Received Monday, June 16, 2014 LAST EMAIL FROM HIS MISSION

Elder Tait making you any special food this week?

nope. though we have been feed a lot

what are you doing for p-day?

we tried to think of something everyone could do that wouldn't be too sporty for the non-sports people but wouldn't be boring and we decided to try kickball! there is a open baseball field we're meeting at at we're going to by one of those rubber playground balls. It should be fun.

is the baptism still set for the 21st?

things are looking good. His (husband's) family is coming down Friday, her mom is coming Saturday to watch. Last time over there we mostly just read the BoM together which was fun, they are really enjoyable to have gospel discussions with. Our ward mission leader is just finalizing writing out the program. They're trying to figure out is she's allowed to get confirmed right after the baptism so the the family that's in town be be there for that too (normally for converts you wait until the next Sunday).

Does Elder Tait know who his next companion will be? Do either of you know him?

yes, Elder Tait served near him in his last area. The name may sound familiar to you (especially Dad) It is Elder Calvert! (BYU basketball player)

How was your Sunday?

It was really good. Lots of people said nice things. I got to give my short talk. 2 investigators came for the first time. Like the whole week, it all feels very mixed. Exciting but a little anxious.

How are your points for your World cup of Personal Contacting?

 they are not high enough! we are not on pace to reach 5000, so we'll have to pick up our game. The zone is doing really well over-all though.

I don't feel like I have a whole ton to write about. We have a full couple days leading to Wednesday when I go into the mission home. I started packing today (you're supposed to pack on Pday). This week was very good, especially sunday where a lot of "our people" came to church. We had 5 investigators there, which could be the most I've had in one week on my mission. Besides the Sarah on saturday there's at least 2 people here I'm totally confident will get baptized into Lynnfield and there's a couple other friends/families of members that could start investigating really soon and quickly progress. Things have been awsome here.  I've been saying a lot of closing prayers in our meetings My talk yesterday was on what it means to be a true friend, and since it was father's day I used a story about something that Dad said while on one of our High Sierra backpacking trips.

I'm glad you put on my facebook inviting everyone to my talk this Sunday. I've thought a lot about "Hasten the Work", it's a fun topic for me. Think if there's any particular questions you think it would be neat to get a missionaries perspective on, or things that haven't been said a gazillion times (I guess as a missionary I probably hear them more often than others anyway).

I think my favorite piece of advice I got in  eh past week was from our YM president here who is great, he said: "stay weird",which relates to a funny conversation about missionary life we had at his house the week before.

One neat success story of the week: we got a media referral (texted to our phone) that was because someone (we don't know who) gave a pass along card to someone in an ice-cream shop in Salem and he called the number and wants a BoM and talk to missionaries! we set up an appointment for Wednesday early afternoon; it might be my last investigator lesson.

So wednesday night we (the going home group) go into the mission home, thursday we stay there and go to the temple and talk with President, and friday is the plane ride.

That's all I have to email update for now. I have some questions i'll email to Quinn or add to your email for next week (What is teh Elder/Sister Coordination like in the same area? sounds like they might just cut it in half which is interesting. Do they do a lot to avoid Elder/Sister problems together? President has mentioned different missions have a lot of different ideas about that. What are his district meetings like?) over-all it's very fun to hear about another brother on a mission.

Love you

Received Monday, June 9, 2014

QUESTIONS FOR ZAK:

What did you do for exercise today?

Ran for just about 10 mins, did a few chin-ups

For your mission, does the zone or mission have a big fireside or something for the missionaries going home that transfer? If yes, how does that work? Who gets to go, as in how far can a missionary travel to go to that? Do ward members go? Who speaks and who organizes that meeting?

Just the regular transfer meeting. Only missionaries in affected companionship get to go. All members and non-members are invited to go and they really encourage us to invite people and get a ride. The meeting general theme recently changed a little to be more member/investigator focused and less of a "missionary meeting" i.e. more of a genral spiritual meeting/farewell to the going homer's and less missionary training. The departing missionaries testimonies is a central part of it, and also President/Sister Packard speak.

Do you have a sense of feeling old as a missionary?

after being in Lynnfield a little while I started too. All the missionaries were newly meeting me and I was kind fo old, plus a zone leader. Also I started noticing more and more a lot of the training from president were things I've heard before. Sometimes it's neat because missionaries will ask for advice and things.

