Letter Catch-Up!

March 29, 2010
Today we went to the Evergreen Air/Space Museum. It was so cool. We got to get in a simulator and land a space shuttle. I did it on Expert and Landed every time! Wow! We got to get in a B17. I saw a P-40!!!! It made me think of you Bapa. I am so proud to be your grand son. You are a true hero. We got to watch an IMAX Movie on the modern day fighter pilots. It was cool.

We had the mini conference and it went awesome. The Stake Presidency asked me to conduct the meeting! That was the first time I ever conducted. There was quite a turnout. We had a very strong Spirit there. We gave a tour of the building to Brad and Lisa and I took them into the Family History Center and Brad said they won’t be able to find anything on his family. I said oh yes they will. And they did. He was super excited. We had a lesson with them afterward and we really resolved their concerns and even had them get on there knees and pray. The Spirit was so strong. We not only are resolving their concerns on conversion but on there marriage problems too. Wow! Brad is going to call President and tell him that he can’t transfer me. The Dunaways are doing the same, and Brother Webb I think is also. So, I hope that I stay at least one more transfer here. We had dinner with an amazing new family last night and the wife is from Spain. She wants to set me up with a girl from Spain that she thinks will be perfect for me. Ha Ha crazy. We got along with them so well and the husband loves cars and speed. I love it.

April 6, 2010
Well, as you know I got transferred and it was hard. The Dunaways are family now, and the Webbs are great friends. The Schrenks are family also, and one of our investigators, Brad, is going to come and hang out with us in our new areas sometime. I did not get the Zone leader position like I and others thought. President needed me in an area because of my experience and leadership. But, I will probably be in this current area for only 3 months and be a Zone Leader the last 4.5 months of my mission. I am with a troubled Elder. His heart is right but he has had a hard time. We came out at the same time on the mission. I am still a District Leader and am in one of the smallest areas in the mission. I am in Aloha 1st ward. It is in Beaverton near the district that I was in when I was with Elder Hunter in Raleigh Hills. My companion is Elder Bailey.

April 12, 2010
Our apartment in this new area is small and boring. But Elder Bailey and I get along great. His back is no good, so we don’t ride bikes, we just walk. And, we get a car for 3 days a week. We also have one of the smallest areas in the mission. I’m told that it is 1.2 square miles!!!! And we only cover 1 ward. It is in Aloha. Which is in Beaverton near Hillsboro. Man, the people are nice here. They are not mean like the other areas that I have been in. My back is fine. My exercise is a little laxed but I still do it. Tell everybody hi from me. Oh, one other thing, we met this member of our ward that was part of a big race team and builds racecars!!! He is nice and says that I am a very valuable asset. And there are also these animals at our apt complex. They are called nutria. They are 3 feet long and have a big rat like tail and a beaver head and body. They have back legs like a jackrabbit or kangaroo. They are way cool.

April 19, 2010
My new companion, Elder Bailey, is awesome. I am really helping him become better and unlocking his potential. We have fun together. He has awesome dreams with both of us in it. I was James Bond in one and we were in the Halo video game in another. They are very detailed dreams and I am recording them. In the dreams I am a super smart guy that is like Bond and Iron Man. It is so cool. They are like movies.
There was this Christian family that are scriptorians, and they tried to convert us in one of our appointments. They want the meat and are not ready for it. But, they won’t listen, so I gave them what they wanted and told them like it is. They countered with their discourse on the topic. So, I just bore strong testimony and blew them away. There was no denying the Spirit that was there and the truth of the message. But, I found out that they were offended. The truth is hard to take to those who are wrong. I love it. It is what the Lord, through the Holy Ghost, directed me to do and to say. So I do not feel bad and will not take back one thing that was said.
I came up with a fishing trip for the Zone, and then we are going to link it to being Fishers of Men. It is to teach the Zone how to be better missionaries. The Zone Leaders and the other District Leader, Elder Smartt, love it. It will be fun.

April 26, 2010
Well this week went awesome. We had interviews with President at one of my district meetings. I had a discussion on faith and taught principals like “the law of attraction” and what I have learned and experienced from CEO's, believing and confidence. Our new motto is: “Why fear success!! We have nothing to lose.” We felt lifted and inspired. President said that I am doing well as a District Leader. He said that I have the trust and respect of my men. He also said that he has never seen my companion, Elder Bailey, doing so well!! I am the best thing that has happened to him. Wow!
We are starting to teach a lot of people and they all came to church on Sunday. We are teaching this black family that just loves us. One of the guys that we are teaching is an ex-force recon. That is the Special Forces of the Marines. He is way cool. We are having fun and working hard.

