Received Monday December 24, 2012

I'm hoping to get a Santa hat on Zak's head later today; I'll update! 

QUESTIONS/ITEM TO TELL US:

The call

I'm hoping to start around 12-12:30 my time. We'll be at a family's house in the ward. They always have the missionaries over for christmas since they were baptized 4 or 5 years ago. They are the Rubensteins. They said they have 3 or 4 computers we could use. We're driving up there it the morning, to get there before 9. They don't open there presents or anything until we get there.

Did you get any strange packages in the mail...

Others would say i did, but I don't think its's strange of my mother to send me milk cartons in the mail, so I would say no. It was very funny though.

How was your mission Christmas conference?

it was fun. I got to see Elder Woodruff and Elder Concha there and my whole mtc district happened to be there, which was cool. Elder Woodruff goes home after this transfer which is crazy. Each zone did a skit and a musical number. Our skit was funny, but our musical number was really bad. We got to go to the temple which was great, I liked that a lot. The temple president (who's daughter/her family live in our ward. He's not a member, she's only semi active) spoke to us a little

You got your big Christmas box with presents in it, right?

Yes I got the big one at the conference. I also have the GPS box under our little tree and a box from the Jensens.

We're in Boston right now! we're emailing at the same Apple store that I used in my first transfer. We wanted to do something special for our Christmas Eve P-day. We don't have a big plan, I think we'll go to China town and see some interesting Boston stuff.

This week has been different with the big Christmas conference and everything. Lots of people don't want to schedule till after the holidays.

Maria was confirmed yesterday, which is good. Most of the other people we're teaching seem be be struggling a bit though. always lots ups and downs with everyone.

Whenever I start emailing I can never remember what we did this week. I don't have my daily planner or journal with me now either. hmmm.

We're all looking forward to Christmas! December 20th was my 6 month mark, which (as the locals would say) is wicked weaud.

Are people playing counterstrike instead of Dota now? or are there just not enough people with me and Steven not there.

I did get the flashdrive with my power balls. I think it's still wrapped in those napkins the way you sent it. Maybe I'll get to take some good pictures today.

Are you guys skyping with Nana and Bumpa tomorrow also? tell them I say hi.

I think that's all for now. Be good and son't listen to and R rated orchestras! I'll talk to you all tomorrow!!

Received Mon Dec 17, 2012

Zak, in front of the Boston, Mass temple

QUESTIONS:

Did you get your energy balls in the mail??  How were they? Like how did they taste; what shape were they in?

I did! they were very scrumptious and were in regular ball form. I ate a bunch. Other liked them as well.

So I think I've mentioned before that my companion, Elder Beck has lost like 60 pounds on his mission, including a lot in this area. His biggest thinhg isa that he bascially cut out all sugary stuff. I've tried to sustain him in his diet/goal by eating pretty healthy as well, with the main exception being at members homes when they serve us dessert. At times I've done great at it and other times struggled not to munch on the nasty but delicious oreo's and stuff that are often in the apartment/are offered to us. Especially at the start of our companionship I did great at it untill after we did service at someone's house and they gave us a box of thin mints and within the hour I had eaten the entire box. This past week Elder Beck seemed to be more tempted than usual to break his diet, so I decided to support him 100% by not having any sugary stuff he disprove of at all for at least a week. I've done well so far (3 days I think)

That shooting at the elementary school in Connecticut: do you know about that? Is that in your mission?

I do know about it. I had heard a little bit about it and president Packard just sent us an email about it. I thought all of Connecticut was in our mission, but it must not because he said it was just under 10 miles from our mission. very sad.

You crying about the cold yet?

actually no. Eventually i'm going to end up buying some thermals (or thermal garments) but so far it hasn't felt that bad. Maybe i'm just more manly than ol'Tom so I can handle it better. Luckily we don't spend much time out walking in the cold, which is what makes it ok. every once and a while we'll have a cold day and i'll complain about it until it warms up. the system has worked well thus far. It only snowed on us once I think. it didn't really stick though. I think being by the coast helps. Elder Beck and Elder Wilding both want it to snow, but Elder Lopez (Brazilian) really hates the cold even worse than me.

some interesting things happened this week

we got transfer texts!! they came a week early because President wants people home for Christmas. I forgot to remind you. I am staying though. Phew! I was nervous I was leaving because Elder Beck and I have been together for 3 whole transfers now. Everyone in the apartment is staying. I think the next transfer is 7 weeks long to make up for it (they are normally 6). 2 people from our district are leaving, including our district leader. Elder Wilding got called on Saturday and was told he is the new district leader. Today we found out someone else in the district was also told they are the new DL. we really think he is splitting the district, which I can see the sense of, but it is still odd. We'll here officially probably later this week, but that would mean our entire district is now the 4 elders in our apartment and the Simpsons. All of us in the same area.

