Post for December 12th

Dear family and dad,

Transfer calls came in and I will be staying in the Clovis 7th ward another 6 weeks but my trainee Elder Lantz is leaving to the Fresno North Stake to be in a YSA ward (Young Single Adults).  All I know is my new companion is Elder "H" and that he has been out for a couple of months and that I will get him tomorrow.  I know my trainee is going to like his new ward and is going to do some great work over there, plus he gets a car (he is so lucky).  So I realized that I have been on a bike for a whole year! Can you believe that! haha.
 
Anyways, we talked to "E" about her baptism and she said she wants to be baptized on Dec 29th!  We are really excited about that.  She has changed a lot and is truly going to be a great member in the church. We are still searching for other investigators as always and hope to get some from Sister "H". She's been working with a couple for a few weeks. We are going to set up a time when we can meet with them.
 
-We had our Ward Christmas party last Saturday and a lot of nonmembers were there. Me and Elder "L" were talking to EVERYONE! haha. We sat down for 5 minutes to eat then we started talking again. I never knew how much I could talk. We are hoping to get some investigators from it and to ask the members what their friends thought of the party.
 
As for Christmas....i can call anytime. So just tell me when a good time would be to call you.
-could I get those 180 ear muffs? It's starting to get cold at night.
 
Were you able to get Mike Ahern's address so I can write to him.

I hope all is well.

Love,
Elder DeMarco

Post for December 5th.

(Sorry it has taken me so long to update Jacob's blog.)

This week has been normal.  Here in the Fresno East Stake they held their 30th annual Christmas Concert. It was really great and we got a new investigator from it. Before the concert began we were going around saying "hi" to members when one of them told me that there is a young man interested in learning about the church.  We went up to him and started talking with him.  He's 15 yrs old. We taught him the restoration in 7 mins. haha  That is the fastest I've ever taught a lesson. We got his number and we are going to try and see him later on this week.

As for our other investigators...."E"  is going to be baptized into a different ward because she lives outside of my ward boundaries. I'm okay with it because we are all on the same team and whether she is baptized here or somewhere else  doesn't matter as long as she is able to make a covenant with our Heavenly Father.

We had an FHE with a family in the other ward we are working in.  The mom is from Boston and she had the accent and everything.  It was great to hear her talk. haha  She said she misses  Dunkin donuts and I told her I did too.  We were able to commit them to invite their friends to church so we will see what happens.

The last thing is transfer are coming up on Dec 12th. We get the call this Saturday night to see if I'm leaving or staying.  I never get the feeling of whether I'm leaving or not, so it's up in the air.

That is pretty much it for this week and yes I did get the candy from Judy's package she sent.  Tell her I said thank you.

I  didn't get my camera fixed because we didn't have enough time to stop by "best buy".  We will try next Monday.  Also can you find out what  Mike Ahern's address is? I think he is Utah right now but  I'm not sure.

I got to go. See you all later.

Love,
Elder DeMarco

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pic 2

Pic 1



Pic 3
 

The following happened this week:
- On Thanksgiving me and other missionaries played football from 9am - 11am
- We had dinner at 12pm at the Shiner's house ( I ate a lot of food)
- Then we went to another dinner at 3pm with the Wright family ( I ate a lot of food again) -Then we went to the Averall's house for some dessert around 7pm and played some board games.
As you can tell I did a lot of eating on Thanksgiving day. I'm glad to hear that everyone else had a good Thanksgiving also.
-Yesterday we taught our investigators "K" and "E". "K" said she wants to learn more about the church. I have realized that sometimes people ask deep questions about the church but we just need to let them know that the basic principles are the most important right now. I think we will probably have a baptism soon.
So...that was pretty much my week. But before I go I wanted to ask some questions for you and grandma..... -Who were the missionaries who taught and baptized both of you? - This question is for the both of you, why did you both join the church? and what was it that the missionaries taught that peeked your interest?
Well I have to go but I hope all is well in New York. Have fun helping out those in New Jersey. Love,
Elder DeMarco

picture 1: I am sooooo full.
picture 2: It's a spider and bees next to my plate. one of the members we had thanksgiving dinner with is a bee farmer so he showed me some of his bees and gave me a gallon of honey. picture 3: I took this picture because this pie was really good and I wanted to show elder Blanchard and Elder Gagne the nasty food I have to deal with here in California haha. P.S.

Can I get Elder Gagne and Elder Blanchard's mailing address. It keeps changing and I'm never sure which one to write to haha.

