Daniel vs An Apostle!

08/31/2010
Yeah.

So I guess a lot happened this week. First of all this is pretty awesome: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-in-talks-to-regularize-activities-in-china

I miss the real news sometimes...

and I don't have my camera because we came straight to email from the snowflake temple this morning. Its a cool little temple. They have all these Native American designs and stuff in there. But yeah, so no pictures.... ): next week!

The biggest thing that happened this week that I couldn't mention was happening before was we went down to "The Valley" aka Tempe, to see L. Tom Perry! We drove from Saint Johns to Show Low and had a "slumber party" with the ZL's and some other elders in this huge mansion that was built to look like a log cabin. It was sweet! It was in this neighborhood that was a forest. Then we woke up early and I showered on the third floor, even though we stayed on the first and it was dark and I almost fell down all the stairs. Thats not important, I just thought I'd share. But then we drove though the Salt River Canyon, which was a awesome and beautiful drive, down though Globe, then into Tempe. It was hot. Hotter than up here in the mountains. I met up with my district leader from the MTC and my MTC comp. It was cool. Then Elder Perry and Elder Hallstrom came in and we were listening to elder Hallstrom and I got a stupid bloody nose! So I had to walk out of the chapel holding my nose, WHILE Elder Hallstrom is talking, Elder Perry is sitting on the stand, and my Mission President is probably thinking about sending me to Yuma all next summer. So I dont really remember what he was talking about because I came back and he was almost done. Something about teaching. Then Elder Perry spoke. He talked about Elder Holland's 5 things for teaching. and then told us things we had to have a testimony of, so that we could teach it, and he bore testimony every time. It was awesome hearing 5 different live testimonies from an apostle of Christ. Every time he started to bear testimony his voice got a lot louder and you could really feel the spirit. It was awesome.

But then we ate at some Deli in Tempe that was expensive and not that good.

Anyways, its still hard to get a whole lot of teaching opportunities up here in saint johns. We did finally meet with this one guy who we've been trying to meet for forever, and we forgot to start with a prayer, because we really didn't have a plan to teach him, he just needs to stop smoking. and it was terrible! I'm never not having a prayer at a lesson ever again. It was worse than when me and Elder Carpenter did that in the mtc...

Dad asked me about my personal and companion study. I mostly focus on the lessons, because I dont know them well enough and cant teach them very well yet. Well, I do alright, but I can do a lot better. And comp study is pretty much the same thing. We train on lessons and missionary skills and other things from our "red handbook" that we only get in the Arizona Tempe Mission. It had talks and other helpful things on it. Like 10 pages on bible bashing scriptures! Just kidding, its called "resolving concerns" but is pretty much a bible bashing scripture gold mine.

Mom asked me
1. How is your ward?
2. Are you and your companion getting along?
3. Do you ever ride your bike or do you mostly use the truck?
4. Do you like email, snail mail, or a combination of both?

1. I have 3 wards and they're pretty good. Some better than others. Our best ward for missionary work has the best Ward Mission Leader, surprise surprise. But Chad is awesome. We go to him for pretty much anything. He runs a machine shop in town and does engines and stuff. He converted like 5 years ago or something. But he's really cool.

2. My companion and I are fine. I don't really question him because he's my trainer. I just kinda do what he says. Plus I'm not very hard to get a long with, so I dont think I'll have companion problems unless they're really bad. My companion's getting old. He's almost 20 months! So I think he's getting a little "trunky" (homesick/thinking about going home)

3. We ride bikes a little bit. Because we're low on miles. I had to buy a new bike seat and a new tube. Already got a flat. And that bike seat was killing me...

4. I like both. Snail mail is nice because I don't have to read it in my email time, but whatever. Snail mail costs and its no big deal. So both is fine.

And when I say my comp is getting old, I mean like in mission years. They say weird stuff like "born" and "died" for stuff. For example, I was "born" in Saint Johns, because its my first area. I could "die" as a zone leader in Yuma someday. Born=first area, die=when you go home. Daddy=trainer. yeah. Weird stuff like that. Someone didn't know I was new, and asked me where I was born and I looked at him weird and said "...Los Angeles" and then he looked at me weird and said "...what?" Yeah it was awkward.

Anyways, I'm probably going to New Mexico today to a wide spot in the road called pie town. There's two pie shops there or something and that's it... Whatever, I don't care, I want to go to New Mexico.

Oh and we're allowed an "appropiate lappel pin" for our suits, so I want a little California Flag one. Represent, 916, thug life, you know. Whatever. No big deal. So yeah, if next time you send me a package, send a little square CA flag pin. oooh and if you can fine one the revolutionary war flag uhh the snake one that says "dont tread on me" that would make a sweet pin too. Yeah. Awesome. Gotta go

Elder Daniel Feller