YEAH!! NEW EMAIL!!

I actually “chatted” with Richard a bit this week, since he was emailing at the same time I was online.  He was having trouble getting logged on to his LDS.ORG account (which apparently is what missionaries use for their email login), so I was able to help him.  We traded about six emails over an hour or so.  I suppose that counts as “really slow chat”, right :-) - Mark

     It feels good to be emailing from a Gmail app again. It really is so much neater. Anyways please, please, please make sure everyone hears about the change. It's pretty simple. It's funny that they didn't let me choose the name :P I would have made it shorter, but I'm happy nonetheless.

     So I'm emailing this week from the Sonoma Library Family History Center because it's President's Day! Happy Holiday. It always bugs me that all of these holidays fall on Mondays. It really messes up the emailing system we have. Anyways something funny to look think about is that since arriving to California I have been here for 2 transfers, lived in 3 apartments, and have had a total of 4 companions. Yep, I'm with the gringo Elders now. They're funny, but it's just weird to see how crazy some of these Elders can get. We actually made the switch yesterday, on Valentine's Day. The APs came and picked up Elder Grandela and I moved over to English's apartment. It's still weird getting used to it. The other apartment still feels like home.

     So Yeah, I'm sad to see Elder Grandela is gone, but I know that he will have a great impact on his home community because he's a great guy. He has taught me much from his example, and I will working hard to keep up the pace with the Spanish work here.

     We have Angeles Anguiano and Elizabeth Ramirez with baptismal dates for March 6th. Elder Grandela and I lost base with Elizabeth last week, so I'll be doing my best to call / contact her and continue on from where we left off so that she can prepare to make those covenants that will bring her closer to her Savior, Lord and Redeemer. Angeles I will be seeing tomorrow with one of the best Spanish Sisters in the ward. They are becoming great friends, and Angeles is getting more and more excited about the baptism as the time draws near. She was close to Elder Grandela, and was sad to see him leave as many people from the Sonoma area were, but I will do my best to teach strongly with the spirit so that she will be prepared to be baptized.

     This week was pretty slow compared to other weeks, we had a lot of people who dropped appointments, but still have an interest in meeting with us, so I'll be contacting them as soon as possible to help them to progress. Hopefully I'll be able to get in touch with Ares Perez who called us to apologize for not being at the lesson, and told us he wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon, and wants to come out to church. So I hope to be able to tell you more about him and his progress if I can get ahold on him this week. We have several people who are progressing, but are doing so in small steps. I plan to excite them with the spirit to come out to church, and as they come to church they will progress faster.

     One good thing about Elder Grandela leaving is now I'm having to be more dependant on the Spanish members to help come and teach with the lessons that I have set up. Fortunately they are happy, willing, and able to help me out. I feel good that I have a great support from the English Elders and the ward to help keep this the Lord's work moving. My Spanish has been blessed, since I'm alone, and cannot ask for support from the English Elders when we're walking around to contact people. I know that the Lord is with me, and that He has a great work for Sonoma. I hope things are going well in the other areas of the mission.

     So to answer a few questions about the last bike: it was from a member, Bro Newman. It was pretty good until the bike seat went haywire. I have a picture of how totally screwed up it got. I'll be buying a new one since it broke while I was riding it. In contrast the new bike is amazing!!! It takes halve as much work to go up the hills around here, but I'm still figuring out how to smoothly change the gears since it's a little different than bikes I've ridden in the past. I love it. Thank Keith for putting fenders on it, that will be useful when things get wet again. It's a great blessing. The bike came down with the English Elders new car, or rather Truck. Yep, a new truck that only had 35 miles on it. Ridiculous, I know. They pick us up sometimes so it's useful when we're biking and we all need to head somewhere. So I've mentioned my new English compies, but I haven't even mentioned their names yet :P my bad. They're Elder Bankhead and Elder Balagna (pronounced like lasagna and yes he's from an Italian family) Bankhead's a greenie from Utah and Elder Balagna has 6 months left and is from Illinois. They're great. I look forward to some fun times with them. I'll tell you more about them as I learn more. I've only been with them in their companionship for a half-day so far. We usually do emails around 10AM, but my emails to you guys are usually last and I don't usually have time for a back and forth email conversation. Congrats to Sam!! It's cool that she's found someone that she can spend the rest of her life and eternity with. :P I don't know if she'll send me anything, but still, way to go!

