ARIZONA
Monday, December 27, 2010
Christmas Phone Call from Daniel
On Christmas we all got an opportunity to speak with Daniel. He sounded
great! We are proud of him and all of his great work! Keep making us
proud Daniel!!!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
1st Week in Yuma
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:04:11 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
So this email is coming late this week... 1 day late because yesterday, my regular p-day, I had to take a very long car ride after transfer meeting.. to YUMA!
So yeah, I dont really know what to say about my last week in chandler.. EXCEPT ELDER LESH AND I BAPTIZED TWO PEOPLE! Rembember how we took over another missionaries area? Well, the first day we had it, a member called us and said he had someone for us to teach. We go by, and teach him a little bit, come back the next day and his friend is there too. They've both been going to church with this family for a while, and we baptized them last saturday. It was super funny. This whole family and these two kids that practically live with them are all so funny and goofy. But it was a great experiance for them to come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We confirmed them on sunday as well. And then their friends, the family's two brothers, had to bear their testimony in Church and they both were crying, which made Brandon and Zack start to cry and they were all embarased because they're teenagers and it was funny. Then during someone elses talk, she started telling this story about Jesus that someone wrote and Brandon was like, "oh no, here it comes again" and stuck his hands over his face. It was hilarious.
Lets see... what else.
Oh, we also started teaching another person in that same ward, who was dating an older member. He wanted to join the church and marry her. We made sure he was spiritually ready, and then put him on date for baptism for Christmas day. He was so excited. He's a funny guy too. He used to be a marine, then was a bum for 7 years and then got involved with a born-again church that helped him out a lot and he got back on his feet and got a good job in Arizona, and now has a house and two cars. He sees "Mormonism as his next step in his progression, like he's been led here his whole life" hahaha. He's awesome. But I'll miss the baptism now that I'm in Yuma, and not Chandler...
Oh speaking of, my adress in Yuma is:
Elder Daniel Feller
1600 W 12th st #1323
Yuma AZ, 85364
So at least for the next couple weeks you can send christmas packages and letters there, because the mission office is going to be booked! But its ok, whichever still works. And after like.. 4-5 weeks, start sending stuff back to the mission home. I appriciate all the Christmas presents and all the letters and everything I've recieved thus far! It means a lot that people still remember me... because I'm going on 5 months pretty soon!
HOLY CRAP ITS RAINING IN YUMA RIGTH NOW! That means lettuce will be super good this year, because Yuma produces 90% of the worlds lettuce...
Anyways, Uh, not much else happened. I ran into an Anti guy I met a while ago, again. He said Nephi was a murder and a bearer of false witness and God would never tell him to do that. We told him to read the old testament, and gave him some examples of God using the rightous to bring judgement on the wicke.... hahaha. Then he held up his phone that he was looking up bible scriptures on and said, "what do you think this is!?" and Elder Lesh said, "thats a word search." BOOM! We handeled it well but he still left being stupid. I told him if he wouldn't pray and ask God about the Book of Mormon, and not question some 20 year old kids on the street then we can do nothing for him and walked away.
The End!
NEXT WEEK!: Hear more about my adventures in Yuma!
Love Elder Feller
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
So this email is coming late this week... 1 day late because yesterday, my regular p-day, I had to take a very long car ride after transfer meeting.. to YUMA!
So yeah, I dont really know what to say about my last week in chandler.. EXCEPT ELDER LESH AND I BAPTIZED TWO PEOPLE! Rembember how we took over another missionaries area? Well, the first day we had it, a member called us and said he had someone for us to teach. We go by, and teach him a little bit, come back the next day and his friend is there too. They've both been going to church with this family for a while, and we baptized them last saturday. It was super funny. This whole family and these two kids that practically live with them are all so funny and goofy. But it was a great experiance for them to come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We confirmed them on sunday as well. And then their friends, the family's two brothers, had to bear their testimony in Church and they both were crying, which made Brandon and Zack start to cry and they were all embarased because they're teenagers and it was funny. Then during someone elses talk, she started telling this story about Jesus that someone wrote and Brandon was like, "oh no, here it comes again" and stuck his hands over his face. It was hilarious.
Lets see... what else.
Oh, we also started teaching another person in that same ward, who was dating an older member. He wanted to join the church and marry her. We made sure he was spiritually ready, and then put him on date for baptism for Christmas day. He was so excited. He's a funny guy too. He used to be a marine, then was a bum for 7 years and then got involved with a born-again church that helped him out a lot and he got back on his feet and got a good job in Arizona, and now has a house and two cars. He sees "Mormonism as his next step in his progression, like he's been led here his whole life" hahaha. He's awesome. But I'll miss the baptism now that I'm in Yuma, and not Chandler...
Oh speaking of, my adress in Yuma is:
Elder Daniel Feller
1600 W 12th st #1323
Yuma AZ, 85364
So at least for the next couple weeks you can send christmas packages and letters there, because the mission office is going to be booked! But its ok, whichever still works. And after like.. 4-5 weeks, start sending stuff back to the mission home. I appriciate all the Christmas presents and all the letters and everything I've recieved thus far! It means a lot that people still remember me... because I'm going on 5 months pretty soon!
HOLY CRAP ITS RAINING IN YUMA RIGTH NOW! That means lettuce will be super good this year, because Yuma produces 90% of the worlds lettuce...
Anyways, Uh, not much else happened. I ran into an Anti guy I met a while ago, again. He said Nephi was a murder and a bearer of false witness and God would never tell him to do that. We told him to read the old testament, and gave him some examples of God using the rightous to bring judgement on the wicke.... hahaha. Then he held up his phone that he was looking up bible scriptures on and said, "what do you think this is!?" and Elder Lesh said, "thats a word search." BOOM! We handeled it well but he still left being stupid. I told him if he wouldn't pray and ask God about the Book of Mormon, and not question some 20 year old kids on the street then we can do nothing for him and walked away.
The End!
NEXT WEEK!: Hear more about my adventures in Yuma!
Love Elder Feller
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| A message I left for some people that we didnt see for a while. |
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| Me, Brandon, Justin, Zack, Elder Lesh. Justin Baptized his two friends on his sides |
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| They're goofy |
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| The death of Elder Lesh & I's companion ship, but not our love. |
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Daniel vs The Mesa Temple
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 11:07:48 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
This week was insane....
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
We've been super booked every night using tons of miles. We
are preparing to Baptize the two teenage guys we met last week, for
this Saturday. So I'm really excited about that. I haven't had any
baptisms yet because of my area's and stuff. Whitewashing twice and
then having a bad trainer doesn't help. But the Lord is blessing me and
Elder Lesh a lot, so I'm really excited.
But the craziest thing that happened is that Joram went back
to Kenya. He knows the Book of Mormon is true, and he wants to be
baptized now, but he didnt have time to do it here, because he wants to
have a big party after. hahaha. So he's going back to Kenya like right
now. But he's going to find the church there. And here's why. Get
ready for the craziest story of the week. We took Joram to the Mesa
Temple to see the lights and the visitors center. (Which is AWESOME and a
great missionary tool) So we're walking around the inside and Joram's
wife sits down and there are these other Kenyan people there, and they
start talking, then the all start talking in Swahili and Joram meets
all these members of the church that joined in Kenya, including one of
his own tribe, who can speak his tribal language. And me and Elder Lesh
are like, "yes, this is awesome." Then this white guy walks up and
starts talking to them in Swahili. He's a returned missionary who
served in... you guessed it- Kenya! So he's talking to all of them, and
eventually he starts to tell Joram where the Church building is in
Nairobi, the city where he lives. Apparently, its like... in walking
distance of his house. like across the street or something. So Elder
Lesh and I are freaking out in excitement because now we know he's
going to find the church there for sure. And they all celebrate, and
Joram's wife gets some new friends from Kenya to help her and support
her. And later, Joram tells us that it was no accident that all that
happened. And I agree. It was definitely a miracle. Joram is planning
on coming back to the United States to get baptized someday.... We told
him if that doesn't work out soon he needs to go do it in Kenya. But
he wants "his first missionaries to be there" hahaha. So its a way cool
story.
But speaking of the Mesa Temple, it is such a beautiful
place. We went through it today. And we've been there twice taking
investigators to the Christmas lights. If you ever have
the opportunity to go there for Christmas, do it! We are going all the
time this time of year. And during the Easter Pageant, which is hear is
also amazing.
Thats all for this week. Next week we'll have baptism pictures and all sorts of fun things!
Love,
Elder Feller
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Daniel vs Two Areas!
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 10:54:12 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
I have no idea what to say this week! Not too much happened...
... oh we only absorbed another area so we cover 5 wards and have whitewashed twice in one transfer.. new record. So we're super busy. And our area is now 20 square miles... which, p.s., is kinda huge. Which is good because we're super busy.. and bad because we're super busy. Its kinda stressful. Especially on my OCD companion. hahaha. And we were out of miles in our car for the last couple days, because we live 1.5 miles out side of our area and 5 miles to the closest residential neighborhood in our area. It was super fun to bike there on NOT my bike because the pedal fell off again! So I have to use a bike I borrowed from our Zone Leader that is super slow, hard to pedal and uncomfortable. So i'm going to get that fixed in Tempe... AGAIN. But taking over there area for at least 3 weeks isn't that bad. We had a member call us up like the first day and say, "hey I've got a kid living with me, who has been going to church a little bit and wants to hear 'the discussions' and will most likely be baptized." So we meet, teach a little bit, come back the next day and he's got another friend who has been going to church for 4 years and wants to be baptized. So we are most likely going to reach our baptismal goal of two for this transfer because of that. Our other prospects are not looking too good right now, unfortunately, and I think this is the Lord blessing us to meet our goal, because of all our hard work.
