I'm Alive and I'm Loving It!!!

(July 14, 2009)

Hey Fam! Sorry I haven’t written in a while. We only get to write on Tuesdays. I would hand-write it, but this is a lot faster. But when you write me, send it via mail. :D

Alright well, let’s start with the 7th of July. We all arrived in Ogden Utah, and we met the AP's and President Olson and his wonderful wife. Within the hour we were already street-contacting. Elder Swisher and I went out into the “Hood” of Ogden, Utah and taught people....it was sweet. :D We then had all these meetings, interviews, and had dinner with the President, and his wife. It was a long day.

The 8th I got my Trainer. His name is Andrew Norton! Yep, the Andrew Norton who I went to college with…the same Andrew Norton I made fun of for getting called to Utah! He's my trainer!! Isn't that Crazy?!!

Well, we packed up the car (Elder Norton had had a member drive him down because our mission is a “walking mission”). I'm in Logan, Utah, and I love it!

My first day in the Mission I taught someone who seemed really interested and told us to come back, but he lied, he didn't really want us comin’ back. :( (Then the rest of the day was me just unpacking and whatnot.)

The 9th I went on exchanges with Elder Schnanner. He's from Sweden and that was fun. His area is the College area. Yeah....! :D

Later that day (I was with Elder Norton) this older lady pulled up next to us, and asked us if she could call our homes and tell them how great we are. So we told her she could. It was awesome! Emily answered the phone. Then the lady gave us $20.00 bucks to go buy lunch for ourselves. Sweet! People here love us. We’re treated like movie stars out here. Everywhere we go we hear honking and people yelling "Missionaries!" "Elders you Rock!" "Hey Elders, want a ride?" (we always say yes). I love it! I love Utah!

Alright....the 12th. ( I'm going to skip the 10th, and the 11th because that was a day that everything fell through).

Alright the 12th! Elder Norton and I gave talks in the 43rd ward. My talk was on Missionary work and Elder Perry's talk, "Bring Souls unto me." I did a really good job on it, considering I only had a day to work on it.

Okay, I met someone....someone awesome. No, it’s not a girl. :D Actually I met two awesome people. Okay, I met.....Elder L. Tom Perry, and Elder Craig Zwick of the Seventy! It was so awesome!

Elder Perry shook my hand at 11:04am! :D He then asked how many lesson we have set up for the week. We told him four. Which isn't bad, it's just not good, either. He then looked at both of us and said, "Elders, that's not enough! You need to be having 20 lessons a week. That's 3 a day. I want you to go out and find 16 more lessons by the end of today and email me tonight." AGHHH! So he gave us his email address. I have Elder Perry's email address....nanner, nanner, nanner. :D

So we did what he asked us to do. I have never worked so hard in my life! We got 18, with six pending. So we had someone email him for us, since we can't email until Tuesday, and yesterday we got an email saying. "Thank you, a great response." YEAH!

By the way, I saw myself in the Church News. That was cool!

Yesterday! Yesterday was awesome! We had two amazing experiences. I wish I could share them with you, but I feel the need to keep them personal right know. Sorry. But I will tell you a little about them. We've been teaching a Navajo man. The spirit was so strong! We taught him the 1st lesson. I was crying, Elder Norton was crying, the Brother who was with us was crying, but this man wasn't. He then told us about how our lesson made him feel like a kid again, and how he almost died a few weeks ago; he fell 40 feet, and didn't have a cut, bruise, broken bones...nothing. Anyway, we talked about baptism to him, and he said that the only person that he wanted to have baptize him was a man in his tribe who had died. And that's when the Spirit came to me so strong. It said "Stephen, tell him, that when he is baptized he will see his friend again, and his friend will be there at the baptism in spirit, and he will be smiling."

The other experience was a woman, about mid 20's. She is less-active, and is living with her future hubby. She told us that she has been waiting for the missionaries to come to her house, and help her again. It was so awesome!

Yeah, so that was my first week.

Thank you for all your letters. From now on I will be writing to you by email. For one thing it's faster, and two.....it's faster. :D But, when you write to me, send it via regular mail. Thank you. Oh when you send me packages....um, they told us a special way to send them, I forget how to do it. So call the Mission home and ask them.

I love you with all my heart. You are my family, and I love you. Every time I talk about you guys in a lesson, I start to cry. What I have seen and done this last week has made a dent in my life for the good. I know now that God has put me here for a reason, and made me Elder Norton’s comp.

I wish I could have been there for the 4th. Sounds like an awesome time. Well, I need to go. Love you guys tons. And I hope to hear from you soon.

Love,
Your son Elder Evans

PS. One more thing… Tell all my buddies and friends my email. I can't email them back, but I can answer by letter. My address is: theamazingbeautifulman@myldsmail.org . The story behind my email address is a long one....maybe some other time. :D