February 2008 News

Anziano Scott Ball
Italy Milan Mission August 2007 - 2009

Carissimi Amici,Well, I'm still serving in Genova, Italy right now on my 3rd transfer here. We are seeing a lot of progress here in the work. I just got my new companion from Spanish Fork, Utah, Anziano Rogers. I opened a companionship here with Anziano Ballard and we have done a lot of finding work doing Bus, Street, Homes, and Parks. That's sounds so weird to say that in English because we are always speaking Italian with that.. like Strada, Casa.. etc. The Italians here are awesome and we have meet many people and taught many lessons. We reactivated 2 less active members that have been inactive for some time. We are currently progressing with some investigators and are looking forward to invite them to be baptized. What else can I say! I love this work. I hear from some older missionaries that have been here, that they would like to stay longer. I'm starting to feel the spirit that they are feeling, always when I'm doing this great work. I'm living with the zone leaders currently and it*s pretty cool. Always learning something new from them. My old companion, my trainer went on to become a zone leader at Trieste, almost all the way across the mission (6 hours on train). It*s crazy to hear from everyone in these newsletters and to see people change during their mission. I'm learning from new experiences all the time. Especially, when talking with people and what to talk about and how to open up to people. I hope that I don't get transferred from this beautiful city, it*s the one closest resembling Arizona . . . with dry weather and the beautiful landscape.Vi voglio aver tanti benedizioni!

Ciao Ciao, Anziano Ball

Elder Mike Kleinman

Hey Everyone! I was able to watch the funeral, and I really like how Thomas S. Monson and the others kept a very upbeat attitude. We got to watch it in english in a smaller room in the church. While the rest of the members watched it in the main chapel. We have our zone conference this Thursday and we have to travel to Catamarca. Also, Elder Robbins from the Seventys is coming to visit us and inspect our pensions as well. For what, I have no clue. I love this work we are doing here. We have a few families lined up for baptism in the coming month and they are progressing just fine. All is going well here in La Rioja. Its hotter than heck being at 125 degs., but you get used to it. Sad thing is, after hours of walking in plain sun, Im still not tan...sigh. Its starting to cool off here...a little. Anywho, in the next couple of week there is a really big festival going on called the "Chaya." its a big party where everyone on the street throws water balloons and flower onto other people, while the punk kids here will throw water balloons filled with urine, gross huh? Which will be just peachy in prostelyting clothes heh. As Missionaries we are not allowed to participate, but most Missionaries see that rule more as "guidelines." We are teaching a bunch of great families right now. Everyone of them are the poorest of the poor, but they are wonderful people. Well, other than that, I'm still with my latin comp. Elder Suarez. he's a great guy and I*ve really learned a ton of spanish with him. I hope all is going well with everyone else! Thanks for all of your support guys! I know this is the Lord*s work and none other*s. Remember to sudy your scriptures well! *Cia*! Elder Kleinman

Elder Gary Chambers

Hello My Brothers,Another week under the belt here at the DRizzle... Things are going great! Had a fair share of changes and excitements around here... Originally, due to the size of Constanza, there were 4 Elders here, However... One Elder who has had a problem with his skin reacting to the climate here, had to leave last Monday for the States... Elder Judd was re-called to finish his mission in New Mexico... Because of this, we figured that they would send up another Elder to be Elder Silcox's comp. WELL, we were wrong, they shipped out Elder Silcox too... he's in the big city Santiago now. Elder Rampton and I are left with ALL of Constanza for oursleves now :) It's safe to say between our investigators and theirs, there is No time to visit my old friend "The John"... Sad story I know. We had an Interesting contact last night... Before we had a chance to greet him, he started Preaching to us in a voice much louder than necessary. He was preaching about Christ, and from what I could understand, everything he was saying was true, so i smiled in agreement and let him run out of breath... Once he paused long enough to get a comment in edge-wise, my comp jumped in and asked if we could share a message with him and his family... and with no objections, we were invited in and sat down. He started up with the preaching again, but before he could gain any momentum, my comp headed him off with the First lesson. After a few minutes of nodding and intense staring (I guess that's his thing...) My comp offered him the pamphlet we used in the lesson. He paused... I know that he KNEW that he should take it, but he wrote it off saying that he didn't need it, and that he had a complete Bible, and read to us a passage that suggested to be saved, one simply needed to believe in Christ. My comp chimmed in saying that Baptism is a crucial part in salvation, to which he agreed... Elder Rampton went on to explain that baptism by the Authority of God is the only baptism that counts. He then explained plainly that after the death of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles, the authority to perform saving priesthood ordinances, such as baptism, died as well. He then explained that it was restored to the Earth once more through the adminstering of angels when Peter, James, and John (3 of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ who recieved the authority from Christ Himself) conferred the preisthood ordinance through the laying on of hands to Joseph Smith, the First prophet in our times. After all this, he still remained hard in his heart and instead of listening just started talking about whatever came to his mind to the point that he wasn't connecting thoughts anymore, and everything just got random. With a sigh of dissapointment, we decided it was time to go, so my comp asked who's turn it was to pray, and he chose my comp. So we all bowed our heads, and about 5 words into the prayer, the other guy i guess either changed his mind about who was going to pray, or was a big fan of "The Double Prayer"... Cause he started praying too, and again, in a voice much louder than necessary. I almost laughed just from how unexpected it was... but managed to restrain. With a lil difficutly in concentrating, my comp finished the prayer, and we decided to remain in prayer position until he finished his. Once he ended, he looked up and smiled at us as if he did that sort of thing all the time and it was to be expected. Hahaha i loved it... We shook hands and left. Well that's about all i have time for this month, I gotta run now. Love you all, take care. Elder Chambers

Elder Jeff Stoker

So....another month. I decided that time is a wierd thing. So I just thought I would say some things about the church in Russia, because i dont have that many interesting things to say. SO in the Russia Samara Mission, there is a City called Saratov. Saratov is known as the heart of the church in Russia. There are the most families there than any other city in Russia. There is not even a temple in all of Russia. The closest temple is in Finland. Not very many members have been to the Temple, because it is way to ****** expensive for them to pay for plane tickets to get there. ******Everyone here is waiting for the temple in the Ukraine to be ******completed. Hopefully it will be completed soon* Wanna know ******something crazy? There is not even a stake in All of Russia. In Balakovo*..which is where I am*. There has been the same branch presidency for 7 years. They know my cousin who served 4 years ago. I have seen a couple pictures with him and the members here. Anyways, everything is good with me. I just keep on keeping on. We are really trying to work with our investigators right now preparing for baptism. They are going to have the baptismal interview this Saturday, so we are extremely excited about that. Hopefully they will be baptized before the end of February. Anyways, After that huge storm, the weather here has really warmed up. It is only like 30 degrees now. It seems like it is 100 degrees though after going from -30 to 30. I am going to try to send out a whole bunch of letters this next week. Things are crazy busy for us this next week. It always seems like we are on the run. I have been trying to experiment to try and find the best Russian foods, and the best Russian candies, and it has come with very little success. I could definitely tell you what you shouldn*t eat though. I had borsch for the first time this week. Borsch is beet root soup. I took one bite, and then i said I choose death, before I eat this. It was bad. Then I tried it like 5 days later, and I actually liked it. Maybe it was starvation, but I actually liked it. And it is sad to say, but I am getting used to the milk here. It doesn*t have the nasty taste to me anymore. And to top all that off, I have found mormon approved tea, that I really like. (everyone here LOVES tea.). I think I may be turning Russian, so when I get back, I am going to be very rude, and very obnoxious when I return! HAHAH. Oh wait*.i guess nothing would have really changed. And just so every one knows, your complaining with how hot and cold it is in your missions gets no where with me. it gets 110 here in the Summer, and it gets -30 in the Winter. haha. So just remember, while you are freezing or sweating, just remember that someone out there has it worse..... Me. Anyways, I love you all, and I hope you have a fantastic February. Love, Elder Jeff Stoker

