Received Mon, August 27, 2012

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ok, sometimes I do try to spell check Zak's letters. Today letter have a nice amount of interesting spelling and language, but we decided that that just adds to Zak's enjoyable personality. So, just enjoy the letter and enjoy the translating...

Dear Family!

I'll start off with the questions like usual:

How is your new companion?

He's good. Clearly wants to be the best missionary he can, which i think is what matters, he is very different from Elder Woodruff though. Both Elder Woodruff and Castro we're very take charge, type A personality missionaries; Elder Beck and and Elder Wilding (Concha's new companion) are both kind pretty different. Elder Beck is actually kind of quite. he's been out for 14 months. Very nice guy. This is his first time being a senior companion. Like Dad said, it is very different and kinds of strange to be the one who knows the area and everything. I'll write more about that after the Q's

Do you know why you had a change?

Elder Woodruff was made a Zone Leader somewhere else. also, i've been already able to see how I am benefiting from the change

What did you do last week after the cookies on the 52 floor?

I think the cookies was my favorite part of the day. After that we went to the Nike Boston store which was my 2nd favorite part. I was again able to resist buying all the over-priced but awesome stuff there. Then people wanted to go to some other stores to buy cloths. Elder Concha got a new suit. Then we played soccer with a bunch of Elders from around the Boston area, which was fun.

Have you seen any of your people that you were in the MTC with?

yes! someone from my MTC district has been in my district here the whole time, i guess I forgot to tell you. His name is Elder Watson (in one of the pictures I sent home he is sitting a wheel chair making a peace sign) I think it's great we're in the same district now. He was actually in a car accident a few weeks ago (no injuries but a little whiplash). He's doing well to. Because his companion got into a crash he's the driver for them now. Also I saw I saw another MTC district mate at transfer meeting. It was Elder Kilgore (the tallest one). It was fun to see him to. He's all the way on the west side of the mission, bordering NY.

Are you writing weekly letters to your mission pres? E-mails to him?

Starting today I'll be sending E-mails every week.

Have you met in person with your mission pres since the beginning?

I didn't have time to write about it last week, but we had a Zone conference (3 whole zones come together to get training from the mission president) and I talked to him and got training from him there. before it started Elder Woodruff and I walked in and saw him and I told him that I was telling Elder Woodruff about how he (pres Packerd) loves me more because his family personally picked just me up at the airport at 2 AM. his response was "yup, that's right!". Also he asked how we were doing and stuff. The training he gave that day was amazing. he's the epitome of a spiritual giant. Also we were introduced to who he just chose to be his 1st councilor, President Christensen, who is Dean of the business school at Harvard. Super cool to hear from him. He gave an great talk on the importance of having questions (because that's how we get answers) and in finding out our investigators questions.

Also I saw him at Transfer meeting; of-course he gave another amazing talk, but I didn't really talk to him that time. I talked to Sister Packerd that time though. She's great too.

Have you driven the car yet?

yes. Another exciting thing that I could have written about was just 2 days before that Pday we switched companions in the apartment so Me and Elder Concha were together. I drove. it was Elder Castro and Woodruff's idea. They wanted us noobs to have practice not being with them. We ended up doing service for an investigator, teaching a lesson, having a few lessons fall through which gave us time to knock on doors and get told "I'm all set" then we met up with our real companions at our dinner appointment. It was good

Do you have to get a Massachusetts’s driver’s license?

No.

Have you had to tell your new companion where to go to do your visits?

Yes. I'll write about this in a second

Have you gotten lost?

made wrong turns, yes, but get lost no.

Do you come home for lunch?

Basically every day. We go to Subway sometimes (my latest order was a 6 inch turkey/ham on wheat bread with lettuce, spinach, banana peppers, green peppers, honey mustard sauce and olive oil).(i enjoyed it).

Tell us about the most interesting dinner appointment last week.

Nothing super interesting. Since being in MA there's only been a few times I've had to over-stuff myself to make sure we didn't offend anyone. I've still never been feed spaghetti, which usually missionarys get feed all the time (and are very tired of it). I've gotten lasagna and pizza a lot though.

