Monday, December 22, 2014

December 22, 2014

Hola Familia/ Amigos 

     Well I should probably start off by wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! This week has been a lot of fun, but as usual there always seems to be a few trials that throw me for a loop!!

     Leaving Rio Vista last week absolutely just crushed me. However I just knew that it was probably what was best considering the situation that I was put in. However, leaving those people there that I loved so much was definitely one of the hardest things I have done throughout my mission. 

    When the time came around to pack the car up Wednesday morning to head to our all mission Christmas party, I realized that my bike had been stolen that night! Not having a lot of time because I still had to travel to Santa Rosa, and we had to be there at a certain time, I called the police and filed a police report. It absolutely crushed me knowing I had to leave the area, and I had no time to try and look for my bike. So, feeling, frustrated I figured my best option was to just go and pray to the Lord, to be able to talk with him, and discuss my frustrations knowing that he would help me over come the situation.  

    Well, then we were on our way to Santa Rosa. We had the wonderful opportunity to have a great Christmas party as a mission. It was a ton of fun, and we were able to feel the spirit throughout the entire evening. It was super weird not seeing people like Elder Payne there though!  However, it was a lot of fun, and the food was great! 

    My arrival in Sebastopol has been absolutely amazing. It has been a lot of fun, working with my new companions Elder Young, and Elder Green! Elder young is from Montana. He went into the military before his mission, so he is definitely older but is a hard worker, which is great. Elder Green is from Grand Prairie, Alberta Canada. He is super cool, and we are training him! 

    We are having a lot of fun working hard here in Sebastopol. We were at church on Sunday and a member named Brother Swank came up an asked me, if I was the Albertson who lived in Nampa Idaho! Small world, but this is the grandson of Brother Swank who dad and I home taught when we lived in the 18th Ward. It was a ton of fun talking with him about all of the families that he knew, and such. He is such a great guy and I look forward to getting to know him more and more. He is awesome! 

    I am doing so well. I'm happy, and doing great. I have come to know my Savior so much more in these past few weeks, than I ever have before in my entire life. I feel so much closer to him as well. I can honestly say my mission has completely changed the way I look at things now, like loosing my bike. 

I love you all, an am so grateful for your prayers and support. I can't wait to talk with you all on Thursday! 

Love you! 
Elder Albertson 



December 15, 2014

Hola Familia/ Amigos

   Well, this is probably the hardest email I’ve had to write home,
throughout my entire mission! One of the biggest trials has truly come
upon me in the last 24 hours that I absolutely had no control over.
I’ve gone from loving so many families here in Rio Vista, to seeing it all
come to an end by getting transferred due to some unfortunate circumstances.
It's been quite difficult. I would be taking this transfer a lot better if it wasn't for the fact
that, when transfer doctrine came out, The Lord had intended for me to
stay here in Rio Vista and continue to work that I have been doing here.

    Other than that though, things here in Rio Vista are going great. I am
very sad to see myself leave, but I guess that it's something to learn
from. I did my work here, and I will continue to do it as well in my
next area.

    We have some super good news though. Hawk and Liza are currently, at
the courthouse in Fairfield legally getting married today! That is
definitely the highlight of anything! For the fact that Hawk and Liza,
are taking the steps to be Baptized and eventually be sealed in the
Temple for eternity! I am so excited and cannot express my love for
them! They have been through so much, but just continue to press
forward!

    Another amazing thing that has been happening here in the Branch is
that we have been seeing tons of less actives coming back to Church!
Whitney Murphy (Jacobsen) has come the past 3 weeks, and is doing
quite well. We didn't even have the chance to see her, and tell her to
come to church yesterday, and she even went out of town and made sure that
she was back home in time for church. It has been absolutely great to
see the progress she has made, and the love I have for their little
family is amazing! I feel a part of their family!

    Saturday we had the Christmas party, which was a lot of fun. We had a
good time, and even preformed a small skit and got everyone laughing. It
was a lot of fun, and we had a pretty good turn out too. It was a lot of
fun. Santa Claus even showed up for the little kids. It was super cool.
Don't worry I even took a good picture with Santa! I told him what I
wanted for Christmas as well. :)

    Saturday, we also had a zone blitz here in the area. It was great,
and we had a ton of fun. There were about 24 missionaries here in the
Rio Vista area, which included about 6 other little small cities.
We sent missionaries to every little city for about 2 hours, knocking
doors, and trying to find new families to teach. We really haven't had
the time yet to get too far into all of the names we got from the
blitz, but from the look of things, it all went pretty well.

