March 31, 2014

Well hello hello how have y'all been?? So I now have a little bit more information for y'all about my new area. I am currently serving in the Idaho Falls West Stake and have 4 wards that I cover: Grandview, Mountain View, Temple View, and West Hill Wards. Unfortunately I was unable to get the pictures but I have a video of it that is apparently too big to attach in this email so I will try from my gmail email but if that doesn't work I'm not sure how else to get the video to y'all. So every week the elders and sister get together for a zone activity and there a 2 gyms in a church building in the area. So we get to choose which sports we want to play and one is usually basketball, which I personally suck at, and the other is usually something called gatorball, which is kinda like indoor soccer and handball mixed together, and that is the one that I usually play. So last week when I said I was going to play soccer I was really going to go play gatorball. It is really fun and I have thought about introducing the game to the missionaries back home. I am usually one of the better players but that is because I have little history playing soccer. ;) Well I am sorry this email is so short but I have to go do some shopping before we go play some gatorball. I love y'all very much and will have more for y'all next week.–-

March 24th, 2014

Well I couldn't dodge the bullet twice. Unfortunately I am getting transferred to the other side of Idaho Falls :( I am super happy to be staying in Idaho Falls though. It has been really fun to get to know this town and the people in it more and more. Especially since I used to come here like every weekend and only knew the major streets. Now I have really gotten to know half of IF and now I get to go and learn more about the other half. My new companion is going to be Elder Tovar and he actually came from the Ogden mission with me. I didn't know him too well other than that. I feel like it is going to be a good transfer but I am going to miss Elder Hernandez a lot. We had a lot of fun together and it has been a great 3 months. We did burn our shirts this last week but unfortunately the Elder that took the pictures has not been able to give them to me yet. So next week for sure I will have pictures for y'all. Sorry for being a scrub. The area is doing good the members are starting to work with us more and more and we have be seeing quite a few miracles in our area. For example, since Elder Hernandez has been here we have been trying to teach a couple of families but they were not ready for missionaries yet. For the past few weeks these families have been coming to church on their own. Which is awesome but they still are not ready for missionaries so we are currently working through the members and the primary to help these families. One day the missionaries in this area are going to be blessed with a couple baptisms but it will take some time and as long as they are patience and show true charity for this area they will continue to see the same miracles that we have been able to see. Well I better go to some shopping. Then I will be getting ready to go dominate at some indoor soccer :) I love y'all very much and hope y'all have a great week!!

March 17th, 2014

Hello Hello family and outside world. How have y'all been? Well I don't have much to report like every other week but I will try to use mom's email and questions to inform y'all how I am doing. Well since it is St. Patricks Day I had to get a green dry erase marker and draw on my hands because out of all the many ties I have now none of them have green in them. Lol well life is going great here with Elder Hernandez we are continuing to work really well together and are getting along really well. I am still struggling with the journal writing because y'all know me better than everyone and know how much I hate to write. I am currently at Exodus 2 and have been really learning a lot about how the old testament has a ton of hidden treasures in it. One for example is how every single prophet that has called and will be called is a prime example of Jesus Christ and someone we can see and model ourselves after. A lot of people can quickly see the similarities between Heavenly Father = Abraham and Jesus Christ = Isaac but in my book I learned that if we look towards all the prophets that way we will be able to see Christ shining through all prophets. My contacts are doing great and I am pretty used to them now except when it is a really windy day they will dry up and feel really uncomfortable. Overall though I love them and they feel really nice most of the time. Tonight we are planning on going to a members house for dinner and to burn our shirt (me) and tie (hernandez) so next week I should have pictures for y'all for sure. Well I have to go run some errands and play some gatorball (it's like soccer and handball mixed together). I love y'all very much!!! Have a great week!! :) 

3/10/14

Well this is going to be a fairly short email. Yes I know all of my emails are short but this one is going to be even shorter, sorry! Well we are continuing to work with all of investigators but unfortunately we will be going into the finding stage again because we could always use more people to teach. The Crose family told us that they will be really busy in March. So currently we wont be able to teach and meet with them again until April. So that is another reason we are trying to find more people to add to our teaching pool. We slowly but surely making progress in the area and the members are starting to help us more and more. My current goal right now is doing better with my journal writing here is what I sent dad to talk about my current goal.  I am currently working really really hard to keep a journal. I made a goal at my year mark to start writing in my journal more and more. I am currently struggling because I have found out that I am quite lazy when it comes to journaling. I have read my patriarchal blessing multiple times on my mission and towards the end it talks about how I need to keep a journal so that my posterity can learn from my experiences. So there is always room for improvement but I am currently trying to be better and write more in my journal daily. So sorry I dont have much more to report but Elder Hernandez and I are doing great and are having a lot of fun serving together. We find out on March 20th about what will be happening with transfers. Transfers are on March 26th. Well I love y'all very much and hope that y'all have a great week!!

P.S. - I have not been able to burn my shirt yet. I will send pics as soon as I do it.

