Monday, November 28, 2016

Monday November 28, 2016 Kamiah, ID

Hello

1. You had another baptism?! I don't think you've ever told us even about Arturo. What's his story? And you've been having quite the success as of late. Are the members giving you lots of help?
1. Well yeah I guess I never did tell you but he’s a 12-year-old kid. He was taken in with his 2 brothers by his grandma so there has been some tricky situation stuff with that but it all worked out and went very well. We also have 3 more people on date for baptism and they all seem really solid. I can promise you that the success has nothing to do with us. We are just doing our job as best we can. The members are the real missionaries here so yes they help us a ton!

2. How was your Thanksgiving? Tell us about your day and were you sure to be polite and thank the people who hosted you?
2. Thanksgiving was great. A little weird not being with family but still good. We went to Bishop Brazle’s house for a lunch and then the Degroot’s for dinner and of course I was polite! We weren’t supposed to go out and work so we had a lot of down time. And they wouldn’t let us play football so that was a little lame. But whatever.

3. The missionaries in our area spoke in our Sacrament meeting today and did a great job. Do you ever have to speak in Sacrament meetings?
3. That’s great! Yeah I’ve spoken once on faith and repentance so yeah not too hard. It’s not like we don’t talk about that stuff all day anyway.

4. One of the missionaries introduced the Light the World Christmas initiative to us. We've watched the video, it's awesome. What are your plans for this? Do you have special cards to hand out, do you get to do a nativity or something?
4. Yeah it’s pretty cool huh? We have been talking it up here and getting people to plan service. We have the wards looking for a bigger service project for the first of December. But then we can hand out special pass along cards and stuff so it’s fun.

So this week has been pretty cool. On Monday last week we got a text from Bro. Degroot. He had somebody for us to teach. His name is Tyler and he trains at the gym. He is way cool and the most interested guy I have ever talked to. He read the whole first book of Nephi in one day! Crazy right? So we have been teaching him. He came to church so that was a plus. So I’ll keep you updated on him.

The rest of this week has been pretty normal. Just working hard. It’s getting colder which is a bummer but I’ll live with it. Elder Stoddard’s finger is healing nicely. He can almost move it normally again. I’ve been missing playing soccer and running around lately. But yeah not too much to report on this week with Thanksgiving and all. People are busier than normal so they have an excuse to not meet with us. Well that’s about it! Love you guys! 

-Elder St. John
This is when we slid off the road in our truck. 
 Some weird buggy's. 

 Can you believe they have Pokémon monopoly!!!!!!





And we caught a spider. 

Monday, November 21, 2016

Monday November 21, 2016 Kamiah, ID

Questions from Mom in red...

1. How are you feeling? Did the stomach thing go away? How long did it take?
1. Feeling sooo much better and it only took about 3 days to go away, so all better.

2. Thanksgiving plans?
2. Planning on going to one of my bishops for Thanksgiving so that will be fun. Not too exciting (not really my favorite holiday anyway).

3. You have transfers coming up in a couple of weeks. How are you feeling about that?
3. I feel good about transfers. Elder Stoddard will probably leave because he’s been here for 6 months. I’ll keep you updated. I think it’s time for a change anyway.

4. There's a girl, April, at the bank that helps me all the time. She asked me this week if you were serving in Idaho. I told her yes and she says you're in her parent’s area. They are the Williams and live in Kooskie. Do you know of them? I guess they were telling her they had a missionary serving there from Spanish Fork and she recognized the last name.
4.Yeah! I’ve been meaning to ask you! Sis. Williams asked me to ask if you knew her. Yeah I know them. She loves missionaries and talks about her son constantly who is on a mission. I hope you’re not like that, but you probably are so that’s ok.

5. Are you allowed to wear beanie hats in the winter? Is it cold enough for that?
5. Yes I’m allowed to wear them. How did you know I was going to ask for one or two? But when you get them make sure they’re nice ones, not weird hand knit ones please.

So my week. Mostly a normal week but a little rough because I was sick. But all better now so the work will continue. So, funny story for the week was on Tuesday it was raining and we were out driving in the boons and pulled over to the side of the road and the road slid out from under us a little bit and we got stuck in a ditch. We called a member and he pulled us out. No damage to the truck thankfully! Turns out they had just worked on the road and it was raining so it was super soft and yeah it was kinda funny.

