November News

Elder Blake Smith

Argentina, Mendoza Mission

September 2008 - 2010

Hi to all,

I am just counting down till I leave the MTC, I leave for Argentina on the 10th of November. I have endured, and am ready to move onto the real deal. We met with the consulate from Argentina, he was real cool. He talked about the people, money,streets, food, but I don't think I will understand how it all works till I get there. I have heard lots of speakers, one of my favorites was Sheri Dew. She talked about learning the language of the spirit. She was very inspirational and it was full of motivation. I have enjoyed going to the Provo Temple every week, but must say I miss and love the Mesa Temple. The weather here has been cool, it was weird to walk thru frozen grass when we went to the temple! Oh, here is a funny story. I heard my alarm go off, and I went and turned it off, I said my prayers and went into the bathroom. When I was in the bathroom I wondered why no one else was awake yet, it was 6:30...So I went back to my room and it was actually only 1:15, so I only dreamed that the alarm went off. That was so weird. So a few nights ago we had TRC, so we went to a fake store and had to buy some new clothes, as we were checking out we had to tie in the gospel somehow and get a appointment to come teach them. As were teaching we found out they were ******, all of our outlines we ever had were thrown out the window. IT was the hardest lesson I have ever taught. Not only the spanish, but how to teach them to. It was a good learning experience but it was hard. I am learning how to teach the plan of salvation in Spanish. Everyone be safe, my next letter will be from Argentina, wish me well. Love, Elder Smith

Elder Daniel Anderson

Hello everybody! Wow this month has been super crazy. Sorry about my last letter but i went to the Bahamas with my parents. We stayed in this tight resort called Atlantis. It was really cool to just chill there and get away from home..... it kinda reminded me of the cruise some of us went on before the mission. After the Bahamas i flew to Florida and stayed with my sister Sarah and Blane. I hung out with them all week and just helped around the house. We went to Disney World one day and we hit up this "ghetto seaworld" place. My nephews liked it tho, so it was fun. Then after i was done in Florida i flew straight to California to go visit my mission because i girl i taught was getting baptized. It was a REALLY LONG flight because i had to go through Chicago but on the 2nd leg of my flight i sat by these two girls who go to the Nazarene Church's version of BYU. They were kinda cute haha jk but i got to talk to them about our church and why its true and they both committed to reading the BOM!!! I was so Stoked that i got to experience that before going back. Going back and seeing all the people i taught and worked with on my mission was really different but it was good to be there. I went with my old companions to teach Kalia (the girl getting baptized) and after the lesson she asked me if i would confirm her. I was HECKA excited to. That Sunday the branch really put me to work, I gave a prayer in Sacrament meeting, taught a Sunday school class, played the piano for primary, helped set up for linger longer right after church and then confirmed Kalia and sung in the special musical number at her baptism! IT WAS FREAKING CRAZY!!! i thought that i would be normal when i came back but boy was i wrong :) So another friend from my mission that i helped out a lot just got his mission call and leaves in December. He is going to Minnesotta Hmong speaking and he asked me to be his escort for the temple so i'm heading up there again sometime this next month. Oh and Jeff you will like this..... Becca and Sarah say hello. After my trip around the country my cousin came to visit with her two friends..... don't even ask........it was as bad as i remembered. Its amazing to me how the Lord really helps us to stay focused and do misisonary work even when we get away from the routine of missionary work. It is really hard but the Lord does help us. I just got a new calling as the Choir Pianist and i'm not that excited about it but at least i have a calling now. Other than that not too much is going on. I am going to the Mayo Clinic soon and hopefully they will be able to help me out, and i'm starting to look at schools to go to. I miss you all and SORRY i'm terrible at writing but i am trying ;)
Love ya,
Daniel

Elder Grant Huish

Hey everyone! How it going. things here in Oregon are great. By some miracle the wheather is still nice. Usually by this time of the year it should just be pouring everyday.There is not really not much going on here. We have picked up 4 new investigators so far this week. hopefully the appts. we set up will go through. they all seem pretty open and interested,I just hope they don't get anti'd or something.AI never realised how much is sucks to have to be the person not to do something. Being a ZL bites sometimes. we have several missionaries in the zone that aren't too obedient. not terribly disobedient by any means just sluffing off the small stuff. well i guess someone has to tell them to stop it might as well be me. they dont listen anyway though. other than that stuff it is life as usual up here. well i guess thats it for now.

