Mission Joy

Birthdays in the Mission

Note from Mom to Sister Lenora Slatcher in Oklahoma:  Any chance you could email Bethany and tell her its Elder Darcey's birthday tomorrow?  Maybe she could call the sisters in his district because its district meeting tomorrow?  And I think they'll be sad not to know?  I know it's late.  Sorry.

Response from Sister Slatcher:  Sure!  I emailed her and she called me.  She was actually around several others when she read it so they are excited to get to honor him and celebrate him.  She is going to make our famous Slatcher pie for him.  He will be happy and surprised!

Response from Mom:  I'm in tears.  You are a blessing to me.  I don't even have a gift sent for him because I took it to OK to mail, and I've been traveling all this week from Tulsa (stuck on the interstate two days in KS) then through Denver, (stock two days in WY.)  He would have gotten everything late and I racked my brain to think of how to help him.  She is serving the Lord and living discipleship and blessing me.  

Email Crash (CAR)

Well, 

There isn't too much to talk about this week I don't have a ton of time as usual, so I will write as much as I can before going.

This morning I made a bijillion scones for the district. Everyone pretended they were good.

Thanksgiving was fun. I made my two pies, and we went to two families. It was a very good time. We were able to play some very fun games, and Eat good food.

Sunday we started teaching another new person, a kid that is planning on being baptized soon and his older brother.  And,  That's it for now.

Rose: good food on Thursday

THORN:   Elder Panttaja not knowing how to drive on snow and taking a dive off the road on Wednesday.

-Elder Darcey

LTPS 

Skating Video

Elder Panttaja Email

Well,

 I don't think I told you the name of my new companion! His name is Elder Panttaja! 

Try to pronounce that! Ha! Can't be done!

Anyway this week was exciting! Lots happened. We had people come to church, we had lessons, we had transfers! Elder Colón is finally in Driggs speaking Spanish!

On Wednesday we taught a girl that we had been trying for a while, the lesson went really well, but Elder Colon only got to see them for a quick minute before he was transferred on Thursday.

As of Thursday, transfers happened. I did not move but I was put with a new district and a new Comp, Elder Panttaja. He is super into animals and is likely going into zoology. 

Sunday was rather busy we had to go to lots of different places during the day we had Three sacrament meetings, then three regular meetings, then some lessons then we finally were home for the night.

We have been sharing the new video by the church. "The Christ Child" if you haven't seen it go watch it. it's very good.

Rose: Elder Panttaja is really cool and good about getting things done.

Thorn: My district needs some help, and It won't be as easy as my last one.

-Elder Darcey

LTPS 

DEAD FROZEN TURTLE, Water Fight Email.

Big Dumb Email

Dear Family,

This was a real week. I feel like I was more dumb than usual.

Case in point. 

On Sunday this week, we went out to one of our wards that was meeting at 9. Because of daylight savings time ending we have an extra hour of sleep. (our alarms auto fixed themselves so that was not the big Dumb moment.)

What happened was that I was still messed up in the morning and rushed out the door in my hurry thinking we were going to be late, having not looked at my watch at all.

We were headed down the road when I noticed that I left my phone at the apartment. No big deal, I don't need my phone. But then My companion notes "is your jacket in the car? Oops I had forgotten my suit jacket. We swing back and I grab that and my phone. 

But in my infinite dumbness I forgot to grab a tag for my jacket! So I get to the car and again my companion saves me and I grab a tag before we head out. And finally to put the icing on the cake I am rushing around because I still think we are late. 

Then I look at my watch and realize that we are about 20 minutes early. It was only downhill from there. Everything that day was me on auto pilot that was trying to drive off a cliff. I truly had the Big Dumb. 

Other than that the week was Awesome! Halloween night was fun. We all got together and played a giant game of werewolf with the zone. As per usual I was killed first. Oh well.

Along with that I made a cooler full of root beer, along with all the fun that dry ice provides. (That stuff is a lot cheaper than I thought, Why don't I always have some on hand?!)


There was also more junk food than even a group of 15 young men could eat. It was too much. I ended up at the end of the night with about 2 gallons of leftover root beer. (rip) 

We also were able to teach a tripp and taryn, they are ready for Baptism, but they need to pick a date. Also their dad is kinda lazy about helping them. :/

That's the big stuff this week. 

Rose: Halloween

Thorn: rip root beer

-Elder Darcey
LTPS

E-M-A-I-L

Dear Elder Darcey,

Here we go again!

It's been another week! I hope it's been a good one for you guys. We have been blessed with some unexpected things.

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday. The main thing that happened, was that we had a visitor from Salt Lake. Brother Littlefield from the missionary department came again, and talked about similar stuff as the last time he came. But instead of talking about being "a little bit better" we talked about striving to give your all. He talked about how we were being obedient, we just needed to be more convicted.

Also this week we started teaching several kids. We also were able to go to a ward Halloween party. There was lost of people there. I didn't really get any good pictures there, but it was a real good time.

