Monday, December 20, 2010

For Christmas, we have a bunch of appointments. We also get to relax a little bit. We've been told by President to cut P-day off today at 2 and take till 3 on Christmas so we get some time to relax. We're going to get together with some other missionaries and open presents that morning at the stake center. Don't worry though. This ward takes care of missionaries. This is such a cool ward. We have families fighting over who gets us on Christmas. So no worries.  

Monday, December 13, 2010

The mission conference is next wednesday or tuesday or something like that. I dunno. But I'm excited to see christmas in Texas. So far it's been pretty fun. It's been like 60-70 degrees here lately. Haha today it's like 58. It's nice. How's the weather there? But yeah. It would be easier to send that other package to my apartment. But don't worry. I know i'll have a good christmas. The ward here takes care of the missionaries during Christmas.
 Well, not a whole lot is new here. I've decided that black people are hard to teach, because the three black people we've taught know the bible very very VERY well. And tried, yeah tried but unsuccessful, to destroy our beliefs with logic. 
We have a baptism this saturday for a guy named Sergio. He's excited. He even asked a member to do it. So that'll be good.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Wow it's been a long week. And so much has happened since emailing last week. On thursday we got a call saying one of the other elders in our district needed to go to the mission office and his companion was going to be with elder jones and I for the day. The assistants said "No ones in trouble, Elder Andreasen just needs to be here." So he went with another couple of missionaries. Pretty soon, elder andreasen and elder Hughes, one of the two he went up with, come back to pack up all of elder andreasens stuff. Elder Bayles, Elder Hughes comp, was sent to houston and elder andreasen was sent to Manvel with Elder Hughes. So now, I'm in a threesome. It's ok... Frustrating. Very frustrating, but like dad told me. Don't quit. Sawyer's don't quit. I'm in it to the end. Besides, I know if I stick with it, it'll get easier. I'm not backing out.
 Just like dad, I just want to go steal the babies in sacrament meeting, but there's a dang stupid rule. We're not supposed to hold babies or even let little kids sit on our laps, because some stupid people somewhere else sued for child abuse because they didn't like the missionaries. So i can't even hold little babies.
We have a baptism planned for the 18th of december. It's for a guy named Sergio. It's going to be awesome. the mission is having what they're calling  the weekend in white. Almost every companionship is scheduled to have a baptism. It's going to be awesome.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010

I'm glad ya'll had fun in Kanab.. Without me. Gosh dang it. That was the hardest part about thanksgiving... What we did for thanksgiving is worked. We had dinner with a member family at six, and while we were in weekly planning, we got a call from an investigator around 2, weekly planning is supposed to last from noonish to about 3 or 4, but this investigator called us.. "Where ya'll at? We're waiting to start." We just met these people the night before. But they wanted us to come over for dinner, so we did, and then we went to the members house. I ate a ton... Not used to eating so much, so unfortunately, i lost a lot of it. I'm on a missionary diet, so I'm not used to lots of actual food. Haha. But it was good. The hard part was that I couldn't be with my family. And we had to work on that day. Nobody wanted to let us in to teach them, because they wanted to spend time eating and watching football. I'm in Texas, the football capital of the world! Nobody wanted to let us in. So we got 2 whole lessons that day. We needed four to keep up for the week. But it was ok. We made up our missing ones last night. But I didn't particularly enjoy my thanksgiving. I missed my family a lot.
 Well, the biggest thing that's happened this week is we found out that Maria, our recent convert from Galveston, was baptized 6 years ago. There's a family in the branch that was baptized with her. And they recognized her. So when we confirmed her, they asked the sisters about her, and now Salt Lake is looking for her records. She said she was baptized, but she couldn't remember which church it was in. I found all this out from Elder Jensen last night. I saw him at a fireside that we went to.
 

