January 27, 2014

Hello Family,

This was a great week for me here in Oregon.

On Tuesday we went tracting with some of the Spanish missionaries in our area. That was super exciting, because 3 out of 4 houses that we knocked on had Spanish speakers inside. My companion and I both felt good about taking the Spanish missionaries there that day and I guess that was a good decision. Amazing how the spirit tells you things.

On Wednesday we were able to teach our investigator about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She has a date for February 22, 2014 for baptism.

We have been having a lot of success with the above investigator. She came to a baptism to see what it was like and then she came to church Sunday and she signed up to help the youth with their dance festival thingy. It's amazing to see how the lord blesses us when we do what is right and keep the commandments.

When I first got to this area, we went tracting and found a guy named Steve that we taught and are teaching. This week he came to church for the first time as well. It was great! He also said that he had an amazing time in High Priest Group with all them. We had no idea until we got there that he actually knows two of the high priests already so he was instantly fellow shipped into the ward by them. A third high priest came to him a few years ago to record something in his studio so he knows him as well. Steve, I don't think, remembers him though. It was such an awesome day at church having two investigators come for the first time ever. There were a lot of talks about missionary work though, which I thought wasn't the best for them, but that's alright. It looked like they both had a good time.

On Thursday we were able to go to the temple. A couple days prior to that morning we started calling people to see if they would be able to give us a ride. We must have called about 25 people and had a bunch of rejections. Finally, we did find someone, but it took forever. The temple is always such an amazing place to go to feel the spirit and to learn about the savior Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. After the session we went down to the baptismal font to check it out and one women, that I taught when I was in West Linn, was there doing baptisms for 300 family names that she found through family history. That was the cherry on top to be able to see her in the temple! I remember the night that My companion and I went to the dinner appointment with her and some members. We ate and then afterwards I remember we invited her to take the missionary lessons. She said yes and then we taught her. Now, she is worthy and able to be in the temple. It makes everything that we do as missionaries worth it. When we get to see someones small seed of faith to accept missionary lessons, grow into a plant, and then that develops into a tree of knowledge and understanding.

We were able to find a new investigator this week named Gustavo. We taught him about the restoration and I know that he felt the spirit, because it was there. I don't think that he recognized it though because he wasn't really looking for it. He said he enjoys learning about others views on religion. We taught him and he agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, he is working full-time and is working on his dissertation for his doctorate degree so we're not going to be able to meet with him very much. I know that he will for sure read though.

On Saturday we were blessed with the opportunity to hear and shake hands with Elder D. Todd Christofferson an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It was an amazing experience! He shared a few words about discouragement to all of us missionaries and then he opened it up to questions from all of the missionaries. The first two questions were sorta about policies and so Elder Christofferson had some of the other people with him get up and and answer them. I noticed that every single time that a question was asked that he could testify of Jesus Christ he answered it. If it had to do with policies then he had the stake president answer it. He talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ a ton! The fact that it cleanses our sins and removes the stains as well. He read in 3 Nephi 27 about how if we come unto him that we will be guiltless AND spotless at the last day. He taught us that the foundation of our testimony should be on the Book of Mormon. He talked about offering our whole souls unto God and read Omni 1:26. He taught us that during times of affliction we should come closer to Christ not farther from him. Listening to him speak towards the end of the meeting when he bore a powerful testimony of our savior Jesus Christ was amazing. He is just an ordinary man, but he has an extraordinary calling and brings the spirit of an apostle. No words can describe how strong the presence of the spirit was in that room. It was just as powerful, if not more than the temple experience that I had this week as well. I know that he is a true apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He blessed our mission that the Lord will let us know that we are approved as missionaries, that we will be able to teach with greater power, and testify with greater persuasion. It was awesome and probably one of the most powerful things ever.

This morning we started working out with one of our less-actives who's wife is taking the lessons. He is a military recruiter so he worked us super hard. Probably one the hardest work-outs on my mission so far. Hopefully it will get easier.

Love you all.

Elder Udy

January 20. 2014

Hello Family,

Glad that Laurel got home safe. It seems like yesterday that we both just left on our missions. Now she is home. That's crazy.

This week we did mercenary work. I mean, missionary work. lol. We set a baptismal date for February 22, 2014. It will be good.

This upcoming week we are going to the temple. I am super excited! Elder Christofferson is coming this week also. Lots of good things are happening this week.

Love you all,

Elder Udy

January 13, 2014

Hello family,

Hope you have fun with Laurel coming home. Say hi to her for me. Wish I was there to see her, but ya.

Transfers were today and I am going to be here in Cooper Mountain for another 6 weeks. Our district leader got transferred out and the district leader that I had while I was in Canby came here. This will be the second time that I have served with Elder Barlow as my district leader. Kinda funny.

This week we were able to find a new investigator that we set a baptismal date with. I am not really sure how serious he was about it, but he committed nonetheless. Hope everything works out with him.

This Sunday (yesterday) we were planning on having 3 investigators come to church and none of them showed up. We followed up with them and they all had some excuse of some kind. Very frustrating, but there's always next week. They will come eventually.

We had a special training meeting Friday, that trained us how to do better planning. President Morby is going to try to come out and plan with the missionaries at night at there home every night now. That will be fun if he comes to us.

Anyway, not much time now. Love you all.

Elder Udy

January 6, 2014

Hello Family,

For new year's this week we did missionary work, we got a new investigator! It was great. I'm glad that you had a good one.

Yes, our Hindu investigators speak English, but they also speak Hindi. It's a slow process talking about Christianity with them. They actually believe almost the same things that we do, but they have different names for it. Most of the stuff in the plan of salvation they agreed with except the end kingdoms. That was different for them.

My facebook account is the same one that I used back home. I just changed some stuff on there. My name is now Elder Emerson Udy, instead of just Emerson Udy. You can go look if you want to. You can just log on to your account and see it. You don't need a special link or anything.

No Ipad yet. President Morby said in a couple weeks they would send some.

Laurel is coming home soon. That will be exciting for you. Wish I could be there for that, but...ya.

That's all this week.

Love, Elder Udy

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