Anyway, had a baptism on Sunday! Arturo is his name. He’s 12 and super awesome. Had a good time with that and we’re working hard. Might be having a few more in the next month or so. So that will be fun. I’ll send pics.

I know God has a plan for me and being here on a mission is a big part of that plan. I have already seen the blessings to me and to others while I’ve been here. Sooo love ya!

(ps. gloves included in your next package would be much appreciated thank you. Also got your other package thanks!)

-Elder St. John

Monday, November 14, 2016

Monday November 14, 2016 Kamiah, ID

Well this week has been pretty normal.
Answers to questions…(questions were written by Colten’s younger sisters this week…)

1. Do a lot of people there own horses? If so, what's the rough estimate of how many horses each person has?
1. A few people do but not a ton so probably the same as in Utah or Spanish Fork. But there are a few.

2. Has it snowed there yet? Will it snow there or just be rainy?
2. It hasn’t snowed and I’ve heard that it’s kind of a banana belt here so I don’t know it will snow that much.

3. Do you know what your plans for Thanksgiving will be?
3. I have no idea what my plans for Thanksgiving are yet but I’ll let you know when I find out.

4. Are the people in your town generally shorter or taller than you?
4. What the? I don’t know, I’m not in a foreign country or some other planet. They’re just normal.

So this week has been a boring week which is kind of nice because we actually got to do some missionary work instead of meetings. The only thing is we had interviews and exchanges on Wednesday which was fun and we had some blessings come from that.

We had a lot of lessons this week with a guy named Mike. He’s a pretty cool guy and he is working through some hard stuff. If he can make the changes he wants, then he will be happy.

Sorry my email is short today. I got sick I think on Friday. We ate some bad chili that this person gave us and I don’t think it was very sanitary. We ate it to be nice and I of course got sick so my stomach has been hurting and such but I’ll get better so don’t worry. I’ll look for your package! Thanks. 

-Elder St. John

  This house has a flippin ton of cats. Like a lot.
 This is Elder Stoddard's finger.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Monday November 7, 2016 Kamiah, ID

Well hi! I’m glad you got my letter. They (the Cubs) won!? No way! That’s great!

1. Tell us more about Debbie's baptism. Who baptized her? Did you have to do a lot for in preparation for the baptism? Was it well attended by your ward?
1. A member named Bro. Gourley baptized her. He is her main member fellowship. We didn’t have to do too much. Our ward mission leader is awesome and he did most of the work. It was very well attended. She had a lot of friends come! It was way fun.

2. Did you really buy a coat for $21? That seems to be what your letter indicated. Tell me more.
2. Yes, really 21$. It’s not super thick or fancy but it will work for here. It’s just a plain black more like a jacket but it’s better than a jacket. It’s good though.

So my week was good. It flew by. Nothing major happened until Friday. We went to Lewiston for zone training and that was good. Had some big announcements. They are changing things so that we will have zone conference and interviews every transfer. Usually it’s every other. So that’s some bigger news for us missionaries. Also they announced the new Christmas initiative that will be coming out on Nov 25. It’s going to be way cool. I can’t tell you about it yet because its top secret and us missionaries just got a sneak peek into it. So be looking forward to that.

On Saturday we had another baptism for Jamie (the 16-year-old if you forgot). That went well. I’ll send pics of that. Then we went with our wml (ward mission leader) to a potential’s house and got confronted by a Native American kid who thought we were evil white people and got mad at us because we were "knocking doors" on an Indian rez. He was just bitter and mean so that was interesting. Hadn’t had that happen before.

We also started teaching a former Jehovah witness named James. He’s a pretty interesting guy and has had a weird religious background. He’s interested so that’s cool. On Sunday we had an awesome lesson with a kid named Arturo. He’s 12 and is living with a member family. The only reason he hasn’t been baptized yet was because he was going to move in with his brother, but now he’s not so we put him on date for the 26th of Nov. So that’s exciting too because we had been praying really hard for his living situation to change and it did! So that’s the power of prayer for you.

Well thanks for the update. The weather was a lot better this week. Lots more sunshine.
Well that’s all I got for ya!

-Elder St. John
This is Jamie. She looks not so happy because the water was cold.
 The kids are her family the Masons. They are awesome. Crazy but awesome.
Me standing next to a dead deer. Most people just have the head laying around, but these people had the whole body. Well most of it.