All three now in the mission field

I am doing pretty good. I will send some pictures to you next Monday. My companion is Elder Harker, and he is great. He is a little taller than me and is from Idaho. Thursday was the first real day of doing work out in the mission field. It was alright. We tracted, and I need to work on that, because I sometimes I don't know how to start a conversation or what questions to ask, but I am doing a little better, and I will get the hang of it in a few weeks. The people here are great. I am meeting all kinds of people here.

There are a lot of lakes here, there aren't really any mountains, and it is green here, a lot of trees. There are also a lot of different religions here, which makes it a little harder to get people to listen to you. The ward here is great. We had a dinner with a member family each night except on Mondays, and last night we had Indian food, which was good. We had this kind of rice with spinach sauce stuff with cottage cheese things in it and this other dish that is some kind of vegetable that they soak in spices and than deep fry, which was good, The family that fed us Indian food is from India, and they are in the ward that I am in, and there are a lot other cultures in Minnesota.

Right now there is one progressing investigator, and we are trying to find some more investigators. The weather isn't too bad here; the highest it got was high 80's, and it has rained a few times here with high humidity. They just had one of the holidays they celebrate here, Leopard-cons Day, which is like 4th of July, so at a lot of the houses we tracted, nobody answered, because they were either at the fair or didn't want to answer. Also this Sunday in Sacrament Meeting, they did something that I haven't seen before, but they don't do it that often. It was kind of like Fast Sunday, but instead of going up and bearing your testimony, you would pick your favorite hymn, then come up and say why you like it, then we would sing that song, which was good.

The longer I am out the more I am used to being out in the mission field.

I hope you have a great week  =)

---David on 28 July 2014

This past week has been full of experiences! I fasted for a full 24 hours, and I saw many miracles while fasting and praying. I gave a priesthood blessing for the first time. That was quite interesting, and I was nervous. But the Holy Ghost put words into my mouth that I didn't even know I was saying. God does talk to others through our own voices, if we are worthy and willing. My companion and I right now have a investigator who is preparing for baptism on August 9th. And she has much potential for preparing for that day. They don't celebrate Pioneer Day as a New Mexico state holiday. But at church there were a lot of talks regarding the pioneers and the sacrifices they made so we could have all the blessings we have today, such as the temple. 
And the amazing beauty of the buildings!

Days are long, but weeks are fast! Thanks for your love, and support!

---Matthew on 28 July 2014

My week was good. I was sick for a few days, but that's normal haha. Nothing too exciting happened this week other than Shelia coming to church, which was amazing, and my companion and I sang in Sacrament Meeting. That was terrifying, but fun at the same time. (I just hope that next time we don't get voluntold that we are singing.) Then we taught the Gospel Principles class, which was interesting, because it was a last minute thing haha. Other than that, not much  :D  Oh, and we had housing inspections and we got an A+++ so yay!

---Cassandra on 28 July 2014