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 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 Surprise Baptism!

Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:21:16 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

You wont believe this.

On Tuesday was had a meeting scheduled with Shannon, the investigator who's daughter had passed away and we attended the funeral. She had been coming to church for a few weeks and so we tryed to set something up again. We texted her to confirm the lesson and she said, "Can we just bypass all the lessons? I have done a lot of research. I just  want to talk about baptism." So we met and she was telling us about all this research she did were she went to every anti web-site and then looked up all the church doctrine. She said the only thing she couldn't find was the process to be baptized. We didn't understand at first, because she didn't sound like she wanted to be baptized, so I was like, "... well... first you meet with the missionaries, and then..." and she cut me off and went on this tangent about the articles of faith, and then I got it. She was asking me what she had to qualify for. So I showed her the interview questions and said that you have to pass this interview. She looked over the questions and was said, "ok, I can do that."  So I asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and she said yes. Then I asked if she believed in the church and everything and she said yes. And so we put her on date for Saturday and she was baptized! It was a tottal surprise. 

But getting to the baptism was a little harder than that. We found out Tuesday evening. She also said she didn't want anyone to be there, because she's terrified of being in front of people. We also had her interview on Wednesday morning, where, thankfully, Elder Case got some of her understanding on the right track. Some people don't realize how important the commandments are, especially when they do their own homework. Then Wednesday night we told our ward about it all and they were happy, but the Ward Mission Leader was going to be out of town, so I had to get everything done for the baptism all by my self. Then, we had to move the time up because of the stake baptisms that day, and also, the Stake was getting mad at us because we planned the confirmation for Saturday because she is terrified of people, because the handbook says it has to be on Sunday at church, even in her situation and with the Mission President on my side. And then Shannon didn't get back to us about the program until the day before. So we spent all Friday night trying to find some members to help us make it. We ended up at this guys house who when we ate there for dinner, just told us all these funny stories about dumb stuff he did on his mission, who said to come over if we ever needed anything. So we got the program all set at 9 o clock the day before, but the Bishop still didn't know the time changed, because we couldn't get a hold of him all day. But we call him again at 9:30 and he tells us that the Sake President had sent him an email about how Convert Confirmations need to be in sacrament meeting because the handbook says so. So we have all this drama coming from the members! (again). But the Baptism and confirmation went off without any problems on Saturday morning... except I forgot to tell the person conducting that the time had changed... Oops. 

Lesson Learned: Don't have me do a whole baptism by myself... 

But Shannon is awesome. She has found the truth and wont let it go. She's a pretty funny person. She's super intelligent, and really stubborn. Hence why I don't even have a picture of the baptism. She didnt like meeting with the missionaries to get information, so she found it all out, and because of her already strong relationship with God she was able to discern the truth by the Holy Spirit. Which is a testimony booster of the converting power of the Gospel. 

That was most of the craziness this week. The rest of it will develop at a later time, and I'll fill you more in then. But get excited. 

Love,

The Key is too big!