Trinity doesn't get to use his Spanish much in the area where he is assigned, but is supposed to keep up with his language study daily. Here he is practicing a lesson with us during his skype call home on Christmas day. 

Elder Tellez 12-19-11

As always gracias por the emails.

I am still alive as you can tell. How is life up there?

Gramma: Thank you for the pics and the spanish, haha, I understood all of it. We don't have a christmas tree and the house just looks normal. We don't really want to decorate and don't really have the money. The weather has been the same here as it has been up there, hot, hot, hotttttt. Yesterday was a little cool, but I was still sweating like crazy. The Ruckers are still in my prayers. I hope you are doing well. That is funny that Zach calls you Gramma, haha, he is practically family. I could teach him the missionary lessons and get him baptized, haha. No, but the missionaries over there should do something like that, have family home evening at our house, invite the missionaries and Zach. Have the missionaries teach the lesson and let them know that you will have a non-member there so that they can prepare something good. Also have some refreshments and maybe a game. Then the following week, if he likes it, invite him again when you have FHE at the Conner's and if the missionaries are good (haha) they will talk to him and see if they can visit him to teach him, maybe even in our house, that might be better. That would also help the missionaries out by giving them lessons with members. Having Josh or somebody in the family sharing a testimony about their love for the church and how it is true will help as well. Also, invite him to church, Josh should do that. That is good,.... Oh, I didn't get that package this month, maybe in January. But I did get the checks, but I can't cash them here because "they are not authorized to do it". I have to wait until I go to Veracruz, which is in 2 weeks. I love ya, gramma.

Momma, I will be calling saturday at 6 or 6:30. I sent that email again, in hopes that you will get it and also hope that I don't get in trouble for sending two emails at the same time. Thank you for the pics. All is well here. We didn't have a baptism this week, but we might have one this coming saturday. I really want one more before the year ends, 6 is our goal for this month. I got that dearelder you sent and said to tell you when I got it, haha. I only get letters and packages once a month, so if you send me something now, I'm sure I'll get it in January. Did you send that message that I told you to send to that elder? I have something else for you to send to him as well.

To mark.coleman@myldsmail.net : So, I talked to Elder Herron, and he doesn't even know his email address, but he said it might be michael.herron@myldsmail.net. It makes sense haha. Take care bro.

Gracias momma. Well time to close my email. I love you all. ¡Feliz Navidad!

Elder Waddell 12/19/11

Bear Sausage

Michael's Baptism

Hey! I'm sorry here to hear about Grandma. But I'm glad you guys got to go visit family. Yeah we got transfer calls Saturday morning from President Beesley and Elder Dean is going to Whitehorse Canada.... lucky haha. I'm staying and Elder Satini from Tonga is taking his place here. So it's pretty exciting. It's a tough move for Elder Dean but he gets to go to another awesome place so I think that balances it out for him. For the Skype I should be able to and it's supposed to be just family and maybe some extended family but we're not supposed to take forever with it especially since we'll be using some members computer on Christmas day. But yeah I'm super excited for that.  I haven't opened the boxes yet. I'm waiting until Christmas. So yeah it's pretty exciting here. It was my senior week last week so I did senior companion stuff which included driving. And it snowed a few inches one of the days and I've never driven on snow, so that was pretty fun. We went all the way out south of the island and the last few miles aren't paved and there are thousands of potholes so that was fun to drive in the snow with. But it started raining again and most of it got washed away pretty darn fast.  I don't know if you got in the email before but before I leave this area it would be nice to have some missionary business cards to give to people and I have no way of getting a hold of such a thing. Hmmm yeah this week has been crazy mainly because we weren't sure what was going to happen with transfers. So the work seemed slower this week. Except on Saturday Michael Jensen got baptized and his Grandma Valree who is investigating came and is talking about baptism so that was really good. But now it's time to wait for my new companion and help the transition for when I leave next transfer. All is well in Zion.


       Elder Waddell 

Elder Everett Escobar 12/14/2011

 

Hello,

 

I hope everything is going well, I will be sending ya'll a letter sometime this week.

Here are my thoughts from Mom's assigned scriptures; "As missionaries the Lord gives us the strength to carry on and perform His work. It is through God's mercy that enables us to work and bring mighty miracles among the children of men. Heavenly Father works through us, it's never us alone and it is for that very reason that all of the glory goes to God. And although through our strivings we may suffer pains and afflictions, the results of our hardships will far outweigh our sufferings."

 

Elder Yim is getting transferred to Connecticut and I'm staying with Elder Huntsman for the time being, and I will be training him. Elder Yim has been packing his stuff, he's leaving tomorrow, we have been taking a lot of pictures this past week. By the way, I received the package labeled: 'From: Liberty Ward' I loved it. Many thank you's to all of those whom put it together. The Christmas Party at Liberty Ward sounded fun and yes I would like to see video that Sister Tellez got from it. This past week was really busy, lots of walking, talking, and teaching. And it's chilly! Especially when we have to walk over the several bridges that go over the bay. This week was fun though, I enjoyed it. It's not really snowing yet surprisingly, although it's been more than cold enough to snow. Some of the local ponds and part of the Charles River is starting to freeze though. I've only had one minor headache so far this week! (: As for phone calls home, we are recommended to call Christmas Day in the afternoon or evening. Now I'm wondering what time would be good for all of you (my bros, parents, and grandparents), because we are as of right now free all day, except for 6-7pm (Boston time) because we have a dinner with one of the counselors in the bishopric. So just tell me a time or if you want me to pick a time, that will be okay too, I will be able to tell you more about our schedule on Monday through e-mail. I want a "White Christmas" that would be cool, oh and our Zone is Christmas caroling all through the month so that ought to be fun. Okay time to send you pic!

