March News

Elder Clifton Dudley~Serving in Mexico Monterey East
Elder Clifton Dudley was a little sad to not be at the sealing of his sister, Shalise, and new brother-in-law, Ted. However, he sent a special picture college and gave us the following explanation. Be sure to notice the scripture. "I took the picture on a night that I was feeling rather sad and lonely. I originally took it without the scripture, but then I found the scripture, took the picture again, and felt a whole lot better."

Elder Justin Doyle~Serving in Mexico Monterey West

The weather here has been scorching hot! We are entering what is called the Canicula here in Mexico. It is the hottest time of the year when it is more than 100 all of the time! Yay. Mission changes are tomorrow and I think that I am finally leaving. The thing is is that Saltillo has the best weather in all of the mission and I think I will be leaving right before the canicula to a hotter place like Monclova (the hottest place in the mission).

Most people (the thugs) here have shirts that have the marijuana leaf on it. It is funny because I mean everyone has that on their clothes somewhere. I saw a member lady walk into conference wearing a shirt with a huge marijuana leaf on the front. I was shocked!

My Easter wasn't an Easter because I totally forgot. Mostly because nobody celebrates it here the same if the celebrate it here. Yes I burned a tie. (Justin hit his 6 month mark) I did get to watch conference in English on Sunday but on Saturday for the priesthood session I watched it in Spanish.

A couple of interesting things that happened this week: We taught some Cuban women (three of them) and that was interesting. They have never heard of the Mormons and more so, their accent was weird. They did not pronounce their ''s'' very well. Also, for one lesson appointment we had when we showed up there was a Muslim man there. We later found out that he is married to a Mormon lady and they go to church but he is still Muslim. He had very interesting views. Another thing happened when we were walking; we got called over by a man and his wife. They started asking us questions about our religion, but then started to focus on things about the jehovah`s witnesses. We are pretty sure that he was a jehova`s witness and was trying to get us to say something bad about them or mix up our message. He said he was going to come to church but didn't so that pretty much sealed our thoughts.


Elder Joseph Hilton~Serving in Uruguay Montevido West Mission
Joey reported to the Argentina CCM on February 25th. He was in a cluster of 6 'gringos' learning the language there. Their numbers have sadly been reduced to 5 putting him in a trio with Elders Brough and Lockheart. The Spanish is coming along really well. He is able to proselyte on Saturdays to homes around the CCM. This past week he passed the one month (half of the CCM) mark and was made DL. He says he isn't sure what that means, but he'll do the research to figure out what that means in a group of 5 in the CCM and do his very best:)

Elder Taylor Hucks~ Serving in Washington D.C. North Mission

I am doing very well. This last week has been really good. I have had somereally cool experiences. The biggest one to note is a meeting that I hadthis last Saturday. I arrived at the visitors center at about 8:00 in themorning for a meeting about the mission. I arrived and sat down and waitedfor a good 15-20 min wondering why President wasn’t starting the meeting, wewere just waiting...Then the back doors behind us opened up and in walked Elder Holland. Illtell you, what spirit fills the room when an apostle of the Lord walk in,its something else. He walked down and took a seat and i was right there infront of him. Before the meeting started Elder Holland said that he wouldlike the come by and shake each hand of ours personally so we walked over tomeet him. (I had just got a haircut the night before, wheew good thing I wasnot looking like a hippie). I walked up to Elder Jeffery R. Holland of thequorum of the twelve apostles and took his hand. He gave me a smile andlooked me right into the eyes. I held my eye contact with him and lookedinto his really blue apostolic eyes as I shook his hand. I was the first tospeak saying " Hello Elder Holland how are you?"He replied to me very well Elder Hucks how are you?"Good I said""And were are you from elder" he asked"Sacramento California" I replied"and how do you feel about your mission..." "Excellent" I respondedI then went back to my seat right there on the second row and heard one ofthe greatest talks on missionary work and teaching by the spirit that i haveever heard.It was an amazing day, very uplifting. One of those really good days whereeverything just goes well. Hey Harrison a few days ago we saw Obama's car driving by and SNIPERS onthe rooftops!! Yea it was cool man there were CIA guys all over. Well I love you guys, we just had transfers again today and I’m staying herewith the same companion, no change. I’m stoked for this upcoming 6 weeks and what’s going to happen, my roomiesare way cool

Elder Mark Jay~Serving in Peru Lima South Mission
My investigators are doing alright. We're getting many new investigators each week. But it's frustrating as still our investigators, or a good number, are not going to the chapel. And we can only pass for so many. They need to go to the chapel or they can't get baptized. Now we're trying to separate the investigators into two groups - those that can really progress and get baptized soon and those that aren't ready to progress. We will then focus mainly on those that are ready to progress and move forward and make the necessary changes in their lives.
Hurray, general conference is coming. And we're allowed to go to all of the session unless we have appointments. We will probably have appointments in the morning but the rest I will hopefully be able to attend.
We recently received news of who will be our new mission president. President and sister Fiero will finish their mission in June. (They are from Ecuador). Our new mission president will be President Roger Manning and his wife Lyn. How exciting - a mission president from North America. I'm excited that I will get to have a Latino mission president and a North American one too.
Thank you for your support and testimony. It gives me strength. I too depend on the Lord and don't fully comprehend the love He and our Father-in-Heaven have for us. I hope you are all well.
Love, Elder Jay

Elder Cameron Pettey~Serving in Sao Paulo Brasil
This week was a miracle. Vera took the decision to be baptized! It was amazing! She changed so much. She had so many doubts and questions, etc. but was sincerely searching for an answer. Everytime we went there, she had a new doubt. Every time we talked to her and helped her to resolve this doubt. She believed in reincarnation, different view on baptism, Joseph Smith, and many more. It really was a complete change. It was great because we got to see it from the beginning to the end. We have been trying to help her for a while now get baptized. Transfer is almost over and we were thinking that it might not work out before. We had faith and worked really hard, doing everything we could. This week she still wasn’t sure about baptism, not believing she was ready. We talked to her and marked an interview with her, just to see how it went. Elder Cooper worked magic baby. After a long interview, they came out, not saying that she passed or anything. I thought she decided not to get baptized. Elder Cooper gave me the folded baptismal form, and I opened it just enough to see if it was filled out, and it was! I was so happy. Amazing. Miracle. We had the baptism in the same river where we had it last time, I am so happy to be able to be a part of this. Vera is amazing. She is like our mom here. She is way happy now, very animated.Today we just got down from climbing Baiepi. It was awesome! Extremely high, hardcore trek. I was sweating soooo much, and am out of shape. Really fun though. We went with a lot of cool guys from Church. We all had a fun time. It was beautiful. When we got up to the top, we were thinking about how the Prophets in olden days went up to the highest mountains they could find to pray to God. It was cool, before we came back down, we decided to sing Called to Serve and say a prayer. Cool spiritual experience climbing a mountain. Not to mention the fun we had on the way. Tiny little trail in some spots, we had to climb on all fours, when we were coming down, we slipped like crazy, and Henrique completely ate it. Hahahah. He was running and he stopped his feet, but his body kept going and straight rolled out.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week. Do what is right baby!A Hug and Love,Elder Cam Pettey


