June 1, 2010

Hi everyone,

It's June!!!! AHHHH here comes the heat!! Transfers next Monday! I'm pretty sure I'm out of here. I would be very surprised if I stayed.

We had a really fun time yesterday, we played 6 vs.6 Volley Ball, Soft ball, and Ultimate Frisbee all 3 games were going at the same time we just rotated. I didn't use sun block, my neck got it pretty bad. President even got out and played softball w/ us.

I wish I could tell you more about what is going on. The last week is kind of a blur with transfers coming up. Elder Gardner got assigned an Assistant to the President. We all knew it was going to happen, President really likes him, we just didn't think it would happen so soon.

6 months tomorrow!!!!! Since it is against the rules to burn a tie on my 6 month mark I think I'll drown one in the washing machine. (don't worry, it'll be an old one) I realized tomorrow is exactly 1 year from the day I graduated. I will have been on my mission the same amount of time I was out of school, Crazy!

Our two investigators finally came to church the other day. They are children of a less active family. We have been doing a lot of tracting lately, lots of ring-around-the-collar....lots of Gatorade too. It has rained a couple of times since last Mon. One time was so bad we had to pull off the road and into a pawn shop for 30 minutes or so until it lightened up.

I have started carrying my scriptures in a case I made from a Captain Crunch cereal box. Mostly because it is lighter, and the members love it.

I gave myself a haircut yesterday it is a #2 again. Luckily that was enough hair to keep my head from burning.

Oh, ya, did we have a CD of the primary songs at home? I seem to remember one. If we do would you please copy it and send it out, if not that's alright. Also, I can't find my Mo.Tab. "Showtime" CD. Could you please have Dad make another copy and send it out after transfers?

Well, got to go. Talk to you later. Love you!

May 24, 2010

Hey there,

It's getting hotter down here....and it doesn't cool down when the sun goes down.

Yes, I got grandma's card, but it doesn't do me any good right now because the DQ people won't take it. I'm thinking about selling it and using the money to get a tie from Bealls.

I'll tell you right now, the pics were taken at a members house in the country.... so the country area, of a country area.

Yesterday, when I was in the shower, the power went out. I closed my eyes, opened them back up and seriously wondered if I went blind, it was pitch black. the power came back on before we got back from church so the house was not "Texas hot" thank goodness.

We have 2 kids (9 &11) that we are working with (Branch pres.'s nephew's children....the same way Grace & Emma are related to you, I think.) They are doing well and progressing but their parents (less actives) haven't brought them to church. They don't even have to bring them, just get them ready so someone can pick them up. But they sleep in each Sunday morning....Church is at 10:00 by the way.

We were also working with a 16 yr. old boy, but he is moving to California for at least the summer. So we're not sure what is going to happen. We're doing a lot of tracting to try and find new investigators.

This is my planner

Got to go, by

May 17, 2010

Hey there,

Yep P-days are on Monday now. Kind of weird. The reason why they moved it was so that we can use this new utility the church came out with to include our weekly numbers in our email, if that makes sense. Our numbers week runs from Sun.-Sun. so on Monday we now report our numbers from last week to our mission president along with our weekly letter.

So as you saw and maybe listened, I bought a recorder from Walmart. It was an RCA brand for about $35. I can email the files, but I can't put files from the computer back on to it and listen to them. So, I am going to return it today. I think you will probably have to ask the "missionary moms" which one they use. If we can't figure it out I will probably just buy another one like this and send you the files.

The misquotes (and other biting, flying insects) are out! They have been feasting upon my arms. Oh, I did get the package and the watch thank-you!! I did get your letter. That is really weird he got called to Houston Texas. I was thinking how weird it would be if he (Tyler Christensen -cousin) came here....and even weirder if I trained him. So close.... I wonder if any of the 3 of us will ever get transferred into each others missions if they rearrange the stake boundaries again. I was also thinking about how nice it will feel when next summer comes knowing that it will be my last one and that Tyler still has 2.

I cut my hair yesterday, It is now a #3 on top and a # 2 up the sides. It is getting hotter and hotter, and it doesn't cool down when the sun sets. Not much anyway. But I think I am adapting somewhat.

