October 28th, 2013

Dear family,

This was another great week. I'll tell a couple fun stories before I get into the good stuff. So the subject line (Tacos) is from a sweet experience we had this week. We went by a former investigator and it said that her son is a convert and served a mission and everything, so she loves Mormons. She wanted to feed us something, but we said it was fine, but she insisted that she feed us, so she made us homemade-refried bean and cheese tacos. They were the best thing ever! They tasted so good! She did say that if anyone will convert her it will be her son, so not a ton of potential there, but it was super nice. Also, we found out from an investigator this week that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was right across the street from our apartment! Either it happened there or was just filmed there, but either way that is pretty crazy! I can't look at the little hill the same way anymore. Anyways it was a pretty great week. 

Monday we had a lesson with the L family and Sis L said she would email pictures of me and Elder V with Bridget. Hopefully she sent those. This ward is seriously so awesome! Elder T wasn't feeling very good, so we took it pretty easy for the rest of the night and not a lot else happened.

Tuesday we had a lesson with E and he said that his wife wanted to be there for it too. We had a lesson on the Book of Mormon and E said he wants to get baptized once he feels like he understands everything well enough. Perfect! His wife is pretty cool too and also really interested, unfortunately she can only move her left arm because of her MS. It makes it hard for them to make it to church. Pray for them for sure. We also had a lesson with J and A about the Book of Mormon and it was super awesome. The Spirit was pretty strong and we did try to get him to pray right there to know that it is true, but he rejected it and said he would pray on his own. Otherwise he is doing really well.

Wednesday we had dinner with the As and it was sweet! They are an awesome family. We had like 10 minutes to wait for dinner and the kids wanted to play with me so Elder T talked with Bro. A while I played frisbee and stuff with their kids. Kids rule. We had a lesson with the Ms, but the mom wasn't there. We watched a few Mormon Messages and it went pretty well.

Thursday we taught a guy that was a former investigator that I felt like we should go by, and he was really nice and we taught him about prophets pretty quickly and set up a return appointment. We were suppose to have a lesson with V at the O's house since they are suppose to be taking over the teaching, but V was sick and they didn't tell us so we went over and then they forced us to have some cobbler and ice cream (I'm not complaining). It was a weird situation, but we got them to reschedule a lesson for next week and I had a feeling that V was doing fine, so we stopped by and had a lesson with her. Her understanding of the gospel has really picked up and it is cool to see. 

Trunk or Treat Elder Pew and new companion Elder T

Friday was a crazy day. We had the trunk-or-treat party which was AWESOME! We had the genius idea of having pass-along cards for people as well, and we decorated our trunk. We taped some teeth on the bottom and top of the trunk and it looked like a monster. It was pretty cool. There were A LOT of nonmembers there and a few part-member families, including the Fs. We have worked really hard with them and haven't had a lesson yet, but we have become good friends with the oldest daughters since they like soccer. We got them to come to the trunk-or-treat by bribing them with a soccer juggling contest which I unofficially won. They are a super awesome family and I hope the mom will get more involved. She is super cool too, but will have a hard time getting back into the groove of things. The younger kids and Brother F both came to church so that was great.  This is just a fantastic ward. I wouldn't mind serving here for awhile. J and A came and they were able to meet a bunch of new people so that was awesome too. A couple teenagers in the ward brought their friend B. He is super cool and super nice  and we invited him to church. He likes choir and basketball, so we clicked pretty fast. We were in charge of the costume contest so I had to get up in front of everyone and announce the winners which was a little stressful, but overall it was a really successful night. I didn't realize how stressful it would be though, since I realized how much I love the investigators and how protective I am of them. I was constantly trying to make sure people were talking with the less-active, part member, and investigators. It was really fun to have so much to do. We had a few minutes before we had to be back, and I felt like we should visit a less active lady and as we got out of the car she was passing us and invited us over for lunch the next day. Sweet!

Saturday we taught M again, and we got her to commit to read the Book of Mormon! She said she would read the first chapter, and then she ended up coming to the first hour of church. She wanted to stay in Sunday School.. We had lunch with Sister T and her family. She is super funny. and she has a strong testimony, she is just going through some pretty tough trials. That evening, again, right before we had to be in I felt like we should stop by a less active lady whose grandson who lives with her is unbaptized. He is 11 and super nice. I had always felt in the past that we should have him get his grandma active, so when she said (again) that we should come back another time, I quickly asked if her grandson, S, wanted to come to church. He came out and so did she and he said he did. We asked if we could teach them a lesson sometime. She said she wanted to start coming back too and said we came at the perfect time. She just lost her job and wants to start coming back but she needs S to push her into going again. We will teach them next week and I have no doubt that he will be baptized! We also resumed teaching A and have a date set for November 9. By the way, the transfer ends on Thanksgiving, so we have a lot we can do before the transfer ends. I hope I stay!

Sunday was awesome. Sister T, her son, M, J and A, B, and the Fs all came to church! It's also cool now to sit in ward council and hear what the ward needs and to know more about these people than the ward council, so I've become much more active in those meetings now that I know so much of what is going on. I'm super humbled to see how much the Spirit has helped me lately. It has guided us so much and I've grown so much because of it. It is really cool to see great things come from small promptings. We sat with B at church and set up a lesson with him at the D's house. He is super cool, but not sure what to expect, so hopefully he feels the Spirit. If nothing else he is a really good kid and I'm glad to meet him. We had dinner with like 5 families in the ward which was really fun too. We tried stopping by a few potential investigators but didn't have much success. 

Overall, I have gained such a strong testimony of the Holy Ghost. I know that we can be guided in our lives and as we turn to prayer, our Heavenly Father does answer prayers. It is the best feeling in the world to feel a prompting of the Spirit, act on it, and be an answer to somebody's prayer. I have also gained a testimony of patience, and several weeks ago it was hard to see myself even where I am now, and I know I can continue to grow because of diligent work and the Atonement. I know that this is Christ's church on the earth and that He is the head of it and leads and guides it. I know that the Book of Mormon changes lives. I've seen it and I am so certain of its truthfulness. Thanks for all the love and support I've received!

Elder Pew

October 21, 2013

Dear family,

This was a solid week with a lot going on, so hopefully I can remember everything. Before I start though, I need to say happy Birthday to Gwen and Emily this past week since I forgot to say something about it last week. I hope you both had awesome birthdays and make sure Emily stays away from the boys now.

Monday was pretty great. Zone P-Day was fun since it was everyone's last one together, so almost everyone was there and we played a fun game of volleyball that climaxed when Sister B (really good athlete) rocked Elder L's soft spot with the ball and stopped the game for like 10 minutes. We also taught Sister S, a lady who is completely inactive but wants to come back, so we talked about how she could gain that conviction she once had. It was a powerful lesson and it is really cool to feel the Spirit working in you, which happened many times this week. 

