picture for y'alls entertainment this week.....this is what the elders found this morning when they opened the door:
this is a better view of what they had in store. haha and that was filled with water. ohhh yeah. haha prank war started ;) gotta love being on a mission :) haha these people are amazing...I promise that we are teaching some awesome people... we gave a church tour and had some awesome lessons. More to come on them :) Lovin life, lovin the work, lovin this Gospel :) It blesses lives! :) I promise :)
Love
Sister Hannah Walker
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Elder Kasey Crafts
Tuesday, October 20, 2014
Dear Friends and Family,
wow this week was another great week! Missionary work is the best thing. Next week is transfers so our Pday is on Monday.
First of all i'll give ya a little update on the huge family that came to church a couple weeks ago. The familia Diez and they live in Sierra Blanca. Sierra blanca is about an hour from where we live going south. (its pretty small, if you sneezed you might miss it.) We traveled down there Friday and yesterday to teach them. We've been doing it in the trailer of Brother and Sister gonzalez. We have taught them the Restoration and The Plan of Salvation. They recieve everything really well and already have strong testimony's. They didn't come to church this last week though, but its because they worked something out with the Branch President so they will come to Fabens 2 times a month and then when there are more members in Sierra Blanca a few of us will go down there and have a sacrament meeting. They are a great family!
Eva Violobols is also doing really well! We went to her house last night with the Kimbles. (The Kimbles are a really amazing Elderly Couple that we work with a lot) Eva wasn't feeling like she was going to be ready for the 25 of October so we asked her when she felt she could be ready, and talked a lot about you don't have to know everything before you are baptized. We talked about it and established a different date the 15 of November! (I'm really hoping i'm not transferred!) But this was a great experience because when we were talking and she was talking it really seemed like she understood the principles and everything! I really love it when it finally clicks for someone. Also Eva's husband is getting interested as well. The kimbles have been doing an English class at the church and this brings lots of people because hardly anyone here knows English.
It will never cease to amaze me of how great of members we have here in the Fabens Branch. Tonight we are going to go with David Hernandez and Jesus Hernandez to Fort Hancock and they are going to introduce us to some more of their friends and have some lessons. They are all excited and ready to share the gospel. Sometimes we have fear to share the gospel with our friends but if you think about it and you do it right, then the worst they will do is say they aren't interested and you continue being the good friends that you were before. The gospel is true and you will never regret sharing it with someone else!
Love you all and I hope you have a great week!
Elder Crafts
1:this a picture of our zone from zone conference!
2: This is a picture of a funny sign we found in Fort Hancock.
3: The sunsets in Texas are solid. (Alma 30:44 all things indicate there is a God)
Tuesday, October 20, 2014
Dear Friends and Family,
wow this week was another great week! Missionary work is the best thing. Next week is transfers so our Pday is on Monday.
First of all i'll give ya a little update on the huge family that came to church a couple weeks ago. The familia Diez and they live in Sierra Blanca. Sierra blanca is about an hour from where we live going south. (its pretty small, if you sneezed you might miss it.) We traveled down there Friday and yesterday to teach them. We've been doing it in the trailer of Brother and Sister gonzalez. We have taught them the Restoration and The Plan of Salvation. They recieve everything really well and already have strong testimony's. They didn't come to church this last week though, but its because they worked something out with the Branch President so they will come to Fabens 2 times a month and then when there are more members in Sierra Blanca a few of us will go down there and have a sacrament meeting. They are a great family!
Eva Violobols is also doing really well! We went to her house last night with the Kimbles. (The Kimbles are a really amazing Elderly Couple that we work with a lot) Eva wasn't feeling like she was going to be ready for the 25 of October so we asked her when she felt she could be ready, and talked a lot about you don't have to know everything before you are baptized. We talked about it and established a different date the 15 of November! (I'm really hoping i'm not transferred!) But this was a great experience because when we were talking and she was talking it really seemed like she understood the principles and everything! I really love it when it finally clicks for someone. Also Eva's husband is getting interested as well. The kimbles have been doing an English class at the church and this brings lots of people because hardly anyone here knows English.
It will never cease to amaze me of how great of members we have here in the Fabens Branch. Tonight we are going to go with David Hernandez and Jesus Hernandez to Fort Hancock and they are going to introduce us to some more of their friends and have some lessons. They are all excited and ready to share the gospel. Sometimes we have fear to share the gospel with our friends but if you think about it and you do it right, then the worst they will do is say they aren't interested and you continue being the good friends that you were before. The gospel is true and you will never regret sharing it with someone else!
Love you all and I hope you have a great week!
Elder Crafts
1:this a picture of our zone from zone conference!
2: This is a picture of a funny sign we found in Fort Hancock.
3: The sunsets in Texas are solid. (Alma 30:44 all things indicate there is a God)
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Elder Cameron Murray
Hallo Familie und Freunden!
Well times definitely flying by here and I leave for Germany on Tuesday!!!! I'm going to be on the plane for eternity, I'm hoping we can make some baptism commitments on the plane. I keep seeing pictures here of people getting baptized in the ocean. My companion had the genius idea that we could sky dive out of the plane and baptize people in the ocean on the way over. Just to one up all those pictures. My subject says "the field is white and ready to harvest" We currently have 4 gold tag investigators and I love them all. The Korean K-Min is coming along nicely. She was thinking one night what she should do and the thought came to her to repent. The Lord is definitely guiding her in the right direction. She said she would go to church sunday and we are still trying to work with her husband. We called him and hopefully he kept the commitment to pray with his wife. We Have an investigator named Sydney and she pretty much already knows everything about the gospel without knowing it. She's been reading in the Book of Mormon and she believes it. We'll be teaching her and she'll always say something along the lines of DUHHH i knew that a long time ago. The best part is she can always find bible scriptures about what were teaching. She used to call them throw away scriptures cause nobody understood them but HA wrong, 15 million people understand them. So shes taught us tons about the bible. She gave us a great quote. "Work like everything depends on you, Pray like everything depends on God." The work is going great and we are blessed to feel the spirit in abundance!!!
Love Elder Murray.
Hallo Familie und Freunden!
Well times definitely flying by here and I leave for Germany on Tuesday!!!! I'm going to be on the plane for eternity, I'm hoping we can make some baptism commitments on the plane. I keep seeing pictures here of people getting baptized in the ocean. My companion had the genius idea that we could sky dive out of the plane and baptize people in the ocean on the way over. Just to one up all those pictures. My subject says "the field is white and ready to harvest" We currently have 4 gold tag investigators and I love them all. The Korean K-Min is coming along nicely. She was thinking one night what she should do and the thought came to her to repent. The Lord is definitely guiding her in the right direction. She said she would go to church sunday and we are still trying to work with her husband. We called him and hopefully he kept the commitment to pray with his wife. We Have an investigator named Sydney and she pretty much already knows everything about the gospel without knowing it. She's been reading in the Book of Mormon and she believes it. We'll be teaching her and she'll always say something along the lines of DUHHH i knew that a long time ago. The best part is she can always find bible scriptures about what were teaching. She used to call them throw away scriptures cause nobody understood them but HA wrong, 15 million people understand them. So shes taught us tons about the bible. She gave us a great quote. "Work like everything depends on you, Pray like everything depends on God." The work is going great and we are blessed to feel the spirit in abundance!!!
Love Elder Murray.
Elder Joshua Nieman
These weeks just get faster and faster. Do you guys realize I have been in Peru for a month. It is really flying by for me and I am not sure about you guys but It is going pretty fast even though it has been a month and a half. This last week was alright. I got to do so many things but I can only tell a little. This week my companion had to go to immigrations so that meant I would do cambios with another companion in another area. His name was Elder Soto. He was really cool but didnt speak any english at all. It was actually really good for me cause after I changed back to my companion I understood everything he was saying and what all the people were saying. The language is coming and it really gives me the chills when I speak cause I can understand and I can talk a little bit. Haha it is actually alot more easier to understand than talk for me. Which is really frustrating but I know my talking will come. But anyways with Elder Soto we went to his area which was in La Molina. La molina is so much richer than my area. It was really weird going from not that rich to freaking rich. I really liked La molina and it was really nice to expirence a different area and teach new people. I also saw the temple for the first time and wow it is so beautiful. When I saw it I really felt like all my stress and all my worries went away. It was so amazing and I cant wait to go to the temple. Oh and by the way I love my new watch and so do a lot more other people. Soooo yeah I dont have my watch anymore. Sooo you might need to send me another one. haha no just kidding but I really like it and I gave my cute diamond one to my pensionista for her birthday. I will have to send a picture of our awesome watches. Oh man though the stuff in the package was so good. I laughed so hard when I read the letter and it said here are some fastbreak bars for a couple weeks. hahaha which I had already ate before I read the letter. Wow I miss american junk food. haha The food here is actually some of the best food I have had and it is really delicious. Well at least most of it. The drinks that have weird clumps in them arent my favorite but hey I will get over it. but thank you and I am glad I have such a wonderful and supportive family that send me really good stuff. I love you all.
I really like the mission right now. Even though I speak really really bad I love what the mission teaches and what it is doing for my life. I havent felt this way for a long time and I really feel like I am helping so many people. There are going to be so many struggles and and really there will be times I want to come home and just quit but I cant wait for those times cause that is when I will become stronger. I really liked this week cause we met this man that is so intrested and he wants to learn more. His name is Bernando. We invited him to come to church and automatically he said he will be there. Sunday rolls around and we see him with a big grin on his face and just so happy. After sacrament meeting he comes up to me and just gives me a big hug. He starts saying how beautiful that was and how he loves our church already. At that moment it really hit me that this reason is why I am here doing this work. It is so amazing to see the peoples faces when they recieve the gospel. We told him we would stop by his house later that day and when we did his whole family was sitting there and waiting to hear what we had to say. We havent invited them to be baptized yet but he keeps on telling us how he wants to be a part of the church. It was really cool and I am so happy I am out here helping people like him. Well this week was good and I hope all the weeks are like this but they probably wont but that is ok. I love you all and I do try my very hardest to answer all your emails. I love all my friends and just everyone that has sent me support. I love you all and I am so excited to tell you more and more expirences I have.
Love Elder Nieman
These weeks just get faster and faster. Do you guys realize I have been in Peru for a month. It is really flying by for me and I am not sure about you guys but It is going pretty fast even though it has been a month and a half. This last week was alright. I got to do so many things but I can only tell a little. This week my companion had to go to immigrations so that meant I would do cambios with another companion in another area. His name was Elder Soto. He was really cool but didnt speak any english at all. It was actually really good for me cause after I changed back to my companion I understood everything he was saying and what all the people were saying. The language is coming and it really gives me the chills when I speak cause I can understand and I can talk a little bit. Haha it is actually alot more easier to understand than talk for me. Which is really frustrating but I know my talking will come. But anyways with Elder Soto we went to his area which was in La Molina. La molina is so much richer than my area. It was really weird going from not that rich to freaking rich. I really liked La molina and it was really nice to expirence a different area and teach new people. I also saw the temple for the first time and wow it is so beautiful. When I saw it I really felt like all my stress and all my worries went away. It was so amazing and I cant wait to go to the temple. Oh and by the way I love my new watch and so do a lot more other people. Soooo yeah I dont have my watch anymore. Sooo you might need to send me another one. haha no just kidding but I really like it and I gave my cute diamond one to my pensionista for her birthday. I will have to send a picture of our awesome watches. Oh man though the stuff in the package was so good. I laughed so hard when I read the letter and it said here are some fastbreak bars for a couple weeks. hahaha which I had already ate before I read the letter. Wow I miss american junk food. haha The food here is actually some of the best food I have had and it is really delicious. Well at least most of it. The drinks that have weird clumps in them arent my favorite but hey I will get over it. but thank you and I am glad I have such a wonderful and supportive family that send me really good stuff. I love you all.
I really like the mission right now. Even though I speak really really bad I love what the mission teaches and what it is doing for my life. I havent felt this way for a long time and I really feel like I am helping so many people. There are going to be so many struggles and and really there will be times I want to come home and just quit but I cant wait for those times cause that is when I will become stronger. I really liked this week cause we met this man that is so intrested and he wants to learn more. His name is Bernando. We invited him to come to church and automatically he said he will be there. Sunday rolls around and we see him with a big grin on his face and just so happy. After sacrament meeting he comes up to me and just gives me a big hug. He starts saying how beautiful that was and how he loves our church already. At that moment it really hit me that this reason is why I am here doing this work. It is so amazing to see the peoples faces when they recieve the gospel. We told him we would stop by his house later that day and when we did his whole family was sitting there and waiting to hear what we had to say. We havent invited them to be baptized yet but he keeps on telling us how he wants to be a part of the church. It was really cool and I am so happy I am out here helping people like him. Well this week was good and I hope all the weeks are like this but they probably wont but that is ok. I love you all and I do try my very hardest to answer all your emails. I love all my friends and just everyone that has sent me support. I love you all and I am so excited to tell you more and more expirences I have.
Love Elder Nieman
Elder Tyler Peterson
Hey!
First off, I'm an uncle again!!!! :D Congrats Camille and Nate!! Oh my gosh! That was such good news!! His name's Cache Nathan Jensen, and that'll be the bomb to see him in like 20 months!! :)
So, we got our new Elder last Tuesday, his name is Elder Fitzwater (also from Utah! That makes three of us four from Utah!) haha, nobody can say his name! But he came in, he's struggling with the Spanish worse than I did, but we all try to help him out :) Elder Gómez is learning english like crazy now, and he is the proclaimed Frijol entre El Arroz! Pretty sweet title ;)
Anyways, speaking of spanish, I'm happy to say that that is coming along really well! I'm getting like 96% of Gospel related stuff and 65% of everything else! :) (percentages? haha I'm a nerd!)
