Elder Eppich Coming home this week!

Well it is about time to get Elder Eppich home!

He will be in @ 5:00 p.m on Wednesday!

We are very excited for this day to be here but also

realize that he has lots of decisions to make now to decide

where his path will take him.

I asked him if he was excited! He said, "Mom I have so many emotions

going on right now. Excitement, nervousness, sadness, scared, joy, concern

all in one. But YES! Pretty excited to see his family. 2 years is a long time

to go without seeing any family but he has LOVED his mission and he can

see that he has grown spiritually and has matured. Many wonderful things

are learned as a young woman or your man leaves their family to serve the

Lord for 2 years. We look forward to having him home and get to know him.

We will be in the process of moving into our new home back on the farm and we

are pretty excited about that. Possibly I will add one more post and then this

blog will be history for Nate.

Thank You all for your support for Nate during his service.

Love you all!

Two and half more weeks till Elder Eppich returns

Hey! Thought I would write a bit about Elder Eppich. He is going strong, doing his best to not get to trunky about coming home. His companion doesn't help. He reminds him whenever they see a plane that he will be on it soon. They have been working hard there in Lubbock. They opened up a new area. He is still on a bike! The office loaned him a bike till he goes home since he got his stolen in Artesia. He is having a day surgery on Tuesday to take a lump or a large lump and many small ones out of him lip. He hopes to be healed by the time he returns home. I think he is kind of scared. His blood pressure was very high when he went in for an exam. He was worried that something was wrong with him. I think it was a case of "Scared of the Dr." lol. He has really enjoyed his mission and looks forward to the next phase of his life. He will be arriving home at 5:00 p.m. on March 21st at the Pasco airport. We can't hardly wait.

He has turned 21 tomorrow March 4th. Can't believe that our baby is 21.

January 12,2012

Dear Mom & Dad;

Well, how is my most favorite people in the world? I can only imagine that everything is amazing for y'all. I am sure y'all are running around like a chicken with your head cut off. I am pretty excited to help y'all with the landscaping on the house. I am pretty good at service projects. lol What all has to be done on the landscaping? Well everything is pretty much going good here in Artisia. I am way excited for this Saturday. James is getting baptized. It has been a really long road for this guy. He has gone through a lot of missionaries. He told us a few weeks ago that he gives up. He has been trying to prove us wrong for so long but he hasn't been able to. He said since he has stopped trying to prove us wrong everything just seems right. He feels a lot better about what we teach, his doubts have gone away. He is really nervous but very excited . Elder Davis and I are too, lol. There is this other lady that we knocked into. Her name is Rayna, she is so solid. We taught her about Christ church being restored and how we are the only church that has the authority to baptize. We told her that this is the way she can come to know this is true by reading the Book of Mormon. The lesson went so smooth. It was probably one of the best lessons I have ever taught. The spirit was so strong and Rayna was really enjoying it. She kept wanting to know what was next . We went over to teach her tonight, we talked to her about baptism and the importance of it. How that is the first step to have an eternal family. We were able to set a date for her today for baptism on Feb. 4th. I hope it goes through. It is amazing what the Lord puts in your path as you are diligent. In D&C 75:3-5 it talks about the fact that if we go forth without idleness and lift up our voices and be faithful we will be laden with many sheaves upon our backs. I know this to be true. It happened with Rayna and many other times through out my mission. If you have faith, God will provide.

Wow! I can't believe it is 2012 already. I need to revisit a resolution that I had years ago when I was loosing weight. I decided to resolve not to eat candy or drink pop and I want to read all the way through the Bible and the Book of Mormon when I get home. Wish me luck. It sounds like things were a bit boring for New Years. That's ok I went to be at 10:30. So Kacie went to extreme bull riding on New Years. Didn't know that they had that in Tri-Cities. That is crazy what I am hearing about the whole basketball thing in Connell. Sure hope it all gets straightened out. Mom have you been able to get those vitamins for me? About Taylor's buddy. I have asked around to the other boarder patrol guards here in the branch and none of them know him. Does he go to church or has he left training already. We have a branch here but we will be a ward real soon. Well I had better get going. I hope everything is going great for y'all. Love y'all lots. See y'all soon.