Do you hear much talk about mitt Romney?

a little. It seems like most people like him.One thing the Packerd's talked about way back in the MTC with us was how cool it was we get to serve in MA right during the "Mormon Moment" where there is all this buzz about Mormons because of good ol'Mitt

Any weather issues? Christopher said it rained last week.

no. Sometimes it's cold in the morning which makes me nervous about how freezing it'll be in the winter. I did wear my big trench coat once when it was raining. Oh, and we did get a flash flood warning once when it started pouring, but I think we were already back home by then.

Obviously the biggest thing this week for me has been getting a new companion and everything. While I was with Elder Woodruff I was praying I could do a better job being less of a greenie and more of a solid companion. By the end we were working together well and we planned together and everything, but he clearly was in charge (which is how it should have been.) But suddenly now with Elder Beck and I have to make most of the decisions and it's forced me to step up. I have a huge testimony of president Packerd's ability to lead this mission and get the revelation we need. Elder Woodruff left to be a Zone leader, but his leaving also was an ironic answer to my prayers. I think it's funny Mom asked if I've had to tell my companion where to go on visits, because so far I've planned all of our days together. He doesn't know the area at all. Also, he does have a pretty passive personality. Elder Concha and I both have really felt the extra responsibility a lot. It was been pretty humbling and definitely good for me to force me to really pay attention to everything (directions, who everyone is, to write everything down). Luckily Elder Beck does have a GPS, that's what we use to get basically everywhere. It'll be interesting to see as the days/weeks go by and he can learn the area/people more and we can really work together better. Also, Elder Wilding has been out 9 months, so we're a very young apartment as a whole. We can handle it though. It's funny I can feel how much more tired I am at the end of the day just because it's all more mentally taxing.

Quick thing I've been wanting to brag about: a few weeks ago at district meeting we were challenged to set a fitness goal to try to work towards every morning and (hopefully) achieve in the next week. Mine was to run a 6 minute mile. the morning of the next district meeting I ran a mile in 5:48.

a few more things before I have to go

The update again today was great. I heard the Sox traded Adrian, but not to the Dodgers! or anything about the other players.

My cleats are fine, don't send my other ones, also Elder Castro left his cleats here.

 The calling President Packerd had as he was called to be a mission president was YM president, which i think is very funny and another reason to like him.

I got a letter from Christopher this week, which was really fun. Unfortunately I don't remember if he asked any specific questions. I do remember feeling bad that his dogs forgot that the kitchen is NOT there bathroom. I remember in the DearElder from Steven a bit ago he asked about sports I've been playing and the only time i've done a sport on P-day was last time doing soccer, but we play some sport with the youth every Saturday and we've done soccer, basketball and ultimate before. We may start doing football to get the YM more involved. There aren't any strict mission rules on sports here.

One other cool thing this week was I talked to a member in the ward, Brother Alder who works for Lockheed-Martin! He messaged Christopher and printed out/gave me the conversation. It was fun to read and good to hear Christopher learned the key to winning at basketball is getting the rebounds.

My last thing I want to talk about is that the big emphasis President Packerd always talks to us about working with the members. Actually working with them, not just asking for referrals. The idea is we help members do missionary work with the people they know. That can be anything from letting someone know they are LDS, to bearing testimony of how the gospel has helped there family, or giving them a Book of Mormon; it all depends and what would work best for what the member's friend/person they know needs.  If that friend/family is not  ready to get the lessons from the missionaries, and maybe not to receive a BoM, but would getting a specific conference talk/Ensign from you help? or hearing about the Family Proclamation, or about eternal families, or being invited to church, or seeing if they wanted to do an FHE with you guys or something. If you wanted you could even talk to the ward missionaries/Becera's or something about it. 

Alright, I wish I could write more, but we need to be off. love you all!

P.S.  Elder Beck is still finishing so I'll say the last few things I forgot to say.

Happy birthday to Quinn! it sounds like he got good stuff and had a good time. Is it strange to have a happy birthday, but at the same time know that it means school is starting right away? Happy School starting to everyone! it seems weird BYU fall semester starts up again.

And it's very funny to read about Jayna being a fast crawler. When I last saw here she would just do that thing where she pumps her body forward and back and then lunges forward once.
Love you all!