     Well that's all for this week, I love you all and I want you to know that I know that our Savior lives and that He's constantly looking out for us and ways for us to grow and become more like Him. I know that He loves each and everyone one of us and that He's always there to give us a hand when we are weak. I know that the Book of Mormon is the work of God for our day, and that ANYONE can read from them and learn something. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and He restored Christ's church as it was in His day, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

     Love your Missionary,

     Elder Richard Mackelprang

Pre Valentines Day

     Well first off, I haven't gotten anything from the kids yet... hopefully that's because the internet's being funky. So here's some of what's been happening so far.

     This Week has been amazingly fast. Elder Grandela and I have accomplished a lot of work and have committed 2 investigators to baptism! I'm really excited for them, they have sweet testimonies of these things, and I know that baptism will only help them come closer to their Savior in their journey back to his presence. My spanish has been improving greatly since I first began in Santa Rosa, and again here in Sonoma. I can understand just about everything that the Spanish people are saying, which is really good, but I still need to expand my vocabulary to be able to express myself and be able to talk and get to know the investigators on a deeper level. I'm sad to see Elder Grandela go. He's been a great teacher, and a diligent worker even though his trunkiness about going home has started to creep up on him.

     So a little bit about Elder Grandela: He's from Virginia Beach, Virginia and he's flying home next Monday, leaving me to take charge of the Spanish work here in Sonoma with the English Elders. Elder Grandela's funny, but knows when to be serious, and he's one of the most dedicated and sensible missionaries that I've met. He wants to go to BYU Provo, so I'll look him up when I go back. He has served in Sonoma before, so he's been a *BIG* help in establishing the foundation of the Spanish work since we were "whitewashing" the area. That's all I can think to say about him... He's cool and we get along well.

     I'm excited to keep the work moving on the Spanish people, and I know that the Lord will aid me as I give more of my all to the work.
There are lots of people here as well who are ready to move forward, even if they don't feel prepared as of yet. It's just a matter of building up their confidence in themselves and their relationship with the Lord.

     If they only understood the blessings that come as we just take that step forward then I think they would not hesitate as many do. I will work and pray to be able to help them through their doubts with the Holy Ghost and the things that they need to hear.

     I have also found little by little by reading the Scriptures in Spanish I understand things on a more simple, and yet sometimes deeper level than what I have always read in English. Since it takes a little more time to read the Spanish on the page and read it as English in your mind, you see more and more connections between the stories, and the principles that the Prophets teach us.

     I am excited to serve with Elder Balagna and Elder Bankhead (English Elders), and I hope to be able to teach with them to the Spanish members and work on my translating ability from English to Spanish. For some reason it's a little more difficult for me to go to English to Spanish than from Spanish to English, probably because I've worked on understanding everything in Spanish as it would be in English. Now I get to start working the other way around.

     Elder Grandela and I have started asking soul searching questions to the Spanish people on the street, but it hasn't been working that well. They get uncomfortable and say "I don't know" to everything. I guess they are still kind of paranoid of people in suits since many of them are living here illegally. I can't judge them, but I wish there was something more I could do to share with them the spirit of our message in the short time we have to contact them. Usually afterwards we give them a card and they say thank you and leave.

     We are working on starting the new "Daily Dose" English program here in Sonoma so that we can start teaching people in their houses and find lots of people and try to build off a different base and share the Gospel with them. We have some appointments for these English classes this week, so we'll see how that will help in our finding.

     THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! I'm appreciative for a good and new bike! The one I have now is functional, but it's 5th gear is whacked and the seat can be rather uncomfortable, but I've worked with it. I should be able to pick up the bike from the office when we drop Elder Grandela off this Sunday. ^^ Just a quick thing, I did purchase my own helmet, bike lock, and lights last Monday, because we had to return those to the missionary that left them 2 weeks ago at Zone Conference. So Hopefully Aunt Marsha can get the lock and/ or helmet if she bought them and return them, but again THANK YOU!!

