Sunday, September 14, 2014

Words from Elder Tyler Crosby in Tonga


"This week has been another good one. We are just working with our investigators hoping this week we can baptize them. Also we had stake conference this week that was really good. We had the 1st counselor for the Tongan mission speak. His talk was really good. The thing I liked the most was that when he started talking about missionary work he told everyone they were to act like today they were baptized again. It really made me think about the sacrament and repentance. We are able to feel that way we once did if we sincerely repent. What a blessing that is, especially with all the gross and vague things of this world. I hope that we will all remember the sacrifice that the our savior Jesus Christ made for us. Have a good week"

Words from Sister Kortlynn Herring in Japan

愛する家族へ
"My dear beloved Family,

Hello from Tokyo! This week was another wonderful week! The area is
finally beginning to get going and it's awesome! First, thank you all
for your lovely emails! I appreciate it so so much! I truly love you
all and am so blessed to belong to the stellar family that I belong
to! (*^_^*)

So, this week we got to meet with some awesome people. First we have
Yoshida San. She came to eikaiwa for the first time last week, she
actually received an eikaiwa flyer in Niigata, (Kort served in Niigata for 6 months) and came and found our
class here in Senzokuike. She is so cool! She was a pro wrestler for
20 years! And now she is coaching this special thing called body
tuning, she compares it to playing the piano, no matter how hard you
practice, if the piano isn't in tune, the music won't be good, our
bodies are the same, no matter how hard we work out, or try to loose
weight, we won't get the result we want, because we didn't start with
the tuning. It's very interesting, and we got to go to her class, and
I learned some techniques, I shall teach you all. She says it helps
with back pain, digestive systems, everything! Anywho she is so cool!
She wen to a catholic school when she was little and she use to pray
before she wrestle. We are teaching her English, and then we started
talking about God and how he has a plan for us, and she said she
wanted to know! So, with our cool miracle from Niigata, we got a new
investigator! Yay!

Then we have Jun San. He is a man that Sister Nash met last transfer
while handing out flyers at the train station. He speaks really good
English and that was his original interest, but this last Sunday we
were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation and the bishop, ward
mission leader, and an awesome Shimai from the ward all pitched in and
it was a great lesson.(How awesome to have such great support from the ward) He has a slight mental problem, but not bad,
and he is a super nice guy.

We also have Merin who is from Taiwan, she also doesn't realize what
is missing from her life, but as we were able to talk to her a bit
about God, the spirit was there and it was awesome!
Then we have Mina, she is from Nepal. Super nice lady! So humble!
We went and visited her and she invited us over to her house and fed
us this super yummy spicy pasta. Her little boys are awesome. Punks,
but awesome. It's weird, they all speak Nepalese together, but we
speak English to the boys and Japanese to the mom. Right now, the
little boys are studying Japanese, but they are better at English.
It's kind of fun. Tokyo is so full of foreigners, but the most common language is either Japanese or English, sometimes a
little of both. This could only happen in japan and it's so cool!

This ward is amazing! Last week our ward mission leader asked us what
food we liked, he said anything, so we name like bread, pasta, cereal,
and of course I mention black thunder (Japanese Chocolate bar similar to Kit Kat) and snickers, and then he says
great, gets up and announces to the elders quorum and relief society
what our favorite food is and how he expects us to have a very full
fruits basket with all our favorite food. Well, let me tell you, this
ward is amazing! We get to church and there is already loads of food,
by the end, it was way too much! I will send a picture! I have never
seen a fruit basket that full my entire mission! The best part was
the 2 packs of black thunders and snickers and the 12 packs of my
favorite granola cereal! So spoiled! We split with the elders, but
even then, we both got a lot. Japanese people are way to nice!

So, today for pday Sister Nash and I went to a shrine called asakusa,
and took cool pics and what not. While we were taking pictures on a
bridge, this man comes up and asks of he can interview us on tv, we
were like ok. All they did was have us pose, and then ask us a couple
questions, but then they found out that we lived in japan as church
volunteers, the kind of cut it short, but it was still a cool
experience. We also met a lot of way nice people today! I love the
diversity and funness in Tokyo! So many cool people to talk to!

Basically, this week was great, the work is moving forward, and I love
my mission. Oh, so we also had zone conference this week, and I know
I don't ever really mention this, but I love the Budges (Mission Pres) so so much!
They are amazing, and I love it whenever we get to see them and talk
with them. The theme of the conference was obedience and unity and
planning Christmas. :) never to early to start right! We went over
how it's such a great opportunity to teach people about Christ. I
also got to give my last testimony. It was good. I wasn't able to
say everything, that's impossible, but it felt good. I can't believe
I did that though. Weird! There were quite a few who bore their
testimonies, including an old ap, and sister biddle and 2 Japanese
sisters that I adore! There were a lot of people at the conference,
so I was able to see a lot of close friends and old companions.
Including sister Palmer! Which was fun.

Well, this turned out to be long! I love you all! Hope you have a
fantastic week! Remember the gospel is true! The Book of Mormon is
powerful, and prayer works! I adore and love you all! Keep being the
amazing people that I know and love!"

Love,

Sister Herring
へリング姉妹

Words from Elder Garrett Davis in the MTC(leaving for Thailand 9/15)

"week 8
wow time here at the MTC is almost up which isnt a bad thing at all its been good while its lasted it definitelty helped me in learning the language and the gospel but i am ready to get out into the mission field i still am hearing only postive things about thailand other than the monkeys spiders lizards and telephones haha:) i guess telephones drive away the spirit in lessons:) but its been good i got my flight plans this week and i will be fly from salt lake to lax then to hong kong then to bangkok where we will get thrown into the work! i am excited its all i can think about but it definitely has motivated me to work harder so i am really trying to expand my vocabulary and really focus on reading the book of Mormon in thai and its amazing its helping alot in both those areas! the Lord is definitely helping me out with learning the language and with reading it. so interesting things this week is that we got our flight plans and we got one of our investigators a baptismal date which is good his name is Oat:)!! i am still excited i am trying my best to prepare to go out there:) love you guys
Eldee Davis
Phom ruu phrayeesuukrid pen phraphuuthaay khccg raw "

Words from Elder Kyle James in Germany

 
"Interesting week yet again.

As always.

We had good goals to try for this week. But most of them fell out due to people falling out. Oh well. No use getting stressed over things we can't control. We did have an awesome meeting with an inactive man, and one of the inactive people that we visited has come to church like 3 times in a row. So that is cool.

