12/29/2014 P-Day #8

Dear Mother,

It was super awesome to talk to you on Christmas! I really enjoyed talking to you guys and being able to see everyone! Even though it's only been about two months!

Thanks to Mom, Dad, Maddy, Tenley, Grandma, Grandpa, Omie, Papa, Kam, Brandy, Adrienne, Deatons, Great Grandma Clark, Alison, and Madelyn for the Christmas presents!!! It was a good first Christmas away from home! Thanks Alley, Becca, Madelyn, and the Memmotts for the letters!

After I got to Skype you guys, we went to lunch and had ham, turkey, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, etc! It was really good! We played Spot-It! Elder Hughes introduced all of us to the game and I loved it! If you send it to me I definitely won't complain :) After lunch, we went home and played croquet for a little while! We didn't really have a dinner appointment.. The Shumway family just invited us to come over Christmas night. So we got to the Shumways a little bit after 5 and were just in time for dessert! There were a lot of homemade pies and they were really good! They have three huge German Shephers that just follow Brother Shumway around! It's so funny! They never leave his side! After dessert, we went to the Stake Center with all the missionaries in the stake. We played Banana Grams with a bunch of people, Phase 10, and volleyball! Some of us wanted to watch a movie but we were outvoted when people found the volleyball net. Maybe we'll get to watch a movie on New Years Eve? New Years Eve is just a regular day for us. We proselyte until dinner and then go to the Stake Center at 6:00 with the other Elders and Sisters in our stake! New Years Day is a deep cleaning day! Whoo! It'll be nice to get everything cleaned up! I got A LOT of stuff for Christmas and I'm not entirely sure where to put all of it!

I went tracting for the first time this week! There are two newer neighborhoods in my area where there aren't dogs and fences in the front yards! Elder Taylor and I went to them a couple times to go tracting! I actually like doing it! For some reason it's a lot easier than talking to people on the street. We found a couple people that seemed interested so stayed tuned and I'll let you know how our return appointments go! 

We met with one of our recent converts, Sister Tibbett, the other night. We just randomly stopped by because our appointment across the street fell through. It's a good thing that we stopped by because she's having a hard time understanding why she needs to pay tithing. She told us that she has a bunch of charities that she has paid to for 40-50 years and if she pays tithing, she won't have enough money to give to the other charities. At first she was trying to find a loophole so that she wouldn't have to pay tithing on the money she gave to the charities. We talked to her about faith. We told her that tithing doesn't take money, it takes faith. If we show God that we are making sacrifices for Him, He is going to bless us more that we can imagine! She started to understand more about it, so hopefully after she talks with the bishop at tithing settlement, it will make sense to her! She told us that she's very stubborn (it took missionaries meeting with her for 25 YEARS before she got baptized!!!!) and if she can't do something her way, then she won't do it at all.. So I pray and pray that her heart will be softened and this doesn't turn her away from the Church!

ALFREDO IS BACK!!!! We remembered that he told us he would be around on Sunday, so I asked Elder Taylor if it was alright if we moved some of our appointments back so we could see if he was home. And he was! He was there with his ex-wife (she seems to be over there a lot) and kids. When his mom brought us inside, Alfredo asked us if we could go meet outside. We walk out back and he just starts crying. Neither Elder Taylor and I knew what to do so we just let him cry for a couple minutes. Eventually he started telling us about what has been happening in his life. He divorced his wife, Erika, a couple years ago because things weren't working out between the two of them. Erika didn't want to let him go because she still was in love with him. Alfredo started dating another girl and had a baby with her. I think Erika got jealous and kept calling the new girl and telling her that Alfredo is still Erika's and the other girl has to back off. So Alfredo's new girlfriend left him because of Erika and now he can't see his new daughter anymore. We talked to him about the Atonement, and how neither of us knew exactly what he was going through, but Christ does. I asked him if he remembered how he felt when he got his answer that the Book of Mormon was true and promised him that he could feel that peace/happiness again. It was the most spiritual lesson that I have ever had with anyone! After we finished talking at his house, he asked if we could go see the Verdejos. They're an older couple who have offered to give Alfredo a ride to church and live just down the street from him. When we got there, he really opened up to them and told them everything he told us and more. He talked to them in Spanish though, so I only picked up bits and pieces of the new information. Alfredo told us he'll probably quit his job in Palm Springs and move back here so he can be around to work out all of his family problems. He also wants to meet with the Bishop for some counseling. The only people that he's told about what he's going through are us and the Verdejos. Hopefully things start to work out for him because he is a really good guy!

