Email: January 30, 2012

Dear Family,

How is everyone?! I am doing very well. My legs are getting so buff!
It's awesome. I can see muscles in them that I didn't even know I had!
This past week was a good but short one. We only had four days that
we were able to go out and work. Elder Ludlow was sick on Tuesday and
he stayed in bed and slept most of the day. I had to just sit around
and read all day, it was not too fun but it was okay. I did some
cleaning and read a few books and took a nap. We also had President's
Training on Thursday in Medford that went from about 8:30 am to like 4
in the afternoon. It was a long day. It is this new thing that
President Young is doing. Now instead of doing a Zone Conference
every other transfer we do Interviews, then President's Training and
then Zone Conference alternating. It's different but it was very good.
He and the assistants gave us new standards of excellence for the
year 2012. The theme basically for this year is 1 baptism, every
companionship, every month. So we are supposed to get at least one
baptism per month this entire year. Unfortunately we did not get one
this month. We were able to set a date for baptism with Abby on
Saturday though!! She is set to be baptized on the 18th of February.
We took one of the high council members in the ward with us and he
invited her over to his home on Saturday for the next lesson. I'm
very excited for her. Anyway back to training. We also talked a lot
about the mission as a whole and then each companionship. We watched
a little video clip from the movie Secretariat. The very last race
when he wins by such a huge amount. They compared that to us as
missionaries and then asked why not us? Why can't we push ahead and
be the very best? It was very inspiring. That is what we talked
about most of the time. If we get out of the way and let the Lord
work through us then we can do anything. Why not us? It kind of went
along the lines of something we made our theme in Cascade Zone back
in P-ville. Our theme was Impossible is Nothing. If we do all that
we can and have faith and not get in the way we can do ANYTHING. The
Lord wants to work through us and wants us to be instruments but oft
times we are the only thing holding us back. Our lack of obedience or
our doubt or our pride. Something one of the assistants said while we
were there really struck me. He said we have two years to do it and
the rest of our lives to think about it. Do we want to look back with
regrets, wishing we had done more or been more obedient? It applies
with eternity as well, not just a mission. We only have this short
time to be on earth and the rest of eternity to think about it. All
in all it was an incredible meeting. President Young is a very
inspired man and he is awesome. Also there is a family that I met in
our ward this week that grew up in Fresno. Hazel Sharp and her son,
Lee Sharp and his wife Linda. They said that they knew Grandma

Erickson and Dad and John and Paula. He said that Dad hung out with

his little brothers. Anyway I thought that it was pretty funny and

they told me to tell you guys that. Well Love you all, hope you have
a good week.

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: January 23, 2012

Dear Family,

I hope everything is okay, I didn't hear from any of you this week. I
don't know whether I should be worried or not. But anyway. This week
was a pretty good one. We had a lesson with a new investigator that
we found last week that is pretty solid. We found her the first week
that I was here and her name is Abby Gillespie. She is a single lady
that works at the VA as a nurse I think. We had one of the members
come over with us and we taught the first lesson with him. It went
really well. The spirit was there and she really understands the need
for prophets and and a restoration. We had a return appointment with
her on Saturday but she was called into work so she left us a note on
her door that told us and when to come back. We have another
appointment with her this week and we are going to set a baptismal
date with her. I am really excited for her and its going to be
awesome. Elder Ludlow is better than Elder Snyder but he gets really
distracted easily and gets down and doesn't seem like he wants to be on
a mission. President Young told me a little about that before I came
over here so I was prepared but I don't know what to do to help. I
have been trying really hard to be upbeat and work hard and be an
example but it doesn't seem to be helping anything. Anyway I will

keep trying and working hard. That's really all I can do. I kinda like

having a full bike area. It is making my legs really strong. We have
a lot of other people that we are working with but they just don't
keep their commitments its very frustrating. I wish people would just
do what they say they are going to!! My bike is still having a few

issues but I am working on it and there is a guy in the ward who has

helped a lot. The crankshaft started coming loose so he ordered a new

one for me online that I am going to pay him back for at the beginning
of next month. Anyway hope everything is going well with you guys,

Love you all very much.

