Thursday, November 27, 2014

SWAT Team



10/14/14
Hey there ere1 well my computer is slower than a sloth without legs sooo.... we are gonna be seeing how much I can get written.
This week:

We went on a road trip and on this road trip we saw an Elder Hanson sleeping so we stuck a pen in his mouth and I laughed until I cried.  And then I found 10 dollars.

We got home from a lesson later at night and my companion and I were so freakin tired but when we got there we saw that the lights were all turned on... which is weird cause we always turn off all of the lights.  We thought that maybe somebody entered through the back (cause our back door doesn’t lock...)

 So we went around the building and saw some walls that we had to scale to get to our porch.  So like 2 cats trying to climb a tree without claws we tried climbing that wall.  Finally we had to lift one another over the wall and after 20 minutes of struggling we got there.  

We entered the door and swept the house like a SWAT team kicking the doors and searching from top to bottom.

Luckily that robber was so scared of us that he forgot to take anything...  Or did he?

After checking everything all of the money, cameras, wallets, everything was all in place.  So we thought that really nobody came in..  But the next morning I started looking for my towel.  I looked, and looked, and looked.  I searched the house like a colonoscopy searches... your body and stuff.

And no matter where the heck I searched I couldn’t find my towel. So then I got a little freaked out and was thinking like "what if somebody really did enter and stole my towel... WHO WOULD DO SUCH A THING?"

So I took my shower, air dried a little bit and then later, when I went to make my bed I felt that my sleeping bag was a lot heavier that it should have been.  I felt around and saw that that stinkin robber took my sleeping bag and put it in the bottom of my sleeping bag... silly robber.

Anyways this week a member inactive said something to me that made my whole week.  She told us that we were the first people to go look for her after she went inactive and that we were so persistent that she felt that we love her.  God uses us sometimes in ways that we don’t understand to help those around us.  There will always be somebody that we can help in our day.  I invite you all to look for somebody to help.  Like always it just makes me feel happier.

I love you all and I hope everything is well.
Love,
Elder Merkley


Forget About Smaller Problems


 10/6/14
Hey there!!!!!!!!!!
Well... Our pipeline thing broke so now we don’t have too much water and we cant drink any of it so we went to an investigadors house to ask for water for the next couple of days.
     We started drinking and little by little I noticed that the water was cloudy and had a funny taste and then as if I had swallowed a little bomb everything went off.  But I got some secrets from the members and they told me that I should drink some rice water and it works like a charm!:)
So I’m working like a well greased machine.  Yipee!
Alright... so other than that.  I want you guys to start playing the song sandstorm that they literally play at every single dance. And then imagine being in the safari desert with just little knives digging into your face and eyes as you blindly wave your hands in the air stumbling over whatever is in front of you and being grabbed by the thorns below.  Did you do it?  Alright that’s exactly what Elder Racchumi and I went through this week.
 
     We tried finding a member right in the middle of a storm and there was so much sand that we had to stop cover our faces and then wait for it to calm down a bit. 
     But on the way back I cant complain.  We went with the wind and it carried us super fast and I could see the tiny particles of sand staying even with me, like time had stopped and we were the only ones moving forward.
    We also went like 40 blocks on a road of dirt to get to a lake cause we had like 2 hours on pday and nothing to do.  So we went exploring, took some pictures, balanced on posts.  Things like that.
We also had conference this week!  Haha conference is like a big celebration every time with all of the missionaries.  I did the same thing as last time and brought some oats and milk.  Eatin lunch the easy way. 
But in other points.  Some of the things that I loved were
1.) Fear ye not the scorn of man
2.) We share these things not to boost the numbers in the church but because we know that they can help people find happiness and hope.
    I thought it was interesting to hear it that way.  Really when we focus on the important things in life the small problems don’t worry us as much.  When we focus on helping other people in life we forget about the smaller problems and God in the same time helps us know what we have to do in our lives and a hope that soon these problems will pass.  That is what I am realizing out here on the mission.  Showing love for others helps us be happier and that is what I invite you all to do.  Look for a way to show your love for the people around you every day, even if its something small like saying hi, maybe it will help them and you have a better day, right?
Well...
Love 
Peter Preacher

Elder Merkley

Monday, November 24, 2014

Update from Elder Hansen

11/24/2014

Howdy. This week was super good and stuff. We had a crazy week. Breakdown time.

