5-13-13

Here are some pictures of the baptism and wedding. She needed to be married before she could be baptized.

Family,

It was awesome to talk to you yesterday! Even though it may not have seemed like it on my face. It was awesome to see Billy and Caitlin again. I'll be waiting for their letter. "Doo doo doo doo, we're totally alone." - Horton. Well, let me get into my week shall we?

Last Monday we had to do service during e-mailing time. I was fine with it but just lasted longer than I thought it would take. We moved a sister in our ward who is super less-active and is one of those "do not contacts" given to us by the Bishop. She just wanted to remove all the large stuff like washer (we didn't take it because it was literally falling apart), dryer, mattress, box spring, and a couple other furniture items. For dinner that night we had it at our Bishop's house but his wife wanted us to make gifts for our Moms for Mother's day. Usually I wuoldn't agreed but since we were already there for an hour, we had to go and do missionary work (not like I don't love Mom, because I do). Dinner, in the white handbook, should be no longer then an hour and should not interfere with prime proselyting time (after 6). Our mission president has changed that to whenever the family can feed you because often members don't get home for a while off of work. The gift would have been glass flowers or something. We also had a great lesson with one of our investigators in Milan that night where the spirit was definitely present. We're waiting for him to accept the invitation to be baptized even though he has said that he doesn't want to change churches. We'll change that, hehe. On Tuesday we had our zone meeting at the new Wichita stake center. It's a really nice one year old building. While there, I got to see Elder Peterson (he was in Junction city when I was in Wamego). I also met an Elder who entered the MTC the same day as me and is from the Del Mar stake. His name is Elder Neeley and we'll be having a combined district meeting together tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, we also will be getting a new car tomorrow! Right now, our car is a 2010 Chevrolet Malibu. I don't know what we'll be getting now but hopefully it's better than our Malibu. It has been getting up there in it's mileage limits so yeah. On Tuesday we also went on exchanges with the zone leaders (did you know they have chik-fila here in Wichita? I LOVE it!). We didn't have too much success during exchanges although, Elder Allen needed to return something to GNC because it had green tea extract in it. So he talked to the guy at the counter about the word of wisdom. I need to do better in talking to everyone like that. I just don't have the nerve to do it. They live in this huge house with a member of the stake presidency who just had hip surgery. That night in the middle of the night, however, I heard a huge storm going on outside but then at 4:45-ish heard this beeping in this one mysterious room. I wondered where it was coming from and wouldn't stop for a long time. So I decided to get up and find it. I looked in every downstairs room and found the problem in the water pump room with the alarm on and going. It took me a while to figure out the problem but finally was able to turn off the alarm. So I went to bed but couldn't go back to sleep. Then at 6, their phone alarm went off. So I got up and turned it off. Then Elder Allen's alarms went off at 6:08 and 6:23. Then our normal alarm went off at 6:30. I was not happy one bit. I was tired and still haven't quite recovered. Their shower was cool because it had super high pressure and almost hurt if you turned it too hot. So, yeah. Later that day, after we exchanged back, we had a wedding for the person who got baptized on Saturday. It was kind of weird to be in a wedding like that but now that they're married, I think they're happy and are looking to the temple next year. After the wedding we went over to Anthony and had a lesson with one of our most progressing investigators. He didn't come to church yesterday which is a super big bummer because he said he would come again but didn't! Later we had a lesson with this unmarried couple that are super cool but have a lot to do in order to believe that this is the true church or not. But the spirit is always super strong with them and I hope they get a testimony soon because they are reading and praying. They just need to some to church once and that should bring them their answer. Thursday was my birthday and after weekly planning I opened everything and enjoyed the presents you sent me. As I said yesterday, I gave my paisley tie to Elder Dansie. Don't worry about sending me too many stripes. I like stripes as long as that's not the only thing you send me. But the ties you did send me are sweet like candy. I also loved the talks (although the signs of the times talks are pretty boring. Especially the excerpts from this one book.) I loved all that you sent me. Those little cupcake thingies are super delicious too. Later, we had a lesson with an investigator who we saw the day before. He is super solid but just needs to come to church for Pete's sake. If he could do that, he would be solid. Other than that, we had a pretty slow day. We'll see this one family one more time before they move back to Michigan this Thursday. They said they'd come back to Harper next year. But that's next year and not next month or something. Friday we had a super super super long day. Good thing we had those CD's to keep us company. At 5 we had a baptismal interview for Rose so she was ready to go and passed. While we were getting ready to leave, a former missionary serving in this area walked in. He served there in 2006 so it was fun to talk to him for a bit with his wife. After dinner, however, we did some service with one of our eternigators. He was grateful for the help pulling out some trees in his backyard and stuff. Sorry, we didn't pull them out. We cut them out first then pulled them out. Does that make sense? haha. After the service, we shopped real quick before going home right before 9:30 and right on time. Saturday we first had the baptism. I wasn't the one originally supposed to do it. But the person that we called over and over never responded so we just brought our whites to do the baptism in case he didn't show up. He didn't so I just got dressed and did the baptism myself. The water was up to the middle of my knees and it wasn't all that warm but I said the words correctly and dunked her on the first try. My picture looks a little ugly, I know, and I know both you and Dad's first response will be for me to stop faking my smile, but whatever. Later, we came home and were off to Caldwell. I forgot to tell you that all the oil companies here (Shell, KSI, and BHI) are all pulling out so some of our investigators and our members (including our ward mission leader) will be moving. So that is quite a bummer. In Caldwell we had little success but did teach some lessons. This one guy kept talking about his trip to Egypt in the 70's for 30 minutes. I don't care about your trip to Egypt, bro, I just want to baptize you. He unfortunately wasn't interested anyways and has some strange beliefs about religion in general. After dinner at home, we went back to Milan to teach this one guy who was referred to us by another one of our investigators in Milan. He thought we were just there to talk to him about God, which we were. But that was a good lesson where I asked him to pray about being baptized and joining the church. He works every day so hopefully we can help him realize the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. Yesterday was an okay day. None of our investigators came to church and we taught gospel principles as usual. We got a ride home from the Leavitt's though. They infromed me that Alex is engaged. So that's exciting for that family having their last wedding. Once we got home, we skyped and then went over to Harper and tried contacting a few people. It being Mothers' day, not many of our investigators were actually there at home so hopefully we can contact them later this week. At night we had a nice dinner with this nice family with 6 small little kids. I don't know how that family does it  but they are awesome. The father was reminiscing on his little league days playing baseball. I didn't want to be a boaster so I didn't talk about my glory days too much. That leads us to today! I just found out also that Elder Dansie and I will be having lunch with President Keyes tomorrow. So yeah! That's my week. Not too eventful but having a baptism always makes it a good one.

