Tired!

Dad Oct 26, 2009

I feel horrible because I have been having the hardest time getting time to write you all. I think I'm just going to start sending tapes home.
Well this week has been another crazy one with all that has been going on. There have been a lot of things that have needed my attention and focus and it has really drained me and things won't slow down until I leave Fort Smith.
This past week I have been studying a lot of the New Testament and the parables that Christ taught. I have really learned a lot as I have read and pondered about the parable of the pounds and talents. It has really taught me a lot about stewardships and how it is the Lord expects us to handle things. Along with that I have learned a great deal about the priesthood and the family. Last Sunday the priesthood lesson was on families and relationships and it has raised a lot of thoughts and questions and all this week I have been reading and learning more and more about it.
So this past week I have really been able to see a lot of miracles and blessings. Just yesterday we ate with the Houston's and taught a wonderful lesson about levels of faith and had a demonstration using tea bags. The kids loved it! And what made the lesson even better was the fact that the Houston's had their neighbors over who wanted to learn more about the gospel. We didn't get to teach them about the restoration of the priesthood, or prophets, because we had twelve kids to entertain, but the lesson really helped the Claimsor's see how the Bible and Book of Mormon teach the same thing. We went from the New Testament to the Book of Mormon and used several scriptures to show and illustrate how they are both the word of God. I called and talked to Sister Houston today and we talked about something's that we can do to help teach and get this family involved in church and the whole time it was a very spiritual experience. I have always had the motto that the Lord knows who he wants in his church and this family will be joining the church very soon.
My favorite things to do now it to "stitch" the Book of Mormon and the Bible together during lessons to teach that they are the same word; I have seen time after time people change as we have made this apart of how we teach. I can give you several examples of times where people have come to the knowledge of the Book of Mormon being true during lessons while we are teaching. It seems like everyone we are teaching right now has had a witness and now what we have to do is help them with their commitment issues.
Bre S. is one of the fastest progressing people I have ever taught, it has really been a joy teaching here because in every lesson the words are given to us all to speak. She is going to be baptized the fifth of November and she has already read the book of Mormon twice in the past two days! For the past few days she texts us and asks us questions and we call her up and answer them for her. She is going to be playing basketball with us today along with some other recent converts and friends.
I promise that after this transfer I will be freer on preparation days to write more. I have tried finding better ways of doing missionary work rather then trackting and basketball has really been the key to all that is going on here. The only part of the congregation that it really strong here is the youth and with basketball we are really making it stronger. We have several less active kids showing up and other investigators coming and its amazing at how successful we have been at having basketball every Monday.
Well that's all for this week, I love you family!

Love
Elder Kelly Conrad

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Elder W. Tyler Conrad 1st letter

It has been the most amazing experience of my life to come here and devote all of my time and consecrate it to the Lord. I have learned many many things that I can apply to myself and others.

Thank you for all of the precious letters you all send I am grateful everytime I get one and will write back anyone that sends one to me.

Truthfully the first couple of days were easy for me. I could finally let go of everything that was back at home and immerse myself into this work. Then I think I soaked up A LOT and found there were mental changes I needed to have to continue on. I felt it about Saturday night and Sunday were probably the hardest for me while going through these mental and also physical changes but I have prayed A LOT and the Lord has helped me to get through it. I testify that if you pray for the Lords help he will and wants to help. I pray for the spirit just about every single prayer that it will be with me and those that I teach.

I met a teacher here at the MTC that was Kelly's companion. He said Kelly was an awesome missionary. I also told some elders who were going to the OTM that they should look out for Elder Conrad that he is my brother. I also see Elder Wallace, Bird, and Baird almost on a regular basis. They are doing great with their language and they always look so happy. They taught me how to split an apple with my bare hands, it is pretty cool.

Sunday night we went to a fireside with was absolutely amazing. It was focused on how to teach by the spirit. I had so many impressions on what I need to do to teach by the spirit. We need to pray in faith that it will be there, and we need to listen. Another important thing to do before we go and teach or do just about anything is Plan with the spirit. Yes mom I am beginning to see that your planning is very important and I am learning the principle of planning. I learned that planning with the spirit there we can be guided as to what we will need to teach and what we can do to help.

My companion is Elder Peterson, he is a great guy who helps me out a lot. He is from New Jersey, Piscataway. He comes from a family of 8 with 4 sisters and 1 brother and he is the youngest, also he has a NAC for computers and worked at a call center for a brokerage before coming here. So many likenesses and we get along really good.

We wake up in the morning about 6:25 and we get ready for the day. Most days we have personal study from 7-8:15 and then go to breakfast for 30 minutes come back to the classroom and either have companionship study or get taught by 1 of the 2 teachers, brother Little and brother Jenkins who are awesome. Then we have lunch at 1 PM till 1:30 and then either have missionary directed time aka the Lords directed time lol or have a teacher. Dinner is at 6pm and then we have the same MDT or teacher. We have hit the first lesson pretty hard and we have gone through pretty much the beginning of Preach My Gospel. We learned that PMG is written for missionaries not just for the people. It will also help anyone else who is trying to do member missionary work which everyone should do. It is a wonderful tool to use not just for missionary work but for life. at 9 is planning time and then at 10:15 is quiet time and then 10:30 is lights out. Sundays are much different then I am used to, we HAVE ps (personal study) in the morning then go to priesthood session, then ps or District leadership meeting for me. I did get called to be the DL Thursday night which has been a blessing to me for growth. Then we have sacrament, lunch, and then we have my district meet for more lessons. We can go to choir after that and have more ps. Then we get to go to the fireside and watch a movie afterwards. We watched the restoration, the prophet Joseph Smith and it made me cry like 4 times, it was amazing. We got to walk around the temple and take pictures Sunday, the Provo temple is beautiful.

I got to hear a wonderful quote yesterday, W. Church Hill once said that success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. What a great quote! There is also one that struck me and I read it before I came "Without God I can't, without me God won't". These have given me strength to continue on learning and evolving into a Superior missionary. I just got back from the Temple today and what a wonderful experience to go through with fellow missionaries and have the peace that I desire to continue in this work without burning myself out. I love how the gospel can apply to every single aspect of my life and I will continue to learn as much as I can so that I can become more like our heavenly father.

I know that this gospel is true, I know that the book of mormon is true I know that this work is the most important that I will do right now and through out my life. I know that God loves each and every one of us and knows what we are going through and is ready to help us at the very moment we ask him. I love you family and am so glad that I could be born of goodly parents to teach me in this gospel so that I can bring others unto Christ.

Love,
Elder W. Tyler Conrad

If you are receiving this email and don't want to be on Tyler's list just reply and let me know and I'll remove you. Carol Ann

And Its All Coming Together Now!!

This past week I have just learned the thing that I have been searching for my whole mission. All the skills I have learned and all the abilities that I have so diligently strive to gain and that I have been blessed with have caused me to see the grand picture of missionary work and why we do it. I have also learned how to do missionary work the way I am supposed to and how to asses wither or not Healy Father is pleased with my efforts. It's like the conference talk that mentioned the mountain and seeing the whole picture. I have spent so much time at looking at the ground and the little progress I thought I was making and something has made me turn around and see how far I had made it up the mountain. Now I have a whole new perspective on missionary work, and every aspect that comes with this great work.
This past week I have been sick and I had made things pretty miserable I will not lie. Having a million things to keep in order and not being able to focus, or have energy to do anything has really made me stretch and use shear will power to get things done. And it brought some amazing miracles with it.
We are slowly over coming Sou and her families concerns. We over came the problem they were having with the kids not respecting their mother by having a very strict lesson with them and setting some standards. They are now not aloud to be louder then a 5, or they call it their inside voice, and they are telling their mother every night that they love her, or when they get into fights. We got them some cloths to come to church, and they are set to come this next Sunday. The reason they didn't make it this past Sunday was because they think that it is boring, so this next week Elder Buhler and I are going to sit with them and play paper games, like hang man, tic tac toe, and other games. It might not be the best thing to do, but they are only eight and ten years old, so we will give them some ideas on how to keep entertained during sacrament.
We went by to see how Mary S. this past week and we found her eighteen year old daughter whose name is Bre and we taught her at the door and set up a return appointment for later in the day. We went back and we have been meeting with her every day for the past four days and she came to church last Sunday. She is one of the elect that we have been commanded to find and she is ready and willing to except the gospel. She said that first night she prayed about the Book of Mormon and the church she couldn't get to sleep because all she was thinking was, "The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints." Several of the young women in the ward knew her from school and now she has the perfect fellow shippers. Bre is coming to play basketball today at three and she is way excited for it!
Last night after teaching Bre the Plan of Salvation we went over to Angels to see how getting her patriarcle blessing was and we witnessed another miracle. Her brother Dustin has been prepared to finally make the changes needed to join the church. Dustin admitted to us last night that he has received and answer to his prayer and that he has been fighting it since he received it, which was almost a year ago when I taught him in Springdale!! We have him on a prayer and study program and we are also helping him quit smoking so he can get baptized in two weeks!! Along with that, Candice is getting more and more receptive and her heart is softening! It will only be a matter of time before the whole family will be members of the church! I have waited so patiently for this and my joy is almost full because of all the events that have happened these past few days.
I have really focused on my prayer lately and have applied things that I have been learning from my scripture study and words from the living apostles and I see a major difference.
Well that's all for this week, earlier today we helped some people move into their new house and we are going to the hospital later today to help some other people out and we are going over to Dustin and Angels house to help them with some stuff, and we have basketball at three, our day is packed! I've started to hand write you a letter, so you will get one this week.

Love-
Elder Conrad

PS, When I move to my new area on the sixth of November you can send me more vitamins and super food, that would be good, along with my winter cloths I sent home, the temperature has dropped and winter is coming fast.

FW: The Fast Weekend!

-----Original Message-----
From: david conrad [mailto:elderconrad@myldsmail.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 2:53 PM
To: caconrad@charter.net
Subject: The Fast Weekend!

Mom- Oct 12, 2009

Well things have been a crazy mess this past week, after having a powerful General Conference Satan has gathered his forces and has really been targeting the weak. This past week so many things have been happening to our investigators, members and recent converts, after fighting the biggest spiritual battle of my life to help these people I have burned myself out.
We had one of our recent converts come to us and ask us for some help out of a very poor situation, she was living in a situation that wasn't conducive to her living the gospel and it had her feeling very guilty. We told this girl her options and we decided to help her move out of the apartment she was in and get her to take the proper actions to resolve the guilt that she was feeling. Then after all the things we did to help her out she went back to it and we haven't heard from her since. It's a very sad story and I am kind of left in a daze thinking about what went wrong and what could have been handle better.
The other day I was reading a quote from President Hinckley where he states the 10 things that missionaries should learn on there missions and one of the things was to learn how parents feel. After thinking about this situation and relating it to other things in my life and searching for an answer I had the thought about how many times you and dad went to bat for me while I was caught up in bad situations. Now I have some of an idea of how you felt when you would get me out of something and then I would get myself right back into it.
Michael Sisco's baptism went very well. This kid is going to be an all star missionary in a year. Dad would have like his testimony that he gave after his baptism, all he said was that he knew that the Book of Mormon is true and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints is the true church. It was an amazing experience for me.
We are slowly getting over concerns that Sou Garcia has. We found out the other day that she is not really living the gospel and it has really hurt her family. We have really been focusing on her now when we go over to teach. We have started to re-teach her everything and try to get her testimony strengthened so that he kids can keep growing in theirs. Last night we had all her kids sign a piece of paper that said, "We promise to stop swearing." During our lesson they had a few choice words they used while talking to each other, so we stopped the lesson and had a "family counsel." I remember the family counsels that we would have when I was back at home; this one was about as intense.
We have seen a lot of miracles with part members lately. We had several of them call us up, or talk to us at church and set dinner appointments up. We are way excited for what is to come in the next few weeks. We are trying to go around to all the part member families around here and see if we can get anywhere with them.
Serving these past few weeks with Elder Buhler has been some of the most growing weeks, we are both unified and we are striving to become better. I am very proud of him and the growth that has taken place; I have trust and confidence in him to do anything and it has really made things less stressful. He totally reminds me of Tyler; in fact the other day while talking to him I called him Tyler. It was pretty funny because I didn't realize what I had said and Elder Buhler just looked at me like I was dumb, and I couldn't figure out why. There were two other missionaries in the car with us when this happened and they got real quiet and just looked at me and I couldn't figure out why until they told me that I had just called Elder Buhler Tyler. Man it's not going to be cool that I won't see him for another two years, we are going to be two complete different people by the time we see each other.
That's it for this week. I hope you have a safe trip to and from Utah. What is Tyler's MTC address? I would like to write him, f you could put that in the hand written letter that would be awesome. I love you Mom!

