Elder Oswald and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

July 11, 2016

Hi everyone!

Ok, my week wasn't as bad as the subject line would imply, I just thought it'd be a fun title. On the other hand though, this week really was a total piece of garbage. In a nutshell, everything fell through. We worked hard, made a conscious effort to improve our planning and studies, and just really tried our best. But, we only had a few lessons actually happen. We only taught 7, and only three were lessons to investigators, and only two were with a member present. Numbers-wise at least, this has been one of the worst weeks we've had since I've been in Snow Canyon. On top of that, it's been hot (but that's kinda become normal), I've been exhausted (also kinda normal by now), and one of the people we're working with got arrested (minor stuff, but still, that really stinks).

So really, this past week really has been pretty rubbish. But surprisingly, I don't feel bad about it. I worked hard. I tried my best. It just wasn't in the cards. And as long as I did what was in my power, I can have a clear conscience. Also, we still did a lot of good things. We met with a lot of leadership and potential fellowshippers, becoming more one with them, which will only help us down the road.

And as for the few lessons we had, they were quality at least, even if the quantity didn't happen. Anyway, this week was just a reminder that one can be happy and thankful even in bad circumstances. Yeah, our numbers were pretty terrible, but I did my best, and that's all I can do, so there's no point feeling bad about it all. Yeah, it's frustrating and it's stressful, but as I look back over the week, I find myself not focusing as much on that, and focusing more on the satisfaction of putting in my best effort, focusing on my own personal progress that I've made over the week, and focusing on making this week better. You can be as happy as you want to be. That's something that I've been generally bad at my whole life, but I guess I'm getting better.

The highlight of the week was probably our lesson with Ann, which was a great example of teaching by the Spirit. We had originally planned to teach her "The Gospel of Jesus Christ", which usually follows after "The Restoration" and "The Plan of Salvation".  We started teaching, but then after a couple minutes, some concerns of her's surfaced, and we felt like we needed to talk about The Book of Mormon and The Holy Ghost, which was one of her concerns. So we spent most of the lesson

teaching about The Book of Mormon and bearing witness of it, also teaching/showing how it supports and is supported by the Bible (she's very into the Bible). All of that sort of Segway-ed into a discussion about baptism, and how important a step it is for her. She said she's been praying about the Book of Mormon and the church but just hasn't gotten an answer, and we suggested that maybe God is waiting for her to make the decision, and he'll confirm the decision after she's started working towards it. God often works that way. He respects our agency, and often waits for us to decide before stepping in with a yes or a no. That way, we exercise our faith more, and we learn and grow more than if we had just waited for instructions before doing anything. He wants us to be anxiously engaged in good causes, and doing things of our own free will. Agency is a central feature of His

plan for us. Anyway, we had a really fantastic discussion with Ann, that I think it really made an impact. And it was definitely led by the Holy Ghost. I had no idea we were going to talk about those

things, or have so intense of a discussion. We didn't plan for that. But the Spirit was able to step in and back us up, and get us to say what needed to be said. It's times like that where I am really humbled and thrilled to be a missionary.

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

-Elder Oswald

Happy B-Day USA!

July 4, 2016

Hi everyone!

First of all, happy Independence Day! Man, I love America. It really is the best. Now if only we had the good politicians to go with it...

Well this past week has been kind of a blur. It's been a good one, but it all just kinda ran together it seems. We did do a good amount of teaching, about the same as last week. Ryan and Ann, the new

investigators we picked up last week have baptismal dates in August! And we just worked super hard all last week. I was so exhausted after just the first half of the week! One day we were visiting someone (who ended up not being interested right now) and I almost fell asleep while we were talking too him. Thankfully I didn't, but still, I was tired! In my defense, we did work really hard all week, and that guy's couch was SUPER comfortable.

Anyway, yeah, we worked hard. And we woke up before 6:00 on some days to exercise (playing ultimate frisbee with a bunch of other missionaries). And the heat doesn't help with being tired either. In fact that's probably a lot to do with it. It's just super draining. Luckily, we did get a bit of a break later in the week. We got a couple thunderstorms that cooled things off to the upper 90s for a few

days. Yeah, 98 is still hot, but I'll definitely take that over 107! Also, it's been so dry here, it was really cool to see some naturally occurring water for a change.

Well, on Monday we got our new Mission President. His name is President Smith. On Tuesday there was a special "meet the president" meeting where we all got to, well, meet the president. He seems pretty cool. We only got to talk to him for a few minutes each, so the Assistants are probably the only ones really getting to know him personally right now, but it'll come with time. I'm looking forward to

whenever he does interviews, so then I'll have more time to sit down with him one on one. But anyway, just from that first impression he seems pretty nice. So that's good. I still miss President and Sister Center, and I think I always will. They were fantastic, and President Center was my mission president for almost 3/4 of my mission. But I'm looking forward to getting to know President Smith and helping him in any way that I can. And I'm sure he'll be great too"

Oh, random observation, I think President Smith looks A LOT like Mac Wilberg, the director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Seriously, if he said Mac was his brother, I'd totally buy it (except the different last name is a dead giveaway). Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there.

Well that's all for this P-Day. I hope everyone has a great week and a fantastic Independence Day. On this day, I love to ponder how thankful I am for this great country we have been blessed with. God's hand is very present in our national history, and if you look for it, you can see it. Our Founding Fathers were great inspired men, and our constitution is truly an inspired document. We won our independence against all odds against the most powerful empire in the world at the time. Throughout that war, during the victories and the hardships, miracles big and small attended the patriots. And throughout our history, as long as we have stood for Liberty and Justice, we have been preserved and prospered, and we've been built into the greatest country in the world. And despite the best efforts of some politicians, The United States of America is still pretty great, though this nation does have some repenting to do in some areas. Because God brought forth this great nation, not only do we have a

government that guarantees us Liberty and, at least in theory, is for the people and by the people, but it also paved the way for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At the time of Joseph Smith, this country was the only one that guaranteed religious freedom and provided an environment where the restored church could take hold. There was still tons of opposition, and Joseph was even martyred (the anniversary of which was just last Monday), but in the end, religious liberty prevailed. I'm so grateful to those early saints and pioneers who made it possible to have the restored church and gospel today, and I'm so grateful for those early patriots who were instruments in God's hands in bringing forth this great nation. And I hope we all can try to be like those founders and other great American leaders. If there were more people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, or Ben Franklin nowadays, imagine how much better things would be. Imagine how much better things would be if the majority of us still really lived by our nation's motto "In God we trust". We can't control others, but we can control ourselves, and if we each decide to follow the example of our leaders of old, then the world be be that much better. It might not make a huge difference, but a small difference is still a difference. Consider today what you can do, and consider the the things we're blessed with here in the USA. We have a lot. Let's not take it for granted.

