June 15, 2010

Hey family!

First of all:

SORRY DAD! Happy Birthday. I completely forgot to tell you. But, on the bright side, you are the only one who's gotten a birthday card from me, lol.

Now to less important things. TRANSFER NEWS:

So, you should have gotten a phone call already from a guy named Dave Ross. He asked for your phone number and said that he was going to call you. He was my ward mission leader in the singles ward (Mesa 54th ward, Maricopa North stake). But just in case you didn't get the update from him, I'll tell you the big news: Yes, I did in fact get transferred. (Hence why I am emailing you so late. This will probably be my last area, so I had better like it, huh?) I am now in the Africa Ghana South Greek Speaking mission. No joke. Really. I'm serious. It was a surprise to me too. Okay, so I'm in Snow Flake.

Wait! I'm in SNOW FLAKE! Cool weather, away from the 150 degree desert that I was in before. lol. And guess what else? All of the areas up North are car areas, because they're too big for bikes. Trucks, actually. Except for one area-- only one-- a small bike area in Snowflake. Guess who's in that one bike area? Yeah, me. Go figure. lol. I'm still biking. I don't know where in Snow Flake I am, I'm really lost and confused right now. I may give you more information on my area later on.

And the letter you got was probably because I was assigned to be a District Leader up here. I'm pretty excited about that-- never been one before, but I think it will be fun. It's a lot more involved than being a Zone Leader (ZL's do more background stuff). So it will be fun to give this a try. I kind of did this whole leadership thing backwards, being a Zone Leader and then a District Leader. But oh well.

My new companion is Elder Lerwill (I think that's how you spell it). He's been out for 6 weeks, and he's from Idaho.

And you can tell president Eullit that I have no "great grand kids" 'cause my son won't have any kids! He's too busy being a zone leader. lol. It looks like I won't train again, so he's my only shot at great great great grand kids.

So, before I left, Jaime got baptized. He was really excited, and the service was great. The whole ward really participated and made it a great experience for him. I wasn't able to go to the confirmation the next day, as I had to go to another ward that meets at the same time, but I heard that was also really good.

It's been really hard to say bye to people, too. I'm really going to miss people in my last area. It was a really good area, and I really grew to love the people there. Hopefully the same will happen here. I can't wait to hear about what's going to happen over there in the next transfer or two. Big miracles are going to be happening all over, no doubt.

Well, not much more exciting going on here. I am really tired after the 3 hour drive up here, plus the all-night packing that I had to do to be ready to come here. But I won't be able to sleep 'cause I already don't have enough time to get everything done that I need to today. Oh well.

I love you all and hope your week goes good.
Jason

June 9, 2010

Hey everyone!

How's everything going? Sounds like things are good. I would just like to start off with a small --==THANK YOU!!!==--(This was actually in HUGE letters, but wouldn't copy for the blog) for the package that I got in the mail. (It's not really a small thank you, by the way!) It was by far the best one you all have sent. Thanks. I loved the shirts, by the way. They were awesome. We spent a few minutes just laughing at them. :-) And the book of pictures/testimonies was great too. The candy flowers almost made it in one piece. It was pretty close. It only took me a few minutes to figure it out.

And it is officially transfer news week! Yes, the next email that you get from me should have some exciting transfer news. I'm not really sure what is going to happen any more. I could end up just staying here since Elder Moore came into the area late in the transfer. And if I do stay, I might as well just stay for my last transfer as well. Who knows. Whatever happens, it'll be exciting.

But my week has been good. (I believe it's improper grammer to start a paragraph with the word "but," and yet I don't care. :-] Random thought.) We had a great lesson with James yesterday. James is having a really hard time quiting smoking, and so we decided we would talk to him about fasting. When the lesson started, a scripture-- or rather a story from the scriptures-- came to mind. It's in Matthew chapter 17: (pasted in from lds.org)

14 ¶ And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

We talked about how faith + prayer + fasting = Miracles. It was a great lesson and all of us are fasting together to help him, and tonight we are going to talk about priesthood blessings and the help that it will give to him as well, and hopefully we'll give him one tonight. He has a great desire to quit, and I know this will help him a lot.

