Elder Brennan McEwan

Hey Family!

Another week done at the MTC! Three more to go!

Anyway, this week wasn't super eventful, as usual. In fact, this week was even less eventful than normal, which is really saying something for the MTC. I discovered that they do have an indoor track here, which was really nice to run on for a while. Though I found a scale, and discovered I've gained five pounds since I last checked two weeks ago. :( The MTC is really trying to make us chubby. This one Elder on our floor has gained eleven pounds already in two weeks of being here. Then again, eleven pounds isn't a very proportionally significant gain for that particular Elder... but still. I think it's a secret plot to make us suffer and hopefully humble ourselves once we get to the field. We'll all be so chubby from all the deep-fried food and lack of exercise that walking around all day is going to feel really rough. Then we'll be like: "Oh noes I'm so unprepared I can't even walk for a day ah why did I not work harder in the MTC???" And then the MTC president will gleefully cackle and stroke his fluffy white cat, Bond villain style.

… My companion and I had a GREAT lesson on Wednesday - we really had the Spirit with us on that one and our "investigator" really opened up to us. Granted, when she explained her life story, we only caught about half of it, but... we caught the general idea at least. Our teacher ("investigator") actually interviewed my companionship after and thanked us for the lesson. Usually they don't do that to maintain the separate personas, but I guess we did something that she had never seen before: We apologized to the "investigator" because our last lesson (on the restoration) was understandable, and she understood the Joseph Smith story, but it wasn't what she really NEEDED, and so she was tuned out for the whole lesson. But when we apologized, she said our humility really invited the Spirit into the lesson. So, it was really cool to feel what a really good lesson needs to be like. I hope I can do more like that. Anyway, she thanked us for doing that, because she said she had never seen anyone do that in the MTC or the field.

I've been having a good time here. It's just that all the good experiences are pretty much exactly the same, so it's kinda hard to distinguish them from each other. My companion's mom continues to send us hilarious amounts of food. Pictures are coming - hopefully today. Our dorm has become the place to be since the delicious smell of toast wafts out of our room every night. (Did I mention she sent us a toaster and constantly keeps us supplied with bread? Hilarious!)

Oh, they're also kicking us out of our room next Tuesday. It's kinda annoying because we'll only be in the new residence for two weeks... so we'll have to pack and unpack for no real reason right before we leave. I guess they're finally tearing down the residence I live in and rebuilding a better one. Which is good for future generations, because the residence is kinda nasty. Our floor keeps it okay, but we clean the (identical) building next door... and those guys are filthy. There's this one shower that you can tell right where the water stops flowing because there's a thick wash of shaven hairs on the floor, like a pile of drift wood on a beach. *blurp* And the Elders in there are too stupid to pick up toilet paper off the ground before it gets soggy and glued to the floor by... I don't even want to know, honestly. *chug* Oh, and don't even get me started on the sinks. I caught our DL "washing" them by splashing water in them. Unfortunately, that probably counts as a job well done here, based on the sinks. *heave* I hope the new residences have pressure washers built into the walls. With acid. And 9000 degree water. You might be able to semi-sanitize the bathrooms that way. Also, they could improve a lot of things. Like, why in the world would you have four HANDICAP showers per floor of a four story building with NO STAIRS? (Split level too, so you have to use at least one staircase to get anywhere) You could build like eight showers in those two handicap spots. Or - perhaps they could make each building not perfectly identical? Seriously, if you got knocked out and woke up in one of the residences, you could be on any floor on any residence, and you'd never know. The identical-ness is also kind of soul-crushing. It drains the happiness right out of you.

Ah well. I got a bunch of letters this week, so that was nice. :) (Four on one day - that's a new record!)

Love ya guys!

Elder Brennan McEwan

Elder Zach Beckman

Elder Beckman with one of the wolf dogs

Hey Yall!!!

Well it was another sick week in Richmond INDIANA!! Me and Elder Tavake did alot of work and had alot of cool experiences!!

So we got a new investigator named Hope! she is 17 and has already read the whole Book of Mormon and has so many crazy questions!! So we meet with her every Tuesday at the library and teach her but this last time she was asking us about the whole how we become gods and a lot of deep doctrine and stuff like that and seriously the spirit was so strong in the lesson we just started talking about it and I can't even remeber what I said but it was awesome!!  I love when the spirit just seriously speaks through you!!  It's awesome to know that we really are just tools for the Lord to use in converting people ha ha but man i love the work and moments like that make me so happy you have no idea!

