Elder Cameron Summers:

Cameron's mission farewell has been set for Sunday, July 13, 2008. He will speak during Sacrament Meeting which starts at 1:30 pm at the Burton Church, located on the corner of 2000 South and 4000 West.

Elder Andrew Pena:

June 2
This last week was good, we met and taught a few more people. This lady named Michelle and her mom seemed kinda interested, they said they were going to come to church yesterday but I didn't see them. We are meeting again with them this week so it should be good and Michelle's mom Marian has a boyfriend that is LDS or something so that's pretty good. She kinda knows a little and they were curious about the Temple and had some questions. Want to hear a sweet story?!!!! k, well we knocked on our first door Saturday and no one answered so we knocked again and we hear a dog barking and running, this pitbull runs right into the window and shatters the window!!!! The lady and guy started running and before we could even say sorry the guy just said "Just do us a favor and take a hike" so we did!! I bet you're wondering how the dog ran into the window? You know how windows slide up and down? and usually the bottom part of the window goes up?? Well, the window started really close to the ground like maybe 5 inches. So instead of the bottom window being pulled up the top one pulled down...make sense??? Well the dog ran and I guess didn't know there was a window there and it shattered the window! If you don't understand, maybe I'll tell you in two years!!! Then Britni and her dumb letter about people slamming doors on us! We had a lady slam the door on us and didn't even say hello then the husband came out and said sorry, we just don't believe in the same things you do- sorry, and that was about it. You could tell he wasn't too happy. Then the next door an older man said something about a member was saying something bad about his religion or something and so he was ticked and slammed the door!:) Then another man was telling us that we are going to H E double hockey sticks because "we worship a different Jesus than it says in the bible"! Plus this transfer we are supposed to just be reading from the the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel and the Book of Mormon is such a sweet book!!! Keep reading it with your children! It's awesome. I'm having fun and it's good and I'll send pictures someday!:) I just haven't taken many pics of this area they don't want us to "look like tourists" so we shouldn't take lots of pics plus there is nothing really that is cool to take pictures of. I love you guys, make sure you don't miss me to much! :)

June 9
Missions are great, it's just getting better!!! My comps name is ELDER AMITAGA FATU. His first name sounds like Amitanga and his last name is like I'm fat but your fat too! but fatu haha he is awesome and I learn a lot from him. He is great but he is from Samoa and he does some weird things. He is 21 and has been out for 7 months but sometimes he acts like a child but that's ok. We are teaching some people but most the people we are teaching either are taking baby steps and are not keeping commitments or they are already really strong in their faith and are just open and listen to what we have to say but we have given them all a Book of Mormon. Yesterday we taught a Catholic family and by far was the best teaching experience and just awesome talking about our faiths and they are really strong in their faith but we did set another appointment and gave them a Book of Mormon and told them to read and pray. They are an amazing family, we only met them yesterday. They were so nice and it was just awesome. I just wanna teach people like that all day, I don't care if I don't baptize them. It's better then a cuss word here and there and a slammed door in the face!! We are shooting for another baptism on the 28 of June but transfers are on the 22 of June and I think I'll be getting moved but who knows.... and then the one dude, Jessie, changed his date to July 4 so yeah.. it's still really good and we are doing a lot of tracting to find more people to teach but it's still way good!!!!!!! It really brings me comfort that you honor the priesthood like you do and makes me look up to you so much!!! You're an amazing brother... :) I love you guys. Thanks so much for everything. You're awesome Nik - I love you, thanks for all you have done, you really are my other mother!:) haha and mom says you got a little bump now and you look cute haha that's awesome. Anyways she will be 1 and a half when I get back and walking!!! So crazy!!! But I gotta go... Love you guys!!! Elder Peña #11

Elder Brantley Shattuck:

Picture above - baptisms on May 17 - Dorothy Culver & Kathleen McDonald.

June 2008
Everything is going good down here in Warrenton,VA. Unfortunately summer is right around the corner and it is starting to get really hot and humid! This past week was a very busy week. We had interviews with President and Sister Wixom yesterday which went very well, except we have come to find out that Elder Gannaway's greenie is going home! that is just word on the street though, kind of a bummer there if it happens though. Um we went and did service for Kathleen on Saturday, it was awesome, I got to weed eat and I actually enjoyed it very much, it is surprising how relaxing it is to just zone out and work rather than worrying about whether or not I am doing what the spirit or the rules want me to. We have had some neat experiences but nothing to crazy to write home about.
My greenie(MY SON) is pretty funny, he is still working on talking to people and getting out of his bubble, I didn't realize how much selling helped me compared to the people who have never knocked a door in there life. Anyways there ya go, that is my life for now.

Hey mom how are you doing? This past week has gone really well. Last night we went to check up on a less active who wasn't home but as we were walking away one of the neighbors called over to us so we went and talked to him. He had had a few to drink and we had a good conversation with him. By the end of the conversation he had poured out the rest of the beer in his can and a whole six pack from his refrigerator, we are going back tonight to teach him, hopefully everything will work out the way it should. We are seeing some pretty amzing miracles right now and the work is progressing a ton. I am doing well, no sickness, no injuries or nothing so don't worry, the Lord is looking out for me. Love you.