Elder Max Crandall

Hola, gentlemen * So, first of all, check it out! I found a typewriter! I bought it at Value Village (a local thrift store) for $2.50! I think it*s going to increase my weekly letter output by 50%...maybe. Handwriting was killin* me. So, you may have noticed, I have not been transferred. Six months in my greenie area but do not mourn for me. I*m having the time of my life. Mt. Vernon is my home town, my hood, my arena. I*ve had three companions but I*m still in the same apartment. Elder Jensen, my last companion, was just transferred to a new area as a zone leader. We only served together for six weeks but he was great. My new companion*s name is Elder Dance *Dance Revolution* as I like to refer to him. He isn*t a good dancer and he*s one chilly chili and doesn*t speak a ton, but watch out when he does. He*s a cool kat. I hear that President Showalter wants to have missionaries stay together and in the same area for longer so if you think about it, I only have three new areas left. We*ve been having a lot of success here. One gent we*ve been working with is Alwood Harang. One Sunday, Elder Jensen and I were sitting in the foyer at church and I saw Alwood walk in through the side doors of the church. I heard this voice in my head say, *You should go talk to him.* I thought, I*m so tired though and I just sat down in this nice armchair. *You should go talk to him.* Yeah, but he*s probably a member and members are so awkward to talk to. Then I didn*t hear anything. I was so furious at myself later for not recognizing the Spirit. Thankfully, the Lord knows I*m an idiot, and Alwood came and talked to us instead. We*ve been teaching him for a few weeks now. On January 12th Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke to us. I think it was the coolest experience of my life. I*ve never been in the same room as an apostle before. It was incredible. When Elder Scott walked in the room, everything changed. It was an amazing feeling. I tried to stare at him for a couple of seconds but I had to look away. It was like looking at the sun. He taught us a lot of neat things about the Spirit and how to recognize it. It was seriously one of the best days of my mission. This mission thing is like an emotional rollercoaster. I have come to realize how the gospel can and should be an anchor in our lives. Before, I took church, the scriptures, modern day prophets, all for granted. But the other day, when I was having a particularly hard day, I read a quote by President James E. Faust. He said, *What is the cost of discipleship? It is primarily obedience. It is the forsaking of many things. But since everything in life has a price, it is a price worth paying, considering that the great promise of the Savior is for peace in this life and eternal life in the life to come.* I suppose what I*m getting at is, talk*s cheap. Elder Neal A. Maxwell once said, *Deeds, not words * and becoming, not describing * are dominant in true discipleship.* I came out here on a mission expecting things to work out and I have been blessed that certain things have worked out, but I now realize that the best missionary work is accomplished through example. Sorry for draggin* on but I love you guys. I pray for you and I know you are amazing individuals. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that He directs the affairs of His church. Catch ya off the reel * Elder Crandall

Elder Garrett Jones

Hey everybody greetings from the Bronx, NY! Things are going well here for me, we're working hard and the getting blessings from the Lord. The Bronx is different than anywhere else I've ever been. There is always something strange and new going on and the people here are surprisingly very friendly. It is surprising how many Spanish speakers there are, it seems like everybody is from Mexico, El Salvador, or the good 'ol Dominican Republic. We have been blessed by the Lord in that we've been able to witness Fernando progress towards his baptism this past Sunday. We're way excited for him especially because of all the opposition he's faced. Grant I think I definitely had you beat in that last letter for the shortest entry, and it looks like I might make it again. I hope all is well for all of you around the world, especially those who just got out in the field. The Lord loves us all and this is his work. Garrett

Elder Logan Wells

Well let me see, life here in Puerto Rico is great I am still here in Rio Piedras. The work is going good. I am just working really hard. I am still biking and walking. We recently got another Elder, so I am in a three some now. Elder Lloyd is from California and is 26 years old. Funny to think he is the same age as my Sister, and she has 3 kids. He is real cool, and looks like he is 21. I recently hit my 6th month mark and burned a tie and as it was burning the curtains caught on fire then my bed and before you know it our whole house was up in flames, and everyone was running around yelling policia policia. Ha Ha not really. I have seen some crazy things in this past four months here and well I am really just so grateful for all that I have and for all the opportunities that I have in this life. I am Thank-ful for the Gospel,family and you my friends! Peace, Logan

Elder Daniel Anderson

Hello Everyone!I*M IN STOCKTON! It*s so crazy here, I hear gunshots and sirens all day and all night long*I am in the middle of the hood*it*s kinda scary. But it*s all good, the Lord is with us. We have to be back in our rooms at 9:15. My apartment is cool, it isn*t too crappy looking. I live with two English Elders and they are ok. My trainer*s name is Elder Thorsen, he is from Dallas, Texas, and he is an amazing missionary. Everyone has said that the Stockton area has sucked it up lately and they put him here to start making things happen. He is really dedicated and he is teaching me a lot. He was in the last group of Hmong elders that came to Sacramento and he has been out for 18 MONTHS! Me and Elder Lee are the first Hmong elders that came to Sacramento from the MTC in over a year! It*s crazy, all the Hmong elders are getting ready to leave, so in six months I will be training*not good*. The language is really tough and I am trying to understand things better but*it*s like everything they taught me in the MTC was all wrong. Almost everyone I have met here speaks Green Hmong and they taught us White Hmong in the MTC, so that doesn*t help. I got my new Hmong name, I*m Tsim Meej Vaj now! My last name in English is tight it*s VANG! Anyway, it means to create clarity or vision. My mission president is probably one of the smartest men I have ever met. He used to be a Seventy! He has a photographic memory and can quote the scriptures like I have never seen before! He knows so much, and he is so nice. His wife is tight too, and he has a 24-year-old son that has Down Syndrome. He reminds me of my nephew Thomas, he is so cute. I will have a car my whole mission but Saturday we rode bikes*it was awful, I*m getting so FAT! It was fun because you talk to a lot of different people but there was this thing in the road I couldn*t see and I ate it pretty good*I know I*m clumsy but hey I figured I should get it out of my system early!!! We are assigned to one branch, but we have 8 missionaries there (4 Cambodian Elders). A Laosian member in our branch just died so that was sad and one of our Hmong members just found out she has lung and liver cancer*it*s really sad because she already had her arm amputated because of bone cancer. We have a super tight investigator right now, named De. She is crazy into the church and we will probably baptize her next Sunday. It*s pretty sad about President Hinckley but it*s okay, the Church is still true and we will continue to press forward. I have to go, I love you all, be good! Daniel

Elder Kellan Brady

Hello to all,

I know you have told me you enjoy me sharing my missionary experiences. About a week ago I was on exchanges with an Elder from the zone. We were in our area trying to find the most effective thing to do.
As we were driving I felt that we should turn around and tract a particular street called Winding Hill. This felt a bit odd because tracting is the least effective thing to do in this area. Sometimes I doubt, but this time I didnt. After we tracted the entire street I felt it was a fruitless event. We were told by most of the people that Mitt Romney is a nice man, but they were not interested in our precious message. Except for one man that told us to come back some time. We came back a week later and met with Alimo and his wife Tanchi. After our first appointment, they ask us to come back the next day. We taught them a powerful 1st lesson. They were both at church on Sunday. It is so special to me how quick you can love someone like you were related to them. I love them soo much. They both are so kind and nice to us. All of their family is from Californa, and they consider us as their own boys. The other day they said that they wrote a letter to you.
Now I could go on and tell you about how golden they are; but I will share a story that will state that. Alimo had a dream on Saturday night of a lady that had a problem with her electrical system in her home. She was trying to figure out what was wrong and she began to be depressed. She said a prayer hoping that someone would help her with her home. Randomly, her Mormon member neighbor dropped over and helped fix the problem.