I'm sorry to say that Elder Gómez is really not having a good time right now. His family's going through some REALLY tough times, he's having some 'old life' issues that he wants to overcome SO bad, and he's feeling a lot of pressure (him and me both) to baptize, and last night, our shot to baptize this month was all but blown out of the water. We really are contacting, teaching, everything with the Spirit, but so many people are just denying the truth that they can feel. AAUUGH!! But we have some really positive things too! :)
We brought two investigators to church, and chances of one of them getting baptized in two weeks are great! Irvin is 9, he told us he really wants to get baptized, and his mom said he had to start going to school and change a lot of things, and immediately he went to work! His dedication was inspiring, and he came to church and at a rough time with the kids in the primary shouting, but he made it! That was so great! :)
The other one we brought was terrific too! Aurelio is 85, has terrible knees, but was really brave in walking wherever he had too (though we did get a member to drive :)) and LOVED church! He's hooked, now we just have to listen to the Spirit in advancing it from here :)
Something that was way cool was we were talking to members in the street, and this 70 year old abuelita called to us and was like, ''Finding you was a miracle!'' and we were like, ''Hey!'' haha, some missionaries before were teaching Maria, then she ran into us and we're teaching her now! It really could lead to something amazing, that was a miracle to me too :)
It's all going so so fast now! We're really looking forward to a better couple of weeks, they'll be hard, but ojalá that they'll be prosperous too! Everyone take care! Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost in everything, Heavenly Father always has something He wants to say, so be sure to listen! Love you all!
Elder Tyler Peterson
P.S. Pics! Elder Gómez being a man and chapiando (I don't think that's it, but it's pretty close!) and my fake RayBans! 80 pesos!(like 6 bucks!) I've got this crazy fake sunglasses fetish, and I've started the hunt haha! ;)
Hey!
First off, I'm an uncle again!!!! :D Congrats Camille and Nate!! Oh my gosh! That was such good news!! His name's Cache Nathan Jensen, and that'll be the bomb to see him in like 20 months!! :)
So, we got our new Elder last Tuesday, his name is Elder Fitzwater (also from Utah! That makes three of us four from Utah!) haha, nobody can say his name! But he came in, he's struggling with the Spanish worse than I did, but we all try to help him out :) Elder Gómez is learning english like crazy now, and he is the proclaimed Frijol entre El Arroz! Pretty sweet title ;)
Anyways, speaking of spanish, I'm happy to say that that is coming along really well! I'm getting like 96% of Gospel related stuff and 65% of everything else! :) (percentages? haha I'm a nerd!)
I'm sorry to say that Elder Gómez is really not having a good time right now. His family's going through some REALLY tough times, he's having some 'old life' issues that he wants to overcome SO bad, and he's feeling a lot of pressure (him and me both) to baptize, and last night, our shot to baptize this month was all but blown out of the water. We really are contacting, teaching, everything with the Spirit, but so many people are just denying the truth that they can feel. AAUUGH!! But we have some really positive things too! :)
We brought two investigators to church, and chances of one of them getting baptized in two weeks are great! Irvin is 9, he told us he really wants to get baptized, and his mom said he had to start going to school and change a lot of things, and immediately he went to work! His dedication was inspiring, and he came to church and at a rough time with the kids in the primary shouting, but he made it! That was so great! :)
The other one we brought was terrific too! Aurelio is 85, has terrible knees, but was really brave in walking wherever he had too (though we did get a member to drive :)) and LOVED church! He's hooked, now we just have to listen to the Spirit in advancing it from here :)
Something that was way cool was we were talking to members in the street, and this 70 year old abuelita called to us and was like, ''Finding you was a miracle!'' and we were like, ''Hey!'' haha, some missionaries before were teaching Maria, then she ran into us and we're teaching her now! It really could lead to something amazing, that was a miracle to me too :)
It's all going so so fast now! We're really looking forward to a better couple of weeks, they'll be hard, but ojalá that they'll be prosperous too! Everyone take care! Seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost in everything, Heavenly Father always has something He wants to say, so be sure to listen! Love you all!
Elder Tyler Peterson
P.S. Pics! Elder Gómez being a man and chapiando (I don't think that's it, but it's pretty close!) and my fake RayBans! 80 pesos!(like 6 bucks!) I've got this crazy fake sunglasses fetish, and I've started the hunt haha! ;)
Monday, October 20, 2014
Elder Kyler Olsen
Well going along with the title, this week we had a dish they call arroz con mariscos. Which is rice and octopus and shrimp... ugh... and i dont know what else, but if it hadnt been for the juice, I probably wouldnt have been able to wash it down. And it didnt help that it is the favorite dish of two of the pencionistas sons... cant dissapoint. Anyways so I went home and had to wash the taste out of my mouth, so I brushed my teeth and then ate some m&ms. And pretty much wow. world war 3 in my stomach... But dont worry I kept it all in and made it through the day.
This week was pretty good. Tuesday I had cambios con Elder Payaré, our ZL, which was sooo amazing! I truly was able to talk to him and open up and we are pretty good friends now. We worked hard and he helped me do some excercises to practice español, and our comp study was so full of the spirit. It was exactly what i needed at that time, to kinda take a break from E Lopez.
Elder Waddel, the gen authority that came to the ccm, is coming this week, so that should be sweet.
And today we went to some caves and explored around, but we didnt have a flashlight, cause elder wirthlin didnt understand where we were going and why he needed it, so we tried lighting a fire with the sparks off the walls. Then found some matches, but nothing would burn good. So we gave up on trying to find the bats that we heard. And we found some witchery stuff, love potions and other strange stuff.
And all you who may think that my doorbell ditching days ended the 29th of july, think again. We were knocking doors, and we got rejected hard core (Do me the favor of never touching another one of my doors today, tomorrow or EVER! Clowns!) haha so I just go and knock the next door, and didnt see that it was a door of a church... awkward.. so we had to hurry on around the corner.... haha.
Keep up the good work, I sure love you all and pray that everything is going well! Smile and keep on living it up! Dont let moments pass you up being sad, and if any of you need any adviceor praise or whatever, you know where to find me! :)
Elder Olsen
Well going along with the title, this week we had a dish they call arroz con mariscos. Which is rice and octopus and shrimp... ugh... and i dont know what else, but if it hadnt been for the juice, I probably wouldnt have been able to wash it down. And it didnt help that it is the favorite dish of two of the pencionistas sons... cant dissapoint. Anyways so I went home and had to wash the taste out of my mouth, so I brushed my teeth and then ate some m&ms. And pretty much wow. world war 3 in my stomach... But dont worry I kept it all in and made it through the day.
This week was pretty good. Tuesday I had cambios con Elder Payaré, our ZL, which was sooo amazing! I truly was able to talk to him and open up and we are pretty good friends now. We worked hard and he helped me do some excercises to practice español, and our comp study was so full of the spirit. It was exactly what i needed at that time, to kinda take a break from E Lopez.
Elder Waddel, the gen authority that came to the ccm, is coming this week, so that should be sweet.
And today we went to some caves and explored around, but we didnt have a flashlight, cause elder wirthlin didnt understand where we were going and why he needed it, so we tried lighting a fire with the sparks off the walls. Then found some matches, but nothing would burn good. So we gave up on trying to find the bats that we heard. And we found some witchery stuff, love potions and other strange stuff.
And all you who may think that my doorbell ditching days ended the 29th of july, think again. We were knocking doors, and we got rejected hard core (Do me the favor of never touching another one of my doors today, tomorrow or EVER! Clowns!) haha so I just go and knock the next door, and didnt see that it was a door of a church... awkward.. so we had to hurry on around the corner.... haha.
Keep up the good work, I sure love you all and pray that everything is going well! Smile and keep on living it up! Dont let moments pass you up being sad, and if any of you need any adviceor praise or whatever, you know where to find me! :)
Elder Olsen
Elder McKlayne Marshall
Alright, This week has been Super Fantastic! During this week I just was thinking about the coolest anology that I could possibly think up of about Missionary Work and then BOOM Disneyland! Tons of people have asked me what is it like being a missionary, what do you do, tell me everything! So Solution=Disneyland!
Being a Missionary is like going to Disneyland. First you receive your ticket, also known as your plaque. I cant remember how to spell that! anyways. But in order to recieve this ticket you have to work really hard to earn money and save up and then purchase the ticket, its the same with the mission you have to prepare to have that plaque on your Chest everyday! Anways, you get to the land of disney and it is so great, you enter the park and you just dont know where to start, there is so many things to do, to see, to eat, to enjoy. Same in the mission field, you have sooo manny desires things to do, people to meet, things to talk about, and awesome weird food to eat. You arrive at the ride, you wait in line and are just super pumped to go on this ride, but you have to wait theres barriers your gonna have to get over! its the same with investigadors and you have to teach them lessons, bare strong testimony of many doctrinal points, and pray all the time, and then you arrive at the gate, where you have to great choice to enter into this jounrey, and boom this is baptism, its the beginning of the great ride! your there you made it, you sit down and get all settled, this is having a strong relationship with your ward to your recent convert! if you are seated correctly, and have proper security thingys, your going to be fine, your not going anywhere, thats why this point is sooo important. And then you set of on you journey, you have ups and downs, trials and great awesome times, its the same thing with investigadors, With our recent convert Francisco he has had his ups and downs, he ran into some anti mormon informacion on the internet, which is like a huge dip, but we helped him climp back up, Anyways also in disneyland, you have those rides that have broken down, all you have to do is fix them, these are the great members called Menos activos. With the help of the staff at good old disneyland, aka your aweomse consejo de barrio and ward, you can fix those rides, some are hard then others but you can also get them back on track! But most importantly with this analogy, which is awesome I know! There is an incredible magic in The land of Disney, and it comes from a great little mouse, Mickey! It is the same in the Misson Field, This is all possible with the incredible, magical, power of the infinite power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, he is what makes this incredible work, work! I know that he lives and that he is such an important, vital part of this work! He knows you and me sooo well, and we must always trust in him, siempre, during those bad times, as well as in the times that are great! I am ever so grateful for my Savior and Redentor, Jesus Christ!
Alright, I hope you all enjoyed the analogy, its pretty great!
a few more updates!
Carlos, he just keeps telling us, dont worry, Ill get baptized in November, so that is our goal with him! Hes awesome, and he still looks like the mad scientest on Back to the Future, but Bald!
Our other Investigadors are coming a long, I just need to be patient and trust in the lord more!
Okay
SWOLE: I am a spartan woman, an elder in our zone gives us work outs, this one was Spartan-Child, woman, or man, The child was 300 jumping jaacks, woman was 300 Situps, and the man was 300 push ups, I am a Child and a Woman and im proud of it!!and yes im Swole!
Juggling, Mom thanks for sending those juggling balls, to teach my comps we are now, maybe, pretty sure were doing it in the Christmas Show in the Center of Trujillo, in a few months! yup were Juggling! hahah awesome sauce, We tried out last week, and Hermana Marler LOved it!, Shes crazy!
My comp and I are doing great, sometimes we play with fire, cause we find lighters on the ground...long story, I totally burnt my thumb! punishment for not staying focused and doing the good work! Yup, I learned my lesson quick!!!
Anyways, I love you all! thank you for all the prayers and support! This work is moving so quick, we must all prepare today, not tomorrow! 2 Nephi 4:19 Trust in him, ALWAYS! And you will be so eternally grateful!
Well, sorry this one is kinda long! Mucho Amor Siempre!
Love, Elder Marshall
Alright, This week has been Super Fantastic! During this week I just was thinking about the coolest anology that I could possibly think up of about Missionary Work and then BOOM Disneyland! Tons of people have asked me what is it like being a missionary, what do you do, tell me everything! So Solution=Disneyland!
Being a Missionary is like going to Disneyland. First you receive your ticket, also known as your plaque. I cant remember how to spell that! anyways. But in order to recieve this ticket you have to work really hard to earn money and save up and then purchase the ticket, its the same with the mission you have to prepare to have that plaque on your Chest everyday! Anways, you get to the land of disney and it is so great, you enter the park and you just dont know where to start, there is so many things to do, to see, to eat, to enjoy. Same in the mission field, you have sooo manny desires things to do, people to meet, things to talk about, and awesome weird food to eat. You arrive at the ride, you wait in line and are just super pumped to go on this ride, but you have to wait theres barriers your gonna have to get over! its the same with investigadors and you have to teach them lessons, bare strong testimony of many doctrinal points, and pray all the time, and then you arrive at the gate, where you have to great choice to enter into this jounrey, and boom this is baptism, its the beginning of the great ride! your there you made it, you sit down and get all settled, this is having a strong relationship with your ward to your recent convert! if you are seated correctly, and have proper security thingys, your going to be fine, your not going anywhere, thats why this point is sooo important. And then you set of on you journey, you have ups and downs, trials and great awesome times, its the same thing with investigadors, With our recent convert Francisco he has had his ups and downs, he ran into some anti mormon informacion on the internet, which is like a huge dip, but we helped him climp back up, Anyways also in disneyland, you have those rides that have broken down, all you have to do is fix them, these are the great members called Menos activos. With the help of the staff at good old disneyland, aka your aweomse consejo de barrio and ward, you can fix those rides, some are hard then others but you can also get them back on track! But most importantly with this analogy, which is awesome I know! There is an incredible magic in The land of Disney, and it comes from a great little mouse, Mickey! It is the same in the Misson Field, This is all possible with the incredible, magical, power of the infinite power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, he is what makes this incredible work, work! I know that he lives and that he is such an important, vital part of this work! He knows you and me sooo well, and we must always trust in him, siempre, during those bad times, as well as in the times that are great! I am ever so grateful for my Savior and Redentor, Jesus Christ!
