The Best Two Years: December 2019

Monday, December 2, 2019

Last Few Pictures

January 24, 2017

Picture 1: A dying picture for myself and Elder Prior

Picture 2: My formal dying picture

Picture 3: Myself and Elder Bright with the "posterity tie" and the inherited Elder Falconbury Rasta-dreads and beads

Picture 4: At the transfer van this morning with The Oswald Posterity- Elder Bright (my first son), Elder Schroeder (my grandson), and Elder Cockerham (my second son)

Here's one final Khan update. We kept him through the night in that empty trash can, and then in the morning we got him to his new home. And it's NOT the wild. A kind-hearted member who thinks mice are adorable volunteered to adopt Khan so he doesn't have to live in the cold. So this morning we took him over to the members house and they gave him a home. So I finally got the better of Khan, and he still gets a happy ending.

Khan!

January 23, 2017

BREAKING NEWS

Guys! It happened. My mission is officially complete. The Wrath of Khan is over! I caught him! I caught him with a sticky trap and then used olive oil to loosen him up and wearing a glove I pulled him off. We put him in an empty trash can with some food and water and tomorrow morning when the weather is nicer and when he has had a chance to not be in shock, we'll release him into the wild.

Here are some pictures of Khan in custody. He's covered in oil, and I think a bit in shock so that's why he looks a little weird.

VICTORY!!!

There and Back Again

January 23, 2017

Hi everyone!

Well, I cannot believe this day has come. This is my last missionary P-Day. I hit my 2 year mark on Saturday. I actually ended up having my exit interview on Wednesday, which was actually my original release date before they added a week due to the MTC adding an extra week for new English speaking missionaries. Tomorrow I go down to St. George with Elder Wells for the temple trip and dinner with President Smith, and the closing testimony meeting. And then Wednesday, I fly home. It's really exciting but still so many other mixed feelings.

Unfortunately, my last week as a missionary wasn't the best. In fact, the powers of the universe seemed to combine against me in every way possible. We had a about half of our appointments cancel, including our one nonmember lesson. We had no luck finding, even though we tried really hard, even resulting in straight up tracting, which is everyone's least favorite form of missionary work. We didn't get any referrals. Actually we got one, but then it was actually rescinded when the members realized he probably wasn't ready for missionaries. So yeah, we found no new investigators and taught only a few lessons. And I was kind emotionally compromised for a lot of the week, just a

culmination of everything I've been feeling for the last 6 weeks. And I felt kinda discouraged for a lot of the week. And to top it off, I got sick AGAIN! This is the third cold I've had in the past 3 months!

But I wasn't about to spend my last few proselyting days sick in the apartment so I borrowed some cold medicine from some other Elders and managed to keep it at bay enough that I was able to still do stuff.

But yeah, seriously, just about everything that could have gone wrong last week, went wrong. I'm kinda bummed about it, because I really wanted to end on a high note, but I guess it's alright. I've accomplished a lot of good in these last two years, and one crummy week doesn't change that. And I put forth my effort, which is all I can do. But it just didn't pan out, which happens sometimes, and Cedar West can be kind of a hard area. I've really felt Satan working on me and trying to just make things miserable and trying to make me discouraged and bitter. But I'm just not going to listen to him. I've had a great two years, and a really enjoyable 4 months in Cedar West, and I've done my best. And that's what matters.

And now for transfer news. Obviously I'm getting transferred home to Michigan. Upset, I know right? :) But as for Elder Cockerham, I was actually a little surprised. I was really hoping he'd stay in Cedar West and keep working with our recent converts and with the investigator who's on date, and hopefully really resurrect Cedar West and get it out of this slow period we're in. But I guess the Lord has other plans. Cedar West is getting a set of sisters, and Elder Cockerham is getting transferred up to the Richfield Zone, covering Salina and Gunnison with Elder Gould. And since AP Prior is one of the group going home along with myself, and Elders Wells, Martell, and Renteria, we have a new AP. And it's Elder Stone, "The Great Stone Dragon"! That's another one that I predicted! Elder Stone is awesome, and I know he'll do great.

