Oct 5, 2008
Everything here is just the same old thing, nothing really new going on. We have transfers at the end of this week and I have no idea what will happen to me. I wouldn't be surprised if I was still here but I guess we will find out soon. Thanks for sending a package I can't wait to get it. I can't really think of anything else that you can send but something that would be nice could be a jump rope. That can wait though maybe until you send another package or something in a while. Other than that, I think we are good. Everything here is going good. We are still riding our bikes everywhere and still staying busy so that's good. I don't really like having such a big area because its hard to really focus on the progressing investigators but I just hope we are doing enough here. Yesterday there weren't as many people at church at usual and its pretty frustrating to see but hopefully it will pick up. A member brought a friend to church that has a disease in his eyes, he is blind in one eye and is losing his vision in the other and his eyes hurt him. He came so that he could be prayed for and to get a blessing. So we went with him to his home after church and it was something else. He is from some Indian religion so there were many paintings and little figures of gods and things like that. I think they worship many Gods but he was still willing to come to us to get help. So, we talked to him for a while and then gave him a blessing. It was an amazing experience. Right after the blessing he said that the pain was gone and that he could see for a few seconds after the blessing. He showed a lot of faith by coming to the church and seeking for help and it really strengthened my testimony to be a part of that. So that was a good experience, hopefully he will start coming to church and that he will recognize the blessings that come from that.
Now we are starting the last week of the transfer and I hope it is a good one. The members are still feeding us and that will be the hardest part if I have to leave this place, ha. Anyways, I am doing just fine here. I hope you have a great week. I love you mom, thanks for everything.
Oct 12, 2008
There is not much new going on here, just a regular week except for one thing....we got transfer news and it looks like I am leaving. I can't believe it. I was a bit shocked and surprised but I guess the time has come. Now that it comes down to it I don't know if I want to leave ha, I have loved this area but I guess the change will be good. I have been called to Kenya to serve in Nairobi and I am flying out tomorrow. So, it looks like things are really going to change for me. I am nervous but excited at the same time. It will be hard to leave everything here though. It was hard to say good bye to the members yesterday at church, there are a lot of people I am really going to miss but I just hope it will all work out. My new companions name is Elder Nyandoro and he is from Zimbabwe. I haven't heard anything about him but I hope it all goes well. Other than that there isn't really anything too exciting. For the past few days we have been in a threesome because of transfers so it has been more difficult to do the work but we survived. I don't have any news besides that. I'm sorry I don't have time to send any pics but I will try next week and I will let you know what the area is like. Well, I love you mom and I hope you have a great week, take care and we'll talk to you later.
Oct 20, 2008
Well now that I'm here in Nairobi I feel totally lost. I feel like I am in a new mission, everything is so different. There are a lot of people here and everything is always so busy and so rushed. Its just a lot different than Dar, I really miss my last area and all the people there but hopefully with time things will get better here. The members are nice and it seems like they are pretty strong in the gospel so that's good. The church is pretty far from our apartment though so that's kind of annoying. If we walk its about 30 minutes so its either that or take a bus. The buses here are crazy. They all play music so loud and some of them have TV screens in them, it's hard to focus on anything once you get in one but that's the only mode of transportation we have. Things will just take time to get used to. One good thing is that we have 3 investigators scheduled for baptism for next week so that will be good. I hope they all work out. My companion is alright. I like him as a person but he is ready to go home. He leaves at the end of this transfer so he doesn't like to work too much and its frustrating. We haven't been too busy and the work is slow but hopefully things will get better. I have been thinking about home a lot lately but I think that's just because of the move and everything is different now but I'll be ok. Thanks for everything Mom, I love you and hope you have a great week. Well take care, I am sending a letter soon so it will get there in a couple of weeks. Elder Hansen
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Elder Andrew Pena:
Oct. 13, 2008
The library has been closed for about 3 weeks & doesn't open until the 28th so don't send an email until then. Send some real pics to me when you get a chance. I mean I know you're not busy...you act like you have 2 out of control boys & a new baby girl! Oh yeah, you do!!. Who is more important though :). Ha! Anyway, no baptisms yet. We are working on a commitment with a family. I sent pictures of me and a member and his HUGE boa. I touched it and it is Ginormous! Ha, we are working on this guy and his wife, brother and his family. Altogether it will be 4 baptisms if it all goes well. We are working on a commitment tomorrow & trying on about November 1st for the baptisms, but Oct. 22 is transfers so it flew by and one of us could be gone again! Hey, I like pictures so send me some! I love you all so take care & write me back & send pics!!
