It still snows at least once a week

Hello everyone!

Not much new and exciting up here. I attached the pictures from the baptisms that happened two weeks ago for angelique and for nick. It still snows at least once a week. We had a service project painting the outside of a house and it started dumping snow on us. We decided to wait it out inside with hot chocolate until it passed. about 30 minutes later it was bright and sunny again. If we just make it to june we can be free of the snow! Our work has been going well. we may have one or two baptisms this weekend. Other than that we have been chugging along. We have been trying to find more investigators after we have had these baptisms. This week we found out that a recently activated member had a daughter that moved back from texas and we started teaching her. She had originally said that she didnt want to learn just yet, but we had dinner with the family, and at the end of the visit she just said, 'ok, i'll let you do your job, teach me what you believe." She is pretty committed to learning more and she is taking her scripture reading seriously so far.

anyway, that's all i've got time for this week, love you all, Alma 41:10

Elder Wright

we had TWO BAPTISMS

Hey everyone,

 

sorry i didnt send an email last week. I ran out of time and not much happened anyway. It was aout 70-80 degrees for a few days, but then we had a three day snow storm to follow it. That was fun. That's about all that happened last week. This week though, we had TWO BAPTISMS! Angelique Talamontez (Jones)(11 years old) was baptized in the morning on saturday, and Nick Thatcher (10 years old) was baptized in the afternoon. They both asked me to perform the baptism, which was a really cool. Angelique's family has all been coming back to church on their own and Angelique told her mom she wanted to be baptized. Nick's family is coming back to the church slowly, and we are working with his parents on the Word of Wisdom. My pants didnt have enough time to dry in between so they were still wet for the second one. woops.

 

I would send the pictures but the computer isnt working right now so i'll send them next week.

 

The work has been chugging along here, but now that we've had several baptisms, we are focusing on finding new investigators in our area. It takes a lot of prayer and faith, not to mention lots of work but it comes slowly. I've been trying to read through Jesus the Christ lately, and it has been really really rewarding. My goal is to have it finished by the end of my mission. (i'm about 1/3 through so far)

 

anyway, got to go get some shopping done,

love you all,

Elder Wright

It's a good thing i'm a missionary. I dont have to worry about THAT stuff

Hey everyone,

Elder Dunlap and I had a pretty good week. It was a little slow, but we had some really awesome stuff happen. Raymundo Jalapa was baptized, and he told us the following day 'i'm a mormon now.' He has a firm drive to continue to do what is right throughout his life. Now he is looking for work and possible schooling around here for as long as he is in the states.

It was warm most of the week, almost 80 degrees, but then, saturday night, it dumped about 6 inches of snow on us, and it's been cold ever since. We just cant get a break. We had a good conference weekend. There seemed to be a lot of messages about marriage... It's a good thing i'm a missionary. I dont have to worry about THAT stuff. I especially liked the priesthood session. We were able to attend the saturday afternoon session of conference, and we sat on the front right side, where all the general authorities walk in and out. I'm looking forward to next conference already.

 

Anyway, life is good up here, we have loads of work and we are keeping the zone moving.

keep the faith

love,

Elder Wright

We invited both of them to quit smoking, and they dropped it the next day

Hey,

 

Elder Dunlap and I have been tearing it up here in Kearns. He has been in the spanish assignment his whole mission, so he is getting used to teaching english, and dealing with the problems that come in the english assignement. We have had lots of really great lessons with our investigators and the all seem to be getting ready for baptism really quick. Raymundo Jalapa will be having his baptism this saturday right after general conference. He will be such a strong convert. We have several others investigators that are working really hard for it. We picked up Sarah Schiermeyer, who has had a really tough past, but is getting married to a less-active member of the church. We invited both of them to quit smoking, and they dropped it the next day. They have been a little bit on edge during our visits since then, but they say it's been getting easier. He's working for the priesthood now, and then he will perform the baptism! It's exciting.

 

Both Elder Dunlap and I will be attending the sunday afternoon session of general conference this weekend. I'm always way excited for conference and to listen to the prophets message. It'll be my last one in the field. But, we can start working without our suit coats after its over!!! Freedom!!

