February 2009 News

Elder Garrett Jones
New York, New York North Mission
July 2007 - 2009

Well well, I'm with you Mike, I can't believe this is already around to me again. So, things here in the Bronx are going really well for us. Elder Steele(who was in the MTC with me and who is one of my good buddies here on themission) and I are having a blast working in one of my favorite areas of the mission. The Lord has truly been blessing us with people to visit and teach and we are having a bunch of fun doing so. Our members are especially amazing since I think we have some of the best cooks from every hispanic country you can think of. I'm loving the Papusa's, the Mangu, the Ceviche, the Arepa's, the Mole, and of course lots and lots of rice, beans, and tortillas. Some of you spanish speaking guys might know what I mean when I say that hispanics make the best food hands down. I'm actually going to need to start cutting back, denying people food (I hope no old Dominican lady kills me for denying her Bandera), and getting more cardio excercise in or you all might get to see a fatty Jones.Anyways I'm loving life as a missionary of the one true church on the face of the planet. The work really is going well and we're seeing miracles as we put forth our effort all throughout the day and pray for the Lord to put people in our path. Right now we're working with a young, sweet Mexican family that love us coming over and love what we teach them. They're feasting on the Book of Mormon (scripture pun intended) and know that they want what's best for their daughter. The only problem is he works on Sundays which has been the killer for them. I hope you all don't have to deal with that as much as we do here in NY because trying to figure out how you can help solid people that have to work on Sundays progress is enough to make you start crying during weekly planning and your nightly prayers. Anyways I guess you just keep going right? Anyways things are good for us. I'm still waiting to be able to train somebody and get my posterity going, I'm so jelous every time I hear about one of you getting to train cause its the only thing I've wanted to do my whole mission and I haven't done it yet. Anyways I hope you all have fun and keep working hard. Time justkeeps going faster and faster and I hope we can all make good use of it while its here. Till next month, Garrett

Elder Jeff Stoker

Howdy fellas,
I guess ill start off by giving a quick update. I am still in the same city, Saratov (which makes 11 months), and i am loving it. I seem to know about everyone in the city now. Things are going great here. Freezing, but great. We get to experience the great sensation of nose hairs and eye lashes freezing when we walk outside. Looking back at this last month has been crazy. It seems like yesterday we celebrated New Years (Sleeping=best celebration). Some events stick out in my mind, and i would like to share some with you. The other day i talked with a man, and he told us very good news. He informed us that he had killed satan and 70% of the dark powers. He also added if we join him, then we should be able to eliminate the last 30%. Great news huh? Anyways, i was able to go on a weird exchange this month too. I spent a week in Samara with the Zone Leaders. It was wierd being in such a large city that i didnt know. The day i returned, i had to jump on a train headed to Kazakhstan to renew my visa. We got stopped at the border, and he went through my bag. He even flipped through the scriptures. The guard made it all the way to Alma before he gave up and let us go. We decided that it would be really wierd to run into 4 american teens dress up in formal clothes trying to cross into kazakhstan. Oh well, the trip was a success and i made it back with a new visa. The work is going great. It seems like we get blessed way more than we deserve. I am grateful to be able to serve the Lord. I love you all, and thank you for your examples. Big thanks to all the Mom's out there who support us, We all appreciate it. Well, i gotta get ready for another new month. Shall we not go on in such great a cause? Have a great month!
Elder Jeffery Stoker

Elder Grant Huish

Hey everybody,
Well, it's P-day again. It is weird to think how fast every weeks seems to go by. Things have been going really well up here lately. We saw a little snow the other day but for the most part it has just been very cold and dry. The work is moving along quite nicely. We have set 2 baptismal dates in the last 2 days. One of them is a girl, Libby, who is super excited about the gospel. The other is a girl, named Kristina, who we have met with a lot in the past and now that her friend is getting baptized she wants to. We are going to have to make sure she is serious about this before she gets baptized. We have also been teaching quite a few lessons lately, which is always fun; It sure beats tracting. We are seeing a lot of success which is no doubt due to the Lords help. We are kind of having people fall into our laps. I almost feel like I'm one of those lame missionaries who serves in South America. Just kidding, but stateside missionaries are the best. I'm sure you can all agree with that. Love, Elder Grant Huish

Elder Jimmy Miller

Hey Fellas!! Its been such a good start to the year. Besides the fact that I'm freezing to death. This past month it's been a little difficult to find people. Seeing as it was winter break for all the Universities and we're in the singles ward. Not even our members have been here. The day after Christmas we had to combine with the family ward and ended up with only like 3 people from our ward. Anyway, so it was a little rough for a bit but miracles happen. Sunday during church i was kind of bummed because and investigator we invited didn't come. So it was sad all of church. Then as we were walking out of Elders quorum a brother from the ward came up to us and said 'hey there's someone who wants to meet you.' He introduced to this guy who had walked in at the end of church and wanted to be taught what we believe in. It was amazing! We sat down with him and quickly found out he was in our area and age group! We had an awesome lesson and commited him to baptism right then and he accepted! We met with him again last night and he told us he was amazed himself that he was so calm in our lesson because normally is very angry and aggressive when he talks about religion. The Lord really has answered our prayers! Last week I was transfered to Kingsbridge in the Bronx. I am still a DL although now only Elders no more Sisters. Oh and I serving with ZL Elder Jones! He's the man. It will be a awesome cycle. Thanks to all of you for you you're nifty stories. Until next time. Live Happy. Live Well. LiveStrong. LOVE, ELDER MILLER

Elder Gary Chambers

Hey, Its that time again! Congrats to Elder Jonesie, I love you man... Baptize those Dominicans that I can't reach! Well, this month is quite the countdown month, not only for Mr. Elder Brock Smith, but also for my comp who is going home the 4th of February. Don't worry, hasn't had the smallest effect on me, it was the phone call home for Christmas that made me trunkie. Other then that all is the same over here. I am just now slowly learning how to work well with my comp... its just too bad it took all this time to figure it out. If I had to give a small bit of advice to anyone who has or will have a companion that they find hard to get along with... this would be it, "DO NOT let the little things he does that bother you blind you from seeing the good things he does. The faster you can figure out how to find and enjoy the good things that your comp can offer, the better of a companionship you will have and the better of a missionary you will be." I know that's pretty cliche advice, but it was a hard lesson learned for me. I love you Elders (that means "Guys" in Mormon) and hope that this newsletter finds you working harder than ever... there's not much time left. I know this Church is true and that we are blessed to be apart of it... also Air Conditioning is a blessing. K love you bye.
Love, Elder Chambers

Anziano Scott Ball

Ciao missionaries friends,
I'm still in Modena. It is raining alot since there is this hurricane by Spain and France. The last week it has been cold, but slowly slowly it is warming up. I'm still in bike and I just learned yesterday that I'm getting a new companion from Tucson, Arizona. I'm happy that I'm able to get someone else than those utards. Modena is a blessed city and I'm glad to be here. We are going to set up some baptismal dates with a few investigators this week. It will be good practice for this new kid that I'm getting. I'm feeling sad that time is flying so fast. I was counting how many transfers I had a few days ago and I scared myself. I don't have much to say other than that. I love you guys and I'm glad that we can see success even in Italy.
Anziano Ball