Monday- We had a mini MLC (mission leadership council) in the mission office (which they just renovated woot) about a new church initiative to help people come unto Christ. It is called, "He is the Gift," and you'll probably hear more about it soonish.

Tuesday- We woke up early, and caught a ride down to Waco for a district meeting (like 2-3 hours). It was Elder Hepworth's (my old companion's) meeting, so that was really fun. After that, I went on exchange with Elder Melville. It was really cool to be in such a small town. They serve in an english branch haha, so there are very little members period, not to mention spanish members.

 Elder Cook, Hansen, Hepworth, and Melville


Wednesday- They picked me up at 8:00 A.M., and from hillsboro we drove even further south all the way to Kileen. Haha, it was like a St. George trip. We were in Kileen for about 30 minutes, and then we drove all the way home to Euless. It was super weird to be in the car for that long haha, it's been since that one time I went to San Francisco. We drove by Baylor's stadium on the way home it was way cool. 

Baylor!

Thursday- We had interviews with President Ames. We got to the church a little bit before 8:00 A.M., and then we didn't leave until about 8:00 P.M.. We were giving trainings and whatnot during interviews, and then after interviews, President trained all of the ward mission leaders in our stake, and invited us to help. It was pretty cool, but a super long day at the church.

Friday- We did weekly planning instead of on Thursday because of interviews. Jose called us, and told us he needed help to grab the cake because he was scared it would tip over haha. Long story short, there was tons of traffic and it took forever to get the cake, so we got to the wedding a little bit late. Bishop married them in the church, and then right after we went into the ward thanksgiving party haha. NOBODY parties like the Hurst 3rd ward. Hahaha, it was so crazy. They even played Pitbull haha, Everyone was dancing and having a good time, and like 200-300 people got to meet Jose and Erica, so that was awesome.  Best. Ward Party. Ever.

Estephanie (their daughter) and the Cake


 
Saturday- I went on an exchange with Elder Saaga, originally from Hawaii, but he lived in saratoga springs right next to the hot pots/lehi bridge for like 5 years. We drove up to Roanoke to visit a member, and he was super funny. He was way worried because he was teaching the gospel principles class on the milenium, and the sisters have an investigator who is a Jehovah's Witness. Haha. 

Sunday- Normal day. The bishopbrick (not even going to try to spell that right) feeds all 10 missionaries in the church every Sunday, so that is always awesome. 

It was a good week all in all. 

Love,
Cole








Elder Cook: November Update

Nov 3
Things are awesome here in Page! I am still loving it! Not very much has happened this past week that is really new though! So Tuesday was really sweet! We helped out with the mission prep here and the kids here are so prepared for there missions! It is so crazy to see! They taught us the first lesson from Preach My Gospel and they did really well! If that would have been me at their age, i would have just sat in silence and had no idea what to say! ha sometimes i am still that way! The new missionaries coming out are so prepared! I wish that i would have come out more prepared but there is nothing i can do about it now! Ha all i can do is keep going forward! Also on Tuesday we saw June Miller who is getting ready to be baptized in the first of December! Se we are pretty excited about that! She is doing awesome! She is reading and prating everyday and coming to church! She is so ready! Her mom has been a great influence on her! Her mom is Francesca who was baptized back in August! So that family is slowly coming together in the Gospel! We have been seeing a lot of prepared people and we hope to find more! We also have been really focusing on Active Member Lessons! we are helping the members learn how they can reach out to others to share the gospel! It has been crazy serving in Page! When i first got here, the whole stake wasnt really into member missionary work. But now since our whole zone has been focusing on teaching the active members how to share the gospel, it has really been exploding here! we had Stake Conference this last weekend, which was super good, but the whole Saturday session was about hastening the work and inviting those they live around and come in contact with each day to learn about the restored gospel! i am really grateful to be able to see that change! Although the work has slowed down with our own people we are teaching, i know that it will soon pick up and the members are going to have people lining up to be taught by the missionaries! so things are going great! Stake Conference was really good! So all is well here in Page! We are half way through the transfer! It is going by so fast! I hope i will be able to stay another transfer but we will see! Today we are going to the Antelope canyon slot tours here in Page so that will be really fun! we have a member in our area who is taking us for free so i am pretty excited! People from around the world come to see these slot canyons! The guy who is taking us used to be a missionary down here about 7 years ago and he is the main photograph tour guide! It will be pretty fun! Oh and also Halloween was awesome! We didnt do much because we had to be in at 6 but it was still really fun! I love this time of the season! The balloon regatta was sweet also! We set up the family history booth and it went really well! they had to cancel part of the festival because it was too windy. But it was still sweet! Well like i said all is well! Elder Thompson is doing really well and he was one of those missionaries that came out prepared! Ha it is so cool! But we have to get going so we can go on the tour! But i love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cook