Received Wednesday, Aug 22, 2012

We have been SO spoiled by Zak's long, lovely letters.
Not much time today to write, I guess.
We are grateful that he is healthy and happy.
Here is his letter:


I hardly have any time to email, we're rushing off to Boston for our final P-day of the transfer before Elder Castro goes home AND******* Elder Woodruff gets transferred too!!!!!!! (to be a Zone Leader) tomorrow is transfer day. My new companion/trainer's name is Elder
Beck, I'll meet him on Thursday. I did get the flashdrive/cleats and a very fun DearElder from Steven. Very good updates from all, I wish I had more time to respond

Did you get the box with your football cleats?
yes

Are your soccer cleats ones with blue on them, size 10?
yes! I'm playing soccer today in the football cleats. next week i'll email saying if I want/need those ones

How were transfers?
happens tomorrow

Same companion, same living arrangements?
very surprisingly new comp but same living arrangements.

Still living the law of consecration?
mostly

What fun are you doing/having today?
going to Boston. playing soccer.

that's all i have time for now. thanks, love you bye!

P.S. ANOTHER E-MAIL FROM ZAK....
we're in Boston now, Elder Castro has served here, so he's showing us the cool things here. I guess he didn't really get a chance to email back in Southcoast, so we came into this Apple Store and are all using super nice Mac computers to quickly send something now. So far the only thing we've done is go to this fancy restaurant and eat cookies. It was on story 52 of this skyscraper and had a really cool view. The cookie platter was $14, Elder Woodruff paid for it with money his grandpa just sent him. it was really cool to be up there and have a great view of Boston. I took pictures. I'm not sure what we're going to go do next, I'm just following their lead.

Received Monday, August 13, 2012

Here is Zak's letter.
Yes, his sweet Salutaion is: Before I forget...
Funny, to the point and VERY Zak!
I left in his requests; thought you might enjoy them!

before I forget, I have a request. Can you send me my soccer cleats?
also do I have more basketball shorts at home/can you send like 2 more of those?

Also, can you google/send to me the story "The Room" by Joshua Harris?
I don't remember who it's by, but it's like 2 pages long and someone in my district in the MTC had it and it made me wish I had a copy.

Also, Elder Woodruff just reminded me; P-day next week is next Wednesday because it's transfer week, so i won't be doing any emailing or anything till then. Elder Castro is going home then, but I hope/expect that the other 3 of us in the apartment are staying here.

Have you sent your flashdrive?
Yes, i think a whole week ago. I am somewhat surprised and worried it didn't get to you yet. with that I also sent a note trying to explain some of the pictures.


Did you buy anything from the Addidas factory last week?
We ended up going to this strip mall that has a Nike store full of really cool but expensive nike stuff. I did not buy anything

What’s your weather been like?
Hot and Humid. It rained a few times. I really notice the humidity a lot more now, sometimes it's kind of gross, but I still think i prefer it over a really dry heat

Do you print out your letters, or quickly read them on the computer?
just read them. There isn't a way to print them here in the family history center place we do this, but I wouldn't want to anyway. 

I have a weird/interesting story for this week. So, we always spend a lot of time going through the ward roster and visiting inactive/part member families. On i think either Tuesday or Thursday we went to a family, we don't know anything about them except where they live and that there is a wife who was baptized and a husband who is not. We knock on the door and the wife answers. She is isn't interested in coming back to church, but is nice and willing to talk, but also kind of gross. She looked like 60's ish, was wearing a very worn t-shirt and had a bit of a mustache. When we asked why she left the church she said it was because her husband decided to leave Christianity to be wiccan (like what witches believe) and she decided to be a tarot card reader. She talked to us about it and said it wasn't evil and stuff, but the conversation was kind of creepy. She talked about how people would get freaked out when she read their past, and she mentioned about how she sometimes communicates with animals. It didn't at all seem like she thought she was lying, but was a bit crazy. All-in-all this was one house I was glad we didn't get into.

