Received Monday, September 9, 2013

You always have lots of updates to tell! Lots of things always going on in a big family!

QUESTIONS:

Do you get the ensign, how do you get it, it seems you should be reading it…

We usually get it; from our Zone leaders. Usually I'll read/skim parts of it at least. I read a lot of the August (I think. The cover had trees with light shining through. Very sacred grove looking) and I liked it a lot. I did not read an article about grace this week, but I did pray about it.

What did you eat for your Sunday meal?

ummm yesterday I kind of snacked on stuff throughout the day, lets see if I remember. I finished all the granola and things in the package you sent (thank you!) we didn't have a dinner appointment. I ate a tuna sandwhich in pita bread (we got the bread for free at the soup kitchen we do service at). For dinner I ate 2 cans of campbells chicken noodle soup that have been here since before I moved in. I've always seem to end up eating a lot of food, especially canned stuff, that was in an apartment before I got there. It's like getting free food! just make sure it's not too old.

See anymore larva bug moths?

nope! crisis averted

'

How is your weather…getting cooler?

yea, which is much more worrisome to me than relieving. Leaves are changing colors, which is cool, but doesn't captivate me as much as it does others.

What music do you most like to listen to in the car?

Elder Gallagher has lots of talks on cd's we mostly listen too. When listening to music I usually most like the type of stuff you sent to me before (The Work by A Nashville Tribute). Hymns by different artists can be fun too. Even MoTab isn't bad. Back when I was with Elder Beck he had a lot of MoTab Christmas cd's that were fun. I'm pretty easy to please, as long as it's safe with the Biblia Blanca

What kind of clothes detergent are you using?

The cheap kind. Don't remember the brand for sure. It might be purple and might be called "All". Definitely is liquid.

Take a picture of the changing leaves/colors!

there's a ton of trees here, so that won't be too hard

Do you text your mission president?

We can, but don't often have a reason too. He's pretty busy, so you don't ever just send him a what's up or anything. Sister Packard texts us all the birthdays in the mission (seems  like most every day) including his, and told us to text him. We have interviews with him this month, I don't remember exactly when.

Interesting football week, seems like everyone's team won. Weird game for BYU!

I can't remember for sure exactly what dad emailed to me when Andy went to the chiefs but is something just like "But I don't see myself becoming a chiefs fan". Maybe I'll find a chiefs mug to send home, or better, a dinner plate with the face of JamCha printed on it. I'll keep my eyes open.

Quinn doing lots of exciting things last week and this week. Don't stay up late monday or wednesday, or you won't wake up the next day for BoM class, and then you won't get a good grade! careful!

Who is kylie's math teacher? which class is it? I think if she searches the book, usually it explains ok, and there are surely good places online for it too.

Barfing and crying girls are the fruits of a good soccer practice.

This week we did some interesting things. On tuesday someone took us out to all you can eat fried clams. I was somewhat nervous, but didn't hate it. I wouldn't volunteer to do it again either. On tuesday we went to DLC (district leader council) where are the leadership folks of the mission have a meeting. President talked about the role and the district leaders, about how he wants district meetings to run, etc. Also he started by doing a study of Alma chp 5.

We also got a media refferal from the Salt Lake visitors center that was really good (we got a text from SLC saying visit "-------  ---------" at a certain address). We went that day, and talked to Ion's wife. She said that her husband had just called her that day and said that he talked to someone in Salt Lake and gave them the address. She was impressed at how quick we were and said we could come back in a  week or so when Ion was home. He is a truck driver, that's why he's gone. They are Hebrew.

We got to be helpful at PEC with organizing home teacher. About a month ago I was on exchanges in the Pittsfield area, and they showed us something their ward does. They have an onlince google doc, with a spreadsheet with all the ward members names on it, and when they were last visited, by whom, and some notes. I asked for a sample copy of it because I thought it was great. Since then we mentioned it once or twice, but no one here really jumped on it. During PEC someone said they should use some sort of "online spreadsheet" so they can be more organized. We were able to use someone's ipad right at the table to email the sample that we had, which worked perfectly. Hurray for sharing good ideas and for technology.

