Novemeber 15, 2010

Hi Everyone,

That e-mail you got was actualy an automated response I set up. So, if you write me it will tell you I will write you on my P-Day. I didn't think it was turned on yet.

The weather has really cooled down here. It's getting down to the 50's and 40's at night.' I like it though. It's easier to stay warm than to stay cool.

Transfers are a week from today, we'll see what happens.

We get to go to the temple tomorrow!! I'm excited. We also get to go to the bookstore, the only Mormon store for probably hundreds of miles. I know there aren't any in T.H.E. Mission.

Let's see.... a good story.....Hmmmm. Ok, here you go. I took a 15 min. power nap during lunch (Saturday). I was too lazy to crawl under the blanket , and I didn't want to wrinkle up my clothes. So I laid on top of the blanket and flipped the sides up and over me. Kind of like a cocoon. It was light too, so I covered up my face with the blanket and put my hands on my face to keep it from falling off( hope this is making sense). Well, I got up and went into the bathroom, and there was /is a bruise right in the middle of my forehead just above the eyes. Eveyone says it looks like I got hit with a stick, or somone took a straiting iron to my forehead and burned it. The best part, I had to speak in Sacrament meeting the next day (Yesterday). So, that's what's new with me, a mysterious brusie that dosen't hurt on my forehead.

Is it all snowy up there yet?

Oh ya, in the smallest most minute possibility of a chance that you DON'T know Robin REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY wants a cell phone. (I got your letters.)
Well, I need to go, hope all is well,
love you guys
Bye

November 8, 2010

Hey there,

How's it going? The weather has really cooled down I'm loving it.

The pizzas did work out thanks.

My birthday was great. Thanks for everything. I think you had something to do with he 46 birthday cards I received, thanks.

I actually just sent a package today with the pants + some other stuff. I didn't think to put the camera in it though.

We're going to the temple on the 16tht That's a week from tomorrow.

Right now the number of people baptized in THE mission for the 2010 year is in the low 300's. The goal was for 534. In Zone Conference 2 weeks ago President Moldenhauer told us that if we don't make the goal it is because of our unbelief. Yes we are making an extra effort for these last 2 months, the theme for November is: "An Attitude of Gratitude" and the theme for the month of December will be: "A white Christmas".

Transfers are the 22, the week before thanksgiving. I do think I will be transferred. The only thing that makes me think I might not is that the assistants were messing around with Elder Serdar and told him he was going to be a Zone Leader next transfer. We don't know if they were being serious or not.

This past week we've been doing a lot of tracting looking for new people to teach. Several people have said we could come back, but we haven't been able to catch any of them at home yet.

The missionaries we share the ward with tracted into a lady who spent some time on an Indian reservation teaching English. She said that when she was with the Indians the Elders of the tribe told her that Jesus Christ came to America. So she was interested when the missionaries told her about the Book Of Mormon.

Got to go,
Love you guys
Bye

November 1, 2010

Hey,

Yes I did get both the Halloween and Birthday packages, thank you. Unfortunately the Assistants said we could'nt dress up for Halloween trunk or treating party so I couldn't use the wig.

Yes we did find the Recent Convert form California, Ming. He is in Bejing China....he turned his phone back on, that's how we know where he is.

Things are going great, we're loving the cooler weather, it's still in the 80's.

Today is our Zone P-day, and it's combined with the Beaumont Zone. It should be a lot of fun. I know we are going to play soft ball for sure, I'm not sure what else.

This week was kind of hard, our teaching pool just evaporated. Right now we have no one to teach except for an inactive, recent convert, part member family...... A recent convert who hasn't come to church, her nonmember husband. But that's the mission. We will find those who have been prepared.

Thanks for telling everyone to mail me a B-day card. I got 15! on Friday, and 6 on Saturday.

You can send a pizza if you want. There is a dominoes, pizza hut, papa johns, papa murphies, near by. I'm not sure about Little ceasers.

Sorry to cut it short but I got to to so we can get to Zone P-day on time. I Love you guys. Bye

October 25, 2010

Hey,

Sad I didn't hear from you this morning. That's ok though, I know your busy. I hope the churches filters didn't block an email that you sent.

This past week, because Elder Serdar is the District Leader, we got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders in Vidor, Tx. Elder Serdar stayed in Lack Charles, and I went to Vidor. I like going on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, they're always good missionaries. The exchange did make me miss the country though, Vidor is very country. The pictures are at the Texas visitor's center in Orange, Texas off of I-10.

The weather is still in the 80's or so. A few of the leaves have fallen but it's still probably more green than Utah is in the summer. I honestly can't remember how green it is there, only that it is less green than here.

