Elder Lundin - February

Dear family,
Well another week has come and gone. The time is just flying right now. Its like im writing these emails every couple of days. But thank you for the updates. The steelers won the super bowl.. hmm thats cool i guess. A guy in our ward said he was going to watch it. It came on at 1 in the morning here. Looks like fun up north with the whole fam there. I cant believe vince has a kid wow. And dixie is changing to the Red Storm. Wow why would they do that? Thats kind of dumb. > Well things are kind of slowing down for us here right now. We went from a ton of success the last two months to now where were just searching and searching. The spanish people are hilarious they are so mean i cant help but laugh sometimes. But there is alot of good people here as well. The kid that was going to be baptized this sat didnt come to church sunday so well have to push that date back a little. For the better i think i dont think hes quite ready. Hes a good kid though im excited for him. Other than that we just had our zone conference this week. It was good to see everyone that i havent seen for awhile. And we were told that Elder Bednar will be coming to town in a couple weeks!! Im pumped!! He is going to Malaga and Sevilla. We might do a whole mission combined thing for it. That would be sweet. > My comp right now is quite the kid. He has a girlf friend that is currently serving in the mission. so that is a very wierd situation. So if we do the combined zone conference thing. they tell me i am going to have to keep them apart? That will be fun... wow...But he is a good worker.
But ya i love those talks because some of them are pretty straightforward and i love that when they are straight forward. There is so many things i need to improve on and sometimes i lose patience with myself and i forget that its all a proccess. Thats one of the biggest things i have learned on the mish is that everyhting is a process. You cant change overnight. I like the young womens president talked on virtue. I think she said something like our virtue is made up of alot of small decisions. Small and simple things... the gospel is great. I have learned alot but the more i learn the more i dont know.. there is always more thats what i love about it. > Well keep it up at home. I love and miss you all so much. Oh ya we did move dont send anything else to c/ altamira... We now live and c/PERU n18 4b 04008 Almería Spain. I love you guys. Thanks for all you

Elder Sevy - February

Dear Everyone, We had a few really good experiences this week. We were teaching an investigator named Kuntaea who has a younger sister that is a member in San Jose and came to visit a few weeks ago. So Kuntaea is interested in learning english and checking out her sister's church, but she isn't able to commit to anything until February. We had a good lesson with Kuntaea and she had enough Christian background to say the closing prayer. So as we finished the lesson, only a few minutes passed and Kuntae's neice and uncle walked into the door. Kuntaea explained that "these are the guys I was talking to you about." So the two, named Bunny (boo-nee) and Sophon (sopawn) sat down as Kuntaea was in a hurry to leave. We showed Bunny (the older uncle) the Book of Mormon in Cambodian and he was immediately hooked. He was constantly flipping through the pages and reading passages to himself. We explained a little about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how it was taught in the Book of Mormon. He was very interested in learning everything that the book had to offer, and he was so ingrained in the text, that as we moved on to the next topic he didn't really pay attention, but was continuing to read from the spot we were at before. Ussually, as missionaries, this isn't a problem. In fact its an excellent problem for him to have because as long as we share a scripture about what we are talking about, he will have his full attention on us. So it is a great oppurtunity for us to use the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon in every principle that we teach. I've found with many investigators in the past that it is so important to focus on the Book of Mormon, because once they gain a testimony of the book, everything from then on is smooth riding, and every concern they have--prophets, God, addictions, family problems--can all be resolved by their testimony in the Restored Gospel. Its wonderful how God prepares both people who have never heard the gospel to come into the gospel and people who used to have the gospel in their lives to come back.I love you all.Sincerely,Elder Sevy
California Sacramento Mission
8267 Deseret Ave
Fair Oaks, CA 95628Elder Sevy

