From: Elder Andrushka Dated: January 6th, 2008
Dear family i am so thank full for you all.
I am thankfull for all that i have to serve. This week we had a new years eve party with all the members. We had talents then we ate food and did a piñanta for kids and a game for people that are older. It went very well. The members are very animated in this area. We talked about our goals and what we want to reach as a ward. They Were realy exited and full of energy to help us out. The mericle continous this week the members got up at 4:00 in the morning some of them to come to sing to my companion because it was his birthday. As they got to the house they were thinking we were a sleep and started to throw things at our window as we watched them pass us by. Because we wake up and go shower away from the house because there isnt any shower in the house. So we walked up behind them they just looked at us and didnt know who it was and kept on singing. Then they all turned around with a little suprise to see us watching them singing. IT went realy well. Then we all went out in the streets enviting all to church. The member worked realy hard. One sister went asking forgivnes of members that she had done. It realy touched my hart to see this sister to take the advice that we left with her. With all the work of the members we hace reached the goal of our president of the mission. 62 as we all went out side to take the picture. We had to bless the sacrament twise and sit poeple down on the stairs. We have 40 seats and 62 came to church. The members were over welmed to see us reach this goal. i know its a mericle of god that this little unit is growing so fast. This week i had a chance to interview 2 prists and a deacon as his dad confirmed him deacon. His last son. This father is a potential to become a stake president we all make coments that he will be the branch president and always encouredg to read his scriptures the mission presidnet left a triple with him. SO hi could study. I had a great talk with him as we drove to talk to the branch president that lives 45 minutes away. we had a great talk and he signed the ordination that we did. I have bin a little overwhelmed with all the work. We have 17 investigatores that have gone to church so we are seing how we are going to organize it all to get going. Almost each day of the week we have a meating of some kind. I have learnd that working with members and helping them grow has bin the sweatest experiance of my mission. The members are the key of the mission work as they get going the work starts to have mericles. In a meating that we had one of the sisters told us that the jehova wtneses just purchased land to start building there church. That motivated them to help the church of our savior to be part of this work. This week we got to know the area and its big we have bery touched the area to the mission work. They have a realy big potential. I love the work i love the lord. I am growing so fast. I feal realy overwhelmed with the love of my heavenly father with the great apertunity he has given me. He has confidence in me that i will do his work. I love you all. COngrates mom on setting goals and starting to reach them. Well Dad as always is getting so much done. Let Emily know i love her i will be praying for her. Elder PEarce
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Fwd: 1/5/09
The latest from Elder Courtright.
Enjoy.
HOLY NEW YEAR!!
This was an awesome week as far as spiritual experiences go. i dont have any funny or weird things happen but still a great week.
We spent the week preparing for Matt Fowles's baptism. he is a 10 year old kid with an amazing spirit. i love him. We talked with alot of people on the days before it and many of them came. Half of his primary class came and that was really good. we also had a less active guy and his family and a lady who is an excommunicated member and her daughter there. they are all amazing people who are trying to put their lives back together. The baptism itself was amazing. Matt is one of the smartest kids when it comes to his knowledge of the gospel.
Sunday we also had a great day. The Bishop in the ward is sorta unwilling to work with us for some reason. We dont know why but we have been doing everything we can to make him see that we are working hard. Sunday was a great day in that reguard. There was a lady who bore her testimony and talked about Matt. Her son told her "Mom, i know he reads the scriptures" because of how smart he is. Then she talked about the +1 lessons we are doing with the ward where we teach a short spiritual thought and then set missionary goals with them. She talked about how she didnt really have any friends outside the church but that this program is really helping her meet new people and such. It was awesome! it was just the boost we needed cause that was where the Bishop was most stand off with us. He didnt want to have any part in missionary work but i think that it will be a real eye opener for him when he sees how well the program works. We then had several other "important" people talk about how we had blessed their families. it was awesome!
Earlier in the week we had a member ask us if we could help a lady move into a trailer down the street from his. We did and spent a rediculous about of time doing it. it took almost all day but it was well worth it. The lady said that once she is more settled she will have more time to talk with us. Bro. Jones, who is the one who lives down the street, will be keeping contact with her and will let us know when she is ready. we are excited
Overall everything is going well. I figured out recently (like a month ago) that the sun in Cheyenne is broken. Literally it has no effect on the weather here. Earlier in the week it hit a high of 50 for several days and it was sunny and cloudy. However yesterday it hit a high of 12 and that was after the sun went down. Yesterday it was also very bright which just increases my knowledge that the sun is broken. Grr!
Well, if there is anything that you guys need let me know.
Hannahs -- i am super excited about your letters, i patiently await them. i can only be patient for so long though...so make it quick. jk!
Leila -- i love your letters ;)
Enjoy.
HOLY NEW YEAR!!
This was an awesome week as far as spiritual experiences go. i dont have any funny or weird things happen but still a great week.
We spent the week preparing for Matt Fowles's baptism. he is a 10 year old kid with an amazing spirit. i love him. We talked with alot of people on the days before it and many of them came. Half of his primary class came and that was really good. we also had a less active guy and his family and a lady who is an excommunicated member and her daughter there. they are all amazing people who are trying to put their lives back together. The baptism itself was amazing. Matt is one of the smartest kids when it comes to his knowledge of the gospel.
Sunday we also had a great day. The Bishop in the ward is sorta unwilling to work with us for some reason. We dont know why but we have been doing everything we can to make him see that we are working hard. Sunday was a great day in that reguard. There was a lady who bore her testimony and talked about Matt. Her son told her "Mom, i know he reads the scriptures" because of how smart he is. Then she talked about the +1 lessons we are doing with the ward where we teach a short spiritual thought and then set missionary goals with them. She talked about how she didnt really have any friends outside the church but that this program is really helping her meet new people and such. It was awesome! it was just the boost we needed cause that was where the Bishop was most stand off with us. He didnt want to have any part in missionary work but i think that it will be a real eye opener for him when he sees how well the program works. We then had several other "important" people talk about how we had blessed their families. it was awesome!
Earlier in the week we had a member ask us if we could help a lady move into a trailer down the street from his. We did and spent a rediculous about of time doing it. it took almost all day but it was well worth it. The lady said that once she is more settled she will have more time to talk with us. Bro. Jones, who is the one who lives down the street, will be keeping contact with her and will let us know when she is ready. we are excited
Overall everything is going well. I figured out recently (like a month ago) that the sun in Cheyenne is broken. Literally it has no effect on the weather here. Earlier in the week it hit a high of 50 for several days and it was sunny and cloudy. However yesterday it hit a high of 12 and that was after the sun went down. Yesterday it was also very bright which just increases my knowledge that the sun is broken. Grr!
Well, if there is anything that you guys need let me know.
Hannahs -- i am super excited about your letters, i patiently await them. i can only be patient for so long though...so make it quick. jk!
Leila -- i love your letters ;)
--
Penny Freeman
Gratitude is the essence of joy.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
doing a dance...all over cheyenne!
hey all!
well just wanted to say thanks to all those who sent me something for Christmas and a thanks to anyone who thought about me. just a couple important people to mention
Doug and Ary (quick story with this one): so on new years eve i gave my last 4 starbursts to a member who is semi active and whos son is getting baptized on saturday. it was a joke/promise kinda thing. anyways, i was blessed for keeping my promise with 2 massive packages of starbursts. that was awesome. oh and a picture of a married couple. as a reminder that i am not? ..thanks jk!
Sister Ricker: for keeping me humble. i love you!
Hannah: for sending an email. made my day :)
and like i said earlier thanks to anyone who is sending or sent or thought about me. i really do appreciate it.
So things that happened that were cool:
Well, we talked with a family, the Nations, who are less to semi active in the church. we shared a quick spiritual thought with them and were about to leave. Brother Nation had been silent all night, as if he didnt really want us there. As we were leaving he just opened his mouth. He told us a story about how at the end of his mission he got sent to an area that had been closed (without missionaries) for over a year and a half. he really didnt want to go but he was determined to finish his mission working. The branch in his area had only a couple active members who really werent solid themselves. and no investigators. they decided to start strengthening those members. as they did, they got investigators. after 3 1/2 months of hard work, the night before he went home, they had 7 baptisms. he then shared his testimony. it was an amazing experience. too bad he is too lazy to come to church. we have decided to reverse the situation. he has become one of those members who arent very solid and just needs strengthening. it was like he was telling us, verbally, exactly what his needs are.
There is a former investigator who lives in a trailer park on the south side of cheyenne. we drove past the other day and noticed that her pipes had burst. well being winter the water froze. her entire driveway and all down her street was one massive block of ice. well we spent an hour in 20 degree weather with the wind blowing 30 plus miles an hour wind, chipping at ice, with no gloves. it sucked but very rewarding. we have an appointment with her on tuesday.
May favorite moment:
We have a list of people who at sometime talked with missionaries in the area. one of those names is Ruby and James (i forgot their last name.) we knocked on their door cause we had nothing better to do and their son came walking out of the garage as we knocked. we went over and talked with him. oh, important note, he is black. he told us his name was dennis and that his parents were in texas. everytime i hear the word texas my ears get excited. i told him i was from texas and asked what part. he told me abilene (lame) but i told him i was from houston. the following is a direct quote from 1 of 3 black men in cheyenne. "well, we can be hommies then!" you have never seen a more excited me, ever. thats all i could think about for like a day. not because i havent heard that before, but cheyenne is lacking in diversity and all diverse interactions make me happy.
well, we had an amazing christmas as far as teaching goes. we had are most amount of lessons in a week, this week with 33. which doesnt sound like alot, but is. i hope all are doing well, be good and remember, Santa's watching :)
--Elder Courtright
well just wanted to say thanks to all those who sent me something for Christmas and a thanks to anyone who thought about me. just a couple important people to mention
Doug and Ary (quick story with this one): so on new years eve i gave my last 4 starbursts to a member who is semi active and whos son is getting baptized on saturday. it was a joke/promise kinda thing. anyways, i was blessed for keeping my promise with 2 massive packages of starbursts. that was awesome. oh and a picture of a married couple. as a reminder that i am not? ..thanks jk!
