Gulfport Week 2

Hey!

 

Real quick...

 

Life is great! I am loving being back in Gulfport. I have been able to see a lot of people that I love dearly. It has been awesome. :) It is also sad because it is a military ward and so some are already gone, some are deployed, and some are leaving really soon. Like the Hinds... they leave in 19 days. He is out of the military now and they are moving back to Indiana. Go figure. It sure ws good to see them. :)

 

Well, the library closed yesterday before we could email, so I am going to be brief today.

 

Just know that life is going really well. I am serving with Elder Jemmett from Rigby, ID. We are pretty similar. It's been a fun week so far. :)

 

Ummmm... I love you all! I will have more time next Monday. Our week this week is pretty packed already. We leave Thursday for Jackson, staying the night and then we have Zone Leader Council (ZLC) for most of Friday. So there is 1 1/2 days gone. Plus tomorrow is the fourth and we have some plans already, but holidays are a pain as a missionary. No one wants to take away from their family time to talk to us. We will be doing our best though.

 

So in short, I am loving life, loving this work, and am just as happy as a bird with a french fry to quote a friend of mine.

 

I hope everything is as awesome and amazing for all of you. Try not to burn up in the heat and flames, umkay? :)

 

Love,

Elder Mendenhall

 

 

 

 

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Back To The Coast...

Hey Everyone!

 

Well, I am sitting here at the library in Gulfport, MS. It's been a little less then a year, and here I am again. I did end up in Gulfport as a Zone Leader here. My companion is Elder Jemmett from Rigby, ID. He's been out about 6 months less then me, and I am super excited to serve with him.

 

For future reference, my mailing address here is:

 

16097 Orange Grove Rd

Gulfport, MS 39503

 

We stay in a two bedroom, one bath house in front of a member's home. Kind of like the little house on the property back home. Just no upstairs. And nicer. And in the south. ;)

 

Well, I am excited to be here again! It's so weird being back here. We went and visited a recent convert today, Willyray. He was baptized on Feb. 25th. He was being taught last year when I was here, but I didn't recognized the name. When we got to the house though (which his sister who is a member used to live in) and I saw him, I realized I had met him already. For just an hour last year, but I still remember him. So crazy.

 

Today we are going down later to go see the Kitchens! In case you don't remember, they are the older couple that I absolutely love. She feeds the raccoons. Anyway, I am SSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited! I have missed them lots! There are so many people I am excited to see. I can't wait until church. The Hauerspergers, Farmers, etc etc etc! :) :) :)

 

Okay, I am going to keep this short and contain my excitement as much as I can. We are going to go to the store after this so I can pick up some food to get me through the week. So I am going to try and keep all of that short, so we can get to work. I am excited to work here and I am dedicared to making my time count. The Lord has sent me here for a reason, so I'm here to "get 'er done!"

 

I love you all! I hope to hear from everyone soon!

 

Love,

Elder Dwight Mendenhall 

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday...

Hello Everyone!

It's the Saturday before Transfers, and so you know what that means, right?

I am being transferred. I am heading east as a Zone Leader. I don't know for sure where I am going, but I am thinking Gulfport. And really wishing. I want to go back. :)

Just wanted to let y'all know. I will probably email Wednesday and let you know for sure where I end up. Elder Crockett is staying here.

Love you all.

Love,

Elder Mendenhall

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Hey Everyone...

Hey hey hey!

Happy belated Father's Day, everyone. Especially all you dads out there. Especially my Dad, the world's best there is. :)

It's been a long week. Leadership training was on Friday. It was good. Long, but good. President Tucker kind of gave all of us his "exit interview" advice. The stuff he would usually say when we were going home. AKA, there was quite a bit of marriage advice. Hahahaha, I didn't mind it though.

No investigators in church on Sunday. For us, or the sisters. Kind of a bummer. Not sure what happened to Lavell. Hopefully we can catch up with him this week.

I'm wearing my board game club shirt today. Hahaha, sporting the board game geek that's inside of me. :) We are playing some games (and possibly some ping pong... thanks Danbi!) later today at the church. Sister Findley goes home on Friday, so it's our final "p-day party". We're not very creative, so games at the church. But then again, all of you who know me know that I am super happy with that. :D

The work goes on. Slowly, yet surely. This week we get transfer phone calls. So we'll see what happens. I know this email is mainly fluff this week and not much substance, but not much happened this past week. At least not anything I want to type out (it's p-day... I'm kind of lazy...)

