Thursday, February 28, 2013

Randomness

This is Kristi posting a few things that my mom thought were interesting...

In my mom's letter Mark asked if we would give a big hug to all of the cousins. He says that he loves the letters, pictures, cookies, etc. He ate 6 of Bailey's cookies the first night that he got them!
In my dad's letter Mark said he is learning a lot about patience because they are in a hard area. He also said that my dad would love it down there because everyone has a golf cart, and they have an entire road system and special parking lots for just the golf carts. (I think I know where my dad will want to move)

My mom sent Mark a bunch of questions. Here is what we got back:
His companion is from Saratoga Springs, Utah.
Are your clothes holding up well? Ye, although I sat in some dog pee the other day.
Do you need us to send your pillow? Yes, I have been borrowing one.
Is the humidity as bad as you thought? Not yet...
Is there anything you want us to send you? Backpack

Sorry I was late putting up his latest email. I promise I will be better!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Hey everyone! Sorry this email is late... we had to go give a ride to
the AP's because their car broke down! They were actually on the way
to the hospital to see President Harding... he had to get surgery due
to some complications from his last once, but from the sounds of it,
everything went well so no worries here.

The big news around the mission was about the new mission opening up
here in Makan, Georgia soon... we've been told to not talk about it or
to even discuss it with anyone so all I'll say is that we're aware of
it here in the ATL mission and we'll see what happens!! Very exciting
time to be a missionary though!

Where do I start this week???? I had my first exchange this week... I
stayed in my area while Elder Schlesinger went with Elder Gnautavi
(who is from Bountiful... I played against him at the rec center in
basketball haha). His companion, Elder Dematropolis came with me to my
area... so I was the senior companion. I planned the whole day, drove
the car, made all the decisions, etc... I was SO nervous about it when
they told me that's what we were going to do, but after I prayed about
it... I felt so much better and it ended up being AMAZING!!!! We ended
having a great time together and having some amazing experiences. We
got a new investigator who likes to be called "brother bear". He has
native american ancestors and he LOVES to make his own leather, wood
bows, leather shirts, drums, etc. He's got a big beard and is super
friendly... he even asked us for a BoM!! I told him we'd come up on a
p-day to help him tan leather (with dear, elk, etc. brains!) if he
ever wanted help and he said he'd love that... so now I gotta talk
Elder Schlesinger into doing that hahaha. We also went over to a
less-active, part member families house and had an incredible
experience there... we ended up giving their baby a blessing, and
while I was pronounced the blessing, I had a REALLY strong feeling
that the Lord has a special plan for the baby and their daughter...
there's a lot more to the story but we ended up sitting down with them
and had an amazing talk to the wife about the importance of her going
to the temple... her husband is Catholic and she agreed to let him
raise the kids Catholic... but ya, we had an awesome talk and it was
just really apparent that she needed to her those things. One of the
most spiritual experiences I've had yet... and before we left, they
gave us a big bag of crazy ties!!! Haha, Kristi... you're going to be
