December 2008

Volume 7 December 2008 Issue 36
Hermana Emily Dahl
Argentina Bahia Blanca 7-09
Hermana Dahl has just spent her last 6 week transfer in Mar del Plata, a resort area right on the ocean. She says she wished that she could spend summer near the ocean, and was amazed when it actually happened! The home she and her companion share has roses and lemon trees by the front door. They live with a couple in their nineties (called by the sisters "the nonos"), who wait for them to come home, check in with them, and turn out the light, just like real grandparents. This is a much larger area than her past assignments. All of the teaching she and her companion Hermana Johnston do comes by member referral, through the Bishop, who is very committed to missionary work. They've had many baptisms, and the two hermanas both agree that it is so wonderful and inspiring to see the ways in which accepting the gospel changes the lives of their investigators. One of their most memorable baptisms involved filling the font with a fire hose when the water supply in the font didn't work!

Hermana Johnston is a dental hygienist who keeps Emily committed to flossing every night.....This week both sisters received their transfer to Pompeya, where they will remain companions
Elder Trey Nelson
California Roseville 1-10
Elder Nelson is really enjoying his time as a zone leader in his new area of Citrus Heights. He reports: "For Halloween, we bought ourselves some $3 pumpkins and then we did pumpkin carving for our zone activity. True to our missionary selves, we used Book of Mormon stories as our pumpkin themes. My pumpkin was Samuel the Lamanite. We did pull out the seeds and bake them right there for treats while we carved. This all sounds like some relief society activity, I know, but I guess when you're Mormon it happens. We borrowed a fog machine from our ward mission leader. He has a professional one that'll just spew fog for hours on end. So we fogged up a room in the church and we set up the vision of the tree of life. We used chairs as our iron rod and we had white Christmas lights in a tree while we had flashing colored lights set up for our great and spacious building. We had various breaks in the iron rod where we would talk about how to overcome certain things in missionary work. It was really cool!
Elder Skyler Thiot
Russia Rostov Mission 4-10
Skyler went back to the Doctor this week and received the clearance he needed to resubmit missionary papers. He has gained back all the weight he lost while sick and is growing stronger each day. He is hoping by the first of the year to have a new missionary assignment and be back to serving the Lord. We will keep you posted. He has been blessed to work with the missionary’s these past 3 months and has loved helping teach the lessons to 3 wonderful recently baptized members. There is nothing greater than seeing a person change their life and come unto the Savior Jesus Christ.
Elder Mckay Crandall
Puerto Rico San Juan East 6-10
Elder Crandall continues to serve in a suburb of San Juan. He describes the area much like Plano with houses that have front and backyards. This is in contrast to his prior area that was mostly apartments and no yards. His new area has its own challenges ... primarily in finding people to teach. Below is a note from a recent letter.

So the thing that I have had to learn over this past transfer is what faith really is and to really lose myself. Not only in the work, but in life. I am still scared to talk to people and not knowing spanish doesn't help but I'm progressing. I really know now the meaning of the scripture "he who seeketh his life shall lose it, and he that loseth it for my sake shall find it" I am still trying to lose myself, and in doing so acquire the Christ like attributes, especially patience with my companions and the language. This helps me speak more and be more willing to give service.

Elder Jacob Reading
California Carlsbad Mission 7-10
Elder Reading Jacob has been on his mission for 5 months. Today Dec 2, he received his first transfer. As of this moment, we do not know where he is going. He is sad to leave his first area, as he has had 2 baptisms and has 2 families in the stages of planning a baptism. One was going to be in Dec and the other in Jan. He is actually hoping to go to them both, depending on where he is sent. I want to relay an experience he had on October 21. He says "I have the coolest story to share with you. It absolutely is the coolest story so far on my mission. We were teaching a woman named Susan. Her husband is an inactive member and has been since he was a teenager. He hasn't been to church in about 30 years. We started teaching Susan and the first lesson we had with her was out of control. Her husbands' name is Wertzel. He had some harsh feelings toward the church because he was offended. They also did not like what was happening with proposition 8 . Susan also did not like the idea of God only being a man. So as you can see we had our work cut out for us and our first lesson was crazy. But, they wanted to get together again and talk more. We started teaching them more and we found out that Susan has had a bad history with Religion. She was mad at God and she has had a hard life. So things were not looking good for us while teaching them. But they still wanted us to teach them, so we continued. Suddenly things began to change. They began coming to church and they liked it. Their 2 children who are ages 6 and 7 also were liking it. Wertzel started becoming active again, and began meeting with the Bishop . They began supporting prop 8 and Wertzel wanted to come back to church and become active again. We were still teaching Susan and she still had some reservations about the church and that only men could hold the Priesthood. Wertzel was doing great and the Bishop let us know he was now worthy of his Priesthood. So, on Sunday we got a phone call from Susan. She said she wanted to be baptized. We were so excited! Only one problem. Elder Waller was going home in 3 days and he would not be able to see it happen. When we arrived at church Susan approached us and said she wanted to be baptized today at 5 o'clock. We were so excited, yet confused on how we were going to pull this off. We then wrote a quick program but were unsure if we could mass produce it before the baptism. The ward stepped in and helped and we were able to have a nice program when 5 o'clock came. So, on Sunday evening at 5 p.m. we had everything ready. Since it was after church, the entire ward stayed and watched Wertzel baptize his wife Susan. It was the greatest baptismal service I have ever seen and we were able to pull it off in 5 hours. Our whole ward was there to support us and help to make it happen. So before Sunday we didn't have a baptismal date, but on Sunday evening we had a baptism. It was the coolest experience I have had on my mission and perhaps my life. The Lord works in mysterious ways and it is so cool to see lives change when they live the gospel and follow the teaching of Jesus Christ. Susan was so happy and I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings us everlasting happiness that we can find no where else. I love this Gospel and I love this work. It is so great to be a missionary in the service of God and help change people's lives. This is the greatest reward.”
Newly Called 2 Serve
Elder Chris Martin
Santa Domingo West Dominican Republic 1-11
Chris received his mission call last month and is so looking forward to reporting the the Missionary Training Center on the 14th day of January. He is busy finishing up his semester at BYU and then will be home and start packing his bags for the greatest adventure for the next two years. Congratulations Chris!