Elder Ben

Hello Family!

Well this week we have had some crazy experiences! No joke I think the mission can be the best way to never be bored in your life. There seems to always be something going on. First off to answer your questions: No the guy from Montana still isn't here. He doesn't have any cell phone reception where he is now so we only get to talk to him when he calls us. He said that he would be here in 10 days and that was 2 weeks ago. We are expecting him to show up anytime though. Teaching the adopted kids is going great. The one that is over 8 should be baptized in November, but it looks like it will be after transfers so I am not to sure if I will still be here to see it. The guy from Guatemala we haven't been able to see recently but hopefully soon. Oh, and "improve" in Spanish is ''mejorar".....ya not very close so it was just a mess up on my part. :(


OK so on Saturday we had a SWEET lesson with a couple that we just recently tracted into. This was our second time teaching them and we were going over the gospel of Jesus Christ. The great thing is the women is the most humble investigator we have ever had here. When we were teaching she said that she felt good about everything we taught. She said that she has been taught by other religions but has never found what she is looking for and she has been praying for someone to come to them and teach them. After the lesson we invited one of them to pray and she was really fast to say she would (this in itself is a huge miracle for us, most people would rather not say a prayer or have never said a prayer in their life so are reluctant to do it) she got about two sentences (just thanking God for things in her life and the opportunity to learn about the gospel) into her prayer when she suddenly stopped. We waited in silence for about 10 seconds and then heard that she was crying. Her husband was a bit concerned for a minute and asked her if she was sad. She then said "no, I feel really good it is something so strong and I have never felt it before." Right as she said that the spirit just swept into the room really strong. After talking about the Holy Ghost and bearing testimony of it she was able to finish her prayer. So neat to have this lesson. I can't even explain the feeling that was in that room, but it was incredible. This is what makes the mission worth it!


Saturday night we also had a Halloween party at the church. We decided that we needed to wear some kind of costume so we went to a local thrift store and Elder Wilkins bought some crazy wig and I got a cowboy hat and just wore the aviator glasses that I have out here. When I walked into the church building all of the people in the Spanish branch thought that I was a Texas immigration officer, and I had a couple from the English ward say that I looked exactly like the main character for the T.V. show "Dallas."  (Maybe you will know what that was mom I guess it was like in the 80's or something when it was playing.) Anyways I got a couple of pictures with the costume and will send them to you guys so you can see it.


Sunday night (last night) I had the worst moment of my life. We went over to a part members house to have a lesson. The young couple has a kid and are living with the guys parents who are also members. We were teaching the young couple and everyone else was in the backroom. We were just about to finish up the lesson when the grandpa comes running in with his one year old granddaughter in his arms (baby of the people we are teaching) and screaming the whole time. In about 1 second we realize that the baby has stopped breathing. The whole family started freaking out. Elder Wilkins and I most likely weren't the most calm about everything but comparison we were cool as a cucumber. Elder Wilkins tosses me the cell phone to call 911 as he and the other guy give the baby a very fast blessing. Mean while I have one of the worst connections with 911 and the operator can hardly hear me and I'm running out side to see the address on the apartment complex, because I have no idea what it is. Latter I hear that while I was on the phone the baby gasped and started to breath again. Everyone tended to the baby. And I waited out side praying so hard that everything will be ok, and then helped direct the firefighter paramedics to the right apartment number. Turns out for all you people that are nurses in the family that the baby has been having a fever. The paramedic said that sometimes when the temperature of the body gets to hot it will go into a seizure of something which gets it to cool down. I cant remember all the nice medical terms he used but that was about the just of it. They took the baby to the hospital quickly after the incident to make sure that was it. Everything is fine, but it was sure scary when it was going on. It is good to know that we are in places in the right time to be able to help out.

These are just the things that really made the weekend memorable, so much more that I don't have time to write.

With love

Elder Howell

Elder McKay

Hi Mom!

Thanks for the updates! It sounds like everyone is doing well with various races, weddings, scouts, etc. When I read your letters it sounds like I'm missing quite a bit, but then again, I also know that I'm accomplishing a lot more personally than I ever did before the mission.