Tuesday we taught J for Elder V's final time. We went over the baptismal interview questions and the only thing he has a problem with is Joseph Smith being a prophet. He also needs to quit smoking and get married, but that will come shortly after he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet. We brought Bro. B who was also Baptist growing up and told of his decision to finally get baptized. It seemed to help J a lot and he is still really close. I continue to stress everywhere I am about the Book of Mormon, so we are going to teach a lesson about the Book of Mormon, and get back to the basics with J about praying to know the Book of Mormon is true and the testimony that will come that Joseph Smith is a prophet as well. He gets hung up on some stuff that he looks up and researches that is not a big deal, while skipping over the fact that he has accepted the Book of Mormon as scripture in the past. We also taught a lesson to R, and it went really well. He asked if we were there to convert and baptize him, and so we basically boldly said, "Yeah, we know that joining our church will strengthen your faith in Christ and that is our ultimate goal." He did understand the Restoration really well and committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 

Wednesday not a whole lot happened. We taught two lessons to members about missionary work and those continue to have little visible success other than the families are more excited and set some goals and we continue to be indirectly blessed for our efforts to work with them. We also visited R and J one last time for Elder V. I am grateful that I had a chance to be his companion. He was an awesome trainer and let me do a lot. I know a big reason I have progressed as fast as I have is because he let me be so active in our work.

Thursday was transfers. We went to transfer meeting and before we even went I knew who my companion was going to be. I had felt like he was last time I saw him, and it continued throughout the week until someone at the meeting confirmed it before it was announced. His name is Elder T. He is really excited and enthusiastic about everything, and he has a very likable personality. He is also a district leader. They changed our district a little, but it is still a great district. Elder T is awesome and he has been out for like 9 months. He has served the last few transfers as a moving Elder, so he pretty much just went all over the mission moving furniture in and out of apartments. He enjoyed it though. Thursday night we had Bible Study and since Elder T didn't know about it, I pretty much led the entire thing. Only J and Sister R showed up, but we had a great discussion and the Spirit was really strong and they both said they had people they planned to invite for this next week. 

Friday was a solid day. We taught a man named E that went to church and was taught many times about a year ago. He is super funny and nice. Elder T used the ice cream truck analogy about having authority, and when he asked E what he would say if he was pulled over by an ice cream truck and he was like, "I'd tell him that my wife likes vanilla." He's pretty funny. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to pray and read it, and said he would and accepted an invitation to be baptized if he found out that it was true. Sweet! We stopped by R's and he had read the Book of Mormon and really liked it, however, when we asked him to be baptized and he shot it down and didn't want us to try and convert him so we dropped him right there. It was a little sad, but he wasn't willing to accept further commitments. We also had a long chat with a man who had a lot of questions about what we believe. It was more of an honest inquiry than a bash, but he didn't agree with everything we said. I do think that we asked him some really good questions that helped him realize that we have much more truth than any other church. He had a really hard time answering what God's purpose is for us, and I think he was a little surprised at how much we knew. Another guy tried bashing with us on the street, but we just kinda ignored him and it was nice to see that my faith isn't really affected by that kind of thing anymore.

Saturday was sweet. We went to a baptism in San Antonio from Elder T's last area since the guy wanted Elder T to baptize him. It was fun to drive all the way down to San Antonio. The baptism was sweet and the dude has a mohawk and tattoos but bore a really powerful testimony after he was baptized that nearly made me cry and I don't even know the dude. We stopped at Buc-ees (?) the biggest gas station in the world on the way back. They have like 83 toilets or something like that and the place is huge. You should all look it up. I'll upload pictures sometime. We also stopped by the mission office to pick some stuff up for Elder T and it was cool to see the mission office. We ate at an amazing burrito place called FreeBirds. We also drove past the temple and it made me want to go so badly. We got back really late in the afternoon and went to the Fs, a part member family. It was awesome. The wife has usually been really quiet and they don't talk a lot, but this time the wife was there and there daughters and she expressed her frustration with the church because of their experience in Nebraska which was pretty horrible. It was great to get those concerns out and she doesn't want to force her children to go to a church that hurt them so much, but she does understand the blessings that come from church. They said they would come to the Trunk-or-Treat and we have a lesson with them tomorrow morning. I have clicked really well with the teenage girls that we finally met since they are HUGE soccer players (oh, by the way they are only 13, 12, and 9) and Elder T is so outgoing and happy and they seem to really like us. Bro F did take the youngest 4 to church while the older girls watched a soccer game with their mom and soccer team. We hope to play some soccer with them at the Trunk-or-Treat and our trunk is going to be sweet. I had the genius idea of taping candy to a pass-along card, so every member who gets one can pass it out and every non-member who comes can have one. We also taught V, but she was pretty depressed and was talking about all sorts of stuff  Sunday was great. In PEC Bishop H welcomed Elder T and told him that he is working with an amazing missionary and we will do great things. That made me feel like 100 bucks. At church we helped out in Primary and got the kids excited to invite their friends to the Trunk-or-Treat. We also bore pretty powerful testimony in there and it was neat to see. When we walked in a bunch were like"Hey Elder Pew!!" It was sweet. Since we have been working with them more he was able to go off and meet them all while I went and followed up with all the families and saw how their goals are going. Elder T felt really sick after church but we had a lesson with a family in the ward. It went well, but he didn't feel better afterwards, but the dad was a chiropractor who apparently can heal anything with this technique that he has. He worked with Elder T for like 5 minutes doing all sorts of stuff and then Elder T felt way better. Bro D said he has had people get out of wheelchairs, get their sight back, hearing back, healed diseases, and all sorts of things. It was almost freaky. 

In other news, Elder V was transferred to T which is in our zone still and Elder S and Sister J stayed in their areas too, so I have a lot of friends in the zone still. Also, Elder L from the MTC came up to A so I was able to chat with him for a bit. He is funny. Thanks for the love and prayers, this has been a great week and I know it is from your help. I know that this is Christ's church on the earth. I know that Christ suffered for our sins so that we don't have to if we will take advantage of the Atonement and change to become better. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I honestly do consider it a friend. Sometimes I do just want to run on a roof and yell to everyone to read it. I know it will change our lives if we let it. Because of the Book of Mormon I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he restored the keys of the priesthood back on the earth. I'm thankful for that knowledge and it has been a huge blessing in my life. Thanks again!

Elder Pew

October 14th, 2013

Dear family,

 Anyways, this week was really successful, although I am still having to work like crazy to stay somewhat positive, so that continues to be frustrating.

Monday was awesome. We went to B's birthday party which was AMAZING! She was so excited to have us over for her birthday, it was great. We played keep-the-balloon-in-the-air and I ended up with some marker from one of the balloons on my forehead which was perfect for a three year old birthday party. We had birthday cake and then set up a lesson with their family and left. Sister L did take pictures so we might ask to send those to you guys. Sorry I haven't sent more photos, but I usually don't have time and these computers are kinda weird. Anyways, the B-day party was the best thing ever. We were elated after that. We taught a lesson on missionary work to a family in the ward and we have helped each family set some goals which hasn't yielded much from them, but the blessings have been evident from us trying to work with the ward better.

Tuesday was pretty great. We had a first lesson! The guys name is H, he is pretty cool, although not that interested in joining the church, but we didn't even get to talk about the restoration yet, and he said to come back and tell him more. We had to hurry out of there because we had interviews with President Slaughter. He is super cool, but the interview seemed pretty insignificant. We also taught J that night and him and A watched like all of conference. Unfortunately he missed the talk by President Uchtdorf, the one for him. We really are lost at to what he needs to commit. We had a training on having the faith to say what needs to be said at Zone Meeting, so we do plan to be pretty bold with him tomorrow, especially since it's Elder V's last lesson with them (more info later). 