So remember that guy with the wolf dogs??? ya well he asked us if we wanted to go with him and help train them and I thought it would be at his house and stuff and just teach them tricks and stuff but nope!!.... we hopped in the car and drove out into the woods and we found out that they are search and rescue dogs in training so he said here take this walke talkie and go run!! ha ha so we just bolted off into the forest and they were going to come find us!! well it was SO cool you have no idea! the forest was like the sacred grove... just so beautiful and we saw a deer and all this stuff it was awesome but ya we just got to spend all morning in the woods with all of these dogs and stuff it was awesome!!  I love service now!!!

Well next story is another throwing up expierence!!  I swear the members here SUCK at making dinners!! Everyone here wants to feed us but the only problem is, is that we leave sick ha ha ha man but we went to this one members house, the Sharits, (they are hillarious) but they cooked hamburgers and coconut pie... the burgers were not cooked at all and holy cow when we left there I stood on the other side of the car and just blew chunks all over the side of the car door ha ha ha it was awful... the members here need to step up there game with the cooking ha ha!

Well Cinderella is improving alot actually!! She just got her divorce and is working toward getting baptized but last week we talked about temple marriage and that whole thing in church and she was really amazed and asked so many questions about it ha ha ha it was way sweet but she still needs to leave that boyfriend of hers!  Holy cow he is a loser!!  All he does is sit at home and watch tv while she works!!  Man it pisses me off! o ya and holy cow like half of richmond is on the dissability and gets their monthly checks and holy cow all of that money goes to drugs man it bugs me so much to see where all of our money is going!! ahh it kills me!

Don and Dezzy the two sisters have basically fallen off the edge!! :( their mom has been keeping them from church and stuff and they don't want to go anymore its really sad!!  They were progressing so well.  I hope that one day the mom will wake her game up and change and encourage them to go to church but man i just wanna go over there and slap her ha ha you have no idea how frustrating it can be!

Well the work is going great my testimony is growing by the day!!  I love it out here and man its cool to watch peoples lives change for the better.  I love that feeling! but I just want all of you to know that I love this gospel and I know that it can change your life... only if you let it change you!  But  I love you all and have An AWESOME REST OF THE WEEK

KEEP SMILING!!

Elder Beckman

Elder McCade Tracy

August 26th

This week has been kinda slow, work wise, we had all three of our baptismal dates drop yesterday as neither us or Shively get any investigators to church. I wish we had more teaching appointments, but sad to say that we only had 13 total lessons this week.

Things are going good, just a lot of tough things this week, with appointments falling through and not teaching that much at all.

High - Being able to watch Felton baptize his niece on Saturday, it was really cool to see that about two months ago I gave Felton the Aaronic Priesthood and to see him exercise that power was just incredible and wonderful to see.

Low - We now have no bap. dates. all of them were dropped yesterday. Now we have to start all over with Breianna because we dropped the ball and only worried about how to get her baptized and we were only stressing three things: coming to church, quitting smoking, and getting baptized. We lost sight of what was important to teach, and now we have to try and fix that because she is ready and we need to help her feel that same way again.

Trent is doing pretty well, he was busy pretty much all of last week so we were unable to meet with him and his bap date is going to get pushed back to Sept. 21, we're meeting with him tonight and we'll set it then. We still have to go over a few important things with him, we'll see how he feels about it all and how comfortable he feels about the 21st for baptism.

The thing that I learned about myself this week, was that I was getting to involved with the numbers, and I was pretty much going down a checklist for things that our investigators need to do for baptism and I completely lost sight of what was important, and that is to teach to the needs of the investigators and tell them what they need to hear to help them grow closer to Christ.

On Saturday, we helped a less active move a few things out of his house. His kitchen caught on fire and pretty much burned everything up. Before we went to help he stopped us the day before and said that he knew he couldn't do this without the church and that he knows that he needs to come back to church. He did that yesterday and I don't think that he'll ever miss a Sunday with the recent events that have just happened to their home.

