How's Your Son Doing?

We get asked the question, "How's Sawyer doing?" all the time by friends and family.  I thought I'd put this exerpt from a personal letter to me, his mom, on the blog so you could see how he's doing in his own words.  I want to thank everyone who has and is supporting Sawyer through prayers and letters.

4/22/2013

"I love getting emails from Mikella, Joe, and Gabe!!! I MISS YOU GUYS SSSSOOOO MUCH!!!!! But I know I’m supposed to be here and I love it. I’m not homesick, I just think about you guys a lot. I miss coming home and seeing y’all and I REALLY miss our little late night talks. I’ve learned to talk to my Heavenly Father instead. Prayer is an amazing gift. I have received answers right then and there when I pray about them. God does answer prayers and we must have faith in him to do so.

"These past 5 months have been the hardest of my life. They have also been the most spiritual growth I have ever had. I hate to admit it but it has. Only because God cut me down to my knees and made me nothing. I must submit to the father’s will. Peace, I’ve found, is a gift of the spirit, your right, it’s something we work towards. I’m not there yet, I’m still having a very difficult time.... but I have hope and faith that, one day, whether in this life or the next, it will come.

"I love and miss you Mommy. Thank you for your prayers. I have been given strength many times and I know it is because of the support of my family and friends back home. I Love You!!!"

Up A Tree

 

Ok so there is this skate park that has a tree

with tons of shoes hanging in it.

So Elder Stephens and I

with our District leader and his comp

got a lot of them down!

 

We used a really long pole to grab them and pull them down.

 



 

We got 60+ pairs of shoes!!

It was a lot of fun and we had a good time getting them down.

I got a few pairs that are still in great shape

and I'll get to wear them on p-day!

 

So we put all the shoes in the back of our District leader's car

 and he drove them to our house

and threw them down the stairs that lead to our basement.

When Sister Newman came home

we showed her and she just kept saying

"Oh my goodness!"



Then she sat down at my desk and called her daughter

and told her all about it!!!

Haha!! It was awesome!!

We got Sister Newman a pair of black Vans

and I got some pink shoelaces.

 

 

Her favorite color is pink.

I hope she likes them.

Letters Between Brothers

I wanted to put these letters between Gabe and Sawyer on the blog today.  I asked Gabe if he wanted me to type a letter to Sawyer for him Sunday night when I was putting him to bed.  This is what Gabe asked me to write, and what Sawyer's response was.  At night, Gabe goes through his scripture mastery book, and he had it in his hands as he told me what to write, so a couple of his favorite scriptures made their way into the letter.  I feel so blessed to be a mother.

LETTER FROM GABE TO SAWYER:

4/21/13

To Elder Eldredge,

I started reading the Book of Mormon and I'm using your scriptures.
I'm really liking it and I haven't even gotten very far. I've just
read the introductions and the front cover.

I found my wallet. It was missing. I got your letter. I'll make sure I
pray for Taija.

Yesterday the Elders came over and taught us a lesson and we watched
this Joseph Smith video. It was a perfect day because we learned about
Joseph Smith in church.

I have a scripture mastery and it's about baptism! It is Mosiah
18:8-10. Here it is:

“And now as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be
called his people and are willing to bear one another's burdens that
they may be light,

Yeay and are willing to mourn with those that mourn, yeay and comfort
those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God
at all times and in all things and in all places that ye may be in,
even unto death, that ye may be redeemed of God and be numbered with
those of the first resurrection, that he may have eternal life-

Now I say unto you if this be the desire if your hearts, what have ye
against being baptized in the name of The Lord?”

This scripture means a lot to me. It tells me that I should mourn with
those that mourn. Pretty much to be sad with others when they are sad.
To be witnesses of God in all times and all places which pretty much
means to be a witness everywhere you go. It is like Matthew 5:16. “Let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and
glorify your father which is in heaven.”

I'm so glad you are on a mission. But sad too. I was thinking the last
few days that if Moroni, Mormon and Joseph Smith were not ever on this
earth then we would not have the scriptures. And if you were not on a
mission there would be some people that would not know about the
gospel.

You're the best brother ever.
Love, Gabe

 

 

LETTER FROM SAWYER TO GABE

4/22/2013

 

Gabe,

I’m so glad you are reading the Book of Mormon. You can find real happiness if you follow its teaching and learn from it.

Thank you for praying for Tajha. She is a sweet girl and will be blessed because of your prayers.

I love the Joseph Smith video. How did you feel when you watched it?

