8.09.2010

jordan 8.9.10

ok well this week was another make or break for our investigators. f
irst it was Ng a chinese guy who we met by his apt and helped him haul some stuff into his house. he ended up coming to church , he told me "this is nice everybody is dressed like bill gates or they worked at microsoft or apple", it was funny. we met with him a few times. the first thing he did was go strait to the internet to find out all the "rules" so we showed up for an appointment and he was asking alot of questions. he loves our church and sais it feels alive unlike the catholic church where he goes and listenes and pays a little money and leaves. i cant spell. so the next appointment after that he was tottaly honest with us and said he was doing a lot of bad stuff and it was going to take him a while to change. he said he was cheating on his wife and some other things. so we said come to church and repent, his concience was burning, we probably wont see him as much, not until hes ready.
Maggie, she is still doing good and still telling everybody about the book of mormon, we are now teaching her roomate and we are setting a baptismal date with her tonight. our mission pres introdused a new thing for us, every first or second lesson we have to set up a baptismal calendar with the people we are teaching. it works pretty well.
we are still doing alot of finding. we found a family the other day and gave the mom a BoM she actually just walked into the library and is sitting across from me. i will talk to her!
ok well i dont have much more time transfers in on the 18, next week i think i will be staying. oh yeah i gave another talk in church yesterday, oh man i do not like public speaking, especially in a different language.
well mom jeff is coming out and you should call himto give him stuff. love you all and im praying for you all.
love
e robert

morgan 8.3.10

Alright, so first things first. Sorry my letter is a day late. We had zone developement yesterday. Well mom, yes we did see the fireworks on the 14th. It was Incredible!! We sat on our window and watched it from our roof. So cool! For those who dont know there is a GIANT castle in Carcassonne that every 14th of July they have an amazing firework show. It was so cool!
Well the baptism of Jessy is still on but it cant be the 14th because she flaked out for church again. She has to come at least 2 or 3 times. So hopefully the 21st and we are going to try and push the date of Charles-Henri forward and have a double baptism the same day. Vanessa is still the most faithful ami we have. She is very honest in everything she does. When she says she is going to do something she does it!!
Sunday after church we went to go eat at the bishops house. His house is so cool!! I love our bishop! He lives 30 min from Carcassonne in a little village in the mountains. It is beautiful! We went there with Vanessa and her fiancé Benoit and her son Elvin (he is such a stud he is 4). After our little lesson we had the bishop bore his testimony on how he found out that there was a God. It was so powerful!! I really think he is going to convert. It might take some time but as for now he prays with Vanessa every night. Her little son Elvin prayed for the first time by himself it pretty much made me cry. It was so cool! We are still just waiting for a marriage date to set the baptismal date. It will probably be in October. I am most likely not gunna be here. I personally think I am going to leave in 2 weeks. But we will see. I want to stay though.
We just found out that we are getting the missionaries from Béziers in our apt. next week. There is a Feria in Béziers so they have to come here. It is going to be so fun. One elder is from orem. He went to school with me, he was in my photo class and just got out here last transfer. The other elder is from China. I am so excited to live with 4 missionaries. We are planning on doing what jord did and drawing the plan of salvation with sidewalk chalk with all the bishops daughters (he has 7 and 1 boy).
I talked to a guy on the phone the other day who knew dad when he was on his mission. He was English i think and he said that he served in Carcassonne like 20 yrs ago. I told him that my dad did too, I told him dads name and he said he knew him while he was here. Not well but he knew him. Cool!!
Well yeah here in France there are no sailboat races or anything like what Jord is doing up in the north but I taught a 42 year old man to ride a bike. He can do it perfectly now. How is TY doing with her new missionary? I would love to train. I think... we'll see.
Well Mom and Dad that is so cool you hiked timp at night, it reminds me of when me and jon did it last year. He was SO scared!! haha I love him! Brig! you ready for school? Sage, whats new with you? Sadie, who are you playing with lately? Cole, are you playing football this year? still going to orem? Chan, What the heck?! your papers started yet? where is austin?? Dad, next step, Bishop. haha. I am so happy to here Court is doing better!! Wow, that is scary!!
Thanks for all your help everybody I love you all!!

Elder Wimmer

taryn 8.2.10

Hello!
Weve had a great week, lots of hard work, lots of finding and cycling through investigators. The past few months President Smith has made a lot of changes in trying to help Thailand get stronger and hopefully soon get a temple. We have new rules like if we are teaching only one person, they have to be pretty golden to keep teaching them, and if it is a group they have to go to church pretty soon off or we drop them. It makes for a lot of going through investigators, but I know that this is inspired, we are seeing a few of them really stick and seeing those that are truly prepared by the hand of the Lord.
Nin is doing awesome, though we are trying to get her mom more interested, I don’t like baptizing young teenage girls without much support. Her mom is pretty 50/50 right now, I can tell she knows it is true, but she is being stubborn! I know there has to be more concerns, but we cant quite get to them yet.
Pa pong and ma noi are really progressing, we went way far out to their house last week with a member in the pouring rain and taught under their patio in the middle of their jungle-like yard. They came to church yesterday for the whole time, even though they needed to get things ready to sell for the night market. Ma noi is showing a lot of faith and will hopefully be baptized soon, and pa pong will follow her. He needs to gain a true testimony first though.
Kham, our investigator from the hill tribes in Burma is also awesome. she keeps having problems with writing her thesis and defending it, so time keeps getting pushed back. She is wanting to get home, I don’t blame her, but I think the Lord is stalling her here so that she can learn with us and then be one of the pioneers in Burma.
A few of our other investigators have gotten direct awesome answers to their prayers this past week. It is neat to hear each of them. It is interesting, I can always tell the investigators who really prayed and really want to know. If someone says that their prayers didn’t get answered, every time as I talk with them the conclusion is always that they didn’t have the deep desire, or they actually didn’t even pray. Prayer is such a powerful thing. Think how cool and what a blessing it is that we have been able to talk with God our whole lives. Every week I teach atleast a few people who have never prayed before and get to hear their first prayers. Sometimes they feel funny and aren’t sincere, some are too scared to pray, and some I know that they are opening the heavens and truly trying to talk with their Heavenly Father for the first time.
Right now I am studying prayer a lot in my studies and trying to make my prayers more sincere and have conversations with God like it says in alma 37, not just telling him everything. I love in I think it is the bible dictionary where it says that prayer is aligning our will with God’s will. We see lots of little miracles everyday, especially now with a greenie. I know that Heavenly Father is helping me so much, there is no way I could be doing this with His help. Lots of time on my knees and lots of reading in Preach My Gospel. For example, just the other night I had written someones name for a backup plan and I didn’t know who it was. We had some extra time so we biked around and invited and ended up at a girls house that we have taught once but sister Josephson left and I didn’t have her number. We went upstairs to her appt and she was just about to leave! I got her number and scheduled another appt with her, her name is om!
Sorry to cut it short, its time to write my presidents email. I love you so much and am getting excited to see you soon!
Until next week,
Sister Young

