Fall Fling at Lake Powell!

We broke a record!  This year we made it to Lake Powell three times.  Our third trip was during Fall Break, October 13 - 18.  We enjoyed beautiful weather (no wind!) and the great company of 24 young adults.

I can still hike an enormous sand dune, the "Sand King", only with pausing for breath.

Sue Tingey and I, chief cooks, taking a break in the kayacks.  It was so peaceful and beautiful without the summer boats and jet-ski traffic.

Paul with his two cute daughters...their first trip to Powell this year and happy to be there!

Skipping rock contest...Ben's turn

Matt showing off some great form in front of some beautfiul scenery.

Feeding the masses sometimes produced some shortages.  This night we ran out of spaghetti sauce, but Paul fixes the problem by using whipped cream instead.  Anything tastes better with whipped cream, right?

Awe inspiring scenery wherever you look.  This was taken while hiking around some weathering pits close to Cookie Jar in Padre Bay.

With the competent chief captain of the ship. The socks give a hint of what time of year it is.  

What a great group!  

The "old" adults were slightly out-numbered!  We love spending time with Alan and Sue Tingey and their family at Lake Powell.  What a wonderful trip!

Fruits of Missionary work

Dear family,                   October 13, 2014

This week has been good, full of teaching and service. We were doing service for a member a lot of the day Friday, and we helped at a ranch for a part member family all day Saturday. We had transfer calls on Saturday, and both me and my companion are staying in Sheridan. So I'm not training, but I most likely will be next transfer. Most areas in the mission don't have new missionaries take over the area and train right after they have been trained. We are both glad we weren't transferred, because Jacob's baptism is this Saturday, and we are excited to be there for that special moment in his life, and in the life of his family.

This week we have been focusing on increasing our referrals, because we are desperately in need of more people to teach. Most of the referrals we did receive were less active referrals, but everyone needs help on their own personal progression towards Jesus Christ, whether they be members, less actives, investigators or missionaries. We all have our own struggles, and we all need the Atonement. We have a lot of less active people we are working with, and we meet new ones almost every day, sometimes on accident. Hope fully we can help them become closer to Christ and Heavenly Father.

That's my week. We have really been focusing on Jacob, as his baptism is so near, and we know that Satan is trying his hardest to convince him to not get baptized, so we've been there to help encourage and strengthen him. It's been amazing to see his progress, and we truly are excited for this Saturday!

Elder Ehlert

Dear Family,                                                                                      October 20, 2014

                                                             

We had another good week here in Sheridan, we packed in 14 lessons this week. It was a great way to start off this new transfer. We got quite a few member present lessons, and we have still been working with a lot of LARCs. And now we have a brand new recent convert, Jacob Campbell. He was baptized on Saturday, by Erin's dad, John Anson. All of her family came up from Colorado to be there except for one sister and her brother. Jacob's parents and sister Tori came as well, so it was good to see their support for him as well. It was a great baptismal service, and the Spirit was so strong. Normally for convert baptisms, the Confirmation takes place the following Sunday in Sacrament meeting, but we had Stake Conference on Sunday, so we got special permission to do the Confirmation right after the baptism. It was good for Erin's family, who wanted to be there, but wouldn't have been able to make our 1:30 meeting because they had to drive back to Colorado. I had the opportunity to confirm Jacob a member of the church, and it was a great experience for me. We taught him a great lesson a couple days before his baptism on the role of the Holy Ghost so he could understand more about what the Holy Ghost could do for him. The 2nd ward elders had an investigator there at the baptism as well, and she's on date for November 8th. She said she loved being there, and could barely hold back tears. Like I said, it was a good way to start out the transfer. He was our only progressing investigator, so we are focusing this week on finding. We placed 2 Books of Mormons last night, and we got 2 referrals. Hopefully we can find more people who are prepared to hear our message. That's pretty much it for this week, it was a great week, full of the Spirit and good experiences. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Elder Ehlert

St. George Beloved!

I spent a wonderful six days with my parents in what our family calls St. George Beloved.  Dad and Mom are always so welcoming to whoever comes for a visit.  Their home is filled with good humor, a peaceful feeling and gratitude expressed for their blessings.  No wonder we all like to come for a visit!   

