Lynnwood, WA - week 9 (May 5 - May 12)

What a great week for us!  We got to Skype with Chris for 2 hours on Mother's Day and it was so amazing to see his smile light up our computer screen!!  If only a hug in person accompanied that smile...but, I digress.   I'll post my comments of our Mother's Day chat (and some photos) at the end of this post.

Weekly disclaimer: Italicized comments are mine.
-karen


May 6, 2013
Today was p-day and we did the usual stuff:  emails, shopping, laundry & lunch.  In the afternoon we played basketball and ultimate frisbee!  (no, mom, I didn't break my foot this time!*)  :-)  I also did a little stick-handling!  After that we had dinner with the Paquette's at a Thai food place.  It was pretty good.  After that we had a great lesson with Sam & Heather on the Plan of Salvation (pre-earth life & creation).  It was a good day!!  :-)

This explains the Plan of Salvation:  http://www.lds.org/topics/plan-of-salvation

*For those who do not know the story, last summer 3 days before the Hill Cumorah Pageant was over, Chris went to the lake with his cast team (18 kids his age and 4 leaders) and was playing ultimate frisbee barefoot.  He collided with another person and his big toe, and second toe, split around the other person's calf.  He broke one and hyperextended & torqued the other and spent 9 weeks in a walking boot.  Almost 3 months in to the mission and no major injuries is a good thing!

May 7, 2013
AWESOME Tuesday!  Got to spend some time at the library on www.mormon.org and www.lds.org.  I printed out some quotes and watched Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about faith and believing.  SO GOOD!  We visited a TON of people today.  We (Elder Frandsen and I) were sitting in the car about to go visit someone and were wanting to decide on where we were going to go tract if she wasn't there, and we both pointed the same way, so that's the way we went not knowing why.  The last house at the end of the street were two girls who are extremely solid potentials.  We will probably pass them off to the single adult missionaries.  It was a great experience to listen to the Spirit tell us where we should go!  I relate a lot of things to hockey but this analogy of listening to the Spirit works for any sport.  In hockey, when you are on the ice, you can usually pick out your teammates voices pretty well but sometimes it's challenging.  If you are skating along and you hear a teammate in the midst of all the screaming & yelling from the fans and the noise going on.  The teammate says "Boards!".  Now because of all the loudness, you can barely hear your teammate's voice, but you do hear it so you bank the puck off the boards and he gets it, and goes in to score! So what if it happens again? Well, you know what that voice is and you can recognize it even more.  Soon you are listening to that voice so well that you can only hear that!  But if you didn't listen the first time, it will be harder to hear the next.  This is they way it goes with listening to the Spirit.  You have to listen carefully to that small whisper, and each time it will get easier and easier to pick it out and do the right thing.  

We had a great time with Taitus & Juliana's family doing homework, then dinner with the Snyder's and another good meeting with Reed!

This is the link to Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about faith.  He is an excellent speaker and really easy to follow.  Many LDS people will tell you that he is one of their favorite speakers at our semi-annual General Conference. I know that he is one of Chris's favorites.  You can read the talk or watch the video:  http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng#watch=video

May 8, 2013
Today we had a zone meeting which was fun!  A zone meeting is where all the missionaries from our zone (which is a geographical area) meet and talk about things going on in the zone:  how are we doing? what can we do better? etc.  Afterwards, we helped the Assenberg's move their stuff and they introduced us to Ken.  Ken is a new investigator who is 83 years old and dating a 90 year old woman in our ward (congregation).  He is interested in learning and I would love to help him get baptized before he goes on.  He is a great guy!  After that we had a lesson with Jason, and we talked about (and read) 1 Nephi chapters 3 & 4.  We talked about how the Lord gives us commandments and we need to do them.  Some commandments seem crazy or outrageous, but He will ALWAYS provide a way to accomplish them.  After Jason's we had an AWESOME dinner with the Tokoma'ata's!  We had Palusami (samoan name) or Lapulu (tongan name).  At least, I think that's what it was called.  I knew I should have written it down.  Haha!  It had taro leaves and coconut milk with corned beef and rice and IT WAS GOOD!  (We had palusami twice when we were in Samoa for Chris's eagle project. It was my favorite!  Palusami is coconut milk poured inside taro leaves and cooked in the umu (rocks).  The coconut milk becomes cream cheese...so delish!)  After dinner we had a lesson with Aaron, his wife Sioban and their friend April.  That was a cool lesson on the Spirit World.  Afterwards, we met up with Jason and his younger sister Jill at a self-serve frozen yogurt place!  YUM!