jordan 8.2.10

well well well ok i got no time. pres made me senior comp, i guess i better get used to it.
uhhmm julie is baptized!!!!!! she got baptized on thursday, she is awesome she is from columbia and loves the gospel. she was confirmed on sunday. baptizing one person at a time baby! the whole world will hear the gospel at one point! hard to believe right? well guess what, it will happen, God never gives a commandment without making it possible.
its goin good out here. were still working with a few more baptismal dates. its hard to get people to go to church out here.
on mon last mon we went to an old school boat race, they are huge sail boats maybe 150 ft long. a whole crew works on them. they were made from 1910 to 1930 they were beautiful. and man can they manuver, the dutch are amazing in the water. there were prob 15 boats. a cool member took us there. he has been having us over to his house to eat. his fam is awesome. he loves to work with us too.
one of my comps goes home in a couple weeks, that means i will be taking over the city.
the weather has been bad here. mom can you send me that book of mormon study guide. man taryn is training. sweeet! court hang in there! i am going to read ur letter when i get home. chan you are a stud. hows the summer treating you? cam are you getting serious or what? geez! mike and shayne thank you again for all you did to help me get out here i love you guys! Cade dude how are you? Brig! how is the summer? hayden! i know you are a help to your mom! why why wyatt! are you taller than me yet? what are you guys doing lately??? Cole are you doing any missionary studies? time is close!
i love you all mom thank you. ok g2g homie smell ya later!
e robert

taryn 7.26.10

Hey!
happy birthday to all the July birthdays, especially paigey last week, and TODAY ash man! oh man i miss you all so much!
This past week was good, but oh so stressful! you dont realize how much your companion does to help until she is gone and you have someone that doesnt know much about the missionfield. you end up doing most of it, and then to help her grow make her do some stuff, but that takes even more effort. hah, i feel like mom and dad when they were making us clean the house- i know it would have been easier to just do it yourself, but you made us do it with all our whining. thank you for that by the way. it seems like every week i come to appreciate you mom and dad more and more. I feel like the whole area is on my shoulders right now. im trying to give it all to the Lord, but im so scared im going to mess up! I am training sister jessica naegle. she is way cute! shes from bountiful, utah and is actually taller than me! i dont feel like a giant anymore, it is so wierd! everyone called me training her, even those who met her a few days before and they didnt know i was training. when i saw her, i also i knew she was the one id be training. she is trying very hard, an awesome girl and is going to be an incredible missionary.
i guess ill start with tues of last week. for english class, every 6 weeks we have a game day where we do english things. last tues we had a talent show/ show and tell. we set up the cultural hall (yes, thats right, we actually have one in chaing mai!!! ) we had little tickets, a ticket booth, and the stage all decorated. we had some good talents: showing off artwork they drew, pictures of places they had gone, a man made a little wooden toy swing for it, and we even had a nurse bring in an electronic pulse taker thing (sorry my english isnt so great right now.. ) my favorite was kham, our investigator from burma. she showed the ctr right that sister josephson gave her the day before and explained what it stood for, it was cute. right after the show we headed to the bus station for a long night on the bus, a long day with meetings and trainings for trainers, waiting at the nasty bus station in bangkok with men from india hitting on us, and then another long night of trying to sleep on the bus, finally getting to sleep, and then the lights turning on telling you to go out and eat and stretch in the middle of the night.
at the moves meeting i found out some awesome and exciting news though! 4 of my investigators got baptized, and also a friend that i dont know. 1 was from saphaansung, lita! she finally kicked out her abusive husband who woulnt marry her and could get baptized! we have been writing back and forth and she wrote me a really cute letter with a pic of her and her baby from her baptism. then 3 girls from udon and their friend also got baptized!
weve been pretty busy, and when we arent busy we are inviting up a storm.
i think im going to have to drop some of my favorite investigators because they arent progressing. so hard, but i know that the Lord will provide for them and their time will come another time.
friday night i had a neat experience. we met for the first time with a girl named nui who came from english class. after teaching her she told us about a dream that she has had a few times about her in a pinkish room, wearing a white dress, and another lady there helping her in a white dress. she said it was so beautiful and felt so peaceful. she asked what we think this could be and we explained a little about the temple (well i guess i did, my comp didnt understand until i explained after.)
thais are funny about dreams, they talking and think a lot about them. sat we taught a recent convert who told us about her friend coming to her telling her she is hungry and asking what this could mean. we again taught temple work. then also sunday we had an investigator explain her dream and ask what it meant.
saturday we hurried place to place teaching 6 lessons! that is hard because chaing mai is so big, a lot of travel time. we started with nin and her mom who also forced us to eat japanese food. ha im glad im in thailand.... then taught a few new investigator lessons and recent convert lessons, one that i loved was taught to a thai-yai (hill tribe) girl who is alright at speaking thai. we taught in her family's tiny appt that really smelled like pee, but she was very cute and wants to meet with us again soon.
sunday was an awesome day after i got out working. well the beginng wasnt the greatest. haha it started with us biking fast to church, me about to turn a corner and a dog, i have no idea why, came sprinting around the corner. i had no time and ran right into it!!! it was startled for a min, and then ran off. my hands and knees are pretty beat up, and my muscles a little sore today, but my clothes were fine, we didnt have to go back and change!
sitting in church and then a meeting after isnt the best for someone who already had lots of anxiety and worrying about everything! for some reason i was just stressing about training and also about the area. i just didnt feel like i could do it. A byu student (she taught morg in the mtc! she served in s. france!) who i know Heavenly Father sent came up to me after church and congratulated me on training and then said things that helped me out so much like, "man, training is so hard, but you see so many miracles" ha i wanted to break down and cry right there. after church we went and dropped a booklet off at an investigator's house because i forgot to bring it yesterday. yes, im losing my mind... it was a blessing though because we got to talk with another family member that wasnt there the day before when we were teaching, and then ended up teaching her. i invited her to the district presidents house that night for dinner and she actually came! later that evening we went and picked her up, along with a few other investigators in a songtaw (a pickup truck with two rows for seats that are a common form of transportation here..) and we ate at presidents little house, sitting on the gorund on mats around ceramic pots with coals in them and a metal thing that you cook your own meat on.
ok, out of time. i love you so much. man i am getting so so excited to see you. it seems like i miss you more and more every day.
courtney, i hope that you are feeling better! know that there is someone across the world praying for you!
i love you.
sister young

jordan 7.26.10

well hello this week was busy. on friday i had to go down to brussels to renew my legality. i had to wke up at 4:50 in the morning to catch a train to brussels. i went from the very top of the mission and also the netherlands to the bottom of the missin. it took over 5 hours to get there then we had daleys so it took somewhere around 6 hours. then when i was in brussels i had to sign a paper then turn around and go back. andother 6 hours, man. i love brussels, its too bad its not a part of our mission any more.
Julie is getting baptised on thursday! she is doing so good. we are going to teach her right after this. we teach her on our p day. then after that we were invited to go to a ship race. i guess they race these huge old fashioned ships on big lakes out here. its going to be cool the weather is a little chillier out here now.
i cant believe taryn is training!! crazy. she is an amazing missionary.
chan! man your a stud saving peoples lives like its no biggie. your a stud! Courtney! man i cant believe whats going on, you are tough as nails. keep holding strong. i am praying for you, love ya! your amazing.
our investigators this week have been kindof flakey well one of them is going to have a baby and its also vacation time soo a lot of people are gone. we had a lot of doors slammed in our face. mom,dad, thanks for the shoes the are awesome they fit perfectly. im not sure what elder howell can bring me. maybe the other shoes. he might as well. he could bring me some hair supplies and deoderant. the Crew hair pomaid. its blue. cam knows what kind. and some axe stick deoderant. dad knows what kind is good.
uuum ok g2g love you all soo mutch. have a good week .
love
elder robert

