August 17, 2010

Hey family!

 

How is everyone doing? I'm on late again today because we went to the temple this morning, and then we all got together and had a zone activity. It was really fun, we went to one our our bishop's-- Bishop Willis-- to go through their corn maze. Oh, yes, a corn maze! And then we had lunch afterward. So now I finally get to email you all.

 

First of all, to answer the bike question. I not really sure what to do with my faithful bike. To ship the bike home it will cost $70. I'll go ahead and do what ever you'd like my to.

 

And that is really strange that Phillip and Michael come home almost a year before I do. It's the darn-dest thing. But that's pretty crazy that their coming home soon. Time goes by quick, for sure.

 

It's been getting really hot up here, which is sad because this is SNOWFLAKE!!! I thought that I left Mesa and the heat behind! But it's been close to 100 degrees a couple of days this week, and one day I think it got all the way there. Lucky we're on bikes, huh? . . . But despite the intense heat, we found a ton of new people to teach this last week, which is a miracle in and of itself. This coming week we have over thirty lessons planned (already!), not including dinner appointments of course. That's amazing for the area. We're really excited by the sudden increase in work, or in other words blessings.

 

On Wednesday we taught a guy, who is a 70-ish year old man who's wife passed away in April. It's kind of a sad situation. He's been lonely and depressed since he lost his wife. He told us about how he often goes to casinos to get away. We taught him a little bit. He wasn't incredibly open to learning about things like the plan of salvation (ironic, because that's exactly what would help him-- understanding where his wife is at and how he can be with her again). But hopefully as he continues to learn he will be able to allow Christ to help him more in his life.

 

Another one was an absolute miracle. There is a family in our area that we started teaching on Saturday. Jena is a member of the church, but her husband Zack is not, and doesn't beleive in God or religion. Jena wants to start coming back to church, and so we asked if we could meet with her and she agreed. Her husband wasn't interested. Jena talked to him and finally convinced him to sit in on our visit to just give it a try. And the lesson went great. They're both awesome, and even Zack showed a great desire to follow God (turn's out he does have a least a little faith) and do what's right. What a miracle that we found them!

 

We also started teaching a guy named Josh. Here is an interesting story for you. Josh recently was baptized in Show Low, which is a city near Snowflake, but it's in the Arizona Tempe Mission. Josh just moved to Snowflake to live with his aunt for a while. His aunt found us and asked us if we would go by and teach him all over again, because his understanding of the gospel was limited. We went by and met with Josh, and he is an amazing young man. (he's 19.) The missionaries in Tempe visited him, but they didn't really teach him. They apparently just came and hung out and shared some brief messages that Josh didn't understand very well. Josh still had a desire to do what was right, and so he read the Book of Mormon like the missionaries asked and prayed to know if it and the church are true. The answer came, and he was baptized, faithfully following the direction he recieved from God.......  Oh. . . . Anyway. . . .

 

We are getting ready for a baptism in our area a week from Saturday. Damon and Dillon will be getting baptized. Damon is 12, Dillon is 11. Their parents are members of the church, but haven't been going to church for a long time. Missionaries have been working on them for a while-- like three or four years on and off-- and they never came to church or anything. But by some amazing miracles, the family is now excited. They've been coming to church. They've been reading their scriptures. They've been praying. And now they are preparing for baptism. Wow.

 

I'm not really sure what else to tell you all about. . . . Other than that, everything is about the same as always. The work moves foreward.

 

Thanks for all you've done for me.

I love you all,

 

Elder Jason Mace

 

P.S. Tell Ally and 'Lisha I said kick hard. :-)

P.S.S. And tell Brady I said good luck. The MTC is probably the best place on earth. Right next to Mesa, Arizona (and Scottsdale, Phoenix, Apache Junction, and Snowflake).

P.S.S.S. I just wanted to add another one of these. ;-)

August 10, 2010

Hey family!

 

How is everything going? I enjoyed the pictures of Camren eating the green beans. But the poor child doesn't realize that he's eating vegetables! Someone really needs to give him deep fried Cheerios quickly! Otherwise-- for the rest of his life-- he might eat. . . . healthy things! *shudder* Don't worry, uncle Elder Mace is coming to save you because aunt Kaydee's not doing her job right! ;-)

 

I got your package, by the way, on August 4th. Perfect timing. :-) Of course I waited until the 5th to open it. My companion thought I lost it, waiting to open a package. Anyway, thank you so much. I haven't had a chance to make the cakes yet, but I am planning on it. Who would be crazy enough to eat something that I make, I don't know-- I might have to make them think someone else made it-- but I am planning on it. Maybe for district meeting a week from tomorrow.

