Small in stature, big in spirit! (and humor)

Parker thought it would be funny to duplicate a picture Ethan took with one of his companions!  Love both boys sense of humor!  Small in stature, big in spirit!

Here's an excerpt of each of their letters this week!

Another day another dollar! 

"It is never to late to strengthen the foundation of faith.  There is always time.  With faith in the savior, you can repent and plead for forgiveness.  There is someone you can forgive.  There is someone you can thank.  There is someone you can serve and lift.  You can do it where ever you are and however alone and deserted you may feel" Henry B Erying

Monday:  Was another normal P-day!  Went re-stocked on supplies.  They reimbursed me with the 50 dollars from my luggage fee.  They put it on to my card.  So I still have like 60 bucks for this month and it ends this week.  I figure it will come in handy when I am running low in the future months! Then after that we played ping pong at the church and then headed back to the apartment.  We talked with our neighbor who is a super cool guy.  We talked to him about his motorcycles and laughed with him.  He keeps on inviting us over to watch movies and stuff like which is funny, because i don't think he fully gets the missionary concept haha. He isn't much older than Ethan.  Then after that we went back to proselyting!  We visited a part member family who has a little ginger headed boy who is like 10.  He is so adorable and is always asking us to come over and say hi.  We also helped fix his toy helicopter that stopped flying haha.  After a few less actives weren't home it was nine so we had to head in.

Tuesday: We had greenie meeting before district meeting.  It is just for new missionaries and there are two of us in the Zone.  So the Zone Leaders just talk to us for an hour. They give good adivse and teaching lessons.  We then had district meeting.  Elder Goff is such a stud.  He gives the best lessons and taught about finding new investigators.  He absolutely hates the numbers part of missionary work.  I think that is why he has not been a zone leader because he doesn't want to be.  After district meeting we had training and comp study.  We ate dinner with the nelsons.  They are leaving on their mission in like a week.  Sister Nelson  practically emptied their cabinets and brought over there food for us that night too.  They are a really really nice house.  Brother Nelson was my one shot to go golfing because he absolutely loves to golf ahah.

Wednesday: Wednesdays we have the least amount of things going on with regards to meetings and things like that.  So since I am new still we have an extra hour of training so really we spend three hours of the day just studying and training.  We focused on the plan of salvation.  Everyone including Elder Goff say that I know and act like I have been out for like 9 months already so I guess that is a complement!  Then we missed a ride from the Zone leaders and had to walk from our house to the church which is way far.  Oh an we had to walk at like 2 in the afternoon in like 116 degree heat.  It was so hot we were just like zombies walking.  I barely remember the walk getting to the church I just remember leaving and then laying on the floor at the church covered in sweat.  I got the white shirts that mom sent me.  With how much missionaries sweat here, white shirts aren't white for long.  We then went over and taught a lesson with Jared.  He is such a stud, and his baptism is this up coming Saturday, so yay my first baptism!  We taught him about the commandments and had some of the young men come and help teach.  It was probably one of the best lessons I have taught so far.

Thursday:  We had Zone Interviews/training, so president toone was with us that day!  He stood up and said he would be brief with some announcements and stuff and he ended up taking like an hour and half haha.  It was about how now we are supposed to teach all 5 lessons before baptism instead of the first 4 and then laws and ordinances after.  We are also supposed to stay in contact with recent converts more to help retention and help them not go inactive quickly.  Then I met with President Toone. He has such an awesome heart.  A big heart for a big man!  We talked about adjusting to missionary life and he gave some advice and things like that!.  After that Elder Goff told me that in his interview President said he only sends Elder Goff the best, so I guess that was an awesome complement!  That took most of the day.  We went taught a lesson with the Taledos.  I took charge of the lesson completely and lead the lesson.  The toughest part is transitioning from topics and Inspired questions.  

Friday: We had weekly planning and other meetings.  Weekly planning we plan for investigators, lessons, baptisms, less actives and stuff like that.  I then went on exchanges with Elder Williams he has been out for like 9 months he is from Florida and is a convert.  His companion is also Elder Williams haha.  He works hard and is a great missionary.  Kindof quiet though.  We had lunch and then hit the bikes.  His area is a lot sketchier than ours and so it got freaky with some people yelling at us.  Got a few doors slammed on us as well haha.  We then taught a lesson with one of their investigators, taught about the restoration.  Then after dinner we were biking and got caught in a dust storm.  So we had to bike through that until we found refuge at a members home!  If you suck to much of the dust in you can get a thing called Valley Fever.  Apparently it is pretty bad and can be bad enough that it stays with you for the rest of your life.  Yikes! 

Saturday: we met up with Elder Goff and re-exchanged.  Then Elder Goff and I went to got help some people move.  It was us two a member and two other missionaries and then those missionaries called their entire district.  When that district showed up they just stood and watched while we moved a person's house into a U-haul in like 115 degree heat. Elder Goff was furious that there whole district was there. went visited some more members.  The Awutukee zone is one of the hardest places to find teaching opportunities and so we do a lot of working with less actives.  The Elders quorum gave us a list of like 50 people so we try to visit them.  Then at night we stopped by the Elders quorum swim party.  I kindof wanted to be "pushed into the pool" becasue it was so hot haha.  They had a hairy chest contest and the winner got shaved and won a prize.  Looked like a lot of fun.  President hartmen is one of my favorite members here so far.  He is jsut so down to earth and works hard, and isn't afraid to share the hard times he and his wife had when they were inactive.  Oh and yes he won the hariy chest contest haha

Love 

Elder Hemsley #2

Hey Mum! 

So for the last couple weeks I've been in search of the IT factor.  The thing (or things) that really make missionaries effective, as opposed to the average.  I see a few people who seem to have it figured out, but I get the sense that a lot of my District is kinda in the same place.  

Anyways, this week was good, but compared to what it was going to be, it was a tad frustrating.  The pinnacle of the week came with the Luau that happened on Saturday.  A lot of good things came with that, and a lot of stressers came with that as well :P   I'll tell you more about it when I get to Saturday in my rundown. 

Okay so as for my week......

Monday was transfer day, so its always a little crazy.  I drove Elder Lee  down to the church building on the intersection of Yale and Monaco, and we waited there for a bit until Elder Boerstra came.  Lots of cool people from past areas to talk to.  It actually didn't take near as long as I thought it would to get everything squared away.  So we were able to shop and email that day instead of having to push it off to Tuesday.  That whole day my stomach had been killing me.  Made it kinda difficult to get stuff done.  