morgan 7.26.10

Okay, I just got done chatting with Taryn through e-mails a few seconds ago. very cool!! she is an awesome missionary!
so this week was very interesting. We had zone conference on Wed. and it was so good! We talked about how important The Book of Mormon is in our contacts. So what we did is that our President gave us these big posters with the picture where Jesus came to the Americas and we go talk to people about that. And instead of contacting just focusing on getting their address or phone number we focus on giving them a Book of Mormon. He said if you dont feel the urge to ask for their number, dont! Just give them The Book of Mormon with my testimony and an invitation to read and pray to know if it is true. It is so cool to see the difference. We have so much more success when we focus on helping these people and not just numbers to send in to our leaders. It is so cool to see people walking down the street with B.o.M.'s in their hand.
So this week we found one new investigator. She is sweet! her name is Jessy. She has a baptismal date for the 14th of August. It is going to be alot of work to get her there but she is ready. She wants it. She has been searching. We also got into contact with the brother of a member named Charles-Henri. His only problem is the word of wisdom. He has been taught for the past year or 2. He knows ALOT about the gospel. We set a date for him to stop smoking Aug. 8 and for him to be baptized for the end of Aug. He is very ready.
Still no news on the date for Vanessa's wedding. She is still awesome though. She brought Benoit (her fiancé) to church yesterday and it was so good!! We are having a family home evening at the church (like every Monday night) but we are having a crèpes party!! I am so excited! we have quite a bit of people coming too. I will take some pics mom dont worry.
Well happy birthday to all the birthdays last week and this week! July is always nuts with the birthdays! Hope you all had a fun time! I am going to write my mommy now but thanks for all the support you all give me!
Peace!
Morgan

pictures from chang mai



taryn 7.19.10

Hey Family!
Well yesterday i got a big phone call, my companion looked at me right before she answered it and said "its president" and then handed the phone to me. i didnt think i would be getting that phone call. my heart dropped. he started it by saying "sister young, im going to change your life around a little bit. you are killing someone off, and then are going to give birth." he asked me to train, and then talked for a minute about the importance of a trainer.
the past few weeks have been hard because my companion is going home this week. we are all old in the mission now, we went 9 months without getting any sisters. hearing her talk about home, the things she is nervous for, and the things she is excited for, it has been hard knowing she is going home to her family and difficult to keep my mind focused. this is going to be such a change! IM TRAINING!!! oh man im nervous. in almost every meeting president always mentions how the calling of a trainer is the most important calling a missionary can get, you are setting the pace for the rest of their mission. i still do so many of the things that my "mom" (sister hulme) did my first two moves here. we got a few sister in and he called me! i dont think im qualified for it. it is going to be hard but such a fun and neat experience. so... i am leaving tonight for bangkok to kill off my companion tomorrow, and then get a brand new greenie. its going to be an adventure! ill let you know about her next week.
Most of our investigators are doing great, though we have lost a few to the difficulties of trying to change religions when coming from a strong buddhist family. We got quite a few new investigators, we go through them pretty fast here.. one girl is named bong, we met her as we were biking through a neighborhood quickly to another appointment. i saw her walking and had the feeling to stop. i was so blunt, more blunt than i have ever been in an invite because we were in a hurry. i said something along the lines of, "hello, im a missionary. do you want to learn about Jesus Christ?" she surpisingly said yes, gave me her number and we were off. i called her quite a few times after that and she never answered. a few weeks later i prayed and told Heavenly Father that this was the last time i was going to call her. it rang and rang and then she answered and invited us over to her tiny one room apt the next day! she is very sweet, kept wanting to give us everything. she knows nothing about christianity, but is interested in learning, and also her mom died, the last of her family, 2 months ago. i have good feelings about her! im excited to go back and see her.
we have a lot of people we are going to have to see the end of this week because these first few days are shot with my comp packing and then going to bangkok. i hope that they all remember to pray and do their commitments!Our ward mission leader is in the mental hospital right now, im not sure why, but its something that acts up every once in a while ever since he was in his twenties. his sister was telling us about the place he is in, its like a jail with bars and everything. she then went on to tell us about the poor little boy that was next to him. all growing up his mom put him in front of video games. he played all day long every day. his life now is a video game, he does the motions, driving a car or playing with a paddle and even does sound effects, though there is nothing going on in front of him. so so sad. it was interesting because my comp and i had just finished talking about elder bednars talk from the ensign last month about computers and fake reality. you should all read it, its pretty long, but really good! we had just talked about goals for when we get home to keep our reality straight, time limits for playing on the computer- including facebood, blogs and things. so many good uses of the internet, but satan finds a way to make even those good things bad through over-use.
We met up with some Jehovas Witnesses the other day in the park and ended up talking with them for awhile. They had all the normal trying to bible bash scriptures. some of them i couldnt even answer and said i would ge back and study those things, but it just made me know even more that this church is true. i just smile and was nice to them, but inside i just wanted to show them how silly they seam. one of them was from australia, the other from belgium!!!!!!!! the australian was pretty nice, but man jordan i feel bad for you, the belgian was a stinker! she kept smirking and saying, "so why is america so special, does God not love me, im from belgium, i dont have scriptures from my country." and things like that.
I am so grateful for this church and that i was able to grow up in the strength of it. i know it is the only true church on the earth. i agree with the Thais, almost every single one when we invite them says "every religion teaches people to be good." usually it is their defence for not learning with us, but i do agree with them. every religion teaches people to be good, but they just dont have the fullness or the saving ordinances. i want to delcare it to the world.
well family, i think thats enough from this side of the world for the week. i hope you are all having fun and being SAFE in lake powel. i love and miss you so much! i really cant wait to the day that i get to see you again, not too long! you are the best family ever. really.
love, sister young

morgan 7.19.10

Hello Everybody,
Wow, so this week was another rough one. Really discouraging especially towards the beginning. It has been really hard with all the vacations and everything here. Not very many people to teach. We saw alot of denial and not much success. But the success that we did see was really awesome. So after the whole week of denial after denial and raté-vous after raté vous (raté vous is a rendez-vous that doesnt work. such as false address or dont show up. we saw it all) But we were on our way to another raté-vous (running because we were a little late) and there were SO MANY tourists!! every person was american or english or chineese. it was awful! but we were running to our rendez-vous with someone we met on the road and in the huge group of tourists I had a feeling to talk to this one black dude. I stopped and told him we dont have much time but we would love to talk to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He accepted. We had a rendez-vous with him the next day. And it worked!! We invited him to be baptized on august 14 the day after and he accepted. He has a lot of problems and has a great desire to be baptised. His name is Isaac he is from North Africa, he was edjucated in Islam (muslum) but once his dad died his mom got baptized. He doesnt know much but we are going to do all we can to prepare him. He is super cool.
Vanessa still hasnt found a date for her marriage so the baptismal date is still on hold. She is still sweet though.
So there is This old ladie named Farida ( for the first 5 rendez-vous we thought it was Tarida) haha. But she is an old mulsum ladie who we helped with her groceries one time when i was with Elder Mayer. At first she was 100 percent muslum and tried to teach us more than we were teaching her. But now she is open to Christianity and the gospel. We help her every thursday at the morning market where she buys her fruit and we do too. It is so cool!
The morning markets are every tues. thurs. and sat. and everybody goes. It is where everybody gets everything because the grocery stores suck. But yeah... those are just a couple of our investigators. Some more are Alexandra, now known as the woman who was laughing her head off during testimony meeting. yeah, it was pretty bad. A member of the bishopric came up to us after and told us she was posessed and we are encouraging her. ouch. There is also Caroline, she is a friend of a member and is pretty weird. haha. She takes honestly 1 min. to answer every question. Maybe next time we should play 20 questions... haha. And there is Sophie, she is the woman that helped me with ALL my clothes when our washing machine was broken for 3 weeks. I couldnt take dirty shirts any more so I carried my huge bag of clothes around all day long. During the contact with her she asked me "why do you have that huge bag?" I explained, she let me use her washer that night and we taught the 1st lesson and taught her ever since. Well that is about the list for right now. All the rest are either on vacation or recently dropped us. I just gotta keep staying positive. We have so many cool investigators and I love them all!
I didnt get the chance to see the tour de france. There werent any members who were going today. It isnt as big over here as I thought it was. Sports in general are not that big. There was the world cup but that wasnt any bigger than what you see in the states. Kinda lame. Well I sure hope this week is better that last week because last week was rough.


