January 13th and 20th, 2014

January 13^th, 2014

Dear family,
This was a solid week. I'm a little short on time today, but I will do my best to get all the information out. We are so excited to be staying here!

Monday night was pretty miserable. It was freezing cold and we were on the bikes. I didn't wear good socks so my feet were super cold and they were sore from P-day as well, so that didn't help. We didn't have any set lessons, but we were pretty cold and miserable so we decided to go by J and we had a little lesson with him. It was pretty sweet too because since it doesn't really fulfill our purpose to find, teach, and baptize when we teach members, so after we had a lesson and the Spirit was there we asked who he knew that needed the gospel and since he knows a ton of people from his preaching days and other things he ended up giving us 5 referrals. Only one lived in the area and so far nothing has come of them but it was cool to see immediate blessings of trying to maintain our purpose in a recent-convert visit.

Tuesday was a pretty long day. We had a lesson with M and M right off the bat. Marilyn had a bunch of little questions but I was a little frustrated with them and it was cool to see how the Holy Ghost was helping me to answer her questions and she ended up really liking the things we talked about. She likes the idea that sacrament is a reminder of our baptisms and likes the idea of three kingdoms of glory, even though the first time we taught that she didn't like it. She will read the Book of Mormon though, so we continue to teach her. The lesson with M went well. We taught the Restoration and she loves the church and basically said she likes the Book of Mormon way more than the Bible. She is doing awesome. The rest of the day we didn't have anything and it got really cold that night. E gave us some gloves that are really warm and I had my thermal garments so I was fine, but Elder W was freezing. No one was home or able to talk but we were able to laugh it off pretty well. We decided to stop by one last person at like 8:45 that was pretty close to our apartment and we decided to take a back road that we usually can't use with the car to their apartment but we ended up on the backside of the complex which is actually where they lived. Unfortunately they didn't have a pathway to the hallway they lived in, so we decided to hop the bushes next to the railing and climb the railing to get to their apartment to save like a 5 minute walk all the way around. I climbed over the bush and then grabbed the railing to climb over and I was stuck. I pulled myself away and realized that the railing had wet paint on it. Can you believe that? The one fence we try to climb is being painted at 8:45 on a freezing cold night. It was terrible luck. So I got paint all over E's gloves and my really nice winter coat. We were laughing so hard though since we couldn't catch any breaks that night. Plus, I accidently touched my face with the gloves and so I had black paint on my face and I didn't know it until I got home and it was everywhere but Elder W didn't tell me and I asked like two people on the way home if they needed help and they all gave me weird looks and then I realized why. It was a funny night.

Wednesday we had a lesson with A, B, and the D family. We shared missionary messages with all of them and asked for referrals. B is doing amazing! He understands the gospel so well and he had already invited a friend to church, but unfortunately he got sick so he couldn't come. Lots of people have told us how impressed they are with him. It's sweet especially since the ward council was somewhat doubting his readiness. We ended up getting out of the D's house at like 8:45 so we had a really long bike ride but the sisters told us they were in the area and could give us a ride home right then so we took them up on the offer. It was really nice of them.

Thursday was transfers so we continued the tradition of taking Round Rock out to lunch. We studied with them and then took them to Subway since we had gift cards and coupons. Old Settlers wanted us to take them to transfer meeting but neither of us needed to go so we tried convincing them to not go, but they really wanted to so we had to take them. It was fun to see all of my former companions and see the new companionships. There was a bit of a buzz when they announced me and Elder W were staying so that was cool. Elder T is staying at UT campus, Elder V is heading to San Antonio, and Elder S is staying in S and training a new missionary. We went to E's after the meeting and we went right in and had a really good lesson with them. He said that he read from the Book of Mormon and really liked it and confirmed that he wants to get baptized but doesn't feel ready. We explained that he can be ready if he follows through on the commitments we leave him. He said that he was going to come to church too. We headed off to J's house and we ended up having a great lesson with him too. His wife still brings us apple juice and cookies everytime we come by and they are really nice. He is so awesome! It's funny to watch him struggle with himself because he knows the church is true but he doesn't seem to know what to do about it or to admit it, but I'm confident one of these days he will finally realize he needs to do something about it. We had dinner at the K's house and they brought a friend that Bro K has been talking about the gospel with, so that was cool. The guy's name was C but he has some issues with religion. We shared a lesson about the Book of Mormon but then he wanted to know about Joseph Smith so we ended up back-tracking and teaching the restoration. He wasn't super receptive but the Ks were great and I saw how much better it is to have a member fellowship like that. If he was ready I have no doubt he would be a solid investigator.
Friday was awesome. We got to go to San Antonio because Elder Bednar was in town for a stake conference. We knew about this weeks ago but we weren't suppose to make it public for security reasons. We had some talks we were suppose to read about learning by faith, and conversion. Basically the main thing to get out of it was that we need to act in order to strengthen our faith. They were really good talks and I highly recommend them. They are called “Learning by Faith,” “Ask in Faith,” and “Testimony and Conversion” or something like that. All by Elder Bednar. It was really cool to be in his presence. He was really funny and really showed his personality. Instead of just talking he had everyone particpating so that we could learn by faith as we talked about learning by faith. It was interesting. He said a few things that were really cool. First he said that members write too many “large plates” by simply writing things that were said. He said to write “small plates” and the things that the Holy Ghost teaches us while we listen with our hearts. I learned so much more but you will have to ask for more details some other time. It was incredible. He is amazing!
Saturday we weekly planned. We also had a quick lesson with S about the Book of Mormon and asked him to read a scripture from the Book of Mormon. He is a really good kid. We also stopped by E and he had us come in and we had an incredible lesson with them. We talked about baptism a lot and L even said that she wants to be baptized too. It was a really inspiring lesson and they are just the best people ever. I have such a deep love for them! They weren't able to make it to church so that was too bad, but they will come next week. They also gave us some really good chicken and egg salad.
Sunday was sweet. No one was able to make it to church but the talks in church were awesome. All about fellowshipping and making people comfortable. The ward council is really pleased with the efforts we have made and we seem to have their trust. We have been really successful with reactivation even though that's not our calling but it's been cool to see. I really love this ward. We had a really good lesson with the L family and they love us. They are such a good family and we are so happy to be a part of their reactivation. Sunday after dinner, we came out of the family's house and there was a huge dog eating out of a garbage bag on the side of the road. I looked at it and I thought it was a fox because I thought it had a white underside, so I told Elder W that it was a fox and then he took off running. Unfortunately this made the dog jump up and chase after us, so I had to start hauling booty to get to the car. Luckily the car was unlocked and I got there just in time. Then we realized it was just a huge dog, but it was so freaky. We had so much adrenaline. We drove past it again and we realized that it did have rabbies so that was still pretty freaky.
On a more serious note, I have come to know how important the gift of the Holy Ghost is and how real it is. I know that that is why baptism is so essential so that we can go to the Celestial kingdom and have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to help us on the path. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that it was written for us in this day and has a pure translation and that is why there is such power behind it. I love you all and thanks for all you do!
Love,
Elder Pew

January 20^th 2014

Dear family,

This was a pretty good week, although it was a bit slower than normal.