Elder Max Crandall

Hola Brethren – And so it goes. I’ve been transferred again. My mom says it’s kind of like “Where’s Waldo.” I guess I’ve been called worse things. I’m now serving as a zone leader in the Redland zone. It covers all of Redmond and Kirkland. I’m in a three-pack with two other zone leaders, Elder Hughes and Elder Flake. I’ve never served here before and it’s basically Richie Rich meets Bill Gates down here. We live in a way nice apartment here in Kirkland. Very hosh posh. However, it’s basically built for two people. I have zero room and I don’t have a bed. So I’ve been sleeping on the couch. What’s hilarious is that I’ve been dragging it into the bedroom every night and then dragging it out into the living room every morning. Maybe it’ll help me work off the ol’ lbs. We have a pretty good zone, complete with a lot of my pals. It’s weird being in a three-pack. It’s kind of nice because we can lend one of us out for exchanges and still work in our area, but it is all pretty nuts. We’re having a blast and trying really hard to get the work going in our area. Hughes and Flake baptized a lot of their teaching pool last transfer so we’ve got to find new people to teach. It’s a little difficult down here with the prideful Microsoft rich employees. Rich folks think they don’t need God but I know we can do it. I hope Christmas and New Years were great for y’all. Christmas time is basically an excuse for everyone to say they’re too busy to listen to us. Our mission president asked us to write two letters; one on Christmas Eve and one on New Year’s Eve. The letters were supposed to be about Christ-like attributes we would like to develop and goals we would like to set and achieve. It was actually pretty cool. We’ve kind of been having a rough time getting our ****** to come to church. We’ve been trying to come up with ways to provide extra incentive to go. It’s kind of difficult because the Spanish ward meets about 20 miles away. Getting ****** to go up the street with you is difficult enough, let alone talking them into a 20 minute car ride. So with one family, we’ve been bribing them with dancing. Apparently this family loves nothing more than watching goofy white dudes in suits dance to Rihanna and other such crap. It’s been kind of fun though. We keep raising the stakes too. “If you come to all three hours today, we’ll dance for four songs AND we’ll bring two other missionaries to dance with us.” I think we need to raise the requirements though because only one of them came this last week and we were still obligated to dance for four songs with extra missionaries. It’s like making a deal with the devil; you’ve got to cover every angle and say things like, the WHOLE family needs to come to three hours of church if we’re gonna do the shimmy. Tricksy ******. In summation, I am doing well and I am very happy serving the Lord. It blows my mind that He’d allow me to do this. I know that He lives and that He is our Savior. I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that the church that was restored through him is led today by another prophet of God. I am so thankful to the Lord for the great abundance of blessings I have received. God’s speed gentlemen, God’s speed.

–Elder Crandall

Elder Brock Smith (Welcome Home, January 30th, 2009!)

Howzit my M_town peeps! Well Im a dead man walking Im kickin up the dasies as in on fri morning Ill be home and it seems very surreal I still cant grasp the fact that ill actually be home it kinda hit yesterday when my ward sung aloha oe to me but even I still cant fathom te fact that Im done it doesnt seem like that long ago that I got out here and now Im pau Hana. I really cant beleive so to all yall trust me the day that you finish will creep up on you like a thief in the night so do all you can and take advantage of every moment cuz soon youll be done and you dont want to have a list of things that you should have done in the yesterdays that have past and have no tomm to do anything its the best feeling to look back with no regrets knowing that you have served with all your might mind and strength. Well I love you all not much else to say I fell as if im in a dream world its really a crazy indescribable feeling I cant believe it it such a catch 22 type thing many tears of both joy and sadness will be shed by me this week so basically ill be balling like a baby. So know all yallgat work even harder cuz now I cant anymore you gotta suckerpunch satan and keep serving with all you heart might mind and strength Iesu Pu and May the force be with you always B Sexy B Smooth B Smith

Elder Dallas Rowley

Hey!
Doing well, verrry short on time but these are some words that will sum up my las few months; Progressing investigator with baptism date, miracles, bike, snow, ankle sprain, murder (don't worry, not me or my companion), study, awesome. I hope to have more detail next time so you can all see how awesome Ohio is! Stay safe and successful. Love Elder Rowley

Elder Logan Wells

Well let me see Bretheren,

Alot has happened.. I am so excited to be a part of the work, this past week I have really began to realize what I can do on this mission, its lame that it has taken me this long but hey better late than never is what they say right? This past week we had our zone conference which was way awesome by the way. President gave us this little talk about paradigms it really struck me truthfully what he was talking about like they are some are good and some are bad. We missionaries really seem to have alot, well what it is all about is the fact that as missionaries there are alot of things that we do that we don't really know why we do them, we were taught that way and so we just do it that way and never really question why. Well one of the things that he talked to us about was setting dates well yeah he wants us to do it on the first lesson, well at firstI was like wait are you crazy? They have to come to church first they have to read the book of mormon, they have to pray and the list goes on. Well he explained to us that some cases yes but not all of them, they want us to do it on the first lesson. So as me and my companion really took it into heart what he was saying alot made sense and so we took the challenge and well in four days we set 8 baptsimal dates, which I have never done my entire mission. So yeah we did it, and really changed our attitudes and we told the Lord we were willing to do what it takes to truly find these people and that if he put them in our paths we would be his instruments. I realized alot of things I am not the greatest teacher and neither is my companion but when it came to it, I was able to say yeah I am not the best but make me what you can and I asked and I really had that desire and the Lord granted it unto me never have I seen so many prayers answered as I had this past week its so insane! Well now for the bad news, yes we are in transfers and so I got a call I am leaving, soI have to leave all that I have done and go on, its hard but that is the misison right? I am leaving my paradise of Tortola and going back to the island of Puerto Rico. The news, is that I ama moving Elder and so the big 15 passenger van is now my responsibility! I am not sure how this is going to work because I have to start driving it the moment I get back and that is gonna be a little interesting considering for the past 6 months I have been on the left side of the road... and now its back to the right side, not really sure how this is gonna all play out, but we shall see, the scary part is that I have to take our Mission President to places such as the airport and stuff like that. Well the Lord will have to help me for sure. The other day I was saying that I have kind of flown under the radar the whole mission to the senior couple here. Then the next thing bam moving Elder, bam District Leader, way to much for me, I fear that I will want my days of normalness back in about two days from now! The mission has taken a turn and there is no turning back! Well I love and miss you all! Love, Logan

Elder Mike Kleinman

Well, I got transferred finally! I am now in the most southern part of Cordoba city in a neighborhood called Libertador. Its a fairly small area. Unfortunately it is also the most dangerous haha! This should be fun! Anyway, all is well nothing has happened for a while here...I think. My new companion is named Elder Camacho from paraguay, but looks like a total american white guy heh. He is super new in the mission with only 3 months so itll be fun being with a greenie. Anyway, I hear that Brock is home now playing guitar hero with Daniel. Crazy guys, I'll be seeing you soon in 4 months. For the rest of my fellow Elders take care. Give it all you got, it's the only 2 years we have to give. I am loving it. chau chau

Elder Kleinman

Elder Blake Smith

Wow, this month went by really fast. Really, really fast. We worked hard this last week because it is Elder Macias last week in the mission. He leaves for home on Thursday. I got sick this week ran a high fever, but now I am back to 100%. I would rather be out working than here in our apartment. Yes there are sister missionaries in our mission and they are missionary machines. They really get things done. We will be having tranfers this week, I am pretty sure I will stay here in Bermejo, and will have a new comp. I have learned so much from having a native companion. We bore our testimonies in church and I wasn't stumbling over words like before. Having Elder Macias has been a huge blessing. On Saturday we had a baptism. We were filling up the font, and I said "esta aqua es para limpiar el pezcado. My companion looked at me funny. And then I realized I said "this water is for cleaning fish" I ment to say "esta aqua es para limpiar pecado" This water is for cleaning sin. Every one thought is was funny. I was able to baptize him, and it was a very nice experience. We have two more baptisms next week.

Every thing is great here and we love the work.
Elder Blake Smith

Elder Jordan Shill

hello family and friends!!wow, i cant believe i am in italy!!! it is so awesome, i love it here!! i am in verona, Italy!! how cool is that! what a week, what a week.... where to start... well i guess i'll start with getting stuck in frankfurt, that was no fun... we were there for like 7 or 8 hours because the flight crew went on strike until noon.... yeah they had a time schedule for their strike posted! i guess thats pretty common here, welcome to Europe! haha it was a long day, but we finally got there all safe and sound. we met president Dunaway and his wife, they are AMAZING, and went to the mission home in opera, where they continued to drag us around so we wouldn’t fall asleep with the jet lag haha we were SO tired! we met the assistants, went over some rules, ate dinner and went to the hotel, where i slept like a rock until our alarm went off... we got ready and went to the church where i got my new companion, Anziano Aillon (like eye-on) who is AMAZING! he’s so awesome, we have an awesome time together. so after that we got on the train to VERONA (the most beautiful city ever) and i dropped off my bags and went to work!! so yeah we have a bunch of investigators, and they are awesome!!! we have 2 baptismal dates later this month, and hopefully one early next month we'll have to see... i am absolutely LOVING verona, it is the most beautiful place ever!!! love the people, the buildings, everything is awesome!! We’re going to go take pictures later today of all the sites in Centro (central verona) which was built in like the 1500s, yeah its AWESOME! i feel so blessed to be a missionary right now.... we get the chance to testify of Jesus Christ every day, and bear witness that there is a prophet on the earth today. how amazing is that? i am so lucky to be here, it is helping me learn so much more than i ever thought it would. yeah, times get hard, but that just means something better is just around the corner. i love being a missionary!!the weekly study this week is in alma ch. 22.... this is about alma the younger and his conversion. this really made me think about how it can apply to us, how we need to be truly "converted" even though we are already members. i love this story...well, all is well in verona, the sun is out and its beautiful today! thank you for all your love and support, you all are amazing! have a great day, remember that heavenly father is there to help you always, with anything big or small...

arrivaderci!!

