Elliot's February 27 email and pictures

Here's the latest email from Elliot, with several new pictures after the jump.

Transfers!

This week I am heading out of Moore and going to Lawton. I will still be a zone leader and my new companion will be Elder Grover. This is going to be a pretty exciting change I think. They are splitting up the mission zones from 5 to 8 zones meaning we have less stress as zls in worrying about 10-14 missionaries instead of 22-28. The Lawton Zone is pretty cool. It covers my old area in Wichita Falls and their massive district to the south, Altus to the west and Lawton on kind of the east boundary. I'm really excited to be able to head back to WF on exchanges and stuff. It should be fun to be in the country again, I always hear good things about Lawton.

There's not a whole lot of news from this past week. Because I was able to find out about transfers in the meeting on Thursday I was able to say bye to everyone here in Moore on Sunday for the most part. I'm definitely gonna miss this area. There are some great families here. It was very good to me for sure. We found 11 new investigators this past week so I hope everything keeps going smoothly for missionary work here.

We went biking at Stanley Draper again this morning! When I get back I'm gonna have to go mountain bike riding with ya dad. Its a lot of fun, especially the jumps. But nothing too crazy.

I have muchas fotos esta semana! I hope you enjoy them. I have yet to get my roll from the bombing memorial developed, but when I do I'll send those out.

I love y'all!

Elder Elliot

South Coast Today: "Serving as Mormon missionaries is humbling experience"

I ran across a recent article from the South Coast Today, a Massachusetts newspaper. It's a great discussion with four young missionaries serving in the area: Elder William Otavio DaCosta of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Elder David Souza of St. Louis, Missouri.; Elder Andrew Larsen of Preston, Idaho; and Elder Joshua Thorn of Park City, Utah (pictured, left to right). The experiences they describe are very typical, with lots of challenges and lots of rewards. Thanks to South Coast Today religion editor Linda Andrade Rodrigues for presenting a fair and interesting look at the lives of these young men.

You can read the article here.

Elliot's February 21 email

Here's the latest news from Elliot.

Hi!

That's good to hear Brian is on a mission! [Brian Molina is a former member of Newhall First Ward whose parents recently moved back into the ward. Brian is serving a mission in Australia.] It's been way long since I'd ever seen him but that's definitely good news.

And that's a very busy Sunday mom! 9 hours is a lot. I know for me Sundays used to be the most relaxing day of the week but out here it's the craziest day. We just go non-stop it seems. But that's good as a missionary.

This week was pretty good. We have 2 investigators that are progressing pretty well right now. Their names are "Joe" and "Jane". Joe is dating a girl out in Choctaw and has been going to church for the last 2 months or so. He had a very spiritual experience with Moroni's promise (Moroni 10:3-5) at church and really knows this is what God wants for him in his life. We have him scheduled to be baptized the 24th of this coming month so that's good news. We also have a baptismal date with Jane, his cousin. She's started reading and is enjoying it so far. Other than them we've been running into a few brick walls lately. One of our investigators moved out to Newcastle and another to the north side of the City, and it seems like the rest of everyone has been sick lately. But things are still going well!

Yesterday we went to the National Bombing Memorial in downtown OKC with the Lusk family. [Check out this prior blog story for more information about the memorial.] It was so nice of them to take us. It was a very powerful experience to say the least. So many people were affected by the bombing here in '95. It's really a terrifying thing. The memorial is very beautiful though, and a great tribute to all who were lost. I took a ton of pictures, but all on my Canon AE-1, so I need to get the film developed and I'll send them next week so y'all can check them out.

I'm not sure what to do about apartments and classes and everything! I think I'm going to talk to President Taylor and see if he can help me know what to do to make the mission to school exchange smooth. I'll let you know. We have a meeting on Thursday where we'll find out what's happening at transfers, so I'll talk to him.

I love y'all! Have a great week

Con amor,

Elder Elliot

Also, here's the OKC Redhawks Stadium in Bricktown with the Spanish District at the bottom of the photo.

"It's All About Birds" Visits Moore

We recently did a story on the blog about the George Miksch Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The Center, founded in 1983, is

a leader in avian research and conservation and has conducted intensive, conservation-oriented, ecological field research on declining grassland birds, developed and applied techniques for the reintroduction and monitoring of Southern Bald Eagles, managed the successful captive breeding of endangered species and performed bird surveys across the world. In addition, the Sutton Center boasts several educational outreach programs that reach tens of thousands of students and adults each year.

