March 28, 2011

Hey,

Yup! I got transferred. I'm in Livingston, Texas now. It's a really country area. Not as much as Fred, but it's country.

President also asked me to be a District Leader. The district is Me, Elder Tracy, (my companion, he's from Logan, graduated in 2010 and has been out 4.5 months) and the Cleavland Elders, Backman, Mathews, and Martinez. I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest in the district.

Elder Martinez is a temporary Spanish missionary. He and a few other missionaries had visa issues. So he got sent to this mission temporarily. They are in a trio because they think he will leave for Brazil soon and that way the other Elders will still have each other when he leaves.

District Leaders get to go on exchanges with the members of their district, and the Zone Leaders. So I get to go on exchanges with Elder Serdar this transfer. He's a zone leader in this zone. Besides exchanges, District Leaders Take numbers from the district and give them to the Zone leaders, and plan and conduct District meeting.

Woaah mom, I want a little time with Ethan before he leaves on a mission, BUT a mission is important. Definitely worth more than a few weeks of contact.

Did you mail the calendar to the Fred address? if you did that's alright I'll probably be able to get it on the 8th at a meeting.

My new address is:

1025 W. Church St.

Apt. #504

Livingston, Texas

77351

I'm almost out of time I hope that I gabbed enough stuff to write about. Sorry I don't know more about the area.

umm I left Fred with 2 Baptism dates.

Love you you guys!

March 21, 2011

Hey,

I know you want to here from me and I'm sure your very busy, and that that is probably the reason why I didn't get an email this week. Since I didn't get an email this morning this is a bare bones message.

Transfers are in a week I'm pretty darn sure I'm getting transferred.

The weather is nice. I got dads stuff on college thank you. I'm' regretting not writing a full email now (because that's not very Christ like or polite), but I'm out of time now....sorry.
Love you, REALLY

P.S. my but has been sore from biking

March 14, 2011

Hey,

I got the school stuff yesterday,(never did get a family calendar). Yikes! College is more expensive than I remember. I hear that it dosn't really matter where you get your degree from as long as you have one, is that true? Also, this is probably more of a dad question, do any of those schools have programs/degrees for somthing like computer networking or whatever degree/program I would need to go into a job like that? As I've been out here, the things that have caught my eyes have been computers, so I'm thinking that's what I want to do.

That is pretty crazy that Alec Pectol is on his mission!

Yes I am pretty Darn sure that I am getting transferred. Elder Gardner's home coming is going to be on the 17th of April by the way I just remembered. I've also realized that Alex Casey's and my homecoming, could be on the same day. Weird.

I definitely want to do some gardening when I get back, probably just some potatoes, and peppers. Try to save a little money.

I'm glad to hear that Nick and Sarah are going to have a baby.

Sorry I don't have time to tell you the story of how we found Dennis, it really is a miracle, I'll have to tell you next week. He is doing well, by the way, he just needs to stop smoking.

We had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the zone leaders this past week, that's always fun.

Well' I got to go,
Love you

March 7, 2011

Hey there,

I hope all is well up there. Sorry to hear there's a lot of yuck going around. I was feeling pretty yuck my self last night...ate too much...it didn't hurt, but I needed to burp an I felt like if I did it was just going to come on out since my stomach was so full.

What was so good you may ask? Mexican cornbread, beans, Ice Cream, and Brownies yum.

To day is our Bi-Zone P-Day with the Orange Zone it should be fun except it is kind of cold again.

I'm excited for General Conference coming up in April.

The reason I asked about the school info is because a missionary who has been out 18 weeks longer than me had to apply for BYU Idaho about 6 weeks ago. So I think the time might be getting short on that.

Gas is about $3.50 here yikes! I asked president if that was going to affect the amount of miles we have.. he said no it wouldn't change because of gas prices.

We had an Investigator at church last Sunday, his name is Jim. He lives on the same road as Dennis.(I'm pretty sure I told you about Dennis and the story about how we found him, let me know if not) That was neat, Dennis wasn't able to make it yesterday though, he was sick.

