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January 7, 2004
Well, to my displeasure, I had to pack my bags again on Tuesday. It seems that it gets harder to fit everything in each time you have to pack. I'm probably going to have to send some stuff home soon. I got transfered to the Salt Lake Highland Stake. I'm also cover the University 5th Stake. So now we have 20 wards and a branch to cover. The area on the University stake is huge. It covers way into the Salt Lake City South Mission, and it even has a little piece of the Provo mission in it. It has Draper and Bluffdale in it, if anyone wants to go look at the map. We do not have permission to go there unless we are working with someone in the University Wards.
My new companion is Elder Edwards from Alberta Canada. He has been out since April of last year. The apartment wasn't very clean when I got there, so I've spent some time trying to clean it up. I think I'm going to end up getting a bike too, because we don't have a whole lot of miles on the car. It doesn't seem that we have a whole lot to work with. Hopefully I can drum up some work.
Jonathan
Well, we had a baptism on Saturday. Things weren't really going so well. When we got there, the building was not unlocked, and nobody had filled the font. We never actually started filling the font until 6:45, and the baptism was supposed to start at 7:00. Well, we turned on the water in the font full blast with hot water, and then went and started filling pots full of water out of the kitchen and started dumping them into the font. Well, we didn't get started until 7:30, but all went well after that. I confirmed the 11 year old girl in sacrament on Sunday. I think all went well, and this might be some motivation for her less active father to get a little more active.
We were also able to go to the "Aaronic Priesthood Commemoration" at the Conference Center. We had "Plaza" seats, so I was only about 15 rows back from the front. They were really nice seats. I could hear the echo from the speakers real words, then the sound system playing the words which he spoke (Or I think that is what it was).
We went golfing today. It took about 4 hours, and honestly it wasn't that great. I found out that I can't hit a golf ball worth crap. And if I do actually hit it, it is never the direction I want it to go. I'm a little sunburned, but not too badly. Transfers are next Wednesday as well, so I will not be replying until Thursday.
Jonathan
Well it has been an interesting week. We had a nice huge storm which kicked up tons of dust and now our car looks like crap. It also knocked the power out at night, so we had to go to bed in the dark (Fortunately I have a flashlight).
The Zone Leaders came over one night and delivered mail. They decided to give us some bread that was so hard that you could use it as a baseball bat. Their visit was really short and kind of lame. They didn't even leave a spiritual thought. They just kind of came over and then sat down. Interviews with President at the apartment. They were kind of interesting. We went outside afterwards and took pictures in front of the house that President Gordon B. Hinckley was raised it. Across the street was the house that Majorie Pay Hinckley was raised in as well.
My companion had an oppurtunity to have a meeting with Elder Ballard this week. Elder Ballard had some questions about the new program which they have instituted. I don't think he was very impressed with the missionaries that were there. My companion told me that he told them that they were "immature and need to learn the gospel better". That kind of hurts coming from an Apostle. I can only imagine the amount of horsecrap flying during that meeting.
We were in a fast food restraunt the other day and I ran into some people from my first area. It is really weird seeing them again. When you leave an area you don't really anticipate seeing them again. We had a "softball" game today. It really wasn't that great. We probably just shouldn't have shown up. The APs where there as well. There were far too many people.
Jonathan
Not a whole lot has happened this week. We committed 2 people for baptism, and we should have 2 baptisms before the end of the transfer. We have another new investigator who looks pretty solid, so I think we are having a lot more success than in previous areas.
The word for the day is "permafried". What it means is permafried is a description for someone who has taken so many drugs that they are in a state where they always look high. We had to go visit one of those people this week and it was "interesting". When she opened the door a nice cloud of smoke came out of the house. Then as we were leaving her 2 year old son dropped the F-Bomb on us. I laughed a little, but overall it is pretty sad.
President Hinckley and Sister Hinckley are coming to do interviews at our apartment tomorrow. It should be an interesting experience. I'm going to make sure I have the bathtub clean though. I've heard if we don't clean it that the Mission President takes off his jacket and scrubs it and makes you stand and watch.
I've been on exchanges with other missionaries 2 times already this week. My companion goes on exchanges all the time. Normally I get stuck walking in the area though. It isn't too bad considering the area is only about 37 blocks.