Your Scripture Mastery is a perfect missionary scripture. Did you know that? I have used that one when we challenge people to get baptized. It invites them to help others and become Christ followers and be good people. Just like you!

Thank you for your support. It’s my job now to teach the people in Idaho about Jesus Christ and how they can be eternally happy. You are so cool and I’m so excited for you to be baptized. Keep up the good work and never give up!!!

Never stop praying Gabe. I’m so proud of you and all that you are doing to be more like our Savior. I can’t wait to see the young man you will be when I get home.

You’re the bestest littlest brother ever!

Elder Eldredge

My Mission Motto

 

 

Doctrine and Covenants 35:13-15

 

Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thresh the nations by the power of my Spirit;

 

And their arm shall be my arm, and I will be their shield and their buckler; and I will gird up their loins, and they shall fight manfully for me; and their enemies shall be under their feet; and I will let fall the sword in their behalf, and by the fire of mine indignation will I preserve them.

 

And the poor and the meek shall have the gospel preached unto them, and they shall be looking forth for the time of my coming, for it is nigh at hand.

 

 

 

Note from Wendy:  Be sure to read the previous post titled "The Best Way To Learn What You're Made Of".  It's his letter from last week. 

The Best Way to Learn What You're Made Of

Week of April 1-7, 2013

The mission is an interesting time in life.  It’s fun but hard.  It’s uplifting but it’s heavy.  It’s engaging but tiresome.  It’s the best way to learn what you’re made of.  General Conference was AMAZING.  I encourage all to go back and read Uchtdorf’s talk on light and dark. This is a formula for rising out of despair and walking in Christ’s light.  I learned so much from the prophets this weekend.  I’m so grateful for conference.  Although, I have to admit, I missed crawling into my Dad’s lap and taking a nap during conference.  That was one of the best parts of last year’s general conference. 

The weather here’s been crazy.  Some days it’ll snow.  Some days it’ll be so windy I feel like I’m riding at a 45 degree angle just so I can fight the wind.  But all in all it’s okay.  The wind though, it just kills.

 We have quite a few investigators.  The progressing investigates, which are the ones that are reading and doing the things we ask them to do are as follows.

The Hills.  Brother and Sister Hill and Jordan, their 16-year-old son.  They’ve been working with the missionaries for quite a while but we need to get them to go to church.  Sister Hill has been reading the Book of Mormon and is ready to be baptized, but I don’t know about Jordan and Brother Hill.  My problem is knowing whether they are sincere or not.  They have a baptism date, but we’re going to have to push it back because they aren’t coming to church.

The Plazon Family.  Ross, who is the dad, originally was mad at God, and had decided to never go to church.  But we’ve been talking to him, and he’s just eating it up.  It’s been amazing to watch.  Brother Plazon is an awesome guy, and his wife, Sister Plazon, her name’s Christy, have chosen to be baptized!  And they have a date for the first weekend in May.  We’re helping them towards that. 

Sister Olsen.  All of her kids are baptized and are awesome members of the church.  She is not baptized, and neither is her husband.  They’re waiting for Brother Olsen to stop smoking but he’s having a really hard time.  He works away from home and doesn’t have that support group that he really needs.  Sister Olsen has warned us not to push.  We’ve been encouraging her to quietly help her husband make the right decisions.  Austin Olsen, who is the oldest, was just recently ordained an Elder and we’re hoping that might maybe add into the equation to sister Olsen being baptized by him.  She really needs to be baptized.  You can tell that whenever we go over to her house, her eyes are tired, but when we start talking about gospel principles her eyes become a lot happier, and she becomes more engages and a better person even!  She just really needs to be baptized so that she can have the Holy Ghost with her so that she can rise out of this tiresome state. 

We also have three little kids.  Ashton and Tristen Miller are brothers.  Their father is a member and hopefully he’s going to be able to baptize them. And then there’s Taisia who’s a daughter of a less active couple.  She wants to be baptized and it’s so great watching her and seeing her eyes light up whenever we talk about baptism and she’s trying to understand everything, but we really have to bring everything down a bit and make sure she understands everything.  She’s so cute.  She’s so adorable, and just loves life.

