Things are going GREAT!

Ok sorry this letter is getting home so late, we got home from todays zone activity late so we didnt email and then president called asking why we didnt write him, so we got permisison to come ont he internet at this hour. 

     General conference, wow, why did they wait untill i was a missionary to make it so interesting, or why did i wait untill my mission to really feast upon it? Dont mean to sound selfish but im pretty sure most of it was just for me, so sorry to the world! But as you can tell i really enjoyed every bit of it, all of the Talks were so amazing, saturday mornign was great, Bednars talk was amazing and Elder Scott made me trunky jajaja! ANd yes again we got to watch it in English, and President Hansen joined us for preisthood session, so that was a nice surprise!

  

    And now onto the news of the area for the week, well holy cow its hot hear, hot hot hot! Veracruze should change its motto to DANG ITS HOT! Im going to be looking like a lamanite befrore i leve this place! Well unfiortunatly work was pretty slow this week, nobody here wants to do anything when its hot, especially when nobody has good ol AC. But we accepted what work we got and its as follows.

 

      We are workign with a 53ish year old woman named Anna, she also has 2 young Granddaughters.  THey were people we found knocking doors, it was a very insirational finde o be honest.  We have tuaght them the restoration adn the Plan of salvation.  She acepted a date for the 3rd of april well, but we didnt feel that she was ready so we pushed it back a little.  We have  to talk to her to get a confirmed date.  She has a very hard life, works int he field all day long and lives off of just more than nothing.  Does everything she can for her Grand Daughters,  Right now she needs this church more than anything, so hopefully she wil follow our help! We are also teachign her how to read, she is slowly but surly progressing.  ITs just hard to meet with her because of her crazy work schedual.

 

   Then we surgio, hw is the son of a previously inactive sister.  We also found them divinly, and we talked with her.  She had been taking lessons from the Jehova witnesses and going to church with them.  SO we cleared things up. SHe still gets mixed up with all of thier garbage but we will straighten things out.  NAd because her son has 10 year that mean he is under our responsibility to be baptize so we have jumped right on that blessign! Hopefully we will Baptize him and Hermana Anna next week!

 

  THen we still have Rosio and Vicente and Tomasa, thank you for the suggestions with them.  We havent been able to have a normal lesson with them all week, wich had been extremly frustrating, so hopefully this week we will drop in and get Tomasa to accept a date and Rosio and >Vicente to get plans together to get married.  Vicente still lacks coming to church, so we gotta wipp him into shape on that.  We just really need to get them all to get seriouse about all this.  BUt it will come.

 

    But thats out bit of work that we have right now, felling pretty pressed, but doing all i can do for them, so hopefully things will follow through for them, it sure would help them alot! The transfer ends april 19th, so hopefully all of these above plans will follow through by then, im certainly planning on busting my butt to make it happen.  But thats the week! Hope all is well at home, i certainly do love you all and hope the best for ya

Last Week of January (and the week before!)

