Email: November 5, 2012

Dear Family,

I can't believe its almost Christmas!  Now that it is November we are allowed to listen to Christmas music, its awesome.  I have a Michael Buble CD that I got from another missionary that is awesome!  And I have a mix CD with some Mannheim Steamroller, I don't know if I spelled that right ha ha.  

This week has be an amazing one full of more and more miracles!!  It was incredible.  So my new comp Elder Clements is from Arkansas and has been out about 9 months.  He is a very hard worker and focused on the work.  It has been awesome getting to know him and I am super stoked about this upcoming transfer.  We were able to set another baptism date on Thursday night with Trona that we tracted into.  He is a single guy who has two kids who are 11 and 13.  We have splits with the elders quorum every Thursday night so Elder Clements was with our ward mission leader Bro. Beer who actually knew Trona.  They went in and taught the first lesson and invited him to be baptized and he is getting dunked on the 1st of December!  His kids weren't there but we are meeting again tomorrow night and we are going to invite them to be baptized also!  It is a complete miracle.  The ward baptism goal for the year was 12 I think and they are at 5 so we made it a goal to get them to the 12 by the end of the year and I think it is going to happen.  

We also tracted into another little family on Friday afternoon.  We had to go out a ways to go to our appointment with Ike and Delores and we got there a little early so we decided to tract right around their area.  We ended up only knocking 2 doors because the second one let us in.  It was a mom dad and son who were super friendly and allowed us to teach them the first lesson and invited us back to teach again.  We committed them to read and pray before then and we are going back Tuesday night.  The spirit was very strong in the lesson and we are stoked for this family and for the work that is going on here in Albany!  We have been striving to be as obedient as we can and we are definitely seeing the blessings of keeping the commandments.  We also picked up an new investigator named Angela last night who really needs the gospel.  She is a super sincere lady in her 30's and she has been going through a lot in life.  She has two kids who are in juvie for a while and then a seven year old at home.  She said that she would read and pray and that we could come back on Thursday night when we do splits and we will teach and see if she got an answer.  

For Halloween we didn't get to do much.  They didn't really want us knocking doors which was no fun but we had an appointment or two and then we had to be back in by 730 and we did our weekly planning.  I don't like days where we don't get to do much, I love working and staying busy.  It makes things go better and i'm happier.  I definitely feel like I am a different person than I used to be.  This was the best choice I have ever made!  It is cool to see the promises in my patriarchal blessing coming true more and more every day.  I know that the gospel is true!  I love you all very much.  This week will probably be a week that goes down in history.  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: October 29, 2012

Dear Family,

This week was money!  We didn't teach a ton of lessons, it seemed like they all fell through but we have this old couple that we are teaching that are so awesome!  I think I might have mentioned them last week but they are so sweet, Ike and Delores Adamson.  Delores told us last week that she hadn't been baptized only because she couldn't quit smoking so we talked about that on Friday and invited them to be baptized.  They both excepted and are going to join the church on the 22nd of December!  I am so stoked for them.  We didn't think Ike was going to want to do it but he was right there with her and they are all in.  Their daughter who is a member is going to come down this Sunday and go to church with them for the first time.  It's going to be so tight.  

So we got transfer calls on Saturday and............................................................ Elder Sheen is getting transferred down to Klamath falls and I am here for one more and hopefully more after that.  I love this place.  It's definitely not Roseburg but its pretty good.  I just want to only have one more area after this and it is looking like that might be the case.  So we spent the day yesterday saying goodbye to people and taught one family the restoration so it was good.  My new companion is Elder Clements.  I have tried to ask around and see what he is like but no one seems to know him.  Worsencroft said that he came out at the same time but he doesn't know him much.  So he has been out like 9 months which is going to be sweet.  President Young did say that he was super obedient and a hard worker so I am counting on that.  We are going to hopefully have 5 with a date by the end of this week!  I have definitely seen the difference that the lord blesses us when we are being exactly obedient and when we are not.  Elder Sheen and I sat down and evaluated what we could be doing to be more obedient the other day and since then we have just seen so many miracles occur.  The lord is there and willing to bless us when we do what he asks.  That's why is is one of the first principles and ordinances of the gospel.  

We had a cool conference call last night with the whole mission.  President wanted to talk about the new announcement of the age being changed for missionaries and what that means for us.  He had a few people from the missionary department here this week and they gave him some stats about what has happened so far.  He said the within a 2 to 3 week period the usually get around 800 applications for service and since General conference they have received 10,000, and half of them are sisters.  So he was guessing that within the next 4 months or so that we will have at least 50 new missionaries in the mission and that he will have to open lots of new areas and may even have more than one set in a ward.  So he was challenging us to all rise to a new level of commitment and be the best we have ever been because he will need lots of trainers for these new missionaries.  I have taken that to heart and really been thinking about that since then and I am so excited to use this time to totally consecrate myself to the lord.  

It's Halloween on Wednesday, just FYI, in case you didn't hear.  I think I'm going to dress up as captain jack sparrow... ha ha.  We have to be in our houses by 7:30 but they did tell us that we could hand out candy if we wanted so we might do that, depends on how my new companion feels about it.  What is everyone else being? I would like some pictures if that's okay.  Well I love you all very much.  Hope you have a safe and fun Halloween!

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: October 22, 2012

Dear Family,

This week was an incredible one.  It was filled with the spirit and lots of miracles!  It started off with having interviews with president young on Tuesday, which was awesome.  I always love getting to talk with him and share the progress I have been making.  He and I talked for a good half hour it was funny.  Anyway, we also had one of the assistants to the president come down and do an exchange with us.  He was one of the Zone leaders down in Roseburg when I was there and was made AP this last transfer.  He is an awesome missionary and super inspiring.  He is like 25 and hasn't been a member for too long.  

