Goodbye to South Carolina

Big news!  I'm being transferred...again.  I was not so joyful to hear that news; I've really loved it here in Beaufort county.  South Carolina will definitely be a future vacation destination.  Happy Birthday,Jake!  I was going to send you this cool flag with the palmetto moon combined with the confederate cross for your birthday, but the stores are all sold out of them right now and won't have more until I'm gone.  Perhaps I should send you a window sticker instead: "Salt Life" and that palmetto moon symbol are EVERYWHERE out here and it's a piece of the culture that I find amusing.

Well, this weekend has been somewhat stressful.  We got volunteered to do a bunch of service for CAPA (Child Abuse Prevention Association) for an awareness event and race they had. They had Elizabeth Smart come out to speak and start off the run and a lot of the members and other people were really excited to meet her. Elder Bishop knew her in the MTC when they were both starting their missions. Elder Cancel was kind of bummed that we never stuck around long enough after our service to see her.  Lol, her story is kind of a weird one to be a celebrity for;  I would hate for people to know me for something like that.

So Saturday morning we were up at 5 to help setup for that race, and then we had an Open House and Movie Night that we were hosting at the church to try and get non-members to come see what we're all about. We did a church tour with each auxiliary and the Bishop explaining what they do and then showed Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. It was a minor success -- we had a few non-members come, gave away several copies of the Book of Mormon, and picked up some new referrals. We were cleaning up at about 8:45 and a member of the Bishopric approaches us. "Hey elders, our speakers for tomorrow had an emergency so we're moving missionary Sunday from the 5th week to tomorrow.  We need you to speak."  Some notice!  Elder Cancel, the ward mission leader, and I were selected to be the featured item the next morning. By the time we got in, planned, got transfer calls, etc, we didn't have time to prepare, so we just prayed real hard and went to bed.
Couldn't sleep very well though; I was stressed about being transferred and had a lot of memories and experiences running through my mind, so by the time morning came, I was exhausted from two nights in a row of little sleep.  Parris Island services in the morning were wonderful - I love those Marine recruits! By the time we got back to the regular ward, sacrament meeting had already started and I had about 20 minutes to think of some scriptures and experiences and throw it all together.  Surprisingly, I spoke for 20 minutes on having love as the motivating factor behind missionary work and had a lot more I wanted to share, but the time was up.  Ha! Contrast that with my farewell talk when I struggled to reach 12 minutes. =P  I guess being a missionary really does teach you to "open your mouth and it shall be filled."

We're ending the transfer strong though. The investigator who approached us that P-day is listening to the Book of Mormon audio at a rapid rate and has a huge thirst to learn.  I guess the possibility of dying at any moment awakens one's desire to know things of an eternal nature. He doesn't have a date yet; the family is working out when they can come from Arizona to be there.  We also plan on setting two more dates tonight and tomorrow, so Elder Cancel and his new companion should have some good things to build off of.

Ben, I loved your quote about shooting fish in a barrel with a rocket launcher.  Haahaha, perhaps Mom is right - you just need to bite the bullet and become the branch president.

Jake, I don't know why you like shrimp so much. They're everywhere here!  I call them "sea bugs" with all the little legs dangling.... (shudder) I dunno, I guess I'm just not such a big fan of sea food. Elder Craynor likes to make fun of me for that.

Love ya!

Elder M.

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Need a Branch in Auburn

Hola,

Yep, can't even say that tax day crossed my mind.  I will have to eat two slices of cake to make up for the fact that I missed it. :)

 I do remember Elder Doane, but I didn't ever get to know him as well as Elder Chow or Elder Smith.  I do remember the day that he came into the mission though. Alecia, if you want to get out of the cold, I don't think that Logan is the place to be moving .  I'm sure it will be warm during the summer, but nothing like AZ.  Have you found a job up there yet?

Daniel way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  USU athlete of the week and WAC athlete of the week!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOP WOOP. I guess Jacob's theory has now been proven that having a girlfriend does increase speed on the track.  Michael Scott is on a mission and Rollin is training him?!  That is pretty funny.  I can imagine that that could be kind of interesting to find out you would train someone you already knew.  I am glad that Tylek decided to serve.  When I left he wasn't to sure if he was going to.

 

Well, this week has been pretty successful.  There really isn't a problem finding people down here at all.  A quote from Elder Wilkins this week was that "Auburn is like shooting fish in a barrel will a rocket launcher."  Really easy to find people. The hard part is getting them to come to church.  Who wants to go to church when you are surrounded by a bunch of people you can't understand and you have to listen to a translator through a head set, and when there are usually only a half dozen people that you associate with?  It is one of those which comes first the chicken or the egg questions.  To form a group/branch we need people and to get people we need to form the branch so they will feel comfortable. In the past 4 weeks, I have put more people on date than the rest of my misson combined, but the problem is keeping them.  We did have a really good first lesson with a lady and her husband on Saturday and we invited them to come to church.  Unfortunately, the husband had to work, but the lady ended up coming for all 3 hours.  She does speak a little bit of English though, and so I am sure she felt a little more comfortable being there.