Last Thurs. I went over to Woodvile on exchanges. We did service and put insulation in the top of this small barn/shed/thing. It was like 86 out side, at least 90 inside and at least 95 (probably more), up in the rafters. I don't know that I have ever had sweat from my face drip into my eye before. It wasn't that bad, but we were in service clothes not a white shirt and tie. I also don't know how humid it was.

President also announced on Weds. that on the 31st we will be having a bi-zone p-day in Vidor. He (president) said that he, his wife, and the assistants will be coming also. He said he wants it to be a day for us to "let our hair down"....says our bald mission president. We think we are going to be playing softball among other things.

Well I'm almost out of time. Cameron only needs to be in a cast for 2 weeks?

got to go love you Bye

May 11, 2010

Hey,
It was great to talk to you on Sunday. Made me kind of homesick though. 6 1/2 more months to Christmas.

So, I'm not sure what to tell you, not much happened yesterday. In the middle of a lesson at about 3:00 I got really light headed and dizzy. So we had to go back to the apartment so I could lie down. It got better after a nap, but it didn't really go away until I woke up this morning. No idea what it was or what caused it, but it's gone now.

I decided for my 6 months mark I am going to go to Bealls, the only Dept. store in Jasper,(it was like walking into Kohl's or JC Penneys at the mall, it was refreshing) and get a nice 6 month tie. I wish I could think of something else to say. I know you want to here more.

Oh, you'll get a kick out of this. I got a suit from goodwill for $16 it is a little small but for $16 I think it is worth it in case I ever need a suit for tracting or whatever. It is gray w/ faint light blue pinstripes.

Oh, I saw an improvement in my teaching this week. Normally I struggle on transitions
(between principles) but in one lesson this week I made a excellent transition without really doing anything different. It definitely was not just me though, it was mostly the spirit.

No I haven't received the package yet. I hope I get the watch today. I don't think those recorders will be at Walmart, you can check though. I will keep my eyes open for them too.

I recommend if Cameron wants anything out of my room he should have someone else email me the question. It is difficult to follow all of his letters and I forget what questions were asked in the letters.

Please tell me when you know where Tyler Christensen (cousin) got his call to.

Well, I'm almost out of time, can't complain though. I remember when I got only 30 minutes and no exceptions if the computer was stupid.

Alright I'll write you all next Wednesday!
Love you Bye!!!

May 5, 2010

Hey there,

Did you get last weeks email? I sent it again to both you and dad just in case. I am going to start doing that with all my emails in case one doesn't work for some reason.

This week Elder Clark got sick. Sunday night he was up for like 3 hrs. puking. Or so he tells me. I think the spirit prompted me to put my earplugs in, (I got them because he had been snoring in his sleep). It was the first time I had ever slept with them in and I slept through the whole ordeal.

So, Monday night we got a couple of lessons in. Yesterday I only left the apt. to go out to the car, didn't even get dressed up. Having nothing to do and being bored just before a phone call in not good. It makes you homesick and trunky. So one of the things I did yesterday to preoccupy myself was reminisce of our trip to DC. I put all the monuments/museums we visited as favorites in the GPS. I also marked the SLC, Bountiful, and Logan temples, the Conference Center, and all the addresses on that orange piece of construction paper you gave me. Speaking of that, could you ask Carrisa and Kyle for their new address? Also, when I went to put Shane and Donna in there was already a little car on a lift over their address that said Egan automotive I thought that was kind of cool. Needless to say I was bored yesterday.

F.Y.I. P-day will be on Tuesday next week. So I won't get any letters written on Wednesday morning.

It is starting to get really humid down here, not looking forward to the summer. I also hit 5 months on Sunday, can you believe that?

So our monthly miles budget is 1465 miles. Last Thursday 4/29 we were at about 1405 miles. Well, we had to go to Beaumont for a leadership meeting. We drove to Sillsbee so we could carpool with those Elders the rest of the way. Ya.... their battery was dead, and they had to give a blessing at a hospital. The GPS could not find the hospital. Then we had to drive over to Woodville so Elder Clark could do a baptism interview. By the end of the day we had gone 236 miles. That's almost a 5th of our monthly limit in one day....at the end of the month!

