Received Monday, Sept 24, 2012

Just to enjoy seeing Zak for a moment...

He sent us this picture; he is in Rhode Island on a P-day excursion

What fun are you doing today?

nothing really planned. I've heard New Bedford is the largest fishing harbor (port?) in the world, so there are a lot of fishing/whaling type things around including a whaling museum maybe we'll go to some time. not today though. I've heard it costs money and is kind of boring though. Also on the side of a big building we drive by sometime there is a big painting of a whale my Wyland, the painting guy dad likes to watch sometimes.

Have you sung to anyone yet?

no, but I did have a few chances, but I chickened out. I decided I'll practice in the shower and maybe do it next time. sorry. I still plan on doing sometime though

Do you give service every week?

yes. president Packard is pretty big on service. It seems like every week we have something specific/unique to do for a member/members friend, which is great and also we try to go to this redcross food drive every thursday and we help people carry their free food to their cars.

What service will you do this week?

we'll do the red cross thing and help somebody move on Saturday.

Are transfers coming up?

yes. next P-day is on a wednesday, not monday. I don't expect any changes here, but I didn't expect any last time either, so who knows. I really hope I stay and everyone else can stay too. Elder Concha and I decided we should be roommates at BYU after the mission. it's against the rules as a missionary to suggest anyone emigrates, so of course I would never do that, but I have always been happy to tell him how much I liked it at BYU and mentioned we could be roommates. He doesn't know whether he'll apply to byu for sure though (or whether he'll get in) or even if he might just stay in Brazil. It's 2 years from now anyway, but it was a cool thought.

Is there a certain song that your mission pres loves to sing at meetings?

not that I've recognized.

Any torrential rain last week? Some baseball games up in your hood got rained out!

nope. in the time i've been here we've gotten some storm/tornado/flash flood warnings and some actual hard rain, but not in the last week. There were never any actual tornadoes or terrible storms either, just warnings.

You still getting mail from BYU friends?

mail for Elder Cole in the last month or so (I hope I'm not forgetting anyone): lots from immediate family. weekly from Sister Hagen. 1 letter from Jared. and I think 1 letter each from 2 different friends and currently at BYU.

Getting mail from other BYU missionaries?

no, theres no time to write letters to so many people.

Stuff relating to Kylie: I also was wondering about something like "chatting" this week. Last P-day we were in Walmart and while Elder Beck was printing out some pictures he took I started playing this Xbox Kinect (no controller) sports game they had in the middle of the isle. While you play it video's you and afterwards it asked me if I wanted to email the video to anyway. I didn't pay much attention to it because I just wanted to hurry and start another game, but afterwards I wondered if It would be ok for me to email that home. I checked the White handbook (Biblia Blanca) and saw that both playing the game and sending the video home would have been innaporoptiate. In hind sight it seems kind of obvious, but if I'm ever mission president I might change the rules so missionary's can send XBox video's of themselves fake-golfing home to their families.

About pen pals: one of the girls probably just isn't going to write, but the other came up to me yesterday at church and told me her mother last the card where I had written the address on, so i gave her a new one. I think she is going to write a real pen-and-paper letter; I gave her the home address and email.

About Steven: he sent me an email with good missionary stories and the full Wipeout story. Both were Amazing. I try to remind myself that so much of the good work I can do on a mission will be things I can't see/won't realize. Also I hope I get sent a picture of Super Accountant Man in all his charmingly analytical glory. And If he does make it on the show I expect 1st prize no doubt. Anything less would be more embarrassing than failing to draft Tim Tebow

The Rams already are 1 win away from there last season's total, so I guess a loss is acceptable

Quick thing mom will think is funny: last night we had our dinner appt and the bishops house, and they were also celebrating one of their son's birthday. One of his younger sisters gave him a card that said "Birthdays are like boogers. The more you have the harder it is to breath".

Christophers leg looked awful. I've never rolled an ankle nearly that bad. He should just hold his dogs out the window have let them do their business from the 4th floor. It'll be good for the grass and stuff, the land lord will thank him for it.

I did get the letter last week about quinn getting his license. Very exciting for everyone at home. "Wide turns" was one of the biggest reasons I failed my first time.