So the problems with the other two people from Africa we were going to baptize are: 1. Rosemary's work schedule got messed up royally, so we couldnt meet last saturday, like usual, and set up a date, and its been really hard to contact her. and 2. Jorem is now saying he was already baptized, and doesnt need to be again. We're working on that, we told him to pray about it last time and are going back soon.
thats pretty much it...
Love Elder Feller
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
I have no idea what to say this week! Not too much happened...
... oh we only absorbed another area so we cover 5 wards and have whitewashed twice in one transfer.. new record. So we're super busy. And our area is now 20 square miles... which, p.s., is kinda huge. Which is good because we're super busy.. and bad because we're super busy. Its kinda stressful. Especially on my OCD companion. hahaha. And we were out of miles in our car for the last couple days, because we live 1.5 miles out side of our area and 5 miles to the closest residential neighborhood in our area. It was super fun to bike there on NOT my bike because the pedal fell off again! So I have to use a bike I borrowed from our Zone Leader that is super slow, hard to pedal and uncomfortable. So i'm going to get that fixed in Tempe... AGAIN. But taking over there area for at least 3 weeks isn't that bad. We had a member call us up like the first day and say, "hey I've got a kid living with me, who has been going to church a little bit and wants to hear 'the discussions' and will most likely be baptized." So we meet, teach a little bit, come back the next day and he's got another friend who has been going to church for 4 years and wants to be baptized. So we are most likely going to reach our baptismal goal of two for this transfer because of that. Our other prospects are not looking too good right now, unfortunately, and I think this is the Lord blessing us to meet our goal, because of all our hard work.
So the problems with the other two people from Africa we were going to baptize are: 1. Rosemary's work schedule got messed up royally, so we couldnt meet last saturday, like usual, and set up a date, and its been really hard to contact her. and 2. Jorem is now saying he was already baptized, and doesnt need to be again. We're working on that, we told him to pray about it last time and are going back soon.
thats pretty much it...
Love Elder Feller
Friday, November 26, 2010
This week was pretty awesome, to say the least
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2010 11:02:38 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
On Sunday they asked us to teach Gospel Principles at the last minute. So we teach on Alma 7 and talk about the Atonement a whole lot. We had two investigators there. So after we taught a super spiritual lesson, one of the investigators, who we already talked about Baptism with, came up to us after and said she wants so bad to be baptized, that everything we said made her feel like this is what she needed, and she didn't want to have to wait for her family to come into town anymore, but she still is. So we're probably going to have a baptism in like.. two weeks or so. THEN! The other investigator there, Jorem, the Kenyan guy, was also really touched by the lesson, and that night we took him to Tempe to the Mission President's Fireside. President Howes gave a good talk about how we're all children of our Heavenly Father. After we were making our way through the crowd and Jorem was having a great time meeting all these other missionaries. One of them asked him if he was a member of the Church and he said, "No, but I am becoming one, I just need to be baptized!" and me and Elder Lesh were silently freaking out in excitement. Then the missionary asked him, "Oh, so when are you getting baptized?" and Jorem said, "When Elder Lesh asks me! or would you like to set a day right now?" and the missionary got all excited and was about to do it but Elder Lesh stepped in and said we should confirm with his wife. Then Jorem met President Howes, and we dropped him off at home, while he talked about finding the church when he goes back to Kenya. It was so awesome! Then, the next day we took him to the Mesa Temple Visitors Center, and he got to see the temple, and go around the visitors center, and watch the Joseph Smith movie. Then he was looking at some exhibits and the guy asked if we were the missionaries who wanted to see if we could watch the Joseph Smith movie in Swahili, and when we told him we were he went and got us a Swahili book of Mormon and we gave it to Jorem. He was so happy! We never even thought about getting him one because we totally could have, but his bible is in English and he speaks English just fine. But on the car ride home he didnt say a word, he was just tearing through that Book of Mormon. The next day he told Elder Lesh he knew it was true, but I was on exchanges at the time with the Spanish Missionaries! Which was also super fun. I got to listen to Elder Miguel, a missionary temporarily reassigned to Arizona while waiting for a Visa to Mexico, teach a whole first lesson in Espanol and I followed along! Even though I couldn't add anything. But yeah, the whole day was pretty fun. Its been a good week, and we have 3 Thanksgiving dinners tomorrow! Oh my goodness...
Talk to you later,
Heart, Elder Feller
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
On Sunday they asked us to teach Gospel Principles at the last minute. So we teach on Alma 7 and talk about the Atonement a whole lot. We had two investigators there. So after we taught a super spiritual lesson, one of the investigators, who we already talked about Baptism with, came up to us after and said she wants so bad to be baptized, that everything we said made her feel like this is what she needed, and she didn't want to have to wait for her family to come into town anymore, but she still is. So we're probably going to have a baptism in like.. two weeks or so. THEN! The other investigator there, Jorem, the Kenyan guy, was also really touched by the lesson, and that night we took him to Tempe to the Mission President's Fireside. President Howes gave a good talk about how we're all children of our Heavenly Father. After we were making our way through the crowd and Jorem was having a great time meeting all these other missionaries. One of them asked him if he was a member of the Church and he said, "No, but I am becoming one, I just need to be baptized!" and me and Elder Lesh were silently freaking out in excitement. Then the missionary asked him, "Oh, so when are you getting baptized?" and Jorem said, "When Elder Lesh asks me! or would you like to set a day right now?" and the missionary got all excited and was about to do it but Elder Lesh stepped in and said we should confirm with his wife. Then Jorem met President Howes, and we dropped him off at home, while he talked about finding the church when he goes back to Kenya. It was so awesome! Then, the next day we took him to the Mesa Temple Visitors Center, and he got to see the temple, and go around the visitors center, and watch the Joseph Smith movie. Then he was looking at some exhibits and the guy asked if we were the missionaries who wanted to see if we could watch the Joseph Smith movie in Swahili, and when we told him we were he went and got us a Swahili book of Mormon and we gave it to Jorem. He was so happy! We never even thought about getting him one because we totally could have, but his bible is in English and he speaks English just fine. But on the car ride home he didnt say a word, he was just tearing through that Book of Mormon. The next day he told Elder Lesh he knew it was true, but I was on exchanges at the time with the Spanish Missionaries! Which was also super fun. I got to listen to Elder Miguel, a missionary temporarily reassigned to Arizona while waiting for a Visa to Mexico, teach a whole first lesson in Espanol and I followed along! Even though I couldn't add anything. But yeah, the whole day was pretty fun. Its been a good week, and we have 3 Thanksgiving dinners tomorrow! Oh my goodness...
Talk to you later,
Heart, Elder Feller
Friday, November 19, 2010
Another Letter from Elder Feller
I dont have too much to say this week. Just working and working. Thought I'd
send some pictures home. I'll try to send a video too but they're usually to big
to send though email...
Uh, we taught some good lessons this week, and I went on exchanges and got to hang out with a Zone Leader for a day. My companion asked a guy who wasn't even sure if he believed in God to be baptized because the spirit told him too. hahaha. It was crazy, because the spirit told me not to say anything and just let it go. And I did. We're meeting with him again tonight so I hope we can do something good. He's a really good guy, but is scared for some reason to act to come to know anything.
But yeah, my exchange was good. We walked everywhere all around his area and talked to people inviting them to the Mesa Temple Christmas Lights. Which is apparently a big deal. I'm really excited for it.
Then Yesterday because we are almost out of miles in our car and my bike decided to break, we walked to dinner. We started at one, and a mile and a half later we entered our area. then at 4 o clock we got into the neighborhood. Then they almost cancelled on us! But we talked to a lot of people. Did a little tracting, and got a ride back home from our dinner. Oh, funny story about tracting. Tracting is something a lot of missionaries in this mission refuse to do because it is ineffective and they can teach people based on referrals from members. But because my new companion likes to do it, and we don't have a massive teaching pool, we do it every once in a while. So we knock on this door and this lady answers and is like "sorry guys, we don't accept solicitors" and pointed at her no soliciting sign. Then Elder Lesh says, "Oh good, because we're not solicitors, we are not trying to sell anything, we come with a message about Jesus Christ" and then waited a while because she was so flabbergasted and then spurted out, "...well... I know Jesus" Then Elder Lesh started in again and told her that we also brought a message of Prophets and the usual missionary stuff. He invited her to learn more and to accept our message over and over and she just dodged it. Finally she said no and he said "ok, then have a good day." It was so funny because he will go until the person will actually say no, and reject our invitation. And she was so surprised and threw out a common phrase. But as long as we're inviting, we are fufilling our purpose as a missionary as stated in preach my gospel, "Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost." I know that because we have to stand and quote that every morning a long with Joseph Smith's "Standard of Truth" and Doctrine and Covenants 4. Pretty fun stuff!
So yeah I'm doing good except for a broken bike and sore feet and low miles. But hopefully I can get my bike fixed today, because we're going to Tempe for a little bit. wooo
Love Elder Feller
Uh, we taught some good lessons this week, and I went on exchanges and got to hang out with a Zone Leader for a day. My companion asked a guy who wasn't even sure if he believed in God to be baptized because the spirit told him too. hahaha. It was crazy, because the spirit told me not to say anything and just let it go. And I did. We're meeting with him again tonight so I hope we can do something good. He's a really good guy, but is scared for some reason to act to come to know anything.
But yeah, my exchange was good. We walked everywhere all around his area and talked to people inviting them to the Mesa Temple Christmas Lights. Which is apparently a big deal. I'm really excited for it.