One other interesting thing about missionary work that stood out to me this week was that you get to hear snippets of so many people's stories. On the street with random people, in members homes, everywhere. This week we did service at a blood drive (we're not allowed to donate). And I was assigned to basically sit at the refreshments table and make sure no one faints (ironic?) I got to talk to lots of good people, no new investigators out of it, but lots of good conversation. 

Received Tuesday, September 3, 2013

QUESTIONS:

What did you get in the mail from me this week? FF picks? Sd card?

yes, yes, and yes. It was kind of fun to glance over the FF picks. There were a few funny things I was going to say about them. I picked which team I thought was going to win. It might have been Chase. It was the only person who had all players I had heard of before. Maybe the weirdest part was to see people not only had Rams on their team, but had Rams players I had never heard of.
Sad to hear Tebow got transferred away from the patriots (ha ha! missionary joke!). Somebody told me I think sunday when we were at a dinner appointment that he got cut.

Why do you have less time; is it a library computer thing? Can you just log into another computer when you 1^st hour is up? Sort of frustrating to you I would think.

only 1 hour at the library here. It's not a big deal. It's fun to email, but even if I had to skip a week I wouldn't be devastated.

Do you do your wash in a Laundromat? If yes, do you try to talk to people there? Are you received well?

there is a place you have in our apartment complex. Not free. We don't ever see people there. In my last ward we went to a Laundromat and sometimes could talk to people there. Had a few interesting discussions. 

Do you actually prepare to teach a lesson on Sundays for the Youth Sunday school class or do you just wing it because you were hoping the actual teacher would show up?

very funny. There IS no teacher! it's just us. They are going to call one though. Sometimes we prepare, but sometimes we are busy/forget. Usually we spend most of the time talking to the kids about their missionary efforts. They're always pretty good. Inviting friends to mutual, dances, service projects etc.

Anything you need or something we can do to support you more?

everything is good!

If you didn’t write on Monday, what did you do? Did your mission pres tell you all to write on Tues when the library was opened?

President didn't say anything, but we assumed, it's the standard thing to do. Some people have comps at their chapel, which they could do yesterday, but we did not have the luxury.

It was another good week. I thought kylie usually liked school? Especially with already being in soccer. Brother Card makes that Initiation joke all the time, about becoming a deacon, going to seminary, etc. That is sad kids don't know how long in inch is though.

Can't believe quinn is shipping off in basically a week. is he flying up? when will we know what is schedule is?

This week for us we did all the regular things. Also we found some of those gross larva bugs that were in our house! the ones that become the small brownish moths. I think we squashed the problem before it came serious. We only ever saw 1 actual moth. In the cabinet with a lot of our food we found some of the worms. we threw away basically all of the stuff that were in the infected areas and cleaned it all out. We've kept the food somewhere else for a few days now. at first we found about 1 worm a day back in the cabinet that must have crawled out from a crack. We're going to wait until we see no worms for a few days then we'll put our food back and call it safe. We're pretty sure we got them from when a member moved out and gave us a bunch of random food stuff. Glad we were able to solve the problem before it really got going.

I don't know if anything else particularly interesting happened this week. We started trying to visit a lot of the former investigators and found some potential interest. 

On thursday this week we get to go to PEC and help them restructure Home teaching, which is great. We can let them know which less active/inactive members really need it. I wish I could have had this meeting in my past wards.

That's everything for now!

Received Wednesday, August 28, 2013

in case you couldn't tell, I have less time in this library, so I'll try to be write quick, but still my responses will be shorter. This was a very fun email week though.

QUESTIONS:

Are you happy with Bank of America? Your ability to get money/atm? Would you recommend that bank to Quinn?

sure. I never really need to pull out cash, so it's not a big deal. There are some Bank of America places here so that wouldn't be a big deal either. Sorry I don't have a stronger opinion

 

How was your talk today? Did you companion speak too?

I felt like it was only ok. I really liked the first one I did here, but this time I started preparing too late, and I had already said the big ideas missionary related I wanted to share. We had an investigator family planning on coming, so I mostly wrote my talk for them, what I thought they needed, but they didn't show up, so that wasn't perfect either. I did use fantasy football in my talk as an analogy though.

