Received Monday, December 23, 2013

QUESTIONS:

Tell us about how/when/TIME we will google chat on Christmas, please!!

the plan is around 2 o'clock my time. I believe that is 11 in CA. we just found someone this week who has 2 comps with video chat capabilities. He has a really small apartment though, so it might be kind of weird with 2 skyper's and him not spread super far apart. I'm sure all will be good though. Elder Wright has never done skype, so we'll have to help him figure it out.

Did you get my FUNNY Christmas card??

yes! I thought it was funny you said Griffin didn't get it at first, but later laughed. I chuckled at it right away. good job rudolphing that fly

Have you heard anymore about your car crash from your mission car guy? Is all ok there? Any more crashes this week?

I called him again to tell him, and it's not a big deal. We have to go somewhere to get it fixed sometime though. I have neither seen nor been the part of any crashes this week. Someone in the branch did get into a bad accident though. full, but long recovery expected

Did you have church this week, or was there too much snow again?? If you did go to church tell us about your Christmas Sunday Program.

snow hasn't been bad the past few days, it actually started warming up. it rained today and yesterday! it was super foggy yesterday though, like having a hard time to see the lines in certain places.

our program had I believe 2 musical numbers (one by the Elder's quorum) 2 extra hymns for everyone to sing and lots of little 2 minute talks including by much of the primary, the entire branch presidency and Elder Wright and others. the branch presidensy member that was in charge this week likes to talk about how he enjoys getting to make up the programs each week in his month. He usually gives a bit of an introduction behind how it was planned, for example one week he had 3 speakers all speak on how science and religion work together/support each other (or a similar topic) and he chose a scientist/professor in the branch, a college student studying something like chemical engineering and a sciency minded youth. It kind of makes thingy interesting. I think he also likes it when it's not his responsibility too. We also combined the youth with our Gospel Principles class because the usually teacher was not there.

How was your Mission Christmas Meeting?

good.

 How was the temple; see the new movie??

yes, good.

 How was your skit? 

good

Did you get your Christmas box from home?

yes.

The whole thing was fun. It was still kind of snowy that day though so we left early. I had to do all the driving. I really liked the temple, gave a lot to think about. We had a quick meeting beforehand with the temple president and president Packerd too. they mostly talked about seeing things differently than our usual literal point of view and thinking more symbolically, the colors, facial expressions, emotions, music, etc, a lot of things expressed not by words. The temple president passed us all around a little picture of peter and john running toward the savior and talked about the feeling of the picture and the different people, and it's similar to the temple (the way you read it anyway). President Packard talked about how he feels he stunted his spiritual growth when he was younger because he got himself frustrated trying to figure out what was literal and what was not and what every detail might mean, when that's not the way to do it.

all 3 people from our mission presidency were there, which was great. They all gave great talks. In president Hiaght's talk he told of his family's conversion story, which I had heard once before. His dad was baptized as a youngster but actually went to church very few times, but still somehow there records followed them to there new house and they were assigned a visiting teacher. She was a persistent 23 year old, and basically because of her the whole family changed, even though she was 26 by the time she actually got into the door.

President Christensen said a lot of good stuff, maybe the most interesting was about how Christ's view and the Advesary's view of sin almost switch before and after it is committed. Beforehand Christ cannot look on sin with any degree of allowance, but the adversary says it's ok. It's an exception, and it won't matter. When someone does sin, the devil tells you that you're filthy. you're not worthy anymore. he says not to pray Christ says, it's ok, just repent! that's all you have to do. He says things can turn out just fine. He says I love you! 

President Packard talked about the Wise men. Christ didn't really need gold and frankincense or anything like that, after-all he created this planet. Really what the wise men did was show that they knew he was king. They knew who he really was. President's question to us was what will we do to show we know Christ is the Lord?

He also say "Oh Holy Night" and his daughter sang too. there was a bit of a musical fireside actually, lots of missionaries played instruments and sang and things.

It's always great to hear them talk. I think sometimes you can tell as they're looking down at their notes and think "nope, actually I feel like I need to say something else today!"

Did you have a webex skype meeting this week?? How was it?

No, the ones I participate in are the 1st and 2nd tuesday of each week. He usually doesn't do stuff like that (meetings, etc) on a week where there's something like the Christmas conference anyway (where we're going to see him so he'll give his schpiel there).

Talk more about the possibility of Ipads!!

no new updates, but i'm pretty certain they are coming though. I personally haven't heard it out of president's mouth, but the ZL's say he talked about it at some of their meetings. supposedly they've already tested it in other missions and everything. They say each companionship would get an Iphone and each elder get their own I-pad they'd keep their entire mission (encentive to take care of it) and maybe get the option to buy it from the mission at the end. I wonder if we'll get the phones first and then the ipads, or how it's actually happen. All the ideas about what the rules/regulations etc about using them and the internet are just speculation.

We do have copies of The Lamb of God to give out. I think I've given them out a couple times, probably never watched it with an investigator though. I liked Finding Faith in Christ better.

I remember last christmas, I was in my first area and another Elder got a small package from his non-member girlfriend at home. It had a little letter that said something like "I don't know what the rules are about watching movies, but this one has to do with mormons, so I hope you like it!" inside was a copy of Mr Kruegers Christmas. The elder just put it on the bookshelf where we had probably another 8 or 9 of those we can watch or give away. We thought it was funny. A for effort I guess. Anyway she ended up getting a tattoo and stuff, and that elder is home now but not with that girl anymore.

