April 19, 2011

Hey!

Things are pretty great here. It lightly rained here last night. That's about it weather wise. Its just sunny and hot. We have an opportunity to work in gardens around here. They grow brocolli here. Huge fields of it. Brocolli in large quantities smells exactly like crap. A lot of it.

Well good and bad news, the lady that was going to be baptized on Calebs birthday slipped on the Word of Wisdom so she has to be baptized this weekend. So she'll be baptized the same day Caleb becomes a teacher. She asked me to play the piano at her baptism and she asked me to confirm her. I'm super nervous. I've given blessings and things but never confirmed anyone, espescially in front of a sacrament meeting with over 300 people. There's going to be two baby blessings and a confirmation that day.

There's a ton of junk in my room. I don't even remember what it was all for. I guess it will be easier to chuck it when I'm unpacking it than trying to decide what to chuck while packing. Whatever value it had will probably be gone by the time I get home. It's crazy that I've been gone almost two and a half months. I'm officially not a greenie anymore. Transfers are today but I'm staying with Elder Perkins and Elder Mortenson. I get to kill two missionaries at once! (Send them home) It's awesome. Elder Perkins and Elder Mortenson were MTC companions so it's cool that they get to serve together in their last transfer. 

As for the package, could you send more milks? I gave mine away to some children we're teaching. And we've been having a lot of fun with those little baseball things. They make good prank things. Oh, could you send a USB card reader? That would be awesome! I could email you pictures that way. I've got some printed out that I'm going to send, but emailing will be cheaper because we have to print them out at Wal-Stupid or something. There were other things I thought of during the week. A tie hanger would be nice. My ties are currently... everywhere. I've acquired many ties here. The thrift stores are full of them. I can't remember the other things I thought of.

What time would be a good time for me to call on Mother's Day? They asked us to start making arrangments now. We have church from 9-12 and from 1-4. So the evening would work better for me. But we could arrange something else if we need to. If i remember right you are on the 9 schedule?

Missionary Month is awesome! I've got them beat though. I'm doing Missionary 2 years. So there. I know about sleep headaches though. All of our neighbors are partiers, Elder Mortenson likes to sleep with a fan on, Elder Perkins sleeps with the window open, and I'm in the middle of two snorers. I haven't been sleeping well either. The only thing I can tell Caleb is trust the Lord that it will work out. I've started sleeping with one of those eye cover things and with ear plugs in. One awesome thing to do is to read the scriptures by topic. Go to the Topical Guide and pick a subject you want to study. For example: I studied the Godhead this morning. I found some awesome scriptures that refute the Trinity concept. John 1:1 says In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. But from 1 John 4:7 we learn that there are three how testify in the heavens. God, The Word (Christ), and the Holy Ghost. So John 1 is talking about Christ being a god(not being God) and being with God(the Father), not the whole Trinity junk. Then I read the Bible Dictionary under "God" which goes through the Godhead. Something awesome I learned is that God is only omnipresent through the Holy Ghost. So the question now is: How is God going to be omnipresent when the Holy Ghost is on earth receiving a body? One possible answer is that it will happen during the Millenium when Satan is bound and Christ is personally reigning on earth.

I really liked that chinese proverb quote. Thanks for supporting me as I'm out working in the field.

I love and miss you guys,

Elder J. Garth Mortensen

P.S. anyone who reads this can write me. I wouldn't mind getting letters at all. I promise that I'll get back to you eventually

P.P.S. Did caleb and josh get the birthday things I sent them?

April 12, 2011

Mom,

I was jsut telling dad how it's 60 something degrees here. How people look at me like I'm crazy for wearing short sleeved shirts and stuff. I should've only brought 2 long sleeved. I have to wear a long sleeve on Sundays (unless its 80 degress then it comes off), and in meetings line district and zone meetings. I never have my jackets on. That's Crazy about the potential flooding and such. If it happens be sure to send me pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I can attach pictures in these emails, so if I get a USB card reader I can plug my camera card in and send you pictures. We've got several pictures to send and things. Nothing too special though. You'll see.