Robert and Ethel in their cozy and memory filled "Cumorah Room" which chronicles their two missions to the Cumorah Mission, with 20 years in between.  What a treat to eat dinner with them while lounging in a recliner and watching TV.  I even enjoy Lawerence Welk, which could mean that I'm moving from middle age to the next older category!

Mom and I experienced the excitement of a JV girls Volleyball game.  Mayci made her relatives proud!

On Dad and Mom's office wall hangs a Missionary Map which displays where everyone in the family have served their mission.  I emailed it to Daniel to show him that his name is up on the top of the map, so he'd better be sure to be a "top-notch" missionary.

Back at home and cracking the whip to get some jobs done before the snow flies.  Paul risked his life washing most of the 2nd story windows while on an extension ladder and Matt helped out with this one.  Now I know why the professional bid to clean our outside windows came to almost $200.

Here are two weeks of letters from the missionfield:

Dear Family,                                                                                                         September 29, 2014

This week we were able to get our lessons back up to where we usually have them. We actually doubled the amount of lessons we taught last week. We now have 2 investigators on date for baptism, with Jacob's coming up in 2 weeks, October 18. Elder Autrey most likely won't be there, because transfers are on October 11, and I will most likely be training then. Elder Autrey is hoping he is transferred to somewhere close so he can be at the baptism. Jacob has chosen Erin's dad to baptize him, then for me to be the voice to confirm him and give him the Holy Ghost. I am excited and honored he would want me to do that for him. His parents will be coming to his baptism, as well as his sister Tori, who we haven't been able to teach much these past weeks, but she'll be able to feel the Spirit at the baptism, and hopefully it will rekindle that fire to learn more about the gospel. Our other investigator on date is Susan Love. She is about 75 years old, and her date isNovember 8th. We still need to teach her some of the lessons, but she's been reading the Book of Mormon, and wants to come to church, so we're glad she is starting to have the desire to learn more and come closer to her Savior.

We keep getting more less active members to teach, and we continue to help them as they try to return to activity. I love helping them feel Christ's love and the blessings they may have forgotten about. The Sheridan 3rd ward had a youth temple trip on Saturday, and they went to the Billings, Montana temple. It's a little more than an hour drive. They had 19 youth members go, and did baptisms and confirmations for 191 people. I wish we could go to the temple, but it's out of our mission boundaries, so we aren't allowed to go.

On Thursday I went up to Ranchester again for exchanges. I wasn't able to see the MacArthur's again, but I'm sure they are doing well. I got food poisoning from our dinner Thursday night, and I was throwing up all of district meeting Friday, and then again later that day. We stayed in our apartment for a couple hours, then I felt better and we visited Jacob and Erin.

Saturday we got up at 5:30 to go fishing with Jacob. We went to a couple spots, but no fish. Our plan was to have one person read the Book of Mormon until someone caught a fish, then pass the book, but we didn't catch anything, so we decided that each of us would read a chapter before switching. We were able to get in a lot of chapters to help him finish before his baptism. We all had our pocket knives, so we whittled sticks while we had our poles in the water and while one person was reading, the other two were carving. I made a pretty sweet canoe, and maybe I'll try to make something else sometime.

It was a good week, even though I got sick. We were able to teach a lot, and we've been blessed with so many people to visit and help. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts, I love you!

Elder Ehlert

Dear Family,                                                                                           October 6, 2014

This week has been a good one, as we have been able to get our lessons back up again. We got great support from the members, and we had 11 lessons to investigators with a member present, and 17 total lessons. We got to meet with several different people, and we went through our ward list to find more less active members outside the city. We were able to find a new investigator that way, so that was great. Her husband is a member, but he just chose not to remain active. He's grown up in Sheridan his whole life. Hopefully this week we can meet with them again. He told us to stop by anytime.