Ohh wow, can you beleive it was just a year ago that i was left to work with the yearlings all alone while clint was in Texas, where does the time go... SO this wekk, well it passed pretty slow but it was alright.  Peirdras Negras is a really big area so its been quite an adventure here.  I dont think i ever want to do another whitewash.  We have just been having to get to know the area a litte more every day, we are surrounded by all sorts of little towns as well, so there is alot to explore.  Pretty much things went down liek this: Tuesday morning, i finished packing, then we went to the bus stations and those getting transfered or going home took the bus to veracruz, from there i saw a few people that i wanted to talk to then we went to the misison office.  We had to go to the mission office because the secrataries had to take us to the area.  THere are alot of rnachos here, lots of cattle ranches and farms, so it makes for neat bus rides.  SO me and Elder Trujillo load up in the misison van and head off to Piedras Negras.  About 2 hourse of driving we get to the area, tiny little town, the biggest grocerie store is compared top a circle k maybe.  Here its a branch, and we have a "House of Prayer" for our church building.  Its a little building but yesterday it worked well, we have to hold sactapment meeting outside.  Me and Elder Trujillo we asked to speak thursday by the branch predident, and i didnt prepare anything for my talk untill 10 seconds before, but surprising i think it turned out well, it was about the importance of converting ourselves to the Gospel, with personal prayer and study, i was quoted a few times throught the rest of church so i guess it went well.  Its still a little wierd to always speak another language ha! Our house here is pretty sweet, its alot bigger than the one room i had in Xalapa, adn we have continued to have hot water.. YES! We have a room for studies and to sleep and to eat, it doenst have any form of kitchen, just a sink, but the bathroomk is the nicest one i have had so far.  THe Elders before us left a bit of a mess,so we did alot of cleaning the first day, ill sent pics next week.   SO now onto the People, the Elders From Before left a 3 investigators,  but none of them have made progress for a while, there is a youung couple who we are gonna try to help get marriede.   But in our first week, we found 10 new investigators, they all seem to have good potential, but then that leads up to the next part.. yesterday.  Here church starts at 10, thats the first time i havent had early church for my whole mission! But yea another week of nobody showing up to church, we even passed by for jusr about everyone, but nobody showed, so If anybody has any info, or advise for getting people to church please let me know! And as for me, well when i saw predident in the offices he said it was the happiesest and must pumed he has seen me in my time here.  Leaving Xalapa wasnt a fun thing, but i felt really good coming into this transfer, i left feeling really good.  THen this whole week i have felt erally good.  THe Lord has really blessed me alot this week with my attitude and how im feeling.  To tell the truth, whe we first got here i was extremply imtimidated at the challenge of resurectign an area.  THis are has produced great things in the past apparently, so im exeted to see what can be done, but intimidated as well.  THe bakeries are really good here, i think i have gone atleast once a day haha! BUt fortunatly its really cheap to get things from them! Im not sure how we are going to do for the teransfer, we have made a goal of 6, but after yesterday nothing is going to happen for atleast 3 weeks, so we will see.  So just please pray that i can stay positive and that we can figure out how to get peopel to go to church! BUt getting to know a completly new area at the same time as your comp has been a really fun adventure, the members have been helpfull and loving and im very greatfull for that! BUt thats all i can think of, i love you all and im so gratefull for you lvoe and prayers, and for your communication, every bit helps so thanks! 






24 January 2011

Well if you havent cought on to it yet, i have been transfered, tomorrow i ship of to... Peidras Negras! ITs a little city south of Veracruz, i havent he3ared much about it.  Me and Elder >Trujillo will ne white washing the place so it will be... a great learning experience.  Im really going to miss the Xalapeño weather, its a dream here, not to different from Arizona, when there are clouds its cold and when its sunny its warm.  This week it got so foggy we got to where we couldnt see 10 feet in front of us (it made contact really interesting).  Talk about heavenly eh?? And here because tis so humid when it gets cold there is something called "Chipi Chipi" and that is when the air gets so cold that the humidity truns to water, its basically feels life a good drizzle, but its more like mornign dew on steroids.  Its sweet! So now on to the week i guess.  So Tuesday there was a capacitationfor leaders in veracruze so elder merino had to go to that with elder greenfield, who is going to recieve a misisonary who has 1 transfer.  So because of this we had to switch me adn Elder Greenfield houses for monday night.  So i was with Elder Alder tuesday and monday night, it was pretty sweet if i dont say so myself, we talked alot about good ol call of duty and natzi zombies and some other things along those lines and to tell the truth we talked about everything and anything, man i love doing that.  BUt it was pretty sweet to be with Edler Alder, i dotn mean to make it sound like i dont like being with elder merino, i love him too, but i dotn live iwht elder alder and it was all in ENGLISH haha but we slipped in out of spanish on accident it was pretty interesting.  ACtuall of the the american make fun of me because i cant talk straight english anymore! Im beccoming well known for my spanglish! I guess thats what i get for having native comps 27\7 .  But  yea we avtually taught 3 lessons togeather, so that was sweet, i love teaching! THen the reast of the week was fear of the transfer calls, elder merino had ben given the idea that i was going to get transfered when he was at the offices so this weke went fast and slow at the same time.  We ended up getting 11 new investigatores this week, so of course the area picks up when its my time to leave :\ but thats alright, the important thing is that we all make it to the same finish.  we ended the week with 124 contacts, wich was sweet, it took a good amount of work to get them all and if we didnt have 6 hours of church on sundays we would have gone all the way to 140, but we did good i thought.  I have heared all kinds of "wonderfull" things about my next area.  BUt i try not ot listen, its a new area and a new transfer so we will see what the lord has prepared.  Then this week i have spent soem time just reflecting on my mission, going through pictures and journal and everything.  I guess i feel like im trying to figure out what i want form this next year, what are my goals nad what am i going to do.  I cant beleive clouse and adams are already hitting thier year mark, i still remember my last nights with both of them perfectly, and that means mine is coming up fast. 

