N O R T H C A N Y O N M I S S I O N A R I E S F A L L 2 0 1 4

MISSIONARIES CURRENTLY SERVING:

ELDER BRYAN NALLY SISTER MARTHA JOY BALE ELDER ALEX MILLER

ELDER BRANDON NIELSEN ELDER HOLDEN BIGELOW ELDER JOSH PRESTON ELDER ALEX BERTO HERMANA SARAH EDWARDS HERMANA KENNEDY COLEY HERMANA JASMINE BERTHELSON ELDER NATHAN CLARK

MISSIONARIES CALLED:

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Elder Bigelow is really working hard, but he is also enjoying his time in the Philippines.

Here is what he said about one of his favorite things this week. "I got to sit in a Lazboy this week :) yeah that doesn't seem like a big thing but it is to me. The very first time in my whole mission. They are so soft."

Here is what he is looking forward to - "Next week is the Baptism of my very first whole family :) A Father and Mother and 2 children :) I am super stoked and can not wait :) Its the best feeling ever :)"

Here is what he has learned. "I have found the being exactly obedient is the only way to go. I chose to break the schedule one day this week, I thought it would be fine to stay up a few extra minutes. What I found actually shocked me! When I choose what I want to do and it is against the rules I lose out on those blessings that Heavenly Father is willing to give me but can not because of my disobedience. Even just a simple act like staying up a little later than 10:30 affected the spirit that I had the next day. I lost the protection that comes from obedience.

Through that experience I now have a testimony that I NEED to be exactly obedient in all things."

Elder Bigelow also made a statement about his age in the mission field. "I am pretty old in the mission." Yep that means he is getting closer everyday to coming home. Just like all of our missionaries.

Please Prepare for a mission :) I love it and I know you will too :) Please Read your scriptures they are super important to me and I know they will become important in your life :)

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baptism!

Also, the family of “K” came right before the sacrament, YES! They are progressing well! But we do have a family who isn't progressing too well, were kind of thinking they only come to church when its convenient and really don't put their baptism and their commitments in first place...its sad because they have several times in the church but you can’t force someone to have the desire to come to church. Its something you have to work and study to know the true importance of keeping promises with God.

How wonderful that God is blessing us in this hard time. I miss Ryan...I have the picture of him in my Book of Mormon. It is always wonderful that with the power of God I am able to continue every day. I know that I can’t do anything by myself; I know that it isn't because I'm a rock or anything like that. I know God is strengthening me with prayers from friends and family and I know that he is answering prayers. I hope Nanny and Papa are ok and Grammy and Grandpa too. What a blessing they are for our family!

How wonderful to see your friend! Wow, that is a miracle, and I hope you know that I proudly tell people that you are the convert in our family! I don't remember who I was talking with but I mentioned how you converted to the gospel as a young adult and they were quite impressed

I’ll keep working my hardest! As long as you do too, hehe. Enjoy the last of the Temple Open House and have a wonderful week!

Love, Sarah

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Here's Sarah Edwards most recent letter:

Hmm…Well I’m noticing a lot of costumes in the tiendas (stores) and lots of skulls and other Halloween things they have set up! They also celebrate Dia de los Muertos, where they set up the table with places reserved for all their loved ones and serve their favorite

food and other little things like that. Actually, Mexico would be a great place to celebrate Halloween, they have tons of graveyards, lots of crosses, and lots of coffin shops. Also witchcraft is completely real here!!! Ok so not so much in my area, but I never really noticed people who believe in that kind of stuff in the states, but here there are witches and all sorts of types that sell products that are considered to be used for black magic. I'm not sure if I ever told you that we had a witch in the ward in my old area?? Not a big deal, apparently she only did it for the money and doesn't believe in it but yeah.... Its kind of a thing here haha....Don't have any experience firsthand thank goodness but we always hear the stories!!

(responding to news that we beat Ridge in Football) It always brings a smile to my face to know that we beat Ridge!!! Woohoo!!

This Sunday was good. SO they do daylight saving times here, but our phone isn't programmed to change automatically. We had planned to get to church early to help set up for a baptism for the Elders, but we ended getting there an hour early! We also lost an hour of sleep But the baptism was great, she is an older woman who had kept putting of her baptism until she kind of eventually got it and she was so happy and excited to get baptized! She was a great example to “C”, who's back to being wishy washy about his fecha (date) and saying that he wants to wait for January to get baptized. She was talking to him before and after her baptism but “C” is being a little bit stubborn right now. We also had 2 other investigators there, so that was great that they could be there and see the

