5/18/10 Update

Today is Daniel's 21st birthday. Today he was transferred from the mission office back into the field. He will be serving his last 6 weeks in Carlisle, PA. He was excited by the opportunity to be back out working as a regular missionary.

9/27/09 update

Daniel is continuing to work at the mission office. One of his tasks has been to help get new cell phones for the missionaries. Mostly he helps take furniture out of apartments they are closing out, clean the apartment, and dispose of the items. Some of it they sell, some they take to the dump, which he described as being cool. He did not get to make the trip to Erie, they had a senior couple there take care of closing that apartment. In his last e-mail he asked for people to send him pictures electronically so he can upload them into his digital picture frame.

9/18/09 Update

Daniel was recently tranfered to Pittsburg to serve in the mission office. He is now living in Bethel Park and goes to the Pittsburgh 2nd Ward. While he will still get to do some teaching, his main responsibility at this time is assisting the senior couple with closing out apartments that are no longer needed due to the reduction of missionaries in this mission. In last week's e-mail Daniel commented on driving the mission's big 14 passenger van and pulling a trailer to help move stuff. They have 6 apartments to get closed out over the next month. One of them is in Erie, PA so he will get to go up there next week. He has also been helping get new cell phones for the mission to use. He said the new ward is nice. There were about 100 people there last Sunday which is a lot more than he has been used to lately.

8/20/09 update

Daniel has not provided much information for an update. We have learned that he attends the Knox Branch. On his first Sunday there they had 30 in attendance. They do not have any investigators they are working with. They do service work at the local Goodwill. They help in any way needed - stocking the shelves, bagging clothes, etc. He says they have fun and they give them discounts on the things they sell. Daniel has determined he would like to attend Idaho State University when he completes his mission. He has found that there is a lot of difference with the Pittsburg Mission compared to what he was used to in the Harrisburg Mission. He is, however, enjoying it and continues to love serving.

7/30/09

Daniel has been transferred to the Clarion area of Pennsylvania. The nearest town to where he is is a little place called Shippenville. Shippenville is about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburg and had a population of 505 in 2000. The nearest church congregation is a branch in Knox, PA, about 5 miles away. This branch is part of the Brookville PA District. The district is made up of 9 branches. Before Daniel left Middletown he had to do something to dispose of his bike. He was aware of a family in the ward that was out of work and needed a bike, so for the cost of going out to dinner he sold them the bike.

7/21/09

Daniel has been gaining lots of experience while in Middletown. He has found that the people there are not very interested in learning about the gospel and it has been hard to find people to teach. Sometimes this has been pretty frustrating for his companion. Daniel is learning how important it is to choose your attitude and that you might as well have a postive one.

Daniel has meet his new mission president, President Summerhays. He wants to get rid of all the bikes so Daniel will be trying to sell his there rather than shipping it home. They had a chance to go to Hershey and tour the chocolate factory. They only did the free stuff, but said it was nice.

In a recent letter Daniel related the following experience: I was on exchange in the morning and they had an appointment with a preacher so we went there. He was a nice guy. He wanted to show us a movie so we said okay. Turns out the movie was about how the Book of Mormon is wrong. They even included a quote from President Hinckley, but they had twisted it around which was sad. I found the correct quote from the April 2002 conference and they sure had it out of context. The preacher also said you cannot go by feelings as far as gaining a tesitmony! Oh, well.

Daniel has figured out his return date will be June 30, 2010. He is hoping we can return that summer to tour his mission and go see the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

6/19/09

Daniel has learned that with the combination of the Harrisburg and Pittsburg Missions, his next transfer will be on July 28. So, he will be in Middletown at least until then. With the Pittsburg Mission they have all the mail go directly to the missionary's address instead of through the mission home. So, use the address under his picture for all letters to him.

In his current location he is serving in the Hershey Ward. That ward also has some sister missionaries. The sisters are actually in Hershey, the elders in Middletown. Daniel says there are currently no members in Middletown. In this area Daniel is finally riding his bike. After doing this for a couple of weeks he is starting to get used to it.