Feb. 22, 2012 Good, Bad, and Ugly

wow what a week it has been. good and bad all around, i don't even know where to start. Glad that you had a good weekend with Cary's family in town and doing some winter sports! sounds like a lot of fun! so i am sure you are all wondering how i am doing so i will get straight to the point...it sucks! haha


Sunday morning i slept walk and i vaguely remember it happening but i stepped wrong on my ankle and it just gave out. i crashed on the floor and it hurt really bad. i bore through it Sunday and Monday and finally got into the doctors yesterday. They did a x-ray and i broke the outside bone on my right foot. it is a pretty bad brake but it is still in place, which is a huge blessing. i also tore a ligament that runs on the inside of the ankle. they put me in a bright orange, hard, non-weight baring cast from the knee down and crutches. I have to go and get it re-x-rayed in one week to make sure it is still in place, if it has moved i will probley need some screws to keep it all together but i feel good that it will stay the way it is! I am being a really good boy and not putting any weight on it at all. :) yes, lots of pain but not as much as before i was in the cast. what good timing huh!? it freaking sucks...last few weeks i am hobbling around and going to come home in a cast probley! kind of depressing but i am hoping for the best! maybe if the new x-rays look good next week by the end of week 3 they will but off the cast and let me get away with a walking boot, but i don't really want to cut too many corners with this one because if something goes wrong it wouldn't be good! but hey, look at the bright side, i am going to get cut abs from pulling myself around on the crutches going up stairs and every where else! haha ill be fine. i will call and let sis ellsworth know how my next apt goes and tell her to call you so you can have a update. :) good? call her if you have any questions! Keep me in prayer!

the baptisms went awesome and both were well attended and went smooth as anyone could ask for. we had investigators at both of them and they are all on track now after seeing a baptism and feeling the spirit that is there. Heathers was so sweet because her long lost cousin that Heather found through ancestry.com gave the talk on Baptism and it was so powerful as she shared their pioneer ancestor stories and what their family had gone through so we could have what we do today. both of them were really powerful and a good experience for everyone in attendance. I will send pics!

to throw onto the stress of the 2 baptisms and a broken ankle we got a call on Saturday night saying the their speaker for sacrament had canceled and they needed us to speak. so that we night we stayed up later and got it for the most part prepared. woke up the next morning to a broken ankle, and then got to go talk at 9! it was awesome haha, to add to that, it was only Elder Hyrkas and myself talking and no intermediate hymn. Elder Hyrkas talked for 8 mins and left the rest to me, haha and away i went. 26 mins and i think it made sense, no one fell asleep either so that was good! :) crazy week end!

as far as this up coming week i am not too sure whats going to happen? the less time i spend on my leg the less chance of it moving so i will do all i can but i am not going to push it. so as for the ski trip when i get home.....ill have to ski on one leg! ;) ha, man this sucks but i am trying to be optimistic
I am glad that you had a good week and got a lot done. keep happy and safe and we will be in contact soon. not very long until another Monday is here! I got your Vday package, thanks so much i really enjoyed it and have loved the snacks! keep safe and healthy and i will keep you posted with everything here! Love you tons.

Elder Lerwill

Heather Montez Baptism

Destiny Bradley Baptism

Yellow Lambo (wishful thinking)

OUCH!

Valentine's from the cute Panter kids.

For You Valentine!

Love, Macie

I'm a "sucker" for you Valentine!

Love, Stockton 

These are so cute! Way to go Katie!

Mission President Letter and Travel Plans!

Brother and Sister Lerwill,

As your son's mission draws to a close, we express to you our gratitude for your sacrifice and for the time we spent with Elder Lerwill. Sister Ellsworth and I have come to love Elder Lerwill and we are grateful for the privilege of serving with him. He has been a wonderful missionary and has served faithfully in the Arizona Mesa Mission. While serving he has been instrumental in touching may lives through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of his diligent and devoted efforts, Elder Lerwill has become a mature, effective, ad disciplined servant of the Lord. We are confident that the Lord is pleased with his service.

The missionary department has set the release date for Elder Lerwill as March 15, 2012. We have enclosed a copy of your missionary's itinerary for your information. It will be a memorable experience for you and Elder Lerwill as he steps off the plane to greet family and friends, knowing that he has completed a successful ad honorable mission.

We thank you again for the sacred opportunity of serving with your son. We know that he will continue to serve and bless all who come in contact with his love and warmth.

May the Lord's choicest blessings always be with you and your wonderful son.