Anziano Jordan :)

January 2009 News

Elder Mike Kleinman

Argentina Cordoba Mission

June 2007 - 2009

Hey everyone!

Well, well.

An old bones like me in the spotlight again heh.
Christmas here is pretty different in that its just the fourth of july with pressents. No trees, no Christmas lights, just a whole lot of explosions! Whats cool about down here is that they dont have firework restrictions, so you can go buy those professional sized ones like in the states for nothing. New years was even cooler. We live in a tower in some apartments so at midnight, we went up to the roof and we could see the entire city of cordoba. When it struck 12 the entire city went into a brilliant flash of fireworks and booms. It was waaay cool! We almost got hit a few time by incoming rockets or flares from large fireworks, it was intense! So now we are in 2009 and I can't really grasp that fact yet; its crazy! The work is going at a strong pace here and everyone is really excited for the temple anouncement. I got a ton of good stuff for christmas, including 6 Mug Rootbeers!!! I know for all ya states kids thats like "pfft" but those are worth more than gold or small children here!!! Totally reminded me of times at Max's house snatchin' a mug from the fridge o' plenty. Oh man, good times. Just so ya know Max, when you get back you will probably just find me in your basement already with like 20 cans of that stuff playin' on your comp. teehee. Well I hope you all enjoyed your New years and Christmas!! Until next month!

ttyl bff Elder Kleinman

Elder Max Crandall

Hey Hey Hey Gentlemen, What’s goin’ on? Seems like forever since I last wrote. Changes abound. I had one transfer of no worries. It was kind of like a mini vacation. I didn’t have to worry about Spanish, work in other areas, other missionaries, numbers, responsibility in general or basically anything except where I stood with the Lord. It was great to have minimal responsibility and to be able to sleep well at night knowing everything was fine. My focus was just good ‘ol missionary work in my native tongue. Blink my eyes and I’m back speaking Spanish, senior comp to a greenie, and DL. Well, it keeps me humble and I learn more when I have more responsibility. Pres. sent me back to Monroe. I served here a while back so serious Déjà vu. Same apartment, same city, different companion. My new companion’s name is Elder Prudent – as in “wise and…” He’s from Idaho Falls, ID. He’s a country boy for sure. We all got to go to the temple on December 11th. We went for our Christmas conference. For last year’s Christmas conference, each zone gave another zone a gift and the zone leaders opened it in front of everyone. Our zone got Putt Putt Poop; an indoor putting green for the john. Classic. For the rest of my stay in Mt. Vernon I tried to poop at the ZL’s every time I could. This year we couldn’t meet together as a full mission like we did last year. Apparently that’s banned now. Pres. Showalter begged our area authority to let us all be together just for a mission picture but nothin’ doin’. Things are good work-wise. We are working with a lot of Hispanic families – mostly flakey investigators but that’s Spanish work for ‘ya. Needless to say, there is never a lack of entertainment. We have been teaching a couple named Sergio and Blanca. They had a baby a couple of months ago. Sergio really wants to get baptized. Only problem is he is married to a different gal down in Mexico! Sheeesh. We’re trying to work that out and after Sergio gets divorced and remarried to Blanca, things will be great and they’ll both get baptized. Wacky. The weather has been ridikalus. It rains a lot here but we were snowed in for P-day. That’s crazy for Washington. When it snows we are not allowed to drive so we’re trapped. The Monroe 2 elders came over so we were all trapped together. We realized how bored we were so we worked up enough courage to venture forth into the extremely wet, icy, wet, did I say wet, snow. It was insane. We didn’t have boots or gloves or any Stoker-like snow paraphernalia. We carried the groceries home and the gallon of milk froze to my hand. Muy loco. It was great to hear the family’s voices on Christmas. I hope you all had a great phone call too. It was the best gift ever. I know this gospel is true and it is the only way to be truly happy in this life and the next. I love tellin’ people that. Keep up the good fight. --Elder Crandall

Elder Garrett Jones

Hello everybody! Happy New Years! Its so crazy to me that we're actually already here in 2009. That number still seems very large and far away to me for some reason but I guess I just need to settle down and take it. Things are going great for me here in NY. The weather is getting cold especially since I've been transfered to work once again in the Bronx and no longer have a car to heat up in. I'm sure you Elders that aren't serving in the DR or PR can relate to the pain of trying to decide how much clothes you want to have on for the rest of the day and almost always wishing you had more or less. For those of you who can't consider yourselves blessed. Being in the Bronx again is pretty crazy for me but its been a blast, especially since I'm on the complete opposite side that I was on last time and therefore get to see a different view on things. Its crazy how many Dominicans there are here compared to my last area which was mostly Mexicans, Guatemalans, and Peruvians. Its funny though because my companion Elder Steele (who I was actually in the MTC with) came from upstate as well and so we both like to visit and to teach all the people who aren't from the DR. I love Dominicans (Don't get me wrong Gary), but its very hard to beat Peruvian food and I love how Mexicans talk. Salvadori ans are pretty sweet too.
Anyways things are great and I'm loving life here in service of our Lord and God. One quick story and then I'm out. Ok, so we went to an area recently that we normally don't go visit because its a bit farther than we like to walk. We went to this place because of a former investigator from about 4 years ago that we found in an old area book that was collecting dust in our room. We looked the guy up and met Danni, a 30 year old Dominican who loves the church and has been occasionally reading his BoM ever since the Elders gave to him 4 years ago.
He said that he loved it when the missionaries came over but that at the time he was really busy with work and just couldn't keep visiting with them during the week and coming to church on Sundays. Well now his work has calmed down and he no longer works on Sundays and so he wants to start coming back and learning again. We've met with him a couple of times since then and when we started to talk about getting baptised he told us how much he wanted to be baptised before and said he was ready to make the step. He's a really cool guy that we can totally see was prepared by the Lord and then put in our path. He'll be baptised in February after he is taught all the lessons again. I love you all a ton, keep working in this the single greatest work ever=2 0and I know the Lord will bless us with miracles.
much love,
Garrett

Anziano Scott Ball's Mom

Hello from Anziano Ball’s Mom,
Scott has been very busy and asked me to send something in for the newsletter. We were able to talk over the Christmas holidays and it is so amazing how much he has grown. He is still in Modena and loving it. Every Wednesday Scott arrives at the library in Modena to email me. I finally figured out what time he arrives which is about 3 am in Arizona so I get up at that time early Wednesday morning and email him and sure enough he is online so we email back and forth for about one and a half hours . . . yawn. They will have to transfer him for me to get any sleep on Tuesday nights. Anyway, here is a short message I copied from one of Scott’s emails.
“This week has been going fine in regards to missionary work. We went to Zone Conference in Mestre and had a Christmas Meeting which we shared talked about the Savior and sang songs. It was a nice time. After that we had a nice Sunday with the members in the church here in Modena. There weren't that many people, it seems that many of them have gone on vacation. We are teaching a Zimbabwe family about the gospel right now. The husband has a baptismal date for January 10th and we think that it might change because we want to baptize the whole family at once. Riding around in bike is very cold! I bought gloves and a scarf because it has been soo cold. The humidity is horrible, but other than that, it is a beautiful city.”
My family is truly blessed because of the efforts of Scott. I am so grateful for the gospel and how it blesses our lives.
Ciao, Scott’s Mom

