Our Missionaries!

Update on ELDER TYSON ANDERSEN!



Elder Anderson entered the MTC on March 4th. He was SO ready to go. Brad and I were able to accompany him there. After taking pictures outside and in the lobby, we were all escorted into one of the MTC chapels where the MTC president and wife gave a short message followed by the film "Called to Serve." Then it was "goodbye." It was a wonderful experience that we wouldn't trade fior anything. Here is his address for the next eleven weeks:
Elder Tyson F. Anderson
MTC Mailbox #121
CAN-TORE 0526
2005 N. 900 E.
Provo, UT 84604-1793

UPDATE ON ELDER GREG MALONE:

Greg is now in Chesapeake, VA. and has just 6 mos left! He's no longer District Leader or training...happy to just be a regular missionary again but loved the experience. He's working with several investigators and has finally gotten 2 of them to commit to baptism in Feb. He's had word that 2 investigators he tracted, taught and found, one in NC and one in Glen Allen, VA are both being baptized this month, so he was sooo happy about that. They had a Zone Conf. this past weekend and Elder Richard G. Scott came and spoke. It was a very intimate setting with only 26 Elders and Greg was thrilled! He loves his companion "the Canadian" and his mission!

Elder Richard G. Scott with Elder Malone and Elder Lagace

If you'd like to read his letters home go to his blog at: http://missionarymemories.blogspot.com/
Elder Greg Malone
1306 Shamrock Garden Ct.
Chesapeake, VA 23323


ELDER GARRETT GREEN:
Garrett is on the downhill side now and is determined to finish strong. He just did a quick tour (6 weeks) in the mission office. He was responsible for managing all the referrals that came to the mission and making sure the missionaries had the supplies they needed. They would "text" the referrals out to the missionaries on their cell phones. They found that often times, the missionaries would "lose" the referrals so Garrett developed a system where they would follow up the "text" with a hard copy so the missionaries had a reminder to make sure and contact all the referrals. At first he wasn't too excited to go to the office but while he was there, he found that he was treated very well by the older missionary couple that worked in the office with them. They ended up being treated to lunch quite often by the older couple and they ate at some pretty nice restaurants. We haven't seen any pictures lately so we don't know how much weight he might have gained.

On January 21st he was shipped out of the office to the Vineland area. Just as he initially wasn't too excited to be going to the office, he wasn't too excited to be leaving the office. He is, however, looking forward to being able to do more missionary work and not having the office duties. What he will really miss is the lavish diet he had while in the office!

Prior to going to the office he served in Medford for six months. He loved that area and really came to love the people there. He had the opportunity to work with a lot of people and was able to see one get baptized with several others making a lot of progress and getting close.

He loves letters and would love to hear from you. When we asked him what he wanted for Christmas all he requested was letters! His little sister has really stepped up in that area. The rest of us have some room for improvement.


Elder Garrett Green
1006 E. Park Ave., Apt # 12
Vineland, NJ 08360

UPDATE on ELDER KEVIN LUSSIER:



Kevin Lussier has "flipped" over missionary work! He recently had two baptisms, and he was asked to do his first confirmation. He was excited , yet nervous, and prayed hard and fasted so that he might know what the Lord wanted her to hear. I'm glad that he takes the responsibility of the Priesthood seriously.
Lisa's aunt and uncle just received their mission call to...Orlando, FL...to serve on the Church ranch. They will be in the same area. What a small world!
Kevin's birthday is March 24th. He would love to hear from any and all. His address is:
Elder Kevin Lussier
Florida Orlando Mission
10502 Satellite Blvd, Suite E
Orlando, FL 32837

**Let’s remember our Missionaries during the month! They would love to receive news and encouragement from the Ward! What a great FHE Activity for the whole family! **

Bishopric Message~ by Bro. Kerry Johnson

The Savior has commanded us to be perfect. (Matt. 5:48) What an overwhelming challenge! The natural man leads us down another path. There are so many things each of us needs to be doing to follow the straight and narrow that leads us to life eternal. It can be difficult, at times, to incorporate all those things into our lives no matter how much we want to improve.

We have received wonderful instruction during stake conference regarding how we can spiritually strengthen ourselves, our families, and our ward as a whole. Let me acknowledge first, that we each are unique and our situations vary greatly. The Lord tells us in Ecclesiastes that there is a time for every season. Some of us are single, some with very young children, some with illness and some with time constraints. We each do the best we can within those situations. One of the instructions from stake conference was to make sacrament meeting a revelatory experience. We were told that reverence is a key to receiving revelation. We can each pray for a spiritual experience and by promoting an attitude of reverence we can be in tune with the spirit to receive individual revelation. We were asked, where possible, to arrive early to church, leave our visiting outside of the chapel, sit quietly, and listen to the prelude music. The hymns of the restoration have a powerful spirituality about them. We were promised that we will receive answers to our prayers. They may not necessarily come from the speakers. The Spirit may communicate directly to us. We will have our revelatory experience and be renewed as we partake of the sacrament. As we are strengthened individually, our families are blessed and strengthened.

My dear brothers and sisters, I felt a strong witness that The Lord will bless us as we do what we can to heed this counsel. He desires to pour out His Spirit upon us. He desires to buoy us up and lighten the load of the world. I challenge each of us to increase our effort to receive that revelatory experience as we participate in the ordinance of the sacrament each week. We begin that experience with reverence.