God bless America!

-Elder Oswald

P.S. OIndependence Day we got a cool surprise. President Smith said we could go to watch the fireworks! It was super cool. Anyway, just another highlight I wanted to share because Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays.

The first set of pictures is the from the zone activity.

The second set is from Dixie Rock when we were waiting for the fireworks. Pictured are Myself, Elder Robinson, Elder Fairbanks, Elder Moore, Elder Doeling, and Elder Schweers.

The rest are pictures of the city that I took from Dixie Rock.

One Year Older

June 27, 2016

Hi everyone!

A lot has happened since I wrote last! I guess I'll just start at the beginning. Firstly, transfers happened. On Monday, Elder Burt and I picked up Elder Carmon, another missionary going home, who would be staying with us for his last couple days. Tuesday, Elder Fairbanks, my new companion came into the area, and at 12 we dropped Elder Burt and Elder Carmon off for their "going home" meetings and what not. We ran a few errands that day, and taught a lesson to Reagan and then picked

Elder Burt and Elder Carmon up for their last night. Wednesday morning, they left for home, and Elder Fairbanks and I started working. And we've had a pretty terrific week. We taught a lot of lessons, and we picked up two new investigators, and have a couple good potentials for this week if it works out. District Meeting was good. We for the most part just did introductions and set goals and

expectations as a district. I'm pretty excited for this transfer. The district seems really motivated.

Our new investigators are Ann in the 4th Ward and Ryan in the 13th Ward. That's exciting because up until now, those wards have been some of the least productive. Ann is older, and super nice. She actually reminds me of a combination of both my grandmas. Her husband recently died, and she's very interested in the church. Ryan is in his 30s, and comes from a hard background, and he might take a little bit more work, but he's really interested and has real intent. He came to church and also stayed for Gospel Principles.

And Reagan is still progressing. And we've finally started the new member discussions with Mona, and we're re-teaching the kids so they can get baptized (if Mona can get full custody of the kids or if the Mission President says it's ok).

Yesterday was a really good day. It also happened to be my birthday! Yep, my mission aged me another year. I'm 20 now; officially not a teenager! That just seems weird. I still kinda feel 18, and I'm not really sure what happened or how these last two years went by so quickly. Anyway, I had a fantastic day yesterday. We went to sacrament meeting in one of my favorite wards, and then had a sort of impromptu lesson with Reagan. Then we spoke in another ward, which went very well. After that we took Reagan and Greg to the Temple Visitor Center, and had some of the sisters do the VC tour. That was really good. And TJ came along too so there was even some member support. The temple is definitely a goal for Greg and Reagan. I just hope this whole parole thing can get cleared up ASAP because Reagan is so ready for baptism. She's more than ready! Anyway, after that, we had a little bit of time to chill at our apartment and get out of the heat (which felt even worse because we were in suits today). Then we had dinner with Brandon and TJ who put something together specifically for my birthday. They made homemade carne asada and Mexican rice. It was really good. We have some really awesome bets in this area, and I'm very blessed to have them as friends. I didn't ask them to do anything. They both just volunteered. Anyway, after that we went to a recent convert fireside, a meeting for missionaries, recent converts, and investigators, where the recent converts can get up and share their story and their testimony. They're really cool meetings. Anyway, this was President and Sister Center's last one. It was a good meeting, even though our recent converts who were going to speak weren't able to due to circumstances beyond their control. And I got to say goodbye (though not a permanent goodbye) to President and Sister Center. It was good, and I got one last picture with them, and I got them to write a couple little messages in my missionary handbook. I'm going to miss them a lot. They really are fantastic. Anyway, it was just a really good day,

and the crown jewel of a really good week.

So yeah. A lot's happened. The Centers leave to go home back to Ohio today, and today the new mission president, President Smith comes in. I'm sure I'll like him, and I've heard he's super cool. But it will take some getting used to. And I'll still always miss the Centers.

Well in other news, I got a new hat that looks pretty great (the church says missionaries can wear hats now), there's a massive forest fire on the other side of the mountain, and Elder Fairbanks kinda mashed part of the car trying to turn around a pole. But all these things require pictures to really be appreciated. Luckily, I have pictures, which I'll be sending shortly.

Thank you to all who sent letters/emails wishing happy birthday! I really appreciate it. It was a happy day, and not just for me, but for missionary work. And honestly, I can't imagine a better way to spend

my birthday than being in the Lord's service, especially with how productive and uplifting the day was. Anyway, thanks for the birthday wishes! I miss you all!

-Elder Oswald

Picture 1: My new hat

Picture 2: when trying to turn into a parking spot next to some covered parking spaces (not really sure what those are called, but hopefully you know what I'm talking about) and we didn't quite make it
around the pole. To make it funnier, this was Elder Fairbanks's first day in the area.

Picture 3: that kinda looks like a volcano erupting, but it isn't. There haven't been active volcanoes in St. George for several million years. That's smoke from a forest fire on the other side of the mountain.

Picture 4: Elder Montoya impaling me at the Transfer Van on Tuesday.

Picture 5 and 6: Walking around the Temple we saw a bunch of Hawks just chilling on the temple grounds. There were probably 7 or more of them. These are two of them that I got fairly good pictures of. The second one was totally posing for the camera, too.

Picture 7: One last picture with President and Sister Center. They're awesome! I'm going to miss them a lot!

Already Transfer Time Again

June 20, 2016

Hi everyone!

Well this week has been rather interesting. For one, it's been really slow. It's probably been the slowest week for teaching I've had in a couple months. But the lessons we did have were pretty good. Reagan is still progressing well. Unfortunately, she probably can't get baptized until she gets off parole, which shouldn't take too long, but still. It's just kinda frustrating. And she wants to be baptized so much. Hopefully it won't take too long. Anyway, it wasn't the greatest week, but it could have been worse. And this week is actually looking pretty dang good, at least compared to the last few weeks.

Well, transfers have come yet again. It's a week sooner than normal, because this was only a 5 week transfer. That's because we have a new mission president coming in next week. However, this upcoming transfer is going to be a 7 week, so a little longer than normal (6 weeks is normal).

