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!!

Read the Book of Mormon, Pray and Come to Church...Your Testimony Will Be Strengthened As We Do It Will Real Intent

Hello!! 

yes today we did go to the temple! it was great. The temple got a lot of missionaries going through it today. There are 3 different zones for today. Then tomorrow we have the missionary broadcast. It is going to be a crazy week. This last week was a pretty good one. It again was hard to find time with our investigators to teach a lesson, but we did talk to all of them a few times other than one couple. This last Saturday we went with the High priest group leader again to have a lesson with T--, the guy that read the Whole Book of Mormon. A few hours before we went over we texted him and asked him if we are still good to come over today. He said that he didn't see any point of it because he doesn't believe how we do. We asked him if we could still come over and talk another time. So we went over and talked about some of his concerns. We ended up us bearing our testimonies and we taught him again how to receive an answer. He hasn't come to church and we invited him to come again. We told him that that is the way that he is going to come to know if its true or not. We told him that if he has any questions or would like us to come back that he could give us a call. We hope that he will keep reading and come to church like we invited him to do. But we ended up having to drop him. One couple we are teaching, R-- and L--, they are super awesome. They both grew up here and know some members. They have 3 young kids and want to raise them in a church. He works for a rail road more than an hour away and the weather has been changing his hours and making them all weird. So he is really hard to find. But they are both reading in the Book of Mormon! they also wanted all the pamphlets so they could read them and so it would help them make more sense of what they read in the Book of Mormon. Another couple R-- and B--, they have also been busy with the same problem of their work schedule changing due to the weather. They also had to buy a new car because he wrecked his truck. He has read a little in the Book of Mormon and we just saw her a few days ago and she said that she would start it also. There is also a cool couple that we are trying to get in with again. Their names are A-- and K--. They just seem to have a light in them. they said that they have some questions.  So we hope to get in with them this Saturday. 

That is for sure the most part of who we have been teaching. It was kinda cool yesterday we decided to have our first 2 hours of study then push language study and lunch back a few hours. Just so earlier in the morning we could get out there and work. We found a super cool Spanish family. They have the Book of Mormon and have read a little in it. We are going back and they want us to read with them in the Book of Mormon. they live close to the church and said they wanted to go to it sometime. So that was a miracle! 

Something that made an impression on my mind again was how simple it is for our investigators to come to know that this is the true church, even for us of how to stay strong in the church. We were planning and again, every person we are teaching as we thought about their needs it was always, Read the Book of Mormon, Pray and come to church. that all you need. As we do those things over and over again our testimonies will be strengthened as we do it will real intent. The trick is to help them all do that. Even to keep ourselves doing that. 

It has still been pretty cold. Its been up in the 30s this week and the 40s some days. So its been pretty nice. There is still a bit of snow and we keep getting some freezing rain so it puts a nice sheet of ice on the roads and over the snow. But, i have not fell on my back side yet! so that is good. There are some missionaries that do it everyday pretty much. 

Its cool to hear that there is finally snow in Lehi!! There are some members that have some family in Payson and they said the snow was crazy! It blew me away a little bit! but i am glad it finally came! I hope you all stay safe and warm! It sounds like a good week. Its good to hear there is still someone still playing soccer in the family! i hope you all have a great week this week in the snow! i love you all!!

Elder Mortensen

Elder Mortensen and Elder Stevens at the Temple

Tacos From a Taco Truck in Benton City

Surprise Text

We got a surprise text from Sister Cannon:

Haircut day in Benton City.  We love our Elders!

He Is Still Doing A Lot Of Studying And Has Started To Pray To Ask If It Is True

Hello! 

This was another pretty good week! It sounds like Las Vegas was fun! i dont really miss that place, but i do really miss playing soccer. It brings back good memories. There is for sure a lot of memories about soccer. Its good though, here most preparation days we play soccer and one of our Zone leaders is from lone peak and played soccer, so that makes it a ton of fun. 

This week was a cold week. It didnt snow much more, it came down really soft for 2 or 3 days. It was pretty cold though! There was one day the high was 10. But neither one of us is frozen, so i guess it worked out! We had a lot of finding time this week. There were a few new people we found to teach. Most of them are going to be passed to the YSA Elders. We are going to wait to pass it for a little to make sure that they are solid though. The YSA elders are in West Richland and about 15 minutes away. The new people are both really cool though. One of them was even raised in the church. This week it has been hard to find our investigators home again. With all the weird weather their work schedules get changed up so they dont really know when we can come by. We did have a few good lessons this week. We finally found T-- again! he is the one that read all the Book of Mormon in a few days. He is still doing a lot of studying and he has started to pray to ask if it is true. So there is a lot of hope for him. We had the high priest group leader with us, he was a lot of help for the most part. He started talking and you could tell that he usually teaches people that have a lot of knowledge. He was explaining something and was talking about the doctrine and covenants and the pearl of great price then church history. I dont know if we had a weird look on our faces or something, but he looked at us as was like, oh well i guess you dont really know about all of these things we are talking about. But after that he simpled it down and it ended up being really good.

