Elder Estrada

Jose wrote us! He said "Hey Season's Greetings, how is all going on back home? I hope you are saving lots of money with all of us gone and not at your home trashing things and eating all your food..." (ha ha. We loved it.)





Here's a picture from the Barcelona website.

Luke's in Bora Bora

hey family Im writing you from bora bora. I got transfered here two weeks ago and im loving it. My compaion is an american who finishes in march, and the other is a new tahitian that we're training. we're working really hard and its amazing here. the members work so hard and everyone is more accepting of the gospel here compared to punaauia. Im convinced that this is tied for the greatest place in the world with salt lake city. we have some great investiagtors, and I'm having a lot of fun. we eat even more here than on tahiti, and the food is really good. we're on bikes and we have half the island and two other elders have the other half. our area is pretty big so we have some long rides sometimes, so I dont have to worry so much about eating a lot. I was really excited to start a new phase of my mission. oh and our house is a mansion compared to our first house, which is really nice.

Elder Smith

On January 1st, Luke wrote:
As I am writing this letter, I'm happier than a little boy on Christmas. Why? Because President just called and told me that I'm headed off to paradise in a few days. Headed off to BORA BORA!... It's the island everyone in the mission wants to serve on, even the natives. I don't know why President decided to bestow such a gift upon me, but all I know is that I couldn't be happier... When you read this, I will be in heaven teaching the gospel...

Today a guy wanted to trade me cocaine for my tennis shoes. Our neighborhood has a lot of drugs go through and a lot of not so high class people. So I get stuff like "Yo missionary, you sure you don't want some weed?" "Yeah I'm good brother. You sure you don't want the blessings of the gospel?" "Yeah I'm good." Just about everyone in the neighborhood knows who we are and despite the drugs, and not so reputable people, we are well-liked and very safe...

... If someone offers you something to eat here, you say yes, then you eat a lot. So don't feel bad, Mom, if I get home and don't want to eat right away. It's because all we do here is eat and to be honest, I'm more excited to be home because of the ability I will have to not eat if I don't want to.

Elder Ward

A man was on vacation in Hong Kong and ran into "4 very happy elders" at the Stanley Market. He said "They all appear to be healthy, well and having a good time together Christmas shopping for their families. We spoke for awhile and all enjoyed their missionary work. The only eye roll I saw was when I asked how the language was coming. 'It's hard but is getting better.' they say. My hats off to these young men and the work they do." Here's the picture he sent their families.





So what's been happening in Hong Kong these days? Brother Wong is good for his baptism on Sunday (Dec 19). Our new investigator Brother Ng is starting to recognize the spirit when we teach him and we have a couple of new investigators..life is good. Oh, and there is that Christmas eve phone call.
We've had a couple of funny finding experiences-first there was the man in the park who would rather play his harmonica and dance than listen to us talk about the gospel. Then there was the lady who was playing with a Chinese hacky sack, complete with feathers and gingles. We went up to talk with her and she kicked the hacky sack our way so we ended up playing for a few minutes, just in our suits, wearing our backpacks. We got her number though so that was good. I love Hong Kong. Everday I just get to walk around and meet new people and it's great.
It's been rainy and cold the last few days. Last night I had to sleep in my jeans because I didn't have any sweats and it was so cold. Humidity is kind of a killer - the heat is hotter and the cold is colder. Even so, I miss the snow!
I stayed in Kennedytown last moves and my new companion is Elder Lamb; he's from the St. George area. When we go out finding, we work pretty well together and we've been getting lots of phone numbers. We're both pretty tall and Elder Lamb is just an overall big human sooo maybe we've just been scaring people into giving us their numbers, but whatever works, right?
We're going to an all you can eat Mexican buffet to celebrate mine and Elder Wing's birthdays. Should be pretty fun and if I survive eating beans instead of rice, I'll tell you all about it next week.

Elder Stringham

Elder Stringham sent us a nice letter on December 13:
"... I'm doing great, I still have problems with dizziness but I received a blessing from Elder Zwick from the 70. It was way cool and he said I would be completely healed so I'm not too worried about it.
I love my mission and I love the gospel. Thanks for always putting up with us handing out in your house and eating all your food!" (ha ha)

Elder Litton's Christmas card

The big machine that's holding up the elders in the air is a giant Texas tractor.

Elder Aaron Johnson

i had the most amazing experience this week!! here it is:

Miracles are happening down in AZ! So last monday elder allred and i went over to pat and jerris house and taught them the last little bit of lesson 4. which consists of the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and things like that. ( i taught the law of chastity...fun stuff...even if they are an older couple) then we taught about the word of wisdom. they said that they drink coffee and that it is something that they both have been perscribed by their doctors. (my heart sunk at this point...i thought that they would hav to push back their baptisimal date). apparently jerri has been getting these migranes since she was 17 and the doctors have no idea what causes them or what medication to give her. she has tried all sorts of pills and the doctors found that a cup of coffee a day and some tylenol do the best job in subdueing the pain. then pat said that he found that coffee boosted his blood pressure the best out of anything. so when they heard that they couldn't drink coffee if at all possible they were pretty skeptical. we explained to them that it is a commandment that we are supposed to keep our bodies clean and free from addiction and shared with them 1st nephi 3;7 ( which says that the lord gives no commandments that we cannot accomplish). so they committed to give it a shot and stop drinking coffee. then we offered to give them priesthood blessings. elder allred gave jerri a priesthood blessing then i got to give pat a priesthood blessing (my first one!!!) i was nervous i will not lie. it wasn't the prettiest but i think it got the job done. but anyways after we did that we left their home. we planned to meet with them on thursday to see how it was coming. on thursday they told us that they have been off of coffee since monday and that jerri has had NO headaches whatsoever and pat went to the doctor on wednesday and has no more blood pressure problems!!!!!!!!!!! i couldnt believe it. we just wanted to jump and shout for joy right then and there. it was amazing!! the best part was on monday after we left their house and as we were biking home i said a prayer in my mind that everything would work out...and right then and there i got a spiritual witness that everything would work out and that they would be ready on Dec 18th. talk about an answer to a prayer!! such a testimony builder for me...if it werent for the lord none of this wouldve happened. crazy!!!