Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Blog is up and running!

Hi everyone! I am sorry this has taken so long for me to put together. I have never blogged before so this is going to be a work in progress :). I thought I would post pictures of Daniel and stories and messages of his mission on her for everyone to see. Being a Missionary is busy work so he may not get the opportunity to write everyone all the time. This way you can keep in touch with your favorite missionary. I will post portions of Elder Stuarts letters for you all to see. He said once he got "settled in" he would write a generic letter for me to post on the blog. I will copy the last three letters for you to see.

10/25/10
Hey mom.

I'm doing good! My week went alright. It was stressful for everyone. One of our investigators that we taught seemed really interested about what we taught. So we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and come to church, we also invited him to become baptised. He said yes on reading the Book of Mormon and on church but he said that he will have to read some of the BOM before he makes that commitment but he pretty much said yes. So a few days later he calls us and says that he did some information on the church and came across some anti mormons and he really started to believe it. So he's not interested at all anymore. That made me so mad! I saw so much potential in him so we dropped him. We also dropped 2 more people that just aren't progressing. We pretty much said that we will give them some time to get things straighten out. Like one guy has a smoking problem and we showed him a packet to follow and he said that he would do it and seemed really excited. He didn't even last the night. He almost got kicked out of the house beacuse his wife is doing it too and shes a member but less active. The other person is just too busy with stuff and finding excuses to not come to church.

Missionaries can't really do anything for Halloween here. We have to be in doors by dark. So its pretty lameish. The OTM ( Oklahoma Tulsa Mission ) is a really obedient mission field. Apostles have come to our mission and are really amazed on how obedient we are. So we try to keep that repitition as strong as possible. The Weather here is cooling down here. It rained on saturday!!!! There were Tornado warnings in Oklahoma and in Arkansas so i'm good. We got a ride to church yesterday and he was telling us that the humidity outside right now is 100% It doesn't even feel like it!! I felt completely fine!

I'm glad that you enjoyed the picture. I"ll try to send more if I can. Thats crazy that Elder Schnider is leaving soon! and yes, I did get the package. Thank you!! I really like it. Have more of my friends send me pictures!!! and you remembered my favorate cereal!! I can't think of anything for you to get me right now. Transfers are coming soon and everyone says that i'm staying this transfer so I need to get a GPS like a Tom Tom or a Garwin to tell me where to go so if my companion leaves this transfer ill know where to go. Any suggestions? I'm doing better on the homesickness. I almost broke into tears on Wednesday and my Zone Leader noticed it so we talked about it. I almost said to him to send me home cause I can't do this for a whole 2 years but before I did he gave me some advice that made me feel better. So i'm doing much better. I am so glad I am on my mission. I know this will be the best two years of my life. Thank you for all the prayers and support! I miss you so much Mom! Its not even funny. Tell everyone I said hi and I miss them like crazy. Love you all!!!

-Daniel

10/18/10
Mom,
I got the bike but I haven't ridden it yet!!!! we just got a car for about 2 weeks so I'll let you know in that time. Its a 2007 Chevy Malibu! Nice car. The church provides. Hows my car doing? I don't remember seeing that post about my bike but ill be sure to do that. Thanks for Garrretts address. I really appreciate it! Ill write him today. Mail takes forever to get here! like 4 or 5 days. Its insane. Oh, and I'm also 2 hours ahead of you. Just FYI. Life here is alright. Its super hard and stressfull sometimes. For example: Elder Smith and I went to a womans house and she agreed to become baptised a long time ago but we still have to go to her house and give her the lesson. But we knocked on the door and she finally came out and we started to teach her The Restoration then she said that she has to go beacuse shes playing the Lord of the Rings online computer game and shes in a desert part where its dangerous for her to be and she could die. I was so pissed at her but we just left. But on a brighter note... We baptised a 9 year old boy on saturday! Well his grandpa did. My companion and I were witnesses for it. I'm not even going to count it as my baptism beacuse he agreed to be baptised in August and I've only seen him 2 or 3 time. Then on sunday We were able to comfirm him into the church and I felt the spirit so much when that happened. I really needed it beacuse I've been pretty homesick lately. I know I need to stay here and for that The Lord has blessed us with many new referals and investigators!!. How is everything else going?! Good I hope. I love you guys so much!

Love, Daniel

10/11/10
Hey mom!
The ward members are really nice here. Only a few have accents and they are hard to notice. Mostly everyone here is white which amazes me. There is this investigator that my compainion and I are teaching who is Black, he's a nice guy. He's been taught before I got here so I'm catching up on what he is learning. He accepted to be baptized on November 6th. His name is Tony Clark. So the Colts won! Awesome and thats awesome that the Cowboys lost. As i'm reading this I said YES! kinda loud and I told one of my roomates that the Colts won and he said it doesn't matter cause we are on the Lords team and we never lose. My companions name is Elder Smith. He's a really good teacher even everyone tells me this. He really knows what he is doing. Much better than my MTC companion. We have 3 other roomates and they are really funny. I only see them in the morning and at night beacuse they have the car and drive it out of the ward boundaries. They're Zone leaders. Tell Elder Schnider that I said hello. My excercising is bikeing. I do it alot I actually haven't gained weight at all at the MTC or here. Awesome!! Please send me more pictures of the family and my friends. Ask everyone! I also want Garretts Address!!!!!!. Thanks for the encourgement and support with me and my mission. I really appreciate it. Tell everyone that I love them very much. Tell Dwight to continue to pray and I challenge him to go to church at least once a month. I don't care if the game is on. Thats why we record stuff.

Love, Daniel