Alright, I hope you all enjoyed the analogy, its pretty great!
a few more updates!
Carlos, he just keeps telling us, dont worry, Ill get baptized in November, so that is our goal with him! Hes awesome, and he still looks like the mad scientest on Back to the Future, but Bald!
Our other Investigadors are coming a long, I just need to be patient and trust in the lord more!
Okay
SWOLE: I am a spartan woman, an elder in our zone gives us work outs, this one was Spartan-Child, woman, or man, The child was 300 jumping jaacks, woman was 300 Situps, and the man was 300 push ups, I am a Child and a Woman and im proud of it!!and yes im Swole!
Juggling, Mom thanks for sending those juggling balls, to teach my comps we are now, maybe, pretty sure were doing it in the Christmas Show in the Center of Trujillo, in a few months! yup were Juggling! hahah awesome sauce, We tried out last week, and Hermana Marler LOved it!, Shes crazy!
My comp and I are doing great, sometimes we play with fire, cause we find lighters on the ground...long story, I totally burnt my thumb! punishment for not staying focused and doing the good work! Yup, I learned my lesson quick!!!
Anyways, I love you all! thank you for all the prayers and support! This work is moving so quick, we must all prepare today, not tomorrow! 2 Nephi 4:19 Trust in him, ALWAYS! And you will be so eternally grateful!
Well, sorry this one is kinda long! Mucho Amor Siempre!
Love, Elder Marshall
Elder Clay Rawlins
Hola todo
Man this has been a crazy week! One of our investigators Ayelen almost died from a alergic reaction to some medicine she took but she is all good now! The hermanas in our area got taken out cause of how little progess they were having in there little area so when they left on thursday we got all of our ward and there only investigator Rosa. The elders of Ciudad Evita 1 accidently went into our area and found two new personas that live two houses to the left of our bishop and set a baptismal date with them then later realising that they were in the wrong area they called us to let us know the good news haha. Our friday got filled up with citas so many on different sides that we were running from place to place trying to make it to all of our appointments and with the help of the Lord we made it to all! The cool thing was that on sunday (Dia de la Madre) we had a cita with Ayelen and she finnaly prayed with us kneeling down and asked to know if this was the true church! I am so glad she took that step to know for herself. Not much has really happened this week just a busy friday and tons of new investigators to work with now! what could be better? I hope all the mothers had a happy argintine mothers day and i hope everyone else has a great week!
Elder Rawlins
Hola todo
Man this has been a crazy week! One of our investigators Ayelen almost died from a alergic reaction to some medicine she took but she is all good now! The hermanas in our area got taken out cause of how little progess they were having in there little area so when they left on thursday we got all of our ward and there only investigator Rosa. The elders of Ciudad Evita 1 accidently went into our area and found two new personas that live two houses to the left of our bishop and set a baptismal date with them then later realising that they were in the wrong area they called us to let us know the good news haha. Our friday got filled up with citas so many on different sides that we were running from place to place trying to make it to all of our appointments and with the help of the Lord we made it to all! The cool thing was that on sunday (Dia de la Madre) we had a cita with Ayelen and she finnaly prayed with us kneeling down and asked to know if this was the true church! I am so glad she took that step to know for herself. Not much has really happened this week just a busy friday and tons of new investigators to work with now! what could be better? I hope all the mothers had a happy argintine mothers day and i hope everyone else has a great week!
Elder Rawlins
Elder Kyle Andrus
I really dont know what to title these things anymore... So if you guys have any ideas!!! hahah!
This week was pretty interesting. It was my Senior Companion week. I did all the senior companion things this week. I led all the planning sessions, led all lessons, led on the bike... Just led everything. Hahah It was very interesting. It was crazy tough. there is so much stuff to do as the senior companion that i didnt know about. Well i am kind of glad it is over haha! Once i get a little more experienced, i am sure that i will be able to love it. hahah i just didnt know quite how to handle everything at that time. But hey! It was an amazing growing experience and now i know what i have to work on.
Jing Hui is Solid as usual. Hahah i had the opportunity to confirm her in sacrament meeting in front of everyone... hehe i was pretty nervous. But it was so cool to be able to confirm her and give her the gift of the holy ghost. She came out teaching with us this week and she did an awesome job!! She is amazing.
Sad part of the week... We figured out saturday night that manning doesnt want to meet with us at all anymore. He said that his professor told him to go to the chinese church, and so that is exactly what he did. It was wierd. Because at the beginning of us teaching him, he said that god led him to us... But now he just disregards us... Kinda sad. I was pretty in the dumps about it. But i know that Hevenly father puts us through trials so that we can become stronger and grow from them. I know that hevenly father has something great in store for us. And i cant wait to see what that is.
We are going to do some massive finding this week. We are going to find all the people that hevenly father wants us to find. There are a ton of people who need to hear this great message of the restored gospel. And we are going to find them.
I love all of you guys!!! Keep it real!!!
Elder Andrus
#greenseniorcompanion
I really dont know what to title these things anymore... So if you guys have any ideas!!! hahah!
This week was pretty interesting. It was my Senior Companion week. I did all the senior companion things this week. I led all the planning sessions, led all lessons, led on the bike... Just led everything. Hahah It was very interesting. It was crazy tough. there is so much stuff to do as the senior companion that i didnt know about. Well i am kind of glad it is over haha! Once i get a little more experienced, i am sure that i will be able to love it. hahah i just didnt know quite how to handle everything at that time. But hey! It was an amazing growing experience and now i know what i have to work on.
Jing Hui is Solid as usual. Hahah i had the opportunity to confirm her in sacrament meeting in front of everyone... hehe i was pretty nervous. But it was so cool to be able to confirm her and give her the gift of the holy ghost. She came out teaching with us this week and she did an awesome job!! She is amazing.
Sad part of the week... We figured out saturday night that manning doesnt want to meet with us at all anymore. He said that his professor told him to go to the chinese church, and so that is exactly what he did. It was wierd. Because at the beginning of us teaching him, he said that god led him to us... But now he just disregards us... Kinda sad. I was pretty in the dumps about it. But i know that Hevenly father puts us through trials so that we can become stronger and grow from them. I know that hevenly father has something great in store for us. And i cant wait to see what that is.
We are going to do some massive finding this week. We are going to find all the people that hevenly father wants us to find. There are a ton of people who need to hear this great message of the restored gospel. And we are going to find them.
I love all of you guys!!! Keep it real!!!
Elder Andrus
#greenseniorcompanion
Elder Kyle Jensen
Well, another little cultural fun fact about Korea. Last week on Pday we went to a Meok Yoek Tang, which is a public bath house. Simply put, it's pretty much just a place with a bunch of pools ranging in different temperatures, usually have saunas as well. Anyway, when you finally get over the awkwardness of realizing you're totally exposed, you can relax and let all your stress out by sitting in a hot tub and sauna. And to clarify, there's separate male and female houses of course, in Japan there aren't so missionaries can't go haha. My companion said that the mission president used to take the incoming missionaries to them when they arrived in Korea haha.... oh boy, but I have never felt so clean in my life. It was so refreshing and nice. Koreans really know how to take care of skin, I guess that's Asians in general haha.
I got some more pictures of the Koreans we associate with and some of the kids in our English class we teach each week! THis week we had a snack party because we made it through all the lessons the church provides to teach Englsih so we start back at 1 this week. It was super fun, and I feel so relieved to be able to understand waht people say who can almost speak English fluently. there's two Vietnamese people that come and I was able to have a nice chat with one of them.
Another fun adventure! This week we tried kakahoehoe-ing for the first time! haha that's door to door proselyting in English. In korea, there aren't really houses and if there are they are fenced off. so anyway we went to some apartments in our area to try a new technique because typical we just do street proselyting. no i don't really have an incredible "wow" story, but I can say we didn't get any doors slammed in our faces because no one ever opened up the door all the way! Haha ^^ it was so much fun trying to say something to catch their interest before they slowly closed the door. Alot of them say "bool hwe" which means Buddhist, but anyway, even though not a lot of success, after was quite great. We were walking out of the apartment complex at night and this guy all of a sudden takes me and my companion by the hand and drags us over to some chairs so we could have some water and talk. turns out my companion had met him once before and he loves us Americans. A little scary at first because a random guy grabbed us and started taking us somewhere, but hopefully he will set an appointment with us. Ah, the people here are so wonderful, I love them to death ^^.
Just for a little bit of a spiritual note, or I guess something more to learn from is that listening to the Spirit is the most crucial thing ever in life. We were teaching one of our investigators, Yu Doe Kwon, about the Word of Wisdom, something he's struggling with right now, and during the lesson it was pretty serious and intense. The spirit was flowing and I acted on the promptings to say things, but later on in the lesson, I had a strong impression to bear my testimony about Christ's Atonement. It's hard to slip a word in with this investigator because him and my companion love to talk haha, but there was a moment of silence where I had my chance... and I'm sad to report that I failed and missed the opportunity. I was so devastated. I felt like I had failed my God, failed my purpose as a missionary, and failed myself. I am glad to say though I was quick to repent, because that night I "fell upon my face" with a broken heart and contrite spirit pleading to forgive me of what I had done wrong. Through all the emotion, I felt one of the most incredible feelings in the world: God's forgiveness and love for me through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. Although it was a devastating experience for me at first, I can now look back at it as one of the greatest learning experiences of my life to not ignore the promptings of the Spirit. THat applies to life in general, living life without the constant companion of the Holy Ghost is like heading out to a stormy sea with no compass, sails, anchor, or rudder. The promptings of the Spirit are so tender, so real, and something we all need in order to follow God's will and to fulfill His purpose for us. Christ's Atonement is here for us to APPLY, to learn and grow spiritually, so we can become more like Him. If having the guidance of the Spirit in your lives everyday isn't a goal of yours, I would strongly strongly suggest to make it one and write it down! I love this gospel, and the learning opportunities I get to learn from and the opportunities I also have to teach. Love you family and friends! ^^
Elder Jensen
Well, another little cultural fun fact about Korea. Last week on Pday we went to a Meok Yoek Tang, which is a public bath house. Simply put, it's pretty much just a place with a bunch of pools ranging in different temperatures, usually have saunas as well. Anyway, when you finally get over the awkwardness of realizing you're totally exposed, you can relax and let all your stress out by sitting in a hot tub and sauna. And to clarify, there's separate male and female houses of course, in Japan there aren't so missionaries can't go haha. My companion said that the mission president used to take the incoming missionaries to them when they arrived in Korea haha.... oh boy, but I have never felt so clean in my life. It was so refreshing and nice. Koreans really know how to take care of skin, I guess that's Asians in general haha.
I got some more pictures of the Koreans we associate with and some of the kids in our English class we teach each week! THis week we had a snack party because we made it through all the lessons the church provides to teach Englsih so we start back at 1 this week. It was super fun, and I feel so relieved to be able to understand waht people say who can almost speak English fluently. there's two Vietnamese people that come and I was able to have a nice chat with one of them.
Another fun adventure! This week we tried kakahoehoe-ing for the first time! haha that's door to door proselyting in English. In korea, there aren't really houses and if there are they are fenced off. so anyway we went to some apartments in our area to try a new technique because typical we just do street proselyting. no i don't really have an incredible "wow" story, but I can say we didn't get any doors slammed in our faces because no one ever opened up the door all the way! Haha ^^ it was so much fun trying to say something to catch their interest before they slowly closed the door. Alot of them say "bool hwe" which means Buddhist, but anyway, even though not a lot of success, after was quite great. We were walking out of the apartment complex at night and this guy all of a sudden takes me and my companion by the hand and drags us over to some chairs so we could have some water and talk. turns out my companion had met him once before and he loves us Americans. A little scary at first because a random guy grabbed us and started taking us somewhere, but hopefully he will set an appointment with us. Ah, the people here are so wonderful, I love them to death ^^.
Just for a little bit of a spiritual note, or I guess something more to learn from is that listening to the Spirit is the most crucial thing ever in life. We were teaching one of our investigators, Yu Doe Kwon, about the Word of Wisdom, something he's struggling with right now, and during the lesson it was pretty serious and intense. The spirit was flowing and I acted on the promptings to say things, but later on in the lesson, I had a strong impression to bear my testimony about Christ's Atonement. It's hard to slip a word in with this investigator because him and my companion love to talk haha, but there was a moment of silence where I had my chance... and I'm sad to report that I failed and missed the opportunity. I was so devastated. I felt like I had failed my God, failed my purpose as a missionary, and failed myself. I am glad to say though I was quick to repent, because that night I "fell upon my face" with a broken heart and contrite spirit pleading to forgive me of what I had done wrong. Through all the emotion, I felt one of the most incredible feelings in the world: God's forgiveness and love for me through the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. Although it was a devastating experience for me at first, I can now look back at it as one of the greatest learning experiences of my life to not ignore the promptings of the Spirit. THat applies to life in general, living life without the constant companion of the Holy Ghost is like heading out to a stormy sea with no compass, sails, anchor, or rudder. The promptings of the Spirit are so tender, so real, and something we all need in order to follow God's will and to fulfill His purpose for us. Christ's Atonement is here for us to APPLY, to learn and grow spiritually, so we can become more like Him. If having the guidance of the Spirit in your lives everyday isn't a goal of yours, I would strongly strongly suggest to make it one and write it down! I love this gospel, and the learning opportunities I get to learn from and the opportunities I also have to teach. Love you family and friends! ^^
Elder Jensen
Elder William Hansen
Hey Everybody!
not any time but here is some pics from the week!
we worked hard this week and visited lots of new people! lots of people that shut us down and wanted nothing to do with us, but also a few that seemed like they were ready to recieve this gospel that has been restored!
we found a mother and daugther that had learned witht eh missionaries 7 years ago but then moved and the missionaries lost them, then we found their house by a literal miracle and even they acknoledged that its not just a coincidence we found them.
