December 2009

From Elder Mathieu:

It is freezing out here!  It has been about 23 to 26 degrees all week.  No rain yet, though.  I am sending a picture of the waterfall out front of our subdivision, and it is frozen solid!  When we were tracting in the 20 degree weather, the wind was really blowing and my bottom lip stopped working.  It was hard not to slur words!

I am training a new missionary!!  Will you pray that I will do the best I can on training him?  He came yesterday and it was also Elder Nicol's last day, my first companion.  So, Elder Nicol got to meet my new companion before he left to go home.  It is sad to see him go, and I will miss him, but I kmow that I will see him again.  We will hang out.

Well, my new companion is Elder Hansen.  He is from Vernal, Utah and played basketball in high school.  He was the captain!  He loves to hunt and be in the outdoors.  He is very nervous and scared, but I know that he is going to be awesome.  Being a trainer is fun but hard.  Elder Hansen is very good at teaching and has such a strong testimony.  I am very lucky to have him as a comnpanion.  Things are going good and we are teaching more and more.  The ward loves us, and we love the Ward!

One day while tracting, we were walking down the street and a lady pulled over and started to talk to us.  She just moved in on our street and said they haven't gone to church for a while, but she wanted us to visit her son, age 22, who was home at the time.  We knocked on their door and got to talk to her daughter and son.  Turns out that the son was the guy who gave us Jamba Juices yesterday when we went to the store!  Small world!  At another home we watched a video of the 2,000 Stripling Warriors with the couple there.  We asked if there was anything that we could do to help them overcome whatever was holding them back from the Church?  The lady opneed up, and now we are going back to teach her a refresher course!  At a third home, we talked about how to get answers from the Lord.  It was a long, but very good discussion!  We seem to be doing well.

There was a greeny meeting today for most of the day.  Our mission president told us trainers that we are the most trusted and respected missionaries, to be trusted with the crucial first moments of a new missionary's life!

I love you and miss you so much.  Christ is our Lord and SAvior and I know that He lives.  I love to share this message with the world and hopefully bring the joy that I  hae to as many as I can!  I know that God has called another prophet to earth to lead and guide us back to Heavenly Father.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Tough Elders Roasting a Pig!

Biggest Blackberries in Oregon!

Enjoying the Fall Colors

The Dream Investigator!!

August, 6, 2009

Ok, so the temperature here in August is 63!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is that!!!! It is August!!! Not fair. It was only hot for a week, (over 100) and I loved it. It is even raining today!!!!! Oh well. Only one more winter and then back to warm AZ!!!!!

We were at church Sunday and this guy came and said that he wanted to be taught!!!!!!!!!!!!! The dream investigator!!!! Yes! So we taught him that night and then again yesterday. He is awesome. He is dating a member and met her kids and was like, Wow. He is divorced, and the Catholic Church doesn't take kindly to that. He stopped agreeing with them. We taught him about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. He said it makes sense. We gave him the pamphlet, and on Wednesday, when we went back, he had a lot of questions, and he even set a baptismal date by himself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That doesn’t happen. We answered his questions and he said that we are amazing teachers and have such a deep knowledge of the Gospel. He said that we can take the most complicated things and make them simple. It is not us, it is the spirit working through us, and I am so grateful for it and the power it brings. We are going to meet with him on Sunday. I will tell you how it went later.

Reading an old Bible

Helping Brother Moore with his van

June 6, 2009

Today we went on exchanges and I am with Elder Burroughs from Hawaii. He’s so lucky, but he doesn’t even surf! (That is a sin.) We were asked to help a family move, but we got lost! Our Portland area is so confusing! The maps don’t label every road and most of the streets don’t connect. A lot of intersections have anywhere from two to four other streets intersecting in the same place.

When we finally arrived, they were already done moving! But Brother Butler was there and he needed help moving also. When we were about finished, Sister Butler said the grill was dirty so let’s just leave it here. We spoke up and said we will take it! They agreed, and now we have a great propane grill on the patio of our apartment!

Since we were going on a blitz of our area with the zone leaders, I got to go with Elder Wood from North Phoenix! He loves cars and racing too! We tracted into the home of an old guy that was so happy we came over to visit him! It was his 95th birthday! Afterwards, we went home and did our studies. We counted three new investigators today! Great!

