June 6, 11, and 18

I love to see the temple, I went inside today... June 6

Hola Familia!  

  pues, yo tuve mi dia de preparacion del templo hoy!  Lo siento mucho que no les dije antes, pero yo no sabia.  recibi mi calendario en viernes.  pero, fue bien, y ahorita les estoy escribiendo, y voy a poder escribirles en lunes tambien!  Que bueno.  

(Hello, family!

Well, I had my Temple p-day today! I am very sorry that I didn't you all before, but I didn't know. I got my calendar on Friday. But, it was good, and now I'm writing you all, and I'm going to be able to write you all on Monday as well. How great!

PS I really like that in his paragraph to Pops, Ry went straight from Kola and Lily to Elder Fisher, like he's swapping dog-training stories. I hope the little tyke is housebroken!)

Hi familia!  

So, I just want to apologize.  Even though it wasn't my fault.  I didn't know that we were having temple pday this week until friday!  but we had temple pday today, and it was great!  We've had a really good week, and we've had some good times.  It's been a little bit of a frustrating week, I feel we've been working more efficiently and effectively than ever before, but nothing worked this week!  We had like 10 different lessons set up with members, and either the members didn't show up or the investigators weren't there.  It was frustrating.  but it's alright.  I know I put in my best effort for them.  But it's been going well.  Everything has continuing to get better.  Me and Elder Fisher have still been getting along great, and he's doing great.  We've also had some great experiences this week.  We had an awesome experience yesterday.  Our two appointments in the afternoon fell through, so we didn't have anything to do.  So we looked at the map, and we saw a street that's just way off in the bottom corner of our area, Tamarind street.  so we decided to go down and tract there.  So we did, and the first building we went into, I got up the stairs right as this lady came out.  I scared her pretty good, it's pretty unsettling to have two guys in white shirts and ties waiting outside your door.  but we started talking, and she told us about some problems she has with her son, and we started talking about the BOM, and she seemed pretty interested.  And she said she would call the number to get a BOM.  And then, it got better.  We knocked on this other door, and this guy named G. answered.  And it was my door, I kind of had an idea about what I was going to say, and then as soon as i started talking i said something else.  It's easy to get into a pattern when you're tracting sometimes, just ask the same questions, but I just started sharing about how God is our loving Heavenly Father.  And it just seemed to click with him.  he told us that he believed the same thing, and we started talking more.  He was like walking out the door, and so we didn't get to talk to him too much, but it was amazing to see how Heavenly Father inspired me to say what he needed, right at the right time.  It was awesome.  It was even more amazing to see how we talked to both of them right as they were leaving, at just the right time.  It was a cool day.  and then last night, at 8:30, we were going to try and visit one last person.  so we were driving by, and we saw a guy trying to load a bookcase into his truck all by himself.  So we stopped, got out, helped him, and then ended up talking to his other guy named J., who was outside watering his lawn ( I always talk to people watering their lawn, thats how we found M.!), and we shared a message about eternal families, and he said we could come back friday!  It was an awesome day.  Those experiences just kind of showed me what I've been realizing this week.  I feel this week, I just kind of realized something.  One of my new favorite scriptures is 1st Nephi 4:3 I think, when nephi is trying to encourage his brothers.  and he says, in essence, God is more powerful than all the earth, how can you doubt that he can deliver Laban into our hands?  And I just had a self realization this week.  Throughout my mission, I've struggled with stress, anxiety, depression, feeling like I'm not good enough, and a whole host of other negative feelings.  And I just realized, how can I doubt that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can use me in the mission, no matter what weaknesses I have?  And I just realized, it doesn’t matter how imperfect I am, Heavenly Father can use me however He needs to.  I've realized a lot more about why we have the Atonement.  About the fact, that I really don't need to be perfect.  Heavenly Father is well aware that I'm not, but He still loves me anyway and will help me to do better.  It's been helping me a lot to keep that thought in mind.  And it's been making me a better missionary.  I want to share the gospel a lot more, because I really feel the blessings coming to me, and I'm a lot more aware about why I want others to have them.  I'm so grateful for this gospel, and for the blessings it does bring into my life, and into the lives of our family.  It's pretty amazing, humbling and comforting, to realize what Heavenly Father gives us, and why. 

but I'm doing great, and I hope you all are doing great, and I love you all!  have a great week, and i'll write to you monday!  

Mops- i sent the questionnaire!  Never fear.  It is all sent off now.  I can't wait to see the sunroom, it looks awesome.  I will probably sit there and read and eat popcorn every day.  How do the dogs feel about it?  they don't have a porch anymore.  It sounds like you and Pops had a great weekend, I can't believe you'll be empty nesters soon.  That is a crazy thought.  

Pops-glad to hear the knee is doing better!  and glad to hear Kola is happy about it as well!  How does it go walking both of them?  Kola has enough energy for one, I can't imagine walking both of them.  It's been pretty fun training Elder fisher.  Although, sometimes, i forget that he's new.  and i forget why he doesn't know things.  But it's been good.  I read through one of my old journals yesterday, and it was pretty interesting, remembering how it felt, and realizing Elder Fisher probably feels similar.  Hope your knee keeps feeling better!  When do you get to play golf again?

Borsh- I.  Am.  So.  Jealous.  That sounds like the coolest high adventure ever!  I swear they never did fun stuff like that when i did high adventure.  paintball, rock climbing, etc.  That's so fun.  I'm glad to hear you showed them how it's done in paintball, its all the practice from the nerf wars i think.  Also, there is no way you're starting drivers ed this week.  thats ridiculous.  I can't believe that.  Anyway, have a good week, and can't wait to hear all about drivers ed!  

Amy- eat all the healthy things?  I can't believe it.  I'm losing the good things I ate this week section.  I should probably join the family on that.  My pants are getting slightly tighter everyday I think.  

B- That sounds like an awesome date Brent.  I can't wait to hear more about her!  And I'm glad your ears were free of dirt for your date.  The dirty dash sounds amazing!  I'm jealous of that.  

M@- haha, eating a bag of yard work.  Speaking of yard work, did you ever try Tajin?  the chili stuff they put on fruits?  Me and elder Fisher became fans this week, it definitely makes the yard work a little better.  Shooting marshmallow guns on the dirty dash, sounds like the best thing ever.  

Kt- ola sounds an awful lot like hola.... But I'm glad to hear Ellie is learning to roll over!  I can't believe how old she's getting.  That makes me feel old, but in the mission and out.  I'm glad she is still cute though!  

Well, I'm all out of time, but I love you all!  Write to you next week!  

You’re the man now dog! June 11

Hola Famila!  

Como estais?  Me siento que acabe de escribirles.  Pero, esta bien.  Me dio mucho gusto a leer sus cartas, y tambien me dio mucha risa.  ustedes son bien chistosos.  Pero, esta semana fue muy bien.  Tuvimos un dia increible en sabado, nos esforzamos y hicimos todo para ayudar a nuestros investigadores a asistir a la iglesia.  Pero, nadie vino.  Pero, esta bien.  Todavia tuvimos un dia bien bueno, y nosotros estamos disfrutando nuestro tiempo aqui mucho.  

(Hello, family!

How are you all? I feel like I just finished writing you. But that's OK. I really enjoyed reading your letters, and they made me laugh as well. You all are very funny. This week was good.  We had an incredible day on Saturday, we tried really hard and did everything to help our investigators to attend church. But, nobody came. But that's OK. We still had a good day, and we are enjoying our time here a lot.)