 

And Addison got baptized! I still can't believe she's that old. Oh, wait! How old is Logan now?! Please tell Addie that I said congratulations and she's awesome, if you didn't already.

 

Yesterday was Zone Conferrence with President Ellsworth. It was our first real zone conferrence with him, and it was great. I can see how the mission will continue to progress under his direction. The work will move forward even faster now with some of the new things that will be happening. One of the main things that we talked about was love, and showing our love for everyone like the Savior would if He were here.

 

At the end of Zone Conference, all of the missionaries that are going home share their testimonies. Since it was just the Snowflake zone that was there, there was only one missionary in the zone going home. Guess who that was? . . . . Me. Before that it hadn't really hit me that I am going home soon. But it hit me like a ton of bricks at that point. Of course I almost started crying; I've gotten emotional in my old age, apparently.

 

This week was amazing, too, in the sheer number of miracle that we saw. It was really crazy. We found new people that we will start teaching soon, a lot of them we found in some really crazy ways. One was a random house we knocked on, the occupant of which happened to be a member, and she happened to know one of her neighbors that might be interested. She had meant to tell us about him for months, but never did. Turns out her neighbor was interested.

 

We also had some people that we are teaching come to church-- FINALLY-- after we've been trying to convince them to come and give it a try for weeks.  And they had a great experience, which is the best part. Everything has really picked up this week. Hopefully the blessings and the miracles will continue to come. The Lord does his work well, that's all there is to it.

 

It rained a lot again this week, and the roads were SUPER muddy. My bike is now covered in mud and clay, and it has a flat tire. Wonderful. They just had to put a biking area up North. lol. It's been really fun to bike around in the rain, though.

 

And we played golf today, which is why we are a bit late getting online today. We had a group playing that was too big, so it went slow. . . . But it was fun anyway.

 

I know Elder Kunz a little bit. I don't know the other one, and probably won't now, lol. Speaking of missionaries from Houston, yesterday Elder Coffman came back to visit the mission and his old areas. :-) He's from Katy.

 

So that's about all for my week. Or at least that all I have time for, 'cause I gotta go.

 

Love you all,

Elder Jason Mace

August 3, 2010

Hey family!

 

How is everything going? Thank you for all the emails this week. The big 21 is coming up, huh?

 

Anyway, I got a letter from the mission office a few days ago informing me of my flight information, so I brought it with me to tell you about it, but I guess you already got all of that. lol. I'm was surprised to see that I was flying into Bush airport rather than Hobby. (I don't even know where the bush airport is anymore, but I know it's not as close, lol. I can drive right to the Phoenix airport, though. lol.) But that's alright. I was just surprised to see flight plans come in the mail. Speaking of which, I decided that from now on they should NOT repeat NOT send that to missionaries. There really is no reason for me to know my flight plans, it just makes me home sick. They should just send that stuff to the missionaries families and let the missionaries know about it when they show up at the mission office to go home. Why do I need to know what time I leave and what flight and all that stuff more then a month ahead of time? Anyway, enough of that. . . .

 

Libby Lee is FOUR? What?! When did that happen? Everyone is so grown up now. I probably won't recognize anyone. Tell Addison that I said a VERY VERY VERY VERY SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS on her baptism this Sunday! That's super exciting. And tell Logan that if she wants to drive the three and a half hours to snowflake from Phoenix, I would be happy to keep my eyes open for her. lol.

 

Well, this has been an interesting week. It's rained a lot, thus I've been rained on a lot. lol. The temperatures have actually been really nice, though. Not too hot, and because of all the rain, we've had a good deal of humidity, which I am LOVING because it's sooooooooooooooooooooooooo dry in Arizona. Everyone here complains about it, so I get a good laugh out of it, too. My poor companion from Idaho hasn't seen humidity a day in his life, apparently, so he's suffering. But again, I love it.

 

And we have been really blessed with people to teach this week. We've had a hard time finding new people to teach lately, so everythings been struggling as a consequence. But the Lord blessed us a lot this week.

