Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:00:57 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Hello! The most imortant thing that happened this week was the baptism of the Mendoza family. It was so amazing! On friday we did all their interviews, and the first one took so long, we had to call in another guy to help out. Ray is a talker... But its all good. The interviews were good spiritual experiances for them. Then on sunday evening we had a really good baptism service. My companion got to baptize them, and I confirmed them. The spirit was very strong and all their non-member friends and family were there. So it was good all arround. They are an amazing family and a living testimony to member missionary work. They were so prepared by the Lord to recieve the Gospel, and have a great work to do. I plan on coming back to Arizona in a year to see them sealed in temple.

Pictures below!

Lindsey should be baptized this coming week sunday after confrence. Its been a long hard journey, but she's still doing good and is super ready. We're all excited for it.

Not much else important happpend this week. We had a health fair on Thursday and we all left feeling more stressed than when we went in because now we recognized it. Haha. I liked living in innocence more... Then on friday my companion went to the foot doctor that made a presentation at the health thing, and got a huge wart frozen off, and a perscription.

Love,
Elder Feller

Elder Krueger right before the baptism.



Elder Krueger, Brother Whiting, Ray Ray, Ray, Savannah, Danielle, Me.

Mendoza Family

Daniel vs Mormons

Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:26:01 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

So recently we have been preparing the Arizona area for the new add campaign from the church "I'm a Mormon." and Mormon.org. The church is going to be pumping tons of adds into the TV, Internet, and billboards here. We're really excited! They have asked every member and missionary to make a profile. I'm really excited because they have done this in other areas and have seen good results, but this time, they are fixing their mistakes. Previously, they haven't prepared the members to be ready when the adds come through, because studies have shown that the biggest result from the campaign was 54% of members were approached by non-members and asked the question "Why is your church doing this?" So the church, through the ward leadership has sent out a presentation that we saw in every ward as to how to prepare to do missionary work when the opportunity comes. Problem is, in my mind everyone around me is stupid and doesn't know what to do! We had a ward completely skip the "what to do when you're approached" Steps. But, the Mission President is on my side and in Zone Conference last Friday we talked about what more we have to do to get ready. They asked us to meet with every member again, emphasize the points and role play talking to their friends with them. We have like 1000 people in all our wards and so we're going to be doing this in church meetings. I'm so happy! This is the perfect excuse to teach them member missionary work, and the perfect reason for them to listen! Statistically, 54% of them will be approached, but in Queen Creek I think that will be higher, and my goal is to have every member talk to people, by approaching them! So we're setting goals and making plans for that. The Elder Feller & Elder Krueger trainings will start next Sunday and... never stop. Member missionary work is way to important.

Other news, Everything is going pretty good.

We went to the Mesa Temple Visitors Center with the Mendoza family. They loved it. Every bit of it. Then on Wednesday we taught them the commandments, and she was drinking a Iced Tea while we were doing it, when we taught it, she was bummed, and then just simply put it on the ground. It was an awesome lesson. Then this morning we got weird text messages because her mom was telling her all this crazy stuff about how we believe God is from Outer Space, and we believe in moon men and all this crazy stuff. We resolved all that. It was cool because she kept saying "us Mormons" and "we". I could tell where her heart was. We talked about how you feel when you go to church or meet with us, compared to when she hears that garbage. She agreed and we're back on track. I was worried for a second because I got up in priesthood yesterday and announced the baptism and told everyone how it came from a simple invitation, and they can all do that as well.

Lindsey is also doing good. The bishop still messed things up with her and her husband and we're working on that. I wont go into too much detail. But on the positive she called us last night and gave us a new date that she, her husband, and the bishop decided for her to be baptised on.

Jacob is doing good too. He's having trouble talking to his parents... Understandably. He's in a really tough position, and since he's not moving forward to much, we're afraid of him moving backwards... But he'll do good. He's a good kid.

Love,

Elder Feller

...And I'm a Mormon.

Daniel vs Nice Weather

Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:49:53 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This past week has been pretty slow. We had a lot of cancelled apointments and people were so sick of the heat that there was no one outside. But starting on friday the weather got nicer. It was only 100 degrees outside at the hottest part of the day. We were hoping to talk to a bunch of people on saturday when the weather was a little nicer but only mormon people were outside! So it was a rough week. Not too much happened.