General Conference was amazing! I loved the talks, and almost all of them will help me and people we meet with. We were able to go to the Campbell's and watch all the sessions with them. We had a lot of snacks, and we played bingo, which I think really helped them to listen and hopefully learn some new things. Jacob's baptismal interview is tonight! We went over the questions with him last week, and he struggled with knowing we have prophets today. We decided to wait until after Conference, and he now knows for sure that we have prophets, and that was great. He struggled a bit with tithing, as he is trying to take care of his wife and baby girl, so we taught him tithing again. We used M&Ms like we did at tithing settlement with Bishop Brown and Bishop McMurray. I laid out 10 M&Ms, asked him to give me one back, then I gave him a cup, and overflowed it with candy. It really helped him to visualize the promise in Malachi, and he is committed to living that law now as well. We have seen such amazing changes in his life, and it has been so great to work with him. He is a wonderful friend, and we're so glad that he is choosing to be baptized.

That's my week. Thanks for all the prayers and support. I love you all!

Elder Ehlert

Harvest Time!

 A sampling of some of the fruits and veggies from our garden and yard.  Obviously the carrots didn't get thinned.  It's too hard for me to pull a living thing out of the ground.

Making grape juice thanks to generous neighbors who offered their grapes. 

Holly Nelson and I agree that it's so much more fun canning with a friend.  We bottled 38 quarts and managed to let only one steamer burn dry.  Cleaning that up took more work than the grape juice!

I'm not the only one working hard.  Paul has hauled and placed more rock and wheelbarrows full of dirt than he wants to remember.  With the help of Bob's and Ben's muscles and expertise, three beautiful retaining walls were built and plumbed, ready for planting the greenery.

Dear family,                                                                                                     September 22, 2014

This week has been a good one. Our lessons dropped a bit, but we did a lot of service. We gave 2 blessings with a member, painted a shed, moved heavy antique furniture, helped at the food bank twice, laid sod, and cleaned the church building. The sod was fun, and it reminded me of the day we put our sod in. It was fun to lay it out in squares, then to cut it with a steak knife where it didn't fit or needed to be a different shape. We have family history time every week on Wednesdays, and I've been using that time to trace my lineage back as fas as I can, and in the process, find names to take to the temple. The names I found are pretty far back, and it didn't have much information about them, but they're family, and they need the ordinances done. Hopefully I can find more names to send you a ll to help with in the temple.

We also helped with the Third Thursday activity, operating a family history booth on Main Street. We were actually on exchanges during that time, so I was with Elder Johnson instead of Elder Autrey. Elder Rasmussen and I are from the same district in the MTC, and during the exchange, we both had some practice taking over the area. Elder Johnson decided to do that because in about 3 weeks, I'll most likely be training a new missionary.

We haven't been able to teach as many lessons as we usually do, because of all the service, but we were able to contact a referral, and teach Jacob's sister Tori. We have also been helping Lannah in her quest back to Christ. She's been having a rough time, and we're grateful that we are here to help her and get her back on the path. Also, Jacob and Erin are back! They've been gone a whole month. Jacob doesn't want to work out of state anymore, because he wants to be with his family more. He told his boss that if he isn't put on a local crew, he's quitting. So now he's on a local crew, which is awesome! He'll be able to come to church with us every week now! We have had some awesome lessons with him, and he told us he is going to finish the Book of Mormon by October 18th. We taught a lesson on why God requires His ordinances, and how it all is a progression towards eternal families, because that's what Jacob and Erin both want. We committed him to be baptized on October 11th, and he's trying to finish the Book of Mormon by that date now. We're excited for him, and we really have seen him become happier as he makes changes in his life. He hasn't had any tobacco since he quit, but he's on a "tobacco-less tobacco". He's expressed that he wants to get off that as well.

That's the week we've had. It's been a good week. Thanks for all your prayers, support, and love.

Elder Ehlert

Quilting marathon

For nine years now I have taken a "Quilt Block of the month" class.  Each year has a different theme, this year being "Every Barn Has a Story".  What an adrenaline rush to be sewing the last seams up to the last minute before leaving for class!  I wanted to use gingham and then duplicate it with the checkerboard and like how it turned out.  Designing the quilt top takes creative juices and keeps brain cells alive.  Love it!

Cider in either a yoga pose or taking a nap.  A sunny and warm September so far.

l

By contrast, Daniel's area had their first snow and he is without winter clothing as he was going to buy it when needed.  The shopping options aren't great, so Mr. Mac's may need to come to the rescue.