Do you have any notion of how old the new missionaries are that are coming into your mission, like are most of them 18? Can you tell? OH, do the girl missionaries seem way younger....19 as opposed to 21?

ummm, I think most elders are 18 and definitely most sisters are 19 or 20. I haven't noticed a big difference, like seeming younger or anything. About sisters, I didn't know many sister before the age change.

Tell us where  you sit in the chapel during church...front, middle, back? If you don't have an investigator, do you try to sit by certain people?

usually with someone closer to the back, partially because the people we like to sit by (usually less actives and non-members and part-member families) tend to sit back there and it's easier to see everyone. The few times I've got to sit on the stand (when giving a talk) i really liked it so I could look out and see everyone

Do you always sing the hymns in church?

yes

Have you ever had a companion that didn't like to sing or that just didn't sing?

ummm, not really. I've had a few companion who really liked to sing. Maybe 1 who tended to sing quiet enough not even he could hear himself. Whenever I sit  next to a youth I always hold my hymnbook out to him so he is expected to sing too.

Do you have some good  plans this week? Much unscheduled time?

yes good plans. Continue finishing prep for Sara's baptism lined up for June 21st. She just got her interview. Also this Saturday a member has a big piano recital with all her students (like 60) and she is having us help, which is neat.

How are  you doing staying within the boundaries of your car miles?

having a hard time. Also they just lowered our. We are taking the "T" (subway system) today to go to Cambridge for pday (2 zones playing ultimate frisbee) to save miles and talk to a ton of people on the way. 

This week has been neat. Like I mentioned, the baptismal interview went well with Sarah. Things are still great with Linda (recently baptized). Jill's mom (Jill being the 15 year old taking the lessons becuase she was inspired by her miamaid friend) has been responding really well, we have our next lesson with her this week. also a neat little story about Mary, someone we've been teaching for a while. She hasn't visibly progressed a ton recently, she' still coming to church about twice a month and has great scripture studies, but doesn't want to change from catholic; but we have been training her to be a good missionary! she brought a daughter in a law to a lesson once and is trying to get her again. We may get to teach her nephew sometime. She is very supportive of our other investigators at church (but in class she does sometimes say things about how she thinks infant baptism is good, etc, but we're working on that). She loves to send out what is basically uplifting chain-mail; she has a giant email list she sends little messages on, similar to the "by strict obedience..." you sent me (maybe you should send it to her??). Sometimes we "reply all" to her giant email with a lds.org uplifting picture message, and this week we decided just to send her one from general conference and tell her she should share it and she said "I'll send it to many of my contacts" so all of that has been fun.

Since the Elder Holland conference lots of missionaries have been especially inspired which is great. There have also been an abundance of trials for many people too, which is both hard to experience and watch. We had our mini-zone conference worth President Packard this week, which was really great, all about receiving personal revelation,e specially through prayer. The whole thing was a great spiritual experience. Part of the push now with all of this is also to be better personal contacters (talking to everyone all the time). Some are better at it than others. We decided to hold a mini-zone meeting with just our zone before the zone conference to talk about this. we also rolled out our idea of the Cambridge North Zone 2014 World Cup of Personal Contacting. everyday for each piece of material you give out to a stranger you get 1 point, if you get their contact info 5 points and if a return appointment 10 points. we have a goal to get 5000 points in June. It has been fun and we've heard some good stories form people already, it sounds like everyone is enjoying the points without it taking away from the real purpose. We should have used your hot-lava analogy.

This months PMG focus chapter for the mission is chapter 4 about recognizing and following the spirit, which fits right in with the zone conference from president Packard. My biggest take-away is the benefits of being pro-active about revelation.

 This week while at dinner we were with a great family and I asked them about their own experiences with revelation. They basically talked about trying to live the right away and trusting they will be lead. I think that is super important and true, but I still something special about spending time to really ask God questions. "what can I do for _____?" "What can I say to ______ to help them build confidence?" "What does it mean to pray always?". Nephi prayed and asked where to find ore to build a boat and got an answer, Alma prayed to know what he should do when members of the church break the commandments. Another Nephite prophet prayed to know what happened to the spirit between death and resurrection. One life-changer decision for me was to start praying with a notebook and pen, to start I think it increased my own faith that i really expected to feel (mentally or otherwise) an answer and show I would really go and do!

Also, thank you for forwarding QUinn's email, that was fun to read! It's interesting to see him in a "Elder Cole" name badge. Glad he has a great companion.

Also, Happy birthday!

That's all. Love you

 

Received Monday, June 2, 2014

How was your Sunday?

