We Know That We Were Blessed Like That Because Of The Faith He Had and For Sure The Fast

Hello!!!

Glad to hear that you are all doing great! Good to hear that you had a good break for Christmas and New Years! Now Jaxsen and Ali get to have the best part of the Break! Going back to school, lucky you. i bet you had a fun time doing all of your home work on Sunday night, because i am sure that is what happened. Haha i had a little laugh when you talked about the Gay Christmas party, i haven't heard that one here for a while know. (Note from Lauri:  my maiden name is Gay!)  But i am sure it was fun, it always is.

Its weird to think that Brianne is coming home in like less than a month! I am not going to see her but i am still excited. I am sad that i am going to miss all of the stories that she shares because when brayden came home that is what i remember. Its so weird that by that time, i will be 6 months out, it really dosnt feel like that at all! it goes way to fast.

The work has all been great. The walking around is starting to get cold though. We stay warm. by we i mean me because there is almost no hope for Elder Laffiteau to stay warm. Last night i decided to wear more jackets and the one night i do that we knock on these members house. They are from Tonga and gave us Tongan coco. It was funny, the father speaks good English but lots of the words arent right but it makes sense. He was telling us how they got a bowl and smashed the coco beans with a rock. Its doesnt really seem weird now but when he was saying it i couldnt help but laugh. i didnt laugh to much because i didnt want him to smash me. he is like 6' 5" and just massive. New Years was good. we had to come home at 6 again and plan. we just kinda had a little party. A little before 10:30 we pretended it was 12 and yelled happy New Years and drank a bottle of cyder and went to bed. Its was a fun night.

Our investigator that we are really focusing on right now is D--. She is still progressing. She is reading and praying and gets a lot out of what she reads. She wasnt able to come to church because people here dont drive in the snow. Even if there was only a half inch in the morning and the meeting was at 6 at night, it still scared all of them. its to bad becuse it is an easy excuse for them all. but its alright, we love them all anyways. We are also teaching a father that his 5 daughters go to church and all that are old enough are baptized. they are an awesome family. He has 5 daughters and they are willing to come out with us when there is a young woman investigator. even though they are like 2 year converts they love this gospel so much. He, A--, is going to be baptized eventually for sure.

This fast Sunday my testimony of Fasting really was strengthened. We were fasting to have more new investigators in this month and that our faith to find would get stronger and stronger. Today we found 3 new investigators. 1 from knocking doors and 2 more from potentials that we were inspired to go visit. that was 7 new investigators this week. We were truly blessed. we know that we were blessed like that because of the faith he had and for sure the fast. it was so awesome. it also ended with an amazing pork roast with some members.

it was a great week. I love you all!

Elder Mortensen

As We Pray To Be Guided And What To Say, We Are Always Helped

Hello! 

this week was another awesome week! Its was for sure different than all of the other ones because of Christmas, but it was an awesome week. Christmas as a missionary is so different! its awesome to have all your focus on others and Christ and trying to bring Christ into the life of the people that dont know him how he really is. this week we haven't had a lot of finding. Elder Maynes promised our mission that as we do 4-5 hours of finding a day, that our success will go up so much. Not just our numbers but we will also become more of the missionary that the lord wants us to become. That is the kind of missionary that i want to be myself. i want what the lord wants and needs me to be to be able to help him in this part of the world with all of our brothers and sisters that are being prepared to have this gospel in their lives. I have been really strengthening my faith in every way. There is a quote that to have faith in the lord we have to have faith in his timing. Its is one thing to say that you have faith but another thing to really not slow down and work harder and harder and better and better even when you arent able to see anything come from it. As a companionship we are trying to really always find with faith. As we pray to be guided and what to say, we are always helped.

This Sunday we were trying to get D-- to come to the Sacrament in Umitilla. We were texting her and she said that she will try if she is able to get off work. We stopped and said a prayer for her and as we finished we got a text that said she just got of f work. Elder Laffiteau said that we need to promise her a blessing of coming to church. We promised her that as she came to church she will feel that spirit and it will help her out through the week. she said that she was coming! At that meeting there were two talks that were amazing and really just what she needed to hear about how the lord will always answer us and how she is going to be able to find an answer to her prayers. Its was an awesome day and a perfect meeting for her to come to. She is preparing to be baptized in just a few weeks!