I'm glad to hear about Jenson and Gatlin. I think Jenson going will help with the family situation. I'm glad he's made the choice to go.

They made a good choice in asking you. All you have to do is pull out your camping bible and you're set. I'll bet it wasn't even that hard to plan. Those girls are lucky. I've actually had dutch oven apple cobler here. And we had taco salad for dinner last night. But they're not the same.

That's great to hear about that program! I know that if you stick to what Dr. Friden says, that the Lord will bless you for your efforts. Plus, you have to support of your friends and family. That's part of the covenants that we make. I know there's not much support I can give from here but if it helps, I'm eating your share of calories. I've gained 25 pounds since I left. I'm up to 185. My pants are starting to not fit.

Big Aaron is crazy. We're going over for family nights every monday night. We've been talking about conference and I think it's really starting to help. It's really weird to see myself become an answer to someones prayers. I think he's going to start coming back to church with his family. His wife is one tough cookie though. It might take her a little while to forgive herself and come back.

I need my back brace. I don't know where it's at. I would like a tape of family and friends talking. That would be really cool. Other than that I don't really know right now. I'll think about it a little during the week and let you know.

We went to a pentecostal church the other day. We witnessed people being "healed" from the preacher smacking there forheads and such. The preacher claimed he had seen Christ and all kinds of things. He claimed that once he started preaching he would become Christ. It was... interesting. Some random guy came up to Elder Mortenson the Elder and prophesying to him. Weird stuff about his mother and things. Then another lady came up to us to ask us who we were because we had light shining from our eyes. That she could see the love of Christ coming out of us. That was really humbling to hear. We're counting her as a new investigator and we're meeting with her soon.

I've got about 20 minutes still so you can email me if you're there.

I love you mom.

Love,

-Elder J. Garth Mortensen

Hey,

Things are great. Mother Nature here is really happy. It's been in the 80's all week. But the week before someone sinned because it was 5 days of dumpage. It rained like it does in the Uintas for 5 straight days. Other than that it's really warm here. We only have to wear our jackets on Sundays, but if it's over 80 we don't have to wear them.

Yeah, they were sitting in the foyer between church two sunday's ago and asked us where were from and stuff. They said they were heading back to utah and said they'd take anything I needed back. So I gave it to them. She was talking about the Elder before me. Elder Mecham is like 6'5". I'm still with Elder Perkins but transfers are next week. So we could be changing. I don't think we'll be changing because next transfer is his last transfer. And this is my first transfer. But you never know. President Murri is kind of a goof noggin.. (In a good way) Oh man he's funny though. He lives in Logan so you could go see him after he gets released. That would be kinda cool. I apparently keep getting AP points. Which is scary because I don't want to be AP.

I was thinking about how weird its going to be for you to have someone to go to dinner with and things. It's weird that Jetta's going to be 3 when I get home. Hopefully they have another one year old for me to play with. Go ahead and tell them that. Yeah President Monson was laying the spiritual smack down. He really is the Tongue of the Lord. President Uchtdorf is the Hammer of the Lord. Elder Chistofferson is the Law of the Lord. Elder Scott is the Eye of the Lord. President Eyring is the Love of the Lord. Elder Oaks is the Judge of the Lord. My favorite talk this Conference was Elder Oaks on desires. It touched me because my Patriarchal Blessing talks alot about my desires. So I've been working on that one.

