The temporary stumbling blocks of life are easily turned into stepping stones in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Hey Kinfolk!

I cant believe its already playoff time for Ryan! Man that is exciting! It sounds like Kate is tearing it up in volleyball too!

This week went just great. We had our mission leadership council meeting last thursday which is always a whale of a time. Those meetings are some of the most spiritual on the mission. Our mission has a goal of 100 baptisms and reactivations in this month of November and everyone is really excited about it. This last weekend we got 21 baptisms so we are right on track!

Last Tuesday Elder Daley and I went on exchanges with a trainer and a new missionary. I took the new missionary, Elder Heidinger, with me to Little Rock. He is from Canada! Anwyays he just came out 2 weeks ago and hadn't had the opportunity to invite someone to be baptized yet so that I wanted really bad to give him that chance on our exchange. I told him that before he switched back he has to invite someone to be baptized and he seemed pretty nervous about it. I didn't know who he was going to invite but before and after every appointment we would pray and ask for someone to be put in our path that we could invite. That night we went to go see a newly contacted investigator named Robert with a member.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and towards the end of the lesson Elder Heidinger was able to invite him and he accepted! It was awesome. One thing I will never be able to deny is the Lords love for us and his desire to bless us. If you work for a miracles like it all depends on you and then pray for a miracle like at all depends on the Lord, they will come!

Elder Daley is doing really good! He is awesome to serve with and has taught me a lot.

Everything is going good over here. There has been some disappointments but the temporary stumbling blocks of life are easily turned into stepping stones in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "The trials that seem for a moment to overcome us with suffering, will be the very experiences in the end that suffer us to overcome." I know that to be true!

Mom I love you and am grateful for your example of Faith! When it comes to having faith you are the most athletic person I know! Thanks for all that you do for your children. 

See People as the can become!!

Hey Fam!

So I just wrote a couple of days ago and not a lot has changed but I did have some good experiences I would like to share! So like I said last letter transfers was this week and it was pretty hectic as always but everything ended up working out great! We have 202 missionaries in our mission right now. Which is a lot! Next transfer we are looking to decrease by 20 though.

 

Elder Daley and I got some time to spend in our area the last couple days of this week which was great! On Friday evening we went to the Phillips family home. They are some new investigators we found not too long ago. This was really the first time we have got to sit down and teach them though so we taught them the restoration! It was pretty insane how strongly the spirit was there. I really felt like I was given everything I needed to say. At the end of the lesson they were asking really good questions and then one of the older daughters named Carnesha asked the best question of them all, "Do yall do baptisms at your church." Well if that's not music to the ears I don't know what is! We were pretty quick to invite them all to be baptized and they all accepted a baptismal date for the 22nd of November! At the end of the lesson the Mom was just explain how for a long time she was feeling really frustrated and negative towards her life but that when we came into the home we brought with us positive vibes and she wanted to have that in her life. We explained that those positive vibes were the spirit!

I have talked about in the past how when you are teaching a lesson on a mission sometimes you will just feel an extreme anxiety and desire for the people you are teaching to know this is true! You just realize it would change their whole lives and make their lives meaningful. That's how I felt as I was teaching this family. One of the biggest blessing of being a missionary is that the Lord really allows you to see people as they can become. We would treat our family and friends and strangers so differently if we knew who they were destined to become. Heck we would treat ourselves so differently if we really knew our identity and our destiny.

 

Mom and Dad I just want to let you know how grateful I am for you treating me in this way.

Things are going good here in little Rock. I have been here for about 9 months now......still only 2 areas my whole mission! I like it that way though!

Thanks for all that yall do for me!



Busy Week!

Hey Mom!

It sounds like ryans team is really tearing it up! I bet he is excited for playoff time. 

This week was a  wild one but it was pretty fun. We had specialized training meeting tuesday through friday at all the zones around the mission. Elder Daley and I taught about the principle of sacrifice. At the beginning of out instruction we called all the district leaders to come up and I would explain to them their task which was to get the shoes of all the missionaries in their district and bring them up to me. The catch was they couldn't tell the missionaries why they were getting the shoes, all they could do is ask for them. Whoever got all their shoes and brought them back to me first won a piece of candy for their whole district. After that little game we would identify the principles of sacrifice from it and there was a lot to learn! I like teaching at these meetings because I end up learning a lot more. 

After the meeting we finished the transfer board items on Saturday. Monday started the transfer week! We drove to memphis for the departing missionary temple trip. We then picked up the new missionaries tuesday afternoon. Did you talk to Sister Garcias mom? We picked her up too. She is serving in Southaven Mississippi right now.

