Saying Goodbye to Elder Zeyer

Good morning,

I'm sure you heard about the horrific school shooting that happened over the weekend.  It's been all over the news.  Here's a clip from the newspaper, if you're interested.

Key facts related to the Connecticut elementary school shooting:

THE GUNMAN: Adam Lanza, 20, was described as a bright but painfully awkward student who seemed to have no close friends. In high school, he was active in the technology club. The club adviser remembered that he had "some disabilities" and seemed not to feel pain like the other students. That meant Lanza required special supervision when using soldering tools, for instance. He also had an occasional "episode" in which he seemed to withdraw completely from his surroundings, the adviser said.

Lanza committed suicide after his killing spree.

Newtown education officials said they had found no link between Adam Lanza's mother, who was killed before the school massacre, and the school, contrary to news reports that said she was a teacher there. Investigators believe Adam Lanza attended Sandy Hook Elementary many years ago, but they had no explanation for why he went there Friday.

The HISTORY: The Newtown massacre is the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history and one of the deadliest mass shootings around the world. A gunman at Virginia Tech University killed 33, including himself, in 2007. Only Virginia Tech and the mass killings of 77 in Norway last year had greater death tolls across the world over the past 20 years.

The gunman allegedly killed his mother at their home and then opened fire inside the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, killing 26 people, including 20 children. 

Obviously, it has been a gloomy weekend for many. On the upside, I hear that many have turned toward God looking for answers and comfort. Hopefully something good comes out of this travesty.

And a bit more depressing news from home: Kay Henrie  passed away this week. I don't know if you remember her, but the Henries lived in the ward for probably 40 years. They moved to St. George about a year and a half ago. She had a stoke a few months ago and apparently never recovered. She was a wonderful woman.

On the upside, things at home are going well. We are enjoying good health and loving the Christmas Season.

Dad and I went to a Jazz game last week and had a blast. It was a good game and the Jazz won by 3 in the last 6 seconds. It was intense.

We also had our circle party in the top of the garage. It was a good place to host it. It worked out perfectly.

We are continually praying for you and hope all is well. We are really looking forward to talking to you on Christmas.

Love you! 

Hey,

 

 I got the package from Grandma Mott a few days ago. It was great.

 

Well, we got transfer calls last night. Elder Zeyer will be leaving and I'm staying.

 

This week was cool. We had our Christmas Conference on Wednesday. It's always good to get to see other missionaries. After conference, we did exchanges, so I went with Elder Sorensen in Marion. He's a neat guy. He's been out for about four months now and he was trained in Westfield when Ryan was getting Baptized, so that's a pretty neat connection.

 

On Saturday we had a cool little miracle. We've been trying to track down a few former investigators lately, and one of them ended up showing up to the Branch Christmas Dinner on Saturday. Her name's Kelli and she's friends with a member that used to live in the branch, but moved to Illinois. The member ended up moving back (to a different ward) and came to the dinner and brought Kelli along. She's awesome! She came up to us and told us she was interested in taking the discussions. She ended up coming to church on Sunday and also the Why I Believe fireside. She loved it all. Also on Sunday we had the Relief Society President tell us that a less active member who is working her way back wants us to start teaching her nine year old daughter the lessons. Two Christmas miracles!

 

Also, we had two run-ins with Santa this week. Once, when we were walking down the street and he pulled over in his big red truck to talk to us and the second was on a bicycle. Photo evidence of one of these incidents is attached.

 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

 

 Jared

First Baptism Interview

Good morning Jared,

Christmas is inching closer every day. Last week we had three Christmas Parties and we have a couple more coming up this week. What a fun month, last night, the girls spent the evening wrapping gifts and getting ready for the big day.

Friday was our Ward Party. We had a huge turnout, I'm not sure exactly how many, but I'm guessing close to 200. The primary kids did a play, "Christmas in the Americas". It was the birth of the Savior from the Nephites and Lamanites perspective. Mikayla and Sammi Soto sang a song during the program. It was absolutely beautiful. They really helped to bring the spirit. Overall the night was a success. Kevin and Amber Gibson brought in a green screen and we did family photos for everyone who wanted to. I will send you a picture. They turned out really cute!

Tammy Clayton emailed me and here is what she said: "Also, I talked with Vickie Maag the other day.  We are friends and she told me she met Jared and sent you pictures.  Have you ever met her?  You would love her.  She loved Jared and said  he was such a great missionary, I wasn't surprised." awwwww!

