He has hit the 1/2 way point!!!

It is hard to believe that Mitchell has been gone for one year.  Here is a post he put on Facebook:

One year ago today; I set out on a journey that has changed my life forever. My mission has been such a blessing to me and I hope it has been a blessing in the lives of others. I have made the goal to finish the last year of my mission with diligence and with great effort on my part to help others‪#‎ComeUntoChrist‬ and help them make the covenants and promises with Heavenly Father.

This is my mission. This is the mission of the Lord.

When he left a year ago. . .

On the job in California now!

We are so proud of him and his choice to take two years of his life and dedicate it to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ!!  Love this man!

Roman 10:15

And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

These are Mitchell's shoes after serving for one year on his mission.  I'd say he has been pounding the pavement pretty hard.  What a hard worker!!!

February 16, 2015 Email

Hey Fam! It's great to hear you're all doing well and are keeping busy in all that you do. I actually got an email for Aunt CoDele telling me about Matthews mission call. I'm totally stoked for him and am excited he is willing to serve. 

    This week was pretty tiring for us. We were out doing service for most of the week and we had some good opportunities to help those in need. Most of the service we did consisted of mowing people's lawns and spraying for weeds. We got an opportunity to work on some fence that had some boards in need of realigning in the frame. It was good to do service when I didn't do too much of it in Redding. We had most of our people cancel on us throughout the week so that was why we did service a lot in the area. 

    It was actually kinda fun this week. Yesterday, a set of sisters and my companionship wanted to play a prank on these other Elders that live in the same apartment complex as us. We decided that we would Saran Wrap their car like they did to our car before I got here. We started to wrap their car and put all these different valentine items on it and then they came out just before we finished it up. They weren't the happiest about the prank, but they were cool about it. 

Well, that's all I've got for ya this week. Keep up on the school work and have fun in doing good!

February 9, 2015 Email

Hey Fam! It's great to hear you're all staying busy and having some good times. It's awesome that Stockton keeps going to the mission prep classes and is determined to serve. I still think it's uncool that they are having musicals and I'm not there to be a part of them. Hopefully Parker will keep up on the sports since b-ball is getting done and over with. It's cool to hear Brigs is getting into music and is having fun in it. It's good to hear your back is getting better mom. I started lifting again out here and my back was hurting for a while. Hopefully dad doesn't go crazy with all the work he's got to do. It would be tough to work like that and deal with having new stores up while dealing with other things at work. 

This week has been awesome. I got into Oroville on Tuesday and met my new companion, Elder Laulu. He's been out for 3 months now so that means that I'm "Greenie Breaking" him. He was trained by a missionary that just went home and he is doing well. He is a Samoan and is loads of fun to work with. I've been put into a car area, finally. I was a little questionable on getting back into driving since I've been on a bike for a year, but within a few days I got back into it and have enjoyed it since we've been having some rain a few days of the week.

(not actually Mitch and his companion, but it could be a close estimate of their happiness at being in a car)

The area has lots of good work here and is full of awesome members and a few non-members in part member families. One non-member was able to look at Elder Laulu's bike that broke and he fixed it up for him. We also have a super cool bishop who lets us use his gym/weight room that he made and it is a great way to stay in shape. The ward does a great job with feeding us here and has a few members that would feed us or get dinner for us if we needed it. One time we got out of a lesson and we didn't have a dinner appointment that night. We went over to a members home to let them now about some plans made in the week and the subject of dinner came up and they took us out to dinner at this pretty good restaurant close by our house. The members are awesome and the work is good. What more can you ask for?

Well, that's all I've got for ya this week. I wish you the best of luck and hope you know that I love you. 

February 2, 2015 Email

Hey Family! It's great to hear you're all staying busy. Lots of stuff seems to be going on there with all the different schedules. 

This week, we got our transfer call. We got information that I would be leaving Redding and I had the opportunity to bear my testimony with the ward for the last time. We got the call that I will be heading into Gridley serving in Table Mount Ward. I've been told that Table Mount is a pretty cool and interesting Ward that should be interesting. Most of the week was working and meeting people and saying goodbye to most of the members. There are a few other members that I would like to visit and with the schedule we have currently, it will be interesting to try and see them all. We didn't have too much luck with many of the names and we didn't even get the address written down for a great potential investigator. Other than that, there wasn't anything much that happened this week. 

I love you all and hope you continue to do all your activities and tasks well. 

January 26, 2015 Email

Hey Fam! It's good to hear you're staying busy. It's too bad you've been having issues with your back Mom. Hopefully it doesn't turn into anything serious. Dad seems to be pretty busy with all the traveling and work all over the place. The guys seem to be enjoying all that they're in. I'm sure it's a little bit more to handle and work with all the different schedules going all over the place. 

This week was kinda fast and slow for us. Not too much happened this week other than prepare for the blitz. We spent a good majority of the beginning of the week planning for it. We had the blitz Thursday and had everything set up for the missionaries. They all worked hard throughout the day and we have some good results from it. There are about 8 names that we got back from the blitz that seem promising to visit. We hope to pick up a few of them if not all of them this next week. Last p-day we were over at oasis fun center again and all had a blast. There I did laser tag and go carts. There was some mini golf, but I'm not big into that. 

So this week was kinda empty but I'll have a lot more to report on next week. I love you all and hope to hear from you next week.

January 19, 2015 Email

Hey Family! It's good to hear you're all staying busy! It's a little frustrating that there's more work for Dad to do on top of all the other work already there. 

This week was kinda fast for us. There were several changes to our schedule due to meetings and stake conference here. We had our usual district meeting on Wednesday that took up the first part of the day then worked on the zone blitz for a while till dinner. Thursday was an exchange day where we had a lesson with a less-active member in the ward. The Elder that was with me is in a car area and I put him through the tougher parts of my area. He didn't quite enjoy that. Ha ha! Through that exchange, we pick up a potential family to teach and we got a return appointment with them. Friday was our planning day then we planned for the blitz again. Saturday, we got to have interviews with our mission president. He gave some hints of the transfers regarding what's going to happen to me. We also talked on the work in the ward and how we can continue to serve in it. We continued to work on the blitz until we went to the adult session at the church. It was a great session and we had a general area of seventy attend the meeting. He gave a great talk on faith and humility that struck many people. We had stake conference yesterday where our mission president and his wife talked on missionary work and member missionary work. It is all connected to work together and to hasten the work so long as we do our part. The rest of the day was a bit of a struggle to see people since it was a Sunday and people want to just relax and spend time with family. When we went to dinner yesterday, the member offered to look at Elder Kretschmer's bike to see what can be fixed on it since he's been having issues with it. He got it repaired to the best of his ability and the bike works good. 

Well, that's all I've got for ya this week. Also, the blitz will be this week not last week. I love you all and pray for you always.