January 26, 2015

Hola Familia/ Amigos 

    Well count yourselves all as very lucky this week that you’re even getting an email. I remember at the beginning of my mission, that I promised I would write home if I heard from home every week. Well one end of the stick hasn't been getting held up. Ha ha 

    Other than that, everything is going super well. I have absolutely had a wonderful week. It was pretty interesting. First off, we were able to meet with a Seventy this last Wednesday. It was a ton of fun. He talked about the atonement. It was so great, because I really felt it was something our mission really needed. He is over missionary headquarters, which was super interesting. 

    One thing he mentioned and kind of called us out on, was the fact that we have been asking active members for referrals. He told us that that was the worst thing to do, because most of the time Active members are active because they have active friends. Less active members are usually less active for a reason. It's because they have less active or non-member friends. Maybe this could be something to explain to the other missionaries who are serving around you, that way the work can hasten even more.  

    Wednesday evening after the half mission conference, we were able to go and visit Eric Long and his family, who we’ve been working with a ton. He is progressing better than any investigator I have ever had my entire mission. It was super interesting because Eric had a Taser out that he was playing with. He was super interested to see what it would to do someone, or something if he were to use it on them. So I told him I would be the dummy if he would quite smoking and drinking coffee. Well long story short he quite smoking and drinking coffee, which means, yes I got tasered Wednesday evening. It was an interesting tasing session.  

   Not really anything too interesting happened this week. I am definitely ready for transfers though. I am ready to get back into a Spanish area. I need to start speaking Spanish again. 

    I hope all goes well for you all. I love and miss you all! I have no desire to write home today, so I am sorry that my email is short! 

Love, Elder Albertson 

January 19, 2015

Hola Familia/ Amigos

    Well, first off, let me tell you this has probably been the trunkiest
week of my mission! We went camping, and got to work out in the
woods, stay the night, and everything! It was so much fun. I really
enjoyed it, and it made me realize how much I miss the outdoors! Ha ha
No worries though, I'm still working hard.

     I am also a firm believer that I found the perfect Senior couple
mission for Mom and Dad when they get to that age! It’s at Camp Liahona!

Mom could be in charge of making sure the cabins stay up to date and
all, and then dad could be in charge of making sure the entire camp
grounds stay nice an up to date. I know Mom and the word camping don't
get along too great, however don't worry Mother you would be living in
a very nice cabin! I think you would love it!

     This week has been a lot of fun. We were able to finally all agree on
dropping some of our investigators if they weren't progressing at the
moment. Our teaching pool died quite quickly, however we all have
faith and know that we will be receiving the blessings by showing our
faith that we will find new investigators.

     This service project that we have been going to out on the ranch has
been so much fun. However it has been causing me a lot of pain in my left
knee. The other day I jumped from a horse that was going crazy to a 3 rail

Fence, and when I went to land my right knee buckled and gave out on me.

Man! it hurt so bad, however I just thought it wasn't a big deal. Well, still to this day it
is causing me a lot of pain. Other than that though I am really
enjoying my time and working hard.

     This last Friday we had a wonderful trip planned. We cover the largest
area in the mission and we have an Indian reservation as part of our
area. Almost the everyone on the reservation was active members at one point, but
have been less active for years so none of their children are members. We
only have the chance to go up there once a month so we traveled up there
Friday afternoon. It's about a 2-hour drive. We spent the day in
Guerneville. We then traveled to camp Liahona where we stayed the
night, and spent the evening talking with Elder an Sister Hull who are the
senior couple up there that work with the reservation members as well.

    They hold a sacrament meeting at camp Liahona for the members who live
up there. It was quite the expereince to stay the night at camp
Liahona, wake up Saturday morning and spend the morning doing service
for the camp. It was a ton of fun. Then we spent the day teaching
lessons at the reservation. I feel kinda bad for the people at the
reservation, their tribe is kind of falling apart, an dying slowly.

     It was probably the most fun I’ve had on the mission for a while.
The drive up was absolutely amazing. We took so many good pictures, and

saw some great views. I absolutely loved driving up highway 1 all the way.

Tons of fun!

     Saturday night while at a member’s house I had the opportunity to Skype
in on another baptism in Rio Vista! Liza was baptized an entered into
the covenants of baptism with her Heavenly Father! I was so happy to
be able to be a part of that. It meant so much to me.

Hope this emails finds you all well. Things are great! I love and miss you all!

Love,
Elder Albertson

Drive up Highway 1.  Such beautiful views!!

January 12, 2015

Hola Familia/ Amigos 

     Well this has been one of the greatest weeks of my mission in the past little while! I found out that Liza is going to be getting baptized this weekend so I will hopefully be able to get permission from President Alba, to Skype in for that baptism! It is so amazing to know that people I have worked with are getting baptized and taking that step to prepare themselves to enter into the presence of our Heavenly Father. 

     This last Monday was super fun! I always love P-Day because it truly is the day where we can let a lot of stress out, and be able to prepare ourselves for the next week to come. Basketball is always so intense here in Santa Rosa, however I have to admit my body is really starting to fall apart. I feel like this whole working out once a week just isn't quite cutting it for me. 

     Last Tuesday after district meeting we were able to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. It was quite interesting. Elder Haynie is a pretty sick dude. We were able to do a lot of service for a member here in the Ward who lives on a Dairy Farm! We were removing and putting up new tin roofing. It was a lot of fun. Before we left he allowed us to milk a cow! Wasn't that quite interesting? 

