Monday, April 30, 2012

We had a pretty good week.  I had a bike crash this week. I got 6 square inches of road rash and ruined a pair of pants. The arm is almost better but the pants are gone. I don't really have much news though. The week was pretty slow. The area came to a stop after we baptized everyone but I guess it's speeding back up now. It's transfer week. I'm hoping that I stay. I love it here. 
I don't really have much to say. There doesn't seem to be much new stuff going on. We've been walking a lot and finally the month is over so we get more miles. 
Dakota's friend should be meeting with us Tuesday. Dakota passed the Sacrament yesterday. That was super cool. 
I guess I can talk about Manilla. We went down there and did service. We were expecting to teach but that didn't work. We just laid sod at someone's house. The cabin we got to stay in was really awesome though. We're going there Thursday. Hopefully I'm still in the area then.

I love you,
Elder Damewood

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Hey,
Man what a super great week! We spent a lot of time at the stake center Saturday baptizing! It was a ton of fun. The person that was originally going to do Dannika and Deleani's baptism couldn't make it so me and Elder K. jumped in. Brian's baptism was super amazing too. I love the work in this area. There's just one problem now. We've baptized all our teaching pool pretty much. We need to go find more people!. I sure hope we do it this week! This is how me and Elder K. expect transfers to go: He leaves and I stay. I'm gonna miss him. He's been great. The thing is I don't want my next companion to come into a dead area. We gotta pick it up this week. Pray that we find and that the members here find as well. I loved making those videos. I wish I could just email them to you. It'd be so much easier. Oh well, we'll just have to do it this way it's not so bad. 
So I'm officially moved out of my room.... I leave and everything changes. lol Thanks for keeping my guitar safe :) We taught at a BYD recently. It was fun. We had them all ask any questions they want. I love that.
I love the work here. The members are super helpful and it's so great. Tuesday we should be going out to the one ward out here in the middle of nowhere. It's called Manilla Utah. I'm excited. Hopefully there's a ton to baptize out there. 
Well I gotta get P-Day a rollin' here. It was great to hear from you. I wake up each Monday excited to read emails from you.

I love you
Elder Damewood

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Mom, 
  I'm safe! We had zone conference on monday so pday got moved to today. You never have to worry about anything happening to me if I don't write. As long as President or an Apostle or someone doesn't call I'm 100% fine. 
  Yeah it's been 7 months. It's starting to move even faster. I can't believe i've been with Elder Kemendics 2.5 months! He's so funny he's the funniest. Well here's the reply to your email:
 That's so exciting! Brazil. Tell him congrats. We didn't end up going fishing Monday. I wanted to see what river fishing was like. Elder Kemendics had no photo ID so he couldn't get a license. it was ok though. We did other stuff with Dakota. We went up on a mountain and looked at Green River. It's was such a cool view. Then we went to the local airport. I took a picture of it. It's the picture of the empty field and a wind sock. It's a great place, no security, no waiting, any aircraft that can fly can land there. I just can't guarantee you can get it back up again. Do you wanna know the name of the airport. No lie it's the "Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport." it sounds like something Dad would make up. NASA feared a comet would strike Jupiter a long time ago so the mayor here passed a law that any citizens of Jupiter had to be welcomed into the city and that they were welcome to land at the Spaceport. After Dakota had to go home we went to Rock Springs where there were these small basketball hoops that you could dunk on. that was a ton of fun. Man, I guess I'd better save $ instead of buying IBC root beer. The baptism went great! I loved it sooooo much. He's the coolest kid ever! The girl in that one picture is Sadie Mortenson. She was Dakota's fellowshipper. I think once Dakota gets back from baptizing thousands on his mission he'll marry her. It kinda reminds me of you and Dad. He's a lot like Dakota. 
This coming week Brian is getting baptized. It's so exciting. He's super great. He finally agreed after Elder Kemendics taught him in Evanston, Brian moved to Green River, then Elder Kemendics got transferred here and taught him. Now he's getting baptized! This mission is the best.

We biked all day yesterday. I'm sore but it feels good. I like working hard.  

So this morning we went up to the spaceport to take pictures. Me and Elder Kemendics took some. I'll send them in a separate email. I'll also Dropbox you a video of us lightsaber fighting. Well time to go finish this epic week

