October 31, 2011

I am just a disciple of Christ trying to do my best. A great scripture that talks about being a disciple is 3 Nephi 5:13. What color is the house now? Am i still going to recognize it with all that has been done to the house? haha Yes the Baptism went really well. President Maynes was there and he later said that Jason Tanner is one of the strongest converts he's seen in a while. He is such a solid convert. It was really awesome teaching him cause he would just bear testimony a lot of the things we taught. His only concern was the word of wisdom. I am still with Elder Wright. But Elder Bond went home two weeks ago. We do ride bikes every now and then but not very much cause we have a car. Things are going really well Here. We recently found a new family to teach and they are really awesome. We both feel really good about the family. Also its Halloween today! hope you have a great one!

November 7, 2011

Yes we have already had some snow. But most of it is melted now. Thats how it goes in colorado. Regular weather changes. Wow it sounds like LHS has a really good team which is nice to hear. Oh Jake doesn't like working at Entech? I didn't know he wasn't going to be able to make it to church. I don't really have any plans for school. I just know I want to go to school and I don't have money. I don't even know what schools are out there or what they offer. I don't even know how I would apply, I feel like I need someone to help me out with this. Cause I don't know what to do. As far as things over here go last saturday Jason Tanner Baptized his son which was really cool to see. It is awesome to teach people, feel the spirit, help people learn and live the gospel, see people get baptized. But I think it is so special when you see some one become so converted and see someone develop such a strong testimony. He wants to share the Gospel also and is already working on it! I love this Family. They are really special. I am going to have to come back to Denver in a year when the Tanner family goes the the Temple and are sealed together as a family for all of time and all eternity. That will be really special. Yeah we have places to go on thanksgiving. Three families so far already want us over at their houses. One will be breakfast, the other lunch, and the other Dinner. It is going to be a lot of food. The members here really love us and we love them. It is really awesome. Their are a lot of just wonderful people over here. I love these people and I hope I get to stay here for the rest of my mission. Odds are that won't happen. but we will see. I know both of hte assistants very well. Elder Christensen (he was my companion two transfers ago), and Elder Fuller (we served in the Bible park ward at the Same time together, he was in the south half and I the north half) and I have already told them to keep my here. but we will see what happens.

October 17, 2011

That is good to hear that Lebanon is doing so well in high school football. That's too bad you haven't heard from them or about them. Kim is actually in another ward now cause she moved but she is still doing well and really loves church, especially relief society. That is really good to hear the missionaries are really busy over there. Are the members fellowshipping the new converts well? Hope so. You think I am getting transferred? haha. That's funny cause it turns out I'm not! hahaha I am actually staying here for at least one more transfer. I would love to stay here for the rest of my mission. But we will see. I am actually pretty surprised I am not being transferred. Elder Bond is going home. He was only with us for two weeks cause the car in his area broke and they didnt have another car and they were up in the mountains with a big area, so they couldn't do anything with out a car. He is a great missionary and its too bad he's leaving but I think we'll see him again sometime. Kind of funny but he is the first missionary that I have been with their last transfer. And that transfer it is missionary lingo to say he is dying. (speaking as he's going home). So when you have a companion who's dying its also missionary lingo to say you're killing them. So soon I'll be able to say this. My mission was hard work. I was trained by Rambo, and I killed Bond. hahaha Its a cheesy joke but I think its funny. I hope you have a great week mom! I love you! Oh and also we are having a baptism this week. This guy named Jason Tanner, his wife is already an endowed member and he is really super solid. Has borne testimony of the book of mormon, the restoration, Joseph Smith, the Church, Thomas S. Monson, the plan of Salvation. He is now living the word of wisdom and will be baptized this weekend. And he asked me to baptize him. It is really awesome. I love this family. And I don't know if you have seen the movie called "Treasure in Heaven: The John Tanner Story" but if you haven't you should its really good. But anyways if you have you'll get this part. We sometimes refer to Brother Tanner as Father Tanner!

