Letter from a family in Mesa, Arizona

Elder Rowe and Elder Mace Baptism January 24, 2009 Mesa, Arizona

Hi there!

My name is Jolene Griffin, and your boys have been living in our home. They are such sweet young men and you can feel the Spirit when they are around....

I have had Elder Mace for 1 transfer and now for a second transfer as he is to become the trainer for another new missionary. He is just as wonderful to have here, and is very head strong for the work they have to do. I know he is quite computer smart (unlike myself), when I get frustrated, he is always trying to give me suggestions about what could possibly be wrong or how I might be able to fix my problem some other way, (and please don't get worried, he/they don't use my computer, becausee they are not allowed to use member's PC's). He is very quiet and reserved until you get to know him, then he seems to let his guard down just a little so you get to know him better. We absolutely LOVE having the Elder's live with us!! They do offer services when I need help with the groceries, putting up a table, unloading the dishwasher (Elder Rowe likes to unload, while Elder Mace says he likes to load). My son just got married Dec 19, and I was a little crazed, but they were very calming and always willing to help where/when ever I needed them. I didn't want them to miss any of the missionary work they had, so I didn't bother them, but it was nice to know they were there if I should've needed them. They are very spiritual, and are excellent missionaries. They spoke in church yesterday, and the Spirit was so strong, it was wonderful. You have raised good righteous young men, who honor their priesthood. Thank you for sharing them with the people in Mesa, and for sharing them with our family. They have a special place in our hearts, and I think of them as my boys too, (I have 3 daughters and 1 son, 3 grandsons and 1 granddaughter). I come from a family of 11 children (7 brothers and 3 sisters), my son used to say he was cheated because we didn't have another son, so this is how he gets more brothers (besides his 3 brother-in-laws). Anyway, they wanted to share thes baptism photos with you, so I said sure, let's do it!

Love you, Jolene Griffin

January 26, 2009

Elder Mace and Elder Rowe and baptism of 2 girls,
Saturday January 24, 2009 Mesa, Arizona

Anywho....
Hey! TRANSFER NEWS‏
I survived another transfer. YAY!!!! YAAAYYYYYY!!! YAAAAAAYYYYYY! (as 'lisha says). You want to hear the transfer news?. . . . . . . . . I'm staying. Yay! But my companion is being transfered to another part of Mesa. And guess who my new companion is? You don't know? Give up? I don't know either! And do you know why I don't know? Because I'm training a new guy straight from the MTC. Yeah, pres. Bassett wants me to train a new guy. Sounds great right? Except that I think I'm going to be sick :-p I'm pretty sure that I turned pale when pres. Bassett called to tell me I was training. I'd much rather just be jr. companion again. :-(
My comp. and I gave a talk in sacrement meeting yesterday, and we taught gospel essentials in one of our wards. Good times ;-) We had an object lesson (it was on agency) and we pulled out some cookies and told everyone to stay in their chair and get a cookie. You can't do both right? But a guy picked up his chair-- still sitting in it-- and walked up to the table and took a cookie. We were all busting up laughing. :-D...
OH! I FORGOT!‏
I'm a moron. I forgot! We had two baptisms this week for two twin less active girls. I'll tell you about that next week, 'cause I really gotta go.
Bye,Jason

Letter to the Young Men of the South Shore Ward

*** This is a letter Jason (Elder Mace) wrote to the Young Men in our ward back home. I thought it was something that everyone would enjoy reading, so he told me I could post it...

To the Young Men,
I just wanted to write you all to let you know how things are going here in Mesa, Arizona. The cardinalls are going to the Super Bowl, so everyone is happy about that here. But it's January and already warming up. People here are saying it's going to be a hot summer. . . . Naturally, I'm excited about that. . . . The record high, I hear, was 122 degrees. Buisnesses were shut down as the AC couldn't keep up.
But life been good so far. I've been working hard and seeing some success come from it. I'm so glad that I've been given this opportunity to serve as a missionary. I don't imagine that there's anything quite like it. It is without a doubt the hardest thing I've ever done, and the best.
I don't think anyone ever sat me down and told me how hard it would be. I've been tired every day since I first went into the MTC. I've been cursed at, had doors slammed in my face, and had even the most solid investigaters tell me and my companion to never come back. (Yeah, that last one crushes you every time.)
But, now that I think about it, I don't think anyone ever sat me down and told me how amazing a mission is, either. Even through all that difficulty, there is real, lasting joy that comes from serving. There is no joy like watching someone change their life and find their real relationship with God, who is their loving Heavenly Father. We aren't the only elect ones in the world. There are many people who "are only kept from the knowledge because they know not where to find it" as it says in the D&C.
For example, my first companion and I were out tracting and we found a young, single mother named Ceanna. We found out later that she had been praying only ten minutes or so before for direction. Then we showed up. We told her about eternal families, and she was really excited about that. She came to church two sundays later and loved it. As she learned more she started to share her knowledge with other people, invited them to talk to missionaries and learn more. Then she herself was baptised, along with her oldest son. I have no doubt that she is one of the elect, chosen to be here at this point in time. And she never would have been brought to knowledge of the gospel without missionaries to teach her.
There's nothing like watching people receive forgiveness from their sins as they come to know Jesus Christ and the power of His atonement. I can't describe the joy that comes when you see one of your investigaters get baptised. It's the best feeling in the world.
--Elder Jason Mace

January 20, 2009

Jason's response to our last "house fire" experience...

Would you like my advice? It's time to MOVE.
Two fires,four bolts of lightning ,
toxic mold, etc. should be sign enough.
It's time to move. To Dallas, maybe?
Let me know where our new house is, lol.
Glad everyone is okay.
Sorry I wasn't there with Elisha's shoe. :-(

and now for his weekly letter....

