New Companion and lots of pics!!!

Hey everyone

I dont have a lot of time today but I just wanted to let ya'll know that things are going awesome! It was fun skyping and seeing all of you again! Things are getting crazy over here in Arkansas!

The tornado clean up was a good time and Chris's baptism was awesome. That night I got called to be an assistant. Its been a lot of fun so far. My first official day as an assistant me and Elder Armstrong were helping people take their luggage home and we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere between little rock and conway! It was pretty crazy.

Elder Armstrong is awesome. He is such a funny dude! He served in Little Rock already before so I am excited to see whats in store for this next transfer!   Elder Kopischke of the 70 is coming this friday! It is going to be sweet! He is doing a conference in memphis and in little rock and me and Elder Armstrong get to go to both and be with him the whole day! I am nervous but excited. Things are going great out here and I am loving every second of it!     
 

 

Tornados! And Chris Is getting Baptized!!!

HEEEY FAMILY!!

CHRIS IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!! Man it makes me so happy every time I think about it. He called us on Saturday night and told us the good news. I am not exaggerating when I say I lost my voice from shouting joyous praises to the heavens. Elder Boyer and I are going to the baptism on Saturday and I can't wait. Sister Cooksey is going to make my favorite dish for me too, lemon pepper fried chicken, a southern delicacy.

But of course since there is opposition in all things the devil had to send forth mighty winds, yea his shafts in the whirlwind, and all his hail and mighty storms! Man that tornado was crazy. It was on the ground forever. We were eating dinner at a members home last night when we got a call from President Petersen saying we needed to get everyone in our zone in and safe asap. So we were calling everyone like crazy and making sure they were in a safe place. The only people we could never get a hold of were the Pinnacle Mountain Sisters who were the closest to the tornando! We freaked out but they ended up making it. It was pretty crazy. The alarms went off forever. President said that we will probably go help clean up on wednesday or thursday.

We had some miracles happen this past week in our zone. So at the beginning of the week it looked like we were going to reach our monthly goal easy, then crap hit the fan and a lot of our baptism fell through. So it looked like we were going to be 2 short of our goal, we fasted and prayed so dang hard! To make a long story short we are going to reach our goal this month after a baptism on Tuesday! I'm pumped!

Carsha is still doing good! The ward loves her. In gospel principles this past week we were learning about the 3 kingdoms of glory and we did a demo where Carsha was the judge and she had to judge people and where they were going to go. She sent everyone to hell. ha ha It was funny! She is really awesome though and she will be getting baptized soon! She is almost there. Robert is doing great too! 

Let me just leave with my testimony that the power of the Book of Mormon can help us overcome addictions. I have seen that in these past couple of weeks. I love the Book of Mormon! It is a pure vessel of the spirit and can bring comfort and solace to every human heart. I know that it is the word of God and testifies and Jesus is our Savior! Thanks for all your support family!

Happy Easter

Hey Kindred! Happy Easter!

This week was a great one. I remember hardly any of it but I am pretty tired today so it must have been a good one! Missions kind of go day by day. Some days everything is just working out and you love life and you just want to stand on a tower and preach the good word, King Benjamin style. Yet there is some days where it seems like its just rejection after rejection. What I have realized though is I learn the most from those hard days. Its because of days like that I have truly come to a better understanding of the Savior and his sacrifice. One of my favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is 1 Nephi 19:9. It describes what the Savior went through daily and why he went through it. I am so grateful for his loving-kindness and his longsuffering. 

On wednesday we went on exchanges with the Benton elders and I stayed here with Elder Matthews. He is a convert to the church so it was cool to talk to him about what things are like from a different perspective. We had a good time on the exchange and he got to have a classic Little Rock experience! Within an hour of our exchange we were walking down the street saw these cars swerve everywhere almost hitting a tree and then these 2 guys got out and started cussing and yelling and almost got in a fight. Elder Matthews was freaking out! It was funny. Then we were parked on the side of the road because I was talking to the assistants on the phone when these 2 dudes that were walking away from us kept looking back at us all suspiciously and I don't mean to judge but they didn't exactly look like law-abiding citizens. Anyways they both turned around at the same time and started walking really fast towards us and Elder Matthews freaked out and was like "Drive Elder Udall! Drive!" ha ha ha it was funny stuff. 

