Brand New Year

It is great to hear from you. There has been a lot of sickness going around, and I am a little under the weather myself right now, but I am fine. I cannot believe that I have been out for almost 6 months now! It has been going by really fast! I have heard of hump day and burning a shirt on that day, but that is the only tradition that I have heard of.

It sounds like you had a fun Christmas. It was a good Christmas for me.The CD player and speakers should work great, thank you!  As far as pants go, I will look at the sizes this week, and I will need about two more pairs.

I do not know what we are doing for New Years, we will probably be with the other Elders that night. Also, Elder Mickleson is being transferred, he is opening up a new area which should be exciting and challenging.

I love this spiritual thought, because as missionaries we are supposed to "Say nothing but repentance unto this generation" DC 6:9, and everyone has need to repent. I remember back home, how virus and other electronic debris got on my computer. But there were ways (mainly through you) that it could be fixed. And that is what the Atonement can do for us  on a very personal level.

I love you and I will email you again next week.
Love, Elder Lakey

Christmas

This week has had its ups and downs. Elder Roberts has been sick, so we been stuck in the apartment for several days now. We haven't gotten any new investigators yet from the open house, but other missionaries have.

On Christmas day we will be eating breakfast in the morning with the Missionaries in my district and with some Marines. Then we will be going to the Ward Mission Leader's house where we will Skype you sometime between 10 and 12 AM North Carolina time. And that night we will be eating dinner with the Elder Quorum President.

I hear that it been very cold for Utah this winter. It has been the exact opposite here in North Carolina. We have been running the AC at night and yesterday it got up to 82 degrees! I am not used to this weather for Christmas.

I am glad that it a lot of people are coming over for Christmas. It should be fun. Who is going to use the treadmill? I think Mom will love the picture! As far as the card put: Merry Christmas, love Elder Lakey I am also very thankful for all the mail I have been getting lately. Thank you!!

I love that thought! The only way we can give a gift to the Savior is by serving others.  Christmas is a waste if we do not try to become more Christ like, otherwise everything about Christmas is in vain.

I love you and I will talk to you on Christmas.Love, Elder Lakey


Thomas did indeed spend an hour chatting with us on Christmas.  He looks and sounds wonderful.  Still just as energetic about serving the lord as the day he left.  It was the best Christmas present.

Open House

This has been a good week, our open house was a big success.  A lot of people came to the open house, we had both members and nonmembers there.  We led the investigators through the church and we talked about our relationship with God, Baptism, the Restoration, the Sacrament and Temples. The other missionaries have found investigators from the open house that live in our area, and we may have found some ourselves, but we don't know yet.  A lot of the nonmembers that came were invited by their friends and family who were members.

I have received both packages. Thank you they were well welcomed gifts!  The music, the tree and candy were very nice.  We are trying to figure out our Christmas plans today. We want to go to a member's home that has Skype. We still teach the day of Christmas eve but not the night or Christmas at all.

The weather is still nice, we had some rain, but that was it.  Everyone was telling me how it gets really cold here, but it is clear that they never been to Utah. The coldest it ever gets is 40s at night and often times in the day it is in the 60s or 70s.

We haven't done anything out of the ordinary for the holiday season, but I did get to see the Atlantic ocean for the first time the other day. We went to a beach on base that had tanks doing drills on the side of the road. It was very cool to watch!

We have zone meetings every month, but zone conference is where President Bernhisel comes to the meeting, and that only happens once every three months. We are actually having a zone conference tomorrow.  I hope Matt likes being zone leader, because I would hate to be a zone leader. I like actually doing missionary work.

I am sure William and Jonathan are excited for Christmas break. I personally don't feel like being a missionary this time of the year is that bad.  People seem to be more open to the gospel this time of year.  Next week most of the military is going to be on leave and Jacksonville is going to be a ghost town, but I am sure we will find something to do.

I love you a lot and hope everything is great and I will email you next week.

Love, Elder Lakey

Pure Christmas Spirit

It has been a great week. We did get to watch the Christmas devotional yesterday. I really loved it. Because it has been so hot here it really did not feel like Christmas at all, and the devotional yesterday really gave me the Christmas spirit.  This week the weather was in 70s and sunny and it felt more like summer than the holiday season.  But now I am feeling the Christmas cheer and it also helps that the weather has cooled off a lot the last couple of days.

We found three new investigators, but there has been a lot of things lately that has set back a lot of our investigators, no one is going to be baptized in December. Tonight the church is doing an open house I really hope a lot of people will be there, it could really springboard the work here. We have been putting up signs and banners and have it advertised in the newspaper and on the radio, so hopefully we will get a good turn out.

I do not know what my Christmas plans are right now. Nor do I know if we will be calling or skypeing. But, I am very grateful for the Christmas package it is going to be great!

Hopefully, Jonathan gets used to his glasses. That is a bummer that RSL lost, but at least they should be in Concacaf, it also sounds like it was a crazy game.

I love that spiritual message given by President Monson at the Christmas devotional. The greatest things of being a missionary this time of year is the pure Christmas spirit I get to see. I do not see the advertisements nor the commercialism that is usually found at Christmas time, I just get to see the love people have towards each other. Christmas is vastly better when we view it in a Christ like way.

I love you and am thankful for the sacrifices you do for me and I will email you
again next week.
Love, Elder Lakey

Thanksgiving Dinner and Pictures

Elder Roberts and Elder Lakey celebrate Thanksgiving with the Ashe family.

This has been a great week. We had a great Thanksgiving.  We ate at the Ashe's house, they were the family who was baptized back in August.  They had so much food!  Thanksgiving on a mission is interesting. We cannot proselyte on that day. We played some football in the afternoon and ate with the Ashes in the afternoon and evening. There was a lot of food including mini sausages wrapped in bacon and cooked in BBQ sauce. It was very good.