Now when Alimo went to sacrament meeting, a woman told the same story of the very thing that Alimo had dreamed. It is so neat to see how God will answer prayers in different ways. Alimo, and his wife will make great members. In fact, we happen to find them precisely when they are starting a Spanish Branch here in Black Mountain.

Speaking of the Spanish Branch, I went on exchanges with one of the Spanish Elders from our zone. As we were driving out of one of the neighborhoods I saw a van going in the opposite direction from us. I felt we should follow them. Now keep in mind that we are on the lookout to find Spanish people for the branch. The people passing were Spanish looking. I normally will never follow someone. In fact, I have never followed someone home; because most people would be creeped out. Even I would be for crying out loud. Anyway, we did follow them home and we invited them to church. Yet, another soul was being prepared. The lady and her kids that we followed home were discussing just the other day how they needed to find a church. The whole family will be at church this weekend. As awkward and unnatural as it was, I am greatful the spirit led us to them.
I got my final Missionary packet today. It contains all the info about my mission I will ever need. I am grateful for it, but at the same time I don't want to open it; knowing that it represents an ending to my sweet mission.
I love this work! I love My mission! I love all of you!!!
Until Next Time ELDER K.P. BRADY

January News

Elder Brock Smith
Hawaii Honolulu Mission, March 2007 - March 2009

Peace Out! Mahalo Ka Ko! Elder B Smith your M town Rep. Holla >

Elder Jeff Stoker

Hey Elders,
HAPPY HOLIDAYS. So I am finally in Russia. How crazy is that you may ask….let me tell you. CRAZY. Yesterday, Christmas Day, was -30 degrees. If that isn’t coat weather, then I don’t know what is. Every time I go outside, my nose hair freezes, which is an extremely weird sensation. But I really do love it here. Russia is completely unlike anything else I have ever seen. The people are probably the weirdest people on earth. A lot of them look like walking mummies, because they have smoked and drank so so so so much throughout their lives. They all have gold or silver teeth (if they even have teeth). I think they hire Russians to be in the rap music videos. haha. They have some nice grills. Anyways, I don’t really have a lot of time, and I wish I could write a lot more, but I am going to have to be very vague and completely random in this letter, so please forgive me. The food here is both good and bad. Their ice cream is to die for, and the juice is incredible, but their milk tastes like something just went terribly wrong with that cow. Russian music is hilarious. It is kind of like Mexican music, but imagine Mexican music with techno instead of banjos and what not. All of the Younger generation of Russians usually listen to American music. And kids will always come up to us and ask us to translate music. And pretty much they all worship 50 cent here. They mostly like American Rap. I have heard Akon’s new 17 hits, since I’ve been in Russia. It is way hilarious. Which reminds me, they also love Crazy Frog. I love it so much. I drop on the floor and just laugh everytime I hear it. Well I just wanted to say I love you all, and keep up the good work. Ill do better next month. Or at least ill try.
Love,
Elder Stoker

Elder Max Crandall

The mission has been a wonderful adventure and a life changing experience. I’ve been out for about four months now and I love every minute of it! Right now, I’m serving in the Mount Vernon 1st Ward in Mount Vernon, Washington, which is about 45 minutes from the Canadian border. The ward here is very diverse and it’s been so awesome to work with such diverse and wonderful people. My companion, Elder Jensen, and I have had amazing success here in Mount Vernon, but the work is far from over. Elder Jensen is a district leader in our zone, so he and I have many opportunities to work with other missionaries around our area. We are pretty lucky because we are in the most beautiful part of Washington, in my opinion. The stake we serve in covers all of Skagit County and seven islands in the San Juan Island counties. It really is an amazing area. What’s even more amazing is the amount of success our mission is experiencing. It seems as though more and more people are accepting the gospel and making the commitment to be baptized each day! The main reason for this success is because the members and missionaries are working together to double the convert baptisms as the prophet has counseled. It is so cool to see how the Lord has prepared so many people for the message of the Restoration. On my mission, I have had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends. I am already dreading the day when my mission is over. Although one day I will just be a regular person again, I hope I never lose this sense of urgency I feel for missionary work. I absolutely know how important this work is and I know that it is the Lord’s work. About two months ago, my old companion and I had the opportunity to teach a gal named Jessica Delafuente. At the time, we also tried to teach the rest of her family but they were uninterested. A couple weeks later, Jessica had the opportunity to be baptized and her family was very supportive and attended the baptism. The spirit at Jessica’s baptism was so strong that the rest of her family told us that they wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. It’s amazing to see this message touch the lives of others as well as my own. I love being a member and a missionary of this church. I love this because I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ that spring day in the grove of trees. I know that God restored His church to the earth and brought about the Book of Mormon through His prophet, Joseph Smith. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and enjoy this holiday season.

Love Always,
Elder Max Crandall

Elder Gary Chambers

Hey You all! Wow quite a bit has happened this week… ok… here i go. So I had thought that i lost my wallet but it was in my back pack! Who knew… So i gladly put it in my back pocket, just befote we took off to our New Kid meeting that Thursday morning… Well we were a lil bit early, so we stopped off at a flee market kind of place to buy some super cheap ties (2 for a dollar mas o menos) What a deal! Well… this flee market is super busy and people are bumping into each other all over the place… so my comp (just before we dove into the crowd) warned me of thieves and to be careful… so as a security measure, i buttoned my back pockets… Well as we’re bustling through the crowd, i kept feeling fingers poking my butt… at first i didn’t think anything of it, but after about the 6th poke the realization hit me “wait a second… I’m not at the Stokers right now! This shouldn’t be happening!” So i reach back to check my pocket and my wallet was still there, but the guy managed to undo my button! It was a close call, so the rest of the time I walked with my hand of my left check… it worked out pretty well from there on out! Ok next story… My comp and i had a meeting with a reference we got that was like 2 or 3 miles out! It was a long walk down a stretch of well traveled road… so my comp (being experienced) pulled the hitch-hiker trick and flags us down a ride about a mile into the travel after being denied several times… Well we pretty much got fired on (they weren’t there) so my comp was a lil bit angry to start with, cause we traveled all that for nothing. Then he started getting really upset when everyone kept driving past his extended thumb while shaking there head. I thought it was kind of funny, but decided it was time to start helping out. So i told him “All right… i’ll use my beautiful face and get us a ride”… Just saying that to be stupid… So i turn around and stick up my thumb and the first car stopped! Hahahaha it was so funny! I just busted up laughing while he was shaking his head in disbelief hahaha that was awesome… So New Years day comes around and a member invited us to this thing he was going to do New Years morning (1/1/08) at like 6:30 called like some kind of stair climb with upwards of 400 steps... We had to start the new year by doing something cool, so of course we said yes. So that morning we took a hike down to where the stairs were at and after seizing it up, thought i could run up them... haha we all thought we could run it...... wow we were wrong, i got a pretty funny video of how pathetic I am hahaha... i tried to send it but it was too big. Anyways, it was WAY harder than it looked, and was a pretty cool challenge. Well, that's it for this week!Love, Elder Chambers

Elder Mike Kleinman

Happy New Year from Argentina ! We went to the new mission home to celebrate on Dec. 20th, this is were we received all our packages ! Yeah. We also went to a big festival in central, where they celebrated San Nicholas (Saint Nicholas aka Santa Clause) but here, he is really a Saint ! the apostasy & ignorance never ceases to amaze me.Thank you to all who sent me such wonderful goodies.The candies are delicious, since the Argentine's version of candies are halls cough drops. Ugh..Well after much partying, movies, fiesta's we are all back to work. We have had several baptisms since I was transferred Dec. 12th.I am in La Rioja. The mother of the family is going to get married soon, and then we will be able to baptize her too.My new area is the poorest area of my mission, but has the friendliest and most humble people you'll ever meet. I am constantly speaking Spanish, since my new companion is from Chile. He's great. Missionary life has been rewarding, I love it down here. Well I hope all the rest of you guy's had a great Christmas. It was good to talk to the family. Till next time my brothers. The church is true. Ciao, Elder Kleinman

Elder Daniel Anderson

Hey everybody!

