September 23, 2013

So things are going good. I'm so sorry to hear about Jaylen. I'll definitely be praying for her. 

 

Dad please you expect Utah and BYU to play and me not to figure out the score? 20-13 UTAH!!! Held them out of the endzone till the fourth quarter also! UCLA should be interesting though. They seem pretty good this year I hear. I'm excited to be able to watch Utah football again. 

 

Things are going well here though. We are dealing with some sisters in our zone that are walking out of Gospel Principles because they feel that the teacher goes into too deep of doctrine. So they just get up and leave with Investigators still in the class. They are trying to make a statement or something I guess. I'm just tired of dealing with mission drama. These sisters really don't like me either. So not fun to deal with lol. I really don't like being a zone leader. It is just really tough and you are always driving and calling and texting people non-stop. But it is keeping me super super busy. These weeks are flying by. I thought my last transfer was going to be so long but this has gone by so fast. I can hardly believe I am almost done. 

 

We had a baptism this saturday of Emily. It was super neat and lots of people came. We have one next week as well and we are super excited for that one. We are teaching a ton of people also after the baptism we will have 6 investigators still which is more than pretty much my entire mission. If I could describe my mission right now it would be busy busy busy. 

 

I'm excited to come home. We'll all have a lot to catch up on. Hope I'm not too different when I come home :) Maybe you'll hardly recognize me ha ha.

 

Happy Birthday dad in two days! I'll be sending you your present tomorrow. I know you'll like it. I'll send some more stuff home with it also. Thanks for everything guys and I love you!

 

P.S. My comp is a BYU fan so I get to gloat for the next two weeks. :)

September 16, 2013

So looks like I really need to beat up this Baylor kid. What a retard. Tell Jaylen that dating is dumb and to never do it. Tell her not to worry about the dance. I didn't go my senior prom and look how I turned out..........okay maybe you should have her go to the dance. That is so neat about you fellowshipping that other mom though! I am so excited and happy to hear that. Keep on inviting her to things and ask to go to the lessons with the missionaries. It means twenty times more coming from you than it does the missionaries. I am so excited for this.

I did get my Spidey T shirt yes thank you! Ha ha ha it has become my favorite p-day shirt. I love it so much. Thank you.

No worries about anyone coming down they don't have to. I think in the past it was easier because they didn't really have families yet so I was like the only grandchild for everybody. Now that everybody is older they have there own stuff to do. It is totally fine.

My companion was trained by Elder Jackson (my best friend on the mission) in a neighboring ward when I trained Elder Healey. So I basically feel like we have already been companions. It is really neat and we get along super well.

We have two baptisms set up for these next two weekends. One is Emily who is what we call an enternal which means she has been taking lessons from the missionaries forever. The other is Adam who was a golden, meaning he believes everything and has no concerns. We are pumped for them.

I can't wait to be home but at the same time I am scared for coming home. I gotta worry about the real world now and responsibility ha ha. In terms of job though I could work at Best Buy or another retail place up in Logan if Hastings goes under or something. Also does my cousin still have that comic shop? There is lots of options. Just don't want to work fast food. I like retail so I'll sell anything to anybody if it isn't burritos and hamburgers.

I'm doing good and finishing strong. I have to go on exchanges with all the District Leaders this week which sucks. I like staying in my area with my own apartment. I am not a fan of change. Plus some of them are weird. Ha ha should be fun though. Thank you guys for everything that you do. I love you!

September 9, 2013

That kinda bugs me about my packages falling apart. Everything better have been in there if anything is missing I'll have to buy a new game to replace the parts which would suck. Anyways glad that that got there at least.

 

That is awesome to hear about Nana and Papa though. I'm excited for them. As soon as I get home they'll leave ha ha. They will have fun wherever they go. What would really be funny is if they get called here.

 

Tell Kate to stay away from boys. I already am going to have to kill Jaylen's boyfriend I don't want more murders on my head.

 

That is crazy also of Brock. Good for him going though.

 

Being a zone leader is kinda lame. The sisters in the zone don't like me at all. One of them told Hoch my comp. "I don't think Elder Hinckley likes me, whenever he is around me I am always mad at him." Not really sure where she is connecting the dots on that one but only a woman could think like that.....sorry mom. So I go to the mission office a lot now picking up everybody's mail to give back to them. We just had 5 investigators at church yesterday which was crazy!!!!! I have never really taught more than 2-3 people at one time on my mission before and now we are teaching 6! Plus with all the zone leader stuff we have to do; get mail, inspect apartments, go on exchanges, give rides, and help people move, we have like no down time.

