January 28, 2013

Hello Family,

Well I have some really good news and some really bad news. I guess I will start with the bad news first. So last Tuesday Linda Compton (the lady that we baptized and that sent you the card at Christmas) past away. We got a call earlier that morning saying that she was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. They think that she had pneumonia in her lungs, but they weren't sure. That night around 7:30 she died. One of the worst parts was that we didn't even get to say goodbye. The member that called to tell us, told us that Linda really loved us and appreciated everything that we did for her. That was super hard to go through, but at least she accepted the gospel in her life and I know that she is in a much better place than here. I know that heavenly father loves her to death and that she will be welcomed with open arms into his presence.

I guess it's time for the good news now. So on Friday I went to the temple to do a session. It was super awesome. The Portland temple is way pretty, although I like the chandelier in the bountiful temple better. The Portland temple has an upstairs in the celestial room, which was fun to explore. I thought about Linda in there and where she is. It was way cool to see the endowment as a missionary. I learned so much that I missed before. I missed a ton of applications to the atonement until just now. Wow.

This week was interesting. We did get to teach a lot more than the week before and the investigators that were meeting with the J-dubs actually came to church so there must be some hope still. This week was Ward conference. During the Sunday School portion they had a talk by the stake presidents counselor and his wife. They both spoke at the same time, which was appropriate because the talk was about marriage/relationships. Our investigators that are thinking about marriage were there and listening. I can only hope that they took something away from it.

Freezing rain huh...That sounds fun. There is no snow here at all. It was 50 Degrees the other day. Usually it stays around 35-40 though. Lots of rain, especially this week there has been a bunch.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. We got a new investigator on Saturday,  his name is Bob. He is married to a less active lady that is coming back. Our lesson was awesome, because we set a date with him. At first he said maybe and then asked us why that date. We told him that we prayed about it and felt like you could get an answer by that date. Then we talked about some other things. He brought up a concern about being baptized in the baptist church, which he basically resolved himself due to earlier discussion about the priesthood. Then after a bit he interrupted and said "so you asked me a question about the 16th. To answer it I will say I will try my hardest." It was sweet! The next day, he came to gospel principles and high priests group and guess what. Both lessons were about baptism...super funny. Hopefully he knows what it is now.

I think that is all the high points for this week. I love you all and pray for you.

Elder Udy

January 22, 2012

Hello family,

I am doing fine.

Trying to think about what I did this week...

Umm...

Lets see...

Aww yes. I remember now. NOTHING happened this week. All of our lessons, but 1, cancelled. We didn't meet our tracting goal and one of our investigators we found out is starting to meet with the Jehovah's Witnesses, because he can't be baptized until he gets married or moves out of his girlfriends house. Neither of which he wants to do.

I guess I should say something positive though also. Elder Manwill had a leadership meeting this week so I had to go to another area to be with someone else all day. I ended up spending the day teaching with a missionary that I came out with. Wow, I learned that I actually know a lot more than I think I did. He wanted me to plan out the lessons for both the investigators they had lessons with that day. He said he didn't really know what to do. Elder Manwill is training me super well and has really taught me a lot. I am just always with him learning so I don't really get to see what other missionaries are doing. It's crazy. Something that Elder Manwill has told me to do that has really helped me learn the lessons and has improved my teaching is to start a study journal. Basically I went through and summarized all the lessons and wrote down all the scripture references in Preach My Gospel and then write a description of them. It helped me connect different scriptures to the different topics and also got me more familiar with them. Also, by writing them down it enables you to find them when your planning your lessons much quicker.

Hmm...what else. OH WAIT DUH!!!!!!!!!!! I remembered something awesome that happened. I went to High School to teach a class. A girl in the ward was doing a presentation on Mormonism and so she asked us if we could be her visual aid. First of all, she was the only member in the class, which is much different than Utah. All we did was answer any questions the class had about Mormonism. That was super fun and hopefully we were able to clear up any misconceptions they might have had. The other people in the girls group weren't mormon and so when they created their slides for their powerpoint the member had to make a lot of adjustments. People need to go to the original source before they make judgments and statements. We find misinformation a lot. 