 

anyway,

love you all,

Elder Wright

So we had transfers!!

Hey everyone,

So we had transfers!! Elder Usevitch finally got out of Kearns! I stayed here and my new companion is Elder Dunlap, from Sitka Alaska. We've been together for an hour and a half now... Havent gotten to know him too well yet, but it'll come eventually. Elder Usevitch and I have had a lot of success.this past week, in teaching and finding. We have been relying on the Spirit during our lessons. The work is definitely picking up in our area, and we are trying to inspire the district leaders to be diligent in their areas too. You know you're busy when dinner is a back-up plan. anyway, i'm not too good at this email thing, or at this sending pictures thing, but they'll come eventually.

 

Love,

Elder Wright

6 months in this area has gone really quick

Hey everyone,

We've had a pretty crazy week. We picked up a couple new investigators. We started teaching Raymundo Jalapa, from Culiacan, Mexico. His wife is an active member and they are going to church and reading/studying the scriptures for an hour each day. They are on tourist visas getting some medical stuff worked out at the university, so they have nothing to do all day. They spend a lot of it reading and studying the assignments we leave them, so it all works out. We also started teaching a man named Rodrigo Paloma, who has lived in utah his whole life, but hasnt had much to do with the church at all. (that's pretty hard to do, the LDS church here is like the catholic church to Italy). He's had a pretty rough past with drugs and the law, but he's willing to learn. He has NO knowledge of religion whatsoever, so we're teaching him slowly.

 

other than that, we also got yelled at by Sedrick yesterday for visiting too often. He wasnt in a good mood. So he just vented on us for about 20 minutes. we'll give him a couple days to smooth things over. transfers are in a week, so it will be interesting to see if I or Elder Usevitch goes, or if we get to stay together for ANOTHER 6 WEEKS!!! We need a change of scenery. the 6 months in this area has gone really quick though. The whole winter...

 

anyway, read the book of mormon. it'll do wonders

Love,

Elder Wright

but i can understand enough to know what's going on

HELLO!

 

Elder usevitch and I are rocking it here in Kearns. We have picked up several new investigators, and several of them are working towards baptisimal dates. Some people have been prepared for the Gospel, and they are ready to be baptized. Payton Warden has been coming to church for several years with a family. She was ready to be baptized last year but she backed out because of her family. She said she wants to go for it again, and we can really tell that she wants it. We also ran into a man, Sedrick, who almost died a few months ago, and promised God that he would go to church if he lived through it all. There are so many people that are ready but just need a little push. We are still working to get the ward mission process going. We will have president bishop, from the mission presidency come and train all the ward mission leaders on ward missionary work in the next few weeks. Hopefully we can get things rolling smoothly.

 

We had brother Allen, who is the managing director of the missionary department come and train us on the work this last week. We have a lot of work to do to become better 'preach my gospel' missionaries. I also got to go on exchange into a spanish area last week. My spanish still isnt good enough to carry on any conversation whatsoever, but i can understand enough to know what's going on. We have lots of stuff to do now with the missionaries in our zone. Our head is above water for now, but we have lots of challenges to tackle.

 

transfers are coming up in two weeks, we are sure (pretty sure) one of us will be transferred but it's a toss up who it will be. We are also looking forward to General Conference. It's always the best to hear from the Prophet and the Apostles.

 

2 Nephi 31 the Doctrine of Christ. It works.

 

Love you all everyone,

Elder Wright

Spring is almost here!

Hey everyone,

This year is flying by! Spring is almost here! I'm excited to be able to work without a suit coat, and to be able to count on the sun to be out all the time. Things in Kearns are chugging along. We have some really slow moving investigators, and some others that are on the fast track. One less active sister named Paige Jones decided to come back to church, and she is bringing her daughter to church too. We started teaching them and they have been reading all the scriptures we leave with them and have been praying everyday and even go the extra mile and study even more. We are grateful for those investiagors. Her daughter, Angelique, is working to be baptized on april 9th. Others though, like Kim Maschi, has trouble accepting that there is only one true religion. They are all good, and she feels like she has a good relationship with God. We tried to nail home priesthood authority and praying about the book of mormon, but it isnt sinking in too well. All in all, we are kept busy, but it seems there arent many fruits coming from our labors. It'll come in time.

