March 1 2010

Hey family!

Picture: We were at a members house for FHE (Family Home Evening). It is always fun to go over to their house. This little girl is Sandra. She is about 8 years old. She is one of my favorite. We always go to this house when we're exhausted. They always treat us very well.

So this week was pretty dang amazing. We saw Elder Holland on Wednesday! I shook his hand and everything. He gave us a talk about our mission. Let me tell you, this man is definitely inspired! He knows EXACTLY what's going on with our mission. I definitely needed to hear what he said. I'm sure others really appreciated what he said also. At first Elder Holland seemed like he was going to die when he was sitting down. He was either REALLY hot and tired or he was receiving revelation for his talk hahah. Once he started talking he was flippin hilarious. That man is really cool. But when he got serious, you knew he was serious. It really reminded me of his Book of Mormon talk he gave last conference. I really wish i would of got pictures but they asked us not to. Oh well.

So this week was pretty normal besides the Holland thing. We had a hard time finding our investigators this week. But we knew that if we worked as hard as we could the Lord will do the rest. And He did. We reached our new investigator goal. We were suppose to do 3 baptisms this week but this Sunday we had a Stake Conference and Elder Holland was suppose to come. But he went somewhere else. Pres. Snow, Elder Dickson, and Elder Golden came and spoke instead. They are general authorities as well. It was very nice to hear what they had to say. Pres. Snow really focused on the youth today and how the parents should really try and raise their kids in the gospel.

Nothing else really happened that i can really think of. Except i'm really enjoying this mission. Even though sometimes i REALLY REALLY get homesick. But as soon as we start teaching someone, it all goes away. It's pretty nice.

Tell Zack that i'm not mad at him. Tell him to quit being a girl and write me more. And tell him that i got his letter a while ago and i really enjoyed it.

I'm very happy to here that you had a lot of fun with that guy. All i want to know is if he's rich. So i'll ask, Is he rich?? He cant marry you until he buys me a SWEET Tacoma haha. jk

Well i hope everything goes well this week. Please help Dallin read the Book of Mormon. He really needs to start understanding what's going on. I love you guys a whole bunch and there isnt a blessed day that i'm not thinking about you guys.

Love

Elder Batchelor

February 22 2010

Hey Family!

This week has definitely been good. Everything seemed to be going our way. We were working very hard this week and got everything we needed to get done. We got all our new investigators for the week (9). Even though this week was great, it was still dang hard! The weather was HOT! Oh well.

So here is my highlight for the week. On Saturday, we went to the MTC to take around the missionaries. We were on the way there and we were kinda of hurrying and a guy flagged us down and told us to follow him. So we did, even though we were late. Apparently, this man is deaf! It was so sweet! Mom, remember how i took sign language in 10th grade and you said there was no use for it, well, there was! haha. I only remembered small though. But we communicated by writing down words on a newspaper. His name is Kujo. He seems very interested in our Church. So i told him to come tomorrow (Sunday) and we'll talk more. So he came to Church and during the 3rd session i took him aside and he started to teach me sign. It was really sweet cuz i was able to catch on very fast cuz of 10th grade. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'll start reading it. Hopefully he does what it says in the second to last paragraph in the intro. I think that would be sweet to baptize a deaf man! Except there might be a slight problem, he's deaf and he doesnt have an interpreter. So we'll see what happens with him. I'll keep you guys updated with him.

Next story: As i said before, we took the missionaries out to practice on Saturday. Usually we just show them where to go and me and my companion will go do our own thing. But this time i wanted to go on splits with them. So Elder Nielson took one companionship and went to all our appointments and i took another companionship and went contacting. It was really fun and brought back bad memories. I hated it when we went out and practiced. I was SO SO scared to actually go out to the field with my MTC companion. So, i took these two missionaries to a spot where they could knock on some doors. haha man, they were nervous. I told them i wasnt going to do anything haha. So they knocked on the first door and they did their thing. It was very sketchy but i cant blame them, I'm sure i was the same way. So luckily, the guy let them in and this man has been taught by the missionaries before and he already read the Book of Mormon. But he said it was a LONG time ago and doesnt remember anything. So these MTC missionaries kind of froze and didnt know where to begin. So finally one of them started talking about the Book of Mormon. Like i said, it was rough, but okay. So we went on and contacted again. One girl let us in and teach her. I was the one to teach this time so i can show them how to do it haha. It was a very nice lesson. Her boyfriend came in later too. But i taught them about families, prophets, Christ's Church, Apostasy, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We usually wouldnt share that much but these people were asking a lot of nice questions. After that our time was up and we went back to the MTC for dinner. We only take them out from 2 to 5.

