Elder Everett Escobar  10/22/2012

Hey!

 

An Earthquake! I didn't feel it, I don't know what day or time it happened. But I guess it would make since if we didn't feel it, because Newport is an island. I don't know, I guess if I was supposed to feel it, I didn't recognize it. And President Packard told Elder Jensen that he will be training, so....I'm going to have a grandson! 

 

Along with leaving a transfer early, apparently that is impossible because I can't leave no sooner than 30 days before August 31. So President Packard said that he felt that I need to go to school this next fall semester. So he said that I won't be leaving in the July transfer, but I will be leaving in between transfers. So I would be in a trio my last few days in the mission. He said that I could leave August 1 at the earliest but he wanted me to talk to you, he has given me permission to call you anytime for applications to school and just anything related to departures. He wanted me to talk to you on when I should leave the mission, I could leave anytime in August. How long did the whole family want to stay and tour the mission? There is plenty to see it's just up to you, how much time you actually want to spend up here. So let me know. As for schools I feel like I should spend at least 1 semester Lee College to boost my GPA back up and then if I want to transfer somewhere after that, I can do that. As for things that you could send in your next package I need some more deodorant and baby aspirins. 

 

Well this week, Newport Ward seems so far to be doing better in feeding us, we have 5 dinner appointments for this week! Finally but hopefully it lasts throughout the next few weeks. This week was filled with meetings and member appointments, not so much appointments with investigators. However, we found a new investigator tracting and right before I wrote this e-mail, a lady walked up to me and asked for a 'Mormon Bible' and that she would even pay for it. Of course I didnt make her pay, come on they are free, but I did ask her why she was so eager to get a Book of Mormon. She said that tomorrow was her husband's birthday and that he is very fascinated with Mormons and so she went to several book stores trying to find a Book of Mormon for sale, but never found one. But she found US and the book/gift that she wanted to give her husband was free! And we gave her several pamphlets and pass-along cards to go along with the book! She even said that they had just moved here and that she and her husband want to come to church!!! In my mind, I was like, "What the heck is going on? I feel like I'm on Punk'd!" A new family of investigators just feel into our laps. Finally the dry spell is over!!! We have something concrete. But nobody at home or on the mission until now has ever asked if they could buy a Book of Mormon from me. Yeah that is one to write in the journal. Anywho, let me know how long you want to spend up here when you come pick me up, I can get a hub (place that we can stay) from Sister Shearer (she already offered to host us, if we were to stay for a little while), I will have to get her phone number and give it to you.

 

Love you very much,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Everett Escobar  10/14/2012

Mi familia!

Todo está bien. Ha sido una semana muy bajo y rápido. We have had quite a few meetings this week, but the work has been in somewhat of a drought, can't seem to find 'actual' investigators. The temperature is dropping and many people just stay secluded in their homes now. So when we knock on their doors they probably think that we are either salesmen or jehovahs, so they don't even bother coming to the door. We have been riding our bikes a lot lately. I heard that this winter is supposed to be really bad, so we probably won't be on our bikes for very much longer. I have seen more Mitt Romney signs pop up! But at the same time, most of the people that see us riding around, mock and point the finger of scorn at us. Kind of makes me feel like I am in Lehi's dream. Where the people in the great and spacious building laugh at those whom are holding to the iron rod. Over the past weeks I have been pouring over the ward records. And have found that the actual church attendance almost perfectly correlates with actual home/visiting teaching. As of right now the ward about 20% of its members actually attending church and 20% doing their home teaching. Members may whine and complain that we don't have a big ward, but that's their fault. Because they themselves are just letting the ward (it's members) seep through the cracks until eventually they are lost! So Elder Jensen and I have made it a goal to strive to see everyone that is on the ward list this month. And we are doing that by calling up the home teachers and going out with them to see the families that they have been assigned. Some of these families that are less active are part-member families as well. This past Sunday we had 7 less active members come to church after we visited them that week. So we are already seeing some results. Newport Ward, has the potential to be a big ward it's just up to them to reach out to these long lost members. If they would just do that, we could have 4 or 5 times as many members than do now. It's frustrating, but you probably might find that in Liberty Ward too. That's a idea for the missionaries. Get a Home Teaching List from the Ward Clerk and help the member's visit everyone in the ward, it's way more effective than tracting and you gain the trust of the members.