Hung out at the church for a bit and then me and Elder Boerstra ate dinner at the Koger family's place.  They're a semi active older couple who lived in one of the trailer parks that our area covers.  They bought us Popeye's chicken haha.  Fine by me.  The majority of the dinner was spent talking with them about their kids.  They expressed a lot of sorrow that they had no interest in God or the church.  It tough to see stuff like that, but I think that we gave them some pretty good advice/spiritual nourishment.  Nice family.  

Then we visited the Pico family that evening.  Pretty typical active family haha.  Young kids running around screaming the whole time.  There really does seem to be a bit of a disconnect between the member church and the missionary church.  Sometimes its a tad difficult to overcome that boundary and actually get a lot of these members involved in the work.  But they were a great family.  

Went home early cause I didn't feel good still.

Tuesday we did some service in the morning at the crisis center, and then after lunch we had a lesson with Jeff Green.  I went into that lesson with the mentality of dropping him, but there was a spirit about the lesson that prompted me not to.  He just seemed to get it that time.  Definitely a good lesson.  The problem that I think he is having right now is that he is taking a ton of summer classes that take up all his time.  But those will end eventually.  

Then we visited Darwin and Carmen and taught them the first half of the  commandments lesson.  I get worried that the whole "investigator-missionary" relationship is just morphing into a friend-friend one.  Not that thats bad, but its really easy just to chill with them haha.  They're doing great though.  They want to get baptized in this ward and now they're looking for a place to move into in the boundaries.  

Ate dinner with the Richardson family, and then we tried a few people with no luck before correlation meeting. 

Wednesday was kinda weird.  We had our District meeting time switched to 1 so we tried to get stuff done in the morning, but not a ton of luck.  I gave the training and I thought it went okay.  The Zone Leaders really seemed to like the role play activity that I planned, which is good I guess haha.  Then we had a lunch appointment with Brother Bright.  He a really nice older dude that is returning to activity, and he loves to take the missionaries out to eat.  .  He's older, unmarried, probably pretty lonely.  And his life seems pretty uneventful.  He watches the news, checks the weather, goes out to eat, and talks to family.  But he's super nice.  

After some unsuccessful referral contacting, we went to dinner with the Leis family.  To tell the truth I want super hungry since we had had such a late lunch, but I managed to get a few pieces of pizza down haha.

That evening we were able to contact a referral named David and give him and his family a copy of the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  He accepted the invite to learn more so we're gonna go back over this week.  Had an appointment with the Castillo family but they bailed again :P

Thursday morning we did a lot of contacting around the Montbello area (we call it Mont-ghetto haha), then we had lunch and DLC meeting afterwards.  Went okay I guess.  Meetings are starting to run together if you ask me.  Then we went over to the Mata'ele's to practice the short little presentation that we were going to give at the Luau.  It was weird but apparently I am the most comfortable with speaking in front of people out of all four of us.  We had an appointment afterwards, but the guy had to go on an unexpected trip to utah.  Afterwards we saw Darwin and Carmen again with Brother Hess.  Taught them about the Law of Chastity, which is pretty big for them since they need to get married before they can get baptized.  But they were super cool with it.  They agreed to get married!!  That was a big deal.  They are probably going to use the Church to do it to!  It'll be sweet.  

Ate dinner with the Luna family, and then we went with Brother harrison to go visit some formers that we had set an appointment with, who bailed.  So instead we visited a Ghanian family in the ward named the Appiahs.  They have a lot of money problems so it was mostly Brother Harrison doing the talking.  Then we went to our appointment with the Salazar's but they bailed too!  Lots of cancellations this week.  So we visited Joe Chavez.  Rough guy, rough background.  He has build up this impenetrable opinion of who he is and how he can't change, so its hard to invite him to come to church, so we invited him to let us come over and work in the yard with him.  He liked that one.

Friday was pretty difficult.  We had set up an appointment with the ZL's to go through our weekly planning with us and see if there isn't anything more that we can be doing, but at the end of the day, we still ended up doing the same things to plan, even with them around helping us.  So it didn't produce that much of a difference if you ask me, but we got some good info from the sisters while we were there, so thats a plus.  ZL's took us to dinner that night.  We got sushi haha.  Then we visited the Quintana family and answered some of their random deep doctrinal questions haha.  I never thought that knowing why Noah cursed Canaan in Genesis chapter 9 would come in handy hahaha.

Satuday was taken up by the a huge leadership training meeting, and then by the Luau.  The meeting was interesting.  Not super informative.  President Mendenhal is still getting the hang of things I think haha.  The one thing that I did take away from it was that we were going to have to get express permission to attend baptisms that we might have in other wards.  Apparently there have been some problems with missionaries just going to any baptism just to hang out.

Then the Luau was a phenomenon, thats for sure.  We had to have it in the Church since it was raining, and over 500 people showed up.  It was packed and kinda hectic at some points.  The food line was ridiculous.  We heard a few storeis of some people not having a very good experience, but the majority really enjoyed it.  Lots of less actives and investigators were there.  If you ask me it was too many people.  But the show was great, and according to the Polynesians who saw, our Haka was the best one that they had ever seen a couple of Palayngi's (white boys) put on.  I've got pics and a video that I'll send you when I find my connector cable for my camera.  In the end it was a neat experience, even if it didn't exactly go off without a hitch. 

Sunday was a pretty typical Sunday until after church.  We got a call during church that the Mortensen's kids needed another blessing of comfort.  They were the ones who were in the fire about a month ago.  So after dinner with the Alansos, and a quick stop-by lesson with the Lakes, we went back over to the hospital with a representative from the Peoria ward, Brother Anderson.  We took him because the hospital was technically in another ward, and we though it might be good to involve them since they're closer and can help more.  The kids were semi conscious, and they looked SOO much better.  The skin grafts looked amazing.  So we gave them a blessing.  The main reason they needed it was cause their dad was out of town, and they were coming off of some pretty heavy painkillers, and that was causing them to go through withdrawal and have hallucinations.  But I think it helped.  They were appreciative. 

Well that was my week.  Lots of cancellations, but still a lot of good stuff.  

Glad to hear from your letter that everything is going well at home and with real estate.  It made me really reflect on how blessed we were :)

Love you guys

Elder Efan

Working Hard!

Great week for both boys!  Parker asked to have his email put on the blog.  It is austin.hemsley@myldsmail.net.  Ethan's is Ethan.Hemsley@myldsmail.net.

They would love to hear from you!

From Parker

There really is nothing like missionary work!  