Then Yesterday because we are almost out of miles in our car and my bike decided to break, we walked to dinner. We started at one, and a mile and a half later we entered our area. then at 4 o clock we got into the neighborhood. Then they almost cancelled on us! But we talked to a lot of people. Did a little tracting, and got a ride back home from our dinner. Oh, funny story about tracting. Tracting is something a lot of missionaries in this mission refuse to do because it is ineffective and they can teach people based on referrals from members. But because my new companion likes to do it, and we don't have a massive teaching pool, we do it every once in a while. So we knock on this door and this lady answers and is like "sorry guys, we don't accept solicitors" and pointed at her no soliciting sign. Then Elder Lesh says, "Oh good, because we're not solicitors, we are not trying to sell anything, we come with a message about Jesus Christ" and then waited a while because she was so flabbergasted and then spurted out, "...well... I know Jesus" Then Elder Lesh started in again and told her that we also brought a message of Prophets and the usual missionary stuff. He invited her to learn more and to accept our message over and over and she just dodged it. Finally she said no and he said "ok, then have a good day." It was so funny because he will go until the person will actually say no, and reject our invitation. And she was so surprised and threw out a common phrase. But as long as we're inviting, we are fufilling our purpose as a missionary as stated in preach my gospel, "Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost." I know that because we have to stand and quote that every morning a long with Joseph Smith's "Standard of Truth" and Doctrine and Covenants 4. Pretty fun stuff!
So yeah I'm doing good except for a broken bike and sore feet and low miles. But hopefully I can get my bike fixed today, because we're going to Tempe for a little bit. wooo
Love Elder Feller
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| The Snowflake temple! |
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| Me and CJ! |
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| I drove that. And tore a house down! |
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| To win his tie back, Elder Turley was wrapped to this pole, and then Elder Gunter put a Jabanero pepper in his mouth. |
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| The Karate Kid poles outside our house in Saint Johns |
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| Me and Bro Pearce before I left |
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| Elder Russ and CJ the night before we left. |
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Daniel vs Kenya
From: Eric Feller eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:31:30
"Sacramento California? ... Do they let you go home on the weekends?"
That's a quote I forgot to include last time. But it was said to me in Saint Johns. I also forgot to mention one other thing last week. My last Saturday in Saint Johns we spent all day doing service. In the morning I got to drive a huge Track-Hoe and knock down part of a house. Ill send pictures of it later. next week... I forgot my camera again!
To answer some questions: I dont know how cold it gets in Saint Johns, but I know the snow doesn't stick for very long. But its still a heck of a lot colder than in the Tempe area.
It slows down in the Winter in the mountains, but in the valley it speeds up. Because its not hot anymore, and the Mesa temple does all this visitors center stuff. Soon we'll be taking people to see the Christmas lights and go through the visitors center. Sending stuff through the mission home is still best, just because its safest and it doesn't add to much time. The AP's in our mission right now are alright.. hahaa. People make fun of the APs no matter what though. They are both spanish speaking missionaires right now. One of them is built like a rhinoceros, but is kinda clumsy. But he's a really good guy. The other is just a normal guy. He kinda looks like Klark Kent with his glasses on. He's what missionaries call an "aspire-er" because he stayed on his mission an extra transfer to be AP. But they're just kidding. Anyone who "aspires" to leadership is made fun of a lot... Its kinda like a running joke all the time. I don't know how to explain it..
So Chandler is going pretty well. We have a nice apartment and a car so I cant complain to much. But I will because the car doesn't have enough miles and this area is pretty dead because of the missionaries here before us. That and the fact that the wards are kinda hard to work with. We had a good day at church on Sunday. We ran out of one sacrament meeting in order to knock on an investigators door to remind her to go to church. She made some excuse, and we made it back just in time for the closing song. Then in one of the ward a recent convert from Kenya brought her husband to church. We talked to him and arranged to meet later that day. We showed up at the house, talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and he said " Well, if its the word of God, I'll read it." He is an awesome guy, with tremendous faith in Jesus Christ. He even helped my faith. And when we left my companion, Elder Lesh, was so excited, and he said to me "do you know who this guy is?" I came to find out that our new investigator, Jorem, was a retired Colonel in the Kenyan army who was displaced when his plantation was burned down by a waring tribe in Kenya, that his wife belongs to. He told us he escaped when the mob was within 50 meters. He is so awesome. We are seriously going to baptize him before he leaves in a week.... I think we can do that. Except the last time we went to his house he had decided to try to learn some things about the Mormon Church on the internet. So naturally, when we met with him he had a lot of questions about some stuff. We mostly talked about how he needed to seek answers from God, because that will bring him to the truth. Then his wife came in and bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and how she found her answer to know that it was true, and pretty much told him that he was going to find out that night. So then we left and were late to our dinner appointment. But it was totally worth it.
Thats pretty much the most exciting thing to happen in Chandler this week... Oh, that and the fact that while a missionary was staying with us during a big leadership meeting in Tempe, the three of us got a free portrait from as a gift from our apartment complex, posing in the same exact was at the first presidency's portrait, so in a week we'll get a 10x13 picture and we're going to hang it up in the mission office next to the picture we're imitating. Its going to be awesome!
Thats all for this week.
Love Elder Feller
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:31:30
"Sacramento California? ... Do they let you go home on the weekends?"
That's a quote I forgot to include last time. But it was said to me in Saint Johns. I also forgot to mention one other thing last week. My last Saturday in Saint Johns we spent all day doing service. In the morning I got to drive a huge Track-Hoe and knock down part of a house. Ill send pictures of it later. next week... I forgot my camera again!
To answer some questions: I dont know how cold it gets in Saint Johns, but I know the snow doesn't stick for very long. But its still a heck of a lot colder than in the Tempe area.
It slows down in the Winter in the mountains, but in the valley it speeds up. Because its not hot anymore, and the Mesa temple does all this visitors center stuff. Soon we'll be taking people to see the Christmas lights and go through the visitors center. Sending stuff through the mission home is still best, just because its safest and it doesn't add to much time. The AP's in our mission right now are alright.. hahaa. People make fun of the APs no matter what though. They are both spanish speaking missionaires right now. One of them is built like a rhinoceros, but is kinda clumsy. But he's a really good guy. The other is just a normal guy. He kinda looks like Klark Kent with his glasses on. He's what missionaries call an "aspire-er" because he stayed on his mission an extra transfer to be AP. But they're just kidding. Anyone who "aspires" to leadership is made fun of a lot... Its kinda like a running joke all the time. I don't know how to explain it..
So Chandler is going pretty well. We have a nice apartment and a car so I cant complain to much. But I will because the car doesn't have enough miles and this area is pretty dead because of the missionaries here before us. That and the fact that the wards are kinda hard to work with. We had a good day at church on Sunday. We ran out of one sacrament meeting in order to knock on an investigators door to remind her to go to church. She made some excuse, and we made it back just in time for the closing song. Then in one of the ward a recent convert from Kenya brought her husband to church. We talked to him and arranged to meet later that day. We showed up at the house, talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and he said " Well, if its the word of God, I'll read it." He is an awesome guy, with tremendous faith in Jesus Christ. He even helped my faith. And when we left my companion, Elder Lesh, was so excited, and he said to me "do you know who this guy is?" I came to find out that our new investigator, Jorem, was a retired Colonel in the Kenyan army who was displaced when his plantation was burned down by a waring tribe in Kenya, that his wife belongs to. He told us he escaped when the mob was within 50 meters. He is so awesome. We are seriously going to baptize him before he leaves in a week.... I think we can do that. Except the last time we went to his house he had decided to try to learn some things about the Mormon Church on the internet. So naturally, when we met with him he had a lot of questions about some stuff. We mostly talked about how he needed to seek answers from God, because that will bring him to the truth. Then his wife came in and bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and how she found her answer to know that it was true, and pretty much told him that he was going to find out that night. So then we left and were late to our dinner appointment. But it was totally worth it.
Thats pretty much the most exciting thing to happen in Chandler this week... Oh, that and the fact that while a missionary was staying with us during a big leadership meeting in Tempe, the three of us got a free portrait from as a gift from our apartment complex, posing in the same exact was at the first presidency's portrait, so in a week we'll get a 10x13 picture and we're going to hang it up in the mission office next to the picture we're imitating. Its going to be awesome!
Thats all for this week.
Love Elder Feller
Monday, November 8, 2010
Chuck vs Daniel
The letter from Aunt Katie
got us folks at home thinking.... Chuck and Daniel really are pretty
similar. Chuck wears a white shirt and tie. So does Daniel. Chuck has a
mission. So does Daniel. They're both funny. They're both classy.
They're both tough.
Chuck is saving the world.... so is Daniel.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Daniel vs His First Valley Assignment
From: Eric Feller <eric.feller@myldsmail.net>
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 00:07:25
So my transfer predictions were completely wrong... I'm now whitewashing another area in .... Chandler AZ! Shoot. I'm kinda sad I didnt get my six months in Saint Johns... but I'm excited to be working in this area. My new companion, Elder Lesh from Washington state, said this area is pretty dead... so I don't know how its going to work out, but I have high hopes.
Saying goodbye to everyone in Saint Johns wasn't fun though... We made some people cry. And Chad was really sad to see us go, because he liked us so much. When we told the stake president I think he could tell that we were frustrated about it and he sat us down in his office and told us that it was what the Lord wanted and that we were awesome missionaries and he would miss us, and he even got a little teary. The spirit was really strong there, and he promised Elder Russ that he would not spend only one transfer in his next area.