Headed to PLD Zone Conference for a couple days, so im gonna go catch a flight to jakarta (we arent in a zone so we just go with the closest to us) Have a good week take care!
From
Elder Hansen
ps our gutter was broken so the land lord lady hired some guys to come fix it and they managed to start a fire, get paint and dirt everywhere, and they didnt even speak indonsian! bahasa batak which sounds kinda like cave man language. and you cant really learn it cuz it cant be written!
Hey Everybody!
not any time but here is some pics from the week!
we worked hard this week and visited lots of new people! lots of people that shut us down and wanted nothing to do with us, but also a few that seemed like they were ready to recieve this gospel that has been restored!
we found a mother and daugther that had learned witht eh missionaries 7 years ago but then moved and the missionaries lost them, then we found their house by a literal miracle and even they acknoledged that its not just a coincidence we found them.
Headed to PLD Zone Conference for a couple days, so im gonna go catch a flight to jakarta (we arent in a zone so we just go with the closest to us) Have a good week take care!
From
Elder Hansen
ps our gutter was broken so the land lord lady hired some guys to come fix it and they managed to start a fire, get paint and dirt everywhere, and they didnt even speak indonsian! bahasa batak which sounds kinda like cave man language. and you cant really learn it cuz it cant be written!
Elder Kasey Crafts
October 14, 2014
Dear Friends and Family,
This week was another great week full of miracles everyday. One of the ones i'd like to share is one that happened Sunday. Essentially Elder Westover and i were both new in this area when i got here. And we had been having a hard time getting our investigators to come to church and we had never been able to get some to an actual Sacrament Meeting. UNTIL this week! we had 8 investigators at church! Our small little branch was jammed so tight full of people! It was fantastic. Eva Violobols came, Joe, ( who is a friend of a recent convert Tyson) and Familia Diez. Familia Diez is from Sierra blanca which is about 1 hour from where we live. ( we have the biggest area in the mission) and we hadn't ever been there. They came with the familia Gonzalez right out of the blue! They live out there as well, and have become good friends. We have the best little branch in all of El Paso stake. All the members were great and helpful to all of the investigators.
Another great miracle we noticed happened this week! We had been teaching this girl named Stephanie. She is super prepared and has a lot of really great questions. She reads a lot and prays and wants to go to church. She couldn't go last week because every weekend her and her family goes to mexico. ( this is very common here. People live half a week in the US and the other half in Mexico.) but her mom is starting to work weekends and so now she will get to stay in the US and be able to attend church!
love you all, and i hope you have a great week! Also, if you get a chance go see "Meet the Mormons" And take a non member!
Elder Crafts
October 14, 2014
Dear Friends and Family,
This week was another great week full of miracles everyday. One of the ones i'd like to share is one that happened Sunday. Essentially Elder Westover and i were both new in this area when i got here. And we had been having a hard time getting our investigators to come to church and we had never been able to get some to an actual Sacrament Meeting. UNTIL this week! we had 8 investigators at church! Our small little branch was jammed so tight full of people! It was fantastic. Eva Violobols came, Joe, ( who is a friend of a recent convert Tyson) and Familia Diez. Familia Diez is from Sierra blanca which is about 1 hour from where we live. ( we have the biggest area in the mission) and we hadn't ever been there. They came with the familia Gonzalez right out of the blue! They live out there as well, and have become good friends. We have the best little branch in all of El Paso stake. All the members were great and helpful to all of the investigators.
Another great miracle we noticed happened this week! We had been teaching this girl named Stephanie. She is super prepared and has a lot of really great questions. She reads a lot and prays and wants to go to church. She couldn't go last week because every weekend her and her family goes to mexico. ( this is very common here. People live half a week in the US and the other half in Mexico.) but her mom is starting to work weekends and so now she will get to stay in the US and be able to attend church!
love you all, and i hope you have a great week! Also, if you get a chance go see "Meet the Mormons" And take a non member!
Elder Crafts
Friday, October 17, 2014
Elder Cameron Murray
This past week has been amazing, especially the past day. So we bit off more than we could chew when we went and found more investigators. But the Lord is definitely helping us handle our workload and I think maybe we should go find another investigator. We currently Have 4. Two of them are Gold Tags and are completely our choice. We got to meet with Kyungmin from Korea yesterday. She is amazing. We never realized till our 2nd lesson that she had met with the missionaries five times back in Korea. Haha then we realized we were really dumb and telling her stuff she already knew. She's so open with us and she'll tell us everything. She's a little concerned about joining the church because her family is strong into Buhdism and she doesn't think they'll take it well. She says she doesn't have Faith but we know she does! She's just doesn't want to give up her family for the Church, and we don't want her to either. Yesterday we went to our lesson and we wouldn't have even had the lesson cause she wasn't there. We felt inspired to kneel down and pray and when we stood up from our prayer we ran into her around the Corner. We didn't know where the lesson was going to go but the Lord did. At one point she said I can not deny that I am feeling the spirit. That was when I realized, wow it really is burning! I'm so used to it I didn't notice. Before she wondered if it was her but now she knows! I know she will get baptized if her husband opens up to the Gospel. I'm asking you at home, please pray for Kyungmin's husband, pray that his heart will be open to the Gospel so that God may pour out his blessings on their family. God is mindful of his children. I love you all and I know this church is in God's hands and nothing will stay this work. Let us all press forth in his service.
Love,
Elder Murray
This past week has been amazing, especially the past day. So we bit off more than we could chew when we went and found more investigators. But the Lord is definitely helping us handle our workload and I think maybe we should go find another investigator. We currently Have 4. Two of them are Gold Tags and are completely our choice. We got to meet with Kyungmin from Korea yesterday. She is amazing. We never realized till our 2nd lesson that she had met with the missionaries five times back in Korea. Haha then we realized we were really dumb and telling her stuff she already knew. She's so open with us and she'll tell us everything. She's a little concerned about joining the church because her family is strong into Buhdism and she doesn't think they'll take it well. She says she doesn't have Faith but we know she does! She's just doesn't want to give up her family for the Church, and we don't want her to either. Yesterday we went to our lesson and we wouldn't have even had the lesson cause she wasn't there. We felt inspired to kneel down and pray and when we stood up from our prayer we ran into her around the Corner. We didn't know where the lesson was going to go but the Lord did. At one point she said I can not deny that I am feeling the spirit. That was when I realized, wow it really is burning! I'm so used to it I didn't notice. Before she wondered if it was her but now she knows! I know she will get baptized if her husband opens up to the Gospel. I'm asking you at home, please pray for Kyungmin's husband, pray that his heart will be open to the Gospel so that God may pour out his blessings on their family. God is mindful of his children. I love you all and I know this church is in God's hands and nothing will stay this work. Let us all press forth in his service.
Love,
Elder Murray
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Elder McKlayne Marshall
Everybody im out of time like legitally out of it!
CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!! and I was so blessed to be able to understand them and the meaning of each talk in a different language, yup im super blessed, cause I couldnt of done that on my own! but wow, we are so blessed to have a prophet and all those who gave talks, they were directly from our Heavenly Father, so use them! We had 7 investigadors come to session which was also an incredible blessing! The talks were perfect for all of them! ahh
I encourage all of you to READ over the talks they are sooo incredible! If we desire personal revelation, we must first follow the Revelation our leaders have recieved!
This week was incredible, im learning so much and have been given so many blessings! Try and see the blessings hes given you, there are many! When we see them we will be blessed with more!
IM doing great! IM feeling great and feeling healthy that is the truth! Im just happy to be a Missionary! okay, The language is coming, im definantly not fluent, but I understand a lot, im able to teach pretty much whatever I want, but I have a LONG way to go! The craziest thing ive eatin, I dont even know, I just eat a lot of Rice and more Rice and lots of more Rice! haha Craziest moment, is definantly just everyday, so many awesome crazy things happen and so funny! My comp and I got called a lot of different things this week. So we have a very druggy neighborhood, and my favorite druggy always says
Whats up man, you want to fight, and then this one day, he said Hey you are the most beautiful women in the world!
ONe of our investigadors thought i was 25 way aweosme
and My comp and I got called twins! awesome!
OH the dogs are the worst, They eat other dogs, this one dog in our neighborhood was just chowin down on another dogs head! ewww I was pretty mad at him and pretty grossed out! yup please send me questions and illl try and answer them! yah!
Im so sorry that this email isnt the greatest, but next week will be better I promise!
Please keep me updated on your lifes, Emails are like pearls of awesomeness in my life!
Well I love you, i pray for you, and IM so Blessed and grateful to know you all!
Love Elder Marshall
Everybody im out of time like legitally out of it!
CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!! and I was so blessed to be able to understand them and the meaning of each talk in a different language, yup im super blessed, cause I couldnt of done that on my own! but wow, we are so blessed to have a prophet and all those who gave talks, they were directly from our Heavenly Father, so use them! We had 7 investigadors come to session which was also an incredible blessing! The talks were perfect for all of them! ahh
I encourage all of you to READ over the talks they are sooo incredible! If we desire personal revelation, we must first follow the Revelation our leaders have recieved!
This week was incredible, im learning so much and have been given so many blessings! Try and see the blessings hes given you, there are many! When we see them we will be blessed with more!
IM doing great! IM feeling great and feeling healthy that is the truth! Im just happy to be a Missionary! okay, The language is coming, im definantly not fluent, but I understand a lot, im able to teach pretty much whatever I want, but I have a LONG way to go! The craziest thing ive eatin, I dont even know, I just eat a lot of Rice and more Rice and lots of more Rice! haha Craziest moment, is definantly just everyday, so many awesome crazy things happen and so funny! My comp and I got called a lot of different things this week. So we have a very druggy neighborhood, and my favorite druggy always says
Whats up man, you want to fight, and then this one day, he said Hey you are the most beautiful women in the world!
ONe of our investigadors thought i was 25 way aweosme
and My comp and I got called twins! awesome!
OH the dogs are the worst, They eat other dogs, this one dog in our neighborhood was just chowin down on another dogs head! ewww I was pretty mad at him and pretty grossed out! yup please send me questions and illl try and answer them! yah!
Im so sorry that this email isnt the greatest, but next week will be better I promise!
Please keep me updated on your lifes, Emails are like pearls of awesomeness in my life!
Well I love you, i pray for you, and IM so Blessed and grateful to know you all!
Love Elder Marshall
Elder Joshua Nieman
Well this week went a lot better than the other week. I am starting to understand a lot more and I just feel like the spanish is coming. Haha but next week I will probably say oh that week sucked, I am never going to learn spanish. That is just how it is lately I have some good days but then other days arent as fun. This week I have a story about when we taught Familia Cuya. They are two old people that are so nice and they were the first family we taught when I got here. After our lesson the wife turns to me and says can you give me a blessing for health. I think she saw the worry on my face cause it was true I was nervous to say it in spanish. But she says I could say it in english. Haha those words were the best thing I heard this week. I kind of looked at her weird and said if she was sure she wanted the blessing in english. She said yes and me and my companion started with the blessing and when I finished she automatically turned to me and said I understood what you were saying. It took me a couple seconds but I realized that we were speaking the same language. The language of the spirit and through the spirit we can do anything. It was really cool to have her have so much faith in me to say that blessing. It was really the highlight of the week. Later that week we saw her and she said once we left she felt this energy and power overwhelm her and she thanked us like a ton of times. It was really good to hear and boosted my confidence but anyways this week was alright. I am still trying to adjust to the enviroment and just life here but everything is fantastic. I really do love the missionary life and just everything that you learn and what you can improve on. I had a chance to finally watch confrence and it was so good. Luckliy they had a computadora that had it in english. It was really weird though cause throughout the talks given I was getting so much out of the talks. At home I took GC for granted and I am so grateful for General Confrence. I loved all the talks and I just love this gospel. There wasnt much that happend this week but I did get pooped on by a freaking pidgen. I was so mad and it was in the middle of a conductas. Haha I was super embarrased but I had to go back to the room and change. Well today is my happy 2 month anniversary. 22 more to go. haha I really try not to focus on that to much but it does come in my mind every once in a while. I really do love all of you and I hope I showed that love when I was back home. You have so much time to think when you are out here and it really hits you on what you have got. I really am so grateful for all of you and I hope you are enjoying everything back home like chocalate and Ice cream and just freaking american food. I actually really like all the food. This week we had crab that our Pension caught himself. haha so that was pretty awesome but then we had heart. haha I really dont mind the weird food and I love trying new stuff but anyways I love you all and I hope your next week is going fantastic.
