November 24, 2009 Introduction to his future Bro in law...

Kassie's fiance' Joe was asked to write Jason a letter. So this is what he wrote...

Dear Jason,
I was asked(A.K.A. compelled(A.K.A. forced at gun point)) to write an email to you about myself. Being the very articulate person I am, I decided to refrain from writing and let my Illustration skills speak for me. So I have included a fairly accurate illustration of myself that I hope will give you some idea of who I am. I hope you will appreciate the time and effort it took to render this drawing and hope you will find it to your liking. I would ask however that you refrain from showing other individuals since this would violate several copyright laws as well as the FBI warning on several DVDs, as the drawing is for your eyes alone. I would appreciate your thoughts and general feedback on the drawing since I'm always looking to improve my skills.
Much appreciated
Joseph Lee Kaa-Tani Hale
The Lamanite

( I do not have the exact picture he sent, but below you wil see it with a few additions Jason made to it...) Here is Jason's response back.

Would you please FW this to Joe:
Hmmm. That was an impressive display of shading and texture. I'd imagine that it took years to develope that unheard of talent. That was well said-- Uh, drawn. Now I have a perfect picture of you in my head. Except for one thing-- that picture matches the picture of a well known salsa dealer wanted in 53 states (figure that one out). I've included his picture so that you can see the striking resemblance. As you can imagine, more information would be good to help me be sure that you are not the same person. I've submitted your picture to the FBI as well, just in case. I don't want to say that I think your the same guy. . . . but I'm not saying I don't. I look forward to the actual letter.
--Elder Mace

November 17, 2009

Hey family! How's life? I'm on and checking my email. Get ready for TRANSFER NEWS!

Hey everyone!
How's everything going? Good I hope. I know you've really been waiting and looking forward to this email, so I'll just move it right along.
To start I've got some really exciting transfer news that I know you really want to know about ---
WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE PROPOSED?! What have Kaydee and Kellie been doing this whole time?! . . . . Tell him I expect a lengthy letter from him very soon to tell me who he is. :-P Kaydee, you failed me. And you too Kellie. And Alex. . . . you didn't even try. Whatever. Congrat's Kassie. Let me know the details when you get 'em. But I seriously better get something from him soon. :-D
So any way, where was I? Oh yes! TRANSFER NEWS!!!
My companion, Elder Page, "died" yesterday afternoon, so I was companion-less for a while. We dropped him off at the mission office in Scottsdale at around 4:30 in the afternoon, and I was with one of the spanish speaking missionaries in the zone after that until I picked up my new companion today. That was really wierd. I had a missionary with me, but I didn't have a companion, if that makes sense.
My NEW companion is Elder Seaborn, who is from Alberta, Canada. I've heard a lot of good things about him, and he seems like a good guy, so I'm pretty excited. And, since I am still in Apache Junction, I will be here for(a total of) six months, which is the longest I've ever been in an area. Crazy, huh? I am still the Jr. Zone Leader. I expect that's where I'll be for a while. And yes, time is flying by. To give you an idea of where I am right now, I am on transfer number 11 of 17 transfers. I remember when I was on transfer 1 of 17. Holy Bible where does the time go? Having a companion go home makes you contemplate your time a bit.
Elder Rutledge, one of my companions in Phoenix, got transferred into my zone, so that's exciting too. :-) He's a good guy, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again.
Our zone had two areas split as well, due (I think) to the sudden increase of work in the zone. So we are going from 8 sets of missionaries to 10 sets. That should really help a lot, too.
We're going to have an amazing next transfer. We are teaching a guy named Ken, who's been looking into the church for a long time. Missionaries have been teaching him on and off, and he was never sure if he wanted to join the church, but he kept coming on his own. He recently decided he needed to join, so we are excited to work with him and help him along. The problem is that two things are holding him back: Coffee and cigerettes. He is having a really hard time quiting those. We gave him a packet that the church produced on quiting smoking-- it's a 2 week program that helps you quit-- but he didn't feel like it would be enough. We asked him what he needed, and he told us he really wanted a class and a support group. So we met with the bishop, and no sooner did we tell him that than he jumped on it. Now we are organizing the Meridian ward Quit Smoking class! YAY! That should really help him a lot. He aims to get baptized early in January. He's got a great testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He's prayed about it, and knows it's true.
One thing that I am noticing more and more is that no one really seems to understand what we missionaries do. Even a lot of members don't understand what we do. Everyone seems to think that we go door to door looking for people to recruit/baptize-- which is why so many people don't want to talk to us. :-P "[Our] purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. . . ." (Preach My Gospel pg. 1) We aren't there to recruit or to baptize. It's to bring people closer to Christ. Sure we invite people to be baptized when they learn our message is true, but we really just want them to hear us out and ask God what's true. God loves us and wants us to be happy, and that's why he called prophets and apostles throughout time-- to teach us how to live so that we can be happy. And Because God loves us and cares about us just as much today as he did 2,000 years ago, he again called a prophet to lead us. And by asking Him, we can learn that it's true. People that listen to the message can't help but change and live better. Whether they accept our message or not, they do come closer to God everytime. And all of them find more peace and happiness in their lives. It's been amazing so far to see that happen.
I love you all and hope that you have a great week,
I've gotta go. Love you!
Elder Jason Mace

