Elder Taylor Ferguson-- Dec 31, 2012

Parental Units (cone heads)

HOW art thou?

It was really awesome to see everyone (and mainly my gun! jk) I am great and happy, I'm glad you noticed, but I am dying right now......,my hair is waaay to long! I feel like I need to get it cut all the time! haha

Yeah the Brawdy's said Brody, are super great, they helped us out a lot, then after we (Elder Cooper and I) finished skyping we went and ate some deelish BBQ! And they all loved the Baked bean the most! haha who wouldn't though right?  But right as we we're finishing up our luncheon ( I feel old saying that) we got a call from one of our recent converts. But since we were at the meal we did'nt pick it up. Then the Bishop (brother Brawdy's father in law, whose house we were at) got a call from him too, so he answered it, and we found out that our recent convert Eric, died Christmas morning. Eric was a 20 year old guy, who was a little sickly both mentally (not enough to be unaccountable though) and physically. But not sick enough to die, we were very surprised as to his sudden passing. He had a really rough life, he and his family are very poor, he didn't have many friends, he didn't work. He had a rough life. While it was obviously sad, at the same time it was a very very faith building experience for us. The reason being, that Eric was a missionary find from this last spring. He was baptized on Jun 25 2012, and died Dec 25, 2012. Less than 6 months after he was baptized he passed away. Eric though his life like I said it was rough, however through all that stuff he always had a VERY firm faith in Christ. He was always searching for a church where he felt Christ wanted him to be, and one day he was blessed to find it.  He took action and was baptized. Now the faith building portion of this story is this, that obviously there is no such thing as coincidence. And the fact that he was always searching, then finally found Jesus Christ's church, then passes away being released from some pretty heavy stuff shows that God is preparing people for us to share the gospel with, not just us missionaries, but everyone! It shows that we CANNOT judge people, because believe me if you saw this guy you'd never guess he had  faith like he did/  I love that you and dad both talked about Pres Monson's talk in your emails cause it's exactly what I learned this christmas.

love your child!

Elder Matthew Whittle--December 23, 2012

Elder Corbin Moore--December 31, 2012

THEY CAME! Well this week was absolutely amazing. We were able to have a couple lessons with M and E. They were really powerful, and we got them to commit to come to church and to start reading the Book of Mormon. They came to church and had a really great time. They were excited to go to the gospels principles class, and when we got there the teacher wasn't there. So it turned out that I taught the class, and they still enjoyed it. We found a new investigator through a family in the ward. They are kinda less active, and so we went over there to teach the 18 year old son, and then his little, 9 year old, sister was there. We invited her to sit in on the lesson and she said yes. Then mom came in about 10 minutes later and said that she wanted to talk about getting C.  (the little girl) ready for baptism. What a miracle. We went to the Visitors' Center with them and and a wonderful time, looking at the christmas lights, and listening to music. We also were able to have a lesson with Norma this week. We had Hermano S. come with us, and it turned out really well.

So we were able to speak on Tuesday. It was nice to be able to hear everyone's voices, and to talk with you all about how things are going back home. I hope eveyone is having a great holiday season, especially because today is New Years Eve. Don't party to hard. That means you too, Mom. I know your are turning 41, but you'll have to take it easy. Hahah. Mom hope you have a great birthday that is full of fun, and laughter. Have a martinellis for me. So what are the big plans for this special day? As for us we are going to be have a zone activity. But it'll just be the elders because the sisters are all performing tonight. So all the elders are going to be playing basketball, and then going out for some food. Then we will head up to the Visitors' Center to support the sisters in the zone. Should be fun.

This past week we had transfers. Elder Garrett got transfered down to Redondo beach, and so I stayed here in Penmar. My new companion is Elder Casper. He is from San Antonio, Texas. He came out the transfer before me, and I served in the same zone with him, when I first came to the mission. He is the second oldest out of 5. Both of his parents served missions, in Brazil. He is a hard worker, and we have had a lot of success since he got here. It should be a really great transfer. Well that's about it for this week. Hope everyone is well.

Con Amor

Elder Moore

Everything.Happens.For.A.Reason

There.Is.No.Such.Thing.As.Coincidence

Stay.Fresh

Elder Taylore Ferguson-- December 17, 2012

MaJa

I'm so glad your trip was a  success and a memory success as well!

I am soooo pumped for Bronte! that is supes cool, probabally the 2nd best mission out there haha!!

UPDATE** PRES. HALL TOLD US THIS WEEK THAT WE CAN SKYPE!!!

