February 21

Hello Again!!! 
  
I don't know why it is always a surprise to me that life never slows down at our house. I guess I am a little selfish and thought everyone would just push pause for the two years while I was gone. Ok so not really but it does always amaze me that life just keeps going. 
  
So this new area is so different than I am used to. Life is slower paced. It is super quiet and calm. I dont know what to do with myself anymore. I really like the area though. I didn't realize how much I missed the small town life. The biggest problem is trying to keep ourselves busy. I am literally going crazy not being able to teach. This last week we taught only 4 lessons!!!! UGH Not fun. Tracting here also is not as much fun as it was in Gresham. There are 4 companionships in McMinnville none of which really have anything to do other than tract so the entire town (about the size of Rexburg) gets tracted out about every three months. So nobody gets too excited to see us. The other problem is that the ward we are assigned to other than the YSA Branch is in Dayton. Picture Grace only having like four or five different very active churches. We really cant go tracting there either. It has actually been requested that we don't by the members. We don't completly follow that because  we need soething to do but we try not to get people upset with us. 

In awnser to your question yes we are allowed to have GPS. The roads in Oregon are not always the most..... user friendly. Picture the roadways in Pocatello only that is how the entire state is. So the Gps would be very helpful especially because I am in such a large area. My area is a little bit like Carribou county. I live in McMinnville (population ~35,000) but cover McMinnville, Dayton, Lafayette, Yamhill, Dundee, Newburg, Amity, Carlton and all the space in the middle. So I don't know that I will really ever learn my way around all of my area. 
  
I really enjoy working with the YSA. We have more spiritual meetings with them than I think I have ever had in church. They are so devoted to learning and growing in the gospel. They really love the Lord and want to serve him. The Relief society president gave her two weeks notice so that she could better serve in her calling. That is real faith. 
  
We are doing our best to stay busy. This week we have a few different lessons planned and we are doing service with a Part Member family who is moving here from Canada. His Sister-in-law lives in the Dayton ward (the family ward that I cover as well) and she told him that our payment was lunch and the first discution. Hopefully something good comes from that. 
  
As far as anything that I need.... I can always use more laundry soap. I am also out of Attain. But I really would love some bread. When I read your e-mail about making bread I was like man I miss that stuff. I really am pretty well taken care of though. I am really trying to get better about spending money. It is my goal to make it all the way through March without having to use any of your money. I can do it. 
  
So yesterday we went back to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. It is so cool there. THey also have an IMAX theater there and all of the movies are approved so yesterday we watched the Hubble movie. It is amazing to think how small we really are and how many worlds without number really is. It was AMAZING!!! I loved it. 
  

February 14

Hello!!!

Wow what a change this week has been. It is amazing the difference that less than 100 miles can make. The people here in McMinnville are so much different than those in Gresham. I also now know why everyone says that Portland is beautiful... because no one goes to Gresham for vacation they all go to Downtown Portland and out to the coast. I am out towards the coast now so it really is beautiful. I love the vineyards. Probably not a good thing for a missionary to say but they keep all the grape vines trimmed back and they grow in strait lines and are evenly spaced. LOVE IT!!

 

The work here is way different! I went from teaching 15-20 lessons a week to teaching 3. Blah! Not my favorite week at all. But we are going to change that. If we can't find investigators we are going to start teaching members because as you can imagine it doesn't take very long for a town of thirty thousand people to get tracted out especially when there are four companionships none of which really have anything going on. So it gets tracted out about every three months. And unlike in Gresham there are not very many people out on the streets so that really isn't an option any more. Time to learn new ways I guess.

 

So guess what happened again this week..... On Thursday night I got a call from the office elders (usually not a good sign). I had called the office and asked them to move my bike to the mission home for storage while I am in a car area. So on Wednesday the elders had gone out to Gresham to get my bike and take another elder his. So they went and picked mine up and then went over to another apartment in Gresham they unloaded the bike that they were dropping off and took it upstairs to the Elders. They came back out about five minutes later and all the bikes in the back of the truck..........GONE. OH joy! SO I have now been out for five months and gone through two bikes. The only good thing is that because it was the mission that lost it this time they are going to pay for it. So someone gets a bike that is only one month old courtesy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 

Sounds like that you had a really fun week though. Tell you what, I really miss having home made bread. The stuff from the store is really not very good. It is fun to hear about all of the family activites. I miss being a part of them.

Pictures

Feb 7

Ok first off sorry about the letter last week. I got a warning when I had four minutes left and I just kept typing and then I thought to myself how much longer do I have so I looked and only had 20 seconds left and so I just sent it. Ok on to other things.

 

Transfers were yesterday which is why there was no e-mail. Elder Mecham and I both got pulled out of Gresham (super frustrating). We finally had a real investigator and we got pulled. It is a good thing that the Lord has a hand in it other wise I would be super mad. That being said I really like where I am at now. McMinnville... a small town out in the middle of no where. There are only about 30,000 people here. It really reminds me of Soda Springs. Only way more trees. I now cover two wards The McMinnville YSA Branch and then the Daton Ward. Daton is about like Grace. It will be a lot of fun serving here I think. One thing to note is that the Library here is not open on Mondays so I will e-mail on Tuesday. Another Bounus about transfers is that I am now in a car.

