October 31, 2011

body

Hey mom,
This week was a pretty good week. I am not getting transferred... Six months YES!!! Elder Tatton is staying as well... downer is that we are getting a third companion. But its all good. Nothing really new has happened this week. We picked up some new people to teach, no one real promising tho. Lindsey is great, she's so solid. We had an amazing lesson with her at her home with her father as well as her mother. Her dad is sweet, he is less active, tho I have the feeling wants to come back.  He helps us teach his daughter and still has a testimony and still knows that the gospel is true. He will need some work, but is amazing. Her mom is a bit anti, and could pose a problem to the whole baptizing thing. We pray that her heart will be softened all the time. They are an awesome family. Even tho her mom isn't too interested she sure is a nice lady and offers to cooks us cakes and all that good stuff to fatten us up..(not helping the diet too much) We had a trunk or treat this week it was fun. It was a chili cook off as well. We and the bishopric were volunteered to test the chili. There was about 20 pots there, our poor apartment stunk so so bad.  But all is better. It was really fun. I love this ward. The people are so genuine and so awesome, it is great! The bishop is just right up my ally and is a total motorman. Its awesome, his family use to race cars in atomic city and on snake river speed way. Its pretty cool. All is well. I have to take off a little early, I have to go meet some of the missionaries that are headed home from my district. I love you all.

October 24, 2011

Hey mom,

things are going pretty well this week it was an interesting and pretty fun week. This week we decided to go on a different approach other than Tracting. We have been doing alot of service this week. over all we contributed about 11 hours of our physical labor. it was great. On Monday we went golfing and it was great, its was funny because we all suck at golf so it was alot of fun to just hit the ball. After gold we had dinner with the Taylor family, and it was great we shared a message about the mormon.org campaign, it was good, brother Taylor was a bit stubborn to make a profile and we explained what to put on it that would make him stand out to why he was a mormon. he really couldn't think of anything to put on it all he has delt with is cars and motorcycles, he has had over 100 cars and over 50 motorcycles in his life. We continued to talk about that for a little while and after i explained if i was browsing mormon.org his profile would be the one that stood out to me because i can relate to. i think that it made him really appreciate it alot more. after we talked about motorcycles for a while, and he took us out to his garage to show us his toys it was good for that old man to relate to someone so young. Tuesday we got everything all situated for our district service project, it was alot of fun. it rained most of the week and it kinda sucked because we lost the car on Wednesday. but After we got things all sorted out we had a member pick us up to take us around some less actives. we went to see this old guy. oh man he is awesome. it has a rough situation his wife is very ill and is also anti of the church, but he still wants to come to church but cant make it because of his wife. he is sweet. he reminds me of uncle Jessy from the dukes of hazard its super cool. we then went with a different member to go and contact a referral from the bishop. Lindsey and Harry, are awesome. Harry is such a stud totally motorcycle buff and i get along with his very well. His daughter Lindsey is awesome, she is so prepared for the gospel. they have family members in Utah and Lindsey spent the summer out there with them and was strongly introduced to the church. When we arrived at their home Lindsey started to cry and said" I have been waiting for you to come for 5 months". it really touched my heart because we didn't get the referral until just a couple weeks before. they came to church yesterday and everything and are on tract to be baptised in November. On Wednesday we had district meeting, i gave a training and i thought it went really well. This district has a real problem with setting goals, so i trained on that i feel like it was effective. after District meeting we went to strides and stacked alot of hay and cleaned their hay loft and got it ready for the service project. while i was there Debbie, (owner) asked if i would draw up and design a horse shoe pit so i did that and made a materials list. while the ffa students were going to be making it the next day. we had a lesson with Jessica, it was a rough lesson she wasn't there mentally and the spirit struggled to be there due to her, we are feeling that she is getting baptised for the wrong reasons and is just doing it for the boy in Washington. so elder tatton and i have alot to do to help her grow a sincerer desire for her self and not for some one else. Thursday i was on exchanges with the Avon elders they are really awesome and we got work done. On Friday we had the FFA service project it was awesome, too bad no one i knew was there. ffa is such a great program and it was great to be the two best there, a Representative of Jesus Christ, and to help the FFA, some of my greatest joys in life thus far. it was alot of fun all the missionaries were group leaders and so we didn't actually get to do any of the work. we helped a family move and it was absolutely disgusting how gross their stuff was garbage everywhere but we still saddled up and helped anyways even tho it was gross. Church was great we gave talked in sacrament meeting, that's the 2nd one i have gave in this ward...its probably time for me to get transferred. they went well i have overcame my fear of talking in front of crowds and it was really enjoyable i winged it the whole time. as elder tatton was saying his talk i realized i studied the the wrong topic so i called and audible and ran with plan b(there was no plan b). all worked out. this week was great i hope that all is going well back home. we are both feeling alot better and are doing well. i love you all!!

