Email....June 28, 2010

Hello Family!

This past week has been a good one. I went on a companionship exchange for the first time and it made me realize that I have come to love Coquille more than I thought! I went to North Bend with Elder Johnson, and Elder Mangelson went to Coquille with Elder Nelson. It was for Friday night and most of Saturday. North Bend isn't a big city but it is a lot bigger than Coquille. It is easier to find people to talk to but it is a pretty dirty city. There is Coos Bay and North Bend which are right next to each other and it is kind of like Provo and Orem where it all just blends together into one big city. When I say big that's by Oregon's standards. Combined they only have around 11 thousand people. I didn't like it very much though. I have come to love the small town feel.

We had an amazing experience this past week. We were tracting on Wednesday and we knocked on this man's house. He answered and was in so much pain he could barely talk. He said he had just been in a car accident and broken or cracked a few ribs. There were some boxes on his porch and he asked us if we could bring them in, so we did. He was in so much pain just standing up that we just gave him our number and told him to give us a call if he needed anything at all. We also told him we would stop back by and see how he was doing. So we left. About an hour later we get a call from him. He asked if we could come back over in a few hours and go pick him up some dinner and help him move some things around. It looks like he just moved into the house there is boxes all over the place and not much furniture. We had an appointment for the time he needed us to come back so we said we would get there as soon as we could. He called back while we were in our appointment and left a message saying that someone had come by and did it for him so we didn't need to. So we just pushed him into the back of our minds. We put him on the potentials list on our board however as broken ribs guy because we didn't know his name. So on Sunday we decided that we were going to go through and contact all the potentials that we had on the board. He was the first house that we knocked on. He answered and was still in some pain but not nearly as much as he was before. He asked if we were the young men that the Lord had sent before to help him. We said that we were. He sat down because he couldn't stand for long because of the ribs. We got talking about how he was doing and he started asking questions about our church and which church we were from. So we told him and then started into a discussion of religion. Come to find out he is a very well versed in the bible and understands it very well. He started telling us what he believes and it was like he was describing the church. It was amazing.

He has been so prepared to hear what we have to say. He said that he had been a minister for another church but he didn't say which one. The way he interprets scripture I know that he has felt the holy ghost in his life. He talked about Christ and his ministry here on the earth and he was telling us that we were doing exactly what Christ did while he was on the earth. He said that the fact that we showed up and just helped him with the boxes had made such a huge impact on his life and he knew that we were sent of God. So we talked for a long time about our church and the bible. He then asked us out of the blue, "do you believe that Christ appeared to the ancestors of the native American's?" It was perfect, it couldn't have worked out any better. We then started telling him about the Book of Mormon and how that is exactly what it is. We talked about that for a long time and asked him if he would read and pray about it. He said he definitely would. He asked us what our favorite passages of the book were so that he could read them. We gave him 3 Nephi 11 and also Alma 32.

In the MTC we talked a lot about the lords elect. Those who have been prepared to hear the gospel and are there for us to find. This is exactly that. He has been prepared by our Heavenly Father to hear what we have to say. It was such an amazing experience. The spirit there was stronger than I have ever felt it before in my life. He is just amazing. Oh his name is Harold Edward Clark. The lord has blessed us so much. I know that he will feel the spirit when he reads and that he will come to know that this church is true. I am so excited to start working with him. We are going back tomorrow to talk to him some more about it. He was just so excited while we were talking to him. He was telling us after we gave him the scriptures to read that his favorite scriptures in the bible is the parable of the sower. It was perfect, that is exactly what Alma 32 talks about. Faith is like a seed. I can't even describe how amazing this experience was. There are some other things that happened while we were there but Elder Nelson and I decided that we would keep those between us and the Lord and Harold. It has increased my faith and my testimony so much. That is exactly why I'm here, I know that we were sent to find Harold and bring him the gospel.

