It was awesome to hear from you and all that you have been doing! Sounds like Canada was as fun as ever. It wouldn't be as fun without Jaxon being around very much though. Where was he at? That would be exciting to see Colton again. This week we have had a hard time getting people to answer the door. Summer vacations and people on the lake all the time. We went with John Smith to go pick up his truck at the car dealership and saw Ezgar (the guy from our apartments) working there. We talked to him for a minute but every time we have gone over to his house he doesn't answer so I don't know how interested he is. We had dinner at the Earl's and she wanted to take a picture of us and send it to our moms because she gets those from her kids on their missions and she enjoys them. There are a lot of Earls in town. that is probably the most common last name here. We went and visited some less actives. Bruce Nelson is a guy that is in his early 40's and is a sound guy for a local band here. Its cool to talk to him about that. He has an awesome decked out recording studio in his house. I may have told you about him before. He is extremely inactive but he has been letting us pray with him and we are going to watch a Mormon Message with him next time.

Christine has been very flaky with appointments as usual. Every time we go over there she has an excuse or is gone. We are going to keep inviting her to church and probably read some scriptures and show a mormon message if we ever get in with her. A church tour would be helpful as well. Yesterday was ward conference in 7th ward and it was good to hear the Stake President speak a few times. He is awesome and everybody loves hearing him speak, he is an awesome public speaker.

We had a baptismal interview with president Allred (1st counselor in mission presidency) for John Smith yesterday. We were originally going to have the baptism on August 2nd but president Allred would like to postpone it until after John goes to court for the no contact order violation. He did say that he sees that John is sincerely trying to change his life and after the court date sees no reason why he shouldn't be baptized. We will continue to make constant contact with John to prepare him for baptism.

On saturday we went and did service for Zach Hontz, who is one of our investigators. I have probably written about him before. We helped him put in a walkway in his backyard. Then we helped brother Asay paint the inside of his garage. We do that pretty much every saturday. On wednesday we are traveling to Wenatchee to clean up from the fires up there. They are pretty much under control now.

Thanks for writing about Canada and hopefully that priest quorum trip goes good. Let me know about my friend's mission calls when they happen. Can you find out Jake's mission email? I want to write him. Hope you guys have an awesome week!

Love, Elder Newbold

It was good to get some big letters from you this week!! Sounds like everyone is having a blast. That is awesome that some of you got to hear Colton on Sunday and I am sure it was awesome. There was a missionary in our zone that went home to Idaho last week and he has already come back to visit. He kind of reminded me of Colton but Im sure he can go more than a week without returning hahaha. Those were some really funny pics you guys sent me, especially the one of Mom haha how did you get that?

This week we had the Doctrine of Christ training with Pres. Ware and the AP's. It is a training that missionaries go to in their 2nd transfer in the mission field. We were originally going to do it in Quincy like we did last transfer but the ZL's called and said that we would need to get a ride to Kennewick because they cancelled the training in Quincy. So we had a member of our ward that drives to Kennewick for work take us down there and a couple that works in the temple that lives in Moses Lake take us back after the training. I saw my MTC comps there. Elder Tays was laughing after we met them because they are pretty interesting. Thank goodness it was only 12 days haha. President Ware gave us a shout out in front of everyone about how awesome we are doing in Moses Lake.

We took a member of the bishopric in 7th ward out with us on Friday night. Not many people answered the door but we got in to see Tristan because Bro. Welty is also the seminary teacher and he needed Tristan's Mom to sign a waiver for him to take seminary. We had a good conversation with her and she said that she has already noticed a lot of positive changes in Tristan since he joined the church. It was really good to hear her say that and we will see if she becomes interested. We also ran into this guy named Ezgar in the parking lot of our apartments and he agreed to let us come teach him the restoration this week.

PEC was very effective in 7th ward yesterday. Bishop Allred is very excited about the missionary work happening in the ward and we are setting up a program with the ward. Every tuesday night someone from the elders quorum will come out with us. Thursdays a high priest will come and saturday afternoons we will have priests join us. We need to do better at scheduling solid appointments so that we can match up our investigators and less actives with the member that is coming out with us.

That is exciting about Rory winning the British. He is my favorite player and even better that he beat sergio. The course in Moses Lake is really good. It is comparable to Thanksgiving Point except probably not quite that good. The front nine is really long though. It has a little more links to it than Tpoint too. That priest quorum temple trip should be awesome! Where are you at in the Book of Mormon? I am excited to hear where Riley and Benson are going on their missions.

Have fun in Canada. Tell Cassidy congrats and tell Colton hey and thanks for setting a good example for all of his cousins. The gospel is true.

Love, Elder Newbold (Hunter)

This has been a pretty good week. Transfer calls came on saturday night. Me and Elder Tays are both staying in Moses Lake. We were the only companionship in the whole zone that wasn't broken up. There are 6 missionaries from the MTC coming to Moses Lake next week. 28 coming into the mission. That is a ton and there is going to be that many again at the end of August. The temple trip was fun. We had two big vans come and pick everybody up and we drove 1 1/2 hours to Richland to go to the temple. Sister Ahlstrom was talking to me about Lehi the whole way back. We know a ton of the same people. I'm pretty sure she dated Brett Bartholomew for like 2 years in high school. We left at 7 AM and got back around 3 in the afternoon. It was fun. Every scripture I turned to in the Book of Mormon while I was in the temple talked about having faith in Jesus Christ so I will continue to do my best to strengthen that. We did get to go golfing last week and I played really well. It was kind of hard adjusting to the putter and the greens but I probably hit like 13 fairways. Chris was dying every time I hit the ball and was constantly talking about my swing. He said watching me helps him to see what he needs to fix in his swing. It was the best I had hit the ball in a while. I was surprised. The richest guy in Moses Lake is Dr. Earl. He used to be a bishop in one of the wards and his house is huge. He has a big basketball court and patio area in his yard. That is where we hung out. We have district meeting every week and I think we have the best district. We have had two zone meetings. We will have a zone conference next transfer. We have zone conferences every other transfer and temple trip and interviews the other transfer. I did bear my testimony in 4th ward last week to introduce myself to anyone who didn't know me. I have met tons of them already. I explained that missionary work is most effective when full-time missionaries and ward members are working together and how our brothers and sisters that need the gospel are all around us. I hope it was effective. John Smith is continuing to progress. Last night we visited Christine Peterson who is one of our investigators in 7th ward. She feels a void in her life and feels very alone. I was able to promise her that if she comes to church and starts to learn about the gospel, she will feel the emptiness start to fill up with happiness. She then asked me to offer a prayer for her to have courage to get out of the house and do stuff and to be happy. the spirit was strong during that. When we walked away we were both talking about how awesome it was.

Thats too bad about the State Am. +7 in two holes is rough. I did that in a high school tournament and it really doesn't bode well for the rest of the round. But there is always next year. Maybe I can give it a shot with ya in '16. Everybody is talking about Lebron. That is pretty awesome how he handled it and everything. That would be a sweet career if he is successful in Cleveland. I was disappointed to read your update on Hayward though. 15 million? Hopefully they have enough young talent to be good.

Canada should be awesome! It probably isn't as hot there as it is here or in Utah. We have been cooking out there. I am grateful for short sleeved white shirts. Tender mercy:) haha.

Tristan is planning on going on a mission in a year and he got ordained to priest last week. He is getting his patriarchal blessing soon as well. He is on fire! Chris was also ordained a priest.

I though Dallin didn't leave till August? Im sure he did great on his talk. I am so excited that Riley is going on a mission that is way awesome!!! He will be a really good missionary with his personality and everything. Let me know when all those guys get their calls.

Keep me updated on Canada and have lots of fun. Some pictures would be great. Thanks for all your prayers and support and updates on whats going on.

