I really can't think of a clever title for this newsletter so deal with it

February 8, 2016

Hi everyone!

This week has been pretty good. For one, everything is fixed! Last P-Day, we took care of a lot of that. Our windshield wipers, our sink, and our toilet (Hallelujah!) all got fixed. Then our landlords finally got home from American Samoa, and we got our heat fixed, which makes life a lot easier, and consistently warmer. I feel bad for our landlords though. After a month in American Samoa (business trip), they come back to a foot and a half of snow and a high of 4 degrees. And of course, the wind is always blowing in Cedar City, so it feels worse. Anyway, that snowstorm we got last week was ridiculous, at least for Cedar City. It shut down all of the elementary schools, the middle schools, both high schools, and even SUU cancelled all its classes! I guess this is the first time in over 60 years that that has happened! And it's been really cold too. Of course, I've seen much worse in Michigan. In 2014 we had around 3 feet built up by the end of January, and a -40 degree windchill. So compared to that, Cedar's weather is not too bad. But still, I've never really liked the cold very much, and it's been cold. Also, I don't have a winter coat with me, which is something that kind of helps. I brought one with me when I came out on my mission a year ago, but Utah's winter was so mild, that I didn't really need it. Also, winter coats are bulky, and having too much stuff makes transfers kinda difficult (granted, I've been out over a year and I've only been transferred once, but whatever). And my jacket that I have goes better with my proselyting clothes anyway. So I sent my coat home several months ago. But it's not that big of a deal. I've survived this long, I'll make it. And who knows, maybe I'll get transferred to St. George next week.

In terms of teaching we had a pretty good week as well. We've gotten back in touch with a lot of people and taught a good deal more than last week. But this week's not without its frustrating moments. Michael and Garret cancelled again. At least they let us know, it wasn't that they just weren't there, but still, it's been a long time since we've been able to teach them, and we need to get back in there. Also, Jessica and her mom missed our appointment. And we still haven't been able to get back in to teach the Isom family for a few weeks now. It's kinda frustrating. This is important stuff. And of course, I don't know their situations and what not, but they're missing out. I don't know. I'm hoping to finally get back teaching all of them this week, but man, it's hard. It's taught me something though. When I see people not progressing in the gospel, I feel stress for them. And if I feel that way, imagine how God feels. He loves us more than we can even imagine, and imagine how he feels when we do things we shouldn't, or just let things come between us and Him. I'm not saying I feel even a fraction of what He feels, but being on a mission, you get a little taste of that.

Anyway, we did have a lot of good things happen though. We have a lot of people progressing, and we had some really good lessons. We finally got back in teaching Riley and Tasheena, and we had a fantastic lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we got them on date for the end of March! The Runnels family is getting ready for their baptism on the 27th. Unfortunately, I'm probably not going to be here for that, seeing as transfers are the 16th, and I've been here for almost 9 months. But still, I'm excited for them.

We had another baptism this weekend! Willow finally got baptized! I was one of the missionaries who first started teaching her, and I started in July. So it's been a privilege to still be here for her

baptism. She was ready in November, but she wanted the bishop who baptized her husband to baptize her. And he lives in Las Vegas and is always super busy, so getting it scheduled where he could come up for her baptism took about three extra months. But hey, it finally worked out, and it was awesome! It was a really special evening and the Spirit was super strong. I was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost, and apparently I did a good job, because a bunch of people told me they were impressed and that it almost made them cry. I guess that's good. I just presented the information, read some scriptures, shared a couple personal thoughts and experiences, and basically just said what came into my head.

Well, that's been my week. I'm looking forward to a great week this week, and it'll most likely be my last week here in Enoch West. I'll get transfer calls on Saturday. President has told me he'll most likely be keeping Enoch West and Parowan combined another transfer. Seeing as I've been here for 9 months straight, and that Elder Baker is now familiar with the area and everyone we're teaching in Enoch West, President has no reason to keep me here longer. I'm 99.99% sure I'll be getting transferred. "Where" is another question, however. I guess I'll find that out on Saturday. In the meantime, I want to make this the best week possible for my last week here. Time to go out with

a bang!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! I miss you all!

-Elder Oswald

Willow's baptism

Fun with Elder Lewis

Elder Oswald vs. the Forces of Southern Utah

February 1, 2016

Hi everyone!

This has been a crazy and interesting week. Unfortunately, it was a really slow week in terms of missionary work. A lot of appointments fell through, and we couldn't seem to get a hold of anyone to schedule anything! It was frustrating, but weeks like that happen every once in a while. This week is looking much better, and if people will actually use their phones so we can set up appointments, that'll make it even better. Something good though, we did find a new investigator on Saturday, and it was in Parowan. That's good, Parowan needs a lot more work going on. Unfortunately though,  this is the second week Enoch West hasn't produced any new investigators. We still have a big non-member teaching pool now, but after the baptisms that will be happening in February, that's going to be shrinking a lot. So yeah, it was a tough week. A lot of good still happened, but not nearly as much as we had hoped. But the work goes on, and this week is looking a lot better. We should be teaching a lot more, and the plan is to have at least one, possibly two baptisms on Saturday.

