September 15, 2014

Hello family,

I have thrown a lot of stuff away that I have been carrying around. Including those shoes that I had the holes in. I took a picture of them and got rid of them.

 

Next Monday I go to transfer meeting and then those who are going home will go to the mission home and have a dinner and then after a testimony meeting. The next day we will all fly home.

We have a ton of investigators in Milwaukie right now. There is a lot of work going on here. We are easily teaching all week long. A lot of them aren't progressing as fast as I would hope, but they are moving nonetheless. We picked up a bunch of new investigators this week as well that I am excited to work with. Two of them are named John and Barbara. We were able to take them to the temple visitor center this week. They seemed to have enjoyed it a lot and we will keep working with them. Barbara voiced to us that she was considering joining the church.

Our investigator Ashley pushed back her baptism again. Right now it is scheduled for the end of this week so we have to do a lot of planning for that still. It should be fun. I'm hoping that it will all work out.

Another lady that we met this week and ended up teaching is Gladys. She is an older lady that knew and respected a few Mormons in her life. We were able to teach her about the restoration and answer some of her questions that she had. I'm not sure if she would be willing to convert at this point in her life, but the spirit can do all things.

There are tons of less active people in this area that we are teaching. Some of them are progressing more than others, but there are some that just don't want to do anything at all. I hate when I meet people that know that the church is true and they know what they need to do and just don't do it, because of the natural man inside of them.

My birthday went well. We did some service for a guy that is less active. I also met this laurel in another ward that gave me some candy. At dinner they gave me a box of birthday cereal. That's about it. Thanks for the presents. I ate almost everything already.

Love, Elder Udy

September 8, 2014

Hello family,

Yes I got the birthday box. Thank you so much.

Love, Elder Udy

I guess not much happened this week or too much happened and no time to write about it.
We did receive the following from a member in Tigard.

To the Udy's,

Emerson is one fine missionary. 

Best to you and your family,

Jeff

September 1, 2014

Hello family,

Happy Labor Day. I haven't emailed from a public computer in a long time. iPads are the way to go. I can email whenever during the day on Mondays.

Lots of drama this week with the area and my companion this week.

Love, Elder Udy

Emerson didn't write much this week but we did receive the following pictures of the missionaries in the Portland Oregon Mission. The new mission president and his family are in the front of the middle section.

Emerson is on the back row the fifth from the left.

August 25, 2014

Hello family,

This week went swell. We talked to some strippers and gave them our number. One of them grew up LDS, but wasn't baptized yet. She didn't really want to learn, but she was nice.

I had a special district leader meeting this week that lasted from 1-4:30. It went well, but I didn't reunite with my companion until about 8 that night. Elder Cantrell stayed in the area and had to teach all the lessons that we had set up for that day so we couldn't meet up.

We did a ton of service stuff this week for a lot of the ward members and investigators. A lot more than usual. The missionaries are kinda like the worker bees in this ward. It's great that it keeps us busy, but stressful as well.

We also had a miracle with our investigator named Junior. He texted us this week and told us he wanted to get baptized with his fiance. He came to church and hasn't been smoking nearly as much. It's great. We have to teach the two of them slow, but they are understanding a bit at a time.

There are three members in this ward that are really cool, the Graham's, Doty's, and the McDonald's. I hope I don't forget them. We do a lot of stuff in this ward together.

That's about it.

Love, Elder Udy

August 18, 2014

Hello Family,

This week was a very interesting week. Tons of emotions and secrets and things to learn about others. I love my new companion, Elder Cantrell. I didn't really know him before, but he did always come up to me during meetings and such and shake my hand give me a firm hello. He is a super, super nice guy. He has a great relationship with everyone in the ward. He is from Kaysville, Utah. He is great.

This ward is nothing like any of the other wards that I have served in. This week was crazy just trying to learn all the people and all the drama that goes on in it. It's crazy. There is a ton of missionary work to be done here, which is great. I think that the missionaries are the ones holding this ward together. No Joke. Their are a few solid members that get things done. Like the Ward Mission Leader is really great as far as the work goes, and there is a member of the HPG leadership that holds things together. I think this ward has about 85% of its members over the age of 70. I have never seen a ward quite like this one, but its going to be super fun to serve here. We have a ton of stuff to do and I have somethings that I want to try and start up in this ward to help the work and to boost the ward. Hopefully with the Lords help we can boost this ward and leave it better than I found it.

The only struggle that I am going to have with this ward is the fact that I don't have very long to build relationships since I won't be here very long. I am trying to get to know people the best that I can. We'll see how this week goes. Our schedule is packed with teaching appointments already.

We are the only missionaries assigned to this ward. We are close to Portland.

We attended High Priest group this week and it has a totally different atmosphere than Elders Quorum.

That's it for this week.

Love, Elder Udy

August 12, 2014

Hello Family,

Soo...I got transferred for my last 6 weeks. Not sure why, but it should be good. Lots to do. I am in the Milwaukie Stake now in the Oatfield Ward. I haven't been here for very long, but I can see that they have a bunch of stuff going on. Lots of people to teach and they have an investigator with a date for September 6. I look forward to actually meeting her and teaching her the lessons.

I am still on a bike. My companion is now a guy named Elder Cantrell. He has been out on his mission for about 8 Months. He is a super friendly guy. Even before we were companions, he would always say hi to me and give me hugs.

This last week was pretty good. I said goodbye to a lot of people. I got a lot closer to a lot more of the members in this area than any of my others I think. Not sure why that is, but it was tough to say goodbye to a lot of them.

We have district meetings every week. As district leader I always get to conduct those and put them together every week. Its kinda tiring sometimes, but its not bad. At first, I was pretty nervous doing it, but now I kinda have it down to a system. Things are always easier when you have a general outline of how it works. In my new district I have 2 sets of Sisters and 2 sets of Elders, including us. Its a bit smaller of a district, but I am looking forward to it. In my last district there was a sister (Sister Schmutz) who was there for the same 6 months that I was, she got transferred out this week just like me. I got home yesterday and found out who was in my district and found out that she got transferred just one ward over from me so she will still be in my district! Crazy...right? Luckily, she is a good missionary and super nice.

In my last area we ate with members about 75% of the time. Our ward mission leader wasn't very good at passing the calendar around, and sometimes he went out of town so those weeks were sparse also. In my new area, it looks like they are pretty good at feeding the missionaries weekly. I don't know for sure though. The goal is to try and have a meal everyday with members.

Anyways, I guess that is all for this week.

Love, Elder Udy

August 4, 2014

Hello family,

This was a pretty good week.

I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with our zone leaders. It went pretty well. I didn't learn much though. We were pretty busy running around doing things for other people. One of their investigators parents died, which was pretty sad.

My bike seat fell off this week so we had to go and get a new bolt to put it back on with. Luckily, a member in the ward was able to help us out with it.

This is the last week of the transfer so I might be moved or maybe not. I have been in my area for 6 months and I have been with my companion for 3 months, which usually means that I am going to get transferred, but I'm not sure if the mission president will, because I only have one transfer left.

Other than that, we had a good district meeting. We learned about the restoration and how it applies to people.

Love, Elder Udy