October 20 - Dec 15 2009 Letters

October 27, 2009

It sounds like C[...] is getting old, being able to read and such. That is good that the elders are having you fellowship a family. That isn't good that they blew you off though. The hardest thing about the work is being on time for stuff. We depend so much on other people and we are constantly telling people we gotta go so we aren't late.

G[...] got the priesthood last night so he can baptize his wife A[...] on Halloween. That is a cool situation because G[...] had to give up chewing tobacco to do it.

I will get the picture for you sometime soon.

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

November 24, 2009

Thanks for the birthday stuff. The camera is way nice to have. Thanks and also for the salsa. I was excited to eat some real salsa and not the fake stuff up here. We were double booked on my birthday with lessons and so I made it over to the H[...] five minutes before curfew. It was nice of them to pick up and give me the presents for you guys.

President O[...] approved me going to Thanksgiving with the C[...]s. Thanks for getting my phone number to them so we can make this work.

Well everything is going great. I'm having fun and the members are really pulling their weight out here. We received a couple calls lately from members saying they invited friends to be taught. Maybe they are doing this because we keep giving talks and seeing us reminds them of what they gotta do. It's like in Alma 46 when Moroni puts the Title of Liberty on every tower in the Nephite lands to remind the people of the covenant they made.

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

December 1, 2009

Nope no snow. It's good though because snow isn't the best thing in the world. Thanksgiving went pretty good. I got to see J[...] and the grandparents and a whole bunch of relatives I don't know.

C[...] was baptized last week which was pretty nice. After he was baptized, he was smiling for the rest of the meeting. It was pretty nice.

We have another one this weekend. Her name is D[...] T[...]. She asked that I baptize her, so that will be cool. Her parents are coming back into being active in the church and are working towards going to the temple to be sealed. They are a really good family. The father just needs to give up his smoking habit. Since we invited him to church he made sure he went and brought the whole family each time, kicking and screaming. (like our family home evenings). That's all the stuff going on here.

Love, W[...]

December 8, 2009

Well, that's some good news for the family. Yeah, I do know E[...] M[...]. He is one of the zone leaders.

So this week has been pretty cold. It's snowed a little bit, but the baptism of fire is still happening. We had one more this last Saturday, a girl named D[...]. It went nice. The water in the font was emptied by another ward's bishop so we were filling during the baptism. When the ordinance happened, I got in the water to baptize her and the water didn't even go up to my knees. I still got her first try. Afterward I didn't even have to change my garments because they didn't get wet. Good times.

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

P.S. Tell S[...] I ran into JD M[...]. He served in the same mission as him and knew him while they were out.

December 15, 2009

Dear Mom

So life is good up here. It was really cold last week and there is snow everywhere, but no worries. This week nothing too exciting happened.

We did start teaching a young man named J[...]. He is 13 but he is still pretty cool. When we shared Joseph's first vision with him he said he felt "amazing". So we committed him to be baptized on the 2 of Jan.

Maybe I will still be in the same area then, but transfers are 2 days before Christmas. Next week I might not send a letter because I'm talking on the phone to you a couple days later. We will see though. I'll send a picture of Thanksgiving attached to this.

Oh for Dad. The Perry plan works really well, but the problem is actually getting the ward leaders responsible to do their job, i.e. the Relief Society president to actually invite, etc. The best way I've found for this to work is to have the bishop start out the ward correlation meetings by having the people focused on in the plan discussed first, and to keep everyone accountable. good luck. I've seen it work a lot. One man we are teaching right now is because the ward leaders worked with him, offered the bishop to marry him and his wife, and invited him to meet with us. Cool stuff.

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

October 20 - Nov 20 2009 Letters

October 20, 2009 Letter

This week has been pretty good. We found 3 new investigators who are really solid for baptism. That is always nice because the other ones we have right now weren't very close to it.

If D[...] has swine flu, it's not really that bad. A bunch of missionaries have it up here. They just get quarantined for a week then they are over it.

One guy we are teaching is named R[...]. He wants to "fellowship" in this church to lead his kids on the right path. He has a lot to give up like chewing tobacco and coffee. He is prepared for all of it except coffee. He told us he was going to pray to find out if it's right. He is way ahead of the game.

Happy birthday Mom

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

October 27, 2009 Letter

It sounds like C[...]b is getting old, being able to read and such.

That is good that the elders are having you fellowship a family. That isn't good that they blew you off though. The hardest thing about the work is being on time for stuff. We depend so much on other people and we are constantly telling people we gotta go so we aren't late.

G[...] got the priesthood last night so he can baptize his wife A[...] on Halloween. That is a cool situation because G[...] had to give up chewing tobacco to do it.

I will get the picture for you sometime soon.

November 3, 2009 Letter

Dear Mom,

So you asked the right question [P[...] asked what he wanted for his birthday]. For this winter I could really use a pair or two of wool socks so I won't get frostbite on my feet this winter. I'll send home the family's Christmas present with Grandma and Grandpa C[...]. I will send some pictures of me home today so you can see if any of them are good.

Last week we had 2 baptisms and this week we should have 4 more. November is going to be a great month. Most of the work is completing in this month. I was able to confirm A[...] C[...] last Sunday and that is always a great experience.

For Halloween we weren't allowed to go proselyte so we planned to go home and sleep. We ended up staying at the house we ate dinner at and we played Phase Ten and some other dice game. It was pretty fun.

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

November 10, 2009 Letter

Dear mom,

Ok, I have another couple of ideas for my birthday. First if there is a way to get Casa Del Rio salsa to me that would be amazing. They don't know how to make salsa up here. And second my digital camera broke and so I can't take pictures now. A new one would be great so I can keep sending pictures home. Just make sure the memory card is a SD because then I wouldn't have to buy new memory cards.