A pretty big downer this week is that one of our investigators took up drinking a beer a day.  So get this, he had kidney stones and so he went to the doctor. The doctor said drink a beer a day and jump rope for 3 months and that should dissolve and dislodge the kidney stones.  What?!?!?!?  He said he hates beer, but if it is good for his health he will drink it.....ya, he has been taught the Word or Wisdom multiple times.

Pretty good week and there are even more things, but I am running out of time.

Love ya all,

Elder B.

Don't Judge a Book...

Gah!  I only have about 15 minutes total today to skim read my emails, reply, and also report numbers and write a letter to Pres. Barry!

First off, congrats to Daniel on another stellar weekend!  What's next, the Olympics?  Howell Power!

Bahaha, Lou, you're going to be cold for a long time if you are thinking of Phoenix the whole time you spend in Utah. Learn to love the icicles....  =P  JK, Logan is close distance from two hot springs that kept me alive during the winter months.  Make sure your chosen apartment complex has a good reputation for a hot water heater too. ;)

Mom, yes, my legs are quite a bit bulkier from biking all the time. Most of what we have is flat lands in Florida and the coastal areas, so I haven't put on extreme mass in my thighs, but yes, I definitely fill out my pant legs a lot better than a year ago.   I also really enjoyed the quote you included; who is The Bhagavad-Gita, though?

Two stories of this week: I saw a few dolphins sounding in the waves of the Beaufort River as we crossed the bridge to Parris Island early Sunday morning.  That was pretty cool.

Elder Cancel and I were biking along Ribaut Rd at dusk one day when we saw two women a couple hundred feet off the road walking through a parking lot. One of them looked at us and waved. I waved back, but kept on biking for two reasons 1) we had somewhere to be and 2) she was dressed like a hooker and it looked like she was beckoning us over for potential business. For some reason I glanced back over my shoulder and saw her still looking at us; when she saw that she waved again and the Spirit told me to stop and go back. (Urgh, immodesty is everywhere in this heat.) So I hit my brakes, nearly causing Elder Cancel to wreck, and we went back. It turns out that Elder Bezzant and I had actually talked with her briefly before back in February and set an appointment, but then she had said she wasn't interested when we arrived the next day. However, her heart had changed in the meantime and she now wanted to learn more. The other woman she was with was her older sister who has a husband and five kids and they too wanted to learn what we have to share. They devoured the few chapters in 3 Nephi we left for them that night and are now some of our most promising investigators. So, moral of the story, even hooker ladies need the gospel and we can't judge the heart based on the outward appearance. (1 Sam 16:7)  Sigh.  It is a whole lot easier to teach ghetto bums, druggies, etc than it is someone who isn't dressed though.

We had another experience where someone approached us last P-day and said, "are you missionaries?"  "Yep, that's us." "Good, I've been wanting to see you for a while. When can I be baptized?"  We've got to take the bishop with us to our next appointment, but hopefully he'll be baptized this upcoming week. It's crazy like that - we can work hard all day and teach as much as we want, but God knows who's hearts are truly prepared and often throws us little miracles like that to show us that it's really His work, not ours.

I spend a brief amount of time on Facebook most every day.  Most of what I do goes on in private messages between me and my investigators and contacts.  Some of the Elders and Sisters are really good at networking and finding new people to teach online, but for me it works best mainly as an assist to my regular teaching.  I can send them scripture verses, videos, or links to other church resources that help reinforce the ideas and principles we've taught them.

I love you all. I hope your mid-April has been fantastic.

Elder M.

Easter in Washington

Hey!!!

Well it sounds like everyone is doing great. Glad to hear that McKay is alive and well.  I loved the pictures McKay!!! Haha, Batman style. It seems like you use your camera a bit more than me....maybe I should get on that so I actually can remember people/places in my mission. Daniel way to go on beating your PR. I was a little confused on how you can place ninth and end up being ranked 4th. Sounds like you did amazing though. 4th in the nation sounds pretty good to me.

Jacob is tearing it up on the selling side of things as well.  Jacob are you still thinking about buying an apartment complex to rent to college students?

This past week has been a pretty up and down one...in the weather and the work.  First of the week was like 35-40 degrees raining and just cold. Then Saturday and Sunday it was 75 degrees and hardly any clouds. It felt great!!! The town of Auburn seemed to come alive when the sun was out. Just more people out and about.

