Snow and Success

November 16, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Happy Monday! Haha, I think missionaries are probably some of the only people who say that!

Well this has been an awesome week! We hit Standards of Excellence again! It's been a few weeks since we've pulled that off. But fewer lessons canceled this week, and we also had 5 new investigators! I think two of them will need to be handed over to the Spanish Elders, because although they speak English, Spanish is definitely their primary language. We started teaching a 10 year old named Joshua, and we got him on date for baptism in the first lesson! And speaking of on

dates, we got a lot of people on date this past week! Willow picked a date! Finally! She's been planning on being baptized on November 28th! And Dan and Elizabeth, a couple we've been teaching, for about two months or so finally picked a baptismal date too! They're planning on December 5th!

Having so much work to do has been awesome, but wow! It's so exhausting! Thursday, was super productive, and crazy, and by the skin of our teeth, it went almost perfectly! And we were just knocked out that night. And Friday too! I've never appreciated sleep as much as I have on my mission!

This week's been a bit of an adventure. For one, our phone broke! We didn't do anything to it, it just randomly stopped working one day. The display kept freezing and being dumb. So after the Mission Office sent us a new one, we had to call the Mission Office from some other Elders' phone, and they helped us get the new phone set up with the same phone number, and get our contacts switched over. Elder Bright is the more tech savvy person out of the two of us, but he was practicing for a special musical number in church. I was around the corner in the hallway trying to make sense of the instructions I was getting. But I figured it out. And the new phone is pretty nice. It's still a "dumb

phone" but it's brand new and works so much better.

Elder Bright performed a special musical number in church yesterday! He played his violin, and Brother Sessions (our ward mission leader's dad) played the piano. They played the Jenny Oaks Baker arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief". It was so good! They're already making plans to perform at the Christmas party.

Winter is starting to set in here in Cedar City! I mentioned last week that it was cold and that we had gotten some snow that stuck in the mountains. Well, this past week, we actually got some real snow down here in Enoch and Cedar City. I'm not sure I'd quite call it a storm, but it was definitely A LOT more than flurries! And the snow actually stayed on the ground for a couple days. It warmed up a little bit the last few days, but today is going to be really cold and snowy again. Then the rest of the week the weather is supposed to be some schizophrenic mix of winter and fall.

Well, transfers are next Tuesday. I'll find out on Saturday if I'm staying in Enoch, or if I'm being transferred somewhere else. I hope I stay one more transfer! But I'm bracing myself for a big change. I've been in Enoch for about 6 months! It would be dumb not to brace myself. I guess we'll see.

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Oswald

Winter is Coming

November 9, 2015

Hi everybody!

This week has been another mixed bag in terms of teaching and stuff. We had a lot of good lessons, but we still had a ridiculous amount cancel, including two who would have been new investigators. On the plus side though, this week is looking fantastic! It looks like we will be getting a few new investigators and a ton of lessons! Hopefully in saying that I don't jinx myself, but I'm not superstitious so I'm not really afraid of that.

I think our biggest problem is getting people on date for baptism. We have a few who could easily be baptized within the month, but they just won't commit to a date. Take Willow for example. Her husband's a member, and we taught her all of the lessons, and she is totally ready! She knows it's true, it all makes a world of sense to her, and she WANTS to be baptized. But she won't set a baptismal date for some reason. There's another couple who plan to be baptized, they just need to finish the lessons, but they won't commit to a date either. Even if they need to push it back if they feel like they're not ready, at least we'd have a goal in mind. Holy cow! It's like pulling teeth to get people to commit. And I know we need to be patient. It is all up to them, we only help. But sometimes I just think "You want this. JUST DO IT!!!" Oh well. We'll get them sooner or later.

