Elder Adam Walker:

December 22, 2008
The past couple of weeks have been pretty neat ones here. The general authority, Elder Arnold, that came and spoke to our mission really encouraged and stressed the importance of involving the Savior in the work that we are currently doing. That is something we have really been trying to do here quite often. It really does work. We have had 2 awesome experiences that really were proof of this. One day we had an appointment set up with one of our investigators and it so happened to be a day where it was raining. It was cold, and the last thing we wanted to do was go tracting. That's what we had planned for that certain hour if this lady that we were going to teach wasn't home. Well needless to say, she wasn't home and I said "well lets go knock on some doors then. Then Elder Chin said lets go pray and see what we should do.(involve the Savior). I said that I would say the prayer. I did and right when I said amen, I had a prompting saying go to the next street over and go to the end of the road. Of course we were not going to disregard this prompting by any means. When we got to the end of the road it was raining pretty hard and I just said lets start on this house and knock on it and go from there. We knocked once and a man quietly come to the door saying, Come on in! I couldn't believe it at first and I just smiled. That never happens here. Usually you knock on 50-100 doors and if you're lucky one will tell you to come back later. But this was the first door we knocked on and he let us in. We had an awesome lesson with him, we set another appointment up with him and as we were leaving he said, I knew you were coming today and when I saw your white car driving down the road towards my house, I knew it was you guys. By this time we are in complete shock and as we walked towards our car, I just said to Elder Chein, "What just happened? We were led to that door and it really was a testimony to me to see how much a simple prayer can help. WELL THAT'S NOT ALL! We go back a couple days later to follow up with this man and it just so happened that it was raining again and we didn't want to do any tracking if he wasn't home for some reason. Needless to say he wasn't home and without hesitation we went right back to our car and prayed. We prayed and after Elder Chin said Amen we just sat quietly and it seemed like nothing was happening then all the sudden our phone vibrates, we look at it and it says. New Media Referral. Usually when we get these media referrals they are people who live clear out in the middle of no where. But this one was only about 2 miles away. Boy we really had been blessed once again and its just been awesome to see "Miracles" like this happen daily. It truly is amazing. "Ask and ye shall Receive, Seek and ye shall Find, Knock and it shall be opened unto you." Its the truth.
The people up in West Virginia were much more humble then they are here in this part of Virginia. It seems like a complete different country in West Virginia. Things are getting worse here with all the people losing their jobs and everything but they just are not humble here. There were no Black people in West Virginia and here there are a ton, probably close to half the population is black so its definitely a little different but it is neat and they are awesome people.
There are trees all over no matter where you look. West Virginia has a lot more hills and they are bigger then they are there. It's quite a bit more open here in Virginia. As for missionary work it was much easier to talk to people in West Virginia, they are much more open to their problems that they have and they will tell you straight up about how they feel about something. Here in Virginia It's not really the same, they seem to always be busy. Where I'm at now it is highly populated with Baptists and the Baptists really don't like us missionaries very well, especially the preachers. Tons of Anti literature has been spread around and we spend most of our days clearing up doctrine misconceptions. "Welcome To the Bible Belt". Many people know the Bible very well and the Book Of Mormon is really hard for them to accept. Especially when they go to their preacher or minister and tell them exactly what we said and they ask their minister if it is a book of God. People just don't understand prayer and how you can really ask our Father in Heaven if it is true. They think they have to go to their preacher for everything. One of the prophets said, The best way we could do missionary work in the south is to burn it all down and do baptisms for the dead. ha ha. Even though it is tough we continue to do our best and give everything we have. We will continue forward with faith. That's what matters.
The girls here are not even a temptation. They are all pretty ugly. They just don't amount up to what the West has. Its funny, different people invite us in and just start showing us pictures of their "Beautiful" daughters and granddaughters and they tell us we can date and marry any of them we want. But they don't want to hear our message but they want us to marry their daughters. I don't get it. We have fun with it though and we end up just telling them we don't date and get married while we are on our missions. Only a few more days till Christmas and I can call home. They still haven't told us the details on that but it will be sometime on Christmas Day. Love you guys Love, Elder Walker.

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

Merry Christmas - Elder Shattuck & Elder Shaprio

December 18, 2008
Yesterday was our Christmas conference and that was the reason I didn't get to e-mail yesterday. I just finished a meeting with the zone leaders throughout the mission and we had a guest speaker, Elder Clayton Christenson from Harvard and a member of the 70. He came and did a case study with us. It was amazing, he is a very brilliant man and we had a lot of fun listening to him help us understand some things. The spirit was strong today. He was amazing!!! Wish I was smart enough to go to Harvard just so I could learn from him.