 

We got up at 4 this morning to go to the temple, and then we played ultimate frisbee today for Pday and we are both totally wasted. Well, it's time to go to work,

 

Also, informational statistic: one of our wards that suffers for attendance, has over 70 elders on their role, with an average attendance of 6 each week. It blew our minds. We suspect that in the next few years that stake will be dissolved if nothing changes soon. also, one of our appartment complexes had a shooting the other night. It's crazy stuff.

 

thanks,

love,

peace,

Elder Wright

My hair hasn't been this short since I was a baby

hey everyone,

The month has been flying by, it's already halfway through february! We had two baptisms this last weekend for two little girls, smantha, and samasia corro. Their father was less active, but came to us and told us he wanted to come back to church and get his girls involved in church again. They were way funny and the girls soaked up everything we taught, and carlos would spend his free time reading the gospel principles book. i dont have much more time, but i do have pictures! I have gotten a pretty decent haircut since my last pictures. My hair hasnt been this short since i was a baby. It's easier to manage though.

 

 

explanation of pictures

1) District leader council, I was focused

2) ritchie ramirez and family (he was trying to get work off on sundays but it was tough for him. he ended up getting fired, but he fasted this last weekend and got a new job monday morning, better pay and no work on sundays)

3) Bro hallowell and his son donovan

4) Samantha and samasia corro, and their family

 

love, 

elder wright

 

 

 

 

They are SOOOOO close and they dont even know it

Hi everyone,

We've had a pretty busy week again. We had transfers, and we were sure that Elder Usevitch or I would be transferred but we are both still here in Kearns. By they end of this transfer we will have been together for 6 months! It's a long time for an area, let alone a companion. We have spent a lot of good time together so we are used to eachother by now.

There were some less active families that we have been working with that have taken some steps back towards coming to church. The Hollowells have been coming out regularly for several months, and Donovan, their 8 year old son, was baptized this last weekend. We were also working with the Watkins family, and trying to help darlene watkins (who is also 8) learn more so she could be ready for baptism this last weekend too. There was also a baptism back in daybreak for two boys who had been wanting to get baptized, but waiting for their dad to get ready to do it for them. Their dad finally got prepared and had a really cool baptism with a whole bunch of missionaries who had taught them.

 

We had a couple of appointments with Jaime Fitzgerald and her family and they are SOOOOO close and they dont even know it. They told us they would give up alcohol, and that they would start coming to church. The big obstacle now is coffee, but once they are over that they will be good to go. We gave her a baptisimal date for the 26th of march to work for. It's a little shakey, but with a couple reminders it will be a sure thing.

 

anyway, i got to go, check this out http://mormon.org/me/3CCN-eng/

 

Love,

Elder Wright

He likes to walk REALLY fast

Hi everyone,

We've had a pretty interesting week. Halfway through, president miller assigned us to go on a 3-4 day exchange with another companionship in another area. It was a little different being in a new area, for just a few days, but we kept really busy. It was a one stake area. without a car, so i was on foot again. I was with Elder Catterson, and he likes to walk REALLY fast. my feet were killing me. I cant really remember what happened before the exchange, but the rest of the week flew by pretty quick. they are pretty busy in that stake, which makes the time fly by. I think what helps them to be so busy is how great the leadership in that stake is. The people were on fire to do missionary work.

 

This week, it seems the theme of what i've learned and what i've been teaching has been the Atonement of Christ. One can really gain a knowledge and appreciation for the atonement, by bearing testimony of it. Simply, Jesus Christ will take upon himself the penalty of our mistakes, if we follow His example and his gospel. If we do, he will have mercy upon us so that we might be able to live with our Him, our Heavenly Father, and our families. It makes me happy to know that Jesus Chirst loved us so much to sacrifice himself for us.

