"And...here...we..go!"

August 8, 2016

Hi guys!

Wow! We had a really intense week! So much has happened; A lot of positive, a bit of negative, and a whole lot of crazy!

To start with, we had a pretty good week for teaching, all things considered. Our week actually started out kinda bad, but we were able to keep it together and pull through. We didn't have as many lessons as last week, and we didn't get any new investigators, but we did do a lot of teaching, and we basically solidified our baptisms that will be happening on Saturday. Mona's kids are finally getting baptized! That's so exciting! I've been working with them for about 4 months now. So yeah, that'll be fun. As far as other investigators go, Reagan is still progressing very well. Maria is also progressing very well, and it's still looking like she'll hit her baptismal date of August 27th. And Reagan, Maria, and all of Mona's kids were at church too! Kini, the 10 year old we're teaching in the 5th Ward is also

progressing well, and she was also at church! She'll be baptized soon, on the 20th. Unfortunately, Remi didn't make it to church, and his dad still says he can't be baptized, so our hands are kind of tied there. Plus this weekend he's going back with his dad to Bakersfield, CA. We'll have to refer him to the Elders there. And Ryan's still hanging in there. I didn't hear if he was at church or not, but he likely was.

He's still having trouble accepting the Word of Wisdom, so we've backed off from it for a little while, and we'll revisit it with him at another time. This week we're trying to take him to the Temple Visitors Center. And I think that's most of our teaching pool at the moment. So yeah, for the most part everyone's doing pretty good!

Last week saw the implementation of a lot of new mission rules, that unfortunately nobody's really thrilled about. Some of them kind of make sense, but there's a couple that I think are a bit much. These rules were a product of the President, Assistants, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders. Unfortunately, some of those leaders tend to be a bit overzealous for rules, and also a little fake, so sometimes a good idea can turn into just a burden for everyone else in the mission. And that's kinda what happened with a couple of the rules. Of course, I'll still be obedient, though I am a little frustrated. And I guess we'll see how long some of those rules actually last. President may be just trying it out to see how it works. We also had several mission leaders replaced, so some new opinions and viewpoints might start to be considered. And that leads me to my next bit of news...

TRANSFERS! Transfers are on Tuesday, and we got our transfers calls on Saturday, and talk about a mission-wide upset! President Smith seems to have shuffled everything! A couple missionaries jokingly said "He's an agent of chaos!" Now, none of that chaos actually hit me. I'm actually staying in Snow Canyon as district leader, and I'm getting an Elder named Elder Cornelison. He's been in St. George for a while so I already know him. I like him a lot. So I'm excited. But the rest of the mission has been totally reworked. Loa is closed. Sunset 2 is combined with Sunset 1. St. George English has been moved to the St. George West Zone. St. George East is being whitewashed and moved into the St. George Central Zone. Washington Fields, which has been a sister area for as long as anyone can remember, is being whitewashed by Elders. Beaver is having the sisters taken out and being whitewashed by Elder White and his greenie...Elder White (two Elder Whites whitewashing an area, the ultimate transfer pun). And 4 out of the 10 ZLs have been replaced, along with several Sister Training Leaders and Visitor Center Trainers. And one of the new ZLs hasn't even been a DL first. And there are a lot of new missionaries coming in, so a lot of people are training. Most of the district leaders seem to be doing so. So a lot has changed! It's kinda cool. I think it'll be nice for the mission to shake things up a bit. But yeah, as for me, I'm staying put this transfer. But I'm pretty sure next transfer (in 6 weeks) I'll get moved and Elder Cornelison will take over the area.

So a lot has happened this past week. I'll miss Elder Fairbanks, who goes home on Wednesday, but I look forward to this new transfer with Elder Cornelison. It's going to be good. What matters most is that this IS the Lord's work, and no matter what happens, that's what we're doing.

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

PS- I got a visit from my old "dad" (trainer; first companion) on Saturday! It was so good to see him again!

A few pictures from Zone Meeting (St. George West Zone) on Friday.