We got a name from our Bischof of a guy that hadnt been to church in years. So we took the bahn over to his house and Klingled his door. We heard the top window open... and an old voice call out`hallo??' We told him that we were from die kirche Jesu Christi and he let us in. He was very scattered. Well... he was 89. He made us guess his age. He actually fought in the war. His wife died a few years ago. So all he does is garden. He had a beautiful garten. We gave him a spritual thought and right in the middle... he jumps up and runs to a cabinet and pulls out some crackers and lets us eat them. I ate 8. They were awesome. They could have been old... pre WW2 crackers for all I know. We are gonna meet him in a few weeks and see if we can't get him back.SO really funny actually. I said the closing prayer at this meeting... and when I said Amen.. the man points at me with his old man finger. And says `sein deutsch ist besser.`hahaha In other words... He said that my German is better than my trainers German.

On Saturday we went on a ward trip. Wards here are crazy. Instead of handshakes they give hugs. Everyone hugs each other. It really is just a big family. They love each other. Very little back bitting or drama. They go to church... to be together as friends and worship. It is really cool actually. Anyway... We went to Köln with our ward. We went to the Chocolate Museum. It was next to the Senf (mustard) Museum haha. It was interesting. 'Ill send some pics. It was right on on Rhein. Beautiful River. Scary big town. Köln Hauptbahnhof is HUGE. Like awesome huge. Right outside of the Hauptbahnhof, is THE KÖLNER DOM!! Oh man!! That thing is HUGE. Like... I cant even describe it. The pictures I have do it 0 justice. The detail on that thing is incredible. Man.... look it up online or watch some videos. THat thing is 800 years old. wow.

The inside was scary. The organ is hanging off of the wall... like 100 feet in the air. Yikes.

On Sunday... we went and ate dinner at the Brauns. Wow. They live in a small village thing outside of Wermelskirchen. LOOK THAT UP. We drove right next to Schloss Burg... I think the name is. Look that up too. Their house was crazy old... and it was one of those old german houses with the cool cross beams. We went inside... and oh boy. That place was german. Very german. It was so cool. I cant even explain it. We had a fancy dinner. With soup spoons and dessert spoons and crazy stuff like that. No ice for the water of course. But it was good. Good people.

I am doing great. Ive lost like 7-10 pounds since the MTC but that is alright. We eat well and everything is ok. I am perfectly healthy. All is great.

Transfer calls were on Saturday. We lost 3 from our district. We go to Frankfurt on Friday to hear Elder Ballard. Pretty cool. That will be a long day... haha

We are going to Köln today to climb to the top of the massive dom. I am so pumped!

So yah.. when you read this i will be in Köln.

German wise.... I am still a golden with a lot to learn. BUT I study HARD. Like crazy hard. I give all I have to learn german. And that is what it takes.
So spiritualness. Everything is great. I love this work and I feel like I have gotten used to it.

I was thinking lately. Jesus Christus died for us. He was raised unto the cross... to raise US up. THink about that. It is so cool to think about. We are here to spread the good news. We can say that we love someone... but if we don't care about them enough to save their souls... then we don't really love them. We need to be brave and have enough love. We need to spread the gospel. Our families and loved ones all need to hear it. Give them the oppurtunity... then love them if they reject it.

SO if there is a spritual thought that I will leave you with... it is this.... Service.
Oh man, Service is the best. I feel bad for not serving more. When we are in the service of our fellow man... we are only in the service of our god.
Come unto Christ my Familie! I know you guys are striving to be better... and that makes me feel good. But realize that Christ has his hand out streched to us always. He always beckons you... to come unto him. Find a way this week... to come unto Christ. Give up the world and all of its tricks and hate. Get rid of the comparision... competition... being enough.... we are always enough in Gods eyes. Find a way this week to come nearer to Christ. Sacrifice a sin that you like... read the scriptures... find love in prayers, Break up with the world. Come unto the Savior,


Well as always... I am pressed for time. I love you all and it sounds like things are going well.

I will try to respond to questions next week... so write lots of questions.

I love you all very much! no Wubbzy though. I have seen one dachshund. And when you say Dachshund... Use your throat,

Anyway... Tschüss my familie!

Ich liebe euch...
Für Immer"

Words from Elder Eli Frazier in Peru

"Alright heres week 2! or 3? im not sure which to consider it. But yeah heres the update.
I experienced ny first earthquake! it was small but it knocked my caulaugne over so we could feel it. Just a cool experience nothing big.
With my investigater Virginia, she has been real sick so we´ve been giving her blessings, she thinks she might have stomach cancer so were hoping and praying the best for her! She should be getting baptized next week now!
Oh and also the other day i was getting in the shower and i turned it on and it like blew out fire!! and so we no longer had hot water for the next couple days, but we bought a new showerhead and tried fixing it. And so we shut the power off in the house so i wasnt worried about getting shocked anymore. So were trying to figure out why couldnt get hot water anymore and so checked the cable box. and we changed out the little box in there, like a circuit box or something, and in the process i forgot that the power TO the house was still on, and i woke up real fast when i touched that wire! I got shocked way bad but im good now! crazy! thanks to my carelessness but i learned. and now our hot water works again. The reason it stopped working is beacuse of a loose wire!
The food was pretty good this week, only strange thing was cow liver, but i didnt know it was cow till after i ate it. So it wasnt bad.
The wweather is way constant. It hardly ever changes! and in a weird way i kinda miss the wind of SJ right now! But the weather is nice, it being winter here, so im glad its a constant chill, and not constant hot like it will be in december! Which is then summer here.
Thats about it for the summary of this past week! I love and miss you all! Stay Sweet :)"

Words from Elder Jared Anderson in Brazil





"Dear family,
this week was great, we had a baptism, which is always exciting. And then on sunday we had the oppurtunity to have fast and testimony meeting, it was pretty normal, and then one of our recent converts 2 weeks recent stood up went to the pulpit and bore her testimony, it was so powerful. I was so happy, and then to my greater suprise her mom, stood up walked to the pulpit and bore hers also (2 weeks after baptism) the spirit was so strong, i thanked the Lord for the oppurtunity i had to hear such and amazing testimony and i am so grateful to be here serving, i love you guys!"