Love Elder Eppich

Long time with no letters to post December 28, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Well how's is life treating y'all? Well as y'all know by now I am sure, I am now in Artesia New Mexico. I am pretty surprised that I got transferred again. I think this is probably where I will end up finishing my mission, I hope anyway since I have been doing a lot of packing lately. I have a lot of stuff that I don't know what to do with right now. I think I will need to start sending somethings home as I only want to come home with l bag. Artesia is pretty sweet. It is a smaller town. There is about 10,000 people that live here. Oh! They are way good at football here. Their stadium is so big here. It is bigger than most college ones. The ward here I hear is not the most active. We have a lot of boarder patrol people here. It is one of the biggest training facilities for law training. So they are not the best at missionary work so we have some work to do. There are some really cool families here, the Whites, the Heists and a few other families but I don't remember their names. There is this one guy his name is John and he is 75. He pretty much takes care of the missionaries, feed us and buys our food and drags us around. In fact I got my bike stolen and he insisted on buying me a new one. I argued with him but I didn't win. He is really giving. He makes us breakfast every Thursday. He is a way good cook. Hope I don't gain to much weight. I was pretty surprised because when I got here I found out I was serving with Elder Davis again. They don't tell the missionaries where they are getting transferred to or who they will serve with until they get to their new area. We were real surprised. It's way crazy! We were both shocked but pretty stoked. I served with him in San Angelo if you remember. We should do good here. We gotta do a lot of knocking. The last Elders didn't have much going here. There is this guy named James. He is pretty crazy. You can tell that he is pretty down. We actually set a date with him the night that I got here. It is for Jan. 14th. I hope it goes through. I am pretty positive that it will happen this transfer. I will continue to update y'all on that. Next we have Cassi and her family. She has 2 daughters that are baptized, then 3 boys that are 12,10,8 and they aren't baptized. I haven't meet them yet. They seem to be coming along pretty good. That's about it though. Everyone else either doesn't keep commitments or won't listen. We need to find some more sound people. Well everything is going pretty good. Trying to keep myself going strong till the end. Don't want to get to trunky, lol! Well I hope everything is going good for you. How is the house coming along. Is it close to being finished? Y'all should send more photos for me to see and I will try to get some out to you. How are all the kids doing? Did everyone get back safe from Christmas. Oh! Mom! I sent the Christmas tree home, thanks for that. Well I better get going. Love y'all all , Take Care!

Love Elder Eppich

P.S. What are y'all doing for the New Year? Happy New Year!