It's getting cold here in UT! Low temperatures are down in the twenties and teens, and the high temperatures are rarely more than 50. We got some more snow this past week, actually quite a bit. It didn't stick for more than a day down here in the valley, but it stuck on the mountains, and a lot of the peaks are still white. Tomorrow the forcast says it's supposed to snow pretty good, and not just on the

mountains. That'll be fun. I figure if the weather is going to be cold and uncomfortable, then it might as well be pretty as well. Winter is definitely on its way!

It was a pretty good Sunday yesterday. We both spoke in one of the wards in the morning, and Elder Bright spoke in one of the wards in the afternoon. After that we got to help out in the Primary! I forgot how fun Primary can be. Nothing crazy, just a few basic principles, and a bunch of little kids singing, in this case they were singing Angels We a Have a Heard On High, which is one if my favorite Christmas carols, and another reminder that Winter is on the doorstep. It was super fun, and honestly, Sunday-school seems kinda boring after that. I imagine it'd be REALLY exhausting though being in Primary all the time. The kids have really short attention spans, and the teachers have to act really energetic and enthused and happy to try and keep their attention and get them excited. And some of the kids say the randomness things. There was one little girl, probably about 4 or 5, who, in the middle of a lesson about Jesus, raises her hand and says, "I have something to share". She came up to the front of the class and then proceeds to say "My mom makes the best hot chocolate in the

world!" and then she sat back down. The teachers just kinda shook their heads and then somehow got the class to change the conversation to Jesus again, and not hot chocolate. There was a lot of funny stuff that happened. It was also really cool though to be in there while the little kids were learning. I kept thinking of Christ's words in the book of John: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." Anyway, I really enjoyed helping with lessons in the Primary. It was a fun change of pace from our normal Sundays and I could really feel the Spirit there with those kids.

On Thursday we had a really great Zone Meeting, and President and Sister a Center were there too. It was really good, and really motivational. A lot of it was about how to address things like what I wrote about a couple paragraphs ago, and figuring out their concerns. We also set some goals as a zone and talked about some goals for the Mission. This is going to be an exciting next couple of months! I hope I'm here for another couple months though. The change in the weather might be preceding another sort of change. Transfers are in two weeks, and I will have finished Elder Bright's training, and I will have been here for six months. I guess I can always hope; you never really know how transfers will go, but feel like I'm probably going to get transferred. At least I'm prepared for it. When I left Mt. Pleasant, I didn't expect it, nor did I feel even a little bit ready to go. This time, I'm almost expecting a transfer, and I do feel a bit more ready to leave, kind of like I've completed what I was supposed to do here. Then again, no matter how long a missionary is in an area for or how prepared they are to leave, I don't think most of them are ever really ready to leave. We learn to love the area and people, especially those we teach, and we want to see things all the way through. It becomes

home. Anyway, I guess whatever happens will happen. It's all in the Lord's hands. It's His call, not mine. In the meantime, I'll just have to make these next two weeks in Enoch West some of the best ever!

Well that's about all for today. I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Exchanges, Halloween, and Lots of Book of Mormon

November 2, 2015

Hi everyone!

This week has been pretty good. There's still a lot of appointments getting canceled which is bothersome, but I guess it's all part of the job. But people are still progressing and we had some great lessons! One highlight was on exchange with the Zone Leaders, Elder Prior came to my area with me, and we taught a guy named Bernie, and his wife Sherrie. We've been teaching him for a few weeks now. Anyway, we had a lesson right out of the Book of Mormon. We read with him in 3 Nephi Chapter 11. We just read and discussed the whole chapter and the things that Christ says in it and the lessons we need to take from it (basically the gospel of Jesus Christ). It was really cool, and they're thinking seriously about baptism.

Exchanges were really fun! Elder Prior was with me in the MTC, and it was cool to be with him for the day. One of the things we got to do was service at a senior center, working in the kitchen, washing dishes mostly. It was funny because after the meal was over, we heard them playing, wait for it...Bingo. Old people playing Bingo! The stereotype is true, at least in this case! We both got a kick out of it. We taught a lot of good lessons during the exchange, and it was just really awesome.

