Hey all~
Ross had to endure his first set of transfers the week of May 17th. His companion/trainer was taken from their area to another one. It was really hard on both of them because they had gotten close and Elder Nelson had really taken care of getting Ross adjusted to his mission plus they were having a great deal of success and worked well as a team. They begged the President to change his mind but he was firm in saying Elder Nelson was needed elsewhere. Ross's new companion is Elder Gunnell and we haven't learned much about him yet, other than Ross does like him and they get along well. For the first few days Ross had to act as senior companion and make all the decisions for the pair because Elder Gunnell didn't know the area or people. This was hard on Ross and he had a tough week. However, thanks to lots of prayers from family and friends plus kind words of encouragement exchanged between Ross and our dad, he realized how blessed he is and felt the love of our Savior. It was a humbling experience for him to learn that his mission won't be perfect and successful 100% of the time, as much as he would love for that to be the case! Here is his latest letter from this Tuesday, May 25th. The first few paragraphs are answers to my mom's questions in her letter to him. Also, he wrote a letter to my parents this week and let them know he had baptized a lady...he'll tell about that in his letter too, her name is Luz.
May 25, 2010
1. (What Ross got for his birthday...) I got my blanket, t shirt, box of awesomeness from yall and the cds. From Hillary, I got some more cds, giftcards to McDonalds and Subway and money. From mimi and popa I got money. From grandma I got giftcards, candy and money. And I actually got Brooke's package on Friday, the ZLs forgot to get it out and she gave me a shirt, giftcards and I guess the cologne came from yall.
2. My favorite gift definately was the cards from everyone. I liked the cards a lot and it was nice to get them. Espciallly from the one from you and dad. But, my favorite gift was the Gladys Knight and SUV cd (sidenote...this was from ME! YES!! So proud to be the favorite gift!! Of course, he did ask for it....so I can't take all the credit! ~Hillary). It plays loud and proud whenver i am in the apartment.
3. I got to celebrate my b day and it was great. I explain more later.
Well...this week was definately better than last week. I actually feel my spanish getting better. Like Jake said, I can understand what people are saying better, now I just have to come up with a response hahah. Me and my comp, Elder Gunnell, have been getting along. He's different then Nelson, but he is still pretty cool. Me and Nelson call each other probably 3 times a week. Some really good news!! The man that I thought I lost to baptism...We went and talked to him the other day and talked it over with him and he is interested again! He said he is just scared to change his life and is scared he will go back to his old life after he changes. We told him that no one is perfect and then showed the "mormon message" of Elder Holland's talk on the atonement and he really enjoyed that. We left him with Mosiah 18 and are going back on Thursday. Keep him in you prayers. His name is Jesus Alberto Jr.
I guess you want to know about the baptism haha. Luz is a girl that has been going to church for her entire life almost. Her family is all members and we though she was too, until we noticed she was never confirmed after she was baptized, 5 years ago haha (Spanish Branches hahaha) So we had to quuickly run through things with her and then got her interviewed, baptized and she was confirmed on Sunday. Haha it was awesome.
My birthday was so good. It started out like any other day. While I was in the shower, Elder Nelson and a couple of other missionaries called to wish me happy birthday so that was nice. Then we went and ate pancakes at some english missionaries apartment and then went out and worked. Then, for lunch, a family in the ward, the Albertos (Jesus's dad) took me and my comp to a chinese buffet down by the border. It wasn't very good but it was truly the thought that counted. This man would literally give the shirt off his back if it would help the missionaries. Then we went to a church party and went and worked some more and then we went to the Mormon Battalion with some investigators. And then Elder Hanks and Elder Naylor threw a surprise b day party for me at a members house. They made us french toast. I really felt loved! It was one of the best birthdays ever.
Not too much is happening right now. We are working hard and hope to have a baptism on the 6, 13, and 20. I hope everything is going great for yall! I hope to hear from yall soon!
Love
Elder Little
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Birthday!!!
Hey family and friends!!
Ross's birthday is coming up!! May 22nd Ross will turn the big 2-0. No longer a teenager, woohoo!! If you would like to send him something, even just a card, I know he would love it. If you want to send a little something, here are some ideas from him...
