Two by Two

Elder Cameron Summers:

2010-07-09T15:21:00.000-06:00

Cameron will be home Tuesday, July 20, at 10:30 pm. Friends are welcome to come to the airport to welcome him home.

Cameron's "mission report" will be held on Sunday, July 25th, at 11:00 am at the Burton LDS chapel, corner of 4000 West and 2000 South.

Elder Cade Casper:

2010-07-07T09:05:00.001-06:00

July 6, 2010
It has been a good week, I feel way blessed and am excited for what's ahead. I can't believe that I hit a year in two days.... crazy.

So my new area is Carnegie, which is the Zone Leaders of the Pittsburgh Zone, which is the zone Greenfield is in, so I didn't move too far, just across the rivers. It's also the ward the McKinley's and the Hannah's are in, ha pretty funny huh? My comp is Elder Bylund and I love him to death. He was up in Erie for a transfer when I was there and I am stoked to be with him. We are around a lot of awesome missionaries who I love. He is from Orem, UT, and is 25 years old, he is an awesome missionary and person who loves the people he serves. The Lord has blessed me a lot to be here. The missionary I replaced went home, and I grew close to him too, his name is David Smith, and he knew Emlen Birch really well when they went to UVU together, everybody loved Elder Smith.

There is an awesome family in our area named the Espesito's. They are SO great, and I love them so much already. They all came to the transfer meeting when I got assigned to here, and they love and take care of the missionaries. They aren't members, but the mom (Dianne) reads the Book of Mormon everyday, and she and her husband (Jim) have 6 kids: Alena(17), Rocco(16), Sophia(14), Cecilia (12), Amalia(10), and Rosina (8). They are awesome. Dianne is going through a very difficult time right now so we see them pretty often. The ward is great, and I have the privilege of speaking next Sunday on love and service. This area is awesome and it's a great place to hit my year mark. Being a Zone Leader isn't much different, but there are some things that I am learning and that I am trying to learn from Elder Bylund.

Sounds like a very fun weekend. We didn't do much on the 4th/5th besides take a nap on the fourth and go to the Espesito's yesterday. P day was good, we had some good basketball. I have thought a couple of times of "what was I doing this time last year" and that's when I remember the fourth was the big slap in the face that "this was the last shabang." It's going quick though.

Well, I better try to get to everyone else. I love ya Mom and Dad and hope you have another good week. Things are going well, thank you for you prayers. My new address is:

737 Washington Ave. Apt. #2
Carnegie, PA 15106

Love yinz!

CADE

Elder Adam Walker is HOME:

2010-06-21T10:47:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to tell everyone that Adam got home last Thursday and reports next Sunday the 27th at 1:30 pm at the Burton Church. We will be having a dinner after sacrament at the house and would love YA'ALL to come if you would like to come. We are so excited he is home safe and are enjoying him being home. Hope to see you there. Carla

Can it be? Weddings already . . .

2010-06-18T13:39:00.003-06:00

Congratulations to Joe and Trish Gannaway - Grant is getting married this weekend (June 19) in Portland OR.

Wedding Bells will sound again August 7th as Cody Mitchell will be getting married. Congrats to Dave and Jackie!

September will bring two more weddings!! Congratulations to Greg and Colleen Snell! Scott will be getting married September 4th. And to Ron & Kathy Peña and to Cherie Peña Dennis as Andrew will be tying the knot on September 24th.

Elder Cade Casper:

2010-05-11T11:53:00.002-06:00

April 5, 2010
Hey, so it was a good week. I can't believe this transfer is over already. I'm staying, and training.... again haha. It will be good. Elder Lee is going to a more Spanish area so I am really excited for him.

The baptism didn't happen. I really am not sure if Ryan is prepared or qualifies for baptism. I read or recite D&C 20:37 and I really don't know if he is humble. He is the one that postponed it, and he postponed it for next weekend. It was good/bad. They haven't called us back or anything for a while, so we are meeting with them tonight so Elder Lee can say goodbye. I have prayed a lot to know if we should continue with the baptism. He was humbled on Thursday night when he told us that he didn't feel worthy for baptism, that he felt overwhelmed. The craziest thing happened though. We were teaching about the 10 Command. So I went to Exodus 20 to teach them, a sticky note from seminary popped out from another scripture in the O.T. It was a quote from Richard G. Scott talking about the things Satan puts into our minds when we want to repent or do something the Lord wants us to do. Things like: "You can't do it, you're not worthy, it's too late now" etc. He read it and it really hit him home. He said that was exactly how he was feeling. It was cool to see that little miracle. So I am writing President to see what he has to say of course.

We had an awesome invest. come to both sessions of Saturday Conference. His name is Matt and he loved it. He is in a wheel chair and we talked to him on the street, he is a nice kid. Some less active members came and it was awesome to see. A man named Bro. Witgen came and that was a shock, he enjoyed it. The Clark's are starting to come back. It is so cool to see them come and they also have the goal of getting to the temple. I am so happy for them.

It was a really good weekend, and things are really picking up here in Millcreek. Since I'm training, I may be here another 3 months but no guarantees. The city is really changing now that it's warming up. People are coming out of obscurity on the streets haha. I guess the violence downtown gets bad in the summer, but don't worry, our area doesn't have any of downtown in it. Oh, and everyone but me (& the Lindblom's) are going this transfer. The Zone Leaders in the district are getting doubled out, so everyone will be new.

Anyway, I love ya and I will hear from you next week!

April 12, 2010
Hola Madre.

So this week was good. It was nice to go to Pittsburgh, it was way warm, like low 80's. Even when we got back it was like 75 in Erie. But, it's pretty much like Rexburg, it snowed this week as well.

My new companion, my "son" as we call them, is Elder Davis. He is from Taylorsville, UT. He is a good kid. Soft spoken, and quite a bit different than I am, but he is hard working and very willing to talk to people. He is kinda scared about it all, and struggles to speak of course, but he is very willing and it's awesome to make progress each time he opens his mouth.

So the new missionaries in the district are Elder Tranter (my trainer) and Elder Zaleski (my MTC comp). I was way pumped to hear they were coming to Erie, I will be learning a lot from them.

So the Kasbee's didn't get baptized. They have really thrown me for a loop. We taught them on Wednesday with Bro. Bittner and it went ok, the Kasbee's brought out the concern that they didn't want Blake to be baptized because he has a mother who isn't setting the example and isn't willing to change, she is pretty hard hearted. So we lost contact with them after that, and they still haven't returned phone calls or anything at all. I don't know what else to do.

Matt, the one to come to conference, can't come to church for a while as far as we know now. Since he is in a wheelchair, he got some bad pressure sores that make him have to sit outside his wheelchair, keeping him from leaving his house. It's a sad thing, because we set him with a baptismal date of May 1, but if he can't come to church we aren't sure if he can come. We are praying for a miracle that they heal so he can be baptized. Outside of that there isn't a whole lot going on. It was sort of a slow week. New transfers are bittersweet, because I like the change but it's almost overwhelming.

There was a good lesson in Elder's quorum. First off the brother teaching talked about how Elder Scott (I think) was down in Mexico in a lesson and could tell that the brother teaching was really struggling to find his words and teach the class, but he kept trying, and taught what he knew to be true. Then he attended his home ward back in Utah and a brother who was very knowledgeable was teaching, and saw teaching as an opportunity to sort of rise above and impress a few people, and Elder Scott immediately noticed the difference in the two lessons, the first was more heartfelt and sincere, bringing in the Spirit, the latter, not so much. It doesn't matter how much we know, just how much we know what he teach to be true and if we have been converted to the gospel.

Not much to really say besides the new companion, the new district, and the Kasbee's and others. Things are going well and I am enjoying each day, some more than others. There is never a reason to hang our heads. Oh, Elder Lee is in Harrisburg.

I love ya and am thankful for the prayers you offer. Love Cade

April 19, 2010
Hello Madre.

It was a good week, but wow am I glad it's finally p-day....

We had quite the week. It was really cold and rainy, but it was ok. We had a good week with working with the ward, I am starting to really love them and get close to them, and I have had many say that they wouldn't mind me dating their little sisters when I get home, so I guess that's a good thing right? The ward is good, and we are hoping to find some new solid members for the ward here, Erie needs it.

So yes, Elder Tranter and Elder Zaleski are our Zone Leaders, it's great to have them in the district too. We learn a lot from them, and it's fun because we all know each other, today we are going to the beach to mess around and go swimming (wink wink). Speaking of the lake: Last night it was about 8:35 and we didn't have much to do, and I was so ready for p-day. We were down by the lake and I thought, well, let's just go sit out at the lake for 15 or so minutes. So we parked and were walking out on the docks when I was taking pictures with my camera (which I will send this week I promise) and I wasn't really watching where I was walking. As I was walking along, I heard this loud hiss, it about made me jump in the water. Ha, it was mother goose sitting on some chicks that I thought she was going to come snapping at us! Ha I know how mean they can get. Anyway, that was some fun from yesterday.

Matt came to church again, and the ward did awesome with fellow shipping him. He doesn't question anything we teach. He is still working with his pressure sores, but he was able to come so that was good. He can't come to Stake Conference next week because he will be down in Pittsburgh, so we may push his baptism back a few weeks. He is doing well. We are teaching a young couple named Samantha and Chris. They are really cool. Samantha questions everything and is very skeptical about Joseph Smith, and especially that there are living prophets and apostles. They are looking for the truth and want a church to take their family to. They get a lot of flack from fam and friends about meeting with us but they are pretty good about asking us about it.

The Clark's are coming back to church and they are doing awesome. They fed us on Saturday and we just sat down and talked with them. The Bittner's are doing well, Bro. Bittner is going to be ordained a High Priest next weekend. There will be a member of the 70 at stake conf. so that will be cool, and I think President will be there too.

My comp is a pretty weird kid, but way nice and humble. Ha we aren't way good friends or anything, but we get a long. He has struggled a couple of times and it's taking him a while to get used to missionary work, but I assure him that I'm still getting used to it. And I play the piano at every district meeting but not much besides that.

I can't believe Andrew gets home this week, he was such a good missionary, take notes at his report and let me know how he did. I have gotten some letters from Adam and still haven't responded, but I will do that today. He is doing well and I love hearing from him. He is in a branch where about 8 people came one Sunday haha.

Well even though it's been a little cold, it's getting a little more green. Things are going well and I am still trying to stay motivated and keep pushing. The Lord is on my side, even when I don't do what I should or am as diligent as He expects me to be. I am thankful for his patience and mercy that He has for me. It's been hard to get through to people that this isn't just another religion or another church, but THE way, THE truth, THE only way to salvation. I love ya Mom and Dad and Dad I enjoy your letters each week.

Oh and I am trying to fight off baseball fever, I think I ask about it with the ward members too much, dang it. Love CADE

Elder Adam Walker:

2010-04-21T11:08:00.006-06:00

Here is a before and after picture, its pretty neat.
The one picture is at Jessica's baptism, Aaron wasn't reading or praying at that point and wasn't going to get baptized. The second picture is the day before I left, both of them had been baptized and are now solid members. The light of Christ definately is real, you can see it in their eyes.

Me and Elder Schatt. He goes back to Rexburg in 3 weeks, our time is dwindling down!

This is what it is like to be an old missionary haha, you have 5 of your companions at a zone conference with you. It was pretty neat.

Our week here has been pretty good. We have found some pretty good investigators. We set one man with a baptismal date, his name is Wayne Willis. He is in his 50's and he knew the Book of Mormon was true and he said he didn't need to pray about it, that he would be okay. I stressed to him that he had to pray to gain a testimony in his heart. We got that through to him and he prayed. He knows its true. He is getting baptized May 15th. We also have a part member family that we are working with, one of the daughters is really interested. Her mom is a member and she has been surprised at how receptive she has been to us. Usually she just shrugs off the missionaries and that is that, but we have had some great lessons with her.

On Sunday there was a kid who came to church, he is 19 and is a member but hasn't been too active over the last while and hasn't been living the greatest life style. But he has had some pretty neat experiences lately and he knows that going on a mission is the best thing to do in his life right now so he is preparing now. Well, he has a girl friend that is not a member, I talked to him about her and said lets get her ready so you can baptize her before you go on your mission. He liked the idea, I guess he has already talked to her a little bit about it. He said she really liked the part to where she could be sealed to her husband and children for eternity. Her parents are fine with her coming and everything so I guess the hardest part is behind us. Now we just have to start working with her. Great things are happening here. haha! All I have heard about this area is negative things but I don't know why, I think its great, you just have to be patient and do things a little different. There is so much more to missionary work than tracting. Sure that is a good chunk of your time and people are defiantly found in that manner, Wayne was found tracting, but there are more effective AND efficient ways. I think that's one of the things that most missionaries struggle with most, including me sometimes. You have to work hard and work smart. This is the Lords work but he expects you to do everything on your end as well.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot again! I was going to tell Dad last week but I was at conference and there was a Philippine woman there. Kind of a neat story, she came to the Saturday session and she made us a Philippine dish, they were like these clear noodle sort of things with chicken in them, it was really good I thought, it had a different texture to it but I thought they were good. But while I was eating I asked her what part of the Philippines that she was from, I said my dad went on his mission to the Philippines, I think he was in the Davau mission. She got a huge smile come over her face and said REALLY! what year!? I said I think around 80 she said that was about the same time she was there. She said her mission president's name was President Sperry. This lady's name was Sister Tolentino (that was her maiden name) she married a guy from Salt Lake City and now they live here in West Virginia. She said she remembers an Elder Walker but doesn't remember exactly who he was she would have to look at some pictures. So there were no guarantees but does that name sound familiar to you? Its a small world out here, I have made all kinds of weird connections. When you're a member of the church the world becomes very small. There is a member here in the branch that I am in who has a daughter who dated Zach Lindstrom, I played baseball with him. haha small small world. Its been a great week though. Time just cruises right on by. I'm loving it all though. Everything is great! Love you, Elder Walker

April 10, 2010

So this has been a pretty neat week. Our best investigator Wayne Willis, we have him set for Baptism May 15th. He came to church on Sunday. He enjoyed it a lot and so that was great. He wants to keep coming and he hasn't had any coffee since last Friday so we are making good headway with him. We tried to go and teach a lady that had been taught in the past by some other missionaries in this area, and when we were there she told us if we didn't get off her porch she was going to shoot us, haha, it was pretty funny. I'm pretty sure that is a threat. There was a cop right across the road, we were just laughing cause we could turn her in for a hate crime, that seems to be what people are all about now, its ridiculous. We just laughed though.

Yesterday was kind of different, We were in our apartment and all the sudden someone comes and pounds on our door. We answer it and they tell us to get out, there is smoke coming from out of the building! So I loaded my journals in my backpack and we got out, (that's about the only thing that I have that is important to me at this point, everything else can be replaced). The fire department came and everything, the whole building was filled with smoke, it was a mess. When someone opened the door of the building, smoke would come billowing out! The whole building was evacuated and the "experienced" volunteer fire departments from the 3 surrounding towns came to fight the fire! Come to find out a dryer, that is used to dry towels at the physical therapists office which is below our apartment, burned up and caused a little fire or something that caused a ton of smoke. It didn't damage our apartment at all but the building that we live in reeks like a burned up snow machine belt! haha its great. So that was pretty exiting. That's something that doesn't happen everyday so it was fun. Its been a great week though. I love it out here, I hope things are going well there.
Love you all, Elder Walker

Elder Andrew Peña:

2010-04-20T16:34:00.002-06:00

April 19, 2001...Last update!

Thank you everyone for your emails! I loved them and they are helping! This last week was great! My last full week on my mission we were able to teach a lot of people and to see Quincey Williams be baptized, so I guess you could say we ended with a BANG!! That was awesome! And it was a miracle! The members here are amazing! I have been able to grow a friendship with them and it's going to be hard to leave! Everyone says, how do you feel about going home?!..haha I have no idea. To everyone that asks me that question my response is I don't know, I have mixed feelings. Now let me explain..... families are the greatest thing that we have and I feel I have been able to grow a special appreciation of my family since I have been gone and that I am very grateful. However there have been so many amazing experiences that I have seen and witnessed on my mission! I can't believe that things I never knew before have been the things that I have grown to love and even through this service have seen so many lives blessed because of the teachings from the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am a witness to it and will ever be grateful! But I know it is not an end but a new chapter of life which is exciting! I can't believe it has been two years! It goes by fast! On April 16th this week I went to Chile's with me and my companion and Elder Cook and his companion and with Sister Alexandrina Borges who is one of the recent converts that was baptized that we found and taught. This week we also were able to finish with 3 non member church tours! That was great! I am running out of things to say so I will end with my testimony....... I know that God lives, I know that he has prepared for us something that is bigger than we can now understand and we are all apart of it and he has prepared a way for us to be happy and successful. I know that we will be successful through obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ and by remaining faithful to the covenants we have made! Through our faith we will see changes in our lives and others and we will only want more of that happiness in our lives. I know because he loves us he called a prophet in these latter days and as we heed to the warnings that come from him! We will find guidance, direction, peace, comfort and answers to our problems in our day and for our time as families and individuals! I love our Savior, He has willingly laid down his life for us and because he did he understands perfectly our heartaches, our trials, our pains, our afflictions, our burdens and if we come unto him, through his teaching by obedience and diligently seeking him we will find that peace and answers which we search for daily! I know he atoned for our sins and loves us all! I especially know that He, Jesus Christ lives today and He can and will be a part of our lives if we will allow him to come in! We do not have to be anyone special. He has given us all the gift of the Holy Ghost for more guidance. We will all feel imperfect, that is because we all are! But it is through the decisions that we make that will give us more happiness and peace! We will choose our own salvation, we will choose our own happiness, we will choose liberty and eternal life through Jesus Christ, or we will choose captivity through the devil. My prayer for myself and us all is that we may be faithful to those promises we have made and learn to better understand them so that we may choose the better decisions in our lives! I love all of you and thank all of you for you support and for your love! I will see you in a couple of days!:) Love, Elder Peña

Elder Adam Walker:

2010-04-05T15:45:00.001-06:00

Sounds like it was a good week for you all. It was good here, it was nice and warm all week so that was nice. Today it is a little cold, small snow flurries but it is nice. I got transfer news yesterday, I am going to a small town called Pennsboro, its up kind of by my first area. The Branch is a really small one, I guess the smallest in the mission they only have 8-15 people there each week, so when I thought I was in a small one now, it only gets smaller. It will be fun though, I am looking forward to it. I am getting a missionary that has only been out for a month so that will be fun as well. Elder Chin is getting transferred as well and he is going to another small branch in the same stake up there. This morning we went on a hike to a waterfall it was about a 2 mile hike but it was pretty neat. The Waterfall was misting really bad and it was pretty cold when we got by it. If I wasn't a missionary I would have jumped out in the water, it was very tempting haha. It looked really refreshing. There are some really pretty places out here that is for sure, I am going to miss it a lot. haha its a little different than the green of Idaho. It will be nice to see that beauty again as well though.
We had stake conference on Sunday, it was a regional conference, it was really good. Elder Packer spoke along with Elder Jay Jensen (presidency of 70) Elder Sitati (the black 70) and sister Thompson ( counselor in the general relief society ) it was a great conference. it was a multi stake thing so they broadcasted it from salt lake. It was a good preparation to General Conference here in a couple weeks. They all really stressed the family and how the family unit is getting smashed more and more and how we are going to have to make a better effort than ever to save it. If we follow the prophet and do the things that he tells us to do we will survive the storms. He is the Watchman on the tower, he can see whats ahead, he knows what we need to do to prepare for the future, so we need to heed his council.
It sounds like the "Obama Care" passed, alot people out here are glad it passed, I don't agree with it I don't think, I can see it causing lots of other problems coming because of it. the Government has control of 1 more thing about us now. but hey, we can stay on our parents insurance until we are 26 I hear? That sounds good, I don't have to grow up for 5 more years now! haha I'm kidding but I'm sure that is what many people are thinking about that one. Our World is a mess, Spiritually and Temporally. God has become the past and the strength of man has become our Idol. I'm sure our Heavenly Father is pretty displeased with alot of things. I guess all we can do is do our best and live the way we are supposed to. I have been reading in 3rd Nephi over the past while specifically when Christ first came here and the signs that lead up to his arrival. Samuel the Lamanite warned the people and gave them a sign telling them in 5 years a new star would appear and there would be a day then a night with no darkness and then another day. When the five years came, many people had lost hope and said it was false and many fell into transgression and went against many of the followers of Christ. Eventually the sign did come and many were ashamed that they had gone against God. I hope we all can stay strong even though the world around us is beating us down saying to do otherwise. Its saddening and frustrating to see especially the young people who are now being raised and to see them being raised in darkness, they have no guidance, God is a pastime for them and they say they don't need him. Its been humbling to see, I hope that I never forget what I know and how I have seen others struggle and how the gospel has gotten people through the hardest of times. God loves us, he wants the best for us all. If we will just accept his will and do the things that he has asked us to do, great things are in store, it might not be a pocket full of cash, but he has promised us eternal life. something no pocket full of cash can buy. I love this gospel and this work, I know its true.

Elder Walker

Elder Andrew Peña:

2010-04-05T15:42:00.001-06:00

April 5, 2010
Hello everyone! this week was great! AGAIN! Ok so first off while I would not like to jinx myself so I will " knock on wood. " I haven't been sick or hurt or have done anything to myself this past two years! And the last three weeks of my mission the 1st one I sprained my ankle and it turned all black and blue and swollen to where I had no ankle! Then the 2nd week I was sick and couldn't talk and my throat hurt and I was losing my voice and last week on Monday I was playing ultimate Frisbee with our zone and while playing, dumb me ran for the Frisbee as fast as I could and trying to catch the thing I went to dive for the Frisbee and my middle finger hit the ground and I slid over my finger and bent it back to what seemed to be my elbow because it hurt so bad! My first thought was that my finger had fallen off! Anyways I went to a member in our ward who is a physical therapist and told me I hyper extended my finger and the ligaments are tender and swollen so the 2nd and 3rd day my hand was huge and you couldn't even tell I had a middle knuckle! It was bruised inside my hand and today it is still sore and still a little swollen! So I hope I don't continue to hurt myself because I may come home on a stretcher!:) haha.... but ok starting with the week! It was amazing. We set a baptismal date with Quincy Williams. He is 9 and from a part member family. They have been coming back to church for the past 3 months. He will be getting baptized on April 17th! So hopefully that will turn out to be my last baptism on my last weekend in the mission field! We had a good lesson this week with Joe Brown who is 20 years old and wants to know a little more about our church and has a lot of questions! He came to the first two sessions of conference and seemed to like it and had some questions! He seems a little more curious than wanting to be baptized but I think his curiosity will turn out for the better, eventually! We are going to try harder to teach one of our investigators named John Bjork, good guy, very kind and open! We are just struggling to catch him home! We hopefully found a awesome family. Her name is Jamie and she has three kids and she has family members that are members of the church in Utah and she wants to do a church tour so hopefully this week we can take her and her family on one! She was super open in speaking with us so I hope it all goes good. We have an appointment this Tuesday at 2:00pm! General Conference was amazing! I loved it! It is the best thing that has ever happened to this world! I love going and listening to the messages and the testimonies and to the warnings that we need to be aware of! The world is ripening in wickedness and everywhere we go there is something that is trying to distract us! Music and television and so much that tries to catch our attention! One of my favorite talks out of soooo many was in the priesthood session when President Uchtdorf talked about an experiment some doctor did to test these 4 year old kids! He put them in a room gave them a marshmallow and said if you wait for a period of time you can have two marshmallows. If you eat it you don't get anymore! He left the room and left the kids alone and watched from a two way mirror or whatever you call them! He said that many of them immediately ate the marshmallow and some waited a couple of minutes and 30 percent of them waited until they could have two marshmallows! I guess the doctor thought it was interesting and later realized later in life the kids that waited were far more successful than those that didn't wait! They had better grades in school they had an education in college and successful marriages those that didn't were the opposite! He went on and explained much about the blessings of patience and taught much the doctrine of patience! I loved it! So what do I notice? In the last two days I find myself very impatient!.. Yikes.... it's nothing new. I always need to repent! That was my week and I loved it all! I hope everything goes well and I hope you all have a good week and I will look forward to reading the emails of those that email me this upcoming week!:)
Elder Peña

Elder Adam Walker:

2010-03-17T15:41:00.002-06:00

I went to the doctor for my foot yesterday, and everything is good. So no worries on that. I might have to do somethings when I get home but he said I should be able to finish my mission fine. The doctor was way cool he was trying to work with me so I could keep working, he is not LDS but he was really cool about everything.

We have had two pretty neat things happen this week, 1 involves finding a new family to teach and the other involves the Cops, haha no worries it wasn't too bad. First off we were out tracking on Saturday and it was freezing cold, no one was letting us in, but we just kept going. We tracked for about 6 hours and pretty much no luck, and then we knock on this one door, a man comes to the door and he says do you want to come in and warm up? We said yes of course, that is the easiest way to get in a door I suppose. We sat down and talked to him for a while, then we started talking about the Restoration a little bit and the Book of Mormon and he asked a bunch of questions that he had been wondering about our church, some misconceptions that he has had. Well come to find out he is a Doctor at the Local Community Doctors office and he is from Oregon. One of the members sees him a lot because his health is not very good. Well this certain Doctor I guess gave the member a piece of Anti Literature, a anti movie about a bunch of stuff. The member ended up taking it back to him when he found out what it was and tried his best to explain the things in the movie. Well that was a year ago and this doctor has just left his current church because of various reasons and is very interested in what we have to say, and what we really believe and teach, so he is open. We were all smiles there. Its nice to teach people who can think on a little higher level than Welfare :) I am exited to see him again, he has 6 people in his family so we will see what happens with him and his family.

The Second is pretty good as well it happened yesterday when I was on exchanges with Elder Chin. He came up here and we went out to see the Niece family that we have been teaching, it is the Family of 7 that is getting baptized March 20th. Well where they live really is out in the middle of no where and the only way we can get down to their house right now with all the snow is to drive as far as we can in our car then hike in the rest of the way. Usually we have to walk about a half mile to get down to where their house is. Well we went as far as we could and then we turned our car around, and just sat there for a second. We had called them and they were not even home from school yet and the parents were out a ways on the main road waiting for them to get off the Bus. Well all the sudden this man starts coming towards us on his tractor. So I pulled over as far as I could so that he could get around easily on the road. Well he stops his tractor right next to where we were at at just starts freaking out on us, these were his exact words, "You got to leave! This is my land, and my cows, and this is your car, LEAVE!" (haha pretty good statement to say huh? Dang Rednecks) I said I was sorry and we didn't mean any harm and that we would go park it out at the nearby church. He told us to leave again, He was drunk as a skunk, No big deal though, he gets back on his tractor and rudely motions to us to come on. We followed him out and then we met up with the Nieces at the near by Baptist Church, about 2 miles from their house, and we told them what had happened. They said he is a jerk and he does dumb stuff like this all the time, he just drinks too much, and the funny thing is that he doesn't even own the land. They have a Polaris Ranger to get in and out of their house right now, so they said they would just take us down in on that and then bring us back out when we were done. By this time the bus comes and drops their kids off so we all load up on the Ranger to go down to their house, there is nine of us on this thing haha when we get to the gate this man and one of his sons comes out and starts cussing at all of us and flipping us off, we flipped the Ranger around and we went back to the church and they started chasing us down the road, they quit after we got so far away, but they decided that the best thing to do was just to call the cops, and let them take care of it. Well a little time passes and 1 cop comes, he talks to us and asks us what is up, and he says that he will go talk to him. Soon after that a West Virginia State trooper comes, a couple minutes after that the Monroe County Sheriff comes and then a few minutes after that, the K-9 unit shows up. haha it was a mess, we had no clue what was going on but they had the dogs out of the car, we could see through the trees from where we were at but we really couldn't see what was happening. All this time there are 5 kids freezing out side, and the heater in their van that they have to park at this church is broken so we turn on our car and they are sitting in there trying to get warm. The cops ended up taking care of everything and told him he had better stop. They are going to get a restraining order put on the man from the family we are teaching just to keep them safe. They said it has all been getting worse since we have been coming and seeing them, they don't like the Mormons too much. haha but its not phasing them, is just making them stronger. So its been a pretty crazy week already, but its been a good one.

The family that was supposed to get baptized this weekend has been put off for a few weeks, they just are not quite ready yet. They are still doing well, Coffee is just a hold up that is going to put them back a few weeks. Transfers are this next week and there is a good chance that I am going to be transferred (not guaranteed, but very likely) So I might not be here for it now. So that will kind of be a bummer but oh well. We have been doing a lot of tracking lately, we have a ton of people to follow up with so we have been pretty blessed. Little by little things are coming along well. One of the Part Member families that has been coming came again this last week, this is 4 weeks in a row now! So we are happy about that, hopefully she will just accept to be baptized now. I think she will, it might just be a little more time. The doctor that we are teaching is coming along well also, we saw him on Saturday and he had a whole bunch of anti stuff that we had to clear up, it took quite a while, but he has come one step closer now. It was a great lesson, lots of clearing up but also a lot of testimony bearing.
Overall its been a great week though.

3-9-2010
It has got up to 70 a few days this last week its been pretty nice. Last Tuesday we washed our car and the members that we live by cars. It was really nice even though I got a little sunburned cause my arms haven't seen too much sun in the last 4 months or so. Its been raining here the last 3 or 4 days and it has melted all the snow. It has caused a huge problem with flooding. There have been a lot of mud slides as well. Some of the roads we have to go on have just been washed away and there is just a small spot that you can drive by on. Kind of a mess! Things are starting to get green FINALLY again, all the brown is disappearing. Its slowly changing

Elder Cade Casper:

2010-03-17T15:18:00.002-06:00

So my new email address (because they are changin systems) is cade.casper@myldsmail.net . This week went very well. The whole Kasbee family came to church! We had to go and wake them up at 8:30 because we didn't think that they remembered about daylight savings time, and they all came. Sis. Kasbee really doesn't like church because she knows she's not doing what she needs to be, but we were very glad to see them all there. Ryan and Blake are scheduled to be baptized on April 3rd, yep, best birthday ever: A session of conference, then a baptism, then the next session, then the priesthood. Yep, that would be sweet. They wouldn't be confirmed until the 10th though, and either Elder Lee or I won't be here. It will be interesting to see if I stay or go. We didn't make too much contact with our other investigators so that was a bummer. Al and Molly are doing ok, their daughter got sick and I don't think they have been reading or anything. They keep saying they really want to come to church so we can't give up on them. We had some good lessons with some less active members. Chris Meyers is a 33 year old R.M. that goes to Med school. He is lazy and knows he needs to come back, but says he doesn't feel anything even when he was living the gospel and coming to church. But, he said he is willing to meet with the bishop. Other less active members said they were coming to church and never showed. We have some lessons with less actives that active members are coming with us to, that should be really good. I don't know if I ever told you about the Bittner family. They were just reactivated and are so solid. Bro Bittner was a hard core biker that has a ton of tattoos all up to his neck. It's really cool to see him with a shirt and tie on. He is really excited about going to see less actives and telling them his story, so we are making plans for that. Anyway, I better jet. Thank you for all you do. I love you both and am thankful you are being blessed for you service in the temple. Keep working at it I know it will come.

CADE

Elder Cade Casper:

2010-02-08T10:32:00.002-07:00

Jan 25, 2010
It has been a good week. I hate how many ups and downs there are as a missionary, at least for me. But it has been good.

The weather was still great until yesterday and it has been raining since. We have tracted a lot and this has gone ok. Zone Conference went really well. There was freezing rain on the way down to Butler (1.5 hour drive) and I drove across this way way slick part where there was like 3 cars off the road. Elders that are in New York were coming down and slid off at that spot, it wasn't as bad when we went across it I'm sure.

But we found two new investigators this week. Elder Morales, who serves in the other Erie area, was on exchanges with me and we knocked 3 doors in the afternoon. The first- Mira. She spoke Spanish so Elder Morales and her just went at it, I picked up a few words here and there. She accepted a B of M and he and Elder Lee are going over today. The second door- not interested. The third- Jackie. She soaked up every word we had to say. She kept realizing how we went out door to door to tell people of all these things they don't know about. She is reading and praying. She accepted a baptism date of Feb. 27! She is awesome. She has told her brother about us and he is reading and praying as well. So cool. But, she didn't come to church so that was a real bummer. She told us she would. We are meeting with her on Wednesday with a member. We are also starting to teach other people like Sue Hays and Joe and Carlee, who are hardcore Catholic. They took us through a scripture chain that of course led to Matt. 16, about Peter being the rock (and first Pope) of the church. Lame.

