November 22, 2010 E-Mail

So not a whole lot to write about this week.  We had three investigators in church yesterday so that was really cool. It was stake conference so it was a full house.  But it was a good meeting.  Evalina no longer has a baptismal date.  She is completely ready, she just needs to pin down a certain day and do it.  She has been sick this past week so we haven't met with her to much.  We are going to take over a native missionary with us next time we go.  Hopefully he will be able to communicate with her a little better and figure out the complete concern.  The other night we were knocking doors and this lady opened up and immediately said come right on in.  So that was sort of shocking.  Then she told us how she can really just see Christ in our faces.  She told us how she knew that if she closed the door on us then she would be closing the door on Christ.  Sometimes I feel like everyone realized that!  But it was a really cool and spiritual lesson that we had with her.  So hopefully we will be able to meet with her again this week.  I was able to go on exchanges this week into the other area.  Well we went and did service clear up in the mountains at some families house.  Their daughter is a member but no one else is.  It's an interesting little cabin.  They have to haul in their own water, and their electricity is all from generator.  Anyways, her dad hurt is back and neck, so we went up for a few hours and split wood trying to help them get ready for the winter.  It was really cool to go up into a forest type area again.  I miss that.  I can't really remember everything we did this week.  Time is going by pretty quick and I forget.  I know we worked the whole time.  I just can't remember what we were doing.  We also got a new investigator named Jose Luis.  His girlfriend is a member and he has been coming to church a little bit.  So we are excited for him.  So please pray a lot for him and Evalina.  They need the prayers.  We went to Hermana Alfreda's house on Saturday night, that's Jose Luis's girlfriend.  Well we had already had a huge dinner that night and she decided she wanted to feed us.  I'm not sure what we were eating, but I already had a messed up stomach that day.  Well I ate whatever it was and it was some spicy stuff.  After the fact it just sounded like my stomach was boiling.  It was pretty crazy that's for sure.  I'm glad all the Mom's got to get together for dinner.  It sounds like you had fun.  For Thanksgiving we have a few different houses to go to.  Plus we will still do our studies that day then we have been asked to do our weekly planning on that day which takes 2-3 hours.  And so far like four families have invited us over.  So we will be well taken care of.  We are trying to make appointments with investigators, but most of them are going other places or can't meet with us that day.  But our mission president wants us to treat it as a normal day just without tracting.  So that's pretty hard to do if we can't get appointments with investigators.  I guess it will be a good day to try and strengthen ward members.  I'm glad you sold the car.  It was a little tricky to get around with in the snow last winter.  Speaking of driving in snow.  There is nothing like having a companion who has never driven in the snow trying to tell you how to drive in the snow when you were raised in it.  It's funny though, there can be just a skiff of snow and he is amazed.  I hope we get a really good winter.  I still haven't bought boots.  I'm gonna go get gloves and good socks today.  It's supposed to be a pretty cold week and we give the car back today to the other companionship.  It's hard for me to send letters to my friends who are outside of the United States.  So I hope Weston got his Happy Birthday last week.  And this week it's a Happy Birthday to Jared!!!  So hopefully he gets that.  That's about it for this week.  It seems like everything lately has been related to gratitude.  I guess that makes sense with the Holidays coming up.  I truly am grateful for all of you and all you have done for me.  I'm grateful for this gospel in my life and for the atoning sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and the manner in which it testifies of Jesus Christ.  People say we aren't Christians, well right in that blue book is the proof that we are.  I'm so grateful for the oppurtunity that I have to serve!  Have a Happy Thanksgiving and be safe driving to Colorado.  I love you all!!!!