So, you might be wondering why the title of this email is "Elder Oswald vs. The Forces of Southern Utah". Well, it's basically because everything is falling apart! Our furnace is still out. Luckily we have wood burning stove which is keeping us warm enough. Half our kitchen sink is still hopelessly clogged too, so we only have half a sink. Those are the things that have been messed up for a while. Then this week happened. Firstly, our toilet is broken. Let's just say, that's a problem. It's been broken for a few days now, and it makes things kinda difficult. So we've been having to rely on the church restrooms, and if we have to go late at night or early in the morning, outside in the trees behind the woodpile is the remaining option. That option however, as dumb as it already is, has been further complicated by the turn in the weather. Basically it went from about 45 degrees all day, to around 20, and it's just been snowstorming  like crazy the last two days. It started on Saturday, and it was super sketchy driving home from Parowan on the freeway that night. Sunday morning, we almost couldn't get out because of all the snow that had fallen (and frozen mud underneath it), and we drive a Jeep with 4-wheel drive, so that's saying something. And it just snowed all day Sunday. Sunday night, it was snowing so hard that we could barely see 15 feet ahead of us. And right now, there's around a foot of new snow, and it's still snowing hard, and is supposed to continue pretty much all day. So in addition to the weather attacking us and the toilet rebelling, our windshield wipers are falling apart (just in time for all the snow) and our clothes washer seems to be breaking, and there were a couple days where our iPads barely worked because a couple bugs in the Church software. All of that on top of a week that just didn't go so well. It's almost funny how everything is conveniently flipping out on us. Actually it is funny. If there weren't any humor in the situation, the week would just be a giant piece of frustrating. But instead, it's an entertaining piece of frustrating. And hey, it's experience, at the very least.

Well that just about sums up the week. We did go exploring a bit in the hills to a landmark called Parowan Gap and saw some Native American rock engravings and dome dinosaur footprints. That was pretty cool. I'll send some pictures of that.

Well that's about it for now. Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Petroglyphs

Elder Baker and the petroglyphs

Near Parowan Gap there are also some dinosaur tracks. Naturally, I went to see them, which is probably good, because the day I just drive by openly displayed dinosaur fossils will probably be the day the world explodes. And I enjoyed it greatly. Enough said.

"I like that boulder. That's a nice boulder."

Another cool rock

The dinodude in his natural habitat

Livin' on a Prayer

January 25, 2016

Hi everyone!

Guess what! I hit my year mark this past week! I'm halfway there! And I guess Bon Jovi would say "livin' on a prayer". Seriously though, were it not for prayer and divine intervention, I would not have made it this far. Being on a mission involves stress, exhaustion, talking to people I don't know, and about a hundred other things I don't particularly like. But I'm loving it. Some days and weeks are harder than others, but overall, being on a mission and serving the Lord full-time is just fantastic. That to me is a testimony of the power of prayer, and a testimony of the reality of God. He's helped me so much, and I'm so grateful for this time I have to be a full-time missionary. This last year has gone so fast! I can't believe it! I'm kinda scared at how fast it's been going.

We had some miracles this week! We had a baptism of an 11 year old named Bryan, which was pretty great. Also, we have been teaching a family who we thought were going to have to go through a lengthy interview process due to some unique circumstances. So we had President Cornelius (President Center's councilor) do the baptismal interview and afterward he called President Center and talked to him about it. I guess there were some things that came up about some circumstances with the family's background, but it was distant enough that President cleared them for baptism! So in addition to Bryan, this past Saturday we had three more, making for a total of 4! That's super exciting, and I'm so happy for that family. That's another family that I was actually the missionary who started teaching them. And I got to see all three of them get baptized! That's one of the perks of being in an area for almost 9 months. I love it when simple miracles like that happen. We were only planning on 1 baptism, but we got 4. And apparently there've been other miracles throughout the Cedar Zone as well. Lots of good things are happening over here, that's for sure!

We did exchanges with the Zone Leaders on Thursday night which lasted until Friday night. That was really fun. I was with Elder Duncan again, but this time I was in his area, SUU. I'd never done anything in a YSA (young single adult) area before. It's different. For one, the lessons seem to be about half as long, but twice as off topic as teaching in a regular, non-YSA area. Anyway, we had a good day. We woke up early that morning and played soccer (the only truly legitimate reason in my book for waking up earlier than we already have to) with some other Elders in Cedar City. We taught several lessons throughout the day. We had some really great pizza for lunch at a restaurant that I didn't know existed, that feeds missionaries for free, and that I swear is bigger on the inside. And we discovered a Maori translation of the Book of Mormon. That was hilarious. They have some of the most entertaining words in there, for instance, the Maori word for destruction: Whakangaromanga. Is that just awesome or what? And there were so many variations on that. I don't think half of them even had anything to do with destruction, but apparently they all share the same Maori root word or something. It was just really fun, because we already know and love the Book of Mormon, and to look at it and instead of it saying "destruction" and stuff like that, we're reading words like "Whakangaromanga" and "Whakamatautau". Anyway, call us weird, but we had a lot of fun looking at all the epic-ness of the Maori language. So yeah, we had a lot of fun, and got a lot of stuff done. It was a good exchange.

Well that's about it for now. I hope everyone has a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Picture 1- Bryan's baptism. From left to right: Sister Davila, me, Lance (Bryan's older brother who was able to baptize him), Bryan, Elder Bright, Elder Davila

 Picture 2- From left to right: Elder Baker, Aurora, Carrie, Jason, Me, Elder Bright

 Picture 3- From left to right: Elder Baker, Brother Carter, Aurora, Carrie, Jason, Brother Johnson, Brother Hunt, Myself, Elder Bright

 Picture 4- I got this from Elder Phelps. He left this on someone's door. That's pretty awesome!

Elder Oswald vs. the Mediocre Furnace, Round 2

January 18, 2016

Hi everybody!

We had a pretty good week this past week, just not super eventful. Things are settling down with our combined areas, and we're making it work. We taught a lot, and we have a lot of exciting things coming up, including another baptism this week! And then February is looking like a pretty big month for baptisms too! And we finally got a hold of some of the people who've been really hard to catch recently, so that means we'll actually be able to get back teaching them!