We actually helped the Ashes put up their tree.  It is almost the exact same tree as ours.

Elder Roberts and I have a ton in common, he took 2 years of college, but is thinking about switching his degree.  We are getting along really well, we have very similar interests and humor. Right now the work is a little slow because we had Thanksgiving and also a meeting that took up a another whole day. Many people were gone this week as well, so there was not much teaching this week.   Hopefully, with the holidays people will be more willing to hear about Christ.

Cold here in North Carolina is weird because it is a wet cold.  The temperature is higher here than in Utah, but many people complain that it feels colder here than in Utah. The reason is that humidity penetrates through clothing, so layering does not work like it does in Utah. However, for me this weather is not that bad, I bought myself a jacket that neutralizes the humility. I stay very warm despite the fact my jacket is rather thin compared to what most people wear.

That is great that the Grandparents are almost ready to build their home. I love the holidays, and even being away from is not too bad for me. I am sorry to hear that Jonathan will need glasses, but it shouldn't be too bad.  It is good to hear from the Rosenlunds, did they say where their sister is living at? I did know about Bro. Call's daughter, she left on her mission before I did. 

I love that spiritual thought (All This and The Gospel Too and Alma 34:38). I was amazed that at 4 PM people were giving thanks on Thanksgiving day and  8 PM that same day people were attacking and trampling each other to get the early bird sales. I hate Black Friday, especially now that it starts Thanksgiving night. In this age of plenty it is ridiculously hard for many to figure out where this plenty comes from.

I am not worried or frustrated, all things are in the Lord's hands. I can not do much beyond inviting the spirit into the investigator's home. Trials are nothing new.

I am grateful for your email and all that you sacrifice and give to me.  I will email next week.

Love,
Elder Lakey

Thanksgiving in Jacksonville

It is almost Thanksgiving time!  Here in Jacksonville the military gets a longer a leave for Thanksgiving than for Christmas, which means this town is really going to die.  We are planning on having a Thanksgiving meal with the Ashes, the family we baptized back in August.

My new companion is Elder Roberts, he is Canadian and went to college there, but he grew up in Utah. He is also 5 years older than me!  Elder Roberts is great we are very similar, and we get a long very well.  He is also a lot like me, he is very interested in international affairs.  He is very knowledgeable and we talk to each other about things about the church, that even most missionaries don't know much about.  And also like me, he is very messy.  His previous areas either didn't have a good ward working with him or the branch was very small, so he hasn't been as busy as he has seen us here. 

Both sets of elders and both sets of senior missionaries live in the same apartment complex. We do things together a lot especially on preparation day.  The work is going great here.  Our investigators are doing well, they are slowly, but surely progressing towards baptism.  If our investigators keep their commitments we should have multiple baptisms in December.  We mostly find through our own efforts, but sometimes we get referrals, and when we do get referrals we are usually referred to less active members.

I really do not need anything for Christmas, bike works fine, clothes are holding up and everything else is working well.  I did receive the cookies you sent me they are very delicious, thank you! I am happy for any Christmas goodies that you will send me.

I have not had to dry clean my suits yet, but I want to do that soon. The weather has been good, for the most part it has been in the 70s.  But a big cold front hit us so it is now in the 30s for the last 2 days.  Kiley did email and it would be great to hear from Eve or Hayden. It sounds like it will be a small Thanksgiving this year, but it should still be good. 

That is a great spiritual thought from Elder Hale. (Stand Strong in Holy Places)  We either immerse ourselves in the gospel or we will become captive to the devil and there is no 3rd option. Many people try to find a 3rd option and those are the ones that are carefully led down to Hell, by the Devil.

Thanks for all that you do and I will email you again next week.

Love, Elder Lakey

New Companion

Tomorrow I will be getting a new companion and his name is Elder Roberts, he is from Canada and he will be the district leader and that is all I know about him.   I am rather excited to have a new companion.   I will stay in Jacksonville with the other set of Elders on Tuesday until my new companion gets to Jacksonville.

This week has had a lot of ups and downs. Many of our investigators have started reading the Book of Mormon now, but things from a car breaking down to sickness prevented any of our investigators from coming to church. 

The Jacksonville wards have a reputation of being a missionary focused ward.  But the reason why they are like that is because missionaries in the past spent a lot of effort building trust.  Many future zone leaders have served in Jacksonville.  Good missionaries create excited wards, bad missionaries make the ward ignore or even dislike missionaries.  There are some parts of my mission where the congregation will refuse to let missionaries serve there.

You can send packages and mail straight to my address now, but it causes mass confusion during transfers if everyone does it that way.  I would recommend that you keep sending packages the way you are now.

Golfing was fun there was a really nice golf course on base that we went to.  The ward mission leader provided  left handed clubs for me.  I love Golf because of the idea of self-improvement and for me there is a lot to improve.  Who knows I might end up serving in Pinehurst and maybe I will get to golf on the famous Pinehurst No.2.  

I do not know if I need warm clothes the weather is been very fickle.  On Wednesday I woke up to snow and it NEVER snows here especially in November!!  It was only a little bit of snow though. And today I woke up and it was already 70 degrees outside. Right now though I am fine.

Other than Rascal being a rascal it sounds like everything is going well back home.  How has William been? Has Kiley made up her mind on a degree yet?  Is Hayden or Josh planning on going on a mission?

That is an excellent thought!  (“Small and Simple Things”)  Too often we judge people because they are not coming to church, instead of helping them come to church. In the Jacksonville 3rd ward there are about 750 names on the ward roster! Rescuing is a big part of missionary work here and it often leads to part-member families to teach. There is always work to be done and we can all do something.

I love you and I will email you again next week.

Love, Elder Lakey