 We also have a couple of other investigators.  There’s Alison Cook and another guy named Kirt.  They are kind of in a rut, not really being able to progress, but I have hope

for them.  Alison is someone we found on a corner of the street and she started talking to us.  We’re actually meeting with her today, the 10^th, and taking her on a church tour which should be great.  She’s been going to this other church and they actually preach anti-Mormon, but she says she’s not satisfied with the spiritual side of things there, so hooray for her!!  I’m really excited for her to hear the gospel and improve her life.  Sister Cook has two little ones, and she’s trying to get on her feet.  The church has helped her out a whole lot and we’re hoping that she’ll be able to be receptive.  Kirt is on probation, so he can’t be baptized until he’s off, but he also really loves the gospel.  He’s been reading the Book of Mormon.  His wife’s a member, but not active and we’re really hoping to help them get back on their feet and make righteous decisions.

 

I don’t know if you guys really care too much about our investigators, but there they are.  I know you, Mom, wanted to hear about them. 

 

A really cool thing happening in our mission is something our Mission President is doing.  He’s asking us to flood the earth with copies of the Book of Mormon.  He’s asking each missionary to go out holding two Book of Mormons, so four in all, and to give them away, to literally flood the earth with copies of the Book of Mormon.  I’m excited about it.  We’ve already given out five, and it’s just been awesome.  We really hope that they will get back in contact with us.  We put our name and number on the inside with a mormon.org card and we’re hoping everything turns out alright.

Something I’ve learned this week.  I’ve learned that it’s hard keeping your fire going.  It’s hard pushing forward every minute of the day.  And although we sometimes fail at it and don’t do things that we should, I know we really need to work on it and improve and get better. 

I’m very grateful for all of your prayers.  Thank you for all you do to help me and my family.  God Bless, and Hazzah For Israel!!

Elder Eldredge

SMILE!

 

Happy Easter!!!! This week has been great!!! We added up our Monthly actuals yesterday and we have 6 people who will hopefully be baptized within this next month!!! I’m ssssoooo excited for them!!!! It’s two families of 3 and they are progressing well.

 

Satan knows of the missionaries and works really hard on us. Every decision we make ether makes us stronger or makes us weaker Satan is trying almost as hard as Christ is at influencing us to follow him. I know that if we stay close to Christ and always keep our eye on the prize (eternal life) we can make it. We must help others, and think outwardly rather than inwardly. NEVER let Lucifer think you aren’t worth the Love of Christ.

 

Today Elder Stephens and I biked 13 miles. We biked up a mountain to where windmills are. It was so cool looking back and seeing all of Idaho Falls. It’s so great having this body that my loving Heavenly Father has given me.

 

You’re not going to believe who I saw today!! Rachel Gillmore, my cousin!!!! She yelled "Sawyer" from her nice black pickup truck and at first I didn't recognize her but there she was!!!! It was crazy!!! She has a less-active member living with her and we are planning on getting together and teaching her and her kids!!!

 

Sister Newman (the woman who has let us live in her basement) was the Easter bunny for us yesterday. She gave us a big bag of candy and we did "the Easter story" with her. She is so nice and loves us so much. I am very grateful for all she does for us and all she continues to do for people around her.

 

Christ is my savior. He is the light and the life. Only threw him can we become all that God wants us to be. I am forever grateful for his sacrifice and will forever praise him for rising from the tomb. Because he lives, so shall I.

 

Smile! It improves your face value ;)

 

Elder Eldredge

 

An Easter Letter From Bishop Sorensen's Wife

Dear Eldredge family,

 

Yesterday we had the privilege of having the elders join our family for Easter Dinner. We served them a traditional dinner of ham, funeral potatoes, glazed carrots, spinach salad, rolls, fruit, and raspberry cheesecake. I will admit this was the first year I had to share my deviled eggs since no one at our house likes them except me, but I was proud to let Elder Eldredge enjoy them as well since he was so appreciative of them. Your son is gracious and well-mannered and a good conversationalist. He can even tie fancy knots with his tie, which was very impressive to my husband and future son-in-law, both of which also know how to make fancy tie knots.

 

Elder Eldredge and Elder Stephens are dynamic missionaries. We are excited to have them in our area. My husband is the bishop in our ward and is pleased to be working closely with such dedicated and obedient missionaries.

 

We have a special fondness in our home for missionaries from Texas, especially those from Spring. Several years ago our daughter served in the Texas Houston mission and spent her last transfer in Spring. She loved her time in Texas and we were always so impressed with the hospitality she was shown, so we like to pay it forward.

 

I am attaching a photo so that you can see for yourselves that Elder Eldredge is happy and healthy and glowing with his love for the gospel. We hope that your family is already experiencing the blessings from having a missionary serving the Lord. There is nothing like it!

 

Have a great week!

 

~Sister Joy Sorensen