  As well i have heared a few things about the superbowl from members but to tell the truth i really dont know anyting about it.  Greenbay and the packers? How are good ol Arizona sports doing? But i think that all for the week, i cant think of anythign else, so it will be interesting to see what i have to say in my next area! Take care and i love you all!

Xalapa

Hmm....what to say about this week....well, I'm not sure exatly where I should start so we will see how it all pans out! SO as you already know, I have been enjoying my first week here in Xalapa.  It's pretty sweet here. Sometimes I forget I'm in Mexico to tell the truth.  But one of my favorite parts is the hot water heater in our apartment! Ohh man you don't even know! 


There is a lot of work to be done here. My area is called Americas. We have 2 wards: Americas and Ensueño. They are both really neat wards, and the members are all such neat people! Our apartment is just a one room flat that is forever high in the sky. The staircase is the next best thing to rock climbing here, but my luggage made it up, so no worries there! It's neat though because we have a neat little view of a small portion of the city.  It's so BIG here. Man, I forgot what a big city feels like. I gotta get some pictures so you guys can see. It's a really pretty city.  It gets pretty cold because of the humidity, and possibly because I was in the hottest part of the mission before here.  But I'm planning on buying a sweater or two and maybe a sleeping bag! Ha, but the teaching pool is pretty dry, so hurray for   basically whitewashing the week of Christmas, actually it's not that bad.  My comp is Elder Moreno. He is from Mission Tampico--and yes, I got another DL for my comp. Who knows what's up with that. But he is chill. He is different from any comp I have had before, he is from a small town in el Estado de Mexico. He came here when they did all the changing of the boundaries here.  He goes home this April, so he's starting do his final big push in the mission. But we have a lot of potential success here, a lot of it just depends on us and what we do. So cross your fingers for something good to come out of all this. 


This week I'm really just trying to figure out how to be a good missionary but at the same time enjoy my mission. It's harder than it sounds, ha, but I guess it will just come in time. I certainly am open to any inspiration or advice! But I guess we can talk more on the phone this Friday, man thats gonna be sweet! Welp hope all of ya enjoy your navidad, cuz I know I'm going to, because we have Costco, Samsclub, and Walmart here! So things should be good! I finally get to drink real milk again! All of the milk here is milk that is rotten proof and it worked wonders for the intestines, so hurray for real milk again, and thank you Costco! But yeah, those or the words I have acerca de this week so hope you all enjoy, and I can't even wait until Friday! Peace and take luck! 

Last week of the transfer! (AND PICTURES)

So as you might have guessed this week was my last week in tierra blanca, we trasnfres tommorrow, and im going to Xalapa!! How crazy is that! I have wanted to go there ever since i knew anything about this mission! Im soo Stoaked, Apparently the have carls jr there and all kinds of amaerican stuff, man that gonna be crazy to see again! THe best we have in tierra blanca is whats called CHedraui and thats like THe neiborhood cwalmart wiht less selection!! AHHH hah as you can tell im stoaked! But i really did love so much of my time here in tierra blacna! THis are placed some big striggles in front of me that really made me did down and decide what the heck im doing in a whole other country! but i made it! We had the Baptism of HRna Magali adn her doughter Crystal this week sucha  great service, we had the suprise visit of Pres Hansen and Sister Hansen, they came to talk to some of the other elderes in ther area.  But we were headed to the capilla(church building) and i saw thier van iand i thought,  thta is a really clean care (because thats not norma here) then they started waving at us, and i thought i know them i thnk, ha and finally my brain kicked in and it was President and Sister Hansen! Man they attended the servicio and is was such a neat expereience! Hrna magali is cousins to Julio and after they were baptised she became really interested in the church because of the big difference it made in them! BUt now im off to Xjalapa to contunue on with this hole mission expereice! Im so stoaked for the cold, and i pray i will hvae a water heater! And maybe if im luck i will have  white christ mas eh?! but there are alot of hills there so that should kep me warm haha president called me this week about the transfer and he tole me "elder nelson we are transfering you"

Me

" uhh what?"

