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 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

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 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 Satan

Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 11:17:45 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

 

Satan has been hard at work in the Gilbert Zone this whole past week. We've had tons of problems with certain missionaries, and everyone is just kinda been down and having a hard time.  I wont go into too much detail, because its sad, but the good news is that we're pulling out of it! We've had a lot of potential pop up recently and all the problems and trials are definitely because we're on the brink of huge success. Its funny, that two of the companionships that are doing the best, are the ones struggling the most. And I've had my share of drama this week, but we'll get to that.

 

First! Sorry I didn't email last week, nothing much to report. But we've been working with this family and its been going great! They were less active, and their 4 kids are not baptized. We've been meeting with the two oldest, Colten and Sierra, and they're getting baptized on the 17th. We asked if the other two would be interested and the dad said no, but he was going to work on them, and yesterday the whole family was at church! It was awesome. It was the first time we even met the mom and two other kids. So that's going great. They're super excited, and so are we.

 

Then, on Wednesday, we were doing our weekly meetings with all our ward mission leaders. During one of the meetings I brought up how our investigator had asked why there was no one else in the Gospel Principles class and we asked if we could get some more people in there to fellowship her. And the ward mission leader just shut me down and told me that was a bad idea because when there's a lot of people they all like to talk and voice their opinions and get on tangents. I couldn't believe he shut me down like that... Especially because the teacher of that class only goes on random tangents by himself...

 

But then! In the next meeting, we had previously talked about going over the ward mission plan and trying to help the missionary efforts of his ward become more effective, and so we go in, and we talk for a second, and then I start my whole presentation, and then the High Councilor over missionary work comes in, and as soon as I mention setting specific goals, the Ward Mission Leader kind of shuts down and stops paying attention. Then something happened and he interrupted me and started off with, "I am a faithful member of the church... but this has gone too far" and then proceeds to yell at me for about ten minutes about how the Church is putting the emphasis in the wrong place, and the brethren are misguided, and he crumples up the Sample Mission Plan I gave him and throws it at me. Then he gets into how I as a missionary don't care about people, and I'm prideful and I need to get up and start working. I was completely thrown off. I couldn't believe it was happening, and I am not exaggerating about it at all. So I'm sitting there getting yelled at with my companion, and the Bro. Hale, the High Councilor is sitting right there. And then he starts in about how his ward is so doing all this stuff and I stopped him and said, "But where are the results? There are no results!" and yelled "Bull Crap!" And kept going for a few more minutes and then ended with, "You don't know what a hard mission is! You have it easy! I served in France!" and just went off about it. Then he closed with a prayer and I pick up the paper he threw at me and went to throw it away. It hit the edge of the garbage can and fell to the side, and Bro. Hale picked it up and started to unfold it and I just walked out of the room, and we biked home. I was pretty mad that night, and I told the missionaries about and the Zone Leaders were ticked! But I just went to bed. I woke up the next morning and it all kind of caught up with me and I was pretty shaken. But I got the spirit back and was good to go.

 

Pretty crazy, but it gets better. So Elder Gordon, our Zone Leader, talks to Bro. Hale the next day, and Bro. Hale had a long talk with the Ward Mission Leader and told him I was just doing my job. But Bro. Hale was interested in what I was talking about. So on Sunday, The Ward Mission Leader comes up to me and totally apologizes, and says that he wants to do things the Lords way, and asked for my forgiveness. So I have no hard feelings towards him. And! That night Elder Gordon and I go to visit Bro. Hale and talk with him about everything we've been doing to get missionary work going in our wards, how many people the members know, and how with an effective Ward Mission Plan, we can focus that effort and actually produce results. Lots of results. This is everything I've been working on since... almost my whole mission. Bro Hale ate it up and we're going to be working with him to help the Gilbert Stake follow the hand book, and become very successful. On the drive home Elder Gordon and I were talking about how big of a deal this is, and how we can see events in our whole missions preparing us for this. The things that are happening right now are inspired. Things are going to happen. And that's why Satan has been working hard on Gilbert. But we're breaking out of it now.

 

The Ward Mission Plan and everything I'm talking about is how the ward can effectively participate in member missionary work. I know I probably sound crazy, but its basically following what the Handbook says about missionary work, to help us be effective in our finding, teaching, and baptizing. Its interesting, because in an area like Gilbert, theres almost nothing that the missionaries can do to bring people into the church without the members. So this is how it has to work here.

 

Its like I'm in a movie!

 

Love,

Elder Feller.

Tribulations

Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:12:40 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

I cant collect my thoughts for a weekly letter this week. Sorry. I just wrote a huge letter to president pouring out my soul about how I'm frustrated with this area/my wards/my companion. Not much happened anyways. Oh But I went to California for a little bit. Like 5 seconds. I got a picture with the sign. I'll send it next time with a good lettter. Because I forgot my camera cord.

-Sorry,

Love Daniel.