9d45e123-343c-4a40-a834-afd8d65dea49 Elder Kirk Felix Back to Missionary Letters Èlder Felix- Update Hello everyone I hope you are all doing great! This last week was so good. Having the opportunity to really focus in on general conference is such a blessing because the words they speak truly are from god and no matter who you are you can apply their teachings in your life and you will become a better disciple of Jesus Christ. Lately I have been thinking about about enternal families and why families are important to me. It is a question that I often like to ask my friends as I am teaching them. My answer to this question is "family is where we can find the greatest joy in this world, when the family is inline with the teachings with the gospel of Jesus Christ we will find enternal happiness within our own familes!" I would love to hear from you guys. "Why is family important to you"? I hope you all have a great week! Much love, Èlder Felix Previous Letter Next Letter

9cba951d-8438-446e-be75-970806f4bb1a Sister Taylor Allen Back to Missionary Letters double the fun in apt 6 As time goes on throughout my mission I have been slowly getting worse at writing these weekly emails but I promise I'll try to be better 😅 but hello everyone! Crazy that this is the last full week of the transfer but we got some exciting news that we will actually be having two more Sisters move in with us next transfer! The past few days consisted of us going shopping with the senior couple to get more beds, dressers, desks, silverware and anything else they could need! Our apartment is not small but by all means not huge so it will be interesting to see how having 4 missionaries in this one space will be! I am looking forward to it though 🤩 there is gonna be a party at 85 wall street Last Monday we were able to go with the Elders to the Ausable Chasm which is what everybody here calls 'the grand canyon on the Adirondacks' (the mountain range we live in)! It was real cool then we also were able to drive down to Lake Placid and see where they had the 1930 and 1980 Olympics! New York always just blows me away with the views and I am in awe whenever we get to explore!! WE PUT OUR FRIEND REBECCA ON DATE WAHOO she is soooo elect. It was really neat to hear how she connected the Book of Mormon being true to the church as a whole! Our friends Jose and Kasey are also on date so the next few weeks are going to be filled with baptisms! Funny story so on Sunday we actually had tons of friends and returning members come that they were really short on bread so they had to do it at the beginning and again at the end after someone ran home to get more! Our mission President actually came to our branch to do interviews with us this week and joined for the church service as well so we were glad he was able to see the progress of our area by a shortage of resources 😂 Here is a little spiritual nugget-> Elder Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer and no trial that we experience is wasted. All that we anquish and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable.… It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.” I have been thinking a lot about past hardships that I faced and how the different tests we go through in life can be excruciating. Whether it be illness, betrayal, temptations, loss of a loved one, natural disasters, or some other ordeal, affliction is part of our mortal experience. As missionaries we get asked alot why we must face difficult challenges and I know that they are vitally important to the process of recognizing our divine nature. If we handle these afflictions properly they will be consecrated for our gain! Stay strong and push through! God always has great blessings in store 🥰 I love you all Previous Letter Next Letter

561bb180-eb21-473f-92d1-0f78675d5a12 Sister Veyo Bundy Back to Missionary Letters The End of the Line Hey hey hey! This weeks is gonna be super short becaauusee YOU ALL MADE IT!!! This is going to be my last weekly EVER!! I head home to Mesquite tomorrow night! I want you all to know that my mission has been the best experience of my entire life. I have seen so much, grown so much, and truly truly come to know my Savior. I wouldn't trade it for the whole wide world. After 18 months I still can't believe how generous God has been to me to allow me to serve Him in this capacity. I cant believe that He has trusted me with his precious children and that He has let me be an instrument in His hands. It has truly given me more joy than I can express. My ONLY regret is that Salt Lake will not let me serve longer. In honor of my last weekly, I wanted to share with you all a few of my favorite scriptures that have described and shaped my mission experience. I'll type some of them out and some of them I'll let you look up yourselves. :) "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." -Alma 26:12 (the scripture on my mission plaque :)) "And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me." -Alma 29:10 -Alma 7:11-13... FOR SURE my most frequently shared scripture on my mission. Read it over and over and over and over. You won't regret it! -Alma 5:48 "We love him, because he first loved us." -1 John 4:19 -Moroni 10:32 And the whole chapter of 3 Nephi 11 There are so many more but time is currently very very short. I want to testify to you that this church is true! Jesus IS the Christ! Joseph Smith was prophet of the Lord. If you havent found out these things for yourself, please please find out. Pray and ask God. I can promise that a knowledge of these things can change you life. I sure love you all. See you soon. Love, for the last time, Sister Veyo Sage Bundy Now at 361 Riverside Rd, Mesquite Nv 89027 Previous Letter Next Letter