 

About six weeks ago elder Lerwill and I talked to a guy named Shawn, and he said that we were welcome to come by and visit with him. We got his address, and went by but couldn't catch him. After a while we gave up, thinking he gave us a fake address (that happens sometimes) because no one was ever at the apartment that he said he lived in. Well, a week ago we were going to another appartment and we saw a light on in Shawn's apartment. Elder Lerwill and I were shocked and obviously we knocked on the door to see if it was Shawn. A guy answered the door, and after talking with him it turned out it was him (I couldn't recongize him after a month and a half). He was busy but we set up a time to come by and talk to him and his girl friend.

 

We went by on the day that we had set up, and wouldn't you know it, no one was home. . . . We were really discouraged, but we left a note on the door and went with a member to drive around and make some other visits. While we were driving, we stopped and talked to some people who were walking around along the way. As we were talking to someone, I looked over and saw Shawn mowing someones lawn. I jumped out and talked to him. He apologized for not being home, and reset a time for us to go by. We did go by, and he and his girl friend were there and the visit went great. They're awesome. It took a lot a miracles to help us get to teach them, but we finally got there.

 

And we had a similar thing happen with another guy. We went by to teach him, he wasn't there, but we caught him later and had a great lesson anyway. Miracles. If there is one thing that I've learned, it's what's in Mormon 9:16-17

15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?

I've seen lots of miracles. I guess those verses are kind of the unofficial theme of the mission.

 

Speaking of, funny story. We were out making visits a few nights ago, and we ran into some older members of the 6th ward. They invited us in for a minute, and we shared a message with them. I shared the story of Alma and the Zoromites in Alma chapters 31-32 (surmrised, of course) and talked about how the Lord prepare people. And then the sister said that it reminded her of a story that she had heard recently in a talk in sacrament meeting that impressed her, and she wanted to share it. It shocked me when she suddenly started sharing the story of me tracting in Scottdale, when I ran into Ceanna. When she finished the story (she left out some of the best parts, but that's okay) she started trying to figure out who it was that had told that story. I didn't want to say "that was me!" and sound prideful because she was just saying how it impressed her. "I think he was a returned missionary. . . " my companion and her started trying to figure out who it was, and then she said "No! It was a missionary who's companion was sick!" My companion finally figured out that she was talking about me, and that I wasn't telling her, and we changed the subject. But it was really funny, and really neat that something I said in a talk stuck out to someone who heard it. When I gave that talk, I wasn't planning on sharing that story, but I felt prompted to at the end, and so I did. I always choke up a little when I tell that story (I'm getting emotional in my old age ;-]).

 

But that's been about my week. Teaching has slowed down a little bit, but miracles have not.

No box yet, but I did get Kellie's letter a week ago. :-) Yay!

 

And trunkyness leads to laziness, which leads to apostacy, which leads to outer-darkness. See? Where do you want me to end up? lol.

 

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Uncle Elder Jason Mace

 

P.S. I love you Camren!      o( ^ _ ^ )o

July 27, 2010

***  After this email, we chatted about his coming home plans...  no decision has been made yet as to if Rick and I will fly out to get him or not.  He still has NOT heard anything about coming home plans yet, so we are all still in the dark.  Only thing we decide was that some how,  He wants to somehow visit with Kassie & Joe in AZ before he comes home. So I will be talking with the Mission President at some point in the future to see how we can get that arranged.....

Hola familia!

How is everyone doing this week? Things are going good here. My gracious companion and Zone leader have been reminding me ALL WEEK that this is my last transfer. . . . How kind. . . . Elder Hilton (our zone leader) stayed with us all week because, like I mentioned last week, his companion Elder Jenkins is an assistant down in Scottsdale, now. It's been interesting trying to help him get member companions arranged and worrying about our own area as well. But we all survived the week and now he is on his way to Scottsdale to get his new companion.

Anyway. Does anyone care to hear about transfer news? Oh yes!

There are a lot of exciting things happening, so brace yourselves. I am staying a district leader in snowflake, and I am keeping my companion, Elder Lerwill. Yeah, nothing changed. But they created a new district in the zone, so now my district has been cut in half. I went from having the largest district in the mission to a small district of us and two other companionships. Oh well. Other than that, nothing has changed for me.

