Dec 29

Elder Feidler 

We had a great Christmas!  Especially since we got to see/Skype you. I think Myka might have started to get to know you. 

Earlier in the week we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for an early Christmas. We ate Italian food then we opened gifts at their house. Lots of fun and yummy food!

 We even played a game were you try to open a gift with hot mitts on.

Then we also had presents at our house. Chelle got pretty earrings, Zack got a small quad copter, Maddie got a hair dryer and I got a small quad copter too.

We have already taken down the lights and all decorations. See me doing all the work!  Lol

Next time we put up lights you can help!

Today was a good Sunday at church. I got to spend the last hour in nursery with Myka.

We will meet for church at 8am next week the the following week we will have a special Stake Conference where some changes are expected to be made. Two weeks and we will know what's up. 

That's about it here. Keep working hard. You have the experience and we have faith you will make this a great last few months of your mission. 

We love and miss you lots!  Have a great New Year!

Love Dad!!

Graham:

Family,

After we finished skyping we ate some prime rib and played monopoly. I won in monopoly :) The Zucati's, the family we were at, are less active and had some alcohol at the party. They didn't drink while we were there but all of their family that joined them did. Then Friday we planned for the next week and updated our paperwork. We had a great lesson with a guy named David. He's a talker! We introduced the Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. We are going back tonight to follow up and read some with him. Friday our mission also had a car fast so we were on foot that day. We also met up with a former investigator that would like to take lessons again. Right before we walked out he handed us a big slab of prime rib. Last night Br. Grant smoked it for us :) The former investigator, Russ, was in the military and has PTSD from it. He's working to get more disability money too.

Saturday we went on an exchange with the Monroe elders. We also went to the Housing Hope service project and put in 3 more hours. We had to bleach the framing that had grown black mold on it. It was fun until the bleach fumes started getting to me. We tried to contact one of our potentials that night but found out he's in Seattle for a month at an addiction recovery program. That was way exciting to hear. He told us to swing by at the end of January and that he'd love to learn more. We didn't get back to our apartment that night until 10:30p because my companion and another missionary had a 2 hour conversation. Then yesterday we had Bailey the 16 year old kid at church. He is not too talkative to the other kids his age so we are trying to figure out what to do there. He is reading the Book of Mormon though :)

After church we went to a mission fireside with Jessica and our ward mission leader Br. Schwartz. Even though I didn't understand half of what was said because it was in Spanish, it was very spiritual. Jessica really enjoyed it especially since she missed church. Later on last night my companion was on the phone with the zone leaders accounting for our week. He told them that I was having a hard time spiritually and wasn't sure how converted to the gospel I was. After the phone call I asked him about it and we ended up being awake until midnight talking. I told him I felt like I was doing fine and wasn't sure what he was talking about. He told me that at times I'm very excited to do the work but then at other times I don't seem to care. He told me he was having a hard time trusting me because of things he had heard from earlier on in my mission. For weeks I had made it a goal to have more communication in our companionship and it just wasn't happening. I mentioned that I'm way excited to do the work and shared my testimony with him. Then I thought of why I wasn't so excited at times or gave the impression that I didn't care. I felt like I had been leading our conversations and our lessons and that he would just sit there in silence during comp study thinking in his head but not sharing anything. So I had made it a personal goal to not lead us and to let him make the overall decisions as a senior companion. He apparently didn't like that. Also at times I will have something that reminds me of home, of Nana, of high school, and fall into a depression. I'm not really sure what to do to gain his trust or to get along better.

This week we have lots of lessons scheduled and have interviews with president on Friday.

I love and miss ya'll,

Elder Graham Feidler

Dad:

Elder Feidler,

Thanks for the letter!  Just remember to pray and ask for guidance.  Open communication is very important.  If you would like for him to take more of a lead ask him to.  Then watch what he does and ask him what you can do better.  We can all learn from someone.  Be excited to learn what you can from each companion.  Don't think and worry too much about home.  You only have a short period left on your mission so dedicate yourself 100% and make it great! 

I think you are not alone.  Every companionship has struggles. I remember having junior companions that wanted to run the show or work at a faster pace than I was used to. I would just try to work at their pace and we had a lot of success. It won't be easy but it will be worth it. Tell him you want to learn from him. I don't know that you had the most compatible trainer in the beginning. 

I think you are doing a great job!  Remember the Lord will make up for any short comings. I was never a scriptorian and still am not.  But it didn't stop me from being excited about the work and being successful.

We will pray for you and the comp and your investigators!  We love you and are proud of the work you are doing.

Dad,

PS  Bring it up with the Mission President at interviews on Friday.

Graham: Thank you Dad.

Dad: Love you!  You are the man!!  Remember to try new things and smile!  Its hard to be depressed while smiling J.  We are extremely blessed here at home and I'm sure that part of it is because of the work you are doing.  It's a pleasure to support you on your mission.