I have come to know the Savior a lot on my mission because I have come to know how to trust in him. Through the darkest times on my mission, I have realized that I have taken small steps towards Gethsemane then retreated again while the Savior went the whole way and died for us. I also look at Joseph Smith and what he went through at Liberty jail and throughout his whole life while the saints were persecuted. So the Savior knows each and every one of us and what we have each gone through. That has helped me get through the trials on my mission because even though they seemed insurmountable at the time, the Savior helped me through. 

Is that what you were looking for? Any aha moments, huh? Yeah, I'd say so while reading Jesus the Christ and the Book of Mormon and how sometimes the scriptures just come to life. I can't really point out any particular instance in which that has happened but know that it has happened. Well again, it was great to talk to you all yesterday and be able to e-mail you today. I hope you have a great week and don't get too much trunkiness with the end of school just around the corner. I'll let you go. Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "Duck Dodgers to the rescue!" BOOM!

"Duck Dodgers...!" BOOM!

"Duck...Dodgers" BOOM!

"Duck" BOOM!

...

"HAHA! IT'S YOU KNOW WHO TO THE RESCUE! It helps if you don't say the name."

5-6-13

Family,

Okay it was awesome possum getting those pictures for Mormon prom! It reminds me of my high school prom! So did he go to the priest/laurel conference on Saturday to go with the dance? I remember that one Wilcox guy came and spoke to us at the Del Mar building across the street from Torrey Pines high school. I got one of the packages today from the USPS but can't wait until the other two get here. That's totally fine if you send them to this address. Transfers aren't here until the end of the month so you can send things to the mission office when that date comes close because even though I am pretty certain I am staying here, I can't expect to stay. 

All right. Now to tell you about my week. It was up and down. Last Monday we had dinner with this part member family whose father/husband is totally against the church but lets his wife go every week. He takes the kids with him to his church. I don't know where his church is. I think it's in Argonia. Believe it or not there are actually like 5 churches in Argonia when in PQ there's what? 5 in the whole city? Just kidding probably more than that. I remember going to church with the Cowarts once. I had no idea what was going on but went to "primary" and played this activity where you held water in a spoon and took it across the room and poured it into another pitcher without spilling. I don't know what the activity meant but I remember it. We also taught a recent convert a lesson that night. Tuesday, however, was more eventful. Because we were running low on miles, we drove to Wellington in the morning and had a member take us up to Wichita for our district meeting. The zone leaders attended and I taught about the Book of Mormon in chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel. For lunch, I ate at Arby's for the first time in my life. Dad said he doesn't like that place so I never ate there. It was pretty good this time. Later we traded our dinosaur box phone for the normal slide/touch screen phones at the sprint store in Wichita. We had some good lessons that day including with a guy that said he's going through tons of life problems right now and has started to realize that the Book of Mormon is true. So that was way cool. We also taught a guy named Rocket. His fiancee is one of our investigators and their living together but weren't engaged until just recently. She is like 35 and he is about 55 so there's quite a difference there. More on that later. Wednesday it started to get cold again and overnight Wednesday-Thursday it apparently rained like crazy and got super cold. I also got into my first car accident on Wednesday! It was nothing too big. I was just backing next to this long truck besides us and ran into their rear bumper by turning the wheel too soon. Our car only got some minor scratches but the other car got a broad, shallow dent. The car seemed beat up anyways. There was no one in the truck so we just left our card telling them to call us. They haven't called us in the week or so since so I don't know what's up. Nothing else really happened that day except that we had a lesson with the alpaca guy that night. We invited him for baptism and he understood but will need to take his time, we think. He still goes to his church in Argonia with his parents. He lives in Milan which is like 6 miles away from Argonia. Thursday after our weekly planning (every Thursday) we went out into the cold weather and got stuff done. We then had an appointment with these people that live in a trailer with their 3 boys. They move back into a house in Michigan this weekend so we'll send them some men with white shirts and ties when they get there! Later, we had an appointment with an investigator who plans on being baptized sometime this month (he didn't come to church yesterday). He is reading the Doctrine and Covenants since he's already read the whole Book of Mormon and absolutely loves it. Despite his sarcasm, he is very knowledgeable about the bible and religion in general. Within all of the investigators on my mission, I've had the deepest discussions with him. We were talking about his reading in D&C 29 and talking about Michael the archangel and us becoming Gods. I was like "I don't know" whenever he asked us questions. I feel like my answers were false doctrine, haha! But he wouldn't have any of it and wanted an answer right away. I always love talking to him just because he knows so much. We then later gave a blessing to this guy who just had surgery the day before and was in a ton of pain for the recovery process. He is a member but we were the only Melchizedek Priesthood holders in town so we just did it. Home teachers are normally supposed to do stuff like that right? His wife smokes too which kind of bothers me. After dinner that night, I saw my first armadillo! We were driving home and I almost ran it over, haha! But good thing I was paying attention. Friday was a good day because we set a baptismal date for one of our top investigators. She is the one who is getting married this Wednesday and then baptized this Saturday! So it's exciting. She was in a relationship with Rocket's son but that left a sour taste in her mouth and now found the father and is enjoying life! They both have health problems but that doesn't matter. We talked a lot about the temple with them and they thought it would be a good idea to get prepared for a year from now to go together. The closest temple to here is the Oklahoma City temple. So it's out of our mission. We later read D&C 121 with a less active sister too. That is my favorite chapter of scripture in all of scripture. It applies to me in so many ways it's unbelievable. I know it's Mom's favorite too. For dinner we ate with this family that lives on a farm (and on that farm he had an igloo ee-ey-ee-eye....  -Daffy Duck). They showed us their baby cow and chickens and goats, oh my! I loved it and think it would be fun to live on a farm even though it would be lots of hard work. Saturday was a day I had been dreading all week because we were to go down to Caldwell again. Today was different though. We went tracting and found lots of new people to teach! Finally the hard work down there is paying off! We taught something like 4 other lessons and got like 3 new investigators so we are in business! Later that night after dinner in Wellington, we went and talked to this guy that was watching the NBA playoffs. I had to tell him to turn it off (I normally say that to people if they're watching TV) because I knew I'd probably end up watching that with him. After dinner that night, we began our mission wide fast. We fasted for President Keyes and all who are involved in the transfer process to be inspired as to where to send the missionaries with the mission split coming up. I think I'll be in the Kansas, Wichita mission but who knows what the Lord has in store for me. Sunday was a good day as well. Although as we were doing the sacrament, I said the water prayer and the deacons were lining up to bring the water back when they needed another bread tray. I knew that they needed to wait until sacrament was over for them to eat the bread but didn't act. That bothered me for a few minutes after the sacrament was over and during the Bishop's testimony but then decided to drop it because it was in the past now and need to focus on the future. So that was a cool experience for me. Yes Mom, I did bear my testimony too about the San Diego temple 20 year anniversary and just the work in general. After teaching gospel principles and listening in Elders quorum, we had to wait close to 2 hours after church for brother Brundage to take us back home. He had to do all the tithing and fast offering stuff so we were there for a while. When we got back, we went to Harper to go with this spanish speaker in our ward. While we were at his apartment, we were talking to his roomate who basically speaks all Spanish. He was from Guatemala so his Spanish is a little slower and easier for me to understand than those from Mexico. We had a nice conversation even though my vocabulary struggles. Did you know that I love speaking Spanish? It's true, I do. After a lesson in which the spirit was extra strong with a couple with a baptismal date, we went and tracted with a young man before breaking our fast with dinner at the Leavitt's! They made curry for us and it was quite good, I have to say. The brownies that they made were super good too. Sister Leavitt really wants to move back to Utah, she says. I didn't really talk about San Diego with them only about my testimony and the temple, so sorry. Nothing else. So that was my week! Pretty interesting, huh? 

