Thursday, October 22, 2015

FACIALS FOR THE ELDERS

Hello family! 

This week has been an interesting one. We didn't do much the first few days because I was packing up my stuff because I was getting transferred. I stopped by the J. family to go and say my farewell to J, who was the most recent convert that I have had. We talked for a while and then it was time for us to leave. But while everyone exited the room that we were in, J. started asking me some questions and we talked a lot about the temple and I told her that I was looking forward to the day that she is going to go through the temple and get sealed. It was a really good conversation that we had. After seeing J. We headed over to the G family, who was the other recent convert family that I had while I was here. When we walked into their home, there was a bunch of women having what looked like a Mary Kay party. It was kinda weird to walk into that. What they were really having was an arbon party.  I also saw sister B from the  ward there as well. It turns out that sister B and sister G are best friends. The next thing that happened I had to think about really hard. All of the women (especially sister G) wanted us to get what they called a "facial" which is a beauty treatment for the face. Me and elder Grizzle didn't really want to do it at first. But after talking about it for roughly 20 minutes, as well as sister G pushing us to do it, because it would make a great mission story. 😃
We came to the conclusion that we would do it because most of the women there were from Pinesdale and if they saw us do it. They might be more open to us and the gospel. (which is probably the dumbest reason for doing it) So long story short, we ended up doing it. After the G's, We went over to the C. famlies because I needed to get the rest of my suit pants. She was so kind enough to fix the hem in my pants that was coming undone. 

On the day of transfers; We drove down in the morning to Missoula, then got everything packed into the trucks and drove to Helena. By the time we had arrived in Helena, I had already been on the road for 3 hours. It took a while to get all of the luggage situated in the trailers of the transfer van. But I was handed keys to one of the cars that was going to great falls and I drove all the way there and all the way to Cut Bank. it was a very long day.

Cut Bank is a pretty cold. We haven't been doing much lately because there is not a lot of work here. There are not a lot of people in the teaching pool. This area is way different than Corvallis. 


Well my week was kinda boring. But it will get better as the weeks go on. 

ELDER DANIELS

Monday, October 12, 2015

Transfer to Cut Bank

Good morning everyone! 

This week has been crazy. on Wednesday we had a our last district meeting for the transfer. We all took a picture with the whole district which I guess it is something that everyone does. They always take a funny picture too...

We then went out and ate lunch together. 


Later that night we went over to the A .family to finish the commandments but we didnt get them done so we were going to go back to their house on Sunday. 

On Friday we had a lesson with C. it was an interesting lesson because when C. showed up to the 
church. She had another guy in the car as well. We thought that it was her boyfriend and he was going 
to stop her progression towards baptism. But we later learned that while C. was heading over to the church, she saw this guy on the side of the road and she said that she felt that she should pick him up. So she did, and she brought him to her lesson with us. and the interesting thing is, he was  interested in what we had to say. He said that he was going to come to church that next sunday. and that next sunday, He was at church and he loved it and had a lot of questions. so I guess that it all turned out that C. had a missionary moment and she gave us somebody else to teach. 

On Saturday we woke up early in the morning to meet at the church with most of the elders quorum. We were going to go with all of them and go into the woods and get some wood for a firewood service project. We had 7 trailers to put all the wood on. The road up into the mountains was pretty crazy, it was super steep and we stopped at the top of the mountain and we started cutting logs and rolling them down the mountain to the trailers. Some of the Logs were pretty heavy but it was super fun.
We got about 20 cords of wood. Which is about 6 trailer loads. but when we were coming back down out of the woods, one of the trailers got a flat tire and we had to load it onto the other trailer that was empty. We were pretty tired at the end of the service project. 





Also, I am getting transferred. I am sad to leave Corvallis. I love the people here. I am going to miss everyone that I met and worked with. But I know that I will be back someday. I am headed to cutbank Montana. I'm going to be with elder masauo he is from Micronesia. 

Monday, October 5, 2015

flu Week and confrence10/2015

 

 

 

Elder Daniels

 

On Oct 5, 2015,

Hey

everyone!