We had 2 fun dinner appointments yesterday. At one we got invited back for Christmas Eve and we'll open a present with them. The mom said she would make sure to have chocolate milk because I've mentioned how my dad used to make it for us every night. There a great family, they do a good job of treating missionaries like people, not just the label, still respecting us like missionaries, rules and everything, but still people. That's something I've thought a bit about, treating people like labels, even if it's a good label, it's different than really knowing a person.

I hope Dad get a chance to write that article for the Digital Mission! they sent mine back with some notes on how I could improve it. I'll show you.

That's all! I love you

Received Monday December 16, 2013

QUESTIONS:

Did you get one more Christmas package this week?

yes. I have one "wait" package and one that I opened where there was 2 wrapped presents inside.

 

I sent you a Christmas card last week too, so get your punny hat on and be ready!!

I'll be waiting!

 

How was the Yankee Candle store last week? Buy anything? Smell stuff? How many missionaries went?

it was decently fun, something different. A lot of goofy stuff in there. I smelled many things, many of which I did not think smelled good! the worst was a bacon scented candle. It smelled like bacon, but was way strong and kind of barfalicious

 

Any trouble with driving in the snow....ice?

When we were driving out to district meeting (a 50 mile trek, I think that's the farthest anyone drives for DM) I was a snowy, icing day. Somewhere along the drive the GPS guided us along some more rugged smaller roads. I tried to drive quite slowly to be careful, but along one point I hit the brakes too hard/at the wrong time while I was turning and the car slid and bumped a tree! I was only going about 10 mph, but it still left a small dent above the back tire on the passenger side. later that day I called the vehicle coordinator and left a message telling him about it. Haven't heard back yet. on that same ride, when I was driving even more exceedingly careful, there was a bend coming up in front of us and we saw a car coming towards us totally spin out and into a snow bank. They were going really fast around the turn, someone kind of not thinking I guess. We were maybe 20 yards away, glad we weren't closer. They did a full 360 before stopping. We stopped and asked if we could do anything to help, but there was nothing we could do. It was a 20 something year old lady.

How has Elder Wright felt this week? Have you needed to do any more procedures on him?

he's good. No more problems

 

How was Caroling with the youth on Saturday? What songs did you sing?

it was fun. We just went 1 one nursing home. Our investigator did come. we sang probably 7 or so songs. "here comes Santa Clause" We wish you a merry christmas" "silent night" "oh holy night" (which we stopped halfway through because it was too hard. we had words but no music). We some some other classics too and also "Feliez Navidad" which was fun. I told the people in charge we should have sung You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.

 

What are your plans for today?

a member got us some YMCA passes and we went and worked out there after our studies, which was fun. Should keep us from getting fat like Coco. Elder Wright is also going to get his hair cut. We're going to wash the car. Not sure if we're even going to do any shopping because we've been given a ton of food, which is nice.

 

Just curious, how are your shoes holding up? How do they work in the snow?

doing great. I have those nice snow boots I wear a lot here in the winter snowy season.

 

Quinn says that if you wear the ear muffs, you do not need a beanie hat. Do you agree? Do you also have a beanie hat?

today I'm wearing neither. I think I have a beanie hat, but I never wear it. I thought about it yesterday, but didn't. It's not as cold here as Idaho though. My companion has some really big ear muffs which I think are superior than my smaller ones. I sometimes have been wearing my scarf and sometimes the ear muffs. I wear a sent of small gloves and a bigger kind of leathery ones too, but my fingers still get cold if we're out for a while. I still have a passel of those handwarmers though I ought to use.

We had a bit of a snowstorm the past couple days. It started coming down pretty hard saturday, and we went of home a couple hours early, then sunday (yesterday) church was cancelled! we did a lot of shoveling around our apartment complex to try and be useful, and then after things got plowed we went out and tried to see if there were any members or anybody that could use any help. we were in regular people cloths all day. We went to go see one of our investigators, but he didn't need any help. I knew there was an inactive member who lived in an apartment next door, who we tried to meet with in the past (with E Gallagher, she told us about 5 or 6 times yes, but try another day until finally we just told her to call us when she was ready) but she didn't need any help either, but then we had a really good conversation with another neighbor there. I guess she met with the missionaries a year or so ago and even came to church a few times, but things kind of crumbled after a missionary threatened to punch her husband for some reason. we were able to make a better impression, and she said when we next went over to teach the neighbor to give her door a knock and she if she was there! I guess her Dad joined the church when he was older and everyone saw it made a big difference in his life. She said he wasn't too likeable beforehand but he made a lot of great changes when he made the church. He's past away now, but his good example of changing to closer to god, and happier ( that's called repenting) still has a deep impression on her daughter and her family. Here's hoping things turn out well.

this Wednesday is our big missionary Christmas thing. We get to go to the temple, then there's a devotion and each zone does skits and etc.

This week we did a big meeting over a program called webex. Kind of like a big skype/google hangout. All the leadership people were a part of it. he's going to start doing that every tuesday! different days for different people (one tuesday for everyone, then all leadership, then trainers, then ZL's) President mostly just talked about roles of leadership and things that need to be improved on (that's called a rebuke!)

Also, we've been hearing for a while missionaries are going to be getting Ipads/tablets sometimes soon, maybe in December/January. We'll see what really happens.

That's all for now!!

Received Monday, December 9, 2013

On THIS day, we got the one regular letter plus 2 other quick notes. All are included!

and I did get a flu shot.

On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 12:42 PM, Zachery Cole wrote:

and I'll definetly be here for Christmas, Transfers are next on January 2nd. Things are never definete as a missionary I guess, but it was be quite surprising

On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 12:18 PM, Zachery Cole  wrote:

QUESTIONS:

Eat anything interesting this week?

