WELCOME HOME ELDER FELLER!

Daniel vs The Last Email

Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2012 10:45:49 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week was crazy!

AJ was baptized, which was definitely the highlight of the week. He asked me to baptize him. It was cool. A lot of his family came in to town and they seemed to be really touched. After we got out of the water he said to me, "thats it!?" with this really excited look of his face. I talked to him while we were changing about how simple it is, but how important it was. He agreed. He told me that before it happened he was nervous, but now he just felt so calm. Then the talk on the Holy Ghost was good, and then Bishop did the welcome to the ward, and he talked about how simple baptism was. It was perfect! I had even said a silent prayer before that Bishop would say something about it. Elder Schick confirmed him the next day. Then I said goodbye after church.

We also taught Alex again this week. We talked to him about everything, and with his parents about everything. It has been so long since he has had a strong spiritual experiance that he's kind of faded away. He still wants to be baptized, but he doesnt have that fire, so his mom keeps asking him if he's sure, and that makes him doubt more. Its a bad cycle. So we talked about what he needs to do, and what his mom needs to do. So hopefully things will be good. I'm sad we couldnt get him baaptized before I left, but it will be ok. He will do good. I know he'll be baptized eventually.

This last week had just flown by. I dont even know what to say. But since this is my last email, I'm going to conclude with my testimony. At district meeting I bore my testimony too. I totally cried in front of everyone. I really have loved my mission. Every minute! It has blessed my life so much. I have learned so much, and grown so much. Now I know why the prophets say that every young man should serve a mission. And I say the same thing. How could you not? How could you miss out on the opportunity to learn by the hand of the Lord every day for two years!? I'm going to miss it so much. I know the work that we are doing is true. I know that God needs our help in getting his children back to him. I know that God has once again reached out in love and restored his church to the earth. The restoration is the most important and valuable thing we can ever know about. I'm so greateful for how much my relationship with God and my testimony has grown. I want to end with what was shared with my almost a year ago, and has stuck with me ever since then. A quote in the Pearl of Great Price from Olver Cowdrey at the very end of Joseph Smith History: "Oliver Cowdery describes these events thus: 'These were days never to be forgotten—to sit under the sound of a voice dictated by the inspiration of heaven, awakened the utmost gratitude of this bosom! Day after day I continued..." Olver is talking about translating the Book of Mormon. But this is how I feel about my mission.

See you tomorrow!

Love,

Elder Feller

AJ's Baptism

The Last San Tan Zone

Water

My Desk

See you tomorrow!

Daniel vs 1 week

Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 10:33:37 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week was awesome! Lance's baptism went really well. His family even came in to town from Kingman (like 4 hours from Gilbert). He's doing great. He was baptized and confirmed by Lexi's dad, (Lexi is his girlfriend). On sunday at church, the elders quorum president asked him to share about his experiance, and he told everyone his story, and about how he heard the week before has a lot of challenges, and that he was ready, but then things started happening and he almost backed out Thursday night, but then he read and prayed, and felt good, and so he went with it. This was news to us. It was kinda scary, because we would have liked to have known about things like that, but it was more good to see, because Lance handled his own issues. Because of that, I dont worry about him as much. I didnt get a picture with him, but my companion did, so I'll send that later. But I do have a picture of him with Lexi bellow.

 

We also taught AJ again this week. He is doing amazing as well! We had a lesson with him and his sister this week, and he did most of the teaching and testifying. He told her what was up! And all about how he knew this was true, and he wants her to know about it. She's a lot less interested. She's stuck on her hippie beliefs about God. But thats ok. It was really good for AJ to teach her like that. Then on sunday, he bore his testimony in church! He got up as one of the first people, and shared his testimony, talked about how he was listening to this podcast about good business, and the guy said everyone needs a "Mission statement" for their business, or life, and if you dont have one you suck (paraphrase) and so he sat down and tried to come up with one, and he couldnt. Then later he was reading the Book of Mormon, and he decided that he didnt need a mission statement, he already had one. And he held up the Book of Mormon we gave him and said "This is my mission statement!" It was profound from anyone, especially an investigator! Church on sunday was all about Lance and AJ. Everyone was all excited about them. 

 

Monday we taught a new investigator named Robin at our bishops house, in one of the family wards. It was a good lesson, we meet with her again tonight. Nothing much else too exciting happened this week. But it was a really good week.

Next week is my last week! 

 

8 Days.

 

Love,

Elder Feller

 

Untitled 07/30/2012

Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:59:01 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week was kinda crazy. Lots of good and bad.