Well that's all I have for this week! I love you all and pray for you every single day! Thanks for all of your support!!

Te quiero, 

Elder Warren   

12/21/2014 P-Day #7

Hola!!

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! The time's gone by so fast! Thanks so much to Danielle, Noel, Hna. Leatherman, Papa, Grandpa, Brother Tongish, Brother and Sister Parris, and Mom for the letters/packages! 

16 December: This morning, we helped Sister Smith put up her Christmas lights! Sister Smith is the best! She's 81 years old, but she's the most active 81 year old that I have ever seen! She's always out visiting with people, giving people rides, doing yard work, cleaning, cooking, etc! It dumped rain on us today! We had to bike all the way to the top of our area for out lessons! I'm super glad I have a raincoat! We had a lesson with Matthew tonight! He's so much fun! We watched He is the Gift with him and it was so powerful! He really wants his grandpa to baptize him, but his grandpa lives in Hawaii... So he's going to be baptized in the summer when his family goes out to visit his grandparents in Hawaii! 

17 December: Today was the first District Meeting of the transfer! I'm not the only greenie anymore! Sister Spring got transferred into my district (she was in the MTC with me) and there's a brand new missionary, Elder Schlueter, in our district! We were on a team up with Brother Kranz tonight and all of our appointments fell through! We tried to visit some less active families but they either weren't home or they didn't want to let us inside.. So Brother Kranz asked if we were hungry and wanted to go to Jack in the Box (apparently Jack in the Box is super popular here and they're everywhere! I think Dad would like it here!). When we walked into the restaurant, we saw Mark sitting inside! We haven't seen Mark for weeks because he works 12-18 hour days, 7 days a week! So I know have a testimony of the power of Jack in the Box! Haha just kidding! But it was really cool to see how the Lord's hand can be working in our lives in the smallest/strangest ways!

18 December: This morning we went to serve at a Senior Center. Elder Child told us we had to be there at 8:00, but when we walked in they told us we weren't supposed to be there until 11! We went outside to study and then some of the elders that were with us played soccer in the parking lot. I talked with Elder Murray (he's one of the Chinese elders) because he didn't really want to play soccer. So we practiced speaking Chinese with each other! He wants me to talk to President and see if he'll let me go Chinese speaking since there are only four Chinese missionaries! I think it would be really cool to learn to speak fluent Chinese! So when I have my interview with President Mullen this transfer, I'm going to talk to him about it!

19 December: Today I realized how much I have in common with Maddy... Elder Taylor and I were getting ready to leave for an appointment when we saw a stray German Shepherd walking down the street. We sit and wait for it to pass because we really don't want to be chased by a big dog! But instead of walking away, the dog walks right up to us. Obviously I had to pet it! BIG mistake! The dog (whom I named Kevin...) followed us around all day! He would wait for us outside our appointments and then walk with us to our next one! We felt super bad because we were biking and he was running to keep up with us! Eventually we decided that missionary work with a German Shepherd is too hard, because everybody avoided us! So we went home and hid inside our house, hoping Kevin would leave! We sat inside for over an hour and he never left! Eventually the zone leaders came by to pick us up for dinner and Kevin was still outside! He was gone after we came back from dinner though! It was really sad because I was all down to keep him! But that's not allowed.. Tonight all of our appointments fell through! Nothing seems to be working out! We haven't found anyone new and our investigators aren't making any progress. So tonight Elder Taylor and I sat down and talked about what we need to do and how we can help each other. We decided that we need to pray/fast to find out what God wants us to do. It was really cool and it was a super spiritual experience!

