July 15th 2013

Hey Mom,

Thanks for the email. Things are going pretty slow here in the YSA but we did pick up some awesome investigators. That is something that I do love about serving here. You may have a difficult time finding people but the people you meet are usually crazy prepared. We are teaching a girl named Lauren who is awesome! We talked to her on the street and set up a time to meet with her. This week we had our lesson and she wants to be baptized on the 11th of August.

As for other highlights for the week. We did a service project with the YSA at a saint Vincent de Paul car lot washing cars and there was an awesome van that I totally want. It's one of those vans that people usually live out of under a bridge. This week we had our mission leadership council meeting at the mission home to go over what we were suppose to talk about during zone training meeting. We were suppose to focus mostly on how to improve our finding so Elder Henrie and I made a park the the church gym so we could work on talking to people in the park. We wanted to present a theme that we could focus on so we decided on "Find em' Hook em' ". So what we did is an object lesson where i hooked an old tie and was behind a little wall we made that was suppose to be the lake. Then Elder Henrie was the Fisherman who was suppose to reel the fish in. So I acted like a fish while he chased me around the gym and then brought me in. And we talked about how it applies to missionary work. It was pretty fun and made our zone think that we were completely crazy but it was good. The look on their faces was priceless.

Other Highlight was we are teaching another kid named Nate who called us because some missionaries gave him a card with our phone number on it and he said he felt like he was being pulled toward the LDS church. He was telling us about some of his experiences and it is pretty awesome.

We also had to help move some crazy old ladies stuff around her storage unit that was completely packed with stuff. Turns out it was only 1 of 3 storage units that she has been renting for about 20 years and was full of tons of crap that was for the most part broken.

Elder Henrie went on 3 way exchanges with Veneta and Eugene Spanish missionaries. I  went with Spanish and had a pretty slow exchange. They had a Branch party to celebrate pioneer day and it was pretty fun. I don't speak any spanish so I just chilled and ate mexican food while I watched little spanish kids go to town on a pinata. Then the branch president said he had some advice to give me and then said "All you can do is all you can do. But all you can do is enough." 

Well thats about it for this week. There are tons of crazy hippies in town because of the Oregon County fair.   

July 8th 2013

Hey Mom!

Sounds like the 4th of July was a blast back home. For us it sounded like a war zone mixed with drunk party kids running around screaming. Kids here do use any opportunity to have a party. I think a lot of the party was actually happening the 3rd right after class got out.

So last Monday was transfers so we actually had to keep 2 other missionaries with us until tuesday night. It was a ton of fun because Elder Gowen has served in this ward before so he was able to tell us about people they were working with. For FHE we went on a hike to Spencer's Butte which was pretty cool. Then when we were getting ready to go to bed it was sooo insanely hot and humid that we couldnt sleep. Then someone decided to shoot off some mortars every 20 minutes outside of our apartment.

The 4th was mellow for us  because we did "soft proselyting" throughout the mission. so we had an appointment and walked around talking to people then did some service. we had to be in our apartment by 7 so it was really boring. we ended up turning our apartment in to a racket ball room. it was pretty fun. 

Thats basically all that has been happening this week!

Baptizing the World!

July 1st 2013

Hey Mom, 

Thanks for the email. Sounds like lots of fun things are going on back home.

Today was transfers and both Elder Henrie and I are staying here. It's pretty cool actually to be in Eugene during transfers because we can go t o the transfer spot and see everyone move around. This week has been really slow but we are trying to get things picked up. We did have a baptism though! Madison got baptized and it went pretty good. He is really excited about the Gospel. So Yesterday at Church we were in a correlation with our ward mission leader after ward council and President and Sister Young dropped by. President pulled Elder Henrie and I in to a room and told Elder Henrie that his grandpa just passed away. He was 93 and Elder Henrie was really close to him but he took it pretty well. That is about everything that has happened this week. 

Future Bishopric

June 17th 2013

Hey mom!

Thanks for the email and pictures. I didn't get your letter yet but hopefully I will soon. I did order my glasses but I didn't get them yet. they should be coming in on Thursday or Friday. Things are crazy here in Eugene. Everyone is leaving for summer. Tons of Graduations have been going on the past few days and today. Right now its a little weird because all the college kids families are in town for their graduations. So now you see old people playing beer pong too with their kids. That or you see the kids try and cover up what they usually do on a nightly basis. Tracting hasn't been too productive here because anyone that shows a little bit of interest is leaving to go home to China or India or wherever. It's weird with the kids moving because there is just a ton of junk everywhere. dumpsters are overflowing and tons of left over furniture just chillin on the front lawns. All the insides of college apartments are now out on the front lawn. And lets just say you see some interesting stuff. So we are now teaching 3 people that are staying here for the summer. kinda. Mike is leaving soon so that will be really lame. They are having a Sisters transfer this coming monday and we are kinda hoping that the YSA sisters both get moved because there isn't enough work to keep both sets going.

This week was zone conference which was great! its awesome not having to travel forever to get to it. And I got to see the Brookings Elders and see how everything was going. So that's basically what has been going on here in Eugene. 

June 10th 2013

Hi mom,

Things are going well here in Eugene. Everything is crazy because of finals this week. So all the kids are going nuts. Because our apartment is right next to campus we hear it all night! This kid up the road had a barmitsfah (i have no idea how to spell that) but he was having one for fun. He invited us to it. really he is just a stoner kid who isn't religious at all but wanted to have one for the dance party afterward. But he brought in a translator so he could do the reading for 2 hours from the tora.

Other things that are going on this week. We hiked a mountain for a meeting with our mission president. It was pretty cool but I thought I was going to die because we took the short insanely steep way up. We had a zone meeting that we had to teach this week that was 3 hours long so we made a awesome tower out of tables and Elder Henrie climbed it as we talked about rising to greater heights. My allergies have been destroying me too which hasn't been fun at all. I cant wear my contacts at all so I am sporting my super ghetto glasses. Last night Elder Henrie and I had to present something on behalf of our zone in front of the stake high council and ward mission leaders for the stake and my contacts were going nuts. My eyes were watering the entire time. 

Elder Henrie got food poisoning so I chilled by the window and watched all the people walk by after I did a ton of paperwork mumbo jumbo. There were about 7 people that went by digging in our neighbors trash for cans. One guy comes by every morning around 7 am.

We are working with a recent convert who is in love with my little pony but is also a crazy knife fighter. he quizes us now every time we go over on the main 6. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie pie, Flutter shy, Rainbow dash, and Twilight sparkle. He is going to a convention in washington for it which is ridiculous. anyways thats about if for this week.