Email 9-28-2015

Hello everyone.

Sorry I haven't written much lately!  Always have very
little time and so much to do.

It's been great here though. We found
four new investigators this week and Efe got baptized! She asked me to baptize her so that was pretty awesome.  Two of our new investigators came to the baptism then stayed afterwards for the whole women's general broadcast.  One of them has a boyfriend that is a missionary and a brother that's a member.  Then her boyfriend's mom showed up to our branch for branch conference yesterday.  We got her boyfriend's email and brother's number to talk to them.  Pretty sweet.

We had Efe teach us the restoration yesterday and her understanding is so good. She's going to come with us to teach the new investigators Wednesday. This is week 6 of the transfer so I could get transferred but I'm like 96% sure I'm staying.  I got a pretty solid assurance from elder Chilton, the assistant to the mission president and my mission grandpa that I'm staying.  Mission life is hard but great.  Anyways I miss and love you all and hope you have a great week.  I have to run errands
but hopefully I'll be able to email some afterwards.

Elder Alarid
Full-time Missionary
New Hampshire, Manchester Mission
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

New Hampshire

Elder Johnson at the thrift shop

Email 8-15-2015

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all doing well.  I know today's not Monday but because we went to the temple today, we had to switch our preparation day.  So you won't be hearing from me this coming Monday.  That's ok though.  I'll jump into my week now.

Monday was preparation day.  Good times.  We had dinner at the Felch's but it was family home evening so they had a lesson prepared so we didn't share any message.  Then we went on exchanges with the Wolfeboro Elders.  I went to Wolfeboro with Elder Redford.  Elder Johnson was with Elder Nelson in Plymouth.

Tuesday was alright, Elder Redford was sick so we pretty much stayed in the apartment.  I just studied like all day.  I've been studying a book called Jesus the Christ which is kind of a biography of Christ's life.  It explains a lot and goes pretty deep into some things.  I am really enjoying it.  I read like 100 pages of it Tuesday.

Wednesday was pretty good.  We had district meeting and exchanged back with our companions.  We spent the day in Meredith.  We tracted into a guy named Noah who was really interested.  We taught him the restoration. We're going to meet with him again on Monday.  We had dinner with the Tremblays and tried to help them figure out how to do family history for temple work with little success.

Thursday we had exchanges with the missionaries who are the assistants to the mission president.  Their names are Elder Aldous and Elder Chilton.  Elder Chilton was Elder Johnson's trainer so they went together.  I was with Elder Aldous.  We just split up in Plymouth.  We went and did service at the community meal.  Then we mostly tracted a lot.  Most of the people we planned to see fell through.  We met with Brother Mitchell, the former member.  We were talking with him about the "spark" he felt when first joined the church.  He said it was strong and he shared an experience of when he was preparing to be baptized he had to quit drinking and smoking and he was really struggling.  One day he said a prayer and just like that he no longer had that desire to do those things it had just disappeared.  Pretty cool and crazy.  The assistants stayed the night that night.  We stayed up till like 1:30 just laying in bed all talking.

Friday was fairly uneventful.  We did service at the thrift shop.  We did a bunch of tracting.  We had dinner at the Cases.  And afterwards we went to see the Tremblays and try to help them with their family history again. We got them each one name to take the temple.

Today we woke up at 05:00.  We went to the Boston temple with Brother and Sister Tremblay.  We met some other branch members there.  We went and did baptisms.  We did confirmations because that's all we're allowed to do.  It was way cool though.  It's a pretty temple.  We had a good time and the spirit was really strong.  It was Sister Tremblay's first time and brother Tremblay's first in a long time.

Anyways that's my week so far.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I love and miss you all.

Love,
Elder Alarid

Pics 8-3-2015

Elder Johnson thought this said "Snuggler's Cove" and was real excited.

Email 8-3-2015

Happy Prep-Day friends and family!  How are you all doing?  Everything's going well here.  Had a pretty cool week.  Today I won't have as much time to watch email because we are going to the polar caves which are I guess caves that are icey all year long.  I'll try and send some pics if I get back early enough.  I miss you all and hope you are doing well.  I'll jump into my week now.

Monday was P-Day.  I had some real good email time.  I got an awesome package in the mail.  Packages are the best.  Mail in general really.  We were out of miles for the month so we were walking.  And it's way hot and humid so not fun.  Gotta get some short sleeve shirts.  Good day though.

Tuesday was good.  Just walked like crazy.  We met a real nice guy named Steve whose son is LDS and lives in San Diego.  We had a dinner appointment with Brother Mitchell and he had requested that we review and discuss the articles of faith so he can teach them to his daughter in law.  The articles of faith are the 13 core beliefs that make up our church.