 

Anyways, the real doozie of this whole transfer week is that Elder Daley and I made the trip to Memphis and back (3 hour drive) 3 times in 3 days! Once on monday with the temple trip, then we went back to memphis tuesday night and stayed at President Floyds house, then at 6 in the morning we took missionaries getting transferred to Little Rock over there, then we took the missionaries going to Memphis back over there, and then we went back to Little Rock. Long day! Transfer week is always fun though because you get to see mission buddies you haven't seen in a minute.

Things are going really well over here. Its busy but its fulfilling. I am convinced the only way you can truly be happy in this life is when you are not trying to make yourself happy. True joy comes from serving others. On this mission I have never been more tired in my life and at times I have never felt so inadequate but its easy to find joy when your focus is on lifting another.  

Sorry I didn't have time to write on monday mom but I hope ya know I love ya! Thank you for all that you do! 



Happy Birthday Camz!!!

Hey Mom!

 

Ya so......we have bed bugs. For some reason I kept on forgetting to mention it. I have been sleeping on our couch for the past month and Elder Daley has been sleeping on a spare mattress on the floor. We are waiting for the bed bugs guys to come and steam our apartment. Its pretty lame. I cant remember the last time I've slept tight and didn't let the bed bugs bite!

 

  Anyways this last week was a good one. All the zones had their zone meetings where we watched the meet the Mormons movies. Its a pretty good little flick! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about members of the church.

 

   Elder Daley and I got a lot of time to spend in Little Rock this week which was awesome! We have a couple of people we are working with right now that should be getting baptized in the near future. One of them is a guy named Mark Green. He is a way cool guy. We taught him and his sons the plan of salvation with the Duncan famiy (members in our ward) on Friday night and it was awesome. At the end of the lesson Bro. Duncan asked Mark from what has been discussed if he felt inspired to do change anything and Mark said "I just need to hurry up and get baptized so I can be clean and ready for the next life!" ha ha man if only every investigator understood that! He has a baptismal date for the 25th of this month.

 

This next week we have five specialzed trainings in a row. Monday-satudrday. And then the week after that is transfers. So it is going to be so busy!

 

Mom thanks for the letters and all that you do for me. I am really grateful for it.

 

 Happy Birthday CAMZ!

Virtue and Repentance

Elder Zwick, Elder Daley, Elder Udall, Sister Zwick

 

Hey family whats up!!

 

It has been another classic week in the ALRM! This week was pretty power packed with learning experiences. So on Tuesday was mission council again for the month of October! After talking with Elder Zwick, President told us that he wants the mission to focus on Virtue and repentance for these next couple months. So at mission council Elder Daley and I gave the spiel on virtue. I'm really grateful that I got to instruct on the topic because I learned how vital it is to become virtuous. Like it says in PMG, "Virtue originates in your innermost thoughts and desires." I think that's a good thing to constantly reflect on, what do I think about throughout the day? Where are my desires? PMG also teaches us the virtue is prerequisite to receiving the spirits guidance. That's why we are focusing on this attribute especially.

 

Our mission has a goal of 100 baptisms in November. The only way we are going to reach that goal is if we are worthy and constantly seeking out the guidance of the spirit.

Anyways Elder Daley and I went on 2 exchanges this week. The first one was with the ZL's in Searcy. I went to searcy with Elder Chapman who is going home soon. Our goal that day was to set a baptismal date with somebody. So we went hog wild talking to everyone we saw. We found some great people but the real miracle happened at the end of the night. We taught a guy named Curtis the first lesson in the church building. When I first saw Curtis he said "Elder Udall! I know you!" I asked him how and he said he met me a year ago in searcy when I was serving there. He said I gave him a book of Mormon and told him if  he ever wanted to learn more to call the number. He said that he was now finally ready to learn more. He still had the BOM copy I gave him. So we taught him the first lesson with Brother Shirley and the spirit was strong. We invited him to be baptized on the 18th and he accepted! It was sweet! O and guess how he found the missionaries again after a year....Chris Cooksey!! Chris referred him to them. ha ha

 

We also went on exchanges with the Memphis zone leaders. I brought Elder Henderson to Little Rock with me. We got out of the car for a lesson that night and we heard the tornado sirens. The weather looked fine so I decided to ignore it and the CMAS weather alert text I got that said "Tornado warning, find shelter immediately." Not even 2 minutes later though it started raining really hard and the wind was blowing so hard I thought we were in RV for a second. Then there was a lot of lighting and the power started going our everywhere. So we though it best to start heading home! The weather got bad but I don't think a tornado ever hit ground. It was crazy though. Anyways thanks Mom for the letter you sent! It was a cherry on top to a delicious sunday! I love you Mom and am so grateful for an athletic mother!