Jonathan
This week has been going okay. It was a very odd week because P-Day was bumped back to Friday. That was because some guys from the MTC came to our mission to get feedback on this new program they are working on. Then we had Zone Conference yesterday. They really emphasised that our discussions had been too long and that anything longer than 45 minutes is probably too long. I'd agree though. If you sit there for an hour and talk COMPLETELY on a gospel subject, they are going to get burned out pretty fast for the most part.
It is weird thinking that this is the next to last Zone Conference with this mission president. The next zone conference is going to be June 8-10, and we are going to be doing a temple session with our mission president and the temple president, so that should be pretty interesting. President Hinckley (Mission President), has already let us know that we will still get tours of the temple (And get to see cool things like the 5th floor assembly hall where the Apostles meet). He said that he doesn't know if we can still meet with his dad before we go home though :-(. I've already seen parts of the Salt Lake Temple that most people have not seen. We went and did Temple Service about 2 weeks ago. We got to go down in the basement where they have all the machines for A/C, water, and things of that nature. We were scrapping paint off the floor so they could repaint the floor again. It was pretty interesting.
We've been playing a lot of 2 hand touch football lately. We get 30 minutes of exercise time every morning so it is always good for that. I kind of like it. It isn't exactly my favorite sport. The only reason I play is because their is another Elder in the Zone who REALLY needs to exercise and this is the only way that we can get him to exercise.
Jonathan
This is going to be a short email. I've had an "interesting" week in which I wish NOT to talk about.
Jonathan
I've been transfered back into Salt Lake. I knew I was leaving before I got the call. I'm serving in the Salt Lake Park Stake with Elder Neil from Salina, Kansas. He has been out for 16 months. I missed 2 baptisms because of transfers, but honestly, it doesn't bother me too much. Elder Neil seems pretty cool, and I figure him and I will get along really well.
A really cool story that happened to me in Kemmerer: There was a lady that we were visiting. She was less active going active. Her husband and 9 year old son were not members of the church, so we would go visit them periodically. On Thursday of last week she told me that she did have a drinking problem (I had no idea that she had the problem at the time). Well, it wasn't something she liked doing in front of us. Anyway, she said that everytime she'd open a can of beer, before she could drink it that I'd show up. She said that she got scared of drinking, becuase she didn't want me to show up and catch her with it. She said at one point that we hadn't been by for 2 or 3 weeks, so she felt safe opening a can, and we show up again. She said everytime that she'd open a can of beer that we would be there. She said that she has now quit drinking and that she drinks something else, because it fizzes like beer. Kind of cool what God can help you do eh?
We had a huge snow storm in Kemmerer on Friday. It started out as rain, then it turned into snow pellets (Little balls of hard snow), and then it snowed.... sideways. I've only seen snow 1 time in my life in April before my mission. Now I've seen it 4 times. I'm kind of glad that I'm back to civilization. Since I'm in "Temple" zone, we can go shopping in the ZCMI and Crossroads Mall. We also can drive to the temple and we are getting to do "temple" service on Saturday.
Jonathan
General Conference was really cool. We spent all the Saturday Sessions watching them at the Stake Center. Nobody was there for morning and afternoon sessions (I think everybody was watching it at home). I really loved it. I seem to enjoy listening to it. I'm thinking really hard about buying the DVD versions of General Confrence when I get back to Salt Lake (So I can watch them after my mission at home). My favorite talk was about all the missionaries who were on the bus, when they encountered a mud slide. I can kind of relate to their devotion as a mission. Neal A. Maxwell got this >-< close to talking about the cosmos. He mentioned the stars though :-D.
It snowed this weekend BTW. Not too bad. Just a little here and there. It is warm again though. It seems like everytime a storm comes through that it snows. We haven't been tracting lately, because we've had a lot of other things to do. We've committed someone else for baptism, but we have to make it over some other "hurdles" before he can be baptised. I'm not sure if I'm going to get to see him baptised, because transfers are next wednesday. I'm not sure if I'm going to be staying here or not.
Some cool things that I've found while reading the Book of Mormon:
3 Nephi 21:10 - Anyone want to guess which Prophet Christ is referring to?
3 Nephi 18:21 - Family Prayer
Jonathan
Well, this has been an interesting week. My companion turned 20 this week. For his Birthday, we went on 24 hour exchanges. I spent most of the day Friday, and the early morning of Saturday in Evanston with the district leader. I think I'd like Evanston a little more than my current area. There is a LOT more to do there. Anyway, after I got back with my companion on Saturday we drove up to Big Piney and spent a few days up there. I might mention that we got snow on Saturday and a little on Sunday night. It was like a blizzard for a while, but then it slowed down. It was 12 degrees in Big Piney on Monday morning. It is back to 50's and 60's now though. Sunday in Big Piney was alright. We got to meet plenty of people. We are planning to go back up on April 9th, to teach some people up there. We are also speaking up there on April 14th.
