01/26/2011

Yeah the weeks are just flying by. It’s crazy! Haha! This crazy like program thing we are doing just makes it faster I get super tired but its good! I like it.

Sounds like things are going good back home just super cold haha! I would like a little bit of that every once and a while when I think of a week of 40s I’m just like shocked and don’t even know what that’s like anymore haha.

OFF to Spain that’s going to be pretty exciting! I heard it’s really really great there! That will be fun for dad too cuz they speak a Spanish that is really weird they speak with vosotros and its all funny sounding.

Sounds like Andrea is really enjoying herself haha kinda crazy doing it double whammy (potty training the twins) haha thats funny I bet they are just really having fun =)

o yeah so before I forget - I have some stuff for you to do for me. So for fall semester at school I need to get my housing like right now so I was talking to my buddy, Elder Adam Zenger, and we are planning on living together. We are going to go to Summerset. He got his mom to do it a while ago like 3 weeks and I just kept forgetting to ask but yeah so if you could start trying to figure that out for me. We want to live in the same apartment and also if you could send Nate an email we want him to live there too so yeah if you could figure that out that would be AWESOME =)

I’ve been doing a bit better about pictures. I was going to send you some today but I forgot my cord so hopefully I remember next p-day. But yeah that’s awesome you have some. I didn’t know I sent a CD WAHOOOO but yeah I think we will be able to get some other ones too but at least we have some =) but I’ll send you more soon I promise! Haha! But yeah that picture’s pretty cool (a picture of all the missionaries in his mission) if you would have asked me like 8 months ago if I knew them all I probably would have been able to say quite a bit but now I’m getting older and more and more are coming in and I’m not sure I know a lot of them! There are quite a bit and you really never see them unless they are in your zone so yeah kinda funny!

But yeah things are going great here we moved the program we are doing now to another city so that’s going to be fun to start working there two days out of the week and here in our area we have plenty of work and good stuff going on. The investigators we are working with are progressing well so that’s fun and things are just going swell WAHOOOOO

love ya
elder ward

(A letter to Andrea)

haha yeah we have to get up way early a whole lot its nuts! But I guess that’s how it is! haha but yeah we have some baptisms planned right there close to her birthday (Kennady’s birthday is February 13) and they are awesome so we are way excited =)

The special program will be way awesome I think! The reason I like it is because I won’t have to worry about anything else I’ll have an awesome companion and I’ll just be allowed to work work work all day long way hard and just not have any leadership responsibilities. It will be AWESOME but no i don’t feel too special! Haha! President just loves our group and we are a big group so that’s probably why he’s doing it. I’m pretty sure he just looks at it like a one months worth of work bonus hahaha!

That’s crazy how fast the boys are growing up when I see them they will probably be little chatter boxes haha CRAZY!

But no I’m not really trunky if I was I wouldn’t be extending hahahaha but I know what he means you look at things like football, hunting, watching a good movie, dating girls and you think wow those are all good activities nothing wrong with them but as a missionary they are all against the rules! Hahahaha! So yeah it will be fun to do all that again but it can wait haha I LOVE MY MISSION! and it only lasts for 2 years =)

love ya
elder ward

01/19/2011

HOLA

Yeah it’s pretty crazy that time goes by so fast! I still feel like the young missionary but everyone in my zone is younger than me! Haha! Except one missionary - he goes home in 6 weeks.

Things are going great here we are still teaching that great family that came to church they are awesome and they have a baptismal date for the 12th of February so that’s exciting.

That’s crazy that everyone is after Coach Peterson haha! I hope he stays for a while too! I wonder if it’s going to affect them too much by having a new offensive coordinator.

so so about the whole picture thing I’ve got to get better we are just so busy that I haven’t really taken any. They all got stolen and it took away my drive even more to take pictures! Hahaha! But yeah I’ve taken a bit and I’ll take some more and see if I can send ya some. You have saved all the pictures that I have sent you right? Cuz a bunch of them are like my best ones so I hope you did :) o and in that picture I’m wearing a red tie with white circles on it I’m on the very far right side just past the middle to the top haha I don’t wear pink ties! Sister Alvarado doesn’t like them hahahaha :)

Yeah that would be really cool to go to Spain. I heard it’s pretty awesome there - Elder Dennis went to Europe and went to a lot of countries and said that Spain was his favorite so I bet its cool. A good buddy of mine went home today! He’s from Spain, maybe you’ll see him hahahaha

but yeah things are going good sounds like you guys are doing great

love ya
elder ward

01/12/2011

Hola Familia!

Well sounds like everything is going great back home and a lot of good missionary work. That’s awesome about Drew Guyer. I don’t know him but that’s so cool he’s going on a mission. Sounds like the missionaries in Mtn. Home are pretty good ones. And it’s so true if your not getting rejected that means your not inviting anyone to do what they need to do and that’s the whole purpose of being a missionary haha I think there are a lot of missionaries that are afraid of getting rejected so they aren’t bold.