Elder Grant Huish

Hello Friends,
How are you doing in our various locations throughout the earth? I am doing just splendid here in Oregon City, OR. We have had alot of snow lately which was cool, except for the fact that it meant that we had to walk everywhere. my shoes arent made for walking in snow. i numerous times, it was not pleasant. I guess it has helped me to gain an appreciation for the automobile though. Ehh.. i probably just lazy im sure some of you have to talk everywhere, that sucks. Well it is crazy to think that almost all of us will go home this year, WEIRD. I still feel like i just got here sometimes. Missionary work is the best. Don't you just love it. So here is a wonderful story that just happened a little while ago.....we had an investigator named ezra who told us 3 weeks ago he wanted to come to church, but then church was canceled, then it was canceled again and then finally he comes to church. he brings his girlfriend along as well. we were pretty excited when we saw him and also that a member of the stake presidency and his wife were going to speak. well turns out the stake presidency member was sick so he sent his daughter to take his place. so first the youth speaker speaks and its good. then the daughter speaks and its pretty fantastic so things seem to be going well, then the wife gets up to speak and talks for like 20 mintues about her dad and how he died and how much she loves him and doesnt relate it one bit to the gospel. she told countless stories and just stood up there and cried the whole time. so afer about 18 minutes or so she says that she has another story and our investigator and his girlfriend just got up and left cause they were so sick of her. luckily they still want to meet with us but no im scared to bring them back to church just in case it sucks again. hopefully we can help him build a strong enough testimony that it won't matter. Well my dear friends i wish you all the very best. love ya elder huish

Elder Gary Chambers

How was your Christmas? Haha that's almost my favorite question to answer... Mine was really good, mostly because I was able to have a gamers debate on how Xbox 360 is better than PS3 (that one's for you Jeffy poo)...... That member knows quite a bit about his game systems, but I totally knocked him out of the contest with statistics and facts... domination I like to call it. Anyways, enough about that, lets talk more about things more people can relate too... like how badly I had to go poop last Sunday night... it all began with the salsa....... (screen fading to strokes of a harp) Due to a companion inter change, I found myself walking around in the Zone Leaders area, my temporary companion at my side... we had just finished a contacted lesson, and it was nearly time to end the comp inter change... "I need to withdraw money from the ATM for lunch" spoke up my comp. "No" I responded... "Really?" came the confused response. "No, I was kidding, you can use the ATM" said I with a sheepish smile spreading over my face. "Oh, ok, thanks man... uh, I mean Elder" "You bet hot dog." Before too long we were in a huge "Wal-Mart-like" store called JUMBO! hahaha... anyways, as my comp finished using the ATM within, we decided to get a couple of things. As we weaved through the isles, we came by the vegetable and fruit section and something caught my eye! I immediately stopped and spun around to be sure I wasn't seeing things... But sure enough... there it was! A damaged apple amongst undamaged appples, I couldn't believe the negligence... but I allowed myself to forget it and we continued on. A few moments later, the voice of my companion came from behind... "Huh... that's a first..." "What, what happened?" "Oh nothing... I just saw a package of fresh Jalopenos back there..." "Huh... wierd........ Wait, WHAT?!?!" I darted past him retracing my steps scanning the vegetable shelves until my eyes fell upon the word "Jalopenos." I froze... then unfroze and bought that package of jalopenos for dirt cheap (yess...). With those very Jalopenos I have made several successful batches of salsa and have been spreading the flavor through the neighborhood. People find this salsa very intrigueing, and I thoroughly enjoy the looks on their face after they try it... when the impact of jalopeno hits and burns their taste buds! Muahaha, they always come back for more though, they must like the abuse... just like me :) I am slowly but surely spreading the good news of Mexican Salsa throughout the DR, but due to my pride, I changed out the word "Mexican" and put "Chambers"... :) People like it, and due to all the batches I've made, I've been eating alot of salsa myself. Well, I know the basic laws... like what goes up, must come down... what goes over, must come under (theory check?) ... and what goes in, must come out... but I love salsa so much that it was hard for me to gadge myself well, and the impact of all the salsa seemed to charge up inside me and pick one moment to hit me all at the same time... this time was Sunday night during the dedication of a couples house whom we recently baptized. Needless to say I was in dire need of a bathroom during the prayer, and refused to use their bathroom afterwards, due to the gouronteed smell that would fill the newly dedicated house. My comp seemed to notice something was wrong with me by all the strange faces I was making, trying to surpress the amazing power within. He came over and asked if I was ok, to which i rapidly responded with, "YO VOY A EXPLOTAR" as an urgent whisper in his ear. Fortuneately, that has the same meaning in spanish as it does in English, and we bolted to the house. Once the bathroom door closed behind me, I..... well, you get the idea. While sitting there, I came up with another poop song! Yay... I would write it in here, but it's not the same as if you hear it, so you'll all have to wait till I get home... :) Other then that, I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!
Love, Elder Chambers

Elder Logan Wells

Well newsletter time again? huh well yeah this is the year boys ,that we go home, its kind of crazy to think about that our time is coming up on us so fast well yeah, Daniel I cant wait to hang when we get home seriously, well don't get married before we get back okay. Well yeah anyway all is so well here I am still here on my little 13 mile island and enjoying my nice little summer, haha yeah still got the 80s and to tell the truth I don't miss the cold weather at all and yeah I feel sorry for anyone that is in it. Well yeah its all good though i have seen so much success in the people here on this island they are definately way to nice to us and i love them way to much if that is possible. well YEah the mission is going great christmas was crazy we got fed 4 meals and definately all of the weight that I had lost is coming back don't thnk that is a good thng well I guess its time for new years resolution. Goal one loose weight, definately on the priority list haha well yeah all is going well here I do belive that Grant you owe me a letter well yeah I love you all and god speed. Peace Love and Baptize

Logan

Elder Brock Smith

Hauoli Makahiki Hou! Well I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and that your New Year well be good as well. Its good to hear that everything is going good with the business and all its such a miracle I cant believe how its taken off you continue to be an inspiration to me such faith and trust in the Lord I had my doubts but I trusted that you knew what you were doing I know that listening to you has yet to get me into trouble. It was good to get to talk to you on Christmas eventhough it made me way trunky but Im good though my time is almost up and Im striving to take advantage of every moment two weeks will be my last zone confrence and then the transfers always fly by from there its nuts how time is flying by I cant believe its been as long as it has cuz it really doesnt seem like when I look back on it. You must take advantage of every moment cuz what seems like forever will soon be over eventhough its pretty hard to picture yourself at home soon it will be a reality even if it does take you until the first morning that you wake up in your bed at home to realize it (cuz I think that Itll take that long for me to realize it cuz right now everything seems like Im in an alternate reality right now I cant be on my last four weeks its just not possible the fact that I have only 31 days left really seems impossible so to all of you no matter how long youve been out on a mission soon itll be over and youll wonder wha the heck happened where did your mission go and you dont want to look back and have regrets trust me I know from exp continue to serve with all your might mind and strength and most importantly ETTE that is a very hard principle a lot harder than I thought but striving to ette to the end of my mission is teaching a lot about ette to the end of life and how its not going to be easy and you cant slack off or satan we'll get to you and before you know it youll be gettin etd home like this other elder did who was supposed to go home with me but he just couldnt ette and he wnet to extreme measures well more like bizzare measures to get sent home ive been trying to think all weekend what must have been going through his head but ive no realized that it must have been nothing short of the cunning craftiness of satan. Well anyway on a lighter note I want to thank you all for your ongoing support It has really helped me get through these two years and has made the time really fly by I couldnt have done it without you all. Well I continue to ette eventhough my comp drives me bonkers sometimes dont worry two exchanges a week and with all these off days it will help the first half of the transfer go by fast and then the second half always flys by like crazy anyway so ill survive im sure well we had a good sacrament talk yest about serving and obeying without being compelled to do them it was good for me something that I need to hear cuz I fear that without the structure of mission life my life will have the potential to be crazy thats why me and barnett are going to strive to keep each other in check although we are kinda crazy but well see how it goes. Well I really cant believe that by the next time I write for the newsletter I'll have like four days until Ill be home its nuts. Hauoli Makahiki Hou Iesu Pu And May the force be with you always B Sexy B Smooth