Actually, I guess there was something rather eventful this week. Our furnace went out again! Our landlords are out if town again, and I guess the furnace just shuts off after a few days if someone doesn't use the thermostat every once in a while. Of course, thermostat is not in our basement apartment and therefore we can't access it. So it started to get really cold again. One day, the indoor temperature was less than 59 degrees Fahrenheit, and that was in the afternoon, so night/early morning was probably even colder. But this time, we weren't going down like that. Thankfully, I got some nice warm blankets for Christmas, so that's helping me stay nice and warm at night, and our landlord taught me how to work the wood/coal burning stove, so we've had that going for the last couple days. I've gotten really good a getting it really hot, and it's been doing a great job of heating at least half of our apartment. The other half is still really cold, but that's what the blankets are for.

So yeah, that's about the most exciting thing that happened this week. We also had a really good zone meeting on Friday. And the combined Parowan/Enoch West thing is really starting to work. And since we've gotten back in touch with a lot of people we were working with, and since I've done better planning than I have the last couple weeks, I've started to get a lot of my enthusiasm back (the craziness of this last transfer kind of took a toll on me a little bit). Seeing Elder Ballard a couple Saturday's ago also definitely helped.

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry it wasn't a whole lot. I should have more to write next week.

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

A Surprisingly Good Week

January 11, 2016

Hi everybody!

This week has been crazy! And it seriously felt like one of the longest weeks ever. But it hasn't been going too bad given the circumstances. Enoch West is officially combined with Parowan for this whole transfer cycle (6 weeks). It's been a lot of back and forth and hectic stuff trying to manage both areas, but we're making it work. We taught a surprising amount of lessons this week, despite the chaos, and we've gotten it figured out how we'll balance our time between the areas. Wednesday and Saturday we'll be in Parowan. The rest of the week we'll be in Enoch West. Sundays will sort of alternate between areas, and as needed depending on speaking assignments and confirmations. So that's the plan. Now we need to make it work. We did surprisingly alright this week. Hopefully this week will also be good. We still need to reschedule with a bunch of people after the fiasco of the last couple weeks, so hopefully we can do that as well.

We had a baptism on Saturday! Adam got baptized! Yet another one who I was involved in finding and I got to be there for his baptism (I actually got to perform his baptism). Being in an area for over 7 months definitely has it's perks. His confirmation was Sunday, but guess what! He showed up late for his own confirmation! I guess they were just running late or something, and when the member of the bishopric got up and announced that there had been a baptism the day before and asked if he'd stand, he wasn't there! Thankfully he was still able to make it, and his confirmation ended up being a little later in the program. But he definitely made us all sweat a little bit!

On Saturday afternoon, we had the awesome opportunity to go down to St. George for a special missionary meeting with Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of The Twelve Apostles! It was awesome! We didn't get three hours with him like we did with Elder Bednar, but it was still really cool. He reminded us about how we got our mission assignments, that we were called by prophesy to the Utah St. George Mission. It's no accident that we're serving here. He talked about obedience to the commandments and the Mission Handbook. And he talked a lot about how we can be better teachers, and the importance of becoming better teachers. He said he wants us to become missionaries like Paul, and he talked about the trust that the Lord has in us. He gave us a little formula to help us: Be worthy, prepared, and excited. It was such a great meeting! And Elder Ballard is HILARIOUS!!! I had no idea how funny he can be! And to make it even better, his humor was 100% true doctrine. It's just how he said it was super "straight up" and super funny. He's awesome. It was such a privilege to be in a meeting with an Apostle of the Lord. I was in the front row again too,

so when he was speaking at the pulpit, he was literally right in front of me.

Well, that's about all for now. Have a fantastic week!

-Elder Oswald

Pictures 1 and 2: Adam's Baptism

Picture 3: Coming back from St. George after the meeting with Elder Ballard was really pretty. In this picture, in addition to showing some of the St. George landscape, it looks kind of like the mountain

in the background is floating in the clouds like Mount Olympus.

New Year, New Transfer

January 4, 2016

Hi everybody! Happy New Year!

This has been a pretty good week in terms of teaching and finding. We found a family of 5 that we've started teaching, and we taught 20 lessons. We also have a ton of people on date. We're looking at possibly 6 baptisms in January, and another 6 in February. Depending on people's situations that could change of course, but that's the plan at least. And who knows, we might even get more. It's possible. So yeah, it's been a pretty good week in that regard.

Well, I got my transfer call. I get to stay in Enoch West as District Leader again. So this will be my 6th transfer in Enoch West. It'll be 9 months by the end of it, and my first year of my mission will have been spent in just two areas. That's awesome, I love this area and I look forward to being here for everything we have planned, but the situation is a bunch of garbage. My companion is getting sent home, and that's why I'm staying. I don't know why but I guess something happened while we were on exchange with Parowan, and another Elder is also going home. Also, Parowan is being combined with Enoch West, so now I have two areas to deal with, on top of the fact that Enoch West is keeping us super busy, the fact that I'm still district leader, and the fact that this situation with Elders getting sent home is depressing enough as it is. I'm just crazy overwhelmed. And that is the biggest understatement ever. But I guess the Lord and President Center trust me a lot to deal with all that and make it work. And I've felt that. I just kinda wish they didn't trust me that much. But if the Lord trusts me, then I know I can do it. To quote the prophet Nephi, "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

Well enough of that. Here's something more positive.

