Missionary report

Hmm, I would say that the biggest thing I have learned on my mission is how to fake laugh. Just kidding (but seriously). One way I have seen myself change is when I look at the things of the world, they don't seem as appealing to me as they used to. I used to dream of being rich and having many fast expensive cars and a large mansion to dwell in but now, the most expensive car I will probably ever own is maybe a truck, only if I need a truck to haul things or else I'll just get a nice Hyundai Sonata like dad because they're cheap. I have learned a lot about the gospel, but the thing that astounds me the most is how simplistic the whole thing is. The more I learn, the simpler it becomes. It's not complicated at all. It's so simple that they can incorporate it into children's songs in primary. Cliff was really the only person I saw change, but there were two other people that I taught before their baptisms who made comments on the gospel about how simple the whole thing was and on how it all just made sense. It helps me remember how great the gospel is to me and how I need to see it how they see it and not forget. Cliff was always so grateful for the gospel and he would tell us all the time about how he was so happy and glad that we found him and taught him the gospel. I never got to go to the temple with him but I can imagine how he would act. The more I learn about the Savior the more tender and loving he becomes. His mission was an incredible one, to save fallen man from damnation. It truly is a wonder that he would descend so far for all of us. I have been able to feel the Atonement work in my life, not only to cleanse me from sin, but to help me do things that I was not able to do on my own. The Atonement has changed me in many ways, changes that I couldn't make by myself. There is nothing else in the world that would be able to replace the peace that can be felt when living the gospel. Not money, not fame not even power. I look at the world and I see pain and anger temporary highs. And then I imagine my family and the Savior and the church and it is far better a life than anything else the world has to offer. My testimony is that we have a Father in Heaven, His son did come to save us, and that throughout the ages they have called upon men to be prophets and revealers to mankind to save them from sadness. While I have come to this conclusion through extensive research, the true converter has been the peace and happiness that I have gained access to by living in harmony with the Restored gospel. 

On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 6:34 PM, Tasha Naegle <tnaegle@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi. 

Could you take a few minutes and write me a paragraph or two telling me how you have grown on your mission and what you have learned about the gospel? What things were important to you before a mission and what things are important to you now?  How has it felt seeing someone (like Cliff) join the church and go to the temple? What have you learned about the Savior and his mission? 

Thanks. This will help me a lot with the following assignment. 

I love you

Mom

Dear Mothers of Missionaries,

Bishop Peterson has asked me to contact each of you. He would like each of you to be prepared to give a 5 to 7 minute report on your missionary daughter or son in an upcoming Sacrament meeting. These ought to include their physical health, experiences, the growth of their testimonies, as well as that of their investigators and the work in their areas.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. This is something I look forward to hearing.

Thanks,

Al

Northwest Arkansas for Dayzz

This last week was cool. We've gotten the house pretty much cleaned up. It looks ten times better than when we got here. The fruit fly problem is pretty much gone. I've only seen like 2 fruit flies the last couple of days. As for the work, there's a member family who their son's friend and daughter's boyfriend, decided to take the lessons. We have taught him the first two lessons already and we've set a baptismal date with him for the 13th of February. He's super solid. His parents are actually members but they're not active at all. It will be interesting seeing if they'll let him get baptized but we're confident that they will. This family has been such a good example and fellowshipper to him it's been awesome. They've done most of the work. Other than him, his name is Tanner, we've been doing a lot of member meeting. Since we are both new to the area, neither of us know any of the members, so we've just started dropping in on members and visiting with them. The Metfield branch is pretty small so we've actually almost met everybody on the whole roster who will talk to us. We've also got some other investigators that we've met. We haven't really been able to teach them yet but we have met them and we've been able to establish relationships with them so hopefully this week we can start the teaching process with them. On Tuesday, we actually had President Loveland call us and he and the housing coordinator wanted to come and look at our house for the slight possibility of moving another set of missionaries in there with us. Then President took us to lunch and it was really fun. He told us of some changes in the mission and some possible changes in every mission. Apparently the Church is actually looking into maybe switching out the iPads for Samgsung tablets because Apple is pretty controlling in how they do the iPads. Also, they asked me to give a talk on Sunday, just a 5-7 minute one so that was cool until we got to church that morning and who should roll up but President and Sister Loveland themselves. It was cool though I wasn't too worried but I was a little nervous for sure. Well that's about all that has happened this last week. Oh, Morgan Degooyer who I played football with and wrestled with is in my mission and he's serving like 5 minutes away from me, so we see him a couple times a week. Representing SoJo.