August 29, 2011

Thank you so much for being willing to pray for kim and put her the temple prayer roll. THank you Mom. You are so awesome. I love you. She is doing good. THe spirit is working on her. She unfortunately hasn't made it to church still yet. We gotta get her to church this weekend. Wow Scott and Brad are going to College already? thats crazy. I haven't gone to college yet. Im getting old! hahaha just kidding. Time really does fly. Things are going good in our area. We set two investigators on baptismal date recently. And we felt like we should teach one of them the word of wisedom the following visit so we did and turns out he has a chewing tobacco problem. But we are going to work with him now to really help him grow in Faith and gain a Testimony of the Book of Mormon and also Obedience. So it was probaably good that we found that out as soon as we did. We got to go to a big meeting last week that was about a media blitz the church is doing here in the denver mtro area starting in October. There were some general authorities there and they taught us about it. There are going to be mormon.org tv comercials, bilboards, radio commercials, etc.. There are already internet adds. it is going to be huge. Really cool. They have already done this in other cities in the U.S. Its a six month add Campeign. Where they have already done it there has been explosions in the work. It is really amazing! so huge. Members of the church are going to be approached with people asking about the church. 98% of the youth will be asked about the church. And statisticly many people will want to go to church with us after seeing the adds. And the rest will all want to do something. Like go to mormon.org, request a free Book of Mormon or Bible, want to meet with missionaries, etc... it will be really cool. I love it! The spirit was really strong at this meeting. The only sad part is at the end of the meeting our Mission President. Walked up to Elder Christensen and told him that he was going to be emergency transferred. And that he was going to be his next assistant. So that night he had to pack and say good bye to a few of the people we teach and then 830 the next morning the assitants came and got him. It was quick. All three of us were really sad that he was getting emergency transferred. We love eachother and we love serving together. And we got to see alot of miracles together in the 4.5 weeks we were together. He is from washington and turns out we both entered the Mtc the sameday but didnt really meet eachother until earlier this year haha. I miss him but I know the work will keep moving forward. Elder George and I are still together and we hope we get to stay together another transfer. Right now its only Elder George's third transfer in the mission so if he bcame a zone leader next transfer that would be really cool but unheard of hahaha. Or who knows maybe we will be put into a tripanionship again next transfer. But I got to go. I love you mom! and have great week.

August 8, 2011

I do miss Elder Beberger but I really love my two new companions. That's right. I am in a tripanionship. the computer just underlined that word in read telling me that is not a word or it is misspelled haha. I have Elder George and Elder Christensen who are serving with me. They are bother really great Elders and they are both from Washington. Elder Christensen entered the mtc the same day i did but he was there nine weeks learning spanish. Although now he is in an english area. He is my zone leader companion. And Elder George is like our assistant zone leader-Assistant to the zone leaders. hahaha. He is really funny and really loves to work. We have some great hings happening in our area. We have three baptisms this week. And we have several investigators that could get baptized very soon. Two are newer investigators that have had really hard childhoods. One was in foster care but whats cool is for a little while growing up she lived in an lds home. The other girl never really had a good father growing up so they do have problems but they are progressing so well right now. The second one has never really been religious but she can really feel the spirit when we meet, and when she reads the book of mormon and prays. I have faith that they will be healed as the come unto The Savior. And they will be able to change and have a so much more happy life and receive so many more blessings. Also We took an investigator to tour the temple grounds outside the temple on saturday and it went really well. The spirit was really strong and he really wants to get baptized and get married in the temple. More so then he did before. It was awesome. I had never done that with some one we teach before. We need to do it a lot more! Also another lady we recently started teaching told us she wants to get baptized without us even asking! It was really awesome. That was the second time this has happened on my mission. There are wonderful things happening. I love it! I am still in the same area and I love it a lot. The ward is called SMoky Hill and it is in the Arapahoe Stake. It is so awesome. I hope I get to stay here for at least another transfer. I love the temple. I know The Temple truly is a House of The Lord. It is so special to me. I have grown a much deeper appreciation for it. I love you Mom and I love your prayers, love , and support. How are the missionaries over there? are they good missionaries? Have you sent them to teach Jared? you should. How about Liz's Boyfriend? you should or it may even be better to have them in your home when the missionaries meet them and begin teaching them. Actually this would probably be the best. Just let the missionaries do the teaching and you can ask them and work with them so you will know what the missionaries want you to do when they teach them. THank you Mom! You're awesome

