12-24-14

Hey guys!!!!

Thanks for the pictures! I remember going to Tombstone when I drove grandma home when she came to visit. And I had to stop and take pictures of the Huachucas when I was there too, theyre so beautiful. Does Paul still have his orange Javelin? Has he got it working yet?

We will all be at our Bishop's place tomorrow morning at around 10 o'clock so expect a call around 11 o'clock Mountain Time.

So this email wont be very long this week, since I will be able to talk to you and see you guys tomorrow!!!!!!! :D And were super busy today so our emailing is cut short anyway. I love you guys so much and I cant wait to see your beautiful faces!!!!!!!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!

-Elder Daniel

 

Just a stones throw away!

 

12-15-14

How's everyone doing this glorious Monday morn'n!!!

It’s actually starting to finally feel like winter over here. It dipped down into the low 60s last night. Bone chilling huh!!! I got your package mom, I promise I haven't opened anything yet. I can’t make any promises about the candy though. Whoops. That’s awesome that you guys are buying a Mormon bus, haha!!! Make sure to put a BYU sticker on it. I so wish I could have been there for the Christmas festival. Is that the one where they have the Choir sing and have all the nativity scenes set up? That awesome that you saw Spencer, I haven’t heard from him in a while. I will probably grow my hair back out the way it was in the pictures with our bum haircuts when I get back, just because. That sucks that grandpa isn’t doing too well :( I will definitely keep him in my prayers. I am feeling the Christmas spirit for sure! We made the sisters a cake last week, and now were in a constant battle with one another trying to see who can do more nice things for each other.

Funny you’re asking me to pray to find opportunities to serve in the community, because we have actually been doing ton of it! Last week we helped the united Methodist Church downtown set up their "Bethlehem Walk". It’s an event they have for three days where they take you back in time to when the Savior was born. Everyone is dressed up in garb from back in that time period and acting as shop keepers and tradesmen. There were live animals too, Elder Fitzpatrick was pretty stoked that he was able to pet a turkey and a sheep, haha. It was a ton of fun, we set it up with a ton of missionaries serving in Escondido and on Saturday we volunteered to be shop keepers with the sisters when the event was going on.

Went on exchanges with E. Brown last week. He has only been out for a month and this is his first transfer. He is one of the sharpest greenies I’ve ever met, he's really on top of things and is a very fast learner. He will go far in here in the mission field. The only thing he struggles with is initiating contacts on the street. So we did a lot of contacting that night. I was able to give him some tips and we were able to pick up a few different potentials in a matter of minutes, it was sweet! He's got a good head on his shoulders and has a vision of what he wants to become. We also saw a humorous sign outside of a swimming pool at an apartment complex in Escondido. haha.

We picked up two new investigators this week, Abdul and Mikey. Both are friends of members. We met Abdul at the institute who is studying religion with, Chloe one of the ward missionaries. Finals are all this week, so we should be meeting up with him in the next week or so. We met Mikey at one of our dinner appointments last week. The Pennocks had us over for dinner, but it was just Sister Pennock and her daughter Chelsey. Chelsey just returned home from her mission in Pocatello, Idaho about a week ago. (Side Note - Chelsey knows Sam Fredrick and Katrina Jones! She went to BYU Hawaii with Sam Fredrick and guess where Sam is serving her mission right now. Pocatello, Idaho! And Chelsey was also companions with Katrina Jones! Super small world, huh?) Anyway there was no guy there so she invited one of her guy friends over and we invited them to a baptism, and they went!!! It was sweet! We should be meeting up with him this week.

We were able to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators Ryan!! He is committed for January 10th yeah!! Blake's baptism should be in January too, but the date is uncertain as of right now. His request is in SLC under review.

We got asked to teach Gospel Principles yesterday on the spot because the instructor didnt show up. If all else fails ask the missionaries right? haha. I think it went alright, we taught with the sisters and the subject was on temples and family history.

Have you guys seen the video called "He is the Gift"? If you havent you definitely should. It is a short powerful video about how Christ is the center of Christmas. the URL is  -->christmas.mormon.org<-- Share it with everybody!!!

