2014 04 14 -- 31 hours of service--and no ticks!

4/14/2014

Hello everyone,

     Wow how time flies when you are having fun.  I am not even sure if it has been 7 days since the last email.  The weather over here in our little vacation spot was great this last week.  It was sunny every day which was great because we did lots of service and the weather made it easy for us.  

    We recently had training from one of our leaders on how doing service is very important for finding people to teach.  We just laughed at it.  The reason being, that this last week we did a total of 31 hours of service.  To explain how we pulled that off, I have to explain that another set of Elders joined us this week because the Sister Missionaries needed to borrow their car to go to a meeting. 

    So we decided that we should just double up our area for a week until the other Elder's got their car back.  With all this service in this nice weather we are now ready for the summer time with our well- developed tans.  Only one out of the four of us got sun burned after the multiple service projects - the longest lasting 12 hours.  

    More miraculous than the fact we didn't get fried is the fact that none of us got ticks after all the time we spent raking leaves, cutting branches, and landscaping out in the woods this week.

    Unfortunately all the lessons we had this week cancelled on us so I don't have much more to talk about.  Hopefully next week I will be able to talk about our new investigators after we meet with them on Tuesday.  

    Thank you everyone that remembered my Birthday and I also send my Birthday wishes to all my family members that have had their Birthdays this week and in the week to come.

Elder Erb

2014 04 07 Back to Massachussetts

April 7, 2014

Hello,

     I finally managed to find some time to write.  The work was starting to pick up in Ashford and we were finally able to fill our schedules with appointments instead of tracting.  The entire ward was also beginning to turn their minds to missionary work and what more they could be doing in preparation for the visit from our mission president on the 30th of March.  And then I got transferred on the 26th....

     I guess I get to say that I left Ashford in a good condition.  I am now back in Massachusetts but I guess that our Mission President likes me near the border of the states because he put me about as far south in Massachusetts as possible.  So far so that you can hardly say that we are still connected to Massachusetts.  My new area is the cape of Massachusetts. 

     For those that don't know what the cape looks like it looks like an arm that is flexing out in the ocean.  We cover everything from the bicep to the fist of that arm.  Out of the 3 other sets of missionaries that are in the nearby area, or district, two of those sets are on the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.  I'm starting to get that beach feel again out here seeing the ocean all the time.

     So a lot has happened in the two weeks of me being here.  As the temperature is starting to get warmer again everyone is starting to migrate to their summer homes here, which means we have got a lot of work to do.  My new companion's name is Elder Kerr.  People say that our Mission President has a sense of humor for putting us two together with our names so similar.  It’s always entertaining to have people call us the wrong name.  We both get along really well together.  Some of the things that we have done together so far are make crêpes for companionship inventory, make a giant bed that takes up our entire room to sleep on, and make a dry erase desk.  We have begun to say that we have so much unity that everyone wants to be in our area, since we have had three exchanges with other missionaries since being here.  It’s either that or the fact that we are serving in a widely known tourist attraction.

     Our main goal right now is to increase the amount of active members in the area.  The reason for this is because we have about 46 members that attend services on Sundays in our little branch.  And 6 of them are out on Nantucket.  So we have been going around and meeting all the members that don't come regularly.  We have had a lot of success and have begun to teach quite a few people this way. 

     As we were doing this we were called by our district leader asking if we could help with a crazy task.  He explained that a member's horse had died that morning and that they needed help burying it.  And so we spent the next 4 hours digging a horse sized hole, pushing a 1,000 lb. horse into a hole, and then burying it.  We were pretty sore after that night.

     I am short on time so I have to go but until next week.

Elder Erb

2014 04 06 stick to your task till it sticks to you

2014 04 01, Tues  Elder Erb continues w/the work of the Lord. Since his 2/24 email this is his most recent.  Note that he's been transferred.  He's moved from Connecticut back to MA.  If you get a chance, please send him a note.  His birthday is this coming Saturday.

 

I don't have a lot of time today to email, a lot of stuff has happened that I will explain in the email next week.  Till then I just wanted to let you know that I got transferred and my address has changed.  It is now 355A Main St. Dennis Port, MA 02639.
Love,

Elder Erb

 

2014 03 25, Tues
2014 03 18, Tues
2014 03 11, Tues
2014 03 03, Tues