Mormon Bloggers

I’ve been home from Japan for over three years now. I know, long time. (I know I’m not married, too, but thanks for the reminder.) It wasn’t until late last night as I zombie-walked home from the library that I remembered one of the best lessons the Assistants to the President in my mission taught me. No matter how dogged, exhausted, dead-like, and thoroughly worn through they looked, once you walked up to them and said hi they would smile huge and show the enthusiasm of the world solely to you. It was good to remember that small, little attribute they had. It wasn’t out of any prerogative or advice someone gave them. It was just a by-product of working as hard as they can and not letting it chance-affect anybody around them. They were good leaders in our mission.  Read More →

What a great week. We finalized Roberta’s (by filling out her baptism record we found out how to really spell her name) plans for her baptism this weekend. She is no doubt the most excited person to be baptized that I have ever taught. To tell us the result of her interview she decided to have a little fun. We all sat down and she looked at me and looked at the other Elders, winked at Elder Powell then at me. Then waited for about 10 seconds, started twiddling her thumbs then jumped up and said, “I passed!” We gave her high fives and congratulated her. It was funny. Yesterday, we helped her move around some furniture. We moved things this way and that way, back and forth, left and right. It took about a hour. You know… the average furniture moving process. We also enjoyed raking some leaves which we planned on doing sometime during the week, but found a break in the rain so we worked in our proselyting clothes. It is refreshing to do some service for others. We... Read the rest of this entry »

We had a fun trip last week to Multnomah Falls. It is a big water fall and water certainly falls there. We hiked to the top and looked over the gorge. My companion and I ran down in half the time it took to get up. My legs were sore till about Saturday from that because of the impact of running downhill. It was well worth it. Raberta is going to be baptized on November 20th. She is really excited about that and so are we. She is loving everything about church. We are also teaching someone named Hope. Its always a nice joke to say, I hope she’ll be there. Our week was spent doing some service for a member that was moving and teaching many people that we have been working with for awhile. We are striving to find more people to teach and have been doing more tracking, asking members to help, and talking to people on the street. I always enjoy meeting people on the street and talking to them. I have found that is when people are more open to letting us come to their house. It has been... Read the rest of this entry »

We went to the Halloween trunk or treat. Raberta came and showed off her costume. I decided to turn my suit jacket inside out. It definitely is awesome. Yes, there are dragons on my bright gold yellow inside of suit. It is my favorite. We’ve been working with Raberta more and more and she is progressing well. We have also worked a lot with Keelin. He is 10 years old and understands very well. We were teaching him about the baptismal covenant and were saying that we can renew it when we partake of the sacrament. He added in, “Yeah and doesn’t the bread represent his body and the water represent his blood?” We were taken back a little as we aren’t used to investigators saying things like that — even though it is common knowledge. He is simply a very smart kid and taught a bit by his member grandma. The candy was great. Thanks for sending the shirt as well. We stayed at our apartment for Halloween because President told us to. We have been working and recently... Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks for all the great emails. I am glad that everything is working out good. We had a great week again. It always gets better and better. Raberta (the 73 year old investigator) came to church again. She is not shy at all and has lots of energy. She loves Relief Society and calls them her sisters. She absolutely loves church. She tells everyone how many churches she has stopped going to because she wasn’t comfortable. She feels comfortable around us and she told Relief Society how she was going to be baptized. They told her to then learn the lessons and make sure she understands things. It is quite the experience. Raberta is really excited for the Halloween party or trunk or treat. She is going to be a witch and she gave us a preview of her witch laugh. It was so real it freaked us out. It’ll be lots of fun. We experienced a little bit of the rainy season on Sunday and yesterday. It poured buckets of rain and then rained some more. We were tracking for part of it and got really... Read the rest of this entry »

Elder Powell and I have been doing great. We have continued to work to find those prepared for the message we have. With that we have increased our finding efforts and are seeking people who are ready to make commitments and leaving some behind that haven’t progressed for a long time. It has slowed the work up a bit, but in the long run will help the area the most. We have one investigator that is 73. She always asks us when we come over that she feels something different about us and that she is comfortable around us. She is quite the crazy lady, but has a very sweet spirit. She came to church with us and loved church. She was a little more outspoken we heard in relief society, but nothing to worry about. I hope the best for her. As a good brother would do, I knew that Jake was planning to get engaged for about a month now. With that it made me really think about extending for quite some time and made the decision rather tough. I think I said before, I really enjoy being a missionary... Read the rest of this entry »