To answer your questions, yes the people were thankful that we were able to help and do a little of the dirty work for them. I enjoyed it and I think they appreciated it. I wonder how the show went.... The guy with a mountain man beard doesn't have a baptismal date anymore because he didn't come to church yesterday but we will go see him later this week and reset it. We do have a baptism coming up this week, though. So that'll be the ultimate birthday gift. Okay some cities for you that are south: Hunnewell, South Haven, and Caldwell are all pretty down there. East: Oxford and Belle Plaine. West: Attica. North: Conway Springs. So there's our area. It's pretty much a box if you connect the dots by 90 degree angles. (Don't worry, I'm eating lunch as I type this). The Hansen's had ANOTHER baby? She wasn't pregnant when I left, was she? Wow! Good job brothers for bearing your testimonies! Keep up the good work! And keep getting haircuts; they're good for you. That's awesome about Jordan's mission and how you talked with him about it! He has some stories, I bet. What did he do during the tropical storm a few months ago? If you want me to talk during the skype, you might want to prepare some questions! Just kidding. We can talk about whatever. Well I believe that's it for me. I can't wait to see you on Sunday and hope you have a great week! Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "My friend's in there."

"Congratulations."

...

"It's his first time on his own."

"Once again, congratulations."

........

"Popcorn get your popcorn!"

"Ugh! 2 hours is long enough!"

"Hey bubble buddy, you're finished!"

"He kept us waiting for a bubble?"

"That's nothing! He called us fat!"

"Dudes, he made me experience high tide! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

"He poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and ruined our picnic!

"He did?!"

"Noooooo! But are we going to wait around until he does?"

"No!"

"I say, we tip something over!"

"Yeah!"

"Now what?"

"Get the lifeguard!"

4-29-13

I am on the road to Freeport, Kansas where there might be 2 or 3 houses. There's a lot of country like this wherever you go. It was funny because we got a referral down that road where I am taking that picture and when we got out of the car, like 20 cows stopped eating the grass and just stared at us. There's also another picture I took last night of an alpaca that was a little too interested in us. I don't know if you'll be able to see the animal but it's there, haha.

Family,

Well how was birthday week? We have another one coming up this Wednesday. Dad is turning a young 51 years young. Dallin had his golden birthday. I hit mine when I was 9 and Cody's when he was 13 and Caitlin's last year. That's great to hear that Caitlin and Billy are safe and sound in Arizona. They'll have DC in their memories for a long time, that's for sure. 

