Ethans Letter / Photos 20 / 2014 Viedma, Argentina May 26, 2014

Dear Family,   

Well to start things out we had this HUGE dinner with a family who both the parents are big people who like to eat... so they made us a dinners like if i was eating for the last meal of my life. They made two huge pans of spaghetti!!! Im not even kidding i ate so much foood!!! they are like natives in Elder Morgan Durochers mission in Hawaii!! ha wow i had 3 huge plates full, literally the plates were huge, probably double the size of a normal plate and she just loaded my plate.... 3 times till all the food was gone.... there was 4 Elders and two of them and the didnt eat much but made us eat a lot.... Wow i was so full.... yeah i still love Spaghetti!!! not as much as Morgan but still a lot!!

   Elder Hutchings, yeah my companion from the MTC is in my house now... haha its really quite weird to have him in the same house again... its like the MTC all over but we are a lot different people now and much more mature, its kinda nice!! He is our District Leader. So Saturday we ended up doing splits or interchanges, we call it divisiones...? ha i was with Elder Hutchings all Saturday and we worked really well together! We taught 7 Lessons and found 5 new investigators with 3 with a baptismal date. It was such a good day and i was so happy that we found so many people and taught so many people. We were working in my area so they are Elder Connors and my investigators. It was a really good day..

    Down part of the day with Elder Hutching.... we crossed paths with an ANTI-United States person.... SHE was very... not .... so ..... nice.... wow i have never seen anyone hate so bad on people.... She RIPPED US A NEW ONE!!! woooooowwwwwww she went off!!! yelling at us about obama and war and death and yankees and etc... we got an ear full and i could finally calm her down but she didnt believe in God and blew up on us again, yelling at us that God doesnt save the little children in Argentina and in the world from cruel death do to parents, war, abuse, things like that. its wasnt the greatest moment, BUT....

I KNOW THE GOD LIVES MORE THEN EVER AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST HAVE A PLAN FOR US! I KNOW THAT HE LIVES!

 Thats about what i got from that conversation... yup, Good Week!!!

Love you all so so much!!!

Con Amor, Elder Ethan C. Durocher!!!!

 Elder Hutchings (friends from the MTC)

Wedding Bells - Heidi & Michael Ah Sue May 17, 2014 Reno Nevada Temple

Hello Family,

Much planning had come to this week and especially for the Bryan Heller family.  Many hands helped to make Heidi's and Michaels wedding a beautiful event on Saturday.  I was delighted that Annalisa was able to come to Nevada with me.  She drove down to Cedar Hills on Thursday morning as I did payroll at work and then arrived back home at 10am and we left by 11am for Carson City.  The Lexus was great to drive the long distance and did well on MPG at 80 MPH, getting 24 highway.  We arrived at 6pm Nevada time and went to see Oma and Grandpa and Bryans family and then had dinner at Tamie & Retts of a wonderful steak dinner that Maggie prepared.  Annie and I stayed at the Jesse's this time and Friday morning we prepared to go to the Reno Temple and attend while Heidi got her own endowments.  The return to Carson was followed by a terrific crowd of helpers to get the back yard prepared for Saturday by putting up shade tents, string lights and decorative tulle.  Annie and I made the task of ironing 12 round table cloths a little funner by doing them at Oma's house.  Annie helped Oma ice and decorate a sheet cake and Grandpa visited with me while I ironed and then Annie ironed as well.  Whew... but that was just a piece of the grand puzzle of making everything presentable.  So many contributed to make it all come together.  The elements of nature and the high Sierra winds made things a little more tricky.

Saturday morning arrived and we got to the Reno Temple at 9am Sealing and the bride and groom could only smile and smile.  The Sealer was one of Oma and Grandpas friends for a very long time so that was great.  The ceremony as they all are, was special and endearing and the family waiting outside the Temple was surprised at how quick we exited!  The new married couple came out the doors and the cameras started snapping!  Many group shots were taken and then the crowd was invited to the home of Michaels uncle who lives in North Reno.  His home was lovely and the food very well done.  With much to wrap up at Tamies house we left to get tables placed and decorated.  The weighted down tents were getting tossed a bit in the wind so extra measures were taken to restore.  Food was brought out, the photographer, Darby, arrived and group shots were taken.  I managed to trip Darby once by taking photos behind her and she stepped back.  Poor gal has to deal with copy-cat photographers like me....!  Haaa!

The German food mixed with Hawaiian Kahlua Pig, and supporting dishes.  It was terrific!  The wedding cake was delicious as well as beautiful.  Soon tributes to the bride and groom by the fathers and then dancing. 

With many helping hands again, the decorations were taking down and all things put away.  As Annie wanted to get home to Idaho before dark due to a headlight being out, we left Sunday morning early and stopped first to say goodbye to Oma and Grandpa and then headed Eastward.  It was so wonderful to have Annie with me for the quality time together.  We were grateful for the hospitality of the Jesses to have us there, and for the time spent with family.  Time with my parents was very dear to me and Annalisa as well as seeing Mac & family and Dean & family.  With all the busy times, just working together with Bryans family was great and I even got to hear Josef play the piano!  