 

Love ya'll so much,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Escobar  12/5/2011

 

 

Hello mi familia,

 

I'm glad that everything is okay back home (although it could be better), wow too many people are getting prego (pregnant). The Christmas Devotional was awesome I enjoyed it. The person who played the part of 'Joseph' in the Nativity Video that they showed is a member here in Boston, he goes to one of the Singles Wards. Everything is going great here, as of right now it is not snowing but I'm pretty sure that it will be soon. We have another elder added into the fam this week. Elder Huntsman is from Atascocita/San Antonio, Texas and will be serving in Russia but he's waiting on his visa. This week was interesting, we had a lot of people curse at us, shouting at us, striving to bash with us, but towards the end we saw some miracles. We gained a new investigator, Jason Sandler. We have 2 Progressing Investigators, Matthew Teal and Jason Sandler, both of which are golden. Basically if they don't get baptized it will be completely our fault, because you can just tell that the Lord has just been preparing them throughout their lives. They are really amazing! I'm loving it. Oh and I did read those chapters in Alma, I wrote down my thoughts but I forgot to bring my journal, so I will write my thoughts to you about those chapters next week. By the way, I keep having a strong feeling that I need to get in contact a former classmate of mine.  I feel like she needs some help and I haven't heard from her in a while, so if you could do that and get her info to me as soon as possible that would be greatly appreciated, peas and thank you. Chris Battoo is from a country in the Middle-East (I can't remember how to spell or how to even say the country's name). In the pics that I sent you there is Sister Meier (short, white), Elder Ellis (black), David Johnston (glasses, no tag, was the ward mission leader), and Johnny Palmer (grey suit, brown hair, looks like a politician, he is the ward mission leader). Anyways, Elder Huntsman will be here till probably mid-January. But yea everything is going great so far. Oh yea please pray for Chris, opposition from family/friends have spiked dramatically but so far he's hanging in there. And pray for Matt and Jason so that they can recognize the Spirit and gain answers to their prayers. We had a Zone Temple trip this week as well. We also went to the Museum of Science this morning and had a great time. By the way TRANSFERS are on Dec 15, we will know what is going to happen on Saturday so I will keep you tuned in and up to date. Christmas phone calls 'should be' a maximum of 40 minutes. Oh I also got the 2 packages and THANK YOU for everything. Elder Yim really enjoyed his package as well. 

 

Love you all very much, Best of wishes,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Tellez 12-12-11

Hello again.
I wrote you last week mama. The letter with all of the pictures. We had a baptism last week, I sent the pics, Marcos baptized Jesus. I baptized 2 this week and Elder Lastra baptized one. I baptized Alejandro y Aurora, a couple and Elder Lastra baptized Fransisca, a lady (possibly crazy, no se). So, all in all, I have 5 baptism!! But why stop there, haha. It is incredibly hot, I still sweat soo much. I love Mexico, it is great. Who are the 6 pregnant hermanas in the barrio (sisters in the ward)? We go to Veracruz on miercoles to go to the temple and have a conference, I also think I will eat McDonald´s or Carl´s Jr., ahhhh it will be so nice to taste a burger or chicken sandwich. We do have a little burger and malt shop, it is pretty good. President Maza (branch president) and his brother took us (Elder Lastra, me, Elder Wilhelm (district leader) and Elder Hernandez) there Thursday night because Elder Wilhelm needed to eat because he just came back from the hospital. Oh I think I forgot to tell you that it is just us (Elder Lastra and me) that live in the house. E. Wilhelm y E. Hernandez are from Santiago. I like President Maza, he reminds me of Brother Escobar. Actually this branch reminds me alot of Liberty Ward. It is crazy that is just a branch, there are like 150 members (thanks to the missionaries). But that is how they do it in this area. Right now we are in San Andreas for a Zone activity, we just played soccer, haha. Oh, we will most likely have another baptism this Saturday as well. So, get ready for more pics. Enough about me, how is everybody? I love you mama. Thank you for the pics.

Gramma, gracias por su email. I'm sorry that I don't write you much, I'm given a very little bit of time and this email is for everyone. I really do feel bad :(( See, the frowny face explains how I feel, haha. But I really am sorry. It is also really hard to think of things to write, I'm a person of a few words. So, how was sleeping in your own bed Friday and Saturday night? Did you go to church? I miss you. I plan on sending pics every week. How are you feeling? Is everything good in your life. I will try to write you more.

Oh, mama, can you send the following to this address - mark.coleman@myldsmail.net : Hey man!! No, I'm sorry. I don't have Elder Herron's email address, but I might see him this thursday. How is it going? Are you learning spanish like crazy? Is you companion hispanic? My companion is Elder Lastra, he is from Mexico. He is really cool. He speaks a little english. But for the most part, we just speak in spanish. Pues, keep in touch bro. -Elder Téllez (the greatest companion you had in the MTC, haha)

Thank you mama. Well time for me to fly. Send my love to everyone. Nos vemos.

12-5-11 Zone Conference in Juneau

Hey. Well zone conference was this week. We missed our flight Wednesday morning because we were slightly too lax and missed the ferry. So we got a later plane trip and when we got on the plane there were "mechanical problems" so it took forever to get going. Then it was an island hopper so we went to Sitka and we had a pretty rough landing cause the weather was so bad and windy. So they cancelled the flight to Juneau....surprise... so we went to Anchorage for the night and had to leave early in the morning to fly to Juneau. So we got there and immediately had the 8 hours of Zone Conference. It was fun. We got to meet people from the rest of the areas here. Our district is us, POW, Petersburg and Wrangell so we got to be with them. Then the others were Juneau and Sitka and Hoonah and Whitehorse in the Yukon ha. So it was cool being with other missionaries. And we learned a lot about how to teach the message of Christmas. We all had interviews with Pres. Beesley. He told me I might leave this transfer and If I don’t  I’m 100% for sure leaving the next one. Because my Spanish is about to go downhill fast if nothing happens to strengthen it. We're getting another Spanish speaker this transfer and the next and the next ha so he's looking to do something with us. So either way I'm going to go somewhere cold in the middle of winter. So I’ll have to get a jacket. Oh I got the two Christmas packages. But we haven't checked the mail since we've been gone so we'll see what's in there today. I didn't forget about your birthday haha you'll get at least a card :P  But you realize I have an hour for emails? I cannot write for an hour. That’s just one of those plain and simple facts of life elder Waddell cannot write about his week for an entire hour. Ha, so you can make emails as long and numerous as you want, because this is the only time in the week I consistently hear anything about what's going on back home from anybody. Anyone can email I just have to write the people who are family. So tell Emily, Megan, and D'nel to stop being lazy and shoot me an email. Well the work is still going strong here. If everything works out we'll have at least two more baptized by the end of the year. One of them was supposed to be this last Saturday but we weren't here. And we will hopefully have a few more in January. The people are awesome here and when I leave I'm going to miss it, probably a lot. But I really need to learn Spanish. So yeah everything is good over here so far. I hope Texas is still doing fine. All is well in Zion. Love you