This week we had a great week we had some awesome things happen. This Sunday we saw a way cool miracle! A lady that we had been teaching with her brother and mom well she finally came to church but the coolest thing is that she came with her husband and her daughter so I saw them and ran out and brought them into sacrament meeting. Then we went to classes and things and after principios del Evangelio class. I was talking to the husband and he said he wasn’t going to come in and stuff but he was really loving it and then I turned and was talking to some other people and some members were talking to him and then he all of a sudden turned around and walked away. I was so scared I thought they made him mad about something haha but then I realized he was crying and then he came back in and started talking to me in Priesthood about a bunch of stuff. It was great … I shared a couple scriptures to help him with his questions and now he’s all excited to listen and come to church with the WHOLE family! So that was AWESOME!

We are also doing some crazy program. I think I told you but my companion and I work in another area on Monday and Tuesday. We had some funny experiences … the Elder I was working with is brand new and doesn’t know Spanish so that was fun. We found this crazy lady and I thought it was one of their investigators we were going to and so she invites us in and we sit down on like this little cement wall and she all of a sudden sits down on the floor (we were waiting for her son to get back) but I turn to my comp and ask him who she was and he’s like I have no clue. So that’s when I realized we were in for a treat haha! Come to find out she is a less active member from about 30 years ago and she had been super offended and so she starts talking to us about all sorts of crazy stuff and she was all like a philosophical speaker and just way crazy (o yeah I forgot to tell you she was wearing like this crazy little turban thing) but anyways so she’s all crazy and then we sing a song, say a prayer and try to get the spirit there. She goes crazy philosophical again and then I start bearing my testimony about the church and then she reaches up and grabs here turban thing and she’s looking at me and I was like "oh no here it comes don’t give her anything, don’t act astonished or impressed" and then she all dramatic like rips her turban off and she didn’t have any hair it was all shaved off but I didn’t bat an eye. I finished my testimony and so that was funny and she looked a little shut down so she puts her turban back on and we tell her we have to go and I stand up and before I know it my comp has got the gate open and half way out haha! It was pretty funny and so I said bye to her and we left it was a pretty fun little experience though! Haha! (just another little mission story for ya guys)

But yeah we are doing way good working way hard and the time is just going by so fast because we are so busy. Tomorrow I have to do a training thing with the whole zone all by myself because all the district leaders and my comp are going to a meeting with pres. and he wants me to do this thing with the zone! So that’s going to be fun but yeah it’s crazy!

o yeah so my going home date is June 18 for sure now. I just figured out so I don’t even get a month over the two years haha - but yeah it will be fun I’m excited for my last 9 weeks it will be exciting with the crazy new program President wants us to do.

But anyways I think this email is pretty dang long. I better get going but love you guys and I’ll talk to you later!

Don’t have too many more snowmobiling accidents.

Elder Ward

01/05/2011 - Happy New Year!!

Well sounds like things are going pretty good. Our New Years was pretty good we didn’t go in early. President decided things weren’t too bad so we just stayed out and worked all day it was great. One of the recent converts that just got baptized gave us a bunch of food too. He’s so cool, he cracks me up. He lives right next to the ocean and a swampy lagoon so he’s going to take me hunting alligators haha! We decided that I better wait till I come back to visit him though :) it probably wouldn’t be the best missionary activity!

I can’t believe its been so cold that’s crazy. I’m a goner for sure when I get back I seriously get really really cold when it’s like 70 degrees. This is not good haha.

I got Granny's and Ruby's package. It was great! Had a bunch of good stuff in it. I haven’t got to use all my toys yet but here soon I will! Haha! But yeah you can just leave it at home waiting for me. (His candy bar with Money in it from Grandma and Grandpa.)

So about the extension … I figured a bit more out. We had zone council and interviews with president so we were all talking to him about it because out of my group there are 4 of us that are zone leaders and two that are APs so yeah we were all there and they told me it was my job to get Elder Burton to extend. We got it all figured out and asked a lot of questions to president and he said he is allowed to extend for 30 days no matter what. It’s his choice - any longer would have to get approved from the First Presidency. He also told us that he’s only going to let us extend if our whole group does it so that we can do the little thing he has planned. There are 13 missionaries in my group and what he said is that our last 10 weeks so 1 transfer and the extension we would be working in two wards all together and we wouldn’t be leaders or anything just focused on those wards and working really hard and trying to make it grow supper fast so yeah that’s the plan I hope it all goes through :)

So yeah that’s so crazy that there is so many in the family now. Was everyone there? What games did you play this year? Any hand and foot? I would love to have like one whole night to just play cards, eat food and frappe and not have to worry about getting up early the next day! haha that seems so weird to me :)

Kori’s getting married? That’s so crazy! That’s cool he was an EFY councilor - I was thinking about doing that or better I think would be OYA but yeah sounds like it works out pretty good ;) hahaha I wonder if you make pretty good money doing it … you’ll have to ask him for me. Maybe he will be engaged for 6 months and I’ll make it back in time haha That’d be cool!

Well I hope you enjoyed your vacation have fun working again!

Love Ya!

Elder Ward

December 2010 Pictures

The Puerto Rico Missionaries singing Christmas Carols in the San Juan Museum of Art!

Missionaries singing Christmas Carols at the Mall!