Daniel- Alpine , Texas/ Great Guy!

The Ellis Family- Alpine, Texas 2010

Midland is Great

Dear Mom;

If you were out here Mom you would here me bear my testimony like 10 times a day. It is a challenge to not be routine but if you are in tune with the spirit then the spirit will bear it's testimony through you. Well this letter is going to be kind of short, I think I have said that before. I will hand write one to you because when our time is up on the computer it automatically shuts off so I have to get down to business. Tell Laurin happy birthday for me, man she is getting old. I can't believe that I am going to be 20 here pretty soon. All I wanted when I was young is to be older but now that I am getting older all I want is to be younger, lol.
We are doing well here in Midland. I am pretty tired most of the time, we work pretty hard through the week and crash at nights. Sure have enjoyed my companion. We work well together. The other day I busted up laughing, we were on our bikes and I was hurrying across the street and I turned around and look to see if he made it across, well he didn't make it to well. He caught his back tire and he went flying over the handle bars and did a superman on the pavement. It was so funny I couldn't quit laughing. He was ok just a little bruised and muddy on his white shirt. Then we both laughed all the way back home. Our investigators are doing great. We enjoy teaching the people her in West Texas. We are playing some football on our p-days and I am enjoying the exercise. We don't get much exercise, only bikes once in awhile , the area is so big that we mostly have to take our car. Did I mention that the Ellises came into Midland to go to a Dr. appointment and they took us to lunch. It was great to see them. I am sure I will see them again. Daniel keeps in touch, he is going to move to Logan sometime and he wants to come visit you guys in Washington. He is a super guy. Remember he was the youth pastor. He is loving serving in the gospel. We are working in the mission to have exact obedience. If you think about it , exact obedience takes some thinking about. We do know that if we have exact obedience that doors will be opened for us and we will realize great blessings. I think you tried to teach me that at home. I get it now! lol.Well I really got to run. We are going home to write some letters, play some football and have some fun teaching tonight. We go about 10 miles away to the Library to write our letters on the computer. Mom, the apples were awesome. 2000000 times better than any apple we can get here. Thanks so much! Yes! I am sharing. Love ya all and look forward to the letters. Did you get the letter that I sent to the ward? I hope so, let me know if I need to send more. I am excited to read everyones letter.
Love Elder Eppich

Hi from Midland Texas

Dear Mom;

How are things going for you? Great I hope. Things are really busy out here, infact we are planning on setting a date with a family tonight and I am way excited for this family. They are way awesome. In fact Mom, this family surprised us and showed up at conference this last week, we didn't think they were coming, it was so awesome I almost jumped out of my skin. Well, things are going great here, it is starting to get a little cold, it has been in the 70's lately, still some what warm but there have been a few days in the last week where it was about 50 and I thought I was going to freeze to death, lol. I guess it get's pretty cold here in the winter, I am way excited cuz you can always put more clothes on when it is cold but when it is hot you can't take clothes off, lol. I am sure after a month or so of coldness I will want to be hot again, lol. It is crazy how things like that work lol. Wow! Kortneigh is getting married, huh? That's pretty crazy I didn't think it would be that fast. Tell her congrats! How did the big wedding go with the Koelzer family? Did they like what you did or what? Well, time is just flying by, I can't believe I am getting ready to hit my 7th month mark, it is so carzy. It seems like time goes by slow but it is actually going fast, lol. I am glad to hear that all the kids are doing well. Has Kel said if he is going to write to me yet? Well, I hope everything is going great for you Mom. I love you lots Mom, sorry this one isn't that long but my fingers hurt for some reason, lol. I don't know why. Love ya lots, take care Mom, I am going to print off some pictures for you today. Promise!

Hey Dad; How is it going. I am so mad right now, I just had a whole page to you and some how it just got deleted, oh man, I am so upset right now, I am not the fastest typer in the world either, lol. Things are going pretty good here. The family that we set a date with is coming along pretty good. We are planning on setting another date tonight with a family. There are 3 people in this family and I am way stoked for tonight. Speaking of the word stoked. I was surprised to see you using that word ,lol. I have never heard you say that before, lol. That's awesome Dad, lol. Conference was awesome. I loved it. I loved it so much that I wrote 6 pages of notes front and back, lol. I know! Hard to believe right! I was going crazy , I can't wait for the next conference to come around. I loved all the talks. Presidet Monson seemed like his countenance was alittle bit different this time. He throw's down alot more then he usually does , it was pretty crazy. The world is pretty small isn't it.I never would have thought that I would run into anyone that someone in the family knew, that's so carzy. I can't wait until this guy takes us out to lunch, I am pretty excited about that, lol. When is he planning on taking us out? Well things ya'll can do to become more familure with the Preach my Gospel is to first read the whole thing and second is read what the missionaries are supposed to do to get the members involved, then do those things. You know what I mean? Do the things that it says to get the members involved in the missionary work. You will love that book! Can't live without it. Well, Halloween is coming. So Kacie is making a spook alley. That is way awesome, I remember when we used to do that at the farm. I miss that. Well Dad we have a full schedual today so I got to get going. I love ya lot's Dad, keep up the awesome lingo. If you need new words just let me know. Love ya Dad.