Elder Anderson- February

Dear Family, I am really tired right now. We just got done moving this family. We started at 9:00 and finished at like 3:00. It doesn’t sound like long, but we were going the whole time, and they had some really heavy things. We were also moving all of it up a couple flights of stairs, into an old home (old homes have really steep and narrow staircases, narrow doorways, and low ceilings). I can hardly type. I am on exchange with my district leader right now. Just as we got home, we got a call from the mission president telling my district leader that he was going to be a DL in another zone. Then he handed the phone to me and president called me to be the DL here in this area. I am staying with Elder Bergeson, so we are going to tear it up. There are so many really good things that are going to happen here. I love it. This ward is crazy. At church, me and Elder Bergeson had to give talks. Whilst sitting up on the stand, I looked into the congregation. One of the entire middle rows was taken by the Voelkel family. Another entire row was taken by the Zinks. Another entire row was taken by the Forces. Another entire row was taken by the Millers. We have some HUGE families here! We had the Stake President there, our district leader was there, and pretty much all of our investigators and less actives finally came. It was great! I felt like my talk went pretty well. Elder Bergeson did really well too. Our mission has been challenged by President Uchtdorf to have all of our talks that we give memorized. I was cutting it close, since I decided to memorize a couple of scriptures that morning, but it all worked out well. There was this girl that came up after and told me that I was going to be a bishop. It was funny.So, apart from all of that, all is going well. The Miller family, the one that takes up an entire middle row, has asked us to start teaching them. Bro Miller is a member, and some of his kids are members. But his wife is not a member, and her kids are not members. They are super cool. They are having us over on Mondays for FHE. When dinner had finished, all of the kids exploded into action. The entire table was cleared, wiped down, and ready to go for the lesson in like 2 minutes flat. It was like clockwork! So, Mommy, your efforts were righteous. You tried to do that with us, but it always only ended up being you and me cleaning the kitchen.We had a funny experience. We were tracting, and we knocked on this one door. This black guy answers the door, and we start talking to him. He doesn’t really want to talk to us, but we persisted. Then he tells us he is muslim, and expected that to end the conversation. My greeny had no idea what to say. He was silent the whole time. It was weird, because I just knew what to say. I had never met a muslim before. I had never met anyone who has denied that Jesus is our Savior. It was really weird to have someone say that to my face. It was just like it says in D&C 100:5-8. The words just came freely. By the end, the guy was fine with having us come back.The other cool thing that happened was that Mekelle came to church. Mekelle is a girl that we are teaching that is amazing. She goes to the Word of Life church. This church is famous. Pastor Zon has a ton of money from preaching. Mormons are on their bad side, though. There was one time some missionaries went to one of their services. 9:00 rolls around, so they stand up to go home for the night. Pastor Zon stops them and asks, “Where do you think you are going? You can’t just walk out of a service like that!” The missionaries response was not so great. “We are going to study the real word of God.” The Word of Life church was a really big anti-mormon church before, but it is now extra effort. They don’t like us at all. Mekelle goes to that church, but is questioning a lot of their beliefs. I guess there was some TV show where Elder Ballard and Elder Cook were interviewed and answered a bunch of questions. Mekelle got to watch it, and really enjoyed it. We are going to see her tonight. She didn’t understand anything when she was at church, so we are hoping that she didn’t have a bad experience. Love Elder Greg Anderson

Elder Gray- February

Hey everyone, Things here in Newfoundland are going good. It is getting pretty cold now. The last few days have it has been about -20*C with the windchill. And this is one of the more milder spots on Newfoundland from what they tell us. How are you dealing with the cold Chad? What are the temps over there? It isn't really too bad though once you get used to it all. Trevor and Rob you are lucky to be in summer right now. We had a pretty funny experience a couple weeks ago. We were out in a little town 20 minutes outside of Marystown. It had just snowed and the roads had been plowed and I was looking for a place to park. Which is more difficult with the snow banks and that. I decided to park in a spot that I had parked on a previous trip there, before we got any snow. Since the road had just been plowed and and everyone had driven their ski-doos (snowmobiles) on the snow I couldn't see where the pavement ended. I ended up going a little to far over. Once the passenger side tires left the pavement the car sank into the snow. I tried to drive out of it but we were stuck pretty good. So I got out to see how bad it was and to try to think of what to do. As I was looking at it I turned around and the guy across the street was just staring at us. So I asked him how he was doing. And his response was a lot better then your doing. I thought to myself haha well duh our car is stuck sideways in a ditch. Then I asked him if he had any ideas. His response this time was well you better start praying. I was just like man this guy is going to give me all the crap he can. All of this is going on while my comp. is stuck in the car because his door won't open due to the snow. Finally the guy came over and took a look at it. Then he had his buddy go and get the truck and they pulled us out. It was pretty funny. We have recently found this pretty sweet lady named Marleen. We have been teaching her for a few weeks. She knows that it is all true. There is a problem though because she is living common law. The good news is she is planning on getting married. The bad news is that they have the date set for July of 2010 which is a good distance away. We are going to be working with her on moving up the date. We still have some stuff we need to teach her too. We will see how that all goes. We just had zone conference last week. In my interview with my mission president he told me that he is planning on moving me this transfer. And as well he is going to make me a leader now. We have transfers Febuary 12th so I only have a couple of more weeks here in Marystown. I should find out where I am going next in about a week and a half. It is going to be hard to leave Marystown. I have grown to love this branch even though it is small. It was quite the experience serving here. I have grown so much from being here. And I have learned to appreciate the way things are back home where the church is big. I have got more comfortable talking in church because I have done it so frequenlty since coming here. Although that is just in front of 3-4 people. And on the weeks that no one showed just my companion. Fast and testimony meeting with just my companion and me was interesting. And the experience of being branch president. I have learned so much from serving the people of the branch here. I can't even explain it all. Well I need to get going now. I hope all of you guys are doing good. Chad you are coming up on your year mark I believe. Congrats on that. And everyone else has been out for awhile now. It is crazy the time is flying. I can't believe how fast it is going. It is going to be good to hear how you are all doing agian. Good luck with everything.-Elder Jordan Gray