Monday I went to the departing dinner at the mission home with all the people I came out with going home. Because its just going to be 4 of us going home on the 14th, they let us come to this dinner. It was weird... I was there, and everyone else was headed home, and I just went back to my area the next day for district meeting. We ate dinner, and half way through I just started feeling nervous... Then afterwards we watched the slide show with everyone's pictures. Then we did departing testimonies. I was the very last one, and no one really cried a lot, but because I was last and it just kept building, when I got up there, I lost it. It was kind of embarrassing, but it was all good. haha. I was choking up the whole time, and when I sat down I started crying a more. It was tough. Then that night we all spent the night  at the AP's house. I went on a tour of ASU campus with Elder Gibby on our way back to their house. The next morning I got up with them, and went to the office, and they all got in the action-van to go to the airport, and I sat in the mission home with Elder Lindquist and talked with President until our ride came... It was weird. But I get to do it again in two weeks.

Tuesday I was wiped out all day. As soon as I got back to my area we went to Circle K to get some Mountain Dew so I could stay awake for District Meeting. Then we watched 17 Miracles because it was Pioneer day. It was good.  That night I taught Gibson again. He tried to drop me! (I was on splits with our WML, Matt Parisek) I wasn't having it. So we tried to get him back, and we did a pretty good job. Its all up to him now. We talked about how he was going to come to know God. He is really against it. That makes it tough. So we'll see how things go in the future with him. 

The rest of the week is so hard to remember!  Wednesday we snuck into transfer meeting even though we're not getting transferred. I was supposed to have a temple recommend interview, so they let us come. It was my last one! It was a good time though. Our zone kind of got rocked again. Two areas whitewashed... but one of them was for a good reason. Our problem DL and Elder Parrott are gone. Which is sad. But they're both doing well now. We got Elder Krueger back in his old area! He's a new senior comp! and his companion is kind of struggling. But he'll do a good job. Its weird that he's back, but whatever. Its cool. 

Thursday was ZLC again. It was actually a good meeting. We talked about a lot of good stuff. Including the "new P-day policies" they're making. There was a pretty big discussion about it, and no one really got anywhere, so they asked us to fax in the next day what our version of the pday policy would be. So Elder Schick and I photocopied the white handbook and faxed it in. I hope they get the message. Its funny, because there's always big dumb discussions (I wont say arguments) in that meeting, and people are always just trying to sound a little bit better. But Elder Schick and I just sit there and when they're talking we turn to the answer in PMG. Its not hard, people just need to do what they're supposed to.

Alex also fell off date again this week! His mom left us a message saying he wasn't ready, and wasn't committed enough. I think she's trying to avoid us a little bit because she didn't get back to us. We're still trying!

Saturday was a rough day but it ended well. It was awkward all day because everyone was busy doing their own thing and no one really wanted to talk to us. But that evening we taught a new guy. His name is Hunter, and he plays football for ASU. He visits the Penrod family every weekend because he has no other friends from Arizona. He just graduated from High School, and he's from the Bay Area somewhere. He's awesome. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, and he seemed pretty touched. They told us after we left he started reading the Book of Mormon right away. Which is awesome. He's going to football camp for the next few weeks, so I wont teach him again before I go.

Sunday we taught Lance again. He is doing so good! We're getting ready for his baptism this week. His girlfriend's mom called the Bishop kind of freaking out, and so he talked to us about making everything perfect. I guess she's just "like that" which isn't a problem. But its funny. Bishop said he even pulled the "Zone Leaders" card to get her off his back. We went over to talk to the mom to calm her fears about the baptism a little bit. It worked.  But the mom told us that Lance said, "Even if we break up, I'm still getting baptized." So that's always good to hear. He's awesome, and fits in the ward really well. Everything is good. AJ is still looking good for the 11th too. He even brought his little sister to church this week, and were meeting with her next week. 

Love,

Daniel

Elder Jackson and I 

The Temple 

San Tan Zone 

Schick and I messing around in the car

Daniel vs 2 Years

Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:48:25 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

I hit two years last Saturday!! Its crazy. I'm supposed to be flying home tomorrow, but I'm not! Its kind of a weird feeling. I have my departing dinner tonight with all the guys I came out with. Then they leave and I stay.

This week was crazy. We had a ton of lessons so it was really good.

On Monday we taught a new guy. His name is Gibson, he's from New Jersey but his family came from Haiti, but he works at a prison here. He came to the singles ward with a girl. It was a tough lesson because he told us he didn't believe in God... So we tried our best. We're meeting with him again soon.

Tuesday we taught Alex again. We finally pinned him down to a baptism date! August 11th. And I told his mom I was going home after that to guilt her into keeping it on that day... Was that bad? I thought it worked really well...

