It's Not Actually Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you probably know, today is Christmas Eve, or the day before Christmas in other words. A wonderful time where people get extra excited for Christmas since, it's the next day. Some people hang up stockings, for candy to be put inside of them, which seems like a really gross tradition the more I think about it.

Everyone has family traditions though which is always really cool. For example my family tradition is to have homemade chicken noodle soup for Christmas Eve dinner. That is something I will not be doing this year because I don't have time for that. I will however probably buy a can of Campbell's chicken noodle soup and feel very sad as I eat the three chunks of chicken floating in a disproportionate amount of water. 

Now that I type that out loud, that sounds really sad so I might not actually do that.

I do get to participate in another family's Christmas Eve traditions though and so that is really exciting. 

I actually cannot even believe I am writing an email already. This last week felt like it didn't even happen. Honestly I don't even know what to write this email about since I feel like I just told you everything in the last email 

We did a lot of inviting people to church, since yesterday was the special Christmas service. And we've been talking to people about Christmas a lot and about "Light the World" which is the thing I explained a couple emails ago. And that has been really cool. This morning was a lot of fun actually. We just went around on our bikes spreading some Christmas cheer. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend Christmas Eve. 

Oh yeah, so something fun from this morning that happened, well before that, something fun from this month was that Elder Bower, my companion's Mom sent four advent calendars, the ones that are cardboard and have waxy chocolate inside for each day of the month. And the reason there was four of them was for each elder in our apartment. Because there are four elders in our apartment. So that was really fun this month to do every day. But then this morning was particularly fun because Elder Dougherty, one of the other Elders who lives in the apartment's Mom sent four waxy chocolate advent calendars as well. And so this morning we each got to eat an entire advent calendar full of waxy chocolate. Which was a lot of fun. My body is kind of regretting that though.

So it really does not feel like Christmas Eve. I am currently wearing a short sleeved shirt as we speak, well as we type I guess, well as I type I guess. Unless you happen to be typing something as well while you are reading this, which I imagine would be very difficult to do. If you are however, I am impressed.

But yeah it's just unbelievable. I was just out riding a bike, the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and there were cacti. Now, I realize that cacti do not have a whole lot of influence over the weather, but I included them in my description because I felt like it really added to the scene. It's seriously crazy though. We had the A/C, or Air Conditioner as they say, on in the car full blast. It was such a hot day, especially for it being Christmas Eve. Which actually makes me a little frightened because sooner or later Summer will be here and I don't think I'm ready for that.

So here is the thing I learned for the day:

Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve happens to be busier than when it's not Christmas Eve. I found that out and I just wanted to share that with you.

Also, here is my favorite joke from the week:

Q.) What did the janitor say when he jumped out of the closet?

A.) Supplies!!!

Well, before I wrap up, I shall share with you a spiritual message. Because this email is starting to derail. 

Before I had mentioned something about spreading Christmas cheer. And that will probably be what I write about today for the spiritual message.

Much like your favorite kind of jam or jelly or even marmalade if you're about that, cheer is something you can spread. But unlike jam or jelly or even marmalade if you're about that, it isn't a food, and it's certainly not something you spread on bread or biscuits or waffles. Cheer is something you can spread to other people though, and you don't even need a butter knife to do it. In fact you don't need any knife at all. To quote the Beatles, "All you need is love."

Jesus Christ gave us a commandment to "Be of good cheer." Many people think of commandments with a negative connotation. Like they're all restrictions that take the fun out of life. But actually, commandments are just the things that God asks us to do because He loves us and He wants us to be happy. For example, if you were a parent, and you love your child, and your child says, "I really want to play and run around on the busy freeway, it sounds really fun." You would hopefully not respond by saying, "Well you know what, I love you so much that you deserve to have fun, go and do that, live your life, be free, you be you." What you would most likely say is, "I know it looks really appealing and fun, but it will cause problems for you like death, and because I love you, I will ask you to not do that." 

That's what God means when He gives us commandments. And in fact, before I went on this tangent, I had mentioned that one commandment is to Be of Good Cheer. Which I really love because its just such a happy commandment. Because no matter what, we can find ways to be happy. Even when sad things happen, we can always find peace. And when stressful things happen, we can always find something positive. And we can do those things, and anything, through Jesus Christ.

And so everyone, Merry Christmas. I hope that you keep the Savior in your thoughts this Christmas, and every day of the year, and as you do that you will always find a way to be of good cheer.

Til next time!

~Elder Oswald

One Day Late

Well everyone, I know what you're thinking:

"Today is Tuesday. Unless I am mistaken, Elder Oswald sends his weekly letters on Mondays. I know this because I have marked it on my calendar because it is my favorite part of the week."