Of course I took lots of photos and I hope to get some to you, but I have to download and sort out the good ones... so it may take more time than I have tonight.

I wanted to relay my feelings as I was in the Temple listening to Bro. Bryer who was the Sealer.  I felt the true blessing of families and the eternal happiness we get from staying in harmony.  I am so grateful for my family, my children, my parents, my siblings and their children.  Nothing in this world is more important than relationships. 

Have a great week Elders!!!

Love, Mom

Morgans Letter / Photos 19 / 2014 Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii May 19, 2014

ALoha!! 

This has been an awesome week for us! We had some cool tracting experiences this week. So We went tracting, the 1st house we knock on was an older guy. The first thing he says is " Hey are you wearing your special undeys (underwear)?"  So Elder Morco says yup we sure are. Then he starts talking about how our Religion is a Colt, because we believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers. So I shared how we believe that All of us are Children of God, and so we are all brothers and sisters too. Then he is like oh no, you and me are not brothers, you belong to a colt. Then he told us he is an ex-communicated member, and he left the Mormon church, and found the Truth in a Local Church. So if we wanted to find the truth, than we can come back an visit. Whenever we are ready to hear the Truth. He was a funny guy. But that wasn't the cool tracting experiences we had.

So the Next lady we talk to was from Samoa, she grew up going to primary and young womens with her friend, but she never got baptized because her family is strong Catholic. We talked to her a little while, and she asked us to come back next week! Then we ran into a less active member on the street, who told us where we lived and said we could come over and visit him, and maybe teach his non-member wife! :)

Then we Ran into a 18 yr old Girl named JaneRose, she was walking down the street and we said hi to her, and started talking to her. We taught a mini Restoration Lesson to her, and actually had a prayer on the street with her. She really wanted us to come back next week after she graduated from HIghschool! THe next Day we met a lady named Paula who was super talkative. We talked to her for like 30 minutes, and then taught a mini Restoration Lesson on her porch. She was totally into the lesson, and was asking a bunch of Questions. She loved the Idea of a living prophet, and the church being restored to the earth, and having the Priesthood of God. She mentioned how her FAther had passed away, and we asked if we could come back and Teach the Plan of Salvation to her, and she Said YES! so were gonna be seeing her soon! 

I guess i wanted to share all of that because Its just amazing how the Lord is preparing people. And He is guiding us to those people who are prepared for the Gospel. We have had many more amazing experiences this week too. So We visited this Lady named Sister Ortin. She is less active and hasn't come to church for a long time, her husband is a non-member. She got on Mormon.Org and asked us to come over to give her a blessing. So we went over there, and talked to them for a while. They are super nice, then we gave her a blessing. She is having Ankle and Foot problems, she has really bad nerve pain, and the doctors cant figure out whats wrong. So we gave her a blessing, and shared a couple scriptures afterwards with her. James 5:14-15 And we also shared 3 Nephi 18:19-21

 14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
We talked more, and I Shared my experience with my back. That it wasn't Healed right when I wanted it to be fixed, but I was given the Strength and Peace and comfort that I needed to deal with it. And how I went to the Temple and had an amazing overwhelming sense of Peace.  The Spirit was so strong in the Room, I sure hope they felt it and recognized it too.

Well I love you all have a great week!

Love Elder Morgan Durocher

 Morgan trained his "son"

 Eating MRI's for fun!

 

Elder Morco, Morgan's companion

Ethans Letter/Photos 19 / 2014 Viedma, Argentina May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

 Elder Connors and I..................will be staying together again in Viedma for another transfer. I am so thankful to be able to serve together still. He is literally becoming one of my best friends i have ever had and has helped me in more ways then i can explain. When there are the hard moments in the Mission we carry each other through and we keep going. He has helped be keep going and doing the best i can. I haven't had any Investigators progressing since December and none that have made it to the second or third visit and he has helped me understand better. We have been working a lot with Less-Active members and putting our effort in them and the incomplete families. We are doing our best to do the best with what we have in this area. 

   We were walking next to one of the Highways to get to the next appointment that we had planned. A man crossed our front, he took out his head phones and the stopped us and started talking to us. He told us how thankful he is for what we do and the message we share and that he went on for like 5 minutes talking and then he asked us to pass by for his house so we can talk some more and we will pass by Tuesday. He is an old investigator that found us. It was such a blessing of timing that the Lord put us in the same path and he is really interested in hearing more. I hope that all works out! I really think that he will be baptized we just need to do all that we can do!!

  That's about all that happened this week, not much more... haha I love you all so much and thank you for all you do!!

Con Amor Elder Ethan C. Durocher

Our last district meeting

my companion Elder Connors arm a week after a punching war that we had. He said he doesn't ever bruise so i felt pretty good about that. we were trying to have fun so we started playing the "double number or letter game" where when you see double on signs of numbers or letters you punch the other. he punched me a whole lot to but i really don't bruise very easy so i didn't have one, just a dead arm. haha yaaaa.... :)