Baptism!

Hey Mom, That's crazy that Lance is already coming back! I remember when he left, I thought it would be forever till he got home. Now he's almost home, and I'm sure my mission will fly too.

This has been a really exciting week! It was three of us this week with both Elder Smout, Elder Stephens, and then me here. We had a good time. Elder Stephens is from Westpoint, UT. He said it's a little small town somewhere up by Logan. He is really good at singing and at the piano. Well, this week we focused mainly on getting Nicole ready for her baptism. She had her interview on Friday, and it went really well. On Saturday we spent most of our time getting the font filled and things set up and ready for the baptism, which happened at 4 PM. Nicole's parents came to the baptism. We were excited to see them there. Her baptism was probably the most spiritual experience I've ever had. It was awesome to see Elder Smout walk down with Nicole into the font and baptize her. The Spirit was really strong. After the baptism Elder Stephens played a solo arrangement of I Stand All Amazed, which is my favorite hymn. It was really good. I could tell that Nicole's parents were feeling the Spirit. It was an awesome service, and after Nicole's dad asked me for a tour of the chapel, so he got to see everything.

On Sunday Nicole was confirmed, and her parents attended that too. She has some amazing support from her family. Nicole was planning on one of the members to confirm her, but he was sick and said his English wasn't good enough (he's Venezuelan), so I was able to confirm her. It was a pretty awesome experience. It was amazing to see her prepare for her baptism, and then get to see her enter the waters and then become a member of the church and receive the Holy Ghost. The gospel is amazing and changes people's lives.

Well, Elder Smout left early yesterday morning on the van to Alaska, and now he is serving in the area next to my old area in Wasilla. He's serving with a Tongan. It was weird and sad to see him leave. He did a great job here in Whitehorse, and he loved it here. Elder Stephens and I will do our best to keep the work moving here. There is some awesome potential in this area. Today we are going to go to Bro. McDonald's house to jam with him. He's a really good guitar player, and has an electric drumset and a keyboard, and lots of guitars. He just got back in town, and finally I get to go play the drums again. It should be fun. Whitehorse is an awesome place, and I come to love it more and more everyday. I love you all! Love Mat

Senior Companion

Hey Mom! Sounds like you had a great New Years, and that you all were able to do some pretty fun things. Elder Smout and I didn't do much, haha, I mean we are missionaries. We spent some time at an investigator's house, and then we had to go back to our apartment so we just worked out and then went to bed. It was still fun though. We've had a really fun transfer together. I'll be sad to see him leave on Sunday.

Well, it's a new year and I'm sure time will fly by. Elder Smout and I had a pretty fun last week as just us two before the new missionary got here. We had some cool experiences. Nicole is still getting ready to be baptized on Saturday, and yesterday we taught her again and helped her prepare for her interview so that she won't be too nervous. It's going to be awesome to see her get baptized. On Tuesday we taught one of our investigators about faith, and about baptism. She suprised us by talking about baptism before we had even planned to ask her about it. Elder Smout and I were really excited that she brought the subject up so quickly, so we are going to be praying about a date we can commit her to so she can prepare for baptism.

Things are looking up here in Whitehorse. The other day, we got to go with our investigator Nicole and her mom to watch her dad play in a hockey game. It was pretty fun, I had never been to a hockey game before, and even though it wasn't the pros or anything, it was fun to watch. We're hoping that Nicole's parents will warm up to wanting to hear more about the gospel. Well, one more transfer is over, and now we have a new missionary with us. His name is Elder Stephens. He got in really late last night, at about 1 AM. We were all pretty tired when we got back, but I had a hard time falling asleep because I'm pretty nervous about this transfer. Elder Stephens has been out a little less time than I have, and I feel really inadequate to be a senior companion to him because he is a smart kid. We will have one week (this week) as three companions, and then after Elder Smout leaves on Sunday, it will be me and Elder Stephens. Hopefully things will go well. I'm hoping to have a great transfer, and see some baptisms, starting with this next weekend! Love Mat

First Christmas as a Missionary

Hey, It was weird this week to not be home for Christmas, but we still had a good time and got to celebrate just a little bit. On Monday there wasn't much to do for p-day. We kind of just relaxed and slept. That night we made some cakes at our branch mission leader's house to take to our investigators and some less active members for Tuesday. Tuesday night Elder Smout and I delivered the cakes secret Santa style. Our mission president told us it would be a good idea to get people excited about things, and think it was from other members. It was kind of exciting to doorbell ditch after we put the cakes down, and see if you could get back into the truck without slipping and breaking yourself on the ice and before they opened the door. We did a good job. We ran a lot too.

Well the rest of the week was kind of slow. Most everyone we talked to just told us to come back after the holidays, so we didn't have much to do at times. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day visiting less-active members and trying to contact investigators. I also got to call home! It was fun to talk to everyone. It doesn't seem like I have been gone that long, even though I know I really haven't, but a lot has happened at home since I left. Daniel's voice sounds a lot deeper, but beneath the voice you find a man, and beneath the man, you find his...nucleus. haha. Well, yesterday Elder Smout and I both spoke in Sacrament meeting for a "missionary Sunday" they do every couple of months. Our branch mission leader spoke also. I think it was a good sacrament meeting. Well, there's not a whole lot to say today since we talked about everything on the phone on Christmas. I'm really starting to like Whitehorse, and it will be exciting to start a new year, and get ready for the baptism on the 9th. I appreciate what everyone sent me for Christmas and for all your support! Love Mat