1-26-15

I got the "I am me" video, it was awesome! I loved Anthony's and Dwight's "Hoser" signs.

I don’t know if I told you before I left but Parker Rassmusen got called to Rome Italy for his mission. Yesterday at church I met a kid who just got back from his mission in Rome Italy. I asked him if he knew him and he said that Parker had just got called to be one of the assistants to the mission President before he left! Once again a very small world within the church.
Also something crazy that happened last night. E. Waechtler and I were walking back home for the night when Elder Waetchler saw a car that was swerving pretty close to other cars and he said "that person is drunk'. I didn’t really thing anything of it I wasn’t really paying much attention because my legs were hurting from walking most of the day. The car passed through the intersection as we were waiting (thank goodness it was a green light), then we walked across when it was are turn. We got to the other side then waited for the next walk signal to go so we could cross the street and be home free. E. Waechtler said “I think that person is making a U-turn", again I didn’t really think anything of it. Just a few seconds after he had said that we heard a very loud crash and looked over to see a three car pileup about 10 feet from where we had just stood. The lady who ran into the back of the two cars was so drunk that she didn’t what was going on, I felt really bad for her. So we called the police and did all the witness stuff and what not. Pretty crazy!

This week we taught Anaid and Jay and her friend Jackie was there too! This week we taught them about the Plan of Salvation and they all loved it. We have been taking Sergio with us to our lessons and he has been an outstanding fellow shipper. (He is the kid that served in the same mission as Heather Dearden.) After the lesson he took us to this little Mexican market down the street and we got "Pan Dulce". It’s this super good Mexican sweet bread, it was awesome.

Both Myra and Anaid were at church yesterday!!! The ward fellowshipped the crap out of them which was awesome. They both loved it! They both actually ended up knowing a few of the members that were at church yesterday so that was cool.

The work is going surprisingly great here and I love being a district leader.

I love you all and let me know if there is anything I can ever do for you,

-Elder Daniel

                                                     -Waiting in line at the Oceanside Library..

 

                                                              Downtown Carlsbad

Our buddy Paco and his friends like to have chill convos with the elder every once in a while.

Surfers and safari vans on Carlsbad Blvd.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1-20-15

Anthony happy birthday!!! Your 7 years old man!!!! You’re an old man! Jeffery I got your video, (it made me super trunky), but that box looks sick, and man you’ve gotten good!!!! I can’t wait to have a session with you guys when I get back! I may be a tad bit rusty though.

So I’ve been able to rub the National Championship in everyone's faces. Everyone that I’ve talked to out here has given me crap for being an Ohio State fan, well looks like they have no room to talk anymore, haha.

Walter I got your package, thanks for the rad Cali socks bruh! And how the heck did you cut your thumb off with a sawzall?! I hope you’re alright! I need to see some pictures!

So this week we picked up 3 new investigators!! Myra, Anaid, and Anaid's cousin Jay! Miracles baby!!!

Elder Waechtler and Elder Steiner were on exchanges and contacted a guy out front of his house. They asked him if we could stop back by to share a message with him, he declined but said that his girlfriend might be interested. They met her and found out that she actually was a former investigator! They were able to set up a day to meet and we were able to teach her the first lesson and set a baptismal date with her for the end of February. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! And Anaid's story goes like this. She was in Utah over Christmas break with her dad. Her dad has been divorced for a little while and was getting remarried. He had actually been meeting with the missionaries for a while and was baptized the day after he was married! While Anaid was there visiting with her dad in Utah she met with the missionaries almost every day. She came back here to Oceanside and still wanted to meet with the missionaries down here because the missionaries were able to help her out a ton up in Utah. So we got the referral, stopped by not knowing if it was a legit referral or not, an old Hispanic lady answered the door who didn’t speak any English so we did our best to ask if she was there but she couldn’t understand us. As we were about to leave she comes up behind her and introduces herself! We were able to teach her and her cousin Jay about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and we are meeting back up with them tonight!        So super exciting stuff!

I’ve been listening to a ton of talks lately. I want to share with you one of my favorite quotes from one of Elder Hollands talks from conference a few years back. In this talk he is telling the story of Christ when he comes back to give guidance to his apostles as they have gone back to fishing instead of being missionaries. Jesus says in affect “What I need are disciples and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone who loves me! Truly, truly loves me and loves what my Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do." Elder Holland then says, "Ours is not a fleeting task. It is not hopeless, hopeless or to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of almighty God and it is to change the world."

He then say talks of how the apostles have chosen something as mundane as fishing to become more important than preaching the gospel. Christ said “Did not my life and my love touch your hearts more deeply than this?" and that hit me hard. I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do when I get back home a ton lately. About school, life, and especially skateboarding. I’ve realized that with the things that I like to do, like skateboarding and other stuff, they are things that I will cherish for a life time, but the gospel is forever. It’s not something that is here for a time than ceases to exist it. It is for eternity. I will do the best I can to be an effective advocate of my savior and to preach his gospel as long as I can.

