Greetings from Wyoming!

Subject: Greetings from Wyoming!


I received a bit of unexpected news on Thursday. I got a call from the President Gardner saying that he needed me to go down to Cody Wyoming, because the Zone Leader's companion down there was going home (honorably), and he needed me to be his companion for the weekend. So I was with Elder Child till Sunday babysitting. I got to meet a Elder Butler while in Cody and wish that he was my companion. He was so awesomee, but I must move on. It's been hard the past two weeks with meeting people that I'm never going to have the opportunity to talk to again, and being in companionships that aren't going to last long, but now I have my official first assignment, and I am serving in Lovell Wyoming with Elder Hancock. He seems pretty awesome so far. We haven't done much yet, because I was in the transfer van on Sunday from eleven-thirty till six and then we had to unpack and get dinner, and now it is P-Day, so nothing too exciting has happened in way of teaching yet. I have been told that Lovell is the Mini Utah, because of the high LDS population here. Much of our work is through referrals and reactivating members. I've been told that I will probably never go tracting in this area, because we'll just end up running into more members than not. I'm so excited to finally settle in and get to work (at least until my visa gets here). I was hoping that I would be put into a companionship with Elder Dearborn, but he has received his assignment to serve in Billings. Last night Elder Hancock and I went to visit a less active family, and it started to snow. It is cold here. We'll be walking most everywhere, because we are in a car share with the Sister missionaries. I don't know what time I'll be calling on saturday, so be sure to answer the phone, or we've been told that we can skype, but I don't know if I'll have a place to use a webcam. I'll find things out later and it'll all work out. This Christmas I want people to write me. There have been people (you know who you are) who said that they would write me and haven't, and there are people who I've written back and they've never responded. I want to hear from you people, especially now that Christmas is upon us. I love you all, and I better hear from you soon.
Love,
Elder David Short

My new address is:
335 Pennsylvania Ave
Lovell, WY, 82431

Howdy! from Montana

It has been an interesting first week here in the mission field. I am currently serving in the town of Laurel, just outside of Billings. My companions are Elders Freeman and Neilson. It was the strangest feeling to be outside the MTC. At the airport everyone was staring at us (Elder Dearborn and me) and members were constantly coming up to us and ask us where we were headed. I wanted so much to talk with people on the plane, but on my first flight to Denver the people either slept or were plugged into the TV, and on the plane to Billings the plane was so small that the sound of the propellers was too loud to talk over. Elder Dearborn and I are not in a companionship together yet, because the President is waiting till transfers; which are next week. There isn't room in the basement we're living in for one more person to sleep, so I've had the couch for the last week, which is surprisingly better than the MTC mattresses. A lot of our work is with the less active members of the ward. The few investigators we do have are progressing slowly, but I have high hopes for a couple of them. (I have high hopes for all of them, but you know what I mean) We had zone conference last Tuesday and a visit from Santa, who brought us candy, and hand sanitizer. I've been trying to keep up with my language study, but with no one to practice on it's slipping a little. I am still determined to find the one Brasileiro in Montana and Baptize them. The culture is a lot different here. I have never seen so many houses with so many hunting trophies before. I'm having trouble with thinking of what more I could write. It's been "warm" this week; which means that it has gotten all the way up to 40. I've been warm enough since we haven't been doing any tracting and most people keep their houses warm. Hopefully I'll have more exciting news next week.
My address for this next week is:
1631 valley drive
laurel, MT, 59044

David's Mailing Address

Elder David Short
Montana-Billings Mission
1848 Rimrock Rd.
Billings, MT 59102

We have not heard anything from David since the phone call last Monday from the Airport in Montana.

We'll keep you posted!

Gary

David's Call

David did call back last Saturday to say that, until he gets his visa, he was reassigned to the ....


Billings Montana Mission

We heard again from him when he arrived Monday in Montana.

We will post his preferred mailing address soon!!!

Important notice from the MTC!

I received my reassignment this week, because my visa has not come yet, so I'll get to call you tonight with my travel plans. I don't want to tell you where I'm going until we can talk on the phone. Please let everyone be home by around 6 tonight. I'm not positive that I'll be able to call then, but that is the time I'm aiming for. I shall on the other be telling  you where everyone else in my district got reassigned. Elder Gubler and Hales are called to the San Diego CA mission, so look out for them
Elder Grandy(my companion) and Elder Duncan are going to the Roseville CA mission, Elder Higley, Elder Hurst and Elder Patterson are going to the Oakland CA mission, Elder Buttars is going to the Lubbock Texas mission, Sister Lund is going to the Colorado Springs Colorado mission, Sister Owens is going the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania mission, and Elder Dearborn is going with me. The Christmas lights aare finally up. I'm Happy, because I didn't think that they'd be up before I left. We had for our devotional this last week at the MTC Sister Julie Beck, General president of the Relief society. This last week has been about preparing to leave( I leave monday morning). On monday we had a health and Safety meeting to tell us how to not get parasites. We also got to host new missionaries again this week. Almost all the sisters I hosted were going to Russia. It is so hard to think of anything else than where I'm going now. I tell you all about it tonight. Até Logo.

Love,
Elder Short