Wednesday we taught AJ in the morning. He is seriously doing amazing. I cant even believe it. We talked about the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel, and he just gets it! He's super excited about being baptized on the 11th. We talked alot about repentance, and then we could tell he was thinking, and then he told us, "I think I've started my repentance process without knowing it." And we were blown away. The next day we went to the visitors center with him in the morning as well. He was pretty touched by it. It was good for him to visualize everything that happened.

Wednesday night we also taught Mason, the guy who was excommunicated. The lesson went really well. We tried teaching one thing and then ended up teaching another... We just talked a lot about the Atonement. Then we gave him a blessing after. It was a super spiritual lesson.

Thursday we had another incident with that same district leader I talked about before. He was accusing his companion of not having a testimony that Joesph Smith was a prophet, because he was writing in his journal at 10:30 at night, when he was supposed to be sleeping. Its ridiculous, I know. This guy is a tool. That's the only way to describe him. We went over at 8:30 in the morning, and ... corrected him... Sharply. I had had it. I was done dealing with him. So I just let him know exactly how I felt about everything he's done. It was not nice.

On Sunday, we taught Lance again. He's doing great. Still on track for the 4th. We taught him all the commandments, and he's all good. We settled some things about the baptism as well. I guess his girl friends mom was freaking out because she wanted the program to be perfect, and I guess she thinks we've never done this before or something. haha. That's ok. We'll try extra hard. 

That was all the highlights from the week! 

Love,

Elder Feller

Daniel's Mission Address

For those who would like to write to Elder Feller please do so now!!!


He will be returning home August 14th so do not send anything past the 7th.  His address is:

Elder Eric Daniel Feller
Arizona Tempe Mission
1871 E. Del Rio Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85282-2882

Email:eric.feller@myldsmail.net

We are so proud of all the wonderful work he has done in Arizona and can't wait for him to return home!!!

We love you Daniel!!!

Daniel vs Week 6

Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:49:30 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net


Today is the start of Week 6 of what would be the last transfer of my mission.

According to my D&C countdown I only have 29 Days left.

Woah.

This week was great.

We taught AJ again, and had a really powerful lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We also checked all the commandments off, so he knew what was coming. And then we extended the date of August 11th, and after a moment, he accepted. He said, "lets do it." And then looked at his phone and said, "That's when my mom will be in town." And Elder Schick and I were stoked. He's doing great. I don't know how it all happened, but he just attached himself to the church after the first time he came. He drives in from Ahwatukee for every lesson, and for church. On Sunday, he just fit right in. He makes comments and everything. In priesthood meeting, he told everyone how to use the Gospel Library App, and in Sunday school, he thanked everyone for baring their testimony a few weeks ago, and said it really helped him. We're going to double up on lessons from now on until he's baptized, because he asked to so he could be ready.

On Wednesday we taught a guy who has been excommunicated, and wants to get back into the church, who's name is Mason. I was on exchanges with and Elder who has been out 7 months. He's a stud. He gives me hope for the future. Haha. The lesson was really good. We didn't know what to expect, but we just talked about our relationship with God. He has been praying, and we committed him to keep doing that and read the scriptures. It was a really good lesson.

On Sunday, we also taught Lance again. He started the lesson by putting himself on date. We had set august 11th before. But he told us he for sure wanted to be baptized and asked if he could move his date to the 18th because something was going on on the 11th. I was so excited I didn't even care that that was after I left. I've taught a lot of girl's boyfriends, but no one as awesome as Lance. And this lesson went really good because his girlfriend didn't make it again. Not that she's bad at all, she's great. But he's a lot more open without her. He fasted on fast Sunday to feel the spirit, and told us that he really did. He said, "I felt something I've never felt before." Later on at church he asked me if I was leaving in August. I told him I was, and then he said he might move the date up to the 4th so I could be there. That would be awesome! I'm hopeful, but its all up to him.

The ward has asked us to start meeting with these two semi-less-active teenage girls. We had a really good lesson with them on Sunday night. They know the church, but just never stuck to it. The lesson went good. We talked about our relation ship with God, the atonement, and the Restoration, and why it all mattered. It was a powerful lesson.

love,

Elder Feller

Daniel vs the 4th

Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2012 10:31:25 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net


This week was kind of slow. It seems like everyone in Arionza leaves in the summer at one point. So there's always a good chunk of people missing. Elder Schick and I are "having a good time" just like President instructed us. Sis. Howes loosened the music policy a little bit, (now were allowed to listen to everything that used to be approved when I came out, and the new rule of thumb is anything that can be reasonably played at a baptism) So Elder Schick and I have been jamming out to Christmas music, under our new tag-line, "I'll be home for Christmas"


The 4th of July was a good day. We went outside in the morning and it was actually cool outside. There was a ton of cloud cover and it was about to rain. So we went out in the morning to try and talk to people, and ended up getting soaked in the only rain storm all year. And it only rained for like an hour or so. The streets were so gross, because they never get washed off, so you could see and smell the dirt and oil and stuff going into the drains. Gross.

