Sept. 10, 2012

Dear mom,
this week has been pretty great. the first thing that was fantastic, was that i was able to see the bednar family get baptized. that was amazing. the second thing was that i have been able to meet with johnathan again. he still doesnt want to learn about the gospel, but i feel like we are becoming more and more comfortable with eachother. the first time that i met with him, i was super nervous. this time, i was able to be a little more relaxed and i was even joking around with him a little bit.

its kinda crazy out here right now. or at least for me. its weird because im starting to forget stuff about home. it seems like the only thing that i can think of is the work and how to improve the work. the work seems to be my only focus. which is good, but i miss the simple interaction from people. the closest thing to family to me right now is Elder Blackwell. i guess this is what its like when they say forget yourself and go to work. we are working really hard in Raleigh 1st. ive heard that stress+rest =growth. well, i am going through alot of growth. the reason i know that is because i have actually been able to see small changes in myself. and its usually pretty difficult for me to see change in myself.

in 2 more days i am 11 months old. almost half way. wow. its interesting to think about because i only have 13 months left, but on the other hand, i only have 13 months left. i hope you understand.

this week Elder Blackwell got in a bike accident. its sad, but i cant help but laugh inside. so we were bikeing down this road and as we were going across a road that came from a parking lot we found out that there was a 4-6 inch median in the middle that kinda directed traffic. it was no problem for me because i just bunny hopped on and off it. but elder blackwell hit it right on which caused him to loose control and when it was time to get back onto the curb, it was too late for him. so if you could imagine, im riding in front and i hear him yell, "OH NOO!" then i hear his bike hit the curb. i turn my head to look back and see him flying over his handle bars. he biffed it pretty hard but he's alright, he's a big boy. he ruined one of his pants, and got a bad case of road rash, but the funniest thing that happened was what happened after that, after i go and help him back up and see what happened, this lady pulls her car by us and asks if elder blackwell is alright. he says that he is fine but she cant hear him because of other cars that are pssing by so he decides to go up to her and talk to her. he told her that he was fine but she was even got even more shocked because after he told her that he was fine elder blackwell says, "can we give you a card?" he contacts her. her face was so funny. what a dedicated servant right? well, thats my companion. :)

Sept. 2, 2012

Mom,
You have probably already figured this out, but nearly every time i get an email from you i i just have to think wow. life actually does happen while your gone haha. i i got a letter from taybree a few days ago and she mentioned tomato picking also. i guess thats the sign that the tomato season for our family is over. maybe im wrong though because gary always a trick up his sleeve so he is probably doing something like making some kind of super healthy tomato, pepper, exotic spice milk shake haha. im glad though that you have been able to stay busy. that might sound like its a rude comment, but i think that when we are busy especially with our goals, good things happen. take for instance ben and Jeff. they are impressive young men. im sure that they are role models for many people.
when you mentioned the things about bro. hills son moving in next door, i thought, i bet randy is excited about that. are they still friends? thats amazing that their family has recieved those blessings in their lives. i also couldnt help but think about my experience in knightdale. i remember that i talked about the bednars progressing and being fellowshipped like crazy. i think that a lot of the conversion they have experienced has actually come because of others helping them. the last thing that happened with them when i left knightdale was that they refussed to pay tithing. that day was a devastating day. because they were progressing so much and they were already practicaly members of the church and they had already recieved so many blessings in their lives. when i left that night we taught them about tithing i felt like dirt. i wished so badly that they would have greater faith so that they could have more blessings. this week however, i got a call and elder stauffer said that out of the blue they decided that their desire to be baptized was greater than the price of faith. mom, i am so happy for them. i am so happy that they are getting baptized! they are getting baptized this weekend. going back to the fellowshipping idea though, the reason why they had such a change of heart was that they were exposed to pure testimony of many ward members about the truthfullness of the restored gospel. our testimonies really can have a great influence on others.
oh wonderfull! you got the pictures. the member said that the first time he tried to send them you didnt get them. but im glad you got them. its still hot here, but i do think i am adapting to the heat. because even when i go to bed i get cold from the vent blowing into the room. the reason why we were wearing suit jackets though was that we just got out from a baptism and we need to wear suits when ever we go to any kind of meetings. getting back home will be somewhat of a stuggle i think because i will be used to north carolina weather and then i will be going into the bitter cold of idaho. yikes! oh well. home is home.

