June 11

Dear family, (President Degne and Sister Degne included!)

Announcements and apologies first:

Rachel, I am dearly sorry for not seeing your letter! However the good news is that I found it in the package!!!!! AHHH! It was awesome and I am sorry I did not see it. But I read it! You should be getting a letter back! As well as elizabeth and james. I am sorry for announcing the surprising news! I have a letter nearly finished for you in my binder all about that. Thank you Rachel for writing me, and sorry for not seeing your letter. Thank you Elizabeth for writing me and sorry I told everyone about the surprise. Elizabeth, another thanks for the pictures of Oliva. How cute! AND A VIDEO! YAY! Dad thank you for the two letters last week! Mom thank you for the letter as well as the package! Loved it! I now have two new photos showing proudly on my desk! Oliva and Chloe! Yay! Dad, mom, erik, and elizabeth thank you for your e-mails. As well as Uncle Mike from last week! I did read your email last week and plan to reply today. Last week was so crazy. I was getting tossed around like a rag doll.

HA! I love my new area! What are people saying? No idea! But I love it! Biking is sweet! My companion is awesome! Elder Monsolvo is awesome, obedient, and a little bit trunky, but he works through it! Woo! I am already really enjoying this new companionship a lot. The first three days were a little discouraging, (So Elizabeth and James sorry if your letter is a little bit of a downer.) But I have definitely enjoyed it so far. I must admit, I dont enjoy spanish. What I do enjoy is giving blessings and serving people. I have had to give three blessings (in english) here already. PLUS! There is ONE portuguese speaking woman in the ward who is trying to understand spanish. I have special permission from the district leader (My companion) to leave the area to teach her because I am the only portuguese speaker around! Woooooo hoooo! I stil can speak it! We had a great conversation at church on sunday. What a nice lady. (For the record, I dislike the keyboard I am typing on right now.)

Well this week has been a blur for me (If I hit the caps lock button one more time, I may destroy this keyboard) We sent off Elder Monsolvo's companion to Mexico this morning. (His visa finally came.) Before I was serving with Elder Monsolvo, I was filling a gap with Elder Liedecker, who was waiting for his trainee from the MTC. Oh man, Elder Liedecker and I had an amazing time. He was given a car to drive for the first time in his mission. Boy oh boy, he drove like a Las Vegan. He fit right in. I was pretty sad when I had to leave him. He was awesome. He was so kind and he is so pumped about missionary work. He seems to be really obedient and looks for a blessing in everything and therefore, he was blessed more. The area seemed to be growing before our eyes just in one day while I was there. He got a call from the bishop giving him a referal, and then the lady accross the street from the appartment called him and told him she thought the missionaries were so kind, she wanted to have lessons. So he has a potential investigator, RIGHT NEXT STORE! IT WAS AWESOME! Plus, we recieved a referal that was spanish speaking, so we sent it to Elder Monsolvo, and now I am serving with him. I sent myself a referal! How often does that happen! (Wow, I am a dork.)

This area, is going great, from what I can understand. I esspecially like Miguel and Maria. They are flakey, but they feel the spirit when we come. They understand they need to come to church, its all about just taking that next step. The ward is AWESOME though. I get to study my scriptures a lot because if I dont, I will fall asleep because I dont understand a thing! Yeah! But seriously, The ward is so humble. They love us, and they are extremely sincere. Its actually kind of fun to talk with them. They sincerely try to understand my portuguese as I really try to understand their spanish. Some of our investigators however, pretend to understand my portuguese. I never realized how obvious it was until people started doing it to me. So I try not to pretend anymore. I just ask them to repeat, slower, and slower or to reexplain until we understand each other. It has been a blast though! Wow.

(Interlude: William's medical case has just been reviewed and sent to the 12 to see what happens. Hopefully we'll know soon!)

Hope I filled you in well! I love you all! Hope I recognized everyone that wrote me letters and sent e-mails and packages. I LOVE YOU ALL! Couldn't be out here without you! Its pretty humbling.

Love, your missionary,

-- 

Elder William Lloyd Lovell

Nevada, Las Vegas Mission

9270 S. Maryland Pkwy. 

Las Vegas, NV 89123 

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"

June 4th

Dear Family,

I am loosing my mind! Gah! My companion got a call last night and was told he was going to train in his next area. So I know I am definitely leaving this area. However, I get to the Library and find out that I dont have a transfer assignment... hold on the Zone Leaders are taking me outside to call president.... Ok Got a call now. I'm going to Paradise. My new companion is Elder Mansalva. No idea who that is. My Trainer says he is awesome though and speaks very little english and a lot of spanish. Whew. That was nerve wracking. Thats going to be awesome though. Whew...