Jaime is getting baptized this Saturday as well. He had to go out of town, so we were going to move it to the next weekend, but at the last minute we ended up getting things set up enough to have it done this weekend. That's a miracle in and of itself. We're really excited for him, but not as excited as he is. His family hasn't been too interested in the church, but his sister seems to be getting more and more interested in what her brother is doing.

We also had Zone Development meeting, and guess what? I had to conduct the music. But I don't know how! I just waved my arm the best I could in that triangle shape, and it was working well. And then the 6/8 time happened. . . .

Our mission president is leaving us soon, and President Ellsworth will be coming in. A moving truck came to the mission office yesterday to start packing them up. Strange to think that's happening in just a few weeks. I'll miss president and Sister Bassett. They're awesome. A lot of the Senior couples in the mission office are also leaving, which is really sad. We love them all, but we look forward to meeting the "new guys."

Yay for modern video recording technology! I'll watch the videos when I get back in a year and a half.

Well, I love you all and I hope things continue to go well.

Love,
Uncle Elder Mace
(It's pronounced Ma-say from now on, so you know)

*** mom's note to explain the 1st paragraph of the letter. For a Family home evening a couple weeks ago, Kellie and KD planned for us all to make "Trunky" t-shirts, a candy flower bouquet, and got a small photo album, which we all took updated pictures individually. On one side of the book page was a picture of each of us, and on the opposite page we wrote our testimonies. Also, we grouped together and made the t-shirts. (Kassie and Joe, our artists, had to be on different teams). And we all designed two t-shirts for him. One was about BYU Hawaii and the other was a face with another funny scripture. It was great and I guess Jason loved it too!
.... and the last sentence about the video... We told him we video taped Camren doing Tae Known Do Kicking and punching with one of his floor mat toys. Jason refuses to admit to himself that he is nearing the end of his mission and tells us that he still has 1 1/2 years left!

and the final from Jason,

I gotta go, c-ya!

And tell Kaydee to keep playing the Geetor, not the gooter. :-) She'll get it if you don't.

Love you!
Jason

(this is because the twin we babysit insists that he "plays the geetar on his shoulder like a Gooter".) You just gotta be there..... We know what a "geetar" is, but no idea what a "Gooter" is. (we are guessing a violin????)

June 1, 2010

Hey family!

How is everything going? Sounds like things are good there-- except for dad's anemone (spelling?) sting. lol. Things aren't too bad here either. :-)

I am impressed with the sister missionaries there. Sounds like they are doing a good job of talking to everyone. Sisters are always really good. Well, never mind-- they're usually really good. Anyway, talking to everyone is definitely something that we are trying to do as well, although I'm not as good at remembering names of people and what's going on with their families. lol. That's awesome though.

And things are going well here. But is REALLY GETTING HOT. Again, who's pulling for me to go to snow flake over the summer? Anyone? I'll even take Payson. Heck, I'll take a car area if I have to. Just something cooler, lol.

Things have been going good here, though. We have a baptism coming up a week from Saturday-- Jaime. He's all set for his baptism and he seems really excited for it as well. Unfortunately the other people that were going to be getting baptized soon had some things come up, so we'll have to see what happens with them. We'll probably have to move their baptisms back so that they have more time to get ready for that. For the most part, though, things have been going good and I'm excited about all of the good stuff that's going on.

And an update on some of the people that have recently been baptized: Russell just got called to be a ward missionary, which is awesome! He comes with us all the time to help us teach. I really can't describe his testimony-- you just have to hear him speak and the stories he shares and the conviction that he feels. It's amazing. Also Robin and Serena got called a few weeks ago to be primary teachers (don't know if I told you that). They really are enjoying that calling, because it's helping them to learn about the gospel right along with their kids. Josh was ordained a deacon last Sunday. He's really, really, really excited to pass the sacrament (I think he's still a foot off the ground. Maybe more.) And I think that's about it with all of them.

