And now, a word from our missionary...

Hey mom!

OK so I guess now would be a good time to explain opening my first beer, eh? We are working with a Less-active named Cheryl, mid-40's. She has 2 boys both are teenagers. She clashed with her son Jordan and she was upset and went out and bought some beer. She called us and told us that she needed our help. So we went over there and we talked with her and we called some members that Cheryl felt were like a father and mother to her, the Colliers, who are also the addiction recovery missionaries. We talked with her and she felt better after a few minutes. When we felt that she would be OK by herself, we left. The next day we stopped by and she asked us to help her pour out the beer because she didn't want anything to do with it, and she really wanted to come back to church. So Elder Beeston and I opened the beer and helped her pour it down the sink. It was really fun. She yelled, "GOOD BYE SATAN! GOOD RIDDANCE!" as she poured it out. She felt really good afterwards and we were happy for her. We've been teaching her how to study the scriptures so that she can get the most out of her study.

Sunday was pretty exciting. We had a mission fast for miracles. We had a lesson with Emily at the Drinkwater's house after church and we were talking about faith. We asked her where she thought she was in her faith. She just came right out and said, "I want to be baptized!" We were shocked! She had been taught everything 3 times and she had had 3 previous baptismal dates that had fallen through. She felt that it was right and she came to church every week, but she was afraid to tell her parents because she thought that they might disown her. She told her parents and they were OK with it. After she told us, we had a happy moment and then we set a date for August 15th. She already knew who she wanted to give the talks and everything so we wrote those down.

And then, when we were at the McNiven's for dinner, they had forgotten that they had signed up for us on Sunday and they had already invited some other people. We told them that we could reschedule if it would be more convenient, but they said it would still be OK and that we could still come. So when we got there, there were 3 other people besides us and the McNiven family. 2 of which were already members, but one of them was one of Brother McNiven's co-workers, named Mike. We talked with Mike, just trying to get to know him, and he just started asking questions about the church. We answered them, and he seemed very interested. Right before we left, we exchanged phone numbers. So we got a new investigator too! Which is great because we've been in a 3 week dry spell.

We found out that the Woodstown Elders found a spider. It's a pretty big spider, but it laid eggs while it was in captivity. I'm not sure what they're going to do about that, but I think that if they don't do something about it soon, they're going to be in quite the predicament. They named their spider Olivia. We're going to bring our spiders to sports later today. It will be Ruth VS Olivia. I think that Ruth will win. We put her through some fierce training so I think she's ready.

Oh I counted my change today and I have accumulated $7.26 in the year that I've been out in just pennies, nickles and dimes. I was kind of surprised I had that much change. Just thought I'd tell you...

No you didn't tell me you were going to NY. That's pretty cool! Don't forget to bring something for the plane ride over!

Well the computer just informed me that I'm out of time, so I'll talk to you next week.

Stay out of trouble!

Love,

Zack

More Reunion Pics!

Here are some pics from my sis-n-law's blog to give you a better idea of what it looked like at camp.


One of the cabins in the background, but some of us liked the privacy of our own tents.

Aunt Belva

Aaron certainly has a different way to fish!

Aaron Cory Anderson

Sweet Reunion!

Well, we enjoyed a Sweet reunion/camp out at the Clear Creek Ranch near Zion's National Park this weekend. Our truck was heating up on the drive down, so we had to take the long, slow 6 hour drive down. Still, the temperature at the ranch was very pleasant...not too hot.
Nephew Mark, took us on an interesting hike. It was suppose to end at a cool place we could swim and had water falls, but this one was very challenging and HOT! This is John at the bottom of the hike.

Some of our fellow hikers: Audrey, Elizabeth, Jessica, Emily, Russ, James, Rod and his dog. Perhaps you can't get the gist of just how steep a climb this was from these pics, but we started beyond the tops of the cliffs you see in the background.
It was so hot! Had I known it was going to be 103, I would not have come. Sam was a trooper and carried Cameron down this steep trail.
There were herds of froggies all over in the stream. This is Carson and Nick showing two of them. Carson actually kissed a frog while he was down there! I don't know if he's going to get warts on his lips or he was hoping for a prince!
Chelsie and I got our hands in some prickly cactus, so I hiked back with my sandals on my hands. I didn't have to grab on to any rocks hiking back up, but it did save my hand from falling on more cactus on the return hike.