One interesting thing that happened was just a few minutes ago. We all got an email from Pres. Packared with some further instruction/advice on working with members (which will always be the biggest theme for him. You can tell he has a great vision for the mission). And also re-adjusting some of the rules from the last president. He said everything (music, etc) should be exactly by the white handbook, which sounds like a duh, but is actually slighlty more lax than it used to be, but he also said he basically doesn't want us playing sports on non-pdays. That is kind of a bummer for us because we do that every saturday and have investigators and member's friends come, but I can see why he wants it to be this way.

The biggest thing that happened this week was the other elders in the apartment had a baptism! It was this old lady named Evylen. I was in on a lesson with elder Castro to her once last transfer and also did some service for her once. It was all pretty cool. She lives alone (husband past and kids are all gone) and she used to smoke, so it was neat to really see the Plan of Salvation bless her life.

another great thing to look back on for me this week was to see that if we just do what we are supposed to and follow the direction from our priesthood leaders, we are blessed in unexpected ways. the "random coincidences"/ "freebie blessings" just seem to come from no where. On wednesday we drove out to visit and innactive, but he wasn't home, so we decided to knock on a few neighbors doors (this is actually where I had a chance to sing too. now I especially feel like I should have). At one door a 30's year old guy answered and talked to us for a few mins. He didn't really want to get a lesson from us or anything, but he asked us for a Book of Mormon and seemed sincere about going to the church sometime. Also, it wasn't even his house, he was just visiting his parents who live there.

On saturday we drove to a members house to give her a Book of Mormon and a few pass along cards because she has friends at work who are interested. She lives in an apartment complex you can't get into unless someone from inside opens it. She wasn't home, so we rang the neighbors doorbell just hopping they'd open the door. Someone did open it and they were pretty interested and accepted a book of mormon and a return appointment to talk more about it.

So things have been really good! I still am not super used to all the awkward phone calls we have to make and I wish we had an Ipad/gps that could read my mind and It would be great if we had a personal secretary to write down everything everyone tells us all day, but I there are far worse needs and problems than those.
Love you all! my mailing address may be different a week from today, so be careful with that, I'll email again on wednesday.
Adios!

Received Monday, September 17, 2012

As usual, he starts out with the Questions I asked:

Questions:

What do you plan/why does it take 3 HOURS for your weekly planning meeting?

It's supposed to take like 2-3 hours. Everything we go over is in PMG in the "using time wisely" section. A lot of times we have to update some of our "paper work" then too. You go through each one of your investigators and talk/plan about how they will get to church, what you'll teach them, what commitments they may be ready for, etc etc. Also you go over your potential investigators and figure out how to help them lose the "potential" label. For me it's hardest to try and figure out which members to bring with us to lessons/how to help people get fellow shipped. We have lots of willing people in the ward, but it's just hard to figure out who matches personalities ok and lives near'ish and isn't too busy. It would be a lot easier if everyone just quit their jobs and stuff so they'd have more time to be with the missionaries. The things people think about when they think of missionary work (like teaching and tracting and speaking) are all pretty much easy, it's just the planning/scheduling and coordinating with different people that makes it tougher. That's good though, it just means we're busy and have a lot to do. I basically haven't done any tracting since my first week or 2 of being here.

Just to be sure: you got back your memory card for your camera, right?

yup

Do you see ROMNEY signs there in Boston??

sometimes. I see a lot of bumper stickers, especially on member's cars. I hear he doesn't really have a chance here though

Have you had a hand-shaker that shakes too hard?

not really. far more people shake awkwardly soft.


Things I want to say before I forget them:
1st: is Griffin's team name Griffin Radio? how did he choose that? (**From the Mom: Zak is talking about Griffin's Fantasy Football team's name, and yes, he chose Griffin Radio. I don't know why.)


2nd: this goes for anyone who reads this; for the rest of my life you're allowed to ask me if i'm a 100% home teacher and if I'm not then you can punch me or something

3rd: wow, good for the Rams! who does their running when Action Jackson is out? what's the over/under for # of superbowls they win while I'm gone? 1.5? It seems like all my favorite sports teams are doing crazy things this season.