Halloween was kind of fun because we had to be in by 6:00. As much as I love teaching, it was nice to come in early and have that time to sort of chill. We did our weekly planning that evening, played a

little board game, and went to bed early. That going to bed early, along with the time change, made for a really well rested and refreshed Elder Oswald. It was literally the most rested I've felt my entire mission so far.

We also had an awesome Zone Conference this past week. It was pretty much all about The Book of Mormon, and how it's pretty much the most powerful tool we have. We need to be reading it, and the people we teach need to be reading it. It is either true or it isn't, and we can know by reading it and praying about it. If it is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church on the Earth today. And when you really think about it, could Joseph Smith, a farm boy with a third grade education really make up such a powerful, and I dare say perfect, book of scripture in just a few months? Either he pulled off that impossible feat (keep in mind that it took JRR Tolkien, an educated linguist and writer, his entire lifetime to write the Silmarillion, which isn't even as long or complex as the Book of Mormon) or else the Book is true, and Joseph didn't write it, but translated it by the power of God. That's really what it comes down to. The teachings in the Book of Mormon are also simple yet powerful, and it is great to teach/learn from, especially when cross referencing it with the Bible. It doesn't replace the Bible, it complements it. And it bears a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. These are things I've known, but it is so good to review it, and to get extra practice and training about it was awesome. I really enjoyed it. It also went along with what Elder Bednar told us at the Mission Conference a few months ago. Basically everyone needs to read the Book of Mormon. It doesn't matter if you've been a member of the church all your life, or if you've only just heard of the church. The Book of Mormon is important. If we read

it at least a little bit everyday, our testimonies will be virtually unshakable. So my (and Elder Bednar's) encouragement to everyone is to read it and try it out. I've seen the blessings for myself. You can

too.

Well, that's about it for today. Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Oswald

PS- Here's a picture I got on the doorstep of some members we were

visiting. Happy Halloween!

Good Things, Bad Things, and Spawns of Satan

October 26, 2015

Hi everyone!

This past week has been good in some ways and kinda dumb in other ways. On the one hand, we taught a lot of good lessons. We started the new member discussions with Abraham, the 10 year old kid we baptized just over a week ago. We found at least one potential investigator, who was busy watching a movie with his kids, but said we could come back. We met with two of our investigator families, one of which we've been having trouble meeting with. Rick and Denise and their kids are

having kind of a hard time, but we had a good lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation and the power of the Atonement, and then they came to church on Sunday! The other family, Justin and Bryttani and their kids, are all still golden! They'd get baptized right now if

they could, but they need to finish the lessons, and get a couple other things in order (which they are working on right now). It's very probable that they'll get baptized in November! Another cool thing

from this past week is that there was this guy named Kevin who called us up one day and basically said "I want to learn more about the church and get baptized. Can you help me with that?" Whaaat?! What do you call that? A self referral? We haven't been able to meet with him yet because he's still not sure what his work schedule is, but hopefully we'll meet with him this week! That situation is every missionary's dream!

On the other hand, it was a rather tough week as well. A lot of appointments fell through, and we fell very short of our goals. Of course, "falling short" for us is still WAY better than this area was doing when I first got to Enoch, and in most other missions in the world (especially Europe, I've heard) our numbers would be ridiculously high. But it still isn't as good as the area has been doing, and it isn't good for the people we're teaching. When they cancel, not only does it hurt our numbers, and give us less things to do (dead time is among the most hated things for missionaries), but it's kind of hurting the people who cancel as well. It gives them more time for Satan to work on them. It gives them more time to fall out of the good habits they've been building. At the very least, they'll just progress slower. Now of course, sometimes people just have to cancel. It happens and it's totally understandable. But what I'm referring to is the fact that there are a few people who have been canceling appointments for the last few weeks. We need to get back in there. Also, for me personally, I hate when appointments cancel. It's always so discouraging, for me anyways.