I found a peacock while we were tracting and I took a video as I walked up to it. I ask it to move from the porch to the yard so that we could knock on the door, and it listened and flew to the spot that I pointed to. That was awesome!!!

May 3, 2010
This week was ok. We had a good lesson with Jason and Tonie and we talked about eternal marriage. They were interested in it and it went well. I got the feeling to ask them if they ever prayed to ask if it was true. They replied NO. So, I committed them to do that. They accepted and they will more than likely get baptized as soon as they get the answer.
The District is going great and they all love each other. I couldn’t have asked for better. We stopped by Olietra’s house and they are so happy when we come over. Our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Landis, shared a message with them and they had so many gospel questions. We set up a time to teach them the discussions and they accepted. They are black. And Olietra said that she calls us her brothers. That was cool.
We also taught Sterling. His family has been inactive for years. They came to church last week and the dad said it was great to be there and said that this is so good for the whole family.

May 17, 2010
I am doing great. Saturday we were going to go to a baptism of one of the people that I taught. We couldn’t find a ride so we decided to take the train. Well, it took so much longer than I expected. It was 1.5 hrs!!!!! We went through downtown and I was sharing the gospel with people on the train. We didn’t find any that were interested. There was a lesbian couple sitting in front of where we were standing, and they were holding hands and kissing. It freaked my companion out. He is a country boy from a small town in Utah. Then this stripper started to talk to us and said that my eyes were beautiful. She was crazy and kept talking about the weirdest stuff. Luckily, we had to transfer trains. On the next train there were two girls about 15 and an older black guy. One of the girls was holding a small bag and was rolling a blunt right there on the train and no one cared!!!!! It was really sad.
When we got to where we were going, we had missed the baptism so we went to visit this family that I taught. They are my age. When we got there, they just had a fight and it was bad. She was crying so we stood there and talked for about 3 hrs. The good thing was she was happy and laughing when we left. Now I know that we were supposed to go there to talk to her. We were now going to be super late getting home. We are supposed to be home at 9 pm, but we didn’t get back till 10 or 10:30 pm. We transferred trains in the center of downtown in Pioneer Square. There were people everywhere and I finally got my wish. I got to preach to the people downtown in Pioneer Square. I talked to this old hippy bum, musician guy and many others. It was a rush. My companion would not talk to people. He was scared to. I loved it. It was a blast!

May 24, 2010
This week was great!! We found some new people that we are teaching and we also have a baptism date for Sterling for the 3rd of July! We were tracting and ran into this young guy. He said to come back later and we did and he invited us in and we taught him the Restoration. He is Catholic and works for the Catholic Church. He is open to reading the Book Of Mormon and we discussed the similarities of the two religions. He agreed that the Catholic Church has had its problems. He wants us to come back next week when his wife and kid are there to teach the whole family. His wife is French so she will probably like me because of my name. We also just started a new transfer. I am still in the same area with the same companion, and I am still District Leader. But, we lost two missionaries and they replaced them with Sisters. This is the first time that I have been around Sister missionaries my whole mission. They are very cool and this is going to be a great district. The area that they are in really need Sisters because it has been a dead area for so long. This week is packed full of appointments. We are taking Cody around tracting with us and to teaching appointments. He is going to leave on his mission in late June. We are great friends and his family loves us. We also were tracting and ran into this lady that is a member that just moved into the area and has been praying for the missionaries to show up so she would know where the church is and what time it meets. That is so cool how that happens.

June 2, 2010
Dad emailed me and so did my sister, MaryEllen. She is reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!! Awesome.
Well, this week was not as good because it is Memorial Day and there are not a lot of people home. But we made do. Well, it is still overcast and raining all the time, and still cold. But we are still teaching and working hard. We taught the Catholic family again. We went downtown with Sterling McDonald. It was a blast! We saw a parade and a tank go down the street. We ate Vietnamese food and it was good. Well, we have an appointment soon so I have to go. I love and miss you two so much.