I wish I could tell you a really cool spiritual experience because I know that's what you want to hear but I can't think of any at the moment, sorry! We don't have anymore baptisms line up until the start of June (5th) just before transfers.

Elder Gardner says he sent his pictures of our baptisms in Jan. & Feb. home. So, you could email his mom for copies of them. I never took any, I always left my camera in the car and meant to copy them off his memory card, but never did. I've filled up all the micro cassets I have so I will send those home either today or next week. I might send the memory card with them.

Well I got to go, talk to you on Sunday.
Love you Bye!

Yes, and I got the GPS it came on Saturday. Go figure, one package takes 6 days another 3 days!

I will probably call Between 2-3 central no promises though church is from 10-1 here plus branch correation meeting until about 1:30 so defenitly after that. We're going to talk with members today about using their phone on Sunday.

April 28, 2010

Hi,
No, I did not get transferred, neither did Elder Clark. Elder Hoffman in Woodville did though.

I sent an email to dad with pictures in case it didn't work with your hotmail account.We did have our baptism on Saturday (There should be pictures at the end of this email). It is incredible to watch how hard Satan work against us. We got a text from L___ @ 12:00 midnight saying that she was going to need a ride to church. We tried to call and find out/fix the problem Sunday morning but her phone was dead. So, we missed PEC with the branch council driving all over Jasper trying to make sure L__ would be able to come to church and be confirmed.

The original plan was that L__ was going to ride with her member friend D___. We figured she was probably sleeping over at D___'s house that night because she said, "'We need a ride." We went over to D___'s house only to find out that they weren't there. Sis. C (D___'s mom) got D___'s Cell # for us and helped us figure out that the girls were at L__ house. D___'s car was there, but she didn't have her key. Don't ask me how that happened. So, we ran a spare key up to L___ house and made it back just in time for the end of PEC. L__ & D__ did make it to church & L___ was confirmed as planned.

You asked if we have to teach a lot at church. Not really. We pass the sacrament probably 1/2 to 1/3 of the time but that's it really. We say a prayer every once in a while.

We have probably 4-5 promising investigators we are working with at the moment. We will see how they all turn out.

I don't know why that email won't send ( April 14). I copied it and tried again.

Tell Tyler he should start working on his Spanish now. There is a family here who have a daughter in the Uruguay mission (she comes home in august) she went to the Argentina MTC and if I remember correctly they said she had to go tracting in the area around the MTC her first or second day! He can ask Seth if he had to do that (That's where Seth F. went right?)

I wish I could tell you another story but I don't have the time, I wish I had learned to type properly.


The Missionary that baptized L__ is Elder Fairbourn. Jasper was his first area 18 or 19months ago. Just goes to show, you never know what seeds you may plant.


Love you all

Elder Clark is the one on the right with the flower in his mouth.
This was after District meeting last Friday.

April 14, 2010

This weeks letter is MIA--Missing in action. Hopefully, more news next week.

April 21, 2010

Hey,
Sorry that is all you got I sent that off at the beginning of the e-mail session hoping you would maybe answer it before I got off. {He asked what kind of GPS?} I'm not sure why you didn't get my other letter. My email said it sent it off, maybe because we were emailing from a different place. I sent it to you again. I also sent a copy to dad just in case it didn't work again.

So, for either Friday night or FHE I strongly recommend watching "The Best 2 Years". Maybe it was funnier for me because I am on my mission, but it was hilarious and pretty realistic. The missionaries were all really extreme but I would not be surprised if there are some missionaries that are like that.

As you probably know Elder Spackman is going home in a week. One of my zone Leaders Elder Frakes has been assigned to fill the calling. It is pretty unusual actually, Elder Frakes has only been out a little over a year. Usually that calling is filled by more senior missionaries. So right now I only have one zone leader until transfers on Monday. He is bouncing around with some other missionaries in Beaumont. I don't know if I will be transferred or not. I think it's a 50/50 chance.

We have not got mail today yet, but I still have not gotten the GPS package. I have not had the chance to mail that package yet but I will today. Also I had a Black Jerry Garcia tie That was tearing in the back. Would you please send it out the next time you send something, I'll even sew it in my spare time if I need to.

We still have a baptism this Saturday. The interview is tonight. So, we are pretty sure it will go through. Elder Gardner is hoping to make it back for it.