This week we had interviews with president. They are always good to have. This next week i am going to have to do 3 interviews for baptism and there are two ten year olds and a nine year old. So i got some council on how to do that. i havent done it with little kids so it will be interesting. This next week tuesday we have temple preparation day, then Wednesday we have a world wide missionary broadcast, then Thursday we have a district council then three interviews for baptism. So it is going to be a really weird week. 

Not a ton happened this week but it was a really good one. This weeks goal is to find and teach all of our investigators that we have right now. It is going to be a good week. I am excited for it!

Have a good time being back in Lehi! i am sure the warm weather is nice, but it cant last forever. i hope soccer went good! Good luck with everything this next week! I love you all!

Elder Mortensen

Not much of a picture. But it is a cool view off our balcony.

I Kept Speaking And Really Just Trusting That I Would Be Guided. It Came Out So Clear

Hello!  

Its good to hear from you all again! this week was a crazy one. With all the snow everything kinda shut down. Even church got canceled! i have never even hear of anything like that happening! It wasnt even bad here. So Sunday we ended up not going to church so we had our studies and we got out of the house and started walking into town. We couldnt use our cars either. The whole mission wasnt using cars that day. right past our apartment there is a Catholic church. the parking lot is in a little bit of a hole. So what we ended up doing for the next while was pushing cars out of the Catholic church parking lot! It was crazy!  throughout the day there were 3 or 4 other times we pushed some cars out of the snow. There was a lady that for some reason she was going up this big hill and wasnt going anywhere at all. so for like 10 minutes we were pushing her car up this hill. Later that night when i was calling the sisters they said that they talked to the lady we pushed up a big hill. It was really cool to see that we were recognized as missionaries all bundled up and that she was very grateful for the help. She wasnt so much interested in learning right now, but it is for sure a way to plant a seed. there were many different people that we talked to that day that the sisters already talked to and the other way around too. It just makes me think about why God might have that happen and who he is going to prepare for the future missionaries that come along. 

Like i said there was a lot of snow this week and it was pretty cold. For sure reason it seems like when people see us outside in the snow they would rather not open there door much to let the heat out and stick their head out and tell us to go find somewhere warm rather then just move to the side and let us in somewhere warm. So we weren't able to teach too many people this week. But at least it was fun to see what they would say that after they tell us to find somewhere warm when we ask if we can come in their warm house! it didnt work this week. But it will eventually i am sure.  

We did have a super awesome lesson with J-- M--. He is the MMA fighter. We taught part of the restoration over again and really explained the reason of the Book of Mormon. He understands it all but is kinda stubborn about already having been baptized into the 7th day Adventist church. We are going to keep going over a little and see if his heart will soften. If not, we have taught him the things that he knows and one day he will come to know that these things are true. The Spirit was for sure there. after that he gave us some soup and hot chocolate before we went hiking in the snow again. Elder Stevens being from Alabama is not a big fan of hiking in the snow, or really a fan at all of snow! but he did good and didnt fall this week! that was all last week. But we have both been able to stay warm.

We had a funny lesson with J--. He is a less active guy. It was good though! He had some very big questions. He was searching for things that at times are hard to understand and when we understand a little its hard to take in. His question was why are we really here on this earth. We talked about the easy stuff and it wasnt enough for him. So we taught about physical and spiritual death and how they are both overcome by christ. As i was sharing it came out a lot clearer that my thoughts. I didnt really know where my thought were going. But as i kept speaking and really just trusting that i would be guided, it came out so so clear. He sat back in his chair and was just like, Wow. It hit him really hard. He said that it would have to think about that one more, but that it makes sense to him. It was really cool to see how it all happened but funny to see how it hit him. 

Well that is a nice little wrap up of the week. Sorry i its not everything. But, if it was it would take way to long to write and it it was that long there would no one that would read the whole thing anyways! But i hope i did good enough ;)

Its good to hear about the week. I like the little side desk Jaxsen made. i remember when i was in that class i threw together a little stool out of some scrap wood, got the grade and decided it wasnt going to hold me for very long so i think that one didnt come home. So good job! this one came home! I hope the winter isnt to bad down there. i hope this next week goes great for all of you and that you all have a blast being back in school!! Good luck with everything! i love you all!

