June 8, 2009

Most of Elder Mace's letter this week was about his dad, but here are other parts for us to share...

The dog now? Hmmm. Most families just have one at a time, you know. lol. Tell Keesha to wait until it's her turn. :-P Anyway, the mission president called me to give me an update, I assume right after you called him. Thank you by the way for keeping me in the loop. :-)

So, our area got split in half, right? We counted up the investigaters and got our records split up and what-not. Well, it turned out that Elder Turner and I had six investigaters, and Elder Rutledge and Voigtlaender (I spelled it wrong last week) had at least twice as many. So we've been doing a lot of finding this week. But I think the Lord knows when we don't have enough to do, because the Spanish elders called us and said they haven't been giving us enough referrals lately, so they're going to get us some more. And they have been! We've been getting an average of three a day from them, in addition to the text-messaged referrals that we get from the referrals center at the MTC in Provo, Utah. Plus we've been tracting and finding some people on our own. It's been pretty neat. Despite out lack of investigaters, we taught almost the same number of lessons this week as we did all of last transfer. Wow!
Given the progress, our new goal is to get a North, South, East and West area out of the Central Ward, lol. So yeah, it's been a great week. Elder Turner and I are getting along really well and working hard, and so far everything's been going really good. No complaints here.... But it's been great. Go figure. :-)
This week I started going through what I am calling a mid-mission-life crisis. I'm going through computer and Tae Kwon Do withdraws all over again! lol. Elder Turners been making fun of me. :-P
We've been teaching Milten for a while, and he should be getting baptized on the 21 of June. We showed him the family history websites the church has, and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. We finally told him we had to leave after a while. He practically forgot we were there, he was just going to town with it. :-D
Anyway, that's about it for this week. Mostly just finding new people to teach.
Love Y'all,
Jason

June 1, 2009

(In response to hearing about Dad being in the hospital)

Mom,
So, now it's dad's turn, huh? For a few minutes I thought it would be the swine flue from going to Cancun-- Which would have given you another free trip if I remember your last email right. :-) Tell dad he got the wrong thing. Just kidding. Really, though, glad to hear he's doing a bit better. And thanks for keeping me posted. Hopefully they can take care of it soon. I asume he's had a blessing and all of that good stuff. I'll keep him in my prayers as well.

This is big. This is very big. Not really, but yeah. I know you all keep losing sleep over this, so I'll get right to it. OUR AREA IS BEING SPLIT. YAY! In light of our three baptisms, many investigaters, use of a bizillion miles on our car (yes, it's a number), and the fact that we can't really seem to do it all, our area has been cut in half. The Assistants to the President called us Friday afternoon and told us that the president wanted to split the area, and asked how we thought it could be best done. So we talked for a while, gave our input, and they talked with President Bassett more about it. Oddly enough, we don't know the boundry yet. What we do know is that Elder Turner and I are going to be covering the West Side (which has the richest and poorest parts of the area) and Elder Rutledge will be with Elder Voightlander on the east side (V-oy-t--Lander. Good luck saying it.). Currently, the East side is where more of the work is, but the West side is where all our investigaters with a baptismal date are. (We have three with a date right now.)

Jorge and the Tenuda's are also on the East side, so we have to say our good-bye's to them.
It's funny, because the mission president told us he was not going to split the area, even though he knew there was a lot of work going on. He didn't want to overwhelm the ward-- which consists of mostly less-active members. And then he split it. lol. So that's pretty exciting. We split an area! YAY! (It's always been Elder Rutledge's dream to split an area.) So once again, YAY! If you can't tell, I'm excited. It will be nice to focus on our investigaters more. But scarry that we will have less work to do. That means we'll have to actually FIND people again. Wooh! :-) I've been really spoiled this last transfer. Our street contacts were like "Hey, can we come by to teach you if we have time?" lol. Now we can actually LOOK for people. The Tenuda's were confirmed yesterday, which was great.
Theophile wants to go out and teach with us all day everyday. lol. He really wants to be a Sr. missionary later on in life. We told him his wife had to go with him, and he said that would be okay. :-)
Oh, and we're going to Jorge's house for dinner tonight. He's doing great as well. I would send you pictures of them all, but these computers won't let me do anything with pictures. . . Maybe later on. . . .
So anyway, all is going well.
I've gotta go to.
Talk to you all next week.
Love,
Jason

May 26, 2009

Yay! You're back in the states! Congratulations! You probably wouldn't have been able to do that had you gone into Canada. :-P
Nope, my P-Day was yesterday, but I had to Email today, 'cause the libraries were all closed yesterday.

I bet the ruins were awesome. I can't get the pics to open-- they're blocked on these computers. I'll have to wait to open them. But it does sound like a fun trip. Like Disney Land during the school year ;-)
Tell Kaydee she'll never pass up my amazing tan, no matter how hard she tries. lol.
But the "mexican minute" is classic.