Sister Ricker: for keeping me humble. i love you!
Hannah: for sending an email. made my day :)
and like i said earlier thanks to anyone who is sending or sent or thought about me. i really do appreciate it.
So things that happened that were cool:
Well, we talked with a family, the Nations, who are less to semi active in the church. we shared a quick spiritual thought with them and were about to leave. Brother Nation had been silent all night, as if he didnt really want us there. As we were leaving he just opened his mouth. He told us a story about how at the end of his mission he got sent to an area that had been closed (without missionaries) for over a year and a half. he really didnt want to go but he was determined to finish his mission working. The branch in his area had only a couple active members who really werent solid themselves. and no investigators. they decided to start strengthening those members. as they did, they got investigators. after 3 1/2 months of hard work, the night before he went home, they had 7 baptisms. he then shared his testimony. it was an amazing experience. too bad he is too lazy to come to church. we have decided to reverse the situation. he has become one of those members who arent very solid and just needs strengthening. it was like he was telling us, verbally, exactly what his needs are.
There is a former investigator who lives in a trailer park on the south side of cheyenne. we drove past the other day and noticed that her pipes had burst. well being winter the water froze. her entire driveway and all down her street was one massive block of ice. well we spent an hour in 20 degree weather with the wind blowing 30 plus miles an hour wind, chipping at ice, with no gloves. it sucked but very rewarding. we have an appointment with her on tuesday.
May favorite moment:
We have a list of people who at sometime talked with missionaries in the area. one of those names is Ruby and James (i forgot their last name.) we knocked on their door cause we had nothing better to do and their son came walking out of the garage as we knocked. we went over and talked with him. oh, important note, he is black. he told us his name was dennis and that his parents were in texas. everytime i hear the word texas my ears get excited. i told him i was from texas and asked what part. he told me abilene (lame) but i told him i was from houston. the following is a direct quote from 1 of 3 black men in cheyenne. "well, we can be hommies then!" you have never seen a more excited me, ever. thats all i could think about for like a day. not because i havent heard that before, but cheyenne is lacking in diversity and all diverse interactions make me happy.
well, we had an amazing christmas as far as teaching goes. we had are most amount of lessons in a week, this week with 33. which doesnt sound like alot, but is. i hope all are doing well, be good and remember, Santa's watching :)
--Elder Courtright
--
Penny Freeman
Gratitude is the essence of joy.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
From: Elder Andrey Pearce Dated: December 29, 2008
Dear Family
i am so thankful that i got a great while to talk to my family. It was a great experiance trying to remember English. Wean i got going i could remeber it just fine.
It sounds like all is well and evryone is groing. I cant belive how much has changed.
Well the lord blessed us trumendously this week. THe members had a little welcome party for us. WEll sharing testimony and thanking that we were there to work harder. It Gave me a desire to work harder and give all that i have. THe members told us we came in like a huracane and started to pout things together. THe lord has had his mericle waiting for this little town of Mateares. Before we came it was falling apart and the members were scared that it was going to fall all apart. THe asistence (attendance) at church was going down it came down to 14. As we got there we changed the room how it looked pout some pictures up of christ cleande all the rooms well. Organized our gospel library called a librarian and went to work to make all looke well. Last week the asistence (attendance) went up to 31. THis week we got up as usual 5:00 in the morning to get to work walking our missionary team (or the members that help us out) we left to envite all we could to church. The members of Mateares set a record of 52 people coming to church. WE didnt have inof seats to sit down. I had the lovely time prisiding and anouncing the meating. It went realy well we had a lovely spirit. We had talks about reading scriptures, Praying and going to church. My companion gave a talk about seting goals as we finished the last song. YOU could feal and hear the spirit and the change in the way that the last hymn was song. 10 of the poeple that came to church were envestigating the church so we have alot of work to do. The lord has given me a great apertunity to grow and stretch. Then we split for clases. My companion taught the yung men and i gave the gospel doctrin class. I gave about the plan of salvation. It went very well we had great questions and i had the chance of explaning well that we can become Gods. Its a subject a little harder to explain Here to members and invetstigatores. The spirit was present and they captured it well. The secratary from Nagarote came to see how all is going. Gave us the great news that the Branch President will be coming next week. I had apertunity to give a interview for a yung man to recive the rank of a priest. I am over whelmed how much the lord has blesed me to learn. We as members and missionarys worked realy hard this week. I feal tired but ready to rise and give all again this week. I have come to love this poeple here. In not a very long time. I feal like i have so much to learn and over come i hope i can give all i can. I love my Heavenly Father and his beloved Son Jesus Christ. I cant belive how fast the time is flying by. I love you all. I hope to here from all of you how your doing. From Amy, Lydia, Emily, andrea, Dan those are the ones that told me they will write. Thank you mom for your lovely talk. Thank you dad for your letters each week. Well its almsot time to get back to work. Love Elder Pearce
Dear Family
i am so thankful that i got a great while to talk to my family. It was a great experiance trying to remember English. Wean i got going i could remeber it just fine.
It sounds like all is well and evryone is groing. I cant belive how much has changed.
Well the lord blessed us trumendously this week. THe members had a little welcome party for us. WEll sharing testimony and thanking that we were there to work harder. It Gave me a desire to work harder and give all that i have. THe members told us we came in like a huracane and started to pout things together. THe lord has had his mericle waiting for this little town of Mateares. Before we came it was falling apart and the members were scared that it was going to fall all apart. THe asistence (attendance) at church was going down it came down to 14. As we got there we changed the room how it looked pout some pictures up of christ cleande all the rooms well. Organized our gospel library called a librarian and went to work to make all looke well. Last week the asistence (attendance) went up to 31. THis week we got up as usual 5:00 in the morning to get to work walking our missionary team (or the members that help us out) we left to envite all we could to church. The members of Mateares set a record of 52 people coming to church. WE didnt have inof seats to sit down. I had the lovely time prisiding and anouncing the meating. It went realy well we had a lovely spirit. We had talks about reading scriptures, Praying and going to church. My companion gave a talk about seting goals as we finished the last song. YOU could feal and hear the spirit and the change in the way that the last hymn was song. 10 of the poeple that came to church were envestigating the church so we have alot of work to do. The lord has given me a great apertunity to grow and stretch. Then we split for clases. My companion taught the yung men and i gave the gospel doctrin class. I gave about the plan of salvation. It went very well we had great questions and i had the chance of explaning well that we can become Gods. Its a subject a little harder to explain Here to members and invetstigatores. The spirit was present and they captured it well. The secratary from Nagarote came to see how all is going. Gave us the great news that the Branch President will be coming next week. I had apertunity to give a interview for a yung man to recive the rank of a priest. I am over whelmed how much the lord has blesed me to learn. We as members and missionarys worked realy hard this week. I feal tired but ready to rise and give all again this week. I have come to love this poeple here. In not a very long time. I feal like i have so much to learn and over come i hope i can give all i can. I love my Heavenly Father and his beloved Son Jesus Christ. I cant belive how fast the time is flying by. I love you all. I hope to here from all of you how your doing. From Amy, Lydia, Emily, andrea, Dan those are the ones that told me they will write. Thank you mom for your lovely talk. Thank you dad for your letters each week. Well its almsot time to get back to work. Love Elder Pearce
Feliz Navidad 2008.....Transferred
From: Elder Andrey Pearce Dated: December 22, 2008
Dear Family
Feliz Navidad
i am sorry i didnt wirte to last week i had changes. I have bin given a great apertunity that the lord has called me to serve in mateares. Its a place were the church is starting out this week we had atendance of 31. I am so exited to work here. I was a bit nervous to preside this meating and was greatful for the help of my comanion. Hes name is ELder Oscal and he has 5 months on his mission. I had the apertunity to give a talk this sunday i have it about my life and navidad that the lord has blessed us to have Jesus CHrist in our lives. Whos birth we selibrate in this great time. I then had a chance to give the class and not knowing that i was going to give. As missonary we are always prepared to teach something. So i taught about the 2 Great Problems that we have in our lives. The Sin and Death and that the lord was born that he was chosen and he humbly came to this wold to solve this two problems in our lives. I taught that the gospel of Jesus christ is that He Was Chosen before this world. That he Came here on earth Paid for our sins and that he resurected and that he lives and loves us. It was a great lesson. Then after church we had all the men meet together and we talked about presthood and what it means to have pristhood it went well. Then at 3:00 we had a meating with the sisters of our ward as we talked about unity and planed a activity in wich we are together going to give christmas to a family here in this part of the world. I am so tired but i love wokring here. I have bin working hard studying and given my all to help here. I have one week here and have a geat love for this poelpe here. I have come to know them. Well i love you all and wish you the greatest christmas and i am thankfull to the lord all that he has done for me. I am thankful for this time in wich we can give and feel the same love that the savior felt. I am thankfull for his example in my life.