Nov 10

Good morning!!!
Things are still good here in Page! we had a pretty awesome week! To start off, happy birthday Jenna! Ha sorry i am not to good at remembering when peoples birthdays are! I know i missed a lot of last year! Sorry! But things are great here in Page! I cant believe Mom and Dad drove through Page! Ha its a good thing that i am out on the reservation! Not saying that i dont want to see you! ha love you! But thats just crazy to think! I miss you all and love you all so much! I am grateful for the great examples that i have in my life! I am here now only because of all of you! Thank you!
So this last Monday we went to the Antelope slot canyons and i got some really sweet pictures! we did it as a district activity and it was super fun! We had one of our members give us a free tour of it and so that was really nice of him! He is the main photographer tour guide and so he knew all the good places to take the pictures there! It was super fun! The rest of the week kind of blurred together! We had some pretty awesome experiences though! We had a lesson with Melanie, who is one of our recent converts, and the lesson was good! She is doing really well! But after the lesson, we invited her to come to a lesson with us to teach someone named Janet but Melanie said she had to take her parents to dinner. But the cool thing was that we told her who it was after and she know Janet really well so Melanie said that her parents could wait and she told them that she would be back in like a half hour! So it was cool to see how she just dropped everything to come to a lesson with us! Unfortunately the lesson fell through, but Melanie texted her and set up another time for us to go back there! Ha it was pretty awesome! We are going tonight with Melanie so we are hoping that it will all work out! Which it will! But Melanie also invited like 4 people to church! She is doing really well! Ha thats what we are trying to share with the members! The hastening the work wants the members to find and invite and for the missionaries to teach the discussions! So Melanie is doing that! Our whole stake conference was on hastening the work! It was awesome! So we are pretty excited!
We have about 3 more weeks left in the transfer! I am hoping that all will go well! i hope i stay! Things are great and i have pictures this week! Oh and Elder Thompson is doing well! He is on week 11 of his training so he gets to take over the area completely! he gets to take lead on everything and i know he will do well! I am excited for this week! It is going to be a great week! Well i love you all and love hearing from you every week! I hope you all have a great week and keep reading the scriptures everyday! i love the scriptures! Ha there is so much to learn from them! talk to you all next week!
Love, Elder Cook



Nov 17

Hey everyone!!!!! So things are great here in Page! I think i say that every week! Ha i seriously love it though! It is getting pretty cold though! It is awesome! No snow though! But this last week i felt like i was hardly there! I went on exchanges 2 times this last week and it was super fun! There are some great missionaries in Page and it is awesome! i learn so much from them! Especially the new missionaries! They come out so prepared! We went to the Phoenix, Arizona temple dedication yesterday! It was so awesome! That is my third one seeing! I love seeing how much the Lord is hastening His work! I cant wait to go to the temple more often when i get home! Ha that will be the next time that i will be able to go the temple! Crazy....
So as for the people we are teaching! We still have June Miller on date for December 6th! She is doing great! All she needs to do is to keep coming to church and she will be baptized! Melanie who is one of our awesome recent converts is doing really well also! She went to the temple dedication yesterday and she loved it! We also had a lesson with her and she made gluten free brownies and gluten free cookies! They were really good! It was really nice of her! The members are so kind and they do a really good job at taking care of us so dont worry! Ha i am hoping to gain some weight! hopefully... We have been talking to a lot of people trying to switch the people that we are teaching. No one is really keeping appointments! But it is all good! things will work out in the end! We dont have much going on besides the same old things! I am pretty excited for Thanksgiving! I love the fall! But all is well here in Page! Oh and by the way, Happy Birthday Mom!!!!! Well later this weekend! But i love you all! I have a couple of pictures to send! We went slack lining this last Monday and it was super fun! Its weird to have trees and a park in my area! Its awesome though! But sorry not much else happened this last week! Have a great week! Love you all!
The pictures are when Elder Thompson and I slack lined! It was really fun! Ha we might use that at a seminary party BBQ! We have been working more with the seminary teacher! He is awesome! He served in Cottonwood Heights for the longest time! So that was pretty cool!
Also the other picture is when i got attacked by like 6 puppies! Ha it was crazy!
love you all!
Elder Cook