Good! we had 2 investigators (both youth age) come for the first time and it was a great testimony meeting. We asked a lot of people to bare there testimonies beforehand to make sure it would be full of good ones. Lots of people talked about missionary work too, which is also fun. 

Some people mentioned they appreciated having us (missionaries) come over and get to teach the lessons with them. Both investigators really enjoyed it too. Afterwards we had a pow-wow with the bishopric and ward mission leader to talk about some missionary plans moving forward. that was very good too. Bishop celled today's meeting "monumental" especially with the transition from peoples testimonies including long long past missionary experiences or ideas to current, present tense missionary experiences. He was very up-beat and positive and grateful.

 

What will you do for pday?

probably basketball in Revere. Last week we did lots of volleyball

Do you find the ward members are asking you different questions since you are close to “dieing”?

yes. I'm temped to just start telling people i'm coming up to my "year mark" without specifying which year i'm coming up too.

What is the best meal you ate last week?

I remember on monday we ate something and I was thinking "next email I could tell mom this was a good meal". It was something Asian, by a mother who served her mission in taiwan I think. Rice with beef and broccoli and special friend rice and rice with  seafoody stuff.

Does Elder Tate get much mail sent by the post office?

Quick note: it's T-A-I-T (he gets that a lot). Not a ton. sometimes things come in.

Do you think of Paul Revere whenever you reference the Revere Ward building?

Not usually. It funnily took me a while to realize the city was named after him

(sometimes I get distracted by looking at my muscles in the mirror….)

How long has elder Tate been out….sorry, can’t remember?

Elder Tait has been out around 16 months

How are your investigators doing? Have you acquired some more?

Good. Linda was baptized last Saturday, confirmed sunday! Sara is still on track for June 21st and to have her husband baptize her. Others doing well. There is a family in the ward named the Hahns, they are great at missionary work. This week they went to 5-Guys Burgers and sat next to a family of 8 and became friends with them and invited them over for dinner this saturday and they really think the family may be interested in the gospel. Could be great!

How often have you born your testimony at Fast and Testimony meeting? Do you feel compelled to do it or not and let the Ward members have a chance?

There's a lot of people here, so not very often. I did when I first got here to introduce myself and haven't since. Usually I figure I want to let the others have a chance.

It was a very good week. Lots of great things. Most especially the weekend for Linda Bain. She did ask me to baptize her saturday, which was special. Her home-teacher who has already been great for her confirmed her yesterday. Much of her family (no members) came to see her saturday. The whole program (talks, people writing testimonies on note-cards while she was changing, etc) went great. She is so eager to share the spirit she is feeling with everyone around her. One almost too text-book example of this is during a lesson we watched a video with her on her laptop (Because of Him. Great one to see) and she immediately said she loved it and wanted to send the link to her friends. Very Lehi's dream (taking the fruit and looking for his family)-esque.

That was exciting to hear about all the missionary things going on in Arcadia, I remember that Lila girl. I think Taylor Jensen knew her pretty well too.

That's all for now!

Received Monday, May 27, 2014

First note: glad you were clear in letting Quinn know you'll keep him up to date on that house their building around the block; that's probably why he's not feeling anxiety like everybody else. Also someone better tell him not to get to chummy with his woman friend in his district, President says about 90% of elder-sister problems happen with a DL and a sister in his district! (just kidding about quinn, but President really has said that)

I can't remember when you were told about needing an ecclesiastical endorsement to register for BYU, but have you talked to your mission pres about that? Get to it ASAP so Chase can register for a few classes for you!

 

If you didn't get a package (as in a box, not just an envelope) from me this week, one is coming in a day or so....look out for it...

I did! the oatmeal box had me confused for a second, then I remembered what family I belong too. Good card! we sang that song last sunday!

 

how was the homecoming of Brent Packard?

It was fun. I think Brent kind of enjoys getting to be the mission super-star, making things easier. 

How was the Elder Holland conference? I can't remember if the whole mission got to get together for that, and really, can you all fit in one place?

Whole mission. full chapel, with some doors in the culutaral hall (behind an accordian door). It was very good. He talked about PMG (how it was born, etc). He talked about how crushing it is for him to hear about RM's going innactive "we need you for life!". There was not a Q&A. I don't have much time to write about it, but it was very really great.

 

how many times have you shined your shoes on your mission?