June 7, 2010
We are teaching an ex-communicated guy and his wife is now interested in learning more. We also helped them clean out their garage and the whole family is very open to us, and we have a new investigator now. It’s very cool.
We also had Keith come to church wearing a tie for the first time in his life. He stayed at church for the whole 3 hours. He stayed with us and had a great time at church. Later that night, we went over to their house and had our first formal lesson with him, after the kids went to bed. We taught him about the ‘word of wisdom’. And before we taught it, he said that he would never give up his coffee and beer. But, after the lesson, he said that he could give it up. The part that really got him was the blessing from the Lord that you could ‘run and not be weary and walk and not faint’. He had already given up smoking. So the week turned out to be pretty good after all.
We also had a great Zone Conference. Where we learned a brand new way to share the Gospel. It is called ‘Result Centered Sharing’ and you relate to the interests of the people and get them open to us and not on the defense. It is super hard to do but it is amazing. And, it works wonders. I also learned a lot about the Spirit and about my Patriarchal Blessing.
We did a lot of service. We cleaned out the garage of Craig and then helped a nonmember, Pamela, dig up railroad ties and move them out of the mud. They were heavy and it was tiring. Then we went over to the Temperini’s and dug out this huge stump. Then filled in the hole. We were exhausted at the end.


June 14, 2010
Elder Bailey and I are doing great. The Result Centered Sharing is going better and better. Just yesterday we tracked into the home of a guy named Joel. I began talking about how the world is very hard right now and about all the ups and downs in life. I talked about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can get us through these hard times. He told us to come in and we sat down and started to teach him about the Restoration. He told us that he is currently unemployed and has 2 daughters. I explained that the Gospel can help bring families closer together and make them strong. I asked if we could come back and visit with him another time where he is not as busy. He said Yes, come back and you might say something that clicks.” Then we left him with a prayer. We also told him about the church’s employment center at the stake center. He was very excited. That is the Result Centered Sharing in action. Wow!!!
We were called into a lot of service and unplanned activities. We, as a District, worked on the Rose floats. I got to glue stuff on the float. We were assigned to the Spirit Mountain Casino float and I glued the butterfly on the Indian girl’s chest in parsley and coconut, and around her sleeves. So, if you go on the Internet and look at the Rose Festival, you might see the float. One other day we were called because Elder Winterton got elbowed in the face playing basketball and had to get stitches. Then we had to blitz with Murray Hill and help the Sisters move an investigator into an apartment. We were also called into giving a blessing to Sister Hoth because she has not been feeling well.
One cool thing that happened was we got to go to a Fireside where Alter Wiener, a 5-time prison camp Holocaust survivor, came and talked to us. His story was amazing! The message was about love and how we shouldn’t judge, and we need to take responsibility for our own actions. I was assigned to give the closing prayer. At the end of the prayer I turned and shook his hand. It was great.

June 21, 2010
Elder Bailey is skinnier. He has lost 25 pounds! He followed the way that I eat: no sweets, the Mathieu diet. Last Monday we went to downtown and saw the famous Burnside Skate Park. I skated on it in my video game, Tony Hawk.
In one of the ward counsel meetings, the ward finally did the referral program that I presented to them using my experience in seeing it work properly in a previous ward. They discussed the names of the people and prayed right there, and then we figured out which ones the Spirit told us to visit. The Bishop made assignments and all the quorums and auxiliary leaders were super excited! This is going to continue and what a great experience it was for us all! Our ward mission leader, Brother Landis, also ask us for help on planning and sticking to the plan. So, I shared what I learned from planning and he is super excited and is going to employ the techniques we gave him!
We taught Olietra this week and Bishop came with us. We were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She said that she is so happy and joyful at this church and she notices something different about it that she has never felt before. I invited her to be baptized and she accepted! Wow! We met a lot of great people tracting and are starting to learn more and more about Result Centered Sharing.

June 28, 2010
This week we had tons of appointments cancel. People are so busy right now. And, the sun is finally out and it is so awesome. We are staying in the area and as companions for another 6 weeks. The ward is super happy about that. I am still district leader. We had an appointment with Sterling this week. He is doing great, but we are going to have to postpone his baptism for a week or so because his dad is not ready to baptize him yet. He has been inactive for a while. But, they are the best people.
We helped Jason cut down his huge cherry tree. We picked hundreds of cherries. It was fun. We fell a tree! That is how they say it. We are meeting more of the ward now. The ward is super excited about the missionary work and the ward council is doing the referral plan that they are supposed to do. It is the second ward that I have been in that has done this. I am good at helping wards to accomplish this. There are not many wards that do this in the mission. I only know of the two that I have been in.