Having Snow in Abilene, Texas Dec, 2011

Well we got our e-mailing back. I didn't know how much I love the e-mailing system. Dad I don't know how you did it on your mission. lol I sure did miss e-mailing and knowing what was going on right then at that moment. Pretty grateful for small things. So for Christmas we get to Skype or video phone. President just sent us all an e-mail telling us of this opportunity. I just wanted to let you know so that we could do that if you want to. Let me know what y'all want to do , I am down with whatever y'all decide. I would like to do the video phone so I can see everyone since it has been so long, lol. Mom I still haven't gotten my box with my little tree in it. I thought you had said you sent it and I wanted to make sure it didn't get lost in the mail. It doesn't feel like Christmas without my little tree. lol Thanks! Well the weather here has been freezing cold, we have been down in the 20's and let me tell you it is not one bit of fun riding bikes in that kind of weather, lol. Abilene has gotten it's first snow fall. We got a whole 1/4 inch. Ya! we are moving up in the world here. They said a long time ago it snowed a whole 1/2 foot, Ha I didn't know weather to act surprised or just be like, "oh that's cool. We get 4 times that much in Washington. lol My comps and I are getting along great! They are pretty funny guys to be with. We get some pretty good laughs while we are tracting and out working. I am pretty excited for when I don't have to go into the bathroom to be alone. Ha Ha! So how is everything back home? Anything new or fun you all have been up to? How is the house looking? Have ya'll started working on the inside yet? When are ya'll expected to be in? I get it! Ya'll are delaying the move in so I can help , right! lol
Did ya'll get those pictures I sent home? Hope you liked them. Before I forget. Dad , Happy Birthday, also can you tell little Taylor Happy Birthday for me too.
Well a little about the area. We are getting a bit frustrated about everything that has gone on here. We find new people and we all get so excited and they seem so strong and then we can never get ahold of them. We have been having that a lot. So we don't have to many solid people right now. We are working hard towards positive things to happen. We do have a girl named Hannah and her boyfriend named Toby. He is a less active member that is trying to get back into going to Church. She keeps her commitments but it is hard for her to get to church cuz she works on Sundays. I think she is done working after Christmas though. Then she is going to be having a baby here in February so we will see what happens. Then we have Eric. Eric isa guy that always tells us that he doesn't have time to read the Book of Mormon, but then whenever we go over to his house he is playing computer games. We taught him last night and he tried to bring up every excuse that he could think of in the excuse book but we were on our game so we had a little something to say after each one, so he pretty much backed himself up in a corner. Then, Tarus we found when we were looking for one of our other investigators. He is way cool we started just talking to us and we were getting to know him and all, then all the sudden he just started asking questions so it was pretty sweet. Our of all the people we have found since being here he is the most solid one. lol So I got a pretty funny story to tell y'all. You have to picture this in your head while you are reading it so it will be funny. So we were riding down this sidewalk, and whoever designed this sidewalk is an idiot. They put fire hydrants right in the middle of the side walk. We were riding and I was on my bike and I tried to shift up but it wouldn't shift so I was looking down at the gears and right when I looked up I ran right into a fire hydrant, flew off my bike into the area, hit the cement and slid like 5 feet. It hurt pretty bad but I think the thing that got hurt the most was my pride cuz I was on a main road so everyone in Abilene pretty much saw it, or I felt like it. lol So I had to get my bike fixed from that. I had to use all the money on my mission card so I will probably be using the home card for food for the rest of the month. Well I think this tops my longest e-mail home. lol I probably better get going. Make sure y'all write back right away letting me know if y'all want to do the video phone or Skype for Christmas, ok. I need to know asap. I love y'all , take care and stay warm building the house. Hope to hear from you next week. Love Elder Eppich

Pecos, Texas! 2011

Training meeting again! Elder Simmons & Me!

This is God's four-way stop sign in Peco's Texas!

More photo updates!

Eppich has a smile on this one! :)

Elder Eppich and Elder Jacobsen at training meeting!

Floors in Apartment are getting cleaned! Time for a snooze!

A member took them to a mexican horse race! He said a guy died that day!

New Photos of Elder Eppich

This is a photo of Karl on his mission in Australia!

Mailing a letter home!


Elder Eppich and Elder Martinez in Pecos! Cool Photo!

