March 11, 2013

I am speechless.... haha, That is exciting! Real clever idea! I am so happy for him, it's weird to think that he is going to get married... When I read that I'm going to have a new sister-in-law, I just smiled from ear to ear! I wish I had news that is as great as that, so my email isn't boring, but I don't... Ashton takes the cake on this one! I love the pictures too, her look is priceless. I guess I'll get to know her a lot more when I get home, I know they will visit after they move to Minnesota. But just reading the beginning of her blog tells me she is an exciting person. (deep breath) My little Ashton is all grown up now.... haha, Jk.

Well I'll give you some news, we can email family, friends, recent converts, and priesthood leaders. We also got another hour to write and email. About the work, everything is coming together now. A family we haven't been able to teach in a while is back taking lessons again. We have a baptism this saturday, if all goes well. We have three new, good investigators! And a couple funny stories!

To start out, our gator has a mean dog named Sadie. She just had puppies and is very protective, she is also a chain dog. When she is outside, she is real mean. After talking to a lady, we started walking toward our gator's mobile home. I told Elder Harrer that I saw Muriah, the owner, call sadie a few times and didn't see her go in. He thought the opposite, but was still cautious. He slowly walked around the vehicles keeping an eye out for the devil dog. By the way, this dog is mostly black, and it was night time. He walked and got about ten feet from their truck and a series of wild barks came from the side of it. I saw a flash of black run into Elder Harrer, and he stumbled back as he swung his new scripture case toward the dog. Needless to say he died....

So that is my cool story! Jk, the dog bit his case and put five holes in it. He hurried back and the dog stayed in it's protective circle. By the way the dog is super nice when it is inside.

But this same family, and also another family we are working with attempted to come to stake conference, but ended up going to the wrong building. They went to one that we sold to a baptist church, and they walked in, sat down and then ended up leaving as soon as they found that it wasn't the right church! Real funny people! But the work is going good, and all is well!

Love all y'all! Have a great week!

March 4, 2013

There is lots that is happening over there! That is exciting, I hope Ashton gets engaged, that will be awesome! But it takes prayer and fasting, and faith, have him talk to Dad about the email he just sent me, it was a good one! I hope that New Orleans didn't set Coree back from her progression, there was a family here that Elder Harrer and his old companion were teaching, and were progressing very well, but they went to Mardi Gras and when they came back they said they weren't interested anymore.... very sad, but they will come back as they realize that God won't give up on them! ;) I wish I could watch ESPN and see that shot, that stinks for bountiful, they try so hard! haha. Sorry I still root for Viewmont even though we don't have very many good sports teams....

But Elder Harrer is the senior comp, and is doing most of the planning and organizing, I am his helper! I'm going to do half the work now that I am caught up with the area. He may be senior companion, but that just means he makes final decisions.

We have a baptism coming up maybe this week, most likely the next. She is so ready too! They have come a long way and it's exciting to see the progression as always! But today is nice and cool, we are wearing our fancy sweaters, might I say GQ status? :) and we are going to go feed goats today! just one fun p-day activity! Nothing much has happened this week, we are still trying hard to get another family back to progressing to a BCD. They fell off the bandwagon, but were at church yesterday!

I think this news will make you happy, so I will tell you.... I got a letter from Jackie again, haha, It was sent to Eufaula and I got it late. So she is writing me again!

Anyway, has Jorgan become famous yet? Who is the next missionary leaving? and has Casey gotten over the Beiber faze yet? haha, I'm so glad to see that Beiber isn't in spell check! But thanks for the news! I love y'all and keep up the good work!

February 25, 2013

Well, how I got so many ties? First from elders who are getting rid of them, second from gifts from cool members, and third the thrift stores! Alabama has lots of good thrift stores, and whenever I see a cool tie for cheap I am tempted to buy it! I'm not going to be buying anymore ties, I am alright with the amount right now and so I am going to refuse the temptation. Callaway is great, temperature is awesome, but for the past half week it's been raining. I like it though. We have Callaway and Panama City in our area. Not Panama City Beach, just Panama City. It is tons bigger than Ozark, population wise. We are right close to the Gulf, but we don't see it too often. I already love serving with Elder Harrer, it may seem weird that we are together, but this area needs a lot of help, and there are plenty of other Elders that can train. He has prepared the area really well though, this is his fourth transfer, so he's coming up on six months here. And yes I did request him!

I think saying goodbye is one of the hardest things, because you make lots of close friends, and if you don't tell them you are leaving, some of them get mad! haha. But I was able to call some people and get pictures with others. It was good!

We are working with a couple families, and several other investigators. We have 7 BCDs, that's a lot, and satan is working real hard on all of them. I can see the huge change they are going through, and I've only been here for 5 days! We have already had some awesome experiences.

