Its about that time again – this week is transfers! Elder Evensen will
be going to Arlington to be companions with Elder Smith. Elder Smiths current companion, Elder Petersen will be coming here with me!

President has been threatening for a while to make a Sisters Bike
area. The Tongan wards in our zone will be a bike area this transfer!
Kinda crazy since they cover just about the whole metroplex…haha

We had a funny experience this week, We were on the way to an
appointment and saw a little, “Take a book, leave a book” place on
someones side yard next to the street, so what did we do? We left a
book! THE book! haha we thought it was pretty clever :]

We have had a lot of good lessons this week, itd take forever to tell
about all the experiences, so Ill shorten it to a couple!

We met with the Crow Family this week! Brother Crow took the
Restoration pretty well, he has been so involved in his church and
such and hasnt heard really anything about our faith. He thought the
Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith and such, he is considering reading it. He will be a super strong member when he accepts it!

Brother Procter is working toward the Melchizedek Priesthood and we’ve been helping him study for it! It feels good to know we are helping him so much as he thanks us for answering all his questions. I love that guy.

Turns out I have an ear infection…so im going to see an ENT doctor
tomorrow….whooo!

We also taught Lance and Celsa again! Set a baptismal date for Oct 23! He had awesome questions like, “how do you know if a prophet is a true prophet?” BAM scripture power. “By their fruits you shall know them”!

Today we ran into a brother from the Lakescities! So cool to see him
again after a year!

Set another baptism date with William! He has a lot of our
foundational beliefs, like the nature of God and everything!

I am so sorry this is so short, but so much time was taken up this
week with meetings (DLC, District Meeting), going to the Urgent Care, and other small responsibilities.

The gospel is true. You know it, I know it. You have more influence
over people than I ever will here on my mission. It takes members to
be friends with their nonmember contacts and share it! We are just
here to teach. We’ve had some members that will come to us with
stories of their missionary work with their friends, or tell us they
are trying to get their friends over with us. “When all is said and
done, the greatest duty is to preach the gospel” -out of ghe mouth of
the prophet Joseph. 90% of the baptisms here come from the work of members. Which means missionaries are being ineffective if they arent getting the help of members.

I love yall so much!

Elder Householder

“Where is Joseph Smith in the Bible?” Is close to the dumbest question I have been asked this last week. Our response, “Where is ‘Peter’ or ‘Paul’ in the Old Testament?” So many people out here say, “I love learning about different beliefs, share yours with me!” And when we try, they pick apart everything! Never let you actually share what you believe. Some are bashers, others are just down right ignorant and stubborn. Some of them are just hilarious!

This week has been good! We met with Celsa and Lance (her husband) for the first time. Turns out that they moved from the (great) (super awesome) (da best) Valley of the Sun! Been to the Easter Pageant, Mesa Temple Visitors Center, and Gilbert Temple Open house! It was cool to have a connection with them. We set a solid flag in front of them for their next ordinance: Celsa to the Temple, and Lance to Baptism. We taught half of the restoration (taking it slow so he understands it all) and have another lesson on Thursday. Yeah buddy.

I went on exchange in Euless on Tuesday with Elder Rarotoga! Back out on bike in the heat, I wanted to punch satan in the face real hard (by having a super good exchange and such). We biked out and prayed to be lead to people. We talked to everyone we saw and taught some good couple of lessons! I saw this lady sitting down on the stairs in an apartment complex and decided to go talk to her. She said, “2 of you guys already came and talked to me today…” and we just got into a conversation with her until her friend Christina came up. The ladys aid, “Christina, they want to talk to you!” and ran inside! hahaha So we talked to Christina and she said that she used to go to church (at the same building I attended in the Fossil Ridge Ward) and it was so cool! We taught her and her friend Jessica and set up a return appointment. Said they would come to church if they could have a ride!

We had a couple experiences like that that day.

The elders in Euless had the mindset that people there dont want to
listen, so it was cool to show them with prayer and diligence, they
can find a ton of people to teach! Also, we had a painting service
project that was sweetish fish.

I have dedicated a picture to this comment: Leadership is hard!
Tiring! Probably the hardest thing for me to do is delegate. Its hard
to teach the district leaders in a way they will effectively help
their district. But, its how the Lord leads, and so will I.