I hope all of you had a MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas day was really cool. Elder L. Tom Perry came and spoke to us in the morning. His talk was really good. I got to shake his hand and I was wearing a new scarf that my family sent me for Christmas. Elder Perry asked me where I was from. I told him AZ and he just laughed and said only someone from there would be wearing a scarf and then he flipped it over my shoulder, it was pretty funny. Christmas was overall, really fun and relaxing, yet spiritual at the same time. I have so much food now, it’s disgusting….I have gained 25 pounds!

So tomorrow is the BIG DAY! A lot of the language missionaries in our branch are leaving today or have already left the MTC. Only us Hmong and one Cambodian going to Sac-town are left. It’s kinda sad but I’m excited to go. We had a departure devotional on Sunday and that’s when it really hit me that we are leaving so soon! Yesterday in class we talked about all of the Hmong culture and it was so crazy! I loved learning about it though. They are really animistic (They believe there are spirits all around us that cause good and bad things to happen) and we talked about the Shaman’s and the different rituals and ceremonies they do at different times, it’s going to be so different with them, but I can’t wait, I love them so much already! The Hmong people really have a lot of Truth in the things they believe, it just isn’t all the truth that we have in the gospel, it is so exciting to be able to go and teach them what we know. In class the other day we all had to tell stories and then if we were listening we had to translate what we heard into English. This is what I understood:

“I with a time was. When I was talking to myself I said, “I that how many that.” When I obtained and went to somewhere I a bird was close to me.” That was all I understood. It was awful! I’M GOING TO DIE THE FIRST FEW DAYS IN THE FIELD!! No, I will be alright, the Lord will be with me!

The church is true, Jesus is the Savior of the world. God lives and loves each of you, and it is only through Jesus Christ that we can find true happiness. Stay strong, the Lord is with you. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Love, Elder Daniel Anderson

Elder Grant Huish

hey friends, i hope things are going well for everyone. as for me i am still in a tiny little town with 1600 people, a ton of rain, and 9 places to buy beer and not one to buy bread.... YAY.... well as for the missionary work it is frustrating but hey what can you do? i have learned that as a missionary the power to backhand some people would be very effective, but thats mean so we cant do it... other than that things are going well up in Rainier, we have had alot of snow which is cool though we dont really get the chance to play in it. i hope everybody enjoyed there christmas and new years, i do believe it was the first away from home for most of us, well those of us who are away from home. in case you were wondering, yes i am just writing alot to make it longer because mine is always like the shortest in the whole newsletter, well except for maybe chase's. but hey chase yours better be long this time. oh and congrats my friend, i am ever so proud of you. well thats all for now.
elder grant huish gc

Elder Scott Ball

Hey All,
So this year is going to be great. Everything is going good here in Genova and I'm seeing miracles that couldn't be explained without mentioning God. We discovered a less-active and his brother (non-member) while waiting at a bus stop and we are going to be setting up a baptisimal date probably next week. They have had work every sunday until this last sunday, so they have been able to come to church. It is so great to see them work together and learn the gospel more fully. I've been able to understand Italian pretty much easy now..... now I have to work on speaking it well. Also, I'm learning to speak spanish here also. Alot of south americans come here and live here, I don't know why.. but they do. I can understand when they speak spanish, but I can only speak Italian, which they don't understand, this is why I'm learning spanish.
Christmas and New Years was great and we really had a fun time. We have eaten so much over the past week that I've gotten sick. I think I'm pretty much over it right now, but it stinks and I really want to go and talk to people now after sitting in the apartment for a while. We had to stay in for New Years and go home at like 10 p.m. because we got permission from the presidente. There ARE still so many drunks on the streets from New Years. We didn't go out after New Year's day because we had to do a super cleaning on the apartment which took the whole day, but I think Presidente made us do it becuase there isn't much talking to do with drunk people that day. It pretty cold here, but not snowing.
Short letter, but don't have much time, got to get back to work.
Ciao Ciao,
Anziano Ball

Elder Logan Wells

Hello my Brothers!

Okay well I am in my third transfer and have gotten transferred to an area that is in San Juan and is called Rio Piedras. It*s pretty crazy. I had my first baptism a couple of weeks ago. Well I have been transferred to an area that is all biking and up hill. It*s hard at times. Well my new companion is from the Dominican Republic and does not speak any English. So I am forced to speak Spanish all the time. Which I don*t mind because it helps me learn a lot faster. Time is going by so fast, I can*t believe it. I am in a Ward right now I am part of the San Juan Stake and we have about 70 to 80 people in church every week. So that is pretty sweet. The ward is awesome I love being in a Ward because the people know how a church needs to be ran and in the other little branches we definitely have to help the branch keep going. The building is about half a mile away from our apt. So Daniel you*re finally out of the MTC the real work is starting to begin. The weather is definitely crazy it*s still really hot and humid and its always raining they said we are out of the rainy season but it rains here everyday. It is cool, and I am really loving this place. So crazy how we are all over the world now, to think that a year ago we were just boys getting thru school and thinking about our missions and where we would go? Well love you all and have a great month. PEACE Logan

Elder Garrett Jones

Hey everybody, Well guess what? The unthinkable happened...I got transfered! My zone leaders got a call and told me Monday night that I was going to get transfered today but I had no idea where to. I didn't think there was any way it would happen this cycle but it did. I'm now writing you from the far side of the Bronx from where I was bedore. We're in the area Olmstead and my companion is Elder Doermann, one of the Elders that was with me in the MTC! We're way excited to get down to work with each other and build the kindgom but it will be trying to be with someone my own age and of my own language abilities. From what I've heard the Bronx is a really fun and interesting place to work and be. Sorry this is so short but with transfer meeting and unpacking and everything there isn't much time to write.

Love you all, Garrett

Chase Judd

HEY EVERYONE, This has been an exciting month for me. I had an awesome Christmas but 3 days after i got my mission call. I leave april 2nd to go serve the lord in the Mexico Veracruz mission. So i am really really really excited!! ok oh and im speaking French and maybe some spanish. Your Brother, Chase

Elder Kellan Brady

President Wadsworth ordered 150 UNLV-BYU game tickets and was wondering if anyone would benefit from going to the game. If anyone would be willing to drive up here, and would like to get into the game for free then let me Know ASAP. The game will be this Sat @ 5:00 pm. Speaking of President Wadsworth, we had interviews with him a few days ago. He said someting that was very special to me. In my interview he told me many wonderful things, some of which I can not tell you now. Yet I will say that he said that he really loves and respects you as parents. When he said this I thought, How would he know my parents because he has never met them. After I thought that he said "I dont need to meet your parents to know that they are great people, because I have already met them through you". He even told me to tell you, ''Thankyou for being such great Parents''. This weekend Lexi Wells, and Mike Vapper will be baptised. Lexi has been a very good example to her mom. We hope to even bring Teri Wells (Lexi's mom) into the church soon. Mike has come such a long way. I am not sure if I told you about him, but just in case I didn't, I will inform you again. Mike used to be a part of a huge gang from New York. He began to feel very badly about what he was involved with. He made the difficult and dangerous decision to turn his life around and turn in a bunch of the gang members to the police; and even himself. After he served his time, he came to Las Vegas to get away from the old gang that was trying to kill him. It was here that his heart was further softened. Mike has been going through the life changing repentance process. He is now really excited to be baptised. It is soo neat to see the Lord change his people. I sent home a lot of return address stamps home about a week ago. Please use them so they don't go to waste. I love my mission, and this time of year! I look forward to the call home on Christmas!!!
Until Then Peace and Love ELDER K.P.BRADY

