Elder Brantley Shattuck:

Fredericksburg Zone

Well the work here in D.C. is still moving forward! We just had a really good month and I just got a new companion for this month named Elder Johnson, he is a really fantastic missionary... He has a strong testimony, his brother was actually killed in a snow machine accident a little over 4 months ago and he is still out here so that says a lot about his character. I am still serving in Aquia which is a rural area compared to the rest of VA, but it is very similar to how Rexburg is set up I would say.... We are working with some really great people though that will get baptised in the upcoming months, they just need to get married first and then we should be all set. We are also having temple conference very soon, which is where our mission goes to the temple and does a session together, that will be a lot of fun! After that it is all down hill for President Wixom, we will be getting a new President at the end of the month, named President Albright, it will be really weird.... Anyways love you all and am glad that you are out there serving the Lord. You're good examples to me :) Elder Shattuck

Elder Matthew Hansen:

March 2009



Left picture: Matt in his last area with an awesome family who had them over for dinner. Matt's companion is on the far right.

Right picture: Matt in his last area, Nairobi, with the kids of the ward. They love to play soccer and that is their ball.

May 2009
This past week has been busy but long at the same time. I like my companion but he is also going home in a few months and that is on his mind a lot. We do the work in different ways, so I am trying to be patient and to adjust but for the most part things are really going well. The area is really picking up and we have plenty of work ahead of us, the only problem is that we don't have enough time during the week. We have to plan very carefully because the area is so big and we don't have time to waste while travelling, its a bit hectic but not a bad problem to have. Yesterday we were blessed with many people that came to church. Members and investigators both bring people to church and give us referrals, it is awesome, I love it! We also have 3 people whom we are preparing for baptism on the 14 of June, they are all ladies and they are cool, hopefully it will work out. They have been coming to church for a long time and they love it, I think they will make strong members. So other than that not a whole lot is going on, we are continuing to move forward with the work. I also met with one of my old investigators, who is now a member, from Tanzania. She is here to do some business and I taught her with my companion in Tanzania and then I left him, he baptized her, and now we are all together again, kind of funny. The church here in Mombasa is still quite new and developing right now. You can always know that when you have to give a talk every other week with 5 minutes notice, ha I had to give one yesterday. I was joking with my companion that he would have to give one and then it came to me, talk about irony. I'm just glad its over with now and I know that if someone has to give a talk next time it will be my companion so I can relax for at least one week. I love you mom and appreciate everything that you do for me. Elder Hansen


Click on the left box with the gray arrow to watch the short video.

Elder Adam Walker:

May 5, 2009
It's raining cats and dogs and its a real mess here but its finally turning green in this area so that is good. My companion is a challenge but I'll make it through. Along with everything else he just doesn't have any privacy boundaries, I caught him getting into my stuff again the other day. President Thornock sent me an e-mail telling me thank you for doing the best I can, and trying to be faithful with him. We have interviews on Friday so I'm excited to talk to him about everything to see what really was going through his mind. That's so awesome that Cade got his call. He did e-mail me. His mission I think is right above mine. I was really glad to see that he is all ready to go. Its a great place out here. Overall my week has been good, my patience have been stretched but I'm doing okay. We found 2 people this week that will probably get baptized. 1 of them is a members wife, she knows the church is true, she was just scared to ask the missionaries or anyone to be baptized so she is pretty much a for sure. I just pretty much asked her why she hadn't been baptized and she has been waiting for someone to ask her that for a whole year now so I believe that was a good question. She is 37 years old her name is Tracy Graham. I'm excited for her. Another one is a members boyfriend. His name is Anthony and he is awesome, we are going to try to set a date for him this week. The problem is word of wisdom, he has many of them but we will work through them with him. I'm looking forward to calling home Sunday. I will probably call about 3. Thanks for Everything, Love you all.

May 12, 2009
It was nice to talk to you all on Sunday. I will be looking forward to the cookies here in the next couple of days. We are going to go hiking today at the New River Bridge, its the largest single span bridge in the world or something like that we hear. We are pretty close so we are going to go hike down into the gorge and get some pictures looking up at it. It should be a fun day. Thanks so much for everything. Love Elder Walker

May 19, 2009
Sounds like it has been a great week and its even getting warmer there. It was really warm last week but the last couple days it has been getting pretty cold at night, it froze here I guess. But it is going to warm up real quick today I can already feel it. The humidity is going to be a mess because it has been raining all last week. This week was pretty slow on the work end of things, we did a ton of tracting and not a whole lot came out of it. Just a couple people really trying to "prove us wrong" and we end up just testifying and walking away, I don't argue with people it is just a waste of time. I'm getting along with my companion pretty well, I have been driving this last week so that has made things much better and I have been able to relax a little. We still have out 2 baptisms set. We went over the word of wisdom with both of them, Tracy is good and pretty much ready to go, she just has to stop drinking coffee but she said it shouldn't be a problem. Then Anthony, he has all kinds of problems but he wants to change and wants to stop everything that he is doing. So we are excited to work with him and to see him progress. We are also teaching a lady who is on home arrest and we went over the stop smoking workshop with her last week and she is done smoking, she will be baptized, it is just going to be time to get her off of arrest and probation. Right now we are just trying to find people to teach and hoping that some more people will come into our paths that we can find to teach and Baptize. Overall everything is going well, I can't complain. I love it out here.. Thanks for everything. Love you lots, Elder Walker

