Hello!!! How is everything going?

I live to tell another tale this week, haha. Well, gramma, I was in Zone/branch 4 and district E, but I was in a building with only missionaries going spanish-speaking so I doubt that he knows me, I don't know him. The MTC was huge and there were thousands and thousands of missionaries. I might have seen his face once, but no name, haha. Ahhhh, I love 17 Miracles, we have a portable DVD player and a couple of church videos. That is my favorate movie at the moment. Other ones you should look into are: Joseph Smith:Prophet of the Restoration, The Mount of the Lord (or something like that, it translates from spanish to that, it was originally in english), On the Way Home (I think that is what it is called in english, in spanish it is Camino a Casa). ........ Send me more stuff, write more, send pics, haha. Mama, I'm glad Joshua is off the cruches, it must've been sooo miserable. Send the same size garments, the shirt size small. Not the low-cut, the other one please. The tight ones not the loose ones please. You can send both the books, the one I was thinking is the Missionary answer one. I can't think of anything else. Just american stuff, candy, food, no Cheetos please, body wash (preferably Old Spice) they don't have body wash here and I dislike bar soap. Thank you mama, you actually made me almost start crying, I really miss all of y'all. I am loosing sense of reality. But this is where I need to be and I will love everything. That's is an interesting point, when times are tough, just make the most of it. I was actually going to give you the ipod touch, but yup, Joshua can have it. Yea, no internet, haha.
So, interesting things that happened this week. I saw a parrot pick it's nose. I accidentally kicked a frog and killed it, I think that I sent you that pic. We were teaching a lesson to this lady and her brother and two other guys came in drunk out of their mind. They weren't violent or anything, just annoying. The funny thing is that one of them had Katy Perry Teenage Dream as a ringtone, and in the background I could hear a stereo with Michael Buble Lost. It was a pretty funny experience. Today, as a zone, we went to this Mayan place and took a tour. It was fun and as you can tell, Sean Connery was there in the past and also Mel Gibson. I am being rushed again. I love you all, until next week. -Elder Tellez

Elder Waddell 1-30-12

1-30-12

Hey! thanks for the emails and the additions. We had transfers and it turns out they're not whitewashing us yet they're leaving us both haha. So another six weeks in Ketchikan! We have 4 baptisms set up for this month so it should be a good one! And we've found a few people who seem pretty solid as far as wanting to learn and find out. So that'll be exciting. The only downer about staying is well I'll have to wait until next winter to get an actual Alaskan winter haha and after this transfer I'll be almost 8 months out and so far I've talked to 1 nonmember in Spanish.... sooo that's kind of difficult. Elder Smith is training in the Spanish branch (which is two companionships) now. So that'll be good. But I won't even really get to meet the only fluent Spanish speaking elder in the mission because he goes home after this transfer.... so it'll be an interesting next few months. Our finding efforts have slowed down a little. Now we're trying to get members involved with people we're teaching more than before. But we're still setting goals to find. You can never stop finding haha. Some of our investigators dad wants us to have a family home evening with them every Monday  and to invite people and stuff. Soooo that should end up being a good thing. I think this transfer we're going to try and go to Metlekatla and do exchanges over on Prince of Whales Island. I think President would be down for that. Oh and we have Zone Conference in March and President and the ZL's are coming down sometime in February. So it'll be a busy transfer. So it will probably go by pretty fast and I'll be working on my 6th transfer before I know it! Oh yeah a couple in our ward here in Ketchikan just got called as mission presidents somewhere English speaking haha they'll know where in March or so. So that's pretty exciting. So yeah things are going pretty well here and we're excited to see the fruits of our labor. I hope things are going well back home! It sounds like there hasn't been too much trouble! All is well in Zion!

Photos of Elder Escobar

Elder Everett Escobar 1/25/2012

Hello,

Elder Huntsman left early in the morning on Monday. I contacted Boston Children's yesterday afternoon and Lauren wanted me to call her back today to make a appointment with Dr. Valente. However, I don't have anew companion right now.

You jinxed me on the phone the other day, I am being transferred to the Weston 1st Ward (car area) it's on the west side in the Boston area. I've heard that Weston is a very wealthy place and Danny Ange (Boston Celtics General Manager/Former Player) is actually a Bishop in the Weston 2nd Ward. Everyone was pretty shocked that they were going to shotgun University Ward.