 

So with the new missionaries all that has really changed is that there is just more now. Before we had missionaries who wanted to be here ones that didn't ones that were prepared and ones that weren't. Well now we just have more of all of that now. Every single ward in our mission is split. It is insaine and there are so many sisters. When I came out there was 14. Now there is 70+. Like crazy crazy crazy.

 

Speaking of Disneyland though I got our zone permission to go to downtown disney today. We won't go into the parks but we'll be able to take pics and walk it which should be nice. I'll try not to spend too much money at the ESPN arcade jk jk ha ha. Also dad! Why didnt' you tell me BYU and UTAH were playing this year! I thought they had a by. It is on the 21st also!!!! holy cow! BYU beat Texas also that is crazy. I'm hoping Texas is just looking crummy this year and BYU isn't looking good.

 

Love you guys lots and thanks for everything that you do!

September 4, 2013

So things are better. Our phone is constantly going off. It is like missionaries cannot survive without us Zone Leaders telling us what to do every five seconds. I'm kinda just a do it myself guy so having to tell people what they can and can do all the time is kinda lame. 

 

Being in a YSA ward is weird though. Everybody there just wants to get married and it is really weird being a missionary in that environment. We do have a lot of potential coming up though in the ward. We have two investigators with a date for this month and a third investigator who is close to setting a date. Also we are getting three new investigators today from a referral from other missionaries. This is definitely the busiest time of my mission. I am not doing any more missionary work at all but handling the logistics of the zone along with missionary work is crazy. We give so many people rides everywhere and have to go to the office a ton to pick stuff up and get mail and whatnot. I am happy though and definitely will finish out my mission going 150%. I do miss the Euclid ward right now though. The ward I am serving in is the Placentia 4th Young Single Adult Ward.

I still keep in touch with Tyler also. He was my baptism in Yorba Linda 5th ward. He just started his senior year and is planning on a mission after highschool. I am taking lots of pictures mom don't worry. Us as missionaries aren't allowed to go on facebook yet in this mission. It will probably be allowed a month or two after I leave. I think I am going to be really behind on the whole social media thing when I get home. In the YSA ward we have to text people to get a hold of them because they wont answer a phone call ever which is super weird.

I will be better with money also. I am not going to be buying anything really this month because I am going home. I am in survival mode now. I needed the address because I was sending packages home and I got to the UPS store and I couldn't remember it. It has been like two years so give me a break.

So you guys are going to be getting two packages in the mail today tomorrow or Friday. They are kinda big and have a lot of junk in it. I just want you to know that a lot of that junk was given to me by members or I found by the dumpster or garage sales. A lot of it I did buy though but it was over a year ago that I bought it all. You know that thing when I get depressed I start to buy stuff, well when the period of time when I was depressed I bought lots of board games. I really regret it and I have learned to master that weakness on my mission. But I have a lot of junk because of it. So you guys are welcome to play any of those that you want. A ton of them are really fun and I can't wait to play them with you when I get home. As you can probably guess I was really popular on P-day.......we played a lot of board games. But I worked hard on my mission. Don't think I just did that all day also. Thanks for understanding, and I'm sorry.

I can not believe that the girls are so old now though. Jaylen is a Junior? That is just weird. I was suppose to be the only one in High School. How do you think the girls will be when they go to the same school? Will the be friends or enemies? Ha ha.

I hope you guys are ready for when I get home because our house is going to turn into the missionary hub. Every single lesson the Elders teach will be in our home and we will fellowship them all. I'm going to be inviting everybody I know also. Nothing bugs me more than members who feel that it is the missionaries job to find people to teach. That is no more the case. The members have the responsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach now.

I love you guys so much and thank you for everything that you do. Thank you for letting me go and stay out on a mission. The scarifies you have made financially and emotionally are more than I could ever ask for. I feel like I have learned and grown so much since I cam out. I have a real sense, like real actual, and tangible sense of Heavenly Father and his relationship with me. I have learned so much about the gospel and the church and I feel my faith has grown so much. I still have so much to learn as well about everything. I love you guys so much.