4th: I've been thinking this for a few weeks but forgot to say it. I think I'll try to learn the piano when i get home instead of completely neglecting to try and foster any sort of musical talent. Mom is allowed to remind me if she remembers. (**From the Mom: several years ago, I had my own "family Bataan Death March"; I forced my children to take piano lessons from January to June! I figured by that point they would enjoy the experience, see the good in it and happily continue. It did not work out that way. They were so happy when the experiment was over, they all stopped. Shocking, now to see that Zak has a desire to LEARN! Yea! Kylie has continued, though, sigh.)

5th: I never have had knee pads for volleyball but I know lots of girls did in middle school and highschool. Is it normal to only have practice twice a week? I guess Kylie needs the time anyway

6th: I did find Kylie a pen pal! 2 actually! the first person I mentioned it to is Ivonne who's an investigator. She's from Cape Verde, in 8th grade I think. She said she thought it was a fun idea, but didn't actually write anything for a few days so I figured I'd try and find another person incase she is too busy/would just forget. The second person is a member of a cool family in the ward. She is is 6th grade I think. She sounded like she really liked the idea and would really do it.

7th: Good job to Quinn being completely done with his eagle. It feels good to finally be done. Also I think it's a great goal to get that seminary award

8th: I heard "love you like a love song" both today and last week in Walmart and was making fun of dad in my head both times.

Other stuff from this week:
we set 2 baptismal dates for people this week which was really exciting. One was for Ivone (Kylie's future BFF) and the other was for an 18 year old. I think I mentioned him last week (we're helping him stop smoking). her's is the end of october and his is the beginning of November, both possible to change in either direction though.

Today we're driving up to Foxborough, playing football with the district, doing our weekly planning and spending the night! We have a Zone conference up there the tomorrow morning, Elder Halleck of the 70 is going to be there. I'm really looking forward too it.

Another exciting this this week was we got a call from a sister in the Kirtland Ohio/temple mission. I was the one who answered. I guess they got a referral from someone who lives here who wants a ride to church. I got all the info and then asked if she (the sister) happened to know a Sister Hansen. she said yes! she was her last companion. She said she was doing great, and I told her to say hi.  (**From the Mom: Sister Hansen is Zak's cousin!)

It was another good, tiring week. I never got a chance to sing to anyone, but I decided I'll offer when i get a chance, even if I have to do a solo. I have to hurry and email President Packard now so i can hurry home to pack stuff to go up to Foxborough with in time for football. Maybe Tom will show up too.

Love you all!

P.S. I glanced at my journal to see if there was anything else I forgot to add and there was. we went to this hispanic members house to mow her lawn, but only the spanish-only speaking grandma was there. I was able to use my spanish skills to ask where the keys were to the garage to get the lawn mower. After we finished everything I went to give the keys back and she told us to wait a moment and she went back inside and came back out with 2 mangos fruit for us! I didn't recognize what they were, so I asked (en espanol) and she said they were mangos. They were very yummy and i was very proud of myself for my ability to communicate

Received Monday, September 10, 2012

**FROM THE MOM: I usually ask questions to Zak in my letter. He answers them. In this letter, he opened right up with answering my questions. Also know that I am leaving all of Zak's sweet language and spelling. It's just another reason why we love him!  Here you go:

QUESTIONS:

Tell us the greatest thing you ate this week.
ummm it's hard to remember. Basically everything is really good. Yesterday we had enchiladas with rice and beans which was really good. Someone also made is really good steak a few days ago and gave us brownies with ice cream for dessert; that was probably the best dinner appt of the week. Also I found one thing I still don't like. Bananas. Someone gave us this banana pudding dessert thing and I really had to force myself to eat it.

How fast are you running now? How far?
Since achieving my goal I've lost a lot of motivation to work super hard running. Today 1 ran 2 warm up laps, stretched, then ran 5 laps under 1:40 each. Also I'm going to change my workout routine, I think from now on I'm just going straight to the weight room on monday-friday and spend all of Saturday running instead of doing some of each every day. I'm falling more into the work out frenzy my whole zone is in, I even bought some whey protein today to start taking every morning

What are you doing for P-day?
Nothing huge. the regular shopping/emailing. Elder Wilding got a package from someone with cookies and decorating frosting and he's worried if he doesn't frost them and take pictures then the package/letters well will dry up and I'll probably help him with that, even though I don't plan on eating any. Also Elder Beck and I bought stuff to make chocolate chip cookies with so we can give them to investigators, so we'll make those today. Also, especially since last p-day was busy, my desk/room area has become pretty disorgainzed so I'll fix that up, then write a letter or 2.
Next week our DL wants to do something with our whole district together, so we called him and said we wabted to play football, and he said he would, so we're looking forward to that.