We were challenged by President on tuesday to instead of doing family history as much as we were to teach everyone we possible could the message of the restoration.  We took that to heart and have been doing that as often as we can this week and I feel that that was the source of all the miracles that we are receiving.  It started when we were at dinner with the Tranthums on wednesday night.  It was our first opportunity to teach an active family the restoration and so after dinner we sat down and planned to teach it.  We asked bro Tranthum to share with us his conversion and what stuck out to him the most when he was taking the lessons and became a member.  They have been members for about 9 years now.  So that ended up taking all of the time that we had but they had signed up for this wednesday also and said that we could do it then and they would invite a non member over to hear it.  We were stoked because it was the first time we had done it and we already were receiving blessings.  

We then were tracting and ran into this guy named Trona.  He is super awesome and actually knows our ward mission leader Brother Beer.  He walked out and was like oh good, I have actually been planning on converting to become a Mormon.  It was incredible!  I have never had that happen before.  He has been around a lot of members and said that there is not much else to it because if it wasn't from God then why are we such an amazing group of people.  He said he was moving this week so we thought we might not get to teach him but he's not moving out of our area!  We are super excited for him.  We also got an appointment with a girl named Lucy who has three little girls like 5 and under but she is a single mom.  She loves us and was so excited for us to come back.  Brother Allred was outside while we were tracting on his street on Saturday and introduced us to his neighbor who we actually set up 2 appointments with.  And she actually lives two houses down from Lucy.  We taught this older couple Ike and Delores, they have a daughter who is a member and Delores told us the only thing that has held her back from becoming a member was smoking.  She was very excited and we are going to help her quit and they committed to come to church next week already.  It just blows my mind again that the lord has blessed us with so much when we listened to his representative and had faith and acted.  My testimony has grown a lot in the past few days.  

Transfer calls come in the weekend so I am just hoping and praying that I get to stay and work with all of these incredible people that we are finding.  The rain wont stop us!  We are going to use that to our advantage!  ha ha just kidding, I am still not a big fan of it!  Well I think thats all I had for this week.  Thank you all for the good example that you are to me!  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: October 15, 2012

Dear Family, 

Crazy, I have been back out this time for 1 year now!  On Thursday anyway.  Time is going pretty fast!  I can't believe that it is almost halloween!  I think I might dress up like a missionary this year... ha ha.  

So this week was very long and mentally draining.  We are working are very hardest everyday to move the work forward here but we aren't seeing anything come from it right away.  It's hard.  Plus it started raining on Friday and that is going to take some getting used to again.  I forgot how not seeing the sun can affect how you feel.  But with all of that we won't let it stop us from pushing ourselves everyday and working hard.  We don't really have many investigators right now who are progressing anywhere.  Just Gus.  On the flip side though he is doing awesome and reading the Book of Mormon.  We had a lesson with him last Monday night and it went well.  We talked about what he had read so far and he said he likes it a lot because it is easier to read.  We kinda had a little lesson about Lehi's dream and what it meant.  I am so excited for that!  That is usually the hardest thing to get people to do is to actually read what the book says.  

We kinda started teaching this guy named George also but we aren't sure if he is just there to argue.  He has like 3 pages of anti stuff that he wants cleared up.  He sounds very sincere when he is asking but it doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere.  We went in with a plan of bearing testimony and getting him to realize that if he believes that the book of mormon is true than the rest of it comes with it and how important it is to get that spiritual witness from the holy ghost.  But he didn't sound like he was actually going to put it to the test that way.  He said hes going to compare it to the bible and if it doesn't match up then it isnt true.  So we will meet with him a few more times and see where it takes us but if he makes in argumentative then we will stop going over to see him.  

Elder Sheen was sick yesterday so we spent the day inside which was hard.  I had cabin fever pretty bad.  I watched the testaments twice and read and took a nap but it really helps me see how much I like going out and working everyday.  Its very satisfying.  Sorry there is more to report this week.  Hopefully this one will be a better week.  We have interviews with President Young tomorrow morning which should be pretty good. 

I almost forgot.  I was going to tell you about this cool study I did this week.  Brother Marteeny in the ward told us about it so I thought I would look into it.  He talked to us about Ministering angels and I had never really thought about it before.   But the Aaronic Priesthood holds the Keys to the Ministering of Angels.  Those angels who minister are the spirits who have already lived and have accepted the gospel or those who haven't lived yet.  Those who have already passed and are there ministering are our ancestors.  When we are being righteous we have the right to those angels who will be round about us to bear us up and also confirm the testimony of the gospel to others.  If you haven't looked into it, I would suggest it!  Love you all very much!  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: October 8, 2012

Dear Familia,

Conference was amazing!  I don't even know if I could pick a favorite talk if I had to.  They were all out of this world amazing.  I don't know how anyone who watches conference and feels that spirit not know that it is true and from god.  It makes no sense to me.  I know without a doubt in my heart that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and is called of god to be here on the earth and receives revelation and guidance for us today.   Christ Lives.  He is there and wants us all to be happy and loves us so much that he does whatever he can to help us return and live with him.  Families can be and are forever.  All we need to do is keep his commandments.  I am so thankful for the examples I have around me and all of you.  I loved all of the talks that were shared but there was one that applied directly to what Elder Sheen and I have been trying to do here in the Takena ward.  We felt that the direction to take to get the missionary work established and going here was family history.  

