Email Update: 9/29/2014

Dear Everyone,

It sounds like things are going really well for all of you guys, and thanks for the stamps and such. I'll make sure to use them. As for Jeffrey's play, I don't really every remembering him slowing down with what ever he did, so it's no surprise that this is the same. By the way, it may be a big place, but don't leave it, at least until after i get home; have you never seen the RM? 

And finally, "Swigs?" Yeah, it sounds very much like a teen bar.

Anyways, on to some of my life. To start things off, this week has been pretty awesome, all things considered. First, WE CAN FINALLY BREATHE. I never really know just how big of a difference that makes until it's gone. You'd think that i would remember, especially because it happens every year, but it always comes as a new surprise to me whenever it happens. So, with that awesome little development, we were able to get out a lot more this week, and we saw a whole lot more people. We even were able to find a new investigator, named McDaniels, who is a fairly recent convert's mother. She has seen everything that the Church has done for her daughter, and she is ready to see what it can do for her. She even said that she would be at church this Sunday, though that didn't end up happening due to Jessica (her daughter) having a super huge work load this week, and not wanting to come alone. We had a really great chat with her on Tuesday, and got to know who she was as a native Nampa woman. It was really fun, and I am excited to get to teach her some more.

Some other cool things that happened this week include Elder Richie getting to go to the Temple for his half-way mark, something that came with a bit of a grind on me along with the awesomeness for him. When missionaries up here go on their temple trip, their companions get paired up with each other until they get back, and i was paired up with a mini-missioneer named Elder Valle (pronounced viiiyay). He is an... interesting guy. I spent the majority of the time that we were together setting up appointments for the coming week, so i didn't end up talking to him very much, but the next few days we went and saw some of the people who he ended up teaching on splits, and the most common description was "Bible thumpy." It's an appropriate one---kinda. Elder Valle is of the opinion that the only parts of the Bible that are true are the sections that are talked about in the Book of Mormon, so he is a bit more "Mormon Thumpy" in my opinion than anything else. So, we spent a bit of the week after that doing some damage control. 

Now, that was a whole ton of not so cool stuff, so let me reiterate the cool part; Elder Richie got to go to the temple! Aaaaaaand on to some more stuff.

Possibly the coolest part of the week happened yesterday and the day before. We went back over to Keiran's house and were able to teach him most of the fourth lesson in Preach my Gospel, "The Commandments." After we finished that, we talked to him and his dad, and confirmed that they are moving out this coming Saturday, which kind of undermines the original plan we had for his baptismal date, for November 8. So, after we finished the lesson, we talked to Keiran about baptism and how important it is, and we gave him a new possible time for his baptism; this Friday. Like i have said before, the kid is as smart as a whip and twice as quick, so we really felt like he was ready for it. we talked about it for a while, and his dad texted his mom to see what her thoughts on it were. She said that, even though she would love to be there, it was entirely his choice when he was baptized. With that in mind, we (including his dad) said that this was something that he needed to think about and pray about, and that we would ask him about it tomorrow. When we got to church the nest morning, he came up to us and asked us to set up his baptismal interview; he wants it to happen here! I have to say, it's always a really cool thing to see someone younger make big decisions fully understanding what they mean, and for that choice to be entirely theirs. I mean, it almost defeats the purpose if the choice is someone else's; is supposed to be a covenant between YOU and God, not anyone else. When that is the case, everything else really lines up.

Just a quick story to finish off. We were over to teach Kelly the third lesson (the Gospel of Jesus Christ), when Elder Richie started acting really strangely. By that i mean, stranger than he usually is. He was making comments all over the board, about everything from animal sacrifice to wiener dogs (yes, those were actual topics), and having an extraordinarily hard time staying on track with the lesson. By the end of it, he had actually passed the entire lesson off to me, so that i was the only one teaching. We finished the discussion, and were getting up to leave, when he made a weird comment about all of those people who like to wear their hoodies and sweaters down around their elbows, and the he proceeded to declare that he was going to wear his backpack that way for the rest of the day, to see what it was like, and to see if he could figure out why people liked it. We said our goodbyes, and started walking away. When we were on a path nearby, out of earshot of anyone, Elder Richie leaned over to me, and said, "Dude, we need to go home. My pants are super ripped." I look over, and hidden beneath his backpack, his pants had ripped right along the seam, almost all the way from the waist band to the crotch. Apparently, right when he had sat down to the lesson, he had felt them rip, and when Kelly had looked away for a second, he put his hand down to check and make sure that yes, he hadn't imagined it. From that moment on, he was having to  try and concentrate on both the lesson, and try to think of how he was going to get out of there. Hence the whole backpack thing. 

It made my day.

Well, that pretty much sums up our week. Hope you have a good one yourself!

Love and Insanity,

Elder Stuver

Email Update: 9/22/2014

Dear Everyone,

First off, sorry that I didn't get an email off last week. The week was a little annoying, because both Elder Richie and I caught some kind of sinus thing (most likely just a cold) that was enough to keep us in for almost four days. In have officially decided something; being sick is lousy. I mean, i'll be honest, the first day off was kind of nice, but anything after that, I was starting to get really stir crazy. It felt like we weren't able to do anything for the whole reason that wee came out on a mission---to be missionaries. We frankly have it so good out in the Idaho Nampa Mission that not keeping up with what we are called to do is like spitting in the face of every member who counts on us to do our job. Being stuck inside for almost four days was almost as bad as---or worse than---the sinus thing (which managed to not let me breathe, and made me throw up. I was mad.). (By the way, how are you supposed to order that; when a parenthetical is the end of a sentence, where do you put the period? I have always been curious).

