Working Hard

I am Extending

Letter from Elder Elton's Dad to family about his extending until August

Family and friends,

Can I brag on Brigham for a second?

I received a call form Brigham's mission president Wednesday.  He told me how well Brigham is doing.  Then he told me that he had extended a special call to Brigham.  He wants Brigham to extend his mission by a month and be a "traveling missionary."  He won't have a companion for the last part of his mission.  Instead, he will go from companionship to companionship to help them "catch the vision and fire of missionary work."  The mission president went further to say, "this is the highest compliment I can give you;  Elder Elton is on fire.  I wish every missionary was like him.  He has the spirit of missionary work."

The reason the president called was to find out if it is okay that Brigham extends his mission.  So, we are both happy and sad.  We miss him and can't wait to see him, but we also know that you get back ten fold when you're working for the Lord.  We feel this is Brigham's chance to serve God.  Brig will get home August 6.

His new address will be the mission office:

Elder Brigham Elton
2 Bedford Farms Drive, Suite #208
Bedford, NH 03110

Thanks to all of you who have written to him.

Rich

Molly's baptism

This letter is from March 21st 


Alright so this week was quite awesome...  We had a great time at molly's baptism...  She just lit up like a beam... also Roberta passed her interview this morning so in between conference in a few weeks we will be baptising her.

Molly's baptism was at 6:00 on saturday, her whole family came out to it. They are being super suportive which is way nice. Her mother and her grandparents also came on sunday to church for her confirmation. It was awesome we are actually going to have a BBQ at their house this friday so that should be awesome i am hoping we can milk this for all it is worth we had 9 non-members at the service on Saturday and we should start teaching them all... We have appointments with them all the next week.  Elder Jeppson was as high as a kite all day too he couldn't sleep the night before and he did it perfect. One try and she was done. We were quite scared though because the water wasn't working for a while... The circulating pump was out so the heat and such were out of commision well they actually still are out of commision....   We had to rely on just the boiler.....   Little way's satan tries to stop the work of the Lord.

Lets see what else this week... That was the biggest thing was the baptism we were looking forward to it the whole time....   We had some success other places too... we are out of miles so we are biking all the time... it is sad how out of shape we are... but hey anyway that isn't to bad...   It has slown down the work... really in all reality it is quite frustrating... when the sisters were here they had 1450 miles... then when we came back they only gave us 1000 and we have to go on exchanges the sisters never had....  That means 6 extra trips to and from Topsham which is a 55 mile round trip...  anyway off that rant....

I was super excited to get letters from sarah and Gracee this week...  They seem to be doing awesome and also seemed to have changes so much


Well i think that is it....

LOVE you...

I am in Damariscotta, Maine

 I think i have told you but i consistantly write my prayers to keep me focused. So I was writing a prayer on Sunday morning and i had a huge impression to Pray for Elder ----------, He is a member of our district and closing out his mission this week. I prayed and prayed hard that he would find succes and be able to lose himself in the work these past few weeks. I love it! So At church this long time investegator tells him they are ready for the lessons and want to be baptised in two weeks. And a yound man comes and was looking for a way he could join the church. He read his grandfathers journal telling about how his G-pa found the church and the way it changed his life. This kid is super solid I am so pumped for them as well!

So lets see we made some good progress with Scott and Sarah this week we went and taught their boys in the middle of the week and they were way pumped they even prayed for us! We gave them the childrens Book of Mormon and that was just awesome.  They are loving it. Then at the end of the week we went back for dinner with the parents and they talked about how they need to get married she knows all of the stuff and wants to be baptised but they just need to figure out the legistics side of things ! They have a goal for April still so we are just doing what we can to keep them to it!

LOVE EElton

Doing Guy Things

This week was crazy it was weird it started so well we have been on exchanges all week,  i was with new elders but ya that was alright we had a ton of sucess so that was good The cummings family is doing awesome they just live it up...  it is fun too cause KC's husband cheated on her so she left him so no guy in the house so we get to come over and do guy things like set up wahser and dryer and hang mirrios that stuff i really just love being around there... They went to Maine this lake weekend and that was cool but it was sweet they brought back stuff for us that was awesome...

 

This week we taught the combined relief society and preisthood... it actually went extremely well we had all the adults in the room do roleplays on inviting their friends to attend a church activity..  it was like pulling teeth to get them to start but once they tried it once it really opened up.  

IT was way awesome we ran into Sam Long who we taught before she went to school she stopped us on the street... it was way nice seeing her ( not going to lie though it freaked me out some cute gal yelling my name out a car and running up to me... i was a little shocked.... i guess it is preparing me well for in a year or so) haha.... but ya we had a great lesson with her at the Shamps they are the best couple ever both are converts and they have awesome testimonies it was way sweet the spirit is so strong at there home they are for sure going to be on the visit list...

 

Uh what else.....

 

I LOVE YOU ALL

I cant belive football is over... i really am hoping for another DVD when you can that was awesome seeing him play a little bit....  but ya liffe is good here in essex i have only had a few bloody noses i don't know if it is from the seasons getting more consistant or the iron or what but ya that has been way nice

 

 

Oh also this week i we had the first lesson of my mission from a member referal the Clarks introduced him to us....   they are also on the visit list... any who    love ya....!!!

Save the Sisters

This week was an adventure we had Zone conference on tuesday and it was weird running the show a little bit that was an adventure but president puts his whole trust in us so that was awesome he just assigns then lets us do it how we see it works best i love that kind of trust it makes it way better than staring over my shoulder...  but ya that was awesome.

We had to take a Ferry to New York

 Then on thursday we got a call at 8 cause the sisters had an unwanted visitor last night they are going to have to be shotgunned out because of it... that was an adventure trying to calm these girls that were freaking out as you would imagine...  But we spent all day in New York which was kinda cool....   it was weird being with women all day President even cleared the rule so we could be alone with them    talk about trust i really like our president. We had a talk about the heart...   people have been going nuts in the mission with disobedience and he just went strait to "where is your heart" and he even released the playing sports rule a little bit we now have more freedom on p days so that is awesome we are going to the truck pulls next week...

I might be going to Manchester to serve with Elder Binford this week i am pumped he seems like a friends i can make for a good long while i am way pumped for that....

But i really don't know what else for the package   just the shirts garments and contacts.... that would be awesome

Hey so i think that is about it i am loving serving here in Essex it really hit me yesterday when one of our investegators was moving down to college how much i have become attached and really care for these people

 Well  love yall

E. Elton

Elder Elton is in Vermont

Zone Conference new mission President Wilkey

I have been Transfered check out my new address on the side bar

Alright so i moved from one side to the other...  we are clear over in the other end of Vermont in a three some.... it is crazy, me Elder Andrew and Elder Johnson... It has been pretty fun we are having a blast over here it is a lot more city.   We have family neighborhoods all over the place so that is awesome...   i am pumped about it... it was kinda sad to leave Dover but hey what can you do.... you have to leave sometime....  The ward here is pretty awesome it is hard being in a threesome though to get as much talking as i would like to get in so ya that is a little bit of a bummer...    We had a fun week.   We had some awesome miracles.

Lets see this week we taught the teaching pool here of two people    Mike Brisson who is trying to overcome smoking and coffee and Jeremy Hammer who is doing his best to do what he can to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. That is weird to me to tract so much but the enviorment here is a ton different so what can you do... People here just say they are all set before we even get to talk to them...   I tried something new this week praying for people by name and tryig to let the spirit guide my prayers... It was awesome i couldn't believe how well it went i loved it i wish i could spent hours on my knees but it is just too much time when i need some good ol sleeping time....    We are having a struggle right now in the mission with people having the wrong attitude with the work that we are doing..  it is a bummer and so hard to help people get motivated so any advice would be awesome...

I'm still loving the work and i can't wait to really get into the new area... it is weird the ward already looks to me like i'm in charge it is weird but honestly i kinda like it.....

LOVE YA  

Elder Elton


pictures from Dover......

he looks so happy........serving the Lord looks good on him...

Alright so week one with the new companion it is going to be awesome we had a great week just tons of stuff happening...

Highlight was one day i think it was Friday we were out tracting and while we were out and about there was a guy castrating his bulls so we got to help castrate them and then we had some good old rocky mountian oysters... that was stinking fun....    i will attach some photos.
We also had a grill out for my birthday at district meeting so that was stinking awesome eating some good old burgers...  i got a bunch of letters for my birthday from the grandparents and such it was awesome   really that made it cause besides that i really didn't do anything on saturday... we just tracted all day we did this road that was like twenty miles long it was brutal but hey we had some good convo's so that was way nice...