96acd9bb-44ec-4e26-b834-ab5059e606d8 Elder Christian Martinez Back to Missionary Letters "When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him —the Way, the Truth, and the Life."-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland As we begin the New Year, may we always remember that God loves all of His children, and that He will always be by our side. The Atonement will carry all of us, I know that to be true, may we always remember Christs Atoning sacrifice as we begin this new year. Happy New Year! 12-30-2019 Hey everyone! Hope you all have been great! I apologize for not sending an email last week, my pday was Christmas and I was all over the place. Christmas was great, we went to the Sanders family's home and had breakfast. They have 6 wild funny kids. They showed us all their presents, they were very excited. We then went to the Rambo family home, they gave us gifts, they gave us a ginger bread house, and a painting that one of their kids made, it was great! We then hung out with our District, we made gingerbread houses and played spikeball, it was really fun 😆 afterwards we had dinner with the Webster family, they're a great family. This will be a shorter email because 1. We have a really busy pday today and 2. it's new Years eve. A talk I read this week is from the March 2001 Ensign by Elder Holland titled missionary Work and the Atonement. A quote I love from it is "The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him —the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The Atonement will carry all of us, I know that to be true, may we always remember His Atoning sacrifice as we begin this new year. Have a wonderful New Year everyone! Love, Elder Martinez Previous Letter Next Letter

1aa2efb4-ac39-4293-a352-90055254c293 Sister Alyson Cook Back to Missionary Letters The first half of my mission was spent doing normal missionary work. I was knocking on doors, I was talking to people on the streets, and teaching in peoples homes. When I came back out the second time, the new normal became calling formers, messaging people on facebook, and teaching online or over the phone. It was quite the transition, and it definitely took time to get the hang of, but for me personally and compared to the rest of my mission, I was the busiest in isolation. There's a lot of factors that go into being 'busy' as a missionary (like the area, people in the area, ect) but I can say with only gratitude in my heart that the reason I was so busy was because the Lord was hand preparing people to receive the Gospel. It may have taken something big like a [insert whichever 2020 crisis you would like to cite] to make it happen, but He made it happen if it meant that just one person would benefit from it. Hello everyone! Its been a while. for that, I am sorry. But! I have a good reason. We were just so incredibly blessed in the area where I served that we were just so busy with the work so writing my weekly fell by the wayside. So I wanted to send one last email to all of you to update you on what went on the last couple months. I am currently sitting at home in Bunkerville Nevada, and have completed my mission. So I guess this is an update and a wrap up. I guess the first thing I want you all (Yinz) to know is how aware the Lord is of all of us, and is willing to cause all sorts of ruckus if it means our wellbeing is accomplished. I saw this in my own personal life, in the lives of those I've taught, and predominantly in the recent case of this Covid pandemic. I was able to witness significant miracles almost daily, reaffirming my testimony on the matter. The first half of my mission was spent doing normal missionary work. I was knocking on doors, I was talking to people on the streets, and teaching in peoples homes. When I came back out the second time, the new normal became calling formers, messaging people on facebook, and teaching online or over the phone. It was quite the transition, and it definitely took time to get the hang of, but for me personally and compared to the rest of my mission, I was the busiest in isolation. There's a lot of factors that go into being 'busy' as a missionary (like the area, people in the area, etc) but I can say with only gratitude in my heart that the reason I was so busy was because the Lord was hand preparing people to receive the Gospel. It may have taken something big like a [insert whichever 2020 crisis you would like to