Mom happy birthday i am sorry i am a little late. I love you and thankfull for the time that you have spent helping me understand my life and my perpose here on earth how greatly i love you. Mom and Dad thank you for the packedge and the mony will be pout to great use. Mom i still havent got the packedge in wich are the garments or the chip for the camera. Happy Christmas i looke forward to talking with you i have lost a little of english and i have an acent will see how it goes. If you could call me on 25 december you can choose the houre it would be best at 12:00 or at 5:00 nic houre 930-1628. Mom if you could do me a huge favor and envite willy to this call i feal that i need to talk to him a little bit. I love you all and looke forward to the call that i will be resiving. Loves
Dear Family
Feliz Navidad
i am sorry i didnt wirte to last week i had changes. I have bin given a great apertunity that the lord has called me to serve in mateares. Its a place were the church is starting out this week we had atendance of 31. I am so exited to work here. I was a bit nervous to preside this meating and was greatful for the help of my comanion. Hes name is ELder Oscal and he has 5 months on his mission. I had the apertunity to give a talk this sunday i have it about my life and navidad that the lord has blessed us to have Jesus CHrist in our lives. Whos birth we selibrate in this great time. I then had a chance to give the class and not knowing that i was going to give. As missonary we are always prepared to teach something. So i taught about the 2 Great Problems that we have in our lives. The Sin and Death and that the lord was born that he was chosen and he humbly came to this wold to solve this two problems in our lives. I taught that the gospel of Jesus christ is that He Was Chosen before this world. That he Came here on earth Paid for our sins and that he resurected and that he lives and loves us. It was a great lesson. Then after church we had all the men meet together and we talked about presthood and what it means to have pristhood it went well. Then at 3:00 we had a meating with the sisters of our ward as we talked about unity and planed a activity in wich we are together going to give christmas to a family here in this part of the world. I am so tired but i love wokring here. I have bin working hard studying and given my all to help here. I have one week here and have a geat love for this poelpe here. I have come to know them. Well i love you all and wish you the greatest christmas and i am thankfull to the lord all that he has done for me. I am thankful for this time in wich we can give and feel the same love that the savior felt. I am thankfull for his example in my life.
Mom happy birthday i am sorry i am a little late. I love you and thankfull for the time that you have spent helping me understand my life and my perpose here on earth how greatly i love you. Mom and Dad thank you for the packedge and the mony will be pout to great use. Mom i still havent got the packedge in wich are the garments or the chip for the camera. Happy Christmas i looke forward to talking with you i have lost a little of english and i have an acent will see how it goes. If you could call me on 25 december you can choose the houre it would be best at 12:00 or at 5:00 nic houre 930-1628. Mom if you could do me a huge favor and envite willy to this call i feal that i need to talk to him a little bit. I love you all and looke forward to the call that i will be resiving. Loves
Baptizing two new families
From: Elder Andrey Pearce Dated: December 8, 2008
Dear Family
My hart is swelled with all the love that i have recived from my family and from my loved ones. Heavenly Father has blessed me so so much this week. I feal so joyful i feal like crying with joy. ( i am in cyber so i wont) This week the greatest news is that we had 5 baptizims. Familia Sanches and Family Sevilla. What a week saturday we had a baptizim pland for 11 in the morming as it fell through we saved it to do at 5. We got to there house 4 and started to see how we can help them get ready and how there were with evrything. We got there and Pedro wasent there so we were woried we saw him come home with his son whos a pastor or a preacher for another church. We talked with pacions and peace and they got ready ate and we went of to the stake center to baptize. The greatest part of this day that the members of Nindiri saported us in all our strugles as they changed there plans to be there 5pm. The baptizim went well the maria has 53 years and husband Pedro 62. Then we helped them get on transpertation for there house and we tooke a taxi to 21 for The family Sanches. We got there and the family was ready. As we were walking to there friends who were going to give them a ride who came from managua. Lisa told us she didnt want to get baptized she had some chalenges. So we started to talk to her. She reminds me of Lydia alot. She has 14 years old. We talked and i let her know that she will have the chanse to talk to the zone leader who will interview her again if she wanted. So we got to the chapel it was 7 y 30 then we helped her to meat with the zone leader as he talk to her. The family got dressed ready to take pictures. She got back and sat down saying no. so we as companionship desided to talk to her one more time. It was a very spiritual lesson that we gave her that i will remember good part of my life. As she told us she will get baptized. She asked if she could make a call she made the call got dreased and the whole family got baptized. What a mericle that the lord gave ua. Albin who is her step dad thanked us for helping her. What a bryte happy family they are. The part that they live there isent many members so they will be one of the first family there i know they will help the work move along. Love the mission and all the work that my Heavenly Father has helped me to be part of. I hope that i have a chance to serve him all my life. Well my thoughts are not all together i am a bit tired from last week but realy happy. Another great thing hapend we went to the christmas devotional as the stake president pout his arm around me and told me that he was very thankfull for all the work that we are doing in Nindiri and for teaching his poeple. I could feal a great spirit with the stake president. I am thankful to the lord and my mom and dad for all that they have tought me. i am so blessed in my life. Hope to honer my Heavenly Father in this life work hard to do all the good that i can. Thank you for all your letters i love you all. I cant belive that i am 21 i feal a little old. I love my sister carissa and the great example that she has given me in my life and the apertunity that i had to share the same day with her. I know that she is happy. I thank my Savior Jesus Christ for all that he did for me. Love you all have a great week.
mom & dad i havent goten any of the packedges i think they are waiting to give them all for christmas. Thank you for all that you do for me
Dear Family
My hart is swelled with all the love that i have recived from my family and from my loved ones. Heavenly Father has blessed me so so much this week. I feal so joyful i feal like crying with joy. ( i am in cyber so i wont) This week the greatest news is that we had 5 baptizims. Familia Sanches and Family Sevilla. What a week saturday we had a baptizim pland for 11 in the morming as it fell through we saved it to do at 5. We got to there house 4 and started to see how we can help them get ready and how there were with evrything. We got there and Pedro wasent there so we were woried we saw him come home with his son whos a pastor or a preacher for another church. We talked with pacions and peace and they got ready ate and we went of to the stake center to baptize. The greatest part of this day that the members of Nindiri saported us in all our strugles as they changed there plans to be there 5pm. The baptizim went well the maria has 53 years and husband Pedro 62. Then we helped them get on transpertation for there house and we tooke a taxi to 21 for The family Sanches. We got there and the family was ready. As we were walking to there friends who were going to give them a ride who came from managua. Lisa told us she didnt want to get baptized she had some chalenges. So we started to talk to her. She reminds me of Lydia alot. She has 14 years old. We talked and i let her know that she will have the chanse to talk to the zone leader who will interview her again if she wanted. So we got to the chapel it was 7 y 30 then we helped her to meat with the zone leader as he talk to her. The family got dressed ready to take pictures. She got back and sat down saying no. so we as companionship desided to talk to her one more time. It was a very spiritual lesson that we gave her that i will remember good part of my life. As she told us she will get baptized. She asked if she could make a call she made the call got dreased and the whole family got baptized. What a mericle that the lord gave ua. Albin who is her step dad thanked us for helping her. What a bryte happy family they are. The part that they live there isent many members so they will be one of the first family there i know they will help the work move along. Love the mission and all the work that my Heavenly Father has helped me to be part of. I hope that i have a chance to serve him all my life. Well my thoughts are not all together i am a bit tired from last week but realy happy. Another great thing hapend we went to the christmas devotional as the stake president pout his arm around me and told me that he was very thankfull for all the work that we are doing in Nindiri and for teaching his poeple. I could feal a great spirit with the stake president. I am thankful to the lord and my mom and dad for all that they have tought me. i am so blessed in my life. Hope to honer my Heavenly Father in this life work hard to do all the good that i can. Thank you for all your letters i love you all. I cant belive that i am 21 i feal a little old. I love my sister carissa and the great example that she has given me in my life and the apertunity that i had to share the same day with her. I know that she is happy. I thank my Savior Jesus Christ for all that he did for me. Love you all have a great week.
mom & dad i havent goten any of the packedges i think they are waiting to give them all for christmas. Thank you for all that you do for me
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Elder Matthew Courtright: Christmas week :(
From: Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Subject: Christmas week :(
so this week is christmas and my companion and i are keeping score of presents and letters we receive. currently it looks something like the following table:
Elder Courtright Elder Walker
Letters | Packages Letters | Packages
2 0 1 7!!!
Come on now guys. that makes me sad. By the way, my 2 letters are from the Mission president and brother reid! man, this is gonna be the best christmas ever. i dont have to worry about getting better stuff than my comp, cause you cant beat getting nothing :) well, i have full confidence that this pity letter with help motivate some of you. Now lets recap the things that I, Elder Courtright, find joy in.
1) music
2) ties
3) pictures of you
4) number 3 especially if you are a girl
5) Starbursts
6) Cheeze its
7) stephen colbert "quote a day" calendars
8) love
9) lots of long letters
10) Edible AIDS
11) all the above individually wrapped so it looks like i get alot of stuff in a giant box with bubble wrap :) (bubble wrap!!!)
okay now for a recap of the week. on tuesday we had a christmas devo in Greeley colorado. we each had to get a white elephant gift. i got a fireman and cop rubber duckie and bubble wrap (see, its awesome, i got it for free from dollar tree. they love me.). we had a white elephant gift exchange. the gift that i originally ended up with, cause i am infinitely lucky, was a box of..drum roll...peanuts and lots of candy bars with peanuts. then we played a game and passed the presents around and my final gift was even better. It was a tiara and earings and a big fat ring...too bad it all cut the circulation to my head and fingers off but it was good stuff. wednesday we went to the temple. i forgot my temple recommend which kinda made the day start poorly but president ely got me into the temple and then to brighten my day, there was a....little person in the temple. out of respect for the temple, they can be little people for a day, but he was there. the day was then perfected! that night we went to a mexican restraunt and i had some good orchata. yum! i drank like 5 glasses of it. thursday we set a 10 year old kid for baptism. he is so cool. he is like a red headed step child. literally. saturday we spent 5 hours on base and it was so cool. the military base families are so awesome. sunday we had dinner with a multi racial family so that made my day. they adopted 3 black boys who are 7, 6, and 5..i believe. they all have the same mom and different days, who would have thought? then we went to a stake christmas devotional which was amazing. hope all is going well with you all wherever you are. have a merry christmas and remember, i am important! haha. just kidding...not really though
--Elder Courtright
Date: Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Subject: Christmas week :(
so this week is christmas and my companion and i are keeping score of presents and letters we receive. currently it looks something like the following table:
Elder Courtright Elder Walker
Letters | Packages Letters | Packages
2 0 1 7!!!