Love ya,
Elder Peña
The library has been closed for about 3 weeks & doesn't open until the 28th so don't send an email until then. Send some real pics to me when you get a chance. I mean I know you're not busy...you act like you have 2 out of control boys & a new baby girl! Oh yeah, you do!!. Who is more important though :). Ha! Anyway, no baptisms yet. We are working on a commitment with a family. I sent pictures of me and a member and his HUGE boa. I touched it and it is Ginormous! Ha, we are working on this guy and his wife, brother and his family. Altogether it will be 4 baptisms if it all goes well. We are working on a commitment tomorrow & trying on about November 1st for the baptisms, but Oct. 22 is transfers so it flew by and one of us could be gone again! Hey, I like pictures so send me some! I love you all so take care & write me back & send pics!!
Love ya,
Elder Peña
Elder Cameron Summers:
October 6, 2008
Malo!
Conference was awesome. We had to get up really early because the broad casted it live. We woke up at 4:00 in the morning and it started at 5:00. It was really cool though. I don’t think I have ever watched every single session of Conference before. It is such a spiritual feast! I hope you all got to watch it.
Everything is going good. We have been really busy. We have two baptisms planned for this Saturday. Oh yeah, I don’t know if I told you guys but I baptized 3 people my second Saturday here. That was cool. Just to let you know, I couldn't remember if I told you. I am also really excited to see if a couple of our progressing investigators were able to watch conference. One of them was really excited about being able to hear the words of a living prophet. We compared him to Moses. We said, “If Moses was here on the Earth today, and wanted to say something directly to you, would you listen?” That really got him and he was excited to watch it.
It was also cool to watch the priesthood session of Conference. The Provo MTC choir was the choir for that session. I saw a bunch of people I was able to meet while at the MTC. I also saw a couple people from Rexburg too.
Surprisingly enough I have lost weight here in Samoa. I just haven’t really ate anything. I haven’t got used to the food a whole lot, it just doesn’t taste to good to me yet. But some things are really good here. We’ve had bikes this last week but they are already broken. We cover two wards and a branch. The branch is so far away and is up a hill. It sucks walking up there. We couldn’t use our bikes because they are bikes like you would find on the board walk or something. They are straight beach cruisers that you would rent if you wanted to ride down the beach in California. They only had one gear and were definitely not built for off road. Most of our areas are made up of small rocky trails. So when riding them, it was way bumpy. So now, my chain is always falling off, my seat is broken, and my steering wheel on my bike is way loose. There will be some pictures when I send home my card.
Alofa, Elder Summers
October 20th
Malo!
The weather is really hot. The tautuputupu is starting up. Which is the rain season. It is so hot after it rains. All the clouds clear out and the sun beats down and it is the most humid thing ever! but I am getting along alright. Our living quarters are pretty nice. The village I am in actually doesn't get rain a whole lot for some reason, so we really have to be concerned about our water. The only means of water we have is the rain. When it rains, it goes off our roof and then drains into a tank. We actually ran out of water yesterday and had no means of showering, cleaning the house, or doing our laundry. We do our laundry by hand with a bucket and a brush. So that’s fun. Our house is located right next to the Fale Sa, or the Church house. They just build little missionary houses right next to the chapel for the missionaries. It’s really small, but oh well. Never thought I’d live in someplace smaller than I did in Price! But everything is going good.
We had another baptism on Saturday, and two more this next Saturday, and then another the first Saturday in November. The work is really exploding in my area. It is fun. We got a new mission leader and I think he will be really good. I am excited. I had my first "Bible Bash" with some Jehovah Witnesses this last week. Kinda fun. It wasn’t real intense but still. They have some funky beliefs but we still need to respect them either way.
I don’t know if you have sent that package but it would be nice if you sent some other stuff with it. They don’t sell good deodorant here and it would be nice it you sent some of that. Thanks for everything and I love ya!
Alofa, Cam
Malo!
Conference was awesome. We had to get up really early because the broad casted it live. We woke up at 4:00 in the morning and it started at 5:00. It was really cool though. I don’t think I have ever watched every single session of Conference before. It is such a spiritual feast! I hope you all got to watch it.