But it's crazy to have things like that then to have such disappointment in the exact same week. I have felt like a failure as I train Elder Lee. He has gotten upset a couple times and said that this isn't what he signed up for. He gets mad at himself and at me when people don't accept us. District Leader is still interesting, and I hate it. I am trying to figure out a way for me to learn the best as I study, but I always have to study for District Meeting. I would love to just be a normal missionary. The Bishop hasn't been to open to us, and I don't think he thinks we are working hard. I think we are working hard, I just hope it's effective. I have no clue what I'm doing sometimes, and I hate that. But I know I am selfish when I think and ponder about things like that when I should be rejoicing at the fact of Jackie and Dakota and the people we meet with. Something I am still trying to do.

Thank you for the package. I am so excited about this DVD. Did you buy the book? You should for yourselves, it's powerful. We will probably play it at Dakota's baptism. I was way excited to see Mike's picture. He will do awesome for those people. I got an email from Cody and I am glad he is doing good. He said it's awesome to have Scott and B home.

I am thankful for your prayers and that you are serving in the temple. Thanks for everything. It will be something else to see my emails when I get home, and realize that I have gotten through the difficult times of my mission, not because of anything I did, but because the Lord will never leave me. That is a fact I have to always hold on to no matter what. I hope and pray that I am learning for the benefit of others, and not myself. Hope you have another good week and I'm glad you are doing so well. I love you and am thankful for you. Love CADE

Feb 6, 2010
Wow, it's been soooo cold here. It hasn't gotten below zero, but being in the weather as a missionary is ten times worse than back in Rexburg. Wow, my face was taken through the ice ringer this week. Nonetheless, it was a good week the Lord blessed us with.

But this week was good. Dakota's baptism went well, it was interesting however. But it was funny, after he was baptized he yelled: "THAT WAS NOT COOL!!" Ha so we hurried and shut the curtains on him. So when I started to confirm him, I said his name, and as I was beginning the ordinance he liked crouched so our hands weren't on his head so I stopped, then a guy in the circle told him that he had to sit up, ha just little stuff like that he is a crack up. And after he was confirmed he said that it was not cool. It was an awesome experience to confirm him though, what special gifts the Holy Ghost and the Priesthood are.

We had a good week with finding, however, Jackie has ignored us. But, we got a call from a less active's husband named Ryan, and he left a message asking us why we hadn't been over in a while. We stopped going over because he wasn't willing to change yet, he didn't want to make commitments. But we went over there last night and he said that he sees a difference when we do come over, and when we don't. And he knows something is missing in his life. Sis. Kasbee, his wife, is very standoffish about church. She has had her feelings hurt and she said that she doesn't like how she feels when she comes, they both have W of W issues. But we taught/testified about the Atonement, and eternal families, and he and the kids are coming to church, and Sis. Kasbee is just lacking faith. We are going over there tonight and teaching them as a family. The Lord has obviously blessed us a lot this week. We are also teaching an awesome Catholic family named Carlee and Joe Yochim. They aren't just Easter/Christmas Catholics, they know their religion and they say that the Great Apostasy is their greatest stumbling block. So I said that instead of praying about the Apostasy, they need to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and so we knelt and prayed. We are fasting with them next week so they get an answer. We have awesome people to teach, but they need to come to church and meet the members. I am thankful that every single event that happens out here as been nothing like I thought it would, if I just trust in the Lord. Every decision I try to have a prayer in my heart for guidance, and every time, the Spirit guides me.

Anyway, we are about to go eat. We had a sleepover last night with the zone Leaders, they are good elders. I am loving this district more and more each week. However, the Assistants are going to be at D.M. this week, ha great. Love ya! CADE

Adam Walker:

2010-02-02T10:39:00.001-07:00

Jan 19, 2010
Everything is working out real well here. This last week has been pretty crazy. We had a little show down at church this last week. The Branch President was teaching in Sunday School that little children who die before the age of accountability have to accept the gospel in the spirit world and they are not automatically saved into the celestial kingdom. I corrected him and made the point clear that they are saved into the Celestial Kingdom, I showed him a few scriptures, 1 in Moroni 8 saying that it is an solemn mockery to baptize a child. and also in D&C 136 where it says straight up that Little Children who die before the age of accountability are saved in the Celestial Kingdom. The Branch President is a very arrogant man and very prideful. and he didn't like to be shown wrong and he wouldn't accept that he was wrong. Now he doesn't like me to well and 3/4 of the branch are related to him so now they don't like me to well either because I told them something that was true but against what their grandpa or dad said. Its a mess. Some of these small branches are interesting. Its kind of like their own little break off sometimes. Its funny in some cases but when it comes down to teaching correct principles, that's not something to mess with. Luckily there were some members of the High council there as well and they were speaking in sacrament, and one of them spoke exactly on that point, teaching correct principles from the scriptures and other church materials, and not from your own opinion. that made the branch president even more embarrassed and he still just wont say sorry haha. its a mess, something so small, yet so big. Just accept that your wrong and move on with life. The High Councilors wife told me that that was needed to be done, she wanted to say something but didn't know how to put it into words. other people who are not related to him were glad I cleared it up as well, but anyone that has the last name Mann, they are all mad at me now, thank goodness the people who are not related to him are the ones that feed us so that wont hurt us. :)

Yesterday we had a great experience, right after I hung up from talking to mom on the phone in fact; We had a member that was preparing dinner at the church for a family that we are teaching. They have 8 in their family and so we had a ton of food ready and prepared. Well about and hour before dinner we get a call, "we are not going to be able to make it." The member that had slaved all day for this was just depressed, and actually a little angry at the same time. Because I guess this happened the last time that he had prepared dinner for a family that the missionaries were teaching. So here we are, 4 people with a huge crock pot of chili, enough to feed probably 15 people, and they all could probably have seconds. What to do? We call every member that we have numbers to to see if they wanted a free dinner. No one was able to come because they were all doing other things or had already had dinner. So that failed and nothing was going right, the member that had prepared it was even a little more disappointed at this point and I could see that he was just depressed. This whole time I am playing the piano on and off while my companion is calling people and praying in my mind, "please just make something good happen for this man." Soon after, his wife yelled from upstairs where the kitchen is in this church and said, "Tom...Tom, someone is at the door out side. So he goes and opens the door and the first thing he asks him, do you want some chili?! haha the guy was just like sure, why not I just was looking for some water. He needed like 5 gallons or something. He had just moved into a home right across from the church and the water had not been turned on yet. So we gave him access to the water at the church and told him to use as much as he needed. Then when he had got the water he said he would go try to get someone else to come to because someone had moved with him. He brought over a lady named Rhonda, She is pretty much a full time house sitter for this one mans mother. The guy who needed the water ended up getting a call into work for something so he couldn't stay but Rhonda stayed and had a big bowl of chili with corn bread. The members invited her to church, and then we asked her if it would be alright if we came over and taught her about our church. She said she would love that! In the end the members walked her back to her house and on the way out they stopped at the table in the church with church materials and introduced the book of Mormon to her. She said she would love to read it.

Our night turned out to be a success, it was a great night. A prayer answered and some members able to see some success come from their hard work and a great opportunity to share the gospel with someone new. God answers prayers. This was just yet another one of those times. He love us all, He is there.

Hope you all travel safely and everything goes well.
I love you all, always remember to pray.
Have a great week, talk to you next week

-Elder Walker

Elder Cade Casper:

2010-02-02T10:33:00.002-07:00

Jan 4, 2010
So, as I have taken a gander out at the multiple feet of snow, I have thought of you guys a couple of times. We had a bad snowstorm last night and Saturday night- church was cancelled. Ha yes, cancelled. So, it's pretty nuts. I don't know exactly how much it has snowed, but it's a lot. We have to shovel a trench around our car each morning so we can get in, now we have learned to just take shovels in the trunk. In case we don't have anything to do, we can go shovel people's driveways.

But the week went well. It was a fast week. I have been in Erie for 5 full weeks, crazy! We had some good days and some decent days. On Saturday it was really cool- we were working in an area called Lake City, which is 20 minutes from Erie, and we met with a ton of less- active members. We were pretty tired when we got to the apartment for dinner. I got two letters, one from Michele in State College, and some random letter from someone in Utah. It was cool- Michele is doing really well. She is still attending church weekly, and her son, who claimed to be agnostic before we left, is going with her every week and their home teacher, Dale Murphy's son, is getting Mason (the son) hooked on mutual night. So that was awesome to get that letter from her, I was very thankful to hear from her. The other letter was way random, but cool. There was no name or anything, but this person just bore testimony and talked about missionary work and stuff, it was something that I needed at the time. But things are going well, we are doing better at waking up early ha because we both struggle with that, and we have had some success. It's good to see good things happen because it's our work. Next week we should know if we are getting transferred or not, and I'm quite positive I won't be. Not sure about Elder Juarez, I wouldn't mind if we stayed together.

We are still trying to get Dakota, the 10 year old boy, to be baptized this month. We have not talked to them since before Christmas so we are trying to meet with them again. Kelly and her two sons were going to come to church, we had a ride for them and everything. But, this week we are trying to meet in a member's home because her home situation isn't a good place for the spirit. Her husband is nice, but he likes to bring out the fact that he smokes and drinks.

Your picture or attachment thing for the email didn't work. So I don't know if Cort could help you out with that. I hope you get a chance to look at the email today, but you will probably be busy packing and everything.

Well that's about it from Erie. Things are going well amidst all of the snow. I'm ok with it, just trying to stay warm. Oh before I forget- remember that "Reflections of Christ" thing by Mark Mabry, the pictures and the DVD? He came out with another book from the Book of Mormon. A less- active member showed it to us, the missionary that baptized her sent it to her for Christmas. It would be awesome if you would sometime check out either the Reflections DVD or the Book of Mormon one called "Another Testament", that would be awesome to play at baptisms, so we will be using it a lot :).

But it's good here. I know there are people in Erie waiting for the gospel. I love ya and pray you travel safe. Tell everyone hello. CADE

Jan 11, 2010
Man, I couldn't help but to laugh when you said you came home to a -22, I'm sorry. I'm glad you had a good time, and I'm sure it lifted Cort and Mel's spirits as well, something they definitely need. I will try to be short today so I can write everyone and see how they are all doing.

But the transfer is over, transfer meeting is tomorrow down in Pittsburgh. I found out yesterday that Elder Juarez is leaving, and I am going to be training and be a district leader! Over the Zone Leaders! Great, I am excited about training, and I will reflect a lot on how I was trained because I was blessed with a great trainer. But I am quite nervous about being a district leader. I can't imagine what it will be like to instruct other missionaries (especially the zone leaders) and the Lindblom's. It will be a trying experience. But I know things will work out, and the Lord will help me. I know that training will be good for me. It is 1000 times more important that I am exactly obedient and diligent as I bring this new missionary into the field. I think it's funny that he is coming here in the middle of the winter- sorry greenie!!

But things are going ok as far as the work is concerned. Dakota French is getting baptized on Jan. 30, and it is a struggle to try and teach him simply all the things he needs to know and he doesn't focus well at all. But, he is a good kid. Then after that, not many investigators that are progressing. We will be finding a lot over the next few months which will stink considering the weather.

But the DVD's? "Another Testament" DVD would be awesome. "The Reflections of Christ" is really good, but I looked through the book of the other one and it looks really good. So, if you could, send out "Another Testament". That will be real cool.

Things are going well, a very exciting time in my mission right now. I have been out 6 months- crazy. I love ya Mom and Dad and am thankful for your prayers.

Elder Matt Hansen:

2010-01-07T11:26:00.001-07:00

Crystal Powell gave me (Cindy) an e-mail that her mom sent to her. They are Matt's mission president in Kenya:

Sister Genie Taylor is her name and she is the mission Pres. wife:

Friday was the Eldoret Zone Conference. It included the missionaries in Eldoret, Kitale, Kisumu and Busia. We had a good conference. The teachings were good, the comments, the role plays, the accountability's-----I really enjoyed it. It was Elder Hansen's (from Rexburg) last zone conference. He returns home on the 20th of January. It was humbling to see this handsome missionary with tears
in his eyes tell of being so scared when he came, but that through his experiences he has come to know His Heavenly Father and Savior and that the Church of Jesus Christ is the true church on the earth. He has grown so much. He is awesome. He's training a new missionary right now and his companion said how much he admires Elder Hansen and how kind he has been to him.

Elder Andrew Peña:

2010-01-07T11:03:00.002-07:00

Jan. 4, 2010

Can you believe it is 2010! Well it is! And it's time for goals and resolutions. Things to do and people to see. Lives to change and a new attitude and new way of life and a new beginning! Though we do it every week by partaking of the sacrament and renewing and committing ourselves to the Lord it seems appropriate to set a yearly goal! Some of which I have already set! I set these goals a while back and didn't think of them as being goals for this year coming up but that is exactly what they are! So I will stick to them and find great joy in it! Thank you for everyone's e-mails. It was good to hear from everyone. Thank you! It sounds like everyone is having a great week despite those who get their wisdom teeth out:)... Life here in Turlock is amazing! No matter what happens I'm grateful for the experiences! I was blessed and able to baptize Janelle Bucio, a part member family and the baptism was awesome. It was on January 2nd and on the 31st of December, yes New Years Eve, Joe Dillman was baptized and it was at 8:20 at night and I think it was the latest possible time for a baptism let alone the latest time of the year! Haha he was probably the last person in the world to be baptized in the year 2009!! Haha it was truly amazing! Again in those that we have been able to teach as they have been confirmed and received the Holy Ghost you can tell a difference and that is a miracle in itself! As a mission we were able to have 937 of our brothers and sisters enter into the waters of baptism in the year 2009 what a miracle! We just fell short of our goal but we have achieved so much! The year before in 2008 we had 588 and the year in 2007 we had 518 so that is amazing! On Friday we set our goal for this year of 2010 to have 1200 for our goal! As a mission we were going to set a goal for 2000 but we decided to come together and base our goals off the stake goals! So we are coming more unified with the stakes and wards and working together to accomplish this great work. Once we can get the unifying effect of missionary work and member work it will be absolutely amazing! So that is our goal! In the month of December alone we were able to have 122 people be baptized which is the most we had all year long! We have been asked to pilot church tours as a mission! Elder Perry has asked that we do it and it has been something that we knew would come just didn't know when! About 8 months ago two of my last companions were running the program in the Modesto stake! That was my first area becoming a zone leader and they ran it there for about 3 months and within three months they tripled their baptisms by doing these church tours. They were averaging 11 baptisms. The Washington Tacoma mission has been doing it for several years and they went from 800 baptisms averaging to about 1400 baptisms a year! AMAZING! Anyways we are piloting that in our mission and Elder Cook and I received our "training" and we will be training our zone tomorrow on the church tours! We are not allowed to take investigators on the tours until March 1st but until then we are practicing by using our members! So far we have done like three. And we need to be doing about 12-14 a week at the minimum! So a lot of our lessons will be at the church! The church tours are very specific to the questions you ask and pictures we use. It's awesome! I love it! We do a 10-15 minutes tour and then have a 10 - 15 minute lesson in front of the baptism font (it being open and the investigators facing the font). Not only are we doing something that is exciting but also Elder Ballard is coming to our stake conference on January 17th and I am super excited! We need to find a lot of investigators to invite to that! Here I am receiving all this information about some kind of supper of green chili and a family home evening with all my best friends! Yet I'm doing the best work I can be and I'll be able to meet an apostle! I'm excited! I would not want to be anywhere else at this time! I love my mission! I love you all and hope you continue to keep me in your prayers! I love you and and can't wait to hear from you again this upcoming week! We were listening to a talk by President Hinckley this morning and he talked A LOT about faith and missionaries and how being on a mission shows a lot of faith! I love the gospel and I have no doubt within my heart it is true and everything else that comes with it! It is great to be in church and in the gospel principles class with investigators I have been able to teach. And being able to see their lives change from night to day because of the teachings of the gospel! How does it happen!? It's a miracle and it's because of their humility and willingness to listen and obey the commandments! I love you all! Have a great week!:)
Elder Peña

Merry Christmas to all Missionary Moms:

2009-12-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

This Year for Christmas

I skipped the sales after Thanksgiving.
The thrill just wasn't there.
No pictures taken with Santa Clause,
my decorating has no flair.
His presents are shoes, shirts, and ties,
two suits and socks...no fun.
I've bought him all white clothes because...
This year I'm giving Christ my son.

I've spent more time in the temple,
Felt strength come from His words.
I've reread November's Ensign,
and my testimony stirred.
Our family prays more frequently
My tears are quick to run.
Abraham seems closer because,
This year I'm giving Christ my son.

I wonder how those Lamanite mothers,
gave their sons to war?
Or how the pioneers chose Zion,
their sacrifice was so much more.
My loss will be his presence,
I'll miss his smile a ton
For two years we will pray for him,
I'm giving Christ my son.

I stare at his face when he's not looking.
I memorize his eyes, their shine.

He's always hungered for the part of him,
that makes his soul divine.
The stories and lessons he always heard,
His choice and mine are one.
I'll put my faith in God's hand,
This year, I'm giving Him my son.

Past gifts have lost their glitter,
I think I finally understand
Christ's birth should be celebrated
by giving Him a hand.
It's because I know Christ lives and reigns
that all his packing's done.
My gift has taken years to make,
This year... I'm giving Christ my son

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-12-18T16:20:00.002-07:00

Everything here is going good and it looks like things are going to change for me in my last transfer here. I just got a call from President and it turns out that my companion is getting transferred and I am getting a new kid from the MTC, I don't know where he is from or anything but I guess I will know later this week. I am excited, I guess, but kind of nervous at the same time, I don't know the area real well so things will just have to work out. Other than that things are going well. Yesterday was a long day because we watched the general conference tapes from October instead of having sacrament meeting. The worst part about it is that they were in Kiswahili so my companion and I didn't understand much. I just read the magazine the whole time.

I'm sure you will have a blast for Christmas with all the kids there. I wish I could be there but I'm serious when I say this, I won't be. I won't be home until the end of next month so don't worry. I think they are going to send the itinerary to you but I don't know.

This week was definitely different than any other week I have had so far on my mission. My new companion got here on Friday so we have only been together for a couple of days but he is a cool kid. He is from South Africa and he helps me out to stay focused on the work. But before he got here something else happened, it was on Tuesday to be precise... About all I can say about it is that I'm happy you put money into my account because turns out we got robbed! It was a bit unexpected. My companion and I just came home and found that the lock and door was the same way we left it then we opened the lock, went in and the house was a mess. It looks like they just had a key or something because there was no sign of force entry, nothing was broken. They cleaned us out pretty good though. They got all my ties, my small suitcase, my suit, all my trousers, and money. Not to worry though, I still got one tie and a pair of pants and all my white shirts, they're not so white anymore. We don't know who it was but the zone leaders also got robbed the next day so it was the same people. Please don't worry though, we are safe and you put in plenty of money to last me and get me new things so don't worry, and thank you for the money. That's the week. Please don't stress out. Everything is going well. I love you mom and hope that all is well for you. I will get to go on a one day safari before I go home, and we stay on the same road as the church, not far at all. Love you, Elder Hansen

Elder Cade Casper:

2009-12-18T15:09:00.002-07:00

Nov 30, 2009
Hey mom and dad, so I am getting transferred. I found out last Saturday night because Elder DeYoung knew an office elder that leaked it to us, but I found out today officially from my district leader. I am excited for change. I am going to miss Dover and this ward a ton, but I am welcoming to change. I am going to Pittsburgh tomorrow for the transfer meeting, and hopefully I stay on that side of the mission. But like I said, I'm going to miss this place. I have said some goodbyes to members and tonight we are going to Jay and Catherine's (with the bap. date) and the Shoemaker's as well, I'm REALLY going to miss them. But I will let you know next week where I am at.

But I laughed at your first sentence. I wondered a couple times what Thanksgiving was like back home. Bro Shoemaker kept asking me: "So, this is your first big holiday away from home?" And I would say yes, it is Bro. Shoemaker haha. Sounds like things went well and everything was fun, you guys didn't talk about me too much did ya haha? But Thanksgiving here was way fun. It was a neat holiday to be in Dover (Christmas would be sweet) I enjoyed it spending time with other families and their friends. We played in the Turkey Bowl. It was great. It was way muddy and I didn't take any pictures dang it, but it was fun even though my legs are still sore. We came back to the apartment and then around 2 went to dinner to Bishop Toone's. His son and the relief society president's daughter are engaged, so they were over there too, it was kinda weird but the food was really good. They are both from Utah so the food wasn't anything weird or different. Then we went to this single sister's house for another dinner, the Bruggeman's. She has like 4 kids, the oldest is 20 I think, and she loves the missionaries. It was really fun. Then we went to Pap Shoemaker's where a lot of the Shoemaker's were and it was us and two elders who are serving in York right now. It was fun. Then we went and had pie at a less active's house, it was a really good day. Ha we only ate at one place so that wasn't too bad.

But things are going well. I am glad I got to serve with Elder DeYoung, but I am glad to get a new companion. Elder DeYoung and mine numbers weren't the best, but he tried. We became good friends. Catherine is still scheduled to be baptised the 26 of Dec, but she is living with her boyfriend and we still need to teach the law of chastity, so I will be seeing in a few weeks how she is doing. We are going over there tonight to say goodbye. I went by Amanda and Ernie's last night, they are such an awesome couple. They are getting excited for the temple. I can't wait to hear in a year from now all about it!

It's great to be serving right now, I can't believe that I am almost out 5 months. Flying isn't it? I think so. I got an email from Scott and he said it would be his LAST one, wow. Send him my love for me. Then on comes the rest of them haha.

I'm excited about you being ordinance workers in the temple. That will be such an awesome experience. You guys will do well and I'm thankful that you are able to do that. A lot of missionaries out here have less active or non member parents, and I am so thankful for the family I grew up in and being born in the covenant. Man I wish we could go to the temple in D.C., a few members have offered. But things are going well, Christmas is rolling around the corner. Oh I don't know if I told you: Elder Wallis is in my zone, he is a district leader and he was training last transfer. I will send you a picture of us here soon. But I love ya and am surely thankful for all that you do for me and others.

Dec 7, 2009
I am in Erie, PA, right up against Lake Erie. It is a frozen tundra up here, but the first snow of the year was two days ago. It is the first time since 81 that there wasn't snow on the ground before Thanksgiving. My companion is Elder Juarez from Yakima, WA. He is Hispanic and he speaks Spanish. He is cool, we sort of get a long so far, but we are just trying to get used to each other. He has been out 13 months. We got doubled in, or "white washed" into the area. So just like Elder Tranter and I did in Dover, we are two completely new missionaries in our area called Millcreek, but it's pretty much Erie. It is Elder Juarez's first time white washing an area, and my second, even though I don't know how much help I was to Elder Tranter when we did it the first time. So that is where I'm at, Erie, PA. Erie is the third largest city in PA, bigger than Harrisburg. It's pretty flat, which is rare for PA, so they kind of have a grid system. Neither one of us have GPS, so we are having a good time using a map. The elders before us didn't leave much, no real investigators, so we are starting from scratch pretty much. Each area has an Area Book, but some are better than others. The area book in Millcreek is terrible. There used to be 12 missionaries in Erie, now there is just 4. President has had to close a lot of areas since the missions merged, and Erie lost a lot. So, there is A LOT of people in Erie and just four missionaries, there is work for us to do. But this Area Book is really helpful when it's done well, but this one is really bad so it doesn't help us at all, it tells us where members live and splits the area into sub areas.

My address is:
2708 Garland St. Apt. #2
Erie, PA 16506

A lot of missionaries I know served here, and a lot of them came up to us and said how awesome the ward here is. There are two wards in Erie, and our ward has a lot, a lot of students. There is LECOM (Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine), which is the nations largest med school, and other colleges and universities. The ward seems good, but I slightly compared it to the last ward I served in and it didn't measure up. But, we will get to know them and I'm sure I will grow to love them as well.

Oh I saw Chance Powell, who served in the Harrisburg mission, I'm sure you remember him from sports, he is from Hibbard. He is now in Dover with my last companion. Elder DeYoung called us a few nights ago (he served in Millcreek for 9 months) and said Susan Blackcloud called and wants to be baptized, so that was awesome.

I love you Mom and Dad and am thankful for you. I'm thankful you are active and set an awesome example for me growing up. I know the Lord is watching over you intently. Love ya, Cade

Dec 14, 2009
Things are going well in Erie. Things have picked up a little bit. We had some investigators come to the ward Christmas party with their kids. Their names are Kelly and Stacey, but we aren't quite sure where their intents are, or if they are really serious about church because they didn't come, but, we are just starting to really teach them so I will let you know how that goes.

But the week went well, we are starting to get to know the ward better and how we can better utilize them for rides and teaching people with them. We are trying to visit a lot of part member families in the ward, and hopefully we will find a family who is ready to complete their family or come back to church. Tracting has been quite unproductive here, we tracted one day when it was 15 degrees, with a 10 to 15 degree windchill- just to say we did it! It was so cold, people kept telling us how crazy we were.

We had a funny thing happen though. We were trying these former investigators close to downtown Erie, and we walked around the corner and this guy was hiding (from the wind- it was FREEZING!) behind a door, so we started talking to him. He knew us instantly as people spreading "God's Word" and kept telling us how he believed, he is black and VERY baptist. He said he was going to court for something to do with his Social Security, his name is Robert. He was waiting for the bus and was freaking out he missed it. Our car was parked like 150 feet from us and we knew he would watch us get in and drive away, so we were kinda thinking we could give this guy a lift (which is something we ARE NOT supposed to do). Finally, he asked: "Ya'll think you could please just take me half way or sumpin?" Ah man, if we said no, he would watch us just get in a drive away, so we said ya. On our way there I told him we would make a deal with him. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it, and we are meeting with him on Thursday at his house. Ha next time in a meeting if someone asks if we have found cool ways to find new investigators we will tell that story haha. I will let you know how that goes.

This week we had Zone Conference- it was great. It was a meeting when everyone could see that President is inspired. He said a lot about how lucky we are to be on missions, how they are better than the military, better than a college education, all of that. It was cool. It made me reflect a lot, these past two transfers have been interesting. It has been getting harder and harder to do little things like wake up on time, and it's getting to me- of course I'm not a morning person. But it was a great meeting. An elder made a movie of the mission in the past year, it was good, we all got a free copy.

But no one has came up to us or called and invited us over to their house for Christmas, kind of a bummer. I sure hope someone does next Sunday or even before that. But I will let you know next week all the details, if there are some. I will make the calls, and I will be able to call everyone so I just need numbers.

President's interviews are tomorrow, so that will be good. We have a good week ahead where we will try a lot of part member families and appointments, even though we aren't teaching a whole lot of people right now.

It's crazy to hear about the people that have been in Erie, never before would we have noticed that, of course. But things are going better, things will continue to improve, there is always a lot of things that could improve. I love the emails and am excited for the holidays. Hope everyone is safe back home. I love you both and think about you each night. I am thankful for the prayers you offer for me and I def need them. Cade

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-12-18T13:36:00.003-07:00

It has been a great week this week, we have had some really interesting things happen that’s for sure. It has gone by really fast as well. We were supposed to be having another baptism this weekend but she feels that she isn't ready right now. It was really kind of a bummer because we have been trying so hard to help her out in every way possible. A member took us out to eat along with the lady that was going to be getting baptized... that was just great. If you can just imagine 2 autistic kids at pizza hut... one of them puking in the process, and yelling and screaming the whole time that we were there, you can just begin to imagine how the night was. Anyways it was nice of the member to try to fellowship her. Just didn't go the greatest. We just keep going though. One of the football players, Pres Crawford that we are teaching here at SVU has finally decided that it is the right thing for him to do and he wants to get baptized. So we are happy about that one that made our week much better, we saw him yesterday morning. This past week has been good, we made cookies for all of our investigators and they all really appreciated them. The ones we made this week were heath cookies, they were really good. We made 6 dozen of them.
Last night we had an interesting experience. We were asked by this lady to go and try to talk to her sister because she was going through a hard time and she really thought that we might be able to help. So we went in last night and started to talk to them, we talked about the restoration a little bit, but then the one lady that we went to talk to just stood up and started freaking out about how God has turned his back on her, she has done everything she could possibly do but everything bad is happening to her right now. Then her sister that asked us to come in, started arguing with her. It was a mess, it was the worst argument that I have ever seen or heard. We got them to cool down for a minute and we thought that we had things under control, when all the sudden they started freaking out again. It was a mess. The sad part was that they were just being so selfish about everything, all they cared about was themselves, if it wasn't for their own good, it wasn't what they wanted. It is such a long story to explain, and there are so many details but overall I was just thinking that its so sad to see so many unhappy families, we really take for granted what we know. Many people think they know who they are, but they don’t. The neat thing is that we do know who we are, we know exactly who God is and we understand that trials are here to make us stronger, no matter who we are, whether we are righteous, or wicked, we are going to have adversity. The only difference is how we take it and how we deal with it. We all have different hands of cards, and we have to play them the best way we know how to. Everything is going really well here though, I’m happy to be alive and everything is great. Next week is transfers, so I will be getting a new companion, it will just be interesting to see whom I get. I’m exited for change, but it’s been fun being with Elder Reed so we will just have to see how it goes. Thanks for everything, I love you all. Elder Walker

Nov 17, 2009
So transfer news! Elder Reed is leaving, and I'm getting a new companion. His name is Elder Anderson. If you remember the kid that was in my ward at Utah State and he lived in the same apartment building I did in Logan, we were in the same ward, we got our mission calls the same day, we were MTC roommates, and here we are, he is now coming to be my companion. I'm exited, he is a way cool kid, we will do really well with each other. I'm exited for this transfer, we have a lot of people lined up and lots of good potential. Our Zone is getting mixed up just a little, we are getting 2 new greenies. So that will be a boost to our zone and we are getting some solid missionaries transferred in so we are pretty exited about it all. We have a lot of work to do but it will be great. Life is just going really well. Couldn't ask for anything better. Time is flying by. Month by month, I want it to slow down. Tomorrow we have to get up at 3:30 so that we can get to Roanoke for rides and everything so its going to be an early morning. I should have my new companion by 3 or 4 tomorrow so I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to miss Elder Reed but I'm ready for a change and I'm looking forward with optimism. Its going to be a great transfer. Thanks for everything, love you all.