Come on now guys. that makes me sad. By the way, my 2 letters are from the Mission president and brother reid! man, this is gonna be the best christmas ever. i dont have to worry about getting better stuff than my comp, cause you cant beat getting nothing :) well, i have full confidence that this pity letter with help motivate some of you. Now lets recap the things that I, Elder Courtright, find joy in.
1) music
2) ties
3) pictures of you
4) number 3 especially if you are a girl
5) Starbursts
6) Cheeze its
7) stephen colbert "quote a day" calendars
8) love
9) lots of long letters
10) Edible AIDS
11) all the above individually wrapped so it looks like i get alot of stuff in a giant box with bubble wrap :) (bubble wrap!!!)
okay now for a recap of the week. on tuesday we had a christmas devo in Greeley colorado. we each had to get a white elephant gift. i got a fireman and cop rubber duckie and bubble wrap (see, its awesome, i got it for free from dollar tree. they love me.). we had a white elephant gift exchange. the gift that i originally ended up with, cause i am infinitely lucky, was a box of..drum roll...peanuts and lots of candy bars with peanuts. then we played a game and passed the presents around and my final gift was even better. It was a tiara and earings and a big fat ring...too bad it all cut the circulation to my head and fingers off but it was good stuff. wednesday we went to the temple. i forgot my temple recommend which kinda made the day start poorly but president ely got me into the temple and then to brighten my day, there was a....little person in the temple. out of respect for the temple, they can be little people for a day, but he was there. the day was then perfected! that night we went to a mexican restraunt and i had some good orchata. yum! i drank like 5 glasses of it. thursday we set a 10 year old kid for baptism. he is so cool. he is like a red headed step child. literally. saturday we spent 5 hours on base and it was so cool. the military base families are so awesome. sunday we had dinner with a multi racial family so that made my day. they adopted 3 black boys who are 7, 6, and 5..i believe. they all have the same mom and different days, who would have thought? then we went to a stake christmas devotional which was amazing. hope all is going well with you all wherever you are. have a merry christmas and remember, i am important! haha. just kidding...not really though
--Elder Courtright
Elder Matthew Courtright: ether 12:4...my favorite
From: Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Subject: ether 12:4...my favorite
so this has been the most terribly cold week of my life. fortunately we roll in an '06 Carolla now! so monday was transfer day and that was crazy. i quickly learned that we, as missionaries, are really nothing more than pawns on a chess board and at any minute we can be go and told to do something that is 100% opposite of what we were told an hour ago. not fun. anyways, got a car. when my new companion, elder walker, and i first sat in it we had a moment of silence. it felt so good. then we commenced meeting the ward. we spent all week pretty much meeting the ward council and that kind of thing. i was one again being swept into an area so neither he nor i new anyone. we have 40+ part member families in this ward so thats where we are starting as far as the work goes. we have met about 5 of them and atleast 2 have real potential to no longer be part member families. there is a 10 year old who we are setting for baptism this thursday. his parents are seperated and it took 2 years for her to agree to let him be baptized. i am so excited for him. (also, everytime i think the word "baptized" i hear it the way Bro. Sagastizado says it. lots of emphasis on the 2nd syllable). uhh, well lets see if i can think chronologically. on friday we had weekly planning and i was looking through the ward list (it was really old) and (everyone who has lived in the olde oaks ward for more than 3 years will be suprised/amazed by the following) i saw a name that jumped up and punched me in the jugular. Ben Isom. Holy small world. for a little background on that, brother isom lived in the ward about 3 years ago and was in the air force. he confirmed me a member of the church. he was small, really small, but athletic, and in the Young Mens program. Now, you might be thinking like i was thinking. what are the chances. so i kinda ignored it and just kept on going. well sunday at church, the Relief Society president asked me where i was from and i told her houston. she said "oh, we just had a family from houston move about 3 months ago. did you know the Isom's?" i proceded to discribe him and turns out they are one in the same. ben isom and his family moved from houston to wyoming (i remembered that part) but i didnt know where. and in august they got transfered down to odessa (i think) which is back in texas. that was really sad for me. but one of the air force guys emailed him on his black berry and is gonna get back with me with a response. he lived in the ward where i now serve. crazy! also, the bishop of the ward, 25 years ago, lived in oak creek village which is also in the ward boundaries...crazy small world.
In other sunday news. the high for sunday was a high quality 1 degree. most of the day was spent at about -2 degrees. morally of the story: who the fetch willingly lives in wyoming?!
I heard it snowed in houston. REPORT!
love you playas!
--Elder Courtright
Date: Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Subject: ether 12:4...my favorite
so this has been the most terribly cold week of my life. fortunately we roll in an '06 Carolla now! so monday was transfer day and that was crazy. i quickly learned that we, as missionaries, are really nothing more than pawns on a chess board and at any minute we can be go and told to do something that is 100% opposite of what we were told an hour ago. not fun. anyways, got a car. when my new companion, elder walker, and i first sat in it we had a moment of silence. it felt so good. then we commenced meeting the ward. we spent all week pretty much meeting the ward council and that kind of thing. i was one again being swept into an area so neither he nor i new anyone. we have 40+ part member families in this ward so thats where we are starting as far as the work goes. we have met about 5 of them and atleast 2 have real potential to no longer be part member families. there is a 10 year old who we are setting for baptism this thursday. his parents are seperated and it took 2 years for her to agree to let him be baptized. i am so excited for him. (also, everytime i think the word "baptized" i hear it the way Bro. Sagastizado says it. lots of emphasis on the 2nd syllable). uhh, well lets see if i can think chronologically. on friday we had weekly planning and i was looking through the ward list (it was really old) and (everyone who has lived in the olde oaks ward for more than 3 years will be suprised/amazed by the following) i saw a name that jumped up and punched me in the jugular. Ben Isom. Holy small world. for a little background on that, brother isom lived in the ward about 3 years ago and was in the air force. he confirmed me a member of the church. he was small, really small, but athletic, and in the Young Mens program. Now, you might be thinking like i was thinking. what are the chances. so i kinda ignored it and just kept on going. well sunday at church, the Relief Society president asked me where i was from and i told her houston. she said "oh, we just had a family from houston move about 3 months ago. did you know the Isom's?" i proceded to discribe him and turns out they are one in the same. ben isom and his family moved from houston to wyoming (i remembered that part) but i didnt know where. and in august they got transfered down to odessa (i think) which is back in texas. that was really sad for me. but one of the air force guys emailed him on his black berry and is gonna get back with me with a response. he lived in the ward where i now serve. crazy! also, the bishop of the ward, 25 years ago, lived in oak creek village which is also in the ward boundaries...crazy small world.
In other sunday news. the high for sunday was a high quality 1 degree. most of the day was spent at about -2 degrees. morally of the story: who the fetch willingly lives in wyoming?!
I heard it snowed in houston. REPORT!
love you playas!
--Elder Courtright
Elder Matthew Courtright: transfer!
Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Dec 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM
Subject: transfer!
so as the subject might suggest i got transferred. but before i get to that let me give you some back ground
So this week i got to go on exchanges with one of the zone leaders because my companion is the district leader so thats how we roll. the ZL's work in the young single adult branch so i got to meet some of them. One guy is working on putting his papers in. His room mate is not a member but listens to all the lessons. His roommate is also training to be a UFC fighter. he had his first fight on thursday. he won. Anyways, all new missionaries who go to there house have to help him train. what that means is you hold to pads infront of your face and he kicks them....oh my gosh! IF he straight kicked me in the face it would a) hurt more than being stabbed in the shin and b) kill me. The dude was huge. it was so fun. we went to some other appointments that day. On thursday we went to district meeting and then walked back to our house throughout the day stopping for several appointments along the way. I was being stubborn that morning and didnt put on a heavy coat cause i am a Texan and thats how we roll. there were no clouds at night and about 5 the sun went down and it got to -7 degrees. Needless to say i was really cold and possibly (probably) near frostbite. Luckily a member saw us on the way home and picked us up. I sat infront of a fire for an hour before my hands stopped tingling (a painful process) but my thumb didnt regain full feeling until the next afternoon. needless to say, i wont make that mistake again. then on friday night we had dinner with one of the members of the bishopric. his wife, for dessert gave us ice cream (on the same day it snowed 3 inches). this ice cream was really good at first but about half way through i found a fun suprise! peanut butter cups! luckily it got no further than me biting into it. i went to the bathroom for awhile and then we left. we had an appointment later that night which i was so excited for but my stomach was cramping and jumping and all that fun stuff for the rest of the night...which leads to transfers. so i knew that i was getting a transfer like a week before and as the week went on it got more and more obvious. i was hoping for Boulder or Aurora cause they are the crazy cities. However, i got transfered to literally, 5 minutes away. In a neighboring ward in Cheyenne. I am excited for it though. half the ward lives on a military base so thats always fun. and...even better, we get a car! yeah! no more frostbite for me. I told the sister who gave me the ice cream that they were transfering me cause she poisoned me. And quickly told her i was kidding. We had a good laugh for awhile about it. SO thats been my week. Crazy? i think so! We are having alot of success and things are really starting to pick up....as i leave. oh well. i am needed elsewhere
--Elder Courtright
Subject: transfer!
so as the subject might suggest i got transferred. but before i get to that let me give you some back ground
So this week i got to go on exchanges with one of the zone leaders because my companion is the district leader so thats how we roll. the ZL's work in the young single adult branch so i got to meet some of them. One guy is working on putting his papers in. His room mate is not a member but listens to all the lessons. His roommate is also training to be a UFC fighter. he had his first fight on thursday. he won. Anyways, all new missionaries who go to there house have to help him train. what that means is you hold to pads infront of your face and he kicks them....oh my gosh! IF he straight kicked me in the face it would a) hurt more than being stabbed in the shin and b) kill me. The dude was huge. it was so fun. we went to some other appointments that day. On thursday we went to district meeting and then walked back to our house throughout the day stopping for several appointments along the way. I was being stubborn that morning and didnt put on a heavy coat cause i am a Texan and thats how we roll. there were no clouds at night and about 5 the sun went down and it got to -7 degrees. Needless to say i was really cold and possibly (probably) near frostbite. Luckily a member saw us on the way home and picked us up. I sat infront of a fire for an hour before my hands stopped tingling (a painful process) but my thumb didnt regain full feeling until the next afternoon. needless to say, i wont make that mistake again. then on friday night we had dinner with one of the members of the bishopric. his wife, for dessert gave us ice cream (on the same day it snowed 3 inches). this ice cream was really good at first but about half way through i found a fun suprise! peanut butter cups! luckily it got no further than me biting into it. i went to the bathroom for awhile and then we left. we had an appointment later that night which i was so excited for but my stomach was cramping and jumping and all that fun stuff for the rest of the night...which leads to transfers. so i knew that i was getting a transfer like a week before and as the week went on it got more and more obvious. i was hoping for Boulder or Aurora cause they are the crazy cities. However, i got transfered to literally, 5 minutes away. In a neighboring ward in Cheyenne. I am excited for it though. half the ward lives on a military base so thats always fun. and...even better, we get a car! yeah! no more frostbite for me. I told the sister who gave me the ice cream that they were transfering me cause she poisoned me. And quickly told her i was kidding. We had a good laugh for awhile about it. SO thats been my week. Crazy? i think so! We are having alot of success and things are really starting to pick up....as i leave. oh well. i am needed elsewhere
--Elder Courtright
Elder Matthew Courtright: I sting like a butterfly and baptize like John the baptist!
