Elder Waddell 6-25-12

Man that all sounds pretty cool. That's awesome that there are so many
Spanish people in the stake and you are all already getting
integrated. That's what's so good about youth conference, you're
getting taught in the moment you're feeling the spirit so it's easier
to recognize when you're feeling the spirit later. I'm doing well. This
week wasn't too eventful. Just a bunch of not being able to find
people at home that said they would be at home. Oh yeah before I
forget, my debit card is expiring this month.... so I'm not sure
what's supposed to be done about that since I’m in Alaska. You guys
can renew it right? I got my uke and the cd's thank you very much, ha
they work and the music is fine. Yeah I haven't used that card since I
was in Ketchikan. I told you I’ve been meaning to send it for a while.                                                           Do you like the cd's that were in the box? That was all done by
missionaries in this mission. Oh and did the girls like their
envelopes? haha if you listen to song 8 or 9 in the cd that says Elder
Calk, Stephens and Durfee you'll get where I got it from. haha ummm
let's see. So this Sunday we started church with 11 people in the
room including us. So that was exciting, but more people ended up
showing up so that was good. oh and next week Pres. Chavez and his
counselor aren't going to be here and the elders quorum pres might not
be here so the counselor in the elders quorum will probably preside
next week and we won't have a piano player. There's a big LDS scout
encampment up here this week and for a couple of the days we're going
to go and train the scouts on PMG Christ like attributes so that's
pretty exciting. Hopefully I'll see somebody from Ketchikan. We chose
to train on patience because that's what we think the Lord has been
training us on for the past few months, hope and patience. The hope
that all the promises he has made will be fulfilled and the patience
it takes to deserve those blessings. Every day we're faced with tons
of times when we have to be patient with people or situations or we
would start to lose hope, then faith, then we would be useless
missionaries. So hopefully training the scouts with this will help us
as well. Oh yesterday we found a member who we're pretty sure Elder
Samuelson didn't even know so that's a big step for us .But,
things are going all right. We're going to have to start working on
the fireside that we're going to have in the branch sometime next
month. Hopefully that'll be good.  I think that's about it
that's happening over here. I hope the summer continues to go well.
Love you guys. All is well in Zion.

Elder Waddell 6-18-12

Nauvoo. That's a sweet youth conference. I hope you guys have fun.
Sweet, I can't wait for that package. I've been meaning to send a
package for over 3 transfers now.... sorry I'm a failure. But it'll be
off tomorrow I promise.  Sister Chavez said Bro. Escobar
facebooked them haha small world huh? Things have been okay this week.
Doing the normal stuff and the normal amount of people we can't seem
to get in contact with. We've been finding new people steadily so
that's a good thing. I'm trying to think of anything particularly
exciting that happened. We had Zone conference and Elder Koelliker
came and taught us stuff. It was a strangely short Zone conference but
really good. We met a guy that lives in our apartments who lived in
Humble. Oh the elders in the Tongan ward live in the same building as
us so we get to see them pretty often. When we have a stressful day we
go up to their room at the end of the night to get some "tongan love"
haha One of them is named Elder Tonga and he's from Tonga ha he's
quite a guy. Oh yeah before I forget could you get addresses for me of
people like... Kenton Mccrae, Justin Nickel, Vincent Guerrera, Clark
Vial. people like that. hmmm This Sunday a lot of people came to
church. Our little institute room was pretty full. It helps that one
guy just brought his entire family up from Utah and another family
came and a few people who don't normally come to the branch. But it
was nice. Oh I think I saw a lightning strike yesterday. Lightning
doesn't really happen in Alaska, but I think I saw a tiny one between a
really low cloud and the top of a mountain, so it was really short.
But yeah, so things haven't been too bad, not too easy but not too bad.
There's some promise in the work. That’s about all. I hope your
summer is going well. Love you guys. All is well in Zion.

