May 25, 2015

Hey!  

Sorry I have like 15 minutes to email.  So I'm just going to say what's gone on this week.  Thanks for the update on everything. :)  

So new area.  I actually remember some of the investigators that we have from before when I was here but it's actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be to be back in the ward.  Mostly because tons of people remember me and now I speak Spanish so I can communicate with them.  So that's really fun. :)  

So I got into the area and I knew I had a lot of work to do.  The apartment was kinda dirty and the area book hadn't been updated for months and a whole bunch of general things I know I just had to fix by myself.  So I've been pretty busy with that.  It's been kinda stressful with that but it's good because I'm getting there.  The apartment is big so more room for missionaries to put junk.  And also we do have a car too so yeah.  Then the area was going alright.  We had 6 investigators and a couple of them with baptismal dates but I've only been able to meet with like 2 of them.  

So things were just going kinda normally until Friday when I think I finally figured out how to have really deep prayers with Heavenly father.  There was a huge change when I figured it out.  It's ridiculous because I should have been able to figure it out a long time ago but at least I figured it out.  So before Friday we had like 3 lessons or so taught.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday we found 7 new investigators and taught 8 lessons.  I think things just clicked because in part of the learning (finally) how to pray and also just applying everything I've learned and all the advice I've received.  So yeah!  Now I'm trying to figure out how to get all of the investigators to progress. This is for sure a different experience for me.  Just trying to figure out all of this stuff.  So I'm kinda stressed with everything and all the responsibility but it's a good kinda stressed.  I'm excited for it all though!  My companion is getting there with Spanish but I'm the main communicator so it's different just doing everything.  So yeah!  I'm working really hard every day and excited for this stuff that's going on!  Sorry I'm out of time because we are all cramming in the family history center since it's a holiday so I'll email more next week. :)  

Love you!  Have a great week and have fun with not having school!

Elder Passey

May 18, 2015

Dear Family,

A lot of insane things went down this week.  But I'll start out with answering to your email. :)

That's insane that graduation is this week!  Holy cow I feel like the school year went by so quick.  And it doesn't feel like school should be over already!  It's only the middle of May!  Man crazy.  Good luck with summer break and everything!  That's going to be so fun!  Have fun with it! :)

Too bad the Vera's left.  I counted on them being the only Spanish people in the entire city.  Now I can't talk to him in Spanish unless I go looking for him.  Too bad.

So transfers are crazy.  Both Elder Creasey and I are leaving.  They're dissolving our area.  I'm going back to Cerritos.  Not the same area but right next to it.  I'm going to be the senior companion and my companion is pretty new.  Only been out for 4 months or so.  So it's going to be different!  Insane stuff.

Yeah the drought is serious stuff.  It's not good.  But we have been getting rain recently.  Not a lot but some!  So that's good.  

So that was one thing that happened with the transfers.  The other crazy thing that happened is that I participated in a 5 person baptism.  It was so cool. :)  Elder Beyer and Valenzuela (our district leader) had a baptism and they baptized someone who doesn't have any legs.  So we were enlisted to help carry her down into the font and set her on the ground then carry her back up.  It was a really neat experience. :) She kissed each of us individually after she was baptized.  It was really cool though and I'm way happy to have been part of that.  

That's it for this week though!  I bought a coconut today.  We'll be just packing and saying bye to people today.  It's going to be a good week.  I'll let you know how things go!

Love you!  Have a great week!  Good luck with everything that's going on with school and stuff.  Good luck with kids and summer break stuff.  Bye!

Elder Passey

May 11, 2015

Hi!

 

That's a nice mother's day thing. :)  That's way cool that you guys went to the White Pine ward.  Hopefully everything is going well there. 

 

I'm glad you had a good Mother's day. :)  I love you!  I'm glad I could talk to you guys too. :)  It was nice!  After we finished I went and talked to elder Creasey's family for a bit and that was fun!  Nothing really too interesting happened this week that I didn't talk about in the skype chat. I'm glad I look good though.  It's been an exhausting couple of weeks but we had a couple kinda days off so that's made things nice.  Helps to recover a bit. 

 

Love you Mom!  I hope you have a great week and day and everything.  Have fun. :)  Good luck with the yard and the trees.  I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Passey

May 4, 2015

Hi! :)

Hey you're on the same page as all the other people in California!  Everyone's lawns are dying.  Too bad.  But that's what you get when you live in a desert during a drought I guess!

Yay! Mothers day!  It still hasn't really hit me that it's coming up.  We're going to do it at a members house - la familia Sanchez (except that's not her name anymore because she got divorced.  So I don't know her last name but her first name is Edith.)  I think she's going to try to contact you sometime this week to help it get set up.  She kinda reminds me of you I think.  I think you guys will get along good.  She is fluent in both languages. She's more comfortable in English I think.   But we'll be skyping - just Elder Creasey and I - at 7:30 here so 8:30 there.  Kinda late but she is busy all day pretty much. 

Yep it's my birthday sometime this week. :)  It doesn't really feel real or anything.  I don't know if I'll get dinner that day. :)  There is a marriage that day and a mothers day party so we'll see how things go.  It'll be fun though.  

So this last week was the most successful week I've had yet on my mission.  And we're going for a lot more this week.  It's going to be good!  I finally feel like a kinda fire under me to work REALLY hard.  I've been working a long time to get this fire and I'm excited to do work this week!  And to keep it up for the rest of my mission!  Too bad that almost a year is already gone but hey that's still a year I can do work!

