Letter from Greg 2/26/08

Well I don't know how this will go. I haven't been able to clearly put all my thoughts down on paper like I really want to. I have been doing some real up and down times in life. Just extreme lows and highs. But i can really feel love for the people now.

Good news! A lady here named Felita, got baptized in Jan. She is moving to Scottsdale in June to go to culinary school there! So she will be there when I'm home! how sweet is that? I'm looking forward to her living there. she is sooo awesome.

Well I'm sorry to say but I had a crazy black lady propose to me the other day. She is really interesting. She is a member of the holiness church. Pentecostal. yeah they are crazy and everywhere! and she likes to talk to us. but has this weird attraction to me for some reason. so we talk with her through her screen. and i don't talk much to her but she will occasionally stop the conversation to talk to me, and she randomly asked me if i would marry her. I said no of course and my only nice excuse i could say was "I'm on a mission." i didn't want to say because you're old or Pentecostal but she didn't think it was a good excuse. but luckily she left it alone. yeah she is weird.

I have always prayed before my study in the morning to use what I learn throughout the day. and it finally happened! we were teaching Felita and everything I had learned in the morning about loving others and using the BOM helped her exactly as she needed! it was so amazing to see that even the random scriptures I cross-referenced had helped her out too! it truly was a tender mercy from the Lord and I thanked Him ten times over for that. it was awesome to see the fruits of my labor for that day. I met brother Zundel's family out here. This guy in my ward passed away the week after President Hinckley. And his daughter married Brother Zundel's cousin. whose last name is the same. so when he introduced himself i found it couldn't be just a coincidence. so i asked if he had family in AZ and he said he did in mesa! so it was his cousin! it was really cool. he took pictures that he should have sent to brother zundel. they are from Maryland i believe.

Sorry my typing is poor. my hands are shaking pretty badly. Last night was transfer calls. so we can stay up later! and elder quebbeman and i decided to duct tape 2- 2 liter bottles of soda to our hands and drink it! we both only got one down in an hour and gave up. but it was awesome.

It will be Elder Quebbeman, elder Roberts and myself in Ahoskie now, so its good. I heard elder roberts is a strong obedient missionary...exactly the one I was praying for which is good to know. I do not hold myself higher than any other missionary, but i am here to grow.

I would suggest to everyone to please go and buy the new spring Oreos!they are to die for and also if you submerge them in milk.... its like celestial kingdom worthy. i tell you what. oh man. but i thank everyone for their kindness and support no matter what. sorry about my lacking to write. it tough out here. not so much physical but mentally.
Love Elder Malone

p.s. don't keep hidden wedges. read president monson talk in July 2007! good stuff!

Letter home on 2/12/08

Ok so to start off, I had the coolest thing ever happen to me the other day! Ok, so we are told that we have to contact every single referral given by Salt Lake last year this year. So we have been doing a lot of that and we went over to this one lady's house. It was in a pretty bad trailer park and there were some cars outside. AND some dogs...oh yeah. So we walked up and the littler of the dogs was going crazy barking! But it seemed harmless so we walked on. Till we approached the beast... it was a massive dog and we second thought it but as servants of the Lord, we pressed on. We finally reached the steps and the little dog is off the wall barking. It's right by the steps so we walk up and it jumps at elder quebbeman, so we use the bible to repel it away. We all get up the steps and.... well, they are not home. so i take the shot at walking down the steps to see if the little dog will cause trouble because he was hiding. sure enough as i hit the ground he came at me. i thought i was out of his reach but no....he took a nice size bite at my left leg! so now with pain in my leg i look around and he is cowering away. so i tell him i will kill him if he comes back again. so the other two are safely able to get off the porch and im limping away with a battle wound that rivals most veterans. :L) not really. it tore my pants good and got some nice teeth marks in me. A little bit of blood but we stopped rabies by putting hand sanitizer on it. :) it worked. So, pictures are coming. we were going to email them but we forgot the camera. so...yeah thats the week for you.

Pretty much not too much left. Transfers are soon and I am excited for that. But I wanted to say how tough it is living with someone, well one of them. But with the Lords help I am able to look at them with a new light. Sure its tough and every 10 mins I'm praying for strength but last night He turned me around to view a road I had not seen. A new path... and what i thought was a dead end arose up and helped me. So i dont know where it goes but I know its better than where i was.

May we all look towards Him in our times of triumph, sorrow, need and thanks is my prayer. Love Elder Malone

Letter on 2/5/08

Things are good here. We have a GPS provided by elder quebbeman so we dont get lost. We are teaching a lot of people. one is set for baptism and a few others are almost there. ruth is set for the 23rd of feb. and has come twice to church. she needs 4 times so we are praying she still comes. she has a ways to go but is trying hard.

The funeral for President Hinckley was really awesome! I almost cried. he was an amazing man and a great example of work. He has given us all a charge to double baptisms in the north american missions so I think that it would be a great way to honor him by doubling the baptisms. so please do all you can to get referrals for the missionaries. I know that the Lord puts thoughts into your minds of people to refer. and even if you dont think they are right, the Lord does. So follow those thoughts. And tell everyone else that as well!

Well we had some crazy mice all over the apartment lately. But after we put out sticky traps and other traps they have disapperared. We caught 3 so far. I will not tell you what I did with them all but as you can see from some pictures, we did use fire. they deserved it.... pooping on our counters and eating our food! stupid meese. and President Capser the branch president is ok with us killing them! everyone is and everyone else does it so no worries there.

I thank everyone for their packages and support. I didnt get carols but I did get the valentinos. and a letter they had sent the MTC back in november finally came through the other day.

I am really relying on the Spirit lately for strength among the most of things. But mostly for inspiration. Its easy to get used to the spirit and its easy to lose it too. I have really seen how much hard work can turn into a small amount of return. Unfortunately thats how it is sometimes. But I know that no effort is wasted when it comes to the Lord's work. So I continue to press on and keep going. I work hard at teaching and harder on my companionships. Both are essential and both can become extremely difficult.

Just last night I had a gentleman ask about circumsion. And he proceeded to say how his preacher said he is unclean for not being circumsized. Now mind you, I really wanted to know that so we told him that its not required anymore. And then he continues to talk about it and he is also sitting there without a shirt on too so that added to the effect before my eyes! it was awesome! well not really but it was hard to not laugh. especially when we held hands to pray. I am glad I grew up normal. Thats all for now I believe. thanks for the support you give!

Love Elder Malone

The Famous Scarf he rarely takes off!!!