 

http://mormon.org/jesus-christ/

Alma 34

 

Love,

Elder Wright

We have had some great teaching experiences

HI!

 

We have been having lots of great experiences this week, coupled with a few not so fun ones. Some of our investigators have taken off, and we havent been able to contact them. For the ones that have stuck around we have had some great teaching experiences. One family, the fitzgeralds have been coming along REALLY slowly for thepast few months. We have really great weeks with them, followed by really down weeks. We were asked to lay off for a while, so we have been just dropping by occasionally. We found out that the family knows little to nothing about Jesus Christ, so we decided to leave them a Finding Faith in Christ DVD to watch on their own time. Sister Fitzgerald watched it and texted us (we can text now!) and said she really really liked the movie and that she wanted to come to church on sunday! That was huge news because she told us before that she wouldnt go without her husband, and he simply said he wouldnt go. The family has such great potential to make it to the temple. If they just buckle down and start coming to church, they could start working towards the temple! They are so awesome!

 

The rest of the week has been a little slow but we've been very grateful for some new investigators. We also had 2 6 hour long leadership trainings (guh) but we learned a bunch of stuff on the apostosy.

 

go to mormon.org

Love,

Elder Wright

Elder L Tom Perry came and spoke to us

Hey everyone,

 

Can you believe it's already 2011?! We had a great new years activity as a mission. Elder L Tom Perry came and spoke to us for a bit, and then after he left we had a fun time with some movies, basketball, volleyball, pizza... When we drove home it was something like 6 degrees outside. We spent some time scraping the ice off the inside of our windshield. I am reminded each winter of how much I dont love the cold. Only a few more months of winter! It also snowed on us pretty bad this week. We've been shoveling lots of snow and pushing tons of cars to get them unstuck. I think i'm getting used to the numbness in my toes all the time.

 

Besides the cold the work has been going alright. We are keeping really busy but we havent had a whole lot of outward results. We have a lot of investigators that are trying to quite smoking right now, which has been tough. Some really want to quit, and others are a little half-hearted. We're helping them the best we can, its just slow...

 

anyway, i'm outta time

Church is true

go to the new mormon.org

Love,

Elder Wright

We'll both be here in kearns through january 2011!!!

HELLO!

 

We had a great christmas in the field! We all went to the mission office for christmas eve, and the stakes in the valley had all provided gifts for the missionaries. I came away with 10 new pairs of socks!!! And 1 new tie! I never thought i'd ever get excited about a tie, but mission throws a different light on christmas. We also got overloaded on chocolate and candy. On christmas day we visited a whole bunch of families all over the valley from areas we had served in before. Elder usevitch and I sang some quick christmas hymns and shared a christmas message and went to the next one. It was a really fun busy day.

 

The rest of our week was awesome too. The day after christmas, one of our investigators, Ritchie Ramirez, was baptized. We had been working with him and his family for a little over a month. It was a little slow at first, but after a couple of visits he really started digging in and reading the scriptures. After one visit he had read the enitre 89th section of the doctrine and covenants without us asking. His wife asked us a week before the baptism how long it would take him to recieve the priesthood. They are a super cool family and his testimony is so strong and has lots of room to grow.

 

Neither Elder Usevitch or I were transferred so we'll both be here in kearns through january 2011!!!

 