So, Theophile and Suzanne were baptized on Sunday, and Jorge was confirmed and given the Aaronic Priesthood. Theophile is from Togo, Africa, and Suzanne is from the neighboring country of Ghana (spelling?). Theophile was looking for a church, and he went to a few different churches and read things on different religeons, but couldn't find a the right one. Then one day he showed up to the Gateway Ward during their sacrement meeting. The missionaries (Elder Ahern and Elder Edmonds) talked to them and started teaching them. After a while, they found out that they actually lived outside of their area, so they referred them to us. Theophile's wife, Suzanne, only speaks French, so that was a tough challange. Theophile had to translate for her, and we had to find a missionary who speaks French to help with the baptismal interview. (We had to coordinate a date/time with our District leader, the interpreter, a ride for the Tenuda's, and reserve a room at the Visiters Center where we could all meet for the interview.) But we got through it all and they got baptized! We took Theophile with us to teach and investigater last night-- he's really excited to get out and teach people. We made the mistake of showing him "Preach My Gospel" and now he REALLY wants one. lol. So we've got to find him one, now. He's really awesome.
Really, all converts are amazing and want to help out like crazy. :-) (See Mosiah 28:3-4) As of now there are no baptisms coming up, but we're working on it. There is still tons of work going on here, so we're doing our best to keep up with it.
President Bassett said he could split the area to get the work moving faster, but the ward wouldn't be able to handle it, so he's not going to. The reason he gave us three, he said, was because that was the next best thing. We could get more done without overwhelming the Bishop and the ward.
A few people you might be hearing more about in the future: William, we've been teaching for a while. He loves the church, but doesn't want to get baptized until he knows for sure that it's true. So we're trying to help him get an answer to his prayers.
Milten, who finally came out to church not this past Sunday but the Sunday before. He said he hadn't ever come to church before because he didn't think he'd like it. But, as it turns out, he loved it. He called this past Sunday to say sorry that he didn't come--his back was hurting. He also seems to really like the church.
And there are a few brand new investigaters that are really great, as well. I'm sure you'll be hearing more on them soon. :-)
Anyway, this is week six of the transefer, which means transefer news come in on Saturday. . . . Dun dun dun! I don't expect to be going anywhere, but the whole trio thing makes it hard to guess what will happen.
Anyway, that's about all from Pheonix.
How are all of you recovering from vacation?
love you,
--Jason

May 18, 2009

How goes life?
Everything here has been going great. Two people got baptized this week. The first was Jorge! I've got some pics I'll send another time, if this computer lets me. Jorge is really excited, and will get confirmed next week. What was really neat was that some of our investigaters went to that baptismal service and started asking questions like "how many times do I need to go to church before I get baptized?" etc. The spirit is really strong at baptismal services, and people can't help but feel the need to follow Christ's example.
Okay, so who's the other one, you ask? Well, it was none other than EMAD!!! Yeah, he finally got out of the hospital, finished up lessons with some elders in north Mesa, and got baptized on Saturday. I tried REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hard to get there, but I didn't make it :-( I was really, really, really unhappy about that, but at least he got baptized. He's an awesome guy. :-) Elder Christensen went and is supposed to send me some pictures. I'll foreward them to you as soon as I get them.
And work continues to go foreward. The one family will hopefully be baptized this coming Sunday, the same day that Jorge will be confirmed a member of the church. Needless to say, we're excited about that. It will probably just be the husband and wife getting baptised, as their daughter isn't sure that it's what she wants to do right now. The tough thing is, the wife only speak french, so the interview will be hard. But we should have that worked out-- A sister missionary from Canada speaks French, and a sister in the ward does as well. :-D
I think that's about all that's going on this week. Not too much else worth mentioning. Well, we helped an investigater move on Saturday, and he was getting rid of a couch, so we gave it to another investigater who needed a couch, and they both came to church Sunday, so we were like "hey, here's the guy who gave you his couch." That was fun :-) lol. The guy we helped move-- he actually moved right next door to us in the appartment complex. :-) He's a really neat guy, too.
Ah, well, I guess there all great! I say that about everyone. :-)
Yeah, it's getting pretty hot. "But at least it's a dry heat." I hate when people say that, lol.
I got Kassie's package, BTW, and Elders Turner and Rutledge were jealous. :-p It was great. Thank you!!!
Bye everyone!
Have fun on your trip and be safe!
Love you all,
--Jason

May 7, 2009

Jason only had 20 minutes on the computer today, and alot of emails from family to read. So his letter is very short this week. But we get to talk to him on Sunday for Mother's day!!! His letter follows....

Had to take a P-day on a Thursday today, 'cause of "training blitz"'s which the mission does once a year. It's a big mission wide thing where we go on exchanges with people to help each other get better. We'll be doing it again next week, so my P-Day will probably be on a Wed. next week.
So I learned something new this week, much like Kellie and Alex in Cub Scouts (ha ha ha) and that is this: I don't last a week and a half without a P-Day very well. . . Man alive! In missionary time it's like 10 years! Don't get me wrong, I love teaching (especially here where it's busy) but you do get tired after a while.

Anyway, glad Kellie's doing okay. Is the pain going away? Hopefully?
BTW: Kaydee, no Phoenix isn't pretty! It's like downtown Houston, lol.

Anyways, we had training blitz's this week, and another elder came with us on Mon. and Tue. to critic us (yeah, there were FOUR of us going to lessons! I think we scared some people), and President Bassett and the Zone Leaders and the Assistants all taught us how to do better. Next week me and my comp's are going with some other missionaries, so P-Day will likely be on a Wed. One of our investigaters, called us and said he just couldn't wait until the 24th to get baptized, so we moved it to the 17th of may! That's one week from Sunday. If all goes well, we should be having a few baptisms over the next few weeks. Keep your fingers crossed :-)
Phone calls will be in the afternoon, it looks like. I'll probably be calling around 2:00pm AZ time. Other than that, not a whole lot is going on. :-)
Love you all,
And I'll talk to you on Sunday!
Jason

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