 

 

 

 

only the gospel will allow a family to enjoy and endure life.

Whats up fam!

Mom you might be doing a procedure right now but I just want to let you know that your in my prayers. I know that this cancer can't as aggressive as you are because you I have seen you run bases. I grateful for your athleticism in everything that you do!

This last week for me has been awesome. I told you about the Elder Zwick experience. That was one of the highlights of my life! The rest of this last week Elder Daley and I have been working in out area a lot which has been great! Members are on fire ever since the member fireside that ELder Zwick put on. We have 5 or 6 members that have told us since then that they have a friend they want taught in their home! That right there is the most effective way to do missionary work. When members invite their friends into their own homes to be taught by their missionaries. Right now we are in the process of weeding out the teaching pool and pausing all those who just are not ready.

Have I told you about our new investigator yet? He is a man we have been teaching for a few weeks now. He is one that President was with when we taught him and Mark was having a bad day and was really mad. So President pretty much grabbed his arm and drug him over to a chair where we gave him a priesthood blessing. After that blessing he has never been the same! He is awesome. We taught him the word of wisdom and the only problem he is facing is coffee. He has been drinking coffee since who knows when and he said he is addicted. So we are working on him with that. Besides that he is good to get baptized and has a date for the 11th.

Elder Daley is the man! I love serving with the guy. This next week we have another mission council and Daley and I are going to be doing a couple of exchanges so it should be fun. Our focus for the mission right now and what we are going to teach at zone conference is repentance and virtue. So I have been studying those 2 topics a lot.

Family, thanks for your prayers. Thanks for all that you do. Its so easy to take for granted the blessing of a close family until you witness so many broken ones. I would dare say that every temptation you can find out in the world today is in someway linked to destroying the family. ONLY the gospel will allow a family to endure and enjoy life. That is one thing I have seen clearly on my mission. You never have to ask an investigator family if they have read or prayed together when you go over for an appointment because you can FEEL it when you walk in. Its s distinct difference when those kind of things are done. I love you Mom. Thanks for being the Mom that made us get up in the morning for scripture study and dragging us to family home evening. Or singing annoying gospel songs when we would fight with each other. Things like that make all the difference! Good luck.

Vist from Elder Zwick of the seventy!

Hey Mom!

Sorry i didn't write a couple of days ago. This last week was one of the busiest on my mission. We were getting prepared for Elder Zwicks mission tour and he sent a pretty thick list of things he wanted set up. That list was detailed right down to the color of markers he wants on the white board. Me and Elder Daley wanted to make sure everything was set up perfect for him so it was pretty crazy!

Monday was our missionary council meeting with Elder Zwick and all the ZL's and STL's of the mission. I was asked to conduct so I got to sit right next to him up front. The whole meeting that he wasn't up talking he would just lean over and teach me something! It was crazy! Its not everyday you get a general authority whispering the gospel knowledge in your ear so I took good notes of everything he said!

Tuesday we had zone conference in Little Rock and wedensday was zone conference in Memphis! So basically the past 3 days Elder Daley and I have got to hang out with probably the most awesome member of the seventy ever! He taught me so much these past few days! It has been one of the highlights of my mission. Last night when Elder Daley and I were leaving memphis to head back to little rock we went to say good bye to him and he gave us his card and told us to keep in touch and that he was going to keep track of us. He is awesome!

 

Anyways, everything is going great! Little Rock is doing really good! We are teaching some great people. Elder Daley is so awesome. He is a hard working missionary and is a lot of fun to serve with. He is a dang good basketball player too.

 

On sunday we got a list of people that just moved in the ward from our bishop. So that night we tried to contact as many as possible. It was about 8:30 so we decided to do one more that we felt prompted to go to. We went and it was a young couple who answered the door. After some reluctance they invited us in and so we got to chattin'. We found out they were from gilbert, AZ! They husband is a returned missionary and the wife is not a member. They thought for the longest time that the husbands mom called us and told us to go over there. Apparently the husband fell away a little while ago and the mom had been trying to get them back active. Anyways it was a great visit and the spirit was strong. The husband said that he needs to get back into church. We are going to start teaching the wife now and get them coming to church! I know we were prompted to go there because of the prayers of a righteous mother. Speaking of the priesthood of the church Pres. Packer said "They don't come near the power thats given to a righteous mother." I know thats true. Thanks for your prayers family. Please pray for Stephanie and her family. We haven't been able to teach them in a while and they mean a lot to me. Thanks for everything yall do!