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 

When you think about it rationally, you don't really need Emails

Hey Everyone. It's time to write. So I write. Hopefully I can type out my ramblings ok.
This week a lot didn't happen.

A lot of the people we tried to visit weren't home. 
A lot of the lessons we tried to teach didn't happen.

The pie I tried to make was "ok" at best. 
(And my companion is going home early.)

So it's been a real kicker.

BUT a couple that I was teaching in Ashton
finally got baptized! and I was able to go up
and support them. 

It was really awesome, and it is so cool to see
 where they have gotten to over the last 
months!


All of this just because someone was helpful
at the hardware store. 

But that's a story for another time.
So cool.

Anyway that's the important stuff this week. I know, not much. 

If I had to choose a thorn for the week, it was that nothing happened.

My rose was that I didn't burn my pie, even if burning it would have been an improvement, 

because it would have at least been more interesting than the perfectly mediocrity that I got.

The worst part of being Email, is the snot

Hi I was sick this week!

Monday nothing at all! no sickness! I felt great!

Tuesday I was dead! no healthy at all!

Wednesday was the same, except we had District Council. I don't really remember a lot of what was talked about.

Thursday was the day before we were to meet with Elder Bednar! I still wasn't feeling so hot, but we were able to get out for interviews with president and for some visits in the evening.

Friday of course is the cool day because we spent 3ish hours with Elder Bednar. I got a lot of different things out, but mostly it was from these talks that he had us read beforehand, and that we discussed during the meeting. Ask in Faith    Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins    Converted unto the Lord    Seek Learning by Faith

Anyway it was really cool, I also have several quotes from him to highlight his sense of humor.

From the top:

"We'll try not to ruin the photo" (sitting down for the mission picture)

"Alright! Let's go to church!" (after the picture is over)

"Don't write home and tell your mom I said the word 'stupid'!" (after saying the word 'stupid')

"Do you really think your smoothness is what gets people to join the church‽"

"I may look small, and old... but trust me you do not want to mess with me!"

It was an absolute delight! In the end we held a big discussion about those talks and then he turned it into a meta-discussion about our discussion and how we can teach like this. It was cool.

Saturday and Sunday happened but nothing much important happened, nothing can really compare to Bednar, so that's it!

-Elder Darcey

LTPS 

Where the Email goes, no one knows!

Hi it's time for a good Email.

Last Monday I of course went to Yellowstone, There are many pictures waiting on the album and also some videos maybe. Anyway, on to the week!

On Tuesday was Zone Conference. I actually have a lot to say about this one because it was kinda funny how many things didn't quite go as planned. The main event was a seventy who came and talked about blessings and not blessings from being faithful and stuff. It was actually really good.

 Later in the meeting though, we had Pres Simpson get up and try to talk about the missionary Daily Schedule, the only problem is that he was talking about a schedule that has been outta-date for three years. so the poor guy gracefully gave up when all the confused questions were answered and the record set straight. 

Also our Vehicle Coordinator had previously announced a competition for the mission, where whatever companionship had the best car at zone conference would be given one of the brand new rav4 hybrids that the mission recently acquired. The only problem is that in order to even qualify you had to have your fluids checked by a car place and then have them print a paper that said it was all good. So at zone conference he did this thing where he had groups of people sit down based on criteria until he got to the final winners. "If you drove to ZC stand up! you can't win if your car isn't even here!" *Everyone stands up* "If you have your fluids sheet keep standing! Other-wise sit down!" *Almost everyone sits back down*. There were only two companionships that were able to qualify for the win, because everyone else decided they couldn't be bothered. That was actually hilarious to see how the mission collectively decided they wouldn't be motivated by a new car. I don't know where I am going with this story but it happened so I wanted to write about it.

Wednesday evening we had several meetings in our Stake, also we WERE going to have a lesson with two kids that are ready to be baptized, but they ditched us! So that was sad.

Thursday Not too much happened, we had a lunch/lesson with a guy, honestly it didn't go to well, because he and the member we brought got on endless tangents.

Friday I was on exchanges with my District Leader Elder Bahr. The day went really well other than nobody was home and we had three lessons fall though. But we were able to do a lot of other work, that needed to be done, and also contact lots of potential fellow shippers for the people that had lessons drop. So all in all it was a good day. I also ran into a member that I knew in Rigby East so that was fun as well.

Sunday we wandered into a ward that was having their primary program. There were-- I kid you not-- 200 kids on the stands. It was insane. I looked behind me and there were no seats anywhere. All the way back to the stage. I haven't seen that many people in a building other than West Yellowstone.

I think that's it!

-Elder Darcey

LTPS 

OH YEAH I FORGOT ELDER BEDNAR IS COMING TO THE MISSION ON FRIDAY AGGGAGAGAGGGGG!!!!!!!

YELLOWSTONE Visit

Hey family. Quick one. I am on my way up to Yellowstone today, and wanted to send anything even if it isn't amazing.

Anyway the major stuff that happened since Wednesday was a ward party that was cool, me speaking twice on Sunday, and a cool Bishop Youth Fireside we were invited to. 

That's the coolest stuff. I will probably be able to send another email on the way home around 4 so i will try and include the best pictures in that one.

-Elder Darcey Once during our missions we get to visit Yellowstone.  After a couple of false starts and cancellations, I finally got to go.  I went with a group that included my previous companion, Elder Harvey and a second cousin, Elder McGuire, who should be in Hong Kong but is in Yellowstone, go figure.  AND is my second cousin from Francis, Utah, who knew.  

Yellowstone Falls