November 26, 2012

Hey everybody!!
   Greetings and happy Thanksgiving from Manchester, Iowa! I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the spirit of giving thanks. There are so many things that we all should be thankful for. My companion and I had a great day. We were invited to go to four different dinners! Needless to say, we were both stuffed by the end of the night. The members here are wonderful. They treat us just like family.
   Elder Harris and I are working with a lot of investigators and are teaching a lot of lessons. Last Tuesday, we had the opportunity as a mission to have Elder Don. R. Clarke of the Seventy come and give us counsel and training. If was pretty amazing. He gave us all such wonderful advice for our missions and life. He is a wonderful man!
   So something that our mission has been stressing lately is teaching people the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine consists of five principles: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. This is the most exciting thing to teach people because the Spirit is so strong when we do teach it. One of my favorite things to teach involves a step in repentance. It is probably the most important one as well. It is the step of acknowledging the Savior. The most important part of repentance is the realization that forgiveness comes because of Jesus Christ. Sometimes you may have felt that God will not forgive sins, but the Savior suffered for our sins so they can be put behind us, even the comfort to all of us that the Savior did suffer for our sins! He did this because he loves each and every one of us so much. And the healing power of the Atonement can make all of us clean from our sins and mistakes. I am so grateful for this doctrine, and the ability that I have to repent every day. I know that as we repent, we can be forgiven!
   Well I hope that everybody has a great week!
Love,
Elder Elder

Decorating for Christmas

Hiking on P-Day

Thanksgiving pictures from the Hales family

Christmas from the Hales Family

November 12, 2012

Hello Everybody!

     Well today marks exactly two months since I entered the MTC, so in missionary language that makes me 2. Ha. This week was a great week though. We were able to meet lots of people, give out lots of Book of Mormons, and even set another date for baptism. As we were heading to a less-active member's home, we met this guy on his porch. So we stopped and talked with him for a good half hour. We tried offering him a Book of Mormon, and the restoration DVD but he wouldn't take it. So we left him with a prayer and went to our appointment late. That was two weeks ago. So when we were in the area, we decided to stop by and say hi. When we knocked on his door, he opened it and invited us in. We talked with him for quite some time, and shared passages out of the Book of Mormon. After we did this we invited Archey Thomas to be baptized on Dec. 22. After we asked him that he just started to cry. He said this, "you guys have known me an hour my whole life, and you want me to be baptized." It was so powerful. The Spirit was way strong. We haven't seen him since, but plan to go and teach him tomorrow. Elder Harris and I can't wait. Archey is very ready to hear our message.

     I am so grateful for this Gospel, and the happiness that it does bring. I love having this responsiblity and opportunity to share it with others. I know that it is a true message. I know that through faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, that we can make it back to live with our Father in Heaven. I love what Nephi tells us in 2 Nephi 31:19-20, "19: And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this straight and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. 20: Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward feasting upon the word of Christ, and enduring to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." Isn't that so powerful?! If we do these things, we are promised eternal life. I don't know about all of you, but that is something I want to have! And I know that it is through Jesus Christ's doctrine that we do so.

Love,

Elder Elder

Cleaning out gutters

Triple decker peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bananas and oatmeal...

Cleaning and organizing the apartment

November 5, 2012

Hello everybody,
   Wow, every week I just can't believe how fast the days go by. It seems like I just sat down to email. Time sure flies when you are having a good time I guess!
   Well, I am doing great here in Manchester. We are teaching lots of lessons and meeting lots of people. This past week has been a little tougher though. We have been doing a lot of finding, and haven't seen too much success. A lot of people just tell us they are not interested and slam their doors. This one lady opened the door, saw it was us and slammed it before we even got two words in! Ha. This kind of thing has been happening all week. We don't get discouraged though, because we did our part and invited them to listen. If the people aren't prepared to listen to us, then we are wasting our time talking to them.
   I don't have too much to say this week, but I did want to share a quote with you all that was said during our stake conference yesterday. The stake president gave a wonderful talk about Jesus Christ and the Atonement. My favorite thing that he said was, "Only PRIDE will lock us out of the Atonement." How true is that! That hit me so hard. No matter how good we are, every single one of us falls short of salvation. We all have to use the Atonement in our lives so that we can return and live with our Father in Heaven. That isn't possible unless we humble ourselves and repent of our mistakes. The way back is right in front of us. The Savior has paid the price for every single one of us to be made clean. I am so grateful for the Kingdom of God! I love all of you and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Elder

Halloween!