 

Lindsey cancelled on us this week because she was having an argument with her husband that day and didnt want to pull us into it. The situation is still rough there, but I think the bishop is feeling the pressure on him to get it together. He basically created a problem... and theres nothing we can do fix it. I talked to our ward Mission Leader, Bro. Larsen about it on saturday, and he was just as mad as me, if not more.. It was really funny because he was trying to maintain a neutral position, because he has to live here forever... but we could tell. We we went to give him the progress record and he said "I'll crumple it up and throw it in his face and say 'wow, I didnt know there was a form for regression!'" It was pretty funny. But, through it all, Lindsey is still strong and wanting to be baptized. She's pretty confused and shook up still, but she's still on the right track. She was sick this week and couldnt make it to church... 

 

The Mendoza's are doing awesome! We had a lesson with them on wednesday, and dinner with them and another family sunday, and we rescheduled going to the Mesa Temple Visitors Center for tonight. So we're really excited about that. They want to leave a little early and take us to Weinersnitzel because Elder Krueger has never heard of it before... They are planning on being baptized on the 24th of September, but we might have to move it a day because of the General Releif Society Meeting. I told the Ward Mission Leader to just move it and he said he'd call the Prophet. But thats ok, they still are doing awesome, and really want to be baptized.

 

One of the guys we live with ordered 150 pounds of ties. So we've opened all of them and have made a huge ball of all the extra ugly ties. Its massive... but remains unfinished. Pictures next week.

Not too much else, but I have a bunch of pictures since I forgot my camera the last few weeks!

Elder Darrington's backpack sweat

Elder Darrington and I transfer morning...

Elder Krueger and a spikey tree.

P-Day bounce house.

All the ties.

Vaccum sealed bag

Elder Krueger in some of the Ties. This picture does not do the ammount of ties justice.

Daniel vs 4 weeks

 This week was insane...

 

Start with the bad, then I'll get to the good. So last tuesday we had a lesson with Lindsey. We taught the commandments and she had prayed about the 10th for baptism and was wanting to get baptized that day. Her husband gave us a ride home that night and all seemed to be well. Well the word goes arround the ward and Bishop finds out about it, he calls the ward mission leader and freaks out. Bishop wanted the husband to be ready and worthy to baptize his wife.  Its a little late to mention it... We went over on saturday and explain that hes not ready or worthy, and Lindsey is ready now, and she needs to be baptized. On Sunday, the Bishop decided to pull Lindsey and her husband into his office and offer the option of working with her husband to be ready and worthy to baptize her, obviously not on the day selected by us. He says he'll get back to him in a week... but the baptism is supposed to be in 3 days. Lindsey was devestated, and was crying because she was really excited to be baptized. I get a call right before our last ward starts and Lindsey's fellowship says that Bishop told Lindsey she couldnt be baptized untill her husband does it. So I go outside to call bishop. I was pretty mad, obviously. Bishop steped out of his priesthood authority and into mine as a missionary, by meeting with my investigator, and canceling my baptism and essentially hurting my investigator. Bishop said thats not what he said and he would go over and clear up the "misunderstanding"... So I had no idea what to do at this point, and church was about the start, so I decided we needed to be there because we hadnt had the chance to take the Sacrament yet, and we needed to be there for all our investigators at church. So I didnt know what was going to happen and I was having stress attacks at church! So we went home and called Lindsey's fellowship and found out what happened. Bishop went over and the husband agreed to meet with bishop and try to get worthy to baptize her. Lindsey said if he's not ready in two weeks shes doing it anyways. So I'm glad shes still staying strong. The baptism is going to be put off a few weeks. I called President to let him know that Elder Case wouldnt need to come back this weekend to baptize her and he wasnt happy about what Bishop did. He said "Elder Feller he cant do that" and I said, "I know..." "Whats the ward? Whos the Stake President? Whats the Bishops name?" ... So I dont know whats going to happen, but President isnt going to let it go.

