December 8th, 2014 ~ Surprise!

Hey everyone!                                                                                                     December 8, 2014

This week was pretty much like all the others. We had FHE at the Owens, which was fun as usual! Then the rest of the week was a blur. We did a lot of

tracking and found a couple more potentials. One let us in because she saw us at the trading post where we volunteer at, so it’ s good to see that all of that work there has finally led to something because I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have let us in if we had just knocked on her door and she didn't know us.

We have been teaching a new investigator who is seventh day Adventist which is really interesting! It's super hard to teach them and they have a lot

of weird beliefs but they're the most progressing investigators that we have. On day we were over there and her daughter got out her laptop and started finding all this false doctrine stuff so the whole hour was just resolving those issues! We've been sharing the "He is the gift" messages when we go tracking and I've figured out that if people don't want to listen it doesn't matter if we talk about the Book of Mormon, Christmas, or helping them do service! If their minds are set they won't change! So the he is the gift thing is good but not any more effective than any other message I think. You should've got some pass along card in the ensign this month! Be sure to give those to someone and share the video with some people!

We went on exchanges this week and Elder Cramer came over here to Springville. I like Elder Cramer; we have a lot in common and get along really well! We had a branch Christmas party on  Friday so that was good! We did service at the trading post and for Kelly.

Sunday was awesome! It was fast and testimony meeting and there were some pretty good testimonies from Sandra and Lynette. Then Jory Jensen showed up so that was awesome! That was so nice of him to drive all of the way down from Buffalo just to say hi! It was a great surprise! He got to meet some of the people from the branch then he had to go back up to his meeting so he could only stay for a little bit. What are the chances you see someone from your home ward in Utah in a small branch in western New York?!  Then that night we had the Christmas devotional. That's pretty much all. We are going to the temple this week on Saturday with the Owens because

Lynette is getting her endowments before she goes on her mission! It only took 4 1/2 months, but I finally get to go!

 Love ya!

December 1, 2014 Satan is hard at work!

Hey guys!                                                                                            December 1, 2014

This week was pretty good it had its goods and bads but nothing too unusual.

Monday, we did our usual p day stuff but we went to the Bakers for dinner instead of the Owens which is ok I guess. It was just he and his son because his family was out of town so not too exciting but still ok!

Tuesday, we had Zone conference up in Amherst. That was great as usual! I learned a lot on how to better improve myself and how to try and be more effective. I always love zone conference! While we were there we had to take our truck to the Nissan dealership in Orchard Park to get something fixed again! I think it was still something lingering from when it was wrecked but it was under warranty so that was good. Then we hurried back and had dinner at Kelly's. Kelly has a niece who is living with her permanently now because her living conditions weren't so great. Jim and Kelly are super nice people always thinking of others. It's funny because Jim is this guy with a big beard, ruff and tough and if you didn't know him you'd probably have a different impression but he's awesome!

Wednesday, we went to the trading post, then went tracting and tried to find more people. Then we had dinner at the Becker’s with all four missionaries, kind of an early Thanksgiving. Thus was Thanksgiving! It says in the missionary handbook that holidays are great for missionary work but not in this area! Everyone hates you if you knock on their door on a holiday! So we spent the majority of the day at the Owens, which was awesome! I love their family, they're so much fun! The food was great and there was lots of It! We ate, and played games and ate some more!

That will be a Thanksgiving I'll always remember!

Friday, we tracted some more! We found three new investigators and one said he would be baptized but we called him the next day and he said he prayed about it and God told him Joseph Smith was fake so that really sucks! Satan is working hard! We finally thought we found someone and he was asking really good questions, believed everything we taught and then changed his mind!

Then, Saturday we went and did some service for Jim then went tracting some more.

Sunday we had our usual meetings then we went to go see some new members in the branch out past Holland.  We drove all of they way out there and then she told us that she doesn't like the church anymore and she's not coming back. Then we went tracting some more and we met this really mean guy who threatened to call the cops on us and then two doors down was a state trooper and he was even meaner than the last guy! He wouldn't even shake our hand!

Surprisingly, I'm not tired of tracting yet but we're almost out of doors to knock on. Probably be finished by next week depending on our schedule. The weather has been normal, snow a couple days then get warm and melts all again! So that's my week!

Love ya!

Elder Daugs

November 17th, 2014~ Winter has arrived!!

Hey guys!                                                                                                             November 16, 2014

Well, it's cold now and there's lots of snow! I saw a weather forecast that said Springville should get 24-30 inches in the next three days! So,

that will be awesome! This week went ok I guess, not that much different from any other week. So the first part of the week here was no snow but after Tuesday there was tons of it! Pretty much every day it snows at least a little. We've done a ton of tracting lately trying to find more people to go and teach. We've found probably ten potentials and we've got two new investigators, so I guess it's working! We've had appointments set up with a bunch of people this week but they've all been gone or said it was a bad time. We've tried to stop by and see all of the potentials that we have on our board a couple of times and none were available. So we'll keep trying! We've almost knocked on every single door in Springville only a couple more streets to go! 