Words from Elder Garrett Anderson in Brazil

"hey guys!
i am still slacking on the weekly emails but i will try to improve these last couple of months. yesterday we had a baptism! it was awesome and i was so excited about it. i felt the spirit so strong as i entered the waters to perform the ordinance! his name is valder, he is a father of another member, actually his whole family are members, and he was just baptized! They were ecstatic and so was I. He is 80 years old and blind, but i really love that old man. He is such a great guy and so humble. I am so thankful that he listened to our message and followed the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. I love being a missionary!

Today was transfers. i was transfered to an old area where i had worked for 6 months. i will finish out the last 3 months there. the mission president told me i need to go back to help the members and the converts that we baptized to return and just help out in general. it will be a great 3 months and i will be sad to leave. i love you guys and have a great week!"


Words from Elder Chandon Herring in Washington DC

"Well Hi family. How are you? Good good glad to hear it. This was
another good week here in the greatest mission in the History of Life.
We had a full week this week as well. Yet our investigators are being
a little frustrating. The whole "come to church" thing just does not
click for some reason. Even when we have entire lessons on the
importance of church. But that is good if that is the only problem we
have. I am loving my comp and area. We are all getting along just
nicely. I had a great chance this week to make Pound Cake and Brownie
pudding!!! Hurray! It is super good.

Ok Tuesday...
This was a slow day. We had bad weather so people cancel on us. It is
good in the point that we get to call upon a lot of people to see how
they are doing and if we would be able to come and meet with them sometime.

We had the FHE again. I love these little meetings! The spirit
is so strong and the people there are just amazing. We have been
getting better turn outs these past few weeks too. Elder Hart (Who goes
home next week) and Elder Porter (The new guy that is super fun and
sarcastic.) taught the lesson. It was on faith. They started out with
just simple questions but when the people participated they really
felt the spirit and we were able to have a great time. Anita and her
kids came! She is a LA and her two kids are hard Good at heart but
Difficult. They do not know how to handle
being told no or be quiet. Especially if it comes from their mom. But
they are a struggling family and it was super good to have them there.
Anita needed the break. As we biked home the rain stopped and it was
just super beautiful as we rode in a super green, wet, and cool night.
It was so pretty! But so awfully humid.

Wednesday...
Temple day! These are the best days of the transfer. We get to go to
the temple for a long time! I was able to start some of Sis Carriger's
names too. One of the workers though was a little cranky. It was the
weirdest thing in the world to see someone who was in the temple truly
just mad at the world. On our way to the Celetrial room he was asked
to scoot over and just blew up! It was kind of sad. But I was able to
go to another worker and focused back on the work I was there to do. It was an amazing experience yet again. I read a talk from GC on
preparing to go to the temple. When we take that extra time to prepare
The Lord notices and we feel his spirit more abundantly. It is so
cool! Then we had Ward Coordination. Bro Harding made these waffles as
you saw on FB. They were super good and it was a great meeting.

Thursday...
Sadly only short study time this morning. We had District Meeting. I
gave my first workshop! It is on how to begin teaching, It was good
and I feel like i did a good job. The Elders and Senior couples really
were interacting and we had a good discussion. When we had finished
with the meeting and had lunch and FB time we talked with the Spanish
Elders about the chance of another terrorist attack. We think it is
super likely and so does President Cooke. So on Sep 11 we are going to
be spending all day at the VC for mandatory meetings and safety stuff.
Pres took the liberty of being oh so kind as to buy us all bright
green reflector vests so people think we are cops and we are seen....
I dislike them but I guess he was inspired so we will
obey.


We taught Anita at night and had a decent lesson. She is trying
so hard. She is a single mom with two kids. Then after we had no
luck contacting. Now that school is starting no one is willing to talk
to us past 7 at night! It is pathetic. Our golden hours are the least
productive now! Everyone is home but they WILL NOT let us in to talk
if they even answer the door. But we will find a good way to contact.

Friday...
I almost died this morning while lifting. Literally. I was doing super
deep squats to work on my flexibility and when I was on my 4th rep at
315lbs I lost my balance. Elder Thornton is a good spot and I did not
die but it was close. Good thing it was friday so no one is in the
weight room.


I, in personal study have been in the end of 2 Nephi,
Jacob, and Enos. I love them! Nephi and Jacob are an amazing example
to us all! I LOVE THE BOM!!!! We had our apt cancel so we started
weekly planning. Super fun times. I had a good time and made some BBQ
chicken spinach pizza for lunch. Homemade everything except the sauce,
cheese, spinach, and chicken, so ya just the dough. But delish!


After planning we saw sis Luna again. She is such a silly lady. She made us
some Juice again and we had a great lesson. She is going to try to get
someone to watch her son so she can come to church! Sweet! Then the
moment of weakness when we got home. E. Thornton looked at me and said
I am eating a cake. He normally eats really healthy and when he
decides to eat jone he does. It cracks me up! He trys to eat good but
has no discipline when it comes down to it. Just offer and he eats
everything. So what did I do? I made a POUND CAKE!!!!!! DELICIOUS!!!!

Saturday...
I was on exchanges with E. Hart today. We had a good day. He is odd
and frustrating but super fun. I love him. Today I got in a fight tho.
When we went to the Bike House to volunteer and help out after we had
an appointment dog us I was trying to take this guys pedals off of his
bike. They had not been taken off for like 20 yrs and he wanted them
on another bike. So as i was helping him they did not want to move. I
pushed and pulled and swore (jk) and nothing. So I, now soaked in
sweat, tried one more time. BANG! It broke loose and I was able to get
it off! But I noticed on the gears of the bike, the pointy parts where
the chain is, had these huge chunks of skin... my skin. AHHHHHHHH My
hand bled a lot but it is all better. I looked super scary. Bloody
hands, sweaty and holding a wrench in the blazing 93 degree 10000000%
humidity. It was fun!


We had FB and Family History time next. All of
our appointments cancelled. It was irritating We had a dead end
referral to. But the night ended super well. We met with Umu Sesay.
She is from Sierlion Africa. Not sure where. she was baptized the
transfer before i came out. She has the most powerful testimony I have
ever heard on my mission!! She is so cool! One of those amazing golden
people that you find. Then E Hart and I sang scripture power as we
walked home in the rain :)

Sunday...
We had a good yet disappointing sunday. Good because Ben Coleman (the
16yr old only member in that family, adele's bro) was ordained a
priest. SO COOL! He is making a lot of progress. Bad because NO ONE
ELSE CAME TO CHURCH!!!! NO ONE!!!!!!! Not a single investigator. None
of bens family even came. But they will come next week i hope. to make
me feel better I had to make brownie pudding when we got home from
church during our lunch time. It turned out super good and it was a
happy going away gift for E Hart. He loved it! We had some good
Facebook time where I was able to teach 3 good lessons. I love using
the social media to teach! Then at 9:00 The whole district came over
to our home to celebrate P day eve. We had a ball. including lighting
E Jensen's arms on fire. We are still teenage boys. It was super fun.

