Daniel vs the 200 Challenge!

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:10:18 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Hello! Last week was a pretty awesome week. Elder Parrott and I succeded in the talk to 200 people challenge. We didn't believe it could be done. So we did it. But now we're thinking we should back off from talking to people at the park... I dont want it to become the place where "the mormons will attack you!"

Breana's baptism went amazing! The spirit was so strong. Some of her family that pretty much kicked her out of the house came. I didnt get the chance to talk to them but I hope they liked it. Breana walked out of the changing room in the white jump suit thing and we went up to her and asked if we could get some pictures. She was like "in this!?" and I said, "yeah just a few" so we went out there to take the standard missionary baptism picture and then like a million people came out and the simple picture became a big event! Haha. It was funny because before she was getting mad at her boy friend for saying he was going to put pictures of her in the jumpsuit up on facebook, and I told her we would be the only ones with the pictures... oops. But yeah, the picture is below.

I went on exchanges with Elder Gunter on monday. That was pretty fun. We taught 4 lessons in one day and they were all really good! It was an amazing day. haha. One of the lessons was with a guy he talked to the other night. We were teaching the first lesson and I was talkng about how God has always had a prophet and he says "wait, is there a prophet today!?" and we're like whoa hold your horses! You're skipping ahead. Then we were talking about the great apostacy and we paused and he said "...and then what happened?" It was so perfect! hahaha. He was all into it.

We also taught another lesson that night to one of his current investigators. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then at the end we asked if he had any questions. He said, "yeah I do. What does faith mean to you." pointing to Elder Gunter. These are my favorite times in lessons, when an investigator almost challenges you like that, because the spirit gets so strong and its perfect for testifying. So Elder Gunter did an amazing job, and then he turned to me and asked. So I bore my testimony on faith and how important it is to me and how it is the building block for everything we believe in. He really liked that. Oh yeah! We preach two by two, double trouble!

Thats all!

Love,
Elder Feller

Look what I made! A tie rack!

I was trying to catch the reflection of an airplane on my glasses. It didnt work. But mom keeps asking if I have sunglasses so I thought I'd show her.

you got flamingo'd?

$70,000 "sand rails" is what people in Arizona do for fun. But it has a corvette engine

Close up of all my poly ties. I keep my nice silks separate.

Daniel vs

From: Eric Feller;eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Sent: Wed, Mar 23, 2011 18:24:35 GMT+00:00

Baptism week baby. We have an amazing convert this weekend. I cant really claim her, because she was ready when moved here from Phoenix and was taught by some sisters there, and I've only taught her once. But she passed the interview and she's all ready! So pictures next week.

I know it seems like I never have baptisms, and that's because I never do! I always move when everybody's ready! haha. Its no fun. But I promise I'll have a few while in Gilbert.

Nothing really special this week. Elder Parrott and I have begun a 200 OYM challenge. Thats 200 people talked to on the streets in 7 days! Its nuts, but its morning day 3 and we're at 65. Yeah, we got 45 yesterday! Because thats pretty much all we did. We didnt have anyone to teach. But we're getting lots of referrals from all the members we talk to. Because this is Gilbert, and in 4 square miles, there aren't 200 non-members that are going to be outside. But working through peoples friends is the best way, especially here where lots of people hate the Mormons because they're "not in the club." Which is sad that they feel that way. But we're here to help them get in the club.

Oh someone got us a Tie Bag this week. Pictures below. 50 pounds of ties. Very few good ones.

OH! Even cooler! We have a deaf investigator. I havent taught him yet, because the ASL missionaries in Mesa are silly. BUT! They hooked us up with a translator. Her name is Julie Croft. Like Laura Croft. Tomb Raider. But we had an appointment monday night and we were waiting for the guy to show up and talking to Sis. Croft, who is a college student at ASU, and she was telling us about sign language and stuff. It was cool. She said she just started translating for church and she had to learn all these new words, or signs for words she already knew. We of course asked her if she learned funeral potatoes and jello yet. hahah. But we also learned "Hi, I'm a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints". But in ASL its more like "Missionary Church Jesus Christ Last Day Saint." I'll send a video of me doing it later. We also asked why deaf people dont like to read, because it makes no sence right? WRONG! ASL is completely different. Reading in english is like a whole different language. So our investigator watches the scriptures!  Its pretty cool.

Chuck is praying about the 9th of April for Baptism! So we're praying really hard too! We've been asking him to pray out loud and he says its weird for him. Haha. Its weird to me that its weird for him! Because I grew up my whole life doing it, so its hard to relate. But he's trying and he's doing better. Maybe next  time we'll force him to say the closing prayer. I love hearing investigators pray. Especially ones that haven't had a history of prayer. They're very honest and sincere in what they want and its awesome.