Everything is going good. We have been really busy. We have two baptisms planned for this Saturday. Oh yeah, I don’t know if I told you guys but I baptized 3 people my second Saturday here. That was cool. Just to let you know, I couldn't remember if I told you. I am also really excited to see if a couple of our progressing investigators were able to watch conference. One of them was really excited about being able to hear the words of a living prophet. We compared him to Moses. We said, “If Moses was here on the Earth today, and wanted to say something directly to you, would you listen?” That really got him and he was excited to watch it.
It was also cool to watch the priesthood session of Conference. The Provo MTC choir was the choir for that session. I saw a bunch of people I was able to meet while at the MTC. I also saw a couple people from Rexburg too.
Surprisingly enough I have lost weight here in Samoa. I just haven’t really ate anything. I haven’t got used to the food a whole lot, it just doesn’t taste to good to me yet. But some things are really good here. We’ve had bikes this last week but they are already broken. We cover two wards and a branch. The branch is so far away and is up a hill. It sucks walking up there. We couldn’t use our bikes because they are bikes like you would find on the board walk or something. They are straight beach cruisers that you would rent if you wanted to ride down the beach in California. They only had one gear and were definitely not built for off road. Most of our areas are made up of small rocky trails. So when riding them, it was way bumpy. So now, my chain is always falling off, my seat is broken, and my steering wheel on my bike is way loose. There will be some pictures when I send home my card.
Alofa, Elder Summers
October 20th
Malo!
The weather is really hot. The tautuputupu is starting up. Which is the rain season. It is so hot after it rains. All the clouds clear out and the sun beats down and it is the most humid thing ever! but I am getting along alright. Our living quarters are pretty nice. The village I am in actually doesn't get rain a whole lot for some reason, so we really have to be concerned about our water. The only means of water we have is the rain. When it rains, it goes off our roof and then drains into a tank. We actually ran out of water yesterday and had no means of showering, cleaning the house, or doing our laundry. We do our laundry by hand with a bucket and a brush. So that’s fun. Our house is located right next to the Fale Sa, or the Church house. They just build little missionary houses right next to the chapel for the missionaries. It’s really small, but oh well. Never thought I’d live in someplace smaller than I did in Price! But everything is going good.
We had another baptism on Saturday, and two more this next Saturday, and then another the first Saturday in November. The work is really exploding in my area. It is fun. We got a new mission leader and I think he will be really good. I am excited. I had my first "Bible Bash" with some Jehovah Witnesses this last week. Kinda fun. It wasn’t real intense but still. They have some funky beliefs but we still need to respect them either way.
I don’t know if you have sent that package but it would be nice if you sent some other stuff with it. They don’t sell good deodorant here and it would be nice it you sent some of that. Thanks for everything and I love ya!
Alofa, Cam
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Elder Brantley Shattuck:
10/10/08
This mission life is pretty sweet, I am thinking I might just serve a three year mission. It goes by so fast. Some days are long but not to often. Nicole got her second lesson in on Monday and we are planning on having the baptism on the 8th of November, it will be neat..... Man, her mom has a lot of problems though, she is kinda weird. It is interesting to see the different personalities and views out there in the world. Some people are pretty lost in the world with no purpose. I was actually studying the plan of salvation today and made a scripture chain for it, it is an amazing plan.
The other day we ran into this guy who told me I was from outer space and that my religion was completely false and that if we were ready to leave the brainwashing then we could come to his church, the one and only true church. He was not very nice needless to say and we just kept walking while he was yelling across the street and stuff.... I was pretty mad but I held my tongue, can you believe that.... isn't that crazy.... I was pretty amazed at the end of the day that I did that, before I would have usually put my two cents in but I didn't that time. It was a good lesson for me.
The weather is getting kinda cold over here, not really cold but cooler. It is perfect right now, it makes tracting so much more enjoyable when I am not stinging my eyes with my own sweat.
I liked Russel M. Nelson's talk a lot (wink wink), Holland talks about the ministering of angels which is really good and I thought Quentin L. Cooks was really good too. We got to listen to conference, at the chapel, no where else is aloud.
