August 2009 letters

August 11th, 2009

It sounds like everything is well there. Up here we are getting some teaching done. We're working with C[...], a southern Baptist, and preparing her to be baptized. She seems to really like the lessons, but her biggest concern is she can't deal with the fact that if this religion is right that makes the rest wrong. Her concerns have all been pretty easy to resolve.

J[...] is still smoking and has cancelled the last few lessons. We think she is avoiding us because she is embarrassed she hasn't been able to kick the habit yet. We have a lesson scheduled with her tonight so we'll see what happens.

On Sunday we were at church and C[...] didn't show up for the first hour. We were way nervous because she would lose her baptismal date again for not going to church. We said a bunch of prayers and called a bunch of times but she didn't pick up. So we got our bikes and rode to her house. When we got there, her friend A[...] was there and told us he just dropped her off at church. God answers prayers, but not till we do our best to make things happen.

Love, E M

August 18th, 2009

Farr West is good. On the first day there, we taught a family of four the plan of salvation because they had a family member get shot and died. The spirit was there and we committed them all for baptism on September 19. The work is going great.

We're having trouble with lessons falling through but everything else is good.

My companion is Elder W[...] from Washington. He's been out 1 month.

I got to go to the stake center for the Oquirrh Mountain temple dedication on Sunday. It was pretty nice. I got to hear Elder Bednar and President Uchtdorf speak. God knows how to pick amazing men.

Love, E M

Letters from July

July 21, 2009 letter

Well I hope everything is good back home. Up here everything is normal. We're teaching a few people that are progressing and the rest aren't really keeping commitments. We have two looking at getting baptized in August. They are both single moms of three kids each. They both are pretty religious. One of them has us coming over and also the Jehova's Witnesses teaching her. We'll see who wins. The other one goes to a different church with her sister every week. She intellectually believes in Joseph Smith but hasn't had a spiritual confirmation yet. We need to get her off the cigarettes and out to church.

Thats all thats been going on here.

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

July 28, 2009 letter

Dear familia,

The weeks here are going by pretty quickly. Pioneer day just happened and I was in the parade. A few zones came and marched and we sang hymns. It was pretty good. I am sending a picture with the Budweiser horses. Those things are enormous.

We had one of our investigators lose their baptismal date because she physically can't go to church. She fractured her leg and is on bed rest for a week. So next week she'll go to church and the baptism will go on.

I've almost finished Jesus the Christ. That book is pretty sweet. There are a lot of things that I didn't pick up on just reading through the New Testament. Studying the scriptures and other church books is something I have really learned to love to do.

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

August 4, 2009 letter

The only comment on my smile because thats the only good thing about me. I agree that there isn't much like baptisms to bring the spirit really strong. I hope the Primary calling isn't too difficult, but from what I understand most of it is taking care of 8 yr old baptisms, making sure all the Primaries run right, and just having the responsibility over everything.

[...]

As for the terrace, the work is progressing, but kind of slow. The investigators we have right now all have one similar problem. they all smoke. We are working with them and most are giving decent effort to quiting. That's the real hang up right now. We also are having trouble finding new investigators, but I've seen way to many times in Bountiful that when I work hard good things happen. We wouldn't find new investigators through our own efforts very often, but miracle phone calls would happen with referalls when we were working our hearts out.

Love

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

August 11, 2009 letter

I'm sure [someone from our ward] served a good mission. It sounds like everything is well there. Up here we are getting some teaching done. We're working with C[...], a Southern Baptist, and preparing her to be baptized. She seems to really like the lessons, but her biggest concern is she can't deal with the fact that if this religion is right that makes the rest worng. Her concerns have all been pretty easy to resolve.

J[...] is still smoking and has cancelled the last few lessons. We think she is avoiding us because she is embarassed she hasn't been able to kick the habit yet. We have a lesson scheduled with her tonight so we'll see what happens.

On Sunday we were at church and C[...] didn't show up for the first hour. We were way nervous because she would lose her baptismal date again for not going to church. We said a bunch of prayers and called a bunch of times but she didn't pick up, so we got our bikes and rode to her house to drag her to church. When we got there her friend A[...] was there and told us he just dropped her off at church. God answers prayers, but not till we do our best to make things happen.