Monday, November 22, 2010

Transfers

Yes I know it's monday and usually you get emails on tuesdays but now you'll get em on mondays. We have computers in the office at our apartmemts we can use. So that's handy. Another handy thing is that there's a woman in the ward that does our laundry for us. The first thing she said to me after she introduced herself was "The laundry comes to me. Make sure all your clothes are marked." But, truth be told, it felt way weird to be leaving my clothes with her. I don't particularly like it. But hey, it saves me money. So I won't complain.

 My new address:
2301 Fairway Dr. #207
Alvin, Texas 77511
Yep. I'm in a town called Alvin. And as the name implies, it's a small town. At least that's what it used to be from what I hear. It's still to big for me. But it's ok. It's a bi-lingual area unfortunately so we're not teaching in spanish full time, which sucks. We actually teach very little in spanish. There aren't that many hispanics around dang it. I want to keep teaching in spanish, i want to learn as much as I can and speak it fluently. 

Monday, November 15, 2010

I'm being transferred. Dang it. I wanted to spend Christmas on the island, but we got calls yesterday morning. Actually, we found out i'm being transferred sunday night. President called and asked Elder Jensen if he'd train, so that said i'm being transferred.

Bob's going to live. He had a reaction to his chemo and it raised his blood pressure to 210/100 and i'm pretty sure that's bad. He couldn't breath so he called 911. But he's out now. and Good. I'm going to get a picture with him today. 
But, we gave a blessing to a baby on sunday night, and i'm not sure what was wrong with him other than the fact that he had a feeding tube in his stomach. It was loose that's why the parents took him to the hospital. But he was sitting up and laughing and smiling, nothing seemed wrong with him... But we found out the next morning, so yesterday, that the baby died. And the family is an investigator family.. So bad deal. But the dads not mad or frustrated with the church I don't think. So that's good. 

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

So, Maria was confirmed yesterday!!! I was so happy. We had to get a member to take us up to her house to get her, but that's ok. She was finally confirmed!!!
We were taken off the island for the weekend. We were sent north to Kemah. Elder Jensen told me why we went to Kemah too. Elder Durrant, the district leader there needed help. Because his district never hits the mission goal for each companionship of 20 lessons a week and 70 people contacted a week per missionary. So he sent Galveston there, and we get stuff done. We killed their area and just pumped out the lessons. That's what we do. We are the best district in the zone and the best zone in the mission. So that means we're the best district in the mission. I love being the best. Haha.
We have a rat roaming around the apartment complex. Elder Jensen saw him the other night. and we tried to find it and kill it yesterday. But he was gone. So we found his hole in the wall. I'll bet he's got holes all throughout the complex. So we bought traps and glue paper. See if he'll get caught. If he comes back. So yeah. Lots of fun for us. That was my most restless night. Our apartment's pretty small, so I was afraid of having a ranch experience and waking up to a rat on my chest. But it didn't happen thank goodness.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Like father, like son. Kevan bought the same flag when he was on his Mission.

Monday, November 1, 2010

This is Maria, She was Baptized on October 16th. So neat seeing my boy all in white doing the Lord's work.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Staying in Galveston another six weeks.

I miss Utah rain. I miss the smell. It rains here all the time. But we don't have a very good warning for rain. For one, missionaries can't listen to the weather, or read the newspaper for the weather, so we get our weekly weather report from Bob, a recent convert. He's awesome. I'm gonna miss him a lot.(I'll explain later.) So it could be sunny here and five minutes later, pour rain and then be sunny again. And the smell doesn't change. Neither does the temperature. In fact it gets hotter. But lately it's been nice. A cold front has come through, cut down on the humidity.
Every time we go to an investigators house, i'm always the one playing with the kids, if they have some. It's actually a lot of fun. But weird at the same time. Especially if they're like 3 and speak both spanish and english already.