Okay now for my week. I had several eye opening experiences and some unique ones too. I was surprised when you didn't comment at all about how the Leavitt's are in my ward here in Wellington because we all love that family. Anyways, Mondays are nice and relaxing. We just stay inside all day and do e-mail, letter writing, and pool playing. The members we live with are cool. He was in the military for like 30 years or something like that and is retired and I don't know Sister Brundage's story but she's here haha! She's like 6'2'' or something like that and is taller than my companion. So it's fun to have height competition. Anyways, on to last Monday. Once P-day ended, we headed out to Anthony: one of the small towns we go to on a regular basis. Nothing too big happened that night other than an RCLA lesson. On Tuesday, we had my first district meeting here in this new district. We go to Wichita for the meetings which is like close to an hour away. So Monday's weather was pretty warm  but came with some wind. Oh, before I forget, Dad doesn't have to send me weather updates anymore. We get it on the phone now. Tuesday, however, was a different story. It dropped down to like the low 30's and was really cold. I wasn't really prepared for that weather but it changed pretty quick. The meeting went well as I got to know the missionaries in my district. I have sisters in my district now, so I am happy. The other missionaries are really solid hard workers. One is MTC-fresh. After a good lunch at Braum's (phenomenal ice cream and burger place) we went to work in Belle Plaine and then Wellington while setting a baptismal date for one of our investigators who was supposed to come to church yesterday but didn't. It made me sad. Tuesday I was feeling kind of down because I wanted to teach more typical lessons instead of these short little talks that we have with our investigators. We were also teaching this one guy who smokes a ton and is baptist. He says he'll never change churches but just wants to learn. The Book of Mormon will change that, though, haha! One of the people we have on baptismal date, we saw on Wednesday. He has a huge mountain man beard. He also is very sarcastic. So I had to be very serious with him. And when I want to be serious, there's no fooling around. I made sure he understood what he's getting himself into when he gets baptized later next month. Fortunately he understood. He gets off topic quite easily. Which isn't a bad thing, but we're supposed to teach him. Not him teaching us. He later shaved off his whole beard when we saw him later in the day. We then went north about 10 miles to Harper, Kansas which is about the same size of Anthony (2,000-3,000 people). We had a spanish team-up come with us back to Anthony to teach this couple: one is white and one is a Latino. While we were waiting for our team-up, I was talking to his roomate who spoke mainly Spanish. I always love speaking Spanish to people. I have a lot of opportunities to too because there are many here in the area. More on that later. Anyways, we taught this one couple and invited them to baptism on May 25th! The spirit was powerfully strong and told me to do it. They will have issues getting to church but we'll help them out with that when we go over next time this week. But if they follow the commandment to be baptized and confirmed they will be greatly blessed. Thursday was a good day as well. It was also Jeremy's year mark in the Philippines. We had a lesson in Wellington with a lady that sleeps like 15 hours a day and smokes a ton! Whenever I go into a home where someone smokes, my asthma acts up and bugs me. But we taught her about the Word of Wisdom, among other things, and invited her to be baptized whenever she stops smoking. She said no and is quite stubborn. We do our shopping now either on Friday or Thursday depending on whether or not we're in Wellington. There's a small Wal-Mart there so I'm good. We don't shop on P-day because the only store in Argonia is the gas station mart.  Friday was several people's birthdays. Other than Dallin, it was Elder Casper's birthday. He was my first zone leader and is now an assistant to the president. It was also the birthday of one of the granddaughters of the members we live with. So there was quite a party going on upstairs even though she was having a rough day. The rest of the day was "eh". We got dressed in normal clothes and brought missionary clothes to Anthony so that we could do some service for a couple of people. Too bad both of them fell through. Turns out, the city was having a quilt show the next day and needed help setting up. So after changing back into our proselyting clothes, we helped some old people with their job. Hey, I got a free Gatorade out of it...and pringles. I saw some plaques in the gym they were setting up in for Anthony high school that date back to 1888. We were 2 of 3 people there that were under 20 years old. Probably 2 of 3 under 40 years old. We placed flowers, moved PVC pipes, and set up a quilt. It was fun on a cool, rainy day. Then came Saturday. Oh, Saturday, how I disliked you. We went to Caldwell where seemingly nobody is interested in the gospel. It was also a day where I was just very unhappy throughout the day. That actually was the trend throughout much of the past week: just not being happy. But Saturday was just the top of the peak of unhappiness. Satan was doing his best to get into my mind stupid Mr. immorality. We went to the bathroom at the only gas station in town there and all over the walls covered pictures of mostly naked women. It hurts me to see, looking back on all my experiences in this regard, how much this has hurt the modern world. It reminds me of Elder Cook's CES fireside talk at BYU-Idaho last year who talks about not wearing a mask. I suggest you watch that one. It was good. Anyways, we also talked to this household with this one guy who seemed kinda sorta interested but said he literally has 3 wives. That bugged me that he just said that to us. There were 3 women living in the same house as 2 men but as far as participating in immoral behavior, I'm just glad they didn't tell me any of that. They were also breaking the word of wisdom as we spoke to them. I don't understand why people smoke. What good does it do and how does it look cool? Anyways, later we met a very nice Jehovah's Witness lady who we had a nice conversation with on her porch for about a half hour. Once we left, we hit up Freeport (that is where 2 of the pictures I took were taken) and called it a night. After church on Sunday, we went to Harper again where we talked to this one lady who smokes a ton and noticed how the giant wasps are emerging from there dormant state of winter. At 4 yesterday we went down to Harper with the Spanish team-up and for the next 2 hours or so, I was speaking mainly Spanish. We talked to this one guy for only like 5 minutes and scheduled and appointment with him then went over to this one house with several people who spoke only Spanish and like 2 who spoke English fluently. They were bashing with us in Spanish (mainly with me because I was the only one with a tie on that could speak Spanish fairly well) and since I don't understand Spanish as well as I speak it they thought I was at a loss for words and they won the conversation. They were breaking the Word of Wisdom too and when we got there, handed all 3 of us iced teas. Of course, I denied it but they kind of got offended. I was later told to accept it but don't drink it just to show respect and gratefulness. I didn't care because then it would fall into the hands of someone else who would be breaking the word of wisdom. Once we were done with that experience, we went home for dinner, tracted the small town of Milan (that's where I met the alpaca and the llama). At the end of the night, we now have 1 mile left to use for the rest of the month. Let's see how frugal we can be, haha. 

Now to answer your unanswered questions. That is awesome that Jayson finally got a haircut. That boy needs to figure out life. Of course I was a rebellious child at his age. I think my life turned out pretty good. So I think this is just a phase for him. About my companion, I get along well with Elder Dansie. He's a hard worker and wants to bring people to the gospel. Just like all of my companions (and myself), he has things to work on. But he is good and he knows what he's doing. Dad, about the tornadoes and stuff, I am not sure what we'll do in an emergency. Since it is tornado season, maybe we should figure that out, haha! But I would love to see a tornado here. There were a couple that were here last year that barely missed Anthony. Our ward doesn't give us too many referrals because it's quite a small ward. Only like 60 people attend every week. It should be a branch but when it had enough people to call it a ward, they started tapering off again. YES! I do remember the Olsens! That's cool that you were so close to that member of the seventy. I was sad when the Olsen's left. Hopefully families keep moving into our ward and experiencing the love that is there. So apparently the building here in Wellington is getting an extension to it in July. I was very very surprised by this news because our ward is super super small and I don't think extending the building will do anything. Now the Fleming Park ward needs an extension. The foyers and the overflow were packed every week. Well I think that's it for me. I will talk to you later. OH WAIT I FORGOT to ask you: Why did Cody send me the exact same letter he sent me back in September or October or something like that? Well now that's it. Until next week. Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "Out there is home. Home, Auto. And it's in trouble"

"It is not necessary for us to go back."

"AH!.........I'm the captain of this ship. And I say that we go back." 

4-22-13

Here is me in my new area. I got transferred. Totally out in the middle of nowhere.  It's in the middle of nowhere in Kansas! So you thought Wamego was farm country right? Well come here and discover that as you drive down the highway, you see wheat fields as far as the eye can see with a couple of scattered houses. It's way different than Blue Springs, that's for sure which was all city. 

Family,

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's your birthday in zero days, doo doo doo doo. It is indeed birthday season! I am a teenager for only a few more weeks. the past 8 years have gone by pretty quickly. I might as well say Happy Birthday to Dallin as well. So HAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPYYYYY BBBBBBBIIIIIIIRRRRRRTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY DDDDDDDAAAAAAALLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom, I thought you were 20? Isn't Dad 25 too? I'll wish him happy birthday next week. So our Mother's day skype will be here in the home that I live with. I'll let you know all the details when the date gets closer. Now on to my week.

