Email Questions: 6 September 2011

I'm writing today because yesterday was a holiday, labor day, and we weren't able to e-mail. We were given permission to e-mail on Tuesday instead.

Q: The google street view of your trailer is from 2009, do you have a current picture?

A: Not much has changed. That's basically an up to date picture. Only the black on the side of the building now has the siding on it.

Q: Do you meet in a church owned building, a normal chapel?

A: It's a normal chapel owned by the church, but it is more of a custom made building. I sent a picture, and it's on my SD card that I sent a couple days ago.

Q: Is the chapel and family history center in the same building?

A: Yes

Q: Are you writing in your journal?

A: Yes, I've even been doing some audio journals. I'll see about e-mailing them. Occasionally I skip a day though, but I update on the past days.

Q: You received letters in the MTC twice per day, but could only write once per week. Can you print out our email letters to you during the week, or only on p-day?

A: Only on P-day, but it's a little flexible. I will occasionally do e-mail on another day.

Q: How has the Lord blessed you most recently?

A: We lost contact with some investigators; Tristan, Delta, and Jaden (2). Their apartment building requires a key to get in and they don't have a phone yet. We were able to, on Saturday, get into the building because someone let us in. We were able to set up a lesson with them tonight. We found out that evenings work best for them. So the Lord blessed us to be able to get back in contact with Tristan and Delta. Tristan and Delta are very receptive too. We were also given a referral by a member for someone, but they mistakenly gave us the wrong address. We decided to tract on that street anyway and found non-member, Bernard, who has had missionaries over before and even had them over for dinner. They had just moved in. We offered our service and set up a time to meet them again in a couple weeks.

Q: What prompting from the Spirit have you recently had and how did it turn out?

A: I don't know that I've recognized any promptings yet. I feel that the Lord uses us whether we know what's going on or not. We pray about where we go and ask the Lord to guide us, and to guide others to us. Then things just work out, like the story about Bernard. I have felt the spirit testify of the Savior a lot though, especially in sacrament meeting.

Elder Bowes and Elder Hartman

Q: What's the funniest thing that has happened to you this week?

A: If we ever get Elder Bowes or Elder Hartman laughing it is the funniest thing in the world. They have the funniest laughs. We were playing Monopoly on P-day and Elder Hartman had us listen to a recording of the two of them laughing. I just about died.

Q: What is the most spiritual experience you have had this week?

A: Probably the spirit testifying of the Savior and the gospel in sacrament meeting.

Q: How do you get your grocery money or does it come out of the $400/month we pay to the mission fund?

A: I have a credit card called my allotment card. I get an amount put on my card every month. I get about $130. We don't have to worry about housing or gas because the mission office takes care of that. We do have a gas card though that we use to fill up the truck with, I sent pictures of it. It's a brand new Chevy Colorado.

Q: Do you do any street contacting, or just door-to-door tracting?

A: We kind of do street contacting as we tract. Lately we've been tracting down town in some of the residential areas. We just talk to whoever we run into. There are a lot of people walking around downtown. That's how we ran into Tristan. He was waiting for his wife, Delta outside of a building with his 2 year old son Jaden. We introduced the restoration and he said he would like to come to church. We have taught them a couple lessons at their house now, and have given them a Book of Mormon. They both have a minimal concept of God and religion. Tristan can't read very well, so we gave them an Audio CD of the Book of Mormon to follow along in the book with. We got them both to offer a prayer. We'll teach them more.

Q: Is there any food you want us to send, we are sending a package tomorrow?

A: DRAGON BROWNIES PLEASE =) and maybe some Nature Valley Honey and Oats granola bars. =)

Q: Are you eating your vegetables?

A: Yes, broccoli and salad. I'm eating fruits too. I need to stop overeating at members houses though. =) I'm at about 127lbs. right now.

Q: Have you had a chance to make any bread for your companion yet?

A: No, but I did make cinnamon rolls. They loved them, but we had just gotten done (over)eating at a members house so we were kind of eating just to eat. But they were good.

Q: What's it like in Whitehorse?

A: It's pretty cool. There are big round mountains all around that look like giant hills. There are trees everywhere. We are basically in a forest. There is a river that runs through the area right next to downtown in the city. The church is on one side of the river and downtown is on the other. It's a very fast river. It's usually about 10 degrees Celsius, so its not that cold, but it will get cold really soon. like 5 times colder. It's already fall here. The leaves are starting to turn color and we expect snow at the end of the month. We drive a truck everywhere and we knock on a lot of peoples doors. Everyone has either a cat, a dog, or both. It's a good thing it's cold or I would have really bad allergies. A lot of people live in trailer homes, but the other half of the people have regular houses. Every house here looks different and looks custom built. It's not like in Spanish Fork where a lot of houses look the same.

Q: What is the worst experience you have had so far?

A: After we ate the cinnamon rolls, which was in the evening yesterday, we went to bed. The next morning everyone was passing gas. Even the other Elders. It stinks really, really, really, really bad. It's like dads but worse and a lot more frequent. I'm not doing it as much as my companion though. At the end of our district meeting this morning we sang a song. By the way we had Elder and Sister Powell on the phone from Haines, Alaska because they are in our district. Right at the end of the verse when it's really quiet Elder Bowes passed gas really loud. I couldn't sing that much of the next verse because I was laughing. I don't think the Powell's heard it though.

Love, Elder Record