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 Gilbert

Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 16:04:34 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Helloooo! This last week has been pretty crazy. Last Thursday Bob passed his Baptisimal Interview! We pulled up to his house because we couldnt get him a ride to the church and he is standing in the door way without a shirt and the missionary goes in and interviews him. I was nervous, not going to lie, because Bob is kinda crazy. But anyways all is well and we start to get ready for the baptism on Saturday. So we set everything up. He didn't really know anybody in the ward, so my companion was going to talk and I was going to Baptize him. We go over saturday morning and he's like, "guys, I dont know what to do! I smoked a joint last night! I cant get baptised now! I cant lie to God!" NOOOOOOOOOO! Bob! You cant do that. He said he didnt even think about it, just went for it when his friend was over. but he's moving now and all should be good. He'll get baptised later, with a bunch of other people that I LEFT IN YUMA!

Yes, its true, after 3 months in Yuma I have been transfered to Gilbert. I've been here a few hours now. I rode down with our Zone Leader in one of the mission's mini-vans. As we were leaving I said, "Wait I've got to get one last picture. I'll probably never see this place again." And the picture kinda sucks. But thats ok. Yuma was fun, but I dont think I'll ever go back... But I will miss all the Taco stands on 8th street and hanging out with a bunch of spanish missionaries.

But I'm excited to be in Gilbert! We have 6 wards in 4 square miles and we are on bikes! This is my first time on a bike in my whole mission. And on the way to the library, I found out that my bike had a low tire, so I kinda re-attatched the pedals to a bike that we had at our house and rolled on over here. Kinda. The bike is about to fall apart. I'll fix mine in a little bit. But remember Elder Gunter from Saint Johns? He's my district leader here! Oh, and I'm a senior companion now. Things are going crazy in the mission! There are tons of youngin's growing up.

But yeah, I've gotta go!

Love

Daniel 

My future car. Nice and clean.

Elder Lindquist playing the guitar

Nasty. Leaving this morning saying goodbye to Elder Workman.

Bye Bye Yuma.

Daniel vs Espanol

Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 11:07:35 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

Hello all!

I had a pretty cool week. Started off last Thursday going on exchanges in Somerton with my Spanish District Leader. Now, I cover Somerton for english work. But we hardly go there because no one speaks English. So I got to try and speak spanish all day! It was pretty fun. I did ok... haha. not really. I couldn't really do anything but answer the questions people asked me. Like where I'm from, How long I've been out and stuff like that. It was really fun. I couldnt really talk to people on the street because I never got the Gospel vocab in high school. Elder Bradshaw said I answered 90% of the questions I was asked back in spanish, and was pretty impressed.

OH! Bob is hopefully getting Baptized this saturday. Thats our plan so far! He is getting kicked out of his trailer park at the same time, which is sad but good. Because he needs to move to a better place where kids dont mess with him. But yeah, our plan is this saturday. But you never know with Bob. We also have another one, Frances, next week. Hopefully. Haha, she didnt go to church last week because she found out about the word of wisdom and likes her tea. She called her friend and said "I cant do it, I dont want to go to church because I cant give up coffee and tea!" and we went by yesterday and straightened all that out. So now she wants to get baptized again! Awesome. THEN! On the 19th of Febuary, we're hoping we can finnaly get Erikah baptized. She's been trying to quit smoking and some other things I shouldnt go into, so that she can get baptized! She really wants it now so its exciting. We just have to set up the interview with the mission president. Oh I forgot. I need to do that!

THEN! We also got an awesome new investigator. So check it, here's the story! This guy named Abram has a girlfriend who moves to Salt Lake City and joins the church there, then Abram goes to visit her, and they go to Temple Square. Now, I dont know if you guys know this, but the any Sisters at a Temple Visitors Center are CRAZY! By that I mean they will not leave you alone untill they are sure you are going to get baptized. So its a good crazy. But, not always. Alot of the time we get these referals to our phone that say "GOLDEN GATOR!, AWESOME!, READY FOR BAPTIZM!" ect, and we go over and they're smoking, drinking a beer, and have one of those "THIS IS A CATHOLIC HOME, NO PROPOGANDA FROM OTHER RELIGIONS" cards on their screen door, and have abosolutly no desire to speak with us. So we usually dont take it serriously when it says all that good stuff. But so we get the referal and it says to call first, so we do, and no one answers. We try the next day, and no one answers again. The next day, so 2 days after we get the referal, we get the referal again. "SO PREPARED CALL ASAP!" and we're like "dang these are some crazy temple sisters." So we call, he answers and we get an appointment... and let me tell you what, this guy is awesome. He has a huge desire to change his life. He's gotten in a little trouble in the past (half our last lesson he was telling me about Gangs) but he's been to jail for a little bit and never wants to go back. Pretty much, he talks like he already knows, just needs to get an official answer from praying to make it legit. He wants us to come by pretty much every day at 4:00. So we do. But since today is P-day I got a little sneaky. He still hadn't read last time (the biggest unsolvable problem in missionary work) and so I said, "ok, we're not coming tomorrow, but instead at 4:00 you're going to sit down and read this book and pray about it." and he said ok. So I'll text him at like 3:30 and remind him. But we're hoping to baptize him this month too.

