Dear Shanell,

Happy New Year! Our mission is having a New Years Eve party tonight. It should be fun.

We had some changes come up with the baptisms we had planned. We had committed this one family to baptism on Saturday the 28th and when we went back yesterday, Mrs. Snell said, "I have prayed about it and the answer is no." Well, I almost went into shock! We continued to give the 5th discussion and towards the end of it we asked her what kind of feelings she had after praying. She said she felt good on Saturday night when she prayed, but on Sunday morning she had "feelings of contention telling her not to have us come back again. It was so neat to hear that. We quickly explained and asked her if she prayed Sunday morning when those bad feelings came. She said no. We then explained to her that until the family is baptized, they cannot have the Holy Ghost all the time. Only if someone else brings it in or to answer prayers and that she needs to pray, with the rest of the family often to keep Satan out. By the time we got back into the discussion, their 2nd oldest daughter came running in crying and then the dad rushed out. Apparently, her old boyfriend hit her in the stomach and all his friends were giving her heaps of garbage. Elder Adams and I were just getting ready to go help Mr. Snell work them over, but they got away. Mr. Snell had a hold of the window, but fell and scraped his hands and knee rather bad. He then came back in the house and the boys rang up to apologize, but Mr. Snell told them to come to the house and apologize. It was a mess! This family is facing a lot of opposition. They will still be baptized on the 15th though. I know it. The sister missionaries have been working with them since last January and once taught 4 discussions. I am District Leader now with Elder Adams so we asked permission to go in and work with them. We committed them to baptism. Actually, the Spirit did, but we helped a bit.

Being on a bicycle keeps me fit. There are heaps of hills around here. I hope you have a good week!

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Dear Shanell,

Well, I still have my companion with a fried brain. I will be staying here and transfers are today. I already know I will be staying. I am happy. We have 6 people we are teaching now.

Last night Elder Toi and Adams and Sisters Peterken and Benson all went caroling. The first lady we went to was an elderly lady and she started to cry! She said it was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard. It gives such a great feeling to make people happy like that. I think it is times like this that make missions all worthwhile. Too bad Christmas only comes once a year.

Our mission has our Christmas party today and our mission president is going to make us wear our suits instead of jeans and t-shirts. I guess he has his reasons. It sure doesn't seem like Christmas here. It is hot and there is no snow. We are still working toward a "white Christmas". Hopefully, we can have a baptism.

The members here are kind of going crazy. We have been to 2 tea dates (dinner) and Elder Ottley belched through both of them. When we were caroling, he asked to use our investigators' bathrooms. It is slowly driving me insane. I can handle it though, I hope. The other night I was talking with him and I found out that he hears voices. I asked him what the voices say and he said, "They call my name and they tell me I'm standing in cement". I'm going to chat with President Wells about it today.

Have a nice week!

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Dear Shanell,

It has been about 6 months wince anyone has taught a family in this area and we are doing it now! The family's name is the Tamarapa family. They are islanders from New Zealand. They are a super family! I am looking forward to to Friday when we teach them again!

Instead of giving out Book of Mormons, we have been asked to sell them. They cost $2.30 each and I can't afford it like many others. We have been asking the members in this ward to help, but they aren't helping much at all. I am going to write to my home ward to see if they could donate enough for a case of Book of Mormons. It is really sad to see the members not doing their best. The bishop is really hesitant to give us money to buy Book of Mormons and I wish he would talk to the members more.

I wish I could have seen President Kimball's funeral. I loved that prophet so much. He went through so much. President Benson will do super, too. I know he is a prophet called of God!

Today is p-day and I just cleaned and rearranged our bedroom. Elder Ottley is still having problems. At members' homes, he asks them their names about 4 times. His memory is terrible.

I appreciate your support and encouragement!

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Dear Shanell,

I drew this picture and our zone leaders were so impressed, so I put a caption to it and titled it "President Wells".

President Wells gave me a new companion. I am a senior companion now. My companion is Elder Ottley and he has some real problems.  He spends 1/5 of his time on the toilet. He goes to the bathroom 4-5 times every 2 hours. He also makes rude noises at members, but President Wells and I are going to work on him. His mind is wasted from drugs before his mission. Another trial of faith. I guess the Lord wants me to grow. 

Today was Wednesday (p-day) and we had a zone Thanksgiving dinner and played softball and football (American football). It was quite fun! We got to kind of "let our hair down" today. We made pyramids of people and just goofed off. Tomorrow is zone conference and it should be neat. Elder Toi, Elder Adams, Elder Ottley, Sister Peterken, and Sister Benson and I are going to sing tomorrow at zone conference. We are singing "The First Noel". I sing bass with Elder Adams. Elder Adams and I are best friends. I am closer to him that I was with Jesse. Jesse is still a great friend, but it means so much to have a friend that shares the same goals and values. Elder Adams is from Idaho Falls. He is a great guy!

Thanks for all you do to support me.

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Dear Shanell,

I had a great experience. The Spirit told me one night at about 12:30 am to go give a blessing to one of the sister missionaries who suffers extremely from hay fever. I woke up my companion and I got dressed in my suit and he threw on some jeans and a t-shirt to give a blessing. Anyway, we woke her up and my companion anointed and I acted as the instrument of God in giving a blessing. I was scared! I didn't know what I was going to say, but after I started, the Spirit put words in my mouth! She was promised in the blessing that God would not let her suffer as long as she was in His service according to her faith. The next day, she did not suffer at all! The priesthood heals! I know it! It was humbling to be able to act in God's name. I love my mission! I hate to say that I felt pushed to go on a mission--from you, my family and your family. But, I'm so thankful I was pushed. Transfers are coming up in about 6 days. I'm hoping to be made a trainer.

Thank you again for your support!
Elder Wallentine

Dear Shanell,

I'm receiving letters quite regularly now that the strike is over. I'm not sure if I told you, but we got our 30 hours tracting and gave away 16 Books of Mormon. That was the best in the mission! President Wells was very pleased!

My companion, Elder Ballew, and I are getting along great now. He doesn't like this area though. I love it! Sometimes I think there is nothing interesting happening here and then when I go to write it down, it seems a lot more interesting.

You are a great strength to me. Thank you for your support!

Elder Wallentine

Dear Family,

Mission life is great now that I have a companion that wants to work!  He's from Texas and he is a pretty good guy!We have a goal of door-knocking more hours than any other companionship from October 28 to November 3! With the Lord's help, we can do it! There are discouragements out here. I appreciate the poem about not quitting! It says, "When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, when the road you're traveling seems all uphill, when the funds are low and the debts are high, and you want to smile, but you have to sigh. When cares are pressing you down a bit, rest if you must, but don't you quit!" It has helped me a lot! I guess if we didn't have the bad times, we would not appreciate the good. We just had our two investigators ask us not to bother coming back. We are still going back to one of them. We don't give up that easy.

Nobody back there has been writing to me. The only people still writing to me is my family, Carmacks, Randalls, and occasionally, your family. I guess everyone is pretty busy. I really do wish the members would take time out and write though! Maybe a mission shows who your true friends are.

The weather is starting to warm up here. We are just going into summer. It will be weird to spend Christmas in the summer. I really enjoy reading my scriptures and am in Corinthians now. Today we had a correlation meeting with the ward mission leader and we straightened out the area handbook. Today has been busy! I loved it! We tried to get a hold of some people named Bob and Alice Rose to invite them to church. They weren't home so we left a note saying we would drop by tomorrow.

I appreciate all the support you give me. I love my mission and know the church is true!

Love,
Elder Wallentine