We get to go to the Temple on the 16th, that's exciting.

Our fan in the apartment stopped working this week, so I took it apart and put it back together now it works, but it's really noisy, we'll probably never use it again.

We had interview's with President Moldenhauer this past Wednesday, that's always great.

We get to go to the ward Trunk-or-Treat this Wednesday, that should be fun. Elder Serdar has a Bunny suit another missionary left in the apartment that he's going to wear (supposedly). I don't know what I'm going to do, if anything. Elder Serdar said he would be upset if I dressed up as him.

When we stopped at the border I got an "Official Texas Travel Map" I'm sketching a copy of it with the areas I've served in on it. It's funny, THE mission seems so big, and Houston so far away, and then you look at it compared to the state of Texas..... Texas is REALLY BIG.

Love you,
bye

October 18, 2010

Hi All,

Funny, I've been sick too. Weird family bonds. I'm over the cold though, just need to get this phlegm out of my throat.

B-day requests?....Just Ties, Polyester please. and for either Christmas and/or Birthday, maybe a new camera. My camera's been around the block but it still works for now.

Also, what ever happened to the medical insurance card you guys were going to get me?

So, when a missionary goes home, mission language is that he died. I tell you this because I spoke with a being that belonged to the world beyond this one. Someone who has passed beyond the veil to the land of eternal P-Days. Former Elder David Clark toured his Mission with his family this past week. It was pretty weird to see him not as a missionary. He was in Lake Charles seeing people from his mission. He gave us a call for a phone number and we met up at one of his recent converts house for a few minutes on the way to our appointment.

I am including a voice recording I made last night. Tell Dad I owe him an apology, I was wrong about the definition of pride and being proud.

Oh so yesterday the Primary asked us to sing called to serve with them in the primary program and said if the kids (25+) sing louder than the 4 of us then they could cut our ties. Well, the primary lady, I'm not sure what her calling is, only brought 3 ties for the primary to cut. Yep I had to saccrifice my tie and walk around the end of Church like 15-20 minutes of E.Q. and afterwards, with a snipped tie. There's my funny story for the week.

Love you guys,
Bye

October 11, 2010

Hey,

I'm Still in La. Looks like I'm going to spend about 1\4 of my mission out side the state of Texas.

The Conference was good. Tyler (cousin) was actually one of the first missionaries I saw that was not from my mission. I also saw Ty (neighbor)before the meeting started. I got 2 main messages out of Elder Costa's Talk.

1: You really don't have it that bad. He Told us some of the missionaries in the meeting covered an area smaller that 1 square mile. As a mission president in Brazil, he had an area that was in the Millions of square miles. Plus Brazil has only 2 seasons: Summer =127 F. & Winter 100 F. with 90% + humidity. Also that we are serving in the united states where it is the easiest to talk about religion.

2: Teach by the Spirit, & TEACH PEOPLE NOT LESSONS. He told his conversion story about how the missionaries taught a Lesson to his family, and his father did not let them come back because the missionaries taught them about F.H.E. Well, Elder Costa's parents were doing F.H.E. 7 days a week and didn't like how the missionaries told them to only have it once a week. 10 years later 2 new missionaries came and taught his father what he needed to hear and not a lesson. etc.

I'm thinking about sending a package home either today or next week, probably next week. I will send a memory card with pictures as well as all the voice recordings I have made so far.

So on Saturday we stopped at Panda Express for lunch/dinner. I went to the bathroom, and the zipper on my suit pants broke!! Fortunately 95% of the time left before we got to the apartment was sitting in the back seat of a truck. I still felt really self conscious as we left Panda Express and got into the truck. If I remember correctly, Missionary Mall said they would replace anything that broke from normal wear and tear. I will send a picture on the memory card so we can see if they will replace them or not.

Elder Serdar bought a typewriter from a thrift store last week to type letters on since computers are banned.

I heard Mellisa's Engaged (from Robin) is that true?
Well, I hope your not all Black + Blue from your wreck.

Well I got to go,
I love all of you,
Bye

October 4, 2010

Hey,

Aggghhhh, I only have 29 more days as a teenager!! I've been out 10 Months, double digits! :-) Man that's crazy. It has been so nice the last week, words can not describe the joy I feel. :-) Things are going great.Transfers are in a week so we will see what will happen. I really have no idea if I will stay or not.