"I testify of the renewing power of God's Love and the miracle of his grace.  His concern is for the faith at which you arrive, not the hour of the day in which you got there."  - Elder Holland

Monday:  After emailing we went to walmart and go food and things like.  After that we had a Zone activity where we played games and contests with the zone.  We played ping pong and basketball as well.  It is sad, you know the other Elders are bad at basketball when I start wooping on them haha.  After that we went home and rested.  Cleaned our apartment.  Elder Goff was sick that day so after we got back he kindof just died on the couch.  We had a lesson planned for later that night, so I went with one of the Zl's Elder Chote, and Elder Gilliand stayed with Elder Goff.  We went and taught a lesson to one of Elder Chote's investigators and that was really good.  Just some guy who was attending ASU and wanted to learn more, he was super friendly and loved what we said.  Then we taught my investigator a lesson.  It was more of an FHE with a part member family.  We played scripture chase, and showed a mormon message.  Then I got to go with Elder Chote to a YSA FHE party.  Elder Chote is over young single adults.  It would be so fun to be a missionary over a ward like that.  Basically we got to mingle and eat, the only thing we didnt get to do is swim haha

Tuesday: Elder Goff was still sick so I went to district meeting with Elder Chote again while his companion stayed home.  Elder Gilliand has athletes foot so he takes all the rest he can get.  I got to be a temporary Zone Leader for the day, conduct and give announcements ahah.  I am sure some of the missionaries were like why the heck does he get a leadership calling so early haha.  After that we went to a different distirct meeting becasue Elder Goff didn't have his.  We then ate with some members and they were super nice.  Old people are the best type of people when it comes to feeding the missionaries.  They live for that kindof stuff haha.  Elder Goff finally had enough strength to get up and moving again.  While we were studying in the church we found this homeless guy's suit case.  We think we know who the guy is but for wrote a letter on his stuff saying it had to leave (it is now gone haha).  We taught a lesson with a less active named Dustin.  He is such a cool guy but struggles with a few things.  We took the Elders quorum President, President Hartmen, who is probably the most down to Earth person ever! He gave the best testimony on the planet and talked most of the time.  Elder Goff and I just sat there with our mouths open and were like yeah we planned that...

Wednesday: Was a pretty normal day.  We did however make a pretend shrine to one of the missionaries in the movie the Distict named Elder Morano.  Elder Goff thinks he is really prideful and doesnt like him.  So me, Elder Chote, and Elder Gilliand made a shrine and were like chanting his name saying "mo..mo...rano."  Elder Goff flipped and like destroyed it. I was dying laughing for the rest of lunch.  Elder Goof got a flat tire latter that day.  So our day consisted of going to walmart and fixing his bike.  We had to walk there and it was all the way in the other side of our area.  After that we did some more finding and gave a few lessons to some less active families.  We taught another lesson with an investigator named Jared.  He is so solid and is on date for baptism and practically can teach us this stuff haha.  

Thursday:  Another normal routine, in the morning.  Personal study is nice because it is time to yourself to study the scriptures and just kindof think.  We met with a guy named Victor.  He is this really old hispanic guy.  I shook his hand and his hand were the so ruff.  There was not a smooth part on them.  So I know this man has worked a hard life since he was very young.  He is retired now and was super nice.  His stories were really eye opening.  We then went back to the church to help with a blessing for one of the sisters.  I guess they had a bad experience for an investigator who was on date but ended up falling off because he had some serious anger issues.  We then went and taught a lesson to Rayden. He is a 10 year old who hasn't been baptized.  He was adorable and did a great job of answering questions.  It is tough to teach little kids because they lose focus so fast.  I think our next lesson is going to be scripture Jinga haha.  Then that night after we headed back home we all hid while Elder Chote was going to the bathroom, and when we popped out we beat him up and his just layed there most of the night ahah.  When I say beat up, its like fake beating up but it is still hilarious, so don't think all we did is beat each other up.  

Friday: Was weekly planning but we had to update our Ipads to the new software.  And Elder Chote got back at me by making me in charge of that.  So I had to sit there and lead everyone through how to update and change the software that the church was instituting.  The only info i had was a Facebook document president Toone gave.  So needless to say getting the entire zone to do that took forever. So we had to do our planning after lunch.  We have a huge list of less actives that the stake president wants us to focus on, so we do a lot of finding.  Then that night we helped people move into there apartment.  We didn't even get a chance to change so we and to help move in proselyting clothes in the heat.  I was so sweaty.  Then we couldn't get a ride home with the Zl's so we had to bike home right after we had helped move someone who was in an apartment on the second floor.  Oh did I mention we had to help with the washer, dryer, and fridge?  ahhh

Saturday: We woke up bright and early only to help move another family! This family has two unbaptized boys, so we will be working with them in the future.  They are like 10 and 14.  that move was a little easier but still painful.  So after those two things I am still sore.  We went home showered ate. Then went to find a referral we had received.  She was an 80 something year old who is about to go through Chemotherapy.  We asked if we could come back another time and teach, but she is going to busy with that, so she said she would call.  We at least got to say a prayer for her at her door.  We were just biking by and we found an investigator named Chris.  He has been taught everything just has no faith and is unwilling to change anything in his life.  His wife is getting baptized in the spanish ward but he doesn't speak Spanish, so it is an interesting relationship.  I got the package from you guys and it has the awesome picture book! Saturday after we had to go in we had date night again.  The ZL's managed to pick up some cold stone for all of us and that night I had to narrate all the awesome pictures in that book. When I first looked through it, I was like tearing up haha.  But mom did you have to put that paper i wrote in the front? haha (btw where was that from?).  Made me realize how bad I am at spelling and grammer... 

Sunday: We went to church and luckly I didnt have to speak. After we went to teach jared again and like I said he is such an awesome guy! We headed back to the church and did some companionship study.  Then we caught another homeless guy chilling in the church for the air conditioning ahaha.  I felt bad but we had to lock up and obviously he has to leave...   Then we went to the mission president fireside.  You are only allowed to go if you bring an investigator, so we brought Jared.  It was such an awesome message.  It was about the Holy Ghost and President Toone talking to the investigators giving thanks and teaching them that they need to come to know for themselves. 

And that was my week! Every week is like of lifetime of work! Love Elder Hemsley #2

And from Ethan:

Hey Mum!  

Comparatively, this week was a lot less eventful or crazy than last week.  It was kind of a blessing, but at the same time it was a bit of a bummer.  I feel like I'm a pretty good missionary, but at the same time I realize how much better I could and should be.  Its really tough to judge where I'm at when I don't even trust my own judgements, but then its tough to base it off of what other people say haha.  I am just so obsessed with self improvement and development right now.  If this week had a theme, it would be that.  I even wrote about it in my actual journal (something I haven't done in over a year, since I've done the email journal thing).

