Hello,
Today is going to be a great day because a bunch of us missionaries are going to Kolob! It's a really cool park that is in our area. We are planning on hiking a trail called taylor creek. It should be a good time. It was Elder Toropainen's birthday yesterday so this is going to be his day. It's going to be fun. He turned 23.
This week was just a same old missionary week. Nothing out of the ordinary but that's alright. Our teaching pool is still low and tracting isn't really going anywhere. The houses around here are huge and the community is the type of place where people go to seclude themselves. We haven't been running into the most humble childlike people lately. Stuck in there ways is more the type right now. We are working on ways to get in there doors and that will be through the members. Still a tonne of work to do but we will finally be able to move down to New Harmony tomorrow. The house we got is pretty cool. It's an unfinished log cabin. It's huge! the best part is the full kitchen and jacuzzi tub woot! They have a piano to so i can start practicing again. I'm going to try to pick that up along with spanish. Elder Black gave me some Spanish stuff to help me learn and taught me to pray in Spanish. The mission is short on Spanish missionaries at the moment so if I practice maybe I can make the cut. Praying was hard to do Ii felt like I was in primary or a new investigator learning to pray. It made teaching prayer make more sense and it's easier to relate with people saying a prayer for the first time now.
Elder Toropainen was on exchanges with another Spanish speaking Elder the other night and they found out something cool about his Finish and Spanish. The words are not the same but how the alphabet is pronounced is the same in both languages. During the lessons Elder Johnson would have Elder Toropainen read scriptures for them and it apparently sounded perfect. Whenever I have a question on how to say something in Spanish I can just ask him now. Cool eh? Tthe people they were teaching were pretty blown away that night.
That is about all that happened so far this week.
The Church is True
143 Family
Elder Ian Dyer
Hi,
This was a really exciting week let's hope I remember everything that was worth mentioning.
First amazing thing is we have two investigators yay and the crowds go wild!!!! We have a 10 year old girl named Macy her family is less active so we are working on the whole family. The other is Michelle she is in her 40's and loves the church. She is from New Mexico. Both of them have a baptism date set and the wards are super excited. Things are turning around and our area is growing. The area has so much potential.
Still no apartment down there though. We live in the same place as last transfer except with 4 Elders this time. We live in a shoebox a cluttered shoebox. But we get to drive a sweet Dodge Caravan with lots of space so that kind of makes up for it. In the morning we sometimes place soccer and when we do I feel like a soccer mom cause i have to drive everyone.
I missed a wedding for a couple in my last area yesterday. I found out we were going to Manti the same day as the wedding. I was excited for Manti but way disappointed i couldn't be at the wedding. Donnie even asked me to give the opening prayer that made it hurt more. Him and his wife were sad I couldn't be there but i will be there for Shawnies baptism so all is not lost. Shawnie and Donnie are awesome.
It was however still really cool to go to Manti for the Pageant. I didn't know what a pageant was before coming to Utah. Last year lots of people asked me if I was able to make it to the pageant and i was thinking beauty pageant or something and i didn't understand why it was such a big deal. It made a ton more sense after someone told me what it actually was though. this one was called the Mormon Miracle Pageant. It's a play about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith and it's done on the side of the Manti Temple on that big hill. It was pretty neat They re created the battle with Captain Moroni and the part where he writes the Title of Liberty. It was epic. They had lots of lights and fire and sound effects. It was corny but still awesome.
We got there early for a turkey dinner and a fireside beforehand. Guess who was there? Elder Bednar one of the 12 Apostles. He shared a thought and then came to meet all us missionaries. We shook his hand it was neat.
Each Zone in our mission had a night to go to the Pageant and most our our Zone went. The point of us going was to work the crowd and ask for referrals. There was 14000 people in attendance so no shortage of people to talk to. It was a lot of fun. We started at about 6:30 and the pageant started at 9:30. so after 3 hours we got to sit and enjoy the production. It was cool to stay up late and then we were allowed to sleep in the next day. We stayed over at a members house who made all of us breakfast it was a happy day. I love pancakes. We were back in our area about noon on Saturday.