Christmas eve and Christmas day were fun. we spent a lot of time cooking then giving out 70 cookies to our investigators and some members! it was awesome! We got fed also when we went to the members houses. lots of Mexican food and mostly tamales! Christmas night me and the other elders in our apartment watched a Christmas Movie made by the church and they slept on our floor just for good memories. i was good for it because i was still on a bed!!

Lehi looks like a lot of fun. i am glad that christmas was great. i am jealous of the snow and of the skiing but its alright i guess. it is snowing here! we have a solid 1" on the cars!

I love you all!! Merry late Christmas and happy New Years!!

and pictures!! 

first the week started out with a fun cold morning with 3 actual tires and a toy one.

This is the L-- and G-- family. they are awesome members. The L-- are on the right, he is the 
Spanish group leader and a convert of almost a year. the others are converts of 5 years and 
have a goal to become completely active and go to the temple!! We ate there as well.

This is me having a fun time in the bishops toy room waiting for elder laffiteau to finish his call on christmas day!

Christmas Skype

We were able to skype with Josh on Christmas Day! He was at the bishops house when we skyped with him. It was the best part of Christmas--and also talking to his sister Brianne in the Philippines.  Josh was so happy.  When we first saw his face on skype he was wearing the reindeer glass I sent him.  It was so great to talk to him.  Christmas Eve he spent with the three other missionaries in his apartment making cookies for investigators and less actives.  They passed them out on Christmas Day. Josh truly loves being a missionary and is having amazing experiences.  We ended our skype session with Brad saying a family prayer.  The spirit was super strong as we knelt--part of us in Lehi and Josh in Washington.

Christmas call with Josh's sister Brianne, who is serving a mission in the Philippines,

It Was An Amazing Experience To Follow The Spirit And Be Guided To Talk To So Many People And Find New Investigators

Hello!! 

Thanks for eventually telling me what happened to Brianne. (She was in a Category 3 typhoon with winds from 130-160 mph while on her mission in the Philippines).  Its good that she is safe and doing good. that has to be such a awesome experience at least all the service to help those people that need it after wards. I dont think that i will have a time to do something like that which i guess might be a good thing. But ya Merry Christmas!! I am excited to Skype It will be awesome.

This week one of my favorite things that we have been doing was to pray when we get in the car to ask every time where we should go. If we should follow our plans or if we feel something else. This week one day started off great. we felt like we should go to a little trailer park in a little town. We were walking around and knocked a few doors, but didnt even talk to any one. we walked around a corner and there was someone out side. we talked to him and he was interested! we had a lesson about the Book of Mormon and the restoration. He told us to come back too!  we talked to a lot of people that day. It was about 7:30 and we were not knowing where to go for sure. we had a few plans though. we had Ma-- or the Mo- familys. we prayed and felt like to visit the Ma-- because he is an investigator and we need to take care of the people we do have before we we look for more. We went by and no one was home. At first the thought was why would we feel prompted to come here?? as we drove away the story came to my head from general conference. it was from a while ago, Its was about the father and a son that were driving down a long dirt road. they were running out of gas so they had to turn and go back. They came to a fork in the road that they didnt remember. they prayed and felt they should go to the right. they drove a little and the road ended. The son asked the dad why we would feel to go this way if it was wrong. so they went back and went left. They drove a little more and the father had the thought and told his son, that they were told to go left because if they went right they would have been driving for a long time with not knowing if it was right for sure. They were directed so they knew for sure. as i told Elder Laffiteau this story in the middle he pulled off the side of the road. at the end he didnt say anything just put it in drive and we were off to the Mo--s. We got there and no one was there also! we both had the faith that we were there for a reason. we parked there and went knocking doors. the first 5 doors we knocked we talked to and got to share a little about Christ. We were one the 4th door and a truck drove past two houses down.  we knocked on the next house but they didnt answer. as we walked to the next house the guy got out of his truck to smoke. He talked to us and was needing someone to talk to. we had an awesome lesson with him. His father died a few months ago and it was still hard for him. He said that he would Read and pray and really try to know if this is true. He said thanks and that we should come back. We finished and it was 9 and time to go home. It was an amazing experience to follow the spirit and be guided to talk to so many people and find new investigators. It was good to see miracles happen in the very first and the very last parts of the day.