Well I am deeply touched. And your calendars are correct, I do usually send my letters on Mondays. However, as you can probably tell, I am sending this letter not on a Monday. In fact it is indeed Tuesday. And to answer the question you probably just asked yourself now, the reason why is that it is Transfer week and yeah that's really all I know actually. I didn't actually know yesterday wasn't P-day until yesterday

So speaking of Transfer week, Transfer week, if you don't know, is the week in which some missionaries get transferred from one area in the mission to another area in the mission. And the time between each Transfer is called a Transfer Cycle, or a Transfer for short. In case you're interested, one Transfer Cycle is 6 weeks long usually. Except for this last one which was 5 weeks long.

So I am not going to be transferred, and neither is my companion Elder Bower. Neither are the Spanish speaking Elders with whom I share an apartment. And neither is anyone in my District even. So things are going to be pretty much the same this coming transfer cycle. With the only exception being that I am no longer in as much of a blurry haze of confusion and stress and that I sort of know what's going on a little bit more. So this next transfer will be great, because I already know people and am comfortable here.

In other news, I got to drive this week! That was very fun, since I haven't driven in a long time. And then I remembered that I'm not actually that fond of driving. It's also interesting though because we have this lovely little white box in our car that tracks our driving. And if we go over the speed limit it will yell at us in this horrible voice that pierces to our very souls, filling us with both fear and shame, as it tells us to "check your speed." So that part isn't as fun. But anyway, I'm not the assigned driver so I don't usually drive. Except for there were some times where we were on companionship exchanges and where Elder Bower forgot his wallet where I had to drive.

Also, here is my random fact for the week: I just learned that in at least one of my pairs of pants I can fit an entire Book of Mormon into my pocket.

Also, favorite joke I heard from an old man at church: 

"I have a fear of giants. It's called Fee Fi Phobia."

So now I would like to tell you about this lady that Elder Bower and I are teaching. She goes by the name of Dee, except that isn't actually her real name. Anyway, she is so cool, and she is going to be baptized later this month! 

So, how did we meet Dee? Great question. We met Dee because her neighbors invited her to Church. She came to Church for like 3 Sundays in a row and loved it, before we were even able to set up a time with her to meet with us. We eventually did set up a teaching visit with her though and that first visit was probably one of the coolest moments so far on my mission. I'll never forget it. I have never met someone before who is so ready to learn. Her whole life has been preparing her to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it has seriously just been amazing to watch her learn and just take in everything that we have to offer her. And here is the coolest part about it. She understands how to really learn. Because as missionaries all we do is invite and help and testify of what we know and what we have learned. The learning process has pretty much nothing to do with us other than us just telling people things. The thing is is, just telling people things really doesn't do much. People have to learn on their own. They have to find out for themselves. They have to study things out and ponder about things and truly have a desire to learn truth and then pray about those things and ask God whether or not they are true. That's how people learn. And that's what Dee understands. In fact every time we'd invite her to pray about something we've taught her she'd be like, yeah I've already been praying about that. She is just loving the Church and it has been just so amazing to see. And the reason why I share this story is because it shows how there are people in this world searching for truth. And it shows what our job as missionaries is. It's to help people learn. I love this story because Elder Bower and I did hardly anything. We didn't even find her ourselves, she was invited by her neighbors, which also shows how important members of the Church are to the work. We are just the instruments in the Lord's hands. And not a clarinet kind of instrument, I mean a stethoscope kind of instrument, like a tool for Him to use to help accomplish His work

But yeah, it has been very exciting to work with Dee.

Well my friends, it seems like it was only just this afternoon that I started writing this email, and yet we've come to it's close already. 

I hope you all have a week that is, as an old friend once said, "good." 

Talk to you next week!

~Elder Oswald 

P.S.- I have some pictures. 

The first picture is of the half eaten watermelon that was in our apartment for what I thought was way too long. 

The second picture is of the half eaten watermelon a few days later even though I thought it couldn't get any worse the first time I took a picture. 

P.S.S.- In case you are wondering we finally threw it out after I took the picture. Well the next morning after.

 Here are a few other pictures just in case rotting fruit isn't exactly what you had in mind: 

Temple trip to the Gilbert Arizona Temple

Temple trip

Zone Conferences

Dinner with the McCormick family

One Year Older and Wiser Too

So this week was good. I did indeed have a birthday. And it is interesting having a birthday in the mission field. You know those movies where there's like the character and they have a super hard life, and it's the same thing day after day after day, and then one day this person has a particularly brutal day, and they're just so busy and stressed and at the end of the day they collapse in their bed from exhaustion only to realize that it was their birthday and they had totally forgotten, because they had no loved ones to remind them?