Something else I wrote down to tell you, I have learned to love to mix my rice with whatever comes with it chili, gumbo, ect.

Also, on a sad note the bishop of the Buna ward died on Monday. A tree fell on him, not sure what happened beyond that.

Almost out of time, love you bye,

We cut this tree down 2 weeks ago after wards we learned it was really dangerous and we won't be doing it again.

Sorry still no picture of Elder Clark, that's him in the red.

I had more time than I thought. Um, tell Robin not to complain to me about going back to school "now I've got homework, now I've got to get up early, now I don't get to see my family (cousins, aunts and uncles) for a long time." Don't even give that to me Robin! You will see your family again before 2 years. You can call them if you want. You can still sleep in on Saturdays and holidays, so don't complain to me. {Apparently, Wesley feels strongly about this}

It is getting hotter down here. Its getting into the 70/80's now, not looking forward to summer. But maybe because it was so cold this winter, or because of the volcano in Iceland it will be a cooler summer.

I can't believe school is almost out. It is the first time in 12 years that school ending means nothing to me. It's weird!

Ok got to go now,
Love you, bye!

(These are my favorite things from my mission so far. The Bom (Book of Mormon) is from President Mouldenhauer. We are going though and marking all references to Christ right now. the Beanie baby is a polar bear given to me by some members. The gator head I bought at a gas station in Orange.....It's from Florida.)

April 7, 2010

Hi everyone,

That's a bummer (you all had the flu), it has been going around here too. Elder Clark has not been feeling well the last couple of days, not the flu, just tired and crappy, it was weird.

Thanks for getting the watch. I got the Easter package yesterday. Thanks for sending all that out.

Yep, it has been about 80 degrees at about 2:30-3:00 the last few days, but it has also been breezy so it has not been that bad.

The work is going great. Because of all the tracting we did, we have a bunch of new people to check up with to see if their interested or not. We taught a quick first lesson to a "Christan" lady who said: as long as it doesn't contradict the Bible, she has no problem with the B.O.M.! One of our investigators, L_____, the last time we met was a little concerned about the baptism interview. When we came back a few days later we ask her if she would like to talk about it a little more and resolve her concerns. She told us after we had left she had prayed about it and wasn't concerned anymore!

Let's see, what else, we and our branch mission leader, a true cowboy and he's like 80 years old, were the only people who watched conference at the church, except for one session that the branch president and his wife brought a home-bound elderly lady to the church. My favorite talk was Elder Holland. What about you guys, who was your favorite?

The downside this week is that members think that when you wear the black name tag you are perfect and no longer a human being.

Did Tyler Calder get his call? Eric? I saw that Ryan, Jeff, and Lisa all come home soon.

Can't believe school is almost out, for the kids.

Got to go, talk to you later, thanks

love you bye!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Alright, the library is still having issues so I probably won't have the full hour to email.

This paragraph is dedicated to questions. When we went to the temple they took us to an LDS bookstore my debit card is almost out. Could you please check into it? These next questions are probably Dad questions. Could you please send me copies of the conference DVDs that we got from Uncle Jim? Would you please also send me a CD of Elder Hollands Talks? I'm pretty sure conference talks mp3s are available for download from LDS.org. Also, Is it possible that you could get your hands on a copy of the new Joseph Smith movie, and send it out? If not I will try to get it from one of the missionaries down here. Also, Whatever GPS you decide to get, I have heard that some models have 3rd party voices that you can download from the internet to the GPS. (such as George Bush) Would you please Look into that?

Ok, we have had a rough week. Instead of getting lessons we got a lot of return appointments. So, we will see how this week plays out. Also to pump some life back into the Mission Miracle. President has instituted the "week of sacrifice" this week. We are focusing on the Saviors finial week in mortality, since it was this week almost 2000 years ago. Each zone is also fasting one day of the week. Today is our day to fast. Also, this is where the sacrifice comes in, we are tracting for 5 hours a day. Mon., Tues., Thurs.,& Fri. 3.5 hours Sat. & Sun. and I think 4 hours on Weds. So P-Day Ends by 2:00 P.M.

Almost out of time. Sorry it is so short, got to go write you on Weds.