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: January 16, 2012

Hello from Roseburg!

It is definitely different here! Roseburg is down near the bottom and a lot closer to the coast so we have a lot more rain and trees and it is very green. I found out that it is a full bike area so luckily I brought with me an extra bike that was in the Prineville apartment that didn't belong to anyone. It wasn't in good enough shape to ride so I had to spend some money to get it up to snuff. It was extremely cheaper than buying a new bike however. The cheapest new one I could find here was well over 400 dollars, its insane! But its okay because Betsy gets me a long! (that's the bikes name now) There is so much more work here it is crazy! They had a good list of investigators when I came in and there is one with a date for the 28th but it looks like we will have to push it back a week because she didn't come to church yesterday which is frustrating. It is very annoying when someone tells you that they will do something and then they don't do it! We had four people commit to come to church with us yesterday and not a single one showed up. We had an awesome lesson at the first counselor in the bishoprics house on Saturday night. They brought over two of their friends who are interested and we taught the first lesson and challenged them to read and pray and we have dinner and another lesson at their house on Thursday of this week so that will be awesome. Their names are Pam Wise and Marisol I don't know her last name. We have a bunch of appointments set up this week that I think will be really good. We found three new investigators just this week that we have return appointments with. Im pretty excited to be here and have all this work. I have to still make sure that I am being obedient, it is very easy to get complacent when you are having success but it all comes down to how obedient we are being. My new companions name is Elder Ludlow. He has been out six months now so we have been out about the same amount of time. I can't believe that it has been that long. Time flies, it has only been three months but added with the other time and I only have 18 months left. It's going too fast! My legs are getting so strong though, we have this huge hill that we have to go up to get back to the house every night and there are a ton of hills here. I hope it helps me lose some weight, the members in Prineville fed us so well I gained all that weight I lost back. Its very frustrating because I hate saying No to people who offer us things because that is there way of helping serve the lord and they will be blessed for it so who am I to say no? Oh so the house we live in now is awesome! We have a whole room devoted to a ping pong table!!! It is not just an apartment in a house, it is an actual house and it is in the forest basically it is very cool. I will get a few more pictures and then I will send one of the SD cards home so you can see it.

So Matthew waited in line at Buffalo Wild Wings huh? That's awesome, I'm pretty impressed. I would have totally done it with him, that's totally worth it. And I'm kinda getting mixed reviews on this new puppy ha ha. Hopefully it will all work out, I'm sure she will calm down just like Wilson did. There were many times that mom wanted to get rid of him for chewing on things and doing what puppies do, but look at him now! Mom would cry if we had to get rid of him!

President told me that one of the reasons that I came out here was to help Elder Ludlow be more obedient, it is a very daunting task but I think it is good for me as well. I have to watch myself and make sure that I am doing all that I need to so that I can be an example to him. I think it is more for me than it is for him. I'm grateful to be here and I am very excited to go to work and help the people here in Roseburg come to Christ. The new address here is 3517 Hughes, Roseburg, Or 97470. Thats what Ludlow told me so I hope that it is right.

Love,
Elder Erickson

Email: January 9, 2012

Hello Family!

Long time no talk! Sorry I did not get an email off last week. Saturday was a crazy day. We had to be in the apartment by six so we had to get a lot done during the day before that. So we only had time to email President our weekly letter. I know I said thank you on the phone for everything I got for Christmas but thank you again. It was awesome. I love the watch. The other one I had decided to die on me the day after I got it so it was perfect timing. The past few weeks have flown by. We got transfer calls on Saturday night and we totally expected to hear the Elder Snyder was being transferred somewhere but nope, I am being transferred to Roseburg and I leave Prineville tomorrow afternoon. I have mixed emotions about it. I thought I would be happy when I got to leave Prineville but I am not. I feel like I didn't have enough time here to accomplish what I wanted to. It has taught me some good life lessons about wasting time. I have thought back now and I realized how much time I really wasted in my life so far. Way too much. I am 21 years old and I don't really have anything to show for it. It has made me re-evaluate myself and what I need to do better in the future so that does not happen again. I am going to use this transfer to start that. I want to do better and work harder.