 

Did you play Risk last week for your p-day?

no, we didn't, it was still fun though. 1 person from the district is getting transferred now.

 

Weather still warm? (It sure is here!!)

yes, warm, but it wasn't earlier. for the past month we've basically had very comfortable weather. today is a little warm, but hardly a deal. Some leaves are already changing colors

 

Have you started using your adventure pack? How do you like it? Do you just sling it in the backseat while driving in the car? Do you pack snacks in it?

yes I have it, and it's fine. Better than I expected, but I would rather have a backpack. I put it on the back seat, just like I did with my backpack. I do not put snacks in it. I took a picture of it, it was funny because it looked like such a missionary bag (packed with my scriptures, a couple extra BoM's to give away, a few pamphlets and cards, etc). 

I am shocked about the change in dress code….Khaki pants!! Closed toed sandals?? Light suits??? Shocking I say! Please report when/if you see missionaries dressed with these new standards.

Closed toed sandals are not allowed here, I think that's mostly for more tropical areas, which New England is not. Light suits I've seen since the MTC, but now they're allowed.

So neither I nor my companion are leaving. He has only 2 transfers left (including this one) so he might "die" here.

We had our first branch counselor with the new president, which was good. He talked about how he wants to progress to becoming a ward. We also got a new Branch Mission leader who's been home from his mission about 18 months (just got married) and he is excited about it too. The investigator family who didn't come to church we taught probably 5 times in the last 2 weeks. They just quit smoking. We helped them through this 7 day program and they were astounded that it was not near as hard as they thought. They are great. the "family" Ryan who's in his late 20's, he was baptized when he was 18 and he's living with his non-wife Amber and brother Chris. All 3 were smoking and now are not. The goal is for Ryan to get the priesthood and then he can baptize Amber and Chris. There's a few things that need to happen first (including a marriage), but they are excited and like the reading assignment we leave them and are doing good. Amber didn't grow up with any religion, and you can tell she loves feeling the spirit. She wishes she could have grown up with the church.

got to dash. Thanks for everything!

Received Monday, August 19, 2013

Practice? Practice?!? we're sittin here, you're supposed to be a franchise choir director, and we're talkin 'bout practice!!!!

good job, glad your practice came through!

QUESTIONS:
Do you hear much about sports from people there?
sometimes, a little. I'm never sure how much I should engage someone in a sports conversation. Usually though I realize the person doesn't actually know much about sports, so I don't feel to bad I couldn't talk sports with them. Just yesterday we were at a dinner someone mention Tim Tebow (and his struggles). I said I liked him, at watched him when he was playing college too. She then asked something about why would a mormon like him go to Notre Dame anyway. I was amused.
That's fun to hear the Dodgers are doing well. I've always been surprised how little baseball I hear up hear, maybe because the Sox have been struggling for a while.
Good luck to everyone on the Fantasy draft, interesting choice to look into PPR. Will Bradford get drafted?



Have you heard about the greatness of the dodgers?
not at all. Quick funny story I just thought of though: The license plates here are a bright'ish red. Very different from our dark blue California plates. I found that very strange when I got here, took a while to adjust, I halfway expected that everyone was always staring at them wondering why they were so strange looking. This week I saw a car from CA and I thought the dark plate letters were so weird! funny how that happens. The reason I thought of that was because I just thought that it's funny CA w/the blue dodgers have blue plate letters and here in Red Sox town it's red.


How was church for you today?
fine. Nothing astounding happened. I helped pass the sacrament. we taught youth sunday school like always. I am giving a talk here AGAIN this sunday. Elder Gallagher and I are both speaking. I feel like I said most of my missionary stuff last time, i'll figure out how to mix it up for this week.


In your branch, are their missionaries out from that branch?
no, but 1 YM just finished his papers, 1 will get his call in a week or so.


