24 May 2009 Member Letter

Dear Sis. M[...],

We live in one of the wards that your son is serving here in Bountiful. We wanted to let you know what a wonderful missionary son you have. We have enjoyed his visits to our home since he first arrived here on his mission. I have been able to work with him while serving as our ward mission leader and he has given us a lot of help and encouragement. We have also enjoyed hearing him play the piano in our home occasionally.

Today he and Elder E[...] spoke in our Sacrament meeting. They both did a wonderful, inspiring job. You would be very pleased to know that your son shared a very uplifting, spiritual, articulate testimony. I was proud of him. He told of the first time he read the Book of Mormon all the way through and finished New Year’s Eve, the year President Hinckley challenged us to do so. I had to smile because I was doing the same thing that night.

Early this morning our missionary coordination meeting ended early so they took advantage of the time by working on a piano/organ duet of
Praise to the Man. A counselor in our bishopric and I heard it and asked them if they wanted to play it in our sacrament meeting.

E[...] M[...] thinks that he may be transferred this week and this might be their last and only chance to perform it together. They did a wonderful job and the whole ward was touched and excited for them. Elder E[...] says it was the first time that he had ever played in public. It was great for our young men and women to see their great example of developing and sharing their talents. By the way, it was your son on the organ and he even used the foot pedals.

We pray that your son will stay with us a little longer, but we know that the Lord is in charge. Our oldest son is now serving a mission in Australia. We send our young sons and daughter out and know it is going to be a great experience, and we have found that the Lord blesses, guides and uses these young missionaries to do wonderful things that exceed our good expectations by a long ways.

You have a great son. Thank you for sharing him with us and our neighbors.

Love, T[...] & B[...] G[...]

28 May 2009 member letter

Dear Brother & Sister M[...],

Your son stopped by Tuesday night to and told us that he was being transferred to the South Ogden/Washington Terrace area. We have enjoyed him so much. You have a great son and a great missionary. We would love to have him transferred back to Bountiful again.

Your son served 3 different stakes in his area, which is probably close to 27 wards. Early Sunday mornings they would skip from one stake missionary coordination meeting to the next. It is a little hard for all the ward members to get to know them because they didn’t see them every week. If we did a better job at having investigators in our meetings we would be able to see them more often. We all love to have them over for dinner.

Thank you again for sharing your son with us.

Love,T[...] & B[...] G[...]

19/26 May 2009 letter

19 May 2009 Letter

I totally called the new stake president. I knew it would be [C...] [T...] (Our new Stake President is our former Bishop).

This week went good. One of the guys I have been teaching we gave a baptismal date and he was way wishy washy about it. He didn't know if Joseph was a prophet or not. Last week we stopped by and asked how his prayers were going and he said good..... actually not at all. Then he told us he would have to pray if he wants to be baptized. Then later he is just more and more excited about it. He stood up in elders quorum and announced that he's getting baptized. We even got to move the date earlier because he is in the national guard and couldn't get baptized in June. We are very excited.

Transfers are coming up next week and I'll probably leave. That's all that's new.

Love E[...] M[...]

26 May 2009 Letter

Well, I'm getting transfered to Washington Terrace East in the South Ogden zone. My new companion is E[...] S[...] and he's only been out for 3 months. It will be fun to serve in a new area, but I will definitely miss Bountiful.

Last week we were tracting and ran into someone who knew J[...] S[...]. So we went to his house. He wasn't home so we went back later and caught him,. His family was having a family council which was just like back home. Arguing and all that fun. He played a song for us and it was amazing. It was "all of me." He even uses his forearms to smash the keys during some parts. He's amazing.

Love E[...] M[...]

12 May 2009 Letter

[ We spoke with him on Sunday. He is doing well. He observed that young men who spend all their time playing video games before their missions don't do very well-they don't know how to talk to anyone ].

[Now the letter:]

Yep so not much has happened since I talked with you guys. It was nice to talk with everyone and to see that everything is going fine.

Love E[...] M[...]

5 May 2009

Hey family,

For Sunday I'm probably gonna call during the afternoon. There were some pretty cool things about this week. J[...] F[...] (baptized in Feb) had me give him the Aaronic Priesthood and ordain him to a priest. It was a good experience.

J[...] H[...] moved down to Lehi, and still hasn't been able to quit smoking so he cannot be baptized any time soon.

D[...] was supposed to be baptized last Saturday, but [will be] next month. That sums up the week. Talk to you Sunday.

E[...] M[...]