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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 Members

Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:04:37 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

We did lots of hard work this week. We've been in kind of a rut on  teaching and everything the past few weeks. But we broke out of it a little bit. It was pretty good. The baptisms that we were supposed to have easy this transfer kept canceling on us for the past 3 weeks, so that's not going to work out. If I stay, definitely next transfer though.

Speaking of which, transfers are coming up next week. So don't mail stuff to my house, unless it will get there before Tuesday. I know right, its crazy. When I was younger, I never thought I would reach the day where I was out for 18 months on my mission. Its crazy to think about, but it doesn't feel real. I'm now one of the oldest missionaries in the mission. My transfer and all the transfers after me were really big, so the mission has grown a little bit, and we're old now! 

Not much progress to report this week. We have been teaching this guy who has it pretty rough. He's 19, and just got out of jail. He was supposed to get baptized before. So he cant get baptized now, because hes on probation. So we go over a few times a week and meet with him. To keep him on the right track. 

Joey was able to come to church this week! That was awesome, and he'll be able to come next week as well. He really enjoyed it. There was also a bunch of other random people there. A member brought a friend from work, another young woman brought a friend, and then these two teenage girls showed up after their own church to see if what their church was saying about us was true. The members reacted very well, and are keeping in good contact with them. Hopefully we'll be able to teach some of them soon. 

I've been doing a lot of work with the members here. I don't know if anyone know, but Gilbert is like little Salt Lake City. Well, most of Arizona has tons of members everywhere. But especially in the Gilbert, Chandler, Mesa, Queen Creek, and Show Low Areas. Which is where I've spent pretty much my whole mission. The missionaries here cannot find people on their own here. It all depends on how we work with the members. And we don't know how sometimes, so we just kind of do our thing and hope. But I've been a lot more proactive about it in this area. And I hope its working. The members of the church need to have a huge shift in their understanding. They not only need to know how valuable they are, but how to actually be useful to missionary work. A lot of members don't understand the doctrines of missionary work, even all these returned missionaries. The younger ones, the ones who used Preach My Gospel get it. But sometimes are not proactive enough. The missionary purpose in Preach My Gospel, on the very first page, says INVITE others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel though Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I pains me to hear people say, "we're setting an example, and someday maybe..." If its not inviting, its not missionary work. Being an example is what you covenanted to do when you were baptized. Inviting is not even hard, especially when you're already talking about it. If every gospel conversation we, as members of the church, had included an invitation to do something that will increase their faith, the convert baptisms of the church would double, like President Hinckley said. I've seen families be baptized simply because they were invited to church. The converting power of the Gospel is real. There is a sweet spirit that is there, and that they will recognize, and that sometimes we forget. Never forget that! 

Anyways, 

Love,

Elder Feller. 

Daniel vs Cinderella

Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:39:05 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

The work has been going really slow here lately. All of our investigators have tremendous outside influences keeping them from progressing like probation, mandated community service, work, ect. So we're trying the best we can. We've got some good potential with the two other Porter kids, but their schedule has been crazy so its been tough to teach them. We have a for sure appointment tomorrow. 

But I have lots of other funny stories this week! 

Monday: I was talking to this greenie in our zone from the Ukraine. It was pretty funny. He said that America is just like the Ukraine, not all that everyone thinks it is. He said everyone just thinks we're rich. He was also in a Rap Band when he was 15. He rapped in Ukrainian for me.

Tuesday: Let me preface this story with this statement: Sometimes, I feel like especially in Arizona, members ask us to do really stupid things that have nothing to do with missionary work. I find it really annoying when members treat me like I'm here to stake up their chairs after church, or I'm just here to help their sons go on missions to mexico later... I hate it, and its really annoying. Don't ever treat your missionaries like that. They'll be nice, but secretly they hate it.  

