Transfered to Fort Wayne

 Mon, Sep 26, 2011 

Dear Jared,

I am sad that you have left Plainfield. I will really miss the phone calls from Sister Melton telling me how great you are doing and what a fantastic missionary you are. Now I no longer have a connection to fill in all the details that you don't bother to tell us. :) I am so happy that you have had success there and have made some life long friends.  I am excited to hear about your transfer and your new companion. Where is he from? How did you transfer? Did you use public transportation or does someone from the mission home take you around?

Jared and Gabby came into Spanky's on Saturday. They told me that Cammie got a job as a Deejay at 90.9 (I think). What a great job for a music lover.

Dad and Taylor spent three days this week in Las Vegas. They went with Uncle Marion to a car auction. He is trying to sell an old Mustang for a friend of his. They are trying to get $220,000 for this car. It didn't sell there, so they will likely take it to an auction in Arizona next year. They had a great time seeing all the amazing cars. They even got to test drive some fancy sports cars and ride with a professional race car driver. Taylor asked the driver to do a little extra drifting, which he did, so of course, Taylor loved it!  They had a good time together.

It was a quiet weekend at home with just the girls. We actually had our fall quilt retreat, where my friends come and set up their sewing machines and we work on quilts for days on end. It is a lot of fun, and usually very productive.

I got a call from the Stake President Sunday night. There is a Young Women training meeting in November. Church Headquarters wants our stake to host it. They will film it in the Regional Center and then broadcast it to other stakes. We need  to organize it and provide all the music. I will sit up on the stand with the General Authorities and the General Young Women Presidency. It's a little intimidating. You'd better pray for me!

My favorite quote this week: If you were to wake up in the morning with only the things you gave thanks for last night, what would you be left with?

I'd still have you!  Keep up the good work.

Love,

Mom

Hey,

Things are going great in my new area. They put me way up North in Fort Wayne with my new companion, Elder Empey. Fort Wayne's pretty different from Plainfield. It's a lot more city than Plainfield was. It's kind of like a smaller version of Indianapolis. I've met a lot of great people here. We're living in the garage of one of the families in the Spanish branch here. Our address is 8307 Hunter's Knoll Place, Fort Wayne, IN, 46825.

Elder Empey is from Idaho Falls. He's a great elder. We've been working really hard. This is his last transfer, so we're going to make it the best one ever. He's going home on Halloween day.

We had a baptism on Saturday for two of our investigators here. Their names are Bill and Francisco. They're really sweet people. It's pretty cool because my last companion, Elder Bair, found Bill and Francisco when he was trained here about a year ago. It was pretty neat to see.

Hope you're having a great day,


Jared

Andrew's Baptism

 Mon, Sep 19, 2011 

Dear Jared,

Sounds like things are going really well for you and you are baptizing the nations. :)
We are anxious to hear how the baptism went on Friday. Also, did you move into your new apartment yet?

On Friday night, Craig set up his outdoor theatre and we watched the show 17 Miracles. It is a movie about the Martin-Willy Handcart Company. It tells the story of the pioneers as they travel to Zion. It is heart wrenching to see what they went through, but also astonishing how many miracles they witnessed. The writer did a lot of research and studied personal journals to make the movies as factual as possible. This is another reason we should keep a journal. You never know when someone will want to make a movie about your life. :)

For our Stake fireside on Sunday, we had T.C. Christensen, the writer of the movie, come and speak to us. He did a fantastic job. It was fun to hear some of the trivia behind the scenes. It was really amazing to learn some of the many miracles that the pioneers experienced. Someone asked why he thought the Lord made it so tough on the pioneers when he could have given them even more miracles and made it easier. He then asked everyone who is a descendant of that company to stand.  About a fourth of the audience stood. (You could have stood had you been there.) He went on to explain that because they struggled so much, they really had to look inward for strength and rely completely on God. That made their testimonies so strong. God helped them enough just to get them there, and His miracles were enough to sustain them, but not enough to weaken them. You've heard the phrase, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".  He believes that the testimonies those pioneers had were strong enough to sustain several generation. You are part of that heritage.

We love you. Keep your chin up, and ENJOY THE JOURNEY.

Love,

Mom

Hey,


We just got transfer calls this morning. Looks like my time in Plainfield is up. I'm getting transferred on Wednesday. I'm really sad about leaving this area, but I guess I'm needed somewhere else. This week really had its ups and downs. To start off the week, when we met with Bob on Tuesday we found out that he was searching for something on the internet and ran into some anti information. He read an article about a book full of information about Joseph Smith's "33 secret wives". We told him about how dangerous that stuff is, but he's insisting that he needs to buy this 800 page book and read it to get the answers. It's really heartbreaking. This really shook him up. He missed church on Sunday, which was the first time he missed since Mother's Day. I'm really worried about him.