Monday was a pretty slow evening. We didn't have any set lessons and we tried tracting (Elder W's second time) and telling people about family history and the new family search. There wasn't any more visible success but we felt like it was the right thing to do. We made some cookies for M since her son Noah was sick, but the cookies we had had peanut butter in them and it turns out she is allergic to peanuts, so that was a bust. That was about it for that evening.

Tuesday was a pretty great day. We had a lesson with M right off the bat and we brought Sis S and it was great. She bore a pretty powerful testimony of the influence the Holy Ghost has played as she has tried to be more active again and how much happier she is. At church Sis S said she was really happy to come with and she really loved our lesson and said we did an amazing job. That was sweet. Elder W's tire went flat at the same spot again, but this time we had the equipment and we were able to patch the hole and keep going. It was pretty funny since it was identical to last time. We went to J's house and ended up having a pretty good lesson with him. He feels bad about never being healthy enough to read from the Book of Mormon but we suggested giving him a CD with the Book of Mormon on it. I think it will really help him. We had dinner with the J and Bro J is the bomb! He is the new 2nd counselor to the EQ and he is already helping us so much (since he is in charge of missionary related items). He has worked hard with the Fs and now we can actually get updates on what is going on with the ward. It was awesome! It was like an hour bike ride from there to E's house and we ended up teaching him the Word of Wisdom and he says he has a few things to he wants to work on but that he does want to get there. He hasn't read any more of the Book of Mormon, but he has been really busy. It was successful though.

Wednesday was pretty great. We had zone meeting and me and Elder W we actually were asked to give a 20 minute training on changing shaky baptismal dates to set dates. It was a really tough topic and at first I had no idea where to go with it, but we pulled together a training where I learned a ton in preparation, so hopefully the zone benefited. I won't go into too much detail, but I examined quite a few different examples of people who are baptized in the Book of Mormon and made a list of their attributes. The one that reoccurred every time was desire. So I redefined desire as deciding for yourself that you want to get baptized, and that this is what we need our investigators to do. Then we dove into desire and talked about how we can help them to do this. We examined Alma 22 where Aaron teaches king Lamoni's father and looked for how he helped him increase his desire. I found a sweet talk from Elder Oaks about desire and he said something like "When we have a vision of what we can become, our desires and our capacity to act increase enormously." We had everyone insert an investigator's name in each pronoun and gave everyone a few minutes to think about that investigator and what their potential really is and their great qualities. We challenged everyone to help their investigators see their potential and promised them that by doing so it would increase their desire to act and change their shaky dates to set baptismal dates. It went well. At lunch everyone was asking us about stories, so we told a bunch of stories which was fun. Then they asked me if I could send a zone text with a quote from Elder W every night, so I've been doing that since then. Oh and if you are worried, Elder W loves it. After zone meeting we had a lesson with M and Bro R came. We taught her the plan of salvation and she is progressing really well. She really wants this. We had a lesson with S really quickly and then he told us all about his day (we are really good friends with him). Then his mom came out and told us there was something we could do to help. She told us there were some people living in the woods right behind their trailer and that they needed help. It is kinda a weird situation since we can't really do anything ourselves other than try to teach them, so we told them we would do what we could. R knows the low-income housing situation really well so we waited for him to get back in town to work something out. That night we had a lesson with B and Bro A and Bro S came and it was a great lesson and then he was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood which was really cool to see. He is awesome!

Thursday we did service at the same place again, and it wasn't as cold so that was good. We weekly planned and our district has a tradition of sending each other weekly planning songs each week and last week we did a Joseph Smith rap that everyone loved so we did an encore performance this week called battle of the dispensations and I rapped about Brigham Young and Elder W rapped about Moses. It is pretty famous. Everyone is always waiting for our song. We had a lesson with the S and we challenged each of them to work on a Christ-like attribute and Sis S's little brother and A's older brother who is our age and inactive was there and he ended up going to church on Sunday so that was cool to see. He is a nice kid. We had Bible Study but only J showed up so that was tough, but he is awesome.

Friday we went to R's house and he was finally back. We had a really good lesson on repentance. We had a lesson with J that night , and E was back. J actually stepped up and defended Joseph Smith and the restoration which was pretty shocking and good to hear. It was a good lesson and we didn't back down and were pretty bold and she just needs to soften her heart a bit, but I think it's possible.

Saturday was awesome! B was going to the temple with the youth in the ward and getting driven by Bro A so we got to go with! The zone leaders just said "if you feel like it's productive" so that didn't help since we knew we wouldn't find anyone to teach, but B wanted us to come and it would feel mean to say that we had more effective things to do so after much prayer we decided to go. It was an amazing experience. Bro A is awesome too. He did a great job explaining some of things about the temple that we hadn't taught yet and so B felt comfortable going in. The San Antonio temple is really small but beautiful. You can hear the baptisms once you enter the temple and it has a ton of stain-glass windows which are beautiful (Emily's friend's dad did them). We got to be baptized and the youth were there so that was pretty cool. I had awhile to sit by myself and ponder and it was cool to think and pray over the first six months of my mission and think about how I can improve and what we can do for the people in this area. I also ended up doing everything there because they ended up one priesthood holder short so I witnessed, confirmed, recorded, was confirmed, and was baptized. It was a really great experience. B really loved it and said that he felt the Spirit the entire time. We have a picture of us three in front of the temple I will send next week. The evening was pretty slow and not many people were home.

Sunday was pretty great most of the time. Church was awesome except we only had one non-member there and that was a friend that B brought to church. He is awesome. B said he is pretty interested and hopefully we can set up a lesson with him. We also had so many people there from the fruits of our efforts but all of them are already members. We have recently reactivated or have helped Sis S, R, A, J, B, and Sister S, so we had a bunch of people with us. It's nice to know we are helping people out. The evening was pretty slow except we did find a former investigator who is really nice and wants us to come back, so hopefully that works out. 

Anyways, I know that this is Christ's church and that this is His work. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that people are capable of changing. I also know that baptism is the GATE to eternal life. It is not the end. There is a reason Preach My Gospel and our recent-convert sheets talk about setting up addiction recovery classes when needed. The qualifications for baptism does not require perfection. Only desire, sincere repentance, and a willingness to serve and follow God until the end. I know that none of us would ever be perfect if it wasn't for Jesus Christ and that as we "hunger and thirst after righteousness" we can be made perfect through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Thanks for all the love and support!
Love,
Elder Pew

December 30, 2013 & January 6th, 2014

New companion, a Jamaican Banana

Christmas Eve Angels

Members of the church in Texas sent these to us! 

December 30, 2014

Dear family, 

Well it was great to talk to y'all on Christmas. I hope you enjoyed talking to me too. It was a pretty fun week. Well I'm too lazy to write everything that happened so I will basically start with Christmas Eve.

Monday was pretty fun and we mostly played sports. Nothing else really happened that day. Also happy birthday Joseph Smith.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve and it was a great day. We got a ride out to a lesson with the Fs and we gave them each Christmas Oranges and told them to look for people to help out. It was pretty sweet and they cooked us some really good food. We thought we were going caroling because the sister missionaries were suppose to pick us up from there but they got sick so we had to walk to dinner and then we told the sisters we had to walk home from the lesson and that it took super long time and that gave them a good scare. We had dinner with the Js and then we rode around the neighborhood and looked at the Christmas lights. It was fun. That was Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day!