This week was filled with mixed emotions and I learned a lot. On Monday it was just a normal P-Day. But while shopping I didn't buy as much as I normally would in case I got transferred. I also got another migraine while playing basketball. It was only a little one but was still annoying nonetheless. It came with more nausea than normal but I endured it well enough. Tuesday was an eh kind of day. All 3 of our appointments fell through including one I was really looking forward to with one of our spanish investigators because we had a team-up who spoke it fluently. In fact better than English. Also I missed out on an appointment with the people that we had on baptismal date. That night we had transfer calls where we got a message depending on where we would go. I found out that I was to be sent to the Wellington ward in the Wichita, Kansas stake. I was kind of disappointed but knew that the Lord knew me better than I knew myself so away I went. I have learned to expect the unexpected on my mission when it comes to transfer calls. So that night I began the process of packing up all of my stuff that I felt like I just unpacked. Wednesday was a pretty good day considering all of the appointments we had and the work we had to do. We went to the visitor's center with one of our investigators and toured the temporary exhibit downstairs with pictures in the early 1900's of the areas where the church began such as the sacred grove, Newel K. Whitney company, and others. It was enlightening to see the history of the church in that way. We had meetings at the church that night so I was able to say goodbye to all the young men that I had grown to love. The young man that we baptized pretty much tackled me. It was fun, haha! Thursday was the big day. We woke up early so that I could finish packing. Elder Andrus didn't want to get up early but I had to because it took me an hour and a half to finish packing. Right when I finished, the zone leaders picked us up in the literally pouring rain (it was coming down). I got to the transfer station and saw Elder Hamblin again. I also ran into Elder Stratton, the one who is good friends with Jacob Hepworth. A surprise met me in Topeka as Elder Clare got on! I got to be with him for the next couple of hours on the bus ride down to Wichita where we reminisced on our experiences in Wamego. We also played Book of Mormon baseball on the way down. It was tough to say goodbye because being way down in Wichita means I will probably never see him again in the mission field. He goes home in July. My new companion, Elder Dansie, and the member we live with picked us up and took the hour drive down to his home in Argonia, Kansas. We live in his basement. We have a full time car and 1750 miles to use. But because the area is so widespread, those miles are used up quite quickly. The Wellington ward covers several small towns around here including: Wellington, Argonia, Caldwell, Anthony, Harper, Belle Plain, Danville, and other smaller towns. Caldwell is like 5 miles from the Oklahoma border and therefore mission boundary. But don't worry, we never left it. The beds we sleep on are comfy, though! On Friday, we didn't have any plumbing on in the house so we didn't shower until our member fixed it. We spent the whole day in Wellington. Oh, so Elder Lowry, the last Elder here before me, accidentally took the phone with him so we are without a phone for a while haha! The pictures I sent you were taken in Milan, Kansas: a town that could be tracted within an hour. It does have a post office though! Saturday felt forever as we spent a long time in Caldwell. Some people seem interested in the gospel but not many down there. Also, I'm the one driving the car because Elder Dansie left his wallet somewhere and he can't find it. So I have been driving ever since I first started training Elder Black in November. Sunday was a super fun filled day! I think it made my week, in fact!  Before ward council, we ran into a brother in our ward named brother Leavitt. Yes, that brother Leavitt. I don't know his first name but he is the uncle of Sarah Leavitt! Therefore Bro. Fred Leavitt's brother! It was awesome to talk to him and his wife about Sarah and Alex and the whole family. They were baffled at the small world we live in as was I. His brother looks so much alike! It was crazy! I told them about how we graduated together and ran cross country together and also about        their other family stuff and stuff. I thought it was odd to meet them in such a place as Wellington, Kansas. So Dad, if you could please send me the weather updates from Argonia, Kansas from now on that would be fabulous. I also blessed the sacrament for the first time since college and gave a talk all in the same day. I talked about Christ and the atonement. We had a nice potluck after church too. I'm just trying to adjust to the area and our investigators. So YEP! That was my week in a nutshell. I'm sure I forgot some details in there. Oh while going to Caldwell on Saturday, we were able to give a sick sister a blessing. I love giving my priesthood service to those who are in need of it. And we just got the phone back today so YAY! 

Jayson, I thank you for the nice words. You are so awesome to write that to me that I really appreciate it. Did you get a haircut yet? Is baseball going good? What do your jerseys look like? I'm glad you like the scriptures I left you with. I know they will help you in your life and  as you follow their counsel it will help you because Moroni is an awesome man. Please look at your life and try to make changes to where you could serve a mission right now. 

Dad, thanks for your e-mail. I was very surprised to see that Kenneth wants to leave the church just as his sister did. that is an awful day should he do so. I've talked to him in the past and he seemed into the church and all but I guess his Mom is just nagging on him to just give up. It hurts me to see people go through this because he has so much potential as a priesthood holder. He's been to the temple right? Hopefully he can look at the eternal grand scheme of things and choose the right path towards exaltation. Because the temple is where that is done. But thanks for all that you do for me, Dad. I love you. I will come home on a stretcher and remember that today...we get to do missionary work. If you could send me weather updates to Argonia, Kansas from now on that would be great.

Well that's just about all for me. Ask me any questions you want. I'm an open book. I'm still district leader and look forward to serving the fellow missionaries in my district. Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: I really can't think of any quotes anymore. My mind has slowed down especially now that I don't have Cody around all the time to quote them to me.    

4-15-13

Here's the pictures for the baptism. The last one was the little pond that our member lives at that we had dinner at last night. It had started to rain pretty hard right after that.

Family,

Wow......what a week. I don't even know where to begin, haha! But Thanks for your e-mails and especially kind words about the letter I wrote. It really means a lot. I can't really remember what I said but feel that I wasn't writing it. Has Jayson EVER born his testimony at church before? I think I ought to add a few items to my birthday list. Eclipse hymns CD's, and moleskin. I have a nasty blister starting to form on the back of my right heel and don't know if I packed any moleskin before my mission. So I'll look for some at Wal-Mart today if not, maybe I'll buy some duct tape. Oh, and for the D&C seminary DVDs it should be green and have the restoration video, mountain of the Lord, and others. Now I'll delve into my week. 

