Teaching & Service

Weekly Email


Rae looked at this picture when he sent it via email and said, "He looks soooooo happy!" I told Nate and he replied, "Haha, yeah, missionary work is awesome!!!!"

Hey family how are you guys? Looks like you guys had fun on Halloween! The costumes look awesome. As you would imagine, our Halloween was a little different. The first half of the day we had a mission wide meeting with the mission president to receive more training about presenting the temple to members and their friends, then in the evening our zone went over to the high councilman's house, who is over missionary work for the stake, to eat dinner and then watch a movie called Ephraim's Rescue. The movie was about the same story as 17 Miracles but from a different person's point of view, it was super good. Great movie, probably one of the only ones I will see on the mission, haha. It was the high councilman's wife who sent you a picture of our zone. (She also sent the sweetest text concerning Nate: "Your son is extra special. He is seriously the most amazing missionary. He has many special gifts. You should feel very blessed to have him for your son. The whole ward loves him." What a gift to receive such kind words from a complete stranger.)  This week was awesome, got a lot of teaching in. Still striving for the 21 lessons but we are getting closer. T--- and A---- and their family are doing great. T--- is super ready to be baptized, the last lesson we had with them we went over the baptismal interview questions and he knocked them out of the park, haha. A--- bought him his own set of scriptures this week as well, which was super nice. She is doing really well, she met with the bishop this sunday. It's so easy to see the changes just by looking at them in their eyes, the Spirit is just radiating from them. We are over there teaching really often, we taught 4 times this week, I love it. We had two good lessons with C-----, who has a son who just left on a mission to Chile. Last lesson we read 3 Nephi 11 with him and it was pretty powerful. We weren't able to get S----- and her family to church but we have had lessons with them, fellowship is going to be the key I think. We had the opportunity to do a lot of service this week, which I love to do, nice to get dirty, haha. For Sis S--------- we built a path out of pavers by this irrigation canal/creek thing. I felt like I was back at the creek with Ali, Rae and Solo, haha. (We have a creek in our woods and Nate spent many days playing with the kiddos down there :) We also do quite a bit with Elder and Sister Vanderpool, who are the housing coordinators and live in our ward. They always have some couches and chairs and stuff that need to be moved. Elder Vanderpool reminds me a lot of Pa (Dad), was a carpenter his whole life as well, and the things he says. Transfers are coming up again already. I'm really curious as to what will happen. The slim chance that I get my visa before transfers or if I or Elder Davis may be moved into a new area, we will see. I hope I stay in these wards if my visa doesn't come, I love love love these wards and the people we are teaching. The wards we cover make us feel like we are a part of the ward. I have been amazed of how open people are with missionaries. We just are 19 year old kids haha, but they open up about everything, their life, their hardships, their testimony. It's very humbling. Time is flying by, I can't believe its week 6 of the transfer already.  love you guys!!!!

 love

Elder Mountain

 

Included in his email to me (Deb): "The week was awesome, great teaching. T--- is so excited to be baptized. There really is no greater joy than seeing people change because of the gospel. You can see it in their eyes. The Spirit just pours from them, it's amazing. Teaching T--- alone would make these 2 years worth it."