             Elder Waddell

Elder Waddell 11-28-11

Hey all is going well. The weather has been strange but it was beautiful and clear yesterday. Ian and Lianne got baptized on Saturday so that was a good day. Most of the snow is washed away right now and the rain is coming down just like normal but it'll be back soon. I haven't gotten any packages. Maybe they'll be in today. But did you send my sd card??? I haven't gotten it so that worries me. The sun is setting a little before 4 now and we're in the most southern town in Alaska. But it doesn't help that even if the sun wasn't setting we never see it anyways because of the rain. This week is Zone Conference so that's exciting. We get the Prince of Whales elders tomorrow then Wednesday we fly to Juneau and we come back on Saturday. So it'll be nice meeting the other missionaries and being in Juneau. But it will be significantly colder so I’m not sure how well that dog is gonna hunt. We had a good Thanksgiving with the members and we kinda floated from house to house a little. It was nice. Man Christmas is in like 4 weeks. I wonder if I'll still be here. Probably so ha. Hmmm. The work is still going well here. We have another conditional baptismal date so that's cool. My training is almost done. Just 3 weeks left. So that should make it easier to get Language study done. Right now it's been pretty challenging to get that done and it's taking its toll. It's frustrating. It's gonna be so hard to actually become fluent here. Especially here in the winter where nobody speaks Spanish. But I'll probably be somewhere using it soon and with someone who's good at it. Oh you know what would be cool? If you guys made some "business cards" for me, That has  a picture and our home address and my mission address and such so I can give it to investigators or converts or members you know? That would be cool. Elder Dean and I are gonna make some Christmas cards and we're gonna find some ugly sweaters and do something dumb ha. It'll be a good time. Oh man the lack of sun actually kinda takes a toll on your health too. I've been slightly moody and tired and just not feeling healthy recently. I am gonna get a lot of vitamin d3 today. Supposedly they make a vitamin supplement specifically for people in Alaska because of the difference in diet and sun and weather and such haha, So maybe sometime i'll have to get my hands on that. hmm what else is happening...oh.. Tony chacheres... i miss them. oh and I wrote Regan last pday. I better get a speedy response you slacker haha.I feel like I'm forgetting something again.... oh well. Thanks for the update! I love you all. All is well in Zion.
Elder Waddell

Elder Everett Escobar  11/28/11

Hello mi familia,

My Avaira contacts huh (: that's actually funny because, I was going to tell you today that I needed some more. How ironic (I don't know the lot numbers right now but I will look). As for my drivers license it says, " Iss 01/06/2011 Exp 08/18/2011", I don't see 2017 anywhere on my license. By the way, you may be able to get ahold of Elder Bingham today. I also need some more deodorant (I dont know if that was in the package that you sent or not) and I also need thermal garments (I have been told that they are absolutely essential in January and February). I'm glad that ya'll had a great Thanksgiving and I'm a little sad that I didn't get to help in decorating the christmas tree this year too, it's definitely different. But the christmas decorations are being set up all across the Boston area so hopefully I can get some good pics. Elder Yim and I have constantly been singing christmas songs, it's been fun. I have been reading, 'Our Search For Happiness' by Elder Ballard and becomes more and more clear to me that, that book alone would make a great christmas gift to anyone who is investigating the church.

Well Thanksgiving was great for us, Andrew Navarro and Brad Talk took us out to eat at IHOP for brunch (it was muy bueno) and Eric Nicholson (awesome guy, he helps us in our scripture studies every week) from one of the other Singles Wards invited us to a Thanksgiving feast at his friends house in Cohasset, Massachusetts. It was great, we had a awesome time. The day after Thanksgiving Brother Wanamaker (Member of the Bishopric in our ward) and his family invited us to their home in Belmont for dinner. Brother Wanamaker served his mission in Fiji and he has two of the most cutest/polite little girls (Aly 4yrs and Camilla 2yrs old), I've ever seen. We had a swell time with them as well. The missionary work was kind of slow this week, but overall it was amazing. I have been so tired this week, it's ridonkulous, it's mainly due to the sun setting earlier, it gets dark at 4pm here. Oh, Chris Battoo also got confirmed at church yesterday which was another good experience. Chris is doing well and he feels a difference in his life. The mission life is going great so far and the following months will be even more challenging but great (or so I've heard from multiple sources). I can't wait for P-day snowball fights in Boston Common. By the way today is Elder Yim's 14th month mark! Anyways hope everything is going great, hope we can get this DLicense thing worked out.

Love ya'll,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Everett Escobar  11/21/11

Hello my family,

I'm happy to say that Chris did get baptized yesterday, however it was a headache/rollercoaster to actually get everything ready, different things just kept popping up. So yea, I baptized him yesterday! It was a great and uplifting experience for Chris, me, and everyone that was there. Unfortunately, Elder Yim forgot his SD-card reader at home so I am not able to send you any pics today ): oh well you'll get plenty of pictures next week.

It's going to be crazy coming back to Liberty Ward and seeing all of these new families and all of their children, Summerwood, huh... Remember Liberty Ward will become a Stake of it's own one day, it's coming. Poor bishop, I'm going to write him today, hope he gets to feeling better. 

This week we have gained two investigators, but we won't be able to meet with them this week because they have tests in school and then right after that they are going home for Thanksgiving, yeah! /: By the way, I talked to Sister Evans and she said that she can reimburse me through my Support Card for some of the meals with investigators and members. This week was great! Tell Danny to try everything on the table at Thanksgiving Dinner, he's bound to like something. Tell Aaron to have fun at camp and to watch out for Sasquatch! As of right now we only have a meal appointment for breakfast on Thanksgiving day and I'm pretty sure that's going to be at IHOP (: Things have been busy this past week and it's all about to slow down especially with a lot of people leaving for the holidays.