Elder Jordan Shillingburg~Serving in Antofagasta Chile
This week was great, it started off really crappy with Zero lessons to start off the week, and then the next day, the grandma that had a baptism date dropped on us, cuz she is easily influenced by anyone that talks to her, and so of course things have to happen, cuz Satan is a real D-bag, and so she heard so things that obviously weren’t true, and yea.But the day after that made up for everything 1000 fold, as we were about to leave one of our investigators house, Fabiola and she has a daughter and two sons, she told us she wanted to be baptized, and we always had a date lingering but she never accepted it, but she said, later after more time, and so we put a date for the 11th of April, and then we told her that one of us might not be here because of transfers, and so she wanted us to do it, and so we cranked it out this Saturday. We baptized her and her daughter, but not one son because he is only 5, and the other sons doesn’t really want much to do with us, but we will get him eventually. And transfers are today, and we are still here, so ha, we managed to get Fabiola and Ninoshca, her daughter, in that baptism font right away.And yea, that was our week, it was good.oh, and we ran out of toilet paper and had to start using newspaper that we have in the apartment.Chao

Elder Kyle Mark Smith~ Serving in Hungary Budapest
Hello lovely family. One time in Zone Conference, all of the missionaries had to stand up in front of everyone and say a compliment about their companion. One of the elders said that his companion was "just a lovely guy". One of the greatest moments of my life. I think that the first and last time I've heard a man use the word lovely to describe another man. But it's ok to use with family. This week was really good. I love sitting down to write these emails because all of the great memories come back to my head of the past week. Last week at f.h.e with the Ildiék and Gyöngyiék, Enikő was in charge of the activity and she had us all do a trust building activity where we had to fall backwards and let our partner catch us. Most of us could catch our partner. But when it was Gyöngyi's turn, Ildi tried to catch her when she started to fall, but they both went straight to the ground. It was hilarious. Some trust building. The members are doing great here in Szolnok. They are like my family. Last night with the Gáspárék we sat crosslegged on the ground and talked while eating süti after our lesson. They are so great. Our investigators are doing good too. On wednesday, one of our investigators who is református committed to baptism and she came to church with her 8 year old son on sunday. They had a great time and we are meeting with them again today. The biggest thing this week was our non-smoking program with Laci. He smoked his last cigarette Saturday morning before our program and he didn't even know it was his last one until we got there. This program is genius. A missionary companionship came up with it like 20 years ago in Ireland. For a part of the program, the smoker has to hold all of his cigarettes in his hand and completely crush them. It was so sweet to see Laci crush his cigarettes and them throw them in the fire. He has to drink unsweetened grapefruit juice and take a lot of vitamin C to make the desire to smoke go away. And then a lot of mouthwash and brushing teeth. We bought all of the stuff for him and he committed to do everything so we are praying for him that he will be able to do the program to the end which is until Saturday. Will you pray for him too? Laci (lot-see). I know he will be able to quit smoking if he follows all of the steps and if we pray for him. A big part of the program is prayer and scripture study. It's not only physical but spiritual as well. Thanks so much for your prayers. I know he will get baptized. Szolnok is doing good.

January News

Elder Robert Cook ~Serving in Texas Houston South Mission
Dear super, stupendous, amazing, outstanding, sometimes crazy Family, :) Well, it is official, I will have been out a year in about two or three days, and suddenly I'm kind of freaking out because i realize that I'm half-way done with my mission!!!! HOLY COW time has flown by, and the scarier part is that the second year goes even faster...at least that's what I hear, and that is scary because this year has flown by. Well, lets not talk about it and I'll just pretend that I still have over a year and work like I have a month left. So, yes I did get your e-mail today instead of yesterday, and now I'm sitting in the library here with Obama's induction speech playing in the background and all the news people that just love him to death. Well, sorry I sounded so "down" in last weeks letter, I was just tired after a long day of activities and I still had about 5 more hours at that point, but don't worry, Super Elder never slows down and never stops while he's on the Lords time. So the news about the district of Alvin now. Well, Elder Franco has called us about three times this past week saying hi and telling us what it is like to be home, and we just laugh and keep trudging along. We did get a new Elder this past week and his name is Elder Baird. He has been out about 17 months and is a really good guy. He is very mellow and calm, but he is a lot of fun when he opens up and is a really cheerful guy. He and elder Jenks already get along great, so things really haven't changes a whole lot. Well one thing, we also got a new District leader, and guess what, your talking to him. President Allred called me on Tuesday when we were in the middle of personal study and told me I was going to be the new District Leader, I really didn't think I was going to be getting that call. I still consider myself young in the mission, but I guess President and the Lord trusts me and so I'll give it everything I have. Friday I had exchanges with the Zone Leaders so that Elder Whipple could train me on how to do my new assignment, and we had a great exchange. we had an awesome District Meeting with the Pearland District, and the spirit was so strong. Elder Whipple gave the talk for the meeting on Faith and Confidence, and then Elder Jenks gave a powerful training on the vision we should have as missionaries. he shared a really cool quote from President Spencer W. Kimball that really struck me hard. He said "if I had half the years that I have right now I would run to every door sharing the gospel, and then when I couldn't run I would walk, and then when I couldn't walk, I would crawl, and the when I couldn't crawl, I would lay on my belly and pull myself by my elbows, and when I couldn't do that, I would lay on my back and scream the message of the gospel to anyone that could hear me." When Elder Jenks said that it hit me really hard and I have pondered that statement from the prophet many times this past weekend, and I feel a desire and need to do even more to share the gospel now and after my mission, so i hope that you all would ponder that statement too. It was just a powerful meeting that really humbled us all and was the kind of meeting that would light a fire under our butts for this transfer, and I a so grateful for the spirit we felt there. Another thing that I realized this week was the power of a testimony. ONe night as I was writing in my journal, I began to think about the lessons we had had that night and the testimony that i had given to this person. As I thought about the testimony I was given, I felt so thankful for the knowledge I have and the strength it gives me, and the power that comes from it. Sometimes when we are teaching, it doesn't matter if it is on the doorstep, or in the house, when I bear testimony of the Savior and of the Book of Mormon, I can just feel the power of the testimony bearing testimony to them and confirming what I am saying. Every time I feel it, it strengthens my testimony and confirms to me that what I am doing is exactly what the lord wants me to do. it is an amazing feeling, and a comforting one too. Well, I only have one minuete left, so I'll finish up soon. I love you all big and miss you tons!! Love your missionary, Elder Cook

Elder Justin Doyle~Serving in Mexico Monterey West
I am feeling awesome! I love it here. Changes are coming up this next week and I don’t know what is going to happen. If I am going to stay or leave or what. The baptismal experience was great! We have two hopefuls coming up and hopefully they will make the decision to be baptized before either mi compa o yo leave the area. That is funny because it is NOT green. I saw a very unkempt patch of semi green grass the other day and was shocked to see grass. I forgot about it completely. There are several fabricas (factories, sorry) and so it is kind of industrial. Right now I live in el valle de las flores if you want to check that out. My area right now is El valle all the way to the right to arteaga and a little past. Things with mi compa are great. I am learning a lot. He is treating me fine. We are friends but there a re a lot of major differences between us because he is from Tabasco ( the bottom most tip of Mexico) and I am from California so our likes are different but some are the same. His name is Elder Gonzalez. I am close to fluent. haha. I have no idea! I can communicate and chat and do all that stuff and understand a ton but at the same time there are muchisimas palabras que yo no entiendo pero I have a meta to learn 10 new words each day and have been doing that since I first got here. WOW! Felicidades to Tanner and I hope he does well because that is great for him. That is way cool for Tyler and can I have the name of Auroras band to write down to remember. He’ll find a job soon I am sure. Figures for Samantha at that birthday party because it is Summer Stone. haha I miss you guys too but in due time and dad and I will be watching the unit and such. I do think it is funny that you wrote tanner and not Tyler, so dad misses a kid who is at home more than one who is gone. haha. I bet he is. I didn’t even think how small it would be once i left.I made a cd of pictures from here and I am going to try and send it to you today if possible. Don’t worry I am keeping the cd card for myself. I do need some money to buy a small backpack and scripture cases here because we are supposed to have those things here and I do not. I am going to check the bank account with the card today and if there is money I am going to pull out some because I need it sooner than later and I cant wait for a response in a week. Apparently we need those things always. its a rule. We teach about 5 lessons a day to people and do a lot of tocando en lal puertas. I love you all and am going to try and puit some pics on flickr right now for you to see if i can. I love you