We had a linger longer yesterday for christmas and ate lots of good food.

How was your Sunday? Did you get to sing Angels We Have Heard on High?
not on sunday, but I think we did at zone meeting. I feel like I've song it 2-3 times already. We also listen to it on that cd you sent

Sis. Cornwall called me this week. Her seminary class wrote letters this week and she needed to mail some to you!! Have you received anything like that yet?

not yet

Any other interesting mail this week?

I got 1 package, the one that says "wait". I did wait. Hopefully the other shows up soon! it'll probably be there today.

What are you doing for your P-day? Sports?

we might go to this place called Yankee Candle. supposedly they're the "Scenter of the Universe". Lots of candles and stuff. Lots of Christmas themed things. they ought to be ok since they can make a good pun. Elder Wright really wants to go; we've heard about it from a lot of people. I think it could be fun. Something different to do, even if it is mostly candles. It is snowy and i've heard about the freezing rain, but I think we'll still drive over there and just be careful.

--story--

We were in the hospital this week! it was for Elder Wright. They thought he might have appendicitis, but he doesn't. before we went we called the mission nurse, then doctor. They told him to jump, which he did and it was very painful. Then they had him lay down and they made me poke him 4 times in different places in the belly which he thoroughly did not enjoy. I've been telling people (jokingly) that was almost the demise of our companionship right there. After the poking they told us to go to the hospital. We were there from about 8:3-PM to 2:30AM! all just to find out he does not have appendicitis, and they don't know what is wrong! they think likely some virus. He is mostly better now.

It's good to hear Kylie gets to play lots of soccer. Sports are fun. Don't forget to kick the ball.

Did you guys watch the Christmas devotional last night? we watched it at an inactive couples house. We all really liked it. Music and all. We're going over to that same house tonight for dinner, then a lesson afterwards
I mentioned yesterday was our branch's Christmas "party" linger longer. We had 1 investigator there. We ate food and sang songs mostly. We're going to go caroling with the youth this Saturday. Maybe we'll sing "you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch!"

Oh, I almost forgot the other big story!

I did hear about BYU playing (and losing to) Umass (who scored 105 points). it WAS big news here because they had a fireside after the game! we got to go. there were some speakers and music. It went for an hour. The speakers were the missionary here who was on the team before, Tyler Haws, one other player, and assistant coach (great talk) and coach Rose. President Packard did not talk, but did sing (a duet with his daughter). No one from our branch went, which was too bad, but we still did.,it was funny because when the assistant coach got up he mentioned how they lost and that must have had an effect of the talks because the talks to that point were about: Patience, getting through tribulation and then he spoke on enduring to the end. It was funny. I saw two people from my last ward in Connecticut there. There were some big sports/byu fans in that ward (with the ESPN headquarters there).

and I remembered one other gift I was hoping to get. A thing (called an easel?) to stand up Dad's temple painting. I keep forgetting to ask for that!

Griffin should be very happy with Quinn and Christopher coming back into town soon!

Love you!

Received Monday, December 2, 2013

QUESTIONS:

I sent your Thanksgiving gift from Amazon. Did you get it?? You should have!! Please report.

yes! it came on wednesday I think. Couldn't believe how fast it came. We've been listening to it. Thank you!

How was your thanksgiving?

Very fun. The RS president had us over with a few others of the branch. It struck me that she clearly thought about who maybe wouldn't have a place to go, or nearby family, and had a nice group of "church family". There was us 2 elders and a total of 5 others, and I think they were all triple our age, but it really was a very enjoyable time. Heavenly Father has really blessed me here more than ever to love the people of Greenfield branch. We went around the table and all said things we were grateful for.

Did you eat anything different?

We actually had a thanksgiving meal on Wednesday night and Thursday (Wednesday with a less active couple we teach, and it was also very fun). We had regular thanksgiving food at each, including stuffing at each, which i loved! You should make stuffing, it is delicious. No Ham at either. There were rolls, but nothing like what you make at either, and no cinnamon roles. Dessert at both was pie with ice cream. At the RS president's house we had 1 or 2 things I was unfamiliar with, including something that I think maybe is related to the potato, yellow color, the way it was served was close'ish to mashed potato texture. Maybe root-a-bega (that's the sounded out spelling)? not a strong flavor or anything.

IF I sent a picture by attachment, can you/are you allowed to download it and see it?

yes!

anything in particular you want for christmas?

You could send me a couple ties; help me get some variety. Also, I don't know if this will be too hard to find/ship but a tie rack. Some missionaries have those, and I would use that. They have individual pegs for ties.
 

Have you found your ear muffs yet??

yes.

Did you have HUGE snow on Thanksgiving Day?

no! We heard afterwards that it was expected, but never happened. It is a lot warmer today as well. It rained a little bit. The past few mornings we've had frost on the car.

any sports to play for your p-day today??

not today. So we're having a big christmas missionary party (half the mission at a time) again this year, and each zone has to make a skit, or something. We are making a video. We decided to do a parody of "The District" DVD's we get about being good missionaries. Our district is filming our part of it today.

I'm a little surprised there's not more of a Turkey Bowl update. Which side did Quinn play on? did the teams look fair from the beginning, or did the Elders look like they had clear advantage? Who played QB for either side? was it close?

About giving a missionary report, I don't know what you could say. You can tell them I've learned about how fun it is to be obsessed with missionary work. It's a very satisfying and uplifting thing to be thinking about all the time. That's one thing I've noticed about the people (none full time missionaries) who seem to be really good at it, they all seem to be sort of obsessed about it. They just think and care a lot about it.