Sincerely,
R. Spence Ellsworth
President, Arizona Mesa Mission

Your son has been a a wonderful missionary. He maintains a great attitude and has a work ethic to match it. He has learned many valuable lessons while serving. He has a very wonderful spirit about him and is always anxious to bless others. We will miss him.

E-Mail Feb. 13, 2012 "I should have knocked harder!"

Wow what a week both here in AZ and there! sounds like you have had a lot going on and have been really busy with all the unexpected things happening there. you all will be in my prayers. :) Crazy to think that basketball season is on the whined down and that will be ending soon. doesn't seem like that time of the year. the whole no season thing kinda throughs me off! I am so glad that you are enjoying the Book of Mormon with me. it has been fun to read it through again! :) learn something new every time! Ill be looking for your package at the beginning of this week. Crazy you got my travel plans...I did as well. it has been the first time that it has actually hit me hard and it was kind of a ruff night/day. We had zone con that day and i was among the group that will be going home and so we had to bare our testimony and i was a wreck, haha, i don't remember anything that i said really but i guess it went good. the "dying testimony" is one of those things you never do or ever happens. always others, never your self. so that happened that afternoon and then in the mail that night i got my trunky papers. talk about a slap to the face. i laid in bed and lamented for 30 mins. haha, kind of a hard day but, luckily i woke up the next morning, went to work and saw some sweet miracles. that's whats keeping me going now! :) so no worries, i am doing good. Kind of sucks that i will have 1 1/2 hr lay over in Denver, at the same time it is good! 1) i get to take off 2 times and 2) give me a little time to ponder and think alone! so it will be good. be still got a few more emails, so let me fill you in on my week...


Heathers in laws have been in town this week so we have not been able to teach them as much this week but she is doing awesome! their whole family came to church on Sunday and she is getting interviewed for baptism on Tuesday night. after church we got together all the info for her baptism and she had it all written up on what she wanted and she has asked me to baptise her! will be a great experience and i couldn't be happier. so she will be getting baptised on Saturday at 2:30 in the afternoon. So prepared and we are hoping and praying that i will be here to see Ray and Tyler baptised. hopefully seeing Heathers baptism will be the deal maker! :) they are doing great.

Destiny will be getting interviews tonight. she is such a great young lady and has changed so much. its so different teaching a teenager. the way you teach, feel and interact is so different that with anyone else. partly because i have been there so recently and have experience very similar thing as she is going through so we can relate and it is especially cool because with them you are not just changing them or their spouse, but you are changing generations! cant wait to see the ripple effect many years from now. so rewarding. she will be getting baptised on Friday at 7:00 pm.

Caleb is doing awesome as well. yesterday in the opening exercises of priesthood when they asked if there were any other announced he stood up and said that he started meeting with the missionaries and he will be getting baptised on March 3. so awesome to see him so dedicated and ready. totally willing to stand up for what he knows to friends and family and is ready to fulfill and magnify his responsibility as a priesthood holder and is excited to learn. love teaching him and seeing his faith and knowledge. smart young man!

we are working with 3 other people who have potential of getting baptised before i leave if all the stars align! :) we are being really blessed. on Saturday night E. Hyrkas was talking to the Spanish elders about all the people who will be in church tomorrow and i was like elder don't say all that because then they wont show up for some reason or another. we taught him the idiom of knocking on wood. and then Sunday morning we only had 1 investigator for our 1st ward so we were banking on Eldordao ward pulling through. we were sitting there at the close of the opening hymn and still no one was there, elder Hyrkas looked at me and said "i should have knocked harder!" haha then the miracle. after the opening prayer, 4 of our investigators walked in! Awesome day and week. We have been seeing so many things just fall in our lap. Friday we were walking down the street and lady turned around her car, rolled down her window and said, "I need you to come teach me and my mother." mom isn't member but has started asking questions so we are going to be teaching them this week! over and over these things happen it is not by happen chance or luck, this is truly Gods work and i love being a part of it. it has changed my life and i feel so blessed. it has provided me with a hope that i can accomplish anything if i look at it and pursue it with the right tools and help. i know that as long as we live faithfully and keep the covenants which we have made, we have a direct promise from God. we are so blessed to be a part and have a knowledge of this glorious gospel. keep strong, faithful, and sharp and we can stand with assurance. i pray for you always and hope you have a wonderful week. keep safe and happy, thanks for the support and love.

Love,

Elder Lerwill

Cute Bailey with her new ring (class ring Lerwill style)

When Dalan was a Junior we did his elk ring, instead of a class ring that you only wear a few years. So Bailey opted for the same option, which I am glad of. So this is what she picked out. It is beautiful!