Hmm alright, one more thing that I just thought of to tell you is that Elder Manwill and I were asked to sing in sacrament meeting since we were both in the ward choir which, by the way, they are still doing. We asked the choir director to find us a sweet version of Lead, Kindly Light also we wanted to do it in a quartet. We haven't started practicing yet, but I guess that they found a song for us.

Love you all,

Elder Udy

January 14, 2013

Hello family,

Did I ever tell you that I went to a wedding? It was a couple of weeks ago, but yeah I went to a wedding in the chapel. The husband is going to be our new investigator. We are going to start teaching them this Sunday. I am super excited, because he seems like a solid investigator. I know that she is already in contact with the bishop.

I am glad that you are going out with the missionaries mom. It's fun, right? What kinds of things have your learned from it? Anything? Also, it's super awesome that you are willing to go out with them, because we try and find members to come to our lessons all the time and people always seem to have an excuse. We do have a boss priests quorum that is usually willing to come out with us. There is this kid Noah Staskiewicz (stu-ska-vitch) I know the pronunciation is weird. It's Finnish. Noah is super funny though. He talks non-stop and one time he related Christ to the sith lord. Totally as a joke, because he has a strong testimony, but it was super funny. Also, his family is super supportive of the missionaries. Bro. Staskiewicz makes super good cookies and he always texts us to come over and get some when he makes them. Also, he found a random white shirt in his house that didn't fit anybody in his house so he gave it to me. It was my size except the sleeves were a bit long. Super cool though. Also, Noah has the exact same sweater that I do. The one from Old Navy that has pink, black, and white stripes on it. I told him that we should match one day, but I don't have mine. I don't think it's worth it for you guys to send it. So don't worry about it.

 

Alright one last thing about their family that is actually missionary related. The daughter is married and pregnant. She is due next month. Her husband is about 28 I think and is not a member. Before I got here he heard lesson one. We haven't taught him since, but hopefully something will come from that before I leave.

Aw I love Cheesecake! I haven't had any of that since coming out here.That's alright though. I will soon hopefully. Maybe one day someone will serve it for dinner. All the members always have dessert for us when we go to eat. Most of the time it's brownies and ice cream which I have no complaints about. Although this week a member made this amazing cake pie stuff. The crust was crushed up Samoa girl scout cookies and then there was a layer of this caramelized filling stuff, then ice cream and on top was whipped cream. You would have loved it mom!

I'm glad that you got the picture from the Rasmussen family. They are pretty cool people. She is the lady that knows Aunt Margaret. That night she told me that she messaged her on facebook, but their was no reply so maybe Aunt Margie doesn't remember her. Oh well.

Our high councilman spoke also on Sunday. He was a former bishop and his talk was super good. Basically his talk was about hope. He explained that without hope we have nothing. Also, that you shouldn't hold a grudge against others. He was born to be a preacher.

I'm glad I am avoiding all of the Snow. There is none here. It's 30 degrees and EVERYONE is complaining about the coldness.

I gotta go, but I love you all!

Elder Udy

January 8, 2013

Hello Family,

Yesterday I went to transfer meeting to see what was going on in the mission. Normally that would be disobedient, but the stake center that it's held in is in our district and E. Manwill is the district leader so he gave himself permission to go. I know I have mentioned E. Call before, but he got transferred out yesterday along with his companion E. Wilson. The area was whitewashed and now a brand new elder is being trained there. It's weird to think that I am not the youngest missionary in the district anymore. It sorta makes me a little bit prideful, but I do know that I have a ton still to learn. I met the brand new guy yesterday and you could describe him as "deer in the headlights". I remember that feeling and to see somebody else have it now is crazy. I just want to tell him everything that I have learned and prepare him of want is to come for him. Anyway, it's super exciting. Also, there is a set of sisters in our district that went from two to three. Trio's are weird. There was a reason that Heavenly Father said that missionaries are to preach the gospel two by two. Another thing about that though is now there are 5 sisters and only 4 elders in the district. WE ARE OUTNUMBERED!!! Oh well. At the transfer meeting, President Morby talked about fore ordination.  And about how we were all fore ordained to be missionaries here in this mission at this exact time during the Pre-Mortal Life. Craziness! We also watched the end of the greatest talk about missionary work ever given by an apostle from Elder Holland. It happened at the MTC a while ago. It talked about leaving your nets behind and that if you truly love Christ you will truly be a disciple of him.