August 26, 2012

Dear mom,
man, new stuff is happening all over isnt it? things are changing with me, and at home. randy just got a very nice looking bike, the bathroom just got done ( and looks amazing.) and you even got your new computer. wow. so this week has deffinately been a crazy week. it has been really interesting. when i came into the area i found out that i will be rebuilding the work here. right now we have no investigators, referrals, and many of our less actives will be going into the sisters hands. so, we are really building from the ground up. we are meeting with members alot and trying to help them with missionary work. like i said earlier, it has been a really interesting week. but not for the reasons you might be thinking. so far on my mission, it has been difficult for me to make real connections with ward members. which is a little unusual because that is somehting that seems comes natural in missionary work. but within my few days here i am starting to really love the members on a new level. there is on member in particular that i am really coming to love. his name is bro. henderson. (kind of ironic i know since back at home bro henderson was some one i wasnt too fond of.) one of the characteristics that i like the most about him is his boldness. he is VERY bold. and it has been fun and interesting to be bold back. he likes it and i like it. there are also 2 other things that have been of significance. one of the first days here, elder blackwell and i had a talk tht was filled with the spirit. let me just first say that even though elder Blackwell has a mild mental disorder, he is one of the most spiritualy intune people i know. he is directed by the spirit so much. it has been a faith trying experience that has brought much fruit being with him. he taught me about the atonement in a very personal way that was filled with the spirit. he has helped me so much. he later gave me a blessing and the blessing he gave me was one of the strongest times i have ever felt the spirit on my mission. i felt like i was walking into a warm bright room from a cold dark one. it was incredible! then, either one or two days later we met with this less active family and for one reason or another it was VERY awkward. and he felt the spirit strongly tell him that after our visit, we needed to come back. i didnt have the same impression, and i didnt want to make things anymore awkward, but i trusted him and we eventually went back. when we went back, we found out that there was a strong spiritual need that needed to be met. and the situation that we came back into, was perfect! with both of these experiences, i have been awe struck. going back to the blessing he gave me, elder blackwell said things that made me question if he could actually read my mind. there was no way he would know to say the things that he did unless he was completely inspired of god. from that experience my testimony of priesthood power was significantly increased. in both instances that ive talked about, the only reaction that i have initially had is " WHAT!?!?!?!" "HOW COULD THIS HAVE ACTUALLY HAPPENED!?!?!?" it was amazing! i feel like god is truely trying to humble me. that is something that i am confident about. i know that god lives. he knows us. he loves us. we are his children. he wants the best for us. this is my testimony.

August , 2012

Well, i will first tell you about what is really on my mind the most. transfers. ringht now i am with elder stauffer who is a super missionary. he is my favorite next to elder johnson. if you even remember me talking about him. but anyway, transfers. so elder stuffer and i got a call a few nights ago that brought new experiences for both of us. he is going to be training in knightdale.(hopefully with elder bagley. i went to highschool with him and he is a really neat kid. his dad was also my acutain doctor.) and i will be serving in the raleigh 1st area in the raleigh 1st district as district leader. this is big news for me even though im just being transfered less than 100 miles away and into an area that i have gone to during exchanges. so basically im taking my district leaders spot. there are some things that im slightly worried about but i think i can do well with the lords help. this morning i had to really look at myself and prioritize my goals and desires and put it onto paper. i kinda made a debt-elimination chart thing for my priorities. but some of the things that i see as potential challenges are; sister missionaries are coming into the district for the first time, disobediant missionaries, district meetings, my next companion will have a very slight mental disability, i represent a district and my area instead of just my area, and just being a missionary in general. it might sound like alot, but im not sure on how things will go. hopfully well. but, that is just a little about what is happening in the life of elder masulonis. but to be honest, im more concerned about you right now. one of the members this sunday told me to tell you about a website and some other web stuff she thought you might like. so there is a web site called something like, "missionarymoms.net" and it is a site where all the missionary moms can go on and post pictures, stories they have heard and all sorts of great stuff. she thought you might like that. she also said that there is a facebook group for the families of north carolina missionaries. just a thought you might like to check. i bet you will be pretty busy though. it sounds like there is alot going on at home. the bathroom is being tricked out, my moms head is exploding with knowledge, my dad is a singer, my brother is still my little bro... which is saying alot. ;) and, he is growing up to be even more epic he already is, anyway, i hope there is room enough for me when i get back. ;) i hope to hear from you soon andi love you.

July 29, 2012

This week there was one of the days that elder stauffer worked especially hard. we went out on our bikes and worked hard all day. after the day was over, i felt exausted. i might keep on saying this about other days, but im not sure if i have ever sweated as much as i did that day than any other day. my clothes were drentched with sweat. infact, we were so wet, that i had to completely change and get dry before our dinner appointment came to pick us up. but even though we were working super hard, i found something that i really enjoy as a missionary. one of the feelings that i love the most is the feeling of going out the door and and to contact everybody i see and testify my brains out... even if they dont accept the message we share. the spirit is so strong and it motivates me a ton. it reminds me of a scripture that i am memorizing right now lets see if i can get it right. "for the natural man is an enemy to god and has been from the fall of adam and will be forever and ever unless he yields to the holy spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of christ and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." how did i do? the reason why i felt like that this week is, doing missionary work is hard. when your body aches for rest, and when you only want to be passive, when you are tired and you see the difficulties ahead of you, its hard to press on in the work of the lord. But... " and moreover i would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of god, for they are blessed in all things, both temporally and spiritually, and if they hold faithful they are recived into heaven that thereby they may dwell with god in a state of never ending happiness. oh remember remember that these things are true, for the lord god hath spoken it." (im not sure if that is word for word, but its according to my memory. i would type it right if i had my scriptures on me, but i usually dont bring my scriptures to the library for emailing.) anyway, its hard, but so was the road that jesus walked. and it was for the best and for the greatest joy.