Dear Family,

As for our LARC (less active/recent convert) list, we have about 14 people we are working with, and we've continued to teach them the lessons over again for them to hear and remember more about the gospel and the blessing that come from attending church. We really have been seeing the blessings that come to people as they are becoming closer to Christ.

We had our first snowfall on Wednesday and Thursday, so that was interesting. My companion and I built a small snowman from the snow on our roof, and we put it where all can see it from the street. I bought a sweater from JC Penney, and that was nice to have. It's warming back up now, with temperatures in the high 70s. I still wear my short sleeve shirts, especially when helping out at the food bank, where it gets pretty hot lifting and unloading heavy boxes of food. 

On Friday we went down to Gillette to the Stake Center for our Zone Training Meeting. Elder Autrey and the Gillette 2nd ward sisters did a musical number together, and that was pretty cool. They sang Come Unto Christ. You can look it up on Google for the song. It's pretty cool, and I hadn't heard it before. Our training was how to use the Sacrament as a way to stress the importance of attending church, and I have been really excited to use that with our less active members. I think it will really help them to see why coming to church will bless them.

It's been a great week, and this week is already looking like it will be amazing! Thanks for all your support, prayers, and love!

Elder Ehlert

End of Summer Fun

It's hard to believe that September is here already, but I'm still holding fast to summer!

I joined the Sandy Rotary Club, the Sandy Boys and Girls Club and the Days of 47 Royalty for a hike down from the top of the tram at Snowbird.  Beautiful!

 Beauty among the boulders - we are trying to get a landscaping project done before the snow flies.

 With Sharon's help and the cucumbers, tomatoes, red and green peppers from our garden, we canned 25 bottles of Mom's famous "Green Relish"

 Canyon FHE with the Stephensons and Auntie Sharon...playing "Spot It!"

Hike to Donut Falls with the Activity girls

Stephanie's birthday haul...no "big bang" present, but she'll get organized, keep her bike in good repair and satisfy her chocolate cravings!

 A talented photographer and friend, Michelle, took these photos of Daniel just before he left on his mission.

Dear Family,

Mom, to answer your questions, I haven't had too many moments of homesickness or super discouraging times. There are sad times, and there are hard times, but it's been an amazing experience, and I guess I would say it's been more happy than sad. Our district was our ward, the sisters who serve in 1st ward, and Ranchester. Now, since our district is combined, we have all three Sheridan wards, Ranchester, and Buffalo. Our district will probably only be this big for one transfer, then it will split again. 

Anyway, as for this week, it's been interesting. We have 4 investigators, and one is out of town working for 5 weeks, then off for 2 weeks. That's Jacob Campbell. Another is getting a liver transplant in Minnesota, and he won't be back till mid October. That's Robin Brown. Another got evicted from his apartment, and moved to Colorado, where he lived before. That's William. The last one is Tori, Jacob's sister. She has sat in on some lessons when we taught Jacob, so we have now been working with her, and she is really progressing. She completely accepted the Restoration lesson, and she said she's seen some pretty cool changes in Jacob since we started meeting with him. So that's been cool. She'll continue to be our only investigator for a couple more weeks.

Because of the lack of investigators, we have been focusing on LARCs. (less actives and recent converts) We have 3 recent convert familes we have been teaching the lessons over again to, and 7 less actives we have been focusing on. It's been going really well. Yesterday at church we had no investigators, but we had 4 less active members show up. It's really been amazing to work with these people to see them remember the blessings that come from the gospel, and that desire to come back return to their hearts. They can really feel of the Savior's love for them and He wants them back. 

Here's a cool experience that happened yesterday at church. In Elder's quorum we had a lesson on the power of the Priesthood and mainly focusing on blessings, and the opportunity and responsibility we have as Priesthood holders to give blessings to those who need them. We act in Christ's behalf, because He can't be there personally. We also talked about preparing for blessings, and that sometimes we have to give blessings at a moment's notice, and how we need to be doing the every day things to make sure we are ready to do those blessings. After church, a member, sister Broad came up to us and said her knee has been hurting and she wanted a blessing. We said we'd love to, and asked her when she wanted it. She said, "Right now." She asked me to do the blessing, and it really was a cool experience, especially following our lesson. 