So, we had this super hilarious awkward dinner at the Stake Presidents House. This is a Terrible idea, and don't ever do this to your missionaries. They had an appreciation dinner put on by the Mia Maids in one of the wards. They made us food and we had to sit at tables with them and talk to them... A bunch of twenty year old MISSIONARIES sitting down and eating dinner with a bunch of 14 year olds. It was soooo awkward. But really really funny because of it. We did not break a single rule, but it just kinda felt like it. We tried to talk to them, but all the girls at my table were in the 8th grade. They like soccer and piano... More importantly for later on in the email, when I eating, I was trying to cut something with the side of a plastic fork, and I totally snapped it in half right in front of everyone. 

Fast Forward to Saturday: 

So I went on exchanges with my Zone Leader, Elder Williams from Wyoming in his area. I slept really bad at their apartment, and we had to go to a baptism for the Spanish Elders in the Morning. So we go out in the afternoon, and we go to this members house and it looks like a Castle! Seriously, some of the more wealthier people in Arizona build these houses that are just huge and crazy, but pretty sweet. So we go past this gate, and over this stone bridge over a pond, and there's this huge house that is covered in stone. So we knock on the door and while we're waiting I look around and comment on how this looks like a castle. Elder Williams agreed and we made a few jokes, and then we turned to leave because no one answered, but when we turned this BMW came through the gate and over the bridge and turns past us to go through this archway to the side of the house where the garage is. Inside we see this girl, probably like 18, in this big fancy blue dress, waving at us. She goes back and parks, and we're like.. "that's weird" and she comes out of the archway in this big huge blue dress, hair all done and make up and everything, and I'm thinking, "what the heck... that's an ugly prom dress... wait, its not prom time..." and as she is walking up to us, she says "hey guys! how's it going!? What can I do for you today?" and we kind of just look at her awkwardly, and she says "Sorry I'm dressed like this, I'm a princess! ... I do birthday parties." And so Elder Williams talks to her about the family her parents were working with and we are about to leave and she says "Sorry, I'm not always dressed like this I promise." and we laugh, and leave. It was like a bad Disney movie! The missionaries end up at this castle and meet a princess!  But it was so funny. We talked about how we met a princess all day. 

Then later on in the exchange, we were at dinner and I was scooping some ice cream, and telling the story about how I broke the fork at the stake president's house, and while I'm putting a ton of pressure on the ice cream scoop, it snaps in half and the ice cream and this spoon slide across the table and into this guy. Everyone laughed, it was really funny, but I was really embarrassed! Twice in a week! And while I was telling the story!  

That brings us to Sunday: Sunday was stake conference, and I decided to wear this tie I got from Elder Lesh when he went home named "Handicapped Hercules" for the first time in public. See the picture below, its a very coveted tie in the mission, but President Howes specifically told Elder Lesh he hated it when he was in the office. (He hates all our polyester ties... but especially ones with people on them) And so we were waiting for the Porters to show up, and then on the other side of the building President Howes walks into the building... Of course... So I freaked out because I really didn't expect that. I figured someone from the stake would have told us if that was happening, so I wave and start looking for a member I know well so I can trade ties with him. Except all the ties I saw were really ugly, and I couldn't do it. So we go up to talk to someone and President and Sister Howes pull me aside and ask me what these people need to hear. I saw Presidents eyes go from my eyes, to my tie, and back to my eyes. In my head all that was happening was "NOOOO." So I stammer off some topic I thought would be really good for the members to hear, and they say thank you and we go get the Porters and sit down next to them in the first few rows. Its not that it really matters President saw me wearing that tie, it doesn't effect me at all, it was just really funny that it all happened.

Then later the Stake President was talking, and was going off on this huge story about the titanic, and then the "deep dive" to retrieve it, and then invited us to take a deep dive in the Book of Mormon. And then stopped and invited this little 10 year old girl and she talked about how much she loved the Book of Mormon and how scripture study enriched her life. It was really powerful! Like, we were all almost crying. 

Whew. So that was my crazy week this week. 

