(no subject)
Hey- this is coatney's 'little' sister posting a few of his recent emails. I'd Fwd them to some of you but I have very little time.
July 14th
Hello all,
It's great to hear from you all, and I apologize for sending a blank e-mail earlier.... I think I may be forgetting how to use a computer... or something.
Anyway, I dojn't have much time to write, they changed the comp system at the library, and I don't think it would be a good Idea to hack it... even though I know I could (they're using a form of watchdog.... Remember that erik?)
Well, all is going good with me. My companion has less thatrn one week left, and we roasted a pig on a spit yesterday to celebrate. I'm still sore from all the turning we had to do.
Also, we had a dickens of a time tryiong to get the pig to rotate on the spit. Eventually we ended up wrapping it in a LOT of chicken wire (enough for china I think...) anfd theat prdevented it fromm falling off, as well as leting it turn properly. TO me though, it ajust seemed like a difficult and fancy way of doing a pig roast... now if only it involved duck eggs or some odd rare animal that you don't eat much....(it might be considered a delicacy then) We had the roast and "luau" at the house of cindy and ernie Myers... I hope you remember them.
It sems like there have been a lot of those for me this transfer, and most of them were very americanized. The best one though was last night.
Anyway, I've got to go now, we need to go see one of our investigators, who went into LDS Hospital yesterday for hip surgery. And then it's off to Coalville for the rest of the day. YAY Coalville!!!
I hope all is going well with all of you, I miss you all horribly except for the times when I am bearing my testimony of the gospel and helping others( not mutually exclusive mind you). So I try to work as hard as possible so I can feel wonderful al the time. It works out pretty well.
Please let me know how thing are going on your end, and erik, please work on geting info out to my friends. They're not family, but I still care about them a lot. By the way I really Enjoyed your e-mail. You're good at it, e-mailing that is. (and you know a lt more htan I do about what is happening at home so...)
With my Deepest love,
Elder Ryan D. Coatney
July 21
Okay, so I only have about eight minutes to write to you and about 200 hours
worth of events to write to you about. I'll write a snail letter to you all and
elaborate more tonight... (sorry I've been lax about that lately...)
so the day of celebration was fun, wonderful and very hot. I think I got my
collar black with all the sweat and dirt on it... gross! But I still enjoyed
it. All the missionaries that participated got to be in the corridor with
President Hinckley before he came out on the field. I was about 20 feet away
from him. Elder Tetterton, my MTC companion was just on the other side of the
security, and that was the trid time for him to be at least that close! It was
all fun even though the people lit their glow sticks early... they were supposed
to wait until the missionaries walked by their rows but.... it still worked
well.
Dad is right, Elder Vave did go home to new zealand. Actually, he's leaving
today at three, and getting there on saturday at 5:30 am.... it's only a 19 hour
flight though, even with layovers... guess how that works. ^_^...;P
SO my new companion is elder Frye. His family is from MIchigan, and he went to
UVSC before coming out here.... the really interesting thing about him... he's
only been out on his mission for three weeks, including MTC time, give or take a
day! in other words I get to train this transfer!!!! I'm both very excited and
nervous about it... but president moeller has confidence in my abilities, and I
have faith that the Lord will help me do what I need to do. Oh, by the way, i'm
a district leader on top of that , so.... it's just been a little crazy for
me lately.
Also we get to sing with the tabernacle choir for president hinckley's birthday
celebration. I'm really excited about that, and I hope you all get to watch it
at the stake center... I'll certainly be writing you about it..
gotta go.
Lots of Love,
Elder Ryan D. Coatney
July 27
Hello everybody!!
Sounds like things are really gearing up for something special this past
Saturday. I hope to hear all about it soon. (he's referring to the Dance festival 2005 that was held on the 23rd(?) at mcKenzie stadium in Vancouver Everyone in our family was very busy with that)
things are going really well this past week. I've been a bit overwhelmed and
nervous, but I feel very pleased that the lord has seen fit to give me the
responsibilities that he has. It also helps me to be a bit more motivated to do
the lord's work now that I have a companion who needs to develop good mission
habits for his first transfer. I'm paying far more attention to what I am doing
than I ever have in the past.
This past week has been VERY busy for the entire mission as far as activities in
which we participate. Like I said last week we had President Hinckley's
Birthday celebration on thursday and Friday (the dress rehearsal was thursday at
three, just after I sent my e-mail to you all). It was a wonderful experience
and I encourage each of you to watch it. At the end of the celebration on
friday, President Hinckley said "Let's have another one in five years!" I
honestly wouldn't be surprised to see that happen. I would love to be there.