While in the car, do you and your companion just talk? You certainly don’t listen to the radio.
we basically always have music playing, usually hymns. (allowed music: anything produced by the church, hymns, classical/instrumental, anything MoTab. Sometimes we talk, sometimes we're silent. Elder Beck is not that talkative, and I'm not always either, so if there's not something specific to be talking about we're usually just listening to the music

How do you like grocery shopping?
it's just whatever.

While out and about, do LDS members see you and honk/wave; treat you somewhat like a famous person?
We hardly ever see members randomly like that. The few times they did, they just wove. The Alders, who live right next to us, randomly gave us cookies once.

What songs did you sing in church yesterday? We sang: Carry On; There is a Green Hill; More Holiness give me
I'm trying really hard to remember but I can't. We had a all Young Women's program yesterday which was interesting, 2 girls even invited friends. Elder Concha usually translates the talks into Portuguese into a headset thing and that people if they want/need to they can get another headset thing and listen, but he just kind of started laughing this week because all the girls we're talking to fast and quite so it was too hard.

One thing I've been wanting to say, but I always forgot is to ask you to tell Sister Hagan thank you for the letter she sends me every week, I enjoy it a lot. She writes on the church program every week and updates me on some things going on in the ward. I really like it. Also I use the hymnbook she gave me after seminary all the time.

About the Rams: Who are their starters (on offense and defense)? One time someone (he was like my age) was talking about football and I told him I was a Rams fan. He mocked me a little but then said he admired that I could stick with a team even when they do badly, just like he does with the Patriots. I just that that was funny because I had to wonder what "doing badly" means to a Patriot fan.

There was nothing especially huge this week. it's been pretty good though I'll go through my daily planner and say the biggest things we did each day
mon: told you last email
tues: email, football with the YM and finished the day teaching lessons to two of our really progressing investigators
wed: we talked to one member family about talking to their neighbors about the church and after much encouragement and a few rold plays we got the daughter to agree to invite 2 friends to the YW program on sunday (she did, the friends ended up not coming though, but I think 1 of them probably will this week)
thurs: weekly planning (every thursday. it takes like 3 hours), and we went by a lot of inactive members houses. We ended up finding 1 lady (she is innactive, her husband is a non-member) who we got a return appt with and she wants her 9'ish year old son to get baptized, so that was a great find.
fri:we had a Zone Meeting which was really good. Also we met with the Elder's Quorum president about how we can help, and we got a pretty good list of less active people/potential investigators we didn't know about that we should try to work with. we've already meet with the bishop, a former bishop, and did the same thing and will be meeting with the other auxiliary leaders pretty soon.
sat: we mowed the EQP's lawn (he hurt his foot the day before). Had correlation meeting, and went by more innactive people's houses.
sun: church. We taught a lesson to Chris, an 18 year old investigator, he might not be super-duper sincere about progressing towards baptism, but we've already helped him quit smoking, which is great.
monday is today.

I am not surprised Kylie made volleyball. I would easily bet someone she also will make the soccer and basketball teams when she tries out. She is athletic enough and plays hard enough that, especially if she plays with confidence, it should be no problem. Volleyball especially is really mental, because you are going to make a lot of mistakes but you can't let yourself get embarrassed about it or anything.
Quinn and Kylie sound tied for the "most exciting stuff going on" award
Christopher still has a firm grip on "most interesting fashion news"
I assume you are all still tied for the "I'm a n00b without Tim Tebow on my team" prize

I just mentioned singing hymns to people at their door and Elder Beck did not think it was a good idea. we'll see. Would Steven just ask "well, can we please sing a hymn?" I've never heard of that before but honestly sounds like an interesting idea. I've found that as a missionary talking to someone, the worst thing that can happen is that you'll never see them again, so you might as well try some awkward/embarrassing stuff if it might help.

What does everyone think about the beginning of school so far? What classes are people in? (that question applies to everyone but Steven/Heather I believe)

That's everything! Thanks for all the great updating! Love you all!

Received Tuesday, September 4, 2012

starting with questions:

Where is the/your graphing calculator? (You do have one, right??)