Hi Familia!  

It was so good to get your letters today, everybody sounds awesome!  It sounds like it's been a great week.  We have also had a good week here.  We had temple day, and we have p-day again now, which is always a nice thing.  2 pdays in close proximity is great.  And today, for our district activity (which I planned), we're going to the space museum and going to yogurtland!  And it sounds so fun, so everybody is coming with us!  Half our zone is.  So it should be a great p-day.  We've had a great last few days.  I got to go on exchanges this week, one of the nicest parts about this transfer is I only have to go on 3 exchanges, not 7.  So it's a little more relaxing.  So Elder fisher got to go on his first exchanges, and spend his first day as a bike missionary, but he seemed to enjoy it.  But our last few days have been great.  We had an awesome day on saturday.  It was so good.  In our last zone meeting, our zone leaders presented a new finding idea from President Baker, which is to offer to pray for and with people and their families.  When I first heard it, I thought it was kind of weird.  I feel weird offering to pray for people I meet on the street.  But I realized, lots of people ask us to do it anyway, we might as well offer, plus it comes from President.  So, me and Elder Fisher decided to put it into practice.  We knocked this guys door named E. earlier in the week, and he said he was going to bring his family to church.  so on saturday, we decided to go buy them and see how they were doing and see if they needed any help getting to church.  So we got there, knocked the door, his wife said they were busy and sounded kind of angry.  We almost left right there, but then I felt we should ask her if E. was there.  So I did, and she said he was out back.  We was setting up for his kids birthday party, so we offered and started helping him.  As we were helping, his wife came out and they started talking about how they needed help and they didn't have a good relationship.  So, I felt we should offer to pray with them and their family.  So we offered, they accepted, gathered all their kids, and we all knelt down and prayed.  And it was amazing.  The spirit came into the room, and really made a visible change in the wife.  She seemed so much happier and at peace afterwards.  And as the spirit was there, we committed them to come to church, and it was amazing.  They didn't come yesterday, but we have some really good hopes for them.  They seem like they really want to change, and we think some good things will come from them.  It was really cool.  And it was also really cool to see how the Lord blessed our efforts as we were obedient to President Bakers counsel.  And afterward, I understood so much more about why he invited us all to do that.  It really made me appreciate so much more, what an amazing thing prayer is.  It's so amazingly simple, but it brings the spirit into our lives.  That experience really helped me to appreciate it more.  Also, later in the day, we were driving past, and there was a lady sleeping on the sidewalk.  We were slightly worried about whether or not she was dead, so we stopped the car and got out to check, as another guy on a bike came by to help her.  Turns out they were husband and wife, had a big fight, and they were both fairly inebriated.  She even more so.  But it meant a lot to him that we stopped to see if everything was ok, and he said that we were glowing, and that we were like angels to help him.  It was really cool, and we started talking to him, and he seemed really interested, and he said he wanted to learn more.  So we hope they're alright, and they'll remember we stopped by and want to learn.  It was cool.  It just felt amazing on saturday, to be helping where I was needed.  So many times, I want to help, but nobody will let us.  But we were just where we needed to be at the right time and we did the right thing, and it was awesome.  So it's been a really good few days, and we're both happy.  I hope you all are doing great as well, and I sure love you all!  I can't wait to hear from you again!  

Borsh-oh man, the lazy days of summer.  Enjoy them while you can.  That's so weird that you're starting drivers ed.  I can't e'en b'lee dat.  You will be about to drive by the end of mission.  That's weird.  I'm glad you're enjoying your summer so far, I hope you're still practicing basketball everyday!  Not that it'll matter, I'll still beat you, no matter how tall you get!  Haha love you buddy, have a great week!  

B-Como le va?  That is the spanish equivalent for hows it going, or how goes it.  It means, how goes it for you.  But oh man.  I can't believe you.   I just want to say congratulations.  I'm so proud of you.  I am glad to hear that you're starting to move out of the finding stage, and you're really trying to help your investigators progress.  It sounds pretty golden.  have you set a date yet?  I can't wait to hear more about how that's going.  Hopefully you're next letter means  owe you a Little C's.  I'm glad to hear frisbee is going well as well.  I think you'll be proud of me, me and elder Fisher toss the friz every morning.  We're getting pretty good.  Some days, we actually run to try and catch the frisbee.  

A- Oh man Yam, I sympathize with you.  I had to play the same song yesterday during sacrament meeting!  well mostly.  bienvenido, dia santo, but same idea.  All the time, I show up to church, and there is nobody to play the piano, so I have to play the hymns, and they're usually songs I've never played before.  But I'm getting real good at sight reading.  Also, I love ticket to ride.  I can imagine Cary playing that on his ipod right now.  I'm glad to hear your playing.  And feeding the missionaries!  They probably love you.  At least here, missionaries in the english wards don't get much food.  It's the spanish missionaries who get fat.  I can't believe how healthy you and cary are being, you make me feel so fat.  I ate a whole bag of honey BBQ fritos. in like 2 days.  But they're so good!   So don't worry, I'll keep being fat for the both of us!  

M@-You're the man now dog!  so how many houses are you going to have that I'll never get to see?  I'll race you.  So far I've had 3.  so I'm winning.  that's great that Lauren got a new job though.  Oh man.  I almost forgot about the you're the man now dog.  Good times.  You know you miss it.  I feel for you on the frisbee field Matt.  my flick has gotten so much worse.  but don't worry, before you know it, we'll be sitting around the campfire eating delicious hot schmoes.  And being bad on the frisbee field.  have a great week!  

Lauren-congratulations on the new job!  

Mops- Thanks for the pics!  I haven't seen them, but I love them!  Also, can you believe that?  Mount L.A. has almost been scaled.  That's crazy.  I'm trying not to think about it, but it keeps coming to me at random times.  It's crazy how fast time is going.  I love you Mops!  

Pops- oh man.  swimming sounds awesome.  Swimming with sharks sounds out of this world.  That's an awesome gift.  I can't believe jeremy is going to Puebla!  That's awesome.  I'm super excited for him, tell him I say hi!  

well, I love you all, have a great week!  

Me encanta! June 18

Hola Familia!  

    Pues, nosotros hemos tenido una semana muy buena aqui en willowbrook.  tuvimos una actividad del barrio, y gwow.  Eso fue tan interesante.  Es un poco diferente de nuestros.  ellos tuvieron un cantador en la fiesta, y el solo tenia  como doce anos.  pero, el cantaba bien fuerte y bien rapido.  yo no entendia mucho de lo que el canto, pero yo sentia un poco incomodo.  todos los misioneros se estaban riendo.  Pero, el dijo "me encanta" mucho, y por eso puse me encanta como el titulo de esta carta.  Fue muy differente del hermano bush bromeando para nuestras fiestas para la navidad.  me rei mucho, porque estabamos en intercambios con los lideres de zona por eso, y el es de sudafrica, y no entiende mucho espanol.  estuvo muy perdido. 

 (Hello, family!