So I have been packing my luggage sparingly throughout the week. We are going to the aquarium again today with a group of missionaries who haven't gone yet. Well tomorrow ought to be fun. At transfer meeting I will meet my new companion and get to hear the testimonies of those whom are returning home. Elder Vanderhoek, Elder Winegar, and I played basketball with a group of thugs and punks at the Stake Center last night. Amazingly they were quite respectful in their manners towards the members and missionaries of the church. After playing basketball with them, I shared a brief message with them about prayer and challenged every one of them to pray not only during the hard times but to pray everyday. Now I don't know whether they will do it or not but it was cool, the spirit was there.

Well not much has happened since last time we spoke, but I do have pics for you. The picture where I am standing next to an older looking gentleman, Eric Nicholson. He is one of our greatest teachers and he has us over to eat waffles almost every single week, he helps us get the most out of our studies in the scriptures, he's pretty cool. Well anyways...

Love you,
Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Everett Escobar

 

(1/9/2012)

Hello,

 

I had actually been a little under the weather for a few days this week, but I'm fine now. There actually wasn't really anything exciting this week, except that we have a new investigator named Ranjan. But he's gone now and won't be back for 2 more weeks because he is visiting a friend in Washington D.C. He's planning on going to BYU, so if he doesn't get baptized here I'm pretty confident that he will get baptized there. So I thought that some of the members and investigators would be back by now, I was dead wrong. Basically everyone is still gone, it's kind of sad and depressing. We passed around the dinner calendar yesterday and only 1 out of the 10 members there signed up. Oh joy... Oh well, I have no problem cooking dinner. Hopefully people start coming back this week, so that we can actually teach people and have more dinner appointments. Elder Huntsman should be leaving in a week or two, he just re-applied for his Visa and Letter of Invitation. Today we plan to explore the city and take pictures. 

 

So the Devereaux bros did the switch-aroo, that's interesting. Liberty Ward is changing, I think that I can totally see it becoming a stake someday. Well I'm sorry that I didn't have many great stories to share this week, but I may make up for it next time.

 

(1/16/2012)

Hello,

 

Frankly I feel bad because I forgot my camera at home! Oops. This week the work really picked up because a lot of our investigators are back in the area, however, there still aren't very many members back so as of right now we only have one person signed up on our dinner calendar ): oh well... Other than that everything was great and cold, I've seen snow and met crazy people, scary people, good people, essentially every kind of people that you can think of. Our investigators seem to be progressing fairly well. And yes I did hear about the New England Patriots slaughtering the Denver Broncos and yes it was very cold that day as well. Time is just rolling by. I hope that Jeremy gets to feeling better and that you enjoy your new calling. It's good that the ward is seeing a lot of baptisms, hopefully that will jumpstart a wave of member missionary work. I am still jealous that the Youth Conference will be held in Nauvoo, I say," No fair" But that ought to be fun and definitely something to remember. I hope that everyone is doing well and that Texas is in no way cold like it is up here haha.

 

Love all you,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

 

Email from Elder Tellez 1-23-12

Thank you for the emails.

Bianca, I don't have any key, haha sorry. Yes I am good haha. Love ya too.
So, we had another baptism as you can tell. The man in white that baptized her is Brother Hipolito. He always helps us out. Truthfully, I don't remember any of the missionaries' names, sorry. But maybe if I saw a face, that would help. About Joshua, that is sad and honestly a bit funny. That is cool that he is doing something in scouts, even if that means jumping off the "scout"house, haha. I don't know what the name of my abuelito is. We have 4 more people that want to get baptized, 2 couples. The problem is that they aren't married! But we are working with them letting them know the importance of actually being married to your "spouse" and not really "Bible bashing", but kind of hitting the point that they should be married. So, I'm sure that they will be baptized in February. Thank you for the pics and for the poem. Grandma, I love Saints and Soldiers, it is one of my favorite movies. Not much is going on actually. Just teaching and preaching. I am craving churros and american cheetos, haha. I am even craving Jack in the Box and of course the cooking of mama and gramma. Yup, I miss all of ya'll, but it is going by so fast, I have already been on my mission for 4 1/2 months. Pretty soon I will have 1 year and then before you know it, I will be sitting on the couch at home feeling awkward awake at like 6:30 in the morning studying my scriptures and wishing I can go back and serve a mission. Keep sending pictures, haha. Mama, I could buy stuff here, but that little book that I had and garments I can't get here. I kind of hope that I get transferred in two weeks, but more than likely, I will remain here. Well, once again, my companion is rushing me and it hasn't been a full hour yet. Talk to ya next week. I love you all sooo much. -Elder Téllez