On Friday morning I got to go to my first leadership meeting. That was an odd
experience for me, but I grew a lot from it. Some very good things were
discussed concerning missionary behavior, and I learned a lot of things to help
me train and prepare the missionaries in my district to be better missionaries.
Especially my companion. It seems frightening when I realize how much he has to
learn, and the fact that he doesn't know how much there is. However, I am
confident that with the lord's help we can get to where we need to be.
This past monday we had a good experience in that we got to proselyte at the
pioneer day parade. My companion had a good chance to street contact, and so
did I. I am grateful for that because I know that street contacting is one of
my weakest areas. I certainly need to be more bold in such situations.
We had a lot of fun though, and I got a chance to use my japanese again to get a
referral.
After that we went to district meeting, that was good, and the first time I got
to do accountability... that was fun. Except for the part where I got to report
my own numbers. Our area has been kind of suffering lately, we baptized most
of our investigators, but Edler Vave and I didn't do as much finding as we
needed, so we ran out of people to teach. Not good.
However, the lord does provide for those who have faith in him and work hard.
President Hinckley has said "Pray as if it all depends on the Lord, work as if
it all depends on you." I know that As I do that I wil become a much better
missionary. I will find more people to teach, teach the doctrine better, and
baptize more people than I ever thought possible.
Last night we had the opportunity to teach Peter Calinan. Peter grew up
catholic and married an LDS woman. Their family has hit some rough times of
late and because of one of the great members of the ward that Bro. calinan
resides in, they have been very comforted. Peter has even been going to church
and reading the Book of Mormon for an entire month. When we taught him last
night he was very excited to show us some of his own favorite scriptures in the
Book of Mormon, and listened very well to what we have to say. I was kind of
worried having Elder Frye teach so fresh out of the MTC , but he taught well,
and I expect that he will get much better soon. Altogether, last night was a
very good experience, and I know that ther are many more in store for both me
and my companion for the rest fo this transfer and for our entire missions. I
think it's great that we will serve around each other for so long.
I love you all and hope that you are doing well.
Love For3v3r,
Elder Coatney
So thats a long post but it's all i have time for. if you feel like sending him a letter or email send snail mail to:
Elder Ryan Coatney
Utah - Salt Lake City Mission
3487 South 1300 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84106
Also send emails to : acetylene30@gmail.com, they will be forwarded! Thanks!
July 14th
Hello all,
It's great to hear from you all, and I apologize for sending a blank e-mail earlier.... I think I may be forgetting how to use a computer... or something.
Anyway, I dojn't have much time to write, they changed the comp system at the library, and I don't think it would be a good Idea to hack it... even though I know I could (they're using a form of watchdog.... Remember that erik?)
Well, all is going good with me. My companion has less thatrn one week left, and we roasted a pig on a spit yesterday to celebrate. I'm still sore from all the turning we had to do.
Also, we had a dickens of a time tryiong to get the pig to rotate on the spit. Eventually we ended up wrapping it in a LOT of chicken wire (enough for china I think...) anfd theat prdevented it fromm falling off, as well as leting it turn properly. TO me though, it ajust seemed like a difficult and fancy way of doing a pig roast... now if only it involved duck eggs or some odd rare animal that you don't eat much....(it might be considered a delicacy then) We had the roast and "luau" at the house of cindy and ernie Myers... I hope you remember them.
It sems like there have been a lot of those for me this transfer, and most of them were very americanized. The best one though was last night.
Anyway, I've got to go now, we need to go see one of our investigators, who went into LDS Hospital yesterday for hip surgery. And then it's off to Coalville for the rest of the day. YAY Coalville!!!
I hope all is going well with all of you, I miss you all horribly except for the times when I am bearing my testimony of the gospel and helping others( not mutually exclusive mind you). So I try to work as hard as possible so I can feel wonderful al the time. It works out pretty well.
Please let me know how thing are going on your end, and erik, please work on geting info out to my friends. They're not family, but I still care about them a lot. By the way I really Enjoyed your e-mail. You're good at it, e-mailing that is. (and you know a lt more htan I do about what is happening at home so...)
With my Deepest love,
Elder Ryan D. Coatney
July 21
Okay, so I only have about eight minutes to write to you and about 200 hours
worth of events to write to you about. I'll write a snail letter to you all and
elaborate more tonight... (sorry I've been lax about that lately...)
so the day of celebration was fun, wonderful and very hot. I think I got my
collar black with all the sweat and dirt on it... gross! But I still enjoyed
it. All the missionaries that participated got to be in the corridor with
President Hinckley before he came out on the field. I was about 20 feet away
from him. Elder Tetterton, my MTC companion was just on the other side of the
security, and that was the trid time for him to be at least that close! It was
all fun even though the people lit their glow sticks early... they were supposed
to wait until the missionaries walked by their rows but.... it still worked
well.