I have a challenge for everyone. Well not exactly a challenge but I want everyone who reads this to write down their testimony and send it to me. You don't have to but I would love it if you did. I know for a fact that this gospel is true. After that experience I can never deny it. I know that my savior lives and knows and loves each and everyone of us personally. He came and paid the price that we could not so that we could return and live with him again. I have felt that love and spirit testify to me. This gospel IS true.
I love you all very much.

Love
Elder Erickson

Email....June 21, 2010

Hello Family!
The weeks are just flying by! This week has been an up and down week. We went and met with Kyle on Monday night and it didn't go very well. He had went and saw his parents the previous day, which he hadn't seen in years and wants to get life so he can go and live with them. They are all Jehovah's Witnesses so he thinks that if he is baptized that they will not except him and he won't be able to go back and be with them. He also has a son whose mom has a restraining order out against him but he found out that she wants him to be in his sons life now and so he just dealing with a lot of stuff right now. We tried to tell him that the church is not going to hinder any of that but make it better. It will make his relationships better and help his life go smoother. So he told us that he doesn't want to have us teach him lessons anymore until he figures everything out. He said that he is not ruling out baptism but he just wants to make sure that is what he wants. Its a good and bad thing. I wouldn't want him to have gotten baptized and then have gone inactive. There is no point in that. We baptize for active members. We have been doing a lot of that lately too, trying to keep the recent converts active. It is going pretty well except for one of them. Her name is Amanda. She is 18 years old and was baptized like 6 months ago I think. Her whole family situation is really messed up. They just have a lot of issues. Her mom is a member and she has two little nephews who were baptized a little while after she was. But they are just a very disfunctional family. She was into some not very good thing before she was baptized and she is starting to go back to that a little bit. We are working with her but there is not much we can do at this point. She has her agency and can choose to do what she wants. We go over there a few times a week to talk and have lessons.

Anyway other than that we really only have one other person we are teaching and that is Andrea. We are trying really hard for her but she just doesn't really have the support there. Her grandparents are trying but that can only go so far. I think I told you a little about her last week. We were not able to meet with her this week. They are very flaky. Her mom is a less active member but we are going to try and get her involved. We had been going through the grandparents before to try and set things up but we are talking to the mom now. We have an appointment set up for Wednesday so we will see if that actually happens.

We actually have a lot of lessons set up for Wednesday. We found 4 new investigators this week! It is so good to see that the prayers and hard work are finally paying off. We have been out all day everyday trying to find people. The zone leaders challenged us on Saturday to go out and get our 20 OYM's for the day and we did. OYM's are open your mouths, its when you talk to people on the street rather that knocking on doors all day. The standard of excellence for the mission is to get 20 a day and we haven't been doing the best in that department. There just isn't enough people outside most of the time. Because it is raining most of the time. But it was sunny on Saturday and we got out on the bikes and got them. We actually got 22. We found a new investigator that day and also 2 new potentials so it was a really good day. We just need to keep doing that everyday. So we have three lessons set up for Wednesday and one for tomorrow. So I would appreciate the prayers so that they will go well. Our teaching pool is really low and we need to get it up. The people we are meeting with really need to feel the spirit and know that this is true.

So how's everyone doing? What's going on with the house in Spanish Fork? Isn't it around this time that they choose whether they want to buy it or not? Any fun trips or plans for the summer yet? Sounds like the trek was a great experience. Did Matthew and Melinda both go? I sent letters for Mom and Matthew off today. Still waiting for one back from you Melinda, and Maggie and Megan and Mckay and Dad, pretty much everyone! Just Playing, but it really is great to get letters so keep them coming! Grandma is definitely in the lead for who has written me the most, so thank you Grandma! Anyway we are going to this waterfall and lake today out in this town called powers which is technically part of our area but its over an hour away and there is only like 200 people in it and they don't like the missionaries at all. I guess its not very safe either so we'll see how it goes!

Well I love you all very much and hope to hear from you this week.
Love,
Elder Erickson

PICTURES

Here are some pictures from Marshall's MTC stay. (May 12 - June 1, 2010)

His MTC companion, Elder Hill.