You can say I appreciate all the people who have/do send letters periodically.

So we've had a few cool things happen lately that I just remembered, but I'll have to go fast, because time is running out.

There is someone we do service for every week who has a couple foreign exchange students. We've always liked them and have thought about the best way to get across to the families (there are 2 of them. All very kind and serving, but say they're not interested in the gospel) last week we were at there house and for our spiritual thought I decided to ask one of the students "If you could ask God any question, what would it be?" he asked, sincerely, why doesn't God just kill satan? We ended up having a really good discussion after that, and he ended up writing out 10 religious questions he would like to know, and we're going to go back and teach them the answers. It is very exciting.

2nd thing: while we were in gospel principles class we were talking about how God gave us the ability to choose, but the Adversary wants to take it away. During the lesson I used the analogy about the guy who really wanted to have his son be an NFL player so he took over his life, made him left handed etc, and it ruined the guy in the end. I thought it was a good and fun analogy. Not as cool as the other things, but I always think its fun when football is helpful.
3rd. the most recent convert of this branch was about 3 years ago, She is now inactive. We were able to start visiting her again. Her boyfriend and another friends just moved in. yesterday we went over and agt first only she was part of our lesson, the boyfriend had to watch the patriots game, which he had recorded (which was also funny because we already knew what would happen because people had been telling us about it all day). By the end we were able to draw him away from the Patriots into a good discussion, and the other friend came over too. They had very intriguing questions for us to discuss (He thinks God is not perfect, because he made all of us very imperfect people. Also, Noah's flood he thought was a sign of a mistake god made and needed to start over). He said he might join a church that admitted that. ANyway we got a return appointment to teach them all.

Also I got an email today from a friend (from Vegas) saying that you haven't posted anything on facebook about updates on my blog, or something like that. Anyway your facebook presence had been missed.

last last thing. This week I've re-read a few gen conf talks, and it really grew my testimony of re-reading them afterwards. They are great! inspiring and prophetic!

Love you~!

Received Monday, November 25, 2013

QUESTIONS:

talk about your new companion. How long has he been out? where is he from? does he like sports?

Elder Wright. This is his 3rd transfer, he's been out about 3 months. Young and excited. If you ask me where he is from I'll say Samoa, if you ask him he says SAWmoa (you know, pronouncing it right). I asked him If I should try to say it like he does, or just like a white guy, he said just say it like a white guy. He moved to Utah 4 years ago though, so he's spent some time in The States already. He does like sports, especially football. He got a partial scholarship, and played for Snow college in Utah (a junior college). He is a middle linebacker. He's about my height and about 220, he doesn't like quite that big to me though. Much more a a thick solid build, not pudgy. He does not like the snow or cold.

It suddenly got cold like 2 days ago. Not fun. It snowed Saturday night and stuck. I got my scarf and gloves out, I still need to find my earmuffs.

Any DL assignment?

yes, I'm the DL again. The other companionship had a change also and the elder coming in is someone I served around before in the same district who I like a lot. Friday (district meeting day) I gave a training on Having lessons with investigators and less actives in an active members home. That is kind of the vision/goal of the stake president for us all to do. It's not something I've really worked at doing much before, but good things happen when you follow the inspired leadership so we'll work on it.

What are your plans today for P-day?

we haven't really talked about it. Maybe some week we'll see if we can find a place to play racquetball or something that's not too expensive. Some indoor 1v1 sport. Elder Wright was hooked onto both Magic and Pokemon in his last area (it's all over the mission). So some of that is bound to happen. I didn't feel to bad that I thought magic was going to kind of disappear after Elder Gallagher left, I think the missionary world might be slightly better off without it, but it can be fun.

Anything you want/hoping for for christmas?

Yes, can I get an early christmas gift (call it a thanksgiving gift?) of a Motab Christmas CD, the one with David Archuleta. I think it has a red cover. Elder Beck, my (long gone) companion of last christmas, back in my first area had lots of the motab christmas cd's and including that one.

Are you still the driver?

yes. It's most common for the missionary who stayed in the area to drive. I guess I've been driving ever since I left my first area though

Did elder Gallagher leave you anything? (You know, like, you can have this…)

yea, a couple things. Lots of CD's with talks on them. He really liked to burn those off in the library on P-day. Lots of them are really good. Mostly general conference and lots from BYU devotionals. I think we listened to most every talk by an old General Authority named Vaughn J featherstone, who is a great speaker. Not sure how Elder Gallagher first heard of him, but he gives great talks.

Also he gave me a tie.

Does Elder Wright need to get a library card at your library?

He will evenautally. Today he can just use a day pass

Have you heard of Nutella? It is a chocolate spread made with hazel nuts.
yes. I knew of it since before my mission. It's good but I don't go crazy about it. There used to be some in this apartment, but when we got some of those gross moth bugs Elder Gallagher and I decided to endure we would destroy them and threw away everything that wasn't completly sealed (and some things that were), including the nutella
Kylie LOVES it. She eats chocolate sandwiches with it. Sound good to you?

i've done that too, but it feels so unhealthy to me just to throw chocalate on bread and eat it. I'm totally ok with eating cake and several cookies or brownies in one sitting, but for some reason the nutella thing feels like its crossing some line. If i;m willing to go through some work to make food (and spreading something and bread does count as work) then I might as well make real food, like peanut butter instead of nuttella sandwhich.

Do you think your weight has changed at all, more or less?

we have a scale. I don't remember what I'm at. I think between 155-160

Any snow on the ground yet?