I want to leave ya with a quote. You may have heard it before, if you have.. here it is again. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us." Think about it. We all have so much potential to do good. Heavenly Father has gifted us all with talents and abilities to bless others lives. We need to use them and not wait around to be acted upon. Matt 5:16 - Rom 1:16

I love you all, cant wait to see ya!!!

- Elder Daniel

 This is Chelsy Pennock, shes the girl who served with Sam and Katrina! ( She makes me feel like a giant..) 

 

Bethlehem Walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12-8-14 more pictures

- Ice skating for District activity (the closest thing we will get to real winter weather)

- Sombrero we found at a thrift shop.

12-8-14

Hey what’s up everyone!!!

That’s so cool Elder Lealiiee came back to visit ya! I miss that kid! How is he doing? I’m glad you enjoyed the Christmas card :) That’s sweet that Walter got his truck running again, tell him to fix mine now! haha. I can’t believe I am going to miss Bama and Ohio State!!!!! I’ve been wanting to see them play each other forever! :( Let me know how it goes.

You guys it actually rained this week!!! For three days!! Nothing compared to Bama though. It is so funny here, everyone breaks out their huge rain jackets and coats when it’s only like 70 degrees and sprinkling. Yeah. Nobody knows how to drive in the rain either! There were so many wrecks it was ridiculous. We witnessed a guy hydroplane into the barriers right next to us as we were exiting the freeway. We called 911 and everything to report it, it was pretty crazy.

We had our Christmas party for our ward. It was fun, we did a white elephant thing were you give away a cheap gift and you can trade it and all that fun stuff. Since we have no money we just boxed up some random stuff from our apartment, (a t-rex head and a mini slot machine), and used those as gifts! They worked great actually!! It was also a great missionary opportunity, had quite a few nonmembers there.

We went on exchanges this week with the traveling assistant, Elder Thunell who was actually Elder Fitzpatricks trainer, so that was a cool little reunion for them. I have never served around Elder Thunell before so I didn’t really know what to think of him, but he has turned out to be one of the coolest people I’ve ever met. He gave us some good counsel that changed the way I look at missionary work. He helped us realize that we don’t have much time left here, at all. And that I need to have a sense of urgency every day for the rest of my mission. He helped us realize that we are here to solely help others come unto Christ through baptism that should be our main focus. I guess I lost sight of that for a little while. You kind of grow numb of your leaders telling you what to do, how to do it, and hearing those same things repeated over and over again. I’ve been trying to do the work my way, and by doing so I’ve lost sight of how the Lord wants things done. I had lost sight of where all my efforts should’ve been focused. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still been doing work out here and helping others come to a knowledge of their Savior and helping them understand and enjoy the blessing of the gospel, but I’ve just spent a lot of my time nourishing instead of sowing and reaping. So I had a wakeup call last week you could say. It’s hard to swallow your pride and change some times, especially as a missionary. haha.

We had an interview with Blake and President Kendrick on Friday. We found out that he will be baptized a lot sooner than January of 2016. If he is clean for a month from any of the vices that he struggles with then he will be eligible for baptism!!! So if all goes as planned we are shooting for next month!! I will probably be transferred by then, but I will be back for the baptism.

Our Ward Mission Leader, Toby Wilson, was released this past Sunday. He has been awesome, one of the best WMLs I’ve had on my mission. And just knowing where he was at the beginning of this year to where he is now has given me so much respect for him. Love that guy, I’m going to miss him.

I love this work. I dread the day I have to leave it behind full time. Until then onward ever onward!!!!!

Love,

-Elder Daniel

 

Christmas Party yeah!!

- Exchanges with Elder Thunell

 

 

12-1-14

Que Pasa!

I hope y’all had a grand Thanksgiving. Over here we were able to play in the Turkey Bowl. I forgot that it’s been about two years since I had done any kind of intense physical activity like that. For the rest of the week I felt like I had been hit by a semi, haha. Big week for football, everyone I talked to this last week was asking me about the Iron Bowl and the Buckeyes and Michigan. Thanks again for the updates dad, I can’t wait to watch football with you guys again. The only thing I’m missing is a black name tag with Lizzie's rendition of me in the Sims, other than that she’s on point!

So this week was a little slower than usual due to Thanksgiving, but there’s only so much you can do when you’re serving in the US where people have lives and obligations and celebrate holidays out of town.