We also taught a new investigator, AJ, that day. We met him on sunday in the singles ward, when he was there with his ex-girlfriend, and no one has ever seen her before, and she didnt come this week. But he did, by himself. AJ is awesome. He told us he grew up Catholic, but wasnt happy with it, and his girl-friend talked to him a lot about the church. He didnt really know anything about it, and when we were talking about the restoration, and how we have a prophet today, I seemed to really hit him, and he said, "I did not know that." It was a good lesson. And like I said, he was at church this week. He came by himself, and sat down before we could get a seat. We talked to some guys in the ward and they went and talked to him. He was really made a part of the group right away. One of them is coming to our lesson this week.

We met with the Boccella's again on friday. They are back from vacation, and doing great. We had to eat two dinners that day becase we had lessons at both of them. But we lived... We talked to them about the Priesthood, mostly towards Al. He told us he's going with the flow right now untill he gets used to everything in the church. He has in own  hymn book now so he can sing the songs in "Elder's Corner" with everyone else. Haha.

On sunday we taught Lance the plan of salvation. He is making progress. He says he starting to believe the things he learns more, which is good. He struggles with praying, and receiving answers to prayers. He has never really prayed before this time in his life and things are moving quick for him. He agreed to be baptized on the 11th of August if he's ready by then.

I'll be home for Christmas,

Love,

Elder Feller

Daniel vs Time

Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2012 10:55:06 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net


This week was crazy.


My travel plans have just changed again, and so I'll be coming home on August 14th. A lot of crazy things have happened with this extension and I'll have to wait and see how everything will work out. President mentioned in my interview letting a few of us who are going home in the middle of the transfer go out and do something fun and special. I don't know what that means. We'll have to find out. But I would prefer to stay here in my little zone and work here. But what happens happens and I was asked to stay for a reason, so we'll see.


Tuesday we had to stop a district meeting and correct the district leader. I don't want to get too much into the story of everything, but our new district leader is causing a ton of problems. And we had to stop his district meeting and set him straight. He definitely got a talking to, it was not pretty. He was using the meeting as a way to correct his companion for something that was not even wrong. And we had been feeling like there was something going on in their companionship that was not right. He's treating him like a problem child, which he isn't, even though he has a lot of time on him and is only in his  current situation because of a small mistake that someone blew out of proportion. The district leader is crazy. He is very prideful, and full of how "good he is", but he's really not that good. Yeah, he's probably never broken a mission rule, but he also has never lived up to the commandment to love his neighbor. Which is a much bigger issue than "law of Moses" mission rule obedience. There's a powerful lesson to learn here. But I'm going on exchanges with him tonight, so we'll see. 


On Tuesday we also taught a guy named Patrick. He had been taught by Elder Howard before, but had recently returned to being interested in church. He's a typical collage aged person. Very logical. But he's getting it. His faith has increased alot. One huge deal breaker last time was that he did not want to live the law of chastity... So we'll see how everything goes this time. But he's very sincere so it will go good. 


Also, Tuesday night we tie-dyed shirts with the singles ward. I now have a tie-dye dress shirt. It was an old one anyways. It had a whole in it. Like most of them do. I'm losing shirts fast! I lost another one after interviews, and got a ton of ink on another one! I'm holding on tight until the end. 


Wednesday we had a weird day preparing for interviews the next day, getting our car clean, and making a training and stuff. Our house was super clean from the P-day before, but a little lived in. We got a 65% on our cleaning inspection from the new housing coordinators. The whole zone failed. Except the Sisters (duh). Needless to say, everyone was pretty mad. She wrote "No Cleaning Done" on the form! It was ridiculous.


Thursday was interviews. Elder Schick made Pancakes for lunch for everyone. And we trained the zone on planning and stuff.


Sunday we taught Lance again before church. It went really well. We had a lesson on faith, and Alma 32, and how to build our faith. He struggles with a basic belief so we felt this would be a good topic to discuss. Then at church there was another guy we met who was not a member but agreed to meet with us. That's 1 new investigator a week from the singles ward! We have high hopes for that ward.  

Love,
Elder Feller

Daniel vs Singles

Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:44:46 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net


We had a pretty good week. It was mostly slow. But it ended really well. We taught a guy, named Brandon, that Elder Schick was teaching in his last area, that is going to be coming to the singles ward pretty soon. And we had to bike 7 miles to get there because it was no drive day. But it was good. 