Tomorrow is fast Sunday. I love hearing and testifying about the gospel. Especially how it brings such joy and comfort to the lives of those that are having struggles.
Love you, Elder Mathieu

May 2009 Letters

Thursday 5/14/09

I really enjoyed talking to you both on the phone on Mother’s Day! I enjoyed talking to dad too, and he was shocked to hear from me. We talked for a long time and I explained a little on the plan of salvation to him. He had never heard it before. I asked him if he had been reading the Book of Mormon that I sent him, but he has not. But, he is talking about going on vacation with me after the mission up to Oregon. I can show him around to all the cool sites and people I met!

Grocery shopping is fun!

Saturday 5/16/09

Today we drove out to the Hillsboro Stake Center because Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was going to address the whole mission! I was sitting in an aisle seat, and when he came into the room, we all stood up. He came walking up the aisle and he looked right at me and said, “How is everything?” I know that he was talking to the whole group, but he looked right at me when he said it! You could feel the atmosphere of the chapel change. The spirit was so much stronger! I hope everyone will be able to feel the strength of the spirit that accompanies a special witness of Christ! Elder Ballard was able to talk to us, not about doctrine, but about skills and ways to be a more powerful teacher and to proclaim the Gospel with boldness. He also spoke about how to find more people to teach. I will just write a little of what was said. There is more detail in my study journal. First off one of his interest is automotive. I’m not sure what exactly, but that is way cool! Because of the power Satan has on the world, we have to be true master teachers. More so that ever before! We have to make sure that the investigators understand what we are teaching. We are to ask for referrals after every teaching lesson. He said that we are the finest looking group of missionaries he has ever seen anywhere! He said that we have to have confidence. He also blessed us to get the vision of the Gospel, to have Heavenly Father watch over us, to have the capacity to reach out to the leaders and members, and for health, strength, and comfort. It was great!

After the talk, we had our picture taken with Elder Ballard. We were the last zone to go. While we were waiting, President Waite from St. Helens area came by and shook hands with me. He said he was sorry that he didn’t get to see me before I was transferred, but he thanked me for all of my hard work. He said they all miss me and he was glad that he got to see me and he hopes to see me again. Then we got to shake hands with Elder Ballard and gathered all around him for the picture!

Saturday 5/23/09

Today we headed over to Gerred Bohannon’s sealing. When we got to the Portland Temple, Elder Owen’s recommend was expired so we had to wait for them to talk to him and call the Mission President. We were thinking that we were going to miss it, but soon they said that we were clear to go. We rushed upstairs to the sealing room and just made it in time. Sister Goodrich was in there and I got to meet Gerred’s dad. He asked if I was responsible for this and I said I don’t know about that, but Gerred sure helped us out a lot up in Rainier.

Then the door opened and Brother Goodrich came in walking behind Gerred and Sister Bohannon. Brother Goodrich was doing the sealing and during his speech he turned and looked at me and said I see that you pulled some strings. I chuckled at his comment. Then they completed the sealing. It was so cool! That was the first sealing I have ever seen. Afterwards, I shook hands with them and, as we were walking out, Gerred turned to me and said, “Thanks for coming. After you get off your mission, look us up.” We then went down to the atrium and took pictures. Gerred’s grandma began talking to me about her conversion story. It was funny, she was baptized in a swimming pool!

Later that day, we visited a less active member that has a drinking problem and whose wife passed away a couple of weeks ago. We sat with him and listened to him (his family is very active). He is drinking less and he keeps saying he wants to come back to church. In and out of tears, he asked for a blessing, which is a huge jump! I did the anointing and Elder Owen gave the blessing. It was a very powerful blessing! As he thanked us and gave us big hugs, he said he could really feel the power of God! He could feel His spirit! What a great day!

Washing Clothes on PDay!

Well, I'm in a New Area

I just got transferred to a new area. It was so hard to leave all the people that I love out in St. Helens and Rainier. It feels like home there now. The member that we were living with felt like she was family and we were both almost in tears when I left. A lot of the members were also in tears when I told them good-bye. I am now in Portland close to downtown. I’m in the Lake Oswego Zone, in Raleigh Hills and Gabriel Park. We live in a house with some members. My new Companion is way cool. His name is Elder Owen. We drive a car and there is every store that you can think of out here. That is such a drastic change from having nothing out in the countryside. So, I will be calling you in the late afternoon on Mother’s Day, probably around 4pm or so. I can’t wait to talk to you. Bapa, I am so very proud of you, and it made my day that you are now an Elder. You are the very best. Well I have to go, but I love you and miss you both, and I will talk to you soon.