And that about does it for transfer news. Obviously, a lot more than that happened, but most of it isn't very pertinent as I'm going home in 2 days.

Monday last week was pretty great though. Elder Cockerham and I went to St. George and got to hang out with Paul Anderson, one of the Piano Guys. I know Paul's assistant, Jeremy, who works for The Piano Guys as their website/operations manager and piano move coordinator. We hung out earlier in my mission (April), and this past week we got it arranged so we could see Paul for a little bit. That was so fun! We talked about a lot of stuff. A lot of funny stuff too. We especially talked about The Piano Guys in general, and especially the recording and videography aspects (Paul is the producer/videographer of the group), which was super interesting. Paul and Jeremy also talked about

their missions and gave me some good advice going home. My favorite bit of advice was from Paul to watch or listen to a General Conference talk a day. So yeah, pretty much one of the best P-Days ever!

Well we still haven't caught Khan. He doesn't fall for any traps! But we're still trying. We've gotta catch him before the sisters come. I really hope we catch him in the next 24 hrs. I will send an update if we do.

Well I can't believe I've come to the end of my mission. It really has been great. I've gotten to go to so many places. I've gotten to learn and experience so many things. And I've gotten to know so many people, and feel a little bit of how the Savior feels about them. Of course there were the trials. I've experienced a lot of sorrow as I've had to say goodbye to missionaries going home, as well as those I've taught and worked with in the areas in which I've served. It's been difficult getting along with a couple of my companions. And it has been especially hard to watch so many people reject the gospel. But it's been worth it. I don't regret it at all. The trials have taught me so much and have brought me closer to the Lord. And the good experiences whether it be with those I've taught or with other missionaries or members, have been priceless. I will not forget those who have been part of my journey these last two years. I will never forget the areas in which I've served. All of these people, places, and experiences have become a part of me, and it breaks my heart to leave. But if there's one thing I've learned from the constant changing of mission life, it's that change happens, whether it's 100% pleasant or not, and if we allow Him, The Lord will guide us through it and strengthen us. I still remember the words of Gandalf that comforted me when I was devastated about leaving Mt. Pleasant and when I wished I had more time there: "But that is not for us to decide. All we must decide is what to do with the time that is given to us". The time that the Lord has given me for my mission is over, and I am happy to say that, though I wasn't perfect, I tried my best and reaped the benefits, and I can look back on that time well spent and look forward to the future, trusting in God to direct my paths.

I want to thank those who have been with me on this journey. Some of those people may actually receive my weekly emails. So you know who you are. I want to thank all the members in Mount Pleasant, Enoch West, Snow Canyon, and Cedar West who I've come to know and care about. Thank you for your friendship and support, and assistance in this great work of salvation. Thank you to my companions and other missionaries, for your service, for putting up with me, and in many cases, for your friendship. Thank you to those whom I taught and who accepted the Lord's call to be baptized as members of His church. I've probably learned more from you than I could ever teach you. Thank you to those back home and in various places who have written me and given me support. I won't forget it. And most of all, I thank my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for giving me this opportunity to serve in this capacity. I literally could not have done even a fraction of this without their guidance and support. In all the highs and lows of my mission, in all of the change, The Lord has been the constant in my life, and so He will be after I'm home, and forever.

Now if I could address the whole world, here's some of the advice I'd give. To members: Please realize how important missionary work is. Please assist in that work. Missionaries can't do it alone. And the happiness that comes from sharing the gospel with your friends and family is priceless, as well as the deepening of your relationship with God and the understanding of the gospel that will also result. It can be scary, but have faith in the message and trust that God will back you up. You don't even have to worry about converting people. That's between them and The Lord. It's our responsibility as disciples of Christ, and as friends and neighbors to simply invite. And to those who are not yet a member of our faith: Please give it a chance. Know that we share the gospel and invite others to learn about it because we care about you. It's not about numbers or anything else. The gospel makes us happy, so like anything else that makes us happy, we seek to share it. Accepting our message is up to you. It's between you and God. But please give our message a chance. Really what's there to lose? It's either true or it's not. If it's not, then you really didn't lose anything except maybe a couple hours learning about it, but if it's true, then all the blessings of eternity could be within your grasp, which you won't want to miss out on. All we want you to do is to, in the words of some of Christ's disciples in the Bible, "Come and see".