Today...
I got to go to the mall. I spent 3 hours on just the first floor of
the Air and Space Museum. I had fun but we should have moved on. We
had waffles and ice cream for breakfast. and I even changed my sheets
and washed my towel. Mom you should be proud. FIRST TIME IN
MISSION!!!! jk i have multiple times.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. I love you all and
your letters make my day. I know that this gospel is true and that it
really is the work of God. The BOM is true and it will bring you more
happiness by abiding by it precepts than anything else you do in this
life. Family matters. That is one thing that is super important to
people here is family. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!!!!"

Words from Elder Kade Garner in Peru

"This week was pretty great. We were so busy. We had a ton of meetings. We had interviews with the president, mission council, and zone meeting. It was a busy and hecktic week but it turned out to be so great. You see for two transfers or in other words for just over three months we (my copanion and I) have been looking and praying for a family of four. We have asked God everyday to bless us through our obedience and diligence with a family of four whos parents would be married and two kids over eight years old. We have contaced and looked and prayed with no results and I am not going to lie at times I would end a day just being frustrated. We were not seeing any results.


Friday came and we had our zone meeting. President Archibald and Hermana Archiblad came to visit, that was nerve wraking for me. And in this meeting the hermana taught us a very good concept. She told us that our generation is a very special one. From to computers to microwaves to cell phones we have access to results instantly... we don´t know how to wait. She said that that often is the case in the work. We are not used to having to work at something for a very long time without seeing the results that we want. She said that if we are diligent and keep moving forward with faith in Christ that we will see the blessings we want. Well, her lesson to us was prophetic for me.


The next day after one of our basptismal dates fell through due to some problems going on with a landlord and our investigator we were walking through the streets with very little faith. I felt defeated. We have worked hard, we have been full of faith and we have been diligent and obedient in all that we do. ¨What am I doing wrong?¨ I asked myself over and over. When an idea came into my mind.


Two weeks ago we had contacted an elderly woman on her front door step. She told us that she would like to listen to us and that her husband is home Saturdays. We went to her house I knocked and she was not home. Then I remembered the boy that lives next door. When we were contacting her weeks ago a young boy of maybe 12 entered the house next door and waved at me very happily as if we were friends. I thought to myself that one day we would knock that door to see what his family was like. Well, I knocked the door and his father came out. I asked him if the Garcia family was home (the family Garcia does not exist) and he told me no. But quicker than I could understand five people were outside trying to fiure out where the Garcias live.


The parents recognized us as Mormon right away and told us that they are from another church. And then, the mom told us that she wanted to listen to us and invited us in. We found out that of the five people four lived there. They are married and their kids are both older than eight. The young man I saw weeks ago was so happy to see us again. We set a return appoitment and we left the house feeling so good. Sometimes we really do just need to endure until the end. If we do so God will always bless us and sometimes he blesses us with a family of four to baptize. I do not know if they will get baptized while I am here but I have learned some lessons I needed.

The craziest thing is that the dad (Pedro) is never home Saturday in the afternoon. Something strange had happened at work and he had two hours to go home and take a break. Why did we have the idea to go look for a family that was not going to be home? Well, because Heavenly Father wanted us to find a family of four.


There is something that I have wanted since I was little. I have been diligent and patient in waiting for it. It is an eternal family. I am hoping that some other prayers of mine will be contested when I get home. We as a family cannot afford to not be sealed. If we don´t get sealed it is because we don´t understand the doctrine behind it. I may not understand it perfectly but I do understand enough to know that it needs to be a goal right now.


One more thing. It just got harder to baptize here. The area presidency deided that all investigators need to pay a contribution (offering) to the church before they can get baptized. It is because all people need to understand that the churh believes in sacrifice and the members here are not good at paying their tithing yet so by helping them understand what a sacrifice it is to be a member before they get baptized it will be eaiser to keep them active after. They also decided that every investigator has to go to church for the three full hours three times before baptism. They need to understand that we as Mormons understand the sabboth day and that to keep it does not just mean going to sacrament meeting...

Os amo a todos vosotros y hablaremos la próxima, ¡la iglesia es verdadera!"

Words from Elder Garrett Hollembeak in Westn Virginia

"I found out I'm being transferred to Charleston, WV to
serve as a zone leader there. Both Elder Wagstaff and I will be
leaving so we've been scrambling to get everything in order and see
everyone before we leave. I'm excited and nervous to be a zone leader,
I'll be over twenty four other missionaries and a really good area.
I'm hoping I can keep up, from what I understand there will be a lot
of training so it should be good. I'm kind of scared to death about
it. I'm not sure what my new address
will be but you can send it to the mission office since I'll be pretty
close. My new companion will be Elder Mackleprang, and I've met him
before and he's super nice."
Below is a letter that was sent to Garrett's mom from a Sister Rubinol who knew Garrett from the MTC. Sister Rubinol is serving her mission in the Farmington,NM mission. The letter recounts a training with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It's good!