I really hope we don't miss each other again today but if we do just know that I am doing really well. We have a woman named Helen who is getting baptised on the 3rd of January. It has been an amazing experience to be able to teach her, she was already converted when she came here to the states and we simply were asked to go over the lessons with her and make sure she is ready and prepared for baptism. She grew up in and is from Malaysia with a Hindu background(which accepts all religions that do good) so it is a huge process for her to proclaim Christ as the Savior and that there is only one way. She is fully converted though and I love teaching her.

I often times wonder if my calling in my mission is to just teach older single women, I think the Lord knows that the young women would get me in trouble, but men would fear me because of my natural good looks and smooth confidence, so he has me teach older single women...... there is no such thing as righteous pride just so you know, I will repent.

Christmas conference was pretty good, it was full of corny little gimmicks put on by other missionaries and some of the mission presidency. The last part of the conference was all spiritual though and we heard from our mission presidency and their three wives. It was great, President Ward(1st counsel) told a story about a tall red headed boy who went on his mission and served very faithfully and then talked about the moment he stepped off the plane and into the airport. His entire family stood in the same spot watching him walk down the long and lengthy hallway smiling with such excitement and happiness. He then described the individual members and what they were doing while watching their son, or older brother, walk down the hall with his hair parted and his name tag on....... No one moved an inch, until the Missionary's father took off sprinting to give his son a hug that he had been waiting for two years to do. Time seemed to stand still as the two giants stood there embracing each other with tears rolling down their faces. President Ward then asked the question, "Do you get the sense of what it means to come unto Christ" ...... I have been pondering about this story for a while and it really has given me a great image of what it might be like to run into my Savior's arms and cry with him knowing that I have done what he asked me to. It will be such a wonderful and joyful day!

I hope Christmas goes well for you and you get everything you have ever wanted. I will call sometime during the afternoon maybe a little earlier and let you know when I am going to make my real call, plan on like 11:00 -1:00 your time though.

Thanks you mom, I love you, and just so you know, you shouldn't hate sending my package to me through the office, it just means you need to send it earlier next time:). Love you, Elder Shattuck

Elder Scott Snell:

Dec 7, 2008
The news about Elder Worthlin was broken to me in a way I didn't see coming at all. Yesterday we had a record breaking 11 people at church, half of which are almost old enough to get baptized. Anyway I was talking to my Branch President and he asked me, "Elder Worthlin passed away." I had no idea. The mission had not told us. I called to the other missionaries on the island and sure enough they heard the same thing. It was really weird. I guess once they go to sitting during conference it is only a matter of time.

I have a feeling I will be seeing Christmas from a whole new point of view this year. Speaking of Christmas, that means I get to call home. This time they want you guys to buy phone cards and send us the info by email. Like the number and such. And then we will call you at a time that we can set up. Our if you want to just call me I am sure we could do that to. If you do get a card, make sure it is one I can call from outside the U.S. to the U.S. because there are some that only allow you to call from the USA out. So the other thing is now in our mission we are buying our own bikes. I went and looked at a couple and to get a decent bike I think I can talk the guy down to about 230,000 won, which is about $200 US dollars. So yeah, what I am trying to say is maybe that should be my Christmas present. I am sorry to throw this on you. Right now cause the exchange rate from dollars to won is really good it might be less. At one point it was about 1 dollar to 1500won. I don't know what it is now though. Anyway, that would be appreciated cause it would be really nice to have a bike in this area.

So this week was kind of weird. I guess it is typical island weather though. One day I was out picking oranges in my short sleeve shirt, it was beautiful. Pluck them of the tree and eat them right on the spot. But then 2 days later have it snowing like crazy all day. None of it stuck on my side of the island but it stayed up on the volcano. It's just chilly now. I still haven't had to break out my coat yet but I have a feeling it is coming soon. I hope you all enjoy your Christmas season. Elder Snell


Dec 15, 2008
This week was a good one. I got a total of four packages this week.
Two from home, one from Ky and one from the Walkers. Thank you all very much. Mom I did finally get your deodorant package and i am sad to say that the pies didn't make it. I was pretty bummed and not to happy with the mission secretaries who send the mail. But the others made it to me safe and fast. Thank you for everything.

I have not bought my bike yet but I did see the money so I am very thankful. I am going to the bigger city on the island this week so I have more of a selection. We don't have much to choose from in my little town.

I love you all but I've got to go, we are spending p-day with our mission president. We are watching a Christmas Carol. I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell