We recieved this in the mail from the mission home a few days ago

Dear Brother and Sister Conrad,

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder D. Kelly Conrad, has been called to be a district leader int he Oklahoma Tulsa MIssion. He has been called to this position because he has shown that he is both willing and able to provide leadership to missionaries engaged in the Lord's service.

In accepting this call, your son has indicated he is committed to be an example, in both word and deed, of an obedient, dedicated, hardworking missionary. I have called him as a district leader because I am confident that he will carry out, to the best of his ability, the commission that he has received from the Lord to "declar repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me."

Elder Conrad is a fine missionary and I am honored to serve with him. Please accept my thanks and appreciation for supporting your son in his missionary efforts. May our Heavenly Father continue to bless you.

Sincerely,

President Kent M. Seal
Oklahoma Tulsa Mission

Mountain Home!

Kelly just transferred to Mountain Home Arkansas Friday of last week and was made district leader.

His new address is:
229 Hill Crest Rd,
Mountain Home, AR 72653

Things are pretty crazy for me right now, what I mean is schedule wise it's pretty crazy. With my new area came some more resposabilities and because of it I'm not getting to have a preperation day this week. Normally holidays are proselyting days for us, even if it is on a Monday. But I have gotten special permission to email today because it's looking like Thursday will be the next clear day to have my preperation day. So I have time to write anyone till Thursday and in my letter I'll go into more detail about whats going on.
I miss Miami alot, not only because I loved the people that became my friends, or the way sweet ward that we had and the commitment they all had, but because of the feel of the town. The Spirit was in more abundance there in Miami then it is here in Mountain Home. I don't know how to really explain what I'm saying other then just saying that it feels diffrent.
My new companion is Elder Clinger from Idaho Falls and has been out for 3 months. He is a way sweet missionary and has a ton of potential, we are working our hardest to get this area moving again. Its been a fun few days. This past Friday I got sick and its been really tough for me to focus and remember things so this is testing the patiance of Elder Clinger and myself.
I've learned a lot about being a part of something bigger then just myself. I am in a Band or Brotherhood with all the missionaries in the district, zone, mission, and the World! It might not make sense to you but to me I now see that my individual efforts mean more then I can comprehend as I combine my efforts with those in the world. For example, we all know that the church is 13 and something million strong and that we have a misionary force of 52,000, but most of the time we don't really get the magnitude of those statistics, these are not just numbers, they are our fellow saints.
We went back last week and taught Megan Loden and she is going to be one of the sweetest people that Elder Goodale will be teaching this transfer. We taught her about the apostasy and the restoration which was really powerful, she told us that she was going to come to church this past Sunday and that she wanted to learn more. So I will have to get back to you and let you know if she made it.
Another miracle that happened last week was with Jared Mountford. I think I mentioned Carrie Mountford before and that we taught her family during Conferance. But they kind of slipped away for a bit and we lost contact with them. Well after last weeks miracle of borrowing his tools I had built up enough confidence to called Jared and set up a meeting with him. Well when we got to his shop he was getting ready to take off and feed his cattle, so we hopped into his truck and helped him with that. The whole time we talked about jobs, the world and other topics that we could and then we were lead into a gospel themed conversation. We taught Jared the apostasy and the restoration right there in his truck, it was so sweet! We were able to break down some of the barriers that he had up by taking a spiritual jack hammer to it! Just before I left on Friday we got a phone call informing us that Jared and his whole family were coming to church on sunday!
I miss Miami but soon Mountain Home will be a place of miracles and blessings and I won't want to leave this place!
Mom I'll write more later, but just to give you a heads up, I might be using my home card today to be buying somethings, nothing too big, just a little food, like some ramen or something.

Love,
Elder David Kelly Conrad

PS I did send a box home with some stuff in it.

My Joy Is Full!

Well I am getting transferred. I'm getting moved to the farthest east part of the Mission. My new address will be:
229 Hill Crest Rd,
Mountain Home, AR 72653

This past week has been filled with miracles and I have yet again past some very tough milestones in my missionary work. I learned and gained a testimony of a principle that has been taught to me from the very beginning of my mission. The prnciple is this; When ever I talk to anyone listen to them, then listen to the Spirit and what He is telling me to tell them, tell the person what is prompted, then quickly bear testimony about the restoration. This principle can be used anywhere in the world and I have received many blessings from doing this. We are up to our teeth with people who want us to teach them and I am pretty sad that I have to leave them all.

This past Saturday after our 10:00 appointment we were left with a void in the day because of an appointment not being home. So when this happens we start thinking about where we are sopposed to be and who comes to mind to drop by. Well Elder Goodale says, " lets go see Julio." So I start heading to Julios house, when we got there and parked Elder Goodale looks at me with this weird look on his face and tells me that we are nowhere near Julios house. Where we were park was at another investigators house whose name is Padro. Instead of getting out and going to Padros I take off to go to the originally planned drop by at Julios. When I drove away I got this very sick feeling and I felt very impressed to go back and help Padro with something. So I told Elder Goodale that Julio can wait and I turned around. We found Padro working on his car, he was taking out the CV joint on his Pontiac Grand Prix and was having troubles with getting the axle nut off. Well when I saw the problem I got the thought to go to a shop that was around the corner that is owned by another investigator that we are teaching. So We told Padro that we would be back with some tools to help him out. We went to the shop that Jared and Carrie Mountford owns and it looked like they weren't there, but when we went up to the door it was open. We found Jared and I asked if we could borrow a breaker bar and a long pipe to help out Padro. We made several trips back and forth from the shop to Padros borrowing tools until we got everything apart, we weren't able to stay and see Padro all the way through the repair but I told Padro what to expect and what to do with the part and how to put it back in and we left. We then went back to Jareds and gave the tools back and then the miracle happens. See we have taught Jareds wife several times and she has come to church faithfully for several weeks but Jareds been holding her back a little and we have been struggelling with finding time to teach Jared and build a relationship with him. When we took the tools back to him we got to talking about cars and things and then we got on a gospel topic and instead of my usuall tactic of suger coating it I was real honest with him. I told him that what we teach will bless his life and his family forever and that I wanted to teach him at least one time before I left. He gave us his phone number and we are going over in a couple of days! Oh and Padro got his car back together and its running perfectly. And the miracle with Padro is that the car was his wifes car and she is a hardcore Catholic that didn't really like us, but that changed!

I have learned a lot these past few weeks here and I am still learning. Obedience is the most important thing I learned. My joy has been full these past few weeks because of how obedient we have been and the blessing that we are receiving from Heavenly Father.

Another long story and miracle, we got a call from the mission home this week giving us a referral from another mission. The referral was from a recent convert that lives in Arizona who has a daughter that lives here in Miami. Well the reason for the referral was because this recent converts daughter, Megan Loden was sick in the hospital and we were asked if we could go and give her a blessing. Well we went and it turns out that it wasn't Megan that was sick but it was her 2 year old daughter Heather that was sick. She had had a 104 degree fever for 2 days and the doctors couldn't find out why. We taught Megan a little about what the blessing was going to be about and that we are able to give it because we are worthy priesthhod holders. We gave Heather a blessing that she would recover and be healed. After the blessing we got Megans cell number and told her that we would call to see how Heather is doing in a couple of days. Well when we called in a couple of days we found out that Heather was released the next day and that she is doing really well. Megan then tells us that she has never seen anything like this before and wants to come to church and learn more about it. So we are now going to teach her this Wednesday!

The way transfers work here is that we have several points through out the mission that is convenient to meet at, like for me I will go to Joplin which is 45 minutes away and be with other missionaries who are waiting to be transferred as well. We have what we call the south loop and north loop, which just means that one car pool starts going south and the other moving north but they both start from Tulsa. The car pool consists of Chevy Silverados, Colorados and a van that we call the "Bull" that pulls a trailer. They just go from point to point picking up pre designated elders, or sisters and takes them to the nearest drop off point near our areas. Like for me and my transfer it will take like 3 hours to get to my drop off point and then it will be a 30 minute drive to my area.
I have just learned while sitting here that I'm not going to be able to see any of the endings of the miracles that I've been able to be apart of these past few weeks and it makes me way sad. But I guess what I can learn from this is the true meaning of being apart of a band of brotherhood and not seek my own.

That's all for this week , I love you and thank you for all that you've done for me.

Love,
Elder David Kelly Conrad

Hope not to Despair!

Well I know I just talked to the whole family yesterday, but I just wanted to write you all an email and let you know that I'm still alive. So I'm still alive and look forward to emailing you next week…. Just kidding, there was still a ton that I could have talked about yesterday that I didn't get to. I didn't get to tell the story about almost being in a tornado, almost having to re-schedule a baptism, and casting out devils.

Friday morning we went on our normal run. We got back to the house at 6:30 and started to get ready for the day. I had taken a shower and had put my slacks and white shirt on and while putting my shoes on I felt the house move and heard what sounded like a freight train! I yell to my companion scaring him, " What does outside look like Elder?" He responded, "It's a little rainy." So I go out side and the first thing I see is the sickest looking dark green cloud coming right at us that was almost touching the ground. It was like a huge wall and all I could think was "TORNADO!" I ran inside to tell Elder Goodale that he might get his wish and I start to pack my duffel bag with stuff that I didn't want lost. Elder Goodale did the same and we got to the front door listening for our cue to run to the shelter our neighbor has across the street. It passed and we were safe. But it was way intense and it really got my heart pumping. We had a touch down about 5 miles from our house that just took out some trees. While driving around we could see the effects from the 80 mile per hour winds we had. Telephone poles were snapped in half, whole trees were down and some roofs were blown off! It was way intense! I've got some pictures of it.

So the next day on Saturday morning we got a phone call from the mother of Karlee Hood who was to be baptized that same day. Heather, Karlee's mother was calling to ask if we could move Karlees baptism to the next week, she told me that she had been in the ER sick at 12 am because she had cyst that exploded and that she wasn't feeling good. When she told me this my heart sank and I was pretty upset, it felt like Satan was trying his all to stop this baptism from happening. I told Heather that the baptism will only take 45 minutes and if she needed to she could stay in the mothers room. That might sound heartless of me to get her to come to church while not feeling good but that was what I felt dictated to me to by the spirit to tell her. Later that day when we went over to make sure that they were still going to come. Heather took some medication that helped her feel better and she was able to sit through the whole baptism. It just goes to show me that when we plan to do what is right the Lord will make a way for us to do what is right. It's a living experience that I have had that relates to one in the scriptures, "I will go and I will do."

Seems like Heather and her family have been in the email a lot, but here is another story about this crazy sweet family. On Wednesday night Elder Goodale and I went on splits so that we could teach two different people at the same time. I went to Sally Fenskas and he went to Heather Irvins. When we met back up Elder Goodale told me about how when we dedicated Heathers house earlier last week that it seemed maybe we disturbed spirits that were there. So we went back and we gave a blessing to everyone in the house, we cleansed the house of all the spirits that were there using the priesthood. Heather and her kids told us the next day that that night was the best night of sleep they have ever had in that house. Another testimony to me of the power of the priesthood.

These past few days I have been walking around feeling a bit discouraged. I've been thinking about where I want to be as a missionary and how I need to get there and I see my goal, but I don't see how to get there. I've been kind of murmuring abit. But I prayed for help and started looking for the answer I need right now. I got my answer in Moroni 10, where there is no hope, there is only despair and when I read this I knew that this was the answer to my prayer. I felt happier, relieved, and even excited. I felt my enthusiasm return about doing missionary work and pressing on till I reach my goal.

Love,
Elder David Kelly Conrad

Mother's Day call home

Kelly called home on Mother's day and everyone was able to talk to him, even his older sisters Erin and Megan were here and were able to talk with him. He told us about where he is and what he is doing, and some of the challenges and joys of his mission and calling.The mantle of his calling was evident as he loved and encouraged and without pushing or preaching admonished each of us to read the scriptures and pray daily. He said he gets up extra early at 6am to read the Book of Mormon because he had been so slack when he was at home and hadn't read it all the way through by himself. He wanted to make up for lost time by getting some extra person study time in. It just spoke to his level of dedication and devotion. It was hard to say goodbye knowing we won't get to hear his voice again for more than 6 months.

Rains came down and the Floods came up!

Well I'll tell you what this week has been a fun one. Its rained all week and parts of the town have been flooded for days. Today is the first day in a week that we have seen the sun and it is such a relief! Its been fun trying to get work done when the streets are flooded and you get drentched because the rain is coming down so hard. Even with all this going on we still managed to get Karlee Hood interviewed for her baptism this next Saturday.

This past week has really been an eye opener to me. The Lord has helped me to focus on what matters most and is putting me through some tests that are really stretching me. Its one of those tests that make you feel like your going to break under it. So I know somewhere around the corner here there is going to be some success, as long as I am diliegent and keep doing whats right.

We taught Jason and Savannah twice this past week. We taught them the restoration using cups. We have what is called the "Cups lesson," which is a very simple way of teaching that there was actually a church of Jesus Christ in the New Testiment and that there is a restored church on the earth today. What the lesson consists of is 30 small plastic cups, 12 with pictures and names of the apostles we have today and names of the apostles in the NT, then one with a picture of Jesus Christ and two with the words priesthood and revelations, and the rest have priciples of the gospel taught in both NT times by Jesus Christ and our day by our Prophets and apostles. We build it up into the shape of a temple and show how Christ had his church built on the backs of twelve called and ordanied men. We show how His church was abolished because of evil men who killed and tortured the apostles. This is one of our favorite lesson to teach because it is so simple, there is no mistaking the truthfulness of the restorted gospel. At the end of the lesson with Jason I asked him what he thought of the message we shared the very first time we met with him, he said, "this is what I have been looking for." Our next lesson that was with them was at the Chapel on Saturday night where we gave them a chapel tour and watched the Restoration DVD. We had our Ward Mission leader with us and his family that really helped in fellowshipping. It was such a sweet lesson and feeling to see them learn more about the gospel. Jason already has plans to learn and know the Bible as much as we do.
We had ourselves a pretty good scare the other day. Just before we went out to go to distict meeting this past Friday we had a huge hail storm! Hail storms around here mean that a tornado is following it, and we where convinced that we wouldn't here the siren go off because of how loud it was outside with the hail hitting cars, our roof and the windows. So to be safe we got our duffel bags and stuffed them with stuff that we wouldn't want getting ruined if the tornado tore through the house. We then stood at the door looking for the tornado and got ready to run for the shelter across the street. It was way intense and way funny!!

I love you and thank you for all that you have done for me. I can't wait to get to talk with you all this next week!!

Love,
Elder David Kelly Conrad