Elliot's July 9 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with a couple of new pictures.

Hi!

Things are going well here in OKC. My new companions are Elder Christian Anderson from Danville, CA and Elder Matt Fales from Cody, Wyoming. They're both awesome missionaries and I'm super excited to be serving with them. I think this will be an awesome transfer. We're still in the same area- OKC 4th Central, and its going well. We've had a couple of our investigators go out of town this past week but we have a lot of people we're trying to teach and follow up with.

This past Wednesday was transfers and it was wild. Elder Grover and Elder Kimber (both former companions) went home and so did a handful of other missionaries I've served around. Its crazy how fast it goes, and that's why I'm so glad to be serving with Elder Fales and Elder Anderson who are both young missionaries. Not that I would have become unmotivated to work hard for my last 6 weeks if I wasn't with them, but their energy and enthusiasm are contagious. I just love this work. Every single day I get to see the Lord's hand producing miracles, and it brings so much happiness that I think is comparable to only very few experiences in life. So why slow down? I'm just living the dream.

I also got a couple pictures from transfers-the first is my 4 hijos (trainees) in the mission and me (left to right-Elder Anderson, Elder Jacobson, me, Elder Nield, and Elder Orellana), and the second is me with the hermanas in my district from last transfer (Hermana Garcia, me, Hermana Goodfellow, and Hermana Turner).

I'm glad to hear things are going well and that you're able to go meet Addie mom! That's exciting! I hope y'all have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Elliot

Elliot's April 16 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, along with three new pictures after the break.

Happy 50th dad! And congrats on the new firm. How's the first day going? What's the firm's name again? [Hinson Gravelle & Adair LLP opened today.] This, I'm sure, is a big week for ya, huh?

The storms this week blew by us here in Lawton with really no incident. We had some ice-cube sized hail come down on Friday but then nothing really after that besides a lot of wind. That's crazy about Woodward though. It wasn't in my area when I was in Clinton, they have their own branch. But I have a pretty good chance of heading back up to western Oklahoma next transfer. They're opening Weatherford up as its own area. President told Elder Measom, the district leader in Clinton, that the missionary who will open that up is someone who is already familiar with the area and speaks Spanish. I definitely fit the description. That would be pretty cool I think.

Our week here was pretty alright. We had to postpone "Jane's" baptism to this coming Saturday because her mom wasn't going to be able to make it to the confirmation yesterday. She's already passed her interview though so we're good to go. We found some new people to start working with this past week and things should keep going well with the work here.

Elder Aisake Teisina is awesome. He's from Bountiful, Utah and has been out for about 13 months.  Elder Jose Franco, originally from Guanojuato, Mexico but relocated to McKinney, TX about 7 years ago, is legit also. I think it'll be a good transfer together. They're fun to be around and both really good missionaries.

Well I'm doing alright here. I hope y'all are doing good too! Have a fun time at the graduation this week! Felicitaciones hermano and Kim!

Les quiero!

Elder Elliot

Oh and last week we went to the Holy City of the Wichitas. It was pretty fun. Here's a picture of Elder Franco, Elder Grover and I being fanned by Elder Olsen. As well as a couple other photos I thought you might like. Disfruten!

Elliot's March 5 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot. And there's five new pictures after the jump.

Hola!

Elder Matthew Karl is from Alberta, Canada. My new companion is Elder Brett Grover from Spanish Fork, Utah. He's so cool. I think this is going to be a sweet transfer. He's Spanish speaking as well and has been out one transfer longer than me. We've definitely clicked so far and I think we'll have a lot of fun and success.

I actually am not sure what the address of my apartment is, but its at 53rd and Gore in Moore [must have meant Lawton] and its called the Invitationals. This is my second apartment in a row that sits on a golf course. [The Lawton Country Club and Golf Course.] Its super nice. We have a back balcony that sits right on the course. It has two bedrooms and two baths as well as a good sized living room and kitchen. I might be a bit spoiled.

This has been a pretty awesome 5 days in Lawton. Karma was baptized here on Thursday and Helen on Saturday. Karma has 2 sons that joined the church a few years ago and she's awesome. Helen's Grandma is a member and she's been coming to church for the last little while as well. It was cool to walk in and enjoy seeing them get baptized. I had the opportunity to confirm Helen a member of the church on Sunday which is the first time I've done that. It was a bit stressful organizing the baptisms and dealing with transfers and everything that comes along with it in one week but it was great. I think I'm going to love it out here.

We had a really cool finding miracle this week. We drove past a street and Elder Grover remembered that someone they had been teaching lived on it. So we flipped around and tried them. They had 3 cars outside and were definitely home, but there was no answer.  So we looked around and saw that across the street there was a home with a garage open so we knocked on the door. Theresa came to it and before we even said anything she told us to come in. She said she had always seen missionaries on the street and had always wanted us to come by the house but missionaries never had for whatever reason. We taught her all about The Restoration [great video link], God's love for us and about the Book of Mormon. We committed her to baptism on the 31st of March. She then told us that earlier in the day she watched a show on the History Channel about the apocalypse and was praying to make sure she was on the right path. That's usually when we show up. It was a super cool experience.

So Lawton's cool! Its interesting being far away from other missionaries now besides the Sisters in Lawton 1st Ward, but we don't see them too often. That's a good thing though I think. Being a little more isolated with a much smaller zone means that we don't have as much to worry about, we just get to focus on the work more fully. This area is all military. It seems there are more people who work out of Ft. Sill than anything else, and a lot of people are living here from out of state. The area and ward have a lot more young families than anywhere else I've served I think. I'd been to Ft. Sill to teach soldiers before and when other missionaries (the AP's and two others) come down they stay Saturday night with us, which is exactly why we got a nice apartment.

I hope everything's going well for y'all! I'm still waiting on Elder Phillips to find out if he's going to the U of U or UVU to see if we can get an apartment together or something. I'll let you know when I find out. Do you know if Aaron is still going to transfer to BYU?

Love ya!

Elder Elliot