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Mendenhall

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Losing My Mind....

Hello Everyone!

As I was contemplating what to put on the subject line, I looked at my wrist to see what day it was (I suppose it's the 12th, but  I checked out of habit) and I realized I didn't have my watch on. I forgot to put it on this morning. I also forgot to grab my planner on Sunday. Reminds me of the time I was with Elder Todd in Gulfport and I forgot to put on a tie before leaving the apartment. Funny thing was that I had my suit coat on, just not a tie. Not sure if I shared that story before. We were going to drop off some trash on our way to go pick up Gulfport Spanish and as I got out of the car to throw the trash away, Elder Todd asked me if I forgot something. "No, pretty sure I got all the trash" was my reply. Then he pointed at his tie. Then I looked for mine. Ooops. I just borrowed one from the Spanish Elders.

Anyway, I just enjoy life. I smile every time I think about that. I've had a lot of funny experiences on my mission. I have several quotes from Elder Crockett that are hilarious. Just the way he said them. Not as great unless you know him. One day though we were in the car with Elder Bruderer and Elder Mclean (last transfer) and Elder Crockett pipes up next to me:
"Something I've never understood is how my dad met my mom at a dance....*pause*... at a dance."
Just the way he said it and how serious he was too. We don't as yet have the full story on the dance/meeting/mission thing, but maybe one day we will. Anyway, Elder Crockett is pretty funny, usually when he's not trying to be.

Well, this past week was really good. I don't know if I mentioned it (I think I did) but the Sisters here baptized Kisha and three of her kids the first part of May. Well, this past week we started teaching her husband, Lavell. Super awesome. We have had some really good lessons with him this past week, and he has a date for the 30th of June, so please keep him in your prayers. I really hope he comes to church this Sunday, as he didn't two days ago. That is our biggest struggle right now is church attendance. We can't get anyone to come. Fruskrating sometimes. We couldn't even get an investigator to church and she lived right down the skreet! (Yes, people do say thos words like I spelled them....)

Other then the church thing, life sure is dandy. I burned my sacrificial pair of pants on Friday for my 18 month mark. Also, on Saturday, Diego and his mom came to visit Elder Crockett and myself for a few hours. It was awesome to see him again. We went out and got some food and just shot the breeze. It was super cool. :)

And..... I got some good letters in the mail this past week. And a package from home! Thank you for that. I got the package slip on Friday and I couldn't pick it up until Monday. We took it to Johnny's house and I opened everything there. Then we went and played some basketball at the church and you know what? I actually was playing pretty decent. I actually scored some points. Doesn't happen often. :)

Well, just know that life is well and that I love all of you. I hope y'all have an awesome week! :)

Love,
Elder Dwight Mendenhall

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It's June

Hey Everyone,

I hope y'all had a good week this past week. I know I did for the most part. I started having some major sinus and allergy issues Thursday though. Friday I had a pretty bad headache. I started taking some stuff for it though and it's pretty much cleared up. Johnny, one of the members here, has had this same problem for a few weeks now. It almost sounds like what Mom has back home. Crazy stuff. I know a couple other people who have had the same problem here in Monroe.

Other then that and just being tired, life sure is good. In fact, this week is looking to be a fantastic week! Now, that might just be because it's a rare week and we have a dinner appointment every day, but still. :D OH!!!!!!!!! And guess what Friday is!!!!

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My 18 month mark! Can you believe it?! I can't. It's surreal. Crazy. That is a long time. A lot has happened in that time though. I have had four areas, 8 companions, trained two of those, had some baptisms, gained 20 lbs (yup!), have one new niece, two nephews (with one on the way), a new sister-in-law (Hi, Kim!), and tons of other stuff. I officially broke my bike all the way, got a new (to me) one, fell in love with the south (while loathing it some days...what can I say?), met so many awesome people, gained a deeper love and understanding of the gospel, found out exactly what kind of members there are in the church (those who do missionary work and those that don't ;) hahaha kidding! kind of...), ummmmm... it goes on and on.

