Dec 26

Dear Family (and anyone else you made be listening in),

Thank you! Thank you all for you wonderful spirit, and love, and support, and friendship, and happynesses! You are all awesome!  Thanks to all who sent me letters and cards and packages, and love for Chrisrmas and even for my entire life! Were would I be with out all ya'll?! Please, all those who are listening, make sure that those who aren't listening knows of my graditude for them.

Yesterday was awesome! We had an investigator at church! Not just one of those part-member-non-members, or just a some one who happens to be visiting a member so they tagged along and they really live in some other mission far far away. Nope. A real investigator that WE found and WE taught and WE invited and SHE came! She came! Do you know the return rate of invites to church? or even the return rate of people with rides lined up for church? Or how many people say "I'll come to ya'll church this week" or "I'll try" and then don't? My personal favorite one is "I'm ain't gon'na make no promises". But this one said that she'd come, AND SHE CAME! On her own! No wake up call, no ride, nothing! And she came! Even thought the roads were icey and we were only having sacrament meeting, and half the active branch wasn't even there, but she was! And the members (that were there) were SO happy to say "our missionaries had an investigator at church this week." She was even invited to a members house for dinner this Wednesday. And she hugged every member on her way out the door. I don't even care that we had to walk around all day yesterday in the freezing snow and that we had 3 appointment bonk us and thus all we had left was knocking doors in the snow. Who cares?! Ravin was at church!

Appart from that everything is great! I had a great Christmas! I recieved packages from Mom and Dad, the Campbells, Whitney Redford (soon to be Billings), and Grandmother Dorthy (and many others for the whole clan). Thank you all SO much! Enjoyed evey one! I just wish I had money to send ya'll some packages. I'll write you.

So what else? ah... That might be it. My voice has been shot for the past weeks. Pretty much just be for I left for my training to Chattannooga. It's been gone since then.

Love you! thank you!
elder von sowards!

Dec 12- ONE YEAR

Dear ya'll,

Yep. One year. A year from today my administering certificate will expire and a year from the 15 I will fly home to AZ. Weird.

The night of the 9th I came to chattanooga for another 4 day training. The training was friday and saturday, released for sunday but was to suppose to continue today and tomorrow. I went back to South pittsburrge for church and then sunday afternoon came back to chattanooga. Then the roads got covered in snow and they didn't want everyone traveling in the snow so they pushed the meeting to tuesday and wednesday. Fun fun.

I have met alot of awesome people here! alot of out-of-the-blue amazing teaching opportunities. I am in a four some and only one of us is actually serving in the area. It is crazy. I will be back in south pit wednesday night.

love,
von

Hello elder Dec 6

Dear Family,

A year ago today I was set apart from the world to proclaim the gospel.

We did get some fluries of snow yesterday.

This week has been grood. I meant good... and great... great and good.I actually got to leave the mission on Wednesday. We were out with a member seeing one of his new home teaching families, less active, so niether of us knew were they lived, all we know was that they lived up on South Pitsburge Mountain on South Pitsburge Mountain Road (the "mountains" out here are nothing compared to the Mountains out west. here there are just ALOT more hills so the big hills are mountains). So we are going going for like 20 minutes and then we see a sign that says "Franklin County" and me and Elder Marsh are like "wow this is out of the mission! we must have gone too far."  So we turn around and look for the house but can not find it. We go all the way back to town, get the GPS out of our car and plug in the address. It shows us that the only way to get to them is to leave the county (mission) and then the road will go BACK into the county. So the member said "lets go" and we drove all the way back out there. This took up the entire afternoon, but the less active family did take us up on our challenge and came to church to partake of the sacrament yesterday.

Christmas list? uh... I don't know. The GPS was a really nice gift. I need new shoes, but it might just be easyer for me to buy them here instead of you shipping them out to me. I don't know what else.

Yesterday after church, before choir practice, the branch pressident's daughter pulls a book out from her bag and starts reading it. I looked at it and said "What is that book you've got there? it look VERY familliar." She says "it should". Low and behold the book was that little chistmas story book the Mom had a short story published in for winning a contest. She said that she just found this book among thier other books and thought she'd read it  since it was about chistmas. Then she found an auther in it named Joan Sowards from Mesa AZ and she put 2 and 3 together. Crazy huh?!