On Monday morning we taught Seminary up in Big Piney. It was interesting, and I think it went okay. We didn't have a whole lot of preparation, but teaching 1 lesson is pretty easy. We've seen lots of deer and antelope lately. They come right up to the edge of the highway. I don't think they even run when you drive by them. We had a pretty cool discussion last night. We were supposed to be having a "Bible Study", but we pretty much just bore testimony. We made the other person realize how important it really was to find out if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Fortunately the Pastor's son wasn't there. He seems to like to go off on Doctrine stuff, and I don't really like talking to him, because he really doesn't understand his scriptures. That and everytime we talk to him he goes off quoting scripture which he doesn't understand.
I think we are going to go and make prayer rocks with our investigators this week. Hopefully they get the point of this activity, or I'll have to use the rock in other methods of getting them to pray. Anyway, I hope to hear from you soon.
Love,
Jonathan
Things have been going really well this week. I enjoyed our day in Evanston. We went and played Football in the park after we emailed. Well, the only problem was that there was 6 inches or more of snow on the ground in the park. We played anyway. When we got done, it felt like we had 10 pounds of ice on each of our feet. It was pretty fun though. I got a little sunburned from it, but not bad (It barely hurts).
It has been hovering around 60 degrees during the day here. It feels so good. P-Day today was pretty cool. One of our investigators took us out to see a Moose. We never got to see one at close range. We got to see plenty of antelope though. We saw about 40 on the way to Evanston on Monday.
People seem to want to try to prove the Church wrong to me lately. It is starting to get annoying. I've read quite a bit of AntiMormon material, and it is sad. It is really sad when you have to PURPOSEFULLY misquote a religion's doctrine in an attempt to prove them wrong. All the material and the people writing the material seem to be shady. It gets annoying after a while. It doesn't change the fact that I believe the Church is true.
We started teaching a new investigator this week. His girlfriend is LDS and he showed some interest to her. He seems pretty solid. He read 9 chapters out of the Book of Mormon in 2 days (We've already taught two lessons). We have been using the new lessons to teach with. I like them, but I don't go into quite as much detail as they do. We also have another family we are working with that live out in Oakley (About 4 miles out of town). They are very open. I love talking with them. It seems they always have something for us to eat as well. Anyway, I hope everyone has been doing well this week.
Love,
Jonathan
Sorry I did not email yesterday. I did not find out that I had Zone Conference yesterday until Monday. Zone Conference was REALLY interesting. They gave us a "Preach My Gospel" Guide which replaces the Missionary Guide, The Missionary Gospel Study Program, The Discussions, and the New Member Discussions. There are only 4 discussions (Possibly 3 if done right) that are taught before baptism. The first discussion is pretty much the same. It is about the Apostasy of Christ's church and the Restoration of it on the Earth today. The second discussion is the Plan of Salvation (Including things like the fall of Adam). The third is about the Ordinances in the gospel (I think), and the fourth is about the Laws and Commandments. Things are really changing. We also got new planners. They look similar to the older "test" ones, but they are a little different. I kind of like the changes, but it is putting a bigger burden on us. They are giving us an additional hour in the morning to study the new program though (Plus 30 minutes of exercise time every day). Now I have to figure out how we are going to transition our investigators over to the new program. There are some so far along, I think I'm just going to end with the old type of discussions. There are only 14 missions in the world participating in this test, so the missionaries in your area aren't going to know anything about it.
The new method is a lot more flexible though. I haven't had much time to look over it, and I'll tell you more when I do.
I heard a cool story the other day. They call this on the "Modern Day Stripling Warriors". Back in the Korean War, 2 National Guard Units were called up. One from Wyoming and the other was from Utah. Anyway, the St. George Temple President told some of the guys in the Utah National Guard Unit that if they live their religion out there on the battlefield, that they would all come back. Well, the units were located RIGHT next to each other (Not even a quarter mile), when China decided to overrun the country. Like 1/2 or more of the Wyoming National Guard unit died in the conflict. Not a single person from the Utah National Guard unit was killed during this. They even talked to some of the Chinese soldiers who were captured, and they said that they just couldn't kill anyone that was in the Utah National Guard Unit. It is kind of a cool story, being as how all of the people from the Unit out of Utah survived.
