2 Millettz

This last week was packed with eventful events. First things first, I went on exchanges with Poteau and it was a fun experience. Then on Wednesday, we had district meeting then we had a district lunch at Taco Bell, then Spanish was going to stay with us for the day because Elder Andruski was performing in the play with us that night. So we went back to our apartment to grab something I think and we got a call from the Poteau Elders saying that they had just gotten in a car wreck. So we went to pick them up expecting to see a bunch of Policemen and whatnot and there's nobody there besides the Elders. What had happened was they rear-ended some lady. Her car wasn't that damaged, but the Elders' car was smooshed in the front and all the airbags had gone off. The lady who they hit was wanted in like 4 states so the Police arrested her and then left. So I guess they caught a criminal. Then that night we had the Christmas play and it all went very nicely. One day during the week, some Jehovah's witnesses came to our apartment complex and left a bunch of their material in everybody's doors. Then we were chilling in our apartment one day and we get a knock on the door, Elder Kealer answers it and it's some pastor from a church nearby. He was all smiles until he saw who we were and then he kept telling us he wasn't proselyting, just trying to get to know the people in the area around his church. He was totally proselyting. We were nice to him though. Monday we had the mission wide zone conference. It was really fun. I got to see all of my good friends who haven't gone home yet. The Fort Smith zone has been the top zone for the past 6 weeks straight, except for one of those weeks we only had the second most number of lessons. Amen.

Elder Naegle

2 Chainz

This last week was cool. Actually it was 70 degrees all week. Which would be nice, except we're wearing suit coats and normally it's not a problem, except when you stand in the sun and there's no breeze or you get in the car that has been heated up from the sun. Well not much happened this week. Somehow Elder Kealer and I ended up in our ward's Christmas play which is also kind of a musical. Elder Kealer has to sing a solo. Luckily we've only got a few lines each so it's not that big of a deal. We worked pretty hard this week which makes you feel good even though other people used their agency to not listen to us. Man, no offense but there are some really dumb people in the world, just sayin. We had a zone conference where Elder Foster from the 70 came. It was good but I didn't think it was that great. But apparently the North American Southwest area is the second fastest growing area of the Church in the world next to Africa. That's cool. The NASW covers from like where we're at to like Idaho so it's a strangely shaped area. This week we learned not to browse through the pictures of somebody else's phone... twice. Other than that, the Fort Smith zone has been putting up the best numbers in the whole mission for like the last month straight. So now I can brag to all the other zone leaders that my zone is better than theirs. Just kidding, I will only boast in the Lord. And my area is probably doing the worst right now in the zone so I'm not quite sure why I'm one of the zone leaders....

One Hit Wonder

This week was alright. Our one hit wonder streak continues. We teach a new investigator one lesson and then never see them again. Ashton came to church and she was able to get a Gospel Principles book which she was wanting. We also got our neighbor, Buck, to come to Sacrament again. Then we gave him a Gospel Principles book and later that day he told us how much he is enjoying that book. So we'll see where that goes. I haven't quite figured out Buck yet. He's interesting. Thanksgiving was good. I didn't eat hardly any food. For some reason lately I can't eat as much as I used to, and I'm never hungry. The craziest thing that happened this week was on Wednesday. We went to visit a newly moved in member and they have a pretty cool place. They have a really big pond (it's big enough to put wave runners on) and a good couple of acres, and horses and not only do they have horses, they have a miniature horse! No, it's not a pony, I asked them, it is literally a miniature horse. It's about the same size as a dog. A little bigger. Then while we were talking to them in their front room, we heard a car honking, and we looked out the window and what did we see? Well it wasn't popcorn popping on an apricot tree, it was a van that was on fire! There were flames coming out from the undercarriage and the driver apparently didn't know that his car was on fire, because he kept on driving. Then we saw some cars take off and chase him down. Then we saw the cars come back. Then we heard fire sirens and saw two volunteer fire trucks driving by, but in the opposite direction as the van went. We don't know if those trucks were connected. Then we saw a hooker at dollar general. It was a crazy day. Well that's about all that happened. Everybody try to keep Christ in Christmas this year!

Love,

Elder Naegle

One and Dones

Over like the past month and a half, all the investigators who we have found here have all been one and dones. We don't even talk to any of them anymore. We literally have nobody in our teaching pool. It is a struggle finding things to do besides tracting. But that's cool, I've kinda just accepted it. We came up with a list of stereotypical things to look for while tracting to keep it interesting. Some of the things include but are not limited to: confederate flags, a dog, multiple dogs, people smoking, hoarders, people who've been 'saved', people who tell us of their visions, people who won't stop talking, people who mention polygamy or Mormons being a cult and a few other things that I can't think of right now. I lied about our teaching pool, we've got one solid investigator. Her name is Ashton and I've talked about her before. She's the one who's uncle is a member and we teach her at his house. Her uncle and I agree that she would already be baptized by now if it weren't for her husband who is just fighting her about the whole thing. He had some family members who were Mormon but then they got excommunicated and now they tell him all these nasty things about Mormons and whatnot. It's super lame. She knows it's true, so we just gotta work on her husband... Probably the only slightly cool thing that happened this week was that while we were tracting we knocked on a baptist preacher's door and so I asked him if he would like a Book of Mormon as a gift and he said yeah and that he'd read it. He was pretty nice and didn't try to attack us or anything. So maybe he'll read, maybe he won't but who cares we gave him one anyways. Well that's about all folks.

Elder Naegle

Super Dry

This week was kinda lame. Nothing really happened until Sunday. Our teaching pool is super dry and empty. So we've done a fair amount of tracting. Sometimes tracting's really fun, sometimes I just want to shoot myself. I did have a really interesting conversation with an old baptist lady. One of the first things she told us was that somewhere in the Bible is says specifically, that Mormons are a cult. And seventh-day adventists. She conveniently couldn't remember where in the Bible it said that though. It was a fun conversation. Sunday I was able to confirm Cliff, we had stake conference last week so we couldn't do it then. We saw him wiping tears from his eyes so we think it was a really good experience for him. We had one of our investigators show up to church that we weren't expecting so that was a nice surprise. She stayed the whole time with her aunt, who's a member, and she even asked for a gospel principles book. Then the family who one of the members has been telling us for about three weeks now, showed up, and they seemed to enjoy themselves. They only stayed for sacrament but they are considering lessons. This member also has a baptist preacher friend who she's trying to get to take the lessons. That would be pretty cool. I can't remember if I said this already or not, but thank you Papa Roy for the gps, it has been a life saver! Other than that not much else has happened. We're going to be doing a lot more tracting this week so that will be fun. Our zone got the most lessons in the zone though by a lot this last week so that was fun. As much as I'd like to take credit, I can't, it's mostly Elder Nau, he got 33 lessons and 8 new investigators last week in Mena and 29 lessons and 7 new investigators the week before. He's making me pretty proud because I trained him. I think I lost my usb connector to my camera, so I might not be sending pictures for a while.

Elder Naegle

Pretty Good Week

This week was pretty good. People don't like to respond to us and the adversary is working pretty hard on a lot of people we're working with. One of our investigators just lost her job, the mom of a family who some members are trying to get to come to church and who are pretty open got attacked by a dog and had to get stitches and so they couldn't come to church. One investigator, we're pretty sure is getting fed anti by her husband. And we teach her at her uncle's house, who's a member, and every time she's been taught there her parents, who aren't too friendly to the idea of her taking the lessons, show up randomly and try to distract everybody from everything. Luckily we did the lesson long before they showed up. This other guy who I haven't even seen since I've got here, he committed to baptism and then his daughter, who is 7 months pregnant, went into premature labor and he's been holed up at the ER for like 2 weeks straight now and we haven't been able to see him. So things have been pretty nuts. But the baptism went well. The guy's name is Cliff and he had a friend who gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon a while ago and then he read it like twice and then lost it. So he called his friend to get a new copy and she sent the missionaries over. The first lesson I had with him we were able to commit him to a date. He's like the nicest older gentleman ever. He loves coming to church. Everything just made sense to him. I forgot my camera today so I'll have to send pictures next week. We had MLC last week as well as zone training meeting and both were very good meetings. We also had interviews with President Loveland. After zone training meeting the other zone leader and I had a meeting with President and Sister Loveland and the assistants. They were very complimentary of our zone and how the meeting went so that was nice to hear. In our zone, every companionship has a trainee in it besides the Spanish. So we're the youngest zone in the mission. This is also probably the best zone I've been in. Everybody in it is hard working and obedient. There's only one companionship that doesn't get along. Things are looking up here though so we just need to get to work because I've been super lazy the last two weeks, mostly because I don't really know what's going on in the area and neither does my companion, so we're almost starting from scratch here. Well I love you all, keep it real, and read The Book of Mormon.

Elder Naegle

hmm

This last week was cool. Nothing too exciting happened. We went down to Mena on Halloween to see a guy I taught get baptized. It was cool to see Elder Nau too. Hopefully we'll be going down there again sometime soon to see another person who I had a strong hand in teaching get baptized. Meanwhile here in Sallisaw, we've got a baptism scheduled for this Saturday so we're hoping that everything goes well with that. Right now we're working on finding people to teach because our pool is pretty small right now. My companion is pretty quiet so I gotta work on helping him be more comfortable talking to people. And our ward had a chili contest, and Elder Kealer and I decided to enter it, and the sisters serving in Gore gave us a chili recipe and we made some chili from scratch. We were hoping to win but we took like 4th place if it was in order of worst to best. We won 'Hottest Chili' and ours wasn't even spicy...

Well other than that, I've been listening to a lot of BYU speeches because they're pretty good. My favorite speaker has got to be Bruce R. McConkie. He is very knowledgeable and he knows how to speak. 

Love, Elder Naegle

P.S.  Also could you extend my appreciation and thanks to Papa Roy for sending me a GPS, it has really helped out a bunch. Thanks, love you!
Josh

From my days as a Protestant Pastor

The baptism in Mena

4-Stater

Well my whole mission I've wondered if I would serve in all four states and now I have. I can go home happy now. Well Sallisaw is awesome. I've got a really cool companion, he's only been out for about 7 weeks now and he doesn't talk much in lessons but that's mostly my fault because I get on a roll and then don't stop... He is my second step-son so my posterity is growing through adoption. The work here is good but we don't have a gps and Elder Kealer didn't do a lot of driving last transfer so he doesn't remember where anything is at... We've already got somebody scheduled for baptism and one other guy who has committed to baptism that we'll be seeing on Tuesday, well I'll actually be in Poteau on exchanges. But Elder Kealer and another missionary will see him. Other than that not much is going on. We have a really interesting investigator named Buck who lives in the same apartment complex that we do. He is very interesting and he thinks he is very unique for his beliefs and I almost burst his bubble by telling him that there's a lot of people who think that it doesn't matter what church you go to and that you can make up your own way to heaven if you think you're still being good, but I didn't. He prides himself on being "unique". He came to church yesterday though and said he really liked it so that was good. We think he might get it eventually, but it will be a long eventually... Anyways the only other news I can think of is that our apartment has a washer and dryer and that makes me very happy. And I bought a Star Wars coloring book today and it came with stickers!! Our address is 102 E Ruth Apt 6a Sallisaw, OK 74955. Also I was reading 2 Nephi chapter 2 today and it was already one of my favorite chapters but today it became my favorite chapter. It's very interesting how the more you learn about the gospel, the more the scriptures speak to you. The Atonement is real!

Love, Elder Naegle

pimp my ride

We found him!

FBI stakeout

It's just like that new Mormon movie "Freetown"

We took this at the lowest elevation of the mission.

Pumpkins we carved.  Mine is the one with the bat

Transfers

Well this last week was pretty good. We were in Mena full time and we didn't really have a teaching pool, so we spent a lot of the time getting referrals and finding new investigators. We found a lot of solid potentials and we also found some good investigators. We're still working on the ones that we've got but we've got a lot of new people to work with now. Not really any progress with anybody though. We're having some trouble getting people to come to church. We haven't even seen Daniel forever, except we saw him this morning while we were walking out of walmart... But one time we were with this kid named Brandon and he had a friend that wanted to hang out so we went to the church and shot some hoops and then started talking to his friend, who's name is Nick, and we ended up having a really good, really spiritual lesson with him. It was cool because it was going good and then we got to Joseph Smith and he was like "I don't believe that crazy stuff" but then we circled around and told him the First Vision story and the Spirit was super strong and then he got really excited about it and he took The Book of Mormon and yeah he even recognized the Spirit. It was cool because he was like: "I didn't know that God and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith" and then I was like: "why do you think they appeared to him?" and he was like: "because they wanted him to start a church!'' and we were like: "yeah!" Then we went and got a bunch of those little pizza pockets and chocolate milk and ate lunch at the church. There's this really good brand of chocolate milk here called Promised Land and I don't know if they sell it in Utah but it's really good and we get it all the time. By 'we' I mean Elder Nau, I don't get it as often as him. Anyways it was cool that we got all these new people to teach but it doesn't really matter anymore because I'm being transferred to Salisaw Oklahoma. It's nice because it's still in the zone just on the other side of Fort Smith. I'm going to be split training again a guy named Elder Kealer and he's really cool so it'll be good. Also another funny story was they asked us to bless the bread in sacrament meeting and so we were chilling up there and all of the sudden Elder Nau looks under the cloth and he said: there's no bread! so I looked under on my side and I saw no bread. So we got up and went to the kitchen to look for bread, meanwhile they start singing the sacrament hymn and we're in the kitchen microwaving a frozen heel of a bread and we come back with our microwaved bread and the high councilor and one of the speakers are up there breaking bread... so I guess we just didn't see the bread... then everybody was asking us why we left and it was embarrassing but funny at the same time. Well that's all I have for this week. Keep on keeping on. The Atonement is really real. I promise. At times it doesn't feel like you're moving anywhere but when you look back you've gone further than you ever could've imagined, so don't quit!

Elder Naegle

?

This last week full of surprises. Lots of members in Greenwood were getting mad at us for spending so much time in Mena. Our ward mission leader came over to our apartment and ranted to us for a cool minute on Friday. Our Bishop asked us to do this 15 day challenge thing with the members and we never really got around to it and then he got mad at us on Wednesday and threatened to call President and request to have us transferred if we weren't going to do his program... But the craziest news was that some sisters in a different area in the mission had to evacuate their apartment because of something to do with chlorine I think but they didn't tell us the exact reason. Anyways, basically those sisters are coming to Greenwood today and are taking it over and now my my companion and I are going to be in Mena full time. So that's pretty interesting news. We also had our baptism in Mena and that was really fun. Other than that things are pretty much the same. We did find like 6 new investigators last week so that was nice. Most of them are in Greenwood but there was one in Mena. I think it'll be good to have Sisters in Greenwood because they'll be good for some of our investigators. Speaking of our investigators, there's this one lady we've been teaching pretty much since I got in Greenwood and she's had a really hard life, her son is paralyzed from the waist down and she has to take care of him 24/7 almost and I think her husband ran away with her sister or something crazy like that. Anyways, we I first met her she was always really quiet and wouldn't talk much in our lessons and was always super sad. But, the last two weeks she's all of a sudden a lot more happy and she talks a lot more and she' a lot more animated in our discussions and everything! It's been a complete 180. And I'm sure you're all wondering why, well, let me tell ya... She reads the Book of Mormon everyday before she goes to bed and she told us it makes her feel good and it has obviously made her a lot more happy in her life, just by reading it! So everybody read your copies of the Books of Mormons.

Elder Naegle

Turnip

So this last week was good. We had a great exchange with the Poteau Elders. And then we went down to Mena. Daniel is still going strong but he seems to be withdrawing a little bit. It's weird he still feels the Spirit and knows it's true but he doesn't want to set a date, so we'll see what happens with him. We're pretty sure he's afraid to get permission from his parents to get baptized even though his parents already know that he's taking the lessons. He's a smart kid though so I think he'll get there eventually. Aaron Grammar is still struggling with the word of wisdom, I don't think he quite gets the whole progression thing because he told us: so all the other stuff that I've already given up is not enough? But Lindsey Ford is still going strong. She watched pretty much all of conference and she's really excited to be baptized this Saturday. General Conference was really good and I loved pretty much every talk and now I have to go back and re-watch/read them all. What a blessing to have modern day prophets and apostles to lead and guide us in these latter-days. It's been pretty cool because since I've been here in Greenwood, I've learned so much more about the Plan of Salvation and it's been really neat because now I feel I can teach it so much better having the understanding I have now about the whole plan. Love you all!

Elder Naegle

No Comment

We have to wear suit coats everyday so shorts sleeves and slacks are 'dead'

Foxtrot

So this week was alright. We spent the majority of it down in Mena. We work with this kid named Brandon a lot because he was going to go on a mission but then he decided not to because there was some things he didn't talk to his branch president about. So it's been really hard for him because he's supposed to be on a mission right now in Australia. But we've been working with him a lot and he is trying to get all his friends to take the lessons and whatnot. He also got us gym memberships to a neat little 24 hour gym and he works out and studies with us in the mornings. Anyways, probably the biggest news of the week was that we were teaching one of Branden's friends who he got to take the lessons and his name is Daniel. So we actually taught him the restoration last week and it was a pretty good lesson but then this week on Tuesday, I think, we taught him the Plan of Salvation and it made a lot of sense to him. We got a little deeper in the Plan of Salvation than we normally do but he was soaking it all in. We were getting super into it and he was asking some really good questions and it was awesome. Then our dinner texted us and we realized that we were 13 minutes late to dinner and so we had to leave but the best part was that Daniel asked us when we could see him again and teach him more! I've never had anybody that interested in the gospel for my whole mission so far so that was pretty neat for me. So the next lesson we had we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said that if what we were telling him was true, then why not. So now we just have to talk to his parents and make sure that it's alright that he gets baptized because he's only 17 but I think everything will work out, also we're hoping we might be able to teach his dad because he seems like a pretty chill guy. Well that's the biggest news of the week. Our investigator who already has a date is set to get baptized on the 10 of October so that's really exciting.

Elder Naegle

1870

This last week was pretty slow, mostly because we had mlc and zone conference and then some lady from the Fort Smith ward wanted us to come and help with this play they were putting on that was supposed to be a big missionary opportunity but really the only people who came were members... and it took up all day. MLC was fun because I got to see a lot of missionaries that I hadn't seen in a long time from all over the mission. Then zone conference was fun because I got to see a bunch of other missionaries including some Elders who went to Bingham. It was sad though because there was a point in the conference when Sis Loveland had some missionaries up on the stand talking about the importance of obedience and she was talking to one Elder in particular who apparently was having baptisms every week and she said that this Elder, or his companion, said that the reason why was because they were being super obedient. Well Elder Nau and I both knew that they were in fact, not being super obedient because of some stories and personal experiences with them and after that the Spirit wasn't quite as strong for either of us the rest of the conference. Then on Saturday the play that was put on by the Fort Smith ward was not a quality production, but to us it was quite comical. On Tuesday while I was at MLC, Elder Nau and the Elder he was with actually set a baptismal date with Mckinley, the Pentecostal girl, and then on Friday we called the members that referred her to us to have them invite her to a baptism that was going on Saturday morning and the member told us that Mckinley had talked to her father about her baptism and he shut it down pretty quick so she thinks it would be best to not meet with the missionaries anymore. So now we have pretty much no work in Greenwood to do and we're trying to decide how much time to spend in Mena vs Greenwood because we have a lot more work here to do.... BUT, we do have an investigator in Mena, who the sisters had set a date with before they left and we met with her yesterday and we moved her date up from 21 Nov to 10 Oct and she is super ready! We went over the baptismal interview questions with her and we saw that she is super solid and then we saw what she still needs to be taught so that's really exciting.  Other than that there's not much else to tell.

Elder Naegle

Elder Bednar

Basically the highlight of this week was being able to attend 4 meetings where Elder Bednar was presiding. It was really good. The man is definitely inspired. The best part was when we did the priesthood session and the whole time was question and answer. Definitely instructive. Of course you've got the guy who stands up and asks Elder Bednar is he's seen Jesus Christ. Then you've got the guy who asks if it's time to establish Zion. The guy who asked about Zion is in our ward and he's awesome though. Anyways it was actually really cool how he answered that first question. He said that the Spirit witnesses to the Apostles in a way that is more powerful than all 5 senses. So he knows that Jesus is the Christ more confidently than if he's seen Him. Then today I was reading in the Book of Mormon and it said something that totally supports it. It was in 1 Nephi 11:29 if you want to look it up. Then in the general session Elder Bednar said something along the lines of: Don't worry about the end of the world, there's only a few men in the world who would know when it is, and I know them, and they don't know! It was really funny. He's a lot different in person then he is at general conference. Because he used to be the stake president here he opened up a lot more with the people here than he does anywhere else. At least that's what he said. He told us to repent a couple of times and that was pretty cool. Almost like the prophets of old. He also gave us a glimpse into the life of an apostle and how the church works behind the scenes. It was all very instructive and interesting. Anyways, we went down to Mena, the area we now have to cover, a couple of times this last week. We've already set a baptismal date with somebody down there. Then our investigator here, the pentecostal girl, we talked to her about baptism and she believes everything we teach her but the only thing holding her back is her grandma and sister who apparently are very pentecostal and would be the only ones in her family who would be mad. Then while we were in Mena, we talked to the ward mission leader down there who's a stud and he fundamentally changed how I look at and do missionary work which is good. Also I get to go to MLC tomorrow and that's gonna be really cool. Then we have zone conference on Friday, and we're going to Mena on Wednesday so we are going to be on the road A Lot because Mena is like 60 miles away from Greenwood. Our zone is still dope. We lost Elder Busi which makes me really, really sad, but the Elder who replaced him is really cool so it's alright. Well that's about all I have to say.

Elder Naegle

The Book of Norman

There was a lot of stuff that happened this last week. We worked pretty hard and felt pretty confident about our work, except for on one day where we were really lazy and everything fell through. First of all, everybody in Greenwood always talks about how good the high school football team is. They talk it up A LOT. So long story short, a bunch of members wanted us to go to one of the games so we got permission from President to go. We didn't stay for the whole thing but we got there, and then we walked around the whole field, walking across the front rows of both bleachers we could just feel the Baptists' eyes boring into us and then some of the Pentecostal guys we used to ball with were cool though. Greenwood football though, is just a big fish in a little pond. Pretty much everything there was not even close to Bingham's standards so it was pretty boring. It was funny because everybody talks it up soooooooo much and Elder Nau actually lived in Texas for a while in Euless Texas where they have an even better high school football team, so neither of us was impressed. We also got transfer calls on Saturday and my streak of getting a new comp every transfer was broken by Elder Nau, he... broke it... The catch is I am no longer district leader, I am now a zone leader. I guess the new thing in the mission is that the zone leaders are no longer companions so we'll see how that goes down. The assistants haven't even told us how it's going to work yet. Also we just found out today that the sisters who are serving in Mena, AR, which is the unit just below Greenwood, are leaving so Elder Nau and I have to cover that unit as well as our own. I have never covered two areas before or been a zone leader before so this will be interesting... We committed a bunch of people to come to church and... none of them came even though we had really good lessons with all of them. Sis Whitehead doesn't believe that Jesus Christ knows what we go through and she got very adamant about it. We had dinner with a family yesterday who brought their friend to church, and then had dinner with us and her. She was raised pentecostal and of course their blind, adopted son, the first thing that he starts talking about is baptisms for the dead... Then he was wearing a garment top and thought it was a t-shirt because he's blind. I'm mostly just excited about being able to go to MLC because Elder Ham, Elder Dye and Elder Skinner will all be at MLC and they're 3 of my most favorite Elders so I'm really excited.

We also stopped by the Robbins and they said we were cool to come over this week so we're excited to go teach them because they look like they have a lot of potential. and we're gonna start teaching the pentecostal girl. We think she might be dating the member's son...And Salisaw has a referral for us too so things are looking up.

Love, Elder Naegle

No Luck

This last week was a struggle. Nothing really happened. We had no luck with anything. We ran outta miles so today we can't even go to Fort Smith and hang with everybody. It's gonna be a very long P-day. We did get to hold a 6 foot long boa constrictor though. I'll have to send the pictures next week though because the library here doesn't allow you to plug anything into the computer and plus, I didn't even bring my camera.

Elder Naegle

Quote, unquote "missionaries"

So we were tracting one day, and we knocked on this door. This old lady comes out, and this is what happened:

OL: oh no, you guys are wrong! You need to get yourselves a King James version of the Bible

Us: let's just have a faith discussion

You guys the seventh day Adventists?

no

Oh you're the ones that believe in only 144,000 being saved.

Not quite

oh you're the Mormons!

Bingo

Well you're still wrong

How are we wrong?

Jimmy Swaggert wrote a book all about the Mormons and how they're wrong.

Who's Jimmy Swaggert?

You don't know who Jimmy Swaggert is?!?!

Is he like a televangelist guy?

Yes

Oh ok, well what does he say we're wrong about?

You can't be baptized for someone else!

Like baptisms for the dead?

Yes, once you're dead you're dead! That's it!

What about all the people who died and never knew Christ?

Well everybody will have a chance, but once you're dead that's it!

*raises eyebrow and thinks to self: how can everybody have a chance if once you're dead that's it, and some people die without knowing Christ*

(conversation progresses without much progress)

Well ma'am would it be alright if we said a prayer with you before we left?

No, we pray differently

Ok then you say the prayer

Dear Lord, please help these, quote, unquote missionaries, from being deceived by the Mormon Church, amen.

That's not exactly how it happened but ya'll get the gist. Other than that, not much happened besides zone training meeting/interviews with President Loveland which both went really well. We had a really spiritual lesson with one of our investigators but she wouldn't even pray and didn't come to church. We haven't seen the Whiteheads for like two weeks now because things keep happening and they keep cancelling appointments. We're just gonna wait for them so set something up. Make them chase the church not the other way around because we think she's still sorta interested. The weird dude, who's our neighbor who came to church last week thinks that our church is all about the last days/apocalypse. The only reason he thinks that is because two of the three talks on sunday were about emergency preparedness and food storage. Then he was wondering what a temple was so we gave him some pass along cards with temples on them. He wants us to go to a revival with him, that's gonna be going on here in the not-so-distant future and I really don't want to go.

Elder Naegle

yay

Nothing interesting happened this week. We just worked hard and actually hit the standard of excellence in terms of lessons. That crazy guy who lives next door to us came to church. He wouldn't tell us how he felt about it, he kept saying he'd tell us later. We stopped by a less active old lady last Sunday and had a good little discussion about church and stuff. Then she came yesterday, so that was pretty good. She has a solid testimony, she's just old and tired and she doesn't pay her tithing and she's afraid she's going to get a calling if she comes to church, but I think she'll start coming more often and we're hoping to get some referrals out of her. We have a potential older, retired couple that was a referral from one of our members. They were talking about how the Bible was translated a whole bunch of times and they were basically saying that there have been many plain and precious truths taken out of the Bible, so we gave them a Book of Mormon, and then talked about it and bore testimony and then the husband wanted a copy for himself after he said they'd only need one. We are probably going to try to see them again this week. The Whiteheads haven't really made any progress. It's really just the mom, the kids don't really sit in anymore. I also don't think she's reading the Book of Mormon as diligently as she should be. The lady across the street from us wants to come to church and to get baptized but I'm fairly certain she doesn't understand the gravity and importance of making the baptismal covenant quite yet, and all the work that goes into it. Actually I don't think she understands much of anything. But she does feel the Spirit when she reads the Book of Mormon and when she talks to us. She never keeps appointments though. We had a really good lesson with the son of a less active member, the best part in the lesson was when we were teaching about the apostasy and he asked a really good question about like what are we supposed to do if the true church isn't here and whatnot, and it was better in real life but anyways we talked about some of the cool things in the Book of Mormon and I think it caught his interest a little more than before. Sadly he's probably the first smart investigator I've had on my whole mission. This is actually the first time in my whole mission that I actually feel like I'm doing missionary work which is very refreshing.

Elder Naegle

Steve Collins

This week was alright. We were able to meet the rest of the Whitehead family, which is the family that we gave a blessing to their father and then taught the Restoration to the father and the two oldest boys. We got to meet the rest of the kids and the mom. The parents both had really good questions. They are real sincere and they are looking for a church with good family values. They're practically dry mormons other than the fact that the parents both smoke. Their children are very well behaved and they have their own form of family home evening! The mother seems more open to the gospel than the father is and she said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was cool because the father was saying that they probably weren't gonna join our church but then the mom was like: 'well I haven't read the Book of Mormon yet so I have to read it first before I decide' and they we got into a big discussion on everything from Joseph Smith to priesthood, to temple sealings, to the keys of the priesthood. It was good though. We're really excited to see them tomorrow and we're hoping to start seeing them twice a week o get them on the fast track. They said that their kids were the really excited to see us again and they really really like us. Other than that we've been super tired this week and we think it's because we've been hitting the gym too hard so we decided to cut back on our gym time so that we're not exhausted by Thursday like we were last week.

One day, we came home from something and one of our neighbors started talking to us. He was nuts, but funny and we ended up talking to him for like two hours, it was a waste of time but a very interesting experience. He invited us in his house and talked about all sorts of stuff that he believed in and at times he got very emotional, even to the point of tears. It was weird. We tried to teach him some of the restoration and we gave him a Book of Mormon but I don't think he listened to anything we said. We then found him in the teaching records and it turns out that the Elders tracted into him about a year ago and the lesson they tried to have with him was the exact same thing that happened to us. Saturday we did service all day and scraped popcorn off ceilings and painted some of those ceilings and moved heavy boxes and a double-decker oven and scraped grout off of tile. We were very tired after all of that. We have a solid district. The spanish Elders in our district are so funny and we always have a good time when we spend time with them. Unfortunately President has said no exchanges this transfer so I won't be able to go on exchanges with them. We've also got cool zone leaders too.

Love,

Elder Naegle

Redwood, Are Kansas

So we had transfers and I got to ride on the Bull (the big van that they use for transfers) from like 8:30 in the morning to 1:30 in the afternoon. I got to see all the transfer points and a bunch of missionaries including Elder Chapman and Elder Ham so it was a good day. My new comp is Elder Nau. He is Tongan and he's a stud. When we were driving to the area from transfer point, we were talking about our goals and stuff. We both want to be super obedient and hard working and to go to the gym in the morning. I am really happy that we're companions. This transfer is gonna rock. We've got a bunch of people that we're working with and I can't remember any of their names so you'll have to wait til next time to hear about the work. It sufficeth me to say that since Thursday we have been working hard. Actually this member from Fort Smith gave us a referral and now we've gotten a whole family of investigators and we've got an appointment with them on Wednesday. One of the boys seemed really interested. This member also took us out to eat at an all you can eat Chinese buffet and then he gave us another referral who we haven't been able to contact yet but he's talked to her and she's actually excited to meet with us. I have never had an investigator who has been excited to meet with us before. Darien just liked hanging with us not necessarily learning. Our apartment is sweet. In fact the TV show missionary cribs did an episode here once. We've got a big ol' front room with two couches (one of the couches is really nice), we've got a bedroom, a study room, two bathrooms (only one shower though) and a washer and dryer. In all honesty, the thing I was most excited for was the washer and dryer. My whole mission washing my clothes has been a struggle. There's a neat little gym literally right around the corner from our place, where the missionaries know somebody who works there (she would join the church except for her hardcore Baptist husband) and she gives the missionaries a discount: $15 for all six weeks! The gym's got everything we need and plus it includes tanning! We're gonna be the tannest missionaries out there! One last thing, Elder Nau and I decided to go on a month long fast where we refrain from talking about and thinking about a bunch of stuff that would distract us from the work. We wrote them all down on a piece of paper and then burned them, and got it on video. My paper wouldn't burn for some reason, I guess my habits are really hard to break or something. Well that's it for now, other than the fact that I got my first tick. By the time we're done with Greenwood, it's gonna be called Redwood because Elder Nau and I are gonna set it on fire! I will send pictures later today when we get to a place where they'll let us plug stuff into the computers. We're going to Fort Smith to hang with the Spanish Elders, to get free food from a place that gives free food to missionaries, to go to a museum and possibly to go bowling.

Love, Elder Naegle

3-Stater

Really nothing happened this week that was momentous. Yes, we taught lessons and yes we did missionary work but nothing extraordinary happened. Pretty much everybody is in the same spot they were in last week. Except for maybe this one lady who's less active and we got her a large print triple combination and committed her to read the Book of Mormon everyday and to work on getting a current temple recommend. She hasn't been reading it everyday but she has been reading it. Also she cleaned up her front room which is usually a nasty mess. Was it because she started reading the scriptures more often? I don't know, at this point in time I'm not ruling anything out. It's not like the scriptures don't have the power to change somebody's life because they do. Which is why we read them everyday. :) Well, Darien didn't come to church yesterday even though he promised me he would. Dakota is in Arkansas for 2 weeks. Spence is still in the same spot he was in last week. Elder Skinner came over for exchanges and we went tracting and found a family who we set a return appointment with but they weren't home for the appointment. We stopped by another night and they weren't there again... We got a referral from our zone leaders a couple weeks ago, they OTM'd some people in Springfield and the people happened to live in Ava. We've contacted them and talked to them but we haven't been able to set something up yet. They told us to call them on Tuesday, so tomorrow we'll call them and set something up. We also got a new referral this morning we'll have to hit that up. The ward had their pioneer day party on Saturday night. There wasn't as big of a showing as they thought so now we have literally, hundreds of hot dogs in our freezed (we'll it's the church's freezer but we're taking them anyway). The only other big news is that we got transfer calls. I have never been so stressed out about something in my entire life. Normally we get transfer calls at around 9 but they didn't get in til like 9:30. I was a nervous wreck. I wouldn't mind staying in Ava for another transfer, or even if I was training I wouldn't mind staying for two more transfers but I just couldn't stay with my companion for another transfer. He's not even that bad, I just am kinda sick of having to do all the work by myself. He's also so weird and he just gets on my nerves sometimes. I feel bad because he totally has low self-esteem. I just don't see him as an adult, he's not immature, just kinda childish. Anyways we got the call and I'm going to Greenwood, Arkansas. This will make me a 3-stater. One more to go... I am split training what appears to be a big ol' poly dude. I am also the district leader in the biggest district I've been in my whole mission. It's really scary. Actually I just looked an it's actually the biggest district in the mission. Ya'll better pray for me. The good news is that Elder Bednar is coming to Fort Smith in September. There's a very high chance that I will be there when he comes because I'm in the Fort Smith zone. I'm super worried about Ava though. I don't want to sound mean but I'm not that confident in my companion's ability to take over this area. I have grown to really love the members here and the majority of the people that I've worked with. I didn't realize how much I did until I started saying goodbye to everybody on Sunday. It's a good thing that I'll be able to come back and visit pretty easily. Well that's about all folks. My new address is 1120 c Farley Cir Greenwood, AR 72936. Also Elder Skinner is training and he just barely finished training, he's a legend.

Love, Elder Naegle

a member caught me sleepi... I mean praying

Sin kills Jesus Saves

Pastor parking, we should have missionary parking.

Making books and burning cheesecake, I mean burning books and making cheesecake...

So this week, we made a cheesecake but we were too cheap to buy real butter so we bought margarine and then the crust didn't work the way it was supposed to. It still tasted good though.

We actually had a pretty good week this week. We were able to work hard and get some good lessons. We've been trying to work with the ward a lot better so we've been actively seeking out assignments from like the Bishop and the Relief Society president. So they gave us assignments and we completed both of them this week and then we're going to go see a bunch of people that Bishop wants us to go see on this upcoming Thursday. Also I forgot to tell you guys this last week but one day we were in the church and the relief society presidency was having their presidency meeting and we were in the room with them for some reason and they told us about their book case that they have a whole bunch of church books in. So I wanted to look at the church books so they gave me the keys and I looked at the books and there was this one book that was called the Mormon Hierarchy and that piqued my interest so I flipped through it and read some of the stuff that was in it and the Spirit immediately left so I closed the book and told the relief society president about it. Then a week or two later they were having presidency meeting again and we were there again for some reason and they asked me to get the book for them and so the relief society president took it and gave it to her husband and he looked up the author and then he decided to burn the book because the author apparently was a pretty anti dude. I wanted them to wait til we had dinner with them so that we could watch but they did it that same day. So the big thing that was going to happen was that my companion was going to go home. He had some issues that he had to take care of or something, he never told me what they were but I was going to go to Houston and stay with those Elders. So it was really hard to do work because I didn't want to set up a bunch of appointments only to have to cancel them because we didn't know what day he was going to go home. But on Wednesday President called and he wanted my companion to go and have an interview with one of the counselors in the mission presidency. So we drove all the way to Springfield and we actually went to my old building when I was there so that was pretty nostalgic I guess. So they had the interview and now he's not going home so that's that. 