Today we went with Elders Schweers and Doeling to Snow Canyon for a little hike and some spelunking. It was super fun, and it's a really pretty area. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting St. George.

Here's a couple more from our Snow Canyon hike. The first one is a rather entertaining panorama in which Elder Schweers appears to walk into a mystic portal and then appear in another part of the desert. The second one is actually from inside the Lava Tube that we went spelunking in. The sparkles in the cave wall are gold flecks.

Pictures

August 2, 2016

Picture 1: Myself with Casey Elliot (blue jacket) and Brad Robins, two of the three members of GENTRI, a really awesome musical group that I've mentioned before since I've met Brad several times before. It was really cool to see them both at church visiting in one of my wards on Sunday.

Pictures 2 & 3: We went up to a big hill/cliff thing and it has a pretty good view of St. George so I got a couple pictures. Unfortunately with dim light and the storm clouds, the picture quality was pretty bad, and doesn't do it justice at all.

And the Heavens Open...

August 1, 2016

Hi guys!

We had a really great week! We almost hit Standards of Excellence. The only thing was we only found one new investigator and we only had two investigators make it to church. But we did our best, worked ourselves to exhaustion, and accomplished a lot of good!

On Monday, we got permission from President Smith to watch the movie 17 Miracles with Reagan for family home evening. It was really good (I love that movie) and we also had a good discussion about the pioneers, and what we can lean from their example. I also feel really bad for complaining so much about not having a car. The pioneers had it way worse. And they didn't have church buildings every mile to stop at and rest for a few minutes. I can deal with a little heat (as painful as

it may be).

Anyway, Reagan's doing super good. We're just waiting to hear back from the First Presidency because of her parole thing. Hopefully we'll hear back soon and hopefully they'll grant permission!

We finally got Mona and company home! And we finally started teaching Maria, Mona's friend who lives with her! Mona's been doing some missionary work, and now we've started teaching her, and she's on date for the end of the month! A she's really solid. She shared an experience with us about when she prayed. She's never been a super religious person, so she wasn't really sure about it, but she said she prayed and just felt peace and love and joy as she did it, and she said she's felt a lot better since then.

Unfortunately Mona's kids have been all over the place, and we still haven't been able to teach them again, and they missed church this Sunday, which means we'll probably have to push their baptism back yet another week. It can be kind of frustrating sometimes. I know that they want this, and I know they're pretty solid, but keeping appointments seems to be a real challenge for them. But things are looking up for this week, so hopefully it does go better on that front.

Ryan still won't commit to live the Word of Wisdom. That's really frustrating. He's actually progressing pretty well, and he wants to get baptized, but that just seems to be his only hang up. He feels like he should be exempt from the Word of Wisdom...or something like that. We can't seem to get him to understand that this is something God has asked us to do, so whether or not we understand it, we still need to live it. And if he has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the truthfulness of this church, then the Word of Wisdom, and any other commandment for that matter, should be a no-brainer. Anyway, I hope he comes around to it eventually.

Well everyone else is doing pretty well. And we should have some baptisms coming up this month. We're expecting 4 or 5 this month.

Well, this week was hot! I don't mean to complain (see pioneer speech above), but man! It was brutal! Walking in 114+ degree weather with no clouds to block any of the direct merciless sunlight is pretty rough. We walked across our area one day, and we thought we were going to die. I love hiking, and I'm good at it, and this was just bad. We only went about a mile and a half, but it felt like trudging across freaking Mordor. And we were having trouble staying awake the rest of the day because we felt so drained. But the pioneers still had it worse, and I'm still grateful I don't have to do what they did. I have to wonder though, what did the pioneers think when they went from Salt Lake to settle St. George? :)

And the good news is...we got the car back! It's all fixed up and it's really nice to not have to walk in the heat! And it couldn't have come sooner. We got it part way through one of the hottest days of the

week.