Elder Boyer and I were able to get 6 people to church last sunday which was awesome. It was a really spiritual sacrament meeting. Robert came! He is the guy that looks and talks like Morgan Freeman. He should be getting baptized this Saturday as long as he is quit smoking. His big problem was drinking. Its been over 3 years since he went a day without drinking but now he has been sober for a week! I know it was because the power of the Priesthood. We are also hoping to baptized Carsha this weekend. She is so cool! We have an awesome member who fellowships her! Members really make all the difference. 

Last night we went to a member of our wards house who THREW DOWN some dinner. It was sweet. We had lamb which was awesome and a bunch of other stuff. They would not let met stop eating. They kept putting it on my plate. So out of respect and sheer proper etiquette I  chowed down! It was a good easter.

Thank you for the package! It made my day! I love the tie! Thanks for the card Grandpa and Grandma!

Stay classy everyone.

Seriously!

What is up!!

The Little Rock life is kickin! Hows AZ and Utah and Oregon?

So this week was pretty jam-packed with trials and weird experiences but it ended in an awesome way! We drove down to Pine Bluff on Tuesday

and went to their district meeting. It was way good! Afterwards Elder jackson and I went back to Little Rock for an exchange! We set a couple of baptismal dates which was awesome! We made it a goal to not drive by anyone without talking to them. It was sweet! Anytime we saw someone porch-sitting (and there is a lot of that in the south) we just put it in park and walked up and talked to them! It was a good exchange.

 

That night we were eating at my favorite burrito stand, Tequiera Samantha 2, when this homeless man walked up to us and asked me if I was a christian, he then told me he had not eaten in 2 days and needed food. So I said alright lets get you some tacos and he said "no, I want subway." Then ELder Jackson offered him some of his drink and he said "no you guys can just buy me a new drink." Most spoiled homeless man I ever met! Anyways after some persuasion I talked the starving man into settling for tacos. The weirdest experience on the exchange happened the next morning though when we were street contacting. This gangster dude walked up to us and asked what we were selling and then he gave me a really tight hug and then kissed me on the neck! And then he did the same thing to my comp! Then he ran off. You meet some weird people on your mission. 

Have I told you about Karsha? She is one of our investigators. Last week we were across the street from her house when a huge branch fell off a tree and landed on a car and completely shattered the windshield. Karsha came out of the house to see what was going on and then Elder Boyer and I went and talked to her and that's how we found her! She came to church yesterday and is loving the missionary lessons!

Anyways even though there were a lot of trials and disappointments this week it ended off great last night! We had a lesson with on of our investigators, Robert, who struggles with Alcohol.  He committed to a baptisimal date but he is having a hard time quitting drinking.  It was raining hard last night when we went over to his house.  He asked us why we always come over.  He wanted to know why we never give up on him no matter what the weather or what mistakes he has made.  We took the opportunity to teach him the plan of salvation and explained to him that in pre earth life before we came to earth we were all brothers we were all brothers and desired to follow Christ.  We told him about his divine potential and why this earth life is so important.  During that lesson I felt an extreme amount of concern for that guy. That lesson was a turning point for Robert because the spirit was changing his desires. It was like a Mosiah 5:2 experience. We told him that we are going to stay in daily contact with him to help him quit drinking.

The best part about last night is we found an awesome family! We were walking in this neighborhood at about 8 45 pm and Elder Boyer felt prompted to knock on this door. So we did and 3 kids let us in right away. The mom was in the other room yelling about something. She then came to the front and said "Seriously? It is seriously to late for ya'll to be coming up in my house. I'm serious." So I apologized and asked her what her name was and with a mean/sarcastic tone said "Serious." So I said I was just going to say a quick prayer for their family and I did and in the prayer I asked for a blessing to be with the 3 kids Lexus, Kayla, and Kenyon, and then I asked for a special blessing on "Serious." ha ha The kids were cracking up that I called her that in my prayer but I continued on. I could feel that the spirit entered the room and after the prayer the moms attitude was a lot different. She said she didn't know we believe in Jesus. We begin teaching portions of the Plan of Salvation  and about families and it was awesome! She set up her own return appointment and we are going to see her on tuesday! Things are going so good here! Thanks for everything Udall clan and fam!

               Elder Soelberg sent me this picture today on my Email! 

Visions, Goals, Planning, Accountability

Hows it going fam? 

This week has been full of prayers, promptings, and prophets! Its been sweet!  So.....have you ever heard of VGPA? Well its an awesome tool the President Petersen taught me. It stands for Visions, Goals, Planning, and Accountability. 