cite] to make it happen, but He made it happen if it meant that just one person would benefit from it. Amazingly, I had a lot of 'one persons' come into my life. I'd like to take a moment to talk about a couple of them. For the sake of the length of this email, Ill assume you all read my past weeklies and are aware of all the magnificent people that I met 5 months ago and will just include the new to you peeps. Anita. You may have heard of her, she has been fantastic since day one we called her. I have some great news! She was baptized on October 17th! Her testimony grew like a wildfire, and she shares it with us any chance she gets. Her story is an interesting one. She sat next to a return missionary on the plane and learned about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She thought it was interesting, and took her card and forgot about it. Well, covid happened, and Anita was really hit hard by it all. Then one day, she was scrolling on facebook, and saw a post about our church. Everything she heard came flooding back. She reached out to us and we talked 3 times a week until she was baptized. Her favorite point about the gospel is the fact that God talks through prophets in days of old as well as today. The circumstances of her finding the light of the gospel were specifically tailored to her by God, and each domino was meticulously placed. The cool thing about Anita, is that although I taught her for close to 6 months, I only ever saw her in person twice. Once when we accidentally ran into her while dropping off a Book of Mormon for her and then on her actual baptism day. Jimmy (not actual name) is another person who comes to mind. He has been through a lot in his life, and moved to Pittsburgh as a new start to get closer to his children. Well, covid turned his life upside down. His once prestigious job offer was withdrawn upon arrival in Pittsburgh. He was left desolate, his kids he moved back for refrained from contacting him, he was at a pretty low point. Like Anita, one day he was scrolling on Facebook and came across a post from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In his own words, He said that the post "radiated light and love" so he clicked on it. Jimmy later was baptized on October 3rd. His life was filled with a sense of hope and joy he didn't have before. Although some things have improved in his life, He attributes the blessings to come from God. He has always been an amazing example of faith to me! Never did he turn his back on God. In fact, his first instinct when things got hard was to turn to God with full purpose of heart. Which is how we were able to get in contact with him in the first place. There are so many more people that are currently being taught, but this is getting lengthy. Just know that there were so many people that we were able to come in contact with that were such precious souls of our Father in Heaven. If you were to ask me what my favorite part of missionary work is the first part of my mission, I would probably say something cliche like 'the people' or something like that. Now, I have a better answer. My favorite part is watching someone's eyes the moment that the Gospel made some sort of impact in their soul. That moment where something clicks inside of them. You can watch it as it happens! Their eyes sparkle, and they sit a little straighter. If that moment happened away from us missionaries (which it often did) there was no need to worry. The residual sparkle was just as good. What that sparkle meant is that they were starting to gain a testimony and grasp the marvelous concept of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the beginning notes of the song referenced in Alma 5, when the prophet Alma described the effects that feeling the Saviors Redeeming Love can have in our life. (verse 26) These moments mean so much, because I have felt to sing the song of redeeming love many times over the last 2 years. My life has changed in ways I've never thought possible. I was overwhelmed by the grace that my Savior has shown me. I understand more the plan that my Father in Heaven has for me- and for all of us for that matter. I know the purpose of this life we have on earth. I recognize the love that my Father in Heaven has for me, and just how far He was and is willing to go for me. I know that Christ is my Savior, and has paid the ultimate price for me. He has suffered complete and utter anguish on my behalf. Knowing all these thing causes my heart to sing, and the only thing better than that feeling was hearing others start singing the same melody that you are. I love you all! Thank you for joining me on this crazy adventure of mine. Please reach out to me either on this email, alyson.p.cook@gmail.com , on facebook, on messenger, heck whatever platform you like! The invitation is to everyone. I would love to talk with you!! Love Sister Alyson Cook Previous Letter Next Letter

