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

 

"The work is going strong and we are busy and happy and tired as ever, haha. Loving every minute of it!"

Weekly Email



Email picture we received from an awesome family in Gilbert!
Thanks for feeding our missionary!

Hey family, great to hear from ya, hope you all are doing well! Another great week in the books already. Time is going by too fast. This week was crazy weather wise, it rained for 3 days and was in the 50s, felt like winter in Georgia, sort of. It was the first rain here in months. This week had some awesomeee teaching. We almost got those 20 lessons we have been trying to reach. I think this week we can do it. We taught S----- and her family quite a bit. Trying our best to get them to church, they didn't make it this Sunday but we hope this week they can. Had some great lessons with them, mainly about the Plan of Salvation. (where we lived before this life, our purpose during this life and where we go after this life) We were super busy this week with several temple presentations. Those have been so awesome, great idea by the mission President. It gets the members excited to talk about the open house and has led to several referrals, and it gets nonmembers excited to see the temple when the time comes. We met with T--- twice this week, explained to him what family history is and how he can go to the temple for his family, it happened to be the lesson for priesthood as well. He and his wife are doing great. W----- his son had a surgery on his foot this week so we gave him a blessing before, and was able to facetime with him for a few minutes at T---'s house, I love that kid. J---- their daughter is also progressing, she will be in town most of this week so I'm sure we will be over there often teaching the family. We have a lesson tonight with J----, the Buddhist from Vietnam, which I am really excited for. It is a whole different teaching experience, it is really interesting. Last week we were able to show the temple presentation to 4 business partners of a member in our ward visiting from Malaysia. That was so awesome, they were the funniest and friendliest people. They left back for Malaysia this week so they won't be here for the open house unfortunately but that was an awesome experience. The wards here are so nice to us, we have had probably 10 people call us and insist we come over for Thanksgiving, haha. (makes Mama happy!) It's a normal day for us so we will be eating one dinner then be out as normal for the rest of the day. We had a great lesson with Brother H----- this week, the guy who taught us how to play 'I am a Child of God' on the guitar. (first we heard of the guitar playing) He really is awesome, he is so open with us I already have seen his faith  and testimony grow. I think his testimony is stronger than he thinks it is. We had a member of the seventy, Elder Porter come spreak to us this week for a mission tour, that was really neat. He spoke on the gospel of Christ and how simple it is if you look at it one way but how deep and complex it is if you look at it in a another way. It was interesting for sure. We were able to pick up two new investigators this week, man they have the most interesting story (they are descendants of Heber C Kimball, but their relatives moved to Brazil to get away from the church but they arent sure why, and are really interested in learning more, and they speak Portuguese!). Awesome people. Their son, who is 11, was baptized about a year ago. Anyways, the work is going strong and we are busy and happy and tired as ever, haha. Loving every minute of it!

Love you guys!

Nate

ps. finally got my hands on some boiled peanuts the other day, haha (boiled peanuts in AZ!?!?!)    

 

Weekly Email

 

T---'s baptism!!!

Man this week was awesome!!! So many miracles happened. T---'s baptism was this week, as you guys know. It went amazing, the ward supported it better than we could have imagined (they are an awesome ward, feels like a family). The Spirit was super strong, and there were some nonmembers that attended including T---'s nephew and his girlfriend. I had the opportunity to baptize T---, man that was quite the experience, hard to describe. I felt so happy for him and his family, so excited for what is next for him, and the Spirit was so strong you, could cut it with a knife. He is going to be a friend for life, for sure. I can't wait until the day when you can meet him. My new companion is Elder Ault, he is from Pittsburg, but he was born in Taiwan. He speaks fluent Chinese, which is so cool. I have had him speak it to me and man it sounds like an alien language, crazy. He has been out 9 months. A very quiet guy but hard working. This transfer will be awesome with him. We are still living with Elder Whitecar and Wilson, they are great elders, really funny too. We had the experience of teaching a guy named J---- this week who was Buddhist. We helped him out moving some furniture in his driveway then he invited us back, turned out he has just moved from Vietnam not too long ago, his English is really good considering. He didn't know what the Bible is or who Jesus Christ is or anything, so we taught from the start like you do with kids. He loved it all. He said his first prayer in the lesson and he said, 'why do i feel happy?' well, we can tell you, haha! I can't wait to meet with him again. We had a great lesson with S----- and her family. It happened to also be about prayer. M------, the son, said his first prayer and he really lit up, so did his mom S-----. It was the first lesson with them that we knew for sure that they all felt the Spirit, we have high hopes for them. I can't imagine going through life without prayer, seeing people experience it for the first time definitely has given me perspective. It is such a blessing. We have been crazy busy this week showing our quick Temple presentation to members of the ward. It has been pretty successful, at the very least we get to know the members but they are really getting excited about missionary work and the Temple. It's awesome to be a part of.

Love you guys!!! Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Mountain

 

S----- and family.

Sharing a message with Yoda :)

 

Looks like a great bunch of missionaries!

Elder Mountain loves this family!

 

 

Baptisms!!!

Weekly Email



J---'s baptism day.

How are you guys? Happy bday Pa!!! I hope you had a great day yesterday!
It has been an amazing week, best so far. We had two baptisms on Saturday, which was so awesome. A missionary's payday. A----, the 8 year old whose mother is a nonmember that we have been teaching, was baptized. He is so smart for his age. I loved teaching him, I hope I have the opportunity to teach children more. They just soak up everything like a sponge. J---- was also baptized, who we taught in the beginning of the transfer for 3 weeks or so. He was transitioned into his home ward, and the missionaries in that ward finished up the teaching. He really loves the church, his parents who both are not members talked on and on about all of the positive changes that is has brought into their families life. Great people. The baptisms went super nice, as they all do. T--- is super pumped for his baptism, he surprised us in a lesson this week and through his coffee maker in the trash, now that was an awesome moment. That's T--- for you. He wakes up at 2am every day to work and has drank his coffee for 20 years but just gave it up like that. His faith really is amazing. I feel like I learn so much when we talk. You guys have got to meet him and his family one day. We told him that day that he needs to decide who preforms the baptism and gives the talks and all. So this week while we were doing some service he gave us a call and he asked me to baptize him. Man I can't describe how that felt. Some one wants me to baptize them, its so humbling. I was so excited and anxious and humbled, all at the same time. He is so amazing. We had so many great experiences this week. We have been visiting the P------ family often. They are grandparents that take care of their two grand kids, and their son (the dad) is starting to turn things around in his life to be a part of their lives. We stopped by one night and the whole family was home including the dad J----. We shared a quick thought for the kids (they are 9 and 4), then the dad J---- asked on our way out if I could give him a blessing with Elder Davis. It was the first blessing I had given out in the field. I was really nervous but that was the most spiritual moment I have had, it was very touching. I felt so much love for the guy and the love the Lord has for him. I have really grown close to that family. Oh transfers, I completely forgot. I am staying in the area but Elder Davis is heading somewhere else. I am so happy that I am staying here I absolutely love these two wards but it's sad to see Elder Davis go, I hope the best for him. I'll find out on Wednesday who my companion will be. I think it's gonna be another VISA waiter, it's exciting. It's been such an awesome week. I am having the time of my life for sure!
love you guys! Happy bday Pa!

Love,

Elder Mountain

 

 

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."