On the other hand, we had Andrew's baptism this Friday. It was a great experience. He had a lot of family show up, and there were a lot of people from the ward too. Andrew's stepdad was the one who performed the baptism. He's changed a lot lately. You can really tell the difference its making in their family. They're excited to eventually get sealed in the Indianapolis temple once it's built.

I meant to send some pictures last time, but the Plainfield library was closed, so we had to go to the Avon library instead, and they didn't have any SD card slots on their computers.

Love, Jared

Sister Melton calls again!

When I got home from work yesterday, there was a wonderful surprise on the answering machine. Sister Melton had called from Plainfield to give me a quick update on Jared. She said he is doing incredibly well. She said his personality is really blooming. :) She told about Deborah's baptism and how neat it was and also about one coming up today. The members are happy about the success in their area.

What a fun surprise to come home to! I love knowing that he is doing well and I am SO grateful that he is seeing success and that he is happy. I absolutely LOVE seeing his testimony grow. I love that he is serving the Lord and serving others. There is no better place on earth for a young man to be than in the service of his fellow beings. Of course we miss him, but it is going by so quickly. He just passed his quarter mark, which seems so unreal to me. It's passing by in the blink of an eye.

Thank you, Sister Melton for your thoughtfulness. It's obvious that you have had missionaries of your own and must understand the joy, peace and satisfaction that a quick phone call can bring to a missionary mom.

Deborah's Baptism

Dear Jared,

Here's the latest news around town: I was at Spanky's last week and Cadence's mom came in. She told me that Cadence is doing a study abroad in Austria. She will be there for six months. Also, Connor Newbold got his mission call to Indiana. He leaves in November. Ryan Nielsen got married on Saturday. And last, but not least, Mikayla got her braces off. She looks so beautiful. 

It's been a pretty quiet and uneventful week. Your dad spent three days fishing at Spirit lake with some friends and I stayed home with the kids. 

We hope that Deborah got baptized. We are anxious to hear how that went.

We love you to the moon and back!

Love,

Mom





Howdy,
 
This week was great! we didn't have a ton of teaching opportunities, but Deborah got baptized! It was a great service and she had a ton of family and ward members show up to support her. All in all, she's doing excellent. 
 
We went to the "Why I Believe" fireside yestderday to hear Gabby speak. She gave a powerful testimony about her conversion. It was amazing. It's really great to see the fruits of our labors here in Plainfield. It was a great experience, and it's also going to be great to hear Deborah speak there next month. 
 
This week we've been preparing for Andrew's baptism. We just need to get an interview with him and he'll be ready for his baptism on Friday. Exciting stuff!
 
Love,
 
Jared

A Russian Miracle

September 5, 2011

Dear Jared,

Last week I was working at Spanky's. Two guys came in and I started helping them. One guy said to me, "Hey, aren't you Jared's mom?"  I told him I was and he started asking about you and how you were doing. I asked his name and he said it was Weston. Then I asked him who his friend was. He was in a motorized wheelchair. It was Gates! I was a little surprised to see him out and about, because last I heard he wasn't doing so well. He looks good and seemed to be pretty upbeat. He said he knew you as the kid who never missed a concert. :) Anyway, I finished making their sandwiches and they went to a table. A few minutes later, I looked over at them, and there was Weston feeding Gates his sandwich. My eyes instantly filled up with tears and I was so choked up I could hardly speak as I watched one friend serve another. He was doing something for Gates that he couldn't do for himself. What an amazing friend.

When I came home, I got your letter about you working at the special Olympics and   thought how you are devoting your whole life to service. I am proud of you!

Saturday night I got a call from Grandma. She asked me if I would call the Bountiful temple and put Gracie's name on the prayer roll. Nichole was at a friends house, Gracie was sitting on the floor petting their dog. He turned on her and bit her in the face. They took her to Primary Children's Medical Center to get her stitched up. He bit through her nose and several other places on her face. Nichole said it wasn't as bad as it looked once they got her cleaned up. She says Gracie is going to be ok, but it was still pretty scary.

I am training for yet another half marathon, The Halloween Half, where every runner dresses in costume. Anyway, we decided that we wanted to do a canyon run, for our Saturday run, so we had Taylor drive us to the top if Emmigration Canyon and drop us off. Little did we know it was the Salt Lake Half Marathon going on. It was pretty funny. We just joined them in their race. Today my legs are so sore I can hardly sit down. That downhill running can be tough on the body!

