January 2015

January 5, 2015

I hope all is well back at home and that everyone is trying to stay out of trouble.  

So I am getting my Patriarchal Blessing later on tonight, which should be pretty cool! ...

Well I officially got it! It was pretty neat!

Nothing too exciting is happening!  We have transfers in two weeks, and I imagine that Im going to be leaving.  It's a bummer, but I'm excited to meet some new people!

Well peace and blessins!

January 12, 2015

Before I forget, I figure I will tell you Happy Birthday for this week!  I'm not going to say that you are getting old, but I will be nice and just say that you are getting wiser...

Our Heavenly Father is always here for us and if we really need something and we ask him in prayer and have faith, we will receive whatever he feels like we truly need to keep on keeping on.

One of our investigators has been coming to sacrament meeting though for the past 3 weeks, so we are pretty happy for him.  

Love when random people take the time to snap a picture and text it to moms!
These elders were caught at Panda Express!

**Elder Eliason was transferred January 19 to Union Oregon**

We were all excited about new adventures but will be sad he is not with the Christensen's anymore!  They are truly Christlike people that we will be forever grateful for! 

Shad & Linda Christensen - Forever Our Friends

Koop and the Christensen's dog Daisy on the day he was transferred!  They were both feeling pretty sad!

Kooper and Elder Mosher, his last companion in Nampa.

January 26, 2015

I'm liking the new area that I am in.  Union is pretty nice and has a lot of history.  There is quite the mix of people here though!  We also cover the town of Cove which is about 9 miles away.  It is a pretty cool town.  If I was to live in Oregon, I would choose to live there!  The people are really great though, and I'm trying to get familiar with a lot of people.  There are a lot of investigators up here, so hopefully we can get some good things going and see some baptisms.

But I finally get to drive! I almost forgot how to drive since it has been 6 months!  The Subaru Legacy just isn't quite the same as dodgey though!

It is super windy up here in Union and they say it is like this all the time.  There is a lot of deer up here though which is cool!  They walk down main street.  Im still getting acquainted with everything so nothing super cool to report yet!

Elder Clark is pretty cool.  He is from a town outside of Dallas, Texas.  

Apparently Elder Clark wasn't ready for the picture. Either that or he doesn't like me haha.

This is me and my one man band... Got my dobro and banjo in the background!

December 2014

December 1, 2014

This last week was good, had a lot of fun!  We were able to visit a lot of people this week.  I was worried we wouldn't be able to since it was Thanksgiving and a lot of people go out of town.  But it all worked out.  The "He is the Gift" video that the church has put out has helped quite a bit!  Been able to talk to a few people because of it.  I low it is going to be super effective this holiday season. Well just know that I'm still alive and I haven't got E Bola yet!

December 7, 2014

So how are things going this week?  Thanks for raising me the way you guys did.  Both you and dad taught me to have fun and work hard.  

Oh and I didn't get transferred.  But we are going to cover two wards again, which will be good.  We will cover 10th and 22nd again so I already know all of the people from both!  Things are going pretty good I guess.  Still doing the same thing really.  Pray for us to find someone or whole family who we can teach the lessons to and baptize.  

December 16, 2014

We have been super busy covering two wards!  We met a Nazarene lady who has been an organist for her church for like 60 years!  It is crazy, she even invited us to go back to her house to hear her play on her nice piano.  But we have managed to stay busy 24/7, which is nice!  We did have a Zone Conference today which was really good.  There was a white elephant gift game and I ended up with a $5 card to McDonald's.  I'm happy with that!  We sang a lot of Christmas songs, and even watched Mr. Krugers Christmas.  Its a good old movie!

So make sure you save the Nampa, Idaho mission card.  I hope you like it and you can finally see that we all look like winners haha jk!

 December 22, 2014

Merry Christmas!

In 10th ward we have someone who has been investigating the church for 9 years now.   We did something scary and got down on our knees and asked him to pray for the truthfulness.  We were teaching him before we split our area a few months ago, so I already knew him.  

Besides that, it has rained a lot up here!

Have a Merry Christmas and read Luke 2.  How great of a blessing the birth of Christ was.  And what makes it so special was how humble the circumstances were.  He was born in a manger of all places.  

Elder Eliason in his Christmas Jammies!

Family Picture Christmas 2014

December 28, 2014

I hope you as well as everyone else enjoyed our little Skype session we had on Christmas. I thought that it was pretty good!  Hopefully your Christmas was all that an a bag of chips!  This past week was really slow considering it was Christmas week.  A lot of people were busy and out of town, but I guess it still turned out alright!

Not to put a damper on things, but I won't write you again until next year! haha!  But really you'll have to wait until 2015...We are always trying our hardest to be as effective as we can, so keep us in your prayers that our hard work can pay off!  It has been a little bit since we have seen someone progress a lot, and we want something to happen!