Scriptures read with Jason: 
1 Nephi 3: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/3?lang=eng
1 Nephi 4: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/4?lang=eng

Spirit World definition: http://www.lds.org/search?q=spirit+world&lang=eng&domains=gospel-topics


May 9, 2013
We spent most of the morning "finding".  Let me tell you all something very important:  If a missionary offers you service...use it!  Use them to mow your lawn, wash your car, move furniture!  Anything!  We can't babysit children but we can help them with homework, and do lots of stuff around the house!  

We had a good lesson today with Troy on 3rd Nephi 18, and at the end of our night we had a lesson with Taitus and Juliana's family about tithing and fast offerings!  Hopefully we can find a way to get them to a baptism before their own so they can see how it's done.  Baptisms are SO awesome!  If you have a chance to attend one at an LDS church, and you don't have anything going on, I invite you to go!  The Spirit is so strong!

After our time with Taitus & Juliana's family, we spent the rest of the evening with the Moli family!  Oh man, i love that family SO MUCH!  I hope and pray that I will still be here at the end of this transfer because I want to see them baptized!  They are just SO amazing!  Well, that's pretty much it.  At the end of the night we exchanged with the Mays Pond Elders.

Scriptures talked about with Troy: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/18?lang=eng
What is Tithing:  http://www.lds.org/topics/tithing?lang=eng
What are Fast Offerings: http://www.lds.org/topics/fasting-and-fast-offerings?lang=eng

May 10, 2013
Fun exchange with the Mays Pond Elders.  I stayed here in the Alderwood 1st Ward and Elder Petersen came up to our area with me.  We had a ton of finding time, and one lesson with a former investigator who just had a baby.  The baby was 5 weeks early and SO tiny!!  Well, we reviewed the Restoration of the Gospel with her and she remembers most of it so that was fun.  Her name is Shandell, by the way.  She has 2 other daughters ages 7 & 4.  It will be fun to teach her about the Gospel.  Tonight was the first night since being on my mission that I didn't get fed dinner by the members of the ward.  Well, technically I still got fed since we ate leftovers from the Moli family.  

(Chris expressed on Mother's Day that they have not had to cook dinner once since he's been there!  Maybe I need to go on a mission.  Ok, that's not true, I don't cook dinner here either!)  :-)

May 11, 2013
Our day was fun-filled with service and sunshine!  We did our usual studies in the morning and then went to Sheryl's house and did yard work.  Then we went to Sister Phillip's house and chopped wood for her!  I also got my skates yesterday (with his Mission President's permission) so I rode them this morning on our morning jog, which is now called a jog/skate!  Tonight we had dinner with the Bateman's and it was really good.  We had mexican again but it was really fresh!  :-)  We also had a lesson with Kepler and Clayton.  Clayton is an 11 year old boy who is Kepler's friend, and wants to learn about the gospel.  It's awesome to teach both of them.  Kepler is ready for baptism so that's good!

May 12, 2013
GREAT DAY TODAY!!  I got to talk to my AWESOME family for a while!  We had a great sacrament meeting (church service) and the primary children same Mother's Day songs.  We had dinner with the Lammel's and it was breakfast for dinner!  Mmmmm!



