June 13, 2011

Hey,

Yes, transfers are next week. I'm pretty sure I won't get transferred, but you never know.

So it's been a pretty exciting week. We had Zone conference on Thursday. We said good bye to President Moldenhauer. It was the last time we will see them until mission reunions. They talked a lot about the hand off to President Crawford....Pres. Moldenhauer made a joke at Zone Conference that we know President and Sister Crawford have to be sanctified because they have 4 daughters.

Also, at Zone conference we got a new vehicle. Turns out our vehicle coordinator used to be on the High Council of the Kingwood stake so he came up to do "rescue missions" some times and saw how rough some of the roads are.....yup, a brand new 2011 Chevy Colorado LT (Z71). I feel really blessed and surprised. I think this is now the nicest vehicle I've driven in my life it had 43 miles on it when we picked it up!

12 days huh? wow! I didn't realize you would be leaving for the Hill Cumorah Pageant that soon. Should be fun though, right?

Oh, yesterday our newly SUSTAINED, not yet set apart, assistant ward mission leader got up in priesthood opening exercises and told the priesthood that he "wasn't bashful", that he was going to be calling on brothers to go to less actives and "rattle their cages", and if anyone said no they would have to stand before god at the judgment and explain why they said no. YIKES!!! Hasn't he read D&C 121? "no power can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood...but by persuasion, long suffering, and by love unfeigned." That is totally the wrong approach to missionary work... I'm a little concerned about this but we'll see what happens.

We're still having trouble finding new investigators. We did meet a black girl with a member(I can't spell her name) she came to church and said she would be back, but we haven't been able to teach her yet.

Well, I'd better go, I hope you don't completely lose your mind over pageant.

Love you guys
bye

June 6, 2011

Hey,

So, at the Houston airport, it maxed out at 105F yesterday. They say we're breaking records right now. I think normally its like 89F and the old record was in the 90sF. No we are definitely in a drought here. Some of the Magnolia trees ( I don't know if you know what their like, I didn't before my mission) their leaves are turning yellow they are so dry. Gardens are really taking a hit. Whenever it does rain (which is not very often the plants jump 3in. then stop.

I think the last time we will see Pres. Moldenhaure will be on Thursday. We are having Zone Conferences this week. Then we have another Zone Conference on July 1st with President and Sister Crawford.

Right now we are doing allot of tracting and seeing members. We aren't really seeing a lot of success with tracting. We did have a media referral ( book of Mormon, from Mormon.org) from a lady who lives up in Corrigan....20 miles away and literally on the edge of our area and at the edge of T.H.E. mission.

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Serdar this wast weekend. That was fun. I learned that there is a a new Chevy Colorado at the mission office that will be heading to Livingston sometime soon. Apparently, the office staff found out they can order trucks for the more rural areas. So, 4 of the areas that missionaries have been lobbying for trucks are going to get them. Transfers are in 2 weeks. I think I'm staying, but you never know.

Ok, I'm almost out of time. Hope this email was what you were looking for. :-)

So, I realized I didn't tell you about the pants until after I sent them, They have a rip and I was hoping you could Sew them and send them back out with the CDs. Go ahead and try the food stuff. I think Dad and Jacob might like it.

Love you guys
bye

May 31, 2011

Hey,

If you don't want that snow up their I'll gladly take it down here, cool things off. I think it's safe to say summer has officially arrived.

I sent a package today. I think you should get it about Thursday. One of the things in it is a conference CD case full of MoTab. I was hoping that dad could burn copies since some of the CDs are starting to get scratched. Also in the case is a list of songs I was hoping dad could burn some mix CDs from. Also, somewhere on LDS.org there are some CDs that can be downloaded I think they are called "A brand New Year". There's one for 2010, and one for 2011 if dad can figure it out I would appreciated it if you would send those out to me. Yes, they are approved. Needless to say after 18 Months I'm getting tired of Motab. I also sent a Memory card in the package FYI.

Ummm... another story.... I don't know we've kind of ground to a halt in missionary work. We still have our 3 investigators with baptism dates 2-July 9th, 1- Aug.-20th.

