Elder Matthew Ward

HOMECOMING!!!

2011-06-16T09:49:00.004-06:00

Elder Matthew Ward arrives in Boise on Saturday, June 18th at 9 p.m. WOOHOO! We are very excited to see him! Please join us in welcoming him home! He will be speaking in church, Sunday, June 19th at 11 a.m. in the Mountain Home 4th Ward. We will then have a luncheon at Brad & Kelli Christiansen's home - following church! (A BIG Thank You to our good friends, Brad & Kelli for opening their home to us!)

We are grateful for all our friends and family and are thankful for the love and support they have given to Matthew (and continue to give to Jason). We are very blessed to have such great friends and family!

We are soooo proud of Matthew and the service he has given as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Hope you can join us on Saturday and/or Sunday!

Possibly last Email from Puerto Rico! 06/15/2011

2011-06-15T09:47:00.000-06:00

Hey mom things are pretty crazy! Thanks for the email I'm at a pizza place with Pres and the others. It's great but I will have to write you on Friday I think.
Love ya,
Elder Ward

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

2011-04-27T21:14:00.000-06:00

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!

2011-04-20T21:39:00.000-06:00

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

2011-04-20T21:34:00.000-06:00

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)

2011-04-13T22:04:00.002-06:00

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!

2011-04-12T22:06:00.001-06:00

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

04/06/2011

2011-04-06T22:10:00.000-06:00

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 :)

03/30/2011

2011-03-30T22:11:00.000-06:00

haha wow! It sounds like you guys are having funny and running around all over the place. You’re going to have to keep Eric on a leash. He turns 16 and he thinks he can just buy swords and go dancing with the Flamenco Dancers huh?

That’s awesome that you’re taking a lot of pictures. I really should get better about that but yeah. I think I told you that transfers were on the 6th but they’re not they are on the 13th so yeah I got a little mixed up. But yeah so transfers are on the 13th and then starts my nine week program. Today I have to turn in all my flight home info :(

That’s cool that there were so many Mormons on the trip. How many kids were there? and how many adults? Yeah I really want to hear Kennady talking like a Brit haha.

WOW! I completely forgot that I will be calling home in like a month haha that’s weird. That will be a weird Phone Call. It’s a good thing I extended my mission. :)

Things are going good - we are working hard and having fun. We have found some really cool families. One is an Adventist family that are really strong in their church but they are listening and studying and learning and progressing well. Another family is the granddaughter of one of the members and she and her daughters are going to church and they went to a baptism the other day and they are doing really well as well. I think in the next little while there is going to be a lot of success in the ward and that is exciting :)

Things are going great and I’ll talk to you soon
Love ya

Elder Ward

PS So I was going to ask you to talk to Bishop Price because for like the last 4-5 months I haven’t been able to wear my contacts because I put them in and my right one hurts my eye like crazy and if I leave it in my eye just produces a ton of eye boogers and all sorts of junk. The other day I opened a new pack and tried them out again because I hadn’t tried for like 2 months and I wore them like the whole day but it kept bugging my right eye and then I took them out to go to bed and when I woke up my eye was like sealed shut with eye boogers it was crazy. So yeah I’m not really sure what’s wrong but if you could ask him about that or what I should do that would be great. But if we can’t figure anything out I’ll just wear my glasses till I get home J

03/23/2011

2011-03-23T22:13:00.000-06:00

Hola!

My birthday was pretty good - we had to do a lot of running around that day but it was good we had a meeting at the Stake Presidents house and his wife made us some homemade pizza so that was awesome. I’m not going to lie I forgot it was my birthday until about half way through the day haha.

Well it sounds like you had a fun little time in London running around all over the place. That’s funny they went to an antique shop. I’m pretty sure Bill nailed it right on the head haha. I can’t believe it’s already been a week to tell ya the truth. Time just goes way way way too fast now and I don’t know what the deal is. We are already 4 weeks into the transfer. Transfers are on the 6th and then that starts my last transfer so that’s when I’ll be with my whole group. I can’t wait to see what they have planned cuz they still won’t tell us all of it. Haha! but it will be fun I’m sure of it haha.

That’s so awesome that Adam is coming home on the 22nd that means I’ll barely beat him back home. haha You can tell Nathan that I told him good choice haha he needs the full 2 years ya can’t just cut it short!

So it sounds like the whole Howard crew is doing good. Do we know when for sure they are going to be moving to Texas? It will be nice having them there - maybe me and dad might have to try another little Texas trophy hunt just this time pick a better spot haha.

Everything here is going really well. We had a cool little learning experience on Sunday. Sometimes ya think when you’ve been on the mission for over a year and a half you have it pretty well figured out. So for weeks we have been just running around like crazy trying to get all our extra responsibilities done and also keep everything going in our area and complete with all the things president has asked us to do and we were just going crazy. So Sunday I got a bit frustrated haha (yes missionaries can get frustrated :)) so I said ya know that’s it we are going to do it right we are going to be diligent and plan everything out and not “run faster than we have strength” and so we started that this week are exercising a little more faith and it’s amazing. We are getting way more things done and its just going smooth and successful. (too bad I’m just now really learning that lesson huh?) It’s a dang good thing I added that extra little month on the end :) So yeah things really are going great we are working hard and just loving it.

love ya

elder ward

ps have fun in spain thats going to be a blast :)

03/16/2011

2011-03-16T22:14:00.000-06:00

HOLA!

Yeah I got the package last night. I was in the office and it was there so THANK YOU!! Me and Elder Dennis are dieting! Haha! so we’ll have to share the treats with everyone. It’s so funny because when I was with Elder Dennis the first time he told me he was going to diet and lose weight and so him being my companion and all I decided to help and do it too and we did good for a while and then he broke and it went down hill from there hahaha! but the other day at the beginning of this transfer he told me again it was so funny “he’s like you got to help me Elder Ward” so I told him no messing around this time so I’m officially Elder Dennis' personal trainer hahahaha even all the Ward members know we are dieting and they don’t even try to give us pop anymore (that’s a blessing) :). But yeah thank you very much I ate one of those taffys today and it was pretty dang good.

So yeah we heard all about all that Japan stuff and I heard they got some nuclear power plant problems and if it keeps getting worse it will effect the Western United States so yeah we don’t get to much news but i talked to a couple people in the street about it.

What else is new? O yeah the coolest thing every that family that just got baptized we got it all figured out how to get them to the temple this week so that they can do baptisms for the dead it was AWESOME! They left yesterday and are going to be in Florida for a month so we got them all set up and got there recommends and everything I’m SO excited for them :) we told them they have to wear a skirt and white shirt and a tie so we got that under control I had a white shirt that someone gave me so I gave it to him with a tie haha.

So this week we had a really cool experience and found two new families. so we are really excited about that. They both seem very interested and one even has some family that are members.

but yeah thanks again for the package I hope you enjoy your trip you’ll have to send me some pictures and let me know all about it. You guys are going to have a blast.

Love ya

elder ward

03/09/2011 - Letter to Dad!

2011-03-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

Dad,

That’s cool Brad got his truck. I bet he’s just way excited.

So does the cabin have everything finished then? or is there still a little bit more to do? Did you ever decide to do a porch? I can’t wait to stay in it and the ones up at the farm. I told Elder Burton that me and him are going to go to the cabin up in Rocky Bar and spend a few days on the lake this summer haha so you better have all that all ready to roll :)

How much do those Rangers cost? but yeah I heard they are pretty fun. I can’t remember which one it is but I think it’s the Yamaha that makes a really nice one too. I was talking to Elder Dennis about it him and his family are way into all that stuff. He’s the one whose grandpa was your teacher at Ricks but yeah they build all sorts or sandrails and do all that stuff. His dad’s way way way good at all that stuff so I told him we might have to go to town on the Willys after the mission haha!

Jason was talking to me about hunts. I have no idea when they are so you’ll have to just put in for me this year and see if I get an extra little blessing on top for serving a mission! Hahaha!!

Love ya

Elder Ward

03/09/2011 - A New Treat ... PIGS FEET!

2011-03-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

HOLA!!!

You can tell Eric I’m going to have to whip him that phrase is bad haha it means something else so don’t make that mistake in Spain or you might get in trouble! :) The correct way to say it is. Como Estas? Tu tienes calor? You can’t say that someone is "Calient" (hot) you have to say "do you have heat" Tu (you) tienes (have) calor (heat) but don’t worry you’ll get it hahaha :)

That’s so crazy that it’s still snowing a bit. I really don’t know what I’m going to do because I think my body is ruined and I’m like thin blooded now or something because I don’t really get hot anymore and I freeze when it’s 70 degrees. I hope I’m not ruined for life. Haha!

That’s cool she bore her testimony and even cooler that she is going to the temple. Our recent converts are going to Florida on the 15th so they are going to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. I told them in a year that I’d go to the temple with them so we might be taking a little trip hahaha. They are way excited!

That’s so awesome so many missionaries are going out. I can’t remember who said it - I would have to look it up but someone promised that the more missionaries that a Ward has out the more that Ward is blessed. So the Ward should be seeing some good blessings by the time I get back right! :)

Well everything is going good here. Yesterday I was on a trade off with Elder Zenger (the one that’s going to live with me at school) it was pretty fun. I made him have to sing a solo at our recent converts house haha it was awesome. (two weeks ago I got Elder Dennis twice and now Elder Zenger I’m on a roll :) neither of them were very happy hahaha) but yeah I also got back on a bike for a couple hours yesterday and that was fun it had been a while but President wants us on a bike at least once a day so we are trying it out. I like it - it makes me feel like a real missionary haha.

What else... o yeah so the other day we had this big family night and then we ate after and they gave me a big old heaping plate of rice, beans and pigs feet. That was a treat! haha I don’t think there is any meat on those things just a bunch of bones and you just have to suck and slurp the fat off around the bone. Pretty crazy experience it was a first for me and Elder Taylor. We just looked at it, looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and then went to town on them hahaha!!!

But yeah we are going to have a big family night tonight with our recent converts and the mom’s sister and her family so that should be way fun we are excited!

WAHOOOO!!!

Love ya,

Elder Ward

03/02/2011 - Transfers! Zone Leader again!

2011-03-02T17:11:00.002-07:00

Companions: Elder Dennis and Elder Taylor

HOLA

Well things are going great here in Puerto Rico I LOVE IT!

This week was a great week we had our zone council which is always good so that was fun and there is a lot of crazy changes going on. One thing I’m back with Elder Dennis again but we are in a threesome with my same companion. So me, Elder Dennis, and Elder Taylor and we are all zone leaders. It’s Elder Dennis' first time as zone leader so we will all be working together but at the same time me and Elder Taylor will be working with every elder in the zone so that’s going to be pretty crazy. The first three weeks Elder Taylor will be traveling all around the zone and then the next three weeks I’ll leave and do it. It will be fun but will probably give me a bad back – haha - an air mattress for like 6 weeks! Haha! This will also be my last transfer as zone leader :) then I just get sent to San Juan area where I get to just work hard for my last 9 weeks and enjoy being a hard working missionary! WAHOOO!!! So yeah I’m excited about all that!

The week also ended super good cuz yesterday we got to go out and work with all the new Greenie missionaries that got in yesterday. So all last night me, Elder Taylor, the APs and some other Zone Leaders each took out a new missionary and it was so fun! I was way excited it reminded me of my very first day as a missionary and we just worked like crazy! We placed 3 Book of Mormons and taught a family - it was way fun. Oh and I forgot to tell you a new missionary will be coming in next transfer from Magrath Canada cool huh? (That is the town I grew up in (Karen).)

Yeah I don’t really know what to do about the whole byu-i thing. There isn’t really much I can do. But they love missionaries so I think I’ll be ok! Haha!

I got 4 out of 6 of the DVDs you sent. Yeah you got the right ones - its just everyone wants them cuz they have that new movie so they are on back order so we might have to wait a while. But yeah really I can’t think of anything for my birthday so don’t worry about it I’ve got too much junk I don’t know what I’m going to do with at the end of my mission.

That’s cool you talked to Charles. It will be fun to see him when I get back. We’ll go hunting or camping or something and then I’ll make him go to church for my homecoming talk or something cool hahaha

That’s awesome Brad got his truck finally. Is it brand new? and is it diesel?

So does Eric work at the car wash everyday? and do you still have the hispanic guy working there? What’s the ranger doing? Does anyone drive it? Do we still have it?

So where are the Jensen's from? That’s cool their boys must be about my age when do they get back? and where are they serving?

Yeah the valentine made it thank you :)

Little kids are awesome! He made a good choice of scripture haha. There’s a little 9 year old boy that we teach him and his family and he cracks me up. Last time we were at his house he was outside on the porch burning leaves with a magnifying glass and I told Elder Taylor to put his hand in the light and see how hot it was and he was just messing around and he’s like ouch! and pulls his hand away! But yeah the kid loves us and they all think I’m like the mastermind and Elder Taylor is my Hench man haha so he tells his mom that I told Elder Taylor to do it and he burnt his hand. It was pretty funny! We are always joking around with them and for some reason they think I’m a prankster and Elder Taylor just carries out what I tell him to. It’s way funny!

But yeah life is going great and we are having fun!

Love ya,

Elder Ward

02/23/2011

2011-02-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

HOLA!!!

Yeah isn’t it crazy how fast time flies? It’s scary! and Jason is an old geezer now.

Well I don’t have that much time today but before I forget I need you to do something that I didn’t know about so you have to resubmit my application to BYU-I so what I need ya to do is get online on the Besmart website and do that for me. My sign in name is __________ and my password is _________ so yeah if you could get on and do that and then I’ll make sure President does my endorsement but if you could do that this week at least that would be awesome it shouldn’t take too long cuz its all pretty much filled in you just have to read it really quick and update some things.

Zone Council was really great. I enjoyed it. Right now we have a TON of senior couples but most of them are usually doing the work on the islands in our mission. We don’t have any young missionaries on the islands anymore but yeah Elder and Sister Button are great. I just talked to them yesterday haha.

But anyways the Rodriguez family did get baptized and they are great. We got a little scared because we had the baptism scheduled for Saturday night and they didn’t show up and she called and she was freaking out cuz her husband hadn’t gotten home from work yet and it was all crazy but then we figured it out -- he got home late because he was working and something went wrong and they couldn’t let him leave so we did the baptism after church on Sunday and that was great I loved it :)

The CDs haven’t gotten here yet but they could have come today but I know they weren’t there yesterday. But don’t worry I go to the office a lot so I should find out pretty soon :)

Sounds like you’re all having fun and that it’s starting to get closer to spring. Haha! But we all know that the first day of spring doesn’t come until one of the best days of the year (Matthew’s Birthday is on the first day of Spring) haha so we will all just have to wait about a month or so.

I don’t really need anything for my birthday. I think I’ll be good so yeah don’t worry about sending anything really.

Things are going great here and we are really working hard and having fun. We have had a lot of success and its been great.

Love ya

Elder Ward

PS: I have seen Taken I’m not that old hahaha

The Puerto Rico San Juan Missionaries - December 2010

2011-02-20T21:09:00.001-07:00

2/15/2011 - Zone Council

2011-02-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

HOLA

P-day was changed to Tuesday this week so yeah but things are going good here. We have a Baptism on Saturday. They are way awesome and I’m way excited for them. We are working hard tomorrow we have our Zone Council so that should be pretty cool. Pres said we don’t have to do anything except conduct the meeting and him and a Sr. Couple will do everything else so that will be nice :).

Did you get my pictures I sent you in the mail? and Nate’s letter?

love ya

Elder Ward

02/09/2011

2011-02-09T20:05:00.000-07:00

WOW!
This is some scary stuff I’m signing up for college – Nate’s freaking me out! Haha! and remember my other buddy Justin? Well he left on his mission March 4th so that means he has 1 month left of his mission. I always figured me and him go home about the same time :( SCARY!

Thanks for getting that all sent. It wasn’t that much money was it? I just figured it would be free doing it on your own. But thank you! :) Do you know if they said how long it takes for it to be sent cuz the members here told me it takes a while when they get it sent from online so I guess we’ll see what happens. Oh and I forgot to tell you those cds you sent me ended up working it was just that they were made for a cd player that reads mp3 files cuz that’s what you copied them as and I didn’t have one that did that so I later found that out but they all got stolen with the rest of my stuff right when I found out they worked! Haha!

hahaha yeah I think it’s so weird how old Eric is now. He’s old enough to be datin the ladies and that’s just crazy haha! He doesn’t still have a big old crazy mop on his head does he?

That’s so awesome that Corey Hall was on the winning team for a Super Bowl! Haha! Wow nuts that’s two super bowls now I’ve missed! haha kinda crazy! I don’t even know what it’s like to watch football anymore.

Sounds like your trip to Spain will be really cool! How many of the adults don’t know spanish? You guys might just have to postpone the trip and I’ll have to go instead :) haha its weird to think that I can talk Spanish.

Things are going great here. We go to Bayamon Monday and Tuesday every week and yeah there are a ton of missionaries there. There are always 6 and then everytime we go we bring 4 more for a total of 10 so yeah its pretty crazy. President also has me and my companion go to universities in Bayamon to try and talk to young adults. (this week was our first week trying that out and it was a bit of an experience. Talking to young adult Puertoricans is a tough thing to do but we’ll find a way to crack them haha) so yeah the thing in Bayamon is still on the developmental stage but it’s going good our Area is going GREAT! The Rodriguez family is going to get baptized on the 19th. We moved it back a week because he wanted to be good 100% solid on the no more drinking coffee. I think he’s been good for 5 days straight now so he’s doing great. But yeah the other people we are teaching are doing really well as well and it’s great to see. A lot of times we just wish we could be normal missionaries so all we have to worry about is our area and baptizing the families we are teaching - haha but yeah life’s great things are going well and we are having fun!

WAHOOOOO
love ya

Elder Ward

ps I don’t know how it all works but I’m pretty sure I have to do some stuff with classes soon. I guess our ecclesiastical endorsement had to be in like a week or so ago but we went and talked to president and he said he would send it in :) so yeah if you could see when I need to do classes and all that stuff that would be great thanks :)

02/02/2011

2011-02-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

HOLA

That’s so awesome that you are having the missionaries over. I always think about that and how it will be so weird once I get home to talk to the missionaries. Haha! But yeah that’s awesome! In our mission we’ve been trying to get www.mormon.org out like crazy. When president first started talking to us he was like look for ways to do it and get it down. Haha! We bought window paint and wrote it neatly across the back window on our car! It was cool and then a bunch of missionaries got permission where there are graffiti walls in PR and wrote it there and we did the thing where you spell it with cups in the fence. it was cool! Haha! we were trying to think of so many things we also made special little cards to give to people.

We had transfers two weeks ago. I am still in Vega Baja with Elder Taylor from California. We are supposed to go to Bayamon 2 times a week but idk we are trying to get that changed. We have a meeting with president tonight and tomorrow morning so we will see what happens.

Teaching is going great. We have some great families that are really doing well. The family with the date for the 12th is progressing well and are doing great! I’m really excited for them. They are awesome. We are going to go teach them tonight with two of the recent converts from the ward so they can talk to them a bit about baptism :) (The family is a bit nervous cuz they’ve never seen a baptism haha)

I’m in a ward that has about 75 people in church a week but we are getting that up there is a lot of great people here but we are trying to get that going better now as well. We have a member that is SO SO SO awesome. He loves us so much and trusts us like crazy so he invited a ton of people over for family night and that’s where pretty much all of the families we are teaching came from either from that or referrals from people that went to that.

That’s crazy that Adam is coming home that early? He came to the mtc 3 weeks after I did so I figured he’d be coming home about the same time as me. Kinda crazy but yeah I cant wait to talk to him about his mission that will be fun.

