December 16th

To start off with: Borrowmans, they want to say thank you to you for having me out on a
mission. Good job Mom and Dad!

Wednesday: Had District Meeting with not much planning. I have had so many meetings and what not to the point where it is really difficult to get anything done. I had to skip personal study to plan district meeting. It went okay, however, we weren't even able to role-play which is super important, because we had to do somethings at the beginning like making a card for a little girl who's dying wish is to have her room full of Christmas cards.

Afterwards, went on exchanges with Elder Legones, it was really good, though Elder Legones is having a hard time with his companion, and therefore the area is suffering quite a bit. :(

Thursday: District Leader Training was about how we are supposed to baptize and help Less active's. Many missionaries only do one or the other. We have talked about it so much, it is kind of annoying now, but I guess it needs to be done.

Friday:Had a meeting down in Ogden about Ipad stuff, always super difficult to try and get down there and back up. However, we did pretty good. Was able to figure it out. We had another frustrating lesson with Mark. I feel we did perfect at teaching but it did nothing, he still isn't sure whether he should be baptized. It is so frustrating!

Saturday: We had someone nice enough to drive us around in the afternoon, that way we were able to make a lot of visits that otherwise we could not make.

Sunday: One of my goals for this transfer have been to rely more on
the spirit when teaching. Today was probably the best I have done it
on my mission thus far. The weirdest thing about it, is when looking
back at the lesson, I don't remember what I say, I remember the
feeling the spirit and Heather (The Investigator) saying, "Oh.. That
makes sense". Heather felt the spirit and determined that she does
want to be baptized this next weekend :)

Monday: Had the Christmas party, we watched the grinch while having lunch. It was fun! We had Elder Walter from the seventy come and talk to us :)

Sorry, pretty lame letter.

Love

Elder Wrathall

 

I wish I could call you and blow off steam! Hahaha. We got flurries but nothing sticked. Not having a car has been really annoying, it isn't fun asking people always to give us a ride. We ask random door contacts even. Just knock, "Hello!" "Hello! Can you give us a ride?" It's terrible haha

Carter ,his nephew, is the coolest! We are baptizing someone this weekend who has a child the same age. He is the funniest kid in the world. His name is Dax. His smile looks evil though haha.

.
I got the packages already, we had a Christmas party and got them there.

I got this super cool hat too! 

It doesn't even feel like it is Christmas really. Besides talking to you and Dinner, we don't have anything planned. I wonder if the Zone will do anything.

I really hope there will be snow.

Love you!

Elder Wrathall

This mission has brought me true conversion.

Wednesday: Well, I am pretty tired of this weather. I am just so sad!
I was so looking foreword to having 3 feet of snow like everyone talks
about around here. However, it has been in the 50's all week!! Stop
dumb Utah. This makes me really never want to live in Utah. Can't even
change seasons right. Well anyways, we had District Meeting, I was
really nervous about it, my first one alone doing it. It went really
well! Elder Farmer said that was one of his favorite District
Meetings! That is a big compliment for someone about to go home!
Thursday: We had DLT, this one was a little different than ones
before, just because we have so many District Leaders now. Elder
Farmer our Zone Leader, and my favorite missionary in the mission, is
feeling super sick, but still came :) He is going home this transfer,
which makes me super sad. I am going to miss him so much. With him
going home, it made me think about what if I was going home this
transfer. Rather than the normal thoughts of Motorcycles, girls and
family, I thought immediately to the things I would miss so much on my
mission, the many Elders who have changed my life, the many converts
whom I love so dearly, being so close to heavenly father, doing The
Lord's work. I am just glad I don't have to come home just yet ;)
This mission has brought me true conversion.
Friday: Met with the Davis Family.
Saturday: Everyone in the stake pretty much tells us to go to the
stake baptisms, so I suppose we should go. Haha. It was really good,
it is always nice to see people enter into that covenant, even though
they don't really comprehend what they are actually doing :) We are
having troubles trying to explain to an Investigator why he needs to
be baptized again. It is really stressing me out, he is a super smart
guy, knows everything!! Haha, he knows all the fundamentals that we
teach.
Sunday: Fast Sundays are great. Elder Housman was dying the whole day
though. He couldn't remember even what time we eat at. So right after
our correlation, we had a ward mission leader giving us a ride to our
dinner apt. I said to Elder Housman, "Hey, I cancelled our dinner
appointment because we had a lesson come up instead." The Ward mission
leader, playing along said, "Yeah, sorry guys, this is the only time
this family could do it." Elder Housman just groaned and said,
"Fetch!... Alright, are they LA or Non-members" "Nah, they are active
members" "....What...." Haha. So he was really relieved when we walked
in and there was food for us. I am a mean trainer :P
Monday: So many meetings... So usually I plan out District Meeting on
Mondays, however, I had to go down to Perry for a Technology Assistant
Meeting. We had to figure out the rules for the Ipads. Took 2 hours.
Elder Housman was still in our area, working it! First time working
the area without me. He did a great job. Taught one lesson, who is now
working towards going to the temple. So that is super stellar!