     That evening we were able to meet with an investigator for the first time since I have been here in Sebastopol. His name is Eric long, and his fiancé and mom are members of the church. He has been investigating for quite awhile, but he just has always kind of put the missionaries in a situation they didn't know what to do with. In this lesson we laid the law down with him. He is now progressing so much! 

     We were able to meet with Eric Wednesday and Friday as well. On Sunday when he was at church I felt a spiritual prompting to ask him how long he has been with his current girlfriend! The answer was something like 10 or more years! I then talked to Eric and he told me he was ready to take whatever step he needed to take to be baptized. I then told him to get married on the 24th of January! Well the miracle is the fact that last night, Eric took his girlfriend out to the river, and proposed to her last night. The wedding is in the works! I am so happy! I am definitely realizing that our Heavenly Father has a plan for everything. I am in Sebastopol for a reason!  

     We are so excited and we have so many people who are already willing to help us out. He is doing so well, Eric and I are like best friends! I love the man! 

     Friday night while in exchanges I had brother Swank with me, and elder Young and Elder Green were teaching another investigator who fasted this past week with us for an answer. He accepted a Baptismal date! We are seeing so many miracles right now! It's amazing! We are so excited.  

     This past week we did a ton of service as well! I swear during my mission I have used every single trade that I learned before the mission. We found a rancher who desperately needed some help. We were able to tear down about 100 feet of 3-rail fence and then put new poles in and then replace the rails as well. It was a ton of fun. We are going to continue to help them and hopefully their hearts will be softened from the service we do. 

    We also saw a great miracle Sunday after church. We were driving down a dirt lane trying to find a less active, and as we drove past a couple working in their garage, I simple just rolled the window down an asked them if we needed any help. Long story short, I ended up talking with them both about so many things. He found out my bike been stolen an offered me his Specialized stump jumper full suspension. He is super nice, immediately invited us over for dinner, and we were able to talk with him. He just quit going to a church because he didn't like it. It was a huge miracle. Definitely the spirit spoke to me about talking with this couple! It was amazing! 

    Overall we had a wonderful week! I am supper happy right now, enjoying my time, and working hard! 

    Love you all and thank you all so much for your support and prayers! 

Love, Elder Albertson 

January 5, 2015

Hola Familia y Amigos,

     Monday- Such a great day! However I think it was my first time ever doing laundry in a Laundry mat in my entire life. It was definitely a humbling experience. Made me realize, and understand how much I have taken for granted the past 20 years of my life. However, those laundry machines are so fast. We had all our laundry washed and dried in less than 1 hour. 

     We went the church an participated in the normal weekly p-day events! To end our night we had a pretty funny evening. We had dinner with an awesome family at a good Mexican food restaurant. That definitely made me realize how much I miss being in a Hispanic branch or ward! The food is a huge part of my being nowadays!  

    To end the evening we drove out to Bodega Bay, to see a less active. She is a super funny older woman, but man she made it quite obvious she didn't want anything to do with us as missionaries, guys, or even the church! It was quite interesting. She did think we were quite funny though, but even after a few jokes an such, she still wouldn't allow us in her home. 

    Tuesday- We were able to go on exchanges and Elder Green an I had Elder Middleton with us! It was a lot of fun, and we were able to do a lot of service. We were able to go out to a campsite where people actually live, and were able to do a lot of service. This campsite was a site where they actually had to evacuate a few weeks ago when that huge rainstorm came because it was flooded. We were able to help hang up some new storms tarps over their trailers to protect their trailers from the Redwood limbs that fall all the time. 

     Wednesday- It was New Year's Eve. We had quite the experience as missionaries that evening. We had a lot of fun, trying our own Duck Dynasty life! It was quite enjoyable. However I will explain that after.  I will admit, that night I got pretty Trunky because we spent the night, at the Daley family’s party! Seeing all the cousins in the family wrestling, playing basketball, rough housing, reminded me of what it will be like when I get home, an how I can't wait for that time. On our way home, a jackrabbit jumped out in front of us. We happened to take its life that night, on our way home. However I am proud to say, that we didn't just waste it. We actually picked it up, made sure it wasn't suffering, and then put it in a plastic bag that we had. We took it home, gutted it, cleaned it out, and then ate it for lunch the next day! It was interesting but it wasn't the worst lunch I've had on the mission yet. It was quite the interesting experience.  

    Thursday was another great day of service. We were able to run chain saws and drop a few trees. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy this area a lot. The only thing I wish is for the fact that I could speak more Spanish than I have the opportunity to right now. However we do contact a lot of people in Spanish, but then I just give them to the sisters.  Sister Thirion who we did our service for, is an older lady who is from France. She is so awesome. She actually does steel gun carving and belt buckles by hand. It is the coolest trade I have ever seen. 

     Friday was another interesting day just because we usually get stuck doing our weekly planning all day. However, we finished it in a relatively quick amount of time. We then had a wonderful night teaching lessons, and were able to go contacting at like 8 o'clock. I froze like a little girl though! I couldn't believe how cold it was.  

    Saturday- Holy cow! Saturday blew my mind away. We talked with so many people as well as taught 6 lessons that day! It was a lot of fun! It was in the city of Guerneville where we technically aren’t aloud to proselyte because of the population of homosexuals! It's such an interesting city, however the members there do a great job of sharing the gospel and then we just go there to teach the lessons. It's a ton of fun. 

Overall this last week was a lot of fun! I hope you all Enjoy your New Year! It's crazy to think I come home this year. However this year is going to be the best year of my life. I love you all! Miss you all a ton! 

Love, 

Elder Albertson