Love-
Elder Conrad

PS, i can wait till next transfer for you to send out my winter gear, things have turned pretty cold here, but i can hold out till next transfer. This transfer ends on the 6 of November and I will more then likely be sent to a new area.

FW: Patience while learning

Well things were pretty amazing this week. It was a pretty over whelming and spiritual week with having General Conference and also having our zone conference. I am pretty worn out from it all and am thankful for things slowing down.

My favorite talk in General Conference was Elder Uchtdorf in the priesthood session. He talked about two things that can get you through adversity, work and learning. I have a testimony of this because that has been what has gotten me this far on my mission, if there is a trial I know that I have to keep moving because if I don't I will stop my progression. I also liked Elder Bednars' talk about being consistent. As I sat contemplating questions and concerns that have these two talks connected in my thoughts and what I got from it was that I need to be consistent in my labors and do what I know is right, even when it is tough. There was a ton that I learned during all the meetings.

My whole past transfer with Elder Buhler prepared me for the lesson I learned on patience these past few days. Remember when I got back from North Carolina and I was very patient and easy going about everything? I was thinking about that time of my life and why it was that I was so patient with things and I came to a conclusion while reading Romans 5:3-5 and thinking about the message that was given in General Conference, it says that tribulation works patience. The tribulation that I was put through to be patient when I came home was the 5 hour plane flight that I really hated! If I had not had such a hard time on that plane flight I don't think that I would be out here on His mission. In that scripture it says that patience works experience and that experience works hope, or in other words patience comes before hope, and if you go to Moroni 10: 20-21 it says if there is hope there is faith and if there is faith and hope there is charity! Which goes to the over all theme that I got from General Conference which was doing things the more excellent way and following the Spirit. When the Law of Moses was fulfilled the higher law was given, which you could call the more excellent way, and the more excellent way is charity! If tribulation creates patience and patience creates hope, which creates faith, which creates charity then we should become a more charitable people as a whole because of the trials that we are going through. We are going to suffer some of the most trying times that the world has ever seen, which should create some of the most charity lead people we have ever seen.

Michael S. is getting baptized this weekend. Yesterday night we had dinner and Family Home Evening at the Martins and with Michael. It was so fun! We taught them about the sons of Mosiah and how they labored to bring others to Christ. We then used Alma 24 to teach out the successes they saw on their missions, and how the Lamanite converts buried their weapons as a testimony that they were going to keep the commandments of God. After the lesson we played the animal game, which was an instant hit! It brought me back to the times where we would play them as a family and even at family reunions.

We have plans this next week to get Sou and her family to a member's home to have dinner and a Family Home Evening. It's going to be a combined effort with the Spanish Elders because they have a family they are working with that they are having struggles with.

Elder Buhler has grown a lot these past few days. It is amazing to just think about where he was when he first got here and where he is at now. We are unified and are striving to be even more unified because we have both come to the conclusion that missionary work will go nowhere unless we are unified. I have always noticed that the missionary work is a lot more enjoyable and stressless when I have been unified with my companions.

Today we are getting some people together and we are going mini golfing we are going to this place that has an indoor course that is lit up by black lights and everything glows, its going to be great! Michael is going to be there and so is Alina and one of her friends that we have started to teach whose name is Chris, who is my new best friend because he helped me dunk it last week during basketball! He helped me after I told him my goal that I had of dunking it before I went on my mission. It was pretty sweet.

I love you and thank you for all that you do for me!

Love-
Elder Conrad