Well my bday is coming up so i guess yall want a list of things i want well....here it is
-A new set of towels (Bath and hand)
-Money for basketball shoes (we play every morning for exercise and every pday, and my feet kill in these other ones)
-Money, in general
-Gift cards to food places (we have a Carls Jr, subway, your basic restraunts)
-Maybe an electrice razor
-And anything else anyone wants to send me (Missionary stuff)
We talked to Ross on the phone on Sunday for Mother's Day and he sounds GREAT! He sounded so happy and upbeat and had the best stories and experiences to share with us. We asked a million questions and he gave us a million answers. My dad, being the note taker he is, took notes on the conversation...once I get those I'll post them here so you can read more about what's going on with Elder Little in Imperial Beach, CA. He did say to tell everyone hi, that he loves you and appreciates your prayers and letters. He apologizes for not being able to write everyone back promptly but he loves to hear from you and will try to write back as he is able.
That's it for now!
~Hillary
Ross's birthday is coming up!! May 22nd Ross will turn the big 2-0. No longer a teenager, woohoo!! If you would like to send him something, even just a card, I know he would love it. If you want to send a little something, here are some ideas from him...
Well my bday is coming up so i guess yall want a list of things i want well....here it is
-A new set of towels (Bath and hand)
-Money for basketball shoes (we play every morning for exercise and every pday, and my feet kill in these other ones)
-Money, in general
-Gift cards to food places (we have a Carls Jr, subway, your basic restraunts)
-Maybe an electrice razor
-And anything else anyone wants to send me (Missionary stuff)
We talked to Ross on the phone on Sunday for Mother's Day and he sounds GREAT! He sounded so happy and upbeat and had the best stories and experiences to share with us. We asked a million questions and he gave us a million answers. My dad, being the note taker he is, took notes on the conversation...once I get those I'll post them here so you can read more about what's going on with Elder Little in Imperial Beach, CA. He did say to tell everyone hi, that he loves you and appreciates your prayers and letters. He apologizes for not being able to write everyone back promptly but he loves to hear from you and will try to write back as he is able.
That's it for now!
~Hillary
Letter from May 4, 2010
May 4, 2010
Well...lets get to those important questions:
1. Well, my mission president has a rule that we call on fathers day and not mothers day. Sorry mom, I know its bad, but hey, don't Dad's need some credit too.
2. Well, I was just kidding about that. Sorry Dad, yall get no credit. We actually call on our birthdays, so it will be a couple more weeks before I call you.
3. Well, I was just kidding about that too. What we actually get to do here, or what Elder Nelson says we do is call on saturday and talk for like 10 mintues to set up a time for the next day for us to call. That way, nothing can come up and you will know exactly when I will call. So i will get to talk to you on saturday as well. It will probably be in the night time. Hopefully not too late for yall.
Well lets start out with the coolest thing on my mission so far. The Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices Fireside. This was easily the coolest fireside that I've been to in my life. The place was rocking. It was full all the way to the back of the gym and it was full on the stage. A few years ago, Gladys attended Pres. Hinckley's birthday and she was sitting next to him. He said to her, "I heard you don't like our music." "she said to him, "i love it, its just kind of boring haha" So pres. Hinkcley told her to spice it up. So she created this Choir and they tour the country. It reminded me of some of the churches we watch on tv. They were clapping and singing gospel songs. There was a band with guitars and everything. But the music was so spiritual and she bore ther testimony and "preached" to the crowd and everyone loved it. And, yes mom. I did get to meet her. Well kind of. I was an usher at the door she exited from at the end of the fireside, and she waved and smiled at me and told me, "the ball is in your court now. Go work" I almost fell down hahah. Then after the show, me and Elder Nelson were walking in front of her bus and she waved to us again. Once again, i almost fell down. It was way tight. If you could, you could find and buy a Saints Unified Voices CD for me. Thay would be way awesome if you could.
So ill update you on our new best investigator. His name is Juan Carlos, and he is the one who wants to baptize his son. Well his wife is really interested. We went over last monday (not yesterday) and they were waiting on us and had pan dulce for us and hot chocolate. we had a great lesson. Then, last night, we told them we were going to watch a movie with them and they bought me and Elder Nelson pizza and drinks. They are so cool. They asked questions and wanted to know more. They are just so cool. I really appreciate all that the Lord does for me. Wehave been getting kind of down lately, me especially. We havent been having any success with our investigators. We have lessons but they wont do anything. We didnt have any at Gladys Knight or at church the next day. All day monday nobody was home, until one family answered and we set up an appt with them and then this appt with Juan Carlos y su familia. It was great!!