By the way, Mom you would die here in the fall and winter, it's not even winter yet and the low for today is 29 degrees with gusting winds. Yep I'm pretty sure that you'd scream till you explode, but I don't mind it being chilly. I heard that it's supposed to snow again this week, why can't the weather just hurry up and make it snow everyday, instead of every other week? Anyways, all of the once beautiful leafs that were on the trees are now gone, they have fallen off. So yea winter is basically right at the door! (scary, just kidding). I enjoy the members in the University Ward, they are so missionary minded and our Bishop is Roger B. Porter. You should ask Bishop Thomas if he's heard of him, Bishop Porter is really famous in Harvard University, the Government, and in the Church. We have 3 other famous members in our stake: Clayton Christianson (he's been mentioned in General Conference, was a member of the Quorum of the Seventy), Henry Eyring (Henry B. Eyring's father), and of course MITT ROMNEY. Crazy stuff, eh?!

Well I gotta go hope you all have a good day and Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Tellez email 11/28/11

Hello again to all my friends and family,

This week has been good. For Gramma: I have gotten Mrs. Donna´s emails, tell her thank you. Thank you for your emails, they are much appreciated. I love hearing from you. Tell the Rucker´s they are in my prayers. Thak you for the advice. I write there names in my journal and I have the addresses and emails. Plus, we are going to hang out after the mission.

So, I baptized my first investigator, Angel, this Saturday. it was great. We have another one this coming Saturday for Jésus a 12 year old boy. Spanish is still coming along. There is only Elder Lastra and me in the house. We have beds, a toilet that flushes, sinks, a shower (no hot water so we don´t really use it, we just boil water and but it in a bucket), a fridge, a little stove burner thing, a washer, a dining room table, a microwave, a toaster, chairs, desks, and other tables. Oh and we have a closet for out clothes. Yup, that is the house. The chapel is nice, there is a soccer/basketball court in the back. It is incredibly hot here but that´s ok. I don´t really need money, I get enough every month. Momma, I can just give Elder Lastra my english hymn book and you can just buy me one and keep it there for when I return or I can just get one when I return. How is the ward? How is the family? How is life? Tell Megan that it´s all good, she´s busy. I will either get that care package in December or January, I only recieve mail once a month. I still can´t really understand everyone here, therefore I can´t really respond back. But it takes time as people have told me numerous times. I will just be patient and study hard.

For Bianca: Awesome! You went on dates, I am so happy for you. He sounds a bit feminine, but I´m sure he is cool. That´s good, if home is where you need to be, then that is where you need to be. Find a better job than Jack in the Box or just go to a junior college. Keep being productive, don´t just lay about the house. Help momma and gramma, practice with Josh on school and the trumpet. Set a good example. You already know how to do these things, haha, I am just rambling.

Well, till next week. I love you, everyone. Take care.

Elder Tellez 11/21/11

¡Hola, hola, hola! ¿Comó están?
Hmmmmmm details, ok. My first area is Isla, Veracruz it is 3 hrs from Ciudad Veracruz (Veracruz City). You can look it up on the map and the internet. My companion is Elder Lastra, he is awesome. He knows little english. He wants me to teach him english while he teaches me spanish. My español is mejor, pero es no perfecto. The people here are so humble, we walk down the street and say ¨Buenos dias¨ ¨Buenas tardes¨ o ¨Buenas noches¨ and they smile, respond and wave back. I am incredibly quiet whe we are teaching because i don´t really know what they are saying. my week was ok but I was a little down. But my spanish is picking up! I talk more We are seriously going to have a baptism every week. We have one this week, his name is Angel, he is cool. He is super old as well. Thank you everyone for the emails, they are much appreciated. The town is small and a little rundown, but I love the rama. Our house is a nice size, of course there is no AC, but that is all good. It incredibly hot down here. We have a toilet that flushes and stuff. We have a shower but no hot water so we just boil some. I have basically ruined 5 of my shirts because I sweat so much. I washed them, but the stains are still there, it´s all good though, they will eventually come out. The pants are not as bad, the stains are not as visible. My suit jacket has a huge visible sweat ring on the back and front, but I never wear it, I only wore it on my first day. The food is terrific, I don´t know what half of it is, but that´s ok, I won´t even ask, I will just enjoy. The plane ride was fine there was another missionary that sat next to me the whole way, he used to be one of my companions in the MTC. He was going to Veracruz as well. Nobody greeted us in Mexico City, but we just had an hour layover so we just ate, and I introduced that missionary to mexican food. He loves it. The Mission President and his wife greeted us at the Airport in Veracruz. I like him, he speaks very, very little english, but it´s all good. Oh, Elder Lastra wanted me to tell you to send me a small english hymn book for him. He will give my the money to pay you back and we will find a way to send it. Please and thank you, haha!! So Adam is home? Wow, I am glad he is ok. Tell him I said hi, and to write and email me. Tell the ward a everyone that I said hi, and to write me and send me emails. They celebrate Thanksgiving down here too, we will just eat at a member´s house. I had to prepare a lesson for Family Home Evening at a family´s house this evening, we have an investigator coming too, exciting, haha. There are only two people that I have found that speak english in this city: an old hermana that plays the piano in sacrament and a 17 year old youth who is really cool and wants me to help him speak english better. He also wants to go on a mission so that is cool. I am going to be here in Isla for 6 Months and then I go to Veracruz City. Well that is all the time I have. ¡Hasta luego! ¡Nos vemos! Love ya

