Week 78: New Year!

Hello!

I hope you all had a great Christmas! I sure did!

Some Stud moments from the week:

I got to talk to my fam!! They had a great year

I decided that my favorite food is shredded chicken enchiladas

We re-arranged the apartment, made it into a total man cave :)

We got to see a movie!! It was awesome. 

We had a great turnout at church, it's good to see people come even when it's not Christmas

For district meeting we were tasked by our mission president to spend the time serving. We did that by ripping up a porch and moving tons of cinderblocks!! It was the best :)

Elder Coleman and I are making daily, weekly, and monthly goals and we are going to add goals as we achieve the goals we have set previous. We are going to rock 2019!!

We are really putting the pedal to the metal here in Stockton!!

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Eliason

 Merry Christmas!

 Elders Eliason and McMaster

 The Man Cave

An Old Home

Week 77: Merry Christmas

Howdy!

I hope y'all are warm and with loved ones this Christmas. It's a wonderful time of year!!

I have had a good couple of weeks. I've been pretty tired, but it's worth it. We are teaching and testifying and loving life!! 

I read President Nelson's Christmas Devotional address and it talked about 4 gifts that Christ gives us that we must DESIRE to receive. 

They are as follows:

1. An unlimited capacity to love.

2. The ability to forgive.

3. Repentance.

4. The promise of life everlasting. 

I pondered on these gifts, and if my desires are to really accept these gifts and strive to be worthy of them. I encourage all of you to do the same!! I know that Christ wants us to grow a relationship with Him. 

I love you all, and have a very merry Christmas!

Elder Eliason

Food that a member gave us!!

Week 76: Multi-Zone Conference

No letter this week, but here are some photos from a multi-zone conference. Can you find him?

 Right above the head of the Elder on the front right, both have blue shirts.

 Third in from the right on the back row.

Yep, right there in front.

Week 75: Weekly

Hey y'all!!

I've had a lot of fun this week!

We have been keeping ourselves busy, and it's paying off!! We have tons of service planned for this week, service is one of my favorite things. I think that service is super great both for finding people to teach and showing that we will work hard. It's always fun :)

We had some really good times where members took us to see people that they are working with, it led to some good gospel conversations! The members here are awesome. 

For light the world, we are starting to volunteer weekly at a local food pantry/thrift shop. 

Not much other than that for the last 4 days :)

I love y'all!!

Elder Eliason

 Transfer Buddies

Cool Sunset

Week 74: Transfer week :)

Hey y'all! 

I'm staying in Stockton for another 6 weeks, and I'm getting Elder Coleman. I served near him towards the beginning of his mission, and I haven't seen him for about a year, so it will be good to see the person he is now compared to a year ago!!

We had lots of good experiences this week. Everyone is sad that Elder Haines is leaving, including me :(

We were able to do lots of service this week, and share Light the World with lots of people.

One thought I had this week is that laughter is infectious. When someone is happy and joyous others join in the mood. Light is the same way. When one person shows light, others receive that light, and in turn, are enlightened. Christ is the Light of the World, and as we share His light, His acts of service and His love for all mankind, we Light the World.

I love all y'all!!

Elder Eliason

 Our Christmas tree 

 Cool sunbeams  

 Stockton Lake

A wonderful recent convert family here in Stockton :-) 

Week 73: Thanksgiving

Hey Y'all!!

This week has been really good. We were out of our area most of the week, but still managed to eat tons of food on thanksgiving and get super drowsy.  It was super nice on thanksgiving, mid 60s and sunny!! Last night was wet snow and mid 20s. We are working on getting Light the World out into the community, having some quality conversations with those around us, and sharing the Light of Christ. A scripture that goes along with the Light the World campaign is 3 Nephi 18:24. Check it out!

I hope you all have a great week, and remember to do some service this Saturday ;)

Love,

Elder Eliason

  

 Pie

 Plymouth Roadrunner

Elder Haines

Week 72: Re: Weekly

Hello y'all!!

I have had a purty good week this week.

We were down in Bentonville a couple of days for a big missionary conference and a meeting. It was good to reconnect with some people I have served around/with previously.  Elder Koplischke of the Seventy was there, he gave some magnificent remarks.  It was really enlightening. 