Elder Quinn - February

hello stg newsletter. man i miss stg football. i´m sure i would have won itthis year if we were home but we´re not so whatever. but yeah how is every bodydoin? has anybody noticed how fast time is flying? the june 11th crew will hit 8months real soon, that is weird. and how about the sean jordan and greg club?wow thats old. jordan man i love readin what your doin. your 2nd hijo and branchpresident. thats so crazy. i´m sure you´re learning a ton. now seans trainingtoo thats insane. i would love to train, i know i got some time til it comes buti hope it does. i´m sure it teaches you a lot. what i can´t wait for is beingable to talk after the mission and share things we´ve learned. i love learningnew stuff its weird. everytime i see someone studying on the metro i get excitedto go back to school. i remember when i just couldn´t wait for school to beover but now i miss it like crazy. college is going to be sweet.well i just got the last newsletter and its great as always. it seems likeevery issue is getting better. i think we are somewhere around the 1 yearanniversary from when me and rob started this and now look where its goin. butyeah sound like everyone´s doin great. i just got my first baptism this month.it seems like i´ve set alot of baptismal dates but most of them are back invalencia. oh yeah did i tell everyone i got transferred? probly last time,actually yeah i remember now. 2nd area is big stuff haha. no i seriously stillfeel like i´m in my first transfer its crazy. but i´m learnin alot im lovinit. hey you all gotta learn to cook plates from your corner of the world so wecan make good things when we get back. i´m strugglin but i try so its fun ha.matt have you tryed the tortilla de patata ( i just made one this morning itsamazing)? or how about the paella? the paella valenciana is amazing. i learnedhow to make them so when we get home we´re doin it for sure. hey does anybody remember the time capsule? i hope its still there. i´m suremegan hasn´t been watching it so we´ll see how it goes ha. its so fun toremember times before the mission, summer 2010 is gonna be the best. everybodythink of ideas of stuff to do, but not too much though. i do sometimes and i getway trunky but whatever its fun. alright well i think i´m out of stuff to saythis time. i´ll have more to say next month for sure. alright you all have fun.love ren.habéis escuchado de la broma "¿cuantas casas hay en springfield(de lossimspon)?... mil-house." ha. un chico me la enseñó. escucho de que siuno quiere ser mas nativo, tiene qué aprender las bromas. entonces lo voy aintentar a hacerlo, si queréis hacerlo conmigo. eso sería genial. tambiénrobdog, jopetas, nos entiendes? que bueno. me tienes que enseñar a hablar tuidioma. ya te lo he dicho pero bueno. sige hablando con nosotros así. buenopues, hasta luego chicos.p.s. i finally met the famous jesse ence. "just thought you ought toknow."(harry potter quote, can anybody tell me from where?) yeah anywayshe´s in my zone. hes hilarious. i probly won´t get in a fight with him likeyou said trevor ha sorry. alright cya.

Elder Irvine - February

Hola amigitos,¿Cómo Estáis Pues? Chile is good. This last week we taught a whole bunch of recovering alcoholics. It was really cool and they were really receptive. They don´t live in my sector but I think they will invite the missionaries over in the homes when they get the chance. It was a really cool experience. So how is everyone doing? Time is freaking flying by. I feel like I don´t have much more time and I still have over a year haha. So I was reading in Alma 38 a few days back and verse 123 says be bold but not overbearing. Then I had a reference to Acts 4:31 it is really cool. I realized that we have the most important message in the world. So I have been trying to be bold but not prideful. I have been telling people that this message is really important. It has been good and you can see people think about accepting you and listening. Well besides that things are good. HOT freaking HOT. I swear I sweat like 40 pounds of water everyday. Well I hope everyone is doing good. Happy Birthday Matt and twin brother Chad. I guess I will talk to you hommies in a bit and I will see you in like 16 months haha. Chad how is the snow? Dude Rob what up? Have fun!!con mucho amor,
Elder Trev

Elder Alldredge - February

Whats up elders! I just recieved the last news letter so its wierd to think that we will be getting another one soon. So guess what I have begun to learn how to drive in the snow. I should rephrase that I Im learning to drive in blizards. Its pretty crazy. The cold here is bad, but just like Jordan said if you dress right, the only thing is your face and it gets numb after to seconds of being outside. So we are going to start teaching the son in law of a guy in our ward. I am very excited about this, because that is how a lot of baptisms happen. His name is Martin his really chill guy. We taught him the plan of salvation and he kept saying that is cool. Oh oh oh I have something cool, some lady was sure I was not from america because I didnt have an american acent. That was sweet when she said that. This month is the ending of the reign of Chad and then comenced feb. the reign of Matt. Guys I am almost a year out. Ahhhhhhhh! that is crazy! Lately the things that I have learned are that prayer is real, extremely! And also that this is truely a war here on earth. Sometimes I think we are just going through steps with people because that is what we are supposed to do, but what I have learned lately is it is truely a war between us and the adversary. So buckle up and fight as hard as you can for our older brother Jesus. You guys rock. Sean and President Jordan have fun with your sons

Elder Pierce - February

hey everyone have like 2 mins so i can write hardly anything. well everything has been going great. transfers are next week so I'll probably be transferred out of Norfolk because i have been here for 3 transfers. man the mission is so sweet, all the stuff you learn, all the crazy people that you meet and all the friends you make. i love it. and its been going by really fast. i cant wait to get back and hear all your stories. dang i got no time sorry ill make next months better. keep up the good work. elder pierce