 

Anywho, I think your week sounds way more exciting than mine. Aaron has asthma! That kind of stinks, well at least that mystery has been resolved and thankfully he can still have fun in band. Danny got into a fight to save another kid, that sounds fun! And he a bonus prize, he got a black eye! That must have made him look even more tough. Dad is good and well. And Mom got acupuncture, did that hurt? I still don't know how that works, if it doesn't feel at least uncomfortable. Aunt Jean is going through tests. That is amazing that they have the new procedure/operation now to where they can go through the rib cage, instead of having open heart surgery. 

 

Oh by the way, since the announcement in General Conference about the age change for missionaries. We received the announcement that the Massachusetts Boston Mission will be receiving 50 new missionaries within the next few months!!! Ridiculously awesome! And they are having to create new areas in the mission. This week we will be have interviews with President Packard and so I will not only talk to him about school but also about the speeding citation. And yes time is flying by, it's kind of disgusting. Tell Aaron and Danny, that they can be missionaries now, they don't have to wait till they are 18. And once a missionary, always a missionary. Well gotta go!

 

Love all of you a lot,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

 

PS It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! It's almost here...

Elder Everett Escobar  10/08/2012

Hey!

Man, oh man, oh man...insomnia?! Ha I know how he feels, ever since I started my mission I haven't slept very well. So now I am taking melatonin every night and that helps a lot. 

Well, this morning we went to the temple. It was a good experience. This past week we went on a lot of exchanges with the zone leaders and with the missionaries in the district so we did quite a bit of traveling and not as much actual work. This week we are focusing on unifying the members of the ward. And this month we have set a goal to contact most of, if not all of the members on the ward list. Because we should have over 300 members but we only have 50 or so active members, it's ridiculous. I think it is a result of not doing home teaching. We are hoping through the finding of these long lost members we will gain a few more new investigators as well.

I loved General Conference! And about the new ages for missionaries, I think it was good that they made the change. It is usually between that year from 18-19 that we lose a lot of active members anyways. I'm not too sure if I'm too fond of it yet being out on the mission right now, because quite frankly I have never met an 18 year old missionary before. So we'll  have to wait and see. But so far I think that it is good. I think that we will have a lot more missionaries, male and female now. So I have to say that I don't have my backpack with me and my camera is in my backpack, so no pictures this week ): Anyhow, love you!!! Hope you have a great day and week! I will be talking to President Packard soon about 'End of Mission' stuff. I keep feeling like I'm getting OLD as a missionary, I hardly know anyone in the mission anymore /: Their all gone, by the way Elder Yim left this past Friday, his parents flew all the way from Hong Kong and picked him up. I remember him hitting his year mark with me...pretty soon you will be picking me up...I don't truly know what to think of that, it just goes by so quickly.

 

Love,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Everett Escobar  09/24/2012

Hey-Low!

 

So I got my flu shot, but Elder Jensen was very reluctant. I don't think he likes needles very much. Oh well, we had a good week. We traveled on bikes the whole week pretty much (to save up our last bit of miles), must admit that we are a little sore but it's alright, nothing we can't handle. We gained 2 new investigators (Meyleen and Erki) this week and apparently they already know that the Book of Mormon is true. I questioned them on it asking, 'So how do you know that the Book of Mormon is true?' and they responded, 'Because every time we read or pray about it, we feel a good/comforting feeling and it makes us want to do good things in our life.' Right after they said that, in my mind I thought, 'BINGO: We Have a Winner!' Then Elder Jensen and I explained that these feelings are promptings from the Holy Ghost and we talked about receiving answers to prayers. So that was a breakthrough for us. Michael is doing alright, he just needs to get himself back together (Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall), his son came back. We don't have any details, all we know is that his son is in a rehab center and it was discovered that he is bipolar ): However, apparently both Michael and his son, Justin (who is in rehab) are diligently praying and searching through the Book of Mormon. So that's a good thing, I think that it will take time but they are on the right track. So it sounds like the Kingwood Republican Women's Fundraiser wasn't as grand as was expected. President Packard has recently changed some of the rules in the mission by putting more responsibility in the missionaries hands, agency is key to the building up of Zion. Sounds like changes are still happening in the ward as well. This week we had a ward open-house event which was good we had a few non-members. We have been assisting the Young Men's President a lot because his presidency has just been wiped out of existence with stake callings. So on the topic of being feed, the member are doing better and yes we don't have very many active-members in the ward. There are probably only 8 sisters in Relief Society (so yea) and the rest of the sisters are in Primary. So this week we are getting feed 3 times, but the fridge and the shelves in our apartment are pretty much empty....): So we have been going through food like crazy, it just doesn't seem to last. But the ward is doing better in feeding us, it was worse at the beginning of the month. Everything is getting better. I hope Aaron and Danny are keeping out of trouble (; and you might as well add Dad in there as well. He apparently didn't treat you right by not giving you enough notice or time haha. Well hope you have a great week and hopefully I can last frugally on my debit card for the rest of the month. Did grandma and grandpa get my card yet? Just curious. Anyways will see you in less than a year! (: and ): Take care!
 