 I don't like to even look at the number 6 anymore, it just reminds me that I'm ending the first quarter and I've only got three left to do all I can to help everyone come to Christ. I am trying to remember that every day, I'm realizing that the things that I do are the things that I am meant to do at this time. I will have no regrets from my mission because I know that this is the route in which I am meant to follow and that I will be blessed because of my efforts in serving the people of Kentucky.

September 2

My week has been pretty good, I'm staying in Shively for at least another 6 weeks, I know that my work has not yet finished here. We've also been trying to work with the Less actives a little bit more and not a whole lot of time finding new investigators but we'll be doing that more this week.

It was stormy a couple days ago, so it's been really nice this week so far.

For the second week in a row, we had no investigators to church, but our goal is to have them there next week for sure.

Trent is doing pretty well, he was in Indiana visiting his mom yesterday so he was unable to come to church

Haven't had much contact with Breianna lately, but we'll be trying to catch her on her day off some time this week and starting over from square one.

We made some improvement this past week, we were able to teach 16 lessons and we intend for that number to keep growing as the weeks go on.

High- Being able to stay in Shively for my 6 month mark and 7 month, and to keep working with the members and investigators that I've come to know and love so much

Low - not getting people to church and having appointments continue to fall through with solid investigators

The biggest thing I've learned in the first quarter of my mission is to forget the numbers and to just focus on the people and if I do that then the numbers will come and I just have to be patient with some people because they take a little longer than some. Also, to have a really good plan for the day, otherwise we'll be wondering what to do for the rest of the day and it'll go super slow.

Thank you for all your love and support! I know how important prayer is, and every day I find myself praying to know where to go and what to do and from that simple prayer it seems like I'm always guided to those who we need to see at that time.

Love you and Miss you so much!

Love your Son and Missionary,

September 9

Things are going pretty well right now, Trent was able to make it to church and after we talked with him we decided to move the baptismal date for him back a few months so then he feels completely ready and very sure about this major decision in his life.

Haven't gotten rained on in the last few days, yeah, I thought is was going to rain yesterday but it didn't.

This last week was interesting, we had a lot of solid appointments fall through and we were unable to meet with Trent this week, so we had to fall back on the former's and working with the less active members, which was fairly promising and we found a few new people to teach and a few less actives who know that they need to get back to church.

We only had Trent at church this week, which is a lot better than the last three weeks when we had nobody show up.

We had 14 total lessons this week, we were working with our less actives a lot this week and it really helped because a few of them have started coming back to church pretty regularly.

High - Getting a new investigator from the former's, he was taught two years ago in December and so we tried to make contact with him and we have an appointment set for Wednesday afternoon.

Low - Breianna dropped us, she told us that she's not ready yet for the  "Mormon lifestyle" and she's going to be looking around to find what works for her and hopefully with continued contact some missionaries in the future will meet with her and help her over the last little hurtles so she'll be a solid member.

This guy that we were meeting with really studied and researched about the Book of Mormon, when we went to meet with him, he had all sorts of different things that he "found" that was different from the original copy of the Book of Mormon and the one that we have today. He told us that he got his info from the Library of Congress and that it can't possibly be wrong, we told him that anyone can make a web site and change all sorts of different things to make it seem like we're wrong and that it doesn't match up from the original copy. That whole experience really helped me to know that there are so many people out there who will try and make it seem like we're false and that Joseph Smith didn't translate the Book of Mormon correctly.

I know it's short and not really detailed, but don't worry because I have it all down in my journal. 

September 16

This week has been really good, it started of kinda slow with not many lessons being taught but it went better when we went on exchanges this past Friday, and it really made a difference for the rest of the week. We were able to make contact with a really interesting referral and we'll be meeting with her this Wednesday and we added a couple more new investigators to our pool, which is really good because we need to move the work forward and keep refreshing the teaching pool as much as possible as we work with our progressing investigators and the less actives in the Branch.

I know how you feel mom, over these past couple weeks I have had the feeling that this is my last transfer in Shively, and Josh made a prediction before he left to move to Ohio on Friday that I would be transferred after he left because my real training was then complete and I know it'll happen even after yesterday while I was talking to a few members of the Branch and they said that they need to stop getting attached to all the missionaries that come through the area, so now that I know that my time in Shively is short I have been doing all I can to make the most of it, and I have been getting Elder Gallagher ready to take over the area as we continue to work with our investigators for the next little while.

