July 13, 2009

The work is still going on in Norway ME. I loved this letter, it made me smile. Here is what Ronnie wrote on July 13, 2009:

"Elder parkinson had me absolutely ROLLING on Thurs! I seriously don't know how he does it. I don't see him for like a month and a half, and then I see him for 2 minustes and I'm purple in the face, barely breathing, haha!! He just tells me things that I can relate to and it makes me laugh sooooo hard hahaha!! I get to see him again on Thursday at Zone Conference, I'm pretty excited. He's been in the same area (Portland ME) for these 6 months, so I hope he doesn't go to the other side of the mission after this transfer. It was so good to see Elder Schow as well. He's an awesome missionary and he's doing awesome work in Topsham. It was also good to meet with President Jensen, I really like meeting with him even though its pretty short most of the time."

I love the thought of him just laughing so hard. We miss that laughter around here, but I'm glad someone out there can make him laugh. He said that Elder Parkinson wants him and Ronnie to work for an Airline Company when they get home, so they can go travel together. Sounds like they will be good friends when they get home.

He continues to write:

"Its been a good week though! I got to be on another exchange from Tuesday night til Zone interviews on Thurs. morning. I was with Elder Janson...he's from St George. He's way cool and I had a lot of fun with him. While we were out tracting, we met this 17 yr old kid on a farm...he was just getting ready to go down to the barn to milk the goats, so he asked if we wanted to come down to see his animals! He was way cool with us, because his grandma is actually part of our ward. I haven't met her though because she is on a mission in Lithiuania?? She was an awesome lady though from what we hear. But anyways, the whole family was cool with missionaries, so Jesse (the 17 yr old) said that we could come down to the barn with him. I "attempted" to milk the goat, but couldn't quite get it down hahaha! So Jesse filled two baby bottles of goat milk and we got to feed the two baby goats! The cow (Bessy) was about to give birth that night so it was kind of a loud cow. Chickens were running everywhere and some of the goats were chewing on our pants. :) It was a fun little experience to give us a break from tracting...and it was the highlight of the week from Maine!!"

My son the Farmer boy!! I hope he got pictures of that! I'm sure he was a good sport about it all and a good time to talk to Jesse. Oh the joys of missionary work, and farming. :)

He also wrote this:

"Yesterday, we started teaching this one lady named Amy. Her husband, Greg, is a member but was in-active for a long time. They started coming to church on Easter I believe. They've been coming since. Well yesterday night we went to a member's house for dinner and we got to teach Amy. She told us right off the bat that she's ready to join the church, she just didn't know how to... cool eh? So she'll be baptized soon. She just needed to talk things over with her husband as far as "when" the baptism will be. I'm guessing within the next month!

He is doing a great job. He loves the people! He is happy and loves serving our Savior Jesus Christ. Nothing could make parents any happier!

July 6, 2009

Ronnie is still in Norway ME and doing great. We look forward to his emails each Monday and we are so grateful that he is enjoying his service as a missionary. Here is what he wrote to us on Monday July 6, 2009:

" Happy LATE 4th of July!! It was definitely just a normal day for me, nothing too exciting, but it was good! We went to the church Sat. morning for a 4th of July breakfast...it was awesome! But I ate so much! Then after that we went to a member's house, where some of their family members would be there (who aren't members) and we had a barbeque...so good!! Only I ate a ton there too!! On the night of the 4th I just laid in bed and could hear fireworks. It was kinda sad and made me wish I was able to see them.

The 4th of July for us as a family has great tradition. We go to the Kaysville parade, have a BBQ at Grandma and Grandpa Hurst's house, and then we watch the fireworks at Davis High School. Ronnie's aunts, uncles, and cousins are all together with us. It was a bit sad to not have Ronnie with us this year, but we are glad he is out doing a great service on his mission. We missed him a lot! I know he was missing out on the traditions of the 4th of July, but it sounds like he was busy and i'm glad to know he still has a great appetite!

He then goes on to write:

"Being the companion of a district leader is kind of fun, we get to go on a lot of exchanges with other missionaries. On Wed., we had and exchange withthe Zone leaders. I stayed here in this area, and Elder Pitt came here with me. Elder Pitt is sooo cool! He's from Centerville UT and he went to Viewmont. He's been out just a year longer than me. Tomorrow, I'll stay here again, and a missionary named Elder Janson will be on exchange with me until Thursday. Thursday is Zone Interviews!! And I'll get to see Elder Schow (his cousin), and Elder Parkinson (his MTC companion). My 2 favorite people to see. :) I'm way excited actually!!

I'm glad that he gets to be with other missionaries once in awhile. Its good to have a little change every now and then and you can always learn from others. I know he is always happy to see the Elders he already knows.

Sounds like he had a good week. He always writes personal things to the family and it makes me feel good to see how much he loves his family. We love him very much!!

June 29, 2009

Our email from Ronnie lets us know he is well and doing great. He is sure walking a lot of miles to find people to teach. This is what he said:

"This week was good! We did a lot of- you guessed it- TRACTING! Its not that bad, it just gets pretty old if thats all you do all week. I couldn't even estimate how many miles we walked this week, and then to throw all the wonderful Maine hills in there, the rain, the mosquitos, the sweat, ya know, it AWESOME!!"

Here is a picture he sent home and on the back of the picture he writes, " A nice scenic view of Maine, you can't see it, but there is like 8.3 billion mosquitos in that picture. hahahah!!

Here is a picture he sent home of a typical "boony road" he has been tracting down.

He went on to tell us that they did have some success while out tracting on Saturday. Here is what he said:

" We were tracting on Gore road...well there's a road that breaks off of Gore road called "Kayla Drive" (His little sister's name is Kayla) probably my favorite street I've see on my mission. We started walking up the driveway and this lady came out, and she was like "NO THANK YOU!! THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY! PLEASE LEAVE!! Well we were about to turn around when this guy came out and he said to the lady "I'll talk to them". so he started walking with us back to Gore road. Well he told us something way cool! First he introduced himself as Jesse. then he told us how about 20 something years ago, his ex wife, or a wife that passed away, wanted to know which church she should join, so she prayed about it. 2 days later here came the missionaries. Well, she didn't think it was right, so she prayed again...the missionaries showed up a few days later. She still thought it was wrong, and for a third time prayed about it, a few days later the missionaries showed up, so she started learning but he wasn't really into it. Well lately he's had some trials and doesn't really know where he's going in life, but anyway he's kinda lost I guess. Well last Wednesday, I think it was, he saw us tracting. He waved at us and he kept driving. Well, he said to himself "I really need to talk to them, I hope I have a chance to." Well fast foward to Saturday, in the middle of no where, on Kayla Drive, which is a dirt road with 3 or 4 houses, and we found him. Cool, huh? And he even told us that he knows God sent us. So we'll be teaching him on Friday! I'm excited! It's been a sweet week!"

Here is a picture of him on Kayla Drive

We are glad to know that for the most part he has a good attitude about tracting. Its tough being out there knocking on doors day after day. I just hope he is using his mosquito repellent!! ( I know, its a mom thing to worry about.)