We had our weekly planning session on Friday and we were really trying to feel the spirit and be directed to what we should be doing.  We knelt down and asked and we received that answer.  So we got these pedigree charts from the family history consultants and we are taking them to all of our dinners and challenging them to fill them out and we are going to make a board at the church and have a "Takena Family Tree".   Then get them to the family history Center and share it with their friends and then get their friends to the center.  Elder Scott's talk was specifically about doing family history ourselves and not losing out on half the blessing of the temple.  I know that when we went to the Fresno temple with family names and did baptisms that I felt the spirit very strongly and I don't want to miss out on that.   There is a cool quote in preach my gospel that basically says that we need to dissolve the artificial boundary between missionary work and temple and family history.  It is the same thing.  Whether its for those living or dead.  I am very excited about this and we are going to be working on it very hard. 

We found 4 new investigators the week.  We have a lesson tonight with two of them, Lindy and Walker, they are a young couple and they are super nice and friendly.  The other is George and Kiersten fox.  They are kind of an older couple, they have a sincere desire to find the truth.  I didn't meet them because we were on exchanges but from what I hear they are great!  

I love all of you very much!  Thank you for being great examples to me and helping me become a better person!  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: October 1, 2012

Dear Family,

Well tell Wilson the dog congrats on being a dad!  ha ha that is nuts to hear that she had them already that fast.  Didn't she just get pregnant like a month ago?!  I guess I don't know how that works with dogs.  Crazy Crazy.  Saw some of the lake powell pictures, looks like it was fun!  Well I hope everything goes smoothly with the dog and that she is okay.  

This week has been a service week.  By sunday I was just so dead.  We helped the minks, a family in our ward mix and pour cement for a footing for a shop.  It was very cool to learn how to do it but it was super long and tiring.  I kind of want to build my own home someday so its good to know how to do concrete now.  We are still doing a lot of finding through the old formers and potentials list.  Bishop Harding also gave us a list of people to go and see this upcoming week and we have a cool lesson planned with Gus tonight where hopefully we are going to invite him to be baptized!  I am stoked.  We also did service and had a lesson with Laurette on friday and talked about her making the next steps to gain a testimony and really know if this is true.  We helped her peel apples so that she could dehydrate them.  It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  My hands were dying by the end. 

For our Pday activity today we went... Golfing!  It was so good to get out and hit some balls.  I haven't been for like six months and I am terrible but it is still fun.  We are also planning to go over to the coast next week which should be sweet!  There is a cool Nike outlet store over in Lincoln City that I want to go to.  It's weird, even though this is where Nike was started and the headquarters are they don't have a lot of stores around.  They sell the stuff in other stores but it is super expensive.  

I can't even explain to you how excited I am for General Conference this weekend!  Its hard to believe that its already here but I am not complaining.  We are going to invite as many people as we can this week to watch it.  Lots of the members opened their homes and said that we could invite some of our investigators over to watch it!  Well other than that, not much to report this week.   I love you all very much.  Thanks for being there for me!  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: September 24, 2012

Dear Family,

This past week was super busy and full of miracles.   It was different to not be working in the YSA branch anymore but it has given us the opportunity to focus on Takena even more.  We sat down at the beginning of the week and tried to come up with some new ideas for finding the neither of us had tried before.  There are a bunch in the front of our planners and in Preach My Gospel in chapter 9.  We looked at those and decided to try a few.   The ones that we have already put into action are we went to the hospital and put our names on a list with the Chaplin for people who are in need of someone to talk to.  Then we tried to find a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen that we could volunteer at, and we found one and asked what we could do to help and they have a thrift store that they run also and said that they needed help there so we did that on Thursday.  It was an awesome finding opportunity.  We got to know a lady named Angel who just moved here and is staying at the shelter til she can find a place to live.  She is an RN who is looking for work.  We have an appointment with her Tuesday.  

We also decided to go through the area book and contact everyone that looked like they had some potential to want to listen to the gospel.  We have a huge list now and we are focusing a lot of our time on contacting those people.  We found 3 new investigators just from that.  It was awesome, an old Black guy named Gus, who is an Vietnam Vet, and a guy named David and a lady named Laurette.  They are all very promising and we both felt like they are going to get baptized at some point.  I am stoked for the next few weeks that we will be able to teach all of these people.  We have Zone Conference tomorrow and it sounds like its going to be a good one.  I am pretty excited about it.  Also some great news, Elder Cooper is my Zone leader now so I get to see that guy all the time!  I love that kid, I am excited for you to meet him someday.  He has been a good example to me of what type of missionary and person I want to be.  

Other than that, Elder Sheen is a cool dude.  He is from Phoenix Arizona.  Has been out for like 9 months.  He is a very spiritual missionary and I am learning a lot from him already.  He has been a good example to me and I hope to be humble enough to learn from him.  I got the package yesterday!  Thank you so much, we have already had a ton of fun with those nerf guns.  Plus I am excited to try that Halloween Crunch!  But I have to buy some milk first, I ran out yesterday morning.  Well I love you all very much.  Hope everyone is doing well.  

Love

Elder Erickson

Email: September 17, 2012

Dear Family,

Well, as I said last week, it is transfers.  I didn't get transferred anywhere but I am getting a new companion today.  I am super bummed about that.  I love Elder Worsencroft and I am going to miss him a ton, we got a long really well.  My new comps name is Elder Sheen.  I have met him a few times and I know his trainer pretty well and I hear a lot of good things about him.  They switched up a bunch of stuff on us this time.  We don't cover the YSA branch anymore and they took our car and we are full bike.... again.  Plus they made us co district leaders which is really weird, I have only heard of that twice so far and I don't know why they do it.  This is the only part of a mission that I don't like.  I don't like being subject to so much change all the time.  It's frustrating but I have felt like this almost every time and I get over it so I will eventually.   