Nov 24, 2009
I was able to go out on exchanges with Alec Fullmer last Wednesday. It was really fun, we were in Roanoke waiting for our companions to come down on the bus and we had some time so we were able to go out and do some tracting. We got into one home and taught an awesome lesson. It was really neat to be able to go out with him for a couple hours. He is still Alec but has changed a ton, he is a really good teacher, really sincere and humble about everything, it was awesome. 2000 miles away we meet up and were walking down a street, haha I couldn't believe it but it was great. Everything is going well here. My companion is great, we get along well. The work is great. Nothing too exciting has happened, just a normal week, we have been tracting a lot. Trying to find people to teach. We have a lot of good potential, people are just scared of commitment. We have a baptism Dec 5th, so that will be nice. Thanks for everything, I love you all. Elder Walker

Dec 1, 2009
Sounds like it was a great Thanksgiving there at home. Mine went well also. We had a dinner with a family, there were probably 30 people at theirs. They had quite a bit of food as well. They even had a non-member family there so we were able to talk to them. Ever since Thanksgiving we have just been eating left overs the whole time, yesterday's was terrible. I felt really bad. we had a dinner appointment with this really poor couple, and we had left overs with them. All I can say is I'm glad I am a missionary and am pretty much immune to bad food because I'm pretty sure the ham that we ate was not cooked all the way through and the baked beans that she had made probably had more sugar and brown sugar on them than there was actually beans in the pan... the pumpkin pie, well lets just say it didn't look like pumpkin pie... haha- we are still alive though and its been a great week. I'm sure you have all kinds of stories about eating weird food, we just get a couple every once in a while. You might like to hear this, we came across this Phillipino family a couple weeks ago and they said they want to learn more, so I will keep you updated on them, hopefully we can see them sometime this week. We have a baptism this weekend, her name is Melissa Carter, so we are exited about that. We also set another person with a baptism date last night. So hopefully he will come along, his wife is a member but he is not yet. He just has to quit smoking and he will be ready. Pres Crawford is a college student that we are teaching here, and he will most likely get baptized at the beginning of next month, January. Then we have the Mkinya kids, remember the black, less active man we tracted into, his kids. They said they will hopefully have permission from the mother by Christmas. So things are looking good here, things are going really well. We just keep on going and hoping for the best every day that we go out. Thanks for everything. I love you.
Elder Walker

Elder Andrew Peña

2009-12-15T12:43:00.002-07:00

November 30, 2009

This week was great! It went by super fast! And of course Thanksgiving was this Thursday! It went really well! We ate at about 2:00 and ate A LOT! We ate at the Thompson's home, they have 4kids. One who is 20, one who is 14 and twins who are 12. They fed us like we were kings! We were asked to do our weekly planning on Thursday this week instead of on Friday so that is what we did until about 2:00. We had a lesson with Ricky, Robert and Dominque Moore who will be baptized on the 12th of this month! We had dinner at the Moore's and it was good! We only taught two lessons that day from the time we had our planning session in the afternoon and our dinner appointment! As far as it went for missionary work it was zero! But that is ok! The turkey was really good! Along with the Idaho potatoes!;) We taught two lessons in a members home this week and we taught 23 quality lessons. We found a new person to teach, her name is Janelle and she is married to a less active that is coming back to church who we have been playing basketball with from 6 to 7 in the morning about 2 or 3 times a week! Tonight we will invite her to be baptized along with Rudy, Reyna and Alfredo! So those lessons shall go well! Pray for us and them! Wednesday I was on an exchange with Elder Kramer, one of the assistants, and it was really good! We had a couple of really good lessons that day and we did two church tours and invited them to be baptized and we were able to find out a lot of concerns that were holding them back! It was really a neat experience! Saturday we were able to find Dayunie who was someone that we had planned on being baptized about a month ago and we talked with her and her family and she was thinking about being baptized in December and we have a lesson with her on Tuesday so hopefully this week we can have 10 people with a baptismal date! Right now we have 5 but it will likely be 7 by the end of the week! So people are being prepared! And thank you for your prayers in helping us accomplish our goals! We had 5 investigators at church and 2 of them have baptismal date. There were 2 new investigators that have never been before that came! And then Dayunie hasn't been for like a month and she came with her family! So it was really good! We saw a lot of success as a zone! We set a goal to have 72 member present lessons! Our average from the last like 6 months is about 50 or so and we just fell short. We had 70 member present lessons! Our own companionship had a goal of 7and we got 8 but we could have gotten 10 so we just fell short as a zone! It was really good! As a mission we have 749 people that have been baptized and we have 236 individuals with a baptismal date! Usually 1/3 of the baptismal dates get baptized. That is usually worldwide, but as a mission I think we do a little better than that! That was pretty much my week! My companion and I gave talks in sacrament meeting and my companion gave a great talk on adversity and opposition. It was a really good talk! While I talked on obedience it seemed to me as the topics ran together! It was good! I can't believe how fast this month went by! We will have a lot of good lessons this week with our investigators! Hopefully we will be able to have a few more with a baptismal date! Today we have our zone activity. We are either going to play dodge ball or ultimate Frisbee and we get to eat a lot of pizza and cookies! Haha, our zone has 10 companionships in it! So it will be a good dodge ball or Frisbee game! Haha, something that I am pondering about latley and thinking about is our potential to become more like God! And the intelligence and the knowledge we obtain in this life! I'm thinking about studying a lot about knowledge but I've beeing thinking about it a lot but haven't really done much with it yet! We will also have our zone meeting this week! That will be good! We still need to think about what we are going to do for like role plays or activities for it! It is like a district meeting but instead we have the entire zone together! I may have shared with you about this before a little bit about prayer! And in the bible dictionary how prayer is a benefit to us! There it talks about sometimes God wants to bless us but those blessings are conditional upon our asking for them! But by our asking for them they are then granted to us! It was just something that I enjoyed as I was studying this week! I hope everyone has a great week and they had a great thanksgiving also! I didn't hear too much about what anyone did for Thanksgiving so maybe I will hear from you all next week about how it was! Thank you for the emails and we will look forward to hearing from you later!:) Elder Peña

Elder Cade Casper:

2009-12-15T11:26:00.004-07:00

Sept 10, 2009
But did you like that? Got mugged? I thought that was funny. But at the time, I probably would have felt better writing that to you then what I did, about leaving State College.

Here is a review of what the past week was like: Saturday, Penn State had their first football game against Akron, and people over and over again kept telling us "Stay away from downtown, stay off main street" all of this stuff. So we did. We walked to an appointment we had and there were SO many cars going in towards the Stadium. On football days, State College goes from a town of around 50,000 people to the third biggest city in PA! I'm glad I could idealist say I served there, even if it was for only 6 weeks. Monday came around, and we weren't expecting to go anywhere this transfer, we actually set an investigator with a date THAT DAY, then finally we got a call- you are BOTH leaving. What? It was such a shocker. We were actually tracting by one of our ward missionaries apartment and he came out and saw us and said it looked like we just had a family member die or something. We were pretty pissed at first. So we came to find out that our entire district was being "washed out". They are putting sisters in both areas in State College. President Summerhays seems really big on putting sisters in university areas. So we were once again, pissed about that. I don't know, it was weird, the more and more we packed and got ready to leave, I felt good about it. So Tuesday, we drove to Harrisburg and then found out that Elder Tranter and I were being sent to Dover, where sisters were. So we took off for our new area. We came and honestly had no clue what to do. It is a small town, our area is pretty big. It is like a good mix of mainly middle class, with a few lower and upper class people. We tracted and the people were instantly a lot meaner from the people in State College, I don't mind it though, I think its funny. We looked at the area book to try to get to know our area, walked around, drove around, and tried by the Bishop's house and stuff. We tracted, stopped by a less active family, then met with the Bishop. It was a good visit we had with him, he told us about the ward and said he loved the sisters. Like the first three people we have met from the ward were like: "They took our sisters?!" so we will see how long it takes for that to get old but yesterday was awesome. We had District Meeting (Elder Tranter is the District Leader by the way) tracted, taught some lady named Marsha, then had dinner with the ward mission leader- Bro Shoemaker. He is a way cool guy, dang funny. He has a son serving in Brazil. But he was cool and told us about everything the sisters had going. He knows about everybody in the ward. This ward is way tight, almost too much. He knows what we need to do to have the ward trust us so they do missionary work. He took us to his dad's house, Don is his name. And I guess Don is a pioneer for this part of the country for the church. He was a Stake President multiple times, Bishop, and spread the gospel throughout all of Pennsylvania. The first ward in the church east of the Mississippi was actually settled in Waynesboro, just south of us. It was such a cool night, we felt very loved and there were several times that I got so excited to be here because of the way they explained the ward and the people here in Dover. We have a lot of work to do, but last night helped a lot. Bro (Don) Shoemaker played us a song that apparently all of the general authorities, past and present, quote. It was called "Accentuate the Positive" from like 1948. It was way funny. Last night was so reassuring for the week ahead.

Didn't think I would be in my second area on my second transfer. Elder Tranter and I talked on the way to Harrisburg and said that the Lord and President must have a lot of trust in us right now with me on my second transfer, us white washing the area, and Elder Tranter being District Leader. Even though I had very mixed feelings about leaving State College, I have felt so much reassurance that this is where I need to be. I have felt so much comfort and love from the Spirit, and so much from the ward as well. I am very excited to serve here, very thankful for the blessings the Lord has put upon me in my short time serving. I feel like I haven't even done that much to deserve everything I have been given. I have to keep working hard and do all that I can to show my love for the Lord while I'm serving. I am very thankful again. So my new address is:

20A Stony Lane
Dover, PA 17315

I look forward to hearing from you again. I love you and am very thankful for you both. I love you. Elder Casper

Oct 22, 2009
So I stayed in Dover. I was pretty dang nervous after we got the transfer call and Elder Tranter said he was leaving, it was Saturday night when we got it. I am still here, and I'm actually pretty glad I am. The ward is awesome, I know what I'm doing more than I think I do (which still isn't much), and I have a good companion. His name is Elder DeYoung from Salt Lake (Sugarhouse area) and he is a good Elder. I think we will get along better than my trainer and I did but it's still early to say. I had a lot of Elders come up and say I will have a lot of fun with Elder DeYoung, which I was glad to hear considering Elder Tranter wasn't a very fun guy. So, that's what the story is, so send off all the pics and stuff you have. He seems like a good elder but he has been out 18 months and is slacking on his obedience, but it's nothing that will be bad, we can fix that. He is 25 so I am learning a lot from him.

This past week was pretty crazy. We went to Shippensburg (40 minute drive) after Stake Conference on Sunday night and stayed with the elders there. Then on Monday morning we drove to Altoona for the Mission Tour and mini transfer meeting. The Tour was awesome, Elder C. Scott Grow was there and he was great. We had some good instruction about working with the ward and reactivations and stuff. I love stuff like that because it fires you up. So after that we got our stuff and came back to Dover. We have tracted a lot because I don't know exactly what to do but we had some good lessons and should be having some investigators and less active members coming to church this Sunday. The fruits of Elder Tranter and I labors are coming forth. So things are going very well here, I'm excited because I can be out of the shadow of my trainer and I am pretty glad to have a new companion.

I am very blessed to be here still. I love you and will hear from you next week. Elder Casper

Nov 23, 2009
Holy cow it's almost Thanksgiving! I can't believe it, but I'm excited. The weeks and transfers are going by so fast, and I can't believe this one is almost to a close. This transfer ends on Dec. 1st and President told me in our interviews if I'm not going this one it would be the next one. I wouldn't mind staying here one more with Elder DeYoung. He is very different from my trainer, but we have a good time, and I like him more and more each day. We still quarrel, but we have a relatively good time.

What are you guys doing for Thanksgiving? A cool family named the Bruggeman's have us over at 6, the Bishop has us over at 2, and we are stopping by the big Shoemaker clan's house in between those appointments. This ward is awesome. I have grown to love the Shoemaker's, they are an awesome family. Paps (Zach's grandpa) plays a song for the missionaries called "Accentuate the Positive" from like the 1940's, that's a line you hear a lot of general authorities quote, it's so funny haha.

But I love you guys, the work is going well. The Lord is continuing to prepare people, it's just a struggle to be His prepared servant by obedience and what not. Catherine is doing well, she didn't come to church yesterday but she is still reading. She is scheduled for the 26 of Dec. for baptism. Susan Blackcloud put off her baptismal date till March, that was a bummer. She loves us though and we love them, she will eventually be baptized as her husband starts to come back to church. I love you both and am thankful for you. Have a good Thanksgiving and don't bring my name up too much haha.

New Development:

2009-12-07T09:18:00.003-07:00

I just received word from Colleen Snell - Scott's report has been changed to Sunday, Dec 27 @ 1:00 pm.

Grant's report will be the same day at 9:00 am

Wow - on this day we will all be very spiritually feed.

Homecoming - Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-12-02T10:34:00.001-07:00

Elder Grant Gannaway will be flying home and will arrive at the Idaho Falls airport on Friday, December 18.

His report in sacrament meeting will be Sunday, December 27 at 9:00 am at the Plano Ward Building.

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-12-02T10:00:00.003-07:00

We had four investigators out to church this last week for our primary program. They didn't come for the program it just happened to be the same day they came. I am convinced that where ever you go in the world the primary kids act the same. You have the kids up there making faces at the crowd, the one who is constantly waving at his mom, the kids screaming there lungs out when singing, the kid who walks up to the mike and says I forgot my lines. It was great. I actually was able to feel the spirit quite a bit when they would sing some of their songs. We had these two little kids that sang amazing solos. I see little kids and it is amazing how Christlike they can seem and then the next minute they are poking you in the rear and laughing like a little devil child. But they sure are funny.

Elder Green and I are getting along great. I have laughed a lot this transfer. It had kind of been a while since I just had a good hard laugh. So Elder Green and I were sitting at the church yesterday doing our weekly planing meeting. We were told to go upstairs after we were done because the ward was eating. Well after a little while we were about to go up and a member brought in this fella who had just wondered into the church wanting to learn about it. We just recently had a new building built in our area and it is pretty big and beautiful so it happens sometimes. So this guy comes in sits down and his face is bleeding. It looked like he butchered himself when he was shaving. After we got him some Kleenexes he asked about how our church was different from the normal christian church. I started to explain and before I answered the whole question he went off on something else. He did that like five or six times. He was talking about a million miles an hour and Elder Green couldn't understand him and I was having a rough time some times. I jumped from lesson to lesson answering his questions. He then went off about how he had just come from the Jehovah Witness's place and that he had rejected the book that they had tried to give him. I think that he was trying to tell me he wasn't going to be easy to crack. Well he then asked me about whether or not we believed it was important the way we worship Christ. I told him yes and then he asked how we got our way. I then taught him about Prophets again and how we don't believe the way we as humans choose but according the way God wants and that he relays that through a modern day prophet. That one slowed him down and made it so I could say everything I wanted before he interrupted me again. He then asked me if he could have a Book of Mormon and seemed a little less defensive towards me. He then continued to go a million miles an hour asking questions about the second coming and where it was going to be and the God head. I told him we believed God and Christ were two separate beings he then asked if all of the other churches are completely wrong or right. I said that is what we know to be true and he cut me off and said so they are wrong right? He was very persistent. We finished and we had been invited up to eat so we invited him as well and he came and started talking about what race of women was most beautiful, we awkwardly avoided that one and he them went off about the economy and I was glad I couldn't understand him. Anyway that was my weird guy story. He says he is going to call. Stay tuned. I hope all is well and everyone is happy and healthy. I love you all and miss you. Until next week Elder Snell.

Nov 23, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving, This week was a good one, we had stake conference and we had three investigators attend. It was a broadcast with President Uchtdorf, Elder Hollan, Stephens and another fella. I don't remember the name cause I chose to watch it in Korean with our investigators and as I watched the screen I found myself reading their lips rather then listening to the translation. It is usually really hard to understand conference and stuff like that cause they use really hard Korean but this time I understood a good amount. I was pretty happy. They gave a really good message but the Korean translator did a bad job at catching the feeling behind it so it kind of was a little bit boring for two of our younger investigators who nodded of a little bit throughout it. We are having an area seventy here for mission conference this week. Thanks for everything. I love you and miss you all, see you soon. Elder Snell

Elder Andrew Peña

2009-12-02T09:35:00.002-07:00

This week was amazing! Our mission president is inspired and continues to guide us to our goals! We set a goal this week as a mission to have over 200 individuals with a baptismal date! We were at 153 and that is about where we stay consistently as a mission. The most we have had would be around 180 at a time so with this goal we sent out miracles from companionships throughout the mission and missionaries setting baptismal dates with people and sent them to everyone to hear the miracles! We also followed up every night with who had set baptisms and every night we would let the assistants know of how many our zones had so they could inform us everyday how many we had. It stayed 153 until Tuesday and Wednesday it was at 163 and on Thursday it jumped to 191 and then Saturday to 208 and that is where we are currently! We've over achieved that goal and is the most the mission has seen all year! We have 681 individuals that have been baptized and our zone we had 4 baptisms our goal as a zone was to have 30 investigators with a baptism date and we had 29! Our goal this week is to have 35. As a companionship, Elder Whitworth and I had a goal to have three ( we had one at the beginning of the week ) and now we have 6! One of the miracles that we saw is we had a lesson with Micheal and Autumn and invited them to be baptized and Micheal said no and that he did not want to and Autumn said she would think about it. They are 14 and 13 years old. We had a lesson two days later and talked about baptism and taught why it was so important and invited them to be baptized and they accepted on November 28th, we also have 3 others for November 28th that may have to be pushed back to December, that is Robert Ricky and Dominique Moore. Alexandria, one of our investigators, when I first got to the area we were biking and we talked to Alexandria just outside her home and she was singing "baby don't hurt me" and she didn't stop to talk to us she just said sure come on by. So we went by and we had a great lesson and committed her to come to church and she said she would. She never came so we invited her to come to conference and again she didn't come. Time went on where we struggled with teaching her. She would miss appointments and wasn't home but then we were on an exchange and she stopped my companion and who he was with and told us to come by again so we went back and taught her again. She is in her 40's and is single and has lived a rough life, she has been involved with alcohol and is going to Alcoholics Anonymous and she has a piercing in her eyebrow and her lip and a couple tattoos. Wouldn't think she would be very interested in our message but she is awesome. We invited her to church again and she finally said she would come and she came for the first time and we sat next to her and she stayed all three hours and loved it so much that for our next appointment she said "when you two leave who is going to come to church with me when I keep going?" We told her the members would fellowship her and the missionaries are always here. She also brought up being baptized and asked what she needed to do so we came and taught her baptism and some commandments and invited her to be baptized on the 15th. She missed church two weeks ago but we got her a ride and she came to church yesterday. The spirit has been working with her so much that during our fast and testimony meeting she felt the spirit as little children bore their testimonies and she asked the member that brought her to church and was sitting with her if anyone could bare their testimony. Sister Thompson took her up in front to where she could bare her testimony and when the time came she stood up and introduced herself and gave a heart felt testimony of how she started coming to church and why, and gave thanks to Elder Whitworth and I! Her testimony was one of the many miracles that we have seen and heard and witnessed this week. She is preparing herself for baptism this month. Transfers came and Elder Whitworth will be heading down to be companions with one of my old companions, Elder Jensen. I will be getting a new companion named Elder Cook from Canada and is a great missionary. I will be serving in the same area here in Turlock and will still be a zone leader. This week we have transfers and to do stake correlation for Sunday and have zone council on Friday. Next week we will have zone conference which Elder Gibbons of the 70 will be coming to our zone conference and also will be holding a fireside that we need to have our investigators go to next week. I have tried to express the many great things that have happened this week and continue to strengthen my testimony through the things I was blessed to witness. A quote coming from the bible dictionary under faith says "miracles do not produce faith, but faith produces the miracle" also a wonderful quote that I have been listening to conference from 2000 thanks to Eli a general authority talks about becoming converted and talks about a poem or a parable and says something as a father to the son saying "all that I have I could easily give you, but that which I am you must obtain for yourself". God gives us this great life not just to see what choices we can make, but to see what we can become, through the choices that we will make. Are we becoming converted through our actions and the things that we are doing? Not just by the things that we are learning. I love the Gospel! I love it because its the only thing that can bring true happiness to one's soul! Nothing else can bring such joy and we cannot find it anywhere else. I am learning that and hope to be able to apply it through the rest of my life. I know through our faith we will see many great miracles in our life. I also know that through obedience is how we obtain any blessing from God. I hope to hear from you all this upcoming week. Set goals for yourselves and help yourself become something and become converted through faith and obedience to the gospel. We taught many people and accomplished many great goals! :) I love you all! Elder Peña

Homecoming - Elder Scott Snell:

2009-11-11T15:20:00.008-07:00

Elder Scott Snell will be flying home and will arrive at the Idaho Falls airport on Wednesday, December 9.

His report in sacrament meeting will be Sunday, December 20 at 1:00 pm at the 2nd & 5th Ward Building on 2nd West - Rexburg.

***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Nov 1, 2009
This week was a pretty good one, it was my first one with Elder Green and he is a hoot. I really like him. We get along pretty well and he is a pretty chill guy which is always nice.

We had our Halloween party this week. They don't celebrate Halloween here so that was fun to do for everyone. Except that my comp and I ended up doing about 90% of everything even though there were 4 other missionaries. That was lame but it turned out. We did mummy wrapping, mask making and Elder Green and I made an obstacle course which turned out to be the favorite. We had them spinning around, picking up dried pieces of rice, putting on big gloves, shoes and a coat then had to open a piece of gum and blow a bubble, stick a balloon between their legs and run. It was really fun and the next day my voice was pretty raspy. Then we also put on a haunted hallway/room type of thing, the kids all liked it. While we were getting ready we decided to carve some pumpkins for the decorations and I was really excited cause I enjoy doing that. Well we got our pumpkins and I got mine open and I reached in for that first nice slimy grab and I came out with a handful of maggots. Yeah my pumpkin had started to rot. It was gross, the maggots were jumping all over the place and it was pretty disturbing. I just held my breath and just cleaned it out anyway cause we needed the pumpkin. It was definitely a Halloween to remember. Oh oh and I dressed up as Superman. I just did the whole Superman shirt underneath and unbuttoned my white shirt. It was fun, the members enjoyed it. I hope you all had a good week and that everything is ok. I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell

Nov 8, 2009
Yesterday the Sisters in my ward had their investigator get baptized and I was able to have the honor of Baptizing her. She is a little daughter of a once less active member and is now reactivated. Her father is still less active so he wasn't able to baptize her. He came though and it was really good to see him there. It only took me three times before I got it right. It was pretty embarrassing and I felt really bad for 예지 (that is her name). The first time I said the prayer and dunked her and I didn't step on her feet so one of them popped out and so I shoved her down even farther and I felt like I was almost drowning her. She came back out coughing and I was told that I forgot a word. I felt bad I told her sorry and that we had to do it one more time. I said the prayer right and dunked her and stepped on her feet and was pretty sure that I got her under. I was a little hesitant to dunk her deep because of the last time and I felt bad. But when she came out they said that the hem of her dress popped out and a hair or something didn't go all the way under. I felt really bad and said the prayer and just threw her under. We got it done. I just told her that she was three times cleaner then the rest of us so it was ok.

We also were able to go to the orphanage again this week. It is always a lot of fun to go and see all those kids. They all seem happy and like they are doing well. They are pretty well taken care of. We ate this pumpkin soup that tasted like throw up. I really didn't like it so I made Elder Green eat mine. He didn't mind though.

I am doing good, I got my schedule of my last days about going to the temple in Seoul and all that jazz when my exit interview is and such. It was pretty weird. Oh well, I will just keep going until that day comes. I love you all and thanks for your support. Remember the church is true. Elder Snell

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-11-11T15:16:00.002-07:00

Oct 26, 2009
We received the transfer news today and I got news that I am leaving Mombasa. I have kind of mixed feelings about it but overall I think its time for a change. I am going to miss the people though, that's what makes it so hard to leave an area. I love it here in Mombasa and I love the people, they are amazing. Hopefully I'll find the same in my next area. I am going to a place called Eldoret. It is just a smaller town but I am excited. My new companion is from Zimbabwe but I have never met him, it should be fun, I am excited. It will most likely be my last area. I will tell you all about it next week. We had 3 baptisms yesterday so that was cool, we were happy to see those work out. I hope you are well. I love you, thanks for everything that you have done for me and that you continue to do for me, your the best! Elder Hansen

P.S. We might get to go on safari before we go home...maybe

Nov 2, 2009
So, like I told you last week, I got transferred. Now I am in Eldoret serving in the Huruma branch. The town isn't too crowded and we are kind of on the outskirts of town so we only go there on Mondays. From the few days that I've been here I can say that I really miss Mombasa, especially the people there. I just got so comfortable there it felt like home, I loved it. Right now the transition has been kind of difficult but going to church yesterday helped because I was able to meet the members. The church seems a bit more developed here than Mombasa but I just can't wait to get to know the people, that's what makes an area. I am still lost but I know things will get better. This area is a lot different than my last. I took two buses to get here in two days. One was an 8 hour ride the other around 7 so nothing too bad but still not too fun. Eldoret is cold though, I'm freezing! Its funny to think because I never thought I could be cold in Kenya but its a bit cool. Most of it is just because I am used to the heat in Mombasa but I am just trying to adjust. Its nice though because I'm not sweating all the time and I can actually use a blanket to sleep, it feels good. My companion is a cool kid and I have enjoyed being with him for these few days. He is from Zimbabwe and is 3 months out and an awesome missionary, he is willing to work so that's good. I have also realized that no matter where you go there is always more work than you can handle but I am excited to get to know these people and to work with them.

I love you. Thank you so much for everything. I got your package right before I left Mombasa and I loved it!!! It had everything I needed, thank you very much. From now on just send mail to the mission home. Love you, Elder Hansen

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-11-11T14:46:00.005-07:00

Nov 3, 2009
This week has been a good one. Only two more weeks in this transfer. Time sure is going fast. We had a big week of meetings this past week. Elder and Sister Sybrowski were awesome, they brought a great spirit to our mission. Sister Sybrowski knew her scriptures much better than Elder Sybrowski did haha, they were both really nice people though. I conducted the mission conference, that went really well. Overall it was just a great experience. Since I was leading the meeting, I got a lot of interaction with them so I got to know them a little bit so that was neat. They were each powerful speakers.

We also had interviews with President last week. Elder Reed is leaving, I am going to be getting a new companion here in Buena Vista, so we will just have to see who I get now. I will know in 2 weeks exactly what is going to happen.

There is one thing that Elder and Sister Sybrowski asked us to each get from our parents, it is our family conversion story. Like how our family came into the church, who were the ones that made it so we were born into it, when it happened, why they joined, the missionaries that taught them. If that makes any sense. Just a history of our ancestors and their dealings with the church. I will take everything that you have about anything to do with it.

If you could just send it in the mail that would be great. I had never thought of it until the were talking about it and then they said you will all be better missionaries if you get your parents to send you out everything they have and can find out about it. Many times we think our families have been in the church forever, but the church was only organized in 1830 so it doesn't go back any further than that. ha it made sense. so if you could get that I would really really appreciate it.

Sunday night there was a CES fireside. IT was Awesome! Elder Uchtdorf talked, you definitely need to watch or read that one. It was a powerful talk with a lot of good stuff. It would be good for all of you to read it. There is something in there for everyone. It was powerful. and really pretty funny as well. If you can watch it on the Internet it would be better but, if all you can get is the text, that would be good too. I will check up to see if you saw it next week :) Everything is going really well here, thanks for everything. Love you all, Elder Walker

Nov 10, 2009
Yeah we did have some pretty good visitors this week. The Sybrowski's were great and they were some great speakers,really quite moving. Sheri Dew was supposed to come in last weekend but she had to cancel at the last minute due to some circumstance she had so that was a bummer, but these two guys from New York that work for 20/20 were here. But we really didn't get to meet them, we were really busy this last week, we had a ton of meetings and not a whole lot of time to be doing work, we did have 6 investigators at church though, that was awesome. I'm pretty sure that is the most I have ever had, last week we had 5. All of them should get baptized soon but we will just have to see. One is for sure, she is getting baptized Nov 14 so that will be nice.

Oh yeah, and I forgot to put this in the other email, but this last week I found out that 2 people I recently taught, 1 in Elkins, and the other in Martinsville are getting baptized. I don't know if you remember me talking about a guy that we were going and teaching in Jail (Clifton Bond). Well, he is out now and is going to be baptized soon. Also in Martinsville, remember that girl Britney Watson that we were teaching she was only 16, she knew the church was true and everything, but her grandparents wouldn't sign the Baptismal record so she could. Well almost a year later, she has gone to church every week and stayed strong and her grandparents have softened their hearts and she got baptized this past weekend! She is now 17. So it was a special treat to hear about each of them, especially in the same week! Life is great, the church is true, Elder Walker

Elder Cade Casper:

2009-11-04T14:32:00.006-07:00

Cade at the MTC - Pointing to the World Map - his Mission

Nov 3, 2009
The week has been good. I really notice a difference in my receptiveness to the spirit when I truly forget myself and worry more about the people here in State College. We have tracted, and tracted, and I actually don't mind it. I have been blessed with a really good trainer, he talks to EVERYBODY! It was hard to do at first, but now I love to see somebody walking their dog (which everyone has a dog here) and going over to talk to them. We have found some new investigators, people who are very open. As we teach them the first lesson outside their house or something I can see them being interested or uninterested. It's cool when we finish teaching and we are able to set up a return appointment with them. We went on exchanges with the district leader yesterday, well, I did. He is cool, way nice guy. I went into his area which is Clearfield, and we tracted in Phillipsburg. His area just consisted of a lot of small little towns or villages. I didn't like the area. It made me appreciate State College and realize how much nicer the people are here.

But we had some good lessons. We taught a guy named Anty on Saturday who I think had been in prison. He was way open about Joseph Smith. We left him a copy of the Book of Mormon and we are meeting him again on Saturday, I hope he invites the Spirit as he reads so that it can let him know it is true. Oh, one cool thing about exchanges with E. Andrus (the d.l.) was we went up to this guys house, and he said "Come on up!" He was a Methodist pastor and he was very nice. One of the first things he talked about though was how he knows what we believe in and he thinks Joseph Smith is a hoax, and the B of M is from his imagination. I hadn't had anybody tell me this. He said a couple of years ago missionaries came and told him to pray about it. He said he did, and that was the answer God told him. I didn't know what to do, I thought he was going to be a jerk. But then he said he heard a voice three times throughout that night saying something like "don't discount or disregard those people." So then we talked about how he respects what we do. And we talked about how the world is so messed up and how we as Christians have to help people. He was cool, but I had just never heard anybody tell me that the answer they got from God was that Joseph Smith is a liar. It kinda shook me and questioned it a little bit, but then I realized how much I knew that he was a prophet of God, and even though we don't have the archaeological evidence to prove the B of M, I still know it's true. By the way, what was that rock you guys visited about Lehi's Dream on your cruise, I was wondering about that. But yesterday, I was back with Elder Tranter and we went and saw Michelle. We taught her the first half of the plan of salvation, then Elder Tranter gave her the invitation to be baptized. She said she would pray about it but the thing which was going on in her life at the time that made things really hard for her is that she got fired, and her boss was a really manipulative lady and she is going to fight it I guess. She is nice but it was hard to have a serious talk with her because she honestly laughs at everything! As she talked about her life I realized that that is how she would handle stress. It's not a bad thing, but it was just hard to talk about the gospel with her. I really hope that she'll get that answer to be baptized, because she came to church and liked it, so we will see.

We are having a crazy racquetball tournament today with like 4 companionships. It's sweet. Because there are two comps in State College, we are State College inner area, and then our d.l. and his comp are coming, then the z.l.'s are playing too. It will be sweet. Next week I think we are going to drive by the football stadium and the baseball field. The State College Spikes play here, they're single A. I'm not sure who they are affiliated with.

I love you guys and I'm glad and thankful to be here.
Love, Elder Casper

1st Baptism
Elder Casper, Michelle, Elder Tranter

Penn State Football Stadium

Elder Cameron Summers:

2009-10-30T13:34:00.004-06:00

August 31, 2009
This last week was pretty fun. I was in a triple with a couple of elders in my zone until Saturday when i received my new companion. His name is Elder Anderson from Salt Lake. He is a big guy. He played football, rugby and wrestled before he came out. He has a scholarship to go back to Weber and play O-line when he finishes his mission. He is a good missionary. It was pretty funny the other day- While we were tracking, we saw this guy doing trimming his yard and I yelled out in Samoan if he needed an extra hand. And then one of two things happened 1)He was shocked that I knew Samoan or 2) He just didn't understand my Samoan. But his response was this, "Haha Haha Haha, What?!" The look on his face was pretty hilarious. My companions and I had a good laugh about it that night.
So this upcoming Sunday we are playing for a Fireside in our area. I am excited. Me and my old companion organized it. We invited the Miss Samoa who is currently living close to our area to come and do it. She put together a choir and goes around doing Firesides. She is from Utah and she even served a mission. I am really hoping that this might get the work moving a little more in my area right now. It is kind of slow and the ward just isn't very involved or doesn't care to much about missionary work.

There was also a pretty big earthquake here on Saturday night. According to my companion it shook the whole house. However, it was at night, and yup, you guessed it, I was to dead asleep to notice anything! So I missed it.

So this upcoming week Samoa will be changing the side of the road we drive on. We will also be getting new cars as well that are right-sided drive. A lot of people aren't to excited about the change. All is well. Love you and appreciate all that you guys do for me! love cam

August 31, 2009
I find myself not taking as many pictures anymore. I guess I am starting to take Samoan life for granted and it has now become a familiar way of life. Most baptismal fonts are those gazebo type styles. Kind of cool huh. I'm not to sure what two pictures you are talking about but I'll assure you, there's nothing to worry about!