I really enjoyed being Elder Lee's companion this transfer.  He was super patient with everything that went on, whether it be my own imperfections, or stuff that happened to us.  Super Christ-like guy.  Sorry to see him leave.  Now my new companion is Elder Borstra, from Ontario, Canada.  He is definitely a Canadian haha.  Pretty goofy, but we should get along pretty well. 

Anyways, I actually dont feel very good today.  I ate something recently that has been messing with me, so my email may be a tad short this week.  But here is the weekly rundown! 

Monday was an okay P-day.  We spent a lot of it learning the Haka for the Luau on Saturday.  Elder Tonga and Elder Talataina have been duking it out to see which one we'll do, Tongan or Samoan.  All this exposure to the polynesian culture has been pretty fun.  I catch myself saying a bunch of poly phrases every now and then haha.  Fakahaila is an especially funny one haha.  It means "i've got too much stuff on my mind."

Ate with the Neilsons that evening, and then we decided to drop by a less active, Jeremy Slowtalker.  He is Lacoda Native American.  Super cool guy.  Apparently we were an answer to his prayers, because just that morning he had prayed for a sign that God was mindful of him.  His family is part member, and because of that there has been a lot of tension in the family.  He wants to go to church, but his wife is hardcore catholic.  We shared a message on obedience bringing blessings, and then we gave him one.  It was pretty cool to be the answer to his prayers like that

Tuesday was cool.  We did some service in the morning, and then we visited Darwin and Carmen that afternoon.  That was one of three times that we saw them this week.  Pretty cool guys, but its been hard to nail them down to a baptismal date.  They are too much like friends! haha  They remind me a lot of Liz and Pauly, and they're the same age.  But the lessons are going well.  Its really hard to get out of there in an hour.  I've gotta find some way to balance the Missionary to Friend ratio.

We did some finding, and then we went to the Hess family for dinner.  They are so hilarious.  He is in the navy, and man is he a trip.  Super serious, stone-faced guy who does nothing but crack jokes haha.  They have a Ukelele, we sang an upbeat Uke version of True to the Faith that I arranged.  it was pretty fun.  I need to expand my repertoire of Uke hymns that I know haha.  There are a lot of people with them out here haha.  

Then that evening, we went back over to the Martinez family's place to help answer more of Brother Martinez's questions.  He should really be an investigator, but he's not super interested in being preached to, but he has a ton of questions.  I know he feels the spirit when we come. 

One thing that has been bothering me lately is this scenario that has kept popping us.  There have been a few instances recently where I've testified that the person can know for themselves that this is true, and their response is basically that I'm not qualified to promise that to someone because I have such limited life experience.  They don't believe I could really know these things if its all I've ever known.  It happened with Brother Martinez, and it happened with Ohitaka a few weeks ago.  

Then that evening we had correlation meeting, where Bishop Whetten expressed how grateful he was that he they had such good missionaries in their ward.  It was a fulfilling thing to hear.

Wednesday was the day of cancellations.  We had the temple in the morning, which was cool, especially since the actor who played Joseph Smith in the Restoration movie played Peter.  He plays Peter in the Bible videos too!  Saw Sister Pitts at the Temple again as well.  I think I'm gonna write Annie once she leaves on her mission to Germany.  Shes pretty cool.  

We went on a blitz with the rest of the District to the Buckley ward.  Their Bishop told them to tract out an entire housing development, so they enlisted the help of everyone in the District haha.  We found some good people for them to teach, and then we got sucked in to what we thought was a potential investigator's house, but actually turned out to be a very long-winded less active couple haha.  That killed an hour.  Then we did some service, and tried by a few of the potentials that we had in the area that we were in, but no luck.  Ate dinner with the Ray family, which was cool except for they were pretty long winded too.  Some people need to know how to not talk every once in a while haha.  Then that evening we had an Appointment with the Armendariz family cancel, as well as our appointment with the Castillo family.  But me and Elder Lee had some good heart to hearts about improving, which was much needed. 

Thursday was Zone meeting, which was fun and really helpful.  I always learn something at  those if I let myself.  I've found that If someone extends advice or commitments to me that I don't want to do or even try, then chances are that its probably something that I need to hear haha

After the meeting we had an appointment with Marvin Burton.  He is just interested in the history of everything, so I dunno how much longer we will keep going over there.  He told us about the plane that got shot down over the Ukraine though.  Crazy stuff.  Then we went with Brother Mata'ele to visit some new unknown people in the ward.

Ate dinner at Chili's with Darwin and Carmen.  THEY ARE SO CLOSE.  It was a great dinner, but I got a little nervous at the way that we left it with them.  Darwin is just having trouble with making the commitment.  It'll happen though.  Then we visited the Salazar's with Brother Ray.  Great lesson.  I think she likes it more when we come over, and he is the member!  We're also inviting everyone to the Luau, which will be cool.  Its this Saturday.

Friday was planning, visiting the Juett family, getting called accidentally by Darwin's two year old daughter Addie (that was hilarious), and me spending the rest of the evening with an upset stomach.  I think it was what i ate at Chili's

Saturday was a good day.  Elder Lee got the call the night before that he was training, so we went to the meeting in the morning.  I was nervous that they were going to move me out after only one transfer, but that ended up not happening.  But he has to sweep an area AND train.  Thats tough haha.  He'll do good though.  We had to have our car estimated that morning because of all the hail damage as well.  The insurance adjusters must be having a heck of a time right now with all the hail.  All of the cars are dented, and all of the houses with cheap siding are peppered.

Visited the Kristjanson family that afternoon.  Nice old couple.  and then we had dinner with Traphena Lake and her family.  She agreed to be baptized on August 30!  it was sweeet.  She is so ready.  Then we went to the Baptism for Claudia, another one of the Sister's investigators, and afterwards we stayed for transfer doctrine, where we learned everyone's fate!  I was so happy I stayed.  I wanna end my mission here.

Sunday was cool too.  After studies and lunch we went to Ward council, and then to church.  Darwin and Carmen were the only ones who could come that day.  But it was still cool.  They were sad to see Elder Lee go.  But they may be moving to the Ward he is going to anyway!  and they Agreed to be baptized in mid August after they moved!  They are getting married too!  Such cool people.  

After church, we ate dinner with the Medan family, gave a blessing to a guy named Tim Pickens who's family is interested in being baptized, and stopped by all of the people that Elder Lee wanted to see before he left.  Mata'ele family, Fifita family, Darwin, etc.  We got home a little later than we should have just cause Polynesians never can let you leave in a timely manner haha. 

Well that was my week.  I gotta go early today since Elder Borstra needs to do some shopping..  Love you guys!  18 Weeks! 

Elder Efan

The Tale of Two Missionaries!