And it is really frustrating because neither me or Elder Russ stayed in Saint Johns, so now all our investigators have to get used to Elder Gunter, who is amazingly STILL up there, and his new companion that came out the same time as me... So in my opinion that is all bad. They still should have kept me and Elder Russ up there. Or me and Elder Gunter. Hahaha, and I'm not just saying that because I want to be up in the mountains, I'm really concerned about this area... And honestly a little concerned about how inspired these decisions were. I can say that because The Zone Leader told Elder Russ and me that if this one missionary in the zone hadn't wrecked a car, and then gotten emergency transferred to Saint Johns then a lot of stuff would be different... Elder Gunter would have left, The guy who crashed a car would have stayed, and his companion would have left, and their District Leader down in Show Low would have stayed. Now, Gunter is still there, with the whole city and a greenie I don't think the people there are going to like, Crash's companion had to become a district leader and show someone else the area so he could leave next transfer, and the district leader down there became a Zone Leader. So its really complicated but no one is happy. And I'm seriously worried about some of the investigators me and Elder Russ had. Some are really close and we both felt like we needed to get them there. So both of us are mad. And my good friend, Elder Russ is whitewashing ANOTHER area in the San Tan Zone... which is a zone that nobody wants to go to..
But I just went shopping and am all settled in at my new apartment in Chandler. Its much nicer than the Haunted Yellow Double Wide trailer in Saint Johns. But it doesn't have as much character.
I forgot my camera cord again! So no pictures this week. But mucho good ones next week.
That's all I can think of right now...
-Love Elder Feller
Part 2:
I forgot to mention that the Littlehat family broke up. She took her kids back to Wyoming. We went over there on Friday night because I got an impression while looking at our area book. He met us outside and was a little teary eyed and Elder Russ said he smelled of alcohol. He told us what happened and also said that he felt uneasy about our visits because he thought it was just a distraction for her. Which looking back on it makes sense because she never had anything to add or any questions about anything... Its sad to say but true... And now both of the missionaries he knows, his only contact with the church, are gone! This is really frustrating...
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 00:07:25
So my transfer predictions were completely wrong... I'm now whitewashing another area in .... Chandler AZ! Shoot. I'm kinda sad I didnt get my six months in Saint Johns... but I'm excited to be working in this area. My new companion, Elder Lesh from Washington state, said this area is pretty dead... so I don't know how its going to work out, but I have high hopes.
Saying goodbye to everyone in Saint Johns wasn't fun though... We made some people cry. And Chad was really sad to see us go, because he liked us so much. When we told the stake president I think he could tell that we were frustrated about it and he sat us down in his office and told us that it was what the Lord wanted and that we were awesome missionaries and he would miss us, and he even got a little teary. The spirit was really strong there, and he promised Elder Russ that he would not spend only one transfer in his next area.
And it is really frustrating because neither me or Elder Russ stayed in Saint Johns, so now all our investigators have to get used to Elder Gunter, who is amazingly STILL up there, and his new companion that came out the same time as me... So in my opinion that is all bad. They still should have kept me and Elder Russ up there. Or me and Elder Gunter. Hahaha, and I'm not just saying that because I want to be up in the mountains, I'm really concerned about this area... And honestly a little concerned about how inspired these decisions were. I can say that because The Zone Leader told Elder Russ and me that if this one missionary in the zone hadn't wrecked a car, and then gotten emergency transferred to Saint Johns then a lot of stuff would be different... Elder Gunter would have left, The guy who crashed a car would have stayed, and his companion would have left, and their District Leader down in Show Low would have stayed. Now, Gunter is still there, with the whole city and a greenie I don't think the people there are going to like, Crash's companion had to become a district leader and show someone else the area so he could leave next transfer, and the district leader down there became a Zone Leader. So its really complicated but no one is happy. And I'm seriously worried about some of the investigators me and Elder Russ had. Some are really close and we both felt like we needed to get them there. So both of us are mad. And my good friend, Elder Russ is whitewashing ANOTHER area in the San Tan Zone... which is a zone that nobody wants to go to..
But I just went shopping and am all settled in at my new apartment in Chandler. Its much nicer than the Haunted Yellow Double Wide trailer in Saint Johns. But it doesn't have as much character.
I forgot my camera cord again! So no pictures this week. But mucho good ones next week.
That's all I can think of right now...
-Love Elder Feller
Part 2:
I forgot to mention that the Littlehat family broke up. She took her kids back to Wyoming. We went over there on Friday night because I got an impression while looking at our area book. He met us outside and was a little teary eyed and Elder Russ said he smelled of alcohol. He told us what happened and also said that he felt uneasy about our visits because he thought it was just a distraction for her. Which looking back on it makes sense because she never had anything to add or any questions about anything... Its sad to say but true... And now both of the missionaries he knows, his only contact with the church, are gone! This is really frustrating...
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Daniel vs Interviews!
Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:59:35 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Hello all. I'm emailing from the wonderful land of Show Low, Arizona today because we drove into Zone HQ early this morning for zone pday. Because our ride left for Show Low at 6:30...
This week was interesting. Not too much happened. Untill monday! We got 2 new investigators. One is married to a less active lady, who is only less active because of her job. But we went to his house and met with him and talked a lot about the church. He told us he likes it and stuff, but he also see how committed people have to be. That and he's mexican and likes his beer, According to him. But he did ask us what he would have to do to join the church. Pretty cool. The other new investigator is a guy we met outside of an investigators house. He's her friend. Even though she's kinda special... He's fine, and hopefully pretty solid. A family in town has already been fellowshiping him. But being themselves, apparently don't want the missionaries getting a hold of him. They've done this a lot before. There was a girl who was really really solid, and she came to church every week, but she wouldnt meet with us because he said she wasnt ready, and she'd let us know. Now she moved. If we could've taught her we could've baptized her for sure. :(
The only other interesting thing that happened this week was interviews. President Howes came up to Show Low and we all got interviewed by him. And trained by our AP's and Zone Leaders. My interview with president was good. I didnt really know what to talk about so it was short. But he told me I know what I need to do to improve as a missionary, so just do it. Which is true. I'm also a little sick and he asked me why and I said, "oh I get sick every year when it starts to get cold." Then I realized what I just said... then he said, "oh well then we'll have to put you some place warm." Shoooot. I might get kicked off the mountains next transfer! But hopefully not. The Zone Leaders were doing transfer recommendations this morning when we got to their house, and they asked us what we wanted and we told them to keep me and Elder Russ in Saint Johns and combine the areas. So hopefully in a week we'll be in charge of the missionary work in a whole city... even if its small. hahaha. It would be a lot of fun.
I hope everyone heard about the groundbreaking of the Rome temple! And they revealed what it will look like!
Here's a link: http://tempiodiroma.chiesadigesucristo.it/en/index.html
Its pretty cool. I almost wish the architecture was more traditional Italian style. Like the Vatican and the rest of Rome and stuff... But whatever. It looks good. That will be a really cool place to go!
Gotta go,
Elder Feller.
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Hello all. I'm emailing from the wonderful land of Show Low, Arizona today because we drove into Zone HQ early this morning for zone pday. Because our ride left for Show Low at 6:30...
This week was interesting. Not too much happened. Untill monday! We got 2 new investigators. One is married to a less active lady, who is only less active because of her job. But we went to his house and met with him and talked a lot about the church. He told us he likes it and stuff, but he also see how committed people have to be. That and he's mexican and likes his beer, According to him. But he did ask us what he would have to do to join the church. Pretty cool. The other new investigator is a guy we met outside of an investigators house. He's her friend. Even though she's kinda special... He's fine, and hopefully pretty solid. A family in town has already been fellowshiping him. But being themselves, apparently don't want the missionaries getting a hold of him. They've done this a lot before. There was a girl who was really really solid, and she came to church every week, but she wouldnt meet with us because he said she wasnt ready, and she'd let us know. Now she moved. If we could've taught her we could've baptized her for sure. :(
The only other interesting thing that happened this week was interviews. President Howes came up to Show Low and we all got interviewed by him. And trained by our AP's and Zone Leaders. My interview with president was good. I didnt really know what to talk about so it was short. But he told me I know what I need to do to improve as a missionary, so just do it. Which is true. I'm also a little sick and he asked me why and I said, "oh I get sick every year when it starts to get cold." Then I realized what I just said... then he said, "oh well then we'll have to put you some place warm." Shoooot. I might get kicked off the mountains next transfer! But hopefully not. The Zone Leaders were doing transfer recommendations this morning when we got to their house, and they asked us what we wanted and we told them to keep me and Elder Russ in Saint Johns and combine the areas. So hopefully in a week we'll be in charge of the missionary work in a whole city... even if its small. hahaha. It would be a lot of fun.
I hope everyone heard about the groundbreaking of the Rome temple! And they revealed what it will look like!
Here's a link: http://tempiodiroma.chiesadigesucristo.it/en/index.html
Its pretty cool. I almost wish the architecture was more traditional Italian style. Like the Vatican and the rest of Rome and stuff... But whatever. It looks good. That will be a really cool place to go!
Gotta go,
Elder Feller.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Daniel vs Slowing Down For Winter
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:25:29 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Sorry this email is late, we were at the Snowflake AZ Temple this morning. Pretty cool.
This week was not nearly as exciting as last week. It has kinda been hard for me and my companion. Actually, for all four missionaries in Saint Johns. The town is really shutting down. The other missionaries have baptized pretty much all their investigators, and the people we were planning on baptizing this transfer have moved, or are moving. Which is really frustrating for me... Just becuase I've been out three months and feel like I havent done too much yet. I'm getting anxious! Oh man, did I just say three months!? Yeah, tomorrow, the 21'st, I'll have been on my mission for three months! That's 1/8th of the way there, and I can definitely do this seven more times.