I know God is real, and that Jesus is The Christ, "The Son of The Living God". I know that He lives, and is our Savior. I know more than ever that they love us and know us personally, and desire a relationship with us. This gospel that I've spent the last 2 years preaching, it is true, and sharing it is their work. The church, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, prophets and apostles Joseph Smith, Thomas

S. Monson; it's all true. And how I have loved being a full time messenger of that truth.

Well, that's about it. I still can't quite believe my mission is coming to an end. I've spent my whole life looking forward to a mission. And now it's about over. I've gone there, and now I'm about to go back again. Now my task is to remember these experiences, and continue to learn and grow throughout the rest of my life. To the Utah St. George Mission, and all those who have been a part my experience in it, it has been a pleasure and a privilege.

I bid you all a very fond farewell.

-Elder Oswald

Chilling with Paul Anderson and Jeremy Crawford at Piano Guys HQ in

St. Geezy (1/16/2017)

One More Week!

January 16, 2017

Hi guys!

Quite a lot happened this past week. Firstly, the work is still going about the same pace it's been going. It's not bad, we are teaching, and it's going well, but we are desperate for more investigators to

teach. And we didn't find any. But we did get Katie (our new investigator from the previous week) on date! That was an awesome lesson. We taught The Plan of Salvation and we planned the baptismal

invite really well, and Elder Cockerham delivered it just about perfectly. Throughout the lesson, we both said some things that I'm pretty sure were inspired, our fellowshipper was great, and the Spirit

was super strong. Katie is on date for the 18th of February. It still feels weird that I won't be here for that.

We also did get a few more referrals. I'm not sure how solid they are, but it's at least something to keep us going.

Khan was tricky this week. On Tuesday, a mouse had gotten himself caught in an empty trash can (he was walking and just sort of fell in) and we thought we'd finally caught Khan. But then three things came to mind: 1) We've seen Khan a lot, and this mouse looked smaller than how we remembered him, 2) This mouse was caught in an area of the house where Khan never hangs out, and 3) Khan is a grand master champion of avoiding detainment, but this mouse literally caught himself, in other words, this mouse seemed a little amateur. So I set some bait near the two places Khan tends to frequent, to see if they would get eaten. If they disappeared that would mean Khan is still in the house, but if they didn't, that would mean we had indeed caught him. So we released the mouse we caught into Cedar Canyon to live out his days in the wild, and for the whole day, that bait was entirely undisturbed, so we thought we may have actually caught him. But sure enough, we'd been

bamboozled! Early the next morning, I heard scampering noises, and when I checked, one of the pieces of bait was gone. Later that day, the other bait had been disturbed, but not eaten, and then by the end of the day, that one was gone too. The evidence was conclusive: we didn't catch Khan, we caught his crony (or maybe just some poor sap just passing through). I like to think it was a set up. Khan knew we were after him, so he got this other mouse to be his fall guy and make it LOOK like we had got Khan, but actually it was just a clever decoy. I know mice probably don't think like that at all, but it's more fun to look at it that way. Plus Khan is pretty smart... Anyway, a few days later we saw him again gorging himself on some of our cookies (which we didn't want anyway, so I guess it's just as well someone's enjoying them). So yeah. He's still here. Hopefully I'll be able to catch him before I go home.

Now getting back to more spiritual things, we had a great weekend. On Saturday we had Ashton's baptism. Unfortunately, Quentin apparently isn't getting baptized anytime soon because he's still in Arizona, and apparently his parents are dodging the law or something. So that really stinks. But at least we did get one baptism. And it went so well! There was a huge turnout. We actually had to do it in the chapel since the room we usually hold baptismal services in was too small for everyone. He had a lot of family members, a lot of people from school, and a big ward turnout as well. And Katie came to the baptism too, so it was cool to have an investigator there to learn and also see what it actually is that she'll be doing in a month. It was just really great. I'll include pictures with this email. It's myself, Elder Cockerham, Ashton, and his uncle who baptized him.