Prineville is definitely somewhere I want to show everyone around if you guys pick me up at the end of the mission. There are some incredible people here and I want you all to meet some of them. I am so grateful for the time I get be back out here. I know it hasn't been very long yet but I have learned so much already. It is incredible how much time there really is in a day and how much you can accomplish. So much happens every day now that it feels like several and it all gets so mixed together and it makes it feel like you have been out longer because of what you have done.

So I hear there is a new addition to the Erickson family huh? Have you given her a name yet? I am probably going to need to see some pictures soon. She sound like she is pretty cute though. How old is she? Are there going to be little Wilson babies around anytime soon? It will be interesting to see what color they come out when it does happen. I also heard you didn't get to go up to the cabin, that's no fun. It sounded like it was going to be a fun trip. There is always next year or the year after. And Buffalo Wild Wings opens this weekend doesn't it? I was thinking about it a few days ago, Utah is not even going to look the same at all when I get home. Everything is already different!! I am just excited for you guys to see Oregon someday. It is amazing out here. I love it. I love you all very much and I will let you know how the transfer goes next week!

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: December 26, 2011

Hello Family!

Long time no talk! We have a shorter pday today because of the time we had off yesterday. So this will be a very short email. Seeing as I talked to you all yesterday! We have Saturday as a pday this week because of New Years so I will probably email again then. Last week it felt like there was a lot of wasted time so I have made a goal again this week to always have something to do no matter what. Yesterday was harder than I expected but afterwards I had a greater desire to work harder. I really cant wait for transfers to come. One of us will be leaving and I feel that things will go a lot better after that. But I am still trying to make it the best right now. Thank you again for all the presents and all that you have done for me! Have a fun time at the cabin and snowmobiling and be safe. Love you all very much.

Love,

Elder Erickson

Email: December 19, 2011

Hello Family!

How is everyone? This week has been pretty good. We found a new family that we are going to start teaching! We were out tracting and we actually found him at one of his friends houses. If we had not found him there we probably would not have ever talked to him. He lives way out of town and we don't go out there often because of miles restrictions. He had talked to missionaries in the past and they had got frustrated with a question he asked and couldn't answer and so they left and he hasn't been visited since then. He knows a lot about a lot of different religions. He had been going for years to different churches but always found something that they taught or did that he didn't like. We talked to him for about an hour the first time we met and then went up to his house last night and taught him and his wife and three children the restoration. It went really well and we are really excited for them. It should be awesome. So I sent some letters to you guys for Christmas so when you get them in the mail this week don't open them. Stick them in the tree and you can open them Christmas morning, or Christmas Eve if you would like.

We don't really have much planned for Christmas. We are going to Brother and Sister Johnson's for dinner sometime and then just calling you guys. I am thinking it will just be in the after noon sometime. When is your church this week? Is Sacrament just at 1 still? We have ours at ten and then we are free the rest of the day. Is everyone going together? Are Megan and Jeff coming in the morning or doing stuff at their house first and coming over later? Mckay doesn't really have a life so I know he will be there all day ha ha. Just kidding, I am really excited to talk to all of you and hear how things are going. I don't have a time limit really so I don't really have to worry about that. I don't have much else to say. We went and played basketball in Redmond today and it was pretty fun. I am getting pretty good so Matthew and Mckay better watch out. When I get back I will be ready to go pro basically. We tracted into this awesome lady the other day also. She is not interested in hearing about the Gospel but she loves Missionaries and wants to feed us and she gives us cookies everytime we go over and she is a huge basketball fan. I got all the updates on whats going on from her it was pretty funny. We are hoping over time that she will want to hear about the restoration even if it's later on in life after we are home. I anticipate keeping in touch with her because she is awesome. Anyway, I love you all very much and I will talk to you in a few days!

Love,

Elder Erickson