Yeah it was nothing like that at all. I did on many occasions forget it was my birthday. But I was reminded often by people sending me emails and then by some people in my zone giving me ice cream and a card and then by the presents my mom had sent me in the mail. Which, by the way, were wonderful. I was given the timeless gift of those Little Debbie chocolate peanut wafer nutty bars, which happen to be my favorite sugary processed snack food. They also ship very well. And if you don't believe me, feel absolutely free to try it out. But anyway, other than those things, I had a completely normal day of missionary work.

Once again however, I was disappointed to wake up on my birthday and realize that I did not in fact look and feel suddenly older. 

I am starting to sense a pattern. 

Turning 19 is an interesting event I've noticed however. Because unlike turning 18, you are turning the age which comes after 18, which is 19. When I turned 18, I was a little bit intrigued because I had always imagined actually looking like an adult as an 18 year old. I was still in high school however, and so I realized that maybe being 18 isn't really what I thought it would be.

19 has always been another threshold though. 

Let me explain by telling a story. 

Once upon a time there was a young boy who shall remain nameless. For convenience however I will call him "Kendall". Kendall had always wanted to go on a mission for the Church to which he belonged. You might say that he even hoped they would call him on a mission. Now mind you, at this time, you had to be 19 to go on a mission. And so whenever Kendall imagined himself on a mission, he imagined himself as a 19 year old. And you see, Kendall's image of 19 year old him was, well, different than what the actual 19 year old him turned out to be.

Now, I'm going to tell you something that may shock you. That little boy was me.

And so it is quite interesting to be 19 and on a mission, because it's not much like I expected it to be at all.

Well, now that I've wasted the time of you and I, I shall proceed to the actual more important things.

I had a really good week. We had some really good teaching visits with people. 

I really love being a missionary. I love seeing people grow and learn and come to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it has been very cool for me to grow and learn and come to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ even more. 

So there's something I have thought a lot about. And its the idea of "losing yourself in the work." This concept always intrigued me. Because I didn't particularly want to lose myself. In fact I quite liked myself. I thought I had a pretty good personality, I didn't want to lose that. Besides, I thought, aren't I supposed to use my personality to help others? Because that's a concept I've heard as well, that missionaries shouldn't be cookie cutter robots that are all the same. Because missionaries are all different. We all have different strengths. And the Lord has put us all where we are because there are specific people that we personally can touch. So what does it mean to "lose [myself] in the work"? Well I came to realize that it doesn't mean lose your personality, it means lose the care of yourself. In other words, stop thinking of yourself and start thinking about others. Start caring about them and loving them and serving them, just as Jesus Christ would. 

So I really like that. And I know that if we all try and do a little bit more to just be kind, and not worry about our own problems as much and think about someone else, and just spread happiness and love, that we really can "Light the World" a little bit at a time.

Now, it looks like the time has come for me to say farewell for the week.

Farewell for the week!

~Elder Oswald

A Week's Worth of Confusing and Unorganized Ideas with a Spiritual Thought and the End

Well folks, it's that time again.

You guessed it, it's time to read this week's chapter of "Memoirs of a Missionary: Two Years and Forever" which is the title of the book I have now decided I will one day write.

So this week was pretty good. We had a ton of service opportunities so that was really cool!

Thursday and Friday we helped a super cool guy from the Spanish speaking Ward move some boxes from a trailer into another trailer. It was just like a game of Tetris except heavier.

But yeah I got to practice my Spanish skills which was super cool. 

Also, real quick, I just have a question about cats. Why? I am not making this up, they actually know I'm allergic to them. They can sense it somehow. And I wouldn't say this if it's only happened once. But it's every single time. If there's a cat, it comes up to me, looks me in the eyes, and then proceeds to rub its mangy fur on my pants. It's ridiculous. 

So something that's pretty cool, there's like a professional hair cutting lady, or hair stylist as they are sometimes called, who goes to church here who gives free haircuts to the missionaries. So I got a free haircut last week. 

Oh, also, I've attached a picture of a cactus with Christmas lights that I found. I really like this picture because it is a cactus with Christmas lights.

So last night was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and it was amazing! Now I know what you're thinking: Oh rats, I really want to watch that, but Elder Oswald said it was last night, I guess it's too late.

Well you're in luck, because you can go on and watch it on lds.org anytime you want!

Anytime I want?

Yes, anytime you want! Which I very much recommend.

Unless of course I'm totally wrong, in which case, my apologies. But I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Anyway, service has been really fun. So Saturday was a special day. And not only was it the day we get ready for Sunday, but it was the World Wide Day of Service that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints put on as a kick off for the Light the World initiative that is going on this December. 