575fc340-9412-4068-bf2c-eb21c225880a Sister Dentzel Park Back to Missionary Letters I Didn't Say You Could Kiss Me I don't know who decided to let time pass again but here we are in October. At least I have a few interesting things to say this week. So I guess let's jump in :) Bulletpoints > Fun fact about Puerto, we have a lot of people who do drugs here. This week one of them came up to me and tried to kiss me. Luckily he went away after I told him no (firmly) and backed away when he leaned in for the kiss. Getting kissed is NOT on my mission to do list! > Service!!! It's always so fulfilling to serve. We bathed a dog named Blondy and I now think he is the only dog in Peru I'll pet because he is clean… not for long :( > It's Spring!! It's not so cold and it makes me so happy :D > I officially hit one year in Perú!! It's definitely weird to feel like nothing has changed… I am in the same place I was when I was born (in the mission). But, at least now I understand what I am doing haha! > We bought cake from a lady in the street because Hermana Encalada felt awkward asking her if she knew the person's house we were knocking at. So to keep her from embarrassing herself I bought a cake from her :) At least the cake was good. >My bottom retainer broke… it was not connected to 4 of the 6 teeth… So I got it removed, and replaced :) > A real kiss, from a 4 year old. At least it was just the cheek haha! > We started teaching Jamie how to use a hymn book. We didn't get past the first two lines of I am a child of God… >It was the week of Math… all the schools had banners and all the kids were crying. Pobresitos. > Miracle of Mafer, so Mafer has had 3 or 4 bautismal dates and for some reason or another she never got baptised. So we invited her to watch conference asking if she should be baptised and after watching and explaining a little more we invited her to be baptized again. We didn't give her a day but she said yes this sunday i will be baptized… so she had her baptismal interview right then and there :) 12 of October!! > Kristel, she is also getting baptised this weekend. She is so cute and I just love her. She is so excited for her baptism and we celebrated her birthday with her this week too! Happy sweet 16 Kirstel!! > Ok, one more friend. This week we also invited Julio to be baptised. He is really cool and we found him by knocking random doors. He had a lot of questions about the restoration but the spirit told me that he knew it was true. So we cleared up a few things then invited him to be baptised after watching a sesión of general conference. I am excited to keep teaching him :) Spiritual thought Of course it was the weekend of General Conference so I am going to share based on my experience. It is always so inspiring to listen to the messages prepared for us in general conferences. I learned especially about “the one” . There were so many talks that connected missionary work and I can't wait to go back and listen to them. But today I want to focus on names. Our names are important, it is how we are able to say who we are and how people identify us. We all have many names, nicknames, and titles. For example I am Dantzel, Dance, “Grandma knit knit”, “Tabby”, I am a daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend, I am Hermana Park, a missionary, and so much more! But, something I took away from the conference is that it doesn't matter how many names, nicknames, or titles we have because Heavenly Father knows exactly who we are. And no matter what I will always be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I am a disciple of Christ, and a follower of Him. I know with all my heart might mind and strengthen that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. The church He established here on earth. I know I am a beloved daughter of God with a divine purpose and eternal destiny. I also know that each one of you is also a beloved son or daughter of God. That you have access to His eternal love and the atonement of Jesus Christ that can take away any pain, suffering, or that feeling of being lost in the world. Find your purpose in Him. Find yourself in Him. And I know you can do it by following Him. I love you guys and share these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Previous Letter Next Letter

6549bc79-50c9-4d9b-9461-618dfc485fb3 Elder Brogan Bingham Back to Missionary Letters So this week was a super eventful week as you can tell by my title. I have returned to Catanduanes Island if you remember the last time I was here I was in the farthest area out in the jungle. SO what happened is my companion went home early so he could enroll in a school which left President Abraham with the decision of what was going to happen to me. So this week we also had Zone Conference and we found out new plans for the mission but we still had no idea what was going to happen to me. After zone conference, I found out that President was going to Catanduanes for another zone con and I still had no idea what was going to happen to me. Then what happened is I woke up the next morning and got a call from the assistants that I needed to pack my bags because I was traveling with them to Catanduanes. In the car with President Abraham, I found out that I would be a Zone Leader out here on the island which was super surprising. He told me that he woke up in the middle of the night and received the revelation that I need to go to Catanduanes with them and be a Zone Leader. So here I am on Gilligans Island just me and my companion and 16 other missionaries. Pretty exciting but I gotta go and I will send pictures because I have a lot. Love you all and have a good week . Previous Letter Next Letter