B Smith

Elder Jeff Stoker

So anyways, Christmas this year was very different than any other christmas that i have ever had. I did alot of thinking. I am glad that i was able to focus on the real meaning of Christmas. We didnt do anything special for Christmas. We just acted as if it was any other day. it was very wierd. So about 5 mins ago i found out that we arent allowed to be outside past 5pm this wednesday and Thursday because it will be New years! I dont think anything good will happenif we were on the streets. My mission president thinks its a great time to do some "spring cleaning". I am not looking forward to this! hah. Oh well, it needs to be done. Last week Elder Slezak and I were kinda frustrated because we did not find any new investigators. This week was kinda of the same. Thursday came around, and we realized that we still didnt find an investigator. We went out that afternoon dedicated on finding a "Normal man". We also wanted to have a meeting with him that night. We ended up doing just that. We met with him, and he even came to church. This next week we are going to invite him to be baptized in Jan. Things are looking good for january here in zavodskoy. Hopefully we can see two people get baptized. I know it will take alot of work, and faith on our part though, and i am all for it. So it is already in the middle of winter now, and things are starting to cool down. It has hit -15 and the ground is now covered in snow. We set up a meeting at our church building, and while we waited, i found a snow shovel. I decided that i might as well do something productive while i waited, so i actually got a chance to shovel snow. I can understand why i always hear people crying about it. I also started up a slipping on the ice contest again. So far i am winning, my companion landed right on his butt the other day. Dont worry, i have had my fair share of falls, which i dont want to talk about. :} I forgot to mention this in past newsletters, but my mission got a referral! It was amazing. It is wierd for me to think about a russian guy wandering around SLC on temple square. We were all pretty excited. Miracles are happening, so expect one! hah. The other day, i also realized that my entire passport is full of visas, and stamps. I had to send it, and get more pages sown into it. Now my emergency pouch hanging on my belt is heavy with all the new pages. Anyways, things are going great, like normal. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Wow time is flying. I love you all. Thanks for your examples.
Elder Jeff Stoker

December News- The Best 2 Years

Elder Brock Smith

Hawaii, Honolulu Mission

January 2007 - January 2009

Aloha,Ka Kou

Well anyway things here are good.I got a call from the assistants asking if I wanted to go home a day early or go to the pcc,I was one day early fro shua I mean we dont get to go the the temple anyway I will come back and see the pcc another time, thats what I thought at least but I don't know what the other 12 people chose so we'll see what happens. It is crazy they will be bookin my flight very soon but if we do go home one day early then 60 days left oh my its crazy after this holiday season then bam it'll be practictally over. All the Elders are talkin about what movie to watch on christmas and I am just hey I don't care I'll be home like a month after that so whatevahs, and there just like shut up so then they proceed to remind me all the time that im going home soon, which is kinda irratating cuz Iam gonna miss it here and miss being a missionary it really is awesome stuff. This was the best choice I ever made the time has gone by so fast, Wow I just want to finish strong,and it is hard, I am training again and I am greatful I have had the oppertunity to get to do that so much. It is not easy for me but I know I have grown alot.Cuz mean time you have out here in da field bein one of Jesuses Guys live one life that stay to da max foevah bra so sweet da sky wen rip open and start fo shower you with da blessin from da Boss up in the Sky ho cuz its awesome sorry I stay speakin so much pidgin ovah heah dat i no can spell notin else sorry. Hey I say work hard you guys are all the bomb. Happy thanks giving, and a super Merry Christmas.I will see some of you soon. Daniel How are things going, My Bro. God speed. I cant wait to hear from all of you in the news letter. Time is really going fast. I am very greatful 102 passed in the states. Things are amazing in the plan, I could see were the Lord in these things happening.Well if we are prepared we shall not fear.My testimony has really grown and I am thankful to Be one of the lords Missionaries.it is getting scary to think now I have to return to a whole new life I donot know if I am ready for. Merry Christmas and the best to all of you dudes in 2009.Dont get trunky. But yeah about my comp thats true only 1 and a half more transfers with him I think Ill survive. Anyway thats about it. B Sexy B smooth B Smith

Elder Garrett Jones

Hi everybody,We are still working hard. We seem to find a lot of cool, nice people who want us to return and then are never there when we do. That's one thing about the Hispanic culture is that they are very nice to the point that they will lie to you instead of just straight up telling you they don't want you to come back like white people do. This may sound a little strange, but it's refreshing occasionally to be just straight up rejected. Don't let me fool you though, we are teaching some great people who have a lot of potential.The temperature here has really dropped with that amazing New York wind that ony seems to be there during the winter to make everybody much colder and miserabler (a new word). The winter clothing is officially out of the suitcases now. I know that I'm exactly where the Lord wants me to be and that this is his work I'm doing. It's amazing how many cool experiences I'm able to see and have each day and how different I feel when I come home after them. I love and miss you all and hope everything is going well. Love, Garrett

Elder Grant Huish

Hey Everybody, How are you doing? Things here in Oregon are wonderful! We had a baptism last week, it was a girl named Ashley Haynes. She is engaged to a member and basically already believed the church was true before we met her. Other than that, I am still in Oregon City with the same companion. For the last few days we have spent alot of time planning for our zone training and making plans for the zone this transfer. Which brings me to my next point, I only have 18 more minutes and I still have to type a bunch of stuff and send a letter to my mission president. Sorry. Love, Grant

Elder Daniel Anderson

HOWDY YALL! So this month was just as Crazy as all the other ones have been. At the begining of the month, Bishop/ President Nelson pulled some strings for me and got me in to the Mayo Clinic. Pretty much they are my last shot to make it back to the mission field so i was pretty excited to go. It turns out they said i have had almost everything possible done and that they don't think there is much they can do to help but they are going to try. So i have these two tests they are going to do and they are putting me on all kinds of different medicines so hopefully they will start helping. Oh here's another fun story, i went to see a shrink (psychologist) and she had the CRAZIEST EYES!! They were constantly moving and they could look in two different directions at once. I know some of you might disagree with this but this doctor told me that i'm a pretty normal person and that my mental state is not effecting my stomach.... YOU HEAR THAT? I'M NORMAL! Anyway on to bigger and better things. Later that month I took a trip to Utah to visit some of my buddies from my mission. I was there for like two weeks and I got to see yalls favorite cousin of mine, Sarah..... haha Jeff she says hi. After i was done hanging out in the cold Utah air, I drove over to Cali to visit my mission again because I was asked to escort a guy i helped through the temple. It was really cool to go and support him. He is the only active member in his family and there are only 4 out of 15 members in his family. We went through the Oakland temple and it was really pretty. I was nervous to take him through because i had never been and i didn't get the chance to go to the temple on my mission so it had been awhile. George just got his mission call to Minnesotta speaking Hmong and he reports December 10th so i'm way excited to see him off. After my big long trip to Utah and Cali i came home and my family went to the Sand Dunes for Thanksgiving. It was really fun being out there with everybody. Because its Thanksgiving and all, i just want you all to know how much i look up to each of you and that i'm thankful to have you as my friends. Love yall, Daniel PS - Brock i'll see you in 50 "ish" days (work hard!)

Elder Max Crandall

Hola, or should I say, hello. I got released from the Spanish program. President said it had something to do with the changin’ times. It’s weird but I feel great. I also got transferred. I’m now in a town called Snohomish and my new companion is Elder ****. We live in a member’s home. They keep their house about 5 degrees warmer than the temperature outside. Bought some thermals. Changed my life. I think this’ll be good for me. If I’m going to learn discipline any time in my life, I imagine it will be here. We went out with a ward missionary from the ward we are serving in. Our ward mission leader’s plan was to visit all of the members in our ward, share a message about missionary work, commit them to do something, and pump them up. The ward missionary told us that he had called 20 families but only got an appointment with one. Well, that’s fine. Mormons are busy people. The work here in Snohomish is finally picking up a little. Basically, God is great and rewards countless hours of pointless tracting. We are working with a nine-year-old girl. The other day, her older brother’s friend came over. He looks just like one of those 13-year-old-already-smoking-pot-skater-punk-trouble-makers. We asked him to stay for the lesson. He seemed embarrassed or mad at himself for getting trapped by the Mormons. “Why hello there son, would you like to learn about God and come to church?” “Gee, misters, that’d be swell!” “That’s Elders to you, boy.” Huzzah! By the end of the lesson he accepted to come to church, read the BofM, and be baptized. Woot! Thank you, Holy Ghost! Only problem is, his family is Jewish. I’ve never put a Jew on date before. Sure, he probably isn’t a practicing Jew, but it’s still cool. I hope Turkey Day was great for everyone. I’m singing in a mission octet with Elder Josh Ostler. Life is good. We’re all going to the temple on December 11th. Can’t wait. Happy, Happy, Merry, Merry – Elder Crandall