On Monday we had dinner at the Bishop's house. We invited him to come with us to see a less active couple in our ward who really want to come back to church but just lack the motivation on Sunday mornings. It was a good visit as the bishop and him scheduled an interview for the next night (Tuesday night). Apparently that meeting went well as they came to church yesterday! That was super exciting for us. On Tuesday we had like a million appointments. So it was great. We first talked to this one guy we helped move in in early February and invited him to come to church. He said that he would once his work schedule allows him to do so. He's never been to a Mormon church before so should really enjoy it. We'll invite him to the Single's branch. He is quite opinionated so it's interesting sometimes when we get into conversations. One of our appointments fell through later that day so it was rather slow even up until dinner. We had to go out to eat because the members who were feeding us weren't able to do so. So they just gave us money to go out wherever (I like it when members do that). Elder Andrus chose this new burger joint that was pretty good. After dinner we had a lesson with 2 new investigators of ours. They are a super sweet couple and pretty curious about what we believe. They already go to a church, they say, but welcomed us in anyways. Our team-up dominated the majority of the discussion and did a great job teaching and explaining to them about what we believe and answering our questions. We were jumping around the whole lesson, though, so it was rather difficult to pull it all together and do what Preach My Gospel tells us to do. But it was a good lesson and I was afraid to ask them to be baptized. Hopefully I can get over that fear and just do it as I learned in the MTC. After that appointment we had another at 8. The lady we were teaching that day read the whole May 2010 Ensign that we gave her the previous week. She took 3 hours and read the whole thing. She knew it those general conference addresses were inspired of God. She would be baptized already should her living situation be figured out. But we're just waiting for her to get a job so that she can move out and sustain herself. Hopefully the Lord can help her with that because I know he will. Wednesday we had a good lesson with this new investigator of ours who used to be a Cowboys cheerleader in the 90's. She is also very interested in the church but will have a tough time getting over Eternal families because she doesn't want to be with her family forever. So it's a tough situation. She loves us a lot though because we actually listen to her. Later that day we had our final lesson with our baptismal candidate. He was ready and really looking forward to officially being a member on Saturday. Later that night we had a lesson with this super cool family that we invited to be baptized and they accepted! Our team-up was perfect too because he has a daughter that has the same birth defect as their son. Their son turns 1 the same day I turn 20. Wow. 20 years old. Anyways, that took up the rest of our night. OHHHH! That morning we had a zone meeting where we learned and prepared on how to learn Christlike attributes. It was a good one. After weekly planning on Thursday, we went tracting with a young man and came across a less-active member who wasn't on our records. It was exciting yet disappointing to see the path she took after leaving home so many years ago (she's about Mom's age). Wow, I really can't remember what happened that day. I forgot to bring my journal from home. Apparently it wasn't that important. Friday was a miracle day. We went tracting with a young man that day and knocked on this door which appeared to have nobody home. They pulled into their driveway right as we were knocking on the door. The Mom asked "Can I help you?" And we told her who we were. She didn't want to have a religious argument so kind of said no thanks but after we explained that we want to have a discussion, she agreed and welcomed us in. We shared the entire first lesson and invited her to baptism. She's gone through a rough life and has just now been "saved". Hopefully she can discover us as the representatives of Jesus Christ. So that was an awesome moment for us. We also taught a lesson to another one of our investigators and got him to commit to go to the visitor's center with us later this week. So hopefully we can grab a team-up for that day. Later on Friday night, we had our investigator's baptismal interview. He passed and we showed him everything and what will happen. Saturday was the big day for both Elder Andrus and I. In the early afternoon we had a lesson with one of our older investigators and had a team-up with us. This investigator has a huge smoking problem but says he can quit anytime. He just enjoys it. I swear he blows half his retirement check on cigarettes because he always has a cancer stick in his mouth...even when we're there. I hate it hate it hate it. We see him progressing little by little. It'll take time but he'll get there. The rest of the day went really slow. I mean reeeeeaaaallllyyyy slow. We were so happy to finally have dinner at 5. After dinner, we rushed to the church and started the font at like 6:20. The baptism was at 7. We then went home, changed, and rushed back. I was worried that the font wouldn't be filled in time. Turns out I was right as the water only went halfway up the hamstring. His whole family came including his drunk father. We took pictures and Elder Andrus was going to be the one performing the baptism. After the talk on baptism, it was time to perform the ordinance. So....who remembers my first baptism in July with Mike? Yeah, it was a repeat. Our ward mission leader and I were the witnesses. After 4 times, we thought it was good but in the back of my mind I kept replaying that his knee came up. Both me and the ward mission leader nodded after it. So the congregation left and went back to the relief society room to wait for those who were changing and Elder Andrus went to get changed along with the baptismal candidate. I couldn't hold back and said I think his knee came up. The presiding member of the bishopric (I think that's how you spell it) said the decision to do it all over again was up to me. This literally was one of the toughest decisions of my life because I didn't want to be the one to blame to bring everyone back. So the bishopric member told me to go pray. I did so and thought I would get the answer right away but nothing really came. So after mulling over this inconvenience, we filled up the font again and I said that we ought to do it again. At that instance, I felt an overwhelming calm come over me like that was the right decision. I've never felt like that before. This was an amazing experience for me to build my testimony about my Heavenly Father and how He answers prayers. It doesn't come when you want it. Just like the brother of Jared sometimes you have to act before you get an answer. So that's what I did and the congregation came in and we did it for a fifth time. This time he was sitting down in the water and he got it for sure this time. So Elder Andrus beat my record of 4. But the overwhelming part of that day and event was the fact that I got an answer to my prayer. I feel like that has been the trend on my mission thus far: a testimony of prayer. Hopefully I'll have that memory when I come home so that I can tell you in person. After locking up and stuff, we went home. On Sunday we had a great ward council and I didn't expect was was coming next. Our whole stake presidency was on the stand for sacrament today so something had to be up. Turns out our Bishop was released! And another one of our bishopric members too. The new Bishop we have is super super cool. He converted from RLDS less than 10 years ago and is super solid. He's quite an opinionated man himself. Oh, of course, our convert had his confirmation too. The member he is really close with performed the confirmation. He said some pretty amazing blessings. Our recent convert then got up and bore his testimony! So he's super solid. After church, we had an interesting run-in with a homosexual less-active member. She became offended with the whole prop 8 stuff and how the church is so opposed to Gay marriage. It hurt me to see her turn so hard hearted. I told her to look at the eternal grand scheme of things and where she COULD fit in the celestial kingdom. Unfortunately we had to leave early because we had dinner. At dinner, we had a conversation which kind of hurt me because I've realized missionaries and members alike have been bashing more than normal to other churches. I have determined that that isn't Christlike so will discuss that with President Keyes with interviews next month. I believe I mailed you our only schedule so we'll figure it out, haha! Oh, I also forgot to mention that at the baptism I was to give a talk on the Holy Ghost but forgot it at home so had to just wing it. I felt like I did a pretty good job. Well that's my week for you! Thanks for being there for me and the support!