November 10, 2009

Hello family!
Sounds like things are going alright, and Tony had a great farewell. I'll keep that idea in mind. Not to be trunky, but that might not be a bad idea for when I get home. In fact, it might even work better. Maybe we can think more about that later on. (I still have a long time left. ;-])
Great news! MyLDS Mail will soon be NO MORE!!!
Well, kind of. The zone leaders got a note saying that Google's GMail (what I used back home) will be contracting with the church to provide better emailing service. YAY!!! I have full faith that it will be a world better than it is now, so I am SUPER excited. Everyone in our zone is as well. I don't think any missionaries actually like MyLDS mail. But I guess it work-- kind of. The new email service starts sometime between now and December, so really soon. :-)
We taught a lady named Nikki this week. She was actually taught be missionaries a few years ago, and was about to get baptized (interviewed and everything), when some crazy family situations caused her to miss it. So we set a date for November 28th, and she is really excited about it. And so are we. She's awesome, we just have to get her fellowshipped into the ward before her baptism. Yup, got a lot of dates for Nov 28. They're all doing great.
Other things are still going well. Transfers are next week, so I get to find out who my new companion will be. Also, there will probably be a new assistant to the president, so I'll find out who that is as well.There is a zero percent chance of me becoming AP-- they would have to put two new ZL's here, which they wouldn't do. :-)
Been listening to some conferrence talks lately-- Jeffery R. Holland's talk is my favorit. Also the 70 that spoke on Joseph Smith. That was another great one. But I'm also growing fond of Henry B. Eyering's Priesthood session talk. That one was really good too.
Elder Evans of the 70 came down this week end for the Apache Junction stake conferrence. That was really neat as well. He actually gave us missionaries a LOT of good advice from the pulpit. I think all of Saturday nights talk was directed to us, even though it was a stake conferrence and there were only 7 of us there. It was amazing. One thing he hit hard on is don't just assign investigaters chapters to read. Have them read from the beginning. That was an epiphany (spelling?) for me. He gave us a lot of other advice. And he broke down 1 Nephi chapter 1 and taught so many prinicples of the gospel from it that it was mind boogling. 70's are amazing. There just like apostles, I'm beginning to realize.
Hope all is going well for you,
Sounds good. I'l make a CD when I can.
I gotta go soon.
Love you all!
Jason

