Thursday, October 21, 2010

It took 6 missionaries to get him there

Hello everyone!
 
I've got a lot to tell this week and a little more time this week.
 
So Kearns is interesting. It's the exact opposite of any of the other areas that i've been in on my mission. I went from Cottonwood, to Draper, to Daybreak... to Kearns... It used to be an old military town and everything has been pretty much to the ground. I think our area is the only one that has more non-LDS churches than LDS buildings. We have a section of government housing that we work in a little bit, We've been tracting, and we've run into our fair share of anti mormon people and also some plain crazy ones too. We have to be ready to stumble through a spanish conversasion if we run into any spanish speaking people. Elder Usevitch is pretty good at his spanish and we try to work on little phrases when we drive around. We have one of the mission trucks because our area has so many dips and gutters. The ward and stake leadership needs a little push. Everyone here is so busy with work and other financial problems that the leadership suffers a bit. The bishops have it really hard dealing with welfare and a ward that is 75% less active. We've been working slowly with the ward councils to help them to do the ward mission process a little better. Some arent doing it at all, and even one bishop told us his ward wouldn't do it.
 
We are teaching a few people, not as much as i'm used to, so a lot of our time is spent finding new people to teach. One of the ones we're teaching is a 9 year old boy, Koki, who was adopted by an active family. He's from the Marshall Islands! He speaks Marshallese, which sounds like a mix between an African clicking language and gibberish. He has a half brother who lives there too who translates for us. We're picking up some simple marshallese words but the boys laugh at us when we try to say anything. We have two other investigators, both who are really close. Michelle Aguilera, who is preparing to be baptized on the 30th of this month, and as well Jaime Fitzgerald. We've been working with a fair amount of less active families, which seem to be overwhelming the wards here.
 
I was able to attend a baptism in Cottonwood for Ralph James, a man that we had taught for a while. He had been attending church for a year with his wife and we couldnt get him to budge. He's originally from England, and he's lived here in Utah for a few years. He kept his baptisimal plans a secret from his wife and surprised her when she thought she was going to another members baptism. It took 6 missionaries to get him there, but he finally understood the importance of it all. We have a couple of baptisms this weekend in Draper. It's funny, becuase i've had at least one baptism every weekend this month somewhere in the valley.
 
All in all, things are going pretty well here. Zone Leader is alright, but there are little problems that pop up all over the place, and it cuts into our P-Day time pretty bad. I'm learning lots of big lessons sparatically as we handle all the situations in the zone. Elder usevitch has been a Zone Leader for one transfer before i got here, so we're both learning quick.
 
Not much else to report, Read your Book of Mormon. It does wonders!
 
Love,

Elder Wright

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

He's my 5th companion from texas

Hey everyone,
OK so a million things changed and I have almost zero time left for P-day so I'll try to get everything in. 
I was transferred out of daybreak, and now I'm in kearns. It's a BIG change. Not so much leadership support. Lots of crazy people. We've run into a couple already. The people are definitely more humble. We just keep running into less active members and anti-mormon people. My new companion is elder Usevitch. He's my 5th companion from texas. He's really really good. Super obedient and diligent. We are getting up early to go running. It's wearing me out and I feel totally exhausted all the time. I'm also now a zone leader here for the kearns zone. It's not too much new stuff, but it's exciting. Also, One of the people we were teaching in Daybreak got baptized last weekend. I was able to perform the baptism whcih was a really great privelege. He had some pretty big drug problems in his past but he decided he wanted to be baptized and go on a mission! That was super exciting! I'll mention some of the other people we're teaching in my next letter. I'm all out of time. Hope to hear from you soon!
 
Con Amor,
Elder Wright
 
P-day is now wednesday so I'll be emailing then.

Monday, October 11, 2010

New Assignment Zone Leader



THE CHURCH OF
JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Utah Salt Lake City South Mission
8060 South 615 East
Sandy, Utah 84070

October 11, 2010

Dear Brother and Sister Wright,

I am happy to inform you that your son, Elder Rudy Wright, has been called by the Lord to serve as a Zone Leader in the Kearns Zone of the Utah Salt lake City South Mission.

In this assignment he will supervise from ten to eighteen missionaries.  In this responsibility he will oversee the activities of District Leaders and in a general way encourage and instruct all the missionaries in his zone.

You should be pleased with his progress as a missionary.  I am sure you will see in him many good changes and much positive development.  He is a great missionary.  Please continue to give him your encouragement to magnify his calling as a proselyting missionary, and as leader also.

May the Lord's blessings be with you.

Sincerely,


Bruce E. Miller
Mission President

Monday, October 4, 2010

There was this guy snoring right behind us during the whole thing!

HI!
We had a pretty awesome week. It really flew by. This whole month flew by. I swear yesterday was august. We have been teaching lots and preparing a lot of our investigators for baptism. We have two this upcoming weekend, and one of them, Jordan Long picked ME to do it! He's been taught by a lot of missionaries in the past and has struggled a LOT with commandments, but he wants really bad to be a better person. I also loved conference this weekend. I'm not so sure elder Huber has a huge appreciation of it yet, but it'll grow over time. I loved all of the talks, and I'm really starting to appreciate the words President Monson gives us every conference. We were able to go downtown for the saturday afternoon session of conference which was super cool. We saw our old mission president, president Laney, as well. There was this guy snoring right behind us during the whole thing! Someone got up and shook him to wake him up, but he was out cold again in 5 minutes. We also ran into a couple prostesters on temple square. They called us 'dead men walking' and 'a big zit.' We sang a hymn at one, and he couldnt scream over all of us. Anywho, it was a real good experience for us to be at conference.

Anyway, Life's good around here. I pray for you always.
Mosiah 5:2

Elder Wright