Well, we have had a very good week in Willowbrook. We had a ward activity and wow (latinos add a "g" to "wow" for some reason). It was very interesting. It's a little different than ours (meaning white people). They had a singer at the party, and he was only like 12 years old. But, he sang very loudly and really fast. I didn't understand much of what he sang, but I felt a little uncomfortable. All the missionaries were laughing. But, he said ["me encanta" could mean I love it, or I like it, or I love it, or I love you; not sure which one Ryan means here] a lot, that's why I put "me encanta" in the title of this letter. It was very different from Brother Bush joking for our Christmas parties. I laughed a lot, because we were on exchanges with the zone leaders, and he is from South Africa, and doesn't understand much Spanish. He was very lost.)

Hi Family!  

     It was wonderful to read your letters this week!  We've had a great week here.  Fathers day, unfortunately, took kind of a toll on our church attendance.  And we didn't have pie.  I don't know if there is a correlation between those two, but I think it would be worth the effort to see if more people came to church if we had pie.  We were really excited about M. G. and her family, we've really changed our approach with them, and it's been making big changes.  She has 9 kids that live at home, and a husband, and we've had a really hard time teaching them.  Teaching them one at a time hasn't worked very well, so what we've done, is we've been stopping by every day, gathering everyone, and saying a family prayer.  It's been working well, and every time we pass by, we get more of them involved in the prayer, and they are just getting more involved period.  So it's been working really well, and our focus is to try and get everyone to the visitors center together this weekend.  I really hope it works out.  I love their family so much, I almost feel like I'm home when I'm with them.  It's always loud, and kind of crazy, and I love it.  They're so awesome.  And they introduced me to cactus soup this week!  It was really good actually.  But everytime we go over, they have 4 kids under 10, and everytime they see me they just start shouting "richman, richman!"  It's a very feel good moment.  And no matter what happens, I know I've done my best with them, and I've left an impression of missionaries that they will always have.  They're really awesome, and we're hoping for the best for them this week.  We've also got a golden new family.  It's the one we prayed with last week, and we went back by, and gave them BOM's, they're super interested, told us they want to come to church with us, and we have very high hopes for them.  the only cloud in the sky is that we might have to turn them over to the english elders.  They all speak english, but the parents can speak spanish, and since we found them first they want to come to church with us.  So we'll probably bring them to church and see how they feel.  but it's been a really good week.  We have our general authority visit this next week, so that will be pretty fun.  We have Elder Paul Johnson coming to visit us, so that will be cool.  I feel like I had more that happened this week, but I can't remember it now.  Funny story from last week that I don't think I ever told.  We were in the projects, and these two little black kids came over, and they started patting us down for money.  Luckily, I stopped carrying my wallet on me a long time ago.  And when we wouldn't give them any money, we started walking the other way.  And then, they started throwing rocks at us.  (just little ones, don't worry mops!)  and everytime they hit us, or we looked back they would start apologizing.  It was one of the funniest things ever.  I thought you all would appreciate that story.  But it's been a good week, I know you all had great weeks as well, and I can't wait to hear from you next week!  I love you all!  

Mops-There is a fire in Colorado?  Since when?  You have to promise me that you will all be safe.  Ah, this is the first fathers day in a long time that I haven't skulked around the priesthood room, hoping that somebody would give me pie.  Instead, yesterday, I tried mexican seafood soup.  It was really good, but the shrimp still had eyes.  (its smiling at me!).  And they had octupus tentacles all over it.  But it was so good.  I'm glad you had a good fathers day.  

Pops- yes, yogurtland and the space museum were better than legoland.  Aren't you glad you finally fessed up, and can say whatever you want?  Although, I didn't get to drive any little cars.  just my regular toyota corolla.  I'm glad to hear the pies were still good this year, it seems this time every year they finally come into season.  I'm all for the idea of pie every 4th sunday or something.  I really like your observation about George Albert Smith and missionary work. That's something I've noticed.  When I'm actually doing my job, It's not work.  It's fun, and I love it.  And that's just sharing the gospel is.  Glad my card made it to you safely!  Mailboxes have gotten stolen here, so it's always slightly nerve-wracking putting in my letters.  

Borsh- I'm so sorry you got sunburned.  I'll have you know, I have not gotten sunburned since I got here.  especially on my back and shoulders.  Just wear a white shirt and tie all the time and you'll be fine!  

KT-squee!  I'm glad to see that the pool is up and running this year, although I have to say the ladies there have gotten classier!  

M@-That bee story is amazing.  I want to see that.  

B- Ally poaletti?  That's crazy.  Tell her I say hi.  Also, you got the documents!  I cannot tell you how proud I am of you.  Your key indicators were off the chart.  

A-I miss you being unhealthy.  I miss our food lists.  I'm the only member of the family getting fatter.  Also, it seems every time you write me, you're on semi summer vacation.  I think you and cary are actually still living at home.  

Well. I'm out of time, but I love you all!  

The Month of May

Buenas Tardes Familia! May 7

Yo soy Elder Reichman.  Soy un misionero de la iglesia de Jesucristo

de los santos de los ultimos dias.  Usted ha visto misioneros como

nosotros?  Oh, no?  bueno.  Nosotros somos misioneros, y como

misioneros, predicamos acerca de Jesucristo.  nuestro mensage es muy

especial, y una cosa de la cual compartimos es el Libro de Mormon.

Nos gustaria dejarle con esta tarjeta, y le invitamos a llamar este

numero y recibir este libro completamente gratis!  Gracias, y tenga un

buen dia.

(Good afternoon, family!

I am Elder Reichman. I am a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Have you seen missionaries like us? Oh, no? Well, we are missionaries, and as missionaries, we preach about Jesus Christ. Our message is very special, and one of the things that we share is the Book of Mormon. We would like to leave you with this card, and we invite you to call this number to receive this book completely free. Thank you, and have a good day.

Borsh - how are you? I am going to write to you only in Spanish starting today. I loved to read your Spanish! It looks very good to me. And with more time, you will be able to speak very well. We are going to talk a lot in Spanish, me, you and Matt, and B won't understand. It will be very funny. Frisbee sounds very fun, I am happy that you enjoy frisbee that way. I love you little brother!)

Hi family!

I felt I would treat you all to a little sample of a typical Elder

Reichman tracting approach.  reading it over again, I hope I'm not as

boring as that sounds.  But anyway, how is everyone?  I am doing well.

 It's been a pretty good week.  I have been learning a lot.  It's

definitely a transitory period for us right now, President Baker has

asked us to put more emphasis on member missionary work, so we've been

changing the way we do a lot of things.  It's also been a transitory

time for me, learning how to be less stressed and focus more on the

people, rather than just me focusing on keeping all the rules.  So

it's been interesting, but I really feel everything is moving in a

better direction.  We lost one of our investigators this week,

E., we taught him the Law of Tithing, and we finally managed to

contact him this week and he pretty much told us he doesnt want to

talk to us anymore.  That was a bummer.  but M. M. continues

to do awesome, she really wants to get baptized, it's just a challenge

working with her health problems, because she does dialysis 3 times a

week and most the rest of the time she doesn't feel well.  but we also

found a new investigator named G., and she committed to be

baptized!  and her daughter in law is actually a less active member!

So it's been pretty good.  Some really good things, and some not so

good things.  I've been thinking a lot about the Book of Mormon

lately.  We've been focusing more on making sure our investigators are

reading, and it's been making a difference for them.  The lessons just

feel different when they read the Book of Mormon, and you can tell

that they feel something, even they haven't consciously recognized it

yet.  And we've been working with a family with some marriage

problems, and we've been challenging them to read the BOM.  And last

week, I walked in their house, and it just felt different.  And during

dinner, the husband told us that he'd started reading the BOM.  And it

was really amazing, because there really was a difference you could

feel in the house, just from him reading the Book of Mormon.  So

that's my thought of the week, that the Book of Mormon is amazing.