About that experience with the neighbors who bashed with us last Sunday night, they gave me no chance to speak otherwise I would've bore my testimony. Thanks for sharing those scriptures, Dad. It also reminded me of Matthew 10:22 "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that endureth to the end shall be saved." So it just goes to show you that the prophecies of the Lord are being fulfilled all the time. As a missionary, you kind of feel like Mormon and Moroni who were the only disciples of Christ left. That's what I feel like sometimes. Isn't the Book of Mormon awesome? It just helps in so many aspects of missionary work. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I met a person yesterday who came home from the San Diego mission 3 weeks ago. He knew Elder Johnson and the Elder who just went home with him from Bainbridge Island. I wanted to talk to him a lot but he had to go. I don;t remember his name either, sorry. Who's Elder Yates? I don't recall that name. I'm jealous of Billy how he got to visit with Sister Dalton. She is so cool. Way to go Cody on clearing 13'! Hopefully he can build off that. Where's Teradata? Well I love Mondays because I get to do e-mailing! I hope you have a great week this week and can't wait to hear from you next week! Let me know if you need anything! Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: I was at a less active member's house last Monday and heard this on the TV downstairs:
"Forever! Forever! Forever!"
"Hey old squiddy I bet Krabs is going to die anyday! Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward? Eh Squidward?"
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"          

4-8-13

Family,

Dad, the number one thing that I have to say to you and the most important thing that I have to say to you is: MACK!!!!! 

That's all I need to say for the week. Haha, just kidding. I had an interesting week capped off with some great conference talks over the weekend. Short sleeve season has begun: today actually! So we are happy that it has begun even though the weather that you sent us says that it'll get pretty cold later this week. I might wear my short sleeve shirt anyways because I love short sleeves. So about a week and a half ago, if you remember me telling you last week, I got sick and had really low energy for about a day. Well I'm still feeling some little minor effects from it. I woke up yesterday morning with a massive soar throat and throughout the week I had a lingering soar throat. Thank goodness for ibuprofen. Along with that soar throat, the asthma returned. I haven't felt the asthma since middle school so I was kind of surprised to feel it. I thought I grew out of it. But I pulled through and just had a few coughs here and there. I was feeling it during the priesthood session pretty bad but not life threatening. I felt asthma every day throughout the week. 

On Tuesday, we had a very very very slow afternoon. Nobody was home and we used something like 45 miles that day when we should be using 33 a day. We made that up in the latter end of the week so don't worry. We had an appointment with our baptismal candidate later that day and confirmed his date for this coming Saturday, the 13th. This will be my 4th baptism and first since Jayce's birthday. So both Elder Andrus and I are pretty excited. He lives in some difficult circumstances so we're really proud of him. His family is baptist and hate us with a burning passion. But now that their son is being baptized, they have to respect us now. They will be coming to his baptism so we're excited. I'll tell you about an experience we had with him last night later. On Wednesday, we had an unplanned district meeting in the which I taught about chapter 10 in Preach My Gospel: Teaching Skills. That's a very useful chapter. Later, we had our single's branch correlation meeting at the same time as the youth going to the temple for youth baptisms. I am glad to have a temple so close now. In Wamego, it was a 2 hour trip and and all day activity. So Wednesday was kind of like a meh kind of day but we pulled through. I don't remember much from Thursday. Just that our weekly planning went a little longer than normal. On Friday we had an appointment with this one lady who knows that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that Joseph Smith is a prophet but refuses to go to church with us. She says that it has strengthened her faith to go back to her church: The Blue Springs Christian church. That church reminds me of the great and spacious building that both Nephi and Lehi saw because of its size. She makes me frustrated sometimes because she won't really commit to anything. Maybe we should drop her but we'll see. Later we went tracting with our baptismal candidate and his friend who introduced him to the church. He loves coming out with us because he home is nothing like to what he is about to do this coming Saturday. Later, I almost caused great damage to our car by scraping the curb by our ward mission leader's house. Luckily it was just a scratch and no dent or anything although it still might need fixing. Saturday was the day we were looking forward to this whole week. I was excited for both of the new temple locations in Cedar City (that's a small town!) and Rio De Janero, Brazil. Rio I was kind of surprised because of all the crime that's down there and cedar city because of the town's size and closeness to the St George temple. Saturday morning brought my favorite talk of the conference. Sister Dalton gave a great talk on I think the Law of Chastity. After the first session, we went and had lunch then helped move some furniture for a less-active member. She was going to take it to St. Louis for her son who's moving down there. After, we went home, changed, and went to the church for the next session. I don't really remember many talks from that session. Just Craig A Cardon's boss tie. He gave a good talk about Jesus Christ and stuff. I felt that the overall theme for this conference was strengthening the family. Before dinner we had an appointment with our baptismal candidate and set the whole Program. We are ready for it this coming Saturday. At the priesthood session I liked the 2 talks centered for the young men. It totally hit me hard that they need to prepare to serve and that I am glad to be serving now. When we got home that night, our neighbor was outside smoking with another neighbor and her friend who were both consoling her. She had a broken hand and was obviously distraught. Her husband apparently was drunk and tried to run her over. She asked us what motivates us to live. I said the Plan of Salvation and testified of Jesus Christ. She just cried and cried. I just love it when people throw their life problems at us. It happens about once a week. Elder Andrus said she was drunk but I don't know. I can never tell. Sunday was another interesting day. My favorite talk in the morning session was president Monson and especially his fire story. I laughed so hard. In the afternoon, it was harder to pay attention because I was beginning to become all conferenced out and run out of spirit fuel. But I enjoyed Elder Holland's talk. Is it okay that I don't understand the story where Christ healed the Father's only child? I thought it meant humbleness and asking the Lord to help your faith. But Elder Holland honestly confused me. After conference ended, we had dinner given to us to eat at home before an appointment with our baptismal candidate at 7. Right after we ended the opening prayer, his neighbors/landlords opened the door and, being not of our faith, bashed us to pieces giving us no chance to speak. The spirit was gone and they tell us how wrong we how. If someone tells us one more time that we're a cult, I'm going to laugh at them. You know what the real definition of a cult is right? Yeah, it's retarded. Once we finally shooed them off, we talked about lesson 4 a little and rehearsed the baptismal interview questions to him. He's ready but just needs to get out of that belittling environment. Every time he gets home and talks to his neighbors, they talk about religion. Not about sports or school or "how's your day?" but religion and how he shouldn't be talking to us. It hurts me more than anything to see such hard hearts in this world. Why is Satan so good at what he does? Anyways, after that appointment we went home in the pouring rain. This morning we got haircuts and we are just living life to the fullest! 

Thanks for the family update. I really appreciate it. How's Elder Galiza doing? I bet he would be in a huge culture shock. How's the ward doing? Am I going to recognize it in a year? I hope to be able to write a letter to Jayson today. Let's see how much time I get for doing so. Any baptisms in the PQ2 ward planned? Well, I unfortunately can't think of anything else to say. Just that I love you all and hope you have a great week this week. We have a million appointments tomorrow so hopefully they don't all fall through. Thanks again. Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "Hey have you seen Spongebob anywhere?"
"You mean Musclebob Buffpants? He's in there!"                        