Wednesday we had Zone Meeting which was great. I really like our Zone. We had a lesson with A, Sister S's little sister. She is nine and wants to get baptized. She actually lives in a different ward, but since she will go to church with the S, we can teach her. Sunday though, we found out we still might have to pass her on to another missionaries which would be frustrating. She is really shy, but she wants to get baptized and she has a date set for November 2. We also taught Brother J's friend M and his children, unfortunately his wife had to leave, but the lesson went really well and it's cool to see members get involved. The S and Brother J are awesome. He said he would read the Book of Mormon, and pray and he came to our Bible Study class which went well. 

Thursday we had dinner with an older lady and her recently married husband who isn't a member. He is really cool and really nice, but he's like 85 and doesn't want to change. We had a good lesson on the Book of Mormon, but he rejected our invitation to read and pray about it. J, Bro J, and M were the only ones at Bible Study, but it went well. The Spirit was pretty strong and J shared his testimony with M as to how the church helped him turn things around in his life. Elder V was sick so we had Bro J help give him a blessing which was cool that M got to see that. The Spirit was pretty strong there and it was a neat experience. We had to head in early so Elder V could get some sleep and we were really happy with the day. 

Friday Elder V was too sick to work, which stunk. It was a pretty boring day and we pretty much watched every video we had, including a sweet one on the building of the Salt Lake temple which made me love it even more. We did have a lesson with A and a less-active member set-up, so we got a member to stay with Elder V and another to come with me to the lessons. I was glad to get out of the apartment, and the lessons went pretty well. I also made a pretty cool chart to keep track of all of the different people in the Book of Mormon and how they split off and who is in charge, where they lived, etc, with scripture references to back it up. It should be pretty handy once it is complete, I only completed it through Mosiah, since that is where I am in my reading.

Saturday not a lot happened. We set up a bunch more member lessons and had a lesson with R as well. It was a pretty calm day.

Sunday, church was awesome. I really enjoy going to church and talking with the ward members. The talks were really awesome about the importance of member missionary work. One speaker challenged everyone to find at least one person to bring to church, so we have included that in our member lessons. Also, Saturday and Sunday rained a bit which was really nice and I loved that. We taught the J a lesson on missionary work and finished with like 6 member lessons, 6 lessons with a member present, 1 other lesson, and 5 lessons with less active and recent converts, so we were blessed for our efforts to work with the ward by having many chances to teach. It was great. We had transfer calls, and Elder V is moving and finishing a training, and I'm staying here. I'm excited to stay in this area and I really like the members here.

I know that this is Christ's church on the earth today. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and it brings me such peace when I read it. It helps me to know that God loves His children and provided a way through Jesus Christ for us to make it back to Heaven. That is comforting to know, and I am doing all I can to get there. It will be so rewarding to know we have tried our best to do our Heavenly Father's will and to enter into His presence. I know this through the power of the Holy Ghost that has confirmed this to me. Thanks for all of the love and support, I'm going to need lots of prayers as I transition into this new transfer with a new companion. Thank you!

Elder Pew

Elder Pew and companion photo sent by a member family in Texas

Oops! 3 weeks worth of letters September 23rd, 30th and October 7th (a photo)

September 23rd

Dear family, 

This was a pretty awesome week! I have done SO much better with staying positive. Sometimes I still get a little frustrated, but it's not with myself so much anymore and more with the fact that we have little success finding people to teach. So, besides the fact that we haven't taught a first lesson in over a month, things were pretty great. Monday we went thrift shopping at Goodwill because Elder V needed a new suit. My thrift shopping experience from DI really paid off and I found some pretty wicked awesome stuff. I found an awesome red suit jacket, and some other sweet suit jackets but obviously none of them are approved so I didn't get any. I did find three really cool ties that I bought for like 3 bucks each. I'm starting to run a little low on ties since they seem to get ruined pretty fast. Tuesday was really awesome. Elder V had a meeting he had to go to so I worked with Elder M who has been out for one transfer more than me. We were going to ride our bikes since they took our car to the meeting, but Elder Vs bike had a flat tire, so yet again, we were on foot. I adjusted our plans a little bit to walk less, but we still walked close to 3 miles. Elder M is a really cool guy, but he is pretty quiet, so I pretty much had to do all of the talking. It was a great experience though. At one point at a stop light a guy approached the light too, so I talked with him for like 5 minutes about his work while we waited to cross the street and then crossed it. After a while we started talking about the gospel, but he wasn't really interested. Oh well, it was still cool to talk with him and who knows what that might do for him someday. We stopped by a few people with not any success and then walked back.  J called us and asked if we could pay him a visit, so we did and he is having some more family issues, and we taught him about how the small and simple things keep us on track. We had dinner with a cool family and their mom's boyfriend who isn't a member. The bishopric really wants him to join, but he's a little stubborn and doesn't come to church. We had Whataburgers, which are the best burgers I've had to this point. They are amazing! We shared the Earthly Father, Heavenly Father video and bore our testimonies about families and our Heavenly Father's love. R (the mom) told us as we left that it was exactly what her boyfriend needed. He has been confused about our beliefs concerning God, so we were able to clear that up. That was awesome! The Spirit was really strong. Then we had our lesson with J. We were going to go over the baptismal interview questions, but we sat down and he asked us if we could discuss some things he researched in the scriptures. He ended up giving us like a 30 minute sermon on the nature of God using scriptures from the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Bible. It was really cool and the Spirit was pretty strong. Clearly he has a testimony of this church, we can't figure out why he hasn't committed to a baptismal date. We even asked if that means he knows his answer, and he said it helps. WHAT? After teaching us from the BoM and D&C, how can you not have a testimony? As we explained it to our district, his feet were dangling over the cliff into answerland, but now I think he has fallen in and just hasn't realized it yet. He came to church and the ward did a great job fellowshipping him again and he talked with the bishop afterwards, but we don't know what about. Hopefully getting married. He is SO SO SO close. Wednesday we had an awesome Zone Meeting and I learned a lot.  Thursday we had our Bible Study class, but it pretty much bombed this week. We prayed a lot that people would be able to come, but only our WML came. However, at church a bunch of people said they are coming and several are bringing a friend, and Josh said he would come and we have like 10 other potential investigators that we are going to try and get to come. Friday was AMAZING!! The hurricane weather hit us, and it hit us HARD. It started out as a light drizzle, but by like 3 it was absolutely dumping rain on us. It was so great. The roads were flooding and it was the most wet I've ever been. We saw a lady who was needed to fill up the air in her tires, so we did it for her in the pouring rain and just got absolutely soaked. I think that those suit pants might be pretty much ruined, but I'm going to get it dry cleaned and see if that helps. They smell like moldy wood. We didn't really find anyone that day, but the rain was SO awesome and it dumped all day! Saturday we had a lesson with V, the recent convert, and I really like her. The ward and other missionaries have a hard time with her, but I think she's awesome.  She calls us fairly often, so Elder V just has me talk to her. Her prayers are amazing. One of the only people who you can actually tell is talking to God, something I wish I could emulate. Church was pretty great and the ward seems to genuinely like us a lot. We just need to start visiting each family so we can get them excited about missionary work. I've read like 5 talks and 100 scriptures about missionary work, so we are pretty much ready to teach people.  Also, Bridgett, the 2 year old who is obsessed with us made her family sit by us and their family is really cool. She is SO cute and her mom always tells us that she gets excited to come to church to see the "mishinawies." Kids continue to impress. I know that this is Christ's work here on the earth, and I'm so thankful He has helped me to turn things around as far as my attitude goes. I know I couldn't have done it without Him, and I know our Heavenly Father is SO much more merciful and loving than we can even comprehend. Like I told V in our lesson, if we truly understood how much our Heavenly Father loves us, we would always choose the right, we would serve others, we wouldn't worry about ourselves or our weaknesses, and we would do EVERYTHING to do what He wants us to and make Him proud. I know He has a plan for each of us and that He loves us. Thanks for everyone who has helped me so far on my mission, I couldn't have done it without all of you!