And that was actually my last baptism as a missionary. Nobody else is scheduled (or ready) to get baptized before I leave in just over a week. I'm glad it went so well. And Ashton is just awesome so he's a fitting final mission convert.

Sunday was good too. We had Ashton's confirmation which went really well. Again, a lot of good family and ward support. And later we got to observe a ward split. Up until now, the Hamilton Fort Ward had been enormous. But yesterday they split it into the (new) Hamilton Fort Ward and the South Mountain Ward. It'll be cool I think to see if that stirs up any missionary opportunities that were previously hidden due to the ward being so huge, boundary wise and population wise. It will

definitely provide some opportunities for the wards to reactivate people, since now there's more need for callings, and again, less room to hide.

There were also some really good thoughts shared by some of the speakers yesterday. The theme for the whole stake seemed to be The Sabbath Day. I'd like to share one thought I really liked. If you had

a day to hang out with Jesus Christ, what would you do with Him? Where would you go with Him? What would you talk about? Well, even though we don't get hang out with Him in person just yet, that's really what the Sabbath Day is. It's a day to spend some personal time with The Savior. We should imagine the opportunity to literally hang out with Jesus and what we'd want to do with Him, and then do those things for the Sabbath. There aren't a whole lot of specific things we're told to do or not to do on Sunday. It's supposed to be a day of rest and of worship and we should try our best not to work or purchase things on the Sabbath if we can help it. The only thing we're really commanded to do specifically is to go to church and take the sacrament. The rest of the day, we have a lot of personal choice as to how we're going to make the Sabbath special. So, what would you do if got the opportunity to hang out with Jesus for a day?

Well that's all for today. And I can hardly believe it, but I only have one week left. Well, a week and a couple days, but yeah. That's scary. And exciting. And sad. And just plain crazy. It's a lot of things. But regardless, I'm going to make this final week as fantastic as I can. Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Oswald

Another email that I don't have a clever title for (too tired to think of one)

January 9, 2017

Hi guys!

Well this letter might be a bit shorter. It's not that nothing happened this week, quite the opposite, there's just not a lot of specifically noteworthy things to cover in great detail.

We've had a pretty great week. Only one lesson fell through, and we taught more nonmember lessons than we have in a long time. Most of them were to Ashton who is getting ready for his baptism on Saturday, but we also picked up a new investigator, Katie in the same ward. And both of them were at church yesterday too! We've been getting more referrals and really making headway with some of the members and things are really starting to come together nicely.

It is an odd feeling though that Ashton (and hopefully Quentin if his family ever gets back from vacation) will be my last baptism on my mission. Everyone new we pick up will be getting baptized after I'm gone. It's weird, and kinda sad.

In fact as the 25th approaches, it's really beginning to weigh on me. Yes it's exciting, but more and more, I'm aware of how much I'm going to miss these two years worth of places, people, and experiences. I've been feeling kinda sad about it. Not really just sad though. Sad doesn't really describe it. It's more of a subtle heavy feeling that just keeps slowly building. I can't find the right word to describe it.

As far as Khan goes, this week has been more of the same. He recently helped himself to some cookies that we had sitting on a table next to the ficus that he plays in sometimes. Honestly though, he did us a favor because we still have too many cookies and sweets. We've seen Khan a few times, and he's adorable. He really is a cute mouse (and a noticeably well fed one). Our efforts to catch him this week were lacking, partially because we were just too busy, and also partially because it's been very cold and snowy and we didn't want to cast him out into that. But we will continue trying to catch him now that the weather is a little more favorable.