Did I tell you that we have a Tri-Mission conference coming up on Saturday? It will be with Elder Costa, of the Presidency of the Seventy. He spoke about prophets in the Saturday morning session of Conference. The bad news is that One of the Recent Converts from the new "Preach My Gospel" DVDs moved to Lake Charles so we wil probably have to report to Elder Costa about how Brother Ming Han is doing. That in it's self is not the bad news, the bad news is that we have no Idea where Ming is. Ok, that's not true, before he turned his phone off he told us he was back in China! He told us he would be coming back on August 26, but his house (work owned) has been rented out to another employee. He quit his job and turned his phone off. So, we might have to tell Elder Costa that we lost a really important Recent Convert. Possibly infront of 3 missions....Glad I'm not the senior compainion or District Leader. ;-)

Also, Jim ______, the guy who has been trying to quit smoking, we think he might be avoiding us. We don't know why. We hope we're wrong.

We didn't have anywhere to go last night so we decided to contact people around McNeese State. It was around 7:50 PM. So, we contact college sudents for like 45 Minutes. It's about 8:30 and dark and I turn to Elder Serdar and say, "Elder, ALL the people we've contacted so far have been girls. Almost all of the people I've seen have been girls. I think this might be the Girls Dormitory we're walking around." Needless to say, we got out of there pretty quick before we got the cops called on us.

Ok, 9 minutes left. I guess we get to go to the Temple again in November, that's cool. Could you print up and mail me copies of President Uchtdorf, and President Eyring's preisthood talks as well as Elder Oakes's talk from this conference, and last conference? If you could just print those up and mail them I would really appreciate it. Those were my favorite talks by the way. Oh ya, after hearing President Uchtdorf's talk on pride tell Dad I owe him an apology. I was always telling him not to be proud of me, well I was wrong.

Well, I need to go. Have a great week. Be safe.
Love you guys. Bye!

September 27, 2010

Hi,

Oh my gosh it feels so good out side right now! It makes me want to sing a hallelujah chorus.

My week was pretty good. It was different being in a trio instead of a normal companionship. In a lot of ways I liked it because you get...more of a variety???... I guess that is the best way to put it.

Today is our Zone Preparation day, not sure what we're going to do, but I'm excited for it.

So, when we moved into the sister's old apartment, we asked the mission office if they had changed our address in the computer, they said yes, but guess what??? This past week the housing coordinator from the mission office went to the old apartment to finish close/clean it up. Elder Serdar had 8 letters from the past 3 1/2 weeks plus we had 2-3 referrals they had mailed to that address, oops. (That's why we mail directly to the apartment.)

Was it Deborah's (Pulley) husband who had the 3B's diet when he goes to the south? Blue bell ice cream, Barbecue and Brisket? Well I found a 4th B, Buffalo Wild Wings, Yum. Turns out it's banned because the environment is not conducive to having the spirit, but those were some good wings. I'm definatlely going to eat there when I come back after my mission.

So this week the church decided to upgrade all their missionary phones. They gave us the LG "Remarq". It's a slider phone with a full keyboard and camera. Huh?? that's a nicer phone than what I had back home. I have no idea why the church gave us these phones. There is so much about them the missionaries can abuse. The screen is on the out side, and sliders are kind of flimsy so they will probably break pretty quick. We aren't supposed to use the camera, but it's not locked and there's no way to track when it's being used. And there's like real music on it for ring tones. Don't get me wrong it seems to be a great phone, just a terrible missionary phone.

So any way, the Zone Leaders called us up on Wednesday and told us to drive 30 miles to Orange, Tx. and to be there in about 1 hour, and told us we would get our phones Thursday evening. I don't know if you understand, maybe Dad, how disabling not having a phone is. I think it would be like Dad having to work from home with out a phone, phone numbers or any other form of contact other than face to face. Then after we gave our old phones to the Zone Leaders and got back to Sulphur, we realized they didn't tell us when/where to pick our new phones up. So we don't have a phone, we don't have their number, but that doesn't matter because they don't have a phone either, and the Zone leaders live 45 -60 miles away. Fortunately, we got it all worked out. Our apartment has a land line we never use. We were able to use a ward list to call our ward mission leader and fortunately he was home. He was able to give us the Mission office number which gave us the Housing coordinators number who happened to be at the same meeting as the Zone leaders, during lunch break. whhheewwwwww. Needless to say we were blessed.

Well, I've ranted on about phones enough. your right we weren't able to do much work in Lake Chunk (Charles) this week.

Real quick then I've got to go. Elder Costa of the Presidency of the Seventy is coming on 10/9/10 to speak at a tri mission conference so that's cool. Will you or Dad get on the new family search look up Nida Christensen, Born: 6 Jan 1903, Died: 31 Oct 1991. She's one of Elder Serdar's ancestors. Just want to see if we're related at all.

well I've got to go hope you have a fun week and a great conference.