I love you all so much!

-Elder Daniel

Somebody really likes the scripture Joshua 24:15  Im going to do this to my fence when I get my own place..

That's right, Im standing in front of the legendary Carlsbad High school.

 (its right across the street from the stake center.)

The view on the way to zone training meeting.

1-12-15

It’s been rainy over here for the past few days as well, which is unusual. It never rains over here. Man! The sisters have it made over there, drinking hot chocolate in a warm house, on the computer. That’s the life! So I got the package thank you for the shirt Lizzie! I wear it to run in the mornings, its sweet. I can represent my homeland now! I heard that Ohio beat Bama!!!!!!! Whooooooo!!! You gotta let me know how the game goes!

So lots of stuff to tell you that happened this last week. So a little bit about the Oceanside 2nd ward I’m serving in. There are a ton of Polynesian people! We ate at the Pukahi's house last week and they make a ton of food! haha. Our elders quorum president brother Malaulu wears a lava lava to church every Sunday, (the skirt looking things they wear on the islands.), and it’s pretty sweet. I’m thinking about rocking one. And a little bit about the Carlsbad zone that I am now in. Cool places and stuff that are in our zone – Lego Land, the Flower Fields, the Oceanside Pier, Carlsbad Village, Carlsbad High school, (the legendary Carlsbad Gap used to be there), and tons of surf and skate shops. It’s pretty sweet, I’m living the dream!

Some people we taught this week. Our first investigator we taught is named Gabriel. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had a great lesson. Our ward mission leader was there and Gabriel's who is a recent convert was there too. The spirit was super strong the entire lesson and I’m thinking, " this guy is getting baptized for sure, like there’s no doubt", and when we go to invite him to follow the example of the Savior and be baptized he straight up tells us no and that he doesn’t want religion in his life... Seriously man?! I was feeling the spirit, you were feeling the spirit, and we were all feeling the spirit! You know it’s true! Why not?! We will continue to work with him.

We taught our only other investigator on Saturday named August. He has been taught for a while, he is pretty set in his ways and goes to another Christian church, but he really enjoys meeting with us and "reading the good word and meditating." So we just need to do something different to crack his shell and come to church. Because we won’t progress anywhere with him if we just keep having little scripture

We taught a recent convert named Chahn, he is from Vietnam and a convert of about a year and a pizza delivery guy. We read the Book of Mormon with him once a week. Super humble prepared guy.

We have been teaching one of our recent converts Kevin almost every day. At first glance you would think he is someone you don’t want to cross paths with. He has had a very rough past growing up in Oceanside and San Diego. Big guy, shaved head, tattoos all up and down his body, scars. But he is probably one of the nicest guys you would ever meet, very warm and inviting. He is always cracking jokes and just wants to do the right thing. We go over and read the scriptures with him every other day. It is cool to see his knowledge and faith grow. He eats it up and wants more and more every time we go over.

I conducted my first district meeting last Thursday. It went super well, way better than I had anticipated!!! One of the elders in my district told me it seemed like I had been a district leader for a while already, like that wasn’t my first rodeo. So that made me feel awesome! It’s really helping me stretch. I’m being forced to use talents and abilities that I didn’t know I had as well as helping me understand how to be as effective as I can be. Most importantly though, I’ve been learning to focus completely on others rather than myself.

I went on exchanges with Elder Adams last week. I freaking love that kid, I’ve served around him in Murrieta and San Marcos. He is one of the most funny, real, relaxed guys you will ever meet. We had a lot of adventures on our exchange! We met an old lady name Mary who is 91 but you would think she is in her 70s or something. She is a short, old, catholic, Italian lady who is very sassy, haha. We were able to share a scripture about faith with her and just had a great conversation about life. She gave us lots of advice. We went to Chipotle and we ran into some members who bought our burritos for us. We found out that her and her daughters had just moved over form Hong Kong because of her husband’s job. And we found out that one of her daughter’s works for "Stance" They’re a skateboarding sock company co-owned by guy who is LDS. She also works closely for Ryan Sheckler's dad, which is pretty cool. Then we went back out and contacted for a bit. We ran into a marine walking his dog. His dog was taking a leek on some bushes and Elder Adams being the consecrated missionary that he is went up to talk to him. The first thing he said was “hey man that’s a cute dog you got there.” then there was just a long awkward silence and I couldn’t help but laugh. Then that laugh caused Elder Adams to laugh and we both couldn’t stop, luckily Elder Adams was able to finish the contact, but I lost it I couldn’t even talk, it was bad. hahaha. Then we ran into this guy who calls himself Wild Bill. He had some crazy stories. He looks like the typical old SoCal guy, Hawaiian shirt with shorts and flip flops. He told us he bought his house when he was 25, he was a trip. He was shocked by a huge generator, blown back 15 feet, all the skin burned of his toes, and the electricity shot out of the side of his torso leaving a fairly large hole, it was an okay size, he showed us. haha. We talked to him for a good while and then we gave him a Book of Mormon. The next day we were able to do some contacting near the beach since part of his area in Oceanside 4th has beach in it. It was pretty surreal doing missionary work looking out into the Pacific Ocean.