I do not envy you the 17 degree weather. The one benefit I have of being 80 feet above sea level is that the temperature doesn't fluctuate a whole lot. We have gotten down as low as 45 one night, but that was only once. It's still short sleeves weather and we are loving it! Fall is a lot different here though, the leaves just go straight to brown if they change colors at all; no splendid fall colors for us. :(

Well, to be perfectly honest, this week was a big downer. Yesterday afternoon alone, we were dropped by 3 of our investigators who said they didn't want to read anymore or have us come back and we had more of the same earlier in the week. I'm not sure what's happening, but our teaching selection is very slim now. I've tried to keep a positive attitude about it all and think of it as God weeding out the non-elect so that we don't waste our time, but it is still pretty hard to have these people that you know and love tell you not to come around anymore.

Elder Fuller and I have started working with a lot more of the members trying to strengthen them, reactivate quite a few, and encourage them to invite/share the gospel with their friends, but it feels like getting cold molasses to flow out of a jar. Don't get me wrong, there are several gung ho families here that absolutely love missionaries/missionary work, but there are others that get the deer in the headlights look whenever they see the name tag. =P We do have some strong goals and plans that will carry us through the rest of the year though and we are thinking we will have 4 families baptized and 4 reactivated in the next 8 weeks. Woot!

So, more sad news. President Barry called Elder Fuller last night and told him he would be training at the start of this next transfer. Sigh. I have had an absolute blast with Elder Fuller - we are very similar and have a lot of fun, but at the same time, I have never felt more motivated to work urgently than with him. We get a lot done and his love for people just shines through. Lol, he even wanted to have his mom call you and set me up with one of his sisters for after the mission. We've become really good friends which hadn't happened with any of my previous companions - I think he's one of those people that I knew in the pre-existence or something. Anyway, so in another week he'll be gone and I'll have a new companion - my 10th in 7 months! People were already remarking when he came in that I was cycling through companions awfully fast, so if I stay in this same area, our members and investigators will have seen faces of 4 companions with me (not to mention district leaders that come with me on trade offs) within a period of 6-7 weeks!

Thanks for the scripture, Mom. It was well timed, needful, and also reminds me of Jacob 1:19 about answering the sins of the people on our own heads if we do not teach them with all diligence.

Gah! Time's up.

Lovies!

Elder M.

Elder McKay

Helllllllllllllllllloooooooooo FAMILY!

This week has been somewhat of a blur. Elder Whitby finally got his visa to Brazil cleared and he packed his bags in a rush. President screeched into the parking lot with the mission van, threw out my new companion, loaded up Elder Whitby and sped off to the airport to get him there on time. Lol, so now I'm with Elder Fuller, my 9th companion of this mission experience. He's from Sandy, UT and has been out just over a year, but is a really solid missionary and just from the past few days I can already tell that we are going to do wonderful things here in Jacksonville together. And have a blast doing it! He's also like 6'3", so he towers over everyone and makes me look like a dwarf.

Well, I attached a picture from Jessica's baptism and then one of Elder Whitby and I about 3 minutes before he left. His head is actually covering most of the area that we work in and I'm pointing to the area that some sisters in our zone are assigned to.

I would have to say the highlight of the week was yesterday afternoon when this prickly old military man that we've been visiting for several months finally expressed interest in reading the Book of Mormon. We gave him a large print edition and he started devouring it - by the time we left he was already through the introduction and the witnesses. We're hoping for a miracle and I know it's possible! There really isn't any other book like that one to change hearts.

Benji, I know exactly what you mean with the poor families. That trailer park that we are thinking of starting a branch in is loaded with them. Only one person in the entire park has a car and most are struggling to feed their families and don't have any electricity, etc. We've been able to help out a couple of them, but not nearly as much as we would like since many members of the ward are also relying on the bishop's storehouse for aid. Sigh, so we just try and teach them as best we can. Sometimes though, you need to meet their physical needs before they are open enough to allow their spiritual needs to be fed. Good luck.

Love ya!


Elder M.

Elder Ben

Greetings from Seattle!