We had to push Demetrio and Blake’s baptismal dates back. Demetrio is still working with his testimony and we found out Blake is on probation until 2016, so we will have to get an interview with him and President Kendrick set up to see if he is still eligible for baptism. The whole situation kind of sucks, he is ready and wants to be baptized, he wants to change and isn’t the person he used to be. So hopefully we will get that resolved.

We should be picking up some former investigators this week. I was able to get in touch with a kid named A.J. who E. Moolenbeek and I had started teaching back in the summer and we should be meeting with him next week. And we got a text last night from a kid last night named David asking for a blessing. I asked him the last time he had met with the missionaries and he said March. So if all goes as planned we should start teaching both of them again.

I want to share one scripture with you that President Kendrick shared with us at a recent zone conference. It’s in John 9:25. This chapter talks about how Christ healed the blind man and gave him back his sight. The Jews and Pharisees who witnessed the miracle began to murmur and accuse him of being a false prophet, a deceiver and a sinner. Then the man who was healed of his ailment since birth says this in verse 25 " Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see."  We can compare this to a number of different things, but I like comparing it to our testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t need to kick at the pricks and murmur about all the demands that being a member of the church requires. Nor do we need to be selectively obedient because some commandments or covenants seen mundane or too hard to follow and have those factors main our testimonies. The requirements for a testimony are simple.  The man who was healed said "all I know is that I was blind and now I can see." He saw and felt that there was something absolute amazing and good about what Christ had offered him. We can all feel that same feeling of peace and goodness that living the gospel brings, and that should be enough.

I cannot believe that the year will be over in a few short weeks and that Christmas is in about three! We need to get Skype figured out since you guys will all be spread out this year. Send me your user names and phone numbers ASAP.

I love you all,

-Elder Daniel

 

The weather as we were driving to the library on December 1st. Sorry guys, haha

-"Dirty Dito" for life!!

 

 

 

11-24-14

Hello Everybody!!

So Elder Moolenbeek hasn’t updated me on Daylon, well see if he does this week. And no I cannot believe its Thanksgiving already. I feel like if spent this year in the Millennium Falcon in hyper drive. It feels like it was Christmas a few months ago, not even kidding. And it’s only a month away now already.
That’s awesome that Jeffery found a truck, good for him. I hope I can find a small work truck when I get back, but if I have to I will drive the good ol' Cougar. Hopefully Walter is taking care of it and it’s not giving him any problems, that thing is a bucket, haha.  Mom, that’s actually my plan. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Either Idaho or a small school in Utah, possibly UVU. And I plan to just take that first semester working when I get back. If Jeffery would come with me that would be freaking awesome! And I actually want to take a trip back here as soon as I can with Jeffery and Walter when I get back, probably just road trip it to catch up after being gone for two years. Thank you for the package! I got it last week, getting my journal back made my week.
This week we have been super busy with investigator lessons. We taught Blake, Demetrio, Nick, and Miguel. And we actually picked up two new ones! Ryan and Rudy.
Blake is a stud, he has been keeping his commitments with reading and praying. And when we ask him about it he tells us all about how he feels the spirit when he reads and that he has a great feeling whenever he is at church. We only have to teach him a few more things and he will be ready for the 6th. You can see the light of the gospel in this kids eyes
Demetrio has gotten a little tricky. He doesn’t seem to really be grasping what we’re teaching him and we can tell that he hasn’t really had a spiritual witness that baptism is something that is absolutely essential for our salvation or that it means he will be taking upon himself the name of Christ for the rest of his life. When we ask him simple questions about things like who Jesus Christ is or what baptism means to him he gives an answer that’s almost the complete opposite. He also doesn’t quite understand why we’re meeting with him, so we have had to set expectations a few different times. We will have to set a tentative date for him right now and keep working with him. We have baptismal goals for the year and sometimes it seems like missionaries just drag people to baptism, and that definitely not what we want to do with Demetrio. It would be sad if he just jumped into the water not really knowing what he is doing and then go inactive in a few months never to come back. It would be pointless.
Nick is a good kid. We teach him at the institute every Tuesday and Thursday. His parents are very anti and don’t want him to go to church or meet with us, but he really wants to learn about the church and to find out if it’s true so he continues to meet with us. He’s old enough to make his own decisions but he respects his parents desires enough that he won’t go to church, which kind of sucks.  He lives in Vista and goes to school at Palomar, so in between classes he meets with us. He’s very sincere and just wants to know the truth.
Miguel was a referral from the Hermana’s after they contacted him on the street. We taught him the restoration last week and has been to church. He has a Joseph Smith kind of mentality. He understands that there are many different beliefs and religions and wants to find out which one is the right one.
Rudy was another referral from the Spanish elders that they contacted into. He is taking time off from work and school to study religion.  And he graduated college with a bachelors in psychology. He knows a lot about Islam and has made multiple trips to the Middle East. He has tons of questions that we answer to the best of our ability. He is like a sponge though, he soaks up everything we teach him.
Rudy is a friend of a member we met briefly and short be starting to meet with him here in the next week.
The work is picking up like crazy. The sisters in our ward picked up three new investigators in the past week, and that never happens. They haven’t had an investigator in six months. Miracles baby!!!!
I love the work, I hope that the time I have left will continue to be an adventure. Hopefully it won’t go by too fast.
I love you all, I pray for you all the time. Have an awesome thanksgiving!!!