As great as it is to see people get baptized and start on their "path," it's even better to see them moving along. Some people in the Mesa 5th ward who were baptized last year by Elder Seaborn (my comp in AJ) just went through the temple the other week and their family was sealed together for time and eternity. That pretty much the highlight of any missionary's life, I would expect.

We got to teach Earl (the dad who just went through the temple) how to give his family blessings. That was really neat. We helped him give his wife a blessing as she's been having some knee problems. The priesthood is a truly a gift that God has given us to help our families. I was happy to be a part of showing him how to use it in behalf of his family.

Most of our lessons fell through this last week, so that wasn't really good, but on the bright side, we still found opportunities to teach and to do some good. Over all it was a pretty good week.
Well, I gotta go. I'll catch you all next Wed. probably, as we have Zone Meeting next Tuesday.

Love you all and hope your week goes well.

--Jason

May 25, 2010

Hey Family!

How's everyone doing? Good I hope. It sounds like things are starting to get back to normal. And glad to hear that Hawaii isn't the worst place on earth, lol.

And speaking of dogs-- not that we were, but anyway-- you never told me my dog is gone! :-( Of course I was expecting to hear that she was at some point before I got home.

But my week was very, very, very, very alright. :-) Not every week can be Super Amazing, but it was still a great week. The Gila Valley Temple was dedicated this past Sunday, which was broadcast in three different sessions (9am, 12pm, and 3pm) throughout Arizona and parts of New Mexico. It was really neat to see it. It's a very pretty temple. Of course, President Monson was there and it's always great to hear from him. He is a great man with a really great sense of humor. I enjoyed hearing him speak. Elder Moore and I thought it was great. Unfortunately to my knowledge at this point, none of our recently converted members were able to make it. :-( Almost all of them were planning on going, but some were sick, others had things come up, etc.

I thought it was really cool too, that, because there was no regular meeting, so many of the people that we teach really missed going to church. They really wanted to go, and so the fact that there was no church on Sunday disappointed them, and that impressed me. We'll see what happens next Sunday.

It's interesting, too, that we found out that some of our recently converted members are intimidated by the temple. That really shouldn't be the case. We spent a good deal of time trying to resolve some concerns about it, and found that the real problem was that they had misunderstandings about what the temple is actually for. After we shared more about what temples are for, what goes on there, and what it's like, they began to feel much more comfortable. Not very ironically, most non-members of the church have a hard time understanding temples as well. I usually point people with questions about it to mormon.org-- it has a lot of great insights.

Elder Eyering also spoke on the purposes of temples at the dedication. His talk was very good, and I learned a lot from his remarks as well.

We also had the chance to do some service this past week. We helped Robin and Serena get ready to move into their new house just, for example. They're moving just down the road. We helped them clean some junk out of their new yard and haul it off to the dump. (Yeah, garbage dumps don't smell good by the way.)

Other than that we've been trying to find and teach people. So far so good. We still have some great people that we are teaching.

We started teaching a guy named Jaime (it's a spanish name-- pronounced hi-me rather than Jay-me). He's really awesome. He loves the church and has been attending services for a few months now. He's read the Book of Mormon once through, and is currently reading it a second time. He has really great faith and is a great example to his family. And he's only 15 or so. I wish I had been like Jaime at his age. :-)

.....It's not too hot-- it's actually been one of the coolest summers thus far. Yesterday it was only in the 80's. We call that a miracle. :-)

That's about it for here. Things are going well still.
Did you tell Michael he's getting a bad deal? lol. Oh well. BTW: Where is he going to school? BYU-I? I may change my mind yet. lol.

Love you all, and hope you have a great week.

--Uncle Elder Jason Mace
The coolest missionary uncle from
Texas in the Oh-No mission

P.S. So, I just looked over and saw "Black Belt" magazine sitting on the shelf next to me, and I have to say that it's really torturing me. Just wanted to let you know. lol.

May 18, 2010

Hello from Mesa!

