February 27, 2012

I am glad Preston is getting back to his old self! It has been really cool though because our District has come closer together because of Preston, when I read the letters my companion and the other Elders in my district could tell something was wrong so I told them about Preston and they have been praying for him ever since they found out. Elder Prenoveau who is in our district is kind of a crazy guy and has done some pretty crazy things in his life, but one night he game up to me in my bed and looked at me in the eye and said your brother is going to be ok. Also he said one night he was on his knees praying and he felt he needed to pray about something before he finished his prayer but he wasn’t sure what, he then turned around and saw me praying and remembered Preston and said that that was what he needed to Prayer for.

Elder Fitzgerald is on a Football Scholarship and it is actually for Southern Utah State University. We typically have one companionship inventory a week. My companion and I are doing pretty well and we talk really well with each other. Elder Preneveau and Elder Awbery are having a hard time especially Elder Awbery, he is trying so hard, and he is just really struggling. Also his family does not send him a lot of letters.

I saw the Carmichael’s Nephew (Wilhelm) for the first time last night, he is in a different Branch and so our schedules are completely different, he seems like a really awesome guy though. There are also three other Elders who are going to Angola in 10 days I think. They just got their flight plans and they fly to Texas and then have a 5 hour layover. Then they fly to London have a 10 hour Layover and then fly to Angola. I think they will end up getting there two and a half days after they leave with the time zone switching. Oh would you or Dad be able to call that one lady about my Visa her phone number and name are in my missionary packet? The other Elders that are going to Angola said that the second week they had to fly to New York and meet with an Ambassador from Angola and get finger printed and stuff. So would you be able call her and see if I am going to have to do that and find out how my visa is coming along? Thanks!

I have seen the Palmers, Wesley Ashcroft, Doug Gillette, James Wirthlin, Rachel Robinson, Morgon Rogers (she works here at the MTC). It is a lot of fun to see them around.

I go to the Temple Monday Mornings at 7:20, for some reason the Provo temple is open then. So that is kind of a bummer (we won’t be able to attend at the same time). Thank you so much for the Dear Elders they are great!

I am not quite sure how to send pictures … I will let you know though. I should be able to get back onto my email around 1:00 or 2:00 again so if you want to know anything else or if you just want to write me again… I will probably get it and I will be able to respond Love you! Mom!

Pops!-Thanks so much for the letter it is very comforting to know that things are going well with work and everything! Thank you for your testimony it really does help me a lot. I think I felt a lot of the same pain you did as you were with Preston. I am so grateful for the gospel in our lives and how it blesses families. Thank you so much I love you!

Braden-Thanks for the letter Bro. That’s a bummer that you got rejected! I feel your pain I think I got rejected… oh wait I don’t think I ever got rejected!  Haha Just kidding Bro just keep up the hard work. I definitely know what you mean about how this is a different hard work and there is a little bit of a twist thrown into it. Its funny because I feel like this is one of the hardest things I have done, but when I take a step back and look at it, it is not really that hard. It is kind of a weird feeling. I am stressing a little bit about the language, but not too much.  I am doing really well with the Lords help. The Spanish that I had in High School really has helped me because there are pretty much all of the same rules, a lot of the words are the same or similar but they are pronounced a little bit differently. What has been the most stressful is teaching in Portuguese! But one of our teachers Irmao Peterson (he was our first investigator) taught us a lesson. And he showed/taught us the first lesson and I felt the spirit so strong and then he had us practice teaching, with hardly any preparation. And it was really good for all of us. In our Lessons we were pretty much just reading things in Portuguese, but with this practice with out hardly any preparation, it showed me and my companion that we can teach in Portuguese with our just reading stuff. I am a lot less nervous to teach now. After the instruction with our teacher I felt like I just wanted to talk in Portuguese all of the time and for about 5 minutes I did not want to talk in English at all. That feeling soon left though But I know the Lord is blessing me with the gift of tongues.

I have been struggling with Personal study too. I have been having a hard time because normally when I study my scriptures or even pray I am normally alone by myself and I feel like I can really feel the spirit, but now I am with others and it is hard to really feel the Spirit strongly. Also the Elders in my district kind of feel the Personal Study Time, means Free time, so it is really hard to dive deep into the scriptures, but we are definitely doing better, and my companion has really fallen in love with the scriptures, he pretty much does not know any of the book of Mormon stories and so he read about Ammon the other day and loved it! So that is good, but I am having a hard time feeling the Spirit really strongly. I do not know if I have any advice for you, but I feel like I am going through some similar things. Love you man thanks for your Prayers!!

Thanks so much Rach! I love you so much! Don’t worry you are an awesome sister! Thanks for always being there for me and being an awesome older sister! I love you Joe and Joshy Boy so much! How is Joshy Boy doing? and Joe in School? I hope they are doing well. Tell Joshy Boy I love him and give a Kiss for me!! and show him lots of pictures of me so he doesn’t forget me! Love you so much Rach love you!

This is where we are from . . . 

This is where we are going!