Conference was awesome wasn't it? We had an investigator go to a saturday session and he loved it!! We were supposed to have a couple other people come but they ditched out. It's a shame. It's not every day we get the opportunity to hear from a prophet of God.
Haha you liked my call to Kasey? Good. Unfortunately it didn't work. Dang it. She was supposed to show up to conference as well, but of course she didn't. She's now saying she thinks she wants to wait to be baptized with the father of her children, which would be all fine and dandy if we were teaching him, and we would love to teach him, except... he's in jail right now. About to get out though... I'm worried about her for multiple reasons.
I killed Elder Drees. Or in other words, he goes home today. He plane leaves in like 2 hours. So we took him to Sugar land yesterday, and now i'm in a trio until my new comp tomorrow. And they're also splitting up my area into english and spanish, so i'll be a spanish only missionary, which stinks because then i technically can't go visit bob anymore or kasey... Or roy. So that stinks...I'll be here at least another six weeks.
Um.. shoot. I gotta go. We gotta leave soon. The sisters need to be somewhere at noon. And i still need to email the president. Love you all.
Zack

Yep, he has that Johnson Blood, bluntness and all.

We had baptism's scheduled, but unfortunately, they fell through. One of them tried to drop us, Maria, but we've got her reeled back in. Her thing was about the temple and the fact she wouldn't be able to go in for a year after she gets baptized. And Kasey, well Kasey's Kasey. We finally met with her again, and she wants to get baptized, but we hadn't taught her about the word of wisdom, and she doesn't necessarily like the fact about no alcohol. She can do it, but she's not happy about it. She was supposed to go to church on sunday, and when we called her saturday night, she said "Oh shoot. I can't go tomorrow. It's the Cowboy's and Texan's game. And i just bought a new bottle of Smirnoff" So after Elder Drees got off the phone with her, and told me about the alcohol, I called her back up and said "What the flip you buying alcohol for?!"
Her "For the game."
     Me "So? That's the worse excuse i've ever heard."
"But I want it for the game"
     "Yeah but you also want to get baptized, right?"
"Well yeah. But it's the game."
     "Would you want your kids drinking it."
"No, But that's why there's the age limit."
 
Needless to say, she didn't dump it down the drain like I told her to. But it was funny. Elder Drees said "I can't do that. I'm not straight forward like that. You can. If i did that to her. She'd probably cry. But just because of your accent, she likes you better. So you can pull that off." BTW, my accent's gotten thicker since i left. Being around all these Texans doesn't help.

I wanted to reply to everything, but i don't have time. I need to email President and give him the rundown of this week.
I love you all.
Zack., 

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Hey Mom,

Ok. Last week was pretty good. We didn't have any baptisms on saturday unfortunately, but we've got some planned for next week, if the lady will pray about getting baptized. She's crazy, but she'll be good.
Um, no hurricanes yet. But the weathers been pretty crappy lately. I love the rain, but it's not consistent. It's mostly just windy and cloudy. Like blow you're bike off the road windy. Speaking of my bike, i'm getting my rear rim straightened today. I kinda hit a curb and blew my tire and when i got it fixed, i realized the rim was slightly bent as well. Not bad, but enough to make the tire wobble. I can ride it, but i want it fixed just in case.
Haha yeah, everythings fine and dandy here, except our apartment. It's not fit to live in I swear. It's so old, we still have gas heaters in there. And the carpet is so old along with everything else. We're also infested with roaches. It's so gross. It's a good thing we're only in there at night. It's nasty. We've been trying to kill them all, but there's a hundred to replace every one we've killed. It's not too bad though. Just nasty.
Hey hey, i almost forgot. I gave my first blessing in spanish today. Well, i annointed the oil in spanish. And then Elder Cui (it's pronounced like Tsui), who's from mainland China, like the hundredth missionary from china, his dad was baptized in Japan, did the sealing in English. It was cool.
Um... What else? Haha shoot, i dunno what else to say since i've said pretty much everything in my letters. Well, mi espanol esta llegando mejor. Puedo decir muchas cosas ahora y tambien entiendo mucho. My spanish is becoming better. I can say many things and i understand much. (In case you couldn't read that.)
Ok. I've gotta go. I love you all and i'll get pictures soon!! Take care!!
Elder Zack Sawyer
"You may all go to Hell, and I'll go to Texas"-Davy Crocket. (I saw it on a shirt another missionary was wearing last P day. His name is Elder Hart, and i actually graduated with him.)