We’ve also been helping the Ward Council in finding out about the new move ins. One in particular was a very cool experience! We went to go knock on Sister T’s door to get to know her, tell her where the church is and such. We knocked on that door like 3 times. the 3rd time we left a card that had our info on it and asked her to give us a call. We decided to try her 1 more time a week later. We were walking away and she answered the door! She stepped outside and explained that her nonmember husband wasnt open to visitors, but she has been really wanting to start attending church again – she just has not had the courage to tell her husband that. However, she said that the last time we came and left the card, she had pulled in when we had started down the street. “Seeing you down the street and your card gave me that last bit of courage I needed. I talked to my husband and we have decided to alternate going to his church and our church from week to week.” Hurrah for Israel! Sooo cool.

Our Father answers prayers sent with real intent. Are our prayers
wrote? Are we like the Zoramites? I invite all yall to picture
yourself speaking to your Father and deeply thank him for everything he has done for you, pray for what things to ask for, and then call down the powers of heaven to work in your lives. This is a real divine gift God has given to us. Let us use it with real intent.

Everyone, I love you loads!

Elder Householder

(Elder Evensen and I talking on the phone with a district leader)

(I found the Hood. Its on Hood street. Duhh)
(You dont want to know what that ladder is standing on, Mom ;] )
(Most of the Zone! minus the APs, Office Elders, and Stotts [Senior Couple] )
(Mega Churches Everywhere)

If I had two wishes, they’d be:

1. More hours in the day (where are they hiding?)
   Our “tasks” are endless with no time to do them….
2. More hours in the night (where does my sleep go?)
   Responsibilities sometime last into the night.

We had the wonderful opportunity to spend 12 hours with President Ames on Tuesday! We met at the Mission home 8:45am and had prayer with his son before school. After we dropped Jacob off, we visited each of the companionships in our Zone for Interviews. We had the responsibility to train the missionaries further on iPads, make sure they are using them to their full capacity, and inspect their apartments. While Pres. Interviewed one elder/sister, we trained the other. Started with the Assistants, and moved on to the end. He fed us on the road, and we were able to counsel with him on our missionaries (which I feel is a pretty rare and fantastic opportunity). President trusts us with so much information its humbling. We ran hours late though (typical with
President and interviews – he loves talking with the missionaries 🙂 )

We held District Leader Council on wednesday and related the vision to them on what we learned at Mission Leadership Council.

We received some great Senior Missionaries in our Zone, Brother and Sister Stotts (Bro. S used to be Pres Ames Bishop). We were asked to help them download the area book app on their iPad and help them understand it. So great!

Also had our Zone Council this Friday and used our District Leaders
and Sister Training Leaders involved in helping the Zone receive the
message President was trying to get across in MLC. It was all about
repentance and beijg what our investigators need. Then also knowing how to help our investigators repent.

Saturday, we had the great opportunity to go on exchange with the
Assistants. I went with Elder Ramsey in his area (which spans just
about 3 of my 5 areas Ive served in!) Elder Mansaray (My 2nd companion who is now an AP) went with Elder Evensen in my area. We taught some great lessons, helped someone move some washers and dryers, and were fed twice! I got to drive past the Fossil Ridge area and River Trails area and memories of course fled through 🙂
Elder Ramsey and I played the Ukulele and sang hymns together that night! (APs apparently get special privileges haha ;] )

Stake Conference this weekend was amazing. PResident and Sister Ames spoke saturday night and really called everyones help in moving the work forward. Called the ward councils to step up. We really need it. A lot of times we feel left alone – even with our ward mission leaders.

We were asked to be a part of Brother Healy’s Melchizedek Priesthood ordination! Such a great experience.

Last night we contacted someone who referred themselves on Mormon.org for a visit and it turned out to be a part member family that just moved in! the husband is interested in joining the church! the wife took him around the Mesa visitors center and been to the Easter Pageant and Gilbert Temple Open House!! We meet tonight to set a baptismal date ;] shhhh!

Everyone, I love you so much! I have a great testimony of diligence,
love, and prayer. Repentance also needs to be a part of our lives
everyday, if not every moment. Please write down one thing you need to change this week and actively make it a part of your life. If you keep this in mind, the sacrament on Sunday will be more powerful and you will have more purpose.