Tomorrow is our temple day. I am really excited. Transfers are tomorrow as well. I was happy when the President told me that one specific elder will be transferring into a different zone. He has been pretty difficult and it should make life a lot easier for myself and my comp! Ha kind of bad to say, but true nonetheless!
Yesterday at church, we had two new couples come to church. I was really excited to see them there. Both couples have expressed to my comp and I that they want to be baptized. Hopefully this week we will set a baptismal date. One couple isn't married yet and will probably take a little time. However the other will hopefully be baptized sometime next month.

October 5, 2009
So this week has been pretty crazy. But good as well. I hope you were able to watch conference. It was great. We watched the Saturday morning secession but missed the afternoon and the priesthood because we went to help people affected by the tsunami. We weren't allowed to go help people on Wednesday and Thursday because the Samoan government told us no to go that they had plenty of people out there for now. It then opened up for us to go on Friday, but we had a baptism that day and weren't able to go.
One village called Lalomanu got totally destroyed. It is really sad. We went there to take supplies but no one was there. Everyone had left and are living with relatives or friends in different villages. Our main concentration on Saturday was to get supplies to non-members. Other churches are so unorganized for things like this. All members were taken care of by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. Wednesday this week is when big help from the Church is suppose to arrive. I am told that it will be enough to clothe and feed 35,000 people for a month. I’m not quite sure what the president has planned for us this week but we will find out later today when we meet with him and his assistants.
Conference was awesome. There were a lot of talks centered on love and a lot of talks brushed on it as well. Elder Holland gave an awesome talk on the Book of Mormon and was a strong testimony builder for me.
If you want to help, maybe just something simple but with genuine love. Samoans are simple people and a small thought of them being in your prayers would go a long way. This might sound kind of weird to us English speakers, but Samoans love to have blessings bestowed upon them. So maybe send blessings? I know kind of weird but whatever. Everything is good and all is safe. Have a great week and a good trip! love, cam

October 26, 2009
But these last weeks have been really busy. We baptized a lady in one of the areas we cover. Her name is Loge and she lives in Fagaloa. That area is absolutely beautiful. It was so fun to teach her. She has such a sweet personality and was so eager to learn. We married her and her husband on Tuesday and then baptized her that next Saturday.

We are currently teaching three families that are progressing towards baptism. The of the couples are set to be baptized on the second Saturday of November. We are still waiting for one of them to get married.

The clean up work we did was absolutely amazing. I was constantly reminded of the Savior while we were during service helping people clean up their property and giving out food. We usually stayed in big groups going from house to house to see what we could do, but one time myself and another elder were able to break off of the group and go out on our own. It was such a great experience to walk up to a family totally destroyed by the tsunami and ask with Christlike love what we can do to help. I was also remind of President Eyring's talk in conference when he talked about asking with sincerity how someone was doing. While we were doing service on one of the days we were totally shocked by another tsunami warning. We were all resting and taking a break underneath some shade and looking out at the ocean when we heard a bunch of other people screaming from the other end of the village. Some kids ran over to us and told us of the tsunami warning and it was quickly verified when we tuned into the government am radio station. It was quite ironic to be in the middle of tsunami devastation and cleaning up the rubble when another warning was issued. We all went inland and up a mountain but the warning was quickly lifted.
This last week, on Tuesday, we had our mission tour. Elder Hamula, the 1st Counselor in the area presidency of the Pacific came and addressed us. The spirit was so strong there. All missionaries from Upolu were there and Elder Hamula gave an amazing talk. He gave his thoughts concerning the tsunami and read us parts of DC 88 and 3 Nep 11. He told us natural disasters are meant to humble people and prepare them for baptism.

The first or second week of November, Pres Ucthdorf (spelling?) will be visiting Samoa. We are scheduled to have a meeting with him and all the missionaries as well. I am really excited.

That doo rag was a life savor and that was the first time I was able to use the sunglasses you sent me for Christmas. So it all worked out pretty good! All is well. God bless! love, cam

From the “Couple Missionary” He sent the photographs.
Dear Brother and Sister Summers,
We thought you would enjoy these photos of your son. We have had the opportunity to work with him this past couple of months and he is an excellent Elder. The Elders have worked hard in giving service to the tsunami victims. After 48 hours without sleep Elder Summers came to me and said, "It just doesn't get any better. We've enclosed the picture of him when he said this. He doesn't usually wear bandannas, but that day they were so hot, I tore up old sheets and they all put them on their heads. They actually reminded me of the 2000 stripling warriors. You have an awesome son and he is doing well. We have been so blessed to work with him.

Thanks for raising such a fine young man.

Elder and Sister Eves

Elder Andrew Peña:

2009-10-27T11:40:00.002-06:00

This week was absolutely amazing! It was busy and full of a lot of things and through the busy schedule we were able to accomplish a lot in our own area. We taught 24 sit down lessons this week, our goal is to receive 20 weekly. When I first came on my mission our goal was 15 and we struggled with that ( as a mission ) now we are all learning and progressing together and making great things happen, we are at 630 with our goal of baptism and we should be having 3 in our zone this upcoming week. Last week, obviously Monday was our preparation day and we played basketball which was fun and look forward to playing again today:), on Tuesday we had zone conference in Modesto and it was really good. Sister Gonzalez was sick and did not show up and we were educated on H1N1 or known as the swine flu so we received some instruction. Nothing big, President Gonzalez said " You wont die from it, you'll die if you are disobedient and don't tell me " haha, he is awesome! On Wednesday I was on an exchange in my own area with Elder Fifita and we taught 7 lessons that day and found and set up a lot of appointments. It was a very successful day, I loved it. Thursday I went with Elder Pickett to his area and was able to learn some Spanish from him. Friday we had to do stake correlation all day. It was rough but we got a lot done. Saturday I went to Waterford ( my 2nd area in the mission ) on another exchange and we taught a lot of people and I was able to share my testimony in Spanish. We went to a recent convert's home for dinner, her name is Maria Huerta and when I was in the area a year and some odd months ago, we were teaching her consistently a couple times a week. It was good to see her again and have dinner at her home. We also went to another family that only three of them were members when I was in the area and now their entire family is baptized. Since I left, the 2 sons got baptized and so did the husband and they are very active in the Spanish Branch. It was good to see them. Sunday we had our stake correlation meeting at 7 am and had a great meeting but we only had 1 investigator at church, yikes! We are teaching A LOT of people but none of them keep their commitments in coming to church. We will get them though. We are teaching 4 families and about 6 individuals consistently and it is great. The work is great and we see miracles everyday. Most importantly I'm continuing to strengthen my testimony and my desire to work and serve. I love sharing my testimony with people. It is the greatest thing to do, especially to try it in Spanish except I really can't say much :) but that is ok ... suy aprender ...... I love this work. It is the greatest thing that has happened to me. I love the scriptures and being able to learn from them, I love Preach My Gospel and the effective tool that it is to ALL members in strengthening our studies and knowledge in the gospel. I hope to hear from you all again this week and continue to pray for us and the missionaries in our mission and for our goal. I love and appreciate all of you and what you all do for me. :) Love your favorite missionary!! Elder Peña

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-10-27T11:06:00.002-06:00

October 5, 2009
We had our Korean Thanksgiving stuff and our full P-day. We went to play soccer first thing in the morning. When we got there all of the Korean missionaries had bought uniforms and were looking all spiffy and matching. Well I hadn't really planned on playing but how could I turn down an invite like that? I rolled up my pants and we had a foreigner team plus three Koreans without jerseys. We ended up destroying them and it was really satisfying. They were all bummed that they lost to a bunch of non-matching, no cleat wearing foreigners. But hey, at least they looked good when they lost. Just remember the moral of the story is appearance isn't everything. I am reminded of that everyday when I open my mouth to talk to people in Korean and they are stunned I can speak the language. We then followed up the game with a quick dip in the public bath house and finished the night out with a pizza and a movie. We get permission to watch a movie on the Korean holidays. Of course not anything but this time it was Prince Caspian. The second Narnia. I enjoyed it very much. This week were able to meet with our investigator who told us that she was going to go to a safe home to volunteer. It is a place for just less fortunate kids from elementary school to high school. We decided we wanted to go with her. We were eating with the kids and enjoying ourselves. I sat next to a kid who liked basketball so we started talking and the next thing I knew he is coming to church a few days later. His name is 영진 (young jeen) he is about 17 years old and a good kid. He really enjoyed church and is progressing really well. I am not sure on his family situation but we spent Thanksgiving with him at the church. I thank my Heavenly Father everyday for my family and the support you all give me. I am happy to be here in the service of my God and count everyday as a blessing. I love this gospel and even more I love teaching about it. I love you all and miss you.
Elder Snell

October 12, 2009
I got a call at about 6:40 am my time from one of my missionary friends singing me happy birthday. His was the week before. We started to talk about how it was weird to be 21 and that started to talk about all the things that we could do. He said you can buy alcohol, I pointed out we could gamble in Vegas, which he then said in return that we could buy hand guns and then I laughed and told him its a good thing we came on missions or we could be getting into some trouble. Of course we never intended on doing any of those things but I am still thinking about the gun;-) When I was little I always thought that when I turned 21 I would be an adult and be able to do so many things. Now that I am 21 I still feel young and don't want to do any of the stuff I can. Life comes at you fast. I can't believe I'm spending my last b-day in Korea. Thanks for all of the b-day wishes. I was able to see conference in my native tongue and enjoy every minute of it. When Elder Jeffery R Holland got into his talk it set shivers down my spine. I feel comfort knowing that the leaders of our church have that kind of testimony of the Book of Mormon. I really love the Book of Mormon, I wish I had more time to read it. There is so much to be learned from that one little book. I also really enjoyed what he said about his Grandfather saying no evil man could write such a book and no good man would if it weren't true. The Book of Mormon is true, I have felt the spirit testify the truth of it unto me, also as a missionary I have been able to see other people come to know of it's truthfulness as well. Your testimony may not be as strong as Elder Holland's but it can be. I love the scriptures and love to read them as well. I suggest if you are not reading them regularly you should be. I love this work and teaching people of the Restoration. I have had a great Birthday and am sad that this is the last one I get to spend in the field. It is a little different then spending it in the potato field which is what I usually did. I love you and thank you for everything. Elder Snell

October 19, 2009
It is the start of a new transfer and it just so happens it's my last one. I got a new companion and his name is Elder Green. He is from Kaysville, Utah. He has been a missionary for just about a year and he seems like a fun companion. His trainer was Elder Swan. If you remember that was my comp that I struggled with last year in Haeundae. We have already swapped some stories and had some laughs, seems like we have a similar opinion on some things. We had a pretty good week, we went on a bike trip with the youth of our ward to a really pretty area not to far away from Pusan. It is actually my new comps old area. I really enjoyed riding around seeing all of the orange trees and Buddhist temples. I will really miss this place. It was a pretty good week its always hard when you have a companion that will be leaving because you have to go say goodbye to everyone and then your just the one standing in the back saying alright well I will see you next week. We danced in English class and it was a lot of fun. Elder Kaing is a good missionary and we had a good transfer. He actually went down to my greenie area so that was cool to tell him about it. Love you all and miss you. I am praying for all of you. Elder Snell

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-10-27T10:54:00.002-06:00

We received the transfer news today and I got news that I am leaving Mombasa. I have kind of mixed feelings about it but overall I think its time for a change. I am going to miss the people though, that's what makes it so hard to leave an area. I love it here in Mombasa and i love the people, they are amazing. Hopefully I'll find the same in my next area. I am going to a place called Eldoret. Its just a smaller town but I am excited. My new companion is from Zimbabwe but I have never met him, it should be fun, I am excited. It will most likely be my last area. I will tell you all about it next week.

Other than that nothing new is going on. We had 3 baptisms yesterday so that was cool, we were happy to see those work out. I haven't got your package yet, I will check the post office tomorrow before I go to see if its here. I don't know what I want for a Christmas package, don't feel like you have to send one though, I will be home soon after that anyways, you can just save your money if you want. Anyways, I hope you are well. I love you, thanks for everything that you have done for me and that you continue to do for me, your the best! Elder Hansen

P.S. We might get to go on safari before we go home...maybe

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-10-27T10:40:00.002-06:00

October 1, 2009
I'm doing great! Everything is fine. I'm still alive! Sorry I didn't e-mail Tuesday. Its been a crazy week. Tuesday we didn't have enough time cause we had a zone P-Day and it was hectic and yesterday we were in Lynchburg on exchanges and we had no time then. It seems like all we do is drive from one place to another. Our zone is huge geographically as well with numbers. There are 18 missionaries and it sprawls from West Virginia all the way down to North Carolina border. We are right in the middle. Yesterday we were down south for the district meeting and exchanges and now today we have to go do a baptismal interview up north. We are staying really busy but its just not in our area so that's kind of frustrating. It rained all last week here as well, it is a nice day here today and it sounds like it is going to be nice weather this week too. High 60's low 70's for the highs, and there is NO HUMIDITY!!!! so that is the nice part ha ha . Its perfect weather right now. I am all done with the scorching summers here. Kind of a weird thought. We had a great zone P-day on Tuesday, it was pretty fun. We had a BBQ and went on a hike to Crab Tree Falls and had a testimony meeting at the top so it was really good just took more time than I thought it would. Also this past week I got to meet Brandon Mull, he is a famous author that has a series of books called Fable Haven. We were able to have dinner with him and his wife at the Benedict's home. Jeff Benedict is a famous author as well and we live at there home in an apartment that is right off of their home. Its really nice. Sherry Dew is coming to town Halloween weekend and we get to meet her as well. Its pretty fun stuff. We do get to watch conference this weekend. I am looking forward to that I always enjoy it out here. It is something I look forward to each time. We just have to go to the church to watch it. We don't get to sit at home in our PJ's and watch it. We will be watching it in our suits. Ross's Baptism went really well, the spirit was very strong. His dad called Sunday morning before church and tried to anti him that we were a bunch of crazes and tried to send him on a guilt trip. He just let it roll off and that was the end of that. He got confirmed and now he is really thinking about going on a mission. We are going to be going and seeing him here when we are done here today. He will be a strong member. He's a good kid. President told me and Elder Reed that we are going to be staying together another transfer so that will be good. Transfers are next Wednesday so that will be yet another hectic day for us. It seems like we don't have enough time to get everything done right now. We have some really good investigators right now though, we will be having 3 baptism in November so that will be really nice. Time just continues to fly and I don't know where it all has gone. I love you all. Hope you have a great week. Love Elder Walker

October 11, 2009
The weather has really been cooling off here as well. Most missionaries have been wearing their sweaters this past week. I haven't yet because it feels perfect to me , but I'm sure by the end of the week I will probably have one on. We had an awesome experience this week. We tracted into the less active member. His name is Consantine Mkinya, he has an absolutely crazy story. He was a refugee in Zimbabwe about 5 years ago. The government was out to kill him and a secret agency had to sneak him out of the country to South Africa, and he had some connections with the United States, and so he was able to obtain a green card to come here to get out of Africa into safety. When he got here he came across some missionaries (4 years ago) in Dallas Texas and he eventually was baptized. He was active for about a year and was about to get the Melchizedek priesthood when he had a job change and he was then not able to attend church. Eventually he wound up here in the area that I am in, completely out of the habit of going to church and just kind of had a dim lit fire. Before he left Africa, his wife & him separated and divorced because everything that was going on. He had two kids with her, and they were stuck in Africa, but eventually he got them here to America with him and they are now living with him. They are 10 and 12. As we talked to this man, you could just see a new light in him. The Spirit had been gone from him for a long time and he kind of had just forgotten what is was like. When we left he said, you guys have reminded me of what I have been missing out on for 4 years. I was just lost in the world. He came to church on Sunday with his two kids and the kids want to get baptized. Its a humbling situation. I wish you could hear his whole story in his own words, its just heart wrenching. He went from being a well off educated Lawyer in Africa, to a man with nothing in America, the man is a genius, but the United States won't recognize his schooling from Africa so he has had to start from scratch. We talked to the Bishop here and the church is going to help them out despite him really saying he could do with out. But they really do need a little help. We had an appointment set with them to teach them last night but his kids are both really sick so we moved it to Thursday but you could already tell the difference within their own walls of their home. The spirit could be felt as soon as you walked into their small apartment. People like him just give me hope for everything and everyone. Even when we are in the roughest times, there is still hope, we just have to keep going and not give up and that is what he is doing. He just needed his candle relit and we were able to be a part of it. It was wonderful. We are having so much success right now its unbelievable. We have 5 people who are set with baptism all ready to go, and we have a good handful more who will be ready soon. The Lord truly has been blessing us. We have really been trying to work hard despite our limited time we have to work in our own areas, but I'm grateful for the people we have right now, I have grown to love each one of them. Last night I was on exchanges with someone in our area and we just had a few minutes left before we were going to call it a night, so we went tracting just to see if we could find someone new to teach and the first door we knocked on, the lady said come it. We had an awesome lesson with her and we will be seeing her again on Friday, and she wants to come to church. Everything just seems to be going perfect right now. I'm grateful for it. Thanks for everything. Elder Walker

Information:

2009-10-09T12:03:00.002-06:00

Many of you know that our missionaries are going to start coming home soon - please send me information (as you want to) about their return dates, their Sunday sacrament meeting dates and time when they will report, any homecoming parties that may be happening, etc.

Also, I know we have sent a few young men out and if you want to join this blog - please send your information to me via e-mail at: hillierl@byui.edu. I can also add their picture(s). I'd love to add anyone who wants to be added.

Lark

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-09-29T14:16:00.002-06:00

Everything here in Mombasa is going well. The heat is really starting to pick up though but it could be worse. Hopefully I'll be gone by the time the heat hits hard but we will see. The work is still moving along and for the most part is going well. I'm glad that the measles campaign is over, now hopefully more people will be home this week. Its not too effective to knock doors, ha I don't even know what people think when they see two white guys but its always interesting. The worst is when we tract into Muslim homes. You never know until they answer the door, then you can tell a few things 1- by their clothes, and if not that then 2- whether they have a black dot on their forehead from praying, or 3- by their names, ha. Its kind of awkward though when we run into them because they don't want to hear anything about our message and so it kind of puts you at a loss of words, ya know? Most of them are kind though so that's good. We had a baptism yesterday and that went through well. It was a sister of one we baptized a few weeks ago so that's pretty exciting, they are both strong in the church. Also I had to teach Elders Quorum yesterday but it wasn't a big deal because there were only like 6 people in the class, it was pathetic. We spoke about home teaching, something that doesn't happen here. We are going to talk about it again next week so hopefully that will help to get it going. If members home taught it would help the branch so much, it would help with retention and that's one thing we struggle with here. So that's about all that's going on here in Mombasa. We are going to the beach to play soccer today so I'm pretty pumped about that, should be fun!

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2009-09-17T11:36:00.006-06:00

Apartment inspection

Sept 8, 2009
This week went pretty well, we had three investigators at church, one of which got really overwhelmed and felt like it was too much for her. The other one was a father and son who came without the mom because she isn't ready, Andy (the father) however is a lot more ready and prepared than she is so that will be a process with them, they are from Twin Falls.

Other than that though work is pretty much the same, we have apartment inspections tomorrow which probably won't be too fun, Sister Albright is expecting immaculate houses and the townhouse I am in has be inhabited by missionaries for over 5 years, so it is in pretty bad shape, the Slaters(relief society president) paid for us to get a carpet shampooer and it didn't have much of an effect on any of the carpet.... oh well, what can you do? Life is good though.

Sept 14, 2009
The work is going really well. Yesterday was a pretty neat day for me. Sitting in the Aquia sacrament meeting I looked around and I saw Sheila Oertly, the Montalvo's, Susie Dodson, Mark Lefebure, and then we had two new investigators at church as well named Bobbie and George Cash. It was a bit humbling see how much the Lord has blessed me in this area. We have a lot of people to teach right now, which I am very thankful for. We are teaching a family from Twin Falls, Idaho right now and they are a perfect family, young with two kids, they would just be the type of family everyone looks to teach on their mission. The wife has been the slow one, but in our last lesson we were able to have a member come with us that connected with her really well and there was a different countenance than the previous lessons. I really hope she steps up to the plate and overcomes her concerns. Elder Shattuck

Sept 21, 2009
Had a really neat experience this weekend as I was able to attend stake conference, Elder Neal L. Andersen happened to be presiding so I was able to hear from him, both times, the adult session as well as the general session. It was great he talked about temples in the adult session. Then in general conference he talked a lot about doing the basics of scripture study and stuff like that. The adult session was far better though, I remember going to the church and caulking around greeting all the people I know and doing the missionary thing making sure to get seen and remind people about missionary work.... anyways once it started to settle down I remember sitting down and listening to the prelude music as he walked into the chapel.... it was a very simple yet powerful feeling that came, to be in the presence of an Apostle is a special thing. I got a picture with him:

Elder Andersen, Elder Shattuck, Elder Smith

I also ate my first vegetarian meal last night, it wasn't to bad. It was lasagna and had like fake sausage or something in it, I was surprised I was pretty nervous about it.

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-09-11T09:39:00.007-06:00

Elder Chin and Elder Walker

Elder Alec Fullmer & Elder Adam Walker

Zone Conference

Aug 24, 2009
Well I have transfer news... I'm getting transferred to a new area. I'm going to Lexington, Virginia. I have been called to be a Zone Leader, not too exited about that but the town that I am serving in is the Mormon town of Virginia, half the people are LDS so it will be kinda weird, compared to everywhere else I have been. There is a college there, Southern Virginia University, and it is pretty much the BYU of Virginia, there are 6 student wards and it is ran by church members. So we will see how it goes, I'm exited to see. We cover 3 student wards and it sounds like 1 family ward. So that will be really weird compared to just one family ward. I leave here tomorrow. We set a lady for baptism here this past week, Shannon Neely, and she is solid, she will be an awesome member. She was an Anti Mormon 2 months ago and was addicted to Heroin 2 years ago. She talked to her preacher about the Book of Mormon because we gave her one while tracting and her preacher told her just to give it back to us because it was a nonsense book. Well, she wondered why it was nonsense, she started reading and then she couldn't put it down. Now she is getting baptized. Her conversion started over 2 years ago because she was addicted to drugs (mostly Heroin) and other prescription drugs. She was trapped and felt that she was never going to be able to get out. She was in an abusive relationship with her x-husband and that didn't help matters. One day she had just gotten home and she was out of it and she was suicidal, she didn't want to live any more, she was questioning if God even existed at that point. When she walked into her kitchen she fell on her knees and prayed her heart out. From that point everything has gone up, she has been completely clean of drugs since October 10, 2007 and the even better part is that she is going to be baptized October 10, 2009! She has been being prepared for over 2years now. Its amazing how God works with each of his children. Some are ready in a heart beat and others take years and years to become what he wants us to become. Everything is going well here, I'm exited to go to a new area, it will be interesting and a new experience but it should be fun.

Aug 31, 2009
Elder Reed is awesome, we are having a great time and having some great success. We are teaching some great people and I believe we will have quite a few baptisms here pretty soon. This area is awesome, I love it. There are 6 missionaries that are really close and there is just a ton of work to do. This is every missionary's dream place to come, and I got lucky and here I am. It's weird cause we will walk down a street in one of the towns here and people will say hi to us. There are a ton of members here compared to everywhere else. There are 8 wards within a 10 mile radius. Its great. Five singles wards, that is fun, we were able to speak in one of them this past week, there are a lot of good people here. We have been really busy, its been a fun week. We are teaching a lady and her kid has autism and it is really hard to teach because her daughter is always just going crazy. The last time that we went over there she spilt sprite all over Elder Reeds Scripture Case. The funny part about it was that she hit it once on purpose then he picked it up and set it on the table and then she came over and pushed it over again, we didn't know what was going on. Overall everything is going really well though. We are doing great and staying really busy. Zone conference is Thursday so we are looking forward to that. We have some good things planned for that so it will be great. D & C 121-123 have been some scriptures that have been really close to my heart the last while. I guess there is a talk from Elder Holland in the Ensign this month. Its about Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. I believe there is some great advise for all of us in there. It might be something you would want to look up and study, it puts adversity in a good perspective. Thanks for everything, everything is going well and I am loving out here. I love you, Elder walker

Sept 9, 2009
Everything is great here, life is good. Its been a great week. One of the people that we are teaching received his answer that the church is true on Sunday. He is on the Football team at SVU and he is a good kid. He was having a hard time with getting an answer to his prayers, but last week we taught him how to fast and promised him that the day that he fasted he would receive his answer. Well he tried it and guess what, he got his answer, it was great. It was at a very interesting time as well. There was a kid that was bearing his testimony in one of the singles wards that Ross goes to and me and elder Reed were just looking at each other saying, "this is not good" it was just one of those testimonies that you don't really think that an investigator would be to impressed to hear. Well that was his spiritual moment in coming to know that the church was true. It just goes to show, you never know how the lord is going to work. He works in very mysterious ways. Many times through the most unpredictable people. he is getting baptized Sept 25th. so it is coming up soon. We also set another lady this week for October 10th, Her name is Melissa and she has a 5 year old daughter that has autism. She is really nice just has a lot of struggles. She is getting baptized October 10th. So we are looking forward to that. This area is awesome. We cover 3 wards, 1 family ward and 2 singles wards. We stay really busy, and its fun because the singles wards are all fired up about missionary work because they all have friends that are not members and they are inviting like crazy, its awesome. We found a new lady to teach this past week, she is really good and she will come along. We are hoping to get her fiancee involved as well.

Sept 14, 2009
It's really weird having missionaries coming out that graduated in 2009, its weird, I'm getting old. Haha. That’s great that you had a lesson on missionary work at church. Its something that everyone needs to hear there is no doubt about that. It’s the most important thing we can ever do. We have something that is very special that no one else has so its important to share. The thought that I have been leaving with people is I start of by asking them, “what does the Book of Mormon mean to them” and then what do you think the Book of Mormon meant to Joseph Smith? Then I read a few versus out of DC 135 (v.3 and sometimes another one, just depends). It kind of opens people eyes of how important it is and reasons that we need to share it with people. We are doing really well here, the Lord is blessing us a lot right now, we have 4 people set with baptism dates. One is Sept 25, another Oct 10 and we have 2 set for Nov 7, we also have a lady that we are going to set with a date tonight, and we have 2 or 3 more that will have dates as soon as we are able to teach them again. There is a fire for missionary work here right now in all the wards that I am in, especially the student wards. Its been great, members are really trying to find people for us to teach so we are spending a lot more time teaching. I am really enjoying it, I love it. Me and Elder Reed get along really well, things are falling into place really nicely and I am loving it. The work is great, time is flying and I love life. Elder Walker

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-09-11T09:24:00.002-06:00

Aug 31, 2009
Nothing to exciting happened this week it was just the same old same old. A little frustrating at times but that is life. I am feeling like my time here in my are right now is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks with the transfer. We have two more weeks left in this transfer and it marks almost six months in this area. I am a little worried about where I will get sent cause I don't have to much time to get to know the ward and are before I have to leave that one again but oh well. I will just work hard until they make me leave. I have been going on a lot of splits with younger missionaries lately and some of it is fun and some of them I am glad I am not their comp. It is a little wearing though, I just want to work in my area with my investigators.

Sept 7, 2009
This week was a good one, we are sure staying busy. We have to run from appointment to appointment, running errands for our branch in between that. To top it off I got a call from the home office telling us to look for a new house, which we really didn't have time to do. Well, we didn't really find a house and we barely made it to all of our appointments. So now this week we have even more appointments, still have to find a house and before I transfer finish making a member book for our Branch President. Fun Fun Fun. I guess I would choose this over not having anything to do. But we have a week full of stuff to do and not much time to do it. Time always goes faster when you are staying busy though. I love you. I am loving this work. The church is true. Elder Snell

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-08-27T09:20:00.001-06:00

August 26, 2009
Sunday we were planning for two baptisms but one fell through because of polygamy in her family so we will have to wait. But the other one went really well and now we are just looking forward to the confirmation. With the way people have been talking it sounds like they are going to split our area his next transfer so my comp and I will probably split and get new ones, who knows though. I have enjoyed being with my companion, he is a cool kid. Its funny because at home I'm sure we wouldn't hang out but coming here has helped me to learn to find common ground with others, so everything is good. He has just been out for 10 months. It is a bit weird with two white people but the work is moving forward. Yesterday was one of the best experiences on my mission. Right now I am in Nairobi and we came here on Monday and had a zone leaders conference on Tuesday and we go back tomorrow. So yesterday we had our conference and I learned a lot and we also had a guest come and speak to us, Elder Holland. He had a lay over here in Nairobi and so he made time to come and see us and speak with us, it was amazing. He is such an amazing speaker and he speaks with so much power. He is an awesome guy, also very funny. He only got to speak with us for about 40 minutes but it felt like only 5, I could have listened forever. I loved to hear his testimony about missionary work and the gospel, it definitely strengthened mine. It was a great opportunity and I don't think I will ever forget that. So that's what has been going on here in Kenya, the work is going great and I am loving it. Time is flying by, I think too fast. I'm scared to come home, maybe I'll stick around a bit longer, ha. Well, I love you all, thank you for your prayers, support, and love. I miss you and hope all is well, take care. Elder Hansen

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-08-18T15:05:00.003-06:00

August 9, 2009
This week was good one. As I said before, we had 4 missionaries in the ward that I am in. The work was going really slow in the other area so they took them out up there and we have now taken over their area. It was kind of funny because yesterday right after President came and picked them up to take them down to Roanoke, their new area, we got a member referral, a member here wanted us to go and teach her friend. We did that last night and we had an awesome lesson with her. She is a 20 year old girl, and is confused about a ton of stuff, and she really enjoyed the lesson. She is taking care of her aunt who is pretty much dying along with working at a raft guide shop here in West Virginia and she is starting school this month. She has a ton on her plate but she knows its what she has to do, pretty impressive to me. I believe she will get baptized pretty quick, I hope next time that we see her, we will be able to set a date with her.

We had interviews yesterday and they went really well. President wants to move me to a new area, but at the same time he doesn't know if Elder Rivera can handle taking Oak Hills area by himself with someone else right now, so we will just have to see what happens. He just puts me in a dead area every time, then me and my companion get it going again, then he takes me out. It's fun stuff. We will just have to see, in 2 weeks we will know what is going on for transfers, I have no clue what will happen. Yesterday we were tracting an apartment complex and we knocked on this family's door, and they are all from England, they have very thick accents, it was awesome and we talked to the husband for a while and he has been interested in learning what our church is about for the last few months since he and his family have been here in America and just didn't know how to. The spirit has been prompting me to go and tract out that apartment complex that we found them in but, of course, I hate apartments so I just put it to the side. Then finally yesterday I put away my pride and just went and did it and we found a whole bunch of people to teach. We knocked on 24 doors, taught 3 lessons, and got 5 follow ups. And it is a big apartment complex so we still have a lot to do there. We'll just have to see, I am definitely willing to go back now, haha. Over all it has been a great week. We have a busy week planned for this next week, so I think it will be a good one and it is going to go fast. Love you all, Elder Walker

August 16, 2009
The leaves are already starting to turn here, fall is right around the corner, we have to sweep our porch off every other day or so because of the leaves. So it will be no time and this place will be on fire.

This week we found a family of 7 (each of them over 8) and we even found them tracting! We had an awesome lesson with them this past Saturday, and we will be meeting with them again tonight. We are hoping to get some baptism dates set soon but will just have to see. We also have this other person named Willy Willis, he is an alcoholic and he has tapered himself down little by little and his goal is to be 100 percent sober by this next Sunday so that he can feel comfortable in church, he wants his son to come as well. We have so much going on right now its ridiculous. I just hope we can see some baptisms come from it all. We'll just have to hope and pray for the best. The work is going really, really well here. Transfers are next week so I will probably leave. It seems to always work that way, I get put in an area that is really slow and when we get it going again, I can just plan on saying goodbye. We'll see though, maybe I'll stay one more transfer. I like this area but at the same time I'm ready for a change. We'll just have to see. I will know next Tuesday. Over all things are great. Love you all, Elder Walker

Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-08-18T13:28:00.000-06:00

August 15, 2009
This week has been pretty grand. Lots and lots of teaching which makes for lots of spiritual experiences. Speaking of spiritual experiences, I asked a young man on a doorstep what he thought a spiritual experience was. We got talking about times when he has felt that God was pleased with him. He said, "I've had lots of experiences where I felt God was pleased with me, especially after I got this tattoo on my chest." He pulled down the collar of his shirt to show us this huge tattoo on the entire left side of his chest that showed the Savior on the Cross. It showed the whole scene: the Marys, John, the Romans, the Jews, it was huge. I'm glad to know that I can know God is pleased with me without having to get a ridiculously huge tattoo.

