LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • January 24th, 2011

Dear Great mom of all moms. =)

I got good news and bad news this time. Really I guess it can go either way but I guess we'lll have to see. Anyways. . . Sadly I am getting moved out of here tomorrow to Palluse, Paradise Park. And I will be step training Elder Hogesty( I think his name is). So I am a little scared to train but hey I'm all up for it. I will have to tell you how things go. One of the Elders in my district told me its a way sweet area and the people there are great. He said I will be talking to alot of college kids there and I will be doing a ton of street contacting. I'm pretty excited. =) but sad to leave all the wonderful people here. They really are so so great and I really do love them. (And I'm not just saying it) I will be visiting this place again after my mission.

Well to tell you of some of the great things that have happen to me here. Yesterday we had such a great visit with the Clemitsons and we watched the Restoration video with them. The spirit really was there so strong that time when I watched it. I knew for a fact they one of them had to be feeling it. And Amilia was. She told us after this movie she had calm feeling inside of comfort and she told us that she didn't wanted it to end and the she wanted to have more of what happen to Joseph and wanted to have us come back soon for dinner. So I told them we would bring more next time and that we will go more into detail. She said that when she was young that she always had a Catholic Priest come over every time she was feeling sick and would pray for her and help her. But she said that she never felt good about him for some reason. Then she looked at us and said " But I feel different about you guys. I feel... Good every time you come over" So I know for a fact that she feels the spirit. She will probably be getting baptized real soon. Sadly I wont be there.

Also do you remember that lady that I was teaching in Moses Lake that was a Jehovah witness? She was the one who was going through all the divorce problems and had her kids taken away from her. Well anyways I heard she got baptized recently. One of the members went over to her house and pretty much just called her out and said " I know that you know this church is true" And she just started crying and said " Yes, I know its true." Its just neat to see how God still works even when your not there. =)

We also had a very neat experience here yesterday. We decided yesterday that we should go pass the high way and tract down there in the hood. (since we never went down there.) So we go down there and none of the houses were letting us in and I really was just having a bad attitude about everything. Finally as we were walking I decided to have faith in God that he would guide us in the right direction and that I needed to have faith. The next house we knocked on some Indian answered the door. Believe or not he let us in. So we sat down and started to talk with him and he told us that it was funny that we showed up at the door because him and his wife were just talking about what church they thought they should go too when we knocked on the door. So now him and his wife and he will be bringing all of his friends to our church next Sunday. He was very prepared by the lord. It was amazing. =) I wish I could be here next Sunday but I guess I meant to be somewhere else.

Things here have really been so great. There have also been other great things that have happen but I just don't have enough time to write them all down. I love you so much mom and hope things keep going well. =)

Love-

Elder Jensen

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • January 24th, 2011

hola madre,

so i am seriously doing well. i don't understand anything really...haha but it is all good. my comp is from chicago illinois and a convert to the church. she is about 26 and this is her last transfer. she knows a lot and is pretty patient. i hate feeling like a lost little puppy though, pero, it is all good.

so here are some different things about argentina....}

...we kiss everyone to say hello ...except we can't kiss elders or males...stiff arm them with a locked elbow

...the food is good...they dont eat dinner until 9 oclock so we dont really eat anything

...there are villas....said like vishas...that are where people live and it is like run down and made of garbage.

...i don't say too much...ha ha but i got to bear my testimony in castillano...haha i was laughing at myself the whole time...

...people are pretty nice and everyone has pretty much dark hair, and i am pretty tall compared to everyone, but they accept EVERYONE it is pretty neat. they are pretty blund about how things are...like they make colored comments and no one is affected or hurt...it is just the way it is}

...i love the fruit here...so good!

...it is hard to keep people in the church and i guess the bishop here has been bishop

...oh it is like backpacking here everyday...but we get a shower with a lot of hair in it...

...mom you would be proud, i did my laundry in a bucket and hung dry it...haha

....i can't really think of things i was going to write. all is well. my area is hurlingham...we take the train and buses everywhere

...oh...dogs everywhere!!!! and we clap instead of knocking doors to get into their houses. people have fences everywhere and you have to clap through the fence to be allowed to pass in.

