02/22/2010 (Ponce, PR)

02/22/2010

HOLA!

you really didn't get my old email again? that's so weird but yeah things are going good! sounds like thinks are going pretty good back home that's so cool about Brandt that should be a way awesome mission he should really enjoy that. also that's cool that Jason taught Brian kinda crazy but i didn't get an email from him this week did you? so when you get emails from him forward them to me too just in case i don't get one k.

o and yeah they changed all our emails cuz the church got a new email service thing but it said that if you send it to the old address it doesn't matter and still gets to me so i didn't worry about it. this is my new address mattheww@myldsmail.net

wow that's pretty crazy about Frank but at least he's serving his mission just on the other side of the vail :)... we always kinda joke about that as missionaries cuz if you die as a missionary you just wake up and the only thing that really changes is they give you a new companion haha

so that's really crazy about Brad as well! i hope everything goes good. I'm sure he'll be fine. i saw him get a big old chunk of sagebrush pulled out of his leg with a pair of pliers so i know he's a tough old bird :) (you can tell him i told him he was tough just don't let him know i called him old :) ) i got the package they sent me in the mail this week and I'm pretty excited about it haha me and my comp. are going to have a little beef party :)

that story about Mallory's mission was pretty cool and so true I've had a couple cool experiences like that on my mission although we don't baptize a whole lot over here in Puerto Rico you definitely see the blessings when you sacrifice. its like the story in the scriptures about the lady that throws in 2 pieces of gold for her tithing and everyone else threw in like 1,000 pieces and her tithing was the best because she threw in all that she had where the others just threw in the abundance. i always think about that as a missionary because you could be working a thousand times harder than everyone else but you still need to look for and find the way to work harder, it doesn't matter how much more or less you do compared to everyone else what matters is that you personally are constantly looking for how you can work hard or you can do better.

so something kinda funny about this week so in our mission we have these standards that are called the foundation which is 140 contacts 12 hours of tocing doors and 20 lessons and you are supposed to get that every week. well me and Elder Wilson since we have been together we have got it and we are really working hard and doing great but this other day we went to a members house to eat and they bought this cheesecake from Sam's Club and it was AMAZING! It was a real cheesecake -- i couldn't believe it! they make cheesecake here but its like a flan but this one was the real deal straight from the states and it was amazing so we asked her where we could buy us a cheesecake like that and she was like I'm going to Sam's tomorrow just give me the money and i'll pick you one up so we got this cheesecake that contains 12 slices. so when we saw that, we said WOW its perfect there is 6 weeks in a transfer so that means one slice each week for a whole transfer. so we put it the freezer and now every Sunday if we get our foundation we take out our cheesecake and we each get a slice. we had our first piece last night and boy was it good ill tell you what that's motivation enough for me to work hard :)

but anyways yeah i got the package i wrote about it last time i think but yeah thank you very very much and i got the letters and the card this week too so yeah thank you! and for my birthday I'm doing really good so yeah just the cookies would be good for me and yeah all my clothes are doing great and holding up wonderfully :)

love you guys
Elder Ward

02/16/2010 (Staying in Ponce) 5th Transfer

Companion: Elder Cody Wilson from Ogden Utah
Area: Ponce

Address directly to Matt's apartment:
Elder Matthew Ward
Calle 3 Casa # C-21 Altos
Jardines de Fagot
Ponce, PR 00716-4017
Puerto Rico

February 16, 2010

WHAT? Are you kidding me? I sent a whole huge email explaining the whole mission switch and all our investigators and all that good stuff. I can’t believe you didn’t get it that’s such a bummer dang o well I guess but yeah I’ll just fill ya in on some more stuff.

Transfers are tomorrow but I’m staying WAHOO! We have one baptismal date but he’s kinda falling away so we are trying to bring him back a little! Then we have a couple families that we are teaching and they are really cool but my hope is to get them going to church this transfer and get them all baptized. I’m really excited about this transfer -- we are teaching some cool people!

