Week 32: Meetings Galore - September 18, 2018

Elder Wright sent a video again instead of pictures, so here is another screenshot of him

Yes, I know, this isn't the day that I usually have emails, but with mission conference tomorrow, we had to change it to today. I don't expect too much interesting stuff to happen at that conference, so don't be surprised if I don't mention anything about it. As you can tell from the title, though, mission conference is not the only meeting I have coming up. I (might) have leadership meeting the day after, and later that day all of the young elders in my zone will be meeting with our mission president for some unknown reason. After that, we have transfers on next Tuesday, which means I should remind you that my p-day may change because of that, so be prepared for that. Other than that, their isn't much else for me to say. Please ask questions, because I feel like these mass emails could use a little bit of extra filling, so answering your questions would be a really cool way to fill it. Have a great week, and remember to stay healthy during flu season.

Till next week,

Elder Wright

Mom: I asked him a few questions while we were emailing and these were his answers. I thought they were interesting

1. Best part of your week: Hanging out with Elder B. He is an elder in Data Services who reminds me a lot of Elder H, my companion from my service mission and he's a lot of fun to be around. He's also from Arizona, but he's from a town near Tucson, so nowhere near us. Also, going to Dollar Tree and getting Minute Maid frozen lemonade.

2. Worst part of your week: Having a hard time sleeping. Hopefully that will improve.

3. Funniest thing that happened this week: Playing Smash Up yesterday with Elder W and accidentally slipping with my words. 

4. Most spiritual experience: Reading through the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon.

5. What did you learn: I learned that I should strive to be kinder in the way that I speak to my fellow elders.

6. What should we pray for: People back home, and for transfers to go smoothly.

Another parent posted this picture on Facebook of all of the young Elders in the mission. Apparently, it was at a farewell dinner for the Senior Missionaries that will be leaving this transfer. Elder Wright is in the front row on the far left.

Week 31: Family Search Changes - September 12, 2018

Elder Wright didn't send any pictures this week (again!) but he did send us a little video tour of his apartment. I was able to take a couple of screenshots!

Hello, my friends and family. So, if you are a regular user of Family Search, you would know that the persons page on that site has changed its layout recently. Why am I bringing this up in my weekly email? It's because my zone is the one having to deal with all the complaints about it! Seriously, you would think that a small change wouldn't warrant such a response from people, but evidently the people who use the site all day every day think that this is a huge problem. On the plus side, though, it has given me more cases to work on. They are really easy cases to do, as well. All I have to do is label the case as feedback and close it without having to answer their question, because they have no question to begin with. I'm mainly bring this up since we haven't really had anything else happen that is more interesting. In all, it's not that big of a deal, it's just something that comes with this zone. I'm just glad that it has given me more work to do.

One thing I would like to bring up is that I have recently been studying the blessings that the 12 Tribes of Israel, and it's really interesting to learn about. For any of the youth that are reading this email (which I doubt is many), I would suggest reading and learning about those blessing before and after you receive your patriarchal blessing, because the blessings that the 12 tribes received will also be given to you. Also, if that's not interesting enough, it's also kind of like reading a young adult novel where there are different groups that you can be a part of and each one has an interesting trait/job.

Please make sure to ask me any questions you have about my mission. This especially goes out to the people in my home ward, since I'm really interested to hear what you guys want to know about this mission, because who knows, maybe one of your kids will be called here someday. Have a great week and remember to study the scriptures!

Till next week,

Elder Wright

I (Mom) was lucky enough to be able to email "chat" with Elder Wright a little bit. I found out a few other interesting things besides what is in his "mass email."

"For Labor Day, we did the same thing that we did for the 4th of July, in that we went to the state capital. The main thing that everyone was looking forward to was that we were going to be watching the second part of The Work and The Glory, which was pretty fun. I can't wait to see the third part."

"I did see some people going to Comic Con last week. Noting too interesting, just mainly what you would expect: A guy dressed up like Mr. Rogers, other people dressed in normal clothes, and girls dressed up as super heroes."

"We have only had 1 district meeting so far, and that was on Labor Day, so I just held it at my apartment, had everyone wear a tie (we are supposed to wear full missionary attire for district meeting, but it was a holiday so we wore ties as a compromise), had everyone give a little bit of info about themselves so that we could get to know each other, and then I gave a short lesson about how the 10 plagues of Egypt were meant to mock the Egyptian gods. It was fairly brief and really fun."

"If we do have a service project, it's usually on Friday, but there isn't one scheduled for this week. Thursday mornings there is usually a leadership meeting for all the district leaders. On Monday mornings we have the Morning Devotional in the chapel (of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building) and then training at zone. Classes aren't always the same day as p-day, that's just what has been happening with me lately. The main questions that we get (in Data Services) are 110 year requests, help with getting into accounts, and helping people if they have other types of questions. Usually we know how to help them, but every once in a while we get something that we can't help with, so we escalate it."

 Also, recently the Ellis Island Immigrant Records were recently released to search in FamilySearch. Elder Wright worked on preparing these records when he served in the Arizona Young Church Service Mission at the Chandler Records Operation Center. He was pretty excited when I told him that they were available to everyone now.

Week 30:District Leader Life - September 5, 2018

Hello everyone! As you might all recall from last week's email, I'm now a district leader! Well, now that I've actually been a district leader for a week, let me tell you what it's like. All in all, it's okay. It's not too different than how things were before, but things have indeed changed. For starters, I now have a cellphone. It's not a smartphone, but it's better than nothing. I also have to check in on the elders of my district, which is pretty fun. I also have a meeting that I have to attend each week, which I'm happy to attend because I could use the advice. So, I guess being a district leader is okay. It's not a problem, but it's not a reason to relax either. Let me know if any of you have any questions about being a district leader, or about this mission in general! Have a great week, and remember to always help those around you!

Till next week,

Elder Wright

Hi, this is Mom. Elder Wright also told his dad and me that it's starting to feel like fall up there and he likes it. We'll see what he says when winter comes!

Also, I was able to get some pictures of some of the other missionaries that he works with from the mission Facebook page.

This is Elder Wright's companion. He said that he really enjoys serving with him.

From left to right: Elders Waechtler, Martin, Perkins, and Mejia. "Elder Waechtler is another DL here, and he's pretty cool. We talk a little bit about video games and stuff like that. Elder Martin is a nice guy. Elder Perkins is real interesting. Elder Mejia is a really great guy who came from a proselyting mission in Idaho, and he and I are fairly close."