I did have one for that class with Mr. Zurla. I have no idea where it would be though. I hope you find it. I thought he was a great teacher, and the class was not hard

Where do you usually do your e-mailing? (like, the library, someone’s house?)

The family history center in the church

Tell us what you are doing today for fun!

Today we're playing football with the YM because they can't do it saturday (they have a service project) and they have school starting soon. We also played last week, we bought a football and flags and everything. It was fun but we actually had too many people/too many youngsters. no injuries or anger, so it was good. I'll write about yesterday in a sec

How is doing your laundry? Any issues?

good. no issues. I just do it in our apartment whenever I need too.

How about your shoes; how do your feet feel at the end of the day?

shoes are bueno. feet feel bueno.

Are you wearing your retainer?

I wear it every night. A few weeks ago I forgot a few times and then my teeth were very sore when I started wearing them again. Just last week someone told me they could tell I had braces

Flossing your teeth?

maybe 50% of the time. I'll try and be better. Also I've been not doing great at writing in my journal. It seems like there's no time to do anything in the end of the day

Did you have a dinner appt yesterday/fast Sunday? If yes, what did you eat?

yes we had a dinner appt, but then they canceled :( We ate in the apartment. I opened a can of beans, but some of that on a tortilla with rice (leftovers) and chicken that Elder Beck grilled and microwaved it for a very yummy burrito. Then i was still hungry so I ate a 2nd one.

Sunday and Monday were both very different days for us. On Sunday we went to sacrament meeting, then drove 2.5 hours to Connecticut to Elder Beck could baptize someone he taught in his old area.

Yesterday we woke up got ready and left at 6:45 to go to the temple. The missionaries were invited because it was a holiday. Brother Alder, (who works for Stark Industries like Christopher) took us. It was great, I'm glad I've now been in the Boston Temple. When we got back we had to dash off to a members birthday party we were invited too, then go to a member's grill party thing they wanted us to go too.

Everything is still going well, but i'm still definitely adjusting to the new companionship, I'm definitely learning a lot from having to take lead a lot, but i don't feel like I'm being trained anymore, when really I am still a new greenie and have so much more I need to learn. My two companions are very opposite in a lot of ways.

I very greatly enjoyed getting everyone's FF team in the draft. If there was time I would have written up my analysis/rankings. I remember thinking Dad's team was one of the best and he would win 1st place because he gets a boost from having the most people from his favorite team AND the MVP runningback. I think Steven's team might have been 2nd except that he'll be cursed for having no Colts. It's hard to remember what I thought when I looked over it. I think Mom got an A for effort, but also had 1 player i really don't like. does she have Sir Issac Cam Newton? (he'll be the biggest bust). Now I remember who I really ranked #1. The Waver Wire. How did none of you guys draft Tim Tebow! I thought for sure Christopher would give him a try.

Another interesting football thing: My bishop's neighbor works for The Patriots as their chief film guy! Mr. Spygate! supposedly he wasn't really involved though. He has SB rings for all the times they've won and everything. I hope I get a chance to talk to him.

I love all the bad eyesight stories I get. always very funny.

I hope everything goes will with christopher and his dogs, I forgot they were old enough to have little puppies already (chonchitos?). I have to say, I'm a little bit worried though, the last things I've heard about Christopher were that he wears tight pants and then he dropped out of school. This is not a good trend.

So Josh is off to Idaho today then, that's kind of crazy. Good luck to him!

Happy birthday to Jayna! I can't believe she's already 1. she'll be nearly 2 when I see her next. that's crazy

One really great thing here is that we have been teaching a lot of lessons, and we've had some really great ones recently. It's very interesting to see the things I've taken for granted my entire life to really have a profound impact on someone. We just taught the Restoration to this guy named Phil, he's actually roommates with another family we teach. He has tattoos and big gauges in his ears and everything, but he is really sincere about investigating the church. He recognizes the direction it can give him in his life. He's been a part of other churches before, but hasn't been able to stick with them. What really made the lesson great was when we read Moroni's Promise to him, it made so much sense that what he needs to do is read (show faith) and ask God what to do and which church to join. I think one thing that's special about the Joseph Smith story is that it relates so well with everyone we teach.

that's about everything. Love you all!