Weeping Rock hike.This is what the kids had to put up with the whole hike! No wonder they have grumpy faces in some of the pics.

I can't believe I didn't get pics of the camp. There was canoing, fishing, ping pong, some of the group played frisbee. Most of the young kids loved the canoing part. Dallin even went out in a canoe and played target while Adam shot at him with a paintball gun...silly boys!

Jeff and James fell off the motercycle and got hurt. I told them they will have to be restricted to the 4 wheelers, until the can graduate to the 2 wheelers!

It was fun to see everyone! I counted 48 people in all, there. The only ones missing were Tera and her family, Jean, Angela, Syd and Zack.

Note to family: FYI-the conversation of me saying mom only had me to all the chores was a conversation that happened when I was 13.

A note I got from Zack, just before we left for our trip.
Dear Whamly Family,

...I'm glad that I came on my mission. It's hard to believe I've been on my mission for over a year! Where has the time gone?!? Looking back, I see that if I didn't go on a mission I would have been a total bum. I would have dragged my feet and wandered aimlessly. You know it's weird to say this, but I'm kind of scared to go home. I've gotten so used to missionary life. It's great! I'd do it all over again if I could. I'm just going to enjoy it while I can and work my butt on.

Ruth (pet spider) is doing good. She kind of got aggressive the other day. We fed her a fly and 2 moths at the same time and she ate them all within 24 hours. We went to clean her cage and she jumped out in attack mode so we put her back in and closed the cage for a while until she calmed down. We challenged the other missionaries in our District to find a spider so that the spiders could fight. I don't think they've found anything yet. Even if they did, I think Ruth would win. Ruth is black with a yellow diamond on her butt. Can you tell me what kind she is?

Elder Beeston taught me how to solve a Rubix cube. Elder Okamoto told us to do something to build more unity between our companion for 5 minutes every day. So Elder Beeston and I solve the Rubix cube moving one piece to the right place and then handing it off to the other person. We've gotten pretty good. So far our top combined time is 2 minutes and 15 seconds. It is very intense.

This week went to Cowtown as a district. It was good. It brought back good memories. After Cowtown Elder Okamoto and I went to visit Sis. Carter in Woodstown because we heard that she found a boy friend and she's getting married in the temple. I was very surprised when Elder Okamoto told me that. But she wasn't home and she didn't answer the phone so we just left her a note.

I got to paint a room on Monday at the McNaughton's. That brought back good memories as well. It reminded me of painting at Aunt Joyce's house. Except I didn't have to clean up afterwords. They fed us lunch before and it was delicious.

Well we have to go do stuff now.

Love,

Zack

What's new???

This is a normal scene at my house. A row of computers and a row of boys on them. Half the time the rest of the room is filled with friends playing some silly computer game. This is the first pic I took with my new camera. Not as fancy as my last one, but basically the same quality pic.

What else is new? Not much: Jake and John finished high school! They took the GED and got high scores! Not the typical high school graduation hoohaa, but they finished nonetheless! Time to move on! Three down, two to go!

Mike and Spencer had to get their glasses replaced and we are looking forward to our last camp out this year (more pics to come!!)

Hi, from Zack/Elder Holladay

Hey Momarooney!

My trip to the temple was awesome! We all met at the mission home the night before and we stayed there for the night. We woke up at 5AM because we had to leave at 6:30AM. We had breakfast in the car on the way there. We had 8 missionaries in our group with Sis. and Prez Winegar and I think their neice(I think her name was Shauna)?. Me, Elder Beeston, Elder Mann, Elder Morales, Elder Sundwall, Elder Marchant, Elder Pena, and Elder Haslam. I took tons of pictures! It took forever to get there, so I slept some of the way there. I would have slept the whole way there, but the roads in New Jersey are horrible. We got there a little early so we hit up Central Park and I think it was the Warner Brothers Building not too far. We still had some extra time so we also hit up Broadway and Times Square! It was totally awesome. Then we went to the Manhattan Temple, which is awesome by itself. It was a great experience. Oh and we listened to a talk on the drive up about symbolism. It was very interesting. After we got finished at the Temple we went to the distribution center and I got 2 pairs of g's. Driflex I think it was. Supposed to keep me dry. I thought it would go well in this humid state. So I decided to try it. I also bought some postcards from a street vendor. After we left the Temple we went to Olley's for lunch. It was a chinese restaraunt. They had good food and their service is pretty dang fast. After lunch we went to see The Statue of Liberty. The back side. Then we went home. We didn't get back to our appartment until 9PM. It was a long and exhausting day. I think that we might have been in the temple at the same time, but I'm not sure. I'd have to check the time on my camera because I was still taking pictures up until we went in. So yeah that's why I didn't get around to Emailing yesterday. We didn't have time to do anything yesterday so our P-day got moved to today, but we still have to go to our appointments.