And speaking of weather, it was really bad for a few days. Thursday night it snowed several inches right after a very slick ice storm. Our piece of garbage little car almost couldn't handle it. That night we got stuck in the middle of a couple intersections, we got stuck in our driveway the next morning, and during the storm, we almost had a major accident. We were coming up to an intersection, and even though we were careful to start breaking long before we got to the intersection, we still slid right through it, as someone was about to drive though the intersection perpendicular to us! Luckily, that guy was going very slow and was able to stop before he hit us, so we didn't die. But it was scary!

And that's pretty much it from my end. Other than that I'm just tired. That's good, it means I'm working hard. But wow. I just feel worn out. I guess two years will do that.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Oswald

The Wrath of Khan

January 2, 2017

Hi guys!

Well, as much as I love the holidays, I'm sure glad that's over! This week has been extremely slow. Basically our entire teaching pool decided to go out of town for the week. And despite really trying, we couldn't find any new investigators. So it wasn't exactly an enjoyable week. But now at least a majority of our teaching pool is back in town so we will be able to have a much better week. I'm looking forward to it.

To make this past week even more frustrating, I got sick again for half of it, and I'm still not completely better. Thankfully it's not as bad as last time, but it's still very uncomfortable. It's a pretty

bad head cold, and I really hope it doesn't turn into a sinus infection. So that has been making my life difficult.

We did have a bit of fun on New Years Eve, however. We had a district New Years Eve party that the ZLs also attended. It was really fun, despite the fact that I was still not feeling well.

We also had a rather cool referral experience. I accidentally pocket dialed some random number that was saved in our phone, and then that evening they called back and asked if we had called about a certain family. I said I had no idea who they were, and the guy said he actually needed to talk to us about them because it was a couple who were recent converts and they wanted their kids (sounded like they're teenage kids) to take the lessons. The plan is hopefully to start teaching them this week, if the kids agree to it. So yeah, talk about an inspired pocket dial. The Lord does work in mysterious ways.

The only other matter of any excitement that really happened this week was that silly mouse that inhabits our apartment. The little miscreant really is living up to his name "Khan". And no, we still haven't caught him. We have learned something of his omnipresent nature, however. He seems to appear and disappear at will. He has at least four entrances to his lair, in various places around the apartment. He can climb things. I think he's building a summer home in our fake ficus. And he is not even a little bit fooled by our mousetrap. In fact I think at one point he may have moved it slightly so he could get around it. We hear him all the time, and we've seen him multiple times this week, probably more than ever before. And he's actually started eating some of our food.

Elder Cockerham put a loaf of sliced bread on a shelf, probably about four and a half or five feet high. Well, Khan ate it. One night I walked by and I saw him jump off said shelf and disappear into the shadows. I realized that he had climbed up a nearly vertical narrow stick thing, about the width of an extension cord. Apparently he had been scaling up that and then getting off on the shelf and then

gorging himself. A few days later, Elder Cockerham saw what was happening to his bread. I've included a picture of it below. We now keep bread on top of the refrigerator. And I guess we'll see how long it takes for him to learn how to climb that.

It's a little embarrassing that we are getting totally owned by a mouse. But we are. He's skilled and he's smart. He's like a tiny little dragon sitting on his hoard inside our wall. And we can't seem to do anything about it. And I think he may be starting to realize that, thus his becoming more bold.

So yeah, a lot of the "highlights" of the week have been unsuccessfully attempting to bring him into custody. But despite our best efforts, Khan is still at large.

And that's pretty much been my week. Happy New Year!

-Elder Oswald

Happy New Year (Almost)

December 26, 2016

Hi guys!

Hey, I hit my 23 month mark this past week. Crazy!

Well, this week was pretty good, though things definitely didn't go as planned. In terms of lessons, the week started out great. But then after Tuesday it just went out the window. A couple appointments

cancelled, but the worst thing was that our baptism fell through.Quentin's family decided to go to Kingman, AZ for the holidays. The baptism still going to happen before I go home, but we were just

really looking forward to it being on Christmas Eve. Now it'll be on the 14th of January, the same day as Ashton's baptism.