Invite your friends to church! Its not that scary. They wont get mad. They will get Baptised.

Love,

Elder Feller

Some sweet pictures this week. Ties and that cookie recepie that mom lost! I found it in a members cook book! Its a newer version though. 

Daniel vs The Heat!

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:58:13 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Its starting to get hot! Its going to be a fun, sweaty, summer here in Gilbert on our bikes. Things are going amazing here in Gilbert. My companion is Elder Parrot. Like the bird. So we both get lame jokes on our names. He's from Atlanta Georgia, but really from Springville Utah until a year before he came out. No, he doesn't know any of you.

We are having a blast here in Gilbert. We have pretty much no people to teach, and its getting hotter. But we've been trying to master the goal setting principles in Preach My Gospel, and the ones we've been trained on as a mission and we're already seeing the huge blessings from that. I'll send a picture of our goal setting board next week. Totally forgot.

I've also set a goal to take more pictures. So expect pictures pretty much every week.

The kid next to me is watching Star Wars videos on Youtube........ this is making writing hard.

I cover 6 wards now, in 4 square miles. Welcome to Gilbert Arizona. Mormon Town USA. But its nice. I'm in the Highland Stake and I cover the Lake View Trails, Higley Groves, Page, 3rd, Lexington and Constellation wards. The two most exciting about it are: 1. Lexington ward is a singles ward! and 2. Lake View Trails is doing the ward council process perfectly! Without me even slapping them into shape.

But anyways. We have one person on date for baptism on the 26th. She is in our singles ward. Her name is Briana. She's awesome! She took the lessons from some sisters in Phoenix, so teaching her is a easy. She is so ready, and is awesome. Haha, her Boyfriend welcomed me to the ward in Elders Quorum on Sunday and was like "see, he's already got one baptism coming up" and I was tempted to say, "I left 3 on date in Yuma!" But I didn't want to make him feel bad...

BUT! Potentially we could get 3 this transfer. Well... potentially we could get 6. But probably three... But hopefully 6.

Theres also Jake Baker. He's awesome. He bore his testimony to us last night when we asked if he wanted to get baptised and why. We'll be setting that date on Thursday.

Also, Chuck! I don't really know Chuck, but he's awesome. He just moved from North Dakota and was invited by his neighbor to go to church. Now he wants to be a Mormon. He's 63. He came and saw us speak in church on Sunday and I think he liked it... we haven't talked to him a whole lot since. But our talks were great, if I do say so myself. I made everyone laugh with a risky joke, it paid off. I said, "Since I'm speaking first I guess I should tell you all about how me and Elder Parrott met..." then everyone laughed and I told the transfer meeting story.

And the potential 3 more are these kids who are pretty much waiting on their dad to get worthy to baptize them.

Well thats all,
Love Elder Feller

I've got some cool pictures.

Me and the famous Wells Fargo Horses!

The first scorpion I've ever seen.

A hobo sleeping on the side of the church.

This house was an Extreme Make Over house! In my area. Used to belong to a less active member.

Daniel Vs Gilbert

Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 16:04:34 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Helloooo! This last week has been pretty crazy. Last Thursday Bob passed his Baptisimal Interview! We pulled up to his house because we couldnt get him a ride to the church and he is standing in the door way without a shirt and the missionary goes in and interviews him. I was nervous, not going to lie, because Bob is kinda crazy. But anyways all is well and we start to get ready for the baptism on Saturday. So we set everything up. He didn't really know anybody in the ward, so my companion was going to talk and I was going to Baptize him. We go over saturday morning and he's like, "guys, I dont know what to do! I smoked a joint last night! I cant get baptised now! I cant lie to God!" NOOOOOOOOOO! Bob! You cant do that. He said he didnt even think about it, just went for it when his friend was over. but he's moving now and all should be good. He'll get baptised later, with a bunch of other people that I LEFT IN YUMA!

Yes, its true, after 3 months in Yuma I have been transfered to Gilbert. I've been here a few hours now. I rode down with our Zone Leader in one of the mission's mini-vans. As we were leaving I said, "Wait I've got to get one last picture. I'll probably never see this place again." And the picture kinda sucks. But thats ok. Yuma was fun, but I dont think I'll ever go back... But I will miss all the Taco stands on 8th street and hanging out with a bunch of spanish missionaries.