Other than that, it wasn't the most eventful week.  We don't have a lot of work going on in Takena, we were trying to work more with the YSA with school starting.  So its going to be almost starting fresh with the whole ward.  I love the people here though they are awesome.  We are going to spend the week getting organized and doing a lot of finding.  We have been challenging the members to share the gospel so we are going to follow up on a lot of those and try and get some new investigators out of it.  

So one month from tomorrow I will have been out a year this time.  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  I have been looking back on how I did in each of my areas and if I worked my hardest and it has given me a good boost to do better to not have any regrets and find everyone that I am supposed to.  Well like I said, I don't have too much to say this week, I will probably have a ton to talk about next but I love you all very much.  Have a great week!  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: September 10, 2012

Dear Family,

Well the end of another transfer is already here.  I can't believe, nor do I want, time is going so fast.  We had a really good week this week.  We are trying to get more organized over in the Grand Prairie YSA branch.  It is super hard because there are so many people who are moving in and out all the time.  We have been taking advantage of the fact that school for them doesn't start for a few more weeks and have been getting a bunch of the guys to come out to lessons with us and help us find people.  It is going really well.  We found two new investigators this week while we were going through formers and potentials and visiting them.  We have a jam packed day tomorrow and I am so excited about it.  There is no substitute for good hard work and that's what we have been doing.  We will find out at the end of this week whether we are leaving or staying.  I am not excited for it.  I love our little district and I don't want it to change.  We made a lot of progress with them just this past week.  We have been having some issues with the other set of elders in the district being rude and making sexist comments to the sisters so we sat down with the zone leaders on Friday and had a big talk and I feel like we are all finally on the same page and now there are going to be big changes.  

We set a baptism date with a guy named mason that we have been working with.  He is trying to quit smoking and is struggling but really loves the gospel and Jesus Christ and wants to change.  He accepted to be baptized on October 6th.  We didn't realized at the time that that is general Conference so we are going to try and make it work but if it doesn't we will just do it the next weekend.  Issac got the priesthood on Sunday, it was awesome!  He is so excited to pass the sacrament and he also gave his first talk as a member of the church!  He did amazing and was asked to talk about why he chose to be baptized.  

I was reading through the scriptures during sacrament at the Takena ward on sunday and found an amazing set of versus that go right a long with what I have been studying.  It is Mosiah chapter 2:21-22 it says 

21 I say unto you that if ye should ^aserve him who has created you from the beginning, and is ^bpreserving you from day to day, by lending you^cbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own ^dwill, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your ^ewhole souls yet ye would be ^funprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he ^arequires of you is to ^bkeep his commandments; and he has ^cpromised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth ^dvary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do ^ekeep his^fcommandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

No matter what we do, we will still be unprofitable servants and we can do nothing to earn our way back and that is the Grace of god that everyone talks about, but yet all he asks of us is to keep the commandments.  Such a simple thing yet we have such a hard time doing it.  If we could just swallow our pride and do what he asks, EVERYTHING would be alright.  We would be prepared at the last day to meet our maker.  And how are we supposed to expect him to do things we ask if we aren't willing to do what he asks.  

Well I am glad to hear that everyone had a good week at Lake Powell and that everyone is safe.  It was a trunky week for me thinking about it ha ha but its all good, I'm glad im where im at.  I dont have a ton of time left so I have to make it count.  Which I will!  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email from Sister Johnson in Roseburg (Sept. 4)

Oh my goodness..I have tears in my eyes that I get to be included in the Erickson Family letter!!!   I LOVE ELDER ERICKSON (It is ok, I can love him, I am an old lady).  I can't wait until I can legally hug him.  Not sure who all I am writing to, but hopefully Mom Erickson is included.  I do have her email address and plan to write a personal letter to her about her outstanding son.  We so miss him in Roseburg.  It just isn't the same without him.  Although the other elders are fine young men.  So happy you got to see the Wicks family.  They are the best aren't they???  

Ro (husband Roland) and I just returned from the Middle East.  Our daughter's husband is with the State Department and they have been on an assignment in Amman, Jordan for the summer.  So we took off and bummed around Lebanon (not Oregon) Dubai, Qatar and Muscat, Oman before we ended up in Amman.  The two best parts were going to Petra (gasp....amazing) and to Church at the little LDS Branch in Amman.   A great spirit there.  Loved it.   While we were traveling I initiated my new Kindle Fire with the biography of President Monson....TO THE RESCUE.   Loved it....absolutely loved it.  I hope everyone will read it.   

Elder E. knows that Ro and I are preparing to serve a mission.  Elder E. was a perfect example of what kind of missionary I want to be.   We won't be able to go for a year or so, but I have to say, if he decided to retire earlier I could have my bags packed in about 15 minutes.  I am on fire!  

It is good to be back home in Oregon now, the sun is shining and the sky is blue.  I love hiking and all the great produce this season brings. 

Love to all, especially those who have contributed to helping Elder Erickson be the great example he is to so many.  And especially especially to my Elder Erickson who I miss so much.   

PS can I stay on your email list?  I promise to behave myself!  :-)

Gloria Johnson

Roseburg, Oregon...

Email: September 4, 2012

Dear Family,

This week was jam packed full of service.  The library was closed yesterday and apparently there were some elders who abused the computer privilege at the family history center so we aren't allowed to use it anymore.  Anyway, we had on day last week that was completely devoted to service it was crazy.  We started by helping someone move from around 10 to like 3, then it was off to do some yard work for a potential investigator that we found service tracting.  Then we got a referral that someone needed help moving some pianos so we went and moved 3, one wall piano and 2 grand pianos, It was crazy!  I can't believe how heavy those things are.  It took 8 of us to get them where we wanted them.  I will never buy one of those just for that reason ha ha.  We then went back to that same persons house and finished up moving, thats when brother Mortenson called the moss's and I said hi to them!  We did a bunch of other stuff over the course of the next week and I was very sore by the end of every day.  