2-3, including last week before Elder Holland

 

By weather.com, it was warm there in Salem on Sunday! You liking the change in weather?

warm is always good, also it can be a conversation starter with people on the bus and things; people here love to talk about the weather 

What are you doing for Pday today?

yesterday we went to the temple! then we met at Revere chapel and played Volleyball 

How are your investigators doing?

very good. Baptisim still planned for this Saturday for Linda Bain. More miracles happening everyday. We meet just the right people when appointments cancel and things have been really good. Been reading the BoM everyday, sometimes at night if I can't in the morning. Been loving ready about different times a "servant" saves the day. I think the un-named servant is my new BoM hero.

 

any particular plans for memorial day today?

nope.

Today we just finished watching our webex today from President Packard. He spoke more about the Elder Holland conference we had. He had Brent say a few things too.

We're on exchanges now so I'm mailing at the Revere library with Elder Bradford from SLC.

That is all for now. Thanks for forwarding Quinn's emails. I sent him a quick one today, mostly because I could, I'll copypaste it on the bottom here in case you want to see it. I can't believe how short his MTC stay is! The Toronta native in the zone was telling me about this common food in candada that's something like fries and bacon all covered in gravy. You can even order it at mcdonalds.

That's all, Love, me

Received Monday, May 19, 2014

What are your plans today?

We took some of our things over to do dry-cleaning (wanted to do it before our Elder Holland mission conference, even though it was disobeying your orders. sorry.) and we are going to Revere to play basketball, and an inactive member, (Nigel Slack) is coming too. I hope we have enough people to make it a good game

what’s the weather like?

nice. sunny. about 65 I think

have you chosen appropriate long sleeves or short sleeves?

yes. short sleeves. The person at Market Basket was very happy

Quinn has asked for thermal garments. Did you ever have any companions that had thermal garments?

I have. That has not had much of an impact on me or my opinion though Steven advised me not to, and I agree for the reason he said: you don't want to re-wear garments, but if you have regular, on top of your garments, thermals you have the option to re-wear.

Oh, talk about again, your missionary messenger bag….like where you got it, how much it costs, what do you put in it?  I am happy with what we got Quinn. We just found one at Walmart. I think it was around $20.  Do you carry it in the house if you are on an appointment?

I don't remember which store. Target or something. I was happy with the choice. It seems weird to think I used to use a backpack as a missionary, just used to this now. It was either 15 or 20. probably better than Quinn's. Yes I carry it inside the house when going to an appointment and set it down somewhere inside (if it's dinner I'll put it somewhere out of the way, for a lesson I'll put it basically down by my feet where we sit). That's all the same as what is done with a backpack. Inside I have my scriptures, extra BoM, consecrated oil, some pamphlets, a folder with a ward list and a few other key papers, and anything else I need that day (sometimes PMG or extra give-away materials or something)

Do you try to match your socks to your pants?

I enjoy getting to answer this question.

I both attempt and succeed at matching my socks to my pants each morning. Except once last week I didn't, I don't remember why, I ran out of black socks or something and was lazy, it was kind of funny, I don't think anyone saw but me and my companion.

Are your shoes comfortable? Just wondering.

they are, I have no complaints about them

I liked the Jalapeno(AllUpInYo) joke.

This has been a very good week. a bazillion good things happened. I'll try to tell this first story quickly: We slept over in the reading apartment last friday night to save miles (because our first things the next day were in that city). Saturday morning all those things cancelled. Bummer. We were trying some stop by's and met a couple people, but kind of slow. Elder Tait was scrolling through the contacts in the phone and asked who "Bridget Kimball" was. I explained she was interested a few months ago, then just disappeared. He called, she answered and said she was interested! We taught her The Restoration like 20 minutes after that in the chapel. It went great. She came to church the next day (for the 2nd and 3rd hours. busy morning). We'll see her again next wednesday. Also we got another investigator from a part member family (sort of. They live together, but not married). The member, and asian lady, is recently reactivated. Also we were asked to help with a primary activity going on Saturday (which we did right after teaching Bridget). We had 12 minutes to teach the kids Called To Serve. It went well. We wrote the lyrics on the board and put some pictures up (Crown for "king", etc). There were lots of parents in the room who would sing the song, so even if none of the kids sang it would still sound ok. Also one of the young women has a friend who she's talked to/invited to a lot of dances recently told her friend she wants to become mormon! like, really! she gave her a BoM and has read about 40 pages in. She told her parents who aren't really sure how to react yet. We may get to teach a lesson this next week, hopefully with the parents too. They want to let their daughter choose for herself, but also don't really wwant her to leave from being catholic. Also one of the Young men has a friend who wants to become mormon! he's 9. Pretty similar situation with the parents (a little hesitant but believe in agency). Also there's another youth aged kid (Deonte. Haitian) who's been coming to scouts for a while and we just got the green light to ask him and his mom if we can teach the lessons. Sunday we had dinner at the scoutmaster's house and he had to leave right afterwards to go to the scout court of honor. We decided we should go to, to try to talk with Deonte and his mom! They ended up not being there but we got to talk a lot with CJ's mom and others. Since Deonte wasn't there we offered to take the badges and rank cards he earned and deliver them to his house. We did and they let us right in. Elder Tait (who had a haitian companion he loved) started talking a little Haitian Creole which they loved (Haitian creole being like a ghetto french, that's really what everyone calls it. Except some haitians). It was good we went that night because Deonte's mom's boyfriend, who lives in NH, was there and without him we couldn't have gotten in. Also I forgot to already say, earlier saturday when trying our stop-by's with innactive members we saw another Haitian guy, who really liked hearing Elder Tait speak his language. He also turned out to be the basketball coach for a high school there and coaches one of our YM (The only senior YM in the ward), and he said we could come back to talk. Basically it was a Bonkers week! It was excellent, we are very grateful.