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Elder Josh Preston Here is an update on Elder Josh Preston who is serving in the Morristown, NJ Mission (Spanish Speaking). He is now with his 3rd companion in the mission field and his 2nd area. His new companion is from Peru and actually had a pet llama prior to coming on his mission. Josh is learning the language by leaps and bounds having a native speaker as a companion. It is really helping his Spanish teaching skills as well. And the two of them are eating very well! Josh practiced his culinary arts as a “lunch lady” at his siblings’ school, and his companion is very good at Peruvian dishes. Josh says he may have to find a Peruvian wife as he loves the food. Besides that, the members and investigators are always feeding them as well. Josh has gained 20 lbs since hitting New Jersey 4 months ago. He asked that he be kept in our prayers as he has a car in this area. Josh and vehicles have always had a love/hate relationship… He reports that the work is going well and they are working hard, and teaching discussions. After 10 years in a temporary building, the Spanish ward he is serving in just moved into a beautiful chapel and the ward is fasting and praying to fill it up! It must be

working as they found 4 new investigators last week.

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A few excerpts from Hermana Coley’s emails: Okay first of all, conference was amazing! We are so blessed to have a living prophet who receives revelation! This week was great. I have really been learning about having faith. Xiomara is getting baptized this Saturday! Please keep her in your prayers. Here are a few things i loved! 1.stay in the boat 2. keep the life jacket on 3. hold on with both hands GOOD is not enough Always think...is how I’m living going to help me receive the blessings I’m promised in my patriarchal blessing? *we must be willing to change Best decisions: 1 consider the options open mindedly and include your family.....life before the mission would have been a lot easier if i actually listened to what my loving family was telling me :)

In all I think when we decide to face God and always keep in mind that He is the ONLY person that we need to please and whose judgment matters we will be way happier! I’m so grateful for my family! I love them so very much. I love the mission, it really is the happiest place on earth :) I truly know that when we choose to be positive no matter what the circumstance we will be happier and become who God has intended for us to be!

…..I also am very grateful for prayer and answers to prayers. This week I was able to really rely on prayer. Something my dad wrote to me awhile back was that I would really get to pray as if everything depended on it. He was right. This week we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the women’s conference. IT WAS PERFECT. It was very special and the spirit was so strong. Us missionaries got to sing hijas de dios. I love that song.

This week my testimony has been strengthened on the fact that God truly loves each and every one of us individually. We have so much worth to Him. We can rely on Him always. He is the one constant that we have. I know that we can find happiness through reading and memorizing scriptures! This week I was able to memorize a few. amos 3:7 No hara nada Jehova el Senor sin que revele sus secretos a sus siervos los profetas. We have the wonderful opportunity this week to hear from the prophet of the Lord and his apostles. How blessed our we! ……This week was stuffed full of miracles! The miracles had a lot to do with the help of our members! AtFamily Home evening with members we brought an investigator and she felt the spirit so strong. We invited her to be baptized. She will be getting baptized 11 of October! She is amazing. The next day we took two members out to two of our lessons and two more people now have baptismal dates. The spirit is amazing! The spirit really is key. We also had Fiesta Patrias for our rama. Its a fiesta where we celebrate the different countries. It was such a great night. Maria and the whole Vasques family ( investigators) came and had such a great time! The members are so great at friend shipping. We also had a fireside last night. Xiomara got to meet our mission president. She has completely grown as a person! The best part of serving is getting to see people hunger for the gospel and be filled with joy!

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Nathan Clark Update ……But it is amazing how my knowledge of the Scriptures is increasing. I also have been reading the bible a little, but I am trying to finish the Book of Mormon first, but I have realized with a surety of the importance of the Book of Mormon and continuing revelation in our time. Without the Book of Mormon and Modern day revelation, there is no way you can surely interpret the bible. I don't think before my mission I have utilized the scriptures together as much as I should. I didn't realize how important all of the words of Christ are, all 4 standard works, and words of the prophets. Anyways, for the more fun part of my letter. As soon as I finish writing my emails, I am headed straight for the beach. We are in Puerto Princessa today, and we are having a Zone activity on the white sanded beaches of what has been recently voted as the most beautiful island in the world. Remember, though shalt not covet. It's so amazing here! The mountains ore covered in green lush forests and the beaches are filled with clear blue water haha, how many other missionaries get to have this experience? I will try to continue to send pictures! Will you you guys send me some pictures of you guys at the temple? I want to see the landscape and everything! It sounds like that event has been amazing! It's also excited that you guys got to hear from President Ucthdorf. And Thats awesome that Grandma and Grandpa Clark came down! Those are three of the greatest people you could ever learn from! So yesterday we got to hear from Elder Dallin H. Oaks, and Elder Ardern of the First Quorom of the Seventy. It was a re-broadcast of the talks they gave in Manila. But it was cool from them. You probably haven't heard of President Ardern, but he is in the area presidency here! He taught us at the MTC and at a mission conference! During the mission conference he called on people quite a bit to talk or something, and like 30% of the time he called on me, haha he is