Anyway, I've been kinda freaking out all week about who I'm going to get. Elder Burt goes home on Wednesday, so I knew I was getting a new companion. And here's the news. I'm staying in Snow Canyon as district leader, and I'm getting Elder Fairbanks. Funny thing, Elder Fairbanks has actually been in my District this past transfer so I already know him pretty well.  So Elder Fairbanks is coming with me and his companion, Elder Montoya, is getting transferred up to Beaver (about 45 minutes north of Cedar City). That means Red Cliffs (their area) will be getting whitewashed. Actually pink-washed. There are sisters coming in. And the other Sisters are both staying in Sunset Spanish. So I just became a "relief society president", a district leader over all sisters.

Something cool/funny, this will be Elder Fairbanks's last transfer, so in addition to "killing" Elder Burt, I'll be "killing" Elder Fairbanks in 7 weeks (he's only got a transfer left). Here's the best part about that. His "son" (trainee) is named Elder Montoya. That means at the end of my mission, he can walk up to me and say: "Hello. My name is Elder Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

As you all know, yesterday was Father's Day. It kinda stinks because unlike Mother's Day, I didn't get to call home. But anyway, I just wanted to take a second and say thank you to all the dads reading

this. You're pretty awesome, and if there's one thing I've learned on my mission, it's that, despite me thinking otherwise in High School, my dad actually knows things. So I've gotta give a big shout out to him. Something else I've experienced on my mission is a closer relationship with our Heavenly Father. Obviously I don't have my family here with me, so I've really had to learn to rely on Him that

much more. He's the best. There's a reason that the first thing we teach about as missionaries is about God, our loving Heavenly Father. So in addition to letting your earthly dads know how much you

love/appreciate them, take time to pray and let God know too.

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

PS- Tomorrow is my 17 Month Mark! I can't believe it's been that long!

PPS- My birthday is on Sunday! :)

Set Up and Suspense

June 13, 2016

Hi everyone!

This past week was pretty good. It was a kinda slow in terms of missionary work, but still had some good things happen, and some set up for good things to come. At the very least, nothing really bad

happened, so that was nice. We had several lessons with Reagan, who is doing really well. She and Greg got married! That was exciting, and now she can get baptized! She just needs to keep up with her not smoking, and she needs to have an interview with President Center. The plan is to do the baptism this Saturday, but that could change to a week or two later depending on a couple of circumstances. But the plan, the hope, and the likelihood is this Saturday.

In addition to our teaching, we also had Zone Conference (our last one with President Center), a special temple trip for a less active member who we helped reactivate, and we did a lot of service! So we still actually kept fairly busy. There just wasn't as much teaching/finding as I'd like. One reason things have been slower is because we really did pretty much baptize pretty much our whole teaching pool. But I think another part of the reason we haven't been teaching/finding is because Elder Burt is leaving in a week. His enthusiasm is definitely elsewhere than teaching and finding. And while I think a missionary ought to work his/her hardest to the very last day, I can understand where it's coming from. Going home would be super exciting having had so little contact with family and friends for two years, not to mention getting to wake up after 6:30 and take naps as needed without

feeling guilty about it, along with other pros that come with normal life. So I get it, it's just hard for me because I've still got 7 months, and I'm ready to work.

And kind of along those lines, transfers are once again just around the corner. And there's an extra bit of suspense for me because I know for a fact that something is going down. Elder Burt goes home, so I am guaranteed a companion change. There's a chance I could get moved to a new area and Snow Canyon could be white-washed, and in fact if that were to happen, this would actually be the time to do it because we will have baptized about everyone we were teaching, and it would be kind of a fresh start, but I still don't think it'll happen. I'm pretty confident that I'll be staying here one more transfer. But I'll still have a new companion. Hopefully I get a good one! Whatever happens, I'll be finding out on Saturday.

Well that's all for this Monday. Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

June 6, 2016

Hi everyone!

Well it's safe to say that this week ended up being a lot better than last week. We're still dealing with some of the aftermath of the last couple weeks, but we're doing ok. A big obstacle right now is finding. We've picked up a couple new investigators the last few weeks, but not a whole lot. And at the rate we keep baptizing, our teaching pool is shrinking. Of course, we do continue teaching after baptism, but it's just not quite the same. They become the ward's responsibility and we're there more in an assisting capacity rather than the primary source of their spiritual needs. And we have to report all our lessons and stuff, and though lessons to recent converts definitely count and are important, they aren't our main focus. Just about every number we report has to do with getting people to baptism and confirmation, except lessons to recent converts and less active members. So lessons to nonmembers is really the backbone of our teaching. We're working on getting our splits system going again (it hasn't really happened the last couple weeks) and applied to the whole stake (not just a few

wards). Hopefully that will help us find more people to teach.

We actually had some good things happen this past week. Reagan is progressing really well, and will probably be baptized either this week or the week after. And we started her on the Stop Smoking Program. And on Saturday, we got Jose and Alexis baptized, and they were confirmed on Sunday! Finally! After last week's total letdown with everything, it was a nice victory. I'll include a picture in this email. Unfortunately the lighting was really bad so the picture didn't come out the best. In addition to those things, we did a pretty good job keeping busy all week and did a fair amount of service.

And I'm getting the hang of being a district leader again. So that's good. In addition to picking my area back up, I've been working a lot lately to help the Red Cliffs Elders' area out. They've been in a sort of investigator drought, and they've had trouble getting the members motivated. I've met with them a few times and talked about a game plan, and they're going to be starting to go out with leadership more like we do.  And I've also talked to some of their ward mission leaders and they said they're in on this as well. They also have a really good High Counselor over missionary work who is actually a former mission president who has some really good ideas to benefit the area. So I'm pretty optimistic. Hopefully Red Cliffs will start doing better, and hopefully Snow Canyon (my area) will continue making a comeback. I think a lot of good things are going to be happening in this district here in the next few weeks. I've also been collaborating with another district leader (Elder Robinson, who's really awesome) on ways to make all of this missionary work simultaneously more effective

and more fun.

Well, changing topics, the weather in St. George has taken a turn. The last few days have been around 107 degrees. The Fires of St. George have returned. I think that has been the hardest part of this past

week. Everything else missionary-wise actually seemed to work out pretty well, and the trials that plagued us the last few weeks weren't really present a lot (well, for the most part at least). But then I

guess God decided to turn on His incinerator. Haha. It looks like we're "out of the frying pan and into the fire". Before breaking 100, the high temperatures were in the 80, and sometimes low 90s. That was nice. Then all of a sudden, one day the temperature jumped up to 104. And it was all downhill from there. It's been kinda painful getting used to it (or trying to do so). A few days ago, Elder Burt actually got some heat exhaustion and dehydration and we had to come in early. It really does seem to just suck the life out if you. Being out in it even for just a few minutes makes me feel tired (not to mention quite uncomfortable). And it makes my face feel weird (like that feeling you get after sitting around a big campfire for a while). And getting into the car after appointments is REALLY bad. It gets so hot in there! We have to be careful what we touch lest we burn ourselves. The seat belts and steering wheel are especially good conductors of heat. And so are sunglasses. I tried to put my sunglasses on the other day and felt like I had just branded my face. Anyway, I guess I'd probably

better get used to it because I'll probably be here most of the summer. Good old St. George. Haha, at least I'm not in Mesquite. I heard it got up to 117 the other day!