Yes! Boo! There is one member hear (an older guy, I think in his 70's) who loves to ski, and he is very excited about it, but Elder Wright and I are not.

I've gotten some advice about driving in it though. From what I've heard, I'll just make sure I drive really close to the car in front of me and go extra fast. Also I hear pulling on the E-brake around corners helps too.

It seems like it's been a long time.

Good job to the Rams beating the bears (did both have backup QB's?) A lot of people were very upset here about the Patriots losing on monday night football last week on a bad call. It sounded kind of weird to me, but if Tom had just make a better throw they could have won. Then again, Giselle could tell you, her husband can't throw the ball and catch it too.

Good job to Griffin about sharing the gospel and knowing about the church websites! It helps to be tech savvy! Those websites are very good.

When Elder Gallagher and I did our missionary prep thing with the stake youth I asked something about what there concerns or questions were about sharing the gospel. he said something like "I don't have anyone to talk about the church with because I'm home schooled!" I should have told him to get on MineCraft

You also could check out Reallifeanswers.org and see what you think, and if you wanted to write an article of your own.

Did I ever send you the article I wrote?

Got to go. Love you!

Received Wednesday, November 20, 2013

QUESTIONS:

Do you need any medications??

no, medications are for the faithless. Just kidding. I really don't need anything. We have some tylenol I take if I ever have a headache or anything, which I usually don't hesitate to take even if it's not too much pain. It's there, so might as well use it.

What happened for transfers this week??

So transfer day (the day of the big meeting with all the moving people and the swaps) is always on a thursday (tomorrow). That is why P-day is wednesday, so it can be the day before transfers so people can pack. Transfer Texts (texts sent to everyones phone, saying where everyone went, so you can keep track of where all your buddies are) are sent the saturday before. So we already got the texts, so we know what will happen, but it has yet to actually commence.

A normal text would say something like "Elder Cole (southcoast) to Canton" and so on with all the changes. The AP's who physically type up the transfer texts (sent from an email) always ask the "dying" missionaries what they want there's to say, and they try to be clever and say something like "to the desert" if they're going to Utah or whatever, so for Elder Gallagher's he had them put "Was translated" so that's whats going to happen to him. Elder Wright, who i've never met will be coming here. He's currently serving in the stake in Rhode Island

How was the leaving of Elder Gallagher?

he's got the odd mixture of emotions that would be expected.

You must have a new companion, please tell all!

Tune in next week for that answer!

Where are you….new area, new address?

same place. It's rare for both to leave at the same time. I'd have been a bit upset if that's what happened

What are you doing for P-day today?

Going to meet up with other missionaries to play a little basketball, and then magic. We already went to the magic store so Elder G could make his final purchases and of course we could say good bye to the funny nerd guy who works there.

Have you or the Ward members discussed Thanksgiving…as in where you will eat?

We're going over to Sister Masi's house, she has us over every other Sunday, and she signed up for Thanksgiving at the beginning of the month.

we're eager to get going, so I'm going to be extra quick this time. We did a couple interesting things this week. Remember we helped someone roof a garage a bit ago, this week we helped someone put a tarp on there house because they can't afford to roof it. They have to cut a hole for the chimney and everything and tie it down. It's a guy we like a lot who's fallen on a lot of hard work, less active member, works on Sunday, still a strong believer. He likes one of the same games as Elder Gallagher (called LoL, I forgot what it stands for, The game is like Dota) so they can play together when he gets home, kind of funny.

We had our big zone conference with Elder Nielsen. It was good. It was funny he is still obsessed with noticing all the exclamation points in the book of mormon. It was not like our other big meetings, which are almost all training, like focus on gaining skills and doing things a certain way, this one was much more about doctrine, really learning and understanding it. Then we went to go be a part of a Stake missionary fireside thing. It was a neat experience. We talked about preparing to go on a mission (I focus on prayer and scriptures) and being missionaries now. We had them rile play bringing up church things in conversation and inviting a friend to mutual. To be good at something it takes practice, so if you want to be a prepared missionary, you got to practice! Do missionary things now (read the scriprtures, pray about real life important things, and share the gospel).  We were only a small part of it, but we stayed till the end because President Packard came. Of-course he did a great job and inspired all the kids

President Packard tried to call us yesterday, but we missed the call, and he never picked up when we tried to call him back. I guess he's telling my i'll be DL again. We heard the districts might be changing, so there might be different companionships in my group.

me gusta hablar something en espanol, pero, yo no remember any words! Anyways be beuno y amable y feliez y don't be triste!

Received Tuesday, November 12, 2013

QUESTIONS:

Did you get a package from me this week?

yes, lots of candy, I was much delighted to see. I think I have 1 skittles packet left. The hershey's were quickest to go. it did not taste like poop  (did the emoticon thing work?)

I also send Elder Gallagher a little something in the mail…has it come yet?

yes, it had PEZ. He was very happy to get it. it was very funny. Good "Magic" pun too. he has been eating from his pez dispenser ever since.

Did you get something from the Arcadia Ward Primary? I heard they sent some stuff.

hmmm. I feel like I've gotten something from them in them in the last 3 months or so. definitely in this area. Not in the last few weeks though. I think Griffin's little note had a card that asked something like "how many red sox fans have you met?" That's probably not what you're thinking of though.

Have you heard about the terrible hurricane in the Philippians?

no, not at all. I know a foreign exchanged student, staying with a non-member family who feds us every week who is from the Philippines. Also I know someone serving there as a missionary.