The really tough part of last week is the effect on this week. Now that Quentin and Ashton are out of town for a couple weeks, we only have the Daltons, who are not the most solid of investigators in fact

we may need to drop them this week, if we can even get an appointment that is. So yeah, this week is looking kinda rough. And we've gone through most of our potential investigators, and we're not getting many referrals. There are a couple people we might be able to pick up, and hopefully that pans out. And next week should be better, Ashton will be back, and to get him ready for the 14th, we'll be meeting with him often. But until then, hopefully we can hang in there and find some more people while we're at it.

The rest of last week wasn't terrible though, even though a lot of stuff fell through. We tried contacting potentials, which was unsuccessful, but we were doing something. We also did a lot of

service. We did service making wooden toy cars at the Happy Factory. And we did some Christmas caroling with other missionaries in the zone.

And one of my favorite things we did was rescue a a really cool bird. It's called a Grebe and they migrate from Canada to warmer climates during the winter. They are water birds, and in fact they can only take off in the water. The problem is, and this happened in Cedar City a couple years ago, that during a storm they'll try to land but they'll mistake wet icy parking lots as ponds and lakes. So they'll

land but then not be able to take off again. Anyway, we found one in the parking lot of our stake center one morning. We didn't really know what to do, so we stayed around it and made sure it didn't scuttle away (run really isn't the correct term) or go into the road. We called around and eventually got in touch with an animal rescuer/nature dude and brought the bird to him to take care of and release. It was pretty fun. And it was a really cool bird. I'll send some pictures.

On Saturday, we had a zone Christmas activity. It was pretty fun. President Smith was there and he kind of played Santa and let us tell him our dream transfer calls. We had food and a couple games, but a lot of time was playing "Beanboozled", a rather terrible, but still kinda fun game. It's by Jelly Belly, and it consists of jelly beans that for each color has two possible flavors, a good one and a bad

one. For instance. Green might be lime or grass clippings. Orange-ish could be peach or barf. Brown could be chocolate or dog food. White could be coconut or spoiled milk. You get the idea. Anyway, we all sat in a circle and when the little container cane around it dispensed two beans, which we had to choose between. And if we did get a bad one, we had to swallow it, or else we were out of the game. It was kinda terrifying. Some weren't too bad, like the grass clippings. But some, like dog food, were pretty nasty. I didn't get a barf, dead fish, or rotten egg flavored one, but a few people did and I heard they were the worst. At the end, somehow the ZLs convinced President and Sister Smith to play, and they both got bad ones. But anyway, it was a pretty fun activity.

And then of course was Christmas. That was awesome. We went to a few wards for church and they all had nice Christmas programs. We were invited by some members to share a Christmas message with their grandkids, and that was fun. And then the highlight of the day was getting to Skype home. It was a really great day, and a good spiritual recharge with all of the focus on Christ.

I hope you all had a great Christmas yourselves. Now have a happy New Year, and focus on making it better than this one! It's a great opportunity to try to improve and accomplish things with new motivation. And my suggestion might be to, as a good friend of mine, Sam Howard, recently discussed with me, focus more on "systems" instead of traditional quantitative goals. For instance instead of saying "I'm going to study the scriptures for 1 hour every day" say "I'm going to read and ponder the scriptures every day". If you set yourself a very specific quantitative goal like the first one, you are setting yourself up for failure when you inevitably don't get a full hour some day. The second statement on the other hand is more flexible and allows you to feel good and stay motivated even if you don't read for a certain amount of time. Maybe it was only ten minutes, but hey you did it. The system method of goal setting focuses more on progress than on specific end results and deadlines. Another example is saying "I want to lose 70 pounds this year" vs "I want to lose weight this

year and eventually lose a total of 70 pounds". While it might be appropriate sometimes to set a specific goal for things, statements like that first statement can be kind of loaded. It's lofty, and if

you don't hit it, you failed. But if your goal is just to lose weight that year in pursuit of eventually getting to your ideal weight (no deadline though), then even if you only lose 20 pounds that year, it's

still an accomplishment and you can feel good that you have fulfilled your goal.