so mad because they're exactly like the one I gave away to Tyler...
not THAT crazy, but all silk, gold chain super nice ties. They also
gave us a bag of veggie straws which I thought was funny cause I've
never seen anyone else in the world eat those... (we ate them all that
night). So that all happened during the transfer and more, but that's
all I'll write about it for now!!! Another crazy story... a couple
days after the transfer, Elder Schlesinger and I were out tracting at
about 7:30 at night (in the rain). We had gone to a bunch of houses
and knocked but most of them didn't answer... so we're walking along
the road to the next house when a car pulls up next to us in the road
and an old man gets out yelling at us "What are you doing out
here?!?!?" ... we responded that we're missionaries with the church of
Jesus Christ and we have a message centered on Christ and his
teachings, etc... next thing he yells at us "It's too late for you to
be out here doing that!! It's too dark!! You came up to my door and I
almost shot you!!! When I see men come up to my door this late at
night in black suits and jackets... I go grab my .45!! You're lucky I
decided not to shoot!!"... Elder Schlesinger and I just smiled and
thanked the man for not shooting us... we actually thought it was
rather funny and then before the man got back in his car we asked if
we could leave him with a blessing through prayer haha. One of those
"missionary moments" that when I look back on it I think to myself...
did I really do that?
More exciting stuff going on... we had our most productive week yet as
far as key indicators go. We even had a investigator to church!!! We
were sooooo excited!!! We're hoping that have 5 more investigators
with baptism dates by the end of the week so we'll see how that goes
but we're excited for them all!!! It's hard though... it's hard to
love people so much and have such a strong desire to help them to come
to know Christ better and follow the gospel so they can be happier in
life... and when they reject that or make big mistakes in their life
and fall away... man, it just breaks my heart. I just can't even
imagine how heart broken the Savior is every time someone rejects him.
It helps to know that he knows how we feel though.
Elder Schlesinger is still having a lot of health issues... but we're
being as productive as possible though. I'll study, makes calls, setup
appointments, give blessings over the phone and I've even started
trying to teach lessons over the phone while he sleeps... the Lord's
work never stops!! Haha. It's been hard at times but it's helping me
to grow in the ways that I need to grow and he'll be blessed for
enduring these trials.
Thank you all so much for writing me! I don't have much time to write
today and I'm sorry I can't write everyone back but I'm reading them
all!!!! I'm only going to be writing letters and I'll only be writing
them on P-day from here on out so I'm sorry if I don't get back to you
all... but just know that I love you all and that I'm praying for you
every morning and night. Keep writing!!!! You have no idea how much it
helps me to see a new letter in the mailbox for me!!! Just keep doing
the right things in life... and make sure to do the small things.
Small things add up to big things, either for the Lord or for the
advesary. The devil is literally in the details... so do every little
thing you can to have the spirit with you at all times!! Daily prayer,
daily scripture study, attending church and the temple regularly...
all those things will bless you so much in your life!!! I promise. I
love you all so much... I know you're all doing great things!!!