Elder Miguel - February

What´s up élderes? Well its Februrary already. Lets see, transfers are next week and i´m thinking Elder Slack will leave and I will get my Brazilian companion. Presidente Araújo told me he´d give me a brazilian haha. So that should be good. We baptised Hans and it was awesome. He recieved the priesthood and is going to bless the sacrament next sunday and he is also receiving a calling. We´re also going to baptize a lady named Zeni, who lives in the same apartments as us, on the 31st of Jan. She had a little problem with coffee but we bought her cevada and a bunch of juice. So she should be good to go. Then there is Jacir who we began teaching last week i think. He´s like 60 and has a sweet muschtashe. He accepted baptism but said he needs to forgive a man first. But i think we´ll be able to baptise him on the 31st too. Well things are sweet here in Curitiba.Well happy birthday Matt, Chad, and Trevor. Man, i didnt get the january newletter yet. Whats taking so long!!! just kidding. but seriouly i didnt get it yet.Sorry i didnt write alot this week. Didnt have time. Happy February. Até mais.Love,Élder Miguel

Elder Sevy- January

Sean sent a "real" letter this month....I have it on my other computer, I hope. I will post it soon. L

Elder Anderson - January

Dear Family, The second coming is coming is coming! I can’t believe it actually snowed in St. George! The last time it snowed enough to build a snowman was when I was in 1st grade.So, it was pretty cold this week. I don’t think the actual temperature got above the single digits. The wind chill was much colder, though. I went biking yesterday, when it was like -20 degrees. If you add the wind of me riding my bike, it was probably like -30. I thought I was going to die. I could feel the fluid in my eyes starting to crystallize. My lungs were starting to freeze, and I almost died.This week was a really good week. We taught a lot of lessons and found a lot of new people to teach. On Tuesday, we had to drive to Olathe for a zone conference. Our ride bailed out on us at like 5:30 AM because of snow and freezing rain. So I ended up having to drive. But that’s okay, because I am a pro ice driver after having lived in St. George my whole life. It was like a 2 hour drive, and on the radio we kept hearing of accidents and stuff. It was pretty intense. But we made it there and back safely.We went to go see this one lady in this apartment building, and when we got to her door, her neighbor had his door open, and he and his family was just sitting there. So, when you are a missionary, what do you do? You talk to them, of course! So what did we do? We blew it, and we just went to the other persons door and knocked. She answered, and the first thing she says is, “Mormons? Aren’t you guys the ones that believe Jesus and Satan are brothers?” So, not a very good start. Needless to say, she was not interested. As we were leaving, one of the kids from the neighboring was outside the door and saw us. He said, “Are you church guys? I think we are looking for a church.” So the Holy Ghost prompted that kid to fix our mistakes for us. So we went in and talked to them for a bit and ended up teaching the first lesson to them. They are a spanish family and they are very awesome. The kids names are Destony, Gordo, Chunky, and two other kids I can’t remember. The whole week was filled with really cool experiences like that.There is this 11 yrs old girl named CJ that we are teaching. We had a lesson scheduled with her and her mom on Saturday to watch The Testaments. We got there, and the mom said that CJ was asleep and didn’t want to come out. I told her to tell CJ that if she got up, I would do a magic trick for her. I wasn’t expecting that to get her up, but her mom came back and said she was getting up. It worked out very well. Another really cool thing happened with the magic tricks. We are teaching this 9 yrs old girl named Destony. Her mom is a member, and her daughter just hasn’t been baptized yet. So we started teaching her. She is super super shy, and the whole time while we were teaching, she was like covering her whole face with her coat, except for a little slit where she could see us. She like wouldn’t talk the whole time. It was kind of awkward. At the end, I did a magic trick for her, and she really liked it (she still hardly said anything). We ended up seeing her a couple of days later, and she was the most energetic person ever! She was really talkative, and interactive. We were both very surprised at this. We had a lesson with her yesterday, and she was excited, she had done her reading assignment, and she was answering our questions. It was really cool.Well, I can’t really remember anything else to tell you. I forgot to write things down to tell you. The only other thing that stands out is that it was freakin’ cold. I have never been so cold in my life. I remember almost exactly the same time last year it was like 25 degrees, with wind chill at like 20. In fact, not once last year did it ever get this cold. The actual temperature never got to be below 0 last year. This year it has already happened most of this week, and it is only December.

Elder Lundin - January

Dear STG, Well another month has passed.. It has been the craziest transfer of my mission and i am ready for it to be over. With all of the holidays and stuff we had alot of pday changes and would go a couple of weeks without a pday sometimes. It has worn me out a little. But it has been alot of fun. My new area is sweet i love it and the ward is so good so we are haveing some good success here. Oh ya and ren you said that your struggling a little but have 3 people lined up for baptism??? hmmm doesnt sound too bad too me haha. But sounds like everyone is doing well, I love reading the newsletter its so cool. Sean Jordan and Greg will be heading home this year wow. that is so cool. Keep up the good work boys i always think about the good times we had before especially those california trips. How fun were those? We will have to do one for sure in summer 2010.Oh ya and apperently last time i said ejeceremos much after the mission ren, and i gues that means we will prostitute ourselves. Thats not quite what i was going for. Haremos ejercicios is what i was going for hahaha well good luck everyone and HAVE FUN dont take yourselves too seriously. -Elder Lundin