December News

Elder Logan Wells, Puerto Rico San Juan East Mission
July 2007 - July 2009

From Elder Logan Wells

Hey there my amigos! So i am just chillen here in Puerto Rico. No not really it is actually still in the 90s in the day and well far from cold. As for a cold christmas that is only a dream for the next two years. I know we live in Az but there is still some kind of temperature change. But what to say other than the fact that the work is true and that there is nothing more important than just getting out there and doing it.Well I am in my second transferI am still in my greenie area and the work is progressing. My companion and I opened this area and there is no doubt we can see the benefit of our work. We are having two baptsims this month. One is a lady that is 59 who a few years ago was the town drunk but the moral of the story she changed her life around and has been searching for the truth and well yeah she knows that she has found it. Pretty cool. So what really goes down here is that you walk around and people are blaring there regatone on speakers on top of there cars. Seriously. Oh yeah Max I drive an 2008 corolla, navy blue baby. We actually just got it and was a blessing. Well yeah Iam doing great. The work is work and we all know this.I Love you all and have a great Christmas. Peace Elder Wells

From Elder Mike Kleinman

Hey everyone! I hope all is going great for you guys! The work here in the C*rdoba mission and really taken off! We are seeing a whole bunch of baptisms and church growth, I give it another six months and we*ll have a temple here ya! Christmas is coming up soon, and I hear that here its more like the 4th of July rather than our kind of christmas. They still do have christmas trees though so thats good. My companion*s name is Elder Wilkins, he only has 1 transfer left in his mission and he*s in complete denial. Poor guy. His biggest fear now is the fact that he will soon be live bait for all those crazy BYU missionary-hunting girls. I would be too. On a brighter note, we are having a mission conference this month and I think Elder Scott is going to speak, which would be great, but nothing is for sure right now. For Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we get to go caroling which should be interesting ha! And at night we are allowed to stay up till 1 AM and watch movies yay! I*m sorry if I haven*t written you all individually, but you all know how lazy I am. I hope all is going well with everybody! See you next month! -Elder Kleinman

Elder Garrett Jones
Hope everything is well and you all had a great Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving for us was one of the best days of the mission so far for me. I think the holiday had a lot of people thinking about their families and their lives and what it all means, because it was a glorious day for the work here. Since the beginning of my mission I hadn't spoken so much straight spanish without really any break, I would finish teaching one guy, and then turn around and start teaching the lady behind me. We did it for about 2 and a half hours. Our thanksgiving dinner was slightly different from others I have had, but I am sure the whole mission thing explains that well enough. The Lord blessed us this past week when I baptised Gilbert Rodriguez, who we have been working with for a while now. This Sunday my companion is going to give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was such a cool experience for me to actually be in the water performing a saving ordinance for someone. The spirit there was so strong. He told me afterwards that he felt like "shouting joy and happiness," I love that kid. Well another cycle has gone by and I am still in my same area with my companion. Spanish for me is really starting t come along now. Being with a native companion has helped me out a ton and I feel like psople can understand me, and I them, much better now. Hope all is well with you all and know that I love and miss you. Elder Jones

From Lorin Hendricks


Hello, Greetings from Provo, the big news is that it snowed four inches this weekend. it was amazing! It is very cold up here, but you don't spend much time outside right before finals so it doesn't matter. I don't have a huge amount of time, because I have to go to class in a moment, so forgive the small blurb.Finals are in three weeks and i have to say that Iam fairly nervous. the final in math is 49% of my overall grade. that is crazy. I will be spending the next little while studying and not much else. oh well, finals will be done soon. I will see you all soon (unless you on a mission) Lorin

From Elder Max Crandall
What*s up guys and gals? Things are great in Mt. Vee. I*ve been through my first transfer and it*s been kind of weird so far. I heard that the last mission president ruled by fear with an iron fist. He strived for efficiency and ran the mission like a machine. President Showalter is pretty much the exact opposite. He is concerned with feelings and retention. Don*t get me wrong, both things are good but no one is scared of him. Missionaries think they can just slack off. It is kind of frustrating but I guess all you can do is do your best among the retards. Elder Rammell and I have been working really hard. We baptized a gal named Jessica. She*s 16 years old and she has a one year old daughter. Eesh. She*s really cool though and she*s been really receptive. We had also been trying to teach her family. They didn*t want to learn but they were very supportive of Jessica and came to her baptism. The baptism was so powerful and the Spirit was so strong that now her mom, sister and two brothers are getting baptized! It*s been so neat to teach them. It*s amazing how much of a difference the Spirit can make. It*s amazing to me, being out here, to see how important family is. I talk to poor and even poorer people all day long and the ones who rarely complain about their situation are those who have family surrounding them. I definitely took my family for granted before my mission but I*ll try never to do it again. Thanksgiving! This way cool family from second ward offered to feed us. We hung out and played with their kids until 3pm and then we ate. There was tons of food and it was scrumptious. I also had Mountain Dew. Delisioso! I*ve been thinking about how Valley View Ward was butchered and passed out like tasty little cocktail weenies. Valley View Ward was like a well-oiled machine so changes back home must be to open more and new opportunities to perfect the saints and build the kingdom. I*ve come to realize that when life seems to be spinning out of control, the best thing to do is rely on the Lord. He knows what will best help us grow and become more like Him. We*ll stay strong and build up Valley View again. We will again have our glory days! For the Motherward!! (Jeff, I miss ya man). Like Daniel says, my mind is like diamonds. *Elder Crandall*

From Elder Gary Chambers

Hola! I guess those in AZ are getting that cool weather right about now... ... yeah there is no change in weather here, unless it got hotter or something. I wasn't expecting anything cool though, so i guess i'm ok. It's a good thing i lived in arizona, now all i have to do is get used to having your shirt stick to your back all the time. Well nothing is EXTREMLY new here... we just got the rest of the latinos last week so testing our spanish on them has been... an experience. They usually understand us, it's when they try to talk back that there tends to be problems. Lots from the DR so their spanish is Rapido, love the challenge. We've been told not to teach them english, cause they want to learn it, and if it gets carried away, everyone will be speaking english with each other, and nobody learns spanish. Doesn't help any when the gringos hit the field. Solomente espanol... We just got back from our service project at the University! 45 minutes of trash-loving missionaries scoopin up junk... we had some people call us over to them, and they were asking us questions like... "why are you picking up trash??" and "who are you?" haha i stopped at first to think for a sec... i didn't know why we were doing it, so i just said "Porque no?" Haha i wish i know enough spanish to tell him more, but that seemed to suffice. We taught at that same university last Tuesday, and i realized something about this place... In America, if a complete stranger of a different faith came up to you and just started blabbering about his church at you, you'd probably just ignore him and find ways to get away. But we nearly always get people who actually listen and ask us questions (uh oh!) about our message, it's really cool... the people are way too nice, it seems unreal.. Well I love it here! wouldn't have it any other way, can't wait to pull a Jeffler and get out into the field, only 1 week left and i'm out of the CCM! Well i'm down to a minute now, so i guess i should wrap it up, I love you All and i hope that things continue to go smoothly for you! the Gospel is true and i love to teach more than i thought... (who knew?) Adios! Love, Elder Chambers