October 17, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Well how is everything doing? Pecos is treating me pretty good. Right now we are stuck in our apartment. President Augustin told everyone to get inside cuz there is a 70 mph sand storm coming through. I think we will be in for the rest of the night. I am very bored, there is nothing to do when you are stuck inside. lol Anyways the branch here is pretty small. There is only about 30 people counting all the kids. lol Pretty small! So there is a family here named the Sparkmans. They are pretty cool. They have us missionaries over every Sunday for dinner. Then the kids have us over through out the rest of the week. There isn't very many member so their family pretty much takes care of the missionaries. I really appreciate them for that. The whole branch is pretty much related. The older Sparkmans pretty much had a lot of kids and they made up the Branch, lol! So on Saturday night Elder Martinez got a call from President Sparkman to give a talk on Sunday and he was upset because I didn't get asked to speak. Well, dumb me decided to make fun of him. The next day we go to church and sacrament starts and Brother Barrera gets up and says now we will hear from Elder Martinez, knowing me right, I start laughing at him. Then all the sudden Brother Barrara was like, we would also like to hear from Elder Eppich. He said sorry for not telling you a head of time. Right then my stomach dropped. My mind went blank and I couldn't remember scriptures or anything. It was bad, lol! I didn't know what I was going to talk about till I got up there. Then all the sudden the Gospel of Jesus Christ popped into my head. It was crazy. I felt really good about the talk and I felt like I made sense. I pretty much surprised myself. Usually I get a little notice when I need to give a talk so this was a good test for me to always be prepared. I talked for about 10-15 min with the help of the spirit. My comp was giving me guff because he didn't think I messed up and I didn't get way ahead notice so it was a good day for me. He did good also. A few cool experiences we had this past week. We were knocking doors and we saw this lady and her daughter sitting outside. It turns out that they were less active and her sister wants to be baptized. Pretty cool! We are teaching them now. Also there is this other lady named Ellen, she has been taking the lessons for awhile now. Well we go to her house to talk to her for a little on the door step. Well, it turns out she has been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized. Also this other lady named Anita, she wants to get baptized too but she said she needs a little more time. Hope she doesn't wait to long she is about to die over dead, lol. Kind of old. Oh , man there is this other lady we are teaching. Her name is Arelli and her house stinks so bad. I think that is the reason I stayed states side cuz I wouldn't be able to handle it, lol! She is about 400 lbs and is pretty lazy. She has a 4 year old daughter that jumps all over us and I have the hardest time letting that happen cuz her mom just doesn't keep her clean. We endure though. We went there the other night and they kept giving us food, so me thinking I was smart tried to stuff it in my backpack to eat, (throw away) later. Well, she caught me and said, "eat, eat" I know I am supposed to appreciate that they will give us anything but I had the hardest time eating that stuff. I was being polite Mom and I ate it but I felt sick!lol Hey! Thanks for the picutres! Looks like everyone and everything are doing great. The house looks great, can't wait to see when the outside is all done. I think all of us missionaries get a little trunky when we get to the end of our missions. I am not sure when I will be home but I sure look forward to coming home. Don't worry, I am pretty good at staying focused, I have it covered. Yea! about those concussions, I got the one after the bike reck in Alpine. I got another one in Midland. We were playing football with those black guys from the college and they wanted me to play quarter back I got clobbered pretty hard on one hit and I felt like I did when I had my accident. I didn't want to go to the hospital. I just put up with it. I do have headaches more often now but it is all good, I have it covered. Well I got to get going, not sure where I am going since I am stuck inside for the night! lol. Take Care! Love ya all!

P.S. Thanks for the camera and Mom here are some pictures finally.

Pecos, Texas is a slow town!

Elder Eppich wrote today. Not a long letter , he has Zone Conference tomorrow so didn't have much to say. P-Days are pretty quiet as there is nothing in the small town of Pecos. He was looking forward to Zone Conference as there was a General Authority coming to visit the mission. They just made a visit to a woman's home and it was a very dirty and poor home, they give them lots of food, Elder Eppich wasn't sure what it was and if it was edible so he proceeded to put it in his back pack to get out of eating it and throw it away later. The lady was persistent that they eat. He did and felt very sick the whole time. Not sure how that came out for him. Elder Eppich is in an all Spanish speaking area and he doesn't speak the language. It is kind of difficult for him but good that he might be able to learn some Spanish. Says to say Hi to everyone! He loves you all.

