Week Forty Two - New Companion

Sent: Wed 5/25/2011 9:50 AM

Hi Mom!

Everyone´s talking about the whirlwinds, sounds pretty crazy! There´s some sort of a holiday for winter coming up I think, but I don´t really pay very much attention.

This last week was nuts: I didn´t end up getting my companion until Thursday, and that made getting everything sorted out a challenge. Now we´re settled in though, and Elder Palmer is a great missionary, so things are going to start picking up steam really quick! He served in the US for a while but just got his visa now. It´s interesting, because he speaks well but is getting used to the way people talk here, and it makes me remember my first weeks on the mission. I feel like I´ve been here a long time, but I´m not even halfway yet! It´s crazy.

We´ve been teaching some really great people and I know we´ll find some more, and the members are actually giving us references! I´ve never had a ward that did that before! I know we´re going to help a lot of people in this area, and I can´t wait to see how these people progress as they learn more about the gospel. I know that this is the true church, and I know that the more we share it with people, the more they´ll want to know and the more we can bless their lives. Here we´re always trying to find new people, and if there´s time we work with part member families and those kinds of situations. We´re trying to work it all at once, but it´s an interesting juggle, at least.

I love you!!!!!! Have a great week!!!!!
Love, Eric



Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 9:58 AM

Hey Dad!

I´m good, just getting all settled in with the new companion. His name´s Elder Palmer, and he´s super chill, so we´ll do great, I know it. He´s an American, from St. George Utah.

As far as the weather, it´s cooling down here and it´s actually pretty cold in the morning. How cold, I´m not sure, and I´m sure it´s not actually cold, but I got used to the heat in the summer and it threw me off. But things are going well, and we´re all back and ready to go! I stayed in my area, and I´m still learning it but it´s going OK. At least I haven´t really gotten lost yet! You get a knack for those kind of things.

I had a pretty crazy experience last night: we hadn´t had the best day and we were going to get a reference from a member when some guy came up and started attacking us out of nowhere, saying we were condemning people and that Joseph Smith was the worst of all the false prophets and stuff. I didn´t act in the most mature way possible, and I regret that, but I don´t regret bearing my testimony that these things are true. Even if I can´t cite every scripture I want to, I know that it´s true, and even though I wanted to knock the guy out and yelled at him a little, I realized that that´s how strong my testimony is of all this. It´s true. I know it is. And nobody will take that from me.

Summer ball´s up and running then? Big group this year or no? Let me know how it all goes. Love you Dad!!!!! Love you!!!!!

Love, Eric