Well, I think that's all for now. Good luck this week. Hope you have a lot of success and you stay warm. I love you!

Mom

Hey,

 

This week was pretty good. We've had some warm weather. It got up in the 60s last Monday. I was in a town called Marion for a few days on exchanges with Elder Davis. While with him I conducted my first baptism interview. It was with a 12 year old kid named Zane that they're teaching. The interview went well, and he's ready for baptism this Sunday.

 

This week we've been working a lot in little towns. When I was in Marion we worked in a little town called LaFontaine. We were knocking on doors in a trailer park and a couple of people came out and started yelling at us for "soliciting" and told us they were going to get our license plate numbers and call the cops on us. haha.

 

On Saturday we worked in a little town about fifteen miles away called Summitville. It's a tiny town out in the middle of nowhere. Kind of strange, but as we were walking down the street we saw an Audi with Utah license plates parked on the street. I wonder who it was and what they were doing all the way out there? Weird.

 

That's pretty much all that happened this week. Most of our appointments ended up falling through.

Tell Taylor he needs to send me more details and pictures of the Mini!

 

Love you!

 

Jared

 

P.S. Tell Grandma and Grandpa Wise thanks for the package.

God Sent You To Me

Hi Jared,

It's been another busy week, and I'm sure it'll be like that until after Christmas. We went over to Holgreen's to watch Rylee open her mission call. She is going to Russia! Holy Cow! That has got to be a little scary, to learn the language, be so far from home and such a different culture. She leaves March 13th.

Jamie Wheeler got engaged on Saturday night to her best friend from High School. His name is Mason. We don't know when yet. Most likely in the Spring after she graduates from BYU.

Taylor is quite the talk of the town with his new car. Because it is so different than anything else here, when people see it, they remember it. Topher came into Spankys with his buddies and he told his friend, this is the mom of the boy who owns the Mini. He was at Home and saw Taylor's car parked in the church parking lot. Although he didn't know Taylor had bought it, he figured it out. He found Taylor and took it for a spin. He was bragging to his friends that he got to drive it. It's pretty cute.

What ever happened with Adam and Carl's sister? Are you still teaching them?

I hope you have another great week. I love you so much!

Mom

Hey,

 

We've had a great week with a lot more teaching than last week. On Tuesday we had a great lesson with Sandra. We brought over Brother and Sister Hamilton, who are awesome. They shared their conversion storeis, invited her to dinner and a church tour, and helped her dispel some fears about church. She's doing great. I'm going to be in a city called Marion for today and tomorrow with another missionary on exchanges, but Elder Zeyer will be teaching her tomorrow.

 

We had exchanges with our Zone Leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday and it was good. We started teaching a new family named Mark and Brooke. They have met with missionaries before, but they weren't really taught anything. It sounds like they were just there to hang out, so I don't know how much longer we'll be teaching them. We had a pretty good lesson, so we'll see how it goes.

 

Saturday was fantastic. We picked up the car the day before, and it's ours full time now, so we decided to work in a litte town a few miles away from Elwood called Frankton. We were tracting in a trailer park and we had someone let us in, which doesn't happen often. It was a guy probably in his 80s named Harry. We had a great lesson with him, and Elder Zeyer will be going back tonight to teach him again. The miracles kept continuing that day. We got back to Elwood and had dinner and then got out to work again. We were going to be stopping by some people on the west side of town. While driving over there I decided to park in a parking lot and walk the rest of the way, which was only a few blocks. We ended up running into a less active, part member family on the street. Without getting into details, they said that they knew that God had placed us in their path that night. They are going through a tough time and need our help.

 

We had another similar experience right after. We stopped by a woman named Judy. She had a baptism date about a year ago but kind of fell off the path. When we met her at the door she said the same thing, that God had sent us to her door that night.

 

Lots of miracles this week.

 

Also, one funny story. It's a rule that whenever we need to back the car, the junior companion needs to stand outside and direct. When we were leaving church, Elder Zeyer was standing in the parking lot motioning me out. A three year old girl named Ave was watching and started yelling at him. She yelled, "Elder Zeyer! You get in that car right now! He's going to run you over!"

 

It was pretty funny.

 

Love,

 

Jared