 

But the good! I got a call last Monday evening, saying that one of the woman who went to a mission farewell was really impressed by the spirit, and couldnt shake it, and she was crying all day at work and went over the the Whitting's home and got a blessing and felt better. We met with her whole family on wednesday. Ray, Danielle, Ray Jr, and Savannah Mendoza. They cried. Alot. The next day we got a text from Sis. Whitting saying that Danielle texted her and they had a family prayer and it felt really good. Later in the day Ray called her and said he felt the same spiritual impression and was crying all day. These people are SO prepared its crazy. God is not giving them any time to waste. They were at church on sunday, and we met with them again that night, right before the Whiting's son got set appart as a missionary. When Bro. Whitting gave her the blessing she said that something was going to happen is 4 weeks. Last night we kinda put them on date for the 24th of this month. I say kinda because it wasn't to solid of a commit because people were coming in for the setting appart, and the lesson was getting distracted by all the people! But they understand that thats the day they're working towards. 4 weeks after the first blessing. Awesome. We're going to the Visitors Center with them tonight.

 

So this week was pretty crazy to say the least..

 

I guess its gotten all over facebook that my new companion is from Long Island NY and knows all these famous people. His dad does construction for big clients like Jerry Sienfield, Billy Joel, Steven Spieldburg. Our whole ward knows because of facebook... Welcome to Arizona suburbia... Thats all the coolest stuff. We biked to the top of the montain. Nothing else too big.

 

Love,

 

Elder Feller

Daniel vs Food

Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:12:21 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week was pretty fun. It was super hot again, which is typical, but all the natives were freaking out because it was a record August. It was 117 the day I got my new companion. His name is Elder Krueger, and he's from Long Island, NY. He's the only 19 year old Mormon from Long Island, so I guess Im pretty lucky. He branch back home is pretty small so when we watched all three of our huge, young, Arizona wards fill up on Sunday, he didnt even know what to do. It was really funny.

Before Elder Darrington left, we were able to have a lesson with Lindsey. We went in with the goal of resolving her concern about "baptisms for the dead" and, honestly to my surprise, we did it. We built the lesson plan backwards from the first three lessons, talked about how baptism was essential, then about how it fit into the plan of salvation, and about how the spirit world worked, and how all of this is bassed on the foundation of the restoration of the Gospel, and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and if the Book of Mormon is true then everything we say is true. Then I asked, "How do you feel about the Book of Mormon?" and she said she felt it was true, and then Elder Darrington asked her how she felt about Baptism, and she turned to us and said with a smile, "Well, I think its essential." And I laughed because that what we had been just telling her. And I said, "How about for yourself?" and she said yes, and I told her we had been praying about a day for her to be baptized on, and we had come up with September the 10th. She said she would pray about it and get back to us. But everyone knows what happens when you pray about getting baptized... You get baptized.

Not much else happened this week. The next most exciting event that happened was we had to "Double-Dinner" on sunday... We didnt really have too, but it was way too good to pass up. Our Ward Mission Leaders son, Eben, who drives us places and is a good friend, had his mission farewell sunday, he's going to Columbus Ohio. Well a TON of non-members came to church to watch him and they all went to his house right after Sacrament, so he gave us a ride over so we could mingle (but really so we could eat). They had Costa Vida style buritos. There was tons of food and Elder Krueger and I ate two buritos each. Then we had a quick lesson with Jacob after church, and we had dinner just two hours later. It was really good but we could hardly eat. But it wasnt too bad, because it was one of those families that doesnt feed you a ton of food, which we really appriciate. But then the brownies and ice cream for desert... I so hard to finish! I was able to do it, but not my companion. I thought I was going to lose it though. So we shared a quick message, and went back to the house for a few minites, untill we felt a little better.

Elder Krueger is a stud! The new MTC training program is awesome, so he came out pretty prepared. I'm just working on getting him more experiance, between it being 117, and a monsoon, we havent had a ton of talking with people experiance. But we're working on it...

Sorry I forgot my camera again! Pictures next week.

Elder Feller

Daniel vs A Baby Boy

Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:57:42 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Transfer Results: I'm staying in Queen Creek and training a brand new missionary! My first "son"! Its pretty exciting. I'm kinda bummed I have to stay in this area again, but at least I get to finish what I started! And I really think training is going to be good for me. Especially in this area. It will give me a lot of new excitement and motivation.

I cant even remember what happened this week...