Love you all forever
Elder Nieman
Conductas = behavior or fit
Joshua's address in Peru:
Elder Joshua Nieman
Peru Lima East Mission
Calle Los Agrologos 368
Urbanizacion Las Acacias De Monterrico
La Molina, Lima 12
PERU
email: joshua.nieman@myldsmail.net
Blog: joshison.blogspot.com
Well this week went a lot better than the other week. I am starting to understand a lot more and I just feel like the spanish is coming. Haha but next week I will probably say oh that week sucked, I am never going to learn spanish. That is just how it is lately I have some good days but then other days arent as fun. This week I have a story about when we taught Familia Cuya. They are two old people that are so nice and they were the first family we taught when I got here. After our lesson the wife turns to me and says can you give me a blessing for health. I think she saw the worry on my face cause it was true I was nervous to say it in spanish. But she says I could say it in english. Haha those words were the best thing I heard this week. I kind of looked at her weird and said if she was sure she wanted the blessing in english. She said yes and me and my companion started with the blessing and when I finished she automatically turned to me and said I understood what you were saying. It took me a couple seconds but I realized that we were speaking the same language. The language of the spirit and through the spirit we can do anything. It was really cool to have her have so much faith in me to say that blessing. It was really the highlight of the week. Later that week we saw her and she said once we left she felt this energy and power overwhelm her and she thanked us like a ton of times. It was really good to hear and boosted my confidence but anyways this week was alright. I am still trying to adjust to the enviroment and just life here but everything is fantastic. I really do love the missionary life and just everything that you learn and what you can improve on. I had a chance to finally watch confrence and it was so good. Luckliy they had a computadora that had it in english. It was really weird though cause throughout the talks given I was getting so much out of the talks. At home I took GC for granted and I am so grateful for General Confrence. I loved all the talks and I just love this gospel. There wasnt much that happend this week but I did get pooped on by a freaking pidgen. I was so mad and it was in the middle of a conductas. Haha I was super embarrased but I had to go back to the room and change. Well today is my happy 2 month anniversary. 22 more to go. haha I really try not to focus on that to much but it does come in my mind every once in a while. I really do love all of you and I hope I showed that love when I was back home. You have so much time to think when you are out here and it really hits you on what you have got. I really am so grateful for all of you and I hope you are enjoying everything back home like chocalate and Ice cream and just freaking american food. I actually really like all the food. This week we had crab that our Pension caught himself. haha so that was pretty awesome but then we had heart. haha I really dont mind the weird food and I love trying new stuff but anyways I love you all and I hope your next week is going fantastic.
Love you all forever
Elder Nieman
Conductas = behavior or fit
Joshua's address in Peru:
Elder Joshua Nieman
Peru Lima East Mission
Calle Los Agrologos 368
Urbanizacion Las Acacias De Monterrico
La Molina, Lima 12
PERU
email: joshua.nieman@myldsmail.net
Blog: joshison.blogspot.com
Elder Tyler Peterson
What up everybody?!
Well, everything sounds crazy awesome back at home! I super wish I had time to write a lot of individual emails today, but today was NUTS!! (so... I don't have time ;))
So transfers! (they're called cambios here) Elder Gómez (the one that's not my companion) left, which is good, cause he was SO dead, it was ridiculous! (learned a lot though! ;)) Now Elder Layton's gonna train, which is sweet!! :) I'm not gonna be the newest missionary in the ward, so I'm hoping that it'l help get over any new guy angst that I still have! That's dumb that my mind works like that, but hopefully that gets better! :)
Today! Dropped Elder Gómez off, pulled out my MEXICAN HAMACA!!! Forgot to take pictures, but now I'm the owner of a very fine, very good looking hand woven hammock, which I'm super stoked about!! (hammocks are cooler to sleep in, which frankly I need... it's hot here ;)) Next week pics!! Anyways, that was sweet, but then we ran out of water as we were going to do laundry... Real bad. :/ So... we drew water out of this 16 meter deep well to get water to clean clothes and shower! Pretty legit right?! :) and exhausting! I feel so tired, but it's a good tired, so that's good! :) Oh, then I ate to death! Over and over again... Elder Gómez says I'm getting fat haha! Might be though... despite exercise, walking, serving, the heat, sweating, EVERYTHING, the members are feeding us more than we can eat, and I might be gaining weight... yikes!!
I legitly feel really optimistic about the work right now! We've found some really great people, and (cross your fingers! and pray!!) we may have a baptismal date that'll stick after tonight! :) That would literally be the best thing right now!
This week: One of the sisters in our district is heading home! Hermana Sandoval has served 18 months (I can't even think about that yet!), really funny street contacts (meaning they did NOT go well haha!) and anti mormon/missionary literature for the first time in my life! Crazy! But really, the church is SO true, no matter what anyone tries to tell you, because Heavenly Father told you, and that's what matters most! I love you all tons! I'm praying for y'all, so make it count haha! ¡Que Dios bendiga a todos!
¡Nos vemos!
Elder Tyler Peterson
What up everybody?!
Well, everything sounds crazy awesome back at home! I super wish I had time to write a lot of individual emails today, but today was NUTS!! (so... I don't have time ;))
So transfers! (they're called cambios here) Elder Gómez (the one that's not my companion) left, which is good, cause he was SO dead, it was ridiculous! (learned a lot though! ;)) Now Elder Layton's gonna train, which is sweet!! :) I'm not gonna be the newest missionary in the ward, so I'm hoping that it'l help get over any new guy angst that I still have! That's dumb that my mind works like that, but hopefully that gets better! :)
Today! Dropped Elder Gómez off, pulled out my MEXICAN HAMACA!!! Forgot to take pictures, but now I'm the owner of a very fine, very good looking hand woven hammock, which I'm super stoked about!! (hammocks are cooler to sleep in, which frankly I need... it's hot here ;)) Next week pics!! Anyways, that was sweet, but then we ran out of water as we were going to do laundry... Real bad. :/ So... we drew water out of this 16 meter deep well to get water to clean clothes and shower! Pretty legit right?! :) and exhausting! I feel so tired, but it's a good tired, so that's good! :) Oh, then I ate to death! Over and over again... Elder Gómez says I'm getting fat haha! Might be though... despite exercise, walking, serving, the heat, sweating, EVERYTHING, the members are feeding us more than we can eat, and I might be gaining weight... yikes!!
I legitly feel really optimistic about the work right now! We've found some really great people, and (cross your fingers! and pray!!) we may have a baptismal date that'll stick after tonight! :) That would literally be the best thing right now!
This week: One of the sisters in our district is heading home! Hermana Sandoval has served 18 months (I can't even think about that yet!), really funny street contacts (meaning they did NOT go well haha!) and anti mormon/missionary literature for the first time in my life! Crazy! But really, the church is SO true, no matter what anyone tries to tell you, because Heavenly Father told you, and that's what matters most! I love you all tons! I'm praying for y'all, so make it count haha! ¡Que Dios bendiga a todos!
¡Nos vemos!
Elder Tyler Peterson
Elder Kyler Olsen
Well. Conference was certainly a miracle for me! My favorite session was the saturday afternoon. Maybe because the choir was american girls. haha jk tooele girls? (that one is for grandma) and who would go for one of those? (thats for grandpa;) haha totally kidding. The Is it I talk like tipped me out of my seat, I really have so much more to apply to better myself and be a better servant of the Lord. Beginning with the day to day stuff. Ya. I am happy right now. truly happy, and I want you all to know that. Never ever forget who you are. And if you dont know who you are, then write it out, describe yourself. THen accept it. And then get better. :) Haha that is what I did this weekend and I am happy.
So here in peru, they sell sugar by the kilo and half kilo, and we did a 3 hour service project of weighing sugar. talk about boring!! haha but I had an 80 percent perfection rate of putting the exact amount in the bags, compared to E Lopez 2 out of like 70. haha the things that excite you...
This week we are prepping Rosa and Laura, mom and daughter for their baptism. Yesterday we had a lesson with them and she said that she didnt think she was ready. but Thanks to the amazing and super tough experiences that I have had, I was able to answer all her fears according to the spirit, and she is on track for the agua!! Helping others feel this joy that I feel, this happiness, is truly the greatest blessing. I sure love you all and hope that you have the most wonderful week! good luck xc at state, go kill it on that course!
Sonríe, hoy es un gran día!
Love you all and cant wait to get all the letters you are writing me! cause I have a sum total of 1! :)
Love you tons,
Elder Olsen
Well. Conference was certainly a miracle for me! My favorite session was the saturday afternoon. Maybe because the choir was american girls. haha jk tooele girls? (that one is for grandma) and who would go for one of those? (thats for grandpa;) haha totally kidding. The Is it I talk like tipped me out of my seat, I really have so much more to apply to better myself and be a better servant of the Lord. Beginning with the day to day stuff. Ya. I am happy right now. truly happy, and I want you all to know that. Never ever forget who you are. And if you dont know who you are, then write it out, describe yourself. THen accept it. And then get better. :) Haha that is what I did this weekend and I am happy.
So here in peru, they sell sugar by the kilo and half kilo, and we did a 3 hour service project of weighing sugar. talk about boring!! haha but I had an 80 percent perfection rate of putting the exact amount in the bags, compared to E Lopez 2 out of like 70. haha the things that excite you...
This week we are prepping Rosa and Laura, mom and daughter for their baptism. Yesterday we had a lesson with them and she said that she didnt think she was ready. but Thanks to the amazing and super tough experiences that I have had, I was able to answer all her fears according to the spirit, and she is on track for the agua!! Helping others feel this joy that I feel, this happiness, is truly the greatest blessing. I sure love you all and hope that you have the most wonderful week! good luck xc at state, go kill it on that course!
Sonríe, hoy es un gran día!
Love you all and cant wait to get all the letters you are writing me! cause I have a sum total of 1! :)
Love you tons,
Elder Olsen
Sister Hannah Walker
Hello Everyone :)
Man, this week was amazing...we had a Zone Conference on Tuesday and a Zone Training Meeting on Thursday...Both awesome meetings :) I was able to play for a musical number which consisted of Sister Szilagyi and two other Elders singing. Man, it felt great to play again :) I've definitely missed using my talents! They sang The Lord is my Shepherd by Rob Gardner for those of you who care. It is BEAUTIFUL! And I encourage all of you to listen to it :)
In these meetings, they talked about several different and seemingly unrelated topics...I'd like to mention one specifically that connects back to General Conference. One of our awesome zone leaders gave a training on loyalty. This is something that I've thought a lot about lately...as missionaries, we are taught that our loyalties lie first to the Lord. That should be true for every single person here on this Earth. God gave us everything. We owe it to Him to be pointed in His direction with everything we do in life. We should "fear no man." This training talked a lot about the principles that were mentioned in the conference talk "Where do you Face?" which I absolutely loved! It applies to so much and man it was just great :) I've been focusing on applying it daily :)
haha this week was an interesting week filled with many interesting experiences... it was great though :) haha Saturday night we went over to Brother Phillips's house (our old Ward Mission Leader). We went out in his field to feed some of the horses....they were a good long walk away from the house on the other side of his pond. Haha when we got out there, this white one came right up to us and started nosing us for the apples. haha she decided she didn't like the green ones, but got a little frustrated when she found out that's all we had! After trying to feed the pony who wouldn't have anything to do with us, we headed back across the field to the house. haha the white one decided that she wanted to follow Sister Anderson which kind of freaked my companion out a little bit. We would walk a little ways then hear this big horse coming after us. She'd stop and turn around to show this wonderful creature that we did not have anymore apples. This went on the entire way up to the gate. At one point in our journey across the field, the white horse came up to us and got spooked or something and started bucking away. She wasn't too close to us, but nevertheless, we felt the need to quicken our stride. haha we get to the fence and climb over it (there was a big gate, but because of the closeness of the white horse, we didn't want her getting out, so we climbed it :) (thank goodness for long skirts!) haha upon getting over the gate, the white horse reached her neck over at us and realized she had an itch...she started moving her head back and forth scratching her neck on this fence...hahaha then apparently satisfying that itch, she noticed another one. She turned around and started itching her butt on this fence. haha this lasted for a good minute...her just swaying back and forth, itchin away. haha it looked like she was dancing :) ohh man Sister Anderson and I were busting up. It was great :) Definitely a memorable experience ;)
This week, I also tried frog legs for the first time and they were delicious! Last night we went to the Wagstaff's for dinner and they made us bacon wrapped chicken and pineapple cream pie...both were DIVINE (to quote my mother ;) ). sooo stinkin good!
Anyway, the work is going. Sister Anderson has been getting some anxiety problems with the area...we both came from a booming area, and coming here is definitely a humbling experience. She's still trying to figure it out, but she's getting there :) we both are.
