¡La Primera Semana del Verano!

¡Hola Fonzfam!

    Well, here we go! It's finally summer again as we said good-bye to May this last week. School is out for you guys back at home and now we get to look forward to long hot days. With these longer days they seem to be going by even quicker. Making the most out of every moment is what makes the best memories. I'm so ready for a summer full of fun proselyting in the sun;)

    We had traveled down to Molalla for the first time since being put into the area to try to contact all the former investigators and unknown members there. It's about a 45 minute drive from our apartment in downtown Milwaukie. The first couple stops we made weren't too successful. But we came to a former's house who answered the door. His name is Juan and he had met with the missionaries about 2 years ago. He said that they had just stopped coming by and had lost touch all together. A lot of his family is LDS but religion simply wasn't a part of his life. After promising him blessings of guidance that would come from listening to our message, he agreed to meet up with us again this upcoming week. We again promised him that he would feel something good and uplifting the next time we met or that he otherwise won't have to talk with us again. We're riding on faith from our obedience as we know God will provide what is necessary for Juan to feel the Spirit of conversion.

    As our transfer comes quickly to an end, our zone had a lot of fun with a competition that we did. To help keep us motivated and working hard, Elder Matheson and I organized a point system to go along with our finding efforts. Each day had a basic outline of getting so many points for doing different things. For example, each person you talk to, Book of Mormons handed out, asking for referrals, contact info obtained, new investigators, etc. On top of that we can earn points from using the word of the day in our conversations with people on the streets. Some of those had been banana, platypus, and hot dogs:) Also we got bonus points for taking selfies and sharing them of the object of the day(hence the selfie with a squirrel from last week's email). This got all the missionaries excited about being out and about and provided opportunities to open our mouths. As a zone we had a ton of success from right off the bat especially with one area who has been struggling for months to find, and they found somebody the first day and he came to church yesterday! Lots of good things are happening as we continue to press forward with faith.

    I'm so excited for this Book of Mormon challenge this summer! Today is day 4 and even though I've read these first few chapters countless of times before, I continue to learn new things from each of them. I know that each time we read the Book of Mormon something different will stick out because of the different things we go through at different times in our lives. We are so blessed to have this gift in our lives daily and I hope this challenge will help create a habit that will last a lifetime. Enjoy your first week of summer everyone! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Fonnesbeck

Not too much change this transfer as only three missionaries are moving around. 
Elder Matheson & I are hitting it up for 3 transfers together :D

It's gotta be Oregon with a sunset like that!

FINALLY some wildlife! 
I've been here for 11 months and this is the only the  second deer I've seen,
 which was right outside our apartment during our studies.  Not quite a moose;)