So what is Light the World?, you may ask. Well great question. Light the World is something that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints does every December as a way to make the Christmas Season more focused on Jesus Christ and the gifts he has given us. Now this can often times be hard to do, with much of the worldly culture of commercialization and self-gratification that surround this season in many ways. But what the Church has organized for this month can help us. Every week, we are encouraged to serve in a different way. We aren't told exactly how or who to serve, but we are given ideas and encouragement to seek ways and opportunities that we can show love for one another, and to serve one another and to look beyond the natural selfish and self centered feelings we have, and look outwards as Christ did. Give as Christ gave. Love as Christ loved, and as He loves even now. And I can promise that this is how we can really experience joy this Christmas. So I would encourage you all, if you haven't already, go on to Mormon.org and you can learn more about Light the World, and then start serving!

Well disapointingly enough, I think that's all for this week my friends, have a wonderful week!

~Elder Oswald

P.S. - Random fact of the week:

I realized that if you add a 'B' and an 'E' to the beginning of Arizona, it becomes Bearizona, which I like to imagine is what the state of Arizona would have been called had it originally been populated by bears rather than by humans.

Also, an excerpt from Kendall's message to me with some pictures that Elder Bower's mom shared with me to go with the story:

So real quick, totally forgot this story from the week:

Elder Bower and I were on bikes one afternoon. And we had dinner with the Bishop and his wife. But his wife called and said the Bishop was out of town so she'd just drop off the food at our apartment. So we got back from biking at the same time as the Bishops wife. And so we got our bags of food at the entrance of the complex and then went to our apartment. 

Then we realized that the key pad to our garage was broken. We had a garage door opener in our car though so that's why we never needed to use the keypad. The car was in the garage though. Because we were on our bikes. 

Luckily there is a side door to our apartment though. Unfortunately the key is on the key ring with the car keys. And we didn't take our car keys because we were on bikes. 

So we were locked out of our apartment. So we just sat down on the curb outside of our apartment and ate our soup and grapes. She also gave us some awesome chocolate covered caramel corn. But yeah so then we had a meeting at a ward mission leaders house which we had originally planned on driving to. We couldn't drive to it though because our car was locked in the garage. So we biked there. Except it was far away and we had to bike along a super busy road. It was kind of sketchy. But yeah we made it to our meeting. Then we had the mission leader drive us to our lesson since we wouldn't have made it there on time. Then we biked back to the apartment, hoping to find the Spanish Elders inside since they of course had a key to the apartment.

Instead we found them standing outside waiting for us. Apparently they don't have a key. They thought they did but I guess it doesn't work. So we ended up calling some mission office staff and eventually someone came with a key and got us inside.

It was crazy.

Another Week, Another Destiny

Howdy y'all! Just thought I'd try out a new greeting today. Turns out I'm not actually fan of it.

So another week has passed in the mission, and so I therefore imagine another week has passed for you all as well.

So things are going really well here in Paradise Valley. We haven't found a ton of new people to teach, we've just been working with those we are teaching. We have a few people on date for baptism who we're working with. The trick is just getting appointments with people and having people forget/get sick/get lice/get called into work. It's been going pretty well though.

We also got to do some service for an older gentlemen on Saturday. We pretty much did whatever random jobs he needed us to do. One of them was finding his missing potato so that was an adventure. We never actually found it by the way, so that was really disappointing. 

Seriously though the stories you get to share from being on a mission are wild. Like last night we were driving through some side streets and we stop at a stop sign, as one does, and we see, I kid you not, a small train with a smiley face on the front of the engine doing donuts in the street. There was a man driving it and it looked like it was his kids in the passenger cars. It was so weird. It didn't even seem real, it was like something out of a dream.

But yeah the mission really exposes you to a lot of new experiences, like daily exercise and cactuses. Or cacti if you want to be politically correct.

But yeah so it's a lot of fun with the Spanish speaking Elders in our apartment. During study time, when they're doing their language study, we just hear from the other room a lot of yelling in Spanish. Every day. The newest development is that one of the Elders just got sent the Spanish version of the soundtrack of the Disney movie Coco today. Because fun fact, that movie is actually approved for us to watch. So that's all we've been listening to today. It's definitely not going to get old. Not gonna lie, there's some great music on there.

So Thanksgiving happened! That was a lot of fun. We unfortunately are not allowed to knock on people's doors unannounced on that day for some reason though. I guess people have "families" or something and we need to have "common courtesy" or whatever that means. For some similar reason no one wanted to have lessons with us either. I kid. But it did make for a less productive day. We just had some extra study time that day. We also went to the Flag football game that a bunch of people from the Wards did and we had the pleasure of participating in that. So that was a lot of fun for me to run around a field aimlessly for two and a half hours. I did catch the ball every time it was thrown to me though. It was also thrown to me once. 

Then we were invited over to a members house for Thanksgiving dinner which was really nice of them. Then after that we went to another members house who invited us over for more pie. So that was also nice.

Now it's time for the Quote of the Week, the part of my weekly email that I have always done, and that I definitely did not just make up right now. So here's a really cool quote from C.S. Lewis: "No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboards. The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up."