Morgan

jordan 7.19.10

ok well on the 31 of the month yulie (julie) is getting baptized. we have been working with her ever since ive been here. she is super.
we are also are teaching a girl named maggie. she has a bap. date for the 14 aug. ahe is amazing. we gave her a book of mormon 2 weeks ago and she is still reading in it everywhere she goes. she loves it she said it has changed her life.
on sunday we had 5 investigators in church. we have a lot of work for us to do. its hard to keep up on everybody.
i saw Ramon on thursday we baptized him when i was in assen. he is doing good, i saw him at the young adult centrum. he is still enthusiastic and we had a good time together.
we are still doing a lot of finding. yesterday we went and drew the plan of salvation in chalk in the centrum. im still trying to improve my dutch. its got room for improvement.
im so glad you all had a good time with jeff and kim and de mass. they are all awesome. elder de mass was an assistant when i came into the land so he was the first missionary i saw, he picked me up at the airport in brussels. he is one of the best missionaries ive seen out here. man sounds fun!
today we are having a district pday in groningen. we are going to bbq and then b ball and soccer. we dont really have the most talented group so i dont know how much of a challenge its going to be. im getting along with my comps well. elder crittenden is hilarious, he reminds me of Cam. we laugh all day long.
man everybody is in lake powell. man i feel bad for you guys, its a hard life you guys are living out there. i cant wait to go when i get back.
cameron i havent heard from you in forever, quit being a girl. same with you chany.
we ride bikes all day long my legs are getting pretty ripped again. well i aint got no more to say. i hope eveybody is doing good. courtney! whats going on. i hope everything is ok. love you all so much. dont forget about your brother. i got to go back to amsterdam on friday, we had a conference. it was good to be back home. my comps havnt really ever been there. the couldnt believe it. the were kind of scared it was funny.
ok tot maandag, ik hou van jullie

7.12.2010

jordan 7.12.10

ok well i have a ton to say and no time to say it.
i have 2 new comps. oh man i could talk forever about them. so it was the hardest thing ever to leave amsterdam. i hope i get sent back. it was hard to say bye to everybody. im goin to miss it so much. it was so stressfull packing and then the day we moved it was hard and the day after. it is not fun leaving everything and going to a new city with 2 dudes you dont know. and plus you dont know anybody in the new city. so much has happened.
so i got here wed. we had a dinner appointment then got settled in. the next day was hard work. we found a lot and we set up 3 baptismal dates! we also had a ton of success finding. u see a lot of miracles after transfers. i think it is because the lord knows how bad it is and he want to bless you. we work hard here all day long.
the older comp elder rayfield is on his last transfer and works hard. i have another younger comp out on his second transfer. he is a little new. they both are red necks. e. crittenden is a "body builder" but i beat him in all the strength competitions. he talks about working out and drinking protene all day its sooo funny we kindof just sit back and laugh. man i have some funny stories already. he brought one suitcase full of weight lifting stuff and drinks a protien shake everymorning, he has met a robert now uh oh ha ah,they both love shootin guns. my other comp e. r. is 6 foot 5. loves shootin rabbits and country music, kindof annoying when it comes to hes mr in charge. really annoying.
holy cow sometimes i wonder how i ended up here ha ha its good for me though. my last comp elder sticht was a stud it was fun to work with him we had a ton of fun. i know alot of young adults here already because ive been here a few times. the ward is pretty big just a little smaller than adam. it is totally opposite though. here it is very dutch, very organized, and a lot of dutch people. not half as much diversity.
mom we live in the sisters old apt.
happy bday gr hansen, finn, andie brooke, kendall!!! court you were in the hospital! what? thanks for the package! dominated! mom i havnt got yours yet. what are you doing with kim and jeff? going swimming? tennis, pizzarea 712? treat them right. maybe make some dinner i dont know. i want to hear all about it though. have some fun!
oh yeah bye the way we have 6 baptismal dates set now. thats the most ive ever had at once.
its sooo stinkin hot! im drenched everyday riding my bike oh man it stinks.
hi to everybody! court get better! hi to cate! do you get my emails?! uhhm i know im forgetting so much to say.
oh yeah we watched the game last night, only until 9 oclock it too bad they lost. we could see our neighbors tv screen through a crack though so got to see a little more.
well i love you all so much! have a good day! write me!
love
e robert

taryn 7.12.10

Hello Family!
Weve had an awesome week this week- well half of it.. My companion was sick for the first few days of the week. It was nice for the first hour or two, but then after that i was just antsy for the next day or two to get out and do the work of the Lord. I did a lot of cleaning and studying which was nice though. The remainder of the week we saw miracles that could not have happened without Heavenly Father's help.
We have been teaching a 13 year old girl (Nin) and her mom (Saa) for a few weeks now. I met Nin one night that we were pretty discouraged, we had gotten rejected harshly quite a few times that night. It was about time to go home, but I decided we should stay out for the remainding minutes. We had the prompting (though we didnt know it at first) to turn back the way we had just came. We didnt find anyone. We started to head home. As we were biking through a dark little narrow street (like most of the neighborhood streets in Thailand) my companion passed a young girl walking home from her extra learning (which almost all kids do here. they go to school and then do special learning all day long!) I had the prompting to stop and talk to her. We ended up walking her home and then she is the one that showed up to church a few days later. That week she had been telling her mom she wanted to go to a christian church and then we stopped to invite her. Her mom was fine with her changing religions, but would always say that she herself is Buddhist. Over the past week we have seen her 180. Earlier during the week she became more interested and started opening up more, i thank the members who have been helping us teach, they are amazing! they became friends with her and made her feel comfortable so that we could get to her heart! The miracle really happened when they came to the Elders' baptism on Saturday night. They told us they were both coming, but for some reason she just dropped Nin off and then waited outside. We sent sister dang (red) out to get her. She came in right before the ordinance. While they were changing the elders taught about God and also about baptism for the investigators there. I was sitting in front of her, i heard her sniffling and turned around to her crying. After the baptism she kept saying how she felt like she had finally come home and how she had never felt that way in a Wat (a buddhist temple). She felt so silly because after the baptism she was all red faced and swollen from crying. She didnt understand why she was crying. I explained how everyone feels the Holy Ghost differently and (sorry mom) i told her about mom and many women who cry usually when they feel the spirit strong. We set baptismal dates with her and her daughter for the 29 of August! Nin wants to get baptized sooner, but we told her it would be best to get baptized together.
Missionary work is amazing. It seems that most of our investigators speak thai as a second language. lots of people from hill tribes and a few from Buma (i cant wait for the day that burma opens for our mission, it is going to boom!) We are teaching a cute lady named kham who is getting her masters degree here but is from Burma. It would be so awesome if we could get her strong and then she can go help strengthen the branch there! they need some good english speakers so they can get more books like the book of mormon translated. the second time we met with her she hadnt tried praying or hadnt read anything. we decided we would give her one more chance. We really emphasized prayer. Then i got a call later in the week, she was very excited and told me that she got an answer. she has been trying to defend her thesis since april and things keep going wrong. she was hoping to defend last week. the night before she was supposed to defend she couldnt sleep. she decided to try out prayer and got on her knees and poured out her heart. the next day she said she actually got to defend, and said that the words just poured out perfectly and the judges?? we very impressed. she knew it was not just her. She told me this as we were sitting waiting for sacrament meeting to start and we both got the chills. It was fun to sit with her. She doesnt speak Thai so she had translator headphones on (we get a lot of visitors and also have a few members that live here from america.) i got to sing the hymns in english!its been so long. they sound so wierd in enlish, it was hard! all the words came to me in thai. the hymns at church are a little crazy because we have both languages singing at the same time.
I was reading this morning in Helaman 10. What a powerful chapter about the labor and great blessings of missionary work! Its amazing how the scriptures are understood so differently at every period of your life. The Spirit brings out and helps us understand the things we need for that time. It is amazing being a missionary. I am grateful for this special time.
It sounds like jord and morg are doing awesome as well! so cool that we are all out here together in different parts of the world spreading the message of true happiness! they are lucky enough though to get to be there for a little longer then i. the time is flying.
I got some awesome packages this past week. thank you so so so much courtney and barb! it felt like christmas and my birthday combined!
well, weve got to go a little earlier today, an investigator family is picking us up to go FHE at sister beantong's house..
i love you and miss you. stay safe, stay healthy, and choose the right!
love,
sister young