Well, that's about all for now. The weather's definitely against us, but at least just about everything else is looking up. And this week is looking pretty good too.

I miss you guys! Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Mission Wars: The Revenge of the Satan

May 30, 2016

Warning: If you didn't notice the title, there's going to be a good deal of Star Wars references, and using said references as a parallel to some mission experiences. So this will probably come off as pretty dorky. But I regret nothing. You have been warned.

Hi everyone!

Well, it's once again P-Day. Thank goodness! We've had a really hard week, and it felt like it was never going to end.

The last few weeks, I've felt and seen a lot of opposition. But we always seem to be able to pull out of it and come out on top anyway. But this week, Satan really did a number on us.

The insanity started the week before actually, when we weren't able to get appointments set up with people we usually have fairly regular appointments with. So we didn't have nearly as many teaching appointments set, and to make it more difficult, a lot of people were gone or going away for Memorial Day Weekend. Then on Monday, we found out we were being moved to a new apartment, so we had to spend pretty much the entire day on Tuesday packing and cleaning everything. The move was on Wednesday, and the better part of the day was spent getting everything to the new apartment, scrubbing floors and pretty much everything, and getting chewed out by one of the housing coordinators. To make things more complicated, we had another missionary with us for a few days, his companion had to go home for medical stuff. It's pretty sad because he was a pretty good friend of mine. But anyway, we had that Elder with us until his new companion flew in from Mexico a few days later. To make things yet even more complicated, the Elder who went home was my district leader. So now President made me district leader again. That's not a bad thing, but it's just another thing on top of this cluttered mess of a week.

So we didn't get a whole lot of teaching done this week unfortunately. We did however get back in touch with Jose and Alexis, got them married, and (by the skin of our teeth) got them all ready for baptism on Saturday. So that's two more baptisms, and besides that being awesome in and of itself, it would have finished off the monthly zone goal (not that it's all about numbers though). Basically the baptism was the highlight of the week...except for the part where it didn't happen. On Saturday, Alexis's mom, Mona (who just got baptized a few weeks ago), couldn't get off work at all that day, even though unless I'm mistaken, I'm pretty sure her boss knew about this and how important it is. Her boss was also the reason she was late to her own baptism a few weeks ago, even though she was supposed to get the whole day off. Anyway, so Saturday morning didn't happen. So we rescheduled it for Sunday right before church, but they ended up having to take their baby to the hospital, so that didn't happen. So no baptisms this week. And the fact that the rest of the week has been so terrible, and that we were so close to still pulling a successful weekend out of it just made it even more painful.

So all of that happened, and that plus, stress, exhaustion, discouragement, and a little bit of home sickness just made for a really tough week. This is actually probably one of the most difficult, hard-to-swallow weeks I've had on my mission. And we still almost came out on top with those baptisms, but even that hope of a last minute victory was shot down. That's not to say nothing good happened. In Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith, good things still happened. It was just overshadowed by all the bad stuff, and by the Emperor winning in the end. We still had a few really good lessons, and Reagan is progressing really well. And even if the baptism didn't happen this week, Jose and Alexis still got married. But overall, despite us really trying our hardest, the week was pretty bad. Satan really did a number in this area this past week.

But thankfully, this too will pass. We may have lost this week, and Satan may have gotten some revenge in seeing us exhausted, sad, and discouraged, but that doesn't negate the good that we did, even if it wasn't as much as we would have liked, and that fact set aside, Satan's a loser. Sure he came out top this past week. But that's one week. The Emperor won in Revenge of the Sith, but that's just one movie. There's a whole trilogy that takes place afterward all about how the Emperor loses. Likewise, there are plenty of weeks left to come in my mission, and more times than not, Satan's going to lose. And just to start with, this week is going to be better. It's still looking a bit rocky in terms of having a lot of appointments, and we just found out from one of the families we're teaching that one of the kids has some health problems and they might not be able to see us for a while, and I'm coming down with a cold, so I might be limited there. But we have Jose and Alexis's baptism, we have some new investigator prospects, and we're not going to be busy moving apartments or dealing with what are basically surprise transfers, or anything like that. It's a new week, a new month, a new hope. ;)

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

The Good, the Bad, and the Just Plain Weird

May 23, 2016

Hi everyone!

This week has been ridiculous. I don't even know where to start. I guess first, it's been a beat down of a week. And it felt so long. I'm so glad to have finally gotten through it. We had a lot of appointments cancel, a few of which were pretty important. One of them was REALLY important because they're supposed to get baptized this Saturday, but now, I don't know. We might need to push it back a week

or two if they keep flaking out. Also, one of our investigators dropped us. So that's sad, and a little bit frustrating. We kinda saw it coming though. On top of that, it was transfer week. Even though neither of us got transferred, it was still a crazy few days. Monday night and Tuesday we played host to a missionary who was going home. And after he left, we were also temporary companions for an Elder who had to wait for his new companion to come down from Cedar City. It was just a complicated couple of days.

And Crazy Lady is at it again! That lady who randomly cussed us out for 20 minutes a couple weeks ago (and we still don't know why), well she did her best to cause more trouble. So last week, one of the kids we were teaching that she wanted baptized (even though it seems like she was determined to try to thwart us as much as possible) didn't pass his baptismal interview. We kind of expected it a little bit. He knew everything, but he didn't seem to have a testimony for himself yet. So the District Leader told him to push it back a week and work on getting at least the beginnings of a personal testimony. Well, Crazy Lady didn't like that, and she flipped out again, and on Tuesday she called the Mission President to complain. The dumb thing is that it wasn't even our call as whether or not the kid could be baptized. It was the DL's call. We agreed with his decision, but it wasn't our decision. So a President got an earful, and then when she found out that it was the DL's decision, she called the DL and he got an earful. And she still hates us (mostly Elder Burt) for some reason. But thankfully, it was able to be resolved. And the kid got baptized on Saturday, so maybe Crazy a Lady can leave us alone now.

One of the people we're working with is having a really hard time. He's struggling with his testimony and with his relationship with God. I won't go into details, but it put a damper on our week. A couple

other people we're teaching are also having various struggles. It's just tough, because as a missionary, you really love these people and want them to be happy, and to make the choices that will bring them

greater happiness, and when they struggle, it's just hard.