November 3, 2009

Hey Family!
Not too much exciting happened this week, but I'll write you a letter anyway. Speaking of which, I got a letter from Kaydee AND Kellie this week. Santa Biblia! (That's Holy Bible in spanish ;-]) Thank you. :-) And I did get your Halloween package, and I didn't even throw away the new MP3 player. Thank you so much for sending me the package. It was (and still is) awesome.
So, it sounds like my room is being put to work. . . . lol. I'm trying to imagine it covered in Winnie the Pooh fabric and what-not. :-D I do remember those quiet books, and I'm trying to remember why I found them so entertaining. Everythings fun when you're little, I guess. Oh, some advice for the soon to be new parents-- don't bother with gifts for a while, just get him boxes. :-P He'll be perfectly happy, and it will save you oodles. (Yes, that's a real word, ask Kaydee.)
Elder Page is going home in 2 weeks, so the question now is going to be who my new companion will be. Our Zone will also probably be going through a lot of changes this next transfer. My guess is that about half the Zone will be leaving, so that will be interesting.
Yesterday was Zone Development Meeting and Interviews with President Bassett. Our Zone is doing better than it's ever done before. When I went in for my interview yesterday, president Bassett asked me who in the zone I was concerned with, and I told him I really wasn't concerned with anyone. I don't know if he believed me, because he opened his records and asked about two missionaries who haven't done so well in the past. Then he looked down at their recent numbers and said "never mind. Your zone is doing good." It was amazing. Our latest graph shows all of our numbers are above the mission average. When I first got here all the numbers were below. :-) We set a couple of baptismal dates this week, all for November 28th. We won't have any baptisms until then (so Elder Page will miss them). One was a guy named Travis, who moved in with some room-mates (all of which happen to be returned missionaries) in our area. Elder Gomez and I talked to them when they were moving in. He became interested in the church because of his room-mates, and wants to change his life, and he's been to church twice and has a baptismal date already.
The other is a 16 year old named Clinton, who basically is a member, but he's afraid to ask his parents for permission to join the church. We still have to work past that.
So far things are going well.
I'm loving the area more and more.
Sorry, my time is about up, and this stinking computer is dying on me.lol.
I gotta go, but I'll catch you next week.
Love you,
Jason

October 27, 2009

Hey family!
I'm on and checking my-- IT'S A BABY BOY!!! YAY!!! . . . Alex's email was dramatic. lol. :-D

First of all, I just wanted to -- It's a baby BOY!!! I'm so excited! What names are you thinking of? When is the baby suppose to be born? (I'm a terrible uncle, I already forgot. :-]) That's awesome. Thanks for the email Alex.
The League City Stake, huh? That sounds interesting. I'm trying to remember President Reeves. I think I know him. . . . Any guesses on the new bishop? What's the word on the street? I'm trying to think of who it might be, but I'm having trouble deciding. Anyway, that sounds awsome. I'll let president Bassett know.
So we had two more baptisms this last week. I'll have to send pictures of it. I baptized Elsa, and Elder Page baptized Roy. Roy was baptized with no problem, but Elsa wouldn't bend her knees, so her foot kept coming out of the water. lol. But it was really good. They were both really excited about being baptized, and I'm glad I had the chance to teach them both.
We still have some more baptisms scheduled for this transfer, so that's exciting. We are being so blessed! I know I say that every week, but this week we found 7 new investigaters. Seven! That's the most I've ever found in a week, and for this area that is unheard of. And most of them are REALLY solid investigaters as well. It just goes to show you that when you try your hardest, God will lead you to them or lead them to you. Either way, he gets it done.
President Bassett said in ZLC that the only thing slowing down God's work is us. That's humbling.
We were on exchanges yesterday and so I had Elder Robertson in our area. We went and taught a 10 year old girl who has been taught many times, and doesn't want to get baptized. Her parents were less active for a long time and are just now coming back. Elder Robertson and I prepared a really great lesson on following the prophet, but when we got there she suddenly had some questions about being baptized. It started with "Why do I need to get baptized now? Why can't I wait until I am older?" We talked about blessings of baptism and why now would be better than later, and we talked about her praying and asking God that question. We kneeled down and prayed with her right there, and although she wasn't convinced she got an answer right then, she felt good and committed to pray about it every day-- twice a day actually. She is really close to finding her answer. It's interesting that teaching a 10 year old is no different than teaching a 40 year old. You can't pressure them, you have to let them find the answers for themself, or it won't mean anything. I'll let you know how that one works out. I'm really excited about it, because I know if she prays with a "sincere heart, real intent, having faith in Christ" [moroni 10:4] she'll get the answer.
Anyway, the Zone is still doing good. All of our numbers are either at the mission standard or above it, which is great. The work is moving forward faster than ever.
How missionary work going for you? I love hearing your experiences.
Kaydee: Where's my emails?! And what's up with the A's?
Oh, and I will make sure to not throw away the MP3 player. Thank you so much for getting it for me! And for loading the music.
I've gotta go. I'll catch you next week.