November 15, 2010

So things are going pretty good here. We had a good day at church yesterday and had 3 investigators so that was pretty awesome. 2 in English and 1 in Spanish. We had an amazing lesson the other night with Evalina. We had assigned her to read from 3rd Nephi 11. So she was just telling us what she had learned then all of the sudden she pretty much came right out and said "tengo que bautizarme" saying that she needed to be baptized. So as of right now she has a baptismal date for the 27th. But there is actually a Spanish Branch party that night so we will try and change her baptism to the 26th. So she is progressing really well. I felt bad for her in sacrament meeting yesterday. She was holding her little girl on her lap the little girl wet her pants. So we pretty embarrassed. Then the other ones that were in church were Megan and Jessica. Megan I think I have told you about. She has been coming to church for like 6 months. Her fiance is a member, he is the one who works at Olive Garden and always hooks us up. Well she will be baptized in the new year because they are getting married on the 31st of December. She is so awesome. I can't remember if I told you or not, but she got up last Sunday and bore her testimony. It was sweet. It was probably a slap in the face for some of the members because they won't even get up and do it. And she's not a member yet and she did! She's awesome and always gives her input and everything in classes. It's cool. And she's already doing missionary work and went to another ward yesterday too with a friend who is less-active. So it's awesome to see her progress and really love the gospel. Then Jessica I know I have told you about. Her boyfriend is a less-active member but has a testimony. We tracted into him one day and he invited us back to visit with her. This was back in September I think. And she was able to make it to church for the first time yesterday. I'm not sure how it went for her, because we haven't talked to her. She went to a different ward with her boyfriend's Grandma. So those were our investigators in church. I know I told you about Brian Cooper and how we had a miracle in finding him last week. Well he is really good friend with Jessica and her boyfriend. So that's cool to see them talk about the gospel together. Brian needs to be baptized. Every once in a while he bails on our appointments. But we also randomly run into him. He is a great kid and we are excited for him. He committed to coming to church next week. He couldn't make it yesterday because something came up. So that was pretty much the week. We had a rough week as far as finding new people, but we have some great appointments set up for teaching people this next week. Mom you asked what we did for service. We just do whatever we can find. But we don't have anything set at all like Tyler had at the YMCA. In area's that have food banks I know the missionaries usually go there. But we don't have anything like that in our area. So we just do what we can as we run into people. One thing I was thinking if you could send me was a copy of Jesus the Christ in spanish. I'm going to take on the task of reading it in spanish because this week I will finally have finished El Libro De Mormon. So I want to start on Jesus the Christ but I don't have time to read it during my personal study cause we study so much from The Book of Mormon. So I will just have to read it in Spanish during language study. I know this church is true an I am so grateful to be a member of it. Yesterday, Cody, Megan's fiance, gave the lesson in Elders quorumn. Well it was about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Well I am so grateful to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to lead and guide me. It truly is such a great feeling to walk in a home and feel the spirit. I know that we can all have this constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to help us through all things as long as we remain worthy and strive to be better and align our will with the will of our Savior. I love you all. Have a great week!!!!!


Oh yeah, and I need to give a shout out to Weston because he is turing the big 20!!!!!! Happy Birthday my man.

November 8, 2010 E-Mail

So it's been a good week and busy. We were able to do a lot of service and still teach a lot of people so that was nice being able to help out in more than one way. I was excited to hear that Ethan had stopped by and he is doing good, also that Greg and Judy are going to have a child, and also to hear that I was having a nephew! That was all very exciting. You also asked if I knew any Beutler's, yeah, I knew one who is like a year younger than me. That really is to bad that there house burned down. And that's pretty cool you got to go to the Jazz game and sit that close. Mom, I can't picture you at a Jazz game. But I'm sure it was a blast.