And that's not the only miracle. We actually got rain yesterday! Real proper rain! It was super nice. When we got home last night, Elder Fairbanks and I actually went out and ran around in it. It felt great! And the temperature for the next few days is supposed to be a bit cooler too!

So in both physical ways and in terms of missionary work, the Heavens have been opened on us. I like it, and I hope this week is just as awesome!

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

New Investigators and the Wrath of the Desert

July 26, 2019

Hi everyone!

Well, if there's one word I can use to describe this past week, it's "exhausting". I am just totally beat. We had a pretty good week and it was hard earned. We didn't teach as much as we would have liked

because about half of our appointments cancelled, but we still kept ourselves nice and busy, and a lot of good things happened.

First of all, our investigators are doing pretty well. The only real setback is that we've had to push Mariah, Brianna, and Elijah's (Mona's kids) baptisms back a week. But they're still going to happen.

And our drought is over! We found two new investigators! They are both 10 year old's, children of less active parents who want to come back to church. One of them is in the 5th Ward, and her name is Keeni (pronounced "kee-nee"). She's ridiculously smart for her age, and we got her on date in the first lesson (I love it when we do that). The other one is a kid in the 13th Ward named Remi. We started teaching him yesterday, and he is also on date! And he too is a very sharp kid. And this week is looking really good! We should be picking up another new investigator on Tuesday, and we have a lot of lessons planned. I'm excited!

Something that made the last few days rather difficult was we had to take the car in to get repaired, which has made us a temporary walking area for a few days. We still don't have it back, and I haven't heard anything about when we'll have it back. Hopefully soon! We've only been a walking area for a few days, and I'm not impressed. It's so freaking hot here! And it seems like there are never any clouds! All day is just triple digit temperatures all while the sun is beating down on us with it's full, scorching, un-tempered glory. It's really miserable to walk in, and it totally drains our energy. I'm so glad we're allowed to wear hats now! I pity the poor souls who are in walking areas in St. George full time. I also feel bad for people serving missions in even hotter places, like Arizona or Nevada.

Actually, I just checked the weather and right now and for the foreseeable future, St. George is actually hotter than some places in Arizona, like Tucson and Scottsdale and Mesa, and it's only a little

bit behind Phoenix and Las Vegas! So on second thought, I'd take Tucson over St. George right now. This Thursday is supposed to be 114 degrees and sunny in St. George! We'd better have the car back by then...

And speaking of heat and exhausting things, we had a super fun/busy Saturday. We did service helping out at the Pioneer Day Parade and Heritage Games. We started at 6:30 in the morning and went until about 1:30-1:45ish in the afternoon. And we were outside for about 95% of it and it was about 108 degrees the whole time, though it might have been even hotter in some parts of the day. Then later we had to walk to an appointment at 4:00 (thankfully, the bishop picked us up part way there), and we had a couple other appointments/visits that evening. We had rides to/from most of them, but we did have to walk a ways from visiting Remi to meet our next fellowshipper at the stake center. And even at 8:00, it was still over 100 degrees out. We didn't dip below 100 all day until about 9:15 PM. It was so hot. It was a super fun day, full of helping people, competing in stick pulls, and doing other pioneerish stuff. Also filling helium balloons and other not quite as pioneerish stuff. But it just drained the life out of us. We were so tired and worn out after getting back. But I regret nothing. It was good.

Well, that was pretty much our week. It didn't go perfectly, but lots of good happened. And we had lots of fun!

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Even More Dinosaurs

July 26, 2016

Hi everyone!

Last week we went to a small dinosaur museum built on the site of a big dinosaur track site in St. George. It was super cool! It's good to be able to take a P-Day to geek-out a bit. :)

A few notes on some of the pictures: Picture 5 is a big dinosaur footprint with a small dinosaur footprint inside it. It's hard so see from the picture.

And yes, the last two pictures are me pretending to place a Book of Mormon with a Dilophosaurus. It had to happen. Hey, the scriptures do say to preach the gospel to every creature. :)

Mishaps and Miracles

July 18, 2016

Hi everyone!