Bye
The picture is from a members house in Woodville. We were there for district meeting

March 17, 2010

Hi Everyone,
Well, we were right. Elder Gardner was transferred to be a Zone Leader in Kingwood.

Saying good bye



Our District

My new companion is Elder Clark, from Nephi, Ut. He was transferred from Lake Charles, Louisiana where he trained a missionary that came out from the MTC with me. I am not sure if I will stay another 1, or 2 transfers.

I am making a resolution to include more in my emails starting this transfer. I don't remember if I told you, President is letting us go to the temple in a week to reward us for working hard and being obedient. So, I may email Tues., Weds. or Thurs. I think Within the next 4 weeks or so I would like a GPS. I don't care if it is the one we got from Donna or if it is new. I realized it would be a good way to remember where members live if I ever came back, as well as being able to have one where ever I am transferred. Right now we are using one the branch owns so it will stay with the area. I would get one myself but I bet you can get a better price on the Web.

Alright now about the work. We have a baptism schedules for May 1st but we are going to try to get her to move it up a week or two. The investigator is ------ she is a 17 year old girl whose dad is inactive and mom is not a member. Their family has a pregnant pit bull that would like to kill us if she could get off her chain. She was almost baptized a year ago, but she and her member friend got in a fight. Now they are friends again but somewhere along the line the missionaries stopped teaching her. Probably in one of the transfers.

Our other soon to be baptism is ---------. She is the 14 year old girl I was talking about with the stake conference and relying on Elder Gardner for her testimony .She hasn't set a date yet but we know she will. The problem is that her member friend, the reason we met her in the first place, and her are not getting a long very well right now.

Don't get the Idea we are only teaching teenage girls. Those two are just the closest to baptism right now. Dang it, I will ask Elder Gardner for Baptism pics of the 2 baptisms we had in Jan. & Feb.

Alright, going to send pics now, love all bye!


Here's my new hair cut. I think I went a little to short on top, Ha Ha.

March 10, 2010

The Beaumont Zone  had a Zone P-day  today. They all drove and
gathered together, emailed together at about 9:30 this morning at
the Senior Citizens Center. Then they were going to play basketball
and games together.

Hey,

I have misplaced the BYU watch. Would you please get the LL Bean one? I still have not mailed the brakes. I have been to busy to mail them yet but I got the box yesterday. I just need to get them to the post office. I will do it tomorrow. This computer is slower than molasses so I am not going to try to send any pictures today. I will also mail the SD card tomorrow with the brakes.

We are 100% sure that Elder Gardner is getting transferred and I am staying because of something that President let slip, and because of some issues Elder Gardner is having with an investigator relying on him for their testimony. Like how children rely on their parents testimonies when they are young.

Tell Dad happy Birthday Day and sorry but his card will be late.

Sunday night Elder Gardner hit a possum. He thought it would move out of the way, but nope. We turned around to look for it, but couldn't find it in the dark. Monday night we parked off of the main highway and walked to a members house a few tenths of a mile away because it was nice out. When we got back the car had almost a quarter of a tank less gas than when we left. Yep, we got siphoned.

We have a lot of potential investigators at the moment. Not sure how they will all turn out. Most of them are return appointments we got from tracting. We do not have any baptisms scheduled at the moment.

I am not sure if you have heard but Elder Perry is going to speak to the stake on Sunday! The story is that he had a meeting in Houston Saturday night and it was going to be to late for him to fly back to SLC so he chose a stake to speak to and we got lucky.

I bought some hair clippers today, if that turns into a big disaster I will send you some pics. I hope you will send me some pics of the trailer. My hour is up now.

love you all, bye!

March 3, 2010

You asked about how much time I'm spending on my bike. I'm actually hardly doing any biking at all because our area is so spread out it is impossible to visit more than a few people on bikes. I don't think I have put much weight on maybe 5 lbs. or so. I don't really know because we don't have a scale in our apt.

We will almost certainly have 1, and probably 2 baptisms this month. (If not this month, then early April.) We our pretty sure Elder Gardner will get transferred in a few weeks and I will stay. The mission president slipped and all but told Elder Gardner he was leaving.

Yesterday was my 3 month mark!

I've been meaning to tell you, there is only one Elder in our zone right now that can play the piano well. (Go figure!) I am glad to hear that Johnny is going on a mission I actually had not heard that before your letter.