About P-day today (and being late). Late ast night some elders from our district unexpectedly showed up at our apartment because they wanted to have a district pday together before transfers. We drove up to their area and played some weird (but fun) card game called The Good, The Bad, and The Munckin, while we waited for other people to get there, Then we played real life Waldo in the mall, which was only medium fun. It's cool to do things with the district, but we always end up getting back late ( our area's are about 45 mins away).

Yesterday we had a baptism! it was for Maria, the foster mom of Chris and a few others. She is a really solid convert. She has seemed worthy for at least a month, but for waited until now to get baptized. She'll be a strong member here. A member of the bishopric baptized her, which is perfect.

Dave, our investigator who has a baptismal date (not till the beginning of February because he has a lot to work through still) came to church for the first time yesterday and stayed and watched the baptism and really liked the whole thing. We're also teaching him later today (Word of Wisdom).

We also had a less active family come that we've been working with for the first time (with us) yesterday who also liked it, so it was a productive week. We still haven't had face to face contact with Miranda in forever which is disappointing  We were supposed to see her yesterday but she had to do homework or something.

We also already have a pretty fully scheduled week ahead of us, so that's good too.

how come Griffin hasn't asked any questions for the past few weeks? he used to do that all the time.

I got a letter/card from Quinn today from seminary, but not the seminary card. I liked it, espcially the early-morning-ness of it.

I also got the card about the burned down house AND guessed what BDH meant. I was very proud of myself.

I also got other cards from nice people in the ward/stake and a card from Grandma.

also, the Cornwalls have a son in Plymouth  who is a ward mission leader who worked with Elder Beck! that was Elder Beck's first area.

How is Quinn doing in track? is it nice for him to have his eagle and finished his byu app? How is track going?

I bet the missionaries there liked coming over.

About Christmas and calling home, we haven't figured out what we're going to do. We might be at a member’s home. I'll let you know next week (Christmas eve!)

We've been listening a lot to the new CD you sent me (The Work). it is great

That's everything! Remember to be grateful for the knowledge you have that so little of the world does! Hang to the Iron Rod!

Love, Elder Zak

Here are a few pictures!! I will figure out a way to put more up later...
In my letter to Zak, I talked about some of the pictures he sent. He responds to my comments. I have tried to include here some of the pictures we talked about.

Zak and his companion Elder Beck

Zak's Halloween costume

wow, lots of good questions today

QUESTIONS:

1. it looks like your apartment has no bedrooms, just a kitchen, bathroom and one great room where you all sleep. Is that true? Or is that your choice in how to use the apartment? Could people be praying by their bed at anytime so you just have to be quiet and reverent? How does that all work? Hmm..where are your clothes...clothes...where do you get dressed? Now I really need some explanations...

There are 2 "bedrooms" but we just use them as our study rooms. I like the way our apartment is sent up. There is a little room with our washer and dryer. there are 2 bathrooms, one attached to each study. I think the 1 bathroom you see is the washer dryer room. It would be tough if we had only 1 bathroom, especially with morning showers Maybe I'll take a video tour of the apartment with my camera. It's always been set up that way (since I've been there) except we shuffled our beds around a little bit to fit the table. About praying: we have slightly awkward moments almost daily where you say something to someone only to realize they are praying. Luckily we do awkward things all day everyday so it doesn't make a difference anymore. usually when at night when I pray at my bed there is some conversation going on, but it's not a big deal. Every once and a while if things are especially rambunctious I'll pray at my study desk, which is in a different room. There is a 4 drawer dresser in our study room, Elder Beck has the top 2 drawers I have the bottom too. Also there is a closet where we hang up all our pants and white shirts and suits and stuff. I take a set of garments with me into the shower every morning and put them on after I shower. and I'll put my other clothes on wherever.

Have my explanations been thorough enough?

2. You look REALLY good!

False. I look EXCEPTIONALLY good.

Actually the other elders like to make fun of me because there's a few different people in the ward that sometimes call me "adorable", which is not a very missionary word.

3. beautiful temple pictures!

EXCEPTIONALLY beautiful temple pictures!

4. nice outdoor shots of your apartment

fair.