Elder Clifton Dudley~Serving in Mexico Monterey East
"Thanks to the ties I received for Christmas, I have finally been able to realize a long awaited goal: wear a different tie every day of the month. When I took my inventory on December 30th, I noted that I had 30 ties. I also realized there are 31 days in January. As I explained to my companion, this is called ¨Working with Faith¨, because I had a worthy goal that could not be accomplished at the time that I set it, but that I had faith that God would help me do it. Of course I was joking. God has a sense of humor, too.At the end of the sports day in the mission office, I ran into Elder Gonzalez, who was my companion for my first 3 days in Mexico. While we were companions, he had liked/envied one of the ties that I had, but I was unable to give it to him since at the time I only had 6 ties. And so I promised him that I would give him the tie before the end of his mission (right now, he has 3 months left). It just so happened that I was wearing that very tie when we saw each other in the mission office. ¨Hey, when are you gonna give me that tie?¨ ¨What, this one? I´d give it to you right now, but I don´t want the President seeing me leave tie-less¨¨Change it out for this one¨ he said, handing over a tie that the mission had given him for Christmas. It wasn´t until I got home that the thought, ¨31st tie¨ crossed my mind.Hope you like that rather unusual spiritual thought. Also, I hope that Mom enjoys her birthday. Love you all a lot."

Elder Cassidy Hilton~Serving in Argentina Bahia BLanca
"You know you're in Argentina When...
People cannot parallel park and usually hit other cars when they try.
There's a bidet in every house.
People stand outside their houses for hours, watering their sidewalks and dirt lawns. That is not even a joke.
People 'mow' grass with a weed whacker until it's all gone and its dirt again.
You see someone with really expensive designer clothes, multiple cell phones, a large flat screen TV, and they live in the dirtiest, poorest shack you can imagine, with no plumbing sometimes.
There is never carpet ever.
You see families of five crammed onto a mo-ped, driving around town.
You buy something and people don't have enough change, so they make you buy candy so you use money.
Women openly breast feed in public.Wine is priced way less than water."

Elder Cameron Pettey~Serving in Sao Paulo Brasil
"Hello family and friends. So I was transferred. And am now in a new area. Its already been almost a whole week since I have been here... So Elder Court and I wanted to stay in Ermelino together because this AMAZING family showed up at Church last Sunday. They are unexpainable. But made it so both of us wanted to stay super bad. But I was transferred and already have to move on. Elder Court is training a really white american. Haha. So thats cool. And I am now on the ISLAND of the mission. Ilha Bela (beautiful island) its called. It really is beautiful. It is really far away, and we had to take a ferry to get here. It is way tropical and green. The island is big. It has lots of cool stuff, mountains, beaches, waterfalls, rivers, etc. Lots of cool stuff. It is so good to see nature again, and to here the trees blowing in the wind and the birds chirping. It is a really pretty place. It is a bit of a touristy place for lots of Brazilians and others, too. They have some wicked fruit flies here that eat your blood and that itch way worse than mosquitos... The branch here is really good from what I have seen so far. Seems to be about the same size as Ermelinos ward, with like 70 people who go. They meet in a rented house, and sac mtg is in an open covered room. Kind of cool... And now for the best part, my companion. Elder Eloi. Brazilian. 19. 1st area... From Maceio... He is helping me prepare for my future."

"We had transfers(my 8th) on Tuesday and...Elder Eloi ... got transferred.... So we got up at like 3am on Tuesday to make it to Sao Paulo. Our entire Zone was transferred, so we went together. Ends up that I am training Elder Lee! An American from Arizona. So far its been really good. He seems like a good guy. But, that poor kid, we got off to a little bit of a rough start. After transfers, we went to buy our bus ticket (on Tuesday) to go back to the coast. Everybody wanted to go to the beach for the new year, and (the bus system) didn't have any room until Wed at 6pm. So we went back and ended up just sleeping at the assistants house. The next day we had interviews with President. It was really good... It was really spiritual, and helped me. He also talked about Elder Lee, and I´ll quote him on what he said..."He´s solid, not flashy, just solid."... We took the bus and got to Caraguatatuba late (Wednesday). It takes like 2 more hours to get to our house from there, so we ended up just staying there with the Elders. It was cool. We stayed together for the New Year. We had a little toast at like 9pm. ha! Then slept. The next morning we finally got to the island. So it was quite the experience. 3 days of traveling, with one set of clothes, garments, without toothbrush. It was gross. Good."

"Life is not always easy. We are always going to have challenges in our way. Challenges, however, are what we need to grow, and to reach our potential. Everybody is different and needs different challenges to help each individual grow to its potential. It is required that we overcome our challenges and that we become greater than them. Then we will get another challenge. Then we have to overcome. Then challenge. Then overcome. It brings comfort to know that this is for our own good, and that as the Lord states in the New Testament, that he won´t let us be tempted above that which we can handle. Through much prayer and scripture study, we can overcome all things. I know that the Lord is our guide and that he will help us in all of our struggles. Trust in the Lord. He knows what is best for each and every one of us. Love,Elder Pettey"

Elder Jordan Shillingburg~Serving in Antofagasta Chile
I’m still in the same sector with Elder Jesus, YEA! But all of the other companionships have changed the señor companion. And our latest baptism went through, that one was on the 27th of Dec. Here is something funny that happened this week, we were door knocking and at this one house it was only a kid there, so we offered him a pass along card and so he left the door and walked to us to take the card, and the wind blew and shut the door, so we kind of ended up locking a kid out of his house. But we did just leave him stuck like that, so elder Jesus tried to swipe the lock on the window with pass along cards, but if Cody was there he could have opened this window like nothing, but he ended up figuring out that he had to push on the window and then swipe it, it took about 6 minutes for him to figure it out, I would have done it, but that might look wrong, a gringo breaking into a house, I’d rather have them take the blame if something goes wrong, cuz at least he can explain it better. And on a missionary note, we had to push two of our baptism dates back to the 24th, My B-DAY, cuz one of the investigators did come to church yesterday, and the other doesn’t feel prepared so we go to give him some reassurance and hope for this guy. And we found a new investigator Saturday, and she was at church yesterday, we got this one in the bag, Susana Morales.
It turns out that many of these people go camping, but where I don’t know, somewhere near the beach or something, but he is going on one of these camping trip things for the next 3 weeks, so that kind of sucks.but it is all right cuz we got a bunch more good investigators that we are going to knock out, we are going to try to plow out all of them on the 7th of Feb, and another on the 14th. And this week we managed to get 9 investigators to church yesterday, so woot!The kid that we plan on baptizing on the 14th is an investigator from my second week here, but back in November his aunt talked them into having their cousins baptize him in Peru after we taught him most of the stuff, but something happened and so he isn’t going to Peru, so it is a good thing that we didn’t drop him, so now we have the opportunity to baptize him.