July 25, 2011

My companion Elder Beberger absolutely loves talks. He has read and listened to more talks than anyone I have ever met. And he uses them to a lot in teaching which is really awesome. I really love my companion a lot. And I am actually really sad that he is getting transferred tomorrow. He is a great missionary. He is a convert and he joined when he was 16 and is just really solid. He has a solid testimony, a lot of Faith, and a lot of love. I wish I could keep serving with him. But He is being transferred to a different Zone where he is going to be in a split zone leadership. Which means his companion isnt going to be a zone leader but the zone leader he'll be working with will be in a different area and he;ll be trainning him to be a new zone leader and also Elder Beberger will be follow up trainning a new missionary. Which means its the new missionaries second transfer and he's his second companion in the field. So President has definately thrown Elder Beberger a curveball. Haha. He has taught me a lot. He has belped me to increase my Faith and attitude a lot. And we have seen miracles in the work together. He is from Oregon too and he said he is going to come visit you after he goes home. And he will hopefully be there when I get home. that would be really cool. The first transfer I was with him he told me his goal for me was for me to drive in Nascar in the future. Hahaha. But it is amazing so so so amazing being able to be a missionary. Lives are changing forever. Even for all Eternity, for the better. And you can't measure the worth of a soul anymore than you can span the measure of the universe. Thank you Mom for you and Dad and all your prayers, love, and Support. It is so grealty appreciated. I know my life has changed forever. Thank you Mom. I love you.

July 11, 2011

We had some more great things happen last week. On tuesday we went to go teach one of our investigators and when we were teaching her, her sister, brother in law and his kids came over also (they were having a get together). And we found out her sister also wants to be baptized and her husband (our investigator's brother in law) is a member but less active. They live in the Heather Ridge ward and have gone through a bunch of missionaries. When we left hid daughter who is seventeen came out after us to talk to us. She told us that she is a member and has been less active and when she had gone to church before she saw a light around the bishop and his councilors. A light like a halo. And she said she hadnt seen that light in a while but she said she saw it around us when we were teaching and she said it kind of freaked her out and she didnt know what to do but she wanted to tell us and get our phone number to talk to us later. The next day we got to go to the temple which was amazing. I love the Temple. And later that day we got a call from them. They wanted us to come over and give them a blessing. When we got to their home I could feel that something was wrong. Elder Beberger felt that also when we talked about it later. And We found out that last night and Evil Spirit that she could see was in her room and really scared her. And she told us that before that She prayed b4 she went to bed asking God to help her know that this was true and that she wants to follow him with all her heart and go on a mission also. and then later she felt something touching her leg and woke up to that awfull experience. And we went over The 1st vision account with her about how satan came upon Joseph and she said it felt like that. So we Kneeled down together With Alfredo (her father) and her brother who's 5 and her and Elder Beberger Dedicated their home and during the prayer we felt something leave and the spirit come and it felt much better there then. And afte rthat we gave both Carlie (the 17 year old girl) and Alfredo jr. blessings and that felt much better. They felt the spirit. Next day Carlie told us she felt 100% better and Safe. And that her brother said "they gave me the force" which was pretty awesome. We also found out that Carlie has had a pretty hard life. She was living with her Mom (Alfredo's first wife) and that she was abused by her and her mom also treated her like she was crazy and put her in institutes when she really isn't crazy she just didnt want to take care of her. So she has had a hard time growing up and she just recently moved in with her dad. It was so amazing to see Heavenly Father help his children and use us as instruments. It made me really happy. I love it. We are going to go over there with Heather Ridge North on wednesday cause they should be teaching them regularly and helping Monica (our investigator's sister) get baptized. Also Alfredo said if Monica wants to get baptized he'll get active and do everything. It was a great miracle. It was really special. They are an awesome Family.