Email....June 14, 2010

Well Hello Family!

This week has been a lot easier than last week. I haven't been thinking about home as much and I have been doing a lot of work. We did not have any new investigators this week. It is still hard getting people to talk to us. It goes from one extreme to the other. We have people who won't even open the door for us and then those who will talk to us but don't want to talk about the church. There are a lot of older people around and most of them will sit down and talk with us just to talk but it doesn't get us anywhere. We had interviews with President Macdonald on Saturday because it was stake conference and he was speaking in the adult session and also the Sunday morning session. It was great to talk with him and Sister Macdonald. They are both really amazing people. They were in Megans stake in Orem but left before Megan and Jeff moved over there. They only have about a year left so I will get a new one half way through. Stake conference was really good. We got Kyle out to that and he said that he really liked it. He hasn't been progressing the last few weeks but he told Sister Page yesterday that he really liked some of the talks that were given.

Okay so I don't think I told you about that whole situation so I will do that now. Kyle was homeless the first time he talked to the missionaries and had no idea what he was going to do. The elders talked with him and taught him about prayer because they didn't know if they were going to ever see him again and wanted to leave him with something that could help him. So the next time they saw him they were going to visit a less active member and Kyle was there. He was living with this guy named John. He said he had prayed and that after he prayed he met John and John said he could live with him. But that was not a good situation for him to be in while he was trying to stop doing a lot of the things that he was doing before. So a member in the ward, Brother Kane said that he could live with him for a while. But that wasn't a good situation either because brother Kane is not the nicest guy and they did a lot of fighting. So one day Kyle was out around asking people for food and he came to the Page's house. Sister gave him so food and he went on his way. He stopped by again a few days later and Sister Page got talking to him about where he was living and Sister Page told him to go get his stuff (which wasn't anything more than another shirt) and that he was going to move in with them. So Kyle moved in with the Page's. Sister Page has been a member for about 5 years and loves the missionaries and missionary work. So the elders were at their house one day and saw Kyle there and he told them what had happened and they started teaching him. They hadn't been teaching him very long before I got here. But he wasn't progressing for a while, but he has been praying and reading scriptures with the Page's and going to church and that is the story of Kyle. He says he wants to be baptized so hopefully when we go over there tonight we will set a date.

On the other hand Linda Koop who I mentioned last time is going to be out of town until mid July. So teaching with her has just kind of stopped. Things with Andrea are going well though. She has been getting involved with the young womens program and loves it. They had a pre girls camp camp out this last weekend and she said she had a lot of fun. It's hard with her because we needed to get her a support group around her because her mom is a less active member and so she has no support at home. Her grandparents are active members though and so they take her to church and we do the lessons at their house. We had a lesson set up for last night but she was sick so we rescheduled for Wednesday night. We are hopefully going to set up a date for baptism with her also.

We had district meeting on Saturday this week because of interviews. We usually do it on Friday during the day. We talked a lot about getting the ward more involved because that is one of the main purposes of the church is missionary work. It was one of the main focuses during stake conference as well. We should all be doing missionary work not just those set apart to do it full time. So we went and had a really good talk with Bishop Hladkey yesterday and made sure we were all on the same page. We are going to try and get the whole ward more involved rather than just us and the ward missionaries. We have been kind of the middle man because the zone leaders are the kind of people who want to just baptize people as soon as possible but the bishop has a tendency to want to wait extremely long to get people baptized. Elder Nelson and I are both the kind of people who don't want to baptize them into inactivity just for numbers but don't want to wait too long. So we are in the middle of all of this. That was one of the main things that we talked with bishop about yesterday and I think we are all on the same page now. We still have the zone leaders who told us yesterday that we should bench Kyle. Which means that we stop talking to him for a while which is suppose to make him realize that he wants and needs this gospel. But we all disagree. We are definately not going to do that. He needs this gospel in his life and he has already come so far. We are not going to give up. I am learning now the kind of missionary I want and don't want to be.

