5-28-2013

So, the first thing that comes to mind is... Transfers! I am moving out of Syracuse! I am going to be serving in Kanesville, Utah! My new companion will be Elder Lima. I don't know anything about him but I hear he is a cool guy. I'm pretty excited to be in a new area but I'm also bummed about leaving all the cool people in Syracuse. It was bound to happen sometime anyway. I hear that we will be getting a car though so that will be pretty nice, but I'll probably get fat.

One of the elders we lived with went home this transfer! It was pretty awesome! His family came up from Georgia and we got to meet them. There was also a departing testimony meeting where all the missionaries who finished their missions got up and bore their testimonies to all the people who came, which included missionaries, investigators and recent converts. It was a super cool experience but it was sad to see him go. He didn't want to leave but he was also ready to go home and start his life. It must be a difficult feeling.

The other week we were chased down by a member who saw us walking down the street. He was visiting one of his non-member friends and they mentioned they'd like to ask us some questions. We ended up visiting with some for an hour or so and set up an appointment to come teach them. They are an interesting couple and like to ask some pretty off the wall questions. The wife says that she can hear spirits and that her daughter can see them. They are fairly interesting to talk with them. It's a bummer I'm not going to be able to teach them anymore. I just hope that they listen with an open heart and are able to get the most out of the message that the missionaries share with them.

Love,

Elder Ervin

May 7, 2013

So these past couple weeks have been pretty slow. We have had many cancelled appointments so we haven't been able to teach very much which really sucks. But there's nothing we can do about that, just keep doing our best. The Stake Presidency has been real passionate on getting the members to get us appointments rather than just tell us everyone in the neighborhood that is not a member. They are also really trying to get us some housing in the area since we live quite far outside of it.

Hopefully this next week we will have some good appointments and good lessons. We have quite a lot of people to visit and try to setup a lesson so we can only pray that those will work out. We are always trying to find new people to teach but as I've said before this area has a high majority of members so we mainly visit less actives. A lot of those who aren't members are people who just hate missionaries for reasons unknown.

On the positive side; Elder Ross and I have talked with the Stake Presidency and the High Councilman over missionary work and we've all decided that the stake needs a missionary 'reform'

We've talked a lot about how we can change things. The Stake President made an announcement in Stake Conference about how he wants us in every home in the stake! We are starting with members, teaching missionary lessons! It's awesome because you never know when someone might need the message we are sharing. Members also know their neighbors way more than we do. I am so excited for this new plan. The stake president said that he wants the wards to make 3 appointments per week for us, whether it is with non-members, less-active or members. That is 24 lessons per week! That added to the lessons we already have, we are going to be super busy. I can't wait for this next week. Hopefully by next Tuesday, I'll be able to have some really neat stories to share.

Love.

Elder Ervin

Can you believe that I have been away from home for almost two months now?  Time is just flying by!

Today we found out about transfers. I am still staying in Syracuse but I am moving. We are moving to an apartment even further out of our area so that the Spanish elders, who are moving into our apartment, can live in their area. I am also going to have a new companion, Elder Ross. I don't know anything about him yet as transfers are tomorrow.

Our mission is going to be split this July. Idaho and Star Valley, Wyoming will no longer be in our mission. The mission is going to be pretty small now and any missionaries that are in the cities that we are losing will be moving to the Idaho Pocatello mission. It's pretty crazy.

Nothing really miraculous has happened these past couple weeks. This area is filled with a high majority of members(there are 4 chapels in the small, less than 2 mile area). So we mostly teach inactive members. We do, however, have a baptism this Saturday which I am pretty excited for.

Hopefully in this next transfer we can make some progress with some of the people we have been working with. We have found some new investigators this week which we hope will turn out.

So, I'm running out of time. I didn't get to write about nearly as much as I wanted. Hopefully next week we will be able to stay longer so I can write more.

Love,
Elder Ervin

April 2, 2013

So things here have been pretty good. Not a lot has happened this week with Easter. Although a few interesting things did happen.