Now, this being said, still push yourself to accomplish things, and if specific goal setting is what works for you, then do it. Don't use this alternate way of setting goals as an excuse to not really set

goals for yourself. And there are some things, like sins and bad habits, that we really just have to try and stop ASAP. That's not what I'm referring to. Generally, if we are doing something wrong, we can't wait or be lenient with it, we just need to stop it. But for most other kinds of resolutions, remember that progress is progress and hold yourself accountable for that and make that your true goal, rather than focusing so much on specific, and often lofty and unattainable goals. This is the gospel method. Living the gospel isn't a checklist. Christ doesn't expect us to become perfect right away. It's a lifelong process, a system of becoming. We want to be better, so we follow Christ. And sometimes we don't accomplish nearly as much as we wanted to in our spiritual development, in testimony building, in overcoming weaknesses, or whatever. But God looks at progress. Even tiny progress. I've heard it said that God is easy to please and hard to satisfy. He is pleased by even the slightest bit of progress despite our failings, but He will not be satisfied until we are perfect. I think we ought to set our personal goals that way. Focus on the progress, and don't get bogged down in specific goals; be pleased at even the smallest amount of progress, but don't be satisfied until you have reached the ideal you are seeking after. So back to New Years resolutions. Whether they be spiritual goals, health goals, or whatever goal you may set for yourself. Have an end ideal in mind, but instead of attaching a deadline to it and making that your New Year's resolution, I'd recommend setting goals to progress in that direction over the course of the year, rather than meeting your end goal in the course of the year, because you might be setting yourself up for disappointment, which in turn can lead to lack of motivation, which may halt any progress you were making, not to mention, you won't be as happy.

But regardless of how you set your goals for the new year, definitely set them. Use it as an opportunity to be better than you were last year. It's kind of an opportunity to repent if you think about it. And what a great opportunity it is.

Happy New Year!

-Elder Oswald

Some pictures from the zone Christmas party on Saturday. I forgot to mention that Elder Cockerham and I borrowed some hilariously festive suit coats from a really cool member.

This is the bird we rescued. It's called a Grebe.

It's Go Time

December 19, 2016

Hi everyone!

Well, we managed to have a really good week! We picked up three new investigators. Two are iffy and we'll have to see how the next couple lessons go, but the other one is golden! His name is Ashton and he's a junior in high school. And we got him on date too, for January 14th! We had quite a few lessons this past week, and half of them were with nonmembers so that's great. It was actually probably one of the best weeks I've had since I've been here. And only two appointments fell through.

And this week is looking pretty dapper as well. It could very well be our busiest week yet for teaching, and there are some potential investigators we could (and hopefully do pick up), and Quentin is getting baptized on Christmas Eve and Confirmed at church on Christmas! And of course, Christmas is this week! Not only is it an exciting time of year, and a great opportunity to outwardly celebrate the Savior and actually have most of society celebrate with you, but for missionaries it's also one of the two greatest days of the year (the other being Mother's Day). We get to Skype home! I'm really looking forward to that. So yeah, it's looking like a pretty good week, and it's looking like the area is really starting to bounce back.

And we finally got some really good snow! It was actually kind of mean how it happened. So we've had this warm spell recently and the temperature has been in the 40s and 50s. But then a few days ago, the temperature dropped over 20 degrees over night leaving a bunch of ice (freezing rain) and a few inches of snow. And the last couple days have barely broken the 20s, so it's been chilly. Not as cold and snowy as Michigan, but winter's definitely here. The 20+ degree temperature drop in less than 12 hours was just really painful though.

Sunday night we had a visitor just in time for the holidays: Khan. That crafty little mouse is back and we spent a good solid 15 minutes chasing him around the apartment. Still didn't catch him, because we forgot about his teleportation ability. But, we did find where he hid and and I baited and set up my live trap right on the opening, so to come out, he'll literally have to go right into the trap. Unless he

uses a backdoor which he might very well have but hopefully not. Hopefully we catch him soon!