Hope everyone has a sweet delicious brownie of a week!!

Thanks so much for the email!

So excited to talk with ya too!

Love,

Elder Wrathall

Those are some big apples!

 

Heavenly Father has been blessing us significantly

Right now it is going not so hot. So neither of us can drive, because I don't have privileges and he doesn't have a license. So we can't use the car. So either we have to get him a driver's license, or he gets Emergency Transferred. Lame. I really wish I was able to drive, all of this would be solved. So all that stress has been weighing on me.

However, even without a car, Heavenly Father has been blessing us significantly. This past week, we picked up 3 new investigators, and found a lot of other potential investigators whom seem really solid. So the work continues on even though we have to be constantly trying to find rides to places and walking. One of our new investigators is Mark, he has been going to church for over 14 years and he actually teaches primary quite often. However, he has never been baptized. His wife is very active as well. He knows that everything is true, however, he has asked and has been asking to join the church and he hasn't necessarily received his answer. So we have him praying for the date of Dec. 20th. We also found a family, where the dad is getting back active, the mother would, but she works on Sundays, and they have 2 un-baptized children, 10 and 15 years old. So that is looking good too! Elder Housman, my son, is really cool, he is definitely very nerdy, but he is really good at being obedient and teaching is very good for just starting out his mission. The nice thing about him being Nerdy is he likes to play board games like me! haha. I am a nerd as well. As well as not having a car, our senior couple has been out of town. I didn't tell them about the situation until today, because I didn't want them to stress about it while they were on vacation, good thing too. I told them last night, and they freaked out, and now are stressing over the fact.

The girl that was baptized last week, she is 9.

Yeah, the bishop had us over for thanksgiving, but his family is so big we just had it in the church haha. We had another dinner that night.

 I feel like even after my mission I will never read something that doesn't teach about the gospel. haha, in my free time anyways. Of course college books.

Black Friday started on Thanksgiving at 6:00 here. it was pretty lame.

 

It snowed here Sunday, but in the morning, it was all gone, even though there was an inch and a half of snow last night. SAD :( haha

Well this is the weekly letter you get, I didn't have time during the week to do my normal thing.

Love you!

Elder Wrathall  

We had the Twintism!

Transfer News: Elder Mika is leaving to Wellsville, over by Logan. I

am staying, still going to be District Leader. The best part... I AM

GETTING A SON!!!! I am training haha.

Wednesday: We had our final district meeting! Because it is our final

one, we had to extend an invitation for them that they would do

themselves, because we can't necessarily follow up on them with this

one. So what we did is we had them write down a list of things they

are going to change for next transfer that they think of while others

train. Then at the end we talked about how we need to be patient with

ourselves as we try to apply changes. Our invitation was, "Will you be

diligent in applying your list to yourself?"

 

Thursday: Went on exchanges with Elder Legones in his area, when we

got there I set expectations with him for what does he want out of

this exchange? He told me that he wanted me to baptize all the people

that they are having a hard time with. Which I told him is not really

what a District Leader is supposed to do... Haha, more of sit back and

learn how they are working the area, and tell them ways to improve.