So thats crazy with the skunks, I bet they were pretty cute though. You all should have tried to train them and teach them to spray on command!! Thank you to everyone for all of the letters, I love getting them! Did you get the SD card I sent home? We are actually going over to the beach today so I am pretty excited for that. We are going to a town called Bandon. I guess they have one of the top ten nicest golf courses in the U.S. there. Called the Bandon Dunes. Oh I forgot to tell you there are sand dunes here everywhere. They go for like miles and miles. One of the members in the ward owns a rental company that rents out four wheelers and sand rails like the one we got at Pismo beach. So someday I want to take a trip back here and rent some and go for a couple of days. He has a sand rail that he built himself that has over a thousand horse power. Its a beast! Well I love hearing from everyone so keep the letters coming! I Love you all very much, and miss you all.

Love,
Elder Erickson

Email....June 7, 2010

Hello Family!

This has been one crazy week. Tuesday was tons of driving and flying and driving some more. I didn't really have time to do anything that day I just had to go with the flow. It was very rushed. The assistants to the president and the President picked us up at the airport at like 12:30. Then we went to their house and ate some lunch and took some pictures. Then we went to the mission office and got some information, signed somethings and had a quick interview with the president. Then we waited around for a while until everyone showed up for transfers. Then we all headed our separate ways. I am in a town called Coquille (coke-eel). It is the smallest town I have every been in. It is like 15 miles away from the coast and down not to far from California. My trainers name is Elder Nelson. He is a good missionary. He was originally sent to Mongolia and was there for a year, then they started having problems with visas so all the missionaries there had to leave. He has been in this area for three months. He leaves to go home in October. I am learning a lot from him. Finding here in Coquille is really hard because it is such a small town and everyone has either talked to the missionaries in the past few months or knows who we are and wants nothing to do with us. The members here are great though. They all love the missionaries so much and would do pretty much anything for us.

Our Area covers two other towns as well that are a ways away. One is called Myrtle Point and the other Powers. We don't go out to powers very often at all because it only has like 100 people in it and I guess they really don't like us there so its not the safest place. We went out to Myrtle Point yesterday though and visited with an investigator and some members. It is about the same size as Coquille. We have three investigators right now, there's Kyle Nickelson, Andrea Hollcroft and Linda Koop. They all seem like its not going anywhere very fast, except for maybe Linda. She is about 65 and was raised catholic. She is pretty receptive and we are giving her a chapel tour on Wednesday so we'll see how that goes. It is hard to stay optimistic because every time we have gone out and knocked doors we have not found anyone. No one wants to talk to us. But I am doing all I can to not let that get me down. We focus a lot on recent converts and less active members. I am getting used to being here, it is a very impoverish town so its very different and hard to see. I am so grateful for you mom and dad and all the things that you have given me over the course of my life. The area reminds me a lot of the mountains where terry and mike live. Its very foresty (I don't even know if thats a word ha ha). It is very green. There has only been two days that I have been here that it hasn't been raining. I know I said that I liked the rain but it's going to get old really fast.

I did need a bike but one of the members gave me one. I stood up in priesthood on Sunday and asked if anyone had a bike that I could purchase from them and brother Elmer came up to me after and said that he had a bike I could have. It was a big blessing because I really didn't want to spend a few hundred dollars on a bike. Looks like dads party was pretty fun, wish I could have been there. But Happy Birthday and Fathers day Dad. I'm sorry I forgot to tell you that on the phone when I called on your birthday. I totally meant to but I got caught up talking about other things. Its a bit overwhelming to think that I haven't even been out a month yet. It feels like the last few weeks have taken ages to go by. I'm trying to lose myself in the work but I find myself thinking about home all the time. I got a letter from Maggie on Saturday so thank you for that Maggs. My new address is 1161 N Grape St (downstairs) Coquille OR 97423. So you can send letters directly to that. I am going to send my SD card today with pictures of everything so far. Well I love you all very much and miss you lots.

Love Elder Erickson