This letter from Ethan brought me to tears.  So much learning and growing that has happened in just under two years.  

Hellllloooooooo Mum, and everyone. 

So by this point in my mission, the things that I really care about the most are experiences.  Experiences that I can write about, experiences that I can reflect on, and things that I can draw upon as tools farther down the road.  And this week full of each.  Sometimes they made me reflect thoughtfully for a while, and other times they just made me say to myself "whoa did that really just happen?"  It was a pretty cool week. 

So first off, tell Parker that I am totally jealous of the Ipads but not so much the Facebook thing.  This mission has been taunted by the notion of getting Ipads since Elder Craft first started his mission, and he's been home for a year!  I was skeptical that they were never going to come, but apparently the church announced this week that they will be rolling those out for all US missions this year.  They said sometime around October, which is just enough time for me to just get a taste before I go home :P Lammmmeeeeeee

Secondly, thats sweet to hear about the Tennassee road trip that everyone is on right now.  I miss road trips like that.  What prompted that?  Sounds super fun.  I laughed when I heard they were going to Dollywood haha. 

Anyways, I'll give you a rundown of my week.  You might be surprised to hear some of it. 

Monday was interesting just because our entire morning was taken up by sitting at Firestone, waiting for our car to get fixed.  Brother Juett is a member who works on Buckley Air Force Base, so in order to save miles, he escorted us on to the base so we could go to the Firestone there.  It would have killed us had was had to drive to the next closest one.  It was pretty cool to be there.  I got my own temporary military ID haha.  It took close to 4 hours and a dozen phone calls to our Car Czar (Vehicle Coordinator haha) to get through it.  Luckily we went early in the morning.  The weirdest thing was how awkward I felt having a TV on in the waiting room :P  Then "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum" came on and me and Elder Lee couldn't help but watch and laugh at how ridiculous it was :P Been a long time since I've seen that movie.
Then when we were done we hung out at the stake center and Elder Tonga gave me a sweet haircut.  Its hip, but not crazy haha.
Ate dinner with the Mo'unga family again.  They are super cool, and really missionary minded.  Brother Mo'unga is a goof ball haha.
Then we had a pretty violent thunderstorm that evening, so most of the work we attempted was accompanied by being soaking wet haha.

Tuesday was a good day.  We did some service for the Crisis Center that morning, and then we went to the stake center thinking it was DLC day, but it wasn't.  I felt silly :P  So we had lunch and went to visit Jeff Green.  Its really hard to gauge where his interest level is, but he and his girlfriend surprised us by coming to church that Sunday.  After that we visited a returning less active named Isaac Palele.  He has just moved into the ward and had expressed interest in meeting with us.  Really cool guy.    Really into ukelele and other island instruments.  We're gonna start reading the Book of Mormon with him since he said he had had some trouble with it before.  
Ate by ourselves that evening, and then we went over to visit the Smith family, but when we got there no one was home.  That was pretty strange for them since we've had that appointment running for a while.  We called them up and were informed that they were going to be getting a divorce cause there had been an affair going on with one of them for a long time and it recently came out in the open.  Man that was saddening.  They were working towards the temple and their kids are recent converts.  
After that we went over to the Martinez family's home to have a little Q&A with Brother Martinez.  His daughter is a recent convert and his wife is a returning less active.  He was also a youth pastor at one point, so naturally he had just a bunch of questions about the church.  Really great guy who has been through a lot in his life.  Gangs, drugs, jail, and now he is a tattoo artist.  I was really nervous going in because usually lessons like this turn into bashing scripture back and fourth.  But he was super respectful and genuinely interested in learning.  It was kinda refreshing.  
Then we had correlation meeting and a baptismal interview that I had to give for a super sick dude named Dominic.  Totally prepared for the gospel.
Finally we had to sit down with Bishop and talk about the Smiths.  He just told us that we were catching a glimpse of it was like to be bishop.  He handles it great though.  

Wednesday was super crazy as well.  We had district meeting, which went really well.  I had one of the missionaries who I can tell has been struggling lately give the training, and I think having to teach others taught her a lot.  I also think it really helped build her confidence, cause it was a super great training.  I know that might have sounded a little risky but it worked out the way I had hoped it would.  Then right after training I got a call from Sister Whetten (bishop's wife) who asked us to do them a favor and to deliver some consecrated oil to someone who was recovering at the local Children's Hospital.  We did, and man was I not prepared for what happened next.  As It turns out, this family, the Mortensens, lived in southern Colorado close to Alamosa, and had had two young kids involved in a serious fire earlier that week.  It was kinda horrifying to see.  The little boy was 2 and the little girl was five.  They had been playing in an old camper that the family had converted into a play room in their back yard (they lived in a pretty rural area), and somehow had gotten a hold of some matches.  In less than five minutes the whole trailer was up in smoke.  The kids couldn't get out.  The fire never actually touched them, but the inside of the trailer got so hot that the daughter got burned on 40 percent of her body and the song got burned on about 30 percent.  When we got there they had been there for a few days, and the father had not gotten a chance to bring consecrated oil.  So we brought it and gave the son a blessing before he went in to skin graft surgery, and then we waited for a few hours so we could be there to help give the daughter a blessing when they came out of skin graft surgery.  Despite the shock of how tragic this accident was, the biggest shock to me was how the family was handling it.  All they could talk about was how much they had been blessed throughout this whole thing.  They talked about the all miracles that had happened and the amazing support and outreach they had gotten from the church and from the hospital.  They even bought us lunch while we waited.  We heard of how their kids had been blessed not to have any of the difficult tissue to replace (ie. the lips, eyes, most joints, soft tissue under the arms,etc.) be scorched by the heat.  You would have needed like 10 or 12 hands to cover everything that was protected on both of them.  After we left, I realized how much of a faith killing thing that that might have been for other people.  But not for the Mortensens.  I pondered on that whole thing for easily the rest of the day.  That evening we had dinner with the Dowda family, and then we went to see the Lake family.  We just determined to drop Brother Lake and to keep teaching the rest of the family.  He was the one who was holding them back, and they all knew it.  So we started teaching them the commandments.  They Came to church on Sunday! 
Then we saw the Castillo family afterwards.  Helped them assemble a slide for their kids in the back yard, and then we taught a short restoration lesson.  We hoped they would come to church but they didn't.  