 Nov 24

Well not much to report on this week! It was a really really slow week! Probably the slowest since i have been on my mission! I think like every appointment we had fell through! But all is well! We spent a lot of time in the truck this week looking for people that the members wanted us to go see! They all live out in the middle of no where! Some houses take like an hour to get to from our apartment! So yeah! I dont like going out there as much because we are in the truck all day! I fell lazy when i am not walking around or knocking on doors all the time! Ha but while we were driving so much trying to contact these people, we listened to some good talks on Joseph Smith! He had such a hard life! But every time i learn more about him and the Book of Mormon, it just strengthens my testimony! I am very grateful for the Restoration of the gospel! This week we are going to use the Joseph Smith Video to use while tracting! We are going to see if we can share it with everyone as we knock on their door! So it will be really fun! we role played it this morning! Got to love role playing!
So something that was really cool this last week was that for seminary, they put together this huge activity for all the seminary students and they called it Enos night! So from 7 at night to 7 in the morning they stayed up all night at the stake center and had some activities! They invited us to do a missionary hour! So we put together a little district meeting and made it a pretty fun activity! There were also other stations that other ward members put on like a tracting station and a mtc experience! They even did a mission home and President Batt happened to be in Page that day because we had interviews! So anyway this activity was really fun! Ha sorry for the poor explanation! There was so much going on and so little time to write it all! But anyway things are great! we get transfer news this week so i am curious to see what happens! I hope i stay! But we will see what happens! Well all is well! we have a ton of thanksgiving dinners to go to so that is good! Have a great Thanksgiving! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Cook

Elder Cook: October Update

Oct 6
Good morning!
It is a great month! Perhaps one of the best months out of all of them! it started of with a really good General Conference and there were all so many good talks! I have a ton of notes and i was going through them this morning and started underlining challenges that they all left and other things that i felt like i needed to do! There were a lot of things that i need to do... Ha but i have at least until next General Conference to apply some of them! So i am looking forward to that! I liked the talk that was given! I cant remember his name... i am horrible with names. But it is the one that talked about aligning your life with what your patriarchal blessing says so i went through all my notes and wrote down anything that applied to my patriarchal blessing and that is what i will be working on! So i am excited for that!
Last week was pretty slow! We had to drive into farmington to get a prescription for Elder Thompson so on Friday we were gone all day! But everything is going good still! We are trying to do our best to continue to focus on active members. We had another zone training on active member lessons and what we can continue to teach them to help them get more involved in missionary work. So along with praying for missionary opportunities we are going to be teaching the members about setting due dates. So having a date set where the member will have someone ready to be taught by the missionaries! So that was pretty cool! Just like how we set a date for people to be baptized, we are inviting the members to prayerfully set a date with the Lord to have someone be taught! We are excited! At church last week we had some members come up to us and they had some missionary experience they wanted to share with us so we have a journal that we write in whenever a member has a missionary experience! but anyway that is all that is going on with the work here! It is a slower process but we are hoping that all our efforts will work out!
We have zone conference this Wednesday and that is when we get to watch Meet the Mormons! We are pretty excited! And also we are hoping to get more news on the ipads. I heard that we are going to be using our home facebook so i am curious to see how that works! but anyway not much new! Its suit season now! Ha so my suit will be done with after this next 6 months! Also we had a spiritual experience this last week on Saturday! We were able to go to a less actives house to watch the afternoon session of General Conference and of course it was good! but something cool was that Ed, who is the less active, really enjoyed it and at the end he said he was able to learn and remember quite a bit and he knew he needed to work on some things! It was cool because Ed was shot in the head a year and a half ago and he has had a hard time remembering stuff but the Spirit was able to help him remember the things he needed to and he knew how he could apply them to his life right now to help him in his situation! So that was really cool! But all is well!
Love,
Elder Cook