So about the housing – I’m not sure what to do cuz we’ll probably want to move out after the first semester depending on what Jason wants to do (I haven’t talked to him) and also I still want to see if we can fix up that old farm house of grandpas and rent out the rooms and make a bit of money. (I have no idea how bad it is) Also last time we did that we signed up for two semesters and it was cheaper and then when I switched at the semester they only made me pay 100 bucks I think it was so it came out to be the same anyways so I don’t know if it would be better to sign up for 1 and then be good or buy two and sell it and change if we have to. Probably just do 1 and then we will go from there :). Did you talk to Nate about that? But yeah thanks :)

So I wanted to ask you to send me some things; first off it’s a video of the church. The office doesn’t let us order much anymore but it is the new Joseph Smith video. I don’t know if you have seen it but WOW it’s amazing. It comes in like a 4 disc pack with a bunch of stuff about the Doctrine and Covenants and a ton of other stuff but if you could get that in Spanish and send it to me that would be awesome and then also get on the computer and download all the conference talks in Spanish and put them on cds for me and send them AS FAST AS POSSIBLE :)

For my birthday I’m good - I don’t need anything. I was going to see if you could find a nice electric shaver but the weather over here makes them rust and it messes my face up here so it would probably just be better to buy one when I get back so yeah don’t worry about buying anything and if you insist on buying something buy me a razor and I’ll get it when I get home! Haha!

But yeah things are going great!
Love you guys

Elder Ward

01/26/2011

2011-01-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

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

2011-01-19T18:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-01-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

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!!

2011-01-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-01-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

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

Missionaries singing Christmas Carols at the Mall!

12/29/2010

2010-12-29T20:24:00.000-07:00

HOLA

well it was great to talk to you guys and great to have a real p-day today haha it seems like its been a long time but yeah things are going great and it sounds like things are great at home.

so what did you guys do for christmas? who was all there? anything exciting happen? our christmas ended pretty well after everyone was done talking we went and took all our investigator families presents and talked to them a bit so that was fun we enjoyed it.

so something kinda crazy Andrea was talking to me about the extension thing and all that and i was always way against extending because they call ya for two years and you cant just decide to change your call and yeah i was just always way against it cuz i fugured its like trying to stay a little longer in a calling when the bishops tells ya hes going to release ya but then on sunday i got a phone call and president wants to extend my whole group and do a this special little program so i told them i would haha so i guess now we will see if the brethren aprove our extensions the maximum it could be would be 30 days so i guess well see what happens haha if it gets passed that would mean that me and jason would probably only be a little under 6 months difference kinda crazy hu?

O YEAH! IM GETTING MARRIED BY CHRISTMAS 2012 FOR SURE!!! hahahaha jk that would mean i got to find her date her and marry her all in under a year and a half thats a lot of work haha... but i bet i could do it in under a year ;)

love ya

elder ward

12/15/2010

2010-12-15T20:24:00.000-07:00

HOLA

well things are going great here we just had a baptism this week hes a really cool guy his names Angel Pabon and it was great he had been going to church forever and so it was amazing to see him finally get baptized he had a lot of stuff holding him back but he made it he even had his family members of a different faith bribe him to drink cofe so that he couldnt get baptized it was crazy and we had to commit his wife to pay tighthing BUT HE DID IT! haha it was great and his wife finally went to church and went to his baptism and she loved it we went to their house yesterday and they both have just progressed a ton since the baptism she is really interested now and hes just way excited and reading all the church books he can get his hands on its great! :)

we are also working with some great families tonight we have a cita with the perfect family they are having troubles excepting the book of mormon so we are planning to help them with that today and im really excited for that :) and then we just have some other people and families that we are working with so we should see some great things here soon :) this ward hadnt seen a baptism for a year so with all this good stuff thats going on we feel like they are just going to get excited and explode :)

so anyways sounds like everything is going good over there nice and cold with lots of snow. thats cool that you got to go to the funeral and see everyone i bet that was fun haha and a bummer they didnt get to shoot any geese. have they done any hunting this year?

Christmas here in Puerto Rico is pretty cool i would say thats the thing they take the most pride in here haha its kinda funny cuz they just have all sorts of extra hollidays and things and they celebrate give gifts they dont carrol they do parandas which means they just run around to peoples houses play and sing and dance to puertoriquen music and they dont leave until you give them some stuff to eat haha but yeah christmas is pretty cool here they have trees and all the goodies but the bigger holliday for them is three kings day and thats when the most gifts come haha but yeah we will be having a pretty good christmas conference this year it sounds like so im excited for that

i havent been taking pictures :( ive been really busy so yeah i need to be better about that ill get some dont worry

being a zone leader is great and yeah we have to teach and do everything all that good stuff just as much as everyone else we just have a ton of other stuff we have to do as well pretty much this whole week we have been getting up at 5 just to try and get everything done haha but i like it its great keeps me busy :)

well the cinder blocks were to build the house haha all houses here pretty much are made out of cinder blocks and cement so yeah it was all the blocks to make the walls of his house :)

but anyways i got to get goin so i dont think i will be able to use internet this next wednesday so if you have any plans or anything like that for christmas send me a letter so that i know becuase i will be calling christmas day sometime so yeah just send me your schedule but yeah i think thats all for this week love you guys

elder ward

12/08/2010 - Zone Leader

2010-12-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

New Companion: Elder Taylor from California

HOLA!!!

haha no i wasnt anything last transfer i was on a special asignment haha but even though i wasnt anything president gave me special invites (as he likes to call it) to all the meetings and i still had to do a bunch of junk and me and my companion lived with the zone leaders but today is the start of another transfer and now im zone leader again and my companions name is Elder Taylor from california hes way cool and im excited i already new that we were going to be together and everything but yeah its going to be fun im still in the same apartment and the same town same area just now i dont get to teach all those people we found last transfer :( but it will be cool Elder Bailey and Elder Taylor have some way awesome families that they found and ive met them so im way excited some of them have been investigators for a really really longtime they just arent there yet but they will be soon :) this saturday we are baptizing a man that has been going to church for the last 6 months and he finally decided to get baptized so thats exciting we just have to make sure he is 100% on the law of tything and hes good :) but yeah so things are going good that big family of 8 we went and did some service for them this monday and that was good we carried like 500 cinder blocks up a hill into this house it was fun a good work out haha but yeah they love us and were really grateful and the mom is reading and studying so yeah im really excited for them Elder Dennis and Elder Curtis will be teaching them again tonight :)

but anyways sounds like things are goign great back in Mtn. Home and like a lot of snow thats cool and exciting i would love to see some snow President said something about getting us snow for this christmas so im thinking hes going to rent a snow machine or something crazy for the christmas conference but i guess we will see haha but yeah that sounds like a great missionary tool and im sure people loved it i would love to know what people think when they go to something like that and see how the church really is im sure its great :) were the missionaries there talking to people? i cant wait to see the new stake center i bet its way nice but kinda wierd that we dont go to the stake center anymore haha.

but yeah life is going good we are working hard and having fun and im way excited for this transfer i just hope it doesnt go by as fast as the last one :)

love ya

elder ward

12/01/2010 - ARGH!!! BSU LOST to NEVADA!!!

2010-12-01T20:11:00.000-07:00

BSU LOST!? thats so crazy i cant even believe that but i guess thats what happens when you dont get to play all year because no one you plays anygood and then when they actually have to play they cant because they havent all year long crazy i cant believe that wow

but yeah it sounds like the thanksgiving party was pretty good and things are going well kinda crazy that there was only a couple of people there it feels like our family parties are dropping in number i think im gettin old :(

Thats cool everyone got to go skiing i cant even picture tucker skiing hes gettin old haha man everything is going to be all different and wierd when i get home.

So anyways i was thinking about all the traveling after the mission and it would probably be best if i just went home and found a job and started working and making money for school and if you guys want to come down here we can either do it right when i get back or we can wait and it for christmas or something but yeah i was just thinking and that would probably be the best way to do it :)

well the work is going great and we are deffinetly having fun. we had our zone councel on monday and thats always a ton of fun except im dang tired haha weve been getting up at 4 and 5 for like 4 days straight now haha but i guess thats just how life goes :) o and this is the last week of this transfer but i already know who my next comp is and i know im staying in Vega Baja but ill let you know who it is next week cuz nobody is supposed to know yet hahaha

so yesterday we had a really cool experience at zone councle we talked about faith a lot and how that all works and how in order for great things to happen we just have to change our mindset and always be positive and thats faith we talked about how many times the church has been criticized for Prophising and then doing everything they can to make it happen and thats a self fulfilling prophicy and its just funning because thats exactly how it should be faith without works is dead so if you dont do all you can then you dont have any faith. Soooo.... i decided to put it into practice i told my comp right after zone councel we are going to find a great family and then in my prayers i didnt say please help us to find a family please give us a family or put the family in our paths i said we are going to find a family and please just bless us with the strength and knowledge we are going to need and then we planned a ton of finding time and we were pretty excited but to make a long story short we didnt end up having anytime to do the finding but i called a referance that we got set up an appoint we ended up being able to do it and its an AMAZING family of 8 sadly the dad had died 8 months ago but thats why they are looking for a way to strenghten there family in christ so we taught them a bit about Eternal Life they loved everything they want to go to church and are just perfect GOLDEN is what they say haha but yeah it was just a really cool experience and im WAY excited to work with them WAHOOOOOOO!

but yeah i better get goin i love you guys and hope you have a great week

Elder Ward

11/24/2010 - Dia De Accion De Gracia!!

2010-11-24T20:10:00.002-07:00

DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIA hahaha thats thanksgiving in spanish kinda a mouthful

but yeah they celebrate here so yeah yeah thats good and bad at the same time because sure its great to celebrate but we also work on those days and its really hard to get citas with people that are celebrating and yeah so its kinda difficult but its good this thanksgiving we have a bunch of service that we are going to do in the morning and then we have a dinner cita with a family in the ward and then well i guess well see what we will do after that :)

yeah i would love to go back over to England before she comes back just because it will still be easier while she lives there and i never got to go to ireland and scotland but yeah we do have a ton of stuff we need to spend money on so yeah i dont really need to go i just kinda picture it as like a last chance thing but your right there is a lot more really important stuff like SCHOOL YIKES! i hope i can get a good paying job when i get back. but yeah about the whole picking up missionary thing the prophet said not to do it so i im not going to ask my president but im pretty sure he tells people not to do it everyone that haves ever been here with there parents went home and then came back like right after.

i would love for you guys to see puerto rico but yeah im just not exactly sure what we would do cuz we could come back and go see all the people that i used to teach and go to the beach Thats really all there is for tourist is beaches so what people do when they visit is just stay in a really exspensive hotel and go to the beach but what i would like to do more than anything else would be just rent a car and go around the island to all the towns i served in and enjoy the beach and try surfing haha (thats another reason why you couldnt pick me up is cause i wouldnt be able to go to the beach and swim) but yeah i dont know how you guys want to do it but if we are planning on comming down to Puerto Rico right when i get back i would deffinitly say no to england cuz thats just way to much money and it would be better and more logical to save it for other things but if you want to wait and go to Puerto Rico later in like a two years with jason and the fam we could do that too it just all depends on what you guys would like to do :)
but yeah i dont know what we are going to do for christmas this year cuz its a new president but i would imagine that we will all spend christmas eve in the mission home and then christmas day usually we just call and then have citas with members :)

but yeah sounds like life is going good back home and that its getting cold im going to freeze like crazy that first year home i get cold at night when it drops down to like 70 haha its been getting a bit cooler now with lots of rain so thats been nice :) but yeah everything is great we are teaching some great people and working hard I LOVE IT!

love ya

Elder Ward

11/17/2010

2010-11-17T20:08:00.001-07:00

haha! yeah kinda a bummer about the robbery but the funny thing it was about the same deal it was halloween night and we were gone and they just knocked all the windows out but its funny cuz in PR you have bars on all the windows and so they are like steel frames on top of that and there is no glass but yeah so they got them open and then with there hangs and sticks they reached in a got the stuff they could reach and it just so happened to be that my box with all my picture cards and some other stuff were next to the window on my dresser but yeah o well they got some other stuff from the other elders too but yeah i dont need anything im pretty good :) and for christmas i dont need anything either cuz well i hate to admit it but im on the down hill and if i get anything it would just be a waste so yeah im good my shirts are gettin kinda nasty but they will last till the end and then ill just chuck them all and i still have two long sleeve ones brand new haha but yeah im doing good adrea said she was talking to you about sending me over there when i get back to visit here and going to ireland and scotland and london and maybe Germany so yeah if you decide to ship me over that would definitly be way more than enough for christmas haha (i feel bad though cuz thats a lot of money and im broke haha i got to get a good job when i get home nate was talking to me about working with him for a rafting company as a guide and then sarah whittier was talking about oya councelors and those would be way awesome if they pay good well have to see i dont like to think about it to tell you the truth :))

thats cool Elder Dennis grampa was dads teacher hes a really cool kid and his family sounds like really great people. his dad just got called to be in the singles ward bishop rick in oreagon hes freaking out haha its pretty funny his dads never been anything but young mens leader :)

our week is going great we are working hard and we teach about 20 lessons on average a week but not all of them are investigators its been really tuff to try and get some new investigators but we are doing great we set some high goals and are working really really hard and just spending all our time finding and its going to do great things :)

thats great skiggs got a talk haha im not sure whats on page 39 but im sure it will be great tell him to just study it real good and then just get up and let everyone know how he feels about it haha i love being a missionary and i love talking in church now i used to not like it before but its great i really enjoy it now ( i dont know if i will be able to do it in english though :))

wow it sounds like kim is doing great and it sounds like some good missionary work is going on all around thats awesome. thats cool bsu is doing so well but if they go undefeated this year and dont get to play for the championship that will be crazy ill be ticked haha

o yeah so i was talking to andrea about going to england and she said that you guys were thinking about going as well but if not i was thinking it would be way cool to go with like kyle or nate or a good budy so if you dont go you could talk to Debbie and Terry and Kyle if you decided to send me haha :)

well i better get going but yeah things are going great and im really enjoying my self we are working hard and making miracle happen haha

love ya

elder ward

11/10/2010 We got ROBBED!!!

2010-11-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

WOW! the family is just growing growing growing thats crazy its hard to keep track of it all but yeah you can tell leash congratulations for me :)

haha good job on the missionary story that is so great you should come down here and teach the members a thing or to haha jk the members are just so young in Puerto Rico so they just need a little help sometimes haha but they are great. but yeah thats so awesome that they are going to church and things you should tell the missionaries that you and dad will go over and teach with them if they want that would be fun haha we are always trying so hard to get members to come and be friends with the people we teach but its hard i bet there the missionaries have members in like every lesson. But yeah i dont know who that kid is i have never herd his name in my life i wonder how he knew me hes only a year younger than me right? get them going go church and then ship him on a mission haha :) but yeah that is great keep up the good work and keep being there friends :)

we are doing great me and Elder Dennis o yeah i was going to ask you you have to ask dad if he knows a Dennis that taught the mechanics classes at ricks i pretty sure he does and if not i know gramps would know him but yeah hes my companions grampa he doesnt teach anymore but he used to when dad was there im pretty sure. but yeah so we are working hard we are trying really really really hard to find new investigatores and get members to come out with us its kinda difficult when you have to just start an area fresh with nothing to go off of but i love it its different and im enjoying it we do A LOT of finding :)

sounds like bsu is still just doing great and they just dont want to give them that bsc spot hu if they go undefeated and dont play for the title im going to be ticked haha that would be a joke but yeah they better get there

thats a bummer that galan didnt get to make it over that would have been cool for him i bet i cant wait to talk to be in spanish when i get home haha it will be way awesome especially people that i knew before my mission like galan and the hired hands on the farm that would be awesome haha

but yeah keep up the good work love you guys

elder ward

ps we got robbed the other day and the dang bumb got all my pictures from my whole mission so im a little ticked about that but i should be able to get a bunch of them from my old comps so we are alrigth :)

11/03/2010 - Happy Halloween!

2010-11-03T20:06:00.000-06:00

Hola

So yeah Halloween was pretty normal cuz we had to go in early but I had a meeting in Bayamon so yeah we just got done working at 6 and then drove over to Bayamon and had a meeting and I was fasting so kind of a weird Halloween. But good haha sounds like the trunk or treat went well that’s crazy there were so many people I would love to see a ward that has at least 150 people total haha the ward we are in right now has about 75 active members but we are getting it up the ward in Cabo Rojo two weeks before I left hit 104 so that was exciting :)

I’m not sure when elections are in Puerto Rico I guess it’s supposed to get pretty crazy when they do do them but yeah I didn’t see anything how often do they vote for that kind of stuff cuz I’m pretty sure all the big stuff that happened here happened while I was in the MTC a year ago but who knows haha

That’s good they went out to go hunting that should be fun. Maybe they’ll whip Kyle’s butt and get him going on a mission haha but yeah I remember Galan he’s a good guy you have fun hanging out with him too bad he didn’t wait till next year to come that would have been cool to talk to him and his son in Spanish :)

So me and Elder Dennis are doing great he is a great kid and he is from Oregon originally but he lives a ton of years in different parts of Idaho which is cool but yeah we are getting along great. So right now I am not a zone leader anymore I’m on a special assignment haha as President likes to put it :) but I still do all the same stuff the zone leaders do it’s kinda funny I thought I was going to take it easy and not have to worry about all that stuff but I guess not :) well actually I don’t have to put on the zone conference which is cool that one goes all on the zone leaders Elders Bailey and Taylor haha they are great! We all 4 live in the same apartment share the same area and ward and everything it’s pretty cool.

But yeah everything is going great we are working hard we both got sent to the area at the same time and the other elders were already there so we pretty much have to start completely fresh with investigators and all that good stuff and learning the area but its good we are enjoying it and finding a whole ton of people which is great we just are really focusing on getting to know the ward a little better so that we can get some members out working with us :)

We happy and having fun and we should have a baptism pretty soon. We just have to get them married they are great and really loved church and yeah we are excited about that

Love you guys

Elder Ward

10/27/2010 TRANSFERRED!!

2010-10-27T19:57:00.001-06:00

New Area: Vega Baja
New Companion: Elder Dennis

Hola

Wow sounds like things are going great in Mtn. Home. That’s so crazy about Jace’s mission. I can’t believe that he didn’t ever wear normal clothes (suits) that just seems so crazy to me but cool at the same time.

So right now I’ll fill ya in on the changes. I have a new companion which is a bummer cuz me and Elder Burton thought we would be comps forever! But yeah my new companion is way awesome though and his name is Elder Dennis and he is way cool and knows a lot about Idaho and hunts and does all that good stuff so we are pretty excited about that. I’m way excited for this transfer. Also, I moved to Vega Baja which is a great place so I’ve heard and we are living with 4 missionaries in an apartment and that’s going to be awesome I think because we are all really great dedicated missionaries which just makes everything fun. So yeah I’m in a completely new zone and everything so that should be fun!

So I’m excited - sad that I had to leave so many really cool families that are progressing but excited for the new adventure. It will be great!

Thank you so much for the package. It was great! Elder Burton told me to tell you you’re the best and we were going to send you a great thank you card but they changed us so yeah thanks!

For Christmas I think I’m good. I don’t really need anything and don’t worry about sending a little tree or ornaments and lights and that stuff cuz i just use it for a tiny bit of time and just throw it away the only thing I can possibly think of would be a nice face shaver but I don’t know cuz I’ve kinda gotten used to the blade ones cuz my old electric was pretty horrible so yeah I don’t know if I want to go electric again or not!

I love you guys - things are going great and thanks for everything!

PS: Grace got baptized on Sunday and it was way way way great to see - she is awesome!

Elder Ward

10/20/2010 - Cabo Rojo

2010-10-20T19:57:00.001-06:00

Wow that was a good report haha!

So it sounds like everyone is doing really good and getting old! I would love if Kori is going to byu-i. That would be great. Tell him to get up there! Haha! and if you see any of them you can tell them hi for me. You haven’t heard from Nate have you?

That’s really sad about Nick Stover. I remember teaching him will position in football. I used to make him stay after practice with me and hit the tackling dummy and pull the sled. That’s way sad he was a good kid! I guess it just goes to show how the things of the world just work people down and eventually destroy them.

But on a happy note it sounds like football is going great for BSU. I really hope they keep doing well and get a shot at the BCS that would be awesome ... it kills me thinking about football. I would love to play again! Haha! I’ve been talking to my companion about maybe finishing my associates at byu-i and then transferring to somewhere with sports but idk! Haha! I don’t like to worry about it but he insists I move to Utah and I calmly explain to him that one day he will come to Idaho have the taste of a great state and come around! Haha!