-Elder Daniel

p.s. - Say hey to Gerry and Dana for me!!!


-Taco shop
-The real Mormon Mafia
-E. Cowan is a missionary

11-17-14 more pictures

 

New Sting Ray Corvette at the Mission office!!

Thanks for the cleats!!!

 

 

 

11-17-14

What’s up everybody!!!!!

Dad, I really appreciate the football updates and keeping me in the loop. I hope I don’t miss another crazy Iron Bowl this year. I always joke with my bishop that we only like each other because we have to since he's a diehard USC fan.

Tyler is going to Portugal?! That’s freaking awesome!! He will be a stud!! Hey, I ran into a lady from Carlsbad at church yesterday and she asked me where I was from and she said, "No way!! I graduated from Grissom High School!!" Once again, very, very small world in the church. And guess what? My first companion, Elder Kyle Thompson, Was just married on Saturday in the New Port Beach Temple! And he's only been off his mission for 6 months!! I think I’m going to give myself a few years of freedom first before I sell my soul to some crazy lady. haha.

How is the weather in Bama? Right now in Escondido it’s a brisk, breathtaking 78 degrees Fahrenheit. We actually have a pot with some sunflowers on our balcony at the apartment because the weather is so stinking nice here even in the middle of November, it’s crazy. Hey mom, I’ve used some Essential Oils the other day. I had a headache at like midnight and so I put like 6 drops of Peppermint on my head, it wasn’t till I started rubbing it around that I realized that a little goes a long way. Then I learned a great lesson about washing your hands after using it too, because I scratched my eye because it was itchy. After that I felt like my head from the inside out was on fire, but I forgot all about the pain that my headache was causing me and was able to  fall asleep after it set in after a while. haha

So we were able to meet with Elder Teh of the Seventy last Tuesday. He was awesome! He was so personable, he took the time to get to know each of us and during all of his presentations he wasn’t just talking to us from the pulpit, but was down in the pews with us getting us all involved in discussion. It was an awesome spiritual drop kick to the face. I don’t think anyone slept the entire time, haha.

This week we were able to teach all of our investigators. Blake, Demetrio, and Nick. They are all progressing and two have dates set for baptism in the next few weeks! I’m stoked for them!!!! And one of our potentials that we met actually came to church yesterday, Miguel (the one we had a lesson set up with, he wasn’t there, then we found him on the street). The work here is rolling along smoothly, but were not letting it make us lazy. We are still thrusting with our sickles with all our might, putting our hands to the plow, and aren’t looking back.

I want to share with you one scripture, 2 Tim 1:7-8. It talks about how our Heavenly Father has not given us the spirit of fear, but has given us power. And to be not ashamed of the testimony of the Savior that is in you. Never be afraid to stand up for what you know to be true, we are not entitled to fear, but power. Remember that.

I love you all, can’t wait to see everyone next month!!!!!!

-Elder Daniel

- Some cool skater kids from the Santa Fe Hills Ward

-ON splits with Jake in his Jeep Wrangler!!!!

-E. Fitzpatrick in the "Dirty Dido"