Happy new year

Love,

Elder Wright

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas,

By the time you get this it's probably way past Christmas.  I hope it all went well and you got some time to take a break and relax a bit.  I got the slippers and pajamas today.  My multiple sets of pjs never fail to amaze my companions.  I also got the massive green shirt signed by the ward.  Tell them all thank you for me.  I'm especially looking forward to opening the package from the youn men.  Who knows what will be in that one...
This Christmas season has been flying by pretty quickly.  We've been pretty packed with appointments day and night.  We haven't had much time to relax much.  Food even sometimes gets left by the wayside.  A couple of nights ago, dinner consisted of dry Apple Jacks, Doritos, and  Oreos as we drove from appointment to appointment.  I think we need to take some time to catch up to ourselves.  Christmas will be good for us.  We had our Christmas Conference last weekend.  Elder Holland came and spoke to us for a bit which was awesome.  There were also a whole bunch of musical pieces.  Elder Usevitch & I sang 'Samuel tells of the Baby Jesus' from the primary songbook.  It was a little nerve racking in front of the whole mission, but we had a good pianist, which is all that really matters.  It sounded alright, but we could have worked on it a little more. 
Christmas this year will be a little different.  Most people that we visit struggle to put many presents, if any, under the tree.  We visit some families that don't have much in the first place, and any gifts the do receive they are so much more grateful for.  It is a lesson to me that Christmas isn't in the giftss and presents, it is in the gratitude for what we have.  Especially the gift that we have been given of God's son for us.  It is  through the gift of Jesus Christ that we can return to Him.  It is by faith in Jesus Christ that we accept the gift.  And by giving and sharing it with others we can share the greatest of all the gifts of God to all who will receive it.  This is my Christmas message.  Have a Merry One!

Love
Elder Wright
2 Nephi 19:6
D&C 14:7

We dropped by unannounced the other night

Hey everyone,
We were kept super busy this week. We had appointments back to back every single evening. Not to say everyone showed up for the appointment, but we were going nonstop the entire time. We have been meeting with a tongan family that rcently moved into the ward, the Tahes. They said they want to start working towards going to the temple. We found out the last time that brother Tahe had spent some time in prison (We're meeting lots of those lately) and he was supposed to be there for 120 days. He said he started reading the Book of Mormon his first day, and finished it on his 21st day, and the following day, they lifted his sentence and he was released. Their entire family is starting to take the gospel more seriously. We dropped by unannounced the other night and found them having their nightly scripture study. It totally makes the difference in the Spirit that was in their home. The ward is really starting to help out. too. Some of our other contacts have been taking a little longer. to accept the things we teach, but we are starting to see progress slowly.

I have come to realize that God gives us commandments for a reason. How important it is for us to understand that because they are there, we should obey them. It is simple. They arent just guidelines to live by, but commandments. When we obey we can receive Gods blessings. By disobedience we suffer the consequence of our actions. I hope that each and every day each of you take those simple steps of repentance that help us become more obedient, and more like our Heavenly Father.
Mosiah 2: 41
Alma 34: 32-33

Take Love, Merry Christmas,
Elder Wright

He knows first hand the difference between good and evil

HI!

Well We havent had a whole lot new this week. The weather has been warming up a bit, but that just means we get to wait for it to get cold again. The snow shoveling season will start up again.

President Miller came out to teach with us last week. He taught us some approaches to teaching more simply. he also helped us with one of the families that we've been struggling to work with. They arent being totally unified in the going to church and reading scriptures. It's been teaching Elder Usevitch and I a lot about the importance of unity.

We had a dinner appointment with a recently activated member, who was so awesome! He had spent some time in prison, and decided to turn his life around. He started reactivating his brother's family, and his nephews received he aaronic priesthood. He knows first hand the difference between good and evil, and is making sure all his family is making right choices. Sometimes, the humble people are the most ready, but at the same time, we've met a lot of people that are bitter at the church because of their circumstances.

we found an indoor soccer place and we were able to use it for P-Day. my companion likes tripping over the soccer ball. I forgot how awful i am at soccer. i like the dodgeball thing more.

anyway, Unity it's important

Mosiah 18:21
Love,
Elder Wright

we just have to bear with patience a bit, then suddenly a miracle hits

Hello everyone,

This week was awesome! We've had some crazy snowstorms this week, we had at least a foot of snow on Sunday. We've been trudging around in it all week and we are pushing people out of the snow every day. We're both starting to get a handle on driving in the snow too. We had thanksgiving dinner over at one of our bishop's house. We didnt overeat like we did last year. Not nearly as much pie. We also had a baptism for Koki Pace on Sunday. It was really a white baptism with the snow falling and everything outside. The entire baptismal service was in marshallese, so we had no idea what was really being said in the talks. The Pace family is slowly making it's way to the temple. We're going to try and help them out as much as possible. They say they are going to be opening a marshallese branch in the valley sometime soon too! Anyway, we see a little bit of everything here in Kearns. We ran into a guy named Leslie Whithers last week who was baptized in Kansas a couple of months ago, and he has a burning testimony of the gospel. He came back to utah when he realized he needed to help his family out, and we're helping him get to know the ward here a little better. he also has an unbaptized son who is 10 who we will probably start teaching here soon too. President Miller came out to teach with us last night, which was really cool, and we got some pointers on how to improve our teaching.