They are:
1 We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

2 We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

3 We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

4 We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

5 We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

6 We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

7 We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

8 We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

9 We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

10 We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

13 We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul--We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

If you have any questions about any of these, feel free to ask me in an email.  After dinner we had the Book of Mormon class and then ice cream after with the class attendees.

Wednesday was solid. We had district meeting in the morning and the two missionary assistants to the mission president were there.  One of them is Elder Chilton, Elder Johnson's trainer.  They're pretty cool. We went to visit our good friend brother MacPherson and got to teach him AND his wife for the first time since I've been here so that was cool.

Thursday was decent.  We did service at the community meal.  Then we tracted in Rumney FOREVER.  And it poured the entire time.  We had a dinner appointment at the Cases and committed them and another sister that was there to give out a Book of Mormon to someone so that was cool.

Friday was pretty cool.  We had a really good lesson with potential investigator named Alexander and his friend Clarity.  We taught about the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ.  It went awesome.  He prayed at the end and we gave both of them copies of the Book of Mormon.  We had service at the thrift shop.  We had dinner with the Tremblays, they're always tons of fun.

Saturday we just basically did service.  For like 10 hours.  First we helped the Branch a Presidents son with his Eagle Scout project.  Just digging holes mostly for us.  Which is more complicated than it sounds here because the soil is like 90% giant rocks.  After that we helped some people move which didn't really go well.  We got there at 10 and that's when they said they would have the truck there.  They weren't organized or ready and the truck didn't get there til like 12:30.  They live in a trailer with 14 cats...

Sunday was awesome.  15 minutes before church I felt like we should go see brother Mitchell and check on him and wake him up if necessary.  We did wake him up but he said he was too tired and he wasn't coming.  You could see that he felt bad because we went out of our way to come see him.  10 minutes into church he walked in.  So that was awesome.  I didn't think he was going to come.  Then BOTH Tremblays bore their testimony.  Brother Tremblay got the Melchizedek Priesthood today, or the higher priesthood, (let me know if you have any questions about the priesthood) and in his testimony he said he was psyched because he would be able to cast out demons and he was pretty sure there was one in his 2 year old son.  I don't think I've ever heard so much laughter in church before.  His son is way crazy and rowdy in church so everybody totally felt that joke.  We got to participate in giving him the priesthood too which was way cool.  We taught the young women in the 3rd hour about missionary work which was pretty awesome.  We had them do role plays about how they could proclaim they are Christian to people without it being weird.  We do role plays a lot as missionaries.  They are awkward but they help.  We had lunch at the Lopez house.  They had Hawaiian haystacks which were hecka good.  It way reminded me of my ward back home because that's the only place I had ever had them.  After we went and saw our potential Gary.  He is atheist and studies religion as a hobby so he knows a ton about the bible and religions.  Not so much about our religion. He has a ton of issues with the bible and it's crazy how a lot of the things he believes fit with what we believe and/or they answer his concerns.  He's in no way convinced but it was cool to see.  He asked a million questions while we taught the restoration so we had to touch on like every topic in the church but I think it really went well.  Except a 30 minute lesson turned into 1 hour and 45 minutes.  But it was fun and he's really nice about it.  He just has genuine concerns about things but he is willing to listen and hear other views.

So yeah pretty awesome week, especially Sunday.  I miss you all and will try to get to emailing everyone that has emailed me but we have a lot less time today.  So don't be mad if I don't.  Anyways have a great week and keep up being awesome.

Love,
Elder Alarid

Pics 7-27-2015

Brother Tremblay

My pro quality pizza, pre cooked

Side of someone's house, pretty sweet.

Email 7-27-2015

Happy Monday!  How's everyone doing today?  I miss you all.  Everything is going well here.  Had a pretty good productive week, and having lots of fun as always.  I appreciate all the emails I get.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I guess I'll jump into my week.  

Monday was good.  We did all our normal prep day stuff, relaxed and played a little risk. The we had dinner at the Cates and their daughter Moriah had a family home evening lesson planned so we didn't share a message.  We saw the Maines.  They are nice people.  I wish they lived closer so we could visit them more.  They want us to but they live on the edge of our area and we never have enough miles to go there more than once or twice.  