20 December: Today we handed out Christmas presents to kids from low income families! They came to one of the high schools near us, had lunch, watched a magic show, and then got a present, backpack, and blanket! It was so much fun to see all these little kid's faces light up when we handed them a present! It was so much fun! So tonight we had a dinner with all the missionaries in the stake at the stake president's house. He called Elder Bushman and asked him if he would put together a musical number! Guess who he asked to be the pianist!? Me! Whoo! So I got the music two hours before we had to perform! Six other elders and sisters were singing and I had to play the accompaniment for them! I was super stressed out but it actually went really well! We also got to go caroling with 30  missionaries to some of the stake president's neighbors! It was a lot of fun to be able to bring the spirit to these families! Tonight we finally made progress with Ignacio!!! He opened up to us and told us A LOT of stuff! He talked about how he feels like the devil keeps throwing chain after chain onto him and something dark keeps pulling him away from the stuff he knows he should be doing (coming to church, reading from the Book of Mormon, praying..). Hopefully this is the push that he needed to get onto the right path!

Well I can't wait to talk to some of you on Thursday! I love and miss you all!

Merry Christmas!!

Elder Warren

12/15/2014 P-Day #6

Hi Family!!

Wow I can't believe my first transfer is already over! Both Elder Taylor and  I are staying in our same area so that's good!

Thank you Maddy and Alison for the letters this week! Since there were transfers this past weekend, the mission office held all mail from Wednesday to Saturday. So if you sent me something I'll probably get it tomorrow!

So here's what's happened in the life of Elder Warren:

Monday: So today we got to clean our room/bathroom which is always fun! It's so dusty here! It's helped somewhat with the rain, but I still feel like I haven't dusted in over a month, even though it's only been a week! Today we went with the Zone Leaders to go grocery shopping, email, play croquet, and go run down to the river! Sister Smith has a croquet set and we've discovered that it's now our favorite game. We were playing right before we had to go to dinner and the sprinklers turned on in the middle of our game! So naturally we just kept playing. It was the only logical thing to do, right? We were soaked!!! We didn't have time to change before dinner but we grabbed some towels and dried off the best we could in the car on the way there! 

Tuesday: Today we had a district meeting. Elder H. and Elder S. trained on how to listen to our investigators and using the Spirit to help resolve their concerns! We met with a recent convert, Sister V., and showed her He is the Gift. She said that she has a lot of family that she will share it with so that was really cool! I also had my first "drop talk" today! Ignacio didn't come to church or read (he hasn't done any of those things for months now) so we read him the parable about the wise/foolish man. We told him that he has heard the word and now it's time for him to start doing the stuff we ask him to so that he can build his foundation on a rock. He said he is ready to change and doesn't want to be someone who says they'll do something but really won't do it.

Wednesday: This morning it dumped rain! Elder Taylor and I ended up staying in and calling a ton of less active members in our ward. Our of the 30-ish people we called, only four answered or had an accurate phone number! Once the rain let up, we went to go visit the Hogue's, who are a super cool family that just got baptized about a year ago! We read a chapter with Bob and then hung out for a little bit while it started raining again! We stopped by at Veronica's to help her make cookies and talk to her. It's really hard to have a lesson with Veronica because she's always busy doing something and she's so easily distracted! We'd start talking about the scriptures or something, and then two sentences later we're on a totally unrelated topic! Hopefully we can start meeting her at the church building or in a members home! We think that will help keep her focused!