May 9, 2011

Looks like we talked about a lot of the same stuff yesterday. I really enjoyed talking with you. It was really good to talk to everyone. Things are going really well. The area I am in it does have a lot of potential. And it is a pretty big ward for a smaller area geographically, There is always good things happening in the work of the Lord. The area/ward we are in is called Smoky Hill. And it is the Arapahoe Stake I think. Something pretty cool is we got to go on exchanges with our district leader and his companion. They are spanish speaking missionaries and their area is pretty much two Zones/Stakes. They cover all of the Araphoe Stake and the Denver Stake, including the downtown area. But I got to spend a little bit of time in one of my old Areas, Bible Park. We didnt get to see anyone I already knew from there, but we did get to talk to some random people and it felt nice being htere again. I think I will request from President Maynes that he sends me there for my last Area, cause it is so Awesome. We have a few investigators on baptismal date, and I think the Lord will bless us with more success. Elder Beberger and I both want to work and we have already talked and planned what we are going to do to help eachother become better missionaries! So I am really looking forward to this transfer now, It should be awesome! I love it! Take care mom And I will keep praying for you. Elder Beberger said he would too. I love you mom. I will talk to you again later.

May 16, 2011

We had a leadership meeting up in the mountains last week on friday and it was really good. All of the zone leaders, the district leaders, the assistants, and President and Sister Maynes were there and President and the assistants gave us some really good trainnings(lessons "for" missionaries). One of the things President Maynes Talked about was how we need to be on Fire and he used some really good scriptures and it was really powerful. One of the scriptures he used was Luke 12:49 and he also used the firs vision in JSH and some others. It was really awesome. And I really want to be on fire, we each have to set ourelves "on fire" and that happens from having Love for God and really really working, for him, for his chldren, and for it. Forgetting yourself and going to work as well as really praying for it. And me and my companion and I have both talked about it and we are going to do it. And we are going to help eachother do it. Thank you Mom. You are awesome and I love you, take care and I will talk to you again soon.

June 6, 2011

Sorry I didnt hit the send button fast enough last week. I sent the email to you already today. That is good that you can stand! We have had a lot of rain over here in Colorado this spring. It was kind of nice, a nice change. But now it is hot and summer is here. A positive about this though is that more eople will be out and about, or more people to talk to. I love you a lot mom. Thank you so much. This email made my day. I hope you have a great day as well. Thank you for all the prayers. They make such a huge difference. Transfers are next week so it will be interesting to see what happens. I just want to work harder and harder. He is blessing me a lot. I feel like my faith has really grown a lot lately from just realying on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to overcome some obstacles. I love them. And I fee like God wants to bless us with a lot of miracles over here, we just need have faith, a positive attitude, and work really hard, then they will happen. I love you Mom and take care!

June 27, 2011

Thank you for the email. I will definately Pray for Uncle Bobby. Let me know of any updates please. I know God is a God of miracles and as long as there is faith miracles will not cease. I miss Oregon Strawberris they are the best. I think that was President Summers who called you. He told me before I left junction that He was going up to Oregon on a trip soon and he wanted to maybe stop by and see my family. I gave him our phone number and address. I dont think I need anything but Meri said she would sen my a pie and I haven't gotten the pie yet. So maybe I could get that soon. haha. But we are doing really well we just had a baptism and confirmation just recently and we have a lot of investigators on date to be baptized. The Lord is really blessing us over here it is awesome. How is Liz doing? How is Everyone doing over there? Let me know please! thank you. Love you Mom.