The bad news this week, Megan got spooked when we extended a baptismal date on the second lesson (which, by the way, is what we are supposed to do). So were not going to meet with her until part way through July when her friend gets back in town. Which is too bad because she is an awesome investigator. But that's ok. We did what we're supposed to do and she'll be back. 


The really good news, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but we've been asked to focus on our Singles ward for our work. So we have made a lot of steps and progress there. We met with our Ward Mission Leader, Matt, and made a lot of plans. On Sunday we went to Ward Council and talked about a lot of things we can do there. We've been going to all of the activities and talking to people to get to know them and see if they have friends. Its fun, but, of course, kinda awkward. Its weird being in a singles ward for a few reasons. The first, its hard to talk to single girls as a missionary. Second, I dont remember what its like to be normal! I dont remember what normal people do or what its like. And I think working in the singles ward gets us close to that. Its a line we have to stay on the right side of, for a lot of reasons. But the people in the ward are awesome, and its a ton of fun. We're doing great. Just since we decided to start focusing on it, we have had a non-member who was coming to church every week invite himself to meet with us, since he said no the first time we offered. His name is Lance. We met him last night at the church building. He's really sincere and wants to know the truth for the right reasons, not for his girlfriend. 


Also, in Priesthood meeting on Sunday, we were introduced to Pattrick, a former investigator from before I was here. He told us he investigated the church for a while, and then disappeared for a few months, but now he is back and is thinking about being baptized. We set up an appointment for later this week. 


Love,
Elder Feller

Elder Schick and I at the Gilbert Temple

Daniel vs Elder Schick

Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:46:14 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

 

My new companion is Elder Schick! I've known him for a long time, we lived in the same house in Queen Creek for a transfer, and he's been in the San Tan zone for a while. We're super excited to get things going in our area and the zone. The Zone has been doing great! We should end June with 13 which is awesome for this zone. 

 

Elder Jackson's last few days were good. On Monday night we taught the Boccella family about the tree of life. They are on vacation right now, but they are doing so good. Its so awesome to see the change in their lives, even from the day before the baptism.

 

Tuesday we spent a lot of time packing and stuff. But in the evening we ate dinner with President Riggs, he used to be the stake president but he's leaving this week to be a mission president in DC. We ate Joe's BBQ, a famous place here in Gilbert. It was good. He had a lot of questions about the mission. He's going to be a great mission president. Then we walked out of his house, to his next door neighbor, ate a second dinner, (ribs and potatoes) and taught this family's neighbors. They are moving to Maricopa AZ, but we taught them about the Book of Mormon to try and get them interested. They said they'll read it! So that was good. 

 

Wednesday was the transfer day. I was so scared! My options for companions were not looking good when I got there. I wont go into that though, because when President Howes read "In San Tan, Elder Feller and Elder Schick" I was waaay too happy. It was one of those transfers that makes everyone laugh or gasp or something. It got loud and Elder Schick Jumped on me and I carried him to the bench.  

 

Thursday was Zone Leader Council. All day meetings! Yaay. It was good though. We talked about a lot of good stuff. President told a story about how when he got hired at this company he sold a ton of this one medicine that was supposed to be terrible, but no one told him that, and he sold a ton of it. He related it to faith, because someone mentioned that they didn't feel like they could reach the success they used to and President basically asked him who told him that. It was cool. That's been something I've been thinking about a lot, being in this zone. Some people get down for no reason... But we're putting a stop to that. 2 Nephi 29:7-9.

 

Nothing really eventful happened the rest of the week. We had a few lessons cancel due to fathers day.. But that was it.

 

Love,

Elder Feller

 

Elder Parrott and I in the Palm Tree Farm on exchanges



I was trying to catch the dust storm that was coming in. You can kinda see it.

The Temple in Rear View

Daniel vs Living the Dream

Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:33:52 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

I know since you're all dying to hear the transfer results: IM STAYING!! Elder Jackson is going to go train and be a district leader somewhere else. We'll see. Some weird stuff happened across the zone, but it will all work out. It always does. I'm going too miss a lot of these guys. I'm losing a lot of friends this transfer. We'll see how it works out. Some really cool stuff could happen...

This last week was a blur. Most of it was getting ready for our baptism this week. Organizing a whole thing between two wards is stressful. Especially because everyone in Arizona tries to get their summer camps done fast before its gets too hot. We had to deal with Girls camp in one stake, and Aaronic Priesthood camp in the other. But it all worked out.

