Email Update 8/25/2014

Dear Everyone,

First off, no, there is no story behind the "getting shot" comment. There are just a lot of churches, and therefore a lot of people, around here that don't like the Mormons very much, so it was always an adventure to knock on a door and not know the reaction that you were going to get. That, and i just don't like knocking on doors. 

As for the lady who we talked to before, we were unable to contact her, unfortunately. She might not have been home when we went by, but we aren't sure. We will just have to try again this week, and hope for the best. On a slightly happier note, we had investigators at church for the first time in months yesterday!! They were a part member family, with the Dad being a less-active member, the girlfriend being a nonmember, and one of the boys being an over aged youth (he was 11). According to the Relief Society President, the girlfriend (whose name is escaping me entirely right now) went to all three meetings, and seemed to enjoy all of them. She also was reportedly there last week, and we just didn't see her, so i'm pretty excited. According to Patrick (the dad), she is a Southern Baptist, so don't expect a convert, but she is willing to sit down and hear the discussions, which is good enough for me, seeing as that seems to be as hard to find around here as twenty dollars lying in the street. Patrick's son is also excited to start the discussions, and seems excited to be baptized, so things are looking pretty promising right now.

Well, that's really all of the exciting stuff that is happening right now, along with the fact that Brother Marshall, te member that we are living with is currently out of town in Georgia, leaving the house to us.

I'm still not sure if that was a good idea or not.

Love and Insanity,

Elder Stuver 

Email Update 8/18/2014--sorry for last week

Dear Everyone,

First off, sorry for last week, events conspired to never let me get to the family history center, so i was unable to write. It felt super weird. So, again, sorry.

Everything is fine, setting aside the fact that there doesn't seem to be much in the way of work, so we spent almost all of the last 2 weeks tracting. Not the most fun; half of the time we were worried about getting shot. Luckily, that doesn't happen too often in Idaho, so we are both just fine. Just a little nerve wracking. However, we were able to hit our goal for lessons taught for the first time in months; in fact, it was the first time since i have been in this area! I was pretty nice, even though most of those lessons weren't the most well received. We were able to find a lady who is a member, but seems to go to Boise for church rather than the ward that she is located in, so we set up an appointment to see if we can gather how active she is. She seems fine with us coming by, and even though her kids were shy, they seemed ok with us, so i have high hopes for how the lesson will go well. 

That's about the most exciting thing that happened  in the past two weeks. We also got to work a little bit with a missionary who just got back from Peru, Colby, and his non-member friend Jamie for a little yesterday. It's always interesting to for me to hear the stories that RM's will tell once they are actually home that they never tell while they are out. There were a couple that were pretty gnarly, reminding me why i am glad that i was called to Idaho, and the food conversation was certainly chuckle worthy; apparently, some of the female persuasion get upset when an RM says that one of his favorite foods on his mission was grilled Guinea Pig.

Well, that is just about it for this email. Hope that you are all having a good life!

Love and Insanity, Elder Stuver

Email Update: 8/4/2014

Dear Everyone,

Things are going pretty well, with us being able to contact some of the people that we had been trying to, and a down week, with us not being able to contact a lot of the people that we had been trying to. We were able to finally meet some of the people on a list that one of the Bishops had given us, to try and see who is still in the ward; sadly, most of them wanted nothing to do with us. Oh well, that's just a part of the mission life. As for some of the awesome stuff for this week, we did get to see Michael C, the motorcycle minister family, after their 500 mile ride, and it seemed like they all had a great time, especially because no one got hurt on this ride. We were able to spend some time getting to know him a little bit more, and leave a thought on service. 

The next cool thing was Michael M, the 14 year old who we had been working with. He was baptized August 2, 2014, and confirmed the next day! I was really worried the day of the baptism, because his mom had told us about how afraid of the water he was,but when it came right down to it, it was actually one of the most normal baptisms that i had been a part of on my mission. When Michael came up out of the water, he took a huge gasp,  like you do after you think--well, after you thought you were going to drown, and he was a little jittery, but all in all, he did great!  Even better, it only took one try, which is also a first for my mission. It was pretty close; he was only all the way under for a second before his foot popped out of the water. Still, he did go all the way, and he did it because he wanted to, not because anyone told him to, which is always one of my big concerns when baptizing younger kids. I always want to be sure that the person know what they want, and are making choices based on what they actually believe, and not just on what a parent says to do. And this time, because i could tell just how nervous Michael was getting into the water, i knew that he was doing this, not his parents. It was really cool to see.

Those are really the highlights of this last week. Thank you for the stories that you tell me!

Love and Insanity,

Elder Stuver