I cannot believe that August is so close to being over... it has been pretty weird this past week with Elder Englund getting ready to go home. i can say out of the three missionaries that i have "killed" (been the last companion before they go home) this has been the funnest because i feel like we have gotten the most work done even though it really doesn't seem like we have done much and my emails are probably always so boring ha but it's been good being able to serve with him.

i'm so nervous for this next transfer though because i dont want to get a companion that i dont get along with. right after we get done emailing the Ward Mission Leader in our ward is taking Elder Englund over to Denver and i'm going to go on teamups with Elder Allred and his comp for the night, 'til tomorrow morning when my comp will be coming to meet up with us at the transfers out west. i'm excited for the new transfer but not at the same time if that makes any since? i've been lucky enough to get along with every comp that i've had, even though i may not have liked the time serving with certain ones i've gotten along with them.

On Saturday a family that Elder Englund taught and baptized in grand junction came out and we spent all day with them saturday, they spent the night and then came to church on Sunday. they were such a neat family and they plan on going through the temple in a year so Elder Englund is going to come back when they get sealed. i was telling him that i need to go visit him over in Sweden sometime.

Monday night we went over to the Larsens home (a family in the ward) and we had dinner and a activity, it was so fun and like 3 other families from the ward came over so it was a big gathering. there are some families here in this ward that i absolutely love, then there are some that could care less if the ward had missionaries in it. (at least it seems like)

We were able to meet with Jeff again this past week and i thought it went well, we weren't able to teach him that much because he is the type of person that just likes to visit and if he has questions he'll ask them. but we have only went over there twice to sit down and teach him, the other times we just go and visit and answer questions if he has any. we are seeing progress with him, slowly but surely and we cant give up on him because he is one of the top investigators in the area right now.

We also were able to meet with Shawn, he has been taught all of the lessons now and he just doesn't think that there could only be one church with the Priesthood (authority to act in God's name) here upon the earth. He goes to some holy rollers church, i think it would be neat to go with him sometime and sit in on a service.


Other than those two we have just been tracting and then the last 2 or 3 days Elder Englund has been packing some and saying good bye to families in the area. i'm so grateful that i have an hour set aside each morning that i can study the scriptures and be able to strengthen my testimony in them, and be able to learn more about the stories and how i can relate them to my life and into todays world. i really wish i would have studied them more back home, but i cant change that. but i do hope to be able to continue to study them after i get home and not get caught up in the busyness of the everday world.

right now i'm reading through the Book of Mormon in mid Mosiah and i want to try and finish it this time and then again before Christmas and then read the Doctrine and Coventants before i get home, while trying to read through the New Testament. ha it is so much reading, but it's good for me.

i haven't asked President Maynes about being able to go over to the temple yet, but i talked with one of the assistants and he said that he didn't think it would be a problem but that i still needed to ask President Maynes so after transfers i'll give him a call sometime and see what he says.

i'm sure i'll have one more area after this one, not positive but i bet i'll be here maybe this next one and one more then go to a new are for my last two transfers. anyways i cant wait to get your letter and the pictures. i hope y'all enjoy the rest of your time together. i miss you and love you! keep in touch..
love Randy

Family,

Thanks for the letter i got yesterday and the email today, i always love hearing from the family about whats going on back home and how everyone is.even though you say not much is going on, it seems like to me that everything is going on back home.

Like 2 weeks ago i called Brother Benton (from highlands ranch) and left a message. well he called me back a couple days ago and was telling me that the 23rd of this month is his year mark from when he was baptized and that he was planning on going through to take out his endowments sometime soon after that, i was so excited to hear that! i honestly cant believe that it has already been a year since he was baptized. i am going to call our mission President to see if i will be able to make it over there, i really hope that he will let me go over there. i love that family and was so grateful to take part in helping him recieve the gospel. things like that make the misson well worth it! :)

on Monday Elder Englung and i went up to Aspen to check it out! ha it was awesome, we had a dinner apt up that way and so we decided to go up there during the day. we walked around and looked at all the different stores and drove around checking out some of the big houses, it is so crazy how much money is up there in that city. didn't see anyone famous or anything like that but i got some pictures that i'll send to you.

i love going and talking with people on this list that we have been working with, whether they are less active or want absolutely nothing to do with the church, it's fun to hear their stories or excuses! this past week we talked with a gentleman who said that his ex-wife was a member of the church and that he never was, but his name was on the ward roster. so we talked with him for a good 30 minutes and he was a really friendly guy. so on sunday we asked the ward clerk and he went and got all of his information and gave it to us, telling us when he was baptized and all of that. it's weird that he denies the fact that he was baptized. but hey i guess everyone can do as they please. we have an apt with him tomorrow. we also have an apt with a part member family tomorrow, which i hope goes through because we have had a hard time trying to get ahold of them but i really hope it goes through.

i'm so glad that i came out here on the mission, it is hard as heck sometimes but like i said earlier when you see someone be baptized and also when someone you taught goes through the temple it makes it all well worth it! :)

thank you for always being there for me and helping out when i need it, and even when i dont need it y'all are they willing to help me and i thank you for that! :)


well my time is pretty much up and so i better get going, but i cant wait to hear from you again! i hope you enjoy your time with John and Karie and baby Raegan being up! :) i miss you and love you all so much!

love Randy

Eighteen Months of Service

I agree the weeks continue to fly by really fast, i cant believe that is is almost half way through August. it seems like it just started not too long ago. this summer is definitely on the top of summers that have flown by

This week has been a slow week, we really haven't seen that much happen here which really stinks, but we kind of expected it when we decided to work with the inactives and the unknowns. but at least we are getting something done because some of these people have been out of the ward for over 5 years and no one has sent their records out or updated anything on them.

so i guess in a way we are seeing things happen because we are helping the ward narrow down the list but what i meant was that we aren't seeing any progress with investigators. i think bringing inactives back into the church is just as important as baptizing new members. We were able to meet with one of our investigators this past week and answer the questions he had, and it wasn't just a normal teaching appointment ha he took us out mountain biking and on the way up, during our breaks, and the way back we were able to answer questions. that was by far one of the cooler apts i've been to.