So basically, you have a vision of something you want to accomplish, you set goals to accomplish the visions, you make plans for how you accomplish the goals, and you hold yourself accountable daily for everything. So I did this and the vision I had was to find, teach, and baptize a family. I wrote everything down on how I was going to accomplish this vision. I was praying really hard for that. We finally were able to find them though! It is a mom and her 2 kids and they are awesome.

Its hard to exlain it but on your mission sometimes you just feel an instant connection and love for people. Elder Boyer and I taught this family monday night about the restoration. It was a sweet lesson and the 2 kids, Dimetri (16), and Deanna (14) loved and understood it. It was one of my favorite lessons on my mission! I wish I could accurately describe how awesome it feels to teach families the gospel!! Nothing I have ever done matches up to the feelings you get when you just taught and prayed with a family. Experiences like that is what make these 2 years so awesome. Mosiah 28:3 is probably my favorite mission scripture of all time. You meet some people on your mission where you have such an extreme anxiety and desire for them to accept this gospel that it just takes over everything you do. It makes you want to be better and pray more sincerely, work harder, and study with real intent, doing everything you can to help them know these truths. 

Did I ever tell you about the guy from guatemala? So we were walking down the street one day and at this point we really had no idea why we were there or where we were going. But all the sudden this hispanic guy runs up to us and yelled "Elders!" in broken english. He told us that he was from guatemala and he had got baptized there 2 months ago and he just moved to the U.S. 2 days ago and didn't know where the church was. What are the odds of that? He gets baptized and moves to this country and just 2 days later he runs into some missionaries!! Heavenly Father was looking out for him. He goes to our ward now and he is awesome. 

So General Conference was the coolest thing ever. The spirit layed it on thick to me that President Monson is a Prophet of God. I know he is independent of anyone else's testimony. I know that God speaks to people in this day and age. I know and love the restored Gospel. It is the way to be saved, the way to be clean, and the way to be truly happy. I am so grateful for families. Especially mine. 

I can only imagine how happy it makes Heavenly Father to be able to send his spirit children to families like the Robinsons! I can't wait to meet Hunter! Congratulations to aunt Jamie and uncle Jared!

Well if Kylie is on a sugar fast you can send her Easter candy my way. Also, there is some talks/discourses that I would love to have on cd if you ever find them.   The Atonement- Truman G. Madsen or The Great Apostasy- Cleon Skousen  or something cool like that.

 

Macy sounds like she is doing awesome! Is kendall really going on her mission? I am so proud of her!  She will be an amazing missionary!!!

 

Thank you for getting me out here mom and dad. I love you. Thank you for your prayers! I know you pray for me by name and I am really grateful for it. I love being out here and serving this mission. I couldn't have asked for better parents than you and dad! Thanks for all you do fam!

Elder Boyer is my companion again!

 Elder Udall,  Elder Davis and Sister Wilkins!  Loyd and Lisa Wilkins Neice!

Elder Boyer, Jessica and Chris Cooksey and Elder Udall

Elder Udall and Elder Boyer

HEEEY THURR!!

Its been another crazy one down on the Rock! This week was pretty awesome! So first off we had transfers this week which was too bad because we got the call the Elder D was getting transferred. It took forever for us to find out who really was getting transferred though because on the morning of calls the AP's asked to talk to me and told me i was gettin transferred, then after they had me convinced they just jk and told Elder D he was getting transferred. Than 2 housr later they called again and said "Ok Elder Udall I cant keep this going any longer, you are getting transferred." Then they called me back and told me I wasn't again. After like 3 more times of that I finally figured out I was staying! 

So....we are at transfers and I hear my name get called! I find out that i'm going to serve with........ELDER BOYER! Again! Crazy eh? This is his last transfer so he asked if he could serve with me as his dying wish. So the dream team is reunited and we are starting transfer #3 together.We are still the zone leaders of the Little Rock zone. By the way we hit our zone goal last month for baptisms which was sweet!! Our zone did really well. 

O ya Chris and Jess came to the transfer meeting with the Mcgraths. When President spoke at the meeting he spoke about Chris and told him how some things are worth waiting for. After he announced that Boyer and I would be serving together he said "And yes you can go to Chris's baptism." So thats pretty exciting. Chris's sister lives in Little Rock! So we are setting up a time that we can go over there so she can feed us/we can teach her! Chris and Jess are going to hook us up with more refferrals of family they have in Little Rock I think! They are the bomb.