Love,

Elder Pew

September 30th, 2013

Dear family,

This was another pretty great week! A lot happened. Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder A. We were on bicycles which was a cool change of pace. I enjoyed getting out on a bike. Unfortunately, I had to use Elder S's (yup, my MTC companion, super tall) bike and it is HUGE. I needed a ladder just to get onto the thing. Anyways, we biked like 15 miles and it was really cool. His bicycle seat is basically a piece of metal that is like 2 inches long, so my bum got destroyed and it still feels like I have a bicycle seat attached to my bum. We were able to meet with a few less active members and share a quick spiritual thought with them. We also taught one of their investigators, and she really likes the scriptures and so we retaught the Restoration but I pretty much used every scripture that I know that has to do with the doctrine in the first lesson because that is what she wanted and she loved it! She wants to get baptized but her husband won't let her. It's too bad. It was cool to see all of my studying pay off there and the Spirit was strong as we shared and answered questions from the scriptures. Unfortunately that meant that I missed the lesson with J, but it sounds like he is still really close and he came to church, so that was great. They also taught J and G, a family we've been keeping an eye on for a while, and they answered some of their questions. Hopefully we can teach them again this week. Friday we also had an exchange with the Zone Leaders but for some reason they sent their third wheel with me in our area, so I was senior companion for the day. It was a little stressful to be in charge but Elder V has trained me well as well as my own work, so we had a great day even though I didn't really feel like I knew what I was doing. We took a cool 18 year old guy to a potential first lesson with us, taught A, stopped by several members, and tried to find new people to teach. My companion for the day, Elder Y came out with me, but he has very limited experience with teaching or contacting since he is Spanish speaking and with the Zone Leaders and he refused to talk much in contacting and teaching, so I pretty much did everything that day which was awesome! I learned so much! Elder V says that I'm ready enough to train, but that would be crazy. I am grateful though that I've progressed pretty quickly and that I came into the mission well prepared. You can never over-prepare! Oh yeah, our Bible Study class kinda bombed out again, but we've invited like 30-40 people on the streets and the ward sounds like they will try coming more these next few weeks.  Saturday was AMAZING!  We met a really cool guy named D who is about our age and looking for a church. He was busy, but we left him a card with the church address on it and he seemed interested. We also met a female rapper named T and she was pretty cool. Her and her boyfriend talked to us for like 15 minutes and they were also semi-interested. I tried to get Elder V to rap with her, but they didn't. We also visited a lady in the ward who is in the hospital and we shared a quick spiritual thought with her. We had a lesson with V and it was the greatest lesson ever! So 3 Nephi 17 is probably my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon, and we left that with her to read last week, but she didn't read it and I was prompted to read that with her which turned out to be genius! We got to like verse 8 where Jesus says that His "bowels are filled with compassion" and V is like, "wait, I've never felt compassion in my bowels before. Is that where we are suppose to feel compassion?" And we were like, "no it's fine if you feel that in your heart that is totally normal." And then she says, "well what does that mean. Did he have diarrhea?" Of course we absolutely died laughing. It was so stinking funny. We tried reading some more, but we couldn't stop laughing. Then she was like, "if I was them I'd be like 'whatever that is don't do it here!'" So again we were dying laughing and then she says, "sure fill my heart with compassion but don't give me whatever that is!" It was so funny. After like 5 minutes of laughing and joking we got serious again. As we continued to read the Spirit became really strong as we read over the account of Christ's love for the people and their love for him. We were able to get through the chapter without anymore laughter and the Spirit really guided our comments and it really helped her to read that chapter. Plus, it was the funniest moment of my mission. Then we helped her look for her phone that she lost and she let me walk her dog  and if you talked to anyone who knows V you would know how significant that is. Anyways, as we got back to her house Elder V asked if she checked in the couch cushions because that's where he always found stuff, she was like, "did you check in the bowels of the couch?" It was the perfect ending to the perfect lesson. It also dumped rain on us again which was really awesome and I loved it so much. We stopped by J during the rain and of course they let us in and gave us Apple Juice and cookies. We talked with him for awhile and he is going to take us out to lunch again this week and we are going to watch Conference with him this weekend at his house. YES!! He is so cool! Sunday was pretty great. I fasted to know what exactly we need to do to get the members excited about missionary work, but I still haven't had much inspiration. I've compiled literally 100s of scriptures and quotes about missionary work, member-missionary work, and promised blessings of it, but I'm not sure what to do with it all. Anyways, J was at church and so was Brother J's friend M. It is interesting how much your perspective of testimony meeting changes as a missionary with investigators there.  I wish people would stick to the four things that everything should be based on. Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and the key/priesthood. Those are really what matters and it would be nice if people stuck with them. We went to a fireside that night because a nice lady in our ward's husband who isn't a member was going to be there. It ended up being one of the most powerful meetings I've ever been in. It was a couple who got back from a senior couple mission, and they basically shared experiences and testimony from their mission. The Spirit was really strong and it helped to inspire me in our efforts. I also received inspiration to help V stay active by going to the temple soon. Also, she probably has lots of family history she can do and she is really good on computers, so it's a perfect match! That was a really neat experience. Well I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he loves us. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it has influenced me so much in my life to do good, it is clearly from God. Because the Book of Mormon is true I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. He restored the priesthood keys to the earth that we need to perform essential ordinances like baptism, and ordinances of the temple and I'm so thankful that I got to go through the temple before my mission. No matter what opposition comes the church will always move forward and nothing compares to the blessings of the church. Thanks for the love and support!

Love,

Elder Pew

October 7th 2013

Dear family,

This was a bit of a rougher week. Things actually went pretty well, but I think because things are going well that Satan is really working hard on getting me discouraged. It wasn't as bad as the beginning of my mission, but there were times I was pretty discouraged. However, pretty conveniently I am in Mosiah Chapter 24 in my Book of Mormon reading which has some great things to apply. First, the Lord chose to put the people of Alma in bondage to test their patience and faith (Mosiah 23:17 or something) and it wasn't because of unrighteousness. Also, those who put their faith in God through their trials are blessed (next verse). The people pray for strength and the Lord doesn't take away their burdens but he gives them the strength to carry them. Good application.