There's a family here that's inactive that God sent me here for. The Terrasas family is so awesome. Big Aaron, the dad, is a master martial artist. And by master I mean he could easily fight with guys like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and do all those crazy things. But he goes way into the pschological stuff of it. He knows so much about how the body works and things. He showed us how to explode someone's kidney. Anyway.. He's one of the people that is inactive because people prejudge him and things. He's not afraid to speak his mind and people condemn him for it. He was in the bishopric and people would ask him for advice and he would say ask the Lord and then come ask me, or build your faith and you will get the answer. Things like that that people actually needed to hear. No one liked it or something. But he's pretty much insane. They have a weimeraner named Sinatra. She look's pretty much exactly like Copper. He was surprised I knew the breed and how to handle a weimer and things. Natalie his wife works at US bank and things. We're still figuring our her deal.  But we're seeing lots of  progress with them :) Hopefully they'll be to church soon :)

It's crazy here. My companion is going apostate haha. I've been driving him a little hard. Plus his girlfriend just got home from here mission a month ago and she hasn't written him since. He's taking it kinda hard.

Yep yep,

Love,

Elder Mortensen

Hey hey,

That's cool about Colton's thing. There's a lot of people here that are in the design business. I love how much variety in the people there is. It's really crazy. Our ward has a million dentists and oral surgeons it seems like, but there's tons of doctors, and several nuclear physicists. Those are my favorite dinner appointments.

As for the dinner appointments there hasn't really been anything weird at all. All I know is that whatever capers are... I don't like them. You should be proud of me though. I ate a tomato. It was tough. And I threw up when I got to the apartment. But I did it. We've had all kinds of chicken, and the people here seem to love asparagus. It grows wild here. And lots of steak and roast and things. One couple took us out to a place called AJ Spurs, I felt bad because they spent almost 150 bucks on dinner. There's a couple that gets offended if we buy our own milk or cereal so we get all that once a week. I don't have to cook hardly ever. I'm up to 180. So that's 20 pounds I've gained. Although quite a bit is from muscle because we walk like crazy.

Yeah, Elder Finkle, the crazy old guy/vehicle coordinator, is a retired postman so he knows the ins and outs and stuff. If you send it to the mission office, he forwards it with no charge to our apartments. That way we don't have to worry about giving out our address and stuff. Also, if you send packages, the preferred way is priority mail through the post office. He can forward those too. And there's special boxes that have locks and whatnot, so it won't get stolen.

My humor is getting better, or maybe they just understand it now. I'm not sure which is happening. Either way we get along better now and we have lots of fun in the apartment. A lot of fun. Maybe too much fun.. Nah.

That's also cool about the baptisms! I heard about them before I left but forgot about them. That's really awesome!

We have a lady who is set to be baptized on April 16th and confirmed April 17th. I'm stoked for that. So tell Caleb happy birthday.

Oh, random fact, Elder Mortenson and I have the same birthday! Crazy huh? His name is John Mortenson.

Elder Tomlinson should be sending the picture home soon. My camera is still broken so I haven't really taken alot of pictures. OH! There's a couple that are going to utah soon. I'm giving them our address and they are going to stop by y say hi sometime. I'm not sure when though. Sometime in the next two weeks.

Oh, I'm emailing today because weird stuff happened monday and I wasn't able to get to a computer, yesterday was training with President Murri then we had some appointments. We spend an hour a week on Mormon.org so we know what we're referring people to. If you haven't been on there I recommend it! There's lots of cool stuff there.

I might be switching Spanish speaking! I went on exchanges y stuff with the Spanish Elders and I really enjoyed it and could understand what was being said. So I've been reading the El Libro De Mormon. We'll just have to see what President says.

I've been playing the piano a ton. President thinks I can play anything so he just says hey play this so I have to sight read stuff. Which is nice because I'm learning that I'm a better sight reader than I thought.

Umm... I stoked about Jenson! There's an Elder that was in my MTC district from Waldorf Maryland. I don't know if that's in the DC mission or the Baltimore mission. I'm stoked.

There's a scripture in Alma 33. Verse 14. It talks about reading the scriptures y having a testimony of Christ. You can't have one without the other. I also really like Alma chapter 40-42. It talks about the resurrection and what we need to do.

The Atonement is crazy now that I better understand it. I'll send some crazy verses next time (if I remember). But they summarize the Atonement very well and tell us exactly what Jesus does on our behalf.

