Email Letter - July 30, 2012

Another week in The beautiful trinity county. We have a change up though, Elder Bennion is being transferred away. Sad news, but that's how mission life works! My new comp will be Elder Jackson, coming from Chico. He's been out about 3 months now, and was trained by my good buddy Elder Fullenwider from the MTC. It'll be a whole lot of fun, hopefully he'll be able to put up with and be patient with my silliness. In any case, it'll be a good start to a new transfer.
This week not too much happened. We have half of the people we're working with either out of town or confined to bed due to recent surgery. So we didn't meet too much with them. We knocked a lot of doors and have a few people to go back and see but that's about it. Sad news is that if that keeps up then President Weston will take us out at the next transfer. There'll be nothing to do between appointments if we've literally talked to everyone in town. Especially in a town that is very anti and does not accept us at all. Not just us the missionaries but us as in the whole church. That's just how it is here. A whole lot of prejudice. But we work through it and do our thing and they can't stop us.
Sorry there isn't much to report this week other than the change, but it was not a monumental week by any means. Hope all is well with you all, take care and have a wonderful week!

Email letter - July 24, 2012

Hey all sorry I'm a day late. The library computers are down and we had to wait to get permission to use a member's house. All is well though.
This week was another good one. No complaints here. We're working hard and doing well. This last week we found another person to teach in Hayfork. Everything to do with this investigator is an adventure. The members that found her for us used to own two companies in Vegas, but sold it all so they could travel in an RV and go and do whatever they please. Where she lives is an adventure to get there. She lives about 10 miles outside of Hayfork, about a third of the way to Hyampom, in the mountain country famous for people wanting to get away and "farm". To actually get to her house, after you get off the paved road, you still have 3 miles to go, through a creek, around a "farm" and another miles strait uphill. Sounds like a blast eh? I sure think so. I'm just glad our little car was able to make it. I think we'll film the way out to her place and use it to convince the senior missionary over cars to give us a truck!
In other news, just one of our frustrations this last week was our Branch President moving the baptismal date of the investigator we've been working hard with out in Hayfork, without talking to us about it first, so his wife could be there. I'm not too big on moving dates back, not that I'm worried about this particular investigator, but it just gives a bit more time for the adversary to work on him. Plus, our investigator was heart broken, but went with it anyway because he is a very good guy. He wanted to join the 27 club, by having his old life end on the 27th. But in stead it'll happen on the 10th of next month. There's a transfer between now and then so we hope that both Elder Bennion and I are still around for it. There's equal chance for either of us to go, if either of us do. We'll see how it goes I guess.
This last week between the 2 areas we had 2 investigators and 4 Less-Actives at church, which is fantastic. We're happy to see them all progress. It makes us happy to see others let themselves become happier by following the Lord's commandments.
Other than that there isn't too much going on. Just the usual with the same people, doing the same thing. At least we know repetition is the Lord's way to teach right? Right! Have a great week everyone I love you all!

Email Letter - July 16, 2012

Hey one and hey all. This week was another good week. We spent a lot of time in good ol' Hayfork. Doing as much good as we can there. There is still a lot of Anti in the smaller towns like that which is sad but we're doing our best to dispel the hate. One of the cooler things I've experienced on the mission happened in church on Sunday. The third hour was a presentation on evidences of the Book of Mormon given by Scott Gordon, the president of FAIR (Foundation for Apologetics and Institutional Research) which is an organization that is meant to combat Anti-Mormon junk. That was a pretty cool presentation and we had a few non-members show up. It was in the county paper which was pretty cool as well. A not so exciting thing that happened in Hayfork this week was when we knocked on an investigator's door she answered and said "Hey guys I just finished smoking some pot, come on in." That's Trinity County for you. The thing is we're teaching more people in Hayfork than we are Weaverville. So we're spending more and more time there, which is rough. It's a really different area because we've been told that we are not allowed to tract or anything like that. Which makes for some dead time between appointments where all we can really do is go back to the house, and study, or practice teach or something along those lines. It's tough but we do what we can.
That's all for this week everyone. Except for the fires. We're starting our fire season as well. There's one in Igo which is just south of Redding and one in our area near Del Loma which is west of Weaverville in the canyon towards the coast. Aside from that all is well and safely in. Love you guys!

Sunset after the fire...

Email Letter - July 9, 2012

Greetings fellow human beings! It's a great day here in California, supposed to reach about 100 degrees today and such is the life! This last Saturday while we were in redding for the baptism of Hunter and Kenzie, we were leaving around 5pm and it was 105 according to the high school's marquee. FLAMIN'! I'm so glad I'm not on a bike in Redding right now, especially since it's going to get hotter this week. At least it isn't humid right?
Oh yeah, back to the baptism, it was really great. Elder Bennion did the baptisms and really enjoyed getting wet. We filled the font just a little higher just for him. One thing that was really cool and special, was their aunt had a recording of their grandpa, who died a few years ago, and what he wanted all of his posterity to know. Specifically about the church and being happy. It was really special, almost everyone there knew or was related to the man, and just about all of them had tears in their eyes. Who knows what kind of impact that had on those of them that are less-active or whatever, but there has been another seed planted.
On Sunday I confirmed the kids and that was really special to be able to do that. It was very cool to have the opportunity to have the spirit speak specifics through me for them. Such an awesome feeling.
Things are also going really well with John our other investigator in Weaverville, we had a really spirit led lesson with him about the Restoration yesterday and we think that he knows the Church is true, it's just a matter of time before he agrees to be baptized. We're excited for him, and so is his wife who is a member. We all felt the spirit in that lesson and really enjoyed it.
Things in Hayfork are also going really well, the baptismal date we had was moved back to the 27th but we're not complaining, it's going to work out really well. We also found another person to teach and we would have set a date with her if we were better prepared. We went into the lesson expecting something completely different than what came out of it, and we plan on setting a date when we meet with her this weekend.
It's great how things are going. We're working hard and receiving the benefits of it. Plus we're getting along really well which makes a huge difference. Especially since we spend close to 3 or so hours at least in the care each day. It has been a lot of fun!
Anyway, not much else to report this week. Except we had a guy try to rip down the flag pole at the soup kitchen we volunteer at each week. That was an event. Anyway, love you guys! Have a joy filled week!

Email Letter - July 2, 2012

Hey there everyone! We had another good week this week and have been enjoying the work up here in the rolling hills of trinity county. This week we were able to pick up a new person to teach in Hayfork AND set a baptismal date with him! Granted, he's been going to church for almost a year now and has finally decided to be baptized. So teaching will be really quick because most of it will be review and basically just a check to make sure all is well. He's excited to be baptized on the 21st of July! We also have a baptism coming up this weekend, which is exciting! The niece and nephew of our Relief Society president are getting baptized and are really excited for it as well. They're super fun and really just some good kids. Elder Bennion is also excited to get into water that is more than ankle deep. Other than that there isn't too much to report, we just keep trucking' is all. I love you guys and I'll see you in a year!