morgan 7.12.10

Wow, okay so this week wasn't too great here in Carcassonne. It was a rough week. Me and my comp. get along fine. But it's Just there is ALOT of opposition! It started off fine just like normal. Then on friday I think it was, we just got done playing basketball (me and a 70 year old man took down 2 Teenage boys 7-3 by 1's and 2's) but were about to go inside 15 min early to shower and do calls. But I had the thought we needed to go see how George was doing. George is our investigator with a date for baptism Aug. 14. We go over to his house and he answered the door and looked awful! He told us to never come back. He never wants to see us again and it is finished. We tried to talk to him to see what was wrong but he wouldn't tell us. It was really really hard. Me and Elder Mayer were working with him so hard last transfer! That was a rough night.
It has really really hot here lately! Everybody is on vacation. We dont have very many Investigators right now because of all the vacations and we only had like 30 members at church here. Like half of the usual.
Vanessa is still awesome! she is so ready for baptism! If you wanna see something cool check out the Conf. Ensign the page right after the picture of the all the genral authorities in the center of the Ensign. the top right picture was taken in Carcassonne France. it was actually the Bezier elders who came to Carcassonne because they dont have a font there. COOL! haha. but not as cool as SAILOR and SKYLAR in the ensign!! so cool!! I heard that but I totally forgot! I was showing everybody my 2 super cute cousins in the ensign.
Elder Magnan is still super cool. We dont have the same personalities but he is really nice!
So the "soldes" are this weekend. Mom, I might be buying something so keep an eye on the account.
So there are a BUNCH of birthdays this month!! I got Chris' 2 week warning on my calandar. haha and so Happy Birthday all the birthdays this month!! this week it was Finn and then Andie the 16th and Papa the 17th. sorry if i missed ya. Happy Birthday!!
so the 14th of july here i hear is one of the most spectacular things ever! we are gunna try and get special permission from pres. to go watch it.
Thanks for all your support and all your emails!! court, get better and i will be waiting for that package. thanks so much! and mom, I got the package. Thankyou!! I made the white syrup lastnight. it is so good!! I kinda had to make a new recipe because I did not have alot of the same things but it was good. Elder Magnan really liked it!!
well I hope this week will be better than the last. I have got a recommendation for you all, go listen to or read the talk on Diligence by Pres. Eyring the Priesthood Session talk. So good!! my favorite line... "when my body begs for rest i say to myself 'remember him'... he is our captain." So cool!!
I love you all! Peace!

Morgan

7.11.2010

3 weeks of letters are posted! enjoy!

video and pictures too!
sorry for the lapse.

taryn 7.5.10

Hello!
To start it off, last week i got what we call in the mission "death papers". they are the papers that tell you that youre going home soon, thank you for your service, tell you to keep working hard to the end, and ask information about your home ward/stake ect to send things to them telling them your coming home. crazy.
We've had an awesome week this week. Missionary work is so stressful for me, i get so worried about where exactly we are supposed to be, what im supposed to say and do. im working really hard to give my stresses to the Lord. Its hard being a missionary because none of it is really up to you, you try so hard, but it is really all up the agency of the people. you have to give it to the Lord and hope he can help them choose the right path. im trying to remember that and not get so stressed.
Yesterday was a very rewarding day. We had 8 investigators at church!!! we had 0 my first 2 weeks here. It was really cool, they just kept coming in. The elders just kept looking at us like "what the?" i felt bad, with 4 elders they had 1 investigator. The 1 investigator was a guy that i invited on the street last week.. I think that it is easier for sisters. the women are much more ready usually, and the families that we are teaching, the men are more responsive to women. only half of them stayed all three hours, but I was still really happy with that. i hope to have them all and more be there for the whole time next week. we are still rocking with new investigators as well, we got another 10 this week! not weve got to just help them progress and help them begin their journey to come unto Christ.We have some really good investigators right now.
to start, we have nin and her mom. her mom is all for her learning, she just doesnt know how golden she is herself. they are both praying and reading, though nin was the only one who went to church. we taught them on sat, the mom was just leaving to take her dog on a walk. Heavenly Father pulled a miracle for us, the dog wouldnt go! she was saying how wierd it was, how he usually loves walks. we taught them both, and her mom, saa, was telling us how prayer is already helping her daughters life so much. now we just have to help her to realize it is for her too.
the lahu hill tribe family that we are teaching is kind of progressing. the mom and a few of the cousins are progressing, but we want the whole family. there is a very cute girl who is staying with them who is learning with us as well. bummer though, she is the most progressing, but is from mae ho song, way way up north where the hill tribe is. there is no church up there.. she is here for awhile because her daughter is in the hospital. we went to visit the hospital a few times last week, so sad. i realized i dont thing i can be a doctor anymore. ive never gotten sick from stuff like that before, but both times we went, sis josephson and i both had to "go to the bathroom" to take a break cuz we were both about to pass out. it was another thailand hospital experience. we went to the icu where it is dirty, lined with beds with people dying on them. no privacy for the families or anything. she is a little 8 yr old girl who was climbing up a tree to get some fruit and fell. she fell on the back of her head, im not sure what is wrong with her. she can move around, but it is like she is sleeping or in a coma or something. she just stares with her eyes open, tubes down her throat, and another coming out of the back of her head draining blood. she is such a cute little girl. we had a neat experience, brother giant came and gave her a blessing. it was a very peaceful feeling, i kept having to peek cuz to thought she was going to wake up right there. she still hasnt, but i know that it is up to the Lord. being in there made me realize again how precious and fragile life is. please please please be careful!
We have some other good investigators, like mint and her dad, and then we have some others that we might have to drop this week. i dont like dropping people, but i just have to have the faith that their time will come later when they are more ready.
Weve had some fun pday trips the past few weeks. we went to some wats(buddhist temples) 2 weeks ago, there are way too many of them in chiang mai, but they are beautiful. then last week we went to the zoo which was pretty fun: up on the mountainside/jungle and there was hardly any barriers-if any- for the animals (sometimes very scary!) then today was one of my favorite things that i have done in thailand. we went about an hour away up in the mountians, watched elephants play soccer, dance, and paint, and then got to ride them up over a steep mountain side and down into a valley with some hill tribe people. amazing how there are so many different people in this world with such different lives, but they are all of Gods children. i am excited for the day that people get called to the "hill tribe mission" to learn their languages and spread the gospel up there. as we were riding the elephants on a steep ledge, jungle all around, overlooking the city far away, and watching HUGE bugs that look like shrimp but bigger fly around, i couldnt help but think that i am in the coolest mission in the world. what an amazing place to be. i am so lucky to be able to serve here. not only for the fun things to do though, but the people are amazing.
well, its that time again. please stay safe, stay happy, and choose the right always! i love you so much and i just miss you more and more every day. you are the best.
love,
sister young