Oct  13
This last week was a really good week! We had a lot to do! So it first started out with going on an awesome exchange with Elder Jacobs! We had a really good day and a really good experience!  On Tuesday we got done with a lesson and we were looking at the planner on where to go next and we decided to go to this members house to see how things were going. We got there and noticed that her car wasn't there but we still went up and tried it. As we were walking up the ramp to the front door, a guy said, "Get out!!" So we looked at each other but kept walking. Ha so we were walking up with some dogs and it turns out that he was talking to the dogs so that was good to know.  Ha but we came into his view and he saw us and said, oh sorry, not you guys. I was talking to the dogs." It was pretty funny. So that was the experience. Just kidding but he was Sister Mott's son, who is an active member, and his name is Karl. He hadn't gone to church in a long time and was a little hesitant but he let us in. We ended up talking to him for like a half our and he told us how he lacked faith and he was going through a pretty hard time. So Elder Jacobs and I gave him a scripture to read in the Book of Mormon and he sounded really excited to read it! That made us excited as well! But he asked for a blessing after the lesson and said that he was glad we stopped by. He has a lot of doubts and questions but we told him that he could have all of those questions answered if he put forth a little effort to seek the answers. He was really excited about that so we are going back tonight to see how things are going for him. He went out to Tuba City because he had court so he was also stressed out for that! But he felt a lot better about it after the blessing!
On Wednesday we had Zone Conference and that was really good also! We had the opportunity to watch "Meet the Mormons"!!! It was really good! it was really funny at the beginning! They opened it up in a great way and it caught my attention really quick! You should all see it if you havent already! It was so good! I wish i could watch it again! Also one of the parts in there, it shows Snowbird!! Ha i miss snowboardin! ha it was cool though! really good movie!
Thursday we had Elder Christensen with us who is the assistant to the President! He is an awesome missionary! He taught us a lot! We were only with him for like a half a day because he had to take the long 4 hour drive to Farmington! Ha i have made that trip way to much! But on the bright side, i know how to get around like the whole reservation without being lost!
The weekend was really good also! It is starting to get cold and i am loving it! It feels so nice down here and i am excited because they have a couple of festivals coming up that are pretty big so there will be a lot of people in Page! Elder Thompson is doing great! We have transfer news this Saturday so i will let you know how things go next week! Hopefully i will get to finish out training Elder Thompson! Ha love you all and have a great week!
Love,
Elder Cook

Oct 20
Things are going great! This week was a little rough! But it was good! There will always be challenges but it was good! So something new that we learned and i dont know if i told you already. But President Batt told us that we now have the option of extending 30 days!! So that is something i am thinking and praying about! But also what do you guys think?? Ha President Batt told us to let our families know if we might be planning on it! But right now i think that is something that i want to do! That was pretty cool to hear though! This week we had a great experience though! So there is and active member that we have been teaching about member missionary work and we have been inviting all the members to pray for missionary opportunities. But we were able to teach her that and we promised to her that as she would reach out to others, her Heavenly Father would help her and her family! She has two sons who havent gone to church in awhile and we promised that as she helped and served others and shared the gospel with others that her family would start to come back to church. So she had a pretty cool experience where she picked up some hitch hikers and drove them to Tuba City and they talked about the Book of Mormon for the whole time and the hitch hikers seemed pretty interested! But we were able to go to her house and her son told us that basically he wanted to start getting back into church but he was pretty scared. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he read Alma 32 which is a really good chapter and he read it and really enjoyed it! It talks about faith and i really love that chapter! If you get a chance then you should all read it! I always learn something new. But anyway a couple of days later her other son wanted to learn about the Book of Mormon and we gave him Alma 32 to read! So they both opened up a lot! It was really cool! But today we are on a disobedient fast so we are trying to be exactly obedient on everything! So i have to be done with emailing soon so i have to get going! We are doing a week of fast this week! Today is disobedience! Tomorrow we are doing a truck fast, so we are not going to use our truck all day! and i cant remember the rest. One day is a negativity fast! But it will be a good day! Oh and also i am staying in page and so is Elder Thompson! We have a fall festival this week and then next week we are participating in the trunk or treat and then on November 1st there is the Balloon Regada festival here in Page! I am really excited for these next couple weeks!! We will be able to talk to a lot of people! It will be fun! We might even do a little stand for the Balloon Regada with handing out Book of Mormons! Love you all! Have a great week! Talk to ya next week!
Love,
Elder Cook