We spoke in sacrament last Sunday. I spoke on the Holy Ghost out of Pres. Eyring's talk "Serve With the Spirit". Like 4-5 people got on to me about being soft spoken, but other than that it went well. Oh and over half the congregation were visitors.

I had leadership training last Tues-Weds. It was pretty good learned a lot of good stuff. I found out President Crawford comes in either the last Tuesday or Wednesday of June (Pres. Moldenhaure's dates don't match) and the next morning Wednesday or Thursday President and Sister Moldenhaure will be driving back to Idaho.

Yesterday and kind of today my alergies have been real bad. I have been taking clariton but if it stays bad I'll start taking Allegra. That's what Sister Moldenhaure recommended.

Got to go.

Love you Bye

May 23, 2011

Hey there

Brighton got to feet of snow in late May!?!?! Are you guys in danger of flooding? That's funny that you have tons of rain and SE Tx is in extreme fire hazard. Most gardens aren't doing well down here.

Ahhh time once again for the "Pageant scramble" That's OK though right? Because the things we should put our time and $ into are things that will make memories, build relationships, and strengthen testimonies, right?

This past week I learned that being "thin skinned" is a form of being prideful. "When we focus on our reputation...become obsessed with our status....that's when pride begins to corrupt," Pres. Utchdorf. The ability to laugh at ourselves is a form of humility.

We still have our 3 investigators. One with a Baptism date in August and two in July.

Oh yeah the library will be closed next week for Memorial Day so I'll email on Tuesday, probably a little later than usual.

There's leadership training tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm not sure what will be talked about, but it should be good.

Elder Gaverett spoke to us this past week.

Oh yeah all the Spanish Sisters I flew out with Went home 2 weeks ago.

Ummm... We used the power of prayer to fix one of our members car's CD player.

This member goes out with us a lot. He had a CD stuck in his player (6 CD changer) for probably about a month now and every time we go out with him we would try to fix it. This time we prayed and pop! out the CD came. Prayer works!

Well I'd better Email Cameron

Love you guys bye!

May 17, 2011

Hey,

Good, I'm glad to hear you are doing better.

This coming Wednesday Elder Gaverett of the 70 will be speaking to us. It sounds like he's pretty strict. Apparently, he is going to be conducting random apartment and car inspections, and the only lapel pins we are can wear are the mission pins President Moldenhaure gave us.

Hmmm. as far as conference talks, you might try President Monson's "The 3 R's Of Choice", and President Utchdorf's "Of Things That Matter Most". I don't know if there what your looking for but those are the talks that come to mind. I'll keep thinking about it and let you know if I come with any others I like.

I suppose we could go tracting to try and sweat off the steak Bro. Dillard fed us. It's been nice the last few days but it is starting to really get up there in the temps and humidity.

Today I'm going to try to send a package (no promises though) with some Etoufee* (A-to-Fay) mixes, (add water rice and meat) and a can of some spice like the one I sent but spicier. Maybe a few other things too.

Not much is happening around here, we moved our Investigators baptism date from May 21st to July 9th, because they need to be married. They are getting maried on July 2nd and the next saturday is the 9th. We also still have our date for the 20th of August, but that's not going to change. The work is going well.

Well, I'd better email Ethan and Cameron,
Love you guys bye

May 2, 2011

Hi Everybody!

Happy half Birthday and 17 month mark to me!
Whoahh that's weird!

Hmmm, when to call for Mother's day.... So, our church goes from 10-1 (Tx time) so 9-12 Ut time. We have ward council in the morning from 8:30-9:30 (Tx) so the morning probably won't work since we're supposed to call from a member's phone. We really haven't made any plans or talked to anyone about calling home, so I don't know what will happen. Let me know if dad get's his flight changed pushed back, I feel really sorry for him if he can't. In all likelihood I'll probably call in the evening, but I don't know. If dad can't get his flight moved maybe I could have him call me back, and then call you in a 3-way call so he can still be a part of it, if his plane has landed. Just let me know about dad's flight and that will probably be the major factor in when I call.

This past week was kinda rough. We didn't get a whole lot of lessons taught. We saw a lot of people, just didn't get a lot of lessons.

We're kind of at a stand still with our investigators. Richard is still waiting on his mom, to allow his baptism, and we havn't been able to teach our other investigators this week. They're still interested, we just havn't been able to teach them.