New Transfer! Pecos, Texas October 5,2011

I don't get to many good letters from Elder Eppich these days so I will share a bit from his SHORT e-mails. He has been transferred from San Angelo, TX to Pecos, Texas. This is a very small town which he likes. He is in a car and he is pretty excited about that also. He has been given a challenge of being put in Spanish speaking area. His companion is Elder Martinez from Payson , Utah. He speaks fluent Spanish and all their contacts up to this date are completely Spanish. I think he is being challenged. He was excited to learn Spanish at the first of his mission but he said he is pretty tired right and not sure if he has it in him but that he would sure give it his best try. The food is awesome for sure! His companion has been out for about 9 months. There has not been a baptism for quite a long time now so he hopes he can work on that. The weather in Pecos is around the 70's and he is enjoying that. It is a pretty slow pace town and he thought he may get caught up on some letters that he is behind on. Don't anyone hold your breath though. He only has about 4 months left on his mission so it is going to pretty much fly by for him after the holidays. We are grateful for his service to the Lord and we are thankful for keeping him safe and healthy. Thanks for every ones support to Nate as he has served. I will post his updated address soon. Love y'all!

August 25, 2011

Elder Eppich made his transfer yesterday. Long day for him. He stayed up pretty late and cleaned his house and was to be in Lubbock for his bus ride to San Angelo by 9:00 a.m. Missed the bus so he had to be ran to Odessa and there he waited for an hour for the bus and then took a 6 hour bus ride to San Angelo. He was very happy about that because he was able to get some much needed sleep. He said he is in a town of about 100,000 people. When he got off the bus he was hit with extreme heat. His companion is from Utah and has been out for about 6 months. He said he is a hard worker and looking forward to getting to know him. His comp said he really likes the town but people are not nice because this town is close to that Polygamists Jepps, (crazy guy) so they associate him with us. So he is anxious for planning meeting tomorrow. He is healthy and happy and says to tell everyone Hi and he loves them.

Transfered to San Angelo, Texas Aug, 22, 2011

News from the mission field has it that Elder Eppich is headed to San Angelo, Texas.
He will be headed there Aug. 24,2011. He has been in Portales a little over 6 months and
is looking forward to some new scenery. We will look forward to some news from him on
Thursday which is his prep day.

August 5th, 2011

I decided I had better put a little information on here for Nate. He has become very inconsistent with his letter writing. So if any of you have written and he hasn't written you back, I will apologize for him. He isn't following the rules and writing to his Mom even. That Boy!

He is still in Portales, NM He has served there for 6 months. He believes that he will be getting transferred here in a few weeks. He loves the people there. He had to let his greeny go, Elder Ward. He trained him and he said he was the best guy. Very humble and funny and willing to learn but very homesick. He went up to Amarillo, Texas to serve. He is happy and enjoying the fruits of their labor. He enjoys watching people he cares about enter the waters of baptism. He can't believe that he is winding down to 6 months left. Crazy he says. He will return home the end of February or first week of March. He misses the family and looks forward to spending time with everyone. He reminds us ofter how important it is to stay close to the Lord and stay close as a family.

Hopefully we will get some updated photos soon.

