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.