We taught them twice in the week before the baptism, and had their interview a different day too. We tried to keep them busy so they wouldn't get nervous, and Bro. Smelser did a good job helping. They played softball almost every day. The lessons and interviews went really well. The baptism was amazing also. We got there early and set up. We soon realized that there would not be enough room in the relief society room. So we moved to the chapel. They came and everyone got ready. Al laughed at us because we were waiting for them in our white clothes. I think that relieved some nerves. Sis. Smelser gave a talk about baptism that was really good, and then we went back to the room where the font was. They had four different people baptizing all four of them. It was crowed. But awesome. I baptized Avery, the 14 year old daughter. We all did it on the first try, except Elder Jackson, on the very last one, her toe popped up! But it was ok. Then Bro. Smelser gave an emotional talk on the holy ghost. The bishops both spoke, the ward they've been going too, and the ward they will go too soon. The bishop of the other ward handled it very well. He referenced Elder Halstrom's talk from conference and talked about how the gospel and church are different. He said, "the church draws these funny little lines all around Gilbert." It was funny. He did a great job, and they will do great in their new ward. The confirmation on Sunday was good too. I confirmed Avery as well. After sacrament meeting I called Al "Bro. Boccella" and it was pretty funny. They are so great. They have really made the gospel part of their lives, and I believe they will stay on that course. Pictures bellow.

That night we had a lesson with Aubrey. We kept it short because he was busy and we wanted him to pray on his own. So we left, and then finished mowing his lawn.

That's all for this week. Expect big news next week. Like I said, theres a chance some really cool stuff could happen soon. We'll see.

Love,
Elder Feller

    Us, the Boccella's and the Smelsers

    Back Row: Bro. Smelser, Elder Jackson, Al Boccella, Elder Feller

    next row: Richard, Avery, Heather, Bailey, Kelly (Smelser's daughter, Richard's wife)

    next row: Kimball, Carmella, Cameron, 

    front row: Kayleen, Sis. Smelser

Elder Jackson & I, and the Boccellas

Mowing the Lawn

Still going.

I punched a car! 

Untitled

Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2012 11:13:58 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

I talk a lot about how things are going on here but I dont often talk about how I feel. As some people know, the plan right now is to extend my mission until september. I dont really know why, but I feel like that is what I need to do. Its really inconvient with school and a break and everything, but I have faith that it will all work out ok. I really do love my mission, but I have been out a really long time, and some days when its really hot and we have nothing to do, I just really want to go home... Its hard, but I just really feel like I need to do it. Things are tough right now, I'm not going to lie. I'm in the most notorious zone right now, and even though we have a few good things going on, theres not a whole lot of work in this area. We're working on it, as always. We're trying to make work. But at the same time we're trying to help the whole zone. Its time consuming to do both. But the zone is doing awesome as a whole. Two of our stake are making massive changes and improvements. Last week we had a record number of teaching opportunites. And not that the numbers matter all that much, but it paints a picture of whats going on. Busy missionaries are happy missionaries, and happy missionaires get even more good work done. I really believe you have to be happy to be a succesful missionary. To have faith you have to be positive, and happy, and put out that engery. Thats why I always try to be friends and make people happy.

I've shared with a few people my thoughts and frustrations with a lot of things that are happening within the mission right now. I dont want to go into that, its really not important. But if the other leaders were actually leading in a Christ-like way, and following what it actually says in D&C 121 things would be a lot better. And I'm trying to do all I can to solve problems and help the misisonaires. I love them. All of them. From my best friends to the goobers. I love the people here in Arizona, and I'm so greatfull for all the things I've learned from them. From the greatest church leaders, to the people I've taught. I love being a representative of Jesus Christ.

(That being said, I am pretty trunky. Haha. I still do work of course, so its not a bad thing. and as always, I joke a lot. I miss music the most. Not anything else, besides relaxing... I do miss relaxing. I havent "chilled" in soooo loing. And tts fun to sing old songs to my companion and try to make him trunky too. Life is good.)

Enough of that, lets get to the good stuff.

I dont really know how to describe the last few weeks. We've been teaching the Boccella family a lot. They are doing awesome, and thier baptism is scheduled for this saturday, June 9th. They are so awesome. We had a lesson last monday where we shared our conversion stories, and talked about the restoration. And then last saturday we went to their house and talked with them about the baptismial interview questions. Funny story: So, we text them a scripture to read everyday as a family, and we forgot one day so the next day my companion wrote: "sorry we forgot yesterday, we need to repent" and sent them two scriptures. Well, on saturday Al asked us what we were talking about. He thought we meant we were busy repenting, and he was like "oh man, they did something bad!" He thought we were in trouble, and was going to call us to see if we needed help. But he didn't. It was really funny.