love you all grant

Elder Gary Chambers

Pues pues pues...... where did all the time go? Nothing too cool has happened since I got here in La Vega... it's kinda just a really REALLY rich area of the island that seems to stay pretty tranquilo. Probably the most interesting thing that happened this week has to do with not having any money... Because of transfers and needing to buy a fan.... my money has completely disappeared. This past week I was making up things to eat and what not, trying to get by on the little I had... Well, this all seemed to work ok until we ran out of drinking water (dang it, there goes my instant mashed potatoes...) and soon followed by the gas that powers our stove. Seeing as absolutely NONE of the 4 missionaries had enough money to get more, we all found ourselves in a pretty interesting situation. Now I know that there is such thing as home accounts, but that just spoils the fun! In our desperate state, my comp and I rigged a tin can and made a small lil fire in it so that we could fry the rest of our eggs to have some edible food. It has been a pretty intense week and although it was supposed to end today... there was a problem in the office, and we won't get any money until tomorrow..... yay..... Now I get to try and figure out which plants growing in our front yard are edible. As for liquid? I might just make an emergency trip to the chapel right across the street and borrow some H2O... who knows, anything could happen! Sorry my entry is a lil bit short... deal with it! I love you guys, hope your month rocks mine! Cuidense Love always, Elder Chambers

Elder Mike Kleinman

Hey everyone!
Well, as I'm sure you all heard, a Temple was announced for our mission! Wahoo! The great part is that it will be in my area, right next to the mission home. The members in this ward are totally stoked which means fun time for the work. Elder Nelson visited us 2 weeks ago and we got to chat it up with him, it was great. The man is so intelligent its scary.During one of his talks he got tired of having a translator and just started speaking very fluent spanish. Apparently he knows like eight languages sheesh!He promised some great blessings for this mission if we all work our hardest to prepare everyone here to be able to receive a temple.He also talked about how he can look into a mans eyes and see their very soul, so as many of you can imagine, many missionaries had their eyes closed when they went up to shake his hand. (Nah jk, except that he really can see your soul, no joke.)Well I'm finally leaving the office in two weeks once I'm done training my replacement. I hope they send me up into the Sierra Mountains its amazing up there in the summer (there's also a giant rock festival as well. teehee)Well, I don't have much more time so I hope all is going well and I'll write ya'll next month! Elder Kleinman

Elder Brock Smith

Howzit Mesa Militia? I swear that its only like one week in between these things time goes by so fast I dont believe it, time is really being gay right now it wont slow down at all a member told us that we have less time now then before because of the things we do and something to do with quantum physics I didnt understand it but I kinda want to believe him cuz it would explain why it feels like my mission is just a series of blurs like it never occured one day Ill wake up and itll seem like it was just one long dream its nuts, make sure you take advantage of every minute cuz the downhill is sure a lot faster then the uphill way faster I cant how fast this year has just flown by I can still remember the time when I thought that this my mission would never end and now I dont want it to. So the other day we were walkin in the pourin rain and some guy called us over he then proceeds to tell us in a hawaiian round about way that we are crazy why would you do this well thats very easy sure because I represent the one true church on the face of this Earth Jesus hung on the cross he suffered for me I think I can walk in the rain for a couple hours for him what about you sir what would sacrifice for the Savior that cigar that bottle of heinekin no huh So your tellin me that you cant give up those things when the Savior bleed from every pore for you. He said cuz I dont have too Im already saved Im part of the kingdom. So works dont matter no they dont I just gotta preach the word and save others Uncle let me read you a verse from the book of mormon 2ne 9:34 which says if we dont follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ well be damned I said sir does that sound like works arent required think on it you have a good one and walked away he still thought we were crazy but now he has something to think about when hes sober. I swear hawaii makes no sense they focus so much on there mary jane and ice problem when its the beer and the cigs that are really the problem those to things effect way more people I mean you have drunk driving and second hand smoke come on now focus on what really matters. > Well the other week I got a letter from Mike and about had a heart attack I thought it would never happen I could barely contain myself It was crazy I mean even Elder Stoker writes me more often it was a Early Christmas Miracle I think. Well transfers are comin up and I think its gonna be crazy well see what happens but there seems to be about a fifty fifty cahnce that Ill get transfered again. Aloha my fellow Elders Malama Pono And May the Force be with you Always!B Sexy B Smooth B Smith