So that's that. Kinda depressing. But in addition to the bad and crazy stuff, there was some good stuff too. The highlight was definitely that we had two baptisms. That was what what kept me going throughout the week. I just wanted to get through it and make sure that those baptisms happened. And they did. It was the baptism of Dakota, Oakley, and their 8 year old brother (being 8, he didn't meet with us, he went through the bishop). I'll include a picture at the bottom of this email. Oh, and they're goofy. They're picture really says it all.

Now for the just plain weird. Well there was actually a lot weird stuff that happened this week. But I'll just highlight the best one. In order to really appreciate this story you'll need to see it, so I'm also including a couple pictures. So, we were on our way back from an appointment that had just cancelled and we happened to glance at some random guy's house, and lo and behold he had a live goat on his roof. It was so weird to see, and to make it more perplexing, we couldn't see any way it could have gotten up there. Even if it were really good at jumping, I couldn't see it getting up there. So apparently goats are flying now. If it was an omen for how are week was going to go, I'd probably say it was a bad omen. But anyway, it was a weird thing to see, and we got a good "What on Earth is happening" laugh in.

Well, that's my week in a rather large nutshell. It's been tough. Its been exhausting. It's been a knock down. It's been depressing at times. But I made it. It's interesting how God works sometimes. Sometimes He helps us out of our sticky situations. But more than often I would say, and this is what happened this week, He allows our trials to happen, but He strengthens us in our trials. He doesn't

always take our trials away because then we wouldn't grow, and we wouldn't learn to trust in Him. But through our trials he never stops loving us, and He will strengthen us. And from time to time, He

provides a little comic relief, like a goat on the roof.

Well that's all for now! Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

PS-I'm past my 16 month mark!

I'm Lost for a Clever Title This Week So...

May 16, 2016

Hi everyone!

So, it's once again transfer time and the news is...we're both staying! I'm glad. We've got a lot of baptisms and stuff coming up that I definitely want to be here for. I've also just this last transfer really gotten a feel for the area and have really gotten myself feeling more at home here. So I'm happy to stay. This will only be a five week transfer though. Usually it's six weeks, but we're getting a new mission president, so it's being shortened a week, and then the transfer after that will be 7 weeks to make up for it.

Things are still going pretty well here. We didn't find any new investigators this week (we almost did, but although we tried we weren't able to get a Return appointment yet) but we taught a lot and kept pretty busy. We seemed to have appointments cancelling left and right, but we were still able to work through it and keep busy. It's exhausting though, and on top of it, teaching lessons leaves one feeling good, but drained. So I've been really tired. But it's better to be tired in a good cause than to be well rested in none.

We had another baptism this past week! We were going to have 2, but one of them needed to be pushed back to this Saturday. The person who got baptized was Lexie. Finally! I guess she's been meeting with missionaries off and on for a couple years now. A little before I got to the area, she decided she wanted to be baptized, so when I came to this area I got the privilege to help finish her preparing for baptism. So this has been a long time coming. And it went really well. I'll include a couple pictures at the bottom of this email. The first one is just us, her, and her husband (Preston). The second one is us, Lexie, Preston, their son, and some of their really good friends.

Well, there's not much more to report today so I guess I'll just add a short spiritual thought and let you get on with your lives. This is a scripture, John 6:67-68. At this time, Christ had taught some principles that seemed hard to many people, and a lot of Christ's followers left him. That's where verse 67 picks up:

67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast

the words of eternal life.

The times we live in are times when the teachings of Christ are mocked. Many say there is no Christ. Many say there is no God. Many look at the values we hold dear and revile us. It might be hard to

follow the Savior. But like Peter said, "to whom shall we go?" It is through Christ and obedience to His simple teachings that we can have eternal life. It isn't always easy, but if we don't turn our backs on Him, he won't leave us stranded or alone, and He will lead us along the path that leads to everlasting happiness.

Well that's about all for today. I miss you guys! Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Opposition in All things

May 9, 2016

Hi everyone!

I knew it! I totally called it. I knew that a bunch of negative things would happen this past week, because we've been doing really well, having a lot of success, and development we had a baptism on Saturday, and times like that are when Satan REALLY tries to mess things up. Tuesday was our really negative day. We had a few really great lessons and visits, but we also had to deal with a lot of disappointment and stupidity. Firstly, the Navajo family we were teaching dropped us. For some reason, the aunt hates us. I think she didn't like Elder Burt's previous companion, so she's just decided that all Elders are stupid and rude and what not. Makes sense, right? Well, she's gotten the grandma and some of the rest of the family on her side, so now we're not welcome back there ever again. So that was disappointing, and also really obnoxious of the aunt. We literally have done nothing to offend her. But apparently she hates us.

Anyway, about an hour and a half later, we got a phone call from a crazy lady, who pretty much put a damper on our whole day. And she called as we were trying to go into a lesson too. And she wouldn't

shut up! So, we had asked this lady's husband for help fellowshipping some new investigators we were picking up, because he knows the family better than most. But apparently asking a member for help is an unpardonable sin, and this lady calls us up, screaming so loud that her voice echoed back into the phone and we couldn't even understand what she was saying half the time. She was mostly attacking my companion, but she was super rude to me as well. And get this, she accused US of being disrespectful and rude among a list of other things she flipped out about. She's calling us rude Really? Well we're not the ones randomly calling people and screaming at them for 20 minutes (no exaggeration, it was literally 20 minutes). And here's the thing, we haven't done ANYTHING to her! We've literally only seen her twice. And actually I had only seen her once before. So we really had no idea what she was going on about. Everyone else seems to think we're ok. I'm not saying we're perfect, but we're not anything close to what she was yelling at us for. And we handled the phone call

really well. We could have easily lost our cool and started giving her a taste of her own medicine (show her what "disrespectful and rude" really is). But we didn't. We just kind of sat there waiting for her to be done. We attempted to politely and calmly defend ourselves and come to an understanding, but she would just cut us off and and say some rude comment. At the end of the conversation she decided she had had enough talking to Elder Burt and wanted to talk to me. Her last words of the conversation were "Thank you for your opinion. I didn't ask for it. Goodbye." Excuse me?!! Grrr!!! It really made us mad. Even if we had done something, you can't just talk to people like that. Who does this hag think she is?

A little bit later we went to visit our ward mission leader in that ward, and guess what! Crazy Lady was there trash talking us to the ward mission leader. Great. This person seemed dead set on destroying

all of the work we had in that ward. So we call the bishop and ask if she's talked to him at all. I guess he's aware of all this, and guess what! Crazy Lady and the aunt who hates us are in cahoots! Bishop's

sad about it all, but told us not to worry too much. I guess Crazy Lady has flipped out on plenty of other people, so he said to take it with a grain of salt.

