Daniel vs Food

Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:12:21 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week was pretty fun. It was super hot again, which is typical, but all the natives were freaking out because it was a record August. It was 117 the day I got my new companion. His name is Elder Krueger, and he's from Long Island, NY. He's the only 19 year old Mormon from Long Island, so I guess Im pretty lucky. He branch back home is pretty small so when we watched all three of our huge, young, Arizona wards fill up on Sunday, he didnt even know what to do. It was really funny.

Before Elder Darrington left, we were able to have a lesson with Lindsey. We went in with the goal of resolving her concern about "baptisms for the dead" and, honestly to my surprise, we did it. We built the lesson plan backwards from the first three lessons, talked about how baptism was essential, then about how it fit into the plan of salvation, and about how the spirit world worked, and how all of this is bassed on the foundation of the restoration of the Gospel, and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and if the Book of Mormon is true then everything we say is true. Then I asked, "How do you feel about the Book of Mormon?" and she said she felt it was true, and then Elder Darrington asked her how she felt about Baptism, and she turned to us and said with a smile, "Well, I think its essential." And I laughed because that what we had been just telling her. And I said, "How about for yourself?" and she said yes, and I told her we had been praying about a day for her to be baptized on, and we had come up with September the 10th. She said she would pray about it and get back to us. But everyone knows what happens when you pray about getting baptized... You get baptized.

Not much else happened this week. The next most exciting event that happened was we had to "Double-Dinner" on sunday... We didnt really have too, but it was way too good to pass up. Our Ward Mission Leaders son, Eben, who drives us places and is a good friend, had his mission farewell sunday, he's going to Columbus Ohio. Well a TON of non-members came to church to watch him and they all went to his house right after Sacrament, so he gave us a ride over so we could mingle (but really so we could eat). They had Costa Vida style buritos. There was tons of food and Elder Krueger and I ate two buritos each. Then we had a quick lesson with Jacob after church, and we had dinner just two hours later. It was really good but we could hardly eat. But it wasnt too bad, because it was one of those families that doesnt feed you a ton of food, which we really appriciate. But then the brownies and ice cream for desert... I so hard to finish! I was able to do it, but not my companion. I thought I was going to lose it though. So we shared a quick message, and went back to the house for a few minites, untill we felt a little better.

Elder Krueger is a stud! The new MTC training program is awesome, so he came out pretty prepared. I'm just working on getting him more experiance, between it being 117, and a monsoon, we havent had a ton of talking with people experiance. But we're working on it...

Sorry I forgot my camera again! Pictures next week.

Elder Feller

Daniel vs A Baby Boy

Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:57:42 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Transfer Results: I'm staying in Queen Creek and training a brand new missionary! My first "son"! Its pretty exciting. I'm kinda bummed I have to stay in this area again, but at least I get to finish what I started! And I really think training is going to be good for me. Especially in this area. It will give me a lot of new excitement and motivation.

I cant even remember what happened this week...

We taugth Lindsey twice. They both went good. Kinda. The first time she started with an email some preacher sent her... Which was all completely false, (Except he said Mormons believe baptism to be essential... that's true, because Jesus said so: John 3:5) and then her fellowship got into it with her about baptisms for the dead. I was pretty frustrated, so I just waited it out until they would let us start the lesson. We started, and funny enough, we were teaching the plan of salvation, with an emphasis on the spirit world! WOW! So we worked it out pretty good. The lesson went well, except she hasn't been feeling good and got a massive killer headache at the end, so she kinda zoned out. But we taught her again Friday and I discerned that her baptism for the dead concern is because in the past she received a spiritual witness that her grandfather is in "heaven". Hmmm. Its a tricky one. But no big. The second time we taught her last week her less active husband sat in and was pretty positive. It was a really good lesson, but she was sick Sunday and couldn't go to church!