So we'll let you know next week what time is best for us, will you write/co-ordinate w/ Bro B.(matt damon's Twin) so we can get everyone there? haha it'll be great

Yes i got all those pkg's so that address is correct.  So anything you send should be good to go.

But anyway we saw a cool miracle this week. my favorite zone leader that I have ever had called and told me how awesome I was and I felt the spirit really strong as he was talking to me.  Then I went out and testified like a lion. He is so great i wish i could be more like him...

(Elder R.-zone leader)

 

I'm super happy for/jealous of Brookie and Bronch for being able to go to the temple! That is supes awesome!  Tell me how it goes!? Yeah? you'll know why I loved it so much before I left!

Missionary work is super hard every night I cry and then I get over it and get stronger. Minus the get better part. Sometimes i miss you so bad mom...

 

The work right now is.....interesting, people are so "Busy" and use that as their excuse not to listen. Which is weird cause now should be the time they listen. but it's been really cool the last week, we focused really hard on talking w/ everyone we see, which makes for some great rejection, and meeting really interesting people. But we all know nothing happens in missionary work untill you talk to people! So we've found a couple new people and were working on converting them into potential inv.'s (into GATORS!)

But there are 2 things I  can't wait to tell you guys about.

1st) The 1st counselor in the Mission Pres. lives in our ward, so we talk with him a lot, and we hear this story yesterday about his nephew.

"he got his mission call packet this week, and when he opened it up, there was only 1 piece of paper on it, with 1 phone number on it. Thats all! So confused he called the number, which to his surpise went directly to Pres. Monson, who informed him that for the next 3 years he'd be serving in mainland CHINA!!!!"

Super super super superrrrr cool! That is so cool, even though it's only the 3rd coolest mission in the world ;)

2nd) Last Monday/Tuesday, during personal study I was reading in Alma, when I came across this scripture Alma 60:13, where it talks about sometimes the innocent are slain, to enable God to execute his justice on the wicked. I read it, it was cool, I thought about ambulance, and said to Elder C, "maybe this'll come in handy soon." then moved on. Then, saturday evening we we're talking w/ a widow, and she started talking about how the day before was her husbands death date, and how it was a really hard day for her, Then she decide to wind down, and watch the news, and she saw the stuff about the shooting. So as she was telling us this stuff she was just sitting there bawling, and all the sudden that scripture popped into my head, and we were able to really calm her down and give her some serious piece of mind. It was great to be able to help her out. :)

Well that's all sHE wrote today, sorry if I forgot anything.

Love ya'll a lot, congratz BRONCHO! I'm supes happy for you, along with everyone here! (cept they secretly wanted you to come here, and make it rough on me HAHA)

Elder Corbin Moore-- December 17, 2012

Subject: Shopping, Shopping, oh and did I mention Shopping

Well I imagine that everyone is going crazy back home, getting ready for all the festivities. Remember what I said last week, about not getting too caught up in it, but also enjoy yourselves. Well there hasn't been a lot going on, seeming how I just talked with you all, 4 days ago. On Thursday, we had MLT, all of the leadership in the mission got together for a meeting with Pres. Baker, and it was really good. Then on Friday not, much happened because we had District meeting in the morning, and then we had to have another one in the afternoon. So we were just super busy, with all the meetings. Saturday was our ward Christmas party, so that was really good, we were in the kitchen serving everyone. We had Christmas tamales, and rice and salad. It was all really good. Then we did a musical number where Elder. G. and I sang, and Elder. P. and Elder. T, did the bottles and glasses filled with water, it was fun. We sang Jingle Bells in spanish, and everyone enjoyed it. That was all that happened.

How is everyone else doing? Hope everyone is just having a good time, and enjoying themselves. Hopefully there is somebody who will have a snowball fight for me, and then make a snow fort. Oh how I miss those days. And some ultimate sledding up in Eaglewood. Fun times. Well thats all I have for this week, take care. Talk to you all soon enough.

Con Amor

Elder Moore

Elder Matthew Whittle-- December 17, 2012

  

Boo ya!

Man I think I would maybe be ok with visiting my mission in November;) haha That doesn't sound to awful to me;) That'll be so great to have Grandma there with us. We should have her there the whole time! I love being able to see her at the temple. She's amazing! I always feel the spirit when I'm around her.

I hope Josh can get out there! That will be awesome! I'll keep praying for him. Tell him I love him and miss him, and that he's best be ready to go to UVU in a year. What's the Choster going to do for Christmas?? How's mama Cho doin?

We will be able to skype again this Christmas so that'll be great! It might be pretty early in the morning that we do it. We'll let you know once we figure out when.