To celebrate this special occasion, all six missionaries here are eating at the Bishop's house on Friday (okay, so it just happened to fall like that, though it is Sister Findley's 18 month mark as well..) and of course I will be following the tradition of missionaries and burning a pair of pants! (don't worry, Mom, they are an old pair someone left in our apartment, not any of mine...though I could burn mine as they are falling apart and sewed in many different places. They're still wearable though!) I am looking forward to all of it.

I know I bounce around from subject to subject, but hey, you just got to love me anyway. We went to go see Bruce on Saturday. We talked to him about the Plan of Salvation. Afterward, his cousin/brother/something or another came out and wanted to talk to us. His name is Herman. Anyway, I wasn't feeling the best and didn't say much, and so Elder Crockett and him talked quite a bit. Anyway, Elder Crockett got called an anti-Christ because we believe that the Trinity are separate and distinct beings. It was a rough day for us. To top it off, the next morning (yesterday) we went by to pick Bruce up for church with a member, and he was sick in bed.

This work may not be easy, but it's worth it. And I love it. I hope all of you have an awesome week! I know I will. It's all what you want it to be. There is enough good in a day to focus on that you wont ever have a bad day. :)

I love you all.

Love,
Elder Mendenhall

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Happy (Belated) Memorial Day!

Hello Everyone!

How is everyone doing today? I hope really well. :) Today is Wednesday, and we just got the chance to email today. Monday was Memorial day, so the libraries were closed, and yesterday was Zone Conference over in Bossier City, and we hitched a ride with our Zone Leaders (biking that far didn't sound like fun...) and afterward, Elder Shumway wanted to visit some of his Spanish investigators in Sherevport, so we did. So no chance to email yesterday.

Zone Conference was awesome yesterday. Probably the last time I will see President and Sister Tucker on the mission. We talked about a new finding activity, "harvesting" is what they called it. Essentially, we talk to people (either street contacting, or tracting) and say more or less, "Hello, my name is Elder Mendenhall and this is Elder Crockett. We are representatives of Jesus Christ. He has sent us to leave His peace and blessing in your home. May we come in and leaving this blessing with you?". Of course, a little more personable, and then if they say yes, we go in, gather the family, learn a little about them (names, ages, etc) and then kneel in prayer and voice a blessing upon them and their home (not dedicating the home, just blessing). Bless them all by name, etc. Some missionaries have already tried it with some success. Like President Tucker said though, it's not some silver bullet or cure all. It is just another finding activity to try. It will work sometimes, sometime not. It should be fun to do though, once I get past the initial awkwardness of it. :D

Life is just fabulous, for no other reason then I am alive and have a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my Savior and His work. :) I want to be more like Him, to feel the love that He has for all of my brothers and sisters. I love the South. I really do. I also love Utah though, and I can't wait to get back there. In the meantime though, I am enjoying myself here in Monroe. I love Elder Crockett. He's a good kid. :) Oh! I got to see Elder Kington yesterday too! It was great seeing him again. I love that kid to death! 4 1/2 months in Philly with him was just amazing. Hahaha, we had such a good time together. He is still over in New Boston, TX (his second transfer there). He's loving it!

On a secular note (and future note, but it makes me happy now)... I received a scholarship to BYU-Idaho. It's not's too big, about 1/3 of tuition cost, but I am happy to have it. Any little bit helps. Still not sure what I got it from (I assume I have Debi to thank there) but I have it. Super cool. I am excited to go there come January. I don't know if I ever mentioned it to anyone really, but I have decided for now to major in Recreation Management. I want to work with youth in an outdoors environment and help them better their lives and to succeed. To make a difference. :) Anyway, I am excited to go to BYU-Idaho. :) Come to find out, according to Rachel (as in my cousin Rachel), there will be about 7 of the "Shelton" family up there. Marlie and her husband, Jamie Shelton, Rachel, Ryan and his new wife, and then Camille Jolley. And myself. Super excited for it all. :)

Okay, everyone. I love you all. I need to wrap this up as I have a couple other emails to write. I love all of you! :)

Love,
Elder Mendenhall

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