Also I am happy to say that Issac Hickel, one of the people we were teaching, made a covenant with his Heavenly Father and was baptized!  It went really well.  His mother was baptized earlier this year and he has been taking the lessons for about a month and a half, so we taught him a few times when I got here and he wasn't sure yet if he wanted to get dunked but he prayed really hard about it and got an answer that now was the time.  He is really excited to get the priesthood and start passing the sacrament.  He is 12 right now by the way.  I am so excited for him and his mom.  She actually gave a talk in stake conference when Bishop Stevenson was there.  She is a very spiritual person.  Funny thing happened at the baptism though, so we were told it takes about 2 and a half hours to fill the font so we went over at like 430 so it would be done around 7 when the baptism was.  There was sign there that said it takes two hours.  We were good with that because we planned to be there around 630 any way so we turned it on.  Apparently neither of those times are correct  When we got there at 630 it was almost overflowing.  So when he dunked him, the water went over and a bunch of it came out onto the carpet ha ha.  We were trying to have a testimony meeting while waiting for them to change and it was very distracting trying to clean up the water while doing that.  But other than that it went smoothly and the spirit was definitely there.  

So meg, its been a while since you updated that blog.  Did you guys get the sd card that I sent home?  Oh so I got a call from the Wicks down in Roseburg and they were coming up this way to do some shopping in Portland so they stopped by Saturday afternoon and took us out to lunch.  It was soo good to see them again.  I love that family.  Also I wrote Maggie a letter and asked if she wants to write Maryn Wicks who is her age, and told Maryn about it and she is really excited to do so.  I have been writing Katie and Zack and it is so good to see their progression still.  Zack just got the Melchizedek Priesthood, and his plans for a mission are going well.  It is so cool to hear how people are still progressing.  Tha'ts the best part about being here.  I love it!  I wrote Eileen and Jeff a letter this past week, I didn't even realize that it was her birthday so will you tell her happy birthday for me!   Also, I am super jealous that you are going to Lake Powell.  That is the only trip so far that has made me feel this way ha ha.  But live it up and take lots of pictures and tell the whole family that I love them and miss them.  Send me some of the pictures would ya!  Well I love you all so much, Have a good Week!  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: August 27, 2012

Dear Family,

So to answer the first question about Matthew using my tools, he can but he needs to be very careful with them and make sure to put them back in the exactly right spot.  Plus that torque wrench was like 200 dollars so if he drops it or even sets it down to hard it can screw up the calibration on it so he needs to be extremely careful with it.  I don't know if he will need it going into fundamentals but its there if he needs it.  Just be careful please!!

This week was pretty good.  We were challenged by the zone leaders for all of us in the district to get 12 hours tracted this week.  We got it and the sisters got it but the other companionship only got 5 which was pretty frustrating.  We are having trouble with them.  They don't seem very motivated to do anything.  So we are going to go on exchanges soon so that we can see how they do things.  The district leader used to be in their area and it was doing really well.  I am just trying really hard to be positive and motivated them rather than come down on that at all.  It seems to be helping because the week before the only had like 3 lessons and 1 hour tracted.  So its going up!  They found some solid new gators this week.  

We have a baptism coming up this weekend.  His name is Issac.  I think that I told you about him.  He is a little nervous about the whole thing but he is also super excited.  He told us at church yesterday that he wanted to throw up but it was a good feeling ha ha.  I don't know if I told you but we have to go to 7 hours of church on Sundays, its crazy!  We have takena in the morning from 9 to 12 and then we have Grand Prairie from 1 to 4 and then correlation with the branch mission leader and missionaries.  We just got 2 more branch missionaries which is awesome!  It is so nice to finally have some because in my last 2 areas we didn't have any at all.  

We started a stop smoking workshop this week with a guy named mason and he didn't quit.  It was very frustrating.  He has weened back a lot but he just can't seem to kick the habit.  I wish people would just see the harm that it does to you.  I will never understand why anyone would smoke.   It is one of the most harmful things that you can do to yourself and those around you and it has no benefits whatsoever.  So if I ever started smoking I give you permission to cut off my right hand ha ha.  They can't feel the spirit at all when they are so bound down by the chains of that addiction.  

I might have shared this last week but I had a cool study on small and simple things that had a huge impact on me.  I am coming to slightly better understand agency and the gift that it really is.  The only difference between people and their progression levels in the gospel is their agency.  I have been trying to think how my life would have turned out if I had not made a few simple choices that turned into huge things.  I know that I can't change that but it has better helped me to know how not to make those choices again and not go down those "forbidden paths" as Lehi described them.  

Well anyway sorry for rambling.  I did get the postcards dad, thank you and I also got the letters that the youth wrote which was pretty cool.  Thank you for everything that you do for me and the example that you all are.  I love you very much!  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: August 20, 2012

Dear Family,

This week was so spiritually jam packed its crazy!  I told you last week that Elder Anderson from the 12 was coming.  He brought with him Elder Rasband, the president of the seventy and Elder Stephenson, the new presiding bishop and Elder Hansen of the seventy.  Plus we had Elder Snow come earlier in the week and got to listen to him as well.  It was amazing.  I feel like I am on a spiritual high.  We are ready to go out and hit it hard this week and do some work!  They talked a lot about obedience and the importance of the spirit.  I have been studying and focusing on using the spirit more in my work lately so it was perfect.   Also I have been thinking a lot about how I can be more obedient and how much our choices affect us down the road even if we don't realize it.  My choices today will affect hugely who I am and become and what happens in the future.  He also talked about how we need to have our loyalty to the lord above anyone else.  We will be held accountable for how we used our short stay here on earth, to him and him alone.  If we have made a mistake we should not care about what others think about that as long as we get ourselves right with the lord and try our best to please him and keep his commandments.  That hit me very strongly.  When I came home I was very worried about what others thought about me and it almost kept me from repenting and making things right.  It wasn't until I realized that I shouldn't care what they think because they aren't the ones who paid for that sin already and want me to be the best that I can.  It even says in the White Handbook, our loyalty is first to the Lord.  It made me think about how I use the short time I am given here in the mission field.  All in all it was a very good meeting and I am excited to start applying what I have learned.  