Other news--transfers are tomorrow and I found out I am staying in the area and they want me to train again. So I meet my new companion tomorrow. Also that means the 2 talks I set up on the 22 nov I'll have to speak. Lame birthday present.

The baptisms all went well. One of them was an autistic kid who was deathly afraid of the water. To baptise him, we had his mom throw on a white jumpsuit and go in with him. It took three tries but we got him baptized.

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

November 18, 2009 Letter

Dear Mom,

Yeah it did snow on Saturday. It was cold. Right after it snowed a few inches, the senior couple in my district called and needed us to come to their house over in east Ogden. So I got my experience driving on the snow by driving down highway 89 and Washington. It went good. It's the Utahns that don't know how to drive. Someone ran into our mailbox because they slid off the road.

My new companion is from St. David, Az and his name is Elder C[...].

We have been teaching a young man named C[...]. He is 17 and really wants to be baptized. He had a dream where everyone important to him was there in a room and he was baptized and he took that as a sign that this is something God wants him to do.

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

Series of Letters

18 August 2009

Dear Family,

This week's been alright. One of our investigators missed church so now she's going to be baptized on Sep 5 (special day). Tomorrow I'm being transferred to Far West with Elder W[...]. It will be nice to be in a new area.

On Sunday I went to one of the wards to do a sharing time, and a less active family I was teaching was at church. They were really surprised to see me because their son, S[...], was getting the Aaronic Priesthood and he wanted me to do it, but they forgot to ask me. It was nice being able to do that.

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

1 September 2009

Life is good. Grandma and Grandpa are in my district and so when I was on exchanges I got to stop in for a couple minutes. It was nice to see them.
As for the work, it is going great. We baptized D[...] on Saturday and we have a bunch more lined up for September.

We have a family of four preparing for baptism in September. It will be the first entire family I have helped into the covenant of baptism. The major problem right now is the mother is going to have a baby September 17 so we are praying they will still be baptized at the end of the month. It's always difficult with pregnant women.

Its good to hear J[...] is a good guy. Grandma said she approves and I've only heard good things about him. That's great.

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

8 September 2009

Dear family

Well I got to eat lunch with Grandma and Grandpa last week. that was pretty nice. Is T[...] still preparing for a mission? i haven't heard anything about that since I left.

This week was pretty good. We taught a lot of lessons, and had almost nobody at church. One family we are teaching had to go to church to be baptized in September, but they were in Salt Lake so they missed it. That just means we had to push their baptismal dates back into October.

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

15 September 2009

Dear Family,

The family we've been teaching has lost their baptismal dates. That is because everything in the world has been coming up and they haven't been able to make it to church. Calls into work, family stuff, and sewage backup have been going on. This week the mother is having a baby so we'll have to wait a while longer on them because church attendance is a requirement.

We committed 2 people for baptism yesterday and one of them seems way solid. The other guy, K[...] (its a man) has to give up smoking first. He also has short term memory loss so we are going to have fun teaching him.

The work is great.

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

22 September 2009

Hey Mom,

I got the package this morning so don't worry about it. The W[..]'s are moving? They just got here not to long ago. Life is going to be different at the end of these two years.

The work is good. We have 17 people we are teaching right now so we get to teach a lot. Only 7 have dates for baptism.

We started teaching a man named N[...] O[...]. He is married to a member, but grew up around the church but not in the church. He actually had a really bad view of the church until he was married and now he has softened up. It's fun to teach him because he always has comments and questions. He doesn't want to be pushed so he is taking everything slow. He's open to the spirit though and so he will be baptized soon, but not until he really feels ready.

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

29 September 2009

Well transfers are tomorrow. I'm staying in Farr West, but I get a new companion. His name is Elder E[...] and he has been out longer than me. No worries though. The worst part of the transfer is my district is getting switched up and Grandma and Grandpa aren't in my district anymore so I won't see them as much.
We got a call from a lady a night ago and she wants us to teach her mom. Her mom was very anti, but now has Alzheimer's and forgot she is anti-Mormon. If she can remember what we teach her she will probably be baptized in a few weeks.

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

6 October 2009

Dear Family,

My week went ok. Two of the people I'm teaching got swine flu so we are avoiding them like the plague. Conference totally made up for it though. Elder Holland's talk was amazing as usual. I'm pretty sure he is my favorite to listen to. We watched some of it with the stake patriarch and the other day at the stake president's house. I really liked Elder Oaks talk as well. It's something difficult to deal with that many people don't understand how God's love cannot supersede his law. Even though he loves us infinitely, He cannot and will not save us if we won't abide Christ's law. The Honor He has would cease. Also the agency he has granted us shows his love.

One of the stake presidents over here taught me an important principle. To help his young men prepare for a mission he works with them a lot. One thing he does is he will let them drive him around in his brand new Camaro. He shows trust in them, maybe sometimes more than they trust themselves, and in return He gets trust back. God has done this with us as well, just with life and not a drive in a car.

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

13 October 2009

Dear Family,

I'm fine.

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

ps

I guess I need to write a little more than that.
So this week we taught the A[...] family again. We found out the reason why they won't go to church. They are scared of offending someone because they are quiet and do not like big social things. We thought we made good progress with that concern and invited them to church, but they didn't go. It seems like they will just agree to anything and not mean or follow through with it. We will keep working with them though.

They dedicated a new stake center on Sunday and we got to hear one of the 70's speak. It was pretty nice to be able to be there. I don't remember ever being to a dedication like that before. It was nice though.

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

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[...]