This is what I love so much about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That God has made it possible for us, through His Son Jesus Christ, to be redeemed from our mistakes, so we can eventually live forever as families in His presence. 

I personally love my family a lot. And the knowledge that I can spend eternity with them fills me with so much joy. And I want others to be able to feel that as well.

And that's why I'm here in Arizona. To spread the joy of this message.

Thank you all so much for the emails, love, prayers, support, and varying degrees of affection that you may or may not have.

Have another great week my friends, til next time!

~Elder Oswald

Greetings From Paradise

Hello friends, family, and mere acquaintances!

Just kidding. No one is a mere acquaintance.

I must apologize however, for I did not send an email last week as you probably noticed by the absence of an email. I know you were all very concerned at this, as my weekly emails are the only thing you look forward to in the week. So I am very sorry to have disappointed you all. The reason for this though is that I was very busy with a plane ride, two train rides, and a relatively pointless bus ride, as I moved to my first area of my mission. 

Before we got to my first area though, the other new missionaries and I stopped at Scottsdale to meet the Mission President and his wife. Then we immediately split up with some other missionaries who weren't new, to knock on doors. So the first person I talked to in the mission field was super nice and was excited about learning more about the church. Then walking back from that house, I met the second person I talked to in the mission field who promptly informed us that he called the police on us for doing absolutely nothing. And guess what, the police couldn't do anything to us because, surprisingly enough, walking on the sidewalk is not actually against the law. So that was a fun story from my first day out in the field.

So as I said, I got to my first area within the Scottsdale Mission. And it is called Paradise Valley. 

Now I know what you may be asking yourself, what is Paradise Valley? Where is Paradise Valley? Who is Paradise Valley? Is it really a Valley? Is it really Paradise? 

So on a map, if Scottsdale is here, then Paradise Valley would be here, and if you could see me, you would see me pointing to different places on a map. Paradise Valley is actually a section of Phoenix. Interestingly enough there is more of Phoenix in the Scottsdale Mission than in the actual Phoenix Mission. We cover two wards, the Shadow Mountain Ward and the Granite Reef Ward, probably the coolest sounding names ever.

I have a new companion now as well. It was really sad to say goodbye to Elder Adamson. I'm with Elder Bower now and he's pretty cool.

So the weather here is much warmer than in Michigan. It gets like up to 70 in the afternoons. Then it gets chilly at night, not even that cold, except everyone here thinks it's the second Ice Age and they're in their parkas and whatnot.

Here's a random story of the week for you: 

We were riding our bikes and I accidentally brushed my leg against a bush, as one does. And then I realized that it was a painful bush. Then I realized it was a cactus and not a bush. So that was a blast. 

So yeah this has been a really great week. I have had a lot of really cool spiritual experiences and I've learned a lot. Something I've been studying a lot about is Faith. And in the Book of Mormon, in the Book of Alma, it talks about how Faith is not having a perfect knowledge of things. It's hoping for things which are not seen but which are true. 

The point of Faith is not to understand everything about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or about God. We literally cannot comprehend everything. So when we don't understand things perfectly, it doesn't mean we don't have strong faith or a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and of our Heavenly Father. It just means we have to have faith. And believe even though we can't see or understand perfectly. And trust in the peace, in the love, and in the joy that comes from having faith and following Jesus Christ.

Well it's been a great week, thank you all for the support and everything. 

Oh yeah and Happy Thanksgiving!

Talk to you next week!

~Elder Oswald 

P.S.- I appreciate all the personal emails from people, however unfortunately I don't always have a ton of time to write emails. So it might take me a while to respond. Keep sending them though, because I love to read them! And I will eventually get around to responding.

An Arizona Christmas tree (aka a painful bush)

Definitely not in Michigan anymore.

Arizona

There was no official newsletter this week due to Kendall's travel schedule but he did email me so I have included portions of that letter here for this week along with the photos that were sent to us from the mission president and a few others that we got from the mission blog.

Well I am really tired, and my brain is having an overload of information and events to process. 

We arrived safely to the mission home yesterday afternoon, then we immediately split off and began knocking on doors in Scottsdale. The first door we knocked on was a super nice lady who I think was pretty lonely, who also loved learning and was super excited about the Book of Mormon. So on our way back to the car to get a large print copy for her, we ran into a guy who called the police on us for doing absolutely nothing. So there's all kinds of people here.

Then last night we had dinner with President and Sister Robinson and all the other new missionaries and the Assistants and Sister Training Leaders. Then we had like an orientation and QandA and information stuff. 

New Arizona Scottsdale Missionaries

Elder Oswald with President and Sister Robinson

This morning we had breakfast, and then the whole morning and early afternoon filled with training and stuff on medical and safety and a whole bunch of stuff for the mission. Then right before lunch we found out our new companions and our areas!

It was seriously the most nerve racking moment of my life, seeing all the trainers on one side of the room but not knowing who mine would be and where I'm going. 