Jacob is still afraid of what his parents will think and is still looking for an opportunity to talk to his parents. But, he got a stress fracture on his food and is out of cross country and football for the rest of the season. All his new free time gives him lots of opportunities to talk to his parents. Just saying. Maybe after he does it I'll heal John Tanner style. (Lame church movie reference)

Bro. Powell came back from his business trip, and to everyones surprise, brought his parents with him! So we actually got to meet them. They were very nice and asked us lots of questions about missionary work, because their step-grandson is going to Zimbabwe in November. We talked and then we were asked to share a message. We read Alma 32 and testified of the Book of Mormon, then Elder Darrington went nuts and pulled out Moroni 10:3-5, testified, and challenged them to read the Book of Mormon. It was interesting to watch the reason our investigator wont get baptised respond to that. He talked about how he's read some of it, and also the Koran, and challenged us to read the Koran when we get back. Which doesn't make any sense because he's Catholic...But he was very impressed by us and our faith.

I'm excited to stay in Queen Creek. I've got a grudge against this area and I will come off the victor! Even if it takes 6 months! Maybe 7.5 months because training is usually a 2 transfer call. But we should have a few baptisms. OH! Elder Lesh is the new AP! Man I miss that guy. But I'll see him soon.

Love,
Elder Feller

Daniel vs Week 6.

Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:58:58 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

I has been a crazy week!

 

Monday was P-day, then we had a good lesson with Bro. Powell. We talked about the blessings from baptism and the holy ghost and whats holding him back. He said he's "testing the waters" and the thinks baptism is "the path he's on" so we just have to push him a little farther there. His parents is still a hold up for him, so were going to work on that.

 

Tuesday was interviews and a sweet lesson! Interviews went good. I was like the second person to be interviewed. It was really good. We talked about my struggles with this area and everything right now. It went really well. Then the trainings from the other AP's and a crazy (but very good) Sister Missionary (We call her the Sister AP) went good. This Sister trained on finding and using members to help us. Everything she talked about were pretty good ideas.... If I was a woman. Pride you say? No, just honest evaluation. To be honest, and Elder can not do arts and crafts and be taken seriously. It didnt help that she indirectly called me out for a comment I made to her about how the ward leadership in my area refuses to listen to me. That just made me serious dislike of Sister Missionaries boil and swell. But those are my personal, and admittedly prideful feelings, please dont take them seriously. But to make it all better we had an awesome lesson with Lindsey. She investigated a year ago, but her inactive husband didnt like it. But she's back, and he wants to be involved too. The lesson went really well. She has tons of scattered questions and concerns, but they're easy to resolve. Keeping her on track is the biggest thing. Our new Ward Mission Leader came with us and he was getting really frustrated! But thats ok.

 

Wednesday we went to the temple, and then I got to go on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders who has a hernia, and can only work a few hours a day. We got to hang out and watch some sweet old church movies while our companions went and worked. It was fun. I got the post-interviews scoop about the Queen Creek Zone from him too.

 

Sunday we went to church all day and I was exausted and starving after. But before we could go to dinner we taught Jacob a lesson at the church before he went home. It went really good. We learned that he wants to get baptized but wants to make sure his family is ok with it first. Understandable, but frustrating. All of our investigators have that right now!

 

Well its week 6 of the transfer so I dont know if I'm still going to be here a week and a half from now! I love a lot of people here, and have worked with them a lot, so it would be sad to leave. But it would be nice to leave and get to a new area with more potential. I found out that President told the Zone Leaders that Elder Darrington and I have probably one of the toughest areas in the mission... And I've been here for 4 months! So I dont know. But Dare-Bear thinks he's getting transfered out of here so we'll see!

 

Since I've been here a while, and ran out of things to take pictures of, I took some pictures of my best ties to show you guys!

 

Love,

Elder Feller

Ties

More ties

The sky goes crazy in Arizona

Darrington reading the new scout book in the library. 

Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 11:10:33 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
Daniel vs The Time Change

 

This week was the same as usual. Last P-Day we went to a huge indoor sports facility and played football and soccer on a turf field for like 4 hours. I was so sweaty and sore! For the next three days I limped around, and Elder Darrington and I biked slooow. It was really fun though. I had to play Goalie during soccer because no one else would, and this Elder from new Zealand, who played competitive soccer back home, juked me pretty good. I hurt my left ankle because of it, but he didn't score!

