February 25, 2013

Dear Chad,

GO ON A MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I promise you that it will be the best thing that you have ever done in your life. Besides, there aren't going to be any girls at BYU now anyway. Also, school will be there for another 50 bazillion years. Your opportunity to serve the lord is a short lived opportunity. Just ask mom.

Dear family,
This week has been interesting. Elder Lloyd is a good guy. He is super optimistic about the work and has some ideas as to how to help the work progress in this area. He has been out only 6 months. He just graduated from greenie status. I have been helping him to get to know the area. It has been hard to get him around to meet the people because 1 of our investigators is in jail. Long story. On the other hand our other investigator basically set his own baptismal date for March 16 which is way awesome. That is going to be a good day. I hope everything works out so that goes through. This is Elder Lloyds first time being in an area with two wards so it was hard for him to sit in church for 8 hours. Hopefully he will get used to it.

Other news is that I am sending pictures this week. The first one is from when I went to Voodoo doughnuts. I am eating a bacon maple bar. The second one is from transfer day. That was my last day with my trainer Elder Manwill. I will miss him a lot. The third is of me with my new companion Elder Lloyd.

Yes, I did hear about the 58 new missions. Did you know that there is going to be a Vancouver mission and a Salem mission opening up? They are probably going to end up taking missionaries from us to fill the spots there. That would be interesting if I got transferred to a new mission. I have no idea when that will be happening, but it will be during my time on a mission.

Oh. I wanted to tell mom something funny. Well...first off thanks for sweet letters mom! Also, I shared something from your letter this week about trust with my district leader and guess what...he asked me if I would share it in district meeting...Looks like I am doing the spiritual thought. Oh well. It's not the first time.

I have been out for 4.5 months now. How crazy is that? Time is flying by.

Not sure what else to say. So I guess I will call that good. Love Ya Bye.

Elder Udy

February 20, 2013

Hello,

This is Elder Udy reporting in.

I guess the most exciting news is that I got a new companion yesterday. His name is Elder Lloyd. We have a lot of stuff in common because he is really into drama. I told him that I was in choir and we are able to socialize about that. He is from all over, meaning, that he has been in Philadelphia, Texas, and Utah. He knows Chelsea Milward from our old stake. Crazy. I can't wait to get to know him. The scary part about having a new companion is that he has no idea as to what is going on in the area. I am the oldest missionary in the area, which is a scary thought. He will get the hang of it though.

Cool news. I just became the designated driver! That's fun, but it also means that I am the one that has to know where everything is. I am also the one that is responsible to take care of it. I feel like I am more of a leader now that Elder Manwill left. Maybe it will be good for me.

Last night one of our less actives that we are teaching was in the hospital so we went over there with our Bishop and gave him a blessing. I was the one that sealed the blessing. That was pretty cool! It's kinda weird how words just come to your mind as to what you should say. He went home that night so I must have done something right... Also, first time giving a blessing with my new companion. What better way to start off a relationship than by exercising the priesthood with him.

Valentines day was cool. It was sweet because we went to one of the less actives houses that we are teaching for dinner. Guess what their last name is...Valentine. So we ate at the Valentines on Valentines day. They are so awesome!

I have gained 5 pounds so far on my mission, but I am not sure where it went. Maybe it's muscle from walking/tracting so much. One can only hope.

Alma 32:21 is about how faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things right? That was off the top of my head if you wanted to know. If I am wrong then...oops.

Hope you all are well.

 

Love, Elder Udy

February 11, 2013

Hello there,

 

I bet your excited to hear what I have to say this week about what happened. hahahahahahaha.

Umm alright soooo I have a funny story to write about. The Staskawicz family found my blog on the internet. Noah, if your reading this, HELLO! special shoutout for you, can't wait to come over for dinner tonight. Super funny though that they found my blog and read it. Oh! and by the way, their name is Polish not Finnish like I said before.

 

Ya, this is Elder Manwill's last week on his mission. Crazy to think that he is going home. All the talk that has been going on lately about it makes me feel like I am coming home soon, but that is far from true. I still have work to do out here and things to learn. Elder Manwill said that once you finally become comfortable with teaching and being a missionary your mission ends. So if that is true, then I still have some time before I get good at being a missionary. So yeah next time I email I will have a new companion. We'll see what happens. Hopefully we will get along. I'm sure that we will.

 

Yes we sang this week at church. It went super well. We told president and sister Morby that we were singing and they showed up to hear us. That was super awesome! They are such amazing people and they support us in everything. They are very personable people with big hearts. You can just tell that they love us.

Lets see...O yeah this week I went on an exchange with one of the zone leaders for a day, Elder Davis. He is such an awesome guy! We had a lot of fun. At the end of the exchange he said that he was testing me to see where I was at and to see if I knew the area.  He said that I did pretty good, so that's a good sign.

 

Say Hi! to Grandma and Grandpa, and tell them that I enjoy the letters that they send! I have been meaning to write them back, I promise. Umm I hope they have fun on their trip.

 

Anyway, my time is done.

 

Love you all, Elder Udy

February 4, 2013

Hello Family,

This week has been pretty good.  We taught 8 lessons and did 10 hours of tracting. That's more than we have been getting lately. We would have had more, but a bunch of lessons canceled. It'll be alright though.

Umm...Stories about the holy ghost huh. Lets see...  I will just mention some promptings that we have had from the holy ghost since I have been here. About a month or so ago on Sunday we went to church and saw that one of our less actives that we were teaching didn't come to church. Also, the members that he lives with didn't come to church. We didn't know at the time, but we were prompted to go and visit them that night. When we got there we discovered that there depression had taken a big tole on them that day. It was hard to see them struggling so bad, but we read a scripture from I think D&C 21 with them and talked about the fact that Jesus Christ knows everything that you are going through in your life. By the end of the visit, they were all laughing and had smiles on their faces. That was awesome to see how the gospel was able to turn them around for the better. The best way to be a good missionary is to be a good example and to be obedient so you can be worthy of the holy ghost. Something that is super important as a missionary is to be obedient. If you are obedient, then you will have the holy ghost with you, and if you have the holy ghost with you then you will be able to listen to promptings and if you act on those promptings then you will be able to teach with power to touch the hearts of gods children. In Preach my Gospel chapter 4 I think it talks about the holy ghost. In there it says that we can't learn anything except it be by the holy ghost. With one of our investigators we have for sure seen this happen with him. When we present a principle sometimes it contradicts what he believes, but he has real intent to find out if it is true and so he sits there and thinks about it in silence for a minute, then he just accepts it as if something changed his thoughts around. That was for sure the Holy Ghost. Another experience would be every time we give a priesthood blessing to somebody. It's crazy because the holy ghost tells you exactly what to say as long as your worthy of it. Umm I'm not sure what else to say other than that the holy ghost definitely guides us as missionaries to where we truly need to be and what we need to do and say. If your worthy to have it with you then the holy ghost will bring to your memory what you need to say in the time that you need it. That's a scripture, but I forget where it's at. I hope that helps.

Umm...That took up like my whole hour. Woops...

This is Emerson getting a good meal and cheesecake for dessert.

O ya, there was a funeral for Linda. It went well. It was short and sweet and to the point. Tons of food afterwards.   Some of Linda's family came up to the funeral as well. Only one of her children came though. It's better than none though.

I think that's it for this week. Love you bye.

Elder Udy