I've found a lot of answers in it both during and before my mission,

that without, I don't think I would be where I am now.  And my

testimony of the Book of Mormon has definitely been what's carried me

through the hard times.  Because I know it's true, and everything else

is secondary.  But I know it's true, and I know that it really does

bring us closer to Heavenly Father.  But those are just some of my

thoughts about the BOM that I've been having lately.  Hope you enjoy

them!

Mops-primero, I will be calling you all at about 8 o clock!  8 your

time, 7 here.  So I hope you will all be there!  And I'm pretty sure I

remember your phone numbers.  So that shouldn't be a problem.  But if

you haven't heard from me by 8 o clock, my number is 310-621-5545.

And no texting me this time haha.  And as for the questionaire, I am

hoping to have a more relaxed p-day today, and have time to write some

letters.  I will try to get that done today, but if Aunt Laurie hasn't

received it by next monday, I'd love it if you could send me the

questions via email!  Thanks so much mops!

pops- It was so great to get your high council letter today!  I didn't

realize it was from you until I'd read the first paragraph.  But I

really loved it, and thanks for sharing your conference thoughts!  I

am definitely one of those who tends to focus on what I should be

doing better during conference, but that's not helpful at all.  The

messages are supposed to inspire us and lift us to a different level

of performance.  So thank you!  I hope your knee is feeling better

soon!

borsh- como estas?  yo voy a escribirte solo en espanol desde hoy.  me

encantaba leer su espanol!  me parecia muy bien.  y con mas tiempo, tu

vas a poder hablar muy bien.  Vamos a hablar mucho en espanol, yo, tu

y matt, and B no entendera!  sera muy chistoso. Frisbee suena muy

divertido, estoy feliz que tu lo disfrutes frisbee asi.  Te amo

hermanito!

A- I am sorry that I ruined your life.  And stuffed 11 cookies in the

VCR.  I have eaten a lot of candy this week.  I finished all the

peanut butter m&ms, and the Demetters sent me more!  I think I may

have a cavity.  but shhhhh.  Also, I love 30 rock!  That is one of my

very favorite lines from 30 rock.  Aside from a couple ones from Tracy

Jordan that aren't mission appropriate.  I'm glad Altus is treating

you well, and you're training for a triathlon!   I want to do one with

you when I get back.  My legs will be ripped and ready for the bike.

Sadly, I will need to do lots of training in the swimming department.

But I hope you and Cary and Abby have fun in Altus!

B- I wish I could get a missionary beard card.  I never thought

shaving was a big deal.  But now, since I do shave every day, I need

to.  and it gets annoying.  you and Matt will never be able to pluck

my beard again!  It's actually getting to be something.  It's weird.

I'm glad you had a good week!

M@- oh man.  i think the gospel principles teacher will make me draw

every week now.  I had to do it again sunday.  Maybe we should play

pictionary for our ward fhe next week.  I can't believe UVU beat BYU!

 At least it was just in baseball.

Kt- I am so sorry that Ellie has been keeping you from sleeping.  If

it makes you feel better, I have my own ellie-phant that is keeping me

from sleeping well.  Mainly having weird dreams and diarrhea.  So I

feel your pain.  but hopefully this week, both of our pains will get

better.  thanks for all the pictures tatie!  I loved them!

(and did Todd really eat rice cereal?  That is dad of the year material)

well, I love you all family, and I can't wait to talk to you on sunday!

But the bell rang! May 14

Buenas Tarders familia!  

Fue algo buenisimo a oir sus voces.  Fue muy, muy dificil a parar de hablar con ustedes.  no quise hacerlo.  pero, muchas gracias para sus comentarios, sus chistes, y todo.  Estoy muy agradecido que yo pude hablar con todos.  la technologia es increible.  

Good afternoon, family! 

It was something very good (sorry, that phrase doesn't translate very well) to hear your voices. It was very, very difficult to stop talking to you guys. I didn't want to do it. But, many thanks for your comments, jokes and all. I am very grateful that I was able to talk to you all. Technology is incredible.

Well, it's been an interesting week!  It was so good to hear from everybody last night.  It was the best/worst thing in the whole world.  It was the best thing, but the worst part was hanging up.  You all sounded so great, from all your different states.  I'm so glad that we got the conference call to work.  (but P.S., for the future, I actually forgot about this in the rush yesterday, President Baker has asked us to only call our parents.  He said it's fine if other people are in on the conversation, but it would probably be better next time if I called Mops or Pops phone and did the conference call from there.)  

But there is not too much this week that I don't think I already told you.  We've had a real tough time getting people to church here, which has been a little disheartening.  Our biggest problem is really people are too busy here.  I've learned a lot of lessons about being too busy from people here.  A lot of people work so much that they can't give their families the attention they need, and it's really hard to find the balance.  But since they're so busy, it's hard to get set lessons with them, which means it's hard to bring members to the lessons, which usually means they don't come to church.  And then means they don't progress.  But we're working on it.  Our mission has been having a huge shift, and focusing lately almost exclusively on working with members.  Which has been fun.  Especially because working with members is something that will help me throughout my life.  But that was about it for this week.  

Except one tender mercy from yesterday.  

Yesterday was kind of a rough day for me.  Definitely the highlight of it for me was the phone call.  But before I went to church, I asked Heavenly Father to help me learn one thing about prayer to help me.  I listened to the talks, and i'll be honest, didn't learn much.  And then I forgot about it a little bit, until Priesthood.  And then, they opened the manual, and the title of the lesson was called "opening your soul in prayer."  I almost laughed out loud right there.  When Heavenly Father answers, He really answers.  But it was amazing to see that He really did know what was going on with me, and He was watching over me.  And that He does answer prayers.  I know He's there, even when it's hard for us to recognize Him in our life.  And that's my faith-building experience from the week.

Borsh- oh man, i used to love frisbee tournaments.  Nothing is better than just playing good frisbee like all day.  That stinks that your cleats were too tight, that sounds painful.  I can't believe you finish school so soon!  That's crazy.  You get out before everyone here, you're lucky.  I hope you have a good week buddy!  

Kt- oh man.  Thank you for the picture!  Ellie is adorable!  I want to hold her and be her best friend.  I keep her picture in my white handbook case, and if people ask me if I have a girl waiting for me, I just show them the picture of Ellie.  Well, theoretically, if someone did ask me that, I would do that.  I'm still waiting for the opportunity.  

Mops- I can't e'en b'lee u.  Again?  I can't believe you sent me another text!  I sure love you though, and thanks for all you do to let me know that you love me too.  I hope you had a good Mothers day!  I definitely had a different one than I'm used too.  I'm very glad my package made it to you safely, and that you liked it!  That memory card has all the pictures I've taken since I got to Los Angeles, so there should be some good ones!  As for Laurie's questionaire, I will try very hard to fill it out today and send it.  Also, question.  You sent me the new credit card a while ago.  I tried to use it to get out money the other day from an ATM, but it said I needed a PIN number, and my old one doesn't work.  Do you know what it is?  if you do, I'd appreciate it!  I sure love you Mops!  Merry Mothers day!  

