Elder's Tyler and Preston Dodd: October 2010

****I didn't get a group email from Preston this week, so I will just post the personal email he sent me.****

Hey Jordie,

Thanks for the email. I’m doing better now, I still have hard times. The months have gone by fast but slow at the same time. Missionary time is weird I don’t know how to explain it. Right now I’m just trying to find myself. I’m really going to start trying hard, to not think about myself, or my old life. That’s what I need to do, put all my focus on the work and don’t let myself think about it. Keep studying hard so I can build my faith even more and more. Faith is a hard thing, but I try to keep it strong each day. General Conference was great I enjoyed it a lot. I really like listening to the Lord speak to us through his apostles and Prophet. It’s amazing how amazing the brain is. This area is pretty cool though, it’s big. The ward is pretty big but I don’t really get to know them well. My last ward was easy to get know everyone, because the city was small. I share a building with a ward from another mission, its sweet a cool building. How is the family going? How is school going? I’m glad Kingston and Boston are doing great. My new companion is sweet a nice guy, very good elder. How was your birthday anything special? Do you feel old?

I hope you have a great week.

Love Preston

Hey everyone,

Thanks for emailing me.

This past week for us was pretty good. Let’s see, this past week we made a missionary board in my ward. It is all about basketball and stuff, it’s pretty cool. It’s to help us get referrals so i hope it works. Since I have been in Aberdeen I have been blessed with so many referrals and I am so grateful. I just wish I could have done more for those that I taught and have been teaching. We have great investigators though. The only problem is they have agency to choose to listen to us and listen to our message and also keep their commitments.

I know if they would keep their commitments they would draw nearer to God but some people don’t try, which is okay because we are really trying to help them. Right now my language skill is ok. My health is getting better I feel, and I am having less headaches, which is so much better. I saw Elder Paul the other day who is the area doctor and he is still just trying to help me. He is a great guy and really cares about us missionaries. He also gave me a blessing that I would learn the language really well. It was so nice of him. His wife is also really awesome and cares so much to help me out. It’s really nice to see how much others care for other people. They show Christ like love, which everyone needs to feel.

Anyways, right now with our investigators its going pretty good, even though we found out some really bad news about a couple of them and a couple lessons went pretty bad. We were suppose to have a baptism this Sunday coming up, but our investigator has a hard time waking up so we have to wait until next week. Everyone needs to come to church at least 3 times to be baptized. He is an awesome kid though, and so ready to be baptized. Our ward has not had a boy be baptized in forever, so I really hope we can get this. It would be so great. Our other investigator Wubi is so close to baptism and wants to be but he wants to be perfect before baptism and he feels so far away be he is so ready. He wants to always be keeping Gods commandments but that’s another reason why he doesn’t want to because he feels like he might. I have seen him grow so much and it has just been the greatest pleasure to watch him grow. I know he will later. Our investigator Christine is so great and we are still trying to keep her strong so hopefully her parents will let her be baptized.

Last week we had a couple of really tough times because we just found out that the reasons some investigators meet with us, is because we are American and they want to make the Chinese boys jealous I guess. I thought we were really close with them but not anymore. They were referrals so we thought they were interested in learning. But oh well. Another lesson we had been with our first family investigators. We felt like they were so ready to hear what we had to say but they did not want anything to do with it. It was really sad because we were baring our testimonies but they just do not believe in God. We know the spirit was there, but it was just uncomfortable for them. We hope to keep them and next time maybe our lesson affected them after and they will want to hear more.

We were also interviewed by a girl that goes to school in Hong Kong and she wanted to know why we come here and serve missions. It was pretty cool but weird at the same time to be interviewed but a great opportunity for other people to hear why we are here and others all over the world. This past week we had companionship twenty fours. This is where you switch companionships for a day and go to a different area. It was really cool because I was with Elder Lou and he is and ABC he lived in Sandy right by where we used to live by the library. Such a small world. It’s also great because we learn so much from these twenty fours and how other people do missionary work. It’s like a refresh button hits you. It’s really awesome. We went contacting and met some really cool people, a guy from mainland China. He is so ready to hear and learn about the gospel. China is so ready to hear the gospel and I cannot wait when it does. It will be so amazing. I have met a couple since I have been in Hong Kong and they really, really want to learn and love hearing our message about Jesus Christ. We just need more missionaries.

Well I love you all so much. And hope you are all doing well.

Love Tyler