I will be here for a little while, my comp is finishing up six months here so I am pretty sure that he will go next. Transfers are the day before Halloween, we get to watch a movie on that night(Halloween night) which should be pretty fun. I will also be sending home my first companion Elder Rochford, which is a good thing, he needs to go home. Elder Shattuck
This mission life is pretty sweet, I am thinking I might just serve a three year mission. It goes by so fast. Some days are long but not to often. Nicole got her second lesson in on Monday and we are planning on having the baptism on the 8th of November, it will be neat..... Man, her mom has a lot of problems though, she is kinda weird. It is interesting to see the different personalities and views out there in the world. Some people are pretty lost in the world with no purpose. I was actually studying the plan of salvation today and made a scripture chain for it, it is an amazing plan.
The other day we ran into this guy who told me I was from outer space and that my religion was completely false and that if we were ready to leave the brainwashing then we could come to his church, the one and only true church. He was not very nice needless to say and we just kept walking while he was yelling across the street and stuff.... I was pretty mad but I held my tongue, can you believe that.... isn't that crazy.... I was pretty amazed at the end of the day that I did that, before I would have usually put my two cents in but I didn't that time. It was a good lesson for me.
The weather is getting kinda cold over here, not really cold but cooler. It is perfect right now, it makes tracting so much more enjoyable when I am not stinging my eyes with my own sweat.
I liked Russel M. Nelson's talk a lot (wink wink), Holland talks about the ministering of angels which is really good and I thought Quentin L. Cooks was really good too. We got to listen to conference, at the chapel, no where else is aloud.
I will be here for a little while, my comp is finishing up six months here so I am pretty sure that he will go next. Transfers are the day before Halloween, we get to watch a movie on that night(Halloween night) which should be pretty fun. I will also be sending home my first companion Elder Rochford, which is a good thing, he needs to go home. Elder Shattuck
Elder Adam Walker:
9/04/08
It looks like you are getting two letters this week. The missionary that I am on exchanges with didn't get to email home yesterday because of interviews and everything so that is what we are doing right now. I am in Buckannon West Virginia, it's about 30 miles away from Elkins. Its a nice area, has a small college in it, and the roads are ridiculously crowded. Elkins roads are always way busy and there are always traffic jams but this place is even worse.
I saw a kid almost die on Sunday. It was pretty crazy. We were at an investigators house and we were talking to him about when we could come back and teach him and his family. We were talking to him on his sidewalk. His father-in-law and a bunch of his brother-in-laws were fixing their van that had just broke down like the day before and they had it all jacked up and everything.... well needless to say, it fell on one of his brother-in-laws, and after the paramedics pronounced him dead, we raised him from the dead and he was fine!..... kidding, but the jack really did slip and the handle hit his brother-in-law in the head, and it made him have a seizure (a pretty bad one) and then after about like 30 seconds of just shaking uncontrollably, he just fell limp, almost like he was dead. (I thought he was dead) Everyone was freaking out and going crazy, I didn't know what to do. I think I was in as much shock as the kid that got hit cause I didn't know what was going on, everyone was on their phones calling the ambulance. Then Delmus, the guy we were talking to, yelled 'Snap out of it' and he came back to consciousness and he started smiling. He had no idea what had just happened, and yeah it was crazy. The Ambulance came and took him away and as far as we have heard he is okay so that is good. But it was so weird, I thought the kid was dead, but I guess he just went into shock and he wasn't moving. He had no idea what had just happened. After we left, Elder Smith was like, 'darnit... I was hoping he was dead and then we could raise him...' there is Elder Smith for you, looking for genius ways to convert people haha. I was just glad to see that the kid was okay. Interviews went really well yesterday. My interview went for about 30 minutes, and it looks like I am worthy to stay at least another 6 weeks! Love you guys and hope everything is going awesome there. Everything is great here and I am doing awesome! Elder Walker
9/11/08