Elder Cameron Smith~ Serving in Rome Italy
Buongiorno Cari amici,
Everything is going great I have just had some crazy weeks these past two weeks. But the good news is that I'm alive and still here in La Spezia. By the way I still love it just as much! The work is still going and we are trying hard to bring a couple of our investigators to baptism. We have given two "soft" invites so far, that is to say, we asked them, if they were to receive an answer would they be baptized. So we have a couple prospects that are looking very promising.
We started a FHE type thing for members and investigators here in La Spezia. We usually have about 10 people that come and we do a nice spiritual thought, play a game and have a treat or something afterwards. It has been going well.
We have been having a lot of people that are really interested in the church from our English class and we taught a first lesson and watched the restoration film last week. There were quite a few people that stayed and participated. It was really cool!
One thing that I have been working on is improving the effectiveness of my prayers. I realized after Elder Bednar gave his talk that there were many things that I could improve about my prayers. For example, not falling asleep every time that I pray on my knees. I know you laugh, but you do it too. It's hard after a long day and then the lights are out and it is really quiet and my sheets smell good and are really soft, because I just went to a laundry mat and dried them. Anyways you get the idea. So I have been trying to make my prayers more meaningful and it has really made a difference. I would encourage everyone to try it.
I can say with assurance that this is the Lord's work and that He is guiding it at the head. He has shown me many times His love for me and our investigators and members. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, He who paid that ultimate price for my soul. He who died so that I might live. He who was led captive that I might be set free. I love this work and am learning to trust in the Lord and allow Him to show me miracles! I hope that every one of you can see these blessings also through this amazing missionary work!

Elder Kyle Clark Smith~ Serving in Phoenix AZ Spanish Speaking
“What a week! It was hard to say goodbye to the people in my last area. I was so blessed with so many amazing experiences and opportunities.
First, my companion. Is name is Elder Crandall and he is from some small town in Wyoming and the other two Elders that live in “The Shack” with me are both hillbillies. One is from Montana and the other is from Oklahoma. Needless to say I feel like the oddball in the apartment. They all share hunting stories and working on the farm and have thick accents, and I am starting to talk like them. I now say things like, “I reckon that…” Or “I’ll tell you what.” It is a lot of fun. “The Shack” is nice, no luxury apartment like Surprise but it works. I feel like we are camping every day. The shower is outside in a littler shack and we have to wash our dishes in a bucket because the pipes are busted. We all sleep in the same little room with bunk beds and I feel like I’m at scout camp or something.
Quick story- we had a few appointments fall through on us on Sunday so we were trying to figure out what to do so we sent and checked some referrals. Halfway to one of them we got lost and ended up in front of a former investigator and decided to see if they were home. They were busy and we set up an appointment and left but walk by a member’s house. Elder Crandall asked if I wanted to meet then and I figured why not, so we went to their home. Ok, now the cool part. He opens the door and throws his hands up in amazement. “Elders, it a miracle! I was just looking for your number and couldn’t find it. Come in. My friend is here and was asking questions and wants to learn about the church. Here sit down, this is Juan Carlos, teach him!” So we did and it went great and we are going back on Thursday. Talk about being guided to be at the right place at the right time. That was NEVER in the plans but we were subtlety lead there. That was a good lesson to learn. The Spirit works by subtlety leading and that is exactly how should work too. We need to stop and remember and thank the lord and realize that his hand is in all things.”
Elder Nicholas Takis~Serving in Missouri St Louis
"I'm going to Sullivan. I'll be serving in Sullivan which is about 30 minutes away and in the suburbs again. I get to drive and I'll be district leader and be follow-up training Elder Baker. He's a good guy and a good missionary and my district is great. Some of my favorite guys.. they will support me well, I need all the help I can get.. Things are great. not gonna lie, this is soo hard.. I kinda hate but love transfers ya know? I have to leave all the people I met and baptized. Sooo rough. But the Lord will give me strength though.. I know he will. Hope Sullivan is awesome. If not I'll just have to make it so....haha.. My Ward mission leader here, you know Laffi.. his fiance' is in that ward.. woop woop!!.. she'll take care of us, Tingey called and told her on the phone that I was coming and she screamed..lol.. funny lady, so no worries momma, we'll be taken care of, and Laffi will be seeing me sometimes so he'll watch out for me...."
Elder Carter Zufelt~Serving in Denver S. ColoradoCarter just got transferred from Lakewood to Littleton. His new address is:7737 West Chestnut, Littleton, CO 80128. His new zone is huge. They cover two stakes and most of the Rocky Mountains (Vail, Aspen, Frisco, Granby, etc.) His companion is Elder White who is from Wanatche, WA. They get along great. He is serving in the Columbine Ward and the Chatfield Ward. "The Chatfield Ward has alot going on and the members are wayyyy solid. alright, it was hard to leave Lakewood. There are so many people that are sooooooooooo close. This past week we had such a good turnout to church. We had 10 investigators there. That is the highest I have ever gotten and I was pumped to see that!!!! It was a bummer to leave. That is one of the hardest things for me-leaving and area after developing friendships and bonds with people whom you have grown to love. One family we are teaching here is from Hawaii, they are sweet!!! Her name is Nunni and her sons' name is Kalei and they have relative that are living with them. Their cousin’s name is Isaiah, he is 9 and super sincere. Most of our time is spent tracting. We do a lot of it, and even though it's not the most effective thing to do, it does work and it feel good to hit the pavement. There hasn't been much snow here lately, but it has been sooo cold. There was one day where the low was -8 degrees and with the wind shill it got down to -20!!!! It was bitter cold and it hurt to go out, but we still did. Zach, I'm pumped for you to see where you get called. Maybe you'll get called here, and maybe I will train you!!!! That would be saaaweeettttt!!!! Check out this cool quote from Abraham Lincoln, "I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." It is amazing to think that our Founding Fathers were so inspired and that they have accepted the gospel in the spirit world. I love seeing how each thing made it possible for the gospel to be restored to the prophet Joseph Smith. Truly this gospel is true and is led by Jesus Christ. I love sharing that message."

Spotlight on Our Missionaries

Elder Tyson Wheeler & Elder K

Elder Cameron Smith & Elder Steiner working at Grillo

Elder Jordan Shillingburg with Elder Jesus

Elder Jared Schmidt at his 1 year mark!

Elder Nathaniel Billings~Serving in Columbia South Carolina
Elder Billings just sent us his first letter from the MTC. He is content and surprised that most of the missionaries who started with him are from Utah. His companion is Elder Kidd. He was made senior companion.
November 10 is the tentative departure date for the South Carolina Mission.
Leaving him at the MTC wasn't as hard as we thought. We are very happy he is there among many wonderful kids.

Elder Justin Doyle~Serving in Mexico Monterey West

Spanish is coming along great. We have two different teachers that teach at separate times and they told me that they are grateful I am in their class to help them teach the guys in our district. I sing in every devotional and so far, on every one, the camera has come on me, my comp (Elder Turpin) and the guy going to Juliard because we always sit next to each other in the front section. So if they ever air you will definately see us.

I love you all and am having an amazing time. The spirit is very strong with me and I am studying a ton as well. We study about 10 or so hours a day. Thank you for the addresses and now I just need Steven Atcheson's address. I had an impression by the spirit during our devotional this week (by L. Tom Perry) to write Steve so I need his address. Thanks again.

Elder Clifton Dudley~Serving in Mexico Monterey East

I also performed my first baptism. Unfortunately, it doesn't count on our numbers because it was the 8 year old daughter of a member that we reactivated, but that's not important. A baptism is still a baptism. The only really weird thing about it was that the water was green. And I had to do it twice because the first time I said "te bautizo" instead of "yo te bautizo." Of course, in regular conversation the yo is usually dropped, but its part of the prayer, so I had to do it again. I got pictures beforehand, I'll make sure to send them to you when I can how I can."