Email from Elder Tellez 6-18-12

Hello again. About the pictures of the Summerwood building, haha: Gramma, you said that mama might send it and mama, you said that gramma probably sent it. No one sent it, haha. It would be ok if you both send it. Gracias, I love you!! Elder Lee is cool, he is from Idaho like Elder Barnes. He has 6 months on the mission. Wow!!!! in 2 weeks or so, I will complete 10 months. About the stomach problems, I have always had them even when I was home. I haven't gotten the package yet nor the letter from Megan or anybody else for that matter, haha. I don't even know what I have spent the money on, but I still have some. I haven't bought any shoes or socks. I did strike gold, however. Elder Ramirez left one of his luggages (on purpose) full of clothes and other useful things. So I now have a bunch of socks and things. We baptized a girl named Ana Isabel yesterday. We will be baptizing the kid next to me in the photo and the woman next to him (brother and mother of the girl) this coming week. That boy, Memo, has made so many changes in this week and a half that I have known him. Last sunday, he went to church in a torn-up shirt, a full-on beard, ripped blue jeans, and drunk. As you can tell in the baptismal picture, he wore a tie, shirt, dark jeans and black shoes. I gave him the shirt, tie, and shoes. The shoes, I just found in the house and they were brand spanking new. He hasn't drunken in one week. He can't read or think right, but he is still a child of God and wants to enter through the door (baptism) that will lead him to his Father in Heaven. Elder Lee says that he isn't related to President Harold B. Lee. I am going to have Domino's this Saturday, yaya. It was raining nonstop this weekend and I loved every minute of it. "The rains came down and the floods came up" it is so true, all of the streets were rivers!!!!!! I love it!!!! We moved the couch that we have downstairs, now we can study with it, ahhhhhh relaxation. Josh!!!!!!!!! enjoy Nauvoo!!!!!!! Time to go. I love you all!!!!!!!!!

Elder Waddell 6-11-12

Well this week was kind of slow but not toooo bad. It's still really
hard to get in contact with the people we're teaching and with the
branch about lessons and stuff. But this area seems to be an area that
tries your patience and diligence I think sooooo we move forward. ummm
yeah I don't think there's anything really new. It's just another
transfer another week another day you know. We've got a few people we
have high hopes for but it's hard to fulfill those hopes when you
can't talk meet with them. I'm sending a package home soon with just stuff I don't
really need to carry around for the rest of my mission. and the memory
card I've been meaning to send for months...sorry ha. Oh we might get
to go through the temple in Spanish tomorrow. but we're not
completely sure if we'll be allowed to. We're already
interested in what's going to happen next transfer (which probably
isn't good) because most companionships don't stay together for more
than 2 transfers and definitely not for 4 But we'll see. I still want
to go to Sitka.  But that doesn't really matter very much. We're
going to be holding some activities in the branch soon that will
hopefully excite things and we can see some miracles in the work. The
Lord wants to show us the miracles we just have to act. So we're
acting. Now it's just the prayer of patience. So I hope all is going
well back home. love you guys All is well in Zion

Elder Waddell 6-4-12

We still have Pres. Banks? Sweet, ha I hope that doesn't change so he can release me as well. Just so you know when I come back I'll definitely be visiting the Spanish branches a lot. But yeah, so this week has been interesting I guess.  We met a couple of new people and lost a couple. We're going to Wasilla once a week to work with Spanish people so that's pretty nice. The other two Spanish elders got sent to Juneau to try and get stuff going there. We’re going to have a fireside in a couple of weeks to excite the branch then another one a couple of weeks later to bring their friends to and there will be food!!  Elder Dean is finally coming back from "the bush" He'll be a Zone leader in Wasilla so we'll be going on exchanges with them to do the Spanish stuff. So that's pretty cool. I decided I'm going to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish before I hit my year mark. So I only have 46 days and the Spanish version is 100 pgs longer than the English but I think I can do it. It should help with my Spanish too. I think I've got the majority of the "being a missionary" logistics down now I just need to be able to do it all in Spanish and hopefully Pres. will be able to trust me enough to send me to places to try to get Spanish work rolling. Kind of like what we're doing in Wasilla part-time. But right now my biggest struggle is trying to do what I need to make Pres. Banks words that "I’ll be fluent" come to pass. I guess the term fluent is relative so we'll see. So we're just keeping on. Oh, Elder Christensen has finally left "the bowl" he's in the Soldotna zone as a zone leader, pretty exciting for him.
                                                                                            Love you guys. All is well in Zion.