Elder Mike Kleinman

Hey Everyone! Well, I am out of the office and here in Alto Alberdi! I am loving being back into full time proselyting. We'll be baptizing two families in December which should be great. The Bishop here is super enthusiastic to help the ward progress in the work. Well, I can't believe christmas is coming up soon! The other companionship that lives with us went out and bought a christmas tree, heh.My companion is Elder Carter from UT. I am also living with Elder Oliphant, an Elder who was in my MTC group, so we already know each other really well. It should be a fun transfer, as long as I don't get shipped out, because transfers are on the 24th!! What bad luck! We had our own Thanksgiving by buying a big chicken, no turkeys here. It was a great feast. We are in summer now,and it's hot. I will have a month or so of cooler weather then I get to come home to summer again, Lucky me ! Time is flying by... Well camaradas, let's make the best of the little time we all have left. Till next time. All for one (the Lord), and one for all.

chau chau Elder Kleinman

Elder Jeff Stoker

Dear Elders,All is well. What can i say more. I cant believe that December is here, and there is no snow here yet. I guess that i am pretty lucky. It will come, so dont worry about that. You can hear my freezing to death stories. It has been an exciting month. I am still in my same area, which makes 10 months in the same city. Thanksgiving came, and me and my companion celebrated by eating some buckwheat, and potatoes. Quite tasty, i guess we had no choice, because it was the only thing that we had to eat. It is funny the things that you are willing to eat on your mission. One of our investigators made us squid, and my companion refused to eat it. I figured that i might as well try it, and it was definately an experience to remember. I wish i could tell you what other "wierd" foods that i have eaten, but to tell you the truth, i have no idea what i am eating most of the time. I find comfort in not asking, if i dont not know. The work is going really good here. We are working out butts off trying to accomplish President Hinckley's challenge. It is really hard when these visa trips mess up things though. We going on exchanges like 3 times a week. As i am writing this, we are in a threesome trying to cover two areas. I am having a blast though. I guess i will tell you a story that happened last night. So, we were sleeping at some other elder's place, and they called us and told us that they just got chased by a guy with a knife by their apartment. We we just happened to be exactly in that area. So as soon as my comp told me, we started to run, without a reason. We ran across the street, and i turned around and saw the guy that had the knife, and he was following us. Of course we booked it out of there, and he decided that he shouldnt chase us. Moral of the story, I am blessed, and so very lucky. Ok, and thats that. Everythings great. I love serving the Lord here in the Russia Samara Mission, which also happens to be the BEST mission in the world. (sorry about bursting all your bubbles.) I love you all, and i hope you are working your butt off. Time is too short. Have a great month. Elder Jeff Stoker

Elder Jimmy Miller

Ridiculous!!I have seriously like 5 minutes to write this and I don't remember what my last letter said. Well in short the last couple weeks have been pretty amazing. The three weeks ago our mission president promised everyohne a phone call of someone wanting to be baptized if we would continue to work diligently. So a week and a half after that we still hadn't received a call or really seen much of anything. Monday of the second week we planned to have 2 new investigators and both fell through. Tuesday was gonna be a great day, but it too failed. So Wednesday, P-Day, came not any too soon. Then that day, around 4 we were headed down to the church to email when we came out of the subway my phone buzzed that i got a voicemail. I called it and it was one of the Sisters saying to call her back quickly. So i did. She was screaming "Miracle!" when i answered. She said a friend of the area 70 had emailed him and said he wanted to be baptized and that he lived in our area! She told us to meet her and her companion at the Trump Tower that night for an appointment with this guy and the area seventy! It was amazing and he's set for baptism in December. I know that God is over this work and that He will assisst us as we show our faith. Keep it up guys. I admire those of you in colder climate than I. (Jeff in particular!) I'm dying with the cold winds we get here. We also recently had Elder Holland come and speak to our stake. It was amazing. He said he came to tell us that even thought things looked tough "Everything is ok!" It was powerful. We and our investigator got to shake his hand. It was sweet. Anywho. Carry on boys! Have a Merry Christmas!! LOVE ELDER MILLER

Elder Gary Chambers
I switched on you guys again! Haha Oh man that never gets old... and speaking of old, La Vega is now history, and I'm now registered in Buenas Aires... The Northern section of Santiago. I don't know so much about Good Air, but it sure is a neat lil area... Our entire area is made up of about 16 shortish streets, so pretty much everyone has had lessons, is an inactive, or an active member... not too much new other then that... OH WAIT!!....... no.... nope nevermind. I did get a new comp though who happens to be my FDC (First Domincan Comp) (like I even had to explain that one...) His name is Elder Mota and he sure looks like he's not a Dominican (it's his white skin). It's cool though, he's helping me alot with the whole language speaking thing because he doesn't know english. Oh yeah! I was walking up one of the 16 streets of ours, and I noticed this little girl of about 5 years staring at me (it's my white skin)... I thought, "aahhh... how cute, this lil girl is staring at me. I'm going to say hi when we pass her." So all geared up, we began to pass and I turned, smiled and in a friendly voice said, "Hola"... Almost immediately she responded... "Shut up!" It completely caught me off guard and I just started laughing right there... hahaha that lil girl is funny. Thanks for listening gents! Time is low so I must go. Loves! Love, Elder Chambers

Elder Logan Wells

yo wat is up my brothers and sisters? well guess its that time again its been doing great well i am still here chilling in the british virgin islands on the island of tortola well i keep hoping that daniel is gonna write me and tell me that he is coming to tortola on a cruise we get them in everyday and he just keeps going on all of these cruises, so that is an invitation, haha well yeah things are going great here we are see so much success right now, the lord has blessed me so much, we are getting people to church like every week and helping lots come back to the church. Its amazing what the lord will do if we just ask for a little help. i really see miracles everyday of my life, well saturday the 29 i am going to be entering the ocean, yeah its great whe n you have baptism there are no fonts and so we go to the ocean, so that is pretty sick. Well i love it so much, i look forward to your letters every month, i love hearing about all the progression on your missions, the holidays have me going for a spin becasue they were just here yesterday, so crazy. Well i hope all is well in all the places that you are, gary expect something around christmas there is a member that is going home for christmas and they live in santiago, you are actually in his area right now, if your still in la vega he served there for like almost a year his name is miguel bueno i dont know if you know him or not , well i love you all. merry thanksgiving and happy christmas

love you all logan

Anziano Scott Ball

Hey my missionary friends!Everything is going great here in Italy. I haven't written the past few newsletter letters, but I hope that they were good. I am now in Modena where they make balsamic vinegar and cheese! The food is amazing. I don't know if anyone heard that Rome is getting a temple! I don't think it will be coming soon, but we are all glad that it is coming. I'm now on bike for the first time in my mission and it is painful. I didn't know I could be sore in some spots of my body and I don't think I will ever get used to riding a bike. On top of riding a bike, it is very cold here and it was snowing the other day. Anyway, We have transfers the week before Christmas and I hope that I don't get transfered out of here. I hope that everyone has a good christmas and that y'all keep on keeping on!vi voglio un mare di bene e tanti auguri per natale, Anziano Ball

Elder Chase Judd

Hey friends,Well i have 8 months in the mission now i am getting pretty old. Well this past weekend was the rededication of the mexico city temple and we got to watch on sunday it was way cool to see all of the new things in there but yeah while i was watching it my backpack was in another room and some little beaner/frijolero stole my camera so all of my pictures are gone all of my memories especially all of my BAPTISMAL pictures ahhh! I love mexicans its just some are a little sneaky and it can happen anywhere in the world. I am still in Catemaco the witch and wizard place but yeah still havent seen any so its my goal before i leave here i bet i will leave this change. I love you keep working hard have fun don't get to serious like me i have changed alot. good bye. LOVE CHASEY FACEY O ELDER JUDD

Elder Blake Smith

Hello!
I am finally here in Argentina. Yesterday the weather was amazing it didn’t rain but it made walking around alot better. We finally had a break from the heat and Islept with a blanket last night. We have some pretty good investigators right now. I am still getting used to the food here, it just isn’t very flavorful, but I guess when you are here for a while you get used to it. ya so last week we played soccer as a zone. I scored three goals and it was so fun. We had one native play with us the totally blew us away. He was so good. And we have to play during the siesta or during the middle of the day so everyone was so burnt. Except me I got darker. I am going to be black when I get home. The funniest thing on the mission happened last Thursday. Ha ha we opened the mouth why we were on the way to an appointment. And the guy we were talking to was talking bad about the church and missionaries. He just wasn’t being nice. Ha ha and then some dog ran up to him lifted his leg and peed all over that guys leg. I had to try so hard not to just crack up laughing. He deserved it though. He was being mean. Man I love that dog. Oh something else that was funny so on one cuadra or block. Which these blocks aren’t very long we saw 21 dogs. It was so funny that is our record right now with 21 dogs on one block. This week we are really working on getting people to church I think we have 16 investigators right now and so we are trying to get them all to church this next week. In all reality only like 3 will show up but we have to invite them all. Have a awesome month. Love, Elder Blake Smith

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

October News

OCTOBER NEWS

Elder Dallas Rowley

Ohio Columbus Mission
May 2008 - 2010










Hello everybody!


