Apr 13, 2010 - Jun 22, 2010

April 13, 2010

Dear family,

Today we went to the Logan Temple and we finished the names Dad gave us so you guys can expect them in the mail sometime in the future, when I get around to mailing them. It's been nice doing the work for people I am related to somehow.

Last week I was going to email, but I ran out of time. You can ask S[...] about that:)

We had a good Fast Sunday experience. This girl we are teaching we talked to her and she confided in us that the only real reason why she won't get baptized is because she isn't 100% sure that the Book of Mormon is true. So we fasted for her and invited her to earnestly pray if it is true. Fasting works.

We met with her on Monday and asked her and she said the Book of Mormon's true and she's cool with getting baptized. It looks like it will happen the 20 or the 4th so we are excited about that.

Life in idaho is good. If you remember that movie Napoleon Dynamite, it was filmed up here and we are teaching someone in one of the character's house. That movie is probably the only exciting thing that has ever happened in this town.

Well, that's all that's going on here.

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

April 20, 2010

Dear family,

Mom, do you remember a dude named B[...] W[...]s from high school? He said he went to Weber and graduated in 78 and remembers H[...]'s curly hair. its funny how small of a world it is. I also ran into A[...](C[...]'s wife)'s sister a month ago up in Logan.

Yeah, K[...] is getting baptized tonight. It should be good, I was asked to speak at it, but that's not the first time. This transfer, we have spoken in church 13 times already and have 15 or so in the next 2 months. It's crazy speaking this much. It's kind of bad that I don't get nervous anymore because its getting so repetitive. It's like at the beginning of the mission I was nervous going into every lesson and then it got easy because we do it so much. It's become the same with sacrament talks.

Today during our shopping one investigator came up to us and asked if he could be baptized May 4. We said sure. This guy, A[...], has been meeting with the missionaries forever and just last week we were reading the Book of Mormon, and he said he feels it's true and he wants to get baptized. Now we have a firm date and it should work out good. The Book of Mormon changes people.

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

April 27, 2010

I hope all is going well in Houston. I don't know why you would need snow tires because even up here you don't need them. It's warming up a little bit. We got transfer calls this morning and I'm staying with Elder S[...] up in Preston. It isn't a surprise that this happened.

We've been doing some service lately. Yesterday we pruned and grafted trees in somebody's yard. Now maybe Jacob 5 will be more relevant when I read it. I think it's crazy that everybody owns their own tractor up here. It's a different place.

Today I'm getting a haircut and that will probably be the most eventful part of the day. Next week we are going to try to find somebody who will let us weld so that's something I'm looking forward to.

On Thursday and Friday we are teaching seminary again. Our strategy for missionary work right now is we are trying to make everyone aware of us and know that we are here to work hard. We have planned to teach all the seminary classes at the two high schools, speak in all the wards (we only have 10 of the 31 left to schedule with) and be in the Preston newspaper. Everything is working out good so far. J[...], one of our investigators, told us last week that he decided to meet with missionaries when we taught his seminary class and he decided he thought we were cool so we're teaching him now. Great things are happening.

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

May 4, 2010

That's good that the wedding went all right.

I guess I'm calling home this Sunday and I think I'll call sometime between 2 and 4. If that doesn't work for you guys, then I can call in the evening.
Everything's good up here. A[...] is getting baptized tonight and H[...] is this Saturday. The work is progressing pretty well.

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

May 18, 2010

Dear family,

It finally warmed up here. Last week it snowed but now its warming up a little bit. Not amazing Tucson temperatures, though.

The work is about to pick up again. We baptized a bunch of people without finding anyone new to replace them. Not from lack of trying though. This week we have seven new investigator lessons set up and one investigator got out of jail yesterday so we can teach him again. We are excited about this because teaching lessons is a lot better than talking to people and persuading them to invite their friends to meet with us.

Not much new happened this last week. We had the black guy from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir speak to us at Zone conference. He is pretty cool.

Have a good week

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

June 1, 2010

T[...]'s a white girl. People just have way weird names up here. A couple days ago I ran into a dude named Stacy and a girl named Tyler. You never know up here. With her we are trying to set up a time where we can teach T[...]'s mom to explain to her why its important to do it now and especially by the proper priesthood authority. The uncle who wants to baptize her is [another Church]. So that's what we're working with right now.

Where in Europe are S[...] and S[...] going to go? It should be fun for them. My companion always talks about how great Europe and Sweden are.

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

June 8, 2010

Dear family,

I got a call today that surprised me. I'm getting transferred to South Ogden tomorrow. This will be the first time I leave an area before I really felt ready. At interviews with the mission president, President told me if anyone changed it would probably be Elder S[...], but I guess God had other ideas.

Last Saturday we baptized a girl named C[...]. Everything was looking good for the baptism until Friday night. We got out of a lesson and there was a message on the phone saying C[...]'s parents split and the baptism wasn't going to happen because she was going to move with her mom down into Utah. We started praying and the fellowshippers stopped by and convinced them to stay together at least 'till the daughter was baptized. They did and now everything's working out and the parents are still together. Miracles still happen.

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

June 15, 2010

Dear Family,

Utah's all right. I'm in the rich part of Ogden covering Uintah and South Weber, so the people are different here than my last spot in Ogden. Right now we have a lot of investigators and not much teaching going on. The lessons don't go through as often as in Idaho. I'm not covering the campus, they changed it up so there are YSA stakes with wards meeting in buildings wherever, and so we cover a few YSA wards but that's about it and the other 3 family stakes.

Mom you were right about people thinking they know a lot. We knocked on a door of a house and the K[...] couple invited us in. It turns out the husband has a doctorate in divinity and the wife has a masters in christian studies. She told us she had to do that to become an "ordained minister." We had a civil conversation with them just discussing some of our and their beliefs. We didn't get too far with them, but now they believe Mormons are Christians too. It's amazing that people can study everything so much and understand the history so well without getting the correct grasp of the doctrines. I guess that's why the Holy Ghost is so necessary.

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

June 22, 2010

Dear Family,

In this area I have about 30 wards so it's about the same as my last area. We still speak pretty often in the wards, but not like the area before because in Preston the recent elders hated speaking so they didn't ever do it. We have 1 or 2 speaking assignments every week here.

We've lost some of our investigators. They don't like us as much as the old missionaries. I think its because we ask them to do stuff when the other missionaries just wanted to hang out and be friends. It's nice getting rid of people that don't want to do anything. We've found a couple new families to teach, not complete families but ones with unbaptized children. We should have 3 baptisms this weekend of a family that the parents were baptized when they were eight and never went to church after that. They have three kids that got involved in cub and boy scouts and want to be baptized. The father, if worthy, is going to be ordained a priest next Sunday and he is going to baptize the kids Sunday night. I'm really excited for this.

My companion is Elder S[...] from Salmon Arm, BC, Canada. Some way small town with 200 people. Him and I get along good, He's as chill as I am so we are doing all right. He's been out a month less than me.

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

P.S. Happy Fathers Day, Dad. Also thanks for answering my question. For the record, I was right and my companion wrong. It's always great listening to your answers because you give the complete answer and not just a yes or no.