Tuesday May 30, 2017 St. Maries, ID

1. Where do you live? Tell us a little about the town of St. Marie's and what your address is.

1. I live in St. Maries Idaho. On Main Street. The town is about 2 thousand people or so. It’s just a little place. It reminds me of Kamiah a ton. 325 S. Main Ave. #2 St. Maries Idaho 83861 is my address. Tons of logging here like Kamiah so again very similar. 

2. How's your companion Elder Horne? By the pictures we've received he looks like a pretty big kid.

2. He’s amazing. He is from Farmington, Utah. And yeah I’m just small and he’s tall so I think it’s mostly because I’m not a big person. 

3. Looks like you've been busy helping this week at the Red Barn Thrift Store in which you get to wear some pretty sweet overalls! Tell us all about that! Is this just for service or more of an actual assignment?

3. Yeah so that’s just a regular service thing we do. The ladies there love us! The lady that sends the pics is Dina and she is hilarious so don’t be weirded out if she makes jokes over text with you. So, the overalls are a tradition the missionaries do there. They’re our "work" clothes. They’re kinda funny. I haven't worn overalls since I was 4!

4. How's the truck? Do you drive or does your companion?

4. The truck is sweet! Cherry red and super nice. My comp drives at the moment.

5. Is your town big enough to have a Walmart? Where do you shop?

5.Nope. Just good old Harvest Foods again!

6. Please send pictures of everything!

6. I will try.

So this week has been great! Got here and started working and I have missed Idaho so much! I can’t believe I would actually say that. But I love it here. It’s so pretty and the people are so nice. Way nicer than Spokane. The weather has finally been good as well. We went out biking and I actually got a little sun burnt. That’s how good the weather was! Mostly we have been getting to know the investigators and members here this week. But this seems like a really good area and Elder Horne is awesome. He’s a really good missionary and a good kid. We’ve have a lot of fun so far. We do a lot of service here and it’s crazy how much the people in this town love the missionaries. Everybody here is nice. It’s a dream come true.

We have a baptism scheduled for this Saturday. I didn’t do much to get it but I’m happy to be here to see it through. Her name is Isabella and she’s 14 and part of a part member family. Also, we have an old lady on date for next Saturday and she is in her 80's with terminal cancer so were excited that she will be able to be baptized before she goes.

Some of the pictures I’ll send is when we drove to a town called Avery. It’s way cool. It has like 20 people in it. It’s funny. But yeah that’s my update to ya!

It’s sad to hear about Kathrynn. I did know her and I hope that things will be ok for her family and friends. Good luck to Cass with wedding stuff. I hope you had fun on your hike. I could use some more hair stuff in the near future when you get a chance the mini ones don’t last very long. Well love ya and hope you have a good week!

These first 3 pictures were sent to me from the lady at the Red Barn Thrift Store where the missionaries do service every week. In overalls:)

 

 

Monday May 22, 2017 Millwood, WA

Hey mom.
1.How are you doing this week?
1. Good

2.When are your next transfers?
2. Tomorrow 

3.Did you get Cass's wedding announcement?

3. Yes

4.What was the best thing that you did this week?

4. Had a training by another general authority. 

This week was interesting. On Friday we had a really long training by Elder Golden from the missionary department. He did a really good job and shared some really good insights with us about missionary work. How to set goals better and such. But by the end of the training Elder McKnight’s hearing aids had died! So he was deaf for the rest of the day. Thank the heavens that I know sign language! It was really interesting and funny because I had to do all the talking at the places we went that day.

So the news with transfers is that I’m getting transferred!!! I know feels like I just got here. But I’m going back to the boons! I’m getting transferred to St. Maries Idaho! That's near lake Coeur d’Alene. I hear that it will be really beautiful there. But the best news of all is that I will be driving a brand new Toyota Tacoma!!!! Like really new like 2017 new. It’s great. This area is almost as big as Kamiah so I’m super excited to go back to the backwoods Idaho people I’ve missed so much. My new companion will be Elder Horn. I’ll update you more next week. But besides that, this week has been full of ups and downs.