"Hello :) Holland Days is over but the things that he shared are still
> swimming aroung in my mind. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I
> have had on my mission and there is no way I will ever forget the things
> that Elder Holland taught me. I am so thankful that I am serving a mission
> and have 18 months to focus 100% on my Savior and on the eternal impact that
> the gospel has in the lives of everyone I meet. Here are some of the things
> Elder Holland shared with us, and i would be selfish if i didnt share them
> with the people i love the most (which is you, reading this email)
>
> "Pay whatever price you have to pay." Serving a mission isnt about you, its
> not about what you can get out of it. this is your one time to turn your
> life over to God, dont waist it thinking about how tired you are, how
> uncomfortable you are talking to strangers, how friegtend you are of thier
> reactions, none of that matters.
> "Never be less than you promised the Lord you would be." I have promised to
> leave EVERYTHING behind and focus on things that will matter for time and
> all eternity. I promised to have and eye single to his glory.
> "Be the missionary your family thinks you are. They, and the rest of the
> world, have the right to think you are perfect."
> "Step up and STAY up" Its one thing to stand up for something you know to be
> true. Its another thing to stay standing when trail, opposition and
> temptations come.
> "We are lead by a wounded captain" Jesus Christ's resurected body is NOT
> perfect, He chose to keeps us "engraven on the palms of His hands"
>
> Last but not least He shared his strong desire to learn everything he can
> about the Savior of the world on Sunday. Me and sister Jessee where sitting
> in the front row and he pointed at us:)) this is what he said
>
> "I would walk on lava! I would drink and chew and eat broken glass...to
> learn more about the son of God...and these sisters (points to us) are
> giving 532 more pages of it! how could someone be so dead, how could a heart
> be so calused" to reject what they are offering?
>
> He was crying and i was crying and tissue was being passed because it is
> such a true statement. Jesus Christ is the only perfect person that has ever
> lived on this earth. How can you "find Him" just once. How can you "know
> Him" and not want to learn more? I learn more about my Savior everday and
> like Elder Holland i can never get enough. I hope i NEVER learn every sinlge
> thing there is to know about Him, I want to continue to learn and grow and
> try everyday to follow His example. I fall short everyday as a missionary
> and i will continue to fall short throughout my life. But that doesnt mean
> that Im a failure. That means Im going to try again tomorrow. Change isnt
> comfortable or easy or fast, but it is worth it.--
>
> Endure to the End"
> Sister Rubinol

Monday, September 1, 2014

Words from Elder Chandon Herring in Washington DC


"Ok my week... well it was good. We are having a lot of success in our
district now. The North Elders (our roommates) have 6 b dates. WOW!!!!
We on Monday got another one. We had a referral that said she wanted
to learn more and we went to teach her the Restoration. She is a nice
lady who is straight from South Africa. She is super cool, when we can
understand her, and her name is Pamela. We had a good lesson but it
seemed kind of awkward the whole time. But we put her on date and she
seems to be like she is internalizing what we are teaching.

Tue. Ok This day started out good. We went lifting and we maxed. I beat E. Thornton in squats! It was really nice!


When we have time open in the less productive hours of the day
we normally go to the church to do some family history or facebook. I
have been doing a lot of indexing and my goal is to get about 5000
names done over my mission. I might do more than that because I have
done 200 already. We after had a Zone leader who used to serve here
say we needed to visit a LA names Bro. Clark. So we found his home and
visited. He is such a poor man. Physically and spiritually. He has
little and is just super depressed but trys to keep a positive outlook
on life. He is really nice and we are trying to get him back to
church. That night it was our turn to teach FHE. So E. Thornton and I
prepared a lesson on family history and temples. It turned out super
well and we were able to see the desire some of the recent converts
had to go to the temple. We also were able to bring back memories to
those who had gone and built a desire to go back. It went well.

Wed. Exchange day! Today I went with Elder Humphrey. He is an elder in
the South area of our district. He is a super cool guy. We had a solid
day. We went and visited a lot of LA because I could not find anyone
else because my Area Book app on my ipad was broken. We met with Bro Belemu who is a really nice man in his early 30's but had a disease
that makes him super week. He cant lift his arm to shake our hands and
he can hardly move his dead. super sad but he has a great outlook on
life and is at church every week. He is a great example to us all. We
saw sis Luna who did not have her juice! she had the v8 stuff that is
not near as good. but oh well we were grateful. We had about 40 minutes before we had
to head to the church so we decided to test E. Humphrey's spiritual
powers. The first home he picks we got 3 new investigators!!! They
have seen the missionaries before and they were excited to see us
again. It was good. The one lady named Chila has had 3 strokes and 2
heart attacks. And still driving? But i guess it is DC.


At the church
we had Ward coordination and dinner. Yummy pork ribs! But right after
for Bible Study we had a lady who has been calling us show up. Her
name is Justine and she is the most crazy person I have ever
met! She wants to marry one of the Elders, and was hitting on Elder
McKinley who is part of a senior couple.HE IS MARRIED!!!!! But she is
just crazy. She is scared to go outside because she said most of
the time she ends up in a loony bin or the jail...

Thurs. Today was one of those days that you are busy but don't
accomplish much. We had our normal morning routine and then were off
to our District meeting. We had it at the VC. We did a full tour to
see what all the options were for us to show investigators. The VC is
a super cool place to! The sisters are great teachers! When we got
home we ate and did some Family History and Facebook. After that and
dinner we went to help the spanish elders out for the rest of the
night. Elder Springer had wrecked his bike and has a super bad back
now and tore something in his arm. poor guy. We helped get their
apartment ready for and brought in furniture. It looks a lot better.
But ya the VC is super cool place to bring investigators.

Fri. Same morning ritual. In personal study though I was doing the BOM
read. We as a mission are going to finish before the end of the year
and I am a little behind so i needed to catch up. For lunch we went to
Ceasars. He fed us Chicken, ribs, homemade beans dip nacho stuff and
all sorts of jone. It was super good! We went to our first lesson with
one of our most solid families but they were not home. sad day. But
while we waited a little bit for them we had a great talk with the
McKinleys. This is their third mission! They gave us some good ideas
and it turned out great. soon after was sis Onyeka. We are really
trying with her because her daughter is not baptized yet and is 12.
This was our best lesson with them to! She turned off the TV, kept her
clothes on, and even participated! She made one comment which is 100%
better than before!

Sat, best morning. Waking up to a leak in the ceiling of the bathroom
and a text saying EMERGENCY GET TO THE CHURCH!!! TEST TEST GET TO THE
CHURCH. We had a practice for our emergency stuff. So we rode to the
church and did all that stuff. We got fed donuts after to! Right after
was interviews with president. It went well. He talked about things
that we are doing and how it is all good. We are going to be getting
bright orange vests for bike... Safety he says... get noticed more he
says... NOOOOO!!!!!!! But he is inspired so maybe it will save a life.
I just hope I am off bike soon. We went to the chapel afterward to
have a snack. Sister Mack the lady that sings her testimony made us
some stuff. She is a very poor lady but she wanted to feed us. We had
chicken nuggets and crackers with ham and cheese on them. It was
actually super good. She even had a cheese ball with BACON!!!! Then
she pulled out a little bowling game she had bought for us to play.
She got a kick out of that and gave each player 50 cents after he
knocked down all 10 pins. We had a tight evening after that though. We
had two appointments that were really close but we got them all in. We
met with SIs Bonner and Karen. They did a lot better with smoking this
week. I think they will be able to quit. Followed by Sis Galloway. She
is great. She was babysitting her 7 month old grand daughter. So cute!
Little chunk of Chocolate! :)

Sun. I LOVE OUR WARD!!!! We had a great fast and testimony meeting!
The spirit is so strong and they are all so welcoming. That is for
sure the ward we are visiting when we come back! This year has been
hard on the ward though. lots of people have been super sick and a lot
will probably die when it gets winter. There is no $ in our ward. No
one has any. Super sad. When got home we were not allowed to go out
after our studies and all because of the heavy rain and lightning. So
we called people and tried to set up lessons. No one would either
answer their phone or be able to go anywhere. I guess it was pre Labor
Day but who knows. Then when 9 o clock hit it was P day eve. Super
nice!!!! We played BANG. I love that game! and I won my first time
ever! but i was the first one out every other time...