3/3/14

Well this week has been about the same as previous weeks. We are still struggling trying to get the Crose family to come to church. We are still consistently trying to increase the work in the area and on Saturday I had a personal revelation we went out on visits with our ward mission leader. I slowly started to realize that this area requires a different kind of missionary work. As we were making visits I decided that instead of trying to share a message at every door contact that we had but instead we would just get to know the people in the area more and build a friendship first and then they would be more likely to let us in again in the future to be able to share the missionary lessons with them. We had 3 solid contacts that night and I felt like Saturday night was one of the most productive days we have had since I have been in this area even though we were unable to share a message that night. I know that is contrary to everything that I have been taught but nothing else is working here. I really feel like this is what needs to be done here. Once people realize that we are more than just missionaries and when they really do feel that and know that we care for them personally and see them as more than just a baptism is when they will open up to us more and that is when we will start seeing the success in the area. Oh and I forgot to mention that we have still not received our iPads but most likely we will be receiving them in April sometime. Supposedly I heard that missionaries are getting them when the enter the MTC now but oh well we will get ours soon enough ;) Oh and for y'all that are trying to follow with my bible reading I am currently at Genesis 48 and I recommend that y'all skip Genesis 38 because it is quite graphic and weird. Well I have to go do some shopping now but I love y'all very much!! Have a great week!

P.S. - For my year mark it is tradition to burn a shirt so I will be posting pictures of that as soon as we actually get around to doing it. The pictures that were in the last email were actually not pictures but just funny little smiley faces that gmail has. So it was nothing too big that y'all missed out on. LOL

P.S.S. - Mom thank you so much for not emailing Pres. Brinkerhoff the week that I did not send a weekly email. He has enough to worry about in the mission field. Thank you again!

02/24/2014 (1 Year!!)

Well hello hello. Sorry for not emailing last week but the place we go to do emails was closed last week for presidents day so my companion and I decided to take a stress free pday and just chilled and relaxed at the apartment for most of the day. We had a great mission conference with Elder Bednar! It was really weird because at the beginning he told us not to take notes and that taking notes that you can't find or don't use is "stupid". Yes he actually said that notes are stupid. The reason why he did not want us to take notes is because the whole conference was centered around learning from the spirit and to not focus on what he was physically saying. In contrast, he wanted us to write down the promptings of the spirit. It was a really weird experience because I walked in thinking that we were going to get a conference talk but instead he had a 2 part Q&A session with us. The first part consisted of a Q&A of the 3 talks that he asked us to read prior to coming to this conference. The second part consisted of a Q&A of questions that we wanted to ask an apostle and he made sure that we didn't ask any ridiculous like where is the sword of Laban.  It was a really fun and spiritual experience! Unfortunately we did not get to take a single picture with him or shake his hand but we were able to take a semi-small group picture with him and our mission presidency. So that was really cool and spiritual experience. So as for the area not a lot has happened in the past couple weeks. We are having a hard time with helping our investigators come to church. We are always looking for more people to teach though. Our wards are starting to catch the vision and they are starting come out with us more and more. It is really cool to see the excitement that they gain after coming out with us. Well I have to go do some shopping now. Hopefully next week we will be able to have some success and that I will have much more to report. Thank you for all the prayers that y'all have said to help me. I love and pray for y'all everyday! There is nothing more powerful that the power of prayer. I have learned and gained a strong testimony on prayer in the past year and how there is no such thing as a prayer too small or too big. I love and miss y'all very much!! Have a great week! 

P.S. - My expect date of departure is exactly 1 year from today, February 24, 2015.

P.S. - I am currently at Genesis 38 in my Old Testament reading but I am also reading the Old Testament institute manual so I am reading quite slowly but I am learning a lot and it is really cool to learn some deep doctrine :)

2/10/14

Another week has come and gone but this week has been very eventful. The area is starting to pick up which is awesome and we were able to extend a baptismal invitation to a family, they accepted, which was pretty sweet. I was able to help set up Elder Hernandez to invite this family. The family we invited was the Crose family and we invited Kristan (single mother, mid-30's) and her son Adryk (13 years old). She has another son but he is only 6 years old right now but we will continue to work with the whole family. Unfortunately they did not come to church this week but they still have enough weeks to be able to come in order to be baptized on March 8th (this the current date for their baptism). They accepted but she also wants her brother (a return missionary) to be the one to baptize her and her son and she would need to contact him and plan a day and time. In addition to that excitement I was able to see Tolan on Thursday and we went out to lunch together which was really fun to be able to see him again. I have attached a couple pictures below one is a picture with Tolan and the other is a picture with Elder Felton (he was my companion when we covered the Paris Idaho Stake). Elder Felton goes home on Wednesday and so I was able to get a picture with him before he went home. I also went to the eye doctor to get contacts this week which has been pretty interesting trying to get used to them. It still takes me awhile to get them in and take them out but I am getting quicker. They gave me a trial pack to use for a week before we order some after my return appointment on Wednesday. Oh and I forgot to tell y'all last week but we found out at interviews that we will be having a mission conference coming this Saturday, Feb 15, where we will be meeting Elder Bednar!! I have a suspicion that there will some talk about iPads and that we may get our iPads on Saturday!!! For obvious reasons I am getting pretty excited about meeting an apostle and hopefully he will have some presents for us ;) Well I have to go now but I love y'all very much and thank you again for all the letters and support that y'all have given me :)

An extra picture for your viewing pleasure:  James and Elder Hernadez eating dinner with Amanda's friend Erin.  Erin mentioned she was moving to IF on FB, Amanda replied with "My brother serves there," and Andrea, a friend of Erin's saw that and mentioned she was serving dinner to an Elder Curtis in IF that very night.  Erin needed to go to IF to make arrangements for the move, so she asked if she could join too.  And so James was surprised by dinner with Amanda's old friend Erin and new friend Andrea.