Elder Pierce - January

hey everyone,first i guess i should start off by saying MERRY CHRISTMAS! and thank you jordans mom and trevors mom for sending me those presents and cards and of course thanks laurie for putting the newsletter together every month i love it. hey have any of you got that calender with all of us in it its sweet, i guess for you foreigners you dont get packages except once a trasfer or something huh.man i cant believe its already christmas it seems like yesterday that it was thanksgiving and it seems like 2 days ago me rob ren and trevor were all leaving to go to the mtc crazy. and dang i cant believe seans go home year is coming up and he'll be done in october sorry sean i dont mean to make you trunky haha. i guess time goes so fast because as a missionary its always go go go except on p-day thats a little break i guess. and i usually play risk with a bunch of missionaries its sweet. what do y'all (thats right y'all) do for p-day. the foreigners probably go sight seeing alot huh. well i guess i should tell everyone how the work is going and stuff. im still in norfolk, this will be my third transfer here. we have 3 set for baptism on jan 7. one girl is named athena and she is awesome. her boyfriend lives in draper utah right now and he is meeting with the missionaries too and guess what he is set for baptism as well. yeah its pretty sweet. when athena gets baptized she is gonna move to utah i think to be closer to him and then hopefully they can get married and then in a year they can go to the temple man how sweet would that be. gladys got baptized on the 13th and i was able to do it. it was awesome. im sure everyone would agree when i say that it is one of the coolest things in the world to see your investigators really progress in the gospel. alright well im running out of time so i guess i'll talk to you guys next month. work hard we dont have alot of time to do this.love elder pierceps hey what is everyone as far as leadership positions im just curious. you guys are all probably zone leaders and APs huh? alright see ya

Elder Miguel - January

What is up meus amigos? Well according to my calender we are in the month of Chad right now haha. No but seriously the calender is freaking sweet. Thanks greg´s mom. It is officially the summer down here in Brasil and hey Trevor it´s hotter than crap here too. But it rains enough here which is nice when we don´t forget our umbrellas.Things are going good here. About a month ago we found a man named Hans because he asked for a "Mundo Feliz" dvd. He is single with a six-year-old son named João. So far on the mission i have never met someone as humble as this guy. We taught him the Restauração and he cried when we told him that Christ visited the Americas. We showed him the Livro de Mórmon and told him that he can know it´s true if he reads it and asks heavenly father. Then he asked us "do i have to ask if i already know it´s true?" He was so happy and he gave us hugs when we left. So he had a pretty big beard but shaved it to go to church the next day. At first I didn´t recognize him haha but he came with his son and they loved it. During these past couple of weeks we´ve been teaching him we could totally see him changing and all the blessings coming into his life. He overcame cigs and alcohol and found a good job. I am way excited for him. He will be baptized next week on the 3rd. I also have to talk about these kids we´re teaching who I love to death. Otson who is 12 and Micheal is 8 and Natalia is 3. Otson and Micheal will be baptized on the 10th. Thay are way excited and I love teaching them. They only have their dad, Antonio, to take care of them and if he overcomes cigs and beer he will be baptized with his children. I think I sent a pic with them.Hey Jordan how´s the Brach President thing? That´s pretty sweet man. We cover two wards in my area so we have to go to all six hours cause we have investigators visiting both wards. Yeah Kyle here investigators have to go to church twice to be baptized. I think that´s how it is in most missions but I don´t know. Hey who else has p-days on wednesdays? Dude because wednesday is what p-day is all about. Ren então "estou abaixo" também para fazer aquelas coisas depois a missão. Mas eu espero que tudo é beleza com vocês. Boa Sorte minha gente. Tchau.Love,Élder Miguel

Elder Alldredge - January

Ok before I get into the missionary work I have very important news. The birdman has started to spread in Quebec. It has already started in Montreal, it was introduced yesterday in Quebec City and the virus will be making it to Ottawa soon. One of my last comps gave me the sign without realizing what it was, so naturally I told him about it and now it is spreading. Another thing I have introduced dip dip dip into the community as well. We played it for Christmas eve at one of the members houses and they couldn`t get over it. It was so funny to watch a bunch of Quebecois dipping. They were getting all competitive and everything. So now there is alittle bit of St. George in Canada now. Jordan tell me if the birdman thing gets to Halifax. Things are going well in the area. Things slowed down a little for Christmas because all of the Catholics start listening to their priests around Christmas time. But the holidays are over and I`m excited to get back into the routine. Did anyone feel weird talking to their family? I felt as though I was calling into a different dimension. I`m slowly forgeting life before the mission. It`s as though I know my family exists but in a different world or something. Well you guys are awesome expect miracles.