From Elder Scott Ball

Buon Giorno!Everything is going great here in Genova. We have such strong members in the ward. Funny thing is alot of them are return missionaries that speak English, they are Italians that served a mission. My English is getting very bad, its a symptom of every missionary here. I'm learning Italian really well, the key is to focus. I finally got sick of not understanding the people and just focus and prayed for the gift of tongues and it came. I am able to communicate and understand. Not communicate so well, but I do understand. I'm not really homesick.. it is nicer here than Arizona. I don't know what it is in Fahrenheit, but in Celsius it is about 10-15*. I just got the November newsletter because it was sent to my mission office, but that is cool. Wow, its so great to hear that Alex got back, it just seems like he left. Its kinda hard to get a written letter off sometimes, because it costs about 2 dollars here.. the euro is so much more than the dollar. I live in Genova with my companion and the zone leaders. Its a pretty pimp apartment. Well, I don't have a nice car or anything, but I have metro, bus, and my own feet. We don't have a dryer here, but the washing machine is really nice. We do have hot water! Anyways, I just wanted to wish everyone a Buon Natale! Merry Christmas for you English missionaries. Mike.. "Tu sei brutto"! il stesso a "You are ugly"! Ci vediamo fino un altro giorno!Scott

From Elder Brock Smith
Whats up M_town Crackers,How was everyone's Thanksgiving? I am Thankful to be out serving a mission right now,seeing the change in peoples lives is great rather they are coming out to church again and wanting to live better lives or having the gospel for the first time it is amazing to see the change take place. I pray everyone stays true to the church and what we have all been taught. The ways of this world don't bring happiness I have discovered it and found many investigators who have as well. Our Heavenly Father asks very little compared to the rewards that we receive. We are asked to go to church one day a week and the blessing we receive for tiring our best, well we get so much more than we can ever give. The other day I met an investigator who quit his job so that he could come to church with his family. He was the only support as far as a job went 7 children, and yet he had faith that the Lord would provide if he did his part. Soon after he found a higher paying job that gave him sundays off. It was so amazing to see the power of this mans faith. I was reading an article by James E, Faust the one in the conference issues b4 he died I thought that was interesting that it was on the power to change our lives for the better, That is what we need to do is constantly change our lives to be more like the Savior. I know that I want to hear well done my good and faithful servant there is a mansion prepared for you and your family, you shall have everlasting glory, now that will be sweet. I know that I want to see My Dad . I know that this church is true, and if we simply follow the prophet we can live with Our heavenly Father and our families forever, now that will be Heaven. This Life is a test. And as My Mom says an open book test, we can get all the help we need. We need to prove to ourselves that we can be true at all times. WE ALL WANT A"s. Anything but the Celestial kingdom would be ---- well you know would not be where we want to be. I hope and pray that we will live the gospel more fully this next year starting with today. Let us all model our lives after the Savior. Have a very Merry Christmas and a very great new year.... Elder Brocky Smith

From Elder Kellan Brady
Hello to all...The other day I was thinking of all the many special places I have been able to serve in the Nevada Las Vegas Mission. I have been in the ghetto of ghettos(Christy Meadows, Civic center) The rural of rural(Elko,Wells,Wikeiup,Peach Springs)The cold of cold(Elko...on bike)The hot of hot two summers in a row in (Vegas)The Meth cap of the world(Golden Valley)The epitomy of 3rd world country (Supai), and of course now the rich of rich(Green Valley,Legacy area). I am so greatful that the Lord has trusted me to serve in such wierd, crazy, and yet such neat, and beautiful places. I have met soooo many differant,unique, and yet loving, and caring people. Well, I know that this is not even close to being my final testimony, because I still have so much to do. Yet I will say that my mission so far has been so full of memories that I cant even remember what it was like before my mission.There is no room to boast, but our Zone is on track to break the highest baptizing record in the history of the Zone. Green Valley has never broke over 15 baptisms. As of now we have 25 set, and actuals. We must thank the Lord for our many blessings. For I am on the winning team, as Julee says it best. Peace and Love! ELDER K.P.BRADY

From Elder Jeff Stoker

So I leave the MTC tommorrow. Anyways, as you can expect, things are way hectic for me right now. I just found out i was only allowed 44lbs total on the flight in Russia. If you go over you have to pay mega $ to get on, but oh well. I got to bring my make-up case, because we all know that this doesnt come natural. Anyways, This thanksgiving was AMAZING! Elder Holland came and spoke to us, and it was probably the best talk i have ever heard. The Food wasnt that bad too. I think that when i leave here, i am going to miss the food. It is great to be able to choose what you want, and how much you want of it. So the just replaced the Scale here, and i realized i have gained like 5-10 pounds! hah. I am such a Fatty. I am almost as fat as Daniel now. I have so much going through my head right now, i have no idea what to say. Ill just start spitting things out at random. Ill start by telling you all my favorite joke. How can you tell how old a Dinosaur is????? Go to its birthday party! hahah. Wow. I have been here at the MTC for way too long. And my Russian still sucks. I also found out that it is like -10 in Moscow right now. So I am probably just going to freeze to death. I cant wait to get there and get my shopka (the Fuzzy hat thingy) and my Courtka ( the gi-normous furry coat) I am going to try to get ones made out of Some exotic animal. I think that would be sweet. And i also want a whole bunch of Lenin things. I am so so so so excited to leave here though. It is a kinda of a love-hate relationship that i have with the MTC. I am sure most of you know what i am talking about. But i have to go now. I have a whole bunch of packing to do. Have a great month, and Stay out of trouble. I think President Hinckley ways it the best, "Dont do anything stupid." Well i hope to have some amazing experiences to share with you next month. I love you all (or at least most of you)! hah Love, Elder Stoker

From Elder Grant Huish

Hey everybody,Things are going good out here in Oregon. I*m basically in the smallest town ever, there isn*t even a grocery store, well there is but it is a grocery liquidator which basically means that it is expired food*.other than that it is freezing up here and it rains a whole lot as can be expected from Oregon*The people are way nice, but they are all already saved I guess*.sounds like things are going good for most of us which is good*.hope you are all enjoying whatever it is that you are up to*s later.Elder Huish GC

From Daniel Anderson

Hello Everyone! Nyob zoo kuv tsev neeg!
So it’s Thanksgiving already, it’s so crazy! It was probably one of the best days I have had at the MTC! We had a morning devotional and Jeffrey R. Holland was the speaker! He talked about how we are so blessed to be missionaries and how we need to give the Lord everything we have. He expressed how much he, the Prophet, the twelve apostles and the Lord love us. He also said how sad he was when his sons were gone at Thanksgiving for their missions and that our families would miss us! We had our feast at 12:30 which wasn’t near as good as Mom’s or Grandma’s. We had a fireside in the afternoon from the Director of Humanitarianism. It was crazy to see how much the church does around the world. Then that night we did a service project building 10,000 first aid kits. It’s hard to believe that I am halfway done here at the MTC. I got to talk to Jeff a lot on Sunday but it stinks because he leaves TOMORROW! Sunday night we had to say goodbye…again…it was exciting but kinda sad because I’m a lone wolf now. My companion, Elder Khamsa, (he’s learning Laotian) leaves on Wednesday December 5th. I will then be put with the other two missionaries who are learning Hmong, Elder Lee and Elder Jones. Yesterday was another all Hmong day and it was really hard, it’s so tough not getting frustrated with each other and it just sucked but it was good at the same time. There are 8 tones in Hmong and they are really hard to get, but reading out loud from the Phau ntawv Maumoos (Book of Mormon) really helps you learn and practice them. I think of all of you often and hope that everything is going well. Love, Elder Daniel Anderson