We had an investigator baptised on Sunday. It was a very cool baptism. He is only 11, but I know it was the right thing for him to be doing. His sister was there (She is like 20), and she was taught the discussions by some of the sisters that I know (She was baptised in December). We have a baptismal goal of 4 for this transfer. Hopefully we can get it. I think we will have at least 1 more baptism before the end of the transfer, but I think we could possibly have another. I hope everyone else is having good week.
Jonathan
This has been an interesting week. We went tracting in a little town outside of town called Oakley on Saturday. A nice storm came in during it. I don't think I've ever felt wind that powerful. I had my coat on it and was completely plastered to my face. The snow was coming down pretty hard too, so you could really see when you were walking into the wind, because the snow would hit you in the eyes. While we were tracting in town, we ran into an older Catholic lady. She told us that if she had her life to live over that she'd be Mormon. So we asked her why she would be mormon and she explained to us that "the Mormon people help their own out and the Catholic don't". It is a really bad reason to join a church, but I figure it was a compliment to us nonetheless.
We were also talking with someone else in town, and we shared the 1 Corinthians 15:40-42 scripture with him (About Celestial and Terrestial Bodies). Anyway he tried to tell us that it was talking about the bodies of the "Trinity". I found it kind of entertaining. It seems like when people learn about the Bible, they think they are smart, and they come up with some bad interpretations on what they believe something means. We also had a "Bible Study" with someone else in the town. I find it kind of entertaining, because all they do is ask questions about our religion. I also find the other person invited to this "Bible Study", likes to use a lot of Bible terms, instead of keeping things simple. He has said a few things which really tells me he doesn't analyze what is coming out of his mouth either.
We also made a trip to Big Piney this week. It was quite an interesting trip. I just showed my new companion where a few things were incase we never came back while we were together. I got some nice pictures of the mountains up there. I really want to go see the Tetons and Yellowstone, but that is a little out of the mission, so I don't think it is going to happen anytime soon. We have some investigators that speak little or no English, so we have to use a translater for them. It is frustrating trying to teach them that way. Not being able to express yourself, or let other people know that we have a Prophet of God on the Earth today, that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives is a little frustrating. They are moving back to Texas in a month or so, so I figure we aren't going to have enough time to prepare them for baptism anyway. I think we will just continue to visit and teach them a little, and then pass them on as a referral to a Texas mission. They will probably have some Spanish speaking missionaries in the area.
Has anyone else noticed gas prices going really high? It is $1.68 a gallon here now. When I first got here in December it was only like $1.45 or so. I'm just kind of amazed it is going this high. Fortunately we have a Corrolla now, so that helps on the price a little. On Monday we had a meeting with the whole zone down in Lyman. It is kind of weird to see all the missionaries in the zone, when you consider that we are so far away. The closest set of missionaries to us is 40 miles away. The furthest in the zone is probably 200 miles away. After the meeting, we went to Pizza Hut and ordered a HUGE meal (Like $50, but we were splitting it 10 ways). Well, when we get up to pay, it seems a member has already picked up the tab for all of us. I'm kind of surprised, because that is quite a bit of money.
We are supposed to have a baptism this Sunday. It is an 11 year old boy. He seems to like Church a lot, so hopefully he will continue to come after his baptism. His mother is inactive, but he has been getting rides to church. I think his mother is supportive of him, but it is his father who is antagonistic of missionaries. We have another baptism planned about a week and 1/2 away. It may have to be pushed back a little. This is my second baptism in almost 8 months in the mission field. Things have been a little slow, but hopefully they pick up in the future. We also have another investigater whom we gave a Book of Mormon about 4 weeks ago. He is already in Alma 56. That is pretty amazing. I'm kind of excited about him.
Love,
Jonathan
Well, It has been an interesting week. Elder Foote got transfered back into Salt Lake. I've got Elder Starnes now. He has been out for 9 months (6 weeks longer than me). He is from North Carolina. I think him and I are going to get along very well.