    A lot of great things have been happening here, in the Rio Vista
branch. However, I have been very frustrated about a lot of things
lately concerning transfers. Even though, like I said before it's not
something I can control. Friday we got the call for transfer
doctrine and it had Elder Snow going to Winters, while Elder Medina an
I were going to have the chance to continue to progress the wonderful
work here in Rio Vista.  However those plans were changed last night,
at about 4:30 when I received a call from President Alba, concerning a
few things.

   Presidente Alba received a call from a Priesthood leader, here in the
branch of Rio Vista. This Priesthood leader brought up a few concerns
to President Alba concerning me, and a few things that I had done. A
few of those things were things along the lines of disrespecting
members at dinners, and saying things along the lines of there not
being enough food an such. There was also a concern that I was
starting a relationship with one of the young women here in the
branch. Another thing that was brought up was the fact that we went to
a young women party, and that I went by myself over with one of the
young women and began to flirt with her.

    Now this has all come out in the last 36 hours, when we were at the
Christmas party. There was an incident, when this member who told the
Priesthood leader in the branch all of this.  He also talked with my
companions, Elder Snow, about how I was the one who needed to be
transferred and that ever since I got here, I haven't done anything
good in the missionary work efforts, and so on. It was very frustrating.

    Sunday at church, an incident happened with the same member who
talked with my Companion Elder Medina, and mentioned the same
things over again about the whole situation, almost to the point of using
inappropriate language. He mentioned how I am too bold and open,
and harsh, toward everyone. She mentioned she was brought down by
the fact that I was staying in the area.

    Now this same member is the member we used to visit 5 or 6 times a
week, at the end of our night. When Elder Olmos and Elder Bischoff
left, I felt the need to put a stop to it, so we began to cut the lessons
down from 5-6 times a week, to only once or twice a week. She took
personally, I didn't like her and such. I feel she is out to get me from there.

    In regards to the relationship toward a member there, that is completely a lie.
She is referring to Sister Holly Short’s daughter Mariah! Mariah and I are great
friends. She is super tight, and I love their family but that is all. The incident when
they say we went over to a party was when we went by to drop a
picture off for Sister Short.  We realized that the young women were over.
We knew Sister Short wasn't home, but she said to just drop it off. We
went in the home, dropped the picture off, and then I mentioned that they
shouldn’t be watching “White Chicks” and left within minutes.  I was never apart
from my companions either.

I just want you all to know, that this has all been passed through the
telephone of this one member who is crazy, and causes all the drama in
the branch. I am 100% innocent of all the claims made towards me. I am
looking forward to finishing strong on my mission!

I love you all. And thank you all so much for your support.
Happy Holidays!
Love,
Elder Albertson




Wednesday, December 17, 2014

December 8, 2014

Hola Familia/ Amigos 

Wow! This has been a super interesting week! Last week I believe I mentioned  almost getting the car stuck, and now this week I’m gonna be able to tell a story about getting the car actually stuck twice in the same night! Something else that is super funny about this past week, was the fact that it has been raining a ton, and there is a moral to that story as well! 

We had a lot of success this past week, with missionary work, teaching an finding members, as well as getting our investigators progressing even more. I have felt very satisfied with the work that has been going on here in Rio Vista, even though we may not be having Baptisms.... YET! We are still working very hard, and the Lord is definitely blessing this area, for our hard work, because we keep seeing the miracles. 

Monday was a pretty interesting day. We started off our P-Day with 2 hours of good ol’ service. Helping one of our investigators and his wife, who is a member, with building their home. They are just getting started and they had the chance to tear out a lot of stuff with a back hoe. It was pretty fun to be able to help guide Brantan as he tore out poles and concrete fences with it! My companions weren't too happy about the idea of doing service during their P-Day. However, I thought it was amazing. 

That evening we had dinner with them as well. It was super good, and went great, however it seemed like we had been with them for like all day. Ha ha however things were great. We talked with them about the Book of Mormon and its significance, and importance of reading it! Coming to know the truthfulness of it as well. 

We also then had a great night going and visiting with the Stinson’s. They are such an amazing couple, and so much fun to be around. We always have such a good time talking about tennis, and golf. Bro. Stinson who is not a member, might I remind you, is such a good guy, and always loves having us at his house. But he has quite a few of questions we are still working on answering. 