I'd like to share an experience with one of my New Year's Resolutions. So basically I've known that I need to write in my journal more. A few months ago, I asked the question (as encouraged by the guy in General Conference) "What lack I get". The thought came to me "you should be writing in your journal more". I think I wrote in my journal twice since then, and that was about 3 or 4 months ago. So my resolution this year is to write in my journal at least once a week, though preferably more. And I started that on New Year's Day. And it's been fascinating. I feel a much greater abundance of the Spirit than I did before. Writing in my journal isn't something crazy that is directly tied to feeling the Holy Ghost and being happy, but I think the change came because I'm finally doing what the Lord told me to do. It's interesting, because I never thought I'd have an experience like that. But I did. It was kind of funny. On Saturday, I was reading my scriptures and I was just thinking "why do I feel so good?" And although nothing especially stood out to me in my scripture reading, I was finding myself more engrossed in it, and appreciating it more, and I just felt really good. Then I realized it was because I'd finally stopped dragging my feet and I'd finally started doing what I should have been doing three months ago. So yeah, the Lord will bless us when we do what he asks of us. Even little things like this. The key is to just do it, instead of denying yourself those blessings like I did, until I finally just did it. It works. That's all I can say. And I'm so glad it does because that little spiritual boost was essential in getting through that crazy, depressing, stressful, fiasco of a weekend.

Well, have a great week everybody! It's going to be a great year!

-Elder Oswald

A Sort of Ridiculous but Nevertheless Awesome Week

December 29, 2015

Hi everybody!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

This past week was really good! We did back-to-back exchanges for Tuesday and Wednesday, which was really fun, and also totally crazy. We exchanged with the Zone Leaders and then with Enterprise. And nothing ridiculously problematic happened on exchange with Enterprise. Usually something always goes wrong that results in us getting home super late. Not this time! It all went super well. And I really enjoyed being with Elder Duncan when we exchanged with the ZLs. He's really fun and we taught some really good lessons.

I was so tired this week. Being a missionary is exhausting anyway, and being super busy with exchanges and stuff didn't really help. I actually fell asleep in a lesson. And it was while I was talking! We were teaching about the Sabbath Day, and then mid sentence I just sort of dozed off. But get this, I was still talking! I guess sleep teaching is a thing. I dozed off but then several seconds later I was vaguely aware that my mouth was still moving and that there were words coming out. Then I woke up, kinda nervous that I had said something crazy or nonsensical. Luckily, I didn't, and Elder White (my companion for the day) didn't even realize I had dozed off. So I guess I know that lesson material well enough that I can autopilot if I ever doze off again. Haha, I'd rather not ever do that again though.

As all of you probably (hopefully, haha) know, Christmas was on Friday! That was so fun! I got to call home, which is pretty much the greatest thing ever. But now I have to wait for Mothers Day before I can call again. Talk about Post-Christmas Blues.

December 26th was both awesome, and also really stupid. I'll start with the stupid. I got sick AGAIN. I'm feeling mostly better now, so I guess it was just sort of a 2 day thing, but it did not feel good. I felt a little annoyed because I just got over being sick a couple weeks ago, but then I realized what day it was: December 26th, my half birthday. I have gotten a cold or something every single Dec 26 for the past several years. I think there was only two or so years within the last 7 or so years that I wasn't at least mildly sick with something on my half birthday. I'm not superstitious or anything, but this always seems to happen. Even on my mission. Not cool.

Now for the awesome part of December 26: Bernie and Sheri got baptized! That was really cool. I got to baptize them too! The tricky part (because a baptism can never just go as planned) was that our ward mission leader ended up being out of town, as well as the bishop, so word didn't spread around the ward like it was supposed to and only a few people showed up! But it still turned out good, and they were confirmed on Sunday.

So that's pretty much been my week. Fun stuff, except for the getting sick part. Today we get to go to the St. George Temple for a special mission temple trip! Going to the temple is always fun, but this is

going to be really awesome being with all the other missionaries!

So yeah, that's about it for today. I hope everyone has a great week and a great New Year! Good luck on those resolutions! May The Spirit be with you all!

-Elder Oswald

District Meeting. Most of our senior couples were missing due to it being Christmas Eve.

Bernie and Sheri's baptism.

Special missionary trip to the St. George temple.

Elder Christensen and Elder Oswald

Elders Christensen, Oswald, Howard, and Holt

It was so much fun seeing Elder Howard again.

Cold on Multiple Levels

December 21, 2015

Hi everyone!

This week has been good. Also crazy, stressful, and a little bit hilarious. We didn't hit Standards of Excellence this week because we just short a couple lessons, but it was still a good week, and we found three new investigators! Also, Bernie and Sherrie have completely quit smoking, and are still on track for baptism this Saturday!

I started out the week with a cold. I guess that's what I get for playing in the snow when a virus is going around all the missionaries in Cedar City. So I had that making me miserable for a few days. One of the hard things about being a missionary is that you aren't allowed to get a "man cold". We can't just lay around and be pansies when we get sick. For the most part, we just have to keep working. If it is the flu, a stomach bug, or something more serious, then we can get permission from Sister Center to take a day off to rest. But for a cold or something else minor, we've just got to keep going, resting when we can, but continuing to work like normal. So that was hard, but by Friday I was feeling mostly better.