So all is well here in the greatest mission in the history of life.
The work is moving forward and we are trying to change lives. Busy
busy but i know that this is the lords work. I love you all so much
and I know that you are the bestest!!!!!!!!! Thank you for your
support! Go to the temple! Choose the right! dont do drugs!!!"

Words from Sister Kortlynn Herring in Japan


"Greetings from the cool city of Tokyo, and I mean cool! The weather
has been so nice! So nice in fact my body was shocked, and I got a
cold....but hopefully I will be better soon! This week was great!
We received a list of less actives from the bishop and we have been
focusing on them, and we had a cool miracle. So, we went to this
house of a lady named Kunito Shimai. We knocked, or rather rang her
apartment number once, twice, and usually we stop at twice, but I felt
like we should ring one more time, so we did, and she picked up. We
told her who we were, and she buzzed us in, came out, and I think she
was surprised when she saw us, I don't think she realized exactly who
we were, but that's ok, cause we were able to talk to her. Turns out
she hasn't been to church since she was 10, (she is 36 now) but her
family is all active, she has a younger sister serving a mission and
everything. We talked a bit about why she hasn't been to church and
she really opened up, and we were able to testify of the the love that
God has and how we can all receive our own answer from him through
prayer. The spirit was way strong, and she cried! I feel terrible
being happy that someone cried, but they were good tears and it was
way good! She said we could come visit again and I'm excited to begin
working with her.

Let's see, oh we had another miracle! So, we were visiting an
investigator, named Mina and while we were talking with her outside
her shop, this cute old Japanese lady came up and started talking to
us. Apparently she knew Mina sans family and was curious about us.
She took us to her house and talked to us a lot. We have another
appointment with her this week. Super excited! I love cute old
Japanese ladies! They are the best! She originally was interested in
English, but we talked a bit about the work that we do as volunteers,
as missionaries, and she was super interested in that. Japanese
people really find it fascinating that we come to japan for a year and
a half and don't work and teach people. So, we are excited to give
her more of the reason why we became missionaries.

The people here are so nice! And there are people everywhere! In all
my other areas we had to do a lot of housing and it was hard
contacting people on the street, but in this area, all it have to do
is leave my apartment, and walk down the street and there are people
to talk to! It's awesome! And they have all been super nice! It's
great! I love it!

So, we don't have very many people to teach right now, or at least
people who are willing to meet regularly, but there are a lot of
people with potential. This week we are hoping to meet some people in
the area book and around to see of they are ready and prepared to hear
the gospel and come unto Christ! Life truly is awesome!

So, to answer some questions, we get referrals occasionally, but
mostly we go out tracting, streeting, hand out eikaiwa flyers, and
talk to as many people as we can each day, and invite them to learn
more, or come to church, or to the activities we offer. We also like
to visit less actives and talk to people around those less active
homes. There is also a beautiful park/lake right by the church that
we go to and talk to people at. It's really fun. Like, I'm really
enjoying myself. I really love my mission and the opportunity that I
have everyday to meet someone new and invite them to learn about a
message that has blessed my life and made me super happy. I'm so
grateful for all of you! I love you and pray for you constantly!
Keep being wonderful!

Love,

Sister Herring
へリング姉妹

P.S. Tomorrow is my last zone conference! And I am giving my final
farewell testimony! Ah! And my last zone conference is in Urawa,
which is where I went to my first zone conference. I can't believe
it! Time goes by way to fast, but it's way cool to see how much
things have changed since that first zone conference in Urawa.
Anywho, just thought I would share a random feeling and thought, love
ya!"

Updated Adresses***

 

Elder John & Sister Terry Haws

Apartado Postal 92-4005
Belen, Heredia
Costa Rica
tljhaws@gmail.com

Elder Tyler Johnson
7011 E. 13th N
Wichita, KS 67206

Sister Eevanna Brown
South Carolina, Columbia Mission
110 Oak Park Drive, Suite B
Irmo, SC 29063-6110

Elder Ammon Fulton
Mexico Torreon Mission
Calle Ernesto Breede
Col. Ampliacion Los Angeles #301
27146 Torreon, Coahula Mexico

Elder Ryder Nielsen
Philippines, Manila Mission
PO Box 1997
Makati Central P.O. Makati City
1200 Metro Manila, Phillippines

Sister Heather Patterson
South Carolina Columbia Mission
110 Oak Park Dr. Suite B
Irmo, SC 29063-6110

Elder Shad Lindsey
Oct02 UKR-KYV
2009 N 900 E. Unit 128
Provo, UT 84602

Elder Kent Waters
Italy Rome Mission
Piazza Carnaro 20
00141 Rome
Italy

Elder Kade Garner
Peru Lima West Mission
Carlos Salaverry 3664
Los Olivos
Casillo do Corres 39-054
Lima 39
Peru

Sister Anna Herring
West Virginia Charleston Mission
888 Oakwood Rd. Ste. 310
Charleston, WV 25314-2071

Sister Elese Hauser
Illinois Chicago West Mission
1319 Butterfield Rd. Ste. 522
Downers Grove, IL 60515


Hermana Amanda Greer
Chile Osorno Mission
Camilla 7-0
Regions X
Osorno
Chile

Elder Allan Holden
665 North 200 West
Clearfield, Utah 84015

Elder Riley Pulsipher
Oficinas de Mission
Mexico Xalapa
Av. Arco Vial Sur No. 738
Col. Lomas Verdes
Xalapa, Veracruz, C.P.
91098

Elder Spencer Lee
New York, New York North Mission
700 White Plains Rd. Ste. 315
Scarsdale, NY 10583