From: Matthew Courtright <theilliterateone@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Subject: I sting like a butterfly and baptize like John the baptist!
So it snowed like 4 times this week! who thought that was a good idea?
Well, this has definately been a week of ups and downs. We set a lady for baptism on the 27th of december. however, one of our investigators babysits 3 boys and those boy's grandmother said they arent allowed to go to "mormon services." thats a real drawback because she babysits them like 5 days a week. including but not limited to sundays. man, we went to pick her up and everything and then she couldnt find someone else to babysit. Depressing. but baptism on the 27th!
also, so as some of you know, goals are part of missionary work. you set daily and weekly goals. i set a goal of baptizing 1 midget (or little person for Rufus) in the next 2 years. if i dont make that goal, then i will be sad, but other baptisms will make it all better. However, if i baptize a black midget/little person, then i dont care how many others i get. 1 black midget will make all 2 years perfect!
On a serious note, missionaries arent allowed to discuss politics, and wyoming is super conservative. one day this old toothless lady told me how obama would destroy the country and he is evil. thus i have decided that anytime someone mentions how obama will ruin the country, i will retort with "but he is black, what could go wrong?" its great because i dont think anyone in the city of Cheyenne has ever met a black person..let alone talked, smelled, or high 5'ed one. they really should get around to doing that.
Thanksgiving was great. we had it with the members who we live with. they are really cool. their names are sam and maureen zimmerman (not jews =/). We call Maureen, Mama Z and I call Sam either Uncle Sam or Brudda Z. That was what they said to call them. well, i invented the Brudda Z name but whatever. We had turkey (suprise?) and potato, and corn and stuffing (yum!!) and root beer. oh, it was snowing really hard on thanksgiving so for awhile we couldnt go outside so we played clue. i won 2 times. yeah! i love winning.
i also lost 5 pounds on the "eat lots of turkey and play dodgeball for 2 hours last monday" diet. Its a good diet cause turkey makes you think you are full and dodgeball is a man sport.
Baptism the 27th!
We have a bunch of part member families we are gonna start work on. who knows how that will go? i mean my first transfer is in 1 week and i could easily be in a different area. infact, its pretty likely. who knows? not me. take care all.
ps. christmas is coming up. i like ties. and anything from colbertnation.com and letters. send me your family christmas letters fools!
Courtright out! Get to work
Date: Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 1:25 PM
Subject: I sting like a butterfly and baptize like John the baptist!
So it snowed like 4 times this week! who thought that was a good idea?
Well, this has definately been a week of ups and downs. We set a lady for baptism on the 27th of december. however, one of our investigators babysits 3 boys and those boy's grandmother said they arent allowed to go to "mormon services." thats a real drawback because she babysits them like 5 days a week. including but not limited to sundays. man, we went to pick her up and everything and then she couldnt find someone else to babysit. Depressing. but baptism on the 27th!
also, so as some of you know, goals are part of missionary work. you set daily and weekly goals. i set a goal of baptizing 1 midget (or little person for Rufus) in the next 2 years. if i dont make that goal, then i will be sad, but other baptisms will make it all better. However, if i baptize a black midget/little person, then i dont care how many others i get. 1 black midget will make all 2 years perfect!
On a serious note, missionaries arent allowed to discuss politics, and wyoming is super conservative. one day this old toothless lady told me how obama would destroy the country and he is evil. thus i have decided that anytime someone mentions how obama will ruin the country, i will retort with "but he is black, what could go wrong?" its great because i dont think anyone in the city of Cheyenne has ever met a black person..let alone talked, smelled, or high 5'ed one. they really should get around to doing that.
Thanksgiving was great. we had it with the members who we live with. they are really cool. their names are sam and maureen zimmerman (not jews =/). We call Maureen, Mama Z and I call Sam either Uncle Sam or Brudda Z. That was what they said to call them. well, i invented the Brudda Z name but whatever. We had turkey (suprise?) and potato, and corn and stuffing (yum!!) and root beer. oh, it was snowing really hard on thanksgiving so for awhile we couldnt go outside so we played clue. i won 2 times. yeah! i love winning.
i also lost 5 pounds on the "eat lots of turkey and play dodgeball for 2 hours last monday" diet. Its a good diet cause turkey makes you think you are full and dodgeball is a man sport.
Baptism the 27th!
We have a bunch of part member families we are gonna start work on. who knows how that will go? i mean my first transfer is in 1 week and i could easily be in a different area. infact, its pretty likely. who knows? not me. take care all.
ps. christmas is coming up. i like ties. and anything from colbertnation.com and letters. send me your family christmas letters fools!
Courtright out! Get to work
Elder Matthew Courtright: Emailing like a ninja
From: Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 1:19 PM
Subject: Emailing like a ninja
Haha. so not much time to email today. we started this new thing where we email Pres so that takes up like half of my email time. I will say that we got the most golden refferal to date. It was for a guy named Ray Filer. He is less active. we went to talk to him and he lives with his girlfriend (not a good start) but he had been looking to come back to church but didnt know where to go and had looked at buying scriptures online. that was exciting. his girlfriend is a non practicing catholic and is willing to listen to the lessons. Ray came to church sunday so that was super good. Unfortunately, one of talks on sunday was one of those that you want to pull all Less Actives and investigators out of. it was super morbid. The lady who gave the talk is like 50+ and is married to a 22 year old Excommunicated member. The beginning was all about this mother bird who saved her kids during a fire but died in the process. it was about a 5 minute story and she spent 3 1/2 talking about how the bird was burned alive and crazy, nasty, morbid things. Then she continued to talk for 25 minutes. the entire time i wanted to make her stop. and punch her in the head. uhh, what else? we got 5 new gators (investigators) this week. all on like the last 2 days of the week. still not really snowing. had a couple of flurries but thats it. OH! we met a lady this week and she used to live in Champion Forest area and in Humble. You wouldnt believe who she used to work with. Adele Puffer! that was so awesome. i showed her pictures i had of Leila and Cyrus. she asked if Cyrus was my kid. totally wanted to say yes. But we talked about Adele and Leila (sorry to talk about you leila. sending your mom a letter with all the details) for like 20 minutes. good stuff. yea. thats the most of it. Just keep on trucking. i will probably be in a new area next transfer because of the massive influx of new missionaries. not really looking forward to that. oh well. bring it!
Subject: Emailing like a ninja
Haha. so not much time to email today. we started this new thing where we email Pres so that takes up like half of my email time. I will say that we got the most golden refferal to date. It was for a guy named Ray Filer. He is less active. we went to talk to him and he lives with his girlfriend (not a good start) but he had been looking to come back to church but didnt know where to go and had looked at buying scriptures online. that was exciting. his girlfriend is a non practicing catholic and is willing to listen to the lessons. Ray came to church sunday so that was super good. Unfortunately, one of talks on sunday was one of those that you want to pull all Less Actives and investigators out of. it was super morbid. The lady who gave the talk is like 50+ and is married to a 22 year old Excommunicated member. The beginning was all about this mother bird who saved her kids during a fire but died in the process. it was about a 5 minute story and she spent 3 1/2 talking about how the bird was burned alive and crazy, nasty, morbid things. Then she continued to talk for 25 minutes. the entire time i wanted to make her stop. and punch her in the head. uhh, what else? we got 5 new gators (investigators) this week. all on like the last 2 days of the week. still not really snowing. had a couple of flurries but thats it. OH! we met a lady this week and she used to live in Champion Forest area and in Humble. You wouldnt believe who she used to work with. Adele Puffer! that was so awesome. i showed her pictures i had of Leila and Cyrus. she asked if Cyrus was my kid. totally wanted to say yes. But we talked about Adele and Leila (sorry to talk about you leila. sending your mom a letter with all the details) for like 20 minutes. good stuff. yea. thats the most of it. Just keep on trucking. i will probably be in a new area next transfer because of the massive influx of new missionaries. not really looking forward to that. oh well. bring it!
Elder Matthew Courtright: Holy No Snow!
From: Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Subject: Holy No Snow!