This upcoming week we have some other good things to look forward too including welcoming home Brent Packard home from his mission at the airport (The Packards invited a few zones there. he is in a south-american country) Also of-course looking forward to our Elder Holland mission conference

You guys have had a wild week too! Good job to Kylie for all her things and at getting older! Happy birthday! Glad you were willing to give credit to Paul though, for his song.

For Quinn I hope everything is going well! the MTC is really fun. Everyone there is just eager to be friends. They have lots of practice at making missionaries feel comfortable and good. You'll sing Called to Serve with a giant group of missionaries your first day (if it's the same as me). I still look back at my MTC notes every once and a while, I have my whole mission. When I was there it was "the thing" for everyone to say "Welcome to the M-T-C" all the time in this specific way. My 2 main teacher were Sister Winters and Brother Clements, I still remember them well. All the teachers are great. This week I was thinking about mission advice and thoughts and ideas and 1 especially stuck out. To remember why we serve; specifically to remember that's is not about you. I think trying to do good thing, for whatever motivation, is always good, but, as an example: walking down the street you can stop and talk to them and invite them to the gospel motivated just so you can mentally check off the box saying "I didn't let them walk by, now i'm off the hook" or you can really do it for them. It makes a difference. It is the same thing in lessons, with companions, with studying, praying, really everything. I guess another way of saying it would be to never forget the "why". And don't beat yourself up, none of the missionaries or people around you or even your older brothers or anybody was close to perfect as a missionary or afterwards.

I think that's everything.

Thank you!

Received Monday, May 12, 2014

QUESTIONS:

What did your ward give/do for the mothers for mother’s day?

the youth gave chocolate candies to all the women-folk. One of the YM also gave me one; I was happy to take it.

Have you cleaned up your apartment yet?

yes. It is much neater and tidier

Will you have time for some sports?

umm maybe a bit. With the drive, it's a bit harder, also I don't think there is a group already congregated for sports so it probably won't happen

What is the date of your upcoming baptism?

May 31st (for Linda, we're teaching her again tonight), the other one is scheduled for June 21st

Did you tell elder tait that me missed the chance to meet your family??

haha yes.

Did you get home in time…9:30?

actually no. We had to drive to the church first to pick up the food Sister Cameron made for us, so we did not. whoops!

Are you wearing short sleeves today?

good question. to start the day we put our missionary clothes on for shopping etc and the cashier at Market Basket totally rebuked me for wearing long sleeves. Elder Tait had short sleeves and she said he made the much wiser decision. Anyway it was a funny conversation and we gave her a pass along card with our number (good advice mom!)

Did elder tait make you breakfast this morning?

not this morning.

Did you and elder tait trade stories about your family chats?

yea, we've been talking about it. His family is doing good. He also did Google hangout.

Not a ton to report right now! good job being able to send the email, and it had a good report too.

Even though you have said Jayna is a talker it was surprising and fun to hear her! she is very friendly.

Today at the store we bought: 2 gallons a milk, bagels, turkey and roast Beast for sammiches, bananas, and tissues. that is it.

I remember one time we were at Hawaii when there was a fancy dinner night (or something) there was a little raffle thing and griffin got to pull the name out and he pulled out Dad! he won a few golf balls.