Well..i guess thats about it, so i guess ill call it here. Thanks for everything, especially the prayers (I feel them and thank Heavenly Father for them everyday)
Les amo mucho
Elder Little
Well...lets get to those important questions:
1. Well, my mission president has a rule that we call on fathers day and not mothers day. Sorry mom, I know its bad, but hey, don't Dad's need some credit too.
2. Well, I was just kidding about that. Sorry Dad, yall get no credit. We actually call on our birthdays, so it will be a couple more weeks before I call you.
3. Well, I was just kidding about that too. What we actually get to do here, or what Elder Nelson says we do is call on saturday and talk for like 10 mintues to set up a time for the next day for us to call. That way, nothing can come up and you will know exactly when I will call. So i will get to talk to you on saturday as well. It will probably be in the night time. Hopefully not too late for yall.
Well lets start out with the coolest thing on my mission so far. The Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices Fireside. This was easily the coolest fireside that I've been to in my life. The place was rocking. It was full all the way to the back of the gym and it was full on the stage. A few years ago, Gladys attended Pres. Hinckley's birthday and she was sitting next to him. He said to her, "I heard you don't like our music." "she said to him, "i love it, its just kind of boring haha" So pres. Hinkcley told her to spice it up. So she created this Choir and they tour the country. It reminded me of some of the churches we watch on tv. They were clapping and singing gospel songs. There was a band with guitars and everything. But the music was so spiritual and she bore ther testimony and "preached" to the crowd and everyone loved it. And, yes mom. I did get to meet her. Well kind of. I was an usher at the door she exited from at the end of the fireside, and she waved and smiled at me and told me, "the ball is in your court now. Go work" I almost fell down hahah. Then after the show, me and Elder Nelson were walking in front of her bus and she waved to us again. Once again, i almost fell down. It was way tight. If you could, you could find and buy a Saints Unified Voices CD for me. Thay would be way awesome if you could.
So ill update you on our new best investigator. His name is Juan Carlos, and he is the one who wants to baptize his son. Well his wife is really interested. We went over last monday (not yesterday) and they were waiting on us and had pan dulce for us and hot chocolate. we had a great lesson. Then, last night, we told them we were going to watch a movie with them and they bought me and Elder Nelson pizza and drinks. They are so cool. They asked questions and wanted to know more. They are just so cool. I really appreciate all that the Lord does for me. Wehave been getting kind of down lately, me especially. We havent been having any success with our investigators. We have lessons but they wont do anything. We didnt have any at Gladys Knight or at church the next day. All day monday nobody was home, until one family answered and we set up an appt with them and then this appt with Juan Carlos y su familia. It was great!!
Well..i guess thats about it, so i guess ill call it here. Thanks for everything, especially the prayers (I feel them and thank Heavenly Father for them everyday)
Les amo mucho
Elder Little
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010 Letter
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thanks for the update mom. Actually, I kind of lost track of when my anniversay was, so 3 months is here tommorrow, wow. Well lets get to the questions:
1. We live in an apartment complex and me and Elder Nelson are best friends with the manager. He gave us a microwave the other day and he said someone would come fix our toilet for free later today. It's not the best apartment, but it's a block from the church and it's right in the middle of our area. So it's ok I guess. I took some pictures but I still have to take more of IB and the ocean.
2. I'm not to sure when I get to call on Mothers Day. If I am still with Elder Nelson, next Wednesday is transfers (but we both have had the feeling we aren't going), we will either call in the morning or after church. He said that he likes to talk to his family for like an hour and asked if that was cool with me, I laughed and said yeah, I guess hahaha
3. I am getting all of yalls packages. All the other missionaries in my zone get jealous and they are always asking if it's my birthday ahahah. But keep sending them, I love it. Thank you so much, you have no idea how much they and yalls letters mean to me. If you want, you could send some food giftcards or maybe some chips or stuff. We don't have a lot of food, but I'll talk about that later.
Well, let's get this party started. Let's start with our investigators. Carlos is....no mas. He hasn't answered our calls and isn't returning them, so we have him classified as a "boat jumper". Me and Elder Nelson have started this new thing. We have our regular teaching pool, we put our progressing investigators on the "Baptismal Boat" and then if they cool off and aren't interested, they are classified as "boat jumpers". The regular people that are in our teaching pool are "pool chillers"...we have pictures and everything hahaha. But yeah, I was sad to see Carlos go but we have about 4 families and 3 individuals that are really great. President is happy with our work here. In my interview, I told him in the last 2 weeks we had added 19 new investigators, and that me and Elder Nelson could both feel that we were right on the verge of success. We are so close I can smell it.