morgan 7.6.10

Alrighty, so this week I thought forsure me and Elder Mayer were going to stay together! But, the Lord knows what he is doing. I am still in Carcassonne and I still have a french comp. His name is Elder Magnan. I was so scared to get a lame comp again but he is so cool! I love him! so far he is my favorite comp so far. But we will see, its easy to say that the first day. He is from Paris. Versailles to be exact. The same ville the temple is going to be. I heard it is beautiful. Not from him but other missionaries.
So last week was amazing. We set a goal which was huge for us. We set the goal of 20 lessons taught to an investigator with a member present. The most I have ever had is 11 the avg. is 9. I told Elder Mayer that we could do it last sunday and he thought I was crazy. He was telling me how it is good to be faithful but we need to be realistic. So after 15 min. of showing him how we can do it we set the goal. The week started off slow. Really slow. But with the help of the members and ALOT of prayers we ended the week at 23 lessons in the presence of a member. and 34 total lessons. That is HUGE for our mission.
So yesterday sorry about not being able to email. I had to go pick up Elder Magnan in Marseille. He served in Avignon last transfer. He hits his 1 year mark in August. So every single companion I have been with we have celebrated their birthday. Elder Gilmour at the mtc, Elder Christensen at Nimes, Elder Mcmullin at Nimes, Elder Mayer in Carcassonne and the birthday of Elder Magnan is the 17th I think... same day as dads!! Chouette!!
So last week we lost every single one of our baptismal candidates. 2 we cant get a hold of. Yasmine (Vanessa's sister) moved to Toulouse. Which I am happy because I think that ward will be better for her. Alot more young adults! Vanessa is planning the date of her wedding so we cant plan the baptism till we find out.
But we engaged George (a 50 year old crazy man from brazil) this week for the 14 August. We have a recent convert who wont stop having "set backs" haha with alchohol. it is really sad. Elder Mayer was crushed.
I am really excited for this transfer!! It is gunna be sweet! I am planning on running still. Actually for the past 2 weeks we have been running with a coulple of members who need to lose weight. It is cool! haha.
I am going to talk to Vanessa about Ash's blog. I already told her that she does the same stuff. Vanessa is hopefully going to make me a scripture case. We are going to try to talk to her fiancé about our message this week. We will see.
How was the 4th?? I cant wait for the 14th here!! I heard it is like world known for the fireworks at the castle. We might just have to be getting special permission to hop on the roof to watch. I think we are going to try and catch a glimps of the tour de France. so if you can give me info around the date of moday the 19th. or just when it is closest. Dad gave me a little info a couple weeks ago also.
Well I love you all!! I gotta fly!! we have Tons of RDV's this week!! Ash dont worry your getting a letter soon! thanks for the letter. and no, no package yet.
Morg

jordan 7.5.10

ok well talk about stress. transfers are my most hated thing in the world. i always stress so bad over them. anyways my time here in amsterdam is done. but i am so greatfull i got to serve here. it is definantly my most favorite city in the world. i will miss it. the people and the young adults especially have changed my life. they are friends that will last forever, we are planning a lake powell trip for next year with everybody. i guess the Lord has something else in store for me.
i am getting transfered to Groningen. it is the most northern city in the netherlands. ive been there a few times on exchanges. i guess it is a student city. my new address is D.D. Eisenhowerstraat # 38 9728 RW Groningen Netherlands I would love to get a letter from you.
this week was another slow week for missionary work still trying to find those people who are ready for the gospel. patrick came back from tilburg so that is good.
on the brighter hand nederland beat brazil in world cup soccer! ahh man the city was going nuts. they play uraguay tues.
oh man fast and testimony meeting on sunday was the craziest ive ever seen. some lady (investigator) gets up and starts baring her testimony oh man it was nuts she was walking all over the stage shouting with her arms in the air then when she was done she was still shouting till she got into her chair. then people started to clap oh man. amsterdam.
well family. this week there is a recent covert named kim who is coming to visit our family and drop some stuff off for me. she will be coming with Jeff Howell my last companion. it should be a cool experience. it would be really nice if the whole family could get together or something when they come. kim is super good at tennis, maybe do something outside. i dont know. but it would be a cool experience for the family to talk to them. and also it would be good if it was a special experience for them also. maybe do dinner or something. her family has fed me dinner a few times. now is a good chance to pay them back. i dont know how long she is staying and i dont know how long she is planning on staying with our fam. i have had dinner with her family now she gets to see what its like to have a dinner with the robert family. robert style. she is taking a lot off letters that have been sent to me home. and my camera cards and maybe my kite. and she plans on filling her suit cases up with clothes she will buy. it is too kind of her.
well i cant wait to hear from all of you next week.
happy 4th of july!! man last year i saw the magness fam and wade on 4th of july then the next day i saw the young fam, weird!
ok well see you later
love
e robert

draped in orange

a random street in amsterdam.
world cup excitement.
everyone in orange.
people sitting at a table with their feet in a blow-up swimming pool.

hup holland

these hats make noise.
world cup excitement makes people do strange things!

