Elder Jon Daniel: 2-24-14

Hey my awesome family and friends,

I hope everyone is doing well
Not too much has happened since the last time I emailed you on Wednesday. We had two exchanges this week. One with one of my zone leaders, Elder Lloyd, because Elder Jacobsen is the district leader and they go on exchanges with all the district leaders once a transfer so they can do amps, which is just a report on how all the missionaries in the zone are progressing. And I went on one with Elder Wilkinson again because Elder Jacobsen is the district leader and has to go on exchanges with all the elders in the district once a transfer so he can see how they are progressing so has something to tell the zone leaders when amps come around. They were both fun exchanges, I learned a lot, had some fun, and talked to a ton of people. This time most of the contacts we had were super solid, but we had to refer them to others missionaries in different areas because they weren't from Murrieta. One of the guys we talked to on the street, Florentino, a Hispanic gentleman driving a big work truck, super humble guy, and super prepared to hear the gospel, we gave him a Book of Mormon and we had to refer him to some elders in LA because he was just there for the day working. We told him he could start reading the book in the car when he was stuck in traffic because he had a very long commute back to Los Angeles on the 15.

We get to go to the San Diego temple on Friday and we also had our zone activity today. We had our zone activity and Brother Mattson's house. And his house isn’t just any old' house, it’s like one of the biggest in Murrieta, it was awesome!! He works in the temple and so because our zone is going to the temple this week he had us all get together and he told us a bunch of different stuff so we could get more out of our visits there and told us about different things that he's learned over the years working there. It was awesome, Brother Mattson is one of the most humble, spiritual, friendly guys you will ever meet. He was telling us about his property and all the things that he has acquired and more or less, in a nut shell he told us" it’s all just stuff, it’s just silly stuff. Nothing has brought me more joy and happiness in this life than what the gospel offers, and nothing can compare." It was so cool. We found out also that he actually started from nothing and struggled for a very long time financially, but he put his trust in the Lord, worked hard and never looked back. It was fun, after that he let us do whatever we wanted to. He has a separate sports complex with a indoor pool, a basketball and racket ball court, gym, and a wake board park, with a zip line going across his property. It was fun. haha

Hopefully next week my email will be more spiritually uplifting.

I love you guys.

Stay true, stay strong, and look out for each other while I'm gone, alright?

-Elder Daniel