04/27/2011 - Grocery Shopping for 14 Missionaries!

HOLA!

Yeah Easter was good. We had this big old Easter mission get together it was pretty fun it was a lua (I don’t know how the heck to spell that but one of those Hawaiian party things :)) but yeah so we had a big old pig and we played sports and just had some fun. It was on Saturday but yeah pretty exciting.

So about taking pictures … I’m pretty sure that my camera got stolen at the party so I officially have one chip of pictures for my whole mission :( kinda sad but yeah we are hoping that it will show up though :) and don’t worry I have all the pictures my comps take :)

yeah so we are still running around like crazy but its cool. I got to go back to Cabo Rojo and that was AWESOME. It was great cuz I visited all the people I used to teach and got them all excited again so it was really really good for the missionaries there. I had a lot of fun :) We go to a laundry mat but I haven’t gone yet so I don’t really know how it is they always want me to go get the food so I always go with the guy that has the Costco card and Elder Zenger who’s going to live with me at school. We all just take out cash before we go and they give it all to me and we buy it. We usually spend about 300 dollars every week A LOT OF FOOD! 14 missionaries can sure eat but we do it very economically :)

We don’t really ever go to the mission home anymore but the mission office is like right next door and so we have a ton of meetings there all the time with president and stuff so that’s fun. We are like presidents guinea pigs and so he tries all this crazy stuff on us and then we come back and talk about it and evaluate and go at it again. The stuff we are doing is very crazy and pretty difficult just because it’s a completely different type of work than I have ever done my whole mission but it’s fun :) and I’m learning a ton!

but yeah sounds like everyone is doing good. Don’t have too much fun with all your Easter peacocks haha!

Love ya

Elder Ward

04/20/2011 - Letter from Kennady!

04/20/2011

Dear Matthew,

I hope you visit us and I hope you come back. Which you will. I get 3 weeks off of school. We walked to burger king for lunch yesterday and I got a hershey pie, chicken nuggets, and french fries. I painted my own toe nails. They are light pink and dark pink. Can I paint your toe nails when you get home?

Love you.

Love from,
Kennady

Matthew’s response to Kennady …

OOOO NOOO there aint going to be any paint touchin these toe nails hahaha but don’t worry I’ll be home in about a year or so ;) I lost track how long I got left :)

Love ya

Elder Ward

04/20/2011

HOLA

Yeah I don’t really care when I talk I’m good with everything but if I do it the Sunday I get home just let me know what my topic is and you’ll have to let everyone know its my homecoming so yeah idk which is better. I’m ok with whatever Bishop wants! Tell him he can decide!

That’s cool Eric wants to do a lawn mowing business. It’s a great idea. I’ve thought about doing it a lot but yeah you just have to have a nice rider. I know a lot of people that have done it and made thousands of dollars - way good money during the summer you just have to find the right people and make sure you get a good price :). Tell him to go and hand out flyers and talk to everyone and put it in the newspaper and all that good stuff and I bet he would get some good customers :).

The new program is going good. It’s a little crazy but I like it. I just got back from Salinas last night. I was over there for two days working with some other Elders so that was fun. I was with Elder Foggin from Magrath - he said his dad went to Magrath High but he would have been like 3 years older than you. It was way fun to talk about Canada with him though.

But yeah all the Elders in our group are way good friends and we love it. On p-day we all split up and half go wash clothes and 1/4 clean and another 1/4 buy food. We go to Costco and its hilarious buying food for 14 missionaries. It’s a lot of fun.

Things are going great and we are having fun it sounds like everyone is doing good back home

Love ya

Elder Ward

04/13/2011 - Last TRANSFER!! (A 10 Week Special Assignment)

New Companion: Elder Radmall from Oregon
New area: San Juan
Living in a house with 14 missionaries!!

WOW! You’re scaring me with all that travel itinerary talk. I still got a lot of time left :)

So yeah we had some crazy all day meetings about the stuff we are doing in the mission and in our project and I am very excited. We are going to be working in San Juan my companion is Elder Radmall but a different one than the first one I was comps with and he is from Oregon. Way cool kid!

We will all be in the same Ward all 14 of us in the same house as well. We will also go and work with other missionaries on Monday and Tuesday of every week and then in our own area the rest of the time so that should be pretty cool. I’ll get to see most of the whole island and then we are going to take two trips to the islands for 3 days each trip. I’m WAY! excited we are going to be working a TON and having a TON of fun - I LOVE IT!

But yeah thanks so much for getting all that school stuff done. Jason told me that too - kinda crazy. It will be way fun to have him up there with me though – I’m pretty excited. I guess one of his buddies from the mission is going to be going there too. I can’t believe how fast time is going. I’m really getting scared.

I don’t have much time today. I already took a trip around the islands dropping off bikes and yeah we are so busy it’s crazy!

Oh and I did that with my eyes - I waited a long time (like 2 months) and then I got new contacts and it didn’t work :( so I guess I’ll just wait till I get home.

but yeah got to go

LOVE YA and I’ll talk to you next week
Matthew

Travel Itinerary!

Matthew will be home on June 18, 2011. He will arrive at the Boise Airport at 9:27 p.m.

04/06/2011

WOW!! Sounds like a fun trip I’m glad you got to see a lot and enjoyed yourselves. But don’t worry we can all take a relaxing vacation down to Puerto Rico all together when everyone’s home. I think it would be way fun to do for Christmas. (I was at the O'Dell family's house yesterday and they can’t wait for us to come down and stay there).

Conference was GREAT! I liked it a lot they talked a ton about families it was so awesome. We finally got a family to come to church and they came to the last session and just loved it they are a great family of 5 and all the family talks just hit them good :). You’ll have to watch the priesthood session on the internet it was really good. President Monson told all the returned missionaries to go to the temple and get married don’t wait hahahaha. I told Elder Dennis my new goal is to get married before he gets back from his mission hahahaha. But yeah really the talks were all very very good I loved the talk about “To be and To do” that was awesome and yeah they just were all really great I can’t wait till they come out in the church magazines so I can study them good. :). Elder Dennis told me I should ask Bishop if I can talk on conference and then I could just choose President Monson’s talk and tell all the single girls "look I’m not just saying it it’s the prophet. Do you want to follow the prophet?" hahaha but yeah I’ll be leaving Puerto Rico on June 18th. I guess they’ll have to check to make sure that’s possible but yeah I’m pretty sure that’s 100% but don’t worry they’ll call you with all the info and with my flight schedule and all that stuff. So yeah I’ll be in church there on Sunday the 19th but I’m guessing I won’t be talking on that Sunday - but who knows! haha.

Wow that’s crazy about Bishop Sessions! I hope he’s doing alright.

I still talk to Jason every week except the week that he was at the hospital so yeah it sounds like he’s doing good :)

But yeah thanks for everything I’ll talk to ya next week

love ya

elder ward
ps so yeah the project thing starts next week it’s still not all figured out yet and I’m pretty sure we aren’t supposed to know anything yet but I do know that we will all be living in the same house (the 14 people in my group maybe 16) and the house is way nice it’s a member that lives here that has a ton of money so it’s one of the other houses he owns and it has AC in every room WAHOOO!!! So that means we will be working in the San Juan area but I still don’t know all the details :)