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.

Woah.

Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:57:03 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

So San Tan zone is pretty legit. Its definitely the toughest zone in the mission. Last week my area had a quarter of the stats for the zone. So we're doing good and trying to help out the rest of the zone. Things are picking up.

Our baptism got delayed again because of the dad. But it will go through this week. Venice is pretty solid.

Isaiah and Marquon, two friends of kids in the ward, go pushed back as well. We just feel that they are not ready and we want  them to be more prepared and commited so that they dont go inactive. They're pretty cool. Both of them come from rough family situations and they definitely recognize the effefct the gospel has on their lifes.

We had a slow week this week and didnt get to meet with a lot of our usual people. But we did teach Aubrey, a guy who has been investigating for forever! We were talking to him and found out that no missionary had ever directly asked if he believed in the Book of Mormon.... (I blame sister missionaries) But we had a really good lesson with him. He just wont do what is necessary to get the results he wants!

There is a lot of really cool people in this area. On of the recent converts, Bill Anderson, is a jewelry guy, and tells all the missionaries thatthey can get a wedding ring custom made from him at cost. He's a good guy to know.

We havent had dinners for a few days because the way the dinner callenders got messed up when the wards got switched arround when I came into the area. So we've tried "faith dining" a few times, but it hasnt worked out. On Sunday, we asked this really funny guy in the singles ward what we do if we dont have a dinner, and he freaked out and invited us over. It was a good dinner. He just got back from his mission so he made sure we didnt eat the usual.

Thats all for this week! We're going to Barneys Sports Complex in Queen Creek for P-Day today. Im pretty excited.

Love,
Elder Feller

Elder Howard and I on Valentines Day

The cows we live next too!

Daniel vs crunching time!

Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:56:23 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

We have had a pretty good week. Sorry I dont have a lot of time to write today, its Presidents Day and we're using the members who's guest house we live in computer. Arizona is beautiful right now. And the work is going really well. We have a lot going on this week. On Valentines day we had a baptisimal interview for our investigator Venice. She's 9, and unfortunately it looks like her dad isnt going to be able to baptize her... But everything is still on track for this weekend. Its weird because I've hardley even taught her... We also went to the visitors center this week with two of our investigators Isaiah and Marquon. They're friends of a priest in one of our wards. It was pretty cool, as the visitors center always is.

We ate dinner with our High Councelor over Missionary work, Brother Joseph Feilding McConkie (He has quite the name... He's related to Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R. McConkie) and taught a lesson at their house to their friend Danielle, who is going to be in the singles ward. It went really well. She is pretty cool. She's 23, and wants everything the church has to offer, a happy family, and everything. She's pretty mature, and has good standards. We're trying to get a fellowship from our Singles ward to come to the next lesson with us so she'll come to church. I think if we can get her arround the members of that ward she will progress really fast.

The rest of the week went well. I dont really remember. but Sunday was a crazy day! Elder Howard started feeling sick Saturday night, and then woke up on sunday sick, so he slept and we missed some church. We only made it to Sacrament meeting of our last ward and then we had to run from a lesson to dinner and a lesson, to two more lessons. It was pretty awesome.

I've gotta go, I'll write more next week about the people we're teaching!

Love,

Elder Feller  

Daniel vs

Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:08:37 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

You'll never guess where I was transfered! I'm now the new Zone Leader in the San Tan Zone, (Which is just south of the Gilbert Zone where I just was, still in Gilbert) In the area that has the Gilbert Temple! (see picture below) My companion is Elder Howard, who Iived with in Queen Creek a while ago. My new area is pretty legit. But first...

 

My last couple weeks in Gilbert were pretty good. We were pretty busy trying to make something happy. We're always busy either doing things or making things happen. But it was good, it built my faith a lot. Which is really what I needed. The funnest thing I did last week was go on exchanges with the Spanish Elders. It was fun being super busy, and trying to speak Spanish. And I joined in on Elder Lanier's pass time of hunting bottle caps. Theres a picture of my first day's find below. I've found a few more since then. haha. It was pretty fun. We were also able to teach the two other Porter Kids and put them on date right before I left. I'm sad I'm going to miss that!

 

My new area is pretty good. We go to a gym every morning, because my companion has permission because he hurt his foot a while ago. Its nice. We also have a car. We started off with a red Corolla, but the seat was broken and wouldn't slide back so I didn't fit very well. So we traded some other missionaries for a for a Chevy Malibu. Its pretty nice, roomy, and has 6 cylinders. Theres lots of work to od in my new area. This is the first time in a while I went into an area that had people ready to be baptized. Its nice, but kinda weird. There's lots to do, and everything is awesome. The members are really great. Its kind of a more wealthy area again. The lead singer of Linkin Park lives in a neighborhood we taught a lesson in last night.

 

I'm happy.

 

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 Time

Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 10:44:54 -0700
From: eric.feller@myldsmail.net

The weeks are flying by.

We went to the visitors center a week ago with Joey. It was awesome, it really helped him understand the story of Joseph Smith, and he really felt the spirit. 

We also got in with Seth again. He hadnt been reading or praying like he said he would, so we sat down and read 3 Nephi 11 with him and taught him the 3rd Lesson from it. The we talked about prayer a lot. He was afraid to pray, and didnt really know what to do, or what to think, or how to get an answer. So we talked about it a lot, and I told him the only way he was going to know would be to just do it. And he said ok and closed us with a prayer out loud. It was awesome. I love hearing someone's first prayer. He felt great after, and so I think it will be something he and his girlfriend keep up. We meet with them again soon.

The weather here is amazing! Its so nice outside everyday, and then chilly, but not too cold at night. Just perfect. 

I realized when we were at church that I had been slaking on setting up an appointment to teach the other two kids of the family that just got baptized. Also, Shannon's kids have been coming to church with her, so we'll see about that as well. We're really trying. 

Things are going.

Love,

Elder Feller