Email: December 12, 2011

Hello Family!

This email is not going to be the longest, it has been a crazy day. We went to bend for a zone p day with our entire zone. One of the members up there owns an indoor sports arena and we all went there and played some football and ultimate frisby. It was a lot of fun. President and Sister Young were in town and so they came by and played with us for a while. We had interviews yesterday with both of them as well. They came out here and interviewed everyone in their own area which was pretty cool. This week has been a better one. I decided that I was going to take it by the horns and just make it a good week no matter what. We took one of the young men in one of our wards out who is preparing for a mission which was very good for him. His papers are in and he is just waiting for his call. We had some good lessons with a few of our investigators and one of them in particular was very good. She was tracted into by the other elders before us and so we took her from them so this was the first time that we had been able to sit down and visit with her. We talked for a while about what her religious beliefs were and then we taught her about the restoration of the gospel and about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We gave her a copy and challenged her to read and to pray about it. We are going to go back sometime this week and teach her more. I am very excited she seems pretty golden. Also President challenged us in our interviews to hand out 100 copies of the Book of Mormon by the end of the transfer which is going to be slightly difficult but doable. I really want to reach that especially with Christmas coming up people will hopefully soften their hearts and let us talk with them. I have to get going, I still have to email President Young. Sorry it was so short. I will write an extra long one next week to make up for it. I love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder Erickson

Pictures from Marsh

Email: December 5, 2011

Dearest Family,

How are thou? It sounds like everyone is doing pretty well. Getting cold there? The weather has been pretty dang nice here the past few days. The sun has been shining and it has been up in the 50's. We spent a lot of Saturday doing some service for some people and it was to warm outside to even wear a jacket it was crazy.

So this week was pretty crazy also. We had transfers and Elder Snyder was made District Leader and so now it is just us here in Prineville. 2nd ward didn't have too many investigators so we didn't have a huge amount of people to go see but we are going to be a lot more busy with both wards which I am very happy about. I hate wasting time. Elder Snyder had to go to Eugene for a Zone/District leader training on Friday so I spent the day with an Elder in Bend. His name is Elder Lechtenberg and he is actually from Lehi also and we know a lot of the same people. It was pretty funny. It was very nice to get a break from my companion and go and do some good work with him. They had a baptism coming up on Saturday so we spent the day visiting all of their investigators and inviting them to the baptism which went really well. They have so many more than we do it was a bit discouraging, but it says in Preach My Gospel not to compare yourself to other missionaries so I tried really hard not to do so.

We also had the creche this weekend which was awesome. I don't know if I told you about that but our ward and the other ward and a bunch of people from the community got together and filled our building up with nativity scenes and had an open house with musical performances from a lot of different people in the town. We had a few from other church's and then the choir from the school that a few of the youth in the ward are in and then one of the families in the ward who is extremely musically talented. It was amazing. There were a lot of people there and we were able to talk to a lot of them. One of the friends of Sister Moss who organized the whole thing came to church on Sunday and actually felt the spirit so strongly that she got up and bore her testimony. We didn't get to hear it unfortunately because we were in the other wards ward council meeting. But someone texted us and told us about it and so we went and saw them later that night and it turns out she doesn't live in town! It was kind of a let down but it was very good for her and we are going to get some other missionaries down in LaPine to go and visit them which will be good.

Other than that not really anything happened this week. It was very slow. I am going to try some new things that I set goals for and I am going to Make this week be better whether it wants to or not. I know from things that have been promised to me that I am expected to be a leader and I am going to do my best to step up and do it. I had the movie Forever Strong on my mind a lot this week and how the coach does things, and he actually has a mormon.org profile and video that I would highly recommend watching. He is the mission president in Fresno actually. I learned that from Grandma, but his name is Larry Gelwix. He says in the movie that he wants his players to be forever strong on the field so they can be forever strong off it. I think it compares greatly to being in the mission field and I have taken that to heart. I have so many things about myself that I still need to change and I am working on them now so that I will be different still when I come home and not go back to the way things were. Kia Kaha - Forever Strong. I love you all very much and hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: November 29, 2011

Hello Family!

This was a really weird week. It went by really slow and fast at the same time. It didn't feel like it was very productive because we had two days off and everyone was out of town for the holiday and it was very hard to meet with anyone. We had Thanksgiving dinner with the Thompson family. They have a lot of family here in town so there was a lot of people there. It was super fun. We played Apples to Apples after dinner and I totally lost because I didn't know anyone and they all pick really weird cards for everything. We got to watch 17 Miracles also. I had not seen it yet and it is an extremely good movie. I only cried three times though. To see the faith that they had throughout all of those trials is incredible. It makes me feel like I'm a whiner. They went through more hardships in that period of time than almost anyone does their entire life. They stayed strong and came to know their Savior. I want faith like that. I have been studying about faith a lot lately. Reading through the New Testament has so many different instances that happened because people had or didn't have faith. And we are told over and over again that if we had faith as even the size of a mustard seed then we could command mountains to move and they would. I am making it a goal to have that kind of faith.

This week we went and saw some potential investigators that we had tracted out a while back and had some good experiences. Both are families which is sweet. One of them had talked with Missionaries down in Medford a few years back and likes the church and the emphasis we put on families. He told us that he's not sure that we will convert him but he would love to have us come over and teach them. So our plan is to just go in and try to get him to have a spiritual experience. We are not the ones that convert people its the Spirit. We had left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and he hadn't got a chance to read any of it yet but his wife who we met for the first time this week said that she would read it to him while they were in the car. (They were heading to Idaho for Thanksgiving). So we were very excited about that.

The other guy we tracted into also and he doesn't have really any religious back ground but he was really interested to hear more. We were only able to talk to him for a minute this week because he was heading out of town also but he told us to come back because he was still really interested. I am really excited for both of them.

So transfers are tomorrow and we all got the calls on Friday to tell us what was happening. Elder Snyder and I are staying here in Prineville and they are taking it back to only one set of Missionaries here. So we are now covering the whole town. Elder Cooper and Elder Berg the 2nd ward missionaries that were here are leaving. Elder Cooper is going down to Roseburg to be a Zone Leader and Elder Berg is going to Grants Pass. Elder Snyder was made District leader also. So far everyone of my companions has been district leader while I have been with them. Pretty weird.

Sounds like Thanksgiving was good for everyone. Black Friday sounds like it is getting crazier every year. We have heard a lot of stories already it's just insane! Love you all and remember to be missionaries in your everyday life. It's what Christ would be doing if he were on the earth and we are striving to be like him.

Love,

Elder Erickson