Other than that we didn't have the most time this week to go out and proselyte.  I am going on exchanges with the Zone leaders tonight to tomorrow.  I am excited to see how they run their area and learn some new things.  It was awesome to get to see all of my past companions and missionaries that I have grown so close to.  It is cool to see their growth.  I got to see my favorite other missionary, Elder Cooper!  I love that guy.  He is such a stud ha ha.  He is zone leader up in Salem so I haven't been able to see him for a few months now and I got to see him twice this week.  It was awesome.  I am grateful for the eternal friendships that I am making and I have already seen how they have changed and shaped who I am right now and who I will become in the future.  I feel like a completely different person.  I love it!  

I don't think I will have time to write everyone back today so I will say that Albany is awesome.  I like it a lot already.  there is a lot of work going on here and lots of potential for even more to be happening.  Grant and Issac are the two we have with a date right now and they are for the 31st of the month.  We have one more that we are going to set a date with this week, he has been out of town so we couldn't.  We had a less active guy show up to stake conference yesterday as well.  Oh I forgot to tell you.  Elder Stephenson came to our stake conference as well as president young.  So we were able to listen and talk with him a little more.  It was sweet!  Plus we all got shake hands with them on Saturday which was very cool.  That is the first General Authority that I have ever shaken hands with.  Well I love you all very much.  Be safe on your drive home.  

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: August 13, 2012

Dear Family,

It sounds like it should be a fun week for everyone!  Six flags is always fun.  I hope it all goes well and everyone gets to where they are going safely.  I will be praying for it!  Remind Melinda and the rest to say a pray before they head out and make sure they are being good and the lord will protect them!  

Well onto our week here.  It was super jam packed.  There is a lot of work going on up here in Albany.  I am loving this area and district and zone already.  There are a few of the elders that I have got to know so far up here and that is a lot of fun.  We get together with our district and one other 3 mornings a week to play some sports.  We all just meet at the stake center and we play basketball or dodgeball so its a lot of fun.  I think I told you last time, my companions name is Elder Worsencroft.  He is awesome.  He is actually a convert to the church and was only baptized about 18 months ago.  He has been in the mission field for 6 months.  He is a football player and actually played down at snow college for a while.  He is from South Carolina but moved to Utah when he was 16ish I think.  He has a very cool conversion story that i hope he will be able to share with you guys someday.  I am excited because he is a health nut so he is going to get me into shape and I am going to lose some weight!  Surprisingly I actually gained weight in Roseburg even though we were full bike.  The members fed us so much that it was hard to lose it.  I guess it was a blessing though.  

We have a really small ward here but as I said before we also cover a YSA branch which is pretty cool.  We have a few investigators coming to church and our sports night that we have on Fridays and they also do FHE on Mondays.  I am pretty excited for it, they are pretty good at fellowshipping and coming with us to lessons.  We had a good week for lessons.  We have 2 with a date right now and they are both for this month.  One for the 25th and the other the 31st.  Grant who is awesome, he is in his 60s and has epilepsy.  He just had surgery to make it so that he doesn't have the seizures any more.  It is called a vagas nerve stimulator and they put this magnet in him that is connected to his vagas nerve and when he feels one coming on he has another magnet that he puts on the one in his chest and it supposedly stops it all together.  The other is a 12 year old kid who is the son of a recent convert.  He is doing awesome.  Tuesday night he taught us a lesson that he compared the gospel to the game Zelda.  It went really well.  He had put a lot of thought into it. 

We have a cool activity tonight for FHE, we are going shotgun shooting!  Yeah!  ha ha just playing because obviously I can't shoot a gun, but seriously.  We are going to be the ones throwing the clay pigeons.  We have two investigators coming with us.  Ones name is mason, we had a lesson with him this past week and we are starting the stop smoking workshop tomorrow with him.  There are a lot of people around here who smoke.  It is ridiculous.  We had one investigator drop her date this week because she doesn't feel the desire or need to stop smoking right now.  She says "I'm still young and in good health, why stop now?"  I was dumbfounded.  How can anyone really believe that?  We are thinking now that she might be less accountable, kinda like Mckay....  ha ha.  

Oh crazy news, this week is going to be so sick!  I don't know if I told you before but we have a seventy coming on Wednesday for our zone conference, and then, we also have Elder Neil L. Anderson coming and doing a mission conference on Saturday.  I am so stoked!  It's almost as good as General Conference but not quite, but still its going to be sweet.  We are definitely going to have some spiritual upliftment (don't know if thats a word in real life).  I will let you all know how that goes next week.   But anyway I love you all very much, I sent a little note home with the address up here.  We live in the basement of a members business and the ceilings are so low!  So... Send me some letters!  Mother, yes I did get the package, thank you so much!  I am so grateful to have a mother and father who do so much for me.  I am trying really hard to be frugal and not need anything else.  I'm doing much better at it!  Love you!