Fantastic week!

Hello everyone!!! The last week has been fantastic! We found 2 more new investigators and we are now covering another area. The assistants called me last Friday and asked if me and Elder "L" could take over another area, I said sure. ( right now we have "Clovis 7th ward" and will be taking over "Clovis 3rd ward", today). I'm nervous because there is more work to be done and I've never done this before haha. Both wards start at 9am on Sunday so I'm trying to figure out the best way to go. I think we will probably change wards every other Sunday or go on splits. I'm also excited because we are going to be as busy as a bee, balancing both wards and getting to know the new members. I know that this transfer I'm going to have to stretch as a missionary spiritually (with more teaching to do) and physically ( with more biking to do). I'm excited to see what this new ward is like.

Today we just finished having Zone Meeting and decided that a goal for baptisms by the end of November will be 30. We have 12 baptismal dates so far and will be working to get more as a Zone throughout the week. I had a spiritual experience happen to me last night. An inactive woman recently came to church, she has a little kid and wants to get her life back on track. We had set up an appointment to go see her yesterday and so we did. Some members went with us and we re-taught her the 1st lesson. During the lesson I quoted Joseph Smiths 1st vision and you could see her feeling the spirit because she became a little emotional. I reminded her that she was feeling the spirit and the spirit speaks to us through our thoughts and feelings. She said she hasn't felt good in a long time and she wants to come back to church. We are going to see her later on in the week and continue to help her get back to church. It was neat for me to again recognize the power of teaching people the restoration, even if they heard the lesson before.

Well that was pretty much my week and I hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

Fun Activities!

So last week was normal...the weather is getting cooler except is going to rain more so I need to get my rain coat out. Which reminds me that I need an umbrella because I lost my old one somehow. I really liked the one you bought me so if you could get that one, I would be super grateful. My cold is slowly going away, I had a cough and stuffy nose. The missionaries here all must get a flu shot so I'm getting mine tomorrow at CVS or somewhere else.
  -Yesterday we had a quad zone activity. It was way FUN! took some pictures....there was a lot of different sports going on and a lot of good food like hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, and everything else. There was also a pumpkin carving contest. I lost the contest but there is always next year. By the way....if you are looking to send anything...I would love some TIES! But the ties cannot be pink or paisly. Tell Joshua to stop being a bum and email me. Fun fact of the day...when I was talking with President Gelwix he said that there is around 58,000 missionaries all over the world right now and by the end of next summer there will be around 80,000! How great is that? He also said that salt lake called him and asked if he could handle more missionaries and he said yes. So...in this mission there is 224 so we will probably get around 300 next year.
  -Elder "L" and I are teaching 2 people right now and our goal is to find 1 new investigator a week so that means more tracting and street contacting. That was my week! I hope everyone is staying alive in New York. Love you all! Make sure you invite your friends to the Ward Halloween party.
Love, Elder DeMarco

October 16, 2012

Stuff that happened this week:

-Leadership was so great! I learned a ton of stuff about what I can do to become a more effective missionary/trainer. we had a special guest Greg McKeown ( he is Mormon) come talk with us. He is a business guy who travels around the world helping big businesses with their problems. He's written a couple books and stuff. President Gelwix is friends with him so that's how he came here.  We were with him for about 7 hours and all talked about the mission and how to reach our goal for baptisms.

He told us how to improve ourselves .....he said "less, but better" meaning we need to eliminate the non-essentials and focus the important principles. We need to get rid of the things which distract us and become better listeners so we can baptize! I learned more stuff but it would take forever to talk about it haha.

- We found 2 new investigators this week.  One who is around 22 years old and the other  is around 65 years old.

-Yesterday we brought "J"  to go to the temple, she wanted to go see it because she learned about it during stake conference . She is good friends with a family in my ward so the family took us all to the Fresno temple.  We were able to go inside the waiting room so she was able to see that.  We also were able to talk to one of the members of the temple presidency (President Ashcraft, I knew him pretty well because he was in my last area aka Peachwood). He talked to her about why the temple is a sacred place and how only certain people can come in. At first it was hard for her to understand it but after many questions she understood why. Overall she had a good experience and next Monday we will continue to teach her.

That was pretty much my week in a nutshell. Tell grandma that I got the package and thank you for it. I really do like it and so does my companion elder "L".  

See you later.
Love,
Elder DeMarco

Two reasons for a great week!