To answer mom and dad's emails, I haven't heard anything about going home yet. They don't have a fireside in this mission like mom described in her email as far as I know. In our mission, on the last day in the mission (Monday Sept 6th) we should be going to the mission office for dinner with the mission president. That's about all that I know. No one has called or emailed me to ask about coming home plans, so I don't know. They probably will ask-- eventually-- if I plan on driving home of flying home. I'm not sure when they plan on getting a hold of me to find out, or if they will call you. . . . But as far as driving or flying, I don't care either way. On the one hand I wouldn't mind getting back to the family and friends quicker, but on the other hand I wouldn't mind introducing you to some of the amazing people that I've been able to work with. So whatever you want to do. And I definitely want to see Kassie and Joe in less than a year! I don't know what you can arrange for that, but I really want to see everyone (obviously). Joe doesn't really need school, does he? Just kidding. To sum up everything, I'm basically as lost and clueless about going home plans as everyone else.

This week we had Aaron's Baptism. That was great! He was really excited for it. Unfortunately, because of the big 24th of July celebrations, not many people turned out to support him at his baptism. But it was still a really good experience for him. I certainly felt the spirit there as we all participated. The person who was supposed to conduct didn't come, so I got to conduct the baptism, and that was a great experience as well.

Also in celebration of the 24th of July, the youth of the Snowflake and Taylor stakes put on a play called "What Power Shall Stay the Heavens?" A play about the life of Joseph Smith. It was alright for a play put on by a bunch of 12-18 year olds. It went twice a day from Wednesday to Sunday. We got to see is at least 4 times out of the 10 times that they showed the play, lol. On the last night we brought some people to watch the play, and it was completely packed! The only reason we got in was because they managed to jam some extra chairs into the theater in random places.

The 24th was crazy for us as well. The population of this small town quadruples (at least!) for the parades, rodeos, fairs, dances, plays, craft sales, reunions, etc. It's crazy. As missionaries we try to talk to everyone that we see. Good luck with that on the 24th here! There were huge mobs of people walking around. And then at night it cleared out, and then it just poured rain. Like Houston rain, and it actually lasted more than a few minutes. Luckily we were with Elder Hilton in his truck when it rained. ;-)

That's pretty much all of the most exciting things that happened this week.

I love you all,

Elder Jason Mace

July 20, 2010

Hello family!

How is everything going this week? Hopefully things are still going well. Sounds like Camren is having a bad week. You all should be nicer to him or something. . . . I'll save him when I get back. . . . in six months. . . . ;-) Poor baby boy. :-( He needs a deep fried, chocolate covered cherio. :-)    And it sounds like Kassie and Nathan did a great job on Sunday. I had to fill in some extra time the last time I spoke, too. But not quite that much extra time, lol. Kassie should have given part two of her talk after Nathan spoke. :-p

Anyway, I'm glad Snowflake, Arizona is popular enough to be in the movie "Saints and Soldiers." Whoever wrote it must have been here as a missionary as well. :-)

Anyway, funny story: Yesterday I was on exchanges with Elder Jenkins,  one of the Zone Leaders of the Zone. (Back in the day he was a district leader in my zone in Apache Junction.) Well, as we were heading out the door from dinner we got a phone call from President Ellsworth, who wanted to talk to Elder Jenkins. Elder Jenkins is the new assistant to the president. :-) We're now on exchanges with his companion elder Hilton until transfers on Tuesday, when he will get a new companion.

Speaking of which, next week is the last time I will email you with

--== TRANSFER NEWS ==--

So you should be on the edge if your seat for that. I can still end up in Argentina. You never know.

Now I'll tell you about my week.

So Aaron is getting baptized this Saturday, so that will be awesome. It will be tough because the 24th of July is Pioneer day, the day that Salt Lake City, Utah and Snowflake, Arizona were founded. People here take that day serious-- we're talking parades, rodeos, fairs, etc. And in the middle of all of that, we have Aaron's baptism schedualed. But luckily Aaron is a popular guy, and everyone really wants to come to his baptism, even if it means missing some of the celebration. I love the Snowflake 3rd ward. It's one of the best wards I've ever served in.

Aaron is really excited for his baptism, and so far everything is good to go.

We got some crazy rain this last week (for a desert it was crazy-- I haven't seen rain like it since I left Houston). Sunday night was the worst of it. Luckily, that night a member was nice enought to drive us around. During one of our lessons, we had just said the opening prayer and were about to start teaching the plan of Salvation when suddenly-- the power went out. . . . Of course. . . . We still taught it anyway. In the dark. :-)

On Friday we had zone developement meeting and our first interviews with president Ellsworth. Elder Lerwill and I were asked to give an hour training on effectively planning for the day. That's something that I think we do well, so it was a pretty easy training to give. We started out by walking up and pretending to plan wrong. It was pretty funny. Then we actually taught how to plan and demonstrated it. It was good.