Sister Teresa Hall~Serving in Nevada Las Vegas
Thank you for your letter, I love how you inform me on everything. I really like it. So on my part of the world and news, I just baptiszed someone on Saturday it went well, I feel Like I may have another baptism at the end of this transfer!

Elder Cameron Pettey~Serving in Sao Paulo Brasil
has been serving in an area known as Ermelino Matarazzo since transfers on August 26^th. His companion is Elder Court from Missouri who has been serving 3 weeks longer than Cameron. The area is south of the Guarulhos International Airport. Cameron says in his 9/22 email, “Our area here in Ermelino Matarazzo is HUGE!(twss) and so we have to walk a lot. It is kind of a waste of time. A big waste of time. It would be so much easier, and better, I think, if we could have bikes. Or skateboards. Or HEELYS! haha”

Elders Pettey and Court opened the Ermelino Matarazzo area; missionaries had not been serving there for some time. They were both flattered that the Mission President, Pres. Wilkins, would entrust two relatively new American missionaries with that responsibility. They have worked hard to build a fruitful investigator pool, teaching and testifying, and baptizing. They are having a lot of fun and success in sharing the message of Jesus Christ’s atonement and His restored Church.

This is a quote from E. Pettey’s last email received on Oct. 27^th, “…this week was awesome. It was a busy, busy week. Without a doubt, a blessing from the Lord. I was honored to have the wonderful opportunity to hear an Apostle of the Lord, Elder Richard G. Scott, speak. He spoke to our entire mission. It was in Ipiranga, my old stake center. It was a special day for Jesus Christ, with three 70´s, two General Authorities, and a mission President. Elder Ellis from the Area Presidency in Brazil was there, and was cool. But Elder Scott is awesome. He is powerful. He has a strong spirit about him. He talked about so many good things…I want you guys to know that I know Jesus lives, and that He speaks face to face with his Prophets and Apostles. He is our Savior and Redeemer and only through Him, we can truly have eternal happiness.”

Needless to say, Cameron is having an awesome mission experience! Life is great! Thanks to all of you young men serving missions, and you families who are supporting them! The Lord’s work is rolling forth!

Elder Jared Schmidt~Serving in SLC Utah

So first of all how did you all like general conference???? I LOVED IT!!! I swear for us missionaries general conference is like super bowl weekend. We seriously go crazy. I learned so much I have 6 pages of notes. I can't believe that I never watched all sessions before. Crazy. Only twice a year do you get to hear the words of the prophets and never did I watch saturday sessions at home. What was I thinking!!!
So speaking of confenece and the prophet I have so amazing news!! You all better sit down for this one!
So satUrday night I get a call from my zone leaders. It was Elder Miller who called and we chatted for a minute and he asked how I was. I said good and he said well you are going to be even better. Of course my curiosity is peaked so I ask why, Well they had one extra ticket to go to General conference sunday afternoon, and they decided to give it to me.
I was shocked. Normally you only get to go if it is the last confernce that you can go to. But since they had an extra ticket and since the zone leaders love me, I got to go. Holy Cow family, talk about an experience. So first of all we met at the tracks and road the train to down town. me and a bunch of other missionaries. You would think we were going to Disney land or something, how excited we all were. Well we got down town and met the assisitants who gave us our tickets. They have a special section for the missionaries. It is right in the bottom right corner by the door were all the general athourities come in. You probably have an idea of what is coming next. Well we were seated about 45 minutes before confenece started. I was in the second row. Sitting in fornt of me was Elder Maxwell's widow. She talked to us for a while and is a really neat lady. Well then all the general athourities started to come in. When the saw us they came over to say hi. I shook hands with so many 70 I can't even tell you. One of the men I shook hands with was the 70 that talked in preisthood Dad and Jake about honoring the preisthood, especially Aaronic preisthood.. he told me he was going to Auburn next week and would kiss the ground for me! Well then the 12 started coming in. Elder Holland came over gave us a thumbs up and talked to us for a bit. He is sooooo funny. Then the first presidency came in and waved at us and confenece started. Oh it was amazing we were so close and the spirit was sooo strong sitting there. Well after it was over the First presidency started to leave when The Prophet spotted sister Maxwell he came down off the stand to say hi and give her a hug. Well He was literally 2 feet in front of me. I thought my heart would come out of my throat. I have never been so close to the prophet. You could just feel the spirit and love permiating out of him. After saying hi to Sister Maxwell he looked at us missionaries. He looked right at me and said hi and asked how I was. I thought I would die. He then started to shake our hands. Um so it was proabably the most amaazing experience EVER!!!! He talked to us for a minute then went back up to leave. As all the twelve left, they all waved at us and I pulled out my camera and videoed it so I have a sweet video to show you when I get home. Man it was amazing!!!!!!!!!

Elder Jordan Shillingburg~Serving in Antofagasta Chile

The days here go by a lot faster than in the MTC, but some days
aren’t all that great, yesterday was Sunday, and typically we spend
the time after 3:30 doing work, and the in the entire day we only
taught one lesson, but it is okay, cuz the day before we
went all over the place and taught 7, on a typical day we will do
at least 3 or 4.
We have a baptism date on the 8th for a part member family,
the father is inactive, and one of the boys was baptized years ago,
but we are baptizing the Wife, Eliana, and the other two kids,
Leonardo and Diego, I think they are like 8 and 10 years old. I love those
two, they are so excited to do church stuff. I think that the kids here are
way more cute than the ones back home, but we aren’t allowed to
hold them or pick them up or anything so that kind a stinks, but it
does avoid having to play with the energetic ADHD kids.
Halloween was weird, people kept yelling for my attention, so I‘ve
already taught myself to ignore English when I'm out on the streets,
cuz people will either yell in English, or say gringo, which doesn’t
bother me, cuz i am one.I keep forgetting to check which way
the toilet goes, but I’m pretty sure that it is clockwise.
Still haven’t eaten anything weird and we only really eat with the
members on lunch on Sunday and Saturday, and as for extreme poverty,
I don’t think so, most of this place is in poverty tho, but people get by,
and some have nicer cars than others but still have the
same little sized houses. I’m slowly understanding more
Spanish each day, and my companion is good, he knows how to
work hard and he knows a lot about the scriptures.
Peace, love ya
Elder Shillingburg