Dad is right, Elder Vave did go home to new zealand. Actually, he's leaving
today at three, and getting there on saturday at 5:30 am.... it's only a 19 hour
flight though, even with layovers... guess how that works. ^_^...;P
SO my new companion is elder Frye. His family is from MIchigan, and he went to
UVSC before coming out here.... the really interesting thing about him... he's
only been out on his mission for three weeks, including MTC time, give or take a
day! in other words I get to train this transfer!!!! I'm both very excited and
nervous about it... but president moeller has confidence in my abilities, and I
have faith that the Lord will help me do what I need to do. Oh, by the way, i'm
a district leader on top of that , so.... it's just been a little crazy for
me lately.
Also we get to sing with the tabernacle choir for president hinckley's birthday
celebration. I'm really excited about that, and I hope you all get to watch it
at the stake center... I'll certainly be writing you about it..
gotta go.
Lots of Love,
Elder Ryan D. Coatney
July 27
Hello everybody!!
Sounds like things are really gearing up for something special this past
Saturday. I hope to hear all about it soon. (he's referring to the Dance festival 2005 that was held on the 23rd(?) at mcKenzie stadium in Vancouver Everyone in our family was very busy with that)
things are going really well this past week. I've been a bit overwhelmed and
nervous, but I feel very pleased that the lord has seen fit to give me the
responsibilities that he has. It also helps me to be a bit more motivated to do
the lord's work now that I have a companion who needs to develop good mission
habits for his first transfer. I'm paying far more attention to what I am doing
than I ever have in the past.
This past week has been VERY busy for the entire mission as far as activities in
which we participate. Like I said last week we had President Hinckley's
Birthday celebration on thursday and Friday (the dress rehearsal was thursday at
three, just after I sent my e-mail to you all). It was a wonderful experience
and I encourage each of you to watch it. At the end of the celebration on
friday, President Hinckley said "Let's have another one in five years!" I
honestly wouldn't be surprised to see that happen. I would love to be there.
On Friday morning I got to go to my first leadership meeting. That was an odd
experience for me, but I grew a lot from it. Some very good things were
discussed concerning missionary behavior, and I learned a lot of things to help
me train and prepare the missionaries in my district to be better missionaries.
Especially my companion. It seems frightening when I realize how much he has to
learn, and the fact that he doesn't know how much there is. However, I am
confident that with the lord's help we can get to where we need to be.
This past monday we had a good experience in that we got to proselyte at the
pioneer day parade. My companion had a good chance to street contact, and so
did I. I am grateful for that because I know that street contacting is one of
my weakest areas. I certainly need to be more bold in such situations.
We had a lot of fun though, and I got a chance to use my japanese again to get a
referral.
After that we went to district meeting, that was good, and the first time I got
to do accountability... that was fun. Except for the part where I got to report
my own numbers. Our area has been kind of suffering lately, we baptized most
of our investigators, but Edler Vave and I didn't do as much finding as we
needed, so we ran out of people to teach. Not good.
However, the lord does provide for those who have faith in him and work hard.
President Hinckley has said "Pray as if it all depends on the Lord, work as if
it all depends on you." I know that As I do that I wil become a much better
missionary. I will find more people to teach, teach the doctrine better, and
baptize more people than I ever thought possible.
Last night we had the opportunity to teach Peter Calinan. Peter grew up
catholic and married an LDS woman. Their family has hit some rough times of
late and because of one of the great members of the ward that Bro. calinan
resides in, they have been very comforted. Peter has even been going to church
and reading the Book of Mormon for an entire month. When we taught him last
night he was very excited to show us some of his own favorite scriptures in the
Book of Mormon, and listened very well to what we have to say. I was kind of
worried having Elder Frye teach so fresh out of the MTC , but he taught well,
and I expect that he will get much better soon. Altogether, last night was a
very good experience, and I know that ther are many more in store for both me
and my companion for the rest fo this transfer and for our entire missions. I
think it's great that we will serve around each other for so long.
I love you all and hope that you are doing well.
Love For3v3r,
Elder Coatney
So thats a long post but it's all i have time for. if you feel like sending him a letter or email send snail mail to:
Elder Ryan Coatney
Utah - Salt Lake City Mission
3487 South 1300 East
Salt Lake City, UT 84106
Also send emails to : acetylene30@gmail.com, they will be forwarded! Thanks!