This is E. Manwill and me having dinner at the Rasmussens.

Umm. Not much else is going on other than E. Manwill and I broke our goal of tracting last week. We did 11 hours. That was exciting. OH! Also, today was the first day that I finished my 12 Week program.

Lets seeee........................................I think that's about it.

Love, Elder Udy

Oh wait, I guess I should tell you that this is my last transfer with E. Manwill. In 6 weeks, I will get a new companion.
Emerson sent pictures from last week. You can see them in last weeks post.

January 2, 2012

Hello Family,

Uh..sorry I haven't emailed you until today. I have had some complications. Hahaha does that sentence scare you?

So on Monday when I usually email, We had an EPIC P-day that lasted all day long so we didn't have time to email or shop. and then yesterday was new years so all the libraries were closed...Dumb! On p-day though all the elders in our zone went with one of the ward mission leaders nearby, named Brother Ditty, to the coast. The trip was called Jakequest. It was so much fun! Brother Ditty got a 13 person van and we drove down to the coast for 2.5 hours and then we went into this crazy/weird/epic store on the coast. They had a person named Jake there that is half alligator half man. I will send pictures of him next week so you can see how epic he is! The store also had a crazy shrunken head and different animals that had mutations. Like a one-eyed lamb and a calf with two heads and a spider monkey.

They also had this sweet piano that I will send a picture of. It had like 13 different instruments in it, but you played it like a piano. Also, it had a lot of dragon figurines that I thought chad would like, but they were like 100 dollars each. Also some fairies.

After that store, we walked on the beach. We would run as close as we could to the water, then we would try to out-run the water when the waves came in. Since we aren't allowed to touch the water. I should probably tell you where we went. It was Long Beach Washington. Yes, it's in the mission.

After the beach we stopped by the Astoria column. All it has is just one big spiral staircase going straight up. There are 164 stairs. I took pictures of that also so just wait. After that we drove home. It was an awesome p-day.

In other news, New years day is pretty boring as a missionary. All we did yesterday was tract for 5 hours. It was super tiring, but it feels good to be tired from working so hard. Last night was like 33 degrees. I am glad we bought that coat, it's super great. Also, those boot things. The hush puppies I started wearing and they hurt my feet half way through the day so I had to change. I am pretty sure it's just because they were new. They will work well.

Umm also I have to tell you about Dolly really fast. So last Saturday we went over and had a lesson with her and she was NOT happy. She started venting to us about how much she hates the ward. She was calling everyone hypocrites and bigots, specific names were involved also. She was talking horribly about the bishop as well. It was pretty much like that for 1.5 hours. It was scary. She wanted us to come over for another lesson on Sunday though so we did. We took a priest with us and then right before the lesson bishop texts us asking if he could come with, He did, and during this lesson it was basically Dolly trying to get bishop to twist his words around while she just chewed him out. The Bishop sat there calmly though and listened to the spirit and they came to an understanding actually. At the end of the lesson, Dolly was thanking the bishop for all he had done for her and the sacrifices he has made to help her out. The spirit was there super strong when they worked things out at the end. The Bishop and her hugged it out and then the Bishop gave one of the most powerful prayers I have heard in a long time. It was great. Dolly is going to be baptized as soon as Salt Lake approves her for baptism.

I love you all family, Elder Udy