...oh and they ride motorcyles EVERYWHERE!!!!! so many....i wish we could ride one....so tempting!

...i am so grateful for the members that feed us too!

...lessons have been good, i can't believe i am in argentina...so crazy!!!

...one more reason it is like backpacking is because i have a backpack and it is so sweaty and i am always sweating and my hair is gross with the humidity

...luckily you can feel the spirit in any conditions ...

my mind is like everywhere, not sure if i wrote that...haha. sorry i didn't answer anyones emails. everything is good, i am still smiling, i havent been schooled by any little kids in soccer yet.

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • January 24th, 2011

you guys are the best! jessie singing taylor swift!!!! good work sister! and logan dancing to Michael Jackson!!! oh man you cant get to much cooler then that.

hey tell aunt rach that she is the best and thanks for the email!

so this week went by so fast! Deja had her baptism it was so bomb! I felt super cool cause the branch mission leader gave a talk and he talked about how so many people had a part in Deja.s baptism! and he mentioned me and said thanks for contacting her!!!! woot woot! i felt pretty cool.

oh so my mission president came down! hahaha it was super funny, i asked him when he was planning on sending me to BOSNIA!!! hahaha but i have a feeling he wont! hahaha he likes me alot though! :) we invited him to stay over at our place over night, which he just laughed about that!

So we worked with a member to get the fliers done for the stop smokin program that we are going to be teaching! They look super good, and we are going to organized "splits" with 2 of the members one night so that we can hand out all our fliers! cool huh? i have never gone on splits yet but i think it would be a super fun thing to do! and it would help out some members!

So not much happened this week we found 3 new investigators this week! and that is about 3 times the amount we usualy get, so thats good. :)

So.... i dont know to much of what to say, my district is so tight! we call ourselves the maribor team!! haha we dominate maribor everyday!

well thanks for the support family i am doing very very well!!!!!

love you!

Oh i almost forgot we live by a river and about 100 swans just chill there all the time so me and my comp bought a HUGE bag of cornflakes and threw the corn flakes the birds. and one swan bit my hand. i tried feeding it, but those birds just try eating everything they can! haha it was super funny.

LETTER: Elder Jared Jensen • January 18th, 2011

Dear wonderful great mother of mine. =)

Sorry I wasn't able to write you on Monday. We had our P-day on Tuesday since yesterday was a holiday. We celebrate holidays here by knocking on doors. ;) Anyways can you send me some of our ancestor stuff in your next email? Ever since I have been out I kind of want to know about how we got here. You don't have to go way into detail but I would like something. =) This week has been really good and we are keeping busy. Nothing way amazing has happen to us just knocking on doors and having our normal lessons. Slipping on ice and all that good stuff. All the snow has melted which is really great because I decided as a missionary snow is your arch enemy and it just gets in the way of everything. All the families here are just wonderful too. I'm sure I wrote that in my other letter but I'm telling you they are all so great! Brother Estock is our ward missionary and this guy is just awesome. He's someone that I will come back and visit after my mission. Our transfers are coming up this next week so I might be going some where new soon. Also lost my first name tag. It was sad to because I was joking about me losing half an hour before I really lost it. No joke. I said to my companion " Elder Robb I bet you I'm going to lose this name tag today. Watch now its really going to happen. Ha ha ya that would be so funny..." Then it really happen and we spent half an hour trying to find it. Mom we have so many families that we our teaching right now. I cant really write what were teaching them but it has been wonderful. So many our coming back to church and so many are listening to us. The lord has been helping us so very much. Mark and Vickie are doing great and are thinking of baptism and so is the Blest family who has come to church 3 times now. Also Susan's husband is starting to come to church now and Jared Teel is being alot more open with us and we are able to see him alot more. Sister Walker is starting to come to church every Sunday and has started doing family home evening every Monday. Michel Bowswer is also trying to quit smoking still and she's doing better and better every week. There are just so many families. I'm hoping I don't get transferred though. I would like to keep talking with these families. =) Also we have this 12 year old Vashon Jackson who comes out with us alot. This kid is so cool. He is going to be the greatest missionary ever if he stays well in the church. He's very mature for his age to and he will just randomly call and ask if he can come out knocking doors with us. His family doesn't go to church at all though so he just goes with brother Duer who is his grandfather. Bro. Duer is also a wonderful member here too. This guy just loves to say Buh buh alot every time he sees us. Whats up Buh buh! One of the bus drivers here knows us very well also. His name is dean and he's a gangster. He knows some of our beliefs also so when some Young guys got on the bus and started to swearing a little bit and dean asked them " Hey you like ridding the bus? Better keep your mouth shut." As we leave he calls us his biblical brothers. " Alright my biblical brother take care" Ha ha there are just so many great people here. =) Ill tell you about all the not so nice people when I get home though. But don't worry about me. Things are just going fantastic. I love you beautiful best mom. =)
-Elder Jensen.