-elder von sowards

8 November

Dear Family,

Two days ago I woke up and looked out the window and saw and world coverd with just a very tiny bit of frost. Frost on our cars, and the leaves. Just about the most you would ever get in the pheonix valley. The weather now is about the weather of Mesa at its coldest average, and it is only going to get colder. It is GREAT!

In out apartment our heating system are these big coil things inside of a cage. When you turn it on it glows red, like a stove top, and it smells funky, like a curling iron. I am scared of them...

Anyway. Wow. None of the people I talked about last week are progressing now. We might still be working with them but not really as much.

We are teaching 2 new families. FAMILIES! This hast to be the first time I have had the opportunity to teach an entire investigator family. I has taught part-member families and less active families but never investigator families. It is really cool. I have to admit, when I read the parts is PMG were it says "strive to find and teach families" I always thought, "ya but the only people who we can find and teach are individuals." Now I am actually teaching an entire family.

The First family is a small one. A Husband and Wife and their little 3 year old. They are really friendly and fun. Our main concern with them is that they look at us as learning and not as searching. The wife asked us if she COULD get re-baptized (not that she SHOULD or NEEDED TO) and thats how they are looking at it right now, option for more learning.

The other family is a little bigger. There's the Parents, and their two daughters, ages 16 and 12. They are awesome. They have invited us over to thanksgiving dinner (that is our 3rd invite). They have been looking for a solution to their family drama and they feel like getting into a church will do it. We plan on extending a baptismal invitation tomorrow when we meet with them.

Apart from that life is good. Hope all is great in AZ. I learned this week the Mormon population statistics of the states. TN is .70%, that is 1 in 145 people. AZ is 5.6% or 1 in 17. Idaho is 27%. And Utah is 67% or 1 in 1.47. Wow. AZ vs. TN, that is a huge difference. Utah to AZ that is even more insain! TN to Utah is like nothing! Yesterday I saw 1 tenth of all the active mambers of the entire state of TN at stake comference. That is a huge chunk! In AZ at an average stake comference it would have been 1/88th of the active mombers of the entire state. Different worlds. But still the same. It felt like any other stake comference I had ever been too, the only difference is the size of the area.

-elder von sowards

Oct 17th news & views

Dear Family,

thank you so much for the packages. I got them all on my birthday its self. They were much apprieciated. Thank you for the GPS. It is just what I needed. They are so nice to have as a missionary. When finding addresses, finding out miles and if they are worth it of not, finding gas stations and restraunts. They are just really nice. Thank you so much!

Elder Adams had the flu last week and was resting on thursday and friday. He was the only person I saw on my birthday. It was quiet.

Transfers are this wednesday and Elder Adams will be leaving South Pitsburge. I will get a new companion.

love all,
von

Here's some pics Von emailed us!

Aug Fool's Day

The baptism on Saturday went well. we end up not getting picture. He was having transportation issues. but it all worked out in the end.

So elder platt(apuss) has left Rogersville to serve with Elder Smith in Oak Ridger as a Zone leader. My new companion is Elder Roisum of Seattle Washington. Elder roisum has been on his mission for 14 months. He is a jazzy guy. tall slender, blow-away hair. He loves basketball, football, piano (plays by hear and can't sight read), acting, musicals, and cooking. He's a cool cat. He has been to the Seattle museum of Music and Science Fiction, the one we went to. He also has had the Crab Shack expirience many time that we got to have. Who would have thought?

so ya. That is what's happening!

-elder sowards

July 25

Dear persons,

This week was this week. For some reason it feels like last week was busy but we had low numbers and I can't really think of the high lights. hmm. I hope I didn't waste a week.

Well Elder Platt is leaving Rogersville tomorrow. I will obviously be getting a new companion.

This coming Saturday there will be a baptism. It is for the Husband of a less active member. He is excited.

We are also teaching a girl who wants to get baptized but works every week end. She only works weekends usually gets about 35 hours. We are praying that she can get a new work schedule.