OK this week has flown by and honestly I don't remember part of it. The weeks and months are blurring together to much. From what I remember though we have had a kind of roller coaster week. First off the women that was on date for baptism isn't on date anymore. It is an interesting situation in that she loves the church and I think she knows it is what she needs to do in her life. She just doesn't want to change her life to form to it. She has investigated the church for 2 and a half years now.....and will continue to be that (I hate to use these words but in this context it is true) "eternal investigator". Elder Wilkins and I are convinced that sometime in her life (maybe a couple of years) she will realize that wickedness never was happiness and be baptized.

As far as the mom and her 8 kids that we were teaching we really have no idea where they are right now. All we know is they moved out, and other then that we don't have any info. So if they want to continue investigating the church they will have to get in contact with us somehow. Really nice family though. I hope that they found a good place.

On the happy side of things we have a guy that is moving here from Montana this week or early next week that wants to be baptized. He has already had all of the lessons and has been attending church in Montana for the past 4 months. He says that he loves the church, and the only reason why he has waited to be baptized is he wanted to be baptized in a Spanish branch and they don't have that were he is now. We found him a place to rent with a member here, and he is excited to move. We have known about him for about a month and a half now but it seems like he is finally coming to Seattle.

Also a member family is adopting a couple of kids and they have been coming to church for about a month now. All of them love the church and the kids have even asked to go back to church later on Sunday evening. I think that we will be starting to give the lessons to one of the kids that is 9 years old.

Another good thing. We were in a really sketchy part of town Friday night checking up on a referral that we received from some other missionaries. Turns out the guy wasn't home even though we had set up an appointment. We decided to walk around and see if we couldn't find anyone to teach. I'm sure that it was the spirit telling us to do it because no person in their right mind would walk around this place at night. We ended up walking for a bit and seeing a Guatemalan bakery. We have driven by this place many times and have never seen it. It is a tiny shop stuck in between two other shops.  Literally only about 10-12 feet wide. Anyways we decided to check it out end ended up meeting the owner and his family. Turns out he had heard of the church before because his cousin that still lives in Guatemala is a member. We ended up talking to him for an hour and a half about the church and he really seemed to like it. We will see what happens with him.

Other than that, not to much to report.

Thank you for the support,

Elder Howell

Sorry Folks!

Sorry folks! I hadn't realized that I spaced posting the boys emails from last week...so you get this weeks and last weeks at the same time!:)

-Jaclyn

Elder Ben

What both the girls and boys took region cross country!?!? This is crazy new. How did Gabe do? Does it look like either of them could be a state winning team? To be honest I don't even know who is in the region now, but it sounds like everyone did great. Four in the top ten usually makes you win.

As far as the Spanish goes it is a serious roller coaster. Some days I feel like I'm doing great and catching on to most everything and then other days I feel like I cant understand anyone. As far as dreaming in Spanish I don't know, I seriously don't remember falling asleep most nights and then I just wake up and start another day. If I ever remember a dream I will tell you if it is in Spanish or English.

This week we had a sharp increase in lessons taught, but the only thing is they were mostly to members and less actives. We are trying to help this branch from slowly dissolving away and keeping people active. Over the last year there has been a huge decrease in the branch membership. Alot of people have moved because the economy is bad and they are looking for jobs. Also with only having one church building for the Spanish people to meet at it is hard for them to get to it, not many of these people have cars of means to get to church. Elder Wilkins and I look at a pretty large In-active list every week and decide who we can work on to get to church.

Good news is our on date is still on date! We are headed over there tonight to have a lesson and see if she has been able to pray about the Book of Mormon. Her baptism is coming up in two weeks...
So this week ended up on a really depressing note. Saturday we go over to an investigating family only to find out that they are in a really hard spot (we haven't had a lesson with them for about a month just because they aren't to interested in the church). This is a single mom and her eight kids, and we find out that they are being evicted from their apartment and will be out on the streets. They have no money at all and the kids haven't eaten in a day. Elder Wilkins and I along with two other elders in our zone were able round up a little food for them for the night. It was a very humbling experience to see the kids hold out their hands for the food right as we walked in the house. This family literally has nothing. Luckily I think they might have found a shelter to go Sunday night. I have seen alot of families with not very much to go around on my mission, but this definitely tops it.

We still have a couple of investigators progressing slowly and so we are continuing to work with them. We have this saying that the person most likely for baptism is the person you haven't found yet.....Elder Wilkins and I are still looking for that person/family.