So yeah, speaking of time flying, transfers is coming up again in 2 weeks. My prediction: They're going to recombine the whole town of Saint Johns to just two missionaries... because there's not the work for four of them anymore (and probably wasn't before). I'm thinking.. or at least hoping, that they'll have me and my companion just absorb the other side of town. But if that doesn't happen then I want to go back down to the Valley, so I can get more teaching opportunities. But I'm confident in my guessing, and I'll tell you why:
1. My companion has moved around a lot recently, and they probably wont move him after one transfer again.
2. I still know our area better than he does
3. Elder Gunter on the other side has been up in Saint Johns for 7 and a half months... so its about time for him to move. And his companion has been here a few days .... because they had to mix up some missionaries because the one we have up here totaled two mission cars and neither one of his companionship could drive.
4. I know Elder Gunter's area a little bit, because of exchanges and listening to him plan every night.
But at the same time, our Ward Mission Leader, Chad, told The Mission office that I'm now "competent"... So they might move me. So I really have no idea, But they probably will combine this area.
gaah boring boring stuff. Here's something better: We taught a really good lesson to this native american family, the Littlehat's. Hahaha. The husband wasnt there so we changed our plan. They're really promising, they really want to get to church, they're just a little busy. They'll probably be there next week. They're really golden, if we get them to church, and get them to read the Book of Mormon, they'll definitely be converted. Its hard because most of the people we already teach already know about Jesus and everything, but they don't because they grew up on an Indian Reservation.
Joe the atheist is a tough one too. We taught him an awesome lesson, and we could tell he felt the spirit, but then he did his thing where he distracts from the spirit with a history lesson! We're going to get him eventually!
We're going to Baptize an 8 year old girl pretty soon. Because she's 8 it doesn't count for the mission stats. But we are reactivating her parents... which is really good. But that doesnt count for our mission stats. We just taught her because her mom wanted her to know whats going on. But we brought the spirit to her home and so the parents are starting to come back.
Oh, I mentioned earlier that every one of the baptisms we were going to get moved. One of them we go to almost quit smoking, and we were going to baptize him right before he moved, but now he's to busy, and we haven't met with him to much.. so its not going to happen. One GOLDEN 20 year old girl we were going teach and baptize moved. It was so promising because her boyfriend got out of jail and was completely converted. He even bore his testimony in church about how to Book of Mormon helped him over come his addictions, and changed his life.She was really touched by his testimony and wants to learn now, but they moved! Then a 9 year old girl and her less active mom disappeared! They were impossible to get a hold of and now we haven't seen anyone at their house for weeks.
That's pretty much it for this week...
Love,
Elder Daniel Feller
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Sorry this email is late, we were at the Snowflake AZ Temple this morning. Pretty cool.
This week was not nearly as exciting as last week. It has kinda been hard for me and my companion. Actually, for all four missionaries in Saint Johns. The town is really shutting down. The other missionaries have baptized pretty much all their investigators, and the people we were planning on baptizing this transfer have moved, or are moving. Which is really frustrating for me... Just becuase I've been out three months and feel like I havent done too much yet. I'm getting anxious! Oh man, did I just say three months!? Yeah, tomorrow, the 21'st, I'll have been on my mission for three months! That's 1/8th of the way there, and I can definitely do this seven more times.
So yeah, speaking of time flying, transfers is coming up again in 2 weeks. My prediction: They're going to recombine the whole town of Saint Johns to just two missionaries... because there's not the work for four of them anymore (and probably wasn't before). I'm thinking.. or at least hoping, that they'll have me and my companion just absorb the other side of town. But if that doesn't happen then I want to go back down to the Valley, so I can get more teaching opportunities. But I'm confident in my guessing, and I'll tell you why:
1. My companion has moved around a lot recently, and they probably wont move him after one transfer again.
2. I still know our area better than he does
3. Elder Gunter on the other side has been up in Saint Johns for 7 and a half months... so its about time for him to move. And his companion has been here a few days .... because they had to mix up some missionaries because the one we have up here totaled two mission cars and neither one of his companionship could drive.
4. I know Elder Gunter's area a little bit, because of exchanges and listening to him plan every night.
But at the same time, our Ward Mission Leader, Chad, told The Mission office that I'm now "competent"... So they might move me. So I really have no idea, But they probably will combine this area.
gaah boring boring stuff. Here's something better: We taught a really good lesson to this native american family, the Littlehat's. Hahaha. The husband wasnt there so we changed our plan. They're really promising, they really want to get to church, they're just a little busy. They'll probably be there next week. They're really golden, if we get them to church, and get them to read the Book of Mormon, they'll definitely be converted. Its hard because most of the people we already teach already know about Jesus and everything, but they don't because they grew up on an Indian Reservation.
Joe the atheist is a tough one too. We taught him an awesome lesson, and we could tell he felt the spirit, but then he did his thing where he distracts from the spirit with a history lesson! We're going to get him eventually!
We're going to Baptize an 8 year old girl pretty soon. Because she's 8 it doesn't count for the mission stats. But we are reactivating her parents... which is really good. But that doesnt count for our mission stats. We just taught her because her mom wanted her to know whats going on. But we brought the spirit to her home and so the parents are starting to come back.
Oh, I mentioned earlier that every one of the baptisms we were going to get moved. One of them we go to almost quit smoking, and we were going to baptize him right before he moved, but now he's to busy, and we haven't met with him to much.. so its not going to happen. One GOLDEN 20 year old girl we were going teach and baptize moved. It was so promising because her boyfriend got out of jail and was completely converted. He even bore his testimony in church about how to Book of Mormon helped him over come his addictions, and changed his life.She was really touched by his testimony and wants to learn now, but they moved! Then a 9 year old girl and her less active mom disappeared! They were impossible to get a hold of and now we haven't seen anyone at their house for weeks.
That's pretty much it for this week...
Love,
Elder Daniel Feller
Letter from Aunt Katie
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
More Pictures!
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| Me rockin' the High Priest Two-tone to district meeting |
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| Me playing golf |
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| Elder Gunter playing golf |
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| So close... |
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| Teaching Seminary |
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| The Joseph Smith ring |
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| On my hand |
Daniel vs The Crazies & Pictures!
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:12:51 -0600
Subject:
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Subject:
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Soooooooo This last week was insane! A lot of weird stuff happened. I dont
even remember all of it right now. Golfing was fun last week. I borred some left
handed clubs.. We're going again today because its free, but I dont have the
clubs so I'll probably just race the cart. But there are pictures! Yes, I have
my camera this week.
We taught some cool lessons this week! There was a 8 year old girl, who's
parents are less active, but I think the mom wants to come back. I dont know
about the dad.. he seems weird about it. But we're going to ask if he would be
interested in baptizing her, maybe that will get him fired up...
Then there was "Joe the Athiest Guy." we call him that because we dont know
his last name.. But he's really nice to us. I might have mentioned him before,
but he always lets us in his house and talks to us about stuff.. And he talks a
lot! But he used to be a catholic and a bible school teacher but he became
athiest because he was going to a crazy church, people werent living what they
said, and he felt like God wasnt answering his prayers. Now he's a communist,
humanist, old single man because his wife left him a while after becoming
athiest. But he says he doesnt believe in Jesus, but you can tell he loves his
teachings and probably wants to believe in him. He talks about him with much
more respect, reverance and love than when he talks about other religions.
On thursday we're going to tackle his testimony of Jesus, and answer why
God lets bad things happen... oooh man. I know he's not going to like the
answer, because he's communist. but "Its all about free will baby" in the words
of Kolby Larsen, a college roommate.
Then last thursday we had dinner with this kinda less active guy, who we
had to go and entertain and be really nice too... but he made us really late to
our appointment with the "Littlehats" a native american family. We finaly got to
the lesson and we begged for forgiveness, and they let us in and Elder Russ
started sharing what we call "The paper cross" where you make a cross by folding
a paper and then tearing it. He forgot how to do it, but didnt want to look
stupid, so he kept going, winged it and it worked out ok. hahaha it was funny,
but they're a really nice family so we didnt look too silly... well at least
they didnt care.
THEN! On friday we did my favorite thing ever.. we taught seminary! All
day! 6 Class periods. The earliest was at 7 in the morning. pshh, not early
enough. But we had a lot of fun. We were told the classes would have a lot of
deep questions for us, so we let them each write a question on a peice of paper
and ask us. This idea wasnt as fun and succesfull as we thought... but it was
still good for some of the kids. Then we winged it from there. In 0 hour, we
taught the first lesson to the kids, but then switched it half way though to the
second lesson because a non member was in the class and asked question that
guieded the discussion that way. it was really cool. We went from the
Restoration of Christ's Gospel to The Plan of Salvation very smoothly. Then the
other classes we did different weird stuff. But the last class.. get ready
because this was really good, in the last class after we all introduce ourselves
my companion gets up and tells the whole class he has found out that the Church
isnt true, and he cant live telling people false things any more... Yeah, it got
completely silent in the room, you should have seen the looks on these kid's
faces. They all had their mouths wide open. Then Elder Gunter gets up and says,
what can we say to make Elder Russ believe again. Then he split the class into
four groups and each of them convinced one of us that the Church was true. My
group didnt really know what to do so I helped them a little bit. But they got
it, and bore testimony, and felt the spirit, and felt that I felt the spirit. So
it was an awesome class. Then we let them ask questions and they had some really
good ones. We really want to go back and help those kids more with missionary
work and stuff. Teach them what to do and how to feel the spirit. Because a lot
of those kids were just like whatever, and didnt really have a good testimony.
So hopefully the teacher will let us go back!
On Saturday I cut wood for the first time. I guess people in the country do
that to survive in the winter time... We thought some people were going to be
there but they werent. So we cut wood anyways. THEN! There was a house fire next
to someone we know really well, but we thought it was her house so we flew over
there and saw it wasnt. It was crazy though.. the craziest thing to happen in
Saint Johns in a while.