     I loved your package, maybe you guys could send some Capt'n Crunch or Cracklin Oat Bran, that would be cool.

     Your Son and Brother,

     Elder Mack

This week: February!

Richard’s email took over 24 hours to arrive here this week.  I’m not sure what’s going on with it, but from below it sounds like the Santa Rosa Mission is converting to GMail.  Hopefully that will be the case…

This is Richard’s note to President Bunker:

     I loved Zone conference this week! I particularly felt strongly about the area book that Elders Hubbard and Nielson taught us about. It's really true that the area book is a way that we 'return and report' to the Lord and help future missionaries that will serve in our area. I reminded me of an experience that I've had since being here in Sonoma. The house that I'm in has been without a can opener for some time. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until after we had bought our groceries the day after transfers. So I returned to the cave man method of 'rocks and sharp sticks.' (I used a mug and a butter knife to open my cans.) This usually took 7 minutes, whereas if I had had a can opener it would have taken 30 seconds. I realized that when we don't update our area book like we should, then we are not keeping the tools or in this case the can opener sharp. I will concentrate on doing my part to keep the area books of my area in good working order for the Lord, for our investigators, and for the future missionaries who will serve there.

     Our investigators have been doing well. We've been meeting with a lot of less actives and investigators this week. One of the most amazing things that happened this week though was that we got 12 referrals from ONE member. Brother Moreno is amazing, he was baptized in 2006 and he's working with the stake presidency, and is one of the strongest Spanish members out here in Sonoma. Elder Grandela and I will be working with him a lot to meet his friends and teach them. We have already set up many lessons and opportunities to meet with them this week! I'm excited!! Lourdes Ceja is one of our fastest progressing investigators, and she is being fellowshipped by Sis. Garcia who is another one of the Sonoma's star Spanish members. Seeing the strength and heart of these members is very humbling, and is very exciting, because they are very happy and willing to help us share the Gospel! Lourdes is an old contact that Elder Grandela had that he thought had died of cancer, but they were never able to make sure that that was the case. She was one of those people who had a record, but weren't in the area book due to someone's misjudgment. So Elder Grandela was overjoyed to find her, and see that she had still been reading the Book of Mormon, even though no one had come to visit her for a year and a half. We will be getting her to church and inviting her to set a baptismal date soon!

     Also this week, since I had to return the bike helmet that Elder Coburn had left, Elder Grandela and I have been on-foot for the latter half of this week. It's been good to be able to talk to people on the street, and make those 10 contacts a day really easy. The only thing that I dislike about walking is that it greatly limits what we can accomplish during the day, because we can't cover as much area as on bike, or car. Fortunately, I was able to get the few things that we needed to get back on bikes for this week. So we'll get rolling!
I have thought a lot, and pondered more deeply about my relationship with the Savior. I'm grateful to be out here and share this message with the people of Sonoma, and I do everything I can to be ready for when I'm carrying the Spanish work solo with the English elders for two weeks. I will live up to the trust and confidence that the Lord has placed in me.

     Your Missionary,

     Elder Mackelprang

:P This week has been crazy with computers in Sonoma being whacky again! I promise that there will be a funny story next week!! Please send me my LDS account info too, we're upgrading to the Gmail, but it's giving me trouble. I love you all! (PS send me an email next week!!)

*Whew* This Week

     SORRY!!! Last week was a national holiday, and none of the missionaries in Santa Rosa were prepared to go to a members house until it was too late to do so. We had to go out with the Greenies that came in last week at 2:30 and we didn't hear about going to a members house until 1:00. We were dirty and sweaty and I still needed to give myself a haircut. Needless to say last week was ridiculous.

     Transfer day was just as crazy since my companion Elder Grandela finished his mission last Wednesday and is extending for 4 weeks to serve a little extra. So he went to the farewell dinner while I hung out with Elder Abbot (yes from the Abbot family in our stake) and Elder Busch from my BYU days. It was fun, but I felt out of place and was shuffled aroudn between companionships all day long. Yeah, there's too many things that I could say that happened, but not enough time to say what happened. Regarding mail, Elder Knowles graciously promised me that he'd find a way to forward any mail that goes to the Santa Rosa address. and for everyone here's my new address:

     888 Verano Ave
     Sonoma, CA 95476

 

     Blurb (of my letter to the mission president):
Elder Grandela and I have only really worked from Wednesday to Sunday of this week, because the festivities with the missionaries going home. I felt like  a third wheel between all of the companionships that passed me around until Elder Grandela came back that evening. It was nice to get to know the area though.