There was some really bad and frustrating news we got today. One of our investigator families is dropping us, or rather, Linda, the mom is dropping us. They were some of the first people I started teaching here in Enoch. One of the best Plan of Salvation lessons I've ever had was with them! They were on date to be baptized in November. It's sad to see someone throw away what is pretty much the best thing ever. Now the frustrating part is the reason why she's dropping us. Now first of all, if she'd been reading the Book of Mormon and praying, and building her testimony of the restored gospel, this little fringe issue wouldn't even be a thing. Secondly, this little fringe issue isn't even an issue! She's misinterpreted some things on the news, and because of that (and I think some of her opinions are a little extreme to begin with too), she thinks the church is pretty much the opposite of what it actually is. It's frustrating because it isn't actually an issue. She's just freaking out about things she thinks are there, instead of actually studying the gospel, or listening to what we have to say.

We did have some more good news though. Kiendle got baptized! She's a 10 year old we've been teaching for a while and she's a really solid 10 year old! She understands a lot and actually has a personal testimony. She was baptized on Saturday. That really helped brighten the week. It was just after Linda dropped us, and we'd already had a lot of appointments cancel, so it was good to be able to have a baptism to boost morale. And the Spirit is always quite strong at baptisms.

We have some rather unwelcome visitors in our apartment. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the small black widow colony we destroyed. Now, we haven't seen any more of them around our place, though we've killed a few we've found at other people's houses. However, our apartment has had some other demon spawn running around: Brown Recluse Spiders. I hate spiders anyway, but here there's all this stuff that can actually kill me, and it's really unnerving! We've killed three of them in our apartment in the last week! And one of them was huge! Well, for a spider at least. Every night before we go to bed, Elder Bright and I arm ourselves and make a pass through the apartment, smashing any if we find them. I'm probably more paranoid of spiders now than ever.

This past week was also another rainy one. And I mean really rainy! The streets were turning into streams, and there are puddles on the side of the road that are still here, several days after the rain stopped. It was a bit chilly, but worth it. First of all, rain is one of the things I miss most about Michigan. Secondly, the clouds would roll over the tops of the mountains, and it was a really pretty and relaxing sight. I have some pictures I'll send.

Well, that's about it for my week! It's been interesting. I've noticed that I get easily discouraged when things go wrong, and I'm really hard on myself. This week has taught me to be a little less hard on myself, and to be more grateful for the good things that happened. I've learned to trust in the Lord a lot more. If this were my work, I'd be in a pickle. But it isn't my work, it's the Lord's work, and He's at the helm. I just have to do my best to do my part, and if things go wrong, I can be disappointed, but I shouldn't get too discouraged, because all I can do is try, work, and trust God. In 2008 I think it was, President Uchtdorf gave a talk in General Conference in which he started by sharing a story about moving a piano. He said the only way they could move it was when they stood close together and lifted where they stood. And that's what he told us to do. When about the work of the Lord, we need to "Stand close together, and lift where you stand". All I can do is all I can do. There's no use beating

myself up over things that aren't in my control, so long as I'm doing my best to lift where I stand. I'm sure I'll still have to work on it. Being easily discouraged doesn't just go away in an instant, especially when Satan wants us to be discouraged. But at least I'm aware of it, and I can try to be better, and By relying on the Savior, He makes that possible.

Have a great week!

-Elder Oswald

Clouds coming over the mountains during a rainy spell

Keindle's Baptism

Ward chili cook-off trophy

Marty McFly and Some More Pictures

Hi everybody!

I forgot to mention a couple things! Firstly, for those who remember Back To The Future (specifically Part II), two days from now, October 21st, 2015, is the day Marty McFly arrived in the future! The Cubs are about to win the World Series, and do you have your hover-boards ready?

The 21st is also my 9 month mark! I can't believe how fast this month has gone, and the last nine months in general! It feels like it's gone "EIGHTY-EIGHT MILES AN HOUR!!!" Haha, sorry. That was a back to the future reference too.