Man, it would be just my luck to get transfered in a week. But I still dont think I will.

Oh speaking of, Its week 5. That means no mail to Yuma, send it to the office or wait a week! You never know!

OH! One more thing. We have another appointment tonight with a lady who works for Henry Florez, the guy we baptized in January, tonight. Apparently she was about to get baptized in Mesa, and then had to move here, but didnt know where to find the church or the missionaries. She asked a lady she works with "are you a mormon!?" and then BAM! We have an appointment!

Thats all for this week!

Love,

Elder Feller

All my City of Yuma stuff.

One of the many Ice Cream mans.. in febuary.

Thanks for the coat mom!

Cactus.

Somone lives in that.

Elder Lindquist burns his tie.

Daniel VS The Word of Wisdom

Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:10:36 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

 

Whoooooooooooooooooo.

 

Things are going rough in Yuma. Everyone we wanted to get baptized this transfer is giving us problems. Quiting smoking and... well mostly smoking. Bob, an old guy who tries to get to church every week and loves all of it and doesnt care what his friends have to say about the mormons, is so ready, he just doesnt quite understand why he has to quit smoking, and has been smoking for forever. He has to stop today in order to get baptized on the March 5th. Same with our other almost baptized investigator Erikah. She just needs to quit today! And I told her. I told her everything she needs to do in order to get baptized. Because of other circumstances, she needs a interview from the Mission president, but I cant set that up untill she makes that effort. But I know she will get baptized. She knows the church is true and wants to do it really bad.

 

We also have another really good investigator that we were hoping to get baptized this transfer, but we missed them for like a week and a half and then she had a baby! Its a little early, so its really little. Very cute. But they still want to go to church and meet with us this sunday! I felt bad because she was super tired when we came by yesterday...

 Here's two pictures of me at the California border. Its litterally down the street. Pretty crazy. It felt good to be in California for a couple seconds.

 

I found a treasure! The first good one I've found thus far. See, because us missionaries are always out and about, we find lots of cool stuff just on the ground. One of the Elders I live with has a little Buddah and these two old school "Tomorrow Land" lappel pins. They're legit! But the otherday while walking back from the Zone Leaders appartment in our same complex, I found a burnt CD that has "50 Cent and T.I." mix on the front. We listened to the first couple seconds of every song just to make sure it worked, and it does! I'm totally keeping it forever. So I can listen to it when I get home and say "I found this on the street in Yuma"

 

I was trying to send a video but its too big and my camera died! But it is of me and Elder Lindquist playing "Kids" by MGMT on a keyboard in our appartment. Its pretty sweet. Next week!

 

Hopefully I'll have good news next week!

 

-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.

Daniel VS Zone Conference

Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 11:18:38 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

 

Hello all!

 

It has been another week here in the Arizona Tempe Mission, Yuma Zone, District 1 and area 2. (Summed up my our area initials YU-12)

 

This week like many others has been very uneventful, except for a very few things that I want to tell you all about! 

 

The first cool thing was on Sunday in fast and testimony meeting. And the first thing you need to understand is that we cover 3 wards. So we go to 3 sacrament meetings. Every sunday. So I'm sitting in one of our less-exciting wards, kinda bored, and then our recent convert, Henry Florez, gets up. Now, you have to understand, that Henry Florez is a big deal in Yuma. He's a big time doctor. But he gets up there and he starts thanking everyone. His wife, who has been an active member her whole life, and his friends who he bicycles with who were also members,  and the missionaries (Hey! That's me!) and then says that he knows the Church is true because it has changed his life. And it really has. Everyone keeps telling us. He's like a different person now. He's at peace, no longer frustrated or grumpy. He's awesome! And I was filled with exceeding gladness.