Now for another thing that was cold, in a more literal sense. So on Friday I was on exchange with the Parowan Elders. I was in Parowan with Elder Mullen. Parowan just got its own missionaries a few weeks ago, so things are just barely getting started there. So it was a little bit of a slow day. We tried contacting some people who weren't home, and I had to push the car out of the snow a couple times because some people in Parowan live in the middle of nowhere, and Parowan's car doesn't have 4-wheel drive. So we decided to take a little break and go up the canyon, clear chill for a few minutes and then get back to work. So we drove up a little past the ski resort, saw some really nice scenery along the way, and then we past this really beautiful outlook that we wanted to get some pictures of. The snow on the side of the road looked like it had been packed down for the purpose of parking, since after all, it would be a great place to park and take pictures. Little did we know, however, that it had been packed down for snowmobiles, not cars, and only the top couple inches were solid. We went to "park" and ended up sinking our front tires about 8 inches into the snow. And as I mentioned before, this car did not have 4-wheel drive. So we just sat there, stuck. Some people stopped to try

and help us, but they couldn't get us out. Then someone called the Marshall at the resort, and he was supposed to come up and help. Some cops whose job was to patrol that road in the mountains stopped by to make sure we were ok, and they said they'd keep a look out for the Marshall, and if he didn't come they'd help us. Then some other people, with a big 4-wheel drive vehicle tried to help us out, and they got stuck too! At that point I knew that if their vehicle couldn't make it out, our dinky little car was hopeless. The Marshall never did make it, but thankfully those cops came back with a police grade tow rope and got us and the other people unstuck. All in all, we were stuck for about two hours! So that short trip to the mountains caused an unexpected change in plans! While we were waiting, I did get some pictures, which were harder to get than I previously thought because the scenic lookout was actually a lot farther from the road than I thought, and the snow was waist deep. But I got there, and it was beautiful. Anyway, by that time, we were freezing and very glad to be getting back to Parowan with the heater on full blast.

So yeah, fun stuff! Saturday was the stressful day. I won't go into details, but basically I was involved in helping a couple sets of missionaries, one of which is in my district, to work together better. There were some pretty cold feelings, the meeting almost ended in disaster. Thankfully, I was able to help calm everybody down, we had a prayer, and then I called Elder Phelps, the other companionship's

district leader, to help calm things down. It really helped to have him there, because he was kind of an unbiased third party, and he was also going to have to be involved anyway, considering the person we

were discussing, is technically in his district, and would need a baptismal interview from him. So this "coordination meeting" was saved. Holy cow I was so stressed after that. Thankfully though, it seems to all be working better now, and I think the people involved have decided that they don't hate each other.

Well, that's what happened this week. Crazy stuff. Anyway, guess what! Today is my 11 month mark! I'm almost halfway through! That's ridiculous. I still catch myself thinking that I'm new, but I'm really

not new at all anymore.

Christmas is almost here! I love celebrating our Savior's birth and life, and I'm so grateful for everything he did for us and made possible. I'm also super excited to Skype home! I haven't been able to see/talk to my family since Mothers Day. I'm super excited!

Well, have a great week! Merry Christmas!

-Elder Oswald

Pictures 1, 2, 3, and 4 are from exchanges before we got stuck in the snow.

 Pictures 5, 6, and 7 are from our adventure getting stuck.

Our would-be rescuers who also got stuck.

The officers who got us out of the snow.

 Pictures 8 and 9 are the view from near where we were stuck.

White Out

December 14, 2015

Hi everybody!

I usually don't write two newsletters in one P-Day, but I have some extra time, and the events of this P-Day definitely warrant another newsletter.

Last night it snowed about 4-6 inches, and it just kept coming down all day! It's been crazy! And the roads are terrible! The plows can't do much because it just keeps snowing. The snow finally stopped around 4:00, and I couldn't see any mountains all day because everything, the ground, the air, the clouds, was white. It's supposed to start up again this evening around 6 or 7 and then go all night again. We might just get snowed in!

So this morning, we were on our way to Walmart and on Main Street, we passed a college student who had gotten herself stuck in a snowbank. We pulled off into a parking lot and ran back to help. Another guy and three college kids came to help as well. After a few minutes we were able to free the vehicle and get her back on the road. It was cool to be a part of that. None of us knew each other. After we finished, two of the college kids went back to whatever they were doing, the other one went off to wherever she was going. And the other guy who was a little older got back in his vehicle and went his way. It's so cool to see random people coming together to help people. It makes me think

that there is hope for the human race after all.

After we got back from Walmart, we stopped by the Zone Leaders's apartment. We almost got stuck ourselves. The ZLs weren't home, but right before we were about to leave, some guy got his car stuck in another bank. So we went to rescue him too. That's when the ZLs conveniently showed up and also joined in, along with a couple college guys. After a while of pushing and digging, we freed him too. So we got two awesome opportunities to serve people today. It was really fun.

At 12, we had a zone activity. First we had a snow war in a church parking lot. It was super fun, and super cold! It didn't help that the wind was blowing like crazy, and it was still snowing super hard! We were so cold and soaked by the end of that. Elder Phelps (the awesome missionary who is from Michigan) and I discovered garbage bags in the kitchen and wore those as "armor" and used metal serving trays as shields. It was goofy, but so fun! Unfortunately, I lost my clip-on name tag. So basically I can't zip up my jacket until I get another one, because our name tags have to always be showing, and my regular name tag that I wear on my shirt pocket doesn't have a clip so it can't attach to my jacket.

After we came inside, myself and several other Elders changed out of our snow clothes and into our sports clothes and played an epic match of indoor soccer for about an hour and a half. We started out half court, but then switched to full court. That was so fun, and it was good exercise. And I'm still pretty good at soccer, so that was good to find out as well.

So that's pretty much been the day. Oh, except for the stupid part at the end. After sports were over, I went to change back into my proselyting clothes, and I slipped off the stairs and rolled my ankle,

which now hurts a lot. I was just thinking "Seriously?! I have an epic snow war, and then play soccer for an hour and a half, and it's the stairs that do me in. Of course." It's always the stupid things that

due the damage it seems like. It would have been so much cooler to say that I rolled it scoring an awesome goal (which I had a few) or something like that. Instead when people have asked why I have a bit of a limp, I get to explain how the stairs were too big of an opponent for me. It's kinda lame (and it really does hurt), but I do still get a kick out of the situation.

Well, I've got to go now. Hopefully you enjoyed this extra newsletter. I miss you all! Have a great week!