So yeah the work is going great. Me and my companion have been traveling all week again which is kind of annoying especially because we have all these great investigators and we haven’t been able to visit them like we would like to but we love the work and we do what we are asked gladly! Haha! :) This Sunday Grace will be baptized. She is great! One of the coolest ladies I have ever met. She loves the church and she is VERY energetic even though she is 70 years old! Haha! She goes to the store and every month she fills up about 5 bags of groceries and carries them to all the people that go without in her neighborhood. She loves the Book of Mormon and all her 7 kids :) tell her not to be baptized cuz its a serious decision and she tells them all to read the Book of Mormon and they’ll all feel the way she does! Haha! She’s great.

But yeah anyways things are great. We are working on a program to get 18 mini missionaries in our zone for one week and do splits with them to double the work. So we are pretty happy about that and I can’t wait for it! WAHOO!

Sounds like Jason is having fun and has a lot of service to do! Haha! I bet he’s loving it :)

Well I’ve got to go but you guys have a great week! Tell dad and Brad if they see some big deer to not miss cuz I heard all about what happened last year with that wolf! :)

Love you guys

Elder Ward

10/13/2010

2010-10-13T19:58:00.000-06:00

YEAHHH!!!!!

I knew Justin would show up. He’s the one that was really good friends with me and Nate and I knew he was in that mission. That’s who I was talking about when you said that Ste’fan was going there. That’s awesome I hope he sends me a letter that would be great. :)

But yeah things are going great! We are doing awesome and just loving it here. We now have 5 baptismal dates and Grace will be baptized on the 24th. Then we have Frank who we have to get married and help him quit drinking and smoking but he’s doing really great. We have a meeting next week to get him started on a program. Then we have Elsi and Jonathan that have a sweet little family of four and are really learning and growing and we have the date for them on the 20th of November. Then another family; dads a member and is really getting things going and they will get married and baptized in December so things are looking great and we are just having a ton off fun. :)

That’s awesome Eric’s a priest now. I can’t wait to help him prepare for the mission – it’s going to be great! Haha! Do we still have six missionaries in Mtn. Home? Do we have Spanish speaking ones? It’s kinda funny, my whole mission I’ve have been trying so hard to get members to come out and help us and to do missionary work cuz Puerto Rico is a bit small and it’s a bit difficult here but I was thinking the other day if I’m always trying to get all these members out with me I cant be a hypocrite so I’ll have to do some missionary working when I get back :)

So it sounds like everyone is doing great and life is good. How is everyone from highschool doing. Do you ever see any of those guys like Luke and Chris and Chris and Charles and Brad and all those guys? I sent Kyle a letter the other day so I hope he gets it. It’s actually going to the Hall’s house so he will get it some how :)

Well I better get going. Thanks for sending that stuff I should get it soon!
Love you guys,
Elder Ward

10/06/2010

2010-10-06T20:12:00.000-06:00

Haha yeah my companion was telling me about BYU before I read your email! Haha! Kinda crazy isnt it? They are a really young team this year so yeah but sounds like BSU is still doing good!

So that’s crazy Jordan is home and I bet everyone was excited to see him. I saw some pictures of him and yeah he got WAY skinnier. Good for him :) So what’s his plans? Is he planning on going to BYU-I, if he is - tell him to get going. They always say if a missionary comes home and bums around for a while that’s when they have problems! Haha! But yeah when I get home I’m just going to find a good job so I can get a lot of money to go to college :)

That’s good you found the hair cutter but yeah me and my companion are excited to get the package. We thought you might have sent it already so we were all excited to get it Friday because some people are coming over from the office on Friday but yeah don’t worry about it we will get it soon enough! Haha! Usually someone comes over at least once a week or we have to go over there so we’ll get it :)

Yeah Conference was great I really liked it. We watched all the sessions it was great! This time in our mission the new president said that before anyone could go to the conference they had to talk to 140 people cuz that’s what the prophet wants - so yeah he said if you don’t talk to 140 you shouldn’t go cuz you can’t truly sustain the prophet if you don’t do what he asks! It was great and everyone did it :) Sometimes some missionaries need a little motivation to work hard :) but yeah things are going great, conference they talked a ton about parents teaching their kids before they throw them out into the world. It was cool - I really liked everything they talked about. The priesthood session was great as well :)

But yeah the work is going great we have a couple people that are planning on getting baptized and we are really excited for that. We really want to get the families going cuz in every situation its one individual that wants to get baptized but the family needs some work and then some other ones the family is getting baptized they just have their wedding date set for Dec 11 so we have to wait a while haha! But yeah we should be seeing some baptisms soon :)

o yeah I got plenty of contacts! So I had a little bit of a supply when I started the mission and I’ve rationed them nicely. A set lasts a lot longer than 1 month so I’m doing great :)

Things are wonderful her in PR and we are having fun and working hard. The time is just going by faster & faster and me and Elder Burton and just getting nervous and freaking out (we came out together in the same group) I don’t want the mission to end and I don’t know how to slow it down :)

Love ya guys

Elder Ward

09/29/2010

2010-09-29T20:29:00.000-06:00

HOLA!

Sounds like all sorts of things are going on at home. Kinda crazy and really blows my mind that Jordan is coming home WOW!

Sounds like the cabin is going well and that BSU is doing good again. My comp is a huge sports fan so every once in a while we have to talk about some good old sports history and a good classic is the BSU Fiesta Bowl. Its crazy how many people all remember that game :)

Zone Leader is fun you’re just super super super busy all the time. Zone leader in my mission is a lot different with the new president and I think a lot different in other missions but yeah its great. We do all the same stuff as other missionaries except we get a whole lot more stuff thrown on top! For example this week we were in Bayamon for 2 days and we haven’t had a p-day in about 4 weeks. So we are cut short on time but as a leader your area has to be an example for all the other missionaries so it’s kinda crazy cuz you’re just always working crazy hard but I love it. I LOVE BEING BUSY! and yeah we do all the interviews for the District Leaders’ Baptisms and yeah we have to travel a lot. Zone Leaders get 2000 miles on our cars so that we can do all the traveling we have to do. Elder Burton and I are good planners though and we try to stay in our area and when we go we try and get it all done in one trip but yeah its great :)

That’s so crazy that all those kids are getting on the mission. I feel so bad I haven’t written Kyle back yet. I have to do that. I just haven’t had p-day for a while!

So about the Garments the Larges will be too big I need all mediums and I would like 6 pairs if you could do that for me :) I already got a pair that I tried and I love them dad was right the whole time they are GREAT! SO MUCH COOLER! (but don’t let him know I said that) ;) but yeah if you could send me like 6 pairs all medium that would be great :) and if you got some room we would like a big thing of laffy taffy and some airheads haha :) and one last thing I have money to buy it because its an expense that I can use my blue card for and I always have a ton of money left over but they sell these really nice hair cutters at Costco for like 35 bucks and we have been trying to get a member to take us to get one but we always have to go do something on p-day so we haven’t bought one idk if it would be easy to get and then take it out of the card board and send it in a flat rate and then I can take money out of my card for it. But that would be nice if you could do that but if not we’ll just have the member take us when we get the chance :) so just 6 G's, bag of laffy taffys and a box of Airheads and we’re good :) haha

but yeah everything is going AWESOME -- here we are working way hard and having fun. We have set like 3 dates this last week and they are all really awesome people and we can’t wait we are way excited -- 1 of them is a family, the dad went less active but the mom and the kids are not members and the dad is fully active again and really awesome and they are doing great so we are excited for that. One of the other ones invited us over to eat and told us she was going to feed us something completely different that they don’t eat in PR and was all excited and so we went over and she gave us tacos haha! It made me laugh but the best part was she said ''I was reading in 2 Nephi 31 and it says you need to get baptized and I loved it that was my favorite part'' it was a miracle. So we just gave her a date right there and she is way way way excited. She’s way way cool - now we just got to get her husband to quit drinking and get in shape haha

Well this thing is huge so I better get going!
I love you guys thanks for everything!

Elder Ward

09/22/2010 Zone Leader!

2010-09-23T10:35:00.000-06:00

An email to Andrea ....

Haha! Sounds like life is crazy. Sorry i dont have a lot of time to write today cuz i had to go all over the island today helping people move out and doing some crazy stuff. To answer your question I'm a Zone Leader and that's why I have to go cruising around and not get p-day. But yeah it's fun i like it :)

Things are going great - Elder Burton and I are really enjoying ourselves and having fun and we have some cool investigators that are progressing so we are excited about that.

love you guys

09/22/2010

2010-09-22T19:06:00.000-06:00

HEY!

Wow! Sorry I don’t have much time today we have been crazy crazy busy I’ve been running around like crazy but I like it :)

So anyways things are going great sounds exciting back home. You said Elder Packer came but it’s not the Elder Packer that’s an apostle? Supposedly this January Elder Uchtdorf and another apostle are coming to Puerto Rico so that should be exciting :)

We are just working like crazy and just really having fun. Two nights ago they called us up late and are like hey can you meet us in Ponce you’ve got to do a trade off. So we ran down there got Elder Alisa, he is an AP and way cool. He plays football for BYU and he’s a stud. He got a sack and a blocked punt the season before the mission but yeah he’s way cool. Me and him and Elder Burton get along really well and had a great tradeoff just didn’t get to much sleep cuz all the driving to Ponce – craziness -- kinda killed us! Haha! But it was worth it, we even set a few baptismal dates and yeah it was a great day :)

That’s so awesome that Eric read the Book of Mormon and that he’s got all those Mormon Buddies at school. That’s so great! He’s really lucky to have all them – haha! He’s going to be a stud missionary!

Well I better get going but I wanted to ask you if you could send me a couple pairs of mesh garments size medium with the swoop neck – haha! I want to try them out so yeah if you could send me a package with those in them that would be awesome.

I love you guys and I’ll talk to you next week

Elder Ward

09/14/2010 TRANSFERS!! - Staying in Cabo Rojo

2010-09-15T20:06:00.001-06:00

Haha for some reason I totally forgot that you were in England. haha kinda funny but then I remember but yeah sounds like your having fun and enjoying yourselves!

haha yeah sounds like that is kinda funny the whole thing with the stores in the mall I guess Europe is the big nice clothing place haha so I guess it makes sense.

That’s cool BSU won. That would have been cool to watch. We’ve watched a lot of football games with the Christiansen’s haha I wonder if Brad was telling Kelli that she knew how to warm the best leftovers up in the microwave haha!

Well things are going great around here. We are working hard and having fun! A lot of crazy stuff went down this transfer but it ended up working out all good and exactly how we wanted it. President wanted me to go to Mayaguez again to be with the zone leader there (that’s what he told me like 3 weeks ago) but then something happened I’m not sure what and now Cabo Rojo is the Zone Leader area so me and my comp are staying (which we are really excited about) cuz we didn’t want to leave the ward. We were really starting to build up but yeah so everyone is happy :) and yeah kinda crazy but good!!

I also sent one box home I tried to send two but they told me I stuffed the prepaid box too full and that they wouldn’t accept it so I’ve got to figure something else out. It’s just a box of stuff I’ve gotten during the mission.

But yeah everything is going good we are finding some great investigators and we are working with a 16 year old kid that we are really excited about. He’s a friend of a member so that’s definitely good we just need to find out and get a hold of his parents :)

But yeah I’ve got to get going!
Love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Ward

09/08/2010 Cabo Rojo

2010-09-08T20:05:00.000-06:00

HOLA

Life sounds crazy! haha that’s cool but weird - two more marriages! It’s pretty crazy once you go on a mission it seems like people get married every week haha but yeah that food sounds so so so so good kinda bummed that I missed it and the wedding of course :)

It sounds crazy that they are already heading back home. Time just really flies it seems like yesterday they got to Idaho but yeah everyone always says that when you hit the second half of your mission the time just starts cruising and I’ll tell you what they weren’t lying it goes like crazy. This transfer ends in like a week :(

But yeah everything is going really well here and we are working really really really hard and having a ton of fun. We have some good families that we are working with and the mission is still making a ton of changes and stuff and wow it’s pretty crazy but really cool!

Our mission now focuses on less actives more than anything else and retaining the people that we have and so ever since we kinda changed the focus things have been pretty crazy and we are having a ton of success and things are just great. Last night we had two family nights with two less active families and that was really good and we also had a family that has been less active for a while come back to church this Sunday! It was GREAT!

But yeah I’m lovin life and just having fun WAHHHOOOOO!

Love ya

Elder Ward

PICTURES!!

2010-09-01T20:09:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures of the Cabo Rojo Lighthouse and the area around it and then me and my comp tearing it up on our bikes haha ENJOY

09-01-2010 Hurricane Earl - A no show!!

2010-09-01T20:03:00.001-06:00

Hola

Yeah everything is going great here! Earl came by and we were praying that it would just slam us and give this island a nice little humbling experience like in Book of Mormon times but for some reason it just missed us haha but yeah things are going good it was a good week and we have been doing some great stuff.

Haha that is so crazy that Jason doesn’t have some of that stuff. In Puerto Rico you can pretty much find everything but yeah its kinda funny because every single house you go to they eat rice and beans everyday and they like freak out if they don’t have rice and beans its funny they all go to the states and are like we only got to eat rice and beans 3 days out of 5 and it was horrible haha but I’ll tell you one thing I don’t think I’ll eat another rice and bean for about a year after I get home :) then I’ll probably start to miss it and eat it once a week :)

Sounds like the cabin is going along good. They better hurry up and get it done soon or the winter is going to come haha it cracks me up because I swear in between like 2 emails you guys were wanting hot and then the next email it went straight to wanting cold it cracks me up (I'm still wanting some cold :))

haha sounds like Eric had a good little time doing visits haha that’s good stuff getting him ready to go I've already decided that when I get home I'm going to turn him into a super missionary haha and make him teach me the lessons once a week (don’t tell him though cuz we’ll have to take him by surprise haha) we’ll make him teach us the lessons in family night or something :) (Which will also be implemented on my return home :))

I actually cook steaks like once a week it’s pretty good but a bit different cuz its a Churasco which is a completely different cut than we us I'm pretty sure its a piece of brisket but I'm not sure haha cuz nobody knows anything about were it comes from they just say they eat it haha but its funny cuz I always make up all these sweet sauces to cook the steak in and every time my comps all freak out and are like you sure you should put that in there and then after we cook it they are always like WOW! That’s way good it’s funny!

Well thanks for the quote it’s actually in preach my gospel haha not the whole thing but most of it but yeah I like it it’s a good one

well keep having fun and enjoying the end of the warm weather I’ll talk to you guys soon I have to get going cuz we have to go to Bayamon for a meeting and lose our p-day :( but that’s life haha :)

Love ya guys

Elder Ward

08/25/2010

2010-08-25T13:53:00.001-06:00

Hola!

Primary again huh? That should be cool! Primary is fun. Getting a new calling has to be like moving to a new area in the mission haha your excited for the new experience but don’t want to give your old calling to someone else kinda funny! Haha!

Yeah I told you three weeks ago I got a new comp named Elder Burton from Salt Lake City haha and yeah he speaks way good Spanish and is way awesome we came into the mission together and yeah we are stoked and doing way awesome! Best companion yet by far and yeah WE’RE LOVING IT! And President’s new thing is that he doesn’t want to move missionaries around anymore so we are way stoked and think we will be together for a long time. But yeah we pretty much know for sure we won’t leave the Cabo Rojo Zone until we die haha

And yeah I got the packages - they were great! That book is pretty cool but yeah so I haven’t read the other book cuz my old pres said I could read it but I haven’t asked the new one yet so yeah I have to wait and see before I read it.

That’s so awesome Brad spoke in the Spanish Branch. Haha! I remember going to Ecuador -- he had the best Spanish of the 4 of us haha! That trip was so funny and way way fun!

But yeah that’s weird that they don’t go anymore (Kyle and Tanner) and how did he find some girl in Utah kinda weird haha! I guess that is kinda a bummer for Eric!

So yeah my new mission president is way way way awesome we are doing all this new crazy stuff and things are changing like crazy! This week we had a bunch of conferences and meetings with Elder Vinas and Elder Anderson and yeah it was way awesome! Our mission is changing a ton of stuff and I'm way excited for it. In the last meeting we had it was so funny we were talking about a "bone tiring effort" haha cuz that’s one of the new things required for a mission haha so we were talking about it and president made me do all these pushups in front of everyone and yeah it was pretty funny! President Alvarado is a crazy guy but he sure knows what he is doing, he was a 70 before a mission president so I guess that’s probably why but yeah things are going great and my whole zone is full of way good missionaries now and yeah I'm way excited about it :)

I can’t believe you guys are going to go to Spain that will be way awesome and way fun haha there’s a kid in my mission from Spain he’s pretty cool he will be getting home from his mission when you guys go haha but yeah that should be fun.

About picking me up… we aren’t allowed to do that anymore. The church doesn’t want parents doing it and it would kinda stink for me cuz I would still be a missionary and here in Puerto Rico really all you can do tourist wise involves the beach and water haha so yeah I’d rather come home for a while anyways and then come back when I really start to miss it ;)

Well things are going great -- we are having fun and working hard! I’ll talk to you guys soon!

Love ya,

Elder Ward

08/18/2010

2010-08-18T20:54:00.000-06:00

HOLA!!!

So yeah everything here is going just great we are having fun and working hard. We have found some really cool families that are progressing quite well. We haven’t really set any baptismal dates yet but we are planning to set a few in the near future. But yeah we are just doing really well.

This week starting Monday me and my comp Elder Burton had a car and he has had one his whole mission cuz he was in the East Mission. The other two missionaries in our district were having a bit of a tuff time on bikes so we decided to give them the car and take bikes for a while. It was funny cuz Elder Burton hasn’t rode one his whole mission so we were just laughing and having fun and then we were walking around the plaza and we walked by all these younger kids and they just started busting up laughing at Elder Burton and that’s when he realized that he still had both pant legs tucked into his socks up to his knees it was pretty funny but yeah we are doing great.

Sounds like everyone had fun in Rexburg how about Tanner and Kyle -- were they there? And how are they doing? And Denver and his wife? It’s been like over a year since they got married and it still seems crazy to me haha. Eric was saying that there were no kids there but tanner and Kyle and Kelsie were all there right? How come he didn’t go chasing cows?

That’s really cool about Lin and her mom. That happens so so so often everyone hates us before they even get to know us and then we try and try and try and help them and then finally something just clicks and they realize that we are just trying to help them but that’s awesome that she finally realized now she just needs to realize what that means haha. There’s a million scriptures that say all good things come from god especially in Moroni so if she realizes that all those good things that god has put in his church (like the opportunity to have an eternal family) were put on earth so she could have them and be blessed by them then shed love to be a part of it and have those blessings. But really the most important thing is that the members are friendly and really are her friends and then it’s all up to the missionaries to teach her by the spirit and help her down the path.

Well I hope you all have a great week and I will talk to you soon

love ya

Elder Ward

Letter to Andrea …. 08/18/2010
HOLA!!!!

haha so we decided that we can probably go to the light house now because there in actually no beach there just rocks and a cliff and stuff and we had a little meeting the other day about the rules so I think I will be going one week from today :) my ward mission leader said he wanted to take us out there haha.

Sounds like the reunion was pretty fun and that everyone enjoyed themselves a little bit :) what did sonny do? Did he sing? Play the guitar? Or what haha man I'm kinda bummed that I missed it. But I think your a little bit crazy about that sister missionary she is definitely not cute and I’m pretty sure a little weird haha there is just usually something funny about those sister missionaries that makes everyone wonder where they come from.
HEY HEY HEY! What is all this 9 months stuff? first off your cutting me short its not quite nine months yet and second your scaring me it goes by fast enough already from now on all we say is that I've been out for a little over a year and then we just leave it at that :)

Well you guys have a good week

Love ya

Elder Ward

08/11/2010 - Transfers: Same area new Companion

2010-08-11T20:52:00.002-06:00

New Companion: Elder Burton from Salt Lake City, Utah
Same Area: Cabo Rojo

HOLA!

