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 Heartburn

Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:48:30 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Last Monday we taught a whole family of 5. Im not sure how to spell their last name yet, so I'll get that next time. They are friends with the Smelser family who live in the little mormon gated neighborhood we live in. (I haven't sent pictures of that yet! Next week!) They know them from their daughters playing softball. Al and Heather and their kids moved here from Philadelphia a little bit ago. They are awesome! The Smelsers have done a good job sharing the Gospel with them. They invited them to church on Easter, and watched some of conference with them, so its going great. They invited us over for dinner on Monday, and then we taught the first lesson after. Al was into it, he used to be Catholic, but wasn't happy with that. Heather has never had religion or anything, and she was paying really close attention, and giving us this stare, and at first I thought she was mad at us, but she was just paying really close attention. It was pretty funny... But by the end there were tears and everything. So its going great. We have another lesson with them tonight. And he said he'd bring us legit Italian meatballs this time. They are also being fellowshipped by the ward they actually live in... which we don't cover.

 

Tuesday we taught Alex. I'm concerned about him right now. His mom is throwing all sorts of wrenches into it. She is giving him all sorts of concerns that wouldn't have existed otherwise. And its going to be difficult for him to stay on the path, and keep doing what he needs to with opposition coming from within his home. And his mom said he has to read the whole Book of Mormon before he gets baptized. Which is also crazy... He's 15... come on.

 

Wednesday night we taught Danielle the rest of the commandments. She is doing awesome. She is handling all the opposition in her life very well. We found out Sunday that her parents are being less supportive, and her best friend told her not to do it. But she doesn't care. She knows whats right, and she's going for it.

 

We have also found out that the girls we were teaching a while ago, Haley and Veronica, are making bad choices, and so their friend doesn't want to talk to them anymore, and so we haven't been able to teach them for a while... I understand where she's coming from though. and so does Bro. Penrod. He told us as a parent he's glad she's making good choices, but from a missionary aspect, he wishes she would stay friends with them and pull them in. So its a weird situation.

 

Thursday we taught Carly again. Carly is doing amazing. She left her journal/notebook at the Warner's house for them to read, and they had us look at it also. She takes awesome notes on whats going on in the Book of Mormon, she wrote down how to pray, and a question about receiving answers, that a bunch of her Mormon friends, including most of the Warner family answered. And then the last thing she wrote was a prayer, that was really touching. We assumed she was ready for a baptism date, and we went into the lesson prepared to do that, but as we talked to her she was telling us she wanted a more sure answer. She wants to "know" as she said. We talked about how that was important. She is the most sincere 15 year old ever... And that will be good for her parents as well. They are mostly supportive, but understandably a little apprehensive. They want her to attend a few other Christian church services just to make sure. But she also needs to come to ours! She misses it a lot because she plays competitive soccer.

 

Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Cox in my area. He is one of our district leaders. He is awesome. We had a ton of fun. Not a whole lot happened all day. I had to drive to wal-mart and get a bike seat on our "no drive day" because my old one was broken. But we had a good day. Elder Cox really cares about people, and is real and genuine. And I really appreciate that. Too many people get so caught up in stupid stuff, acting like they care, but they really don't do anything. I have always tried not to do that. I'm very realistic. And so it was a good day. Elder Cox is also hilarious. 

 

Saturday we went to the ward "foot-rodeo". Just a rodeo themed activity. It was funny. They, of course, had the Elders be judges of the Chili contest. So Elder Jackson and I tasted all 36 different Chilis. Oh man. It was fun, but I didn't feel good after. I found myself giving the highest scores to things that tasted the least like Chili... The white chicken one and the stake & salsa verde one were my favorites. We also watched over a hundred little kids chase chickens around the rodeo arena. A ton of them biffed it really hard diving after the chickens. It was worth it. We also got to talk to Carlos, the guy we taught on Easter. He is doing awesome, and meeting with the missionaries in Mesa.  

 

Sunday was a typical church day. Danielle was at the singles ward, which is always an adventure. Theres a ton of funny people there. We've been trying to make friends and get to know the ward better to try and get more referrals out of them. All the guys in the ward are RMs, so they're not dumb, and the more I get to know them, the better they'll do. Sunday night we met with a new High Councilor about the missionary work in his stake. [... I was about to write all this stuff about the stuff he said that I found annoying. but I decided not too. I've realized recently that I've become a lot more sassy on my mission. Mostly I think because I don't put up with as much, and I think I'm a lot more comfortable expressing myself... But I'm still working on being nice to people. Never has been a strong point.] but all in all he's a good guy, and will do awesome in the calling. The stake needs it to. So I'm excited for that to come.  

 

Pictures next week,

Love,

Elder Feller

Daniel vs Stake Meetings

Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:12:43 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net
 

It was kind of a weird week. We're trying to pull all the stakes here together and build them up. But we also had a lot of lessons cancel... It was a long week. 