Also, before doing the bulk of our emails, we went to the Cedar City Temple construction site. It's in a really pretty area, but the temple itself is pretty much a hole in the ground and a couple huge piles of dirt. Granted, it's only been less than three months since they broke ground. They do have some of the foundation in though. Anyway, here's some pictures.

Water Water Everywhere

October 19, 2015

Hi everyone!

This week has been pretty good. It wasn't as good as previous weeks though. We did not hit Standards of Excellence this past week. We had a lot of appointments cancel, and we weren't able to find any new investigators. However, the lessons we did have were really good. We taught the Plan of Salvation A LOT! It was pretty much the lesson of the week. I really love that lesson. It can be hard to teach, because it tends to be a bit on the long side, plus a lot of people (especially some members sitting in on lessons) will go off on tangents with it, but if we can keep it under control and keep tangents to a minimum it can be really awesome!

We also have a lot of investigators on date for November. We could end up with somewhere around 10 baptisms in November!

We had a baptism on Saturday! And it was actually a bilingual baptism. It was a 10 year old named Abraham. Abraham's family is from Mexico. His brother, Jose, was baptized several years ago, and is actually a return missionary. A little while ago, Jose and his wife (also a returned missionary) got custody of Abraham and brought him to Utah to live with them. We've been teaching him with our senior missionary couple, the Davilas. The lessons have been bilingual. Some of it has been in English, and some in Spanish. Elder and Sister Davila taught a lot in Spanish, and Elder Bright and I taught in English. Abraham's brother switched back and forth. So that was kind of interesting. The

baptism was also bilingual. The opening song and opening prayer was in Spanish, which was actually really cool I think. A lot of people were there to support Abraham, which is really good. It was a really good way to start our Saturday.

Abraham's Baptism

Our apartment has been having some problems. The big problem, and the one we still can't figure out is that our apartment flooded! Well, kind of flooded. It's weird, and what's really odd is that it looks

like our landlords did it on purpose. We got home, and a bunch of our stuff had been moved around, out of the way of the where the water was. There was a big puddle on the kitchen counter, the bathroom was flooded,  the laundry room was totally flooded, and part of our bedroom floor, where we used to have a dresser (we moved that dresser to a different wall) was completely soaked! There were little pipes coming out of the wall in those places, and everything had been moved before the water came, which makes me think it was deliberate. We've been having plumbing issues, so I wonder if it had to do with them fixing that. I don't know, but I'm still a bit irritated. They just came in and flooded our apartment, didn't clean ANY of it up, and didn't even bother to tell us what's going on, or even leave a note. Nothing was damaged, and in theory, the plumbing is fixed, but seriously, I don't appreciate having my living quarters flooded without any explanation or attempt to clean it up. It took several days for our carpet to dry, and because of it, our apartment has smelled like a wet hamster cage (the carpet we have is really old) for several days now. So yeah, that happened.

In other news, it's been nice and rainy these last few days. It's been chilly too, which isn't really a comfortable combination, but I really miss all the rain that Michigan gets, so any and all rain I get here is really exciting to me.

Well, that's about it for now. This week is looking pretty good. We have another baptism on Saturday, and we have some good stuff lined up for the rest of the week, so we should be teaching a lot and finding at least a couple new investigators. It's exciting stuff!

Have a fantastic week!

-Elder Oswald

Hard Work and Success, A Change in the Rules, and Transfers

October 12, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This has been another wonderful week! We once again hit Standards of Excellence, but we actually had to work really hard to achieve it. Several people cancelled appointments this week, and we didn't get as many referrals, so it was harder to find new investigators. We did find two, Bernie and Sherrie, a nonmember couple from Missouri. So yeah, it wasn't quite the flying colors of previous weeks, but still a really awesome week. Any week that we hit Standards is a good week. This is the fourth week in a row, and I'm so grateful for this work we have to do! The Lord is blessing us in this area.