Thursday: The dirt (sand) here doesn't soak up any of the water so it all runs down the hills and creates huge lakes in  the middle of the street! So Elder Taylor and I had a fun time riding through all of them! We went and saw Osh again today! The baby pigs are so cute! I guess one of them had to have "surgery" to get a plastic ring off its leg, so he gave it some loritab to calm it down! Crazy, right?! Hopefully the pig's alright! We read some of 3 Nephi with him and now that he is starting to understand/believe that there were people in the Americas who Christ visited/taught. Now we just have to help him realize that the apostasy was a real thing and that Christ's true gospel wasn't on the earth for a long time! Today we also tried to go see a recent convert named Paul L. who we've heard (because our ward gossips so much!!) has been having problem with drugs and alcohol. He told us that he doesn't want us or anyone else from the church stopping by anymore. It was super sad   

Friday: Today we taught our new investigator, Lino A. He was in a really bad car accident two years ago and just got out of the hospital about five months ago! Doctors told him that he wouldn't be able to walk again, but he gets around fine! He says he's got a lot to be thankful for and he's super grateful for God helping him in his life! He's an active Catholic so hopefully he'll be able to feel the Spirit as he reads from the Book of Mormon and know that it's true!

Saturday: Today was our ward's Christmas party!! It was a breakfast, so they had tons of breakfast casseroles, cinnamon rolls, waffles, pancakes, etc.. It was so good! Veronica came and brought two of her daughters and they had a really good time! It was awesome because we'd been praying to find a member to help fellowship Veronica and Sister Shumway totally hit it off with Veronica and her two girls! We're going to try and have a lesson at the Shumway's home with Veronica this week! We had transfer calls tonight! Elder Taylor and I sat around after we finished planning until 10:00, waiting for the zone leaders to call us and tell us who was getting transferred! Both of us are staying, one of the sisters in our district goes home now, so Sister S. (she was in the MTC with me) is going to be transferred into our district! Elder H. is going to be training a new missionary so I'm not going to be the baby in our district anymore!

Sunday: None of our investigators came to church today! Veronica, Ignacio, and Amanda (Ignacio's fiancee) all said they'd be there! We called them the night before to remind them, stopped by their houses to wake them up this morning, but none of them were awake and kept sleeping through us pounding on the door and calling them!!! Super frustrating! After church, we went and visited the Case family to show them the He is the Gift video. They have little kids that are crazy. Literally bouncing off the walls crazy! So we sit down and show them the video and one of the girls starts to read the words out loud so that her brother would know what they said because he can't read. It was so sweet and powerful and innocent! That has been my most spiritual/favorite time watching the video! 

Thank you all for your prayers, letters, and packages! I love you all and miss you tons!

Love,

Elder Warren

12/7/14 P-Day #5

Dearest Mother,

This transfer has flown by like crazy! It's already week 6! Thanks Omie and Papa, Grandpa, and Lauren for the letters! Thanks Mom for the Christmas calendar, lights, and pictures, they came last week! Also thanks for the coat, gloves, mp3, and speakers! Sorry I thought I mentioned it in the last letter! My bad!

This week has been interesting... It's probably been the hardest week so far. 

On Tuesday I went on another exchange! This time I was with Elder Schoonmaker. That was hard because we have really different personalities and from what I had seen, Elder Schoonmaker wasn't the most obedient missionary. I started off the exchange with a bad attitude and I was just expecting it to go badly. Halfway through the day, after it had dumped rain on us, and we hadn't gotten much done, I decided to change the way I was looking at the exchange. I knew that there was something Heavenly Father wanted me to learn, but I couldn't see what it was! So I changed my attitude and started looking at everything with a more positive outlook. It was crazy how fast the day changed! We got members to give us rides to our lessons, we met with a bunch of people, and saw a lot of success! That night, we took one of our investigators, Mark, to a baptism. The Spirit was crazy strong! Like a fire was burning! I think it was really good for Mark to see what a baptism was like and for him to feel the spirit that was there! 

So Elder Taylor kind of caught my cold that I had.. Whoops! He started on Thursday, so that was a really slow day. All of our appointments fell through and we weren't able to meet with anybody that day. Then Alfredo called us and told us he's moving to Palm Springs because he got a job there. We met with him last night and read a chapter with him and wished him luck. He says he'll be coming back on Sundays to visit his family so we'll probably see him around.