Trinity 1-23-12

Well hello! Thanks for the email and pictures. Sounds like things are moving right along back home. They're moving pretty well here as well. We've been working on teaching lessons with members and it's not going too poorly. We passed around a sheet on Sunday for people to sign. Typical elders quorum, two people signed up haha But things are going well. We should have a baptism on Saturday if his parents make it back to town in time. Another kid. We're still trying to clean the records.... there are a lot of them... but we've made a significant dent in them. So that's a good thing for whoever comes here later. The rumors for transfers started way too early this transfer so it kind of feels like it's dragging on. I'm kind of upset that I'm probably going to be moving. I knew that would happen. I got more attached to the place and the people we're teaching. And not to mention I don't want sister missionaries coming in and looking good for all the work we did, haha, but that hasn't slowed us down any. I'm the most upset about one of our investigators in particular I won't get to see move on. But I guess that's how it goes. We're teaching some recent converts cousins and they're doing rather well. I don't know a lot of stuff is finally shaping up and we have one week to enjoy it. But other than our work making us look bad compared to the sisters after they reap what we sowed I still have that excited anticipation about where i'm going. I'm hoping not Anchorage. I'm hoping Fairbanks or Eilson or something like that.  But whatever happens is supposed to. I just might not be as excited about it.. OOOH I got to talk to a non-member in Spanish! Literally the first person I met who wasn't a member who spoke spanish. 6 months out. A quarter of the way done and my list of people spoken to is 1. So that's pretty exciting haha, but he wasn't interested.... but it was still exciting. oh, I haven't gotten the business cards... when did you send them? Oh and my line of authority.... do you know President Mathews full name and such or can dad fix that?  Well things are going well here. I love it. I haven't gotten any fatter. (surprisingly) and I'm going to miss Ketchikan a lot. And all is well in Zion. 

Elder Waddell

                          

Trinity 1/16/12

Heeyy! When I first saw the picture I got a little confused before I realized it was photo shopped haha. Thanks for the email! I can't even remember what I sent in the package, I just grabbed random stuff. I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures. I heard about the Texans... what a bummer... but they did well I heard. We've been playing on Wednesday with some potentials and members. It's pretty nice. I have on and off day’s haha mostly off. Well there is 2 weeks left in this transfer. Today starts week 5 of 6 and we've been hearing lots of rumors about things happening. I'm not too excited about it, especially if those rumors prove to be true. It's pretty awesome here and at the moment we're doing a lot of finding and people are getting close but it'll all be after this transfer that things happen so hopefully the transfer won't slow people down. Only 42 degrees?? I thought I remembered it getting colder than that normally. We had a "winter storm" on Friday. It snowed a foot and a half in about 2 hours in some places in town. Then the cold weather followed which also means clear skies. So it's a clear beautiful sunny 10 degrees right now. But yeah in Cordova it snowed between 15 and 20 ft....crazy. Well it sounds like things are still moving along back home. We've been trying to find lots of people and clean out our records recently. We've been told to act like they're whitewashing the area and fix the records accordingly. We found 6 new investigators the past two weeks and some of the older ones are progressing. Once we were sitting in the car on the side of the road looking at some papers when a guy tapped on my window. I rolled it down and he looked at us funny and said "Elder Williams??" ha I was just like "nooo elder waddell..." what's your name? And it turns out he had investigated before and he told us to come by and talk to him sometime. So that was pretty cool. We're getting a pretty good handle on what needs to be done here. Just in time for us to leave haha but I guess that’s how it goes. I'm hoping to get moved to Fairbanks if I get moved. Simply because that's the typical Alaskan winter haha It would be quite a change from here. And the northern lights and things like that. But I don't particularly want to leave Ketchikan. But whatever happens, happens. "All things are done in the wisdom of Him who knoweth all." Well that's about it I'm glad things are going well and excited to see what the future holds! Love ya. All is well in Zion.    Elder Waddell