EL

"wwe are sendign you to a place were the elderes there usually like to hav gloves and sweaters, and its gts in the negative celcius"

Me

"HEck yea!  DO i have to wait untill saturday to know where?"

Pres

"Heck yea!"

so it actualy want intill yesterday that i learned i was going to Xalapa, im exited, elder cateneda will be my zl there and it will be sweet to see him again! But yea is say thats about all this week, i anxiouse to see how the week is going to go, tomorrow we get to go to veracruz for the transfers ans its always fin to go to veracruz! So thaks all of you for everything it all truly is appreciated, i cant even describe my appreciation.  SO i hope all of you ake care as we close in on christmas and you enjoy it! ps i got pics on the way!

Going to MEXICO!

Hey mom! I'm just emailing to let you know that I got my visa on Thursday and I will be heading to Mexico this Monday (September 13) at 12pm.  It's super rushed, but it's cool that I'm finally going. So I'm just letting you know that some time between 8am and 12pm Monday morning I will be calling from the airport.  


I hope all is well and I hope I get the opportunity to talk to you guys. They will be flying us to Texas, then Mexico City,and then Veracruz. I get to Veracruz at 9 pm Monday night. I'm extited to see what's waiting for me in Veracruz and I'm exited to talk to you guys. Take care! Let grandparents know also. Thanks!


5:28 p.m.


Alright, so I'm in the airport waiting for the phone, and they have little computers where you can pay to check your email, so I figured I would do that while I wait.  I gotta admit, I'm sad to leave Park City, but I'm exited to see what is ahead of me. It's going to be crazy intense fun.  I'm wodering what things are going to be like with the hurricanes and all, but I guess we will see, haha.  


Man, Park City is going to have such a good month the next two months, it's crazy.  We get a direct flight from here in Houston to Veracruz, so I will get there around 11 at night, so that will be fun.... but I can't believe I'm already headed to Mexico! I'll talke more on the phone I guess. Just remember I love you all. No worries mom, I got all the stuff you sent me, it was great.  i packed the protein but had no room for the mangoes, so Park City will enjoy those. Take luck all! I love you!

The happiness that can come to us is limitless

Transfers

Hey! Guess what?! I got transferred to the complete other side of the mission!!! I am now in Kamas Utah.... haha I love it so much! It’s a lot like Preston, Idaho I think. It’s so green and pretty here. I’m about 20 mins East of Park city. In fact, Park City is in my zone! It’s so cool out here! It reminds me a lot of the Nelson cabin for some reason. But yeah, I’m in Kamas, Utah. Our area covers Woodland to Oakley or something like that. It looks a lot like the area that the Utah house is in. I really love it. We are in a car again, so I’m submitting a big music wish list for ya! Thanks!

Members

The people here are so great to us. We get so much food from the members. I miss feeling hungry sometimes, hahah. But it’s so good. The members here really have sooo much respect for the missionaries.

Companions

My New Companions are Elder Hernandez from Mexico, Elder Torrez from Mexico, and Elder Ferrin form my MTC district. Elder Torrez and Hernandez are such good teachers. I’m really learning so much from them. They are such good missionaries. I’m so glad to be in this area with them. They are improving my Spanish so much because they don’t talk in English, hahaha. And they are such funny guys! Man they are so funny. They are really hard workers and we have so many people to teach here, and there is always something that we can do because of their hard work! I’m really trying to learn as much as I can from them! Elder Ferrin has his Visa, so he leaves for Mexico sometime this week, so we won’t be double working the area anymore. This makes us even busier! It’s crazy stuff! But I love it so much!