Scripture for this week: Alma 26: 22 and 27

Talk to ya'll next week... may the Lord's peace and blessing be with you!
-Elder Wahlen

Monday, February 25, 2013

Hey everyone! Sorry this email is late... we had to go give a ride to
the AP's because their car broke down! They were actually on the way
to the hospital to see President Harding... he had to get surgery due
to some complications from his last once, but from the sounds of it,
everything went well so no worries here.

The big news around the mission was about the new mission opening up
here in Makan, Georgia soon... we've been told to not talk about it or
to even discuss it with anyone so all I'll say is that we're aware of
it here in the ATL mission and we'll see what happens!! Very exciting
time to be a missionary though!

Where do I start this week???? I had my first exchange this week... I
stayed in my area while Elder Schlesinger went with Elder Gnautavi
(who is from Bountiful... I played against him at the rec center in
basketball haha). His companion, Elder Dematropolis came with me to my
area... so I was the senior companion. I planned the whole day, drove
the car, made all the decisions, etc... I was SO nervous about it when
they told me that's what we were going to do, but after I prayed about
it... I felt so much better and it ended up being AMAZING!!!! We ended
having a great time together and having some amazing experiences. We
got a new investigator who likes to be called "brother bear". He has
native american ancestors and he LOVES to make his own leather, wood
bows, leather shirts, drums, etc. He's got a big beard and is super
friendly... he even asked us for a BoM!! I told him we'd come up on a
p-day to help him tan leather (with dear, elk, etc. brains!) if he
ever wanted help and he said he'd love that... so now I gotta talk
Elder Schlesinger into doing that hahaha. We also went over to a
less-active, part member families house and had an incredible
experience there... we ended up giving their baby a blessing, and
while I was pronounced the blessing, I had a REALLY strong feeling
that the Lord has a special plan for the baby and their daughter...
there's a lot more to the story but we ended up sitting down with them
and had an amazing talk to the wife about the importance of her going
to the temple... her husband is Catholic and she agreed to let him
raise the kids Catholic... but ya, we had an awesome talk and it was
just really apparent that she needed to her those things. One of the
most spiritual experiences I've had yet... and before we left, they
gave us a big bag of crazy ties!!! Haha, Kristi... you're going to be
so mad because they're exactly like the one I gave away to Tyler...
not THAT crazy, but all silk, gold chain super nice ties. They also
gave us a bag of veggie straws which I thought was funny cause I've
never seen anyone else in the world eat those... (we ate them all that
night). So that all happened during the transfer and more, but that's
all I'll write about it for now!!! Another crazy story... a couple
days after the transfer, Elder Schlesinger and I were out tracting at
about 7:30 at night (in the rain). We had gone to a bunch of houses
and knocked but most of them didn't answer... so we're walking along
the road to the next house when a car pulls up next to us in the road
and an old man gets out yelling at us "What are you doing out
here?!?!?" ... we responded that we're missionaries with the church of
Jesus Christ and we have a message centered on Christ and his
teachings, etc... next thing he yells at us "It's too late for you to
be out here doing that!! It's too dark!! You came up to my door and I
almost shot you!!! When I see men come up to my door this late at
night in black suits and jackets... I go grab my .45!! You're lucky I
decided not to shoot!!"... Elder Schlesinger and I just smiled and
thanked the man for not shooting us... we actually thought it was
rather funny and then before the man got back in his car we asked if
we could leave him with a blessing through prayer haha. One of those
"missionary moments" that when I look back on it I think to myself...
did I really do that?
More exciting stuff going on... we had our most productive week yet as
far as key indicators go. We even had a investigator to church!!! We
were sooooo excited!!! We're hoping that have 5 more investigators
with baptism dates by the end of the week so we'll see how that goes
but we're excited for them all!!! It's hard though... it's hard to
love people so much and have such a strong desire to help them to come
to know Christ better and follow the gospel so they can be happier in
life... and when they reject that or make big mistakes in their life
and fall away... man, it just breaks my heart. I just can't even
imagine how heart broken the Savior is every time someone rejects him.
It helps to know that he knows how we feel though.
Elder Schlesinger is still having a lot of health issues... but we're
being as productive as possible though. I'll study, makes calls, setup
appointments, give blessings over the phone and I've even started
trying to teach lessons over the phone while he sleeps... the Lord's
work never stops!! Haha. It's been hard at times but it's helping me
to grow in the ways that I need to grow and he'll be blessed for
enduring these trials.
Thank you all so much for writing me! I don't have much time to write
today and I'm sorry I can't write everyone back but I'm reading them
all!!!! I'm only going to be writing letters and I'll only be writing
them on P-day from here on out so I'm sorry if I don't get back to you
all... but just know that I love you all and that I'm praying for you
every morning and night. Keep writing!!!! You have no idea how much it
helps me to see a new letter in the mailbox for me!!! Just keep doing
the right things in life... and make sure to do the small things.
Small things add up to big things, either for the Lord or for the
advesary. The devil is literally in the details... so do every little
thing you can to have the spirit with you at all times!! Daily prayer,
daily scripture study, attending church and the temple regularly...
all those things will bless you so much in your life!!! I promise. I
love you all so much... I know you're all doing great things!!!

Scripture for this week: Alma 26: 22 and 27

Talk to ya'll next week... may the Lord's peace and blessing be with you!
-Elder Wahlen

Monday, February 18, 2013

Email #2 from GA, ATL (Peachtree City)