Things are going great here in Gahanna, Ohio. I just got back from transfers, and I went from a threesome to a twosome. So I am really excited for my first "normal" transfer. We've really been having alot of new investigators lately. It's been awesome. Some cool things about Gahanna, well we have a way sweet new apartment. We have a vine behind our apartment, a 30' vine like the vines you would see on Tarzan. Ohio has some pretty great storms. A couple weeks ago we had the wind caused by the hurricane, and it was pretty brutal. There were power lines and trees down EVERYWHERE, and trees were crashed into houses here & there. Leaves and sticks lined the streets. We didn't have power for a little over 3 days. There was a huge tree in the local cemetery that was uprooted by the storm, and it's roots flung a bunch of coffins and dead bodies all over the graveyard. It was pretty gruesome, but it wasn't all that bad since it didn't actually happen. But a big tree in the cemetery did fall down by the storm. Anyways, a guy in our ward, Brother Hartzell, works for the city's electricity, and he had to work a week's worth of 15 hour days until all the power in the city was back. He was way exhausted, but he got the power back! Our district sang today at transfers. A samoan in our district played his ukelalie as we sang "how can I be?" it's a song about the book of mormon characters. it went really well. There's a lesson you can all learn from the samoan(elder Afatasi)'s companion, Elder Brown. Their bikes got stolen, and they tried to get them back, so when they found the thieves, they got out of the member's car and tried to get them back. Elder Afatasi got his because of his size, and Elder Brown got out to "support" his companion, and he got his jaw broken in 2 places. He's fine now, he has 2 disks in his jaw. So if your bikes get stolen, or if you are being robbed, let it happen. Well, I am out of time. I love my mission. Time is flying faster and faster each day. I'm more and more excited for the rest of my mission each day. I hope you all recognize the "greatness of your calling" on your mission. Keep it up! Elder Dallas Rowley



Elder Garrett Jones



Hey everybody,It has been another good week here in New Rochelle. Elder Miranda and I have been working hard and praying for our investigators and zone and things are looking pretty good for us right now. We keep finding good people to teach, people who are interested and have questions for us, so its been really fun lately going out and teaching. One of the elders in our apartment went home and guess who his replacement is! Elder (Cameron) Hardy! It was weird seeing him coming through the door with all his luggage. Probably the craziest thing that has happened recently is Elder Billings' incident. He is a crazy Aussie that I live with. Apparently, Elder Billings thought he would be tough and eat a mushroom off the side of the road that looked tasty. He did it in Australlia occasionally and so he thought it would be fine to do here. Elder Mook told him not to, but Elder Billings assured him that he knew what he was doing. Yup, it turned out that he didn't know what he was doing, and had to spend the night and almost the next night in the hospital after puking out blood and some crazy diarrhea! We have an investigator who owns a bodega (a hispanic mini-mart/liquor store), and we go teach him right there in the bodega, which is a different =0 Ateaching environment. He is an awesome investigator. I hope everything is going well and that you're having some cool experiences as well. Don't go eating any shrooms! Love you all tons, Garrett



Elder Chase Judd



Time is flying by so fast, I already have 6 months!! Holy cow I'm scared, I hope I don't have an accent.. We have transfers tomorrow, and my comp is leaving for Mina 3 hours south, and I am getting a white companion woof! He is only a month older then me, and he will be senior companion. I am kind of nervous but we will see, his name is Elder Wray. It should be exciting!!!Conference was really good, I got to watch it in English and the room had air conditioning it was awesome!! We had one baptism last night, our other one fell through on Friday, her husband wouldn't let her. I love being a missionary!!! I love you all, I love my area, I love this church, I know its very true from all I have seen down here. I hope you all have a testimony of this Church if you don't read Ether 12:6 and then pray love ya all!!

Elder Judd





Elder Gary Chambers



Hey there Gentlemen and Ladies! I just got transferred.... today :) kinda sucks to be honest... I didn't really want to go, but that's the name of the game, right? Yeah my comp Elder Yack got a kid this transfer, so I got shipped out to a cute lil place called La Vega (nothing like Las Vegas). It's actually a pretty big city, the only problem is that it is FULL of ricos... meaning big Iron/steel gates to knock on... and still nobody hears you. Yeah that doesn't work... Luckily my new companion Elder ****** (did anyone ever watch Gargoyles as a kid?... just wondering) is saying that they do pretty ok with references from members... so I'm going to assume he isn't lying and hope for the best! As I said, today is day one, and a P-Day at that, so all I know is the house is roomy, the toilet works fine (very important), and the fridge has a cool little ice box in it where I put my nifty "UPHILL" water bottle (a missionary must). I couldn't really tell you all about my new comp... because we haven't had a lot of time to talk, we came over to use the internet right after I finished unpacking... during which time he talked to all the other missionaries in the house (4 man house). In the small lil conversation we had on the way over here, however, I did learn that him and another missionary in the house have a steady membership at a nearby gym which he says is a good gym... So I just might join them, who knows..... Either way, this room is way too cold, I think Dominicans should take classes on how to use an AC unit, because I don't think they know. Well, sorry I don't have any cute stories... maybe next time. K love you bye!
Love, always, Elder Chambers

Elder Logan Wells

Hello...Well another month came and gone its not long before the time will be up and we will be going from one homecoming to the next and well its cool. well i am still here in tortola it is really awesome i love it so much. Well i have found a secret lover her name is reggae its a pretty cool type of music you cant really go anywhere without hearing it. its pretty cool, well let me see funny story of the month well lets see we had a couple of Elders come over for a night so that we could take a boat over to St. Thomas for a zone conference well we decided to do a little companion exchange well they decided that we could take the truck becasue we had a couple of appts so well me and Elder Jones took the truck of the which is my first time driving without my companion so that was a first he has to watch me so I don't make any mistakes well as you would know we passed our place that we were suppose to be going by about 5 miles and Istarted to look around and wonder why it did not ever seem to be that far away well I turned around and the instincts of american driving kicked on so i started driving and i am looking ahead and i see these light coming at me well they just kept coming and me and Elder Jones are just like what the heck is going on and well I just remembered that its not him making the mistake its me I was driving on the wrong side of the road, its pretty crazy. Its been a little hard getting used to but the driving on the other side of the road can be a little much sometimes but its all good. I really love it here though a bit of a cultural shock but what really isn't when you are serving a mission? Well I love you guys go forward and baptize the whole world!
Peace, LOGANDREWELLS

Elder Grant Huish
hello fellow missionaries all is well in oregon. i would like you all to know that i am not lazy(stupid chase). i actually work if you can believe it. i know its kind of crazy seeing as how i was darn near one of the laziest people on the face of the earth back home, but its true. i guess i just never really had anything to work towards back hom. well the story i would like to tell you now has nothing to do with missionary work it is about how evil tongans are. so last pday we were playing ultimate frisbee. and when the girls highschool soccer team showed up to use the fields we decided to leave. sadly i forgot to pick up my wallet. i realised this a couple hours later. i told elder ***** what had happened and he told me he would go back and get it for $500, i said now of course and went back myself to get it. i asked the soccer coaches and the parents and no one had seen anything. i though all hope was lost. i went back home and went out to work for the evening. i called the mission office to have them cancel my jp morgan card and to have them contact my parents to have them cancel my card as well. at about 10:15 that night i get a call from elder ******. he asks me if i found my wallet to which i replied no. he then asked me what i was doing the next day. i told him our plans to which he replied. you should come pick up your wallet. so the moral of the story is that tongans are evil, and girls soccer teams are absolutely no help. the end. love grant