Elder Cameron Smith~ Serving in Rome Italy

I can't begin to describe the amazingness of this work and the things that I have seen and experienced. I know that the hand of the Lord truly is in everything that we do as missionaries. I could never deny that and I know that He is watching over us and helping us to accomplish His Great and Marvelous work! Just the other day we were walking towards the church I believe and
a man stopped us. He is an African and as you might be aware we are working with many right
now and I believe that every African in La Spezia at least knows who we are right now. It is really interesting how this has all unfolded. So allow me to give a little background before I tell you what happened. Two transfers ago, so over three months for those who are not inclined to missionary lingo, I went on an exchange with another elder other then my normal companion. We took a long bus ride up to an area that I have never been to. We had planned to go and knock on some doors but due to a lack of time we had to wait at the bus stop instead. We talked to many people that
day and came home. So back to the story. We were walking to the church and a man stopped us and in English asked me, "Hello, do you remember me?" Of course I didn't remember him, but I said yes thinking that I could guess and get close enough. I responded yeah, we met on the bus, right? He looked at me and said, "No, you don't remember. That's ok I know you meet a lot of people." haha! Of course, I felt stupid, but he explained that we had met that day in Aulla. I
instantly remembered him because he is the only Christian African that I have met here in La Spezia! We have since taught him a first and have another appointment tonight with him. For
lack of time it will suffice to say that the week has been really amazing and that we are finding new investigators and helping the others to progress and hope to have a few baptisms soon!
Well, on Monday and Tuesday we had a very unique experience. In Italy, one must apply for and
do the work for the permission to reside in the country in the first city in which they enter. Anziano Steiner entered Italy in Napoli and so had to apply and do the work there. He however was
advised to return at a later date to do the work and it happened to fall on yesterday! So we got to make an amazing trip down to La Bella Napoli. We woke up on Monday morning and did our regular stuff like eat, get ready and study and then we did something that is not normal. We left
our zone on a train to Napoli which is at the other end of the mission. It took about 8-9 hours in
train to get there, making one stop over in Rome! It was very nice to be back in Rome, however,
we only spent about 20 minutes there. Then we got on a regional or the lowest rate train and we were almost the last people on before it left during rush hour. So we got to stand packed like sardines for an hour and then it finally cleared out long enough to sit down! When we got there we had an hour and a halfish before the other elders got the apartment so we went and got one of the best pizzas that I have ever eaten! Yes I would recommend it! The owners son is a rock star and
we got to talk with him and make friends and he gave us some free food and then while we were eating our pizza a man walked up to us who had met the other elders a few days ago. He was a "Brad Pitt look alike." Or so he said...(He didn't look a lot like him) He was more of a crazy
stocker of Brad Pitt. He was really funny though and we talked for a while before going to the apartment. The next day we got up at 6 left at 7 got to the Questura where we had to fight our
way to this door to get a numbered ticket from the policeman in order to wait two hours to do Anziano Steiner's finger printing and that was actually very efficient for here! It was quite the experience! I couldn't have paid money to do that! It was fun! Then we were told that if at all possible we needed to be back in La Spezia that night, so we went and ate lunch said goodbye
to the other elders (of which was Anziano Jackson my companion from the MTC) then we hopped an expensive train to get back to Rome in order to eat McDonalds to hop an even more expensive train to get back to La Spezia by 10! We talked with an amazing man though on the last train,
about families and the difficulties that he faces and how he overcomes them and he gave us some advice and we taught him about the church and got his phone number. He is an officer at the American base in Livorno. (He is Italian though). Well now we are back in La Spezia and on to
work again! I love this stuff! I hope that everyone has a wonderful week full of excitement and joy. Just remember that a positive attitude is contagious, but don't wait to catch it be a carrier! I love
the Lord and I love His work!
Alla Prossima,
Anziano Cam Smith

Elder Nicholas Takis~Serving in Missouri St Louis
Well, The work is moving forth...this transfer Elder Spendlove and I have really
Been striving for perfect obedience and that means in every aspect.... yes it is hard but
but we've seen it bless in the area... We have about 12 families were consistently teaching
and they'er referrals from Gladys Knight.. we've spent hours and hours on end in the ghetto
contacting people (inside by dark of course).. and it has truly paid off.. We've even gone so far
as to skip lunch and sometimes dinner because we have appointments.
We average about 4 teaching appointments a day...today we had one about now but he bailed...
happens often unfortunately.. anyhoo, last week was amazing, we decided to be bold with our
investigators and inbite them to enter the waters of baptism.. um our end result is about 10
baptisms coming up on November 22nd... Isn't that a miracle?.. we also set four more
baptismal dates with a family last night... so that puts us at about 14 right now...
Oh Momma,
I can't even explain my excitement.."

Elder Tyson Wheeler~Serving in North Carolina Charlotte
Its sweet to finally be in the CITY! I realized that, from what I remember, Charlotte is as big as Sacramento.
I havent been here for more than a year! But it felt like nothing! Elder K has me working like a dog! Riding bikes like a mad man! Jumping on and off buses and trains like an ADD hobo! And not having any idea where we are or where we're going I just follow him. (Ive already had 2 close calls on the bike.)
Being so sick of fast food I accept food wherever we can get it. For instance. Sunday, we were on our
way to an appt when we passed some hispanics pushing a van in the entrance of a complex of apts. We stopped and helped. They thanked us I we invited them to learn. They accepted and we set the appt to be in a half hour. We get there and he offers us "agua" (home-made pineapple/orange juice). We go on the teach him and his wife (listening from the kitchen while making homemade tortillas) about the Bom and how it can help them raise their kids in this spiritually dangerous world. We kept the appt short and as getting up to leave I compamented the señora on her rich-smelling tortillas. She offered us some, we accepted and were happily surprised by a dinner of mole, rice, and fresh tortillas a la mexicana. I love the hispanic people! We dont even have to worry about where we are going to eat that day.

Elder Carter Zufelt~Serving in Denver S. Colorado
is doing great in the Denver, South mission.  "Time goes by so much more quickly when
having fun and doing what is right and staying busy in the best cause ever.  We just
had Zone Conference and it was amazing.  We are upping the standards of excellence.  
The work here is going great and it is picking up in the zone.  We just had Nolan
Price's baptism.  He is a great kid and the service was great.  We have a lot of potential
in our area.  Our goal is to have two baptisms per companionship per month.  Back to
Zone Conference.  I sang with three other elders, "How Great Thou Art".Luke Jones,
whose CD is coming soon to Deseret Book, helped us.  On his CD he is amazing,but
in real life he is something else.  It is amazing how strong music can bring the spirit.
I love it!!  
Well, all is well in the field.  The work is progressing and it is great to be a part of it.
I love it so much.  Thanks for everything."

Spotlight on Our Missionaries

Sister Teresa Hall

Elder Nicholas Takis with some buddies.

Baptism of Jose Basillo & Neaza ~ Elder Cameron Pettey

Elder Andrew Ensign Pulsipher's Real Mexico

Back to School Post

Elder Robbie Cook ~ Serving in Texas

Robbie was transferred this last month to a small town about 40 minutes south of Houston called Alvin Texas. He loves it there and enjoys the chance to teach in English finally. He still gets to speak Spanish but the Ward he is in now is English speaking. The members are great and they should have a baptism this next week. Their are four Elders in their apartment and they all get along great. The District Leader is a native Mexican from Taiwan and has been a wonderful resource for Rob as he continues to learn the language. It continues to rain almost every other day and Hurricane Gustav may add some additional wind and thunderstorms over the next few days. Alvin is only about 30 minutes inland from the Gulf of Mexico and the port of Galveston Texas.
Rob says he's loves his mission and the people he's serving in Texas. He has truly been blessed in his efforts and knows that he is where the Lord needs him.