E-Mail Feb. 6, 2012

Wow what a week. February 6th, 70 degrees, no snow, blue sky's and green grass...for a few months till it burns in the sun! this week has flown by so fast it doesn't feel real that i am sitting here again writing you! Sounds like you have had a good week there and have got a lot done. the bed turned out really good! i have been hearing all this about a Murphy bed and have had no idea what you are talking about! haha, i know now. looks awesome! is that where i will be staying? :) Glad you had a good Sunday and fun super bowl party. we didn't go see anyone that had it on all night(which was kind of shocking) until like 8:15 we went to check up on a investigator (Unfortunately he was drunk) and there was 9 seconds left in the 4th. so looked like it was a pretty good game! :) Has the skiing been any good? are there still rocks showing? crazy to think that you have that white stuff on the ground.


We have had a really good week! just busy trying to get everything set to go for our 2 baptisms on the 17th and 18th! they are doing so great. Heather and her family are growing and changing so much, so cool to see. we have started teaching her husband, Ray, and step son Tyler and they will be following her in a few weeks. the whole family came to church and really enjoyed it. it showed a lot of dedication because church is at 1 and Ray really wanted to catch the pregame and all the good stuff but he sacrificed and came with his family which was huge! and to add to it all they all fasted! so sincere and sweet. It is so much fun to teach them just because of their faith and desire to learn. we get texts from Heather with different questions that she has throughout the week and what she has been learning in her personal study. so awesome. she will be getting baptised on the 18th at 2:30 in the afternoon! will be a great day.

Destiny is doing awesome as well and for 15years old is taking this really seriously. She has gained a testimony over the past month and has grown to love the Book of Mormon, her and her mom have been reading every night together and are in 2 Nephi and loving it. they always have a big list of questions every time we teach them that we get to talk about and they blow me away every time. AWESOME! she will be baptised on the 17th at 7:00pm so all her family can come in! :)

We also set a baptismal date with Caleb Foster who is 12 yrs old and so solid. he has been coming to church for the past 2 years and knows the church is true but just has been hesitant to meet with missionaries and get baptised. we have really gained a cool relationship with him and have been going to his priesthood quorum and helping teach and sharing experiences and he has really opened up and started to want to move forward. his grandparents live in the ward and so we set up a dinner and lesson with him and his family for Thursday and it went awesome! he prayed over the food and prayed that someday he could be a missionary and share the gospel with people like himself! it was so touching. We taught about the restoration and he is already reading his scriptures everyday,praying, and coming to church. so there isn't much more he needs before baptism, already has a sweet testimony but he wanted some time to work with us and learn all the lessons before so he will be getting baptised on March 3rd. it will be great and hopefully through him and his spirit he can help reactivate his dad and touch his moms heart. she is not a member but sooo supportive! more so than dad so who knows?! she said that she would personally read and pray about the book of Mormon so it was really cool! they will do great!

As far as my Book of Mormon reading is going, i am doing great and loving it. i am in the first few chapters of mosiah and on track to finish on time! :) it has been fun to get every ones letters and here how they are all doing with their reading process. so cool that several of you all there at home have taken my invitation and are doing it with me! its such a great thing and is really helping me to stay focused! :)

Today we are going to go to cosco and get some food, there is a member that has a card and is going to take us. we will stock up and good to go for the rest of the month. we don't have any plans for today besides just R&R. much needed. We have Zone conference tomorrow which will wrap up most of our day and we have a few other meetings this week that will make it fly by even faster, crazy how that works.

Please tell everyone there that i appreciate and feel their prayers helping us and the work and thanks for all you do. I feel so blessed and taken care of. there are so many sweet families down here that take us in and support, help and make us feel like family so its kind of hard to not feel blessed. cannot believe how time is flying by. I am loving what i got and you all are always in my prayers as well. thanks for all you do and your love and support! i hope you have a good week and you can get lots accomplished! have a good Monday and week, we will talk soon!

Love,

Elder Lerwill

Stacy's new hobby

Stacy has been working on getting set up to reload shells. It has been a fun process for him. I love how patient he has been and how is is enjoying each step and stage. If we can't find him he will just sneak downstairs and tinker with it for a few minutes. It has been really good for him. He also has been in the reorganizing mood. He got his man cave all organized and it looks so great.

Here is the Man Cave reorganized

Here is our growth chart we have kept for several years. It will be interesting to see if Dalan has grown any. He was about 5 foot 7 (I think) and around 185 when he left. Bailey has not grown in several years. We think she is just perfect, funsize! She is almost 5 foot 1. They both are perfect in our eyes.