“When thou art converted, strengthen your brethren”

PS: Dont smoke – we were asked to get out of our apartment because someones bud lit up some mulch or something. we smelt a campfire at night and smelled it in the morning going to workout!

Elder Householder

Hey hey!

This week has been pretty hectic! Rarely has there been a time we had to just find people this week. Lessons, meetings, the whole shebang.

Tuesday I went on an exchange with on of the district leaders – Elder
Argyle. Bro Parish recently asked us to go try a brother in the ward
he couldnt get ahold of. Elder Argyle and I gave it a try that morning. A man opened the door and seemed really excited to see us! We
shook his hand and asked for the man we were looking for. He said the man had moved, but then called his daughter to the door. Kathy asked us to come in and sit down! She told us that she is Catholic and served a “mission” in the Philippines and told us that it just broke her heart as she saw many of the catholics over there converting to our church. I was thinking, “No duh, President Ostler is the Mission President over there” haha. But Kathy said she just wanted to understand us more to see where we were coming from. She then basically started trying to tear us apart – saying that her church is correct, shes gone through the studies and school for it and that we were wrong. “I know my faith is correct, so it really concerns be by what power your faith has its miracles!” yata yata. Her battle was a battle of stories, “Or church has miracles! What does yours have?” kind of thing. Elder Argyle would explain some, but then she would find some anti to try to throw at us. So I kept telling her we could talk all day about this, but we should go to the bible to settle the debate and she kept pulling it away from that each time I tried. So we thanked her and left! As we left she was saying things like, “I really do pray for you! I hope you’ll come to the truth!” haha We were like, “Same here!”

Our stake presidency has asked us to teach the youth in the ward the lessons, so we had a couple of those.

-We had Mission Leadership Meeting on Friday! Good to see a bunch of my old buddies, Elder Reed, Elder Judy, and Elder Thomas – 2 of which became Zoneleaders this transfer! President talked for a couple hours on repentance. How we need to first be repenting ourselves, and how we need to help our investigators repent. It was very spirit-filled and President was in tears a couple times. It is great to see so much love and devotion in a leader – someone everyone can respect without the slightest hypocriticism.

-After the meeting Jessica came for her interview with President! She came out in tears as President said, “You were right, she is ready!”

-Before Jessica’s baptism on Saturday, we had to prepare the Stake
Mission Council document (some 36 pages long) for the Council
yesterday. Jessica was well supported with a big part of the ward in
attendance in her baptism. Brother Chesney’s parents even visited from Kansas!

-Jessica has gotten close to a couple people in the ward and 1 of them gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Both the speaker and Jessica were crying during the talk and program. Very Spiritual!

Sunday was complicated! We had our Stake Mission Council at 10am (the same time as our sacrament meeting). Elder Evensen was asked to confirm Jessica, but we were expected to be at the meeting that happens only once a month. So we woke up early and picked up Elder Argyle and Elder Rowe from Keller and brought them to our building. I dropped Elder Evensen and Elder Rowe off at sacrament meeting and Elder Argyle and I went to SMC. Again, we were in a room with a bunch of multi-millionaires such as: The Stake Presidency, President Ames, his counselor President Pratt, and all the ward mission leaders from the stake in the high council room and the Stake Presidency drilled me on the report we had put together of the missionary work and retention in the stake. Pretty crazy! But it all worked out haha

We had Brother Procter, Brother Healy, Jessica, and Brother Chesney come with us to the Mission Presidents Fireside last night and they loved it! Got to see Bobby too!

Everyone, remember the words of President Monson: “A vision without work is only a daydream, while a work without a vision is drudgery.” Goals are a must in order to have success in life, but without hard work, it wont happen!

I love all yall so much!

Elder Householder

PS: We also had to stay up thursday night to help the office elders organize all the materials to be given to the mission at MLCs

This week has been awesome!

Everything has been going well despite the iPad imput. Our area used to be a bike area for years so all the missionary work was limited to a corner of the area (because the past missionaries didnt want to travel to the further parts of the area). The corner consists of 3 apartment complexes full of people that are open to you sharing a message, but not open to committing. They are never there for return appointments, and when you catch them again, they wont read, come to church or anything. This area is where all of our “Former Investigators” and “Potential Investigators” are. Meaning we dont have promising people to try by. I cant do what Ive done in my past areas. So we are finding a way to work with members a lot more and search other ways. Its difficult.