This past week was awesome! We have got a lot done here in Elkins West Virginia. We have another baptismal date set for a 9 year old girl and she is awesome. She is way exited to be baptized. The Chandler Family is coming along really well, we finally got our Vietnamese Book of Mormons that we ordered about a month ago so we are going to give them to them tonight so they can start reading and get ready for baptism. Jack Chandler is a ciggaretaholic.. if that's a word.. so something has to click with that but we know that we will be able to work with him and he will be able to quit, its just time right now. Frank, our blind investigator, is coming along okay, he still doesn't think that coffee should be against the Word of Wisdom, but he progresses more and more each time. We have the Book of Mormon on CD ordered and are hoping to get that tomorrow. That will be really good, and once he starts listening to that, he will feel the spirit and he will eventually be baptised. He's awesome. Some new people that we have started teaching over the past week is a couple, Matt and Katie. They are chain smokers and have many many many other drug problems. It is really sad to see some of the things that they put themselves through, but they have started reading the Book of Mormon and we have taught them about the restoration and watched a movie with them also. They are really interested and have a lot of questions. They really want to stop doing all the drugs they are doing. They just don't know how to. Luckily we have answers for them on how they can quit all of that at once. It is as simple as accepting Jesus Christ and having Faith. They are awesome and we are looking forward to progressing with them. They are great to talk and discuss doctrine with. Last Sunday we had a pretty good experience. We were out at Justine Shaffer's home (new convert who has 4 kids, pregnant, divorced) and come to find out she has not had water for 3 days.... couldn't believe it. So Me, Elder Smith, a 92 year old retired plumber, and 2other guys from the Elders Quorum got together and tried to figure out what was going on. The 92 year old guy has a walker and couldn't do anything but tell everyone what to do (which is a mistake in the first place) and the rest of us had no idea what we were doing. We got it back working and everything but not before we were all muddy and messy in our Sunday clothes. It was awesome though, I guess doing service like that on Sunday is not bad but we paid for it by getting our shoes, shirts, pants, and ties all muddied up. Come to find out it stopped working again... so the next day the ward just sent someone that knew what they were doing over to fix it. Haven't heard from her since so I am guessing it got fixed. It is awesome out here and I love doing missionary work. Its tough, fun, hard, and worth it. Hope everything is going great wherever you all are. Elder Walker
9/18/08
There is only one more week in this transfer and boy has this one gone fast! We have a baptism set for this Sunday at 6 o'clock and that is going to be great! Nothing better to see someone accept the truth and move closer to returning to our Heavenly Father. As for all of our other investigators... well word of wisdom problems are haunting us like no other. People just are not to willing to stop drinking coffee and stop smoking. They are still great and we are going to continue to work with them. We talked with a guy named Mike this past week. He is a Jehovah's Witness, he is really interested in our beliefs and he along as I was surprised how close our religions are. Doctrine wise, they don't have much that is different. They just have different names and some different radical ideas. So he invited us back just so we could tell him more about our beliefs but you know as well as I do, he is going to get baptised now! We caught him and now we just have to have faith and reel him in! Last Sunday was stake conference and that went really well, we drove over an hour to get there so that was a little different from Rexburg. At home you drive 5 minutes and you're there. Here things are just a little different. Our stake center is actually pretty close to us, comparing it to some others, some missionaries traveled about 2 and a half hours so I was still pretty lucky to be that close. The church is definitely growing here though. This stake here that I am in has a plan to split by 2010 so that would be really nice if they did. We are going on exchanges again tomorrow. It is the last one for the transfer so that will be nice and then we will see what transfers are going to shape up to be and see who is going to be where and who is going to be with who. Elder Smith is pretty cool, I wouldn't mind staying another transfer with him, but we will just have to see. Maybe I will be down in Virginia next week. Missionary life is Crazy! I love it though. Its a great thing to be out here. I have loved every moment of it. Some days are tough, but you just have to role out of bed and make the best of everyday. You never know who's heart you are going to touch that day. Sometimes you touch them just by saying hi, you just never know. But it truly is awesome!!
