February 16, 2015

Hola Familia/ Amigos

Wow! I feel like I really suck at this whole emailing thing these last couple weeks! Y’all have to understand that I write my email on my iPad in the notes section then I copy and paste the email over an send it! However I guess yesterday that I accidentally sent the same email for the week before! What an idiot! Ha ha 

However this past week has been quite the week! Full of a ton of fun, hard work, exhaustion, stress! Anything you can think of, we experienced it! We had set the goal as a Zone and as a companionship to achieve talking with 20 people each day, along with teach 3 lessons! IDK you may think this sounds very easy, but getting transferred into an area that has only been teaching 3 lessons all week, is quite the challenge! However we knew with our faith that anything was possible! And we achieved it for 7 days straight and we will now continue to work our hardest to continue this experience! We hope and pray that the Lord will notice our hard work, and will bless us with more investigators to teach. This way we can continue to achieve what we feel the Lord has desired for us and our area! 

I also had quite the week! I usually don't get very many letters from the mission office or from the church! However though this week I found a letter in the mail box with my name attached and such! It was very sad and depressing to open, because I found it to be my "Pink Slip" In other words getting plans ready for me to be coming home! I was quite scared to be completely honest! However I am excited to be able to apply what I have learned these last 20 months of my life, to make me the best servant of the Lord Jesus Christ for the rest of my life! 

We had a killer week! Broke the ice with all of the less actives that live in our area! Some of them are part member families, and we are going to begin working with them very strongly that way we can see the miracles and the families can become eternal! What a blessing that is in our life! 

On Sunday we had one of our families that we are teaching come to church! They are awesome, the wife is a member, not very strong but her husband and kids are not! We are working with them a lot right now. They are the Luna Family, and they are absolutely amazing! I had the chance to sit with their young son Alfredo during church and we just had such a good time, I made him sing! That way he can start preparing to be a missionary! It was so awesome! I can't wait for that day! Ha ha Marriage Trunky! I know! 

I'm super sorry again that I sent the same email again! I promise I will be better about emailing you all! I hope all is going well! 

My companion Is elder Long! He is from West Virginia! A great kid, and speaks pretty good Spanish, however doesn't quite know what he is doing as a missionary yet! We are working hard and everything though! He was trained by one of my past companions elder Delgado! He has been out about a year now or so. 

I am loving being on bike! Everything is going great! I am really trying to cut some weight right now though, so I can come home looking good! Because it wouldn't help anyone like me to be fat when I get home, with girls! Ha ha 

Love you all! 

Love,

Elder Albertson 

February 9, 2015 (just a week late)

Hola Familia/ Amigos 

Holy cow! I need to seriously apologize. It's 4:09 and I am sitting in the back of my car, driving back to the apartment after playing a seriously good amount of basketball and realized that I completely forgot to email y'all! However I am going to try and write it, and get it sent when we get to a members house who has Wifi! I sure hope they have WIFI, because if they don't y'all will know by receiving this email next Monday along with an email for next week! 

However, with that being said, just let me tell you how crazy this week has been! Monday was a regular day, however I was having to say goodbye to all the members there in Sebastopol as well as the investigators. It was super sad to say goodbye to some great members in our mission. Rio Vista and Sebastopol definitely have the best English members in the Mission!  

Tuesday for transfers it was great! It was a lot of fun seeing a bunch of missionaries. However I definitely feel very old in the mission because I didn't know very many of the missionaries. Most of the missionaries I know have all gone home because their time came to an end. However there a still a few of my good buddies left here. My arrival to Woodland was a great experience!  I was able to find a bike that was given to me by a dying missionary. It was super small for me though when I got it at transfers but when I got to Woodland there was a frame from a bike with absolutely nothing on it just sitting on the porch. It is a Marin, and it's a huge frame! Which worked perfectly! I immediately began to take all of the working parts and change them to the Marin Frame! So in other words I made my own bike. It is pretty cool! It's crazy how now this bikes means so much to me because I made it! 

I woke up Wednesday morning an established some great things within the Apartment! I also woke up with the worst sore throat I have ever felt in my life! I got a priesthood blessing and immediately had the feeling I had strep throat! I called a doctor who is a member and he immediately prescribed me amoxicillin. It has been helping so much! I already feel so much better. 

Thursday was another rough day! I got my bike finished at this point! One thing I was super excited about was the fact that we do a lot of service here in Woodland! It's definitely not like the service we were doing in Sebastopol! However I know that service is service! As long as I'm in service of my fellow beings I’m in the service of God! What a wonderful blessing that is! 

Friday we had a wonderful Zone Meeting! It was a lot of fun! This zone is great, it's kind of small but luckily we all get a long great! It was kind of weird being the oldest missionary in the Zone, or in other words the missionary who has been out the longest. Actually it's not just kind of weird, it's super weird! I don't like the feeling.  We were also able to get our weekly planning done that day! Man do I dislike weekly planning! It is so long, and so boring. It's even worse the first time with a new companion because you have to completely readjust to the ways that your companion does his weekly planning. However Elder Long and I actually had a wonderful time. We pretty much did it the same way, which was a blessing! 

This week was a wonderful week overall! I'm still very sorry and apologize to you all for not emailing! It won't happen again! However I hope you all have a wonderful week! Follow the Spirit it is the most important thing we can have in our life! Love the Lord, and remembers it's Valentine's Day this week! Remember what he did for you, and how much he loves each and every one of us! 

Love, 

Elder Albertson  

February 2, 2015

Hola Familia/ Amigos

     Wow! It's been a lot of fun this past week! I have learned a ton, and
feel like I am continuing to grow each day I live in the mission. This
past week I really learned a lot about myself, and how much service
means to me and how it will be one of the biggest attributes
throughout my life.

     We spent pretty much the entire week, chopping rounds of fire wood, and

had to cut enough to fill a utility trailer, as well as an 8 foot pick
up bed. It was very exhausting however the reward was so great when we
loaded it all up, and drove up to the Indian reservation and unloaded it
all for the members of the tribe up there. We got a call from Camp
Liahona Sunday night, and they told us that they that had the highest
attendance in church that they had ever had. So many members were so
thankful that they felt they needed to go and share their testimonies about the
missionary force, and how important we are to the members. It really
meant a ton to me, and was a wonderful experience to see how much joy
came to all of their faces when we pulled up with loads of wood, so
that they could heat their homes.

     Friday evening we got transfer doctrine which was interesting. I was
pretty set on the fat that I was going to be getting transferred to
Lake County and serve in an area in the mountains called Clearlake.
However, when we got the transfer doctrine I found out that I am going
to be headed to Woodland in a Spanish branch again! I am super
excited to be speaking Spanish again. I don't know too much about Woodland,
but I have heard a lot of good things about the Spanish branch there, but
I have also heard some not very good things. I am going to go there with a
good attitude and work super hard! I've heard it can be a super hard area.

    I am going to truly miss Sebastopol. This area and Rio Vista have been
the best thing for me in my life. I have learned more than I could
imagine, and have changed so much in the last 4 or 5 months! I can
definitely see why the Lord put me, as a Spanish speaking missionary
in English areas. There were people I needed to teach, but also
because there were lifelong lessons I needed to learn.

   Well things here in Sebastopol are coming to an end. It's sad to see me
go, however I am very excited to move to the next area where our
Heavenly Father wants me to serve.

    Last night we had a huge party with the Johnson family, and the Long
family who we are teaching. It was so much fun! It was a great bonding
moment for them all. I really feel like family here. It's been crazy
how my mind has been telling me lately that California is home now.

I love you all! Thank you all so much for your support!
Love,
Elder Albertson