Not to much new this week. Love you family and friends thank you for the support

Elder Howell

Elder Mckay

WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!! We finally conquered that Satan fellow and Jessica was baptized last night! She was so excited and was absolutely beaming when she came up out of the water. Ah, happiness! There's nothing quite like watching people change and start a REAL relationship with God. It is a very refreshing change to have God place people in your path that are truly "hungering and thirsting" after righteousness instead of just taking the gospel as a curiosity or a given. Thankfully, Bishop decided she'd waited long enough after having it postponed three times, so he confirmed her there a few minutes later. I almost forgot to take my camera since it has been sitting dormant on my shelf for so long, but luckily I remembered and we got a couple of photos after the service was over. However, I did forget to bring my camera to the library today so a picture may have to wait until next week. No worries; this forgetfullness is normal, if you recall. =P Oddly enough, I have gotten a lot better at remembering people's names now that we meet scores of them every day. You get some really unique ones here in the inner city.... TeShawn, Shenika, Dantonio, Tavarius...the list goes on.

Anyway, now we're back to square one. Chris still wants to be baptized, but is swamped with work, kid, and caring for his mom until the beginning of November so he's kind of on hold at the moment. After we discussed the Word of Wisdom, he quit his daily coffee, but after a couple days of going dry he resorted to drinking three or four Red Bull energy drinks every day. Lol, I'm not sure how much of an improvement that is, but at least he's willing to live the letter of the law. =) At least he's not alone - a bunch of the elders out here are addicted to caffeine or energy drinks of some sort. I just use peanut butter and jelly as my energy food.

So this week was interesting. Jessica texted us from the hospital on Tuesday to let us know that they had found brain tumors (yikes!) but thankfully they were not cancerous. By Friday she was feeling well enough to meet with us again and told us she was staying positive through it all. Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference and Elder Oaks of the Twelve was present. Sunday morning was actually a very good session where the stake presidency all spoke on the atonement, living consecrated/holy lives, reaching out to others, etc. It was a good thing the talks were powerful and well presented because Jessica's perfume was providing an alternative distraction that only the whole string of fascinating talks was able to pull me out of. Grrr. My companion said the same thing, so maybe I'm not the only one that is developing missionary goggles. It's weird approaching women sometimes now. We totally have a "brotherhood" thing going on which is totally opposite of my past 5 years on the college scene.

Well, I have a bunch more to write, but the computer is telling me I have a few short seconds before it will explode and erase all my work, so that's my signal to get off.

Adios!

Elder M.

Elder Ben- Oct. 10th

Hi Family,

What?!? Brent Simmons died this last week! Man, I hate to hear that. I will agree with Mckay in saying that is is good that she has so much family around her in Manti. I don't even know what to say...

This week has been a pretty tough one. Not to much visible success with investigators. One actually dropped herself and our on date (Rosalynda) says she doesn't feel to good about November 5th as her baptism date. She says that she hasn't got that confirming witness that it is that right thing for her to do. It is a weird situation because she thinks it is true, but does very little to KNOW if it is true. We are continuing to work with her though and will see how she feels about it later on. The most success that we have actually been seeing is in the branch with members and non-actives. We have been able to re-activate a couple of people and have worked with members alot lately. The branch is small and has actually lost people over the last year (due to moving and inactivity) so there isn't to much solid leadership that people can depend on. Great thing is that the members like us, and say that we are some of the hardest working missionaries to come through this area. So we are seeing some success, but not on the baptismal side of things.

Once again McKay hit it on the head. Tracting is NOT the best way to find investigators. We figure with the 8-12% Spanish speaking population here and out of that percent only about 5% (generous right there) will actually be interested in what we have to say...ya, we have to knock on alot of doors to find someone to teach. :) We have been trying to switch over to working trough the members to find others to teach. We have yet to see if this way will yield more results.

So something pretty sweet happened this week. We started to teach a new investigator the first lesson (he has already had the lessons but it was about 6 years ago) and he asked us to teach in English. He has been in the states awhile and knows pretty good English, but still wants to improve. So we started to teach in English....anyways...what happened is while I was talking a couple of Spanish words came to my mind and I said them before the English ones. YES!!! Maybe my brain is starting to switch to Spanish!!! :)

Yes, sports were banned. After two people went home within a week of each other last year (one being my companion) the MP decided that it wasn't wise to allow sports. At least we have personal workouts in the morning. Alecia and Jacklyn sent me a jump rope so that should help out as well. The only sporty thing that I have done is toss a football around with one of the kids in the branch....

