March 30. 2015

Hi family,

We do service whenever we can. We don't find tons of opportunities until right about now. Now we get a lot of opportunities with raking leaves, and cleaning up destruction from thunderstorms and tornadoes. I'm sure that's just what mom wanted to hear. :-D We aren't required to do any certain amount, just whatever we feel would be good and effective.

Not a ton has happened recently. Just finding and teaching and stuff. I had my interview with President Wakolo last Saturday. It went well. He is an incredible man. That's pretty much all for this week. kloveyoubye.

Love, Elder Udy

March 23, 2015

Hi all,

I don't have a lot of inspirational/spiritual stories that I can think of right now. I would have to think about it. I have had them though. The funeral was almost funny.

The binding on my scriptures just fell off practically and a bunch of the pages are loose. I just got my new(used) ones the other day. They will last me fine for the rest of my mission and then I will get a new(new) set once I am home before I go off to college.

Our weather has been pretty warm the last week or 2. We went and did some service this morning and raked leaves for a recent convert and pulled a huge broken limb out of her tree.

My companion was sick for a couple of days this week so that slowed us down a bit, but he is feeling better now. We will hopefully be able to set some baptismal dates soon enough here. That's all though. kloveyoubye.

Love, Elder Udy

March 16, 2015

Hi Family,

I haven't had my interview with President yet. He had to reschedule them due to an emergency of some kind. He hasn't told us when yet. We probably won't find out for a bit. 

Specialized training was about living the higher law and some of our key indicators and goals and stuff.

We don't know how long we will have Elder Miner with us, but we are enjoying having him here while we can. 

By the way, I bought new scriptures off of Amazon. That's what the charge was. My quad fell apart last week finally after 12 years of service. So I bought some used ones and a new case to last me the rest of my mission. 

We went to a funeral on Saturday. A recent converts cousin had died, and he wanted us there for support. It was at a black baptist church. Imagine a church service where you have a band playing for half of what the preacher says and people are shouting "Hallelujah" and "Praise the Lord" every 6 seconds. Everyone is standing up almost dancing to the music, and the music is so loud you are almost going deaf. That's what it was like. All of those movies where it seems over exaggerated are exactly right. It's exactly like that. 

Everything else has been pretty normal. Just teaching and stuff. We have been able to see some of the less active members make some progress and attend church again. So that's good. 

The above picture is of all of the elders in Dyersburg. I'm in the middle, Miner is behind me in blue, Ernst is on the right in the white shirt and tie, Mulvey is on my left in the green, and Mohetau is on the far left in white without a tie. Mulvey and Miner are my companions, and Ernst used to be my companion.

This picture is Elder Miner and me next to a giant snowman. So that was fun.

That's all for this week. kloveyoubye.

Love, Elder Udy

March 9. 2015

Hi Family,

Yup. I am  training. Our apartment is pretty nice. The trio is going well. We are all able to speak up and help each other. It also lets us see people that we couldn't see otherwise. So it is pretty good. 

I forgot to tell you something that happened at transfers last week though. After President had done the transfer meeting, the Temple President came into the room.(The Memphis Temple and the stake building share a parking lot.) He said that he had a couple of surprise visitors. Then David Archuletta and a guy from the Nashville Tribute Band walked in. So that happened. He talked to us about his mission briefly and then sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives. He had just done a session in the temple, and the Temple President told him that we were having a meeting in the other building. So that was kind of fun. All of the sisters practically fainted. 

We did have to change our clocks here. We were snowed in again for part of this last week, so the work was kind of slow. We continue moving onward though. We have Specialized Training and interviews with President Wakolo this week, so that should be fun. That's all for this week. kloveyoubye.

Love, Elder Udy

March 2, 2015

Hi Family,

It has warmed up thankfully. We were getting stir crazy for a while. Exciting news though. I am actually in a trio now, and I am training a visa waiter who is going to Taiwan! So I will tell you about them individually. Elder Mulvey is the first one. He is a little bit older in the mission than I am, and is going home soon. He is from Las Vegas (Henderson). I don't know a whole lot more than that about him. He is an awesome guy and a hard worker, so that's good. 

The other new elder to the area is Elder Miner. He is from Saratoga Springs, Utah. He was assigned to serve in Taiwan, but they didn't get his visa in time, so he was reassigned to our mission for the next while. He is learning Mandarin, so I am learning a little Mandarin in the mornings too now. He is pretty cool. He is excited about the work and ready to learn. So that's the biggest news I guess. 

I don't have my camera with me, or I would send some pictures. Testimony meetings are good here. A lot of faith building things and such. Like any other branch or ward people anxiously wait for a turn to share their testimony. 

Not a lot else happened this week. Just finding and teaching. kloveyoubye.

Love, Elder Udy