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

December 24, 2012

Hello family,

Unfortunately, Dolly was not able to keep her baptismal date due some felonies she has made in the past that we didn't know about. She has been talking to the bishop about it, but ya that is a story in itself. Crazy things are happening with her.

I did get your package last Monday night right after I emailed. I also got grandpas box. Be sure to thank him for me! I will send him some mail about it also though. I didn't get any mail from the stake clerk though. Oh duh, almost forgot. THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE MOM & DAD!!! I haven't opened it yet. I will tomorrow though. I'm excited. I did open grandma and grandpas box though, because they never told me not to wait until Christmas. HA HA!

GOOD! I'm glad chad is filling out his papers soon. He will love it. Tell him to start reading the BOM.  All the missionaries call it the bomb when talking with other missionaries. it's funny, but tell chad not to call it that until he gets here. Also, tell chad that he better send me a letter soon!!! I want one from him before the end of December!!!

Handwritten!!!

Our sacrament meetings were both full of music. The best thing ever. I sang in both ward choirs even though I only went to one rehearsal in one of the wards. It was pretty easy stuff though. The director is a music major at some college so he made it fun, but also helped us sound good. Probably one of the best ward choirs I have been in. The average age was about 36.5. The other choir was a normal ward choir of old people. They were both fun though.

Umm tomorrow I will probably call in the morning/afternoon-ish sometime. I'm not really sure. I am not really sure what we are doing tomorrow so yeah.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Love Elder Udy

December 17, 2012

Hello Family,

 

This week has been pretty good. Yesterday I had an amazing experience. I told you about our investigator named Dolly Davis already I think. It was really cool though because yesterday E. Manwill and myself set a baptismal date with her. We planned on talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ that day which is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. The first two went fine, but when we started talking about baptism you could tell that the spirit was really working hard on her and found a soft spot in her heart. We read Mosiah 18:8-11 and when she read verse 11 she was speechless and just stared at the book with the biggest smile on her face. We talked a little bit more about it and she explained to us that she was ready to change her life. Like the scripture said, she was ready to keep the commandments and come into the fold of Christ. The spirit hit us like a wall prompting us to extend a date to her. We did and she started crying so hard while covering her face. We sat there for like 5 minutes while she attempted to compose herself. Dolly went over to her calendar and marked the date wishing she had a brighter highlighter to make that day stand out even more. It was an amazing experience. Dolly has such a huge desire to be a part of the gospel, it's amazing. She still has a few word of wisdom issues, but she is trying extremely hard to get over it.

Oh, random thought. We tracted for 8.5 hours this week. The most I have done so far. Tracting is way fun. You meet so many cool people, but also some people that are super sketchy. One guy that we ran into this week was from England. He basically told us that he doesn't believe in god, because there is no scientific proof. He also told us to read some book by Christopher Hitchens. We pulled out our book and invited him to read it. Then we promised him that if he read and prayed about it he would know that god was there. He got super insulted by it and started talking about how Joseph Smith was a con-man or something. And talked about how the idea of finding the gold plates in a hole was an absurd lie.

Love you,

 

Elder Udy

December 11, 2012

Hello Family,

 

Sorry I didn't email yesterday we didn't have a chance to do it. So we are doing it today...obviously.

 

My week has been pretty good. On Sunday, one of the wards had an amazing musical number.  The guy sang the version of O Holy Night that we hear every Christmas Eve from Robert Breault (I think that's his name). He did an amazing job, but at the part when he is supposed to go up to the really high note he just stayed at the same one. It was sad, but he had an amazing voice. It reminded me of Christmas Eve.

 

Glad you were able to go to the Messiah fireside. That would have been way fun. This will be the first year in 4 years that I haven't performed the hallelujah chorus. Kinda depressing, but oh well. How do the madrigals sound this year chad? Sorry I won't be able to do the alumni numbers with you this year, I am going to miss out for sure.