Love,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar (Missionary/Son/Grandson/Brother/Friend/etc)

PS: I heard that things are stirring up intensely in the Middle East, not good. Here we go again. We pull the troops out then we may push them right back in.

Elder Tellez 10-29-12 Email

Hello everyone, Thank you so so much for the emails, haha. All is well. The baptisms haven't been coming as much as I would want, but we have been working with the inactive members and they have started coming to church. The attendance in sacrament meeting has doubled since I have gotten here. I think I already mentioned that they are going to split my ward. On the 11 of November, a Seventy will come and do it. It will be a branch and a ward. Wow, it is about to be November again, haha, time flies when you're having fun, right? Tonight we are going to Xalapa for a zone leader council tomorrow. I need to start exercising better again. So, Bianca got a new car, what year is it? Take pics of the inside please. What is the church attendance in Liberty now. We have been having cold weather here as well, ahhhhh it feels like Xalapa. I need to buy some shoes, could you by chance send me like $50???? My health is super good, well, normal. Was this just the first time Josh has been allowed to play? He needs to get his grades up. I hope your toe gets better Gramma. Thank you for that Halloween joke, haha. It is so exciting here. We have been working with the kid, ok, young adult (he is 22)(he is the person in the pics). Anyways, we have been working with him in preparation for his mission. He just sent in his papers last week. Also, his friend, Adrian (we baptized him in September), is so excited to go on a mission. They are both in mission prep classes but Adrian has to wait until he has been a member for a year. The time has gone and we must move on with our lives. I love you all. 'Til next week.

Elder Tellez 10-22-12 Email

Hello family, How is everything going? Everything is well here. E. Carmona is awesome. This week was good. This Sunday I gave a talk and I forgot to put the phone on silence and it went off, it was a little embarrassing, haha, but I learned my lesson. How was stake conference? What did you all learn? There is really nothing new this week, haha. I'm sorry. I took some photos for you. I love the food here. It's a wonder why I haven't gained weight, haha. I am still enjoying my time. Time is going by sooooo fast. Time to go. It is soo hard to think of words to say. Estoy mejorandome el español. Siempre tengo sueño. Mi vida ha cambiado por la mejor. No soy perfecto pero me esfuerzo a hacer mi mejor cada dia. Ahora voy a aprender hebreo y luego portugues. Les amo con todo mi corazon. Fortalezcan sus testimonios del Evangelio restaurado. Ok, ya me voy. Bye-bye.

Elder Waddell 10-15-12

So yes I have seen the northern lights officially!!!! I must admit they were pretty awesome. You can literally watch them unravel. Then they dance and different colors flash. And if you go in really dark places you can see more color and definition but we live kind of in town. So 2 things 1 my camera is not built to take pictures of the northern lights and 2 it broke right after I got horrible pictures of them. Sooooo my camera is broken .... ha sorry. The lens just won't open all the way. I can hear and see the gears trying but it won't work. sooooo I can buy one up here if that's alright. That way I could probably get one that I could use for the northern lights before I stop seeing them. So I guess missionary stuff. I gave a talk in church yesterday. It's a big ward haha. It was on preparing for a mission by gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon.I thought it was pretty good. But I'm getting longwinded. I spoke for like 20 minutes....We met some people that we hadn't been able to meet for a long time this week. Oh it snowed yesterday and stuck.... winter is here. I'll probably be buying a jacket as well. sorry.... we got parkas from a member that would work great... but they're green... doesn't really fit the missionary look. so we'll see. Um things are going great. Just trying to better the work and myself. the latter is the hardest. ha well that's about it for this week. love you
Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez 10-15-12 Email