One other good experience was something that i wasnt really wanting at first. Saturday night we got a call from the ward mission leader and said Brother Larsen is needing some help with speakers today... in the Umitilla group. that group is a little group that meets together sunday nights at 6 so the Hispanics that work can still make it to a sacrament. so it was in Spanish and of course we had to do it. They day was busy and it was 4:30 and we had to eat and prepare a talk. i prepared for like 5 minutes. i luckily dont get stressed so it was all good. I was a little nervous at first just because of spanish. It ended up being super good. i saw that as i put all my faith in the lord he made it no problem for my spanish. i talked about how this time of the year is especially important to remember the lord and why he came here, to establish his church. i talked about the restoration and why its important to gain a testimony and how we can. The spanish just worked in that night. It was a miracle!! it felt like 3 minutes though. but somehow it was more then 10!! i was happy after that. after we were putting up chairs this spanish guy came up to talk to me and the spanish was luckily still working. he said thanks for the talk and we talked for a while.

This was an awesome week. that is some of my favorite parts for sure. love you all so much!

Elder Mortensen

p.s. dont worry we are feeling the christmas spirit with like 6 boxes of lights everywhere in our house!!  it is brighter now with those lights than it was with the normal ones before.  We have lots of treats too and the usual never ending supply of chips.  also don't worry, that is not my mess.  one of the elders is not so clean though.  

As We Have Kept The Faith And The Expectation To Find, We Have Been Blessed

Hello! 

It sounds like you all have had a great week back at home. Good thing that Jaxsen is still smiling after getting beat by a girl in soccer, but i guess thats alright. I didnt realize Grandma and Grandpa were finishing their mission already! i guess it has been a while though. It is so awesome to know that in this family we serve missions. We have lots of good examples to look to. I haven't had to many of the traditional Christmas foods yet, but i am sure it will come. We already have some plans for Christmas! We are going to the Bishops house to Skype someone, i dont know who yet. I think that i get to choose. But they also said that we could have dinner with them and their inlaws. Its will be awesome. we dont get to do really much missionary work that day which is weird, but it will be good. so i will get to Skype that day. what time works best for you? i at least dont want to mess up with talking with Brianne. also my time to do it might be easier to change around. so just let me know next week i guess. also your skype name or what all i need to find you guys.

This week President Ware challenged us to find a new investigator everyday. That is a hard goal for everyone. This week we got the numbers back and with 69 companionship's we were able to find more than 230 new investigators. For us we found more than we have any other week. We were focusing on the faith to find people. I have found as i have tried to have more faith and prayed for help, the Lord has blessed me with faith and us becoming closer to our goals. We have had the faith to find new investigators and that has been so helpful. We didn't find everyday but it was so many more than usual. We realized it doesn't matter how hard you work if you don't go around with faith. It really all comes down to faith. We have also focused on every direction that we go it is not just routine but inspired by the spirit. Its amazing to see how many blessings and really miracles we have seen because of that. This week i think that most of the investigators we found were between 8:30 and going home at 9. as we have kept that faith and the expectation to find, we have been blessed.

K-- came to church again but had to leave after 1 hour. she is awesome and has been praying everyday and reading more and more. Its makes me think of how little i really did when i was young and how much they are doing. There is a reason that converts are awesome. This sunday morning we were in a meeting and we were told that the teacher in spanish gospel principals wasnt going to be there. Because we are missionaries and they expect we can do a good job, us and the sister missionaries were told to teach. we were a little nervous until we looked what the topic was and it was missionary work. That wasnt to hard to talk about. especially because we asked at the beginning of class who all in here is a convert to the church. everyone raised their hands except 2, only because they are investigators. It was so cool to see the amazing people that are the fruits of these missionaries in this mission. it was easy to teach because they all have a strong testimony's about missionary work because all of them have been involved. they are awesome to take with us to lessons also. they know how the investigators feel and know what they need to do to change.

it was a awesome week like always but it is going way to fast!! i do have some a picture. you are welcome. we also ate with the Wrathalls, that is who you got the picture from. They have a missionary gone right now also. they actually got a picture when we were there from a mom from his area. they looked at it and all freaked out that he was gaining weight. I hope that wasnt how it was for you all! i did get the 12 days of Christmas package. i will have to send a picture because today we are decorating our front room and it is crazy. this is my favorite picture. we parked in the dark and this sign was there! its pretty easy to find the Hispanics sometimes! the best part is we went back the next day when we could see, there isnt even a fence!! just a random gate. We laughed for a while. love you all thanks for the letter!