I got a nice interesting bill from the Clinic the other day. Seems they told me the wrong price on my Hepatitis A shot. Anyway, they just zeroed my account balance, because the error was on their part. It snowed a little bit this week, but not as much as it was supposed to. We also got a different car now. Our other car had to stay in Salt Lake at transfers for some service on it. So now we have a 2004 Toyota Corrolla LE. It is a very nice car. Handles well, and I'm sure that it is better than our Malibu was for gas mileage. The really funny thing about this car is that the sisters used to have it. Two sisters were going to Elder Starnes old area in Toole. Anyway, they complained to Elder Holmes (He is the "Vehicle Coordinator". He handles who gets what vehicles in the mission and the service that needs to be done to them) because the car in their area was Chevy Prizm. Anyway, I think Elder Holmes told them to get over it, and now we have their car :-D. They did a bad job of taking care of it. The inside is pretty filthy. I found 1/2 of a health bar in the glove box, and I don't think it has ever been vacuumed out.
We were supposed to do a "Stop Smoking" workshop this week at the Public Library, but it never happened, because the lady who was supposed to show up and unlock the library never showed up. We had an investigator who was going to go to that as well. The good thing is that the lady who was going to put it on was there, so she gave him some stuff and a few tips to help him stop smoking.
We have another investigator who lives down in the trailer park by the Ham's Fork River. Her husband is inactive, but he wants her to get baptised. The problem is I don't feel that they are very sincere. They don't read a whole lot, and they seem to have problems coming to church by themselves. They've got some other "issues" as well, which I'm not really going to discuss at the moment. We've got a few other people we are working with at the moment and hopefully something good will come from them. We have 3 baptisms scheduled for the month of March. I think we can at least 2 baptisms in March (1 will probably get pushed back).
The next transfer day is April 14. There is a pretty good chance that I will get moved then. I may stay for another transfer though. I hope I do. I like this area.
Jonathan
This has been a fairly interesting week. We had 5 investigaters to church on Sunday. I didn't get to see any of them though, because I was in La Barge. It is a booming metropolis with a whole 420 some people. There were like 50 people at church. I'm surprised they have a building of their size. We ending up driving up just to speak. None of our investigaters up there could be found. We stopped by someone's home RIGHT after the sheriff left, and we knocked on their door. We hear them say "Oh great! The mormons." to someone on the phone and then not answer the door. I think this is the first time we've made that trip both ways in daylight.
We've had a lot of fog this week. Apparently it isn't a common thing around here. We did get a little snow, but not a whole lot. A lot of the snow on the ground has started to melt. The APs came up and visited us this week. They had been out to Rawlins. Apparently one of the Elders there has to come back into Salt Lake because he had been sick. So we went with 1 of the APs and left the sick Elder from Rawlins there. Anyway, we come back about 2 hours later to find the missionaries cleaning up our apartment. Most of my stuff wasn't really that bad. The sink was a nice mess. I normally wash my dishes after I'm finished eating. He just throws his in the sink, so we always have dirty dishes there. The microwave looked like we had blown something up, because he put something in there that splatters as it heats up (Never put ketchup or anything like it in the microwave). The APs left that night and spent the night in Evanston. I'm kinda surprised they came and visited us, but I think I know why.
We seem to be teaching quite a few kids as of lately. We are teaching a 9 year old, an 11 year old, and a 13 year old. We are teaching most of their parents as well though. All of them have a parent who is a member of the church and inactive (Or just starting to come back to church). Hopefully we can reactivate them. I'm excited about the 9 and 13 year old, because they seem excited about coming to church and or their parents are very motivated to come.
Love,
Jonathan
Well, it has been an interesting week. We've started teaching a new family. It came as a member referal. The mother is an inactive member of the church, but her husband and daughter are not members of the church. Hopefully something good will come from it. I know we are going to have a few "obstacles" in which we are going to have to overcome before we can get them baptised. It wouldn't be any fun though if there weren't any obstacles.
It has been getting warm here. It is up to 40 degrees. I'm kind of amazed that it got this warm during the day. Hopefully it stays this warm for a while, or at least until all the water can run off, so we don't get a whole lot of ice. I went on exchanges with the District Leader's companion yesterday. He is from Shri Lanka (I can't spell it), and he has an unprouncable name. I find it kind of humorous serving with him. His voice reminds me of the gas station attendent off of the Simpsons. We were supposed to have exchanges with the Zone Leaders, so that Elder Corrizo (From Argentina), could come and teach a hispanic family in our area, but Elder Allen (From Australia) was sick, so it didn't happen. We ended up having to have the husband translate the discussion. Teaching through a translater is not too fun.