You roofed someone’s garage last week…how did that go?

it went, and it went and it went. It was fun and different though. I learned something new. During priesthood our EQP kept calling it a "little project" and "short" etc because it was just a garage. Elder Gallagher and I, being somewhat naive, having never done this before, marked in our planners that we would be there to help from 9-11AM, thinking that's how long it would take. We got there at 9 and didn't leave until after 4! (kind of embarrassing miscalculation). At first it is kind of uncomfortable and uneasy being on the roof, but by the end it was like regular. at first there were 5 of us there, with also the older guy who owned the place and his brother helping from the ground, then after about 2 hours one person left, leaving 4 people on the roof (2 people on each side hammering away), and then a bit after that another person left, leaving just us 2 missionaries and the EQP up on the roof. It was too bad, we actually had to cancel some things we had scheduled to do, but we couldn't just leave him there alone. It was kind of fun though, something new. Kind of cold at first, but you warmed up with the work. They fed us pizza. He had to dash over to Home Depot once to by more roofing stuff. In the end it was successfully finished and he was very grateful. That day the branch also had youth baptisms for the dead (the reason one of the people had to leave the roofing) and was assigned to send 5 people to help at the bishop's storehouse, so Greenfield Branch gave lots of service that day. 

we did some other service last week as well (actually I think it was the week before), helping on the church grounds. An old lady who takes care of it (think self appointedly) asked us to come help her and another member (brother Shulda). There were "invasive trees" (they are ugly and grow to fast or something. Mostly we just did what we were told) that were growing up by the entrance she wanted taken out. The Bro Shulda took them down with a chain saw (they are small for trees) and we dragged them away to where were were told. It was quick and easy, and left time for bro shulda to take us to some local place he loves to get ice cream

This is Elder Gallagher's last full week, which is weird. There's a couple interesting things happening this week as well. We have cone conference (really half mission conference this time) with Elder Gifford Nielson of the 70, who spoke in general conference. we are looking forward to it. Also, a youth in our branch was put somewhat in charge of a youth missionary related fireside thing this week. He told us about how he was excited because he emailed president Packard, who is going to come speak. We told him we could come help too if he would like. I liked the idea, and gave us part of the program. He asked us to come and talk a bit about our missions and preparing for them for 10-15 mins and then do some sort of demonstration and role play about member missionary work for another 10-15 mins, it can be about how to make gospel conversations or something. We are excited and I'm kind fo nervous about that, since it's a big group of people, and our instructions were pretty vague. We'll make sure to plan it out well before saturday.

Happy birthday to Christopher! sounds like it was a pretty big day over there. I bet the coaching bit was interesting. Maybe he should just forget about computer stuff and go into that. He can do the hacking class first though, that sounds fun.

Also we saw snow last friday. just little flakes in the morning. Sounds like I still have the warmest weather of all the non-Californians, which I think is consistent with my time here.

Go Rams.

One thing I've thought a bit about, that President Clayton Christensen talked about a bit ago was how it is always fun to be on the winning team. He played basketball for byu as a freshman, they always lost (including when they were down by 1 and he got fouled in the closing seconds and he missed both shots) but later played in Europe on a very good team. It was way more fun when he was on the team that always won. In the gospel we can always be on the winning team. Sometimes it doesn't feel that way, when its hard or there's unfair trails or whatever else, but we know what "team" will always win, what is the best way to live. There's lots of verses in the bible that make reference to suffering as a christian, or for christs sake, or being a joint sufferer with him,. and sometimes thats what it takes. One of my favortie few verses (especially when applied to missionary work) are D&C 68:5-6. It applies when times are good and bad.

 5 Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.

 6 Wherefore, be of good ^acheer, and do not ^bfear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I ^cwas, that I am, and that I am to come.

that's all! I love you.
Here's president Packard's email, not about veterens day, and kind of sad. Advice I'll make sure to keep

President Packard

Dear Elders and Sisters,

When I was serving my mission in California, my companion and I were riding our bikes all over town. (We were actually in a car area, but because of mileage limitations, we seemed to be on our bikes more than we were in the car.) We were somewhat frustrated that it took so much longer to get anywhere on our bikes, so we decided that we were going to ride as fast as we possibly could go to make sure that we did not waste any of the Lord’s time. One day, we were at a stoplight when someone we didn’t recognize rolled down his window and asked if he could talk to us. We pulled over and he said, “People are talking about you Elders all over town. You are going too fast, darting in and out of cars and riding those bikes like there is no tomorrow. All of us are scared that we are going to hit one of you, and we would never forgive ourselves if we did.” Then he said something that I never forgot: “I know that God protects you guys, but can’t you use a little common sense and do your part to be safe?” I walked away from that conversation knowing that the man was right on all counts, and we really did slow down and try to take care of ourselves better.

Elders and Sisters, Sister Packard and I worry about your safety – especially now that the winter is upon us. It seems like every month, we are hearing reports that another missionary has been killed – 12 so far this year. We have already had two accidents that have resulted in surgeries, but things could have been much worse. We have had several incidents where we have been miraculously preserved through what easily could have been a life-threatening car or bicycle accident. We would love to put more of you in cars, but we don’t have any more cars or miles to distribute, so we are going to have to find a way to safely make do with what we have. Please do not compromise your safety in the name of increasing productivity. Please explain your situation to the ward council and come up with a plan that allows members to provide transportation for you in times when riding your bikes or walking is unsafe. For those who do have cars, please be careful when you drive, and for those on foot, please watch where you are going and make sure that you do not place yourselves in a dangerous situation.
We also hope that you protect yourself from sickness. Please get a flu shot. If you can’t afford one, call the office. If you are sick and need to be in bed for more than a day, please call Sister Paskett or Dr. Aldous and follow their advice.