We met with Jessica 2 times this week! She is progressing very well!
She even told us that at one of her business meetings she declined the wine that was offered (because she wanted to live the Word of Wisdom) and at the end of the night she realized that nobody else drank either! Standard setter! She is so ready for her baptism THIS WEEKEND! whooo! Im excited for her.

We went on a temple trip!! Its been a couple months since ive gone, it felt really good!

I had dinner with some members that went to Red Mountain this week! Twas cool to spend time with members who know about home!

On thursday we met the sisters at a tongan grill to exchange teaching records to be checked. They were on exchange. With us was a sister serving in my greenie area! I asked her how things were going and she said there wasnt much going on there. I asked for her areabook (iPad) and I starred all the people I was working with and told her to go see them! It was cool to have that experience. Yes, I told her to get Bobby involved with the missionary work there :] I wasnt going to eat any food there, but the place was owned by members and they brought me some free food!

One morning we got a call from an elder in our Zone asking why he had a notification for 120 referrals on his Areabook app. We were sooo confused, thats insane! We later found out that all of the referrals that have ever been sent to everyones area in the past 3 years was backed up off the computer onto our iPads and we have to contact them all asap.

We got a call recently that went something like this, “Hello Elders,
my aunt is a member of your church and said that it is amazing. Im
moving into the area and want to join your church, would you be
interested in meeting with my family and I?” Hahaha Ive been waiting for this day!!

Saturday was a heck of a day! We had breakfast with a member, where he loaded us up with six pancakes each! So good. Dinner came around and we didnt realize someone had signed up to feed us so we double-booked ourselves! We had 3 meals with members and it was a horrible lead up to a fast sunday….haha but it was delicious!

Everyone, This is the greatest work anyone can do here on this earth. If anyone wants true happiness, it is through the gospel of Jesus Christ in the Restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. Do the test, even if you are members – live it to its fullness and watch everything grow around you to its fullness.

I love all y’all! Keep being awesome!

Elder Householder

My name is Ashley Hoopes and we just had your sons over for dinner.  Thank you so much for raising such wonderful righteous men.  They were full of the spirit and made our evening so special!  We fed them basil tomato pasta, breadsticks, and raspberry cake!  They are leaving well fed and have several people to visit tonight!  They are on fire!  Have a fantastic evening!

Ps...this is a Independence Day tree...not a Christmas tree :-)

Also, elder Householder's parents: my sister and I are from Mesa and went to Red Mountain High School :-). Our parents still live off Power and McKellips.

This week has been swell!

–Tuesday the mission greenies shipped in (the day before transfers)!

3 weeks ago a greenie randomly shipped in, so he was allowed to go to dinner at the Mission home with the others that arrived tuesday. The Assistants called and asked if we could pickup his companion (Elder Johnson) he’d been with the last 3 weeks and take him proselyting with us while all the greenies had dinner and a testimony meeting. The interesting part is that Elder Johnson a sign language missionary and is deaf! It was something like off “Sue Thomas” or something – he had to read our lips. But it was pretty cool! He was still able to teach with us. We actually talked to like 3 people who had taken Sign Language classes in the past! What are the odds!

–While we were at the Mission Home waiting for Elder Johnson to arrive, we got to see all the greenies walk in shell-shocked and it was a de-ja-vu moment – I relived my first day! Very cool experience.
I ended up talking to Elder Adams (who ended up being assigned to my zone the next day!).

–This week we have been checking areabooks hardcore! Sooo hectic. We are supposed to be done by Friday (The end of the month and we still have a good quarter to do. President wants it done fast so we can get on to online proselyting. (Facebook is in the next phase of transitioning into iPads – areabook check is the last thing to do in phase 2). All information from the teaching records have to be put in: Name, address, phone number, scheduled baptismal date, dates of teaching events, principles taught in each of those events, commitments left in each of those events, a lesson report for each of those events, background info (to the standard of US data privacy law), yata yata yata – I could go on forever. This is for allllll the records… we keep having to give the missionaries back teaching
records to fix and it lengthens the time.