1&2) Myself and Elder Phelps being goobers with our "armor". I've mentioned Elder Phelps a few times in my emails. He's one of the greatest Elders I've ever had the privilege of meeting and he's one of the nicest people I've met. We are both from Michigan, but we were also both born in Arizona! So we have a pretty cool fellow statesman bond.

3) It got really cold, and seeing as I can't wear a sweater until I

get a new clip-on name tag, I decided to adapt the sweater into a

makeshift scarf. And yes I did wear that in public. Kinda tacky,

totally something I'd do, but hey, it was warm. :)

Elder Oswald Almost Ruins a Perfectly Good Baptism

December 14, 2015

Hello everybody!

This week has been awesome! The last couple weeks, a lot of appointments had been cancelling, and we kind of hit a dry spot in the area's progress. That seems to be over now, at least for a while this

past week. We taught 29 lessons, found 3 new investigators, and we got Bernie and Sherrie on date for the 26th! They've committed to live the Word of Wisdom, and before we even talked about it, they had decided that they were done smoking! Some of our new investigators are a young couple, Riley and Tasheena, who are really awesome! They just get it, and unlike most of the world nowadays, they actually get excited to talk about Jesus Christ.

Some of the new investigators we found this week are two kids, Michael (10) and Garrett (12). Their mom is a less active, and the kids don't know very much at all about the Church. A lady in one of our wards was talking to the mom (Lynnette) a couple weeks ago, and Lynnette had told her that she wouldn't mind the missionaries coming by. So we tried contacting them a couple times without any success. Then on Wednesday, we were out with our ward mission leader, Brother Sessions, and we had some extra time and just decided to try contacting them again. And they were home! Lynnette and Michael seemed really excited to have us over, which is rare. Usually people are awkward at best

when we knock on their door, if they don't straight up try to hide. I have had someone attempt to hide in their garage when we went to talk to them; it was a pathetic attempt considering I TOTALLY saw him, but yeah, that happens sometimes. Anyway, so we were welcomed in and we shared a short message about Jesus Christ. While we were talking, Lynnette told us that a couple days ago, she had talked to Michael a little bit about Jesus, and Michael was considerably enthused by that, but that some of his friends had made fun of him for believing in Him. That morning, she said, she felt bad and said a prayer that they'd receive some spiritual aid. That evening, we showed up at their door.

I had no idea I was being led by the Holy Ghost when I suggested we stop by again. But we totally were. It's a small thing, but it's one of those little miracles that remind me that the Lord really is in

charge of this work, and that he makes sure his messengers go where they need to.

Also, Dan and Elizabeth got baptized! As always with baptisms, something usually happens to make us sweat. This time, it was my fault. I guess I didn't get the plug in super secure, so after I filled the font, it was slowly draining. When it was actually time for the baptisms, the water level in the font was about six inches lower than it was when I finished filling it. Elizabeth went first, and Bishop McCormick had to repeat the ordinance three times because the water was so shallow and Elizabeth's leg kept coming up. When it was Dan's turn, Bishop wasn't taking any nonsense, and he put Dan almost all the way down to the floor of the font (I was worried he was going to hit his head). So it all worked out. Next time though, I am definitely going to double check the plug BEFORE a bunch of the water drains out!

In other news, my 11 Month Mark is next week! I know I say this all the time, and you're probably getting tired of hearing it, but I cannot believe how fast time has gone, and continues to go! It's ridiculous. Also, we got some more snow this week! It actually warmed up to the 50s again during the last couple weeks, but that's all gone now, and it doesn't look like it's coming back for a few months yet. I still don't like the cold, but the snow makes it worth it. And we had a snow storm last night and it's supposed to snow all day today!

Well, that's about it for this week. If you haven't yet checked out the awesome Christmas stuff on Mormon.org, I'd really encourage you to check it out!

Have a great week everybody!

-Elder Oswald

1) President Lew...I mean, Elder Lewis, another District Leader in Cedar City.

2) Dan and Elizabeth's Baptism! From Left to Right: Elder Christensen,

Bishop McCormick, Elizabeth, Dan, Elder Oswald (that's me!), and Elder

Bright (since he was only transferred to an adjacent area, he came to

visit for the baptism)

District Leader Road Trip and Dinner with a General Authority

December 7, 2015

Hi everyone!

This week's been pretty good. We taught a lot more than last week now that everything's settled down from Thanksgiving and what not. It definitely wasn't a perfect week, but it was good. And some of our lessons were REALLY good! One of our families have been having a really hard time lately, and the dad especially has been struggling with depression, and we finally got back in to teach them and the Spirit was so strong! I could tell we needed to be there at that time sharing the message we did. It was a cool experience for sure. We found a new investigator who seems pretty golden. We're meeting again with them later today actually. So yeah, it was a pretty good week. I'm really excited about this week. We're looking at the potential to get a few new investigators, and it looks like we'll be teaching quite a lot this week. Also Dan and Elizabeth are getting baptized this Saturday! That's super exciting!

On Friday, I had a District Leader Training Meeting. Usually President does one for each zone, but this time he decided to do only two, one for all of the St. George Zones, and one for the Cedar and Richfield Zones. The DL Training for Cedar/Richfield was in Beaver, which is about an hour north of Enoch/Cedar City. Seeing as it was far away, the Cedar District Leaders and the Zone Leaders did a carpool up there. So Elder Lewis, Elder Phelps, and I met at Elder Lewis's apartment, dropped off our companions, and then picked up the ZLs and headed to Beaver. That road trip was hilarious! I can't even remember what it was we talked about, but it was funny. Put five goofy Elders in a car and funny is bound to happen. It's just a fixed law of the universe I think. Anyway, the meeting itself was really good, and then afterward we had some pumpkin pie that President Center made, which was super good. The drive back started similar to the drive up, really entertaining, but then everyone (except Elder Phelps who was driving) just sort of crashed and passed out. Elder Lewis didn't fall asleep, but even he got pretty quiet and relaxed, at least compared to the drive up. Then we got back, picked up our companions and went about the rest of our evenings. It was really fun to have that time with some of them. And Elder Phelps and Elder Lewis are such cool people. It'll be really sad when they go home in a couple months.

