October 31, 2011

Hey,

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Our ward had a Halloween party on Saturday night as well. It was mostly for the younger kids though. I am planning on buying a pumpkin today and carving it up since it's P-day and we don't really have anything to do. Yes, it feels like Halloween. It is finally nice out and it's cold at night.

Thanks for the birthday package. I figured there wouldn't be much, that's ok though. We have dinner at a part members house Wednesday night. He, Kenny has been taking the lessons for a while now. His wife and one of his daughters (moved out, married) are active members. Other than that, no special plans for my birthday right now.

Yes, I am planning on sending my bike home. The vehicle/bike coordinator says it will probably be $100, but the old housing coordinator, Bro House, (no joke) lives in our ward and says the old vehicle coordinator found a way (he thinks it's FedEx ground?) that's like $30-40. I'm going try to talk to him about that and find more info.

Hmm do I have a song I want sung at my homecoming?......I'll have to think about that, I'll let you know next week.

Yes, I plan on bring some stuff back, but I'll need more money on the debit card. I'm pretty sure I'm almost out again. By the way my debit card EXPIRES AT THE END OF NOVEMBER! I'm pretty sure that will be important with flying home, but I'm not sure what to do about it besides tell you.

So, I got my "trunky papers" in the mail Saturday, stuff about returning home: travel, financial, medical,etc. Apparently, I need to be tested for tuberculosis ASAP when I get back. The church has a medical form they want me to fill out and send to SLC. I'm thinking I will send a package or two home of stuff that I have accumulated on my mission that might weigh down my bags or just take up a lot of space.

Elder Judkins and I have a goal to have two baptisms in November....all I really want right now is to FTB - Find Teach Baptize before my mission ends.

I'm excited for the month to start over because we have been scrimping and saving miles for the last 2 weeks. We have about 45 left for today but we're still saving because other people have gone over on their miles and we are trying to help them out. It's kind of complicated but miles are transferable between missionaries.

oh yeah something else for Birthday or Christmas is I think it would be cool to go see the Motab Christmas concert, But that could just be because I'm a missionary and that desire will wear off after I get back.

Well I need to go,
Love you Guys bye!

October 25, 2011

Hey,

So, as you can probably guess, Elder Jensen was transferred yesterday. We had to be at the mission office by 6:00 AM ughh. That means a 4:00 AM wake up...zzzzzzz. Elder Jensen went BACK to Baytown which is really weird because that was the ward he served in before he was transferred to Dayton. So I had to wait around Kingwood, the mission office, until 1:45 ish for the transfer van to come back with my new companion, Elder Judkins. He's been out about 14 mo. He came out to Texas when Elder Sedar...I mean Eric became my companion. I am his third missionary to send home. Meaning he has already been 2 other missionaries last companion.

Oh about the chocolate, I don't think you understand how warm it still is down here. It's not crazy hot but the chocolate was all melted from sitting in a metal box in the sun all day. The mail man puts a key in our mail box that unlocks a bigger box if we have a package. So I threw them in the freezer. :-)

Yes our ward is doing a "Fall Festival" party this Saturday. I'm not sure what it's all about but it sounds like fun. I think I'm going to bye a pumpkin next Monday and carve it as a P-Day activity.

It's really weird that I'm in my last transfer... to know that I'm not going to be transferred anywhere else, and that I don't have to worry about getting a companion that's hard to get along with for a long time. I'm not talking about my new companion, he's cool.

My allergies have been pretty bad since I came to Dayton, I guess there is just stuff in this country air, but it's been worse the past few days. I think I might have caught a cold and a cough, but I'm on the upward slope. I felt terrible Sunday night and the 4:00 a.m. morning didn't help, but I'm getting better. Hopefully this snot doesn't turn to blood when I come back to cold dry air.

Right now Elder Judkins and I are making plans to try to meet everyone on the ward list. There are a lot of people we don't know and we have been struggling to find people to see. My goal is to baptize in the next 6 weeks!

Oh yeah, they shut down the Fred area :-{ I was sad to see that, but it needed to happen.

This last transfer with Elder Jensen, I learned the importance of preparation. The Lord will only supplement our effort, if we give our all. When Elder Holland came he talked a little about that. He talked about how much studying heart surgeons do before they are allowed to operate. There is more, but I am out of time.

I need to email President Crawford.

Love you hope you guys stay well,
Bye

October 17, 2011

Hey everyone,

Wow another week. One more till transfers. Well, I was in my first car accident ever this week. Don't worry it was just a fender-bender. Don't worry I wasn't driving. The cause of the accident: a lane change in front of a stoplight. The other car was a GMC 3500 Desil Denali. That was Friday morning, So right now we...well I'm driving a 2010 corolla until our vehicle coordinator has our car repaired.