So, after Elder Bednar visited the mission a couple months ago, I've been thinking a lot about faith. Faith is more than just believing, it is believing, trusting, and then acting. Joseph Smith showed faith in that his prayer immediately preceding his visitation by Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ was not "which church is true", but rather "which church should I JOIN". He intended to act on whatever answer he received. I've seen how that praying in faith really helps. This week especially, we did that and saw the blessings. It was a bit later in the week, and we still hadn't found any new investigators. We needed two to hit Standards, and aside from that, we're always looking to expand our teaching pool, and also picking up new investigators really does boost morale. The night before, I had stopped by Bernie and Sherrie's house while I was on splits with a ward mission leader. We talked to Sherrie for a couple minutes, but weren't able to share a lesson, or really gauge how interested they were in the Church. So right before returning the next day, Elder Bright and I said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to bless us with success in the things we were about to go and do, and then we went and did it. And lo and behold, we were able to share a message with them and get a return appointment, and they seem pretty interested! That's just one of the several times that come to mind where praying in faith has really worked.

We recently had a change in the rules. The music rule has changed! It used to be that we could only listen to Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Then it was changed to MoTab and anything on LDS.org (and most of the stuff on LDS.org is EFY). And don't get me wrong, that stuff is great, especially MoTab! It's just, 8 months of nothing else begins to get old, especially when there are songs that are at least as spiritually uplifting, but can't be listened to because it just doesn't fall into that category. But just a few days ago, we got a big surprise. Without any foreshadowing, we got the announcement in Zone Meeting that the music rule had been abolished, and we are now living the mission handbook rule which says: "Listen only to music that is consistent with the sacred spirit of your calling. Music should invite the Spirit, help you focus on the work, and direct your thoughts and feelings to the Savior. Do not listen to music that pulls your thoughts away from your work, merely entertains, has romantic lyrics or overtones, or dulls your spiritual sensitivity by its tempo, beat, loudness, lyrics, or intensity." That opens up A LOT of good music options! And it makes me really happy. Now of course, the handbook rule is still restricting, but it's for a purpose. We missionaries are supposed to stay focused. As far as interpreting the music rule goes, some missionaries might have slightly different interpretations and that's between us, our companions, and the Lord, but a lot of it comes

down to Sister Center's "Don't Be Stupid!" rule. Also, though the handbook leaves room for interpretation, but it is very clear on the standards for listening to music, and also says that if there are any questions, to ask the Mission President. Anyway, we're all really excited about being able to have more options than just MoTab and cheesy EFY music. It's been an exciting week.

This week was transfers too. Being a district leader, I got the transfer call on Saturday (most get it  on Sunday, but DLs, ZLs, and those who will be training get it on Saturday). I'm staying with Elder Bright in Enoch West! I figured that was going to be the case. I'm still training Elder Bright, and I've only been DL for 6 weeks. But it was nonetheless exciting/relieving to get the official call from the

Assistants to the President (APs). There will be some changes in the District though. One of the Enterprise Elders is getting transferred and one of the Enoch Sisters is getting transferred. I guess I'll get to meet their replacements on Thursday at District Meeting. Anyway, by the end of this transfer, I will have been in Enoch for 6 months! After that, Elder Bright will have finished his 12 week training, and it would be likely that I might get transferred. But I hope not. I'd rather spend Thanksgiving and Christmas in a place where I feel comfortable, and actually know people. And who knows, maybe I'll be here a ridiculous amount of time. Elder Boox served in Moroni for seven and a half months. Elder Bennett served in Canyonview for seven and a half months. Elder Howard has been in Canyonview for six months, and he's going to be training a greenie this transfer so he'll likely

be there for 9 months! Anything could happen I guess. But for now I'm comfortable in the fact that I'm staying put, and that most of my close friends in the mission are also staying in the Cedar City area.

Well, that's about it for this week. I'll be sending some pictures (some of which are the pictures I said I'd send last week but forgot to send). Have a fantastic week!

-Elder Oswald

Pictures from the mountain:

 Pictures of the  zone and district: