Picture dump!

This is the big pink dragon that Jayden helped move.^^^^^^

Their investigator Adam. ^^^^^^

On a hike. ^^^^^^

Saying good-bye to Elder Ross. Sad day!! ^^^^^^

New companion Elder Chandler. ^^^^^^

Broncos pride! ^^^^^^

"Booyah! Those are the kind of texts I like to see!" ^^^^^^

November email dump!

11/2/2015 About a month and a half ago, a young man came to our ward, and no one had ever seen him. we talked to him and he said he just wanted to check out the church because all his friends are Mormon and he was going to Chico state this year, and he just got our of high school. He was a golden investigator, but we had to give him to the YSA ward missionaries because he is young, and that's how it goes in Chico because there is so many college kids, we pass off all our golden investigators to the YSA missionaries. But Adam, the kid I was talking about, decided he like 5th ward better than YSA, so the YSA missionaries handed him back off to us! And so hopefully he will get baptized really soon, so that is super exciting. So we had a Chili cook off in ward, and that was pretty fun. It was for sure not as good as our old wards chili cook offs. And we had this chili that was called the Carolina Reaper chili, it's the hottest pepper in the world! A jalapeño is 15,000 scovilles, which is measurement for spice, a habanero pepper is 200,000, and a Carolina reaper is 1.3 million. So I was scared to try it, but it wasn't as hot as I thought it was going to be. I think they didn't pet very much spice in it so they wouldn't kill anyone hAha, but it was fun.


11/9/2015 This week was pretty good. Luckily we have gotten TONS of rain. Even right now it's raining pretty hard. We really need it. I don't know if I told you, but this year is supposed to be El Niño, and that means we get huge rain storms all winter. And it's finally cooled down so I can actually sleep! So this week we did a ton of service. Earlier this week, we helped a man move a 32 foot long metal dragon to his house. Yes I meant to say dragon haha. I will send pictures. It was pretty hard. The. We helped a recent convert of ours move out. I love him and his family, but their house was so bad. We got over there and nothing was packed and it was all gross clutter EVERYWHERE. and it was cockroach infested so it was nasty. they moved into a pretty nice apartment though,must hopefully they will keep it nice. We actually had this guys wife on date to be baptized last week but we haven't met with her enough so hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks. And we helped rake leaves at an old cemetery. It took a long time but it was fun. Then we helped our annoying ward mission leader move out.


11/16/2015 So Transfers are the 24th. There's a pretty big chance Elder Ross will be leaving. He's been in Chico for a long time. I've even been here for a long time! So I will most likely be getting a new companion soon. Earlier this week, we went to this indoor apartment complex and were visiting some less active members, and this lady stopped us and asked if we were Mormon. We said we were and she told us to meet her at her apartment in a few minutes. So we visited someone and then went to her apartment and she talked to us for a while. She is awesome and she wants to start the lessons! So that's really exciting. I Wish more people would stop us and ask us to visit them! Makes it a lot easier! But most people just avoid us like the plague. So earlier this week, we came home and there were tons of cop cars in front of a house a couple houses down from us. We hurried inside, and I guess there was an armed robbery and the guy ran back to his home and the cops shot and killed him. There was also a different armed robbery near our house. Chico is great! So this last P day, we were playing ultimate frisbee and Elder Fa, a big Polynesia elder chucked the frisbee and I was trying to block it and he accidentally threw it into my mouth so that felt good. It busted my lip open and my teeth felt loose after that and my lip was pretty swollen. Im all good now though! We also gave a lot of blessings this week. We gave one at the hospital to a guy who just had surgery on his spine. And to several people who have just been stressed out. So we have this golden investigator who came to church on his own, and he's attending Chico state, he's only 18, and we've been giving him the lessons. We invited him to the YSA ward but he likes our ward better. He walks over 2 miles on Sunday just to go to church. And that is so cool because most investigators that have a car and live closer than he does have stupid excuses! He is awesome and he just wants to know for sure if he should be baptized. Pretty exciting! And we have a lady who really wants to be baptized, but she is living with her boyfriend so they have to get married before she can be baptized. So we are waiting on them. So it's been a pretty good week. So earlier his week a lady came up to us and started talking with us. She was nice, but started asking us if we knew that Joseph Smith did mushrooms to have the visions. It made me realize how much people say about Joseph Smith. So I guess Joseph did shrooms, alcohol, smoked weed, was a pedophile, was a murderer, a rapist, a con artist, has schizophrenia, and all sorts of things. I've heard people say all these things about him. It's so stupid how people make up all these things and as soon as someone hears it, they believe it, but once they hear the truth, they deny it. It makes me sad. We have been working with a lady and she won't pray about the church and that's why she doesn't know if it's true! People have to pray about it! Why not ask God? He is all knowing so who better then to ask? I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and restored the church on the Earth today. My testimony can't be shaken by these people. I've seen too much good come out of the church for it to be false. I've seen people turn their life completely around because of the gospel. Their lives are so much better with it, and I know my life wouldn't be the same. I just want you guys to know I have a testimony of the church and I hope you guys are all working to grow yours!


11/23/2015 This week was alright. I'm finally getting a new companion on Tuesday. His name is Elder Chandler. This week was a little slow for missionary work. Elder Ross has been going around saying goodbyes. We gave like a billion blessings this week though. One lady asked for a blessing because she was getting a 5 bypass surgery! That's crazy I've never heard of 5! We went on exchanges this week and we went to a place called the Jesus Center to feed homeless people. It was fun, but there are some WEIRDOS that came in. And we had stake conference yesterday as well! It was on keeping the sabbath day holy! And that's pretty much it! We had some good lessons this week but nothing report worthy!


11/30/2015 Well honestly this week was slow, it was a holiday week and transfers and I was sick so not a whole lot got done. We mostly just went around introducing ourselves to ward members and stuff. One member we visited told us the story of how he killed someone with his bare hands because he was kidnapping his sister. So that was interesting. And the lady me and Ross baptized a while back, we went to visit her and she was taken off some medication, and she has skitzofrenia (no idea how to spell that) and all these scary brain things, and she was just yelling at us and crying and it was super hard to work with. So that was fun. And we met with and older member and she gave us a lot of referrals for less actives so that's exciting! We will have some more work to do. And remember when we helped move that giant metal pink dragon? We helped that same guy move a 2,000 pound safe. It was so freaking hard. We had to use a crow bar and wiggle it off the trainer on these wheeled Dolly's, and slowly push it into a store. Pretty sure this guy is a hoarder. He owns an antique store, but it's never open so I'm sure he just uses that as an excuse to keep all this pointless stuff.


12/7/2015 So anyways. This week was pretty good. Just kind of the usual stuff! We taught a lot of lessons! We had a Crèche festival at the stake center this week. It's where lots of people bring nativities and there are performers. We were able to watch the Christmas broadcast at the
crèche last night too. It was good! The Pasowistys are getting sealed in Arizona. I have to tell you their story! It's kind of long but it's so cool! So Nate, the guy, grew up in the church in Canada, but he fell away for a long time. He met his wife in Canada, who was a non member. He started working for Vivint solar company, and he got moved to Chico California. They were pretty sad to leave Canada. So Jeff Beck, another awesome guy in our ward, works at Vivint too. And he told Nate about a referral to a lady who was in the ward, because Nate goes door to door trying to sell it. So he went to this ladies house, and they started talking. She asked him how many kids he had and he said two. One boy and one girl. And then she asked, if the boy was his biological son. She has never seen his kids! And it so happens that the son was not his biological son, so now Nate was like why would she ask that? It was an inspiredquestion for sure. And Then they started talking about church and how Nate was inactive. And during the conversation nates phone kept getting text messages in his pocket, and he just kept ignoring it. And
then he got a message that ringed way louder than all the other ones, so Nate checked it, and it was a message from his wife saying, "do you
think church would be good for us?" And that's while he was talking about church to the lady! And the lady saw the text and said, looks like a sign! And nudged him and said, I guess we will see you at church! And Nate said yes you will! So they started coming and Mel, nates wife, started the missionary discussions and she got baptized! And that was a year ago this month and now they are getting sealed! I thought it was such a cool story. Anyways I thought I would share thatbecause not a whole lot happened this week haha.

It's been a while.... Here's what's been happening!!

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I updated! Here's a quick catch up on what Elder Stoddard has been up to. I'll post pictures later.

Email from September 21
Well, im not going to lie, this week kind of sucked. First, we have an investigator named Vivian and I think I told you about her. We have been trying to get her to go to the church for a lesson because we want to give her to the other missionaries because she is outside of our boundaries. Her house is too small for all of us to fit. So we always make appointments for her, and she always cancels last minute. So I called her and I kind of got mad at her. I said we do all this stuff for you and you won't even meet with us. We have bought her food and helped her in a lot of ways. And I said we put all this effort in to meeting with her and she doesn't seem to care. Dad said by the end of my mission I will be really blunt and straightforward and I feel like I am already there haha. Anyways, She said she doesn't want to meet with us anymore because she is going to a baptist church that a random lady invited her to. So that really sucks. And then we went to our golden investigator's house, his name is Tony, and he is the one that I was inspired to see. He has been reading the BOM and he has soaked up everything we teach him. So we went to his house and said he isn't grasping the Mormon religion and also dropped us. He said he will still read the BOM, and he wanted all the pamphlets that we hand out, and he even wants to talk to us about the pamphlets next week, but I think he said wants to to be nice. So at this point we have zero progressing investigators. And it sucks because we try and we are seeing no success. It's pretty frustrating. Then on Saturday, we went to another missionaries baptism, and they wanted us to teach the restoration while the lady who got baptized was getting changed. We actually just showed the video of the restoration. And during the video, these ladies in the hall started to freak out and there was a nurse in the room, and the ladies called her into the hall and she ran out there. There was tons of commotion. Then an ambulance came! We went outside and talked to the other missionaries and I guess the lady who got baptized slipped in the changing room and hit her head and busted it open. She started having seizures too. When the ambulance asked her where she thought she was, she said Walmart. So that was scary. And guess what the worst part is... She doesn't remember her baptism! And just before her baptism, the bishop said, don't ever forget this day! So kind of ironic. And pretty sad too. So I will share some good news now haha. We went to help a crippled less active guy move out of his apartment. He is being evicted which sucks. And he doesn't even have a new place yet. But while we were moving, a guy asked if we could help him move a couch in to his apartment since we were already moving stuff. He was really nice and offered to help us move norm out of his house. We said its ok, but that you should let us teach you some time. He agreed so I hope he will be interested. And while we were helping Norm move, there was a huge lizard in his house! Haha so it's just like Australia! ;-)

Email from September 28
Things were a lot better this week! So I went on exchanges with our district leader. Usually the new missionaries go to the other area while the old one stays in the area because they know it better. But I had to take over the area for a day! I was nervous, but we did good. Me and elder Costner did more work than me and Ross do haha, and Costner is pretty quiet, so I did all the teaching which I'm not used to yet, but it was so fun! I'm actually really excited to take over the area! I only have like 2 weeks left of training! And while we were on exchanges, a recent convert called and asked for a blessing. I guess his fiancé just got arrested and his kids were taken by the CPS. His life seems pretty chaotic. He is a super awesome guy though. And so I gave him a blessing, and it was the coolest experience. I have always had a testimony, but after doing that blessing, I don't have a doubt that this church is true. The spirit was so strong. I cried and he cried. After the blessing he looked at me and couldn't believe I cried for him! It's crazy how much love I felt for him, and I hardly know him! He thought it was cool that I cried for him. He said he felt so good after the blessing and knew everything would be ok. Anyways, we met some new investigators and we also met a guy who plays basketball for Butte college. He wants us to come over and talk about the church! So that's pretty cool. We just have been trying to find people to teach! It's rough! But we are hanging in there. We were at a girls house and she is a senior in high school, she lives with her mom, but her mom isn't interested. The girl is a convert of 3 years. She told us about her life and it sounds tough. Her mom just kept dating bad guys. One of them tried to kill her mom and one beat her and her brother and all these other crazy sad stories. But it's so cool to see how their lives have turned around, especially the girl, because of the gospel. She wants to serve a mission too so that's cool! So our car wasn't starting right the other day, so I called the mission office and they told us we needed to drive to a place called grass valley which was 2 hours away. They said we needed to go right away. So we drove the two hours and we got to the repair place, and it was closed on Saturdays. We went down on Saturday. I was so mad. So we called our mission vehicle coordinator and he never called back. So we drove all the way back to chico and it's still not fixed so that was fun.

Oh I don't know if I ever sent you some facts about my mission! So my mission is the 2nd highest producer of rice in the world. China buys a lot of the rice from here. Also my mission is the only place in the USA that grows avocados, pomegranates, almonds, and I think a few other things but I can't remember. We also have the shortest mountain range in the world! The Sutter Buttes. I saw them on the way to chico when I first got here. They are tall but such a short range. There were some other cool facts but I can't remember them all.

Email from October 5
So this week was pretty good! We found some new people to teach which is what we really needed. We found this black guy named Chris. He is awesome, he said he wants to read the whole Book of Mormon. He plans on playing basketball for Butte college so I said we should play sometime haha. He lives in these slum apartments though. They are super sketchy. The apartments are all really tight together and just so torn apart. Everyone there are druggies and everyone yells and stuff. It's hard to feel the spirit there. These girls were moving a mattress and they were yelling and freaking out that no one was helping them, so we went and offered to help and they got mad we offered to help haha. So whatevs. Anyways, Chris seems kind of interested so that's good. And do you remember the guy I gave a blessing to last week? And his girlfriend was in jail? So she had a seizure in jail and hit her head, so she went to the hospital and they just gave her swap, which means she basically gets a job and works off her jail time which is good for her. She thought it was all Gods hand through it, and for sure it is, and now she wants to get baptized really bad. It's pretty cool to see the change of heart. Before jail, she didn't really care, but she was going insane because she didn't have a Book of Mormon! Haha. She really wanted to read it! So we are going over the lessons with her and we have a baptism date for November 7th! We are so excited about it! But Elder Ross will probably be gone before then. But she is struggling with smoking and prescription drugs, and she's been off for a couple weeks, but she still struggles so she asked for a blessing. I gave her one, and she started crying and after the blessing, she said she had never felt so at peace! I was always so nervous to give blessings, but now they are my favorite! You can feel the spirit so strong and it's cool because of the things you say in a blessing, it's not even my words if that makes sense. I have seen the power of the priesthood change lives. It's so amazing and I feel so honored to hold it! Anyways, she was so happy about the blessing and she wants to keep meeting with us. She is staying with a member right now so the member is helping her a lot with getting her back on her feet. So we went to this recent convert families house, and the mom and two of the kids got baptized. The older kids aren't interested and the dad is a hard core Catholic. He is Mexican. So we went over, and the dad was extremely drunk, so we had a lesson with Evan, the 14 year old, outside on their porch. Their dad came outside and he hates missionaries. He actually was kind of nice to us, but he was saying that he likes when we come and teach his kids to pray and stuff, but he doesn't want us to come over to have sex with his wife. So I dot know why he was saying that but it was really weird. He basically said the same thing for 2 hours. It was really annoying. Anyways, we hung out with the Spanish missionaries this week, and I could understand everything they were saying! I have an app on my iPad and it helps teach language, so I've been studying! The missionaries were really impressed and said I should have been a Spanish missionary! Haha. It was pretty cool.

Email from October 12
This week was pretty good! The work is staring to pick up a little. We stopped by this girls house and she just let us in. We were surprised! Apparently she has grown up Mormon but never got baptized and she was excited to see us, and she wants to get baptized! Unfortunately, she is YSA age so we have to transfer her over to the YSA elders. It's so annoying, we keep finding all these golden investigators and they are all YSA age! We found a kid a few weeks ago and we taught him a little and then transferred him and now he has a baptism date! 2 baptisms that should be ours! Haha. It doesn't matter who baptizes them though, just matters that they are getting baptized! I can't remember if I told you this last week, but I went on exchanges with the Spanish missionaries. I went into their area and I could understand a lot of what they said! It was fun. We also found some limes so we made some lime aid haha. So there is this guy we are teaching and we saw him riding his bike down the street so we flagged him down to talk to him. He was doing alright, but I guess he is in to some pretty bad drugs now. He is paranoid of us, he thinks we are going to tell the cops. So that sucks, he doesn't want to meet with us. He didn't tell us that but we can tell.

Email from October 19
So this week was pretty good, we taught a lot of lessons! But mostly to inactive people. We are just trying to find new investigators! My birthday was fun! We went to Panda Express, and later some members took us to a steak house (it wasn't very good but it was nice of them to take us) and then we went to a members house and they threw cupcakes on my face. It was pretty fun. After district meeting on Tuesday, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings, it was 70 cent wing day, so that's when I bought lunch for them. So the other day, we went to this guys house, he's what we call an eternigator. Which means he has been investigating the church for a long time. He has been investigating for over 30 years. Anyways, we went to his house to teach, and he is a masseuse, and he gave us free massages so that was cool. So we dropped this investigator a while back, and it's the one who would never come to church and then she went to a baptist church when she was invited once by a stranger. We stopped by to see how she was doing and she wanted us to come back, and her neighbor was out while we went over and he freaked out at us and said we were going to hell. And elder Ross just asked if he wanted to be taught and he didn't seem to like that haha. Anyways, we went into the investigators house and she finally agreed to praying about the church. I just hope she prays with sincerity! So there's this awesome family who joined the church a year ago, the husband was inactive. Anyways, they are the Pasowisty family. I can't remember if I told you about them, but they are super cool, hey always have us over for dinner and lunch and they play games with us and stuff.

Email from October 26
I've probably already told you, but we have an investigator on date so that's exciting. We might have to push it back though because she is living with her boyfriend now and that means she will have to get married before she is baptized. And we have another investigator who is going to be baptized, we don't have a date, but it should be pretty soon! I'm excited for them! And we went on another exchange with the Spanish missionaries. It makes me wish that I would have spoke Spanish. I can understand everything they say, I just can't speak back very well. But it's really fun to go with. On Tuesday, three missionaries did the Blazin wing challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings. Two of them did it, one of them only ate one wing haha. I tried of the wings, they are pretty hot. But it was pretty funny to watch them. So this week,mi noticed that everyone calls us when they have problems. They call us when they need like counseling. It's super stressful! It's not our job! And I also notice that everyone uses us as a free moving service. Whenever someone needs to move they call us. I don't mind, but it's especially annoying when they have us do everything and don't help and they aren't active in the church so they take advantage of us.

Well I hope you're doing good! I miss you guys a lot! It's going by pretty fast for me though! And I will be talking to you guys in two months! Can't wait till then! Haha. Love you tons! Keep being awesome!



There! Now you're all caught up! Haha! Love to hear from my boy! Love to see his testimony grow! Love that kid to pieces!! Pictures coming later today, and I will be better about keeping this updated!

What's new in Chico

This week was pretty good! It was kind of slow. We only have one progressing investigator now. Everyone else is now uninterested or not keeping commitments. Kinda sucks. And our ward mission leader is mad because we aren't teaching enough. We are trying and it's not really our fault, the people here are just hard hearted! So there is this Thursday night market in Chico and farmers bring stuff to sell and there is good food and music and stuff. It's pretty cool. We talked to tons of people there. But pretty much everyone is YSA age, so we have to give the, to the YSA elders. Kinda sucks. We met this old guy who said he has been to heaven haha. He is homeless. He gave us some pictures of heaven lol. So when we were walking around, I saw some Jehovah's witnesses that had a booth set up, and it had some stuff that said like what does the bible say, and that all Elder Ross saw, so he started talking to them. Then he saw the JW sign and was like "oh crap" haha. It actually wasn't bad though, we had a good conversation about religion and stuff. They weren't too bad. One guy that was there I could tell didn't like us haha. So last Monday, the Pasowistys, an awesome member family from Canada invited us to go to this sports place, kinda like a rec center. They had won a drawing and got the whole place to themselves for a few hours! It was so cool. We played basketball and wiffle ball and pool and stuff. So we've been meeting with this lady who is not all there, her name is Vivian. We have committed her to go to church for the past like 5 weeks now, and every time she cancels last minute. We even get her rides and stuff. And just yesterday, we called her to see if she would be coming, and she said no because she had just met a lady who invited her to her church so she is going to that one. So other than all that, not too much interesting is going on.

So anyways, I hope everyone is doing awesome! I miss yall like crazy! It's starting to go by a little faster though. Keep me updated on everything! I love you so much! Keep being awesome!

This is Kayla

Summer Ramsden is my main homie

First Baptism!

Jayden (oops) Elder Stoddard still sounds so, so good! I'm so happy that he is doing so well and loving his mission!! Here's the latest--

I had a pretty good week this week. We baptized Thelma which was good. I can't remember if I told you, but one thing that held her back was she didn't think tithing was important. We had a lesson with her about it and she was still being stubborn, but at the end, elder Ross shared a story that he wasn't planning on sharing because it was kind of personal I guess. But I want to tell you about it because it's too cool not to share haha. So his mom was struggling financially when he was in 7th grade, and I think she had recently got a divorce. She still paid tithing though. And one day, she was driving Ross to school, and her car ran out of gas! She pulled over into a church parking lot and prayed. She was crying and having a hard time, they didn't know what to do. When she turned the car back on, the gas meter was full!!! How cool is that? Elder Ross was pretty emotional during the lesson, but the spirit was super strong. Thelma was balling too. She finally understood that tithing was important. So that was awesome. So when she was baptized, we got there and realized we needed keys to the font which we didn't have! So we rushed to find someone who did. Finally we got some keys and we blasted the font haha. everything worked out. We found out while we were there, that her brother was getting baptized that Saturday! She didn't even tell us! Haha. So we went to his up in paradise too. (Paradise is a town near us) So yesterday, we went to this girls house that we had stopped by several times at. She was a referral and we kept going by but she was never home! We finally left a Book of Mormon with a note on it. We were out of pass along cards. She texted us to come over on Sunday. So we did, and she has read a lot of the Book of Mormon! Her family is all LDS and she really wants to be baptized. She wants to be baptized in Hawaii though. That's where she's from. So I don't think we will be able to be there haha. But still really cool!

Here are some pictures that Jayden sent of the lady that was baptized last Thursday. The first one was labeled "Aw Yeah"and the second one was labeled "Soul Saved"! I'm glad he still has his great sense of humor!!

Two weeks of emails

I have been a slacker lately! So here are this weeks and last weeks emails from my boy! Last week I had to wait until 10:30 at night for his email! That stinker! He was out having fun, hiking, going to dinner. I guess that's way better than emailing your mom! Haha! Here is what he finally had to say--

"Sorry I didn't email earlier! We went on a hike up to an abandoned mine cave. It was pretty cool. Elder Avery caught this cool black and orange salamander! We ended up taking a wrong turn and hiked a couple of miles but it wasn't too bad. So this week was pretty good! Except I'm upset, while I was writing the first few paragraphs of this letter, a guy from our ward called me and asked me to give a talk this Sunday. So yay. Haha. Anyways, this week we went to this guy named David's house for dinner. He used to be a pro boxer and he killed someone in self defense and went to jail, so he's different. He made this stuff called spread in jail, and decided to feed it to us. It is top Raman, mixed with chile, sour cream, mustard, mayo, Doritos, and all sorts of seasonings. It was not good haha. He's nice though, he's not all there. So we have been meeting with this lady named Vivian, she is also not all there, but super nice. We finally got her to go to church! We kept trying to get her to go, but she always has lame excuses like she doesn't have money or something. Like we get her a ride and do everything for her! But we finally got her to go. I was pretty bold and blunt about things with her. It was starting to get frustrating, but it worked. We just had faith and kept praying for her! It sucks though because we have to give her off to some other missionaries because she isn't in our ward. But just glad we found her to teach! So we were going to find new investigators, and just knocking on doors, and for some weird reason, no one was answering their doors. I felt like something just wasn't right, so I said we should say a prayer, and we did. The next door we went to, the lady was home and wants us to come teach her next week!!! So that's way exciting! There is this cool old guy in our ward, he just got baptized last year. He fought in WWII. I guess he convinced Ronald Reagan to run for president haha. So that's cool. His name is ken Holden. There's this other guy in our ward, his name is Lauren Sorensen, he is 98 years old and pretty much runs around the church. He has more energy than a little kid. He's crazy, but a super cool guy. We have also been meeting with this family that was recently baptized. They haven't been to church for 13 weeks! And we visited them and we got them to go! Their 14 year old son has anxiety, and he stole his moms car and he wrecked it. His 26 year old brother beat him up after that. We happened to stop by that very day. There was just chaos in their house, and everyone was yelling and just upset, and we stopped by and the mom almost said it wasn't a good day for us to visit, but then our ward mission leader stopped by out of the blue! And he came in and we gave a good lesson and got them to go to church. You could just feel the spirit and i know we were supposed to go over to help calm their family down after all that chaos, because our ward mission leader came too! It was really cool! Anyways, pretty great week!

Well the days go by slow and the weeks go by flipping fast! But it still feels like I haven't seen you guys in 2 years already! I miss you all so much! I just want you guys to keep growing your testimonies and stay close to God! Being away from the comfort of home, I have seen the influence of satan on the world, and how easy it is slip away from the gospel. I'm not saying you guys ever would, but I just want you guys to keep being awesome and try to study the scriptures personally and as a family! :) "10 Behold I say unto you, do ye suppose that ye cannot worship God save it be in your synagogues only? And moreover, I would ask, do ye suppose that ye must not worship God only once in a week? (Alma 32)" I just thought I would share this scripture, I think it's pretty cool! It just means we need to worship God throughout the week! Church isn't the only time we should worship!" I love it when he gets all preachy!! Ha! No, it really is good to hear how his testimony is growing and how the church is becoming so much more important to him!

And here is this weeks email--

"Hey mom! I'm pretty good how are you? Yes we still are planning the baptism for this week, but we might have to push it back because the lady did some serious sin stuff a while back and we have to get her an interview with either the mission president or the 1st counselor of the mission. Kinda sucks, and the lady wanted to do it September 3rd because it was her moms birthday and her mom is a member so she thought that would be a good present! Haha. And Ya our ward is pretty cool, me and elder Ross hang out with the Becks, who are a couple that just got married not too long ago, and he is an RM, and the Pasowistys, who are from Canada and they are both so cool. They have us for dinner a lot and they let me watch the first half of the Broncos game on Saturday. Haha. And my first transfer ends today. There are a few buddies of mine leaving the area which sucks. So training is 12 weeks, so in 6 weeks, elder Ross will most likely be leaving. I will probably be in Chico for at least another 12 weeks, unless for some weird reason hey shotgun us out, which means takes Ross and me out at the same time, but that's rare because then the new missionaries don't know anyone or where to go. And uptime goes by fast but slow, like it's crazy to think that I've been in California for 6 weeks now, but I feel like I haven't seen you guys in forever and I look at how much longer I have and it's way more!

I don't do laundry. I just stink. Just kidding. It's not too bad. And grocery shopping isn't too bad either, but definitely easy when you did it haha. The apartment isn't too bad, except the elder before me left TONS of boxes from all the packages that he got, and there is just like a mountain of them to clean up. It actually really pisses me off he left them, because to leave an area it says to make sure you don't leave a mess for other elders to clean up. But other than that it's not too bad. We moved our beds into the kitchen/living room area because there is a swamp cooler there, and it was so hot in the bedroom we just couldn't sleep. It's so unfair, our zone leaders and a couple other companionships live in these apartments not too far from us, that are super nice. They have AC and they are big and have windows. We live in a dark hot basement. I had to give a talk yesterday! It was pretty good. It was on obedience, and I shared a hunting story with it and everyone came up to me after saying they thought I was so cool and they all said they couldn't believe I was 18 because of my talk lol. And after the talk, a really old lady in a robotic wheel chair came up to me and asked if I knew a Helen Stoddard that lived in Utah! Apparently they were best friends growing up! How crazy is that!? So I forgot to tell you, the sister missionaries near us are having their car retired, so we have to give the, ours. So I'm getting a bike today. Yay. Biking in 100 degrees. I guess we are going to share a car with some other elders, but the elder there is a 350 pound Polynesian kid. We went on a hike with him and he struggled really bad. So I doubt he's going to let us have the car very often. I'm mad that they are taking the car from us though, because we cover the biggest area of the zone! We cover most of Chico and a nearby city called Durham! And the elders we are sharing a car with, cover TWO wards! I don't understand why they couldn't take a car from someone only covering a small area?! Whatever I guess It will help get me in shape. I already lost six pounds since last week! A week ago I weighed myself and realized that I'm getting even more fat haha. The members here us like crazy. There's always a salad, some fattening food, and a desert! It's so bad. I weighed 236 last week, but I'm down to 229. I'm going to try to get to 200 before New Years.

So this week was pretty good. We visited Tony this week, the one I was inspired to visit a while back. We brought a member with us too. I guess he has already read a 100 pages of the Book of Mormon! He said it's cool because it goes hand in hand with the bible! He loves reading it! We had a super good lesson on the gospel, and at the end he invited himself to church. He said I want to come to your guys' church some time! He wasn't able to make it this week, but we will get him to go. So we had this guy named Frank on our potential investigator list. The address was a homeless shelter. We went, and opened the door, and no one was there. It was dark and everything was cleaned up! So we were just really confused haha. Then we went outside and we were walking to the car, and elder Ross had an impression to leave a Book of Mormon inside, so we went back, but the door was locked! It was weird! I wonder if the door just wasn't shut all the way when we went in. Anyways, so we didn't find Frank. And at church yesterday, a guy named Frank showed up! We talked to him and he had been staying at that shelter! It was him! Without any invitation, he came to church! We got his number and we are going to teach him sometime! He is a really nice guy and open to anything. He is trying to turn his life around for his 5 year old son.

I don't really have any other cool stories or miracles to share this week, but I could just tell you about some of the people! So we teach this new convert named Beth. We call her deaf Beth because she is SUPER deaf haha. When her phone rings, her lamps blink because she can't hear. And while on the phone, she types, and someone talks for her, and the person types whatever the other person says so she can just read it haha. She is crazy. I don't know if I have told you about Norm, but he is a convert of 30 years. He is inactive unfortunately, so we visit him pretty often. He has a gimpy arm and gimpy leg. But he has this massive left arm and always wants to arm wrestle people haha. And if you shake his hand, he will crush it, so we always fist bump haha. He is obsessed with Elvis Presley and he ends up talking about him forever when we go over haha. He's a funny guy. So we are teaching this lady who isn't all there, and it's so annoying. We have been teaching her for 5 weeks, and we have invited her to church for the past 3 weeks, and she says she will go, but she always calls us a few minutes before and cancels because of some ridiculous excuse! It makes me so mad. I was pretty straight forward and blunt with her last lesson. And she always asks us for food and a job. I'm about ready to drop her as an investigator.

So I had I good week! So how was your week? How is being healthy? I hope everyone is doing well! I hope Mase emails me sometime! You guys are awesome! Love you so much!

And here are the latest pics--

Eyebrows

Me and our investigator Sarah

Honey Run covered bridge where we had our district meeting

District meeting in the wilderness

The covered bridge

Ally and me

MTC district

MTC district wall sits

MTC district weirdness

Sister Cornwall leaves today. She lives in Idaho. She is awesome.

Sister Cornwall and Sister Dudley with Elder Ross and me

Sister Cornwall and me

Me and my grandpa and his sons. Haha!

And finally, I just had to share this picture that I took. It is Jayden's countdown chart. One whole letter is completely filled in!! So exciting!!

We're getting there! Slowly but surely! So grateful for this missionary of mine!!

Picture overload!!

I finally figured out how to get the pics from email to the blog so here ya go!! Enjoy!! City of Durham. It's part of their area. Jay likes the tree lined street. Weekly planning in the nursery room. :-) Ferrari in the church parking lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Norm C. arm wrestling Elder Avery. Norm C. was born with a gimpy arm and weird leg, but he destroys with his left arm. He beat elder Avery. Elder Ross twerking in his tights. (Seems like they have a good time!) Elder Ross and I with the other district for the pool tournament! (Left to right) elder Stoddard, elder Ross in the back, elder Fa, elder wood on the bottom, elder Burdette, elder Gentry in the back the tall one, elder Briggs the glasses, elder Avery, and elder Inman. Elder Avery, the shortest one, is my grandpa. He is my trainers trainer. He is training elder wood right now, on the left. And me and elder Ross. Taking Kya for a walk (Kya is their neighbor's dog) Best tie goes to elder Ross hanging with Kya Half of our district from the MTC! (The other half is in Canada) Red sun. You could look straight at it without hurting your eyes! Elder escalante getting into the new mission car.... Haha this stingray was in the church parking lot. For some reason, there's always cool cars at our church!

The latest...

