Tuesday, December 29, 2009

December 29, 2009

They're(the twins), all growed up! Thank you so much for the pics. :-)
Hey family! I'm on and checking my emails.

How's everything going? Today's email has some very exciting transfer news! Is Elder Mace still in Apache Junction? Is Elder Seaborn still in Apache Junction? Or did someone get transferred?
Are you ready for it?
[drum roll]

[....more drum rolling....]

[....a little more....]

[....still going....]

[....wrapping it up....]

Well, Elder Seaborn is in fact still in Apache Junction. . . . But I am not.
Guess where I am emailing you from right now? No, I'm not on the Indian reservation. And no, I'm not even up north. I'm actually emailing you from the Library in Mesa. Yes, I was transferred back to Mesa. It was about this time last year that I was transferred to Mesa to be with Elder Rowe. Obviously I'm in a different area now than I was in last year.
My area is around McKellips and Country Club (in case you were wondering, or if you want to look on a map). My area is pretty small. . . . so I'm on a bike again.

I'm also no longer a Zone leader-- just a regular Sr. companion. Which means I will probably get some sleep on Sunday nights!!! lol. It's really strange though, I have to say-- Going from zone leader to a regular missionary. I'm pretty excited though.

My companion is Elder Dursteler (I think I might have spelled that right, lol). He seems like a good guy, so I'm excited. He's been out for 8 months-- not sure where he's from. Elder Moa took my spot in Apache Junction-- he was in the MTC with me. And in the area here I am serving near Elder Overocker and Elder Hansen, who were in the MTC with me. I'm really excited about this transfer.
I've lost my train of thought-- there are people all around me playing music and what-not on the computers. . . . Libraries. Gotta love 'em. :-P
Any way, we have a GREAT night at the Christmas lights on Christmas day! We had 113 non-members accept to have missionaries come over to teach them. Wow! That's a really good night. And a lot of members referred people as well. It was the best night at the lights the mission has had so far this year-- by far. Our zone holds all the records right now. [Or, I guess my old zone. I'll probably always consider it my zone.] :-) Not to be prideful. . . . (that's probably why I was transferred.)

We also had some great exchanges with missionaries this last week. Elder Edmonds went with me one day, and him and I got 47 street contacts and we set a baptismal date with one of his investigators. That was a really great day and it was a lot of fun. I had a good week to wrap things up in Apache Junction. I really really really loved it a lot and I'll really miss it a lot as well. But I can't wait to get to know this area. I'm about ready to dive into the work and get going.
When I get done I'll have to bring you all out to Apache Junction so I can introduce you to the people. And Mesa, Phoenix and Scottsdale too, of course.

I love you all and I'll write you again next week.
Congrats Kassie. Let me know how big the baby is :-)
And I love you. Thanks for the luck.
I'll catch you next week then.
Happy new year, and I love you all.

