January 30th

Hi mom thanks for the email. yeah if everyone could send more pictures of themselves so that i could put them on my wall that would be awesome! as it goes for getting letters yeah it takes forever to get anything from anyone because of the mission office. basically the only reason why i do it that way is because of transfers. if i have people send me mail directly to Ashland then if transfers come up the mail will go to Ashland and i might be somewhere else. i guess it isnt too bad because i could just have the missionaries forward it to the mission office and then have it forwarded again to where i am. But the only problem with that is missionaries take forever to forward mail or they just dont do it at all so i wouldnt get the letters for about 2 months. i figure that the best way to send me mail is to the mission home so i dont have to worry about it. i guess if anyone wants to send me mail directly to me they can up until Feb 15. after feb 15 send it through the mission office so in case i get transferred i will still get you letters. i can let you know on the 20th whether or not i am being moved to a different area or not so you will know to send it to the mission home or ashland. for those that want my new address it is 1004 Clay St Ashland OR 97520.

now that is all out of the way let me tell you about my week tuesday we went to the methodist church to work in the soup kitchen. it was an awesome experience even though all i did was wash dishes. wednesday we had exchanges so elder mcintire came down to Ashland to be my comp for the day. during the exchange we went to get Lithia water (because everyone that comes here has to try it) and were offered weed right out in public by some teenagers that were smoking it in the middle of the town center. the drugs here are rediculous and no one cares. later that day we went tracting and knocked on a house that had 5 deer in the front yard. in the middle of a conversation about prayer, the guy pulled out a airsoft rifle and started shooting the deer then said no thanks and went inside. thursday we went to a specialized training thing with the mission president that went from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM. it was an incredible meeting but very long. our investigator flip it progressing pretty well. he went through a few hard times this week and everything but he is still awesome. he has brought more people to talk to us then anyone in the ward. we had 2 lessons with him this week and they were both very good. every time that we meet with him he always tells us that he is in tay chi and that he studied with some of the greatest masters in the world. turns out that he is pretty legit. he showed us his bio on google. if you type in flip livingston in google he is the first one that pops up. flip really seems to enjoy church. in every class he participates in the lessons and really loves the ward.

on another random weird note i cleaned the shower in our apartment, it took me about an hour and about 3/4ths of a economy size heavy duty shower cleaner. i took before and after pictures that i will maybe try and include in this email. also this week my companion broke our towel rack so our land lord said he would screw the holder back in to the wall and buy a new rod because the old one was too short. lets just say you know your land lord is mr Crabs from spongebob when a "new" towel rack turns into a copper pipe covered in duck tape. anyways it turns out that my time is almost up so i will send pictures of the towel rack next week and also our shower.

Hey mom and everyone else. the mision is going great. we are starting
to pick up some new investigators that are coming out of the weirdest
places. but i will probably get to that later. i will try and just
give you all a few highlights of what happened this week. the
beginning of this week started up fairly slow but really started to
get crazy when wednesday rolled around. on tuesday night my companion
and i got a call from the zone leaders saying that president and
sister young were going to be come down and sit in a few lessons with
missionaries and wanted to know if we had one for wednesday night.
well we did but the investigator that we were going to teach is very
interesting and it was not an ideal lesson you would want president
at. but he decided to come down and sit in anyways. so president drove
from eugene the 4 hours it takes to get down to ashland to teach a
investigator with us. lets just say that day was very nerve wrecking.
and the lession itself was pretty interesting because everyone seemed
to try and speak at the same time. luckily he didnt give us any hard
times afterwards. the next day (thursday) we went to the church to
play basketball with the investigator that we taught the night before
with president. when he got there he had a friend with him that had
gone through a lot of rough spots in his life and decided to learn
more about the church. so while we played basketball he asked us a ton
of questions regarding the church. after a ton of questions and
answers he decided to come to chuch and also take the missionary
lessions. that was a incredible experience especially because of all
the things that he shared with us about his life and his situation.

now i said that i was going to describe my companion in my last
letter. well now is probably the best time because it somewhat ties in
to the next story. he is a really nice guy but is very socially
awkward about 75% of the time. when he was growing up his mom made him
believe that he was celiac and lactose intolerent so he was never
allowed to eat it or anything else because his mom was a health nut.
when he got on the mission a companion he had helped him realize that
he really didnt have these problems at all that his mom was making him
believe all this stuff because she says its super unhealthy. well now
that he can eat bread and dairy he has gained 30 pounds. its weird to
me because he seems to think he is really skinny but he is a little
chubby now. last night we went to dinner and there were 3 non members
sitting accross the table and right in front of them he asked the
members if there are people they have that we can teach and and bring
into the church. lets just say that went really bad. so much so that
the wife passed him a note telling him to get off the subject right
away. so... yeah... anyways we have to get heading so i better close
up. btw mom i didnt get those pants from missionary mall yet but the
clothes that i wore tarping held up.