Elder and Sister Dayes ~ Serving in the Philippines MTC Medical Mission

We have been caution about these relationships. Because the Philippineso think we are Americans and have all the money in the world. So we have been told to be very careful because they will ask and expect money from us. Well I have been very lucky up until recently. One middle aged man caught me in my office late the other night; He told me his wife called crying that that she had no food to feed their children, nothing for breakfast, lunch or dinner. He told me he has to walk two hours to work because he has no money he want to buy a bike but no money. He was crying. He said he didn’t have enough nerve to ask the President. He told me that he does all his church callings. He moved his family here close. In the past

Church employees are very lucky. Most employers give 5 month contacts with no benefits. Then they are laid off only to try to find another job. But, the church gives benefits, retirement, and raises, medical. And clothing allowances not for just the job clothing but also for cloths to wear to work. Also, lunch money. Holiday pay, sick pay. They are so fortunate to work for the church. And most employees are aware of these blessings. Well on this mans employment record is a problem with gambling. I had heard this before. But what do you do. It is hard to evaluate his situation because. He has a weight problem so does his wife and kids. So I wonder about the truthfulness of his situation. Yet, I can’t help but feel sorry for him thinking of his children. I went to the President and he and I gathered some food and sent it home with him. I did not want the word out that I helped because I don’t want to be the soft touch around here. But sure enough the next night the man that cleans the place. A different guy, Stopped me on the stair well and asked for 1, 030 Pecos. So I told him I am sorry it is against the rules. I felt bad. I heard the president going into his apartment so I stopped him and told him what happen so this guy had gone to him with the same story so the president gave him a loaf of bread and I got a jar of peanut butter. I hope that is the end of that.

Do you know how lucky we are to be an American? I don’t have words to describe our blessings. No one in the USA is really poor. We all benefit from everyone working and paying taxes. What a wonderful country we have! Hospital at home can not turn people away if they have no money. But here you just die. No money no care!
There are big holes in the street and Wires sticking out of poles, holes in sidewalks. You have to watch every where you move or you could seriously get hurt.

Elder Tyler Doyle ~ Serving in Guatemala

Well...........This is my last time using crappy internet here in Guatemala and the last time talking to you guys. Next week in real person.........crazy.....I am way nervous to go home so u might have to baby me for the first few days.

Well,…… on the way back from Coban last week, it started to rain so hard that landslides occurred. So we couldn't continue our trip. We turned around and a river was going through the street and we got stuck.....So all 10 of us missionaries got out in the pouring rain and we pushed the car through the river.....good times....we all slept together on a mattress to get through the night. It was a hassle. There are a certain aspects of this country that I am sick of, but only one more week. I am so grateful that I was able to do what I did for 2 years and to learn what I learned.......moments I will never forget. I love u all, and I will see you soon. Elder Doyle

Elder Clifton Dudley ~ Serving in Mexico

Elder Clifton Dudley hopes to be heading to the Mexico, Monterrey East Mission soon. Currently, however, he is blessed to be serving in Salt Lake City, South while he awaits his visa. Although he enjoyed his MTC experience, he is excited to be out in the mission field. (For awhile, he was concerned he would be working full-time in the MTC call center awaiting his visa.) All his Spanish practicing must have paid off because he is fortunate enough to be serving in a Spanish-speaking assignment in the Salt Lake City area along with two other elders. All in all, there are 49 elders in his group awaiting visas for Mexico. If you would like to write Elder Dudley for free or see some of his pictures, please visit his website, www.dearelder.com/cliftondudley. The password is "clifton."

Elder Derek Evans ~ Serving in England

Derek was called to the England Leeds Mission (the very same Mission I was called to 35 years ago) and reported directly to the Preston, England MTC on Aug. 29th. The MTC is in a small town called Chorley, about 8 miles from Preston, where the very first baptisms (9 individuals) were performed in England in 1837 in the River Ribble which runs through Preston. The Preston Temple is also on the same lot as the MTC. I am so thrilled; I can hardly describe my feelings because I served in Chorley for a short time. The Preston, England MTC actually allows the Missionary trainees to go out into nearby neighborhoods and do door-to-door contacting and teaching as part of their training. It may well be, that my son will work in the streets that I had the privilege to work in so long ago. I told him when he received his call that the reason he was called there was to "clean up the mess I made".

Sister Teresa Hall ~ Serving in Nevada

Well Transfers came and went. I left Kingman Arizona and am
now Back in Las Vegas in East again! I came home! I am so excited.
I started my mission here. I am in a different area but back to the same Zone.
I am not sure if you understand that all because it is mission jargin. I am with
Hna White who is from South Carolina. She is a Spanish speaker and really
neat! We are STRAIGHT Spanish! I am soooo happy. I am have NO ENGLISH
ward. Or area to cover. So I am hoping my Spanish will really improve this
Transfer. I am somewhat scared because of the heavy Spanish work load
and me not knowing too much Spanish but.. Everything will work out. I met
a man yesterday named Steven, who doesn’t believe  in God because of
all the suffering in the world and also he has read the bible but see's God
as only someone who hurts and throws down people and is a jealous God.
It was so sad to see, because He truly is a good man, who is so lost and
confused. I can see that he truly wants to believe but is lead blindly by Satan
to believe God is not there nor does he care. It was sad, I would say he is one
of the nicest people I have talked to on my mission who is looking for the gospel
but doesn’t even realize it. We wont be teaching him again, which is sad but
he is not ready. I have come to realize that we come closer to God step by step
and that after some time we look back and we see the progression that we have
made and its amazing! I love the scriptures. I have read the BOM twice and am
now about half way through the New Testament. I love it. The small stories that
are not told in church are amazing and I love the way the Savior Teaches with
love and in parables so that it makes me have to ponder what he has written
and to truly comptemplate on what he has taught. I love being on my mission
and for the hard struggles because they have made me so much the better
person I want to be. I also met a young father down in Kingman, who is absolutely
amazing. He had a bad past. But mom, he has the spirit of God within him. Its
burns in eyes the desire to learn more and come closer to God. His name is
Greg. I am really sad that I could not stay and watch him progress but... I will
keep writing him. ummm not much else to write, I have a lot of cleaning and
unpacking to do today. Have a great week.

Elder Cameron Pettey ~ Serving in Brazil

Elder Cameron Pettey is still serving in his initial area, and is with his second companion who he has been with the entire time except for the first three weeks. Cam's trainer for the first 3 weeks, Elder Jeff Shurtliff, just returned home to Orem 2 weeks ago. Elder Alves, from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Cameron have been together since E. Shurtliff got transferred to become a Zone Ldr. Cameron has been trained very well, and is extremely diligent in learning his duty, learning the Portuguese language, loving the people, and having fun. To this point in his mission, we see success, fun, and happiness. Cam is really enjoying his mission, and is serving with all his might, mind, and strength. We are so proud of him. He and his companions have enjoyed seeing the fruits of their labor (with the fellowship and work of the ward members) as eight converts have been baptized since Cameron arrived in Mooca, Sao Paulo on April 8th. In the past month, the Elders baptized a family, the family's friend, and a former Methodist pastor. Here are some excerts from Cameron's emails. I attached a couple of baptism pix.

6/30/08 "Saturday was the best day ever! on the mission for sure. It was awesome. It was a very busy day. I didnt even want the day to end it was so good. So to start, we went and watched Sueli and Cleiton get married. She got emotional which was cool, but it was nothing compared what it will be like in the temple for them. A few hours later in the afternoon we went to their house and ate lunch with them. She made awesome fish. Straight fish. Looked straight out of the sea, just cut in half. Still had the tails and eyes and skin and all. It is way good though. I really feel so comfortable at their house and with them. I feel like I am at home with them. They are really so amazing. I love them. So then at 5pm we had their baptism: Sueli, Cletion, João, and Denis. President came, and it was really good. It was a really neat experience, especially actually being able to baptize them. E Alves baptized Sueli, I baptized Cleiton, and members baptized the others. After the baptism, we had a ward party, festa junina. It was legit."

