The Cedar Curse

September 26, 2016

Hi guys!

Well, I made it to P-Day! This week has felt super long. But it's been alright. I'm adjusting pretty well. It helps that I'm already familiar with Cedar. And as much as I wanted to stay in St. George, I've done a lot of reflection and praying and I know this is where I'm supposed to be.

The funny thing is, I am a prime example of the "Cedar Curse". The Cedar Curse says that if you serve in Cedar, you will serve there again. I served in Enoch West for 9 months, and now I'm back in Cedar. And I think I'm double cursed, because the timing is terrible. I was in Cedar last winter, then St. George for the summer, and now back to Cedar just in time for it to get cold again. And it's getting pretty chilly. Coming from St. George I kinda feel like I missed a season.

Well my first week in Cedar West has been pretty good. We've taught a few lessons, and I'm getting to know some of the leadership. One of my ward mission leaders I can already tell is pretty awesome.

I've also had the opportunity to see some people from Enoch West. That's been really fun. And in one case, good timing too, since I got to Cedar literally the day the Runnels, an awesome recent convert

family, was in town (I guess they recently moved to Pleasant Grove) and having dinner with the Sessions family (Bro. Sessions was a ward mission leader in Enoch West). It was really fun to see them all and I'm glad they're all doing well.

So things have been pretty good here. My apartment isn't fantastic though. The snow canyon apartment was one of the bigger apartments in the mission. Now I'm stuck in some little crack-shack on the edge of SUU Campus. We don't have a washer and dryer and we don't have wifi. Our living room is our bedroom, and our kitchen has virtually no counter space. Also the furnace is very noisy, and isn't the best at keeping things warm. But it's better than nothing.

Saturday was pretty fun. We got to do a service project for 7 hrs. We went up Cedar Canyon (beautiful by the way) about 45 minutes where a ward was cutting wood and we helped load it into trucks and trailers. Then we went down to help split and stack it all. Two of the logs we lifted into a trailer were each about 4 feet long and 2.5 feet in diameter. It took four of us to get each of them in the trailer, and it took about 15 minutes with a woodsplitter to get one into stackable mini-logs. It was fun...and exhausting, and I'm still sore.

Well, that's been my last few days. It's been pretty good. Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Farewell to St. George:

At the Transfer Van before heading up to Cedar.

Pictures 1&2: Elder Daines, my second district leader, and for the past 10 months, AP. He just went home this transfer.

Pictures 3: Elder Robinson ("Robby"), Elder Earl ("Carl"), Elder Cornelison ("Corn"), and myself (Ozzy)

Picture 4: Myself with my MTC buddy, and now AP, Elder Prior

Picture 5: Me and Elder Howard

Picture 6: President Smith, because I haven't sent a picture with him yet

New Adventures in Cedar:

A couple pictures from my first day back in Cedar:

1: Reunion with the Runnels and Sessions families

2: The Cedar Temple, under construction; it's come a long way since the last time I saw it!

When we were coming back down the mountains from our ward service project loading up logs on Saturday, I had our ward mission leader who was giving us a ride stop at a lookout so I could get a couple pictures.

And yes, my hair is crazy. But that scenery, though!

As a prank, my new companion, Elder Reynolds, and I kidnapped Elder Robinson's man sized teddy bear and held him for ransom for a few days. It was pretty great. :)