August 25, 2014

Ivonne did not show up to Church yesterday it was a sad day. The heat index was 110 which was not fun. It is going to get hotter this week but I think by the end of the week it will start to cool off. August is always the hottest month here.

Yes the Hansen’s are the missionary couple that has been assigned here and they are the best. The Branch really needs them but they will leave in October.  We are losing 2 other senior couples this will really hurt the work here. Pray we get more senior couples.

The branch is starting to trust us more we are really putting our focus on member trust. The branch Pres. is one of the best he really goes out of his way to help us. He is going to get a spot for us at the county fair so we can run a booth at the fair. The whole county will be there... and our branch covers the whole county. The Sisters and us will be making a booth and running it.  We hope we will be able to contact a lot of people we wouldn’t be able to on bikes. We are working hard and hoping that it will start to pay off soon.

August 18, 2014

So I am doing good.... very hot week. We walked most of the week and had a lot of unexpected... complications. Evonne one of our investigators who was going to get baptized this Saturday was not able to come to church because one of the people she cares for died... that morning and she got out of the hospital 10 minutes before church ended. But we are going to see if we can baptize her on Sunday now.

We have been walking all week this week in the nice hot sun. But as they say the weekend comes. We had a baptism in the branch my companion got to baptize in a natural spring called Kirkwood in Havana which was something that I have never seen done before so it was cool. Not to mention the lady that got baptized was a super nice person and helps the sisters all the time.

We are starting to teach a lady that is 82 and her husband who is almost 90 and is a world war 2 vet (he helped in the pacific, The picture that the marines are raising the flag.) We got her to come to church and we are going to be teaching them with the senior couple that is working here the Hansens. They help us out a ton. I am not sure what we would do without them.

Elder Butler and I get along great. We are very different but I feel that we do well together. Hopefully I am teaching him how to be a good missionary. I told him the other day that if there was one thing that I could teach him it was that he needs to enjoy his mission it is not meant to be 2 years of misery.

For the most part life is pretty normal here the work of the lord goes on in his southern vineyard. Love ya’ll

Aug. 11, 2014

Thank y’all so much for the mail. Mom I am guessing you told people to write me because I actually got some emails from my sisters this week which was nice. I am doing well. The work here is hard. There may be a lot of Hispanics but there is not really any new water for us to go and find unless we drive for 30 minutes to go to one of the other cities. Our area is the whole county. So that makes it kind of hard. But we are working with it and trying to really kick start home teaching in the branch here. (Ask dad) The apartment is improving we are working really hard to improve what we have and make it a nicer living space. From when I came it has changed a lot I put in an order with my good Friend Elder Bowling he is one of the senior Elders in the office and he got us some more stuff. I am doing well and want to thank you so much for the letters, pictures and package. Sorry I don't have much time but I will write back in letter form. Love ya.

Aug, 4, 2014

Yes so I am in Danville, Arkansas the smallest city in the mission. Population 2,300. We are up next to the boarder of the mission near the Ozarks. Just south West of Russellville (That is where they have a nuclear reactor). The area is really big it takes up the whole county for just a small branch of about 40ish active people. Mostly Hispanic live in the area here because of the Tyson chicken plant which is close by and employs so many. Our apartment is something like nothing else. We now pay for laundry and don't have a dish washer but we do have a heater in the bathroom which is cool. Elder Butler is My companion. He was born in Texas but moved to Mexico when he was really young and lived there for 6 years. Then moved to Utah and did most of his growing up in the Salem area. He is 20 and was at BYU before he left for his mission. (Elder Butler had his spine fused after high school. He had to wait for that to heal up before he was allowed out on his mission) He has been in the mission for one transfer. Elder Henderson My MTC companion was the one that trained him. He is a good Guy and I feel he will do well on his mission and we will get along great.

That is the big update on what is going on here. I am doing well still getting use to not having a Walmart but we do have a Sonic! We are pretty progressive here in our small community.

 Love y’all