Wednesday was Christmas (duh). We woke up and opened our presents and then came to the church and did studies with the zone. We then played sports and talked to our families. It was a fun time. We had dinner with the Js and it was fun. We went to the baptism that night and it was cool to do. Then we went caroling with the other missionaries and I convinced them to go to E's house which was sweet and he said that we made their Christmas. It was awesome!

Thursday we had a lesson with J and his girlfriend was there. We changed our plans to read Alma 36. It was sweet and she loved it. We committed her to read the Book of Mormon and she admitted she has some pretty serious issues. It was a great lesson though. Not much else happened but it went well.

Helping J move.

Friday was a decent day. We unfortunately (because he was moving out of their teaching area) had to help J move out to P. It ended up just being me, Elder W, and J. It took like 5 hours but was pretty fun and we got to talk to him a lot. A just sat on the couch and watched us move. We left him a little present, one of those pictures of the Savior and my testimony on the back. I told him to say hi to Curtis and Julia (uncle & aunt that live in that town) if he is in their ward. We took some cool pictures with him. It was sad to see him go but hopefully he will continue to explore the gospel. We had a bunch of things planned and most of them fell through. It was sad but we did have dinner with the Ss and G is the 80 year-old nonmember who isn't really interested in learning more but he is a really nice guy. Sister S wanted us to share our talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost and we did that but he he still isn't too interested.  He enjoys us coming over and he is really nice. We had a really sweet, sweet experience that night. We basically ran out of things to do, and so I said a quick prayer of what to do and the name of a member came into my mind and so we headed off to her house. We got there right before she was closing the door and she was bawling. Apparently it was the 8 year anniversary of her son dying and she was a mess. We offered a blessing and Elder W gave her a sweet blessing. Then she admitted to a pretty serious addiction and wanted a blessing for that so then I gave her a blessing. It was really cool. She was crying and could barely talk and was just thanking us so much for coming and that we were an answer to her prayers. It was a tender moment. I nearly cried. We thanked her and headed off. It was so sweet.

Saturday yet again we had a ton of things set up and almost all of them fell through. We did bring an addiction packet to J's girlfriend and we realized Alma 32 goes beautifully with addiction recovery so we read that with her, but that day she wasn't really into it.  So we left.

Sunday was great and church was great! B was confirmed in sacrament meeting and Elder W did the confirmation. It was a really spiritual experience for Elder W and it was cool to be a part of. One of the speakers said that he was really impressed with B and then in Sunday School and priesthood B was answering lots of questions and everyone was really impressed. It was a good day at church. Everyone fell through yet again that night so it was a slow evening. 

Well it sounds like you all had a great Chirstmas! I know that we do have a Savior who loves us and came to this earth who died for our sins so that we can return to live with Heavenly Father some day. I love you all and thanks for all the support this Christmas!

Love,
Elder Pew

January 6^th, 2014

Dear family,

This was a pretty solid week. Lots of ups and downs, but it definitely ended with some huge ups. I'll let you all feel the suspense we did with transfer calls and save it until the end. The subject line comes from a four-year old boy who we went to his birthday party last night. He is sweet! He loves the missionaries and they saw we didn't have anyone signed up for dinner so they invited us over. He was talking about movies so I asked him what his favorite movie was and he gave me a little smirk and then said Frank Bob. So I was like, "what? Are you making that up?" Then he just giggled and said, "also, Kleenex (looking around the room for the next word for the movie)... popsicle." Wow that was pretty genius. Someone should get on that and make that movie. It was fun to attend yet another birthday party of one of my little homies. We ate cupcakes and wore party hats so that was fun too.

Monday the Js wanted us back over for dinner and their youngest son R had a friend over so we were able to teach them and we invited the friend to learn more but he wasn't super interested. 

Tuesday we weren't suppose to proselyte after six for New Year's Eve. We had a really great morning, but thing turned south. We stopped by S and were able to have a quick lesson with him. He is so close to just coming to church, being taught, and being baptized. It is a little frustrating how close he is and that more progress hasn't been made. We tried by a former investigator that I had already stopped by but Elder W went through the Area Book and he said there name which is Francis Nottingham and I thought that that name was definitely worth another shot. We need a few more Francis Nottinghams in the church. It was almost a joke but we went in with a lot of faith and the lady that answered was not Francis Nottingham but she was interested in the learning more about the church and how it strengthens families. She said she would be more comfortable with Spanish so we got her information to give to the sisters over the Spanish branch. We left them a voicemail.  The sisters had a lesson with her and she accepted a baptismal date so that was pretty cool! The Lord works in mysterious ways. We biked to R's house but he was gone and a lady approached us and introduced herself and said she is really struggling with her faith right now since everyone is leaving the church she loves so we read some comforting verses from the Book of Mormon and asked if she wanted to learn more about how the gospel comforts us but she wasn't interested then but she was a super nice lady and I bet she gets baptized someday. We went back to the bikes and Elder W's tire was completely flat. We don't know how that happened so fast but we didn't have anything to fix it. We tried calling a bunch of missionaries but no one answered so we started walking to the F's house since we told them we would come by. The Zone Leaders called us back and said they would pick us up and we went to CVS to wait and got Gatorades after our long walk . We stopped by the F's but they were really sick so we couldn't have a lesson. We managed to get to the J's for dinner and we helped them make like one million egg rolls.  We came back early and were told by Elder W (district leader) we were giving a training in District Meeting the next day about gifts of the Spirit and the light of Christ/Holy Ghost. I found some really cool stuff about gifts of the Spirit because I decided to focus more on how to obtain them. D&C 46 talks about them a lot and it says if you ask in the Spirit you will receive in the Spirit and then later explains that asking in the Spirit means asking in accordance with the will of God (like verse 30 or something). The will of God is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39) so if we ask with the desire to help other people to obtain eternal life and exaltation we can receive them. I thought that was really cool. Our zone always eats lunch together and that has pretty much turned into everyone listening to me and Elder W's stories about funny things that happen to us. The zone really likes us and it is pretty fun.

Wednesday we had a lesson with R, we answered some of his questions about different doctrine. We also stopped by E and L and we found out that L was in the hospital with a serious illness and was likely going to die. Obviously that was really sad to hear and we taught P (E's sister)  there and then tried getting a hold of E. We told him we were praying for them and to let us know if there was anything we could do. He said he would like it if we could visit them in the hospital. Of course we agreed so he said he'd be in touch with us the next day. We had a lesson with B and we talked about temples and baptisms for the dead. He was pretty excited about that and we got him the number to schedule an interview with bishop. He got cleared to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and go to the temple with the youth on January 18th. That should be sweet as long as the membership record is made fast enough. He is doing really well.