Ya, Elder Gannaway's companion went home, he now has a companion that came out with me named Elder Ray. He is a pretty good guy, kinda different but a good natured guy.
Elder Shattuck

Elder Matt Hansen:

June 2, 2008

Hi,
My husband and I are serving in Dar es Salaam with your son -- Elder Hansen! I thought you might enjoy this picture I took of him at street-boarding a couple of weeks ago. We are enjoying working with him so much! He is such a great example and always has a cheerful, positive attitude. You should certainly be very proud of him! (and I'm sure you are!) Rest assured that we senior couples consider all these elders "our kids." But while we remind them to eat right and be safe, they teach us so much about living worthy of the spirit and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I forgot to mention in my last email the wonderful experience I had when my husband and I took your son and Elder Majafe to the doctor a couple weeks ago. Elder Majafe, as you may know, has been having problems with some headaches, so off we went to the doctor's office. While we were sitting in the waiting room, a man asked your son about the Church (he saw our badges). I felt the spirit so strong as Elder Hansen explained about the restoration of the gospel. Then he went out to the car to get a Book of Mormon and a few pamphlets and when he came back, he bore his testimony to the man, right there in the waiting room, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the gospel has been restored. The man lives a distance from Dar, so we don't know if he will ever make it to Church, but I know the Spirit was there when Elder Hansen bore testimony -- and you just never know what might happen. Thanks for "giving up" your son for 2 years -- he's a real treasure.

All the best,
Sister Sara Kenyon
Elder Barry Kenyon

June 8, 2008
Things here are going pretty good. This week has been good. One Elder in our district left for home today so every night last week we had dinner appointments, ha- it was pretty nice, we never had to cook. Then yesterday we had two dinners. One at a members house and then at the couples house. The couples here are very nice. There are two sets, the Jensen's and the Kenton's. They treat us very well and take good care of us. Our whole zone went to their house last night and (10 elders, 4 are leaving) we had dinner and then a devotional. It was really fun and very spiritual too, it felt like the MTC to me, I really liked it. This last week has been pretty busy too which is good. We have a new investigator named Emiri and he is very good. He is very excited and we have a date for him to get baptized at the end of this month so hopefully everything will work out ok. Other than that, we don't have too many investigators that are really progressing towards baptism. They are all good people but they don't want to leave their churches. The work is going well though. We got our transfer news also and I'm still here of course but my companion is leaving. My new companion is from South Africa and he will be here on Wednesday. His name is Elder Qinisile, and the "Q" is pronounced with a click so I'm gonna struggle with that. I'm excited but also pretty nervous, hopefully everything will work out ok. I'm gonna have to learn a lot more Swahili that is one thing for sure. I haven't tried cooking anything lately because I can't cook. I need some recipes, did you send any? If not, that's fine but they would be helpful. The white kid is Elder Walker and he is in Kenya now. He was in our district but not any more. That is all the exciting news from Tanzania. Things are going good and I'm doing fine and you'll hear about my new companion next week. I love you mom, thanks for everything, you're the best. Have a good week, talk to you later. Elder Hansen

PS: My companion is the one on the left in the picture where we are washing.

Elder Adam Walker:

We just got our first letter from Adam. He entered the MTC June 4, 2008. He says the toilet seats fits his butt perfectly and the food is not to bad. He is so excited to be there and says he has learned so much just in the week and half he has been there. The spirit is so strong, and it never leaves and what a wonderful feeling that is. He loves how everything is so positive. He has a great companion Elder Dahl which is from Seattle, Washington area, In his same room is Elder Anderson which lived in the same apartment complex at Utah State in Logan with him and also an Elder Richardsen. He says he fills fortunate to have a good companion because many other missionaries in other districts are talking of wanting to go home and really not feeling the spirit. He says its interesting to see everyones different personalities. He will leave approx. June 24 for the West Virginia Mission. Thanks everyone for coming to Adam's farewell and going away party. So many have been such a great influence in Adams life and as parents we really appreciate it. Thanks Again.

Elder Cody Mitchell:

Cody's farewell is Sunday, June 22nd at 8:30 a.m. Rexburg 3rd Ward, which meets at the church just down from the Cottontree Inn on the main road coming into Rexburg. We are having a breakfast following sacrament meeting, which gets over at 9:45 a.m., at our house. All are welcome.
Here is his MTC address:

Elder Cody Jade Mitchell
Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N. 900 East
Provo, UT 84604

Cody will be in the MTC in Provo for 3 weeks. Following that, he will travel to the Lima, Peru MTC where he will spend 6 weeks learning about the Bolivian culture and the different dialects of spanish. We do not have that address yet, but I believe that it will be a pouch address. I know that we are only able to send a sheet of paper, folded in thirds and taped shut with the address written on the outside, to cut down on the weight because it is so expensive to send mail to South America.