Now, on to some good news. I think that I have mentioned a lady named Kelly and a boy named Keiran in past letters. Kelly is a young single mother that we met off of a referral from the Bishop of one of the wards. She has four kids, one in Marching band, and the week before last, we taught her the 2nd discussion. In her own words, "It just makes sense." After we finished that lesson, we were able to help her commit to baptism on November 1st(though we are going to see about making it a little sooner), and Elder Richie even put together a check list for her, so that she could see the steps she has left to be ready, and can mark them off as she completes them. She seems really excited, and most importantly, and wants to do this for herself. To be honest, she brought up the whole issue of baptism all on her lonesome! I feel like she will be ready, and willing to do the things that are necessary far sooner than the 1st of November.

Now for Keiran. Bluntly, the kid is smarter than almost 90% of the adults that we work with. I mean, come on! 10 years old, and he has kept every reading assignment that we have left. He asks his own questions, sometimes without needing us to prompt him. We've had him teach us back portions of some of the lessons after we finish, and he'll teach them smoother and more simply than I ever have. His memory is so good on all of the stories that we teach from the scriptures, it's almost a blow to the ego for me to have to look some of them up. And, he also now has a baptismal date set for November 8th. The two best parts of all of this is the fact that one, his dad is willing to help him as he's learning. Patrick is a convert himself, of just a few years, so he knows a lot of what is involved with the process. He will make sure to remind Keiran of the reading, and is always encouraging him as he is learning. Second, even though his dad is helping him, everything that Keiran is doing is because Keiran wants to do it. His dad isn't pushing him into a decision. He understands what he is getting into. And he is the one making the choice. To me, nothing is more important than that, especially for someone young.

Well, that is pretty much all of the exciting things going on out here. Thanks for all of your stories, and I hope that Jeffrey and Linda are doing alright. Good luck with Taming!

Love and Insanity,

Elder Stuver

Email Update: 9/8/2014

Dear Everyone,

Sounds like things have been really relaxed without me there.

I'm not sure how i feel about that correlation...

Oh well, i guess life just needs to calm down sometimes. ;) As for me, yeah, things have been a little interesting with the new lines. Sacrament was honestly a little insane; the active member base had almost literally doubled in size, and they almost had to bless the water again. Luckily, they have a habit of blessing an emergency pitcher of water at the same time, so things went alright. The deacons were a little frazzled, though; they almost missed an entire section of the congregation. It's been crazy for us, too. The new subdivision is nearly half of the entire area of the ward, so we haven't yet been able to figure out where everything is yet. Those people that we have been able to meet have been awesome, including our new ward mission leader, Brother Beames. The first thing that we did when we met him after church yesterday, was sit down and he read what his role is as Ward Mission Leader is. The reason that matters to me is because there are a lot of WML's that I don't believe ever touch the handbook or the preach my gospel. Of course, just because others aren't helping doesn't mean that we stop what we are doing, but it certainly makes me feel better when they do. Most of the things that we talked about while we met with him centered around finding new people to teach. One of the things that we all agreed on was the fact that a lot of the members that we want to work with know that they should be doing missionary work, but they are either nervous about how their friends will react, don't know what to say when people ask questions, or just don't have the desire to do it. So, the meeting was all about brainstorming ways to address those concerns. One of the ones that i feel like will work pretty well is first trying something that we called "service tracting," where we go around the neighborhoods with tools and work clothes, and just offer service to build community relations, without trying to set up discussions to start. Another thing that Brother Beames suggested was to find six of the more common topics that people have questions about, and to write up a one minute response and a five minute response to each of those topics. Then, we are going to set up mini firesides or multi-family FHE's, where we teach each of these things to the members, so that they don't have to worry about what they are going to say, because they already have the answers that they need.

That's all of the more exciting things that happened this week. Thank you for everything that you do!

Love and Insanity,

Elder Stuver

Email Update: 9/1/2014

Dear Everyone,

Yeah nothing ever spells my name right. Don't worry about it. And thank you for the package, i love it! Sounds like Jeff is getting dragged through a grinder; hope things go well.

As for my life, nothing too spectacular, just the usual walking around, trying to find someone who isn't so jaded against us, so that they'll give us the time of day. We had a couple really good visits, though, and were even able to pick up a couple of new investigators on Tuesday. One is an 11 year old kid, and the other is his soon-to-be step mom. The lesson went really well, and we were able top commit them to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. It was actually really cool; he already knew the basics of a lot of the stories that we talked about, and was willing to read during the lesson. He didn't even have too hard a time reading all of the funky names! So, we're excited on that point.

Other than that, there was just one other unusual thing that happened; one of our wards split. Well, kinda. What more happened was that it gobbled up a good half of a different ward, that happened to be the sister missionaries' area. They were sad, because that section housed their one and only investigator, their Ward mission leader, and their Relief Society President. Funny little insert, the split also sliced out the subdivision were we are living, and gave it to the other ward. Which happens to include our ward mission leader. Yeah, there was a bit of give and take.

Well, that is all of the exciting news for this week. Again, thank you for the package, it made the week.

Love and Insanity,

Elder Stuver

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