really cool! And we also had our interviews with President Ostler recently. He has got to be one of the most amazing men i have ever met! Also since we are on an island seperated from the rest of the mission, we have a councellor in the mission presidency named President Hiatt, they are from Idaho. Anyways, its basically like we have two mission presidents, and they both are amazing. We get to see President Hiatt a lot more though, because he visited us in the little land of Taytay way up here on the tip of the island, and sometimes he will drive us back to Puerto so we don't have to pay for a bus, so we have lots of good conversations! Anyways, I am so happy here! I love you guys and I pray for all you everyday! Love you so much! Also The work here is going good, the last two weeks we have had 40 and 46 at church! and I taught sunday school about the gathering of Isreal! The Language is coming along better, and our small group in Taytay is growing sooo much! Its a huge improvement from 17 people at church not that long ago! We are focusing a lot on reactivating right now, and the Lord has been helping us a lot! I love the gospel I love the Philippines and i love being a missionary!

…..I also have been teaching gospel principles still, so it looks like I'm the permanent teacher until we call someone new or I leave. I just have to ask someone to translate a word for me every now and then. We don't have any other sunday school classes so I get to teach everyone in the group but the youth altogether. Yesterday I taught Signs of the Second Coming or Ang mga Palatandaan ng ikawalang Pagparito. I have been picking up the language ever so gradually, and I guess I can hold actual conversations now, I mean I still have to ask them to repeat and clarify words, but its still a conversation! My second transfer is almost over too! Almost done with being a trainee! Love you guys so much! Ask me lots of questions about everything! Love you guys so much!!!!!

Elder Alex Berto

…..The Phoenix Temple is amazing!!! I'm so excited to see the progress of the temple and now to finally see it done... wow! What a blessing for our family to have a temple literally in our backyard. What a great experience for you guys- dad and karen- to invite friends and family to join in on the open house. I'd imagine you guys have been getting plenty of questions in regards with the temple and with the church in general. That is awesome! I'm happy to hear about it all and also excited to enter it myself when I come home. (Absolutely the first thing I will be doing is going through that Temple)

We had our Trunk o Treat the other night; man it reminded me so much of both the Parkway Ward in WI and the Woodridge Ward in Bolingbrook when we did those. Of course Elder Lee and I participated by dressing up as "the missionaries" and helped by passing out candy to the kids. We were also able to make chili for the activity. They ended up giving us the award for the worst tasting chili.... haha:) We had no idea what we were doing when it came to making chili, but it was so much fun! - All the ward members ended up signing up on our dinner calendar the day after at church because they realized how bad our cooking was lol. …I am doing well. And yes, General Conference was the biggest event that took place for us. I like to think of it as the "Super Bowl for Missionaries." lol. But that is what it basically is. I am able to get a great spiritual high after watching and hearing from the leaders of the church on what we must do. Well I definitely took a lot of insight on what I needed to do. Anyways, it was great. Favorite talk was by Pres. Uchtdorf, in the Sunday Morning session of conference talking about Truth and how to self discover it. I'm blessed for the given opportunities to feel inspired and uplifted in my life. ….This week for me was a pretty good week. We had our Zone Conference in Hartford, CT. last Thursday, which was awesome and then our baptism was this past Saturday. It was a blessing for me to be able to perform the ordinance for Berket. He is a 15 year old kid from Ethiopia and he is also planning to go to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead for his father, who passed away when he was young. I know that this is an incredible moment in his life right now. Also over this past weekend, we had our AP's come to our Zone to do exchanges with us and we were able to get great insight on ways to improve the work here in New Haven. We are going to be focused on our finding efforts in order to have more opportunities to teach. We are blessed for the success in the work that we have already had and hopefully will continue to have. Elder Lee and I are tearing it up!

Elder Nielsen The past two weeks I have been able to go back to my old area for a couple of baptisms. It’s great to see those that we worked so closely with for months come unto Christ and be baptized. I was honored to be asked to talk at the baptisms of Mike Chavez and also Rose Hendrickson. Both of the baptisms were very special. Last week we saw a lot of miracles with finding. We taught the Gilbertsons the first 2 lessons. The kids are great and settle down once the spirit is in the room. Their daughters aren’t baptized. And another family, Croswells, we taught the first lessons to is Robin and Loni(non member) and their kids Ian and

