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."