1-14-13

Family,

I have seen the blessings of your fast already. Last week we found 7 new investigators. Mission standard is 4 (I think) and the highest I got previous to this was 5. We got zero member presents but we were just grateful for the blessing of 7 new ones. One of them, named Lester, seems quite promising. He was curious about what we believed and said he'll try to go to church one of these days. I am just really grateful for the chance to be serving here at this time. Next week, we have a general authority coming to our mission. Elder Gavarret will be coming and will visit missionaries' apartments at random and will also be having a mission tour along with a mission conference. 

So about your music question, we are not allowed to use headphones at all. If you send it on an MP3 CD we could listen to it in the car. That would be the most useful because every apartment should have a CD player (although I'm not sure if ours does). Anyways, the music we are allowed to listen to are all EFY, all Mormon tabernacle choir, all hymns, and primary songs. I would like some acapella male group hymns such as "Voicemale" and other groups I can't remember the names of. Those bring the spirit really well. 

Thank you for answering my questions. If you need to know anything else about the music or about anything be sure to let me know. 

Thank you for telling me about the letter that the Seljestad's sent to you. They were one of my favorite families in the Wamego branch. That is a very kind letter and I would say I have started out like Elder Black but did step it up when Elder Clare became a zone leader in Topeka. I feel like I don't talk that much now that I am here because everyone knows Elder Hamblin and he likes to talk. But maybe when he goes, I will be able to speak like I did in Wamego. I gave the Seljestad's your address when they sent a letter to me. I love that family. 

Oh, Sunday school. I remember those days. I loved Sunday school so I don't know why Cody would say that. My last youth Sunday school teacher (Goodness, I can't think of his name. Sister Prindle's husband) was a really good one and now that you're teaching his class that would be a great class! Who else is in his class? As I said before, the missionary work has increased since last fast Sunday. We are still in search of more people to teach or visit but it increased a lot last week. Wow, Caitlin starts TODAY! That's way exciting. Are they going to stay in DC when they move in May? Hopefully they can find a permanent, clean place. It can't be as dirty as my apartment here where I smell like cigarettes when I leave the apartment because the lady upstairs smokes and it comes through the dryer in our apartment. Elder Hamblin is doing really good. He is almost done memorizing lesson 4 and is really good at inviting everybody to learn about the restored gospel. We have been working hard this past week even though he gets pretty lazy at times. But I guess because of the increase in work, that'll change. Along with Lester, we are teaching two people in our apartment complex that are older and hurting a lot. One has suffered a divorce, death of 3 members of his family, and several surgeries. He said that whenever he starts praying and asking God for help that he gets more trials than he can bear. We are telling him that it is just a trial of your faith and Satan wants to make you think those things. The other in our apartment complex is just frustrating. She knows the Book of Mormon is true but says it has strengthened her faith to go back to her church and not Christ's church. Reminds me if 3 Nephi 27 or 28 that talks about how Christ's church will be in his name so be it by his doctrine. I've been reading in Mormon where Mormon is frustrated with the wickedness of his Army and decides to quit. That's when the Lamanites start destroying them with so much power that there is just no deliverance. That just reminds me of the churches today and how they glorify God in such inappropriate and vain ways (see Alma 31). It teras me apart whenever we run into anti-Mormon people. I seriously just wanted to punch this guy in the face last week because of his stupid arguments. His argument was that there were no horses in this land until the Spanish brought them over and in the Book of Mormon it mentions horses and that's why the Book of Mormon is false. What a bunch of bologna. 

As far as our district meeting last week, it was on finding. Elder Stratton related it to fishing and how we need to be fishermen of men. He related it to how we tract, how we give our dinner lessons and ask for referrals, and how we should change the Ho-hum and bring the spirit to our work. Oh, I also had the opportunity to give a talk in the singles branch yesterday. Elder Hamblin, Josh, and I all spoke on missionary work (Josh is our branch mission leader and was in the background of our skype call on Christmas). I went first and spoke for 16 and a half minutes I think. I'll send it to you whenever I get the January Harvester. 

I'm glad to hear that the ward is doing well with the new changes and that everyone is adjusting. Are there any more families that I would recognize that came in? Thanks for telling me about your last week, Dad. It gives me something to pray about for you and for the family. How's Dallin doing? Let me know how Caitlin's student teaching goes? Well, that's it for me. OH! I would also like weather forcasts for the week for Blue Springs because we don't get it on our phone anymore. It is getting quite cold here and bundling up is definitely necessary. Ta ta for now, love,

Elder Sutherland

PS: "That smell. That smelly smell. It's a smelly smell that smells...smelly. Anchovies."
"What?"
"ANCHOVIES!!!!"
"meepmeep meepmeepmeepmeepmeep"