Connor

August 27, 2013

Sorry guys for taking so long to write back. We went to the temple last week so our p-day was moved and then I didn't have enough time to e-mail. The new temple video is really really neat though. Really emotional. 

 

My birthday was really neat though. Thank you so much for the package you sent. Tell nana and papa thank you also because my account wont let me e-mail them for some weird reason. The Sorenson's, the family that is really neat took me and Sister Hawker (the sister that shares the ward with me) out to eat at Olive Garden and we all got the endless pasta bowl. 

 

Then what I have been spending all my money on is that I took everybody to an all you can eat sushi bar for mine and Hawker's Birthday another day then I threw a surprise birthday party for sister Hawker. Her birthday is on the 24th and it was really fun. She was super surprised and we decorated her apartment and got a bunch of other missionaries there. We were able to play some card games and stuff. I cooked chocolate chip pancakes for everybody also. Super fun, well as fun as it can be while your on a mission ha ha.

 

But something terrible happened and I was transferred. I am not a Zone Leader. I don't know why president put me as one for my last six weeks but I am not happy about it. I am now in the Placentia Young Single Adult Ward. I am with Elder Hoch (pronounced Hoke) which is really cool. When I trained Elder Healey in Yorba Linda Jackson trained Hoch so we are super good friends. I don't know how I am going to do in a singles ward I am use to talking to people older than me. I am more comfortable with that.

 

Whatever is easiest on the family and everbodys schedule is fine for when I come home and talk. I can speak whenever they or you need me to and people can come visit if and when they want to. I'll let you know more about the area after I have been in it longer that 24 hours. Thank you again guys for the birthday stuff. It was really neat. You guys are the best ever. See you soon.

 

August 12, 2013

This week has been pretty rough. The sisters when they split the ward took all of our investigators and our Less Actives that we had been meeting with. So we did a lot of tracting and meeting with members. Finding is always the toughest part of being a missionary. President said that he is going to transfer me my last transfer which would really suck. I hope he doesn't because I love this ward so much. I brought it back from civil war and made the relationship with the bishop good again. Because of that I just feel like I have a lot invested here. 

 

Yeah it's pretty hot here too. I think it got up to 92 degrees the other day. So we just went and stood in the shade and it was pretty okay ha ha ha. I am going to die when I come back to Texas weather. 

That is weird to think about going back to school and getting a job again. Like being a missionary is just so much a part of my life now. I am pretty sure I have a job at Hastings when I get back also (if they aren't bankrupt). It might be nice too be able to transfer to the one in Logan also. How is the comic book store with Trent also? Would he take me? Is he being successful? Is he going to go bankrupt? ha ha if all else fails I could work at CC. That is a T-shirt making place right? 

 

 I don't think I want the meal plan at USU. I have gotten so use to cooking for myself/buying groceries for myself. When does the Spring Semester start at USU? When do I have to enroll for classes? There is so much to do when I get home I kinda don't want to go home ha ha. Oh well don't have to worry about it for 8 more weeks. 

Thanks for getting me a phone. A Samsung galaxy III or IV or a Samsung Note II would be really nice :) ha ha ha thanks you guys for everything. I love you

August 5, 2013

So my companion finally decided to stay!!!!! I've have been so stressed about that lately. I feel like a huge weight has just been taken off my back. Transfers are coming up in about three weeks. President told me that Elder Kolega is going to be training so I needed to get him ready for that. It really sucks though because I will probably get transferred out and go serve my last transfer in a new area. I don't want that to happen especially because I know so many cool members here that are awesome. The Sorensons are the ones that texted you. They are a really neat family. They are also the ones that sent you a picture of me kissing that pig statue. They have a 18 15 and 14 year old sons. The 15 year old is inactive so we are trying to work a lot with him.

 

 I am glad to hear that the girls are keeping busy with soccer. That is awesome to hear about Jaylen also. She can go be a cowgirl over at Wyoming ha ha. That would be really neat also if she came to USU with me. I could show her around campus and introduce her to.............well I think that she would know more people than me there probably ha ha. We are going around to all the ward members and sharing little messages with them about the Restoration. Then we are talking about their friends and who would be good to start the missionary process with. That is what steps the members can take now to eventually invite them to meet with the missionaries. It has been really good so far. I will be sending home some stuff probably soon, especially if I get transferred so look out for that. I love you guys so much and thanks for everything!!!!