Doing anything of interest today?
the other elders in our district are driving down here, which very rarely can happen (it's about a 50 mile drive). We might play Risk


Talk about this new “adventure pack”...have you got one; will you have to buy one? Do you think all the NEW missionaries will have to bring those instead of backpacks? Are they like a messenger bag? Is this coming from your Mission President or higher up?
yes, like messenger bags (satchel, man purse, it's all the same). The rule change was from the most higher ups. I think that's what the call packets have been saying for maybe 6 months are so now. you could read about all the dress code changes for Elders on line. Some lighter suits are also now ok, in some places close toed sandles are ok (not here) and kakey color pants also. I got my bag in a Target. It's not too terrible. Big enough to fit my stuff. It will be weird to get used to though. Spent 20$ (and the cashier didn't mock my dodger themed debit card) which is a good deal I think.


PICTURES: I have a memory card for a camera right here: it is an SD card. Can you use that? Like, I will send this to you, when you get it, you put it in your camera and send my your memory card. I put those pictures on my computer and send back the memory card. IF your camera uses a different memory card, I can buy one of those and send it to you. What do you think?? 
The SD card in my camera is small and blue, 2GB. the camera in a Canon Poweshot SD1300 IS
That can work. Should I just send mine home in a padded envelope?


Sad about losing your flash drive…not the worse thing, though.
yup.


Feeling healthy?
yup.


Do you shop at Walmart? Christopher and Chase are both Walmart Grocery shopper lovers!
yup. my whole mission we've always gone to Walmart. Works out well.


We got to watch the temple groundbreaking on tv yesterday of the Hartford temple (which is about 5 mins from my last area). The choir director for it was in my last home ward. President Monson was there and a 70. He and a bunch of other people turned over some dirt with golden shovels. A lot of people from the community (city officials and stuff) got too go. A high up catholic person was there (Dionysus I think) wearing an all white suit, looked like he was ready to work inside a temple.

I don't think I have any other particular stories for this week. In the last 2 weeks we've had 3 different less active members and 4 non-members come to church, which has been neat. the less actives were people we've been working with and the non-members  mostly friends of people at church. 2 came to hear a friend give a talk yesterday. I was really happy for the member who invited them, it's our new EQP who's been great

Happy birthday to quinn coming up! that's the most surprising birthday number for someone while on my mission. 18 is old!
thank you all for everything. I love you

Received Monday, August 12, 2013

QUESTIONS:

Talk about your Zone Conference!

It was very, very good.

If you didn’t include in the above questions, what about your backpacks?? Will you have to purchase a man/bag?

I do need to get an Adventure pack to use instead of my backpack. Elder Gallagher might have one he doesn't use though, so I'll figure it out.

 

How many missionaries in your Zone?

about 12 and I think either 3 or 4 zones come to every zone conference (as opposed to a zone meeting, which is when only 1 zone meets together, those happen every month)

 

Do the girls missionaries go to the zone conference? Do they sit in their own section? Do the boys and girls mix?

yes, they do everything. No mandatory segregation, but sometimes it happens a little. Mostly people tend to sit by their district. everyone sits by their companion. I remember one thing they mentioned early on when the flood of sisters started coming in was don't have the same elder/sister sit next to each other to many times in a row. Mostly the Packards just ask everyone to follow Jacobs advice: "Oh be wise, what more can I say?" which I think works for most everyone, but i'm sure the occasional issue does inevitably arise here and there. I don't ever expect and drastic measures to keep elders and sisters away from each other though. They do remind us fairly often the mission  policy of what to do if you find yourself attracted to someone "Keep your big mouth shut!" don't tell anyone but maybe president Packard.

 

Who talked at your zone conference? What songs did you sing?