We are also teaching another girl. Last week we had one of those dinner apointments that were way out on the outskirts of our area, so usually when we have one of those we look for things to do while we are out there to make the trip a little more worth the miles. So before the dinner we had planned to go to a certain road. We get to the road and drive down till we get to a house. We drove and drove. By the time we found the house we only had time to knock it and then leave for the apointment and show up late. After the dinner we had planned to find on a different road. We had the feeling that that road might be the same story. We we randomly found some houses. there we found her. She said the some Elders had come into her socialagy class and gave a presentation. We set up a return apointment but a series of events lead to us being late, not having her phone number and her even having the wrong phone number. We didn't talk to her then. It was all my fault. That night we asked for forgiveness and for a second chance. We called her and left a message and couldn't get a hold of her. Finally She called us yesterday and I have gotten a second chance. Hopefully I don't blow it again.

-elder von sowards

July 18 & 112F (again)

Dear all,

Life goes on. That family I talked about is now in florida. She get custidy of the kids. Was threatened to had to leave the next night.

The 3 guys who got baptized last week got comfermed this week. They ended up getting off work at 6:30 sunday morning. We had to drag them out of bed to get them to church. If it had been any other week I wouldn't have blamed them for not coming, but due to them needing to be comfirmed they needed to be there.

Well that is all.

-elder sowards

July 11th

Dear Family,

Last week was great. We had 4 baptisms. There is a part member family in the branch That was compiled of a bunch of different families like so:

The mom and her 2 daughters (13 and 9)
The dad
The dad's nephew (15) and 2 nieces (15 and 9)
and the mom's 2 nephews (2 and 3)

9 altogether. 2 parents, 3 boys, 4 girls. 1 chaotic family.

Thier story: The mom grew up in the church down in Florida. She had two girls. She was wanting to get away from the church and go hide because of some extreme event that happened in Florida that involved the church. She found that Rogersville TN did not have a LDS church building so deemed it a good place to "hide" herself and her 2 young girls. Low and behold that the construction site she drove by every day was the, now, Rogersville Branch Building. Eventually she cought on and figured she could just lie low. She got married. A couple years ago her husband's sister's family was in trouble. The sister and the husband were both heavy alcoholics. She and her husband decided that they would fauster the alcaholic's 3 children. But a few months after that her cousin, with her 2 boys under 3, decided she wanted to be an alcoholic too. So this family ended up with those 2 boys as well.

Now this family of 9 were all together, with the dad strugling to make ends-meat. As you can imagine this caused alot of stress for the family. They decided they needed church. She was still trying to avoid the trueth that she knew, so they went to a baptist church. That lasted a few months. She didn't like/agreen with the things there. She says that the spirit was working on her but she was still as stubern as ever. So, the Lord had to work a different way. A month after they stopped going to the baptist church, Elder Smith and Major show up at her drive. She comes running out from the side of the house screeming "No! You weren't suppose to find me! go away!" She was mad, so they left. Elder Smith wasn't going to give up that easy. He found an old pocket hymn book and went back and gave it to her. Little did they know she loved the hymns and missed them most. Shortly after she started coming back. One of her daughters and her neices decided to get baptized. Shortly before I came the other niece was baptized. This left her other daughter, her nephew, and her husband who still needed to make the covenent of baptism and recieve the Holy Ghost (the 2 boys being too young). The three of them were not open when I first get here. Some how the nephew started asking more questions. Them her husband. We started teaching them again, they all came to church. Things were great. Espicially for the nephew.

Then last week a terrible thing happened. The dad was arrested and she was fililing for a devorce. This left the her with her 2 nieces and nephew and they were not her's by blood. There was a possibility that the courts would not allow her to keep the 3 of them. This left the nephew to some sierious thinking. He aproched us and said "If I'm going to get baptized I'm going to need it now more then ever." So he decieded to get baptized on saturday. The court hearing will be this thursday. Please pray for this family.

The baptism yesterday went very well too. The 3 guys were super excited and so was the ward. President Griffen even came to the baptism.

-von
 

4th of July

Deer,

It sounds like you guys had fun. The town of Rogersville celebrated Independents Day on the 3rd this year. There was a big parade down main street and after that a huge party down at the city park the rest of the day. We didn't go to it though, we had appointments. We drove by it Sunday morning and saw that is was trashed!

Yesterday we had 6 investigators at church and 5 of them were potential-priesthood-holders. The 3 guys that I talked about last week will be getting baptized on Sunday evening. They were at church. The other 3 are members of a part-member family that we are teaching.