We picked up two new investigators this week! Their names are Juan and Elizabeth! We've already taught them the Restoration and we have another appointment with them tomorrow!! They're super cool! Juan just got out of prison so he says he's looking for a church so that he can get his life back on the right path!

Sunday was a really eventful day for us! At dinner that night, we were with the Zone Leaders and Elder Child, who is allergic to nuts, accidentally ate a cookie with walnuts in it! He's okay now, but it was really scary! We had to call 9-1-1 and an ambulance came to pick him up! Elder Taylor and I went to go pick them up from the hospital last night and Elder Child was higher than a kite! They pumped him so full of benadryl and steroids that he was so loopy, we were dying from laughing so hard!

Now to answer all your questions!

We're actually going Christmas shopping today, so I can get Rydge's present!

I'll see what our plans are for Christmas and I'll let you know next week what time we'll Skype at!

Thanksgiving was awesome! The food was really good! The only thing that was different was that there was no banana cream pie :( but they had pecan pie! I'd never had pecan pie before and it's really good!

Osh is doing pretty well. I think he just stays with the lady that has bone cancer and kind of watches out for her. He's not a nurse. When we went out to see the baby pigs, they were all hiding underneath their bedding so I only saw a glimpse of one, but next time we go see them, I'll try and get a better picture! Almost everyone who lives here has animals so I wouldn't be surprised if there are lots of people with pigs! 

It was super crazy when the Zone Leaders stayed with us! There's another spare bedroom in the house so they stayed in there, but it was super crowded! We're all sad that they moved out now.

We can play board games on P-Days/holidays! We played Uno, Monopoly, and Sorry on Thanksgiving!

My cold was gone in a couple days but I still have a little bit of a cough. It sounds like it's been spreading through the mission and the cough lasts for a while! Yes, I have been drinking lots of water!

I can't believe I take naps either! I hated naps before I came on my mission, but now we work so much that I'm ALWAYS tired! We have an hour for lunch, so some days we'll come home, eat really fast, and then nap for the rest of the hour! 

Usually we buy groceries so we can eat lunch at home. The only days we'll eat out are if we have meetings with other missionaries.

If someone got me a GPS for Christmas, having a way to mount it on my bike would be awesome!

I feel like my letter was a little jumbled today, too! I'll do a better job next week! I love you and pray for you every day too! I think it's funny that you wonder what I'm doing cause sometimes I do that too! I hope all is well with you!

Merry Christmas! Don't forget to share the He is the Gift video with someone!!!

Love you!

Elder Warren

p.s. It's weird to hear people call me "Cole" now! I've gotten to the point where I refer to myself as Elder Warren! It's so bizarre!!

 Cole is the one sitting backwards.

My 12/6 letter

Dearest Cole,

How are you? It's been the craziest warmest weather here. It was sunny and 60 degrees today!  It's December 7th and we aren't really even wearing coats yet!  We got all the Christmas decorations up in the house.  We did a real tree again. We got it from Home Depot and Dad was missing you for help.  He had to carry it in and set it up himself.  Well, we helped him but it wasn't the same!  Dad has been gone since Wednesday and won't be home until this Wednesday (the 10th)  It's been pretty quiet around here with just me and the girls.   I still haven't figured out groceries...especially with Dad being gone so much too.  I keep buying too much milk! 

You didn't mention anything about the coat, gloves, bike kit, mp3 or speakers... are they all ok??

Did you get the advent calendar? How about the pictures and the lights?  Sheesh...we've sent you a lot of stuff :)  

What about Rydge's present?  Do you want to get it or do you want me to?

I am mailing Christmas packages tomorrow. I'll send one to the mission home so you'll get one when they hand them out at your Christmas party this week. I might send another one to your homeshare.  We got an email from the mission office about coordinating talking to you on Christmas.  They didn't mention about skyping so I asked them.  They said President Mullen said it was OK for Christmas but not any other time.  So, I'm guessing you'll have to find somewhere to do it and let us know what time. We can't wait to see and hear you!  We are working on a list of questions we want to ask you :)

It sounds like you had a busy Thanksgiving.  How was the food?  Did you eat usual stuff? Was there anything different that we don't usually eat?  