Thursday was comparatively uneventful haha.  Service in the morning, DLC's in the afternoon all the way on the other side of the zone (RIP to our miles haha), and then we visited a guy named Marvin Burton.  He was a former investigator who we had contacted and set up an appointment with.  Always interested in learning the history of things like the BOM, but as to how interested he is in changing... I'm not sure.  It was a colorful lesson though haha.  All over the place.  Some people just don't know how to not talk.  Then we ate dinner with the Cordner family, and afterwards had an appointment with Werra.  Taught lesson one and committed her to read, pray, attend church, and be baptized if she received and answer.  Then we ended the day with a lesson with the Salazar family.  Sister Salazar isn't a member, but she totally feels the spirit when we're there.  We feel safe in calling her an investigator now.  Great Family. 

Friday was a typical Friday.  Planned in the morning, and saw Clint at one.  I really wanna drop him, but Elder Lee doesn't.  We actually had a long conversation about when it becomes appropriate to drop someone.  I think it helped.  Then we visited Carmen and Darwin.  Great great great people.  Without us talking about it, they brought up that they need to get married and how Carmen would get baptized that day if she could haha.  But Darwin is a super thoughtful guy.  He wants it to be the commitment that he knows it is.  But at one point during the lesson he actually stopped me when I was testifying and said "You know why I believe you?  All my life I've been pretty in-tune with spiritual impressions, and I've never felt those at other churches, but I do with you guys."  I was speechless hahaha.  Couldn't commit them to a date but they are gonna feed us this upcoming week so they're getting there. Sister Fifita gave us money for dinner so we went to Chiles, and then we visited a guy named Dennis Bright and set up a lunch for the next day. 

Saturday was baptism day again.  The Sisters had two, and the Buckley Elders had one.  So we bounced back and fourth between those.  I have the cool opportunity of being able to interview all of these people before they get baptized, so its neat to see how far some of these people have come in order to get to where they're at.  I just wish some of our people would get there!  Our Sisters are baptizing like every week, which they have totally earned over the last few transfers, but still :P

It actually was kind of a bummer day for us, cause we had an appointment with Ohitaka that ended up cancelling.  Then what was worse was the text we got from him after.  He said that he had lost interest after the last lesson because of something I had said in the last lesson.  Apparently he hates it when people promise him things.  Like when we promise he can come to know these things for himself.  So naturally, not knowing that, I promised him that he could come to know these things for himself.  Nothing happened in the lesson, but it came out later.  I though that was kind of a dumb thing to get offended over, but apparently its a big deal to him. 

Then we had to end up cancelling our lesson with Brother Bright cause of schedule conflicts, which was a bummer.  But Brother Mata'ele took us to golden corral so that was cool. 

After dinner we finished up some weekly planning, and went out to try some formers.  Well one of them was not to happy to see us haha.  Whoever he was who answered the door was verbally abusive and threatened to sick his pit-bull at us if we came back.  It was actually the first time something like that had actually happened to me, so I guess I can count myself blessed.

 

Then finally, I'll tell you about the crazy drama that Sunday brought in. 

So the Sisters have a recent convert named Lee Nord.  Her and her husband Cornelius were both investigating at first, but then they got into a domestic dispute that ended with the cops showing up.  That was a few weeks ago.  Well, the husband somehow got back into contact with the sisters and said that he still wanted to get baptized.  Fearing a conflict, the Sisters told us that we should teach him.  So we set up an appointment.  Then they both showed up to their daughter's baptism, and then to church the next day.  At first it was okay, but the gospel principles lesson was on eternal families, so that became really awkward for them.  So Lee ended up leaving and going home.  Well the Sisters then told us that they thought it was best for Cornelius to be taught and attend in another ward because Lee said she wouldn't come if he was there.  So they called and told the Buckley Elders that we were going to hand him off to them.  Keep in mind we have only met the guy once or twice and that we're just kind of coasting through this whole thing not really knowing what's going on or making any decisions.  Well it culminated in a lesson that evening with us, Brother Mata'ele, Cornelius, and the Buckley Elders.  We basically had to tell an investigator that we had barely met, who wanted to be baptized, that he couldn't attend our ward anymore because of domestic issues.  The worst part was that he totally wasn't expecting any of it.  At some points in the lesson I just didn't know what to say.  It was SUPER awkward and SUPER poorly planned.  We basically got told to do it, so in the end we did. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Sisters were right or wrong in the decisions that they made, It just felt like they took the side with Lee, and made us do the dirty work.  And I had barely met the guy!  I just kinda felt like we fell but backwards into a really difficult situation.  And personally, regardless of what the guy has done, I just didn't feel like it was appropriate for representatives of Jesus Christ to take sides in stuff like that, especially when someone's salvation is involved.  I dunno.  It might not be the right way to look at it, but that's my perspective at least. 

 

Anyways, that was our crazy, dramatic week.  I feel like I really have caught a glimpse of what being a Bishop is like.  I don't envy the calling hahaha!

 Love you guys.  Tell everyone I said hi! 

 

Elder Efan

And one from the GREENIE Parker!  Such a fun loving guy!

Hello everyone!

I don't have much time to write one because I am a slow typer and two because we are not given much time.  So sorry for the spelling and grammatical errors!

Monday:  After I emailed we hit up the walmart and got more food.  I have been getting tons of ham sandwich supplies haha. For some reason after eating them for lunch practically everyday I start to have like a craving for them haha.  I usually spend about 25-30 bucks at each p-day for food.  Then we went and got hair cuts because my hair and the ZL's hair was getting a little shaggy and needed a clean up! After that we went to the church and played ping pong.  It gets so intense.  It is nice having four in a apartment because just more fun and more memories.  I totally owned in ping pong and was undefeated!  They are all pretty good but me and dad's epic ping pong matches have trained me well!  After that we went back to the apartment and relaxed till 6 pm.  Then we went out and continued with out normal proselytizing activities.  Apparently before I got there, they were trying to weed out some of the investigators because they werent keeping commitments and weren't progressing.  So we still stop by a lot of them but we are teaching them.  So this week were planned on doing a lot of finding.

Tuesday: We had district meeting which was my first and it was really good Elder Goff my companion is the district leader so he gave a really awesome lesson on preparing investigators to be baptized.  Then I had a bunch of new missionary training.  It is hard to remember if I have mentioned stuff or not but I did want to let you know that we live next to a golf course... haha so everyday we bike past it and I get to see all the terrible golfers throw a tantrum.  We then had ward correlation meeting.  Our ward mission leader looks and reminds me so much of a Coach at AHS! he acts like him and has the same manorisms  haha. 

Wednesday: Is the most time to go out and find because there are no meetings.  We visited a lot of less actives and gave them messages and then went with the Elders Quorum president to visit some people.  We went 0-8 on houses.  haha nobody was home or nobody felt like answering.  This was the day we ate dinner with the Arnolds! They are good friends with the Johnsons, so I guess mom you managed to get in touch with him haha.  They are a really nice family.  We usually get a ride with the Zl's back to the house but they kindof forgot about us so we had to walk like forever to get back haha.  