funny hat funny jordan

smores and hotdogs in amsterdam

eating smores

taryn 6.28.10

Hello!
What a good week. THings are starting to really pick up in these parts of Thailand. We are getting new investigators right and left. It is fun seeing the numbers go from absolutely nothing to now growing higher and higher. We worked hard this week and taught many lessons, found many potentials, and also got 15 new investigators! ha the goal of the mission is for everyone to get 2 per week.. now our goal is to keep them progressing and coming closer to the Lord, our purpose as a missionary. what a great purpose. we dont have any with baptismal dates yet, but that will hopefully come this week as we teach our progressors. this week ive been getting a little startled, realizing how short my time is getting. so crazy. my goal is to keep pushing myself and this area to the max until i get on the train to go down to bangkok for the last time.
We are teaching a few families, which is the emphasis of the mission right now. they have figured out that the chances are much more likely for them to fall if they enter the church alone, and thailand doesnt need any more less actives, we already are overflowing with them. This past week they actually came out and said that if you are teaching and people single-y they have to come to church and get progressing quickly or they have to be dropped. it is neat teaching families that will hopefully sometime soon be an eternal family!
one of the daughters who is in her upper 20's was telling us how she was having a lot of problems in her life and asked for me to give her a special christian blessing. many think that we are nuns here. i explained about priesthood blessings, the elder will give her one soon, and then i said the closing prayer, in it asking Heavenly Father to help her.
one family we are teaching are from the hill tribes (we are actually teaching quite a few people from tribes) The family speaks lahu (a tribal language), most can speak a little thai, and the dad speaks english and lahu, not much thai. one daughter can read thai, so we have a lot of crazy cross-translating from many different languages. its an adventure! we are schedule to see them tonight, i hope and pray that we can keep them progressing and enter the waters of baptism soon!
we are teaching a few Burmese people, but the majority of them speak tribal languages as well and speak a little thai, and one girl we are teaching speaks english amazingly- she is studying here to get her masters and then will go back to burma. we are excited because we need some good english speakers in burma because there isnt very much burmese church material yet. man, it is hard teaching in english though! everything comes to me in thai first and then i have to translate it to English. sometimes i sound so silly because i end up translating directly from thai grammar and it doesnt make sense in English.
We rode our bikes to the house of a family far out of the city, i felt like i was back in Udon again. chickens running around, boys out in the weeds playing a game they love to play here that is like volleyball, but instead you cant use your hands! they do a one tosses is and another does a crazy kicking thing to serve it. they use all parts of their body but arms. the houses out there little wooden and metal shacks. what a fun place to live. it was beautiful, even more than udon because it was more green and here there are small mountains surrounding.
On friday night we had some appointments and back-up plans cancel so we went out to contact a potential. when we went to her house her husband and mom were there, they were really rude and first told us they didnt know where she was, and then saying she moved. then we asked about the neighbor and they said she moved too. its never fun to get turned down like that, im glad that i am serving in thailand where it is rare for a thai person to be rude (i feel bad for jordan and morgan! i know what it is like in europe and i wasnt even a missionary there!) it was almost time to go home, but not quite yet. we could have easily gone home, but decided to go back into the neighborhood and invite for minute. we didnt find anything, but then on our way out in a dark allley there was one young girl walking home that my comp passed, i almost did but then got the prompting to stop. we ended up inviting her to church and to english class, the usual. crazy thing is she showed up yesterday! she was soaking it all in, wanting to know which books she needed to study. we ended up going to her house yesterday evening and taught her and her mom. she said that she had been talking to her mom earlier that week and decided she wanted to go to a christian church that sunday. she got a little teary and said how God truly sent us. im excited for this family!
random, but we have 2 books of mormon in our house in other languages, one in chinese and the other dutch!! every time i see it i think of jord. crazy language.
well its that time again. i love you so so much! you are all so amazing. i have the best family ever. seriously. i am grateful for this time that i get to serve the Lord and his people, and i am grateful that i still have the months that i do to help others and also better myself a little more before i get forced back into the world again.
i miss you
love
sister young

morgan 6.28.10

Hello Everybody,
Alright, so this week was a little more rough than the other weeks. It happens. I think it is because the whole week I was trying to be too serious. Elder Mayer during a companionship inventory told me that I need to be more serious. So I tried it, it didn't go so well. I just wasn't happy for the whole week. Finally on Friday I realized why. I can not pretend to be someone else I'm not. I am friendly, I joke around with people. Even people I don't know and they are just on the street, I joke around with them and I am myself around them. Of coarse I present the message along with it but for me it is a message of happiness. So I told Elder Mayer that and he was okay with that. It helped to be myself the last few days.
So next week is Transfers. It is possible that I get a new companion, I hope not but it is possible. I probably will be staying in Carcassonne, if I get transfered it would be really weird. It has been so hot lately! Really, it is rediculously hot lately!!
We played some b-ball again last sat. MJ was back on the court. First of all, the french in genral suck at basket ball. Secondly, I was sinking 3 left and right. We played 2 on 2, it was the missionaries vs. our 2 investigators. It was a little sad. haha. So we took a little break and played 2 on 1. It was ******* and ******* vs. me. I killed!! haha ******** shoots like a little girl. Seriously I might need to sneak a video next time. I am gunna teach him how it's done.
I am finally starting to get in to shape again! 3 transfers with 0 running really caught up to me. But I am back baby!! Ladies start taking your numbers for after the mish right now. (hint hint ********) haha.
Well this week the Fiancé de Vanessa came home from the army. She really wants to keep the law of chastity but he doesn't respect that. So, she was going to end it with him last that we heard. We see her again today and she said she was going to talk to him yesterday, so we will see how that went. If you can keep her and her sister Yasmine in your prayers that'd be sweet!! they are engaged for baptism on the 17 july. Yay Dads Birthday!! haha. Vanessa is so creative. Mom, you would love the little things that she makes, and also her house. It is you. She said she is gunna make me a scripture case. I think I might have already said that last week. Oh well. This last week we found a SWEET new ami!! (ami is friend in french, it means investigator) Her name is Marie-Pierre. She is very interested in our message and was very touched by Moroni 10:4-5 and the fact that we don't want people to just believe us. We want people to find out for themselves. She has been studying religion for quite a while and has never seen that. She has a daughter who is 16. She on the other hand has 0 religious background. They are both really cool. Thanks so much for all of your emails, and no I dont print the emails off. i just read them. it costs money to print. Maybe I'll start doing that.
Thanks for all you do!!
Elder Wimmer

jordan 6.28.10

oh man! i dont have much time . im going to go play tennis again! the members we play with are amazing.
well last week was a really bad one. our whole teaching pool was destroyed. people are moving and everthing we are trying to clean everything up find new investigators.
transfers are next week, i will know weather i go or stay next friday.
no that was not me dressed up in the dutch costume.
ok i will hopefully be back to finish this email.
e robert


hello im back
we just went and played some tennis. it is sooo hot outside. but its nice to play any sport.
so last week wasnt very good. it was pretty rough. patrick our most progressing investigator got kicked out of his house by his sister. cherrisa was sick all week. zin ching is moving to rotterdam. we have a spanish speaking investigator who is having a hard time and doesnt want to meet.
we did a lot of finding, we need new investigators. man we are in the busses and tram and metro all day and it is super hot inside of them. i want to start riding bikes. its not as handy because we have investigators all over the city.
nederland plays today vs slovakia. the city is going crazy again. there is water canals all over the place here and it is such a temptation to jump in.
i miss you all, thanks for everything. i need some pics, send some pics of the fam or something geez ha ha. mom tell chandler he has to write me a letter, i want to know how he is doing and all the other siblings. well amsterdam is still dominating i hope i get to stay here but we will see. thanks e robert

hard rock cafe

jordan eating at hard rock cafe.

amsterdam.

at church in amsterdam

fhe soccer

video of jordan.

playing soccer in the church.

amsterdam family home evening.

soccer

soccer

soccer

more soccer

more soccer

more soccer

p-day in amsterdam


morgan 6.21.10

Bonjour à tous,

Wow, so this week was pretty sweet. It was the baptism of Bruno Bellanti yesterday. It was the most bizzare baptism that I have ever seen. Okay, so here is the story; Bruno was introduced to the church by his friend Serge 8 months ago. Bruno has always had the desire to be baptised but just couldn't seem to give up smoking. He has had more than one baptism date cancelled because of that. So when I got here he was kind of just known as Serge's friend who we teach once in a while. We had a couple rendez-vous with him and he honestly didn't seem too golden. One day we decided to listen to the teachings of our Mission Pres. and give each person we teach an engagemet to baptism. So, we read Mosiah 18:8-10 with him and asked him if he wanted to be baptised the 19 june. He said yes. We then came up with a plan of how we are going to get him to stop smoking. All we did is gave him a calander of sc's to read, daily contact and a lot of prayers. The night pefore his interview with the President he smoked his last cigarette. He has stopped completely thus far. Very cool! He decided that he wanted Serge to baptize him. It was cool to have his best friend baptize him. The reason why I said it was the most bizzare baptism i have ever seen is because Serge has never baptized anybody before. He is not the smartest person in the world either. So him trying to baptize Bruno was like trying to give a dog a bath. Really. It took 3 times to finally get him under. The first 2 times he didn't even get close. haha. But he finally got under and it was a really good experience for them both. I just had to do some explanations to our investigators who were there that it is usually only 1 baptism. And it is usually alot more natural.