Email from Elder Tellez 1-16-12

(Subject of email)"week 16 on my mission and day 126...or something"

Hello, hello

Thank you for the emails and the pics. Could you send a picture of each section of the missionaries. We have another baptism this thursday, it was supposed to be Sunday, but she just had a baby and she wanted to wait a couple of days. I will be doing the ordinance of the baptism. Just out of random curiosity, how many people have Sam, Trinity, and Everett baptized. To answer some of your questions mama. Nope, it is not a duplex, it is just a random door that leads into the house. The one closest to the washer is the door we use. Elder Lastra has 15 months on his mission, he leaves this October. The picture that showed me kneeling in front of E. Lastra was just a funny picture. It was supposed to look like I was proposing, haha, I was holding a hymn book. I have a JP Morgan debit card that they put money on every 1st of the month. Yes we have a Western Union. We go to an internet cafe. Yup, I got the pictures last week and this week. They do transfers every 6 weeks, we have 2 or 3 weeks left this transfer, and more than likely, that is when Elder Lastra will be transferred. I will most likely stay here. And in 2 or 3 weeks, that is when I won't be having a trainer (the first 12 weeks or 2 transfers you are being trained). That means that E. Lastra is my trainer or, as we call it in this mission, mi papá, haha and I am his hijo. Mi hermanos are other Elders that he has trained, my abuelo is the Elder that trained him, and the rest works like a family. What's new in Texas, from what I heard from a sister, Sarah Palin is running for president and that Obama is even running again. Gramma, the scripture is in Joshua, but I don't remember the chapter or verse. I have it marked in my scriptures, but I left my Bible at the house. I sometimes lay on the hammock. It hasn't really been cold down here, but it did rain 2 days in a row (saturday and sunday) which did make it pretty cold, but today, it is incredibly hot. No, I don't drink the water, we have a truck that delivers 5gal container things of water every couple of days, it is about $13 pesos (about $1 US). Isla is small, we have a Flores which is a grocery store that is 1/2 the size of Brookshires and a Bodega, which is a breakoff of Walmart. It is about 3/4 the size of the old small Walmarts but it has groceries too. Well, my companion is rushing me. I will talk more next time. Love you all. -Elder Téllez

Email from Elder Tellez 1-9-12

How is everything?

We finally had another baptism. It was also the first baptism I conducted because E. Lastra was doing the baptism. Something strange happened to my camera and memory card and all of my pics (300 of them!!) were all deleted. Luckly I sent most to you, but there were some others, like some in the MTC. Oh well, now I have room for more. I am glad your week was, well, normal. Yay, today we are going to eat seafood and then get our haircuts, I will send pictures next week. I finally got that package from the ward. Please thank the Devereaux's, Stewart's, Clegg's, Escobar's, Clark's, Nyah, some child who didn't put a name, well, thank the whole ward, haha. Wow, Jeremy was released, he was in that calling forever. That is funny that Shane is there now, just switched Devereaux's. What is Jeremy doing now? I sent ya'll pictures of the house. Thank you for the emails!! Bianca, that would be cool if you were a manager, I tried as soon as I graduated to be the assistant, but Brittany was instead (wrong choice, haha). I wish I could tell you my favorite scripture, but I love them all. I could list some though: Eccl. 3(the entire chapter), 3 Nephi 11, Moroni 7, John 3:16-17 of course, James 1:5, Alma 56, Alma 57:21, Mosiah 1-4, D&C 25:12, 3 Nephi 27:7-8, 3 Nephi 18:1-12 & 19-21, ok, it might be easier to say the whole Book of Mormon. Mama, Gramma, Josh, & Nyah, what is your favorite scripture? The words of a living prophet is also one of my favorite scriptures as well, it is great, I love all of President Monson's messages and talks. Time to go, I love you all. Send me emails, lots and lots of emails. -Elder Téllez