I am going to try to get some recipies for you to try the food, which for the most part is delicious. I have had some of the best beef ribs in the world. Monday night I had wild hog that a member shot in Louisiana. It tasted just like pork.

Check this out! A year ago Elders Jarman & Fairborn were friendly to the Dairy Queen employees so now they love missionaries and give us everything for free. They WON'T let us pay, and Elder gardner has like $60 in gift cards to DQ.

Well, I'm Fixin to run out of time I love your letters, Thanks, Love You Bye!

February 24, 2010

Hi,

Are you trying to send me a message? Am I not writing enough about THE work?

Right now we have 2 real investigator and 2-3 potentials. One of our investigators is the nonmember friend I wrote about last week (or 2 weeks ago I don't remember). 1 week after that story, (Sun.21) she asked us if we could come over to her friends house after church ASAP we told her yes and taught for 1.5 hrs. When we had to leave to go dinner and then a few other appointments she asked us if we could come back later that night! So we sped through dinner and our appointment (1 was not home) went back to the house and taught her for another 1.5 hrs. as we concluded she asked if we could meet the next day! Unfortunately that fell through because her parents are strongly opposed to Mormonism. For about a day we were afraid (and praying for the opposite) that they wouldn't let her continue to investigate the church, But yesterday we got a call from her friends dad saying that after a long discussion her parents had agreed to let her continue to learn as long as she could show her maturity at home. We will probably have another lesson tonight.

As of this afternoon no we do not have any baptisms lined up. We had one last Saturday though. Good I guess, one of them is going through kind of a hard time because she can't be sealed to her kids because her husband wants nothing to do with the church, but she is such that she will "get over it"(her words not mine).

{Question was, What do you do with recent converts} - Kind of both, we follow up with R.C.s once a week but the branch is supposed to give them a calling, home/visiting teachers, fellowship, ect.

That BYU watch is working fine for now but if it breaks then I will let you know. I ment/mean to send the brakes back but I havn't yet, been to busy.

Love you all!
Wesley

February 10, 2010

Hi,
Last Thursday Elder Gardner and I had to be down in Beaumont for a meeting that started at 7:00 A.M., so we needed to be there about 6:45-50. Beaumont is a little over 1 hr. away, so we needed to leave @ 5:15 and get up @ 4:45 in order to have a "safety cushion" as it were. We carpooled with the missionaries form Buna in order to save miles, as we pass them on the way to Beaumont. We got there 10 minutes early and no one was at the building! We thought we were at the wrong building but everyone was "late" because of the rain. I think everyone showed up between 6:55 and 7:00, so no one was actually late.

I knocked a door this past week where (a daughter I think) made eye contact and waved through the door window- then went back into the house and the house went quiet. We knocked again and got no response. As we were leaving we saw the family driving away. I guess they couldn't think of an excuse not to talk to us so they left the house!

I made a personal amendment to the missionary handbook this week, it says: "Follow your host in the use of eating utensils" ( or lack thereof). Ribs are good!!

We currently have four baptism dates set as a companionship, and 61 dates in February as a mission. We've had 4 baptisms in Feb already. We hope to extend another baptism commitment possibly tonight, and another commitment or two in the coming days. Our investigator/convert is getting married on Sat. & getting baptized a week after that.

It is amazing how down to earth the members are down here. There is almost no beating around the bush or backbiting. There is a whole different kind of Mormon down here.

If you or dad ever see Johnathan or his mom could you please get his address so I can write him occasionally?

Please pass my congrats on to Carrissa!

I found a letter today I wrote a month ago and never mailed I will put it in the mail today or tomorrow. Thanks for everything! I look forward to your letters and everyone's packages.

February 3, 2010 - From Wes

Hi Everyone,
The church seems to have struck some sort of a deal with Google. The new email system that we're using is powered by Gmail, which is awesome! I said in my last email how the old email was pretty basic, well I don't have to use it anymore. I really am quite pleased now. I can save drafts like you suggested, and the browser auto saves drafts every couple of minutes, so no more accidentally deleting your email or running out of time! : D I think I can also send and receive more/bigger pics, too.