Today I studied part of PMG chp 8 "Using Time Wisely" a lot about goals and priorities and accountability and being organized and things. pretty good stuff. Here, President has  big focus on our monthly goals. We select out monthly goals at the beginning of each month, we prayerfully decide the people we think could be baptized in that month, get a baptismal date, or become a new investigator. Those are the people you especially focus on in your weekly plannings as well. At our weekly district meetings you report on what your plans are for that person to do in that week (what you will do to have great lessons, to help them have great personal worship like scriptures and prayers, and have a great church and etc) and you you report on whether you actually did the things that you said you would last week. It is a good system. It's all people based and not about numbers. Also when we are planning for people you try to think about 1. who they are 2. what they need and then 3. what you will do, which is a good life lesson as well.

President sent us an interesting email this week. It's just full of scripture references he wants us to look up (all about following the spirit). I'll copy/paste it at the bottom now.

that's all for now!

Received Monday, May 5, 2014

It was a really good week. I am sleepy today

QUESTIONS:

what time will you call for mother's day?? I am assuming we will be in a chat room waiting for you, happily. If you need to call mine or dad's cell phone to figure stuff out, please do. 

Good question. So there is a family that invited us over and said they have a ton of devices that will work, so that should all be good. I believe they said it doesn't matter to them if it's before or after dinner, but it will probably be after. It's interesting because someone is Elder Tait's last area (foxboro) asked him to baptize her, so a member is driving him there for that and we're not sure when he'll be back and I'll be with a different member here to be my companion in the meantime, so that all makes it more likely that after dinner will work better, plus that probably works better for you Hawaii'ers. I bet you fly there in a "big red" airplane with mickey mouse on board.

 

do you want me to send you a copy of the May Ensign? (conference edition?)

yes, that would be great!

 

I finally google mapped where you live!! You are RIGHT by the beach!! Your neighborhood is lovely! I "drove" down the street for a bit. So nice. I assume your address that looks like a house is really an apartment building. How many apartments are there? Do missionaries knock on those doors to share their message, or are you discouraged from doing that?

so 

It is the mustard colored house, to make sure you got the right one. we live on the bottom floor and a member family of 3 live above us and that's it.

 

have you been jogging every morning? Are you allowed to get apps on your phone? You can get a running app to see how far you run. It is called Runkeeper. It is a good one. We learned about it from Chase. Don't you share the fancy, smartphone? What brand is that phone?

 We do jog every morning. The phone we share can under no situation be qualified as "smart" and does not have any access to apps. Smart phones are not coming, but tablets will eventually. no one really knows. probably around 6 months from now. We have s Sprint LG phone.

                                                                             

                                                                           

hear any talk about tablets for you missionaries?

:(

how was church on sunday?

good fast and testimony meeting, although someone from the stand did need to ask someone to finish there testimony after they went on for about 20 mins. We had 3 different investigators at church which is great. Mary (investigator) was going to bring her daughter in law (who she brought to our last lesson) but it sounded like she chickened out at the last minute

How is your weather today?

pretty good!

What are your p-day plans?

Revere chapel 2:00. The usual basketball and soccer. There also may be some frisbee/football action in the yard of the chapel

When is your next transfer day, are you half way there yet?

The next transfer day is this Wednesday, in two days. Both Elder Tait and I are staying (for my last transfer). A lot of change in our zone though. In two different area's where they have elders and sisters, a whole companionship is being pulled out and not replaced because the mission is currently losing more missionaries than it's gaining, so that is hard for some people.

You had mentioned kylie was trying out for chanteurs but this is the first I heard she made it! congratulations!

Smart thinking to invite a friend to hear your RS lesson, and nice to hear she appreciated the invitation!

I really don't know much about the donkey story in the OT, so i could have really benefited form either Dad's or Christopher's lesson.

One of our investigators, Linda, accepted a baptismal date for June 1st! she is great. She called us saturday and said she is looking forward to church the next day and excited to pay tithing! She is the one who visited her friend in AZ and has come to church with us twice now. Sarah, who we've been teaching since before I got here, still has her date set for June 21st as well. I remember now something I was going to ask relating to her. She likes to go to this website/blog about "mormon feminist housewives", you should google it and next week let me know how "out there" it is. Sarah is really smart and has strong opinions, some of which aren't exactly in line with church teachings, but she has a lot of faith as well.

Did I write a few weeks ago about Jerry? The very old guy here from Preston Idaho who we might be related to? we went to visit him again this week and his neighbors hollard over to us and told us he had just past away last tuesday! we went over to there house (non-member neighbors) and talked about him for about an hour. they were very friendly. It was very suprising and a bit sad to hear about Jerry. we didn't really know him, and his wife has just passed away like 2 years ago, so it's all ok looking big-picture. We texted the bishopric and let them know and they announced it yesterday. This is his obituary (Notice the Cole-connections and try to find out if we're related!