Hey everyone! This last week has been crazy! Lets start out with the story of almost getting the police called on us... we called an old black lady (77 years old) because she was a former investigator and we wanted to try and come meet with her again... so we called her one morning and she answered... I asked her how she was doing after stating who we were and she told us that she wasn't feeling well... so I offered that we could come over and leave her a blessing. She said ok so I asked her where she lived because I wanted to verify that her address hadn't changed since the last missionaries visited her (about 2 years ago) she then said something to the extent of "you should already know where I live!" and then hung up. Elder Schlesinger called back and tried talking to her but she hung up again... I was worried about her because she's so old so we decided we'd go over to the address on her file to see if she was doing ok... well, we get there and she opens the door before we even knock and starts talking about someone was stalking her over the phone and she thought it was us and she was going to call the police on us! She said that the missionaries knew where she lived and the person over the phone was asked for her address so things didn't add up... long story short, we spent the next hour proving to her that we didn't mean anything by it and that we were, indeed missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that just wanted to come make sure she was ok. She showed her all of our missionary paperwork, pamplets, etc. but eventually her neighbor had to come vouch for us and calm her down! We felt bad but we really just wanted to make sure she was ok... we had to laugh it off!!

We've had a lot of up's and downs lately... Elder Shlesinger is struggling with his undiagnosed medical problem pretty badly... we even spent an entire day at the ATL hospital for an appointment about it... on Sunday, we stayed in since he could hardly do anything with a massive headache and body aches... so I ended up calling people to schedule appointments, reschedule others and I even ended up calling people and pronounced blessings/prayers over the phone so we we're still fulfilling our missionary work. Gotta make the best out of the situation! I feel bad for him and pray for him a lot... we even went to see our missionary medical specialist... she has do a lot of breathing exercises, medatation techniques, etc. for about an hour... it was awesom!! It was like Spiritual yoga... I loved it! She also gave us some amazing brownies and cookies which I ate WAY too much of!! (I gotta start eating better). It helped me a lot though... just as much as it helped Elder Shlesinger, I'm sure. She actually looked at me before we left and said "You know about this kind of stuff, don't you?" It was pretty cool that she knew that! I said yes, I was studying that kind of stuff before coming out here... so she tasked me to help him relax and stretch and do other things like that.

We have our first baptism date set for an investigator! She won't be getting baptized for awhile though.... unfortunately she is going to prison for 20 days... and then when she gets back we have to finish teaching her everything but we're so excited for her!!! She loves the gospel and has a big desire to change and really feels like the church is an answer to her prayers! We've met a lot of great people lately... even met a "Born Again Christian" family that we've been able to talk to and help through some service (moving out)... they're amazing people and they love to pray with us... it's pretty cool cause we'll pray and leave them a blessing and then they follow up with a prayer of their own right after.

It's been cold here lately but not nearly as cold as Utah!! Everyone here is a kind of a whimp when it comes to the cold haha. They go out in winter clothes and we'll be out there nearly sweating!!! It's going to be funny if it ever snows... they won't know what to do with themselves! The people are amazing though... so nice and respectful. We've been yelled at and had the door slammed in our faces a few times, but for the most part everyone is great. It's interesting to think about though... even if Christ himself went out to do missionary work, people would still reject him. I mean, they already did reject him in the past... "We don't have time" "We're not interested" "Go solicitate somewhere else" "I don't need the blessings".... I'm sure he'd hear the same things and be rejected in the same ways.

 Thank you to everyone for writing to me!!! I really am SO busy that I won't be able to write many of you back, but I'll try my best to get back to everyone! Thanks for all the pictures and snacks! I love all of you cousins out there!!! I miss you lots but I'm happy to be here doing the Lord's work... keep writing!! I read every letter and look at every drawing. I'm buying some stuff today so I can hang up all the pictures in my room. I gotta get going but I want you all to know that I love you so very much and pray for each of you every night. The scripture for today is Mosiah, chapter 24. Love you all!!!!


   

A full planner ... Just another day in the life of a missionary! We always come up with multiple backup plans just in case our original plans don't work out.



YOU are the best cousins ever!

   

Thanks for the packages!

   

Just one of the gourmet meals that I'm able to come up with on such a small budget.

   

We love fruit snacks!

 

And cookies!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

First email from the field!!