They have me participate in teaching the lessons so much, and a lot of the time, I won’t even know that I’m teaching the main part of the lesson until we are at the door. They are really improving my ability to act fast. They’re also so dedicated to studying. Elder Torrez gets up at like 5 a.m. every day so he can get more time to study. He knows the bible so well. It’s so fun to hear is bible bashing stories. My companions are really teaching me so much. I’m so glad to be here.

The Area

We are within 45 mins of Salt Lake. Being on the other side of the mountains is like living in a whole other world. It’s just so pretty and amazing. The people environment is so great. There is so much love for the Elders. Everybody has so much respect for us, it’s incredible.

Learning Lessons

I am really starting to understand Mosiah when he says that it is not expedient for man to run faster than he is able. My whole time in the field I have been trying to run like a missionary who has been out for more than a year, which is like trying to swim a 500 after one week of swimming—you’re gonna get freaking tired, and it’s gonna be one of the worst experiences of your life. All the stress from that was really making things difficult, and I wasn’t really happy with being on a mission. But then in personal study I was just reading about how God’s whole purpose for us is to be happy. Everything is meant to make us, his children, happy. And I have just been slowing down and trying to learn and not do. God has blessed me with teaching skills, but I just don’t know how to be the missionary I want to be. My mind is a lot more closed when I’m stressed out and that was really interfering with the spirit. But in being with my new companions, I have learned that the mission doesn’t have to be stressful and you don’t have to go a million miles an hour. Just be calm and happy. The spirit while guide you to where you need to go. I have trusted only myself way too much. I have been relying on myself so much, and that is a foolish thing to do when you have the all-knowing source on your side. I still have to work hard, and some things are going to be hard. But it’s important to remember that I’m in the learning stages of my mission.

It’s basically required of me to make mistakes, to embarrass myself by telling everybody “estoy bueno” and not “estoy bien,” (estoy bueno means something different, like something you wouldn’t expect to hear form a missionary. But I’ll let you figure out what it means to Spanish people…haha). And the other day in a lesson I told the people I have 7 kids instead of 7 brothers and sisters, hahah. It was funny. But God’s whole intent for us is to be happy, and Paul says God loves a happy giver. So I’m just still working hard while really changing my approach to the whole mission life because things have been a lot better since I have done that. It has really made such a difference, so I challenge everybody to just find the joy in every moment. Make every moment worth talking about and remembering. I promise that it will make a difference in your life. Pray for it. And if you’re not praying, start praying. That makes a big difference in itself.

Other Insights

Family, please, please, please (!) strive to have Family Home Evening, Family Scripture Study, and Family Prayers. How can I teach and require this of other people if my own family doesn’t follow? I promise that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can fix any problem with time and enduring. Always strive to have a cheerful attitude. Everyone believes that we have every reason in the world to be unhappy, but really, we have so many more reasons to be happy. We chose to come to this earth because we knew it was the best option that we had in the pre-earth life. We did have a choice, and we knew there were high risks to come here. Nut there was also the highest reward possible. So please, please, please do your best to unify the family and I promise you just as I promise many people every day, that this gospel can heal any wound—no matter how deep. But only if we permit, so open your door to the light and gospel of Jesus Christ. We levitate how much happiness we have in our lives, we choose our path, and we choose the intensity of the light in our path. So, flip the switch and stop wandering in the dark. Get over yourself and live to your full potential of happiness as sons and daughters of God. We are Queens and Kings of the most high God and the highest kingdom of them all.

Closing

Family, Glen, Katie, Jacob, Hanna, Paige, and Sophia: I love all of you so much. If I didn’t show that before my mission, or if you doubt just a little that I love you, then shame on me and I’m sorry. I promise that I’m working on repenting of that. So family, please open the windows to heaven and lighten your path as much as possible. I love you all so much; I really do. And much of the time I’m disappointed that it took me being separated from you to realize how much I love you, but I really do love all of you, and I hope that you can feel my love for you just as I feel your love for me.

Strive to make the gospel more relevant in your lives. I have met so many people out here who were members but then allowed themselves to lose their faith. And they lost their faith because of their choice to not do the simplest of things like pray and read the scriptures. I promise the happiness that can come is limitless. I have seen the difference in all kinds of homes according to how they live and apply the gospel. Don’t get caught up in the lies that you don’t need to do these things because remember that Satan teaches a man not to pray!