From Chase Judd

Hi.. I am still at my house just doing nothing. I start work tomorrow so that will keep me busy until I go on my mission. I hang out with my family all the time now they have become my best friends. So i wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, Chase

November News

Elder Max Crandall Washington, Everett Mission September 2007 - 2009




Elder Max Crandall


Hola! Bienvenido a la carte de Elder Crandall! I'm basically chillin like a polar bear. It's about 50 to 60 degrees here during the day. We*ve been working extremely hard which, I guess, is the point of missionary work. Every day we tract for about an hour and then we spend the rest of our day with appointments. We drive a sick 2004 tan Corolla. It's the illest to say the least. Members feed us every night. They have a calendar and sign up but recently they lost the calendar. We were bitter toward the Relief Society for a while they didn't even Relief, but we told the Carreon's about our situation and Sister Carreon cried. The Carreon's don't speak much English but own a awesome Mexican restaurant in town. They told us to come to La Casita anytime we want and eat for free! It's dang good and I'm gaining weight and, yes, I know I'm incredibly blessed! There is so much work to be done, all we have to do is ask the Lord to help us recognize it. I love you guys.

Elder Crandall



From Elder Mike Kleinman



Hey everyone!Everything is going great here in Cordoba, Argentina still. I have a new companion now named Elder Wilkins from Payson, UT. Hes a great guy and a total movie freak so we get along just fine. He ends his mission in two months though so hes what we call a little "trunky." But still, the work is going great down here and I love it more everyday. Although it is now humid like no other down here now, and it really takes a toll on you afterr a while hah. I also forgot to tell you that I can cook like a total champ now! I can make the best beef steak and ravioli you've ever tasted! This mission is wonderful and I'm extremely grateful to be able to serve my Lord here in San Fran. I would also like to give my salutations to Former Elder Alex Clark by saying: "Tu es muerte?" Wow. That really hurt saying that now, its just so wrong! Anyway, I'm also really glad to hear that Jimmy got his call to NY, NY. I know that is going to be awesome. Well, I hope all is going well with you guys! Sorry I haven't really written any letters to you all individually, they keep you pretty busy here, even on your Pdays. But I'll try to be better! Remember to always put your trust in the Lord and "...He shall direct thy paths." (Prov. 3:6)
*Cia*!Elder Kleinman



From Elder Grant Huish



Hey everybody,I*ve seen a whole lot of you up here at the MTC. It*s been pretty cool though not the most exciting time in my life. I can*t wait to get out in the field. I already got my flight plans so that*s pretty exciting. I leave here on the 7th of November. The best thing to do at the MTC is go to the RC. You*ll find out what that is when you get here, if you don*t already know. Well my friends good luck to you all. Have fun with whatever you are up to right now.

Elder Grant Huish

From Elder Jeff Stoker

Dear Elders, So I am still here at the good old MTC. Trying to study hard, because I know that in less than a month I will be thrown into Russia. But things are going pretty good here. Most if not all of you know what it is like here, and I really don*t have anything new to tell you about it. Except the fact that Dan Gary and Grant are now here with me. But anyways, things are going good here, and I can*t wait to get into the field. So it seems like all the exciting stuff is going on back home. VALLEY VIEW IS SPLIT! I am sure all of you know this, but I just wanted to let you all know that I am glad to be on a mission right now. Hah. But anyways, I just read a letter from home that was pretty exciting. My sister Teresa had Beck Stoker on Last Thursday, so I am so excited about that. And also My Sister-in-law Amber is expecting a kid now, and she is about 2 months along. How crazy is that. And to top all of that off Annie L backed up into the Honda FKR! Ha-ha (Annie if you read this, I love you! hah) so that is pretty much all that is going on with me. I wish that I could say that next newsletter I send will be exciting, but I'll still be here in the MTC until the 28th of November. And I think next month I will have to tell you some funny words in Russian. Like the one Garrett showed me before I got here about the word "choir". And if you don*t understand it, don*t worry next letter it will make sense. But I got to go run and do my laundry. (I never thought that would ever come out of my mouth)! Love you all, and I look forward to reading what*s been going on with all of you. Thank you! Have a great month. Love, Elder Stoker

From Elder Garrett Jones

Well I hope all is well at home, it has been another month full of a lot of hard work. I want to tell you something that happened a couple of days before my first transfer meeting a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely loved my first companion, but the thing was he didn't really teach me a whole lot about being a missionary. We just went out and worked and I tried to pick up what I could as we went along. So when I found out I was going to be getting a new companion, I started praying for one who could really teach me how to teach well, how to contact well, and how to be a better missionary. Wow was I blessed! Elder Castellanos (fluent in Spanish, and from Lindsay & Southern, in Mesa!) has taught me more in the last couple weeks than I think I learned in my entire first cycle. I am pretty sure I have learned how to do better in about every thing we do. When we go out we normally try to street contact for a full hour, then tract for a full hour, and then go on to our appointments for the night in between which we street contact. I am starting to get pretty confident during street contacting in my Spanish, even though some of the time I don't understand what they are saying back to me. I just pretend to understand everything, try to answer basically what I think they said, and then go on with teaching them about the Restored Gospel. It*s pretty glorious really. Well, I want you all to know how much I love and miss you. Love, Elder Jones

From Elder Logan Wells

Things were good this past month. Many things happened. Time is flying by so fast, I hit my 3 1/2 month mark, insane. I really cannot believe it. Oh as for the praying I have never prayed so hard in my life and felt so close to my savior.I finally got to drive a car. Can you believe I haven*t driven in over 3 months? It felt so good to drive. I went on a trade off where I went to another area and I was with Elder Opurto, who is from Aruba. He doesn*t have a drivers license, so could not drive. My license is still good, it was so great to drive again. I loved it. Well all is well and things are starting to work out and I am so happy to share this message with the people of Puerto Rico they definitely need it. Last week I went on a trade off with our Zone Leader, Elder Powers. Well they are on a island called Vieques, it took about 1 * hours to get there by boat. I gave my first blessing in Spanish, it was awesome to feel the spirit guide me as I gave it. We had lots of visits to do, and did many things for the members there. After we were done we went to the church building, let me tell you there were HUGE spiders on the wall. They scared me, I wanted to scream and run, and it was so funny because I did exactly that* I screamed and ran. But it was fun. I love hearing from everyone, it makes me not miss home so much. Hey, Chase..when we going to hear from you? Until next month. Peace, Elder Wells

From Elder Scott Ball

Everything is going great here in Italy! I'm serving in Genoa in my first city and the people are so nice here. Its right by the ocean, so we get that nice wind here. American food stinks compared to Italian food. The pizza is sooo good here. Anyways, I have to write my mission president right now, just letting everyone know that I got here safe. Oh, for everyone in the MTC, try to speak your language as much as you can, because I kinda regret not speaking more. I understand everything they say, but I can't properly comunicate back. Anyways, I'm sure it will get easier, I've only been here 6 days. Arividerci, Anziano Ball

From Elder Gary Chambers

Hola Elder y Hermanos!I am feeling pretty awesome here at the Provo MTC. I am sure you all know what I mean...unless of course you don't. Esta bien...So the spanish is pretty much my first language now except for not really. I am pickin up on it pretty fast though, and my companion really helps me speak it (he's a better speaker of spanish than I am..) It's pretty awesome here and I love it! Some news however... I previously assumed I'd be spending all 8 weeks here in the Provo MTC, but my assumptions were wrong. I am going to be shipped to the Dominican Republic CCM on Nov. 1st, and get my remaining training there. How crazy is that? I have seen everyone here at the MTC. I saw Jeff soon after I got here and have seen him repeadly afterwards... We love each other... Don't we Jeff? I saw Grant the day he got here, I have also saw Daniel, so now I have seen them all and can rest in peace. Scotty Ball left me last week, and didn't even say "Good-Bye. This brought me to tears. Oh wait... One more thing before I go, OK, so yesterday was P-Day for me and I learned a lil trick about e-mailing, you're typical "everyone was doing it" situation that I unfortunately decided to take part in. Well lo and behold, my first time doing it, and I get caught by "Big Brother", and he warns me not abuse the program or else I'd lose emailing privileges. Yeah, I'm the only one who got caught, and I am terrified that they were going to make a example of me. Well I was lucky enough to get off with a warning, but the moral of the story is ... DON'T DO ANYTHING YOU WOULDN'T NORMALLY DO! or as Pres. Hinckley puts it... "Don't do anyting stupid!", Ha Ha I love that guy.... Well until next time, Adios.