Elder Scott Snell:

April 30, 2009
This week we had a service project where we sat at a booth at this festival and read books to little kids all day. I don't think any of them really understood to much but it was a lot of fun. Sometimes you would get little curious who would understand. We weren't aloud to proselyte because it was for the city. But it was good to get our faces out there and let people know that we were nice and not a cult. I went on splits with one the Assistants to President Jennings. His name is Elder Peterson, he is from Idaho falls and we played Basketball against each other when i was a junior and he was a senior. It was a lot of fun and a good learning experience. Well that is all from this side of the world.

May 6, 2009
So this week wasn't too eventful. We had Buddha's Birthday so everyone got the day off and we had a stake activity. We played sports all day and had a good time. I have really taken a liking to the volley ball soccer sport that they have over here. We had a good time at Zone conference and got to see some people i haven't seen in a while. Also a sad time cause some of them are going home next week. It is the end of the transfer next week but i think that i am staying with my comp for another one. He is a really good missionary and a lot of fun when he is in a good mood. Mom when you send his letter send it with some crest tooth paste would you. He has really grown to like mine. He calls me Elder Crest. I think he would really like it if you sent him some. It wouldn't be to expensive. I will love you for it. I love you all Elder Snell

May 18, 2009
We put on a program for our ward about Christ and his life. They were blind folded and they went through hearing and feeling. It was good, we had been preparing it for a long time and it all came together in the end. On the bad note while we were practicing we went down to teach English class and while we were down stairs somebody went upstairs and stole my electronic dictionary with all of our music and stuff that we needed on it. It was the nice one that i bought for myself on my b-day last year. Luckily we had all of the files and we were able to all of the stuff again, but I don't have a dictionary anymore. I was bummed about that and then I got home and my old comp called me and told me that some members on jeju were having a hard time and needed my prayers. So I forgot about the whole dictionary problem until the next morning when it was time for language study. Oh well I guess it is not to bad it could be worse. Maybe someone else needed it more than me. But now I am stuck with the predicament of having to buy a new one. We are going on a picnic today. I love you all. Elder Snell

Elder Adam Walker

4-09
It's been a good week here and we are staying busy. We have a good handful of people that we are teaching. Now its just getting them to the next step. Dad, you probably don't want to tell mom this because she will probably freak out. I was on splits last week with a member in the Branch here and Elder Owens was with another member and we were going to try to talk to a media referral that wanted a Lamb of God DVD. I knocked on the door and about 3 seconds later about 4 or 5 houses down gun shots started going off. We started to walk back to the car and the lady comes out her side door and tells us to come in... we ended up having an awesome lesson. It is during gang initiation week from what we've been told. In order to join the gang, a group of people had to kill 3 people. But don't worry I'm still alive. People are just so crazy. It's certainly different here.

4-21-09
I'm getting transferred to Beckley, West Virginia. My mission president said I will have an autistic companion with a speech impediment. I have been on exchanges with him once and I couldn't understand a word he said. It is going to be an interesting transfer that's for sure. Our baptism went really well. He bore his testimony at his baptism and it was awesome. Its so neat to see someone go from a Mormon hater to becoming a member. When he bore his testimony and said he knew it was true it was awesome. He is going to be confirmed on Sunday, so I will miss that but I'm sure he will do great and I'm looking forward to seeing him progress in the church. Cade could get his call this week??? Let me know when you hear. I'm excited to see where he goes. The Caspers are such great people. I'm just wondering if Bruce is still going to those old peoples dances.... ha ha.

4-22-09
We get to email and tell you we got here. I got to my new area safe and all is good. My new address is: 106 Quarry St Beckley, West Virginia 25801 It's a pretty nice town, my area has pretty close to about 200,000 people it sounds like so we have some work to do. There are 4 missionaries in this ward that I'm in so that will be nice rather then just 2. My companion is good. Its going to be a rough transfer but I will make it. We live in our own house so that is nice, its not an apartment, its like a small house. Everything is great and I will talk to you next week.

4-28-09
Yeah, I'm all settled in, and it has been quite the week. Especially driving with him .... The worst driver ever. My stress levels are sky rocketing. We have about rear ended different cars about 5 times. I have had to yell STOP!! each time. Its been interesting week that's for sure. I have tried to be patient with him but I have prayed more now then any other transfer. The thing that is going to save me is the other missionaries are close by. My companion is also a slob as well, its a full time job just to pick up after him and its just annoying. When I got to the apartment every one of the dishes were out of the cupboard piled up in the sink dirty. It took a couple of hours to get everything cleaned up. I don't know what kind of revelation President was receiving when he put us together. I'm excited to find out at interviews. I will survive though don't worry. Yesterday, it was 90 degrees with about 80% humidity so its starting to get real hot again. Can't wait to talk to you on Mother's Day. Thanks for everything. Love ya lots. Elder Walker