7/28/08 "This week we baptized a Pastor! It was awesome. Saturday we baptized José Basílio and Neuza. It was a really great day. A little sad because only like 6 members came, but the important thing is that they were baptized. I baptized Neuza first, in the freezing ice water. She was really happy. The gospel is great for her and her kids. It is really making them happy. After that, Elder Alves baptized Senhor Basílio. He is 82 years old, and a bit larger. E. Alves is a little girl, so when José struggled to enter the water, E Alves struggled to help him above of the water. It was sketchy. So after about 2 minutes of trying to help him above the water, I got in to help him up. Ok, jk, just a few seconds under water. but still, HA! It was kind of sad, but really funny. Especially when they said his toe came up. So they did it again, and this time I stayed in the water with him to help dunk him, and help him up. It went smoothly, and the best part was when he came up and heard it was valid...Basílio said loudly: "Amém!" Hahah. It was great. After that, he gave a little talk, which ended up being 25 minutes. ha. But it was really good. He got emotional a couple times, but really has a strong testimony."

Elder Andrew Ensign Pulsipher ~ Serving in Mexico

The Photo sent in is the “real Mexico”. Hugo in blue Victor in the red hat. They live in a cinder block house with metal sheets for a roof and dirt for a floor. They have no bathroom, kitchen or beds. Actually, I'm not sure if the house serves any purpose. They have a garden hose that they use to shower and they drink from the hose too. It's really nasty water. They have electricity now too but that's it.
How does this compare to your house....
They are happy because they know that they are children of our Heavenly Father and that some day, if they live worthily, they can live with Him.

Elder Jared Roberts ~ Serving in Brazil

About 3 weeks ago a family we are teaching told us they were looking for a
place to live cuz their house is expensive, they actually go hungry for a few
days at a time just to make the payment. so we fasted and prayed that they
would be able to find a new house, in our area, so we could continue teaching
them, and that they would never go another day without eating.  We visited them
last night but we had forgotten about our(previous) fast until we got there. we sit
down and the dad said about two and a half weeks ago they were walking along
a one-way dirt road on their way to his brothers house, when all of the sudden a
man in a car pulls up next to them, rolls down the window and gets their attention,
they walk over and he says, "hey, i am going to give you something, but you can´t
ask why, just know that i promised i would do it, and i always keep my promises"
he handed them enough food to last a family of three for about four days, he even
had cookies for their daughter. then he said "oh, and good luck" the family said that
when he said that they felt like he was saying good luck on finding a house, like he
knew. they thought it was a pretty crazy experience but were grateful for the food,
about 2 minutes later they get to his brothers house-his brother and friend had been
out front for about 15 minutes. When asked if they knew the man that passed by a few
minutes earlier in the blue Chevy, they looked at each other and then looked back and
asked "what blue Chevy?" they all looked at the dirt road and noticed that the dirt hadn’t
been kicked up by his car, which is usually what happens on a dirt road, and what had
happened with another car that passed them. that was when i remembered our fast. it
was incredible, just a reminder that the Lord always keeps his promises.

Elder Jared Schmidt ~ Serving in Utah

I have a ton of news for you! You are not going to believe this. So I am training two missionaries right now. I told you that I am training elder Talasinga. Well two weeks ago we got a few visa waiters in the mission waiting to go to Mexico. President chose me to train. He told me he knew I was already basically training Elder Talasinga and it would be hard to have two greenies but he said I could handle it. So my other kid is Elder Porter from Preston Idaho. He is a really cool kid and I like him alot. He is a really hard worker and it is nice to have another palangi (white person) around when we do tongan stuff since Elder Talasinga and the Tongans just talk to each other in there language. Speaking of tongan I actually am learning alot. My goal is to be with Elder Talasinga for 2 transfers and I will be semi fluent then. I told president that I wanted to stay in the Tongan program the rest of my mission and he didn't say no so who knows, I could come home speaking a foriegn language after all!
So my area is doing fabulous. This month is looking so good. In the next 2 weeks we should baptize 8 people! We have a ton of investigators and we keep getting really good referrals. We got a call Sunday night from a ward mission leader saying that a part member family just moved into the ward and the dad who is the NM said he was really interested in being baptized! So we should start teaching them in a few days.

Elder Jordan Shillingburg ~ Serving in Chili (MTC)

The Elders who were in this room before us, played a prank on us. Every now and again a woman’s voice would announce the time. It was always off by like 6 hours. I was very suspicions and have watched a few too many movies. I started check all of the air vents. There was an alarm clock so yeah…. Once we leave here we are gonna program it to go off from like 1 A.M to 5 A.M. and announce the time then put it back in the air vents.The Spanish is coming along fine, I’m not too worried about it. I learned more in 3 days than I did in 2 years back home.We had to give the first lesson three times so far and it seems like Elder Jolley and I do pretty well together. We had a devotional on Tuesday and Dalin H. Oaks was the speaker, it was Cool.
Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios, Jose Smith es un profeta, y Jese Cristo ees nuesto Salvador

Elder Nicholas Takis ~ Serving in Missouri

"AHHH!!! my mama cita... I miss you soo mucho deary.
Ok so I have to apologize for last week.. we really didn't have too
much of a p –day and I didn’t really have time all week to email you
guys.. I am soooo sorry.  We've just been sooooo crammed with this Gladys
Knight fireside thing coming up soon.. we have a ton of referrals and tons
of people to see. Good News though, something pretty amazing happened
about a week and a half ago but I cant take credit, it was the Lords idea..
so I had a dream a couple weeks back that like 30 missionaries
came to our area downtown and we all went out and found all our less
and inactive members and brought them back to church.. It was one
of the most distinct dreams I have ever had.. so that week at our meeting
with the branch council, I said what if we had a missionary blitz in our
area for a few hours and found alot of our lost sheep..branch president
Sleet said that would be awesome.. SO guess what??/ we have a Huge
mission blitz coming up..I talked to president Turley and he said "well how
many missionaries will you need"..haha.. so on august 23 we have a missionary
blitz team up with members.. There will be 20 missionaries and like 20 members
and we're splitting and visiting 200members... Crazy huh!!! I'm soo excited..time
to brings those peeps home.. ya know.. We call it "Operation LOST SHEEP"..
very hush hush -lol  ok..anyways, wow, things are really happening right now..
we just found two new families to teach and one lady who wants to be baptized..
her names Shirley.. and today I tracted into a long time member, Connie Holtz..
she stopped coming when her husband passed cause shes disabled. Shes a
sweet heart.. I got her some tickets to the Gladys Knights thing so it’s a date..lol."

 

Elder Carter Zufelt ~ Serving in Colorado

Carter was transferred to Lakewood, CO last month and was made a ZL. He has a great companion, Elder Emmett, from Irvine, who loves to work. There are so many to teach in his new area. He is loving it. Did you know the Olympics Opening Ceremonies were actually celebrating Carter's year mark?!!! Yes, they were. The world was celebrating with us.!!!!!!!!

Here are some quotes from him. "One of our investigators is Erich, a Baptist who is searching for more. He was taught the Plan of Salvation and he couldn't sleep that night because he was thinking of it all. He marked up

'Our Search for Happiness' and he is going to go to a Mt. to pray. He is the man and he will join. Zone Conference was great, but it was weird to sit on the stand. President is an amazing man of the Lord and it is beautiful being able to work with/near him. This church is amazing and it blesses people’s lives everyday.

p.s. We have a horrible bed bug problem and we are getting sprayed today. I have bites all over my body. They are so annoying. Dumbest little insects ever. I hate them."

"Yesterday I told God that I was going to put my pen down on the map and wherever it landed we were going to tract there. I did and we drove there to do it. It was amazing the results we received. Almost every single person was warm and listened to us and we were able to teach at almost every door!!!!...We got three solid new investigators from that day. God totally hears us and he listens to what we say and do. He guides us and directs us when we let him."