Love you all,
Jason

October 19, 2009

Hey family!
I'm on a day early today because tomorrow is Zone Conferrence. I'm pretty excited about it-- they're always really great. I think next week or the week after will also be on a Monday because of Zone Developement meeting and Interviews with President Bassett.
Well, it sounds like it's been a crazy week. The stake is finally going to be splitting, huh? Wow. That's really exciting. You'll have to keep me posted on that one. I heard rumors that was going to happen waaayyy back when they took Clear Lake I & II out of our stake. . . . Well, when does Seabrook get to be it's own ward? :-D
The Apache Junction stake that I am serving in is actually in the same process of splitting right now. They are building the new stake center as we speak (or rather write) and when it's done, the AJ stake will be split into the AJ stake and the Usery Park stake. :-)
Anyway, how's life treating everyone? Sounds like Kellie and Dad are having fun. . . . :-P Hope you both get feeling better, by the way.
Our week has been pretty good. We found five new people to teach this past week, which I don't think I've done since I was in Phoenix. (I think 5 new in Phoenix is considered low now, actually). That is going to help out our area a lot. We are baptizing our investigaters, which is really good, but it drains our teaching pool.
So now we're getting some new people to teach. The miracles keep coming in.
We had a baptism on Saturday for a woman named Lee Ann. I can't remember if I told you about her last week, but I'll tell you again anyway. The bishop of one of our wards got a phone call saying there was a lady that lived in his ward boundries that was being taught in the Tempe Mission and was going to be baptized. They called because they needed his permission to baptize her in the Tempe Mission. He said no, she needs to get baptized in her ward and she needs to meet the people in her ward so she can get fellowshipped in (otherwise she would probably go less active right after the baptism). We found out that the Tempe missionaries were teaching someone in our area and our mission (which is against missionary rules-- they should have turned her over to us). But we got it straightened out and got her baptized this last Saturday, so all is well. She's a super nice lady, and we're excited to have her in the church.
We have two baptisms coming up this Saturday, so we're excited about that as well. I think I told you a little bit about them last week. Elsa is in her 60's, and the missionaries found her after her dog ran away (she was really upset about that). We ended up teaching her, convincing her to give up coffee, and now she's getting baptized. Roy moved into our area from somewhere else in the Zone. He's been taught forever, but health reasons always prevented him from getting baptized. I guess when your in your 70's, your health isn't all that good anymore. Anyway, his health is finally holding up, and he's ready to be baptized.
Other than that, we continue to find and work. And judge Chilli cook off's (chilli here just isn't the same. The winning one was a BBQ flavor chilli. . . what's up with that?) Alex puts ketchup on his burrito's? HOLY CHALUPA! He puts what on what? That just aint right. But I guess he can always move to Arizona. ;-)
Oh, and question for you:My MP3 player is on it's last leg. That is, it's almost dead. The battery doesn't last very long anymore, and it randomly does whatever it wants (restarts songs, changes albums/playlists, skips songs, etc.). So I was wondering what you think I should do. Should I buy one here and try to have a member load music on it, or do you want to pick one up for me and send it to me, or should I buy one and send it home so you can load music on it, or should I just give up and buy one when I get home (or take my Zune back ;-]). . . . ? Let me know what you think.

BTW, I'm practicing sneaking little children candies and goodies-- after their mom says no-- just for my new niece or nephew. :-P

Thanks, and I love you all.
Jason

October 13. 2009

More wonderful pictures!!!

This one is of Emad getting baptized. Christina, Ted, and Franky from the ward are also in the picture.


This is a picture elder Christensen took of me clicking my heels back when I was in Mesa. He just emailed it to me. :-D





Hey family!
How's life going?
This week was great. We had the baptism on Saturday, which was really good. Megan had a lot of her family come to her baptism (none of whom are members), her husbands family was all there, and some members of the ward and stake were also able to attend. The baptismal service itself was also good. Her father in law did the baptism on Saturday and the confirmation on Sunday. I'll send you a picture later on, if I have time. There was a mix up with the time, though. The stake does baptisms on a stake level, rather than a ward level like most do. We called to see what time the stake was going to do the baptism, and they told us 12, so we told Megan and Cameron and the ward 12. But then later the stake president told us it was 3. Oops! We tried to change the time to make everyone happy, but it was kind of a mess. The time ended up staying noon, and I think everyone is still happy, so that's good. :-)
We have two more baptisms set for the 24th of October. Roy, a 71 year old man, and Elsa, who is a sixty something year old woman. (Neither are related in any way, their baptisms just happen to land on the same day.)
Our zone is exploding! It's really neat to see the work spring forward. Last year if our mission got 100 baptisms in 6 weeks that was considered a miracle. This year, 100 is considered a lack of effort. The mission is really on fire, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is moving forward regardless of world conditions or circumstances. Missionaries are now working harder than ever, and the outcome is truely amazing.
I just got a graph of our zone for week one of the new transfer, and in some areas we are ahead of the mission average. :-) So the zone itself is doing well. Hopefully this continues, because what it considered good today will be only average tomorrow, the way that the work is going. It mean that we missionaries have to work REALLY hard. :-)
We had Zone Leader Counsel with president Bassett yesterday, and we started talking about Christmas lights-- yes, it's coming up again already. It starts the day after thanksgiving, which is the start of next transfer, if I am not mistaken. But ZLC is probably the best meeting ever. :-) It's kind of a shame only ZL's get to go.
Anyway, all is going well.
Love you and hope you have a fantastic week.
Any missionary experiences?
In the Ensign this month they talked about using the internet to share the gospel.
I gotta go. Love you!