Sincerely, Elder Chambers



From Elder Brock Smith



What up my Crackas! Pretty crazy the stake split and all that jazz went but it don't really matter for us really. Its awesome to hear all the MTC stories from you guys brings back some sweet memories. I can't believe that its coming up on being one year ago time flies boys so take advantage of it from the beginning and don*t take 7 and a half months to start giving it your all like I did go out there and give em He... aven. What a great work this is it cool to be out in the mission field right now the work is booming and so many are being brought to a knowledge of the truth its amazing how the Lords Hand is truly involved in this work. This week I gained an even stronger testimony that the Lord watches out for us as my hand got slammed by a heavy farm gate that just one month age broke a farmers leg in three places and he*s not expected to ever recover if we are doing the Lord will protect us even from are own stupidity. Also I don*t know how often you get to go to the Temple but since I've been off island I haven*t been since April and next week we get to go I*m so excited I've never been so excited to go to the temple the Lord is teaching me to not take advantage of the Temple being so close and I promise that I never will. It sounds like Max has a sweet comp as well as Garret and all are having a good time. Mike gets to eat what he wants and not gain a pound while I*m trying as hard as I can to lose any weight. But things are going good here looking forward to hearing from you all. By the way Elder Scotts scripture about the food at the MTC was perfect so anyone who is still waiting to enter get ready. And man Elder Stoker if you think that Provo is cold man Russia will kill you at least that*s what one of are Russian investigators tells us so have fun. I love you all and hearing about all your greenie excitement keeps me going keep it coming.! Peace and May the Force Be with You always! Elder Brocky Smith



From Elder Daniel Anderson



Hey everyone! So I'm finally in the mission field as some of you already know,It is so awesome to finally be in the MTC! On my first day I went in with Grant and I have seen him more than anyone else but I saw Scott but I think he left this past week. My first day I had two companions and we are the ONLY 3 SPEAKING HMONG!! Unfortunately after I got to know my companions a little bit they gave me a new companion*his name is Elder Khamsa and he is the only missionary learning Laosian in the MTC so he is all alone*and what do you know they put me with him haha! He is so funny and is a really great guy, I like him a lot. He has been here for 6 weeks already so he is showing me the ropes. Since we don't speak the same language we don*t really understand each other when we pray but we can feel the spirit, and most of the day I am on exchanges with the other two companions that speak Hmong. So pretty much I have two companionships. The first night I ran into Jeff ,it was so exciting,I was practically running to give him a BIG HUG! It was good to see him and, Becky, I gave him another hug just for you haha! It is amazing to see how the Lord has blessed me with learning the language; it is coming so fast!! I can already pray and bear my testimony in Hmong. It's pretty tough to get used to but I love it here. My teachers are great and I really like my district. Oh yeah, Chase, I ran into Patrick the other day and it was really good to see him. We talked for awhile but I haven*t seen him since. The first night in the MTC they asked who could play the piano and about 12 of us raised our hands but for some reason they keep asking me to play the special musical numbers and I had to play in priesthood last Sunday. I hope everything is going well in Mesa. I heard that they split our stake and completely shredded our ward into three different pieces,that is really sad but its okay, it will change again soon. Until next time I hope you all are doing well. I miss you and love you all! Elder Anderson (My MTC Hmong name is Elder Tub Keej which means talented boy or smart boy or skilled boy, whichever you like the most)



From Alex Clark (just returned from Panama, Panama City Mission)


Hey ya all!
Hope all goes well! I have been home a little more than a week and it's really scary. We just had a ward splitting and stuff. So when I spoke I had to speak two times. I didn't recognize most of the people. It is nice to be home for some nice things like carpet, hot water with pressure, and home cooked meals, but nothing can take place of that wonderful feeling of preaching the gospel. It is nice to be home but like I said, it was wonderful to be preaching. I will share a few sayings that I really like the first goes as follows: "you can count the seeds in an apple but you can*t count the apples in a seed." as missionaries we prepare the field, plant seeds, and harvest the fruit. We don*t decide what part we do. But we need to remember that we don*t know where they will grow. So we need to plant as many seeds as we can whenever and where ever. The second saying is as follows: "you have two years to do it, and an eternity to think about it. Be obedient!" Well that one is pretty self explanatory. Obedience is key to a missionary's success. And one of my favorite chapters of preach my gospel talks about giving an accounting before the lord of all of the opportunities he has given us. That scares me still. Well take advantage of the short time you have in the mission field. Learn as much as possible and talk with everyone. Be safe, be happy, and remember to avoid the food that talks back. Alex the Clark signing in and then out.

FROM Lorin Hendricks

Hi, This is Lorin, reporting in from BYU. I have been having all sorts of fun up here (and I mean all sorts). Midterms are fun (hahaha). I had two on Tuesday alone. I can also honestly say that I AM SICK AND TIRED OF READING TEXTBOOKS! I can't really complain though, I have been having some fun and I get to do a lot of stuff in my classes other that study. I got to visit the campus machine shop then make some stuff on the lathe and milling machine.In my bio class I got trained to take blood pressure (among other things) and I then got a field trip to St. George and volunteer at the senior games there. I took allot of people's blood pressure and even though it sounds boring I had a lot of fun.Even with all the tests I have been taking I have been doing pretty well. I have managed to somehow keep my average test scores above the B range into the B+ and A- range. On a sad note, my computer died a month ago and is being repaired right now and so I am using the library's computers to write this and every thing else. It wouldn't be so bad, but I have an 8 page paper due in two weeks. As you can imagine I will clock a lot of hours in the library. I would write about the awesome stuff in Provo, but without a car I have left campus twice in the last two months.I have to say that I am really enjoying BYU. Everyone is very nice,and (besides the high marriage rate the class schedule) everything is so laid back. I the one thing I wish I could change am that there are four things to do here. Eat, sleep, study and socialize. There is time for two, maybe three. To do anything else requires taking time off of the rest. With classes the way they are I end up not eating, sleeping, or socializing very much. I would write more but it is almost midnight and they kick us out of the library at midnight and I still have a lot of studying to go if I want to go to sleep tonight. See you all late (possibly this Christmas, unless you are on a mission in which case I won't see you for a long time) Lorin (I just realized that I might not see all of you because I am now in the Avalon ward when I get back to Mesa. in which case we will have to keep using the newsletter)

From Chase Judd
Well Ihave decided to join a group of pirates since all of my friends are gone so sorry Ihave not been writing. I have learned many great things since being alone for over 3 weeks now, such as, mastering the art of Halo 3, becoming best friends with my Broher, and destroying everyone at Rook. I know these may seem kind of odd but its my life now and im getting used to it. I start my mission papers this sunday so I am very excited about that. Well its a saturday night and i didn't get to carve a pumpkin on halloween so im going to go do that now i love and miss you all! GG GB.