There's actually two parts of the mission as well. There's valley, and there's mountains. They're different because the mountains will actually get some snow and the valley doesn't. Then another part of the mission that's just vastly different from everything else are the Reservations. So it was just nerve racking not knowing where I would be going.

And so my area is..... drum roll......

Paradise Valley. It's super pretty, it's about half an hour from Scottsdale, and it's very warm right now. It does not feel like mid November.

In future emails I can tell you more, I just don't really know much more right now. 

My companion is Elder Bower. He's pretty cool. All the Assistants and other Elders and people were telling me how much I'll learn from from him and how such a good missionary he is so that's really exciting. Elder Bower and I already placed a Book of Mormon before we even left the mission home so that was cool.

Elder Oswald waiting to find out who his companion is

Elder Oswald and Elder Bower

Week the 2nd

 Hello there!

So everyone says that the first couple days at the MTC are the longest days ever, which I believed of course because they seriously were the longest days of my entire life. But then people also said that after those first couple of days it all of a sudden starts going really quickly. And I didn't really believe that at first, it didn't seem possible. I just thought it was something people just said. But seriously, they were right. I can't explain it. Like I don't know how I'm already writing this second email.

Well so things are going really well. It's been a good week. I've learned a lot this week about scripture study. It's been a lot of fun. At one point Elder Adamson and I were studying the Book of Mormon, which is another testament of Jesus Christ that goes along with the Bible. We decided to read the entire Book of Enos, a book in the Book of Mormon, and Elder Adamson suggested that we look for any examples or mentions of the idea of faith. And it was really cool! There's a lot in there that I'd never noticed before. So I would recommend that actually. Study that chapter looking for examples of faith, and you will learn a lot I think. And for me that method of studying, of having a topic in mind as I read, is really helpful and I learn a lot more. 

So on a completely unrelated note, I have a Bible joke. 

Q.) What kind of man was Boaz before he got married?

A.) Ruthless.

And if you don't get the joke, then I encourage you to read the Bible. Because you're missing out on some quality humor. And blessings of course.

So this coming week is actually my last week in the MTC. I leave the 12th which is Monday, first thing in the morning. So the next time I write, I will not be here anymore and I will be somewhere in the Northeast portion of Arizona. 

I'm very excited about getting out into the field. Also, side note, this is a thought I had about that commonly used expression "the mission field." I've always thought about it as like, field work, like a field agent does in one of those secret agent movies. But as much as I want to be a secret agent, and as much as I'm definitely going to pretend that I'm a secret agent on a special assignment in Scottsdale Arizona, I actually am not a secret agent. And the thought I had was of the scripture about missionary work that talks about how, "the field is white, already to harvest" and it goes on and is really long, but the point is, I suddenly started thinking about "the mission field" in the context of that harvest analogy. So that was just a fun thought that I had.

Anyway, I'm very excited to get out into the mission field and start serving and teaching wherever God needs me. It has been cool though because even at the MTC, there is a surprising amount of teaching opportunities. People who are interested in learning about the church who live in the area can sign up at the MTC to be taught by the missionaries who are being trained. Which is scary. But it is also really cool because there's no better way to learn something like teaching than by teaching. To add on to that, I've learned so much about how important it is to have the Spirit with me as I teach. Because I don't know what I'm doing, none of us do. I've been here for not even a full two weeks. That's not enough for an 18 year old to become like a super awesome bible scholar. So I've really learned a lot and it's been very cool. 

First Week

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the first of probably many weekly emails that I will send over the course of the next two years.

So you may be wondering what I am actually doing. Well, I am serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And what does that mean? you might ask. Well "that" is a word which is commonly used in reference to a noun which someone doesn't want to say more than once. For example, "look at that" or "that was a very pointless explanation of a word which everyone already knows, so get to the point and actually answer the question."And serving a mission means that I will spend the next two years serving and ministering to God's children and inviting and helping people come unto Jesus Christ. 

As you probably know I'll be serving in Scottsdale, Arizona and the surrounding area, but right now I'm not actually in Arizona. I'm in the "Missionary Training Center" which is somewhat of a center, you could say, for missionaries to be trained. It's also commonly referred to as the MTC, which actually stands for "Missionary Training Center" and not "Marvelously Tasty Churros" as you probably thought.So basically, if you aren't aware, at the MTC we have classes and workshops and firesides and devotionals all about how we can become better missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ. There's so much scripture study and prayer and it is seriously such a wonderful experience. It's really hard to explain what the MTC is like. Because we're all college aged kids, and we go to classes and stay in dorm room style buildings, like college. Except for instead of boring things like studying math, we study the scriptures. Another difference between the MTC and college is that it's actually nothing like college.