 

Also, we were at his house last night teaching him the new member lessons and after his wife was talking to me about boy scouts and she said that when they were at camp, doing the astronomy meritt badge, her husband and these other men couldn't stop laughing at the planet "Uranus" and he busted up laughing again and was like "hahahaha Uranus!" and kept laughing. And I was laughing really hard too because here is this big time doctor laughing at the word "Uranus" like a kid! It was hilarious.

 

Lets see... I also finished the Book of Mormon a while ago. Now I've started and am a good way through the D&C. I dont remember if I told you that yet. But the D&C is amazing!

 

Oh yeah! And we had Zone Confrence yesterday! It was awesome too. Sister Howes got up when it was her turn and said on the drive down she felt like Wendy from Peter Pan, going to see the lost boys. Hahaha probably because Yuma is waaaaaaay out of the way and there are no sister missionaries here. I thought that was awesome. And I'm going to see if we can get some t-shirts referencing that made up! Missionaries make Zone t-shirts all the time, but I dont have any yet! (send me ideas!) But the Zone Leaders trained on goal setting and the importance of it. And thats something I've been trying to make a part of my mission for a while. Its hard! But reading the Preach My Gospel section on goals really makes you want to "master the techniques of goal setting" and then President Howes and the AP's talked about the Doctrine of Christ, and gave us training on what they were trained on when the missionary department came in from Salt Lake City. Preach My Gospel is amazing. And applying the Doctrine of Christ is awesome. The Doctrine of Christ is: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring the the End. It is central to the missionary purpose as stated in preach my gospel and is also the 3 missionary lesson. We've been learning a lot about how to teach it, and how to appy it to all our teachings. Its hard! I cant explain everything about it yet, I'm still learning. But someday. But there are 5 Chapters in the scripture that out line it, and that we focus a lot on. They are 2 Nephi 31, 3 Nephi 11, 3 Nephi 27, Matthew 5 and I forgot. Maybe theres only 4 because I really dont remember what the 5th one would be. But these are all awesome! Especially 2 Nephi 31. I think thats my favorite right now.

 

Also, a less-active ladies non-member husband was asked to make the lunch for the confrence! He was someone we tried to contact before, but got mad at us for not calling before hand because they litereally have 15 little dogs that bark like crazy when you knock on the door. I didnt have the heart to tell president that because he wanted to go talk to him. hahaha.

 

Anyways, I have to go.

 

Love,

Elder Daniel Feller

 

Here's some D&C

 

"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth!

Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free" (D&C 128:19,22)

Daniel VS Sloooooooooooooow weeks

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 13:05:18 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

"These kids are disco dancing, they're tired of rock and roll, I'm tryin' to tell them that that drum machine ain't got no SOUL!"
No big news here... I'm coming my hair the other way now... I guess thats cool.

oh wait,

ONE OF THE PASTORS OF THE LOCAL MEGA-CHURCH MOVED INTO THE APARTMENT NEXT TO US! Check it, so we're planning the other night and I hear all this comotion outside, so I go see if we're getting new neighbors and as I walk out the already wide open door he says "oh hey are you the neighbor!" and I said, "yeah whats up man, we missionaries for out church and 4 of us live here. Can we help you move in or anything" and he said no they were almost done. Then I go inside and a few mins later, one of the spanish Elders we live with went out to talk to him. And this time, the guy introduced himself and said he was a pastor at the Genterations Church, a local Mega Church in Yuma. (Mega Church is defined as a huge non-denominational Christian church, that is like... how do I say it... i dont know, Like a party church pretty much) Then he said, "Yeah the real big difference between us is that we believe Jesus is God, and you believe Jesus is the Son of God." Elder Lindquist politely agreed, even though a claim of a restored Church of Christ with a living prophet is the real difference. Then he said he doesnt like to have doctrinal debates, which is good because we dont bible bash either. So the converstation politely ended again and we went back inside. a few mins later me and my companion went outside to go get mail from the other missionaries who live in the same complex and we heard the pastor in the back of their Uhaul saying something about "the flesh of God" or something in an angry tone, but when he saw us, he stopped right away. It was pretty funny...

