William's May 24th Letter

2011 May 24

Yeah, there is a little flooding, seems weird. Do you know where your water is coming from?

My week has been fun. I met some people from Spokane, they actually know where I am from, they have family up there, and one is the nephew of Benny. You know the guy who owns Bennys?  It’s cool out here though, we had a great week I finished my puzzle, picked up a few dates, went in a parade and placed over 300 pass-along cards! That’s over 300 contacts! It was awesome!! Oh yeah let Mariah know that ocarina is being re done. I am not positive on this as I am on my mission and its second hand information. We go on splits as often as possible. We try for 6 a week. Yeah I take pictures on p day and baptisms. We are having good success here but not.

Sorry left some stuff out, any way it’s not all fun and games, there are some setbacks, like people back out. Apart from that it’s cool. I mean our entire zone contacted one guy! sweeet! We gave him a blessing and made his day

William's May 17th Letter

2011 May 17
Senior projects are do?? I’ve been gone that long? Wow, tell them to tell me what they did!
Anyway this last week I had a crazy experience:’ “ ex" wanted to say Book of Mormon had no evidence of existence and that we believe Jesus was born in the city of Jerusalem. My split got heated and the spirit went right out the door, not literally obviously. But we got some new investigators who tried to convert us to the born-again Christians, basically they said we believe as you do but we don't think your right. More complex but nice. We had the last new member lesson with Austin. Now it's p day, yeah.

William's May 10th Letter

2011 May 10

My week has been great. Sunday was very free, every one cancelled correlation meeting, but we picked up some one to teach.  We went on splits early on Saturday and just tracted Smithfield, met some interesting people and got commitments to invite. And then we got some info on some potential investigators. Friday we did weekly planning and then had some appointments.  We went and some were not there and we couldn’t do what we wanted to, I think we went to teach someone new but I can't remember. But we got to teach one of our investigators who we couldn't get a hold of for a week, and then we split and taught separate lessons. But it was good I was going with a priest he seemed nervous but he drove us around, we went through our list fast cause no one was home. So we had lots of time left over. And so we just dug for referrals then went to lessons. Thursday we had a sick elder and all but one lesson fell through. Wednesday we had DM and went to Smithfield to Jeff’s lesson he took a long time, we missed dinner cause we had to rush to our next lesson, then we split and followed up with some RCs. yesterday was zone conference, last of the transfer, so we all said a good by just in case. Then we came back cleaned a little and did our comp study and then went to our lessons I taught. My comp is DL.

We have p day on Tuesday cause most of the temples in our mission are closed on Monday for FHE. I forgot my USB so I can't send pictures NOOOO!

William's May 3rd Letter

2011 May 3

My week's been pretty awesome so far. It was cool; we got some stuffed animals for some families we teach.  We met people from Frankfurt and someone who served in Frankfurt, which is cool! We have as Pepperidge Farm factory and a caspers factory too! We went to the bulk shop and got some Tim tams and a cloud nine... I ate cloud nine. On Wednesday we went to the firehouse( a pizza place) Our MP was buying, I got some red cream soda, which tastes like liquid red vines, drinks are free if you buy pizza on Wednesdays. So we’re eating and a lady gave the mission president a 20 dollar bill and said he should use it because she had a son on a mission and wanted us to be well cared for. He said to us he would use it as the tip. Then the waitress came, asked if we wanted anything else... and told President someone had already picked up the check. OH his face was hilarious!! So we finished and he just threw the 20 on the pizza pan as the tip. He’s great. Thursday was busy; we see lots of pelicans down here. I got to ride in a 2009 Camaro!!We went 100 miles an hour for about 30 seconds but it was still cool!  Kendra’s got so big so fast it’s only been a 2 months since I saw her last! She has grown so much! Love the area here, I’ve gone on exchanges so many times with the DL comp, he’s cool. He is from Texas.  We met a girl from there and his accent came right back! he he he. Friday was cool; we’ve had a person cancel on us 4 times in a row!!! and we lost 4 dates in 3 days, Oh my GEE (my mtc expression) me  and my com[ get frustrated over it but I guess will just have to get them back. Hay does Annette have Moser relatives in Utah? There are some here and I just wondered if there is a relation. We’re teaching a few Indians, it’s cool, and a born again Christian. Elder Barney found a clone doll he thought was super old, he knows about these things (yardsaler) and totally trussed that theory. But it’s still pretty cool, high quality porcelain face hands and feet! I’ve seen a fox. I don't remember if I told you but it was awesome! I missed the picture though. Thanks for the pics I’ll send you some. Saturday we had a great day slow but fun none the less, working on my puzzle its coming along!! Sunday we went to sacrament meeting with an investigator who’s going to get baptized this month by her husband, its weird she’s my same age..... but hay teach all. AUSTIN GOT BAPTISED!!!! Yeah, now we just need to convert his mom and get his dad back into the church. The latter is just going to take time the former probably going to be obscenely difficult. We got some slumgalion it’s a fruit cake type thing or more a cobbler. Here’s something funny, Brian Reagan joke on you to" it was great we were leaving a lesson and are fellowshipper was with us, the investigator said “drive safe!” and he said “You too”. It was so hard not to laugh! This place is awesome!