Love,
Elder Jason Mace
P.S. Dad, go to a doctor :-P

October 6, 2009

Hi family, I'm online and checking my emails.....

Hello family!
It's time for transfer news. Dun dun dun!
First of all, Elder Stoker (our temporary other companion) flew home this morning and is probably back with his family now. So it went back to two. Now, guess who got moved to Wisconson? No one! And, in fact, neither me nor my companion moved. So nothing really exciting happened.
Elder Page goes home at the end of this transfer, so most likely I'll be here for at least one more transfer (possibly two) after this to get a new Zone Leader companion and teach him the area. So, for the first time ever, I might be in an area for at least 6 months!
Speaking of missionaries, I'm going on exchanges tonight. And Kassie might know him, as a matter of fact. His companion went home with Elder Stoker, so he spent the night with us, and he was talking about how he went to BYU-I studying graphic design. And I said that's what my oldest sister is studying there. He asked what Kassie's name was, and said "I think I know her!" So I showed him a picture, and he does. His name's Tayler Davenport, he was in Kassie's ward at BYU-I. I think he said he's also her friend on Facebook or something-- I can't remember. Anyway, small world.
(******A SIDE NOTE..... AFTER TALKING WITH KASSIE, SHE DOES INDEED KNOW ELDER TAYLOR DAVENPORT AND IS/WAS FRIENDS WITH HIM ON FACEBOOK).

And did I tell you in one of the ward's I cover there is a Brother Mace? Crazy stuff out here in Apache Junction.
And. . . JEFFERY R. HOLLAND IS AMAZING!!! That was pretty much the best talk ever. Everyone I teach from now on is going to hear that talk!!! lol. His talk last conferrence was also amazing. He's become my new favorite apostle (Sorry Elder Bednar! You're awesome too!). I really enjoyed the talks. There was another really good one on Joseph smith-- I can't remember the name of the guy that gave it, but it was really good. The talks were all super awesome.
Megan is getting baptized this Saturday, so I am really excited about that. We started talking about temples and how that needs to be her and her husbands goal, and they expressed a really deep desire to go there. They told us that when we went to the visitors center two weeks ago, they stayed after we left and walked around the temple. Megan said she felt something and knew she needed to go there. It made her cry. Cameron-- her husband-- said the same thing, though he was quick to add that he did not cry, lol. We're really excited for them. They are probably the most on-the-path people I've ever taught. Cameron is now becoming active again after not going to church in a decade and a half or so.
Roy is moving towards his date on the 24th, still, which is really good, too.
It was good to hear about your missionary experiences. Keep up the good work.

Oh, did I ever submit a guess on whether Kellie's baby is a boy or girl? 'Cause it's obviously going to be a girl. No brainer. :-) (If it turns out to be a boy, he can look back at this letter years from now and laugh at how wrong his uncle was. Or I can use it to prove to my neice that I have the spirit of prophecy. :-])

That's about it for this week.
We found a couple of new investigaters that are really good, and you'll probably hear more about later. A few of the "former investigaters" (People missionaries taught, then dropped because they weren't progressing) don't want to get baptized only because of the way that the stake here does baptisms. They only allow baptisms twice a month, and all converts get baptized together.
Well, that's great except our investigaters are shy and don't want the big audience that stake wide baptisms produce. :-o So we have to figure that one out now.
Week was great. Yup, watched all 5 sessions at the church. It was awesome.
Oh well.
Anyway, things are great.
I've gotta go, but I'll catch you all later.
Have a great week.
Love you all,
Jason