-von

June 27th and it is now HOT

Dearest Loved-ones,

On saturday we had a baptism (see attatched picture). It went well. Because the faunt at the church was being difficult we held the baptism at a (indoor) pool of a member (se attatcher picture). In order to get to this pool one must first enter the master bedroom, then enter the master closet. When you enter the master closet you will find yourself in a short hall way with 2 doors to you left, 2 doors to your right, and one at the end of the hall. Enter the one at the end and you will find yourself in the "private oasis" that we turned into the baptistry. Yep. It is a really nice house.

The baptism went very well though. She was so excited.

Last week we started talking to these 3 guys in our aptartment complex. We had them read the intro to the book of mormon were it says it is "the most correct book on earth" and the got really excited. They said "That means that book is more correct then the Bible! And it's shorter so it gets more to the point." I just wanted to respond and say "you said it, not us." We met with them again and they said they would come to church, and they did! well 2 of them. A sister in our branch has really been longing and praying that this branch will turn into a ward and then a stake. That was a promise to one of her children in thier patriartical blessing. When These 2 potential-priesthood-holders showed up she was just so ready to step it up and welcom them. We committed them and the other guy to be baptized on the 11th of july. We are excited.

We had 4 other potential-priesthood-holders investigators come to church yesterday and a couple less-active-prospective-elders too. It is great! We are deffinitely seeing the hand of the Lord in our work this week.

Well I love you all,

-von

p.s. The other pictures are of a park that has a "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" theme up in Kingsport. That park is called "Daral's Dream" and Warrior's Parth State Park. I might have spelt Daral wrong and it might not be a state park. Oh well, it was pretty cool.

June 13th

Dear Arizona!

Our trip to Nashville went well, though we didn't get to go to the temple. In our exodus out of Knoxville and the rest of east TN we used alot of miles on our cars. We got a carter bus and a few other 15 passenger vans and headed on over. It was blimin hot there!! We were all sitting there melting in the chaple waiting for Elder Ballard to come in and some one walks in and say "Elder Ballard has givin approvel for the elders to remove thier suit coats." so we all did quite willingly, but even then it was still misrable. The Apostle came in without his coat, said a few jokes like "why are you all standing? Is it cooler that way?" and told us to all be seated.

We were instructed to talk to 10 new people (other than tracting) a day. We also were instructed to have concentrated study time. Also to take members to invite friends to church/FHE/lessons/whatever. This will help us in our work.

Elder Platt and I have been striving to live more concentrated lives as missionaries.

Sunday we met a lady who use to work with a member of our ward. We asked her what she is looking for in life and she said nothing really. She said the she felt that her purpose right now is to help her son be happy and good and teach him were to turn for guidence, God and the scripures. So we showed her that the first few principles in the restoration pamphet were just that, blessing families and prophets/scripure is to help us do that. We told her about prophets and Joseph Smith and she said that she would be scared to follow someone who might be a scam artist and that she would need some thing to help her know it was true. So we told her about the BoM that it is there to help us know if he is true or not. We are going there tonight to teach her and her son with the member.

I hope all is going well for you people out there!
love ya!

-that kid in the south

26 April, 2010

This week I met a lady who was doing really bad. We were tracting these apartments and we saw a lady walking across the parking lot. So we go over to talk to her. We tell her about prophets and ask if she'd like to hear that message. She said ya. We were actually taken aback at first because we didn't expect her to say yes. So we were talking to her and telling her about the Restoration and I come to James 1:5 and Elder Harrison cuts me off and asks her "how do you feel about prayer?" She goes off on this huge story about how she had cancer and how God answered her prayer. We were then taken aback again. Then she tells us about how she tried to help this lady and gave her a place to sleep for the night and that she woke up and the lady was gone and so was her last $100 that she had and that now she is trying to borrow money from friends and no one will help her. She admitted that the night before she had seriously considered cutting her wrists and that right before she left her apartment she offered a prayer for help. She said that when she saw us walking towards her she heard a voice say "listen to these boys. They have a message for you."

At this point we were pretty excited. We eplained to her that this is the gopspel of hope and the plan of happyness and that we wanted to come see her again. She said that she would be home during the day on the morrow. We decided to give her some money to help her.