 

There is a gospel essentials class that we go to with our less actives and our investigators. Recently we started teaching the Hunter family who is less active in the ward. It's amazing to see how they have grown in faith since we started teaching them. They have been to church the past couple weeks and the dad has started reading on his own. He never reads the things that we leave him, but he is reading and we talk about what he reads in our lessons. Because of him, his kids are getting excited about the gospel as well. The daughter has some sort of minor mental disability so reading and praying are hard for her. The dad said that he was going to work with her on learning how to pray and practice with her. I hope that next lesson she will be able to say the opening or closing prayer. Funny story that happened. Hopefully I didn't tell you this already. We were saying the closing prayer and the family was fighting about who was going to say it and the little boy wanted to, but the dad said that it was his turn. So we started to pray and we sat there for a little while in silence and the next thing we here is the little boy saying: "Do you remember how to start?" It was the funniest thing ever! We laughed for like 5 minutes.

 

Last night I also had a way good experience with our investigator named Dolly. We weren't able to find a member to go with us to that lesson so we couldn't go in to teach her. (we aren't allowed to go inside unless there is another guy home) We did go and say hi to her at least though and SHE had us say a prayer for her and asked us to thank heavenly father for everything she has and her kids and asked us to pray for her to have strength to do well in her job interview today. I was the one she asked to say that prayer and I did my best. When I said amen, she looked at me with tears running down her face and thanked me and us for all we do for her. It was amazing! Also, the previous visit to this one we gave her a blessing that her tooth would stop hurting and I did my first sealing. That was scary to say the least. I probably failed at it, but I will get better...hopefully. She said she was feeling better within the next day or so though so I must have done something right.

 

Um, This last week was my first zone conference. That was pretty fun. It was an 8 hour meeting. President Morby gave us a Book of Mormon for Christmas. I have 4 copies now. woohoo. President Morby also did a lot of instruction on repentance and why, how, and what we are supposed to teach about it, because really that's what we are asking people to do. Repent and be baptized. We can all repent though for the things we do wrong. That's what the atonement is for and that's what we are sharing with people during this Christmas season for a thought.

 

I gotta go now, but check out www.mormon.org/christmas. The church is pushing it hard.

 

Love you lots

 

Elder Udy

 

 

December 3, 2012

Hello family,

I think I know more people in the ward here than I do there just because missionaries have contact with all the ward members all the time. People always come up to us and say hello. It's like I'm important or something...weird.

I miss technology a lot. A member from the ward showed us his new iphone 5 that he got recently. It made me miss my phone, but oh well.

Lately, I have been working on teaching more simply instead of just talking about everything I know about a subject. It's really hard to do that sometimes, because I think of a topic and then in my head it's like I pull up a list of bullet points to go through. So sometimes I confuse people, because they don't understand one of the points and I move on and they get stuck on that point they were confused about. It's tough.

Did you have a chance to listen to the 1st presidency Christmas devotional? It was really cool and the music for that was way awesome. We took our investigator, Dolly Davis, with us and she loved it. As soon as she gets her kids back she will be baptized for sure. She has such a huge drive and motivation to learn as much as she can about the church, because she has been through a lot of crap in her life. Her husband is, for lack of a better word, a dirt-bag and is now in prison all the way in Texas. Long story how she ended up here, but I think heavenly father dropped her here with us for a reason.

Their are quite a few babies in our ward, but I would say mostly we have a lot of toddlers. They can be super funny sometimes. Also, here is the music we are singing in ward choir for Christmas.
The First Noel - Dan Forrest
If this child were born today - Poorman and Poorman
Baby, what you goin' to be - Natalie Sleeth
Star of Bethlehem - Natalie Sleeth
and the woman are singing: Were you there on that Christmas night?

Some good things are going on in the Willamette ward. Although, in the West Linn ward they want to do missionary work, but it feels like it is at the bottom of their priority list. They only have ward council once a month and nobody ever comes to our coordination meeting so nothing gets done. The last couple weeks we have reported all zeros. The Willamette ward is on fire on the other hand though.

Anyway, sounds like you had a good week. I love you all.
Elder Udy

 We did some service on Thanksgiving and found this mini bike cleaning out the garage.

What do you think of this suit?