April 27, 2009

Mom's note... Finally a long informative letter. I sent him a list of questions so he would give us some information on his new area. Plus we got a good sized email from him! Computers in Phoenix must be better than Mesa!)

Hey! QUESTIONS:
1) How is your new area??? Interesting. Read on for more. But yeah, interesting.
2) How are your Comps??? Also interesting. Again, read on.
3) Are you in a bike area or car??? It's a big area so we have a car.
4) How long have your comps been out??? Elder Rutledge had been out for a year, and elder Turner's been out for seven weeks now.
5) Where are they from??? Utah and California
6) What is the reason for 3 of you??? Er, honestly I'm not entirely sure. I would guess several reasons. One, there is a LOT of work going on in our area. Everyone we talk to is willing to listen to us, it seems. So having three of us makes it a lot easier (for example, we can go into a single ladies house without having to spend time finding another guy to go with us)
7) Is it a good area or bad??? All a matter of perspective. :-) It's a more run-down area, you could say. Not like a scary run down, but run down.
8) Like a Seabrook or downtown Houston??? Like downtown Houston.
9) How many wards do you have this time??? Just one: Centrol Ward in the Phoenix East stake.
10) Do you live with members??? Nope. We live in an appartment.
11) How is the teaching pool there??? Big. See above q's.
12) Any baptisms scheduled??? Several, but I don't know the people very well yet. The Zone set a goal to baptize 30 people this transfer, so it should be good. :-)
13) Do members feed you there??? yes. Around 4-5 times a week.

How's it going?
You might want to try putting a stop to the flooding-- it doesn't really sound like much fun. Anyway, it sounds like things are going pretty good, though.
So, I'm in central Phoenix! What a crazy change it is, too. Being in a trio is neat, though. It keeps things more fun. When a disagreement comes up, there's always someone to crack a joke and keep things light-hearted. So far I really like it. It may be hard to go back to just one companion, 'cause if the two of you don't get along, your stuck. :-P
The area is interesting. I went from covering a few nice neighborhoods to a huge chunk of downtown phoenix. Talk about culture shock. Wow. The good news is that everyone here seems interested. We went tracting last night and every door said we could come back. What?! In Scottsdale you tract for 2 hours and MAYBE you'll find one or two people. lol. I guess people here are more humble and understand they need Christ more in their lives.
It's a big adjustment for me though. But I just keep doing what I'm suppose to be doing and hope it all works out. The problem is that's probably why I'm still Sr. Companion. . . lol.
I like Elder Rutledge a lot. He's a good guy. (He says "way sweet" a lot, lol.) Elder Turner is also great.
Anyway, things are going good. No really great stories, but we're teaching lots of lessons, so it's great!
Love you all,
Jason
Oh! BTW: Only one person in my MTC district hasn't trained, as of this current transfer! Thus proving my MTC district was amazing!I don't get to see my MTC district very much. They're scattered all over the place. I only see a few of them every once in a while. But they're all doing good as far as I've heard.
Oh, dad, this is SUPER IMPORTANT! Listen closely: I'm making chicken wings tonight for my comps. :-) I'll have to take some pics for you. :-D
I'm about out of time. I'll talk to you all later.
Love you!
--Jason

April 20, 2009

Jason's computer was acting up again today. He tried to send a really long letter, but it froze up and would go through, and then didn't save. So we again ended up with a short letter. ( I hate that as we would really like to hear all the details involved with his mission ). But here is the shorter version of his week.

Hey family,
Well, if you get this twice, then. . . . whatever. The first LONG letter didn't go through and didn't get saved. Really, I'm not liking MyLDSmail at all what-so-ever.

Anywho, transfer news. Guess what's happening? Is elder Mace going to Finland to speak Manderin Chinese? No. But I am getting transferred. I've been in Mesa for 18 weeks now, so I guess President Bassett thought it was about time.
So I'm going to. . . . . [drum roll] . . . . Centrol Pheonix. Yup, I wanted Snow flake and I end up in Pheonix. lol. I'm actually really excited about it-- it should be a lot of fun there.
And I'm the Sr. companion. . . . in a three-some. That will be a lot of fun, too. I think it's a bike area, not sure though. I leave tomorrow. I'm packing today :-(

Funny story time:
I was biking with some other missionaries after a meeting to get lunch, and a bird flew out of no where and hit me in the face! No joke. It bent up my glasses a bit, but I got them fixed okay. :-P Yeah, yeah. Stinkin' birds, lol. Everyone was laughing at me during lunch. :-D

Emad is still in the hospital, but he's recovering well. And that's about it.