Love all'yall, Elder Walker
9/25/08
Yup, I am staying in Elkins for 6 more weeks. I am pretty sure I will leave here after that but I guess you never know for sure till it comes. I am with Smith again also. Potato Harvest is this next week isn't it? That will be a nice week off. They have a thing here called the Forest Festival, the kids get off of school for a whole week. Its huge! 9,000 people live in this town right now and they say by the end of next week there will be at least 100,000 people living here on streets, cars, and even with relatives. It will be insane, and they say missionary work stinks during that time because no one wants to hear about religion. They just want their booze and food. I'm sure we will eat really well, it will be just like the fair I'm sure, good food and good 5 lbs to work off. We'll see though. That will be great to read about the Word of Wisdom, EVERYONE here has a problem with that. Most members do too, let alone non-members. It's really sad and we deal with it everyday. If I die out here on my mission, it will be because of second hand smoke. I hate the smell of the smoke, and it bothers me really bad, so I hope I am getting a lot of blessings for putting up with it haha. I'm still alive and I don't have a smokers cough yet so that is a good thing. But we'll just have to see how it all works out. We have just taught a whole bunch of our investigators and our progress is going really really really really really slow because of cigarettes and stuff that people just don't have the drive to quit. So we have a lot of work to do but they will all come through someday, its just time and patience I guess. We had a baptism on Sunday, that went really well, and there were a ton of non-members there at the baptism so we have some more people that we could teach out of all of those people so that will be good hopefully. The girl we baptised was so exited to be baptised so that was awesome, I wish they were all as exited as she was. Its great though. Love you all. Talk to you next week! Elder Walker
It looks like you are getting two letters this week. The missionary that I am on exchanges with didn't get to email home yesterday because of interviews and everything so that is what we are doing right now. I am in Buckannon West Virginia, it's about 30 miles away from Elkins. Its a nice area, has a small college in it, and the roads are ridiculously crowded. Elkins roads are always way busy and there are always traffic jams but this place is even worse.
I saw a kid almost die on Sunday. It was pretty crazy. We were at an investigators house and we were talking to him about when we could come back and teach him and his family. We were talking to him on his sidewalk. His father-in-law and a bunch of his brother-in-laws were fixing their van that had just broke down like the day before and they had it all jacked up and everything.... well needless to say, it fell on one of his brother-in-laws, and after the paramedics pronounced him dead, we raised him from the dead and he was fine!..... kidding, but the jack really did slip and the handle hit his brother-in-law in the head, and it made him have a seizure (a pretty bad one) and then after about like 30 seconds of just shaking uncontrollably, he just fell limp, almost like he was dead. (I thought he was dead) Everyone was freaking out and going crazy, I didn't know what to do. I think I was in as much shock as the kid that got hit cause I didn't know what was going on, everyone was on their phones calling the ambulance. Then Delmus, the guy we were talking to, yelled 'Snap out of it' and he came back to consciousness and he started smiling. He had no idea what had just happened, and yeah it was crazy. The Ambulance came and took him away and as far as we have heard he is okay so that is good. But it was so weird, I thought the kid was dead, but I guess he just went into shock and he wasn't moving. He had no idea what had just happened. After we left, Elder Smith was like, 'darnit... I was hoping he was dead and then we could raise him...' there is Elder Smith for you, looking for genius ways to convert people haha. I was just glad to see that the kid was okay. Interviews went really well yesterday. My interview went for about 30 minutes, and it looks like I am worthy to stay at least another 6 weeks! Love you guys and hope everything is going awesome there. Everything is great here and I am doing awesome! Elder Walker
9/11/08
This past week was awesome! We have got a lot done here in Elkins West Virginia. We have another baptismal date set for a 9 year old girl and she is awesome. She is way exited to be baptized. The Chandler Family is coming along really well, we finally got our Vietnamese Book of Mormons that we ordered about a month ago so we are going to give them to them tonight so they can start reading and get ready for baptism. Jack Chandler is a ciggaretaholic.. if that's a word.. so something has to click with that but we know that we will be able to work with him and he will be able to quit, its just time right now. Frank, our blind investigator, is coming along okay, he still doesn't think that coffee should be against the Word of Wisdom, but he progresses more and more each time. We have the Book of Mormon on CD ordered and are hoping to get that tomorrow. That will be really good, and once he starts listening to that, he will feel the spirit and he will eventually be baptised. He's awesome. Some new people that we have started teaching over the past week is a couple, Matt and Katie. They are chain smokers and have many many many other drug problems. It is really sad to see some of the things that they put themselves through, but they have started reading the Book of Mormon and we have taught them about the