Karen's commentary:
It was so good to see Chris on Mother's Day!  I have to back up and share some history about my joy in seeing Chris so happy.  Chris went to college this past fall at Utah Valley Univ, and while he enjoyed the campus and his professors, he did not enjoy the semester.  He had some challenges with roommates and it wasn't the fun freshman college experience we were all hoping he'd have.  I saw his charisma dwindle as the semester went on, so I was a little nervous about how he'd be on his mission.  All of my fears were wiped away the second we saw him.  While Chris's letters have been upbeat, positive, happy, informative and filled with good things, seeing him made everything so much sweeter.  It is clear that he is truly loving his service in Washington.  He genuinely loves the people there and is filled with complete joy in doing what he is doing.  A bit of "Chris" came out several times during the conversation.

At the beginning, he was eating and both Tom & I thought they were french fries.  We asked what he was eating and while Katy responded (knowingly) Cheetos, Chris decided, in true Chris-style, to show us...

Danny, Stephanie & Brody were on speakerphone so they couldn't see but could hear most of the conversation. Chris asked Brody if he had any questions.  Brody's first question:  "Why do you have to be gone for two years?"  Oh wow...that makes me tear up even as I write this.  Danny & Steph tried to tell Brody that wasn't a real question, but Chris said, "I'll answer it".  He then told Brody that two years was how long Heavenly Father (God) wanted him to spend teaching people in Washington about who he is.  Chris told Brody that he missed his family and friends but that he knew this was a good thing to do and they could write, but that he had to serve God.

At one point during the conversation, we must have said something snarky (probably me) and he turned off the video so we could only hear him.  As Katy and I laughed and yelled, turn it on, he did so...but muted it.  That only made us laugh more.  It's SO great to see his personality and silliness shine through.

Here are some of the many skype faces of Chris:

Katy edited this one on her phone!

BY FAR, MY FAVORITE!!

At the end of the call, Tom asked Chris to please share his testimony with us.  At the beginning of the video, Chris is telling us that his companion's mom was crying when she talked to him that morning, which simply justified that I was allowed to cry.  If you listen carefully you can hear the conversation between Chris and Danny about me crying. It's not too late to disown them.  

Enjoy this 8 minute video... 

Lynnwood, WA - week 8 (April 29 - May 5)

Weekly disclaimer:  I edit the notes for grammar and spelling, but the rest is all Chris. Clearly, the word sweet is his favorite adjective for now.  :-)  I continue to enjoy and appreciate his enthusiasm, desire for happiness and his positive attitude.  All comment in italics are mine, or are links to things Chris asked me to link, or things I thought might need further explanation for our non-LDS friends.  Enjoy!!

-karen

Alma 41:10
Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.

We ALWAYS have the choice to be happy or sad. I would invite you to always strive to be happy. If you do that, your life will be brighter and more fun!

April 29, 2013
Not much today for another p-day. We spent the day on emails, shopping for food and had lunch. I got to play around with my mini-hockey stick in the gym which was the highlight of my day! We then went to go help with homework with Taitus & Julianna's family. We had a great lesson with Sam & Heather! We watched the John Tanner story again (see week 7 for the link). Lately with our recent converts, we have been watching movies and videos.

April 30, 2013
We went on exchanges with the Mays Pond elders again. I went to Mays Pond with Elder Campbell. We visited/knocked on lots of doors. We had a lesson with (less active LDS member) Orlando, we helped a lady move, had dinner with a pretty cool family and then had an interesting lesson with a potential investigator. That lesson was definitely WEIRD! He didn't really want to listen to what we had to say but didn't want us to leave because he wanted us to keep talking with him. Weird. After that, as we were walking home, we met an extremely nice couple outside their house sitting and talking. They were very kind and fun to talk with!

May 1, 2013
(side bar: lots of links for this one below the post)
Questioning Gail dropped us. :-( It's ok though. If she is truly searching, she will be back. We saw a lot of people today. We helped out the Brown's (a less active famiy) with some yard work. We had a lesson with Jason and watched President Monson's talk on obedience. Then we had dinner with the Phillips. Then a sweet lesson with Aaron and his wife Sioban! We watch Mountain of the Lord (from Mormon Messages). That was so good! Then we had a lesson with Reed, a less active member. We read Alma 36. SO good!! In that full day, we also gave Brother Tokoma'ata a blessing! Lots of good stuff today!