Love, Elder Newbold (Hunter)

Thats awesome that you guys had a good 4th. I had such an awesome view. The city fireworks were set up right outside my apartments so it felt like a 3D firework show. The whole sky was lit up it was awesome!! You guys went to ST ah man. I definitely miss my favorite places to eat but I still have free subway once a week and that mexican place is really good. It saves us money so we use it quite a bit for lunches. Thats too bad about Cassidy but everything will work out the way that it is supposed to. Colton has less than 10 days that is crazy! I wish I could go to Canada but definitely not the part about sharing the house with Ryker and those guys haha that would be rough! Good luck!! I haven't met any canadians here yet but maybe I will soon! Eventually you will break through on that song writing thing. Among the finalists is pretty good!! Let me know when those guys get their calls in our ward. Yea i totally know Carson G! He was my locker partner when I was a sophomore. I didn't use the locker that much but yea he is a cool kid Im sure he is a good missionary. Our mission is getting the mini Ipads sometime between this fall and next spring. Elder Tays was kind of bent out of shape about that hahaha.  The letter to dad has more detail this week but both of these letters are for all of you guys so thanks for writing and I will keep you updated on the upcoming transfer! (they are every 6 weeks)

Love, Hunter

Thanks for the awesome letters! The baptism was awesome and i will try and send another picture. So we get free meals at this mexican place called tacos mi casa and we were picking up our food and I saw Julius Randle go to the Lakers. That was pretty devastating but then we went back to the church to fill the font and everything. Chris took a huge step in his life and it was really cool to see. Him and Donna are going to take us golfing 18 holes either today or next week so sweeetttt!!!! That is crazy about Colton coming home in two weeks. There is an elder in our zone who has two weeks left as well. Hopefully Riley does make it out on a mission. It would be good for him. It seems like Carson just barely left though haha.

Answers to moms questions......

1.We have to be in by 6:00. We can attend gatherings in the afternoon if we are with a recent convert or investigator.

2. Yes we get along great and I learn a lot from him.

3. He is a convert. He converted when he was 23 and went on his mission at 24. Church basketball got him involved with the church.

4. We play bball every week pretty much, today we are having pday at Dr. Earl's house (the richest guy in Moses Lake)

5. We are going to try and commit John Smith to baptism this week. He attended Chris' baptism.

6. Good foods you would have loved our meal the other night. Clams and oysters, 5 different kinds of shrimp, salmon, and crab legs. It was awesome.

7. I am getting my hair cut tomorrow by Elder Morales, I guess we will see how it goes.

8. My shoes are like walking on clouds.

9. I don't think I need anything else sent but thanks anyways.

Good luck in the State Am next week. I bet you can go further than you think. Just like you told me, do your best and the Lord will fill in the rest hahaha. Its true for anything! Hopefully Dante Exum turns out to be awesome! I bet he is way good. Sounds like Jazz and Penn State are gonna be set in no time. There are a ton of missionaries that are dying for updates about the World Cup but don't worry about it. It is so boring haha.

Yesterday at church Tristan had his priesthood interview and he even told us that he wants to go on a mission in a year!! He was just baptized last week. That is a lot of faith. We are losing investigators because of the baptisms but we still have a couple really solid ones. Most of them are really flaky with appointments and stuff so it is hard to get any set appointments. We really need help from the members. They say they are going to help us out so we will see. It is incredible how much more successful the work is when investigators are referrals. We haven't had much success tracting at all. Chris and Tristan were both member referalls and same with our 2 solid investigators. We still need to keep trying to find people anyway and have faith. Thanks for all the support and prayers for me! I pray for you guys too. Its so fun to see all that you are doing. Good luck with everything in the upcoming week!

Just so you know pday is probably going to be on Wednesday next week because it is our zone temple trip so if you don't hear from me till wednesday you know why. they might still have pday on monday so i don't know for sure.

 

Dad, Sounds like everything is going well with the golf. Hopefully it is good timing and you are peaking at the right time!! I am playing later today. 18 holes at Moses Point with Chris and  sister Goude. Apparently sister Goude is awesome at golf so we will see. That would have been sweet to have Wadsworth as your caddie dang it.

