WHAT'S UP!!!!!!!!

(at his farewell)

Well family and friends its TRANSFERS and I am going to..................................... Just kidding I am not going any were. I am staying right were I am AGAIN and I am happy about that. I still have my great comp. Elder Garfield to be my companion as well, so it should be a great next transfer. I am excited about the changes that have taken place. We have a new bishop, his name is Bishop Mercaferty. I tell you what that must be so hard to do. I have only seen this happen twice, but here you are you are having all these great spiritual experiences and you know the members so well and now you have to leave it all. I know that it has to happen but I am just sad to see Bishop Rueckert leave. I just got to know him and he was a great man, what am I saying? He still is a great man. He made a joke saying that now he could grow that handle bar mustache that he has always wanted. Well he will be missed because not only is he not the bishop anymore he is moving also, so I won't get to see him. Anyways that sacrament was the most spiritual sacrament I have ever attended. I felt the spirit so strong, I was just a mess at the end of this song. It was called "My Lord My Redeemer." I really felt the spirit testify to me that what just happened was for good and it needed to happen. I can't wait for this new change, I really can't. I can feel it deep down in my bones some thing good is about to happen. I want to thank you all for helping me on my mission. You all have been wonderful in helping me and I know that you will be blessed for that. I want you all to know that my mission means every thing to me and I never want there to be day that goes by that I regret or ask myself, could I have done better? No I will work work work, and I will never look back. I love this gospel and I know it is true by the power of the Holy Ghost. I will keep you all in my prayers and again thank you for all you do, your hard work will not go unnoticed. I love you all and hope to here from you all soon.

(A little shout out to Simba and now I guess Patrick, the goat, welcome to the family. Simba you take care of your self and get up and move around get that blood flowing you need to move. And I love you to you are a great dog. Be good and take care of yourself.)

love you all love elder black

It's that time again.

(beach '07)

Dear family and friends,

Well not to much to report here. I have recently written to you and there not much has happened since. I am loving my mission. I love the people here they are so nice. I love my comp.

There is this boy that is in the ward that is in my ward and he is going on a mission soon. He leaves next week and he is going to Madagascar. I think that would be a lot of fun, that is were I wanted to serve my mission. Anyway we are going to work him hard though before he leaves for his mission. Well like I said not much to report. Well there is this man who after 30 years of investigating the church he finally will be baptized. He came to a baptism and after wards said that he wanted to do the same and now he will be baptized this week. I am so excited for him and I know he is stoked too. It will be grate.

Well hope all of you are doing well. I love you and miss all of you.

love elder black

Elder Black Is Great.

WOW Elder Rock Black Is a great companion i just wanted all of you to know that He's doing great. I'm elder Garfield. His current companion he's doing great. He has been getting allot of great support from the Whole family. Keep up the great work. He's told me all about you You are a great family he's showed me all of his pictures of you all you all look great. A family ordained of god. GREAT KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!!!. He loves doing this work. I'm so thankful i have this opportunity to work with him in the mission field. Elder Black And I along with the Spirit are very excited. I Just wanted you to all know He's doing great.

Elder Garfield

I will go find that bush and destroy it.

(clean car awards)

Hey family and friends hope all is well!!! Well news to report..... first off I hope every one had a good forth of July. I did the most you could do as a missionary. We stayed up tell 12:00 pm and cracked glow sticks with your comp. (very lame) and even that was pushing it we are supposed to be in bed by 10:30 pm. Well we had to party after all it was the forth of July!!! So anyway I saw a really cool parade (spelling?) going through down town Bel-Air it way cool my fav. part was the police force.

Well I can't say it enough, my comp. is awesome. I make his bed every morning (if that's not love I don't know what is I, even make him breakfast) he tries to help me out, but I won't let him. He just bought a grill so we have fun using that. We just bought fish, burgers, hot dogs, and steak. We will eat like kings for this month. Well what else can I talk about? The mission is starting a new way of teaching and our mission is the dummies for it. I guess that's OK but this all so means that president interviews are only going to be once every quarter, that means only four times out of the year will I be able to talk to my mission president! That is insane I need to talk to my mission present at least once a transfer. Well I will have to do what he said and that is to "buck up" and "quit my belly akin." What they are trying to do is have us rely more on the lord and teach with more "power and authority." So I guess that's a good idea.

So we have some new investigators. We have 5 total (not a very big teaching pool), but we're working on it. We just found 2 new gators (that's what we call them for short). They're names are Tammie and Pete and both are way solid. We are going to have Kristen, one of our older investigators, come with us to the temple. That will be so sweet!!!! I pray she will feel the spirit there. I got attacked by a bush the other day and my arm is pretty cut up, but I was able to mend all my wounds and I will go find that bush and destroy it. That bush is so going down!!! By-the-way, this was during morning exercise.

So many of you may wonder why I am writing to you on a non-Pday. Well I will tell you: THE STUPID LIBRARY'S WERE ALL CLOSED AND THE MAIL WAS CLOSED TOO!!! SO why I am writing to you today is because I had zone conference and had a crazy day also flowing that thus, this is why I am writing to you all today! Also we won the clean car award in zone conference. This would be the second time for that. Also Vince, one of our investigators, is getting interview for baptism! I hope and pray all goes well with that. He is a really sweet guy, he needs to be baptised! I wont be there though, but I know all will go well even with my presents not there.