We love you and pray for you every day. Our love includes a concern for your health and safety so please take care of yourselves.

Love,
President and Sister Packard

P.S. We're excited about this week! It's really important that you're early for the meetings. It's not uncommon for a general authority to start 20 minutes ahead of schedule. Please be seated and quietly reading scriptures at least 30 minutes ahead of time.

Received Monday, November 4, 2013

QUESTIONS:

What did I send to you last week?

Pez! like I asked. We got the big envelope as we were going to an appointment, so I just grabbed it and brought it into the car. I opened it quickly just to check and see, and I said to elder Gallagher "It's the pez I asked for, also there's a letter. I bet it has a pun!" sure enough we got to learn that a vampires favorite bean is the...... Human Being! (I guessed kidney bean). It was fun and funny. Also, Elder Gallagher had never tried pez before! now he is hooked. We ate half the pez you sent already.

What happened on Halloween….did anyone come to your house to trick or treat, during the day did you have much luck sharing a message….did you see people dressed up….what was the weirdest thing you saw….was it a cold day?

I was actually in exchanges in our district mates area for that day, we had moderate success. No one thought we were trick or treaters. I don't think anyone ever knocked on our door. It was pouring, so it was a small turnout for everyone. Halloween was canceled 2 years ago because of storms here. They never get good luck. I didn't get a chance to see too much wierdness. Did I tell you about the little fountain we have in our apartment? it is like a foot tall. We bought red food coloring and put it into the water, so it was creepy looking for halloween.

Sister Sotis sent me a letter with just a couple pictures of some Arcadia Ward people. I saw Cave Man Dunham, which was funny and goth kylie too.

How did you hear/know about the time change? Did you enjoy your extra hour of sleep??

we forgot. Woke up early. While I was brushing my teeth Elder Gallagher remembered. We were very disappointed we missed out on the extra sleep. It made the morning easy though since we had a bonus hour. Our phone automatically does the time change. They also announced it at church, so we could have known. Later that morning, Sister Packard sent out a text reminding us, but by then we were already awake and changed and everything.

How was your Sunday?

Good. One of our investigators got surgery on Thursday (Halloween) and came to church! we were very impressed. He was very sore. Another investigator also came, but he only ever stays for the 1st hour because he likes to get home to his (catholic) family. It's kind of a tough spot for him.

Did you sing some good songs?

sort of. Actually we sang some songs I didn't know (or like as much) and they were slow and we sang allll the verses. Then during priesthood one of the branch presidency counselors gave a shpeel about how important he thinks it is to sing all the verses (if you were a poet, but people always cut off the last 2 verses of your song/poem how would you feel?? was part of his thought).

What was the best thing you ate yesterday?

food. The guy we do service for gave us some ravioli and he ate that with the last bit of ground beef we have and with red sauce. It was very good, especially being fast sunday.

What are your plans for today?

We play magic every p-day. The pittsfield elders (district mates) are coming over also. To play magic. Got to fit it all in before Elder Gallagher dies. Not sure what will happen to magic after that. Also we're going to go read the BoM with a mostly active member in the branch who just moved in, who is working his way back. Great guy. Not sure of his story, not going to ask. We've talked a little with branch leadership about how they want us to help. He took us out to a buffet for lunch 2 weeks ago, which was fun.

Things have been solid here. We were happy to to have of our people than usual to come to church, and also some of the members are really becoming friends with them, which is awesome.

It's been fun here for a while because we have lots to do. There are many people to work with. We're getting to learn more about how to plan effectively and be organized so we can make the most of all our meetings. There's no point in having a lot on your plate if you can't handle it! we're doing well though. It's always kind of intriguing to work with our WML and others to see how we can better work together. he (WML) sometimes does a great job, and sometimes is hesitant to really jump into our ideas. He's a good guy, often the epitome of a new RM as a WML (always talks about his mission, and often has good insights) and a newly wed (somehow forgot that it's weird to the missionaries when he stops and flirts with his wife for a while during the meeting).

That's all. Not much out of the ordinrry going on. This week should be fun, we have a lot set up, including helping roof someone's garage. Our investigator who just got surgery can't come help, but was quick to donate his nail gone, compressor and hose to the cause, he is a great example of someone who is willing to accept service, and does whatever he can to give back as well.

President Packard sent a really good email last week I forgot to tack on, i'll put here. Thanks for everything! (I'll be looking forward to the mail you mention this week!)



Dear Elders and Sisters,

A few days ago, my 95-year-old grandmother passed away. Although she had been very fragile for some time, she was not acutely ill when she passed. Thus, there was no family gathering or vigil to mark the event. Rather, the Lord took her as she was peacefully taking a nap in her home with my 98-year-old grandfather sitting next to the bed and holding her hand. They have been eternal companions for 74 years.

I could never capture the potent and positive impact Grandma left on her family, her community and, by extension, the entire world. The best I can do is note a few anecdotes from my own life, knowing that many others could share similar stories.

Nicodemus once said to Jesus: “We know that thou art a teacher come from God.” I say the same thing about Vivian Hayes. She was always teaching and I will be forever blessed as a result.

When I was a young child, Grandma wrote a number of short narrations of Bible stories and then recorded them on a hand-held tape recorder. At the time, I thought the recordings were just for me, and I listened to them often. I learned a lot more about the Bible, but I also learned something about how deeply Grandma loved scripture. You could hear it in her voice. Moreover, the fact that she did the project in the first place spoke volumes about how she felt about me and the Lord. Although I have not listened one of these recordings in more than 30 years, I can still clearly hear Grandma telling these stories, and I can still feel her passion for life, for the Gospel and for her posterity.