And interviews with President Ellsworth were great. He was really personal and tried to get to know us as well as our areas. The more I work with him, the more impressed I am.

And finally, I went on exchanges with Elder Paiz and Elder Mesecher this last week. This was the last companionship in my district that I needed to go with. I went with Elder Paiz to his area, and his companion and mine worked in our area. It was a great exchange. Elder Paiz did an awesome job, so I was really impressed. My district is amazing, I gotta say.

Tomorrow is Distric Meeting, so I've got some great things planned. :-)

I think that's about it for me.

I love you all, and hope you have a great week.

Elder Jason Mace

of the Mesa, Oh-No mission

Pictures from the mission field

Love the little boys face! 
Is he excited to be baptized????

July 13, 2010

Ok, so I'm posting this hot off the press today! Jason is still online, but I needed to post this before I forget like I did last week! ENJOY!!!

Hey family!

How is everything going? Dad didn't email me this week, but that's 'cause there will be a long one next week I bet. ;-) lol. Same with Kaydee. And Kellie. And Kassie. (I still never got Kellie's card, BTW. . . .)

And from mom's email, it sounds like I might be able to get a job! Yay for Alex and his good working skills. :-) There may yet be hope for me.

Thanks for the picture, too. Nathan does look exactly the same, lol. And his mom STILL didn't know about us ditching and going to the candy store? lol. That's awesome-- I mean terrible. :-D I remember that like it was yesterday, Nathan walking in with the cup right after dad told him not to, and wouldn't you know it, a counselor in the bishopric is right there. You'll have to let me know how the homecoming talk goes. Oh, and I guess you can tell me how Kassie's goes, too. lol.

And guess who got to speak in church again this week? Yup, they wards are keeping us busy here. Brother Mills of the Snowflake 6th ward called and asked is Elder Lerwill and I would speak on Sunday. We agreed and prepared our talks on "whatever you want but try to include something about pioneers." lol. (I love being a missionary because they never assign us a topic, they just ask us to speak. It's great!) I was having a hard time figuring out what to speak on to include pioneers, but I finally came up with something. But Saturday night we get home and my companion was not feeling good. Uh oh! Then the next morning (Sunday) he was feeling really sick, so I had to call and set up an emergency exchange so that I could still go and give my talk, and I had to call brother Mills and tell him my companion would not be there. It was a crazy day, but I got there and gave my talk, and it went okay. By the way, being stuck at the apartment with a sick companion as a missionary is AWEFUL!!! Just wanted to throw that out there, incase you had any doubts.

And I had a SWEET bike wreck on Friday. I did indeed jinx myself by saying I haven't had a bike wreck here yet. We were biking to the church to make some copies when it happened. When we get to where we are going, I always kick my kickstand down on my bike before I get off. So that's what I did. Or tried to do. My foot got caught on something and I started to go down, and I couldn't get my foot loose. It was one of the slowest falls ever, and I couldn't stop it. And it hurt. lol. Good times. Just thought that I would share. I'm Still not sure what my foot got stuck on.

I also got to be in charge of my very first district meeting! How exciting. It was funny because I have been in charge of Zone meetings before, but I was a lot more nervous about putting this one together. It turned out pretty good, though. I learned a lot from it, and I hope everyone else did too. We mostly focused on how to plan effectively and set goals. This next week is Zone development meeting, and Elder Lerwill and I were assigned to give a training on-- wouldn't you know it-- effective daily planning. We'll see how it goes.

We taught a ton of lessons last week, which is really exciting. Nothing is better than closing out a week like the last one. Everything went great. Yesterday, the start of this week, wasn't so good. All of our appointments cancelled and two people told us they didn't want us to come by anymore. . . . Hopefuly the week goes better from here on. lol. We have a really good night planned, at least, so things should turn around starting today.

Aaron (I thing I told you about him) is suppose to have a baptismal interview this week, so we are excited about that. That's the biggest thing coming up right now.

It was neat too: We're teaching a girl named Lindsey. She's 15 and is super smart. We asked her last week how her reading of the book of Mormon has been coming, and she dissapointedly (is that a word?) said that she was only on page 72 when her goal was to be on page 80. Woah. We asked if she had any questions, and she started asking us questions that I doubt I could have even comprehended two years ago, lol. It was great. Her parents aren't really supportive right now, but hopefully they'll come around. Lindsey knows it's true-- she's received a witness from the Holy Ghost that it is-- and she want's to follow it, so we are praying everything will work out.