Here is Jayden's latest email. He still sounds so amazingly good! "So this week was interesting. Kind of crappy in terms of missionary work. So I had my first zone conference on Monday, luckily I wasn't called to give a talk randomly, but I was called to say a prayer haha. We had that in Yuba city where Elder Call is serving, so I got to talk to him which was awesome. A Buffalo Wild Wings just opened up in Chico last week so elder Ross and I went with another district in our zone there. We didn't go with ours because our district is kind of lame so we hang out with theirs. We have been kind of hanging out with them because Elder Gentry from their district leaves today! So we had a pool tournament and stuff. Oh and I forgot, on the way to Buffalo Wild Wings, our car started freaking out. We were on the highway, and our car started beeping like crazy, we thought we were gonna blow up! Our engine had overheated really bad, so we drove slowly to pep boys, because if we drove to fast it would overheat. It overheated a couple of times so we would have to stop the car and sit and wait for it to cool off. And it sucked because it was so hot and we couldn't have the AC on or it would overheat. So we got it to pep boys and I guess our radiator wasn't on all the way. During zone conference, they check our cars and they didn't screw on our radiator all the way so I was kind of pissed. All our coolant spilled out. So they fixed it, but it took them a few days. And you should be so proud of me! When they check our cars at zone conference, they make people stay and clean their cars and the inspector has to talk to them and tell them what they need to fix or clean, and we were they only ones who were free to go right away because it was so clean and everything was working! Haha. So anyways, since it took Pep boys a couple of days to fix, Elder Burdette and Briggs (our zone leaders) drove us around. They are really awesome, me and elder Ross actually hang out with them a lot. We slept at their house while our car was being fixed. It was fun because we just played uno and stuff. Oh, and Elder Burdette lives in the same neighborhood as grandma and grandpa Garmire! So that's crazy! So we got our car and a bunch of investigators cancelled on us. So nothing really too good in terms of missionary work happened this week. We got a lady to go to church which was cool, but she cancelled last minute "because she didn't have any cash" so whatever haha. We still got 3 other investigators to come to church! So that was good. Our ward mission leader was pissed at us because our numbers sucked this week, but it was because our car broke and we had zone conference and everyone cancelled! He just got called to be mission leader and he's really crazy about it. He was AP on his mission and he basically says his mission was way harder and better than ours and he assigns us all these dumb things! Anyways, last night, the lady who we share the house with said she is going out of town, so she asked if we could take care of her dog. So we let her chill with us haha. So pretty fun week this week haha. Hope you guys are doing good! Miss you all like crazy! Love you!!! elder Jaydawg" Man, I love that boy so much! I miss him more than I can say but so glad he is having fun and enjoying this time of his life!

One month down!!

Well, we hit the one month mark! I can hardly believe it!! It has gone much faster than I ever dreamed it would!! Here are some of his latest emails. August 3, 2015 "So I'm pretty good! Still going kinda slow but it's fun! We are in a car, and thank goodness because it's been around 102 degrees here. Up in Redding, which is a city in our mission, it was 112 degrees! Really grateful for cars! So elder Ross is pretty cool. We get along really well and we click through video games. He likes all the ones I do haha. The only thing that is hard, is that he is EXTREMELY sarcastic. Like I will ask a serious question and he will answer sarcastically, but it sounds like he is being serious so it's kinda hard to communicate sometimes. And he's not exactly obedient. Like we don't get up on time and we rarely do companion study and a couple other little things. I try to be obedient, but it's hard when he is the trainer and he is kinda in charge I guess. But other than that we get along pretty well! Elder Ross is from Heraman Utah. The work is ok, we have just been visiting a lot of the same people. So during weekly study time, we were about done and elder Ross asked if I wanted to visit anyone else and Tony Silva was on my screen. He was a potential investigator. So I had a feeling we should visit him! So we went right after planning, and he was excited to see us! He kind of said he had been waiting for us to come! It was so exciting! So we taught him the restoration and it all made sense to him! He wanted us to come back next week! But nothing too interesting this week!" August 10, 2015 "So the other day, we visited that lady who has a smoking problem. She asked for a priesthood blessing to quit smoking, because she had urges about every 20 minutes. So we gave her a blessing and came back a few days later and she hadn't had an urge to smoke since we blessed her. She also asked to be baptized so we got her on date for September 3! That was so cool! We have also done a lot of service this week. we helped several members move and we helped clean the church and stuff. One of the members we helped move has brain issues, it's sad because his mom did meth while she was pregnant and even gave him a gram of meth when he was a few days old, which stopped his heart. So that's why he's a little weird. I couldn't have guessed he had brain damage unless he told me though, he seems ok. But anyway, he's always been addicted to meth because of that so he ended up using when he was older and went to jail, and he snuck a shank into the prison and planned on killing a guard because he would rather die than go to jail. So they put him in this room with a girl prisoner, which they don't usually do but It was just for a second for some reason, and the lady was smiling and David, (the member) asked her what's so funny and she just said it's good to be alive. And then asked if David wanted to pray with her, so he did. He started crying and decided not to kill the guard. When they got to the judge thing, a few hours later, they cut his sentence in half. So he knew God cared for him. Once he was out of jail, the missionaries found him and he was converted. He's actually a really nice guy. He doesn't do meth anymore or anything! We also taught Tony, the guy I was inspired to visit, and he just is totally accepting the gospel! It's awesome! There is one lady who we visit and she prayed about the mormon church and said the thought that we were a cult popped into her head. So we encouraged her to try again and focus on what she felt, more than what she thought. She also had all these questions that we've already answered before so it's frustrating!" He sounds so, so good! He always sounds happy and upbeat which makes my heart so happy! I can't ask for anything more! I love having a missionary! It is so fun to see his growth and hear about all of his experiences! Monday is definitely my FAVORITE day of the week! I look forward to his emails so much! I can see such huge changes in him already and even he says he can't believe how much he has grown! I'm so very thankful for this opportunity for Jayden. I know he could never experience the things he has in any other way. So grateful for this amazing gospel and especially for our Savior and His atoning sacrifice. I am so grateful that my boy had the desire to serve our Savior and that he is doing it with all his heart! To end I just want to share a little bit of an email that my sweet Kaylen sent to Jayden. "I love you so much!!!!! It is hard without you but I know that it is right for you!:) I moved up 2 levels in dance! I am excited for that, I already did do all of my dances. I sang in church but it was a solo! I was scared but i did it. The theater is much different without you! I need to tell you about school it is awesome! But I cry because I miss you so much! Every thing I see makes me sad because of you haha!!!!!!!!!!! I am so glad you are serving a mission for the lord! You were the person I looked up for! But i will always look up for you! I love you but I will always love you forever i will not stop telling you! Haha! I love you! You are so awesome! I love you, Kay rae/80" Is that not the cutest thing ever?!?! I love my family so much! Having Jay on a mission has definitely brought us closer and I love seeing how much the other kids love him and miss him and want to know what he's up to!! It has really been a great experience for our family! I love my missionary!!!!