 

Thats pretty sad about Cassidy but hopefully things work out however they are supposed to. Im sure she has already learned a ton though. The MTC crams all kind of stuff into your brain. I can't even imagine 6 weeks there. That would have been a little rough. The mission field is way better. I am jealous of you guys going up to canada. I got the wedding invitation in the mail a couple days ago. Should be fun for you guys. Tell Cassidy congratulations again from me, and Colton too. thats crazy how little time he has left. Time is definitely flying. I will hit 2 months before I even know what happened. We were just barely talking about my 1 month mark hahaha. There is no time to waste.

 

NBA free agency is always awesome. That would be crazy if Lebron returned to cleveland to play with Irving and Wiggins. That would probably be bad for everybody else though so hopefully it doesn't happen. British open is coming up soon thats exciting.

 

This week we put John Smith on date for July 26th. He will most likely be interviewed by a member of the mission presidency. He has a hearing on the 24th after violating a restraining order but if the case is dismissed as expected, we will have the baptismal interview, so it is kind of in limbo at this point. We got two new investigators this week. One of them was a referral and one of them lives with a less active member. Pretty much all of our investigators right now live with their girlfriends or boyfriends so baptism will be a challenge but we will continue to teach them. What advice do you have about how to handle that situation?

 

I don't know anything about the big dam so who knows but maybe I will find out haha. Transfers are next wednesday. They are every 6 weeks. We find out saturday night what will happen. Anything can happen but usually you stay in an area for about 3 transfers. 1 or 2 is short and 4-5 is long. One elder has been here 5 transfers so he is most likely out of here. Weird stuff does happen though so its still kind of intense to find out. Elder Tays was only in Moses Lake one transfer before me so chances are we are both staying until at least the end of August but I will let you know how it goes. Thanks for writing and good luck with everything going on!!!

 

Love, Elder Newbold (Hunter)

 

 

 

Mom that is a ton of questions so I will just answer them in order haha. There is no target but there is wal mart. We drive a chevy cruze. we do quite a bit of walking since we are only allowed 600 miles per month. It is good exercise. Chris is still planning on baptism on the 26th. He is going to be getting married to Donna in the near future. Tonight we are going to explain to him that when he moves into the 4th ward he can't move into her house unless they are married. He is doing really well though. He wore a tie to church yesterday for the first time so he was pretty excited about that. There is some sad news about Tristan though. Since he is 17 his mom has to sign a waiver for him to get baptized. She said she would sign but is not happy about the decision he has made. She is a member of the Grace Harvest church. He feels like it would cause family problems if he was baptized and he wouldn't be close with his mom anymore. We are going over there tomorrow. I brought up the situation in PEC and the bishop suggested that we try and catch the mom at home, although she is not very willing to meet with the missionaries. We will see how that goes. He still would like to be baptized when he feels like it is a better time but hopefully tomorrow we can say the right thing. We also have another meeting with chris tonight. That guy is awesome. We watched the Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration movie with him the other night and he fed us crab legs and steak. It was sweeeeet!!! Another cool story, we were talking about remembering Heavenly Father on fathers day at the activity day girls dinner on thursday night and when we were taking a tv back to the church library, there is this guy standing there in the church in a tank top with tattoos and everything. He asked us what we were called and we said the missionaries. He said he has some questions about things he has been reading in the Bible and wants to meet with us. That was so awesome we meet with him tomorrow night. His name is Adrian Salazar. We were joking around because we had been trying to find people all day going from door to door and then in the church there was a guy that walked in and found us. It was pretty funny but Im excited to teach him. Yes i heard from Jon for the first time today!!! I hope I have time to write him something. No our mission does not have facebook or Ipads and sister ware says they are not planning on it. I got your package those pics were hilarious. I hope Ashtyn will start to realize how much work I did around there hahaha. We do our emailing for an hour at the Moses Lake Library and if we have time, another half hour at the family history center later in the day. We met with this guy named John Smith for the second time the other day. He is my all time favorite so far. He is 33 years old and he has some form of schizophrenia. He is a good guy. It is funny to hear him tell us about whats been happening in his life. He rides his bike from Moses Lake to Pasco occasionally, which is an hour and fifteen minute car ride. Anyway it was good to hear from ya and maybe I'll talk to ya later.