Seriously though, the MTC is unlike anything I've ever experienced. I've never been somewhere with so many people and felt so united. There's just so much love here, like people are just so nice. I don't know how many times a day my companion and I will just be walking to a class and then randomly have a super friendly conversation with someone I've never met. It's just so cool to be there and know and feel that all of us are here striving to serve God and become better missionaries.

Also, if you're not aware, as missionaries we call ourselves Elder and Sister and not by our first names. For example I am Elder Oswald. You may also be wondering why that is. And really that's just because it is a respectful title we use. Additionally, as missionaries we are representatives of Jesus Christ and something were are told a lot to do is to "lose ourselves in the work," meaning that the focus shouldn't be on us, it should be on Jesus Christ, and using Elder and Sister helps us to remember the sacredness of our calling. Along with that, I've thought a lot about that exhortation to "lose myself in the work," and for a long time I was confused because I was also always told that I should be myself and use my personality to help others. So I thought, wait what does lose myself mean then? So the other night we watched an awesome talk called "The Character of Christ" and it was all about how the character of Christ is to always look outwards in love and service whereas "the natural man" is self centered and selfish. It was a really awesome talk and was really motivating and inspiring and the thought I had was that to "lose myself in the work" doesn't mean to lose my personality, it means I need to lose my self centeredness and selfishness. That the problems and struggles I have, I don't need to worry about. Because as we strive to be like Christ, turning outwards and looking for ways to serve and love others, we don't need to worry about or wallow in our trials or challenges. Jesus Christ will help us through all of our pains and struggles as we trust in him, and as we turn outwards in love to others. 

So that's kind of the conclusion I came to about that.

But yeah things have been going really well here. My companion, Elder Adamson, and I are getting along very well. He's from England and has an awesome accent and he's super cool. We also get along with the two other Elders in our room, Elder Hymas and Elder Rusnell. We're all going to the Scottsdale Arizona Mission and we've just been having a blast here at the MTC.

Well, thank you all for the prayers and support. I love you all, talk to you next week!

~Elder Oswald

(The above was his group email to a bunch of people, many of whom are nonmembers. This will be a great opportunity for Kendall to do some extra missionary work. But I thought I would also include a few excerpts from his email to me that has a bit more information. Normally though, I'll probably just share the group letters on this blog unless there are experiences that I feel are particularly noteworthy).

Well so it's been a lot of fun so far. It was crazy how we got dropped off in this underground parking lot, then all of a sudden were met by an elder who took my bags and then we were off, it was so fast. All of a sudden we were in this building and a lady put a name tag on me and then I put my stuff in my room and then we met our companions. Literally so much all at once, and right from the very second we got there we were busy.

So my companion's name is Elder Adamson. He's so cool. He's from England and he has the coolest accent ever. We're getting along really well.

Elder Oswald and Elder Adamson

I know I already talked about this, but literally it's blowing my mind as I'm recounting this, that this took place only this last Wednesday. Time is literally fake. I can't express this, other than saying what I said before that literally, I feel like I have been at the MTC for a year, and that I'll never leave. The airport, the uncles and the cousins, meeting my companion, that seems like an entirely different lifetime. I feel like I've been with Elder Adamson forever, and I've known my MTC teachers forever. It's just so crazy.

So Elder Adamson is also going to Scottsdale. As are Elder Hymas and Elder Rusnell, the companionship we share a room with. They are also really cool. We're all leaving on the 12th I believe. Seriously though, we get along so well. It's been so much fun. Elder Rusnell is actually hilarious. Literally, I don't know why, but all we have to do is look at each other and we will start laughing hysterically. Sometimes in class which is funny. Because the rest of our district is really cool too, and they will start laughing. And our teachers, Brother Martin and Brother Curiden are so chill, especially Brother Martin. So class is always super fun.

Scottsdale Missionaries

MTC District

We do learn a lot by the way. It's really cool to have church classes literally all day every day. It's also get exhausting, but the spirit is very strong and so it's cool. And we are working on being more serious in class though and we are getting better.

Anyway, so there's a bit more of legit missionary work than I had imagined. Like Friday, we li went to a class, found out that in 15 minutes we'd go down into a room and actually contact an investigator.

Monday we actually just had our first lesson with her. It went alright. She asked some hard questions. It was on the plan of salvation and so that does open the door for a lot of hard questions. But yeah it could have been better. It was a really great learning experience though. I think it's really good how they have it set up where it's not just random role-playing all the time. Like we do that sometimes in our classes, but not for the actual TRC lessons. Which, the TRC people, some of them are actors, but they're good actors. And you don't actually know if they are or not and it doesn't matter because no matter what, you treat them like they're real investigators.