Elder Jeff Stoker

Dear Brothers,Another month down....NEXT! haha. I am having a blast here. The work is going so amazing. Crazy, but amazing. I swear that every time that my companion and I plan a day, it NEVER goes according to plan. I have been on exchanges all this last cycle because my companion, Elder Marsing, along with 11 other missionaries from my mission are stuck in Sweden. For some reason they could not get a new Russian Visa. They have been gone for one month now. I just got back from my visa renew trip from Kazakhstan. I cursed myself and thought i was going to go to Sweden, but i got humbled. It was a neat experience though. I was kinda amazed by how close we were to the Middle East. The entire time we were gone, we just spent studying, eating, and sleeping. Needless to say, i am glad to be back in my area. My companion is still gone, but hopefully he will be returning sometime within a week or two. This entire month, i have been serving with Elder Slezak, and we have been covering two areas. I am having a blast though. These visa trips are so annoying, but things always seem to work out. We have some really cool investigators, and i am loving it. I thought we were out to preach the gospel, but it seems like i am learning more everytime i meet someone new. I am kinda bummed that i didnt get to go to the temple, but i guess i deserve it. hah. Ok, i want to tell you a story about a lady i met in Kazakhstan. We went to the capital city, Astana, and we slept in an apartment close to the Humanitarian Missionaries that serve there. The Church isnt registered in that city, so we had to take off our name tags, and we were forbidden to do any contacting. It turns out that there is only one member there in Astana besides the humanitarian missionaries. Her name is Jana. She saves up money, and rides on a bus everyday for 3 hours to come and take sacrament every week that is held in the living room of the humanitarian missionaries here. She doesnt even speak english, and that is all the senior couple knows. In that sacrament meeting, three languages are used between the three people. It definately makes me realize how lucky we are. She is a HUGE example to me and I was so impressed by her. I couldnt believe how much she sacrafices every day. I know that there are people like this every where, and it makes me so happy to be where i am, and do what i am doing. I know that everyone of you are having life changing experiences. You all are getting old now. I cant believe it is Halloween....again. Happy holidays. I love you all. Keep on working hard. Especially you Chase! haha. Have a great month, and i expect everyone to write next month....dont let me down.Elder Jeffery Stoker

ps. Snow is coming....help me... soon i will be walking over the Volga River. Quite an accomplishment huh?

Elder Jimmy Miller

Greetings Everyone!!!The last month has been glorious!! I remain district leader in South Manhattan but I now have Elders in my district. And I'm also a FATHER! I'm training an Elder from Finland, Elder Parkka. He's awesome and loves the work. We rocked it this last month. We had a sweet awesome baptism. Back in August we got a referral from a member for his friend Jacinta, from Australia, he had invited her to church and she had really enjoyed it. But she went out of town for over a month so we didn't meet her until late September. But from the time we first met to her baptism was 3 and half weeks. She was so ready. She actually moved up her baptism date. She's already finished the Book of Mormon and we took her to the temple last week. It was amazing. It's one of those converts that you feel like you honestly didn't do anything they were so prepared. So needless to say we feel very blessed. It's getting mighty cold here and I'm not looking forward to it. Here in Manhattan we never go inside we're always on the street and people don't like to talk when its cold. So we're praying for a mild winter and that i can put on some fat! Anywho. Keep the faith and carry on! Love Elder Miller

Elder Logan Wells

Okay what to say to my brothers in Christ

Well its been great I am still here in The British Virgin Islands on the island of Tortola, transfers are next week and I will probably be staying becaue my comp has been here for 8 months so the odds are pretty high. Which to tell the truth I really dont mind because I love it here and have been seeing so much success. You know the month of October we had the challenge for the whole mission to read the Book of Mormon and so I took it. Well its been such an eye opener for me because I have seen the reality of so many things in the scriptures, its just amazing to know that we have so much guidance in this life. Truly, I think alot of people take andvantage and think they are so alone and well all it takes is for them to pick of there sticks and read a little and realize that they are not alone. Its been awesome here I think alot of you are starting to get a little cold, well I am still here in my 80 degree weather that will not change and at times seems like it never stops raining its been crazy, I love the dry weather of Arizona truly I do,and our air conditioning, mmmmm I think I have slipped off into a dream. No but its been so great here I love Tortola, its just insane to think how many different places we are in, but none the less we are doing the work of our Father in heaven. But I love you guys and until next month. Peace. Logan

Elder Garrett Jones

Hey hey everybody,Wow I can't believe I have to write another one of these again. Last month I took the easy way out and had my mom put together different letters to form the entry but I'm back now. Things are going really well over here for me in New Rochelle NY. I'm still here for the forth cycle which starts today and I finally got a new companion. Elder Miranda stayed with me for a while, but he finally got away from me. My new companion is Elder Doermann who I have already been with down in Olmstead. I didn't really believe it when it happened but we're back together and ready to get out and work. Lately the work has been going really good for us here, we've been teaching a lot of brasilians and I've been picking up a (really) little bit of portugues to be able to better communicate. It's really funny how similar the two are though, as after a little accomodation anyone who speaks the one can at least understand basic ideas of what someone speaking the other is saying. I dont' know if that made sense but ya. The bad news is they just brought in new Elders to teach portugues and so our thunder was taken from us. A couple of weeks ago we were able to baptise the largest Dominican (here's to you Gary) that I've ever met.The man was difficult to pull back up out of the water without falling back in myself, but we managed through it. We've had some sweet experiences lately with answered prayers and whatnot but not too much room here to share them all. One of them we brought a lady to church this past weekend and at the end of it all she told us how good she felt being there in the church, how much love she felt from the members, how many things she learned, and at the end told us that this is where she wanted to be every Sunday from here on out. It was way sweet.Well keep up the amazing work out there, I love and miss you all. Garrett