c2ae5288-01c0-412e-b555-905fedc59514 Elder Dodger Smith Back to Missionary Letters Post 10 part 1 Not gunna lie this week was wild. Last monday feels like a year ago but also like it just happened. I think I said it last week but we roasted a pig last monday. Then tuesday was a normal day. I did find a croc jibit but i dont know what it says because it is in chinese or something. Then Wednesday was crazy and that is what most of the email will be about but Elder Johnson had to do some baptism interveiws for the sisters and it was exciting to say the least. Thursday was a normal day again. The best part of thursday was our morning keke ride where we got to listen to Buffalo Soldier. It made me happy and reminded me of baseball and my man Kurt Felix. Then friday I had an exchange with Elder Spears. He made me pancakes 🥞 for breakfast with buttermilk syrup. It was pretty good. The rest of the day was fun, he had some baptism interveiws to do to so I got to hang out with elder Phillip all day too. One bad thing is that both times I have went to elder Spears’s apartment I have gotten a sore throat. The last one lasted for like a week and this time it feels way worse. That kinda put a dampener on the weekend. Saturday was a little rough, I didnt sleep very well and my body was sore so that mixed with the sore throar kinda sucked. We did make spagetti with garlic bread and it was very delicous. Sunday was good. We filled up the chapel again because it wasnt raining. Its hard cause when it doesnt rain we need 2 wards but whennit does only like 10 people come so nobody knows what to do. After church we had a baptism for a lady named Ester. Then sunday night dinner was potato leaf with crab. It was way better than the casava and the crab was really good. Then this morning we decided to do something fun so we woke up and went golfing ⛳️ It was awesome but it was definetly africa golfing. They gave us like 4 caddies which kinda sucked because we had to pay them but we didnt lose any balls cause there was a kid chasing after them. The prices were kinda expensive for here in salone but they were still cheaper than the cheepest amarica prices so it wasnt to bad. Post 10 part 2 Now back to wednesday cause it was such a crazy day. We started the day at a normal lesson in the market. Then we took a keke ride to the sisters area. They told us to be there by by 11 and they didnt show up till about 11:30. Then when they came they told us we needed to take a motor bike to get to the first interveiw. Our mission is a little special because normally this would be against the standards but certain places we are allowed to ride motorcycles 🏍. This was not one of the areas we were allowed to ride them. But we got on because they said that it was a 45 minute walk and they werent going to wait for us. About halfway there we were going up a hill and we had to stop for a bike that was coming down the hill. We kinda tipped over but the guy driving stopped us from going all the way down. Then when we started to go again and the driver hit the gas a little to hard. Because we were on a hill the bike did a wheelie and then dumped us off the back and flipped over top of us. Elder Johnson and I were unscathed but the driver got a few cuts cause he held on to the bike while it slid down the hill we were on. We then walked to the top of the hill and got back on the bike. 😅 When we got to the house the sisters had been waiting for like 15 min. But we went inside and it was literally the nicest house ive been in here. Elder Johnson started the interveiw and me and the Sisters went upstairs to visit with the husband. But the husband was watching Sing the movie and so we just ended up watching that. The interveiw was really long so I ended up watching like the whole movie. Then we had a bikeride back and had 4 more interveiws to do. It took the entire day, just over 6 hours. Post 10 part 3 Everyday here comes with a new challenge and a new adventure. Its actually kinda crazy some of the things that we come across as we go throuough our day. Like just finding random things on the ground or things that happen. Funny story from this week actually was that we were proseliting sunday after church and I saw a guy wearing a Be Kind...Kind Like Josh shirt. Idk if any Mesquite people will know what that Is but anyone from Boulder should probably know know. We went and talked to him and he said that he would come to church next week. I even got a picture with him to proove that I found the shirt 😂. Anyways this weeks post is kinda long but I hope that everyone is doing good. -Elder Smith Previous Letter Next Letter