Life is good, life is grand. :) :) Hope it's the same for y'all!! Remember where you're facing and who your loyalties lie with :)
Love,
Sister Walker
Hello Everyone :)
Man, this week was amazing...we had a Zone Conference on Tuesday and a Zone Training Meeting on Thursday...Both awesome meetings :) I was able to play for a musical number which consisted of Sister Szilagyi and two other Elders singing. Man, it felt great to play again :) I've definitely missed using my talents! They sang The Lord is my Shepherd by Rob Gardner for those of you who care. It is BEAUTIFUL! And I encourage all of you to listen to it :)
In these meetings, they talked about several different and seemingly unrelated topics...I'd like to mention one specifically that connects back to General Conference. One of our awesome zone leaders gave a training on loyalty. This is something that I've thought a lot about lately...as missionaries, we are taught that our loyalties lie first to the Lord. That should be true for every single person here on this Earth. God gave us everything. We owe it to Him to be pointed in His direction with everything we do in life. We should "fear no man." This training talked a lot about the principles that were mentioned in the conference talk "Where do you Face?" which I absolutely loved! It applies to so much and man it was just great :) I've been focusing on applying it daily :)
haha this week was an interesting week filled with many interesting experiences... it was great though :) haha Saturday night we went over to Brother Phillips's house (our old Ward Mission Leader). We went out in his field to feed some of the horses....they were a good long walk away from the house on the other side of his pond. Haha when we got out there, this white one came right up to us and started nosing us for the apples. haha she decided she didn't like the green ones, but got a little frustrated when she found out that's all we had! After trying to feed the pony who wouldn't have anything to do with us, we headed back across the field to the house. haha the white one decided that she wanted to follow Sister Anderson which kind of freaked my companion out a little bit. We would walk a little ways then hear this big horse coming after us. She'd stop and turn around to show this wonderful creature that we did not have anymore apples. This went on the entire way up to the gate. At one point in our journey across the field, the white horse came up to us and got spooked or something and started bucking away. She wasn't too close to us, but nevertheless, we felt the need to quicken our stride. haha we get to the fence and climb over it (there was a big gate, but because of the closeness of the white horse, we didn't want her getting out, so we climbed it :) (thank goodness for long skirts!) haha upon getting over the gate, the white horse reached her neck over at us and realized she had an itch...she started moving her head back and forth scratching her neck on this fence...hahaha then apparently satisfying that itch, she noticed another one. She turned around and started itching her butt on this fence. haha this lasted for a good minute...her just swaying back and forth, itchin away. haha it looked like she was dancing :) ohh man Sister Anderson and I were busting up. It was great :) Definitely a memorable experience ;)
This week, I also tried frog legs for the first time and they were delicious! Last night we went to the Wagstaff's for dinner and they made us bacon wrapped chicken and pineapple cream pie...both were DIVINE (to quote my mother ;) ). sooo stinkin good!
Anyway, the work is going. Sister Anderson has been getting some anxiety problems with the area...we both came from a booming area, and coming here is definitely a humbling experience. She's still trying to figure it out, but she's getting there :) we both are.
Life is good, life is grand. :) :) Hope it's the same for y'all!! Remember where you're facing and who your loyalties lie with :)
Love,
Sister Walker
Elder Clay Rawlins
Hola Todo
Just another great week! We did a lot of service this week! Smashing walls is super funn i never thought it would be! haha We smashed a wall for our Releif society president and helped build a new one! I love being in the service of others cause i know i am in the service of God!
If i didnt say it before we teach English classes every tuesday to those people who want to learn and we have one guy from our ward who always comes his name is Emiliano only he came this time but it was great cause he wants to become an english teacher so he can have a better job. Its cool cause he is talking the promise of President Gordon B Hinkley and is reading the Book of Mormon in English to help him learn. This guy is the best cause he comes with us to the lessons of Christian (one of our investigators who came to church this week and gospel pricipals) Cool this is i cut my first argentines hair and it was him you´ll have to take a look and tell me how well i did! One of our other investigators is Ayelen and yesterday she also came to church and stayed for gospel priciples but later that night we had a lesson with her and here dad luis about the plan of happieness and we got here to give us the rest of her tea! woo she is so close to being baptised now i cant wait. I love to see the progress of these people changing to make their lives better! I hope all of you had a great week its good to hear from all!
Elder Rawlins
Hola Todo
Just another great week! We did a lot of service this week! Smashing walls is super funn i never thought it would be! haha We smashed a wall for our Releif society president and helped build a new one! I love being in the service of others cause i know i am in the service of God!
If i didnt say it before we teach English classes every tuesday to those people who want to learn and we have one guy from our ward who always comes his name is Emiliano only he came this time but it was great cause he wants to become an english teacher so he can have a better job. Its cool cause he is talking the promise of President Gordon B Hinkley and is reading the Book of Mormon in English to help him learn. This guy is the best cause he comes with us to the lessons of Christian (one of our investigators who came to church this week and gospel pricipals) Cool this is i cut my first argentines hair and it was him you´ll have to take a look and tell me how well i did! One of our other investigators is Ayelen and yesterday she also came to church and stayed for gospel priciples but later that night we had a lesson with her and here dad luis about the plan of happieness and we got here to give us the rest of her tea! woo she is so close to being baptised now i cant wait. I love to see the progress of these people changing to make their lives better! I hope all of you had a great week its good to hear from all!
Elder Rawlins
Elder Kyle Andrus
WOW. What a great week. This has probably been one of the best weeks of my mission so far. So many good things happening, and will happen. Life is looking good right now.
Jing Hui!!! Our little Tiawanese investigator got baptized this week!!! She is so solid! She said she was so nervous. hahah! She was scared to get in the water, but when she stepped in, i have not felt as happy on my mission. This is the first investigator that i have been with all the way through the process. I dont know if i told you about how we found her, but i will say it again because it is awesome. We were gqing for a while and people were being really rude to us. We were starting to get a little frustrated. No one wanted to hear the gospel it seemed like. We were going on a couple of hours with not alot of sucess. We both got this feeling that we needed to keep going. Someone out here today needed to hear the gospel. So we kept going. Then a couple of minutes later, we talked to Jing Hui for the first time. I was so thankful to Hevenly father for allowing us to teach his daughter. I feel so close to her!!!
Second off, Fiona got baptized this week!!! It was a crazy turn of events, alot happened. But she ended up entering the waters of baptism and making her first covenant!!! It was so surreal to se her get into that font. Elder Battles pretty much made it possible for her to get baptized. He did alot. He was there the whole way. It was amazing to see that though!!!
Manning, our American football loving Chinese investigator is solid as ever. He is so awesome. He has such a strong testimony of God and jesus christ. He accepted a date on the 26th. so We are hoping he will make that date!!!
Cheng hao broke his ankle playing basketball. That kinda stinks. He wasnt able to meet with us this week because of that. I am hoping that the Lord will make it possible for us to meet and for us to teach him this week.
It rained a lot this week. Alot. I am in need of some waterproof trousers and some waterproof shoes. My feet were wet for alot of the days this week. hahah but it was amazing. everything is working and we are so thankful for everything the lord has done for us this week.
Jolly ole' england. What a place to be a missionary. Love it here.
I love all of you so much!!!
Elder Andrus
#wearhightopswhenplayingbasketball
WOW. What a great week. This has probably been one of the best weeks of my mission so far. So many good things happening, and will happen. Life is looking good right now.
Jing Hui!!! Our little Tiawanese investigator got baptized this week!!! She is so solid! She said she was so nervous. hahah! She was scared to get in the water, but when she stepped in, i have not felt as happy on my mission. This is the first investigator that i have been with all the way through the process. I dont know if i told you about how we found her, but i will say it again because it is awesome. We were gqing for a while and people were being really rude to us. We were starting to get a little frustrated. No one wanted to hear the gospel it seemed like. We were going on a couple of hours with not alot of sucess. We both got this feeling that we needed to keep going. Someone out here today needed to hear the gospel. So we kept going. Then a couple of minutes later, we talked to Jing Hui for the first time. I was so thankful to Hevenly father for allowing us to teach his daughter. I feel so close to her!!!
Second off, Fiona got baptized this week!!! It was a crazy turn of events, alot happened. But she ended up entering the waters of baptism and making her first covenant!!! It was so surreal to se her get into that font. Elder Battles pretty much made it possible for her to get baptized. He did alot. He was there the whole way. It was amazing to see that though!!!
Manning, our American football loving Chinese investigator is solid as ever. He is so awesome. He has such a strong testimony of God and jesus christ. He accepted a date on the 26th. so We are hoping he will make that date!!!
Cheng hao broke his ankle playing basketball. That kinda stinks. He wasnt able to meet with us this week because of that. I am hoping that the Lord will make it possible for us to meet and for us to teach him this week.
It rained a lot this week. Alot. I am in need of some waterproof trousers and some waterproof shoes. My feet were wet for alot of the days this week. hahah but it was amazing. everything is working and we are so thankful for everything the lord has done for us this week.
Jolly ole' england. What a place to be a missionary. Love it here.
I love all of you so much!!!
Elder Andrus
#wearhightopswhenplayingbasketball
Elder William Hansen
HEy yall.
So I know general conference is old news to all you americans but i finially got to watch it yesterday. I watched it in english with me elder zollinger and Barlow on the mission couples laptop. And Can i tell you how amazing it was. I nearly was blown off my chair by how amazing it was. I spend my time teaching about a lving prophet, and to hear the voices of the servants of God, was an amazing experience. I regret never taking conference very seriously before now,because this time i worte listened and prayed about so many things i learned, and i am so grateful for the opportunity we all have to listen to the words of God through his chosen vessels. This conference seemed really focused on individual strength and making your own testimony sure in preperation for these last days. And i know that what they said is so important. because i can see it all around me everyday. Lots of members here and new or not super strong and are tossed to and fro by the currents around them. but as each of us sure up our testiomies through study, prayer, service and doing what the prophets teach to us, we will be stronger as the world falls into more and more wickedness and tries to destroy our faith and what we know to be true. hold tight to the rod.
this week we found a store that is using images from the Mormon bible videos to make Christian magazines, that are definitely not mormon. Too bad there is like no copyright laws here.
During general conference, i saw David morely and cameron murray in the mtc choir! its awesome to see them, and weird as well, becuase i used to see that and be like. oh. missionaries. are so old. but now im here! Its so awesome.
This week i went on splints with elder pujianto and hes a pretty quiet little indonesian and we were in my area so i had to pretty much do everything Speaking, teaching. it was pretty hard, because sometimes i didnt know what to say but i applied what we learn from d&c, and opened my mouth and relied on the holy ghost to help me say what i could when i could from the knowlege i had treasured up in my mind. it was far from good, but it was enough for the most part.
It was also his birthday sunday, we went to the senior couples house and ate tacos and cake! what a treat!
We had an investigator come to conference then we retaught her and her doughter about the restoration, but shes been reading aabout the chruch online about polygamy and she told us that she is 100% convinced joseph smith was wrong...so all we could do was encourage her to gain a testimony of the BoM. Same for all of us. if we search our falsities, we will find them and be hurt. stick with the truth eh?
WEll thanks for the love and the prayers. You are all so great, and i love hearing frm you all! have a good week!
Elder Hansen
ps. my acne has gone crazy here. and everysingle member of the chruch has suggestions for me cuz its "undesireable and ugly". its actually prtty funny because of how open they are about it. in america you dont say anything different, here everyones like....hey you have acne. why, how, whatdo you eat, was it like that in america, man thats ugly, hey rub hot water on your face, hey rub ice on your face, rub cucumbers on your face, stuff like that. Indonesians are pretty open about almsot anything like that! but dont worry! Its definitely a good time!
HEy yall.
So I know general conference is old news to all you americans but i finially got to watch it yesterday. I watched it in english with me elder zollinger and Barlow on the mission couples laptop. And Can i tell you how amazing it was. I nearly was blown off my chair by how amazing it was. I spend my time teaching about a lving prophet, and to hear the voices of the servants of God, was an amazing experience. I regret never taking conference very seriously before now,because this time i worte listened and prayed about so many things i learned, and i am so grateful for the opportunity we all have to listen to the words of God through his chosen vessels. This conference seemed really focused on individual strength and making your own testimony sure in preperation for these last days. And i know that what they said is so important. because i can see it all around me everyday. Lots of members here and new or not super strong and are tossed to and fro by the currents around them. but as each of us sure up our testiomies through study, prayer, service and doing what the prophets teach to us, we will be stronger as the world falls into more and more wickedness and tries to destroy our faith and what we know to be true. hold tight to the rod.
this week we found a store that is using images from the Mormon bible videos to make Christian magazines, that are definitely not mormon. Too bad there is like no copyright laws here.
During general conference, i saw David morely and cameron murray in the mtc choir! its awesome to see them, and weird as well, becuase i used to see that and be like. oh. missionaries. are so old. but now im here! Its so awesome.
This week i went on splints with elder pujianto and hes a pretty quiet little indonesian and we were in my area so i had to pretty much do everything Speaking, teaching. it was pretty hard, because sometimes i didnt know what to say but i applied what we learn from d&c, and opened my mouth and relied on the holy ghost to help me say what i could when i could from the knowlege i had treasured up in my mind. it was far from good, but it was enough for the most part.
It was also his birthday sunday, we went to the senior couples house and ate tacos and cake! what a treat!
We had an investigator come to conference then we retaught her and her doughter about the restoration, but shes been reading aabout the chruch online about polygamy and she told us that she is 100% convinced joseph smith was wrong...so all we could do was encourage her to gain a testimony of the BoM. Same for all of us. if we search our falsities, we will find them and be hurt. stick with the truth eh?
WEll thanks for the love and the prayers. You are all so great, and i love hearing frm you all! have a good week!
Elder Hansen
ps. my acne has gone crazy here. and everysingle member of the chruch has suggestions for me cuz its "undesireable and ugly". its actually prtty funny because of how open they are about it. in america you dont say anything different, here everyones like....hey you have acne. why, how, whatdo you eat, was it like that in america, man thats ugly, hey rub hot water on your face, hey rub ice on your face, rub cucumbers on your face, stuff like that. Indonesians are pretty open about almsot anything like that! but dont worry! Its definitely a good time!
Elder Kyle Jensen
Yes, Yes, the time is flying here in Korea, just as fast as it does in Utah I'm sure too haha. just to clarify, even though it's a transfer, I'm staying here in Anseong with the same companion because I'm being trained still, so that's awesome because I love it here in Anseong. It's a nice smaller town that reminds me of Utah, mainly because it has farmland. Other areas don't have the opportunity of seeing that haah.