On friday, weekly planning day, Elder Boyer and I had some appointments in the morning so we didn't have time to weekly plan. So in the afternoon when we were less busy we pulled into some old lot and planned in the car. Well like halfway through the sesh I look up and there is 2 cops on the sides of our car. So I roll down the window and show them the tag. They looked pretty wierded out that we were just chilling there planning. They told us that we picked one of the worst spots in Little Rock to just stop and park because car-jacking was a daily thing in that intersection. So they asked us to move. ha ha it was pretty ghetto. 

We had some bomb lessons this week!! We are getting members out with us which makes all the difference!! It really does. A members sincere testimony can really enhance the spirit of a lesson. Last night we taught a man named Ethyl about the gospel of Jesus Christ and we focused on repentance. Repentance is my favorite principle to teach/study/apply. It is one of the principles that was changed and distorted the most in the apostasy so people normally don't know how to do it properly. I love teaching this process! It seems like the spirit is extra thick when we do. Ethyl is a really humble guy who sincerely wants to change. He loved repentance!

Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament about the power of the scriptures. One of my favorite scirptures about scriptures is Jacob 2:8! Its pretty sweet. Jacob called the scpritures the"words which healeth the wounded soul." They really do though. I have seen a verse of scripture change peoples outlook on their life. One of my favorite parts about this whole mission is the hour a day we get to personal study. Man I never though I would say that but I love it. When you pray for the guidance of the spirit as you study you can always find those answers you need.

Thanks for the letters Merrill family and Christie!! You are the bomb!! 

Grandpa Sherwood!

       I knew the veil was no match for grandpa Sherwood. He could only be held here for so long before he busted his way through to his eternal companion. The world lost one of its last great cowboys today. I am going to miss him so much. He left a lot of good friends, branded calves, and sore elbows down here but I can only imagine how happy he is right now. I am going to miss him telling me and Chantz that we aren't worth our breakfast the morning after football games. I am going to miss him waiting until calves were barely even calves anymore to let us brand them. I am REALLY going to miss the legendary advice he gave me all the time, "That little round orange ball is supposed to go in the hoop"  "Save money and buy whiskey"  "Do it Damn it". What I am really going to miss the most though is the testimony he had and the example he set. I know that he knew what he knew. I was so thankful that he went to my setting apart. I am grateful for Sherwoods everywhere! I love them both in Arkansas and Arizona. I know this is so hard for Chantz because he loved his Grandpa and was around him all the time. But I know without a doubt that Chantz is "earning it" right now as a missionary. I don't think you could ever find a better friend than a Sherwood!

        Well this week was another one of those crazy ones full of surprises and miracles. We went on exchanges with Benton this week and it went really well. Elder Smith and I stayed in Benton and we had some good experiences and some great lessons. Definitely the real highlight of this week was that John was baptized!! It was sweet. This man was one of the elect. Elder Davis and I found him 3 weeks ago and he was working construction at a house. This guy is awesome. He calls us randomly and tells us chapters he read in the Book of Mormon and what he like about them. He bore his testimony at his baptism and said how he knew he wasn't going to be perfect but that he was going to take that sacrament every week until he got it right. He is doing so good and will get the Aaronic Priesthood pretty soon.

        So last Saturday night Elder Davis and I had a lesson with a guy named Aarmad. He is sweet! He is going to college and is really smart. We taught him the restoration and he loved it! He was blown away by the apostasy and all of that because the evidence is pretty thick around the south. He goes to a big Church of God in Christ church and after the lesson he was like"man I need y'all to tell my pastor about this." ha ha we agreed. So we may be having a lesson with a pastor this next week. The restoration is so much fun to teach. PMG says we should refer quickly to the restoration and I find that to ring true especially here in the belt! I love teaching and testifying of that message.

       Last Saturday before the baptism Elder D and I taught like 15 guys on a basketball court, I bet you know where this is going. We walked up and started talking to them and they weren't really paying us any attention so I threw out a little proposition for them. I said for them to pick 2 of their best players and we will play 2 on 2 and if we win we get to teach them a 5 minute message about Jesus. We were in our proselyting clothes so we didn't really look like much competition and I am sure my red headedness didn't add to our intimidation factor. So we played to 15 and although they were beating us at first we ended up winning at the end. It was sweet! All their friends were making so much fun of them for losing to "Jesus people." So after that we taught them the restoration and we have an appointment with them next Saturday

       Elder Davis is getting transferred this week which I am pretty sad about. He is a good missionary and we saw some miracles together! I will find out who I am getting on Tuesday!!

Thanks for everything y'all are doing for me. I love you and will keep you in my prayers.

Aunt Becky I know you hate me and don't want to give me Macy updates but I would appreciate if you would do it anyways.