That's pretty much it. Darien is out of town so we won't be able to see him for a while. Dakota was at scout camp, so we didn't see him. Honie got really mad at us for not showing up to an appointment even though we didn't have an appointment set and we hadn't seen her for like two weeks and we never said we were coming over. All that happened was she told one of her friends that they couldn't hang out or something because she was meeting with us so when we didn't show she flipped and now we probably won't see any more of her... ever. Today we all went to west plains for a zone outing and we filled nylon socks with flour and then threw them at each other. It was really fun but it was really hot and humid so when you're covered in flour and sweaty, it makes pancake batter! Then we had a big ol' bag of flour left over and Elder Cluff let me dump it on him because he is going home in less than two weeks. We got it on video. Transfer calls are this Saturday, this transfer has gone by really quickly. This morning we helped out some members and picked a bunch of potatoes for them. Then they made us whole wheat blueberry pancakes for breakfast and it was delicious. I am so sick of white pancakes, it was really refreshing. The other day we had some time in the early morning so we called up a member and told him we were coming over to do service. So we went over there and mowed his lawn and pulled up a bunch of dead flowers. It was good. I'm really trying hard to get the ward to really trust us and want to work with us more so it's been good that we've been able to do all this service.We went and saw Spence again, and we took Bro Michael because he's really smart. We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and how it tells us what is truth because he likes to look at things intellectually so we shared 1 cor 1 which talks a lot about that kinda stuff and he's been thinking about it so we'll see where it goes. After church yesterday, one of the elders quorum members, who's 19, came up to us and asked us if we could teach him all the lessons. He said he didn't really know that much about the gospel and he didn't have the testimony that he would like to have. I bet that took a lot of humility for him to do that and it makes me really proud of him. So that will be really fun teaching him. Wow this was a long letter...

Peace, love and muscles.

Elder Naegle

                                        This cow is called a brauma (I don't know if that's how it's spelled) They have a hump on their neck. And really bad breath. It's weird.

This is what Alma was talking about when he said he was in the gall of bitterness...

Arkansas Bentonville Mission

The new name of the mission is the Arkansas Bentonville Mission so there you go Grandma and yes I've been getting your emails and your letters.

So this week was just another normal week. The only thing that stood out was that Darien got baptized! It was really good and spiritual and I had a little talk with Darien about the good feeling that he was having and about the Holy Ghost and whatnot. There was also this other thing that happened that will probably be a big change for me but it's not gonna happen for a little bit. You'll all find out when it does happen. We got to meet President Loveland and Sister Loveland and that was really good. I went on exchanges with Elder Dye and that was really good as well. Elder Osborne got sick and so we didn't do anything like all day yesterday, well actually we watched Ephraim's Rescue and it was really good. So I've been taking vitamin C to not get sick from my companion. We also had a lesson, with this guy we found last week. He is very interested in history. He basically believes and agrees with everything we say but it's all for the intent of history. It's weird. He said he studied the Book of Mormon for 2 years trying to prove it false and he couldn't so we'll see where that goes. We're gonna take one of our members over there who is very learned this week and maybe hopefully he'll get baptized we'll see. Then there's a 13 year old named Dakota who we're teaching at the house of Bro Wilber (he's the one who builds Buffalo Wild Wings among other things for a living). They're the awesomest people and members of the church. He'll probably be baptized pretty soon. He believes everything that we teach him. So things are going pretty good.

Love, Elder Naegle

Fireworks

This last week was pretty good. The mission goal was to hit double the standard of excellence which would mean 40 lessons. We got 10... But it's all good. For the most part I can look back on the week and say that I worked hard throughout, even if it doesn't show in our number of lessons. We ended up dropping Honie because she's not going anywhere and I'm fairly certain the only reason that she meets with us is because she thinks it's social hour and because she has nobody else to talk to. Maybe in a couple of months she'll be ready but I don't think she is right now. We had some good lessons with less actives this week though. Mostly only one, we talked to this guy who actually is less active, not inactive. He doesn't really have a solid testimony of the Church having the fulness of the gospel but he likes the church. We talked about patriarchal blessings and it went really well. He said he's gonna talk to his friends about it (they're active members don't worry) and then maybe the Bishop. He's actually dating a lady from Texas who's super active in the Church so I think that's going to help him out a lot and he's good friends with a lot of active members. That's one thing that the Ava ward is really good at is fellow-shipping, it really is like a great big family. One day we were just sitting in the foyer of the church talking to a kid who's gonna be going on his mission really soon and a random lady came up to the door and asked for help because she said that they were on a half tank of gas and they lost their debit card and whatnot. Well me being in missionary mode was like 'sure we'll definitely figure out a way to help you out.' And the kid, who's name is Gabe, is a super nice guy so he wanted to help too. So we called Bishop and he said there was really nothing they could do for these people. So we told them and they were like ok and they took off. Then all three of us were like, I'm pretty sure that they were lying. I remember I asked him if he knew anything about the Church and he was like "more than you know." I don't know if he was saying he knew more than I thought he knew, or he was saying he knew more than I knew, but whatever he meant, that when red flags started going up and I'm pretty sure the Holy Ghost was like: hold up. So the gift of the Holy Ghost is a real thing. We also went tracting this week. We knocked on this dude's door and we had a nice little discussion. He knew about the Book of Mormon, in fact he had studied it for 2 years with the intent to prove it wrong. He really likes history so he looks at it from a historical angle. He knew all sorts of archaeological evidence that would support the Book of Mormon which was neat. We talked about agency and what we believe happens after death. He thought those were very interesting. He said he wasn't a Christian because, from what I understand he got offended by some preacher. But we set up an appointment with him and we got his phone number and everything so we'll see where it goes. Then we were eating at Pizza Hut for dinner and a lady came up to us and asked what happened to some missionaries that apparently served here a couple of months ago, although her description doesn't match any of the Elders that served here since they got Elders, because I actually know all the missionaries who have served here since August. But apparently some missionaries knocked on her door and they had a great discussion. So she's either telling the truth or the missionaries stopped by, she bashed them and they never came back. So she's gonna call us and set up a time. If there's a preacher there when we show up we're gonna turn around and leave. That's pretty much all that happened this week. President and Sister Shumway are gone. We get to meet President and Sister Loveland tomorrow. This next week is looking to be a really good one. Last night we had dinner at an awesome family's house, and we stayed there for 4 hours while he told us about what he did on his mission to find great success. He was a solo zone leader for the last 8 months on his mission and their transfers were only 30 days and every 30 days he got a brand new missionary. He said he trained 7 missionaries as a zone leader. It was nuts. We're hopefully going to be able to implement the  things that he taught us and work with him a lot more closely because he knows most if not all the less actives in the ward. The only problem is that he's super busy. He's got 7 little kids and the company that he started has a contract to build Buffalo Wild Wings and Orange Leafs all over the place. He's only 37.

