A Most Wonderful Time of the Week

Christmas
We are having dinner with the Waddells and going to be at the Escabars to do the calls. Later this week we are going christmas caroling later this week with the Hairs. That is cool that you guys walked around temple square and saw the lights. that is good to hear that Grandpa Wirthlin is doing a lot better.

Baptism

We Had a Leroy Kettler's baptism on Saturday it was really good and the spirit was strong, he is the first one to join the church in his family and we are going to teach his two kids and eventually his wife who is from Thailand. She does not want to join the church because she is afraid that she has to give up her culture. She is slowly getting there.

Progress with Investigator

we were over to Kameron Mulkey one of our investigators, the cop. We saw his mom there and we said hi and she wdas really excited and wanted to talk to us and told us that Kameron gave the pamphlets and the gospel principles book and she said as I was reading over these things. It was all the things that I have been taught by my mother and it has answered all my questions that no precher could answer. she said I think I know were I am going to start to go to church. she is a baptist but she is lives in baytown so other missionaries will be teaching her.

Service

We did service at a members house and did a deep deep deep clean. They were gone for thanksgiving and when they came back they found out that some guys had broken into their house plus 6 other houses on that street. and took there Televisions, computers and jewelry. they dumped everything out of the cupboards and cabinets. you hardly could step anywhere it was so bad. after a few hours it was looking a lot better

Conference

On wednesday we had our Christmas Conference. The theme was on Faith it was so good. the spririt was so strong that I have not felt it so much like ever before. we got to watch the 17 miracles. that is an amazing, most wonderful movie. I loved it and seeing the faith of those pioneers it was so amazing how much faith they had and how much they sacrificed for this gospel.

TRANSFERRED!!!

New Area and New Companion

I am in Dayton right
know. My new address is

My new companion is Elder Judkins he is from Rexburg, ID. He is really
cool nice companion. I think he has been out for 18 months. He went to
BYU Idaho two semesters before I started to go there. His dad is a
profressor there and teaches a bunch of computer classes and a
communication class, which he took it from him and he said it was
really good.He wants to be a eye doctor, Know it is getting really
cold it is getting in the 30's and forty's. That would be great if you
could send my BYUI sweats along with the other stuff.

Pulled-over Investigator

I got into my area like around
four a clock. We taught this really cool family the Mulkey's the
husband is a police officer and the wife is a nurse. He told us how he
got contacted with the missionaries. He was driving around in his cop
car and was having a bad day and he was praying and wanted to change,
then he saw two missionaries Elder Hunt and my MTC companion Elder
Shelton, He pulled them over and they thought they were in trouble but
he wanted to learn more about God and get his life straightened up so
Elder Hunt gave him a Book of Mormon and he started to reading it and
right then he knew the book was true, the missionaries tried to get in
contact with him but couldn't, then he was like oh well but then he
found out that his captain was a member of the church. he know always
goes in his office and talks with him. the missionaries finally got
contacted back with him, we set a baptismal date for January 8, they
accepted. we are taking them on a church tour and hopefully to church.
Then we helped a member move some furniture and they were pretty cool.

Christmas Party and Lois Update
Oh yeah our ward had a christmas party on Saturday, they acted out the
christmas carol, they did a really great job, it was so much fun. Lois
Stine one of our recent converts got married on Friday to Todd Daniels
a member that is coming back to church. They are so cool, I love them.
Todd got a job in North Dokato, and he says the environment is not
good. they party, and drink. But he has told us some stories how he
has shared his testimony with some people on how it is changing
peoples lives completely around. He gets really excited about the
gospel and especially sharing it to everyone that he meets.

Just when Thanksgiving couldn't get any bigger...

A Texan Thanksgiving

Hey everyone it is great to hear from you all each week. Thanksgiving was awesome. this nice old couple that we tracted into about a month ago called us up and wanted us to come over for thanksgiving lunch. Rc and Jamie fletcher was there names. the food had a lot of butter in it but really good. we had turkey, jello, stufing, carrot cake and some other stuff. they don't really like to talk about three things religion, politics,and sports because it causes contention. but they have asked some questions about what we do and about are religion, I think they will become members some day. Then the Evans had us over and it was so good, we had Turkdunkin it was so good. It has stuffing, turkey, duck, and bacon wrapped around it. the duck meat is brown meat and is so good. we had peacan pie and pumpkin pie. we hanged out with them and just relaxed the rest of the day. I know fried turkey is so good with all the spices and stuff.