And that's been my week. Pretty good. I hope you all have a great week and a great Christmas! Remember the reason for the season, and keep Christ in Christmas. And if you haven't, you should check out the Light The World initiative on Mormon.org. It's pretty cool!

Merry Christmas!

-Elder Oswald

PS- Mouse update: He used the back door. KHAAAAAN!!!

Picture 1: Elder Robinson and I at the Transfer Van. Robby got transferred up north so we made sure to get a picture. He looks kinda goofy in this picture but he said he was trying to look "majestic".

Picture 2: A really nice rainbow, just a few hours before winter set in.

My Doom is Sealed

December 12, 2016

Hi guys!

Well we actually had a pretty good week. We had to drop another investigator, so now we've only got one, but we had 100% of our appointments happen, and they went very well. I haven't had 100% appointment happenings in ages! We are also looking at picking up two new investigators this week, and another one hopefully also soon. So yeah, the area is pretty much going through a big reboot. We got down to almost nothing and now we're basically starting over fresh. So hopefully things continue moving in a positive direction.

It's transfer time again. Transfer calls came on Sunday, and as predicted, I'm staying in Cedar West with Elder Cockerham. There have been a few changes here and there throughout the mission, but nothing too crazy this time around. The most notable change is that AP Rodriguez is going home this transfer so we have a new AP, Elder Zuniga, who is awesome, and I was kinda calling him as AP a few transfers ago.

And here's something cool. All of my mission "posterity" is now in the Cedar Zone. My "son" Elder Bright is still in Cedar as a ZL, I'm here training my second son, Elder Cockerham. And my "grandson", Elder Schroeder, a fellow Michigander, is just over in Parowan.

Although not much has changed for me this transfer, it feels weird. Really weird. This is it. My final six weeks. I have no more transfers to hide behind. Next transfer, I will be on a plane headed back to

Michigan, which is both exciting and terrifying and happy and sad and just about every emotion in between. It's so weird. And it just became very real. Again, I have no more transfers to hide behind. I now know for sure that this IS my last area and that Elder Cockerham IS my final companion. There's no more "I'm probably going to be here until the end". Now it's "This is the place in which I will die". My Doom has been decided.

And that's pretty much been my week. There are, however, a couple funny experiences I'd like share before finishing. First, Elder Cockerham almost killed someone! We were driving and he wasn't paying attention to the crosswalk and he almost ran down a guy! Luckily I saw him, and was able to alert Elder Cockerham before he committed manslaughter. And the guy was actually a returning less active that we are friends with! We saw him at a Christmas party a few days later and we all had a good laugh.

The other funny thing was an epic prank we pulled on the Spanish Elders (Elders Willis and Plauche). We were on exchange so I was actually with Elder Dennis, and Elder Dennis had been getting pranked a lot by Cedar Spanish, especially by Elder Willis. So we decided to pull a little prank between our lessons. We duct taped some of Elder Willis's stuff to the ceiling, flipped all the furniture upside down, and shaving creamed a bunch of stuff. Using shaving cream, we drew on their mirror, I drew a Batman symbol on a chair, and Elder Dennis drew a frowny face with x's for eyes on Elder Willis's bed (which is the same thing Willis did to Dennis). Last but not least, we took a frozen can of shaving cream and impaled it several times, and then threw it in one of Elder Willis's empty suitcases. So as it thawed it would fill his suitcase. It was probably the best prank I've ever pulled. And what made it better was that Willis didn't find the shaving cream in his suit case until the next day, so it had plenty of time to get everywhere!

So yeah, good times. :)

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

-Elder Oswald

Meet "The World's Greatest Detective", Inspector Elder Batman!

Temple Pictures:

Picture 1: Elder Cockerham, Elder Parsons, myself, Elder Howard

Picture 2: Me and Elder Cockerham

Picture 3: Me and Elder Howard

This morning we took an early morning drive up Cedar Canyon and it was really pretty! Though it's kinda warmed up in the valley, it's definitely winter in the canyon. The ice especially made for a special sight.