LETTER: Sister Adrienne Schneider • January 18th, 2011

oh, the mission president had me write you a letter, but then they said we can email...not sure why exactly...but you should be getting a letter sometime. the mission president asked me to only write family which includes brothers sisters parents and grandparents. so will you let everyone else know that....i want to be obedient cuz then i will have more power. also, i get dear elder and anyone can do that....so if you can forward me elder nunley´s emails that would rock too...along with elder schneider´s for sure...and can you let shaniqua know too...i want to write her but he asked me to be completely obedient and that includes emails.

toodles,

hna schneider

---------------

you were right bout the mission president! we get to email today...my pdays will be on mondays ...just so you know! this will be quick! i made it to argentina, i don´t have a native compnion, but this is her last transfer and her name is hermana hunes. she is a convert and pretty cool so far, very patient it seems and i hoep she will work! i can´t believe the smell here! soccer is lready very prevalent. we are in the city...herlingham...hha hope i spelled it right!!! all is well...not much sleep...the elders rock....they picked up all the bags. we are about thirty minutes downtown of the capitol. we got to see the temple that is being renovated and the mtc was soooo small...i know why they don´t send people here, i think it is just for locals because it is so small! they speak really fast spanish but i know the lord will help me understand what i need to, when i neeed to, as long as i keep working. i told my companion to keep speaking spanish to me even if i don´t understand and to have me make her ask her questions. pretty crazy here! so excited. some shampoo spilled over all over one of my bags, ti was dripping. i already have a love for these people...i can´t wait to teach...even if i say all the wrong words and don´t conjugate anythigng right. the mission president seems way cool too...pretty chill and awesome...he is a convert too but has a very strong testimony. all the sister missionaries say he loves sisters....and we have the best mission in the world...you can tell elder nunley and schneider that too.

mucho amor,

hermana schneider

p.s. andrew your email was so funny! thanks! jessie i am glad you had fun at your tumbling place

LETTER: Elder Colton Nunley • January 17th, 2011

familia!!! oh my gosh mexico is so awesome. so this week my first full

day here.... we asked juan capachino to be baptized and he said

yes!!!! haha and so yeah i have my first baptism coming up this

saturday haha but that one doesnt really count cuz i only got to teach

him once but it was way good i got him to ask a lot of questions cuz i

told him that one of the coolest things about this gospel is that the

answer is always always always there! he liked that a lot and asked

questions and then at the end of the lesson Elder Bergener asked him

if he would start preparing to be baptized and he said yes haha but

after that he didnt really seem all that excited about it and so i

asked him why he wants to get baptized 1because thats what we want to

hear from him or 2 that because he knows its right..... i couldnt have

asked for a better answer dead serious he said that ever since he has

been meeting with the missionaries, which is only 3 times!!! with me

4.............. but yeah ever since then all of his doubts have been

slowly just going away and he knows that Jesus Christ knows what he is

doing in his life all the time!!! oh my gosh he is so great his wife

is already a member but inactive and now hes activating her haha but

yeah so i gotta tell you about this other man who already has a

baptismal date which is this saturday and so we are just preparing him

for that and saturday we taught him the word of wisdom. ok let me

describe this man his name is Julian Moran and he is in the army and

his wife lives in guadalajara right now and she is also a member. so

he figured while he was here all by himself that he would find out

more about the mormons and so he called elder bergener and he started

teaching him with his last comp. he is so acceptable to everything

because he has so much faith. for real his only problem with the word

of wisdom is that he drinks wine every once in a while and jokingly

after we said he cant he said ok... so friday i'll go out and drink as

much as i can and then saturday i'll repent and sunday go to church

haha but no he told us for real he's done with it. he is such a funny

man.