Love your favorite missionary,

Elder Erickson

Email: August 6, 2012

Dear Family,

I got the transfer call on saturday morning and I am being transfered to Albany.  It is up by Corvalis.  I have never been farther north than Eugene so it will definitely been an adventure!  I have a lot of mixed emotions today.  There are some awesome elders that I have been able to serve with here who are going home soon and so that is a bummer and then I have to leave all these amazing people that I have come to love so much.  I am excited also at the same time to go and meet new people there and develop those new relationships.  I don't know much about the area so I will write a lot more about it next week.  They do transfers on mondays now, which I don't agree with, and so I don't have a ton of time today.  I leave to go up there at 4:30.  We are picking up Elder Black, who is replacing me, at 12:15.  The Wicks wanted to do one last lunch so they are taking us out to lunch when we pick him up. 

 

We had an awesome week other than that.  We were able to set a date with Tina and Ed that we have been working with for a while now.  Elder Vande Merwe invited them to be baptized at the end of the lesson and they excepted for september 25th.  I am very excited for them both.  We have seen a difference in them since we have started teaching them and they have started to live the gospel.  They came to church yesterday and loved it.  We also had a less active member come with them that we have been trying to get there for a long time!  I tried to use that I was leaving to my advantage the best I could.  It kind of worked ha ha. 

 

I am staying District Leader up there.  My new Comps name is Elder Worsencroft.  He has been in the mission since February so not too long but I have heard really good things about him.  I talked to Elder Cooper who is up in salem and he said he is a cool kid.  I am super excited. We are going to do some work!  Well I love you all very much.  Melinda and Matthew stop being punks, or I will come back and kick you in the shins!  But I still love you. 

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: July 30, 2012

Dear Family,

Well it is almost official.  I am going to be transfered in about a week im like 99% sure.  President Young told me at the specialized training this past week that he needs to be ready to take over the area.  I had figured that this was the time that I would leave but I am completely not ready for it.  I have come to love these people and this area more than I ever thought that I could.  There is a part in my Patriarchal blessing that says that I will learn to love families beyond anything that I can comprehend right now, and it is truly being fulfilled right before my eyes.  It is going to be a very emotional week. 

 

We had specialized training in Eugene on tuesday, basically its a zone conference with a different name.  We talked about letting go of extra baggage, spiritually and temporally.  It was awesome.  We practiced teaching members and also teaching short powerful lessons on the door step which was pretty cool.  It is something that we have been focusing on for a few weeks now in district meeting and other meetings. 

 

So I don't think I have told you yet but blackberries grow like a weed here.  People hate them because they just grow everywhere and dont stop.  We have some huge bushes of them right by our house that are finally having some that are ripe that we went a picked the other morning.  We probably picked like 2 or 3 pounds in just a few minutes and then made a smoothie with some of them.  I will attach some pictures so you can see them.  I thought dad might be jealous ha ha. 

 

We set a date with Victor who we have been teaching for a long time.  He finally said that the priesthood is something he wants in his life for his family so he can be a better father to his kids.  It was definitely spirit led when we talked with him about that.  We also did a lot of tracting this past week and found 4 new investigators.  I am excited for them.  They are going to be awesome.  We are going to use this last week to build things up as much as we can for Vande and his new companion. 

 

So usually I read an ensign article or 2 when I eat my breakfast in the morning, because we have lots of the old ones, and I read a really good one this week that had a great quote from President Monson.  He said "Decisions Determine Destiny."  I loved that a lot.  I think it applies to every single one of us.  We can control the outcome because we have the gift of agency that was given to us.  We always have a choice to do good, and we become who we want to be by consistently being who we want to become.  Our choices affect everything.  Remember that!  I love you all very much. 

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: July 23, 2012

I exhort you that ye will pay heed to the special message I shall share unto you.....

Just kidding..

Wellllll another week has gone by.  I hate how fast time goes by, I wish I could slow it down.  I am going to invent a machine that does that.  Anyway, it was a pretty good week.  We did a good amount of tracting and met with a lot of less active members that the ward wanted us to visit.  We had 12 lessons with them this week.  We challenged a few of them to get their lives in oreder and to make a goal to go to the temple.  Two of them are really thinking about it and working on it which is awesome! 

 

It wasnt the most eventful week other than that.  Elder Vande Merwe almost got hit by a car twice...  It was pretty scary but both times it was because he wasn't paying attention!  We are working hard to find some new investigators because it seems the ones we have are very flakey and they fizzle away after the first lesson.  I wish that they would just understand that they need this in their lives.  I have been making changes in my life now.  For about a month I would say, I kind of got a little arogant without even realizing it and felt like it was us that was convincing the people.  I have been reflecting and making changes so that I never let that happen again.  It's not us who convinces, the spirit is the one who testifies to their hearts and makes the difference.  I am getting so much better at making sure we are relying on the spirit WAY more. 

 

We had a good challenge from P. Young on tuesday at our district leader training meeting.  He challenged everyone in the mission to have a 30 minute prayer.  Taking the first 15 minutes to pray and the last 15 minutes to listen to the spirit and recieve revelation.  It was a very cool experience.  The question I had going into it was how can I be a better missionary.  The answer I recieved was to follow the examples of those around me and those who came before me.  So I want to tell all of you how grateful for your example to me and I am going to be better at following that example and be humble.  Thank you Dad and Mckay for serving full time missions before me and giving me that example. 

 

I found a really cool scripture that I like a lot the past week. 

2 Nephi 7:7  "For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed."

We should never be ashamed of who we are and what we believe.  We have the truth and no one can take that from us.  Well I love you all.  Have a good week! 

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: July 16, 2012

Dear Family,

This week was a pretty darn good one.  The weather is great, it has been in the 80's and it hasn't been as humid anymore.  We finally got a little air conditioner in our house because it was getting so warm!  It isn't very well insulated and it gets really warm in late afternoon so when we get home the house is just hot!  I was having trouble sleeping because it was so warm and this helps so much! 