"Members are the most important source for finding investigators."

Well, another week in the field. Transfers are on Wednesday, so we will see what ends up happening for those.  I'm kinda hoping our companionship is changed from 3 greenies and one trainer to something a little more balanced.

So, this week me and Elder Stradling have been working on getting the members more involved.  I can't believe how much missionaries really depend on members for missionary work, so always remember that members are the most important source for finding investigators. Us missionaries are constantly changing around areas, so we don't know the area, and we dont know the people. I challenge everybody to get to know your neighbors so that when the missionaries come to your door and ask for referrals, you can give them something!

So me and Elder Stradling went around to the auxiliary leaders in the Oquirr Point Stake and shared a scripture with them and bore our testimonies about missionary work and how it blesses us and our families.  Then we asked them how we can help them and for referrals and then we left with a prayer.  We gave them pass along cards with D&C 18:10, 13-17 and Matthew 14:5 or something like that with our number on it.  So just remember the members are key in areas.

We went on splits sometime through out the week. Me and Elder Stradling went and stayed with Elder Jones, one of our zone leaders.  Their landlords are so messy, ha, it was driving me crazy. The whole time I was in their house I was cleaning. Thanks for that trait mom. I'm sure my wife will appreciate it, hahah! Elder Jones is English speaking and so we went around to English people, and boy, am I glad to get to work with Spanish people because English people [aren't so friendly]. That was the first time a door had ever been slammed in my face. Everybody should learn to be more like Spanish people and Polynesian cultures. They are so nice about everything, and they are soo friendly. And their families are usually closer too. I'm already making mental notes of how I want things to be in my house that I will have some day.  I don't know if anyone else thinks about this while on the mission, but I think about my future family and home A LOT. I'm always taking mental notes. But we have found a lot of Spanish families in the Oquirr Stake and Oquirr Point Stake. Now we just need to turn them into investigators.

We had a lot of people plan to come to church but only one of them showed, so that puts about 5 people back on baptism appointments--so we will see how that goes. I have been praying really hard for the members to get more involved here. We really need that.

The Spanish is coming, really, I just have to work on my vocab. I have a small vocabulary, so that is what makes it hard. I think I'm fine with grammar. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for what I'm doing. It just comes with time.

So on the bike I now can bunny hop! On flat ground I can be going and get both wheels off the ground!! WOO Hoo. That took a lot of tries! And I got a decent wheely down, too. I only had to bail one time in the few weeks I have been in the field.  I'm so glad we get to ride bikes. A lot of the time the only reason I'm happy is because I get to ride a bike and mess around and just have fun. I guess it's sad to say, but being on a bike has made things better! haha, I love biking!


So, I have decided that I really want to read through the bible because so many people think us Mormons don't study the bible, so I decided I should have a testimony of the bible, too. Everybody should read Preach My Gospel. It's great stuff. I'm learning soo much from it.  [I get a little bugged] in my companionship when they don't do things according to PMG. [In the MTC that's what they told us to teach.] Man, I loved the MTC! But at least I get to cook now, woo hoo! Man, I love cooking! But ya, that's about all for this week. I think! I will work on getting a few hand written letters out!

Thanks for the love and the prayers. I pray that God blesses those that help his missionaries!  One more piece of advice: the best thing you can do for a missionary is give them food! Or money is good too, since none of us can stick to a budget! I'm exited to see what transfers bring, but no matter what, I'm just gonna keep on working anyways! Thanks for everything. I love you all! Have a great one! Hopefully I will have something exiting to share for next week! TTFN!

I am now in Kerns, Utah

So, I have officially been in the field for 10 days! Woo Hoo! What I would give to be back in the nest (aka the mtc).  

Man, it's been an interesting week in my new area. I am now in Kerns, Utah (yeah, I know, I laughed too). We are out on the far West side of the SLC Valley by the huge copper mine, just north of it basically. There are a surprising amount of houses out here and its extremely hilly.  We dont have a car here, so we all ride bikes. My bike is from the stone age. It's like a 1941 beach cruzer, so it's pretty interesting. But the cool thing is the gear shifter is in the center, so it's almost like driving a motorcycle. But I am always the first one to the top of the hill, which is definitely something I always try to do. Lance Armstrong better watch out cuz I'm coming for him! 