Tuesday is when things got real interesting. However it was a lot of fun and we had a great time. We were able to travel to Fairfield for zone meeting which was a lot of fun. Those meetings have become a lot less stressful when I get called on. I guess I have gained some confidence and now I just blurt things out! Ha ha It was a ton of fun, this zone is kinda rowdy!  

Tuesday night is the night we got the little Toyota Corolla stuck in some mud.  Elder Snow went with Bro Ricketts on splits and had a great time. While Elder Medina and I had a wonderful time doing some Spanish work in Walnut Grove and the surrounding areas. On our way out there though we felt prompted to stop and talk with this family that lives right off of the Levee Rd. And as we did so, I couldn't find anywhere to park, except this little farm road that was slanting downhill and backwards. When I went to pull the emergency break, we began to completely just slide all the way down the hill to flat ground because of how muddy it was. My heart began to run very fast, and I just thought to myself, how am I going to get this little car out of the mud and up this muddy hillside. BUT thank goodness for prayer! I said a silent prayer in my head, and probably 2 minutes later I was able to get some grip, and put the car in reverse and floor it up to the Highway.   

Later that evening after coming out of Walnut Grove.  I went to get to the highway again, and fell right into a small puddle from what it looked like, but really, it was deep, and sucked me in immediately. What a blessing it was to have a companion like Elder Medina who was willing to get out in the rain, and mud and push the car. We got out, and better yet we got home safely. Our car was quite a muddy mess for the rest of the week though that's for sure. 

Wednesday and Thursday were both very interesting days, because President Alba, decided that we as a mission were going to take a car fast. So all day we had to walk, and ride our bikes. It was super interesting because it absolutely POURED! Unfortunately, I just barely sent my rain jacket home! I knew this was going to happen! The day I sent my rain coat home, is the day this drought was going to come to an end! Ha ha Sure enough just my luck! It was super muddy walking around town, and to make matters worse we had to walk to a farm field to get to Triolgy for dinner because we couldn't walk on the interstate! 

Friday we had interviews! It was such an amazing feeling to be able to tell president all is well.

As you might be able to tell. Things here in Rio vista are absolutely going amazing! One week from today Hawk and Liza will be getting married! Isn't that going to be absolutely amazing! 

Love you all! And hope all is well at home! Take care till next week! 


Love, Elder Albertson 
 Helping a member.

The "TRIO" in "RIO"

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

December 1, 2014


Hola Familia/Amigos

Well this week was super busy, whether it was eating food, teaching
lessons, walking in the rain, or playing tennis and football, to make
my body hurt forever! Ha ha I am so outta shape, it's ridiculous!
Probably to the point to where Luke could beat me in
wrestling. Ha ha

Well, as you all know, this past week was Thanksgiving, and we happened
to eat a ton! We had four meals on Thanksgiving day, and it was
absolutely amazing! Our Thanksgiving day went as follows:
8:30 am Turkey Football
10:00 am Breakfast with our Ward Mission
11:00 am Tennis
2:00 Dinner with the Tingey family.
4:30 Dinner with the Short family.
6:30 Dinner with the Surlas!
9:30 Time for bed!

   As you can see, the day was very successful, and we had a lot of fun,
as well as eating like champions! The members here in Rio Vista are
amazing! They are so nice, and I feel like my relationship with them
is very good. I sure as heck hope I don't get transferred this next
transfer. But I will go where the Lord needs me to go!

    Tuesday we had district meeting, which was very interesting. Tuesday
night we had a crazy good night. We went out to Walnut Grove to try
and find some new investigators. While doing so, with all the rain we
have been getting, we had a fun time trying to find all the addresses,
because the roads are dirt, and they were super muddy. We ended up
taking our brand new 2015 Toyota Corolla mudding. It was pretty
interesting. Trying to clean it was kind of a pain as well.

Things were kind of slow though all week. Especially with it being Thanksgiving
this past week! However, things are going really well, and we have had
a lot of opportunities to do service. This past Saturday we went out
to Sherman Island and had a great time cleaning up the beach from all
the crap that has been coming onto the shore. It was super labor
intensive but it was very good.

Yesterday we had a lot of fun setting up a Christmas tree. We even did
all of the ornaments.  Yes mom, I spread them out evenly just as you taught me.
Ha ha Brother and Sister Stinson are awesome. We had such a good time.

Well I hope all is well with you all! Things are going great here in
Rio Vista! I love the area, and the people. My companions and I are
doing well. I have learned a lot this transfer when it comes to loving
people who you don't always see eye to eye with or people who you may
not exactly agree with 100%.

Love you all!
Love,
Elder Albertson