Well our first contact was a young couple, they invited us in the

house. I was trying not to say anything and let Legones do the

talking. However the conversation went like this. Elder Legones, "How

is it going?" "Good" "That's good, that’s good." Then Elder Legones

just stared at him for like a minute then looked at me. Haha I just

winked at him. He still didn't say anything, so I saved us all from

the awkwardness and talked to him, turns out he has been making a lot

of changes in his life already and wants to improve himself, so we

talked about baptism and he and his girlfriend really want to get

baptized :) They were so prepared!

 

Friday: Had the interviews for the Felix children. The best one was

Madyson, when we asked her the question if she had ever committed a

serious crime, (which we normally just skip for children) but she

said, "One time... I... Graffitied in the girl's bathroom at school...

BUT DON'T TELL MY DAD!". That was probably the best response I have

ever heard :)

 

Saturday: We had the Twintism! The baptism was really great, this is

my first time having multiple baptisms in one program. Everything went

according to plan, thanks to the Ward Mission Leader, and our senior

couple the Rupp's. We did our "Restoration" presentation at the

baptism, it was super great, I could feel the spirit so strongly, and

there were a lot of less actives there, I hope they felt the spirit.

We challenged non-members, to meet with us, Less actives to go back to

church, and Actives to find someone for us. So at the end of the day,

3 more souls entered the waters of baptism :) The parents are working

towards the temple now :)

Sunday: We had the confirmation for all 3 people in a row, which was a

really great experience, however, my arm got really tired. Haha. We

also went to a farewell in a different ward, and there I saw Jared

Thompson! Haha, He lives up in Garland and came to the farewell. The

rest of the night we searched diligently for a new investigator. It

didn't happen :(

Monday; MLT!!! (Mission Leadership Training): So on Saturday I was

called by President Hiers to be training. I have been so excited that

I haven't been really able to sleep well since. But here on Monday we

drove down to Ogden, with everyone from our Zone who needed to go

down. The meeting was really good. A lot of big changes, we are

decreasing the number of Zones from 13 to 9, so our Zone is going to

be a lot bigger. One of the Elders who came with us, Elder Norris,

stayed down in Ogden afterwards, causing a lot of trouble for Elder

Hack his companion, so we had to help out Hack through the night,

because he didn't have a companion!

Tuesday: Today, I don't really get a P-day because as Technical

Assistant, I have to go down to Ogden and set up IPads for the new

missionaries. :( Sad.

Those miracles coming through

Wednesday: District Meeting was pretty good, still not as good as the

first one that we did, we will have to repent and try harder next

time. We went on exchanges afterwards, I had the pleasure of having

the Spanish Missionary Elder Looper come with me in our area. Elder

Mika got the fun time of trying to speak Spanish in his area... Haha.

Elder Looper is such a good missionary, ever since I met him in this

Zone I have had a high respect for him, when he came out doing

missionary work with me, he lived up to my expectations :)

 

Thursday: In the morning we had interviews with President Hiers.

Sounds like there is going to be a lot of big changes this next

transfer. It is crazy that this transfer is almost already up. He told

me that there will be less Zones in the mission, that they are going

to congregate a lot of people. Which I wonder about the reasoning, I

kind of doubt that I will be District Leader next transfer, I think

they wanted me just to have the experience of it and now they want

someone else to have the experience, which is completely fine, and it

makes sense too.

 

Friday: Had a lesson with the boy we invited to be baptized on the

doorstep, his whole family was kind of like Zombies, and not

interested at all. Sad. We met this lady who sells doTERRA for a

living, she is very successful in doing so. She gave us a ton of it,

she said, "I will give this all to you as long as you use it." "Sure!"

Found out later that she gave us over $300 worth of stuff in doTERRA.

She is too nice.

 

Saturday: MMmmm... Those miracles coming through. We had a lesson

scheduled with an ongoing potential investigator, whom I have never

heard of before setting up the appointment with him a couple days ago,

however, Elder Mika has, and he told me that he has set up several

lessons with them and they have all fallen through. Today however was

a new day, and the lesson went through, and the family is soooo

prepared, they have been taught by missionaries in the past, and they

wanted to get baptized, however they didn't want to get married, (They

have been together 11 years and have 5 children.) They told us now

that they wanted to get married and be active in the church and be

sealed. Pretty cool.

