Email 3/25/13

Dear Family, Friends, and other people on the Internet!

This week has been a very interesting week of "What the Heck is going on?" and "Holy Crap!" To start of with the beginning of the week, Elder Evans and I have caught a new virus that has been going around that you have to just wait out and get over. The symptoms are Head Aches, Dizziness, nausea, constantly tired, and stomach pains. Elder Evans and I have had all the symptoms and are now feeling slightly better but it is like a constant on and off switch which is really annoying. So the first couple days we had to stay in the apartment all day due to my companion getting all the symptoms one day, and then me getting them the following day. So that was fun this week haha

While walking on the road yesterday, I found (yes on the side of the road. there is TONS of weird stuff all over the road here) a Mio GPS. I took it home plugged it in to see if worked so that we didn't have to buy one! and it didn't, it doesn't keep a charge and the screen flashes on and off every 5 seconds. Now we know why they through it out on the street haha ok now we are going to get to the amazing part of this week that you are going to be in ah and jealous of xD

This week we had an all mission conference on Saturday, March 23, 2013. We had the amazing privilege to have the following people in the special all mission conference:

Bishop Davis- Presiding Bishopric
Elder Smith- Area of the Seventy
Elder Hallstrom- Presidency of the Seventy
Elder David A. Bednar- Quorum of the 12 apostles

In the words of Elder Bednar, This kind of mission conference with this many brethren here will never happen again. This is a once in a life time opportunity. Boy was it! The spirit was so strong when they all walked into the room and got seated on the stand. I cried pretty much the entire time we were there. He answered questions I had come with, and answers to questions I didn't even know I had. I did take some notes while I was there and will send those at another time. I sat 2 rows from the front of the pulpit, and also got to shake every single one of their hands. This is a time and event that I will never forget. I got to meet and shake hands with an apostle of the lord.

That is about as exciting as it has gotten around here! Which in letter form, seems like not much at all, but in reality, a ton has been going on physically, mentally, and spiritually all week for myself and my companion. I cannot wait to see what this next week will bring and to see what new adventures are in store for me.

I love you all and pray for all daily,
-Elder Anthony D. Zenger

Email & Pictures 3/18/13

Dear mom, Friends, all others who are awesome and actually read this :D

I did send william a letter in the mail the other day, (so look for it :D) I also have a few things I need you to send ma ASAP :P
1. New pair of glasses (my other ones aren't broken they are just very very close and its scary)
2. I need you to send me that CD with that gloria song you and I like, (its been stuck in my head)
3. I was also informed at return and report, that I need a GPS -.- Yup they suggested a Garmin brand cause they work a lot better in the mission area. Yeah
4. I also need money for a mini quad. My other scrips have been getting ripped and its making me sad :(
5. and my account number for my card so that I know how much is on it :) I can't check the balance with out it.
If you could do those ASAP that would be awesome :D :D

Yes indeed I did get the package you sent with the candy and my camera :D I will be sending a few photos that we took this week. Thank you so much for all the sweets! ^.^ ok now on to what has happened! We use the DVD player we have (for training and other things) to play the CDs. :)

So we did indeed have Transfers THIS WEEK ON WEDNESDAY! 0.0 Elder Evans and I....................................Are staying in Syracuse South! :D WE are getting a new set of Elders this week for the North side, Elder Gnasitoto and his trainie. Elder Hussy (one of our Zone Leaders) Is leaving and going up to the canadian boarder! We get a New Zone Leader, Elder Hogard! It's going to be an awesome transfer! :D The sisters are staying the same as well, Sister Ross, and Sister Resare. The ones in the pictures were Sister Ross and Sister Howick (the fishin on a mission with Jesus picture) and then in the greenie dinner was Sister Ross and Sister Resare.

Elder Evans (as we were walking) found himself a Human Tooth with a Nasty Cavity on it. xP Yes I am sending you a photo of it xD haha Elder Evans and I also went with Elder Hussey and Elder Simmonds (current ZL's till wednesday) and did what we call a Ghetto Photoshoot. :) Those are some sweet photos! Other than that, this week has been pretty normal! Except for yesterday (Sunday), Elder Evans and I got a phone call from the Investigator that was deciding on weather to be baptized or not. She called us and told us yesterday that she doe not want to be baptized at all. Yup, she does NOT want to be baptized. So she basically dropped us yesterday and that sucked really really bad. Not our teaching pool is at 3-4 :P but things will get better as we find new people and see Less Actives. :)

There isn't much else to report sadly :P besides that new photos will be coming soon! :D

I love you all very very much!

-elder anthony d. zenger

Email 3/11/13 for Syracuse New York

Dear mom/Family/Friends,

The way the mail works here, is you send it to the mission home, then the mission home forwards all the mail for us to where ever we are living at the time. I do read through you emails mom. I just receive dads first and answer them in his email assuming that he will share those answers with you. Dan is directly writing to me now, (I think, I haven't received anything from him yet, maybe today idk) so you don't have to worry about that, and max is directly writing to me as well. I don't know what Nic and Brandts problem is -.- freakin bums! haha Also, how is William doing? I havent heard ANYTHING about him or from him like at all! I have obviously heard from terry (cause he is terry), here and there about susie and lyman, and nothing much else. I haven't heard back from reba either! WHAT THE POO! haha hopefully I can hear from some of them VERY soon!