OH MY GOSH you know the corn on the stick in nacho libre hahahaha

they are everywhere here haha i still havent ate one yet but i had a

thing called a torta today and it was so delish. the food here is way

good. oh everyday at 2 a family in the ward feeds us.

presidente angulo is an absolute genious no doubt he is so smart and follows

the spirit every second of his life. he has a ton of rules for us but i am

happy to follow them because when he taught us why we have these rules

i could feel the spirit and know they are for my benefit. the only one

that is super hard to follow is that i cant drink cocacola haha but

its all good but for real he is such a genious and so spiritual like

he really looks for the meaning behind everything our leaders in the

church do. like he has us study 5 talks from the past conference and

write him every week our thoughts about them and he actually gave us

his thoughts on one of them when we were at the mission home and it

was so awesome. .

umm the place i{m serving right now is called delicias and it is so suave...

everyone says that word here i love it haha. but yeah it is not dangerous

here at all and everyone is super friendly. umm elder burgener has only

one month left and so obviously presidente angulo wants me to learn something

from him before he leaves. but dad for prepping for a mission i think the only

thing you can tell them to do is study the scriptures and search for their

meanings and how to apply them to peoples lives. but really you wont

realize what you ACTUALLY need to do until you get out here. like

people told me so manythings and i did them but since i didn't

understand the importance there really wasnt that much of an effect

but i really think its somehting you only can prepare for in the mtc.

i gotta go but church was awesome they had me bear my testimony out of

nowhere haha and next week i have to give a 20 minute talk haha so im

excited to see how that goes. i love you all so much and this work the

same thanks for all your prayers.

Elder Nunley

LETTER: Elder Brayden Schneider • January 17th, 2011

Hahahaha this week was so much fun! oh man we had some funny stuff happen to us.

So me and my comp are dominated maribor! i love it, its so fun, we are starting a stop smoking class and one member is going to teach it. And we have alot of really cool things that we are going to do for the class.
Also this week we had a lesson with a new investigator, he is super cool. He said he has been looking for christ church and that we is like joseph smith and wants to find truth! he is a stud! Tonight he is going to pray about the book of mormon and he is very honest and a good man. he will for sure get his answer.

Also... guess who got to give a baptismal interview!!!!! it was super cool, i loved it, i had a baptismal interview with deja. (the girl i contacted like 5 months ago, and asked her member friends about it) It was super cool.
ok so, this week we went outside of maribor to try and dominate some other cities! it was super fun, we went to two villages and contacted the whole entire city!

But i have a funny story about that. So on sunday after church we headed out to one of the cities. We had to take a bus out there and so we just deciced we would ride the bus until the bus driver stopped! so we did, it was super fun, then he stopped and said that was the last stop. Then when we were getting off he said "enjoy." We didnt think anything of it until we got off and checked when the bus was going to head back so that we could destroy the city and then get a ride home. Well it turns out there werent going to be any more buses going back, that was the last one. So we just decieded to contact and tract the whole city anyways. So we did, we contacted and passed out stuff to every single person for about 4-5 hours. Then we were like crap its going to take like 3-4 hours to walk back.... and it was 6 pm, so..... we hitch-hiked! hahahaha it was so fun. It took a while for someone to pick us up, cause everyone thinks we are crazy. haha but a lady and her husband picked us up. It was super cool, she was super nice.... and of course while we are in the car we brought up god, and truth!!! And the book of mormon! hahaha but she didnt want anything to do with it. But think how cool a story that could have been if she became an investigator! haha next time!!!!

but things are looking up for the little old maribor branch!!! woot woot.

thanks for everything family!

ps... english class is looking good! we have some super good people! i will tell you about that next week!