(NOTE: the 1st comment is in reference to Camren's fall and trip to the Emergency room the night before)...

How's life for everyone? Sounds like some fun stuff going on. It sounds like Cam is getting toughened up for Isshin-Ryu when I get back. (Dad will get the Joke. And Brother Blake. ;-] ) So anywho. . . .

I did get a package from Alexandra and Elisha (and their mom and dad :-])! It came yesterday-- a delicious looking box of chocolates. I'm way excited. :-) I'll be sending a thank you card today hopefully. But if you would let them know that I got it and I really appreciate it that would be great.

And I was. . . *laugh* . . . really sorry. . . . *laugh* . . . . to hear that Kaydee. . . . *laugh* . . . . got a "B." I was really rooting for her. . . . lol. Hey, I can laugh all I want now, 'cause I haven't taken that class yet. My GPA is still a perfect, fantastic, amazing, unblemished 4.0. Now I just have to figure out how to NOT take a math class. lol. What other majors do they have at BYU-H? lol.

Seriously, though, I was wondering how hard it would be to change my major later on if I wanted to. I'm still not completely sure what I want to do with my life. lol. I've even been thinking about a psychology major lately. I don't know! lol.

So, now to my week.

It was a really neat week. Again! We had a lot of really neat miracles happen. But it was also very stressful.

First of all, we had our baptism scheduled for Saturday, so we had to call the building coordinator to reserve the building and the font to do the baptism. Well, we called him a week or so in advance, left a message, and he never got back to us. I began to stress out a little, as the baptism was getting closer and closer. We finally got a hold of him Thursday morning--two days before the baptism-- and he told us there was an activity on that Saturday. What?! The ward had already announced it and everything! He told us to call the guy in charge of the activity and see if we could work it out with him.

So we called the other guy. And then we called him again. And again. And Again. No response. We began praying for a miracle: that we would get a hold of him and that everything would work out. We looked into other options, did everything that we could, and left the rest up to Heavenly Father. Finally Friday afternoon he called. He told us that we could in fact use the building. Yay!

And so the baptism went well. We got there a little late setting up, so the font didn't get turned on at the right time, so it was still filling a little during the service. But it filled up in time and everything went well. Josh was really excited to get baptized-- he was practically jumping up and down he was so excited. lol. We're really happy for him. The service was really good, and a lot of people turned out for the service.

And, to make the week better, we once again broke my personal record for lessons taught in a week. The work is picking up ridiculously fast, and blessings are pouring in! We have been praying really hard that our lessons would hold, and we've done the best that we could to help those we were teaching to keep their appointments. And they did. Almost all of our appointments went through, which is a huge miracle in and of itself. That was amazing.

And that's still not all. As our week was coming to a close, we realized that we had not found anyone new to teach that week. With the other miracle that I had seen, I began to feel like Enos when he said that, after he had seen so many answers to his prayers "my faith began to be unshaken in the Lord." So we prayed. At the very last hour of the last day of the week, we found Shane. My companion began talking to him, and I was praying as hard as I ever have, and he invited us to come in and teach him. Wow.

The bible dictionary teaches that "Christianity is founded on the greatest of all miracles, the resurrection of our Lord. If that be admitted, other miracles cease to be improbable." I've seen that this week for sure. Nothing is impossible or improbable.

It was a really, really good week. And then to top it all off, yesterday was Zone Conference. That was really good to. The principles that were taught were really good, and well needed. One thing we talked a lot about was miracles. Ironic, huh?

I love you all, and I'm glad to hear things are going well.
--Jason

P.S. Love you Cameron!

May 11, 2010

Above..... Camren talking to Uncle Jason on Mother's day. We loved hearing the squeals!
Jason says..... Ha ha ha. These are my favorite pics. lol

Hola familia!

How is everything going for everyone this week? Sounds like things are going well, from the emails/ phone call. I really liked mom's email, by the way. That was really funny. But everyone aimed comments more at Kaydee than me, lol. Doesn't persuade me much either way, lol. It was really funny to read. Some of the comments were even legit, lol. Well, I'll get you caught up with all the crazy stuff that's happening here.