Trinity 1/9/12

Thanks for the email!! sorry last week we were at a members for email so I didn't feel like writing very much. The past couple of weeks the library we use has been closed. But it's back so it's all good now. We've been pretty busy this past week. I  can't remember if I mentioned but we've been trying to find new people to teach recently. We've been running out of people who were taking it seriously and learning and progressing so now it's turning into the typical missionary work. You know knocking on random peoples doors and such haha. But it hasn't been too bad. We should've been doing this before. But we're finding a couple people. Ian and Liannes relative asked us to teach his kids so that's exciting. We started that yesterday and hopefully it'll go well. The weather hasn't been very nice. It's the typical Ketchikan temperature 30's but more wind and rain than normal up until today. It's just been gross all week and supposedly some tropical storm type winds but i'm not sure I believe that. it suffices to say it's still not fun walking around in. But things are going okay. It feels good to be back at it. Lately we've been trying to find a way to get over the Metlekatla. Which is a native reservation that technically we cover. But it takes money and a ferry to get over so we need something set up before we go. So that will be pretty cool if we could do that. The history of this area is pretty interesting. We're also (half heartedly I must admit) trying to find a way to do exchanges over on Prince of Whales Island. Because I've never done missionary work outside of this island and with anyone other than elder Dean and Satini. And plus I think it would be really cool to go there. But I'm not sure if Pres. Would bite since it's a 3 hr ferry one way and cost almost 50 bucks. But that's what's going on. We're already half way through the transfer which is strange. This one has been moving pretty quickly. I already kind of don't want to leave since I'm pretty sure I am. But I'm using spanish less and less and it's not going anywhere but down now. But we're never sure what's going to happen so we'll see. I'm hoping if I leave I go to Fairbanks or something like that just because it would be such a shock as far as weather change. Plus I'm not sure where they would put me anyways. There will be another Spanish elder coming out and Elder Smith will probably train him in the spanish branch with the other three spanish elders already there and then there's me. haha so I don't think fairbanks is tooo unlikely. Thanks for the pictures from Hawaii oh and congrats to everyone for getting in! that's pretty exciting! when do they start there? But anyways ha could you send some printed pics that I had taken. and don't be stingy on the number of different pics haha thanks! Thanks for attaching john and everetts it was nice to read theirs. Sounds like things are going pretty well back home. Things are going good here. Always trying to get better. I guess that's the nature of it all. All is well in Zion. 


                      Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez' First email of 2012

Yup, 2012, here I come, haha.

Hi, how is everyone doing? I am glad that you all had a great New Years. Some of these pics are clearly old. It is just my district from the MTC. The man with the white name tag was one of my teachers, Hermano Marlor. He is only 2 years older than me, he got back from his mission in the summer I think. And the man in the picture at the temple was my Branch President at the MTC, he was really cool and incredibly spiritual. Gramma, I will take pictures of the outside of my house. It is all flatland in Isla for the most part, yea there are some hills. But in the town next to us (2 1/2 hrs away) there are mountains and valleys and such. It is called Santiago Tuxtla, it also has what is rumored to be the 1st Hill Cumorah in Mormon 6 I think, before Moroni buried them I the New York area. Whether it is or not, this area, Los Tuxtlas, is where most of the Book of Mormon took place. I think from the Book of Mosiah all the way to Mormon. Just some interesting facts, haha. People have also found some holographics (however you spell it) that talk about a white God coming down and teaching the people and the things that it said are the same as what Jesus taught in 3 Nephi. It is really interesting. Gramma, you need to get out and have fun, haha. No, but it was great to hear from you. Momma, can you change my facebook pic to something else, I look hideous in that one that I am pointing to Mexico. Put one of the pics that I have taken in Mexico. Don't worry, I didn't go on facebook, haha, I haven't broken any rules. I am still being obedient. Just some kids were trying to friend request me and I got a glimpse of my pic. Oh yeah, and accept people that friend request me, especially if they have a spanish name, haha, they are probably youths trying to be my friend. Por favor. Gracias momma. But you should send me a package, if so, can you send that book that I bought at the bookstore when we went to the temple and I was going to take it on my mission but then decided not to, now it would be a little helpful, haha. And I don't know, garments, cheap walmart church shoes, size 9, sunflower seeds (they don't have them here), and things like that. I love you haha. Alma 56, a good chapter, one of my favorites, it is great. Also, the first couple of chapters in Mosiah, when King Benjamin talks to his people, is great. Well, the whole Book of Mormon is great. I hope y'all are reading every day, it is not only interesting but it has great teachings, things to share, things to use in Family Home Evening, and you always learn something new every time. I would recommend that, as a family, read the whole Book of Mormon, cover to cover, not starting at "I, Nephi", but at the Introduction. I is great, and will really help Joshua before his mission, it is a great preparation to read it beforehand. Just a chapter each night before the first person goes to sleep, haha, or imediately after dinner before you all go watch a movie or something. Even when you have Family Home Evening, do it afterwards. On Sundays, read a little more, it brings family unity. Family, the most important part in God's Plan. Especially during the Sabbath Day, family is great, just sit there and talk, read scriptures, talk about what you learned in church, it is just a great feeling. Well time to go and eat eggs and beans in a torta (a piece of french bread, AMAZING). Love ya all, til next week. -Elder Téllez