June 23, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

Well first off I just want to say , sorry for not having an e-mail written to y'all today when you opened your e-mail. the computers in the library all shut down. Then when we got back on we didn't have a whole lot of time, but at least I got a really small e-mail out to y'all. LOL Anyways, Dad what you were saying today about when you get out on your mission for so long it gets harder and harder to write back letters. It is so true. I am tired that all I want to do is sleep. But I can't sleep right now. It was pretty nice because today was the first p-day in I don't know how long that I got to take a nap. It was so nice. Dad I don't know if you ever took naps on your mission but when I get the chance I take advantage of it. LOL!
Anyways, my comp is doing great. He is a cowboy from Elisa Idaho. A really small town. Only 150 people there. He is a way good kid. He was way shy at first but I am breaking him of that in a hurry. I have been making him do a lot of the talking at door steps. He has made me laugh quite a few times. He has been a little homesick. He say's it feels like he has been out for 12 years already, lol! I just laughed and told him it will start to fly by before long and to just hang in there. This kid has probably been my favorite greenie. He is way funny and a very nice guy. Not cocky and is willing to learn, he is just a very good person. Well a little bit about what's going on here in Portales. We have this guy named Michael Whery. Way cool guy. We set a date for him to be baptized on the 10th of July. This guy is way solid. He has read the whole Book of Mormon in about a month. So way cool. He knows it is true and is stoked to be baptized. So pretty exciting. He actually took us to Pizza Hut tonight. Next is Grady. He is a 45 year old black dude. At first it was a little hard to get him going but he is doing great now. He said ever since we started to teach him everything has just felt right. Because he has been going through a lot of stuff with his wife and everything. So he is a pretty cool dude. He is going to be baptized on July 2nd. Next we have Sally, Perla, Yla. I think I have told you about them. Well, right now we are kind of in a bind with them. We really don't know where to go next with them. But we will figure it out. Well the house is looking pretty good so far from what I can see. I really do wish ya'll would send me more pictures of the house and everything back home. I would like to see y'all. lol Honestly it is not going to take my mind off the work. Promise. I mean y'all want more pictures of me right? This can go both ways here. The more pictures I send home the more y'all will think about me, right and interrupt your work. Lol! Do you get what I mean? I would like some more photos of home. So I will get some updated ones sent out and you do the same OK! Good! How is everyone doing back home? Good I hope. Well I had better get going now. I need to get to bed I am a little tired. I will talk to y'all later. Take Care. Love ya lots! Love Elder Eppich

Short Update June 26, 2011

Not a whole lot of news from New Mexico. Elder Eppich is kind of decided that he doesn't have to much time for letter writing. He seems to be very busy in the mission work. He is still in Portales New Mexico and loving it. He is training a brand new missionary from a small town in Idaho. His name is Elder Ward. He says he is very shy and quiet but that he is a great kid and is going to be a great missionary once he opens his mouth. He is giving him lots of opportunities to talk. The work is going great there. They have just welcomed a new mission President. Haven't heard anything about the new President yet. Nate hated to see President Robinson leave. He is very busy and very hot , the temp stays in the 100's this time of year with lots of fires around the state.

He said he realizes that his mission is winding down to the last 6 months and there is so much work to do. He apologizes often that he doesn't write much but welcomes anyone that would like to drop a line. He said he is having the time of his life and really enjoying mission life.

June 2, 2011

Dear Mom & Dad;

How are things going back home? Good I hope. Sounds like ya'll had a great time with Kyle & Natalie and the kids home. Did Kel and Mel make it, I never heard, I sure hope the got to go. I like knowing that all the family is together, just like it should always be. Sounds like Liv had a little accident. I sure hope she is doing ok now! She is part Eppich she should be tough, lol! I sure hope the house is done by the time I get home and I miss the moving part. I do so much of that out here and would love to put the grass in so I get that job. lol Things are going pretty good here in Portales. We finally got rain here. So everyone is happy about that, lol. Si it is really starting to get hot here. It was in the upper 90's the other day. Man was that fun to ride bikes in that heat, lol. speaking of heat, Mom did you send those mesh garments? I want to try them to see if they will be cooler. Thanks! Man, I was sad to see Elder Krizin leave. At first we really struggled with each other and we were able to work things out and we got to where we were working really well together. We learned a lot from each other. He really had a hard time that I was younger than him but we made it work and now I hated to see him move on. Seems like you just get going with a companion and then it is time to move on. Oh Well! My new comp is from a little town in Idaho with about 150 people that live there. His name is Elder Ward. He is VERY quiet and scared. Kind of drives me crazy but we will work that one out, he will get more comfortable here, we have amazing members here. Just like home. His dad raises and works with horses for a living , I think that is way cool. Mom, there isn't a whole lot that I want you to send me because I know it will be food that I should not be eating. I love your cookies but I will eat them all and I am trying to keep my weight down so don't worry about it right now. I really don't need anything, but thank you. Our investigators are doing great but kind of slow. We are working with Sally, Pedro and Yla. They aren't really reading and we have only got them to church 1 time so hopefully something will change I hope soon anyways. I do think they will get baptized soon so that is good. Next is Destiny, she is legit. She was a referral from a member. She says she needs direction in her life and she has gone to other churches looking for that direction and hasn't found it so she is really liking the doctrine of Jesus Christ and what the Gospel has to offer. I know she will like this I have such a strong testimony of the Restored Gospel I just don't know how anyone could not see the good. The most progressing investigator is Michael. He is a cool kid. The only problem is he can only go to church like every 4 weeks so we have to figure that one out. But it will be all good. Well I got to get going, I am tired. I really need some sleep. Last week was so crazy and exhausting. So I plan on crashing here soon. I love ya'll lots. I am having a blast on my mission and so grateful that I am able to serve and especially here in the Lubbock mission. I will send more pictures Mom don't worry. Love ya'll! Take Care! Love Elder Eppich