Im in another four-some companionship. It's three greenies and a guy with 2 months left. He was AP for 7 months, so I'm trying to learn a lot from him, but it's hard with 2 other people doing the same because we are always switching up the companionships for the day. One of my companions is Elder Stradling from Mesa. He is related to the Stradlings in our ward actually. 

My Spanish is being forced to come along because of this, so that makes up for not being in Mexico. I'm surprised with how much grammar i remember--thank goodness for divine intervention.  

I'm not gonna lie, this week has been tough just with everything that been going on. There are people that don't like me at first because I'm from Arizona, but that's their problem I guess. Actually, there were some people that I have told that I'm from Preston, Idaho, ha, but that backfired a little when I didn't know anything about Preston, hahah. But ohh well! 

Umm, we met the new Mission President today. He is a really cool guy, and he is funny. He said his family is a lot like from what I described my family to be. 

I'm glad this hasn't been a hectic summer at home. I'm missing the "chill"ness of life: working and then playing. Here, it is just working so you can work some more. But I'm working on it! haha, And I'm striving to love it. It will come i know. I'll let you know more next week. Thanks for the love and prayers. If you want my address, just look up the Salt Lake City South Mission Office.

Thanks for everything again. 

I love you all!

"Secretly, I was pretty daggum scared!"

Hey! So, here it goes. My first email to home from the field! WoW!

So, I'm hear in the Salt Lake City South Mission. My branch is the Sandy Union Park Stake. I have no idea where that is, but now I have different mountains to look at! There are four of us living in the basement of a retired member's house.  Me and Elder Clark were paired with Elder Hathaway and Elder Mullay. Me and Elder Clark sleep on air mattresses in the familyroom/ kitchen.  It's better than it sounds.  We have been living out of our suitcases because we are probably gonin to  be transfered to a Spanish branch until we get our Visas. I have no idea how long it is going to be untill I get my Visa though, but i dont mind staying here for a while, as long as we can stay busy.  We have a car and bikes, so me and Elder Clark switch off with Elder Hathaway and Elder Murray. We go around contacting members for refferals.  We have gotten a small list of people to teach.  Apperently, in Utah you cant do most tracting stuff because most people are Mormon, or just  because of all sorts of reasons. So pretty much, our work is from member refferals. 

It was really great to get to go to a normal ward again. In fact, we went to three sacrament meetings yesterday. I thought it was really cool! All the people here have been really nice to us.  I never really noticed how much people really appreciate the missionaries and look up to them until I was in church this past Sunday. (Hopefully this next part somehow gets to Hermano Baron at the MTC.  Because I can relate to Hermano Baron's first day in the field! HA.)

So after we were put with our companions, we were given one more bike, then went home, kinda tinkered with the bike a little (The thing was in pretty bad shape, not to mention its the size of Sophia's bike at home!). The pettly shafts are like two inches long, hhahaha. It makes hills interesting!   Anyways, so me and Elder Hathaway were gonna go meet up with some ward members but then the bike tire decided that it wasn't  going to hold air :/

So I was riding around this little bike with super low air and then Elder Hathaway's bike gear thing in the back just randomly falls off, so we were pushing our bikes around for a while till we finally got to Wallmart where I could get stuff to fix my bike. I was messing around with that for like an hour, and we pretty much have spent most of the last four days dealing with the stupid mission bikes, but dont worry I just laughed it off. I think somthing that is sometimes my biggest problem out here as a misisonary and in the MTC is that I just get too tense and un-relaxed about things, so something I'm working on is to just chill about everything and not take everything so seriously so that way I can be more focused and relaxed. 

So on Sunday we tought two lessons: one to a guy named Noe (he just moved here form Nevada and worked with a member in the ward).  He is young 20s and he had some questions about the church, so we were invited to come over and to teach him. We tought him the first lesson (secretly I was pretty daggum scared!) haha, but it seemed like it ended up turning out pretty good! He committed to be baptized on July 24th if he felt like it was true, and he still wanted to by then. The spirtit was so strong during the lesson. It was sooo cool! he seemeed pretty interested so we will see.