How is Osh doing?  Is he a nurse or does he just help the lady with bone cancer?  That is so crazy about the pigs!  Did you take any pictures of the babies?  The girls would love to see them.  oh, and it was crazy that Rudy had pigs too!  Are they common or are they just random pig people?

That is a bummer about Andrea.  In Keni's letter today in the sacrament meeting program he talked about the area he is in and how a pastor goes around telling people not to believe the missionaries and it's hard to overcome that.  He told how he would start into bible-bashing, which he doesn't want/like to do, and he felt strongly to say to the guy (after he called Keni a liar):  he said he's listened to the pastor and he's listened to the missionaries, but has he asked God and listened for His answer.  He told him it doesn't really matter what the pastor says, or what the missionaries say until he prays to God and asks what is true.  I thought that was a good perspective when you are trying to overcome something that another person says, ask them to ask God.  

It sounds like you are being fed well...homemade tamales!  Yummy.  That probably was crazy and fun with the zone leaders in your room. Were they in your room?  Can you guys ever play games...board games, U-no, dominoes, etc...?

Did you get over your cold quick?   Are you drinking lots of water?  Good for you realizing what you were blessed with.  That is important to look for the blessings, especially when we are in the middle of the trial. 

I can't believe you take naps!  You haven't done that since you were two! You must be working hard!  How long are you home for lunch?  Do you buy groceries much and eat at home much?

If someone was going to get you a GPS for Christmas, do you want a way to mount it on your bike?

Sorry, this letter feels kind of jumbled, all over the place.  Sometimes it's hard to get my thoughts together! I pray for you morning and night!  I often wonder what you are doing, like when we sit down for dinner or when I am getting into bed or just randomly throughout the day... I wonder what Cole is doing right now?   I love you so much and love what you are doing!  

Love,

Mom

12/1/2014 P-day #4

Hola familia!

Thanks Omie and Papa and Danielle for the letters! It's really fun to get to open letters and hear from you guys! And thanks to the Gray family for the fun Thanksgiving package!! I thought it was funny that all the turkeys were traced on people's left hands.... except Maddy's :)

The other day I was thinking about how cold it must be over there and how pale/pasty white all of you must be.. Thankfully I don't have that problem!! The coldest it gets here is about 50 degrees in the morning when we go running down by the river! It's sunny almost all of the time, but the last couple days we've had rain! 

Yesterday, we were biking around and I had Maddy and Tenley's "harmony" to the song in Annie stuck in my head! It was so annoying!! I seriously could not stop singing it for hours! 

Thanksgiving was so much fun! We played football in the morning with a bunch of other elders in our stake! It was so much fun! We had lunch with our homeshare's family. The house is tiny and there were about twenty people stuffed in there! But it was a lot of fun. We played croquet and Uno with one of her grandsons, who's ten and is a lot of fun! Then we went over to the Brother and Sister Budica's home for dinner! Dinner was supposed to start at 5:00, so we got there around 4:00 to see if we could help out and then hang out for a little bit! We didn't start eating until 6:50!! It was alright because there was a pool table and Foosball so we were entertained! There were also a ton of people over at their house so it reminded me of our family dinners with all the little kiddos! 

So here's the story behind the new  haircut.. I wanted it shorter because I was tired of having helmet hair all the time, but the lady who cut my hair went a little bit shorter than I wanted.. But it's okay because it's growing back! Those pictures I took were just in our back yard and down at the Santa Ana river where we go running every morning!

The doctor I went to see is a member so I didn't have to pay a copay for my visit with him. But I'm going to take my prescription in today so I'll have to pay then!

This week our Zone Leaders moved in with us because their homeshare had family coming to stay with them over Thanksgiving. It's been super cramped but so much fun! They're moving out on Wednesday, but they're still in our ward so we see them a lot! We also went on exchanges with them while they were staying with us! This exchange was a hundred times better than the last one! We didn't get to see everyone we would have liked to, but we met with a lot of people!