The 1st Presidency has made changes to some of the mission rules. We are no longer allowed to go on member exchanges (Where I go with a member and my companion goes with a member, and we double the work) to teach anyone. We are only allowed to go on them for finding efforts and for following up.
We did service at the Fossil Country Museum. It was rather interesting. We moved everything out of a room, just so that we could pull all the carpet, padding, and tackboard up. We are also speaking in the La Barge ward on Sunday. Anyone want to guess what we are speaking on? Missionary Work. I think I'm going to stress the fact that hometeaching is missionary work, because of one of the inactive members who we are teaching. He lives out in Oakley (About 4 miles east of Kemmerer) and since his divorce he hasn't had ANYONE visit him. His hometeachers haven't even come. It is sad when you see the members "drop the ball" on missionary work, but it seems like a fairly common thing.
Love,
Jonathan
Well, interesting things have happened since the accident. No one here in Kemmerer knew about the accident, until a missionary serving in Toole (Who used to be serving here), called a family here and told them about it. Now we have people coming up to us at church and asking us about the accident that we got into. The whole mission seems to know about it. I've heard that it was announced in one of the Zone Conferences.
Zone Conference was pretty cool. It was Tuesday before the accident. We were told that it is not recommended that we sit on the stand during sacrament meeting. We have Bishops which tell us that they want us to sit on the stand though. President Hinckley gave us some cool quotes that he got during his mission. They were things like "The mind can only absorb what the seat can endure." and "Killing time may injure eternity". I'll have to print some up or something and put them on the walls in the apartment (They are a little barren). The weather is going to be nice and cold this week. A high of 5 and a low of -5 and windy. We are supposed to get snow too, but the forecasters aren't that great here. I doubt we will see much.
I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders yesterday. I went with Elder Allen (From Tazmania, Australia) down to Lyman to work in his area. They have a pretty cool area. There is actually in the valley, and there are quite a few mountains to the north. It seems that they have a higher LDS population as well.
We are doing a "Tobacco Seminar" the end of this month. Some specialists are really putting it on for us, but it was our idea. They are doing it at the library, and they have put a little "Public Service Announcement" in the Kemmerer newspaper, so hopefully we quite a few people who we don't even know there.
We had an interesting experience with exchanges the other day. We have a member of the church here who claims that he can mathmatically prove that the Trinity is true. He is a member of the church and he still believes that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are all the same being. Odd isn't it? I thought I'd never run across this, but I guess you will see everything while you are a mission.
Love,
Jonathan
I've just had the worst P-Day ever..... I'm serious about that too. We went down to Evanston on Monday for DTM (District Training Meeting), and we went on exchanges that day. Well, we just decided that we should stay the night in Evanston, because we were going to have to be in Salt Lake the next day for Zone Conference. Zone Conference went very well. I liked it a lot. They taught us lots of things which can help us in teaching. Anyway, we spent the night in Evanston again last night so that we didn't have to drive back to Kemmerer in the dark.
Well, we had P-Day in Evanston, and we were going to have a "Zone Activity" in Rock Springs. We got a member to drive us, and there were 6 missionaries. The member that was driving has a Ford F250 Quad Cab truck which seats 6 with seatbelts. With the driver we had 7 people, so some of the missionaries decided they could stretch the seatbelt over 2 missionaries and that would be fine. So we left for Rock Springs, and the District Leader didn't feel that it was a good idea to have 2 missionaries in 1 seatbelt, so we turned around (We'd driven about 5 miles from Evanston), and dropped them off. Anyway, we were heading back to Rock Springs when we got a call letting us know that not everyone from the Zone would be there, and we had the option of going back to Evanston to hang out. Well, we decided that we wanted to go back to Evanston. Well, about mile marker 28, the truck started to fishtale. We recovered and everything seemed fine. The driver let off the gas and just let the truck coast, and then it started to fish tale again. We didn't recover from this one though. The truck went sliding off into the ditch sideways, drivers side first. When we hit the snow enbankment, the truck flipped. The truck flipped 1 and 1/2 times landing on its roof and started sliding. It busted out all the side windows, and since it had been sliding a bunch of snow had come in from the passenger side.