Dad, I heard about the game last night. The people we were having dinner with are way into it. I was suprised it was not even a close series. Was Lebron okay the whole series? Thanks for all the updates. Thats so cool you made the State Am!!! I guess you are better than Riley Bunker haha. Blake Carter is a ridiculous golfer. Now you just need to go shoot low and make the match play! Did you feel any pressure? I didn't know you were planning on selling the 4 wheeler. You are getting rid of all the fun toys we used to have. Maybe you should get one of those side by side 4 wheelers. Daws would love that. I do attend ward council and PEC in both wards. We are at the church for about 7 hours every sunday. Yesterday 7th ward canceled PEC because of Fathers Day. We both go to the early ward's meetings and then one of us goes to sacrament meeting at 9 and the other one goes to the meeting for the other ward. We spend a ton of time talking about missionary work in those meetings. We talked a lot about Tristan and his situation yesterday. (Mom's letter has tons of details because of all the questions). I've said this to people a few times already. it is pretty crazy to see the difference between someone who has the gospel in their life and someone who doesn't. Its kind of hard to explain but its easy to tell. I've never been around very many non members and people that need the gospel. That would be awesome if Bro. Wadsworth could be your caddie for the tournament hahaha. I'm excited to hear all about that. Too bad the sports world is about to get boring for a couple months but time seems to be flying so far. I've almost been out a month already. That probably sounds pretty funny but it feels like I just left yesterday. Basketball went pretty good last week. I've been humbled a little since my companion is probably a better shooter than me hahaha. We've had some pretty intense games of HORSE and it always comes down to the last letter. We might not play this week though because some guys just about started going at it last week. It got way too competitive. I just started laughing. Hopefully we still get to play. It's up to the ZL's but one of them just about started fighting somebody. Well thanks for continuing to write and I'll maybe get some time later today but if not talk to ya next week!!!

Love, Hunter

I was so happy to see so much mail today! I definitely felt like at first I was being ripped away from everybody but recieving the mail and packages helps me to know that we are going to be able to communicate just fine. It comforts me in a lot of ways. The MTC is a pretty cool place but I can definitely understand that 9 weeks would be pretty crazy, especially learning korean on top of that. I thought of you when a group of missionaries shouted onyonghaseo to me and my companions. I talked with a sister who is going to puscan, korea. That was pretty cool. Thanks for keeping me up to date on sports. That would be sweet if the Jazz got Jabari. I figured it would probably be Spurs and Heat in the finals. Today we went to the temple. it was cool. i read Alma 42 and felt like it applied to me a lot but had a few things I was confused about. if you could read that chapter some time and help me try to understand that would be awesome. I like the last verse the best. Class time at the MTC is my favorite part. My teachers are all so awesome!! Sister Howell is our afternoon teacher. She has been home for about 2 years. Brother Mills is so cool! he served in North Carolina and has only been home for 6 months. He is so good at teaching from the scriptures and relating everything to our purpose to invite others to come unto Jesus Christ. I think my favorite teacher of all is Brother Weekes. He is also recently returned and is playing the role of our investigator Justin, who we teach almost every day. Brother Mills gave me some good advice on how we can teach him based on his current needs. I am going to challenge him to make more time in his busy life to really study the scriptures. I think if he does that he can have the spirit testify to him more fully. My district is two trio companionships. Me, Elder Cordon and Elder Broadbent and then Sister Marcom, Sister Allred, and Sister Gresham. Being the district leader is pretty cool. I have had to assign everyone topics to speak briefly on following our devotionals. It was awesome on Tuesday night to have Russel M. Nelson come and speak to us. it has been awhile since i have heard an apostle live. We were on the fifth row. He spoke about how we need to be striving to become converted to the gospel ourselves so that we can help the investigators better. He was great. I haven't had too many chances to play basketball, my companions aren't really into it at all. They agreed to play on the first gym day. I had the opportunity to demolish them in 21. That was pretty cool. We have played volleyball and done some cardio on the bikes. I am gonna try and get them back into the basketball courts this weekend. Last night we went over to meet the missionaries that arrived yesterday. I did the best i could to help them feel welcome and happy to be there because I know how hard this is. it is still hard for me so it is way hard for them. I saw Meagan in the cafeteria on Wednesday. She said that she accomplished her goal on sunday and made grandma cry hahaha. i bet that was hard to do. Still keeping an eye out for Cass. Thanks for all the prayers, i pray for you every day too. ill keep doing my best to live up to the expectation of your mission pres. to be as good as you were. Mom, that package was awesome!!!! not sure im gonna be able to finish everything but we'll see. My companions have been helping me a little bit. There are a lot of details in dads letter that Im sure you will appreciate. We have two investigators right now. Justin (he is actually our teacher bro. weekes) and sydney who is a nice old lady and i don't know if she is a member or not. Some of the volunteers are and some aren't. i saw meagan yesterday and talked to her. I am still looking for cassidy. It feels better to know that i am not the only family member in the MTC anymore and more of my cousins are heading out too. i am happy for the facebook messages thats cool that you kept me posted on that. Since i wrote you and dad separate i will probly include things in the messages that are different and you can share them with eachother to figure out all the details. i forgot to talk about the food in dads letter so ill tell you. I was worried the first day because we had a salad wrap with cilantro dressing, but it has gotten a lot better. We have had bacon cheeseburgers and chicken and rice, spaghetti and meatballs. its pretty awesome. I am still looking out for people that look like lex. i found out that Elder Cordon has seen all of smallville and is a fan. That was pretty fun to find a common interest like that. I will definitely pray for the Sperry family so that they can have comfort. hopefully that funeral and the baptism won't conflict, we would "have a situation" as you would say ahahaha. The shoes feel great, even the athletic shoes feel a lot better. maybe that one day was just breaking them in. I havent got to play too much bball but hopefully I can talk my companions into another day. We went to the temple today so i guess i actually did see someone that looks like lex if you know what im talking about hahaha. i was jealous about hearing jena sing aint it fun. That is one of the greatest songs ever and im sure she did it awesome. Thanks for all the updates. i hope you are pleased with the details and realize that there are some in your letter and some in dads letter. I pray for all of you every day and i can tell you are praying for me. Its still hard but it is starting to get better. I was suprised how fast the first week went by. I look forward to hearing more from home. its great.

