August 20, 2007

Mom,

Sounds like Vegas was fun. i cant believe you brought the Dog. i feel like youve adopted a child into the family that i have never met. Its good to hear that things are going well with Oma.

Im starting to hear from everybody how school is starting to rev up. itll be exciting here now that the ward will start to grow with law students at WENC.

I hope you dont get swept away in the hurricane. I hope your vacation goes through alright. Both you and Dad need one.

The Larsens and the Toths are awesome. i really love those families. All of Nashua is great. Every member there is just amazing. its been great getting to know them all. i hope to go back some day.

Things are going alright. Zone conference this week was good. It was primarily doctrinal. It was nice to get a little break.

well, things are going as always. im learning to love the area more and more. I hope to see some more success. We set 2 baptismal dates this week. Itll be exciting preparing them for baptism in september.

love ya and miss ya, ill ttyl!

Elder Onken

August 13, 2007

Mom,

Wow, busy weekend! im sorry to hear about everybody's deaths. Didnt know about President Faust until yesterday. It was definetly his time to go though. How were the homecommings? thats crazy to think that they are home now.... gosh. Jimmy comes home soon too. like 3 months or somthing. Gosh. its all exciting and im missing out lol. nah, everybody else is missing out on the great stuff going on here. hehehe.

Yah, Dave and I have written a little bit. I miss him ALOT.heck, I miss all of them alot. Im excited to see Nick, Mark, and Dave after the changes that the mission brings about.

I got the package and the card. Thank you soo much!

We had a baptism on sunday. it was good. we had investigators there and everything. Its weird though, i dont feel much ownership over any of the work here yet, because its all been going on for a while. But its all great.

not a whole lot of news other than that. I love ya and miss ya. ill talk to you soon!!

Elder Onken

August 6, 2006

Mom,

Yup, transfered. Mom always knows. Im in springfield MA serving in the Ludlow ward. Its very different than Nashua. Its very Western Massish. Cool ward ,although a little weird. Some false doctrine here and there, but im not sure what my role is in dealing with that ;p its the ghetto of Mass. some really cool people though.

My comp is Elder Lee. He is from Seoul Korea. He was in the MTC the same time as i was. He goes home in December however because of school. He is very organized. Some things too much so. Itll be a good learning experience for me. He is very fragile. i guess thats the best way to put it usually i wake up at like 5:00 so i can work out and get extra study, but he asked me not too because he cant sleep. sooo, i better get my physical test soon because i dont have much time to work out, nor does the new apartment have any part structuraly sound enough to hold my pull-up bar ;/

im glad you had fun on your trip. Your vacations sound really fun. im kinda jealous.

I cant believe they are giving their homecommings, thats CRAZY!!! Gosh!! let me know how they are.

I still feel a little bit like a chicken with its head cut off. Things are crazy here. We had a meeting in boston today, and another tommorow. A lot of investigators, and i dont know ANYBODY. so itll be a trial by fire learning environemnt There is going to be a baptism on sunday. Its hard for me to feel the same passion, because i feel no "ownership" for any of the work here. In N.Adams, and LP1 there wasnt any work when i got there, so i didnt have that problem then, and we shotgunned Nashua 1st so it was the same deal. it feels weird here in Ludlow.


The hardest part of the transfer was seeing Elder Barton and Elder Anderson go. The whole mission has just a different feel. im the old guy now in the mission... thats weird. In the leadership meeting today i was the missionary who was the longest in leadserhisp positions. president called me "the old hands in the mission". i feel like an old bannana that has been left on the counter far too long its cool to see all the fresh blood come into the mission though. Itll be a good transfer.

There isnt much left to say. Ill let you know how things are next week. love ya and miss ya! ttyl!


Elder Onken