OnlineVISA or Mastercard?

Alright before I even get started, I am sorry this e-mail is short... I was too busy filling out my online visa!! I could be gone in like a month how crazy is that?? I will miss my little Albany Oregon though... Ahhhh I am so torn!! But I honestly got the call from the mission office today and I already filled it all out, I am so pumped!! So I guess we can all go back to being on our toes hahaha. Oregon will always be a part of my mission though.. And I will even try to come back and visit the.... 10 people we have invited to be baptized hahaha. Ah I can't even think about what to write my thoughts are in such a whirl!!
 
Well before I forget, I don't know where the spare key for the MISSILE is but I know we have one, and I never had keys to the rack. So I hope that helps out Danger, sorry I forgot last week. Umm the work is going a lot better then it was last week. We have had some awesome lesson and just got 4 new gators this week! Matt and Chelsea are still awesome, they quit smoking and we are working on the drinking issues... They are so solid though and so funny. We have a baptism next Sunday for a 18 year old kid named John who knows more about the gospel than I do. He just hasn't been dunked yet cause he was waiting for a day when his friends could all come and see it. 


We had zone conference last week as well and that was neat. President Young said some really great things and he gave us the coolest challenge ever. This is where I need a little bit of Guzy help. The challenge is we are making a list of the top 50 first lines you say when contacting someone and I wanna get on the list. The ones I have used so far are, "Wow... it is so hot today. You wanna know why? Cause the Spirit of God like a fire is burning!" And then I ask people if my side bag is a satchel, man bag, or purse, then say, "well I can see you are kinda confused, Joseph Smith was also confused once and he prayed to our Heavenly Father to know the truth." That one works like a charm! :) So send me the ones you think of! Everyone up here makes fun of the side bag though... Oregon just has no sense of style at all hahaha. Just wait till you see the pictures I have taken. Well my time is up but I love you all so much! Remember the church is true no battle.

Elder Big (stressed) Deal

"I am Turning into a Hippie"

   That statement is more real then you think... I am convinced that a VW (visa waiter) Bus would be the siiiiickest car ever. Just clean it up, put a system in it... Sounds like a party! Speaking of parties.... We were sitting in our district meeting this last Thursday when all of a sudden some awesome members came and brought us pizza! They actually brought me Taco Bell which was weird cause I didn't know people knew I liked T-Bell that much :p But really, that visit from Trent and Eliza was honestly the best! It did the opposite of distract me. It helped me see the blessings that come after mission life if I work hard and be the missionary I need to be. That is way I love you guys so much, you have all set this amazing example and standard for me and it gives me so much more drive to be a good missionary. If I didn't have the examples I do in my life, I don't even think I would be out here right now, which is ridiculous cause I am having so much fun and I don't know how I could pass this up!

   Things are going well here. Like you all know, people flake or don't keep commitments and it kinda gets you down, but this week it seemed like everything was just going smoothly. We did two sets of exchanges this week which was fun. The other missionaries here are pretty cool as well and I actually got to use a lot of my Portuguese when I went on an exchange with the Spanish elders! I could understand people pretty well and vice versa but there are some big differences obviously. I decided though that if I do end up staying here, I will ask if I can go Spanish, I feel like I could switch the language pretty easily. I mean if Tanner can learn it... It will be pretty easy for me! CALL-OUT!!!!!!! Oh SHOOOOT! Hahahaha Love you buddy :)

  We had some great lessons this week. We have these two investigators that we actually taught two nights in a row they were so stoked on what we were saying and they are so dope. Their names are Matt and Chelsea and they are in their late 20s and the first time we knocked on their door Matt opened it and just yelled... "MORMONS!!!!' and was all stoked on us. He is hilarious... He has the Bible on cd and it is read by James Earl Jones and Matt said, "Nothing makes the Bible cooler then hearing it in the voice of Moofassa from Lion King." Hahaha and then he is big into Guitar Hero and doesn't believe I can play it, too bad he will probably never get a chance for me to play for him. We are going back to teach him tonight and we are finishing up the Plan of Salvation and he has some rocking questions on it. We extended a baptism date for the 10th and they both said they will pray about it. Talk about a cool birthday present! And then we have another guy named Daniel who is also big into guitars and stuff and actually really reminds me of Bob and Larry. Like he is just this awesome musician and he just has this great out look on life. He also wears wilderness shirts which just makes him my hero. We are going to teach him later on this week and I hope he recognizes that this gospel can just make him so much happier!

    Also this past Saturday we had L. Tom Perry come talk to us! So cool. His testimony is so powerful and he is really funny as well. He talked about how there is no one better in the Church to teach then us missionaries. We are trained and taught how to do this and if we are following and do the things we need to do to have the Spirit with us we can do anything. So powerful! Ah I love hearing from GAs... That is one thing I miss about the MTC.

    Well I hope you all have a good time getting back into school and being excited for that. It is weird to think that a year ago I was moved out and starting the funnest year of my life... Good ol' Logan :) Well I love you all so much and I can't thank you enough for all the support you give me! This Church is the true church on the earth today and I know that through this Church not only myself, but also my family and friends can find an unbelievable happiness... how cool is that?! I love you! 

