Dad's 80th Birthday Party! September 29, 2013 with Photos

Dad's 80th Birthday Celebration,    (Sara's letter to the Elder's serving missions)  Sept 30, 2013

Friday morning the Lee's drove me to the airport and I got to Reno before noon.  Bryan picked me up and we went to REI to exchange some shoes of Bryan's and Grandpa found some great looking sandle-shoes and I found a nice pair of flats that were on clearance.  We had lunch at In&Out and then rode back to Carson partially on the new freeway and then the old highway in front of Bowers Mansion and then Franktown road.  These areas have beautiful timber and reminds me of the old days.  After a while back in Carson we went to Costco for grocery items for the Sunday party.
Saturday was a fun day as we went to the Ranch of Dean and Lynne's and enjoyed the country air and good food.  LYNNE has shot an antelope and they made a sausage out of it for lunch.  The Jesses went out and Gigi had arrived from Dallas.  With fun visiting and taking lots of pictures it was very enjoyable.  Dean had not thought he could even come home from Washington for the weekend as there was a Senate vote to finish.  At the last minute to catch a flight, he was able to catch the 'red eye' and make it out to Nevada.  He had just gotten a weed/fertilizer sprayer for his 4 wheeler so they were trying that out.  Mac and his family was there too. 
On Sunday there was a missionary farewell for Austin Pacheco who was a former boyfriend of Emmy Heller, and it was a great talk he gave.  HIs parents are not members but were there and seemed to support their son going on his mission.  He joined the church 2 years ago due to Emmy's introduction to the church.  It was fun to see people there from years gone by, so we chatted a while and then went home to make food for Grandpa's 80th birthday party.  We arrived to Jesse's house with the family that had come, and then friends of Dad's from the ward and from his lifetime here.  It was pretty fun.  Dean and Lynne set him up with a letter from the Governor of Nevada that had a summary of Grandpas life.  I'll send you a copy of it sometime.
We presented him with the book of letters and since Ethan and Morgan were the first two to submit their letters, they were on the first page!  We got quite a few and loaded the binder with the sheet protectors.  Grandpa was delighted with the well wishing in his humble way and handled the attention pretty well.  :-)  I've taken lots of pictures of the fun weekend, but I'll have to send them to you when I get back home....which will get to you next week.

Of course I was thinking of you both during the missionary farewell.  The fellow Austin is going to Bolivia, but first to Columbia to the MTC.  He said in his talk, "My mission will make me into the Man The Lord wants me to be."  I thought how true that was for both you young men!  I know the day in - day out experiences you are having is shaping you into the men that The Lord knew you could be.  That is exactly the path you are introducing to people that they change and become the people The Lord know's they can become.  I am so grateful that you are doing this for people in your mission area's. We each have an opportunity to become our best self.  I liked his comment and wanted to share it with you. 
Monday, Tamie, Gigi, Maggie, Oma and I will go for a drive to old town Genoa and then I'll have to be at the airport by 3:30pm.  I'll be watching my phone for your emails.  Everyone here is so appreciative of your missionary service. 
I love you dearly and will be praying for your continued service and safety in the field. 
Love,  Mom

I'm looking forward to General Conference as I know you are.  

Morgan's 39 / 2013 letter with photos Sept. 30, 2013

Aloha Family!!

 Its fun to hear the news from home, and that everything is going well back home! We have had an awesome week!

 So we have to go on Exchanges with all the District Leaders, to see how they are doing, so we can make comp reports. Which is a report we send to the Mission President that has each missionary, and specifically how they are doing. And their strengths and weakness's, goals, and obedience level. So we have to make that, and then send it to President Warner. So Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we went on exchanges with 3 different companionship's.

So Wednesday i went with Elder Law (the blind elder) again in his area this time. Elder Law has a 2014 Chevy Cruz as his mission car. Our mission has like 10 Chevy Cruz's, and so it was fun to be able to drive that all day. Its looks so cool! and feels like a sports car inside, and its pretty fast too! (Not like i would know that...) Haha, it was fun to spend another day with Elder Law, he is a solid missionary. We went tracting for 2 hours, with little success, but it was a great experience still. At 6 pm that night we went out with some Ward Members, Brother and Sister Pharis. We saw a Less Active family that they found the week before, and it was amazing to see how much the Lord had prepared them. They were ready to come back to the gospel and wanted to come to church. We talk to them, and then i shared Helaman 5:12 on having a strong foundation on Jesus Christ. Then we had a closing prayer with them and left. They were so solid, and so prepared by Heavenly Father, it was a total Miracle.