So Tuesday was another exchange. This time I was back with Elder D in our area. It was the reunion tour for him, so that was fun to work with him again. We had a lesson with J (our only investigator, but you could pray for J and G, W, Bro. B's wife, R, M and M, and the M family since they are all people we are trying to work with) that went pretty well. It sounds like he still has questions on Joseph Smith and isn't willing to put the fact that he knows the Book of Mormon is from God (whether he will admit it or not) as evidence that Joseph Smith is a prophet and is hung up on some of the history. It was pretty easy to discern these concerns from him, and Brother J, a member, did a great job talking about how we don't need to know everything to know Joseph Smith is a prophet. Just like President Uchtdorf said, "doubt your doubts before your faith." Hopefully J has watched all of conference and especially that talk because there was good stuff in there for him. Anyways, we talked a little about receiving revelation and promised him that if he went into Conference with a question that he would get an answer if he truly wanted it AND was willing to act on it. We will see how that went tomorrow. It has been a great experience doing exchanges because this exchange, the exchange with Elder Y, and Elder L (I'll talk about that in a second) have helped me to see what it's like to totally run an area, and helped me to essentially do everything, so I know that I have the abilities to be a good missionary. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with the Ms (wife is not a member and they don't come to church) , but instead of having us teach a lesson they just read from their spot in the Old Testament which is pretty dry stuff that we had to stretch to pull doctrine out of and testify of. Whatever, I'm not sure what it will take for them. 

Thursday we had our Bible Study class and we actually got J to come and R, a potential investigator. I stopped by him Tuesday and invited him and he invited his entire Methodist Sunday School class, so hopefully some more people come from that. He is really impressed with us and our study session went great. We taught with the Spirit and the discussions were good, even if there was only 6 of us. We invited R to watch conference, so hopefully he watched it at home since he didn't come to the church.

Friday was another exchange with Elder L who has only been out one transfer. Also, we were in his area (a bike area) and he has limited experience so I had to plan things for all of our time besides the two lessons that were previously set up. We went to the outskirts of their area and we had to go up a huge hill that was tough. Elder L felt pretty sick, so we stopped at a gas station to get water and then went back out on the bikes. We met some really cool people and had some great discussions. One lady was a former investigator I planned us to go by and she was really cool and I played basketball with her three year old while Elder L talked with her about the gospel. It was really fun. We answered a few other peoples' questions and then headed off to dinner. We had an appointment right after with a couple who won't keep commitments. We had to bring the member we had dinner with and it was the wildest lesson. The husband (S) was this super cool, humble guy from Houston, and we told the member that we needed to be pretty bold with them and tell them they needed to keep commitments. The member took over right from the start and was really bold with them but did bear pretty strong testimony, Elder Lee ended up sharing another 30 minute story, so by the time I had could say something we had to leave, so I just bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and told them they can know it's true for themselves. We had to hustle to our next lesson which was a first lesson. We did a pretty good job teaching her and clearing blind spots, and resolving concerns, setting expectations and things, but she simply told us she didn't believe the First Vision and wouldn't read the Book of Mormon. I was pretty frustrated since we taught pretty well and this was my first first lesson in over a month, so I was praying fervently for things to change. Elder L bore a pretty powerful testimony of Joseph Smith and explained the connection between Joseph Smith and the importance of the Book of Mormon well, and then I was overcome with the Spirit as I bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. She had already shot down a baptismal invite, but she suddenly changed and said she wanted to give the Book of Mormon a chance, and so we talked for a couple more minutes about it and she was suddenly very grateful for us and everything and wanted to know if the Book of Mormon was true. She said she would like a Spanish Book of Mormon more, so they referred her to the Spanish Zone Leaders who will teach her. It was a really cool lesson and a rewarding day.

A member in his mission sent this photo of Elder Pew and his comp!

Conference was pretty awesome. It really does mean more to missionaries and I took a TON of notes. My favorite talk was by far President Monson's on Sunday Morning. It was super powerful. I also really liked both talks by President Uchtdorf and the one should really help J. Bro F and J both came to priesthood session, so that was really awesome. I also felt prompted to go by R's after Priesthood, and Elder V said it was too late, but I was like, no the Spirit told me he's there so we need to go. So we drove by and sure enough, the lights were finally on in his house and he was there. He said he's been looking all over the place for our numbers to get in contact with us. It was sweet!! We got him a ride to conference yesterday and then stopped by and had a lesson with him that night. He was really grateful to see us again and it was cool to so clearly know that he was home after months of disappearing from the Spirit. Sunday we also had our first lesson with members that we have been praying over for a long time. We taught them the importance of missionary work and mostly focused on blessings and how we are here to help them in their efforts. We are trying to get lessons with every family and have them set a goal they can achieve as a family. The first lesson was a success and I felt the Spirit as we discussed and taught.  The Os  were pretty excited to set goals and they plan to invite their friends to church in two weeks and over for dinner sometime we can stop by and meet them. We plan to follow up every week or two with the members with goals. We have another lesson tonight and have a few more scheduled for the rest of this week and hope to get TONS more set up too. 

Also, we are going to Bridgett's birthday party tonight! It should be sweet! We've been looking forward to this for awhile. 

I know that this work is real and that the Lord does love us all individually. He is anxious to help everyone and He has a plan for everyone to be saved. I know that Christ died so that we can get better and that is what makes us happy. Thank you for all the encouragement, sometimes I really need it! Thanks!

Elder Pew

September 16th, 2013

Dear family,

This was a pretty solid week. We had a really fun time playing sports as a Zone on P-Day. Also, for some reason I still play AMAZING when we play basketball. I don't know why I'm suddenly really good at basketball. Anyways, we played another game called Scatterball that is really fun that I don't have time to explain, but basically it's free-for-all dodgeball and is really tiring, so we got exhausted by the end. Why do I share this? So Tuesday, we had to fix some stuff on our car because it is falling apart faster than Buster did, and we are in the shop like every other day, it's crazy. So we headed out a little later than usual to work that day, but Elder V accidentally locked the keys in the car. Luckily the Zone Leaders were in SA for a meeting and they were able to grab the spare keys for us. However, we had to spent from like 2-7 on foot without our car. We walked probably 6-8 miles and it started to rain and was pretty windy. That could have stunk, but for some reason I liked it a lot. However, we were really tired from playing that game and walking for 5 hours. Wednesday we had Elder C with us. He is an Assistant and he is a crazy hard worker. Of course all of our lessons fell through so we ended up trying to find new people to teach. He does an amazing job of easing into conversations with people, something I learned a lot from. He was also really bold, maybe even too bold and some people seemed really annoyed with him. He was a great example though and we talked to EVERYONE we saw, just like we are suppose to. Since then, we have done a much better job of talking to everyone, and easing into conversations better. I've found that one reason I'm probably in Texas is because of how much they love football. It makes an easy topic of conversation and instead of trying to avoid college football so I don't get distracted at all, I decided to embrace the fact that I know so much about college football and I started TONS of conversations with people with college football. If they are wearing any Texas gear, have a flag outside, or something, I usually talk college football with them, then we bring up, or even they bring up what we are doing and what we are sharing. So far no one has been interested in hearing our message, but they seem to enjoy us a lot more than when we go straight to the point. It has been hard though to not get distracted by all the college football talk. Thursday I was feeling pretty crappy, and I was just so sick of starting to be in a bad mood again, that I decided to start a few new things. First I made a list of things to remember that I keep in my pocket at all times. It says:

Things to remember:

-God loves you, He's proud of you!