The Bristow family

Doing dishes and messing around

Typical meal of Jason's

October 29, 2012

Hey everybody,
   Well, I hope everything is going well, and that everybody had a wonderful week. I sure know that I had a great week. We were able to find four more investigators. We hope that this coming week we will have dates set for all of them to be baptized.
   Rick and Heather Bristow are the first ones. They had a baptismal date for Nov. 2, but because of some technicalities it is being pushed back for a month or two, but they are so solid. They love having us over to teach them.
   Mary Ann is the nest. She is a wonderful lady and is of the Catholic faith. She had a baptismal date for last Saturday but she is struggling with her testimony of the Book of Mormon. She believes it, but only in her head, and not her heart. But she is an amazing lady.
   Dave Hickson is a single guy who is older, but he has a baptismal date for Dec. 22. He came to church yesterday and loved it! He even answered questions in Elders Quorum. It is so awesome to see his knowledge and interest grow.
   Nichole and John Zewel are very humble farmers that are just amazing people. They have a strong belief in the Catholic faith, but they still listened to our message. When we were talking about the Book of Mormon with them, Nichole was saying how amazing it was. She was saying that it made so much sense that the Savior would also come to the Americas. She really enjoyed the Book of Mormon. We set up another appointment to meet with them on Saturday!! So wish us luck! They said that they were going to pray and ask their Heavenly Father if it was all true! I know that if they do that, they will get their answer. The Lord has really prepared these two to receive the restored Gospel.
   Libby and Dylan are the last ones that we have. They are both single adults that live here in Manchester. Libby has two kids and is very strong in the Catholic faith. Both have had one lesson and want us to come back and teach them more. So we are excited for them. We need to set up baptismal dates with them now!!
   Well it's getting pretty cold here in Iowa!! I might freeze while I'm here! Every time Elder Harris and I go out, I put on like as much clothes as I possible can. I normally wear my white shirt, a sweater vest, my suit coat, my wool coat, and then the wind breaker that goes over it! I stay pretty warm after that. It's only the beginning, and people here say that this is warm!!!! They say that it is going to get much colder! Every time I hear that I cry a little bit inside! I already put on all of my clothes to stay warm. I am going to have to buy some kind of battery powered heated suit!!! haha
   Yesterday was fast Sunday for us here in Manchester, because of stake conference. We heard some pretty powerful testimonies. The second counselor, Brother Bockensted bore his testimony about knowing who he is, and not being ashamed of it. He is so right. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This church is the exact same church that Jesus started in times of old and we shouldn't be afraid to share it with our friends, neighbors and colleagues. We should be so excited to share the truth with our brothers and sisters. Nothing is more important than this Gospel.
   Hope all is well and I love you all!
Love,
Elder Elder

What?

These two have too much fun!

October 22, 2012

Hey everybody,
   Another great couple of weeks here in Manchester, Iowa. I sure do love this place. The members here are so excited and involved in the missionary work. We try and meet with a member once a day to share a message with them to help them get excited about missionary work and to get some good food..... But the first reason is the important one! ;) Anyway, the weather out here is crazy. I can't believe how much it rains. It has rained for about a week straight now on and off. At this moment there is quite a bit of thunder and lightning, it's crazy!
   Well, the work here is going great. We have four investigators with baptismal dates and a couple potential investigators who we are trying to teach. It is truly amazing to see the blessings in their lives. They both have had pretty troubled pasts. When we taught them that through repentance and baptism they can be made clean, they were so excited. As they put their faith in our Savior, they will be so much happier and filled with peace. I sure do love this Gospel and the happiness it can bring to people.
   There is nothing better than helping out my brothers and sisters find the straight and narrow path. I never thought I could have loved these people so much. But as I think of them as truly my brothers and sisters of God, it's so much easier.
   I hope everybody is doing great. Always remember our Savior, because it is only through Him and the atonement that we can make it back to our Heavenly Father.

Love always,
Elder Elder

Elder Wright, MTC companion

Typical boys

Elder Harris & Elder Elder

Um...

October 15, 2012

Excerpts from some letters:

Hey,
   Well, it's good to hear you are doing well. I bet that bike ride was hard! That's a long way. Speaking of exercise, me and my companion get up every morning at 5:45 and run around 3 miles and then work out at the apartment. I'm so glad that I have a companion who likes to work out. I don't know what I'm going to do when we get transferred, and my new companion is lazy. So hopefully that never happens.
   Wow! Can you believe it's already been a month? Time seems like it is flying. Before you know it, I'm gonna be walking off the plane. My companion who is training me goes home in December. After he goes home, he said that I might get to train!!! I don't know about that. Ha. The thought of training someone scares me. Good thing I have two months to learn everything I can from him.
   I can tell you right now, I love teaching. Even though we are teaching different materials, it's still teaching nontheless. Except to tell you the truth, I'm not really doing the teaching. The Spirit is the teacher out here.
   So Iowa is pretty great. It rains a lot though and apparently it snows a ton here! It makes me sad that I don't get to play in it and go snowboarding though. There is a tiny branch here, but the members are great. I have been fed just about every night so far. The investigators we are teaching are doing great! It is amazing what the Spirit can teach these people. It is so cool to see people give up habits, and make and keep commitments. It's awesome to see their faith, because most of the time it is pretty strong. This one guy gave up coffee cold turkey when we talked about the word of wisdom. He and his wife are getting baptized on Nov. 3. They are so solid, a great family. I can't wait until November. And just the other day another investigator commited to baptism. So that makes a count of 4 baptisms lined up! It's exciting.
   I sure wish that the new mission age would have been applied last year! I wouldn't had so long to waste. Ha, but I guess I am still glad that I got to go to school though. Anyway, hope you have a great weeks and don't forget to pray!! Love you!
Love,
Elder Elder

It sounds like he is doing really well and loving Iowa.

New Missionaries

Elder Elder and Mission President and his wife

October 8, 2012

It's been awhile but he is happy and loving Iowa.

Hey everybody,

     Well i'm finally here! I am serving in the Manchester, Iowa area! A tiny town in the middle of no where... Just how I like it. We do have  a walmart, so I guess it's not as small as Tridell, but close enough. My trainer is Elder Harris. He is from Las Vegas, NV, and is a stud of a missionary. He has taught me so much since I arrived. I'm actually his last companion, because his time is up on the 28th of December. So I have a veteran teaching me how to be a good missionary.

     I hope everyone got a chance to watch General Conference, it was so amazing. What was really cool, was that we got an investigator to come the priesthood sesson. Afterward he told us that he felt the spirit so strongly as he was watching! I'm so excited for him and his family. Him and his wife have a baptismal date and are really progressing. Me and my companion have been meeting with them everyday since I got here.

    I'm really enjoying my mission so far! It's amazing how fast the work can move forward when the Lord has prepared people for his gospel. This truly is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am so happy to get the chance to teach it to people. I hope everybody is doing well. I miss you all!

Love

Elder Elder

                                                     Elder Elder and Elder Harrris