One thing I really loved about what he said was that church can be a truly revelatory experience. As we come in a preparation to receive that portion of the Word meted unto us at that time, we can receive the inspiration that the Lord wants us to receive for that week.  We can really receive answers to our questions at church.  

As the Body of Christ, we can join together to help one another temporally and spiritually. 

Some people say you don't need church, but I know that it is a necessity!! It's not the building, it's the organization, the people, the Priesthood, and most importantly, it's what our Heavenly Father has asked us to be a part of and contribute to.

It snowed a lot, got down to 10 degrees on Wednesday... brrrr!!

We are going to be busy busy this next week, and I'm loving being a missionary!! I am learning so much and growing lots too. It's amazing to reflect on who I was when I started my mission, and see the leaps and bounds I have made in my character.

Well, I love y'all!

Keep up serving others, and have a great Thanksgiving wherever you are!!

Love,

Elder Eliason

 Brrrr!

 Crisp Morning

 Elder Williams and Elder Eliason

Elder McMaster, Elder Eliason and Elder Haines

 Elder Eliason, Elder McMaster and Elder Haines

 Elder Eliason and Elder McMaster 

all the peeps- a Book of Mormon experiment at the Joplin mall

Week 71: Winter is coming❄

This week was spectacular! 

Super cold but we have been on bikes the last couple days.  We are working on finding the people who have slipped through the cracks lately. We were able to find a whole family that lost contact with the missionaries when they moved from California to a house here in the middle of nowhere.  We found it and talked to them. We are going over this friday! It will be a good opportunity to involve people in this ward.  They really want to do missionary work.

It's snowing today, I am not too excited for tomorrow morning when all of the slush turns to ice haha. But it's pretty now.  It gets bitterly cold here, but with bikes we stay pretty warm once we get going. And have earmuffs. Without those it would feel like a piece of ice grating across your ear as you ride against the wind. Not fun!
But anyways, this week has been really good and this next week is shaping up to be stellar!!

We have a 6 zone zone conference, so probably about 100 missionaries out of 170.  It will be good to see some friends that I haven't seen for a while.  

One message we have been sharing with members focuses on Alma 6:6. When we gather together, as the body of Christ, in prayer and mighty fasting "in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who [know] not God."

Who do you know who is only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it?

What can you do this week to help them grow closer to the truth, to prepare the soil for the planting of the seed of faith? Do you need to clear the land? Discard the rocks? Fertilize the soil? There is a small and simple thing that we can all do to help those around us!!

So... in the words of my favorite member of the LaBeouf family, JUST DO IT!!

Love,

Elder Eliason

 Elders Swensen, Wheeler, Plummer, and me

 Snow

 Me and Elder Haines

 Panorama of a cool place we found while biking

Sunset on bikes

Week 70: Weekly Email From Ya Elder

This week was super good! A bit chilly but lots of work and fun.

We did lots of service, moving boxes, splitting wood, splitting more wood, etc. We had to drive and drive and drive Tuesday and Wednesday, meetings :(

We don't have a big teaching pool here, but we are focusing on finding through the members.  Our mission president also committed the whole mission to have 22 quality conversations with nonmembers, where we get to know their name, extend a commitment, and have a meaningful exchange. It's going to be a bit of a struggle balancing those two, plus exchanges, service, and lessons. But it will all work out, like it has 100% of the time every day before today :)

It's supposed to snow on Thursday here, that will be exciting!! I love snow, not so keen on biking or tracting in it haha.

Well, I hope y'all have a great week this week!

Love,

Elder Eliason

 Fall Leaves

 Landscape with Cows

 Landscape with Cow "dots"

 Landscape and Road

Landscape

Week 69: Stockton is Dope!

Hey y'all! 

This week has been absolutely fantastic!! Stockton is an interesting area. The main city only has about 1800 people in it, but the ward has about 200 active members! It's awesome because lots of the members out here know everyone, and they always know someone we can go visit or something that the missionaries were doing in the past that we can pick up doing again. 

There's this section of the area called "the ranch," with a whole bunch of polygamists. It's sorta weird because they believe in Joseph Smith, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Book of Mormon, but polygamy and divine priesthood authority is what separates them from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We had a member refer us to go visit his brother, who is practicing polygamy. It was really odd because it's like teaching a member... but not!!!! 

My companion, Elder Haines, and I think that Stockton is about to explode with the Work!! It seems like it has all of the necessary ingredients (and more) to bring a lot of people to Christ. I honestly wouldn't mind serving the rest of my mission here! It really is a great place. 