-You don't need to be perfect

-Work on one thing at a time

-Your family loves you and prays for you

-The Lord is on your side
-Any positive thought is from God, negative thoughts are from Satan

-Trials are required to become better

-Trials make us better

-You will be blessed

-Things have ALWAYS worked out in the past

-You are learning things that will help SO much later in life

-Serve others

-Pray for strength

Then on the outside it has the quote really big from President Hinckley, "Things will work out." This helped a lot, just writing the things down, and I haven't needed to even look at it that much since then. I also have a space in the back of my journal where I write things that I love about my mission and I try to add one thing every day, or circle one that I already wrote. It has helped a ton to have a great attitude even though lots of our lessons fell through. We have a Bible Study class starting this week and our Ward Mission Leader is going to set up lessons with active members so we can teach them and get them excited about missionary work. Hopefully both activities can get us some solid new people to teach, because I'm starting to forget what that's even like. We have been to a lot of really good food places down here and the food is really good. Tex-Mex and Burgers are really good down here. However, instead of gaining weight, I've actually stayed at the same weight and built some muscle. It's crazy what actually working out can do to your body. I just do push-ups and stretch each morning and each like 2 bananas and an apple each day and avoid junk food. My cardio is probably not that great, but it's funny that I've actually built muscle since the older missionaries say that no matter what you gain weight on the mission. We had a lesson with J this week and we went in just hoping to answer any questions and really find out what is holding him back from committing. It went pretty well and it appears that he wants to understand everything 100% first, so we ended up talking a lot about faith and how we will never understand everything 100%, but need to act on the faith we already have. We also had a lesson with V, a recent convert who just moved in, and we had a great lesson on God's love and how we can feel it in our lives by praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church. My knowledge of the scriptures has improved a ton since coming out and I can find just about any scripture already, so I'm really grateful for that improvement. 

We met this really strange guy yesterday that was totally crazy. He claimed he was in the Luminadi and that he had died three times but came back to life. He told us about extra terrestrial life that he's seen and also how George Washington did too. It was really funny. He talked like he was giving a slam poem or something, and he was a pretty good speaker. Then he started predicting our futures, and he said I looked like the next president. He said I'd be married in 3 years and Elder V in 4. He said my wife would find me, that she would wear plain, but beautiful dresses, walk with a pivot, have dimples, and when I see her toes I will know she is the one because I will blush. It was really really funny and we both pretty much just sat there and listened to him for like 30 minutes while he rambled and told our future. Apparently we will both be leaders too. It was really awesome. Also, that really cute girl that gave me a hug last Sunday continues to LOVE me and Elder V and yells to us whenever she sees us. I guess she is turning 4 on October 7 and her mom invited us to dinner that night since she's pretty sure there is no one she'd rather have at her birthday dinner than us. She is so cute and we are so excited! Anytime anything bad happens now, we're like, well at least we are going to Bridgett's Birthday party! It is really awesome. Anyways, I know that no matter how tough the work is that I am doing the right thing. I know that the Book of Mormon can bring us closer to God than any other book on this earth. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and I know the happiness that can come as we strive to follow the example of our Savior. I know that if we turn to Him, He will help us with anything if we accept it. He died so that He would know how to best help us (Alma 7:11-12). Thanks for all the love and support! Go BYU! I hope they take the Utes down one final time!

Love,

Elder Pew

September 2nd & 9th, 2013

September 2nd, 2013

So I would first like to start off by saying that all of you guys's (?) letters have been a huge help. It is very comforting to know that when I get on the computer on Monday that I won't find that my family is having troubles or anything. I did get the package, and we ate the Hi-Chews in like 2 minutes, and then Elder V and Elder D wanted even more, so we went to the World Market so they could buy themselves more. Funny guys.  Anyways, this was a busy week. Covering two areas is pretty crazy and we went way over our miles for the month. Also, our tire popped yesterday, so we had to pull over and change the tire, but Elder D is really good at that kind of thing, but we still have the donut on it. We visited a TON of less active and recent converts, which was perfect because President Slaughter also got rid of the contacts and QGCs that President Jones had established. He doesn't care if we ever tract because his whole training was on how we can find through the less-active and active members. So, we didn't hardly tract at all this week. One day, I think Thursday, we happened to stop by all these people at the perfect time. A part member family in W R was home and the lady who isn't a member let us in and said it was interesting that the missionaries always stop by when they are going through a hard time. Coincidence? I think not! She has had the lessons before but she asked each of us to say why we know the church is true, so it was just a little testimony meeting. It was awesome and she said she would come to church. Being in a threesome is pretty awesome. My favorite part might be that I don't have to be a second pair of eyes to watch to road and since we are in the car a lot I just sit in the back and read as many conference talks as I can. It's awesome. We also were going to stop by a family in W R but when we got out of the car there was a guy with really long hair who immediately told us to come inside. He said not to say one word about Jesus or he would punch us in the face. He is huge into family history and he has a lot of information but he wants to find more. He knew our church had big archives and wanted access to it. We referred him to the Family History Center at the Stake Center where he could get more information and help with his family history. Also he seemed to like us a lot even though he wasn't interested at all in what we believe and he actually called us the next day to offer us some furniture that he didn't need. His name is H. T's baptism fell through again and I'm doubting whether or not the family understands the importance of baptism. We taught J again and his son B had a super funny quote. We were talking about the priesthood and he asked if we had the number 1 (Aaronic) or number 2 (Melchizadek) priesthood, and we told him number 2 and he was like, "I'm never going to get the number 2 priesthood, because I don't know how to swim!" We explained that the only requirements are being worthy and having the Aaronic priesthood, but that was really funny. We also visited a less active family and they have 4 kids, two 3 year old twins. For some reason they all decided to attack me while Elder D and Elder V talked with the parents about the Army or something. There kids were jumping all over me and stabbing me with swords and sharks, but it was super funny. I was basically running the nursery while the other two talked. I didn't even hear that we set up an appointment to teach them because I was getting attacked. The two friends of the young women have not received lessons yet because the young women never set up an appointment even though we asked almost every day. Whatever. we'll get them some day soon. Two more crazy stories. So we didn't have a district leader because he was Elder D's companion, so they had me give a training. Me? yeah I don't know why they did that, but it was a super cool experience teaching these people who are all like 1-3 years older than me about how to learn by the Spirit from Preach my Gospel, but they seemed to learn a lot and it was clearly led by the Spirit. Elder V gave the other training and also did great. That was awesome though, I loved teaching. So me and Elder V are staying, and Elder V will be the new District Leader, which is exactly what I predicted. He thought he would go District Leader somewhere else, but I knew he would stay, and I was right! It should be a solid transfer. Last crazy story. So we went to dinner in W R with the N family. They are a super cool family and it was fun to get to know them. They actually had us play "Spot It" until dinner was ready which was a blast. Then at dinner they were talking about there son who had recently left on his mission to Arizona. Anyways, they asked me how long I'd been out and I told them like 1.5 months, and they asked what day I reported and I told them July 10 and that was the same day as him. They said he was dropped off by his family but first they went to J-Dawgs. I was like, " I totally went to J-Dawgs too!" They asked what time I reported and it was right after him, but we were at J-Dawgs at the same time! Remember that aunt and uncle with the nephew from Austin that was going to Arizona? This was his family! As we talked more and more, the more I remembered seeing him there. The mom showed me a picture of him at J-Dawgs and our minivan was totally in the back! Isn't that the craziest thing ever! He was probably in my MTC resident hall and everything. It was crazy!  Well, the last story I want to share is more spiritual. So I was feeling a little down a few days ago and so I opened up to one of my favorite chapters recently, 3 Nephi 17. It is when Christ is about to leave but he can tell the people want Him to stay longer, and he ends up healing all the sick, blessing all the children, and praying for the people. It is one of the most powerful chapters ever and it shows how much Christ loves us. I sat there and read it and I was literally crying a bit as I read this passage again and how much Christ loves us and how much the people loved Christ. I think if I could teach that chapter to anyone, they could have no doubt that the Book of Mormon does in fact testify of the Christ that they want to know and love, and that we are not full of it for believing the Book of Mormon, because of its testimony of the Savior. Preach my Gospel says to refer quickly to the restoration and the Book of Mormon, because that is what separates us. It usually gets a door slammed in our face, but at least we aren't trying to get around the fact that we believe in the Book of Mormon by saying something universal like about Christ. Anyways, I know that Christ is our Savior and that He loves each of us SO much. I've felt his love out here and I know that the Book of Mormon is from God. I LOVE reading from it and it brings me so much closer to God. I'm thankful for the support and love I feel from all of you, it means so much to me!