Thursday: Was similar to wednesday because we don't have a lot of investigators.  We met with some less actives again. We literally have a dinner appointment every night so the feeding the missionaries back home has lead to good karma and so I get to be fed! haha.  I also got to meet Bishop Wright finally.  He is only like 33 and is Bishop. He is so enthusiastic and is a very down to earth person.   Not your typical bishop!  So funny.  So he kindof gave me some advice and things like that.  

Friday: is planning day.  Weekly planning is very boring but very important.  We planned for the up coming week and have our lessons planned.  Elder Goff can go on these monologues about things he has learned on his mission .  They are all really profound advice but just funny!We ate with the bates who are the coolest old people every.  We met with them last time and I think I have already mentioned them.  I can't remember if I told you but he called me a communist becasue I didn't like chocolate ahah.  So they prepared chocolate cake just for me and made me eat it ahah.  He is very sassy but really loves us.  He says we are really incredible and have helped him a lot.  Him and his wife are very old and dont have a lot of money and dont have any family because their family doesn't like that they joined the church.  

Saturday:  we did our normal routine of study and companionship training.  We always eat lunch with the Zl's man they are funny guys.  I love it because there is this thing where Elder Chote (ZL) and Elder Goff like to just randomly start fake beating up Elder Gilland.  Next thing you know he is on the floor laughing getting beat up haha.  We then we got stuck at this crazy less actives house.  I forget the name.  So we bailed as soon as possible.  We also went over and gave brother Bates a blessing because they are driving cross country.  Then after we got back to the dorm we have about 45 min of down time.  Every saturday we have date night where all four of us move the coach over, eat ice cream, and watch like the two approved church movies haha. So that is our saturday date night.

Sunday:Sundays are almost more busy.  We have to bike to church in our suits and it is so hot...  I have yet to get sunburned!  Not sure how exactly that is possible but nevertheless it is a miracle!!!  Bishop randomly decided to give me a good 40 minute heads up that I would be giving a short talk, he was like " this is your best chance to get them to like you haha or else they will just fall asleep like they always do.." like I said he is super down to earth.  We got like 3 sweet referals at church.  One is Jared who has grown up with the young mens but his mom wouldnt let him be baptised till now.  He is 15.  So he is on date to be baptised in like three weeks.  Two other part member families came up to us and said that they wanted to start discussions.  We taught Jared that sunday and he is really awesome and already has a strong testimony.  So we will be meeting with him a lot.  Catalina is still on date for baptism but she hasn't come to church a lot so that is still up in the air.

 I have come to realize that if missionaries are the ones who do the physical baptism there may not be enough fellowship taking place.  We have focused on having a member present at every lesson. The members should be fellowshipping enough that they create a true friendship.  Missionaries are there for a short time but members are there to stay. Just like how I used to love being behind the scenes when it came to hockey assists, I think it is the same way with missionary work.

Well that was my week.  It went by a lot faster than the first!  The people are great.  The area is alright.  It is one of the tougher areas in the mission, but I am here for a reason!  Sound like everything is going alright back home.  Hopefully the perfect house will show up eventually! I will keep you all in my prayers!

Love 

Elder Hemsley

Monday's are my favorite days - both Elder Hemsley's checked in!

Parker had a good first week!


Is this real life? Jk

First week is in the books!  We arrived in Arizona on Tuesday.  We were greeted by President Toone, his wife, and his assistants.  As you can see he is a massive guy!  Very friendly and very funny.  We went straight to the mission home, did a few welcome to Tempe meetings and presentations.  For the sake of time to write everything I wont go into details.  He then let us take a nap!!! He was like i'm sure you all are exhausted from traveling and stuff so go take a two hour nap and then we will head to the Mesa Temple to walk around.  So funny.  Elder Bradley was my roommate for that and we could stop laughing one because we got to sleep and two because we actually are in the feild finally.  After those events we came back had some interviews, had dinner and went to a host family's for the night.

Wednesday was transfer meetings.  It was like a pep rally almost.  Tons of missionaries, all from their respective areas.  President Toone did some speaking, and then he started to call out transfers.  My companion is Elder Goff.  He is from a farm in Idaho.  I am the 4th person he has trained! So he is pretty much a pro at it.  He gave me a sweet tie when I came to give him a hug!  After transfer meeting we collected all of our things from the trailers.  Yep me bedding, my bike, my camel back are all set and working great.  The bike is such a nice bike holy cow.  We then had a few more meetings got our credit cards, did some paper work.  And listen to this... Yes I am a facebook mission so I had to clear out everything.  I will be using it for proselyting everyday.  Also We are a completely paper free mission.  Everyone is assigned Ipads!  They are used for our area books, our schedule, and we can use LDS library to show investigators videos.  Everything has to be pre downloaded because they only work on the church's wifi! I thought ethan would be a little jealous of that ahaha.  Tempe is where the first presidency tests out all of their new equipment and new methods. Then I went out and gave a few messages and met people

Thursday was my first real day out in the field.  I go running with Elder Goff every morning, so Emily i may be able to give you a run for your money when I get back!  Then we met a few less actives.  I am still trying to get used to all the names.  Then we taught a lesson to a lady named catalina.  She had already been taking the discussions but we taught her lesson three which is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I committed her to be baptised and she said yes! So that is kinda in the works . She is out of town for a long time so the baptism wont be until mid August.  It is nice because we always have dinner appointments.  Haven't gone one day without a member giving us food.  other than that it was a slow week because everyone was going out of town for fourth of July.  Tempe gets these Giant dust storms and they are freaking crazy,.  We had to bike the hardest I have ever had to bike in the 110 degree heat to get out of the storm and back to the church.  I live with the zone leaders and they drove us back to the apartment and called it a night.  

