Pictures! October 29, 2012

October 29, 2012

Good Morning Dallin!

 

How are you doing?  I'm sure you are staying pretty busy. 

 

It's been a great week here. Pretty busy.  We had an open house for Caleb at our house last night.  All the usuals came and we had a lot of food.  He is very excited to go.  He gave a great talk in Sacrament meeting and expressed his love for you. It made me cry, of course :) He goes into the MTC on Wednesday. Some of his co-workers came to the party and it was a nice missionary contact for them.

 

I'm working hard on the Primary program.  It's fun to be back in Primary.  We had our ward Halloween Pary on Saturday.  220 people came with lots of non-members.  It was really fun.  I didn't win the Chili cookoff.  Lake Hills Ward is tough competition! The Bauers dressed up as twin robots--sooooo funny!!

 

Dad is still working very hard and is working Mason as well. Dad has an inflammation on his collar bone called costacondritis.  Very painful.  We went to the clinic on Saturday to make sure it wasn't a fracture.  He was in so much pain he was willing to take the shot in the fanny from the male nurse, who we think was gay...  HAHA!  I wish I would have taken a pic. :)

 

I think you know by now that you are getting another nephew.  Ang is doing great and Cade is trying to figure out where his little brother is.  Chels is doing great in school.  She really appreciates her schooling now.  Vance's b-day is today--3 YEARS OLD!  Wow-time flies by.  He is such a talker.  He can sing "let's get down to business" from Mulan.  So funny.

 

Beau is doing great-back in Alaska and still living with the Light's. He's made some good friends there.

 

Well, your others buds are doing great in the missionary field.  Have you seen Dave?  If you do, tell him hello and that we pray for all of you!

 

Dad says to tell you hello and that he is having lunch with Uncle John Light today. He's here hunting with Peter.

 

Well, gotta get to work.  We love you.  Keep up the great work.  All the ward members ask about you all the time.

 

Mom

PS- oh and check this out: 

“As Church leaders had anticipated when the change was announced, the number of individuals who have begun the missionary application process has increased significantly.  Typically approximately 700 new applications are started each week.  The last two weeks that number has increased to approximately 4,000 per week.

            Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland predicted that lowering the age limits for young Mormon missionaries would trigger a "dramatic" uptick in their numbers. Turns out, dramatic was an understatement. Try a 471 percent jump in applications — so far! "Slightly more than half of the applicants are women,"

This means that there will be probably 250 missionaries in the Iowa Des Moines mission by next year(currently we are to full capacity with 186)!

This is the Lord's work!

Hey Mom!

We are indeed busy. Denise has taken a couple steps backward because we taught her the word of wisdom a few days ago. We plan to teach her the stop smoking workshop on Tuesday, which is proven to make you a non smoker in seven days. The guy we taught the workshop to in Keokuk named Dillon never joined the church, but he still doesn't smoke to this day. We also had a great stake conference this week about eternal families and Agusta the Indian lady came to it with the Stake President and his wife. Ken is continuing to read the Book of Mormon, but he is reading it at an intellectual level. Hopefully the Lord will help him understand its importance. 

Speaking of gay guys, One night we were knocking in this apartment building. The walls and doors are paper thin, so after you knock a door and the door closes you can still hear them talking about you with their friends. Anyway, so we knocked this one door and this guy who is obviously homosexual answers and says he is an atheist and wouldn't talk about it. When the door closed a girl inside was like "mormons? were they cute?" and he said "yeah, they actually were!" hah. 

My time in Iowa City is quickly coming to an end! I love it here and I love the ward. I only have two more weeks to help Elder Musick keep this area going. 

Love you,

Elder Tall

October 29, 2012

Dal!!!
Did you already write ?!?! I'm such an idiot! I've been waiting for Sunday night all week!!!! I got released from YW today, so needless to say it was a long one. I'm pretty bummed. I felt like I was just getting goin with my girls. So sad. Good news is that the Giants won the World Series! I hope you got your Halloween pkg!!!!!!!!! Missin you and sending you loads and buckets of love and support..
Ang

Hey Ang. 
I had to come send an email to Des Moines. Sorry to hear you got released. Those girls will appreciate you forever. I will always be grateful to my leaders growing up. They played a HUGE role in my life. I know how much you love them, and they know it too.

