December 30, 2013

Hello family,

This week was good. We had a good Christmas Day. I enjoyed talking to you as well. 

 

Today we went to the Nike employee store and I thought since everything there is 50% off and I will never be there again I should buy something. I spent about 25-30 minutes deciding on whether or not to buy the cool shirt that I found. I didn't want to spend $48 dollars on it, but it was a cool shirt. I left it and while my companion was looking at some shoes I saw some shoes that I thought were pretty cool. They were $80 dollars and I tried them on really quick and gave up stressing over what to buy and just bought the shoes.

We were able to teach some of our investigators this week that we haven't taught in awhile. Weird...right? ya, they went well. One of them, we gave a church tour to. He committed to come. We had a lesson also with our Hindu investigators. It's interesting with them, because while we read scriptures in English they read them in Hindi. They actually understand them now, which is awesome!

We gave a bunch of blessings this week, which was awesome. How great it is to help others in need. The sisters in our area never hesitate to offer them to everyone they meet. It's great.

I think that's about it.

Love, Elder Udy

December 16, 2013

Hello family,

 

All of our investigators are doing pretty well. Although it seems like all the people we find end up being taught by the sister missionaries in our ward. We found a part member family that scheduled to have us teach their daughter, but then we got a call from them saying that it would work better for their schedule if the sisters taught her. That way the dad didn't have to be home. Also, last week we were tracting and found this lady named Tiana that was super enthusiastic about the church. She has a Muslim husband, but doesn't really participate. We found her and talked to her and gave her a BoM. Then we had the sisters go over there to do service for her, because they could go inside the house. They ended up teaching a lesson. Also, she came to a performance that the stake did about Christ's life. We'll see if we end up teaching her again or not.

 

We have been focusing a lot more on getting our investigators to church, because then they can feel the spirit and receive answers. One of our investigators we found out has an easier time reading in Hindi than in English so we got a translated BoM. Hopefully it will be easier for them to read, now that they don't have to force themselves to do it.

 

Another investigator moved out this week to Hillsboro. She told us that we were some of her best friends and that she felt super comfortable talking to us and wasn't sure why. We talked about the holy ghost and how she can receive it in her life as well. She felt like it was true. We are going to send the missionaries in her new area over to her house. She will get baptized, I know it!

 

Other investigators aren't progressing as well, but slowly and surely. We started teaching two new less actives this week though and are planning on inviting another one tonight to take the lessons. Hopefully that will work out well. We are going to ask for referrals from them as well.

 

This week was interesting. My bike broke! Don't worry though.

 

Also, the ward had a high priest Christmas dinner party. We got recruited as the entertainment to sing for everyone. Also, we got recruited by Sister Morby (mission presidents wife) to sing at zone conference and we are singing in the missionary talent show. Lots of singing for our little quartet. We are getting better and better I think. Maybe we should start charging. Just kidding. For the dinner we sang some Christmas songs that we added a little harmony to as well as some solo verses. For our zone conference Thursday we plan on singing 'Joseph Smith's First Prayer'. For the talent show we are singing "I'll be home for Christmas" with some words that we changed. I might have told you about that already. Hopefully they all go well. We kind of had a mutual agreement that we aren't going to spend a ton of our time doing rehearsals and stuff. We are just going to learn it on our own, then put it together right before. That way we can spend more time proselyting.

 

I really liked what you said about the "Intimate" atonement. I think about Mary when she saw Christ right after the resurrection and it's true that she did know exactly who he was and what he did for her. She recognized him as her savior and redeemer in her own personal life. It makes me think, if all the pictures that we have that depict Christ aren't correct, will we be able to know enough and recognize our personal savior when he comes? If you think about the common children's song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", would we recognize him as our personal savior if he was standing next to us? Would we know him well enough and have a testimony strong enough to know who he is and what he did for us? That makes me want to live the gospel and be true to my covenants so that I can know and be able to feel when he is standing next to me.

 

Anyway, I am tired of typing. Love you all.

Elder Udy

December 9, 2013

Hello family,

Thanks for the great picture. It was exciting to see all the snow. My companion is from Texas and I showed it to him. He didn't really react, but it's unusual for him. The weather here has been super, super unusual. It has only rained 3 times this whole winter. Everyone is a little freaked out about it. Also, this last week has been below 30 degrees. Nobody knows what to do and they are all staying inside. It gets pretty cold riding down hills on your bike, but we got hats. Don't worry. Also, three days ago, it snowed for about 2 hours here. Everyone was kinda excited/scared about it. It reminded me of Utah a lot. Luckily, it went away by the next day.

James Thomas had Bro Brownell baptize him and confirm him and ordain him. He asked me first, but I said it would be better to have someone in the ward do it. Bro. Brownell is the ward mission leader.

I watched the First Presidency broadcast at the bishops house with our recent convert James. It was sweet! I think I liked last year's devotional better though.

I love you all and am grateful for an awesome family.

Love, Elder Udy

December 2, 2013

Hello Family,

This week was fairly slow. We had a bunch of people cancel. Next week should be good though.

This week we had a special training meeting for people that were training. It was pretty fun though because we got to teach all of the lessons in order. Each one in under 10 minutes. It was Elder Stone's first time teaching the law of tithing.