Thursday morning we did the same service thing with our district we have been doing and it was super cold. It was pretty fun though. We weekly planned and we felt like we should really try and use family history more in our missionary work. Elder W suggested it almost as a joke since no one really uses family history but now we are really trying to pick that up. We got a text from E saying we could come that night after her two surgeries. We had Bible Study but only J was there but we had a good discussion and he is really close to getting the Priesthood. He is awesome. We planned an uplifting thought for E and L and headed off. They were SO thankful that we were willing to come to the hospital for L. We had to wait a few minutes outside the room with E while they were doing some tests. We waited there for a few minutes then they let us in. L said she was doing fine and we were so happy to see her. We talked about peace and comfort that comes from the Atonement and the comfort the gospel brings. We shared a story I found in an Ensign that talks about a lady who sacrificed and lost so much but the gospel brought her peace and happiness despite it all. It was a powerful story and it seemed perfect for them. I brought up baptism again from before and E said he is working towards that and wants to be baptized. We told him he can be ready by February 8th, we promised him he can if he works for it. It was such a great meeting! I love those two so much! I got the privilege of blessing L. I don't remember what exactly it was that I said but now that we found out L is miraculously coming out of the hospital everyone thinks I healed her but I think the only thing I said is that if she had the faith she could be healed and that was it.I honestly don't want to receive any credit of healing L. It was a really cool experience though. The Spirit was very strong. 

Friday We had a pretty good day. We had another lesson with R and shared the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. We stopped by J and ended up having a really good lesson with him. He said he really admires our church and he continues to complain about his church. I asked him why he doesn't come to our church then and it's mostly because he has been a member his whole life and isn't healthy enough to change. He said he is really interested in our church and wants to read the Book of Mormon. We promised him he would have the health and energy to do these thing if it was really his desire. It was great. We had a lesson with J that was good. We read Mosiah 3 with him.
Saturday morning was pretty slow but we got a call from the ward clerk that there was a lady who has been trying to call the church several times and wants to meet with missionaries. She was taught by missionaries like 6 months ago. He got her info and we stopped by to meet her. She is a great lady. She had been taught for awhile and has a testimony and loves the church and everything but she has some things to resolve that are keeping her from being baptized. We told her if she sets a goal of faith that it can be accomplished and she can be baptized.  She is cool though. She has a really cute son named N. Oh and her name is M.

Sunday was interesting since we now have 8 o'clock church. Sacrament meeting was pretty good and there was one testimony that just blew me away. Bro. B (C3PO) bore a very powerful testimony. His wife isn't a member and he talked about how during the holidays he was with his family and his parents told her that they have been praying for 20 years that he would leave the Mormon church. He just laid it down though  and bore a very powerful testimony of the church and the Book of Mormon. It was sweet and inspiring. We had PEC afterwards and Bro. R has done a good job as Ward Mission Leader. We had a lesson with A about the commandments and that went pretty well. I've had mostly Elder W and the Ss teach those lessons to help Elder W and Brother S with their gospel knowledge. We tried to have a lesson with the Fs but they are still sick.  I was really nervous about transfer calls because I wanted to stay but I couldn't feel either way if I was staying or going. I have only heard of two other people staying in their training areas for five transfers, but I am also training Elder W, so it was 50/50 for me.  We were expecting calls at like 6 and 8:30 rolled around and we still didn't have a call. I realized that that meant President wasn't calling since he called the last three times since Elder V was a district leader, then training, and then I was training and Elder T was a Zone Leader. That clinched that I wasn't going to a new area to train, but I could still leave and just be senior companion, but that would be unlikely so we were more sure that I was staying. Everyone in the Zone was texting if we were staying or not and we just ignored them until we got the call finally. The assistants told us they have heard good things about us and that I was...staying. Woohoo! I was super happy. I just love this area and it would have been sad to leave. I am SO EXCITED for this next transfer. We have so much going on and I am so thankful to be staying here. Everyone else was really anxious to hear what happened with us but we kept them in suspense and only told the zone leaders who sent out a voicemail to everyone with all the news. They announced everyone and when they announced ours they said that it was the one that everyone was waiting for and that everyone is looking forward to the "perfect team" to stay together. That was really nice and made us feel good. It re-affirms that the other missionaries are really watching us and we have a unique opportunity to be examples even as young missionaries. It is pretty fun.

I know that this church is true. This is the true church. I know that the Atonement is real. We have such a deep understanding of Jesus Christ and the power that comes through his sacrifice. It is real and we can access it. I know that he suffered that he might know how to succor his people. I know that the gospel bring peace, comfort, and understanding that nothing else can bring. We have the truth. Christ came, lived, died, and rose again. He loves us. He lives. As we turn to Him, He can heal us. Through Him we can become better each day and as we follow Him we will find true, everlasting happiness. I know this is true and that one day we will be so happy for our decision to stand by Him and follow Him at all times. I love you all and thank you for your prayers!

Love,
Elder Pew

Elder Pew with a friend from Lone Peak high school who is waiting for his visa, in Texas!
Fun to see him at the mission Christmas party.

MTC district elders reunited at the mission Christmas party!

December 16 & 23, 2013

December 16, 2013

Dear family,
This subject (Smithmas is in 7 days) is brought to you by Elder W who is counting down the days until Joseph Smith's birthday since I told him it was on the 23rd. He is a funny guy. Overall it was a solid week. The beginning of the week was really sweet with lots of lessons, and things slowed down at the end but then picked up again on the weekend. Also, before I forget, B is getting baptized next Sunday at 7:30! We are really excited for him but of course there has been some drama over this which I will explain later.

Monday was a great day. We had our bikes again, so we biked to R's place to see how he is doing. His friend was there , distraught so I decided to whip out Mosiah 23 where it talks about God trying our patience and our faith but those who hold out faithful will be lifted up in the last day. We promised him if he trusted in God that things would work out and that Christ knew what he was going through. We offered to give him a blessing and R basically forced us to, but he wanted one anyways so I gave him a blessing. It was a neat experience and I really felt the Spirit working in me. We didn't have time to do anything else before our lesson with B so the member coming to the lesson picked us up there. We left our groceries at the church because we didn't realize we would have to bike back, so after our lesson with B we didn't have time to bike back with our groceries so we got dropped off at the apartment and left our bikes at R's overnight. It was interesting. Our lesson with B went really well and we taught him about the priesthood and he really liked it. He wants to be able to give back and we talked about how this is the best way to do so and we told him about callings as well. He is a great guy. We tried setting up his interview and baptism, but because of scheduling conflicts it remained in question. I spent a TON of time praying about his baptism this week which I will explain later too.

Tuesday we had to walk all the way to our bikes which was like an hour walk. I thought, well at least this will be a good experience for Elder W to practice contacting people. It turns out it was apocalypse day because we didn't see a single person. It was crazy! By the way, the training program has been interesting. I still don't really know what I'm doing and we end up being too busy to do the full two hours some days, so hopefully Elder W turns out okay. He is talking more in lessons which is great and we still need to work on some things of course but he is doing great. After we got our bikes, we stopped by a few people but didn't have much success. We had our lesson with J, but for some reason we couldn't get anyone to make it so it was just us two. We read Alma 7 with him and it was pretty sweet. The Spirit was strong and we watched the mormon message about the Road to Damascus and
it was pretty blunt which was good but he didn't get out exactly what we wanted, but I'm certain he will get baptized once they get married. I think he doesn't want to be put in an awkward stage if he gets baptized and they end up breaking up, plus they are really stressed about finding a place to live, but once those things are resolved I think it will come really fast. It hit me how good of friends I have become with both of them. We invited them to the ward Christmas Party and they were excited to go.