     We never got around to making goals since we started so late in the week, so we started to get to know all of the members and start visiting all of the old contacts that we have. It was sad that we found as many records scattered in random places in the apartment as in the area book itself. I would not have them if it wasn’t for Elder Grandela. This week we have found quite a few people through the members and through tracting that we are very excited to get to work with. The first is Elizabeth Ramerez who was referred to us by Sis. Perez. We taught Elizabeth in Sis. Perez’s home and it was a sweet lesson. Sis Perez bore strong testimony of the things we taught and how it blessed her life. We also found a family by tracting, Miguel and Evalia. We had an appointment pretty soon afterward so we taught a quick short and powerful lesson about the Restoration. We hope to figure out more where they’re at this coming week.

     Sorry that this letter isn’t so well organized, the connection is really slow and not working so good this week. I hope it improves this coming week. Things are going good out here, and I’m learning a lot from Elder Grandela, and I’m sad to see him go before this transfer ends, but he’s served his time, and has other missions to fulfill in his life.

     Your Missionary,

     Elder Mackelprang

     PS: I promise to get some funny stories out next week about biking and crazy people that I've run into... remind me to tell you about the guy who saw 7 different virgins in dreams and about other experiences. Like i said I'm out of time and I can't really write more because of the library limit :P

     I read the other emails and I'll write a quick couple of letters to answer your questions from your emails last week
I love you all! Keep up the faith!

Elder Richard Mackelprang

Transfer to Sonoma

     We didn’t receive any email from Elder Mackelprang this week, so we assumed it was either because of the holiday last Monday or because of a transfer.  It turns out to be the latter.  Here’s an email we received from Sis. Smith from Sonoma who fed Richard and some other missionaries last night:

 

Hi Parents,

     My name is Amber Smith and I'm a member of the church here in Sonoma. Your son just had dinner with us in our home tonight.  I thought I 'd email you as he didn't  know if you knew that he had been transferred here.  We're a small town tucked away in a beautiful valley with vineyards all around us.  It looks just like Tuscany.

     We enjoyed having your son over , as well as the other 3 missionaries.  It's a joy to feed them, a pleasure and an honor as we have had 3 boys go out on missions and I would wish someone would do the favor for them. He seems very pleasant and content to be on a mission.  Maybe a little homesick, especially when I told him that I was born and raised in Arizona.  He began to open up about where you both came from and wanted me to email you to see if we knew each other.  I doubt it, as I'm about 7 or 8 years older, but you may know my relatives.(younger cousins)  I was raised visiting Fredonia every summer with my Aunt Tezza and Uncle Dwayne Judd. They have a daughter, Charlyn Linton that still lives in Kanab with her husband and family.  He's a chiropractor, I believe.  Our family is huge, as my Dad came from 13.  We have close to a thousand relatives from my Grandparents, Logan and Mary(Hatch) Brimhall.  My Dad, Vaughn, was raised in Taylor and I guess one of you were raised in Woodruff.  We drive by the turn off to Woodruff every year when we drive from Winslow (where my Mom lives and I was raised) to our ranch in Pinedale, by Snowflake.(with a beautiful temple)  Small world.

     The ward here is good about feeding the missionaries regularly.  Our sons went to countries that  didn't do that much, but they survived and have been so blessed because of their service, as well as us. We had 6 kids and still have one at home. Soon to leave and go to cosmetology school in Provo this summer with a friend that is taking the missionary lessons.

     If you have any questions or anything, let me know.  I'll let your son know that I emailed you.

     Take Care,

     Amber Brimhall Smith

 

     Sonoma is about 25 miles away from Santa Rosa (Richard’s last area).  You can see the location on the map on the blog page.  Thank you SIs. Smith for feeding our son!

Jan 11 2010

Hello Family!