Friday was fourth of July and literally everyone was out of town. We just found and gave a few messages.  Then at 5 we had to be in.  President toone approves some music which is nice, like Josh Groban, and other musical instrument songs. So we played music and played ping pong!   He approved using a few recreational activities such as ping pong for that day since we were stuck in the house at 5.  So we played on this tiny table and one of the ZL's had a net and padles.  It was basically minature ping pong ahah.  That was such a great night and really bonded with the Elders, becasue before that I really didnt know them.  Elder Chote, and Elder Gilliand are the ZL's they are both super funny.  So Elder Goff and them have been out for like 18 months so I really feel like a newbee.  haha

Saturday we biked around visited less actives, and some investiators.  Like I said it was tough becasue everyone was out of town.  That day went by kindof fast.  There was more to it, but I forgot what I wrote in my journal about it.  We did eat dinner with the Bate family.  They are a really really old couple, but are absolutely hilarious.  They bicker and mess with each up but truely love each other.  He Brother bates loves to mess with missionaries, very blunt.  Apparently he made the last missionary cry haha

Sunday was kind of a change because you still have to work hard.  We had to bike to chruch in our suits in the heat.  Absolutely brutal.  But I went up bared my testimony in scarament meeting to like 40 people becasue the rest were gone.  The other meetings went well, just your typical church meetings.  Although, if I have to explain one more time why I don't have an accient i think I might scream! haha it's yes i'm from Georiga, no I don't have an accent, becasue I lived in north georgia and my parents don't have accidents... blah blah... After that we taught a few lessons visited a very interesting gamer family named the Delaughters.  Really nice just really odd  That was about a tenth of all that happened.  I'm just a bad typer and to much to say in the little time I have!  I will try to send some pictures real quick too. 

Ethan had a good week too!

Helllloooooooo Mum. 

I know I may say this a lot, but this week was totally all over the place.  By Thursday I had been on three exchanges in 7 days.  So I rarely had the same comp for more than two days.  They were my first exchanges that I had conducted on my mission as DL, so that was pretty sweet.  Went everywhere from the middle of nowhere to super ghetto inner city Denver.  So if any week has the right to be called all over, this one certainly does. 

Hope everyone had a good fourth of July, and hope Parker has had a good first week.  The day I got into the mission was literally the longest day of my life.  Up at two, bus ride, plane ride orientation, & back to your area to work before dark.  

Fourth of July is always the weirdest day to try and do missionary work.  And ours was made doubly hard since we had to drive on a donut.  Blehhh.  But we did go to a ward Barbecue with most of the families that I've met so far.  That was fun, even if it did rain a bit. 

Anyways, here's a run through of my week:

Monday was cut short because I exchanged with the Strausburg Elders and had to go all the way out to their area.  If you've never heard of the bustling metropolis of Strausburg, Colorado, you wouldn't be the only one haha.  Maybe 3000 people.  But there are enough members there and in a few of the neighboring towns to make a ward.  Thats where Elder Johnston and Elder Rampton work.  And man they have a ton going for them there.  They hit 25 lessons in one week there.  That evening we ate dinner with a family whose name i cant recall, but we spent wayy too much time there.  Took forever.  But they did give us an old couch that they had no use for.  We put it in the bed of our truck and then went on our way to a lesson that fell through.  After trying some more people, we spent the rest of the night attempting to get the couch into their second story apartment.  We determined it was impossible so we ended up pitching it.

Tuesday was the busiest day I've had in a while.  The Strausburg ward has a lot of missionary work.  We did some service that morning, and then we went to a lesson with a lady named Dolores Tippet.  She was very interested in the gospel, but was letting unimportant things get in the way.  Ultimately they determined that they were going to take a break from teaching her and resume in a month or two.  Good lesson though.  Then the Johnson family, the member who went to the lesson with us, took us out to lunch.  The small town feeling is kinda nice.  Everyone knows everyone else.  Really friendly.  

After that we went wayyyyy out into the boonies to teach a lady named Vai Sperling and her LA roommate Jeff.  That was a pretty good lesson, but Jeff kinda tried to dominate the lesson and make the visit all about him.  But Vai is cool.  She's gonna get baptized as soon as her divorce is final.

After that we had an appointment to go visit the Cowart family.  Big mistake.  They have a daughter who is nine that the missionaries have been teaching, but the Dad refuses to let her get baptized.  The missionaries had never met him before, and so we started talking to him and the reason came out.  He is super super anti.  We basically had to endure his ranting and his beefs with the church doctrine for about 40 minutes.  It was horrible.  The spirit totally left the room and didn't really come back for the rest of the night.  I advised Elder Johnston to drop the Cowart family and not continue teaching them.  He didn't like that very much haha.  oh well.  

Ate dinner with another family and taught a less active kid named Johnathan.  Good guy.  Then I went and gave a baptismal interview to Dan Ellington, their investigator who got baptized two days ago.  Long day!  Elder Johnston is a good missionary so I think I learned more than I taught haha. 

Wednesday was good.  District meeting in the morning, where everyone had the opportunity to bear their testimony of the BOM and how it has helped their investigators receive conversion.  then we got to visit and chat with our new mission president, President Mehdenhall.  Great guy.  excited to work with him.

We had a few appointments fall through, but ended up teaching a former investigator named Verra Tursow.  She seemed interested in continuing to learn!  Cool older lady.  

Ate dinner by ourselves, and then we had an appointment with the Lakes that got rescheduled.  So we visited the Bishop and his family that night.  First time I really had the chance to meet them. 

Thursday was a good day.  Elder Tonga came to our area and Elder Lee went to the Buckley ward.  He is a cool guy from the south mission.  We taught 3 investigator lessons.  One with Otis, a former who seems a little hesitant but very receptive to the spirit.  Then we taught Darwin and Carmen.  So legit.  We talked about the Plan of Salvation for a long time.  They wouldn't let us leave they were so interested!  Great people.  

Ate dinner with the very odd Yeckley family, and then we taught the Rowley family afterwards.  She was the YW rep for girls camp and we talked about the non-members who went.  They had a great experience.  

When talking with Elder Tonga, I discovered that his comp, Elder Poor, was really nervous and not-wanting to go on an exchange with me.  The basic reason is that I had given him a few suggestions to consider when he asked how he could better his ward, and he didn't like them.  Apparently he was nervous about having to work harder than he wanted to when he was with me.  That made me sad :P  He's a good guy, but very shy.  Missionary work is hard for the shy. 

Friday was lame cause we spent the majority to the morning trying to change our tire.  We broke our old jack, and then had to solicit the help of the zone leaders and brother Mata'ele.  

Did some planning, appointments cancelled, went to the Ward BBQ, and had to turn in at 6. 

Saturday was crap.  Suffice it to say that all appointments fell through, and we had to jump through hoops to try and get our car repairs approved

Than Sunday was good except for a meeting in the morning with the Stake that i was totally unprepared for.  It was my first one :P

Church went well except for an Elder's quorum lesson that went way political.  But darwin and carmen had a great time none the less.  Carmen wants to be baptized and Darwin is really getting there.  They just need to get Married!!  But that's really easy to fix.  

Anyways, that was my week.  I'm in a bind for time so i gotta go.  Love all of you!  Tell Grandpa to email me an article or two regarding the Book of Mormon's prophecies of America if he can.  Strange request I know.  

Love you! 

Elder Efan