So that was not the most terrific start to the week, unless you go by the old definition of terrific which is "causing terror". Throughout the week, we had appointments cancel, and Crazy Lady even showed up to one of our appointments, and we had to bite our tongues a bit. But despite all of those things, we kept working throughout the week, and we had much more success than we had negativity. We actually hit Standards of Excellence again, and some of our lessons went extremely well!

And we had a baptism! Mona finally took the plunge! Mona has been awesome to teach, and she's been super prepared. Now she's set a really good example for her family, who are on date for the 28th. The baptism went really well. But it did seem like a lot was going wrong leading up to it. For one, a water pipe at the church broke, so the water had to be shut off. And you can't fill a baptismal font without water! At first we heard that the water was supposed to be off pretty much all day Saturday, but then (Hallelujah!) that estimate was moved back to 10:00 AM. The baptism was scheduled for 1:00 so that ended up not being a problem. And then there was the fact that everything

seemed to be going wrong for Mona that day, and due to her not getting the day off work, and just a bunch of other craziness, she ended up being an hour late to her baptism! But we didn't really have anything else that afternoon, so we had the baptism anyway! :)  I'll include a picture at the bottom of this email.

And then to top the week off, I got to Skype home for Mothers Day, which was pretty much the best thing ever. :)

This past week has definitely been an adventure. It really is true that there is opposition in all things. But there are also miracles and as annoying as opposition is, it can always be overcome. This week

is shaping up to be another good one, complete with one, possibly two baptisms! In other words, there's probably going to be a lot of opposition this week too. But it's all a learning experience, and at

least personally, it makes me feel all the more epic for overcoming it. :)

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Oswald

Things Are Looking Sunny in St. George

May 2, 2016

Hi everybody!

This past week has been fantastic! We've gotten so much work done! We actually hit Standards of Excellence (22 lessons, 2 new investigators, 3 investigators at church, and 3 on date)! Actually we surpassed that. And we did 10 hours of service! And we will have one, maybe two baptisms this Saturday! Things are just going super well.

We did have some minor trials with several appointments cancelling, and I guess there's some sort of bug going around because a lot of people have been getting sick. But nothing too crazy this week. As
much as we can learn from trials, sometimes it really is nice though to get a nice break.

But I'm sure we'll have more trials this week. It's a baptism week, so something is bound to happen, at least to the point of being an annoyance, if not a full fledged obstacle. Baptism weeks are awesome,
but are always the most exhausting and it's when Satan pretty much throws everything at us or our investigators to try to stop the baptism from happening. Satan's an annoying jerk.

So this week, Mona is scheduled for baptism, and maybe her son Elijah, but he might need to go to church one more time before that can happen. But if not this week, then we'll get him the next week, along with (at least the plan is) 6 other people! That's freaking awesome! I'm so excited for all these people, and I know that the decisions they're making will bless their lives so much!

Ok, here's one really cool experience from this past week. So we were on splits, and I was with our ward mission leader in the Snow Canyon 2nd Ward (not that really means anything to anyone reading this, but anyway), and we had a family to contact. We didn't really know much about them, except it was a less active mom, and two kids, ages 12 and 9, who hadn't been baptized. We went and knocked on the door and they let us in, and agreed to take the missionary lessons! And here's the cool thing. About a week ago, the kids asked their mom if she would teach them about Jesus Christ. Then the day before we showed up, they reminded her that she still hasn't taught them about Jesus, and asked
when she was going to teach them. And then the next day was when we showed up asking if we could teach them about Jesus Christ and his church and gospel. I love how God times things, and I love being an instrument in His hands. And that's not the first time something like that has happened since being on a mission. I've had the opportunity to have a few experiences like that.

Well, that's really about it for this week. We pretty much just taught and served, which is awesome. Like last week, I'll finish with a spiritual thought of the week.

This week I have thought a lot about the prophet Joseph Smith. He exemplified a Christian life, and he is a prime example of how the Lord uses imperfect people in a very perfect capacity. Joseph was a
farm boy with a 3rd grade education, yet he was able to translate the Book of Mormon, restore an entire church, and then lead said church (under the direction of God) with all the wisdom and eloquence of someone who had years of religious and academic experience. He was by no means perfect. He made mistakes, just like we all do. But he's an example to all of us of how we can rise above our weaknesses and do great things if we trust and follow Christ. And finally Joseph experienced a lot of hardship. Mob violence, tar and feathers, an extermination order from the government of Missouri, complacency from the national government, more mob violence, false accusations and slander, and ultimately assassination, martyrdom. And all of this because he taught repentance and faith in Christ, Christlike love and service, and because he said that God spoke to him and continues to speak. He could have denied his experiences at any time, but he didn't. He was willing to die before denying what he had experienced. He gave his life as a testimony that the Book of Mormon and the Church are true. And he invited all people to find out for themselves if he was telling the truth. And that is the Church's invitation today. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5); the very scripture that started Joseph on his journey, is just as applicable to us. We can pray and ask God to confirm in our minds and hearts the truth which is already apparent: that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that this is Christ's church once
again on the Earth. I have done this and I know that these things aretrue. And I'm so grateful for Joseph Smith's sacrifices and example, which always point back to an infinitely greater sacrifice and
example, even the Savior. I don't know where I'd be without it.

Have a great week! I miss you all!

-Elder Oswald

Now We're Getting Somewhere

April 25, 2016

Hi everyone!

Guess what! I passed my 15 month mark! That's just ridiculous. I still feel like a "greenie" sometimes. But at the same time I've learned A LOT about the gospel, about teaching, about people in general, and I'm a lot better than I was as a greenie. It's weird. And I am shocked at how fast the time has gone and is going.

I really enjoyed this past week! A lot was accomplished and we saw a lot of miracles. Our dry spell seems to be over! We were finally able to get back in with some investigators we haven't been able to teach in a long time. One of them is Mona. We had a couple really good lessons with her, and we got her on date for May 7th! And she's so ready. She understands the gospel really well, and is really excited to be baptized. She just gets it! For instance, we were teaching about faith and we asked what she understood faith to be, and she said "it's believing in God, and trusting him." Boom. That's literally what faith is. A belief and trust in something (in this case God) that motivates us to act. Anyway, she understands the gospel and she feels the gospel, and she's just excited for her baptism, and excited to help get her family to that point as well.