So I want to know whats going on? Tell me every thing!

I want you all to know that this work is so true and that it is the best/hardest work I have ever done. Not only is it challenging mentally, but also spiritual and physical. But I know that whom the Lord calls he qualifies and I know that when the Lord calls my name I will answer the call of the Lord. May the Lord bless you all.

love elder black

"Lots of walking this last week"

Well it's just another Pday down here in old Bel- Air area.

[Elder Black at the library with his COMP.]
Well I stooped doing this and I thought I would start again.

Well let me think about what happened this week? Well me and my comp. Elder Garfield did lots of walking this last week and we both have cool sun tans (well as tan as a missionary can get). Anyways we tried to visit as many people as we could this week. We challenged ourselves to see how many people we could teach in one week, it went good but we did not reach are goal. We will reach it this week for sure. I have a new awesome comp. his name is Elder Garfield. Me and him get along great together. We have so much in common its crazy! Well any way we have three people on date for baptism and just in this last week we had to take Bro. Shock off because he just was not progressing. It was sad but we are still continuing to teach him the importance of baptism and the importance of the Holy Ghost. Well President Bellistion and his wife talked in sacrament yesterday, that was cool. They talked on missionary work so I hope that got everyone exited about missionary work and we will start to see some referrals coming in. Well that's all I have for this week. I also had the chance to bear my testimony yesterday. Me and my comp. I was glad to do that because I know that this church is true and I know that this gospel is true and I know that I have a loving Savior who loves me enough that he was willing to subject himself to all kinds of pain, just so he would know how the rest of us would feel when we felt such pain. I know that my Redeemer lives and I know that I can live with him again.

I love you all bunches,

love ELder black

" like it is crazy!"

So its a new transfer and guess what 3 on date!!!!!!!! I am so stoked so News from the mission world: Well I have a new companion, his name is Elder Garfield (like the cat). Well he is awesome. He loves to work and and has fun while doing it. He is so hyper I love it!!!! Anyways Elder Ellingson, my last comp., is doing great in his new area. I really do miss him, actually he changed a lot at the end of the transfer but I know he will do great with his new comp. But I just love Elder Garfield. Me and him are so much a like it is crazy! Anyway I just love this work. I love you guys. Thanks for all you do for me. I hope all is well with you and I will talk to you all very soon. I just want all to know that I have a testimony of this gospel and that I know that this church is true. I love teaching little children the gospel because there so understanding, like I was teaching a boy named Tyrone and he was about 2 or 3. And we were talking about baptism and he whispered in my ear, "I want to be baptized just like you." It was awesome because he was understanding and it was so cute. Anyway I hope I hear from you all soon.

LOVE YOU BUNCHES

ELDER BLACK

I AM NOT GETTING TRANSFERD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WELL I AM NOT LEAVING, FINALLY I CAN STAY IN ONE AREA AND NOT MOVE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO I CAN NOW CONTROL MY OWN AREA WOOOHAHA!!! ITS TIME TO LEAD THE MISSION IN BAPTISM'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WELL WRIGHT ME

I LOVE YOU ALL

AND AS THEY SAY OUT HERE

Y'ALL COME BACK NOW YA HEAR!!!!

LOVE ELDER BLACK

put the gun down!

So I have a funny story for y'all. So we were teaching this new investigator Nick and his friend Justen comes over (this will come back to play later on in the story). So were teaching Nick, we hear "put the gun down! put the gun down that's how people get shot," so we look over and see that there are like 5 cops. And there were these kids that were shooting airsoft guns in the park. Well we got Nick's attention again and we got our lesson refocused. And then Justen came over and we then started over and Justen said he wanted to know more. It was cool. So anyway I love this work and I love to teach this gospel. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon. I am praying for all of you.

love elder black

I bore my testimony there and it was just awesome.

(working on the house 2009)

Sorry family, I have limited time on here so I have got to be quick. but know that I love my mission and that things are going great. I love getting letters from everyone and I am working on sending every one a letter a BIG one. Know that your all in my prayers and that I love each and every one of you. The highlight of my week was zone conference. I love getting together with my fellow missionaries and I love Pres. Belliston. He is the best. He is truly an inspired person and he works hard at his calling. I bore my testimony there and it was just awesome. Well I really don't have much more to say than that. We had our area blitzed and that was fun we had 6 missionaries in Bel Air (and dad it is a richy area) but people are still humble and still want the gospel and that is awesome. Well I will continue to work hard. Thank you for your love and support. I love you all very much and will do better at the letter writing. I have more time to do that. Anyway so farewell for now.

love

elder black

I thought that was something we just joked about.

(christmas eve 2009)

So what's up? I gave you all break down yesterday. And I hope that I did not seemed to rushed. That phone call did really mean a lot to me and I really do miss you all! I am now looking forward to Christmas and the best gift I could get would to here all your voice's again. That will come faster than we all think, so be ready! Well nothing is new here, I am still just so shocked that my mom has a goat now! I thought that was something we just joked about. Oh well I guess not anymore. Hey now that we have a goat we need some chickens and then a horse. I will expect all of this by the time I get home (horses are only 500$ at that rescued ranch it was called the love shack). Anyway I love this mission and I love all of you. I am sorry for this lame email. I just don't know what else to say. Next week will be better, I promise.

love elder black.