I know that Christ is our Savior y Redeemer, our Lord y our God. He is the only way to return to our Father in Heaven.
If you can find it I recommend a talk called "Why 1820?" by Hyrum W. Smith. He was the first California Ventura mission president Its dope.

Anyway, I need to go do the work,

Love,
Elder Mortensen

P.S. Dad, make everyone get up and have family scripture study. I like how we read the reference book as well. It makes it so much better to talk about the scriptures instead of just reading straight through them.
Plus it's pretty much a commandment so... yeah.

Week 2 in the field

Family,

That's awesome about Jetta :) at least someone in the family has followed in my footsteps! You should record a tape of the family and stuff. Invite some friends to come talk on it. That would be awesome.

I miss Jetta like crazy. Well, I miss all of you but ya know. I've never really liked kids before. It was weird to love one.

Thanks for the addresses! I can't wait to hear about Jenson's call!

I e-mailed dad my cool story of the week. I'm sure he'll forward the e-mail home for you, but just in case he forgets. I don't really know what to write in these things. What do you want to hear?

Don't worry about the tsunami business here. We were evacuated and put on top of a hill. We had a clear view of the ocean and nothing even happend. The waves weren't even that big... I really wanted to see the pier get smashed.. We dressed up like Moses and pretended to be moving the water. Elder Nielsen pretended to send the wave back to Japan and we laughed.. but then they actually got hit.. So we blame it on Elder Nielsen. W

We have alot of fun in our apartment. Elder Mortenson and I are working on getting along. He doesn't appriciate my sense of humor.. so we're working on that one.

I've got a postcard sent that shows what I get to see on my morning runs. I think you'll be a little jealous.

I had my first exchanges this week. I was out a week and was playing senior campanion. It was tough. It was rough too.. But we got a new investigator so it couldn't have been too bad. I love in and out burger. It's a p-day tradition now. I'll send a picture home of our p-day agenda white board.

Well.. if there's anything you want to know just ask and I'll be happy to answer questions. We get an hour for computer use.. but we have to sneak into hotels because the librarys are closed mondays. anyway..

Love,

Elder Mortensen

Hey!

Things are awesome here still. Going like crazy. We hardly have time for anything. We've been meeting with a pastor who has over 1000 people in his congregation. I'm not sure where it's going to go but it's been good so far. I've heard interesting things about him from the community though. We will see. We've been teaching quite a few people. We have 2 little girls and 1 little boy who are just waiting for their biological mothers permission to get baptized. Susie and Claudia had to move their date, which is fine. There's people every where.

Cool story for the week:

So Elder Perkins and I were just going to check on a LARC (Less Active Recent Convert) and we knocked on their door. The lady in the apartment next door opened her door because she thought we were knocking on her door. So being missionaries we didn't let the opportunity pass by. She said she'd been praying to have something happen because she didn't like her church (J-dub) and she wanted something more. She wanted members that were warm and welcoming and everything. Which is exactly what our ward members are. They are SOO awesome. I love the members here. So we invited her to church.

Unfortunately she got broncitis and couldn't come, but on the phone she made us promise that we would keep in touch. :)

The members have a calendar for dinner appointments. We have dinner with members literally every single night. It's awesome. I had doubts about the people of Cali but not anymore.

Oh! I ran into Elder Tomlinson and we got a picture together and he's sending it to his parents. So be ready for that. Elder Okey and I ran into each other also! He hasn't changed one bit.. except he but on some weight. Funny as ever though.

I can't wait to hear where Jenson is going! I love that guy.

Tell Joey thanks for his letter and ask him if he got the wedding card I sent.

I just love it here. I don't even know what to write.

If you could have Colton get me Shanel and Kayli Robinette's address that would be awesome. I thought I had it but I don't. And i really want to write them.

Things are fantastic.

OH!! I live with the AG ward missionaries. Elder Neilsen and get this... Elder Mortenson.

Love,

Elder Justin Mortensen's Address

Elder Justin G. Mortensen
260 Maple Court Suite 120
Ventura California 93003-3544

He would love some letters from friends and family.