We have an Elder here in our Zone, Elder Curtis who is a Quarter Back for Utah State, I think he Red Shirted this past year and then he will play after his mission, but he is a really good basketball player too and we were playing the other day and he was about two or three feet behind the three point line, and it was about time for our gym time to be over so I told him you better shoot it and he didn’t so I stole the ball from him turned around and shot a three from about 3 feet behind the line and made  it. Probably 5 seconds later a person came over the microphone and said that gym time was over, it was pretty sweet! Then the other day he was about 7 feet behind the line and he looked like he wanted to shoot it and I said “its too far” and he kind of smiled at me and was like “what!” then he shot it and drilled it! So then everyone told me to top it so I went up and shot it from about 7 feet behind the line and drilled it. Then Elder Curtis went back to about 10 feet behind the line and drilled it! Then I went to top, but missed it, just to the right. IT was a sick little battle though. Love you family. Thanks everyone for the letters they are a lot of fun to get! Hope you guys have a great week! Love you guys!

February 20, 2012

I only have 30 minutes to be on my email…Our schedule changes every day, but a typical day is getting up and getting ready for the day and then we eat breakfast. After that we go to our classroom and have Classroom time which consists of a Portuguese Lesson companionship study and other kinds of lessons, that is normally three hours long, we then have personal study. After that we have lunch and then language study.  And then we will probably have personal study time then dinner . Then we normally teach our investigator after that, which is pretty intense but ill tell you about that later.  Then we plan for the next day and go back to our rooms and get ready for bed.  My companion is really cool he is on scholarship to Cedar City University.  He is probably 6`3  or 6’4  and he is half white half black and he is pretty cool. We actually get along pretty well. His name is Elder Fitzgerald. We also have two other elders in our district and we are pretty much a four some. Elder Prenevoue ( prenevo) is from Conneticut and he is pretty cool, we quote a lot of movies together and it is a lot of fun! Elder Awbrey is a little bit different you could sayJ He was in band all of his life and to top it off he let his sister paint his toe nails before he left on his mission. Definitely a humble guy to let his sister do that to himJ Our district was butting heads for a little bit and last night we had a legit companionship inventory with our district and it was really good and after we were all best friends. Our teacher Irmao (brother) Maxwell is pretty cool he is from Buckeye Arizona, but he has been in buckeye the past couple of days so we have been having substitutes.  So with our investigator his name is “Jody” we started teaching him on Friday, but it is really crazy because we have to do our lessons in Portuguese! It is so hard because when I talk it is more like Sportuguese (mix of Spanish and Portuguese) J and my companion does not know a lot so he reads a couple of things and that is it. So it has been really hard on me because I have to do most of the work. He is not a real investigator, and we found out the other day that he is actually our other teacher, but he acts like a real investigator and asks questions that I would not even know how  to respond to in English let alone Portuguese. Also it is really hard to understand him because I don’t really know Portuguese but we still have to resolve his concerns he has and help him understand. Also a lot of the times he pretends to fall asleep during our lessons and that makes me so mad! But I guess it is real mission prep!  I had a cool experience the first day here when we  (about 40) new missionaries taught three different “investigators” they were acting but I think the stories they had and how they acted was their stories and how they acted before they were baptized. So the 3^rd investigator was asking about his son and wife because his wife died and his son died when he was three days old and was not baptized so we taught him that we can live with our families again and that his son was not doomed to destruction. He said he felt really good, but how did he know that when he woke up in the morning that he would not feel good and everything would be back to normal. I had a big smile on my face because he was feeling the spirit so he asked me this directly and I bore my testimony about prayer and he asked if I could show him how to pray so I went up and prayed and I felt real love for this man and I prayed with all of my heart that he would know that he could be with his family forever. I closed and I felt the spirit so strongly it was really cool.

I definitely have been struggling though we have had a lot of devotionals about how to be the best missionary and one of those things is obedience, and I am trying to be as obedient as I can, but it is really hard when my companion and the others in my district do not want to be 100% obedient. It is very difficult and I feel bad every time I am not 100% obedient, but I do not want to cause contention between my companion and I or between the district, but I am trying my best and trying to figure out how to do this and I just do not know how.

Preston! Holy cow that is so crazy! I love you so much! You have no idea! Way to be a man! I heard that when you woke up you asked if you could go back into the game! That helped me to be happier when I heard what happened. Way to be so tough! I love you so much man!! I love you!!

Rebecca-Hey so I was thinking about some new “power moves” if you know what I mean. How about Sparkle Bun Power!!? Does that work or do we need to think of something better? J Love you BEC! Remember next season starts today!

Braden-Thanks for writing me bro! I have been having a hard time! My companion and I are able to talk with each other pretty openly and that is way good! He is actually a convert for about 5 years now, but he just got reactivated probably a year or so ago. He wants to be obedient and he really does try hard to be obedient, but he told me that he can not keep up with the “hard work “ that I am doing. And honestly my hard work is just trying to follow the schedule. He said that he is lazy and that he cant really go as hard as I can. So I am trying to be obedient as much as I can, but I feel like I cant really be fully obedient because he has to take a lot of breaks and goof around a lot. We are definitely doing better and we are both trying really hard! But it is just so hard. We have actually have had 3 companionship inventories already! Pretty crazy! One was just because we had to and the others were real one.

Jeff and Laurel Tilley Family

Thanks so much for the letters! I felt like the guy on the Best two years because the whole zone was there to get the mail and my name was called like 6 times and it was sweet thanks so much Love all you guys!

So is Preston alright!!!??? I love that kid!

Sorry I forgot to tell you about the package. If you could send me my consecrated oil that is on my car keys that would be great…some Pens would be nice as well. Then do not have to be nice just like the Moxie pens or some like it would be great Thanks So Much I Love You guys. Maybe send me a Dear Elder to let me know how Preston is doing because I can get those every day, but only emails on Mondays! Love you!! Elder Tilley