Really this week just flew by i couldn't believe how fast it went just boom and it was gone...   I was pretty bummed about elder gifford leaving but really it was not bad i actually loved this week. My comp  is from Logan, Utah and actually grew up in Italy so he is pretty sweet...

OH and we had another baptism this week her name is sister brown she was awesome i was way excited to see her get in the water but bummer was she had to do it twice she was not that happy with me so that was not good....   She was awesome to teach though and her husband got to baptize her...  everything seems to be going awesome though the ward and i are making a better and better relationship so that is always nice....

Welp love and miss ya'll

EE


Brigham has been helping a family build this tree house, he also gave himself a haircut, to save money.

Goodbye Augusta

The people of Augusta.  Last morning session.  God Speed.....
love ya,
Elder Elton

Dover-Foxcroft Maine?

After nine Months in Augusta Elder Elton has been transfered to Dover-Foxcroft  Maine.  His new address is:

Elder Elton
13 Winter Street Apt. A
Dover-Foxcroft,  ME
04426

Email April 12th

I am still the district leader here and we have a car full time... It is not as bad as i thought but we tracted the 10 mile road and only talked to like twenty people, it is so different from augusta... even though we have a car we still have to walk a  ton it is weird...   what else is weird is that the chapel here doesn't even have pews just chairs....that was weird to me.  i think i am building an awesome relationship in the ward....  they trust me cause i am from " farm town morgan" it is true though i can relate to the people well because i know farm stuff.... we might help go castrate some bulls next week... that is right i am a cowboy....   i might need some cowboy boots so keep your eyes out  i need to compiment my look....   My new companion is elder price he is the same age as Elder Bodily the one i trained so he is not that old it is kinda weird though cause he is the one that knows what is going on not me... i don't even know where i am most of the time     he is from arizona so that is a little different... Everyone in maine  that is a member of the church has lived in utah at least once in their life. it is kinda weird but nice to have the connection... .. we got 10 referals this week and the members feed us a couple times a week which is good cause food here is way more expensive....  but other wise it is good ... oh and we have a bench   sadly there is not much weight to put on it but i am doing what i can...  The work is going well we had 6 at church and we have a couple that is ready for baptism but just wants to do it in may... that is way exciting   they just for some reason have not been seting firm dates with their investegators.. so i went to town just telling people how it is  you should see my companions face when i am super honest... telling people that they need to repent strait up   it is way fun though....... Well i love all of you and can't wait to here more from you....Brig

Easter blessings

 Easter blessings from Elder Elton..."I am"

Then spake Jesus again unto them saying, I am the light of the World: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. John 8:12

shoes and knees wearing out

this is an email we received this week from a missionary couple working with Brigham.  It is nice to hear that he is doing okay, and it gives us peace of mind that someone is watching out for him.  We are so grateful to this couple. oxoxox candice and rich

Hi Elton Family,

My husband and I are serving a Records Preservation Mission in the New Hampshire  Manchester mission and really enjoy working with your son in Augusta.  He's a joy to be around and is great with people.  I watched him in Primary this morning with the children of some investigators and he was so patient even with glitter and glue all over him. Okay, he did roll his eyes a few times. They had 10 investigators to church today and they took the Sacrament to 2 others.

 

He's working hard and is obedient.  He's a good trainer with Elder Bodily. We've seen him grow in the 3 months we've been here.  They refuse rides even in cold weather so that they can contact people as they walk.  They contacted 25 today on their way from their apartment on their mile walk to Dora Balbuena's home for dinner with us.

 

We're planning a  ward missionary social for the ward March 5 and he's impressed us with his skills in printing the invitations-2 sided on the ward copier!  He laughs and says he just keeps doing it until it works.  Thanks for teaching him and raising such a faithful son.  He's proud of his family and of Morgan Utah.  We hear about it all the time!

 

We're from Portland Oregon and are enjoying our work in the Archives here. 

 

Thanks for being good parents.  It shows by the way his knees and shoes get worn out...but he does look well groomed and neat. 

 

When is Brigham's birthday?

 

One photo attached was taken at the zone conference a week ago.  The other one was taken this evening at Dora's.  We were celebrating my husband's birthday with a cake.

 

Stephanie Cluff

 Email from Brigham February 22, 2010

From the time I arrived in augusta the average at church was 74 now it is 103...  CRAZY! God is blessing us left and right... this week the new news is this woman from north Carolina named Miranda...   she is awesome and is progressing way quickly. We actually had 14 at church this week which is crazy good...      she is teaching her kids all about joseph smith her kid Willow explained the whole story for us it was amazing...