The People

this friday lois one of our recent converts is getting married to a reactivated member it is going to be in the churh because they have to wait for a year before they can be married in the temple.

we have been contacting all the former investigators and less actives last week and we had some success. we found three people that are interested and we are teaching them. the first one is Brenda Hogg, she is really nice lady and we are trying to teach her family so they can give her support and getting her to church every week because she is handicaped. the other two is Chris and Wendy Burrientos they are penticostal, really nice and really interested in the Book of Mormon and we told them all about the Book of Mormon and we commited them to read and to pray to see if it is true.

Cassie Seagrest one of our investigators that we have been working with for quite awhile she finally went to church and she loved it and she was reading the Book of Mormon all the way back to her house. we are going to focus on her and seeing if we can get her to be baptized in December.

oh yeah we were tracting the other day and ran into a black penticostal guy and he wanted to discuss about the Godhead. we talked with him and told him about what we do and what we believe in, then told him that we believe that the godhead is three seperate beings Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. he told us that if we found a scripture in the bible saying that they are three seperate beings he would give his trcuk to us and we said we don't want your truck, we tried to explain our purpose then he said how about if you find a scripture I will get you guys anything you want in the store or even better I will be baptized. we said why are you willing to give up your truck and he said I know I am right. with these kind of people that want to bible bash and try to bring you down, the only thing you can do is bear in testimony and explain purpose.

Being grateful to be a missionary

Pre-Thanksgiving in Texas

My week was great. The Evans family invited us over to dinner for Thanksgiving day and there is going to be a lot of food and dessert. There is a couple about in there 70's that we tracted into really nice old couple. They invited us over for lunch for thanksgiving they are really nice people and they love us to come over. they don't go to any church right know but they have asked a few questions about us and our religion. On Thanksgiving day we get to have all day P-day. Because they do not want us to go tracting or anything like that but spend time with members or stay in our apartments. Oh yeah yesterday the Elder's quorom had a turkey fry and it was so good. I love fried turkey. This past week we have been trying to contact all the less acttives and former investigators. we did some service for a member helping him to get all the nails of the wood that he had.

Transfers soon

My companion goes home in two weeks, he is having a pretty hard time but he will make it through. Yeah transfers are on December 5. you can probably send it after transfers if i do get transfered or you can send it to the mission office and they can forward it to me. Oh yeah since my companion is leaving and I am probably going to train a new missionary I will need a GPS and it is so helpful, should I get it or what, I most likely will need it sometime during my mission. we don't have that much investigators so we are trying to find some more investigators to teach.

Investigators and new ones to come

Shannon Lewis said that the Bilble is all that she needs right know and Bruce our other investigator has been stressed because he is trying to find a job and he applied for some jobs and is just waiting for the call and so he has not had the time to read the Book of Mormon. We are working with them and trying to tell them how the Book of Mormon will bless there lives. On saturday our bishop dropped us off at an appointment with and former investigator. while we were walking to her house a black guy stopped us and said you saw all of these cars and did not stop by my shop and teach the word. we said we will be back after we go see this former investigator that we had an appointment with. the former investigator was not there so we went over to his barber shop and talked about the Book of Mormon and pretty much taught the first lesson. they were asking questions and seemed pretty interested. the only thing that they say they don't understand is why couldn't blacks have the priesthood back then?

Baptism and lots of pictures!

On Saturday Lois got baptized and it was packed, the whole ward was there and a lot of her family were there, it was a really great baptism. I spoke on the Holy Ghost and my companion baptized her. On Sunday she got confirmed by our elders quorum President. Lois was the first one to get up and to bear her testimony and it was powerful, everyone was getting up and bearing there testimonies, it was the best testimony meeting I have been to in a while, the spirit was so strong and you could see everyone was touched by everbody's testimony , it was awesome. We are going to start teaching two of Lois's kids.

Last week we went tried to find a referral that was given to us by a member and we found this really nice guy his name is Bruce. he is in his early thirty's and one daughter and is trying to find a job to financial stable for his family. he said that he would listen to us and see what we had to say and we taught him the first lesson and he liked it how we are not pushing it on him. He said that he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. we are going back to follow up.

we are trying to get the Segrests to church but they always come up with an excuse at the last minute. the husband is less active and the wife is not a member and we have been teaching them, it seems they still want to be taught but are not following through.

yeah we have been trying to see more inactives trying to get them all contacted and getting to know them. yeah it has been in the 70's. It is reallly nice weather but sometimes in the morning and night it gets a little chilly. we did some service for a member did weed whacking in his yard.

Today we are going over to the Evans to have family home evening with them they are a sweet family. we do a lesson, play a game usually hide and seek in there big yard, or play kickball, and have desserts it is way fun. Oh yeah this Friday Elder Rasband is speaking to all the three houston missions, I can't wait.