We only had Trent at church, and plus it was Stake Conference this Sunday.

We had 16 lessons taught this week, we kinda got saved thanks to the exchange on Friday.

High- Finding two really solid investigators who want to do all they can to learn, and we'll be trying to make contact with our other referrals because they also sound really interested in the Gospel and I know that they will be strong in the Branch as soon as they begin to come.

Low- The mother of a recent convert passed away last week, her funeral is on Wednesday, it was a huge shock to me because it came out of the blue. I felt really grateful to get to know their family and even though they're out of my area now, I'll do all that I can to help them get through this rough time.

a spiritual experience that I had last week was: Elder Gallagher and I were planning for what we were going to do the next day, and I was very stressed and began to get angry. I thought of standing up, grabbing my chair and smacking it against the ground out of frustration and anger from our investigators who weren't keeping their commitments. As I sat down.... I looked at my name tag and read it and then I looked at a picture of Christ, I then thought to myself "What are you doing you idiot?!" after that I sat on the floor and continued to think of what I was doing, as I thought I gained a really inspired revelation to why I am out here and why things must be so difficult, as these thoughts came to my head I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote them down. I truly felt as Joseph Smith as he was in Liberty Jail receiving revelation for three sections of the Doctrine and Covenants. I will never forget that day. Every time that I get frustrated I read that, and as I get to the end of the revelation I feel at peace with everything going on around me.

What's really worked the past little bit is talking to less actives after the first Sunday and having them come to a Pot Luck on the second Sunday of the month (The Branch has a pot luck dinner after church on every secondSunday of the month! It's so awesome, because a lot of people show up!)

Thanks for all your support and love! I miss you all so much!

Love your Son and Missionary,

Elder McCade Tracy

Elder Colton Price

What a week of MIRACLES!!! Elder Decoursey and I have been seeing so many miracles this week. Last night at 8:00 we needed another lesson and a new investigator. We said a prayer and then went about our plans with faith that God would walk with us. We were walking to a person that we felt that we should visit and we saw a young woman sitting on her porch with her child. We decided to talk to her and what do you know, Heavenly Father provided a miracle for us in the form of Brandi. She is a young mother who lost her grandmother a few years ago and is slowly getting back to finding a church. We are seeing her this week. 

Heavenly Father has prepared the hearts of many of His children to hear the gospel. He prepared 7 for last week and I can't wait to see how many more people He has prepared. 

I know that the Savior lives. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. God is our Father, and we have the privilege of calling upon Him whenever we want. He will always answer our prayer. He gave us the Book of Mormon to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ and to provide a way to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth once more. I know it to be true. He calls prophets, and He called Joseph Smith. Today He has chosen Thomas S. Monson. Jesus Christ is the chosen, anointed Son of God whose calling it is to bring us to Him. I love Him. 

Love

Elder Colton Price

Just an FYI for all of you following Elder Colton Price....he has now been moved to the Ohio, Cincinnati Mission, which means we now have two elders in the ward serving in the same mission....Elder Price and Elder Beckman!!!

Elder Brandon Wallis

Los Alamos is still going well! A lot of our older investigators have slowed down a lot, but we've been able to find some really solid new investigators. Ferman and his wife Denice came to church with their whole family! Well, Taylor their oldest son stayed home. But it was awesome! We've invited them several times and it hasn't worked. This time they were invited by one of their daughters friends to come to the Primary Program! That goes to show the power and influence that members have on their friends. We were very excited and they loved it. Ferman said they will definitley come back. He even made the statement that as they keep coming that their kids will get used to everything. Their two youngest had a hard time being away from Mom and Dad during Primary and Nursery. We're hoping that this will really help them commit to Baptism. They're such a wonderful family! They're practically Mormon already! We also have a relatively new family that we're teaching.  They've met with Missionaries before but have been in Germany for work for a year or somewhere close to that. The Mom and her three daughters came to Church. They have wonderful friends in the Ward that have helped them so much! Member Missionary work is soooo important! We've found that a couple of the Bus Drivers are getting annoyed at us teaching people on the bus... so we've been hanging out at Starbucks of all places! It's a really small town, so there aren't that many hang out spots. Between the bus and Starbucks we've picked up, Jacen, Ash, Nicole, Emma, and Victoria as new investigators! Jacen was reading the New Testament on the bus and we starting talking to him that way, and we set an appointment with him and he brought a friend, Ash, who is also interested in learning more. They both have many questions. They're 16 and 15 years old. Nicole and Emma are Seniors, and were studying for a test in their Psychology class at Starbucks. So we quized them and helped them study! They were curious about what we do as Missionaries, and we're hoping to meet with them again this week. Victoria is a Freshman, we met her on the bus and we noticed that she was looking at our tags, so we talked about her religion and ours. It turns out that she is very Christian and loves service. She actually wants to be a Missionary someday. So we want her to be a Missionary for the right Church... All of these new investigators knew at least one member of the Church. They were all impressed by the standards that we live by, and how we practice what we preach. I know that as we all embrace the call to be Missionaries we will be able to make just as good or better of an impact on the people that surround us. I love this Gospel, I love this Church, I love helping my brothers and sisters come to know the joy of this message.