Nothing especially cool happened this week.  I ate pigs skin.  Nasty garbage.  Don't know why any Hispanic person likes it.  It's pure fat.  Both baptisms have been cancelled but this week we're looking to set some solid ones.  

Love you!  Have a good week too!  I'll eat some cereal don't worry. :)  See you on Sunday!

Elder Passey

April 27, 2015 first x-ray pictures of Brandon's finger

April 27, 2015

Hey!  

Man this has been a hard week.  Lots and lots of work with not much coming out of it.  It wasn't until yesterday that I realized that we had more success (as far as teaching numbers go) than we have yet this transfer just in different ways.  Like not as much with finding investigators but more of teaching less actives.  It was nice because it felt like we were doing so much work and nothing was coming out of it.  But it did in different ways!  

Also I ate a bad mango and threw up.  So that was fun.  Then on Saturday we were doing service for some people and I got stung by 4 bees.  3 in the leg and one right under my eye.  So I've kinda just been beat up this last week.  I'm just glad I didn't break another finger or something. 

 

Yesterday we had a FHE thingy with a family (you would really get along with the Hermana in the family, Mom.  She kinda reminds me of you.  Her name is Edith Sanchez)  And that was really fun.  I haven't had a FHE in a long time! 

 

Man that's cool that you guys did the Clark farm thingy!  Sounds fun. :)  

 

Oh that's cool you guys went to the Bountiful temple. :)  That was the last one I went to before my mission.  Really nice temple. :)  We actually did our FHE lesson on temples and it made me remember how  much I love the temple.  Too bad it will still be a month or more until I go to the temple again but that's OK.  Going to the temple less makes you realize how much of a blessing it is to be able to go more.

Yep those were the very first x rays!  Woo!  Yeah I'm working on stretching it out and I do it a lot.  Whenever I have time pretty much.  It's fun.........

 

Things with Elder Creasey are going good!  I think we won't be together for another transfer after this...  But who knows!  I would like to be with him for more!  He only has 2 transfers left after this one which ends in a couple weeks.  He goes home mid August.  If I stay his companion it's possible that I'll be his companion for the rest of his mission!  We'll see what goes down though.  

 

Ha yeah I realized that my birthday is in like 2 weeks.  Crazy.  Nobody really knows about it.  Just Elder Creasey and a couple other people I told.  I'm just glad we have dinner already set up for that day.  But yeah that's about it for this week!

 

Love you!  Have a great week!

Elder Passey

April 20, 2015

Hi guys!

This week has gone well!  It's actually been pretty crazy.  On Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment and it was interesting.  Dr Weil said that I don't need to come back!  He wants to have like a check up appointment in a month and that's it.  That would be free too.  He said my finger is about as good as he hoped it to get.  So I guess it's as straight as it's gonna get!  I just hope it will stop hurting when I move it which I almost think that it won't...  And I hope it'll stop being so fat and everything.  I'll send a picture or two of how straight and bent I can make it.  Also funny story about my brace.  I lost it again.  I think it's a sign from God that I shouldn't use it.  I lost it right before my doctor's appointment and I don't know where it is...  So yeah I'm just going to not worry about that anymore.  Kinda annoyed but I think that an angel is like pulling it out of my pocket and burning it or casting it into outer darkness or something... 

 

Things in the field are really picking up.  So lately I haven't really had very much motivation to work as hard as I can in the work and then some things happened this week that gave me a lot of motivation to work.  It's actually kinda cool what I've been able to see change.  So on Thursday we had a district meeting that was really spiritual and I really needed it.  It mostly just consisted of reading my patriarchal blessing and praying and then I felt God's presence and his arms around me and yeah...  It was really good and I really needed it.  I kinda cried a bit too. I hadn't felt the spirit as strong as I did in a long time.  That's a big reason why I got my motivation back.  Then Friday I got a training that made me kinda do a self evaluation on how I'm doing and what I need to do better. We found 4 people last week which is a blessing for sure and 2 of them are really prepared.  We extended two baptismal dates and this area is finally starting to go well.  I don't see it as a coincidence that we found all 4 people after the district meeting at some point.  One of them - Roberto I'm really excited for.  He loves reading and he wants to read the Book of Mormon.  We taught the restoration through Joseph Smith and he said right after we finished teaching the lesson that he knows it's true because of the Spirit he can feel.  Then the other guy - Gil he wants to go to church really badly.  He mostly wants to be good with God so he contacted missionaries and made us food and everything.  Really good guys.  I'm really excited for the work this week.  Roberto has a baptismal date for mothers day and Diego a guys we found last week has one for the week after mothers day.  We'll see what happens. :)

 

Something that President Tew told everyone in stake conference here a couple months ago is that every family should come up with their own mission plan for the week and write it on like a note pad or a piece of paper then do it that week.  Then the next week throw it away and make another.  Maybe you could try that?  It seems like a good idea to me. :)  Just ideas for you guys to get into the missionary stuff like you want to.

 

Do you have any nutrition ideas actually?  Because lately I've been probably gaining more weight than is healthy.  I run hard in the morning but I don't have very much other excercise than that.  And eating badly is showing itself. 

 

Well we don't have very much room in the basement.  It's really nice just really small.  We sleep in the same room we study and eat and do everything else.  And we have a bathroom which is good but yeah. 

 

I do miss Long Beach still but I'm actually really starting to love Whittier too. :)  I like being with Elder Creasey too and I feel like we can help push each other a lot to become the best missionaries we can be. 

Ok well I guess that's it for this week!  I love you!  Hang in there and have fun with Matthew's birthday and stuff!  

Bye!