Today’s email from Sam

Here goes:

Hey, y’all
[Redacted] got baptized without a hitch. I only wish we had someone else lined up like we’re suppose to in this mission. I’ve tried to send you the pictures, but it’s not working. None of the programs it tries to launch it with are working.

Utah is weird. I ran into some semi-famous people this week. I met the guy who plays the organ for the motab and David Archiletta’s grandparents. Is that how you spell that? I also ran into someone who served upstate with Chris, (I forgot his name, sorry) and someone named Stephen Budge who served in our area knows Sky Rady. I thought that was cool.

We’ve been meeting a lot of interesting people here. I hope to see more apostles around. My district has Elder Hollands house in it and I’ve heard tales of him going on splits with missionaries.

Oh yeah, didn’t Grandma send y’all 17 miracles for Christmas? How’d you like it? She asked me pretty soon after I arrived if Mom had that movie already. She sorta showed it to me the night before I went into the MTC. Technically I wasn’t suppose to as a set apart elder. Oh well.

…

The work’s been slow so far in my area, but we’re not letting it get to us. We’ve prayed and I think we’ve figured out what we gotta give to baptize here. We’ve been told that if we want the blessing of baptizing we have to sacrifice something to attain it so now we know what to give the success will follow. This mission is so awesome Pres. Winn told us we can baptize every week. That’s our goal.

Oh yeah, it finally snowed again. I’ve decided I don’t like snow. This snow was wet, and kept coming all night and in the morning it all froze into ice. Luckily, being from Chicago, Elder Shapcott is familiar with these driving conditions.

Well now that I’ve made Mom crazy reminding her of all the times I said “oh yeah” I can say I love y’all and do miss you occasionally in spite of being super busy. I hope Amanda enjoyed Olive Garden and I hope David, Jonathen, and Andrew know how lucky they are to have their Dad read such great books to them. And I hope y’all enjoy the weather down there.

Love, Elder Pew

wow that was kinda sappy

Contact info for Elder Pew

For those who would like to send a card or package to Sam, here’s his address:

Elder Samuel Conrad Pew

Utah Salt Lake City Mission

3487 S 1300 E West Ent

Salt Lake City, UT 84106-2951

Thanks everyone for your comments & words of support

Elder Sam double

It took me so long to post Sam’s January 9th email that I decided to wait and do two weeks together. Then he didn’t write yesterday. But he did today, so here goes.

January 9:

Hey, Fam
It finally snowed. Then it stopped. Everyone here wonders about this really mild winter and talks about how last winter was a record snowfall. I’m fine with the weather the way it is. Not too cold.

Elder Shapcott and I have been pounding pavement this week. Tracting in Utah is pretty unusual, but since this is a new area and the members never seem to think their friends are ready to talk to missionaries that’s what we’re doing. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the members have referred their friends and are excited, but they’re the minority. Hopefully once Elder Shapcott and I speak more in the wards and just be as visible as possible they’ll trust us more and feel more comfortable sending us to their friends. That’s the plan anyway. We fell pretty short of our goals this week in teaching even as we contacted everybody we could.

That letter you got with the picture in it was actually written the day I arrived, they just didn’t send it because we ran out of time and hadn’t taken the picture inside yet. I meant to write last p-day, but I didn’t press Elder Shapcott and apparently he didn’t write home since he hasn’t been getting letters or something. I even forgot to write to Pres Winn.

I will definitely write today this time. We need hard copies. Plus I forgot my camera again so today when we go shopping I’m printing out my photos.

I should tell you Mario Galaxy isn’t in my boxes. I thought I gave all my video games into Mom’s safekeeping. Stay out of my stuff. It’s not worth it.

I ran into a member who joined the church in Austin. Bro Evens spent a lot of time at the institute and knew Brother Wright. Elder Shappcot and I spent a little too much time there as we told some really cool Bro Wright stories.

The members are really nice.Our apartment has way too much junk food from members.They just hand us cupcakes and cookies whenever we drop by for referrals. When we walk into a restaurant there’s always a good chance someone will decide to pay our bill for us. Elder Shappcott is having a hard time since he’s trying to stay in shape for when he leaves in a couple of months. I’m trying to not let it go to my head.

So, spiritual stuff. [He talks about an investigator he says is shy and wouldn't want stuff about him posted for the world to see.]

We also had our third meeting with Katelynn. The first visits she had admitted to not trying her hardest to know if this is true, but this visit I think she really felt the spirit. Now all we gotta do is help her recognize it. Easy right? It is, isn’t it? Is it? I’ve got high hopes for her.
Well, those are the best and most interesting stuff. The other investigators on our lists seem to either be dodging us or not interested in really knowing. Not that we’re giving up.

I love y’all and sometimes use things you do and say in my teaching. I’m sure you don’t mind.

Elder Pew

January 17:

I’ve been told my mail goes though the mission office so yeah.
Sorry this email is late. We had zone conference Monday so p-day got
pushed back. Zone conference was awesome by the way. It was all about
becoming the kind of missionaries that’ll achieve this year’s goal of
3600 baptisms. My companion’s getting all trunky because it’s his last
zone conference and was way better than all the other zone conferences
during his mission. The whole mission presidency spoke and the spirit
was way strong. I really think we can do it.

In my area though things have been slow. Very slow, but we’re working
really hard so now all we gotta do is more of that work to where it’ll do
the most good.