Tomorrow I get to go on exchanges with Elder Serdar again. I'm pretty excited about that.

Transfers are next week. I'm pretty sure I'm not getting transferred.

I had a realization this week. The atonement was designed to relive us from our sins AND our sorrows/disappointments. I already knew that but I didn't realize it until this week. Pretty neat.

I had better go,
Love you Bye

sorry there isn't more to write about

April 25, 2011

Hey,

So, when in the week do you sent the letter. I haven't been having trouble getting your emails. My email says I got it at 5:41 last night. It's probably because Monday P-day is a standard that SLC has set. That means all 50,000 missionaries are getting emailing. They are saying it takes 1-2 days. That's a lot of email.

As for the Focal Point, the mission news letter, whenever we have a baptism we submit the picture to the mission office and then it's up to the office staff what makes it in. I'm not sure that every picture of every baptism I've been apart of has been sent in. I know that Brother Dillard sends every baptism picture he takes to the mission office. The assistants even called us when Nate, Elder Gardner, and I were in jasper and asked us to send in a picture for the focal point and then it wasn't in the focal point, but then the same picture is in it 2-3 months in a row. So, I don't know. I am sure With Brother Dillard we will have a picture in it.

So this past week we set a Baptism date with this kid named Richard for Aug 20, 2011. The reason it is so far out is because that is the Saturday after he turns 18. Right now his mom won't let him get baptized, but her heart is being softened. Richard is really a miracle, he investigated/studied the church, by himself, prayed to know if it was true, then went against his mothers wishes and showed up at mutual one night where the missionaries met him. That was before I got here.

Do I miss Fred? A little I would've been fine with staying, but it was the right thing to move on.

I interviewed a 9 yr old boy named Joseph for baptism on Wednesday,(one of the Cleveland missionaries investigators). It was a cool experience. I don't know if District and Zone Leaders interviewed candidates for baptism when Dad was on his mission.

Today is our Zone P-day. We're meeting with all the other missionaries in the stake in Kingwood and having a BBQ, playing ultimate Frisbee, capture the flag, and soccer.

Thanks for the Easter packages. Yeah, we had somewhere to go. We went to the Thrifts, the older couple, who served their mission with the Cedarloft's in the Palmyra Temple.

I'd better srite Cameron. He's "so happy that you are coming home soon!" and then like 7 smiley faces.

love you guys~ Wesley

April 18, 2011

Hi Everyone,

That's so weird that Elder Gardner's (Nate) homecoming was yesterday! I don't think I really comprehend it. FYI: The story he told about Tiffany was an investigator in Jasper, she was baptized just before I got there.

Yeah, Bro. Dillard just takes pictures randomly, he takes a lot of "real" pictures.

It's week 4 of this transfer already, Holy Cow! Last Friday we went on exchanges with the Assistants, no real reason why (that I know of) we weren't rebuked at all. The assistants don't have their own area. Each transfer they go on exchanges with the Zone leaders, new missionaries and their trainers, and a few other companionship's. One of the assistants, (Elder Orndorff) was in my MTC District. This past week Elder Hoffman( the Stewart's cousin) got released as an assistant. I'm pretty sure to be with a missionary who was having problems with his companion. It was really weird, being in the middle of a transfer. Anyway, we had a lot of fun on the exchange, we split up and had a good time.

Our investigator Josh was baptized on sat. 4/16/11 as you know. It went well, I spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Elder Tracy spoke on Baptism.

On Wednesday we were supposed to be Paul Bearers for our Meal coordinator's Brother's wife..Long story. Anyway, we showed up and found out at the last second they didn't need us. Well, you can't just leave or break the caravan, that would just be rude. So, we went to the funeral service too. It was held in a Catholic Church. Fortunately, none of the family were practicing Catholics. Don't ask me why it was at a catholic Church. So, that was interesting.

After the funeral a member invited a lady he bumped into on a church tour/ lesson. She accepted. The only problem was that she wasn't there to learn, she was their to compare. It was one of the most frustrating lessons I have ever taught. In fact she preached Pentecostalism to us for half of the lesson. Aghhh.