Love you all,

Elder Naegle

Kinda Crazy

So this last week was kinda crazy. This email is going to be kinda sporadic. Cliff went to the temple on Saturday, but I was in my new area so I didn't get to go with him. :( It's alright though, I am just happy for him. He will probably be the best convert I will ever have on my mission. So I got transferred and it's been pretty crazy. We cover two areas so it's been very mentally exhausting trying to get everybody's name straight. We have a lot of meetings on Sundays and it's crazy. We did a fireside yesterday for a bunch of youth and it was pretty cool, it actually went really well for being winged. It snowed this morning. There are a lot of hills and it feels like I'm in Park City when we're in the hills. We live in the hills actually. We have a very nice church building. We live in a house that a member owns. There's a lot of fruit flies that live with us. We've been working on killing all of them. There was some food that we found on the counter covered in tin foil and it had been sitting there for like 4 months. It had a bunch of fruit flies and maggots all over it. A lot of the light fixtures don't work and a lot of the outlets don't work either. We do have two bathrooms though and a washer and dryer so I am super grateful to have those luxuries. Walmart, a good number of years back told all of their suppliers that if they wanted to keep doing business with them, then they would have to open an office within like 30 minutes of Walmart's headquarters or something like that. So everybody here either works for Walmart or one of Walmart's suppliers. We don't have too many investigators but we've got really great members to work with and we just barely got a new branch mission leader in one of our units who's gonna whip the members into shape. So I have a really good feeling about this next transfer. My new companion has only been out for 3 months. He's like really similar to Elder Cluff but a lot more social. I think we will get a long just great.

Elder Naegle

Transfers

So this last week was just a normal week. Nothing too much happened. Elder Kealer found this man named Pancho while we were on exchanges and he knows some of the Mormon families around here. He and his wife are very nice and when they heard that I was getting transferred they invited us over tonight actually for some nice mexican food. It was the first time I had ever met them. The only problem with them is that they seem active in the Assembly of God church which doesn't really like Mormons that much. Anyways, that brings me to the next point, I am getting transferred. Elder Kealer is too. We are being shotgunned out (or whitewashed as some know it). I am going to a place called Pea Ridge Arkansas and I am shotgunning Pea Ridge. We will see what happens. My companion is fairly new from what President told me. Also I am no longer a zone leader, I am a district leader. The mission has changed district meetings to district councils so they are putting some of the zone leaders as district leaders to get that going strong I guess. At least that's what President told me. When I looked at the transfer board it there weren't that many zone leaders going district leaders, but I only glanced. Honestly I think President just told me that so I wouldn't feel bad. I don't really care though. The only thing is that being a district leader has more work than a zone leader from my experience. It'll be fun though. I just hope there is a gym there...

Elder Naegle

Christmas

This week was pretty cool. Our investigator, Lisa, came to church again on Sunday and she told us that it's been helping her with all her problems. So that was pretty awesome. We're hoping to set a baptismal date with her today. She will just have to quit smoking and drinking coffee. She drinks a lot of coffee. On Christmas Ever we went to an old folks home and sang Christmas songs to a bunch of people there. It was super hot inside that building and we all got a pretty good sweat going. We really didn't sound that good, but the old people loved it. I got to Skype my family on Christmas and that was probably the highlight of the week. It rained a lot the last couple of days and that was pretty cool. Other than that I really can't think of anything out of the ordinary that went on. Happy new year.

Elder Naegle