My Trainer, Elder Sparks is being sent to the area that is a stepping stone to be Assistant to the President. So in two transfers my father will be AP. He is pretty stoked. He'll be really really good.

Man, bittersweetness to the max. We had a great week this week. We set Samantha for baptism at the end of the month and also recieved 4 new investigators and one attended church. 3 of the 4 committed to read the book of mormon introduction and we have a 5th investigator upcoming. Elder Smethurst's trainee is going to have a blast in his first area. But I am ready to go. Oh man. Had a good time, but I am so so so ready to go. My goodness.

Couple of announcements to start off after the grande um. Thank you for the e-mails. Elizabeth your pictures are awesome. But, Elizabeth, you better hold on and read all the way to the end of this letter because you are in so much trouble! Ogh! And mom, I am sad you got released from being a seminary teacher. Don't know if you are. I am sure you will enjoy the sleep. But it seemed like you always loved teaching those kids and it is very clear that you will be so missed by everyone there. Thank you Erik for your large e-mail. That was awesome. I read down to the part in quotes but had to stop because I needed to make sure I get this letter into the family. But again thank you very much and know that I love your letters and e-mails, even if I am doing horrible right now at getting mine out to you.

Woah... my mind is just on... i dont even know mode. I am ready to jump for joy that I am getting transfered and am yet really kinda sad because I have no idea where I am going and I will miss my trainer and Elder Gott, a lot. I am also extremely thirsty at the moment. Not so much hungry. Uhm actually food sounds pretty gross at the moment.

Let's see.......... ELIZABETH! WHAT THE HECK! YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU WERE EXPECTING WHAT THE HECK! Oh well. Maybe I just didnt see. But I got the letter from mom! CONGRATULATIONS! Keep me up to date constantly!

Hold on, I have an idea, I am going to sum up this transfer in a couple of pictures and a video. One second. Well that doesnt work. Ugh. Can you all send me a cord to plug my camera into the computer? I forgot one and I really would like one to send home all my pictures! Thanks!

Whew, ok well. I have been having some great personal studies these last few days. Inspired from the pages of Preach my Gospel esspecially the content in chapter two, one can find a plethura of cocophnious ways to enhance personal study. Implimenting new ways to look at chapters, such as summarizing, specific marking. and effective pondering will unlock revelation very personal and unique to the individual. (I'm try to find a place to include the word Venacular in here somewhere because I've been implimenting that one into my vocabulary with the help of one of our recent converts. and again I am totally being funny.) Anyway, take 2 Nephi Chapter 31 for example... 2 Nephi 31. The Second book of Nephi 31st chapter. Chapter 31 of the Second book of Nephi, otherwise known as 2 Nephi.

Nephi begins to state, I believe in verse three (I dont have my scriptures) that he delights in plainness, for after this manner does the Lord work among the Children of Men and speaks to the unique understanding of each individual. How fantastic is that? My goodness, I can only survive on plainness. I am so glad the Lord works that way. Nephi begins to then make a list of things God's children must do in order to enter into the kingdom of God (This should be found on the second page of 2 Nephi 31 on the right hand column). How simple the list is. Have Faith, Repent, and be baptized. Then when you enter in the gate, you are NOT done. There's still some things to do. Continue with a steadfastness in Christ. How do you do that? Well Nephi gives a list on how to do that. I cannot rightly remember everything that is in the list but it is cool.

Nephi then finishes: THIS IS THE WAY. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.

In the past I have reguarded this as almost a little bit of sternness. But last time I read that, I read it with a sense of releif. I imagined Nephi, in modern terms, saying "This is the way... and thank goodness there is no other way. This is all you have to worry about in your test. You can just keep practicing this over and over and over and thank goodness that is all we have to do because I delight in plainness and my brain can't really handle much more."

It is my testimony that the Lord works in plainness. For "in plainness no man can err." - 2 Nephi (cant remember chapter but it is a footnote to plainness in chapter 31.) Thank goodness the Lord does that. Because I know I can make things much more complicated.

Family, I love you I hope everything is going well, keep on the way! I love you all so much.

Love,

-- 

Elder William Lloyd Lovell

Nevada, Las Vegas Mission

9270 S. Maryland Pkwy. 

Las Vegas, NV 89123 

D&C 6:36 - "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not"