We Have Been Very Blessed In This Area With Good People Around Us For Us To Be With And Teach

Hello!! 

well i guess the biggest news there is this week is it is transfers!! We got the transfer call voicemail earlier this morning. I am staying here again!! but sadly Elder Stevens is out of here. It was a good 7 weeks! We had a lot of fun here. I dont know why but Benton City just kills missionaries off! The only two times that i have only had a companion for one transfer both have been here. I was joking with Elder Stevens and told him i guess only the best of the best stay here more then one transfer. I got a kick out of it. Haha i guess its bad that i laugh at my own jokes, but it makes it fun.  This was a really good week. It started off with Elder Stevens really wanting some fried chicken. We had some chicken but nothings to bread it in. But i guess he found something and tried using the cake mix in the cabinet!! Haha it didnt work to good. 

But later in this week there were two different times we had fried chicken. So we were being looked out after. We had a few really good lessons with R-- and L--. We gave them the Pamphlets for the first 3 lessons and they read them all before we came back the next time! so we answered a bunch of questions and kinda taught all three of the lessons in one sitting. They really like having us over. Their kids love it too. They are all young and distracting and super crazy! but its always a ton of fun. The next time we sat down and helped them understand why the message of the Restoration is so important. L-- brought up baptism! So we talked about baptism. R-- said that he would be baptized and L-- was a little more hesitant but she also said she would like to but she wants to know more and know what she is getting herself into. It was really good. We helped them know the things that they need to do to come to know if it is true! They are doing really good. They were suppose to come to church, but they didnt! My guess is he had to work. We are going back over tonight.   We also had a lesson with R-- and A-- finally. they have been hard to find. He is a plumber and everything has been frozen so they dont have much time. But they did last night. They invited us in and offered us dinner but we just ate so we taught them during and after their dinner. They also brought up baptism! A-- wants to be baptized and R-- was already baptized and he said it is hard to give up what he grew up with for another church. But that he is wanting to know if it is true. He told us to just keep working with them. So it is going to take some work but they are awesome. Their little kids are fun and crazy too. we were for sure looked out after this week. Not just with food! We have been very blessed in this area with good people around us for us to be with and teach. 

The broadcast was great! There are some really big changes! well when i think of it, to anyone that is not a missionary right now they seem really small. But to us it is so crazy! The schedule is a little different. Preparation day starts 2 hours earlier. instead of having studies until 10 now we have them til eight. the other days there is no nightly planning. There is 30 minutes to plan in the morning and we are out of our houses by 10. Then sometime through the day we have 30 minutes of lunch and 30-60 minutes of language study. Usually we would be inside in the morning and finish studies and lunch and be working at 12. We also have the option to go to bed at 9:30! it weird to have the exact same schedule for so long and now its different. Also there is a lot of changing in the schedule if we want. We dont have times we have to do anything, just things we have to do in the day. So we can make it work with our individual days. also instead of 9 key indicators, there is now just 4.  Baptized and confirmed, investigators at church, investigators with a baptismal date, and new investigators. So it is going to be a weird change. It also might mean we are emailing closer to 8. But it will still happen! 

All in all it was just a really good week.   It sounds like everything back at home has been good. Its crazy how much snow there is! What is plan 7? also what is Jaxen even wearing?! It looks weird. also i feel cheated. I went a year without an Instagram and i didnt get a moon suit! life just seems to have gotten better since i left home. We'll say its because of the blessing of someone being on a mission not because i am just boring.  Haha it made me laugh again to see dad forget how to smile when he takes a selfie! But i do miss those mountains! i hope the week goes great! i will talk to you next week! i love you all!! Bye bye!

Elder Mortensen

Also the sisters gave us a package of cookies and Elder Stevens said that he wanst going to eat any of them. He is on a "diet". Haha, So i made sure that he would eat some. This was the first cookie. It was pretty funny when he found it. He also ended up eating a bunch of the cookies!!