Also this week, I have a HUGE infection on my face. I'll spare you all the gorry details but I thought it was just a huge pimple at first so I tried everything to get rid off it. Lots of acne wash, neosporin, hot water and pain trying to drain it. This morning I went to the doctor and he said it was an infection and gave me a perscription and sent me to the pharmacy right away. Now I'm taking a anti-biotic pill 4 times a day, and a face rub 3 times a day. Gross.

AND! We found this huge statue of Mary! Its on the way back from this little spanish town that we cover for the english work there. Pictures are better than words. Look below.

It was as pretty slow week. But Ashley and Robert were at Church! And we're planning on baptizing Bob pretty soon!

Yaaay.
-Love
Elder Daniel Feller

Giant Marry Statue. Life size person with a like ... 12 foot cross behind her.

What Somerton looks like

Daniel vs The 2nd Transfer

IM STILL IN YUMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Yay. Some may think, "Ew, why the heck would he still want to be in that desolate wasteland that the military uses to drop bombs on?" and I would agree, but what sucks worse than being here is only being in an area for 6 weeks.

But hey, Yuma is not that bad. We got lots of good stuff coming up.

And, I'm still with my same companion. The first time ever for me. Its going to be interesting.

No really cool stories this week. So just a short email with a few lame stories: First! We went to a dinner who's kids are very good friends with this kid we're teaching who is the number one Cross Country runner in the state of Arizona. And I tell my companion ('cause sometimes I have to coach him on conversations) that we'll save that piece of conversation as like our trump card, when things get awkward and quiet and then maybe they can help us out. So we sit down, have prayer, and then BAM! He busts it out! poorly as well. I was like "noooooooooooooooooo!" They were like "really thats cool" and talked about it for like a min and a half, and then it was a waaaaaaaaay awkward dinner. I was out of it as far as conversation goes, because I was still stunned that he said it right off the bat!

Then, My comp's bike pedal broke, so we were biking home, cruising, taking our time as to not over exert the bikes, and then a member offered us a ride. So we put our bikes in his truck and got in. He was listening to his XM radio, and we generally dont bug people about stuff like that by asking them to turn it off when they're being nice to us, (or ever) but the song "Candles" by Hey Monday came on! I almost died. Its been so long since I've heard that gorgeous voice.

Then! Not really that exciting, but because it was transfers, some missionaries were leaving Yuma, so they wanted Yuma pins for their suits/collections. And because the ex-Mayor is in our ward they wanted us to get them from him, because the ones in the city hall suck. So we went over there, chatted with him for a little bit, and then asked for the pins. He said yes, and reached over and grabbed one off his coffee table and then his wife grabbed a whole bag of them from a drawer by their TV. I got three, one for me, my District Leader, Elder Varner, who asked for one, and then another one, just in case. Then she gave us these City of Yuma "Challenge Coins" its this huge heavy coin with the city seal and logo on it. Its pretty cool. Definitely a good souvenir. But when we went to give away the pins, I gave one to Elder Varner, then the Zone Leader he lives with asked for one, and then some greenie leaving asked for one too! So I had to give away mine! Which is the second time because I gave my original one to this Elder who got his visa and went to Mexico!

So yeah, Told you, boring week.

-LOVE

Elder Feller

Daniel vs Week 5

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:02:07 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

 

Hello All. Its week 5 of this transfer. Which means transfers happen next week. I'm super anxious! I dont know whats going to happen!

 

Oh, by the way, GUESS WHO TURNS 6 MONTHS THIS FRIDAY! Yeah, thats right. on January 21st 2011 The world will have been missing me for 6 whole months. Thats 1/4th of a mission. I expect lots of birthday presents 

 

Lets see, what else happened...

 

LAST NIGHT I ATE THE BEST PANCAKES IN THE WORLD. Ok, back story time, So there's this guy in the ward who helps the missionaries out all the time. He's just a cool, young, successful guy. We went to ask him something a couple saturday nights ago and he was having a party in his back yard where him and these 400 pound mexicans were jumping off the waterfall of his pool and shaking the ground with the shockwave, then a nice lady made us some carne asada tacos.... mmmm. my favorite. But so he's the type of guy who is married with 3 kids, but plays xbox and does stupid stuff with his friends (i.e. jumping off of waterfalls with ginormous mexicans.) So he had us over for dinner last night and his wife is telling us that this pancake mix is really good. (It was breakfast for dinner) and then we're eating them and I'm like... Holy crap, these are the most delicious pancakes I've ever tasted. Seriously. I cant describe it. Ok, I can, If I were the prophet Lehi, I would be dreaming about eating these pancakes off the tree of life. Then his wife had to go do something and he's talking to use about this mix, and he was like "yeah, I just get tired of bisquick and that kind of stuff, so I heard they were pretty good so I ordered a crate of them from the eastern united states because they dont sell them anywhere arround here." It was awesome. So now, Just like the prophet Lehi, I invite my family to partake. The brand is called "Aretha Frankenstein". Do whatever you can to get ahold of them. They will change your life.