restoration and watched a movie with them also. They are really interested and have a lot of questions. They really want to stop doing all the drugs they are doing. They just don't know how to. Luckily we have answers for them on how they can quit all of that at once. It is as simple as accepting Jesus Christ and having Faith. They are awesome and we are looking forward to progressing with them. They are great to talk and discuss doctrine with. Last Sunday we had a pretty good experience. We were out at Justine Shaffer's home (new convert who has 4 kids, pregnant, divorced) and come to find out she has not had water for 3 days.... couldn't believe it. So Me, Elder Smith, a 92 year old retired plumber, and 2other guys from the Elders Quorum got together and tried to figure out what was going on. The 92 year old guy has a walker and couldn't do anything but tell everyone what to do (which is a mistake in the first place) and the rest of us had no idea what we were doing. We got it back working and everything but not before we were all muddy and messy in our Sunday clothes. It was awesome though, I guess doing service like that on Sunday is not bad but we paid for it by getting our shoes, shirts, pants, and ties all muddied up. Come to find out it stopped working again... so the next day the ward just sent someone that knew what they were doing over to fix it. Haven't heard from her since so I am guessing it got fixed. It is awesome out here and I love doing missionary work. Its tough, fun, hard, and worth it. Hope everything is going great wherever you all are. Elder Walker
9/18/08
There is only one more week in this transfer and boy has this one gone fast! We have a baptism set for this Sunday at 6 o'clock and that is going to be great! Nothing better to see someone accept the truth and move closer to returning to our Heavenly Father. As for all of our other investigators... well word of wisdom problems are haunting us like no other. People just are not to willing to stop drinking coffee and stop smoking. They are still great and we are going to continue to work with them. We talked with a guy named Mike this past week. He is a Jehovah's Witness, he is really interested in our beliefs and he along as I was surprised how close our religions are. Doctrine wise, they don't have much that is different. They just have different names and some different radical ideas. So he invited us back just so we could tell him more about our beliefs but you know as well as I do, he is going to get baptised now! We caught him and now we just have to have faith and reel him in! Last Sunday was stake conference and that went really well, we drove over an hour to get there so that was a little different from Rexburg. At home you drive 5 minutes and you're there. Here things are just a little different. Our stake center is actually pretty close to us, comparing it to some others, some missionaries traveled about 2 and a half hours so I was still pretty lucky to be that close. The church is definitely growing here though. This stake here that I am in has a plan to split by 2010 so that would be really nice if they did. We are going on exchanges again tomorrow. It is the last one for the transfer so that will be nice and then we will see what transfers are going to shape up to be and see who is going to be where and who is going to be with who. Elder Smith is pretty cool, I wouldn't mind staying another transfer with him, but we will just have to see. Maybe I will be down in Virginia next week. Missionary life is Crazy! I love it though. Its a great thing to be out here. I have loved every moment of it. Some days are tough, but you just have to role out of bed and make the best of everyday. You never know who's heart you are going to touch that day. Sometimes you touch them just by saying hi, you just never know. But it truly is awesome!!
Love all'yall, Elder Walker
9/25/08
Yup, I am staying in Elkins for 6 more weeks. I am pretty sure I will leave here after that but I guess you never know for sure till it comes. I am with Smith again also. Potato Harvest is this next week isn't it? That will be a nice week off. They have a thing here called the Forest Festival, the kids get off of school for a whole week. Its huge! 9,000 people live in this town right now and they say by the end of next week there will be at least 100,000 people living here on streets, cars, and even with relatives. It will be insane, and they say missionary work stinks during that time because no one wants to hear about religion. They just want their booze and food. I'm sure we will eat really well, it will be just like the fair I'm sure, good food and good 5 lbs to work off. We'll see though. That will be great to read about the Word of Wisdom, EVERYONE here has a problem with that. Most members do too, let alone non-members. It's really sad and we deal with it everyday. If I die out here on my mission, it will be because of second hand smoke. I hate the smell of the smoke, and it bothers me really bad, so I hope I am getting a lot of blessings for putting up with it haha. I'm still alive and I don't have a smokers cough yet so that is a good thing. But we'll just have to see how it all works out. We have just taught a whole bunch of our investigators and our progress is going really really really really really slow because of cigarettes and stuff that people just don't have the drive to quit. So we have a lot of work to do but they will all come through someday, its just time and patience I guess. We had a baptism on Sunday, that went really well, and there were a ton of non-members there at the baptism so we have some more people that we could teach out of all of those people so that will be good hopefully. The girl we baptised was so exited to be baptised so that was awesome, I wish they were all as exited as she was. Its great though. Love you all. Talk to you next week! Elder Walker