Love,

Elder Pew

September 9, 2013

Dear family,

This was a pretty interesting week. Monday night we had family night with the S family. They went through the temple like 1-2 months ago and are awesome! They are a pretty young family with six and two year old kids. We had a nice little lesson with them on the Restoration, and then they had a game planned with an object lesson in place too. We had a partner and one person had a blindfold on and the other person tried to lead the other person through their yard that had crumpled papers. The guide was the Holy Ghost and the papers were sin. It was a cute little object lesson and I loved seeing how hard this family is trying to do what the prophet has said, even though they are somewhat recent converts.We have moved basically completely away from tracting, but we are a bit confused as to what we are suppose to do now. We try stopping by members, but we haven't been able to get any referrals from them. They are all excited to help us and they really like us, but they still don't seem to really grasp how much we need their help now with us not tracting really. We did stop by a less active lady who no one has ever met before, and she has a boyfriend who said he will take the lessons to gain an understanding of that part of her life. That was pretty sweet news, and is our only real progress this week. J didn't come to church and T didn't get baptized. We are going to go to T's house and sit down and see if we can find out why they are holding back from the baptism. We think it is her mom who is inactive and she is holding things up, but we aren't sure. We had a lesson with J and A which went pretty well and we committed them to fast  this coming Sunday for J to receive his answer. We plan to go over there this week and see if we can figure out exactly what he expects his "answer" to be and how to recognize it. R's friends didn't come to church either and she didn't tell us anything else about them, so it looks like that was a false alarm referral. Whatever. Thursday was transfers, so Elder D got a new companion for the W R ward. It was cool to see the new missionaries come in and how happy the other missionaries are. I can't wait to have that same enthusiasm for the work. I need to work a lot on being positive and not focusing on the negative. It really makes things so much harder, and hinders my effectiveness. It is just hard when we only have like three or four lessons each week. We also taught J, and he is really awesome. He's going through some really hard things with his family, but he has a lot of faith and he is really humble. I won't explain all the details, but at one point in the lesson he heard something going on outside his house and he ran into his room and grabbed his shotgun to see what was going on. It was pretty awesome. I have to say he did have a pretty good reason for doing so with all that has happened, but it was crazy awesome. That's a Texas experience I can check off. It is also funny to me how I've already sent like 300 more text messages on my mission than I have the rest of my life combined since we have a cell phone. Church is always pretty great and I love being able to rejuvenate for the rest of the week. Also one of the cute little girls in the ward came running up to me and gave me a hug on the leg, which I guess is technically not allowed, but it made my day to know someone really cares about me out here. Elder V has been a great help these last few weeks since I have had such a hard time. He's been supportive of me and really encouraging. Lots of missionaries tell me that I'm doing so well for a new missionary. I agree with them except that I have such a hard time being positive. I've gotten pretty good at talking to everyone we see, studying really hard, and teaching well, but if I don't have a good attitude then it kind of negates the rest. I know with faith in the Lord we can get through anything, and I know our trials are only there to help us become the people we need to become. I know why I have trials, I just need to figure out how to overcome them with faith and a good attitude. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I love reading from it and I know that if we stick to the Book of Mormon we can make it through anything. I love you all and thank you for the support you have shown me!

Love,

Elder Pew

p.s. there is a totally crazy guy sitting a few seats away from me talking to himself a TON. It's pretty funny. 

2 Letters August 19th & 26th, 2013

August 19th 2013

Dear family,

This week was a lot slower than last week. We didn't have very many chances to teach which was pretty sad. This area has picked up a lot since I got here, but this week it slowed back down. We only taught 3 lessons. J is progressing decently and he came to church with A and their daughter who is like 2. She's super cute. They seemed to enjoy it and church was awesome! I loved it! The talks were about missionary work because it was A's homecoming. The W family is like the hyper-active family in this ward. He gave a great talk and it was about his mission obviously but he talked about not getting discouraged if you can't find people to teach, which is exactly what I needed to hear because it was pretty frustrating to not find people to teach. After church they had this thing called "Linger Longer" something that better be instituted in Utah before I come home. Basically the entire ward stays after church and has dinner together. Everyone brings food and you sit around and eat with the people in the ward. It's genius! Seriously it needs to be used in Utah. It's funny though how unsocial I already am. Me and Elder V kinda just sat there because we don't really know how to start normal conversation anymore. It's kinda sad but also funny. Also, a ward members friend came to Sunday School, and supposedly he is really interested in the church and felt a prompting to get more involved with our church to help out his family in a time of trial.  We weren't able to meet with him yet. Of course Elders Quorum was about how serving others help us through times of trial. It was frustrating that we let him get away and that the Spirit was telling me to get him, but we let him get away  Alright, backtracking to earlier this week. Monday we played basketball.  My skills have improved in the mission--I don't miss. Anyways, we were out teaching and these two pitbulls started chasing us. It was pretty freaky and we were pinned on these people's porch for like 5 minutes until Elder V grabbed a rock and then we ran past them to our cars. It was pretty scary.  Elder V said it was the scariest moment of his mission. We went to a place called Freddy's for dinner this week that have amazing steak burgers. Best burgers I've ever had. The food here is really good and the ward feeds us really well. You'd think that I would gain weight, but so far I'm still right below 140 pounds. Hopefully that continues. The kids here continue to be super funny. The same kid who yelled "There's poop outside!" had another awesome day. We had dinner with them again and I was in the middle of our dinner thought and he tooted super loud. It was hard not to laugh and Elder V couldn't talk. Then he said the closing prayer and burped really loud in the middle and was like, "excuse me, that was really loud." and then he was laughing once he finished. He's super funny. We had an interesting experience teaching a guy named T. He didn't agree with anything that we said and it sorta turned into a nice Bible bash. It wasn't a big argument, but it was just tossing scriptures back and forth, but he wasted a lot of our time. This area has interesting demographics. There are some parts that are just older, decent neighborhoods, and then there are really nice areas. There is also a lot of Indian people here working for Dell. There is also a trailer park and we spent some time there this week. It's interesting how much more willing the poor people are to listen since they are humble compared to the rich areas. That's usually where we just get doors slammed in our face.  We have continued to do a lot of less active work, and we have tried to visit every single person on the ward list that is less active. We have several lessons scheduled with some of them. We taught R this week, but he disappeared and wasn't really in the mood for the lesson. He left halfway through to go to HEB with his sister who was willing to drive him. I don't know if I told you what HEB is. It's like the Texas Wal-mart. Everything is produced in Texas, and it's high quality stuff and really cheap. It's where we do all our weekly shopping. We did teach a new guy named V from Vietnam. He doesn't believe in God so we started from scratch but he was really interested in what we said and we tried for like 10 minutes to get him to pray to know that there is a God, but he wouldn't. He said he'd try later though and we are going to stop by this week. Friday was Elder V's birthday and Round Rock donuts dropped off a Texas donut and a box of donuts. It was awesome. He got lots of stuff from his family and it's funny how I haven't really got anything in the mail yet and he gets something like twice a week, and the stereotype is that greenies get all the mail. It doesn't matter to me though, I just think it's funny. We also had apartment check on Friday and a senior couple came to check our apartment. We got a really good score except the tub because it has a black ring in it that I tried scrubbing out for literally 20 minutes with no success. The ward put on a Mystery Dinner. It's a mystery play and they feed you dinner throughout the play. It was pretty clever and fun to see people from the ward. Unfortunately we couldn't get any investigators to come but J came one night and the J family had friends come that we sat with. They seem to have some potential, so we'll see what happens. Saturday I felt really sick and my stomach killed and so did my back. Also I have a random gash on my heel that makes it hard to walk, so I was in a lot of pain. I didn't eat anything until the Mystery Dinner so I was pretty exhausted from tracting all day with no success finding people to teach. I felt pretty junky, but then we found V right before the dinner, so I was really thankful that Heavenly Father let us have that lesson and I wanted V to know so badly that he has a Heavenly Father who loves him because I know how much it will help him. He thinks his life is pretty rotten and doesn't have much going for him, so I want him to see the happiness the gospel can bring so badly. I'm taking a much more active role in lessons and contacting and everything. We pretty much split everything evenly, even planning and weekly planning. I'm glad Elder V's letting me do more so I can improve quicker. I'm still not very patient, especially with myself, and it's hard to know sometimes if I'm really doing all I can to get better. I still feel a little overwhelmed with all that I have to improve, and this week was pretty rough, but I had a much better attitude than before and Sunday made things a lot better. Having a good attitude makes such a huge difference. I'm not going to lie though, I can't wait for the changes they announced with the Work of Salvation. Tracting clearly isn't the best way to find people, especially in the morning when no one's home. We average like 5-10 contacts at most in the morning with maybe one person who actually wants to talk to us. It's pretty rough. Keep praying for me and the love and support has been huge. I know that what I'm doing is the right thing even if it's hard and I have such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and I KNOW it can change these peoples' lives if they will just listen. I know that we can grow closer to Christ by reading it and it truly testifies of Christ. Oh, we rescheduled Ts baptism for August 31st and it sounds like we might get a third companion from our district since his companion is going home a little early for school. We'll see what happens. Keep praying for me and I know I'll make it. There's always hope in Christ. I love you all!