Now that Elder Coltrin is home (as of Monday Morning) for health reason, I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Moore, and he's from Kaysville (spelling?), Utah. He's been out for 18 months, almost as long as I have been out. He was my baby boys second companion, and he's served in two of my areas (Mesa and Phx), so it's kind of fun to talk about people that we both know. Never really been able to do that much before. :-) This is the SECOND time that I have had three companions in one area. That doesn't happen often, so I guess I'm just that lucky. Or unlucky. (It depends on how you want to look at it.)

Things are going well here. We're working hard and getting a lot of good things done. The most exciting thing right now is the upcoming baptism. Josh was interviewed on Saturday and now is all set to get baptized this coming Saturday at 6:00pm. We are all looking forward to that. Josh is awesome and surprized me with how much he understood and remembered when we went over the questions he would be asked in the baptismal interview. Jason, his dad is working on following him soon after. It's been a great experience so far working with the two of them.

There has also been a lot of progress with all of the other people that we are working with as well. The gospel is a neat thing-- the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know much, and the more you want to learn. I've been able to notice some really amazing changes in people as they follow the invitations that we extend to help them live more like the Savior. A common misconception that I am noticing lately is that people tend to think that God will not be happy with them until they live exactly how he wants. If that were the case, we'd all be in trouble. God loves us regardless, but he wants us to follow him. We taught a guy yesterday named James, and we talked about what it means to repent and about how our Father is there to help us no matter what. It was a great experience.

We've had a lot of great experiences.

As for the Pineapple verses the Potato issue:
I will do whatever Kaydee and Kellie can agree on.
Ha ha ha! :-p As if that would happen, lol. Seriously, though, here are my thoughts on the subject.

I've been thinking about both choices and what might be best. After all that effort (yes, thinking takes a lot of effort for me) I don't feel that it is really going to be that much of a life altering descision. After praying about it and thinking about it, I feel that either one would be a good choice. So, if it would work out, I wouldn't mind going with Kaydee to the great land of Hawaii. If Kaydee feels good about it, then so do I. I would be willing to go there for a few semesters and then transferring over after that.

BTW: I've decided that, after a mission, Chili's might not be a bad job, lol. Tell them to save a spot for Sept.-Dec. :-)

Speaking of, what ever happened to the graphic design job for Kassie?

Thanks family, I love you all.

Uncle Elder Jason Mace
The coolest uncle elder in the Oh-No mission

PS.... Kellie's side note: No prob bro.... So I guess you don't trust my opinion and Idaho? :-P Can we just pretend like you didn't answer yet? I was getting some good stuff ready for that package to send to convince you to go to Idaho :-P

And Jason's response back: You can still change my mind with oreo's. lol.

May 4, 2010

Don't know what happened this week... I don't think the computer was working as he got bumped off right away. But we did get this email.

Hey family!

What's happening?

Does anyone want to change there guesses on transfer news?
Elder Mace is either:
a) in the same area
b) in Scottsdale
c) in Payson
d) in Alberta, Canada

The answer: D! Not really. It's A. I'm in the same area, with the same companion, for another six weeks. Survived that one. Elder Christensen (the Elder Jason trained) is next to me and he tells me that he just got transferred to the Pueblo Zone (where we were companions) and now he's a zone leader there! His 3rd ZL area. Elder Ahurn from the MTC (the guy you met from New York at the missionary mall) is coming to our district to be our district leader. He's coming from being ZL in Pueblo.

We will be making phone calls from the Allen's home. (the members that we live with). We are planning on calling at about 4:00 our time-- don't know what that is for TX or ID. But that's the plan for now.

Last week was a crazy one for us. We were really, really blessed. I know that I say that a lot, but our week was amazing. We found 9 new investigators, and set another three baptismal dates. It was crazy. And their all amazing. Sometimes you get people that are kind of so-so as far as interest goes, but all of them are great. We even have found someone to teach in the Singles Ward. :-) I'm really excited to be sticking around for another transfer to see how all of this turns out.