Life here is good. The weather has finally cooled off a little bit and the nights are a lot cooler. I find that I am less grouchy when the weather is not so hot. I hope we have a really long, beautiful fall. 

Keep up the good work.  We pray for you every night, and we are praying for Deborah!

Love, Mom





Hey,

We've had an exciting week. Last monday we had dinner with a family in our ward. Their son just moved back in with them. The son was telling us about a few people he wanted us to teach. One of them was a Russian family that lives by his grandmother. The family barely speaks any English, but he went to Russia on his mission, so he's able to communicate with them. He told us if we could get a copy of the Book of Mormon and Bible in Russian, he'd go over with us and teach them. We called the mission office about it, and they said they might have some, but they'd have to check and call us back. Elder Bair and I prayed that night that we'd be able to find the books. So anyways, the following day, we were teaching Deborah in the church. and when we were leaving the church there was the answer to our prayer, sitting right on the chair in the foyer...a Russian Book of Mormon and Bible, plus some pamphlets about the first vision. It was such a strange experience. I have no doubt in my mind that prayers are answered.

Yesterday we had a fun holiday. We had a ward pancake breakfast at the park. They were the best pancakes I've ever had. Afterwards, we played some football (I had someone that played for the Colts on my team) and then went fishing. Tons of fun!

Everything here is going great. Saturday's going to be an exciting day. We are moving into our new apartment, and Deborah's getting baptized! 

The Work's going great!


Love, 

Jared

Special Olympics

August 28, 2011

Dear Jared,

Sunday was a busy day for missionaries. Mike carter and Rob Thompson both had their farewell talks, and Stephen Sellers returned home. It's exciting to see all these missionaries going out and coming home. Steven, who used to be really overweight has lost over half of his body weight and he is so skinny now. We went somewhere in South America. He looks so different.

The bad news of the week: Steve Cox, our snow plow driver, died suddenly and unexpectedly. Wow, we just never know when it's our time.

The Cache Valley Century Bike ride was Saturday. A group of eight of us, including Taylor, rode it. It was a brutal ride. It was in the high 90's, with a strong wind for much of the ride. Taylor and I called Dad at mile 73 and he came and picked us up. We were done! I hope Taylor will try another ride when it is not so hot. He did great and I am so proud of him. Everyone else was able to finish, but they all said it was pretty rough. We did learn a lot from all of our mistakes so hopefully it will be better next time. But hey, there were no accidents, so I am pretty happy about that. :)

We are already planning trek for next summer. It's going to be a lot of work and planning to pull that off, but I am really excited for that. I love having things to look forward to.

I was reading in the Ensign and came across this quote that I just love:
"A good character is something you must make for yourself. It cannot be inherited from parents. It cannot be created by having extraordinary advantages. It isn’t a gift of birth, wealth, talent, or station. It is the result of your own endeavor. It is the reward that comes from living good principles and manifesting a virtuous and honorable life."

We are happy that you are having success. Have an awesome week!

Love, Mom



Hey,

We had a really busy week. We had a lot of meetings, exchanges, a Zone Conference, and we volunteered at the Special Olympics. It seems like this week we were in Indianapolis longer than we were in Plainfield. After all the meetings and cancelled appointments (lots of them this week) we only taught three people this week. We got a new investigator though! Her name's Deborah.  Some of the other Elders found her and started teaching her, but turns out she's in our area. She is awesome. On our meeting with her on Tuesday she had the pamphlet for the lesson we were teaching and it was filled with notes. She could have taught the lesson to us! We set a baptism date for September 17th with her. She's ready for baptism, so ready that she sent us a text last night saying she wanted to get baptized on the 10th instead! It's really exciting, but we've got a lot to teach still. We're going to have to meet with her three or four times this week to teach the rest of the lessons.

        On Friday we had our Zone Conference, where Elder Lynn G. Robbins spoke. It was fantastic. I learned a lot about missionary work from him. I look forward to implementing some of the things he spoke about. It's been a lot like Christmas this August. At Zone Conference, we got new phones and a portable DVD player, and we're moving out of our apartment in the next few weeks. Hallelujah!

       On Saturday we got to volunteer at the Special Olympics in Indianapolis. It was a lot of fun. Elder Bair and I helped with the skill tests, like how far they could throw and hit a softball. There was one guy named Ronnie that was running as fast as he could around the bases, and he tripped. He fell like a board and hit the dirt flat on his face. I felt so bad for him... He got up though and kept playing. I guess that's what counts. 

Hope everything's going well


Love, 

Jared