Elder Quinn's - January

hey guys whats goin. one more month has passed by crazy huh. oh yeah hopeeveryone had a bon nadal. christmas in the mission is great. we didn´t do muchbut we got in house with some members and oh yeah i had kebob para la nochebuena si me entendéis ha.so today for preparation day your never gonna guess what we did. kyle mentionedturkey bowl last time and yeah we have an american football here crazy huh. hait was so fun. just like a year ago when it was kinda cold and sprinkling rain.man such good memories and today was almost as good. we went to this field, wellpretty much its a carpet field, theres no grass here for miles ha. but yeahriley nelson had his football and we all got together and played for a fewhours. it was so good. we have to do flag football when we get back for sure.well sounds like everythings goin good with you guys. ha matt your in almería?you´re not gonna believe this but i met a lady in your ward. i was in valenciabut i just got transferred to Hospitalet, just a southern suburb of barcelona.and this lady named Lorena or somethin like that came to our ward. her sisterlives here. i think she is from the dominican republic but i can´t remember. itold her to look for you, man it was crazy though. trev_dawg haha you´re sostinkin lucky you have a native comp though. i would kill for that. i lovetalkin with the spaniards their accent is so good. especially the girls ha someof them sound like men its sick cause of all the smokers i think but yeah mostof the time its a way good accent.well not much is goin on here. we don´t have much investigators in thehospitalet dos area so we are lookin a bit. this week will pick up though. thechristmas week was kinda slow but this week will be better i hope. hey i got aquestion for you canadians. how do you keep warm? ha its not too bad here butsometimes it gets to you if you don´t get in house much. that would be so crazyto work in the snow. good luck with that.well we´re all gettin older weird huh. yeah 6 months for the june crew, we´reapproaching our dead year but it´ll be a good one. man and then theres thosethat have been out for a year, thats weird, on the calendar that we got i waslaughin when it said you guys we´re goin home haha. way good calendars by theway, i´m way excited to use it. thanks to gregs mom eh? alright well i thinki´m out of stuff to say for this month, i´ll do better next month i swear.bueno pues, me encantan los mensajes en castellano aqui al fin. hagamoslo masno? seguid fuertes vale? mi compañero cree que es la leche. ha no es mal, nosllevamos bien. pero bueno, nos vemos en 2010. el mes que viene escribiré algomejor. hasta luego, os quiero. ren

Elder Irvine - January

Hey dudes,
How is everyone doing? Chile is going good I was transferred to a new area and it is total fields but I love it. How is the cold Christmas? haha. Hot Christmas is not that good. So how about those calendars those are sweet I loved them. Our moms are sweet huh? Thanks Greg's mom for doing those. Well I hope everything is going good. The Christmas activity was sweet I loved it. TITANS are going to win the super bowl!! 2009 now is here how crazy is that? Mine and most of your black out year. I can´t believe Sean, Jordan and Greg have finished their black out years. Matt it would be soo sweet to be in the same zone I agree here is a pic of me playing basketball with parker it was cool to see someone I knew. Kyle remember Josh that kid we refereed with. He is here in this mission. This is his first change he thought I was James Lark when I first saw him haha he isn´t very smart, but I am as good as James. haha Hope everything is fantastic. Well love you all and I have to go. Work hard. I played pool today and it was sweet.

Love always,Elder Trevor Irvine

Elder Gray - January

Hey, I hope you guys all had a good Christmas. Being in the mission field for Christmas is definitely different but it is fun. I am still serving in Newfoundland and things are going pretty good. Transfers came out last night and I found out that I will be training agian. That puts the count to two boys now. I am excited to train agian though. And all I know at this point is that his name is Elder Millar. The work here is going good. We have found some awesome people lately that have good potential. As far as branch president stuff goes everything is going good. I finished tithing settlement a couple of days ago and got it transmitted to Salt Lake. The weekly attendance is still struggling though. We have been making a lot of progress with some of the less-actives though. That is something we are focusing on right now is working with the less-actives here and it has been paying off. We did all of the home teaching here in the branch for the month of December. The home teaching hadn't been done here in for a little while. Overall we are just trying to get this place going again. Well I don't have much time we need to get on the road to St. John's. We need to be there tonight and we have a 4 hour drive ahead of us. Oh yeah I am starting to get sick of driving. We have to drive 3 hours for district meeting one way, twice a transfer. And then there is Zone Conference too just a lot of driving. Well I hope that all of you are doing well. And I can't wait to get the next newsletter. Sorry this one is short we don't have much time because we need to leave. -Elder Jordan Gray

Elder Lundin - December

Portions of a letter to the family:
But anyway, sounds like things around the world are going pretty crazy. I'm sure everyone blows it way out of proporcion but sounds like its pretty crazy. I guess we really are in the last days huh. But sounds like there was a good conference. That's the thing no matter how crazy it gets, we have the gospel and we know what we have to do. The gospel could be way complicated to some but really its simple. Keep the commandments and you will prosper in the land. It is very simple. That's the sweet thing about the church. Like doubts that investigators have... all they need to know is if the book of Mormon's true. If they know that's true then every thing else falls into place. It is a perfect church its cool to think about. I really like pres Monson's talk in conference. He started off and talked about change and all that but then told us the find joy in the journey and look for whats most important in our lives. His talks are way good.Well its been a good week this week, we had a lot of success this week. I don't know if there was any highlights worth writing but it was a really good week.Well i don't know much else to write sorry this letter is weak. Thanks for updates on the sports dad. I miss sports very much. I think about the good ole days of high school baseball and rebels days alot. That was so fun... Thank you so much for everything i love you and miss you.GO COUGARS