OUR WEEK WAS GREAT!! haha so I got a new comp at transfers his name is Elder Burton. He’s awesome, from Salt Lake, and we are having so much fun! It’s great. He came out with me on the mission and he is my first comp that can speak Spanish, likes to work and have fun at the same time. It’s so so so awesome! We are working great and just finding awesome people and families left and right. I’m loving it! This is going to be one of my best transfers yet for sure we are just doing great.

Thanks for sending the package I hope I get it tomorrow because we are having a zone conference tomorrow so I’m hoping it got there!

yeah I met Hermana Sitton one time. She said her parents are military and moved to Mtn. Home so yeah that’s kinda cool! I can’t remember but I think she might have served in Adjuntas for a bit and knows one of the families we baptized they are awesome!

That’s crazy your going to England again. I think you’ve been there like 3 times now right? I want to go back right before they come home and go tour around in Ireland and Scotland and maybe London or something and then help them come back so you can start looking for some cheap tickets now if ya want haha ;)

Well it sounds like the summer has gone good. Make sure you get all those cabins nice and ready for me for when I get back haha that’s probably the first places I’m going :)

Love ya

Elder Ward

08/03/2010

2010-08-03T20:46:00.000-06:00

HOLA

So this week is pretty good! Everything is going great so I just remembered I was going to tell you - I didn’t know Stefan was going to Cuernavaca Mexico but that is awesome because remember Justin from college well he went to that mission so he might even be Stefan’s trainer haha! He’s has like 15 months in the mission already I think so yeah that’s CRAZY!

So we are teaching some really cool people right now. We have one lady and her two kids that are awesome and they have a baptismal date for the 4th of September but it will be for Florida because she is moving in a little bit. We are also teaching some other really cool families and working on getting another one married. We had a great noche de hogar with them last night and it went good and the guy is a member and the lady is progressing really good so we are way excited for that :)

That’s cool Andrea and Bill and the kids made it - sounds like you guys are going to have a lot of fun with all the kids. I cant wait to see them either. They’ve got to be getting pretty giant sized haha and Kennady, she’s got to be giant too! Man that’s crazy!

But yeah things are going great and I’ll talk to you next week!

Love ya

Elder Ward

PS: They still haven’t called to tell us if we are staying or anything yet so yeah we have no clue its kinda crazy I’m not sure what’s going on but did you ever get the package sent? and where did you send it?

07/28/2010

2010-07-28T20:39:00.000-06:00

WOW that was a big email and I’m in a huge hurry so yeah sorry but I have to make it a bit short. About the package well I don’t really need anything but that and did you ever find that book called Missionary Pal? That would be about it! I’m pretty good - Oh and I found my camera cord so don’t worry about that :)

So sounds like a ton of crazy stuff is going on back home! Haha! All sorts of activities and lots of fun! The missionaries in the baptism photo are Nauahi, Simons, & Gordon and the little girls name is Tanisha and she is the coolest and the little boys are awesome too. Pretty much the coolest family ever!

That’s crazy Andrea will be there soon and that they aren’t moving till next August but that would be cool to go and visit one more time maybe to help them move or something!

The Olympics are cool we won’t be able to go to any events cuz today was our last p-day before they end and we didn’t get the chance but it was still cool to see all the stuff and hear all the riot!

Me and Elder Nauahi are doing great and having fun we are teaching some really cool families right now and we are going to start setting baptismal dates like crazy here soon so that should be exciting. One family is way awesome and we’ve got to get them married as well but I think it will happen soon :) They are the family Maesoneft and they are awesome!

If you send the package by Wednesday it should get to me by Tuesday, I think but if not just send it to the office and also if you get the chance to go to an lds book store I would also like the book called The Miracle Of Forgiveness if you can :) but yeah things are going great

I love you guys

Elder Ward

Familia Gonzales Wedding and Baptism!!

2010-07-19T21:15:00.005-06:00

Ok so I put the pictures of the baptism and the wedding and then I had to add in the one of the youngest one of the family cuz she was sleeping during the baptism but she is just so dang cute I had to add her in :)

Love ya,
Elder Ward

07/19/2010 - Familia Gonzales Baptism (Cabo Rojo)

2010-07-19T21:13:00.001-06:00

HOLA so yeah you guys didn’t write me this week because last week I told you they changed my P-day but they have all this stuff planned for this week so President moved it to Monday but they say its only for this week and then it’s back to Wednesday again! Kinda crazy but hey what can you do haha! It would be nice to have like a week notice or something haha but o well!!

So this week was GREAT! The Gonzales family got baptized and that was an amazing day! It was so so so awesome seeing a whole family get baptized and WOW! They are just so awesome! It was great!

Also this week they had us go to the Opening Ceremonies of the Caribbean Olympics and talk to people and hand out pamphlets and stuff and that was pretty cool. The Olympics would be way awesome to go and see some games. They were going to do the soccer right by our house and we were stoked to go on p-day but last minute they changed it and now soccer is in Venezuela so yeah kind of a bummer but o well haha!

But yeah things are going great and we are working hard and having fun WAHOOOOOO!

Love ya,

Elder Ward

07/14/2010

2010-07-14T20:08:00.004-06:00

HOLA

So Elder Nauahi never went to BYU Hawaii but he lives in the same town and knows a ton of people from there and like all his buddies parents are professors and stuff so it’s pretty cool I think I'm going to try and go there for a semester when I get back but yeah!

So about the scriptures … I forgot to tell you that our p-days are Wednesday now haha but yeah the wedding did happen and it is the Gonzales Family and they will be baptized this week :) on the 17th but yeah just send them as soon as possible. This is the address: Calle Rossy #39 Altos
Cabo Rojo, PR 00623

But yeah please send those and that would be great. Also, I was going to ask you so the other p-day some how I lost my camera cord and can’t find it so I was thinking that I'm pretty sure Jason lost his camera and maybe his cord is just there in the house in the computer desk or something but yeah I'm still going to look for the cord and I hope I can find it but my camera is dead right now and yeah its kinda a bummer. :(

So yeah my district is Elder Simons, Elder Gordon, Elder Nauahi, Elder Bown, and Elder Parodi (who is from Spain and very excited that they won the World Cup but sad at the same time he wasn’t there to enjoy it with everyone hahaha) But yeah I've been driving in Puerto Rico forever. It gets a little different at times but it’s not too bad haha but yeah I'm senior comp and transfers were like 3 weeks ago or something like that.

That’s cool about Jason’s mission president and wife sounds like his mission is pretty crazy haha but I guess you can’t win them all haha its either living luxuries or humble people that’s the trade off I've decided!

So sounds like the fireworks were pretty crazy and exciting to see that’s a lot of fireworks haha

That’s cool you talked to Tyson and everything sounds like he’s doing good. Man its weird that everyone is like done with their missions and wow it’s crazy – mission time is FAST FAST FAST and Chris is getting married that’s pretty crazy wow I'm old! :(

But yeah the ward here is going great. We are trying to get them a little more excited and working hard so we are trying to get them to think of ideas for activities they want to do and we are passing around sign up sheets to go work with us and stuff so we are getting them going a little bit better. We had a good meeting the other day and they got excited and started thinking of good things to do and it was great. Cabo Rojo is a nice area especially now that we get to use our car a little bit. But anyways things are going great, we are working hard, and having fun!

WAHOOOOOOO!!!

Elder Ward

PS: idk if you ever went to get the books yet but i would like if you could check to see if you could also find a book called Missionary Pal Reference Guide for missionaries and teachers by Keith Martson if you find it that would be great to have as well :) thanks
love ya
Elder Ward

(Message to Jason - we think?)
Hey do you know an Elder Akina or an Elder Pickard? from Hawaii cuz Elder Nauahi my comp grew up with them. Who are the friends you got in Hawaii?

07/07/2010 - New Mission President and New Companion!!

2010-07-07T20:14:00.003-06:00

New Mission President - President Alvarado from Puerto Rico
New Companion - Elder Nauahi from Hawaii

ALOHA! From my new companion Elder Nauahi – haha!

So we had some pretty crazy events this week. So first of all I was in that three some and then one night they called us and they said that the next morning we had a meeting with the whole mission so we had to wake up at three in the morning and I had to drive us up to Bayamon for the meeting where we got to meet the new President and his family. We got to listen to him speak and then after the meeting we all shook his hand and talked to him and when I went by he said hi and Elder Gordon was standing right next to me and so he asked me is this your companion and I said one of them haha and he said WHAT! A THREE SOME! Wait in my office and I'm going to talk to you right after so we waited and then he came in and he said what do you guys think about getting a new companion? We said sounds good and he talked to us for a bit and then said that we would get one in 12 hours so I said ok great! We didn’t know who would be splitting or nothing so we all walk past him and shake his hand and I just walk past the door and he said Elder Ward I need to see you in my office again and I just kind of laughed and went back in and he yelled down the hall ELDER NAUAHI so we both sit down and he talks to Elder Nauahi a bit and then he said ok sounds good you are companions. Go to Elder Nauahi's apartment and pack his stuff we aren’t going to wait 12 hours! So it was pretty cool! I’m now in the same area I was in and it’s awesome. Elder Nauahi is from Hawaii the same island that has the BYU and the Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center. We are doing great he’s an awesome kid and we are working hard and just having fun. I’m really really excited for the rest of this transfer it’s going to be great.

But anyways so about the work we have been finding a lot of people and we have been teaching a lot and we have a wedding that will happen on the 10th, a baptism of 4 on the 17th, and we have some really great people that are planning on going to church and we are just trying to find more people. The new President is really great and he just loves the people here and knows them because he’s from Puerto Rico and yeah things are just going good and I’m way excited!

It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun this weekend and that you were enjoying the cabins. I can’t wait to see them and stay up there for a while. Haha! But yeah that’s great as well that Brad blessed his baby and all that good stuff. Sounds like everyone is just doing great and it’s crazy the family is just growing and growing and growing.

But anyways -- so I was going to ask if you could do me a huge favor by the 17th. We were going to do it through the mission office but they don’t let us do it anymore but we wanted to see if you could send us a nice set of scriptures in Spanish and on the front get written Familia Gonzales and send those to us and you can just send it to the house but I’ll get you that address next week and then you can send it :) THANK YOU! and then me and Elder Simons will split the costs :)

Well I better get going but I hope everything is going great!

Love You,

Elder Ward

Elder Gordon's Fire Dance

2010-07-07T19:00:00.000-06:00

Elder Nauahi worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center and so we had a little culture night and Elder Gordon did a little fire dance for us! hahahaha!

06/28/2010 (Cabo Rojo)

2010-06-28T21:24:00.001-06:00

Two Companions -- Elder Simons & Elder Gordon (Threesome)

Wow! Clear up in Canada! Haha! I still wear my Canadian pin on my suit jacket every Sunday and everyone always asks me if I'm from Canada and then I tell them nope but my mom is – haha! It’s kinda funny but wow Canada is a great place. I haven’t been for so long kinda crazy the last time we went (well I guess I went) was when we went to the mall wasn’t it? I can’t believe that Kim is getting divorced that is really sad and crazy I hope it all goes decently well.

That had to be fun to see all that old stuff and memories from Canada. I'm not going to lie I pretty much don’t know really anything about the family in Canada.

But yeah everything is going way good here. We are all combined in the same area now, me and Elder Gordon and Elder Simons. It’s pretty cool cuz we are a three some and we have a ton of people to visit and they gave us a car so that’s pretty awesome! That family I told you about is getting ready to get married. The wedding is on the tenth and then they will get baptized on the 17th so that should be really awesome! I’m way excited for them and then we are also teaching some other really cool investigators. One of them we taught last week for the last time though because she is moving to the states :( but she said she will talk to the missionaries there and she will probably be back in about a month.

Our new Mission President comes into Puerto Rico today so that should be cool. I will be writing a letter to him instead of President Martineau. It’s really kinda sad cuz President Martineau is the coolest mission president ever so it’s going to be weird getting a new one but he's really cool as well -- I just hope I like him as much as I liked President Martineau.

Well I’m going to get going but I hope you guys are having a wonderful day and that mom you’re enjoying your time in Canada with the family!

Love ya,
Elder Ward

Pictures!

2010-06-28T21:09:00.001-06:00

Here are some pictures from our transfer meeting!

Elder Ward with the Ward Mission Leader in Cabo Rojo and his wife!

Elder Ward & Elder Pliler

All the guys I came into the mission with!!
This is the first time we've all been together since our first transfer!
Crazy huh!

Elder Simons, Jacobson, & Ward

Elder Ward & Elder Gordon

06/22/2010 TRANSFERS! Staying in Cabo Rojo!

2010-06-22T21:48:00.001-06:00

Haha! I want a bbq so bad you lucky duckies but anyways you guys are crazy - you let Eric drive up to the Freer’s that's like letting a bomb loose! haha jk! Eric told me he drives the Tundra all the time now and I told him he better let it rest and use the Honda so that he can have some good first vehicle experiences haha. So what are you guys doing with the Ranger? Do you still have it? And the Explorer as well? Are you still driving that? And the Jetta?

WOWZY!! You guys are older than I thought -- 25 years married that’s half way to 50 haha and we just did Granny’s 50th not to long ago :)

So anyways tomorrow is transfers again and I'm staying here with my companion we are not sure but I think me and my companion are going to combine into a three some with Elder Gordon and they are going to combine our areas but we aren’t too sure yet we will see tomorrow.

One week from tomorrow President Martineau goes home and Elder Alvarado comes and it all combines into one big mission and then I guess we’ll see what new stuff happens when he gets here. haha cuz its pretty cool President Alvarado becomes the president the second he steps off the plane and then President Martineau gives him the phone and the keys and tells him good luck and then he gets on the plane and leaves. haha its kinda crazy cuz the old president doesn’t tell the new president anything they just start all fresh with new ideas and go for it!

We have some good people that are coming up to get baptized still that whole family and then we have some cool investigators that we are teaching but none of them have a baptismal date or anything yet.

The ties were good they are all pretty much used I think but in really good shape they are pretty much like DI ties haha! O and yeah I got the letter from Bishop Rhead this week I think I still haven’t written back but yeah it was him and Mallory and it was all in Spanish haha but yeah I should probably write back soon. So did they do that Helaman Camp yet? Eric goes to that right?

But yeah the heat is crazy its calmed down a ton but man it was killer bad for a long time and I got the heat rash because we have to ride our bikes really really really far to get to our area and doing that with the noon day heat is a killer but yeah I'm all good now and no problems.

That’s so crazy that Jordan gets home soon. Man that’s nuts! But yeah it’s probably a good thing that she wants him to start working so soon that’s what I want to do I'm going to get a job that pays way good so I can save up for school and start working right away. I was thinking I might try to get one of those forest fire jobs but we’ll see :) that’s a long ways away :)

Sounds like you are all doing good and that you will have a lot of fun with the whole family over. That should be really cool but yeah I got to get going you guys have a great day and week and I’ll talk to you in a bit!

Love ya,
Elder Ward

06/14/2010 w/pictures!

2010-06-14T19:56:00.001-06:00

Two Elders getting out of the RAIN!!!

HOLA

So everything is going pretty darn swell over here! We had a pretty good week this week. We had a new lady that we invited to church that came and she really liked it. She’s kinda crazy and a bit difficult to teach but we are moving along just fine and she is enjoying it.

We also found this really really awesome lady that a member knows and she’s really old. She walked to church all by herself and she has a cane. Kinda crazy but also we went back and she can’t see very good but she wanted so badly to read the Book of Mormon so she said she said a little prayer that she would be able to and then she found a magnifying glass and a flash light and she said if she held it just right she could do it. It was amazing and she just loves reading. But yeah she will be getting baptized this Saturday. Me and my companion aren’t the ones that teach her because she lives in the other area but really she is awesome and we are so excited.

We also have another family (that I have told you about before) – they are doing great - they have a wedding date on the 10th and then that following Saturday will be baptized.

That’s really cool about BSU that should be really fun to watch them play BYU haha. But yeah Eric told me they went up to the cabin and sounds like they worked on the road a bit and got it all good to go.

Man you have no idea what I would give for a nice 70 degree weather bbq with ribs and potatoes and some salad WOW!!! its been so so so so hot for a long time I was dying from a really bad heat rash for a while but it all cleared up and now I'm pretty good haha!

But anyways yes I did receive my ties and they are awesome! I gave two to my companion and then one to each of the other Elders I live with and yeah they are awesome. It’s a way better way to buy ties - that’s the way we should have done it from the beginning but I guess we’ll know now when Eric goes on his mission! Haha!

But yeah sounds like everything is going great back home! Everything is just WONDERFUL here and I’ll talk to you next week

Love ya,
Elder Ward

Pictures!!

2010-06-09T17:21:00.003-06:00

Hey! Here are some pictures!
The Baptism is the guy I was teaching in Mayaguez and the other ones are from a little family home evening activity that we did ENJOY! :)

love ya

06/07/2010 (Cabo Rojo)

2010-06-07T17:06:00.000-06:00

Haha - Dad tried to cook another one of his crazy treats and it actually turned out! That’s pretty amazing! Haha! I'm always inventing and cooking good stuff for me and the other 3 missionaries its kinda funny because you have one hour to cook lunch and I always just do it right after studies so we have to cook it pretty fast so I always invent quick things it’s pretty funny but they always like it and now they think it’s fun to call me Betty Crocker!

So I still don’t have the package. President just came down to do a fireside with the Ward but I’ll get it Wednesday and all the other letters waiting for me! Haha! (I hit my year mark so I haven’t gotten letters for a while haha!) But yeah it was a really cool fireside … he just opened it up to questions and then we discussed it. It was pretty cool and then me and my comp rode back to the apartment with President and he talked about the Ward and everything with us. It was pretty sweet so hopefully we can get the Ward going strong with the missionary work!

So Andrea and Bill are already planning to come down and see everyone - that’s pretty crazy! haha You guys were just there and WOW! That’s a lot of money. I'm kinda bummed I don’t think I’ll ever get to go to England again and I wanted to tour like all of Europe while Andrea was over there. I want to go to Scotland, Ireland, and Germany and maybe Holland that would be awesome. We saw a returned missionary that came to the fireside with his family. He was back in Puerto Rico after being home for two years. haha It was pretty cool and President made him stand up and talk. It was funny! but yeah I think that will be the coolest thing ever to come back and see all the people that you taught on your mission!

-but yeah the missionary work is going great… our family is doing good. They aren’t going to get married the 12th but they will soon and then they will get baptized. We are working hard with them and they are doing great and then we found some other really cool people that I'm way excited to teach this week so hopefully we get some good things going. Well I better get going but before I leave I’ll try and send you some pictures :)

Love ya

Elder Ward

06/01/2010 (Cabo Rojo)

2010-06-01T09:06:00.001-06:00

MAN! you guys have no idea how much I would love to have a bbq! haha I've been trying to organize one here for a zone activity but we haven’t quite done it yet. But man a nice beautifully cold weather bbq would be like the coolest thing ever. I've decided that when I get back from my mission I'm gonna freeze like frosty the snowman cuz it’s SO HOT here haha

I like speaking in sacrament meeting. haha It’s my one chance to tell the whole ward at the same time how I think we could get better haha Sacrament talks are great -- my bishop said he is going to have me speak at a youth fireside I'm not sure on what yet but I'm not going to lie I'm a little bit nervous about that.

So I didn’t get the ties yet because no one has come over from the offices in a bit, but president will be over on the 6th so I'm sure I will get them then :) Did you get the letters that I sent home? The one for the youth camp and one to Sami Jo?

Wow that is so crazy that Natalie is going to have twins. It just must be the twin era haha that’s way cool! Maybe they will be boys too and someone will take my advice and name them Timmy and Jimmy! I think that would be the coolest thing ever!

So anyways things are going great here I love being on my mission :) I got to see a guy that I taught get baptized in Mayaguez and that was so so so so awesome. President gave me permission to go over and watch and it was way cool. He kept telling me after words that he was clean and that he just feels good. It was awesome! It’s always amazing to see someone you’ve taught get baptized. but yeah our investigators here are doing great and they are getting ready for the wedding and they are awesome. We had an amazing fhe with them last night and they are just doing great and then the others are doing good too and I can’t wait to teach them this Thursday WAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you guys

Elder Ward

Pictures!!!! 05/24/2010

2010-05-24T21:25:00.002-06:00

05/24/2010 (Cabo Rojo)

2010-05-24T20:43:00.002-06:00

Wow that’s awesome they had their baby. (Brad (Matthew's cousin) & Brittany had a baby boy on May 21st) Let me know when they name him :) Pretty exciting -- but is he considered my cousin I don’t know how that works or is he my second cousin I’m not very good at that haha!