We went back the next day and she wasn't home. Because she didn't have a phone we decided to go by the next day. No go. We left it at that. The next day we get a call from her and she asked if we could come over in an hour. so we did. She explained that she had something come up and that she was sorry she missed us. She explained that the money we gave her was stolen. She was really depressed. We gave her a Book of Mormon and promised her blessing of happyness and strangth through the dark hours of the night and that if she drew closer to her savior and got baptized that the Lord will help her. She said that that was what she wanted and we committed her for May 4th. We explained that she needed to come to church this week and next week in order for this to happen. We arranged a ride for her but she didn't show. We when over after church and she said that some thing came up and she wanted us to come by that evening. We went by and no show.

Sadly she is dropped. I hope that what ever happens to her that she will be safe. I don't know if she was honest with us but oh well. we did what we could. it's in her hands now. I hope this will make an impression on her life.

-von

18 April, 2010

Good monday!

I hope all is well in the west. Last week we got to drive to Rockwood (35 miles east of Crossville and half way to Knoxville for us. adverage of 85 mile days) 5 times.

Monday we went there for an activity with the sisters there and the Farrogot(sp) missionaries.

Wednesday we drover to Rockwood to meet the sisters and car pool to Farragot/Knoxville for Interviews with the president.

Thursday the sisters (in Rockwood) asked us (Elder Harrison being District Leader) to help commit or drop an investigator they have had for a while and who won't buckle down and commit. So we went and had a great lesson and he is getting baptized on the 4th of May.

Friday was district meeting (which takes place in Rockwood). After District meeting we when on exange with the Zone leaders serving in south Knoxville. I went to Knoxville. I really enjoyed being back in a big city and being around the mission head quarters (assistents, president, senirs couples). So the Martenins (sener couple missionaries) serve breakfast for the zone leaders, assistants, and sisters every saturday morning. That was fun. I hope I get to serve in Knoxville someday.

Saturday we needed to exange back, in Rockwood being the central location.

It's been fun!

Our Buddhist friend came to church yesterday. The talks were perfect. 2 high council men talked about love, service and the atonement. The nice part about it was that he knew someone there and they sat in the overflow together. Afterwards he said "ya know my hearing isn't the same as it use to be. Next time I'll need to sit in the chapel so I can hear better." Boom! He's already got a fellowshipper and committed himself to come next week! The only thing that went wrong was that he left right after sacrament and Sunday school and Priesthood were 2 great lessons he needed to hear. We taught Faith in our Gospel Principles class and priesthood was on prayer.

Thursday morning we went on a bike ride so I could get better at it. Elder Harrison told me that you just need to come at a curb head on to get up it. What he didn't mention was that if you are going at high speeds it's not a wise move. So we are going across a street and here comes the curb. Remembering what he said, I went for it head on and my tire wasn't too happy about it. In fact it went flat. I, not wanting to crash and make a fool of myself, slam on the brakes and make a fool of my self, slamming into the grass as my bike flips over my head and starts heading out towards the street. I wrench it back towards me and get up the take a bow. Those baptists are laughing now.

Anyway. I hope you all have a great week.

-elder von sowards

12 April 2010

Dear family,

I did recieve the package. I liked the contence of it. Thank you for the iPod and the candy. The only problem with the candy is that Elder Harrison doesn't eat alot of sweets. So that means that I am eventually going to eat it all myself. I told him that the more of it he eats the less of it I will eat, and I need to more candy like I need the plegue. But he still didn't eat any of it.

We are still on the prowl for more people to teach. We got the most hours tracting in our zone! We have had a few people allow us to come back for a return appointment but none have come through. The closest was a Buddhist man who said we could stop by anytime. We went by yesterday and he was busy, but we set up an appointment for Wednesday. He said that we are the only church people we has/will ever let into his house and that we have made him excited for Wednesday. I'm sure that dad may have some advice for teaching buddhists (though this man is white and has chosen buddhism and not just raised that way) but I wouldn't get the return email till after the next appointment.

We tried to do our first bike day on Wednesday but that morning I got on and found that the tire was flat. So we took the car. At lunch we found that I just didn't fill it up all the way so we filled it up and set out. I have no idea what to do with the gears. I rememberd that I figured them out on Keven's bike but this seemed alot different. I shifted to a gear that had minimum control. Elder Harrison din't know how to discribe how to use them propperly. Then I discovered that I didn't tighten the srews tight enough when my handle bars slipped while going down the hill. The point of a bike day was so that our Baptist freinds could see that we were still out working. I think that bapptists probably just think that we (I) was retarded. Elder Harrison probably did. At least I got a good laugh at myself.