Tuesday was good.  We went back out to Warren and got to teach the restoration like 4 times.  We taught one of our potentials Tyler but turns out he is shipping out for basic the next day.  It's lame because he was really open to it and interested.  We thought we could totally pick him up as an investigator.  But we gave him our number and told him to call us in a couple months when he could and we would get the missionaries in that area to teach him.  He said he would, so hopefully.  Another cool thing that happened that day was Elder Johnson didn't really want to go try to see one potential lady we had there because she had kinda blown us off a couple times and he wanted to wait longer, but I felt like we should.  We went and ended up being able to teach her the restoration.  It was a good lesson.  It was cool because we almost didn't go see her.  Later we went and had dinner with Russ, he's hilarious but a character haha.  He's less active and struggles with some aspects of the church but he's super nice.  I think I emailed about the time we pulled up in his driveway and he pulled a gun on us.  Haha.  He has a fireworks business and does displays and he shot off some sweet M80s for us while we were there.  He gives us a lot of crap but you just have to give it back to him and he'll like you.  He said he really appreciates us coming.  We taught Book of Mormon class.  Then our nonmember friend Sathesh asked us to give him a ride to Hannafords to get groceries because he only has a bike and it was pouring out.  Well that's against mission rules so we couldn't.  But we went and got his groceries for him because he didn't have any food and some other things.  He might let us start teaching him mini-lessons so we can be around more. He just wants to hang out and doesn't get that we don't really have free time.  But if we can teach him anyway we can that's cool.  Grandpa Tony emailed me and said I got a jury summons, that's pretty funny.  I don't think I'll make it back to CA for the trial.  

Wednesday was solid.  We had zone meeting in the morning for like 5 hours.  I lead the zone in reciting our purpose.  Which the D&C section 4 is included in that.

The entire thing is:

Our purpose, is to invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

Doctrine and covenants section 4:

1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;

4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;

5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.

6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.

7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

After that I had to talk about part of it that I like. So I talked about "Ask and he shall receive".  It's such a common theme throughout the scriptures.  James 1:5-6, 3 Nephi 18-20, and a ton more repeat that same idea.  Ask God, and he shall giveth liberally.  It's a simple, yet powerful promise.  He has that support for us in everything we do especially when it is aligned with his course.  I have a huge testimony of that since I've been on my mission.  The Lord has been there with me constantly.  It's like he promised in D&C 84:88 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." Pretty powerful stuff.  Later after zone conference we were invited to make an appearance at the relief society pool party, mostly to eat food.  Haha so we went there.  All of the sisters decided to rush us and attack us with water balloons.  Elder Johnson scrambled and was gone.  I just stood there and took it like a man.  Haha, tons hit me but every single one bounced off without breaking.  I joked about us missionaries being protected by the armor of God.  Elder Johnson and I had a 2 man mini water balloon fight with 3 a piece.  He missed with all his, I nailed him good right in the neck with my last one.  Afterwards we went and taught Sathesh the 5 minute restoration, that's all we had because he timed us.  :P. He gave us 6 minutes to teach.  In return we had to help him work on his accent.  We were supposed to get the area book planner app for our iPads after zone conference but it didn't happen.  Supposedly we'll get it this upcoming week.

Thursday we served at the community meal.  We tracted a lot and met a potential named Rachel.  She's a college student here and said she things she should learn about other religions so that's cool.  We also went home teaching with Brother Smith and that was fun.  

Friday we did service at the thrift shop.  We got a bunch of ties.  Thrift shops are cool.  They also gave us a throwaway table that were are going to use for our game table.  We are going to convert the back room into a game/chill room.  It'll be sweet.  We met with Jonathan.  We had dinner at the Tremblays and it was make your own pizza night.  Mine was pretty amazing.  I didn't know I had such skill as a pizza chef.  We taught them the 10 commandments and the law of chastity.  They are so cool, I'm going to miss them when I leave.

Saturday was good.  We were supposed to help some people move but it fell through.  So we had a big gap in our plans so we set up to go do service for the Tremblays.  We went and split wood.  The Tremblays were using a wood splitter but to make it go faster I was using an axe and doing it by hand.  It was hard work but pretty fun.  I've never split wood before.  I got pretty bomb at it by the end.  Brother Tremblay was way good, but I was second best fo sho.  We did that for like 4+ hours.  I was exhausted by the end we came home and took our lunch at dinner all at once and slept for like an hour.  We went and taught Sathesh the plan of salvation in 5 minutes.  Then we finally were able to meet with a less active named Ethan.  We've been trying to since I got here.  

Sunday was good.  A member of the mission presidency came to our branch.  He emphasized the importance of us all working together to find people to teach.  He wants us to implement a family mission plan with everyone in the branch.  We had dinner with the Merrifields which is always fun.  

Anyways.  Keep up the emails, and for those of you who haven't, you should!  :) I miss you all.

Love,

Elder Alarid

Email 7-20-2015

Happy Monday!  How's everyone doing today?  I miss you all.  Everything is going well here.  Had a pretty good productive week, and having lots of fun as always.  I appreciate all the emails I get.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I guess I'll jump into my week.

Monday was good.  We did all our normal prep day stuff, relaxed and played a little risk. The we had dinner at the Cates and their daughter Moriah had a family home evening lesson planned so we didn't share a message.  We saw the Maines.  They are nice people.  I wish they lived closer so we could visit them more.  They want us to but they live on the edge of our area and we never have enough miles to go there more than once or twice.