Elder Andrew Peña:

2009-08-17T15:47:00.002-06:00

August 3, 2009
To start off the week and how it was! I only remember yesterday which was the greatest day I have had in a long time! It meant everything to me. It seemed as if everything went perfect and the joy and peace that we felt all day was amazing! It was even a long day but it was great! Monday we had our zone activity in Oakdale and played basketball, ate lunch, made t shirts and played volleyball and threw water balloons! It was great! Probably one of the funnest activities I have done on my mission! Or I should say probably the first activity other than basketball haha! We are going to the family home evenings in our branch now every Monday and it was great. We meet with the high counselor over missionary work every Monday and he is awesome. Tuesday we had alot of appointments and we went on splits. Elder Beach went with brother Layne in Salida and I stayed in Modesto with our ward missionary in the 1st ward and we had a couple of appointments. Then we had a family home evening with a less active family that is coming back to church that we are trying to help direct family home evenings! I loved it! Wednesday we had district meetings. They were good. Thursday was ok and Friday we planned alot and we went on our exchange with the assistants and I guess this is where another week turned into something great! I went with my old companion Elder Simmon to Fresno on an exchange. We drove there Friday night and went all Saturday. We had appointments every hour and it was amazing. Most of them fell through but I learned so much more about how to be a missionary so it was great! I repented and had to change the way I do things and the Spirit was able to help me see where I can improve and how better to change my life and my mission! On our exchanges we always have interviews and set goals! The week went by really fast because we had to get all the information for our stake correlation meeting and it was a bummer because we received all the information and when I was in Fresno my companion had to make copies ( about 6 packets ) of all the papers and when I got back on Saturday night at about 10:15 I noticed only one side of the papers were copied so we were missing a bit of information. So we discussed about what we were going to do to still have an effective meeting. So we went to bed at 10:30 so we could be obedient because obedience brings the blessings that the Lord wants to give to us and if we aren't we don't receive them! We woke up at 4:30 got ready and at about 5:45 started highlighting and talking about the things we needed to go over in our meeting. Our meeting started at 7:30 and it took from 5:45 till 7 to prepare and highlight and finish all the stuff! But our meeting went great! We were able to have an effective meeting. We then went to sacrament and then after that we had to teach a class which was really good. Then we split to go to both our wards. I went to elders quorum and was able to see a less active member that came back get set apart to be in the elders quorum presidency and we ran into a member, brother Tautua who is less active and we visited him this week and he came to church and it was amazing to hear everyones testimonies. I learned in Doctrine in Covenants about the priesthood and how fulfilling our callings and responsibilities gives us a " renewing of our bodies " and that is exactly what is seemed like happened. We had church till 5:15 and had break the fast with the branch and went out with a ysa and had an appointment with this lady named Margy and it was the lesson that changed my life! It was amazing! The spirit that was felt and the lesson that was shared were amazing! I have a renewed testimony of the restoration of the gospel! I love it all! Yes there may be days that are harder than others but there is no reason to complain! The savior sacrificed his life and has felt more pains than imaginable and yet I may have a bad day in the hot weather! Or because no one wants to listen to me! Or the gospel! Well I'm being selfish and you can just call me Laman or Lemuel. All I know is that the savior went through all of that for me so I don't need to complain! I just need to be obedient and experience the blessings! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!:) Elder Peña

August 12, 2009
This week was great again! Nothing was too exciting! We just worked a lot and were able to bike a lot in the hot weather and we went on an exchange with Elder Woods from Missouri and my companion went with Elder Fatu ( my trainer ) and now one of our district leaders! It was fun. We had a lot of fun biking and I was able to get to know Elder Woods a lot better! Other than that this week was great! We had a couple of good lessons and things. We finally had 2 investigators at church! One who finally came is moving to Missouri and she left right after sacrament, then another came and I was able to sit with him through all of church in all the classes. He is a great guy! In fact, Ace Merril knows a girl here named Sarah Whitmeyer. It is Sarah's uncle who we are teaching! So, its a small world! :) He is the nicest guy and has taken the lessons before. He has, I guess, a really bad word of wisdom problem but really has a desire to make changes in his life! Other than that I forgot to mention a while back that our ward mission leader in the Modesto 1st ward is an old stake president and is one of the most humble men I've ever met and am so blessed to serve with him! He is absolutely amazing. I really hope to see him again! You would think that he is a general authority. He is great! Other than that it was great to have two of our investigators at church! Well, transfer calls came and I will be going down to Turlock 4th ward still to be a zone leader. It is the biggest zone in the mission and the zone covers my second area " Hughson " and my old companion Elder Fifita is serving there so it will be good to see some old faces. I've never served in Turlock. The only times I have been there are for zone conferences! So I will be going to see new faces and a new area! I'm very excited! I will be covering one ward instead of three! My heart sank I was so relieved! It will be great because we have three district leaders instead of two! I'm super excited and can't wait! I will be leaving on Wednesday morning! So I will let you know how much I love my next area! It is a great honor and blessing to be able to serve and I'm glad I am blessed to be out here, it is good to hear the blessings that come from being obedient and the love that our Heavenly Father has for all of us! I love you all and hope everything is going well! This week we will also be heading down to Fresno for zone council which is always an amazing meeting! I love it! Before you know it I will be letting you know all about the next transfer and who I'm serving with and all the great people I am able to meet in Turlock! I hope you all miss me tons cause I know you do!:) Love you and miss you all too! Thank you all for the emails and the updates! Take care and have a wonderful week!
Elder Peña

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2009-08-17T13:47:00.001-06:00

Just to give you an update of what is happening on my mission. We have been teaching this member referral named Mark Lafebre, who is the national champion in tae-kwan-do, and have been meeting with him on and off for the past 2 months. Anyways, in our last appointment we had invited him to be baptised on the 5th of Sept and he just looked at me and said why that day, I was going to ask if I could be baptised this weekend, it blew me out of the water!!! It was super exciting, however he hasn't been following the word of wisdom which presented a problem, so we called up Pres. Albright and he came down and I was able to go and teach Mark again last night while Elder Bell went out with a member of the congregation to teach our other investigators, anyways, Pres. interviewed him for baptism and he got the go ahead, he is going to be baptised this weekend. It was a pretty amazing the way his conversion came about, the only doctrine he had a hard time accepting was the three kingdoms, and he had been praying about it for three days straight, constantly just thinking about it and asking God if it was true. Well, through that he fell asleep and continued to have dream after dream showing him many churches out there in the world and how they were not leading people on God's pathway.... he woke up and now knows that it is true.... so that was neat.

We also have another baptism coming up the week after with a woman named Gina Dickelman, who is a single mom with a little 4 year old daughter named Lucy. We tracted into her right after her fiancée had just left her and she was in the Gall of Bitterness as the scriptures would describe it... anyways, she has embraced the gospel with open arms and is doing very well. Elder Shattuck

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-08-17T13:14:00.002-06:00

July 20, 2009
This week after a flash flood here in Gimhae it is still cloudy and they are still sweeping up the dirt from all of the mud slides off of the hill. We woke up Thursday morning to the wind howling and the buckets pouring. It was the worst one I have seen since I came to Korea. Our investigator didn't drink coffee for a whole day. It was really cool. We weren't even planning to teach her the Word of Wisdom but she asked us why we don't drink coffee so we taught her and tried to commit her to a week but she said that it would be really hard so we started with a day. She made it and we are going to work on longer this week. It is really cool, our other investigator, we taught the Plan of Salvation to and she really liked the part about teaching people in the spirit world, so we brought up the part about doing family history in our church and it lit a fire underneath her. They are both doing really well, we have some other investigators and we are going to start meeting with a new family that I am really pumped for. I really don't want to transfer out of here.

Today we are headed up to an ancient ruins on a hill above our area and took some cool pictures. It is over cast so it is not too hot.
Elder Snell

July 26, 2009
Kim Teh Jaw (김태자)is a really cool investigator and she is really progressing. She sent her son to church yesterday. She would have come but she had to work on Sunday. Her son had a lot of fun and our young men were really nice to him. He had a little trouble enjoying sacrament but he is only 13 so that is understandable. I give the kid props for even coming. He is also going to a youth camp that they are having this weekend so that is awesome. We also had two other investigators out to church so yesterday was a really good day for all of us her in Gimhae. One is Mr Lee, he is a lot of fun, he is an older man who has a little trouble with the Word a Wisdom. The Branch President pulled him in to his office and talked to him about it. I think that it will really help him. That is the only thing keeping him from getting baptized. Also our other investigator, Pak ha na (박한나) came which almost blew me out of the water. She really loves God but doesn't always agree with her Pastor. She is also doing really well. We are meeting with a new family and the mom of a member who is waiting for his mission call. We have been teaching him out of Preach My Gospel. Its been like our own little mission prep thing. Anyway, after weeks of practicing we are going to teach his mom the Plan of Salvation. I really love the Plan of Salvation and the blessings it brings us in our lives. I thank God that we have a knowledge of this wonderful plan. I really hope that she likes it, pray for us. As you can see, the work is taking off here in Korea and I love it. I really don't want to leave Gimhae. This Friday I will find out if I am leaving or staying and whether I get a new companion or not. Elder Sprosty really has been a good comp and a lot of fun. We actually didn't have our first fight until this morning, it was over a Board Game called Settlers of Zarahemla. After the game we both realized that it was our first fight and we had a good laugh about it. It has been a lot of fun. Last week we had an interesting experience that I forgot to tell you about, we were street contacting and we ran into a pastor that was doing the same thing as us and we sat down and had a talk with him. It was really awesome. We talked for like an hour. He first started showing us pictures of the second coming (he even had a copy of ours) then he said that God is judging people right now and we were a little confused so we started talking about the tsunami that hit a couple years ago and killed thousands of people. He said that all of the people were horrible, horrible people that were smoking, drinking, fornicating, and just plain out sinning. The tsunami was God judging them just like when he sent the flood in the time of Noah or when he allowed Jerusalem to be destroyed. Then he got on the topic of the Jews and he said the Jews are the worst people in the world. We asked him why he says that, he showed us 1 John 2:22. He said that Christ said the Jews are the worst people in the world. We were a little confused because it doesn't say that in 1 John 2:22. Then he asked us what we have to do in order to obtain salvation. We told him the basics. Faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end which includes keeping the commandments. Then he asked us what the commandments are. We started naming a few and he stopped us and said, No there are only two commandments and he quoted when Christ said that you need to love God and love your neighbor. We said yes those are commandments but if you look closely Christ was asked which of the commandments are the most important and he answered with those two. He said yes you're right and then we started mentioning when Christ said other things like honor your parents and forgive others and he kept agreeing with us. Then he went on a rampage screaming FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE. Then we asked him if calling the Jews the worst people in the world because the ones that were alive when Christ was killed denied Christ and took part in his crucifixion was forgiving others. He kinda stopped and looked at us and I think he was really thrown back by that statement and we were able to teach a little to him but we had to go cuz it was almost nine so I tried to get his phone number so we could meet him later and he was like just come to my church. So I asked him what church, now this was after I had already tried to ask him about three times during our conversation and he would just say it was a church and that it wasn't the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterian, Catholic or any of those churches but wouldn't tell me the name. I was starting to wonder if this dude went to our Church, but he wouldn't ever tell me just kind of awkwardly changed the subject by banting on about something else. Well, we had to leave and I finally got his number and said we'd come to his church and we could meet. So I asked him where it was and what name and he said it didn't have a name yet, that he had just made it..... Uh yeah. I couldn't stop laughing after we left cause the whole thing was absolutely ridiculous. I thought it would be a lot harder to stump a Pastor but this guy was pretty easy. We are still trying to find a time where we can both meet.

Aug 9, 2009
I went to another religion church yesterday and it was a really cool experience. We have an investigator who is Presbyterian and she has come to church the last three weeks but she still goes to her church so just jokingly she invited us to her church. I don't think she really thought we would come. But I have always wanted to go to another church just to see. So we waited for her in front of her church and I thought she was going to fall off her bike. It was pretty funny. We walked in with her and one of the Elders of her church read my comps name tag and was like wait are these Mormons? We told him yes and he was like I am sorry they cant go in. Our investigator asked why it was a free entrance thing and apparently everyone was welcome why not us. He went off about what our real purpose was and how we come to steal there kids and take them to our church. Needless to say my comp and I didn't like the fact that this guy was bashing us right in front of our faces so Elder Sprosty started talking. I had to calm him down and our investigator explained how she just wanted to show us how they worshiped. He finally let us in and he told us we were not allowed to proselyte or talk to anyone. We smiled told him thank you and went in. While we were walking up the stairs we heard him say to someone, they understood what I was saying. I think he felt like an idiot. Man it was completely different. When we came the whole congregation was standing with there hands in the air sing. It was just like something out of a movie. They were clapping and singing shouting amen and hallelujah. It was really quite entertaining to watch it all. I quite interesting. Then the Pastor got up and talked about temptation and how if when we fast if we are hungry it is really not fasting. That when Jesus fasted for 40 days he wasn't hungry. It was a little off but not too bad of a sermon. When we ended all of the church elders got these bags and went around and picked up the Pastors pay check (tithing). As we were walking out one of the ladies asked our investigator where we were from and she gave her the hand and told her she would talk to her later, that she had to send us off well. It was really quite funny. She apologized for the way her church members acted and after we left she said she went and rip on them for ten minutes for how they acted. Then she came to our church. It was quite the experience.
Other then that and three investigators out to church it was just a lot of meetings this week. The first week in the transfer is always full of meetings for Zone Leaders. It is fun but it wears on you. I am really tired today. We decided to have a lazy Pday and stay home.
I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell

August 17, 2009
Today we climbed up the mountain and we ran around on a wall and came back down. It was a beautiful view of Gimhae. It is a lot of apartments and not much else but it is still beautiful. As we were hiking up the hill and we were able to get out of the city for a little bit I felt like I was back at home. The smell and the cool breeze. Minus the bamboo trees, humidity, and the Buddhist temple at the top it would have been home. I really have grown to love Korea and the scenery almost as much as the people. This week we had English class and met some really cool people. Nothing extremely exciting but just normal missionary work stuff. We got ready for the surprise party that we will be throwing for our mission President. He will be turning the big 60 (six o). He really doesn't look it or act it most of the time. He is a hoot. He has been a really great Mission President.

I am on splits now with Elder Tanner. He is a greeny from Eagle, Idaho. He is a fellow spud and this is his first split. I feel honored almost. Oh did I tell you that I got Acupuncture? Our investigator said she wanted to meet us some where and to bring our bikes. Well we did and she ended up taking us to an Asian style Doctor. It was a lot of fun and a good experience. It wasn't the back covered in needles thing you see on the TV but just a couple. The Doctor thinks I have kidney problems and now my investigator is worried about me. I think I am fine but she wants me to go in three times a week and get treated. Yeah like I have time for that. I told my mission president about it and he said not to worry about it. Our investigator was a little disappointed that I wouldn't do it.

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-08-13T11:28:00.002-06:00

So we just had transfers this past week and I am still here in Mombasa, and I am happy to be here. I am really loving the area and also the people here, they are awesome. The work is going really well. However, I did get a new companion and it is definitely a big change-he is a mzungu- a white man, ha. This is the first white companion I have had, the first one not from Africa and to be honest it has felt kind of weird. He is from Utah and he is a cool kid. We get a lot more stares though as we are proselyting. I cannot wait for the day when I can feel normal just walking down the street or in a store, we stick out way to much here. Another bad thing about two white people is that things start to become more expensive, especially the buses. They try to raise the prices on us but we just have to talk a bit and then we can get the regular price. Nothing makes me more mad than when people try to rip us off, even though its something small its so annoying, maybe I need to work on that. This last week was a bit hectic because we were in a threesome for a few days while the other Elders here in Mombasa and I were waiting for our new companions. So even now we are kind of settling down. Yesterday was a great day at church though as we were blessed with many investigators who came to church and we were also fortunate enough to have two baptisms, now just to keep them active. We are also planning for a few more this month so lets hope they come through. This week is going to be busy also as we are heading to Nairobi, about an 8 hour bus ride. We got a nice bus though so that's good. We are going for Mission Tour. A member of the area 70 is coming and all the missionaries in Kenya will be meeting in Nairobi for a conference. I am excited, I always learn a ton at these conferences so it will be a good time. So that's about all thats going on here in Mombasa. Time is going by way too fast and as I look at it I become scared. Home is still kind of far away but close at the same time and I am scared to go home. I don't know what to do. Home is kind of like a dream to me, it doesn't seem real. I guess it will hit me when I reach there. Well, hope all is well at home. I love you all, take care. Elder Hansen

Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-07-31T11:51:00.001-06:00

July 18, 2009
We gained the Bishop's trust through the Departing Missionary fireside. He gave us a list of all the Part members and all of the people he didn't know in the ward. So we went to work contacting one of them and then tracting their street. We picked one on Tuesday named "Treasure Bonga" We thought that she would be African and Africans are always nice so we decided we'd go see her. We knocked on the door and a young African woman answered. She told us that she was NOT Treasure but that she knew Treasure was a Mormon but had moved away. We asked her if she wanted to learn about the church and she explained to us that she already knew everything about our church. We kind of thought to ourselves, "Yea right, everyone says that." So we said, "Well, did you learn about Joseph Smith?" And she says, "I told you I know everything about your church-I used to read the Liahona every month in Africa." Now people don't usually know the word Liahona and even less people know that it is a magazine so we were a little surprised. So we asked what she thought of the Book of Mormon. She said, "Well I know that it is true." We picked our jaws up off the porch and read to her the last paragraph in the Introduction-surely she wasn't familiar with the intro we thought. My companion read all the way up to " . . .the Lord's kingdom once again established on the earth." And she said "Yea, yea, yea, 'preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.'" Now not many MEMBERS have the introduction MEMORIZED but she did. We were shocked. We pushed hard to get her to meet with us but she refused because she is a nanny and her host family doesn't want visitors and yada yada yada. So we pushed harder and finally she agreed to 15 minutes the next day at the park near her house in the morning when the kids she watches were at school. Her name is Kelopile Ranchos (kel-oh-peh-lee). In our 15 minute lesson she told us she didn't know why she answered the door and we asked her why she was not a member and she said she had no idea what was holding her back. She said she wants to do what God wants her to do. We asked how she thought she could know what He wants. She said prayer and scripture study and fasting. We said perfect we'll fast with you tomorrow and we'll see what God says. We fasted on Thursday and then talked to her on Friday morning. She said that she had a great experience fasting-she felt so good and would tell us all about it at our next meeting. She said, "I won't be able to come to church with you this week because I am going to New York with my friend. We were sad until she said, "He is a member of your church and I told him that I met with you and he said 'Kelopile you can run but you can't hide,' so I am going to church with him in New York this week." We were overjoyed.
That is where she is at now.
Pray that she will get baptized!
July 25, 2009
Yesterday I got to go on splits with Elder Shattuck. We taught a man in his area named Barry. We taught a powerful first lesson to Barry (a black man with corn rows who looks like Darius Miles). Very spiritual lesson. I asked him about "asking in faith' after reading James 1:5-6. I asked if he ever went into his closet and prayed out loud. He got very serious and told about how he had seen so much in his life and one day recently he had spent a whole day in a dark room just praying. Then we had him read the Restoration pamphlet about the First Vision. He was quiet after he read it. And then Barry began to weep. He said "Wo. Wo. That's all I can say right now." Then he said, "I have to meet this man Joseph Smith. This is fantastic." Elder Shattuck asked him to be baptized and he said, "Why not? It's time to stop delaying doing what God wants me to do." I hope he gets baptized. It is fun to have spiritual experiences with Elder Shattuck.

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2009-07-20T10:31:00.002-06:00

July 1, 2009
I am going on 4 1/2 months in this area, it is great right now, we are teaching quite a few people. Last week we tracted into this guy named Yam Chemoria from Nepal, he has been a refugee for the past seventeen years of his life! Anyways he has been located here and he is trying to get his life going, he has a wife and a 13 month old baby who are currently up in Maryland working, he just happens to have a job down here so they are separated until they can find a job here... anyways we met him on Tuesday, taught him on Friday, and then again on Saturday, he came to church this Sunday and loved it! He said that he will be there for all three hours this next week. He has a Hindu background but says he feels much happier and loves the thought that families can be together forever instead of becoming a grasshopper.... Anyways it has been a neat miracle to see.... Transfers are next week, we will see what happens... Elder Shattuck

July 8, 2009
I got transfer calls last night, I will be staying in my same area, but I will be combining with a neighboring area and training Elder Bell to become a new zone leader.... still in a car, still a zone leader and still in the same area just covering two wards now :)
I got the elder that I wanted, if I could have chosen what would have happened to me at transfers this is exactly what I would have picked.... Elder Johnson is going up north to the Annondale stake and will be a zone leader still and yes he will still be in a car.

July 15, 2009
We are teaching a lot of people, it has been quite the week trying to coordinate two wards and all that good stuff. We did however just schedule Yam Chemoria for baptism! He is the man from Nepal and is amazing! I am really enjoying the teaching experience with him. He has been a complete sponge in everything that we have taught him. He just accepts everything that we teach him and rarely has any major concerns. My new companion is great as well. He is from Farmington UT and is actually 21, he has been out just over six months now. I am also living in a new place, (pretty close to my last apartment), it is a two bedroom, three bath town home. Missionaries have been living there for years so it has been beat up quite a bit. There is this one closet upstairs that missionaries have just been cramming full of junk for centuries it seems like. It has been nicknamed the Cave of Wonders. I found old soda and an ancient type writer, mountains of clothes and all sorts of other junk. missionaries are weird. Anyways, love you. Elder Shattuck

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-07-16T16:22:00.004-06:00

June:
Cade's mission is right above mine. 3 or 4 areas border with many of their areas, maybe we will serve in bordering areas and go to lunch or something one of these times here in the near future. That would be pretty cool huh? It looks like things are all messed up with transfers and everything, and me and Mackay are just going to be staying another transfer together. Not for sure yet, but that's what it sounds like. I will survive I guess.

Tracy's baptism went awesome, by far the best baptism I have been involved in. It was so cool. The baptism was great, but also in sacrament meeting on Sunday, she was confirmed and 2 of her kids were blessed as well, so it was an extra treat. She told us that she wanted to pull a prank on us by calling right before they got to the church and tell us that she was backing out and she wasn't going to get baptized. Her husband, Pat, wouldn't let her. It was awesome though. Her husband is a member already, he has been a member for a long time and they are looking forward to going to the temple in a year, so we will be looking forward to that. It was a really good weekend though, I wish every one was like it.

So Wednesday night, I get down to say my prayer, I begin it by saying, "our dear heavenly father....." all the sudden I hear BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!! I drop to the floor and wait a minute, cause I knew they were gun shots, I just didn't know how close it really was. To make a long story short, come to find out the guy who lives right below us I guess is involved in drugs and he didn't pay the drug lords their money in time. Luckily he was in his Bedroom at the time of the shooting because 3 of the 5 bullets went through his window in his living room, and one went right through his couch where he normally sits. Pretty crazy huh? Needless to say the member who owns the house kicked the guy out. It threw us for a loop that's for sure though. But we are all alive and doing all good! So yet another Gun Shot story, they seem to just follow me around.

This week I even have an atheist story! We were out tracking about 10 days ago and we knocked on this atheist guys door. Our welcome included: Be careful, my dog hates Christians. Eventually I coaxed my way into his door and he let us in and we had an awesome lesson! But at the end, it turned out to be that he didn't think it was such a great lesson, as I thought. He says thank you for coming into my home, have a good day, bye. It was pretty weird. I left him one little pass along card with the churches website on the back and we left it at that. Well, 3 days go by and we get a media referral for someone who requested a bible, come to find out it was this guy. So we call and set up an appointment to give it to him the next day. When we get there he tells us that he has had some interesting experiences the last while. One of them being that his grandma came to him in a dream and told him pretty much that he needed to be a christian because Christ does indeed live, he has just had some awesome experiences that truly show God's love for each of us. He wants us to come back as often as we can now. It's been really neat to see him come along. He doesn't know if our church is the true one yet, but he is interested enough, I can imagine that he will be baptised pretty quickly. I guess miracles still do happen each day.

Its been a great week, hot, muggy, humid, rainy, sunny... But we have been successful and we had an awesome baptism so it was great!!

So my story for the week! here it is...
It was hotter than the dickens so we thought we would go see this less active couple that wanted us to come out and see them and they live out in the middle of no-where. 30 miles away, and that's if you take the West Virginia Turnpike, it took an hour to get there. West Virginian directions are ridiculous as I have said before and the roads that we were driving on were barley suitable for our car but we managed. So we follow the directions that Elder Mackay had taken down and he tells us that we were there so I turn into the drive way and he says now drive exactly a mile up this holler (hollow) (long driveway) it was unsuitable for our car so we decided that it would be best that we just walked up the road to their house so we didn't smoke our car, and the members advised us to do the same unless we had a pickup, and of course we didn't. So we start walking and a mile later we get to the house... so we thought, come to find out, we had the wrong holler. So we turn around and hike back out. So this is over an hour later and it was all up hill in and all down hill out. It was a mess. But we get back to our car and we figure out exactly where the place we needed to be was and we drive to that place. This holler was even worse than the last one and it was much steeper than the last one we had just got done coming out of. So we start walking up it and I couldn't believe my eyes just walking up there, I think I counted 40 junked cars, 20 washers, a bunch of dryers. Big water tanks, batteries. and there was just all kinds of stuff! It was ridiculous! and this goes on for a whole mile!! Then we get up to the house... oh boy and did we ever have a wonderful greeting. Out of the forest around us all these chickens come out of no where and start making a huge racket and start coming towards us, I bet there was at least 100 of them and they are all just surrounding us. This house that they lived in was all but caved in, I would never have guessed that anyone would have ever lived there let alone how far out that they lived. Then we see the members, the guy had a beard down past his chest and just says, Whhhyyy HOoww youu do-in. He invited us in to his home and there was a trail leading up to his front door and once we got into the home that trail continued up to the couch that was covered with crap but had 1 cushion cleared off so that I could sit on it. The kitchen had 2 trails in it. 1 that led to the fridge and the other to the sink. What a journey it was. This explains my mission in a nut shell.. The nicest people in the world but boy are they interesting!! haha I love it though. The missionary work is pretty slow, we have a couple people that are coming along but we definitely get a good experience and meet some interesting people every day! Their names were the Purdues (Jack and Katherine I believe). I love it. Everything is going well here in West Virginia, you gotta love this place. It sounds like Brantley is getting a little taste of what my mission is like in his area that he is in now. Its great.

July:
For the 4th of July we went to this big festival that they had here in a town nearby and we just did a bunch of street contacting. There were 4 of us missionaries there and we actually had some good successs on finding some people for missionaries to teach. We didn't stay for the fire works that they had though. It gets pretty dangerous at night here. You just never know how many phsyco's are on the roads and everything. Everyone drinks and its just a mess. Its just a little different than Idaho. I really think it is for our own saftey.

I had my interview with president. Elder Mackay is leaving this transfer. I don't know who I am getting yet but I do know for sure that I am getting a new companion. He just told me to hang in there for 1 more week and then I would be getting a strong missionary to help this area get going again. Cause Beckley is an awesome place, good members, pretty good sized city, good people. But when the members don't like one of the missionaries too well things seem to just drop dead. But next week there will be a change but for right now I am just working hard trying to get things up and going a little to make it a little easier on the new missionary coming.

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-07-16T15:31:00.003-06:00

June:
We have this member in our ward who is working on his mission papers and so we have been helping him prepare. Almost like a mini MTC beforehand. It has been really fun. It brings back memories of when I was first learning how to teach and how hard it was even in English. To tell you the truth I have taught a couple of times in English, once on my mission and it was pretty rough. Anyway he is doing a good job. He is about 23, his parents aren't members and he is a stud. He joined the church when he was about 16. He already served his 2 years of military service for his country and now he is going to go do 2 yrs for the Lord. I don't know how Koreans do it. We are coming to the end of the transfer here pretty quick, we are on our last two weeks.

I just realized that this area is the farthest I have been away from the ocean since I got here. The first time I haven't been able to walk to the ocean. That will be a little different when I get home eh? The whole north and south thing here is not doing too well. I am not worried though and you shouldn't be either. The church is pretty aware of everything that is going on. We have been told to be ready with everything in case something does happen. Remember Mom the Lord takes care of his Missionaries. The ex-president just committed suicide last week or so, so that and the whole north thing are being talked about quite a bit but we don't understand the language good enough to talk about that stuff so that is good.

Other then that the work is moving forward and our Branch is really starting to pick up. They are beginning to talk a lot more about member missionary work which is really good cause when I first got into Korea it was almost impossible to get a member referral. We now are working on about six of them for the sisters. Still nothing coming for the Elders but the men in Korea are stubborn and we will keep working at it.
We had Zone Conference last week that I had to lead and give and training thingy at. It was really good. It turned out really good and a lot of people came up to me after telling me thanks for the good and fun training. I had a nail and screwdriver and the strongest person in the room race one of the sisters who had a hammer. Yeah needless to say that the sister won. I likened it to working diligently but also working effectively. It went over really well. Some tools that work in some areas don't work in others.

Yesterday we got to go to the fire side of one of the guys who helped with the translating of the Book of Mormon into Korean. He is a really cool guy, a little hard to understand cause he is old but it was a pretty decent fireside. He talked about how he was
inactive for 13 years or so and when the missionaries would come over, his wife, who was not a member, in fact, didn't even know he was member of the church always got mad when the "Cult with the big nosed foreigners" came by. It doesn't sound as weird in Korean. Finally, one missionary came and she didn't know why, but she liked this one. He was just different and she couldn't explain why. She was later baptized and her husband was reactivated. Could you imagine how different things would have been had the missionaries given up? That missionary also ended up being the Pusan Mission President in 1988-91. He is now a professor at BYU. His name is Peterson. Nice guy and still good at Korean.

It was also the birthday of the twins in our ward yesterday and so I made them a Banana Bread cake sort of thing. It was banana bread just in a cake shape with frosting on it. It turned out good. The frosting is getting harder for me to eat without getting a headache.

I really do love this work. I am having a great time. I love gimhae and my comp. He can be difficult sometimes but is great. I will probably have a new one when I email you next week. I am pretty sure that he is out and I will be staying.

It is the start of a new transfer. I took my last companion to the mission office last night so he could get ready, he is now the new Assistant to the President. I did a pretty good job at training him, eh? I hate to see him go, I really enjoyed him but we probably wouldn't have ended on such good terms had we stayed together for another one. Three is too long for most people to stay together. I got my new companion this morning, his name is Elder Sprosty, like sprosty the snowman. I know, lame, I am sorry, I am working on it. He is from Vernal Utah, you know, one of the three families there. We were actually in the MTC together for 6 weeks and then he came to Korea. I knew him a little bit. It is a little weird being the senior Zone Leader over someone older then me. But it should be an interesting transfer. I think we will do ok.

My mission is the best decision that I could have ever made. I never have and never will regret it. Speaking of missionaries, we had to send 17 missionaries home today. That took a big chunk out of the mission and also a big chunk out of the people that I know now. I lost a lot of good mission buddies in that group. Now, all of my senior companions are gone. Talk about weird. I was able to meet Elder Thompson's parents for a little bit as well. They came to pick him up. My area has shrunk to a 2 man area rather than a 4 man area so I have a little more ground to cover and a little more weight on my shoulders than last transfer. It will be a lot of fun. I am excited for it, Elder Sprotsty and I will have fun this transfer I am sure.