Elder Garrett Anderson
Brazil Brasilia Mission
Shin CA 05 LOTE B1 SALAS 304/307
71503-505 BRASILIA-DF
BRAZIL

Elder Jared Anderson
Brazil Joao Pessoa Mission
Rua Deputado Jose' Mariz, 515
Tambauzinho
58042-020 Joao Pessoa-PB
Brazil


Elder Tyler Crosby
Tonga Nuku Alofa Mission
Box 58
Nuku Alofa
Tonga


Elder Konner Lee
906 South Logan Blvd.
Building 2 Apt. 101
Holidaysburg, PA 16648


Elder Bo Mullenaux
California Santa Rosa Mission
5301 Badger Rd.
Santa Rosa, CA 95409

Sister Kortlynn Pearl Herring
4-25-12 Nishi-Ochiai
Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo-To
161-0031, JAPAN

Elder Garrett Hollembeak
West Virginia Charleston Mission
888 Oakwood Rd. Ste. 310
Charleston WV
25314-2071
United States

Elder Rick Bloomfield
Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission
7951 S W 6th St, Suite 110
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324-3211

Elder Chandon Herring
Washington DC North Mission
11700 Falls Road
Potamac, MD 20854-2823
United States


Elder Kyle Byron James
Germany Frankfurt Mission
Kirche Jesu Christi
Corneliusstrasse 18
60325 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

Elder Ty Blank
3250 Strawberry Rd
Anchorage, AK 99502

Elder Garrett Davis
Thailand Bangkok Mission
1645/6 New Phetchburi Road
Makkasan, Ratchathewi
Bangkok 10400
Thailand

Elder Eli Stephen Frazier (pouch)
Peru Lima South Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, Utah 84130-0150

Elder Eli Stephen Frazier (packages)
Peru Lima South Mission
Av Jorge Basadre 592, Oficina 604-A
Edificio Torre Azul, San Isidro
Lima 27
Peru

Elder Jake Zieler
Canada Vancouver Mission
8440 Williams Rd.
Richmond, BC V7A1G6
Canada

Sister Brittany Platt
Colorado Denver North Mission
1250 Main Street
Broomfield, CO 80020

Elder Adam Otto
135 South 7th Ave
Pocatello, ID 83201

Words from Elder Eli Frazier in Peru

"Hola! We had a great time so far, lots of experiences! too much to say all but i am learning a lot! So first, I asked and my first investigator accepted baptism, her name is virginia, great lady with a not good husband. he is always drunk and doesnt care for her. which is common here is for guys to cheat on their wives and do all thse things. anyways, theyve been married ten years but now she wants to leave them. so were gonna try to help her all we can. we are kinda opening a new area so we got 9 new investigatores in one day! the district or town were in is gonna boom for sure. all the people here are open to listen to us so its nice.

The other day we had a service project and i ended up digging holes and posting posts! reminded me a lot of home back at the ranch! never thought id be doing that for a while, but the lady was way impressed with me, she is recent convert so we are reteaching her the lessons now.

We cleaned our house today, not really well but its clean now. our shower, as youll see in the pictures, is like maybe 5 foot and 5 inches so i have to crouch the whole time im showering. and if you hit your head on the showerhead it shocks the crap out of you! i guess its not grounded or somethihng. theres a cool fact for you.

We have a lady who makes us lunch cada dia and she is called a pensionista. we pay her 8 soles for every meal, shes a way good cook. also another lady does our laundry and we pay her but i havent got my laundry back yet so i dont know how much i pay her yet hahah.

Other than these things theres a lot that i see and hear that is crazy. every day i get offered beer from drunk guys and people do weird stuff when they see us. but im having a great time, now were gonna go eat lunch.
Love and miss everyone! Hope all is going well! Thats all i have for now, talk to you next week!"

Words from Sister Elese Hauser in Chicago Illinois

"Happy Labor Day!
I hope you all get a day to rest from your labors! Take a break for me
too because if anything today is extra busy!! This week was FULL of
miracles! I don't know if I've ever had a week so full of so many
wonderful things. I also had some scary things and had to eat one of
the most exotic things I'll ever eat!
We have a ton of Filipinos in our Ward and so we went over to one
families, the Payos, and every time a new missionary comes they feed
them balut. For those that don't know what that is, let me fill you
in. So balut is similar to a hard boiled egg. Except the chicken or
duck inside the egg is already forming into an embryo. So you boil the
egg, crack it open, drink some slimy egg juice, and then peel away the
yoke away to find a little baby chicken about the size of my pinky.
Then, you eat it. Sounds disturbing right? We'll let me tell you, it
is!!!! So Sister Bird did me the favor of telling Brother Payo that I
was super pumped and so excited to eat balut. And we went over to
their house this Friday for dinner. So we sit down to eat dinner and
Brother Payo walks in with 3 chicken eggs. He puts them in boiling
water and gives me the look like you have no idea what you're in for!
So the whole time the eggs are cooking and we're eating dinner I tried
everything to get out of it. I told him I was sick, he didn't believe
me. I told him I'm allergic to chicken, but we were already eating
chicken for dinner so that didn't work too well. I even went to the
bathroom and tried to stall, but when it came down to it, I knew I had
to eat it. I couldn't be the first sister missionary to not eat it. I
like to think of myself strong like bull, not weak like chicken. So I
cracked the egg and luckily there was no yucky juice to drink but when
I found the chicken it was huge! Like I could see it's eye balls
forming, it's wings, and even it's toes. It was probably the size of
my pinky all stretched out! So I put some salt on it and I just popped
it into my mouth! It was too big to just swallow so I had to chew
it.... Luckily it wasn't crunchy. And no, it did not taste like
chicken even though it was a chicken! So I pretty much swallowed it
and tried not to gag it back up and then drank a bunch of water. They
videoed the whole thing and said they'd email to Moms email so you'll
have to watch it when they email it! So if anyone ever tries to get
you to eat balut, don't do it!!!! Unless you want to be as cool as
Sister Hauser:)

Well I on to more important topics... Transfers are tomorrow! Sister
Bird is being transferred to St. Charles and will be training a brand
new missionary! I'm so excited for her but I'm so sad. These 6 weeks
went by way to fast! And so my new companion is Sister Jennings. I'm
excited to be her companion and we are going to see so many miracles
together! So the surprises of my mission are over. It's kinda lame now
that I know my last companion and area but I'm still denial. So
tonight we'll give a training to the new missionaries and tomorrow
morning also before transfer meeting. And probably my favorite bonus
about being a Sister Training Leader is President always feeds the new
missionaries deep dish pizza and we get to go there for dinner!
Woohoo! I love deep dish pizza almost as much as I love sweet corn!
Which is a lot!