 

So yesterday we also rode out bikes like all day. Because we're a little over on our miles for the month. It was pretty fun. I'm sure you're all thinking "oh its pretty chilly in January that must have been nice" but no, it was 85 degrees in Yuma yesterday. Pray for me to leave this place before summer... But seriously biking is pretty fun. We can talk to a lot more people that way. and in a car, you finish everything so fast. But, I am grateful for our car. because missionaries are always late. And bikes dont help. And my bike didnt fall apart this time!

 

So we're teaching this couple named Ashley and Robert. Robert is a less active member from forever. He doesnt know anything about the church. But they are super nice, and very interested. We found them because Robert is the brother of a sister in the ward, who was in the exact same situation a year ago! A boyfriend/girlfriend where one wants to do the whole gospel thing but the other one doesnt want to get married first! So its super funny when we teach them because his sister and her husband will call them out and tell them they have to do this. And it works because they are the perfect example. Well... not really perfect, but they work. Its really good. We're hoping to make some progress on them.

 

Also! I dont know if I've mentioned Bob before, but he's an old guy who lives in a trailer park and the thugs there pick on him. He loves the church and wants to join. But he doesnt want to stop smoking weed. And he's 63. So we're trying to help him move because people keep messing with him and breaking into his house. So once we get him moved, we're going to take his weed and say no more! Then he'll get baptized! He's hilarious. He was in the military in Korea and still swears like it...

 

Things are getting boring. Yuma is still hot. I hear all the old people leave when it gets hot. They all come from Utah and other cold places. Can you imagine that!? Moving every season change. Gosh. Just move to California...

 

Next week I promise to have some pictures. Maybe even show you guys all the ties I've collected!

 

Speaking of ties, Please dont forget that I'm always on a hunt for ties. Especially nice silks. Like, nice thick quality silks. The thin ones arent that good. But I need more nice Church/Meetings ties! I dont like to wear my old grandpa ties with a suit.

 

My dream tie, is a nice, thick, silk, with Paisley and Stripes. Its hard to find..

 

Got to go. Times up.

 

Love, Elder Feller. 

Daniel vs Interviews!

Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2011 11:07:27 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

This week we had a baptism! Wooooo. Bro. Henry Florez decided to write his name in the book of Heaven. He is an awesome guy. He's a doctor here in Yuma who was born in columbia and went to college in New York. in his second marriage, he married a member of the church. He dodged the church and the missionaries for a while, but as we found out in Sis. Florez's testimony, they were having some marital problems and then he asked his friend why they were always so happy all the time. His friend replied, "well, its the gospel of Jesus Christ" and then 6 weeks later he's baptized. I didnt really get to teach him too much, just the word of wisdom. And I helped him understand and then get over coffee. So it was fun. The baptism went really well. Lots of tears were shed. haha, and he was a little late, so we didn't get to get the traditional baptismal suit picture. But that's ok. Hahaha. The funniest part of the whole thing was: They had special musical numbers in the middle time while he was changing, and his son gets up there and plays "families can be together forever " on the piano. One note at a time, and very good for a little kid. Then my companion gets up and plays this ellaborate version of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" And totally blows this little kid out of the water. I almost laughed out loud and some people did. But it was ok, the kids feelings weren't hurt or anything. But it was way funny. My companion didn't even realize untill I told him later.

Neeeeeext. We had Interviews! President Howes and the AP's came down to Yuma for interviews! I love opportunities to learn from the President and APs. They are always good. President got up and told us that there were more missionaries than ever before in Yuma right now (6 English and 10 Spanish) And that he anticipated growth in the Church here. The first thing that came to my mind: in ward council meeting our ward had been reading the handbook. They got to the end of section 4. Next meeting they will be on Section 5. The missionary work section. So, because of my enlightened understanding of the Ward Council Process and the Church General Handbook of Instructions, I took that as I need to kick my wards into gear! So that's my plan as of now. To get these wards doing some serious missionary work! via a ward mission plan! 