Pops-I'm glad to hear your knee is getting better.  I still can't believe Danny is home.  I would be very interested to see how similar our areas are.  There's probably a lot of things in common.  It was good to hear your voice as well, although I'm kind of surprised I didn't hear at least one "does your face hurt"  in there.  but I love you pops, have a good week!  

A- Ew.  School and work.  That sounds dumb and boring.  I thought you were going to go home and live with Mom forever.  Yeah.  Mom's awesome.  But remember those days, when we weren't responsible and we ate lots of good things and made up dances to our favorite songs?  Good times, good times.  But now we're all growed up.  When did that happen?  

Well, I'm out of time, but I sure love you all, and have a great week!  It was so good to hear you all last night! 

Pt 2 May 21

(Sadly for the rest of us, Pt 1 never was seen again.  It wasn’t sent or saved in drafts.  At least we knew he was alive and kicking!)

for some reason it randomly sent.

but Amy, Elder Davies was my elders quorum president at BYU.  that'd

be cool if you saw him.  He's serving in tulsa, OK, somewhere there.

Also, everytime i hear Adele songs it makes me cry a little inside.

All i want to do is start busting out with a little Adele and some

dance moves.  But it's alright.  You have time to work on the moves

and then I'll learn them when I get back.  Also, I love you present!

I already shot elder Reeves with the gun.  And laughed about the quack

whistle.  Love you Yam!

P.P.S. Kt- I loved your testimony forest analogy.  That's awesome.

I've definitely felt like hiding in my big trees til the little ones

grow a little.  I love it

Well, I sure love you family, thanks so much for your awesome letters,

and have a great week!  I'll tell you what's going on next week!  I'll

either be in shady Oaks or paradise falls, we'll see.  Love you!

Butter me up, I’m on a roll!! May 28

And...................................................................................

Surprise!  I actually made my letter last week disappear to build up the suspense for this weeks transfer letter!  Just kidding.  I have no idea where my letter went.  That is very strange that it just disappeared.  But anyway, I can't remember what happened last week.  I hardly remember what I ate for breakfast this morning.  not true. i ate marshmallow mateys, which I've discovered have way more marshmallows than lucky charms.  Who knew?  anyway, i digress.  

And the results for this transfer are....

I stayed in Willowbrook!  and I'm training!  I'm really, really happy about this transfer.  I am very happy with the way things turned out.  And I am still district leader, but they did something interesting this transfer.  All over the mission, they just cut districts in half and called new district leaders, so our ward is now split up into 2 different districts.  So i'm actually really happy with that, it's someone else who can do baptismal interviews, and it means I only have to go on exchanges 3 times this transfer, instead of 7, and my amount of phone calls and other work dramatically decreased.  So I'm feeling really excited about this transfer.  It was weird this transfer, they usually call you to have an interview with president before you receive new responsibility.  So I never got a call, so I figured I'd be doing about the same thing.  But then tuesday night, transfer calls came out, and I found out I was training!  It's been really fun.  The new training schedule they do has involved lots of meetings and planning and studying, so we really haven't done too much this week.  I don't have too much too exciting.  Except my new companion is Elder Fisher, and he's awesome.  He's from Salt Lake, and we've been working well and getting along really great so far.  It's been pretty fun training, this is the first time I've trained somebody completely new.  So it's been fun to see his first sacrament meeting, first weekly planning, it's been cool.  And remembering my first weeks when I understood exactly..nothing.  But we're doing really well, and we've got some awesome plans for this transfer.  Our first new plan, is, in honor of Elder Fisher, we're going to introduce a member "tackle box" in our elders quorum.  And we'll stock it with cards, BOM's, pamphlets, and then every week in elders quorum we'll pick someone to "go fishing", and then report back the next week.  It should be a fun way to get the ward involved.  But I'm really excited.  It's kind of weird how much of an influence what I do will have on his mission, it's kind of scary, but also exciting.  I think we're going to see some baptisms this transfer.  We already found some cool new investigators.  and that's been about my week!  It's been an awesome one.  And, I am going to paste my letter to president from last week below, so you have some idea what I did last week.  

*Last weeks letter.  

It's been another pretty good week in Willowbrook.  It's definitely had it's ups and downs, but overall it's been pretty good.  We have some prospects that I'm really excited about. We had a really good lesson with one of our part member families last night, he has been taught by many missionaries before, and he told us one of the biggest reasons he's never been baptized is because his family is less active, and he doesn't see a lot of difference with them being members and not.  But he agreed to start the lessons all over again, and we're excited to see where it goes this time.  Maria Mendoza has been pretty difficult to contact.  She was supposed to go to church and the departing missionary fireside yesterday, but ended up going to her sisters house.  We're not sure how committed she really is right now.  We were teaching a 15 year old girl named Maria as well, but she doesn't seem too interested, but we actually just started teaching her mom, who seems a lot more interested.  I'm pretty excited about the good things we've got, our area has tons of potential right now, we're just trying to see who is really a truth seeker. *

Mops- so, funny story.  I filled out the questionaire two weeks ago.  But due to being busy on p-day and having a mailbox dearth, I haven't actually sent it yet.  But i will today.  and I will try and send you the number as well.  and as for WOW talk, I have tons of things i would like to contribute to that!  Anything in particular you are looking for?  I have some cool stories, but mostly just lots of sad stories about why keeping the word of wisdom helps so much.  So just let me know what you want!  Also, the sun porch looks amazing!  it looks so good.  

Pops- Happy birthday!  I can't believe it's your birthday already!  I feel like it was just my birthday yesterday.  Hopefully you'll get the Justin bieber tickets I sent you soon!  haha.  that story was great.  I almost believed you when you told me Brent and Morgan were going....

I still can't believe the sequoia is gone.  Although the infiniti does sound nice.  does it have seat warmers?  i hope so!  I'm glad to hear your knee is getting better, I'm sure Kola is getting anxious for the walks.  Hope it continues to feel better!  

Kt- AH! I can't believe you ran the bolder boulder without me!  It did look like Todd took good care of you.  and I hope you packed your angry eyes, just in case.  and hopefully you liked running more this year, without Ellie!  I almost thought about running this morning.  But then I got lazy.  Also, you should just send Ellie down here.  I will take her around here with me for a couple days, and I promise you she will not be skinny anymore.  I think she'd really like papusas.  

M@- I know what you mean.  I looked back on this week, and all I did was study and plan and sit in meetings.  but it was still good.  I didn't know you and Lauren liked psych!  I've seen the first few episodes, but nothing else.  

A- 2 years?  what in the heck?  you've been married for 2 years!?  Thats crazy.  I sent you an anniversary card, but it got lost with my email last week....ok I didn't send one.  but now I feel bad about not sending one, so it kind of counts right?  That's crazy.  Also, I ate a ton yesterday.  2 bowls of marshmellow mateys, 2 plates of beans, rice and meat, 4 papusas, and 2 bowls of ice cream.  I was so full.  but it was good.  

B- Oh man.  Ernie and Bert.  you and Morgan look awesome.  I hope you enjoyed the bolder boulder more this year.  It seems like last year it kind of rubbed you the wrong way.  you just seemed really irritated last year.  but hopefully Bert was better.  Hope school continues to go well!  and I want to hear about your date!  