Did Bill have a giants celebratory party or what?

I haven't gotten the package yet, but thank you so much in advance. You rock you kn0ow that?

Still haven't told me the gender of the baby. :)

I Love you and I love the Lord's work. It all starts at home :)

Dal

October 22, 2012

Hi Son!

 

How are you doing this week?  How did Denise do with your reading of Alma 36?  And, Ken and his nine kids.  Just think of the change that could take place for his huge posterity if he were to accept the Gospel.  Pretty amazing. 

 

We had a very nice regional stake conference.  Elder Russell M Nelson spoke, along with Sister Dalton and a couple other Generals.  It made me very excited for the future hastening of the missionary work.  I think it has amped up a lot of us to be better at sharing our testimonies freely.  Sis Dalton's talk was amazing about the strength of youth and repentence.  I loved it. We can look forward to some exciting times!  Our family is truly blessed and we need to share those blessings with others.

 

Mason returned last week.  It has been great to see Aaron, Mason, and Joe Weitz's growth.  They are the same and yet so much more solid in their testimonies.  They were working on Ben even up to the last moment before he left for boot camp.  He left Sunday.  He loves you and said to tell you hi.  He cannot get email yet.  He said he would call if he could.  He'll join the church someday. 

 

It's getting a little chilly here.  It looks like you have been having some good weather but it will get cold soon.  Do you need anything?  Beau leaves for Alaska tomorrow until Christmas.  He's not too excited but it has been a great thing for him.  The girls are doing great.  Chels is doing well in school. Vance has learned "Let's get down to business" from Mulan.  He's a crack up.  Nor Nor is soooo stinkin sweet!  Cade is cheering "gooooooo Giants!" all the time.  Makes his daddy proud! Can't wait for the next little one to be born in Feb.  We are sooo blessed!

 

Well, I love you.  Put all your energy into your work and training.  You are a great example to me and our family. 

 

Love, Mom

Hey Mom!

 

Oh what a week! Denise loved Alma 36. It changed her progression.  This week the spirit had guided us so much! Its nice when you get specific instructions from the Lord. We felt like we should make a calendar for Denise with all the things that need done before baptism on a specific date. She responded to it very well. She and her two kids (Tyler and Sydney) came to church on Sunday! It was so great to see them. She is feeling better and better about the 17th, and she plans to come to see a baptism on the 27th. 80% of all investigators that attend a baptismal service join the church. Pretty cool. Pray for her because I think she has a small smoking problem. 

 

The spirit also brought to rememberance a breifly mentioned referral from a member. It was way out of our way, and they said nothing would come of it. I felt stongly that we needed to go knock the house. So we headed across town on the bikes at eight at night, during the Hawkeye game (it's a religeon around here and people get ticked when you interrupt their game parties), and we had no idea if they would be home. We knocked it and a 14 year old girl comes to the door. We asked her if she goes to church, and she said no but she would like to. We volunteered the family in our ward that she babysits for to pick her up in the next morning for church, so she came as well and had a great time. She plans on attending Young Women's from now on! Her name is Alexis.

 

We have a dinner tonight at a member's home with Ken the nerd with a plethora of children. It is inevitable that we will be talking about deep doctrine like the origin of God, and the color of the grass in the world we will build with our minds and things, but he is sincerely reading so hopefully it pans out. He also has a date for December 22nd. He is awesome. 

 

Love you thanks for your prayers! Pray for these people, they need you

Elder Tall 

October 16, 2012

Hi Dallin!

 

How are you?  We have been talking about you and all your antics this weekend!  We had a great experience going to the temple with Caleb.  I'm sure you know that he goes into the MTC on 10/31.  He is very solid about it.  It was so neat at the temple because Aaron was there and Allen Bauer officiated the session.  Aaron returned to Billings last Thursday.  He said to tell you hi and enjoy your mission.  Mason gets home on Wednesday. It is wonderful that all of you, including Beau, are great friends.  It would be so great for all of you to go to the temple together one day-  Time is really flying by. 