Hello all, I'm sure it seems like I just didn't send an email last, but I write to you guys every week. It's just that when I send the email and it says that it was safely sent and all that jazz but they send me an email after a couple of hours after I am already off, to tell me that the email wasn't sent. This has happened 3 times. So, I'm sorry, but I lok forward to Mondays so that I can write you. Anyways, the news, haha. Elder Valdez is getting transferred to a different place called Papantla and my new companion will be Elder Carmona. He is cool, he has about 10 months in the mission. Also, my zone will only have 5 areas not 6, they are closing one of them. I met this 80 year old american from Pennylvania even older version of Jeff Bridges. He has been in Mexico for a couple of years, he doesn't have a home. His reasoning for coming here was to start a business, then he went bankrupt and lost everything. He doesn't know any spanish, it felt weird having a conversation in english. Time to say goodbye. I love you all. Send a bunch of emails and pics.

Elder Tellez 10-08-12 Email

Hello, So, conference was amazing, as always. I enjoyed every minute of it. We didn't baptize anybody this week. But our heads are up and we just keep moving forward. I hope you like the pics I have. I enjoyed some amazing Dominos: a 4 cheese pizza, hawaiian pizza, and chocolatey volcano thing. Did you guys send a package? If so, it taking a while. This is the last week of the transfer, I tell you next Monday of any changes. How are Trinity, Everett, and Sam doing, it has been I while since I've heard from them. The missionary board, how is that looking? How is Bianca doing, it has been a while hearing from her too. I am still losing weight and staying healthy (I work out everyday, haha). There is really nothing new in my life. Still happy, haha. Time to go. I love you all.

Elder Tellez 10-1-12 Email

Hello everyone. How is everyone? I'm sorry about last weeks email. I wrote it, sent it, but it turns out that it didn't send and there was an error. Haha, I guess I have bad luck with the whole emailing thing. My week was met with great challenges and super exhaustion. As I mentioned in last week's email that didn't send, we had 8 PEOPLE with a baptismal date for yesterday! As a zone we were going to baptize 19! It was going to be a bautizona, or, when all of the companionships in the zone baptize which is really impressive. We were so under pressure the week, our leaders called us every night and we called all of the missionaries of the zone every night to see how their dates are going. The ending result: my companion and I baptized zero and as a zone in whole, we baptized 3. What a big difference, right? My head basically exploded when I was calling up the district leaders for their reports of the week and when Elder Holland, the assistant to the president called me for the report on the zone. It wasn't because I was angry, but because it was an epic fail. I guess we had something to learn this week. We were too centered on numbers and not the people. We are teaching souls, children of God, and our fellow brothers and sisters. Throughout the week I was reflecting on true conversion and I was thing about the people that I have baptized throughout my mission; were they God's converts or were they my convert's? And then I was wondering about my own conversion, am I really converted? I have a testimony or am I just saying what everyone else says: "I know that....". That's really what we a need to think about. "Do I have a testimony?" That is the reason why people fall away from the church or become inactive because they haven't obtained their own testimony and when they get offended by someone or something happens they fall away. Obviously, you aren't alone, the are great people with the walls of the church the can help you. These were the kind of things that were running through my mind. Anyway, I am so happy for gramma and the outside of her apartment looks nice. I don't want to be captain obvious but time is flying by and we are already in October and 2012 will come to a close then hello 2013, haha, wow. There are no pics because I didn't take any this week, I'm sorry. I commented in the unsent email that all of my pics on my camera from January up until now were magically erased, like what happened in January, haha. Time to start over. Also I said that Bianca should email me because I haven't heard from her in a long time. Ok, gotta go. I love you all.