Also, my interview with President was very good. I learned a lot. It was funny, because he started talking in Business terms, and I understood it better. hahaha. Basically he told me that some people grow leaps and bounds coming out of the MTC and then flatline on my improvement, but at this point for me, it would take steady effort to continue to improve upward.

Then the APs talked about getting referals from everyone, and the way to go about it right, in order to get good referrals.

That's pretty much it for this week. Other than that, we have got a few new peopel to teach. Which is always awesome. And we got one of them to say the closing prayer last night, and she had never prayed before, but we felt very strongly that she needed to be strong in prayer in order for her to come closer to Heavenly Father. And so she was all nervous about prayer and I just said,"what do you think you need to pray for?" and she paused for a second and said "to understand what I'm learning" and I said, "if thats all you need to pray for right now, just say that" and then she offered an awesome and every ernest prayer. It was amazing. And the spirit was so strong.

That's all for this week!

Love,

Elder Daniel Feller

What Yuma looks like

Me, Bro. Florez after baptism, and Elder Workman

Bro. & Sis. Florez's whole family.

A awesome billboard here in Yuma.

Christmas Phone Call from Daniel

On Christmas we all got an opportunity to speak with Daniel.  He sounded great!  We are proud of him and all of his great work!  Keep making us proud Daniel!!!

1st Week in Yuma

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:04:11 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

So this email is coming late this week... 1 day late because yesterday, my regular p-day, I had to take a very long car ride after transfer meeting.. to YUMA!

So yeah, I dont really know what to say about my last week in chandler.. EXCEPT ELDER LESH AND I BAPTIZED TWO PEOPLE! Rembember how we took over another missionaries area? Well, the first day we had it, a member called us and said he had someone for us to teach. We go by, and teach him a little bit, come back the next day and his friend is there too. They've both been going to church with this family for a while, and we baptized them last saturday. It was super funny. This whole family and these two kids that practically live with them are all so funny and goofy. But it was a great experiance for them to come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We confirmed them on sunday as well. And then their friends, the family's two brothers, had to bear their testimony in Church and they both were crying, which made Brandon and Zack start to cry and they were all embarased because they're teenagers and it was funny. Then during someone elses talk, she started telling this story about Jesus that someone wrote and Brandon was like, "oh no, here it comes again" and stuck his hands over his face. It was hilarious.

Lets see... what else.

Oh, we also started teaching another person in that same ward, who was dating an older member. He wanted to join the church and marry her. We made sure he was spiritually ready, and then put him on date for baptism for Christmas day. He was so excited. He's a funny guy too. He used to be a marine, then was a bum for 7 years and then got involved with a born-again church that helped him out a lot and he got back on his feet and got a good job in Arizona, and now has a house and two cars. He sees "Mormonism as his next step in his progression, like he's been led here his whole life" hahaha. He's awesome. But I'll miss the baptism now that I'm in Yuma, and not Chandler...

Oh speaking of, my adress in Yuma is:
Elder Daniel Feller
1600 W 12th st #1323
Yuma AZ, 85364

So at least for the next couple weeks you can send christmas packages and letters there, because the mission office is going to be booked! But its ok, whichever still works. And after like.. 4-5 weeks, start sending stuff back to the mission home. I appriciate all the Christmas presents and all the letters and everything I've recieved thus far! It means a lot that people still remember me... because I'm going on 5 months pretty soon!

HOLY CRAP ITS RAINING IN YUMA RIGTH NOW! That means lettuce will be super good this year, because Yuma produces 90% of the worlds lettuce...

Anyways, Uh, not much else happened. I ran into an Anti guy I met a while ago, again. He said Nephi was a murder and a bearer of false witness and God would never tell him to do that. We told him to read the old testament, and gave him some examples of God using the rightous to bring judgement on the wicke.... hahaha. Then he held up his phone that he was looking up bible scriptures on and said, "what do you think this is!?" and Elder Lesh said, "thats a word search." BOOM! We handeled it well but he still left being stupid. I told him if he wouldn't pray and ask God about the Book of Mormon, and not question some 20 year old kids on the street then we can do nothing for him and walked away.

The End!

NEXT WEEK!: Hear more about my adventures in Yuma!

Love Elder Feller

A message I left for some people that we didnt see for a while.

Me, Brandon, Justin, Zack, Elder Lesh. Justin Baptized his two friends on his sides

They're goofy

The death of Elder Lesh & I's companion ship, but not our love.