October 29, 2007

Mom,

Myldsmail ate your email. I thought perhaps the fires had snuck up on you and had caused you to run and therefore had no means of writing. Luckily i thought that i should check my gmail to see if perhaps at least the forward got through. Turns out though that you just sent it to the gmail, which doesnt auto-forward to myldsmail. im glad i got your email though.

Its about stinking time that he proposed. thats exciting. May 24. Which temple are they going to go for?

Thats weird, departure date. Not exciting. I feel like im living on borrowed time.

I heard alll about the fires. I think every single person i talked to was saying how bad they were. The only thing that could change the subject was the Red Sox winning the World Series. Virtually all the appts and anything like that has been canncelled in order to provide ample viewing and celebration of the Red Sox triumph. hahaha.

New laptop huh? sounds cool. Those are pretty nifty. Hows the OS? do some video chat and stuff.

Btw, ask Sister Parker is she remember Blake Zenger. He is the bishop here, and he knows her. Not from Boston though, its kinda funny.

Things are good. I have a new comp. Elder Moss. This was crazy. I pratically died on friday. Had gotten 8 hours of sleep in 72 hours. President sent me back to the appt to take a nap. I felt pretty disapointed. Like i couldnt handle the job or somthing.

This week will be busy too. Im just trying to get my head around it all. Its tough because we havnt had the time to do all the weekly planning that we need to do.

the work is great. We had a family come to church for the first time on sunday, and another one agreed to take the lessons. Both families are comming to the Trunk-or-Treat tonight. We are excited to see what happens with them.

Love ya, and miss ya!

ttyl!
Elder Onken

We have a date!

Elder Onken will be flying home on Friday, January 18, 2008.

Stay tuned for more details.

October 22, 2007

Mom,

Im glad to hear Grandpa's funeral was so nice. It sounds like a movie, ya know? Part of the area we cover has an Army base. We have 3 members that live there, and its cool to visit them because i can just imagine you growing up in a similar environment.

Is Dad so old that he can actualy be the HPGL? goodness. hahah jk.

Ali mentioned that you had a facebook. you are now officially cooler than i am. Facebook is like the COOLEST thing to do i hear.

Lots fires eh? ill be praying for ya. Thats a bad place to have the fires, ya know? it hasnt been there for a while.

Well this is transfer week. Im stayin put. Its gonna be a crazy and sleepless week. Not much in the area ever gets done during this week.

We have this cool Jerusalem dinner though at the Ward Mission Leaders. He had one of our investigators who is Jewish over and also a bunch of converts from judaism. It was fun. we had scriptures from the O.T and ate foods found in the O.T.

Well, i gotta take off. love you. Thanks for everything. October flew by, but we still have one more week. your b-day is comming up, any plans? ill ttyl!

love,
Elder Onken

October 15, 2007

Mom,

I was kinda suprised when you were on the phone. President left the room, and i was about to talk about how missionaries should not have campfires, when all of the sudden he calls he out. Im sorry to hear about Grandpa. How was the funeral? Im sorry i missed it, really.

Are you okay? i know how much you loved him. Its true though, that now he gets to go on and learn the gospel, and be free from this mortal and frail existance.

This week has been busy ,but not too bad. Stake Conference. It was nice, and we were able to hear some really uplifitng things.

I did well on the CFA. i sent dad the scores, so ill let you see them via him.

Not much time left. I love you and miss you. I pray that everything goes well with Grandpa. Take care.

Elder Onken

October 9, 2007

Mom,

Really really dont have much time today. We were moving the mission office, and then we had a staff meeting and stuff.

Conference was great!!! i agree with the statement "the older i get, the more i enjoy conference". It is definetly true. It was cool to see Elder Eyring be called to presidency. one of his sons is the bishop in the next ward, although we meet in the same building. He said he was suprised to see his father called into the presidency.

I have such a hard time with writing in the journal. i feel the same way. i jsut hope that everythigni have saved as in emails is enough to suffice for the huge back log i have. My favorite talk was when Holland laid the smack down on the definition of Christian. It was sweet. you will like that one.

Always partys at the house now. Gosh, crazy. So Brandon Hill is still around? How is Tarrik doing? havnt heard much about him lately. Trenton's sister plays volleyball for BYU-H? They are really good. she must be talented. I would bet that Fletcher was down in St. George for that tournament/Game. He is like the BIGGEST volleyball fanatic. especially BYU.

Perhaps there is somthing messed up in the connection between the battery and the machine? is there some sort of waranty? id look into that. Im sure the machine we have back home is ancient. Im sure my computers are even more ancient, especially my linux machine. Itll be cool to see how much technology has grown since i left.

Thats good that everybody is doing well on the mission. I cant believe that Will and Brady are missionaries though. WEIRD.

Well, dont have too much fun quilting. Wouldnt want that.

This week was busy. With conference and stuff, and some transfers that needed to happen. We also found out that some missionaries are living in a house that used to be the biggest crack house in their city, and the past 3 nights people have been trying to break into their place. Kinda crazy, huh? hahah. Had some great experiences, but things are slow to pick up here in Weston 1st. We just dont have the time to put into the area that it needs in order to really grow quickly.

Well, i gotta run. love ya and miss ya. ill ttyl!

Elder Onken

October 1, 2007

Mom,

Gosh. i read about Jesse and Hadas in Nick's email.... What do you say about that? Contention kills. I hope the best for Amy.

Yah, Nick told me about his new calling!! I was suprised only because he was just put into the EQ Presidency. Other than that, I can totaly see it. Hes the bomb-dot-com.

Oh man, im excited for the large fiest Oma will prepare. Im like on a Indo food starvation diet. I try to go to that place in Boston whenever we are down there, but they arnt as good as Oma's food. Im glad to hear that she is doing well. Im happy that my comming home can give her somthing to look forward to.

Oh man, i cant believe Jimmy is home!!! CRAZY!!!!!!!

I got the pics. Thats so cool. Thanks for the widows mite. very interesting indeed. You and Dad look great in scuba gear, is it a new hobby? lol. For some reason, its often hard for me to picture Dad in any other situation besides 1) readin the newspaper and sipping O.J near the back door, 2) In a suite reading scriptures or 3) working behind his desk. I guess its just that when i have seen him most, in those situations.

I got an email for Rozanna Tross, the girl from the LP1 ward who is now in Nick and Jamie's ward. What a small world.

The office moves on General Conference Saturday. We are going to be helping out there with the rest of the office "peeps" (thats what they call themsleves). We spend a decent amount of time in the office. Saturday and Monday mornings we do reporting for Salt Lake. Wednsdays we are in there for staff meetings, and thurdsays we do planning. We only get about 2 hours a day of proselyting. Its kinda depressing. However, we make those 2 hours worth it. Things are going well, we are getting to know the Weston 1st ward pretty well.

Dont have much time left to write. love ya and miss ya! TTYL!

Elder Onken