The only other big thing that has been going on is Aubrey. We missed him last week, but this week we went by and he was working on his shed. We offered to help and he said no a few times, but we kept on him, untill he let us mow the lawn. So Elder Jackson went to mow the lawn and I just went and helped him fix his shed. We switched later and I mowed untill it was out of gas. Then the power saw they were using quit on us and he said, "well, why dont you come inside, and I'll give you some dinner and then you can preach to me." So we ate a second dinner, and then had a really good lesson with him. I think I've talked about before, how Aubrey will throw the missionaries off by saying he needs to be baptized, but he really doesnt understand some basic things, like prayer and his relationship with God. And he cant progress untill he gets that. So we had a really good lesson about that, and he finnally got it! So he commited to do that, and hopefully he will progress soon.

We also have still be teaching Danielle. She is doing so awesome! We had a confusing lesson on sunday in gospel principles, because we ran out of time, talking about the Priesthood, and we went over it again in our lesson that night. At the end she said, "Oh my gosh! This is amazing! No other church has this!"  It was really cool.

So things are good. I know I complain a lot, but dont listen to me.

Love,
Elder Feller

Daniel vs Sleep

Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 10:47:47 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

I have two weeks to catch up on! 

Last monday we put the Bocella family on date for May 26th. We have another lesson with them tonight, and we might move the date to June 9th. Depending on them. They are doing awesome, but we feel that they might need just a little bit more time. Its really cool to see all the things in their life that are moving thing forward in their spiritual progression. I guess this random person came to priesthood last week and shared a testimony that really helped Al. We mostly worried about him and about the younger daughter Bailey. They are coming a long, but aren't quite there.  

Last week the pedal on my bike stripped out! So I had someone fix it but in the mean time I rode a tiny 12 year old girl bike around all day. Picture below! But my bike is all better... for now... 

We also had a lesson with Carly last week. It went really well, she is doing great. But we talked a lot about her mom and how that is holding her back. Her mom is concerned about her, which is understandable. So were trying to help her be more open with her mom and try to help her see what she sees. We're working on it!

Danielle is doing well. We've still been teaching her every week. She loves the ward, and all the friends she now has. They've really helped her out. She keeps going back to coffee and then feeling really bad! So we're ironing that out as well. But she is really solid. She is really trying to learn. 

This week was a lot more boring. We got to teach Alex again. His mom is still crazy. She called us and asked if we really thought he was ready for baptism. We of course said yes, and explained it to her. She was planning on meeting with the bishop of their ward, and she wanted to be ready for the meeting. But at the end of the conversation she asked how she sets up the baptism, and so hopefully that will come about soon!

We finnaly taught Aubrey as well. He is having a hard time. Bad things keep happening in his life, and he knows its a test. So we asked him how he was going to pass that test, and then talked alot about prayer. Turns out, Aubrey never really askes for things when he prays. He used the excuse "I just do things myself" and so we talked about how its a commandment to ask for things, and theres some things he cant do without God. So we're going to follow up this week. 

They put Moroni on top of the Gilbert temple! There were crazy Mormons everywhere! It was really crowded all around the temple so we hid in this gated community and watched them put it on. It was cool. 

We got almost no sleep this week. I feel asleep early last night and slept well, but I needed it. 

Saturday we did a service project out on the Indian reservation. It was pretty cool. Elder Schick is doing a good job out there. The native attendance to the branch has really gone up. We cleaned another cemetery. Picture of the church building below! They also gave us a new car on Saturday! I miss our old one, a 2011 Chevy Malibu, but our new one is turning out to be way better. Its a 2011 Ford Fusion. 

Sunday we had to wake up early again to go to a Ward Mission Leader training. Staying awake in church was difficult...  Then that night we had two dinners because the other elders told people from the singles wards that we're not getting fed... Which is definitely a lie. But a funny one. It was cool, we went to dinner with the Elder Cox and Elder Wilhelm, but they told them they already ate a first dinner, so they kind of threw us under the bus! But it was ok, we paced ourselves and didn't end up too full. We ate with this family from England, and she knew us because we got a ride with them to the temple, and her daughter is in our singles ward. But it was a really funny dinner. Then at night we had to go to another meeting with the same guy as in the morning. Bro Hazelgren is awesome though. He's doing a fantastic job, and the missionary work in the stake is really turning around. 

love,

Elder Feller

 

Daniel vs Dust Storm

Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 10:24:55 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Special Edition Blog this week, because I chatted with my family yesterday:

DUUUUSSSSSTTTT SSSSTTTTOOORRRMMMM. The first one of the year. Watch the progress

Videos and pictures are in order.