Also, we had a baptism. James Thomas got baptized. He referred himself through mormon.org about a year ago. He has been waiting for a long time to be baptized because his mom was NOT supportive of it. He had to wait until he was 18 so he didn't have to have his mom sign the baptism record. He has such a strong testimony though and is truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so super stoked to know him. He is going to grow up and go to the temple and he even wants to go on a mission. We told him he couldn't go until after he was a member for a year. He was a little sad, but it will be alright.

The lady whose sons ran away, one of them came home for one night and then left. The other is in jail. She is still looking for a place to live. Hopefully she will find one soon. We have been giving her a few suggestions on where to look. Missionaries always know where all the apartments are.

Thanksgiving was great. We had some weekly planning to do and then we ate with the Jones family. They are a cool family. After that we went and ate some pie at the Bennions home. They made about 10 pies for everyone from scratch. They were really good. We finished our day by playing some scrabble with them.

We also had an exchange this week with our district leader. His name is Elder Brown and we were in the MTC together. It was a lot of fun being with him for a day. To see how much we have both learned.

That's all.

Love, Elder Udy

November 25, 2013

Hello family,

That picture of Chad is the funniest thing ever! He looks super young. I'm stoked that he is in the field now though. It will be the best thing ever for him.

This week was a great week. We were able to teach a ton of lessons and found two new investigators. They are two single woman that have struggles in their life. One of them has three boys that get into a lot of trouble all the time. When we talked to her she said that they went to a friends house about three days ago and now she has no idea where they are. They don't have phones or any way to contact them. For all she knows they could be in jail. On top of that, she was asked by the manager of the apartment complex to move due to all the vandalism and trouble her kids have caused. She has read the bible a little, but doesn't understand and hasn't felt comfortable in any church. Wait till the gospel comes into her life. :)

When she talked about having three sons It reminded me of our family. The only difference is the way we were raised. I can't even imagine doing something that would send me to jail. Or get into enough trouble to the point that we had to move. For them that's probably a natural part of their life. We are lucky.

Singing in stake conference went great. We got lots of compliments from everyone so that's always a plus. We sang "Savior Redeemer of My Soul" from 17 Miracles and "Because I Gave Been Given Much". For Savior, we all had a little solo part and a bunch of 4 part harmony. On the hymn, the two sisters sang the melody and Elder Stone and I sang the alto line. It turned out well.

Anyway, I'm done typing. I love you all and hope everything is going well.

Love, Elder Udy

November 18, 2013

Hello Family,

This was a pretty good week. Our investigator passed his baptismal interview and is ready for baptism on the 30th. He has been meeting with missionaries for a while. He self referred himself on mormon.org.

Also, we had zone meeting this week and they talked a lot about family history. We are trying to use it a little bit more in our efforts this month to share the gospel. I shared about how I have an awesome connection to family history back home and how it relates to our family. Later in the week we actually talked to a guy that said he wasn't really interested in our message, but loved all our resources for family history. We talked to him about coming to the family history center that they have here at the church and he said that he would come. It was super cool to see that at work. Also, at zone meeting, there was a challenge that was given to us: To leave a commitment at every dinner appointment. We have been challenging all the members to invite a friend or neighbor over for dinner within the next two weeks so that they can feel the spirit in the home. Also, to help them work on Elder Ballard's promise of preparing someone before Christmas.

Chad is headed to Arkansas this week. That will be fun.

Our stake conference singing hasn't happened yet. We are going to be rehearsing for it Thursday. They asked us to do some prelude as well and asked us to sing "Because I have Been Given Much".

Thanks for everything!

Love, Elder Udy #1

P.S. I bought some new brake pads today so don't freak out about the charge. My bike will stop a lot better now. Rather than rubbing metal on metal.

November 11, 2013

My New Companion. Elder Udy

Hello Family,

Another great week in paradise. No flat tires, no late appointments, no new investigators (wait, what?!!) Ha ha. It was a pretty good week though. Biking is getting easier or maybe I am just getting stronger. I am trying to drink more milk. In other words, eat more cereal. It says it has protein in it. It must be healthy.

Anyways, this was a pretty funny week. Elder Stone and I laughed a lot. He is a pretty funny guy when he wants to be. We went tracting this week and found a bunch of new people to potentially teach. One of them actually set up an appointment for us to come back. We went back and then he re-scheduled again for the next day and he wasn't there. :( It was sad, but it happens. We also were invited in to a house that just wanted to bash with us about how we are going to become gods one day. That was fun for my greenie. We had a couple lessons fall through, but we were able to teach our Hindu investigators. They are going to continue reading and they agreed to come to church sometime!

Oh, we sang in church on Sunday. That was fun. We did an arrangement of Savior, Redeemer of my Soul. The one from 17 Miracles. It was us and the sisters serving in our ward, It turned out well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Our ward mission leader set us up to sing at the adult session of stake conference on the 23rd. That will be fun also.

Last night we gave a blessing to a less active family. It was Elder Stone's second blessing ever! I had to coach him through the anointing.

My new companion, Elder Stone.

I think that's about it for this week.

Love, Elder Udy