Ella sat in on the lesson. The mom, Loni, said that her kids probably wouldn't pay any attention. But during the lesson they were great. Following along and asking questions and answering them. We asked, how can we talk to God. And little 6 year old Ella put her hands together and bowed her head. It was really cute. It was great to see the spirit keep them engaged in the lesson. Were going back to teach them about the Book of Mormon. Another family we are teaching in the Jones family. Ken the dad got divorced a year ago and he was married to an atheist so their kids grew up with no religion. But he’s back active in the church now, really strong. He’s getting his patriarchal blessing in a few weeks and he’s working on the Melchizedek Priesthood. We taught his 14 year old daughter Peyton and 8 year old son Easton. Peyton is a sweetheart and is very nice and accepting even though they only started to hear about God. Easton is really smart and asks crazy questions that would confound the wise. But they both sat through the lesson great and participated a lot and committed to read and pray. Easton said he would take the Book of Mormon to school. We asked him what would he say if people asked him about it. And he replied "I would tell them it’s a good book and that they should read it." haha. I enjoy being a District Leader. The District has been great. I have a lot of great Elders and Sisters. About 2 weeks ago I had a District meeting and The AP's decided to come and the ZL's so i had 16 people at my meeting. It felt like a Zone meeting, haha. I taught them all, the Greenies, Trainers, Junior companions, Senior companions, District leaders, Zone leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and the Assistants to the President, seems like the only one missing from the mission was the President himself. But the meeting went well and everyone said they really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Elder Ryder, aka Trent Wednesday morning, we had to teach seminary, or at least part of it. It was a catastrophe. So, we had no time on Monday or Tuesday to plan the lesson, so we ended up planning for it Tuesday night from about 10:15pm-2:30am to then get up at 5 to be there to teach at 6. Our lesson was on the duties of the different priesthood quorums and whatnot and we were to base it out of D&C 20:38-67. We weren't sure what to do, so we decided to go with Sister Belknap's idea (Sister Belknap is the seminary teacher who asked us to come in to teach) and to make it into a game of Jeopardy. We told Sister Belknap we would take about 20 minutes, so we decided that we would kick it off by talking about what the priesthood is and why it's important and all that good stuff. We intended for it to be a good class discussion, but forgot that we were talking to a group of teenagers at 6am, so naturally nobody said anything, so our wonderful, spirit-filled intro took all of about 30 seconds. After that, we went into our game of Jeopardy that Elder Roderer and I had spent hours on, coming up with good questions for, regarding the priesthood. As we came up with a lot of the questions the night before, we were worried that some of them would be too easy, but we soon found out that that was not the case. We asked some pretty simple questions, but they just didn't get them. We got some pretty ridiculous answers to some of the questions. For instance. we decided to throw in a question that had nothing to do with the priesthood, just for kicks and giggles, and so we put down "Noah's ark was made of this kind of wood." A couple of responses we got from the students were "Painted wood" and "There are different kinds of wood?" We thought that we would breeze through the game really quick and then be able to hand over the rest of the time back to Sister Belknap, but it ended up talking the whole time because they would argue and whine every time they didn't know the answer, which was every time, so we felt bad that we took all the time and our lesson blew chunks. So, we spent the rest of the day feeling exhausted and ashamed of ourselves. I guess that class is like that all the time though. I just hope you know what kind of wood Noah's ark was made of. On Friday, we had interviews with President Gerber. The interview went well I suppose. It was super fast though, probably because he knew he would be interviewing me again in 3 weeks and he had 4 sisters to interview.

Now he is home, and looks great. He is happy to be home as Detroit is beginning to get cold and that is not his favorite weather. It's goin to see him appreciate the Arizona sky(clear) and the sunshine(bright), and the desert air(dry). It only took a couple hours to get him skateboarding with Zach out front, catching up on all the couples with Rex and Mike, and playing rock band with Jacob. And the girls in the house are loving all of his hugs and affection. He had lots to figure out now, school, career, etc. But with his testimony strong and a desire to do GREAT things, he will be blessed add he moves forward into the next chapter of his life. 'It was hard, but no regrets!' He says.

Hermana B So that is a little about my life at this moment. It was such a good week, but i think what is more important is what i am learning. It is about perseverance and just want to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands (alma 17:11) I hope you have a good week and if you can pray for these people. I am so grateful for the message of the Restoration. It changes lives. -- ….We were able to have a conference with our President Wright and his wife and an area 70, Elder Resek were able to come and speak to us Thursday. It was powerful conference and we were able to focus more on helping South America Statistically. Starting the challenge there is in South America for the members to 1. Actively come to church and 2. Pay tithing and fast offerings. I am so blessed to have learned these commandments at a young age because it is sad to see the numbers in the members who are members and do very little in the building of Zion. There is only RECENTLY a construction of the temple in Concepción and our little temple in Santiago with all of the members in the whole country of Chile. It gave us a clear overview of what we can focus on as far as teaching... We were also cleaning out the area book and we found a name that the elders had been teaching a couple of years ago. We stopped by the house to find the gal they were teaching and another young woman came out. Her name is Carolina and she was an active member of the chuch up until she was 12 years old. She had family problems and her mom stopped taking her to church. She wants us to start coming back to teach her. Difficult because she only

remembers a little of what she was taught 8 years ago. But is was such a blessing to find her because she said

she really feels "lost" in this time of her life.