Hey family....
Elder David A. Bednar came and spoke to us-- in person. It was him, his wife, one of the 70's, one of the local 70's, and Pres. and Sister Bassett. And only a small chapel full of missionaries from the Arizona Mesa Mission. It was way cool! And he didn't really speak to us-- it was more like he talked with us as a group and taught us. Again, it was really, really neat. And Elder Perry is coming soon to talk to us. :-) Being a missionary has it's perks, huh?
Elder Rowe and I found 5 new investigaters this week, and we expect to be getting 8 more in the coming week. Yeah, that's a lot of new people. A lot are from referrals, but almost half are from just street contacts-- random people we talk to on our way to appointments (or are they random?). Among the new investigaters is a family of six (with three of the four kids over 8; we've only taught the dad thus far, so it only counts as one new at this point), a teenager, a seemingly solid YSA, etc. Yeah, we're excited..... :-D

January 12, 2009

Hey Family, I got sick on Thursday. Yup, that was fun...

So I got to go to Ceanna's Baptism the other day. The feeling can best be described by the words of Elisha: "YAY! Yaaay! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! Yaay! Yaaaaaaaay!" Yup, can't say it much better than that. I've sent you some picks of Ceanna and her family, along with the three of us missionaries that taughter her. Her oldest son, Danial, also got baptised. That same day we taght Angie. You remember her, right? We talked to her and asked if she had a Book of Mormon and she came out with one and a binder full of notes. Well, we taught her a first and told us she had prayed about the BofM and got a good feeling about it. Our jaws almost dropped. We wanted to ask if she wanted to go the the stake center and baptised right then, lol. Just joking. But wow! And, that same night we taught Alicia (not Ah-lee-sha, mind, it's Ah-lee-si-a). She's been taught for a long time and would never commit to getting baptised. She beleives that it's all true, she lives all the standards and then some, but she's afraid of what her parents will think. So we prepared a lesson using mosiah chapter 18 (the waters of Mormon one, see verse 30 for a laugh-- at least it makes me laugh). And at the end of the lesson she finally told us she had already decided to get baptised on Feb. 28th. We were like, wow. :-) Good day, good day. The area's starting to really take off, I guess. Finally. Now watch, I'm going to get transferred again. Story of my life.......Er, Mission. lol. --Jason

January 6, 2009

From your Favorite Missionary,

So, here's an update on Ceanna-- it keeps getting better. I got another phone call a few days ago, and it was Ceanna! She had heard from Elder Williamson that I might not be able to make it to her and her son's baptism, so she called to change the time so that I could go. Now it's at 1:00pm this Saturday. :-D The only problem is that I need permission from the AP's to go, and they won't give it to me unless I find a ride and bring an investigater with me. So now I'm trying to work all that out. But with luck, I'll be there! I'm so excited! I don't know if I already told you, but I also hear that she's quite the missionary, now. People have been giving her a hard time about wanting to join the church, and so she talks to them about it and invites them to learn more. Even her grandma is taking lessons now! When I was in the area her grandma HATED us LDS missionaries! WOW! It's the coolest things I've ever heard of before. Here in Mesa we started teaching a guy named Mike who is pretty cool. He doesn't believe his prayers have been or will be answered, so we're trying to work through that with him. Last night we taught him about the Plan of Salvation (too bad I didn't have the cut-outs, lol; I had to draw it out-- it was pathetic) and it went pretty well. He keeps saying that it's a lot to take in, so I think we'll slow down the pace a bit and just read some chapters from the Book of Mormon for a while. But yesterday when we talked about the Atonement it was powerful. His friend (Hanna, who is a member and the one who invited him to talk to us) started crying. Yup, that's when you know it's going well. :-) We read Alma 7, I think it's verses 11 and 12 where it talks about what Christ suffered for, and he had an ah hah moment. He was like, "I never knew Christ suffered for more than just our sins." That was cool, too. And we contacted a referral named Angie. When we started talking to her we asked if she had a Book of Mormon, and she ran off and came back with a Book of Mormon and a note book that she had been taking notes in! :-D Those are both YSA's, so I'm loving the YSA ward right now. :-)
--Elder Mace

December 29, 2008

Dear family,
Oh, I got a phone call from Elder Williamson this morning. Remember that awesome story about Ceanna, the woman we tracted into in Scottsale? And we focused on eternal families? And she cried? Yeah, her. Elder Williamson called to tell me that she is getting baptised January 10th at two 'o clock, along with her son Alex and another boy named Calvin (Calvin is the less active boy we did the egg lesson with-- "I get it now! I need to be sucked into heaven!"). Unfortunately, I may not be able to make it. We're planning on having a baptism here for some less active twins. I would much rather go to Ceanna's, because I haven't really even met the two kids that are getting baptised, but again I guess that's life. It stinks!!! And I got the card from Bro. Butler and the Bishop. And I got the packages from home, grandma, and the primary. I didn't get the one from the Watts or the Hanks yet........
. . Anywho. What did you all get for Christmas? Any sweet blurays? And amazing Wii games? Anything else worth looking forward to? Did you get the Eagle Eye movie? I need answers! lol. It was warm here on Christmas-- I was wearing shorts (until I had to change into my suit :-[)-- but it was raining quite a bit. And now it's dry and cold. Gotta love biking areas. And yeah, it's COPIES of the Book of Mormon. That's one of the first things we learned in the MTC, lol. Good times, good times. Tell everyone hi for me, BTW. --Jason