–I remember once Dad once told me he found how to trace our family history back to Adam and Eve. This week I found some cool stuff too! I was spazzing out! I went to Familysearch.org and saw the banner that said, “Find out if your ancestors were in the joseph smith papers!” So found that we are related to John Butler who found off the mobs with the Prophet Joseph. So cool! Then from there I traced it way back! Found ancestors like Charlemagne, Helenus of Troy, and many others! I also went far enough that I found found out I am related to ADAM & EVE. Just like my pops. He best be proud. ;]

–We’ve had some great lessons with Jessica and Brother Chesney! We recently taught the Plan of Salvation. It was a little hard for her to understand why God would be contradicting with commandments to adam and eve, “have kids” and “dont eat of the fruit”. We tried to explain it to her the best we could.

–We had another lesson scheduled with them yesterday. We showed up and had some Cajun Creole food (mostly seafood), Louisiana style! The picture taken was Jessica’s art work! My first time with Crab – im pro now!

Danquill called the other day and was going through a rough time. We directed him to the Book of Mormon and read some scriptures over the phone. They really spoke to him and he said, “Ive never read a full book in my life, but Im going to read this whole book form front to back!” We invited him to church and he accepted (after so many declines in the past)! We came and picked him up with a member and he took notes the whole time! Everything in church really spoke to him! He also really clicked with a ll the Elders at church – everyone came and said hi! He wants to always get work off on Sundays to come!

Family: I love you so much! Even though I cant see you, I feel drawn a lot closer to you. Isn’t eternity going to be great? Be worthy for it.

Friends: I love y’all loads! Be the best ward missionaries ever! I hope you are preparing yourselves well for the opportunities that will be placed in front of you.

“And If I dont see you, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!”

PS: Last week I meant read Alma’s letter to his son Shiblon, not Corianton

Elder Householder

Dear Family and Friends!

This week has been really great!

Tuesday we went on exchange with the Euless 1st Elders! I had Elder Rarotoga with me in my area. We wanted to work on praying without ceasing. We found a street with a couple potentials on it, parked the car, and walked to each of them. “Door after door after door was slammed in our face! Can you guess what happened next? …. Nothin’!”

Hahaha actually no doors slammed that day, nobody answered! After the last door we knocked, we stopped in their driveway and said a prayer. In the middle of the prayer, the door opened and a lady said, “Hello?” I turned around and started talking to her while Elder Rarotoga finished the prayer! haha. Turns out she babysits for a family in Euless that Elder Rarotoga knew and her deceased mom was LDS. We talked to this guy named Jeremy and he happened to talk about how he hates all this wet heat, “the dry heat is way better” i told him i was from Arizona and he looked at me and held up his arm. There was a full Arizona flag tattoo from his shoulder to his wrist! Hes from Phoenix! He let us back.

We taught a legit lesson to Austin that night too! We taught the Plan
of Salvation and it blew him away. We talked about Adam and Eve and he blurted out, “i am so mad at them for eating that apple! If they didnt do that, we would all be talking face to face with God!” Then we explained 2 Nephi 2 and before we know it, he was saying, “im glad them ate the fruit because we have all this experience out here!”

Someone came by and “discreetly” gave him a bag of weed for his
sister. When he realized what it was, he looked at us and said, “oh
crap!” And ran it inside…not abnormal to see! We tried so hard to
set a baptismal date with him, but he didnt feel worthy (we know he is more than many). We are continuing to help him realize.

We were invited over for dinner with Jessica and Brother Chesney on Wednesday and they told us of an experience they had a previous day. They were going to read out if the scriptures and Brother Chesney allowed Jessica to choose what book of scripture. She chose the Pearl of Great Price. Then he said, “what book?” “Abraham” “What chapter?” “3!” Hahah kolob. They prepared for our lesson by learning about Kolob. Hahaha she actually took great comfort in those verses! We started teaching about the Restoration by defining God. She had questions about what the Holy Ghost was and we spent most of the time helping her understand it. We even used some more Pearl of Great Price scriptures to help explain! (First time ive used that book for nonmembers, especially lesson 1!). Then, there was a request to talk about the Word of Wisdom, so we turned to D&C (first lesson? What the what!) and had to explain book of mormon, prophets and revelation before we could teach it. She accepted to live it!