     Here's my highlights about my investigators this week.

     We’ve had good success with finding new investigators this week. The 4 people are Jose Tamayo, Luis, and Cecilia and Victor Buenrostro. Jose had a friend named Arturo who told him to come to church, and he has been coming to church for a few weeks now, but we haven’t been able to meet with him until this week. He’s a really intelligent man, and a keen student of the bible and the scriptures. I sat next to him during Sacrament meeting yesterday, and he was asking me about Alma and who he was and his story, and I gave a quick history behind Alma the elder and a little bit about alma the younger and showed him where he could read the conversion story of Alma the Younger. He read the entire chapter, and some of the chapters that were referenced during the talks during sacrament meeting 1 Nephi 11, and others. He’s someone who is prepared to be baptized really soon.

     Luis is a young man who is very inquisitive. He’s interested in learning about what everyone believes, but I’m not sure how deep his interest really is. If he follows through with the commitments I trust that the Holy Ghost will bear witness to him of the truthfulness of the Restoration. We’ll see if he follows through.

     Cecilia and Victor are a married couple (I’m sad to say that legal marriage is a rarity in many cases in the Latino culture here, so I’m excited when we meet people who are in truth married.), and they are searching for the truth for themselves (Elder Knowles and I were way excited to hear this, people who are searching are people who will usually follow through). We shared about the restoration with them, and they seemed to like and committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. The only thing that might hamper them is that they drink coffee, but when they receive the testimony by the Holy Ghost that shouldn’t hamper them at all.

     Roberto and Paulina Perez are progressing, and we committed them to prepare for baptism when they receive their answer, so we’re excited and working hard with them. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation, and ended up talking about temples and how we can be in eternal families. I was hoping to invite them to come to the visitors center at the Oakland temple when we go this Wednesday, but they both have jobs during the week.

     We’re going to be teaching the Hernandez family about marriage, and it’s divine nature, because Isabel Hernandez has doubts about why you need a legal paper saying that you’re married. They are wonderful people and fact that they aren’t married is the one thing that is holding Daniel and Isabel from being baptized. We’re bringing Bro. Ruellas to the lesson to support us and testify of marriage.

 

Comments About Dad’s Email
     Sorry to hear about all of the house problems, but better now than later when it would be worse.

     About finals, girls, stressing about how hard they are and how unprepared you are for them is detrimental. Focus on studying, and remain calm. Stress will only wear you out faster, and will not help with your studying.

     I'm amazed that Joshua will be going to Buy Scout Camp this summer! Wow! It seems like yesterday that I was playing capture the flag with Greg, Erik, John, Ben, and the rest of the guys. You'll have lots of fun Josh! Watch out for the mosquitoes though.

     I talked to Leah about BYUI during our Christmas talk, but I kept telling her to look at BYU as well. Look at all of the options, benefits, and such of each college before you make too many plans.

     Alma is a cool book! It's one of my favorite in the Book of Mormon, and the funny thing is that in Spanish alma is the word for 'soul'. both literally and figuratively alma is the soul of the book of Mormon and has many many pieces of doctrine that we can pull from it, but I'm running out of time to talk a lot about it today... :P Read it for yourselves and think about it.

To answer your questions:

1. (How has the weather been treating you?) The weather is cloudy/ moist / foggy/ cool, in other words nothing uncomfortable.
2. (Do you often get invitations to members homes for dinner?) We ate at Bro Johnson's yesterday, we had smoked pork BBQ with salad and potatoes. It was good! The food calendar fluctuates between dinners every night, to none at all. It's a funny pattern.
3. (Any news on the need for a bike?) Yes, I do need a bike, I'll be trying to get it in the next few weeks.
4. (When does your branch have Stake Conference?) I'm not sure when it is.
5. (Do you ever drive, or is your comp always the driver?) There are designated drivers for the entire transfer, so I haven't driven yet since I'm new.
6. (Do you have any questions for John, Andrew, Greg, etc. that you'd like me to pass on?) - How is John in Mesa? Can I get his address? Apologize to Andrew for me about the confusion with the emails :( I wish I could email him too. and if you would remind me of the Everett's address so that I can put it in my address book.
7. (Any specific food items you'd like in your next package (Pizza kit, cookie mix, etc.)?) - Cookie mixes sound great! I like the nuts and jerky as well. Hold back on the toyish stuff.