Trinity 11-21-11

Thanks for the Pictures! I got both of the packages and I had forgotten what you said about the Amazon package so I haven't opened it ha it's just been sitting there waiting for me. But before you send the others remember I might be leaving here by the 18th and I don't think you can send anything except for USPS to the mission home. Because they only forward they don't spend money. Christmas Sunday we only have sacrament meeting that's at 10 a.m. It got kind of chilly here. It was in the 20's and the first snow froze and more snow piled on it. so that was exciting on the hills. There were a lot of people sliding down hills and stuff ha. We were lucky to get our studded tires on when we did. And I still had to push the car some ha. I ate it last night right after I stepped out of the car ha. I stepped into a foot of snow with slick ice at the bottom on a steep hill and didn't brace in time. So that's been an adventure. We've been working hard and we should have two baptisms on saturday! We got some new investigators and we're still working with most of our older ones. Some seem to be progressing pretty well and others not so much but maybe they need time. We met an anti lady the other day so that was exciting. (not) I was talking to someone who might be interested and knew a lot called herself a "dry mormon" and such and this lady came up talking about how she grew up a member and she knows Joseph Smith is burning in hell and all of this ridiculous stuff. And the whole time she was trying to get me to argue with her or whatever so eventually I was just like you know and I know that we can talk hearsay all day and run circles but unless you do what we ask with humility without guile and with a real desire to know and read and pray about it you can never get an answer and you can never know. I'm not gonna waste my time running circles with people like that. There are people who are humble and want to hear what we actually believe out there and she's walking up to people telling them they believe in a heretic. I'm not 100% sure how Christ spent his time but I don't think he taught people to try and break each other down. The worst part was that there was that other lady who said at one point she believed in Prophets and then this lady comes in and just tries to tear it all down. I wasn't too happy. But I think we can find that other lady again we know some members know her. But besides that it's been an awesome uplifting week and even that helped a lot because we had a lot of good discussions with members and how they gained a testimony of the nature of Christ and all of those kinds of things so that was interesting. I'm not sure how many of those kind of people there are in Alaska. so far we've only met 2 obnoxious ones ha. But anyways we've seen some exciting progress in some investigators this week and the Zone leaders are coming from Juneau for a day for comp exchanges and next week we go to Juneau for Zone conference so that'll be exciting. Morgan and his family are moving to washington before December so that's sad but they're excited about being closer to a temple so that will be great for them. Oh how exactly do you make shoyu chicken?? I think there was something else and I'll probably remember it right after I get off but i'll write it down for next week if I do ha. Well I love you all and i'm kind of jealous of your weather ha but not too much. All is well in Zion

Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez first email from Veracruz!!! 11/15/2011

Hola mama. ¿Comó está? I´ve made it safely to Veracruz. It is sooo beautiful. Yup, don´t worry, I am doing the Lord´s work. Write me a lot, por favor. No tengo mucho tiempo, pero I love ya. Tell everyone I said hi. Snail mail takes about 1 month. ¡Yup, nos vemos! My P days are cada lunes (every Monday). So, till then.

Trinity 11-14-11

Thanks for the football update and the pictures ha. Everything is going well here. It snowed last night like 4 inches or so and our car was not prepared for it ha. We couldn't make it up one of the streets to go up to our apartment because the traction was so bad ha. But we'll get the studded tires on soon cause I guess it'll just be snowy from now on. I'll attach some pictures. One is the beginning of it snowing and a couple is of us eating some african Cayenne pepper or something. Congratulations to Emily for the scholarship that's pretty good ha. Man before I know it they will have been in college for a year and be passing me up! Thanks for the packages i'll let you know what happens. This week has been weird because the first few days we had Prince of Whales elders and they had to run around and do stuff so not a whole lot got done. We sent them off on Wednesday and the same day brought our car into the shop and found out our brakes were gone and the calipers busted ha. So we didn't have a car until Saturday night. But Thursday was Jace's baptism so that was awesome! Well that's about it for now i gotta go. Sorry this one was short. Maybe more will happen next week ha. I love you all. All is well in Zion.

Email from Elder Tellez Thurs. 11/10/2011

While I was at the Service Auction at church, John called the house :-(
He was able to talk to Josh and gave Josh the info on his flight for Mon. Talk about mixed feelings. Yay!! John called!! :) I wasn't here and didn't get to talk to him. :( Josh got to talk to him!! :) Now I get to look forward to Mon :-)

Hola mama. I am doing well. I am assuming Joshua told you that I called and hopefully he gave you what my travel plans were. I will talk to you at the airport on Monday so be ready for my call at like 7 o 8. I will try to call your cell phone. Yup, they let us call our family to let us know that we are safe or something, so long as it doesn't interfere with my focus and whatnot. Let grandma know that I received her package but I never got her check. Money is incredibly tight and it just seems like there is so much stuff that I still need. I just found out that I am supposed to carry $100 emergency money but I only have like $3, but I don't think that I will have to pay for my luggage. I will talk with the travel office here at the MTC and explain my money situation. I'm sorry I'm complaining to much, I'm just muy concerned. Thank you grandma for the package. Thank you Mama for the dearelder, I really do appreciate letters from people. The reason why I was saying that it would take like 2 months to get mail or packages is because the holidays are coming around and mail will be crazy. Another reason is because I have heard that is takes a couple of months to recieve things sometimes in Mexico, so I will be depending on emails alot. How is everyone doing? I hope everyone is doing fine. I will be sending you a package of like 85 pics. Some are pretty pointless but some are good. There are some really good sights here. Well that is all for now, just be ready for my call monday morning, i don't really want to waste quarters on a voicemail. Te amo. I love you. Tell everyone I said hi and to write me or preferably email me.

Elder Everett Escobar   11/7/11

Dear Escobar and Everett Family,

HOLY GUACAMOLE, Danny has grown a lot, he may even be taller than me when I get back! CRAZY! Did he start eating real food? Or what? If so, keep it up maybe he will be able to dunk (basketball) on me in the future, WOW. Anyways, Chris's baptism got pushed back to this coming Sunday because of some unfortunate time restraints, thankfully he is still eager and ready to be baptized. This past Sunday was great though we had a lot of members bring friends who wanted to learn more about our beliefs and I'm pretty sure that we may have some new investigators in the near future.

I did receive a letter from my 3 tias in Mexico this week, however it was hard for me to read, especially since it was in cursive. It was even hard for me to read the address on the envelope. So could you send me their address? So that I can send them a letter back. So Aaron is in the jazz band and being somewhat of an entrepreneur in school (just like I was haha), that's cool! I know a lot of people in the University Ward that play jazz at Berklee College of Music. My street smarts are indeed getting better, I am remembering addresses, buses, and trains that we usually take. Well, the work is progressing, the University Ward has had 2 baptisms this month, if Chris gets baptized he will be the 3rd. So keep praying. By the way I have not bought any winter boots yet, I plan on doing that today or next week. Oh and I did receive your package this week, thank you so much for the toothpaste and toothbrushes. I have heard from Samuel and John through e-mail, but have not heard from Trinity. How is he doing? Keep telling grandma and grandpa and the ward that I love and miss them. What is the Hairs' new address?

