The Start of a New Adventure!

Elder Clukey, his son.

The Start of a New Adventure!

Wednesday: We had to be at the mission office at 8:00 in the morning to be able to go to meet our greenies. However, right before we met them, President had us write a letter to them for them to receive after their training. I thought that was a cool idea.

 My new son is Elder Clukey, he is from Alberta Canada. He is big into hunting and sports. We get along pretty dang well! I might be coming home a hunter ;)

 So we are called to serve in the North Ogden Stake, so we drive an hour to get there from Logan, find our apartment, we go in and it is a complete mess, the missionaries even left a whole bunch of dishes in the sink. Thanks Elders :/ Even more so they had a HUGE beanbag  that took up the entire house it seemed. (We live in a shack in the backyard of a house.) So a quick call to the office, and we had some missionaries come and haul a whole bunch of stuff to the DI.

Now the even bigger problem, when we got down we were expecting a note with everything that has been happening in the area. Nothing. Keys? Nope. Phone? Nope. Nothing. Turns out, the Keys and the Phone, the missionary who was here took them up to Preston with him. So the whole first day was quite the mess. They also only had 1 appointment set up in total. I don't think I have ever had a time on my mission where I have only had 1 appointment set up.

So all these things were a learning experience, and the cool thing is we can only build it up from there.

Thursday: So Elder Giles, Alsterberg, Greenwood, Elder Elder, Torres, are all in the Zone, I think this is the first time coming to a Zone and knowing that many people in it. It's pretty cool. Getting to know our area a bit better, come to find out the Members here absolutely love the missionaries, they trust us so much! It is so cool to see that trust there, I feel it has been a while to serve in a stake where they love us so much! We met Nancy, who was a investigator the previous missionaries were working with, and she is getting baptized the 28th of Nov. She is such a cool gal, she is 18 almost out of high school, but is so selfless and in tune with the spirit. She is excited for her baptism.

Friday: To do weekly planning was much needed. To start off, we thought it would be a good idea to just text every number in the AreaBook and to try and set up an appt. So we sent out a mass text to a whole bunch of numbers saying, "Hey! It's the missionaries, we were wondering if we could meet with you this weekend?" By just doing that, we set up 4 appointments, 2 for other missions, but 2 of them were for us. We set up with a girl named Rachel, and a girl named Alyssa. Later in the day we met Dylan, who is also an investigator the missionaries were working with and he is planning on being baptized the 5th of December. Dylan is only 10, his Mom seems to be wanting to come back, however, the father is not interested. Sad to see, but Dylan is pretty dang cool!

Saturday: So we got to meet with Alyssa, (The Random Number we texted to set up an appointment.) Turns out on Thursday, she just had a seizure, and she has also just had a baby born out of wedlock. She is living with her sister, who also has a baby out of wedlock, and also with their Mom. This family has been compelled to be humble for sure, but now they are so prepared to receive the gospel. We gave Alyssa a priesthood blessing, and also Shayla, her sister. We invited them at the end of the lesson to work towards being baptized the 12th of December. They seemed hesitant, but accepted to work towards it.

Sunday: Elder Clukey's First Sunday out in the field and we are to give a 15 minute talk. Clukey tells me that this will be his 2nd talk he has given in his life. It was about gratitude, so I actually had to look up some scriptures for it and what-not. Elder Clukey ended up speaking 10 min, but I was able to speak for 20 min. I feel bad for those who had to listen to me me speak for 20 minutes.... Haha. 3 out of our 4 investigators came to church! That was good :)

Monday: We don't have a good map of what our boundaries really are, so we spent a bit of time making some maps. I am determined to leave this area a lot better than I found it! Which as far as organization goes, won't be hard to beat what it currently is. Haha. We knocked some ghetto apartments, we had a old man just yell at us for 20 minutes about how the Prophets are just rich CEOs. I have definitely seen over the course of my mission how much more bold I have gotten. I just yelled over him bearing my testimony, he finally stopped, when I did that. I concluded by telling him that he is prideful, needs to repent and be humble to know that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet. Afterwards we walked away, he proceeded to yell at us as we walked.  What a good experience for Elder Clukey. Haha

Later we met with Alyssa & Shayla again, we asked them how they feel about the 12th of December to be baptized, they said they got answers to their prayers to do so! Oh what a joyous moment! :)

Things are going well here in North Ogden, I am super glad to be back down here, I love it here. People are calling me "trunky" whenever I tell them I have been out for 22 months. I totally am not trunky! I tell them I extended, then they just say I am scared to go back. I can never win with these people.... Haha.

Love,

Elder Wrathall

Elder Lowell is the third one, he was living with us. He is a good friend to me :)

That is Mary Beth, I got permission to go back up for her baptism.