Elder Pew Jr.

August 26, 2013

It's crazy that school is starting for everyone, and I'm not going. School is not even in my vocabulary anymore. It feels like that is way in the future. School starts for Texas today. Alright, well this was an interesting week. So we got Elder D to join us. He covers a different ward but his companion went home early for school, and for some reason he is with us. It is difficult to cover two areas and there is literally nothing going on in Elder D's area, so we didn't get much done. We only had like one lesson, but part of that is because a few people cancelled on us and our potential investigators were never home. J is doing decent, but he didn't come to church and honestly I don't know how much he really cares. Elder V is convinced he is really progressing, so I guess we'll just keep teaching him even if he doesn't seem to care. His girlfriend does, so hopefully she gets him more excited. Thursday we had a special training meeting with President Slaughter. He is amazing! It was about Finding with Faith, exactly what we need here in this area. We have an awesome ward, but we just have a rough time finding people to teach. I thought it would be on how to talk with people better and stuff and having faith to find people, but he focused solely on working through the members to find people. We role played asking for referrals without asking, "Do you have any referrals?" And instead he taught us to ask them about their families and coworkers, and then have an environment where the spirit is really strong, and then ask if they have felt any promptings on who might be ready to receive the gospel. Unfortunately everyone after that took us out to dinner, so we didn't really get to try that yet. I  get a bit of crap for growing up in Utah because everyone here has really crappy perceptions of what Utah is like. They think that everyone is so exclusive and judgmental for people that aren't Mormon and that we are all exactly the same. It is really frustrating to hear since they have NO IDEA what it's like. I stick up for our ward every time though because I'm so glad I grew up in a place where everyone had high standards. I honestly think we are out here trying to make every community as strong as our ward back home. Not that it's perfect, but it's proven to be so successful in raising amazing people. I usually don't get bothered by people giving me crap, but this has worn me out a little. It hasn't bothered me too much, but it's still annoying. Thursday night was super awesome though. We were in Elder D's area and there is one section that has beautiful houses that are all spread out and it's the most beautiful part of Texas I've seen. Every time we've driven through we have seen at least 10 deer, no joke. You are guaranteed to see deer there, especially at night. So we were driving through this beautiful scenery with awesome houses and deer all around, and we had some Mo Tab playing and off in the distance we could see lightning. The lightning here is really cool. It's really high up in the clouds, and often times you can't even see a bolt, it's just a flash of light that lights up the clouds. It was just a really cool moment and I knew that that moment was there for me to know that God loves me and is there for me. It was almost a sacred moment. So this whole week I've been praying that we could find new people to teach and to have the faith that we will. It's been hard to not be discouraged, but I thought I did a great job. Then Sunday after church a young women came up to us and asked if it would be okay if she set up an appointment with her two friends who are investigating the church so we can teach them. Heck yeah that would be alright! So we have a legit lesson set up this week as well as a few others to less active and part member families. After church we also got into a house of a less active family and their 20 year old son wanted us to teach him, but we didn't have anything prepared, so I pretty much just taught a lesson on faith using Alma 32 and Ether 12. I'm kinda glad that Elder V and Elder D just let me take the majority of the lesson because it's hard to get better when you don't teach. It went really well and we committed him to come to church again. He said he would love to and is really excited. It was awesome! Then we were on our way back to the car for the night and I saw a lady getting out of the car, so I had an entire QGC with her and set up an appointment to come teach her about the Book of Mormon which she said she is interested to learn more about. It was a super solid night and I'm super grateful that Heavenly Father blessed us for our faith to find people to teach. This week is looking really promising. Oh, that lady N that we visit occasionally is super cool. We talked to her and set up an appointment to teach her, and then she told us she has a deal to sing with Chamillionaire. I don't know who he is really, except he is a pretty famous rapper. She acts like it's nothing because she also doesn't really know who he is but I guess she is an amazing singer. Pretty cool stuff though. So R and J have both disappeared since they are both super cool, although it will be a big concern if we still can't find R this week. Well, I love you all and I know this church is true. Even though it's tough sometimes I know that everything that happens is for my benefit and will be worth it. One quote that Brother Widtfeldt shared that I love from Elder Scott goes something like this, "Essential personal growth comes as we struggle to listen to the Spirit." I've definitely seen that here and I know I've grown a ton. Thanks for the prayers, and I'm sorry these are still pretty scattered and not that funny. Also, I haven't received any packages yet and hopefully I can send some pictures today (none of them worked :()

! I love you all!

Elder Pew