Well. it's been an awesome week, and I love you all!  I miss you all, but I know I'm where I'm supposed to be.  And I know heavenly Father is mindful of all of us, he reminds me everyday that he is very aware of all my needs.  It was a tender mercy that I was able to write you at all today.  All the cafes were closed, but we happened to try one again, and he wasn't going to open, but he is letting us type our letters.  So I know Heavenly Father is looking out for us, and I know how much He loves each of us.  And I love you all too!  

Apr 9-30

Feliz Pascua! April 9

Happy Easter fambly!  

I sure loved hearing all of your easter thoughts from you all this week.  I really missed that yesterday.  It seems Easter isn't really celebrated so much here.  But I really enjoyed hearing all of your different thoughts about Easter, and remembering the real meaning of it.  

It's been a pretty good few days over here in Shady Oaks.  First of all, this sunday was super exciting, because it was the first sunday of this transfer that we have had investigators at church!  We had two come, Emerito and Maria Mendoza, and they seemed to enjoy it.  It was kind of an interesting easter sunday, because I'm not sure if they even mentioned it.  And it was fast and testimony meeting.  It was just not the Easter I was expecting.  And that got me down for a while yesterday.  I was fasting, I was hot, I was tired, nobody wanted to listen to us because they were all playing at the park with their families or having BBQ's, and that was really tough.  Because that was exactly what I wanted to be doing yesterday.  And I was pretty down about that.  And as I was kind of wallowing in my bath of self-pity, I realized it was kind of fitting that that was the kind of Easter I was having.  During this one time of my life when I get to represent Him, I'm grateful I understand a little bit more about how His Easter was.  I felt pretty alone yesterday, but Christ was completely alone at the end.  His friends, disciples, family, and finally His Heavenly Father all had to leave Him for that last moment.  So that He would know exactly how we feel when we do sin and can't feel God in our lives.  And I'm so grateful that I don't have to do this alone.  Even though many times I feel alone, I always have your support, and His support.  And I'm really grateful for that.  

I don't really have too much to say, there is not too much that has happened in these past few days.  I haven't been attacked by dogs or drunk guys!  Although one cool thing, me and Elder Reeves were tracting, and we met a street vendor who had been to the church in norcross!  That was really cool.  He probably went to the same building we used to go!  And our district had some pretty bad news.  The mom and kid that I interviewed last week, the dad came out saturday afternoon and said they couldn't get baptized.  That was pretty rough.  We were all really excited about that, and they were super super excited.  But I know it will all work out in the end.  Maybe they just need the dad to come too! 

Borsh-That game sounds awesome bud!  I really want to play it.  I bought a frisbee today, that was super exciting!  How is frisbee going for you still?  Are the tournaments coming up soon?  

Kt- I think me and Ellie talk very similar right now.  I've had a persistent cough ever since I came to this area, and I keep coughing when I talk.  I really, really enjoyed your Easter thoughts Katie.  About how we need to use the Atonement to forgive other people.  It reminds me a lot of the talk Elder Bednar gave this month in the Ensign, about the enabling power of the Atonement.  How many times, we just think we need the Atonement to overcome bad things.  But also, how we need it to continually become better.  It was a really awesome talk.  I can't wait to see some pictures of Ellie from Easter, and your idea of putting old toys in her easter basket is brilliant! 

p.s. if facebook seemed even more preachy than usual this weekend, it's because it was.  The church actually did a huge ad campaign for Easter on Facebook and Youtube this weekend.

Pops-ah man.  I haven't been in a good egg hunt in forever.  That egg hunt with everybody there sounds awesome, just like the ones we used to have!  I liked your Easter thoughts as well, they really helped me to think of my Easter with a better perspective.  

B- I couldn't agree with you more about the easter songs.  They are just not quite the same in spanish, and we didn't even sing them yesterday!  I really missed singing those.  They do just sound triumphant.  

A- Reading your letter sounded a lot like what I was thinking about lately!  Having that personal relationship with Christ.  Knowing that He suffered for you, individually.  That's something I've been really thinking a lot lately.  

M@-Front page!  you did it pal, you won!  That's so awesome.  I'm now going to tell everyone you're a really famous journalist, and then make them feel bad if they haven't heard of you.  

Mops- feliz cumpleanos!  That's how we say it down here in the calles (streets).  But Happy Birthday/Easter to the best mom in the whole world!  I realize that more and more every day here, that i really did get the best.  I realized, your birthday, and christ's birthday are really close!  We have our zone goal for this month, is called Happy Birthday!  Because all the district leaders have birthdays this month.  And because it's Christ's birthday.  And as part of that, we have this insert in our planner that say, "what will you give to Christ today?"  It's been really cool, and it's very thought provoking, thinking about what you can give to Christ every day.  But thanks momma, for all those years, and here's to another happy one!  I thought about you ( and everyone a lot this week), remembering reading the scriptures in the eggs every Easter.  I really love that tradition, I missed it a lot.  Also, I thought of you the other day, because I cut up a watermelon all by myself!  and I made a new recipe!  I spread peanut butter on a tortilla, put apples and honey on it, and fry it.  It's really good.  I thought you'd be proud of me.  But happy birthday, and I love you a whole lot!  

sorry I'm out of time!  I love you all, and have a great week!  We'll see where I write you form next week!  

Isn’t this a Kodak moment!...Get that bear out of here!              April 16

Hello Family!

Buenos dias!  Esta Semana ha sido una semana increible.  En domingo, o

sea, ayer, tuve la oportunidad de bautizar a E.!  Eso fue

incredible.  El fue muy feliz, y casi toda su familia vino para

apoyarle.  Me sentia bien privilegido que el queria que le bautizara.

Pero fue muy bien, y tambien tuvimos dos otros bautismos en nuestro

distrito!  La familia que casi se bautizaron la semana pasada, el

esposo dijo que si, se cambio la mente, y ellos pudieron bautizarse

esta semana!  de todos modos, una buena semana.

(Matt’s translation - Good day! This week has been an incredible week. On Sunday, or in other words, yesterday, I had the opportunity to baptize E. That was incredible. He was very happy, and almost all his family came to support him. I felt very privileged that he wanted me to baptise him. But it was great, and also we had two other baptisms in our district! The family that almost got baptized last week, the husband said that yes, he changed his mind, and they could get baptized this week. Anyway, a good week.)

Hi Familia!

It's been a really good week.  And I know you've been wondering....but

the results of the transfers this week are....the same!  Hardly

anything changed!  We had one elder and one sister change in our ward,

and our district got a little bigger, we now have 4 companionships of

elders and 1 of sisters.  But I'm still district leader here, and

Elder Reeves is my companion!  It's been good.  We had a pretty good

week.  We've got so much potential in this area, it's really crazy.

Our biggest problem has actually just been getting member involvement.

 This ward is just a little disorganized, and with 5 companionships in

the ward it just gets crazier.  But now with the whole ward in one

district, it should get easier.  But I can tell you, I had no idea

member missionary work was this important before I left.  But really,

one of the biggest indicators in someones strength and activity and

conversion to the church is how well the ward does at fellowshipping

them.  We have a lot of less active members as a testament to that,

sadly.  but it's been doing my heart good to hear about all the help

you've been giving the elders at home! I can assure you that they need

it!  I had my first District meeting with President Baker this week,

and that was scary.  I was so nervous.  But this week was really

awesome. It was kind of stressful, but I've been feeling actually a

lot better, and enjoying myself a lot more.  It's been really good.