Love Ya'll,
Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Trinity juggling :)

Trinity 11-7-11

 Hey! Thanks for the email! We're doing great here in Ketchikan. We got our transfer calls and suprise suprise we're staying here ha. I sent my camera card this past week so you should be getting it if you haven't already. It has a lot of pictures. This place is gorgeous. Hopefully if you guys actually get the chance to come up to Alaska you can spend some time here. Even though it'll most likely rain everyday you're here ha. We don't need anything just support like always ha. Yeah Morgan is awesome he got the priesthood yesterday and he's baptizing his son on Thursday so that's exciting! The work is still moving here. We taught 17 lessons this week which is a close second to our best week. We've been working hard and growing. I haven't gotten any bigger luckily haha but seeing as we're moving into the holiday season I'm not sure if i'll keep it off. But it's all good either way. I'm glad to here football is going well. I love dads beard. He would fit in perfectly here. There are quite a few people in the ward with more hair on their face than head it seems ha. We've been trying to work with the members and build their trust in us. I know it sounds funny but i'm pretty sure if we can get a little better at basketball we can get a few more investigators. The first thing I heard on my flight to Alaska was that "Basketball is King in the Bush"  And everybody plays on wednesday nights and a lot of nonmembers come. So If we can start getting spiritual thoughts and stuff in there and gain the trust of some of the members and nonmembers who play every week... that's just one way into their hearts. But we don't have anytime to get better so we'll just try to make them laugh I guess haha. But we have thanksgiving dinner with a couple who always work a lot with us and give us referrals so that'll be great. My spanish isn't failing but it's not getting a whole lot better. We don't have all that many opportunities to use it. But by February I'll be in Anchorage I think and there will be more there. Oh it snowed a little the other day... the rain washed it away in hours haha. That wasn't a fun day to knock on peoples doors. We're getting our brake pads replaced soon and our blinker and our snow tires put on. Things have just been moving along I'm sure we'll hit some bumps soon but i'm not too worried about them. I think that's about it. Oh the InsideOut a Capella called "Reverence" would be sweet ha. well that's it. I love you and all is well in Zion!

                     Elder Waddell 

Elder Escobar  10/28/11 (letter in mail)


Dear Escobar & Everett Family,
I just wanted to forewarn you that I will not be able to reply to any of your emails on Monday. However, I will be able to on Wednesday, because this is "transfer week" so P-Day is on Wednesday.  By the way, President Evans has ordered that all of the missionaries be in their apartments by 6pm on Monday (Halloween), because supposedly people will be dressing up as missionaries, all thanks to the Book of Mormon Musical.

Oh yeah, and it snowed yesterday a little bit and I heard that tomorrow  we are supposed to have a 'snow storm' that evening.  Just so you know today is Friday, October 28th.  And just to let you know, one of our investigators, Chris Batto, is getting baptized on November 4th and tonight Chris told me that he wanted me to baptize him.  I was in awe!  He said that he really enjoys listening to me and my testimony and that I have made a big impression on him in his life.  How sweet is that?! I don't take any credit for it though, if it wasn't for the Lord, I may not even be in Massachusetts, so Heavenly Father can take the glory since it truly is Him that speaks through me, without Him I am nothing teaching-wise. 

Well anyways, gotta go, LOVE YOU!

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

 Elder Everett Escobar  11/2/11

Hello Escobar and Everett Family,
Thankfully we were not one of those apartments included in the power outage. However, I have already experience 12 inches of snow in the past week, CRAZY! It's not even winter yet, ha, new experiences but it's fun. Thank you for the recipes and the food storage ideas. Dad I'm glad that you liked your gift package, there's actually a cool record store perpendicular to the street that we live on. I am so glad that you were able to meet/talk to the Smiths, they really are an amazing family and were truly one of the Lord's tender mercies towards us. They're awesome! We have been working hard with our investigators, Chris Batto's baptism has been pushed back to this Sunday but he's still getting baptized. I don't know if you have received my letter already, but I mentioned that Chris wants me to baptize him, I'm still in awe about that. We are trying feverishly hard to gain new investigators. Yesterday we had a breakthrough, we met a guy named Eric on the street, he was interested right off the bat. WE HAD AN 1 1/2 HOUR DISCUSSION WITH HIM IN THE FREEZING COLD (MOM YOU WOULD HAVE DIED HAHA) AND IT WAS WINDY. I ONLY HAD A LONG SLEEVE SHIRT ON, but it was refreshing though. I did however put my coat back on after we talked with him. Yesterday was an amazing day, we hadn't been having that much success in finding new investigators in a while! Well I hope that everything is alright at home. Oh and tell Ms. Harbour, "Thank You" and that I did receive her package and that those brownies were amazing, I am writing her a thank you letter today. Well I gotta go. I'm sending pics in another e-mail.
Love ya'll,
Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Halloween email

Hey!  I'm glad you all got my letters. And you enjoyed the cat story, it’ll be a good memory of tracting. They changed our schedule for P day today because it's Halloween. We proselyte from 4 to 7 and study at night so it'll be a little different. But today is beautiful and clear so we're hiking and I'll send the card today so you'll get some good pictures hopefully. The baptism went awesome and it was his wedding reception after so he was just giddy all day haha. After I baptized him one of his sons tried to jump into the font with us haha it was interesting. Elder Dean confirmed him yesterday and he's super excited for this change he's made. It's amazing. He'll baptize his son on the 12th I think so that'll be awesome! And we still have others with dates they're working towards so Ketchikan is still awesome ha. Wednesday we had special training and it was awesome and Pres. Beesley more or less said I won't be moving before Christmas but there's no guarantee on that ha. Thursday we were sooooo sick so we slept from 3 until 6:30 the next day. But then we were just kind of queasy so we still got stuff done. But this week has been tuff. We've only really had 3 days of real missionary work. But it was awesome with Morgan. Ummm yeah It's back to trying to make things happen this week so it'll be good. Before we know it Christmas will be here ha. I miss football stuff happening. Almost nobody cares about football here ha and their high school season has been over. So keep updating me on that ha.   Well I think that's about it. I love you all. All is well in Zion!