Transfer News!!

Transfer News!! I'm being transferred down to North Ogden Stake, Training a new missionary. Yep North Ogden is where Elder Giles is! Elder Florschutz is staying here, and he is being a District Leader! Only 3 months out!

So I am not feeling like typing out a long email this time around, so I am going to keep it short.

This week went really well! We had over 25 lessons, Stef and Dallen are getting married so that Stef can be baptized and that they can live together! So they are getting their Marriage Certificate on Thursday. Then going to be baptized the following week! Megan didn't come out to church this week, and when we told her that we would have to push back her baptismal date to December 5th because of it, she was absolutely devastated. So much so that she basically covenanted that she would go to church every Sunday for the rest of her life! We in response were like, "Good, Good. That's what you should do! :)" She is such a cool young woman! She is so excited to be baptized, and just wants to do it now! She would literally be baptized in an hour if we called her and said she can if she wanted. We've only met with her twice, and that is how excited she is. :)

Mary Beh is being baptized on Friday, she is having a lot her family come. I am going to see if I can hitch a ride with her brother who lives in Ogden. Brodie another investigator is wanting to be baptized December 5th rather than this weekend. Which is understandable, we have only been meeting with him a week. He is really cool. Came to know and love the church because of a pretty face ;) She is going on a mission in January. 

Tom, is opening up and becoming less stubborn. He is reading the scriptures everyday! Which is really cool, he is gaining a lot from it. He is still thinking about baptism in January, hasn't prayed about it yet.

We have two investigators, Sara and Riley, who both know the church is true and come every week, but want to be baptized in January.

Last night we had a pre-birthday party for Florschutz, and it was also where I got to say farewell to a lot of people, like Mack, Kathryn, Nate, River, Ect. Mack is thinking of going up to BYUI, she would start whe I would if she decides to go! I pressured her a little.

Overall, everything is fine and dandy here in the Cache Valley. Getting cold, but I don't mind. I just want it to snow!

Thanks all ya'll!

Love,

Elder Wrathall

I asked him if he was going to be in the same Zone as Elder Giles. He said "Yeah, I will be! I am hoping that we will be in the same district!"

"The Menu" for dating

I am a terrible picture taker.

This was a creepy door that we knocked. It
looked like the door was

taken out of an elementary school. It was in a long

dark hallway too.

Thursday: Thursdays are the days where we meet with our crazy loud high councilor! He is such an awesome guy, so gung-ho about missionary work all the time. He is the best HC that I have had on my mission. We meet with him bi weekly to go over things, and to try to improve our tactics. We have been losing a lot of our missionary work in his stake sadly, seems all of our work is now in the other stake. :/ 




Friday: One interesting thing about some of the wards around here is their directories, they have everyone's pictures and where the live in this small little booklet thing. We joke around saying that it is "The Menu" for dating. One ward in particular has a ton of detail, including, Major, minor, and interest, in addition to all the other information. Complete dating menu. Haha. However, it works really well being a missionary, because they even have some non-members on those directories!




Saturday: We had 3 lessons!!!! The most we have had on a Saturday. So it was really good Saturday. Sadly no baptisms though :/  We are looking to have 3 baptisms on the 21st though. Transfers are 3 days before that though. So it would be nice not to be transferred. Haha. We had a lesson with Erin for the first time, we met her just the day before. The day before she seemed pretty interested in the church and hearing what we had to say. Today however she seemed completely closed off, and wouldn't agree to pray, read the scriptures, or go to church. So we said good-bye to her. It was weird how black and white she was.




Sunday: We had a lesson with Brodie for the first time. He has been dating a girl in the church, he has been reading the Book of Mormon Daily. So I asked him all the baptismal interview questions and he passed. So now we are just setting a date, we invited him for the 21st. I feel like Utah missions are very different... Haha. Most people we "teach" seem to know a ton already. We are just there to get them in the water. Haha. I think it has been like twice when someone didn't know who Joseph Smith was and what happened to him.




Monday: Getting new investigators on Mondays are the best! WE taught Megan for the first time, she has already been coming to church, she told us that Church and reading the scriptures just makes her so happy! She also, when we invited her for the 5th of December to be baptized asked, "Is it possible that I can be baptized before then?" If you don't call that golden, I don't know what to call it. Haha.

It snowed!!! It was one of my weekly goals to have the snow stick. So therefore God listened to my goal!

 We went to an FHE and what we did there was called "Turkey Rockets." I know, I was a bit skeptical too, but you made a turkey out of construction paper and feathers, then attached a straw and a blown up balloon on it, and put a long string in the straw, and you race turkeys! So that is a fun idea you can do at church or something.