45dbbbca-c933-46f0-953e-51181bd98cc4 lder David Vogel Back to Missionary Letters Elder Vogel the Younger– Piqua, Ohio Up and Up If we look at my time in this area as your stereotypical storybook, the last few weeks would be when everything goes wrong. Now we’re in the part where everyone is trying to adjust to their new normal that will hopefully end in a happy ending for everyone. Working backwards we can start with today. We have finally been able to meet with Carla & Glenn again after almost a month. We explained our normal lessons with them to Elder Harrison. Also how Glenn likes to bring up things like zodiac signs, the civil war, politics, wickenology, and general very interesting personal things. We had a short lesson with them tonight because Carla wasn’t feeling well (not covid) but he still managed to bring up every single one of those subjects. It was a very good introduction to Glenn for Elder Harrison. We really aren’t going there for Glenn. Carla is the one who can really benefit from the Gospel, but we can’t teach one without the other. Every time we try another outlet to teach Glenn he just shoots it down, Read the Book of Mormon, doesn’t read well, listen to a talk, loses interest, watch a video, “not a video guy”. It’s at the point that he only wants to learn by word of mouth. I would love to think our words are enough for conversion but that just won’t cut it. Yesterday we met with Brother Wheeler again. I say Brother Wheeler because he is a member but I’m still at a loss of how. Going over there is always very civil. It’s when we start messaging him that things get tense. I don’t care much for conflict, but Elder Harrison has spent his entire mission listening to recordings of a member lawyer bashing with random missionaries and hadn’t gotten the chance to interact on this level yet. The texts started flying. I don’t think either of them are actually reading what the other sends. As it stands we’ve made some progress with him. He still has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and still studies it. He even bought us pizza and some other snacks. We’ve been trying to get him to come to church for the past two weeks. He gives the same response every time. “It’s repetitive.” He attends the German Baptist Church because of the sermons. Maybe we’ll be able to bring things back around? After missing a month's worth of lessons with April we got into contact with her again as well. She wasn’t answering our calls or texts so instead we just knocked on her door. She was happy to see us but very tired. She is currently working a 72 hour work week and caring for her very pregnant daughter. So she doesn’t have any time to really meet but she does want us to keep texting her Scriptures to read and videos for her to watch on her breaks. The last thing for Sunday was we stopped at the other Elders apartment for a farewell zoom call to President and Sister Ensign. They have officially been released as our Presidency and we now have President and Sister Maguire. I know very little about them. While we were on the call the other Elders started having some technical difficulties with their phone so we were laughing too hard at them to really hear what was going on. We have an in-person meet and greet with them on Wednesday so I’ll get filled in there. After the call it was pitch black outside but we thought it would be a good idea to go disc golfing with the other Elders anyway. It was interesting, I couldn't really worry about how you threw because you couldn’t see where you were throwing. So we went out with flashlights. We didn’t lose any discs, and only one person got hit with a frisbee. That person was me. But in my defense it’s hard to defend against a frisbee trying to take out your knees when you don’t know it’s there until after it’s tried to cripple you. We did get to have an awesome lesson with Brenda Wooten. The past two lessons we’ve had to teach her through a window because she’s on lockdown for chemo treatments. For some reason when we went that day they let us in. Which was cool but it did mean the lesson we had planned got thrown out the window. Mostly because the moment we sat down she said she wanted to read with us. So we did. We read the introduction, the three witnesses, the eight witnesses, and the other introduction. She loved it. Halfway through reading she stopped and said that it never made sense to her why it would end at the bible. Brenda, you are doing our jobs for us. Spiritually she’s doing really well. Physically we’ll leave it to her doctors to decide. On Saturday we went and helped Brother Osborne split firewood for the winter. Missionaries are not supposed to operate any form of power tool or heavy machinery. So we didn’t. We just kept putting the logs underneath the big metal spike and the members pushed the lever to operate the heavy machinery. That took us a good three hours and after hauling wet logs around for that long I was in dire need of a shower. Instead Brother Osborne took us all out for pizza. So apologies to the 3joes pizzeria staff but I wasn’t going to eat with mud all over