I was freakin out all last week cause it was supposed to snow. and it did. for like 10 minutes. man, they need to tell me it is going to snow only when it is actually gonna snow hard. However, there was a bunch of wind this week. My companion and i were riding downhill and the wind was so strong that it was overpowering gravity. I dont like having to pedal hard to go down hill. that is unnecessary. And apparently they have "wind storms." I have never been in a storm i hated so much. The wind was gusting at like 50-60 miles an hour. i had on like 4 layers of clothes and was sure i was about to get frostbite. i lost feeling in my thumb for awhile. And we were walking everywhere. i have never been more sad in my entire life than i was during those 5 hours that we were outside in the bitter cold. Anyways, so other than the wind everything is going well. the family we live with is super cool. they say that i remind them of their son because i like simple things. like shiny objects, soft things, flashing lights, and i sleep with a penguin. And apparently he and i have similar sayings, motives, and thoughts. i love this kid and i probably will never meet him. he is serving a mission in japan and wont be home until may. its sad that i wont meet him cause 2 me's are awesome but i dont wanna be in wyoming in the deep winter.
Oh, so big kinda news. i had my inteview with Pres. Ely (the mission president) and then i was talking with his wife afterwards. (1st off she really likes me cause i was the only convert in the group that i came out with and they are converts to) So she asked me how much spanish i knew and i told her i took 3 years, but lived with a spanish family for awhile and can hear it really well, but i only speak a little bit and have a hard time with the verbs. we talked about how much i knew and all that and then (this is the best/worst/scariest part) she gave me an El Libro De Mormon. which if you cant spanish says Book of Mormon. She told me to start studying it. I might end up being a spanish missionary before too long. That is an excitingly scary thought. i love the language and all that but i dont think i know enough to teach in it and i definately did not get 6 weeks in the MTC to learn it. Oh well. Well, i read 1 Nefi 1 this morning and i understood it pretty well and i can read it outloud without sounding horrible gringo-y so who knows? thats super exciting. uhh, as for teaching people. We have 1 really solid investigator which i think i mentioned last time. she is super good. she wasnt there last monday because her friend made her go see a new born baby. However she had every intention of being back by our appointment. we are going again tonight. hopefully it will go really well.
so the cheyenne stake had its stake conference yesterday and it was a broadcast from salt lake. 2 of the speakers were Elder Hales and Pres. Eyring. they were both really good talks. I took notes for the first time ever and i actually reread and used them. Crazy. Who would have thought that i would do such a thing? certainly not me. well, hope everything is going well in whatever city you may or maynot be in. Take care
--Elder Matt Courtright
Date: Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Subject: Holy No Snow!
I was freakin out all last week cause it was supposed to snow. and it did. for like 10 minutes. man, they need to tell me it is going to snow only when it is actually gonna snow hard. However, there was a bunch of wind this week. My companion and i were riding downhill and the wind was so strong that it was overpowering gravity. I dont like having to pedal hard to go down hill. that is unnecessary. And apparently they have "wind storms." I have never been in a storm i hated so much. The wind was gusting at like 50-60 miles an hour. i had on like 4 layers of clothes and was sure i was about to get frostbite. i lost feeling in my thumb for awhile. And we were walking everywhere. i have never been more sad in my entire life than i was during those 5 hours that we were outside in the bitter cold. Anyways, so other than the wind everything is going well. the family we live with is super cool. they say that i remind them of their son because i like simple things. like shiny objects, soft things, flashing lights, and i sleep with a penguin. And apparently he and i have similar sayings, motives, and thoughts. i love this kid and i probably will never meet him. he is serving a mission in japan and wont be home until may. its sad that i wont meet him cause 2 me's are awesome but i dont wanna be in wyoming in the deep winter.
Oh, so big kinda news. i had my inteview with Pres. Ely (the mission president) and then i was talking with his wife afterwards. (1st off she really likes me cause i was the only convert in the group that i came out with and they are converts to) So she asked me how much spanish i knew and i told her i took 3 years, but lived with a spanish family for awhile and can hear it really well, but i only speak a little bit and have a hard time with the verbs. we talked about how much i knew and all that and then (this is the best/worst/scariest part) she gave me an El Libro De Mormon. which if you cant spanish says Book of Mormon. She told me to start studying it. I might end up being a spanish missionary before too long. That is an excitingly scary thought. i love the language and all that but i dont think i know enough to teach in it and i definately did not get 6 weeks in the MTC to learn it. Oh well. Well, i read 1 Nefi 1 this morning and i understood it pretty well and i can read it outloud without sounding horrible gringo-y so who knows? thats super exciting. uhh, as for teaching people. We have 1 really solid investigator which i think i mentioned last time. she is super good. she wasnt there last monday because her friend made her go see a new born baby. However she had every intention of being back by our appointment. we are going again tonight. hopefully it will go really well.
so the cheyenne stake had its stake conference yesterday and it was a broadcast from salt lake. 2 of the speakers were Elder Hales and Pres. Eyring. they were both really good talks. I took notes for the first time ever and i actually reread and used them. Crazy. Who would have thought that i would do such a thing? certainly not me. well, hope everything is going well in whatever city you may or maynot be in. Take care
--Elder Matt Courtright
Elder Matthew Courtright: Cheyenne
From: Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Subject: Cheyenne
Wow. What a week. So as i mentioned last letter i was opening this area. it pretty much is crazy cause my companion and i had no idea where we were or where anything is. After the first day though, we had a map, and just went to work. We figured out that our ward boundaries are about a 1/2 mile wide at the largest point and about 7 miles long. just to top it off, we live on the very southern tip. so to get to the top of the boundary, on bike, takes about an 45 min to an hour. fun. Also, i am pretty sure that to go anywhere you have to bike uphill. its retarded. Uhh, lets see. so we have 3 people already preset for baptism. two are on the 22nd of november and the last is one isnt until marchish. Thats pretty exciting to only have to teach them and not find them. We also found an older lady who we just started teaching saturday night and we are going back tonight. I am pretty stoked for that. my companion decided for me that i am going to commit her to baptism. Not sure how i feel about that but you have to start somewhere. uhh, as for the current weather forcast. tomorrow calls for snow. not gonna enjoy being out in that. snow is alot nicer when you arent outside.
Some of you have been asking what my address is so...
Elder Matthew Courtright
Colorado Denver North Mission
11172 N. Huron Ste. 21
Northglenn, Co 80234
No matter where i am, Amah, for the next 2 years you can send me stuff there.
the ward here was pretty tiny. like there was 1 family per pew. but everyone i have met so far is really nice and super faithful. Even the people who dont wanna talk to missionaries are nice. Its so different that i am currently facing climate and culture shock.
Ha. so my funny thing for the week is...
We went to visit a less active in the ward at this really ghetto apartment complex. the apartments used to be hotel rooms but the turned them into apartments and all they have are a bedroom and bath. They are smaller than most dorm rooms. anyways, so knocked on the door and the guy across the hall opened his. He asked if we were knocking on his door. The funny thing about this guy is that he was definately high on a super drug. and by his demeanor i would guess meth. anyways, he like ran back into his room and hid. then the guy we knocked opened his door and instantly a wave of marijuana and incense hit me. I have smelled lots of weed before (i went to a journey concert :) ) but this was so concentrated and the incense just made it worse. The Less active we were talking to was high as a kite. it was different... So we left and probably wont be back. i had to wash that shirt 2 times to get the smell out.
Hope you all are taking good care. If you get a message saying i lost 2 fingers to frostbite, dont be too suprised. Stay Safe
--Elder Courtright
Date: Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Subject: Cheyenne
Wow. What a week. So as i mentioned last letter i was opening this area. it pretty much is crazy cause my companion and i had no idea where we were or where anything is. After the first day though, we had a map, and just went to work. We figured out that our ward boundaries are about a 1/2 mile wide at the largest point and about 7 miles long. just to top it off, we live on the very southern tip. so to get to the top of the boundary, on bike, takes about an 45 min to an hour. fun. Also, i am pretty sure that to go anywhere you have to bike uphill. its retarded. Uhh, lets see. so we have 3 people already preset for baptism. two are on the 22nd of november and the last is one isnt until marchish. Thats pretty exciting to only have to teach them and not find them. We also found an older lady who we just started teaching saturday night and we are going back tonight. I am pretty stoked for that. my companion decided for me that i am going to commit her to baptism. Not sure how i feel about that but you have to start somewhere. uhh, as for the current weather forcast. tomorrow calls for snow. not gonna enjoy being out in that. snow is alot nicer when you arent outside.
Some of you have been asking what my address is so...
Elder Matthew Courtright
Colorado Denver North Mission
11172 N. Huron Ste. 21
Northglenn, Co 80234
No matter where i am, Amah, for the next 2 years you can send me stuff there.
the ward here was pretty tiny. like there was 1 family per pew. but everyone i have met so far is really nice and super faithful. Even the people who dont wanna talk to missionaries are nice. Its so different that i am currently facing climate and culture shock.
Ha. so my funny thing for the week is...
We went to visit a less active in the ward at this really ghetto apartment complex. the apartments used to be hotel rooms but the turned them into apartments and all they have are a bedroom and bath. They are smaller than most dorm rooms. anyways, so knocked on the door and the guy across the hall opened his. He asked if we were knocking on his door. The funny thing about this guy is that he was definately high on a super drug. and by his demeanor i would guess meth. anyways, he like ran back into his room and hid. then the guy we knocked opened his door and instantly a wave of marijuana and incense hit me. I have smelled lots of weed before (i went to a journey concert :) ) but this was so concentrated and the incense just made it worse. The Less active we were talking to was high as a kite. it was different... So we left and probably wont be back. i had to wash that shirt 2 times to get the smell out.
Hope you all are taking good care. If you get a message saying i lost 2 fingers to frostbite, dont be too suprised. Stay Safe
--Elder Courtright
Elder Matthew Courtright: week 2
From: Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Subject: week 2
wow! what a week. I realize that some of you wont know the names i use but just know that they are important people.