July:
We celebrated the 4th with a BBQ under the Church. Our church is suspended in the air with a parking lot under neath. We found some hamburger patties that weren't too expensive or big either. They turned out pretty good, the Branch President bought a new grill for us to use cause he said he needed one anyway. It was really nice of him. It was only like a little $30 one that fit about 4 burgers comfortably but it got the job done and we were able to have a pretty successful 4th. We live in the area with the airport so while we were eating we had planes flying over head and it was just like we were at the air show. Not to mention we live right next to the Fire station and it was just like the parade minus the candy. I felt like I was back in America for a split second.

We had our zone meeting this last week. It went really good. We have a new Zone motto that is "Washin' the Coffee Mug". There is a story to it, don't worry. There is a missionary in our district and his dad is a recovering Alcholic. When he was back in rehab when he was younger, his counselor was a ex-drug lord. He told his dad how, when he was into everything as deep as you could get, he lost it all, his money, cars, and family. He was miserable and realized he had to change. So the next day he said he was going to fix everything get his life and family back. After about an hour he was back smoking. He realized he couldn't do it all in one day. So he decided he would start small so the only promise he made to himself was that he was going to wash his coffee mug after he used it. He did it and then the next day he put it in the cupboard. Well, eventually he got his life back on track and now he helps at the rehab center. We can't try and tackle it all in one day, we have to start with the little things and work our way up. So that is our motto. We are starting with the small things and working our way up. It is going well. I really love this work.

Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-06-03T16:40:00.002-06:00

May 23, 2009
May is getting baptized today! We found out she will be moving in 2 weeks to the Burke Ward so we went and checked out her new house. It is 9233 Burke Road. We we very concerned because there would be no way for her to get to church because no one from our ward could drive out of their way so much to pick her up. Then the day after we found her new house we went on an exchange with the Burke Elders. I went to an appointment in a Burke member's home with an investigator. The Burke members lived at 9223 Burke Road. Turns out the member family was concerned because a Chinese family was moving in next door in two weeks. "Not to worry," says I, "she is getting baptized on Saturday!" Of course the good Lord placed the Davies right where they would be able to build His kingdom the most.

May 30, 2009
May's baptism went very very well. She was so beautiful in white with her black hair-she looked like the queen of China! We met with her before Elder Maughan left this week and she wept because he was leaving. She was so sad. She was devastated to learn that I don't live in Virginia. I don't know if I have ever met someone with as high a spiritual receptiveness as hers. When Elder Gifford and I went over to teach her yesterday she was at the door waiting for us. She told us that she was upstairs and then God told her that we were at her door so she came down and we pulled up. We didn't have our Chinese translator sister missionary there so it was a bit of a choppy lesson. Luckily she can read English so we read some verses from the Book of Mormon. She got frustrated at one point in the lesson and she said, "I love God because He can understand and speak Chinese!" She is amazing. You'll have to meet her someday. It is impossible to be sad around her. She told her whole story at her baptism. In 1990 she was moving a box in China and found an old Bible. Usually they throw bibles away but she decided to keep it. She read it and that was her first exposure to God. She felt God's love as she read it. Later her brother went to Switzerland where he joined the LDS church. When he returned to China his family noticed that he had changed dramatically. May's mother was then baptized. May was never baptized because she didn't think it was necessary-she thought she could just believe in God and that was good enough. She took her mom to church every week in China. She smuggled in back pack loads of the Book of Mormon from Marriot hotels in Hong Kong. She read the Book of Mormon several times. She was taught how to pray at church and gained a testimony of prayer when she prayed that her mother's health would increase and it did. Then the day before she was to come to the US, she read a story on the Internet that told of the pain that a mother felt as she raised children that never did anything for her. May felt that she was acting like the children in the story -God was raising her and she didn't think that she had done anything for him. She left for Virginia the next day knowing that she needed to be baptized. She got here 3 months ago and was married the next month to a man she knew previously. Her district president in China sent her name to headquarters as a referral. The missionaries contacted her after several weeks of no one answering the door and watched the Restoration in Mandarin with her. Then I came to the area and we got the Mandarin speaking sister involved to teach May. She agreed with everything and was baptized just 6 weeks after she had been contacted-last week. I was amazed at her story especially because I was 2 in 1990. It is amazing to me how the Lord prepares his children to hear the gospel. Right now there are people whom the Lord is preparing for Andy, Tanner, and Lee. The Lord is pouring out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of their coming that they might receive the word with joy (Alma 16:16). For there are many yet among all sects, parties, and denominations who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it. Therefore that we should WASTE and WEAR OUT our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness wherein we know them. Therefore let us CHEERFULLY do ALL things that lie in our power, and THEN may we stand still, with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God and for his arm to be revealed. (D&C 123:12-17)

Cheerfully do all that is in your power this week because you know that I will be wasting and wearing out my life! Love, Grant

Elder Andrew Peña:

2009-06-01T13:28:00.002-06:00

May 26, 2009
What a great week! Transfers were on Wednesday and we made sure all the missionaries returned to there areas safely and we went back to the apartment and had a prayer and planned for an appointment we had that night. The lady we were planning for her name is Tory and she is going to the young single adult branch and she lives in Oakdale. She was a referral from her friend's mom and she said that she wanted to have the lessons and she came to church! Well as we were planning we felt impressed to set her baptismal date for the 13th of June and this was before we have even met her. We planned to teach her the restoration. Well after planning we went out to work before we had that lesson and we were able to ride our bikes in the nice hot weather! As it became time for our appointment we biked to the church which is ( at least the distance from the house by smith park to the church ) how close our church is to where we live! Anyways, we biked there and her and all of her friends were there to take part in the lesson! It was like a mini family home evening with YSA. There were about 10 of us there and we taught Tory the 1st lesson and she was already excited to be baptized and so we committed her to be baptized on June 13th and she paused and was way excited and said " That is exactly the day i prayed and felt that i needed to be baptized. " We then taught her on Saturday the 2nd lesson and the law of chastity and the word of wisdom! Today right before we came to email we drove to Oakdale this morning and taught her in a members home and taught the 3rd lesson with some more commandments ( prayer , Fasting ) and then we gave her all the information she needs for her baptismal program! The day we met and taught her was the very first day of the transfer and set a baptismal date with her and she will be baptized now within two weeks! She has already been to church plenty of times with her friends growing up and has come to church twice and has read all of her assignments and is great. On Sunday I was given the opportunity to speak in the Modesto 1st ward on my first Sunday at church, it was great. I talked on the priesthood and the blessings that come from it and why we need to magnify our callings and what it does for us! Then we had a baptism Sunday night with a man named Anthony Lopez. Anthony is a young man that has recently been married and he is 20 years old but previous to his baptism I was given the opportunity to teach him twice while we were on exchanges! The second time I was on an exchange we taught him the 3rd lesson and committed him to be baptized! Then the time comes that it is transfers and I was transferred here on the weekend of his baptism! It was awesome. He asked me to also speak on the holy ghost at his baptism Sunday night! These are a few of the many things that are happening! Today we are switching at 3 to go on an exchange with the assistants and I will be going down to Fresno for 1 day and then back up here! Exciting! Then this week we will also be having our zone meeting ( which is similar to a district meeting)and instead of it being a few companionships, it's the entire zone! Our mission training plan for this transfer is all about member work and how we as missionaries can work better with the ward and the leaders of the church and using them effectively in all we do! Today from studying and looking over Chapter 13 in preach my gospel there was a story about a recent convert who had written a letter to President Hinckley about what it was like to be a new member and it had a big impact on me and how much more we as members need to be aware of new members and what it is like for them! For those of you who have a preach my gospel I would encourage you to read in this chapter and hopefully you'll notice how much of an impact members have on new members. I don't remember what page its on but chapter 13 and a couple pages in talks about the letter written to President Hinckely and its all in italics! I love and appreciate you all! I love this work and the gospel and the joy that comes with it! I hope all of you have a wonderful week!
Elder Peña

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2009-05-29T16:07:00.006-06:00

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:

2009-05-26T10:19:00.016-06:00

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:

2009-05-26T10:03:00.003-06:00

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:

2009-05-19T16:11:00.002-06:00

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

2009-05-05T08:32:00.003-06:00

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

Elder Andrew Peña:

2009-04-30T16:09:00.003-06:00

Hello everybody! Life is great, the mission is great! We had a wonderful week! It was different and exciting and crazy things happened!! Monday of last week we had a lesson cancel with an investigator and set it up for tonight at 8:00 hopefully they will be there! On Tuesday we had what they call and have like once a year which is District leader Council! It was with all the district leaders in our zone and two other zones and with all the zone leaders and president and the assistants! We just had a council for some of the newer district leaders and questions were asked and things that are important to know and pretty much just changing the responsibilities of the district leader and helping them understand them! It was for a couple of hours and it was down in Merced! It was really good. Later that day we had a dinner scheduled with a less active family and did not have their phone number to call and confirm. When we got to their house they had forgotten and so we just set dinner up for another day! So we didn't eat breakfast and we had the council from 10 till like 2 and they usually bring lunch but they didn't this time and so we drove back to Modesto which was like an hour and a half and we just went and had a couple pieces of bread and candy and water and then went out for dinner. Then that got cancelled so really we didn't eat at all that day, but we taught a lot!!!:) We also had a good lesson that night with a less active member in our singles branch. We taught her at the branch president's home and she is struggling with her testimony and she wants to take the lessons for us to help her with that. It was a powerful lesson and she seems very excited to read and pray and she started crying too, it was good! Wednesday we had a lot to plan for so we planned for a couple of hours and a couple of our appointments fell through. We planned for our " Zone meeting " which we had on Thursday. What we did was made a huge activity with our entire zone and role played a companionship, teaching investigators with concerns and in order to get them baptized they had to help them over come their concern. We had some missionaries study from Preach My Gospel our " mission training plan " to help the missionaries help the investigator overcome their concern and I was able to be an investigator! It was fun and I learned a lot! Also to make our week even better on Thursday we went over to an investigators home and he came out way drunk and started yelling at us! Immediately a scripture came to my mind and I was going to share it and my companion started talking and the drunk guy went off on my companion for not being smart and saying he talks to much and he tries to think to much instead of using his feelings. To make a long story short he was very, very cruel to my companion and to make it weirder we were able to soft commit him to baptism and he told us he wanted to get baptized. After we were done we drove away and pulled over and my companion had a break down so we read some scriptures and talked and it turned out to be a quite eventful day with a lot of learning experiences. To make it even better after that I noticed it was the 16th of April! So if you could say I had a memorable 1 year mark! After that we had dinner we had pizza and buffalo wings that night. Friday we weekly planned. We had a couple of appointments with some less active members and invited them out to church! We are still trying to figure out their situation. We think that two of the kids are not baptized so that will be good. Saturday was a lot of fun. We have an investigator who is a quadriplegic and we tried to figure out a way to get him from his house to the church to do a little tour. Well something we thought would take 2 hours took about 3. We had a member and a truck come to his house and we picked Mike out of his chair into the truck and put the chair in the back of the truck. His son helped us load him up and then when we got to the church it was a little harder. I was able to pick Mike up and move him to his wheel chair and sweated a lot due to the hot weather!!! But we were able to go and look at all the pictures and sing a couple hymns and then went in the chapel and sat in there quietly! It was awesome! Sunday we did a baptismal interview for a girl who is 13 who read the Book of Mormon in ten hours!!! Holy cow that was awesome! She made a mistake on thinking that she was to read from the introduction to 3 Nephi chapter 11 and she did that in 4 hours and then a couple days later she just sat down again and said I'm just going to finish it and 6 hours later she finished! If that's not a testimony builder I don't know what is! So she was baptized yesterday and we did the regular Sunday of two sacrament meetings and visiting some less active members and setting up a few appointments for the week! That was my week. It was very eventful and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have it! I hope you all have a wonderful week and if it's not eventful then make it! " your future is only as bright as your faith. " I love my mission and I love you all! I hope to hear from you all again! Love Elder Peña

Elder Brantley Shattuck

2009-04-30T11:44:00.002-06:00

April 29, 2009
Just been busy today shopping and cleaning, we have apartment inspections coming up in like a week or so..... so we are trying to get ahead and clean most of it today, it's not that bad either, just vacuum and scrub counters and stuff....

Life is great though right now as far as the work goes. I love my companion, His name is Elder Gradin and is a convert to the church of about two years, he was dating a girl and that is how he got interested in the church, yes she is waiting for him, but he is out here for the right reasons and not just for her, he is really good....

We have four people scheduled for baptism right now, a single mom named Rakeya and her son Tyrone, then we have two other children that are 12 and 9 who belong to a part-member family, we are hoping this baptism will spark the father so he will have a desire to learn and make some steps in his life to get baptised.

I also have zone conference tomorrow and we are combining with the zone just north of us, so that will be fun to see some of my buddies and stuff....

Well, if I were God and could control the elements maybe I would send some of this heat your way, because I hate the heat out here, I am not excited for the summer at all, but everything will work out.

I hate to be so short but I am gonna go play some basketball and some people are waiting on me.....

I bet you can't wait for mother's day :), I am thinking about skipping the phone call this go around just so the next one means more, just kidding! I wouldn't do that to you but I am pretty excited for it as well, sounds like all the family members are doing well, Anyways I love you Elder Shattuck

Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-04-23T09:11:00.003-06:00

4/1/9
This week Claudio (from El Salvador) got his divorce finalized. Then he decided that he doesn’t want to marry Regina. Blah. So now we are working to get them married soon or to have him and his portion of the kids move out. Then they can all get baptized.On Sunday, Relief Society was combined with Priesthood and me and my comp went in and did a little presentation about how we wanted to offer our ward the Spiritual Stimulus Package. It was quite funny. Then we went and did our first spiritual stimulus injection last night. It was a lot more powerful than I thought it would be. The mother started to cry and committed to share the gospel. It was amazing. Elder Gannaway

4/8/9
We had ZL council yesterday. It was the most powerful one I've had. This was the one where we talked about how president will be going home and what we will do about it. He gave us all the details. Elder Shattuck and I both bore our testimonies. His was very powerful. We had a fast with Regina to see what God wanted us to do with their non- married situation. We felt like we should give a lesson and invite them to get married. Regina wants to get married very badly but Claudio does not. Our lesson was very bold. We brought two picture frames. One had the fam proc in it and the other had a picture of the DC temple with APRIL 2010 in permanent marker on it. We invited them to get married and then told them that next year we wanted to come back and see that they had replaced the temple picture with another temple picture with them in it after they had been sealed as a family. Claudio declined. He told us it just wasn’t going to happen. It was pretty awkward but it was very good for him. I hope he has an intense dream or something to wake him up.

4/18/09
Transferred to Springfield area. My comp is from a small town outside of Logan Utah. His name is Elder Maughan (pronounced mon). He is the best missionary in our mission. This is his last transfer. There are people from ALL walks of life here. It is quite entertaining. I love to ride the metros. I did it a lot in Arlington but not so much when you get further away from DC. There are so many different types of people it is not possible for you to imagine back home in the bubble. You should see the weather here today. It is Virginia at its best. These are the days that would make one want to move to Virginia. Right now we are teaching a woman from mainland China who has family back in the motherland who are all members. She can’t speak English really well but she is always thrilled when we come over. I think she will get baptized. She is quite the memorable character.

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-04-17T10:33:00.003-06:00

March 22, 2009
ON young, (안녕)
Jeju is beautiful and the work is going great. Jeju was busy this last week. First our trip to the other island last P-day was beautiful. I swear the nice weather just follows me around these days. We barbecued just of the coast at a member's friend's house which was awesome cause I haven't BBQ in a long time. It was Korean style but was still really good. We had the kimchee on the grill. Tin foil dinners in our new fire pit for District meeting and we ate really good last week. We had District Conference this weekend. I really felt like I was in church again. I haven't had that many people in a church meeting in a long time. Our mission President came down and he and his wife spoke. He does his in Korean himself and Sister Jennings has a translator so that was nice to hear a talk in English. We are now getting ready to get on a plane to head to a meeting on the main land and will be flying back tomorrow night. Then looks like I will be flying on one again the next week but it will only be a one way ticket. President let it slip that I was leaving next week. I am pretty bummed. Elder Rowley and I were getting along great and I was really enjoying the Branch, but it is always true its when you don't want to go is when you have to.
We met with our investigator last night and he still wants to be baptized and we showed him the font and all of that Jazz. It is looking like next week it will happen. It has been really hard to meet him because he has school and Koreans are in school literally all day. But it was good. Our less active family is doing great, I really think that we can get them to come to church on my last week. That will make me happier then a baptism would. They are really great. And the son is friends with our investigator, who is getting baptized. I really will miss this island. I love you all and I miss you tons. Don't worry about me, I am doing great and I love this work more and more everyday. Elder Snell

April 6, 2009
I promised you some details about the baptism on the island. It was really good. I was pretty nervous because the last one we had down there the kids were running around wild and it was hard to feel the spirit. So I thought I would prepare a little bit better. I decided I would give the kids an assignment to keep them busy. I had them sing a song and it worked like magic. The kids were quite, the baptism went really good, and I think my new member felt the spirit really well. When we got all done I asked him how he was feeling and he was really quite and was about to cry. It made me really happy. Also, the Mom of that less active family that hasn't been to church in five or more years, came!!!! I was so happy, the Branch President kept asking us how we got her there. He couldn't believe it. She brought two of her kids and it went really good. I feel like I was actually sent down to Jeju for a reason. The Lord really does answer our prayers. My new area is definitely no Jeju island but it is really nice. Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I was able to just sit back and enjoy church. Then my comp and I got to go and help in the primary so that was a plus. We have about fifty or sixty members come on average. It is really cool. Things are kind of slow cause I came into an area that doesn't have any investigators. I am back in the city, it is the city only because I am from Rexburg Idaho and have never seen a building over 4 stories high. My comp is really funny. He is a really good, really obedient missionary. It took a little bit for me to crack his shell but it has been fun. I really don't know anyone in the mission now cause I was isolated for six months on an island. But since i have to call everyone and all of the jazz I am getting to know them a little better. Today we went to see all of the Cherry Blossoms, they are in full bloom, they are really pretty and it is getting to that point were we are wishing that we didn't have to wear jackets. I bent down to put on my shoes this morning and I heard this rip and I thought maybe I just stretched my pants but then I found a huge hole in the back. My pants are trying to die but I won't let them. The work is going great, I am actually back in a house with my second companion that I was with this time last year. The only difference is I am his zone leader and not his junior. That is still funny to me. Mom and Dad, I love you, thanks for being who you are. Until next week. Elder Snell

April 12, 2009
I didn't even know that you guys were sent a letter about the whole Zone Leader thing let alone the ward. This whole leadership thing is busy. It is just like being a babysitter who gets to deal with everyones stupid problems and you don't always get to be the good guy. It has been a good experience though. Happy Easter!!! Or if I translate it from Korean to English, happy Resurrection Day. We were able to watch conference this weekend and I really enjoyed it. It was almost like Christmas eve for me and I got everything that I wanted except the Priesthood session in English. I guess you can't ask for everything. I really enjoyed everyones talks, one that is sticking out in my head right now is Elder Stevenson's about you're never lost when you can see the Temple. It made me think how exciting and nice it will be to have that temple in my backyard when I get home. I am looking forward to going to it on a regular basis. It has been a long while since I have been, you know. This week has been good, I went on splits with Elder Thompson this week and I really enjoyed it. We were having interviews with President Jennings and Elder Thompson has to step out for a little bit cause we had an appointment with a member and her friend. She wasn't feeling good when we started but as we were teaching she just started to cry. She said she didn't know what was going on in side of her, she was really confused. She thought maybe it was cause she just didn't feel well. Elder Thompson told her about Priesthood Blessings and she said she would like one. We had President Jennings come do the anointing and it was really good. I felt the spirit a lot and I am sure she did too. Then we had a great day of Proselyting where we found an investigator for the Sister missionaries. It felt good to be back with Elder Thompson again, he is a really good missionary, he will probably come visit you guys some time in October. He is going to go to school in the fall.
Nothing too exciting happened other then playing some Basketball when I was with Elder Boardman (from Idaho falls) while we were on splits. We went up to ask them if we could play with them and they were like will you be ok with your dress shoes on? I smiled and told them I thought I could handle it. We pretty much had the whole college campus staring at these two foreigners in shirt and ties rocking these guys sideways. It was pretty cool. I think the Lord blessed me with a couple of things that I haven't been able to do in a while. I think it really may have helped them see us in a different light. We got a couple of phone numbers out of it and it was a lot of fun. Elder Boardman and I both have blisters though. I guess that's the price you pay when you are in the service of the Lord. I love you all and miss you tons. Elder Snell

April 19, 2009
This week was a good one, more dealing with missionaries stupid ways of thinking but nothing too bad just little things. We have an English class for the moms in our Branch where they can bring a friend and all that Jazz. Well we decided that we would do an activity and make bread with them. So we had Elder Thomas' Mom's recipe and we did it. We split them into two groups and split the batch so more people could make it. Any way one of the ladies screwed with the ingredients and added double of something. Anyway to save it we had to add double of everything. Lets just say we ended up giving a lot of members dinner rolls and cinamin rolls and our freezer is full as well. We will be eating them for the next couple of weeks. My comp was sick this week so I stayed in the house another day and made Banana bread for our new neighbors and all of that fun stuff. Later in the week my comp had to go to army. In Korea every healthy man at one point in his early twenties has to go to some sort of army service for 2 years. It can be anything from a police man to special forces. Anyway then every once in a while they have to go to a thing where they make sure everyone is good and healthy. They do this just in case they have to go to war cause you know Korea is not very big. So my comp had to go to that for one day so he just put on his army stuff and I sent him on his way. It was really weird he was alone. I went in a three some with the other elders. I really have a great respect for the Koreans that serve missions because they also have to serve their country for two years. I don't know if I could do it. That is 4 years of their life they give up for service. I love you all and miss you tons. Elder Snell

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-04-17T10:24:00.001-06:00

Well this past week started off a bit slow because I wasn't feeling too well. I was a bit dizzy and light headed for a few days because I didn't drink enough water and I am sweating way too much because of the heat (don't worry mom, I am drinking plenty of water now). I guess that's my welcome to my new area, karibu Mombasa! Its a big change from my last area and I am trying to adjust to it. Overall we had a good week though. I am enjoying working with my companion and he is a funny kid ha. A bit goofy but he is willing to work so that's all that matters. He is a Zulu from South Africa and his language has some clicks in it, its pretty cool to hear. Our area is very big and we travel a ton! We use everything: matatus, the ferry, little three-wheel things called tuk-tuks, and pikipikis/motorbikes ha, that's their taxi here so its quite interesting. I haven't heard anything about the pirates though, the only thing I see is the headlines of the newspaper, that's about it.
The members here have really been helping us out with the work and they give us quite a few referrals so we quite a few new people to teach this week. We also extended a baptismal date to a Mama that has been coming to church for two years! The only problem is that she doesn't know English so we got permission to teach her with a translator and so now she is ready to go. She was very excited and grateful, it was cool to see. That's one tough thing about the work here, many people are denied baptism because of the language barrier but we are told that we must do things in English so that's the way it is. The language is more of a problem here on the coast but its still better than Tanzania, most people know English. The work is moving forward and I am enjoying it here. I cant wait to read the conference talks in the Ensign, I heard conference was really good. Your lucky that you get to watch it at home, we area truly blessed for that, we take many things for granted. Anyways, I gotta go. I love you Mom, thank you for everything. Take care and have a good week, we'll see you.

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2009-03-25T12:10:00.005-06:00

March 4, 2009
I got transferred to a place called Aquia down in the Fredericksburg zone, I am white washing it which means they are taking the elders out of that area and myself and some other elder, Elder Lassen are coming in brand new to the area and starting fresh in it. It should be a lot of fun, I am still a zone leader and senior companion and will still be in a car, I will be living in a new apartment with two bedrooms, two bathrooms and it has a gym in the complex, what do you think about that? Transfers are tomorrow and then I head to my new area, I am packing today and saying a few goodbyes today.... It won't be that hard, I don't really get "attached" out here, this area especially because everyone is so busy that you don't really have time to weave yourself into their lives.... We will be going by the Spencer's tonight to say goodbye, we were over there last night too, they will be the only ones that I am really sad to say goodbye to. It should be a lot of fun in my new area though, "country" land in the mission, lots of southern baptist, it should be interesting....... no more Hindu's:)

As the zone leader I will "supervise all the missionaries within the zone... fansy that.....The zone I am covering is the biggest zone in the mission and the most southern end of my mission..... there are about 20 missionaries, 4 of which are sisters and there will be 4 greenies coming in tomorrow starting in their first area.

March 11, 2009
I love my new area, my companion and I are very different, he is super smart and very well rounded. I will learn a lot from him this transfer. He is very analytical though and I can see it just getting annoying in the future but I will be okay. He is good natured and likes to work hard so it should be an easy six weeks again. I live in an awesome apartment, two bedrooms and two baths with two walk in closets, laundry room and kitchen, and dining room and a little living room..... it's great. The Ward is much much smaller than my last one but it is great and very missionary minded so all should go well.

March 18, 2009
I am loving my new area a lot and it has been a lot of fun this past week, we have seen a lot of miracles and will be having a baptism this weekend which should be really great!! We had a media referral that called and asked for a DVD called the Lamb of God and we went by and dropped it off and she said she wanted to learn about the church and really just wants her family to be part of something and learn more about God! So we are going back on Thursday night to teach her, she is a single mom with two kids who are 8 and 2, her brother lives with her too, hopefully he will sit down as well and listen. Thanks for getting me a picture and everything of the new mission president that is fun to see who and what he is all about. He has some really big shoes to fill, Pres. Wixom has been one of the greatest leaders I have ever had in my life. Mission Presidents sure do have a big influence on missionaries.

The Lady that is getting baptised was already scheduled when me and my new comp came into the area, we just picked it up and started teaching her and moved forward with the date in mind and she got her interview and she passed so she is good to go. Usually in most areas we have to talk to at least thirty people before someone will let us in.... Here we get let in like every ten doors that someone answers!! There are a lot of humble people here in this area.... a lot of lower class as far as temporal things go. I talked to this guy yesterday that was missing all of his teeth except his front big one, it was a pretty funny conversation!! Since it was Saint Paddy's day, I have eaten corn beef and cabbage two days in a row and guess what, we got all of the left overs :). I am way excited about that.....not, thankful but just not that excited. It will be neat to see where life leads, I don't really have a clue what it is like out there, everyone just says that it is really bad and that jobs are dropping like crazy and the world is just in chaos.... I don't like hearing about the news in the world for the most part, it seems to always be disappointing. It is pretty neat I have been reading a lot in 2 Nephi 9 where it talks about Christ and his role in the great and eternal plan of redemption and there is a scripture that talks about without him we would all be angels unto the devil for forever never to return to God..... When you look around the world and see the lives that people have you look at what they are serving and you can see what that scripture is talking about. I am starting to have a desire to truly understand the Atonement... it is so powerful and satisfying to learn about it. I wish I knew the what, how, when, why to all of it but I don't think the Lord intends to share that with us yet, but someday it will come anyways, I love the scriptures and you should read them too and tell me what you learn next week. You have to read 2 Nephi 9and I am gonna ask you some questions next week so come prepared. :)

March 25, 2009
I am doing really well, we had zone conference this past Monday which is where President and Sister Wixom come and visit the zone and we have a big day long meeting pretty much of listening to them and the Assistants to the President speak to us and teach us some new things. It was pretty good, I really like President and Sister Wixom. We did have a baptism this past Saturday, it went really well actually. Susie had a lot of non-member family attend the service and hopefully we can start teaching her daughter who lives right next to her. I don't know if it will work out but we will at least give it a try! The spirit is strong at baptismal services and it usually leaves a pretty good impact on people! I enjoyed myself though, I even sang a song in a quartet's, we sang "I Stand All Amazed!" My companion is kind of annoying, but oh well. He is one of those people who thinks he is super sophisticated and really intelligent and speaks with a huge vocabulary to try and impress people.... it is annoying, seeings how most people we talk to work at a McDonald's and are missing more than half of their teeth! It's pretty weird.

You are so trunkie and I still have a whole year left, come on now....I love you to mom, you are such a good mom, I tell heavenly father almost every night how thankful I am that he sent me to you! I don't think I would have accepted the gospel if it wasn't for the way you raised me and the things I experienced growing up..... you're so good! Gotta go, Love Elder Shattuck

Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-03-25T12:04:00.002-06:00

March 4, 09
This ward is nuts. There are tons of crazy people. I think the military messes with people. We rode to the temple with a man named Bro. Rigby. He is old and retired so we thought he'd be a good pick.
He agreed and took us, but he was very upset about the time we chose to go and he let us know. He was so mad at us but he still took us. He griped the whole way. We took a while in the temple to talk to all the missionaries and to feel the spirit in there. That is something we don't get to do a lot as missionaries. We came out and he was furious. It was right during rush hour and traffic here is worse than anywhere in the United States. We got home in probably 20 minutes. It was amazing. He was thrilled and he gave us $20 for lunch. Then he bore his testimony on Sunday and told about the experience. He told about how he was so mad that we had to take so long and go at such a bad time and the like. Then he said that as we drove home and got to Alexandria the spirit said to him "watch this" and he told of making it through Alex without hitting a single red light-something he has never done in 40 years of living here. Then he testified that when one of the Lord's anointed (he began to weep at this point) "When one of the Lord's anointed asks you to do something you do it and God will bless you for it." It was a pretty powerful experience. Powerful enough for a family to comment on it when we were at their house later that day. They talked about how Bro. Rigby is a bit of a blackhole on the church ball court. They said that he gripes at his team a lot for not passing him the ball-he's 70 and he is trucking up and down the court with all these military 30 year olds. Any who, apparently at the last church ball game he was getting on their nerves so much that one of the other players threw the ball at Brother Rigby and hit him in the back, starting a brawl between players on our team. Then the family told us that at church the following week Bro. Rigby asked why they didn't come to the church ball game-apparently he was the ONLY ONE THAT SHOWED UP. This ward keeps us on our toes.