Elder Mortensen

Elder Mortensen's Favorite Picture From The Week!
(Note from Mom:  I told Josh that as much as I loved all of his very
random pictures, I would really love a picture with him in it!!!)

Surprise Text

Sunday night we received a surprise text from a family in Josh's mission area.

The text said, "We have your son here for dinner.  He's doing great!  He says hi!


I love to get texts with pictures of my son's smiling face!

Like Your Experieces, I Know That The Priesthood Works And That People Really Are Watached Over From The Powers Of Heaven

HELLO!!!! 

you week sounds awesome. i was actually thinking about the live nativity this week. i always knew that dad would be a perfect fit for the wise guy. hes been playing it his whole life. but at the Seventh day Adventist church here in town they have the same kinda thing. One of the members said that they went through it and it was a cool experience but there wasnt much of a spirit there until a little at the end. I was thinking of the one the Larsen's do and how amazing that has been to go and help out with the last few years. its good to always have the real Christmas spirit around all of the commercialized crazy Christmas. That is one thing that is already making this Christmas different. Something that is really cool is President challenged all of us to read the 4 Gospels is Matteau (i don't think that is spelled right, i know how in Spanish but English is hard), Mark, Luke and John. It has been amazing to learn and read  more about the life of Jesus Christ. it has been something that i do as part of personal study everyday. i have also been reading the talks from General conference everyday since i got them. i have read like 20 of them and how great a blessing that is. Its been so amazing to find more help and comfort through those. We have also been able to teach lots of lessons and help answer questions by those talks. i know how inspired those are, they are so amazing.

This Week has been awesome. We got a area change so we have a big part of the Sisters area now as ours. they gave us some amazing people to start working with. We have been in that area 2 times now and have a lot of potentials that want us to come back. One awesome experience was we were coming into town a little early than our plans so we decided to just go tracting for like 10 minutes. We knocked on this door that we for sure were guided to, and a guy opened up and talked to us. he said that about 2 years ago he talked to missionaries and he even went to church a few times. He was glad to see us and wanted to keep learning about our church because he just said that it made him curious. We had an awesome lesson about the restoration. he just moved in 5 days ago. That was a awesome blessing for him and for us to find him so fast. we went to help him move a washer and dryer so that was awesome and i only smashed my finger a few times. He says that he sometime reads the Book of Mormon still! its always a blessing to find those people who are being prepared to have the gospel in their lives. Also This week we were talking to sister G-- and she said she has been sick and had a head ache for like 3 weeks. she says she thinks that it is because of stress because her oldest son might have lung cancer and is not doing well at all. we gave her a blessing of healing that she could be feeling better and that her loved ones would as well. the next day she told me that during the blessing she knew that she was going to be better because she had the faith that the blessing will work. later that day she told us to come over and she said that her sons results came back and he doesnt have cancer! also that now he is healthy and feeling great. He is now getting married in 2 weeks. She just told us thanks and said that this is the first day that she has felt good for a few weeks. Like your experiences i know that the priesthood works and that people really are watched over from the powers of heaven. That was the biggest blessing this week for sure.

This week was transfers and we meet at the church here in hermiston with all the people that were going up to the transfer site. it snowed that morning. It was to bad that the church parking lot didnt get its best use but it did provide for a big snowball fight. it was a lot of fun. He have a new elder in our house. his name is Elder Johnson. We all get along really well and its ben fun. we also got a new zone leader, our district leader and a new sister. its good to still be here in hermiston. I saw the best snow sculpture i have every seen! i didnt think it was real until 3 days later when it was half melted because it blew my mind. i did get a picture. good news we did get a Christmas tree from the other elders. they got us some awesome presents also. i already have been using them. I got my pen, my shoes, my pillow, and my planner. it has been a awesome Christmas already!

Thanks for writing again. i love you all!

Elder Mortensen