All of our investegators are progressing really well... i am way pumped for this next transfer i really think we will get like 5 baptisms... i am nervous to be the DL (district leader)  i am really kinda scared.... missionaries that have been out longer than me and all that jaz and  that i am supposed to teach.... God called me to this i hope he understands the amout of help i am going to need


FUNNY STORY  (mom don't freak)

So we are on our way back into the apartment and there are these three girls up on the third floor balcony... so i walk over to talk to them -i am on the ground looking up- Alright what she says will be in caps  and what i say is just normal  ARE YOU GUYS JW'S? no we are form the church of jesus christ of latter day saints... most people just call us mormons HOW MANY WIFES CAN YOU GUYS HAVE..?  one... REALLY I THOUGHT YOU COULD HAVE LIKE 10 i wish! but i don't think i could handle one... MY BOYFREIND CAN'T HANDLE ME EITHER have you ever talked to missionaries before? DO YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND? no  WOW I WANNA LIKE COME DOWN AND MOLEST YOU RIGHT NOW...  YOU BETTER GO IN... so we start to walk away when one of the other gals says "or come on up to the third floor"   so ya we locked the doors that night....


Well the work is going great i am way excited for what the future holds and just for ya'll i have now written in my journal every day for a month....

          Elder Elton 

Meet Lucmon

It's cold up here

we made a makeshift snow board.....duct tape...yes!!!!

Breaking the records.........finding the people of New England........

January 19.2010
Meet Lucmon from Haiti........

The highlight of the crazy week was Lucmon's baptism.  He is the man.  As you know, Haiti was destroyed this past week.  I feel so bad for him, his two kids age five and six (cute as can be) are there, and there is no way to find out if they are alive or not.  At his baptism we had him sing "How Great Thou Art" in Creole.  Dang! it was awesome.  After he finished the rest of us sang the first verse as well.  As soon as we started singing Lucmon went around and gave everyone a big hug. You would have been lid the other women there mom--------crying like a baby-----it was awesome.  Pray for Lucmon, and the people of Haiti. that was the highlight of the week.  I got food poisoning this week, was up all night purging the system. NO FUN!! We didn't really get and new faces this week the rest of our investigators are progressing well.

This is a from an earlier email on Lucmon

January 4.

Anyway Lucmon and Mellisa are now living in different apartments so that is exciting. We should be baptizing him next week then he thinks he is going to go back to haiti...  he is awesome though. he told us that he wants to be a missionary like us, so we took him out with us and he bore his testimony on prayer and dang it was powerful....  he is awesome and he calls me his brother now which makes me feel gangsta... :-)  o church got cancelled this week but Gardiner ward who meets in the same building didn't cancel so we went to theirs and we treid to contact our investegators but we couldn't contact Lucmon. Halfway though the meeting he walks in and announces Hello everybody! he walked six miles to church   he is awesome... but making me wish i went foriegn...

The Fry Family

Christmas tree with the angel Moroni on top.

I love and miss you all, thank you for your prayers and packages, they mean much more than you know.  

Mary Frances White

Mary Frances White was baptized on October 14, 2009.  This sweet lady has been in our prayers and thoughts for a few months.  Many of you know that she approached Elder Elton and Elder Schwab in the grocery store, read their names tags and asked them to come and teach her.  She told them she had just left an abusive relationship and decided she wanted to join the church.

Here is the experience Brigham sent me in a written letter, some of the experience I have left  out because of sacredness.  I love this woman she is walking by faith, our family will continue to pray for her and her sweet children.

August 2, 2009
On thursday night in Shaw's ( like Smith's) I decided after a lesson that I might want some apples for the weekend.  So we walked through the fruit area and while I was picking out fruit this thirty year old lady comes and kind of leans over trying to see my name tag.  So I kind of got freaked out and turned to look at her.  She says " oh the missionaries I am so excited to see you, I want to be taught about the church.  I finally broke up with my abusive husband and I'm ready to join."
Right then I was shocked and so excited.  We talked for a while and then exchange information.


First lesson
So tonight, Sunday, we have our first lesson with her.  We walked into her little apartment sit down and she starts mentioning all of the bad things that have been happening to her over the past little while, and how she feels so overwhelmed. (you can totally see the vulnerability in her eyes).  Right then we opened with a prayer, right after the prayer my companion Elder Schwab opened to Matthew 11: 28-30, he testified that if she came to Christ he would lift her burdens, Mary then started to cry, overwhelmed by the spirit. 