President Monson is Thomas S. Monson. He is the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We believe that we are led by a prophet on the earth today, just as people of old were led by prophets, men called by God. Here is a link that explains better about Prophets, and the link to the talk Chris mentions above about obedience:
http://www.lds.org/topics/prophets?lang=eng
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/04/obedience-brings-blessings?lang=eng

Chris mentioned a video called Mountain of the Lord. I think he meant Mountains to Climb, so I'm including that link (it's a 5 min video). I will ask him and include in next week's the right one if this isn't it.
http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2013?lang=eng#2013-01-003-mountains-to-climb

May 19, 2013 - Found Mountain Of The Lord
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Dr7tUXMMU&list=PLCE54A8B593C70930&index=1

Link to Alma 36 (a book/chapter in the Book of Mormon)
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/36?lang=eng

Chris also mentioned that they gave a blessing to a man in their ward. Here's the link to explain that:
http://www.lds.org/topics/priesthood-blessing?lang=eng

May 2, 2013
Today was great!! We had a great lesson on keeping the sabbath day holy with the Moli Family and with Wendy. We spent a lot of time tracking today.

May 3, 2013
Today we had another SWEET day! We did our usual studies, then our weekly planning and then lunch/lesson with Troy. After that we went to the doctor because I needed a refill on my medications. Here's where the day really begins: We had a great lesson with Taitus's family and talked about following the Prophet and the Word of Wisdom. The Word of Wisdom is just, in simple terms, a health code. This commandment was gien to the Prophet Joseph Smith and you can find it in D&C 89. After that we had a sweet lesson with Sheryl and Taylor about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we had a GREAT dinner at the Lommel's! Taco/Nacho night! :-) After that we went to see a potential named Frank but he wasn't home and as usual, we knocked on the few doors around his apartment. We found a man named Jared. This sounds like a typical story of missionaries knocking on doors and the person willing to listen, but it was a BEAUTIFUL sunset tonight and E. Frandsen and I wanted to get a photo. So we had two choices: missionaries find man (Heavenly Father's plan) or missionaries find a picture of a cool sunset (missionary's plan). Who won? Haha! Yeah, the Man upstairs won again. We met Jared and missed out on the sunset. You just have to believe me when I say it was beautiful. Good day!! :-)

Link to Doctrine & Covenants 89: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/89?lang=eng   That is the actual revelation received. Here is a deeper explanation, for all of you that are wondering why we don't partake of coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, etc...
http://www.lds.org/topics/word-of-wisdom?lang=eng
You'll notice that it does not specify caffeine. Is caffeine healthy? Nope. Is it a commandment to avoid it? Nope. Good thing, 'cause most of you know that I enjoy my diet mountain dew. :-)

May 4, 2013
Good day again today! We were spiritually fed by Elder Aidukaitis. I have now heard him speak twice in under six months and he is an amazing speaker! Had an AWESOME dinner and lesson with the Shaw family! Then a lesson with Aaron about the Plan of Salvation. Going back to the meeting with Elder Aidukaitis, he said something that I have heard before but hasn't hit me like this before. The Book of Mormon is either of the devil or the word of God. If it's of the devil you should know when you read it. If you read with real intent (to know if it's true, and are willing to get an answer), with sincere heart (open to reading it, not just having a predetermined heart/mind of what it's going to be), and faith in Jesus Christ (willing ness to know and believe the He is the Son of God); if you do those three things when you read and pray, and you get an answer, you will know it's from God. There is no way any evil or wicked man could write such a book as this, and no good many would do so on his own unless he were called of God. Now all you have to do is read it. If it's true, then you know that this is the true church and the path back to our Heavenly Father & Jesus Christ. Anyone who hasn't read this book, I invite you to read it to see if what I am saying is true. I DON'T want you to take my word on it, but to figure out for yourself that it's true. I know it is. If I didn't, I don't think I'd be out here doing this. I know that we have a living Prophet that leads us and guides us.