 

Beau has been home on "vacation."  He has worked for Dad almost the whole time :) He goes back to Alaska on next Tuesday.  I guess Mason is thinking about going up there if he can.  I hope he does and Beau stays through the winter. I really want him away from Billings.  We'll see.

 

Dad had his first ever presidency meeting.  I don't think they call them that in the High Priest Group.  But, whatever.  A new experience.  He really is happy about being home and being able to be active in the church.  A mighty change of heart sometimes takes a mighty long time! He says to tell you Hi- He is still working on the Branch President's house.  He had Ben and Beau up there all week, out of cell range.

 

I'm writing the Primary program and getting to know these cute little kids.  They are so smart and cute.  We have a great ward.

 

Grandpa Tall is being released next Sunday.  He will be greatly missed as a bishop in his ward and I know he will miss being bishop, although he is a little tired.  Did I tell you ally is adopted two little girls? Ages 10 and 8, I think.

 

We have been praying for your investigators.  How are they doing?  How is your companion adjusting?  Are you riding your bikes alot?  Do you need anything? 

 

We super love you and love to hear your experiences.  Please send pics if you can.  When I enlarge the pics that you sent a long time ago, they are grainy.  I still need a good one for your placque.

 

Enjoy every moment, son!  I love you!

 

Mom

Hey Mom!

What a week! It was nice and busy. Good news! We set a baptismal date with Denise Slauson for Nov. 17th. The story has been one of the greatest blessings of my mission. As I told you before, we found Denise as we accidentally ended up in her neighborhood. We decided to knock some doors in the area since we had some time. The spirit confirmed to that we were there for a reason. We skipped a few houses and headed for the end of the street, but the spirit came strong about a certain house. We knocked it and she let us right in. In subsequent visits She told us that she had been praying and hoping for some way to get closer to God, and then we showed up.

 I was in zone conference the other day, and our zone leaders were giving a powerful training on the Doctrine of Christ. It hit me so strongly that Denise was expressing the greatest desire to repent at this time, and that we needed to read Alma 36 (Alma telling his son of his conversion) and focus on the sweetness of joy she would feel after baptism. We did so, and the spirit carried our words, and when the time was right Elder Musick got to set his first baptismal date. She said she didn't know if she was ready, and we assured her that she was. She said that in the days after she accepted the date, she was happy and care free. Please pray for her faith to increase enough to come to church this Sunday! 

As for the other work we saw tons of success this week. Next week we should be setting more dates. The Lord gave us 7 new investigators this week, and much planning and preparation to do for them. We are meeting with a guy that was found by a member of our ward tonight. He has NINE kids. Most of them are over eight! His name is Ken Boucher. He is a nerd. :)

I am gaining such a testimony of repentance. It is a commandment that in every way shows God's love. There is no greater blessing of my mission than to watch people feel forgiven or happy through the Spirit of the Lord.

Tell all the boys I love them and Im proud of them for returning with honor. 

Love you 

October 8, 2012

Hi Elder Tall,

Wasn't that a great conference?  Amazing how the leaders of the church are always looking forward 10-20 years, if not further.  There will be needs that will be fulfilled by this new announcement regarding the age of missionaries.  We just can't see it yet.  What do you and your fellow missionaries think about it?  I think one of my favorite talks was ....well all of them, but Elder Holland couldn't be more powerful and Elder Bednar's was so great about the lamp of testimony and the oil of conversion.  This little clarification makes all the difference in the story of the 10 virgins. We are so lucky to get to hear the prophet and all the leaders.  They are there for no other purpose than to lift us up and give us hope in the atonement and to love us.  So great!

Dad has injured his back.  He spent the weekend on the couch watching conference.  It's hard to keep him down.  He says to tell you hello and that he loves you.