I love you,
Elder Damewood

Monday, April 9, 2012

Yes I had a super great week. It could have been better as far as work goes but it'll pick up. These things happen. See, Green River isn't the most exciting town in the world. EVERYONE goes out of town when they get the chance. We had no one to talk to this weekend cuz it was Spring Break. 
Man my Easter was pretty good. It was an average day at church except we sang He is Risen 4 times. Then we went to dinner at this super cool missionary minded family. They gave us Easter baskets and we ate ham! There was homemade root beer! I bit the ears opf my rabbit. I'm not sure if I'm gonna eat the rest. We get way too much candy out here.  Today we're gonna go fishing with Dakota. Hopefully Elder Kemendics can get a license. I know it won't be any problem for me but he doesn't have a driver's license and his passport is in Salt Lake.  He's such a cool kid. He's also taking us up on one of the mountains here. Look forward to pictures next week :). 
I've been having a lot of dreams about being home and still living mission rules. It's frustrating. I'm at home and I don't get on the computer or play video games or anything. I wake up at 6:25 and get dressed in a suit AT HOME! Well it looks like the mission has got to me. I'm 100% missionary now. 
We had a baptism this weekend. It was for a girl that finally got her mom to have 100% custody so now the dad can't say anything. We didn't have to do anything for it. I've seen the girl 3 times. I didn't take pictures either. It was nice to break my no baptizing streak though. We have 2 lined up for this weekend. One is shaky(the mom is trying to delay it. The dad is on our side) and one is Dakota so we're having at least one for sure. 

Well time to go fishin!

I love you,
Elder Damewood

Monday, April 2, 2012

OH MAN! Conference was epic! But first let me tell you about my week heading up to conference. We set really high goals and reached most of them. We wanted 10 people to watch conference and we had 9. We wanted 9 with a baptismal date and we have 8. Setting goals isn't always about reaching them though. It's about stretching yourself. This week was a lot of work. We met Lance. He is Dakota's friend. He was super solid and prepared too. He didn't know as much as Dakota did at first but that doesn't matter. The knowledge isn't as important as a testimony and it'll come when he needs it. He already has a testimony. I think it grew the most when Dakota shared his. They both got really excited when he accepted the 28th as his date. Then they were more excited when we said by then Dakota should be a priest so he can baptize Lance!
That's the main miracle this week. Other than that it was a ton of running around teaching people.

Ok now I'll tell my conference story.
Alright so Friday morning I slept in. I don't know why but I just couldn't stop dozing off. We worked hard all day and planned to drive from Green River to Evanston(halfway point 1.5 hrs away) at 9pm. We had to wait for our district so we could figure things out and we didn't leave until 10:15ish. I was so tired but not as tired as I would have been had I not slept in. It looks like the Lord had everything all planned out. 

Then we got there at like midnight and went to bed. We got up got ready and headed to Salt Lake City! I wore the 600$ suit I found in my last area. We went to temple square and hung out with the other missionaries. That was tons of fun. Then we went to the visitor's center for the morning session. That was cool. Then we went to Crown Burger for lunch. It was packed but so worth it! Then we went to Deseret Book. That was also packed. Gerald Lund and John Bytheway were there. I didn't get to talk to them though cuz I was busy it it was crowded. After that we went back to the visitor's center for the 2nd session. I was so mad! There was an MTC choir there! I wanted to do that! Oh well.. Then while we were walking to the car some security guy handed us ticked to Priesthood session! We parked closer to T. Sq. cuz we had a parking pass now. Then we went to City Creek. It's this huge mall that opened in Salt Lake. It was jam packed of course and we had this huge line at Chick-Fil-A. I missed it a lot so it was good to eat there again. We went to priesthood session and had balcony seats. It was still great to be there and see the prophet in person even if he looked tiny. The session was great but it was so warm in there I had trouble staying awake and focused. Then we went to President Winn's house for the night. He had pizza for us and we all went to bed. We woke up and got ready and packed sandwiches for later. We went over to the Conference Center. We went in to morning session. It was just as amazing as before. Well actually a little better because the Tabernacle Choir was there that time. They were on fire! Then we went back outside in the yucky weather you saw from the shots they took outside. It was fun though. We had a good time and watched the last session in the visitor's center. I would say that going to the conference center is a must for everyone at least once. It was really neat and has a lot of advantages. It's definitely worth it but I think I prefer watching it at home most of the time. You don't have to sit so close together and you can wear PJ's. There's no protestors and it's not quite as crowded at home. It's great to go of course but I don't wanna go every time forever. You guys do have to go sometime though!
The protestors make me mad. I wanted to dress up as Iron Man and go kick them in the false doctrine!!! A lot of the stuff they were saying though was true. "JESUS IS THE CHRIST!" "YOU MUST REPENT OF YOUR SINS!" "ONLY JESUS CAN SAVE!" I wanted to walk up and say that they were saying the same thing inside the Conference Center. One guy made me really mad cuz he had garments and and apron. The coolest thing was right past the protestors on either side of the sidewalk is a line of people singing hymns. It made me want to cry every time. There's just one way I know that the protestors are wrong and the Prophets are right. "By their fruits ye shall know them."

It was cool to see Taylor there! I wish I saw Malorie! That would have been awesome! Elder May saw Caroline! That was crazy! Man this was a fun weekend.

I'm looking forward to my box!
 
I love you!
Elder Damewood