Love

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

Last Letters

30 June 2009

[We asked if he could come to dinner] No I can't go there for dinner. It's like 4 zones away. That is good that D[...] is doing better. Swimming is a hard sport and it takes a while to get good at. This week we had a mission conference because Pres. and Sister J[...] left the mission for good. It went really good. We had a fireside right after and Pres. J[...] played a 2 minute organ solo as an interlude for "Praise to the Lord the Almighty." He is amazing. So the O[...]s are our new mission pres. and mission mom. I think I get to meet them tomorrow. Have a good time visiting Utah.

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

7 July 2009

Hey family

Transfers are tomorrow. I got a call last night asking if I'd train, so I'm getting a new elder straight out of the MTC. I'll find out who he is tomorrow. I hope everything is going well on your vacation. I'm still in Washington Terrace for at least another six weeks. Yeah I got the package thanks.

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

14 July 2009

To get to the mission office we get a ride from one of the members. Wow D[...]P[...] actually made it [finished his mission]. I hope everything is going well for him.

Last Saturday we baptized a lady named D[...]. She had me baptise and confirm her. When we went to the font to baptise her I stepped in and the water was really hot. Too hot for her so we kicked eveybody out and brought buckets of cold water from the kitchen and dumped them in for a half hour then baptized her. I am pretty sure that was the first time the water has been too hot.

My new companion is Elder L[...]. he's from northern California. We are having a good time teaching and tracting into people.

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

23 Jun 2009

When I was in Bountiful, Elder Anderson lived an 1/8 of a mile outside my area, along with Pres Uchdorf and Pres Eyring. I didn't see any of them while I was there.

This week I baptized K[...], our last progressing investigator at the time. It was nice doing that.

Then later that day we found a new investigator and gave her a baptismal date for July 11. She had "some questions" about the church like how could Joseph Smith see the face of God and not die and those other dumb questions. We answered her questions and the spirit was so strong she started crying and left the room. The fellowship came back in the room a couple minutes later and was way happy. She wanted to be baptized. Good experience.

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

16 June 2009

Yeah, I played the piano for the baptism last Saturday so I still get some use out of it. I also bought this Paul Cardall piano book that has arrangments of hymns that I have used for prelude. It's not hard except it always wants you to play the left hand in the treble clef or the bass clef an octave up and that confuses my brain sometimes.

Sarah said you wanted a "real letter" so here it is. I attached a picture of me eating a dragonfly.

We baptized a kid last Saturday. He had ADHD so he was very amusing to teach. A miracle that we found him though. He had already gone to church a bunch of times, wanted to be baptized, but was going back to his mom's house the next week. We talked to the bishop and he said he wanted him to be baptized asap, so we taught him every night that week and baptized him on Saturday. A crazy good miracle that we found him at that time and everything. It just shows that it's not just me working, I don't do much good, the Lord does all the real work.

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

9 June 2009 Letter

Ok, so my comp has been in Washington Terrace his whole mission, and yes I'm senior.

Just keep the adaptor to the memory card so you can just send the micro chip back and forth and we won't have to worry about the adaptor.

A new stake--that sounds great. It just shows how much the Lord's work is progressing--the stone cut out of the mountain without hands that crushes everything. I'm glad our ward is the same, there isn't any ward up here quite like it.

The work up here is going great, slow at first, but we're working on it. When I got there only one person was preparing for baptism, and now there's 3. We didn't have any new investigators for the first two weeks, and not from lack of trying. Yesterday we knocked on a door the bishop told us to and committed the son for baptism right on the spot. This boy J[...] had gone to church all growing up until he was 8 and his parents were divorced and stopped attending church until the last few weeks. The Lord just handed us this one and I know He wouldn't have done that unless we were working like slaves. The area is turning around and we are steadily making progress.

Love, W[...]

2 June 2009 Letter

Dear Family,

[E W sent some beautiful photographs for Mother's Day. You'll see them when you visit our home] Yeah [the photographer] is from Bountiful. He is ranked #1 in the world for the kind of photography that he does.

So on Sunday I spoke in another sacrament meeting (its becoming a habit) and afterwards some people came up and talked to me. One of them was one of T[...]'s missionary companions and another was the N[...] who apparently had dinner with Grandma and Grandpa the night before.

It's weird being over only one stake, the Washington Terrace East stake. There is not as much going on, but I guess thats all right because we ride bikes.

My companion is a cool guy. He's from Washington and has only been out three months. We're making it all work out and the work is just increases since I made it into the area.

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