Tuesday was good.  We went back out to Warren and got to teach the restoration like 4 times.  We taught one of our potentials Tyler but turns out he is shipping out for basic the next day.  It's lame because he was really open to it and interested.  We thought we could totally pick him up as an investigator.  But we gave him our number and told him to call us in a couple months when he could and we would get the missionaries in that area to teach him.  He said he would, so hopefully.  Another cool thing that happened that day was Elder Johnson didn't really want to go try to see one potential lady we had there because she had kinda blown us off a couple times and he wanted to wait longer, but I felt like we should.  We went and ended up being able to teach her the restoration.  It was a good lesson.  It was cool because we almost didn't go see her.  Later we went and had dinner with Russ, he's hilarious but a character haha.  He's less active and struggles with some aspects of the church but he's super nice.  I think I emailed about the time we pulled up in his driveway and he pulled a gun on us.  Haha.  He has a fireworks business and does displays and he shot off some sweet M80s for us while we were there.  He gives us a lot of crap but you just have to give it back to him and he'll like you.  He said he really appreciates us coming.  We taught Book of Mormon class.  Then our nonmember friend Sathesh asked us to give him a ride to Hannafords to get groceries because he only has a bike and it was pouring out.  Well that's against mission rules so we couldn't.  But we went and got his groceries for him because he didn't have any food and some other things.  He might let us start teaching him mini-lessons so we can be around more. He just wants to hang out and doesn't get that we don't really have free time.  But if we can teach him anyway we can that's cool.  Grandpa Tony emailed me and said I got a jury summons, that's pretty funny.  I don't think I'll make it back to CA for the trial.

Wednesday was solid.  We had zone meeting in the morning for like 5 hours.  I lead the zone in reciting our purpose.  Which the D&C section 4 is included in that.
The entire thing is:
Our purpose, is to invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.
Doctrine and covenants section 4:
1 Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.
2 Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.
3 Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work;
4 For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;
5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.
6 Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.
7 Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.

After that I had to talk about part of it that I like. So I talked about "Ask and he shall receive".  It's such a common theme throughout the scriptures.  James 1:5-6, 3 Nephi 18-20, and a ton more repeat that same idea.  Ask God, and he shall giveth liberally.  It's a simple, yet powerful promise.  He has that support for us in everything we do especially when it is aligned with his course.  I have a huge testimony of that since I've been on my mission.  The Lord has been there with me constantly.  It's like he promised in D&C 84:88 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up." Pretty powerful stuff.  Later after zone conference we were invited to make an appearance at the relief society pool party, mostly to eat food.  Haha so we went there.  All of the sisters decided to rush us and attack us with water balloons.  Elder Johnson scrambled and was gone.  I just stood there and took it like a man.  Haha, tons hit me but every single one bounced off without breaking.  I joked about us missionaries being protected by the armor of God.  Elder Johnson and I had a 2 man mini water ballon fight with 3 a piece.  He missed with all his, I nailed him good right in the neck with my last one.  Afterwards we went and taught Sathesh the 5 minute restoration, that's all we had because he timed us.  :P. He gave us 6 minutes to teach.  In return we had to help him work on his accent.  We were supposed to get the area book planner app for our iPads after zone conference but it didn't happen.  Supposedly we'll get it this upcoming week.

Thursday we served at the community meal.  We tracted a lot and met a potential named Rachel.  She's a college student here and said she things she should learn about other religions so that's cool.  We also went home teaching with Brother Smith and that was fun.

Friday we did service at the thrift shop.  We got a bunch of ties.  Thrift shops are cool.  They also gave us a throwaway table that were are going to use for our game table.  We are going to convert the back room into a game/chill room.  It'll be sweet.  We met with Jonathan.  We had dinner at the Tremblays and it was make your own pizza night.  Mine was pretty amazing.  I didn't know I had such skill as a pizza chef.  We taught them the 10 commandments and the law of chastity.  They are so cool, I'm going to miss them when I leave.

Saturday was good.  We were supposed to help some people move but it fell through.  So we had a big gap in our plans so we set up to go do service for the Tremblays.  We went and split wood.  The Tremblays were using a wood splitter but to make it go faster I was using an axe and doing it by hand.  It was hard work but pretty fun.  I've never split wood before.  I got pretty bomb at it by the end.  Brother Tremblay was way good, but I was second best fo sho.  We did that for like 4+ hours.  I was exhausted by the end we came home and took our lunch at dinner all at once and slept for like an hour.  We went and taught Sathesh the plan of salvation in 5 minutes.  Then we finally were able to meet with a less active named Ethan.  We've been trying to since I got here.

Sunday was good.  A member of the mission presidency came to our branch.  He emphasized the importance of us all working together to find people to teach.  He wants us to implement a family mission plan with everyone in the branch.  We had dinner with the Merrifields which is always fun.

Anyways.  Keep up the emails, and for those of you who haven't, you should!  :) I miss you all.

Love,

Elder Alarid