William's April 19th Letter

2011 April 19

The baptism was great, I was kinda just there cause I didn’t teach the kid but I get 3 on the 30^th

My schedule is usually tight, we find or try to find investigators, and then we teach. We mostly teach less actives. On p-day we go to wallyworld and buy supplies, and then if we have time, we find stuff to do, but it ends at 6 and we go back to teaching. We’re teaching Tracy, Austin, the Houslys, Adrian, the Cinlys, and Jeff. These were all found by referrals, two were here when I got here, and the Ciniys are inactive, but nice people

William's April 12th Letter

2011 April 12

My week has been fine. Tuesday I went on splits, it was fun. Wednesday, I don't remember exactly, I got behind in my journal, so next time I'll transcribe it to you. But we had fun teaching; we're teaching a boy named Austin; he is 9 and super excited! My first baptism is on Saturday, I poached it from someone else so I don't know him very well, I have 3 more this month, and one next month. Sweet! Elder Barney is like Travis, And Travis will understand why, just in some of his interactive humor. I went and saw the grave of Martin Harris it was nice, not what I expected it was just an obelisk, I was more impressed with the hand carved book on another grave marker. I’ve met some new potential investigators; they’re all nice about it. I want some of grandma’s apples. The ones here aren’t the same at all. But yeah I’ve been teaching someone famous!! Well not really, but this family after a fashion has a little boy who  was in a commercial for the foundation for a better life, Cement Commercial, the little boy walking in the cement! I'm Teaching HIM!!! It’s super awesome, I had fun on splits Friday, we first went to dinner then we hooked up with some kids to go with, I’ll tell you more next time because I need my journal to do a good job on that day. Sunday was super busy. We woke up early and went to meetings; it was hard to stay awake! I'll get used to it soon though. I love it out here. It’s a little different, no trees and wider valleys but it’s the same otherwise, they have root beer milk... its actually pretty good. Oh and apple beer, it’s like spiked cider, but with a lot less flavor, but it’s pretty good. There is a lady who works leather and she shines our shoes to look professional, in about 30 seconds each shoe. To your seminary class I say the big thing is, Teach the Gospel and if Necessary open your mouth! That’s the best and it helps the elders out a lot. When people are active, really active not sort of active the work is the best.

William's April 5th Letter

This is a translation of William’s letter 4/5/2011

 I didn’t have time to write last p day so today is the day; my senior comp name is Elder Barney. He is nice, he is a good teacher, and he likes some of the same things I do.