So the work this week went great. Evalina wasn't baptized because she doesn't feel ready, but she is still meeting with us and it will be a decision that she shortly will make. We also tracted into her brother the other day, Jesus, and teach him. So that was really cool. Hopefully they will come to church together. Then the ward sent us to visit a family in the ward boundaries who aren't members and who are going through a very hard time with the economy. So we went and visited them and they told us how they are really seeking for direction in there lives. So that was really cool. But the even cooler part was we were about 15 minutes from the church and we were supposed to be at the church at 6:00 to meet a guy named Hermano Castro. Well by the time we left there house it was 6:05. So we called Hermano Castro to come pick us up but he had left his phone at home. So in other words, we were on foot and we had to book it to the church so he didn't leave. So we were forced to walk. But in the mean time we were on this little side street where no one ever walks or anything. And we ran into our investigator Brian Cooper who we have been teaching and he was really progressing. Well over the last week or two we haven't been able to meet with him and we have felt like he is avoiding us. Well there was no avoiding us walking on this little street. So we were able to make a return appointment and go teach him on Saturday night and have a really good lesson. And he committed to coming to church next week. So that was a definite miracle that we got to meet with him. I was also blessed with the gift of tongues for sure this week. I don't know if you remember Alondra. Well she is the one forever ago that yelled at us to come and talk to her because she wanted to know when and where the church was. Well we were able to teach her this week. She talks faster than anyone I know and her husband does not like her meeting with us. So we try to meet outside but it was freezing so we had to go inside. Well she said he could come home within an hour or 20 minutes. So I was a little worried. Plus we had Brother Pedersen with us who doesn't speak spanish but we had to have a man with us because it was a lady we were teaching. Well anyways, we all understood everything she was saying. Including Brother Pedersen, and my companion and I were really able to communicate with her very well. So I have definitely noticed the Lord's help when it comes to teaching hispanic people. It's been awesome. So that's about it for this week. The other day we were walking down the road and I felt something land on top of my head. So I thought it was a rain drop. Let's just say we were under a power line, and a bird took advantage of me. I wasn't to happy about that. Sounds like it will be a crazy thanksgiving for everyone if everybody is going to Kristin's. It will be fun though. I'm excited to be able to stay here in this area. We will for sure be taken care of. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and I had the opportunity to stand and bear my testimony about the Book of Mormon. I know you have heard me say a million times I know it's true. But the more I'm able to testify of it, the more true it becomes. I'm so grateful for the Prophet Joseph Smith and all that he suffered so we could have the Book of Mormon to clearly understand what we need to do to have peace in this life and eternal life in the life to come. I love you all so much and thank you for your love and support. Have a good week. I love you.

November 1, 2010 E-Mail

So our transfer calls were last night and I will be staying here in East Wenatchee again. Which I'm excited about. My new companion is from Texas. His name is Elder Weidman. And this next transfer will be his third. We get along really well so it will be a good transfer. It was sort of hard sweeping into an area that had absolutely nothing going on. But this next transfer we will see some of the hard work pay off. Evalina came to church yesterday and she is still planning on being baptized on Saturday. It's so hard though because they really don't decide for sure until like the day before. It's crazy. So please keep praying for her. She is so much happier now her boyfriend has moved out. He keeps calling us though to tell her that she needs to get back with him and stuff. And he's baptist so he calls and always wants to bash. We were finally able to teach Jesus again. He is doing good but hasn't been to church for awhile. He still wants to be baptized he just kinda quit doing the stuff that was helping him to progress. So hopefully we can keep working with him. Then this past week we found a few more new investigators while we were tracting. So we are excited about them. We had like 8 people say they would come to church but only a couple did. So we are going to continue to work with them this week and have them in church next Sunday.


Saturday night there was a tri ward and the branch had an activity. It was a chili cook off and a trunk or treat. Well we invited all of our spanish investigators. Two of the families came, and there was no one there from the branch! It was horrible. Because we really needed to have fellowshippers there for them. Luckily there are a few ward members who speak spanish who helped out. And then towards the end like two families from the branch came. So it turned out to be okay. It was a good activity though and there were a lot of people.

Yesterday was pretty much just a lazy day. Because of Halloween they didn't want us to tract at all. So all we could really do was visit members. So that's about all we did after church. So it was fun, it just felt sort of weird not being out knocking doors. The weather was sort of bad anyways so it wasn't all that bad. Sounds like Dad really is going to Tokyo. That's way cool. East Wenatchee has a sister city thing in Japan, and the mayor is in our ward. So he goes to Japan quite a bit so I was talking to him about it yesterday. He said Dad will be fine. That's way cool though that he really gets to go. When does he go? Sounds like you're getting ready for the winter and snow if you moved the chevelle and got the tractor. We can see snow from our house here so I have a feeling it will be here soon. But that's alright. I'm ready for it.

Who is Wess Schvaneveldt? I know I can remember the name but I can't put a face to it. A member here knows him. Also I talked to a guy who grew up in Preston and his brother was about Grandpa's age, so I'm sure Grandpa would know him. His name was George Eames. It's interesting how you can always find people who know your family or something. Although a lot of people up here did come from the Cache Valley area.

That's about all I have for this week. I feel brain dead right now and can't think of much to write. Just know that I love you all and thank you for all of the support you give me. And yes Mom, tell Lori thank you so much for the package. I know this is the true church. Church yesterday was all about missionary work. We all need to do it whether we are formally called as missionaries or not. So do missionary work and you will be blessed! We are so fortunate to have this gospel with all of it's blessings in our own lives. We need to share it with others. Have a good week!! I love you all.