One of our investigators, Kim Song Su, is heading off to America! He's taking his kids to some school for three months there, so he's leaving soon which is really sad because he is accepting the gospel really well. I'm getting my haircut from his wife sometime soon haha because she's a haricutter person. Anyway, it's been really cool to see him grow because we've been teaching him English as well. He even came and watched some conference! The people here, as well as in other places Im sure, are hit or miss, committed or not. But seeing these people come unto Christ is one of the biggest joys in the world, it's why I'm here.
And how about general conference?! Yes, I know all of you in America already got to see it, but we finally got to see it the last couple days! and it was incredible. It was a huge realization to me of how God's prophets and apostles are some of the most skilled missionaries out there. Each one of there talked touched base of some basic principle of the Gospel. They teach it so clearly, and so plainly that it cannot be mistaken. It was such a spiritual feast and testimony builder to realize that these men are called by an all-knowing God to deliver His word in His time. Everything I heard was so special and meaningful, I loved it. As of now, I don't really have a favorite word to share, but I did really love David A Bednar's talk. The whole world needs to hear the things he said, of course with the rest of conference too. I loved his invitation to "come and see." He simply and powerfully explained that we are ALL missionaries, we should all be inviting others to come unto Christ through our actions, words, thoughts, and deeds. TESTIFY of Christ, INVITE people to good, and perhaps most crucial, gain the DESIRE to share the most important things in the world, even God's word. Turning to Christ is turning outwards towards others; it establishes "the way we face." I hope all of you gained some personal revelation during this conference on how you can improve because this gospel is a gospel of CHANGE. There will never be a point in life and in the eternities where you can't improve until you become like God and Christ themselves. Life's journey, such an interesting concept itself when we compare it with eternity haha, oh boy. Anway, not a whole lot happened this week, hope you are all doing well! Love to hear from you all!
Elder Jensen
Yes, Yes, the time is flying here in Korea, just as fast as it does in Utah I'm sure too haha. just to clarify, even though it's a transfer, I'm staying here in Anseong with the same companion because I'm being trained still, so that's awesome because I love it here in Anseong. It's a nice smaller town that reminds me of Utah, mainly because it has farmland. Other areas don't have the opportunity of seeing that haah.
One of our investigators, Kim Song Su, is heading off to America! He's taking his kids to some school for three months there, so he's leaving soon which is really sad because he is accepting the gospel really well. I'm getting my haircut from his wife sometime soon haha because she's a haricutter person. Anyway, it's been really cool to see him grow because we've been teaching him English as well. He even came and watched some conference! The people here, as well as in other places Im sure, are hit or miss, committed or not. But seeing these people come unto Christ is one of the biggest joys in the world, it's why I'm here.
And how about general conference?! Yes, I know all of you in America already got to see it, but we finally got to see it the last couple days! and it was incredible. It was a huge realization to me of how God's prophets and apostles are some of the most skilled missionaries out there. Each one of there talked touched base of some basic principle of the Gospel. They teach it so clearly, and so plainly that it cannot be mistaken. It was such a spiritual feast and testimony builder to realize that these men are called by an all-knowing God to deliver His word in His time. Everything I heard was so special and meaningful, I loved it. As of now, I don't really have a favorite word to share, but I did really love David A Bednar's talk. The whole world needs to hear the things he said, of course with the rest of conference too. I loved his invitation to "come and see." He simply and powerfully explained that we are ALL missionaries, we should all be inviting others to come unto Christ through our actions, words, thoughts, and deeds. TESTIFY of Christ, INVITE people to good, and perhaps most crucial, gain the DESIRE to share the most important things in the world, even God's word. Turning to Christ is turning outwards towards others; it establishes "the way we face." I hope all of you gained some personal revelation during this conference on how you can improve because this gospel is a gospel of CHANGE. There will never be a point in life and in the eternities where you can't improve until you become like God and Christ themselves. Life's journey, such an interesting concept itself when we compare it with eternity haha, oh boy. Anway, not a whole lot happened this week, hope you are all doing well! Love to hear from you all!
Elder Jensen
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Elder Dominique Rogers
Hola,
This week was awesome we had a awesome General Conference. I felt like it was directly to me, one really cool thing about the General Conference was that I got to watch it in English, so that was really awesome, I heard that some missionaries in my mission didn´t get to because the church they were in didn´t have it in English.
One of the speakers in the the Conference was from Uruguay, that was so cool we were all super excited to hear him talk and it was also awesome that he went on a mission here in Uruguay as well. He actually lives in our mission in a place called Venus I think.
Another really cool thing they did with Conference was the speakers that spoke in their native tounge. That was really awesome for the members down here to here a general authority or a member of the 70, speak in Spanish, that was so cool they did that.
One talked I really like a lot was Elder Bednar´s talk because he spoke mostly on investigators or nonmembers that were listening to General Conference, we had an investigator at general Conference and he really liked General Conference and I think he said his favorite talk was Elder Bednar´s.
General Conference is awesome and I learned so much more this General Conference than I have in all the other ones that I have watched previously. I hope you all have a good week.
Sincerly,
Elder Rogers
Hola,
This week was awesome we had a awesome General Conference. I felt like it was directly to me, one really cool thing about the General Conference was that I got to watch it in English, so that was really awesome, I heard that some missionaries in my mission didn´t get to because the church they were in didn´t have it in English.
One of the speakers in the the Conference was from Uruguay, that was so cool we were all super excited to hear him talk and it was also awesome that he went on a mission here in Uruguay as well. He actually lives in our mission in a place called Venus I think.
Another really cool thing they did with Conference was the speakers that spoke in their native tounge. That was really awesome for the members down here to here a general authority or a member of the 70, speak in Spanish, that was so cool they did that.
One talked I really like a lot was Elder Bednar´s talk because he spoke mostly on investigators or nonmembers that were listening to General Conference, we had an investigator at general Conference and he really liked General Conference and I think he said his favorite talk was Elder Bednar´s.
General Conference is awesome and I learned so much more this General Conference than I have in all the other ones that I have watched previously. I hope you all have a good week.
Sincerly,
Elder Rogers
Elder Cameron Murray
Hallo!
Wow this week was pretty incredible!! As I left the stand from the conference center I looked around me and thought, I'll probably never see this sight again from the stand. And if I do, let us all hope and pray it's only for choir! There was so many miracles I don't even know where to begin. Many of us were all sick at one point before we were going to sing, but the Lord gave us the Strength to push through. When we were practicing before the session I started to feel not so good and I started to get a headache, probably from stress. I was reminded of a talk my dad gave me when we must do all we can to overcome a sickness medically before or along with a blessing. I wasn't getting a blessing but I was praying and I understand more now that faith without works is dead. I went and talked to some of our leaders wives and they pulled out all kinds of drugs! They asked me which one I wanted and I had to let them pick cause I had no idea. Throughout singing in priesthood session I felt Great and I believe the Lord gave me strength. I also strongly believe there was angles among us and so did many other elders! We only practiced 7 days and there was no way we could have sounded that good alone. In our own strength we are nothing, but in the strength of the Lord we can do all things. We had a testimony on the way back and many elders spoke of the personal experiences they had. One said he had the thought that there's others that have been practicing a lot longer than us. I believe those others really were angels, as I left the conference center I remember thinking Good thing God left some angels behind. I also had a huge tender mercy. At the end i was looking over the audience a little. I doubted I would ever find my family and I don't even think I was looking for them anymore. Suddenly, without any effort on my part, my head turned and looked directly at my family. Seeing them brought me such joy and they immediately started waving their hands. It was then that I realized, that's what this whole gospel is about. Families!!! I felt such powerful love like I have never felt before and I started to tear up. If my joy was great in seeing my family at the conference center, then How great will be our Joy when we reunite in the presence of God. Now Let us go forth, and share this same joy with the WORLD. That they too may partake of the fruits from the Love of Christ.
Love,
Elder Murray
Hallo!
Wow this week was pretty incredible!! As I left the stand from the conference center I looked around me and thought, I'll probably never see this sight again from the stand. And if I do, let us all hope and pray it's only for choir! There was so many miracles I don't even know where to begin. Many of us were all sick at one point before we were going to sing, but the Lord gave us the Strength to push through. When we were practicing before the session I started to feel not so good and I started to get a headache, probably from stress. I was reminded of a talk my dad gave me when we must do all we can to overcome a sickness medically before or along with a blessing. I wasn't getting a blessing but I was praying and I understand more now that faith without works is dead. I went and talked to some of our leaders wives and they pulled out all kinds of drugs! They asked me which one I wanted and I had to let them pick cause I had no idea. Throughout singing in priesthood session I felt Great and I believe the Lord gave me strength. I also strongly believe there was angles among us and so did many other elders! We only practiced 7 days and there was no way we could have sounded that good alone. In our own strength we are nothing, but in the strength of the Lord we can do all things. We had a testimony on the way back and many elders spoke of the personal experiences they had. One said he had the thought that there's others that have been practicing a lot longer than us. I believe those others really were angels, as I left the conference center I remember thinking Good thing God left some angels behind. I also had a huge tender mercy. At the end i was looking over the audience a little. I doubted I would ever find my family and I don't even think I was looking for them anymore. Suddenly, without any effort on my part, my head turned and looked directly at my family. Seeing them brought me such joy and they immediately started waving their hands. It was then that I realized, that's what this whole gospel is about. Families!!! I felt such powerful love like I have never felt before and I started to tear up. If my joy was great in seeing my family at the conference center, then How great will be our Joy when we reunite in the presence of God. Now Let us go forth, and share this same joy with the WORLD. That they too may partake of the fruits from the Love of Christ.
Love,
Elder Murray
Sister Hannah Walker
ohhh my goodness!! this week was by far the most eventful week of my entire mission. haha soo much happened, so I'm starting off with a warning...this will be a little longer than previous emails haha. I'm going to go day by day because it'll make better sense in my brain :)
Monday: Man, such a great P-day...I honestly can't remember what we did haha, but I remember we cut it short to go teach this little girl named Jackie. She's the daughter of an amazing less active named Ciria (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned her before). We wanted to start formally teaching her for a couple reasons. 1-to encourage the informal teaching we heard about in General Conference, and 2-because she really doesn't know anything. We asked her if she knew anything about what Christ did on the earth when He was here and she didn't. She's 8. We started at the very very beginning and explained things that adults all over here in the south knew. When Ciria saw that her daughter didn't know these things, it sparked a sense of responsibility in her and she knew that she needed to step it up as a mom too. The lesson was amazing :) The spirit and humility of children is really something we need to adopt (obviously, it's all over the scriptures..). So man...that lesson was definitely one to remember and reflect back on :) Monday was a great day :)
Tuesday: haha man...tuesday... oh goodness. K, so we had a recently graduated girl come out with us on tuesday. We had planned to have her for two hours, but the entire two hours were spent knocking on empty houses. No one was home. It was one of those lovely days where it feels like a zombie apocalypse came through and wiped off the entire face of the earth. haha with like 10 minutes left, we were on the way to drop her off at her place when we decided to go try to contact this referral one more time. This woman had gone onto Mormon.org and requested a bible, but this was weeks ago and we had spent so much time trying to contact her with no success...we had tried earlier that day, but after no answer, we considered just leaving the bible on the doorstep. Sister Anderson suggested maybe trying one more time on another day. Well that day was this day apparently. We knocked and she invited us in and gave us water! Upon sitting down with her, she starts off by explaining that her cousin married a mormon and they had been brought up catholic...so she was wondering the difference between the two. She is the most elect I've seen anyone after the first lesson :) Man, she's just so cool and it turns out that she is actually no longer in the catholic church. Everything we told her just made sense to her...she told us so! After the lesson, she agreed to be baptized :) and then she proceded to tell us all about her 5 boys and their lives and pretty much loves us haha she is looking forward to us coming back to see her this week! Emberly (the girl with us) absolutely loved the whole experience and has decided to put in her papers to serve a mission :) overall a great lesson :)
haha something else happened on Tuesday as well...man this was hilarious.. haha k so we were driving in these subdivisions (they're all over the place here! I could never live in one...). This one happened to be the most confusing of them all and I thought I knew where we were going, but I apparently didn't. We ended up on this road that was still under construction as we pulled up to this intersection. There were trucks and Mexican workers on both sides with their air hoses and stuff stretched across the road, similar to the hose stretched across the driveway at home when you're watering your lawn. Apparently they're a little different though. As we are rolling across this hose, we heard a POP and a gush of air...my initial reaction was *GASP*.......uh oh......the workers on the right side of the car started yelling much spanish and running to us. haha I was like, "shoot...we popped a tire and these guys are getting mad at us for stopping in the middle of their construction." Well then I looked to my left and see an end of the hose flying around like those water sprinklers you play with on the lawn. Air was going everywhere. haha the workers on this side were scrambling to restrain the hose. My next thoughts were "......shoot. I broke their hose and now I'll get my license taken away, I'll never be able to drive again, and man...this just sucks." haha I roll my window down and yell at one of the workers who was working on holding the hose steady. My shouts consisted of many "I'm sorry!!!!" 's and stuff.. haha I pullled over to the side and he came to talk to me after his buddy grabbed the hose. I said "I am so so sorry.." haha he waved his hands and said "It's ok it's ok! We weren't supposed to put it there anyway!!" haha thank goodness!!! I said " Is it broken!?" after a seconds hesitation, he said "eh....we can fix it!" haha man I felt so bad! So we gave him a pass along card with our number on it and mentioned that he should call us if we need to pay for something. We also through out that there's a great website on the back of the card that he needed to check out. Wanna know a cool thing? He's been texting us questions about the church ever since :) haha he technically lives an hour away in South Carolina, but hey. He's lost and it's our job to help him :) ....even if we did break his hose. haha
Wednesday: We had a chance to do some great service. Ciria has endometriosis in so many parts of her, and it was giving her lotsa problems this day. She called us over and upon going over there, we realized she wasn't up to feeding herself. So what do we do? We do what any sisters from utah and idaho would do. We go to the store and get a bunch of ingredients and make her Hawaiian Haystacks :) She had never heard of them before, and she loved them! She's mexican and always makes us delicious mexican food, so this was a great service we could do for her :)
Thursday: Stupid pink-eye came back...urgh.