Then, when we were riding our bikes around we randomly decided to visit an investigator's house. It turns out they just found out their married daughter is pregnant and they wanted to give her a blessing of comfort, so me and Elder Hathaway helped them out with that. 

Ohh and another cool thing, i finally had a real stake! Ohh man it was soo good! Wow it was such a good dinner. For the record, I finally got to go to Carls Jr. again! Woo hoo! haha.

So after the blessing we went and taught an 11-year-old brother and sister who have very inactive parents. We taught them lesson 1, but this time I wasn't scared. I like teaching kids alot more, hahah! They also committed to being baptized on July 24th, so hopefully their mom will let that happen! But it's cool to teach for reals. I still have sooo much to learn, and there is just soo much I need to improve on! Man, I thought I was ready for a lot of things in the MTC, but daggum, there is always room for growth. I'm a little bummed that I dont get to practice my Spanish, but it probably would have been overwhelming anyway.

So the money they gave us equals out to four bucks a day, so I'm prett much living off of beans and pasta, haha! But I really do like it here, and it's soo great to finally get to listen to music, which brings up a new subject: I need more music. I need up beat stuff though. Everything I have is sooo slow and downbeat it gets really annoying, and it just is hard to be upbeat with slow, downbeat music, so i really want/ need upbeat music so i can be an upbeat missionary. 

So another funny thing that happened this week was last night Elder Hathaway and Elder Clark decided to to the Habinero pepper challenge, which is to eat a habinero and wait 5 mins to do whatever you can to get rid of the burn. It was so funny. I will work on sending a video of it home! But that's about all for this week! My Pdays are on Mondays form now on.

Umm, i have no idea how the mail system works here, so it would probaly be best to just have people email me for now. We get an hour to email.  So im guessing I probably wont hear form you till next week, but hopefully I will, ha, I'm probably gonna be in the Spanish branch, so I'll let you know how that goes.  I love you all. Thanks you so much for everything! Good luch to you with whateer you do. 

Ps. Jake, Ukrain looks beautifull! Good luck and keep up the good work!

Hasta Luego!

Transferred to the Salt Lake City South Mission

So, I just found out that we got transferred to the Salt Lake City South Mission until we get our visas! And we are leaving the MTC on Friday. This Friday! Ohh my goodness, I'm so exited, and yet I'm not ready for this! I'm supposed to be getting a phone call, and I will be able to call tonight. So mom, be ready for a phone call! I can't believe I'm leaving theMTC.  Ohh my freaking goodness! Ha, I'm leaving the MTC!

Im not ready to leave. I don't wanna leave yet. Ohh my goodness I'm soooo exited! This is more exiting than my mission call, I think! Btw, mom we got out travel plans, but with out visas they don't mean anything...  so we will see. I'll let you know on that!

I cant beleve im leaving the MTC! I have learned to love the MTC so much, and now I have to leave! I don't want to leave! I wonder how long I will  be in Salt Lake for? This is crazy! I'm soooo stoaked..

So fonzi left for the Phillipines this week! I CAN'T BELIEVE HE IS GONE.  I SEE CASEY COLE ALL THE TIME AND THAT NICE,WE TALK ALOT.

Since the provo temple is closed we got to help renovate it. It was sooo cool. We pulled carpet for 4 hours--it was intense. But it was cool. I love doing service in the temple. I'm definitely going through it once I get home to see the changes they are making and to say that I helped!

I can't believe I'm leaving! Mom, I haven't gotten your package yet because our district leader hasn't gotten the mail yet! Ohh goodneess I cant believe I'm leaving the MTC! But I'm soo stoaked for the real deal! Im glad to hear things at home are going great!

Sophia, way to be a troooper, you always have been! Jake, I haven't read all you emails yet, so sorry, ister adams thatks for the update, I heard in Jake's email about Krysten, so i just gotta say this: CALLED IT!!!!! And just remember all the planning will pay off!

Sorry this email doesn't say much. My mind is racing right now. I got some time left so I'll send one more off tonight so try and email me back before 4pm today! We can can talk about the phone call. Ohh goodness this is exciting!