This week has been an interesting week as well as a very eventful week! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. To start it all off, we got our flu shots on Saturday (the 26th)

The rest of our day was pretty normal, we had dinner with a member

family. But dinner had to go a little quick because the mom and the

daughters were going to go to the church to watch the general women's

session of conference. We stayed a little longer at their home because

we new that it was going to be broadcast just like the priesthood

session. For part of our lesson that we shared with them, we watched

the beginning few minutes of the women's conference. It  is cool now

that the women's session and the priesthood session are broadcast like

all the other sessions of conference. I hope that all of you who watch

the women's session all the way through enjoyed it because we only

watched the first speaker. I thought that it was cool that they

actually showed videos during the conference as well. The rest of the

night after dinner was pretty slow. We didn't know what to do, so we

went over to the church and the women's session was just getting over

and they were cleaning up all of the pie and dessert that they had.

They graciously gave us some of the leftovers.

 

 

Sunday is always a very busy day! I woke up on Sunday and I was not

feeling very well. It seemed like I had come down with something.

(ironically after I got my flu shot the day before) church was pretty

good. We went to priesthood for the 3rd hour and guess who was

teaching the lesson! Brother Got, our recent convert! It's was a really

good lesson. after church, Z. (one of our investigators that showed

up to church) asked if we could teach him one of the lessons. He

proceeded to tell us that he would like to continue the lessons just

by himself without his girlfriend (who is a member.) He knows that he

wants to take the lessons for himself. He also expressed to us that he

feels like he can open up more to us without anybody else there. We

are so excited for him, he is progressing very well. We dont know

when, but he will definitely be baptized soon. We met with the W.

family and their kids were not home, so we got the chance to ask them

individually if they have any questions, which they did. Brother

W. asked a question about polygamy and why it is discontinued. We

answered the question with a passage of scripture in Jacob 2:27,30

which says, "Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word

of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one

wife; and concubines he shall have none;...30 For if I will, saith the

Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people;

otherwise they shall hearken unto these things." We explained that it

is something that was done in the past, but since God has commanded us

not to do it at this time, We listen to what he said. He understands

it now. 

There were many other things that we did on Sunday, but there

was nothing else that stuck out to be important to write.

 

Monday was a normal preparation day schedule. The only difference was

that I was getting worse from my sickness. We went to the store to get

some medicine for me and it helped a little bit. At the end of our

night we went to the C. family's home because they invited us to

come over for family home evening. The only problem was that it did

not turn out like the way that it was planned. So we just shared what

we had planned for the lesson and it turned out to be just what they

wanted to hear. It was a good way to end the night.


Tuesday was probably the worst day that I have had on my mission. We

had our apartment inspection in the morning (which was not the worst

part). Then we had all of our appointments fall through and we had

nothing to do today. When dinner came around, we went to the J

 to have dinner with them. Dinner was

amazing!!! Sister J. made breakfast for dinner! Her pancakes that

she made were super thick, the bacon was sliced thick, everything was

amazing! I ate just enough to get myself almost full. When we sat down

for the lesson. We were just talking and I was not feeling very well.

I waited for a while, thinking that I could wait till after we left.

But I couldn't wait any longer and so I asked sister J. if It's could

use the restroom. (you can probably see where this is going to end up)

needless to say as soon as I got into the bathroom, I found the toilet

and everything came back out the way it came in. While I was in the

bathroom, they were all wondering what was taking me so long. Elder

Grizzle was joking around with them and said, "maybe he fell in..."

When I walked out, elder Grizzle asked me if I was okay. Me thinking

that they heard me in the bathroom, I told him, "yeah, I threw up..."

*but the thing is that they never heard me throw up* and elder Grizzle

looked at me with the biggest face of astonishment! He couldn't

believe that I just did that in a members home! Everyone knew that I

was sick when we had dinner, and elder Grizzle looked at me and said

that we were going to go home for the rest of the night. But I told

him that I was fine, and we went and did missionary work the rest of

the night like nothing had happened. I've never been sick on my

mission until now. At least I have been to the J. home a few

times to where they knew me. It would have been really bad if it was

my first time being there and that was their first impression of me.


But I am over it now, elder Grizzle is starting to get it though.

On Thursday we went to Darby to help the sisters with their weekly

planning. We didn't pack anything for lunch, so we went to this

restaurant called "Montana cafe" It was really good food. Elder

Grizzle got this burger that was huge! **now see if you can imagine

this since we did not get a picture of it** its a normal bacon

cheeseburger. But instead of the normal buns on the top and the

bottom, its two grilled cheese sandwiches! from bottom to top:

grilled cheese sandwich,burger, lettuce, tomato, sauces, pickles,

bacon, topped with another grilled cheese sandwich. It was probably

really bad for your health, but it looked amazing!