Thursday i went with Elder Mendoza in our Area. Elder Mendoza is one of the District Leaders, he is from the Philippines. Our whole day ended up being a huge miracle. We had such and awesome and spiritual day! We had 6 lessons that day, which is super amazing for 1 day! We had some super amazing lessons with our investigators! We were tracting for like an hour, and no one wanted to talk to us, and no one would answer their door. Then right before we were about to give up, we knock on another door. A guy that was 22 answers, he says his name is Justin. We introduce ourselves, and ask if we can have a prayer with him to bless him and his family. He said yeah sure i would love that. We ask what we can specifically bless him with, and mention in the prayer. He tells us "he is getting his drivers license tomorrow, and also hes got an interview for a job tomorrow, so if we could please pray for those things, plus my family." We ask if his Girlfriend wants to join us, so she comes outside with us. We say the prayer, and bless those things, and then afterwards ask how he felt during the prayer. He said he felt good inside, and loves praying. We testified that what he felt was the Holy Ghost, and that Heavenly Father is watching over him and his family. We taught and testified about Prayer. And he told us that its amazing that we knocked on his door. Because he just got home, and the timing was perfect for us coming, and that it was a miracle that we came over. Then we asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and Be Baptized?? And he said yes! and His girlfriend said yes too! and He said that he wants his 18 month old baby Baptized along with them!!! Hahahaha, so yeah were gonna have to teach him about how Children are perfect, and don't need baptism (Moroni 8). But at least he has the desire! So we set a baptism date for the end of October!

Friday i went with Elder Iabeta in his Area. He is in the Waipahu 3rd Marshalese ward, and he covers the whole Island of Oahu. Wherever his investigators are, he can go, so they can go anywhere on the Island. We ended up staying inside of Honolulu and Waipahu. Traffic was so bad! We were sitting in traffic for probably like a total of 2 hours that whole day. Here's a fun Fact: Honolulu has the worst traffic in the whole world. Even though it doesn't have the most people, or most cars, it has the worst traffic. Because the roads are not very good, everything is crammed, and the layout of the city is super weird. So Honolulu has the most waiting time stuck in traffic, then anywhere else in the USA. We had a super awesome day, even though all 4 of our appointments cancelled on us. We were still able to have an awesome day and had a cool lesson with some young kids. Then we passed a ball around for like 10 minutes.

Sunday we drove around for an hour before church, inviting all of our investigators to come to church. We visited like 10 of them and they all said that they couldn't make it to church today. But we didn't visit a recent convert named AJ, and he was ready and excited to come to church. He didn't want to come last week, and he has been struggling with coming to church. So it was exciting to at least have him want to come to church. When we got to church, we noticed that Tama one of our investigators actually did come to church. His Dad is a member of the church, but not his mom. Tama wants to get baptized as soon as possible, but the Dad wants to wait 11 months so Tama can get baptized with his little brother when he turns 8. But were gonna keep working with him, cuz Tama wants to get baptized before that.

I'm sorry the Email is so long. I just had such an amazing week here and I didn't want to leave anything out! I love you family so much, thanks for everything!!

Love Elder Morgan Durocher

I'm on the very left!  Sisters Fisiiahi Surprise Birthday Party!!!

Me and Elder Johnston

Ethan's 3rd Letter in Argentina Sept.30, 2013 with note from Nick

Dear Family,

This week was a great, but longish. Most of the week it was raining and it still is today, and then there's wind also pretty much always so we get cold windy rain or windy with dirt blowing everywhere and into our eyes. I love it here though. This is different, and its MY Mission, and I love every part about it. Its been hard because family has been on my mind a lot this last week and people in the mission call it, Trunky, because you think about home. I know things at home will be fine but I just miss you all. I know that I will be blessed and  also the people I care about, which is all of you!

  My Companion is such an example to me. We just got done teaching this family who was inactive and had two nonmembers that we had happened to find Sunday morning. We left and were walking to another part of our area, and we hit a main road and it was still raining on us. I see a guy standing on the sidewalk next to a building that had a tin roof. As we are walking passed him, my companion stops and goes back and talks to him, so im standing there not understanding all that much and I'm thinking why is this guy standing where he is because the roof is dumping water on him and hes not getting dryer standing where he is, then if he was out in the open. Then i hear the words in Spanish, Hey do you need a coat? and my companion takes the Pea-coat off of his back and gives it to this guy... I was is shock because the guy had a coat and he was probably cold because he was standing under water running of the roof. After I asked my companion about it when we left and he said he didnt know he just felt like he needed help and the coat would help a lot.He also said a quote something along the lines of, We are always told to help the homeless, but if you cant give the coat off your back then what good are you doing.  He is such an example to me, I hope I can become a great of a missionary and get out as much as he has from his mission. I'm glad to be his companion.