So who are the Taggart's? Is Sally the lady you work with at Bountiful? It sounds familiar, but can't see a face. And why did Tag's parents name him after their last name? Very interesting.... :)

Well y'all don't have to worry about me, we are staying in a high class apartment, and the members give us food plus the meals they feed us, and also a member takes us shopping the first of every month. I was excited to hear that! I am really going to enjoy being here, if we could get the members more involved it would be perfect!

I'll take some pictures for y'all, hopefully they will show the place well. Love y'all and I pray for you everyday! And we'll just have to have patience with Ashton, he'll make the right choice!

February 18, 2013

It seems that whenever the car is repaired, it is more likely to brake... The Lord is still watching over y'all, and I can tell. Things got cold here too. The weather people said there was going to be snow flurries, but none came... I was so excited to get a picture of snow in Alabama! But I just learned about transfers and it looks like I'm going to be going to Callaway this Wednesday! I thought I was staying in Branch for a little while, but the Lord has a different plan for me. Now I have to call many people and say my goodbyes. I think that's one of the hardest things to do in the mission, because there are so many people that I need to call! This transfer is HUGE, we have about 17 missionaries coming in, and when I came in we had only nine. It tells you how big it is.

Our week has gone great! We met knew people, gained new investigators, and those that we scheduled BCD's for are doing great. I know Elder Danner will do a good job keeping up this area. I also know he is nervous. This is his first time taking over an area! But I'm going to be with another one of my MTC companions, Elder Harrer, it's going to be one hard working, fast paced companionship!

We had an experience this past week. We went to a house where we were going to teach a couple of new investigators, and apparently the girl's mom, and the girl is seventeen, told them she was baptised and also told them that she found the church wasn't true because of the things she found in the Bible. I just thought, not again. But we gave them the clear choice, and bore powerful testimony, and asked them if they wanted to investigate still. They didn't give us an answer, which I think is good. But it might be a while before they are ready...Maybe they will have to move. That just boggles my mind though. I don't like to get into thinking about what happened, but it shows how tricky the devil is.

We had two investigators at church, and are excited to continue to see them progress! But all is well, because it ended well, for the present. I did get your package, and I loved it! The M&M's were a bit beat up, but everything else was good, we had a romantic lunch Elder Danner and I.....just kidding! It was real good though. It was a lot of food too. But congratulate Ashton for me! That is awesome, he'll get into the heavy work now! So what does this mean about Tati? :)

But it's good to hear from y'all as usual. I'm going to be sending a small package soon, that could mean a couple months though haha. But hope y'all enjoy your President's Day!

Ps. I got to meet the new special teams coordinator for the FSU team's mom! She was nice!

February 11, 2013

Wow, that's weird that Madi is engaged! The world is always changing, I guess ol' Centerville has to change also! I still think you haven't changed mom! Sorry I haven't sent you a birthday card.... I feel bad for that, especially since you always send me things!

I understand very well that sickness is not fun, especially when you have important things to do. I was sick with a dry throat and congestion for around five days, I stayed in two of those days. The lessons that we taught while I was sick wasn't fun, but I know God strengthened me for those. One lesson I took some tissues to use and I was expecting a short lesson and setting another date for next week, but it took much longer, longer than my tissues lasted.... that was miserable. Luckily she was kind and offered me tissues as I struggled to teach. We ended the lesson, and set another up for the week after. The next lesson went great though, I prayed for strength and what to say, I was well equipped with tissues, and the spirit was strong. They were definitely two different sides of the spectrum.

Our week went by alright, we have 2 BCD's set for this next month, and good prospects. Not as good as some previous one's but they will be assets in the church. But a couple days ago we had a great experience. We set out of our apartment with a day well planned. We came back after 30 minutes driving around finding out all of our plans fell through, like biting cotton candy and expecting something to chew.... we sat in the apartment then searching and calling some former investigators. Some answered, some hung up after we addressed ourselves... but we ended up sitting there with no real idea what to do. I knew the last resort was tracting, so we got on our knees and prayed for guidance and clarity on where to tract and what to do. Elder Danner had the thought to see one investigator, and so we drove and found that they weren't home. I had the faint idea to get on the bikes, so off we went to grab them. After the prayer I had the prompting to go tracting just down our street, but I shrugged it off thinking that it was only because I saw an attractive girl that I wanted to run into down on it. (Don't worry my mind is focused on the work, it was an observation (: ) But we rode our bikes around town attempting to visit one more person who also wasn't home, so we rode to the street and locked our bikes. With my legs tired from the giant hill we biked, I took my time locking them up and resting. We looked and noticed a couple walking on the sidewalk towards us. We said hey, and the guy asked, "How's your mission's going?" Immediately I recognized him from when Elder $ and I were ringing the salvation bell at Walmart.