Love you Bye

September 20, 2010

Hey there,

I think I'm doing as well anyone could in these circumstances. The humidity has been down the last couple of days so that has been really nice. I think it might be starting to cool down a little, just in the mornings, and evenings. It might just be a localized cooling not seasonal.

If you want to, you can include in the news letter that Elder Serdar is( well was/Will be) a professional Halo player, I forgot to tell you that. This coming week Elder Serdar has to go to Kingwood for a leadership conference for 4 days. Since it is so far away I am going to be spending the week in Sulphur with the missionaries there. Elder Serdar and a few other missionaries will stay in Kingwood with the assistants. Most of the Leaders that will go to that conference will get back to there areas every night. But president decided we're just a little to far away for that. So if you send any mail I won't get it until Friday night at the earliest.

I actually had stopped cooking pizzas because it was getting so hellishly hot outside that the AC in the old apartment was having a hard time keeping up, and firing up the oven didn't help any. Mostly now my lunches are either eating out, or yogurt and a can of straight tuna, no mayo or anything. I did PB&J for a while but gave up on that also. Don't worry, if I wanted something tastier I would go too the trouble to make it. On the bad side of food, our meal coordinator is scatter-brained. We have had 3 dinner appointments, 2 of which WE set up, in the last 3 weeks Besides the standing appointments we have on Saturdays, & Sundays. The Bishop and the Relief Society President are working on it though.

No we didn't figure out what kind of spider it was, Elder Serdar took a video of it on his HD video camera I'll try to remember to stick it on a memory card the next time I send one home. I'm pretty sure it was not a tarantula though, it was fast. It looked like a giant Hobo, or wolf spider, but I have no idea what kind it actually was.

Thanks for the address, I also have the Houston mission address from the ward newsletter (Ty's address)

On Saturday, we get to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. That's always fun. Both of our Zone Leaders have actually served in Lake Charles before, so I'm looking forward to it.

I'm still working on the retainer. Both us and the dentist have been really busy. I'm going to try to do it today some time.

So this week some old lady gave us $20 because her son is a Mormon and was a missionary. So we decided to use the money to get some Ice cream and dinner. Well, at the ice cream parlor the lady who served us asked US questions about religion. She was at work but she said we would meet with us and wanted to learn more. It was a pretty cool miracle.

Well I need to go I'll talk to you later.
Love you
Bye!

September 13, 2010

Hey,

I got your letter today. No, the tie is not too bright, but it is too small. Elder Serdar who is 5' ?'' can barley wear it. I hope you enjoy Lake Powell, Take some pictures.

I am not sure if there is any sort of fall here. I know the pine needles and pine cones fall, but I don't think very many, if any leaves fall.

I'm getting pretty pumped for conference in 3-4 weeks, and NOT because I can sleep in and don't have to dress up. Funny/Weird huh? No my feet are not hurting, maybe a little off and on. When they do I try to do the calf stretches on door steps while we're tracting.

Elder Serdar and I are getting along great I'm having the most fun I've had in a while. Today for P-day we're probably going to the church and watch church movies: The new Joseph Smith movie, The Testaments, etc.

Oh ya we also found a HUGE spider in our apartment last night. The BODY, the body was at least 1.5'' long, not counting the legs. Elder Serdar put 4 gloves on, 2 on each hand, and caught it in a Tupperware container and put it in the freezer until it died. That's how we measured it. It scared me pretty bad. My vocabulary almost got a little larger. I thought everything was bigger in Texas, not LA. I will maybe send you a picture next week.

The work is going great. Last Saturday we set 2 Baptism dates. One of them was with ____, the guy who's read a whole triple, but can't quit smoking. After steering the conversation away from himself for most of the visit/message, he told us he knows he needs to quit smoking and is going to try to quit again. The spirt was really strong.

Well I need to go. I look forward to hearing how your trip was

~Love You Guys! Bye

September 7, 2010

Map of Lake Charles Area

Hello there,

No, no emailing on Labor day, Libraries are closed. Yes I did get the package thank you. The weather hasn't really changed yet. It's still hot, people are saying it will be untill Oct. or Nov.
I'm good on socks for now I bought a 6 pair from Ross a few months ago so I'm good thanks though.

Things are going great down here. Yesterday we finished moving all the heavy stuff out of the old apartment. Some of it went to the Mission Supplies for other apartments, some of it went to our new apartment. So, now we have 2 couches, a lazy boy recliner, two 4' x 8' white boards, two 2' x 4' whiteboards 3 area maps...it's a lot. It took us probably 2 hours to re arrange everything so it would fit. All of our maps and white boards are hanging up in what is normally the dinning area. We call it the Bat Cave now.