The first of the week my companion and I were really seeing a lot of success, and it lasted even until Saturday night. We were out finding and inviting and by the end of the week had 8 investigators with baptismal dates. It was amazing to see and we were really blessed this past week. Unfortunately, some of them did not make it to church this past Sunday and so we had to take them off date, but we are going to still continue to work with a lot of them. God is great!!! We saw many miracles this last week.  Not sure how long I will be in this area though so I am trying to make the most of it. We just got word this past week that we will not be getting an new missionaries into the mission for another 4 months or so. So in a couple of months when Elder Mitchell finishes his mission, we will have an odd amount of Spanish missionaries again, and they will have to close an area. Not sure what is going to happen yet...  Our mission is super young though. about 75% of the missionaries have been out for under 9-10 months. Maybe that is why they are waiting to send in more, but not really sure.

Had a couple of cool exchanges this past week.  One with the English elders in our ward.  I went to the English side of things for a day and, of course, we had to plan a bike route for the day that goes up a huge hill.  Haha, I haven't been on a bike forever. Lucky for me, I did not have a heart attack and even made it to the top without stopping. It was pretty fun biking around for a day though.

I also went on an exchange with another set of Spanish elders.  I was able to go back to Seattle. It was pretty cool seeing some of the branch members that I haven't seen in a long time. Also taught a sweet lesson to a man in Seattle who is really been enjoying learning about the church.  He loves everything about it and it was fun to meet him.

Well not much else for this week.

Love ya all!
Elder B.

Easter Baptism in SC

Yesterday....was wonderful!  I love Easter.  Elder Cancel and I were out biking around the backcountry of Lady's Island after church and we had people honking at us left and right, people leaning out the windows to yell "Happy Easter", and for once no one was cursing at us!

We also started off the day bright and early with an Easter baptism.  Wow, that was powerful!  This gal was very ready and just absolutely beaming. The water was warm too!  We missionaries were asked to sing a musical number and I always love an opportunity to do that.  On the downside, the Bishop was there and now wants us to do a repeat in Sacrament meeting in a couple weeks. (Yikes!)  There's a big difference between singing for 20 people at a baptism and 250 people from a podium.

That night, all four of us elders in the district had dinner with our favorite family in the ward. He joined the church about a year ago, but she's was pretty against it.  Over the last month or so, she has softened quite a bit and has been reading the Book of Mormon chapters we give her and seems to like them a lot. She chose a baptismal date last night as well, so all around, Easter was a very good day.

On the downside, transfers are looming near and I'm thinking I might be a likely target for moving. I've been here three transfers already, but it's a good area.  The low country of South Carolina is incredible!  I love the accent that the locals have. The Gullah/Geechie culture and language on the islands is still pretty much unintelligible to me, but we know a Catholic guy who loves us and volunteered his services any time we need a translator.  =)

Benj, biking is a LOT more fun than the car!  (except in the humid, sticky summer heat)  You get to meet many more people while getting your daily workout at the same time!  I'm glad you enjoyed your experience of the day while powering it up those hills!

Daniel, WAY TO GO!  Nationally 4th!  I think you pretty much just asserted Howell awesomeness for the next 50 generations.  How many more races do you have before the end of the running season?

Well, I love you all.  Till next time!

Tschüss!
McKay

Pictures from Washington!

Elder Benjamin sent about 200 pictures to me this week!

 Unfortunately, I can't post all of them but here are a few (:

 ~Alecia

Investigator Record in Auburn

Hey Fam,

Uuummm, so I am kind of wondering about McKay also....what happened to that kid? Kind of weird to just drop off the face of the earth like that.  Oh well, I guess if anything serious happened to him that you would be contacted by the church.

Alecia, USU is amazing...well actually I can't really say that because I didn't attend it. But we did have some crazy adventures and laughs in Logan that are unforgettable.

Gabe, did you bike with a big backpack on? Or was it just day biking trips with you coming back to the same camp every night?  Whatever it was, it sounds like a blast!

Well, this week for me was really a pretty good one. We had a lot of good things happen and the work took a sharp spike in the right direction.  We were able to find (or were given referrals from other missionaries in the area) several new people to teach and ended up putting 7 people on date for baptism in the week.  They are all not 100% solid, but the fact that they have thought about learning more about the church is a good thing. The point is, the work was going in a good direction. We found more new investigators this week than any other week in my mission and saw a lot of good things happen.

One investigator was able to come to 3 of the sessions of conference and really enjoyed it.  This is seriously a great ward to be in for missionary work. The english elders are really tearing it up also and have had 3 baptisms the past week. The ward is very missionary minded (only wish we had some people that could speak spanish).

I may be getting a little more exercise recently due to the fact that we live right across the street from the church and every morning we wake up and go play basketball with the english elders in the gym. Somehow the idea came along to play "lightning" or "knockout" from half court so that we would get some running in...and that we have. Amazingly after a week of shooting from half court we are seeing improvement with accuracy and can get really close or even make the shots.

I got your package with the HLJ (Haz Lo Justo) rings on Saturday. I know of several kids that will really enjoy them. Thank you.

Well not much else for this week. Love ya all,

 Elder B.