12-2-13

Family,

I erased all that I had typed on accident and was almost done. I feel like a retard. So I will give you a summarized version of what I said in my bigger e-mail because I have no time to type that all again. I appreciate all the time you spend sending me big e-mails and sorry this won't be as big.

So on Monday I got a great haircut by Sister Greenlaw even though she has little experience. Tuesday we were blessed with a miracle. 3 of our 4 appointments fell through so we tried where we thought a less active lived. We didn't meet him but we did meet someone who was waiting for us. Good thing we opened our mouths because she had many of the same questions Joseph Smith had and accepted the invitation for baptism right away. So that was super sweet. This week has been tough for me. Satan has been finding the weak links in my armor. My weakness right now is not having a desire to work. I feel super discourage right at this moment of typing because I erased the whole thing I spent an hour and a half typing. He had been getting me to think that Kingman is slow on work so you shouldn't work that hard. But whenever we do work hard, we are actually blessed with people to teach. For Thanksgiving, we went to Pratt to our Branch President's house. After finishing a huge plate of food, I played with 5 of his 6 kids playing a game where they threw pillows at my face yelling something random followed by the word "pie". For example: "Mud Pie!!!!" or "Cow Pie!!!!!!" It was so much fun. I love those kids a ton. Yesterday I gave the elders quorum lesson. I want to teach in an entertaining way but my way that keeps everyone in the class awake. Any thoughts? I taught on the first presidency message from December. I related it to what kinds of things make us happy. But anyways, that's my week in a summarized manner. I am soooooooooo so so so so so so so so so sorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy that I can't write more. I feel so bad that I deleted everything on accident. I think I hit ctrl/A/backspace thinking I hit the wrong key. But I need to get going. I may have time later to e-mail you more but I would like to write letters during that time. Well anyways, I have a journal and will relay some of these memories in the future, I'm sure.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something to say. I do need more zit stuff. Oh, and Mom if you want to send homemade cookies to my current address you can so that they don't go bad as fast. My address is:

433 Lincoln #4

Kingman, KS 67068

Well anyways, I love you so much. Especially for your patience with my non-typing skills. Elder Clay and I are getting along well. A little too well, frankly. But he's the best companion for me right now. I know it. And I know the Lord knows it. Love,

Elder Sutherland

11-25-13

Family,

Let me respond to Mom's questions before I get too far into my weekly dialogue. As always, I really enjoy your e-mails. I am loving it here in Kingman/Pratt branch so far. All the members are so generous and giving. Members do a lot of different things. Our Elders quorum president is a foot surgeon. Our branch president is a dentist (just like my boy, brother Belnap), a member of the branch presidency is a manager at taco bell. So we have lots of things. Most people here in Kingman and all the outlying cities are super nice. But there are some people that aren't so nice. Like last night we were tracting when it was like 22 degrees (it got suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper cold here this week. More on that later.) when we knowcked on this one door and an 87 year old woman opened. First she seemed nice but timid. We talked about the weather and she was like: "do you want to come inside?" I responded to: "Are you sure? It's up to you." Because I don't want to force my way into homes unwelcomed. Then she said: "Well who are you?" We told her who we were and what we have to share. She was then like: "Well you can just stay out in the cold, then." I was like: "What!" I didn't yell or be rude, so I didn't. That was pretty rude but whatever. It comes with the badge. Who knows, she may not have even known what she said. 

Yes, our branch president will be providing dinner for us on Thursday. We're going to be having 3 Thanksgiving meals this year. We had one on Saturday and we're having one on Wednesday and Thursday this week. So I am a happy man. That's awesome that you're having the missionaries over for Thanksgiving! I bet they'll love it! But anyways, most people are nice even if they're not that receptive to the gospel. There is no youth program in the branch at all. There is only one young man who comes about once every three months and everyone else is in primary. So we're just waiting for the youth program to boom here. Sister Hodson is from Pleasant Grove, Utah. I am writing this e-mail at the Kingman Carnegie library. Nobody ever uses these computers so I just take my good old time. Our P-days here are similar to Wellington. We e-mail here and eat lunch before going to Pratt to do laundry at a member's house and shop and stuff. I'm so jealous that you're having a turkey bowl. We're not having one here. I had one last year and I will definitely miss it. So hopefully y'all destroy everyone. Where is the turkey bowl going to be? And Dad, could you give me the Chen's address? I would like to write them. If you can't give it to me, then that's fine. Okay now let me get on with my week.

Monday was just another rushed day. Elder Clay didn't even have time to finish his laundry at the place we took the picture at. Today I will be getting a haircut. My hair is super long. It's actually touching my ears.... I even trimmed it back a bit. But we had a good time that night having dinner and passing the sacrament at a disabled person's home. That night we talked to a PMF/LA family. The husband is a pastor at the Cunningham Christian church. Cunningham is about half-way in-between Kingman and Pratt. He's a super nice guy and they're a super nice family. But they don't have the full blessings of the gospel. 