Anyway, don't know what else to tell you. Things are going really good still. Love you all a lot.

--Jason

July 6, 2010

Sorry, I got busy and forgot to post this letter from last week.......

Hey family!

How was everyone's 4th of July? Were the fireworks awesome? From mom's email, it sounds like Kaydee had fun this week, lol. I pictured her playing the piano without her thumb, and it made me laugh a little. lol. (Which reminds me of some great news: so far I have had NO BIKE WRECKS in this area! I know it's boring for you, but it's great for me. :-D)

Random thought: did you ever hear back about that one guy-- I forget his name-- in League City that the missionaries are teaching? What's going on with him?

Anyway, is Nathan's mission really over now? That's crazy. I swear we just left. Tell him hi for me when you see him. :-) And tell me how his Spanish is, lol. Does he like Spanish yet? My Spanish won't get any better. lol. Sorry, but no time to learn Spanish. And there are not many people up here that speak Spanish. I think I already met both of them. lol.

My week was great. We had two people that were planning on getting baptized at the start of the week. They were both really great people, but they're desire to act wasn't really there. As the week went on, both in some way or another decided not to take that step. But what was really neat was that two more people decided that they did want to.

The first guy's name is Cody. He's a nice guy in his 20's that struggles with faith in God. He's not sure he believes that God exists. But he has a desire to do what's right, and especially to know if God does exist. What better way to find out then the Book of Mormon? If the Book of Mormon really is true, then God does exist, Jesus Christ lives, and they've called a prophet today to speak for them on the earth. And best of all, the only way to actually know for sure that it's true to to pray and receive the answer through revelation from God himself.

The other guy's name is Aaron. He's amazing. He has a really strong desire to follow God. I don't think that we can teach him fast enough. He always wants to know more, and he can see and feel the change that it's been making in his life, and in his families. He has a wife and a two year old daughter.

We got to meet President and Sister Ellsworth and part of their family (the ones that are not grown and moved out) on Friday. They're awesome, of course. I was really impressed with them, and as much as I miss the Bassett's, I'm really excited to work with them. President Ellsworth is from Idaho, I don't know how to spell the name of the town, but it's Carrie or Kary or something rather. He was in the mission presidency up there before he was assigned to come down here. Their going to do such a good job. They already love the work and are ready to get things moving.

Here in Snowflake/Taylor area (both are tiny towns right next to each other) they had the celebration on the 3rd instead of the 4th. You can probably guess why. :-D It was interesting, because I was biking around on the 3rd and I didn't know whether I should say "happy 4th of July" or "happy 3rd of July." Neither one really made sense. lol. Our day was really long and dull, too, because Taylor has a big rodeo to celebrate independence day, and everyone goes to it. The result is that no one is in snowflake all day. We caught-- no joke-- three people home all day. And all three were members of the church.

I had to teach the lesson in Elders Quorum in the Snowflake 6th ward on Sunday. That was kinda fun. The lesson was on chapter 2 of preach my gospel. Pop quiz, what does that chapter talk about . . . ? Effective study! (If you answered missionary work, that was a lame answer, lol.) So I brought in my study material and we had a discussion on the was that missionaries study and how those ideas can be applied to members. The lesson went well because the quorum was really involved and helped a lot, so I didn't have to do too much. Plus "Preach My Gospel" is amazing! It teaches by itself.

And then yesterday we went on Exchanges. I went with Elder Zakimi to his area in Taylor and Elder Harper went with Elder Lerwill to our area. Our day in Taylor was kind of slow, but we had some really good things happen. I have a lot of respect for Elder Zakimi. When he talks you can feel the charity and love that he automatically has for you. It's such a natural thing for him, it's amazing. And while I was gone Elder Lerwill and Elder Haper found three new people to teach and taught a ton of lessons. . . . Of course, when Elder Mace isn't there the work moves forward. lol.

And that brings us to a funny story for the day. We were suppose to go check out some Indian ruins today with one of our ward mission leaders. But last night he and his family went camping and their van got attacked by a bear. No kidding. The family is fine, but obviously he has other things to take care of today. The bear only damaged the bumper and maybe the back window.
I can pedal pretty quick down hill. Uphill not so much. lol.

Well, that's been my week. I love you all and hope everything goes well!
I gotta go. But I'll catch you next week.

Love
Elder Jason Mace