About the whole mission thing what happened is they are combining the PRSJW mission with the PRSJE mission when the Presidents leave in July. So it will be one whole mission and be called the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission. That will be cool except we will lose the islands - so it doesn’t look like I will be going down there! But we will also add on all the islands on the east side of Puerto Rico not all of them but a lot of them so that will be pretty cool except in those islands all they speak is English. So that’s what’s going on with that -- I’ll serve 11 months in the Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission and 11 months in the Puerto Rico San Juan Mission. It’s kinda cool I hit it exactly on the even split because the other two months were in the mtc!

but yeah that’s about all that’s new no one in my district is leaving this transfer so that’s good as well but yeah that’s about all I can think of sorry I haven’t taken any pictures for a while so yeah I’ll get on that and send you a few k

well talk to you guys next week

elder ward

02/08/2010 (Ponce, PR)

An email to Eric and Dad!!

02/08/2010

Eric:
yeah it sounds like the super bowl was pretty good. I didn’t really ever hear anything about it haha but that’s crazy that wrestling is about over. You get to go to districts right? You better be ready to roll! I want you to write me at the end of February and tell me all about how you won state ok! but yeah that’s cool I remember the best of efy it was a good thing to listen to but yeah keep up the good work and you better get helping dad on the little house so that I can have a cabin to come home to ok
love ya
elder ward


hey pops
yeah that will be awesome if you could get all that done by the time the snow melts in the mountains and then you and Brad could go up and work on the cabin on the weekends and get it knocked out pretty quick and then the first summer that it is completely done I’ll be home to try it out haha :) can you believe that? kinda crazy huh? This summer will be my last summer in the mission WOW! but yeah me and my companion are doing way good! yesterday we had 4 people at church and we are teaching 4 families that are way awesome and we have a baptismal date set with one kid but I think the whole family will get baptized. We are seeing so much success its so great but we’ll see if I stay here another transfer and get to see them all get baptized :)
love ya elder ward

02/01/2010 (Ponce, PR)

02/01/2010

HEY MOM

sounds like everything is going good back at home. It’s so awesome that me and Jason both are finally out at the same time. Its great I’m really excited I can’t wait for him to get out in the real deal. Its pretty crazy that he has already been in the mtc a whole month the time on the mission just gets faster and faster. its pretty crazy I’m scared though I need to find a slow motion switch but the problem is the longer time goes on and the harder you work the faster it just goes. Pretty crazy but yeah anyways things are going really great here. me and my comp have been working pretty hard and its awesome I came into this area and the ward was kinda down we didn’t have any investigatores and things were just kinda rough but now its going great. We were working so hard to get things back up and get the members excited and i thought it would never happen but it sure is now. It’s so great! We went to church yesterday and we gave our mission leader our progress record and he just kept calling us los caballos or los monstruos it was pretty funny and then he talked in sacrament meeting and just got the people really excited about the work. It really was great and I’m way excited. We have a family of 4 -- 3 of which are baptism age and they are amazing. The kids really really want to get baptized and the mom is excited too but she wants to learn more about the church so we are teaching them and yeah it’s just awesome. They are a reference from our mission leader’s son who is 12 and it’s just great. the first time we taught them was after they went to church and they just kept asking their mom if they could be baptized and the moms fine with it but we just explained to her that baptism is a big thing and that we would like to teach them all and then they can all get baptized as a family! it was AWESOME! so I’m way excited to teach them this week. Then we have a German lady that is just loving the Book of Mormon and she is just progressing really well and I’m excited about her but yeah really everything is just going great and I’m really EXCITED!! All the hard work is starting to pay off a little and IM LOVING IT! but yeah life’s great the mission is the best!

love you guys

elder ward

ps I don’t really need anything for my birthday I’m pretty much set but you can send me a box of homemade chocolate chip cookies those really good ones you used to always make and id be a happy camper :)