Crazy pics by the way.(the ones of our flooded street) That's some insane rain!
And Kassie is sending me a package? no way! What happened?
Love you all,
--Jason

April 14, 2009

Hey Family,
Thanks for the package! I got is Wednesday. :-) I wore the new pink-ish tie to the Easter pageant the next day, lol. ;-)
My week was actually really boring. It rained, we had some Easter Egg hunts, one of our investigaters got stabbed, we ate dinner at the stake presidents house, my comp's bike fell apart (again), we taught a few lessons, and that pretty much does it.
Talk to you all next week.
Love ya!
Just joking, lol.
But yeah, all that really happened. I'll start with the most exciting event-- our investigater who got stabbed. You remember the investigater that we were helping quit smoking? Well, he moved and we've been trying to get a hold of him for two weeks to get his new address. We called again Saturday Morning and finally got a hold of him-- in the hospital. We went to visit him and he told us the story: He works as a maintenance manager for 24 Jack in the Box restraunts and 2 Golden Corrals, randomly getting called to different stores to fix things. Well, some how his ex-wife found him at one of these places and came up behind him while he was bending over fixing something. She stabbed him twice in the left shoulder. The first went in SIX INCHES and came a half an inch from his heart. The second only went in an inch and a half. Both missed all his organs and vitals. What a miracle! He's still recovering in the hospital. The funny part is, when we first called him, he said (all in one breath) "I got stabbed. . . I quit smoking. . ." Yes, he's been tabacco free for about two weeks. Crazy, crazy stuff. He should heal up well.
His wife is, in fact, is currently in jail. Not sure what will happen there. And, an interesting tid-bit, SHE had a restraining order against HIM. We always heard she was crazy, but I guess it was the truth this whole time.
We went to a crazy good rib dinner the day before Easter. The member made so much food! It was soooooo good. :-) We hid the eggs for their kids Easter egg hunt, but I don't think we did a good job, cause they were all crying at the end. "I only got TEN EGGS! He got more! It's not fair. I hate you!" lol. Oops.
We went to the stake presidents house on Sunday and ate with them. They had a non-member over, and we taught her a lesson after. Yup, the stake pres. is in our ward. But the investigater is not. She's actually not currently meeting with missionaries. She has several times in the past, but never got baptised. :-( But we still got to teach her. And we had another Easter egg hunt! lol. (we didn't hide the eggs for them. . . they must of heard our bad reputation. . . )
Afterwards, their son (I think he's thirteen or so) was riding my bike, and I told him to try riding it in 1x1 gear. It was really funny to watch, 'cause your legs go faster than the pedals. Then he tries it on Elder Christensens bike. That was a mistake. The derailer got stuck in the wheel spoke and popped off. Or, I should say, snapped clean off. We're trying to get it fixed. Good times.
That's about all for now.
Love ya,
Jason

April 7, 2009

Hey!

...Speaking of member missionary work, we had a really intense member presentation yesterday after a dinner with a member family. I was going to let Elder Christensen do the presentation, but he couldn't find anything to share (we don't think about member presentations until we're there, lol). So I taught one from Alma chapters 31 and 32. It was about Alma going to the Zoromite people, getting frustrated because no one would listen to him, so he prayed hard, searched for people to teach, and then had some elect people come to him. I talked about how important it was to pray for help, talk to everyone, and trust that God would send you people to teach. At the end Elder Christensen pulled out a couple of invitations to the easter pagent, expecting our normal commitment: invite a friend to go with you to see the play. But I committed them to talk to 5 random people during the week and invite them to church or to the easter pagent or anything else they wanted. I thought elder Christensen would die of shock, lol. But we talked about ways to invite and they accepted the challange. It was crazy. :-)

Hmm. Not a whole lot... Emad moved, and we don't know his new address so we're trying to call to get it. Transfers are two weeks from today. (P-day is today 'cause we had a Zone Developement meeting yesterday along with interviews with Pres. Bassett). We talked to some random intersting people this week, as well.
I think my purpose as a missionary is to find and set a date. Not baptise, lol.

Actually, one (story) is kind of interesting. I think I told you in Zone Conference they hit hard on talking to everyone we see. Well, Elder Christensen and I were biking through a small appartment complex on our way to visit someone when I saw two people sitting on a bench a ways off. I wasn't going to talk to them cause they were out of the way a bit. But then guilt set in when I remembered Zone Conference, so I biked over to them and started talkig to them. We ended up sitting down and teaching them a lesson right then and there, and we'll be teaching them again on Wed.

That's about it. Not too much excitement.

Kellie's stressed huh? lol.

Joe. . . . No comment. Yet

Gotta go. Working the Temple grounds again tonight for the Easter Pagent.
--Jason