Jerald George Morgan Obituary    July 29, 1928 – April 22, 2014
Jerry was born to Edgar Morgan and Ethel Winn Morgan in Preston, Idaho.  He was raised in Weston and Preston, Idaho until he was called on a mission to Sweden.   When he returned from his mission he joined the Navy.  While his ship was in Boston Harbor he met and later married Shirley Rhoda in 1954. Jerry spent the remainder of his life in the Boston area.  His heart remained in Idaho and Utah where his family later moved, he always talked about coming home to the mountains, and whenever he visited home returned to Weston and Preston to see all of his favorite places and memories. Jerry is survived by two brothers, David Cole, (New York) and Craig Cole (Washington), and many nieces and nephews.  He was preceded in death by his wife Shirley, three brothers, Edgar Morgan, Ezra Morgan, and Marvin Cole; his parents Edgar Morgan and Ethel Winn Cole, his father Ervon Cole.  Jerry was raised by Ervon Cole after his father died and his mother remarried. Graveside services will be held at 1:00 pm, Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at the Preston City Cemetery, Preston, Idaho under the direction of Lindquist Mortuary.

we had a good zone meeting this week too. It's always a busy, hectic wednesday (we find what the meeting is on) through friday (when we give the training) but it went really well. We used a pinata, actually hung it and had someone smash it with a bat, as an object lesson. Also they now do transfer texts (finding out who's getting transfers) on fridays instead of saturdays, so we had a waffle party after the meeting for when the texts came in. We had like 6 waffle irons, and a bunch of toppings and things brought and made waffles there. We should have counted how many we made/ate. It was all good and fun, especially since Elder Tait is doing good and helping me work on my goal of being more "outside the box".

Also, Happy birthday Lizzie!

Also, trunky question, I'm really glad to be having you guys figuring out my BYU things for me; how are they going? Did Brad Sear's parents find a place? also we can talk a little bit about classes on mother's day. The other field/occupation that I feel I should check out is being a statistician. Probably not many classes overlapping with optometrist, but it's also something I think I potentially could enjoy.

I hope Quinn really enjoyed the temple.

We may drive over to the Boston temple (actually in the cirty of Blemont. About 45 mins away) to teach a lesson there with Mary and her member friends about the temple and sealings, etc. 

Someone made a "may the 4th be with you" yesterday as we were leaving church. yesterday at church the family we're going to dinner with today told us it's part of a cinco de mayo thing their doing and inviting a lot of people over, so it could be fun/interesting.

That's all for now!

Received Monday, April 28, 2014

There are a few interesting things this week and we're leaving in not to long to try to play Ultimate on the beach in not too long, so I'll try to be fast

QUESTIONS:

is your companion related to John Tate BYU and NFL football offensive lineman?

unfortunately Elder Tait is not. His last area was foxboro though (home of Gillette patriots stadium) and brother Austin Collie was in his ward, along with Jordan Deevey. Also he would do service at TB 12 (Tom Brady's physical therapy place) and saw Rob Gronkowski there once. They never saw Tom or Gizelle.

How many pair of exercise wear did you bring on your mission (shorts for sports? and t-shirts?)

I had a lot because I would get sweaty playing sports. Probably like 5-7 I think. No one else seemed to have that many, but it's worked out fine for me.

did you end up seeing any of the Boston Marathon last week?

yes! I'll write about that down below

what are your plans for p-day today?

beach for football or frisbee. Shouldn't be too windy this time

did your weather turn a little cold this last week?

yes. after the winter though it's all fine

Since Elder Tait has arrived, what  have you done for exercise?

seems like most every day we have to get up early for something. When I did exercise it's usually 200 crunches and 20-30 push ups. Today we jogged around for about 20 mins, then I did my crunches/push-ups. We plan on jogging every morning now.

what did you eat for breakfast?

Today when I got out of the shower Elder Tait asked me if I wanted a chocolate peanut butter "smoothie" it was chocolate milk and peanut butter spun in a magic bullet blender. It was good. For lunch I ate a leftover meatball sub. Lately I've been eating some knock off cereal of CoCo Roos (or something. The little chocolate trix sized balls). It is not a good knock off. Also lots of corn pops (*High five for Christopher). Before that it was Reeses Puffs and before that yogurt and granola

Have you eaten anything different from the influence of elder Tait?

the smoothie this morning, which was fun.