Daniel vs Meetings

Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 11:01:07 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week was crazy... But not a good missionary crazy. Like, meetings and stuff crazy.

Monday we taught the Boccela family. They are doing great. We finished talking about the Plan of Salvation, but mostly talked about Prayer. At the end we were just finishing up and I was asking if they had any questions, and I specifically asked the daughter, Avery, and she started crying and talked about her friend who died. We talked about it, and she felt a lot better. It was really cool, and then we talked about praying for comfort, and asked her to say the closing prayer. She said she figured that was coming, and we knelt down, and then the funniest thing ever happened. The dad, Al, got a charlie horse while kneeling and freaked out and fell on the ground saying "Ow! ow! ow! ow! ow! ow!" and we all started laughing. Bro Smelser went to go help him stretch it out and he got one in the other leg too. It was funny. The spirit that was there was gone, and then Avery said the closing prayer. It was still good. But really funny...

Tuesday we taught Alex again. He's doing well, but his mom is still crazy. She's putting a stop to everything, and saying he needs to read the whole book of mormon and stuff... I dont know whats going on there, but the sisters tell us he has been at church, so thats a good sign... That night we had a crazy time trying to figure out what to do and where to go. It was fun though, we stopped by the singles ward FHE activity and saw Danielle. She's doing great. We also found a ride to transfer meeting.

Wednesday we went to transfers meeting, and took Elder Howard home with us. He was down from Show Low and came to our area for the day. It was fun. We got our long board we bought from Cole Warner, the fellowship for Carly. Its custom made! Picture below. But the rest of the day wasn't to productive. It was mostly people being happy to see Elder Howard time. It was a good day though.

I'm emailing from a High School Library its kind of weird.

Thursday was Zone Leader Council. It was mostly uneventful. The biggest thing we did was talk about the activity planned for Friday were we read from the Book of Mormon from 8:00AM to 8:30 PM. The purpose being to help us build faith and unity. It was no secret that I didnt agree with doing the activity at first, but after I heard Presdient and Elder Potts talk about it I felt better about it, and we had a good time on friday. But I seriously sit in that meeting sometimes and wonder how smart people actually are. Some of them always try so hard to "aspire" as we call it. They were asking about wearing suits the whole day while we did it and most people were like "heck no!" but one ZL was like "I like it! Then we can cary more pens in our pockets!" and I just said straight out loud "I have pockets on my pants..." and Elder Case laughed really hard at me. But, in the end, President wanted us to wear suits. So we went in on Friday and wore suits for like 20 mins, and then gave everyone permission to take off their coats. The meeting went well though. We also prepared for the training were going to do at the end of the month. That was pretty cool. And its always good to see my friends from all over.

Friday was the Zone read-a-thon. We got together at a church building and set up tables in the releif society room and read the Book of Mormon aaallllll day. It was actually really good for us. And surprisingly, everyone kept really good focus untill about 7:30. We started reading out loud as a group and did that for a long time and then switched to individual. It was cool to see themes that were common across the whole book, that you wouldnt normally catch in just a few chapters. At 8:00 I was on Mosiah 27, and I brought everyone back together and we read Moroni 10 as a group and then talked about what we learned untill 8:30.

Saturday was catch up day. We started off doing service on the Indian Reservation south of Chandler. One of the Elders in our Zone has been asked to start working out there. We went in and cleaned up the semetary that was across from the LDS chapel. It was cool. The Reservation is what I expected Arizona to look like when I came out here... dusty and shacks everywhere... It was like the Wild West! But service was good. They put a lot of stuff on the graves because they believe it belongs to the person. And of course, we were cleaning up this pile of garbage, and Elder Parrott was like "I think thats actually a grave..." and we told him it wasn't and cleaned it all up and then we looked at it again and realized it probably was... and we were stepping all over it and throwing away his stuff. We left it alone after that. It was really funny, because at the end the native guy incharge asked us to say a prayer for the people in the graves, and we took that as protection for us for taking his stuff... haha. Saturday afternoon we had a huge long meeting with our district leaders about all the problems in our zone...

And sunday was.... typical sunday. I had a huge headache from fasting, and we were still trying to catch up... Nothing to exciting.

We got mission T-Shirts! and also, someone in our district made district T-Shirts! Pictures below.

Love,
Elder Feller

My New Longboard

Me Riding my new Longboard in our front yard this morning... I'm still really bad at it... 

The Mission T-Shirt (and new logo)

District Shirt front and back. The back is "the Watering hole" with all of our "Spiritual Animals" drinking from it. I'm the big black bear. 

Elder Krueger got transfered!