They wanted to go on a hike today. I don't understand why. We do that every day. We probably won't go.

Type to you later!

-von

Easter Sunday

I got a bike. I enjoyed conference. We need more investigators. I hope all is well.

-von

March 28th - the end of march

This week has been a lot better. My new companion's name is Elder Spot Harrison. He is from Oklahoma and never heard the song till he got here. According to the church he is from Mesa. He grew up there. We actually discovered that we worked at camp Geranamo (sp) together. He worked at the Ranglers (horses) so that's why we never really met. It's a small ward after all! He's a great missionary.

So how is family? I hope all is still great!

-von

Spring is Sprung March 21

It snowed today. nothing major but is was snow. I have loved the winter but don't look forward to the summer tracting.

Anyway. The baptism on Saturday went well. I was going to send you pictures but I forgot my camera at the parish. Anyway, She requested that I confirm her, or be the voice anyway. I felt honored, but nervous. I felt a should fast in preparation. It helped. Though I was shaking like a washing machine full of jeans, I felt that the words I said was what she needed to hear, and what I needed to hear. My prayer was answered.

So I will be staying in Crossville for the next six weeks and Elder Lindner will go somewhere new and train someone. Last night as a "going-way-treat" for Elder Lindner, sister Wright gave us a Fry-Fest. Wow! She owns a deep fryer and we had deep-fried mushrumes, deep-fried pickles, deep-fried cheese sticks, deep-fried jalapanllos poppers, deep-fried milkyways, deep-fried mars bars, deep-fried fudge browny bars, deep-fried fignutons, deep-fried peanut butter cookies. You get the picture. I'm pretty sure that last night will, without dout, lead to my premature death..... In 5 years. But WOW it was good!

-von

15 March 2010

hello,

So ya. This week we had two baptisms spring in on us. On Tuesday morning we received a call from sister Conley. She explains to us that Kailey Bilbiry wanted to get baptized so she could go to the baptisms for the died trip on saturday. Kailey is a daughter of a couple who are off-and-on-members and things kept coming us when they would schedule for her to get baptized. She is now 12. We had found her and her brother on an old teaching record and had gone over to teach them but weren't getting too much cooperation from the parents. Their grandma, an active member, helped us a lot. Her brother, Cory, is autistic and really doesn't really need to get baptized but the parents wanted him them to get baptized at the same time but I guess that Kailey just couldn't wait. When me and the district leader arrived at the church building to get her interviewed we called the grandma and asked if they were on their way and they said that they were and that Cory was coming too to be interviewed. Double yoke.

After we left, both of us decided that we wouldn't tell Elder Lindner that it was both of them till the Baptism (the next night). We went there to fill the font a few hours early and when the family arrived I figured I'd better tell him before he said something awkward. When I told him he just shook his head and smiled and said "you guys are stupid."

Louise is still strong. They got married and have both stopped smoking. Usually they only come for Sacrament meeting but yesterday they came for Sunday school as well. We had our suspicions that it was because usually they would wanted a cigarette after an hour, so they would leave. And now they try to stay the whole time. they left early because her knee was hurting her. Greg is attending the prospective elders class as is Bill Cadd (baptized over a year ago by Chance Dixon) and Bro. Bilbiry (father of the kids who just got baptized). Louise's baptism is this saturday.

-von

New Pics!

1st Feb 09- Email

Dear Family,

We got an ice storm on friday night! It was really cool. The only bad part
was no car. I guess this was a good thing because we were out of miles. Was
Rex not allowed to drive in snow?

We haven't been able to see our new investigator (who also has a date) since
thursday. She is so cool. Her name in Katherine Fox. She is 85. She is
Catholic. Her late husband was a former catholic priest. She loves to serve
and to give. She made us a cherry pie and baked chicken. Both were
fantastic! The only book we had that she could read was a large print gospel
principles manual. We have ordered her a large print Book of Mormon.

So the company that powers MyLDSmail is going out of business or something,
so the church has "worked closely with Gmail to make a new MyLDSmail." the
problem is that we were suppose to set ours up today and get it next week
but it won't let me in. Elder Lindner's worked. Lovely.

So here they call a beanie (or a stocking cap) a toboggan. When we first
heard it we were at a member's house and elder lindner is like "A toboggan
is a sled with the front curved up". I had thought it was just something
that family called it but every one calls them toboggans. odd.