I've never been happier with the progress of the work that's going on. I've also never been more tired in my life. I can barely type right now-- but it's worth it.

One of our new investigators is actually the daughter of a couple that works in the mission office. They called us up on Monday and told us that they had a granddaughter that wanted to learn about the church. She was really curious because her dad is a member, but she apparently lives with her mom who is Catholic and doesn't know much about religion at all. She had some great questions, and we're excited to keep teaching her.

Another family that we found had just been involved in a really bad crises, to say the least. It caused the family to really pull together and made them wonder about a few things. Their landlord called our bishop, and the bishop asked us to go by. We taught about the plan of Salvation. It was hard to tell what they thought of it all, but they called this morning (it's rare that ANYONE calls us) to set up an appointment. :-) That's always a good sign.

Lots of great things have been happening. And soon the Gila Vally Temple will be dedicated (23 May 2010). That will be really exciting!

Love you all a lot,
Elder Jason Mace
Your favorite missionary that's STILL on a bike even though it's warming up. . . fast. . . :-p

April 27, 2010

Sorry, but with everything going on the last few weeks, this letter did not get posted. Email is short as we sent Jason a ton of pictures of the wedding and baby that he went through.....

Hey family!

How's everything going?

Things here are good. I didn't get a message about Kassie's wedding happening, but I did wear the blue tie anyway. Everyone thought the tie was way cool, by the way. In fact, it blew my companions tie out of the water in the "which tie is better?" competition. :-) All votes were for me. :-p

Anyway, how is everything else out there? The kid-o's are are growed up. It's hard to recognize some of them from the pictures. They don't look as little as they used to. I, on the other hand, still look like a twelve year old with a name tag. Oh well. And I haven't gained a stinking pound since I've been gone. What kind of garbage is that, huh?

It's starting to get hot, here. Yesterday it was around 93-94 degrees out side. You say, that's not too bad. Puh! It's a completely different sun out here. This one blinds you-- when your looking away from it, even-- bakes you, and beats you to pieces. Yup, time for me to get transferred up North. Transfers are next week. Who's pulling for me? I have three transfers left, so it's interesting. I could get transferred now and spend 4 1/2 months in my next area, or I could stay the whole 6 months here are spend 3 months in my next area. Transfer guesses and prophesies are always welcome.

And I finally got into BYU-I, huh? Yippy! . . . . did. . . . Kaydee get in yet. . ? Did I beat her? Not that I care. . . . .

So yesterday was a really good day. We planned out our day Sunday night, and we saw we had absolutely NO appointments planned for the day. :-( But we planned and as we worked the next day some neat things happened.

First, we found two new investigators. James and his brother Justin. James actually came to church on Sunday. He's looking for a church to go to. Well, we had talked to his brother a while before that, and went by to talk to him again. Turns out they live together. :-) They came outside and we had a great lesson with them. (Yes, outside. I was facing the sun. Need I say more?) They're awesome. They actually already knew a little bit about the church and what we believe.

And then we set two baptismal dates. I think I mentioned Josh and Jason last week. Well, Josh is set for the 15th of May, and Jason for the 29th of May. We wanted to do both together, but they thought separate would be better. Right now we have 6 baptismal dates set, all for the month of May. It should be a great month if I'm around for it.

The past week has been really great, too. The work is continuing to pick up. Last week I think we taught more lessons than I have ever taught before. We're seeing some great blessings as the work continues to pick up.

Most importantly (not really) we played golf this morning. Not miniature golf either. The real stuff. I learned that I'm not going to be signing up for the PGA tour when I come home, but it was a lot of fun.

Great things are happening here. I hope things are going as well for you all out there. I love you all.
I've gotta go. I still have time, but my rides ready to leave. lol. If it's not one thing it's another. lol. See you all later. And Phone calls are coming up! ish. I don't really know when that is . . .

--Jason