 

 

   Elder Big Deal

 

P.S. Made a friend yesterday at church yesterday named Dusty... turns out he is the assisstant manager of the Taco Bell here! I think I can already call this a tender mercy :)

Shhhhhhh I am Listening to Reason!!!

Hello my wonderful and amazingly awesome family. I love hearing about the Bird! and yesh Danger, last year you did totally introduce Ryley and me with funny names and it was so great! Once again the Danger Dave Jokes always will make me laugh. But in honor of all of you going to the Bird I bought a huge thing of Goldfish cause I always remember having Goldfish and I figured I needed to join in the fun somehow. Good times up at the Bird :)
   
Things here are going.... average? I dunno. We are kinda low with investigators here and it seems like our finding efforts aren't going super well but we still find that one little charm every once in awhile. We mostly do a lot of street contacting and tracting but we are going to be trying some new things here in the next few weeks, I will let you know how that goes. We are seriously teaching only two people and things are going well with them. Their names are Mike and Amber and they agreed to a baptism date for the 3rd but I dunno if they will go through. I am really praying for them though. We also have some sweet potentials who we have taught lessons to but just haven't extended a date yet. So we will keep working with them and keep inviting them to read the BOM and go to church.


That seems to be the biggest problem up here is people not committing to church. Like we haven't had an investigator come to church in this area since at least January maybe longer so we are really focusing on that. We are also doing a lot of work and promoting Mormon.org. Have you guys ever had a chance to check it out? It is actually pretty cool and I am getting my profile set up right now. We spend an hour on there every week so we can get to know it because the Church is really trying to push this website. I am fully convinced that we will be getting Ipads and things for teaching in the near future. I already used them in the MTC and they had it all set up for missionaries. Yeah of course some missionaries will abuse it but I really believe it will help the teaching so much.


I am trying to think about what I have already told you guys. Did I tell you that we bike two days a week and then the rest of the time we drive a Mazda three? Yeah pretty neat. I like biking actually just cause I feel it helps me tan and get prepped for Brasil! Speaking of which... I am really starting to get attached here which is good and bad at the same time. Cause obviously I REALLY wanna go to Brasil but at the same time I like where I am and the elders I get to work with... I dunno to be honest with you I am pretty torn but who cares, this isn't my work it is His. So if he wants me here I will work my hardest here, but if He wants me in Brasil I will work my hardest there as well, It doesn't matter where I work, as long as I get to work is what I am worried about.
   
Well I hope things are still going super well for all of you and you guys will kinda settle down a little bit. It seems like everyone has been all over the country this summer, which is pretty stinkin' cool. Ry, senior year is dope and I can promise you that it all comes down to what you want it to be. Have you started looking at colleges? Sorry this is the Ambassador in me. I just know that college stuff just comes up quickly and I just want my superstar of a little sister to be ready for it all. I love you all so much and as much as I miss you or the things you are doing please know that I am so happy out here. I dunno why but I feel like everything I have done until now was training for this... Who knows :) Oh and in case you didn't know.... this Church is super true... Cool little side note:)

   Elder Big Deal

P.S. I bought a hacky sack and it might have been the best choice of my life.

Tracting Sasquatch?

What up fam?!
   
Things are still going dope up here in good old Albany! I really enjoyed this last week, probably cause I feel a lot more comfortable with my surroundings now haha. No word from Sasquatch yet but I can promise I will get him in the water in no time! Haha
   
Well once again it sounds like things are just dope back home. I am pumped you guys are headed up to The Bird still, I was thinking about that the other day and I always love just how chill it is up there. Such a good time and it would be nice to hit the pool. It has been stinking hot here lately which is so funny cause you would think it would be raining a ton but whatever. Mom those pics of you water skiing seemed like a really good time! Remember when I got the concussion and Ryley hated me cause I kept on asking what happened? Memories. Ry I am stoked you made the soccer team again, I have no idea why you are so good at soccer. Maybe you should be the one going to Brasil not me. Hahaha yeah right. I am going to go down there and just get worked by some six year old kid, can't wait. Ian... Why did the plane crash? Cause the pilot was a loaf of bread!! Hahahahaha that is the best joke in the world. Not going to lie I would love to see some pics from Heber, you guys make it sound amazing, which it is and I would also like to see some pics of Tanners new bike! Why do you guys start playing so much when I left? Was this planned? Hahahah :) I am probably having just as much fun or more out here tho so ha! 

930 SW 9th Ave. Albany OR 97321 is my new address by the way so feel free to put that on the blog and the FB! Trent I might have you log on to my Youtube account just to make sure it doesn't die from inactivity. I am not sure if it does but I would rather be safe then sorry.
   

The work out here is going well. Like you all know it is hard to get people to keep their appointments and commitments but that is pretty much what I have expected. We started last week with 0 baptism dates, by Friday we had 3, and now we are back to 1. Talk about wild. But I love it. My favorite thing is probably just contacting people. It is pretty much just walking up to someone and saying, "Hi!!! Let me make you the happiest person you can be and help you come unto Christ." Hahahaha so wild! I have yet to find someone up here who speaks Portuguese tho so no good... I did find one member who served in Brasil but he wouldn't speak the language with me... I was pretty bugged. 