Our whole mission presidency was there, which really made it special. The Christensen's did a great training on teaching, especially on using questions, and helping them come up with the questions they do have, even if they don't realize it. It's the first time I've seen him since like my first month here. So interesting to hear him teach. He is very good. He had a stroke a while ago, so he speaks kind of slower and looks at the ground, but at the same time you can tell his both a mental genius and a general authority like spiritual giant. The Haight's said a few different things, with maybe the biggest point of the conference when president Haight said he (and he did use all the words and more) asks/exhorts/begs/pleads us to take a member with us to every lesson. was that a very big deal for anyone else's mission? It's been around for at least as long as PMG, and they've brought it up a lot here. They showed us the stats and everything with fancy "regressional analysis" you have to have expensive buissiness technology to do showing how important it is. I don't remember the exact stats but something close is that if our mission taught an extra 7000 lessons with out a member in it, we would end up with 2 more baptisms. We we had and extra 1000 with members there baptisms would double. It's good for the investigator, good for the member, good for everyone. The AP's with president packard talked a lot on planning much better for lessons. The AP's did a little role play on it which was really good with president Packard doing most of the teaching. Sister Packard also always does a funny little game show thing during lunch about knowing cool facts about our mission. This time it was "Who wants to be a mileionnare?" and the companionships in it won some extra miles for the month. They also went over the minor rule changes. It all took most of the day. Very good. Like I said, especially good to hear from all 3 people in our mission presidency and they all bore powerful testimony's.

also the mission doctor/nurse (couple) were there and spent too long teaching us how to properly sneeze and cough and how long to wash our hands. It was funny to hear the ridiculous (not smart) things missionaries have done and gotten injured, like jumping off a stage onto a basketball to see if he would bounce (broken ankle).

 

Does your ward building have keys to open the doors, or a keypad with a combination?

keys

 

How is your dinner calendar? Did you have any meals this week?

ummm still sparse. Remember this is a branch with about 50 active people, lots of widows and old people. This week we have a member signed up for today and then our usual appointments tuesday/thursday. I think next week is already mostly filled though.

 

Ok, I can’t think of anything else. I think you have got all the news.

Now I shall go brush my teeth and go to bed. I no longer have a retainer to put in my mouth, but if I had one I would do so.

Last night I saw my companion flossing (I haven't done in a while) and putting in his retainer (I almost always do) in and I remembered I hadn't didn't do either. I said to myself "sorry body, I realize you're a temple, but I'll take better care of you tomorrow"

This week has been pretty good, we did a lot of work with members. One lame thing was when I was on exchanges with the other companionshiop in our district and I was in their area we had breakfast with a couple in their ward after doing service with them. We wanted to help them with sharing the gospel, the elder I was with said it would be hard with them. while we were eating I brought it up and paraphrased a scripture in the book of mormon where Lehi learns that every invitation or attempt and sharing the gospel was a success (1 nephi 2:1). They said that that scripture only applied to Lehi, not us and that if I were to re-read 1st nephi I would realize that everyone, including Nephi, thought Lehi was just a wierdo anyway.
 oh well, at least I tried. Lehi was not a weirdo.

Our church here in our area was especially great though. Our new leaders are still super excited and ambitious and loved the ideas that we brought up about helping with the Digital mission (which we also learned about at zone conference, maybe I'll write more about it next time).

Also, one last piece of bad news, I lost my flashdrive! I think I left it in the library in my last area. If there was an easier way to send pictures home that would be great, I think there is a way to format them so they can be emailed, maybe I'll figure that out next week too. We only have an hour on the computers here.

That's everything. I love you

Received Monday, August 5, 2013

QUESTIONS:

How was your testimony meeting today?

for me today, it testimony meeting was yesterday, and it was good. The friend who was invited was not able to come, but probably still will another week. The stake president and a few other stake people were here and (these were mostly expected) the branch presidency was changed, EQP and HPGL. the new Branch President is the old 1st counselor who seems like a really good guy and missionary minded. we're going over there for lunch today. the 2nd counselor just moved into the ward (this is their 2nd sunday) with his wife and 2 kids. He is from Germany, met his wife in London (as missionaries, both of them) and just moved to Connecticut from Chicago. I think they are kind of surprised to be so throwin into it so soon but are up for the challange. the EQP is someone who just got asked to start coming to this branch (he lives in the boundaries, but was going to a different ward. not sure why. I've seen a lot of that in the past year), which is interesting, but he did a good job in elders quorum and brought a non-member friend. Nothing exciting to report about the HPGL. he's a nice old guy (emphasis on the 2nd adjective) after the announcements there was not much silence, there was a good stream of testimonies basically the whole time.

Doing any sports today?

no, I don't think I'll be doing many sports in this area. My companion is not a big sports person and when I talked to the ZL's about organizing something with the zone, they said they would want to but we are just too spread out to have people to use the miles (which is unfortunately true). 

