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!