Now all we need are some more people to teach. Our investigators have been dwindling for the last little bit, but we're going to change that. We have a lot of Potentials we just need to get back with them.

I remembered my camera and my voice recorder today so that's good. The pictures were taken at the "Creole Nature Trail" close to the gulf.




Dang it I wanted to ask you to research a name on the family history site but I don't remember the name. I also should have taken a picture with Elder Serdar to show you, oh well, next week I promise.

Do you think you could find out Tyler Christensen's Email/ Mission address's for me ? This week I locked the keys in the car, I'll let you listen to that on the recording though.

Well I'm going to send some more pictures now, if I have time I will write some more.

Love Wesley

August 30, 2010

Hey,

Sorry it's taken this long to email you guys. There was a chemical spill somewhere on the I-10 so the Transfer Van was REALLY late. My new companion is Elder Serdar. He was also trained by Elder Gardner. He's been out about a year, was just called as a District Leader, and is from Sandy, Ut. I was told that Elder Hugentobler went to Jasper, but I'm not sure how legit that info is. I also heard that 48 out of 52 companionship changed with 10 area flushes (both missionaries pulled out and 2 new ones put in).

Yes, I got the package I haven't had a whole lot of opportunities to use the towel (chill-it) yet, it's been a little cooler lately, but it seems like it will be really nice.

Speaking of which, there used to be Sisters in Lake Charles before I got here. Well they moved us into their apartment because it is a little nicer, so now our box # is 312 instead of 826.

Today it poured rain while we were coming back after meeting the transfer van in Vidor. I don't think I can accurately describe how hard it was raining. Maybe it was like trying to drive when that red/purple part of the storm went over our RV at pageant.

On Thursday I will have been out 9 Months, the same amount of time as a school year. Wild!

Man! Last P-Day we went to the Creole Nature trail with the Sulpher missionaries and one of their investigators, and we got some sweet pictures of alligators, but I left my SD card reader at the apartment.

The work has been kind of slow lately. Especially with moving apartments, and transfers. But we press on, we have 3-4 appointments lined up this evening so we are having some success.

The CD player in our car has stopped working, so that stinks. I'm thinking about loading the songs onto my voice recorder because it has a headphone out jack and the car has a microphone in Jack so theoretical I could play the songs from the voice recorder into the car.

Well, I need to go. I love hearing from all of you, Love you Bye!

August 23, 2010

Hey,

Hope you make it through the next week or so. Transfers are next week, anything could happen, but probably I'll stay and Elder "H" will leave. I'll let you know next week for sure. I just realized today is probably Tyler's first P-day in the MTC....Memories. Oh I forgot to tell you when we went to the Temple, President got us all together for a Mission conference, and as we were leaving I happened to walk by a Spanish Elder who says he was in the 3rd grade with me, Brett Jenkins. His name sounds familiar but I'm not sure I remember him. Weird huh?

How are they changing the PMG? What they're doing as I understand it so far is simplifying it. Teaching missionaries to teach simpler, by the spirit and from the scriptures. The lessons/PMG hasn't changed, they are just teaching us HOW to teach better. You remember the Videos we watched on the projector before I left? They came out with more as a part of this. They are in California this time, and they show what NOT to do as well as what to do. They show bad lessons as well as good to help missionaries recognize the difference, truly they're more relate able. They are going to start teaching the missionaries in the MTC this next May why I don't know.

So yesterday it was about 95 F-100 F (which means 118 real feel). We picked the shadiest street we could find and started tracting it. We weren't having much success, then we contacted a guy named Jonathan who was walking down the street. Basically, his questions led us to teaching a Lesson !! AND he under stood that we claimed to be the 1 true church with the authority. He asked us for our contact info, which we happily obliged in giving him. The only down side, he and his family live in the middle of nowhere, a little "town" called Reeves (you can try to google it if you want) it's just barely in our ward boundaries. I don't think I've ever had someone understand priesthood authority, and tell us he was searching for truth in the first contact....It was pretty cool. He has studied the Bible a lot! The Bible says something about not filling "the Lusts of the Flesh" so his family doesn't watch TV because of what is out there! I'm excited to see what happens with him.

There is a dentist in town who is a member who says he can make me like grind guard, Invisaline plastic thing that should hold my teeth in place he said he talked with on Orthodontist at the practice he works at and the ortho said that should work.The Best part, it's free! If you like you can talk to Dr. Rampton about it and tell me if he thinks a retainer would be better. I'm going to set an Appointment for this week probably Weds. Evening. So if Dr. Rampton says get a retainer you might want to call the Mission office to let me know. If you even want to ask Ramtpon about it.