Later in the week we called President Ames to talk to him about
teaching Jessica – she lives in Dallas….He said that we should
encourage going to Dallas because if they break up, she’ll have a
support group. But if she wants to stay, she will stay. That was a
hard thing to hear! Shes legit!

Yesterday we taught them again and counseled with them. We taught the rest of the Restoration and she understands it perfectly! She has loads of great questions. We then brought it up. “So has Brother Chesney talked much about ward boundaries? We realize you live it Dallas…” Then Brother Chesney butted in and said, “Well you just got a referral!” Then Jessica pleaded with us to stay in the Grapevine Ward. They apparently were ward shopping around Dallas and In our stake but stopped with ours because it felt like home! So we will continuing to teach her 🙂

We got to call the Zone for the Transfer Doctrine this Morning! The
Zoneleaders have always messed with me when calling for transfers
since my first transfer! Soooo i told one sister she was getting
transfered to Bejing and her new companion i said was going to be
Elder Ling (Shes going home so it wasnt that mean) haha. Elder Evensen and I are stayin here! Glen Beck’s ward lost missionaries and the Southlake ward missionaries are going to cover it along with theirs.

Stay true! If you feel like if you dont have much to work on, read
Almas letter to Corianton and examime yourself again.

Love,

Elder Householder

Hey everyone!

I dont believe I have ever felt so unintelligent in my life! This week
I went on exchange in Southlake….and sat in for part of their
sacrament meeting. They are all CEOs and big business men! I kinda
felt like Brian Regan at a party with high class people, “Can I stand
here?” Haha. Riding through Southlake with all the looming houses and tracting them was a cool experience!

We got a referral from the Keller 2nd Sisters and called him up. Zaram and his two kids Zaram and Zaraim (Only in TeHas). He said he wasnt sure if he wanted to meet, but we convinced him otherwise! We showed up and he was freaking out (with a beer in hand) at his iPad screen while recording himself. In the camera lense was the sun glare that created a green circle on his screen. “Woah Man!! Look a green orb is following me man! And im not doing anything!!” He was watching a video he recorded of himself skyping his high friend. They were dancing and singing together and it was the most hilarious picture ever! Not sure if he was going to remember the lesson, but he commited to baptism!

Hahah later this week we visited him and he just said he was fine
where he was at….saying that drugs and alcohol were called “spirits”
for a reason! We asked him if they were good spirits or bad spirits.
He said, “Good spirits man!” Great. Brothers and Sisters, here you
have it – half of my known texas life. Haha

We set up a leason with Brother Chesney and Jessica for Wednesday night! At church they stayed 2 hours and then Brother Chesney told us, “Well we’re going to head out!” And Jessica whispered into his ear and pointed to the Relief Society room! She wanted to stay the full 3 hours! Im so excited for them.

Brother Danny has been baptized for 13 years but is still struggling
to accept somethings like the Book of Mormon and Eternal Marraige. We took him to the Mission Presidents fireside last night (for investigators, recent converts, and returning members). Afterward in the car he asked us, “So, how did you both come to know the Book of Mormon was true?” I explained how I gained a testimony and the witness of the spirit I received – how strong and peaceful it was. Elder Evensen shared his experience. Danny then said, “I got my answer tonight! Maybe Ive been receiving the answer for years, but it has gone right over my head. I feel like President Ames was speaking right to me! I felt an immense peace. All my concerns really dont matter!”

It gave me goosebumps and made me so grateful.

At the fireside I saw Danny (another one) and Morgan from a past area! Danny got home from his mission when I was there and told us that he has a friend (Morgan) that he wants to bring over for the lessons! We taught her a couple times and became good friends before we realized that she should be taught and going to the YSA ward. It was sad, but we had the APs tale over the teaching. Fast forward about 5 months she received her witness these things were true, decided to be baptized (amidst the conflict with parents at the time), and was asked to speak at the Mission Presidents Fireside! It was so cool to see the beginning and end of her conversion process!

I love all yall! Keep up the good work, and share with a friend that
which is most important to you: The Gospel!

Elder Householder