My first week's been great. First day they took us tracting in some random place in Ogden. On the first door I knocked on, they people said, through the door,  “come in”, so we did( I wanted to knock because they were listening to Dark Night True Light which is a really good song, it’s Japanese) any way we came into to the apartment and this fat chick and was hanging out  in all over the place, a skinny girl and a crazy dude were standing in front of the glass door, they were like “We've been baptized”, the skinny girl had been baptized, the fat chick was baptized but then we asked them their religion and she said well, “It’s weikien, and the sapnyard” (yes I me that literally) I asked “What is that?” She said “its witchcraft”, and the crazy dude said some crap about ducks. Then the conversation progressed and they asked the crazy guy a question, and he was talking about God but his words were crazy insane.   And I quote to the best of my obscene ability, "Man, all these people don't believe in God, but they believe in plastic phones and lead bullets. I mean you can sit and punch a phone and ask it for a ride but no matter how hard you punch, that ride’s not coming. You can’t pray to a phone, I know I tried, you try, take a bat and beat a pay phone, see if you can break it."  Then we walked outside and found out the fat chick was pregnant, she ran back inside the skinny dude says he used to want to be a deacon but, when I shook his hand, I saw fresh injection scars, or maybe it was a scratch from the cat, but it  looked too deep to me.  He seemed sorry but not real sorry.

Later, we tracted into nice members, one was inactive, she felt very bad about it, she lived above the witches.  As it turns out this family has had a tradition of young pregnancies, Grandma 9, Mom 12, sister 10 and the other sister some other time. (This was from the Elder as we were walking back.) When he was teaching a family there he challenged them and they tried to curse him, but it didn't work, he said “It's not nice.”  So later we went back to the Mission Home and had to dinner, it was very good pasta, Oh yeah, before all this what not, I met elder Clark, (the mistaken letter guy) yeah, he really needed the stuff we sent him, he kept the manila envelope too.  It's funny, we told the Mission President, and he just said, “I’m sorry.” Then we went down stairs, and had training.  The Zone Leader bore a testimony about losing a right arm as trial, jokingly, but there was lady in the congregation that had lost her arm, so the Mission president’s wife brought it up, then we all laughed for a while.  We went to bed; I got to sleep on a memory foam mattress, everyone else slept on a navy bunk.  In the morning we had waffles for breakfast. We then went to the mission office; I can get my driver’s license here. President says it is OK. We were then assigned a new companion. I got some ties too, they were sweet! Then we took the drive up here, to Richmond Utah, above Logan in Cache Valley.  It’s been fun.  We ran into some less actives tracting and we made some appointments with them, their difficulty is that they are smokers, He’s dying from it, when we went back yesterday he had bled all over the kitchen.  Nasty!  Then I went and met Tracy!! This dude is covered in tats but is super smart when it comes to the bible, but he needs to read the Book of Mormon. He has two daughters, was  a skin-head, in a couple of days he is going to court to save his life, he got in an accident on his bullet bike a few years back, destroyed his left side and has only recently been able to walk.  He has good heart, he cried a little during conference when we watched on his High Definition TV (bigger then Jordan’s TV). We met a few elders in the district, sorry I didn’t bring my journal or I’d have had more to write.  Oh yeah, this is just a small thing but I think you may find it somewhat important to heighten your sense of exited surprise after the manner of surprised excitement that it is so , or getting to the point then, I GOT TO GO TO GENERAL CONFERENCE IN THE CONFERENCE CENTER ON SUNDAY!  I sat in the last section on the far right, near the back I smiled at the camera but I don't know if it was on. We brought an investigator.  She was flipping out when we saw some protestor’s gay flag flying behind a car, with comic say some craziness that confused the heck out of me cause I didn’t know what the words meant, and all of them just stood there holding their sign so it was a peaceful display, I almost got on Utah news, but I did not. Maybe I should buy a recording device and fill up an SD card about 2 gigs with my voice that you could listen!! Might make more sense, or maybe not.  I met a guy that is into motorcycles and is less active a part family.  He is cool.  

Get the message from conference Return Missionaries?  I was sighing; phew … I just got out here.

I miss Elder Schwartzberg.

This library is super small. I met some of our investigators yesterday, they were nice but they are not married.  They are working on it, but they aren’t yet.  And well they are less active i guess?  I don't understand the whole bit.  I need to send some written letters.  Oh yeah, the mission office address has changed!

It is now.

4380 S. ORCHARD AVE.

S. Ogden, UT, 84403.

Write more next week bye!

(If you want a copy of the original, just let me know)