2/22/10

   Well the last week didn’t get much better, but we did get to Jorge and Alicia about their baptism Friday. When we talked to them on Thursday, they were really mad at each other. We gave them a day to cool off & went back Saturday. They were in a lot better mood & told us they had been together 19 years & had never fought as much as they had in the last week. We told them it was Satan trying to not get them married and baptized. They completely understood & and are really excited about their baptism. We still have to figure out exactly how to baptize Jorge, but we will figure it out. We set Angelita’s baptismal date back to the 7^th of March. We still have to teach her a few things & make sure she understands that she has to quit smoking & drinking coffee. She is still really excited about her baptism, and so are we. With Jorge, Alicia & Angelita being baptized soon, we are going to need to work hard to find more solid new baptismal date investigators. The Lord has blessed us with pretty good potentials, but now it is our job to commit them to baptism & get them to come to Church.

 

Elder Strong in size 8X Shirt

3/1/10 

Dear Parents,

A cookbook would be really cool because I don't know how to cook anything but ramon and eggs. I would love another jar of applesauce. I ate the other jar in like one sitting but it is just so good I don't even feel bad about it.

So Dad got a Wii? That is awesome! Do you just have the Wii sports? What game is your favorite? That’s cool you kind of have a job and I'm sure you will get that job pretty soon. That is cool that you guys enjoyed the concert. Sounds like a lot of fun.

The girl I baptized was 9 and I have some pictures I'll have to send you. This week we baptized the 600lb man and his wife after their wedding. It was a really cool experience. I have pictures of that too that I will send.

Well first my schedule is wake up at 6:30 and workout but right now it less working out and more laying there but we are trying to get better. Then we shower and get dressed and eat. Then from 8 to 11 is study time. Then 11 to lunch we contact people and teach. Then lunch for an hour. Then lunch to 9 is contacting and more lessons. 9 to 9:30 is plan for the next day and 9:30 to 10:30 is eat dinner and relax till bedtime. Donna has about 14,500 people. Well for my birthday I was going to ask for just food. And I was going to ask if I could maybe get some of my tax return to buy pants because I ripped a big hole in the but of one of my pants because I was showing my companion how my jeans at home would stretch. I was showing him in some of my church pants and they ripped. It was pretty funny but I'm down a pair of pants. I could get pants here for pretty cheap. Also the shoes I have for walking in are not comfortable at all but I could also get cheap ones here too that would be good for walking in. That would be a great idea to 3 way call on Mother's day. Let me know if it is possible. Well Love you

Elder Strong

 

3/1/10

   This past week has been really cool. We had Zone Conference, we went on splits, we had a baptism, and finished with Stake Conference. On splits I stayed in Donna & Elder Utley came over from Mercedes. Utley was an office Elder for a long time, but Elder Cosper went home for surgery on his elbow, so now he is here. I learned a lot from Elder Utley & Elder Driesel learned a lot from Elder Mathewsek. We both used what we had learned the next couple of days after & we have had tons of success. We have found a ton of new investigators & we are way excited about the new way of doing things. At Zone Conference we talked about getting people to Church & setting BD’s. While we were there we picked up the baptismal Mumu for Jorge. It was huge! We also went to get a shirt for him & he said he was an 8X! So we went to a couple of stores and found a giant 8X shirt for him. The next day was the baptism/wedding. Jorge and Alicia came all excited and looking great in their wedding clothes. After they were married it was baptism time. We still didn’t know for sure how we were going to do it. We got him in the font & right away we figured out how & everything went really smooth. Then when we were done, Jorge was walking to the bathroom & slipped & fell pretty hard on his back. We were able to get him back up & he was hurting, but alright. The next time we went over to check on him & he said he was hurting & vomiting blood, so we gave him a blessing. It was a really cool bunch of experiences & the Spirit was definitely there during the wedding, baptism & blessing. We ended the week with a super good day teaching about 10 lessons & finding 6 new investigators. Probably the best day on the mission so far. Sunday was Stake Conference & it was really good. I got to see a few friends from the Stake. Oh & Pres. Miller was there & he had given us money to buy the shirt for Jorge. So on Sunday we went to give him his change back, but he just gave it back and said to buy yourselves a nice dinner. P. Miller is so cool & I really look up to him. So right now everything is going extremely well for us & I love being a missionary.

Jorge and Alicia's Wedding

 

Jorge and Alicia's Baptism

 

3/8/10

Parents,

Yeah I think I did miss it. Scott sent me a package on Tuesday and he said he is in Tucson right now. He probably hasn't had the chance to e-mail like I did my first week. Scott hasn't told me anything about his surgery but I assume it went well. We go to a college to do our e-mail every week.

It’s good to hear that mom got at least some kind of job. Has McKell applied at many places? That is way dear cool you got a Wii. My favorite game on there is tennis.

Wow it sounds like the Jazz are doing great! I heard they traded Brewer for a draft pick? Who is in the starting line up? So BYU lost in the MWC championship game? I wonder what they will be seeded in the tourney. I played against the 6 10 kid here last week and my team won but he is really good.

So my new companion is Elder Driesel. He is from Boise and has been out a little over a year. We are doing really well here as of late and it is really fun. We still have a car but we decide to bike quite a bit so we don't use too many miles and get too fat. We are having a baptism on this Sunday for this super prepared lady named Angelita. Other than that we don't have too many people close to a baptism yet. We have Zone Conference once a transfer and ours was last week. My district is 8 people. 6 Elders and 2 Sisters. I really like my district. We live in a one bedroom apartment. It is fairly decent but small compared to my last apartment.

 



It is good to hear that you guys are doing well. I'll keep you in my prayers.

Love

Elder Strong

 

 3/10/10

   Elder Driesel was sick today with bad stomach and diarrhea problems. So we really didn’t do anything at all today. We contacted for about 15 minutes then tried to visit Jorge and Alicia but they weren’t there so we came back to the apartment & chilled. I got a lot of sleep and relax time today. At 6:00 we went on splits with South for the rest of the night. Bro. V took Elder Sanchez and I to dinner after a lesson with the Rodriguez family. So today wasn’t a super productive day and tomorrow we have interviews, so it won’t be a very good day either, but hopefully we’ll get some of our goals.

3/13/10

   Angelita is getting evicted! We found out Thursday and it was super sad to hear. We called Bro. Whitcomb first thing and he helped out a lot. He lent her his phone & everything. Elder Driesel and I fasted for her the next day. We went & visited her & she has a great attitude about everything. She is going through a ton right now. Her boyfriend hasn’t talked to her in a week because she won’t do the nasty with him. So she is losing her home, boyfriend, and friends who want to smoke. That is also a super big temptation is the cigarettes to calm her down. But Christ is still #1 in her life right now & she is extremely spiritually strong. Today was Emelio Rodriguez’s birthday party & we had fun over there tonight. We found a new way in teaching by asking tons of questions, but we didn’t get a good chance to use it today.

Elder Strong, Emelio Rodriguez, Elder Driesel

3/