Elder Max Crandall

Gentlemen – Things are going okay here in Bellingham. It is absolutely gorgeous up here; green as far as the eye can see. We had a dinner with some members a while ago who said Bellingham was supposed to be the Chicago of the Northwest, but they didn’t finish the train rails all the way up here. Since the rails didn’t make it this far north, Seattle became the Chicago of the Northwest – so they say. Bellingham is a neat little city; nothing like Seattle. There are a ton of hippies up here! Hippies and college students. We live next to this hippie guy who is just about fried out of his mind every time we talk to him. Then when we say we have to go, he bows to us and wishes us well. He’s great. The people here are really friendly and it seems like Bellingham is one of the more family-oriented cities here in my mission. I am no longer on a bike here in Bellingham, which is going right to my hips. Just kidding. I’m trying to run a little bit in the mornings, although I am very, very glad to be in a car now that the rain’s a-comin’. I think summer has finally called it quits up here, and although that means murky, cloudy, dreary days, we are still blessed beyond what we deserve. I’m serving as a district leader now and it is a seriously humbling experience. I’ve been a district leader’s companion through most of my mission so I thought I knew all the ins and outs. I knew it would be hard but I figured I had a leg up given my experience. Well, turns out all of my “experience” is worth bupkiss. I have a really good district though. I don‘t really have to do much to make sure they’re working. They are all great missionaries. I am so happy to be out here serving the Lord as a missionary. It is the oddest, greatest, and most rewarding thing I’ve done yet. I’m not really looking forward to coming home in a year. It has been a really weird experience hitting the year mark. I don’t feel any more experienced than the first day Elder Rammell held me in his arms and said, “I hope you’re ready to work.” This recent anniversary has left me in a constant state of ponderment and wonder. It seems to me that the Lord would have had a much more effective two years if he had called someone older, wiser, and more mature but I’m thankful the Lord didn’t do that and He called me. I know this church has the complete, eternal gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that He died for each of us so we could return to our Father, with clean hands and pure hearts. I am so grateful I have been blessed to live in a time where I can enjoy the blessings of the gospel and share them with everyone. –Elder Crandall

Anziano Scott Ball

Ciao!I have been transferred to Modena. It is amazing! We have been totally busy everyday since I got here. I haven*t had any time to do finding work here which I have been doing in the past few cities. We have had a appointment after appointment. I*m really glad to be here. Anziano Hatch has been in the mission just 3 more months than I have and he is really amazing. He is from Aztec, New Mexico which is just 30 minutes from Durango, Colorado. He speaks Italian just fine and we get along very nicely. We both had companions this last transfer who were a little bit mad, but now we are both happy to be free of them. Modena has a beautiful meeting house! It*s pretty much just like the one we go to in Mesa. We have a huge ward too! Our ward is about 80 members. The amazing thing here is that they pay their tithing and fully. We (as missionaries) see how the ward was blessed* with an amazing meeting house. I will actually tell a funny story that just happened. Our bishop here at Modena is a really famous blood doctor, but other than that I wanted to tell a story. He was asking the missionaries if the ward could by us (the missionaries) a car. So this is how this ward works.. since they pay their tithing*they have a lot of money and we also have a member who owns part of a insurance company and one who sells cars. So they all got together and set up a plan of getting a *ward* car and the missionaries would use it only when they had to go out of the city (which would be a lot cheaper for us). The ward would use the car for going on trips to the Switzerland Temple. I have to say that would be a great idea. Anyways, we talked to our president and he said that we could have only one provided by the mission(which are limited to two cars in our mission). We were kind of sad, because we were so excited to get a car instead of a bike. This ward is amazing though! They give the missionaries a lot of referrals and there are already a few baptisms planned in the future. We have one coming up next month and should have another 2 that same month. One baptismaldate we will be setting tonight for a couple. They already accepted to be baptized, we just have to set a date. I*m so out of energy everyday when we come home because we head from one appointment to the next. We have a lot of work right now because there is only one companionship here and there used to be two here. Our guess is that president will be splitting our companionship up after this transfer and both Anziano Hatch and I will be training new missionaries which will make two companionships. The sisters are pretty cool here. They are having a hard time with the work here, but they are seeing amazing changes and we saw a miracle during district meeting (our meeting that we do one a week for correlation for us and the sisters). While we were having district meeting, 2 women rang the doorbell of the church and so we let them in. Turns out that one of them just came here from Brazil and is a member. She talked to her friend so much about the church that her friend wants to come to church also. The sisters set a appointment with them and I*m sure that the sisters will have that woman baptized. Yeah, the people of Treviso were hard to talk to or rather even stop on the street. Here in Modena, it is much more relaxed and there are many people who are from Southern Italy who are always friendly. I*d have to say that here and Genoa are equal in how nice the people are. I can say that I can start a conversation with anyone on the street here* it seems like heaven compared to Treviso. Ciao Ciao, Anziano Ball

Elder Jeff Stoker


Dear BFFs,
Things are going good over on this side of the world. Me and Scott have got it taken care of. So I think that my mission call should have read, "you will be serving in the World Mission". We just found out that the Visa renewal trips will now be changed to Sweden. Which means that I will be able to attend the TEMPLE! I am so excited about that. I am not telling you this to brag...(ok maybe a little bit), But Just letting you know how crazy every single day is on a mission. It is amazing how you can get one single phone call and it will change everything. Things have been really good this cycle though. I am still in the same area with the same companion, which is really good, because my area is the "ghetto" of saratov. I love it too, although some times it gets a little scary. If i can be friends with all of you this long, than i can easily make it in the ghetto right? So the work is going amazingly. It is so great that God CHOOSES to work through immature, unprepared 19 year olds. It is so great to see the way that the gospel changes peoples lives. Thanks for all your examples. I love you all. Have a great month. and remember...Keep on keeping on.
Elder Jeff Stoker

Elder Mike Kleinman
Hey everyone! Well another month blown by! It sure does go really fast. I hope everyone is doing well in their various missions. We just got transfers and I will be officially leaving the office. ¡Por fin! It is a little sad though as I have been learning a whole lot of really funny slang from my latin comp. I still don't know where I will be getting sent though seeing that I still have to train my replacement. Elder Nelson will be coming down to visit our mission the friday after general conference. So I gotta put on my spiffy tie! We baptized a woman this past week names Sonia Sosa, shes 26 and is super cool. The mission overall is improving exponentially, seeing real miracles, in trying to complete with the challenge from Pres. Hinckley to double the baptismal rate. Really exciting times! Well, remember that as some of us are now on the downhill, (Brock I'm looking at you!) we really need to make the best out of the time we have remaining. The mission is great with too many awesome experiences to tell in a short letter. But I guess there'll be plenty of time for that when we are all back. Well, until next month! Chau Chau
Elder Kleinman


Elder Brock Smith
Wow another month gone. I am back in Hilo, me and my new comp whitewashed into an area Yep again I whitwashed into a place where no work has been done for about 21/2 months. The mission pres calls me up on Mon and says Elder Smith the Lord wants you to serve once again as a District Leader on this Isand.The Lord is trusting to do your best and this is a tough area, and usually I do not like to have to finish your mission with such pressure, But this is the Lords call not mine. By the way your whitewashing also, oh great thats just great, I'll do it Pres I cant say no but its not exactly the best way to end my mission with way flippin hard trials.Next transfer we get 25 greenies so I hope that I will get to train Jessie Browns nephew. that would be awesome. I know what the best medicine is though, work work, work there is no substitute. Well I hope you all are doing good out there Its a great time to be a missionary since the America is being humbled and may soon be in a depression I mean heck the stock market could crash today, and we dont have to worry cuz the work of the Lord will always continue to go forward nothing can stop it. I really envy you who have more time then me left mission life takes away many cares and sorrows of the world cherish your time it will fly by soon you will only have four months left too, so make it count! Peace out! Elder B Smith