Here is Elder Aidukaitis's bio: http://www.lds.org/church/leader/marcos-a-aidukaitis


May 5, 2013

We had some meetings and church today. There were no investigators there, but we had a lot of less actives and recent converts. We had a cottage meeting tonight at the mission home. That's where the missionaries can bring investigators to hear some recent converts to speak about their own conversion to the Gospel. The testimonies were so strong there and it's good for the investigators because they can see there are people out there that found this to be true instead of just missionaries. We had Aaron talk at our so we got to go and he did AWESOME!

Lynnwood, WA - week 7 (April 22 - 28)

I shared with Chris that we have received many comments, questions and text messages about his blog and asked him to please keep it up.  Many people have asked specifically about the people that he is teaching, and others have asked questions about the details of serving a mission.  He is making every effort to write for the blog each week.
-karen

April 22, 2013
Good P-day today!  We didn't do a ton of stuff, mostly writing letters.  The three things we did do were: go over to Taitus & Julianna's home and helped the kids with homework and just visited.  After that we had dinner with the Gertch's (sp?).  We had Chipotle, so that was GOOD!  After that, we had a meeting with Sam & Heather.  We talked about faith and it was a GREAT lesson.

April 23, 2013
Good day today!  Tons of tracting and finding!  Found some awesome new potentials and then had a sweet dinner with the Valles family.  Mexican food night!  They are so awesome with "member missionary" work.  They did the homework assignment to invite others to church and activities!  We had the pinewood derby tonight and met a few different non-members!  Just a good night!  Even though we had only one lesson today (with Troy, a recent convert), and everything else cancelled, it was still a GREAT day!

This link explains missionary work, why the LDS Church sends missionaries, and how members help the missionary work move forward.
http://mormon.org/missionary-work

April 24, 2013
Lots of fun finding-time. We found some sweet potentials who we set up return appointments with. We had a pretty good lesson with Jason. Please pray for him to receive and know that he is ready to get baptized on May 25th.  The crazy part is that he knows what he needs to know, and he believes what he needs to believe but he doesn't want to commit to a baptismal date.  It's totally fine if he doesn't want to yet, but both Elder Frandsen and I don't understand what's stopping him. After his lesson, we had a lesson with Aaron, a recent convert (Kepler's dad), and something SO COOL happened!  Sioban, Aaron's wife was there and she is now an investigator!  She said that she has seen such a change and bright light from Aaron and wants to have the same.  SO GREAT!!  :-)   After that, we had a great time with Jacob Bradley.  He is less active (in the church) and loves having us over once a month for dinner!  He usually takes us out to eat, and this time he brought us to The Blazing Onion.  It's like Red Robin. I got the usual thing I get at Red Robin, a grilled chicken ciabata sandwich, so then I could compare the two. Tasted the same as at RR, and it was gone in under two minutes!!  YUM!  I guess only WA has the Blazing Onion restaurant!  We had a lesson after that about goal setting and where he wanted to be in a year or less, spiritually.  He is just a straight-up awesome guy.  And after the lesson, he gave me his ugly tie.  He got it from his trainer (when he was on a mission) but never trained anyone, so he never gave it away, and I'm the first "greenie" (new missionary) he has run into since his own mission!

Looks delicious!  Guess this place goes on our list of things to see in 2015!  http://www.blazingonion.com/

April 25, 2013
Good stuff today!  Lots of time finding people and we helped the Gertsch's move.  Right after that we had a lesson on the Ten Commandments with Taitus & Julianna's family and guess what...Kristina wants to get baptized!  She said she is a little nervous but that will go away!  We made sure that she knew we were going to teach her everything she needed to know!  After that we had dinner with Brother Lopez and his daughter.  That was good!  :-)   Later we had an amazing lesson with Wendy & Alex.  (Wendy is the mom, Alex is her 15 year old son.  Both are less active in the LDS Church)  Oh man...we watched Finding Faith in Christ video.  The Spirit was so strong!  I definitely recommend it!  It's only about 30 min long.  It's a great thing to do as a family or for FHE.  Also, a guy yelled at us that he hated our religion.  It was funny.  