Hey there everyone!!!! So this week was really good for 2 reasons. Reason number 1, we found a new investigator named Bernard, he is an older gentleman who we found through street contacting. We taught him some of the restoration and he seems interested in learning more. We are going to his house tomorrow to give him a Book of Mormon. Reason number 2, the weather here is fantastic!....It's around 86 degrees so it's easier to bike and there are more people walking outside. Our goal this week is to contact at least 10 people every day.

 Yesterday we had trainer/trainee meeting. It went really well. We started off by having the trainers go in one room and the trainee's go into another. In the trainer room we each talked about our trainee's and what we like about them and what we are struggling to teach them.  President Gelwix came in and gave us training on giving our very best to the Lord. He also told us we should be squeezing every drop of joy we can out of this mission. Then he talked about making wise choices and how everything effects what we do right now and for the rest of our life.

 General conference was great as usual.  I can't believe missionaries only need to be 18 to go on a mission and if your speaking English you will only be in the MTC for 2 weeks. It's going to be interesting to see how many missionaries come in now. I know a couple young men here who are already working on their papers. Did you enjoy general conference?

 Tell Tyler that I do love my mission and that I am making many friends here from all around the world.

That was pretty much my week. Hope all is going well. Love you all.

Love,
Elder DeMarco

 

October 2, 2012

 

Hey there grandma and dad and everyone else!

I heard the wedding went well which I am glad to hear about. I have some good news....we have a new investigator from the Assistants.  Her name is “J” and she has a desire to be baptized.  Her parents won’t let her because they think she should check out other churches and see what they have to offer. So our job will be to soften the hearts of the parents.

 This last Sunday was great...after church we went to our ward mission leaders house to make some cake for some less active members and some investigators to show our love for them. Once we finished making them we went to the hospital to drop them off to a less active man named Brother “C”. He recently had surgery for his leg and so he's been in the hospital for awhile. He called my ward mission leader on Saturday and asked if he would stop by. So we talked with him for a bit and are going to give him a blessing later on in the week. It was really great to see my Ward mission leader (Brother “L”) live up to his responsibility as a home teacher and a priesthood leader. He has a sincere care for the people around and always tries to do his best to help them in any way possible. We then proceeded to go to his ex-wife’s house because she has been taking care of him for awhile and we thought she might want a little dinner. So we made her some soup. When we gave it to her she was so thankful for it. Brother “L” told her that God knows who she is and what she needs, he said  “God knows your ex-husband. When I got his phone call on Saturday I was a surprise because I’m usually not at the house. After I finished talking to Brother “C” I felt the impression that wow, God knows who he is. He knows that he is in the hospital and needs help, He knows you individually from everyone else. So remember that there is a purpose in all things and the God loves you and cares for you." The spirit was truly strong in the room and I knew that she felt it. When we got back in the car I told Brother “L” that I knew she felt something, he says "I know she did too". It made me then realize how God knows each and every one of us and will place certain people in our path so that we may bless them. My testimony was strengthened after that day. Though it was a small gesture it made the world of difference to me to see that.

 
Other than that not much else has happened this week. I hope everyone will watch General Conference this weekend it’s going to be good.

I will talk to you all soon.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

 

      

Busy Week!

So this week has been getting better. A family in the ward had 3 referrals to give us so we will see them sometime this week. Our goal this week is to find 2 new investigators and will be doing more street contacting/ working with members. By the way, thank you for the pictures. I enjoyed them.....ask James if he knows how to smile....and if he gives you a smart alick response, tell him to "kick rocks" ha-ha.

Things I did this week:

 

On Wednesday, 20 new missionaries entered into the mission office and I did a thing called "open your mouth". This is where you bring the new missionaries out and start talking to people and giving out book of Mormon to them. I had Elder "L" with me ( at that time I didn't know he was going to be my trainee). It was a lot of fun.....I remembered when I came in and how I was nervous to go out and talk to people ha-ha. For the rest of the afternoon I was with Elder "J" and we worked in the YSA ward till Thursday morning when we got our trainee's.

 

On Thursday all the trainers came in and Elder "G" was there ! It was really good to see him and we talked a lot about what's happening in each other's area's.( Elder "G" was with me in the MTC). All the trainers were in a room for about 1 hour waiting to get the trainees. While we were waiting, a senior missionary named Elder "M"(he's from Pennsylvania) came in and bore his testimony because him and his wife are done with their mission. They are heading back home in a week or so. He talked about how he was Catholic before he joined the church when he was 30 and what a big change he had to make in his life. He told us the importance of our work as missionaries and to never give up.  The spirit was so strong when he spoke and the room was completely quiet. I got a picture with him and his wife but I forgot to bring my camera ...sorry.

 

Elder "L" is from......Ephraim ,Utah .  He is a really nice elder and is willing to work. It's weird to be a trainer because you do a lot of talking at 1st and I didn't realize how many things I need to teach him. ha-ha.  One of the things about being a trainer is all the meetings you have to go to. Next week there is a trainer/trainee meeting and the week after that I have to go to a 2 day leadership training which probably last from 8am to 5pm. You gotta love those meetings.

 

That was pretty much my week.

I hope all is going well in New York. I will talk you to all later and tell mom and grandma I love them.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

I'm a Trainer Now!

Hey dad and everyone! I need to start off by saying that's so cool that Tyler had a lot of people at her baptism. I bet she will remember that forever. That's cool that Josh helped at the pumpkin patch. Also I can't believe that Brother Madsen is the 2nd counselor! That's so awesome. He is going to do a great job. I'm glad that grandma is feeling better, did she enjoy her birthday this year?

Missionary work time....so me and my companion Elder Braithwaite are doing fine we get along great. He is a really good teacher and he is fun to be around. We only have 2 investigators but we found 2 potentials later on in the week. While I was on exchanges with Elder Scott, President Gelwix called me around 7:40 in the morning and asked me to be a trainer. I accepted. I am really excited to be one but I'm also pretty nervous too. I hope I will be a good trainer to him. President Gelwix said being a trainer is one of the most important jobs to do on a mission because you either make or break the missionaries experience. I will be staying with my trainee for at least 2 transfers which will be till December 12th. I will get him this Thursday and I will continue to be in the Clovis area.

My companion Elder "B", is going to another ward tomorrow with his new companion Elder "C". I'm definitely going to miss him a lot and wow this transfer has gone by sooooo fast. That was pretty much my week. Make sure you tell the Gagne's that I have received Elder Gagne's letter. Oh yeah me and Elder "B" had a car for 4 day so that was greattttttt! But now it's back to biking.... I hope to hear from you soon.
love,
Elder DeMarco

Learned lot of things at Zone Conf.

Hey Dad and Grandma and everyone else!

This week has been really good. The talk I gave on Sunday went well and the members enjoyed it. I talked on missionary work and not being afraid to talk to others about it. We are going to have dinner with the Bishop tonight and find out different ways we get can more investigators.

Yesterday we had a Zone Conference with my zone (The Fresno East Stake), Fresno North Stake, Fresno West Stake and Fresno Stake. Elder Golden of the 70 came and we did a question and answer meeting. We talked a lot about revelation and how we receive it.  This video talks about it in a simple way..I hope you like it. http://mormonchannel.org/mormonmessages?v=1737858986001

We also talked more about how to "liken the scriptures" to our investigators and members. It was neat to see how much it brings the spirit in when you use the stories from the bible and book of Mormon to relate to others. It helps them gain a stronger testimony and understand that they are not alone in their trials.

Transfer calls are coming up this Saturday but I'm probably going to stay in the Clovis 7th ward which is fine with me.

Make sure you take pictures of the baptism and of Uncle Bruce's wedding.  I forgot to bring my camera but I will send some pictures next time.

Talk to you all later,

Love,
Elder DeMarco

Mini Miracle

Hey dad! How are you doing today. You having fun at work? Let's see...not much happened this week but we kinda got a new investigator that is going to be baptized. Mini miracle: so a family in the ward called the "O's" wanted us to teach their friend "M" at their house. So we set up an appointment to go see them yesterday. "M" is 23 years old and is married with 2 kids. We went and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. She understand a lot of it and she wanted to learn more. The spirit was really strong throughout the lesson and she said she wanted to be baptized. There is only a slight problem...she lives outside our area soooo... the missionaries will finish teaching her. My Companion and I were a little sad to learn she didn't live in the area but it's all good as long as she gets baptized. Also the less active family we have been working with came to church last Sunday. It was great. They really enjoyed it and hopefully they will come back next Sunday. We are going to stop by their house this week to talk to them about their daughter so we get set a baptismal date with her. Also my companion and I, along my ward mission leader, are going to speak in sacrament meeting this Sunday about missionary work. So wish me luck. I'm going to be using D&C 112: 1-13. Well, that was my week in a nutshell and don't worry... I will make sure I help the members here, I am a man of my word. Love Elder DeMarco

The Lord's Vineyard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week I worked in the Lord's Vineyard. (Jacob 6:3). The church owns 80 acres of land with a bunch of grapes on it which they turn into raisins. Members go out during January for pruning, August for picking and September for rolling. So I helped out with the picking.  Basically you cut the grapes and put them on a big piece of paper so that they can dry in the sun and eventually become raisins. Fun facts....the church has been doing this for 50 years and California produces most of the worlds raisins. It was fun do be a part of it and I got to eat some really tasty grapes.

Also our mission known as the "Lord's Vineyard" because we really do work in the vineyard.
 
Yesterday we went to the Temple.  When I went to the desk my trainer Elder Fisi'ihoi came out of a room and I was so happy to see him.  It was really good to see him for a bit.  It was nice to understand so much more at the temple. I felt more of that peace and comfort when going to the temple and I need it after working in the sun all day haha.

 That was my week pretty much we are still trying to get more investigators to teach and will be meeting with a potential tomorrow so we shall see how that goes.

And I will send you a close up of me in the next email.
I got to go talk to you later.

 Elder DeMarco

Zone Activity and other stuff

Hey dad and everyone else. First of all tell grandma that I enjoyed her cookies she sent and so did the other missionaries in my zone haha. And thank you for the money.

Things that happened this week and other random stuff :

-on Friday I went to a festival called "farmers market" with our investigators. They are both in their  60s and they wanted us to come so we got permission to go. It was pretty fun.  There were a lot of different vendors selling fresh fruit, vegetables and food. Mostly everyone was selling organic stuff so I bought a couple peaches and plums. I saw the Leon family from my old ward there too and we said hi them. I got a couple of free goat soaps from some members so that's pretty cool.

-on Saturday we went out to dinner with Elder Scott and Elder Hartshorn, We went out to Applebee's. As we were about to pay for our food at the end, the waiter said someone has paid for your food so your free to go.....how awesome is that!! We were looking around trying to see if any members we knew were there but we couldn't find any.

(we are so lucky and thankful for those people who bought our food.)

-tell the Gagne's to tell Elder Gagne that a member brought us out to Red Robin for dinner, Elder Gagne loves Red Robin haha. I thought of him because I went there for a lot of his birthdays.

-we had a baptism planned for the end of the month but the girl didn't go to church so we are going to set the date back. Her parents are less active members and we are activating them while helping her be baptized.

- Yesterday we had a zone activity with my old zone. We played Fresno East vs Fresno North in dodge-ball and ultimate Frisbee. Today my arm hurts from throwing so much! haha But it's ok. We had a great district meeting too, we talked about following the promptings of the spirit and as long as it's a good thought it's the holy ghost speaking to you.

I will talk to you soon. love you all.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

August 14, 2012

Hey dad how's it going? I will start off by answering your questions....

-my first area was in the Fresno North Stake and I was in the city of Clovis and my new area is in the Fresno East Stake.  So I'm still in the city of Clovis just on the east side. It was funny when I told the members I was moving there because they were like "oh you are just 5 minutes away haha". My ward is called the "Clovis7th ward" and I technically live in my old area. I have to bike a mile to even reach the new area I'm in. I can't remember the address but I live in a apartment complex and its pretty small.  We want to try and live with some other elders because they have a big apartment with more room. My new area is 3 times the size of my old area and it's a wealthy area.

-my new companion is Elder Braithwait.  He's from Michigan but he grew up in Utah most of his life. I get along with him really well. His dad works for Ford and gets to have the new cars that come out with so he showed me the car he drove back home and it was a 2010 Ford Mustang....it was really nice. Anyways he's been out for a year and he's going to school in Utah.

-I'm still in a biking area, but if we need a ride the YSA Elders from the Academy ward (Elder Hartshorn who was with me in the MTC and Elder Scott who is from Australia) help us out.

-there are not as many members here but we hope to reactivate a good amount of them.

 Things that happened this week:

-On Sunday  my companion and I were biking around when this dog was coming at us and behind it was a woman. The woman yelled at us to get the dog.  I got off my bike and grabbed the dog by its collar. The woman said she was chasing her dog for a mile and couldn't catch it. She asked if we would watch it till she went home to grab her car...we said sure. Before she left to get her car she said "if you watch the dog for me for a second , it will help strengthen my belief in you Mormons".(i was laughing when she said that). Anyways.... while she was gone for 10 minutes we played with the dog and I gave it some of the water I was drinking. Finally she came back and started talking to us. She told us how she didn't like Mormons but now she likes them a little bit more. We talked with her about the church and she wanted to know why God lets bad things happen to people. We gave her a Book of Mormon and a specific chapter to read and told her to call us when she finished reading it. She accepted the invitation. We hope to meet with her soon to talk more with her. It's funny how heavenly father puts certain people in your path and you never know how it's going to be done.