So this weekend I got a bit of a cold which was really annoying! It only lasted for a day, but now I just have a dumb cough that won't go away! At first I was confused because I thought that when I was set apart, I was promised that if I was obedient I wouldn't get sick! But while I was thinking about it and trying to figure out how I wasn't being obedient, I realized that I wasn't promised to not get sick, but that I would have the strength to keep working! Which I did! I am also a firm believer now that getting up and moving around while you're sick definitely helps you heal faster! I've also discovered that I really love naps... Lunch-time naps are now my favorite part of the day!!

On Sunday, Elder Taylor spoke in sacrament meeting with one of the zone leaders, Elder Child. All four of us sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth", and it went really well! A couple of us were still a little sick, but thankfully we were still able to sing!

We picked up a new investigator this week! His name is Osh (his family is from Egypt) and he's pretty cool. He lives with a less active lady who's in her 70's and helps take care of her because she has bone cancer. We left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and taught him the Restoration and he soaked it all up! He's super strong in his Greek Orthodox beliefs/background so that may be the only struggle with him. He also has five pot-bellied pigs! On Thanksgiving he found out that one of them was pregnant, so when we went back to visit, their were six new baby pigs! They're so tiny!

We also picked up another new investigator! His name's Rudy. We taught him about the Restoration and how we can read/pray about the Book of Mormon and then the Spirit will tell us that it's true. He says that he's felt the Spirit before in his life and he wants to feel it again. I bore my testimony that if he read from the Book of Mormon and prayed to our Heavenly Father, he would feel the brightness and happiness that the Spirit brings! (He also has pigs, but these ones are probably about the same size as Stubby! They're huge!)

Our other investigators are kind of frustrating at this point. The one girl, Andrea, went to Mexico for a month. She texted us a couple weeks ago and said that she's been talking to her grandma and that "mormonism is not for her".... She is supposed to be back home soon so we'll try and stop by and see if we can visit with her. We started teaching Ignacio's fiancee, Amanda, when we go over to visit with him. They both want to be baptized, so we put them on date for December 20. Neither of them will keep commitments so we're not sure what to do with them now. We may have to drop them, which I don't want to do. We're still trying to teach Veronica, but she has a really short attention span and a spotty memory. So lessons can only last five minutes with her, and that's if we can even get a lesson started with her. She has come to church and really liked it so we're not giving up on her yet! Alfredo's still doing pretty well but he's really hard to get ahold of because he doesn't have a phone or a car. He's been helping his sister move, so he spends a lot of time with her, and not a lot of time at home. His mom, who doesn't speak a lot of English, really loves it when we come over and visit! She always gives us food! Mexican sweet bread, pomegranates, fresh eggs, bananas, hot chocolate, homemade tamales... We were over there last night, trying to meet with Alfredo, but he wasn't home, so she fed us some tamales and they were so good!!! When I told her that they were really good, she got SO happy!

No, Lauren didn't tell me that she met them! That's really cool! My companion's name is Steven Taylor and he lives in Cottonwood Heights. So it probably was him! What was the lady's name that she met?

Have you guys watched the "He is the Gift" video the church made? If you haven't, GO AND WATCH IT! It's super short, super powerful, and super awesome! In the December Ensign, there's an article that talks about the video, and about how YOU can share it with people! There are nine pass-along cards in the Ensign that you can hand out to someone that may need a message about Jesus Christ! I hope all of you will start passing out those cards, and if you don't get the Ensign, talk to people and watch the video with them! Especially with it being Christmas time, it's really easy to start up a conversation that can lead to a discussion about the Savior! 

I love you all and pray for you every day! I pray that you will all have missionary opportunities, so I hope that when a moment comes when you can share the gospel, you can open your mouth and bear your testimony!

Love you!!

Elder Warren

p.s. I definitely need a scripture bag! could you add that to my Christmas wishlist? Gracias! I love you all!