June 20, 2011

Something Cool though is we had a baptism last night! And it was a miracle baptism. It is so awesome. Also we have another investigator that is really excited to be baptized in July and we had three investigators at church that hadn't been to our ward before and they had a great time! ehich is awesome! there is miracles happening right now in the work of The Lord. and it is fantastic!! I love you Hannah! Thanks again I hope you have a great week.

June 13, 2011

SUmmer should be there now shouldn't it? Its already here in colorado. Its hot, too hot. Luckily we do have a car with AC though. I do miss being in a biking area though. Thank you for the update. Things are going well here. Both me and my companion are staying. so we will be together for another six weeks. I believe it will be an even better transfer than this one was. We have investigators on date and we could help several children of God make the covenants of baptism this transfer which will be really wonderful. I do really miss one of my previous companions a lot. Elder Croft, he was a boss. I do still hope I'll get to serve with him again in the future. You still need to email me those talks. I would really appreciate it if you get those to me soon please. I would really love to have them. Thank you Hannah you're prayers love and support are amazing. I've noticed on my mission that all the people I have helped and I'm helping right now have all had to deal with hard challenges in their life. And Im pretty sure they have all prayed for God to help them at one point or another. And He sent us to them. It is amazing really how much the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ helps these children of God. I love it. I love to be apart of this. Our Mission President went with us to a lesson last week and afterwards he said "it would nice if we could teach the people in business suits and that are doing well but they won't talk to us. So we'll take those that will listen." Its true, typically those that think they are fine won't listen to us. Those that have hard times know they need help and their hearts have been softened and they have been prepared to hear our message and accept this gospel into their lives. It is so wonderful. I've been told by some of these people that they will always be affected by what God has done for them. They won't go back. It is amazing to think about. Epsecially with all of the crazy things, and really bad things that are spreading and becoming more popular. There is still good here in the world. And we do need to lay hold upon every good gift, and we do that by Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Love you Hannah and thank you for being such an awesome sister. Take care.

May 25, 2011

Some really really good things are happening in our area. We have been teaching a mother and a daughter. The mom is really awesome and loves meeting with us and she has been bothered by evil spirits b4. Not like she was taken over but they would go in her house and scare her. And so we dedicated her home and it did help. She really notices the difference when we are there. She can really feel the spirit, which feels so much better. She has agreed to be baptized and is set on date, she is just really worried about her daughter cause she isnt making the best choices with her life so we are really trying to help change with the gospel and lots and lots of prayer. I have also noticed since I've been on my mission that it seems when you are a missionary you can
become a lot more sensitive to noticing the spirit, and its absence. But also more sensitive to feeling an evil spirit neer. Dont get worried mom. I am fine. But I have noticed in a few of my areas that when people are drinking or under the influence, or are making bad choices with their lives, they dont have the spirit of god with them. I know they don't really know that they have an evil spirit with them but it is true. Another Testament
that God is on our side. I know this work is true, love you im out of time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

July 10, 2011

May 2, 2011

Thank you for the news. But you forgot to answer my questions that I sent in the last email. Lets see if you can answer them this time. I hope so cause I do want to know. So do you think you will get the car? Oh Elder Landon is a good guy. we have been doing really awesome lately. We have had a lot of lessons lately where the spirit was pretty strong. But unfortunately I am being transferred so I am going to get an even different companion now. And who knows maybe I'll go back to denver. we'll see. I dont like leaving areas. It has been the hardest thing for me to do I think on my mission. Cause I come to love the people, we get less actives coming bnack to church and investigators getting ready to be baptized then I get moved. I will miss the people here in the Grand junction 9th ward. I have come to love them and appreciate them. I will still pray for them. thank you hannah for all that you do! I hope you have a good week! lets try and make sure Mom has a great mother's day.