General conference was amazing! I took so many notes from all of the

speakers. For some reason I've noticed that every time that we have a

70 come to the mission to speak to us, they seem to be one of the

speakers in the next general conference! Last October we had elder

Carlos A. Godoy come to the mission and then he spoke in the October

conference. then we also had Elder W. Craig Zwick come in march to our

mission, then he spoke in the April conference this year. Then we had

Elder James B. Martino come a few months ago, and he spoke in this

last conference.  I feel so bad for President Monson, It was hard to

watch him struggle giving his speech right near the end. I hope he has

a few more conferences under his belt.


We went Hiking this morning up the Blodgett Canyon Overlook. It was a

really beautiful hike. It was dark when we were hiking up. But when we

got to the top, it was a really nice sunset here are some pictures of

the hike.

I know my letter has been really long this week, but I think that I

wrote everything that I wanted to write. I hope you enjoy my letter

this week and it did not gross you out too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elder Daniels

9/28/ 2015 exchanges


Hello! 

This week was a pretty good week. We didn't do a whole lot at the beginning of the week. We mostly did a lot of finding. On Monday we went over to a less actives home and when we showed up he was drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. When he saw us he walked up and said, " Oh no, you caught me being bad!" He was pretty funny about it. He is a pretty funny guy. He likes the missionaries and he is slowly making his way back to the church. Since we met with him last (a few weeks ago) he has came to church every singe week since then. So there is progression with him.

Wednesday we started the exchange with the Hamilton elders. After district meeting in the morning we had to go to one of the zone leaders lessons because elder Grizzle had to give a baptismal interview for the zone leaders. But we ended up being late to the meeting because district meeting ran later than usual and we also gave two of the sisters in our district a blessing because they wanted one. Elder Grizzle did the baptismal interview and then we went to lunch with the zone leaders to Moose Creek which is an amazing restaurant that serves authentic southern BBQ. I've had their super hot BBQ sauce a few times and it is really good. 


But after lunch we went on the exchange and I stayed in Hamilton with elder Ward. It was only until the next day. it was a pretty short exchange. but I found some feather quills, I asked elder ward if Its could take them because It's have a calligraphy set at home and it would be cool to have feather quills. So he let me take them home. But unfortunately they did not work, So I improvised and Its put some ink cartridges of regular BIC pens in the feathers,  They look great and they write great as well. On Wednesday we had a lesson with one of our investigators that we have not met with in a while, It was a really good lesson. We talked a lot about the temple and other things. Near the end of the lesson, his wife asked us for a blessing. so we gave her one, I was voice. 

On Thursday we had a lesson with the P. family.  If don't know if you remember in my letter last week I told you about how she shared her conversion story. Well this time she asked if her kids would share their conversion stories as well. After all of us had shared our testimonies, the spirit was so strong in their home that it literally felt like we were in the temple. It was a very good lesson. 

On Friday we had interviews with President Wadsworth. It's really like the interviews. I talked with him about Pinesdale to help him understand a little of what is going on there since he is somewhat brand new. But If talked with him about C. He said that he could interview her if she came to the Stevensville  church before 4. So we called C. and she said that she could make it barely.  She got there on time and was able to be interviewed. She said that it was a really cool experience. Now all she needs to do is get interviewed by a general authority. Then she can have baptism!  So we are going to wait until that happens. It probably wont happen for a while since general conference is this weekend. haha! 

I'm excited for general conference! It's  going to be a very interesting conference because there is going to be three new apostles called since L Tom Perry, Boyd K. Packer and, Richard G. Scott died fairly recently. I hope you had a good week. Mine was pretty awesome!

9/21/2015 amazing week








 

Howdy!

This week was amazing. There was a lot of amazing things that I experienced. The first of the week was not the greatest however, and ill tell you why. We were supposed to have a lesson with one of our investigators on Tuesday, but she cancelled because she said she got an appendicitis in the middle of the night and she said she was also sick. Which I believed at first, so we rescheduled for the next day(Wednesday). Then she canceled again because she had to go get her medication. We asked how long that would be and she said she didn't know because she had to, "run some errands". why would she go and do some errands when she just got her appendix out the day before?? Did she lie to us? We don't know what we are going to do now.  