So Puerto Rico is awesome! Cabo Rojo is great! The guy I was teaching is getting baptized this Saturday and the other one had to go to the states for a couple weeks so he will be back in not too long and then he should get baptized as well (He’s talking about people he was teaching in his old area, Mayaguez).

But yeah so I’m way far away from the mission home about as far as I can get. haha The mission home is in Bayamon like right next to San Juan. Cabo Rojo is a cool place there are two wards in this area and they are probably the strongest wards in the island which is awesome our bishop is a pretty cool guy he was like way way way inactive for a while and then someone reactivated him and two weeks later he was called to be a Bishop. It’s pretty cool, he’s an awesome guy.

Zone Conference is just a big meeting with the whole zone and president talks and we learn and Zone Conferences are awesome.

I love being here in Cabo Rojo we are doing pretty good we have an awesome family that will be getting married on the 12th and baptized on the 19th and then we also found some others that are really awesome as well and should progress really soon. I love living with 4 elders! It’s pretty cool except it means that our area is way far away so we have to ride our bikes super far just to start working in our area but yeah its good it keeps us on our toes haha :) but yeah the mission rocks we are doing great and I’m excited for the family we are teaching WAHHOOO!

Love ya

Elder Ward

ps: stay out of the snow and thanks for ordering that I’m excited to see how they are haha :) (I ordered Matthew some Polyester Ties off of Ebay! The small and simple things that make a missionary happy!)

05/17/2010 New area: Cabo Rojo (7th Transfer)

2010-05-17T15:25:00.003-06:00

Transfered to: Cabo Rojo
New Companion: Elder Simons from Pocatello

05/17/2010

Ok so to start everything off they ended up sending me to Cabo Rojo on Wednesday so I've been here for a while! Kind of crazy hu? But i'm way excited this area is so awesome. I love it here! It’s an awesome Ward and just a really cool area. My new companion’s name is Elder Simons and he is from IDAHO WAHOOO!!! He’s actually from Pocatello and I’m pretty sure he graduated the same year as Nate -- cool hu?

But yeah so I don’t know if they baptized anyone in my old area but I will find out tomorrow :) cuz tomorrow is Zone Conference. We have a really really cool family that is going to get baptized on the 19th (June) and they are going to get married on the 12th . We are so stoked about that! They are the coolest family ever! They have 5 kids and two of them are older than 8. It is going to be great. I’m pretty excited about it!

O yeah - I’m living in an apartment with 4 missionaries now too and it’s so much cooler! I love it – it’s pretty fun. So what is dad taking a class on? I didn’t understand that word you said (Mediation)! Haha but sounds like fun I've never been to Moscow AND I WAS BORN THERE!!!

Sounds like things are going crazy but yeah I better get going sorry I cant write much today and I still haven’t sent you those pictures but I’ll do it soon :)

love you guys
Elder Ward

ps don’t have anymore parties with the druggys and did you find some ties? :)

A Spanish Email to Matt's Dad!! 05/03/2010

2010-05-03T21:31:00.001-06:00

(This is for those of you who know Spanish!)

CHACHO PAPI

Estoy viejo ya! estoy llegando a un ano. pero me encanta mayaguez en verdad es bien chevere. nuestros investigadores son buenisimo y tienen fechas bautismales este 15 de mayo. el verano esta viniendo y van para las montanas eso es bueno. ya pranto van a cazar wow es estrano que ya hace un ano. suena que Brad este bien y que vayan a tener que trabajar bien duro para cabar mi casita alli en las montanas. pero si aqui los miembros son bien chevere in nos invitan a comer y todo y siempre salen con nosotros para trabajar. en nuestra mission nosotros tocamos puertas un monton pero este translado no he tocado muchas puertas porque a mi companero no le gusta pero estamos trabajando con eso y tocamos algunas hora cada semana pero si todo esta bien y tengo animo para llamarles este domingo

les amo

elder ward

05/03/2010 (Mayaguez)

2010-05-03T21:23:00.000-06:00

HOLA FAMILIA!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD!!!!

Haha! Sounds like you guys had a fun little college party haha did it remind you of the old days? So Women’s Conference was pretty good huh? But you’re not allowed to say that you didn’t teach us enough because we’ve all gone to the temple so far and me and Jase are on missions so you guys had to do something right haha ;)

But anyways last week was really cool! Crash Boat last p-day was pretty awesome except I saw all the people body boarding and I was like wow that looks really fun so I decided a long time ago that after my mission I'm coming to Puerto Rico to surf and go to the beach!

But after p-day the week was really good as well we taught some really good lessons and we have two investigators that will be baptized on the 15th so we are pretty excited about that. I can’t wait! I just hope I don’t get transferred next week – haha! But yeah what else … pretty much just the same we are working hard and doing great.

O yeah so I’ll probably call Thursday and if not Thursday then Friday to make sure that everything is working like I did on Christmas and then we can set up everything for Mother’s Day when I call you for real!

O yeah I was also going to ask if you checked eBay again?

Well I think that’s about all I got for this week I hope you are all doing great and I will talk to you soon!

Love ya,

Elder Ward

04/26/2010 (Mayaguez)

2010-04-26T17:18:00.002-06:00

HOLA FAMILIA

Well everything here in PR is going great. We have the same awesome investigator! haha He is so cool! Yesterday we went to his house and he is like a professional in all the martial arts and mma and all that stuff and he travels all over the world and he was talking to us after the lesson and talking about all the fighting stuff and my companion, he’s a funny guy, well he thought he would show this youth that we had with us some fighting moves. Well he went and he lifted his leg up and when he did he completely ripped out his pants. It was so so so funny! But the guy had some dress pants that he doesn’t wear anymore so he gave us like 4 pairs. It was pretty cool. I told my comp that he should teach fighting moves a little more often and maybe we’d get some more free stuff! hahaha

But anyways, that’s really cool about the football players. Idaho athletics are moving up in the world haha :) but yeah I don’t know anything about what goes on in the sports world because no one here in Puerto Rico watches anything but baseball, boxing, and basketball so yeah I don’t ever get any news! (Kyle Wilson (BSU) and Iupati (U of I) got drafted into the NFL in the first round draft pick! - Kyle Wilson is going to play on the NY Jets and Iupati the 49ers.)

o yeah … so for mother’s day I’ll just do the same thing I did at Christmas and I will call. I'm pretty sure that they are going to have us call the day before again to make sure it works and to set everything up but yeah I'm not sure but I think I will be doing that. I was wondering how I will call Jason? We should figure something out about that haha but yeah when is he going to be calling you guys?

But that’s cool about Brian and Brandt. Haha! I'm going to have to find a good job when I get back from my mission or I’ll be hurting when I go to college.

o and Nate is in Korea right now and then he is going to go to Ukraine with Jared to teach English for like 4 months so yeah they will leave for Ukraine in July but I look at it as a really good thing because I doubt either of them will get married in Ukraine so they’ll still be free birds when I get back hopefully.

But anyways life is going great here we are working hard and teaching a lot of people and yeah it’s great. Today I get to go to CRASH BOAT I’m excited! (I looked on the internet and found out that Crash Boat is a beautiful beach in Puerto Rico!)

Love you guys

Elder Ward

04/20/2010 (Mayaguez)

2010-04-20T19:49:00.000-06:00

HOLA FAMILIA

CHACHO!!! (that means WOW! in Puerto Rico haha and it’s going to be hard for me to quit using that word when I get back I think haha) but it sounds like things are going good and crazy back home. Missionaries coming home and leaving and volcanoes and airplanes! haha Sounds pretty exciting!!

This week has been really good for us. We had some cool experiences. First off one of our investigators, William Lopez, he’s an awesome guy. His friend is a member and he’s been going to the church a lot to help with the unemployment program here. All of a sudden one day he walked up to us and we didn’t know who he was or anything and he said I want to be baptized so we told him alright we’ll see what we can do to help him. Haha! It was awesome! So then the first time we went to the church to teach him and we sat down and he said ok what do I have to do to get baptized haha it was crazy! I didn’t think I would have an experience like this in Puerto Rico!) But we explained what a testimony is and how that all works and how he has to gain a testimony for himself and then we taught him the first lesson and read and prayed and all that good stuff! So he came back and he said after the lesson he was reading and he prayed and he asked to know if he was doing the right things. He said he really didn’t get an answer until right after he decided to go to Walgreens and his ex-wife and daughter that he hasn’t seen for like 3 years was there and she yelled at him and said come over and see your daughter and that she wanted him to be a part of her life and that she was going to let him see her once a week. So he came back two days later for the second lesson and he said he got his testimony and he was telling us all this stuff. He’s learned about the church and it was really awesome he is a way way way smart guy. He’s a doctor but an herbal natural doctor (I think kinda like Wendy’s friend but he does a lot of chiropractic stuff too). But yeah it was really cool and he asked us if we could baptize him that day but we told him we have to wait and teach more and keep praying and reading and yeah it was really cool. The only bad thing is that he has cancer and he gets really sick. So Sunday he ended up not making it to church and we couldn’t teach him one day but we saw him yesterday and he’s doing better again and really excited for his next lesson. It’s been a pretty awesome experience.

And now a funny experience … so two nights ago we went to a lesson and we had to leave to go eat dinner with some members. We were supposed to take the other missionaries to eat with us but when we called them a member answered their phone so we thought they were just joking. But I guess some how they accidently did something with the phone and the lines got crossed so every time you called the missionaries it was the member’s phone. But we were late and my comp thought the members were joking and so he was getting super mad and we couldn’t find the missionaries and then they called and we were already there and my comp was still all mad and then the other missionaries were getting all mad cuz they didn’t know what happened either, So everyone was getting all ticked off and I was trying to calm them all down and remind them of President Monson’s talk about not getting mad cuz anger only destroys. It was a pretty crazy night but at the end we gave them a ride home and everyone figured everything out and my companion said he learned his valuable lesson of not getting mad no matter what the situation. It was a nice little mission learning experience but yeah it’ll be one I’ll have to expound on for you guys when I get home. :)

But other than that, things are going great and we are having fun. Don’t worry about the ties just keep checking they’ll come on every once in a while just make sure they are polyester and old and not clip ons haha. My buddy accidently got some clip ons.

It’s really hot and we have been doing a lot of service and I ate a chilly and then worked in the sun all day and fried my upper lip really bad. We all got a good taste of picapica … the worst plant in the world … worse than stinging needle! Haha!

Tell Kori I said hi! I can’t believe that he’s home. Chacho that’s crazy and today I’ve been a missionary for 11 months :( time really does fly! Well I’ve got to go but I love you guys and have a great week!

Elder Ward

04/12/2010 (Mayaguez)

2010-04-12T11:58:00.000-06:00

HEY FAMILIA!

So everything is going just great here in Mayaguez. It’s wonderful yeah -- Elder Christensen was here for 3 transfers before I got here and so yeah I know him. Right before he left he told me he left me some good food so that was rather nice of him! Haha! But yeah we are doing great Margarita still has her baptismal date but what happened was that when Elder Christensen left they put 3 new missionaries in the ward and split the area. So Margarita is in the other side so really I have never taught her but I have talked to her at church. She is an old lady that has been going to church for about 2 years. The only reason she hasn’t been baptized yet is because she cant quite give up her last little half cup of coffee she drinks every morning but she will do it soon I think and we are praying for her :)...

The other people in the area are great! We are teaching an awesome family that includes a mom and three young boys and they are awesome. They live in the same house as a member so it’s really cool! We are teaching them and she is always going to church so I’m pretty sure we will set a baptismal date with her pretty soon. Then we have another family that goes to another church but we have been teaching them and yesterday we went over with a member to teach them and the coolest thing about the member we took is that she was a founder of the church they go to! Haha! so I really really think her testimony helped and they will start progressing really soon :) other than that we have had some really good experiences and some new people that we have found and are teaching so yeah this week should be really awesome and I’m way excited to teach :)

So Andrea and Bill’s house looks way awesome. I want to go visit before they sell it! Haha! o well I guess just tell them if they sell it they have to buy a really cool different house! :) But yeah sounds like you guys had a good trip and things are going good in Mtn. Home! It’s also crazy to think that Bishop Price has not been bishop for a whole year isn’t that kinda crazy? but yeah I don’t know what else to tell ya haha I think we are going to go to one of the nicest beaches in Puerto Rico today! I’m not sure exactly but I think we are so if we do I’ll take some good pictures and send them to you guys next week... my shoes are going great no problems I think my black ones might last my whole mission I have my fingers crossed and I’m praying haha.... but yeah well I better get going but you guys have a great week!
I love ya

Elder Ward

O yeah just send stuff to the office it’s a lot easier that way :) love ya

PS: O yeah mom I wanted to ask you a favor. So the best ties in the world to have on the mission are the old polyester ties and I figured out how to get them. I guess you can get on eBay and buy boxes of like between 15-50 ties for really cheap like $.50-$1.50 for every tie so that would be awesome if you could get on there and buy me a box and send it to me and then I can send some to Jason too if you want so that we only have to pay shipping once. but yeah there’s a missionary that’s always getting boxes of them from eBay and they are like the coolest ties ever and they are durable so if you could do that I would appreciate it :)

Love ya!

I Love Pics!!!

2010-04-05T21:35:00.005-06:00

Birthday Cupcake Bonfire - Elder Ward turns 20!!!

Give a bunch of Elders B-day hats and this is what you get ...

A few ninjas assembling bunkbeds!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

04/05/2010 New Area: Mayaguez (6th Transfer)

2010-04-05T21:19:00.003-06:00

Transfer #6
Area: Mayaguez
Comp: Elder Rivera

HEY GUYS!

ok sorry it’s been a little bit what happens here in the Catholic capital of the world is semana santa (holy week) and during holy week everything closes down and everyone eats fish and so i couldn’t email cuz the library was closed and everyone was off eating fish haha

but anyways I’m currently living in Mayaguez right now since Wednesday. i was really bummed to leave a lot of the people that we had found in Ponce including the man that had the baptismal date. we found him and he felt so bad that we hadn’t taught him for a while so i think he will probably progress again with Elder Wilson but yeah and then another guy named Juan is just amazing and I’m excited to hear if he gets baptized.

This week has been way crazy because we had to do all the moving stuff … helping all these people move, building bunkbeds and just crazyness and then we had a normal work day FINALY this Friday and it was good I got to get out and work hard in the new area and we had conference WHICH WAS GREAT! they talked a ton about families and wow it was a great conference. for some reason i just got the feeling like the times are only going to get worse and worse as we get closer to the last days and they were just advising us to be strong do things we need to strengthen ourselves and our families and just seguir adalante like they say over here haha

but yeah I’m really excited to be here in Mayaguez. its another giant city but on the awesome side of the Island. I’m on the west side and really close to some of the nicest beaches in PR and i live a rock throwing distance from the ocean but yeah everything is going great. My new comps name is Elder Rivera from El Salvador and he is great. Its awesome having a latin comp because my Spanish is getting even better :)

well i got to go but it sounds like you guys had fun in England. o and i also thought it was funny about Jason because all the stuff he asked for is stuff you learn you want on the mission and i should have told him haha cuz i wear short socks a lot, the watch thing, and everyone always get the PMG shrunk they do say its illegal but all the missionaries get them haha but yeah ill talk to you guys later

love ya
elder ward

03/23/2010 (Ponce, PR)

2010-03-23T14:10:00.000-06:00

YA MADE IT!

wow i cant believe you guys are over there again (in England) and I'm 20 years old can you believe that? I'm an old fart haha i don't like being old its so weird but yeah anyways everything is going good and i did get your package it was awesome! thank you so so much i loved the calendar and the missionary card it was awesome but yeah thank you so so much i loved it and the cookies were great! i love homemade cookies so if you send any more packages just skip the candy and send me cookies haha they are cheaper anyways :) but yeah thanks a ton! :)

so this week was a good week. we were working pretty hard and trying to get stuff done. we were pretty low on the old investigators but now we got some new ones that are just way way way awesome. one of them is a sports journalist and he is like the coolest guy I've ever met. he really is amazing and he's just humble and he just keeps telling us he wants peace and happiness. he is awesome so we have been teaching him now and yeah it really is great. then there is another family that lives right next door to our bishop and he is awesome too. we have been teaching them twice now and they are great and they said that they are going to go to church this Sunday and that really should be awesome the dad is just amazing he really understands things and he's smart which is awesome. so we are teaching them and then the ones that had the date for this week well they kinda fell off the face of the planet for a week or two but we've been trying to get back in touch with them and I'm pretty sure we will be able to find them again this week so yeah hopefully we can continue teaching them :)

but yeah everything is going great we had interviews yesterday and transfers are about 1 week from now (a week from Wednesday) so we will see what happens. I'm pretty sure one of us will be leaving but we have no idea who it will be. so yeah we will see what happens. i really want to stay and keep working here but i also would like to see a little more of the island so i hope they leave me here one more transfer and then send me off but who knows :)

well you guys have fun in England and say hi to everyone for me and tell Eric he could probably buy himself a Scottish kilt and i bet they would let him play tennis in it hahahahha

love you guys

elder ward

Pictures!!! WOOHOO!!! 03/15/2010

2010-03-15T11:03:00.003-06:00

Notice the Earring!!!

Elders Lamb, Wilson, Ward, Pliler!
Helping a member clean his house!

Elder Ward on the Teeter-Totter!

Boys will be Boys!!!

Elder Wilson on the Teeter-Totter!

03/15/2010 (Ponce, PR)

2010-03-15T11:02:00.000-06:00

HOLLA!!!!

So yeah our week was kinda rough this week pretty much all or investigators dropped and they said not to come by this week it was kind of a bummer but o well we will try again next week. so needless to say we did a whole lot of finding and looking for people to teach. we did find a really really cool family that was just awesome. Something kinda funny - i'm beginning to notice is that all our investigators most of the time are not from Puerto Rico haha We found one family that is originally from panama and they are awesome and we have a return cita with them tomorrow so i'm pretty excited about that.

The guy that was supposed to get baptized on my birthday we couldn't see him either this week and so he won't be ready for his baptism this saturday but he did go to church which was great and this friday we have a cita with him and we are going to go back by and set up another date with him but yeah so that's kinda what went down this week it was good and we worked hard and we are excited to teach the new people we found. AND EXCITED TO FIND MORE!!! :)

But anyways it sounds like you guys are getting excited and ready to go that should be way fun to go to scotland. i really want to go to scotland and ireland sometime so i might have to make that trip before Andrea moves back haha but yeah you guys will have a lot of fun and Kennady will be so excited.

Jason sounds like he is doing good. that is so awesome about his mission he is going to have a ton of fun wow he's going to love it haha sounds like a really cool place to serve a mission.

But yeah about daylight savings time we don't have it here we always stay on the same clock so yeah we never change which is nice i think haha

but yeah i'm going to get going you guys have a great week and enjoy your travel haha!
i'll talk to you soon

love you guys

elder ward

03/08/2010 (Ponce, PR)

2010-03-08T11:09:00.002-07:00

HOLA
wow yeah this week was so fast for me kinda crazy i cant believe we are emailing again but anyways life is going great our best investigators are the ones with the date for my birthday they have gone to church a couple times now and they are just awesome and are progressing really really well and he just fits right in with the ward its great but yeah we are still teaching them and they just love everything and love learning and he goes to church and he just asks all sorts of questions and like all the classes just help him so much its great but yeah we are working with the other people really hard but only the guy and his wife came to church this sunday so we got a lot of work to do with our other investigators but yeah ill let ya know how everything goes

thats so crazy about Jason i had to stay in the mtc for 9 weeks and he only has 8 that's so awesome he is one lucky bugger! I still haven't heard really anything from him for a bit so he better write me back soon!

