Elder Waddell 5/28/13

Hey! I'm doing great!

We haven't fished yet but we went clamming!! So that was cool. 

They've been out of school for a week here. They have to take advantage of their summers here because they don't last long.

Yeah you're definitely more excited than me haha. I'm trying not to think of how much time I have left. I want my eye single. I don't get to wear this name tag forever. 

Man, over 30 ward missionaries???? The ward must be a missionary machine!! What happened?? So, read in chp 13 of PMG and it talks about your responsibilities. It must be time to reap all the things that have been sown down there. Wow. 

Our mission hasn't really grown too much. Slowly I think. It's hard to send more missionaries here. There's not a ton that we can do with them.

But yes it will eventually be more than one mission. When? we'll have to check back in 30 yrs. 

I guess you never really know. It's his work not ours. He just loves us enough to let us be involved in the process.

love you

Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez 5-27-13 email

How is everyone? I am good. This area just might be the toughest area that I have been in all my mission. We plan on baptizing of an 18 year old girl this week. She is super awesome. She read the whole Book of Mormon in just one month. Her only problem is that she needs to get married. She will definitely get baptized though. The positive is that we have a Walmart and Sam's Club next door and a nice mall that you can easily walk to that has a Burger King inside. It is still super hot, haha. We live in a house and in the backyard, we have a Lime tree and a banana tree. I will take pictures of them for next week. We don't have AC and our house feels like a steam room when we get there at night. It is hotter inside than outside, haha. We have a huge fan, so we don't sweat that much at night, haha. I am ready to baptize a whole bunch before I end my mission. I will take pictures of the outside of the house. Time to go. I love you all.

Elder Waddell 5/20/2013

I am good. Just movin along, progression!
Oh man, that was a quick trip. Are they going to stay at Megans' place?
ha that's cool that they still hang out. I didn't expect that.
Hmm, well something cool that happened to us.
We had zone conference so we went up to Anchorage. Elder Zwick of the
70 trained us... a lot. It was awesome. He told us a lot of things
that are going to happen in the world wide leadership training in
June. Basically the face of missionary work is changing just like
expected. The culture of the Church is to think of missionary work, or
missionaries as just knocking on doors and finding people like that. But in the training they're making an effort to help people understand that
the keys to missionary work aren't with the missionarie, just the
authority to teach. The keys are with the ward and stake. Soooo we're
going to be setting goals with the ward and stake and making plans for
members of the ward to basically find their friends who would like to
learn. That's been the plan for a while but maybe it'll finally
happen,  so that was a missionary rant.
Another cool thing that happened was  some office
missionaries wanted us to drive a desk down to Seward. (we have a
truck) There are senior missionaries in Seward that just got there and
we've wanted to go see them for a while to help with the work and see
how they were doing. So we went there but it turns out they left
Anchorage after us and didn't make it into Seward until after 9. So we
stayed the night there and helped them with some missionary logistic
things and stuff like that. It was just cool because well Seward is
beautiful and we were able to see how senior couple missionaries work.
It seems pretty fun. But yeah. Things are good here in Soldotna. I'll
let you know when I catch any fish haha
love you

Elder Waddell

Elder Waddell 5/6/2013

hello hello.
I'm doing well. Soldotna is cool. We have a big area. it's from
Soldotna down to Nikishka I think, a little past Clam Gulch. It's
pretty and there are a lot of bald eagles. I'm excited for a few weeks
from now when the salmon run starts. My fishing pole will be utilized.
 I don't know if you know them but there are some members here that
were in byuh when you were. Wayne Wong and his wife. They know a few
of the same people.

Yeah this area is cool. I'm excited to get more familiar with it. It's
weird thinking that this is probably the last place I'm going to be as
a missionary besides Oregon at the sealing.
I'm going to have to make the most of it.
And yes we can skype it will be about 4 our time so about 7 your time.
sooooo that'll be fun. The last time I see you until I see you!
But yeah, I'm happy and hopefully I'll send you some fish some time. love you!
Elder Waddell

Elder Waddell 4/29/13

hhhoola.
Yes I am getting transferred. Yes I have decided about July.
ha ya I'm going to Soldotna for my last 11 weeks. Which means yes I'll
be home I think the night of the 17th. The sealing is at noon in
Oregon and Elder Brother Dean will be coming with me from Alaska down
to Oregon then they'll probably fly me out that evening after the
sealing because the Phippens live 2 hours away from Portland so there
would be no need to drive back and forth a second time. Oh and in
Soldotna my companion will be Elder Coombs. I'm excited! That's the
only zone in the mission I haven't taught someone in. haha Since I
teach Spanish people in Anchorage I've taught in the two zones in
Anchorage, Wasilla zone and Chugach zone, I was in FBX and Juneau so
all that's left is Soldotna. I think that's cool at least. 
Well this week was alright. Apart from the transfer stuff we went
around doing normal missionary things, and since we're both leaving
(elder Jaco down to an island called Petersburg) We were cleaning out
the apartment all week. like all the old missionary junk and stuff.
basically pretending like we're moving everything out. It looks good.
we had 9 frying pans....9 ... so we gave 7 away haha. We brought a
stack of plates and bowls to a member like 2 feet tall, turns out they
were all theirs ha, missionaries acquire too many things. But yeah it
was a good week. We made some good breakthroughs with people. 

I Love testifying about the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. There's a lady we're teaching that keeps coming up with this anti stuff she finds
online. We keep answering her questions but this last time we
basically just laid it all out there. Baptism by proper authority was
the biggest topic. It was just a powerful lesson trying to get her to
actually ask God instead of asking google. We promised her that if she
read and prayed that night and came to church the next day she would
get her answer. We'll see I guess. I love that I can promise people
that if they do what they're supposed to then they'll get an answer.
It sounds so bold but it makes so much sense. I love these people even
when It kills me that they don't understand what I'm saying. It's the
best.

Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez 5-20-13 email

Soooooo, How is everyone? I am great. It is supeeeeeerrrrrrrr hot here in Tuxpan. My new companion is Elder Gontes, he is from Mexico City. I already miss Xalapa. I am assuming that I will be ending my mission here. My direction is: 5 Calle Rio Azul, Lomas de Tuxpan Fovisste, Tuxpan, Ver. Tuxpan might be spelled with an -n or an -m at the end. Everything is great here. I haven't taken pictures yet, but I will this week, haha. We are working super hard so that we can baptize and never stop until I end. I am thankful for all of the support there at home.I am completely focused on this great work, but I am super excited that in a couple of months I will be home!! Ok, time to go. I love you all.

Elder Tellez 5-13-13 email

Sooooo, I am getting transferred. I will be going to Tuxpan, the other end of the mission. I will be a District Leader and I will be training a new missionary!!!! My first child!!!! I am really excited. I am going to miss being Zone Leader, but it is alright, haha. I hope that everyone is well. Time to go. I love you all.

Elder Tellez 5-6-13 email

How is everyone? I am good. I hope you enjoy the pictures. We just decided to take goofy pictures, haha. My week was good. I am super excited to talk to you this week. We will be talking on Sunday in the evening. I don't know at what time yet, but at around 6 or 8. We will be skyping!!!! Thank you gramma for that animation, it was funny. I showed it to my companion and he just laughed. Mom, when did you start watching boxing and basketball??????????? That sounded sooooooo weird to me. Time to go. I love you all.