On Monday, We got the brilliant idea to go tracting east of town where all
the crazies live. We took a Ward Mission Leader with us, and he brought a gun...
and almost needed it. He got the feeling (the spirit) we should tract this one
house of this guy he's heard bad stuff about. We drove up to this RV and got out
of the car, when this lady came out, with her husband behind her, and said hi,
introduced herself and then said "You guys came at the wrong time, he has been
hitting me..." and started crying and went on and on, using some bad word I wont
repeat. We all looked at the guy and he explained that she was a little mental
and had been drinking a lot and popping his vikadin. We didnt know what to do...
but we knew something wasnt right about the situation. The guy left to go get
his mom to calm his wife down, and we just called the Sherif. 30 mins later,
they were all back and we were cleared to go. I think they took her into town to
a therapy place. I dont really know what was going on, in my opinion it was a
little bit on both sides... But I'm glad we got there in time and stopped
whatever was happening. oh! Also, I forgot, while we were waiting for the cops
and that guy to come back, he put his half pitbull half lab dog in his car, but
while we were relaxin', maxin' and actin' all cool, the dog kicked the car into
nuteral and it started rolling down a small hill and into a tree. My companion
saw this start and goes "Chad... Chad!.. CHAD!" to tell the guy with us this
was happening. He hopped off the truck, grabbed the door and tried to open, saw
the dog go for him, and slammed the door. then it hit the tree. it was
awesome...
OH I also ordered this ring from the book store in the town next to us that
we go to for District Meeting every monday, and I finally got it! Its the ring
Joseph Smith wore all the time, and used to demonstrate eternity in the "King
Follet Discorse" (Which I highly recomend reading) Its a silver ring with a
circle engraved in it. It also has Joseph's signature on the inside. I sent a
picture. Its pretty cool. My companion had one, so me and Elder Gunter thought
it was awesome so we got some. His is gold mine is silver. Well, I mean color,
they're both Stainless steel.
One more thing! I heard you can buy Tie Bags on ebay for cheap. Because a
lot of thrift stores dont have them. So like a million polyester ties for 15
bucks. Haha. That would always be a good gift! hahaa.
Alright, we're about to go golfing again.. So I'll finish sending pictures.
See Ya,
Elder Daniel Feller
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| Our truck in the middle of no where, gettin' dirty and doing service. |
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| I drew this on the whiteboard, from the book "The Book of Mormon on Trial." |
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| My companion burning his 1 year mark shirt! |
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| This is what some good ties look like. Just some examples. |
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| We made Elk Burgers. They were way good. |
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| Some more good ties |
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Daniel vs An Average Week
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 10:54:12 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Nothing much happened this week... It was pretty routine. We visited people, tried to teach, ect.
I forgot my camera today again... I had some good pictures... Next time!
Uhhh. What else... My new companion is great! We get a long really well, even though he's a little weird, but I still love him. I'm learning some more good stuff. I think I had a not good first companion so I could learn to do stuff my self, its tough, but I'm working on it. We're not doing to bad, but I hope things really pick up soon. We're doing a lot better but its still hard. There's next to nothing to do during the afternoon... But in the evenings its hard to decide who to visit sometimes! but as soon as 8 o clock hits its hard again. People go to bed early in this little town!
We have these cottage meetings every once in a while, and they're really nice. They get investigators and less active people together, eat food and have some spiritual thoughts and stuff. The next one is going to be at this part member families house, which is really good. We're hoping to get this lady's husband into the gospel!
We went to teach at the Jail the other day! We're going back soon. Probably tomorrow. But my companion was looking for someone there from his old area, and ended up finding someone else he knew on accident, and he didnt want the guy to know that he wasn't coming in to look for him, so he didn't tell me he knew him, but he said just before he walked into the library that it wasnt the guy... so I was very confused the whole time, and I said the closing prayer and called him the wrong name... hahaha. oops. But we're probably going back tomorrow.
Also, we're trying to teach this Mexican guy who lives way out in the middle of nowhere. We stopped by the other day, he was kinda busy but we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it. So we're going to go out there soon and talk to him about it.
Elder Gunter was gone a few days in Tempe, being trained, so we had to work with his companion in both of our areas. It was a little stressful.. I don't like having 2 companions and two areas. Especially when the Elder over the other area doesn't really know whats going on. But at the same time it was pretty fun, and I think we helped out the other greenie a lot.
uhhh. I tried the "cowpuncher" at Speedy B's. It wasnt as good as the original "Speedy B's Burger" ... and again I got confused because in Arizona they call Green Chili different stuff. I thought it was going to be like Salsa Verde. But they took a huge green pepper and flopped it on the top of my sandwich... hahaha. Yeah, Arizona is weird....
We're about to go golfing for P-Day!
So until next week,
Love Elder Feller.
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Nothing much happened this week... It was pretty routine. We visited people, tried to teach, ect.
I forgot my camera today again... I had some good pictures... Next time!
Uhhh. What else... My new companion is great! We get a long really well, even though he's a little weird, but I still love him. I'm learning some more good stuff. I think I had a not good first companion so I could learn to do stuff my self, its tough, but I'm working on it. We're not doing to bad, but I hope things really pick up soon. We're doing a lot better but its still hard. There's next to nothing to do during the afternoon... But in the evenings its hard to decide who to visit sometimes! but as soon as 8 o clock hits its hard again. People go to bed early in this little town!
We have these cottage meetings every once in a while, and they're really nice. They get investigators and less active people together, eat food and have some spiritual thoughts and stuff. The next one is going to be at this part member families house, which is really good. We're hoping to get this lady's husband into the gospel!
We went to teach at the Jail the other day! We're going back soon. Probably tomorrow. But my companion was looking for someone there from his old area, and ended up finding someone else he knew on accident, and he didnt want the guy to know that he wasn't coming in to look for him, so he didn't tell me he knew him, but he said just before he walked into the library that it wasnt the guy... so I was very confused the whole time, and I said the closing prayer and called him the wrong name... hahaha. oops. But we're probably going back tomorrow.
Also, we're trying to teach this Mexican guy who lives way out in the middle of nowhere. We stopped by the other day, he was kinda busy but we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it. So we're going to go out there soon and talk to him about it.
Elder Gunter was gone a few days in Tempe, being trained, so we had to work with his companion in both of our areas. It was a little stressful.. I don't like having 2 companions and two areas. Especially when the Elder over the other area doesn't really know whats going on. But at the same time it was pretty fun, and I think we helped out the other greenie a lot.
uhhh. I tried the "cowpuncher" at Speedy B's. It wasnt as good as the original "Speedy B's Burger" ... and again I got confused because in Arizona they call Green Chili different stuff. I thought it was going to be like Salsa Verde. But they took a huge green pepper and flopped it on the top of my sandwich... hahaha. Yeah, Arizona is weird....
We're about to go golfing for P-Day!
So until next week,
Love Elder Feller.
Daniel vs The Best Week Ever
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:30:54 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
This whole last week was awesome. I got a new companion, but stayed in the same area. His name is Elder Russ. He's from Ashville North Carolina. He's a convert of two years, and has been out for one year. He's a little weird and goofy, but he's a really good missionary. I love him... especially in comparison. The first two days he was here we got four new investigators, after a whole transfer of no new investigators. Now that I have a companion that's actually trying to do something, instead of just doing it, we're getting stuff done. We're had a lot of progress with our investigators and stuff now. One guy, who has a smoking problem, finally read the Book of Mormon, and now he wants to get baptized before he moves... in one month. We decided to give him a blessing to be able to stop smoking... we're going to check up on him tonight. We also finally started teaching this 8 year old girl, who's parents are less active and she really wants to get baptized. She is really smart, knows all the answers to the questions we ask her, and actually is interested in the lessons, unlike most kids. She asks if we can do more than one every time we go over. We're hoping to reactivate their family so her dad can baptize her, but I don't know if that's something he'd be interested in yet.
We talked to these nuns the other day. They asked Elder Russ what he was up to and he said "Nothing Much" and they said "Good, I'm glad you're not doing anything." They were rude nuns! So he messed with them a little bit and we left.
A lot of people have commented on how they can tell I'm happier and stuff now that I'm with Elder Russ. Its weird, but cool.
Old People have the best answers to the famous missionary question, "How's it going?" My favorite response was "Round and Round", They never just say, "good" like most people.
Missionaries all listen to the same music. A lot of its pretty good. Most people have the Joseph Smith Nashville Tribute CD. Its a country CD about Joseph Smith, its really good. Then some random other cd's. Elder Russ has the BYU ocapella group, Vocal Point, doing all these primary songs. Its really cool.
Thats pretty much it... Missionary work is a lot of fun.
The pictures are the "missionary wall" at our Ward Mission Leader's machine shop. You get your name up there if you do service for him. I wrote really big on accident...
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
This whole last week was awesome. I got a new companion, but stayed in the same area. His name is Elder Russ. He's from Ashville North Carolina. He's a convert of two years, and has been out for one year. He's a little weird and goofy, but he's a really good missionary. I love him... especially in comparison. The first two days he was here we got four new investigators, after a whole transfer of no new investigators. Now that I have a companion that's actually trying to do something, instead of just doing it, we're getting stuff done. We're had a lot of progress with our investigators and stuff now. One guy, who has a smoking problem, finally read the Book of Mormon, and now he wants to get baptized before he moves... in one month. We decided to give him a blessing to be able to stop smoking... we're going to check up on him tonight. We also finally started teaching this 8 year old girl, who's parents are less active and she really wants to get baptized. She is really smart, knows all the answers to the questions we ask her, and actually is interested in the lessons, unlike most kids. She asks if we can do more than one every time we go over. We're hoping to reactivate their family so her dad can baptize her, but I don't know if that's something he'd be interested in yet.