Love you,
Elder Jason Mace

Saturday, December 26, 2009

December 22, 2009

Hey family!
Congrats on your graduation Kassie, happy birthday Kaydee, and merry Christmas family!
How's everyone doing this week? Everyone ready for Christmas? I can't believe that it's Christmas! Time goes by super fast. Tomorrows going to be Easter! Anyway . . . . Things are going pretty good here. We're still having trouble pinning people down, but things are still working out. We had a baptism scheduled for this Saturday, but it looks like it might not work out again. . . . Samantha got sick the day that she was suppose to have her baptismal interview. . . . So, now we have to see what's going to happen. If we get a hold of her soon, and she gets feeling better, she might still be able to get baptized. But if not, then it probably won't be for another three weeks because of the way the stake does baptisms here. . . . *sigh* Anyway, we're hanging on to hope! There is still a chance as long as we get the interview done in the next couple of days.
We went on exchanges with the Assistants this week. Elder Coffman came out with us. Well, not really. Elder Seaborn went with some other missionaries. A missionary in our zone broke his finger playing football thanksgiving day, and so Elder Seaborn went with him and his companion to have surgery done on it. Meanwhile, Elder Coffman came with me. We had a great day. There is a set of sisters in our zone that got came into a new area together and don't have much work. So we went tracting in their area to help them. It was us, the sisters (Sister Foster and Sister Bird) and the district leader and his companion (Elder Davenport and Elder Morgan). We didn't find the sisters a whole lot of new potentials, but the ones we did find were really good. Hopefully that will help out the work a bit.
Elder Coffman actually served in this area before I did-- I replaced him-- so he knows the people here. Some of the people he taught we are still teaching. One of them, Donaldo, he was really excited to teach. If you remember WAAAYYYY back when I first got here, Roxanne, his step-daughter got baptized, but he decided he didn't want to then. We've been working with him ever since. We've tried and tried to get him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He would read it, but wouldn't pray to know if it was true. We were having a really hard time. A few weeks ago we met with him and told him (for the 100th time) that he really needed to pray, and we really wanted him to follow the example of Christ and be baptized. He said he knew and he would make his decision. When Elder Coffman came, we had an interview for a baptism at the same time as our appointment. So Elder Seaborn (back from the hospital) and I went to the interview and Elder Coffman went with a member to the lesson. Donaldo told Elder Coffman that he wanted to be baptized January 9th. Wow! The entire ward is super excited about it. Our ward mission leader has always said Donaldo will be the next High Priest Group leader. :-) He'll have his interview Christmas Eve, then he leaves on a trip with his wife, then when he gets back he'll be baptized.
We took and investigater to the Christmas lights last night. Bad idea! It was Monday night (Family Home Evening) and school is out. I've never seen such a big crowd! You could hardly move! And I don't think our investigater likes large groups of people-- he looked a little nervous all night. But it was still a good experience and I think he really liked it.
Well, I'm not sure what else there is to say. I'll probably be calling you around 10:00 ish Arizona time. Not sure exactly, but it will be in the morning.
I got a package from Grandma B., and I wasn't sure if I was suppose to open it or not. I figured I'd wait to be safe, lol.
By the way, who wrote the crazy sugar plum fairy story? lol.
Love you all and I'll *TALK* to you all soon. ;-)
--Jason

Friday, December 11, 2009

December 8, 2009

Hey everyone!
About the Christmas phone call, I have no idea how that will be working yet, but I'll let you know when we get that figured out. We actually have a home phone for our fax machine, because the mission office faxes us stuff, so I don't know if using that is an option or not. We'll probably end up doing calls at one of our Ward Mission Leaders houses.
Hey! Brother Butler is the new bishop! Yay! He'll do a great job. And there is finally a new bishop in the South Shore ward! The suspense is over! Tell Brother Butler that he's awesome for me. :-) He'll be a great bishop.
AND WHY DOES IT KEEP SNOWING IN TEXAS WHEN I'M NOT THERE?! Darn it! lol. That's pretty cool. No snow in the valley here, but it rained all day yesterday. I know that doesn't sound significant at all, but we are in Arizona. I've only seen it rain that much one other time in the past 15 months. (And it was when I was on a bike in Mesa!) We actually went tracting in the rain yesterday-- that was fun. :-) Good thing I had a rain coat.
The slide show sounds cool. I'll have to see it when I get back.
The Piano recital sounds like a success. And Kaydee, playing in front of Prof. Boyd and what's-his-face (the younger guy that really critics you) never really goes well. I'm sure you did fine. And your teacher is actually the one who gives you your final grade.
And Alex's friend not coming to dinner-- that happens a lot. But keep trying. :-) That actually reminds me of a story. . . So we were going to have a baptism this week upcoming week. . . . Samantha was suppose to get baptized. We had an appointment set for Friday so that we could go over the interview questions with her and then the interview was on Saturday. Well, she didn't show up for the appointment on Friday. We tried and tried to call her, but no luck. Saturday she didn't show up to the interview. It looks like she randomly went out of town. Hopefully nothing's wrong. Anyway, the baptism will have to be pushed back to the 26th of December.
I got to do a couple of baptism interviews this week. I did one for a lady named Patty last night. She's really awesome. We had a great interview. She was really nervous, so I read with her Doctrine and Covenants 20:37 ". . . All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church." From what she was telling me, she really is looking for more peace in her life. She's having a lot of things happen to her and her son right now. But I was glad that I had the chance to add my witness to the missionaries that taught her, that the Gift of the Holy Ghost that she would be given after baptism by one holding the authority to act in God's name, would bring that extra peace that she's been looking for.
The holiday season in already taking a toll on our zone. When we got the numbers in from the district leaders Sunday night, it showed that the number of lessons we're teaching has gone down quite a bit from where is was last trasnfer, even though we have two extra companionships now. Elder Seaborn and I are struggling to get lessons in during the week. But we are still finding, and the work is still moving along.
The mission temple trip was great! And the Christmas lights that night were also amazing. Our Zone did amazing. Everyone worked really hard, and according to the sisters at the visitors center, it was the best night so far at the lights. Best of all, everyone had a good time. I'm really glad I'm in this mission where we have the Christmas lights and the Easter pageant. It's a lot of fun to change things up a little bit and see some lights, watch a play about Christ, etc.
And I STILL haven't gotten a letter from Joe. :-P You should "ask(A.K.A. compelled(A.K.A. forced at gun point)) " him again, lol. Maybe not the gun point thing, I think Officer Tammy might frown on that. :-D
Well, that's about it for this week.
Love you all,
Jason
P.S. Oh yeah, and I played Elder Seaborn at checkers last night and I beat him like 4/5 times. So tell Rachel Watts that she may have won before, but I'm practicing!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