Elder Scott Snell:
10/05/08
So hey Fam,
This week was really good, we had a really good experience where my companion and I went looking for a member's house and we looked up the address to find out there was two of them. Well we went to the first one and they said no that they didn't live there. So we walked 15 minutes to the other place only to find out that my companion had made a mistake and that we didn't even have to go across town. Since we had already wasted a lot of time we prayed to find out what we should do. We decided that we should just knock doors in the apartment. After an hour of rejection and 40 doors later we started getting a little discouraged. My comp asked if I wanted to leave and I said we only have 7 more floors lets just finish. We got to the 3rd floor and we knocked on this door that didn't answer and we started to walk away when a lady opened the door. We ended up talking to her husband for 15 minutes and found out he worked with a Mormon and had been wanting to learn about our church. Now we are going to meet him. Its crazy to think that we weren't even suppose to be on that side of town but because of a train of events we found this guy. Its true the Lord will always help you if you show him your faith. I see stuff like this on a weekly basis, its a miracle. I love missionary work and the feeling I get when I do it. I hope you all enjoy conference. I will get to watch it next week. I love you and miss you, don't change to much while I am gone. Love, Elder Snell
10/12/08
So I have some news. A lot changed in these last couple of days. First of all, as you all know, I am officially an old fart, but more then that happened that I wasn't aware was suppose to happen on your twentieth birthday. Early this morning I loaded up all of my stuff in to my luggage and was shipped of to the Hawaii of Korea. I am now in Jeju which is an amazingly beautiful island. I got a new companion who is Korean and doesn't speak very much English and to top it all off I was made senior companion. Talk about crazy. I am on the south side of the island so I am as far south as I can go in my mission. My birthday was pretty good, instead of doing potato work I got to do missionary work which was a nice change. No mom I didn't get your package before my birthday but I did see it today at the mission home. I told them to send it to my new house, so I will get it soon. I am now on my sixth transfer with my seventh companion of my mission. I must be one of those comps nobody can stand to be with or everyone just wants to be with me. I am really hoping for the second one. I will send pictures of my tropical home. I love you all and miss you. By the way, I am sweating bad here. There probably won't be any snow for a while but we still have to wear suits ;-) Elder Snell
So hey Fam,
This week was really good, we had a really good experience where my companion and I went looking for a member's house and we looked up the address to find out there was two of them. Well we went to the first one and they said no that they didn't live there. So we walked 15 minutes to the other place only to find out that my companion had made a mistake and that we didn't even have to go across town. Since we had already wasted a lot of time we prayed to find out what we should do. We decided that we should just knock doors in the apartment. After an hour of rejection and 40 doors later we started getting a little discouraged. My comp asked if I wanted to leave and I said we only have 7 more floors lets just finish. We got to the 3rd floor and we knocked on this door that didn't answer and we started to walk away when a lady opened the door. We ended up talking to her husband for 15 minutes and found out he worked with a Mormon and had been wanting to learn about our church. Now we are going to meet him. Its crazy to think that we weren't even suppose to be on that side of town but because of a train of events we found this guy. Its true the Lord will always help you if you show him your faith. I see stuff like this on a weekly basis, its a miracle. I love missionary work and the feeling I get when I do it. I hope you all enjoy conference. I will get to watch it next week. I love you and miss you, don't change to much while I am gone. Love, Elder Snell
10/12/08
So I have some news. A lot changed in these last couple of days. First of all, as you all know, I am officially an old fart, but more then that happened that I wasn't aware was suppose to happen on your twentieth birthday. Early this morning I loaded up all of my stuff in to my luggage and was shipped of to the Hawaii of Korea. I am now in Jeju which is an amazingly beautiful island. I got a new companion who is Korean and doesn't speak very much English and to top it all off I was made senior companion. Talk about crazy. I am on the south side of the island so I am as far south as I can go in my mission. My birthday was pretty good, instead of doing potato work I got to do missionary work which was a nice change. No mom I didn't get your package before my birthday but I did see it today at the mission home. I told them to send it to my new house, so I will get it soon. I am now on my sixth transfer with my seventh companion of my mission. I must be one of those comps nobody can stand to be with or everyone just wants to be with me. I am really hoping for the second one. I will send pictures of my tropical home. I love you all and miss you. By the way, I am sweating bad here. There probably won't be any snow for a while but we still have to wear suits ;-) Elder Snell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