 

Leaving Hartley Park was SUPER hard. I love the people there so much. The really support the missionaries. On Saturday we went over to the Lowes house to say goodbye because we figured that one of us was going to be transfered. They are super nice. Sister Lowe is from Firth and knows Elder Mechams family. They invited us back that night to watch 17 Miracles.What a great movie that is! THey had to drive to Deseret Book to buy it so the offered to pick us up anything that we needed so I had them get me the missionary library. Then on Sunday we went and said goodbye to other members of the ward the McMullins, Sister Paxson, Hofstrands, James and of course the Strommers. THat was REALLY hard. One thing that the Strommers do at the dinner table is everyone tells their favorite thing of the day. I love that tradition and on birthdays it is favorite thing about the person. So they did favorite things about Elder Mecham and I and then gave us a card that they all had signed. We also recieved many threats about coming back and that if we didn't they would hunt us down. Will even said that he would come and burn down our towns. I love that kid and that Family so much.

 

Life really sounds good. You would think that you would slow down sometime but I know that that really isn't in our blood. We live for insanity. That must really be fun having Erik and Chelsie there. I wish that I could see them but I am glad to be out here. Yesterday aas we left Portland to come out to McMinnville I was amazed at how beautiful it really is. There are about 30 wineries that we passed on the way. They look so cool. Also there is an aviation museum in our area and we are going there today. It looks way cool. They have the Spruce Goose. THey also have a water park with a comercial jet liner that they have turned into a huge waterslide. I want to go there when I come back.

Jan 29

Dear Family,

What a great week it has been. We have really seen the work here take
off. The mission goal for lessons is 20. The average is about 8-12.
This week Elder Mecham and I got 24!! Most of those were tracting
lessons but they were still good lessons.

The most exciting thing that happened this week was that we got a new
investigator!! Half of our work is with less actives. This is a huge
change for this mission. At Zone Conference this week President Morby
talked about how if we are investing that much time into working with
less actives then we need to draw on that bank and ask for referrals.
This is how we got our new investigator. Her name is Brianna and she
is 15 years old. She is a good friend of a less active family named
the Salleys. She looks to them as kind of parents because she hasn't
had the best family life. So we met with her for the first time on
Thursday and after the lesson asked her if she would be baptized and
she accepted. We met with her again on Saturday and we set a baptism
date for March 3rd. We were so excited!!! When she came to church
yesterday the ward really made her feel welcome. After sacrament Cajsa
Strommer (love that family) came over and said ready to go to class.
That was the last time that we saw her until after church. The young
women took over which really is the way that it should be. While she
was in class she told everyone that she was getting baptized on March
3rd. They invited her to Seminary and Mutual.

Yesterday we got to attend a baptism of on of Elder Mechams old
investigators. She is such an AWESOME woman. She started meeting with
missionaries almost a year ago back east and then moved out here last
June which is when Elder Mecham stared to teach her. She had to
recieve permission from Salt Lake in order to be baptised and it took
seven months.

Jan. 22

Hello!!!

This week has felt like a really long week. It is so weird because
usually time moves so fast out here. And it wasn't like we were not
working because we had one of the better weeks we have had so far.

But the best thing happened this week... We were in a lesson at a
less-actives home and when we got there it was pouring rain and then
at about 9:15 when we went to leave there was about two inches of
SNOW!!! You would have thought that I was 3 years old. when we got to
our apartment I ran in and grabbed my camera and was outside taking
pictures and then I sat right next to the window just looking out
watching the snow come down. I am so glad that I did because when we
woke up the next day it had allready started to rain and by 2pm all of
the snow was gone. And then just like in the song "The rains came
tumbling down." It was pouring. I think we had about 2-3 inches of
rain on Thursday. They had to close roads because of all the rain. I
am so glad that my coat is water proof because tell you what I have
put that omi-tech to the test. Yesterday we were out street contacting
and making visits and I was completly soaked from head to toe other
than where my coat was. The only problem is that if your hads are in
your pockets the rain runs down the coat and into the pockets and
becase they are water proof the water has no where to go so it just
stays in the pocket. I had about a half an inch in my pockets by the
time we got back to our apartment. It has been fun.

We had our ward conference yesterday and it was really good. It was
all about finding the lost sheep. It seems to be a theme chusrch wide.
Which is a really good thing because there is a lot of work that needs
to be done. They pointed out in Sunday school that that seems to be
the theme of President Monson's time as prophet.

Jan 15

Dear Family,

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!!! Too bad that ment no internet
access at the library. We had a pretty good week. Right now Elder
Mecham and I are really focusing on getting in contact with people in
the ward that haven't had contact with the church or been home taught
for at least 12 months. This list has 150 names on it (Bishop Dance
would hate the home teaching in this ward about 35 - 40 %). The list
was split up between High Priests, Elders, Young Men and Ward
Missionaries. The only problem is that Elder Mecham and I have been
doing most of this work. One of the members of the Mission Presidency
found this out and was ticked!!! He said why are we sending the
missionaries after people who probably don't want the gospel in their
lives. Oh well we are almost done with the list so we are going to
just keep pushing forward with it.

Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week is that there
was talk of snow. This city shuts down I guess if there is even just a
skiff of snow. I am glad that I am not in a car area right now because
most mission vehicles are grounded. Probably due to the three car
accidents that happened on Sunday. I have no clue ho that happened
because the snow wasn't even sticking the roads were just wet. Anyway
too bad for them because if they have a car it usually meens that they
need it to really function in the area. Elder Mecham and I can walk
and still be effective. It is so funny though all the buses have
chains on and all it is doing is tearing up the roads. Whatever I
don't pay any taxes in this state.

I also got to go to the Portland Temple for the first time. It is a
beautiful temple with lots of dark wood work. I still love the Idaho
Falls Temple. I really think that it is my favorite. We get to go to
the temple every three months. I wish it was more but it is more that
most missions so I am greatful for that.