Here is a link to the Finding Faith in Christ video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49CMaFK3C0k

Chris mentioned FHE above.  That is an acronym for Family Home Evening.  In the LDS Church, we are asked to set aside one night per week (traditionally Mondays) to be with our family.  Usually, the family will have a short lesson, sing songs, have refreshments and play a game.  Each family does things differently, and not all "FHE's" are the same, but the goal is the same:  Family time.  http://www.lds.org/hf/fhe/welcome/0,16785,4210-1,00.html

This is a lesson from the book the missionaries use to teach investigators (along with the scriptures) about how to recognize and understand the Spirit.  Hope this helps define what he meant above by "The Spirit was so strong"
 http://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/how-do-i-recognize-and-understand-the-spirit?lang=eng

Leave it to Chris to find getting yelled at funny.  Maybe that comes from hearing all the airport stories I've told over the years!?  :-)

April 26, 2013

We had a pretty awesome day!  Weekly planning this morning, and then our usual studies...and then it got fun!  We had 3 lessons tonight and for ALL 3, we read a chapter in the Book of Mormon.  To start with, we had Troy, then Sheryl & Taylor, and then whipped cream on top with a lesson with the Moli family!  Great experience with the Moli's - we had finished the lesson and went to make our plates (tonga boxes) (??  I will ask about this on Monday!).  When we finished that and went back into the living room to get our backpacks, all three of the kids (twins, age 15 and one age 20) were reading the next chapter.  They said that we left them with a cliffhanger in chapter 3 of 1st Nephi.  "If Nephi and his brothers got the plates, then how did they do it the 3rd time?"  

Here's the link to the scriptures the kids felt they needed to finish reading to hear the rest of the story:

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/1?lang=eng

I linked to 1 Nephi.  If you choose to, you can start at the beginning and read about Nephi and his family.  The Book of Mormon is scripture, so it reads likes the Bible with biblical-style verbiage.  We believe that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and another testament of Jesus Christ.  The stories are a history of the people who lived in the Americas thousands of years ago.

April 27, 2013

Great lesson with Gail today.  We talked a lot about the Pre-earth life, predestination and foreordination.  Crazy topics, but good!  Did some yard work at Sheryl & Taylor's house, so that was fun.  We did get a lot of cancels this week.

Definitions...

Foreordination:  http://www.lds.org/topics/foreordination?lang=eng

Pre-earth life:  http://www.lds.org/topics/pre-earth-life?lang=eng

Plan of Salvation:  http://www.lds.org/topics/plan-of-salvation

April 28, 2013

AMAZING day today!  We had 7 investigators at church!  SO AWESOME!  We started out the morning with Paul Way and breakfast at his house.  We answered a lot of questions he had for the hour time we had, and then we left for PEC and Church which were both good.  We had an awesome dinner at Brother Farrar's and his family.  Breakfast for dinner, again!  :-)   The one other thing that happened to me today was that the Primary President asked if I could come in and portray Joseph Smith, so I did that and it was a lot of fun!

PEC = Priesthood Executive Council.  This ward leadership group meets regularly to discuss happenings within the ward and how to meet the needs of the members.

For those who don't know, Chris had the opportunity to portray Joseph Smith in the Summer of 2010 at the Hill Cumorah Pageant in upstate New York.  That opportunity gave him a stronger testimony of Joseph Smith's life and the things he went through...and a desire to serve others.  Also, that same summer, an artist by the name of Julie Rodgers painted Chris as Joseph Smith and that canvas is hanging in our home.  It's so awesome that Chris had the chance to do that again for the Primary kids (ages 3 - 11).  For any friends on the east coast in July, we highly recommend you go see the Hill Cumorah Pageant!  It's a spectacular production with a cast of over 700 people!  (And it's free!)  Our family spent the summers of 2010 and 2012 participating in this amazing event.  http://www.hillcumorah.org/Pageant/

Lynnwood, WA - week 6 (April 15 - 21)

May 3, 2013

Chris typically sends home two handwritten letters each week.  One is my personal letter, and the other is the daily updates for his blog.  On April 22, he mailed the week's letters but they never arrived.  We've had great luck with all other letters and packages so hopefully this is the only slip.  And, I'm incredibly grateful that no photos were lost.  Chris took the time to review his journal and re-write the week of April 15th for the blog.