But I'm excited to be in Gilbert! We have 6 wards in 4 square miles and we are on bikes! This is my first time on a bike in my whole mission. And on the way to the library, I found out that my bike had a low tire, so I kinda re-attatched the pedals to a bike that we had at our house and rolled on over here. Kinda. The bike is about to fall apart. I'll fix mine in a little bit. But remember Elder Gunter from Saint Johns? He's my district leader here! Oh, and I'm a senior companion now. Things are going crazy in the mission! There are tons of youngin's growing up.

But yeah, I've gotta go!

Love

Daniel 

My future car. Nice and clean.

Elder Lindquist playing the guitar

Nasty. Leaving this morning saying goodbye to Elder Workman.

Bye Bye Yuma.

Daniel vs Espanol

Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 11:07:35 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Hello all!

I had a pretty cool week. Started off last Thursday going on exchanges in Somerton with my Spanish District Leader. Now, I cover Somerton for english work. But we hardly go there because no one speaks English. So I got to try and speak spanish all day! It was pretty fun. I did ok... haha. not really. I couldn't really do anything but answer the questions people asked me. Like where I'm from, How long I've been out and stuff like that. It was really fun. I couldnt really talk to people on the street because I never got the Gospel vocab in high school. Elder Bradshaw said I answered 90% of the questions I was asked back in spanish, and was pretty impressed.

OH! Bob is hopefully getting Baptized this saturday. Thats our plan so far! He is getting kicked out of his trailer park at the same time, which is sad but good. Because he needs to move to a better place where kids dont mess with him. But yeah, our plan is this saturday. But you never know with Bob. We also have another one, Frances, next week. Hopefully. Haha, she didnt go to church last week because she found out about the word of wisdom and likes her tea. She called her friend and said "I cant do it, I dont want to go to church because I cant give up coffee and tea!" and we went by yesterday and straightened all that out. So now she wants to get baptized again! Awesome. THEN! On the 19th of Febuary, we're hoping we can finnaly get Erikah baptized. She's been trying to quit smoking and some other things I shouldnt go into, so that she can get baptized! She really wants it now so its exciting. We just have to set up the interview with the mission president. Oh I forgot. I need to do that!

THEN! We also got an awesome new investigator. So check it, here's the story! This guy named Abram has a girlfriend who moves to Salt Lake City and joins the church there, then Abram goes to visit her, and they go to Temple Square. Now, I dont know if you guys know this, but the any Sisters at a Temple Visitors Center are CRAZY! By that I mean they will not leave you alone untill they are sure you are going to get baptized. So its a good crazy. But, not always. Alot of the time we get these referals to our phone that say "GOLDEN GATOR!, AWESOME!, READY FOR BAPTIZM!" ect, and we go over and they're smoking, drinking a beer, and have one of those "THIS IS A CATHOLIC HOME, NO PROPOGANDA FROM OTHER RELIGIONS" cards on their screen door, and have abosolutly no desire to speak with us. So we usually dont take it serriously when it says all that good stuff. But so we get the referal and it says to call first, so we do, and no one answers. We try the next day, and no one answers again. The next day, so 2 days after we get the referal, we get the referal again. "SO PREPARED CALL ASAP!" and we're like "dang these are some crazy temple sisters." So we call, he answers and we get an appointment... and let me tell you what, this guy is awesome. He has a huge desire to change his life. He's gotten in a little trouble in the past (half our last lesson he was telling me about Gangs) but he's been to jail for a little bit and never wants to go back. Pretty much, he talks like he already knows, just needs to get an official answer from praying to make it legit. He wants us to come by pretty much every day at 4:00. So we do. But since today is P-day I got a little sneaky. He still hadn't read last time (the biggest unsolvable problem in missionary work) and so I said, "ok, we're not coming tomorrow, but instead at 4:00 you're going to sit down and read this book and pray about it." and he said ok. So I'll text him at like 3:30 and remind him. But we're hoping to baptize him this month too.

Man, it would be just my luck to get transfered in a week. But I still dont think I will.

Oh speaking of, Its week 5. That means no mail to Yuma, send it to the office or wait a week! You never know!

OH! One more thing. We have another appointment tonight with a lady who works for Henry Florez, the guy we baptized in January, tonight. Apparently she was about to get baptized in Mesa, and then had to move here, but didnt know where to find the church or the missionaries. She asked a lady she works with "are you a mormon!?" and then BAM! We have an appointment!

Thats all for this week!

Love,

Elder Feller

All my City of Yuma stuff.

One of the many Ice Cream mans.. in febuary.

Thanks for the coat mom!

Cactus.

Somone lives in that.

Elder Lindquist burns his tie.