I was debating telling you this last little story, but I will tell it anyway. Don’t freak out mom. SO Elder Waechtler and I were walking in a pretty hood part of our area and this rough looking, Hispanic kid who looks to be about 17 or 18 comes walking up behind us. So we get to the street corner and we start to talk to him. We end up giving him a card with the Salt Lake Temple on it and he asks us," so is your church just for white people?" and we told him no it’s for everyone.  He kind of just stood there for a second and then he started swearing at us. He put his hand into his jacket like he was reaching for something then he told us “look, I have a gun on me right now, do you guys know where you are at? You need to get the heck out of here right now unless you want to get shot." You ever have that feeling where your heart starts racing and you think in your head "holy crap, I could seriously die right now." That’s what I was thinking in my head. So we told him we don’t want any trouble and started to back away. “Then he shouted out that he was kidding, but I did not trust that kid whether he was joking or not, we got the heck out of there.

So there are all the adventures I had this week, I hope I didn’t leave anything out.

I gotta go. I love this work and I love you all more than anything!

-Elder Daniel

-Rad exchange with Elder Adams

-Skate park :(
-Pretty regular site in SoCal, VW Safari Vans
-Another regular site, stray Chihuahuas
-Sick graffiti
-dont worry, we havent used the surf board.. yet. (JK)
-found a Buckeys fan near the coast!!!

 

1-5-15

Thanks for the awesome pictures! I want to go to the Gilbert temple so bad!!!!!!! You all were looking beautiful!!!So much has happened in the past week it’s ridiculous!

So I am now serving in the Oceanside 2nd Ward in the Carlsbad Zone. And guess what that means guys? I can finally see the Pacific Ocean!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOO. It’s a pretty big deal. It is pretty stinking beautiful. Who can say that one of the wards they served in on their mission was the "Oceanside" 2nd Ward?! It has the word "Ocean" in it! Haha, I’m sorry. I’ve just been wanting to serve in this part of the mission for a long time and I’m pretty excited about it. I’m now living in a four man apartment now with two other elders, it can get pretty crazy sometimes, but I love it. They are all from Idaho except for me, I’m the black sheep from Alabama. My new companion's name is Elder Waechtler! He is from Georgetown, Idaho. He is a cool kid. He is a great missionary, I actually served around him last year when I was in Murrieta. He is a little different, and can be blunt with people sometimes, but his testimony is sincere and he really wants to be the best missionary he can be, he's been helping me out a lot. I miss Palomar so much. It has been a pretty odd transition back into family work. They’re both have completely

I am now the District Leader over the Oceanside District. And so far so good. It’s not too bad actually. I just am a little busier now with preparing trainings, exchanges with the elders in my district, conducting District Meetings, looking after the welfare of everyone I have stewardship over, and setting a good example.

It snowed in Murrieta!! Yes, it actually snowed in Southern California!!! What the heck!? The second ice age is quickly approaching us.

I was able to go back to San Marcos on Saturday for Ryan's baptism!!!! It was a great reunion with everyone back in Palomar and the spirit was strong. I was actually able to baptize Ryan, it was a sweet experience. I had to dunk him twice because his knee came up, but it’s all good. He understood the importance and exactness of the ordinance so it was a good learning experience for him. I guess the water had been sitting there in the font for a little while because it was FREEZING when we got out. Ryan and I were shaking when we got back to change, haha.

I meant to tell you that I’ve been using my essential oils like crazy lately. I’ve been using the peppermint a lot because I’ve been getting tons of headaches. I’ve actually let the sisters use it as well because they have been having crappy headaches too. I’ve also been using the lavender whenever I get stressed out, it helps a ton. I will probably be using it a lot more in the future now too, you can probably guess why haha.

Well, I love you all. Know that I think about you all the time and I haven’t forgotten about you.

-Elder Daniel

                                                           

Victor/Brandon Shred Crew

Jumba Juice

Bishop Urry/Grant

                                                                Snow in SoCal!!!!

Oceanside baby!!!

-Ryans Baptism!!!!

 

new Comp Elder Waechtler!!!!!

