The New Mattress

                                                                                                                                         January 30, 2012

Dear Family,

It is so crazy that it hasn't snowed that much yet in Utah.  Usually we have a ton by now and this is the best time for skiing and snowboarding but I guess not now. It has been weird here too.  Yesterday is was around 50 degrees and then last week it snowed but I'm not complaining.  I would rather it be warm here so I don't have to walk in the bitter cold.

I am sure Bishop Rosner and Pres. Bangerter's talks were great.  I have been studying about temple covenants a little lately and I have found some interesting scriptures that really make me rethink my commitment to my Heavenly Father. The covenants that we make are very powerful and very exact and we need to do everything that we can to keep our end of the commitments. I will send you some scriptures about it next week.

Dad, those audits at work sound like they make your company run better in the long run but, I am sure they are very stressful.  It sounds a lot like a mission, when we have exchanges with the district or zone leaders and even president Topham it really makes me humble myself and see the many flaws that I have and it shows me that I need to work harder and always work towards improvement.  Just the other day when president Topham came on exchanges with me he taught me something very important and that was how to simplify and intensify our lessons.  He always says that and stresses it in zone conferences but when he came with us I realized how to do it and that is by keeping the lessons short. Sharing with people one subject or principle of the gospel and then letting them ponder and think about that one subject, instead of sharing the whole lesson and talking way too much about things that people probably don't understand.  I realize now that the lessons that Stewart and I had usually went way too long but I am now working on it and it has so far been successful.  Constant Improvement!! That's what I'm shooting for!

My ankle is doing really well. I have started jogging and doing some cardio things that are strengthening it and it is starting to feel lots better.  I haven't gotten an ankle brace but that's because I haven't needed it.  I haven't been playing any sports but I'm going to go get a brace this week because I want to start being active again and playing sports but not basketball.  The ankle has really put a damper on my attitude and I think it was because I wasn't able to run or jump and play any sports on my P-day which stinks.  The air boot is really depressing and impossible to wear on a mission so I haven't worn it for a while.

I am staying very warm. I woke up the other night covered in sweat because the heated blanket was folded over and caused tons of heat which cause me to sweat. I only have to turn the heated blanked up to 4 and it stays really warm. Elder Rudd got a new mattress this week which I am sad about because it is super nice. It's my fault though because Elder Stewart had the better mattress when he was here and then when he left I switched mattresses with him so that I would have the better one and Elder Rudd would have my old one that was all springs.  You could feel every spring and it caused my back to hurt every morning. I thought I was just getting a good work out but instead it was just the crappie bed that I slept on for 3 months. After I switched, the next day I got a call from Sister Bowcut, the one that takes care of our apartments, and she asked if the mattresses where ok and I told her that Elder Rudd’s was really bad and so she said she would get him a new one. I didn't think she would've gotten a brand new one for him but she did and it is super nice. I am jealous but I guess I won’t trade mattresses again. I'll just ask for a new one.

Elder Rudd is doing well. He is realizing that there is a lot more to a mission than just having all your scripture masteries memorized.

Chester is great! He came to church yesterday and loved it. He was telling members that he is soon going to be baptized and be a member of the church. He is just enjoying life and he is really happy about quitting smoking. He was telling some members that he quit smoking yesterday too. So he is doing great and our lessons are fun. I love teaching him because he is willing to learn and already has a strong testimony of the church. This week we taught him the law of chastity and the law of tithing which he took really well and will do his best to keep both of them. He will be getting baptized on the 11th of February!!!

We have two new people that we are teaching named Joseph and Donna. I can't remember if I have told you about them. Anyway, we taught Joseph and Donna on Tuesday and they had a bunch or great questions and they are really excited about learning more and eventually becoming members of the church. We didn't get to teach too much of the first lesson because we were answering so many questions but, it was really good and they invited us to come back on Thursday for lunch and a lesson. So Thursday came and we had a great lunch (chicken and brown rice) and learned that Joseph used to be a chef. Then we taught the 1st lesson about the restoration and I used the red cup lesson that I made. They really enjoyed it and Joseph was asking about faith and how he thinks he has no faith but I told him that he was showing faith by letting us in his house. I have a lot of faith in Donna and Joseph and know they will make the changes in their lives so that they can become baptized.  

We have a new investigator named Jackie. Her son is a member and sent in a referral for us to go see her. She had just been in a car accident where her friend that was driving drunk and died.  She is at the lowest of the low in her life. She is now being charged with involuntary manslaughter because her friend was driving her car and she let him drive it drunk. So she is going through a rough time and we hope she doesn't go to jail or anything. I really love teaching her and she make me excited to teach and to prepare lessons for her because she is so emotional and has so many good questions. We did a fast for her yesterday so we are praying that nothing happens when she goes to court this Wednesday. She wants to make major changes in her life but it will be hard because she told us she has a lot of issues. She is awesome!

Yesterday we had to teach the combined lesson for the fifth Sunday. Well, we didn't have to, but we wanted to because we wanted to talk about member referrals and how the ward needs to be better about giving referrals and doing member missionary work. We wanted to show a video that showed a great example of how easy and effective member referrals are but the DVD didn't work so I ended up having to talk for 15 min about member referrals. It was very stressful because it was pretty much the whole ward except the primary children. So now I can say I have taught a lesson to over a hundred people.  It went well though. I feel I got the point across and they hopefully will give more referrals to us because as of now they don't give very many. Bishop said it was really good and Sister Reyes said she was trying to think of someone she could go and talk to and have them come to her house to learn from the missionaries.  Elder Rudd was a big help also and it was nice to have him up there with me.

Well that's all the stuff I can think of that you would like to hear.

Thanks for everything you guys do and I love you so much!

Love, Elder Mouritsen

P.S. A member got us Cafe Rio on Saturday and brought it to us at church so after church I got to enjoy a big chicken burrito!!