-While biking to the church on Thursday a red car went past us and someone yelled out "DEMARCO!!!" . The car then pulled to the side and it was Connor Stokes one of the young men in my old ward (peachwood) . He said I will be seeing him later that night because his grandparents live in my new ward. So later that day we went to the Stokes house for dinner and I saw Brother and Sister Stokes of the Peachwood ward and I was really happy to see them. I didn't   know that they had family in my new area. So that was a pretty cool and I also met other members of my old ward later that day.  I guess they have a lot of friends in my new ward.

 That was pretty much it for the week.  We had a zone conference all day on Saturday and President Gelwix talked about the importance of being exactly obedient and how there's 3 types of obedience....the first one is FEAR, you do it because you are scared of the consequences .....the next is ROBOT, you do it because you are told too and lastly you are obedient by CHOICE because you love your heavenly father.  I never knew how important it was to have that type of attitude for the commandments we've been giving and we receive more blessings when we are obedient by Choice.

I got to go so tell Joey and everyone else I said HI....I will be emailing now every Tuesday because that's when the computer room in the church is open. Hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

Fireside Guitars and a Baptism!

Elder Robb, Jeremiah, Brother Pehrsson and Me

Our guitars waiting to go to fireside

Hey dad and grandma and everyone else! How are you all doing? This week was not normal but that's good because we had a baptism for Jeremiah last Saturday!

The baptism: we have been teaching Jeremiah for about 3 months and it was so was amazing to see him be baptized on Saturday. We had a lot of members come to it and my trainer Elder Fisi'ihoi came too. He sang and gave a talk about the Holy Ghost. President Tanner gave a talk on baptism. The whole thing went by smoothly and the spirit was soooo strong there. I was very glad to see Jeremiah turn his life around and being able to start with a clean slate. He has changed a lot and it truly strengthens my testimony on how this gospel can change people's lives and bless them greatly for doing so. He was confirmed yesterday and now he is an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Now the next step is to help him prepare for the priesthood.

Hanford: so after the baptism on Saturday my zone leaders called me and Elder Gipper to ask if we could play guitar for a fireside in the Hanford Stake right after church. I said sure and so me and Elder Gipper quickly arranged music for the song " hark all ye nations".  We had only 20 minutes to practice before the show last night. The program began at 6:30pm and we had to be there at 6:00 and it was 45 minutes away so we left right after church. The office missionaries, Elder and Sister Mauro (they are from Pennsylvania) dropped us off there. When we got to the stake center we started to practice for a couple minutes and then President Gelwix (my mission president) said "Alright we begin in 5 minutes. I haven't finished making the program so I'm going to at random call you to play when I feel it is right. Let's make this look like a well planned fireside" haha.  So that's what we did... we played in the middle of it and everyone really enjoyed it.

After that President Gelwix drove us home.  It was really cool to talk with him and get to know him. Halfway through the car ride a mission president from Madagascar called and he had his blue tooth hooked up in his car so we called all hear them both speak. They talked about how much they love their missionaries and how they are trying to increase converts. The mission president in Madagascar said that one of the missionaries caught something and he is slowly recovering. President Gelwix said " if he doesn't heal up fast enough, find the local shaman and maybe he can fix it".  Elder Gipper and I were laughing pretty hard when we heard him say that.

Anyway, that was pretty much my week!  So I will talk to you and grandma next week. By the way, thank you for the package and I'm excited to read it!

Talk to you soon.

Love,

Elder DeMarco



Word of Wisdom and the Yoga instructor

                                                 Backyard of Auberry missionaries home.

Hey dad! Thanks for the pictures of Mike and scout camp. I'm glad Joey is having fun and getting work done. Tell Josh that he is superrrr lucky that he wasn't hurt but that will be a cool story to tell his friends.

Last Monday I had exchanges with Elder Furness and we went to Auberry which is out in the country part of our mission. All they had was a little super market, couple of restaurants and a CVS.  That  was it! We went and visited a 95 year old man named Charles and he has been a yoga instructor for 45 years (he also eats super healthy and does 2 hours of yoga a day). We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he didn't have anything bad to say about it and completely agreed with it. It was neat to see how he understand why we live by it and the benefits it brings to him.

