Email from Elder Dillard 6/4/2012

HI!

So, I'm going to start with the bad...and then get to the good:D  hehe

I'm sitting on big shag rug on the floor in an appointment with one of our investigators and the whole time I keep getting a whiff of this rancid smell of urine or animals or something, it wasn't pleasant. It was very hard to focus on the lesson, The Plan of Salvation, and I was worried that I had stepped in something gross. About 20 minutes go by and as I prop myself up again to get better posture, my hand touches something wet...I smell..Pee.  Ugh...I about lost it. Then I nonchalantly feel around the area I am sitting and discover that I am in a big puddle. Shag carpets hide it so well. I had no idea. We had a couple sisters from our ward in the appointment as well, and I did not want to embarrass our investigators so I just scooted over a bit and didn't say anything. So horrible. Haha it had to of been the worst smelling stuff EVER! But wait! There's more! So we ended the lesson, and we had one immediately after. Luckily there was hand sanitizer in the car and a phone book to sit on so the seats wouldn't get nailed. We stopped by the next appointment because we couldn't get a hold of them to postpone it a bit. They invite us in. Fortunately the wetness had dried. The funny thing was that their pet Chihuahua "baby" would not leave me ALONE!  Literally the whole 45 minutes we were there this dog's nose was attached to me. They just thought I had a way with dogs....We'll just let them think that.     That was the BAD:D


Now for the good!    The woman and her family came to church yesterday! We are seeing loads of miracles everywhere! She is asking all sorts of questions about baptism and we are getting ready for her to make a date. She has to either get married to her fiance or move out first before we are allowed to do this. That is the next lesson.

We had this Lao investigator. He is 8 years old, his mom is not a member but his Grandmother is an active one. He is our best friend, haha.  It is so fun and so life-fulfilling to see these families come and partake of the spirit which is found in our Church buildings. They are immediately blessed for coming, I see that every time. Get them to church and it's all good from there!

Our St. Cloud Zone is seeing awesome miracles! The Sisters in St. Cloud just set 5 baptism dates the other night with a family! The best thing is that there were 2 other kids missing and so they should hopefully have 7 dates set when they get home! Other areas are seeing blessings of hard work as well. You can truly see that where the missionaries are working hard and being exactly obedient, miracles come.

Elder Filby and I get to Conduct a Zone Conference this coming June 12th. Pretty excited. Will email what we will be training the missionaries on as soon as we finish our trainings.

Get to go back to Alexandria tomorrow for another District Meeting! Super Excited. Love that beautiful city.

I hope this week is full of miracles and the blessings that all of you so deserve! I really appreciate the love and attention to put in to updating me on life while I am gone.

Love,

Elder Devin Dillard

Email from Elder Devin Dillard May 21, 2012

TRANSFER CALLS!

I'm staying in St. Cloud! WooHoo! Elder Belliston is going back to his very first area in Minneapolis where he has served for over a year. Lucky dog. I on the other hand am getting the coolest missionar! ELDER FILBY! He is my new companion! He and I went up to Thunder Bay together, he was able to stay 6 weeks longer than me, but now we are going to be Zone Leaders together! It will be awesome!

We invited 5 people to baptism yesterday and are looking forward to working further with these 2 families. Have lots of great things happening here that will keep Elder Filby and I busy.

Last Saturday Elder Belliston and I ripped out a ceiling in a mobile home, were able to lift the roof up with a jack and put in new supports. Lots of water damage. It was for a single mom her kids were being dripped on during the night due to the holes in the roof. A member lent us his tools and he did the work on the roof so all is well now! still more to do, but the water has stopped coming in, most important. I could do this kind of service all day everyday.

We are losing two missionaries in the St. Cloud area so our proselyting area has just increased. We will have more people to work with now. FUN!

Last Monday we spent almost our whole P-Day Fishing on the Mississippi River! It was a blast! Had no Idea what we were fishing for exactly and didn't catch a fish. I came really close to catching a few turtles. Those buggers are quicker that you would think in water, haha.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you lots!


Elder Devin Dillard

Email from May 21, 2012 Elder Brad Dillard

Email from May 21, 2012 - Elder Brad Dillard:

Another week in Aurburn California!

It has really been a great one I must say. It is so exciting to have two areas to work in because it is impossible to run out of things to do! It is so cool to never have to worry about not having enough work. The other area we are covering now hasn't seen missionaries in like six months so it is just crawling with people ready to hear the gospel. We are only going up there one day a week due to the distance we have to travel to get there, but we already have a few investigators that the ward has found us that have been waiting for missionaries to get there. So sweet! Wednesdays will be our Forest Hill days and they will be jam packed to the max with people to teach and see. I have butterflies right now just thinking about it.

I love these areas so much, I cant even begin to explain it! There are so many more humble people that are willing and ready to hear the message of the Restoration, and so many more opportunities to do service. On saturday we were able to spend the first few hours doing yard work. It was cool how it happened too. I was on exchanges in the Colfax ward and one of their investigators cancelled on us that morning because she was sick. We ended up stopping by anyways and saw that her yard was completely out of control so we told her we were going to go a lawn mower and a weed wacker and that we were going to take care of it. haha we didn't leave her much choice. So we went and borrowed some old man clothes from one of the members in the ward and borrowed their equipment and went to work. We looked so goofy in those clothes haha I will send you all pictures next week. Being able to get out of our shirts and ties and get covered in grass and dirt and smell like exhaust for a while was absolutely wonderful. I am excited to start chopping wood for the winter too! Forest Hill is a little town way out there in the woods, kind of like Morton actually, but better ha. So everyone burns wood and I cant wait to start splitting some wood.

We have been truly blessed with so many things, and so many miracles in this area. It is so easy to look back on all that happened in the past week and see the hand of our Heavenly Father all throughout it. He has blessed one of our investigators so quickly and so abundantly it blew my mind! Within a 6 day period, Elder Growcock and I, along with our Bishop and ward members, and much praying, we helped her get a job, get enough money to save her apartment and not get evicted, get her daughter on the select softball team, and learn to love, trust, and put her faith in God. It was a mircale in my eyes. We also got one of our investigators, a 64 year old man on date for baptism, and will be inviting many more this upcoming week. Being on a mission is the best!

I love you all very much!

Love,

Elder Bradley Dillard