Hey Mom and Family
My new P-Day is monday but we email on tuesday here because the library is closed on mondays. So that's why you hadn't gotten one yet.
Ok, so first off, my new address is
Elder Zack Sawyer (nothing changed there)
102 Strand #30
Galveston, Texas 77550
Yeah that's right. I'm in Galveston. My first time on an island. From what I understand, we're about 2 miles into the gulf of mexico off the mainland. My first area is a spanish/english area, so we're speaking both, which is nice. I keep thinking my spanish isn't improving at all, but then i remember, i've been here a total of 6 days, so i haven't even had time to improve much. I've only been with Elder Drees, my trainer, for 4 days, because one day was spent on exchanges with Elder Law, a zone leader, and he only speaks English. Everythings going good though. I can actually speak more spanish than i understand, so i can say almost whatever i want, but i can't understand very many people. Like there's a lady we're teaching named Maria, and i can't understand her at all. She speaks so softly and slurs her words so bad, I've pretty much given up hope of ever understanding her.
Lets see... It was great to talk to you guys on the phone. It was awesome!!
Ok this is totally random, but this old guy on the computer in front of me is like looking at profiles on facebook of girls a third of his age. It's weird.. Anyways. I've got my bike, and it's awesome. I ride it everyday, of course. But not all that far. We only cover the east part of the island. Which isn't all that much. But the people here are awesome. The latinos, theres actually less mexicans than you'd think, lots of Hondurans and people from Guatemala and El Salvador, it's interesting hearing all of the different accents. But the latinos are awesome. They'll all stop when we contact them and listen, because they're nice like that and they think it's awesome that us gringos are trying to learn their language. Well, i'm trying to learn the language. It's Elder Drees' last transfer so he speaks like it's his native language. But they're all willing to help me speak. I don't even have to know the person and they want to help. Haha even Charlie, who's always drunk when we go to try to talk to him will sit there and try to help me. He cracks me up. We've stopped by twice randomly to teach him and twice he's said he's been drinking. Well, last night he said it was just a continuation of Sundays party. And i believe it. He looked exactly the same last night as he did sunday night. So the latinos are cool, but the white people are mean. They don't want to talk to us. Elder Drees got the best excuse from a guy the other night. It was like a 60 year old guy getting into his Lexus and Elder Drees tried to contact him and he said My mom taught me not to talk to strangers. And he closed the door and sped off. It was hilarious.
Alright, well my first week was really cool. We had a baptism. She was actually an inverstigator of Elder Drees and his last comp, Elder Ennis, but Elder Drees said she was considered my investigator too now. So she was baptized on saturday. It was great. She was so excited.
So sundays are long. Haha. First, we gotta be to the church by 7:30 for meetings, then we've got the english ward first at nine and at ten the spanish ward starts. But their sacrament meeting is last, so i went to the whole block of english while my comp went on splits into the spanish classes. And then i went to the sacrament meeting with Elder Drees. Than we usually have meetings afterward, but they cancelled it last sunday, so we went and OYMed, or open your mouth. We have to talk to at least ten people a day, so an average of 70 a week per missionary. Then we went back to the church for lunch, apparently the ward does lunches there, i dunno exactly how often, but oh well. It was food. Then we went back to work and taught some lessons.
Oh, i was supposed to go home last night and hug you and dad and say thank you. At least thats what a guy last night told us to do. Elder Drees contacted a guy while i was talking to a lady from Kenya, which she was awesome, and I came in at the end of the conversation, and he's not a member, at least we don't think. But he has the ut-most, or upmost dangit i can't remember how it's spelled. Dangit! But anyways he has a lot of respect for us missionaries. He knew quite a bit about us. Well enough to know what we do. He said that all missionaries are special. We've all got this light, or glow, about us that people can see. And with our bright eyes and smiles, people know us right off. And when people walk away, they walk away because they're afraid we'll say the truth. And when they look back as they're walking away, they're not looking back to see if we're following, they're looking back because they want to see the glow again. He says we really make a difference. He even used our titles while talking about us, Elders. So he might as well have been a member, except he was carrying a case of beer. Haha. But he said to go home and hug our parents because we're special. And part of our up-bringing helped bring that out in us.
Oh what else? Oh, if you're going to send a package, send it to the mission office. The address that i sent that letter from. But letters you can send to my address. For a few weeks.
Oh, and so i can put you at rest, it is hurricane season, but they won't let us stay if one even comes in the area. Especially not us, because we're the islanders. We'd be evacuated quick. So no worries. If there is a problem, we're out of here.
I don't have much else to say... Other than the work and the days are hard, but i'm enjoying it for the most part. I haven't even thought about leaving. I don't want to. But i do miss home.
I love you all. Take care. Until next week.
Elder Zack Sawyer
P.S. Hey Ky, there was a cockroach in my shower this morning big enough to shoot. I should have taken a picture for you.

