June 27, 2011

Hey Mom,

Well today is the end of six weeks and once again I got a transfer call. I  am once again leaving an area. I now see why all the missionary's have depression problems and anxiety problems. Right when we get this area good and on fire I get transferred. This week was an awesome week we had a lot of awesome lessons. and We went on 3 exchanges with our leaders so I was only with Elder Belliston for 3 days this week. With Tracy Price we had 2 lessons with her and we committed her to baptism on July 30. At both of the lessons she has kept the commitments that we had left her and she is recognizing that this IS the Lords church on the earth at this time. It has been amazing to see her change and welcome that happiness into her life. We also committed another person to a date this week. His name is Nick Clark. He is 11 years old and he is a son of some less active family that we have been teaching. Its been push and shove to get the members to help us out. They actually set the date yesterday. It was awesome they are super solid. Nick for an 11 year old knows so much about the gospel and it blows our mind. He will be awesome as a member. On our exchange I was able to work in White River... Its the straight up GHETTO of Indianapolis, there are shootings and all sorts of crime and stuff like that.  It was super fun. We saw much success, I was with Elder Williams ( the District leader) and we had 4 lessons that was great. We had taught a family from Africa (Kenya) that his companion and I first started to teach and they are awesome. They know that the church is true and so we set a date of sJuly 30 as well for them. In the middle of the lesson they just stopped and looked confused. They asked to learn more about Joseph Smith so we called an audible and taught the restoration again. It was just what they needed. We watched a short 20 minute movie with them and then Peter bore the most solid and sincere and honest testimony that I have heard in a long time. He says that once he becomes a member and learns more and goes through the temple, him and his wife are going to move back to Kenya and to help the church grow there. Unofficial missionaries basically. They are so awesome.

Elder Belliston is going to be training this transfer, he is pretty nervous.  I know that he will do fine, he is a great missionary. Who knows where I am off to?  Where ever I go "thy will be done". There for the longest time, there was a conspiracy going though our district, that the district leader was going to be zone leader and that I was going to become the district leader. The other missionaries would go to become a trainer and a Sr comp. Well all came to pass... except me becoming the district leader so I am pretty happy about that. It relieved some stress for a little bit. It has been great this week, it has been warm but not too hot so it was nice. For some silly reason it rains every p-day therefor making it hard for us to do anything fun and worth while. But today i got a lot of packing to do.

Its good to hear that all is going well back home and that every body is having good fun with everything. I love you all.  I hope that you all have a great week.

Love Jared

June 20, 2011

Hey Mom,
This week went well. We had a a lot of success. We were able to have a lot of lessons this week and were able to get a lot done. We have 4 really promising investigators that are progressing very well. they are all super solid. The first is Tracy,she is good, she knows the church is true and has been praying and was suppose to come to church yesterday but flaked because of Fathers day.
We will be giving her a baptismal date tomorrow when we have another lesson with her. Next we have Hal Smith, he is an older guy an old oral surgeon. He was referred from Salt Lake and loves the church. When we got to his house he was like, " sorry guys I am only on page 142 in the book of Mormon." so he is doing great. He has also been praying and he will be at church next Sunday. It's going to be awesome. Then we have Sarah, she is awesome and she found us. She totally accepted the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and is doing great.  She will also be at church next Sunday as well. William Apple, is kinda a slow investigator, but is still doing great, and his wife is awesome for supporting him into the church. We also have a bunch of other really awesome and really promising people that are going to be awesome and super fun members.

That's Awesome that Amber and Kody are inviting a new one into the family. Totally awesome. Super happy for them.  It's crazy that all them little rugrats grow up so fast. It will be really weird getting home and not recognizing them anymore. That's just the part of life.

As for Indiana its still not as exciting as Idaho, its really hot and muggy. Lately it has been raining often and hard. It is really green everywhere because of the weather. As much as I hate umbrellas I actually went and got one... and they are still super gay looking. They do their jobs.

I am doing well I have been still sore from my back but what can I do but live with it. The mission isn't going to do anything about it. I have been great, I finally got the shoes and will be getting some shirts today. I just wanted to double check to make sure I had permission to get some.

All is well. I love you all.

--

Elder Bair

June13, 2011

Hey Mom,

This week was great. We were able to get alot done. We had a couple of really amazing lessons, we started off having a lesson with a referral named Tracy Price. She is amazing. She is super prepared. The Lord knows what he is doing with her. When we got to her house, she just started hounding us with questions and her own beliefs. It turns out that every thing that she said that she believed  was the same thing that we believe in. It was awesome. The members that we took with us were great. Bro. Merrill is originally from St. Anthony so he has some Idaho roots. As like most of this ward does. We had dinner last night with the Grahm family he is from Preston and is the same age and graduated the same year as Josh. It was pretty cool how they hated snake river because we always kicked their butt, in everything. We had interviews with President Collins, it was really awesome to talk to him,.  He is an amazing man. We also did some service in downtown with 2 other zones in our mission. We worked at what's called PBS kids in the park. So basically  we dressed up as mascots and ran around all day with little kids. It was really fun and also really hot. This week also we did alot of biking to our appointments because we don't have the car till later tonight. It has been hot and I am out of shape. The full time car for 7 1/2 months has been nice. Last night we had a fireside called "Why I Believe."   What that is, is when all the recent converts in this area get to gether with president Collins and the missionaries and it is a testimony meeting for all the recent converts and how they came to know that the Church is true. It is always an amazing meeting. That's super cool that Aaron and Eric are having a double wedding, that sounds fun.  I didn't even know that Stetson was engaged. That's crazy, and he is marrying the Clement girl? That's cool  tho. Sounds like everything is going well. I love you all.

Elder Bair

June 6th 2011

Hey mom,

This week has been good. not as great as last week but still fairly good. As you know I tweaked my back last Monday and it has been causing me grief and pain lately. I have been talking to the mission Dr and Sister Collin's to get it figured out. I am still mobile at least. It's a pain that you are still fighting the bronchitis, that is always no fun.  I am happy that it is getting cleared up and getting better. This week we had a really good lesson with William Apple he is doing good and is progressing. He is RLDS and his wife is a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints. Odd couple but very similar beliefs. He has been coming to church every Sunday and has been liking it, and he is getting implemented into the ward very nicely. Everybody already thinks that he is a member. The only thing that is holding him up is that he believes that the RLDS is the true church because of the such similar beliefs. He doesn't quite understand the things about the apostasy that sets our church apart and that their are wrong. This week we did something different as a district. Usually our district leader will set our baptism goal for the month, but this time we as a district all got together and prayed to receive revelation to get our goal set. It was amazing, the spirit was so strong in the church the meeting that usually takes 30 minutes to about 2 hours and was awesome. The way the lord works is just great. I definitely felt like the prophet when he receives revelation for the whole church. I bet that's what it felt like.

Every thing here in Eagle Creek is going great. It is a student ward kinda? There is a lot of school med students with young family's that come and get their residency here and after the 3 years they move out.  So far we have about 5-6 families that are moving out and already have 7-8 moving back into the ward by the end of the summer. So hopefully my back heals so I can be of some assistance. I love wards, I forgot how awesome they are.  It's so awesome to have people be able to go out on exchanges with us and to have dinner appointments  enough to feed us. It's been amazing.  I love you all, I hope and pray that all is going well with you and the family. God Speed!