We talked to these nuns the other day. They asked Elder Russ what he was up to and he said "Nothing Much" and they said "Good, I'm glad you're not doing anything." They were rude nuns! So he messed with them a little bit and we left.
A lot of people have commented on how they can tell I'm happier and stuff now that I'm with Elder Russ. Its weird, but cool.
Old People have the best answers to the famous missionary question, "How's it going?" My favorite response was "Round and Round", They never just say, "good" like most people.
Missionaries all listen to the same music. A lot of its pretty good. Most people have the Joseph Smith Nashville Tribute CD. Its a country CD about Joseph Smith, its really good. Then some random other cd's. Elder Russ has the BYU ocapella group, Vocal Point, doing all these primary songs. Its really cool.
Thats pretty much it... Missionary work is a lot of fun.
The pictures are the "missionary wall" at our Ward Mission Leader's machine shop. You get your name up there if you do service for him. I wrote really big on accident...
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Daniel vs Transfers!
From: Eric Feller;eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:56:59
Subject: Daniel vs Transfers!
Soooooooo a week ago we went to the "Vernon Caves" for P-day. Naturally I forgot my camera. But the opening was really small and the caves were muddy. But it was pretty cool. Once you get through the tiny opening, and crawl for 20 yards though a few inches of water, it opends up and its pretty cool. I'll try to get a picture from someone.
This whole week we did a lot of service... because we dont have to much else to do.. mostly because my companion didnt want to. We went out to our Ward Mission Leaders property waaay out east of town, still in our area, and helped him cut road and do some other stuff. We cut the road by dropping the gate on his trailer and standing on it while he drove. It was hard to stay on, and I got really dusty. Then we visited his neighbor and offered to help him build a fence. He's a cool guy, he did missionary work for 12 years.. on his own, no church, just road tripping arround mexico, going to prisons and stuff. We're hoping to be able to teach him, and we're helping him with his fence tomorrow. We also helped someone roof their house, and some other stuff.
So it was a pretty boring week. And I got my Missionary tan looking so good. I'm two toneing my skin, with a bright white center, and mexican brown arms and face. My neck took a beating because I was used to wearing collared shirts, and I was dressed down for service.
Theeeeeen transfer calls came on monday! Last week I made a big deal about how my companion wasnt qualified. and its true, but its not like I'm super pissed about it or anything. Its just a set back and I guess I learned stuff from it.. Like what kind of missionary I never want to be. I dont hate him, I just dont have anything good to say about him. But I'm getting a new companion! The one I went on exchanges with before... I'm a little worried, because he's an ok guy, but he's a little weird and goofy. I hope we do ok, and turn this area arround! My companion is not too happy about leaving Saint Johns. Elder Gunter was made the new District Leader. He's been out 9 months.. haha, thats crazy! But I think the same thing happened to Brandon. But he's a good missionary. When I was having problems with my companion, he told me he'd adopt me. I thought he meant he was going to be my new companion, and he might have thought that too.. But he still lives with me, so I'll have him train me a little bit.
Apparently the tuesday before transfers is called "Apostate Tuesday" where you visit all the people you're going to miss from the area. But we still did service and missionary work. We just hung out with Chad for an hour at night, because my comp is really going to miss him.
Uhh we dont know what we're doing this lovely p-day. But we're gonna eat at this restraunt in town that gives us free food a couple times a month. Speedy-B's. Such a good hamburger. I usually get the Speedy B's burger: Hamburger, White Cheese, Onion Rings, Bacon, and Avacado. oooh man. its so good. Today I think I'm going to try the "Cow Puncher" .. I'll tell you how that goes.
Some people have asked me, "how can I tell an ugly tie from an awesome tie?" The trick is how interesting it is. If it looks cool then its not and "ugly tie" even if you would never wear it to a job interview. The poly ties I like have cool paterns in stipes usually. If its floral patterns or like.. I dont even know.. "ancient greek" looking patterns, I guess. Whatever. I just want ties!
Oh and in closing, Chad predicted me to be a "6 month-er" Which means I'll be in Saint Johns for 6 mothns. I dont know.. That would be cool though! Elder Gunter has been here 6 and is going to be here another transfer, so at least 7 and a half months.. posibly 9 months. haha
The Pictures are my pants after the caves. I stayed pretty clean. And then some cool Native American pottery shards I found on Chad's property. I found a ton, but only took stuff with writing on it. And I found Chad a huge grinding stone, and said he could have it because he likes that stuff. He told me these rocks were dinosaur skin, and a tooth. I kept it because holy crap I have pieces of dinosaur! but I dont know if he's messing with me or not...
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:56:59
Subject: Daniel vs Transfers!
Soooooooo a week ago we went to the "Vernon Caves" for P-day. Naturally I forgot my camera. But the opening was really small and the caves were muddy. But it was pretty cool. Once you get through the tiny opening, and crawl for 20 yards though a few inches of water, it opends up and its pretty cool. I'll try to get a picture from someone.
This whole week we did a lot of service... because we dont have to much else to do.. mostly because my companion didnt want to. We went out to our Ward Mission Leaders property waaay out east of town, still in our area, and helped him cut road and do some other stuff. We cut the road by dropping the gate on his trailer and standing on it while he drove. It was hard to stay on, and I got really dusty. Then we visited his neighbor and offered to help him build a fence. He's a cool guy, he did missionary work for 12 years.. on his own, no church, just road tripping arround mexico, going to prisons and stuff. We're hoping to be able to teach him, and we're helping him with his fence tomorrow. We also helped someone roof their house, and some other stuff.
So it was a pretty boring week. And I got my Missionary tan looking so good. I'm two toneing my skin, with a bright white center, and mexican brown arms and face. My neck took a beating because I was used to wearing collared shirts, and I was dressed down for service.
Theeeeeen transfer calls came on monday! Last week I made a big deal about how my companion wasnt qualified. and its true, but its not like I'm super pissed about it or anything. Its just a set back and I guess I learned stuff from it.. Like what kind of missionary I never want to be. I dont hate him, I just dont have anything good to say about him. But I'm getting a new companion! The one I went on exchanges with before... I'm a little worried, because he's an ok guy, but he's a little weird and goofy. I hope we do ok, and turn this area arround! My companion is not too happy about leaving Saint Johns. Elder Gunter was made the new District Leader. He's been out 9 months.. haha, thats crazy! But I think the same thing happened to Brandon. But he's a good missionary. When I was having problems with my companion, he told me he'd adopt me. I thought he meant he was going to be my new companion, and he might have thought that too.. But he still lives with me, so I'll have him train me a little bit.
Apparently the tuesday before transfers is called "Apostate Tuesday" where you visit all the people you're going to miss from the area. But we still did service and missionary work. We just hung out with Chad for an hour at night, because my comp is really going to miss him.
Uhh we dont know what we're doing this lovely p-day. But we're gonna eat at this restraunt in town that gives us free food a couple times a month. Speedy-B's. Such a good hamburger. I usually get the Speedy B's burger: Hamburger, White Cheese, Onion Rings, Bacon, and Avacado. oooh man. its so good. Today I think I'm going to try the "Cow Puncher" .. I'll tell you how that goes.
Some people have asked me, "how can I tell an ugly tie from an awesome tie?" The trick is how interesting it is. If it looks cool then its not and "ugly tie" even if you would never wear it to a job interview. The poly ties I like have cool paterns in stipes usually. If its floral patterns or like.. I dont even know.. "ancient greek" looking patterns, I guess. Whatever. I just want ties!
Oh and in closing, Chad predicted me to be a "6 month-er" Which means I'll be in Saint Johns for 6 mothns. I dont know.. That would be cool though! Elder Gunter has been here 6 and is going to be here another transfer, so at least 7 and a half months.. posibly 9 months. haha
The Pictures are my pants after the caves. I stayed pretty clean. And then some cool Native American pottery shards I found on Chad's property. I found a ton, but only took stuff with writing on it. And I found Chad a huge grinding stone, and said he could have it because he likes that stuff. He told me these rocks were dinosaur skin, and a tooth. I kept it because holy crap I have pieces of dinosaur! but I dont know if he's messing with me or not...
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Daniel vs Special Trainings, The Apache County Fair, and more!
From: Eric Feller <eric.feller@myldsmail.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:02:07
Subject: Heey
This week was pretty crazy. First of all, I forgot to tell you about my trip to New Mexico: We went to Pie Town New Mexico, the pie shop was closed, and we came back. It was pretty terrible.