Transfer to Midland, Texas

Hey Mom & Dad; Well I have made it to my new area. I was transfered to Midland Texas. It is a huge place compared to Alpine. It was so difficult to leave Alpine. That is an area that all the Elders want to go because all the members and people there are legit. It was emotional for me to leave but time to move on. I have to think that Midland is going to be the best ever becsause there are good people here also. They just are so big that they get to busy for missionary work and get lazy. Mom I love Preach My Gospel. I am hoping that the people here in Midland will get the vision of that book and learn from it. I bet Sister Hadley did a great job on her class with you. Well funny thing, Elder Reay, my buddy from the MTC replaced me in Alpine. He is just going to love it there. My new companion is Elder Shaffer, he is from,( sit down you won't believe this, lol.) Utah. He knows alot about cows, in fact it is funny how much he knows about cows. I didn't know that much about cows, lol. He has been out about 3 months, good guy and we should do great here. I don't know much about the investigators so I will let you know next week after I get introduced. I am kind of stressed about this transfer. I am Sr. comp and there is lots of responsibilities to this. I am sure if I will humble myself and allow my Father in Heaven to help me we will do just fine. Sounds like your trip to Logan was fun. Did Kel remember me? That guy, I need to hear from him. I am glad to hear that they are doing good. I bet the Temple was awesome. Bryant is doing great. That is good. He needs to hurry and get out of that MTC, it is easy to gain weight in there. I am sure he will be a great missionary. When does he leave for Brazil? Well, I really need to get, sorry the letter is short we have alot to get done today. Please send me my coat Mom, and muddy buddies would be so awesome. Love those things.
Ya'll take care and I love ya lots. Love Elder Eppich

Getting Cold In Alpine

Hey! Dad & Mom;

Wow! Dad had to be at the airport at 5:00 a.m. That's crazy. I am sure he is excited about this little trip and being able to see Kyle and Natalie. No , the hurricane didn't do much to us over here, except it got down to about 50 degrees. Oh! it was so nice, but it was kind of cold so I wish I would of had my coat, but we survived. How long will you have Tia's kids mom? Mom I got the package with the cookies in it. I ate one of the bags in like one day. lol. I was so excited when I opened the box and there were those cookies. I am really excited for those muddy buddies that Kacie is going to make for me. Whenever I think of those my mouth waters. Thanks for sending the recipe for the muddy buddies. I am sure I will find someway to mess them up, lol. Well, I was kind of bummed about our investigator but we did all that we could do. We bore our testimony and I know that the spirit was there. You know Dad it is just like a horse, you can lead it to water but you can't make him drink. That is the same with out investigators, we can show them the Gospel but it is up to them weather they follow in Christ footsteps. All we can do is pray for him and hopefully he will come back. That scripture that you mentioned, Alma. it is a very good one. I would have him read it but we won't be meeting with him for awhile we are going to leave him alone for a little while and hopefully he will see that he needs this in his life. To look on the bright side of things we knocked into a family last night that is way tight. I am very excited for them. I can't wait to teach them next week. They are one of those families that you meet and just say " they need to hear the Gospel". They would help out the branch so much. They do have lots of LDS friends so that is very helpful. On the part member family. He wasn't able to make it to church Sunday because he picked up something that got him way sick. He even missed 3 days of work. We are going over there tonight, we are teaching the lesson on the importance of the Book of Mormon, it is going to be awesome, I can't wait. So our week has been pretty good. We are a little bit behind, I haven't been feeling the best this week but I am doing alright. We get to go to the Temple on Saturday with the youth. I am way excited about that. Hey! If you want I would love some farm apples. The apples down here are so bad. They are so small and not good at all. I don't like them one bit. lol. Well I had better get going. Love ya lots, Take care, can't wait to hear back from you. Love Elder Eppich

Hey Family;
Dad from reading the letters it looks like you had better get some sleep or your going to fall asleep doing your bids or something that wouldn't be good at all. You might mess up on something, lol. We ended up getting a phone call from the kid that was going to get baptized telling us that he can't get baptized because he still kind of believes in eveloution. We sat down with him and we talked to him for about an hour to see if that was his only concern, well it turns out that his main reason for not wanting to get baptized is cuz of his passed. He did drugs, he dosen't want to be forgiven for his sins because he doesn't want to forget them. We told him that even though he repents he can still remember not to do them. He said that he hasn't done anything for God for it to be equaled out. I told him that in Gods eyes being baptized will equal that out, it will be the leveler. We challenged him to keep reading and praying and we will call him Saturday. Who knows, I still have hope for him, maybe he will get baptized in 2 weeks, who knows, we will keep him in our prayers. I was pretty bummed out about that. This has happened twice to us. We will just carry on. We are looking for strong people that want to make a change in their lives. I don't know what we are doing wrong but we will figure it out. I did hear about that Bishop in California. So hard for his family. He left behind 6 boys and his wife. God must have something more inportant for him to do on the otherside, you know it is hard to lose people but when you realize they are in a better place than you are , it is a little bit easier to overcome the saddness, I think, anyways, I mean I haven't lost anyone that is really close to me so I guess I wouldn't know. The thing about Lehis dream that you mentioned Dad kind of made me laugh because we have a joke in the mission that when you fall asleep in personal study we say that you are studying Lehis dream, lol. Kinda funny I guess, lol. Dang, now that I think about it, missionaries have corny jokes. Very true, I think most of us are like Lamen and Lemual and don't see the big picture but when we finally do it can almost be to late sometimes just like it was for them. What I really have realized here in the mission is that I didn't do all I could back home that I was blinded by things that I did, or places that we shouldn't be, they make it so you can't feel the spirit and I think that is how it is for alot of people. Anyways! I gotta go, love ya all, take care and I will talk to you next week. Love Elder Eppich