We had Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday, and it was really cool because we had a General Authority there! It wasn't one of the Apostles, but it was a Seventy and he had a lot of good things to say. After the Priesthood Leadership Session on Saturday afternoon, we had been invited to a special dinner with the Stake Presidency and the Seventy. That was super fun! It was the Stake Presidency, Elder Wilson (the Seventy), us, our senior missionary couple, and a couple other people in Stake leadership positions. We got to talk to Elder Wilson a fair amount that evening, and then Sunday morning too, before and after the general session of Stake Conference. He's super nice!  He also had a lot of good things to say in conference. One of the things he talked about was asking "Will you..." questions. Asking questions like that gives people a chance to use their agency, and gets things done a lot quicker than just throwing out a "we invite you..." statement. There was also a special fireside for ward missionaries, investigators, and less actives that Elder Wilson did. Unfortunately only one of our investigators was able to make it for that. But I think she needed it, and then she got to talk to Elder Wilson for several minutes after conference as well. It was really cool to have a general authority there, and even more cool to hang around him as much as we got to.

Well, that's about it for this week. I guess I just want to remind everyone about the Church's Christmas initiative. It's all on Mormon.org and it's super cool! And if a Christmas message isn't

enough for you, the narrator on one of the videos sounds just like Liam Neeson (just throwing it out there as extra incentive to check it out). It really is an awesome thing, and it just makes me love this

Christmas season all the more.

Have a great week everybody!

-Elder Oswald

Even More Picture: Extra Gravy

Picture 1: Elder Christensen and I being goofy and guarding the

Christmas Tree. I honestly have no idea why this picture happened.

Picture 2: A funny meme about missionaries that we all got from Elder Harvey.

More Pictures: Pranks and Thanks

Picture 1: When Elder Bright was packing and going through stuff we found a window chalk marker thing! We decide that our companionship should go out with a bang, so we located the Cedar Spanish jeep, and we wrote on their window. That was hilarious! They're reaction was great. They were shocked, but chill and fun about it. But then they decided not to clean it off and picked up some other Elders to take them to the transfer site, and they drove across town like that! Luckily we got it cleaned off before Elder Price, the Mission Vehicle Coordinator saw it. It was fun, and we do still have a lot more of the window chalk left, so there might be some more pranks coming down the road... :)

 Picture 2: How I feel after consecutive Thanksgivings

 Picture 3: Some of Brother Sessions's friends from Blanding, Cortlan Lyman and Heather Palmer Lyman, who were at Thanksgiving. Apparently these people know a lot of my relatives (most of the Flavels, and also Jessie Oswald, and also my Dad's friend Taylor Lyman). And apparently my cousin Sky Flavel Palmer's husband, Ryan Palmer, is Heather's cousin. So there's that connection too. It was fun really fun talking to them. It's another one of those "small world" situations.

Pictures

At the transfer site.

Farewell to Elder Howard and Elder Bright. Also it was really windy that day.

New Companion and the Christmas Tree we found in the

closet, also I feel kinda awkwardly tall in this picture.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

November 30, 2015

Hi everyone!

This week has been weird. For one, it was really hard to stay busy. We still haven't been able to get a hold of some of the people who cancelled last week. Several more appointments cancelled due to

illness (there seems to be some stuff going around). And Thanksgiving made it REALLY hard to find anyone at home. Even a lot of the members weren't home. So it's been a slow week. But we did have some really good lessons. One highlight was our lesson with Dan and Elizabeth. It was "CPR", which stands for Church, Pray, Read. It was such a good lesson! We had a lot of great scriptures too about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, prayer, and scripture study, as well as how the Holy Ghost speaks to us. It's nice to have a lot of scripture references because it really gives weight and validity to what we teach, and it usually says it way better than I could say it. I especially enjoyed teaching about the importance of prayer. Here's the scripture references we used in the lesson about prayer: Alma 34-17-28, D&C 10:5, James 1:5, Moroni 10:3-5, D&C 8:2-3. A couple of these are some of my favorite

scriptures.

Sunday evening was pretty good. We actually had appointments not cancel! And they went really well, too. We also got a lot of stuff set up for next week. Between lots of appointments, zone meeting, district leader training meeting, and ward Christmas parties, our schedule is going to be pretty packed! I'm really excited for this week!

So we did have transfers this week. On Tuesday, Elder Bright went to Canyonview, and I got Elder Christensen. I miss having Elder Bright as a companion, but luckily he's just down the road (we actually saw him the very next day), and Elder Christensen is pretty awesome too! We're getting along really well and he's really fun. We also found a small Christmas tree and a box of Christmas decorations, so our apartment is looking more festive than usual.

Thanksgiving was fun, and kinda painful. Thankfully, we only had two dinners on Thursday. Some missionaries have been known to get stuck with 3-5 dinners. I can't imagine that. I was ready to be done after the first one. I thought I was going to die after the second one. But it was fun. Our first dinner was with the Sessions family. It was our ward mission leader and his family, and his dad, and a couple of his brothers and some of his extended family. Brother Sessions and his Dad are so awesome. They're fun to hang out with and they're super missionary minded. It was fun to spend part of Thanksgiving with them. It was also fun because some of Brother Sessions's friends came over

from Blanding, and they know a bunch of my relatives! So we got to talk about Blanding and people we know. We got a picture that they posted on Facebook, so some of you who are my relatives, especially if you're a Flavel, may have seen that.