We also helped build a fence. (funny story) This was a service activity for a member in one of our wards. We were cleaning up the backyard and building a fence. Of the two sections I assembled neither turned out terrible. But another member managed to put one together where the fence posts are slowly getting taller across the section. When he took the section apart and put it back together, it was better... but still not quite right. It was very funny.

Anyway there are photos of that on the Album. Also we had a ton of snow and cold. It's gone now but it was still cold for a few days.

The end

-Elder Darcey

LTPS 

It's Email'n Time!

Hi I am emailing this week as I might as well.

Anyway, despite my best efforts, you have apparently found out that I have been called as DL. dang. Well, I guess it was inevitable.

I am over the Ucon District, that covers three areas. The Sisters in Menan. The Elders in Ucon and us. In Rigby South. As far as what I do, is rather simple. I help support and uplift/train/follow up with the missionaries that I lead. Every week we hold a meeting called district council, where we talk together, have a training, roll-play together or whatever. I am responsible for those meetings and what happens in them. Also on Saturday night I call each of the companionships in the District and we talk about their week, any successes or any challenges. Then I report to the zone leader and by doing this, the mission can adjust what council they give us at zone conference, and also I can try to do more personal trainings at District Council. Ta-Da. 

I was called at transfers. So about a week and a half ago.

On to the week!

The week has been rather normal. We had a baptism on Saturday for A girl named Ali, and Bodie and she were baptized on Sunday. It was actually kinda hard to do because the confirmations were at the same time in different buildings, so we had to split with members to go to both.

It was a good time.

The other fun thing was when we helped pass out some flyers to a trunk or treat we ran into some people who had just moved in, and wanted to learn. So we setup a lesson for this week. That's going to be exciting. 

I think that's all I can write right now. We have to go. 

The place I was writing from closed so I had to finish this on phone so as such there is no end card. 

Rose: Baptism

Thorn: uhh. Someone said we would be eating homemade pizza then we didn't. :/

The end

-Elder Darcey

Where the Email Things Are

Hi it's time for an email!

This week was awesome!

The most important thing happened on Saturday But a ton of other stuff happened that I have to talk about as well!

Tuesday, I said goodbye to Elder Cluff and Elder Corbett who were both finished with their missions. I spent the day with Elder Bahr in my area. Then that night I stayed at their place in Rigby East. 

Wednesday I made my last brownies for the Rigby District as when transfers happen on Thursday, my area was going into a different district. Then I spent the day with the zone leader, as his companion had also left. So we spent the day frantically going from his area to mine and back. We cleaned his apartment in preparation for transfers, and neglected mine so it was real gross from all the junk other missionaries had left behind. Anyway, after a few late night meetings and such, we were home to be excited about the morning.

Thursday! Transfers. I yet again hung out with the Rigby East Elders until around 11 when we were supposed to be at the transfer site. We arrived and waited. Eventually it all happened, and I had a new companion, Elder Colon (pronounced Cologne) and we went to work showing him around the area. He has been out for about 4 months, and his last area was Firth. He is really cool. He is from San Diego, and has family from Puerto Rico and Panama. Anyway,

On Friday we did a ton of visits and cleaned the house much. Also got everything ready for someone we have been teaching to be baptized on Saturday.

Saturday a ton of different things happened.

First we helped with an Idaho ERC Exercise (ham radio thing. they were basically testing all the stakes in the state to see how fast they could gather some specific information and report back. (say in the event of an emergency.))

Then Bodie got baptized (awesome)

Then Stake Conference (good. our mission president was there.)

It was a good day (true)

Sunday was also Stake Conference

News comes in a newspaper... does Email come in a...?

Hello yesterday was transfer calls. Also this week we were in a trio with another missionary, Elder Corbett.

Anyway The week was a normal one. We set a guy on date to be Baptized this Saturday, so that's real awesome.

Other than that, though, nothing out of the ordinary... other than General Conference!

So now I talk about that. We had the opportunity of watching it in several different families houses. Saturday morning at a church with the rest of the zone, afternoon with a cool family, and Sunday morning and afternoon with similarly awesome families. 

We had a great time! I will now quickly go over some of my favorite talks given.

In no particular order, I really Loved Elder Bednar's talk about the cheetahs and about being constantly vigilant about keeping watch and continuing to be prepared for any possible danger. 

I also loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk, where he called back over and over to his last talk given in April. I think if there was only one talk that I could push people to watch it would be this one. I really get the feeling that his assignment as head of the missionary department is really influencing his talks.

Finally I loved Elder Johnson's talk about Satan's three D's and how we can continue to avoid and overcome the adversary. 

Anyway,

Rose: Good Week and Good General Conference.

Thorn: I have to get used to a new companion this week. His name is Elder Colon. He will be my companion on Thursday. I don't know anything about him. He is rather new. (but not brand-new)

-Elder Darcey

LTPS