my arms so I very carefully washed up to my elbows in the bathroom before eating. Really good pizza though. The next morning was the first time in a long time that I woke up with truly sore biceps. Service is truly the secret to success in many things, including gains. Saturday Evening, we had exchanges with the Zone leaders, 90% uneventful. Until we were walking down a street in the dark and saw a house with a six foot cross lit up on the side. Not made of lights, a well made, wooden cross with spotlights on it. You know we knocked on their door. We met Johnny. Long story short, after sharing the restoration of the Gospel he told us that not only were prophets necessary, he was one. So he invited US to “go into our private prayer closet and ask God if there is more for us to know." It was a strange moment if there is more for us to know, you are definitely not the person who will tell us. But you are not wrong about there being more to know. Ohio is fun. Probably the only noteworthy event for the week was on Wednesday we attended a luncheon for all the Fish volunteers. During which they had a raffle and all three of us won something. I donated mine to the next ticket drawn but the Elder Harrison got $20 to Frickers, and Elder Flamm got a week of free meals. Also at that luncheon, which was being held in another church, we met the pastor of the church. Very friendly guy asked us over to talk theology and play board games. We can’t say no to that so we’ll see where that goes. I'm realizing that these letters are not very smooth but I'm okay with that. The week wasn't smooth. But, things are looking up. We will put it to the people who have been sufficiently humbled to receive the word. Hopefully Elder Vogel Previous Letter Next Letter

d487018d-e60b-4c83-8293-e209789a1f79 Sister Maleena Felshaw Back to Missionary Letters howdy partners Hey there The main thing I want to mention is the denver GIVING MACHINES!!! It was such a cool experience to help out at the giving machines this week! If you have one near you, go! We also witnessed some very interesting things happen but I mean we were in downtown denver so that's to be expected. But yeah twas another good week & I hope yall are doing well. You can write me if you'd like. Thanks. Previous Letter Next Letter

4abfb0c7-32ea-41be-9c9c-53735f920eda Elder Nathan Reber Back to Missionary Letters This has been a good week. It looks like I might be leaving Wasilla. I am so greatfull for this area. Wasilla is a great it’s a small community with lots of kind and generous people. The gospel is sting here. The wards are really tight knit. I love my companion. We get along really well. I have been able to see some of the most beautiful things up here. I have seen moose, eagles,bears and fish galore. The days are getting longer and the weather is getting a little warmer. Not as warm as home. I will write more next week. Love Elder Reber. Previous Letter Next Letter

83cafcc1-5892-4317-8484-a1b9357bf666 Elder McClain Back to Missionary Letters Another Week Gone Hey Fam, This week has been crazy. My Companion, Elder Fuller gets to go to the Ukraine, his original assignment and it's transfers. I'm getting a new companion and I honestly know nothing about him. But I know he plays the Bag pipes. I am going to miss Elder Fuller, he is a beast. I have learned so much from him. I am not getting transferred, but my area is now the whole Pineridge Reservation!!!! (It used to be 2 different areas) I am kinda super stressed about it. It is a lot of area to cover 😳. But I know that through God anything is possible. Please pray that my new companion and I will be guided by the spirit. There is a lot of work here to do, I know God will provide a way. My first area on my mission was in Pine Ridge. I was shocked that I was transferred to the other side of the reservation which is Kyle. Looking back the Lord was preparing me to know both areas on the reservation because I now cover it all. Even when we don't understand, God's hand is in all things. I got one of the coolest compliments this week from Alan Reddy. We were doing service for Alan, so he can add onto his house. We were taking and he said, "You know what I've noticed about you Easton." I said "What" then he said, " You may only be 19, but you have the wisdom of a 30-year-old man." It was really cool, then he said, " you must have been raised by your grandparents." I had to convince him that I was raised by my Parents and that I do have supportive Grandparents. I have met som many wonderful people out here. I love serving them Happy late Father's day to all the Father's out there. I am lucky to have so many Father figures in my life. I started thinking about how my father has affected my life. One of the greatest things about my dad is that he loves everyone and anyone. I think he gave me that attribute. It has helped me so much. I invite you guys to love everyone even those who have wronged you. Matthew 5:44 states But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Have a great week! Love, Elder Easton Previous Letter Next Letter