During my elementary school years, my teachers had me evaluated by the experts who diagnosed me with ADD and dyslexia. When my performance at school continued to lag, Grandma began to invite me to her house “to spend extra time with me.” I was happy to have the attention, but I soon learned that we were not going to be watching cartoons and eating cookies. Grandma wanted to teach me the English language. She helped me memorize all the forms of “be” as well as the 43 most common prepositions. We diagrammed all kinds of sentences and learned how to spell common words, but mostly, Grandma had me write short essays – what she called “themes.” I would write, and she would make corrections and suggestions. I would then re-write the theme and she would make more corrections and suggestions. I wrote and re-wrote dozens of themes during those summers, and slowly, I started learning how to organize my thoughts and articulate them in a coherent way. I was never anything special, but English went from being my worst subject to my best, and writing became my strongest academic subject throughout high school, college and law school. Honestly, I still rely on the things I learned at Grandma’s dining room table.

As I reflect on the experience, it seems remarkable that a hyperactive 4th grader who had both dyslexia and ADD would be willing to spend hour after hour in this way. I didn’t like diagramming sentences and writing essays any more than the next kid. But I felt truly loved during those sessions with Grandma. Moreover, I was fully cognizant of my academic failures, and I had an unexpressed but profound fear that I did not have the mental horsepower to make it in this world. Grandma was giving me what I really needed. I felt it at the time, so I went cheerfully and received her generous gift of love and knowledge. For me, Grandma Vivian Hayes truly was a teacher come from God.

Love,

President Packard

Received, Monday, October 28, 2013

QUESTIONS:

Did you get my letter/pictures last week in the mail?

yes, it was fun

Did they gross you out?

the ones with the blood were gross. the ones with the needles were not as gross but kind of weirdly interesting. Kylie looked like it was no big deal, she didn't care, like she gets stuck with needles every day or something

How was your Sunday?

It was good. We also had a good correlation meeting with our WML on Saturday, so he could help us out on sunday at church. We gave him a sheet with this weeks schedule (as set up so far) with all the lessons blocked out were we need someone to come with us, and asked him to go and find/ask people to fill in the spots. It was great because sometimes for people it helps to get asked by a ward member doing their calling then by us missionaries and it relieved us of one stresser of the day. Now we have something like 9 meetings set up with members and another 1 or 2 that still need it. We are very excited. We also taught our Gospel Principles class because we had an investigator there, and the other members we asked to come in to fill it a little bit did a great job contributing/participating and fellow-shipping. Also we got to help in primary! the RS had a visiting teaching conference so they needed people to pitch in. I thought it was lots of fun, even though the kids are kind of crazy. Kids say the funniest things. The girl I was sitting next too told me all sorts of things about her family. We sang Nephi's Courage (did we sing this at my farewell?), A Child's Prayer, Families Can Be Together Forever, and others.

What does your mission president say about rules for Halloween?

It's basically like P-day after 6:00 and you have to be indoors

Is there a chance that kids would come to your door??

maybe very slightly. no one did last year where I was at (in Southcoast). The next door neighbors (two women) have a young trick or treat aged child that could maybe knock on our day. When I was first here, before I knew of the specific family dynamic they have, I saw him outside and said something like "hey, you waiting for your mom or dad?" to which he awkwardly didn't respond. Elder Gallagher later explained

What time does it get dark for you?

like 5:30'ish I think. It's lame. People get grumpy after it's dark, even if it's not late!

Did you ward have a Halloween party?

nope, just the Octoberfest Linger Longer a week ago

What kind of food have you cooked this week?

umm not much. we were fed almost every day! 2 of the times it was a lunch appointment where we ate a ton of food (at a buffet once and a different restaurant another time) and then ended up eating very little for lunch. Oh I did make myself something a bit fancyer than usual early in the week. I made a tuna sandwich and even chopped celery into the tuna. Practically gourmet.

NOW, have you heard people talking about the Red Sox in the World Series?

yea, people do kind of a lot now. There was someone at church yesterday (a Sox fan) from CA who came because he was here to watch a game. The same old lady who always talks about sports, but says things wrong, said something about how the final score was 4 points to 2 points. If Dad were around he could have told her the correct terminology is "runs" and anything else is thoroughly incorrect.

The cardinals are giving them a run for their money!

Dodgers should have won.

Trying to think if I have any other good news updates. You had a lot. Tell Quinn to learn how to not accidentally ask girls on dates; if you do that as a missionary you get in trouble.

I had one thought that has stuck with me a while during study one morning. It was about how "Charity never faileth". That idea connected to a few of my other scriptures I really like, for example in Helamen 3 there is a verse that talks about how the word of god can break apart any of the snares of the devil. Does the word of God teach you Charity, which never fails and can release you from any snare? maybe that sounds like a stretch but the idea that it cannot fail hit me hard. Is that maybe part of the grand test were here for? to see if we can actually figure out and live true charity? That is not formatted very well, but anyway I leaned from the book of mormon: Be nice to people, it's important. (and not the kind of nice where you say "I love the guy to death, but..." and then proceed to rumor and gossip and bad mouth the person for 5 minutes. I feel like I hear that fairly often as a missionary and it's not good.)

That's all!

actually 1 more thing. If you want to send me something, you could send more Pez candy! I still have the Thor Pez head, but he is hungry, and has no pez in his tummy!

Thank you, bye!