18th week in Spokane

Well this weeks letter is going to be short, not a whole lot happened this past week, I was sick for about five days or so, it was kinda lame, but we still were able to get out and see some people. We tracted into a lady who was baptized but not confirmed a few years ago and so we are going to start teaching her so that's pretty exciting. Also we found out that a guy in the ward, his friend from work wants to take the lessons and get baptized, so we are excited about that! This week was the first time going to the new ward and I like it a lot, everyone is very friendly and the bishop is very missionary minded. I was very impressed with him and all that he is doing. I am excited to work with him and with this ward, but at the same time I'm excited and anxious to get to Mongolia, but still no word on that, but that's all for this week! love you!

17th week in Spokane

Well I'm now in my new area, the glen-rose ward in the Spokane stake! Things have been going pretty good so far, my new companions are elder Itgel and elder Allred, elder Itgel is from Mongolia so he has been helping me with the language, elder Allred is from Ogden Utah and we were in the MTC together so that's cool. So Mongolian is a very throat language and so because of it my throat is WAY sore and I'm kinda horse, it happened to me in the MTC too when I started speaking a lot of Mongolian. Elder Itgel said that his tongue got way sore in the MTC because English is way more of a tongue language, I think that's pretty interesting, I never thought about that being an issue but apparently it is! So im hopin it will get better pretty quick! Well we'll probably have at least one more baptism before I take off for Mongolia, we have one guy named Ti and he's real close, we asked him yesterday to pray if he should be baptized on Jan. 30th, so we are hoping that he will go through with it, we'll find out this week when we go see him again. There's also another lady that is on date to be baptized, named Snaedis, she's really solid and she's getting baptized Feb. 14th, but im hoping that I'll be in Mongolia by then, but if not, it will be alright because I'll be able to see her baptized. We had a cool experience yesterday, we went to see this guy named J.R. he used to be a big time gang member but has gotten out, anyways, we walked up to his house and he was outside talking to his brother, who is still a gang member, well his brother saw us coming so he went inside. We started talking to J.R. and said that he's not really believing in God anymore. So we started testifying to him about how God will give us tests that we need to get through, and its always possible to get through if we put our trust in Him. He agreed and elder Itgel shared a scripture about God's love and we continued to testify to him about God and the Book of Mormon, it was way cool cuz by the end he said he'd read from the Book of Mormon and start praying again, then he told us that he believes that God sent us to him because he didn't wanna live any more and he was talking to his brother about committing suicide when we walked up. He asked us why God lied when he said that He wouldn't put more on our shoulders then we are able to bear and yet there are people everyday that commit suicide because they had too much to bear. So we told him that the key is that we have to turn toward God and if we could look back in time in those people's lives we would find opportunities that God provided them to get out of their rut, we told him that that's what God is doing right now for him, God provided a way out through us as missionaries, He sent us to him to help him because He loves us each individually and knows each of us individually, we said a prayer with him and he was very grateful that we had stopped by. So that was a pretty neat experience! well, I like my new area, I like my new companions, but I hope it doesn't last too long and that I can head to where I was originally called!

16th week in Spokane

Hey! Jessie's baptism on Saturday was awesome!! It was a good ending to the area. Well tomorrow I get transferred to be with elder Itgel, it will be good to freshin up on the language, but I'm hopin it wont last too long and I'll be headed to Mongolia real quick! So some other big news is this past week on the 8th was my 6 month mark!! That's right, I have officially been out longer then six months! So to celebrate we went over to brother Schlerf's house and we burned two shirts and a pair of pants, don't worry Mom, they were all clothes left behind from past missionaries! But that was pretty fun, bro. schlerf is crazy and keeps things exciting, I'm gonna miss that guy! One story that I forgot to mention with him is about two weeks ago we were wrestling on his front lawn when he decided to hip toss me.. I figured he was gonna throw me down easy, so I didn't fight it too bad, well I was wrong! He decided to slam me down with his body! So now we are both paying for it with cracked ribs! Haha good times with brother schlerf! We've had a lot of good times in this area and I'm going to miss it, especially with the Davis'.. sister davis was like our mom out here, even though shes only like ten years older then us, she always took care of us, wether it was food or haircuts or whatever it may be, and lets not forget the italian sodas!!! and bro davis is just like our big brother and their kids are a riot, harmony is my little 18 month old girlfriend!! the Charbenaus are great too, super funny family! cant forget the dexters! bro dexter is hillarious and always good for a laugh and william is awesome too and sarah is alright i guess.. just kidding sarah youre cool too! im gonna miss family home evening over there! and of course the Olsons, who we live with, bro olson is the nicest man ive ever met and his wife can talk for hours and good ol matt is just hillarious! hopefully I'll be able to stay in touch with everyone! well im gonna miss the area but the Lord needs me else where.. I love you all and thanks for your support and prayers!

15th week in Spokane

Alright so I just realized that I haven't even announced this yet, but on Christmas day, during my phone call home, I found out that my visa finally came through!! I hopefully only have a couple more weeks left before I head out! Also in talking with my mission president, on transfers on the 12th I am going to get transferred to go be with the elder from Mongolia, elder itgel, until I leave, so that will be a huge blessing so that I can freshen up on the language! Well this past week was really good! We went to our newly baptized friends, triston and Cheryl and they are so awesome! Triston just loves learning about Jesus Christ and always gets so excited when ever we come over! Cheryl has taken her baptism very seriously and very literally where nothing before her baptism matters because she has had a fresh start because through her being baptized she was washed clean from all of her past sins and transgressions, so it has really been a blessing to see that in her life! I told you last week about Jessie and how she came to the baptism, well we went over to her house and we talked about baptism and she agreed to prepare to be baptized on January 9th! She is very prepared and loves learning everything about the gospel and is just soaking it up! She said that sleep has just become a burden because she just wants to stay up all night reading from the book of Mormon! She is really excited to get baptized and Satan has already begun to try to stop her from it, but she is strong and stands her ground! I love being able to see the way that the gospel touches and changes people's lives!