Alright almost out of time Love you By!!!

August 16, 2010

Wesley at the Houston Temple

Hi,

Ugh.. I'm tired. We had a great week though! On Wednesday we went to the Temple. We got up at 4:00 left at 4:50 and got to the temple at about 8:00. We did have a quick breakfast at McD's Yuck! On our way back, most of the missionaries from Beaumont and Orange Zones stopped for dinner at IHOP. Yum.

On a less positive note, we have ants in our car! :-( Remember the gray Volvo? It's not that bad. They're not flying ants and they're just under the Passenger seat...where I was keeping my GPS!!! For about the last 18 hrs. I have been shaking ants and Larvae out of it (SD card slot). Right now I've got most/all of them out...And it still works Hooray! I'm going to buy some compressed air and blow it out and some raid to spray in the car.

We did have the Baptisms on Saturday. I was able to baptize two of the Daughters. There are two sets of missionaries in the ward and the other set had a baptism as well. So, 5 people were baptized on Saturday and Confirmed on Sunday.

Wesley and Elder H

We had a new investigator come to church too! We gave her and her friend a church tour on Saturday only, someone took down the stuff after we set it up, before the tour (We set it up, left then came back). She was concerned that, I think it was Jim Jones, the coolaid/cyanide guy back in the 90s was involved with us, we assured he was not.

There is a member here who is a dentist that I am working with about my teeth, he said he should be able to do it but he wasn't at church yesterday. If it doesn't go anywhere I will go to the dentist the Mission office recommended 70+ miles away.

Got to go
Love you all
Bye

August 9, 2010

Hey there!

I hope you all had fun in Colorado. I sent you a package today, It's full of stuff I have acquired and don't really need. I also sent back a bunch of letters you guys have sent out. If you could put the stuff where it will be safe I would appreciate it. I am sending home a cook-book (not the one you sent out) that you can keep and try some of the recipes in it, if you like. The winter coat is not in that package.

In a weird way I have come to appreciate the Plan of Salvation more. I guess you could say I had/having "a mild quarter life crises". I'm almost 20! My life will never be like it was before my mission, maybe for a few months...or weeks.

Anyway, our Baptisms should happen this Saturday, finally. At this point we have a lot of people we tracted out who said we could come back. We just haven't been able to teach them yet.

Apparently, in at least this part of LA. it is illegal to solicit. Tracting isn't, but some people don't understand that. There is a story that goes with this that is on the voice recording.

I wish I could think of what else to write....It's HOTTTTT!

Right now our time is spent between tracting, teaching a few less actives, a lot of recent converts, trying to get back with people we have tracted into, and teaching 2 investigators plus the family that is getting baptized on Saturday. Both the other 2 investigators smoke, one of them frequently bears his testimony about the church, just can't quit smoking, the other one was a media referral. He has some mental challenges. He's all there he just has trouble putting his thoughts into words.

I'm almost out of time I love All of You. hope you are staying safe and having fun. Enjoy the last of the summer.

Bye!

August 2, 2010

8 months today 1/3!

My teeth aren't that bad. My bottoms are pretty secure and my tops haven't moved a whole lot. I've just noticed flossing (yup twice a day) that there is more space between them. They're all still straight, mostly it's just a little bit more space between them. I'm not sure where the space is coming from, like I said my teeth are all still straight. I'm not sure what could happen if left unchecked, but seeing as how my teeth have twice as much time to move before I come home as they have had to move so far... The best course of action in my mind would be for me to call the mission office/ talk to local ward members and ask if they have any records or recommendations on where to go. Then make an appointment and see what the ortho. thinks...then of course pray about it. I will call the mission office today and ask about that. Please send me a letter with what you think about that or any other thoughts.

No, we did not have our Baptisms, Bishop felt like she had not quit smoking for long enough and pushed it back until the 14th. Yes this is the lady we tracted out that could not go to her old church because of her parents funerals and her 3 daughters.

Yes I got the packages thank you! Jacob has really grown! You should put a missionary tag on Flat Elder. Did you send the packages on the same day? One of them (the box) got here a day before the other one. I'm not sure if my camera can play recordings or not, I will look into that next P-Day when I am on a computer. I will also make sure to send a voice recording each week.

I was going to send a package home, but I have kept forgetting. I will hopefully send it home next P-day when you are all home so it doesn't sit out all day. You can send the small PMG out, it will be easier to take to meetings than a big one.