Okay story for the week. I am horrible. We walked into the less-active house and we were just talking to them about church the next day and I looked up at the T.V. for one second and guess what was on.... PeeWee! Ahhhhhhhh! I tried so hard to not pay attention to it but I just burst out laughing at some parts. We were in the house for like an hour too! So I saw all the way from Marios magic shop to Large Marge... It was possibly the funniest but hardest thing I have ever done. 

I love how much time I have to read the scriptures here. I am almost done with D&C then I will start on the BOM again but I will probably start to study the Bible a little more as well. I feel like I am really going to need to know both so why not study both? I mean, what else is there to do? hahahaha

  

Well that pretty much sums it up tho. We had a zone P-day today and that was fun and I am going on exchanges tonight to a young single adult ward so that will be sick. I bought the siiiiickest wolf shirt ever as well. We have comp wolf shirts... I am turning into an Oregonion... haha they are awesome. Oh.. and did I happen to mention that I had T-BELL?!?!?!?!?! I had it right after I e-mail ya'll last week! It was legit heaven. I honestly almost passed out haha. Well I love you all so much and I am so excited for you guys and the next few weeks that are coming up! I love being out here and I love doing this work. :)

Elder Big Deal

"I'm Off on a Tangent"

No but really I am. Not only am I not serving in BRASIL!!! I am legit serving in a town called Tangent... How wild is that?? I am loving it here already though, it is so awesome to finally be out here doing real work and meeting real people. It blows my mind that I am actually doing the Lord's work still but it is soooo dope. I wish you all could have seen my face when we drove into the city and the first thing I saw was the shinning glorious pillar that is the T-Bell sign, I have yet to partake of the wonderful blessings there but I assure you that you will receive pics of me eating my first cheesy gordita crunch!

But it seems like you all want a lot of detail so here it goes I am sorry if I forget anything. First I love all the connections I have with Pres Young, I can already tell you that he is here for a reason and there is something I need to learn from him. I hope to get close with him and his wife and learn a lot from them. I am serving in the towns of Albany and Tangent and they are not really college towns, they remind me more of Rexburg. They are a little more vintage in some parts but then more modern as you head towards the new developments and stuff. It is so pretty here, there are a million tress everywhere and I just am loving it. It has been pretty hot though which is good cause it is a prep step to Brasil. We have a car most of the time but we bike on Thursdays and Fridays which I like cause you can talk to so many more people that way! I don't really have a fear of talking to people I just hate when they just get all angry at me... I am over it tho. 

My comp is a stud, he is from up by Park City and is a basketball champ. His name is Elder Devin Fristurp and I couldn't ask for a better trainer he has helped me so much and yesh Mom he is the DL. We are on a new training schedule so we have a 2 hour comp study while he trains me and then after I am all trained we go back to normal. It is nice cause we go over a lot of good things and I still get my hour of language study so he gets an extra hour of personal study. Everyone thinks its funny that I am here speaking Portuguese but it is fun cause we have Spanish elders here and I can understand them and they have no idea what I say back.. It is super. 

Our place is wild it is called "The Hobbit Hole" and you all know that I just make Smeagle jokes all the time when there, it is just us there tho. It is in the basement of a member's work and is kinda like Liberty Jail for my comp because he is so tall he hits his head on things. Good times. Members feed us dinner most of the time which is great and I thank them for that but we have yet to have the chance to go shopping cause it wasn't P-Day so I have been living off PB&J the whole last week. I think that covers everything... 

The people here are nice. We do a lot of re-activation work which kinda throws me off a lil cause I was trained to be a BATISMO elder as I like to put it, but I know that there are people here that need the gospel in their lives too and I pray every night one of them just happens to speak Portuguese! Oh funny story about the language. We were contacting this guy and he was pretty wild, probs drunk, but was really asking some good questions about the Church and in the middle of one of his sentences just stops and looks at us and says, "are you the guys that believe in the gift a tongues?" and I just went off in Portuguese and his eyes just got super wide and like freaked out a lil bit then got all stoked. Memories.

Sounds like things at home are just awesome which is always so good to hear. The Danger Dave party sounds so siiiiiick and I know you all loved it and I guess everyone else did too, but let's be real here, who couldn't love the Danger?! Hahaha. Ry I am pumped for soccer tryouts for you and I hope the coaches realize what talent you really do have! Ah I love soccer so much and I am not gonna lie playing basketball right now is no good cause I wanna be playing soccer! That is a bummer bout the Rover tho.. That car was sweet. We drive a Mazda 3 up here which is siiiiick but it is no missile!! I hope you all continue to just have the best summer ever and I loved hearing about Ry being a missionary, I think that is so dope. Member help is so important but I am sure you all know that. Mom I am glad you liked meeting with the other missionary moms and hope that was a blast. I know all of their sons are being awesome missionaries right now and I hope I can join those same ranks! I hope this is enough info for you guys, feel free to get mad at me if it isn't... what do you want to hear more about? Well I love you all and I know this church is true and I will never forget it:)

 

Elder Big Deal