Elder Chase Judd

Hi Elderes, I am still in Catemaco. I like it but is pretty tough. I just hit my 6 month mark.Well we had a Baptism, WOO HOO!!! It was a difficult beast to kill but it was worth it. There is a story behind it, don't worry I will tell you. We were going to Baptize our investigator in the Laguna but it started raining at 9 in the morning, so we went to the church to fill the font and left it running while we ate some breakfast, and yeah guess what happened? It's not what you think, it didn't run over it stopped at the first step. We were out of water... Scared ya!!! There was NO way I was going to fill it with a bucket, I did that last time and WOW my arms were burning after that experience. So yeah, we turned the faucet on and it started to drip out a little bit, so we left it and then we went to pick up Juana at 11 and guess what, she wasn't at home. We were pretty crushed, and I wondered why Satan always wins at these times? But don't worry I still had faith, so we went to the house and prayed, and went to search for the little run away. We had checked her house at least 6 times that day and at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon we went back and she was their, and boy did she have some doubts about baptism. The best one was why can people like you come down here and we can't go up there? So I told her this is probably the only chance you are going to have in your life to be baptized and be washed free of your sins if you pass this opportunity who knows if it will ever come again. YES, it worked and she went to the church with us, and we baptized her. What a Day!! Well I love you all, I hope you are having sucess. Love, Elder Judd

Elder Max Crandall

Dudes and Dudettes -- So things here is the NorthWest are Northwestery. The missionary work in our area has been booming. It’s most excellent, seeing as it has been dead for well over a year. We’ve been trying to work really hard to build up the Spanish group up here. Basically, there are about three or four families that are active to semi-active. Of course, everyone knows you need families like this to start a branch or even a group, so we’ve been trying to help them build their faith along with inviting their friends to be taught. We’ve had a few success stories, but it’s been really neat to see the strength of these few families. We’ve all planned a temple trip for them in mid-November and they are all trying so hard to stay temple worthy so they can go. What probably helps the most in all of this is we have one of the most amazing bishops. He is so helpful and missionary-minded. He is constantly trying to work with part-member families in our ward, almost behind our backs. It’s neat. There is one part-member family that we’ve been working with. They are a Hispanic family and the dad is not a member. The mom and kids were baptized a couple of months ago but Tony (the dad) wasn’t really interested. He hurt his back so until it gets better he’s making piñatas for a living. When we first started going over there, Tony would make fun of us, swear at us, and other such negative activities. Now he is on date for baptism on November 8th and he’s changed so much. We also have two other people on date for baptism. It is really exciting. I eat really well up here in Bellingham. A member owns a discount grocery store and gives us each $20 every month. I mostly eat oatmeal and chimichangas. I need to come up with a fabulous drink though. Our mission president recently made a lot of changes, especially with P-day. So basically we aren’t allowed to use our cars on P-day anymore. We are also not allowed to meet missionaries anywhere but our church building. This has greatly reduced the time left over for letter writing and laundry and other such P-day activities. We’ve been having to walk everywhere on P-day. So P-days are like Sundays; naps, soft music, friends, family gospel, rest, sleeping…but throw in no transportation. On the upside, I feel so lucky that I got to see conference. I hope you guys were able to either see or hear it. Although I really missed watching it on my mom’s couches. And I missed going to the priesthood session with my Dad. The priesthood session was so great. I think my favorite talk might have been Richard G. Scott but I’ll have to do a more in depth study of all my notes and get back to you. It feels like I went to a totally great rock concert with a ton of stellar bands and I can’t process which was the best. The church is true and I honestly can’t see how anyone could doubt that. Keep on tractin’. –Elder Crandall

Anziano Scott Ball

Buon Giorno,
Right now in Modena, we are searching for new investigators. The couple I was talking about in the past letters didn't accept our baptismal invite. This is the story. They are a couple that isn't married (like most italians). They live together and have lived together for the past 8 years. The woman loves the church and found the church and introduced it to her companion. They have been taught for about a year and she has been ready for baptism for a while. The sisters were teaching them during that time and the sisters gave both of them a invite to be baptized and they said that they weren't ready and also the fact that they have to get married first. Anyways, blah blah.. shortened up.. the male companion became afraid of marriage and baptism and stopped doing anything. Then we started teaching them and they love the elders. So after 6 months of him doing progress again and ready to be baptized... we give him the invite to be .. first married... then baptized. He made up a ton of excuses and said that he wasn't ready for it still ... after a year of this. I'm almost sick of him. Anyways, the woman started crying because he is holding her back from being baptized. It is a mess. I'm glad I don't have a family as messed up as some here. Ciao, Scott