March 31, 2014

Hello family,

This week was so much fun! We had a lot of cool miracles. Being a district leader is the best thing I have ever done on my mission. I get to hear about all the awesome miracles and hear how much The Lord is truly aware of what we do. It's crazy to see how much the work can change when we do what is right and stay positive and diligent.

I went on an exchange this week with our zone leaders which was super fun. I went into their area and we taught a bunch of people from the Marshall Islands. It was pretty fun, because their English is limited. Thus, we were able to just be super bold and direct and just tell them how it is and what they need to do. You can't do that with white people or else they would get offended. Also, the one that came here with my companion (Elder Plessinger) had his first experience being on bike ever. He has been out for 20 months so it's crazy that he has never ridden a bike. Also, when I was over there it turns out that an investigator that I had while I was in West Linn moved to their area and they went over and met them for the first time, but I had already met them so it was super easy for me to break the ice with them. I already knew her family so it was like I already knew them so I just introduced the new missionary to them. It was really sweet to see them again and to talk about the family.

We have an investigator named Malik. He is such a cool guy. We went over to his house everyday this week and then he came to church this Sunday. The ward all came up and said hi to him and now he wants to bring his family to church. Too bad it's general conference... That's alright though. He is so much fun though and he is really nice to everyone.

That's about it this week. Thanks for the prayers.

Love, Elder Udy

March 24, 2014

Hello family,

Things are going well as a  district leader. It's fun to serve other missionaries. My district is one of the biggest in the mission so I have tons of stuff to remember about them and their areas. I have three sets of sisters in my district and four sets of elders. It's pretty fun, but sometimes stressful. Were you ever in leadership? Or did you train at all? What was your experience with it?

Our new investigators are all doing well. Two of them came to church for the first time this Sunday. The ward freaked out over it. They wanted to know who they were. In relief society our investigator was introduced as a recent convert, which was funny. They didn't know though.

The other new investigators were supposed to come to church this week, but one of them got caught in an extra shift at work and the other was just a no show. Flaky people aren't very fun to teach, but they have their place in the world and they need the gospel also.

We set a couple baptism dates this week which is good. Hopefully they will progress well and be ready for their dates.

Love, Elder Udy

March 10, 2014

Hello family,

This week was good. My talk in sacrament meeting went well. I talked about agency and then tied it into missionary work. I got some compliments on it so I guess it was fine. I took my 15 minutes and left 15 for my companion. Luckily, they also had a youth speaker and a musical number.

Hm... Experiences...well, it rained a lot this week. On Tuesday it poured so hard while we were biking. We showed up at our appointment with a less active member and even though we told him we were soaked he had us come in. We took our jackets off and had a lesson. At the end we picked up our jackets and backpacks and there was a huge puddle underneath everything. I felt super bad about it, but he grabbed a towel and just wiped it up. It was super wet outside.

We taught a bunch of lessons and got to know the ward a lot better. From what they have been saying the last missionaries didn't do so great. They weren't bad, but they were kinda lazy and did the minimum. The ward loves us a lot for some reason.

Yesterday I had a meeting with the zone leaders and the stake president to talk about the work going on in the stake. We talked about each of the wards and the needs of them and the different people
that they have been teaching. That was a pretty cool meeting to go to.

Other than that, we have just been doing our best to get this ward going on missionary work. We did pick up a few investigators so that will help. We did a mission wide fast this week to help us find new
investigators. I have faith that good things will come from that.

There are a lot of ways to find new investigators. Door-to-door will get you investigators, but not very good ones. The best ones come from members that have a relationship built up.

We had to switch to daylight savings time so I lost an hour of sleep and I was super tired yesterday.

That's about all.
Love, Elder Udy

P.S. We received a letter from Emerson's mission president saying he has been called to serve as the District Leader of the Cook Park District in the Tualatin Zone. 

March 3, 2014

Hello family,

This week went well. The ward Loves a lot. I made an extra special effort to be excited and energetic about the work. It seemed to pay off a lot, because the ward seems to love us. We both bore our testimonies in sacrament meeting and that was the cherry on top. I think that we might have gone a little too far on the excitement part, because they asked us to speak next week in sacrament meeting about agency. Lol, its alright though, because it will just be a greater opportunity to serve and gain member trust. They said that we were good missionaries already. I guess the previous missionaries weren't the greatest and they never rode their bikes. O well.

We met some awesome people this week. Most were less actives, but one of them was an investigator from the Marshall Islands. He doesn't really speak English. Our only other investigator is a man named Dave that I guess is pretty solid. He wants to get baptized in about 6 months. Hopefully, we can meet with him this week.

Those are our only investigators so we are going to be doing some finding in this area for sure. The ward really wants to do missionary work, but need a little bit of extra enthusiasm about it. In my last area we had a set of sisters in the ward and they got tons of investigators just because they were always excited and super bubbly about everything so I have been trying to do that in this area. Trying to serve in every aspect that comes my way and give everything that I have to the work. Hopefully we can build the area up and get the ward excited by doing that.

My last companion stayed in Cooper Mountain. My new companion and I both came into this area at the same time so neither of us know anything about the area. It's pretty fun doing it again. Starting from square one on everything.

That's all for today. Say hello to everyone for me.

Love, Elder Udy