I was hanging upside down for a few seconds before I unbuckled my seatbelt. I look over and notice that there is just snow and I don't see the other Elder. Fortunately he had just been covered in snow. No one was seriously hurt (We did get an ambulance ride though). One of the other missionaries had a mild concussion. The only injury that I have is to my left hand. It got cut up from the glass a little. I'm so glad that nobody was injured seriously though. That accident could have turned out badly. The truck has full coverage too, so that didn't turn out too bad. We spent about an hour and 1/2 in the hospital though. After that, my companion and I just drove back to Kemmerer. The wreck kind of ruined the day. I'm glad that we were obedient though. If we'd had the accident with the other 2 Elders in the car, I have a feeling that one of them would have been seriously hurt. The seatbelt was VERY tight around them, and they were sitting very close together. I don't have much to say today, and I may not reply to very many of the personal emails sent to me.
Love,
Jonathan
Things are going pretty well here. We spoke up in Big Piney on Sunday. I think that went pretty well. I'm surprised that I can actually use 20 minutes of time speaking. This will be my 8th time to speak on a mission, and I already have to speak again on the 15th and the 29th of Feb. I guess we get to speak a lot don't we? Big Piney was actually pretty warm. It never dropped below 0. After church, I visited a family that was inactive. They seem to believe the church is true, but getting anyone motivated to come takes some work. I really wish the 5th Discussion (Sacrifice specifically) would knock them over the head.
We had a huge accident last week just south of Kemmerer. Two cars hit each other head on on the highway. 2 people died in it (1 from each car). The whole town seems to be in morning, because one of the guys in the car worked out at the powerplant and a lot of people knew him. His name was Richard Black. I think it kind of reminds them of him when they look at my nametag and see "Elder Black". We were over visiting an inactive when a siren went off. I was thinking to myself "Why would they test the tornado sirens at 6:30 at night", but later found out that that is a siren for the volunteer fire department.
We were supposed to get snow over the weekend, but all we got was a good wind. We almost hit a deer coming back from Big Piney on Sunday night. We were in La Barge (A very small town about 20 miles south of Big Piney), and one just came walking across the highway. When we slammed on our brakes, it stopped, then headed back the other way, just to try to run out in front of another car. Deer aren't very smart animals are they?
We had District Meeting (That is where we have the oppurtunity to be taught by other missionaries) in Lyman on Monday. It was kind of odd going there twice in a row. We will be going to Evanston this Monday, so hopefully we can go to somewhere decent to shop. We have Zone Conference on Tuesday, so we will be down in Salt Lake the next day anyway.
We are working with another inactive guy who flat told us that the church is true. He has a few small things here and there that are keeping him from going to church. He has a son on a mission, who is also pushing him to get back to church. I think once we can get him to go, that he will keep going. So hopefully sometime soon, he will attend church.
Jonathan
Well, nothing changed at transfers with my companionship. I'm still with Elder Foote in Wyoming. The next transfer date is March 3.
I got to go on exchanges with the District Leader's companion. Him and I were working down in Evanston when we go visit one of the "Crazies" that they are working with. This guy was loony. In the Old Testament (Exodus Chapter 3), if you look Moses asks God what to tell the people of Isreal God's name is and God tells him "I AM THAT I AM". So this guy thought that ANYWHERE in the Bible that it says "I am" that it is refering to God. So when we would quote John 14:6 ("Jesus saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father but by me."), he thought it was referring to God. We tried quite hard to get this guy to think otherwise, but he just wouldn't listen. Then we told him Jesus Christ was a prophet as well as our Savior and he tried to tell us that Moses was our Savior too. Anyway, after we get him unwound about this, we TRY to give him a first discussion. I get down to using the Moroni 10:3-5 scripture to tell him how to find out the Book of Mormon is true and he starts going off on the "I AM" stuff again. We just told him to pray if the Book of Mormon is true and God will let him know if he prays sincerely. The best part is we were torwards the end of the discussion and we ask him what religion he considers himself and he replies with "I am who I am.". So I ask him which church he goes to and he replies with "My body is a temple.". I think this guy had some mental problems. You could tell right off that something just wasn't right about him. When we first got their he was showing off one of those "Miracle" drugs that he is looking at trying to sell.