 

Things are going well with Elder Vande Merwe.  He is really getting things down and I have been giving him lots of opportunities to be a leader and he has been leading the planning sessions at night and our weekly planning sesh on friday.  It has been very good for him.  I have been letting him have the lead when we teach people and I jump in if he gets lost or wants me to teach a part.  It has helped him make more progress than he has altogether so far.  I feel sometimes like I am not an adequate trainer but I am doing my best and realizing that my example does more than almost anything else. 

 

I have a box of stuff I will probably be sending home soon.  I have collected a lot of stuff.  People here are amazing and just give me things left and right so recently I got a pair of pretty nice cowboy boots and a handcrafted leather belt with a sweet belt buckle, amoungst other things.  So needless to say, I need to downsize things a bit. 

 

We had an awesome lesson with a guy named Scott this week.  We found him tracting about a week and a half ago.  We called him last week and tried to meet but he was busy so we called him on Friday and left a message and we got a call later in the day asking if we could come over right then.  We taught him the Restoration and had a kneeling prayer with him.  He just quit drinking and wants to be better and has been trying to change his life around and wants to come to church and continue to meet with us.  He expressed that he felt that we were an answer to prayer.  I am super excited that we were led to him by the spirit and that we listened to the promptings to go and tract that street.  I love how I have come to trust and rely on the spirit so much.   I feel like I wont be able to do anything in life without him now.  

 

I have become a little better at goal setting now ha ha.  I have realized that you cant just set a major goals without setting smaller ones that help you achieve them.  I have a goal to read the entire book of mormon this transfer and I have to read 6 chapters a day.  I am doing pretty well at it.  I also have a goal to write about everyday in my journal for the rest of my mission.  That one is hard sometimes with the calls I have to make at night to the other companionships but I am doing pretty good at it. 

 

Well fam, hope you all had fun in denver!  I love you all very much!

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: July 9, 2012

Whats up Family!

This past weekend was probably the greatest I will ever have in my entire mission I wont lie.  After all the bumps in the road, Katie Sullivan is now a member of Christ's church.  It was INCREDIBLE!  Zack was able to be the one who did the baptism which was sweet!  He did so well and they only had to do it twice ha ha.  She asked me to be in the font as well just to make sure that she didn't drown.  So I got in a jump suit and went it!  That reminds me, I forgot my whites at home and I keep forgetting to ask if you will send them to me.  They are in my temple bag and I would like the pants and tie and belt.  Please!  I don't like wearing those jump suits, they aren't very comfortable and I look like the michelin man.  Brother Dennis (the guy that owns the house we live in) took a picture of the baptism, which I don't think you're supposed to do, and sent it to my email so if you want to see it, let me know! 

Her friend Natalie, whom I am currently writing, came from Idaho to come to the baptism and then we all went out to dinner at this place that she loves.  It was okay food but I have definitely had better! 

 

Other than that we had a cool lesson with this lady named Shirley on friday and then a chapel tour with her on saturday but she didn't come to church!  I am just lost at what to do to get people to church now.  We invite and take tours and talk about the sacrament and all that good stuff and it seems like they just don't feel the spirit or something because they don't come!  Any Ideas? 

 

We went to Eugene for a speacialized training this week on tuesday which was super cool.  I got a lot out of it and I feel that it was a learning experience for Elder Vande Merwe.  We talked about how obedience and Baptism go hand in hand and what we can do better at being obedient.  It hit me because first I have the responsibility to be a good example for my trainee and also I have to be the one that the distict looks to and if I am not then I am not living up to the lords expectations of me. 

Pday was pretty good.  We had a bbq with the Burnham family in the ward.  They are super cool.  Then we had the opportunity to go and help over at the V.A. (veterans association) with the ward.  They put up flags all over with plaques on the poles that have the names of fallen soldiers.  It was a very cool experience and I am grateful that I got to be a part of it.  I got a flag this week also and put it in the house.  I am being very patriotic lately, I am just grateful to be here right now in this country! 

 

Well I love you all very much.  I pray for you all, all the time! 

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: July 2, 2012

Dear Family,

I don't have a ton of time today to email so it might be a little shorter than usual.  They switched our Pday this week to make it easier for us to do things on the 4th.  We only have a little bit today to email because they wont be open then and we have to take a survey for a member of the Seventy who is coming to the mission in August.  We kind of did a day of sacrifice today and are doing a whole lot of finding.  We're calling it Miracle Monday.  The zone has already seen several miracles that have happened.  We haven't seen much yet but we still have the whole day ahead of us. 

 

Things went pretty well this past week.  We did a lot of finding on friday and saturday and were able to find 3 solid new investigators that are wanting us to come back.  One of them his name is scott and he knows quite a bit about the church already and he is very willing to let us come teach him the lessons.  I am excited! 

 

Katie is getting baptized this week!!!  I am so excited for her.  The baptismal interview is going to be on tuesday and she is going to pass with flying colors.  She is awesome, I am excited for you to meet her someday.  It has been a bumpy road for her to get here but she has prayed very hard and really knows that this is true.  She has a friend of hers flying in from Idaho to come and be there.  She is giving the talk on the holy ghost and I am giving the talk on baptism.  I am super excited for her. 

 

Other than that we are doing good.  The time is flying like crazy.  Vande is doing awesome, working hard and is really getting better at talking to people.  He doesn't have such a hard time teaching now either because it is becoming a part of who he is.  Well I have to get going but I love you all very much and I hope you have a great 4th and dont get hit by any fireworks! 

Love,

Elder Erickson