On Wednesday we had dinner in Pinesdale with C. family. C. was not there for the dinner. While we were having dinner, C.'s mom asked us how the lesson with C. went  a week ago. We told her the whole story of which I wrote in my letter last week. Her mom was over joyed because C. never told her mom that she made the decision to be baptized. Her mom was elated. After our coordination meeting the same night. We went back into Pinesdale for a lesson with a recent convert family. We didn't really share a lesson there, the mom talked about her conversion story (which is amazing!!). People in Pinesdale have the greatest testimonies! They are the strongest testimonies that I have ever heard in my entire life. We could have spent hours there in their home but we had to go home for the night. It was a very good day on Thursday. 

On Friday we met with C. again. We asked her if she was still interested in being baptized, and she still is. We asked her if she would share her story on how she came to the conclusion on her decision to be baptized. She said that it started with the second super powerful lesson that we had with her when I was with elder Parker. She said that when she went home, she listened to a song that came up randomly on the radio, and it was talked about the same exact thing that we talked about in the lesson as well as it perfectly described the situation that she was in at the time of her conversion. It was probably the coolest thing that I have ever heard. She said, "you always here about people and their conversion stories where the listened to a song or something like that. I always thought that it was weird, BUT IT HAPPENED TO ME!!!!" It was a good meeting with her. 

Saturday was probably one of the most spiritual lesson that I have had on my mission. We met with the A. family Sunday night with brother J. We had the plan to show them the movie, "On The Lords Errand." We proceeded to watch the move. When it was over, it was pretty silent in the home. We asked what they liked about the video and what stuck out to them. All the while when we were talking, The dad was sitting quietly. I asked him, "brother A. what's going through your mind? You seem like you are contemplating a lot, like you have a lot on your mind." He sat silently for about 20 seconds and looked at brother J.  (who is about his age and he grew up in pinesdale as well.) and said, "(name excluded), what were we thinking?!?!" After we left from the lesson, When he said that to me, I knew exactly what he was trying to say. He was basically saying 'we have been deceived our whole lives!?!?'" Brother A. new at that moment that President Monson was the true prophet on the earth! The spirit was so strong in their home. They are a super solid family. 

This week was pretty amazing! I love seeing all of these wonderful miracles. I hope that you had a good week as well.



Elder Daniels


Busiest week 9/14/2015


Hey everyone,
This week was probably one of the busiest weeks that I have had while on the mission.
Nothing  really interesting happened until Wednesday. We did not have district meeting on Wednesday morning because we were going to have a zone training the next day on Thursday. But we were called by the zone leaders to come to the Hamilton  building. We did not know why, but we went anyways. when we showed up, the zone leaders and the Blodgett canyon sisters were there as well. We all went inside and the zone leaders proceeded to tell us that they had some council from the MLC that they went to the day previous. MLC is an acronym for mission leadership council. its where all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission meet in one place with the assistants to the president as well as President Wadsworth and talk about stuff that President Wadsworth would like to see happen in the mission. apparently this last MLC, they talked about how the elders in the mission are not giving enough blessings to others and not utilizing the power of the priesthood in our missionary work. So the zone leaders asked if the sisters would like to receive a blessing. Everyone got a blessing. 
We went to go and see J. who we have been teaching for a while. The only thing is that there has not been much progression with him. So we were going to go over there one last time because , if he was not going to let us talk then we were going to drop him. but when we went over he talked to us outside (as usual) and he proceeded to tell us that it was a bad time. and he also said (word for word), "you know what gentlemen. I am getting tired of all of this worldly stuff that is going on, I want to talk about religion and only religion now...." in my head I was like, "NO WAY! Just  is giving up on worldly things! hallelujah!!!" So we have an appointment tonight.
Friday we had a lesson with C. it was another one of those spiritual lessons. the spirit was so strong in
the lesson. We left the lesson feeling really good, it was on our minds for the rest of the night. then on Sunday, her mom found us and asked, "I don't know what you boys did in that lesson? 
but C. is no longer saying, 'Its not if, but when I get baptized'?" We were very excited. after the lesson that we had a few days ago, We asked if she would like a blessing because she had never had one before. So we scheduled to do it after church yesterday. After church we gave her a blessing and then she left. but then a little while later she came and found us again and told us, " I would like to set a date." we were ecstatic! I couldn't believe what just happened! So now we are getting with president Wadsworth to have her get interviewed. then she will be interviewed with a general authority afterwards. So hopefully I will be able to come to the baptism. 

Well, that was my amazingly super awesome week of miracles! have a good week!




Also, we went to Subway for lunch one day and they had these chips! It seems like they might be a little weird but they are really good. The taste like the same thing but in the style of chip