We taugth Lindsey twice. They both went good. Kinda. The first time she started with an email some preacher sent her... Which was all completely false, (Except he said Mormons believe baptism to be essential... that's true, because Jesus said so: John 3:5) and then her fellowship got into it with her about baptisms for the dead. I was pretty frustrated, so I just waited it out until they would let us start the lesson. We started, and funny enough, we were teaching the plan of salvation, with an emphasis on the spirit world! WOW! So we worked it out pretty good. The lesson went well, except she hasn't been feeling good and got a massive killer headache at the end, so she kinda zoned out. But we taught her again Friday and I discerned that her baptism for the dead concern is because in the past she received a spiritual witness that her grandfather is in "heaven". Hmmm. Its a tricky one. But no big. The second time we taught her last week her less active husband sat in and was pretty positive. It was a really good lesson, but she was sick Sunday and couldn't go to church!

Jacob is still afraid of what his parents will think and is still looking for an opportunity to talk to his parents. But, he got a stress fracture on his food and is out of cross country and football for the rest of the season. All his new free time gives him lots of opportunities to talk to his parents. Just saying. Maybe after he does it I'll heal John Tanner style. (Lame church movie reference)

Bro. Powell came back from his business trip, and to everyones surprise, brought his parents with him! So we actually got to meet them. They were very nice and asked us lots of questions about missionary work, because their step-grandson is going to Zimbabwe in November. We talked and then we were asked to share a message. We read Alma 32 and testified of the Book of Mormon, then Elder Darrington went nuts and pulled out Moroni 10:3-5, testified, and challenged them to read the Book of Mormon. It was interesting to watch the reason our investigator wont get baptised respond to that. He talked about how he's read some of it, and also the Koran, and challenged us to read the Koran when we get back. Which doesn't make any sense because he's Catholic...But he was very impressed by us and our faith.

I'm excited to stay in Queen Creek. I've got a grudge against this area and I will come off the victor! Even if it takes 6 months! Maybe 7.5 months because training is usually a 2 transfer call. But we should have a few baptisms. OH! Elder Lesh is the new AP! Man I miss that guy. But I'll see him soon.

Love,
Elder Feller

Daniel vs Week 6.

Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:58:58 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

I has been a crazy week!

 

Monday was P-day, then we had a good lesson with Bro. Powell. We talked about the blessings from baptism and the holy ghost and whats holding him back. He said he's "testing the waters" and the thinks baptism is "the path he's on" so we just have to push him a little farther there. His parents is still a hold up for him, so were going to work on that.

 

Tuesday was interviews and a sweet lesson! Interviews went good. I was like the second person to be interviewed. It was really good. We talked about my struggles with this area and everything right now. It went really well. Then the trainings from the other AP's and a crazy (but very good) Sister Missionary (We call her the Sister AP) went good. This Sister trained on finding and using members to help us. Everything she talked about were pretty good ideas.... If I was a woman. Pride you say? No, just honest evaluation. To be honest, and Elder can not do arts and crafts and be taken seriously. It didnt help that she indirectly called me out for a comment I made to her about how the ward leadership in my area refuses to listen to me. That just made me serious dislike of Sister Missionaries boil and swell. But those are my personal, and admittedly prideful feelings, please dont take them seriously. But to make it all better we had an awesome lesson with Lindsey. She investigated a year ago, but her inactive husband didnt like it. But she's back, and he wants to be involved too. The lesson went really well. She has tons of scattered questions and concerns, but they're easy to resolve. Keeping her on track is the biggest thing. Our new Ward Mission Leader came with us and he was getting really frustrated! But thats ok.

 

Wednesday we went to the temple, and then I got to go on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders who has a hernia, and can only work a few hours a day. We got to hang out and watch some sweet old church movies while our companions went and worked. It was fun. I got the post-interviews scoop about the Queen Creek Zone from him too.

 

Sunday we went to church all day and I was exausted and starving after. But before we could go to dinner we taught Jacob a lesson at the church before he went home. It went really good. We learned that he wants to get baptized but wants to make sure his family is ok with it first. Understandable, but frustrating. All of our investigators have that right now!

 

Well its week 6 of the transfer so I dont know if I'm still going to be here a week and a half from now! I love a lot of people here, and have worked with them a lot, so it would be sad to leave. But it would be nice to leave and get to a new area with more potential. I found out that President told the Zone Leaders that Elder Darrington and I have probably one of the toughest areas in the mission... And I've been here for 4 months! So I dont know. But Dare-Bear thinks he's getting transfered out of here so we'll see!

 

Since I've been here a while, and ran out of things to take pictures of, I took some pictures of my best ties to show you guys!

 

Love,

Elder Feller

Ties

More ties

The sky goes crazy in Arizona

Darrington reading the new scout book in the library.