The Lord has been so merciful to us this week! First of all, we are
teaching a Filipino lady named Kathy. She's the one who fed us tons of
Filipino food at her house a few weeks ago. We finally met with her
again this week and had a church tour with her. Besides the fact that
she was 45 minutes late to her lesson, it went really well! Church
tours are the best! As we sat in the chapel, the spirit was
overwhelming and she agreed to be baptized on October 11!!! She
already feels it's true because of the change she's seen in her son
and she wants it for herself. So we have someone on date! And I will
do everything I can to make sure it happens. And then the next day we
taught Brother Laine. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited
him to be baptized and his answer was "Maybe". He said he doesn't know
if Joseph smith is a prophet or not so this week we are watching
Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with him and they're making
popcorn. It's been so long since I've had a movie night! Haha, if you
call this a movie night! But it'll be great. And last of all, Roy. So
Roy has been investigating for awhile and we've only taught him twice
since I've been here. But he's coming back and he's so strong! Like
I've said before, he is the most intelligent person I've very taught.
Yesterday he said that he took off work just so he could be at church.
And last week he accidentally slept in past stake conference so he
went to his old church and while he was there he just felt that he'd
grown so much past their knowledge. And he just knew that our church
was true because of how much he's grown. So we asked him about baptism
and he knows he needs to be baptized but it's just out of his comfort
zone. So I told him one of my favorites quotes "There's no growth in
the comfort zone and there's no comfort in the growth zone." And so he
is going to pray about a date this week and when we meet next Sunday
he said he'll have a date in mind! How awesome is that?! I pray it's
sooner rather than later because he is so ready to be baptized. So
Elgin is pretty much the land of miracles and so much is happening
here! I'm so grateful The Lord is blessing this area so much. It's not
me at all because I am not this strong but I recognize that with The
Lord we truly can do all things.

So life is wonderful! I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this
time and so involved in the lords work at this influential time. Good
luck with all of your endeavors this week. May The Lord bless you in
all of your travels and journeys. I love all so much and am so blessed
to know all of you! I love you!!!!!"

Words from Elder Garrett Davis in the MTC

"week 7 well what can i say about it other than its been another fast week and i have been just learning so much this week to start off with the language well its going well i almost have all 87 of the thai characters down:) so i practiced reading this week as well and i can do alright took me about 15 minutes to read three long sentences:) so i already consider it a good week:) well i guess we have skype teaching lessons on monday night which i didnt know so last week my khuu and i head into a skype lesson teaching about faith ironically :) but it was difficult i could only understand a little of what she was saying but they happened to be the important words so thats ok:) we taught for about 30 minutes:) but she would laugh because we were saying everyrthing in the wrong order and we would try and ask some things but they were the wrong words but she was ploite which is great and she helped us out a lot:) so i am learning alot here but one thing is for sure i am excited to get to thailand 7 weeks down 2 to go:) all is well in the mtc:)"

Words from Elder Ryder Nielsen in the Phillippines




"As my mission comes closer to an end i can hardly believe it. I still feel as new as ever and yet i am looked upon as the missionary that has been around the block many times. I made the mistake of thinking my mission would become easier and easier as time went on but it has been proven to me the opposite. I guess the Lord will be testing my faith all the way to the end. Times are kinda rough right now but i am trying to stay high minded. I liken my mission to the journey of Lehi and his family in the wilderness, they had traveled for many years and finally came to the seashore which land they called bountiful because of its much fruit and substance to sustain their lives. they had settled down nice in this wonderful paradise when the Lord called Nephi to build a ship and continue their journey to the promised land. At this time in my mission i feel probably as Laman and Lemuel did after Nephi had made known to them the plans the Lord had in store for them. They responded with complaining and murmuring, Why do we have to go further? Why do we have to have more burdens placed upon our backs? We have reached a nice comfortable destination, why do we need to press on? As i contemplate my circumstances i can't help but relate myself to the things they were feeling. This complaining lead to the chastisement of their younger brother setting their attitude straight with sharp words and after wards even shocked them using the power of God. Sadly enough i can even liken myself to Laman and Lemuel in those regards as you might recall as i almost lost my life do to electrocution just a year ago haha. I am grateful for the good and bad examples the book of mormon gives to us that we may act according to the will of the Lord in times of our hardship. With that said, i know because of the perseverance and faith of Lehi's family through their trials and hardships they recieved a land of promise and a glorious blessing for their children and childrens children. I am not sure what blessing the Lord has in store for me but i know i will not receive it only according to my faith and perseverance to the end. I know God lives because of the hard times i have faced and do face at this time. That truth i hold near and dear to my heart. I know in the end I can take a step back and know with the up most assurance that Gods hand was in it all and I was never forsaken. Of these truths i testify not just for the comfort of my own soul but for any of you that might be wading through deep water in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love,
Elder Nielsen

PS: My new companion is awesome, He is the most humble man i have met in my life. I think the Lord wants me to learn humility in a greater way. His examlpe strengthens me. He is full of love and he doesnt know how to complain it is not part of his nature. His name is Elder Rimano. He is from Aklan Philippines and is serving at the same time as his older sister. He is 20 years old. Anyway i got to run Love you mom! Mahal ko po kayo! Ingat palagi!"

Words from Elder Tyler Crosby in Tonga


"This week has been a pretty good week. We received a lot of investigators and taught a bunch of lessons. We met a lot of really good people and possibly a baptism this week. I am very grateful for the help we have received from the members. They do a lot for us missionaries. Especially that they feed us twice a day. I know a lot of other missions dont have that so I am very blessed. its really a blessing to be serving out here and to be learning so much. I really liked the quote my grandma sent me today so thats the one I will put in this email.

Ordinary missionaries know exactly how long they've been out. They might even keep a little calendar so they can keep track. Counting time isn't evil or bad, but it is rather ordinary. (Alma: 26:5)

Extraordinary missionaries also know how long they have been out, but this knowledge fills them with a sense of urgency. Every morning they want to get up, get out, and get to work. THEY ARE MORE INTERESTED IN MAKING TIME COUNT THAN IN COUNTING TIME.

Ofa Atu! Lots of Love from Tonga"