I did hear that we got Dwight Howard. I was very excited; i can't believe we got to keep Pau and Metta World peace too. Based on recent happenings I pretty much figure in the 2 years I'm gone the Lakers, Dodgers and Rams are all going to win championships. I couldn't believe the glasses story. how funny. I think my eye sight is great. I bet kylie and griffin will both be very happy they can see better. It sounds like quinn and kylie both had an amazing time. I also thought it was hilarious from quinn that the adults had to wait and be starving while the kids slept. I don't remember who i was talking to
(maybe a recent convert?) but they mentioned girls camp and I said I have a sister who was there right then. I failed to mention that when girls go to "camp" apparently they get gourmet food and 24/7 room service (it was implied in what you said). Also it's good to hear both Mom and Griffin enjoyed looking at the houses in Utah. I'll have to assume you took my advice and griffin had a day full of eating French toast under fancy tables Christopher's letter isn't here yet, so I cannot reply to it now :( (if it was an email, I didn't get it)

One thing I forgot to write about last week was that Elder Castro and Woodruff pretended to get into a fight in the apartment to see what I would do. Elder Concha was in on it too. Neither of them are people who would fight each other but they did a really good job having a series of frustrated arguments and escalated in a believable way. When
they actually started "fighting" they were on the ground and Castro had Woodruff in a headlock and when I tried to pry them apart they started laughing.


The rest of the week was much more normal, it had it's ups and it's down. We did get 4 new investigators which was really great. One is a lady who has been around the church for a long time, but only now is willing to take the lessons, and also she had a friend come who was a 2nd investigator. The other 2 were because a PMF (part-member family) moved into the ward and we visited them and the non-member husband/a roommate who
lives with them.

One other interesting thing that happened was that because we had to do stuff in the morning/we didn't plan like we should have to do it later we didn't get to do our morning studies on Saturday or Sunday. I actually noticed a negative difference in those days since we didn't get to start off on a good spiritual high. In an ironic sort of way, not reading for those 2 days reaffirmed for me the importance of it, and made me super glad I now really enjoy reading instead of treating
it like/letting it be a chore. I got a letter on Saturday from who a friend who mentioned they had been thinking about D&C 122: 3-8, so I studied that this morning and thought it was a really cool little section on trials/adversity.

That's all for now. It was cool this week to get a little section from everyone. I hope when I check my email next Wednesday I don't find out Quinn had no teeth left in his mouth (or braces!) and all of my siblings are now losing their ability to hear/smell.

Love,
Elder Zak Cole

Received Monday, August 6, 2012

**Another GREAT letter from Zak! I have not done any editing at all...no spell check, no fixing the lines to be longer. I am trying to get out the door, BUT I wanted to share with you all this letter. So here you go, enjoy!!


Dear Family
I'll start right off with the questions

Is Dartmouth college part of your area? Will you get to go there on campus?

there is a Umass Dartmouth in our area. It is not the famous ivy
league Dartmouth though, I think that is in new hamshire or vermont or
something, this is just also called dartmouth. I was there just this
morning running on the track. It's like 3 mins from our apartment. one
interesting thing is that we actually all wake up before 6:30 to get
more time to exercise. When I first heard about that I thought it was
a terrible idea, but I'd try it and I actually like it a lot. Actually
all 5 companionships in our district wake up somewhere from 5:30-6:00
for the same reason. There is a tiny, small gym in our apartment
complex area Me/Elder Woodruff
go to a lot of times in the morning, but we go running sometimes too.


Enjoy the mail you got this week?
Yes. I've gotten mail from a few different people in the past weeks
and enjoyed all of it greatly. The "what are you eating under there"
card was hilarious. I figure if griffin is in the mood to sit on the
ground why not haha.


In the picture I got from Sis. Mello, I see you, woodruff and elder
costa..where is other elder; or are there just 3 of you?
I thought it was very cool of them to do that. I guess someone did
that with their kids when they are on missions, so they started doing
it too.
But, clearly there is some confusion. The 4 people in my apartment are
Elder Cole (that's me), Elder Woodruff (my companion), Elder Concha
(also a greenie, from Brazil) and Elder Castro (who is going home
after this transfer. He is sad he only has a few weeks left). In the
picture were me, Elder Concha, and Elder Castro. from Tuesday through
thursday Elder Woodruff was on tours/splits with other companionships
in our district because he is district leader and I was in a trio with
the other Elders.