We also received a some really good referrals. One of them, Reagan, we have an appointment with her and her husband set for Tuesday morning. Her husband is a member, and she's interested in joining. And there's also a referral for a family that we haven't been able to contact yet, but sounds like a pretty good prospect. And there was another referral we got who we met on Sunday, but he is actually in the neighboring missionaries' area. So I guess we can't have all the fun. But still, it's been awesome. Between reconnecting with old investigators and also these referrals, it seems like people have just been crawling out of the woodwork. That's fantastic. That's why we're here, to teach people.

And we had a lot of people come to church too! We had 5 investigators come, and that was just in one ward! So that was awesome too.

It's just so nice to see an area start to blossom. We've been putting in a lot of hard work and not seeing too much from it. But now we're seeing it, and it's really good to keep enthusiasm up. To quote another missionary I know, " It gets me REAL hype."

But of course, what is a week of missionary life without some trials? I think the biggest one from this week was that Elder Burt got really sick for a couple days. We don't really know what it was, if it was a virus or just something he ate, but he was sick for a couple days, and we were instructed to stay inside that whole time. Not only was it time we could have been teaching and visiting people, but it was just really boring being inside all day. Now, back home it's easy to make that fun. Just put on a movie or something. Put as missionaries, we can't do that. So staying in gets boring really fast. And we also had to miss Zone Conference. I usually really enjoy those (though they could be a little shorter), and there was a Seventy there, so I missed hearing from him. But yeah, that was our little hiccup for the week. And we still managed to have a really good week anyway.

Alright, spiritual thought of the week. This is something I was thinking of last night. Last night we taught our investigator, Lexie, about prayer, and building our lives on the foundation of Christ, and

how that helps us against Satan and trials and temptations. I almost said that prayer and living the gospel will shield us from temptation and trials. And then I just thought, prayer and living the gospel does not usually SHIELD us FROM temptation and trials. A more appropriate statement is that it STRENGTHENS us IN our temptations and trials. If we were shielded, we would miss out on opportunities to learn and grow. Without the Lord's strength, those opportunities can be simply failures and discouragements. But if we build on the Lord's foundation and trust in Him, our trials can become stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks.

Well, that's all folks! Until next time!

-Elder Oswald

Smackdown

April 18, 2019

Hi everybody!

I can't believe it's already Monday again! This past week definitely seems to have gone fast. It was definitely crazy. Yeah, yet another crazy week. This time it's bad crazy, but we actually managed to pull off a fairly productive week despite it all.

So, the week started out a little slow, but not too bad. Tuesday was when stupid craziness started. We taught Kyler and Kayton, two Navajo boys who want to get baptized, and actually had a pretty good lesson with them. Then that evening, their grandma and their aunt called us and freaked out on us and told us that we weren't welcome to teach the kids anymore. The aunt seems to pretty much hate us for some reason, and we still don't know why. I guess she was in a lesson with Elder Burt and his previous companion, and I guess that Elder had sort of an off day and the lesson wasn't fantastic. So now she hates us, including me, and I wasn't even there. I guess there was also a misunderstanding that we didn't enjoy teaching the kids because we keep our lessons short with them. That's not the case at all. We enjoy teaching them. It's just that they're 9 and 10 years old, and teaching them for a full 45 minutes to an hour is just going to overwhelm them. Even with adults, we've been advised in this mission to keep lessons shorter rather than longer. Luckily, the kids' uncle called us a little later and basically said we should still come back and that the aunt was just being difficult, so we were able to come back, explain the misunderstanding, and continue teaching. So we dodged a bullet there. We almost lost a couple investigators.

Another dumb thing that happened this week was that a ward mission leader who doesn't like my companion very much decided to randomly complain to our Mission President about an argument that took place between him and Elder Burt 7 weeks ago and was settled about 7 weeks ago. So we had a meeting with him and President Center so we could all work out our differences. It was a good meeting, and President Center handled it really well (President really is just an awesome person), it was just annoying that it had to happen. And I still don't think Elder Burt and this ward mission leader like each other very much.

And there was a bunch more crazy stuff, some of it dealing with some people we're teaching, but I can't really announce what's going on. It's just hard, and that news was a little depressing.

So yeah, it was kind of a smackdown of a week. But somehow, despite all of that, we ended up teaching more than we did the last 2 previous weeks, and we got a new investigator! Hallelujah! We've been in a bit of a dry spell lately, even with doing scheduled splits with the wards, so that's really exciting. This week is kind of a testimony to me that the Lord does His own work, and that he can get us through hard times. Looking back on the week, it was really pretty crummy. Yet we still found success. We almost lost two investigators, but we didn't, and we found a new one. We were able to keep ourselves fairly busy. There was stress and annoyances, but we didn't cave. There was

even potentially devastating news from some people we're teaching, but the Bishop is working to help that, and after talking to them yesterday, they're doing ok, and the work goes on. In the scriptures, the Lord teaches that sometimes He gives us trials so we can recognize His hand in helping us out of them. I've definitely seen that this past week. It's been a learning experience for sure.

Well, for some more exciting news, we do have some baptisms coming up! Unfortunately, none for April, but probably 3 in May. There's a lady named Lexie, whose husband is a member, who's getting baptized on the 14th of May. Also, those two Navajo kids, Kyler and Kayton, will probably be getting baptized near the end of May. So definitely some things to be excited about and to work towards.

Well that's all for today. I miss you all! Have a great week!

Transfer Week Shenanigans

April 11, 2016

Hi everybody!

Well this week has been crazy! It's actually been pretty good, but holy cow! I'm kinda glad it's over.

So the week began on a crazy note. P-Day was pretty ordinary, but it was also transfer week. My apartment has a lot of extra beds, so when missionaries who are going home coalesce in St. George the day before their exit interviews, special temple trip, dinner with the Mission President, and what not, they stay in my apartment. Also, when Elders are going to train new missionaries, they usually end up staying in St. George for a couple days for all the trainer/greenie meetings, and so they also stay at this apartment. So back to Monday, a former companion of mine, Elder Spencer, went home this past week, so he stayed the night with us on Monday night. Then Tuesday evening we got two Elders who were going to be training, who were going to be staying with us until Thursday morning. One of them was Elder Bright, another former companion of mine, actually the one I trained. And then on Wednesday, both of their greenies also stayed with us. So there were 6 Elders in one apartment. Wow. I now know why President insists on one companionship per apartment. It was a blast, but for those days, our apartment basically turned into a "celestial frat house". Now don't get me wrong, we didn't break any rules. None of them actually (except going to sleep on time). Mostly we just played board games, cracked jokes, and stayed up late quoting basically the entire Napoleon

Dynamite movie. And the apartment was kinda trashed. We also brought all 6 of us to our stake missionary correlation meeting and tried to convince everyone that we were now a companionship of six (and one guy was buying it!). So yeah, we were obedient, but had a lot of fun with the situation. But obedient or not, an apartment full of goofy 18-20 year olds is still an apartment full of goofy 18-20 year olds. It was exhausting! Elder Burt is very extroverted, and even he was wiped out by the end of it. So yeah, we were the missionary hotel for a couple days.