Some one told us it was going to cool off this week. Yeah! :-))

We went to the temple last Tuesday. That was nice.

Yesterday I was thinking about how I'm about to start my last transfer and I had a very surreal experience. I couldn't comprehend myself doing anything besides being a missionary. The first 19 years of my life felt like I had watched a movie, and going home felt like a myth, like something that is talked about, that you see happen to others, but never happens to you....It was really weird.

In his letter Dad asked me if Dennis was baptized on the 24 of either August or September. I can't remember anymore, but yes he was. I believe there is a picture of him with Elders Vainuku and Hardy in the focal point.

Were we able to follow up with any of our media referrals from Gladys Knight? Yes and no. We gave one to a members friend who has come to church before. One to a part member couple, who we are kind of teaching, (It's along story), and a couple to some black ladies who are interested but they live forever a way and are super busy. It's been a few weeks since we've met with them.

It's weird that it is halfway through October already!

We are having to bike and mooch rides everywhere because we are already almost out of miles for the month. We've had a lot of extra trips this month, Temple, Zone Meeting, Zone P-Day, President interviews, members who live far away and probably transfers next week. We have 1,200 miles a month....we are at about 750mi right now.

Elder Jensen riding in Dayton, Texas

I'm out of time. Talk to you soon,
love you guys!

P.S. you didn't answer my question about Cameron saying I had to get up early the day after I got home and neither has he. Now I'm suspicious.

October 10, 2011

Hey,

Well, another week down. It rained yesterday for the first time in...really since tropical storm Lee. Every week we drive over lake Houston....I mean the golf course lake Houston. Every week the islands are bigger and there is more grass.. and its the only grass around that's green. They say that when the water level started dropping they found that the people with lake front(now beach front) homes had hooked up PVC pipe and had been stealing water to irrigate their gardens.....oops! The weather is nice right now, except mosquitoes, sometime it gets a little warm but not really. We get to go to the temple tomorrow, what a blessing.

Let's see what happened this week.......ughhhh why is it so hard for me to generate a long descriptive email for you guys? We've been trying to stay busy. President Crawford has come out with 25 scriptures he wants us to memorize and 100 scriptures he wants us to familiarize ourselves with. We have our Pres. interviews this Weds. (last one until my departing interview).

You asked if I will have to lose weight because the ward is feeding us? Right now I'm at a total gain of 8-12 lbs since I started my mission. I'm trying to keep it that way.

Whoa! Wait! since when were Nick and Sarah having a baby? I know you told me last week but I don't remember hearing anything about them before that. Oh also about 6 months ago you said the Allred's were thinking about moving to UT? I'm guessing that never happened.

Nothing new to report in the way of missionary work sadly. I don't think we were able to meet with any of our investigators/ or potentials this week. Although we did receive a referral for the H.P. group leaders coworker who supposedly stopped the missionaries in Atascocita and asked for a Book of Mormon. He may also have been meeting with other missionaries in Kingwood, since that is where he works, but he lives right by our ward mission leader.

Sorry, no pictures. I thought the library would be closed because it is Columbus day(some of the banks are closed today) so I didn't bring my card reader/camera, next week though I promise.

Oh you asked about my birthday..... The only thing I would ask for while I am still out would be some good ol home cookin. As for after I get back... I want to build a computer in the case that I bought before I left So if dad (since he knows what to look for) sees any good deals online on black Friday or (tech Tuesday? does that exists or am I making it up)? or any other good deals on computer parts I would appreciate those. Basically, when I get back I would ask for help in doing that, buying a laptop, maybe some movies that have come out, and school( mostly because I'm going to miss sales around black Friday, on the computer stuff).

Out of time, got to go!
love you!!

October 3, 2011

Hey,

How are you? Actually, I have not received a letter from Ethan yet, nor a package. I was really hoping Ethan's letter would come Saturday, but sadly no.

Wow, West Africa! I was not expecting that. I had guessed Europe. Do they wear pants in his mission? It sounds like it will be hard, but i think he's up to it. I wonder if he will be a Branch President on his mission. I'll bet the missionaries make up a significant part of the priesthood out there. 90's-100's all year ouch!! At least it's not 105 plus the humidity. The weather here has finally cooled off. It has been in the 70s since the first of October. I think we are through with the hot hot weather.