I am doing awesome! Anxious to see what happens next week with transfers. I will probably be transferred which would be super sad. When I get home I can be you gym buddy! I will go everyday! No matter what! I have kind of turned into a gym rat on the mission. Haha. Elder Giles is in Elder Clark's Zone where Clark is a Zone Leader. I am like on the opposite side of the mission :( That's what I get for telling President that I know him! Haha. 


I do wear shoes all day. my p-days have been consisting less activity and more of lounging around the apartment, and taking naps. so I get some kind of a break. Haha




 We got to go to the temple today.

We do play sports with the Zone a lot, so that is good. I try to be healthy as far as buying healthy things. But when people give us unhealthy things, I eat them :/ 

Elder Florschutz's Birthday is the 17th, so next week. He is having his family ship him fresh Halibut and Shrimp. Haha, Dang Alaskan Fishermen! I'm excited to try it out though! :)

Thanks for the email.



Love Elder Wrathall

No matter what

French Toast at Kneaders!! 

Wednesday: We got to do service again!!! We helped Elder Owen, the service missionary, cut day lilies around some church buildings. There are a lot of Day Lilies.... Too many. Haha we had hand trimmers so our hands were sore after that. We had the wonderful opportunity to teach Sara, who has been active in the church, more then most active people here, and she isn't even a member. Her worry is her family. She said that she was going to tell them that she is going to get baptized, and she has an ultimatum with them that no matter what happens, she is going to be baptized in January. I love when investigators say that, "No matter what." We hope that she will be baptized before January though, that is far! Haha

Thursday: One of our Newer Investigators, Natasha, we had a really good first lesson, come the second lesson we were talking about baptism again, and she says, "Yeah, I know I need to be baptized, it's really just a matter of when.". I was thinking, "Well we can help with that!" Right then, her roommate asks her,  "Baptized in the LDS church or Alpine Church (Church here in Logan run by ex-mormons)?" She said Alpine Church. My heart sank :( That's a struggle to overcome because the Alpine Church teaches against the LDS church pretty heavily. Natasha said, "I just have a feeling that Joseph Smith isn't true."

Friday: We had like no lessons :( We had a lesson at 8:00, we aren't use to that anymore. It's nice teaching rather than street contacting or door contacting. I have no idea how those other missions do tracting ALL DAY! No way would I be able to do that. My empathy goes out to them! When we tract all we run into is Return Missionaries, who invite us in, ask if we want any snacks or drinks... We have the hard life :P Then of course we tell them the only thing we want is new investigators, so we invite them to do missionary work. At 8 the lesson was with Zen and Mandie, they are both Less-active, they are dating pretty seriously and want to get back to church to be able to be sealed in the temple.

Saturday: Vivianne was baptized! She came from the Ivory Coast, knew no English at all when she got here, but was nevertheless baptized 2 months later. When only meeting with her once a week. That is when you know someone is receptive to the spirit. Now she knows quite a bit of English, she can carry a conversation pretty well now! One of her hold ups is she is afraid of water, and that was evident when she was baptized. One of the stranger ones that I have had, but The Spirit was so strong! Because it was Halloween they didn't want us out and about after 6, so we played Volleyball and then watched "The Cokeville Miracle" Which is a super cool movie, I would suggest it to anyone who wanted to strengthen their testimony :)

Sunday: We had 4 of our investigators come to Sacrament! It is always awesome to see people giving priority to living the gospel!  We attended 4 Sacrament Meetings as well, Fast & Testimony meetings are perfect for investigators! One of the wards starts at 2:30 and ends at 5:30, isn't that terrible? We had a lesson with Eric. We are having a hard time with him. We have taught him everything, and he keeps all our commitments. However, he hasn't received/recognized his answer that this is true. So it is always a struggle to know what to teach him.

Monday: 8 Lessons in one day! I love days when all you do is go appointment to appointment teaching, there is no better thing. Dallen & Stef was a coup,e that we taught. They are so golden, Dallen is a Less-active member and Stef is not a member. Stef is excited to get baptized, but not about moving out from each other... So that conflicts the other. Also had a lesson with 4 born-again Christians. There was one of them that I really liked, he was humble, and had a sincere heart. Everyone else there not so much. They just bible bashed most of the time. I'm glad I had our Ward Mission Leader there who is an awesome guy! And helped out a lot!

Tuesday: We had Elder Ringwood come to the mission, to pretty much tell us that we need to be more obedient. I guess the mission is struggling with getting up on time? Because they stressed that a lot. We have been getting a lot of General Authorities coming to this mission lately, we have another one right before thanksgiving too. We must be a trouble mission dang!

Thanks for the email!

Love,

Elder Wrathall