I answered, "Well, tired from riding, but it's worth it!" We found that he lived right down the street from us and that he was from Utah, just barely moved down 5 months ago. His GF is from New York, they met online. Weird combination right? But we got their number and now we are excited to call them today and set up a time to meet!

Anyway it goes on, we continue walking and knocking, but the next funny experience happened like this. We are talking to Billy Ray, and he is very long-winded and a puppy from his house wandered out the door and behind a neighboring house. I asked him if he wanted us to pick it up for him. He said," Well sure!" I think he was a little drunk. I hurried around to grab the dog and saw he trotted into the neighbor's yard past the fence. I hurried faster as the dog rounded the corner again and as I turned I saw a family sitting there staring at me.... I said excuse me as I picked up the puppy, and it started crying horribly! I promised them I wasn't torturing it and I turned and walked away feeling embarrassed. But about halfway back Elder D stopped and looked back so I did the same. The teenage girl was following us, I asked her, "Can we help you?" She told us, "You have my dog...." I probably looked foolish standing there dumbfounded. I apologized and explained that Billy wanted it back, and she told us that was her uncle and her family lived in both those houses. We continued to talk to her and she turned out to be interested in the church. In fact, she only just recently became interested in church! I thought that was pretty cool. We are going to stop by again soon.

Well hope you like my novel! My sickness is gone and I feel tons better! I'm still safe, and hyped up again to do work! Thanks for the love and emails! Talk to you next week!

February 4, 2013

Well, it turns out that I'm sick too. It finally happened, I managed to avoid it for a long time, but it caught up to me. It should be gone in a couple of days, and it's not that bad, just a sore throat and runny nose. But all else is well. I'm sure y'all heard about the kid held hostage in Midland City, Alabama. That is in our area, and only five miles away from our apartment! We aren't really affected by it, only that it's all people talk about. Not much else has been happening. Our companionship is doing great and we are working hard to get people dunked! But more meaningful than that. :)

I'm glad everything is still going good over there, and that it has been going good since I've been gone! I'm not worried about my money, I was just curious. I thought that I paid for a lot of it, so if you are in a tight pinch, feel free to use it, I don't mind having to work for it when I get back! And about clothes, I will just "borrow" from my brothers! :) Not much has been happening by way of perfect investigators, but we are still praying and searching! I know we will find them soon!

By the way, have y'all been doing family history work? I've recently been on our family tree on Familysearch.org, and updated a few things.... :) you might need to check them to make sure they are correct, especially your information! haha. I'm not sure about the birth dates and birth places of Ashton and Jameson, and that's about all I did... It is way fun to look at that stuff, I still need to figure out how to find new information, and apply the sources.

How much has our ward changed? Has it stayed pretty much the same? I had a dream that a member from here took us to a gas station in Centerville because we weren't able to get it anywhere closer. I freaked out because I didn't want anyone to see me and know I was back early. It was weird because I talked to some of my friends at the gas station and I remember thinking afterwards, why did I do that? Now everyone will know! It was very weird. I hope you haven't had anymore dreams about me coming home early.... elder Danner had one of me going too. But don't worry, I won't!

Ten months left, 7 transfers, so I'm guestimating that I'm going to be in at least two more areas after this. Maybe even only one more! I would like that, that way I don't have to visit so many people after, when I come back. haha. I'm going to have to burn some of my white shirts because they are nasty. Mainly from last summer. I think I'll be good with what I have. I'll just need to iron more!

Love you and talk to you next week!

January 28, 2013

.....I spent like fifteen minutes writing you, and I accidentally erased it.... so this might me much shorter....

I'm not surprised that Jameson is injured again, it has been a while, so I knew he was due for one! That's weird how bad the weather is over there, here it's all sunshine and bright smiles! I heard that a cold front was coming in again, it might just be the same one.

Everything is going great, we are having lots more lessons, and many new investigators. My new comp is making sure that we stay busy, and it was real hard last week because nobody was available, but now that the ball has started rolling things will progress lots faster!

Our mission has been cut short a week because of the big missionary mass, so this transfer is only five weeks instead of six. I guess I'll have to go shopping with y'all when I get home! Do I have anything in my bank or checking account? I think I don't but I'm not sure.

My comp loves Alabama. But he hasn't been here when it's hot yet! He'll love it even more, especially the gnats that want to land inside your ears! This is his second transfer, it's weird being his companion, because it isn't like we were in the MTC. But I'm glad to have him, he is a big help, and sometimes a hindrance... :) but everybody has down sides to them, except the godhead!

11 more fast sundays left! but ten months... time is flying!

Love y'all and be safe!