I'm trying to tell more missionary stories, I hope I'm doing better.

We found out that one of our better investigators, Chis, is in jail now for traffic fines...something or other, hopefully he will be out soon. He's a member referral, we ate supper at his house on Wednesday. His wife/girlfriend (we're not sure) came to church with...I think it is his less active mother yesterday.

Oh, I haven't looked at the memory card you sent back yet, but I think the old guy was a less active member in Lake Chuck named, Dog...Yup he's a character. Was he in a power chair?

Well I'd better go,
Love you Guys

April 11, 2011

Hey guys,

What's up? So you've been getting snow huh? Lucky! It's just getting hotter and hotter down here. It was in the high 80's yesterday.

I got an email from Tyler Christensen. He just got transferred to College station. That stake borders the Kingwood stake(the stake I'm in).


We are in a car area. We could be doing some biking, but ya... the area's about as big as jasper...we have Moscow in our area, Moscow, Texas Ha ha!

It's so weird to think that Elder Gardner...I mean Nate is home now!

We did have our baptism on Saturday. Sister Larkin is the newest member of the Livingston ward. It almost didn't happen though. She had her baptism interview Friday evening...she didn't show, she got stuck at work. Luckily our other solid investigator, (Josh) came for his interview so the Zone Leaders didn't drive all the way up here for nothing. (It's like 60-70 Miles, one way from their area, Atascocita, to Livingston. Fortunately we were able to reschedule the interview for Saturday Morning before the baptism. So the Zone leaders used A LOT of miles those 2 days.

Elder Wesley Christensen giving a talk

You asked how the teaching was coming after not doing a lot of it in my last area. Ummm, yea it is a little difficult...I mean a little More difficult teaching after 4.5 months of Fred, Texas.

President, Moldenhauer just upped the bar on us this week (well either him or SLC.) Now instead of just reporting numbers, now every Sunday evening we report goals to Companionship goals, district goals, oh and district district numbers now too, not just companionship numbers. Right when it becomes my responsibility to take and report those numbers... Great.

On a different note, President told me that Cleveland is going to be getting a Spanish speaking Senior couple, the Boswells. He said they should be coming about the first week of May I think.

Well I'd better go
Love you guys

April 4, 2011

Elder Tracey and Elder Wesley Christensen

Hi, Well, I'm Good, Happy and Tired. I saw you have snow (on conference). The weather here is picking up. The humidity sure has anyway! I sure enjoyed conference weekend. We went to the church with some investigators. I thought Elder Oaks talk Saturday afternoon was one of the best. The Priesthood session was good.

My new area...... Well, today, in his email to me President Mouldenhauer called it, " Heaven on Earth." Livingston has about 5000 people, a few more fast food options (then Fred) and a grocery store which you can bet is nice to have.

The missionary work..... Well, on Tuesday I had the BEST correlation meeting I've had on my mission!

I think we have 4 investigators right now. One has a date for this Saturday to be baptized. Another has a date for 4/16/11 but he might move first. He's also on parole so it's possible he might not be able to be baptized. (Why? He drove his car into his parent's living room...)

My companion is pretty cool. I'm actually Elder Tracey's fourth companion. I've been out 11 months longer than him.

We had President Interviews this week, that was fun. It was sad though that it was our last one with President Moldenhauer.

Oh yeah, We have some members in our ward, the Thrifts. They served a mission in the Palmyra Temple with Bro/Sis Cedarloft. I thought that was pretty cool. They also have an original Chad Hawkins drawing of the Houston temple. I didn't know that Chad Hawkins married one of the Cedarlofts daughters. (at least that's what I was told. did I hear he bought a house from the Hopkins on the other side of the highway?)

Well I think I'll write Ethan and Cameron now.


There is a member of the ward, Brother Dillard who likes to take pictures of the missionaries and send them to their families. Hope you enjoy them.

Brother Vic Larson (Ward Mission Leader) and Brother Dave Dillard

Love you Bye

I got the calendar, Thanks!

March 28, 2011

Hey,

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

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

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

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

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

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

My new address is:

1025 W. Church St.

Apt. #504

Livingston, Texas

77351

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

umm I left Fred with 2 Baptism dates.

Love you you guys!