We also had a nerf war and watched fireworks with the family that we live with. 

Love, Elder Naegle

Baptismal dates tho'

This last week  started off well with us setting a date for Darien to be baptized. I'm not quite sure how ready he is but I think that once he gets baptized it'll motivate him to learn more and to come to church and church activities more. He seems pretty excited. Hopefully it'll help to get his foster parents more active in the church. Right now we are trying to get the ward more involved in missionary work. We're not quite sure how to do it.  We're hoping we can get the ward on board for a 40 day fast because that would help out a ton! We really need to work better with our ward mission leader because we have hardly no contact or interaction with him except on Sundays. Honie is still being herself. She didn't come to church on Sunday. Elder Osborne doesn't think she trusts us that much so somehow we have to get her to trust us. We also have to get her to realize that the point of religion should be seeking out truth, truth that only our Father in Heaven can give us not just a talented pastor. She doesn't seem to recognize that. Tomorrow is that last day of the OTM. Wednesday the Shumways will leave and the Lovelands will be in charge. Some members showed us an article that they read in some LDS publication that was about President Loveland. Apparently he runs a 5,000 acre farm and is leaving it all in the hands of his daughter, who is like 26, and his son who just barely returned from his mission like a month ago. That's a lot of responsibility for those guys. Oh really nothing else happened this week.

Elder Naegle

I saw a beaver...

So this morning while I was studying in the basement where we live, I looked over the the big, sliding glass doors that we use for an entry way, and there was a beaver just chilling right outside on the back porch. At least I think it was a beaver, I couldn't see his tail very well. I reached down to grab my camera and he darted, so I have no proof. Well it was transfer week so not that much happened. Most people were very surprised that Elder Chapman was leaving. A lot of people don't even know that he left and there's still people that pronounce my name wrong. My new companion is Elder Osborne. He's from Las Vegas and he knows a lot about computers. He's really quite and kinda socially awkward. He likes to sleep-in in the mornings so that's gonna be a struggle. I think I can get him to lift with me though. Either that or the ladies at the gym will let him just sit and chill while I workout by myself, which is what we did this morning. I think this transfer will be good though. 

The only investigator we saw this week was Honie. Elder Osborne and I went over and taught her a lesson and I don't really remember what our lesson was on but she told us that she's just taking it at her own pace and that she thinks we put too much emphasis on Joseph Smith because we sang Joseph Smith's first Prayer in Sacrament meeting and so she thinks that we worship Joseph Smith. We tried to clear up her misconceptions and kinda succeeded. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday and those were really good. The Saturday night session was all about ward councils. And I thought it was good because we don't get invited to ward councils very often. Then they did a mock ward council and had the Ava ward council come up. And we just stayed in the audience because we never go and then the Bishop asked us to come up so we went up and just sat there the whole time and it was kinda awkward. President and Sister Shumway also surprised everyone and showed up to both sessions. It was really neat. Then the St. Louis temple pres and his wife showed up to both sessions. The temple pres totally slammed wards that don't invite their missionaries to ward council and so I'm thinking that we'll get invited to ward council a lot more often. 

I also had a priest who's a convert of about 2 years ask me to ordain him as an Elder so that was pretty neat. I did that on Sunday right after stake conference so Dad you gotta get me my Priesthood lineage line deal so I can get it to him. He's also going on a mission soon so he'll need to be going to the temple soon to get his endowments and we're hoping we can go with him because he's a recent convert.

 I just talked to the family history lady here and she said that it was probably a groundhog that I saw just to let ya'll know. We probably won't ever get to see the Shumways again because they leave in 8 days :'( but it was nice because we got to give them each one last hug. We're also not allowed to be in contact with them once they go home. 

Something crazy that happened this week though was on transfer day. We've been having a lot of problems with our tires. Actually last Monday we were driving home from dinner and our driver's front tire went flat while we were driving. Luckily we were right by a member's house so we stopped in front of their house and it's where Darien lives so he actually came out and helped us put on the spare. So on transfer day we drove our own truck to transfer point so that we could stop in Springfield on the way back to go to the Nissan dealership to get our truck fixed. We dropped it off and they said they'd be done in like 2 hours so we went with the Springfield 1st Elders and went and got lunch. Then like 2 1/2 hours later we get a call from the dealership saying that they had to keep the truck over night. So we had a sleepover in Springfield. It was dope. Then we got our truck and apparently our vehicle coordinator ordered a bunch of things to be done on the truck because it was pretty messed up. We got Rugged Trail tires and they are pretty sweet. We now officially have the nicest vehicle in the mission, perhaps even the world. Elder Betts dropped $1,100 on the truck though and he kinda chastised me and asked if my driving privileges needed to be revoked but we were able to figure it out because it was my first companion here that messed up the truck. Well sorry for the long letter, I hope you all have a good week.

Elder Naegle

            We actually got to ride in the like 2 weeks ago. It's a replica of the car off of gone in 60 seconds.

This is what the rain did to our road, and by the way the road flooded again and we tried to drive through it but we got scared and so we didn't