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-03-19T15:56:00.005-06:00

March 1, 2009
Hey 가족,
That is family in case you were wondering. Look at that I have been in Korea for almost a year and I have got it down eh? ha ha don't worry my Korean is better then that. It is a beautiful day. After a week of a lot of rain and knocking on apartment door after apartment door, the sun came out and we have a couple of numbers. We will See how they go. Today Elder Rowley and I jumped on our matching bikes (except his is red). Anyway we have a couple of beaches that are quite the bike ride away so that is our goal today. We already made it this far in good time we decided to stop and drop you a line. Two blocks is a lot farther then you think;-) I will send you some pictures of our adventures. My investigator with a baptismal date is doing good, he is really solid. I am amazed some days. We are just working on getting a date where we can get some people there. It shouldn't be too long. I got the news yesterday that my Branch President will be going out of town and so will the first counselor in two weeks. So of course the burden of conducting the meeting and presiding over the meeting will fall upon the 2nd Counselor, right? Guess who the 2nd counselor is....ha yours truly. Talk about weird, I am only 20 yrs old. Well actually 22 in Korea. I love you all and miss you tons. Give Murphy a pat on the head for me. 사랑해!!! Elder Snell

March 9, 2009
This week was a good week. We are starting a break through down here in my little area. It has taken me the whole time I have been here but I think it can work. We had a really good lesson yesterday about member missionary work. I really hope it gets them fired up. We are starting teach the lessons to a part member less active family. I would be happy for the rest of my mission if I could get them to come back to church. Its been about 5 years. On top of all of the missionary work we of course still find time to have a little bit of fun, cause everyone knows you are doing something wrong if you are not having fun. We started by our Bike trip last week. We had a goal to see 4 beaches before we came home. Well that is the last time we use a sight seeing map as a real map. We accomplished our goal and we also had to throw the bikes under a bus to make it home, maybe I will start working out. We also had to clean up the church land and do a little spring cleaning. After we were finished we had all of the these weeds that we had to get rid of, so we thought it was a good excuse to make a fire pit. I know I never even finished the one I started at home but we did finish this one and we are probably the only missionaries in Korea that have a fire pit right outside their front door. It was really nice to have a marshmallow that wasn't cooked over the stove. Today's adventure, I went back up the mountain. I am in a little bit better shape then I was the last time I did it and it was a lot better this time, if you don't count the snow. If you look at the mountain from down here it doesn't look like much snow. It was a beautiful day and it still is. We didn't see snow until near the top. One elder finally bought some shoe spikes cause he was sick of slipping around. He is from California and didn't wear very good shoes. It was clear this time and it was beautiful, you could see the whole island. On the descend we decided to take another path not really knowing where we would end up. It ended up being the expert trail and practically straight down and snow like crazy. I got sick of falling on my butt so I broke a plastic bag out of my back pack and just sat down. I am now soaked but it was a lot of fun. The trail was really beautiful and was really nice after we got past the snow. It was a lot of fun. I love missionary work more and more every day. I love you all and miss you tons. Elder Snell

March 16, 2009
This week was a really good week. We spent a lot more time concentrating on members and not as much getting out and talking to people this week. We have a less active that we were able to get a lunch appointment with her and give her mom who has dementia type thing a blessing. My Korean blessings are still a little rough but she was really happy when we finished and the less active really appreciated it. We have been meeting with these two ladies in the ward whose husbands are not members so there is not too much support there. We had some real good lessons with them and it was really good to see them come out to church. We are meeting with another less active family that hasn't been to church in years. We found out through some records that we have that it was the youngest daughter's birthday. You know how I am with birthdays and I like to make people happy, so we went out and bought her some sweet socks like the ones I sent home minus the farting dudes on them and just some really girly stuff. Which by the way is really hard to do with two 20 year old males who don't have any sisters. Then we dropped in on them to surprise them. They were really surprised and the Mom was really confused why we were there. Well we told her it was for 유리's birthday and the color drained from her face. She had forgotten. She felt really bad and was really glad that we had known, otherwise this little girl wouldn't have had a birthday. We made her night and we stayed and played games and had a lot of fun with them. It was a huge relationship builder. And last but not least, yesterday at church I was the Presiding authority. Talk about pretty big stuff eh? I was really pretty nervous cause all of the other priesthood brethren were out of town at a meeting. So I had to lead, and Teach and give a talk and yeah it was great. It actually went really well. I took the sacrament first and felt all important. Then when we finished that and the Branch president's sons this morning just decided to ride their bikes to church with out telling mom. She was having some problems controlling her kids without Daddy's help. So I told her that we would ride our bikes with her kids back to the house and make sure they got home safe. Well, we did that and I don't know how those kids were planning on getting home cause they ended up walking their bikes up a lot of the hills. Anyway, we got them home and then we had to get them ready and out the door so they could help their mom on the farm. She had a lot of stuff to do and no husband to help. It being the Sabbath and all, we hadn't planned on helping but..... I was feeling an ox in the mire Sunday. We ditched the ties and rolled up our sleeves and got to work. I think I will have to dry clean my suit now but it was worth it to see how thankful she was. I had a great week and I really don't want to leave this island, but I have a feeling that my time here is running out. I love you all and miss you tons. I love you, remember the church is true. Elder Snell

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-03-19T15:47:00.003-06:00

3-10-09
Hello - We had a huge snow storm here yesterday, this whole town shut down. It snowed about 4 inches, its more than they have had in the last 5 years. It was funny, Walmart's shelves were empty and people were panicking. It was quite a site. We have just been trying to find new people to teach, cause many of our investigators have just bottomed out and they are going no where so we are trying to find some new ones. There are a couple less active members that are inviting people over to their houses to be taught so that has been really nice. It's a double whammy, a less active coming back and a new person coming. Elder Owens has been doing really, really well. I have been impressed, I have been sending him on his own to some of our investigators and he has got commitments from them that they were going to come to church. He is doing really well. Tomorrow is transfers already. We are both staying here. I probably have 6 more weeks here in Martinsville. We were at the nursing home on the 3rd floor and I had a lady kick a shoe at me, then she tried to run me over with her wheel chair. She didn't succeed but she did get put in time out. That place is ridiculous there are some crazy people in that place. I'm excited for General Conference this next month. It is always a treat for missionaries. Hope you're doing good. Love you, Elder Walker

3-17-09
We had a great break through this week, we were finally able to set someone for baptism here. This branch that I'm in has gone a whole year without having a baptism so it will be nice to see this one go through. His name is Chris McBride, he is 18 years old and works at Wendys with one of the members that lives here. He is getting baptized April 19 so we are looking forward to that. It's raining outside today so we probably won't play golf today. I love you all. Thanks for everything that you do. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Love, Elder Walker

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-02-24T11:25:00.003-07:00

February 22, 2009
Well this past week I did get my new companion. The week has been a bit hectic and slow but I am hoping that things will pick up this week now that we are all settled down. My companion is from Congo. He is very nice and humble and he goes home in 3 months so he is a bit tired of the missionary work but hopefully things will pick up and he will have a desire to work. We still have a lot to do here. The whole Bishopric was desolved two weeks ago so we don't have one right now. We just have the 2nd counselor as acting bishop until others are called as his counselors. The work is going well though. We confirmed Charles who was baptized last week so that was good, he was very happy. Other than that, we have two other awesome investigators preparing for baptism. One is a 19 year old named Kenas, he is amazing. His mom died in 2001 and his father ran away many years ago and so now he is basically making a living for himself. He found a job so he could go back to school and so now he is doing that. He has a great testimony though and amazing faith, he is a great example that I have learned a lot from. Hopefully he will be baptized soon, we are working with him closely. I am loving the work here. Not much has changed since last time though, just a new companion. We also had a Preach My Gospel training for all the ward missionaries in the stake and that was cool, we as missionaries did that and it was fun even though very few showed up. So thats just whats going on here. I love the gospel and am grateful for this opportunity I have to share it with others. I love you mom and thank you for all that you do for me. I hope you are happy and that all is well. Take care and have a great week, talk to you later. Elder Hansen

Elder Cameron Summers:

2009-02-23T15:17:00.002-07:00

January 26, 2009
Talofa lava aiga pele,
This last week was really good. I got a new companion and he's a stud. We were actually in the MTC together! His name is Elder Mangakahia. He’s from Australia. It is dang fun, We work so hard and have a blast. Sometimes we don't understand what the people say to us so it can get pretty funny! I love the Samoan people because if we don’t understand they are so understanding and just laugh over it. I never would have thought that we would be companions this fast into our missions. It’s pretty rare for missionaries with so little experience to be together. But it’s a blast; we are loving it.

This last week we picked up another ward to our area. It’s pretty far but it’s really nice. All the members are so excited to have missionaries back in their area because the last missionaries were really lazy and the area got shut down. We already have 3 investigators in the area in just one week of work! I'm really excited to see the work progress there.

The rash that I told you about that was on my neck is gone away. I went into the missionary nurse and she gave me some anti fungal cream and it went right away.
I got the box you sent this last week with the memory card in it. Thanks a lot. Ha, thanks for the mace spray too! My companion and I had a good laugh over that.
Everything is going really good! Thanks for the package and most of all, your love and support!
Alofaaga, Cam

February 2, 2009
Aiga pele,
This week was really really good. We have two couples lined up for marriage within these next couple of weeks and then once they are married we will be able to baptize them! I'm pretty excited. I hope all goes well. We also invited another girl (17 years old) to be baptized. She accepted but it has to go over with her parents. Hopefully everything will go well with her too! Her mom is Samoan and her dad is white. She grew up in New Zealand and we have been teaching her in English. It has been kind of funny teaching her in English because I will sometimes forget the English word. It is also very weird to pray because I haven't said an English prayer in 6 months!

I am going to need another package please. I need some more of the ance medication. Also, a medium sized pocket knife that fits well in my pocket or bag, and maybe some chocolate candy and a Sports Illustrated. Thanks for everything you do. I feel your love and prayers and I am continually praying for you all! Love, Cam

February 9, 2009
Hello!
Well so I didn't get an email this week, but I guess I’ll be the better half and still write an email! Ha. The work in my area is starting to explode again after being dormant for a little bit. We are still planning on marrying two couples in two weeks and then baptizing them right after and another this next Saturday. But sadly enough, I guess my time is up in my area. The lord needs me in a new place. I am getting transferred probably tomorrow or Wednesday to a new area and follow up training. It will be a good experience for me to transfer to a new area. My companion right now is still pretty new and hopefully I have had a good impact on him.

I had a really cool experience with an investigator this last week. So I wake up in the morning and do my personal study and companion study. During my personal study I had a strong impression to turn to D&C and read a verse. I wasn't familiar with it but I just flipped to D&C and landed on a really good scripture. When I read it I had a really strong impression that I should use this scripture with this particular investigator. So I shared that scripture with my companion during companion study and we planned a little thought with that scripture. So when we got to the house the first thing she does is pulls out her scriptures and asks us what this scripture means. It was highlighted in her scriptures and told us that she read it after we left in our previous visit. That scripture that she had highlighted just so happened to be the same scripture that we had prepared to teach her about. How cool is that. It was really powerful and a really strong testimony builder of this work and how God loves his children and works through all means to bring his lost sheep into his fold. I gotta run. The church is true and hope to hear from ya next week! Tofa soifua! Cam

February 16, 2009
Hello!
I got the Sports Illustrated' today. To say the least it was nice to get them! I got transferred this last week to my new area. It’s called Vaivase. It’s just a little bit out of Apia. It’s a totally new change. It reminds me a lot of back home and America...which is a bad thing. I miss the jungle! We attended a dance that the YSA did for Valentines Day. It was so different from the dances that they did in my last area. It was so "palagi" (Caucasian). But it’s okay. Everybody works jobs here so it’s kind of hard to find people in their house during the day, which is different from my last area because everyone there worked in their plantations.
I love you all! The church is true. Elder Summers

February 23, 2009
Aiga pele.
Well another week has came and gone. Everything is going really good. Yesterday our zone did a Fireside in one of the wards that we cover and the President Haleck (Mission President) was able to come and give a speech. It was really good. We are also scheduling to baptize three people this upcoming Saturday. They are all 16-17 years old.

It’s kind of funny how Samoans picture Americans. They picture everyone as owning guns and everything is a free for all shoot off. They think everyone just shoots everybody. They also think that money grows on trees. But a thing that they don’t realize is that the people that live in the jungle are really fortunate. Granted they don’t have a lot of money, but they don’t need it. They live off the land and run their gardens. They don’t pay mortgages, water or power bills, just live off the land. If they are poor and hungry, they go behind their house and dig up some taro, or chop of some bananas; where as in America, if you're poor and hungry, you have no means of food. So that’s another difference about the cultures.

I gotta run. I love and pray for you all each day! Love, Cam

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-02-20T13:25:00.002-07:00

January 2009
This transfer has gone very fast, next week is transfer day already, I can't believe it. We are pretty sure that Elder Chin is going to get transfered to somewhere else but we will just have to see for sure, President Thornock might just through a loop in for us and send me somewhere, either way its pretty much guerrenteed that there will be a change here. I'm exited to see what happens. Thanks for the package, everything came through good and safe. and I am feeling better now, everything cleared up after I had that bad headache so that was nice. I have just been drinking lots of orange juice and trying to eat healthy. We have had dinners at members houses every night since last Sunday (January 11) and we have dinners everynight until the end of the transfer haha (jan 28) so that is about 18 dinners right in a row, we are getting fed really well that is for sure. That's one thing this area is really good at, feeding us. I don't know if I told you but I now hold the record for pancakes eatin at ihop in the town of Roanoke Virginia, there was an all you can eat Pancake deal, I got it and some missionaries that I was with said that if I ate 12 they would pay for my meal, well needless to say I did it, they paid for my meal and then it was a big deal with all the cooks and the waiters that they had never seen anyone eat that many before, the most they had ever seen was 11 so I now hold the record, good publicity for the church I guess haha. I was pretty sick after I ate them that is for sure but I got a free meal. We have Branch Conference next Sunday and there is a rumor that we are getting a new branch president so there might be some changes here as well in the ward that I am in. I hope they don't get a new branch president but I guess whatever happens, happens. The one they have right now is awesome. It snowed here last night, there was just a little sciff and everyone freeked out, it was pretty funny actually, it all melted by 9:00 but they have all the roads salted and everything really good so they are prepared, people are funny here. I bet they even cancelled school today as well just because of the sciff they got.

We have had some pretty good success with our investigators this week, Britney Watson, she is a 17 year old girl who wanted to take the lessons but her grandparents wouldn't let her and she finnally talked them into it and so we are going to go and teach her at the Sechrists home tonight, hopefully we have a good lesson with her. We also have a couple good ones that are coming along, they are just coming really slow. One is ready to be baptized he just wants to finish the Book of Mormon before he is baptized, and then we have the one that had a stroke about 10 days ago, he was at church yesterday and he seems to be doing a little better now. We have a couple others we are going to see here in the next week or so but we will just have to see. It is going pretty well though, I'm exited to see what happens. Everything is going really well though, I'm exited to see what happens with transfers this next week but until then, hope y'all have a good one. Love you, Elder Walker

February 2009
Yesterday my companion got his first "preacher thinks he knows everything" experiece. We were at the senior citizens center and there was a Reverend there and this particular Revrand is one that is really liked in this area, but quite frankly he doesn't like the missionaries too well. He was there giving a talk about black history month and about his experience that he had when he went to the innauguration last month (he is black might I add) and he was just talking a whole bunch about the histories of black people in this country and everything was great, it was acutally pretty interesting. But then he started the whole, "Obama is God and every problem that we have right now is ALL Bushes fault." (People really like to do that out here it seems like) and I was getting a little figity but I kept my mouth shut, until one of the old ladies that was there opened her mouth and said that she didn't agree with him. When she did this, he pretty much just started bashing on her and telling her that she was wrong and that she needed to be quite. So you know me, I like to stick up for the underdog and voice my opinion, I raised my hand, he looked at me and said, "Yes?" I said I agree with Ann (that's her name), he tried to cut me off, but it was my floor at that point so I just kept on talking. I told him that that is the biggist falasy that this country has, blaming everything on the president of the United States. I went on and pretty much in a nut shell said that it is our own faults that we are in the condition that we are in. We are the ones who are greedy and wanting the 4 story house when we can only afford a 1 story small house, we want the decked out Cadilack when we can only afford the 1997 ford taurus, and we want to be better than our neigbors. Then I went on to say, we are religious people, so we bring God into the picture, have you ever thought that he is trying to humble us now with our economy going down? Who is to blame, George? you might have one finger pointing at him but look how many are pointing back at you.
Then it got great. All the residents there were smiling and like "yeah you are right!" But Reverend Eccoles wasn't done, he wanted to dive right into the bible and compare stuff to it. So he goes to the begining, and says Adam and Eve, who did Adam blame the sin on? I said he blamed eve? So he said there you go, see so its okay to do that! I said, so you're saying that Eve is going to be held accountable for what Adam did? He said well no, but thats just the way it is. By this time, this very confident preacher is starting to have a shacky voice and starts to studder. He goes on and he says you are trying to take "what is," and put it in to "what should be." I said isn't that what we are supposed to do? Then one of the activity directors that was in the back stood up and said Elder Walker I am impressed, I think we should have a debate, you verses Reverend Eccoles, (she hates the guy as it is so you know exactly what she was thinking) haha luckly Reverend Eccoles came right out and said, NO I don't want to do that, he would have no chance, so badly did I want to say "bring it on" but I held my tounge so you should be proud of me there. and then he said, well I need to go back to my church, there is a family there that just lost a loved one and I need to be there for them.
> He said I have one more annalogy for you .... Eldeeeer Waaalker...thats your name right ( he had said it perfectly about 50 times earlier that day, he was just trying to be a smart alec on that one) He said if I am driving a car, you are in the passenger seat, I get in a wreck, I tell the cops that it is your fault because you were talking to me, who is going to get a ticket, me or you? You will, I said. Then he said, "point proven" and started to walk out. Then I had one more comment, I said how many steering wheels are in this country?... dumfounded he said we will talk about this later... and said bye to every one and left. haha it was great. All the residents love me now, hopefully they will be baptised in the next life. A couple gave me some nice comments simply by saying, "Thank you, we have been wanting to do that for a long time now." So I have another preacher furious at me, but we gained a lot of new friends yesterday so I suppose that it was worth it.
> After talking about it, we discussed how in most Baptist Churches, they are not really aloud to say anything about what the preacher is saying, they just take what the preacher says and if he says it, it is true, I think it just caught him off gaurd because he is not used to someone opposing him. I'm glad our church is not that way, how sad would that be if we were not expected to find out answers for ourself. I like how we are expected to read, ponder and pray to find out if something is true. Not just expect a preacher to say something and for it to be automatically true. It really is sad to see out here how much people are missing out on.
> I love this work, its tough but completely worth it. The message that we have is the most important thing that anyone could ever ask for and no one is going to stop the work from going to every ear. Cause its Gods work and he won't allow it.

My new companion's name is Elder Owens, he is awesome. He is pretty quiet right now so it is much different than Elder Chin so it has been different but I like it. He is just writing his parents to tell them that he made it here all right, he is from Panguitch, Utah, it is down by Cedar City, Utah. I think he will be a good missionary. Its going to be a neat experience training him. I love you all thanks for everything that you do. Elder Walker

Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-02-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

1/28/09
Wow, Mt. Vernon is so different than Arlington. So different. I have been homesick for Arlington several times. This place is not worse or better, it is just different. The church that we go to is literally on the banks of the Potomac. We have a lot going on here now too which is always good. Turns out that in Arlington people are so busy that they won't ever even open the door for you to say anything. Here people live a LOT slower lives so they can talk and be real people to you. There are SO MANY black people here. In Arlington there are tons of Asians but here it is ALL black people. From Africa too. It is nuts. There have been times when I thought there were a lot of black people in places but those times pale (pun intended) compared to now. We have tons of investigators here and lots are part member families-the best kind of investigator.
One of our PM families is a Brady Bunch style family with 3 kids from each marriage. Last night we showed them how to do an FHE. We gave each kid a hard back BOM and read and marked a scripture. Then we played "Don't Eat Pete" with some M and M's. The kids (ages 11-3, all nm's) loved it. It was so fun. The kids were jumping all over us dripping chocolate drool all over me and having a blast. Directly after that we went to an appointment with the smartest lady I have ever met. She is not a member and she is so so smart. We flew thru the second half of the plan of salvation and she soaked it in, quoting bible verses that support it the whole way. My brain was so tired trying to keep up and she just kept soaking it in. I can't describe how amazing it was she is so smart. She is the head secretary to the secretary of labor or something high up like that. It was wonderful to see the contrast between chocolate slobber kids everywhere and super intelligent Erika Gaston.
We had a fun time last week- we decided to mix up our door approach with apartments and we took the Restoration DVD around and said, "Hello we are missionaries out watching this DVD with people. It's 20 minutes long and it talks about Jesus." People let us right in and we watched it 3 times in 1 night. It was so fun. It is funny to me how many random things happen to missionaries that we are completely comfortable with-like going into a strangers home and sitting on their couch while watching a DVD in their language. It is just funny to me to think how completely normal this stuff is now.
I love LOVE my companion. He is so funny. I haven't stopped laughing since I've been with him and he knows when it is appropriate. I love it. He is from Coeur d'Alene.

2/4/09
I had the most amazingly spiritual experience ever this week. Out of no where Jeffrey R. Holland came to the DC Visitors Center to speak to the leadership of the north and south missions. It was so powerful. He shook all of our hands and spoke for about an hour and a half. It was so good. He is an apostle. It was absolutely the most spiritual experience of my life, or at least on the plateau with all those other most spiritual moments.

2/11/09
Last night we taught Erika Gaston again. She is the smartest person I have ever met. She is almost Rainman smart. She pretty much has pulled the truths that we teach out of the bible and she believes them already. It is insane. She asked us last night about God and about the concept that if we can become gods then where did God start? It was pretty intense. She goes a thousand miles an hour and we just sorta play defense and try to keep up. She is coming to church on Sunday. She will love it. She always talks about how there is something different about us than about people in her church. I have never met anyone so smart and in tune as she is. It is intense.
We are also teaching this man from El Salvador who speaks decent English but is willing to do whatever we say because he loves us. We found him by street contacting his wife, going to our appointment with her and not finding her but finding him instead, inviting ourselves in and telling him that he is getting baptized on Feb. 28. It's like a little taste of a South American mission. He comes to church and he loves it-he has stopped drinking coffee and stopped smoking and he has cut his hair - he told us just for church. It is exciting what the gospel does for people who are on very different IQ levels.
We also are teaching several Africans who are very humble and very spiritual but are harder to get to keep commitments.
This is a fun transfer. I have been trying my hardest and it feels very very good. I am very tired.
2/18/09
We went to the real Mount Vernon. It is amazing . George Washington was quite the man. I live on the land that GW used to live on!
The El Salvadorean dropped us. He just told us he didn't want to bother us anymore and he wanted to go to his old church and we could have our book back if we wanted it. Pretty heart breaking.
The other people that we teach are lots of Africans or Spanish people.
I've been cooking a lot lately for our apartment and they love the chicken that I make with the special Elder Gannaway creamy garlic sauce. haha. If you have any super simple recipes that you think I could try I would love to have them.
They know who the new mission president is. I am so sad that pres is going to be leaving. I cannot bear the thought. The new mission pres is from Las Vegas. I hate that my mission is almost over.

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2009-02-19T10:33:00.002-07:00

February 11, 2009
This past Saturday I got the amazing opportunity to hear Elder Holland speak and he gave some really great analogies while teaching the leadership of the D.C. South and North missions. A couple of quotes from him that have stuck with me ever since, "In this church we bow our heads and say YES!!!" and another "Kick when you don't want to kick and Stroke when you don't want to stroke"(told a story of an amazing swimmer and stuff...)He speaks with power though and he bore his testimony telling us that he was a witness of Christ and that he lives, man it was so intimidating yet comforting, neat feelings though. Then, later that night Elder Oaks came and spoke at an adult session for Stake conference in the stake that I am serving in, he was just cracking jokes all night long and even into Sunday's session. I was able to go and greet him and introduce myself and I even gave him a hug!!! How sick is that???? We also had an investigator that was with us and Elder Oaks took him out into the hall and put both of his arms up on his shoulders, looked him straight into the eye and shared his testimony with conviction, then he poked the investigator right in the chest about 3-4 times and said, "Listen to these missionaries and get it into your Heart, what they share is true...." Then he walked off and our investigator turned and looked at me, his eyes were huge and he just said, woa!!! It was pretty powerful yet very funny as well... I am doing well though and just know that the work is moving right along... Love ya tell the family hello...

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-02-19T09:49:00.007-07:00

January 28, 2009
Another week down in this new year and I can't believe how fast it is going. We just got done with the new year and I was expecting some big festivals or something but nothing really happened. Maybe it did back on the main land but there was nothing to exciting down here on this little island of mine. We ate some food and had Church at 7 in the morning so that was a new experience. I had to give a talk and so did my recent convert. I was pretty nervous for him because he has only been a member for a couple of months but he didn't seem to worried. He ended up doing a great job and telling his conversion story how he over came his addiction of smoking through prayer. It was really amazing, I was really touched. It was like a father watching his son walk on his own for the first time. I am really glad I have been able to see him progress as much as he has while I have been here. Nothing to exciting has happened this week. We were able to play soccer during the holiday season and I am pretty sure I got sent to the wrong mission. I never was big into soccer my whole life. I just get rocked when we play even by the little kids. I love you all and miss you. Love, Elder Snell

February 2, 2009
Today we spent the day with President and Sister Jennings. They came down for the transfer interviews and then spent p-day with us.
I took them around the island and showed them all of the waterfalls and some other cool stuff. We ate really good thanks to them and had a fun time. P-days are really something else when you are serving in paradise. We have two weeks left in the transfer and we are doing good. We have an investigator that we committed to be baptized all we have to do is set the date. This week the rotten orange giving grandma gave us orange juice in glasses that I am pretty sure you could see through at one time. And after we drank the juice she wiped them out with Toilet paper and put them back in the cupboard. Yummy;-) my companion has had a stomach ache today hmmm. I love you all and miss you tons be safe and remember who you are and what you represent. Elder Snell

February 9, 2009
My week was really uneventful. My companion had stomach problems all week so I spent a lot of time trying to study at my desk. This week is the last one in the transfer that means that some will be leaving the island. There are rumors floating around that I am leaving but I have also heard that I am staying so I don't know. If I do stay, this will be the longest I have been in an area. I am definitely getting a new companion I have been assured. If it is not because of transfers it will be because one of us is dead. My companion is a really great guy but not someone I would want to live with for 6 months. We clash to much for that to happen. I love you all and will talk to you again next week from who knows where. Until then. Elder Snell

February 16, 2009
I know it sounds bad, but I got a new companion. His name is Elder Rowley. He is from West Jordan, Utah and he speaks English. He really likes basketball and he seems to have a lot of the same interests that I have. I am really excited for this transfer. He is about 9 months into his mission and he has a lot of desire. I think we will do really well. This last week went really good, we had a lot of people out to church yesterday and me and my comp got along pretty well. My investigator is really excited to get baptized he wants to be this week but we still have to teach him some stuff first. I am really excited for my new comp we are going to have a good transfer I think. I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell

February 22, 2009
I had a really good week. I really enjoy having Elder Rowley as my companion. We are getting along really great. I think the work just goes better when you and your companion get along better. We have made some good goals both serious ones and fun ones. One of those is to ride our bikes along the coast one Pday and see some cool beaches. It will be a lot of fun. I took him to the place where i got my bike and talk the old guy into giving me another one for the same price. The old man was very happy he was getting talked down by two foreigners. We went shopping cause we didn't have to much food in the house and we were having a good time until we rang it all up and had spent 90 dollars. Yeah we are not going shopping again for a while. You have to remember that we both just came form Korean companions. Today I am accomplishing one of my goals that I sent when I came to this island and that was to see a dolphin show. That's where we are headed and I am super excited. I have never seen a dolphin before in my life. I will send you some pictures. My investigator is getting baptized on the 8th so that will be cool. I love you all and I miss you. Elder Snell

Elder Andrew Peña:

2009-02-19T09:42:00.004-07:00

February 9, 2009

I was so blessed for the opportunity this week to give two blessings and I have given many since I've been on my mission. Even more than ever it has been impressed upon my mind and my heart what an amazing blessing and opportunity I have and am able to hold the power and authority of Jesus Christ. As I was pondering on it I became so humbled to know of what a blessing it is and I'm so grateful for this opportunity that I have to even notice this blessing! This week I have been reading about the 4 sons of Mosiah and in Alma where Ammon tells his brother Aaron he will not boast in himself but he will boast in his god! And for the mercy and all that God has for us was really pressed on me this week to see all the blessing and the miracles that he has worked and continued to work in my life this week! It was amazing and I am grateful for that! This week was great! We set a baptismal date with a kid named Seang and he set his own date but he has had some obstacles. His mom doesn't want him to be baptized because he has already been but she lives in New Mexico so we are trying to find out if she even has full custody or not! We go over tonight to find out more about the situation but he said he already talked to his mom and she said no! BUT " with God anything is possible. " That is true and we will go tonight and talk with him about that! All of Tuesday I have the opportunity to go and serve all day with the assistants in our area, and to learn and grow from them and really see how missionary work should be! haha But Elder Simmons tells me it will be an awesome experience so I am excited! Lately there has been a guy calling our mission that has a heavy British accent and he calls and starts to ask missionaries their names and where they are from and try to find out information about us and the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and the temple. Seems like he knows a lot of stuff about that church! But a couple weeks ago when I was up in Sonora on our exchange this guy called our phone and I just felt this disturbing feeling that I have not felt yet on my mission! It was pretty crazy but I told him I had an appointment and he said his name was Andrew and he was calling from a 208 area code! It was freaky but I guess he keeps changing his phone number a lot so I dunno its just kinda creepy! But that's why I got that feeling as I looked down at the phone and saw it was a 208 number and I picked it up and asked who it was he said Andrew! I about fainted! haha But missionary work is going awesome! I love it! I cannot get enough of it! We went golfing last week and it was fun. I love golfing too! haha But this upcoming week will be great! I'm excited! It was good to hear from all of you and I will talk with you soon! I love you all and keep being great!:) Elder Peña

Elder Grant Gannaway:

2009-01-22T15:03:00.002-07:00

1/7/09
I love Arlington. We had an interesting experience last night I'll share with you: Lately our mission has gotten real with how we define what an investigator is. Consequently our number of new investigators dropped dramatically. President was unhappy about our zone's number of new investigators. On Monday we challenged our zone to think about why God should give them a new investigator. If they are not being obedient why would they get a new investigator? We read the parable of the talents and talked about how we each may be given different opportunities but it's what we do with those opportunities that earn us a reward. Then my companion and I did our best to show the Lord why we deserve a new investigator. Then yesterday we had 3 appointments that all had potential to become new investigators. All three fell through. We prayed to know where we should go. We felt impressed to go tract a certain street that only has a few homes on it. We knocked one side of the street and only found nice not interested people. Then we were walking back to the car when we spied another home on the other side of the street hidden between two apartments. We knocked. A lady came to the door and invited us right in. She acted as though she were expecting us. She told us that she had gone to the temple visitors center and requested a BOM but had never got it. Turns out her name had been given to the Spanish missionaries and they had called and only left a message. We had no idea. She decided that since we were there and it was easy she wanted to learn about religion in English instead of Spanish. She is coming to church and is very excited to learn about the Mormon religion. Her name is Paola and I am very excited about her. She is from Ecuador.
1/14/09
Here is a miracle that we saw this week: We were tracting an apartment complex and a little girl answered the door. We asked if her parents were home and she said no, so we gave her a BOM pass along card to give to them. She closed the door and we moved on. A few seconds later her door opened back up but this time it was a boy -- her brother. He asked if the book on the card was free. We said yes and he closed the door. That night we got a text referral-that boy had called the number and wanted the Book of Mormon. So we went back and taught him and we are expecting him and his father at church. He seems fairly committed and agreed to our homework assignment but we shall see. It is wonderful how the Lord blesses us when He wants to and it is usually not in the way we expect.
1/21/09
Transfers today. Blah. Leaving Arlington ... not happy about that. But I am headed to Mt. Vernon to be ZL with an Elder Leiser from northern Idaho. My roommate over there is Elder Ika who is Samoan and apparently fairly beastly. His companion is an elder from Ukraine. We'll see how the zone goes over there. It appears the Lord has thrown me a curve ball, but I will love it and I am excited about the new stake. Mt Vernon borders McLean on the south eastish side and is the next busiest part of the mission besides McLean. I love the city. Hopefully we'll be able to see the home of George Washington. He has become my hero.
We got permission to watch the inauguration with Bro. Robinson (the member we live with). It was quite entertaining. The black man at the end prayed so funny it was hilarious, but the opening prayer was pretty weird too - rhymes and songs and funny things-welcome to the black church. We contacted down at the Rosslyn metro stop -which you could see on TV when they showed the crowd at the mall- it was nuts. There were SO many black people-from everywhere! It was tons of people who probably have no idea what an inauguration is but they just came because they are black and they wanted to have a party. The people I talked to pretty much think Obama is a prophet. Crazy to be so close. Good for Pena that he is a Zone Leader! Thank you for your prayers and your support. I really love it and need it. Elder Gannaway

Elder Cameron Summers:

2009-01-22T10:21:00.004-07:00

* * * *

Aiga Pele,

Malo le soifua tatou aiaga
President Monson gave a great talk concerning this in the last conference titled, “Finding Joy in the Journey”. He stated that we should relish life as we live, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family. This advice has also helped me while learning the language and trying to adapt to a new life, work, and surroundings in general. I have slowed down and tried to enjoy and live in the moment. A common phrase here in Samoa is, “Leai se mea e popole I ai.” This translates to, “There is absolutely nothing to worry about.” I really hope we heed the advice of our prophet and take some time out of our busy lives and “find joy in the journey.”

Enough of my preaching, I’ll step down from my soap box and give you a little taste of the culture here in Samoa. The culture is very strong here and determines the way people live. For example, the Government delegates its authority to each village or town, Inside of that town or village, there are various chiefs. The chiefs act as judges and have power to punish people for breaking the rules of the village. For example, an Elder was telling me a story of where two people were caught cheating on their spouses and committing adultery. They were taken before the chiefs and were both banished from the village and fined 100 pigs a piece. When you get fined pigs, it is a really big deal. It can someone several years to pay the fine of pigs. They have to raise the pigs themselves and you can imagine how long it takes to raise pigs, especially when it’s only five or so at a time because they can’t afford anything else. Sometimes these punishments can last the duration of one’s life.