Last week we met a guy named Larry Scott. I don't know if you have ever heard of him but he's a famous bodybuilder. He was the first person to ever win Mr. America, Universe and Olympia. His wife said Mr. Olympia was started because the guy who started it wanted to see him compete again. He was a pretty cool guy, and even though he was old he was still super ripped! Apparently he was the first person in body builder history to have 20 inch biceps. His handshake was crazy strong. The coolest part though was when he said that all that(his awards, winning and titles) were nothing compared to being a member of the Church. It was one of the most amazing things I've heard. I mean this guy was Arnold before Arnold was Arnold and he said it was worthless compared to being LDS. Quite an eye opener.

At church on Sunday we were told by a Ward Mission Leader of a house that we should go visit. He said the he was a Fundamentalist and former polygamist from Colorado City. When we went over there yesterday we found out that the former part wasn't so former. One of the women was pretty nice and actually conversed with us but the other one was pretty rude. She wouldn't respond to our questions and kept telling us she wasn't interested even though we were just trying to make conversation. I thought it was a pretty funny experience. Polygamists living in my area. It's pretty exciting compared to what else goes on around here.

Other than those couple things, the work here has been pretty much the same as always. Giving lessons to people and what not. We have a couple baptisms scheduled for a few weeks from now. They are next transfer though so I may not be here. We will see when the time comes I guess. We have a few new investigators that we are going to start teaching so I'm excited for that.

That's about all I have to write about or at least all that I can remember. I didn't bring my journal with me today so I can't take stuff out of that.

Love,
Elder Ervin

2nd letter

Life has been pretty good here in Syracuse. We've been doing a lot of teaching and there are a couple people that are ready for baptism! It's so cool to see the change in people's lives when they start to accept the Gospel. I can't wait to get back out there. Our area has a very large percentage of members so we teach a lot of inactive people, but there are a few who are non-members. It's pretty funny here though. There are the two sides of a coin. There are the people here that love us and always want to give us stuff and then there are so people who hate us and want absolutely nothing to do with the church. A lot of people eventually soften their hearts though and let us at least talk to them, if not teach them. Our days are real slow in the afternoons. Nobody is ever home so we do a lot of walking around, checking referrals, and talking to anyone who is home really. After dinner things pick up though. We visit a lot more people because they are actually home. We also tend to teach a lot of kids around here. I don't know why but it's just how it's been. It's like 3 of 5 people we teach/visit is a kid. I think I have a couple decent stories to tell this time so here we go! 

The other day I was on exchanges with my Zone Leader. We can upon this house that is right next to the stake center. The Relief Society President of the ward whose boundries the house is in said we should go over there. We knocked on the door and this girl(around 16,17) answered the door. We started talking to her and eventually asked if they'd like to meet with us sometime. She said that they were supposed to be the "Untouchable House" and they wanted nothing to do with us. She said that if her mom had answered the door she would have slammed it in our face. So the daughter said that they didn't want to meet with us. Ever. We asked if there was anything we could do for them and she said we could clean up their yard. We asked what time would be good and she went to ask her mom. The mom said that she didn't even want us to help them and that she going to have some other people do the work. I thought it was funny that she'd deny free work but I guess that's just how her mind works. I just thought that story was funny mainly because they called themselves untouchable. When I talked to my companion about it when I got home he said that they never go there because they hate us. It made me think that we should just keep stopping by every now and then because you never know when someone will be ready so that's what we are going to do.

Now it's time for the funniest experience ever. A member(Bro. Bond, on of the coolest guys ever :P) called us and asked if we could help him give a blessing to one of the families he hometeaches. We went over and gave a blessing to the husband and then the husband gave a blessing to the wife. After the blessing we heard the wife make a noise like she was surprised. I was thinking, "Yeah, that was a great blessing" and then I saw her staring at something. I looked over and saw a massive pile of dog puke. The dog threw up in the middle of the blessing! The dog then walked about 10 steps and threw up again! Just as we thought it couldn't get any worse he moved again and puked a third, and final, time all over the floor! But wait, there's more! Just after the dog threw up for the third time we hear a voice in the corner say "Mom, I just threw up." Her son had puked all over the place too! It was incredible! There was dog vomit and human vomit everywhere. One of their other dogs then started to eat the first pile of half-digested food. That was when Bro. Bond started getting queesy. Luckily he was able to hold it in and we got the whole mess cleaned up. We concluded that the dog was possessed and was purging evil spirits because it was so spiritual in that house. It was literally one of the funniest things I have ever seen.