Sounds like a fun weekend with having Jacob and Daniel down. Not sure about the snow though...hopefully it warms up again so you can finish off the cross country and soccer meets with nice weather. It has been a little bit colder here and has rained everyday recently but still not cold enough to use a jacket.

Well not to much crazy exciting stuff to report this week. Thank you for your letters! The work continues.

Elder B

Elder McKay-Oct. 10th

Message body

Hi Mom,

Brent Simmons is gone, huh? Somehow, I always pictured him as the more adventurous sort and he did love planes so maybe this was a better way for him to go than any other. It's probably a good thing that Cindy has all of her family living close by in Manti to rally around her at a time like this though. Now Gabe and Joe won't have anyone to go pester on Sundays...

Well, Satan was definitely hindering the work this week. Jessica was super excited and pumped for her baptism, passed the interview with flying colors on Friday and then yesterday came and we get a text during sunday school that she is feeling super ill and had to go to the hospital just a few hours before her baptism. Elder Whitby and I immediately jumped in the car and headed over to her place to give her a blessing, but she was not available, so we returned to the church only to find that we had gotten a screw through a tire. We found ourselves missing priesthood class to change a tire in the rain. Once again, her baptism has been postponed for a week. She was super bummed that it didn't happen this weekend and asked us to set it up again as soon as possible, so at least we know she's not avoiding it or something.

Elder Whitby and I also worked diligently all week, but our bad luck from last weekend continued with us and we ended up with a guestimated 2/70 (2 successes out of 70 appointments) for the entire week. We've become master appointment setters, but we haven't actually had any teaching experience this week which isn't helping my new companion any with getting into the missionary groove. I've also decided that tracting and "talking with everyone" are the least effective ways of finding new people. We'll definitely be looking into different methods this next week.

Jacob, thanks for the photo of Eli's wedding! He didn't look too nervous in that one so perhaps those wound up nerves that mom told me about had calmed down by then. Somehow that seems really odd to me - I can understand nervousness, but if you are wanting to marry a gal, should you really be scared to death? Reminds me of Sam Brown... =P

A softball to the face also does not sound like a good way to prep for a wedding! Grandma was saying that the bruises, etc should be disappeared by the time the wedding rolls around, but that does sound like it's only a short time away. Hopefully everything will turn out well.

Well, time is short once again. The other elders are bugging me to go to zone p-day where the elders play rugby and ultimate frisbee. I really can't believe Benji's MP has banned sports. ???? Lol, maybe you should point out that section in the white handbook regarding playing sports on p-day.... ;)

Love ya'll!

Elder M.

Elder Ben Photos

Elder Benjamin

Hello family!

What is up with this news of Manti having a chance of taking region in cross country!!! This is crazy!!! Who even is in the region now? Sounds like both the boys and girls teams are doing great. Gabe keep up the good work. Try and put in a couple extra runs outside of practice and maybe you could take region :) I also want to hear about you dating machine experiences that should be coming up....Happy Late Birthday!!! I actually did remember your birthday, but that wasn't Pday so I couldn't write you.

Joe sounds like your soccer team has an impressive record for this season. Keep it up over the tournament. Taking 3rd at the 5k was also impressive. Way to represent you two!

Well first off for transfers.....I wasn't transferred. It was looking like there was a high likelihood of me being transferred. On transfer night the zone leaders even called me and told me that they had got the call that I would be transferred out of the zone. Then about 10 minutes later they called back and said that president had switched his mind and that I would be staying were I was with Elder Wilkins for another transfer. Yep, that's right, I will still be in the same area. That is an on going theme with the Spanish program though. Several of the other Spanish elders have been in there areas for almost 8 months. So maybe I still have a couple of more transfers were I am. The Spanish program out here has been really funky since I arrived. First off there was going to be another elder Spanish speaking that would arrive in Seattle the same day as me, but he went home when he was in the MTC. So that made an uneven number of Spanish elders out here. What they ended up doing for the last two transfers is grafting in an English elder to learn Spanish. Only problem is is that English elder just ended his two years yesterday and left, making us with yet another time with an uneven number of missionaries. What they ended up doing now is scrapping one (of the five) Spanish areas, and then sending a Spanish elder to a English speaking area. The elder that got transferred English was one of the most experienced and best Spanish speakers out here...I guess you never know if you Spanish calling is safe out here. We are now down to only 8 elders that are Spanish speaking in the whole mission, and a couple of their areas are looking worse then the one I am in (as far as investigators to teach). Not to sure of the future of the program, but supposedly we are getting more Spanish Elders in a couple transfers.