5. Talk about the blue and red body suits!! Where did they come from?? What’s the deal?

I thought I had written about them, I guess not. There is a family in the ward that owns a costume shoo and told us we could have whatever we wanted. We all got body suits like those. It was really cool of them. I was pretty disgusted at some of the costumes they were selling though (modesty, etc)

6. Will you have a companion cut your hair again? It didn’t look too bad.

I would, I'm not exceptionally picky about it. Elder Concha is the one who did it though and he's gone. Jackie Carmo (Less active who came to church 2 weeks in a row with us!!) is a barber so I'll probably have him do it. There is another less active who cuts hair who it would be smart to go too.

quick note: in missionary lingo there is no "innactive"; everyone who isn't fully active is "less active", so if I say less active I might be referring to someone who hasn't been to church in years. Also we always abbreviate it as LA, so I tend to capitalize it funny when I spell it in these emails. I think I usually catch myself though

7. love the mustache pictures

me to.

8. your Christmas tree is lovely

we have more stuff under it now (some stuff you've sent). Also we bought candy canes to hang on it.

9. are you warm enough in your bed with ONE blanket??

yes. The temperature is always fine in the house.

OTHER QUESTIONS:

Are you still running?

not really. We (Elder Beck and I) still wake up and 6. We go driectly to the mini gym in our complex. I don't spend time running most days. I spend 1 day working on chest, 1 day arms, 1 day back and abs, 1 day shoulders and legs. Also I spend 1 day doing a lot of running (on a treadmill. lame.) every once and a while. I think I'm going to switch up my rotation though. I warm up with a jump rope most days. Elder Beck spends basically the whole time running every day.

What do you do for exercise?

I'll a picture of our little gym. there's no free weights or dumbells, just machines.

Doing anything fun/exciting today? Tackling some famous football players?

Bill told me to stop picking on Tom and Wesley so much, so I haven't done that in a while.

We did a P-day thing with our whole zone today though. it's something missionaries here do a lot I guess. It's thins kind of dorky, very missionar'ish game with nerf guns inside a chapel. I spent 20$ on a gun. Griffin would be proud. I shot a lot of people.

Has their been any discussion about the Christmas Phone Call?

Yes. We'll almost definitely skype with the Simpson's laptop and Ipad, which should work great.

Do you think you will be able to skype?

Yes Ma'am

So, I will send the energy balls and your flashdrive back to you on Monday. Probably not in the same package...we’ll see. I really think I may use the same padded envelope that you (sent the flashdrive to me) used. I know, bad grammar structure; just figure out what I mean.

Glad you guys liked the pictures. It took me a while to remember what energy balls were, but I think I do not. Basically like cookie dough'ish stuff with oatmeal and peanut butter right? I remember liking them a lot. I'll have to eat them in secret so I can still help sustain Elder Beck in his diet.

I had heard that that silly fish word thing a few times, but I still failed the "quiz" until I saw the answer.

Yay for the Rams.
Ya, Chris is 19, but looks and acts younger. He's getting better though. He's doing pretty well.
We weren't able to meet with Miranda this week which was super lame. She didn't end up coming to church either because she was at a friends house and didn't have a ride home which was really disappointing too. She's still been reading and praying most every night though.
Very funny story about Kylie. Good for her. And good for mom at teachng and for quinn with his BYU stuff.

For me it's been another week thrashing the nations like usual. One of our investigators, Maria just got interviewed for baptism and will be baptized either this sunday or the one after. She is Chris (and a few other people's) Foster mom. She will be a strong member. She is already a strong missionary force.

One cool story before I have to go.
About a month and a half ago Elder Beck and I were trying to visit a former investigator. We didn't find him, but we talked a little to someone outside the apartment complex. He was in charge. He was slightly rude. Then someone else walked out and said hey I'm a mormon. We started talking to him. He grew up LDS but fell away as soon as he left the house. We didn't have his records in our ward. We had a good conversation for 5-10 minutes, then he walked off. He didn't want us to come back. His name is John Shaw
about 2 weeks ago we received his records in the ward. The Simpsons (who didn't know anything about our encounter with him) visited him and he had hit rock bottom. He let them in. They've been meeting with him since then and he came to church last week. It was great. It was cool to see a few """coincidences""" work out so well and help someone out.

Also I've gotten lots of mail from home this week which was been very fun. Griffin's christmas list is hilarious. ALso I got a package form LDS.org. (not opened).

Love you all! have a great week!

We're going to go visit a lady who's trying really hard to stop smoking so she can visit the temple. Bye!