Elder Anderson - December

Well, I have some bad news. BYU lost to Utah. I am very surprised that nobody made reference to that.So, we had an interesting week this week. On average, we teach about 11 to 14 lessons per week. That is pretty good in this mission. According to Elder L. Tom Perry, we are to teach 20 lessons per week. I have never done that thus far on my mission. We made it a goal this week to do that. We did everything we possibly could to teach 20 lessons. By Saturday, we had taught 14 lessons, and still had 6 more to go. That is a lot of teaching to do in one day. We started the day with one lesson, but then we had to go help someone with their roof (same people as last time). We spent about 4 hours doing that, then had dinner. So, by like 6:00, we had taught 2 lessons, and needed another 4. We prayed for a miracle, and it happened. We taught a less active till 7:00, then went to teach Austin and Kennedy White. Then we hurried to someone we needed to see and teach sometime this week, and found two of their family members and taught them. However, on the way, I knew we needed to make good time. So, I was driving like Dad when he is late, and came to a stop light. It turned red before I got to it, and I decided I would turn right instead. So, I turned into the parking lot next to the light and pulled back out into the street to continue on my way. It was then I saw these beautiful flashing red and blue lights behind me. I thought to myself, “Wow, those are very pretty lights.” Then I thought, “You know, I should stop for a moment to take in their full beauty.” So I pulled into a nearby church parking lot to look at the lights, and a nice man in a cool looking blue uniform came to my window and asked for my licence. I was so confused as to what was going on. For some odd reason, he chastised me for something then told me he was going to give me a warning, then left. Then, to my dismay, the pretty lights turned off. I thought, “Well, that was a fun adventure.” So, then we hurried over to find another person, and taught them. Somehow, finishing the day off at about 9:30, we ended up teaching 6 lessons that day, thus achieving our goal of 20 lessons this week. It was the most satisfying thing ever! I really can see why they always try to get us to learn how to set goals.Today we are going over to a less active guys house for some ‘physical training.’ He does ultimate fighting. So we asked him to teach us how to fight, and we are starting today. I am so excited.Connie is doing well. She was able to come to church this week. We are hoping to teach a lot of really cool people this week, but we will see. Thanksgiving is throwing in a curve ball at us. Nobody wants to be taught.Well, time flies. There is more I could report, but that is all for now. Elder Greg Anderson

Elder Irvine - December

Queridos Jugadores,¿cómo tai po? well i haven´t gotten the last two newletters but i will this wednesday and then i will know how you are all doing but as far as i know you are all doing well. freaking jordan hitting you year mark holy crap and sean. i cant believe how fast time goes on the mission i just hit my 5 month mark and it has flown by. so chile though is bomb as always and hotter than crap. im sure rob is in the same stuff. it is going to be weird to have a hot Christmas but that is cool. so we have been doing really well here. we had our first baptism on halloween and we have another coming up. it is awesome. also i am now with a latin comp and so it is all spanish and i am learning a ton faster. the gift of tongues is so amazing. as long as you do you best the Lord will hook you up and i love it. like this week was pretty crappy and we were doing a lof of contacting and nobody wanted anything. so we decided to fast andthat day we found seven. i love it. oh and for those who know my cousin stephen, so chad remeber when you threw up when i was telling that story?, that is my cousin. my comp is a lot like him haha but not as crazy haha. well i have to go i hope everybody is doing well and having success. also work hard and you have nothing to worry about. love you much.love,elder trev_dawg18@hotmail.com

Elder Sevy - December

This week I had the oppurtunity to take a little visit to Stockton. The mission policy is that if you are there when an investigator sets a firm baptism date and then you get transferred, you can go back to the old area for the baptism. so it was a good experience to see a lot of my stockton friends in the Branch because the baptism is right after church. So the baptism was for Vue and Bao. I got word that they got married the Tuesday before. I have the pictures, even if I wasn't there. But all of the members wore native Hmong clothes to the civil wedding and the Branch President performed the marriage and then they got baptized the next Sunday. How sweet it was to see how prepared they truly were for being an active member in the church. They were ready for baptism for two months or so, but Bao just turned 18 (married young like you mom...just kidding...I know: you just turned 19). But Vue and Bao have there focus on being married in the temple. How wonderful it was to see their commitment and preparation. Vue has been stong from the first. Bao at first didn't believe, but as she participated in church, read the scriptures, prayed aloud--all these faith strengthening activities--she was very well prepared for baptism with a testimony in the Atonement and Restoration. I'm out of time gotta go.--Elder Sevy

Elder Alldredge - December

Ok this isn't funny anymore.... it's starting to get really cold. I am praying that in the next transfer calls the president will tell me that I am going to Florida for the winter to preach to the french people there. Now before you laugh know that there are actually a lot of Quebecois that live down there. Sounds like you guys are doing well, you are all so hard core. It's crazy to get letters and hear miracle after miracle. Elder Ferguson and I actually had one about a week ago, we tracted into this guy that told us that he was praying the night before for God to send him a message, so we gave him the message. It's awesome to talk to people that realize that you are representing something bigger than us. Dude Trevor I think I have found 22 investigators my whole mission, I guess I just need to pump up the faith man, good job man. I love these letters because my mom just picks a random picture that I have sent home and puts it on there so it's a surprise for my to see what you guys are going to see. I want you all to pay attention to this picture... it's very important to me.