Wednesday was a great day. We had Zone Meeting which was really inspiring. It also blew my mind. They did role plays on how to contact people you walk by and instead of trying to stop them and talk to them, they just waived and said good morning. It is totally different than what I was taught. Before someone would consider someone not a hard worker if they didn't try and talk to them. President wanted us to know that we represent the church and we don't want people to have bad first impressions of us. The emphasis of the training as usual was to follow the Spirit. If you feel like you should talk to them then go ahead. Otherwise wait to see if they will give you their attention. It feels so much more natural. It makes it hard though since instincts tells me to talk to every single person I see and it's hard to tell the difference between that and the Spirit and just waive and say something kind, but it makes sense. The Zone Leaders told us that when President was with Elder Golden they passed by tons of people when they went out to do missionary work and talked to those who would notice them and give them attention. It is a total change from what I was taught, but it feels right. The Zone Leaders also called us the night before and asked if we could do a musical number because they felt like we have musical talent in our companionship. I think they were partially doing it to be funny, but me and Elder W had to throw together a song really quickly. I figured out a few weeks ago that "O Savior Thou Who Wearest a Crown" can be sung to the melody of "If You Could Hie to Kolob" so we sang that. We had an accompaniment for three verses and we sang the last one A Capella. We sang unison on first, I sang bass on second and tenor on third, and then unison again for the fourth verse except the last line I dropped down to bass again. It was actually pretty sweet since Elder W has a really good sounding voice and I can sing harmony so everyone was really impressed. The Zone Leaders were really surprised and impressed. That night we helped the ward on their "Priesthood Blitz" where the men get together and make plates of cookies and take them to the less-active families in the ward and invite them to the ward party. It was pretty cool and we got to be in a car which was nice. 

Thursday we weekly planned and got ready for the baptism. We got the interview set up for the next day. I prayed a ton to know when the baptism should be and finally came to the conclusion that the 22nd would be the best day since B would have lots of friends and family that could come and the ward would also be able to support him. So I called the Bishop to see if that was okay with him to be confirmed the next week in sacrament meeting. I was really stressed about whether or not he should be baptized (because he sometimes works on Sundays) so I read the qualifications for baptism like 100 times and prayed 100 more and I knew it was right but I was shocked that Satan actually made progress tempting us that he wasn't ready for baptism. I never thought that it would be a tough thing. Anyways, our Bible Study went well and J, A, and N came. They are all awesome.
Friday was Bs interview. We went to pick up Elder W and found out that Elder L just got pnemonia and had just gotten out of the hospital! I guess everyone has been getting sick so we got to come and write our families to make sure we had a personal insurance card. It was really bad weather too, so we stopped by Ross and got jackets so that we wouldn't get sick. B passed with flying colors. He has an amazing understanding of the gospel and even told the story as to how the Word of Wisdom came about. He's the best! Not much else happened that evening.

Saturday we had a ward Christmas dinner. It was really sweet. Our smaller ward is bonding well. J and A came and we were hoping that B would be able to come so that he could meet some more people but he was stuck in Austin. The ward did a really good job of fellowshipping J and A. The T brought a family that is super Catholic, so hopefully they can make some progress there. We also found out that the Js were the ones to go to the Fs house for the Blitz and they hit it up right off the bat. That was the best news ever! Now they have a pretty good friend in the ward. We are going to try and set up a FHE with them. The Fs have been really busy so we haven't been able to get in and have a lesson.

Sunday was great. Church was awesome and the ward continues to rock. After church we got a text from E saying that he was home so we went by and taught him and his sister and nephew. He is so cool! The relatives were cool but kinda made it hard to teach E so we weren't able to invite him to be baptized. He also gave us some Cajun meatloaf that he made, so we will see how that tastes. We are super happy he's back though. He even read a bit on the cruise. We had a lesson with B and I made a little Jeopardy review game and since Elder W is pretty new and B has a really good understanding of the gospel, they competed against each other. Bro A came and it ended up being sweet! It invoked some really good discussions about the gospel and it was really uplifting. Bro. A was awesome too. Brother J made us a bunch of invitations to the baptism to pass out and we set a goal of 30 nonmembers at the baptism. It is a faith-filled goal, but Elder W wanted to do it so I'm running with his faith. We talked to B about his friends and family he can invite and he has about 15 coming on his side and we will try and fill the rest. We did it like President Slaughter trained so we are really hoping to find some new people to teach from this baptism because "in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest." (D&C 84:20) We are really excited and despite the stressfulness of things it was a great week and the work is moving. Thanks for all the prayers!

I know this work is real and that the Book of Mormon has the power to change lives and is that convincing evidence that Joseph Smith is a prophet and this is the Lord's kingdom preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah. I look forward to talking to you soon!

Love,
Elder Pew

December 23, 2013

Dear family,

This was a super solid week. Loved this week. Tons happened and our area is really doing spectacular. I'll just go ahead day by day. Actually, I'll tell one super funny story first. Wednesday we were biking to the Fs and I was leading of course and as we turn the corner I hear a super loud bang and crash behind me so I turn around and see what looks like a dead Elder W and his disassembled bike. I went to see if he was okay and luckily he didn't get hurt except a cut on his hand, but it was a super funny image to turn around to once I knew he was okay. The way he tells the story he was reaching back to turn on his back light and started to lose control so he thought it was a bad idea but I guess he continued anyways, and then his foot got caught in the bike frame and then he got flipped up over the bike and landed on the road. That's why it made a super loud noise and like everything broke off of his bike including his back brakes. He wasn't hurt and thought it was super funny too and now I will forever have the image of looking back and seeing him hunched over on the ground and his bike sprawled out across the road. I wish I could have filmed it. Anyways.

Monday we taught J. Oh boy that was an adventure. We decided we would measure just how much of a testimony he knows so we brought a little object lesson and attempted to talk about the four pillars of a testimony: Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ, Priesthood Keys, and Joseph Smith. We tried asking him how he gained a testimony of each of the four things but we only made it through two because he started telling us other stories.

Tuesday was pretty good but interesting. We had our bikes of course so we were biking all over the place. I think we biked around 15 miles. We biked around and invited a ton of investigators to the baptism. We set a lofty goal of how many nonmembers we wanted there so we attempted to invite them all that day. We went by the S and they gave us cookies which were pretty hard to carry around on the bikes. For some reason everyone was giving us food this week and it made it tough to bike, but we aren't complaining. We stopped by J the 82 year-old boss who takes us to Denny's to invite him to the baptism. We talked for a while and we ended up reading 2 Nephi 32 with him and he had some questions but either we answered them or he figured them out himself. He really loves us and he basically acknowledged that our church produces more faith-filled people than any other church. It was an awesome lesson. I love the power of the Book of Mormon. We had our lesson with J and our member we were taking fell through and A was too sick for the lesson so we ended up just teaching J by himself. We aren't sure what to do but they are moving and we probably won't have another lesson with them before then so we might not have to worry about that. It was really sad and I've thought about him a lot lately. We had a pretty fun dinner at the A's that night too, although a little stressful. There was awhile before dinner would be ready and they refused to let us help, and I've already talked to all of their neighbors and their kids were really pushing us to play with them so we ended up playing with them outside. It was here that I learned why they don't let us babysit kids. Holy cow that was stressful. They were all running around crazy and trying to jump on us and hold our hand and stuff and it was really fun, but stressful. Their kids rock though and I'm super good friends with that family. They are fun.