Rosalynda is still on date for the 5th of November. That is still a month away so you never know what could happen. You are right though mom, in this area commitment really isn't enough. We just need to stick with it until the baptism date comes around. We try and see her often though so we can answer her questions about the Book of Mormon and make sure she is still progressing. She came to a session of general conference and really loved it! So for right now she is progressing great. Speaking of general conference, I watched all of it but one session in Spanish! I didn't understand everything 100% so I will definately be getting the Ensign next month to read over the talks. The parts that I could really understand were great though!!!

Best of luck with all of the wood splitting. That is actually a fun chore now that I look back on it. I wouldn't mind having a few logs to split right now. I really haven't noticed to much of a change in fall. The mornings are a little colder, but that's about it. All the trees here are evergreens and so I don't see much difference in color around :)

Elder Howell

McKay - Transfer 5, week 1

Hi Mom! (and family)

Well, I thought I'd received inspiration that I would be leaving the area, but apparently President Barry remembered his promise to keep me here for a while and transferred Elder Bennion instead. My new companion is Elder Whitby from the tri-cities area in Washington. Cool thing though....he's an Aggie! Booyah! We have a lot of Utah State pride going on right now in our apartment and have practically convinced one of the other elders from Oregon to come to USU with us in the future. :) Elder Whitby is actually just waiting for his visa to Brazil to clear, so we're anticipating that he'll only be with me a few weeks. But who really knows. With stories he's told me of visa issues, it could be a while yet. It's so fun to watch his "greenie fire" at work. We picked up a couple of new investigators this week and he's already planning their baptisms. I guess I've just become too cynical over the past few months, so I no longer count my chickens before they hatch, but it's a lot easier to set a date with someone than to actually see it through. The other elders keep joking about how he'll be getting fungus in Brazil from standing in baptismal fonts too long. Hopefully that's how it works out for him, but here we have a tough time getting one every few weeks/months.

Wednesday, after transfer meeting, E. Whitby and I were biking and it was a particularly hot and humid day - he was dying! (I've acclimated so I got to chuckle and bike faster to make him keep up. Hehehe! ) Anyway, after that day though, the weather suddenly changed and ever since then it has actually felt like autumn! We're down around 75-85 most days and it feels great! People tell me that autumn here only lasts a week or two though and then just plummets into the cold season, so I guess we'll find out.

Unfortunately, the bishop requested that Jessica's baptism be postponed till next week. He didn't want it to take place over conference weekend because he was afraid no one would show up, so we pushed it back till this coming Saturday. Woot! She's so excited though and it's really been quite the trip for us to see it. This experience with her has been a total breath of fresh air and is putting new vitality back into our work.

The weekend was pretty slow. We watched a lot of TV (conference) and ate an insane amount of food with members between each session, but otherwise not much happened Saturday and Sunday. Elder Whitby and I did work hard during the time we had, but for some reason, only one of the scheduled appointments/lessons actually went through.

It sounds like all is going well back at home. I am picturing Gabe being quite the dating machine, but he always did have quite a bit of bravado. Hopefully he can pull it off and become far more smooth than his older brothers were at his age. (Though, I will admit, Benji was a lot more on top of things than Daniel, Jake, and I...) With all of this wood cutting, he'll be bulking up those arms too! Hard to believe that Landen doesn't remember you after only a month away, but he is quite young. They'll just have to visit you more often to make sure that the kids know who you are. Have you thought of using Skype? That program is still one of my all-time favorite inventions. =D

Give Eli my congratulations this weekend.

Love ya'll!
Elder M.