October 17, 2011

Hey Mom,

Things are going pretty well with us here in plainfield. we have both been sick again this week. i am getting so stinking tired of being sick this is week 4-5 of being sick this transfer. But the bad thing is that it is really effecting the work. It is really frustrating. Even tho the week wasn't that good i had a lot of fun. On Monday we had an amazing lesson with Gabby and she is doing awesome, we have invited her to go with us to some lessons that we will be having in the coming weeks to young teenagers that we are teaching. Elder Tatton and i both strongly felt the urge to take her to some of the lessons that we are going to have. She is great! On Tuesday we did a bunch of tracting and didnt have very much success in doing so. later in the evening we had a lesson with Jessica, it was amazing we set a baptismal date for November 1, and she is extremely excited about that! The lesson was amazing the spirit was super strong and she know that she is on the right path in life. after the lesson she gave us both haircuts... not to shabby but i do have a couple of spots that are not the best, but oh well, she is doing great she also came to church yesterday and is doing great she has been making some changes to quit smoking in her life. On Wednesday i was able to go on exchanges with my buddy Elder Nash. dad, you might know his dad, he is something in bingham county for agriculture. but it was alot of of fun we had some sweet lessons and i was able to do a baptismal interview for them. after the exchange we were waiting for elder tatton and elder Jones. we made a bucking bull with a rope and a workout ball. it was alot of fun he did high school rodeo and it was just fun. i have a video of it and i will send it home its funny. we are still teaching Katrina she is doing great she is sooo ready to be baptised and she wants to so so bad, but her mother doesn't want her to yet she doesn't feel like she is ready, but Katrina is 15 and has been wanting to be baptised since she was 8. so this week we are going to take our bishop over to the lesson and he is going to talk to her and hope fully she will change her mind. We are also teaching a couple Bruce and Cindy, they are awesome, unfortunately i have never had a lesson with them when ever we have one that is set up i just so happen to be on exchanges with a member from our district. bu they are doing awesome, we have placed copy's of the book of Mormon and they have read through 1st nephi and are going to continue on with it and to make things better, they have also been praying about it. its amazing, they will be baptised. that's about all that we have done, sister Hickman finally had her twins and so it is a little bit difficult to get the new member lessons for Andrew and to be able to teach Nathan as well but it is totally understandable with twins. they are both healthy and doing great. we are still a little sick but we are both doing better and hopefully we will continue to improve. i hope all continues to go well with everyone at home. i love you all.