Time flies

Just an apology to those that follow Elder Eppich on his blog. His mother has gotten so behind in posting his letters. He is doing awesome and looks forward to seeing everyone when he has finished his mission.

May 1, 2011

Hey! Mom & Dad;

Man, a year ago I would of never thought it would be this hard to keep up with this letter writing, LOL! I am trying my "best" to get er'done. :) I wrote Lexi, Taylor, Kacie and Laurin. They should all have their letters by now. If they don't I don't know what to tell you. I am still working on a huge pile on my night stand. We have been so swamped with work that I get in at night and crash then p-days are so full it seems. Hope everyone understands.

So, I don't know if I could have a better Mother's Day than this one even though it is for Mom's. The reason way, I get to call home which I can't wait for. It seems like I just talked to ya'll yesterday. But that is good because that means we have been very busy in the Lubbock Mission. The next best reason is that we are having a baptism this Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday. I am so stoked. This girl is so tight. Her name is Jolisa Carter , she is 18. she is really excited to get baptized. We are also teaching this other family. There is a Mom and 2 daughters, they are pretty tight. They are from the Evangelical Church. They are coming along slow but still they are making progress. Then we have this other lady named Denice. She is cool. Her boyfriend left her for some other girl and they had a 7 year old and another one on the way. She is thinking about abortion. We are going to be having a good lesson about the plan of Salvation tonight. I hope it goes well. Well that is about it for our investigators. We work hard at finding more. It is funny, here in Texas when we walk down the streets the some families will hurry and get their kids to come in the house from playing and shut the doors and close the curtains. Then as we walk by you can see them peeking out the curtains and we just smile and wave to them. A lot of people think we are the FBI, that is kind of funny also to watch people hurry and put on seat belts and worry that we are the law and going to stop them. I get a kick out of that one. I love serving in Protales, New Mexico. People here are so humble and teachable. We are fed way to much food but we enjoy it. The winds have been so bad. We try to ride bikes in 60 mph winds, there was one day that I almost hit a parked car because the wind was blowing so bad and dirt blowing I couldn't see. Windy season will be over in May , so they tell us. My legs get great exercise. Things are great here, it is wonderful to see the work of the Lord move forward. It will move forward with or without us. I am so glad to be on the Lord's team. It has been a huge blessing in my life and I have seen it change the lives of many here in the Lubbock mission. I am thankful for this opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father these 2 years. We are so busy and I like it that way. Take Care! I love ya'll. Love Elder Eppich

Elder Eppich with a HUGE sombrero that a

member gave him.