This upcoming weekend is the Gladys Knight Fireside/concert. We have about 20 people going, which is a lot for Mexicans who have never heard of Gladys Knight. Me and Elder Nelson are going Friday night with our investigators and then President asked us to be "assisting missionaries" (Ushers) for both sessions on Saturday. So this weekend is going to be a Gladys Knight extraveganza for us. We are pretty excited to do it. We might even have a chance to meet her, which would be way cool.
We got a call from President the other day, and he said that P days will be moving to Tuesday, starting next week. So my new P day is on TUESDAY. STARTING NEXT WEEK. THIS IS IMPORTANT, I DONT WANT YALL TO FREAK OUT WHEN I DONT MAIL ON MONDAY hahahah
I am making a lot of friends out here on the misison. Of course, me and Nelson are really good friends and we get a long great. In some ways he reminds me of Alex, but he definitely does not replace him. There are 2 other missionaries in our district, Elder Hanks and Elder Naylor and they are way cool too. All 4 of us usually spend our P days together and we have a lot of fun togther.
Well I guess thats it, I have about 26 minutes left, so if you get this in the next 20 minutes you can write back. I'll be here. Thanks for everything you do.
Mucho Amor
Elder Little
Thanks for the update mom. Actually, I kind of lost track of when my anniversay was, so 3 months is here tommorrow, wow. Well lets get to the questions:
1. We live in an apartment complex and me and Elder Nelson are best friends with the manager. He gave us a microwave the other day and he said someone would come fix our toilet for free later today. It's not the best apartment, but it's a block from the church and it's right in the middle of our area. So it's ok I guess. I took some pictures but I still have to take more of IB and the ocean.
2. I'm not to sure when I get to call on Mothers Day. If I am still with Elder Nelson, next Wednesday is transfers (but we both have had the feeling we aren't going), we will either call in the morning or after church. He said that he likes to talk to his family for like an hour and asked if that was cool with me, I laughed and said yeah, I guess hahaha
3. I am getting all of yalls packages. All the other missionaries in my zone get jealous and they are always asking if it's my birthday ahahah. But keep sending them, I love it. Thank you so much, you have no idea how much they and yalls letters mean to me. If you want, you could send some food giftcards or maybe some chips or stuff. We don't have a lot of food, but I'll talk about that later.
Well, let's get this party started. Let's start with our investigators. Carlos is....no mas. He hasn't answered our calls and isn't returning them, so we have him classified as a "boat jumper". Me and Elder Nelson have started this new thing. We have our regular teaching pool, we put our progressing investigators on the "Baptismal Boat" and then if they cool off and aren't interested, they are classified as "boat jumpers". The regular people that are in our teaching pool are "pool chillers"...we have pictures and everything hahaha. But yeah, I was sad to see Carlos go but we have about 4 families and 3 individuals that are really great. President is happy with our work here. In my interview, I told him in the last 2 weeks we had added 19 new investigators, and that me and Elder Nelson could both feel that we were right on the verge of success. We are so close I can smell it.
This upcoming weekend is the Gladys Knight Fireside/concert. We have about 20 people going, which is a lot for Mexicans who have never heard of Gladys Knight. Me and Elder Nelson are going Friday night with our investigators and then President asked us to be "assisting missionaries" (Ushers) for both sessions on Saturday. So this weekend is going to be a Gladys Knight extraveganza for us. We are pretty excited to do it. We might even have a chance to meet her, which would be way cool.
We got a call from President the other day, and he said that P days will be moving to Tuesday, starting next week. So my new P day is on TUESDAY. STARTING NEXT WEEK. THIS IS IMPORTANT, I DONT WANT YALL TO FREAK OUT WHEN I DONT MAIL ON MONDAY hahahah
I am making a lot of friends out here on the misison. Of course, me and Nelson are really good friends and we get a long great. In some ways he reminds me of Alex, but he definitely does not replace him. There are 2 other missionaries in our district, Elder Hanks and Elder Naylor and they are way cool too. All 4 of us usually spend our P days together and we have a lot of fun togther.
Well I guess thats it, I have about 26 minutes left, so if you get this in the next 20 minutes you can write back. I'll be here. Thanks for everything you do.
Mucho Amor
Elder Little
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)