March 14, 2011

Hey did much damage happen in Oregon due to the tsunami? How about our family down in California where they all ok? No I haven't gotten the packages yet. Did you use the stories I gae you last time? Yes I am still with Elder Plunkett. Transfers are next week. I think I am now mostly used to being a zone leader. I hope I get to stay with Elder Plunket another transfer, cause he knows so much about leadership and about working with the stake, and helping the missionaries. I love to serve the Lord. And it is a little weird to think it has been a year now. But It really just makes me want to work even harder and smarter. Trusting in God more and more and seeking his guidance more and more and following the spirit more and more. With every aspect of missionary work, knowing what to do, what to say, what to pray for, what to teach, what to do to help the other missionaries, and stuff like that. we do have some awesome investigators. We meet and began teaching this guy last week named craig and he has already agreed to be baptized and we have set him with a date. Another couple we got the week before agreed to be baptized. and This lady who we already set with a date told us her daughter also wants to meet with us and learn more! There is stuff happening. I love it. I love to testify of this gospel. I love to testify of The Savior and His church, His prophet, and the Book of mormon. I love to serve. This is pretty much all I know now. I dont know who Benjamin Sherman is. I only know I love my Heavenly and my Savior and my fellow brohers and sisters. speaking of which. No my seiblings haven't been writing me much, except for Hannah. Tell Grandma and Grandpa I love them and I am sorry I never really get time to write letters anymore. The weather has been nice over here, its been spring already over here for a little while now. Its good to hear George is coming to church. how is Liz and Nikki doing? How's Jayden and Stephanie doing? Any thing new about Josh? Let me know please and thank you! I love you Mom, tell everyone I love them too and miss them. thank you so much Mom. Take care!

March 7, 2011

Hey Hannah,

Thank you for the Email. yeah we are pretty busy, I dont really have time to ever write in my journal now. Being a Zone leader is different. I love my companion, he helps me a lot. The responsibilities of a zone leader are collecting the end of the week key indicator report from the district leaders for each companionship in the Zone, then reporting it to the assistants through a fax on sunday nights. We also keep track of the car miles of the Zone( we can only drive so much a week, and we have a mileage alotment). We also collect information from the zone thursday nights about how many lessons they have so far that week, and get the updates of how the ward mission process is going in each ward/companionship (a list of 15 names from the ward auxilaries, selected, inveited, being taught, is the list updated stuff like that). we also get diamond list information on monday nights usually (Diamonds are top investigators throughout the zone) how they are doing/progressing, concersn they have etc... and on tuesday nights we report the ward mission process information and updates as well as the diamond list info to the stake (usually a high councilor in charge of missionary work, and the second councilor of the mission presidency, and sometimes the stake president) on tuesday nights. And we also sometimes present trainnings (or lessons for the missionaries) at district meetings and zone conferences. and we have conference calls on monday mornings with all the zone leaders in the mission, the mission presidency, and the assistants where we report how the zone is doing (what they are doing good at, member present lessons, investigators at church, stuff like that, and what we need to do better at as a zone, like getting and contacting more refferals, getting new investigators and investigators on baptismal dates) and President maynes rebukes us haha and gives us praise and tells us what we need to better at and to repent. It is humbling and also really good to help us be more focused on improoving. Also we go to zone leader councils. im out of time....

February 7, 2010

Yeah this is transfer week, and I am being transferred. It has been low temperatures over here in denver and there has been snow, but it hasnt really been that bad caus it is also so dry. It doesnt really feel as cold as it is. I am glad to hear Jared is doing really good. I've been praying for him. Wow it sounds like it is pretty tough restrictions for him, but I am glad he has a positive outlook. I miss him a lot. I hope he can find a job. Thank you for that, I hadnt realy thought about that at all. I only worked a little last year before I left. How have you been doing? Tell Bruce I said nope, he's a bum hahaha. Things have been really good here. My back is fine now. I ust have just tweeked it a little. I have really loved serving here in Bible Park, I have made a lot of friends. And I wish I could stay here Longer but the Lord has called me another way. And I am going to have more responsibility as a Zone Leader. I really want to keep improving as a missionary and I feel like I am going to learn a lot more about how to do that very soon. Thank you Mom for everything that you do for me. I greatly appreciate it. I love you take care!