We have a less active family that we are working with now. She is a member of the church, but hasn't been so long, she knows nearly nothing about the church. She was asking us how long we go on a mission, why we go, and things of that nature. The cool thing is we have a return appointment to read the Book of Mormon with them. So hopefully if we can get them started reading the Book of Mormon, things will naturally take care of themselves. We are working with another family. The guy is 20, his wife is 16 (He got her pregnant). Anyway, we teach them, but we can tell they aren't too sincere about the committments that we give them. Whenever we ask about reading, they try to avoid the topic, and they haven't been able to make it out to church for the last 3 weeks, so I guess they are just holding in the "Eternal Pool" (The place where the investigators who can't make up their mind, or who just want to talk to you go).
We have this other family that we are teaching. We are teaching the 9 year old son about the gospel. The cool thing about it is that the nonmember father sits in while we teach his son. We asked the 9 year old about baptism and he wants to be baptised. When we asked him who he wants to baptise him, he told us that he wants his dad to do it (Hopefully this will be some motivation for him to find out what is true). The dad wants to hold off for a little because: Get this: He wants to come to church first :-D. We aren't going to be here for that though, because we are speaking up in Big Piney on Sunday. We will have a few appointments up there afterwards. Sunday is going to be a busy day.
We are supposed to get another Snow Storm on Sunday night. So hopefully this will open up some more oppurtunities to do service for others. I hope every elses week is going good. Mine is going pretty good.
Love,
Jonathan
Things have been going alright. We went down to Salt Lake on Monday for Zone Conference. We were having the "Mission Tour" that day, so a General Authority came and spoke to us. It felt a lot more like a Mission Devitional. I was really unhappy when I found out that we had to take the Evanston missionaries back as fast as we came. No stopping to shop in Salt Lake (I'm beginning to sound like a woman.... Aren't I). Oh well though. I'm near positive that I'll be back down in Salt Lake next week (Transfers).
I got to go on exchange with one of the Zone Leaders. I really liked him. I kind of wish he was my companion. He is an awesome missionary from Australia. He is really good at resolving people's concerns. Much better than I am. I have to be careful, because I really don't want to make someone really mad during a discussion, because some things hit home a little hard. I hope that everyone else is having a good week. Sorry my email is short this week.
Love,
Jonathan
Well things have been going well this week. Anyone want to guess the weather? The other day it was 13 degrees during the day. It was warm though. The wind wasn't blowing. We also found out that the thermometer outside our apartment is at least 10 degrees higher than it really is. Anyone want to guess how they pick up the snow here? Well, they don't plow the snow to the side of the road, they plow the snow to the middle of the road. They then have one of the HUGE CAT front end loaders, that they have taken the bucket off the front and attached a HUGE snow blower to it. They then blow the snow into a truck that runs along side of the front end loader.
Anyway, about the Crazies. We ran into one this week. He was WAY gone. We were just walking down the street, and we saw a guy standing by his trash can, throwing some stuff away. Anyway, we started talking to him, and he started spouting off some Anti-Bible junk he'd read, and we setup an appointment to come back. We knew someone wasn't quite right about the guy, because he wouldn't give us his real name (He just told us to refer to him as "Tom") and he wouldn't tell us where he worked or what he did, or even where he really lived (He was staying in the Antler Motel <--- Dump). Anyway, so we come back and he tells us about 3 years ago he was afraid of going to hell, so he started studying religion. Anyway, I figure he came across some Athiest junk and now he seems to believe God doesn't exist. We didn't bash, but I didn't really answer a lot of his questions, because he wasn't willing to pray to God to find out if he was there. I'd ask him how he would find out if God exists, and he starts spouting off all this Athiest junk he'd read. While we were talking, he admitted that he had smoked Dope before. He also admitted that he liked to smoke Marijuana. He also tried to tell us that the government staged the Moon Landings, and that the pictures that we actually see from the Moon Landings are from somewhere in Arizona. I found it quite funny. Seems this guy believes EVERYTHING he reads. Maybe we could get him to read the Book Of Mormon :-D.
This week has been going pretty good. I got to teach an awesome family the yesterday. They are members, but they have 5 children, and we've been giving them "kiddie" discussions (Discussions designed for very young people). I love going over there, and their kids remind me of my family when I was young. We've been challenged to have the entire Book of Mormon read before March 31, and to mark every reference to the Savior. I kind of like this, because this is an oppurtunity to mark my new scriptures. Did everyone enjoy their New Years? Did any of you light off fireworks? We didn't eventhough we do have some. I figure I'll save them for a snowy day or something. Anyway, I hope all of you are having a good week.
Love,
Jonathan