It's been fascinating to watch the Center's bald eagle nest cameras and to stay current on the various birds being cared by the Center via its Facebook page. The Center performs a tremendous service for our feathered friends.

Today I discovered that staff from the Center recently visited Moore Central Junior High (Elliot is currently working in Moore) to present an educational program for students, "It's All About Birds." The event was covered in separate stories in The Oklahoman and the Moore American. From the Oklahoman:

Sutton Avian Center lead trainer Ryan VanZant showed off a bald eagle, a road runner, an owl and a hawk, among others. The show is about fun and learning. The fun included a gray parrot that expressed his dislike for the University of Texas, and a hawk that flew narrowly over the heads of students.

And then there was the crow who snatched a dollar bill from the upheld hand of a student in the crowd. I'm sure he was glad to get it back!



It sounds like a really fun event for all the students. Check out the news video below to see some of the action.


 

Bible Videos: "Parable of the Good Samaritan"

The Church has released another in its series of Bible videos. The Parable of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10:25-37, tells the story of a man on the road to Jericho who is beaten and robbed by thieves, and then cared for by a merciful Samaritan man. The full scriptural account can be read below, after the jump.

President Thomas S. Monson, in his address, Your Jericho Road, reminds us that "there are hearts to gladden, there are deeds to be done — even precious souls to save. The sick, the weary, the hungry, the cold, the injured, the lonely, the aged, the wanderer, all cry out for our help." He continues:

Each of us, in the journey through mortality, will travel his own Jericho Road. What will be your experience? What will be mine? Will I fail to notice him who has fallen among thieves and requires my help? Will you? Will I be one who sees the injured and hears his plea, yet crosses to the other side? Will you? Or will I be one who sees, who hears, who pauses, and who helps? Will you? 

Jesus provided our watchword: “Go, and do thou likewise.” When we obey that declaration, there opens to our view a vista of joy seldom equaled and never surpassed. 

Now the Jericho Road may not be clearly marked. Neither may the injured cry out, that we may hear. But when we walk in the steps of that good Samaritan, we walk the pathway that leads to perfection.

Enjoy the video.

Mormon Messages: "Your Day for a Mission"

One of my favorite stories on Elliot's blog tells of the experience of Sid Going, the promising young Australian rugby star who chose to serve a two-year mission for the Church just as his rugby career was poised to take off. You can read Elder Going's story here.

The Church recently produced a Mormon Messages video of Elder Going's story. It's a great video, again based on the account of his life as told by Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the April 2011 General Conference.

Enjoy the video.

 

Elliot's February 13 email

Here's the latest email from Elliot.

Hello!

It snowed last night! So we woke up and had a snow ball fight of course. [Check out the video below of the best snowball fight ever.] Its really not a whole lot of snow, and I bet it'll be melted away by tomorrow, but still fun. Today we plan on just doing shopping and play some soccer & basketball at the church. Nothing too exciting but we're not supposed to be going too far today due to, not terrible, but not ideal road situations.

This week was cold but good. Definitely was bundled up all week but we still had pretty good success. One cool experience was on Tuesday. We went to an appointment with a new investigator but didn't catch them around. So we had some time and decided to start walking around the apartment complex and see if there were any doors we should knock. So we start walking around looking for the right doors to knock. We kept on seeing this woman around and we felt like we needed to talk to her, but we were always either talking to someone or too far away. So we kept on going until we decided to switch where we were at in the complex. The first door we knocked we found her and her husband! He let us in right away and talked to him. He's from Honduras and she's from Mexico. He had been baptized in Belize but hasn't really been to church in over a decade and she's not a member. So we are now teaching them and are gonna do Family Home Evening and dinner with them and their kids this Friday. Pretty exciting! And I get to use espanol.

This coming week we have zone conferences, and ours is on Wednesday. It should be a really good meeting. Elder Karl and I are doing a training on goal setting and accountability. I hope it goes well! Our zone has been doing really well lately after training on setting goals then making plans a month ago so hopefully this will bring that training full circle.

So everything's going good here. I don't know if I told you, I think I forgot, but a few weeks ago I got my left knee checked out by a doctor. It had been giving me pain for a while. She said that it was damaged cartilage under the knee that has been catching with my knee cap wrong. She gave me a brace to wear when playing basketball and stuff and said that sometime down the road I would want to get a minor orthoscopic(?) surgery to cut away at the cartilage. It doesn't hurt so bad that I would want to do that now on the mission and be down for some days. Not really a big deal. I'm trying to get back into better shape now to take some pressure off of my knee now.

I'm glad to hear everything's good and normal back home! I love ya!

Elliot