When you leave this area, do you think you will leave your library card for the next Elder to use?? Maybe your library card will become famous.

I don't think so. I guess they have some system here where all the libraries in western/central MA work together can accept the same library card, so I'll probably keep it. That is a funny idea though. For a lot of my time in Canton CT I was using elder Mars' library card, and he went home about when I came out.

The Hansens came over to N & B for dinner today. Haley was here – you know she just got home from her mission. SHE talked about Preach my Gospel DVD’s!! Have you heard of those?? She said she really enjoyed them. For her mission, each area had a set of the DVD’s. Have you heard of those?? The DVD’s are for the missionaries, for learning, not for investigators.

I do remember hearing she got home. Did I ever talk about when I talked to a sister she knew in her mission? in my first area someone serving there called and gave us a referral (I guess they do that there) and I remembered it was Haley's mission so I asked she knew Sister Hansen. She said yes! I think they were former companions.

I do know all about the PMG DVD's/The District. There are 2 sets. I (as instructed) watched some of them before I went into the MTC. you watch lots of snipets while in the MTC and you watch them while you are being trained in your first 2 transfers. All the apartments here have them too. Haven't watched anything in them in a while though. Usually it's about watching them doing a good job teaching and following the principles in PMG, but they also have some examples where they do a bad job and you learn from it. Probably the most famous part is when 2 of the elders do a really bad job teaching the law of chastity. they teach it to this guy and they are awkward and unclear and rush through it. In their next meeting the investigator talks about how he was at a party and he saw some girl he likes and he was tempted to talk to her and maybe ask her on a date, but they taught in the law of chastity so he didn't because (he thought) he wasn't allowed to. The missionaries then cleared everything up.

Talk about your weather.

Not as hot as when I first got here. It's been pretty pleasant actually. rains every once and a while. today sunny and blue sky.

Talk about your dinner appointments!! Same amount as in your last area? How has the food been? How are the families?

we do not have near as many. Every tuesday a non-member couple feeds us and every thursday we do service and then eat at a community dinner. other than that we ate once at the old branch presidents house (yummy barbeque) and we ate twice at the Graves house, a young couples, who unfortunatly just moved away. Interesting thought Brother Graves served his mission in Houston South speaking Spanish (I think was home before Chase got there though) and he had just got home from an internship down in Argentina. They fed us vegan burgers (tasted good) because he was tired of eating so much meat. Also he brought home some dulce de leche because they use it so much down there. I asked him if he had any of the warm milk in a bag, he said once and he did not like it. We did a quick FHE with them (it was monday) and sang Called to Serve in spanish. We are starting to advertise our calander a bit better and more people are signing up though.

How much is gas?

not sure I don't really pay attention. We just swipe the gas card and fill 'er up

Sweating much?

not lately

Have you gotten any new ideas for food from your fun, new companion?

no really new inventions, but a couple times we made pasta and mixed it with red sauce which I hadn't done in the past. Good and doesn't take too long.

Area you living with 1 other or 3 other missionaries? (I’ve probably asked this before…)

there's just 2 of us.

How do you like your apartment?

it's good. Nothing to complain about.

Do you (elders) help pass/bless the sacrament on Sunday?

there is 1 person who's calling it is to organize it. We have helped all 3 weeks I've been here.

ummm I told most of my stories while answering the questions. We got a baptismal date for 1 of our investigators (sept 1st) which is exciting. He's also quitting smoking. It actually was set while I was gone on exchanges with the ZL's.

We have a pretty good week schedules ahead of us which is exiting. Zone Conference on friday. Have you guys heard about the updates to the missionary Elders dress code? Backpacks and not "unprofessional and innapropriate" according to the church for missionaries. President is going to give us the full scoop. 99% chance i'm going to have to buy a man-purse satchel thing. seems silly.

that's all for now. Keep having a fun summer. Congradulations to Chase and Christopher for succesfully moving!

I love you all!

Received Monday, July 29, 2013

QUESTIONS:

How are things going in your area?