Weekly disclaimer:  parenthetical and/or italicized font comments are explanations of things Chris mentions.  Thanks for being patient this week, and more importantly, thanks for enjoying the journey with our family!

-karen

April 15, 2013

P-day (preparation day) was lots of fun! We went hiking down to the "beach" and that was pretty fun.  

(More pics from the past month can be found at the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200536285641624.1073741828.1592776047&type=1&l=ff85dc2444

You do not have to be a facebook user to view them)

We had a fun dinner with the Taulbee's: Lasagna, salad & angel food cake with strawberries & whipped cream!  Ironically the same dinner as on the 13th but with a different family.  Crazy, and still delicious!  Had a great lesson that night about prayer with Sam & Heather!  The scripture that went along with it is Doctrine & Covenants 9:8 - 9.  And another scripture I have recently found is Jacob 2:18 - 19.  I really like this one!  You can change the word "riches" with "worldliness".  It is so true:  do the things for God before the things of the world!

D&C 9:8 - 9:  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/9?lang=eng

Jacob 2: 18 - 19:  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/jacob/2?lang=eng

(Click on each link, then scroll down to get to the correct verse to see the specific scriptures Chris shared)

April 16, 2013

Lots of tracting today. GREAT lessons with Troy and with the Moli family!  We taught the Moli family about prophets and Jesus Christ again...sort of a review.  Our meeting with Troy was around the same topics, but more focused toward him and his personal situation.  Scripture today that hit me was Matthew 10:14 "Shake off the dust on thy feet." We had lots of slammed doors and "not interested", but this can apply to all.  Shake it off and just move on.  Don't dwell on the bad!

Matthew 10:14:  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/matt/10.14?lang=eng#13

Definition of "Tracting": Door-to-door contacting is commonly called "tracting" because missionaries in the past often left printed tracts with people as they called on them. As the number and influence of Church members have grown, missionaries have come increasingly to rely on referrals from members to find people to teach. In the latter half of the twentieth century, missionaries have had the benefit of standardized lessons, usually referred to as missionary discussions, to assist them in teaching the gospel.

April 17, 2013

So to start out 1) today was a pretty crazy day and 2) the quote of the day in my journal is "To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on". So, I will use this term in my day today.  We did our usual studies in the morning and had a District Meeting.  After that, we went on an exchange with the Mays Pond elders.  I went with Elder Petersen.  We went to a trailer park.  We started knocking and after the first two doors, who didn't answer, we got a potential & return appointment.  I didn't think much of it until the next 2 or 3 doors wanted return appointments and on the same day an hour after each other!  Crazy!  It was a total miracle since not a lot of investigating of the church is happening in Mays Pond.  Well, we got to the back corner of the trailer park and this guy with a limp comes screaming at us and escorted us out of the park.  Extremely rude, but whatever!  :-)  So we decided to "trudge" to where the other elders were, and they were not there!  The van had broke down, so they had already started heading to the shop.  The bad part about this was we had a lesson with Jason in 30 minutes, but it was a 50 minute walk from where we were!  Luckily our Zone Leaders picked us up and drove us there.  After that, we were late for dinner!  Anyway, the scripture today is Matthew 11:28 - 30.  Come UNTO Christ.  He is here to help!

Matthew 11:28 - 30:  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/matt/11.28,29,30?lang=eng#27

I bought Chris a journal before his mission, and then typed up, and glued a quote on every page. The quotes alternate between faith-driven and favorite movies.  Today's quote was from A Knight's Tale, and became faith-driven!