We do lots of service here. We helped this guy feed his chickens and move the cages around, just some backwoods hobby for him. We volunteer at a local senior center washing dishes, bring some music and dance around and work! All of the old people love "their boys." 

We had the ward Halloween party and primary program at church this last week, it was really good for me to be able to meet all of the members. There are about 3 families that have tons of members in this ward. I get confused so easily! This ward is the best! 

Well, good luck to y'all this week, have a good time!

Love,

Elder Eliason

 Elders Eliason and Eggleston

 Fall

 Fall 

 and Fall

 and more Fall

 Webb City, MO

Elders Haines and Eliason

Week 68: Transfer Week

Hey y'all!!

This week has been killer!! We have been able to get lots of work done and teach lots of lessons. We were able to help at the Baptist dinner again, as well as cut and split wood, pick up TONS of hedge apples (osage oranges), take down a TV antenna, volunteered at a food pantry bagging cans and bags of noodles for a big commodity giveaway.  It is a great opportunity to show people that we are just here to help like Christ did. 

I'm moving to Stockton, Missouri, population 1800 and something haha! I hope it will be a great area, and it will be a good experience.  I've heard that there are lots of polygamists there, so it will be interesting!

I'm sad to leave Parsons, it's been a good time with some really good people. It's felt really good to work in a really small branch, hard at times, but good.  I have really felt like I am an instrument in the Lord's hands these last 6 months.  It's been hard to say goodbye, but it will be a cool experience wherever the Lord sends me.

Sorry  I don't have more to talk about.  I will have more next week!! 

Love y'all!

Elder Eliason

PS My new address is:

1214 S Blake St. Apt 13 

Stockton, MO 65785

 We carved pumpkins after district meeting this week. Ours is the guy from nightmare before Christmas.

 We had a competition and ours won, of course ;)

Week 67: Weekly ;)

This week was fantastic!!! We worked hard and got lots done. It's definitely cooling off!! This morning we got out of the apartment and it was 35 degrees with 85% humidity. And wind. I've heard that this winter is going to be a long one! 

I can't believe it's already the middle of October!! I'm still trying to figure out where March went :) 

One quote that has kept me going at rough points on my mission is "Don't count the days, make the days count." I feel like if I can just make every day count, then it won't matter what anyone else thinks, because I know, and the Lord knows, that I did my best, no matter how many days or weeks or years it takes me to become what the Lord wants me to become. 

Welp, I love y'all! 

Elder Eliason

 

 Exploring

 "Montana" - a township in Labette County, KS

Sunset

Week 66: Service for the Win

This week was fantastic!! We did lots :)

Tons of service this week:

Tuesday dug some fence post holes for the elders quorum president and primary president.  

Also on Tuesday we started the "Stop Smoking Workshop" with a man we are teaching.  I was pretty excited to see what would happen, we sometimes move furniture for him before or after a lesson, it seems like cigarettes fall out of everything haha.  They were EVERYWHERE!!

But when we taught him about the workshop, he understood it and committed to follow all 15 steps, most of which fall under 3 categories: stopping the cravings, filling the body with wholesome things, and, most important, involving our Heavenly Father.  This system is what can help us "put off the natural man."  We need to stop the bad, replace it with the good, and involve the Lord and rely on Him and His grace.  That is the pattern to become a Saint through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

General Conference was amazing as always!! We are so blessed to receive direction every six months from a Prophet of God to the world.  

We also served food at the local First Baptist Church in town. They serve a hot meal every Thursday at 5:00 sharp.  It was good to rub shoulders with people of all different faiths.  I was serving this pasta stuff next to a lady from that Baptist church, and it was wonderful to talk for an hour plus!! She asked lots of questions about our beliefs, our missions, and my family.  Service is wonderful! A lady from our congregation came to that dinner, and her daughter in law needed help that evening moving!! So we were able to help her as well. 

Also, I believe the best service I was able to render to people this week was teaching the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That is the service that really helps others.  Without the Restored Gospel, I would be lost, afraid, and confused.  How grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who honors his promises, blesses us with Prophets and Apostles, and covenants with us for our benefit!!  He truly is wonderful.

Love,

Elder Eliason

Praying mantis

                                      Elder Johnson schooling up some children on the blacktop