He is employing Ben and Beau tomorrow up in Melstone, outside of roundup.  They will be there for the whole week.  I heard dad tell a customer yesterday that his back was injured and that he had a priesthood blessing with consecrated oil.  This is a great example of standing for truth and testifying at all times.  This guy knows the Bible and said, " that's exactly how they do it in the Bible." Maybe, after dad is done with the job, he can give him a Book of Mormon.  I think those people who faithfully read the Bible are being prepared for the BOM.

Well, I am off work today, and forgot that it was Monday.  So, this is late.  It may give you a chance to catch up on other correspondence.  Well, I love you and pray for you always.

Mom

Hey!

Woooooo! I loved conference! Elder Nelson, Anne Dibbs (love the gospel not just live it is what we have been teaching the members in various meetings), and Uchdorf's priesthood. Top three. Might have to throw Elder Christensen's talk about the Holy Ghost in there...I think it was Christensen.  Tough choices. I watched conference at a member's house in Iowa City with our whole district. We just gasped and then cheered when we heard the announcement. There will be so many more missionaries in the next few years! Think of how this will change highschool...it will change everything. I could not have imagined serving when I was 18, but whom the Lord calls He qualifies. I am so excited. The Lord just keeps blessing us out here.

So I recieved some good news. Iyabo, the african-american bisexual jew in Keokuk, got baptized a couple weeks ago! It was so fun to teach her.

Tell Dad to keep up the good missionary work...and lift with your legs :).

So we will be working really hard on finding this week. We also plan to set some baptism dates. We have a couple of investigators that are so close. Denise the single mother being the closest. Please pray for miracles. We need all the prayer and faith we have to reach 400 by the end of the year!

Love you ,
Elder Tall

October 8, 2012 - Ang & Dal

Hi dal!
I am sitting in the gym parking lot feelin large and in charge, about
to go to a class...conference was awesome!!!!!! I feel like we were
just emailing about the last one-time flies eh? What was your favorite
talk? Missin you. Things are going fantastic back here so be happy and
content knowing that. Including the parents and bub. They're doing great,
dad is so happy. Have a great day!!!
Ang

Sent from my iPhone

Hey
thanks for the warm fuzzy about the fam. I love to hear about that. Think of our family without the blessings of the atonement. Not the forgiving power of it, but the enabling power, to transform into a new creature. We would...struggle.

I hope you are feeling good and feeling special. We all benefit so much from you having babies :).

My favorite talk was probably Nelson's Ask the Missionaries talk.
I love you,
Elder Tall

October 1, 2012

Hi dal. We are at gma talls and I am doing this from my I phone. Not good. I love you.
 Nate's wedding went great and we are going home tonight. 
We are praying for your success. How are you ?

Mom

Sent from my iPhone

Hey there!

This week was awesome! It was a bit slow because we moved and cleaned our old apartment, but we saw great success.

We got back in contact with a lady named Denise. We are scheduled to teach her on friday. She is very prepared.She is trying to find a job right now and be a single mother. She is awesome. Kim dropped us because her husband said he would divorce her if she continued to progress and be baptized. That was hard. I wanted to help her so bad. All things in the Lord's time and according to his will!

We also got to teach the Young Women this week as well as the adults in the 5th sunday combined meeting. We had fun activities with the Young Women and showed them how they can share the Gospel. For the 5th Sunday our ward mission leader taught a portion and we taught a portion. The whole meeting was directed toward praying specifically for opportunities to testify. Every member has the responsibility to gather Israel. In order to do that we have to follow the Saviors pattern of sharing the Gospel: testify, then invite. It was a powerful experience to stand in front of all the adults of our huge ward and tell them how much I love them, and how much I appreciate the opportunity to testify every day, and how I love the Savior. We all have such a gift. We have the fulness of the Gospel, and power to testify of it given by the spirit, and that is not limited to the missionaries.

Afterward we had several members thank us and offer meals and such. Things are movin' in this ward! Loving it.

Tell Nate congrats and I love him. How is the house project going?

Love you!
Elder Tall