And especially, (for those who didn't read the spanish above) Enrique

got baptized this week!  And I got to be the one to baptize him!  It

was so awesome.  He seemed really happy, I know this was a big moment

for him.  And he's been waiting for a while.  But he's been completely

clean since we met him!  It was really cool.  And it was so fun to see

all his family again too, and see people from my old ward.  It's been

really amazing to see how Heavenly Father has blessed me.  I know I

don't deserve a lot of the blessings I've seen, but it's been amazing

to see that Heavenly Father has magnified my efforts, even when I've

made a lot of mistakes.  But it's been a really good week, the two

investigators from last week, also got baptized this sunday!  It was a

really good sunday for the mission yesterday.  We had at least 4

baptisms.  But it's been a really good week, and me and Elder Reeves

are excited to keep going and working hard here!  We've got a lot to

do.

Borsh-You get to miss school all day for an orchestra thing?  That's

awesome.  Although you're not going to get any sympathy from me for

wearing your tux all day.  I have to wear nice clothes everyday!  Poor

Kola and Lily, I hope this week they get to be outside more!  Well

have a great week buddy, thanks for your awesome letter, and can't

wait to hear about your orchestra thing next week!

A- I'm so proud of you for reading Jesus the Christ Amy!  I'll read it

with you.  I started reading it again, I'm about halfway through.

It's such an amazing book. The more I read it, the more I realize

exactly how exceptional Jesus's life was.  The perfectness of it, if

nothing else, testify that He really was the Son of God.  I know

you'll love the book too, jsut keep plugging through!  And I

sympathize with you on the journal thing, it's been so hard for me on

my mission.  Also, you would appalled/proud about how much Easter

candy I've eaten.  I bought some things called peepsters, and they're

amazing.  And side note, my pants are getting tight.  I don't get it.

B- Well I'll be a shamed patoot, I love you mission advice!  Work

hard, have fun.  I've realized the truth of that recently.  Getting to

go back to my old area, I realized how much smarter I could have

worked, and how much more fun I could have had, but I didn't regret

the fun I'd had or the work I did.  Jeepers mister, you're smart!

M@- I had a Eureka moment this week during my studies.  Do you

remember the song, "El Shaddai"?  From that cheesy gospel cd?  And we

used to joke about how it meant something big.  Turns out it does.  I

learned it means, almighty god in hebrew!  I was so excited when I

found that.

Kt- squee!  Ellie looks super adorable!  And she looks like she loves

that easter basket!  And I was really sorry to hear that news about

your friend.  That's really hard.  I read a quote that I think you

would like about that, it says, when we seek to share the gospel out

of a genuine love and desire to help them, it starts to become

natural.  I would definitely encourage you to talk with your friend, I

can promise you that Heavenly Father will help you know to do and what

to say to help her!

Happy Birthday to me! April 23

Happy Birthday to me!  

o sea, feliz cumpleanos a mi!  Estoy bien animado para mi cumpleano!  Yo abri las paquetas hoy, pero no abri los regalos!  solo comi muchas dulces mientras cantaba a mi mismo.  Pero, fue muy bien.  hemos tenido una semana interesante, muchas cosas han pasado, pero tambien no fueron cosas muy grandes.  Entonces, tal vez esta carta no sea lo mas interesante. 

(Matt's translation…  Or in other words, happy birthday to me! I am very excited for my birthday! I opened the packages today, but I didn't open the gifts! I only ate a lot of candy while I sang to myself. But, it was very good. We've had an interesting week, a lot has happened, but then again they weren't big things. So, this might not be the most interesting letter.)

Hi familia!  It's so great to hear from you all this week!  And especially to get packages!  This is gonna be the coolest birthday ever!  I got a package that feels strangely like shoes, but I could be wrong.  I guess I'll find out on saturday!  Hopefully, on saturday I will be going up to the visitors center with E., one of our investigators here!  That would be an awesome birthday present.  He's doing well, he accepted the law of tithing this week, but then didn't end up coming to church yesterday, so we're not quite sure how he's doing.  But he's been doing really well on smoking, he's only doing about 5 a day now, and he used to be doing about a pack.  And our other most (originally typed moist) progressing investigator, M., was all set to come to church and the baptismal service yesterday, but then she ended up getting sick and couldn't come.  That was really sad.  But it's been a good week nonetheless.  Even though nobody came to church, I feel we worked harder than usual getting them there, and there wasn't much else we could do.  I feel like nothing really happened this week, although I did go on two exchanges this week.  And me and Elder Roberts, had one of the coolest lessons ever.  I found a new investigator with Elder Brinton, and then went back 3 days letter, and we just taught her for like 10 minutes, and then invited her to pray.  And she really didn't want to, but we kept trying to help her say it, and eventually she did.  And during her prayer, she just started crying, and it was one of the more heartfelt prayers I've ever heard.  That was probably one of the moments when I've most felt like I was doing my job, seeing her actually get closer to God through having her own spiritual experience through prayer.  It was really cool.  The other cool thing that happened was I got to do 2 more baptismal interviews!  And we had two more baptisms this sunday!  And we actually had tons of ward support, I think with these past few baptisms the ward has started to see a little more that we are all working really hard in the ward, and I'm really hopeful that we'll be able to get more ward support.  But it went really well, it's still really weird to have the kind of responsibility I have.  Baptismal interviews, filling out papers for their future membership records, making sure the baptismal service goes well, it's kind of weird.  And to think I used to hyperventilate about teaching in priests quorum for a sunday.  It's definitely an interesting shift.  But that's been my week, it's been a good one, and I love you all very much, and I can't wait to hear from you next week!  

Mops- I have important things to tell you!  So for the phone call on mothers day (three weeks away!), what time will work best for you and the family?  I have church from 9:30-12:30, but apart from that, my day should be pretty open.  I would probably personally say at night would work best for me, because I won't be good for much after the call.  But I'll talk to Elder Reeves as well, and find out what works next week!  Also, just a heads up, next week is beach p-day, and so my pday might be a little shorter.  I don't want a re-run from thanksgiving, when I missed the letter, but in case you don't hear from me, just know that's why!  Thanks so much for the package momma!  I started eating the candy, but I saved the gifts for saturday!  You're the best momma ever!  

Pops-ouch.  knee surgery.  Good thing I'm not there, I seem to have a habit of breaking relatives knees anyway.  Hopefully you'll be up and running in no time!  Have you still been playing old mens bball?  At least, before the knee thing.  Also, that's crazy that the house was in Jefferson park.  I would say there is a 75% chance I would recognize the house.  I'm glad to hear you're still watching the house remodeling shows, they are so strangely mesmerizing.  Also, I knocked a house the other day, and they were watching Deadliest Catch, and I thought of you!  

Kt- AH!  Squee!  I got your pictures today!  They were so adorable!  At least, when Ellie was in them.  The other ones had weird people wearing strange hats in them.  I took one of the photos of Ellie, and put her in my white handbook cover!  And now I'm going to brag on my niece all the way over here in L.A.!  She's gonna be a star.  But thanks so much Katie!  That's the one thing I don't have much of is pictures, and I loved looking through them this morning!  

m@ buenas!  I have had people say that to me all the time.  Matt, I love you and admire you so much more than I already did today.  I think I got a little taste of your mission.  I don't know what it was, something I ate, the flu, or something in the water, but I woke yesterday night with the worst diarrhea I have ever had in my life.  It was bad.  And it didn't stop.  It kept going all day.  It was ridiculous.  I'm still not quite better.  But, I admire you.  And I thought you'd appreciate it.  And now I'm just hoping it's better for my birthday.  That's so crazy that Jeff is probably getting his call this week!  I can't wait to hear where he's going.  