                                                             Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez email Oct. 27, 2011

I waited all day to get an email from John and resigned myself that it was not coming today. It came at 10:00pm our time. I was so happy. I didn't realize how sad I was that I hadn't gotten one until I saw it. This is the best letter I have gotten from him and I am so full of joy at what he has written that I can't stop crying tears of joy. It is amazing how the men can change and grow from one week to the next.

¡Hola familia! ¿Como estan? I am doing well. This letter is for everybody (Mom, Josh, Nyah, Gramma, Aunt Becca, Uncle Brent, Lysie, Logan, Kaylee, y Max). Thank you all for the letters, they were magnificant. To gramma, thank you for the dearelders. I am always happy when I recieve mail. To Nyah and Josh, thank you for the mail as well (that kind of rhymed). To mi madre, te amo, muchos gracias por su letters tambien. I really miss every single one of you, pero, I am so feliz aqui. I know you are and will recieve muchos bendiciones porque of what I'm doing. Lo siento por writing muy pequeño. Emailing is so much easier for me, and from what I've heard, I might need the stamps in Mexico. My time is running out!!!! I am getting so much better at spanish, some words I even forgot how to say in english. Well, I have 2 1/2 weeks left at the MTC and then it is off to Mexico!!!! YAY!!!! Ohhh, to Aunt Becca, thank you tambien for the dearelder. To Uncle Brent, thank you for the scratch &sniff spaghetti stain, it still smells like spaghetti. Thank you for all of the advice you have given me. Everyday I learn something new. I am definately more humble since being here and understand what charity really is. My study is so meaningful to me. I focus on the doctrine in the scriptures as opposed to just the stories. I am definately here to invite the Lord's children to come unto Christ, but ultimately I am here for me. Have you heard the talk about the fourth missionary. Well, I am striving to be the fourth missionary. I love you all!!!!!!!! Keep sending me letters and love.


Love,
Elder John Tellez

 Elder Escobar  10/24/11

 

 

Hello Mi Familia,

I have received a few letters from people in the Liberty Ward. It is good to hear that Brother Farrell is now Stake YM President and that the Hair Family is now moved into their new home (By the way what is their new address?)! 

 

Everything has been great here in Massachusetts, we have been extra busy or at least busier than usual this week. Elder Yim and I taught a total of 17 lessons (to less-active, recent converts, and investigators) this week! However we have had some difficulty in obtaining new investigators, a lot of people on the streets have been remarkably rude to us haha, but most of our success right now is coming through the members of the University Ward. I feel and have felt that this past week was pretty successful.

So Aaron has my ipod, huh? Haha just make sure that he doesn't delete any of my music. He's turning 14, hormones are kicking in, there's jr high dances, oh my! Yea good luck with that, but Church Dances are way better than the schools' anyways.

Well I gotta head off...and yes, let's all persevere through our challenges and all of us come together, returning with honor on September 6, 2013.

Love ya'll so very much, have a good day,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Baptism, Bears, and Kitty

10-24-11

Hello! Yes I got the letters and the package on the same day thank you!!! It doesn't matter when you send a Christmas package but send it to the mission home because I might be leaving Ketchikan before Christmas. I'm not sure that I really want anything ha maybe a nice watch or that InsideOut CD Reverence. But I don't know. Just whatever. I don't think I need anything right now just more people to teach! Oh yeah I was wondering if you saw that on the news haha that's right down the road from our house. Somebody in the ward shot a bear with a bow and arrow on his porch just the other day because it kept coming back.  Oh and a guy in our ward takes some photography. He has a website it's pretty cool. It'swhalepassphotographyzenfolio.com or zenpholio..... I’m not sure what that is other than the host server for his pictures. But they're almost all taken here. This week wasn't as amazing as last week but the weather was better!  Two whole days were partly cloudy instead of rainy!!!   Hopefully soon we can hike up Deer Mountain.  That’ll make some cool pictures. We have our first baptism on Saturday!!!! Morgan has been amazing to teach. I'm still waiting for him to break it to us that he's already a member and this was all a sick joke ha. But that means Saturday will be a good day no matter what cause we have to start filling the font at like 1:00 because it takes foooorrreevveeerrrr to fill up and we have to stay with it ha then they have their wedding reception after the baptism! What a good day. He asked me to baptize and Elder Dean to confirm so we're super excited for that!  And we have 4 other people on date and another 1 who is conditional so that's pretty exciting. We went on splits the other day and I took two elders who are about to go on their missions and our appointment fell through so we went tracting. One of the guys is allergic to cats and when we were tracting this cat was just following us around. The other one was knocking at a door when all of a sudden I see the cat pounce at the one who's allergic to cats haha the cat landed on his chest and got all in his face and he started yelling and trying to shake the cat off and he finally got him off and threw it like 5 feet haha definitely the best tracting moment so far especially since it wasn't raining haha. Thank you for the emails from John and Everett!  Well I'm gonna write letters to everyone today and clean a lot since the AP's and Pres and sis Beesley and the missionaries from Prince of Whales are all coming Wednesday so that'll be exciting! So yeah we’ve been working hard here and we're being obedient don't worry. And we're already seeing the fruits of The Lords work here in Ketchikan! So I love you all and all is still well in Zion!    Love, Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez email Oct. 20, 2011

Hola. How are things going? Time for my weekly email. Spanish is definately getting better, I speak it most of the time. It is really easy once you really think about it. How come nobody sends me emails anymore, or even letters. I will write people but I can only write them on thursdays. Richard G. Scott spoke at the Devotional on Tuesday, it was magnificant. I only have 3 1/2 weeks left here at the MTC. Thank you for that dearelder that I got the other day, I enjoyed hearing from gramma, Josh, and Nyah. I promise to write back. If you end up sending me an email today, I won't be able to see it til next week. If you could, could you email me the might before. I can't send pictures through the computer and I don't want to spend money on getting them developed because money is scarce. You should send me a Christmas package, you know what I want for Christmas, money. Oh, and if you do send it send it early in November because of all of the Christmas traffic, it would be much appreciated. How is the ward? I honestly know nothing, haha. Keep me posted. Haha, most of my clothes hardly fit me, including my suit, and no, I am not getting fat, haha. I work out more than I eat. There is a nice gym here and they are about to open a second one. I really wish I could send pictures, there are some really cool ones, but I can't, sorry. I will be able to once I get to Mexico, though. OHHHH, time is running out. I carry on plenty of conversations in spanish. This cheap watch I have makes me rash so I hardly wear it. I know you think i'm complaining a bunch, but I'm not, I'm good. Don't worry about me, I'm doing the Lord's errand. Well, I think that's all. Love to everyone!!!!