So i am gonna do this all really fast because i have less than 25 minutes to write but here it goes
So on tuesday, we had the BYU devotional and you wont believe who came to speak. If you were thinking Elder Richard G. Scott then you are absolutely correct. And i had amazing seats cause our district joined the Missionary choir so we sung a Be Still My soul and then had bleacher seats to watch elder scott speak. He was amazing. He is also really funny. Afterwards he offered to shake everyones hand. Heres probably a little known secret. He is so short, with piercing blue eyes, and super soft hands. It was awesome. And when his spirit is like a punch to the face. So the week passed, not much happened. We got new missionaries. That was a fun day. Uh, bonded with the district who is leaving right before us so that was cool. Oh, i taught my first lesson to an "investigator." Not a real investigator, but still, close enough. i think me and my companion did really well. the Spirit here has been amazing and that was no different. i loved it. I have only been here almost 2 weeks and i feel like i could come home and write a super inspirational talk with a bunch of stories and take an easy 20 minutes. Wow. Then last night at the fireside we had another amazing speaker. Sister Sheri Dew. In case you dont recognize that name she used to be in the Relief Society General Presidency and is now CEO of Deserett Books and Is the US ambassador to the UN Womens Council or some fancy title like that. she also had an amazing talk. Everything here (except the food) is amazing. I got my flight plans to denver and i leave a week from today at 8:10 AM. So it will probably be 2 weeks before i get another email out but fill my inbox up :) uhh, what else? i dunno. if anyone of you guys have any questions just put it in an email and i will definately answer them. i am hoping that when i get to denver i will be able to use my Gmail account but i will let you know. until then send any email here. also, i will be sending pictures to someone so that you guys can see my district and the stuff that we do...sometimes we are very unproductive. Hope everything is going well with yall. Send me letters, i think i am losing in the letters received department. Kimmy, send me baby pictures! i know its gonna pop any day now if it already hasnt :( write me fools. if you need my address its on a note on facebook. The rest of this email is for sis freeman but you are all willing to read it.
Sis Freeman!
Thats so exciting about paul being home. It sucks that i miss him by just a few weeks but oh well. He is really blessed since he served a mission. I cant believe that i was ever hesitant on coming. The feelings, inspiration, and answers that i have gotten in the last 2 weeks are incredible. Everything happens alot faster because i need it. i love coloring my scriptures. i am so anal about it. i hope all is going well in houston with the ward and what not. I miss the crying babies. and i must say that when you cant hug a girl, everything sucks. Guys just cant fill that need for attention. Ya Know? At least i know i cant be gay! :) Not that i didnt know before but..yea. just stop there before i dig a bigger hole. i love you and thank you for your advice and help over the years. I probably am not supossed to write except immediate family but the ward is immediate family to me.
Love.
Elder Courtright
P.s. still not used to that name
Date: Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Subject: week 2
wow! what a week. I realize that some of you wont know the names i use but just know that they are important people.
So i am gonna do this all really fast because i have less than 25 minutes to write but here it goes
So on tuesday, we had the BYU devotional and you wont believe who came to speak. If you were thinking Elder Richard G. Scott then you are absolutely correct. And i had amazing seats cause our district joined the Missionary choir so we sung a Be Still My soul and then had bleacher seats to watch elder scott speak. He was amazing. He is also really funny. Afterwards he offered to shake everyones hand. Heres probably a little known secret. He is so short, with piercing blue eyes, and super soft hands. It was awesome. And when his spirit is like a punch to the face. So the week passed, not much happened. We got new missionaries. That was a fun day. Uh, bonded with the district who is leaving right before us so that was cool. Oh, i taught my first lesson to an "investigator." Not a real investigator, but still, close enough. i think me and my companion did really well. the Spirit here has been amazing and that was no different. i loved it. I have only been here almost 2 weeks and i feel like i could come home and write a super inspirational talk with a bunch of stories and take an easy 20 minutes. Wow. Then last night at the fireside we had another amazing speaker. Sister Sheri Dew. In case you dont recognize that name she used to be in the Relief Society General Presidency and is now CEO of Deserett Books and Is the US ambassador to the UN Womens Council or some fancy title like that. she also had an amazing talk. Everything here (except the food) is amazing. I got my flight plans to denver and i leave a week from today at 8:10 AM. So it will probably be 2 weeks before i get another email out but fill my inbox up :) uhh, what else? i dunno. if anyone of you guys have any questions just put it in an email and i will definately answer them. i am hoping that when i get to denver i will be able to use my Gmail account but i will let you know. until then send any email here. also, i will be sending pictures to someone so that you guys can see my district and the stuff that we do...sometimes we are very unproductive. Hope everything is going well with yall. Send me letters, i think i am losing in the letters received department. Kimmy, send me baby pictures! i know its gonna pop any day now if it already hasnt :( write me fools. if you need my address its on a note on facebook. The rest of this email is for sis freeman but you are all willing to read it.
Sis Freeman!
Thats so exciting about paul being home. It sucks that i miss him by just a few weeks but oh well. He is really blessed since he served a mission. I cant believe that i was ever hesitant on coming. The feelings, inspiration, and answers that i have gotten in the last 2 weeks are incredible. Everything happens alot faster because i need it. i love coloring my scriptures. i am so anal about it. i hope all is going well in houston with the ward and what not. I miss the crying babies. and i must say that when you cant hug a girl, everything sucks. Guys just cant fill that need for attention. Ya Know? At least i know i cant be gay! :) Not that i didnt know before but..yea. just stop there before i dig a bigger hole. i love you and thank you for your advice and help over the years. I probably am not supossed to write except immediate family but the ward is immediate family to me.
Love.
Elder Courtright
P.s. still not used to that name
Elder Matthew Courtright: the real beginning
From: Matthew Courtright
Date: Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Subject: the real beginning
well currently i am sitting in the Colorado Denver North MIssion home writing this email. Today has probably been the most overwhelming day thus far. I got up at 3:30 AM to get read to get on the bus to the salt lake airport at 5. the plane left at 8:40 and we landed at about 1015. This afternoon we had lunch in the mission home and then had interviews with the mission president. I found out where my first area will be...i am in so much trouble. I am gonna be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. From the stories that have been told it can get down to 30 below 0. not looking forward to that but i think i wont be there late enough to feel that much cold. This is the highest baptizing mission in the central US and Canada. and Cheyenne is one of the highest in the mission. My companion is a district leader and we will be opening an area. The church here is expanding rapidly. They are getting 40 extra missionaries this year so i might literally be training on my second companionship. That is a scary thought. I am so excited. I might die of frostbite but I will be stronger for it. Uhh, what else? I dunno. i am so excited to get started tomorrow. i have to get a bike because my area is an all bike area so i will lose all the MTC weight. i hate these 5 pounds. Love you guys all so much. thanks for everything you do. Y'all are my heroes. Be good.
--Elder Matt Courtright
Subject: the real beginning
well currently i am sitting in the Colorado Denver North MIssion home writing this email. Today has probably been the most overwhelming day thus far. I got up at 3:30 AM to get read to get on the bus to the salt lake airport at 5. the plane left at 8:40 and we landed at about 1015. This afternoon we had lunch in the mission home and then had interviews with the mission president. I found out where my first area will be...i am in so much trouble. I am gonna be in Cheyenne, Wyoming. From the stories that have been told it can get down to 30 below 0. not looking forward to that but i think i wont be there late enough to feel that much cold. This is the highest baptizing mission in the central US and Canada. and Cheyenne is one of the highest in the mission. My companion is a district leader and we will be opening an area. The church here is expanding rapidly. They are getting 40 extra missionaries this year so i might literally be training on my second companionship. That is a scary thought. I am so excited. I might die of frostbite but I will be stronger for it. Uhh, what else? I dunno. i am so excited to get started tomorrow. i have to get a bike because my area is an all bike area so i will lose all the MTC weight. i hate these 5 pounds. Love you guys all so much. thanks for everything you do. Y'all are my heroes. Be good.
--Elder Matt Courtright
Monday, November 24, 2008
Life in Nicaragua, Wonderful Family
From: Elder Andrushka Date: November 24, 2008
Dear family.
Well dad asked me to let you know about the travels and food and all that kind of stuf so i am going to start letting you know some what about nicaragua. Well travels is by taxi evry where or busses. As taxis cost alot we travel by busses. The Buses fill up so much that you dont have room to move and sometimes leave the bus. The food here is rise with beans whats called gayo pinto. They like fryed chees that is the most tipcle food. There is alot of cocunut and bananas and lots of difrent froot. We eat alot of fruits. The people are more humble here and get by what they have. IT is normal to just start a fire and walk away and leav it burning. There are other parts were we walking realy long were its contry and the poeple are realy humble in this parts. Ah there is also three wheelers its like carissas bike but two wheels in front one in back and they give you a ride and charge you mony. Um what els. Over all it seams normal to me and like its my home. this week we had our prayer awnsered as we are working with family Sanches and its second time that they have gone to church. So we will be setting a date to get baptized. .They are understanding evrything realy well. The other day we taught them plan of salvation and the mom was so exited to learn that she tooke out a notebook to take notes. The daughter remindes me of Lydia a bit. We asked her after teaching the plan of salvation and was it nessesary for adam to eat the fruite and she said yes if he didnt we coudlen exist. There are realy prepared and chosen. So i will back up a little and let you know how we found them. We have a part in our area that is far a way we take the bus there to teach. We know that the missionarys have tried many times to start a branch there. Having sacrament there and atendece but all the members there are realy young in age. So we got there and thouaght Elder Garza and I. If we want to help here we need to find a realy good family. So we walked and found a house were only the mom came to the door she was intrusted and here husband came home at the same time as we were talking he let us in and we taught about the ward of wisdome. Wich led to asking for coffe and taking in away from there house. Familia Sanches. They are very prepared by Our Heavenly Father. Well another great news is that the stake President came to our ward and the greatest part is that we had a great atendance. Wich made me realy happy that the stake president could see the progres there is so much more to do. Ah we had a elders chorum meating and we had so many people there that we could not fit in the room what change we can see. That is only doing little changes not the greatest. We had a bonfire as a branch last week as i learn how to cut treas down with an axe. Also how to work on the field. It was great getting ready. It brought lots of unity the atendence was 75 wich is great for a ward here. This branch is progresing but much to be done. I hope that i will send good amount of time in this area. Love the poeple here love the members. I have come to know them and there chalenges and disires. Thanks for all that you do for me. Oh this week i also had a great study session learning about the atonement and how its posible. It has awsnerd alot of my questions of how and whys. I love the mission and feal proud to suffer some times for such a great cause. That its rewarding but it costs to have succes. LOVE YOU ALL.