Hello everyone, I'm here in Atlanta!!! Things are great here... I'm in Peachtree City and my trainer is Elder Schlsinger... He's great, he's the new District leader here in the area and he's only been out for 3 months! He's pretty stressed out about training and doing district leader stuff but I'm trying to help him out as much as possible... he also has some problems with his muscles locking up on him but so far we haven't had any struggles with it... he's super obedient and wants to do everything the right way and work hard... so we're great together. We're actually both perfectionists so we've had some rough days where we've been pretty hard on ourselves but its something we're working on getting better at and we're improving every day.

My first Saturday here, I got to go to a baptism with him for a couple of people he and his last companion taught. He baptized one of them... it was his first one ever! That was a neat experience to watch and help with... I even gave a brief talk on the Holy Ghost. Can't wait to be setting up more baptisms for our current investigators!!! I've had some crazy experiences so far... some really great ones too. It's been good though, every time I've felt like I've needed something or someone to help me so I could make it through the day, the Lord has blessed me with that. He's for sure watching over me and Elder Schlsinger and blessing us for our persistent hard work and obedience.

Some funny stories... it's been raining here like crazy! We've gotten soaked to the bone a few nights while out tracting... we're working so hard and blessing so many people (in this mission, we do blessings via prayer to everyone we meet... its pretty cool and opens up great dialogue... we usually give out about 10 a day!) but we're so determined to talk/bless everyone we see that we even blessed a mailman who was driving by on a street we were door-to-dooring. I've also been given a Bible from a lady who wasn't interested but thought I'd be interested in her church! Also got yelled at/chewed out by a Baptist who I accidentally called again right after he told me he wasn't interested... that was fun!

I can't believe how diverse it is here though... we went to a conference with Elder Suarz of the 70 (who I met) and on the way there, we passed a road that had a Karishna temple, Baptist church and a Catholic school all right next to each other... I've never met so many people with so many different religious beliefs! The people down here are great though... so nice and respectful and they all are VERY religious.

Peachtree City, the area I'm currently in, reminds me a lot of Bountiful so it's not out in the Styx or anything... it's very close to downtown ATL. In fact, a lot of the people around here grew up outside of Utah and TONS of people have even lived in Bountiful or Salt Lake before... so it really doesn't feel like I'm THAT far away from home. The ward we go to is great... this last Sunday was awesome.

Another funny story... while going door to door, we ran into a Spanish speaking family and tried talking to them... but it mostly consisted of "No hablo english" and "No hablo espanol"... too bad I didn't take that rossetta stone Spanish program before I came out here! We sat there for a good 5 minutes just laughing and trying to talk back and forth.

 I'm glad it's P-day though cause we're out of food! I've been living off of oatmeal for the last few days... so I'm excited to get some other food! Our favorite place to eat out down here is Chick-Fil-A... we actually ran into a young man there one night who was very interested in our message... we gave him a BoM, a pass along card and got his phone #... we talked to him for about 45 minutes and practically taught all the mini-lessons to him... we have high hopes for him!!!

Anyways, that's kinda what's going on... hope all is well. My Apartment address is 1000 Stevens Entry, Peachtree City, GA 30269 apartment # F113... I've read all of your letters (and I still do!) and I love getting them so keep sending them! I have NO time to write back except on P-day so I'm sorry if I don't get back to you or if takes awhile but keep them coming please! They help me so much! I'll try sending some pictures but this computer is weird and I can't see which ones are what... and I can only send 3 at a time! I'll be emailing from 10:00 am to 11:00 am GA time every Monday! Love you all! Remember, keep doing the right things and always do your part to have the spirit with you! The Lord loves you and will always be there for you... just remember to ask for help!!!! Love, Elder Wahlen



Getting on the plane!


After several hours of waiting, we're FINALLY on the plane!


Georgia, here we come!


My little apartment


Elder Schlsinger's baptism on Sunday!