Your missionary,
Elder Mackelprang

     P.S. We're going to the temple this Wednesday!!! in Oakland!! Lots of pictures will be taken.

     P.P.S. Letters will be a few days late since Wednesday will be our actual P-day. Today was just for necessities. Love you all! Later!

This Week: 2010!

Hello my family!

     Thanks for all of your emails! It's great to be able to read from all of you since I still don't get much mail at my apartment yet. Speaking of which I should still be there for this next transfer so those of you wanting to send me mail go ahead and send it to my Stony Point address. Ask my parents for more details. So my blurb about this week (note that this an excerpt from my letter to President Bunker):

     This past week has been interesting and still a little slow because of all of the holidays. We’ve taught Jose Alverado, Roberto and Paulina (his wife) Peres, and Margarito and Cristina Hernandez this week. Or other appointments dropped because they found work or jobs, or something to that effect. Our fastest progressing investigators are Margarito and Cristina. We were going to extend a baptismal date to both of them at our last appointment, but Cristina wasn’t there and it didn’t feel like the time was yet right to do so. We hope to teach them when they are both there together to help them with their small concerns and help them get baptized and come unto Christ.

     Roberto and Paulina are our next best investigators that we’ve taught this week. Paulina is a new investigator, but she was really interested when we talked about the Restoration, and is one of the few people that we’ve taught that seems to understand the significance of what this Restoration means to the world. We committed them to read the Book of Mormon and they said they would pray about it. I’m excited to see how they progress.

     Jose Alverado is dropping from his higher standing as one of our better investigators because he’s having trouble keeping his appointments with us. When we see him next we will give him a kind warning if it continues that we’ll have to wait until he feels like we’re important enough to make time to meet with us, and actually keep the appointment. Jose is still almost there, he doesn’t feel worthy or ready for baptism, and we’ve been trying to bring am investigator to all of our past appointments to him, but he has let us down and has been busy doing something else.

     Personally, I’ve been doing great! I took your words to heart when you told me to step it up and be prepared to train another missionary after next transfer if it be necessary. I will not let you or the Lord down, President. I’ve been studying in the D&C during the past week, and all of the promises, and prophecies that are found there. I’m also trying to find ways to focus my personal studies to help me teach and understand the basic principles and doctrines so that I may help people understand when they ask me questions. I’ll update you on how that goal progresses in my next letter. I’m really happy to be here, and to be able to serve. I know that the Lord is blessing my family, and that He’s blessing me too, in more ways than I can see. I will keep strive to work as hard as I can and be a great instrument in the hands of the Lord.

<<End Mission President Note>>

As pertaining to your questions Dad:
- We exercise 5 days out of the week
- We have personal and companionship studies from 8AM until 11AM most days except for Sunday, Monday (P-day), and Wednesday (when we do service)
- If you want to send me audio, a CD would probably be best, since we have cars, my companion will have to listen to it with me anyways…
- Your packages have been wonderful, and I've enjoyed the pretty healthy snacks, but try to avoid sending too many toy-ish stuff President hates that.
- No I have not used the plastic cockroaches you've sent me yet. I probably wont unless someone is really bugging me. No pun intended.

I wish you well. This Church is the Restored church that Christ established during His life on this Earth, and like it was then it is led by a true prophet of God, Thomas S. Monson, and by apostles who lead us and guide us in these troublesome times. I actually realized something from the story of Christ talking to the people of Israel is so much like what we're doing today. We have more light which we want to share with everyone, but everyone else clings to what they already have saying "it is enough", just like the Jews were saying that it was all about the Law of Moses, many people here say it's all about the Bible. The Bible is true and a great book, so far as it is translated correctly! The Book of Mormon helps us understand what was lost during the great apostasy and not be lost in the confusion left over from the apostasy. That is the sweetness of this Restoration! Christ is with us, and we shall walk forward nobly and boldly declaring His words of repentance and baptism. I know that my Savior lives, and loves all. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Your Missionary,

Elder Richard Mackelprang