Sounds like you had a fun time in Rexburg. I can't believe there is snow in the world right now IT'S SO HOT!!!! haha actually to tell you the truth yesterday was like the best most cool day in my entire mission. it was so cold i think it even hit like 70 i think i'm not sure but everyone was wearing like sweatshirts all day it was so funny me and my comp were just loving it it was amazing.

I'm so happy to hear about Brad. That's so good! I told you he was a tough old bird haha but wow thats great!

You can just send mail to my address in Ponce still if you want - I'll be here till March 31 that's the end of the transfer I think I will go after that but we will see what happens who knows o yeah and I remembered something I need for my birthday haha one of those oil vials for consecrated oil! Mine's all broken!

wow i cant think really anything else - things are going awesome we are doing great and the cheesecake gets better every week :)

love you guys
elder ward

03/01/2010 (Ponce, PR)

2010-03-01T09:48:00.003-07:00

03/01/2010

HOLLA FAMILIA!!!

Wow crazy crazy sounds like life is going good back in mountain home. we did get to eat our cheesecake we had to toc doors for about 5 hours straight but we got it haha :) but yeah the mission is kinda crazy about what you end up liking i think its just you get old and your taste buds change cuz really the only things i don't like now are milk and green olives but now even the green olives are growing on me cuz everyone puts them in their food here haha it's kinda weird but I'm pretty sure the whole milk thing will never change cuz i still cant even stand the smell of it but yeah i love cheesecake remember when we bought that one in England :)

but yeah anyways this week was really good we are teaching this family that is way awesome we had taught them twice and the second time a member came with us and he was just awesome he really did his work cuz we taught and then he invited them to church and said he would come and pick them up the next day and then he came and picked them up and took the to church last Sunday and he like took them on a tour around the chapel and wow he was amazing and the best part is is that he only has like a year in the church but yeah that was awesome so then this week we were on a trade off cuz one of the other elders got sick so his comp was tired of staying in for a whole day so my comp went with the sick elder and me and the other one worked but yeah we went to teach them and they couldn't stop saying how great church was and then he just started telling us that hes going to go every week and that he wants to be a Mormon it was so so so awesome in his prayer he said "porfavor bendicenos que podams convertirnos a mormones de puro corazon" it was AWESOME! coolest thing ive ever heard an investigator say haha but yeah pretty dang awesome he has a baptismal date for march 20th (pretty cool date hu? :))

but yeah so why is Jason leaving already? i thought he was supposed to be there for 12 weeks? so that means he shouldn't be leaving yet haha when did they change it? he hasn't written me for a while

so that's awesome about the Olympics and Canada sounds like you guys had a pretty good little party haha I'm not going to lie i kinda miss the Olympics a little bit but o well haha

but anyways sounds like everyone's going good i feel so bad for brad i hope he gets feeling good soon tell him i said hi and "que sesienta mejor" haha that's what i always say to people when they are sick :)

but yeah i better get going it sounds like everyone is doing good ill talk you next week

love elder ward

ps don't worry about my birthday i have a ton of money on my card anyways and if I need anything I'll just let you know ok and I'll just buy something when i need it :)

02/22/2010 (Ponce, PR)

2010-02-22T10:50:00.004-07:00

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

2010-02-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

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)

2010-02-08T18:41:00.003-07:00

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)

2010-02-01T22:08:00.002-07:00

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 :)

01/25/2010 (Ponce)

2010-01-25T15:25:00.002-07:00

01/25/2010

HOLA FAMILIA
so sounds like things are going great and time really is moving at home too. haha sometimes I think everyone at home is just stuck and it will be the exact same when I get back until I hear things like getting a new stake center, people getting married, and even Eric driving -- STAY OFF THE SIDEWALK!!

But anyways it was amazing to hear from Elder Bednar. There were about 100 missionaries that were there and he comes in and he’s like ok we are going to work together today and he just invited us all not to be scared and just open up and we were going to discuss things. Like 2 weeks in advanced we all had to read two talks from elder bednar "seek learning by faith" and ''ask in faith" so we really studied hard before hand and it was great he just started with "does anyone have a question?" and then the discussion started and we listened and learned and it was amazing! It was really like a one on one experience with a prophet. It was amazing and it lasted 3 hours it was really really really great and I LEARNED A TON!

but anyways what’s new … me and elder Wilson are still working really really hard and we are learning about faith haha there is something elder bednar talked to us about that really hit me hard that I love! he talked about this kid that he went to his mission and did a thing like he did with us well the kid really admired Elder Bednar a ton. he returned from his mission got married and was married for about a year and then got really really bad cancer so the kids family sent a letter to Elder Bednar and just asked him if he could send the kid an email or a note or a letter or something just to cheer him up but what Elder Bednar did was show up at his hospital and spent the day talking with him for a while and at the end the kid asked for a blessing and Elder Bednar said yes but before I do I want to ask you if you have the faith not to be healed (in the Bible it always asks for the faith to be healed) but he asked if he had the faith not to be healed. He said if I put my hands on your head and seal you to die and cross the veil and start your work in the spirit world could you accept it? So the kid thought about that! Elder Bednar told him to talk to his wife and then he would come back and give him the blessing. so what I learned from this is that if I ask myself “do I have the faith to continue working really hard without seeing the fruits of my labors or without seeing baptisms” -- it’s something cool to think about but me and Elder Wilson are just really trying to work hard and forget ourselves in the work loose ourselves in our faith :)

but that’s awesome about everyone getting their mission calls and it sounds like everyone is doing really good! Way awesome that Sami’s dad is giving that talk (Our former Mtn. Home Stake President - President Waddoups’ is speaking at the BYU-Idaho Devotional next Tuesday). I would love to listen to it - I bet it’s going to be really really good. Crazy as well that Reed (Borgholthaus) is home too but that’s cool he knows a lot of Papiamento! It’s really an easy language. I don’t know too much of it yet but yeah that’s cool! They also encourage the missionaries to learn Dutch while they are down there too so I guess if I ever go I will maybe learn a few words. (Matthew’s mission takes in the ABC Islands – Aruba, Bonaire, & Curacao – so if he is ever transferred to one of those islands he will have to learn some Papiamento, French, & Dutch!)

But yeah life is going great and we are doing good!
Tell everyone hi for me!
love ya
elder ward

WOOHOO! Pictures! 01/20/2010

2010-01-20T11:08:00.003-07:00

Hey mom -- I thought I would send you some pics!

Elders Cramer, Stanley, Ward, & Pliler!

Outside Elders Ward & Stanley's apartment!

(Ponce 2 District)

Elders Cramer, Ward, & Pliler!

This one is probably my favorite picture of my whole mission (so far)! You have to send it to everyone. Two "bums" sleeping on the cement under the mattress store sign! HAHA!

(This MOM doesn't think this is very funny! Quite sad if you ask me!)

Hope you enjoy and I think I forgot to tell you I did get the backpack and it's awesome. I think it's way better than the other ones and it was cheaper so I am way stoked!

THANK YOU!

Love ya Elder Ward

01/20/2010 (Ponce)

2010-01-20T10:58:00.003-07:00

01/20/2010

Hola Familia
ok so sorry its been a little while again we've just been really busy and there has been some holidays again and yeah kinda crazy but now its p-day haha

Sounds like everyone is doing good up there and that Eric is enjoying wrestling and everything. I got my shoes and my bag so thats good. the shoes are a little stiff :( but im wearing them on p-day to try and break them in a bit :) but yeah elder pliler told me that his mom talked to you on that thing too it was kinda funny he's still in our district. it's me my comp, elder wilson, and elder pliler and elder lamb. so yeah we have a little district again. it's kinda crazy!

that's awesome Chris (Vogl) is getting married. make sure you tell him that i said congrats and keep up the good work :)

so about my Gator what happened? how come he has to get rid of him? i say eric takes him. i still haven't seen a picture of him haha but i hear he's pretty big but i dont want him to get sent away i want him to be a 3 foot whopper when i get back :)

but thats so crazy that everyone is coming home. i don't like it -- it's nuts when you get out on your mission time just goes too fast. it's weird!!! WOW! i just like to pretend that its still my first transfer haha

but anyways yeah here they have water and we can drink it and all that stuff really the only sickness that i hear of is dangay which is a sickness that you get from the mosquitos and it really messes ya up for a while. but yeah not too many people have gotten it but yeah ive never been sick. I'm pretty sure my stomach is a rock now ever since i got the bug in Ecuador because i was like the only one that didn't get sick in the ccm either so yeah kinda crazy but my comp had some stomach problems all last week and we had to make a couple pit stops every day if you know what i mean haha! But i just told him we could get out and work really hard and then he would sweat it all out :)

But yeah everything is going good! me and elder wilson are working really hard and having some good success. we have found some really cool investigators and we are working whith them. one guy Hiram he wants to get baptized but he can't go to church yet because he takes care of his cuyado every weekend and then we have another guy Felix el gato Redondo (he was a pro boxer but now he's 80 years old). He's awesome and a great guy except he doesn't believe in the God in the bible he believes in a God of nature or not even really a God just nature but yeah its kinda crazy. It's been really good and he is progressing well and starting to understand a little bit better and really those are the best ones but we also found this lady from Germany and she is way cool she speaks German, Spanish and English so we are just starting to teach her and I'm really excited about it so tell kyle to tell me some German words so i can talk to her :) but yeah everything is going good and I'm having fun and the MISSION ROCKS!

love you guys!
elder ward

Week # 01/12/2010 (Ponce) 4th Transfer

2010-01-12T19:07:00.001-07:00

4th Transfer
New companion: Elder Cody Wilson from Ogden Utah
Area: Ponce

Address directly to his apartment:

Elder Matthew Ward
Calle 3 Casa # C-21 Altos
Jardines de Fagot
Ponce, PR 00716-4017
Puerto Rico

January 12, 2010

HOLA
ok so sorry its been so long but I promise I can explain so what happened was that on Monday we ended up having to do our transfers and we had to drive to Bayamon and then we got lost and ended up clear over in the other mission on the other side of the island then we bought a map and made it haha it was kinda a little adventure but yeah pretty funny but then when we got back the library was closed for some reason I have no idea why but yeah it was all closed up so we didn’t get to email and then yesterday we went and it was a holiday so it was closed but yeah so we called president and got permission to email really quick today but yeah I kinda got to hurry cuz we have citas but
yeah anyways life is great and we are doing good! Celeste GOT BAPTIZED! That was way amazing it was kinda funny though because he had to try and do it 4 times and he had to repeat the words three times it was kinda crazy! She’s old so I can understand but yeah so finally after a long experience she got baptized and she was so happy she just kept saying how young and clean she felt it was pretty cool but anyways that was awesome my new companion his name is elder Cody Wilson and he is from Ogden Utah He is in the same group as my trainer Elder Kolar and my second comp Elder Maxwell. I’ve had a bunch from their group but yeah so anyways he is awesome and we are doing great its so so so so so so AWESOME when you have someone that is just as excited about working and getting out and working as hard as you are because its just fun and WOW I love it! We are working so so hard and having fun at the same time its amazing and we have found some awesome people :)Samuel the limber man is doing great and is reading the Book of Mormon and I’m pretty sure he will go to church next week. We found a guy and we taught him a first lesson and we asked him what the true church was and he’s the first person I’ve ever met that said it was our church on the first lesson. That was pretty crazy he told us he’s been trying to get a hold of a Book of Mormon for years and that he has gone to church a couple times so I don’t know what people were doing when he went the other times but yeah kinda crazy so we just taught him like an hour ago and he wants to get baptized so we are pretty excited about that the only problem is that he goes to Orlando every weekend to take care of his cunyado who is like completely handicap so yeah some how we have to figure out how we are going to get him to church but he says they are going to move his cunyado in the near future here to Puerto Rico :) so yeah those are some really cool people we have been teaching and we are doing great. I have gotten the shoes or the backpack yet but I’m sure I will get them soon I bet they’re in the mission home and the next person that comes down to Ponce will bring them :)o yeah and last but not least ELDER BEDNAR IS COMING TO TALK TO US!!!!!! I’m so excited he will be here on the 23 but yeah I’m way excited pretty crazy!!
Sounds like Jason is doing great and he has some cool buddies at the mtc! That’s so awesome – he’s going to love it! I’m so excited he is out I’m going to have to write him a letter soon! Well I love you guys and I will talk to you next week!
Elder Ward (Matthew)

Week # 12/28/2009 (Ponce)

2009-12-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

December 28, 2009

hey guys
I have no idea what the heck you were talking about on this email haha but I’m doing good! Today is just another p-day like always so yeah call days don’t change anything they are just normal work days and you get to call home but yeah I’m doing good and we are preparing for our baptisim. Also this Saturday was kinda cool! I got to give my first blessing in Spanish. Usually I’ve just annointed on my mission but Saturday I gave the blessing and the lady was just coughing and going crazy but yeah I was like dang she’s never going to want me to give her a blessing again haha but then the next day she walked up to me at church and she said that she was so thankful for her blessing and everything and that I gave her the blessing and that she coughed whatever she had out and that now she is healthy and doing great! it was kinda funny but yeah so i was kinda expecting to hear how all the partying was going over there at grannys and how everything went haha but i guess I’ll have to wait till next week but yeah i hope everyone is doing good and tell everyone that I said hi
O and who was the lucky bugger to get all the underwear?

love you guys
elder ward

(We sent Matthew a VERY short email by phone internet while we were over in Rexburg cuz there wasn't any internet to use! I guess he wasn't too impressed!)

Pictures!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM

PUERTO RICO!!!

Elder Pliler & Elder Ward

Elder Ward & Elder Stanley

Elder Pliler & Elder Ward

Christmas 2009 Phone Call!!

2009-12-25T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today Elder Matthew Ward called at about 11 a.m. That was the best Christmas present ever! We (Robert, Karen, Jason, & Eric) all had handsets and were able to all hear and talk to him together. After a while ... we put him on speakerphone and it worked out really well! It was fun to listen to the stories he had. A conversation in Spanish would break out now and again with his Dad. Even though I had no idea what they were talking about, it was a lot of fun listening to him speak Spanish so well (I'm assuming it was well!) -- it sounded good to me!

After an hour or so, Matthew called his sister, Andrea, in England to talk with her, Bill, Taylor, & Kennady (I don't think Bryson & Jayden talked to him)! Then, Matthew called us back and talked again for a while.

It was so fun to hear his voice!!

What a fun Christmas phone call -- just wondering how we are going to be able to handle the two phone calls we'll get on Mother's Day -- Jason will be entering the MTC on January 6, 2010.

Week # 12/14/2009 (Ponce)

2009-12-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

12/14/2009

Hola family

so im going to start out with all your questions first so i dont forget but first off garments i am good im just going to use the ones i have untill i wear them out cuz they are fine its just if i did it again i would get all low necks and try some mesh ones and then drylux haha but anyways about the shoes i really wanted a pair of the non water proof and the light brown... i dont think they have the light brown in the shoes that are like my black ones and yeah they are waterproof i really like them but i just want to see if otherones that arent waterproof are a little cooler. so for the christmas call it will probably be in the moring for you guys cuz i think im 3 hours ahead of you so that means ill probably be calling you guys at like 11 or 12 i think right around noon i guess but i will just call you guys and then ill tell you the number of the phone that i use and then you can just call me back cuz our cell phone is free long distance and if i dont use the cell phone ill probably call you from a members phone with a phone card :) and then lastly i havent gotten the package yet so i dont know if the cds worked but i will check the mail after when i get home today and if not it should get her sometime this week and then i will check :) but all of the other cds that you have sent they all worked fine so yeah :) but anyways i hope i answered all your questions haha so it sounds like everything is going great over there in Idaho haha thats so cool that jason went through the temple wow thats great stuff hes a lucky duck haha what kind of garments did he decide to get? o and what did you guys do after? did you go to tacanos? but anyways thats awesome dad and jason are speaking what was his excuse to have dad speak? :) but thats cool i wish i got to listen to them :( i guess ill just ask for a reinactment when i get back :) but it sounds like you guys are getting everything figured out and are going to have a nice little partyso im sending you guys are package today and it has some little gifts and surprises for everyone so that should get there pretty soon and also ive been looking hard for some nativities and there is a whole ton of catholic ones but i dont like them much because the catholic statues always make everyone look all wierd and like sad and dark and dreary so yeah i dont like those ones but ive been looking and we know of a place where all the artisans go and i guess they make a lot of them out of wood so i want to get ya one from there but the only problem is that its off limits and we arent aloud to go there.... so i talked to some good member friends and we are going to send them in to check it out and then hopefully i can get one that way but it probably wont be before christmas sorry :(that is crazy that kyle is comming home it actually seems like a whil cuz that first year seems like a long time ago because i was still in high school when he left haha crazy but when i look at that second year it went by like a lightning bolt haha i cant believe ive been out so long its almost been 7 whole months! :( CRAZY! but that will be exciting and cool that he gets to see jason right before he leaves ok so thats so awesome the wrestling coaches asked them all haha they just know that the mormon kids have good work ethic and standards and all that great stuff all ya got to do is set the example and good stuff happens right :) thats awesome it sounds like hes having a good time wrestling but anyways so now to the missionary work haha its really going awesome and we are doing great! WE SET A BAPTISMAL DATE! her name is celeste and she is going to get baptized on january 2 so we are really excited about that and also i kid that has been going to church for a really long time his parents are probably going to finally let him get baptized for his gift of the tres reyes! so yeah we might be having two baptisims these next couple weeks so yeah a couple prayers wouldnt hurt for those guys ;) but yeah besides them we have two other people we have been teaching a lot ones name is tony diaz and we contacted him while he was outside boxing and hes a really cool kid and doing good so yeah we are going to keep teaching them and then other family that has these two little kids that are like amazing pro soccer players haha and they are from cuba but the mom works everyday including sundays and is only home on saturday so they are going to take some work but yeah they are good too so yeah send some prayers this way and they would be apriciated :) but anyways thats about it life is going great and im excited to get all this good stuff going before the end of transfers o yeah also something cool that happened was since ive been on my mission weve had this standard set that we need to contact 140 people unplanned do 12 horas of tocing doors and teach 20 lessons every week but pretty much no one ever really gets those but anyways so i got here my first week and i saw how awesome this area is and i knew we could get it so that first week we worked hard and got everything except the lessons we had like 14 lessons but then this week i told my companion we are getting it no matter what and we are going to work hard and get there (not that we were just focusing on the numbers because really thats not what matters) but i knew we could get the goal if we would just try our best but anyways what happened is was my companion didnt really want to do it and he has some health problems but i told him we could if we just tried and prayed really hard and i shared nephi 3 7 and nephi 17 3 and then we were just working hard and just kept going and going every day and at the first of the week he was always saying we cant we cant we cant but as we kept working he finally was like seeing that we could do it and then sunday came around and we had to teach 3 lessons get 20 contacts and 2 hours of finding but i told him i knew we could do it and so we left the house and then my bike tire popped and we had a lesson clear out in the boonies and i was like man idk what we are going to do so i ran my bike home really fast (while my companion rode his lucky bugger :) haha) and then we put my bike inside and then ran over to a members house shared a lesson asked him for a ride which was the life safer WAHOO and then i was worried about getting 2 more lessons but then in our 2 hours of finding time we found two inactives that let us teach them and WE DID IT! it was awesome it was great for me though i loved it because i learned a ton it was a testimony builder for me that heavenly father will give us all we need to complete with his commandments all we have to do is do our part and really want it :) it was great now i just have to keep that standard my whole mission haha but anyways sorry this emails so long but yeah i got to go
I LOVE YOU GUYS and tell jason to send me a letter here pronto haha
love ya
elder ward

Week # 12/07/2009 (Ponce)