-Double Peak (last P-Day in Palomar)

-Sister Edgecomb Double Peak (last P-Day in Palomar)

-Sister Denny Double Peak (last P-Day in Palomar)

Elder Fitzpatrick -Double Peak (last P-Day in Palomar)

                                                    -Double Peak (last P-Day in Palomar)

12-29-14

Hey Everybody!!!

So tons of stuff happened this week!!!!

First of all it was so good to see all of you!! You all looked great and seemed like life is treating you well. Thank you for all the gifts! I was in desperate need of socks and the pants you sent me are on point! They’re like my favorite pair, they make my butt look so good!! haha, JK. Thanks for the oatmeal/date cookies dad, they are bomb!! Thank you for everything and not forgetting about me out here. I hope all of your Christmas's were grand and full of love, happiness and tender moments!

We had our mission Christmas devotional on the 24th and it was so good. I will try to send out the video of all the baptisms we had this year. We had 429 yeah baby!!!!!! That many souls took upon themselves the name of Christ and are one step closer to return to the presence of their Heavenly Father! It was very bitter sweet though, a lot of missionaries that I have served around my whole mission and the sisters that we started our missions with in the MTC left for home on Saturday :( I’m on death row you guys!!!

So big news, on Christmas evening I got one more gift from President Kendrick. He gave us a call as we were driving to some basketball courts to play with some other elders, (until you are a missionary you won’t understand how freaking scary a random call from your mission president is), and he asked if I would be willing to take on the assignment of district leader and trainer and I said yes. So starting next week I will be providing trainings and discussions for my district meetings every week, I will be conducting companionship exchanges, I will be doing an assessment of missionary progress for transfers, I will be making phone calls just about every night, I will be conducting baptismal interviews, and a whole slew of other responsibilities that just got put upon my shoulders. I will have to be on the top of my game because I will be an example to the missionaries in my district. It’s crazy!!!! haha, I am going to have so much to do. Funny thing though, I have been praying just about every night for Heavenly Father to provide me with opportunities to be a better missionary, to be a tool in His hands, and just a better person. And looks like I’m getting what I asked for! Be careful what you pray for guys. Oh, and I found out yesterday that I am actually not going to be training. President Kendrick gave me a call out of the blue yesterday and told me they made some changes, so I am off the hook. Also, I am finally being transferred out of the Palomar Young Single Adult ward. I am going to miss it so much. This has been hands down my favorite area in my mission so far. It will be strange transitioning back into family work. I will be back this weekend hopefully for Ryan's baptism!!! Yup, he committed to baptism for the 3rd of January!!!! And I will be back for Blake's as well as soon as he receives permission from Salt Lake.

We weren't able to have too many lessons this week because of the holidays, but the ones we did have the spirit was full to the brim. We had a lesson with some less active kids in our ward. They're names are Paola, David, and Raul. First the first little while we were there we talked about skateboarding and stuff since they were watching a Street League competition. At the end I was able to share a scripture on the Atonement and bare my testimony of how he knows and has felt exactly what all of us are going through. At the beginning of the lesson Paola seemed fine, but towards the end she was in tears. (The Spirit is real!!!!). It was awesome because they all want to do the right thing and it’s hard for them sometimes, and after that lesson they all couldn't wait to go to church the next day!

The sisters had a baptism last night for one of their investigators, Gia, that we were instrumental in assisting them with. It was crazy though, the adversary did not want that baptism to happen. He tried to take out one of our sisters and Gia both!!! Before sacrament meeting sister Edgecomb was herself, bright, smiley and full of light and energy as always. But halfway through the meeting the sisters left. Sister Denny came back and said that she was feeling absolutely terrible and nauseous and the same thing with Gia about 10 minutes later!!! So we gave them both blessings by the end of sacrament they were themselves again like nothing had even happened. (The Priesthood is real!!!!). Her baptism was wonderful. It has taken her a lot of sacrifice to get where she is now and to even be baptized since her family, especially her father, aren't very fond of the church. It was a very somber moment to see her go under the water.

We had a lesson with one of our recent converts last week and he has a few dogs, one being a skinny little Chihuahua named PePe. When we got to his house and were on his porch PePe was barking hysterically at one of our ward missionaries, Kenny that we had brought with us. It was weird because he usually never barks at anyone. So Josh held him close to Kenny to sniff him so he would stop barking, but instead of sniffing him he tried to take a chunk out of his shoulder!!!! I felt bad for Kenny but it was hilarious, we all had a good laugh.

I almost forgot to tell you about our mini missionary. We have a youth from the Murrieta stake joining Elder Fitzpatrick and I for the week so they can see what missionary life is really like. His name is Cody, he is a stud!

Well I love you all, wish me luck (or pray for me, that would be best!)

Onward! Ever Onward!!

-Elder Daniel

Gia's baptism!!!!

-Christmas socks!!!!

-Our mini missionary Cody!!!

-Christmas Devotional!!!