  My times up now, but Know I love you all and want the best for you all. If your bored and want something to read, read 3 Nephi chapters 11 to 26, that's the chapters when Christ comes. I am reading them right now. Thank you to all!

 Love Elder Durocher^2

Nick writes Ethan & Morgan a great letter of encouragement - September 30, 2013

Hey Elders,

Note, because your limited on time, just print my email and read it later. No use wasting your time on the computer if you can print it and read it later.

Just wanted to write you both a quick note. I don’t know what time you have P-day and I probably already missed you, but I wanted to say hello. Everything is going well at my house. We are just getting everything ready for the fall. Its been a busy couple of weeks at work. The last day of August, one of my team members was laid off. He had been at CR England for 7 years and got laid off. I’m grateful it wasn’t me no doubt, but you always feel bad for the other guy. I’ve been laid off before and it is a terrible feeling. Anyway, with him gone, I have absorbed more workload. It’s been really busy to say the least. I work overtime every week but as a Salaried employee, that makes no difference. Keep the same pay.

Michelle and the kids are doing well, they seem to have settled into our house and it finally feels like home to me too. I work in West Valley and commute from Tooele every day so I seem to be away from home a lot. I’m happy to have a new job compared to being in the oil field and being away for weeks at a time, but I definitely miss the money I was able to make before. It’s okay though, I just hope to become successful someday doing something I enjoy. The kids are getting big! Like mom said in her email last week, we celebrated Hayden’s first birthday last weekend. He’s a really silly kid. I know it’s hard to imagine, but he’s always just so happy. He’s happy 99 percent of the time unless he is hungry or tired. Cambree picks on him one moment and then wants to be him mom and take care of him the next. He’s really fun though. You’ll both love him when you get back.

I want you both to know, I don’t write you all these things as to complain and make you miss home, but to rather show you what blessings your service has brought to me. You two have been a great role model to me. You both make me wish my mission could have been longer and more fulfilling. I know Morgan remembers and maybe he still has the huge back pain he experienced at first, but I had a hard time serving the lord when I felt so hopeless and could barely walk. Even though I toughed it out for over 6 months after the pain started, and was diligent to serve the lord and sacrifice all of my time to the lord, I was released early as you recall. The mission office called me up and said, Elder you’re going home tomorrow. I know the lord knew I did my best. But I still feel like I cut myself short and could have done more if only I would have been able to cope with the back pains. Ethan, Elder Durocher… You can do this. I know you are struggling to figure things out in a new land. I always had a hard time figuring out why I was called to Brazil at first. All of my friends were held stateside. I realized  after a few months and I still feel this way, That I was the one who got a greater gift. I got to experience the world. Serving outside of the United States and living elsewhere helped me understand why the USA was the holy land that we learn about in the BOM. I wish with all my heart that I could have fully learned the language and retained it in my heart. I miss Brazil and would love to spend a month down there and enjoy the things I never got to fully experience because I was so focused on the things I wanted and the pain, that I missed the experience the place I was called to serve in for two years.  

With that being said, (Ethan)Elder Durocher ^2   I know you can do this, and as we always heard from Gordon B Hinckley, Get to Work. I loved the experience I had in Brazil, I know you will begin to love Argentina. They are close neighbors. Everything will be okay up here. I will keep an eye on everybody including mom. If you miss home, It’s okay. Even I still miss home. We all miss being kids and living under Mom’s protective wing. That will never change even when you have been away from home for 9 years with the mission and going to college. I think you will always yearn for what used to be. You will be a wonderful Missionary Ethan, the months will pass and they do, just treat your mission as an experience, a vacation away as a missionary and serve others. If you feel bored as a missionary, go meet people and make new friends with families and your neighbors. I know everything seems weird and nothing seems normal compared to Utah. That’s okay though, Its Argentina and that’s home to those people. Just love it and the experience. I hope that my regrets and hopes and wishes translate into you leaning from my example to stick it out 100% and commit every second to the people and the lord and savior you love. You have to know that learning Spanish will become the greatest asset to you for the rest of your life. Like a diamond in the rough, Keep it up Elder.

  

Thank you,

Nicholas Durocher