Tuesday we had specialized training in Wichita. The spirit was felt quite powerfully especially as our mission president addressed us. He is making a huge emphasis on the Book of Mormon and I agree that we haven't been using it as much as we should. It reminds me of words in church history by early church leaders and apostles of today when they say that the Lord is expecting us to use it and hasn't been blessing us as a result of the lack of it's use. Sorry I can't remember the exact wording but I hope you get the picture. I also had leadership training. That night, we had an appointment with a less active part member family here in Kingman. The lesson went well but they're kids were literally bouncing off the walls. It annoyed me because of how much energy they had. We need to work on the husband and getting him to church. He works on Sundays. 

Wednesday was a walking day. We had appointments in the early afternoon with some members here. One works a lot and wanted us to give her son a blessing the previous Sunday. We were in Pratt so that didn't really work. So we apologized and continued to work today. We later met with one of the families here in town and stayed for a long time. They're probably the nicest family on the face of this Earth. They will be feeding us this Wednesday. Thursday was an absolutely freezing day. When I mean freezing, I mean FREEZING! Wednesday was like upper 50's/low 60's and Thursday was mid 20's with high north winds...which made it even colder. I wore all my winter clothes and even that wasn't enough. But we made it through the day without freezing to death. I'm used to the cold now but the weather says it's supposed to warm up to the upper 40's by the end of this week so we'll see. I don't really like all this fluctuating weather temperatures but whatever Kingman needs to be hit with, I'm all for it. 

Friday we went to zone meeting in Wichita. Elder Johnson lost track of time in his training and spoke for like 30+ minutes and ended at noon when he was supposed to finish at like 11:30. So I guess he spoke for a long 45 minutes. It was good stuff, but I drifted off into la-la land for a little bit there. It was cold that day too. Elder Clay wanted to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts after but we couldn't find a place that sells them. So he resorted to Taco Bell. So that was pretty much the extent of that day. Actually, we did meet with the investigator we have on baptismal date. His testimony is definitely not there quite yet. But we'll help him get it. 

Saturday we went to Pratt because there was a baptism for the sisters. They had been teaching an excommunicated member that is ready and willing to be baptized again. It was a great service. The spirit was felt strong especially in one of the sister missionary's singing. We have some good singers in our district. After, we did some studying and stuff before going with the sisters to team-teach an older 85 year old man. They were passing him on to us. It was super awkward sometimes because he opened the door a crack with no clothes on, then in the middle of the lesson he got up to tuck in his shirt but it looked like he was doing something else. He also thought one of the sisters had a boyfriend because she's cute. She turned bright red after that. It was kind of funny. But anyways, he is an interesting man that will be difficult to get to church. But don't worry, we'll do it. 

That night we had a thanksgiving with lots of people. The turkey was amazing and everything was awesome. They also fed us Indian food last night. Yesterday we had a good day walking around in more cold. I enjoyed it today because we were walking around. I like walking in the cold and being all bundled up and warm in my jacket. 'Twas fun. We got home late last night (after 9:30) because we gave a blessing then had to walk for 40 minutes back to our car at the church. We gave 2 blessings yesterday. It was awesome being able to use the priesthood to bless the members of the church. So that was pretty much my week! Thanks, Dad, for your faithful e-mails and all of your wisdom in them.

Well I think I answered if not all, then most of your questions and desires in the paragraph at the beginning. But hopefully you all have a great Thanksgiving! I have some questions for you: How are the current family/ward missionaries doing in their areas? Jeremy, Kenny, Michael, etc. I love you and wish you the best! Love,

Elder Sutherland

11-18-13

Family,

 

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Sorry, it's a little late. I was so swamped with transfers and other stuff last week that I totally forgot that I didn't tell you that. Hopefully you can continue to get better and overcome your doubts and fears that you will not be able to serve a full-time mission. Satan is very very smart (duh, you know that). I just want to let you know something that I was thinking about yesterday. All the missionaries at our member dinner last night shared their favorite scripture. I shared the one on my plaque (Alma 43:19-20). After sharing, I was pondering about how righteous and firm men like captain Moroni was and Nephi, and Alma (younger and Elder), and Helaman, and Mahonri Moriancumr (the brother of Jared), and so many other scriptural powerhouses. As I pondered over them and their works, I felt like I wanted to be like them. I want to be so righteous that I will be able to have pillars of fire encircle me (see the story of Nephi and Lehi in the book of Helaman). I know that I will falter and sin often because of the natural man that is in me. But just the thought that someday I will be among such men in the afterlife boggles my mind. The Lord wants us all to strive to be like them. So I will be praying for you this week to be able to be like them and therefore more like the Savior.

 

This week was a little stressful for me. Monday was a "meh" P-Day and Tuesday was a super slow day because I was just focusing on transfers the next day (probably shouldn't have been that way). I also said bye to those investigators who refused baptism. Oh, Dad, you were wondering what I did to help them progress further, I was just there to be their friend. They really enjoy us coming over and just talking to them. So we shared a brief message and just chatted most of the time. 