We have a baptism planned for Jeremiah this coming Saturday and our mission president is interviewing him sometime this week. Jeremiah is really excited about it and he tells people he is Mormon even though he's not one officially haha!  How cool is that!  We got a new investigator named Carole.  She came to church this Sunday and liked the principles that were being taught. we plan on seeing her this Saturday and her baptismal date is in August.

Other than that not much else happened this week. Hope everyone is doing great! And make sure you or Josh take Ralphie on walks.

PS koki tepukokoemia puaka = the stomach is full and the pig sleeps ....our ward mission leader taught me that word. He served his mission in New Zealand in the same area as my trainer Elder Fisi'ihoi....tell grandma he Elder fisi'ihoi got her package and he likes it a lot.

Love,

Elder DeMarco

Glad my brothers are alive!!!!!

Hey dad! I'm glad to hear that James and Joey are alive and doing well. Hopefully James will make sure to always look both ways before crossing. Tell Josh I'm proud of him for getting a job and to give him a good handshake from me. Yeah don't worry I'm not going to spend as much as I have been, I spent some more money than I usually do but I will make sure I budget more.

 Things that happened this week:

-Brother "C" got a bike back from these guys that stole a bike from a missionary (Elder Barney). we went to Brother "C's" house and picked it up and brought it back to Elder Barney.  He was super happy to get it and he told me that it is worth $1,000....he is so lucky!

 -We found 2 new investigators Ruby and Anthony. Anthony is a single dad and has two sons and Ruby is Anthony's mom. We taught them a little about the restoration yesterday after church and they want to come to church this Sunday to learn more. They seem really interested and they ask a lot of good questions about Jesus Christ and Heavenly.  Like being separate beings but the same in purpose which is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Anthony heard that Mormons can't drink soda and we laughed and told him yeah it's okay to drink soda. We plan on seeing them tomorrow and hopefully we shall have another great lesson.

-For my personal study this week I've been memorizing more scriptures and when I recite slowly and confidently to members and investigators it brings the spirit in more strongly. My favorite scripture to quote so far is Joseph smiths first vision even though I learned it before I came out its always powerful when telling it to investigators.

That's pretty much it.  Later on today I will be going to Auberry for exchanges with Elder Furness from New Jersey haha. I tell him all the time that New Jersey people are crazy drivers. I will be in a car all day! so not biking in the hot sun for the day.
I'm excited to get the books and tell everyone I love them and have a great week.

Love,
Elder DeMarco
PS I'm glad Tyler likes her gift. Give her a big hug from me.

Great Week!

Hey how are you doing this week. It's getting a lot hotter here but I'm getting use to it. I drink water like I breathe air which is all the time.

Things I did this week:

 Wednesday: Happy 4th of July. So we went to the ward picnic at 8:30 am and it was great! There was a lot of members and nonmembers. We talked with as many nonmembers as possible and we plan on seeing one of them sometime next week. After the picnic we went back to missionary work mode and stopped by our investigator Jeremiah's house and shared a lesson with him. We set a baptismal date with him for July 28th and all he has to do is not smoke for 2 weeks. He said he hasn't smoked for 3 days and we are doing our best to help him with his addiction. It's amazing when you see someone change so quickly when they live the gospel.

 After that we went to the Malcolm home for dinner/ fireworks! ( I took some pictures but I forgot to bring my camera...I will show you them next Monday). It was really fun hanging with them, we played ping pong, tether ball, soccer and guitar. They bought some fireworks and a couple of them were so big. I took a picture of one but my camera didn't catch it that well. Then when the clock struck 10:00pm we headed back home and slept.

 Thursday: we found 2 new investigators from street contacting. One of them is Jeremy who is 25 years old and the other is Landon who is around 60 years old. we were able to teach them a little bit about the restoration and we set up a time to see them again this week.

 Sunday: we shared the ATM with the "L" family. After we finished, Sister "L" told me since I came here in January, I've grown up a lot and became more confident in teaching and I'm not shy anymore. I laughed and said I didn't think I've changed much but she said you may not see it but we can see it. So it was pretty cool to hear that from a member that I'm growing.

 That was pretty much my week and tell grandma thank you for sending the packages and I'm excited to get them. I hope everyone is doing great! Have some fun where ever you go for vacation!

 Love,

Elder DeMarco

.