Rain?... Ain't nobody got time for 'dat!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Georgia or Bust

Well, Mark has officially made it to Georgia despite the rocky start at the airport on Tuesday. We received a call from him at about 8:00 am. He said that he was so excited to get to Georgia, but sad to leave the MTC because he got to be really close with his district. We chatted for a few minutes and wished him luck. Turns out, his flight got delayed until 4:30 pm so he called my dad and got to talk to him for awhile. We were all curious to what in the world he would do in the airport all day. His reply, "What missionaries do!" They did missionary work in the airport all day and even taught half of a discussion! Leave it to Mark to turn a delayed flight into a missionary experience!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Email #2

Everyone, Hey everyone! This is email #2... I hope you all are doing well! I'm still doing great here at the MTC... I've had A TON of powerful experiences over the last couple of weeks and I've learned lots! I had an experience the other day that really showed to me the power of the priesthood... I was able to take part in a healing blessing for an Elder in my District... and WOW!!! The feeling and power that came into the room during the blessing was like nothing I've ever experienced! I could literally feel the angels come down around us and join us in the blessing! The words that the Elder spoke too... let's just say I don't even want to try and quote him because they were so powerful and not from his mind... they were for sure sent from on high. By the end of the blessing, everyone in the room was crying (we did it in our classroom with the whole District in there). I couldn't even help it... the power and spirit was so tangible that tears just came! I literally couldn't hold them back... the power of the priesthood is unmatched! I've also had a lot of other amazing experiences... I love my District!!! They're all so amazing and I've learned so much from all of them. I'm still learning lots from Elder Baker too... I wish I could show you how much he's progressed since our first days here! He's an amazing teacher and he has such a strong testimony and a heart of gold... he bought all the sisters in our District new mini-hymn books so they could all have one for class. I'm learning lots and I have amazing teachers... I even made a tie trade with Brother Sanders (one of our 2 teachers) for his pink tie. They're super cool and extremely powerful. Gym time has been fun... we haven't had very many good players around to play with but the new shipment of Elders brought in some good players. Elder Hicken is one of them... and he knows John and Jill. He asked me "Hey, do you know any Asian Wahlen's?" Haha. Yup, I sure do... so that's been more fun playing over there. I'm re-reading through the BoM and it's been great! I've never understood so much and learned so much from it before! I'd challenge all of you to re-read through it... but really breakdown EVERY verse you read. There is something to learn in pretty much every verse... I also found out that I am in fact a big fan of pictures of Christ. My new favorite is the one of him in the garden of Gethsamane, when he's praying to God. I love that picture... go look at it (especially his face/eyes) and just try to imagine what was going through his mind at that moment.... he knew what he was about to do, and he knew how gruesome and terrible it was going to be... but he still did it because it was the will of His father... and we all needed him to do it for us. He wouldn't let us down, and he didn't... it was an incredibly strong and selfless decision on His part... I know he left the scars on His hands, wrists, side and feet for a reason... he will never forget us and leaving those scars is a symbolic showing of His eternal love for us. He's always going to be there for us, and he truly is the great mediator between us and God's pure judgement. Without Him, we'd be nothing... This is my last week here! I'm leaving on the 5th and I can't believe it's already here... it's crazy to think that this time next week I'll be in the field teaching! I can't wait to get out there though... I'm already praying for my investigators and for my future companions. The eternal salvation of people is at stake, and I try to remember that during every moment of the day here... I HAVE to work hard, there is no more important work here on this Earth than what I'm doing right now. I NEED to be prepared and I NEED to be able to be the best, most finely tuned instrument in the Lords hand's so that His work can progress forward. I'm so excited... so tired, but it's a good tired! I can't wait to hear more from all of you.... thank you so much for writing me! I know I'm not very good at writing back and I'm deeply sorry for that... but I really do LOVE every letter I get. I read every one of them, often times more than once.... and they help me more than you can imagine. I love you all so much... I'm praying for you all lots and I'm so blessed to know all of you! -Elder Wahlen

Sunday, February 3, 2013


Thanks for the packages!


Gotta love this poly!


Our first Sunday Temple Walk 


The elders of our district


The sisters of our district


Roommates ready for the first full day.


My companion, Elder Baker, on our first night.

Elder Wahlen's MTC District