So last week it was awesome. We had a super cool Christmas Party for the ward. There were about 20 non-members that showed up so Elder G. and I were going around like crazy trying to talk to everyone haha, and then we got up on stage with the guitars and with a phillapino guy that's in our ward named Ray and we played and sang Feliz Navidad for everyone. It was so much fun haha. The two little kids of one of our investigators got up on stage with us and were dancing around in front of the whole audience. I'll have to send you the video. It was pretty funny. The crazy thing was that we didn't really even practice. We practiced it once and Rays house for like 15 minutes, and then ran through it once together before the performance, but it turned out great haha.

That would be cool to get some testimonies to put into the Books of Mormon. I think that would be a great Idea. You can just send me the testimonies and I'll put them in the copies and get them out to people.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Keep looking for ways to spread the gospel. We're going to go caroling to non-members homes starting wednesday. Love you all! Hablamos pronto!

Con Amor,

Elder Witle

P.S. I think my ward mission leader sent dad something for his back on email.

P.S.S. I had dinner sunday night with Brother Empey's brother haha. Small world right. They're down in st. george now right??

Elder Garret Allen-- December 10, 201

Well transfers have come and gone. Elder B. has now left and i will be
> with a elder from panama...you know where they built that canal haha.
> his name is elder A. he seems preety cool. we will see how it
> goes.Anyways it was sad to say goodbye. More for the fact that i am
> now senor
> comp and have to do all of that stuff....Yea...I am not to excited for
> that. Honestly I have no idea what to do from this area haha. I guess I
> just work hard and have hope that it is all going to work out. It should be
> a new adventure and a lot of stories. We will see how it all works out. So
> it looks like santa was right. I will be staying in good old tucuman the
> same ward as floresta. It should be good. it is a hard area but you just
> got to go forward. there isn´t a whole lot for you to do.
> I just need to go and look for what the lord wants because he knows.
> like you sad to weeks ago, we need to humble ourselves before him and
> he will make are weakness strong. He calls who he calls and he knows
> who he wants. he doesn´t make any mistakes, right?
> Anyways the end of this transfer was pretty slow. It was good to
> finish it off and move forward. I am actually glad that I was comps
> with Elder B...really it was a learning experience. I probably
> wont be forgetting him anytime soon. This week I dont have a lot of
> great story. Most of this week I spent traveling...There was an elder
> that had to go salta like three times and I was called to go with him
> and to make sure he wasnt a lone...maybe the dl should have done it
> but he asked me to and that type of thing doesnt bugg me. you need to
> help and elder out haha. So it was a lot of being in other areas and
> riding on buses. It was great. Besides that this week was pretty
> normal. We had a zone training and also this dec 14th is the christmas
> thing with president. We will be putting all of the zones of tucuman
> together. It should be interesting. we will see how that goes. I will
> keep you posted. besides that everything is just rolling right a long.
> I am 11 days from my one year mark. They say after that everything
> just go´s shooting down hill. we will see if it is true. Hopefully it
> doesnt go by to fast right haha. Anyways thanks a lot for all of your
> great counsel and help in the mission!!! You rock.
> So about the whole friends thing...it is cool. I understand you arent
> in a lot of contact with those people. I just need to write them some
> letters and see what is up haha It is weird...everyone is starting to
> come home now...It is totally going to be like a line of people just
> falling in...Justen comes home soon and caleb to...It is going to go
> by really fast. Only one year left to learn the most that i can and to
> become the best that I can...We will see if i can make it haha.
> SO how are things at home at this christmas time? Christmas here is
> going to be interesting...Mostly it is just a huge party...we get to
> call you the 24 of this month and we can use skype...I just need to
> find a place that has a camera...We will see if that happens haha.
> Anyways besides that everything is chill. The people here put up like
> 2 and a half foot trees and call it good. The cool thing is that night
> they light fireworks off so it might be like the 4th of july back
> home. we will see haha. anyways. everything is good here in
> argentina...I am dying of heat and that is about it. We will see how
> it goes with this guy from panama. i have hope that it will go
> well...it is always interesting when you have your new comp. you necer
> know what you are going to get. i guess that we will see. Anyways, i
> love you guys and miss you. I hope that everything is going well. I
> will be seeing you next year. I cant wait to hear from you and to call
> you. I will try to see if I can skype but it will be hard to find a
> place to do it. Anyways that is all for this week. Take care and enjoy
> the cold while you have it...I so miss the cold haha. LOVES!!!!
>
> Elder Allen
>
> Ps. this week I am going to be studying forgiveness and the importance
> of the book of mormon. Let me know what you are up to. Read pray and
> go to church. haha love you