A Day at the Ranch

Hey! Mom & Dad;

Well, Here you go Mom, here is another letter for you. I am so sorry that I haven't been keeping up on the letter writing. I will try to keep up on it. I am not going to lie, I might miss a few weeks but I will do my best. Well, this week has been pretty sweet nothing really exciting has gone on except for Conference. That was pretty sweet. I love Elder Uchtdorf's talks. I think he is my favorite speaker. It seemed like conference was focused on guys picking up their game and getting married. At least in Priesthood it was. I hope they aren't talking about returned missionaries getting married right when they get home because I am worried that I have so many decisions to make when I get home. Conference was so great though. I noticed that President Monson was full of jokes. LOL! President Robinson came to our district and he was telling us that after listening to conference and realizing his call that he was having a change of heart. He is going to get out there and actually be a missionary instead of just a mission President. I thought that was pretty cool. Last week we found this unmarried couple that we started to teach, they are pretty cool. Their names are Debra and Andrew. Andrew is a lot more opened to learning, Debra not so much. We talked to them about eternal marriage and they really liked what we taught. Andrew was asking some pretty cool questions. So was Debra. I hope everything goes good with them they could really use the Gospel in their lives. Keep them in your prayers please! The Selina's family, we are trying to find out what to do with them. I don't know. They aren't taking it serious. But it is just like Preach my Gospel say's if they don't realize how important this message is , We Do! So we need to help them realize that they need Christ in their lives. Well those are our most progressing investigators.

As far as my comp and I , we get along pretty great. He does have a problem with someone younger telling him what to do. I guess I wouldn't like that either. But he thinks that I can't serve without him and keeps telling me that. He is right! I think one day I will just keep quiet all day and help him realize that we need each other to do the Lords work. He knows the area better than I and I have been out longer so I have had more experience in teaching. So basically together we make one. Other than that we are doing great and we will get that figured out.

We are pretty excited for p-day. We get to go out to a Ranch and we are going to play doctor with the cows. We get to put our hands all the way into the mommy cows .........and feel for the babies. I think it will be tight! LOL So I am pretty excited. We are going to be able to hang around the farm and help out and jump into hugh cotton bails. I will take photos for sure.

Riding bikes is going pretty good. Going good with the exercising also. I have started to eat more because we get fed here very well so I am pretty much staying at the same weight. I am hoping to get some running in here soon. Here in New Mexico it is a little colder than Texas. Actually a lot colder right now but still a lot warmer than home. You know Mom & Dad I have had a lot of experiences out here in the mission where I have realized that the Lord cannot work through us when we are boastful and think we are the best at everything. We are not able to listen to the spirit or be teachable. I am thankful that you and Dad taught us that we should not think so much of ourselves. I know I probably didn't listen so much at the time but I have been reminded of that often out on the mission. When we think so much of ourselves and put ourselves above others we are not able to be effective. I remember Dad always telling me, Let your game do the talking, you don't have to remind everyone that you are good if you have game. It works here in the mission too! Being humble! That is a Christ like quality. With humility we are able to serve others and not worry about ourselves.

My camera is ok! I bought that one from Best Buy but it was way expensive. So I took it back. Jeremy the kid we taught in Midland needed some money so I bought his camera that was pretty much new. It works for now. How is Dad feeling? Hope better. I have picked up something and been feeling really crummy. It is hard to do missionary work when you are sick but we will shake it here soon. Mom, you haven't seen Morgan in awhile? I am sure he is real busy with baseball. Hope he is doing ok! He wants me to go play baseball with him in Oregon when I get home. Yes! We are getting a new mission President in June. I am going to really miss President Robinson. He is way tight! Change happens and we all have to deal with it. I am excited to meet our new one. Well I had better go. Love ya'll lots!

Love Elder Eppich

We got back from the Ranch! We had an awesome day. We got to jump into huge cotton piles. We didn't get to check on the baby cows but maybe some other time. We loved being on the farm. We got back so late and we had a lesson and we didn't even get to shower. Stink!

Love ya'll