Elder Mortensen

This was me loving the snow and Elder Stevens not loving it to much.

Also a peek into mission life. trying to not fall asleep in your night prayers, but if you do, its all good because you are of a soft surface!

We Were Able To Be A Part Of Lots of Miracles

Hello!!

Its good to hear from you! It sounds like the last part of Christmas break went just as good as the first part! Thats awesome. This week was for sure a cool one for us. Well i guess first off, i dont know if i ever told you about T--. He was a referral from the sisters and he said that he would like to be baptized. He is super smart and i guess loves to read. When we visited him the second time we got talking and he read the Book of Mormon in 3 days! Now he is going back through and reading parts again. He is super awesome. The thing with him is he is very logical. He prays but says that he only likes to thank God for things, not to really ask him things. So a big part of the lesson was to help him understand who God really is to him. That he is he father and he loves him. That one things he wants from us is to come to him and even ask. We taught more about all of that and in the end he realized how important it is to ask for confirmation. We committed him to asking specifically if The Book of Mormon is true and if Joseph Smith really was called as a prophet. He is super awesome and we are really excited to keep teaching him. He Works part time for the Police station in Pasco and was working Saturday night and Sunday so he wasnt able to come to church. but he said he would like to. 

It was kinda a hard week to find a lot of people home. But we were able to see some miracles. There was one night where we didnt know where we should go. It was like 8. We pulled over and prayed and asked where we needed to go. We felt to go visit someone that lives out of town a little bit. He wasnt there so we walked around looking for people to talk to and houses to knock that still had lights on. We didnt really find anyone. We walked the whole neighborhood without much luck. When we were on our way back to the car there was this guy on the side of his house smoking. So we walked over there and talked to him. He actually wants to learn. He grew up with a lot of kids that went on missions and when he was in Jail he read in the Book of Mormon and asked us if he could have another one. We are going back to find him Friday with one of his buddies that he grew up with. 

Another night at about the same time, like 8:30, we were walking, things fell through and we decided to do the same things to find people to teach. The first door we knocked the guy opened up and told us to come in because its cold outside. It was really weird, it was hard to tell because he seemed to just fall in love with the idea of The Book of Mormon and really wants to read it. We taught him and his wife a little and a little after had to go. We walked out and just looked at each other and had no idea what just happened! it was awesome! We will be going by them this week also!  

One more! We had some time before dinner and we were walking around in the cold and we decided to go by this guy that said he was going to get baptized last time he talked to the missionaries but then he got to busy. So we were excited to find them again. They also told us it was too cold to have us walking around outside so they let us in. They ended up being really cool! They have been taking about starting to go to church but didnt really know what one to go to. They said they would read the Restoration pamphlet and R--, the one that was going to be baptized asked if we had another Book of Mormon so he could start reading it. She also said that she wants to read it too!! They also said they would come to church!  It was a great week! we were able to be a part of lots of miracles. Some little some big. It was awesome. 

That is kinda what happened this week i guess. A little different than your week, but both were good! We did get 5ish inches of snow here. They dont have many snow plows on the roads so we only went down one backwards. We started up and i was able to hit some dry parts here and there and the manholes and right at the top we just stopped and the tires spun. But we went backward a little and got the car facing the right direction and slid down the hill a little more. We stopped and decided it would be a good place to knock some doors. Then we talked to a super anti guy. But it all ended up working good. so we did a little bit of sledding also this week. i am jealous you all went skiing though! i saw jaxsen and almost thought it was me! almost same coat, the same skis and same boots. It was weird. For New years eve we got to celebrate by coming in early and planning!! yay! it was not to fun. but we finished fast and had some time to relax. So it was fun. I hope you all have a great week! happy new year! Good luck with all the fun things planned for this week! i love you all!

Elder Mortensen

When we have cool miracles we send them to the Zone Leaders and they send them to the Zone so everyone can continue to see the miracles that really are happening and gain more faith from it. So we decided we were going to have a little fun with it. So we came up with this and sent it to them. They got a kick out of it. 

Miracle From Heaven!

It was 8:30pm on a nice cold night,

The wind was blowing there's not even a light.

We started a prayin'

and one began sayin'

Please lead us to the elect,

Who will be the next suspect.

Then we found C--

He was in jail for a tad.

He read in the book, 

And now he will look,

Into the restoration,

And will find his salvation.

BAPTISM!!

#welovesmokerscuztheyarealwaysoutside!