[Talks about his shy investigator.]
President Winn told us we’ll have the spirit way stronger on our
mission than almost any other time because the Lord gives his
strongest weapons to those on the front lines.

I’m mailing you today and hopefully I’ll get some pictures sent to
you. I haven’t taken many out of the MTC so you’ll have to make do. No
turkey.

By the way, [his investigator] told us how he used to raise rabbits and it made me wonder how George is doing. I know it was my job, but did anyone ever clip her claws?

I am really loving my mission (in spite of the antis we keep running
into) and am being blessed every day.

I love y’all
Elder Pew

(For those who don’t know, George is our rabbit.)

Elder Sam Pew January 2

Julia and I were thinking of setting up a blog to post Sam’s missionary emails, but I decided it would be easier to just post them here. What follows is an edited version of the message he sent us January 2, the first he sent after leaving the MTC.

I’m soooooo glade to finally be out here. I’m around the Bountiful area except we’re covering three stakes and seventeen wards. To complicate matters my companion, Elder Shapcott, is new to the area. Elder Shapcott had five minutes where the last Elders basically said “Hey, you got a lesson tonight. Here’s the keys.” So the first night was awesome. We had a lesson with a 17 year old girl who reminds me of Amanda and, after, while trying to find a Bishops house I got car sick and threw up all over the front seat. Yeah, laugh it up. Elder Shapcott introduces me as Elder Pew who likes to puke. And we didn’t get the car cleaned til Friday morning.
Other than the first day I’m enjoying things. We’ve been meeting with a bunch of leaders and investigators. Luckily the last Elders left lots of notes and such.
The weather has been cold, but I expected colder. Plus, you may not believe it, but it hasn’t snowed at all here. They say the greatest snow on earth, but I haven’t seen it.

That’s really cool y’all got to go to the temple. We only get to go once a month. Bummer. When did the wii get fixed? How did the house get so badly messed up? You should have gotten the little guys to help. They’ve gotta get used to it eventually. That’s one of the things they want missionaries to ask whenever we go anywhere.

By the way Pres Winn is really cool. I came in the last transfer of the year so I sat in on his review of 2011. Last year the Salt Lake City Mission baptized 2600! Unfortunately the goal was 3000, and even though we set a new record we gotta do better. I guess thats why I’m here:) For 2012 the goal is 3600 and Pres Winn said the only way we’ll reach that is if every missionary gives up all the worldly stuff. We’re to report our decision in our weekly letter to him.

So, that’s the plan. My next letter should have my new address. I haven’t written it yet.
Love y’all. Stay out of my junk boxes.
Elder Pew

Play pictures

I’ve been meaning to post some pictures from our Stake production of Savior of the World. Here they are:

David as Nathan the shepherd boy.

Nathan is the main shepherd boy in the play. David had solo parts in two musical numbers.

David and Ashley Rencher

Ashley played Mary.

David and his angelic mother

Julia was in the angel choir and played a woman in the market.

David and Kami Clements

Kami played Mary’s mother and was David’s vocal coach.

Don and Elizabeth Wise

Don played David’s grandfather, and Elizabeth played Elisabeth.

Contrast

Two men who were leaders of their nations died this past weekend, and the contrast between them could hardly be greater. Vaclav Havel was an honest and courageous man who helped lead not only his own country but also the rest of Eastern Europe to greater freedom and prosperity. Kim Jong-il, on the other hand, was a megalomaniac whose policies kept his country poor and isolated. It’s quite a coincidence that they left this world so close together.

Busy

We’ve been really busy the past few weeks. Sam entered the MTC on Wednesday. Julia, David, and I have parts in our stake’s production of Savior of the World: His Birth. (David has the big part this time.) We had rehearsals Tuesday and Wednesday and last night was opening night. We’ll perform again tonight and tomorrow afternoon and evening; the evening performances are at 7:00 pm. and tomorrow’s matinee is at 3:00 pm; the address is 1000 E. Rutherford Lane.

Sam at the temple

Last Friday Sam took out his endowments. Some pictures:

Sam at the San Antonio Temple

Sam with his mother at the San Antonio Temple

Technocracy

This article was linked by Smitty at The Other McCain, and it’s good enough to deserve re-linking: What is Constitutional Conservatism. It points out something true that is not often recognized: the big difference between the Left and the Right in American politics is that the Left believes that if we put smart people in power to make the right laws and regulations, we’ll create an ideal society, while the Right believes that humans are fallible and therefore human government needs restraint. Please read the article.

Shortly after reading that article, I saw this one, which describes how the whole “Climategate” fiasco resulted from a confluence of science and bureaucracy: Climategate: A symptom of driving science of a cliff.

Climate science broke away from meteorology in the early seventies. The Met Office’s Professor HH Lamb set up the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in 1972, making CRU a pioneer. But what happened to “climate science” over this period is merely an analogue of what took place in other fields. The relationship between science and public policy making is now very different to what it was 40 years ago, and climate research reflects those changes.

Again, you should read the whole thing for his explanation of how technocracy distorts science. The bottom line is that fallen human beings will never create utopia in this mortal world. First, we need to allow God to make us into something better, and then we will be able to build Zion.

Recital

David and Jonathan had a piano Sunday. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to upload the videos I took, but here’s a picture of them afterwards:

David and Jonathan after their recital.