Sorry I forgot my SD card reader today

All I need to do with my Mormon.org Profile is to upload a picture I'll try to do that next week.

Transfers are in 3 weeks, I'm pretty sure I'm getting transferred, but I don't know for sure.

Hope you're all staying well and keeping safe.
I got to go,

Love you bye.

February 28, 2011

Hi Everyone,

Hey, whew, another unique week. Let's start with the bad news: As of last Friday all board and card game are un-approved to have in apartments. So today I'm mailing home a package which contains(among other things) a Lord of the Rings Monopoly game someone left in the Silsbee apartment. The other bad news is 3 people who said they'd be at church didn't show up.

The good news is that 1 did. Dennis came to church again, he's still struggling with smoking, but he's working on it. The other good news is that we're going on exchanges tonight with the Buna missionaries so 6 of us can get together instead of just 4. Also, a member called us and said
they have a friend who is interested in learning more about the church that we are going to meet tonight.

The work is going well. We have been working in Silsbee one day a week. Usually we split up with Elder Gardner and his companion when we work in Silsbee and see different people depending on the day... so they can do follow up during the week.

You asked about our miles, NO, we are not given more miles. We're over about 230 Mi. right now. I think we are paying about the same for gas as you. It ranges from $3.19-$3.30 We are paying over $3.20. bummer.

Oh yeah, we get to go to the Temple on the 23rd. That just happens to be the day that the stake has assigned our branch to "fill the temple" It's pretty cool, only problem is that most of the members going are going for more than one session because the temple is so far away, I'm not sure if we will be able to get a ride or not.

Alright I'd better go
Love you all Bye

February 22, 2011

Hey guys!

I knew the mission President's name and that he was from La. but that was it. Yeah I think I'll have him for about 5-6 months. I think the switch is about July first.

Yeah, Sister Moldenhauer and I were starting to suspect I had an allergy. I've been taking "Walmart" Clariton for about a week now and I'm doing a lot better. I think the allergy + full days of work led to coughs/colds on top of the allergy both years.

We are spending about a day a week working in Silsbee with Elder Gardner and his companion. But the work is picking up...well kinda.

We have an investigator named Dennis he is in his 50s. He's had some bad luck in his life, he has no water or power, not much to his name. He needs a ride to church (20-25 miles one way) each week. He says he wants to be baptized and that he feels like the Lord has answered his prayers, that this is the true church. Right now he has a Baptism date for 3/12/11 we know he has a smoking problem but were going to talk to him about that today.

The reason why I said the work was "kinda" picking up is because you can't push a rope. It is getting frustrating trying to push the leaders of the branch to get on board with missionary work not just converts, but less active work too. In our Branch Council meeting Sunday afternoon the branch president asked us about our investigators then said: "I see Dennis made it to church" and that was all that was said about him. The branch has 4 focus families it's working with (Bro. Balla and the missionaries gave them 7 names, they took one and added 3 of there own). Well, one has become active so they dropped him off the list. They weren't going to add anyone in his place I had to ask if they were going to add someone to the list then suggest someone.
Missionaries do probably 85-90% of the work with the focus families anyway.....sigh I'm just frustrated, of the "oh well we tried, that's to bad" attitude. so I'm venting. Bro. B had to drive 70 miles in order to pick Dennis up and drop him off because other arrangements couldn't be made with someone who lives closer. I Don't know that's not my call to make. I'm just tired of it all.

Yes, please do send me a family calender, thanks!

So, Saturday, Bro. Hatton, (the members we live with) had us planting potatoes in the morning instead of studies. I personally dropped 1300+ (I stopped counting) potato chunks into the earth.

Also, could you find out when school registration is for next spring semester? Depending on when that is I'm going to need to really decide where I'm going to go and what I'm going to do, or if I want to wait a semester to try and figure that out.

I'm going to try and send a package home in the next few days, no promises though.

Alright I need to go,
Love you guys by :-)