Elder Quinn - December

hey stg whats goin on. man good newsletter last month. i actually just got it afew days ago and now we´re writin again but this is good i love it. did anybodylaugh pretty hard when they read robs comment about jumpin jacks? that was goodrob. i had to think about what you meant for a sec but then i realized. man wehad so much fun back then.well anyways not much is goin on here. me companions not the greatest anddoesn´t work too hard and since i´m still fresh i´m not too good yet at thiswhole missionary thing but we´ll see what happens. we hopefully have 3 peoplecomin up for baptism soon so thats good but other than that we just have someless actives so theres not much work right now but we´re trying. us as amission are doing great. we´ve had a goal all year to get 50 baptisms in onetransfer and haven´t done it but this transfer looks like the one. there aregoals set up everywhere its good.well sorry i don´t have much to say this month. have a good thanksgiving andchristmas wherever you are. i´m excited for our christmas conference. how doyou all do it in your missions? i´ve heard alot of good things but obviouslyhave not experienced it yet. sean greg and jordan comin up on number two thoughi bet that feels weird for you guys ha. but yeah thats all i got for now. have agood month and keep workin hard.love ren

Elder Gray - December

Hey everyone, Happy Thanksgiving to those who are in the states. We have already celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada. They celebrate it here the first part of October. Don't ask me why they just do some stuff backwards here sometimes it seems like. I am not even sure why they celebrate it being an American holiday. The good news is that we have a dinner appointment for the American Thanksgiving. It will be my first dinner appointment since coming here to Newfoundland over a month ago. The best part it is with some less-actives. The time is flying I can't believe I have almost hit my year mark. It doesn't feel like I have been out for a year. The past year has probably been one of the hardest years of my life but it has been one of the most rewarding years. I would not trade this experience for anything. Things are going good here in Newfoundland. It is probably the hardest area I have served in as far the work goes. The people of Newfoundland are convinced in following the traditions of their fathers. We have a couple of investigators with a lot of potential though. And Trevor I can't believe that you got 22 new investigators in one week. We got two last week and that was good for this area. We struggled here the week before that though to have any success. Then finally in our weekly planning session we decided that something had to change. We figured a big part of it was our attitude. It is hard to stay positive at times especially when you are out knocking all day in the rain. We decided that we would be happy doing whatever we were doing no matter the circumstances. Then Saturday it was raining again but we went out and knocked. This time we stayed positive and just had fun doing it. The contacts just started to come too. We have found out the importance of our mission focus " Attitude is Everything". As far as the Branch President stuff goes things are going good. We had Branch Conference this past Sunday. It was a cool experience to get to read all of the sustainings from the First Presidency down to the brach here. I am going to be starting tithing settlement in the next couple of weeks. I am also going to be having a temple recommend interview with a member as well. It is crazy that I am partly responsible for giving a recommend for someone to go to the temple. The whole experience as Branch President has been humbling. I can only imagine what it would be like to be over a large branch or a bishop. And Chad the Canadian winters aren't too bad. You get to a certain tempature and it all feels the same. Once you get used to it you will be fine. If you dress the right way then all that gets cold is the face. And after being outside for awhile your face kind of goes numb. My advice is wear layers. There is a lot of snow too once it starts. At least thats how it is in Atlantic Canada. I am glad though that this will be my last winter. Well I got to get going. I am loving it here in Newfoundland. I hope all of you are doing good and having success. There are people out there that are prepared to accept the gospel so find them. Good luck. - Elder Jordan Gray

Elder Pierce's Dec. Up-date

hey everyone,well i guess were supposed to wirte this week. i dont have a lot of time but ill try to put in as much as i can. im still in Norfolk and i have a new comanion named elder leonard. hes pretty cool. hes the third companion in a row that loves heavy metal. anyway the lady gladys that i told yall about last month missed this past week at church so we have to push the baptism back another week. not to fear though she will get baptized. in my mission investigators have to come to 4 sacrament meetings before they can get baptized. is that the same everywhere else. its probably not the same for you south american people. you just teach one lesson and the person gets baptized huh haha. im sure you guys have your struggles too. man i cant believe its already thanksgiving. ya know whats sweet about being in the states...TURKEY BOWL! do any of you foreigners have that? maybe you guys play soccer or something. do yall even have thanksgiving? okay well i gotta go i wish i could wirte more but A)im out of time and B)i cant think of anything right now. find teach and baptize. well happy thanksgivinglove elder pierceps BYU and Utah play this saturday and utah is undefeated crazy huh. GO BYU!!!

Elder Miguel's Dec. Up-date

Yo everyone,So im 3 for 3 its crazy. Im on my third transfer and third comp. Yeah so i left Ponta Grossa and im now in Curitiba. My comp is Elder Slack from Vegas. He has 7 older sisters so it explains a lot. He teaches break dancing every friday night. So i might start teaching guitar because it seems like people would rather learn that. We cover two wards São Lorenço and Ahú. The first day after transfers was sweet. Elder Slack and I got 20 addresses in one day from just contacts. It was cool. Almost every contact we did we got and address too. It was a good way to start in my new area. Oh yeah Ren, Kyle , Trevor six months already. Sweet. Well Feliz Natal to everyone. Everything is cool here in Brasil.Love, Elder Miguel