Next! This week we had trainings in Show Low. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we drove down there every day to get special trainings from our Mission President. It was pretty cool. It was all about asking inspired questions to find the real needs and concerns of investigators, emphasizing a need for having the spirit always. I already knew everything because it was exactly what I learned in the MTC. But it was really good practice now that I'm met real investigators and taught real lessons. We also got to watch The District... 2! The first "The District" was a documentary about these missionaries in San Antonio Texas. One of them taught at a meeting I was at in the MTC. But it was cheesy and not that good I heard. They go though missionary days and what they do and stuff. I never saw it. But The District 2 was about these missionaries in San Diego California. (All the beach shots made me trunky!(Homesick in missionary terms)) But they were using the new program and it was awesome! I don't know who all reads this blog, but if you want to know what missionary work is about, walk up to the local Mormon Church, find Bishop Peterson, and demand a copy! Haha, tell him I sent you. I don't even know if people can get copies of it yet... But try! Its really good. It shows the best and worst parts about missionary work, and how the real goal is to make people happy as they come to the gospel. And if you guys do find a way to watch it, pay attention to the moment the spirit enters the room. Its awesome, you can really feel it, even from the movie. OH! and The District movies are real missionaries talking. No imputed lines or anything. All real. We were supposed to teach a few lessons every night of the trainings but we only got to teach one on the first night. One of the Assistants to the President came with us and we asked our investigator some inspired questions! It was mostly me.. to be honest. more on that later. But we found out that he hasn't read the Book of Mormon, wants to be baptized, but wants to make sure that its true first. We told him to do that he has to find the time to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, to know if it was true, and to come to church to learn more and receive that witness. He said he would, but didnt show up to church because of a family thing. Gahh. So frustrating. But he felt bad about it at least, which is good. We'll make sure he's there next week. Then! The reason we werent able to teach is because of the Apache County fair! Its held in this little town and people from all over come to it and its the hugest fair ever and the missionaries have to go because their booth is like the hangout spot and they get so many contacts and referrals and stuff. Thats what we were told. Then we sat in a booth for 2 days and talk to twenty something people. I tried talking to a lot of people, but they dont want to talk to you at the fair they just want to walk by and have fun. So it wasn't as effective as it could've been. Plus, I was doing all the work, my companion wasn't backing me up at all! Which makes talking to 100 people, like my goal was, very hard. And the fair wasnt that big. I was expecting California State Fair size the way our Ward Mission Leader was talking about it. But it was just a dinky little thing. But I guess huge for where we are... It was fun though, we went to the Rodeo friday night. My first Rodeo ever. It was kinda lame. They said it was professional, but they werent that good. Elder Gunter is a professional Team Roper (Two people rope a cow, the horns and the legs). In the Pro Circut he's a rank 8 out of 10. Which is really high. He was better than everyone there. Too bad he couldn't compete hahaha Oh well, it was still interesting. Then Sunday we taught 2 lessons! One was a sunday school class because we had 3 investigators who had not heard the first lesson. So Chad, our famous Ward Mission Leader, had us teach it too the class. I started, then my companion repeated what I said, then looked at me, and didn't say anything the rest of the lesson! Not because he was training me or anything. He just didn't. So I was only prepared to teach some principles, but I taught all of them. It was hard and I said "and um" a lot apparently, because later Chad told me I did, and that he wanted to work with me. The second lesson was a girl who already knew everything, and could finally be baptized because she turned 18. There was some mix up because she's in Gunter's area, but her fellowship is in ours. But we taught her the first lesson and they're going to teach her the next 3 on Sunday. Her parents wouldn't let her get baptized before. It went pretty good, but I realized that I need to know the lessons better than I do. I don't want to say too much bad stuff about my companion, until I get a new one next transfer, which I will because Elder Gunter talked to our Zone Leaders for me, but he's not qualified to train. And I feel like I've almost wasted a transfer just being with him and knowing nothing. I thought it was just lack of Teaching Opportunities, but no. He's a pretty bad teacher, and gets pissed at me for everything.. I just let it go, but its starting to bother me. I'm new! I don't know anything, that's why I'm asking. But next week I'll go into more detail. But when we were on exchanges, and I had Elder Russ with me, we talked to Chad and he told me what I had been thinking for a while. I dont think Chad likes him either, so I have a feeling he'll be gone at transfers. Chad has influence like that.. its scary. So now I'm excited for transfers. More on the story next week. Hopefully.
Thanks everybody for the fast! I hope I see the blessings of it! Here, or if I move to a different place next week. But I hope the blessings are felt here anyways! The area needs it. I dont want to say that its because of "the missionaries here" but it might be. Obedience and how hard the missionaries work has a lot to do with how well the area does. And its not me. don't worry... I've still got that greenie fire! I saw this because me and Elder Russ did pretty good in the two days we were together in my area. I really shouldn't be talking bad about my companion and area, but its the truth and I want you to know that. But I really do appreciate everyone thinking of me. :D
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:02:07
Subject: Heey
This week was pretty crazy. First of all, I forgot to tell you about my trip to New Mexico: We went to Pie Town New Mexico, the pie shop was closed, and we came back. It was pretty terrible.
Next! This week we had trainings in Show Low. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we drove down there every day to get special trainings from our Mission President. It was pretty cool. It was all about asking inspired questions to find the real needs and concerns of investigators, emphasizing a need for having the spirit always. I already knew everything because it was exactly what I learned in the MTC. But it was really good practice now that I'm met real investigators and taught real lessons. We also got to watch The District... 2! The first "The District" was a documentary about these missionaries in San Antonio Texas. One of them taught at a meeting I was at in the MTC. But it was cheesy and not that good I heard. They go though missionary days and what they do and stuff. I never saw it. But The District 2 was about these missionaries in San Diego California. (All the beach shots made me trunky!(Homesick in missionary terms)) But they were using the new program and it was awesome! I don't know who all reads this blog, but if you want to know what missionary work is about, walk up to the local Mormon Church, find Bishop Peterson, and demand a copy! Haha, tell him I sent you. I don't even know if people can get copies of it yet... But try! Its really good. It shows the best and worst parts about missionary work, and how the real goal is to make people happy as they come to the gospel. And if you guys do find a way to watch it, pay attention to the moment the spirit enters the room. Its awesome, you can really feel it, even from the movie. OH! and The District movies are real missionaries talking. No imputed lines or anything. All real. We were supposed to teach a few lessons every night of the trainings but we only got to teach one on the first night. One of the Assistants to the President came with us and we asked our investigator some inspired questions! It was mostly me.. to be honest. more on that later. But we found out that he hasn't read the Book of Mormon, wants to be baptized, but wants to make sure that its true first. We told him to do that he has to find the time to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, to know if it was true, and to come to church to learn more and receive that witness. He said he would, but didnt show up to church because of a family thing. Gahh. So frustrating. But he felt bad about it at least, which is good. We'll make sure he's there next week. Then! The reason we werent able to teach is because of the Apache County fair! Its held in this little town and people from all over come to it and its the hugest fair ever and the missionaries have to go because their booth is like the hangout spot and they get so many contacts and referrals and stuff. Thats what we were told. Then we sat in a booth for 2 days and talk to twenty something people. I tried talking to a lot of people, but they dont want to talk to you at the fair they just want to walk by and have fun. So it wasn't as effective as it could've been. Plus, I was doing all the work, my companion wasn't backing me up at all! Which makes talking to 100 people, like my goal was, very hard. And the fair wasnt that big. I was expecting California State Fair size the way our Ward Mission Leader was talking about it. But it was just a dinky little thing. But I guess huge for where we are... It was fun though, we went to the Rodeo friday night. My first Rodeo ever. It was kinda lame. They said it was professional, but they werent that good. Elder Gunter is a professional Team Roper (Two people rope a cow, the horns and the legs). In the Pro Circut he's a rank 8 out of 10. Which is really high. He was better than everyone there. Too bad he couldn't compete hahaha Oh well, it was still interesting. Then Sunday we taught 2 lessons! One was a sunday school class because we had 3 investigators who had not heard the first lesson. So Chad, our famous Ward Mission Leader, had us teach it too the class. I started, then my companion repeated what I said, then looked at me, and didn't say anything the rest of the lesson! Not because he was training me or anything. He just didn't. So I was only prepared to teach some principles, but I taught all of them. It was hard and I said "and um" a lot apparently, because later Chad told me I did, and that he wanted to work with me. The second lesson was a girl who already knew everything, and could finally be baptized because she turned 18. There was some mix up because she's in Gunter's area, but her fellowship is in ours. But we taught her the first lesson and they're going to teach her the next 3 on Sunday. Her parents wouldn't let her get baptized before. It went pretty good, but I realized that I need to know the lessons better than I do. I don't want to say too much bad stuff about my companion, until I get a new one next transfer, which I will because Elder Gunter talked to our Zone Leaders for me, but he's not qualified to train. And I feel like I've almost wasted a transfer just being with him and knowing nothing. I thought it was just lack of Teaching Opportunities, but no. He's a pretty bad teacher, and gets pissed at me for everything.. I just let it go, but its starting to bother me. I'm new! I don't know anything, that's why I'm asking. But next week I'll go into more detail. But when we were on exchanges, and I had Elder Russ with me, we talked to Chad and he told me what I had been thinking for a while. I dont think Chad likes him either, so I have a feeling he'll be gone at transfers. Chad has influence like that.. its scary. So now I'm excited for transfers. More on the story next week. Hopefully.
Thanks everybody for the fast! I hope I see the blessings of it! Here, or if I move to a different place next week. But I hope the blessings are felt here anyways! The area needs it. I dont want to say that its because of "the missionaries here" but it might be. Obedience and how hard the missionaries work has a lot to do with how well the area does. And its not me. don't worry... I've still got that greenie fire! I saw this because me and Elder Russ did pretty good in the two days we were together in my area. I really shouldn't be talking bad about my companion and area, but its the truth and I want you to know that. But I really do appreciate everyone thinking of me. :D
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Last Ones!
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| Breakfast! |
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| This bug looks like a leaf. Gunter shot it with a bb gun. His first kill in 8 months. He's a hunter from Idaho. |
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| The roping dummy we have in front of our house. |
Even More Pictures!
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| Me in our house. That huge picture of Christ is awesome. and I borrowed that tie. |
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| My watch sunburn |
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| My comp playing the piano. And some huge scriptures. |
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| All our bikes |
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| Mouse hunting! |
More More More Pictures
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| My mission car. I wish. |
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| Me and my MTC comp, Elder Carpenter, at the Mesa Temple |
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| Across the street from where we stayed in Tempe |
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| Our real mission truck. |
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| Saint Johns sunset |
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