Elder Waddell 1-2-12

This is Elder Satini from Tonga and is Trinity's newest missionary companion. He is still in Ketchikan. It was so exciting to speak with him on Christmas day, we were able to see him through skype...so that made it even more special. This is his most recent e-mail from earlier today.

       Hey! thanks for the pictures and email! Sorry I couldn't email last week things have been closed the past couple preparation days. Sooo let's see. It's a bright sunny day today. But nothing will happen more than likely. We've been teaching a little less than normal but we're starting to try and find people so it should start picking back up. It snowed and hailed a lot this week but yesterday it stormed all day and all the snow is gone. We tried to get up a guys road to his house that we were trying to contact. We got stuck at the top and it was pouring. I started backing Elder Satini down the road (one of our mission rules is that one of us has to stand outside the car and direct the missionary driver if we have to back out of anywhere, it is a safety precaution) and a guy comes charging out of the house yelling and cussing at me haha it was pretty exciting. But he calmed down and felt bad after a little while and told us to come back ha. Just walk up next time. So yeah, I'm not sure  that much else exciting happened other than that. We had a different schedule for new years eve because they didn't want us on the road very late. Oh and we met a guy who's the father of the wards only missionary. He's not a member and he wants to start talking with us, so that should be good. I'm glad the holidays are ending because the work should start picking up again more than likely. It's been not too successful the past two weeks. But things will get better. The girls are thinking about going to go to Idaho????? no. haha!  Did they even apply for that one? Well all is well in Zion. 

                                                    Elder Waddell

Elder Everett Escobar    12/19/11

Hello my family,

 

This week was great but it has been a little bit of a slow down. Oh by the way, last week after I last e-mailed you my camera fizzled out! I was so mad...No bueno! My camera turns on fine but after that it just wacks out, I don't know how it got broken, it's interesting. So I was wondering if I could by a new camera with my debit card and that can be my Christmas Present. By the way how much dinero is on my D-card? I know that Best Buy will be having their annual Christmas sale pretty soon. Other than my camera, everything has been great, we were able to teach a few of our investigators before they left. Almost all of our investigators were gone and left for home by Thursday, so we worked with the members more this week which was still good. I'm glad that you are sending the gift card because I have almost ran out of money (due to our consumption of food, the groceries aren't lasting very long). However, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we miraculously have dinner appointments with members. Elder Huntsman and I are doing pretty well so far, I think that we will strengthen in companionship unity as time goes on. Just so you know yesterday it was 18 degrees(wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be), however today is 31 degrees so yea the weather/temperature here is like a rollercoaster as well. I want it to snow! It's cold enough but it just hasn't. As a zone we will be doing a lot of contacting and caroling this week, I hope that everything works out. Oh and sorry again because I can't send you pics again this week because I don't have a SD card reader (I guess thats something else that I have to get). Well anyways, I'm glad that Dad will be able to spend more time with all of you this week. Hopefully, everything goes well for grandpa, especially over Christmas Dinner, that's tough.

Love you (tell everyone, "Merry Christmas!" for me),

 

Elder Everett Alan Escobar