Pretty good. the 1 person here who had a baptismal date has kind of disappeared though. Phone isn't working and is never home. we're worried he relapsed with smoking and is embarrassed or something. I've never met him. We have a realistic goal to have 2 people with baptismal dates by the end of the month though. We've taught some good lessons. We've had a few good discussions with active members too, making plans to invite their friends. We taught the youth sunday school again (this time there were 2 girls and 1 guy) and we had already met with the guy and knew about a friend he works with who said he would come to church. Since next week is fast sunday we planned a group of people in the branch we could ask (we as in the class. they did great) to bear their testimony to make it a good meeting.  I have high hopes. I think it can be great for the friend coming and even besides that I think the branch will notice it is a great meeting with more people going up and trying to make it the best experience possible

Have you  done anything fun with your new companion?

all day every day. He's a funny guy. Also, this whole district is into (infected by?) pokemon cards, so I brought mine out again and we've done that a few times. I'm still happy I could make a 12.50 investment that's worked out, there is 1 elder here who has put in that much money if you move the decimal 1 spot over to the right, and double it. ($250).

How do you like driving?

same as always. it's just driving.

Does your new area look different than your last area…you know, driving around, like that?

over all it's more rural. my last area had some of everything, here has less densely populated places. It's also a bigger area here.

What are your plans for p-day?

not much for today. I've heard about a few interesting things here though. I guess there's some place where it's like a big room with flowers and tons and tons of butterflies. It might be worth walking through once if it's cheap. I'm going to talk to the ZL's about organizing some sports activity too.

Are you emailing at the library? What is the name on “your” library card?

yup. "Zachery Cole" to match my drivers license. I bet Brett Favre's kids all have the same problem with their names being spelled different than how they want it too; he would waffle about it and then change his mind about how to spell it after he had already signed the paper work. "Elder" is always tempting as well. One time we did service in my first area and they made us print off these sticker name tags and I wrote Elder on mine, so I had one silly sticker on my shirt saying Elder as well as my regular name tag too.

Last week when you met up in Belmont and switched cars to drive to your new area, did YOU do the driving then? If yes, did your companion tell you where to go?

yes. I used my gps, it gets used for everything. my companion now didn't mail in all the paperwork needed to drive or something like that, so he hasn't done any driving in the mission

I sent you are card this week....get it....smooth and creamy....

I got it. very funny. did you make it up? do you write down all the jokes you send so you can recycle for each missionary? by the time Griffin went out there would be enough jokes/puns stored up to send him 2 or 3 every day.

remember the musical fireside thing I've mentioned before? we just had it for our stake on saturday, and it was really good. no one from our branch, members or not, came, which was disappointing, but if I try to think realistically, it would be hard for someone to decide to drive an hour away Saturday night (we're in the outskirts of the stake) to listen to a bunch of missionaries sing. They would have found it worth it if they came though. I was asked to day before to have a small speaking part though. there were 3 main topics it was about and I gave a 2 minute introduction for the Atonement section and the Revelation section. Brief talk about what it is. It was neat to be a part of a bigg'ish event that went really well. Despite the poor showing from our branch there were a fair amount of people there including about 40-50 non members. My old mtc companion Elder Orgill was there and he had 2 investigators so I bet he really appreciated having the whole event. All the missionaries in the stake came, which is always fun.

 The other elders in our district car pooled with us which was fun too. It's a good/fun bunch

last silly story. have you heard of scentsy? (not sure if they do it out west) but it's flameless scented candles to help your apartment smell good. there is like a small bowl of scented wax, and under it a light bulb which gets warm and melts it and gets the smell out. Someone in myt last area sold them and gave me one when I left (I can send a picture). One day here I was leaning over it and I didn't realize my tie was in the melted wax! by the time I looked down it had soaked up quite a bit. I've tried to get it mostly out. the tip and about 2 inches up are a little  darker than the rest, but it's not super noticeable. It does still smell good though, like the scentsy! that is the tie I am wearing now.

alrighty, now I must be off to enjoy the rest of my (sweet citrusy smelling) day.

I love you!

Received Monday July 22, 2013

I am now in Greenfield. My address:

366 mantague city rd apt D

turners falls, MA
01376

I don't have a ton of time, right now, but things are good here!