October 10, 2011

body

Hey mom,
Things are going well. not a whole lot has happened this week. On Monday we were able to contact the referral that was given us by the member from Seattle, He is awesome he is in the late 20 early 30s and he is super prepared for the gospel. when we knocked on the door he answered, " its about time he sent you over". nonetheless he is amazing and is ready for the gospel. We only talked to him for about 20 minutes on his door step, but we basically had the whole first lesson and the spirit was defiantly present. On Tuesday i was fortunate enough to go on an exchange that i have been dreading this whole transfer. It was with a very old, very trunk, very lazy and disobedient missionary in my district. It was hard i worked the poor bugger harder than he has probably worked his whole mission. It really saddens my heart to see missionaries that never get into the work. he is not happy, he is not enjoying it at all, and is miserable, as well as his companion. As well on Tuesday we had a lesson with Bob he dropped us and said that he would call us when he was ready to learn and to come back to church. So that was rough, but there was nothing that we could do that we haven't already done. Wednesday we had a district meeting and tracted most of the day and was able to tract into some sweet potentials, we also tracted into a Sweet less active member that totally wants to come back to church really bad. its amazing. we weren't even planned to tract the street that we were on but i felt impressed to go one street over ans some miracles happened. On Thursday we had an opportunity to set the zone baptism goal it was great it was the highest that i have ever seen it and it is nine. Because of the zone goal setting meeting we had to cancel the appointments with Jessica and Deborah. it really bummed us out because we were planning on setting a baptism date with Jessica. but we will just have to do it this week when we meet with her. We are also teaching a 15 year old that is awesome. she has been going to church since she was about 5, with her grandparents. she basically teaches us the lessons and we will be inviting her to baptism this week if all goes well. All we need is the parental consent on letting her be baptised. her mom seems to be nice enough to me she welcomes into her home so all should go well. so nothing too exciting has happened this week. i hope all is going well at home. The mission is having a HUGE media camping for Mormon.org its huge. the church kept mentioning all during conference and is encouraging the members throughout the church to make a mormon.org profile. its is super easy and super effective. i want to challenge you and the family to each make one. like the apostles said the gospel has never been easier to share than in these last days. its super easy. if you can use facebook you can use mormon.org.

i love you all

October 3, 2011

Message body

Hey mom,

I hope all is going well. since everybody is slacking with the whole letter writing thing lately. All has been going well here in Plainfield. We have been doing alot of finging lately and been trying to catch up with some referrals to contact. Yesterday after the first session of general conference we got a phone call from some one that is living in Seattle. it was pretty cool he gave us a referral of a friend that he had that lived in our area. this member has been working with his friend for the past 10 years getting him introduced to the gospel. This member has been having the impression to call us and give us the referral for the past 3 months and he finally did. when we were talking to him about the person the guy asked where we were from elder tatton said "Utah and Idaho" the member got real quite and asked where in Idaho? well Blackfoot Elder Tatton said. the member almost started to cry he was born and raised in Blackfoot. we talked for a little while and the member asked how long i had been in Plainfield and i stated a little over 3 months. he was amazed the impression came true that he was inspired to call because he could trust a good ole Idaho boy. The lord works in mysterious ways. General Conference was great i had forgotten how great that it was its too bad that we only get to see it every six months. I especially loved the talks from the general authorities they seem to always hit home with me i never cease to marvel and the blessings that come from living the commandments of god. I felt really comfortable as the prophet President Monson was talking i always just know that he is the on and the only living prophet of God. There was so many of the talks that just seemed to stand out and to be so personal and inspiring to me at the particular time of my life. Nonetheless it was amazing. The only bad thing is the pews get really old after a while and today my back is killing me, but it was totally worth every minute of it. well hours like 16. This week was pretty slow and not really alot has happened. on Tuesday we had a really good lesson with Jessica and set some goals to help her quite smoking and all that good stuff. We gave her a blessing to help her over come it and she really and truly is not addicted she only smokes five ciggies a day and that's alot she said. we are not too worried about her too bad. Bob we are at a loss he has 0 desire and doesn't want to do anything, even to read and to pray the anti-literature has totally corrupt him to the point that we are going to have to give him a break for a while. hope fully he will actually take the time to read and to pray about those precious things that the holy ghost are teaching him. nothing other than that has happened. everything is still going well with us. we are both feeling better and are not sick anymore. Thanks for all your prayers. they really helped us. I hope and pray that things will continue to go well and great for everyone.i love you all.