So Sunday, holy cow. I said every day is like church all day, and so Sunday is like three times that. There's a bunch of meetings and there's choir practice (Which I'm doing and is super awesome and fun) and there's a huge devotional with everyone in the MTC, which is really cool because of how many people there are, and then the very last thing is when we get to watch a movie, which we have the choice of. And by movies, I mean talks, except for I think the Testaments. Our Branch President (who's super cool by the way) suggested to our district that we watch the talk "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. It was a talk he gave to the MTC on Christmas a few years ago and it was one of the most exceptional talks I've ever heard. It was seriously so amazing and I wish you could watch it, except apparently they only show it at the MTC. Which is really sad. It was really good though and was pretty much about how the character of Christ is to turn outwards and serve and love always, whereas the natural man turns inwards and is selfish and self centered. It was really good. He shared this story of when he was I think like a stake President or something and he got a phone call about three girls who were in a car accident and one was already pronounced dead. The woman on the phone though was also on the phone with another woman, the mother of one of the girls and a Relief Society President. So they wanted Elder Bednar to help identify the girls since they didn't know who was who yet. Then on the phone the Relief Society President says to the woman on the phone with Elder Bednar that she just found out it was her daughter who was killed. And her reaction was to make sure that the other families knew that their daughters were safe and they needed to visit them at the hospital. So her daughter was killed but she was still thinking of others. Then after all that going on, the night before her daughters funeral she got a phone call from some whiny selfish horrible lady who complained to her because she had been sick for days and no one from the Relief Society had stopped by yet to bring her a meal. And so the next morning she dropped off a meal she had made to that horrible lady, on her way to her daughter's funeral. How does someone do that? But yeah it was such a good talk and it was so like inspiring and motivating to be better at service and loving others. It was such a good talk.

A typical day in the MTC pretty much is waking up, showering and getting ready, exercise time if scheduled, breakfast, then we have various workshops and then our main classes with our district (taught by Brother Curiden and Brother Martin who I mentioned before) and then we have lunch, then we have more classes and workshops, then dinner, then exercise time if scheduled, and then something in the evening which could be a devotional or personal and companion study or another class or meeting. It's so much in one day. 

I really like the food. In fact just yesterday I had an amazing food called Chicken and Waffles. I've heard of it before, but it's always sounded kind of disgusting. But seriously, holy cow it's so good. I'll send a picture of it. Also the chocolate milk is amazing.

Chicken and Waffles

So it's just the four of us who are going to Scottsdale in our district, but we have come across some other Scottsdale missionaries here and there. We ran into Brother Bailey's niece and her companion the other day but that's the only time we've crossed paths at all. 

 So music is rare at the MTC with the exception of singing hymns, since no one has CD players and we obviously don't have things like YouTube or Spotify. So for the first three days we actually went without listening to any music other than every once and a while when a teacher would play some music before the start of a workshop. But then the other day we discovered something amazing called the LDS Music app, which has not only hymns, not only primary songs, but the Youth Theme Albums. And there are some awesome songs on there. And you can actually make playlists on that app and so it makes us feel cool. One of the songs, is called Peace in Christ, and it is so good. It was the first song we heard after listening to no music and we just got so excited. It's such a jam. Or a "naughty wobbler" as Elder Adamson would say. That's a British expression apparently. Elder Adamson has a lot of cool expressions. As opposed to Elder Rusnell and Elder Hymus (from Utah and are stereotypically modern teenagers) who have expressions like "dummy stupid in the paint" which Elder Adamson and I still don't know what that means. I'm pretty sure they just made it up together. But anyway that song is really good. You should look it up and listen to it. 

I think that's it for right now then.

Well thanks for emailing me. It was nice to hear from you. Everything is going really well and I'm having a lot of fun.

Fall at the MTC

New Missionary

This little abandoned blog that Kendall began so many years ago is now going to become a great way to record his missionary experiences and letters that he shares with us. The hope is that when he returns, we'll be able to give him a bound book containing photos and experiences that he has over those two years!

So to begin, Kendall has been called to the Arizona Scottsdale mission. He was set apart as a missionary by President Mark Witt on Sunday, October 21st and was given a beautiful blessing with so many awesome promises!

Monday was spent with last minute packing and getting ready and then Tuesday we were up bright and early to head to the Detroit airport to say goodbye for two years.

He was met in Salt Lake City by his Grandpa Potter and Uncles Jonathan, Timothy, and David. They took him to lunch at Cracker Barrel and then visited with Uncle Andrew at  Hill Air Force Base in Layton. Then they handed him off to Uncle Todd who took him up up to Cache Valley for the night.

There he was able to visit with family on the Oswald side and get an Aggie Ice Cream and eat dinner at El Toro Viejo.

 The next day, Sherrie took him to Provo where they went to lunch and then took a few pictures at the Provo temple. Taylor was able to get away from classes for a bit to come and visit and say goodbye too.

And then they drove him to the MTC where he was whisked away and began his adventures as a full time missionary!