Well all is well.

-Von Sowards

Email #3 sent from Elder Sowards

The snow is melted.

So the fist time it snowed hard core and stuck to the roads we didn't know
what to do. We had a few appointments but couldn't get to them, and couldn't
find anyone to drive us. So we made cookies.

All we had was margarine spread and not sticks of butter so I just measured
out half a cup of spread. We didn't have chocolate chips so we cut up
chocolate kisses and used that. And on top of those substitutions probably
half of the ingredients were stale. The results were flat, slightly fried due
to the excess oil in the spread, burnt chocolate chunks because the kisses
weren't the baking kind, stale cookies. Lovely.

Elder Lindner says they weren't as bad as I make it out to be, when they were
fresh out of the oven... I've never really been good at chocolate chip cookies
anyway. They never seem to work right... I don't get it. I can follow the
directions to a "T" but still they just don't work.

Anyway. James still doesn't have a date. He has stopped the coffee but not the
smokes. President says to not set a date and just wait till he has stopped for
a few days and set a short date of 2 or 3 days. Hopefully that will help.

So I haven't see any stone bridges. But it is the "Golf Capital of Tennessee".
there is a huge water tower that says that and we live right under it! There
are tons of water towers everywhere! I thought they were a thing of the past.
I learned that Crossville houses the largest tree house in the world. I hope
to go see it before I leave here. It sounds awesome!

Well I'll close off. I'll probably think of something else to say once I log
off. Then I'll send a letter as well to include that forgotten stuff, and then
think of something else after I send it.

-Elder Sowards

Handwritten Letter

Dear Family,
I hope you are doing well. It has been snowing here, which means no car. So we weren't able to get much done the last few days. School has been canceled the last few days. Church was canceled yesterday as well. My companion, Elder Lindner, was really annoyed from it because he is from Wisconsin and he has experience of driving in 10 times this snow and if they had canceled church for this then they would not have church more then the would the whole year.If it snowed like this in Mesa they would cancel church in pure amazement.
Have I told you about James? He is a 53 year old man that the missionaries were teaching. We committed him to be baptized last Sunday for Saturday the 16th. He struggled with Word of Wisdom and it will be pushed back. He is a great guy. He wants his son to be baptized as well. It would be great if he could baptize his son. James will be baptized. He knows it's true and he knows he needs to give up the coffee and cigs.
The bike. Ya, it's not that urgent and if we get a used bike that would be great. With not having a car it has made me feel like I need a bike. But ya, no rush. The snow is clearing out. We are starting to give families the same challenge that Pres Ahlstrom gave us to "invite." Hopefully it will get us some new referrals.
-Von

Email #2 sent from Elder Sowards

Family,

I am in Crossville TN. It is pretty cool here.

On Saturday night (4:00) we were leaving apartment and I lock the door
behind me and then my comp, Elder Lindner, says "oh no. did you lock it?" so
we spent the evening locked out and trying to get back in.

We start by calling the management, who is a larger company that owns alot
of other apartment and storages, thus leaving no management on site, and get
an answering machine, they already left for the night, where ever they were.

So we called the district leader, who happens to be Matt Lluellen's (sp)
brother, and he calls the office and they say call a locksmith.

We called a recently baptized family, the Pattens, who come and pick us up,
because our car keys are on the house keys, and brought us to their house.
At their house we look up locksmiths and found out that everyone could get
us into our car but couldn't get us into a residential place.

So Brother Patten calls one of his workers and asks him if he could brake in
for us. Yes we had a slightly drunk little Mexican guy come and use credit
cards, illegal tools and a tool belt to try to break in. still no go.

The Pattens had already offered to house us for the night and then even to
drive us to Knoxville to get the spare from the mission office. We then call
the management and contacted them. They come and try to unlock it with their
master key..... and it doesn't work.....

So we stayed at the Pattens that night and went to church in dirty stacks
and no suits the next day. The matinence guy, who lived 45 minutes away,
came and climbed up and got through the back door. Today another one came
and showed us that "some jerk stuck a little peice of mettle" in our lock.
More like a little drunk mexican guy.......
.......... our bad.....

My trainer is cool. This is only his 3rd transfer. Last night we taught
James a lesson and he committed to be baptized. It is awesome. I got to go.
Love
Sowards