Things are still gong great for the lamont and his family, and for the bednar family. although ,we had to push back the baptismal date for lamont and his sister because of an unexpected family trp to his dads.but we will hope to see him this week and get him and her to their baptismal interviews. while im talkng about them, we finally got to meet their mom. and it was actually really interesting. she said that if she wasnt seeing the changes in lamont and the rest of the kids' lives, she would have booted us out pretty early, so she has seen the changes for the better in their lives and also is excited for them to be baptized even though she doesnt know what that all entitles. we will also be meeting with her this week for her first lesson. that family makes me really happy. and i really hope that things will continue to go well. I know that God has heard me on more occasions than one. it is a miracle that God HEARS AND, ANSWERS prayers. especially those which have broken and sincere hearts for collateral.

July16, 2012

Yea! the cake was amazing! Elder Stauffer is gaining some weight, so he let me eat just about the whole thing the. The balloons are still sitting in the apartment. By the way, I'm not sure if I mentioned this last email, but it is pretty relieving that I have gotten to stay in Knightdale. I think it is an answer to one of my prayers. Actuallly several prayers if I think what is going to happen happens. Right now we are teaching a handfull of pretty solid people. 4 of them have solid dates to be baptized. Their names are Lamont, Lance, Jasmine, and Michael. They are all african american and younger than me. But if you looked at Michael, you would think he was much older than me because he looks like an ex-wwf wrestler. He is pretty big. The other two oddly enough have the last name of bednar. ( no relation known yet) the prayer that i think will be answered is, i have prayed often that i would be able to witness somebody be found taught and baptized. things seem to be going in that direction which is making me pretty happy.

again, thank you for sending that birthday present! i loved it so much.

that makes me smile to hear that the bathroom is getting redone. it needed it pretty badly. it seems like though, you are makeing the preperations needed to move. is the family moving?

man, the church is pretty weird when it comes to boundries and church buildings. i mean that is pretty weird that you will be going all the way out to the stonebridge ward when the stake center is right there. its kinda like my friends jacob and taylor bryner. they live right next to a church building, but the have to go to one that is a few blocks away from them. its the same here in knightdale though. the individual boundries dont really make sense. take for instance the ward i am in. there is a ward that takes a random chunk out of our area and on top of that, out area is long and skinny. it almost takes an hour to get from the top of our area to the bottom. if we wanted to make a trip from our house to the top to the bottom and back, it would probably take 2 hours.

as for the Book of Mormon, i totally agree. infact, i was just recently reading about the alligory of the olive tree and i found so much personal relivence to my life. it was really amazing how much i was able to learn from it.

it feels weird to think that i will be one of those weird guys when i get back home, but its awesome to think that i will be one of those awesome guys when i get home.

i love you very much and hope to hear more about home and what is going on soon.

-LOVE ELDER MASULONIS

July 22,2012

The lord says to increase our talents. Something that i have discovered on my own from a mission is this. When we put God first, he blesses us in our talents and abilities  even the ones that arent gospel centered. For instance, I have been playing basketball at least once a week since I was a youth and I got alot better from that. But now I feel even more confident in my basketball skills even though I play less. I am sure that this is because of the service I give in the lords work. My friend Taylor told me a little bit about this before my mission too. We were actually playing video games when he told me this. he said the same concept I just told you and then said that he was better at video games after his mission than before. The increase of abillities and talents is increased through the lord. Even the ones that would seem that the Lord doesnt really care about. Its a very interesting concept to me. Speaking of which, we hope to be playing basketball with Lamont and his younger brother Lance. ( these are some of the people that are close to being baptized.) we have seen icredible changes in Lamonts life. he told us that right before we met him, he wasnt doing good things. we later found out that those not so good things involved gang involvement. to show how recent their activity in gangs has been, lance cannot be baptized untill he is off probation. They also have an older brother that is in jail right now and they dont have alot of contact with him. Their dad is in Arkansas and they dont have very much contact with him either. there mom works two medical jobs to take care of the kids and we have only seen her once. Lamont has been looking for a job for two years and things around the house are not great. Lamont has said that the day that we started meeting with him, his life and home and family started to change. he has been offered a lanscaping job by his uncle. his brother has made dramatic improvements to get off on probation and into the water. They have humbled themselves before the Lord and have seen his miracles. Lamonts younger sister Jasmine first laughed at us when in the first lesson we told them that the book of mormon was an ancient record of the ancestors of the native americans but now she reads the book of mormon nearly everyday and has identified the spirit in her heart change her. lamont and lance have also done and felt the same things. lamont has a strong desire to just follow god and choose the right. He has identified by himself that when we keep the commandment and choose the right, we are blessed temporally and spirituall just like king Benjamin says in mosiah 2 44... i think. that family is truely a miracle and a miracle in progress.

In your email, you said your glad that im not melting into a pile of tiger butter. what on earth is tiger butter???