Well like i said, this week was really nice for us and it went by REALLY fast, which i like a lot. I hope this week goes well for you guys as well.

Oh, remember that stuff that we took out at the airport? Like the toothpaste, body wash, shaving cream, and face wash? Do you think you can send that stuff? Cuz here, it is really expensive. You can send that in my birthday package with some sweet food haha. Also, Elder Nielson brought some sweet drink mix. He bought it at Wal-mart. It's these little packages for a bottle of water and it's just a flavor for water. I'm sure it's really cheap too. So i wouldnt mind some of that too.

Well that is all. I love you guys!! Stay strong!

Elder Batchelor

February 8 2010

Hey Family!

How is everything? Everything here is going pretty well. My new companion is Elder Nielson. He's from Utah. So he's my first abruni companion haha. Anyways, he's pretty cool. He's been here for 6 months now. I'm still in the same area. He's the senior companion but for now, i am. Only cuz i'm the one that knows the area. So until he knows the area, i'm calling the shots. It is very interesting though. It's going to be a whole new experience proselyting cuz unlike Amegayie, we dont know the TWI fluently. So it is very different. But i'll get use to it.

Well nothing super happened this week. We're preparing like 5 people for baptism. I'm pretty excited for it. There is one investigator named Mary. She's like 25 and she has a 3 year old boy. Man, that kid is awesome. He reminds me of Jaxx except Alvin is very stubborn. But she'll only tell me how she feels and not Nieslon cuz she's not use to him yet haha. Also, her husband, Sam, is a footballer. He'll most likely go pro pretty soon. And when he gets back from Egypt, i'll baptize him. Sweet huh? I like all my investigators though.

Today i'll be going to the MTC to play football and i'll be seeing that Hudson kid for the first time. So that will be pretty cool. The dog was pretty dang good. Except it was kinda hard for me to eat it cuz i watched it die and i like dogs. So ya...We'll be doing it again next week hahah. Two more missionaries are going home next Friday.

I cant think of anything else to say right now. But i know i'll think of something important to say right when i leave, that always happens to me.

Have a great week! I love you guys!!

Dallin-Work hard in school and get big before i get home so i could have a challenge at home haha

ELDER BATCHELOR

February 1st 2010

Hey Family!!

This week has been very interesting. This is my companions last week as a missionary. He will be going to the mission home tomorrow. So today we are doing a BBQ thing for him. We killed two dogs, which was kinda sad, and we are suppose to get two cats but the man didnt come through with them. So ya, this morning was kinda crazy. I took some pictures of it too.

So for this week, as i said, it wasnt very interesting. Just the usual stuff. EXCEPT, i we went on splits on Friday and i went with Elder Turner. We went and taught this small girl whos dad was just barely baptized. And there was this guy sitting on a bench by where we were teaching. We didnt really mind him but everytime i was teaching a part of the lesson i would look and talk to him too. At the end of the lesson i asked the girl if she had any questions and i asked that guy too and for some reason i gave him a big smile. They didnt have question but the guy said something. He said, "You know, i'm always here when you people teach but you NEVER minded me. But you (me) are the first one to ever talk to me and to smile at me. I am glad you did. Now hopefully your friends will mind me know." I was pretty happy to hear that. I always smile and wave to people and i can tell people love it when i do haha. So hopefully i'll have more to talk about this next week.

Mom, i was able to get my money! There were no problems. So thank you a lot! It's been nice having extra cash.

Well that's it for now. Have a good week!