Running the other day was so cool! There was one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen! I was so mad that I didn't have a camera. Speaking of camera, some kid that was in my photo class is in my district. So weird! He just got here. His name is Elder Nicholes. He is a funny kid.

Our ami Vanessa is really into making little things like on Ash's blog. She is going to make me a scripture case. I am so excited!

Thankyou so much for all the emails! I love you all so much! Happy Fathers day to all the Grandpa's but most of all for my Dad. I love you!

Elder Wimmer

taryn 6.21.10

Hey
we had a loooong week of inviting this week. oh man it was long! but because we were inviting that whole time, we found 10 new investigators, and beat the assistants goal of getting 40 potentials in a week with 44 potentials. The mission has a big focus right now to find families, so that is what we are really searching and praying for. We have found a few potential families that will hopefully become our new investigators. we also had tons of cancelled appointments. hah honestly nothing too exciting happened this week. We will hopefully be teaching a few people from Burma this week and also get lots of new investigators.
Friday we went to Yaay Laay's, we met her across from Chaing Mai University, she had a songtaw (a pickup truck with benches on the sides and a cover- a main form of trasportation here..) waiting for us, loaded our bikes in, and then we went up the mountian to her house. my dreamhouse as a child. it was in the middle of HUGE trees with HUGE leaves, a pond, and the the house was built on a steep mountainside and has been built piece by piece over the past 40 years, it is just a big treehouse. all different levels, sometimes having to duck down (well i had to..) to get through rooms, one of the rooms you had to go out and across a skinny bridge, and to get to one of the bedrooms your had to go up some wooden rickety stairs to a bathroom, and then there was stairs in the bathroom as well that led to the door of the bedroom. Im amazed at this little old lady that can climb all that all day long! She is really sweet, but I dont know what is going to come of it. She is one of the head people in her christian church here in chaing mai, but she is reading the book of mormon and hopefully she will be sensitive enough to feel the Spirit and the greatness of that book. For some reason there are more christians in chaing mai than ive ever seen in Thailand. Several of the people that we found last week are Christian. Teaching them is a lot different than what i am used to, its hard! I am used to explaining who God and Jesus Christ is, and helping them understand prayer.
We had interviews and zone conference as well. so motivational, but then it is time to go outside in the melting heat and work yourself to death and try to find investigators. its hard to keep up that motivation in that heat and getting denied. We are working really hard though to try and get this area going. MIssionary work is so hard sometimes!
Church threw me off this week, we have about 20 BYU students here for an internship/study abroad. It made me miss America so much! It was so wierd seeing normal, white, mormon byu students. Im trying to stay focused here, but sometimes my mind wanders and a long for the time that i get to see you all and get to be back at the Y! I know my attitude will change soon once i get to know and love these people, but it is hard being in a new area and not having an attatchment to anyone or anything around you. Its hard to not think about those that i love so much, who i get to see in 4 months. I know im still needed here so im not ready to go home just yet, but man it will be an awesome day when it comes!
Im sorry this letter is so short, im not sure what else to write, its been a lot of just the normal thailand missionary stuff: sweat, dirt, getting turned down, hearing the same thing over and over all day-"all churches teach people to be good.". seeing miracles, finding those that are ready for the word, missing home, eating bugs and other crazy things, feeling the love of Heavenly Father for all his children, and working hard.
I love you so much. I miss you!!!! Keep doing the little things that brings happiness: reading the scrips, praying, and serving!
love, sister young

jordan 6.21.10

well as you might know nederland won there second game in the world cup soccer. it was made clear to us buy many outragous drunk men raging through the streets of amsterdam dressed in orange with a beer in one hand and a horn in the other. oh little morgy porgy, i dont think france is doing so well thats weird.
anyway missionary work went well this week. our baptismal date patrick is serious about being baptised. we found out that he is addicted to smoking ciggaretes and the other green stuff. but who isnt around here. we are workin with him to get of of it . it is nice to see progress in our investigators. its been a while. patrick is shooting to be baptized on 24 july.
cherissa is doing well also. we found out that she has no parents they both passed away. she lives with her brother. she and patrick both came to church yesterday . and we taught them both a lesson after church. we went to cherissas house and her bro was there. we taught him to. i think cherissa has some trauma in her past. we gave her a blessing because she cannot sleep because of things from the past i think. she is very nice.
ive come to the realazation that here in amsterdam the world has a great hold on people. and its hard to pull them from satans dirty old hands.
well this transfer i have given more blessings than i have given my whole mission. probably 4 times as many. it has strengthened my testimony on the power of the priesthood. weve seeen so many miracles out of it, healings, strenght, reactivation, love, everything.
today we are gong to play some tennis with the zwaan sisters kim and joyce. it will be super nice to play.
ohhh yeah i almost forgot. yesterday in church im in the investigator class minding my own buisness. when david ( a good friend and young adult) comes into the class and askes me if i have an investigator by the name of, i cant remember the name something really weird. i say no. and he said well he just walked in the church and i told him to go to the duch class but maybe it would be better if you went and got him and brought him into the gospel principles class. ok sounds good so i went to the dutch class and there were not to many people in there. because the man that walked in was an islamic dude and he was telling everybody that we are wrong and we need to worship allah. he was very creepy. all the wemen took there children and got out of there. i was kinda like in my mind should i take this guy out? karaty kick? round house? full nielsen? no i just bought a brand new suit and i dont want to ruin it ha ha j.k. ( ps mom i bought a new suit at h&m my suits are struggling hope thats ok its a lighter gray.) so he was talking about mohamed and we needed to worship him kindof face to face with the teacher.the teacher said well we belive in Jesus Christ and we respect what you worship you should respect what we worship. he sais that Jesus was not the son of God and then this super cute old lady in the class sais well we believe in Jesus Christ in her old grandma voice it was so cute, finally one of the councelors came in and we went out in the hall. then the other councel and then the bishop. he just kept telling us that we need to worship allah and they said we have the same God we just choose to worship him differently and you need to respect that. then he was escorted out. he was a well mannered man didnt yell but just creepy and kindof quiet. well it was just another day in the amsterdam ward. i thought though that everyone of us wouldve stood up for what we believe no matter what. even until death. Jesus is the Christ and there is no other way.
g2g love you all
elder robert

6.14.2010

morgan 6.14.10

okay I am so sorry i have almost no time. sorry grandpa larry. my grammar is gunna be awful. okay so this week was incredible!! we have been so blessed. so we have a baptism this saturday his name is Bruno. and other than him we have 4 more baptismal dates. the Lord has blessed us so much. it is rough. we work a lot!! but it is good.
we played basket ball on saturday and the french are so bad!! i was like mj to all of them! their jaws were on the ground. i was dropping 3 left and right. i won everytime! haha. i think my giant comp was getting frustrated.
okay well today we are going to vanessa. her and her little sis. both have a baptismal date. she is 28 and her sis is 23. they are so cool! she reminds me of ash with all the stuff she makes and her house. but she is black so she doesnt look much like her.
okay well we have a rendez-vous so i really have to go.
I love you all!

Morgan