4-1-13

Family,

First off from seeing those pictures, Jayson needs a haircut. My goodness. But sounds like you had an amazing trip! I wish I was there but have work to do here. Did you meet missionaries there in that DC ward? I laughed at a lot of what you said like about that weird Costco with only black people. That would be the same here if you went to downtown KC and found a Costco you would find mainly black people. I live in a more urban part of town so I don't have to deal with that. Although some of our investigators are black.... Anyways, enough about that. I loved loved loved your e-mail and hearing about the hard times and the good times of the vacation.

My week went well. I hope to be able to convey it all to you in the way it actually went. Monday was just a normal P-Day. One of our investigators showed up but didn't play. I hope he progresses because even though he has a baptismal date, he doesn't seem to have that real intent that Moroni talks about. All week, I have been reading in the Book of Mormon during my personal studies and reading about Alma and Amulek and how they spoke with such boldness as to convert Zeezrom, a very hard-hearted lawyer. It made me think when it would be appropriate for me to do that because some people I just want to punch in the face sometimes. I'll talk about that in a minute. I also read about the sons of Mosiah and their journey into Lamanite territory. They had so much success that a majority of the Lamanites would be converted. Even an Amalekite was converted! I want to be able to have that much power, authority, and especially faith as I enter hostile environments. That's the key in missionary work: faith; something that I feel that I need more of. But just reading about how these men were the vilest of sinners and turned into perhaps the greatest missionaries who ever walked on this planet is amazing to me. Hopefully people can open their eyes and stop being retards for once. That would be great. On Tuesday, we had a miracle moment. One of our investigators who wants to be baptized finally got permission from his parents! His date is the 13th of this month. We're excited. That was our only appointment that day. On Wednesday, it seems like everything fell through even though we had an overall okay day. Even our correlation meeting fell through. Our single's branch mission leader got released yesterday because he works like 12 hours a day and watches his disabled sister the rest of the time he's awake. We don't have a branch mission leader as of right now but maybe next Sunday we'll have one called. On Wednesday night, we got to help the teachers quorum become familiar with the mission papers process. Since I didn't really fill out my application, I couldn't help some of the time. But it was fun to be able to answer their questions and help them solve their needs. Overnight Wednesday night I woke up and felt really sick. Like high fever sick. But that's just because I was cold. So I put on my sweatshirt and socks and was good the rest of the night. I felt sick the next day, though. We had exchanges that day so after coming to the stake center, coming back, and starting to work, my body couldn't handle it. We set up an appointment with one of our investigators and she just kept talking and talking as my legs were getting weaker and weaker. Right after, we went back to the apartment and I called the mission nurse because I just had super super super low energy. Like lower than I have ever felt before. She just said change your diet. That wasn't the answer I was looking for but okay. I feel a lot better now anyways without changing my diet. So after I called her, we stayed at the apartment for the next hour and a half until we were to go tracting with a young man and our top investigator. I felt better from the resting and was able to participate a lot. We had dinner that night with a family whose Mom talks to squirrels like how Mom talks to Pennie. It was strange but she was super nice. I love this time of year because we get a lot of grilling. It's better out here too. Yum. On Friday I was nervous for district meeting because I wasn't sure if I would have the energy. But I felt a ton better after a full night's rest. I was still tired but not as much. District meeting was awesome. We watched the movie "To This End Was I Born". I love love love that movie because it portrays the Savior's life the best, I feel. So district meeting was quite emotional for me. Later that day we met this one lady who was on a coffee high. She was tossing her baby around while talking to us on her porch. It was strange and that is why I am glad that we have the Word of Wisdom. On Saturday, I did another baptismal interview in Lee's Summit. It was a 17 year old girl who embraced the gospel as she heard about it. She is possibly more golden than my first baptism. After, we went to this newer neighborhood to this family who moved into this brand new house only a week prior to us meeting them. They are hard corps baptist and were totally trying to convert us. But I felt a little like Alma and Amulek and how they stood forth boldly and how the people thought they both were possessed with devils. This family talked about no matter how old you are or how much of a sinner you are, if you accept Christ as your savior you will be saved. It baffles me to see the state of apostasy people here have come to. So say you were a rapist but accepted Christ before you became a rapist. You would still be saved while those that never accepted Christ but were good people will go to hell. It just didn't make sense to me. That's why I am glad to know the Plan of Salvation and have gotten it from my mind to my heart. That night we got a referral about this younger couple that is super solid. We have an appointment with them tonight and hope to put them on date for May 4th. So we'll see. Oh, I also sent Brother Bosen another letter today so he should be getting it in a couple of days. Sunday yesterday was pretty good. I'm sure not as good as you there in the comfort of our home ward but still good. There were some pretty good talks given in the Fleming Park ward and the seminary choir sang. Boy the youth sure brought the spirit. After a nice dinner, we had a good discussion with this less active guy who knows what he needs to do to reach exaltation. He just wants to go back to smoking and getting a nice cold beer on a hot summer day. But we described to him that it's little by little, line upon line, and precept upon precept. He understands and hopes to come back to church. So that is my week in a nutshell! I'm looking forward to birthday season! Caitlin's is not that far away. Let me know if you want me to send you a birthday list because I have started to make one. Guess who's looking forward to General Conference? Yeah, this guy. I love love love conference so much and can't wait to hear the statistical report, and talks about missionary work, and just overall every talk.

So I was looking at the pictures of Jayce and not only does he need a haircut but he is so tall! He's almost as tall as Mom. The weather this week has not been bad at all. It just got warm last week and should stay that way for the next 6-7 months. 

Dad, I thank you for your e-mail. Reading through it and your comment about the Jews being persecuted and killed and comparing it to the Mormons is so true. Granted the Jews were the ones to kill the son of God but what did we do to deserve our persecution? Nothing? You did not send me that talk by Elder Christofferson. I think I would like to read that. The helicopter I sent you was a gift from our members at Christmas time. I didn't need it so wanted to send it home. I never got around to doing it until just a couple of weeks ago. Have Jayce and Cody been playing with it at all? It should be nicer than the ones that we got for them previously for Christmas and stuff. So I heard that the family reunion is in Brackenridge again, right? I also heard that Jeff and his wife, Val will be there from Brazil. Grandpa knows all, haha!

Well, that's just about it for me. I'll let you know if anything else is new next week I guess. Hopefully Cody gets better and Jayce becomes the world's greatest baseball player! Keep me posted on the 2 children that are grown and out of the house. Talk to you next week. Love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!!!!"
"Have you fallen at least once in the past 6 months? then you need the super old person mega scooter!"