Jodi's baptism went really well, and Dave is still scheduled to be baptized this saturday so i'm excited for them. but my time is running short so i have to get going.

we are going to go up to a theme park up ontop of a mtn and i'll have to take pictures of it so you can see. i hope it's fun.

love Randy

On the road again huh? ha must be nice to be able to do all of this traveling and go visit people and different places! it sounds like you had lots of fun on your get away to Idaho, i'm glad to hear. so today is my 18th month mark, crazy to think huh? i will have to record me burning a pair of paints and send it to you here within the week. i've been trying to take lots of pictures so you can see what it's like over here.
Everything has been going well for me out here even though the work hasn't been the best but we are still trying to find people. we've been going through that ward list and also doing tracting and just haven't had any success, which is hard sometimes because you feel like you're doing all of it and not seeing anything from it. but i know that whether or not i'm seeing the blessings in this area or not, that i am still recieving them some way or another.

Dave and Holly a part member family that we were teaching in my last area are going to get married this Saturday and then Dave (who is not a member) is going to be baptized the next Saturday. It is so funny because i was joking with Elder Woollard (my last comp) telling me that i do all the preparing in the field and get them ready and then he is able to harvest lol he laughed. but i think it is so awesome that 2 people (jodi is the other one) i worked with and taught in my last area are getting baptized.

so on Monday we were sitting in the apartment for lunch and i wanted to call Jonathon Van Vleet and see how he was because i hadn't talked with him in awhile and we've been staying in touch. well i left a voicemail because they didn't answer and then they call back like 5 minutes later telling me that they were in Glenwood Springs and asked if they could take us out to dinner, so of course me being my fat self said yes! lol but it was his whole family and it was so good to see them and catch up on whats been going on. David Van Vleet who is Jonathons dad told me that i can come back down to Paonia after my mission and work for him if i want, they are planning on buying a big Ranch out that way and so he offered me a job. it really made me miss Paonia and the people there.

what are the odds of them being in Glenwood at the time i called them!? ha it was great! :) that is one thing i have loved so much about being on my mission, i have been able to make so many great friends that i will stay in touch with forever. and some of those include the ones i was able to share the Gospel with. i think either sometime at the end of this month or begining of next month Brother Benton and Sister Benton (from Highlands Ranch) are planning on going through the temple to be sealed and i really hope that i will be able to get permission to go over there to that. i'm so happy for them!

It is such a blessing to be able to see the growth that people have when they except the gospel and how much it can change their lives. we were also able to give some service this week and hlep a family move out of the ward, i dont know what it is about service work but i absolutely love it. i just feel good while doing it and afterwards, well not physically cuz i'm getting too old for that type of stuff but inside i feel good! lol


so the Warren family here in the ward Darrell (not spelt like dads) Warren is our Bishop and his boy Jeff is like best friends with Wayne Riner! ha we were talking about him the other night. it is such a small world, but the whole Warren family knows him and thinks the world of him! i was like do you know the same Wayne Riner i know! lol just kidding ugly if you read this! but it is neat talking with people about familair things back home. another family in the ward the Page family grew up and graduated from Kenniwick high in '81.. and he said somehow he is related to the Caspers out that way and he is familiar with the basin area.

i love you and am so grateful for all that you do. i hope your week goes well! and i cant wait to hear from you!
Love Randy

The other day i was talking with my last comp Elder Woollard and he told me that the day after i left they set Jodi with a baptismal date and that she is going to be baptizd on August 7th! i was so happy to hear about it. we were able to teach her the first 3 lessons and then as soon as i leave she gets baptized! ha but it's ok i was just happy that i was able to help teach her.

we've had some success this past week with the in-actives and unknowns, but nothing really exciting we are just talking with them and some tell us they want no contact with the church, others say they want their names off the records and some say they are just too lazy to go to church and would love to come back. so there are all sorts of reasons and it is interesting to hear some excuses or things people have to say.

but there is a guy that we started teaching, that we helped move into his house a couple weeks ago and it has been really awesome trying to answer some of his questions, it has been uplifting with some of the spiritual experiences. Last Friday we were able to go to Grand Junction for Zone Confrence, which is about the same distance as from Connell to Spokane and i have the driving privilege in this area so i was able to get on I-70 and drive.. ha you might think i'm weird but i loved being able to drive i haven't been able to go up to speeds like that in forever! ha i mean here we are in the city so it's always 25 or 35 but none of that matters lol i just wanted to let you know we went to Zone Confrence in Grand Junction and it was fun to drive all the way there.

so Zone Confrence was on repentance and it was really awesome i loved it. it was my first one with President Maynes and it was totally different, he made it seem more personal and it wasn't a talk or training to us all, he involved all of us and asked lots of questions. it was great, i was able to have interviews with him also and we got on the subject of schooling and we talked about how i'll be home in early-mid february and if i should go home a couple weeks early to catch school or if i should wait 'til fall or what i should do. and he told me to bring it up to you (mom and dad) and see what you thought.

The First Presidency have asked that we have zone confrence every 3 months and interviews in the middle of that 3 months if that makes since? so they are making some changes world wide with the way they run things. i'm enjoying this area more and as i am getting to know the members i'm liking it more and more so i'm happy. i hope to stay here for quite a while.

i love you all so much! miss you! :)

love Randy