It feels like two weeks have gone by since the last Monday because of everything that's been crammed into this past week. I barely know where to start.

Well, I guess first it was better week for teaching than last week. We had about twice as many lessons. We still had a lot cancel, but last week was a lot worse. Unfortunately we've hit some bumps in the road. Ann isn't sure if she still wants to baptized. But after listening and trying to understand where she's coming from, it seems like it's not so much a matter of belief as it is just feeling overwhelmed. She's got a lot going on right now. Her husband died a few months ago, and she's still coming to terms with that. Physically she's not been feeling great. And what we're teaching her is quite new to her, and at around 80 years old, it's just harder for her to change her way of thinking about things. I felt like I should offer her a priesthood blessing, and she accepted, and we gave her one. Our ward mission leader who was there with us called us the next day and told us she called him and told him she felt 900% better after that and that we're making a believer out of her. I love things like that. Those are those treasures that we as missionaries live for. Hopefully she'll continue to improve and receive answers to her prayers.

So that was a miracle. And Monday-Thursday just went really well. Unfortunately all our lessons on Friday fell through, and all but one on Saturday. And that stinks because we were in exchange too (which was an adventure in and of itself. Elder Nordstrom is super goofy!) And that one lesson didn't quite go as planned. We were teaching the Word of Wisdom to Ryan, and we found out he has some pretty serious word of wisdom concerns (and I'm talking way more serious than just coffee or tea) that he doesn't feel like he should change. We couldn't get him to commit to live it, so we committed him to at least pray about it. Hopefully he decides to, not only for his physical/mental health, but also because he can't get baptized if he's refuses to keep that commandment. I really hope he changes his mind.

Also, our finding is way down. July is usually a bit slower anyway, but this is just ridiculous. We haven't found a new investigator in three weeks. That's bad. And we've really been working our hardest. But now we're out of referrals, and have almost zero prospects. And it's not just this area. This "drought" seems to be affecting the entire zone. I don't know why. We're working hard. We're working smart. But we're just not succeeding. I really hope we can somehow break out of that soon.

But here's more miracles. So Reagan got her interview with President Smith, and he's getting a letter put together for the 1st Presidency to allow her to get baptized even if she can't get off parole (which

looks like it'll be rather complicated). So that's exciting that that process is finally started. Hopefully it goes fast! Also, I talked to President Smith about some kids who want to get baptized. Their mom

(Mona) just got baptized in May, so she's supportive, but their dad left them and is somewhere in Mexico. Technically we're supposed to have permission from both parents, but President Smith said since the dad is totally out if the picture with pretty much no chance of coming back, to just get them baptized! Their baptism will be July 30th.

Now for a major development of the week with our apartment situation. The Santa Clara Elders, Elder Robinson and Elder Moore got a new companion on Tuesday, a greenie serving a trial mission before going to Turkey. His name is Elder Earl. Anyway, there wasn't enough room in the Santa Clara apartment, so, after a couple discussions, first with the housing coordinators, and then with me, President Smith decided to move Santa Clara in with us (we have plenty of space), on the condition that if it starts being a distraction, I'll report it. Well, it's actually been going great. If anything, I think it's been beneficial because with extra missionaries holding everyone accountable, we've been getting ready for the day a little faster, and we're much less likely to fall asleep during studies, and our planning sessions have been more structured. Also it's nice because when we do companionship studies, we can sometimes combine it with Santa Clara, so we get more ideas and input, and if we do role plays, we have more people so it's way more realistic and less freakishly awkward than regular companionship one on one role plays. Anyway, it's going well, and it is also fun to see them more often (though we still don't see them hardly at all during the day because we're out working in our

respective areas).

Well, that's about it for this P-Day. Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Dinosaur Hike

July 18, 2016

Hey everyone!

Last P-Day we went to see the Dinosaur Track Site at Warner Valley,

and we also went hiking around there too. It was super fun! Dinosaurs

are so awesome. Anyway, enjoy these pictures of the trip.