This past week we have had what is called Zone Training Meeting. Which is where everyone in the Syracuse Zone comes together and hears some announcements from President, and then we also get a training from our Zone Leaders. Who we actually see everyday cause they are in our district haha One of the awesome announcements Pres. told us, is on the 23rd of this month, we are having an all mission conference and guess who is speaking and going to be there? Elder David A. Bednar is coming to talk to our mission, along with 2 people from the seventy, and someone from the presiding bishopric! :D IM SO FREAKIN EXCITED ITS DRIVING ME NUTS! He also announced that Sisters and Elders CANNOT Drive together, nor eat together anymore. -.- Which sucks cause that is how we got from some places when the ZLs where at other meetings. He also said that we can now email friends as well as family! :D This isn't just our mission, this is WORLD WIDE missions! So for all of you who are reading this, weather is be on Facebook, email, or standing over my moms shoulder, you may now email me instead of snail mail me! HOWEVER! This is what I think of the situation. If you are able to write me my snail mail, then I suggest you do write me snail mail. The only time/people I think should email me, is family, and people that KNOW they do not have the time to hand write me and email is the quickest way to go. If you email me, I will respond to you, if you write me by snail mail, I will most defiantly write you back. That is what we were told and discussed at Zone Training.

This past week has been the same, if not worse in numbers for Elder Evans and I. We are still having issues with people keeping appointment, and finding new people to teach. We think it's due to the weather and it being cold. It is now warming up, so we hope to see and talk to more people cause they will be out and about more. Funny thing happened to Elder Evans and I this week. Well 1 funny and one stupid thing happened.
Funny Thing:
As we were walking up the street to get to the ward house for a meeting (or a baptism I don't remember) we passed this black guy that was standing outside a little corner store that was on the way to the church building. This guy could not walk straight, had a bloody lip, and his eyes were totally not even straight! He was drunker than Drunk, and probably higher than a kite at the same time. Anyways, as we passed him, he acted like he was saying "Whats up" to us and wanted fist bumps, what he really wanted to do was fight Elder Evans. Lucky for us, he was to drunk to think, or walk straight to chase after us as we turned and walked (speedly) away from him. yes we almost got into a fight with a drunk guy. haha

Stupid Thing:
We met this 19yr old kid on the bus the other day, asking us questions about the church. I don't remember what church he is from, but he seemed interested at the time. He then asked us if we would come over and do a bible study with him. We agreed and went to his house the next day at the time he set up for us to come by. As we are sitting there in his house, (he is cooking for his siblings at the time) there was a knock at the door. As this kids grandmother opened the door, in walked this guys preacher. The grandmother said, "Bro. so and so is here!" and he then looked at us with a smile and first thing Elder Evans and I did was look at each other like, "Oh Crap, what did we get our selves into?" Instead of having a nice bible study, we had a horrific Bible Bash. The preacher first off asked us, where in the bible does it say we have permission to do baptisms for the dead, then asked us where in the bible does it say that 12yr old young men can become decons, and then continue to ask where in the bible it talks about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We sat there for an hour in this guys house, trying to get out. I finally got the prompting to say the following as soon as I could. I then said, "What I like to remember, is that God has given us the greatest gift of all and that is our Agency. He gave us to power and ability to choose they way we live, and what to believe. I know and believe, that Jesus Christ is my savor, my redeemer, my lord, and my god. I know that he did for me and for all of us. I know that one day he will come again and that we are in the latter days of the world. We have another appointment to be getting to. Thank you for your time and for letting us meet with you." We then said a closing prayer and left. I have never felt so down spiritually in my life. I never want to be put in to that kind of situation again no matter where I am. I am very grateful that I listened to the spirit and got us out of there before anything else could have happened.

Other than that, the sisters had a baptism last saturday, and I think there is another one this saturday if not next that the sisters have planned.
That's all I have to report for this week. I hope you all are doing your absolute best, to the best you can be, and are loving one to another, just as god loves you.

I love you all and wish you the best week ever this week.

with much love,
Elder Anthony Zenger

Letter 3/04/13

Dear Family, Friends, and All YALL!

This past week hasn't been the best of weeks for Elder Evans and I and our Zone Leaders. We are loosing people and not finding any new ones so far! Hopefully that will change quite quickly this coming week. Elder Evans and I have only 1 progressing investigator and have had some issues with her. She hasn't been coming to church, and she has canceled our last 3 appointments due to sickness and something else. So we now have to push back her baptism to a date which we don't know yet because we haven't had a chance to see or meet with her. We have been trying alot of formers we had. But sadly no one is home or interested. Funny story, I actually had a lady tell me on the phone (she was in our potential records) that She was not interested, will never be interested, and told me to never call that number again. She sounded pretty upset that I called. Sad huh? Our Zone leaders went from having 15 people they were teaching, and went down to 4-5 people. Hopefully, things will get better this week and next. We have good faith that sometime awesome will happen soon!

On a positive note, we have had a lot of less active members come to church recently and we started a new Gospel Principles Class in the Singles branch! Yes, There are 2 sets of Elders and 1 set of Sisters that are with the ward, and the singles branch, and soon on the 20th (Transfers) there will be another set of Elders joining us. Which means, on sunday, all the missionaries get the wonderful chance to have 6 hours of church! With additional meetings.On a quick side note, with transfers coming up, we were informed that this transfer was cut short by a week with all the new missionaries coming in. We were also informed that ANYONE could be transferred. That includes myself, and my trainer Elder Evans. So hopefully neither of us will leave this area and I won't have to get a new trainer or become someone's trainer in a different area. Which sadly is very very possible. I was also told my older missionaries, that this transfer and my experience as a missionary in the field so far hasn't been what it's really like a missionary. So hopefully, things will be getting better and sorted out.

In this email I am including a couple pictures from my companions camera (since my is temporarily out of service). These pictures are from a dinner Elder Evans and I had with the sisters (Sister Ross, and Sister Resare, I am standing with sister Resare) Sister Vest (the member) told us that she does this dinner called a "Greenie Dinner" for all the brand new missionaries that start in are area. I hope you are all having a good time! and that things are going well! Until next week my good friends and family!

Much love and blessings!

-Elder Anthony Zenger