So a cool little thought:  Read Exodus 20:25

The altar is supposed to be made of natural rock, not changed by tools or anything.  The altar back then was a place of worship, where a sacrifice would be given.  Likewise, our church is the altar, where we worship.  And what is the church built of?  Is it built of people who are EXACTLY the same?  No, it is not.  Each one of us is unique in our own little way.  And that is how it should be.  The church and gospel shouldn't change us into someone we aren't.  But it is here to make our strengths stronger and our weaknesses into strengths.  So we do change that way.  But we still need to act as our individual selves.  For example, being missionaries, I can connect with people my companion can't, and vise versa.  Moral of the story, be yourself.  But always strive to become a better you!

A little October and November!

October 15, 2015

This past week has went really well.  Our numbers went really well.  We worked hard and we were able to meet a couple of new people.  We got the program all done for the baptism of the Walser boys.  Hopefully everything goes well!  So a funny thing happened yesterday.  In another wards sacrament meeting, one of the members had a sister and brother in law who were visiting from Orem.  They saw us and wanted to talk to us.  We got to know each other.  One of the questions was where we were from.  So I said the Tremonton/Snowville area.  He then said his family was from up there from the Blue Creek area.  I was like I have some family that grew up there (Grandpa Dean).  He said there were a few Andersen's up there at the time se we might be related.  Then I asked if he was related to Hans Andersen?  He chuckled and said that was his name!  So he had the name passed down to him! So I can say that I found a relative on the mission!

Well that is all that I have for you this week! Keep sending me letters, because right now I guess I am holding the record for mail received through the mission office, so keep it up! It is not a bad problem to have!

October 27, 2015

So today has been a very busy day!  I actually had to do transfers today.  Elder Knighton and I were pretty good buds, so it was a little hard to see him go.  But I think it is a major growing opportunity for me, I will be leading the area (still junior companion) because I know everyone here.  

The baptism on Saturday went extremely well.  We were a little nervous when we showed up there to the Stake Center and N was saying that he did not want to get baptized.  But he did!  The first time he did a freaking sweet Hi-Stepper kick with his leg out of the water.  I'm pretty sure he even pointed his toes! haha  It was funny we told him we had to do it again  and he was asking why.  After he came up the second time he said "Did I do it better that time?" It made me smile! L did a great job as well.  It was great seeing our hard work pay off!

November 3, 2015

Hey! So this week has been pretty casual.  Stayed busy making our regular visits.  Right now, we don't have any progressing investigators, which is kind of a bummer, but that happens I guess.  We just got to keep working hard and who knows what will happen!  There is a family though that I've seen their kids a couple of times.  The kids are in their 20's and the one has a Honda 450.   So I got along really well with him.  I asked him if he raced and he said he didn't really like Motocross stuff, but he liked desert stuff.  Then we clicked haha!  I told him I've been and raced Idaho City and he thought that was awesome!  They are strong Christians, but we will see if we can get something going there!

How is my dog doing?  Does he miss me at all?

November 10, 2015

This week has been pretty good!  I'm finally getting used to all of the changing up that has taken place, which is nice.  We were able to get quite a bit of work done in our area which is really nice.  This week were able to finally meet a referral that we had received about 2 months ago.  They don't belong to any religion at all, but after talking a while to the mother, she told us that she wanted her kids to learn about God.  We told her we could help with that.  It was funny because we were just talking with her on her doorstep, then we found out they race dirt bikes so we talked about that forever.  I think that is what built the trust.  Then she took us to their garage to look at their bikes.  That's when she told us she wanted her family to learn about God.  She said she doesn't believe in some of the things that "Mormons" believe, but I'm sure they are just rumors that we will be able to answer with the discussions.  So that will be awesome to get something going there!  Write me more letters please!

Elder Eliason's birthday was November 14.  This was a picture of him in his new coat!  

Thanks to Linda & Shad Christensens (the sweet people he lives with) for taking such great care of him on his birthday!  With a party and cake and videos that I am trying to figure out how to share! :)

November 17, 2015

Things are pretty good!  I'm still having fun and still learning a lot!  It has been really cold this week just you know!  My nose hairs have been freezing!

I had an experience that can be greatly explained by the Book of Mormom.  We know that the descendants of Lehi were righteous as well as wicked.  They were righteous when they were living the Gospel and following Christ's teachings.  But there were times when they weren't careful and paying attention, and a great number of them fell into wickedness as they strayed from having faith in Christ.  Likewise, I quit paying attention to the icy road we were walking on our way to dinner.  I slipped and fell!  It hurt, I landed right on my hip!  When we fall, we can always get back up and if we need help it'll always be there!

Well have a great week!

November 24, 2015

This past week was a little slow, but that's alright.  I had fun though.  I went on exchanges with Elder Richardson who is from Draper, Utah.  He is awesome and loves to have good fun.  We helped the Spanish elders for some time that day.  This week the temperature sure was nice.  Makes my chances of falling become a little more slim.  We also had Zone Conference which is pretty cool.  I got a haircut today at Sports Clips.  That place is awesome they even massaged my head!  Well have a great week! Love ya be safe!

Key to all the underlinings ...Always Be Positive

PS Happy Thanksgiving