QUESTIONS FROM THIS WEEK:

Tell about new area, companion, ward, OH and district duties, is your companion a district leader too, or just you?

Just me. I'm with Elder Gallagher, he is good. he has 3 transfers left, including this one. This is only his 2nd transfer in this area. From Utah. Not on a diet (unusual for my companions). fun guy.

the new area seems good, but not as much going on as Canton. It is a small branch here. About 50 people at church on sundays and about 250 innactives. we do have a baptism lined up for this sunday though! last week I spoke (found out on like tuesday while I was in Canton, they called and told me. I like how it turned out. About learning and understanding the mysteries of god,aa nd of-course I discussed how to best share them too). Also we taught the youth (3, all YW) during sunday school and taught Elders quorum. Then there was a linger longer afterwards.

Our sunday school lesson I think was really good. We just talked with each of them about what they can do specifically to share the gospel. 1 has a friend who went to an efy'like activity and took a BoM who she will read with. Another has a friend/family who she's invited to  few things and she will make sure to invite them to an upcoming dance. That is one of my very favorite things; setting real goals/plans with people about what they will do to share the gospel. It's real, brings the spirit, not just fluff or something that you hear 99 times every week.

How was packing all your stuff up?

stank. I always dislike it. always forget 1 or 2 small things. (this time a little notebook I keep by my bed. Also I think my flashlight).

How did you get over to your new area?

what happens is everyone who is getting transferred/companions goes to Belmont. Good meeting with everyone and Pres Packard. Departing missionaries bear testimony (Elder Beck, my 2nd companion was 1). switch cars and go to new area.

What is your new address?

written above

How many people in your district?

 4. just our area and 1 other. Both have things going kind of slow right now. I'm in charge of District meeting. Doing exchanges. Getting monthly goals and reporting. Getting weekly #'s and reporting. Being good example/help everyone be and feel effective in their areas and so forth. There was a meeting after Transfer meeting with all the new District leaders.

QUESTIONS FROM LAST WEDNESDAY’S LETTER:

Have you come across raw onions in food on your mission? How was it for you? OH! I just remembered a hideous time when I picked you up from school at el pollo loco and you had just gotten a certain taco where it was loaded with those onions!! You just ate the whole thing like it was nothing....gross....but nice for you. Do you remember that??

last time I was at subwar I got a turkey sandwhich on wheat bread with lettecue, spinach and onions!

i've run into them many times. Normally don't put them on raw like that, but that time I did.

I was going to guess that you were not being transferred, but now I realize that IF you are transferring you would do that tomorrow. So, what’s your news??

It happened!

On the news I hear that there is a hot and humid heat wave out there? Talk about your weather!! Talk about your choice of clothes; are you sweating much?

short sleeve shirt. Not much else I can choose. Hot but not terrible.

If you transfer, will you still have a car?

yup, and still driving

Have you noticed an increase in Sister missionaries lately?

there've been a bunch coming in every transfer for a while now.

How often do you have a zone conference or a district conference where you would even see a nice amount of other missionaries?

DM every week (4 missionaries total) Zone Meeting every month (about 12 ppl) and Zone Conference (where multiple zones get together) every 3 months or so.

Last week you talked about Gladys Knight’s back singer that is in your mission. Is she black? Just wondering...have you heard her sing, or just heard that she is good?

yes. yes, she is very good. she's sung at a few meetings I was at.

Get all your laundry done?

No, I usually just wear a;; my cloths dirty for a month or so before washing them again.

just kidding. I got everything done.

ummmm not sure what else to say.

I've been wanting to serve in a branch some time. See what it's like, be in a place where people will be excited for new members/reactivations and really need them (except that almost no one new the name of the guy being baptized next week). I'm excited to help the pace pick up, the gospel is all about change. We set up a meeting with the branch president this week. Elder Gallagher has a pretty good hold of things here too. I'm a little bummed about the lack of youth though. There is only 1 YM, a deacon who comes sometimes. I was able to print out your letter last week at our dinner appointment, it was good. 

that's everything for now!

I love you