I did enjoy conference. I really liked the priesthood session as well as Pres. Eyrings talk on charity, Sunday morning. I also really like Elder Ballard's talk on the name of the church. I did not get to hear Elder Scott's talk though.. I guess he spoke first? We came to the church Saturday morning and no one had planned on setting up to watch conference. Then when the Bishop and ward Clerk showed up, they couldn't get a signal from SLC! They had to call SLC tech. to figure out what was going on. Turns out our satellite needed to be re calibrated for some reason. So we missed the first 20 min of the Sat. morning session.

Yes, the ward is feeding us. We are still trying to find new investigators. We may have found some, a couple of black ladies that were invited to go the the Gladys Knight concert by their member friend. They are very educated and knowledgeable about religion/bible (surprisingly). We've taught them the first lesson and have a return invitation for next Sunday.

I think I'm entering the last phase of my mission (knock on wood) at least a new stage. I will admit I am starting to get a little "trunky". I saw my name and others listed on a white board in Pres Crawford's office. The list was of missionaries going home in the next few months. That was a dose of reality.

I like Elder Jensen he's a hard worker. He will probably get transferred in a few weeks though, with how long he's been here and then when I have to leave.

Well I need to email Pres Crawford and Ethan,
Love you! Hope you making it with school and everything
Bye!

September 26, 2011

Hey everyone,

The Dayton area is REALLY dry because it hasn't rained, lakes and ponds are drying up left and right, but it's still more humid than Ut I think. Hotter too.

Yes, I am excited for conference! :-) I'm guessing we will watch it at the church but that could change.

So, I guess the church puts on this performance called Saints United Voices (SUV) Directed by Gladys Knight. Well They came to Houston this week. I guess it's a really big referral generator. We received 3 Referrals for nonmembers yesterday and apparently we are getting some more today from it. So that has been a big thing going on down here.

I got your letters, thank you!

Not a whole lot to report on the missionary side of things. We've really been struggling to find new investigators and too find more effective things to do than tract. Seems like that is the story of my mission, struggling to find new investigators. President says this is a baptizing mission, but I don't see myself as a baptizing missionary.

Our apt. is getting bug control"ed" today, we had to pull everything out of the cupboards and cover them.

Did I tell you we are going to the temple again on Oct. 11?

I'm sorry maybe its because I ran out of milk yesterday so I only had 4 pieces of toast for breakfast, but I can't think of anything to report on.

There is a Chiropractor in our ward. He's helping me fix my Planters fasciitis/tight calf's. I'll have to wait and see if it makes a difference.

I'm just brain dead right now, sorry.

So Ethan wants to learn a language huh... For me the culture shock of Texas, and just trying to learn the lessons was hard enough, I think if I had been sent foreign I would have come home at my own insistence in the first month. I had seriously under estimated how challenging it would be, but I think Ethan is of that kind of caliber that he would succeed in a foreign speaking mission. Not to mention letters/packages are better if your in the USA.

That's crazy that his call's in the mail. You might want to think about having him open it recorded on video.

I'm almost out of time. Love you!

September 19, 2011

Hey,

So, it's been another week. Elder Jensen and I are going to deep clean the apartment today....It needs it. The ward is awesome here, the work is a little slow though. I'm sad to say that "less than perfect" missionaries have been here recently. The work is also unique and different here than any of my other areas. Remember way back in the day when I had my call and you were researching my mission....Well, if you remember that, you'll remember that there was a "cleansing" a few months before I came out....we'll just say this area has a few scars from that event that we are still trying to heal.

Apparently this area has been pretty bad for meal appointments lately....we have a full week this week though....we may have mentioned the situation to the Stake President at a special meeting he had last Thursday with the missionaries to learn where the wards needed to improve in missionary work.

We've been on our bikes a lot this week in order to try to save miles. fortunately Tropical Storm Lee broke the heat.. it has still been getting hot, but not like it used to.

Man, that stinks about Ethan's call. Hopefully he will have it on the 28th.

We had a baptism this past week a man named Curtis. I met him once before he was baptized so I still don't know him that well.

I also went on exchanges with our District leader this past week. He's in a bike area. It was the first day of my mission where I didn't have a car.

Also, as far as I know, this past week one of my recent converts in Mid-County Lee Segura baptized his 8yr old daughter on Saturday. I was able to go back because we had a baptism here the same evening. (Curtis)

Apparently, we are going to the temple again in Oct.

I'm still trying to learn everyone here and meet all our potentials/investigators.

I need to go Love you!

Here is my new address.

704 E. Warring Dr. #240

Dayton, Tx.

77535