On Saturday we had the opportunity to help in the First Annual Sheridan Sludge Trudge. It's a 5K through mud and obstacles. It's all mud where you run, and you had to climb over stable walls a couple times, under a gate (slide on your stomach) climb over hay bales. There was a mud slide, or adult slip n slide down to a puddle of bentonite, which apparently is the slipperiest mud anywhere, crawl through a tube half full of mud, run through mud pools. Anyway, you get pretty dirty. We were stationed at the obstacles to make sure no one got hurt. All 3 Sheridan wards helped, as well as Ranchester. After, we were able to run it. All the missionaries did it together, and we did it in our proselyting clothes. We took before and after pictures, but we don't have them yet, so I can't send them this week. Our shirts and ties can't be saved, and my white Nike socks are now a dark tan color. Oh well. Before mom gets a heart attack about my clothes being ruined, we went to Salvation Army to get some cheap clothes to wear so if they got ruined it wouldn't be a big deal. We also got a free t shirt out of that, so that's always fun. Next weekend we're helping with the Indian Relays, which is an all Native American Rodeo. That will be super sweet! I'm way excited for that! 

Elder Ehlert

A letter from the mission field!

We had a great week in Sheridan. Two of our investigators, Jacob and Robin, were out of town this week, so we were able to focus on less active members this week. Our mission president has asked that we reteach the missionary lessons to anyone we meet with, especially recent converts and less active members, so we have been working on that. It's been really interesting to teach the Restoration lesson to 3 different people in one day, then do the same thing the next day. We have been teaching quite a bit these past couple days.

Our P day was switched to today because holidays are proselyting days, we went with the 2nd Ward elders to help someone in Story, a small town in their area. We built a fence and put up wire around their garden and chicken pen so that deer and rabbits can't get in and eat all the plants. There was a foster child staying with the members, so after they fed us lunch, all 4 of us taught the Restoration and gave them a Restoration DVD to watch. Elizabeth, the foster girl, said she was willing and interested in reading the Book of Mormon. We probably won't teach her again, but 2nd ward will let us know how she is progressing.

I didn't do much to celbrate my birthday, but I went to church, and that was fun. I told Becca this, but there is a member in the singles ward here that has my same birthday. I'm only a couple hours older than he is. We didn't have a dinner appointment because we were going to have a birthday party with Jacob and Erin Campbell, but they are out of town. I did have Spaghetti Os to celebrate though, so that was fun. We don't really have to cook much here, we get fed by members almost every night. We just have to worry about breakfast and lunch mostly, so we have soup and pasta and bread and all the good stuff. We get lots of leftovers from dinner appointments as well, so that's nice to have the next day. 

As for investigators, we haven't had much change. William moved back to Colorado, so we won't teach him anymore. He is really close to baptism, so hopefully we'll hear from the Colorado missionaries about how that goes. We're now officially teaching Jacob's sister Tori, and she really is prepared. She has been in quite a few of the lessons we taught Jacob, and she asked them for a Book of Mormon. She hasn't had much time to read it because she works a lot, but she has that desire. Hopefully she'll get in to it soon. We just had transfers, and some big changes happened in Sheridan. We had two districts with only 6 missionaries each, but now they are combined. One set of sisters left the area, but the other stayed. We now have two district leaders, who will tag team the district meetings and duties. Our two district leaders have been out for a year, and they were companions in the MTC, so that's pretty cool. We'll see how it all runs on Friday when we have our first combined district meeting.

We have been helping out a lot at the local food bank. We help them unload their trucks every Wednesdayand stock their supply. Last Saturday they had a food drive, and we went to help. They have a food trailer where they gave out hamburgers and hot dogs, sodas and chips and cookies. We were there from 10 to 2. I was in charge of the grill, and I made quite a few burgers and dogs. We were just in an Albertson's parking lot, and people told us they could smell the food we were grilling inside the store. We didn't charge money, people could donate to the food bank if they wanted to.

That's basically it for this week. It's been great, and my testimony of this Gospel has grown immensely. Teaching really gives you a greater knowledge. I am so grateful for your prayers and letters, and I appreciate the support from all of you.

Love you!

Elder Ehlert