Oct 27
So this week was pretty awesome! i am loving Page! It is probably one of my favorite areas! Well all of them are my favorite! But this last week we went to the Fall Festival they has this week and set up a booth on family history! It was really fun! The festival was a 3 day event! Each of the sets of missionaries in Page took shifts so we could have someone there the whole time managing the booth! But it was really fun! Especially because it is the best season of the year! I love the fall! But we were able to teach people about family history and we had quite a bit of people come by! We had the DJ announce people to come by and there was this lady that came by and we told her about familysearch.org and she started screaming and jumping up and down and yelling, "I hit the jackpot!!" it was pretty funny! But we had two computers and an ipad there so we could search up peoples ancestors right on the spot! We were able to find quite a bit of stuff! It was harder when native americans came by because it is harder to find there ancestors because most of them lived way out in the middle of no where and hardly have any records to find! But it was still really fun! We have the Balloon Regada festical this weekend along with the trunk or treat so we are going to be busy this weekend! It will be really fun though! The Balloon Regada festival is going to be sweet! There will be a ton of hot air balloons friday. saturday, and sunday! They close off main street so all the people with hot air balloons can land in the street! There will be a lot of people so it will be really fun to set up a booth again! Anyway things are going great! That was most of the week! We set a new baptismal date! Francesca Miller, who is a recent convert and is doing really awesome, has a daughter that is like 17 or 18 expressed that she wanted to be baptized the first lesson we had with her! We went there on Wednesday and taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ and answered all the questions that she had! Her date is for December 6 so we are helping prepare her for that! But all is well! How is everyone else doing???
As for me extending! ha thanks for sending me the emails! I will let you know when i get my answer! Ha i havent thought about it as much for now because that is still a long ways away! But i will let you know when i find out! Love you all and thanks for the emails every week! I really appreciate them! And also the pictures! I really appreciate those too! I love seeing pictures from you guys! Well i have to get going! Love you all and have a wonderful week! oh and sorry i was going to send some pics but for some reason i havent got them from elder thompson so i will try for next week! they are on elder thompsons camera and so he is trying to send them! but love you!
Love,
Elder Cook

Monday, November 10, 2014

Broken Bike




10/3/14 
Hey there everybody!

Well... this week. I kinda was busy.  So... ya... I kinda forgot... to take notes...

What I can remember:

We tried teaching a lesson to a family but one of them was outside cleaning his car and was blasting cumbia outside.  (It’s like rap... kinda.)  So the whole lesson they didn’t even hear us, just me mouthing the words to some cumbia.

We taught 20 lessons which I was pretty happy about cause when we started here we had 4 or 5 every day.

We went on intercambios and for the past 2 weeks our bike chain breaks.  The bike fixer even told us he was worried for us when we didn’t come in the other day.

So like always my bike broke so then Elder Carlson and I had to walk a different route to get to the bike place faster.   When we were on our way we saluted a guy that had like 24 years. We started talking to him and he told us his name was Danny.  He asked us what we were doing there and when we told him that we were there from Jesus Christ. He lifted up his shirt and showed us a huge Jesus that he had tattooed on his chest.  We started teaching him and he was just a straight baller.  He accepted everything and told us that he was going to start reading and praying to know if it was the truth.  I felt like the big man was doing some work.

After the lesson we just looked at each other and started laughing cause we thought that at first it was just a huge curse that the bikes always break but then we ended up finding just the most ballin guy.  

Just comes to show that the Lord guides us in many different ways.  Even when we think that it just blows and that nothing is going our way the Lord had a reason. So we gotta trust him, right?

Well. I love you all.  Sorry it’s not the most exciting letter that you have ever seen.  I’m gonna take some notes this week.

Love,
Elder Merkley