December 1, 2009

Look at the picture.
I thought you might like it. :-)
It's Travis and Elder Seaborn and I on Saturday. :-D Don't we all look sharp? :-D


Hey family! How's everything going? I'm checking my emails right now....

Hey family!

How's everything going? Sounds like you all had a good turkey day. Mine was pretty good too. We went over to the Ward Mission Leader in the Ocotillo ward for dinner. They had a some good food, and they sent us home with a bunch. :-) Not quite the same as being home, but it was good.

So the new bishop is finally going to be picked, huh? Well, after he gets called, tell Brother Watts congrat's for me. :-D Just kidding. I'm looking forward to hearing who it is.

Travis was baptized on Saturday! The baptism went really well. All of his room-mates were there and a bunch of his friends as well. I got to do the actual baptism, so it was a cool experience for me. And it only took TWO times to get it right. :-P The water wasn't high enough, and he's a tall guy, so the first time he went under his knee was poking up out of the water. :-( So we did it a second time and he straightened his legs under water and it worked. Then, on Sunday, he was confirmed by Elder Seaborn. And then Travis gave a talk in church! Yeah, he already got assigned a talk. It was on Faith in Jesus Christ, and he did a great job with it. He's a super solid guy. His room-mates aren't really very active, so he'll be a great example to them as well.

We have another baptism scheduled for the 12th of December. Samantha, the one getting baptized, will be interviewed this coming Saturday, and baptized the next Saturday after that. I'll give you more information on Samantha later on.

Last week I didn't feel like I even worked. It was really crazy. Monday for most of the day we had Zone Leader Council meeting. Tuesday we had a half P-day to shop, email, etc. Wed. we had District meeting in the morning, and then we went on an exchange with one of the district leaders-- Elder Davenport actually. Thursday was obviously Thanksgiving, so it was P-day until the evening. Then Friday was weekly planning until 2:00, and we had to work the Christmas lights at the Temple at 5:00, so that tells you how much time we had there. Saturday we had a baptism, and Sunday we had church from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. In other words, we didn't have much time this past week. :-P But we actually managed to find 5 new people to teach. Still not sure how that happened, but I won't question the miracles that come.

The Christmas lights were pretty crazy. It was opening night, so there were a TON of people there. Our job is to talk to people and invite them to hear the message of the Restoration (if a non-member) or invite a friend to hear it (if a member). The problem was there were so many people it was hard to talk to anyone. I was having a hard time, myself. It's not that I have a hard time talking to people-- that's not a big deal to me. But trying to stop someone in a huge mob of people is hard and ackward. It wasn't my best night ever, but it was fun. Glad I could do it.

Tomorrow is our missions annual Temple Trip! Once a year around Christmas time, instead of a zone conference, we go to the temple as a mission. (Well, a only few of the zones in the mission go at a time.) And, tomorrow night our zone again works at the Christmas lights. YAY! That should be a lot of fun.

Yes, I can take family names to the temple. I don't know if I can do initiatory for the grandpa's, But I would love to do the endowments. :-) That would be great if you send the names.

Well, I love you all and hope that all is well.
--Jason