2009-12-07T18:43:00.000-07:00

December 7, 2009

HOLA FAMILIA

first off mother I figure I better let you know that of course I can teach a whole lesson in Spanish I’ve been a missionary for over 6 months and I think if I couldn’t teach a lesson by now I would consider myself a failure haha. no the Spanish is coming a long good I can say pretty much anything I want to say -- sometimes it just takes me a second to figure out how to say it but when it comes to teaching or the gospel stuff I can pretty much say it no problem. but it sounds like its getting cold …here I’m dieing right now in the heat haha jk its not too hot but it is a little :)that’s awesome Jason is going through the temple right now WAHOO!! That would have been cool to be there for that but o well you guys can just pretend that I was there haha I MISS THE TEMPLE! :( tell Jason that he better go as many times as he can before he leaves because once your on your mission and you can’t go anymore you really start to miss it haha o and about Jason getting his stuff I have a couple suggestions 1st off make sure you don’t buy docmartins like mine haha (which reminds me did you get my email last week and check on that web site to see if they have those hush puppies? because I wear my black shoes everyday cuz I can’t stand my docs they just fry my feet off so I kinda need some brown shoes really bad so yeah will you check for me :)) and also tell him to get a tiny itsy bitsy backpack haha I love my back pack but at times its a bit big and I just want a tiny one so I was going to ask you if you could also get on the internet and see how much a Dakine Drafter backpack is its like a little camel pack but yeah its the perfect size so yeah if you could check both those things for me that would be amazing :) so it sounds like you guys had a fun little Christmas party (I think he is talking about the Creche Exhibit cuz I didn’t tell him about any party!) haha we had a good one too we went to the plaza in Ponce and we had all the missionaries in the zone there and the city of Ponce had a huge like religion party in the plaza so like every religion came and each one had a church leader (ours was the stake pres.) and then we all had like a little booth and we just went around teaching people about the church and singing hymns and stuff it was really awesome and kinda crazy. right when we got there this crazy guy with a big microphone like ran up and was yelling at us and telling us that we were del diablo haha it was kinda funny but that was really our only run in all the rest of the people of the other religions were really nice :)but yeah life is going great! Today I went and printed off some pictures for ya and I’ll try and see if I can find a nativity but idk I haven’t seen one yet :) but yeah also my companion wanted to make some Christmas cards so we did that and we will try and send them out to everyone but I think I’m just going to send them to you and then you can mail them to all our family cuz I don’t have the addresses of everyone :) well anyways I guess that’s about all for this week we are doing great and finding lots of people we don’t have anyone really progressing yet but I’m hoping for some good stuff this week but yeah everything is going great and I love you guys and I’ll talk to you next week love ya elder wardps don’t forget to check that stuff on the internet pretty please and my shoe size is 11 in dress shoes :)

Bummer but yeah you can send those to my apartment but yeah just make sure they are durable light brown shoes I really liked those hush puppy ones cuz they weren’t water proof or anything so yeah I figured they would be cool and also on that back pack just make sure its a dark color if they have a really dark blue that would be cool but yeah just any dark color is fine and yeah thanks mom your the best o yeah also you can check eco shoes too if you cant find those ones they make good ones but yeah thank you and one more thing what’s your guys plan for Christmas will you be in Rexburg? Its coming up quick and I’ll be calling home kinda crazy hu? But yeah I’ll talk to you next week thanks
elder ward
love ya

Letter to dad:

haha man sounds like the duck hunting is going good this year. where did you guys go? just below the dam or below the boat dock? or up in hamett? but yeah everything here is going great and the Spanish is going good i still have to think about it a lot of the time but it definitely comes fast its kinda crazy. but yeah i love the Ponce area and we are doing good we are a ways away from the mission home still its actually just below Adjuntas so distance wise its farther away but yeah also something thats kinda cool that I forgot to write in the other letter is that our district got two more elders that were in another area but they moved them to Ponce so right now the city of Ponce has 8 missionaries. so when they did that they split us so I’m in a district with just me and my companion and then two other missionaries its pretty cool though cuz its the missionaries that live right next to us so we see each other a lot but yeah I’m loving it here and a lot of good things are happening. We still don’t have any amazing investigators yet but we are making that better. when I started in this area we didn’t have a single investigatore because my companion and his companion had to stay in the house for the last three weeks of last transfer because my companion crashed on his bike really bad and it messed him all up but we are starting to get more investigatores and we are doing good but yeah I love the mission it’s amazing you learn way more as a missionary than you could ever learn anywhere else I think but yeah the time just flies by and you don’t even know where it goes I swear the weeks seem like days its pretty crazy but I’m so excited to get Jason out I cant wait for him to get out and in the field its kinda crazy because its at the end of this transfer when he goes into the mtc. It is the same day this transfer ends! Everything is going great and I’ll talk to you guys next week
love ya pops
elder ward

PS: Tell Charles he better quit killin all the hens because I want there to be some ducks when I get back

Week # 11/30/2009 (Ponce Area 2)

2009-11-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

Email dated: November 30, 2009

EL DIA DE PAVO!
haha I had a great dia de accion de gracias haha it was the day after transfers so yeah I didn’t know what to expect but we actually ended up going to a really cool guys house that’s only been a member for about 6 months and he’s the only member his wife and 4 kids aren’t members so we really want to work with them but yeah it was good. We had turkey rice and beans and pasteles (they are like these little things that they started feeding us around here at the end of October and I guess they cook them all the way through January too. I guess its a festive food but its made from platanos or guineos or whatever they decide to use and its just like all mashed up and they put meat and all sorts of stuff in the middle of it and then wrap it in a leaf and tie it up and boil it. Its like a puertoriqueno tamali but yeah I like them :) ) also this family had a little bit of American food like appetizer things it was breaded shrimp and then like these little codeanblue (idk how to spell that I’m not French) balls and like fried taco things haha (I don’t know how to describe all this stuff) but yeah it was good and we just stayed there with his family for a bit and played some dominoes for a little bit and then went out and went finding -- tocing doors and visited some other members it was good.So that’s a bummer that Kyle and Tanner aren’t going anymore I thought for sure that they would both smarten up and get goin I was all excited dangit o well I guess maybe while Jason is out they will realize what they are missing and get in gear haha Anyways it sounds like you all had fun and that it was a good thanksgiving. Did you get any killer good sales? My companion wanted to get up early and head to the store to see if we could get some Black Friday sales but I had to inform him that we probably shouldn’t do that. haha he’s a funny guy! But yeah I love Ponce so far. Its a really big city I already knew a ton about it cuz I was always here already and I went on a trade off in the area that I’m in now but yeah its good there are 6 missionaries in the city of Ponce which is cool so sometimes we’ll be riding on our side of the street in our area and they’ll be riding on the side in their area and we will see them haha and one of the companionships actually live in our area in another apartment complex so we see them sometimes too but yeah the thing I love about Ponce is that there are so many people haha ITS GREAT! in Adjuntas there wasn’t as many people so it was hard to talk to a ton of people. so now there is like a ton of people everywhere and when there’s more people, you talk to more and when you talk to more, you can teach more, and when you teach more you baptize more so yeah our agenda for this week is already chuck full of citas so I’m way excited. We found a guy my first day here and we’ve taught him two lessons and he’s way cool and doing good so I’m excited about him too but he’s going in for a knee operation so we can’t see him till Saturday. but yeah Ponce is great and so far from what I can tell it should be an area with a lot of people getting baptized but the missionaries that have been here for the last while were a bit bagga haha but don’t worry we are changing all that around :)My companion Elder Stanley is great! He’s from Las Vegas and he’s a good guy. he only has 4 months left in the mission and so I think he’s getting a little excited to get home but I keep him working pretty hard :) he’s also hyper glysimic and so he has to eat every now and then so that’s kinda been weird for me because I usually like to just eat a giant lunch and then just work the whole day but yeah I kinda felt bad cuz we did that two days ago and then he got really nauseous and sick so now we just like stop at burger king and get him a milk shake or something but yeah I love him he’s a great guy and he’s working hard and we are going to see some good stuff happen this transfer I KNOW IT!!So anyways I don’t even want to think that it’s almost Christmas! That’s so crazy! Its going by way too fast WAY WAY too fast!!! But yeah I actually decided something that you can get me. I would really like if you could get on the internet and go to that Hush Puppy site and see if they have those brown shoes still on sale because I mean my doc martins are good I just think my feet are going to melt away cuz they are so so so hot here! In Ponce its like 10 degrees hotter than Adjuntas and yeah my feet don’t handle the heat in the doc martins and they are my only brown shoes so yeah if you could look on there and see if they have them and send me those that would be great they are the ones that are just plain leather and like a light brownish color and they aren’t water proof or nothin but other than that I think I’m good with everything I actually might try and send some stuff back again like my doc martins if you can get those other shoes sent :)but yeah sounds like everything is going great up there in Idaho! Thanks for the email and everything and I’ll talk to you guys next week.
LOVE YA
elder ward

Week # 11/23/2009 Going to Ponce! (4th Transfer)

2009-11-23T19:06:00.001-07:00

Email dated: November 23, 2009

4th Transfer
Ponce 2 Area
New Companion: Elder Stanley from Las Vegas, Nevada

I’M LEAVIN! :( :) had to put a double smile because I’m happy to go to a new area and talk to new people but I’m also sad to leave my little Branch up here in the mountains they are awesome. Our mission is going through all these changes so now what we are doing and I’m pretty sure all the missions in the world are doing is that we don’t have transfer meeting and we have zone conference every month now. I guess they want to focus on doing missionary work by the month now or something but yeah so I know where I’m going and who my companion is already. My comps name is Elder Stanley from Las Vegas he’s a pretty funny kid I went on a trade off with him for a day my second transfer. We are going to be in the Ponce 2 area haha kinda funny cuz that’s still in my district and I’ve gone there at least once a week so far on my mission haha so it’s like I’m right next door kinda funny but yeah Ponce is like one of the bigger cities in Puerto Rico so I’m going from one of the small ones to one of the biggest haha but yeah it should be good except it’s usually like 10 degrees hotter down there which isn’t cool. I leave Wednesday morning -- I don’t know what my address is but you can just send stuff to the office and it will get to me just fine. Oh and if I go to the islands ever you just send letters to the office and then President takes them over when he flies over like twice a transfer but yeah you just can’t send packages when your in the islands!
So to answer dad’s questions if we can watch movies the answer is YES! you know all those movies that the missionaries hand out (like cordero de dios, como hallar fe en Cristo, Familias puede ser eterna, etc..) haha yeah those are the only movies we can watch :)
But anyways that does sound like a good movie haha (We went to the movie “The Blind Side” and I told Matthew a bit about it! Very GOOD movie!!) I would like to see it so yeah you can just buy it and save it for me. I love football movies! but yeah tell Jason he better get crackin and get to the temple and get all his stuff ready and tell him that I said a lot of days those mesh garments don’t sound too bad haha
We had Thanksgiving planned with an awesome family here in the branch that I just love. they have a bunch of kids and they’ve been members for about 30 years or so they were one of the first people to get baptized in Adjuntas but yeah they are awesome and have a bunch of returned missionary kids and then 3 foster kids that are ages 12-14 but the problem is I get transferred the day before so I don’t know what I will be doing Thanksgiving. I would imagine it will just be a good day of missionary work cuz a lot of families will be home and then we will probably have a dinner at a members house in Ponce.
But anyways I think I answered all the questions haha but yeah life is going good we just gave out a baptismal invite yesterday and the guy accepted his name is Nestor and he’s a really nice guy that we met at the beginning of the transfer. He was living with a girl and a bunch of kids but they got in a fight and she left or something and his house on his farm burned down a couple months ago and he didn’t have insurance so the Lord is doing a good job of humbling him so yeah he wants to get baptized but he still has a lot of work to go. Other than that we don’t have any really strong investigators but we will find them I have one more day left to get them haha :)
Well I better get going o and I ended up getting everything in the mail like a couple days ago so yeah I have my card and everything and tell Jason I’m going to write him a letter today.
I love you guys and have fun in Utah
elder ward

Week # 11/16/2009 (Adjuntas)

2009-11-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

Email dated: November 16, 2009

haha you crack me up but good work on the missionary work now you just have to get her to come to the good part CHURCH haha but it sounds like your doing good haha. So you and kelli went to the temple? When is Jason going to go through? I don’t know how hot it is in the Philippines but tell him that I kinda wished I would have tried some mesh garments out sometimes haha and don’t let dad see this email cuz honestly I like the crew neck ones better too haha even though I told dad I wouldn’t it’s just so much better with a collared shirt haha I definitely like the other ones better when I’m wearing a t-shirt but with the collared shirt I like celestial smile all the way haha (you might have to delete some of that when you send this email out haha idk :)) but that’s cool that you had the temple pres. and stuff come down that’s awesome its crazy cuz sometimes I wish I was in a states mission cuz I miss going to the temple I love it and also I miss all the big wards and stakes haha don’t get me wrong I love it here but its just a giant sized blessing to have a temple and a big ward and everything :) but anyways everything here is going great we haven’t really found anyone for a while either we are spending about all day everyday tocing doors and looking for people to teach we just haven’t had that much success but we are working hard and we will find someone :) but yeah o so I got a funny story I’ll tell ya about so Friday (which happened to be Friday the 13th) was just a funny day so it starts out that we forgot to turn our phone ringing on which is our alarm clock and usually we wake up at 6:20 but the phone didn’t go off so we woke up at like 6:35 and sinned right off the bat and then we did all our studies and all that good stuff which went good but we went out to teach and in the first 30 minutes of the day all 5 of our citas fell that we had planned idk how we even contacted them all in that time but it just so happened like that and they all said they would be gone and we couldn’t teach them so then we went tocing and it was a way hot one Friday and then mid contact I was talking to this guy and all of a sudden a big giant bee stings me right on the tip of the figure and man it hurt but I was talking to this guy and man it was just a mess but really funny at the same time but yeah it cracked me up and I don’t want to complain in my email or anything but I just thought it was a funny Friday the 13 experience haha well I better go run and check dad’s email but I hope you guys are all doing good I have checked the mail yet so I don’t know if its here but I think it should bebut I love you guys and everything is going wonderful transfers end not this Wednesday but the next so yeah we’ll see what happens haha but yeah love ya and I’ll talk to you next week
elder ward

(Matthew’s email to his dad was quite hilarious this week so I just had to share it with all of you!)

WHAT?! Man I feel out of the loop I didn’t know they were selling wolf tags now I can’t believe that that is crazy but brad missed hu? That’s a bummer but where were you hunting? Man those crazy wolves -- sounds like there is way too many of them. so you and brad better get out there and shoot a couple haha but I was thinking if you get one you can skin him and tan him and make me a big old Indian hat with the tail hanging in the back and the face right on front and then all 4 legs hanging down hahaha it would probably be better to do that with a coyote but yeah. What did you end up doing with your bear and your elk? I think the best would be to rug the bear that’s what I’m going to do when I shoot one haha :) well everything is going good and it sounds like you having fun but I’ll talk to ya later
Love ya
elder ward

(Andrea’s email)

hey HOWARDS
Puerto Rico es perfecto! :)

but anyways transfers are this next wednesday but i dont know if i will be going or not yet i will know this saturday if i stay or not but yeah if you want you can just send it to the mission home and it will get to me just fine :) but anyways that would be cool if kenna baught an airplane that sounds fun you should let her do it :) but they are dancing hu? i dont know how to do any of that dancing stuff but i did have a roommate in college that was catholic and a ball room dancer but he was pretty different haha but anyways yeah i dont really need anything for christmas for real missionaries just live out of a suit case and dont really have room for anything and ive got plenty of clothes and stuff so really im great but thanks but i still would like a big box of home made cookies or maybe some peanut butter bars man i havent had those for a while haha but yeah anyways everythign is going great hows the england life? i was just thinking do you guys know when you are going to leave england? and are you going to try and go somewhere crazy afterward? anyways ill talk to you next week ( i almost didnt get to talk to you this week but good thing i refreshed it before i left hu :))
well i got to go ttyl > > love you guys > > elder ward>

Week # 11/09/2009 (Adjuntas)

2009-11-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Email dated: November 9, 2009

Madre su espanol es excelente so anyways to start out that’s pretty cool that you guys had your primary program cuz we had ours too haha well actually we had stake conference so because the wards are really small they do a combined primary program right before conference starts but yeah it was really cool and reminded me of the funny kids. This one little girl did not want to say her talk at all it was funny. They also sang familias pueden ser eternas tambien haha :)ok so what are you doing with a bunch of pieces of wood your sanding? 800 is a lot haha but it sounds like everything is just about the same back home haha. (Super Saturday) They don’t have any pawn shops here :( well at least I haven’t seen one haha and they don’t have any guns really either because there is nothing to hunt so the only guys I ever see are the ones that the police have and I always ask them what it is (even thought I can usually tell before hand haha) but yeah it’s a good way to start a conversation except now I know all the policemen in town I think and haven’t got one teaching appointment with any of them :( but yeah talking about the police reminds me when me and my companion lost the keys to the car and went to the police station to see if they could unlock our door and they just handed me a slim jim and said bring it back haha man that’s funny :) I think I told you that story though at least I hope so hahaSo that is way crazy about Chris (Chris Hipwell is on a mission in SLC) and his parents going there all the time man that would be weird but I’m not going to lie sometimes I get jealous of those Idaho Utah missionaries that have giant Stakes of people that would love to help the missionaries haha ;) At least that’s how I picture it and it all makes sense to me now why they have so many baptisms! But wow that’s so weird that Kyle is coming home kinda crazy hu? Man I can’t believe it he’s going to be an RM he’s going to BYU right? man that’s weird but something kinda cool that I just realized that he will only have a semester more of school than me when I get back so we will be about the same :)So that scripture sounds like a pretty good one of Jason’s. (Jason’s scripture for his Missionary Plaque is … Alma 26:12) That was one of the two I sent you remember? But something really cool about all that is that his scripture if you read the story of the sons of Mosiah and Alma the Younger well the sons of Mosiah and Alma all convert and the sons of Mosiah are all supposed to be kings but they decide to leave and go on missions instead and Alma does the same thing but the sons of Mosiah take off to go teach the lamenites and Alma stays to do his mission -- well Jason's scripture is Ammon after he had all the success with his brothers and my scripture is Alma (Matt’s scripture for his Missionary Plaque is … Alma 29:9) but I just think it’s cool because they were like best buddies who left out on their missions to different places but they just really have the same look on things. haha but yeah read the stories I LOVE IT :)but anyways now to the good stuff so everything is going really good and we are starting to get investigatores and we’ve been teaching a lot more now :). the family is doing good we had a lesson with them yesterday and the branch pres and his wife came with us so that was good (they are both returned missionaries and are like 27 years old so yeah they had preach my gospel on their missions too so they can teach great and know the language haha) but yeah then we also have another returned missionary that is 22 and he is the second counselor and he has been helping us on the weekends and he’s way awesome too but yeah we are teaching and finding and everything is going good we haven’t got anyone to church yet but we will :)anyways I’m like out of time though I’m talking too much ahha but I better get going I hope everything is going great and you get Jason’s stuff done on time haha I’m doing good and I don’t really need anything for Christmas -- tell dad I heard about Jason’s Christmas present and wouldn’t mind one of those waiting at home for me haha (I guess I better find out what this present is … I don’t even know!!!)
love you guys
elder ward

(This is a portion of Andrea’s email from Matthew)
Yesterday I got ribs for the first time of my whole mission it was the best we went and visited a member and they were about to eat so she is like come eat with us and she pulled out ribs I WAS IN HEAVEN!!!But anyways so for Christmas I don’t really need anything. You can just send me a batch of cookies and then I can lug them around in my giant belly instead haha but yeah I don’t really need anything :)You can tell Kennady that we will have to go on a special trip to Puerto Rico some time because I know she wants to go so bad :)
But anyways I hope everything is going good with you guys and tell everyone hi for me thank you so much for the email and everything ill talk to you later
love you guys elder ward

Week # 11/02/2009 (Adjuntas)