July 6, 2010
This week was pretty fun. The fourth of July was a blast. But I almost froze to death! That is just wrong. We saw a ton of fireworks. We were invited to a block party with our investigator, Jason. We got to talk to his dad about the Vietnam War. He was in quite a few battles. He really liked us an invited us, when we come back to visit, to go elk hunting on their private land with them! He was very jumpy when the fireworks were going off because of the war. It was such a sweet evening.
We went golfing yesterday with Jason. I did pretty well for not playing in 2 years and not having my own clubs. I was on the green to get a birdie or a par each time but my darn putting killed me once again. I got 9 over one par and one double bogie. But, I hit a 275-yard drive! Jason had to out do me with a 300 yard one. It was such a blast!

July 12, 2010
This week was pretty good. We had to go to the eye Dr. twice to get Elder Bailey’s glasses fixed. We tried to dig out a cherry tree with Jason, but the roots were huge like a rainforest tree. It wouldn’t budge even when we tried to pull it out with a big diesel truck! It was on a hot day and Elder Bailey and Jason were near death in the shade, and I was so happy in the sun working! It wasn’t even that hot to me. So, he is going to have the stump ground out and then we can help with the removing of the roots.
Jason is an ex-Marine and taught the hand-to-hand combat training. He showed us some of the moves, but some of them don’t work on me. He was shocked. I am too double jointed and some of my pressure points and nerves are not there. He said that I am built like warrior. Ha Ha. It was fun. He is so cool and is getting closer to being baptized.
We were at church and Keith was talking to us. He said that since he has been coming to church, he noticed that life has been so much less stressful. The same stuff happens but the stress is not there. That is so cool that he recognizes the blessings that come from following the Commandments of the Lord. We went over to his house after church and Nicky was there!! She was finally released from the hospital after part of her lung was removed. Something else amazing happened. Keith finally wants us to teach him the lessons!!!!!! We have been trying for that for a long time. He even went to the priesthood fireside this evening and is going to a class about the priesthood that the church is having. It was a great week.

July 19, 2010
This week has been awesome. We had an amazing lesson with Keith and he testified to us on the change that could have only happened to him through Jesus Christ. He knows it is true and wants to be baptized!!! He was in tears in the lessons that we taught him. We even took him on a temple tour yesterday!!! He and Crystal loved it. Crystal was in tears; she wants to go through the temple so bad so that her family can be together forever. We just have to get them married and then Keith can be baptized. The gratitude that he expresses for the change in his life is so powerful and I am super grateful to have been a part of that.
We also had a great lesson with Jason and Tonie. Jason is so close to be baptized and is such a great guy. We get along great and Tonie is going to wait till the kids are ready so they can get baptized together. Jason wants to be able to baptize his kids.
I also got to go to a baptism in my last area. Jimmy got baptized and he wanted me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. Jason wanted to go so he drove us to it. It was such an amazing experience. The talks were amazing, the Spirit was so strong, and Jason was in tears almost during the talks. It has been such a great week. We also received answers to a question through prayer!! I was on exchanges with Elder Garner and we both sought for an answer to the same question. The Spirit was so strong and we both could feel the love of God. We received knowledge to better us in our mission and in our lives.

August 2, 2010
This week has been great. We are teaching Sterling and Ally and Jason and Tonie and Keith. They all want to get baptized soon. The Ward loves us and we have a blast. I got to get on some scaffolding and do stucco work with the Bishop. We got to build 2 decks and a walkway. We also got to work at a car show, and I talked with a guy that had a Ferrari. We went on a hike last p-day at Multnomah Falls and walked in a slot canyon to a waterfall, like the Narrows in Zion National Park. It was awesome!

August 10, 2010
Well I got transferred yesterday. The past week has been awesome and so amazing. We had 4 days of leadership training meetings where we learned how to follow the Spirit better and teach amazingly. It is a new program that is out for all the missionaries worldwide. Such a spiritual experience. Back to the whole transfer thing. Everyone was super bummed especially Jason and Tonie, the Temperinis, the Abriels, Keith and Crystal, and the Lacadens.
I am now a Zone Leader!!!!! I am right next to where I just was. I am in Cedar Mills. We cover the Young Single Adult Ward and another family ward. We have a truck as our mode of transportation. We live with the Bishop in the ward. My new companions are Elder Christensen and Elder Gray. Elder Gray goes home in 10-days, then it will just be Elder Christensen and me. He is from Thatcher, AZ. Everybody was super excited for me to be a ZL!