Daniel vs The Second Transfer!

Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 10:34:58 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

 

Helllllooooo from Queen Creek. Transfers are tomorrow and I'm not even going to the meeting. Elder Baird and I are going round two in the QC! Which is exciting because we're hoping to baptize like 6 people this coming transfer. But we'll get to that in the upcoming weeks.

 

By the way, I did not get any calls last night. No trainer or District Leader calls. BUT ELDER LESH DID! our beloved district leader Elder Lesh is becoming a zone leader and leaving Queen Creek.

 

Last week was pretty good. Not much to tell. Brother Powell went to Yuma this weekend to "discuss some things" with his parents. We took that as meaning he's telling his parents he wants to be baptized. So we've been praying for that to be a good experience for him. The Mongane family moved to queen creek, which is good. They still don't live in our area but they go to our ward. No one tells a stubborn little man from Africa what to do! We're hopefully be planning their baptism as well when we meet with them on Wednesday. We met with the Wilkins family finally! They are doing awesome and we're going to dinner and the visitors center with them tonight. Bro Wilkins met with Bishop on Sunday so hopefully he'll be ready to baptize his kids pretty soon.

 

Other than that I slept terribly last night, so I'm not in the mood to write a lot. I'm kicking my missionary work up a few gears this transfer so expect big things!

 

Love

 

Elder Feller!

 

PS! The Nerd Award! I forgot to tell you. There is a ten year old girl in one of our wards that gives all the missionaries a test to see if they are a nerd or not. Its pretty funny. I passed the test the first night I was here, and I finally got my certificate! It is show bellow.

Elder Lesh's last district meeting!

My Nerd Award!

Elder Baird and I

 

The Broom game! You spin around staring at a broom and then drop the broom and try to jump over. Its harder than it looks...

May 23, 2011

Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 10:41:45 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
This week was a little better than last. But it was still pretty boring.
The most exciting thing that happened was our lesson with the Mongane family. We taught the first few principles of the Commandments lesson, then talked a lot about baptism. We almost had them on date! But the little 8 year old was like "I dont think I'm ready..." Which is funny because the daughters are tottally ready. The mom is really shy and its hard to get her to open up and tell us whats up. She did say that we could stop asking her to pray because she already knows its true, we're just teaching her, like its a class. Awesome to hear. We were hoping for this up coming weekend. I dont know if its going to happen. Unless we just surprise them this friday and say "how about tomorrow?" That might work because when we tried to set a date, the dad, who is a member already, said we can choose a date like a doctor chooses a date for a pregnat woman, but we wont know when they will be ready. I wanted to say, "no, its like a birthday party. We set a date, invite everyone, and then get ready for the party." But I didnt. We're working on it. The mom also asked who would baptize them, and our fellowship turned to the husband and said, "well?" and he went off about how anyone can baptize them. Then we clarifired. But yeah. Maybe next week we'll have a surprise baptism. They are tottally ready.
Oh here is the blog about the family coming to america: Trevordayleyblog.com/2011/03/29/beautiful-day/
Its an awesome story.
Today is the first day of week 6! Last week of the transfer. Its gone by really fast!
Brother Powell was at church! That was really exciting. I think he's close. But he's got a big last bridge to cross. His family... But we didnt get to teach him this week. It was a crazy week for them.
Also, we've had pizza like 5 nights in a row, then Lazagna, then this pasta thing two nights in a row. Last night, a family invited us on the whim to come over and eat carne asada tacos with them. I had to go. I needed to eat something else! hahaha.
Love
Elder Feller

Daniel VS The Worst Week Ever

Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 10:50:59 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Not much to report this week. We hardly had any lessons because 8 we had set up canceled. Pretty much no good or exciting ones. The Monanges had to cancel friday and then didnt make it to church because they are super sick. We probably arent teaching them again untill next friday.

So I spent a lot of time biking arround in the heat. Until Friday when Elder Baird's bike broke. We spend some time fixing it, and then it happened again. Totally busted.

So saturday comes arround and some more stuff cancels on us. We had to speak an active members 8 year old kids baptism... Not to fun. It was pretty awkward and pretty bad. hahaha. We spend a lot of time biking arround, talking to all our ward leadership and stuff, prepping for Sunday and then at night, I was riding down the street, Chandler Heights Road to be exact, I was riding with no hands and I look back at my companion who was messing arround, then I look ahead and there's a little drainage ditch (See picture bellow) perpedicular to the sidewalk and I grab my handlebars trying to avoid it and I fall right into it. Of course, I kicked the curb with my shin, trying toget it back. That backfired, it just took of some skin and left a bruse. Then my thigh and my handlebars met, and I have a bruse there too. Then I fell off the front of my bike and hit the grass with mostly my right arm, wich is now sore. But have no fear, My helmet is ok. It did not hit anything. Dont worry. So I rolled off my bike to the right and sat on the curb untill my companion caught up with me and I had him take a picture. Seen below. Pretty sweet first crash of my mission I would say.

Then Sunday no one was at church and everyone canceled on us for the Mission President Fireside. So not much happened.

So, its been a rough week, but we're staying positive. As long as we're doing what God wants us to do, then there's no reason to be depressed right?