 

I went on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders. His companion has a hernia and can only work 4 hours a day. He goes home in two weeks anyways. So he's toughing it out. But Elder Hoy gets to go on exchanges with someone everyday, while their companion baby sits his companion. He's from Sacramento too, so we had a good time. 

 

This Sunday, all our church times changed! Previously, we had been going to the Hawes Ward at 9, then Montelena and Desert Wells wards were both at 11 in different buildings! It made it hard, because we have nothing going on in the Hawes ward, but some stuff going on in both of the wards. But the time changed this week, so we went to Desert Wells at 9, Hawes at 11, and Montelena at 1... So we got to church from 9 to 4 every week. Its crazy. 

 

So we had an appointment with Lindsey last week, (The one the relief Society president told us about) but, to my dismay, the Bishop canceled it so he could talk with her and her less active husband first... Fortunately, it worked out well. When they told him we were going to start teaching her, he said, "I'd really like to be a part of that" so we're planning on teaching both of them now! Tuesday night!

 

We had a good lesson with Bro. Powell last night. We talked about the blessings of baptism. He asked us the dreaded question "Do you think that I don't have the spirit with me all the time right now?" Its a hard question to help people understand, but we did a good job. He said "I think I'm on that track" But we know its going to take some time. He really needs to talk to his parents, that's the kicker!

 

We're working on it!

 

Love,

 

Elder Feller

Daniel vs The Pain

Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 10:31:13 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
This week was pretty slow again. But things are starting to turn around! School has started in Queen Creek (weird huh?) and so everyone's back to reality. We've made some good progress with our wards, people are starting to do stuff and help us out more. Having three wards as a missionary can be a blessing... but its also really stressful sometimes. I remember we had six wards in Gilbert... that was hard. I hardly knew anyone. But its going good. We biked almost 150 miles this week. Just trying to find some people outside to talk to! We're doing our best to qualify for blessings. But we're really sore because of it.

We had Family Home Evening with Bro. Powell and his family on Monday. And he helped us fix Elder Darrington's bike tube later in the week. The pulled pork was amazing... I cant even describe it. And he gave us a ton of the left-overs. They're gone. But we taught his family, and some friends of theirs who were in town about the importance of going to church, reading their scriptures and saying their prayers. It was funny because their friends weren't members, or really religious people, and I don't think they go to any church because when I asked the kids why they thought it was important to go to church, they asked the mom and she got really embarrassed! But the lesson went good and Bro. Powell was even at church yesterday! He told us on Saturday night that he had a dream where he didn't go to church, and when he did, he didn't wear his shirt and tie, and they kicked him out and wouldn't let him come back. So he took that as a sign that he needed to go on Sunday. But we were at our other ward so we missed him!

We were in the other ward because we were expecting a new potential there. Actually, she was taught about a year ago, but she's been coming to church on and off with an awesome member, and asked the Relief Society President if she could take missionary lessons again. So we got a call Friday morning! And we'll be teaching her next Wednesday. Awesome.

We also had a lesson with Jacob, one of our investigators who is 16 and has a member girlfriend. The concern has always been if he was sincere or not, and I've always really thought he is. Our lesson with him confirmed that. We asked him about his family and what they thought and he got a little concerned. He said his parents are like "whatever" but his grandma is mad, and he doesn't know about his siblings. Turns out, his dad investigated the church and almost got baptized while he was dating a Mormon girl too. But she got cancer and dumped him... So he never joined. But his family always talks with him about what he learned and his dad knows alot. So we're hoping theres still some potential with his family there. He told us his grandma was going to take him out to lunch, probably for his birthday, we don't know, and said she would drive all the way to Queen Creek from Mesa to take him to her church and he was he was happy where he was, and she just took him home. So he's going though some struggles, but these will help him have a spiritual conversion. So its bittersweet.

We're going to a huge indoor sports complex today with a ton of missionaries to play football and stuff. Should be fun.

Love

Elder Feller