On Monday I said goodbye to Jeff and Jenny. I'm turning them over to the missionaries in their actual ward. The lesson went pretty well, except Jenny, who is less active, doesn't really have a desire to make the effort to come back to church. Jeff is willing to do whatever right now, so its almost sad to see. Jeff is going to take a while, and Jenny is going to need to be leading the family in the spiritual aspect before he will progress. But I have faith in them. They are awesome people. 

On Tuesday we taught Alex, and put him on date for may 5th. It doesn't count for us, but for the sisters. But hopefully his mom will let him... She was walking in and out and around the whole lesson. Alex invited her to join and said we were having a blast and she said, "yeah it sounds like a Word of Wisdom party in here." I think part of the reason she's less active because she doesn't really want to live the commandments. So it was funny, but awkward. Alex is doing great. He understands the why behind the commandments, and so he's willing to live them. 

Thursday I was on exchanges with Elder Schick. It was awesome. Elder Schick is the man. He covers the Reservation now, but unfortunately i didn't get to go there... But we did meet with a member of the stake presidency and he talked to us about this leadership training the mission president is going to be at in a few weeks. He invited us and so we're preparing for that. These stakes are really trying to shape up and do better, especially since the church asked them to make missionary goals and they're all doing really bad. So the training will be a great opportunity to give them direction.  

Friday we taught Danielle! She is doing great. She sailed through all the toughest commandments. She told us before that she had some trials pop up this week and handled them like a pro. Her old ex-boyfriend, who apparently is a tool, tried to get in contact with her and she just ignored it. Then, her friends wanted her to go out drinking "one last time" and she put her foot down and said no. She also talked with her family about it, and they are ok and so she is super excited! She went to church yesterday and everyone was super friendly and welcomed her. They announced that she was getting baptized, and so people were all over her. But she really loves church, and she tells us all the time about how happy the gospel makes her. 

Saturday one of the stakes in the zone called us and asked us to prepare a ton of reports and a training for a meeting they were having the next morning at 6 am insead of the normal stake meeting. So we spent a ton of time getting it all together and then meeting with the missionaries to figure out what to do. We woke up really early and went to the meeting and they hardly let us talk. But its ok, the stake is doing better. They are starting to make missionary work a priority and actually try. So hopefully they will do better. We're trying to direct them the best we can. But the rest of our Sunday was tough! I was exhausted and had a huge headache all through church, dinner, a lesson with a member family, and then a meeting with President Riggs. at 8 we went to the Bowen's house and she sowed our pants, and I drank a soda to get at my headache, then we went home, did some weekly paperwork, then crashed by like 10 and finished and faxed in the paper work this morning. So I feel a lot better. 

Today we're going to Queen Creek to play another zone is kickball. It should be fun. 

Love,

Daniel

Daniel vs 20 Months

Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:59:10 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Did you guys realize I've been out 20 months now? Woah.

Crazy week this week. We spent most of the first couple days with Elder Howard saying goodbye to people. Monday night we taught a guy named Jeff. He had been taught by Elder Howard for the last 4 months and actually wasn't in our wards, but in one of the ones that split off, and he got caught in the split. We still taught him because he hates getting completely new missionaries and he and Elder Howard got along really well. The lesson that night we tried teaching about the plan of Salvation, and it wasn't going all that great. He knows it all, just has trouble with faith, then his wife, who is a member, came home from her first day at work and just started crying when she saw their daughter. Then Elder Howard bore testimony on everything for Jeff, and everything he wants in life, eternal families and happiness and everything. He cried. It was really powerful. Then he told them when they got sealed he wanted to hear about it. They laughed, and she asked Jeff it that sounded weird, and he said a few months it would have, but not now. So were making good progress there. I'm going over tonight with one of the Elders who is actually in their ward.

Wednesday I got my new companion. Elder Jackson from West Jordan Utah.

Thursday we were supposed to go on splits with the singles ward. They wanted us to take them to places, and I was kinda frustrated because we don't have enough to do, and them just coming out with us to go do stupid stuff isn't really going to do anything... I think the assistant ward mission leader could tell I wasn't happy with the whole thing. The singles ward is awesome at missionary work... but they just don't get how it works here. But, it turns out that when we talked to the guy before and asked if he knew anyone, he did, and everything worked out and we taught his friend, Alex. Alex is a quadriplegic, and this guy works for him, helping him out. He met with us and just asked us questions about plan of salvation stuff. It went good and we set up another time.

Friday we parked our car and biked all day... and nothing happened. It was a long day...

Saturday we taught Danielle again. We were going to do her reading assignment with her, because she hadn't done it last time, but she did it and so we were going to read a chapter, but I was talking with her about a part in the Introduction to the Book of Mormon and I really felt we needed to talk about the Plan of Salvation. I still don't know why, we taught it and it went well, but not amazing. But I really felt we needed to do that, so it was a cool experience for me.