B- hey, remember when we surpreichmoed Mops so good last year?  That was so great.  You flying home just reminded me of me and you talking about how great a Denver-Provo flight would be, and now it's a reality!  That's crazy.  Time is really going fast.  This year started a little slow, but the time has really been flying by for me.  It's been good.  I hope your dance class isn't too stressful tomorrow!  

Amy and Josh-  dishonor on you, dishonor on your family, dishonor on your cow!

It’s the grand chawhees birthday! April 30

Hi familia!  

eso fue una semana muy interesante.  tuve algunos intercambios, reuniones, la actividad de las manos mormonas que ayudan, y tambien regalos!  fue una semana dificil, nuestros investigadores se disaparecieron.  No sabemos que paso.  No pudimos contactar a E. ni a M.a esta semana.  Y nadie vino para la iglesia ayer.  Pero, esta bien, tuvimos mucho entrenamiento acerca de como trabajar con los miembros, y yo se que vamos a tener mucho mas exito cuando trabajemos con los miembros mas.  

(Matt’s translation -Hi, family!

That was an interesting week. I had a few exchanges, meetings, the Mormon Helping Hands activity, and also gifts! It was a difficult week, our investigators disappeared.  We don't know what happened. We couldn't contact E. or M. this week. And nobody came to church yesterday. But, it's OK, we had a lot of training about how to work with members, and I know we're going to have a lot more success when we work with members more.)

Hi familia!  

I'm writing in english now.  First of all, I just wanted to say thank you for all the birthday wishes!  they were very much appreciated and loved.  I had a great birthday.  I actually got to go to the activity for mormon helping hands, so keep an eye out for pictures!  The lady running it said to look for Enterprise Park, compton, on lds.org and then later to look for it on world report.  that was really good, it felt great to just go and do service.  Oddly enough, nobody ever wants to let us help them.  We're always happy to help, but nobody ever lets us.  So it felt really good to actually just do manual labor.  So I really enjoyed that part of my birthday.  And then the rest of it....just kind of a normal day!  But it was good.  After me and Elder Reeves came back and planned, I made my little birthday cake and lit the candle, and sang happy birthday to myself, and it was great!  I got really excited.  Especially when I saw all the new ties and cds and shoes!  I'm wearing my new shoes, and a new tie, and I just listened to a new cd.  So they are very much loved and appreciated.  and don't worry, I opened the peanut butter m&m's yesterday, they should last me at least until tomorrow.  I took some pictures, so I'll send them next week.  I forgot my cord for the computer.  And mafew, don't worry, I got your package!  I can't wait to hang up that basketball hoop.  Brings me back to all those days playing nerf bball in the basement.  But I really had a great birthday, and thanks so much for helping it be so great!  It felt really weird, it didn't even feel like my birthday.  but it was really good.  And as for today, we had a great beach p-day!  Keep an eye on the CLAM blog the next couple days, and you should see some pictures of me!  Look for the snowbird shirt and piggly wiggly hat!  ( don't worry, I was representing the family on the beach).  But that was really fun, I played the best ultimate frisbee I've played in a long time.  And we played waterballon volleyball, and it was all around a great day.  As I write, I keep finding more sand in my hair and ears.  But it was worth it.  

As for the rest of this week, it's been an interesting week.  M. and E. kind of disappeared.  We weren't able to meet with either of them this week.  We're not sure if it's just this week, or if there are any larger problems.  We actually saw M., and she seems great.  She just has some poor health.  but as for E., we taught the law of tithing, and we're a little worried that he didn't like that.  but we'll see this week!  Our area has been struggling, but it's served as a testimony to me that i need to do better at working with the members of our ward.  We had a zone conference all about it this week, and I definitely learned a lot.  So if the missionaries ever come over for dinner, make sure you give them referrals!  I can promise you they need them.  And at least in our mission, they are 5 times more likely to get baptized if found through a member.  I feel like I haven't had anything very exciting or spiritual happen this week, but hopefully something will happen this next week!  I just hope you know how much I love all of you, and how much I know that the gospel is true.  and I really realized today, that it is the only thing that brings true happiness.  We all try and find substitutes sometimes, but in the end, serving in the gospel is the only way to really be happy.  And I know that's true.  I hope you all have had a great week, and i can't wait to hear from you next week!  (in May!  Where is time going?)

borsh-oh, I know you wrote me!  I was just giving you a hard time.  I'm glad to hear you and B got to play tons of frisbee when he was home.  And that you got to learn about ages in spanish!  how is spanish class going?  Will you write me some in spanish next week?  I'll try and understand, I'm still not very good at the whole spanish thing.  Also, how tall are you now?  I keep getting pictures, and you look bigger and bigger every time.  Heightwise. Have a good week buddy!  

Mops- Thank you so much mops!  I loved my presents.  I opened my package last week, and then saved the presents for saturday night.  but they made me very happy, and I could definitely feel the love with which they were sent!  I really like the magnet you sent me, I put it on my fridge.  I guess salvation is not a cheap experience.  I always want it to be, but I'm realizing every day, I don't think my mission will ever get easier for me.  I will just learn to enjoy the challenge more and not get so scared of it.  Thanks for all you do momma, and I love you so much!  

pops- I was feeling a little bit like you Pops this sunday, and I was realizing it's kind of weird to speak on sundays in wards that aren't your own.  this sunday, I had quite the sacrament meeting.  It was the most involved I've ever been in one.  I gave a talk, played piano, confirmed somebody, it was crazy.  And to think I almost fainted when I gave a talk when I was 14.  But I'm glad you made me talk anyway,  I'm just now starting to forgive you for that.  And speaking of things you did as bishop, what advice would you have for working with a ward?  What things did missionaries do that made you like them, and not like them?  because I know you had both during that time.  I hope your knee keeps healing, make sure you rest and eat plenty of Bluebell!  

Kt-I want to go to Yap after my mission.  It sounds like the place a noothgrush would live.  

m@-Thanks for the package brothero!  I loved the funnies as well.  I had one favorite, but I can't remember it right now.  But I loved them, and thanks for sending.  them to me!  

A-Oh man.  I loved that Limerick so much.  I had to draw something on the board for our gospel principles class yesterday, and everyone laughed at my drawing of Abraham.  Only you really understand my fine art.  Wax cow, for instance.  classic.  Also, very impressive list of things you ate this week!  I have mostly eaten a lot of candy people have sent me.  and beans.  Good combo right?  coincidentally, my stomach has been bothering me.  I don't get it.  I hope Oklahoma is not too boring for you!  One of the elders in my district is from Broken Arrow oklahoma, is that close at all?  

B-Whoa!  Future B! )all you need is beep beep...B.  future B.  I can't believe you might work with him.  Please shave your head for your meeting.  Also, you might stay at BYU?! that'd be awesome.  Also, did you ever meet any of skylars cousins?  One of the AP's right now, his name is Elder Muse, is the olsens cousin, and he said he met you!  isn't that craZY?