I Don't feel guilty buying food with the Debit card, because that's why I have it. I guess it just doesn't feel right using money you +dad have earned to buy things for me that aren't ABSOLUTLY essential, like souveniers, CDs, the GPS, ect. I guess I'm just feeling more independent, and will find a way to repay you in the course of my life.

I need to go I'll look into the stuff you asked about.

Love you Bye

Also, you asked about new shirts, awhile back, I guess Mr. Mac has some pretty thin ones, but I'm not sure about sizes/prices. If all else fails a FEW new shirts like the ones I have now would be nice.

July 26, 2010

Hi,
I'm sending this now so you might be able to read it while I'm writing the rest. You don't need to send me those CD's When I asked about them it was because I thought we had a copy already @ the house Dad could copy them. Honestly, I want as little money spent on me as possible. I already feel guilty about the monthly payments, and using the Debit card to much.

You said something about sending me a preach my gospel? I guess a small one would be kind of cool.

Hey there,
I'm glad you made it back safe! Summer break is more than half over! People around here say it normally doesn't really cool down until late September, sometimes October.

We had to push back our baptisms this last Saturday because the mom smokes. Which REALLY stinks because President was talking at a Specialized Training meeting ( basically a Zone Conference) about how we had gotten more baptisms this month than any other month in the last 11 years he asked every one in the room who had baptisms this Saturday (7/24) to raise their hands when we didn't he asked us about it. We told him we had to push our dates back. He then told everyone that IF that had been the case we would have had 44 baptisms this month
more than any other month in the last 11 years (goal was 43) So this month we wound up with 40 Baptisms, the 2nd highest baptizing month in the last 11 years.

Hey would you ask Holly if when they lived on Guam if they new any members with the last name: Tuituu? One of the Elders in the new PMG DVDs is from Guam and his last name is Tuituu, he is serving in California, (San Diego I think)

My heels have been hurting lately. I'm going to try some Dr. Scholls Heel cushions. It's not a full sized insert it just goes under the heel of the foot so I don't think it will affect the fit of my orthodic very much, if at all. I have not had any Planters faciaties* or what ever it's called since we had those made in Nov.

Could you ask Dad to research if there has been any scientific findings to prove that Tea and Coffee are bad for the human body. I hear Tea is supposed to have "Tanic Acid" in it. If he could just do some digging and let me know what he finds next week that would be great.

Maybe one of the reasons my heels have been hurting is because we have been doing A LOT of tracting. We tracted one street from 3:00-5:00, 5:30-7:30 yesterday. Fortunately it wasn't that hot. We have had to drop most of our investigators because they are too busy, or not interested, mostly not interested. Our apartment was inspected last week, we passed, but were told to "Reduce the amount of food in this Apartment." Go figure! Most of it is canned food, Peaches, Tomatoes, Green beans and then later that day, the ward gave us a box of food left over from the youth conference! wow!

I'm almost out of time got to go.
Love you all Bye

July 19, 2010

Hey, well today was transfers. Neither Elder Hugentobler or I got transferred so I guess it is another 6 weeks. (Hey, that's the rest of summer break!) Yes, I got the shirt. I sent you some mail while you were at the hill, hope you got it in time. I sent it on Tuesday.

This past week has been HOT!! I never thought I would say that I love the rain. Yep, that's because it cools everything down. I've got some pictures I'm going to send in another email I think Dad will get a kick out of some of them. Do you have wicked Pageant tans?

On Friday we have a meeting in Beaumont from 9:00-2:00. We are going to watch all the new PMG DVDs and talk about the teaching changes that are happening.

We will hopefully have a baptism on Saturday, a black lady and her 3 daughters. We also have one planed for the 7/31, if he can quit smoking this week. President is really pushing right now for us to try to have more baptisms this month than any other in the last 10 years.(42+) (right now we have approx. 28)

Mom, I think I might have my thyroid, or whatever part of my body that controls my body temperature, checked because I feel cold if the apartment is colder than 70-72 degrees. I think you gave me whatever it is that makes you cold. Which is kind of a problem when your companion likes it at a fridged 60-62 degrees. Seriously, I sometimes where a sweatshirt in the apartment.

You asked how compatible we are. Well I'll say this, it is scary how similar our relationship is to the relationship I had with Elder Clark, only I'm Elder Clark and Elder "H" is me. (If that makes sense) I was really hoping I would get transferred, I'm not looking forward to the next 6 weeks. That's all I'll say about it. You know it's weird, as a missionary you do things you would never normally do for fun because you don't have anything better to do (Glue a cockroach to a pencil) (that wasn't Me Promise)

I'm almost out of time, Praying you travel safe I'll talk to you later, Love you!! Bye!!!

