Email Letter - March 26, 2012

First off thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! You're all great! This week was great. We did quite a bit and ran into some very interesting people. I think we ran into someone from just about every race, religion and denomination that's available in Roseville while we tracted and talked to people. We had a guy tell us that we could murder or commit adultery and still live in Christ's presence as long as we accepted Him and  that was it. That case, with many others, made me really see why missionary work is so important. Not to degrade any of these great people but they're absolutely wrong and need to hear the Truth and His message. Sadly most of them won't.
We're doing well with the people we're teaching. We're getting ready to hand off Maria and her daughter to some other missionaries. We found out she doesn't live in our area so she isn't within our stewardship. It's a bummer but it's the right thing to do, and needs to be done. We're still searching and trying to find those "seekers of truth" as Elder Maynes put it a few weeks ago.
Transfer calls came in last night. I'm staying and my new comp is Elder Warren, a missionary that came out the same time Elder Thueson did. From what I understand he's a hard worker and is in the good habits of working hard from his last area. It'll be good. I'm excited to have him. He's from Idaho, so I'm on a no Utah companion streak of 4. Not one from the home front. It's kind of different from most missionary's experiences I think. No big deal, I love them all anyway. Besides, if the Utah vs Idaho conversation comes up again, all I need to say is Idaho touches Canada.
Love you all, take care, and have a great week!

Email Letter - March 19, 2012

Hey there everybody! This week was a good week. It rained a whole lot which made me happy. I started riding my bike really really fast through the puddles like I did when I was younger and it was so exciting!
In other news, we have transfers next week, on the 27th and things are looking like Elder Vergara will be leaving. And the big joke is that Elder Roley my mtc comp that lives in the same apartment and myself with be training, and we're going to train two that were comps in the mtc as well. But you never know, it could happen. Probably won't though. Mostly I'm just excited for some change. It'll be good to have a new comp and get the work going again.
Things are going well with our current 'gators. Just doing our thing and helping them progress towards baptism and the such. We're always looking to add to the teaching pool too though. We knocked about 200 doors this week. We had a pretty good ratio of people inviting us back too! 1! That's one more door than the last 200 doors so we're pretty excited for that as well. Things are looking good!
Again another short letter. Things were pretty monotonous this week so there isn't anything very exciting to say. But take care, I love you all!

Email Letter - March 12, 2012

Hey everyone. We had a much better week this last week. Sorry about my lack of writing last week as there wasn't much to say. But this week we had a nice treat that I didn't mention anything about last week. We were very privileged to hear from Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Richard J. Maynes this last week in a bi-mission conference. Us and Sacramento Mission. It was really cool to be in the presence of an Apostle of the Lord. We talked about a lot of different things, about how to work better with members, and how to better share the Gospel, things like that. One thing that sticks out to me is the comment that was made by Elder Perry saying that we're where we are because this is where we're the most effective. Mission, zone, area, companionship. That was something that was really emphasized. At least to me. Another thing that was emphasized was keeping our temple covenants and also "The Rescue" which is the Church's big thing right now under President Monson. Needless to say there was a  lot of very good discussion and it was very well enjoyed.
We had an amazing lesson yesterday. While we were at church we get this text from a member saying something along the lines of "Elders call me as soon as you can, I have someone for you to teach." This member and her family are converts of a few years and one of their good friends had some stuff happen that made her, and her daughter, super prepared. It's interesting how that sometimes it takes an event to happen to prepare someone for the Gospel, kind of like the Zoramites that were 'compelled to be humble'. This was one of the best lessons I've been a part of and the spirit was super strong. We're meeting with them again on Wednesday and planning on committing them to baptism then as well.
We had a good lesson with our other investigators as well, Kristian and Vitta. Vitta told us the reasons she wasn't baptized the last time she met with missionaries up in Chico, and we feel we can settle her concerns. She feels that us calling out to her husband before we could even really see him and striking up a random conversation is a sign from God that she needs to join the church. Which it is, and she needs to do.
Anyway family, I love you guys. Take care! Have a wonderful week!
-Sean

Email Letter - March 5, 2012

Hey everyone. This week was tough, probably the hardest so far. Even the earth itself seems like it wants us to fail. The wind has been awful and it's always at our head, adding on average about 10 minutes of travel time to any given destination, then when we get there people are too busy to keep appointments. In order to keep our spirits up we've been telling jokes, but we've both run out of jokes. Anybody have any good ones?
As for the work, every single appointment dropped or fell through. Enough said. I really don't have much to talk about today guys. This week was long and hard and I'd rather not look like a whiner and complain about it all. Just know I feel your prayers. we're setting some personal and companionship goals to help not have another week like this and we feel like it'll never happen again.
Love you all, take good care.