 

Sunday: Ahhh, the day where we just sit in meetings all day, which, I

am not going to lie, I kind of like. It is a day where it is somewhat

relaxing to be taught to, rather than to be teaching. The Felix's came

to church, then the Dad started talking about how he would like to

baptize his children, which seems to be a worthy desire, however,

Preach My Gospel tells us to do all that we can to not delay baptisms,

even if it means that the Father can't baptize them. So I was kind of

stressing out, because I was like, "How am I going to break this to

them, and are they even going to listen, and we won't baptize them for

like 3 months!". All my thoughts and stresses were gone away when we

talked to the Bishop after he just interviewed Dad. Bishop says he is

worthy to baptize them!!!! Win-Win-Win situation. SO sick.

 

Monday: We didn't have a busy Monday schedule like we usually do,

everyone that we usually teach on Mondays wanted to do a different day

:( However, that leaves us plenty of time to go out and knock some

doors.... It didn't go to well, I did get to meet some new potential

investigators, however, their concerns of course are not like, "Oh, I

am not sure about Joseph Smith" It is, "I hate the church, they

treated me meanly" or even more common, "They treated someone I know

not very good." That nearly sums up everyone's concerns. :(

 

Love Elder Wrathall

I think that he likes animals!

faking it till I make it

Wednesday: Started off with District Meeting, this time I didn't like

our training as much as last week. It seemed like we tried to cover too

much in just a short time. Next week we will do better! Had the

opportunity to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, I got to go with

Elder White in our area. He is such a cool funny guy, he made the day

very enjoyable. I forgot how it was to have a goofball with me. Haha,

it lightened the mood a lot with him. He gave me some tips on how to

work our area better :)

 

Thursday: We did stuff.. Good things happened, bad things happened. I

really don't remember this day. Haha.

 

Friday: Had a great lesson with the Felix family, the parents just got

married last week, and they are working towards being married in the

Temple. They have 5 children, 2 of their own, 1 from her previous

marriage, and 2 from his previous marriage. They are such a cool

family, she makes sure that the children aren't taking the covenant of

baptism lightly.

 

Saturday: We had 2 appointments with non-members whom we were going to

invite to be baptized. However, both of them fell through. That didn't

help at all... I was looking forward to those all week, however, one

of them, we went to visit the next day, and he was home, and we were

able to invite him to be baptized on the door step, it was a pretty

flakey yes, but a yes nevertheless.

 

Sunday: Here in Tremonton they like to sing hymn 94. It talks about

corn. Fitting for Tremonton haha. Sooo.... The Felix family didn't

come to church. Well they did, just not the Ward that they are in.

Which is lame, because now we have to move their baptismal date back a

week. They were going to get baptized this next weekend :( Besides

them not coming to church, it was a really great Sunday, we had quite

a few Less Actives come to church, and it was Fast Sunday, so we got to go up

and bare our testimonies. Which is always awesome!

 

Monday: I didn't feel good at all, I thought for sure I was going to

be sick, we have been around a lot of sick people lately, people who

have been throwing up and whatnot. However, I promised myself I would

never be one of those missionaries that aren't enthusiastic about the

gospel, because that wouldn't be fair to those whom we teach. Also, I

remember in my patriarchal blessing, it tells of me never being sick

enough on the mission that I won't be able to serve. So with a lot of

begging prayers to heavenly Father, and faking it till I make it, I

was able to overcome it and didn't feel sick at all.  We had all of

our lessons come through as well.

 

That is awesome!! (About his new nephew) So a bit early, but not too much! I am sure Kayla will tell me. She sent me an email this week, but I always read yours first, so I don't know what she has said yet.

Good job with doing all of the churchy stuff! Haha.

Everyone here does a ton of hunting, I have seen a lot of dead deer, and you wouldn't like it too much. Sunday there is a family we are teaching and they are going to grill the venison up for us.