Dear family.
Well dad asked me to let you know about the travels and food and all that kind of stuf so i am going to start letting you know some what about nicaragua. Well travels is by taxi evry where or busses. As taxis cost alot we travel by busses. The Buses fill up so much that you dont have room to move and sometimes leave the bus. The food here is rise with beans whats called gayo pinto. They like fryed chees that is the most tipcle food. There is alot of cocunut and bananas and lots of difrent froot. We eat alot of fruits. The people are more humble here and get by what they have. IT is normal to just start a fire and walk away and leav it burning. There are other parts were we walking realy long were its contry and the poeple are realy humble in this parts. Ah there is also three wheelers its like carissas bike but two wheels in front one in back and they give you a ride and charge you mony. Um what els. Over all it seams normal to me and like its my home. this week we had our prayer awnsered as we are working with family Sanches and its second time that they have gone to church. So we will be setting a date to get baptized. .They are understanding evrything realy well. The other day we taught them plan of salvation and the mom was so exited to learn that she tooke out a notebook to take notes. The daughter remindes me of Lydia a bit. We asked her after teaching the plan of salvation and was it nessesary for adam to eat the fruite and she said yes if he didnt we coudlen exist. There are realy prepared and chosen. So i will back up a little and let you know how we found them. We have a part in our area that is far a way we take the bus there to teach. We know that the missionarys have tried many times to start a branch there. Having sacrament there and atendece but all the members there are realy young in age. So we got there and thouaght Elder Garza and I. If we want to help here we need to find a realy good family. So we walked and found a house were only the mom came to the door she was intrusted and here husband came home at the same time as we were talking he let us in and we taught about the ward of wisdome. Wich led to asking for coffe and taking in away from there house. Familia Sanches. They are very prepared by Our Heavenly Father. Well another great news is that the stake President came to our ward and the greatest part is that we had a great atendance. Wich made me realy happy that the stake president could see the progres there is so much more to do. Ah we had a elders chorum meating and we had so many people there that we could not fit in the room what change we can see. That is only doing little changes not the greatest. We had a bonfire as a branch last week as i learn how to cut treas down with an axe. Also how to work on the field. It was great getting ready. It brought lots of unity the atendence was 75 wich is great for a ward here. This branch is progresing but much to be done. I hope that i will send good amount of time in this area. Love the poeple here love the members. I have come to know them and there chalenges and disires. Thanks for all that you do for me. Oh this week i also had a great study session learning about the atonement and how its posible. It has awsnerd alot of my questions of how and whys. I love the mission and feal proud to suffer some times for such a great cause. That its rewarding but it costs to have succes. LOVE YOU ALL.
Monday, November 10, 2008
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Working Hard and More Teaching and Baptizing
From: Elder Andrushka Dated: 11.10.08
Dear Family
It sounds like all is going well. What a family we have there is never a doll moment. It sounds like all is as normal. Evryone working hard to make things hapen the best. What a great mom and dad we have that are great examples and work to have all the most perfect in our lives. This was a great week as we helped two more enter the waters of baptisim. I realised this week that my english is getting realy bad i dont know if to worry about it or to just keep going. I think i will start reading my scriptures in english. Well last week was A sisiter named Julissa that has 22 years old and is a wife of a member. This week Is a mom of another member that we have worked for a 2 months about Sister Leda Ortega. Other is a son of a family that are all members that got baptized in 2000 and inactivated promtly after we activated the family and he got Baptized Luis Ortega but no relation to Leda Ortega. How hard we worked this week i feal like my mind my hart my evrything feals realy tired. I hope that this day i will find some rest. I am exited to go back to work and give it all i have. I feal like my spiritual strength is growing. I cant imagen the aposltel that work all there lifes what strength they have. I am more greatful for the prophet and apostles bishops and all that serve the lord what strength it takes. We finished our paper this week i will try to send a copy of it to you guys if i can. I am sorry that i havent send a picture of my self. I hope that i can next week. For the rulls i can not reaturn inles i ask special permision to do so. How i love evryone of you. Send my congratulations to nick and crystal let them know how proud i am of them. Let Crystal now i am honered to have her as my sister in law and that i hope that she will take care of my brother. Let nick know i love him and that he will make sure that crystal will reaturne to the presence of our heavenly father. Love evry one of you and thanks for all. Mom no i havent goten the packedge. Thank you for sending them to me i will let you know if i got them. Loves Elder Pearce
Dear Family
It sounds like all is going well. What a family we have there is never a doll moment. It sounds like all is as normal. Evryone working hard to make things hapen the best. What a great mom and dad we have that are great examples and work to have all the most perfect in our lives. This was a great week as we helped two more enter the waters of baptisim. I realised this week that my english is getting realy bad i dont know if to worry about it or to just keep going. I think i will start reading my scriptures in english. Well last week was A sisiter named Julissa that has 22 years old and is a wife of a member. This week Is a mom of another member that we have worked for a 2 months about Sister Leda Ortega. Other is a son of a family that are all members that got baptized in 2000 and inactivated promtly after we activated the family and he got Baptized Luis Ortega but no relation to Leda Ortega. How hard we worked this week i feal like my mind my hart my evrything feals realy tired. I hope that this day i will find some rest. I am exited to go back to work and give it all i have. I feal like my spiritual strength is growing. I cant imagen the aposltel that work all there lifes what strength they have. I am more greatful for the prophet and apostles bishops and all that serve the lord what strength it takes. We finished our paper this week i will try to send a copy of it to you guys if i can. I am sorry that i havent send a picture of my self. I hope that i can next week. For the rulls i can not reaturn inles i ask special permision to do so. How i love evryone of you. Send my congratulations to nick and crystal let them know how proud i am of them. Let Crystal now i am honered to have her as my sister in law and that i hope that she will take care of my brother. Let nick know i love him and that he will make sure that crystal will reaturne to the presence of our heavenly father. Love evry one of you and thanks for all. Mom no i havent goten the packedge. Thank you for sending them to me i will let you know if i got them. Loves Elder Pearce
Becoming a Ward!!!
From: Elder Andrushka Dated: 11.03.08
Well Dear Family
This week we pushed realy hard to reach our goals. this week we also had a baptisim and it was a very spiritual. I have seen the meetings that we have to get better and better. From each one we get more and more experiance. How i love the mission and all the experiance i have had. THis week we came up with the idea of monthly paper for nindiri of the church and we are working on desinging it. The branch we just got the word that it is going to made a ward and that they are starting the proses of building the chapel they have the land. So we are looking in about 6 months this branch has grown so much. As we grow there comes new chalenges. How i love chalenges because that means more work and more succes and more growth. I love serving here i hope with all my hart that it is the will of the lord that i may serve here 6 more months to see the chapel go up. THis change we have worked realy hard with the members. You could see the spiritual change in the meatings. You could see the revrence during the sacrament. How i love the work of the lord. I pray and hope that i will grow more and that i will be able to help more poeple. Heavenly Father has pout so much confidence in me. Lets see what els hapend this week. We had a chaleng in the church in elders chorum. We had a special meating after and talked things out. As the work progreses the enemy pouts his couple sentences in as he can. May we all keep pushing forward in this work of the lord. May we never set our sword down. May we keep it sharp and ready at all times. With all love Elder PearceT he work go´s on.
Well Dear Family
This week we pushed realy hard to reach our goals. this week we also had a baptisim and it was a very spiritual. I have seen the meetings that we have to get better and better. From each one we get more and more experiance. How i love the mission and all the experiance i have had. THis week we came up with the idea of monthly paper for nindiri of the church and we are working on desinging it. The branch we just got the word that it is going to made a ward and that they are starting the proses of building the chapel they have the land. So we are looking in about 6 months this branch has grown so much. As we grow there comes new chalenges. How i love chalenges because that means more work and more succes and more growth. I love serving here i hope with all my hart that it is the will of the lord that i may serve here 6 more months to see the chapel go up. THis change we have worked realy hard with the members. You could see the spiritual change in the meatings. You could see the revrence during the sacrament. How i love the work of the lord. I pray and hope that i will grow more and that i will be able to help more poeple. Heavenly Father has pout so much confidence in me. Lets see what els hapend this week. We had a chaleng in the church in elders chorum. We had a special meating after and talked things out. As the work progreses the enemy pouts his couple sentences in as he can. May we all keep pushing forward in this work of the lord. May we never set our sword down. May we keep it sharp and ready at all times. With all love Elder PearceT he work go´s on.
Working to Become a Ward
From: Elder Andrushka Dated: 10.27.08
Dear family
well i dont have much time to write this week. We have bin working realy hard and had a great succes. Santos who had 82 years old got baptized last week. This week we have another baptisim. We are working realy hard on all little by little we have reached almost our goal were we would like to be. I know that this week we will work harder and reach more. The atendance this week reached 105. The ward is starting to work and c ome together. I think that we arnt that far away to become a ward. The church has the land they are just waitig that we reach a goal of 30 elderes to start the church i hope that i am here to see that church go up. The people here have bin waiting a while to see the church. Love this work i love the lord and hope that all is well mom i will send a picture next week. Love you all
Dear family
well i dont have much time to write this week. We have bin working realy hard and had a great succes. Santos who had 82 years old got baptized last week. This week we have another baptisim. We are working realy hard on all little by little we have reached almost our goal were we would like to be. I know that this week we will work harder and reach more. The atendance this week reached 105. The ward is starting to work and c ome together. I think that we arnt that far away to become a ward. The church has the land they are just waitig that we reach a goal of 30 elderes to start the church i hope that i am here to see that church go up. The people here have bin waiting a while to see the church. Love this work i love the lord and hope that all is well mom i will send a picture next week. Love you all
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