Love

Elder Feller

Pictures!!!

1&2. Elder Lesh hopping the fence to let us out of a gated community while on exchanges.

My bike seat also broke off earlier this week.

Elder Parrott and I in T-Shirt form.

Me in the Ditch I fell in.

Chocolate pancakes on P-Day morning make it all better? 

Daniel vs Mother's Day

Date: Mon, 9 May 2011 10:58:31 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

 

Happy Mothers day everyone!

Last tuesday we taught the Wilkins family. It went super good. The dad is preparing to Baptize his kids, and the kids are super stoked. The bishop said he needed his testimony to grow first and so we focused on that. And in the week before the lesson he read 18 chapters of the Book of Mormon. He had a really spiritual experiance with it too. A scripture about the people being hard hearted hit him really hard. He realized thats what he used to be like and he doesnt want to do that anymore. His faith has increased so much and the family is keeping all their commitments. Next step: Baptism.

The Mongane family is doing really well too. We taught them the Plan of Salvation. She's been reading in the French Book of Mormon we got for them. I guess she understands that best. We have another lesson tonight at 5:00. Cutting into our P-Day. Tottaly worth it. I think she feels like she needs to know everything before she gets baptized. So we're working on all that.

We had a new investigator, Tori Andersen. She's a 16 year old girl that refered herself on Mormon.org. She had been going to mutual with her friend for a while. I have no idea why no one there invited her to church or to be taught.. tsk tsk. But whatever. We had a good lesson, except her born-again christian friend was there, disagreeing with us a little bit. Whatever. She wont be there next time.

OH! I went on Exchanges with my good friend Elder Lesh. My companion in Chandler. We had a really good time. He told me all about what happened the transfer after I left. Here's a funny story: So we were teaching this guy Chris right? The boyfriend on a girl who's parents lived in our ward. Well, things with him were going really good, he was way into it. He would go on Wikipedia whenever someone new got introduced in the Book of Mormon and learn about the character. See what the looked like from the paintings, and go on like that. He even watched the Book of Mormon movie. The old terrible one. After I left, he wanted to get baptized, but his parents freaked out and he didnt want to disapoint them. So then later, his girlfriend dumped him, and so Elder Lesh met with him later at the church. He gave him some advice and they parted ways. I know, this doesn't sound funny at all, I'm getting to that. So, later, Elder Lesh finds out from his mom, who was talking with the mom of Chris's girlfriends family, and Elder Lesh's mom figures out that the reason his girlfriend left him was because her mom kept telling all her daughters that they needed to marry boys like these missionaries who kept coming over to their house, to teach her boyfriend. Pretty funny.

Anyways, We also had lunch with Elder Lesh's investigator. We planned on the lesson first. Well this investigator wanted to prove her sister that this church was right with the bible. We tell her you shouldnt do that you should just read and pray about the book of mormon. Thats not enough for her though, so Elder Lesh and I, but mostly Elder Lesh, take her on this wild goose hunt of scriptures though the whole bible that talk about the apostacy of the early church and the restoration of this church, for 2 hours. The whole time I'm just thinking "Shut up, I just want some food" So we finnaly get back to the point, "you're just going to ahve to read and pray about it" and she's like "ooohhhhh" Such a pain. But it worked. Untill the next time she talked to her sister. Ahh, so frustrating. But whatever.

Well that was my week. Sunday I called my mom for mothers day. That was fun. I hung up and my companion talked for like an hour and a half more.

Thats it!

Love

Elder Feller

Daniel vs New Investigators

Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 11:02:08 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week has been pretty good. I'm getting to know the area. Its hard because every street and house looks the same..

But more importantly! We had an awesome week because we got some new investigators!

First, The Mongane family. (MON-GONE-EEE) The dad moved to America from The Congo 6 years ago, joined the church while translating for the missionaries in Virginia, then moved to Arizona. So he's been through the Temple and all. The mom and kids just got here from Africa a couple weeks ago. They want to join the church! So we started teaching them. She has lots of questions. She just wants to be sure. And she has every right to that! My favorite question she had was "Why did the plates have to be translated into English if it took place in the Americas. Think about that from an African's perspective. Its really cool to teach them. We're hoping to baptize them this month! 

Also, Bro. Powell. He's what we call a "dry Moromon" meaning he has a calling in scouts, does everything with the ward, just isnt baptized. The real reason is because his parents are catholic and he's very attatched to them. And they're VERY catholic. But my companion challenged him to take the lessons after the easter pagent, he prayed about it, and so he's meeting with us. His wife is pretty excited too. So we're working on that. 

Lots of other cool things going on. During the hot day, I get this sweet sweat stains on my shirts where my back pack goes. I know, its only may! The hottest 3 months are still to come! But still. I'm fighting that off.

Not too much else happened this week. We're working on getting these kids dad ready to baptize them at the end of the month. We taught them the ten commandments this week, and the dad had an experiance with his Grandpa that helped his testimony. So we're excited about that. Hopefully it goes through because we set a goal date of the 28th, but we still have to have the bishop clear the dad to baptize them. So we're praying hard!

Elder Parrott told me our shirts are ready so expect that next week!

Love,

Elder Feller