Ready for Christmas and another investigator on date!

Weekly Email

Ready for Christmas! Love that he is wearing his late Grandpa Hutchens Christmas tie :)

How is everyone? It's been a great week. Transfer calls were last night Elder Ault and I are staying together for another transfer and are keeping the same wards. Only two people in the whole zone are getting transferred so things are staying the same for the most part. Glad you guys got Skype set up, we have had a bunch of members offer to have over for calls not sure on the exact time though, will let you know next Monday for sure. This week we had some great teaching. We had a good lesson with D--, brother Malupo was able to come. Brother Malupo is awesome, he is from Tonga and was a Stake President there. He is so smart with the scriptures and has an amazing testimony, reminds me a lot of President Wood. D-- has a hard time with accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet but he accepted the challenge to read out of the Book of Mormon daily. We are excited for him, great guy. We had an awesome lesson with E--- at the Murphy's. He is on date for the 21st! He is facing a lot of trials at the moment, his wife left him because he is getting baptized but he feels that it is more than worth it. His faith really is an example to me. Brother Murphy is so awesome too, probably the best member missionary in either of our wards and he speaks Portuguese, haha, so I am able to freshen up when we go over. We went over there to talk about E--- and he gave us these awesome charts that he made on his mission to explain the apostasy and other things. T--- is doing great, we are going to the Mesa Temple Christmas lights on Friday with his family. I can't wait for you guys to get to know him and his amazing family. We had a super lesson with K-- this week, the Lutheran. Elder Vanderpool, the housing coordinator for the mission, was able to come. He is a convert, so he was able to explain to K-- the apostasy really well and how he gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She totally would be baptized if her husband would let her.  
Can't wait to talk to you guys on Christmas!!! 
Love you guys!!!

Love,

Nate 

Someone was at the Stake Center giving the elders haircuts so his is super short again!

"We played archery tag in the gym, it was so fun! It's like paintball with a bow and arrow."
A little p-day fun!

Stake Conference and getting ready for Christmas!

Weekly Email

How is everyone in the family doing? This week has been great, very busy. A member brought us a real Christmas tree, as you can see from the pictures. I can't believe it is that time already. I got the Christmas package this week, thanks so much for all of the gifts. Christmas will be an awesome day. We had some great teaching opportunities this week. We were able to contact a media referral named M---, and taught him the restoration. It went well but he is headed out of town for the holiday so it'll be some time before we can see him again. We have met quite a bit this week with the 
C---'s, a part member family, found out the dad's concern from being baptized is that he doesn't know if Joseph Smith is a prophet. That will be easy to solve once we can get him to read the Book of Mormon. They are a really nice family, the wife speaks Portuguese too. T--- is awesome as always, getting things lined up to get the Priesthood in the next week or so. He has been really busy lately working full time and being in school, I admire his hard work. Stake Conference was this week, it was really great. President Nattress and his wife both spoke, it's always great to hear from him. We helped quite a bit with the set up for conference. The stake is massive, so they had it broadcasted to all of the buildings around so everyone can attend. One of the people we have been teaching, G---, has the calling of Stake technology specialist. He is the guy who teaches us guitar on p-days. We have been going through the lessons with him because he wants a stronger testimony before he goes through the temple. He is an awesome guy, between helping him out with the media stuff, teaching him, or him is teaching us on p-day, we see him really often. The pictures of the garden and yard are of the Schoenburg's. They are an older couple in our ward that we help out about once a week. Brother Schoenburg is recovering from a broken ankle and they have a huge yard so there is always something to do. We have still been doing several temple presentations, more and more with nonmembers. It's such an awesome finding tool. Transfer calls are already less than a week away, which blows my mind, can't believe it. I really hope I don't leave the area. We have a lot of potential for next week, a few appointments with potentials that could hopefully turn out really well. I forgot the Christmas tie so I'll get a picture this week with it some time. (a request from mom for our family Christmas photo card) It's been really cold here believe it or not, in the 40's. Didn't know it got this cold here. It's nice compared to the summer but can be a bit chilly on bikes, haha. Another awesome thing about AZ is there are orange trees here literally everywhere and right now they are all ripe so I have had more oranges than I ever had before, they are so good, haha. Love and miss you guys!!!! Take Care

Love

Elder Mountain

View from handlebars of bike.

Yard where he does lots of service. Beautiful!

4 Thanksgiving dinners for our missionary :)

Weekly Email

Elder Nate Mountain and companion, Elder Ault

Hey family how is everyone doing? This week has been awesome. The members here spoiled us for Thanksgiving, we had four dinners, haha, and they all sent us home with some more food. It was some good stuff. One of the dinners we had was with the Vanderpool's, the housing coordinators for the mission, we are over there quite a bit helping them out. They had 9 of their 11 kids there and a million grandkids running around. It felt just like a Hutchens Thanksgiving, haha. They are some great people, really have loved getting to know them. Elder Vanderpool was a carpenter for his occupation, reminds me a lot of Pa. (Dad) We also had a Hispanic and a Samoan Thanksgiving, that was sure interesting but delicious. We had some great teaching experiences this week. Had a good second lesson with J----, the Buddhist. It's all so new to him but he says he loves the way he feels when he prays to Heavenly Father and he wants more of that. Next step will be getting him to church. We hope to take him to a church tour on Tuesday. We picked up an investigator named S-----, we helped her put up christmas lights and she invited us back on Wednesday, we really hope that goes well. We also have a return appointment with a guy named M---, who we met two weeks ago but was going out of town, so it's a big week, could lead to a lot of success, we are super excited. We are still doing quite a bit of the Temple presentations to the members, getting them excited about inviting their friends. It has been great and we are starting to see the results. Last night a family in one of our wards invited us over to show the presentation to one of their friends from work. Turns out their friend has already read the Book of Mormon twice and wants to start the lessons this week, talk about a golden referral. He knows that it's true already and all we have to do is fill in the details. This week we had a great lesson with K--, who is Lutheran. We went over to show her the temple presentation but ended up being there an hour and a half answering her questions and concerns. We had a 17 year old priest with us who was baptized about a year ago, he bore an amazing testimony. It was amazing how everything worked out in that lesson, ended up finding out what her concern for being baptized is, now we just have to work on that. T--- is doing great, he missed church because his family caught the throw up bug, no fun at all. Hope they are feeling better. Earlier in the week we met with him with the Thompson's, the senior couple in the zone who is in charge of family history and they set up a family search account and taught about family history. It's been a packed week. Time seriously needs to slow down its can't be December already, it's crazy. Love and miss you guys!!!! Feel better Ma, you're in my prayers.

Love

Elder Mountain

Elder Mountain with a fellow missionary and roommate, Elder Whitecar