It's kind of hard to find things to do once it gets dark because it gets dark around 5- 5:30 and people don't like us knocking on their door once it's dark. We've done the usual service at the trading post, and we did some service for Jim and Kelly. Hunting season started this week and Jim has already got two I think! And a boy from the branch got one and he said he's going to bring us some jerky! Stake conference was this week up on Amherst so that was great! We rode up with the Beckers and had lunch with them afterwards. I'm finding out that people really hate change out here! They have their religion and that's all they need they don't even want to hear what we have to say most of the time and the people that do listen are the ones that aren't religious! So I like talking to the people that aren't religious at all! They are much nicer! I think we're going to the church and going to build giant snowman for p day and then go to the Owens so that will be fun!

I'm keeping pretty warm. The humid cold is a lot different than the dry cold in Utah! I don't know what we'll do after we're done tracting? Nice elk! The Nissan is pretty good as far as I can tell! It's a little light in the back end so we might get some sand bags or something. It's going to be a blizzard for the next three days and zone conference was canceled because of the snow. Here's the fort so far. That's pretty much it! Yep!

 Love, Elder Daugs

Ether 12:4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

Winter has arrived!

Guess, it's time to build a fort! (P-day activity)

 Me,  Elders Cramer, Passey, and Smith

November 3rd, 2014~ Getting a new companion (Elder Smith)

Hey everyone!                                                                                                  November 3^rd, 2014

This week was good but it was a little cold.  I'll tell you more about that a little bit!

So, on Monday we did the usual and went to the Owens for FHE, which is always great!

Tuesday, I went on exchanges over to Arcade again but this time I went with Elder Cramer and we did a bunch of service in the rain. We went to two different people’s houses and stacked wood for most of the day!

Wednesday, we went to the trading post and met with Billy again. He said he would have us over but still hasn't called and he never answers his phone. We also taught Chuck and he finally said that if he came to know what we taught was true he would be baptized but he won't read and his shop is open on Sunday so he can't come to church. So, still a lot of work to do there! Then we went to family history night at the church and I noticed on mine that a bunch of the names have duplicates and I don't know how to fix that or how to make sure they are duplicates, so maybe grandpa could figure out what’s wrong.

Thursday, we had district meeting and then we had game night. We are doing it inside and more people are starting to come to play board games and other games so that's good!

Friday was Halloween. We went to the trading post and they got some sort of bug in some of the boxes so we had to move all of the food out of the building and into the garage! That took forever!

On Halloween, we had to be in by dark so that's like 6 so we went over to the senior couples apartment with the other elders and played cards for the night.

Saturday, we went to Roy’s and cut down and moved a bunch of trees for him in the snow! Yes, I said snow! It wasn't sticking, but it was still cold! And we got him interested in coming to the family history night so hopefully he'll come to that! Then at night we went to the Becker’s for dinner and Cole was there, so that was good! We're trying to get him to church but he's 20 years old and is usually off doing stuff on the weekends. When we came out of the Becker’s there was 2 inches of snow!! It started to stick once the sun went down!

Sunday was fast Sunday and after we went and tried to visit a bunch of potentials but none were home! Today we got transfer calls and Elder Vickers is going to Kodak Park up in Greece and I'm staying and Elder Smith is coming here! I liked Elder Vickers, but a change will be nice! I've been in our area the longest out of all of the people in our district so I guess I'm an expert now! I don't know much about Elder Smith I'll find out when I go get him tomorrow. We have to drive all of the way to Rochester to get him! It's about two hours. So it will use up a couple miles!

The heater works ok.

I  read through the Book of Mormon once already and all of D and C and I've started Book of Mormon again and the New Testament. We study preach my gospel and watch conference talks usually for study.

That's pretty much all!

Love you!!

Elder Daugs

October 27th, 2014 ~

                                                                   October 27^th, 2014

So this week was kind of like last week. One p day we went to Letchworth State Park and that was really cool!! Elder Snyder was nice and took all of our district there. It's a big canyon with a couple big waterfalls and it just has some trails and stuff you can walk around on so we stayed there for most of p day since we have nothing better to do. Then we went to the Owens for FHE and I taught the lesson.

The rest of the week I don't remember what I did on each day so I'll just tell you what we've done. We've tracked a lot trying to find people but only found a couple of potentials. We've tracked half of Springville, half of Holland, and most of West Valley. So, pretty soon we'll run out of doors to knock on. I went on exchanges with Elder Passey over in Arcade and we did the same thing...tracked. We did see a house with Utah license plates, so we talked to them and they are members that just moved into town. We volunteered at the trading post. We went down to Ellicottville, which is a really cool place! It has two ski resorts so it’s kind of like a mini Jackson Hole with all the fancy shops and nice cars everywhere! I couldn't convince Elder Vickers to tract though. He's not very motivated to do stuff and he's tired of tracking, but I don't mind it. We had a trunk or treat at the church and that went really well! We had a chili dinner before and lots of non-members and less active members came. It was good to meet them. We gave away a case of our muddy buddies that we got from the trading post. 

Sunday was the primary program and there are only 15 kids so they all had to say about three or four parts to take up all of sacrament. Kyle who is a recent convert blessed the sacrament this week for his first time so that's great! He's the only priest in the branch.

That's pretty much it for the week! Hope you guys have a good week! Love ya!!

Love Elder Daugs

Elder Holland visited our mission.  This is a picture of him with our Mission President and wife  walking into the Sacred Grove.