Elder Beeston is from Tuscon Arizona. He has 1 brother and 4 sisters. He is a little shorter than I am, but he is a lot more in shape. He is the second oldest I think. He is a funny fellow. We get a long great. We have a spider in captivity that we named Ruth. We catch the bugs that get in our apartment and feed them to her.

The missionary work here is doing good. We have 3 investigators that are very close to being ready for baptism. They've been taught almost everything. Terri Teneli(sp?) has been taught everything, but she thinks that she has to be perfect in everything before her baptism. We're going to try to correct her train of thought. We have Emily who has also been taught everything, but she's afraid that her family will disown her. If she can get over that, she'll be ready. Her dad said he was proud of her that she was going to church with her friend(member). We also have Sunny. She has been taught nearly everything, but she has a smoking addiction. So we've got our work cut out for us.

I got the music book on saturday I think. I was very surprised at the speedy delivery. Especially because I didn't know what my address is so I couldn't give it to you. Thank you so much! I have already used it a few times. Elder Okamoto wants me to practice with him because he has the same book so I can play the guitar while he plays the piano.

That's all I can remember that I have to report this week.

Love ya!
Tell everyone I said HI!

Zack

Root Canals Suck!

Really...the anesthesia wearing off and I feel a headache coming on!

New Address-Zack

This is Zack's new address:

550 East Holly Court #25
Pitman, NJ 08071

Zack attack!

Zack said he took this picture today! Isn't technology great!

Hey Mombly!

You're favorite missionary is doing well. Still have all four limbs and my head attached to my torso. lol

I enjoyed the 4th of July! It was very fun! Most of our Zone went up to Camden to watch the fireworks in Philadelphia. We were up on the roof of the Victor (the fanciest hotel in all the land of Camden). You could see for miles up there! We saw fireworks constantly going off all around us, but most of them were too far away to watch. I took some pictures and some video. The sunset was gorgeous! It was a deep crimson. Everyone brought snacks too, or was supposed to bring snacks. No body told us, so we didn't bring any. There were 11 missionaries in the elevator on the way home! Someone called for the elevator on our way down and saw us all in there. We offered to make room for them, but I guess they felt a little intimidated and they decided to wait for the next elevator.

That would be so cool if you could send me some music! I'd like to learn some hymns. I actually told Bro. Grykin, who gave me the guitar, that I would play him a song with the guitar he gave me. He asked me to learn and play How Great Thou Art. I can only play one note at a time, but I've tried to play with chords, and I can't figure out which chords to play. I thought you just play the chord of the first note in the measure, but it sounds weird to me. I learned how to play If You Could High To Kolob using only chords. I'm probably not playing it quite right, but it sounds right. I would be happy with what ever music you send me. Whether it's hymns or primary songs, I just want to learn something.

I got transferred today to Glassboro with Elder Beeston. He is a cool guy! We came out at the same time. We'll be going to the Manhattan temple next Wednesday. We'll spend Tuesday night at the mission home and we'll leave at 6:30am. A little early for me, but it'll be worth it. Oh and I'm in a car area so I don't need to buy a bike just yet.

Pictures: me and Elder Tregaskis (The most recent picture taken today). He will be home in Orem Utah tomorrow. He was my very first Zone Leader. He, like Elder Quatel, also liked the picture that you sent of Melissa. He said he would look her up when he got home, but we'll see.

Well my time is pretty much up. I'll tell you more about Glassboro next week.

Peace like a river!

Love,

Zack