When does Ethan go to BYU?

Sorry for being such a big pain in the past

July 12, 2010

I thought I would start out today's letter with some pictures of Louisiana.

Here you can see the elevation change.

I thought this was pretty funny.

I thought the population was 1 Billion?

Hey there, I got the letter with the postcards, but no package. Sounds like the only difference in weather is that your not spending the whole day in a white collar and tie.

You remember the videos about missionaries we watched before I left? Well they have a set of DVDs about the same missionaries illustrating different principles of missionary work. The reason I'm telling you this is because we had President interviews the day we went to the MTC so President Moldenhauer and his wife were nice enough to drive us down since he was headed back to Kingwood anyway, he told us to relax, maybe even nap while we were traveling, I think that is the only time my mission president will tell me to relax or nap! Anyway, he told us that as of July 1, the brethren have come out with a new set of Preach My Gospel DVDs and are significantly changing the way they are training missionaries and teaching missionaries how to teach. They are also changing the way missions run, I don't know how it was when Dad was on his mission, but President interviews and Zone Conferences used to be once a transfer (6 weeks). Now they will be once a quarter (3 months). President also said we will be going to the Temple again in August. Don't tell anyone because I'm not supposed to know, but one of the MTC trainers let it slip that President is trying to work it out for the mission to go to NASA (that's all I know.

Is it getting easier to teach? To a degree. I'm definitely better at teaching than I was in the MTC.
Transfers are in a week, exciting times.

So this last week (Friday,Saturday) we went to the MTC in Kingwood, it was a lot of fun. Elder Frakes and I got some Mango slices offered to us while we were tracting. :-) That was a first for me.

I'm almost out of time I hope being cast team leaders is going well. Are you going to put Flat Elder in the Family costune Picture? Remember to stay hydrated and stay safe.

Love you BYE!!!!!

Did I ever tell you I dropped My PMG in a puddle of water? Well I did.
Actually the apex of my cooking right now is throwing a frozen pizza in the oven.

July 6, 2010

Hey there, I got your letter from the 29th (Tues) today. Your are right that does sound like stuff that would happen to us. Just watch, you'll go home and the water tank lid will be found in less than a day. I'm glad you made it to pageant safe. Did you take Flat Elder with you? Which specific apostle is Dad Portraying? I can't believe that was a year ago that we were there.

If it makes you feel any better my life has been just as hectic and crazy as yours.... well crazier than normal anyway. So we have this investigator , a one handed,(cancer) 23 year old, Jamaican kid, who has been investigating for about 3 months. Apparently, for some time his plan has been to get baptized between August and the end of the year. Well, on Wednesday (30th) he called us and told us he wanted to get baptized in a week (Weds. 7th @ 10:00). Then he called us two days later on Friday, and said he wanted to get baptized the next day (3rd) with the Sulphur missionaries investigator. Well, a couple of frantic phone calls, an interview, and 30 hours later, he got baptized. In a week he went from being baptized before the end of the YEAR, to being baptized before the end of the WEEK. Go figure! And at the last minute he asked Bishop to baptize him instead of Elder Hugentobler. So bishop had another member run by his house and bring him a towel and a change of clothes.

Yesterday we had Zone P-Day. The zone got together in Orange Tx. and we played crab soccer, ( didn't work to well with shorts + Garments, we only played one game) Basket ball (well, I didn't) and Volley Ball. Today my whole body is sore! Especially my legs and back.

On Thursday Elder Hugentobler and I are going back to the MTC (]Mission Training Camp) in Kingwood Tx. this time with Elders Frakes and Jensen. I don't know why we are going back, but it is not unheard of for more experienced missionaries to go to the MTC. I am excited, Elder Frakes used to be my Zone Leader and I'm glad I have the opportunity to serve with, and spend time around him again.

I got some Louisiana postcards for you. I am going to try and mail them to you next Monday, (Jacque gave me the Pageant mailing address) 10 min. left.

Would you ask dad if he ever held any leadership on his mission?( Trained, D.L., Z.L.) and what he did with his companion(s) (if he had any) that didn't want to work? Don't worry about me, Elder Hugentobler is a very hard worker. Elder H____, (the Stuart's relative) is trying to train a missionary that ( as I understand it) has no work ethic and no desire to work. and that got me wondering about what I would/will do if/when I get a companion that doesn't want to work(hard).

I'm running out of time I love you, hope you all have a great and safe time at Pageant Bye!!