In one of the first pictures I sent home you can see that one of the corners of the bike box got thrashed and one of the brake pads for the front tire is missing. Could you please send me a new one/pair there is no bike shop in our whole area.

Niether I or Elder Gardner got transferred, he probably will in 6 weeks though. Elder Hoffman, who is related to the Stewart's down the street, came out one transfer before me and he is already training! He picks up his Greenie today. Right now we have 2 baptism dates for February, hopefully we will have another 2-5 for the rest of Feb.-Mar. Our goal as a mission last month was to double baptisms in January last year (14) so our goal was 28 our actual count was 36 : ) This months goal is again to double baptisms for the month (21 in to 42) The goal for the year is to double the baptism average over the last 10 or so years 267 into 534.

This week I got to drive a car for the first time in 9 weeks.

February 3, 2010

HAPPY 2 MONTHS!

This week for some reason Wesley's letter did not make it to us. The following is from his companion, Elder Gardner's mom.

Hi Laurie,
We did get an email today and our boys are still together. {It was transfers this past Monday} I'm sorry your email got lost. That has happened to us before and it is hard to wait a week for more info. I will forward you the photo Nate sent. Maybe it was the same one. They are doing well. They taught A----- again...(the lady that they tracted out last week whose mother is in the hospital on life support). She loved the Plan of Salvation and they felt that she was truly interested and that her heart was open. Her husband is planning to listen on their next visit so they are hopeful that will be a good thing. L---- will be married this week and then baptized next week. She is very excited and Nate thinks very converted. They did set a baptismal date with K---- for February 20th. They continue to pray for and work with her. They feel like they made some good contacts this week and are hopeful that the people will let them teach them. All in all it sounds like there is progress in Jasper. They have the trust and support of the members and that is good. Isn't this your sons 2 month mark this week? Time kinda flies (kinda!).

January 28, 2010

Hi Everybody!
Yesterday as I was sending my email the computer logged off. Grrr.....
Alright, here we go again.
Sorry I didn't email you yesterday morning. I HAD to go golfing, but I didn't want to pay the $30 so I just drove the cart around for 5 1/2 hours as the battery got lower and lower. Elder Gardener locked us out of our duplex yesterday and the owner (a member, lives next door) wasn't home. Fortunately, there was a window unlocked that we could crawl through.

We find out if we are getting transferred on Saturday evening. We don't know where only that we are getting transferred that next Monday.

I think I am finally getting over whatever illness I had. Whether a virus or infection I don't know.















I've only had Gumbo once so far, but everything else (as well as the Gumbo) has been delicious and flavorful. The only thing I've had to eat that I truly could not stomach was eggs, like for breakfast or lunch.

Hmmm..... It doesn't surprise me that Carissa is getting married first or quickly, but it does surprise me that she is getting married THIS QUICKLY!

The email system we have to use is very basic and doesn't have a save draft button that I can see. I am just going to start writing my letters in Microsoft Word first and if I run out of time I can save them to my memory card. I got all of your letters yesterday. Robin is so funny with what she writes. Have you read any of her letters before you mail them? Hopefully, it will work and you will be able to see that I got a cheap SD card reader from Walmart. {For sending Pictures}

No, I did not get to go to the Temple during the MTC (Mission Training Camp at the Mission Home). I haven't had a chance to go IN the Temple yet either. The youth in our Branch had a Temple trip and President Mouldenhaur said we could tag along IF they brought nonmember friends to the Temple, dance and chili cook off in Beaumont that evening. So, we got to sit in the annex next to the distribution center and visit with the nonmembers. The branch also took everyone out to lunch at CiCi's Pizza. We didn't get to go to anything but the lunch and the Temple. Hope that makes sense. {see pictures in January 21, 2010}

Yes, we got our baptism on Saturday. Elder Gardner baptized him and I did the confirmation the next day in primary because he was late to sacrament meeting. We have a bunch of potential investigators. Hopefully, we will be able to meet with some of them today. We have one baptism date for February. I told you about her. She and her member fiance need to get married first. We have an older disabled lady who says she wants to be baptized. It might be more for friends and not really about beliefs, but who knows at this point.

Got to go Love you!


We have had crazy weather here. I took some pictures of the temperature from the car.













































Which one just doesn't belong?