Doing anything particularly fun today?
Some other elders in the district are doing Lazer Tag, but I don't
think we're going to go. we're not sure though. We have an
investigator who works works for Adidas so he can take us to a factory
or warehouse or somethis and we can buy sports stuff for really cheap.
or something like that, i'm not that sure. Also we're not exactly sure
about what we're doing. If i can get a good Patriots hat or shirt for
cheap I'll probably buy it. At 6 we have our dinner appointment, then
we're having FHE with the family. The daughter there just got her
mission call to El Salvador

This has been kind of a crazy/different week, especially since my
companion was gone basically the whole time and most of Friday we were
at a Zone meeting.
one unfortunate thing that happened was I got dropped by investigators
for the first time. We had just found them (a couple) last week
basically while tracting. the first time we talked to them, They liked
our message a lot, they recently started reading the bible a lot, and
feel like it has helped them a lot, but are not super attached to any
church. We taught them the restoration and they were really
interested. The 2nd time we went by (it was me in the trio because
Elder Woodruff was gone) they just said we were good people and
thought what we were doing was great, but didn't want to talk anymore.
All they need is the bible. That's what makes them happy. I'm glad
they have that, but it's sad to see they felt the spirit while we were
talking to them and recognized it could help their lives but sometime
later convinced themselves to go back to what was familiar and not try
something new even if it was good. at least they have a card with the
website and our number, so maybe sometime later in life they'll be
more willing.

Other random things:

there are Dunkin Donuts everywhere here. Almost like church buildings
in Utah, it sometimes seems like there's one every block. I've never
eaten there.
People here really like the phrase "all set". Especially when we go
tracting almost every time they open the door they see were
missionaries they say something like "I'm Catholic. I'm all set". it's
the #1 way to reject a missionary, just say I'm all set. After hearing
that so many times I don't like the phrase, even if it's not about
missionary work; a lot of times if we just ask a member if they need
help with anything or need any service they'll say "no, we're all set"
and it causes almost the same reaction within me as when people
mis-use the word literally.
Since leaving on my mission my taste buds greatly expanded what I
like. it has been great. I think it's partially because I'm just more
mentally open about trying and likeing things, but also it's just a
bizzare change. I practically haven't eaten anything I didn't
thoroughly enjoy. The most surprising example was when there were
pineapple pieces in this pasta thing someone made us for dinner and I
didn't even hate it at all. I can't say they added to it, but they
also didnt have a negative impact.
It's good to hear Christopher is situated in Virgina now, I forgot he
was already doing that. Hopefully his dogs stop treating his house
like a big poop-shack. (you can edit out the last sentence).
I hope Quinn like the kayak trip (honestly i'm glad i don't have to do
it) with the scout troop it'll be fun.
I'm sure girls camp will be great
I can't believe Mom and griffin are driving to Utah to look at some
houses. It will only be worth it if Griffin goes and gets to French
Toast while sitting on the ground under the table at each house.
Dad' says he's sad he'll be the only one home for a while, but really
he's glad he'll get to eat out every night and watch all the Olympics
he wants. He'll probably be on a first name basis with all the
employees at Toky-Wako by next week. It is wierd to hear football is
starting and I don't even know anything about it. How are everyone's
fantasy teams looking? Who got Sjax? does Griffin have the 8th team?
did anyone steal anyone's favorite player? I'm guessing Christopher
drafted Tim Tebow and he'll be the #2 QB behind only Sam Bradford

I just uploaded all my photos onto my flashdrive, so hopefully I'll be
able to get a small padded envelope today to send it out. I saw there
were already some things in the flashdrive, so when you get it can you
just save them somewhere on a computer and then delete them off the
flashdrive? It's stuff from my 1st semester of BYU but I still don't
want to delete them forever. I think i saved the pictures in a folder
called "Elder Cole pictures"

Alright, I've got to go
Love you all
Elder Cole

Zak, as a Missionary!

Checking e-mail this afternoon, I came upon this e-mail from a woman in a ward where Zak is serving! Here is that e-mail:

 

 

The missionaries from our ward came to our home for dinner on Wednesday night. We really enjoy receiving pictures of our own missionaries from the mission field so we thought that we would return the favor. Our daughter is currently serving in the Arcadia Mission. I guess we have made an exchange! Hope you enjoy seeing your son. He is a great missionary and we are grateful that he is here.

Love,

Brother and Sister Mello

That was SO nice! We do enjoy seeing Zak. Hope you all will too!

**I am traveling tomorrow; don't know when I will be able to get Zak's e-mail. When I do, I will post it. If you don't see anything on Monday, look on Tuesday!