Well I hope things are going good there I know Hadlie and River are excited to be out of school. And all the wedding stuff I’m sure is stressful and fun but I hope you have a good week. I miss you and love ya!

-Elder St. John

 

 

These pictures were sent to us by the sweet Christensen family on Elder St. John and Elder McKnight's last day together in Millwood. I know Elder St. John will miss being in their great home. They've been a favorite family & have been so sweet to him! Thanks Christensen's!

After the training by Elder Golden. Elder St. John is in the far right hand corner.

Monday May 15, 2017 Millwood, WA

Ok well nothing super new here. I’ll send a couple of pics. 

I hope the wedding goes well. And that people aren't to stressed. ummm I can’t really think of anything to talk about because we just talked yesterday.  I guess I’ll try and get a picture of the river for you. It’s not that exciting though. Well have a good week!​

Also the pictures that you’re going to ask questions about are in the paper mill across the street from our apartments. We do service there every week.

From Mother's Day dinner & Skype. With the Christensen's son.

Thank goodness for Sister Christensen who sends us all these great pictures. This is what the Elders brought for dessert to their house on Mother's Day!



 I think Ricky should come here, buy this Porsche and refinish it!

Monday May 8, 2017 Millwood, WA

Monday, May 8, 2017

Hey mom!

1.When will you be calling us on Mother’s Day?

So I think we will do it in the evening on Sunday. Like 5ish? I’m not sure. You should just text or call Sis. Christensen up here and talk with her. I’m sure you will have a lot of questions for me then. 

So this week was pretty good. As far as missionary work goes it’s been slow. We have been meeting with a lot of the members and have really been trying to gain their trust and encourage them to do missionary work. It’s going to take some time to get them moving.

On Saturday we had some General Authorities come to our mission. They were Elder Holland, Elder Ardurn of the seventy and Bishop Cosse of the Presiding Bishopric. It was epic! Such a spiritual powerhouse and I can’t even believe the spirit they bring to their meetings. If I could tell you what they shared with us I would, but it’s too much and I can’t put it all into words. I can barely put my normal week into words. But to say the least it was one of the most impactful meetings I’ve ever been to. Elder Holland is very passionate about the gospel and told us that God wants us forever not just for our missions and what we’re doing here will change our lives forever. 

Good luck to Brooke with her 4th child and that’s an interesting name. Well thanks for the update. Talk to ya on Sunday! love ya!

-Elder St. John



 The entire Washington Spokane Mission at their meeting with Elder Holland.

 Elder St. John - 3rd from the left at their meeting with Elder Holland.

 Another couple of pictures from Sister Christensen (she's awesome!)

Enjoying the beautiful weather after a few weeks of A LOT of rain!

 

Monday May 1, 2017 Millwood, WA

Hello

1. How was your birthday??? We saw pictures of your celebration with the Christensen's. That was very nice of them to celebrate for/with you. How was dinner? And the cake?

1. My birthday was great. The actual day not so much but celebrating with the Christensen’s was great! Dinner was amazing! I can’t believe they actually made salmon for me! The cake was actually really good. She did a great job with it. They even signed happy birthday for me.

Well this week was kinda just normal besides the birthday thing. Birthdays on a mission are just like normal days nothing to special. The Christensen’s are really awesome and take care of us so well. I love them!

So the bad news is that our investigator on date for baptism dropped us this week. She didn’t give a good reason why so we have been trying to figure things out to see if there might still be hope. We will see.

So there was nothing really noteworthy this week. This upcoming week will be way exciting! We have some general authorities coming and we are having a mission conference! Elder Holland is coming to speak to us on Saturday! Then we are having a special stake conference. So, that will be way cool. I will let you know how that goes and what I learn.

Besides that, nothing new or upcoming. I can’t believe how fast time moves. It’s already week 4 of the transfer so I hope I stay for another transfer. I feel like I have more work to do here.

Well I love you and I’ll talk to ya next week. Thanks for the updates! And for real, Brooke is that pregnant?! Wow I feel like I’ve been under a rock.   

 These are the Christensen's - such great, kind people to take care of our boy on his birthday!