April 18, 2013

Had a doctors visit today!  (Not sure if it was Chris to the doc, or his companion)  Found out that the doctor we were seeing was ONE mile from the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  He told us his crazy story afterward of walking around trying to get to his hotel!  Later that day we had 3 lessons!  One with Taitus & Juliana's family on Spiritual CPR - Church, Pray, Reading.   It was pretty good!  The next one with with the Moli family!  We had an AMAZING lesson on the Restoration!  So good!  Then, we had a sweet lesson with Wendy & Alex, some less-active LDS people.  They are so AWESOME!  Funny people!

I hope this explains what the "Restoration" is, as mentioned above.   http://mormon.org/restoration

April 19, 2013

Good lesson with Sheryl, 50, and Taylor, 10.  We had a good lesson on Authority & Priesthood.  I think she sees that this is the Authority of God on the earth.  I wish I could send home all the scriptures we used, but all are in the Bible.  It's SO good.  We also saw a potential named Jack. He is a huge Boston fan!  He has tees and hats for Bruins, Pats and Red Sox!!  He is so chill!  If we could just set an actual lesson with him.  He would be a great investigator.  Kind of a bummer dinner tonight...we had raw chicken that bled when I cut into it...and it was not great.  Ew.  "Diet Mt. Dew...ew"   HAHA.

Here are some scriptures from the Bible about Authority and the Priesthood.

http://www.lds.org/scriptures/search?lang=eng&type=verse&query=priesthood&testament=ot&testament=nt

The "ew" reference is one of our favorite videos...and completely NOT LDS or Mission related! It's a video of Jimmy Fallon & Channing Tatum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIhU3mQTp1U

April 20, 2013

Redeemed at lunch today with Brother Goodwin.  (Bro. Goodwin is the owner of the crossfit gym where the missionaries get to work out every day at 6:00 am!)  REALLY good steak and veggies!  Nothing much happened until dinner with the Shepherds!  2 great lessons today:  one with Gail and another with Aaron (who is a recent convert to the LDS church).  We answered Gail's questions and she is truly opening up to us and our message.  She is still searching for information.  During the appointment with Aaron we watched the John Tanner story.  Aaron has received the priesthood.  So amazing!

Here are links to part 1 & 2 of the John Tanner story:

Part 1 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHXcOVCrzvA

Part 2 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKNCM69lcbk

What is the Priesthood?  http://mormon.org/faq/purpose-of-priesthood

April 21, 2013

(Warning:  LOTS of LDS lingo in this paragraph.  Read on, and you'll find explanations at the bottom!)

Such a good Sunday!  Taitus and his family, and Jason, were at church!  So awesome!  Good talks from the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric and from one of the High Council members who has an assignment to follow up with all the missionaries in the Stake!  

3 different miracles tonight:  First, we met a man who wanted us to come back (he was getting his kids to bed).  Second miracle was a nice Baptist lady who we just talked to for a while. The last was a woman named Margarette from Great Britain. She has been in the US for a while.  The one thing that she doesn't like is that there are SO many churches here.  We shared a brief lesson about the Restoration and it was awesome!  AND, we set up a return appointment.  So Good!

LDS Lingo:

A congregation is called a "ward".  Approximately 10 - 12 wards make up a "stake".   The ecclesiastical leader of the ward is a Bishop, and he serves unpaid for about 5 - 7 years.  None of the clergy or leaders in wards, stakes, or church-wide are paid a salary for their service.  The Bishop has two counselors who help lead the ward. The High Council is a group of 12 men who serve in other capacities within a stake. One of their responsibilities is to rotate in the different wards once per month and give talks.  I don't know if the talks-in-other-wards process varies in remote areas outside of the US.

Love, 

Elder Udall

P.S. This is a great message:  "God sends his prepared children to his prepared servants".  I know that's true!  Have a great week!

Words cannot express how much I love that Chris enjoys life and truly enjoys every day as a gift.  He has quickly grown to completely love the people he is serving!