How was church for you Sunday? Did you also have a High Councilor speaker?

good. No high councilor. One person spoke and he talked about the domino effect missionary work can have and talked about his mom who joined the church because missionaries tracted into her house. He said "where are the elders" so we waved from the crowd and gave a short shpiel about how we should not give up on tracting. After church I was able to catch him and tell him a short version of this story:

on friday we were on exchanges, I was in Revere 2, and English ward. That day the Revere 2 sisters were also on exchanges, so one of the sister training leaders was with them (who happens to speak spanish). The sisters had previously asked the elders to go with them to an appointment because a less active sister they mostly taught wanted to meet the elders. When we got there we realized there was not going to be another man there, so we elders were not allowed to go in. We decided to go tracting for an hour while the sisters were in the appointment (the sisters have the car, and we needed a ride somewhere afterwards). We tracted into someone who spoke spanish, and didn't understand our english at all. I was able to use my espanol skills to tell her we were missionaries and ask her if she would want to learn more about Christ. she said "Si!" we told her (this part was a heavy spanglish) that other missionaries would come soon who spoke spanish. After the sister's were done with their lesson they came right over (because the spanish speaking sister training leader was there) and were able to talk. Turns out that lady was actually a long-lost member (which supposedly she tried to tell me, but I didn't understand) and was very excited to re-connect with missionaries. Her husband is very against the church though, so it will be a little tough.

Do you have some specific goals that you still hope to accomplish before your mission is over? My goal is to still mail you 3 more fun packages!! Come on!

ummm nothing specific for now. I just want to do a good job with all the people here in Lynnfield area and with all the people in the Zone. I could give a more specific report next time if you'd like.

We had an interesting meeting last night. It was a meeting for all missionaries going home in the next 6 months. At one point President called it something like a "trunky defense protocol" or something like that. It is the first time he's done that. I think it was officially called a "charge" meeting. Sister and president Packard spoke. They talked a lot about sprinting to the finish. It was very good. It was the first time they've done something like that. President spoke a lot about the law of consecration, and temple covenants. He talked about what was possible here if we sprinted. He talked about re-committing to the Lord. Usually after things like this I try to break it down into a few specifics I really want to change, but for this time I don't feel exactly that way. More just a general feeling to try to actually live the Sermon on the Mount, and to do my personal best.

Also this month the Book of Mormon Musical (by southpark. very mocking) was in Boston. We got permission (from president) for all the companionships in the zone to get a night to stand outside the play theater and proselyte/give out (real) Book of Mormons as people walked in. Our night was this week. It was really fun. I hardly had anyone be mean to me either. Elder Tait was standing by the other door (just a few yards away, but in a noisy crowd) and he had a few more ruder people with the champion comment probably being "why would I want anything from you? filth!", which is a pretty funny response. A lot of people walked up and specifically asked for a book. We gave away our box of book of mormons in like 20 minutes and then a ton of pamphlets and cards. One person took a picture of me with snap-chat to send to his friends who he was waiting for. It was kind of awkward, especially for him, because he was probably hoping I wouldn't notice or say anything, but I talked to him and actually had an ok conversation about the church. He didn't take a book though. My favorite part was talking to the people who were standing near by waiting for the rest of their party to show up. They were usually pretty willing to talk, so we'd chat between me talking to the other people in line and handing stuff out. I'd usually ask them for advice too of what I should say to interest people, which was fun. This most often question I got was what was our/the churches stance on the play. I would say something about how we don't support it, but we're not going to throw a big stink about it either. One other funny conversation was when I offered someone a book and they gave a enthusiastic "yes please!" but then felt weird because they thought I was part of the cast just making a joke. Lots of people thought we were part of the cast at first. The other really neat part about the day was we got 3 different people's contact info on the bus route home, which is really good.

We got 3 new investigators this week, one was a former investigator, the other 2 were media referrals that actually worked out. So it was a pretty amazing week over-all. We extended baptism to one of them for the first sunday in June, and they are really thinking about it, they comer to church though. She had just visited her LDS friend in Arizona and went to church with her and a temple open house too.

Have any of you guys been studying PMG since Elder Ballard talked about it at gen conf? That's a big thing going on here. One thing that stood out to me from it this week was the page where they have quotes from every president of the church in the latter days about sharing the gospel. They are all inspiring and I find it interesting how similar they can sounds, almost like different versions of Joseph Smith's famous "After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel"

I think that is everything for now! Good luck with everything going on, whether singing, or RS or hot upstairs office rooms!