Love
Elder Batchelor

Elder Amegayie and Me

We were at the beach at one of our areas called KPONE.

December 7th 2009

Hey Family!!


I'm sorry to say but i dont have too much to say about this week. We were very ineffective this week because of what happened. We were suppose to baptize about 4-5 people from this place called Ningo. It's in my area and about 30-45 min away from the chapel. So we called the mission president to see if we can baptize them on Sunday so they wouldnt have to make two long trips in one weekend only cuz it's so expensive to travel here. But he told us that because how far they live that we cant baptize them. We got very mad and very discouraged. We thought it was a stupid reason for them not to get baptized. They've been coming to church for 3 months now and there are some endowed members among them. We called President back again to explain the situation to see if he'd change his mind. The answer was still no. Oh boy, that made our week bad. Come to find out Sunday that the Ningo people said that it's gettting too much of a hassel to come to church every Sunday. So they were asking the Bishop if they could start a branch over there. So....the mission president was right. He knew it wouldnt be a good idea because the second we'd baptize them they'd want their own branch or ward by them. So the lesson i've learned this week was a big one for me. Listen to your leaders because they know what's right and what's wrong. It's weird to think i've never been taught that back at the US ;-). So that is pretty much all i have to say this week. This week is the last week of transfer so we have to work very hard so we can get people to baptize this next semester.

I love you guys a lot! I'll be calling for Christmas for as long as i want. I'll give you more info on that when time gets closer. Stay safe and you guys better be doing family pray and scripture reading everynight :-)! Love you guys!

Love always
Elder Batchelor

November 30th 2009

Well this week has definitely been a better week. We got a couple new investigators. So for another sweet experience. On Friday we were teaching these 3 sisters and one of their guy friends comes in. We knew he was talking bad about the church cuz one of the 3 sisters said their husband and friend said that we worship mammon...by the way, a lot of ignorant people think that. So, we started to teach him. And he was being very stubborn. He kept asking the same question over and over but in a different way each time. Oh boy, he was making me mad but i kept praying to myself that i wouldnt get mad cuz i wanted to get lead by the spirit. So the guy started to listen to us. We were teaching him that if he reads the Book of Mormon and pray about it, he learn for himself that the Book of Mormon is another testiment of Jesus Christ. Then all of a sudden he started saying ignorant things. He was probably going on for 15 min. During that time i had this sudden earge for him to read 2 Nephi 33. I was shaking and i knew i was gonna finish him (finish) is a word we use a lot on the mission haha. So after he was done i had hime read from vs 18 till the end of the chapter. And i bore my testimony to him that when the Judgement day comes and he's getting judged that i will stand up as a witness and testify that i taught him these things. Oh boy! He was scared! He was silent for a little and finally said, "i want to learn more of the principles and docterines. hahaha i FINISHED him. I guess you had to be there to feel how powerful it was. So we went back to him on Saturday and read out of the Book of Mormon with him. He was a lot more receptive but he was still being a little ignorant. So we'll see what happens with him. His name is Kofi Tutu.

This Saturday we had two baptisms. Emily and Andrew. I forgot their last names. Emily is 9 and Andrew is 30 or something. Emily is in a part-member family and Andrew is just....well i'm not sure. Andrew is really cool. He hasnt had much schooling. But his will to learn from the Book of Mormon is incredible. Right now he doesnt have any friends at church and i feel really bad for him. So next week i'm gonna find some sweet friends for him though. He came to church looking all snazy and he had his small scriputure case for one of those cheap Book of Mormons. haha it was cool to see that. Well when i was baptizing them i was really nervous. But i did pretty well for my first time.

For stuff to send me- i just want a lot of food and candy. And some sweet Christmas music. AND i forgot to bring those mechanical pencils with that red and blue led. You can find that in that small stand by my bed, so can you please send that too? I wouldnt mind some granola bars and stuff like that. I have an idea to send me money. You can just send a prepaid card but dont activate it and once i get it i can email you so you can call and activate it. That's just an idea.

Have a wonderful week. I love you all!

Love always
Elder Batchelor