Wednesday we had District Meeting and we were asked to teach a little Christmas message to our district. Elder W told the story of the Christmas orange and then we talked about things that we have been given and can share with others. Then we asked for referrals the way President Slaughter trained us to. It was pretty powerful and I think everyone looks to our companionship a lot since we are so young and have such a unique combination of personalities, and we are having a lot of success. We also taught A and since it was all review I had Elder W do the bulk of the teaching and he did a pretty good job. I really like the S's. That night we got the car back and picked up Round Rock since they were riding down to Christmas Conference with us the next day. They slept over at our apartment and it was really fun.

Christmas Conference was sweet! We got up early and I drove us all the way down to San Antonio. We took pictures of our zones and then went into the chapel. There were a few really good musical numbers and President Slaughter taught us about the Christmas story from Luke 2 but he went super deep and taught things that I don't think anyone else has ever thought of. He is amazing! He focused a bit on angels and how they have always been a key part to the gospel just as it states in Moses 5:58 and how it's not crazy at all that Joseph Smith saw angels and stuff. It was a really cool training and I was just soaking it all in. After lunch we had a talent show which was really surprising. Lots of people came up after and told me and Elder W we were their favorite part of the talent show. I'm not sure what we were even doing, but apparently people thought we were funny. They made Elder V freestyle rap and he was super funny and did a pretty good job. It was fun to see everyone in the mission. Elder V hung out with me and Elder W for a lot of the time because his companion went with some other missionaries for awhile. It was fun to see our whole MTC district again and we took a picture of us Elders and I would upload all the pictures of the week but I don't know where my cord went. Oops. I talked with Elder T for awhile and some of the other missionaries I'm friends with. I'm probably closest with Elder V, Elder S, and Elder L. We drove all the way back and it was time for our exchange so I went with Elder L to their apartment and Elder W took Elder White to our area. Elder L was still feeling really sick so we stayed inside all day. It was nice though kinda because I was also feeling pretty sick this week and so it gave me a chance to recover. We did studies in the morning and then he went back to bed. I ended up reading all of Our Search For Happiness, the Book of Helaman, and watched 1.5 sessions of 2011 general conference. I ended up falling asleep for like 2 hours and I felt a lot better when I woke up. I was a little nervous of how things would go in our area but Elder W and Elder W taught M, E, and the Fs and it sounds like all the lessons went pretty well. I was proud of Elder W. 
Saturday we weekly planned and I am excited with everything going on in the area. I honestly think we could have 14 baptisms in the next 2 months. Not much else happened except a lesson with B just to make sure everything was set for the next day. We taught a little about scripture study from 1 Nephi 8 and then I shared my new absolute favorite scripture that I found when I was studying Helaman. I don't know if anyone else has caught how beautiful these verses are. Helaman 3:29-30:
"29 Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the aword of God, which is bquick and powerful, which shall cdivide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and dnarrow course across that everlasting egulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked—

"30 And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the ^aright hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out."
Maybe it's just me but I think that is beautiful. Anyways, B told us he wouldn't be able to make it to our church the next day which stressed me out because I knew our ward is already a little skeptical of his baptism simply because they haven't all met him. We went ahead though because he is still ready to be baptized. 

Sunday was a great day. I still cringed every time they announced B's baptism but besides that our sacrament meeting was one of the best I've ever been to. We had a Christmas musical program and they did some beautiful songs. The closing song was some version of Silent Night with a Cello, Flute, Harp, Piano and choir, and then the congregation was singing the Hymn version of Silent Night. It was amazing. We found out Brother J is released as Ward Mission Leader and Brother R is the new one. He is a cool guy and a convert of 5 years. We spent the evening preparing for the baptism. We found out that not many of our investigators we invited would make it so that was sad, but it was a great program. You would never realize how much goes into a baptism until you put one on. I was actually pretty stressed before it started. B came and got dressed and quite a few people came. We only had one investigator there and I was surprised to see him there. He enjoyed it though and unfortunately he isn't interested in learning more right now but he said he really enjoyed it. I found out right before that I would also be giving a talk on Baptism so it almost turned into the Elder Pew talent show. Luckily I didn't end up leading the music or saying the closing prayer. My talk was decent but it was basically me just teaching the two non-members about baptism and why we do it by immersion and the importance of priesthood authority and then showed a bunch of scriptures to back it up. Elder W gave a pretty good talk on the Holy Ghost and then I got to baptize B. It was a great experience. I felt the Spirit very strongly as we got into the water and I think everyone there felt it. We got out afterwards and I asked him how he felt and he said different. I let him change first and then I changed. Meanwhile Elder W put on a few Mormon Messages for everyone else to watched. He said it was pretty powerful. We finished up with a welcome to the ward by someone from the Elder's quorum and then Bishop H. It was well attended by the ward. Bro. S and Bro. A came who have been coming to lessons with him, Bro L, Sis S, the Js, Sis S, and J were all there. It was great for them to support him and for him to get some more fellowship. He will be confirmed at church next week. It was such a good experience for everyone! Unfortunately in the madness of running the whole thing I totally spaced getting our picture taken which I was really bummed about, but whatever. It was a great week!

To close I will bear a quick testimony of Joseph Smith in honor of Smithmas. (This is the same one I sent to you mom so if you don't want to read it to the family before FHE don't read this part to the kids) This morning we had an extra hour waiting for our ride so for Smithmas we watched the Restoration. Obviously I've seen it many times but it hit me again today how much Joseph Smith went through for this church and for God. To think that he would do this all simply for a church and a story that he made up is crazy. There is a reason that we share the words of the First Vision word for word because there is a power and Spirit to his wording. I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and I know that because I know that the Book of Mormon is true. There is no way any human could invent such a intricate, interesting, powerful, and inspired book. I know that it truly is an account of the people here in the Americas and their dealings with God. It is the convincing evidence that Joseph Smith is a prophet and it is how I know that he is a true prophet and that he did more for the salvation of the human race save Christ himself (D&C 135 I think). I'm grateful for all that he did and I know that he is the prophet of the restoration. I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic Christmas! I'll talk to ya soon!
Love,
Elder Pew
p.s. I don't why the formatting got all weird with the paragraphs but it really bothers me.

December 2nd & 9th, 2013

December 2^nd, 2013

Dear family,

This was yet another very exciting and eventful week! It feels like it's been a month since I wrote, so much has happened.

Monday was a pretty normal P-Day. Since it was the last one of the transfer we all got together to play basketball which was fun. We also taught a guy who just moved into the ward boundaries who was just barely baptized. We met him Sunday night and we taught him Monday.