He's in California and loving it!!

Jayden made it to California! He sounds really good! Here is a little bit from his first email from California- "So my first area is Chico. It's kind of a college town. It's super ghetto. EVERYONE smokes and does meth. A meth lab exploded not too far from our house a couple weeks back! it makes me so grateful to live where we do. Nice open places and clean houses. The apartments we visit are just trashed! It's kinda depressing to see. It's like Jesse Pinkman's house on breaking bad when he has all those party's and stuff. The ward is really cool though! Everyone in the ward are all either super old, or pretty young. All the young people have tattoos and stuff haha. There's a really cool guy named brother Beck who took us to outback and bought us an iron and board because our house didn't have one. He's so cool. We have taught a lot of people. It's weird here, we have iPads and we have this area book app, that finds potential investigators for us through the church. So like if someone visits the church website, the website knows and it gets their address and info and we go teach them! My trainer elder Ross has never been tracting before because of it. It's way more effective though. We have several investigators and we picked up two more this week! It's a lot of work and I'm exhausted, but I'm so grateful for the experience! It's super sad, we are teaching this mentally disabled lady, and she wants to get baptized but she is addicted to smoking and is super depressed and we gave her a blessing. I get kinda scared going to here house because she freaks out and crys because she doesn't understand the scriptures and can't quit smoking. We met this cool guy named Norm, he is a less active member and he is obsessed with Elvis Presley. He's really funny. He was born with a weird deformed leg and a little chicken wing arm, but he is always trying to arm wrestle people with his other arm haha. So at church, this non member weirdo came to church, and no one invited him. He is an older guy and he literally looks like gollum from lord of the rings. Hair, teeth and everything. Me and elder Ross were teaching gospel principles, and we were teaching how to keep the sabbath day holy, and this crazy guy starts rambling about the end of the world and Russia invading everyone and China ruling us. He got there from keeping the sabbath day holy... Like what the crap!? And in priesthood, he said marriage is evil and got into a big argument with the teacher! It's was so weird. And we were visiting a recent convert last night, and she has a lot of cats just wondering around their yard and house, and their drunk neighbor comes over and start cussing and throwing the F bomb everywhere and he was throwing cats into the house because he hates all the cats. He got into the recent convert's mom's face. I thought I was going to have to beat the crap out of him if he hit her. Luckily he didn't though. "So ya it's interesting here in Chico haha. I know I wanted to go foreign, but this is foreign enough! I'm having fun!" So he's already having lots of adventures!! I got some pictures from him too but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to post them on here! I'll try to figure it out and post them soon! Here is a little bit from some earlier emails- "Thanks for sending the pics! I know I already taked to you today but president Marsten said we should let you know how everything is. so yes im in Cali. Its pretty much just rice fields as far as the eye can see, and maybe two or three people haha. Its like smaller feel than Grand Junction, but I havent been to Roseville yet, the mission office is in Antelope. And i cant send my picture with Dante Exum on this computer so i will send it later. It was seriously the craziest thing. hes just chilling by himself in the gate just eating, and ran over to him and said DANTE EXUM! and shook his hand. He was eating and his mouth was full so it was awkward haha. i just said I was a huge fan and asked if I could get a picture and he said yes and then i asked where he was going and he said Europe and i just said awesome and good luck this season. he probably thought i was the weirdest person because i was like freaking out haha. i also met Elder Christensen, the blonde kid on the District. so that was cool too. So just letting you know im doing pretty good! love you!" And here's the only one we got from him at the MTC- "Hola! How are you? Did you get my letter i sent in the mail? and how is everything going? And tell Mase I will be home before he knows it! And tell Troy and Melody congrats and that i miss everyone. I will send pictures when i am in Cali, the computers at the MTC are lame and dont work. well i will tell you about everything! So my companion is Elder Call, He is from Mapleton Utah. He loves basketball which is awesome! we always play basketball which is awesome! (except he is a Cavs fan). haha. He is like literally the most popular person in the MTC. he knows everyone its crazy! oh and Sister carleton was here! I talked to her the day before she left to Brazil! will you ask Braedy what her first name is? i think its Ashley but im not sure. so that was really cool! And dad will be so proud of me! im good friends with a kid named Elder Fesalai, he is from Melbourne Australia! he has the coolest accent! and he is really good at basketball and he talks about spear fishing in the ocean and stuff so we click pretty well haha. Elder Fesalai is in our zone. speaking of, if you havent got my letter yet, me and Elder Call are zone leaders!!!! we got called the second day we were here so that was a little overwhelming haha. we have to go to tons of meetings and teach orientation class to the new missionaries and get reports and just tons of things. Its been such a good experience though! I have changed so much just from a week of being at the MTC! I love you so much mom! thanks for being such a great example to me!" So he has had some great experiences so far! I can't believe he's already been out three weeks!! Time is going by fast for me!! So grateful for my boy and his decision to serve the Lord!!