She and Alex were both at church on sunday and so we had a good day. Our Sacrament meetings were pretty funny. We go to all four, so we have lots of opportunites for crazy things. And we serve in two stakes so in one stake it was fast sunday, and in one of the ward in the other stake, A guy, for part of his talk on fasting, compared the starvation of the American Bison in the winter of Yellow Stone National Park to fasting. In great detail... Comparing the months of -66 degree weather to the 24 hours of the fast. It was hard not to laugh really hard... Then in the fast and testimony meeting in the other stake, the Stake President and his family brought a friend to church, and so they warned the ward council not to let testimony meeting get out of hand. President Riggs was pretty nervous, it was funny. It went really well though, the testimonys were all very nice, with the exception of a young married guy who got up and quoted a notoriously inappropriate comedian...

It was a good week.

Love,
Daniel

Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 10:46:34 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week was pretty busy. A lot of normal missionary work stuff. Things are going pretty well. We're facing some opposition with our investigators that we thought were pretty solid. But, I've found that something has to happen each time while people are investigating the church. Some trial or doubt or fear comes up. So we're working on it.

On monday we went to Barney's Sports Complex in Queen Creek, which is not very far away. It was cool to go through my old area again. We stopped to see if I could say hi to some people, but no one was home. We still had a good time at barneys though. As always.

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with one of our District Leaders who has been really stuggling... pretty much his whole mission. The day before at district meeting he talked about sacrifice and "gave up" a lot of his "weapons of rebellion" he was hanging on to by throwing away a bunch of CDs. It was good, I think he's making slow improvemnt. I just hope he keeps on track, we're trying to help him the best we can.

Thursday I had my first Zone Leader Council (ZLC) where we all go have a meeting at the mission home. It was pretty cool. Early in the morning before we went to the Temple to seek revelation on what our zone needs. We talked about a lot of stuff at the meeting. Administering stuff. Then in the afternoon we had some pretty good trainings. You asked in a letter if I liked being a Zone Leader. I do, overall. Its pretty fun, and I get to go to secret meetings and stuff. haha. But, I must say I think its over rated. People treat the Zone Leaders differently, and I think its kind of silly, because in reality we dont do all that much. But I was thinking about that this week, and I remembered what Elder Howard told me when I got here about the biggest thing we can do is be an example. I thought about how much I always looked up to most of my ZLs and what their example did for me. So I guess thats the whole purpose. And with that in mind, I'm feeling a lot better about the whole thing. It is acually pretty fun.

Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Schick, an old friend from when I was in Queen Creek. He's on of our District Leaders. It was fun. We had a good time, and talked about a lot of stuff. We're trying to work smarter and better than we have before, because doing the same old thing has not bennefited the San Tan zone very much in the past. We also got to set up a huge Teepee for this cub scout thing.

Saturday Venice was baptised! It was a good baptism. Its weird, because her whole family is active, but she just fell through the cracks because her dad wasn't worthy to baptize her when she was 8. He thought he would be able to this time but the answer came back no a few weeks ago. But it went really well, the whole family is happy, and they're doing awesome. It was kinda weird for me because I just came in on the tail end, so I didnt teach them the whole way. This is the first time thats happened in a long while. But it was still good.

Also, on Saturday we found out that Bro. McConkie, our high councilor over missionary work, was released. They want him to focus in more on the mission prep class. Its pretty sad, but we still get to visit him because he's fellowshipping one of our investigators. (he doesnt live in our area) He is super smart, and we always ask him gospel questions when we go over and he blows our minds!

thats all!
Love
Elder Feller

Exchanges with Elder Schick driving the Teepee poles. 

Venice Allen's Baptism

ZLC

Everyone jumped on me.

Daniel vs Baptisms!

Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:06:16 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

The most exciting thing that happened this week was Colten and Sierra Porter's baptism! It went really well. The dad was able to baptize the kids after all and we got everything sorted out. Last Sunday we realized that on the Church records Bro Porter was only a Teacher, but he swore he was a priest, so we had to get that all figured out, and it worked out really well. The baptism was really nice. The spirit was really strong, and I can tell that it really helped the family spiritually. They are doing so much better. The mom has been able to make it to church the last three weeks, and they want us to start teaching their other two kids pretty soon. 

I went on exchanges twice with the members of my district who live in my house. The first time I went out with Elder Riddoch, and we had a good time in his area. I always seem to learn more than I teach when I go on exchanges.  And the second time I stayed inside most of the day with Elder Lichtenstein because of his hurt feet... He had like 3 ingrown toenails. 

Also! We ate dinner at this guys house and his Christmas lights were set up like the vision of the tree of life! He was pretty funny. He said, "The only problem with it is that I live in the great and spacious building!" Picture below! 

Not much else happened this week. We're kind of out of options right now. But things are always looking up! Christmas is next week, and transfers are the Wednesday after! We'll see what happens! Dont mail me stuff if it wont get here before the 28th! 

Colten and Sierra Porter's baptism

Do you ever find yourself in Lehi's dream?

This is what happens when you tell me you dont like Christmas