Also within the culture is food. Food is a very important part of the culture. They don’t have much of anything so when someone offers you food, it is a high symbol of respect Remember how I said that I have actually lost some weight here in Samoa? Ya, not anymore, that first little while I wasn’t very familiar with the food, so I didn’t eat a whole lot. I also spent my fair share of time on the toilet. But now, I am used to it and eating a lot of it. So don’t worry, I am definitely not going hungry. Since food is such a big part of the culture when someone feeds you, you give a thank-you speech when finished. You leave blessings upon the father of the family first, then the mother, and if you choose, the children as well. When done with the speech, the father then gives me and my companion a speech and gives us blessings. We then stand up and shack hands and depart.

Everything is going good. My first companion got transferred and now I have a Samoan companion who doesn’t know any English. My Samoan has definitely improved in these last three weeks because all I do is talk Samoan. A lot of the other white and even some Samoan missionaries have said that my language is coming a lot faster than normal. I study hard but I know that it’s a blessing from above., my Patriarchal Blessing tells me and gives me the blessing that my tongue may be loosed and in a short time learn the language. That blessing is being realized. However, I still have a lot to learn.

Transfers are coming up soon and I’m not going to lie, I wouldn’t mind getting transferred. I really like this area but my companion just got transferred here and the best chance of getting a new companion is me getting transferred. My companion is good but I’ve been with him a little over three weeks and I haven’t seen him study, pray, or wake up before 8:00 am. His old area is really close to my area and he always wants to go out of area boundaries to visit his so called “old investigators”. His old zone leader told me they had to close that area because they had a cell phone and he had a girlfriend, so it’s kind of hard to keep him from visiting his “old investigators”. He got kind of upset at me but whatever. Hopefully, I’ll get a new companion who likes to work because he doesn’t like to work very much either. But like you sad Mom, I asked for this so I should probably stop murmuring, huh!

I had a really good day this last Thursday. No, it was actually a pretty good day except for a couple of instances, So it started off pretty regular, I woke up at 6:30, got ready for the day and started my studying ( all while my companion was sleeping). The Zone Leaders then picked us up at about 9:15 to do our zone meeting we do every Thursday. After we were finished with that, we had the zone leaders take us to an area really far away from our house. We had received some referrals from members and they told us where they lived. We scheduled to work in that area and blocked out the day to work with those families because we knew we could get a ride with the zone leaders. It takes about an hour to walk there so I’m sure you can understand our reasoning. When we got there, it was raining cats and dogs. The zone leaders had other plans and appointments so they had to kick us out of the van. They dropped us off about 300 yards from the house because we were at an intersection and they were going the opposite way. So we jumped out and ran immediately to shelter under a pavilion at a store. We waited there for seriously 45 minutes as we watched rain come down like you can’t even believe. After the rain storm, of course, the sun came out and it was just the most humid thing I have ever felt.

So we get to this house and it’s kind of far from the main road where we were walking. We got half way, and five barking and growling dogs came charging out. My companion was at the front and left of me while the dogs began to circle us. One dog came trotting around and barking sniffed the leg of my companion. By this time we were circled by a pack of raging, crazy, Samoan dogs. I’m not going to lie, I freaked out. So the one sniffs the leg of my companion and then comes around to the back of me. I really didn’t know what to do so I just followed the example of my companion and stayed calm. I just thought to myself to stay calm, they probably just need to get familiar like the one did with my companion. So that same dog came up behind me, barking madly and sniffs my leg. For a split second I thought all was well because it backed off, but was still barking. Yep, I was wrong! That same dog lunged at my left leg and latched his jaw on my calf, just below my knee. At the same time, another dog that was on my right attacked my right leg. My idea of staying calm and not making any sudden movements immediately left my head as I jumped forward trying to get the dogs off of me. I was swinging my scripture case like mad as I was crouched and ready to pounce on the next dog that thought he wanted a piece of the white boy. Not going to lie, Satan got the best of me there when my adrenaline kicked in and I let slip some phrases with four letter words. It’s a good thing my companion doesn’t understand a lick of English, otherwise, I’d probably be under church discipline for what I said. But it’s all right, at least those dogs got the opportunity to hear some of Idaho’s best, farm boy, redneck, vocabulary.

The family felt really bad and gave me some medicine to take. I really didn’t want to take it but the family and my companion were really persistent. I guess the family is really familiar with dog attacks and explained they got the medicine from the hospital in Apia. After the explanation and peer pressure, I finally succumbed. Probably not the best choice but three days later, I’m still alive and haven’t died from the medicine or rabies from the dog bite.

The Gannaways send out a monthly letter to all the missionaries they know and include updates of Rexburg and a little spiritual thought. It’s really nice and I like getting them so if you see them, tell them thanks and to keep them up. This last week I got one and included was a little talk by Gordon B. Hinckley titled, “Gifts to Bring Home from the Mission Field”. Included in his talk are 10 different things he thinks should be acquired by a missionary by the end of his mission. They vary from the extent of knowledge and love for God, to work ethic. But the thing that hit me hardest was the topic of, “An increased love for parents”. This is so true as my love and appreciation for you have been realized ten fold. I use the word realized instead of grow because I don’t think I ever really realized how much you two have really done for me. Word’s can’t express how much I appreciate all that you two have done, are doing, and sacrificed for my sake. So I just wanted to say thank you and I love you!

This letter is long enough and I wish you all my best and each one of you are in my prayers! Thanks again and I hope to hear from you all! Tofa soifua!

Alofaaga,
Elder Summers

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2009-01-21T11:46:00.002-07:00

January 7, 2009
This past week we had the baptism of Helen Poonusamy-Ailantham! It was amazing, I think someone should right a biography on this woman's life because it is very dramatic and full of hardships that many people would not have been able to overcome. She was basically sold in slavery at the age of 9 because her own mother couldn't afford to raise her and needed money for her own life. Needless to say Helen grew up being abused in many different and horrible ways as she moved from family to family serving them as a house nanny. She never had the opportunity to go to school, so she can't read or write even to this day, but she can speak 4 languages. I was talking to Helen and she told me that there came a point in her life where she decided that she would never be rude or unkind to anyone ever again. She suffered with depression and didn't care much about life until a day on the bus when she looked out the window and saw a crazy old woman walking up and down the street picking up rocks. I guess this woman did it every day and simply just picked rocks up over and over again with no purpose. Helen looked at her as the bus drove past and she realized that that was the course her life was taking her to and she didn't want to end up like that, so she changed her attitude and got her life in order and she stood on her own two feet again. As she continued to nanny she ended up with a Mormon family that treated her like family, she saw the happiness that they had and she wanted it.... needless to say the missionaries came over and she accepted everything and ended up moving here to America for a new beginning and it just so happened that I go to teach her again right before she got baptised. Attitude can change anything, she is such a sweet woman and I must say that I don't think that I have ever met a more charitable person, I love her and wish the best for her.

We are also teaching a single mom right now named Candy Urhdal who is really great as well. She has three children that are 20,16,15....two boys and a girl. It has been a lot of fun, I think that she will get baptised eventually, she is very liberal though and has some big concerns that need to be addressed first but I think the spirit will be working on her pretty good.

Transfers are in two weeks, I have no idea what will be going on.

Oh the other day it was raining and I went and cleaned out a swamp area.... that was horrible, I smelled like poo afterwards, it was pretty funny though because I pushed my companion Elder Shapiro and he almost fell face first into the mud and slop, he is pretty funny(kinda girly) and I don't know how much hard labor he has ever had to do, he did not like it at all!!! It made me laugh pretty good.

I hope you get better mom, I can't imagine that is to good, I got food poisoning for one day after Christmas and that sucked bad.

January 21, 2009
I am staying in Brambleton and will be training a new ZL named Elder Gifford, I am really excited, we came out together so we will hit the year mark together and it should be an exciting transfer.
I knew the Eagles would choke, ask Steve if he has any newspaper clips of that to send me lol.....he sent me one talking some smack on the Broncos.... that is what we call karma.

Anyway I met an African American that is actually Japanese and has the facial characteristics of an Asian person but he has like a black person hair and skin..... it is crazy, anyways we taught him an amazing lesson and now he is thinking about baptism for the 14th of February except at the end of the lesson he had a question and he was too shy to ask it so he wrote it down on paper and the question was about gays and how the church looks at it..... well the church has a great pamphlet that explains its standpoints so I am picking up one of those to take to him and we will continue to teach him, he is very receptive to the gospel though.... it will be interesting to see what happens with this one.
Love you, Elder Shattuck

Elder Andrew Peña:

2009-01-21T10:54:00.003-07:00

Jan. 5, 2009
Hey Yall!!! First off, last Monday was great. We thought we were going to have tons of time because we weren't going to go shopping so we tried to find a car wash place closer to our apartment. There was none so we wasted 15 minutes looking and ended up going to Wal-mart and everything anyways! so we wasted time! :) I don't think I even wrote a letter last week! We went and played basketball and it was good, there is like 10 missionaries and 5 other people! Its tons of fun! One of my old companions, Elder Eden, who is the huge 6'5" guy who plays football and weighs like 300 pounds, well he was not on my team and long story short he elbowed me in the mouth and hit my teeth! I thought I was going to lose them! ( again ) so basketball was intense and my teeth still hurt a little but the good news is they are still there!!! Tuesday I went on an exchange with a missionary in my district who is from Utah and we did some service. We helped some members move and then helped some other ones do sheet rocking! Its been a while since I've done it but it was fun and brought back memories of me working at my old job!! Wednesday we had a district meeting and it went good, we had a baptismal interview for our investigator and he passed and then we went to see tons of members that afternoon. We had to be in our apartment by 6:00 pm for the rest of the night because of crazy people. Thursday we had some good appointments and with some investigators and nothing exciting Friday. We had weekly planning and went to visit lots of people in the afternoon and in the evening we called a part member family and asked the husband (who is the non-member) and asked if he would take us out cause we had no one to go with us. So he took us out for the evening and we went back to his house and taught the first lesson. It went well but he is still kinda in his ways and doesn't want to get baptized so we are trying. Saturday we tried to get a lot of sit down lessons and all of them fell through and everyone we talked to was again grumpy and mean now that Christmas is over. People are back to themselves again. We talked to this Baptist lady and I asked her what she liked about her church and you could tell she was thinking of something good to say so she smiles and looks at me and says the fact that its the same church that Christ established on this earth! and before she said this previous in our conversation she said her church was a reformed church and what not so my response to her was... "well isn't that was most people believe their church is" and she was like oh yeah well yeah so i said "Christ's church has to be a restoration not a reformation and that's why we believe in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ not reformed" she ignored us and continued to be grumpy and mean so we just walked away! So Saturday kinda stunk but Sunday was the BEST!! We had good church meetings and the testimonies were good. We had a meeting with the zone leaders and the stake president to discuss things about our mission and how we can work with our wards better. It was tons of fun and I learned so much. I love it! After that we had a quick dinner and we had a baptism at 6:00 pm and it went so good. Me and my companion were witnesses and the zone leaders taught the plan of salvation. Sunday made the rest of the week and on Tuesday we should be setting another baptism date with a part member family, she is nine years old but she is ready for baptism. It's sooo awesome. I would love to hear from everyone. I'll try to do better in my updates. Elder Peña

Jan. 12, 2009
I have limited time this week. Nothing exciting happened this week, we had transfer calls on Saturday. We ran into one crazy guy this week and he was drunk and he was like 5 inches close to my face and was talking about how he found God in jail and he had a beer in his hand and all sorts of stuff and how he is going to a church now so we invited him to our church and he said he would come but he was a no show. I think he was to drunk to remember. Last night was my last night in Modesto 6th ward and we had a stake priesthood meeting at 7:00 in the morning and all us missionaries in the stake sang at it. It was great. We had to wake up at 5:00 to get ready, it was foggy and dark. We had church and it was good. The guy who was baptized last Sunday was confirmed. Then we had three stakes combine at a stake center in Turlock where I was on my second transfer and had my 3rd zone conference and all my district meetings so it brought back lots of memories. Saturday President Gonzalez called me at 11:30 and asked me to be a zone leader with Elder Simmons who is from (Mudlake) West J whatever you call it. He played football with Kaleb and Sheldon or he knew them and I went on an exchange with him this last transfer so now he is my new companion starting Wednesday. I'm sooo excited to learn from him. He is an awesome missionary. We got a baptismal date for January the 24th so that's awesome and this Friday we will be having my first zone council meeting with the president and assistants. It will be something new for me so I'm excited to learn. In a couple days I'll have 15 months left to go. It has gone by so fast. CRAZY! Man its good to hear from all of you and to know you are all doing good. I miss you all and love you too! :) This Gospel is soooo true and you will be so blessed by living it!!! I love it and continue to pray for me daily.:) I went on two exchanges this week and it was good, learned lots and met a lot of people and had TONS of spiritual experiences, I loved it! My testimony continue to grow daily. The companionship I worked with this week are kind of struggling. One has issues with obedience and waking up on time and exercising in the morning, nothing that can't be fixed. I'll be a zone leader in Modesto covering the 4th ward and 1 branch-a singles branch. I'll be in church till like 5 o'clock though. But its good. I love this Gospel, its amazing. I cannot wait to hear from you all again. Love you so much and take care, Elder Peña

Elder Adam Walker:

2009-01-21T10:39:00.002-07:00

January 13, 2009
There are a lot of people who are really, really struggling, especially out here, it might be bad at home, but I guess the area that I am in right now has like a 17% unemployment rate, it is the highest in Virginia, and one of the highest in the country. It's pretty sad, everything is just shutting up. The mall alone is pretty much just going out of business, there are like 5 stores closing in the next couple weeks, I'm sure more will follow. It's sad to see. We can tell that more people are just sitting at home watching TV because we are getting large amounts of media referrals now. I guess they just see something for free and they call for it. It's nice for us though because it is a free ticket into some one's home. It has been nice because we have not had to do any tracting for over a month now. We just stay busy with them and with referrals that they give us. So maybe with everything that is happening, maybe people are being humbled and this is what is supposed to happen. We will just have to see how this next year goes, I don't think it will be a good one for the country, but for missionary work, I think it will be one of the best. I'm excited to see how it goes. Yeah, we did indeed get spoiled for Christmas. There were quite a few people who sent me little packages cards, etc. Thanks to everyone. I guess people haven't forgotten about me! I will try to take some more pictures of us golfing today. We are going to be going here in a couple hours so I will get some then and send them home on the next card.

One of the people we are teaching right now had a good wake up call these past couple days, he has a huge problem with the word of wisdom and he smokes and chews like it is candy. It was something that he never wanted to give up and we pretty much were not getting anywhere with him, but we get a call from the hospital on Sunday and guess who is in there? Yep, that man who pretty much said that he would never quit, he had a mini-stroke. We went in and saw him at the hospital Monday morning to see how he was doing, and he told us that the doctors have told him that he either has to quit smoking and chewing or else it is going to kill him within the next year or so. So, he is going to quit smoking and chewing now, I guess God works in mysterious ways, we kind of laughed when we walked out because we just thought, you don't tell God that you won't do something because if you do, he will prove you wrong. Hopefully, we will be able to baptize him here really soon now, we will just have to see.
We had an awesome week this past week, we got 7 new investigators, that is the best I have ever had on my mission so far, so it has been a good week and the members have really been working with us nicely, they are giving us referrals and also people are ordering free Bibles left and right so we are teaching quite a few people, it is really nice. I hope you have a great week, I am doing well. Thanks to all. Elder Walker

Elder Scott Snell:

2009-01-21T09:54:00.006-07:00

Dec 28, 2008
It is the New Year now and I think that was the first one I haven't stayed up until midnight since I was like 4. Anyway so i have some news i am now 22 years old. Yup that is right, in Korea they say you are 1 as soon as you are born and then when the new year comes you are automatically two. So even if you were born on Dec 31 at 11:59 pm when that new year comes you are already two. Kind of weird and ridiculous to think about eh. Nothing to exciting has happened for the new year yet because they celebrate it according to the lunar calendar. They use the normal one but their three day holiday isn't till the lunar new years. I have a bit of a confession to make, the Korean food and candy I send you guys really isn't their best stuff. Not by any means is it their worst either but its not their best. The pepper paste is used a lot. All of their food is usually spicy. It took a little to get use to but now its pretty good. The worms in the can, some people like them some people don't. The only thing that I haven't tasted before I sent it to you is the kimchee chocolate. I wanted to try that though I just didn't have the money to buy another.

It is the new transfer this week. I have the same everything again. Area Comp and all of the stuff. This will make it number three that me and my Korean comp are together. That is a long time to be with the same person in such a small house. Its a good thing we don't spend to much time inside eh? So I see a lot of patience being needed these next six weeks. He is a good companion and there are definitely pluses to having him. We are working on the other stuff. Can't believe its already been a year. Love you, Elder Snell

I am glad you guys got my package. Did you guys like the kimchee chocolate? And the worms and pepper paste? What about the masks and the giant wiener head? This week was good, just the same missionary work again. We are coming to the end of another transfer and it looks like my comp is probably leaving. We got cell phones this last week so that was pretty cool. They are the slide type not the flip phone but they are better then nothing. I thought maybe I would be able to get use to a phone again and not come home too weird but its the Junior companions responsibility to carry the phone. Oh well, one less thing I have to worry about. We sent Elder Jensen on his way back to America this morning so that officially makes me the oldest Missionary on the Island. We went to an appointment with an old grandams and she tried to feed us rotten oranges. I felt really bad but I just couldn't bring myself to eat them. We ended up telling her that we were full and if she would put them in a bag we would eat them later. I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell

Jan 11, 2009
The first week of the new transfer is over and I haven't killed my companion yet. We are actually doing pretty good. There are definitely those times where you can tell we are getting on each others nerves but three transfers together will so do that to you.
The weather is finally starting to get cold on this little paradise Island of mine. It snowed pretty good the other day and was really quite cold, but in my little town it didn't stay too long. I swear every where else on the island but my area has snow. Its really quite nice.

Oh, this week I forgot to tell you I ate probably the freshest sea food I have ever eaten in my life. We went to this restaurant with a member and our investigator's mom to eat some sea food. Well, they cook it on a range right in front of you. They put the soup down and it was still moving! All of the clam ouster mussel thingys were squirmy and the octopus was still moving, it was quit disturbing. I looked at my comp and asked him are we going to eat that, and he just says yup. They all soon stopped moving and they chopped up the octopus and we ate it. It was pretty good actually, it was really spicy but good. I was glad I got to experience it once. I have had a lot of those experiences on my mission with weird foods it seems.
Nothing else to exciting except for that fact that I hit an all time low with my English this week, I lost in Scrabble to six other Koreans. I came in dead last. Most of them were under the age of 15 too. It was pathetic but we have a rematch scheduled for tonight. I have been studying. They are all going down, I am showing no mercy this time.
In my area there is a lot of special people you know and there is this one that really likes the missionaries well just foreigners and since most missionaries are foreigners he in turn likes us. Well he follows us around every time we see him and he just randomly will show up at our window and just watch us some days. It was really pretty creepy in the beginning but I have gotten use to it. Its not so weird to me now but honestly he just watches us. If it was anyone else it would be a peeping Tom. He is harmless and funny so sometimes we talk to him while he is just sitting there, I will give him some candy, show him pictures of foreigners, its really pretty funny. I have been in this area now for over three months and he still can't remember my name, its a little disappointing. I love you all and i miss you, thanks for all of the support you give me. Love, Elder Snell

Jan 18, 2009
I was coming back from splits with Elder Wells and we were walking back to my house to meet our companions when I turned around and noticed we had a little friend. A little white dog started to follow us, he kept following us back to the house and we were waiting for our comps to get back. We were sitting on the steps (cause the weather has really warmed up lately), the dog started chasing Elder Well's feet, it was quite funny. Our companions came and the dog continued to follow us but then we lost it and thought it was gone for good. We dropped the other missionaries off at the bus terminal and went to an appointment and did some other stuff. We come back to the house to eat and guess who is sitting waiting for us patiently? The dog, all excited when we came back. My companion was pretty funny cause he got really annoyed. The dog kept following us and protecting us from everyone on the street by barking at them. He was pretty proud of himself. We finally ditched him by going in the front door of the post office and out the back. We didn't see him after that but my companion no longer wants a dog.
It was really cold but then it really has warmed up lately. Yesterday it came time for church to start and the only people at the building were the missionaries. The Branch President and his family showed up about 15 minutes late and then some more people came but not to many.

I made some mashed potatoes last night out of these small sorry excuse for a potato that Koreans have. It was all right, my companion is getting bored with me lately I am thinking. He has been calling his little Korean friend in the city next to us quite a bit lately. We will probably have to have a talk this week. We still have four weeks left together. Keep me in your prayers. Elder Snell

Elder Matt Hansen:

2009-01-06T12:54:00.002-07:00

It was good to talk to you, it sounds like everything there is going good for you all. I hope you have enjoyed your holiday season. It was good to talk to everyone. Sometimes I feel like I will be home in like two weeks I don't know why. Time does fly though. Now it just feels like this is my life forever, home is kind of just a distant memory and a dream, its weird and hard to explain but things here are going good. I can't believe its coming up on a year. There are of course hard times but it is definitely worth it, I have learned so much and I am so grateful for that. If I didn't come here I don't know where I would be. Anyways, I don't really have a whole lot to say since we just talked on Christmas. Everything is still going well and we are still meeting and teaching quite a few people, all is well.

Well I cant believe its already almost 2009, time flies! It feels like just yesterday that I graduated high school, ha its crazy. I am really enjoying my time out here though. The longer I am out the more I enjoy it. The work is moving forward. Even though my companion and I are complete opposites we are working hard and enjoying it. If I could compare my companion to one person it would be Richard Simmons, ha I might sound rude but its the truth. I respect him though, he is a good missionary and he is willing to work so what more could I ask for? We just had a couple of baptisms and they were confirmed yesterday and they are awesome kids. One of them is 18 and he is going to be an awesome missionary. He really wants to go on a mission next year, after he finishes school so that will be awesome. He would even come teach with us sometimes before he was baptized, he is an awesome kid. Other than that we are planning for a few more baptisms within the next few weeks. Two of them are little kids and they are crazy and it has been a challenge teaching them but it has been good, I have enjoyed it. This past week we also got a new investigator that has to use a wheel-chair-type thing. It has 3 wheels and then pedals like a bike but for the hands. He can't use his legs so he uses his wheel-chair and then he just crawls. The amazing thing is that he is still coming to church, he is a great guy. Other than that nothing much going on. We are just doing the Lords work and enjoying our time. This work is amazing, I have learned so much and I am so grateful for this opportunity. There is no greater work on earth! I hope all is well. Happy New Year to you all, I love you! Elder Hansen

Elder Adam Walker:

2008-12-23T09:41:00.002-07:00

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 Grant Gannaway:

2008-12-22T12:01:00.002-07:00

December 18, 2008
I don't really have much of an update for the blog. If you could just thank the Walkers for the awesome, awesome gift that would be great, and I don't really have much to update. Still in Arlington, still teaching the Xu's, and still working to get member refs. Still loving being a missionary.

One year on Friday. Crazy. From now on I start walking out of the forest. Terrible feeling.

There will be an awesome Mongolian baptism on Sunday of a man who has been investigating for years. I am so excited - he is awesome. His name is Monkthor. He is a great volleyball player and we helped him move this week. They are good people in that corner of the world.

Elder Shattuck is still in Brambleton in the Ashburn zone. I really like his companion and it sounds like he has a great area. It's still possible to be his companion. That would be great.
Elder Gannaway

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2008-12-22T11:49:00.003-07:00

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:

2008-12-22T11:28:00.002-07:00

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

Elder Matthew Hansen:

2008-11-24T10:58:00.002-07:00

November 23, 2008
Soon things here are really going to change a lot. My companion is going home on Wednesday and my new companion comes on Thursday. He is from South Africa and he is coming straight from the MTC so he is brand new. I will be training so it should be interesting. I am kind of nervous but excited at the same time. A change is needed here and I just hope that it helps. Next week we are planning for 3-4 baptisms so I hope that all works out, that will be cool if it does. Other than that there isn't a whole lot going on here. We don't ride bikes, we just walk or take the buses which are still pretty interesting. We haven't done a whole lot of tracting, I think I need to learn how to do it again because my companion doesn't like to do it too much. But we still get some referrals which is better anyway, they always progress much better. This past week wasn't too bad. The worst thing that happened was at a members house, ha the food. Do you remember on Grumpy Old Men when they pour out the chunky-sour milk? Well that's exactly what I ate here. They call it "Natural Yogurt" but its just sour-chunky milk. I think its the worst thing I've had yet, I was gagging but I got it down and that was a relief. I'm surprised it didn't make me sick, I'm lucky I guess. I just thought you might want to know that.
Elder Hansen

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

2008-11-21T14:54:00.002-07:00

November 12, 2008
Tonight I am going to stake correlation to speak with the stake presidency, mission presidency and also with all the ward mission leaders that come.... it is a pretty fun meeting. President Wixom always goes over the numbers and statistics of what is going on in the mission. It is pretty neat to hear. All I have to do is pretty much go over last month’s accomplishments and successes and represent our zone. It is fun to go and do.

There is a member that works at the Pentagon and will be getting us a way awesome private tour of the Pentagon for our zone. It will be way sweet, it is kind of like a behind the scenes tour I guess. There will be 18 of us going, that will be a funny sight going into the doors of the Pentagon!

Helen (Hindu investigator) is doing really well though, she is still looking and set on getting baptized on the 13th of December which will be way awesome. She has come to church and is doing great. We are working with a couple of other people as well. I hope they will receive answers to their prayers and decide to move forward and get baptized.

We also get to go and help put Christmas lights up at the D.C. Temple which will be a neat thing to go and do! I will really enjoy that, I love the D.C. Temple, it is really neat.

Anyways, I love you mom and know that I am fine and healthy and loving life. Love you, Elder Shattuck

Elder Andrew Peña:

2008-11-21T14:06:00.002-07:00

November 3, 2008
Ok first off its been like a month since I've emailed and I had so many things to read I have 15 minutes to write this update so here it goes. I trained for a transfer and now I'm in ............ Visalia!!! Step training, same area different companion. He is from Logan, Utah and is awesome. I love him and he reminds me a lot like Grant and is tall and skinny like Scott. We have been together for 2weeks now and we are still covering two wards in Visalia, the 4th and 6th wards! So it's my 3rd transfer here and I love it. I could serve my entire mission here. It's the best. The members are awesome and we do get fed pretty much every night. There are maybe one, maybe two nights we don't get fed a week, but that's why I'm getting so fat. I've packed on 15 pounds!!!! YIKES! Now instead people won't have to say "like a fat kid loves cake" they can just say "like Andrew likes cake." Missions are awesome and I really miss all you guys and it was so good to hear from everyone. The library was under some remodeling for a couple of weeks that's why I was not able to email. We are going to have two re-baptisms and three investigator baptisms on the 15th. They are having their uncle do the re-baptisms and I'll be doing the other three. The family is amazing and I'll be sending pics in a couple weeks! Thank you so much for being my fam and I love and miss you all. You're the best. Now for today, two other elders want me to give them haircuts so that's what I'll be doing today. Missions are still awesome and amazing. Scott is on a tropical island in Korea! We ran into a Korean lady the other day and made me think of him and I asked her how to say "how are you doing" and man is the language funky! That's crazy! Well, whenever any of you see Cody or Cade - tell them I can't email them so tell them to stop being lazy and to sit down for 10 minutes to write a letter. Church is TRUE see ya in....one year and less then 6 months! Elder Peña

Elder Scott Snell:

2008-11-21T13:05:00.003-07:00

October 27, 2008
To start the day off we went and climbed one of the highest mounts in Korea. I think it is actually the highest in South Korea. It is Mount Halla, if you google Jeju, it is the big huge thing right in the middle of the island. I am exhausted and my comp is even more beat. You know, they don't make them in Korea like they do in America. I am sorry but we spent the whole time waiting on the two Koreans. It was still a lot of fun. It was gorgeous because all of the leaves were changing colors and such but the fact that you had to watch your feet the whole time made it hard to see the scenery. I took some good pictures on the way up and when we got to the top 2,000m, it was foggy, we were in the clouds and you really couldn't see much. It was fun but I probably won't be doing it again any time soon. Things are going good. I got to play a lot of soccer this week and gain a lot of respect for soccer players cause I am definitely not one of them. Koreans take their soccer serious. They don't mess around with that stuff. It reminded me of church basketball. But they were actually pretty good.

I love you all and miss you but i do love this beautiful island with its palm trees and no snow. Again everyone, until next week, remember the church is true and that i love you. Elder Snell

November 2, 2008
This last week we had an unexpected visit from one of the area presidency so they called us up on Tues and told us that our flight to Pusan was leaving on Wednesday at 8:30. Well that was nice of them. The airport is on the other side of the island so we slept over at the other elders house and left in the morning. The meeting was good, I got to see a lot of my old companions and hear my trainers last talk. He goes home on the 24th. That is weird to think about. I am headed to a Buddhist Temple today. I love you all and miss you a ton. Elder Snell

November 9, 2008
This was a pretty good week, we were able to set a baptismal date with our investigator and work hard. It is crazy to think I have already been on this island for about a month. The time really is flying by. This week I had the opportunity to teach my ward about Preach My Gospel. Remember that my ward doesn't speak English. Anyway, I was pretty nervous. I had prepared as much as I could for it and I started. I decided to talk about member missionary work cause as all missionaries know, referrals are an answer to our prayers. I told them to imagine walking down the road and all of the sudden a stranger says hi and says I have this really amazing book that will change your life. Sounds a little sketchy eh. Well, now imagine that that stranger is a foreigner. Yeah, even worse. Then I proceeded to tell them that I am that stranger everyday. Yeah, every once in a while, someone will listen but not very often. I told them how members are essential to this work and it is so much more effective when they can help. It was really powerful and I ended by bearing testimony about how a ward is a family, that we are all God's children so we are all one big family. I told them how I loved my family and I was thankful that I could spend forever with them. And how amazing this gospel is that we should be jumping at the opportunity to tell someone about our church. When I was finished it was really quite, everyone was crying and it was the strongest I have felt the spirit in a long time. I think that I am going to like it here in my new area.

November 16, 2008
That is crazy to think that next week is Thanksgiving. It looks like I will be eating at some restaurant with the other Elders on our island. I would go out and kill me a turkey but they don't have guns in Korea and I am not as fast as I once was. I blame it on the rice. This last week was good, my investigator who was a smoker for 30 years just got baptized yesterday so that was really cool. I was sitting in church yesterday with my investigator waiting for it to start and kind of wondering why we were waiting, well my Branch President comes up to me and says Sister so and so is not here to give her talk so can you give a talk? Remember we don't speak English over here. Well of course I could not say no so I had about ten minutes while they passed the sacrament to prepare. I ended up talking for a good ten minutes, it was not too bad. I think God was watching out for me. Well, it came time to close and the lady who was suppose to pray wasn't there so guess who got called on to say the prayer? You betcha, me. Then we had the baptismal service with the kids running around and screaming, it was really nice. I miss American church most weeks. Oh well, I had to lead the Baptismal service too. That's the life when you are the senior in a small area I guess. Oh well, its what I signed up for. The transfer is drawing to an end and who knows, maybe I will have a new comp next week. Maybe not, I don't know. I Have already been here for a transfer. It really flew by. I love you all and miss you. Elder Snell

November 23, 2008
Well another transfer is over and it is the first one that I haven't had any changes made. I have the same area and the same Korean componion. I am really worried cause that means my Korean will only get better. I know you are a little confused right now but you have to remember as my Korean gets better my English gets worse. You do remember that I have to call home next month. I am working on training my companoin to translate just in case you can't understand. I am still down here on Paradise Island. We actully had quite a bit of snow the other day up on the volcano. I didn't see it but the other missionaries said that there were quite a few accidents as they were headed back to their area. I actually had to buy a sweater this last week to wear with my suit. But we haven't had to break out the coats yet. Speaking of suit my one is fitting pretty tight lately I am thinking that I will have to go get it let out. I blame it on the rice still.
So Thanksgiving is this week and that is crazy to think about. I think that we are plannig on having a lot of food when we have district meeting this week. I love you all and miss you.
Love your son and brother Elder Snell