 As she was overcome by the spirit she began to open up , telling us how her husband had abused her physically in front of her three children.  Finally in December she broke free of her husband and that relationship, the child services were housing her.  Just a couple of months ago she took her kids to see thier father, because he never abused them, just her in front of people.  The problem was this was a court order for her to never let him see the children.. so her children were taken away from her.  Obviously she was very torn up about this.

Right then the spirit spoke to me, I swear I could hear the words in my head.  Alma 7:11-13.  
after a little background, the water works started again.  The spirit hit the room and lit it up.  As I continued to testify I told her even though she thinks she is alone.  Jesus is there for her and knows what she is going through.  Then I committed her to pray tonight for comfort, as she said yes, she began to say that she knows by us being there now, that Christ cares for her and knows her personally.

From that point on, she would tell us something or some worry she had and Elder Schwab, Bother Scheuller  and I,  seemed to receive the same promptings, our teaching wasn't our teaching.  It was just  three of the Lord's tools telling of the gospel that would bless her life. 

 Mary then went on to say that she was so worried about her kids and her not being there to care for them.  Right then it was like the holy ghost was sitting in between us telling Elder Schwab and I of the scripture saying that "God will take care as ling as we are in his service."  Elder Schwab and I both at the same time looked at each other and knew right then what scripture to turn to.  1 Peter 5:7

Testifying that God will care for his children as she moved closer to God and put her trust in him he will care for her, she again began to cry, thanking us over and over, saying she feels like not only does she need to thank us, but God.

The rest of the lesson was amazing as we began to form a game plan to get her the gift of the Holy Ghost as quick as possible.  We are now going to visit her twice a week with daily contact to help her to progress to baptism.

She is so ready and it is amazing the Lord could trust us with her.  I feel so blessed to have this experience already in my mission.  She is working towards a baptism this month it is amazing, she has a huge desire to learn.


Wow what a testimony buider, I can't believe how much I have grown, and how much my love for the gospel and the work I am doing  has grown immensely.  I am so excited for the amazing miracles here in Augusta and in New England.


Lovin' the work


Elder Elton

Crazy Love

This is a photo of Samantha, she was baptized last month, her boyfriend is now taking the discussions


Brig's letter September 28th.  


We now have nine baptism's set for dates but they don't start till november so who knows if i will actually see them... One of the cool experiences this week was in church we had an non -member raise his hand in preisthood and ask how he could sign up for the church i turned around and set a baptism date with him right then and there.  The mission is going great it is getting a little colder and i am getting a hat and such today...  I am having a blast out here though...

Mary is doing well she is not getting baptized till the end of october but hey she is moving forward dang it had been a hard road for her... 


From his letter last week


Wow what a week we're still teaching Mary which is awesome she didin't wake up for church and if she misses again then we have to drop her so we went to her house and banged on her door to wake her up so that we can still keep her going . It is going to be tough  her problems run deep being in an abusive relationship.   We went to dinner with her parents and talked for about 30 min after getting the whole story and it is just nuts.   

Thanks i am glad the letters are coming it is amazing to hear from you guys i am sending a VHS hopefully today with my sim attached it has some movies of us playing guitar and on the sim card is the doorstep i told you abou a little while ago and some pic's but i need the sim back as quick as possible.  

The bright part of the week well actually there is a ton we taught 43 lessons this week which is a mission record and of course we beat the ZL's which was amazing uh the FRY FAMILY IS AWESOME we are teaching the dad and the two oldest boys which has been a blast. but oh well they are going to take a long time cause he is a cop and he can't make it to church all the time so that is makin it take a long time DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE TO WHAT GETS YOU THROUGH WITH NO CHURCH ya that may be a struggle but he gets to come this week which will be awesome... it is testimony meeting..  it is awesome the ward like loves us now and is doing all they can to help it is a total turn around from when i got here so that is awesome.

Uh i think that is about it, i am loving it and i think we planned well i can't belive how much my life experiences are helping me with the specific investigators  i have.......... it is CRAZY    LOVE you all and miss ya a ton and i am freakin jelous about the concert!!!!!!!!

Bekah went to a Brad Paisley concert this last week.

 and you shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto the angels of god. (D&C 42:6)