Daniel and Elder Powell My new companion is Elder Powell. He is from Gilbert Arizona and is a great person to be with. I’m excited to work with him with the short time that we have together. We worked very hard to get investigators to church this week. After transfers we spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday teaching our investigators what church will be like, setting up rides, and confirming that members can take them and sit by them. I don’t think we’ve ever made more phone calls and talked to more people in attempts to get people to church. All of them were excited and were very willing to come. With every forward effort there is opposition. On Thursday I got a bloody nose and a flat tire (I’m okay now). Sunday morning as we saw our hard work fall apart I got another flat tire in the rain. Calls from investigators and talking to them later we found out that one investigator had to care for his mom’s poor health, one got sick and couldn’t come, another... Read the rest of this entry »

–Bishop Richard C. Edgely. On Saturday, I road-tripped down to Portland with the lovely Erin. We were there for less than a day but were able to squeeze in eating Lebanese food, buying terrible movies at Deseret Book and being with the equally lovely Cassie as she went through the Temple for the first time.* It was, of course, unspeakably lovely, albeit a trifle whirlwind. But that’s how I like to roll. Erin and I were discussing some of the frustrations of life in a singles ward during the loooooong drive back, seeing as it was so rainy one could not drive at an acceptable speed. Whilst we were talking, ELC said something that stuck with me. She said, “Some people come to church for external reasons.” The conversation went on from there, but I kept thinking about that sentence the next day during Sacrament Meeting. I am not sure if everyone goes through this process like I do, but I have to talk myself out of leaving the Church on a fairly regular basis.... Read the rest of this entry »

Daniel (bottom left) and other elders at General Conference time General Conference was great! I really enjoyed everything that was taught. It felt like they gave all the members encouragement and I could feel the love that they have for us. My favorite talk was from President Uchtdorf on simplifying our lives. I try to live a simple life. For example you will notice for the past four and a half months I have worn one tie per transfer. It started with dark green, then light green, now yellow. The same tie every day for 42 days. The next transfers tie (which starts tomorrow) has been selected, but I haven’t yet selected a tie for my month extension. There is competition among missionaries in my zone campaigning for the tie which I will wear. They want theirs to be picked. This in turn simplifies my life more because I don’t have to buy any new ties. Other ways to simplify my life are: Wearing a white shirt and slacks every day. I really enjoy General Conference. I hope to become... Read the rest of this entry »

Today we got to go to the temple. It is a great place to be and I always feel the Spirit. Today it reminded me of the MTC because our zone came together. It was an awesome experience. We continue to work hard and the area is doing very well. We found several new people to teach and a few investigators we’ve been teaching came to church for the first time. They enjoyed it. Stephanie has met a lot of people and is progressing very well in the ward. I’m excited to see what will happen at transfers. The roads for my bike are safe and great to ride my bike on. Thanks for all the support next week will be more exciting to write about. Love, Elder Willoughby Elder Daniel Willoughby is serving in the Washington Kennewick Mission. If you want to communicate with Daniel, write in the comments or use one of these addresses. Related posts: Missionary Dan Email #27 from Vancouver, Washington Missionary Dan Email #5 from Vancouver, Washington Missionary Dan Email #14 from Vancouver, Washington Missionary... Read the rest of this entry »

So after talking to President, I decided to accept his invitation to extend my mission for 30 days. President Greer asked me probably about 3 to 4 weeks ago if my Mom would be upset if I extended. I said she probably would be, but at the same time she’d be fine. So I thought about it for a week or two and I thought that the Lord would be pleased with whatever decision I made. Then I sent an email to Mom that I might be extending and for my birthday present she should let me. I also thought that more time in the mission field would be a privilege. Either option sounded great to me, but I decided that I’d be happier with staying here a month longer than going home. So I called President Greer last week and made my decision. He said the reason he asked me is because he’d like for me to train another missionary, and it is better for the new missionary to be with his trainer past 6 weeks. So I am happy to say that I’ll be coming home on December 15. The other details... Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the 21st birthday of our Uncle Dan. Now, neither of us has ever met him. But from what we hear, he’s a pretty awesome guy. We sent this card to him to him for his birthday: Birthday card sent to Daniel It kind of reminds us of the card Aurora sent him last year. We figure that maybe if we send him birthday cards he’ll like us when he gets home. Sometimes good looks can only get you so far in life.    Read More →