I am pretty glad I didn't have to learn a new language.

I finally remembered to take pictures of where I live!

Love Elder Wrathall

This is my apartment mom.

We have a foursome living here.

This is his real place.

Someone really likes My Pretty Ponies



Ah that Elder Wrathall. So funny!

 

Looks like a pretty nice place for Elders

Learn New Stuff

First off, I have to share a story that happened last transfer I am

pretty sure I forgot to tell. In a lesson with Erica, she was sharing

an experience that happened to her at church. She was in a Sunday

School class, she was telling about how there was a super strong

spirit in the room and the physical light in the room got brighter.

When she accounted that story, I was pretty questionable, and kind of

shrugged it off. However, as we continued in our lesson, there was a

moment where the Spirit was strong, and I noticed that the physical

light bulbs in the ceiling suddenly were stronger and gave off more

light. It was not imaginable, it was fact. I know that the Spirit does

affect literal light.

 

Wednesday: I learned that the original 'Footloose' movie was filmed in

Lehi. I thought that was pretty cool, Kayla lives there now! haha

 

Thursday: Ehh, stuff.

 

Friday: Happy Halloween! So all of today consisted of me just going

down to Ogden, because there was a Technology meeting. Some new people

in the mission got called to be "Technology Instructors", who teach

people in the mission how to use the iPad efficiently and to teach

them the rules behind it. Also to try to encourage people to use it,

because not many missionaries actually use the Area Book App. Well I

would probably say 50/50. So now, rather me being called "Media

Specialist" I am now called, "Technology Assistant" or "TA" for short.

Haha. I will attach a picture that writes out what I do. Not too

exciting.

Then afterwards we had a Halloween party for the Zone! We watched 17

Miracles, and get this, Do you know that handicapped little guy in the

movie? He is the grandson of one of our senior couples in my district!

I also ate in the house that he grew up in as a child :)

 

Saturday: A five year old's prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, thanks for

these guys, help them come back. They are really cool..." Haha, it was

so cute.

We had Stake Conference "Adult Session", was the best Stake Conference

session I have ever been in, we had Bishop Davies, whom I am not

really sure like what position he is in now, but he was the one who

helped picked the temple grounds when President Gordon B. Hinckley

announced temples. He had so many good stories. Overall, the spirit

was super strong, so much so that I had chills several times, and it

felt thick in the room. To top it off, we ended with the song, "Nearer

my God to Thee". Dang was the spirit so strong, gave me wet eyes.

There were moments when the spirit brought back to my remembrance

experiences I have had in the temple.

Sunday: The Sunday Session of Stake Conference wasn't nearly as good,

which is sad, because none of our investigators went to the Saturday,

but all of them went to the Sunday. It was still good, but just not as good. but yeah, I was

surprised how many investigators came! Well we weren't able to find

two new investigators this week, we prayed every day for it, and tried

our very best, but sometimes we don't get what we want, even if it is

righteous :(

 

Monday: Today was a great day! We found high potential investigators,

that actually don't seem like their parents would hold them back from

being baptized! That seems to be the biggest concern of people here in

Tremonton. We had a lesson today with a 60 year old, and he knows that

this church is true, he told us he knows that Joseph Smith is a

prophet, however, he can't get baptized, because he promised his Mom

he would never join the church as long as she lived. Like really?????

C'mon Satan!

49 degrees is how it has been for a few days, but 49 is colder in GA than it is here, that is for sure. That is cool that you got to go to the game, They BYU Football game especially for free! It hasn't snowed here yet, well kinda, up in the mountains it snowed, but not down here, I think I saw some flurries. Maybe haha. Good job feeding the missionaries! You guys are working out good! I work out every morning, however, the workout itself is kinda lame... I need to repent. We watched the movie 17 miracles! It was really fun, we also had a fire going outside, I played with the Dogs, one of them wanted to race me! Game on!!! Contacts lenses are going strong, may have enough for my mission :P haha.

So I am bad, I forgot to take pictures of the apartment. I'm sorry, I am a bad son.

I got a picture with a super awesome huge dog!

 

Love you!

Elder Wrathall