We've had lots of experiences lately, some up, some down. It seems that whenever we hit a low point, we just have to bear with patience a bit, then suddenly a miracle hits, and we can keep going. We are picking up several new investigators, and a lot of them are really interested and ready for baptism already. A few others have some challenges to overcome, but I've never been so aware of the Spirit and how it affects people. I've felt that when I first came to this area I was struggling to get to know the people and get down to work, but Elder Usevitch has kept me going strong, and I now I love this area. Nothing compares to seeing our investigators understand the principles of the Gospel and feel the spirit. It really does change people. 2 Nephi 32:5

Love ya much,
Elder Wright

It was EPIC!

Hello!

Things up here have been chugging along as usual. We've had some pretty crazy snow storms up here this last week. Last night they shut down the whole valley because of a blizzard warning. The mission grounded all the cars, so we were on foot for the storm. It was EPIC! On the bright side, everyone was home. We've had a really early winter, and the temperature is dropping into the teens in the evenings. Thanksgiving is supposed to be in the single digits. Hopefully it warms up a bit before christmas or it'll be one long winter. We also had a zone conference at the mission office and we were instructed mostly on improving our teaching skills. Elder Usevitch and I have set some goals to improve our teaching appointments. We've found some of our wards have some pretty old families that seem to have lived there since the beginning of time. One ward has a family that spans 4 generations all in the same neighborhood. We've been trying to teach our investigators more simply and clearly, and some are progressing quick, but others are taking their time. One member family, the Hallowells, that we've been working with had been struggling to come to church, but they've been recently activated and we saw brother Hallowell get ordained to a priest on Sunday, which was really awesome. Some of the fruits of our labor arent in baptisms.

I've been digging down deeper into the scriptures lately. It opens up so much more if you go into the scripture study with the intent of finding something that you didnt have before. Instead of just reading, i've been trying to seek out the hidden treasures. They come, but not without work. D&C 88:118

Love,
Elder Wright

We've been exhausted EVERYWHERE we go

Hey all,

We've had a bunch of awesome things happen up here this week. We had transfers, both Elder Usevitch and I are staying here in Kearns. We had to organize a lot of the transfers this time, because the mission is making some changes in how transfers are done. It pretty much ended in us driving elders around all morning. We have some great new elders and one new sister in our zone. Two of the district leaders are brand new, so we will have some leadership training to do. Other than that we are looking forward to another great trasfer in Kearns

 

We've been exhausted EVERYWHERE we go. Sometimes Elder Usevitch and I are a little slap happy and we just laugh when things dont go as planned. It all works out in the end. We have a couple investigators on date, but some of them we are working with have slowed down a little bit and want some more time to take it all in. One couple we've been working with are golden. Ritchie and Julie Ramirez and their 4 year old son Mason. Julie is a member and has been coming to church pretty actively for about a year, and now we started teaching Ritchie, who is not a member. He said he would be baptized, but he cant get sundays off work yet, so we're helping him along until that happens.

 

We were raking our land lords yard for service yesterday and everytime we got it somewhat clean all the leaves from the tree/roof/yard-down-the-street blew back onto it. We just laughed and did the best we could. I'm glad we're raking leaves and not shoveling snow. We've also been doing a whole lot of exchanges with Zone members, helping them out with all their work and all. Other than all that, missionary life goes on as usual. We had our usual zone dodge ball activety this P-day again. We all end up too sore afterward but it's all worth it.

 

Gospel's true. Dont let other people decide for you. Choose yourself.

Love,

Elder Wright