Elder Colton Richins

Mom,

I hope all is well at home! To be honest there has not been a whole lot that has happened this last week. The first week of the transfer always seem less productive. However we all are screwed up timewise because recently President has changed the entire mindset of everyone so that we don't think of time in transfers. But in months. This way there will be more pressure in baptizing on a monthly basis instead of a transfer basis. Needless to say the stress and pressure in the mission has gone up! I love President Fluckiger but he is super intimidating. haha. Very powerful man with a very determined vision. He really wants to magnify his calling as mission president to the max. Sometimes I hear stories from other missionaries about what other missions are permitted to do by their presidents...wherein if we do those things in this mission we have to send a "repentance letter" to President Fluckiger confessing what we did and assuring him that we would not do it again. This mission, I feel, is very different from other missions. The good thing about it is that I have learned so much from all of it. We are held to a very very high level of obedience and it is preparing me to do my best to maintain that strict level of obedience for after the mission. So while I may not have as many fun experiences as other missionaries have from other missions, I know that I will be grateful for the standards that we are expected to live in this mission. One of the assitants to the president once said, "be grateful that you are serving here...because in this mission we FIGHT for every single thing that we gain." Which is so true. If anything I have seen on my mission, every ounce of success I have had in my mission has been just a battle! And I'm so grateful for it! During the process it may be hard to be grateful for it...but just as in every trial that we go through, once we are through with it, we look back with a grateful heart. I'm interested to see how all of this will play a part in the post-mission life. I'm excited to put everything into practice.

So that's that. But yes, it has been pretty hard to adjust to someone who isn't Elder Dunford. We seriously were a very unique companionship. We got along really well, worked really well together, I felt we were at the same level in all aspects of missionary work. When I stopped teaching he always had something to continue with...and when he stopped teaching I always had something to continue with. It was just a really nice flow of everything. And we were together for 3 transfers...which happens very rarely. However I'm liking Elder Quimuanga. I came to find out that he is from Angola. He is a super humble and chill missionary. Although sometimes I get tired of speaking Portuguese 24/7 :) I still am enjoying having him as my comp! He's a new zone leader, and I can tell he is pretty nervous. But he's doing a good job. The flow isn't as great as it was with Elder Dunford...but we'll get better together as the time goes on. Elder Wilson is still living with us...and his new comp is Elder Later. haha. I don't know if you remember...but Elder Later was the missionary that lived with me for 3 transfers back in my very first few months on the mission. So it has been super funny and weird living with him again now that we are both much further along in our missions. So far the new zone has been doing better. We are currently increasing in our key indicators...we are still far from what we used to be those first 2 transfers when I came to Viseu. I don't think I'll ever be over a zone as good as that zone was. We saw many miracles and all of the missionaries were just super powerful missionaries. So the zone saw a lot of success. However now we are on our way back up. Still lots of work to do...but at least we are not decreasing anymore :D so that's okay with me! And I am sure that I will get to work with the majority of the zone. Seeing as we have to do divisions with half of them. They all seem like great missionaries. It's funny though...half of the missionaries that were with us in those first 2 transfers (when we had amazing months) they are all serving in leadership positions now. The elders and sisters. So the Viseu zone must be a leader preparation zone. haha. 