Love ya, Elder Newbold (hunts)

First Letter

Dear family,

We were told to write a handwritten letter home since we will not be able to email until Thursday the 29th.  I hope to see email from you that day.   It would help me a ton.  I am in a trio companionship with Elder Cordon from just outside Palmyra New York and Elder Broadbent from Logan Utah.  It's kind of weird because Elder Cordon is 25 years old and Elder Broadbent is 23.  They are interesting guys.  We don't really have similar interests at all other than the Gospel.  These first two days have been so hard and I have had to pray almost all day.  The first night we had a chance to teach real investigators as a large group of probably 100 missionaries.  We were teaching Sarah Mae Jenkins who is engaged to a member of the church but dealt with an abusive parent as a child and doesn't feel God's love for her.  My favorite was Junichi from Japan. He was referred by his friend John who is a member we were talking with him about the different parts of the gospel and I suddenly realized that what we were talking least about was Jesus Christ.  I raised my hand and explained to him that we lived with Heavenly Father and He sent Jesus Christ to atone for our sins.  That He is the way that we can be saved.  I hope that Junichi believed in that moment what I said to him.  Today we had a lot of classes and we met our branch presidency.  They are cool guys and they definitely have the spirit with them. I was assigned to be the district leader tonight. We have a couple of district meetings that I have to plan I'm also in charge of preparing the sacrament on Sunday. I will try and give a lot of detail in my emails and please write me as soon as you can. I have a feeling reading your mail will be a good day. Dad, thanks a lot for that letter, it made me feel great.  Those scriptures are awesome and I will try to exercise faith and those. Our Branch President is president Stice. He told us that our families miss us, but don't want us back yet.  I'll keep that in mind as I continue to go through struggles but I know you will all pray for me and I will do my best. I pray for you always and love you all and look forward to hearing from you.

Love,

Elder Newbold

PS I'm dying for some sports updates