That was pretty much my week. Today for P-Day activities we are going to have a nerf gun fight with the many other missionaries. We all being nerds play it as zombies to. some of us are zombies and some are humans and we battle with nerf guns. It's really fun and then we go out and preach the Gospel at 6. Good day ahead.
143 Family
The Church is True
Elder Ian Dyer
Hello,
Someone in a meeting with the ward council said yesterday tracting builds character... With that being said Elder Toropainen and I have built lots of character!!! Holy lots of tracting Batman! The new area has been off to a very very slow start but good things things are on the way. We have yet to find our first official investigator but this week it will happen cause we have FAITH! I think the wards are just a little unfamiliar with having missionaries all to themselves and so with that they are not exactly sure what to do. The are more accustomed to us now and are starting to give us a helping hand. The stake president often calls the valley we are serving in a gold mine. Let's hope and pray that it works out. We were studying Faith in comp study the other day and we were reading a couple of the definitions. The one that stuck out to us was faith is having confidence. We thought we had the faith but its more then that. We need to have confidence in the area itself that there are people being prepared to receive the message we bring. Sheesh now this area has to work. It's on us we have 3 months to make it work. I'll keep you posted.
I have to tell you a story that Ii didn't have time to write about last week. I was on splits with one of our ward mission leaders Brother Wise. He was driving me out to New Harmony to teach a lesson to a man named Kevin. He is 58 and got baptized last week. It was awesome cause he called and told us we wanted to be baptized on the 4th but we hadn't taught him past Joseph Smith. After a few 2 hour lessons however he was good to go. He married a lady who is a temple worker so he was bound to join eventually. This was his 3rd baptism into a church. 3rd times the charm right. He has been going to church for the past year and is now finally a member and will get the Priesthood next week Exciting! Anyways while on the way to his lesson with Brother Wise we spotted a Rattle Snake on the dirt road we were driving. Don't worry Grandma Dyer it gets so much better(my Grandma is afraid of snakes). Instead of just driving by Wise stops I was thinking just to take a look which was fine I trusted him. He probably has seen crocodile hunter enough times to know what he was doing. He has a huge handlebar mustache after all. If TV and being around many Rednecks has taught me anything it's that if you have a sweet handlebar mustache you can do anything. He stares down the snake and goes to the back of his truck where he grabs a hammer and a lead pipe... Who even carries a lead pipe in there truck!? He proceeds to have a 20 minute battle with this rattle snake and I'm sure would be a valuable asset if there were ever snakes on a plane... He would have made Samuel L. Jackson proud. If that doesn't make sense to you can ask My big brother Clarke to explain. So after a long fight with this thing hissing and striking at Wise he finds a big stick and traps the snake with it. After the snake's head was securely stuck by a stick I was holding Wise grabbed the pipe and hit it in the head... about 20 times just to make sure. You may ask what the point was of Brother Wise killing this snake and to that he would answer "Cause snake tastes good!" He took it home and ate it!
Also my new Comp Elder Toropainen is pretty awesome and we are having fun figuring this area out together. He is way better at my uke then me to so I have been humbled. He is from the capital of Finland right by the Temple.
That's all i have for this week hope you enjoyed.
The Church is True
143 Family
Elder Ian Dyer
Ps Dutch oven is a big deal here. My tummy is happy
Hello and welcome to my 7th transfer,
Alright so President called me last night to give me my transfer call. I'm leaving Cedar and staying at the same time. I', going to be covering only 3 wards in the south valley. I cover a place called Kannarville, Kolob canyon, and New Harmony. Elder Prusse and me already covered the area this last transfer but know I'm going to just be covering those 3 wards with a new Companion whose name I can't pronounce. He is from Finland and has been out only one transfer. He served 2 years in the Finland army and I'm told looks pretty stiff. I imagine he is like Clarke's Mongolian Companion. We will get along I'm sure Out of all my transfers this one intimidates me the most. I'm pretty worried but I know it will be fine.
I got distracted with other emails but I just want to say happy birthday Alison and happy anniversary Clarke and Cecilia.
The Church is True
143 Family
Elder Ian Dyer
sorry it was short