Friday: We took a great member out with us to Wrens, a little city about 30 minutes south of us, to contact anther referral from mormon.org. We ended up getting 3 new investigators :) They loved the message we have and want to learn more! The awesome part was that we could barely understand them! They are so deeply-rooted southern black ! haha it was like Valdosta again! :) Man, it made me feel at home. haha it was so great :)
Saturday!!!!!!: :) :) Was a great day :) Haha it started off with the Oliver Hardy festival! For those of you who don't know (and don't feel bad if you don't, because I didn't either), Oliver Hardy was a famous comedian way back when. And he was born and raised in Harlem :) So every first saturday in October, they through a huge festival for him. Apparently 4-5,000 people showed up in little Harlem :) with its one stoplight haha. Man!!! There was a parade and everything! For those of you who don't know me, I absolutely love parades and fairs and anything with people :) So I was pretty dang happy all day :) haha there were booths lining the entire main street and soo many people. It made for great contacting too :) PLUS it was conference!!! And man, I could spend forever on conference, but I won't because believe it or not, there's MORE craziness to this week! Saturday night, we were going home at the end of the day...the light in our stairwell of the apartment is out, so it gets pretty dark at night. haha well, we go up the stairs to our door and I stick the key in and turn. Well, apparently only half of the key got the memo to turn, because the next thing I know, I'm holding half of our key in my hand. It broke! In half!!! I pulled the other half out of the lock, and kind of freak out a little bit. haha Sister Anderson didn't believe me when I told her that it broke! So I took her down to the car and after she saw it with her own eyes, we sat there for a minute trying to decide what to do. All the men are in priesthood session! Haha so we call Sister Cottle and she gives us permission to stay with the Grovetown sisters for the night :) soo we had a SLUMBER PARTY!!!! yesssss haha it was very very great :) except for the part where we had to wear the same clothes the next day...they were gross from the fair and stuff...blech. Saturday was very eventful :) we never got a hold of our landlord...still haven't. For all of you who are thinking you're genuises and are telling me to just card into the house....it's a dead bolt lock. No carding in will be done. I could've kicked it, but I didn't think that'd be appropriate for a sister ;)
Sunday: Conference again!!!!!!! We show up in the same clothes as saturday...ew. haha after the first session, there was a member that had the brilliant idea to stick the part of the key in the lock and use plyers to open it! Well, this genius brother's idea worked! We got in!! The bishop was there with us and he took our lock and broken key to a locksmith to replace it :) So that fixed that problem...thank goodness!!! And I absolutely loved conference...so many favorites talks :) but I'll talk about those some other time...
Monday: Yes...this is today....we've already had an interesting experience today...at about 2:30 in the morning. I'll let my comp tell this story...this is an excerpt from her email this week:
"This Morning: 2:30 am i wake up to this really annoying beeping. so i finally figure out that its the carbon monoxide detector. so i push a button on it and we think i got it to stop, but then it goes again. so i take it off the wall and read on the back what to do if the alarm sounds. 1) push the reset button (did that) 2) call 911 immediately (didnt do that) 3) get by fresh air, either outside or by an open window. i took it over to the window and open it up. well its still beeping. so then i read the difference in the alarm and just low battery. we figured out it was low battery so i took that out."
haha the rest of the night we slept peacefully :) This morning we wake up and I'm looking at the detector...haha I read the part where it says to get by fresh air and it dawned on me....I bust up laughing and call her into the room. I say "You know when it says to get by fresh air? Haha I'm pretty sure it means for us to get to fresh air, not the detector!" haha it was hiliarous how much time she spent holding that thing by the window, but at 2:30 in the morning, all we cared about was making the beeping stop! And if we had to put it by fresh air to do it, so be it! haha oh man as she said: "apparently Heavenly Father isn't ready for us to come home yet ;)" haha man.
so that's it for my crazy week! I'll let y'all go now, but take a sec and ask yourself...where are you facing? :)
Love you!
Sister Hannah Walker
the key...pathetic
us with the wagstaffs at the parade :)
a ward member making his famous kettle corn and funnellcakes! his line was miles long!
ohhh my goodness!! this week was by far the most eventful week of my entire mission. haha soo much happened, so I'm starting off with a warning...this will be a little longer than previous emails haha. I'm going to go day by day because it'll make better sense in my brain :)
Monday: Man, such a great P-day...I honestly can't remember what we did haha, but I remember we cut it short to go teach this little girl named Jackie. She's the daughter of an amazing less active named Ciria (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned her before). We wanted to start formally teaching her for a couple reasons. 1-to encourage the informal teaching we heard about in General Conference, and 2-because she really doesn't know anything. We asked her if she knew anything about what Christ did on the earth when He was here and she didn't. She's 8. We started at the very very beginning and explained things that adults all over here in the south knew. When Ciria saw that her daughter didn't know these things, it sparked a sense of responsibility in her and she knew that she needed to step it up as a mom too. The lesson was amazing :) The spirit and humility of children is really something we need to adopt (obviously, it's all over the scriptures..). So man...that lesson was definitely one to remember and reflect back on :) Monday was a great day :)
Tuesday: haha man...tuesday... oh goodness. K, so we had a recently graduated girl come out with us on tuesday. We had planned to have her for two hours, but the entire two hours were spent knocking on empty houses. No one was home. It was one of those lovely days where it feels like a zombie apocalypse came through and wiped off the entire face of the earth. haha with like 10 minutes left, we were on the way to drop her off at her place when we decided to go try to contact this referral one more time. This woman had gone onto Mormon.org and requested a bible, but this was weeks ago and we had spent so much time trying to contact her with no success...we had tried earlier that day, but after no answer, we considered just leaving the bible on the doorstep. Sister Anderson suggested maybe trying one more time on another day. Well that day was this day apparently. We knocked and she invited us in and gave us water! Upon sitting down with her, she starts off by explaining that her cousin married a mormon and they had been brought up catholic...so she was wondering the difference between the two. She is the most elect I've seen anyone after the first lesson :) Man, she's just so cool and it turns out that she is actually no longer in the catholic church. Everything we told her just made sense to her...she told us so! After the lesson, she agreed to be baptized :) and then she proceded to tell us all about her 5 boys and their lives and pretty much loves us haha she is looking forward to us coming back to see her this week! Emberly (the girl with us) absolutely loved the whole experience and has decided to put in her papers to serve a mission :) overall a great lesson :)
haha something else happened on Tuesday as well...man this was hilarious.. haha k so we were driving in these subdivisions (they're all over the place here! I could never live in one...). This one happened to be the most confusing of them all and I thought I knew where we were going, but I apparently didn't. We ended up on this road that was still under construction as we pulled up to this intersection. There were trucks and Mexican workers on both sides with their air hoses and stuff stretched across the road, similar to the hose stretched across the driveway at home when you're watering your lawn. Apparently they're a little different though. As we are rolling across this hose, we heard a POP and a gush of air...my initial reaction was *GASP*.......uh oh......the workers on the right side of the car started yelling much spanish and running to us. haha I was like, "shoot...we popped a tire and these guys are getting mad at us for stopping in the middle of their construction." Well then I looked to my left and see an end of the hose flying around like those water sprinklers you play with on the lawn. Air was going everywhere. haha the workers on this side were scrambling to restrain the hose. My next thoughts were "......shoot. I broke their hose and now I'll get my license taken away, I'll never be able to drive again, and man...this just sucks." haha I roll my window down and yell at one of the workers who was working on holding the hose steady. My shouts consisted of many "I'm sorry!!!!" 's and stuff.. haha I pullled over to the side and he came to talk to me after his buddy grabbed the hose. I said "I am so so sorry.." haha he waved his hands and said "It's ok it's ok! We weren't supposed to put it there anyway!!" haha thank goodness!!! I said " Is it broken!?" after a seconds hesitation, he said "eh....we can fix it!" haha man I felt so bad! So we gave him a pass along card with our number on it and mentioned that he should call us if we need to pay for something. We also through out that there's a great website on the back of the card that he needed to check out. Wanna know a cool thing? He's been texting us questions about the church ever since :) haha he technically lives an hour away in South Carolina, but hey. He's lost and it's our job to help him :) ....even if we did break his hose. haha
Wednesday: We had a chance to do some great service. Ciria has endometriosis in so many parts of her, and it was giving her lotsa problems this day. She called us over and upon going over there, we realized she wasn't up to feeding herself. So what do we do? We do what any sisters from utah and idaho would do. We go to the store and get a bunch of ingredients and make her Hawaiian Haystacks :) She had never heard of them before, and she loved them! She's mexican and always makes us delicious mexican food, so this was a great service we could do for her :)
Thursday: Stupid pink-eye came back...urgh.
Friday: We took a great member out with us to Wrens, a little city about 30 minutes south of us, to contact anther referral from mormon.org. We ended up getting 3 new investigators :) They loved the message we have and want to learn more! The awesome part was that we could barely understand them! They are so deeply-rooted southern black ! haha it was like Valdosta again! :) Man, it made me feel at home. haha it was so great :)
Saturday!!!!!!: :) :) Was a great day :) Haha it started off with the Oliver Hardy festival! For those of you who don't know (and don't feel bad if you don't, because I didn't either), Oliver Hardy was a famous comedian way back when. And he was born and raised in Harlem :) So every first saturday in October, they through a huge festival for him. Apparently 4-5,000 people showed up in little Harlem :) with its one stoplight haha. Man!!! There was a parade and everything! For those of you who don't know me, I absolutely love parades and fairs and anything with people :) So I was pretty dang happy all day :) haha there were booths lining the entire main street and soo many people. It made for great contacting too :) PLUS it was conference!!! And man, I could spend forever on conference, but I won't because believe it or not, there's MORE craziness to this week! Saturday night, we were going home at the end of the day...the light in our stairwell of the apartment is out, so it gets pretty dark at night. haha well, we go up the stairs to our door and I stick the key in and turn. Well, apparently only half of the key got the memo to turn, because the next thing I know, I'm holding half of our key in my hand. It broke! In half!!! I pulled the other half out of the lock, and kind of freak out a little bit. haha Sister Anderson didn't believe me when I told her that it broke! So I took her down to the car and after she saw it with her own eyes, we sat there for a minute trying to decide what to do. All the men are in priesthood session! Haha so we call Sister Cottle and she gives us permission to stay with the Grovetown sisters for the night :) soo we had a SLUMBER PARTY!!!! yesssss haha it was very very great :) except for the part where we had to wear the same clothes the next day...they were gross from the fair and stuff...blech. Saturday was very eventful :) we never got a hold of our landlord...still haven't. For all of you who are thinking you're genuises and are telling me to just card into the house....it's a dead bolt lock. No carding in will be done. I could've kicked it, but I didn't think that'd be appropriate for a sister ;)
Sunday: Conference again!!!!!!! We show up in the same clothes as saturday...ew. haha after the first session, there was a member that had the brilliant idea to stick the part of the key in the lock and use plyers to open it! Well, this genius brother's idea worked! We got in!! The bishop was there with us and he took our lock and broken key to a locksmith to replace it :) So that fixed that problem...thank goodness!!! And I absolutely loved conference...so many favorites talks :) but I'll talk about those some other time...
Monday: Yes...this is today....we've already had an interesting experience today...at about 2:30 in the morning. I'll let my comp tell this story...this is an excerpt from her email this week:
"This Morning: 2:30 am i wake up to this really annoying beeping. so i finally figure out that its the carbon monoxide detector. so i push a button on it and we think i got it to stop, but then it goes again. so i take it off the wall and read on the back what to do if the alarm sounds. 1) push the reset button (did that) 2) call 911 immediately (didnt do that) 3) get by fresh air, either outside or by an open window. i took it over to the window and open it up. well its still beeping. so then i read the difference in the alarm and just low battery. we figured out it was low battery so i took that out."
haha the rest of the night we slept peacefully :) This morning we wake up and I'm looking at the detector...haha I read the part where it says to get by fresh air and it dawned on me....I bust up laughing and call her into the room. I say "You know when it says to get by fresh air? Haha I'm pretty sure it means for us to get to fresh air, not the detector!" haha it was hiliarous how much time she spent holding that thing by the window, but at 2:30 in the morning, all we cared about was making the beeping stop! And if we had to put it by fresh air to do it, so be it! haha oh man as she said: "apparently Heavenly Father isn't ready for us to come home yet ;)" haha man.
so that's it for my crazy week! I'll let y'all go now, but take a sec and ask yourself...where are you facing? :)
Love you!
Sister Hannah Walker
the key...pathetic
us with the wagstaffs at the parade :)
a ward member making his famous kettle corn and funnellcakes! his line was miles long!
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