Friday, August 6, 2010

A day at the Temple for the Missionaries

I love this picture!
His MTC comp is a so tall he
 even makes Zack look short.
The Elders finally got to spend some time at the Provo Temple. Zack said it was so cool to go with all the other Elders.

Thursday, August 5, 2010


Before and after his MTC haircut. Just a little shorter than I ever did it. No more fuzzy curls for him.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I asked Zack to get a picture of him with the Mission Training Center sign and apparently they took it down while they widen the road. But hey, at least he did as I asked. Lol

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The first week

So far we have gotten two letters and one email from Zack. The first letter was waiting in the mailbox for us when we got home on Sunday night from Utah County after dropping him off. It was so nice to come home to. The second came a couple days later and was addressed just to Chris. Then today (Thursday) I got the first Email from him. I guess that means P-day must be on Thursday's although he didn't specify. Zack has earned the nick name "Elder from Snowy River" because he loves being a cowboy. He even tried to sneak his hat into his luggage, but there was no way it was going to fit even if I hadn't vetoed that idea.
He is doing well, and studying hard. He said those 4 years of spanish in school is starting to come back to him now and he has promised to teach Chris spanish when he returns home. His Companion is from SLC and stands 6'11" towering over Zack. He is a year older and was most recently playing Basketball for Stanford University before deciding to go on a mission.
Zack says that his head is not reeling as much this week as it was last. He also admits to being a little homesick but all the letters from friends and family have helped tons. He knows he is doing the right thing by serving a mission and is enjoying his new world.

Keep up the letters everyone and keep him in your prayers!


Wednesday, June 23, 2010


My Missionary Commission By Elder Bruce R. McConkie.
I am called of God. My authority is above that of kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him to stand in His place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were ministering to the very people to whom He has sent me. My voice is His voice, and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine. My Commission is to do what He wants done; To say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous Latter-day work. How great is my calling!


Today we dropped Zack off at the Missionary Training Center in Provo where he will spend the next two months. It was a little emotional for us as we send him to serve the Lord. We will all miss him tons but are so proud of his choice to go and serve his Heavenly Father.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission....

He's grown a foot or two and he's received his call. Elder Sawyer Will head to the Missionary Training Canter on June 23rd 2010. He will be there for two months learning the Spanish language, preparing to teach the Spanish speaking people in the Houston Texas South Mission area. He is excited to serve his Heavenly Father as a Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The cowboy in him is looking forward to being in Texas.

We had the privilege of escorting Zack to the St. George Temple this past weekend. It was an amazing experience for us as parents. Taking your child to the Holy Temple makes you feel both proud of him for the choice he has made to serve the Lord and makes all those years of frustration worth it.

Zack is a great young man and he will be a great Missionary. Although we will miss him, we know that he is doing the Lords will and we will all be blessed while he is serving the Lord.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I hope they call me on a Mission!

I can't believe this cute little Man is now old enough to be going on a Mission!