Elder Escobar, October 17, 2011

 

Hello Escobar Fam,

First I want to apologize, last week I wrote a letter but forgot to send it and I realized Saturday afternoon that I still had it in my possession, it was hidden in my backpack.

 

I did receive your package, I really like the electric razor, it works very nicely and yes I did get my medication, etc. Today, I plan on writing another letter to you and mailing it either today or tomorrow. Tell the Bishop and Stake President that I am still in the process of writing their letters (I really dislike how little of a time we have to actually write letters, I guess that I just have to write them faster). This week was a little rough, most of our appointments got cancelled and we got rained on all day Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It's very hard to either tract or do street contacting in the rain. And OH YES we have definitely heard of Pastor Jefferies, our whole district was actually eating at Subway and the tv was on and the volume was pretty turned up pretty high. We heard Mitt Romney's name and so we kind of listened to the report and all of the sudden we heard, "Mitt Romney and the people of the Mormon religion are part of a cult!" Then everyone in our district just kind of gasped and then we looked around, there were quite a few people staring at us after that announcement was made. It was funny, but sad at same time! But you know if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was actually a so-called "cult", I think a lot of people would have figured that out by now in its approximately 200 years in existence. Oh well, at least its getting the church's name out and people are more likely to ask us questions. 

 

But yes there has been a lot of protesting going on here in Downtown Boston and there's always police around. Elder Yim and I get by food-wise, this week miraculously we are being taken out to eat dinner with a member every night, so I think that we are pretty good so far, but I do think that some simple recipes will come in handy. Aaron an outdoorsman, no way! Come on I thought he was basically an outdoorsman when I left, but the MACHETE is new!

 

Today Elder Yim and I are going to the aquarium and yes I will definitely take some more pictures of not only the surroundings but of myself and my companion, be ready for pics next week.

 

Okay gotta go LOVE YOU,

 

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

 Elder Escobar, October 11, 2011

Well one of our investigators, Blake, dropped us. But I guess that's alright because we gained two more investigators. Oh I wasn't able to e-mail you yesterday, because it was Columbus Day, therefore the library was closed and as a result I didn't have access to a computer. So we get to e-mail today instead. YEAH! By the way I want to write people in the ward and stake but I can never find time, I barely have enough time to write my own family, it's hard. There's just too much to do and not enough time, it can get pretty ridonkulous. So, they've already had Homecoming at school? Wow! And Emily looked like a "Greek Godess"? Double Wow! My oh, my time does fly by. Yet again it's ridonkulous! Yet again, is the Hair's house done? How is Brother Kiethley doing, is he progressing fairly well in the church? I'm going to try to send Bishop Thomas, President Banks, and Brother Farell a letter pretty soon. Well, it's still cool and windy here and no Aaron it's not freezing or snowing yet, haha. Oh hey yesterday our district went to see an organ recital at the Christian Science Cathedral (Tom Cruise's church), it was pretty interesting to see how close their beliefs are to ours surprisingly. We also went to the Boston Temple for the first time and the temple theme is 'the tree of life'. It's very pretty and I learned a lot in the 3 hours that we were there, it was a really good experience. Well I gotta go, time's a'ticking and there is other stuff to be done ): oh well, it was good to hear from and write to mi familia. By the way when I get home, I"M LEARNING SPANISH/ESPANOL! For realz..I will take more pics of myself and send them to you next week.  

Love,

Elder Escobar

10-17-11

Hey! I'm doing great. we have a PO box 6321 but it would probably be best to not send stuff to that after December 8th or so because my 12 weeks training ends on December 18th so I might be getting transferred out of here a week before Christmas.... which would nooooot be fun at all. This week has been busy busy. It's been crazy how many people we've been talking to. We have 3 baptismal dates and one conditional one and another soon to come. We had 6 investigators at church yesterday... it was crazy. We got a new investigator last night who is a native and he's his tribes historian and he's spoken to Harvard and met with the Pres. a couple of times. It's cool hearing about their culture and cultural beliefs and differences. We actually just got invited to be witnesses for one of our Investigators marriage. I'll try to attach a couple of pictures to this email but I haven't taken too many here because it's been so busy and it's aallllwwwaayyss raining ha. So there are like constant waterfalls down the mountain and on the side of the road it's pretty cool. But we get very wet. We had splits on Friday and I taught a lesson with just me and a member and it was interesting. I felt like I talked sooo much ha but it went well. I get to teach the Sanchez family in Spanish once a week and a Recent Convert who only speaks Spanish I’ve taught a few times recently. But he's way hard to understand. He chops off words and stutters and stuff. We taught almost 20 full lessons this week which is our mission’s standard of excellence so we're getting close to getting there. I can't believe it’s still ,wait...I take that back I can believe it's still warm in Texas but since I’ve gotten here it's been like a steady 40 and raining ha. It’s so different down in SE Alaska than even in Anchorage where I’m pretty sure it's freezing now. Ice here will present quite a problem in driving. Everything is a hill and everything is parallel parking down hills. I've never even heard of studded tires but we're putting them on the car soon. Oh and you know rain boots are called Ketchikan tennis shoes here ha. But anyways this place is awesome, the people are awesome and I have no idea what Pres. Beesley was thinking sending me here first. I’m feeling soooo spoiled ha but I’m grateful for it. I love you all. All is well in Zion.

                                 Love,
                                        Elder Waddell