Kind of going along the lines of the last paragraph, I'm super excited that Elder Bright is training! Missionaries (at least in this mission, but I'm pretty sure it is super widespread) have a silly bit of lingo we use when it comes to entering the mission, training, going home, etc. when you enter the mission, you are "born". Your trainer (first companion) is your "dad" (or "mom" if you are a sister missionary). When you train a new missionary, he is your "son". If you were going to train, but the new missionary goes home right before leaving the MTC, that's a miscarriage. When you go home after your mission is completed or for honorable reasons, you "die". If a missionary is "dying" and you are his last companion, it is said that you "killed" him. If you do something stupid to get yourself sent home dishonorably, we call that "suicide". Alright, now back to Elder Bright. I trained him, so Elder Bright is my "son". Now he's training, so now he has a "son", and I now have a "grandson". So that's pretty exciting, and it was pretty cool because they were staying with us for a couple days. So there were three "generations" of Elder Falconbury's (my trainer's) descendants under one roof. And guess what! Elder Bright's greenie is from Michigan! Like "grandfather" like "grandson" I guess. I thought that was awesome, and Elder Bright thought it was pretty funny that he was trained by a Michigander and now he's training a Michigander. He said "I'm surrounded by you guys!" Well anyway, that was fun. And there you have all of our weird lingo.

Congrats if you're still reading this! I feel like someone might be reading the last paragraph going "Wow. Missionaries are weirdos. This newsletter is going nowhere." So give yourself a pat on the back if you're still toughing through it. Well in terms of actual missionary work, we did moderately better than last week. The trouble is, we couldn't do that much when there were six of us, and we kept having to transport luggage and run emergency errands, and transport all six of us around. So after everything settled down was when we were really able to get to work. And we still pulled off more lessons than the week before, despite not being able to do much Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So the work is definitely going, it was just a ridiculous week. This week ought to be pretty decent, and we're looking at picking up at least one new investigator this week.

We did some pretty cool service on Saturday morning. It was for all the missionaries in St. George. We drove out to some hilly wilderness canyon-ish area mildly close to the St. George Airport and picked up garbage for a few hours. Ok, that sounds really boring, but I actually enjoyed it. For one, I love being out in nature, and it was a rather nice location I thought. It wasn't incredibly pretty per se, but it was cool in its own bleak desert-y sort of way. It was also raining all day Saturday. But it wasn't cold rain, so it actually felt nice, and I found the rain and clouds, plus the valley's secluded location

away from the city rather relaxing. I needed that after the craziness of just a couple days earlier.

I've been thinking a lot about General Conference, this was one of my favorite quotes, from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

"My brothers and sisters, the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength--that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life."

I really like that, and I want to strive to better live that. That God loves us is something I teach on a regular basis, but sometimes I feel like I just take those words for granted. How much better would things be if we could all really internalize that doctrine and live by it, if we all made that the "foundation stone of our daily [lives]"? I've been doing a lot of self assessment, and though I've come a very long way since coming on my mission, I've still got a way to go. I'm just really glad Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are patient and supporting.

Well, I think that about covers everything that's happened over the last week. Until next time! Have a good one!

-Elder Oswald

PS-There was a baptism in Enoch West on Saturday of an awesome family that I've had the privilege to teach for a few months. The dad (Justin) was baptized several weeks ago, and now he has the Priesthood and was able to baptize the kids: Mckayla, Tristin, Justin Jr., and Kendra. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the baptism since I'm in St. George, but just like at Justin's baptism, I had Elder Bright hold up a picture of me so I could kind of be in the baptism picture.

Back (from left to right): Elder Baker, Justin (dad), Brytani (mom), Elder Bright (holding a picture of me)

Front: Elder Char, Mckayla, Justin Jr., Kendra, Tristin

Three mission generations

Top picture: (From left to right) Elder Schroeder (Elder Bright's greenie), Elder Bright, Myself

And it's the same three people in all three photos so you guys shouldbe able to figure it out without me labeling all three pictures. :)

A Tough Week with a Great Finish

April 4, 2016

Hi everyone!

Yet another transfer has gone by! This transfer was 7 weeks instead of the normal 6 weeks. I can't believe it's already over. This transfer is going to be a normal one, just 6 weeks. As for transfer news, Elder Burt and I are both staying in Snow Canyon in St. George. I pretty much expected that at least I'd stay, since I've only been here a transfer.

Well this week wasn't the best. We only taught 8 lessons, and only 2 were nonmember lessons. The other 2 were recent convert lessons. Things just didn't really align. Every lesson we set up with our big investigator family fell through. We didn't get to meet with Bill because he wanted to skip a week. And one of our lessons with Kyler and Kayton (the Navajo kids we're teaching) fell through. And we
didn't have much luck with finding this week, so we didn't find any new investigators. And we'd usually split with the WMLs on their assigned nights (Enoch West style), but some of our evening schedules and their evening schedules were really weird, and it just didn't work out. It was just one of those weeks I guess. We tried and we worked, but just didn't pan out how we would have liked. We did a lot of service, but not as much teaching. It's okay though, because this week's going to be a lot better!

As most of you probably know, this past weekend was General Conference! We watched it at our recent converts' house. I just love being able to hear from living Prophets and Apostles! The messages were really good, and a much needed recharge for me. It was really good to hear from our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. His messages were really short, no doubt because of his old age and health problems (he almost passed out last Conference when he was talking), but they were really good and really powerful. He's pretty good at this "short and sweet" thing. I would have loved very much to hear more from him, but it was good. I think one of my favorite talks was President Uchtdorf's about how Christ can rebuild us out of the ashes of our mistakes and trials and stuff, and also how obedience factors into that. One of my favorite quotes from him was: "Obedience is the life blood of Faith". Short, and simple yet profound. I wish I could say things like that. Anyway, I really enjoyed Conference, and it was cool to watch it with our recent convert family. It was their first time ever watching, and throughout the conference, we were able to help explain about who was talking, and explaining some of the principles they were talking about. It was awesome. I love it.

Have a great week! I miss you all!

-Elder Oswald

PS-Someone emailed this to Elder Burt. I thought it was a pretty clever bit of General Conference humor.