So, there was another snow storm this week, and it has been FREEZING! It's okay when the sun is out, but nights have been getting down the single digits. And the wind is always blowing in Cedar City. And here's the best part. Our landlords went out of town for the week, and I guess they forgot we lived there in their basement because they turned their heat off (or at the very least, they turned it WAY down)! It's still definitely warmer than outside, but it's still been super cold in our apartment, and night time is almost unbearable. Our mission issued blankets are really thin, but I've been using two of them, which usually works okay. But I've just been freezing! I keep having to sleep curled up in a ball, and even then I'm still uncomfortable. Our landlords should be getting back soon, if they're

not already back, so hopefully the heat will be back on soon. I barely got sleep last night because it was so cold.

All the Christmas lights in town are up! A lot of people have their houses decorated, and the town town area of Cedar City is all decorated and lit up. It reminds me a lot of downtown Marshall's

Christmas lights, but Cedar City is something like 4X the size of Marshall.

The Church released its new Christmas initiative! Honestly, I much prefer the He Is The Gift video over this new one, but the new one is okay I guess. What matters most is the message. You can find it, and other cool things at mormon.org/christmas. You can also still watch last year's video, He Is The Gift, on YouTube and lds.org. Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are "officially" in the Christmas Season. I want all of you to remember what the season is really all about. It's a great time for us to renew our appreciation and love for the Savior, and outwardly celebrate His birth and life.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

-John 3:16

That's what Christmas is about, and it truly is something to cause joy. So discover that gift for yourself, and then share that joy and message with others.

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

PS- On Tuesday, a couple hours before transfers, Elder Bright and I pranked the the Spanish Elders (Elder Harvey and Elder Castillo) and it was pretty funny! I'll send pictures.

Elder Oswald Gets Transferred to...

November 23, 2015

Hi everyone!

Guess what! I passed my 10 month mark! Where is the time going?!

This has been a really hard week. We had a ridiculous amount of lessons scheduled, and literally half of them cancelled. One of our part member families might be dropping us. A lot of our most solid

investigators have been super flaky this past week. Some people who we had appointments with, were clearly home. They just didn't answer the door. Things like that really bother me. And then there were a bunch of other things that weren't bad, they were just exhausting and stressful. We did exchanges with Enterprise, I had to plan District Meeting, Elder Bright and I had to speak in church, and then about a hundred more little things. And then of course, there were transfer calls on top of all that. Basically this past week was ridiculously crazy, and I am SO glad it's over! Hopefully this week will be better.

Speaking of transfer calls, now to finish the sentence that is the title of this email: (drumroll)...Enoch West! Yep, I'm not actually getting transferred! I totally thought I was! But it looks like I'm getting another 6 weeks here in Enoch West. And I'm still District Leader. However, Elder Bright is getting transferred. To Canyonview, though. Canyonview is the area right next to Enoch West, the missionaries we hang out with every P-Day. So, yeah. He's not really leaving. He's just crossing the street. However, Elder Howard is leaving. Elder Bright is replacing him in Canyonview. He'll be going to St. George East to be a district leader there. So that'll be sad. He's one of my best friends in the Mission. But Elder Vidinha is staying in Cedar North, so I'll still see him, and Elder Prior (MTC

buddy) is staying as a zone leader still. Also, Elder Phelps is coming to Cedar City! He's been one of our APs (Assistants to the President) for about 7 1/2 months. He's one of the most solid missionaries I've ever met, and he's really cool. I had him as a Zone Leader at one point in my mission, before he was called as an AP. Also, he was born in Arizona, but has lived most of his life in Michigan, which is my backstory too, so we both enjoy talking about that. Other exciting news this transfer is that my district will be getting a new area. Parowan is opening, with Elder Mullen and Elder Baker, both of whom I've met before and know them to be pretty awesome.

So yeah. One more transfer in Enoch West! By January 5th (next transfer) I will have been here for over 7 months. I'm pretty sure I'll be getting moved next transfer for sure. Somehow I hung on this

transfer, when I was pretty sure I'd be getting transferred. Next transfer I feel like it's not even a question. In my experience, 5 transfers is the longest I've seen a missionary stay in one area, and

that's what I'll be at.

So, last P-Day, it snowed a lot. Not only is it fun to see stuff falling from the sky, but it's really fun to play in. We had a Zone snowball fight that was really fun! I didn't know we were doing that so I was actually wearing my regular proselyting clothes. But it was still really fun, and there was one time when everyone decided to try and hit me, but as I was running, they were all missing or I was dodging them. I felt like a bit of an action hero right then. We also built a giant snowman. It was about 7-8 feet tall. And then Elder Moore football tackled Frosty and killed him. But anyway, it was

really fun. It's cold, and that's not very comfortable, but snow is always fun. Since then most of it has melted, and the remainder has melted and refrozen so many times that it is pretty much just ice, but

we're supposed to get some more snow in the next few days.

So, I got a letter from the Marshall Branch this week! That made me really happy. So to the members of the Marshall, MI Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, THANK YOU!!!

Well, it's almost Thanksgiving! Some things I'm thankful for: my family, my friends in the mission and back home (or wherever they are), our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, the Book of Mormon and all of the scriptures, the opportunity I have to be a missionary, and most of all, I'm thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and everything that makes possible. What are you thankful for? I encourage you all to think about that this week, and as we move into the Christmas season. Happy Thanksgiving!

-Elder Oswald

District Meeting

Cedar Canyon P-day Activity