Love,

Elder Feller

Some of my new ties. "Handicapped Hercules sits in the center, with "The Lady Killer" one to the right, and "Chalk Zone" on its left. Some of my new favorites.

Daniel vs Conference Weekend!

Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 11:13:36 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

So this past weekend was conference. It was weird going to 10 hours of Church over two days instead of 8 hours all at once! But conference was amazing! Going around every day and telling people how great it is that we have a living prophet on the earth really puts conference in perspective. When it began, and President Monson was talking I got an overwhelming feeling. It was awesome. Remember how President Uchtdorf was talking about how the church is reaching out though technology? Its true. Our whole mission has texting now, and all our new pass along cards guide people to Mormon.org, which is an AMAZING website! Everything on LDS.org gets really connected too! I would encourage everyone to use that to the max! I really learned a lot, and it answered a lot of my questions.

Which is funny because this week we also had interviews! So I didnt have that many questions for President...

Interviews were awesome too! The Zone Leaders trained on getting real fellowships for our investigators, not just having a "member present" which is what the stat is called for a lessons taught with a member there. Then the AP's trained on how important prayer was, and talked a lot about that, which was really good, until it was my turn to be interviews and I missed the last 10 mins of the training AND Elder Rands' departing testimony! Elder Rands has been AP since my second transfer, so way back when I was in Saint Johns. He's an awesome guy, and a stud missionary. And I missed his departing testimony! But my interview was really good. I walked in the little room in the church and President had this board with all this stuff on it, and was erasing all the numbers. He didn't even turn around when I walked in and he said, "hello Elder Feller, take a seat" it was funny. Like in a movie. But then he asked me all my numbers from last week and I was like "dang, I wish you did this a week ago when I wasn't kinda sick... and burned out from getting 200 oyms last week" Plus it didn't look to good because our teaching was down because we only could teach one guy once last week, and our other progressing investigator is stuck in North Dakota because is snowed up there! haha, funny story, we were talking to his neighbor and he called Chuck (the guy from ND) and Chuck said he was snowed in, and his neighbor was like, "that's funny, because its 98 degrees here and my kids are swimming!" (It got pretty hot last weekend) But anyways, president didnt give me too hard a time about the numbers, he said we were doing about as good as most, and I explained to him everything going on.There was a point to the numbers! He's not just all about "stats" but its hard to explain it all so I wont. Then I asked him some other questions about some stuff. The funny thing is, president isn't always supper talkative in interviews, but always asks what he can do for you. If you say nothing, then your interview is short and you dont learn allot. So I always come with specific questions about whats going on in my area and its really helpful.

So, P-Day is switching to Mondays in a couple weeks, on direction from the Missionary Department... LAME!

Oh, we got a referral from Elder Gunter the other day! He called and said he talked to this lady and her daughter who want to get baptised, and we he gave us the name he said, "April... Elizabeth... Fools." and I was too excited so I said "fools? Like 'oh thou fools'?" and he laughed and said yeah. Then I said "So her name is April Fools?" and then I realized what just happened. :(

Well thats pretty much it. We had a pretty slow week otherwise.

Wait. I forgot the most important thing. Ok, maybe second most important after hearing the prophet. Remember (FLASHBACK!) when I was in Saint Johns and I told you a Sister in Springerville made us the best apple pie I've ever tasted? I might not have told you but that happened. Well, she's in Gilbert now. I was telling my companion about the apple pie in the mountains (everynight, so good) and I said, but this sister makes the best apple pie I've ever had. So the next wednesday in Wal Mart he went up to her and said, "Elder Feller has been spreading rumors about you." and my companion is kinda a jokster so I was like "oh no!" and then he said "He said you make the best apple pie in the world." She said, "yeah, its true." And agreed to make us some. So she gave it to us at conference and we ate it. And it was the best... ever. So we were trying to think of a way to pay her back, and so we're going to make 4 batches of "Muddy Buddies" and give it all to her. Quantity for Quality, right?

Well that's really all of it.

Love,

-Elder Feller