Investigator wise we are trying to find new investigators. :/ like usual. We have been experiencing some good things with Patricia. I don't know if you remember her...the depressed girl that cuts herself. I haven't talked about her for a while...because she is 17 and she needs permission from her mom to get baptized and she was scared to ask her mom because her mom is just cruel to her. So we stopped focusing a ton on her. But this last week she said that she was planning on asking her mom for permission. This was a huge change in her. It has been incredible to see the difference with her since the first time we met her. I remember that first day...she didn't really know who God was...neither Christ. She didn't have any type of faith, or hope. And today I see such a difference! Her prayers are probably some of the most sincere prayers that I have heard come out of anybody. She really talks as if she were right in front of God, having a conversation with Him. So tonight she is meeting with her mom to talk to her. We are currently reading in the Book of Mormon with her...and yesterday we read through the story of Nephi getting the brass plates from Labin. And we made an emphasis on the fact that it took 3 times for them to be able to get the plates. The first 2 they were unable...and surely they may have been discouraged...but Nephi new that the Lord would provide a way for them to obey His commandments. And so we told Patricia to think of the example of Nephi...and to not give up. If she was persistant, the Lord would provide a way for her to enter the waters of baptism. A great lesson for all of us to learn. Sometimes we need to pass through our "trial of faith" before the blessing comes.

As far as Carlos and Jessica are concerned...they are slacking...again. It's been pretty frustrating. We are all pretty tired of them making us believe that they want to follow Christ's church so much...but then they put it at the bottom of their prioirty list. We are going to try one last thing and if it doesn't work...I don't think we will be working with them anymore. At least for while I am still here. 

And that is about it on my week. It sounds like having Josh as the only child is a little bitter sweet. On both ends. But I think it's way cool that Josh is very willing to help out where he is needed. It will be great mission preparation for him. I'm sorry to hear that you weren't able to attend the governor's event. It seems like things always don't go the way we plan for special occasions. They make great spiritual growth experiences...don't they? :) Anyways. I hope all is well with you and the family! I miss you guys like crazy. Thanks for everything! I have not received the packages yet because I haven't been to Lisbon yet. I only go once a month for Jedi Council...and other than that, we only get mail and stuff at zone conferences. So a couple more weeks I will know if the packages came or not! Oh and another cool thing. Sister Fluckiger is making a Christmas CD for the mission..and she asked me if I would record a song for it. I'm kinda excited to do that. Anyways that is all! I love you so much! Thanks for everything! :)

Elder Colton Wayne RIchins

Elder Brayden Evans

So I thought I would share an experience that I had this week.. After the conference in Guadalajara we were on our way back and we got stuck in the bus station with about a half hour wait.. As a missionary waiting for more than about 3 seconds to do anything you feel lazy so it was kind of hard. ha. I received a letter at the conference and while I was waiting I decided to open it.. It was from one of my converts in my last área. (The chubby lady if you look at the pictures I sent, I'm wearing a purple tie in her baptism picture) I had some of the most sacred experiences in my misión helping that woman receive a confirmation from the Holy Ghost and helping her overcome her problems.. She stressed me out, I think, more than any other convert I have had in my misión.. When I left I didn’t really get the chance to tell her good bye.. I was super excited when I got her letter.. I wasn’t really expecting what I got haha..

She bore one of the sweetest testimonies I have ever heard in my life.. She explained her story of how we found her and well.. Saved her life. She explained some spiritual experiences she had and how it was because of how we found her and loved her. She told me that she had never felt the type of love we showed her, and the type of respect she received as from us to her as a daughter of God. She wrote a whole paragraph of the type of man she sees me as and what time of father I’m going to be, and everything she learned and the gratitude she has from the gospel of Jesús Christ. 

I lost it, one of the few times in my misión that I have shed tears.. Sitting there in the middle of a bus station with everyone staring at me.. My companion looking at me like I was crazy. There isn’t really a feeling to describe when you see someone who really has changed.. Who has allowed the Savior to come into their life and become. I can’t explain to what it is like in words to know that you have been an instrument in the hands of the Lord to change a person and bring them into the góspel.. These type of experiences give you the energy to move on, to get up in the morning and keep working.. I’m really excited for my last six months to get started.

I love you guys

I pray for you guys every day

Elder Evans