2009-11-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

Email dated: November 2, 2009

HOLA FAMILIA

Life is great down here and I’m having fun! haha but no it did not really feel too much like Halloween haha but I’ll tell ya how it went. It was a pretty good day -- we woke up in the morning and did the normal thing and then while eating my cereal I decided that I had better pick a very exciting person to be for Halloween so I decided that I would be Captain Moroni so I was Captain Moroni but with a modern day twist like white shirt and tie kinda thing. Then after that about half way through the day I decided to switch and then I was Ammon. It was awesome! haha then we had a lot of lessons which was awesome and then we had to go home because we were called the night before and everyone had to be inside by 6 because things can get crazy on Halloween. haha but it’s weird here because people just like to have fun with Halloween but since I live in Adjuntas where there is a thousand churches everyone freaks out when you celebrate Halloween cuz they all think its the devils day its kinda weird I didn’t get to see but I guess every year all the younger generation dress up and do the normal Halloween thing except not trick or treating and they go to the plaza and just hang out. Anyways I guess at the same time all the pastors and stuff go to the plaza and like preach and tell people to go home and repent and that they are worshiping the devil. It’s a crazy place up here in Adjuntas haha.but other than that I think everything is about the same haha we found two new investigatores this week and I’m really excited about that. One of them said she wants to be baptized but we’ve only taught her one lesson. Then also that family that we found (Nestor and Brenda) they are doing good and we are really excited to teach them some more. We are supposed to have a noche de hogar with them tonight so that should be good!So about blessing the sacrament and stuff that’s cool Jason did it but here we never really do it. I had to pass one time because there was only one kid old enough to pass in church but yeah it’s always blessed by the old guys we do have one priest (the one we got the scriptures for) but he doesn’t ever really bless it. It’s always the elders.but anyways i did get your package and thank you so so so so so much it was awesome. I took that little pumpkin cup and I turned it into my pen holder so I’m pretty excited about that I would have eaten with the bowls and stuff but we were fasting so I couldn’t :( but I guess the next elders that get this apartment at Halloween they will have some Halloween fun haha. but yeah thanks for everything and life is going great
I love you guys and I’ll tty next week!

love ya
elder ward

hola papi
so we are teaching one family that is really good they arent that religious which is a good thing but it also means they dont understand a lot so yeah we are teaching them and then we have one younger girl thats married and she was really excited to learn and understood everything really good so yeah we are going to try and teach them right now and are really hoping things go good with them other than that we have a couple of other investigatores but no one really strong my companion loves the mountains cuz he hasnt seen any for a really really long time haha but i guess the islands are really cool so i guess it would be pretty cool to get shipped over there and i guess a lot of people speak spanish over there too so that will be good. It is way crazy that Reed and Kyle are coming home and that ive been out for almost 6 months its pretty nuts the whole mission time thing is crazy it seems like time just flys by its a lot faster out here on your mission than back home thats for sure yeah so is all the hunting over then? i forgot about duck hunting its kinda wierd it doesnt seem like its november haha its way to hot to be november hahaha nate sent me a letter and said he got busted man they got some bad luck it was last year when his dad got in trouble for not packing out his entire bear on the rafting trip haha well i hope he makes it ok but yeah that should be cool in rexburg are both the cabins done now? and have furniture and everything? well everything is going great here and im loving it its pretty crazy that jason will be getting shipped out in about two months now its gettin closer haha but yeah well ill talk to you guys next week
love ya
elder ward

haha pops is getting old hu? well man did Brad ever shoot anything? but yeah sounds like those two costumes really get used haha they were a good investment but i hope your doing good and having fun life here is going great the other day i saw like a giant iguana it was like 8 feet long i sware haha but yeah ill have to show you some pictures some time but keep up the good work are ya gettin good grades in school? and have you read the B of M yet?
love ya > > elder ward>

Week # 10/25/2009 (Adjuntas)

2009-10-25T18:55:00.000-06:00

Email dated: October 25, 2009

Hola Familia
well thank you so very much for doing that mother I’m pretty excited but this transfer just started so don’t get to worried yet haha but yeah thank you so much for getting those he’s going to die when I give them to him it will be awesome but anyways I like the black better anyways so good choice :). (Matthew asked me to get him a set up scriptures for someone in the Ward he is in who is planning on going on a mission. Elder Wingman is the name I had inscribed. I think I need to find out a little more about this guy!!)

but anyway yeah he’s from Alpine (Elder Maxwell, Matt’s Companion) that’s what I meant to write but its Lone Peak high school so yeah sorry about that but yeah he’s from Alpine.ok so it sounds like Mtn. Home is growing like crazy its gonna be a whole nother place when I get back its kinda nuts and the whole mormon temple thing (the Stake Center … I hope he really doesn’t think it is a temple. I told him about someone in the Mtn. Home News thinking it was a Mormon Temple going up over by McDonalds.) Is pretty sweet but anyways you said Brother Waddoups was there that’s pretty cool I should send them a letter so if you get the chance do you want to send me their address? that would be great but anyways it sounds like the missionary work is going good down there haha but yeah we spend most of all day every day trying to find people and contact people its crazy because here in Puerto Rico you find all day long and you can set up like a bunch of citas and then the next day you go to them all and they all fall and no ones there so then you just have to go find and try and get new people to go and teach its kinda a bummer sometimes but o well we will find the ones that are waiting for us haha but yeah life is going great and we are having fun and working hard we are still trying to find a couple good investigators so that will be good but yeah also something kinda funny I’m starting to learn about some Papiamento (language) a little bit cuz my companion was in Aruba and Curacao for 6 months and everyone thinks I’m going there after this transfer its kinda funny because the islands made this thing now they don’t let us in there for very long at all so now like the longest people stay in the islands is 4 transfers so this transfer about 5 missionaries have to come back from there so yeah that’s why everyone thinks I’m a gonner but we’ll see :) I don’t know if I want to start from square one with another language again :( but yeah so when your with a comp that came from there your supposed to learn a bit so you can get a little head start before you get there but idk I guess we’ll see :)well I hope everything is going good with you guys and that life is great its sure great here haha

love you guys
elder ward

Picture!!! Elder Maxwell & Elder Ward

2009-10-20T19:02:00.000-06:00

Elder Maxwell & Elder Ward

After doing Service!

Week # 10/19/2009 (Adjuntas) 3rd Transfer

2009-10-19T18:51:00.000-06:00

Email dated: October 19, 2009
Adjuntas
3rd Transfer
Companion: Elder Maxwell from Alpine, Utah

Hola Familia

So me and my companion are doing good he’s from Lone Peak Utah and he’s awesome. I was just telling dad that I was pretty sure that there wasn’t another missionary in my mission that did outdoors stuff and liked hunting but then the next day I meet my companion and sure enough he likes it about as much as we do haha but yeah his name is Elder Maxwell and we’ve been doing good. He works hard so its great we are going to get a lot of stuff done this transfer I know it :)But anyways that’s cool it was homecoming week this week. I remember one time at mutual we were doing that fear factor thing and I had to eat a caramel covered onion and it was sick. I couldn’t do it -- man it killed me haha so I know how he feels that would have been rough. (At the Homecoming Assembly the Homecoming King Nominees were in a relay. They each had to put on nylons, high heel shoes, a dress, boa, jewelry and then eat a caramel apple. The one that had a caramel covered onion was the Homecoming King.)So that’s cool that the ward is getting to work with the missionary work. How it’s really supposed to get to is something called CAR (conversion, activation, and retention) and all the leaders and the missionaries meet every week and they go over all the people they are teaching and the members bring new names and everyone works together to do it. Its pretty crazy but after being on a mission for a while I can see how it would work wonders haha so keep it up and get the ward going good hahaA NEW STAKE CENTER?! That’s crazy so that will be cool I guess when I get home. its kinda weird I don’t like getting old and everything changing haha its definitely going to be weird to go to Mountain Home when I get back.(Matthew sent home a package with some funky hats for Jason & Eric.) I knew they would love them haha I actually bought them because Nate Call had one at school and so I thought it would be funny if I bought one and we could wear them to school haha ok so about MR elder Wingman haha ok I know its going to be a lot of money but it would be cool if you can get him the bible too with his name on it but make sure its the new bible cuz the new bible just came out in Spanish and Elder Kolar was supposed to order that for him but then he left and forgot so yeah if you could just get a set of scriptures it doesn’t matter what color and no tabs and make sure its inscribed cuz that’s the main reason I’m having you do it cuz I could order them but I can’t get it stamped haha but yeah and just take money out of my account to do it :) THANKS! (Who does he think puts the money in his account? HAHA! as Matt would say!)But yeah we knew Elder Kolar was going to Aruba because when you leave to the Islands you get to know a little bit before because you have to fly over and stuff so yeah we knew he was going there and also when president came to church we got him to tell us that my companion was coming from the islands hahabut anyways that reminds me of something -- so since my companion has been in the islands for the last 6 months where they speak papiamento he doesn’t know that much Spanish haha so its way cool I really like it because before Elder Kolar knew it way good so he just spoke but now that my comp doesn’t know it to well I have to talk a lot more :) I mean he can talk as good as I can I think but it just helps me learn more :) about the pictures I’ve got a couple new ones I think so I’ll try to send them today but we’ll see if it works haha and for p-days usually we don’t have to much time to play around so usually we get all our stuff done as soon as we can and then just hang out with some other elders and go to the beach or play dominoes and stuff. But today we are staying in Adjuntas instead of driving down to Ponce so we might go to the highest mountain in Puerto Rico or something it all depends if we have time but yeah everything is going great down here in island paradise and we are working hard and having fun we are still trying hard to find new investigatores and we have been doing good this week so that’s exciting! We had one family that we found. It’s a younger family with 4 1/2 kids she’s about to have a baby any second but yeah so we are really excited about them. We have taught them two lecciones and they are awesome the last lesson that we had with them he asked us what the requirements to get baptized are so that was really cool and I’m excited to teach him some more. We’ve found some other pretty good people one guy we went to teach his daughter and when we showed up he was sitting there and we asked him if he would want to come in and have a lesson with us (which was also a blessing because it was a lady that didn’t have a husband so we couldn’t have gone in the house if he didn’t come) but yeah he told us that he was evangelical and didn’t want to do it but then finally he did and when we taught him he just ate up the whole lesson and just loved the Book Of Mormon and took it for scripture right off the bat. It was awesome I’ve never seen someone that just got introduced to the B of M take it like so respectfully it really is cool and I’m excited for him as well.Well that’s about all for this week. Life is going great and I would love to see those pictures you guys are sending me so yeah and put some of the cabin in there too if you can cuz I haven’t seen those pictures still either :) but yeah I hope all is well at home and I’ll talk to you guys next week.

LOVE YA
elder ward

ps how’s Andrea doing? she hasn’t emailed me in about two weeks

Week # 10/13/2009 (Adjuntas)

2009-10-13T18:50:00.000-06:00

Email dated: 10/13/2009 (3rd Transfer – Staying in Adjuntas)

ok so I’ve got to make this email short cuz I just typed a whole email to you and then the computer didn’t work and it got lost so I’m kinda bummed about that but o well haha :)but anyways first things first I’m staying in Adjuntas and Elder Kolar is leaving to the islands. It’s kinda crazy he’s been studying his Papiamento and it cracks me up I don’t know how much I want to go to the islands because I want to learn Spanish really really good but yeah Papiamento is a pretty funny language and most likely I’ll end up getting sent to the islands sometime and have to learn it. but yeah other than that not a whole lot has happened here. President came down and had church with us and that was really cool and then he taught a thing about missionary work to all the leaders it was really cool he just explained how the church is changing the missionary program and now we are trying to move it worldwide where the members do the finding and all missionaries do is teach. He told us how and what we need to do to get there obviously our mission is really far from that because we do A TON! of finding but we are working on getting it there. haha but yeah that was good and he also said my companion is coming from the islands but we don’t know who it is yet we will find out Wednesday :)anyways so that’s cool you saw all those guys blogs! Elder Knudsen is with me right now and he thought that was pretty cool. He’s an awesome guy but he is getting moved too :( there are 5 people moving from my district this transfer. It’s kinda crazy and in my zone they are closing some areas like Andrea’s email explained my mission is getting the numbers cut a lot. When I came here there were 100 missionaries and my mission is getting cut to 50 – slowly. haha it’s cuz they have so many missions opening around the world so they need to send people over there. Anyways I better get going. I sent you guys a package today so that should get there soon it doesn’t have to much just a bunch of stuff I didn’t want here and some stuff for Eric’s b-day but yeah I’ll talk to you guys next week.
love ya elder ward

Week # 10/05/2009 (Adjuntas)

2009-10-05T18:46:00.000-06:00

Email dated: October 5, 2009

HOLA
ok so life is going great and the mission is awesome but to start off this lovely email I’m going to have to ask you guys why you’re doing this to me? we haven’t got a big elk since that one I shot with the funky horns a couple years ago and then the first hunting season after I leave you send me this picture of a big old elk man! Your killing me! haha but no that really was cool looks like things went well but I’m expecting a detailed description of the hunt as well as a couple nice pictures haha.But wow I didn’t know Jason got hired by them that’s awesome but first things first I would have to agree with mom about staying in work because first off I don’t have any money right now so when I get back I’m going to be flat broke so I’ll have to work my butt off to get money for school but I have all summer to do it but Jason, on the other hand will get back in January and school starts right then so he won’t have time to work. You’ll just move straight to Rexburg and if you don’t have any money to take the ladies on dates with I don’t know what you’ll do hahahaha but yeah keep working right up till you leave is my advice.But the package did come THANK YOU! it was a great package I was tempted to keep all those laffy taffys for myself but elder kolar clearly pointed out that one of those bags were for him so I decided he had a right to them hahaha but really it was great and I liked the cds they are awesome thank you very very much and elder kolar is very thankful as well :) but about the Christmas cds just get them whenever you can Christmas here in Puerto Rico is pretty crazy and people get way excited for it. I haven’t heard any Christmas music yet because all I ever hear is regaton but yeah I guess Christmas time is crazy around here but the even bigger holiday than Christmas is "dia de los reyes" or the day that the celebrate the three kings but yeah so I’m really excited for Christmas it’s going to be really good. also if you can when you send those cds see if you can get some efy ones from somebody and my Joseph Smith cd in my box in my room that would be really cool but if not that’s fine too :)ok i really got to hurry cuz the library is all backed up and there are all these ladies just trying to get on a computer. but conference was amazing I loved it my favorite talk was ELDER HOLLAND that was amazing the most powerful testimony of the book of Mormon that I have ever heard it was amazing but yeah we watched it all at the church with all the members too hear. they all just go to the church and bring food and eat between the sessions and just like stay there all day its actually pretty cool. I watched it in English in the non air conditioned room haha :( IT WAS HOT! but definitely worth it. I loved it o and we did watch the priesthood session and it was great it was all about relationships of dads and their boys it was really good but yeah I got to go sorry but I’ll talk to you guys next week. Tell Jason to send me a letter or somethin haha ttyl

love ya
elder ward

Part of Andrea’s letter from Elder Ward – had some interesting info that I thought would be fun to share …
HEY
yeah I don’t think I got your email last week haha was it a good one? but yeah the videos are usually kinda hard to see cuz the computers are usually way slow over here and i dont have enought time to wait for them to load so yeah sorry about that i never even got to see jason open his call videobut the mission is going great I’m loving it we are having a ton of fun and its just great but the time is flying by way too fast it’s scary!!! can you believe that I have already finished 1/6th of my mission I don’t like to hear that it’s nuts and people that were here in the mission when I first arrived are going home like 6 of them this transfer and man it’s just weird. time goes buy way to fast out here its like crazy nuts but yeah its kinda sad because when i came in the mission had just over 100 missionaries and then within like a year it will be cut down to 46 can you believe that? its crazy crazy! so everyone is leaving and there won’t be a single new missionary till January it kinda stinks I’ll be the youngest missionary and I’ll have like 8 or 9 months its kinda weird but o well.We have a couple investigators right now not a whole ton we never really have a ton here in Puerto Rico I’m not gonna lie Puerto Rico is one of those hard working missions haha we have to go knock doors 2 hours a day everyday and then we have to contact 140 other people per week or 20 a day and then those are like our finding goals and here in Adjuntas we still only get like 1 or 2 investigators out of that every week its but I STILL LOVE IT!!!!but anyways about conference it was so so so so good you should get on the internet and watch it there was a ton of great stuff watch the talk by ELder Holland and you might just get blown off your seat. haha But you have to watch it -- don’t read it! You can watch them all on the internet right now :)well I better get going and ill talk to you next week
love ya
elder ward

Week # 09/26/09 (Ovejas in the backyard!)

2009-09-26T18:44:00.001-06:00

Email dated: September 26, 2009

HOLA!

As I’m sure everyone already knows life here is going great and I’M LOVING IT! So first off we don’t have really any progressing investigatores right now which is kinda a bummer we haven’t had any since our baptism but we are working hard to find people so I know it will pay off soon. In the town of Adjuntas it’s kinda crazy there is like a million and a half churches everywhere and half of them were created there in Adjuntas but they all have this mindset that you just go to the church that you live next to and it doesn’t matter what church you’re in just as long as you’re in one and you’re faithful to it. So it’s been kinda hard to convince people that there’s only one true church but yeah so that seems to be the biggest problem here but we are working hard and trying to get people to pray and ask if the church is true because we know that’s the only way they can find out and we know if they really ask they will get the right answer but yeah so that’s how the missionary work is going. also we had a baptisim yesterday kinda haha it was kinda funny cuz there is a family in the branch that got baptized like a year ago almost and so the mom and the two older kids got baptized but the dad still isn’t and the other kids were under 8 but yeah the mom and the two older girls are really strong members and are really cool but we always go over there and try and teach the dad but the last time we went over there the kids like I TURNED 8! I WANT TO BE BAPTIZED! he was way excited but him and his mom thaught that he had to talk to us to get baptized so we explained that since they are already members and he goes to church already and everything that all he has to do is talk to branch president and get his interview so he did that at mutual and then we had the baptisim this Sunday after church and even though it was a member baptisim the kid wanted the missionaries to do it so Elder Kolar baptized him it was pretty cool Elder Kolar has been out just over a year now and he’s had 6 baptisims including the last 2 with me but he had never baptized anyone himself so that was pretty cool it was kinda funny though cuz we try and really get the members involved and the members to do the convert baptisims just to strengthen the converts with the branch but the kid wanted Elder Kolar to do it so we did haha it was cool.So it sounds like the hunting season is going good. I mean I hear about all these Elk they have been seeing but I haven’t heard about any dead ones or seen any pictures yet so I don’t know what to think haha either someone’s a bad shot or telling hunting stories I’m not quite sure :) haha So Eric hurt his hip and went to Cliff huh? Does he still have that big old crazy picture of me in there? I still don’t know about that haha it kinda creeped me out a bit when I saw it it’s like life size haha but man that would be nice to go to Cliffs office right now haha I could use some adjustments :) I loved going there. tell Eric he should have asked him for some acupuncture to fix his little problem that would have been pretty funny hahabut yeah it sounds like everything is going good and everyone is doing well o and about the box I’m pretty sure you tell me you are sending it every week so I get all excited when I check the mail and then its not there haha it’s kinda funny I guess though :) but nope I cant really think of anything I need real bad I think I’m doing good. Elder Kolar said to have you send a bag of laffy taffy for him too haha so that would be nice if you could do that :) but yeah I’m doing good I still haven’t bought my bike yet cuz I haven’t needed to and they are expensive so I don’t want to haha I know it will hurt to watch money go into a bike haha but I guess I should just bite the bullet and do it kinda face the inevitable but yeah haha well i don’t have anything else to say but o yeah really quick I just remembered a story I want to tell you guys so the other day we were at some older members in our branch’s house and we were talking to them and stuff and the old lady was talking to me for a while and she was talking about these sheep (ovejas) behind her house and how they were everywhere and something about these guys coming to get them and stuff so I was really confused because I don’t think there are sheep in Puerto Rico so I was like man she talks crazy old people Spanish and talking about these crazy sheep that are flying around and stuff so then we started eating and I was telling Elder Kolar she was talking to me about some sheep behind her house and I had no idea what she was talking about and he was just laughing and didn’t think there were sheep in Puerto Rico either but anyways come to find out her and her husband started talking about it to us later and I guess the whole time she was saying "abejas" which is Spanish for bees. haha but yeah it was really funny I thought she was talking about crazy sheep behind her house but it was crazy bees so now we have a little joke we say "si habia ovejas volando y brincando en todos lados" have dad translate that for ya haha :) but yeah a funny little story for ya but I’ve got to go and I will talk to you guys next week.
love ya
elder ward

Knight Ring-Bearer!

2009-09-25T18:32:00.000-06:00

Knight Ring-Bearer at a Wedding!