Received Monday December 3, 2012

Griffin and Zak...matching hair

A self-portrait taken one month before he entered the MTC

QUESTIONS:

I know there are several Mission Christmas Conferences. Which one do you go to?

Ours is on December 19th. I haven't heard much about it, except that it should be fun

Last week I sent lots of mail. Get any...a re-print of your letter with my comments? A load of pictures?

Yes and yes. I forgot to bring the reprint to answer the questions you asked. sorry! I liked getting all those pictures a lot. I pinned some of them up on a bulletin board by my desk. I think my 2 favorite are still the ones comparing my and griffin's crazy hair and also griffin's werewolf costume. very well done.

Did you send your flashdrive last week?

no :( sorry. I realized I had taken a lot more pictures since I downloaded them onto the flashdrive so I figured I'd load those on and send it today.

It seemed I had a lot more questions this week, but that is all I remember!

I just remembered! you asked what cape verdian food (I think I wrote about cape verde in one of my first emails here. it's an island off the coast of Africa. A lot of people from there live in New Bedford) I ate on Thanksgiving. All I really remember is Jag. Fatima (the mom of the house) (some people here do not like to be called by there last name) is famous for her jag. It's mostly rice with some beans and (I think) kale (leafy green vegetable). I think it's fine, but everyone raves about it. (I guess she uses the best kind of rice and best kind of beans etc). Also it took me a while to find the name jag to be appetizing.

Hope you have had a good week – keeping warm, working out, finding new people to teach; sharing the gospel, eating good food, sleeping well, wearing your retainer and flossing at least once.

I have been doing those things. Probably less that 50/50 about flossing last week though.

Good sports update about the rams and the turkey bowl. What do the NFC west standings look like now? are they still on par with everyone else?

I think it's too bad the Young men lost a close game, especially since everyone was cheating against quinn. I remember when dad had his long streak of getting at least 1 TD, sounds like the streak is now the other way, but his team keeps winning. The YM just need to draft Greg Zuerlein like the Rams did and they'll be able to win.

Chase sent a good email update I'll respond to here.

It sounds like a good job and a very good location. I could see myself doing something similar and wanting to end up in a similar place. There's no way to know though. I know who to trust my money with when I'm rich though.

Did you guys know the Killers have been my favorite for a long time? I had heard about the new album. I have watched his "I'm a mormon" One kind of funny missionary joke is that watching that is the easiest way to listen to regular music while staying obedient because during the video one of his songs is playing in the background, but it's ok to watch because it's on mormon.org.

That's crazy you know Natalie Hale. Like she said, we never really hung out, but I definitely remember her (or maybe her sister. I sort of can't remember which is which). I figured it would be a weird time to be at BYU. I figured most every girl I knew will go on a mission or end up married pretty quick. I think it's safe to assume in the premortal existence we got to choose if we wanted to go to BYU either with Jimmer or a good guy to girl ratio. it wouldn't be fair to have both! haha just kidding.

and good job getting the new phone for 30$. Capital Group would be proud of your cost-effective investment.

We ended up having even more lessons with less active members than usual this week. Jackie Carmo, who hasn't been to church in years came with us yesterday which was great. The Simpsons gave him a ride. We're hoping to help make that the normal for him. He's pretty far out there in a lot of his ideas. He doesn't really have much of a testimony of the restoration, but he is very christian. He was mostly baptized (15'ish years ago) because he thought mormons did the best job of "walking the walk"

we didn't end up getting to teach Miranda at all this week, which was a bummer. When we reminded her about fast sunday (with a text) she said she'd fast though, even though she couldn't come.

We spoke to the YW about how to respond to questions when they wear there "I'm a mormon and I live it... love it" shirts. I heard a new weird rumor about mormons. Numerous people have asked one of the YW about the magnets that mormons have that we're not allowed to show people and when we put them together it's the end of the world or something. very strange. I always like it when we can work with the youth, they tend to be excited about the gospel, instead of treating it like a chore.

We mostly stopped doing the law of consecration in the apartment, but last week Elder Wilding had an idea. In the beginning of each month we'll all put 15$ into a pot and use that to buy the things we all use (milk, eggs, cheese, bread, stuff for the apartment). President Packard is always talking about Zion and recently we talked about Alma's "Zion" he had with his people (by the waters of mormon) and a big part of that was they lived the law of consecration. it worked well last month for us too. In one of my emails to President Packard I mentioned that to him and he said he thought it was great and "a good start", so we may be increasing our consecration-ness even more in the future.

That's everything, love you all!