My 11/30/2014 letter

Dear Elder Warren,

How was your Thanksgiving?  Tell me all about it!  

What's with the buzz cut? Did you choose to do it or did they make you? I like it!  Dad thinks it makes you look like you are five, I said, that's because you had a buzz cut when you were five :)

Where are those pictures taken?

So was the Dr. a member and did you have to pay a co-pay?  You have money on your personal debit card to get your prescription. It should be a $25 copy for your meds.

Hold your horses on the preach my gospel cover...it might be coming soon :)

So, my lesson on finding solutions to challenges went really well today.  One of the Elders came in, I don't know where the other one was, he had Brother Shepherd be his companion.  I loved your thoughts about praying and trusting in the Lord.  We talked about prayer and scripture study. How they are the simplest and seemingly easiest answers but that they can be the hardest to be consistent.  We discussed how they must be so important because Satan works the hardest on getting us not to do them!

Thanksgiving was good.  We drove up to Idaho Wednesday night. The girls stayed at Becca's, she moved the smaller bunk bed set to her 2nd bedroom.  Thursday morning we just hung around, pretty lazy. At about noon we started peeling potatoes, making gravy, and setting the table.  By 1:15 we were eating and by 1:20 Papa said "Sure got quiet in here"  It is really hard not to laugh when he says that!  All the food was good.  Becca and the girls cleaned up since they didn't show up until 1:00!  Most of us napped after and then we played games and watched a movie.  Friday we went shooting...me, Dad, Papa, the girls.  They closed the gravel pit place we used to go so we went out kind of by Roberts.  We all shot, Tenley only once, Maddy did all the guns and was pretty good at it!  She's all excited about looking up shooting ranges now!  We had leftovers and played more games, we taught the girls how to play Mah Jongg.  We played Sjoelbakken and Dad took the measurements and wants to try to make one for Christmas. 

Monday night we had the neighbors over for dinner.  Andrea, Michael, Ania and Cleona.  We had South West stew and Salad as Andrea is gluten intolerant.  It seemed to go really good.  We sat around the table and visited for quite awhile, then the girls were looking bored so our girls took them down to play Wii on the big screen. It sounded like a party down there.  They had a great time!  We found out that they like Indian Food so we will try to invite them to go out to dinner and Maddy and Tenley can watch their girls.  I might invite them to the neighborhood Christmas party, it's on Friday the 5th, but Dad's going to be out of town so I'll see about that.

So, we drew cousins names for Christmas.  You have Rydge.  Do you want to shop for him and mail it or do you want me just to get it?  Let me know.  He wants anything iron man, captain america or Spiderman.  We usually do about $15.  I'll put money in your account if you want to do the shopping.  Do you have any idea on how the skyping at Christmas works?  I figure you don't but just asking :)  We are a little worried about doing it up at the cabin.  I know we used LInday's hotspot last Thanksgiving to skype/facetime Lauren so it should be fine.

I finally got my map I ordered a month ago of your mission. It lists all the wards and shows where they are.  It's pretty cool!  Did you hear about Preston getting E.Coli at the MTC?  He was supposed to leave the day before Thanksgiving but they made him stay a week longer to make sure he is ok. So he should be heading out this week.  

How are things going with your investigators?  Is the one back from Mexico?  I don't always remember their names but I pray for them.  I pray for you too!  I pray that you will be kept safe and free from injuries and sickness so you can do the work you were called to do.  I know you work hard, but if you can, work harder!  Stick to those rules and you will be blessed!

Did Lauren tell you she met someone (I think an Aunt??) of an Elder Taylor serving in your mission from Cottonwood Heights?  It's probably your companion.  What is his first name?

It was 65 degrees over Thanksgiving!  We were loving it!  Now I hope we get some snow!  I check weatherbug for Riverside's weather so I can imagine how you are feeling!

Well,  we love you so much and are so proud of you!  Keep plugging away and I can't wait to hear from you!  Monday is now my favorite day of the week!

Love,

Mom