Tarping in Ashland

News from Ashland

HI Mom!

thanks for you email. So last week i was told that i was going to be transferred to Medford at 1:30 on monday. that is the only information they gave me. they didnt tell me what was my area or who my companion is until i was on the transfer van half way to medford. while i was on the van they told me that i was being transferred to a town called Ashland and that my companion would be Elder Ratto. When i was told that i was being transferred to medford area i was actually super bummed but as soon as i was told i was actually going to Ashland (which is in the Medford zone) i got super stoked. i have heard a lot about Ashland and actually wanted to serve here at some point in my mission. i guess now is the time. I love it here. Ashland is probably one of my favorite areas. the town is incredible and the atmosphere is great. there are a ton of hippies though. When we go tracting we run into a lot of people that say no thanks because they have already found their "Zen". Ha so it makes it pretty interesting. Have you ever heard of a Zen Mormon? because i sure havent until i came down here and saw what they meant by that. they are some interesting people. this is definately a place that i think everyone needs to check out. and while you are down here you need to try this stuff called Lythia water. its pretty interesting and people swear that it can cure any desease you have. the first day i was here i tried it and lets just say that everyone who comes here has to do it. this town is acutally pretty awesome and i think it will be one of my favorite areas of my entire mission. for those that down know where Ashland is in the Oregon Eugene mission, here is a little geography lession. Ashland is the second farthest south missionaries will serve other than Yreka California. so there are only two missionaries further south then my companion and I.

Ashland is super awesome but it does have some interesting things that arent that great, but all the other super awesomeness makes up for it. one thing that is annoying about it is that basically everyone that is younger then 80 is an extreme liberal. and because of that they all love their toyota prius. it seems that every liberal town in oregon is infested with these rediculous cars! so that is another thing that is no bueno about Ashland. On another note our apartment is... well... super ghetto. i have seen some other missionaries apartments thoughout the mission and none of them have beat the one that i am staying in now. in fact some missionaries find it so gross that when we go on exchanges they refuse to take showers there. its funny but so, so true. the toilet doesnt flush like 75 percent of the time and the floor is peeling. there is black mold growing in the shower and the floor of the shower is yellow and brown. the carpet... oh the carpet... lets just say if a doctor told be that i will die from some sort of desease that i recieved from walking on that carpet barefoot i wouldnt doubt it. the only thing that we have for heat are these space heaters that are plugged in our living room and our bedroom. oh and the kitchen is basically completely falling apart. the cabinets are falling off and everything is breaking or is super disgusting.

My new companion is Elder Ratto. he is a pretty interesting guy. we conflict on a lot of things but i am trying to figure out how i can better work with him. he has had an interesting past and i think that because of time i will explain him more next week.

on a good note we commited someone to baptism! his name is flip and he is a super cool guy and is incredibly energetic. anyways i will explain more about him later also. but i have to go now. anyways love you and everyone else that is reading this!

Bummed about leaving Grant's Pass

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the update on everything. i am trying to send out more snail mail to everyone but lately it has been pretty much impossible. last week i was going to but i ended up having to move apartments so i had to pack where i would usually write letters. they kicked us out of our apartment so they could move sisters in to cover an area next to ours. anyways transfers are this week and i am being transfered to Medford today. Usually they transfer on tuesday or wednesday but i guess they are transfering me today which is super lame. so that is going to make it hard to write letters because i will spend most of my writing time traveling and getting food to last me till next p day. so yeah. i will try though. i was shocked that i was being transfered because you usually arent in one area for just one transfer. i actually was pretty mad about it because i was going to have 3 baptisms here and we were teaching that were probably going to get baptized all in feb. so it was hard to leave. especially on such short notice because i found out last night that i was leaving today so i dont get to say goodbye. anyways what's going on back home? how's life over there? can you send me some more pictures of back home? (family and such) i really enjoy pictures and you should tell everyone to do the same. love you tons!