July 2, 2012

So this week has been pretty good. We were able to meet with Jeremiah and continue to help him quit smoking so he can be baptized.
This is a summary of what I did last week:
Monday: Preparation day, sports, emailing and cleaning the house
Tuesday: Normal day
Wednesday: so after lunch we went and taught Jeremiah and then we met up with the zone leaders. 3 people came out of the car and one of them was Elder Fisi'ihio! President Gelwix let him work on my area for the day because he was going to be a trainer again and the mission office is right next door to us. So my companion Elder "R" went with Elder "O" to see our other appointments while me and Elder Fisi'ihoi separated and taught as many members as possible. It was soooooo good to see him. We did 12 lessons in one day how awesome is that?

Thursday: Normal day
Friday: Normal day
Saturday:Normal day
Sunday: The young men handed out flyers for the 4th of July and the members had to give 5 flyers out to their neighbors and friends. We are expecting a lot of people at the ward picnic. We want to get 2 investigators out of it. And we are going to get 2 more later on in the week because there are member who want us to teach their grandchildren. We plan on baptizing them by the end of July.
By the way tell grandma thank you for the package she sent and tell mike and his family thank you for the package they sent.

The picture: there's a billboard in Utah and it has President Gelwix (my mission president) on it and that's what it looks like!
Love, Elder DeMarco

Not being transferred!

Last Saturday night was transfer calls and it looks like I am ..........staying haha. I can't believe I have been staying in my 1st location for 7 months ! I have a feeling I will be probably leaving next transfer but that's okay with me. I love the Peachwood area but I am excited to see the other areas in this mission.
I'm glad to hear you got my package and you loved it. This week has been pretty good. My trainer elder fisi'ihoi called and said he is going to train again and he is going to be district leader again how cool is that? Last ward council we talked a lot about missionary work and decided to make flyers for the 4th of July picnic. Every member is going to get 5 flyers and they have to hand them out to their friends and neighbors. So hopefully we can get some investigators from it and increase our teaching pool. 
Also we stopped by a members house to get some water and his two grandchildren were outside playing (they have been going to church since they were little and I didn't know they were not members) so Brother "V" said his grand kids... "E" age-11, and "D" age-9 ......need to get the lessons so they can be baptized. We got 2 new investigators right there! But they are leaving for vacation this week so next week we will start teaching them. Elder Robb and I were sooo happy to get more investigators and we are going to be able to have a baptism by the end of July.
I hope everyone is doing great and keep giving me Elder Gagne and Blanchard's blogs.
 Love, Elder DeMarco

The 3rd Apostle I have met!!!

Hey….how was your Father’s day? I just sent you a little something.  I’m not sure when you will get it but I hope you like it. This week was normal for the most part.
We visited with members and did a follow up with the program called ATM.  Some of the members have received answers on who the individual heavenly father has prepared for them.  Also what they should invite that individual too.  My companion and I still have only 2 investigators we are teaching and we are going through our Area Book and visiting some of the old potential investigators. Last Sunday for MCM we got a list of names of part member families that we are going to visit and hopefully we can get a new investigator from that.
The meeting with M. Russell Ballard was GREAT!  One of the things I took from him is that missionaries are apostles just with a lower case "a" .  Definition as an Apostle is some who bears witness of Jesus Christ, teaches about Him and lives a righteous life. I never thought of it in that way before.  Another thing I got from him was Satan tries to make the doctrine of Christ complex and confusing when in reality is very simple. So many people in the world don't really know who God is and they each have a different opinion about him.  It’s our job to teach the doctrine simply and not make sure the individual we teach has a basic understanding of it. By the way all the missionaries shook hands with him and so this is the 3rd Apostle I shook hands with...how cool is that?
Weather report.......super hotttttttttt.  Luckily a lot members live in the area so if we need to refill we just stop by there house and ask for some water.
I had an epiphany while tracking in the hot sun a couple of days ago. I remembered you brought me out to work with you a couple of summers ago and how hot we got from being in the truck and then running to the door to drop off a package.  So I thought of you being outside most of the day like me and how we are both working in the hot sun all day haha.
Anyways thanks for the pictures and the blogs from Elder Gagne and Elder Blanchard.  I promise you next Monday I’m going to send you pictures....that reminds me did you receive a picture of me from one of the members in my ward.  A family called the "Rynders" said they were going to send you it so I’m wondering if you got it yet?
Talk to you next Monday.  Hope everyone is doing great and tell them I love them.
Love,
Elder DeMarco