Tuesday was interesting/freaky. Our car was fixed so we now had two cars but some sisters in Austin needed the replacement one, so me and Elder T had to drive separately to Austin. It felt super disobedient to drive alone, but that's what the Office couple told us to do. It was just scary since I didn't know the area and didn't have a GPS or a phone, so I really had to follow Elder T. Turns out it was a good thing he had a phone (you'll see). We got just past downtown Austin and got off at our exit and we made it to the place we were going to meet the sisters, but we had like 40 minutes so we decided to get lunch. Elder T thought he knew a place, so I followed him. We ended up going through part of downtown Austin which is beautiful! I LOVE the big cities. It made me both super happy and also gave me the butterflies since it reminded me of my trips to New York. I was also blasting "What Child is This" by MoTab so that added to the affect too. Anyways, we were driving straight in front of the Capitol building when (I later found out) Elder T realized we went too far, so he pulled into the turn lane to do a U-turn (I didn't know this since there's no U-turn blinker) as the light was yellow so I had to fly into the intersection, but as I got into the intersection Elder T U-turned and I was already committed to turn left and I could back out since the light was now red, so he was headed south and I was headed west. Yup. I had no idea where I was and we were in the thick of downtown so I couldn't pull over anywhere and all the parking lots were full and you had to pay, so I had to just keep driving.  I was praying my heart out as to what to do. I didn't have the phone or know where I was so I knew it was all in my hands and not Elder T's, so after praying I decided that I would get back on the road I knew he turned down and just follow it until I hopefully saw him. I was praying that he would know what I was doing and that he wouldn't panic or do anything dumb. I was kinda thinking, "well we might never see each other again" but then I realized that he still had the phone and I had the number memorized, so we were going to be fine. I followed the road south until I was out of downtown Austin and could park at a gas station. I actually was turning left to park at a gas station and I saw Elder T flying by doing a U-turn and heading back into downtown Austin and he looked panicked. Oh man, looking back it was hilarious. In the moment it was kinda scary. I was waving like crazy to get his attention but he zoomed off. I pulled into the gas station and went inside and asked someone for there to borrow a phone and they gave me the shaft, but then the cashier said I could use their land-line, so called Elder T and gave him the street I was on and he came a minute later. He was freaking out and I thought it was pretty funny once I realized we were going to be okay. I will definitely find a way to never drive separately again though. Crazy stuff. We dropped off the car and grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to Round Rock. J had to pick up his kid so we didn't actually teach him which was sad to break the 17 week stretch, but I had a feeling there was a good reason. We ended up getting a call from the McNeil missionaries and they told us they have an investigator who moved into our ward boundaries, and they were teaching him at 8 and they wanted us to be there so they could pass him off to us. Him name is B and he is super sweet! He is like 29 and works for Blizzard entertainment. I guess that's a big deal from what I hear. He is super smart and super sincere and he really wants to get closer to God. He referred to the church as "his" church and our beliefs as "his" beliefs. It was awesome! They taught him the law of Chastity and that was the last thing he needed to be taught. He wants to get baptized but he hasn't been to church, so he said he has been saving up vacation hours so he could make it this week and he came to Sacrament! He is awesome! We set a return appointment at his new place for Saturday. We are SUPER blessed to have him fall into our laps. Tuesday night I was feeling better than ever before in my life. Maybe he wasn't a direct result of our hard work, but we were blessed to have a super ready, cool investigator drop into our laps because we have been obedient and working hard. It's the best thing ever.

Wednesday was a blast. So fun! I had to go to San Antonio for a training meeting and so I got to drive down with Elder W and a few other missionaries to San Antonio which was really fun. The training meeting was interesting. President Slaugther threw away the old trainer packets and held up his scriptures and told us that these and the Holy Ghost are our packets and instructions on what to do. It was sweet. He is such a good president. Oh yeah, I walked in and he was already talking with some of the other missionaries that were already there and he said, "Elder Pew, I've been waiting for you. Come sit by me." So we were at the head of the tables in the High Council room and everyone else was facing us. I don't know why he had me sit right there next to him, but he did. He basically just told us to make our best judgment and follow the Spirit. When the missionaries asked questions he would usually just say, "What do you think?" or "It's up to you. I trust you." So that was cool. After we all went out to eat and then we headed back to Round Rock. Elder V's companion went to San Antonio with us and stayed there because he was on a trial mission, so Elder V didn't have a companion, so he was with Elder T and Elder L until we got back. When we got back we went in his truck out to T with Sister J and Sister B and it was quite the drive. It was super fun. Then we came back to B and so I got to be with Elder T and Elder V. It was sweet! We went to the As since Elder V loves them and we didn't have a dinner and it was super fun. We also had a lesson with the Fs that went really well. E (the 9 year old) wants to get baptized and so bishop is going to work with Bro F so that he can do it. It was an awesome night.

Thursday was turkey day, and I got to spend it with some of my favorite missionaries. Elder L and W came over and us five cooked ribs that E gave Elder T as a parting gift so we ate that for lunch and then skipped some rocks before transfer meeting. Transfer meeting was sweet. Sister Slaughter gave a great training on charity towards your companion which was helpful. The new missionaries walked in and it was weird to see Elder W for the first time. When he introduced himself in front of everyone he said that he likes to wrestle, but not with sisters. Our zone is different since it split, but a lot of people stayed in the same zone. Elder S moved to a different area with Elder D but I will still see them on P-day so that's awesome. Elder V stayed in T. Elder T headed off to the UT campus. It was a little sad seeing him leave. I loved serving with him and I learned a lot. I think my faith grew a lot with him and I learned how to talk with people and teach to their needs better. I've been blessed with really solid companions. We got sisters in our district to cover the Spanish branch in our zone and new sisters for the new ward as well. Elder W is cool. He is 18 and right out of High School. He is from Las Vegas and I don't really know what he likes. We didn't have time to take pictures or anything since we had to run back with Elder W with something Elder L forgot to bring, so no picture yet. Sorry! We went to dinner at the K's house and since it was a big family thing, we just kinda sat there and listened to their conversation, but it was good. We came in before 8 and got ready for bed.

Friday we stopped by bishop and talked over some of the concerns of the new changes to the ward. It was a great meeting. I honestly think that was the only thing that really happened on Friday.

Saturday we got on the bikes. It was crazy how big our area is on a bike! We had a sweet lesson with E and they said they would be at church but then they didn't show up. We biked all the way to the middle of our area and met with the Fs. It was H's birthday so that was good timing and we wished her a happy birthday.They are such a sweet family! We were suppose to have a lesson with J, but she cancelled on us. We had our lesson with B which was sweet! We brought Brother A and he was great. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit was really strong and we focused on the importance of baptism. He really wants to be baptized and he accepted a baptismal date of December 21st which should be sweet! We had to bike all the way back to our apartment which was a 35 minute bike ride and I was pedaling the ENTIRE time. Luckily I wasn't sore or tired, but Elder W didn't like it. It was a great day.

Sunday was awesome. Church was sweet and the ward is so nice. Ward council was exciting with all the changes that are going on. J was sick so he couldn't come to church, but B and E were there so that was good. We had dinner with J and he gave us a pie, but that was pretty hard to bike with. It was sweet though and he is my favorite. We stopped by J and A and showed them the new ward boundaries. We also stopped by H and she gave us a big bag of Muddy-Buddies. It was awesome! Overall it was a great week.

I know that the Lord supports us in our trials. I know that he knows and loves each of us. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and we can learn from it and feel the Spirit every time we read it. Thanks for all the love and support!
Love,

Elder Pew

December 9^th, 2013

Dear Family,

This was a fantastic week. Lots going on up here in the B. It was SUPER cold this week. Not just like Texas cold, but like cold cold. The lowest we saw was 25 degrees, but it didn't get above freezing until yesterday. For some reason we were able to get into a ton of less active member's houses this week and so we racked up the less-active lessons which I guess is pretty sweet.