Wednesday was a big big day. I hadn't finished packing by the time transfers came around. So we went to the 13th street building with a couple other Elders and I left my stuff there, intending on coming back later to get it. I wouldn't've been able to fit it all anyways because just this one Elder's stuff took up the whole car. We went to the transfer station and I met my new companion, Elder Clay. As I said before, he is from Syracuse, Utah and is 21 years old. Just like Elder Andrus, he was inactive for the longest time until God smacked him into shape (according to his words) and told him to serve a mission. What a motivational story he provided. He likes to talk...a lot. But I'm totally fine with that. That makes him who he is. At the transfer station, we expected to get a car to go out there but upon asking the mission vehicle coordinator about it, we weren't assigned one to use. I was baffled because we need a way to get to church and other meetings. It was actually up to President Bell's and the AP's discretion about who needs a car this transfer. I was about to give up when one of the Pratt seniors came in and said we can't function without a car. I agreed and persuaded President Bell to give us one of the reserves. He agreed that we needed one out there, I didn't force him to give us one. So we installed a bike rack, drove to our old apartment, picked up my stuff, and we headed out to Kingman. We also stopped in Goddard to get some groceries. Our apartment is nice and requires that we walk through the bathroom to get to the bedroom. 

The town so far is not that receptive to us. But we are still working hard and putting our shoulder to the wheel. You're going to be proud of me, Mom, we are needing to have to cook our food out here most nights. I actually made pancakes with the microwave on Friday. That's how great my skills are. Thursday and Friday we walked all over tarnation trying to find this one particular address. We still haven't found it. The Auburn Hills sisters gave us a sheet with some names on it so we've been trying to visit those. We have very few members here in Kingman and we're working with those that live here. 

The Pratt branch officially changed yesterday and Kingman is now a part of the Pratt branch. I tell you, that is a super small building. You should look it up or something because it doesn't even look like a church. It's really, really small. On Saturday, we went and saw one of the members that we found here. He wanted us to teach his brother in-law. So we taught him standing up outside for like 15 minutes. My companion invited him to baptism and he said yes! So miracles are abounding here in Kingman already! He didn't come to church yesterday, though. So we're going to have to work on that. 

Later on Saturday is when I met some of the members of the Pratt branch presidency. They took us to Wichita for leadership meetings so that I could attend My baptism as well. It was great to be able to feel the spirit of her testimony as she got down into that water and was baptized by someone holding that proper authority. She is now clean. She has the gift of the Holy Ghost. She then had us all over for some treats afterwards. After, we went home. 

The Pratt branch has huge boundaries that extend to Medicine Lodge and other cities like Greensburg. We're mainly in Kingman but the Pratt sisters let us proselyte in their area as needed. So we now have 6 missionaries serving in the branch. It's now us, the Pratt sisters, and the Pratt senior couple. Elder Greenlaw is the branch mission leader and we're working hard to bring people into the gospel. There's actually one person who is excommunicated that is being re-baptized this coming weekend. She hasn't been a member for a very long time. The branch itself is super excited that they're getting elders again and we can see lots of enthusiasm beginning to blossom for missionary work here in the branch. We passed the sacrament yesterday. I love being of service to the branch and hope that we can bring many people to the gospel even in that tiny little building.

 

Okay let me answer some questions now. And ask them too. How is Jeremy doing with all the storms and stuff in the Philippines? I hope he's okay. I heard that not one missionary has died there. So that's a miracle in and of itself. Dad, yes the members are giving us referrals. One at a time. There's an average sacrament attendance of about 50 A week here (maybe less). Serving in Wellington, we've had days less than that. But there's more that attend there than in Pratt. There lots of inactives here that the senior couple and some others are trying to work with. We'll be working with those mainly in Kingman itself. I would say that yes, I left Wichita better than I found it. But I should've left it even better. 

Oh, every day in Kingman around noon, they test the tornado alarms. I just heard it, so that's why I had to say it.  I loved the pictures you sent to me. Sounds like Cody had a great B-Day! Oh, and would it be okay if you gave me the Chen's address? I would like to write to them and invite them to come back to church. If not, that's okay. I think it might be better if it would be a personal visit. But whatever you think. Well, I need to go. I wish I could write more. I really can't think of what to say. My struggles this week were really just teaching by the spirit. I need to do a lot better. I think I focus a little too much in lessons or something distracts me. 

You all have a great week and let me know if you have any questions about anything. I'm sure I forgot to ask you something. Could you send me some simple recipes and cheap too that I could use? I can't live on microwaved pancakes, haha! I know you just sent me some, but I need to be reminded a little and can't remember what you suggested in what e-mail last time. But I love you all so much and hope you have a good week this week. Love,

 

Elder Sutherland