Monday was pretty sweet. P-day was fun and we played basketball and volleyball as a zone. Sister C is amazing at basketball which is shocking but pretty cool. That night not a lot was happening and Elder W was really pushing to get a McRib, but I told him that we had to work really hard for 2.5 hours before we could get one. I think he loves them mostly as a joke, but it was funny so finally we got one. Right after that R called us and asked if we could come by so we did and answered a few of his questions. He also sang "Thank you" a random song about thanking those who serve the Lord and so he sang it for Elder W since he is just starting his mission. Luckily I had the genius idea to record it on the phone so now we have a very coveted recording of R singing his famous song to missionaries. It is sweet!

Tuesday was cool. We found out that we had interviews with President the day before so we had to go those and it went pretty well. We showed up a bit early and there were still like 12 missionaries waiting to be interviewed so we told them we were going to go back out and work some more. We stopped by A, J's ex-wife, and asked her how things were going and she was really glad we came by. I didn't know that we were suppose to have a scripture to share with President, so that made it obvious that I didn't read his weekly email which of course was the first time on my mission, so that caught me by surprise but obviously I have a huge bank of scriptures to choose from so I picked Mosiah 2:41 since it has been on my mind a lot lately and he had me read and explain it. He was impressed with the way I explained it but then he re-read it really slow with emphasis added on certain parts and then talked about how we can explain verses simply how we read them to people. That was really cool. We stopped by E and L came out and was really happy to see us as always and he actually read the Book of Mormon! We were super excited because we thought we were going to have to sit down with him and explain that we couldn't come over if he didn't read the Book of Mormon. We read 1 Nephi 8 with him and explained it to him. He understood it and it was sweet. Our lesson with J went really well. We were teaching the Word of Wisdom and so we got J (just quit smoking) and Bro M (who we also found out had to quit smoking to go on a mission) to come with us to the lesson. He obviously knew about it already so we wanted to emphasize the blessings of keeping the Word of Wisdom. We talked about a bunch of blessings from D&C 89, the Word of Wisdom pamphlet, and talks. Bro M asked an awesome question, "do any of those blessings stand out to you?" and J responded with how he liked the part about receiving answers to prayers as the one that stuck out the most. Perfect! It was exactly what we wanted to talk about and so I pulled out the Obedience Brings Blessings talk by President Monson where his main emphasis is that we can only receive revelation when we are keeping all the commandments. Then Bro M and J shared how they quit and gave J and A advice. Then we bore testimony about how we don't know what it's like but the Savior does so he can always rely on prayer to help him. It was powerful. Unfortunately they still need to move, so I'm really praying they will stay in the area. It was a great lesson.

Wednesday was our less-active and recent convert day. We taught A the Plan of Salvation and it went well. She is continuing to progress in the church which is cool. She understands things well for a nine year old. We also had a lesson with C and his family and it went well too. We had a lesson with Sister S and she came to church for the first time in 26 years this week. Sweet! For some reason we have been really successful at reactivation even though that's not really our purpose.

Thursday another great day. We had a lesson with the S family, another less-active family in the ward and they straight up told us they don't believe in the church anymore. The dad said he wants to but has a hard time after some stuff he's seen (anti Mormon material). I honestly had no idea how to react since they seemed pretty set on that, but we went ahead I felt like we should share a Christmas mormon message and then discuss how we can remember Christ during this season. It went well and the Spirit was strong as we discussed how they can rekindle the testimonies they once had. We will see if anything comes of it. We had our Bible Study class and that went pretty well. Only J came but we also got to meet Sister R's friend who came to a Relief Society thing so that was awesome. We had a lesson with B that night. For some reason no members could come, but we had an incredible lesson. We went over the baptismal interview questions and he is way ready for baptism. As I read the final question which asks if you are willing to take the name of Christ upon yourself and always serve Him, the Spirit hit me like a ton of bricks confirming that this is all very real and how important and how big of a deal baptism is. It was really cool. I really like B. He's the best!

Friday was fun. We had Elder W with us so I had two newbies with me but it went really well. We had a lesson with a lady in the morning who isn't really interested but was really nice and let us teach her a lesson about the Book of Mormon. We baked a cake for E because it was his birthday and we wanted to say bye before he left on his cruise Saturday. We baked a cake that was really interesting. We didn't have any measuring utensils so we guessed on water and oil, and they ended up with a dense, sponge-like texture. We boiled some caramel and toffee we had and spread it over the top. The topping was really interesting. It tasted good but the more you chewed it the harder it got until it was basically toffee again. Anyways, we took it to his house. Eric wanted us to pray with them, so we said a prayer to bless them on their trip and they were kinda in a hurry so I asked if we could share a quick message with them. I just shared Alma 37:37 about prayer and it was cool and they responded really well. Then E was like, "I just want to tell you I have a testimony..." and so I thought he was going to say prayer because he says he is always praying, but he finished "...of the Book of Mormon. I read it the other day after you guys came by and it hit me harder than anything else I've ever read. I didn't think it could have such a huge impact on me." It was AMAZING! We had no idea how to respond so we just told him how great that was and how it would continue to bless him as he reads it. He said he will definitely set aside some time to read on the cruise and we didn't even ask him to. He is sweet! We walked out of there on a spiritual high since no one else has been able to get him to read the Book of Mormon and now in just a week he has read it and knows it's true! The power of the Book of Mormon is real folks. We had a fun lesson with A's family and we played the flour game with them and talked about having a foundation of faith. It was a great day.

Saturday was a pretty slow day. Not much happened until the evening. We taught J and his girlfriend was there. We taught the Plan of Salvation and she was actually pretty receptive and believed it all. Unfortunately she got really tired and left to go to bed before we finished. Me and Elder White get along really well. We have had a ton of fun together and he is a happy guy. We have a great relationship. The other missionaries are always talking about us because of the dynamics of our companionship, it's pretty fun. Anyways, we had dinner with J and B was suppose to come since him and J would be best friends but he had to work late unfortunately. We ended up staying there more than an hour which I felt bad about but we didn't really have much of a choice and Elder W really wanted to stay. I was able to justify it though since it was below 25 degrees.

Sunday was pretty good. Church was pretty sweet. The children continue to absolutely rock and we sat next to the Ls so T and B were trying to talk to me the entire time. It was fun. Ward Council was also sweet. We picked the five focus families for the year. One member also suggested that anytime we have a lesson with one of them to let Bro. J know so he can email the ward council so they can come. It is awesome! That would help a ton. We had dinner with a family after church. Then it was up to us to go to the Christmas Devotional, and we decided to try by the Fs first and right as we got there Sister F pulled up with H and E. I love it when the Spirit directs us to perfect timing. They let us in and we talked with them for awhile. They are doing pretty well. They didn't come to church and we weren't able to set anything up earlier in the week, but we had a great lesson on the true identity of us all being children of our Heavenly Father. H, E, E, and Sis F have opened up so much. I love that family. E still wants to get baptized so that is great too. 

Well it was a great week and the work is really hastening here. You can feel it in the air with all the changes to missionary work, the stake, the ward, ward council, people are being prepared to come back or to start learning about the restored gospel. It is great to be apart of and I know the work is real and true. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I was beyond happy to see it change E the way I know it can. Thanks for the love and support!

Love,
Elder Pew