12/23/13 Email

(i ask him who his new comp was)
His Name is Elder Brockbank. He;s super cool. He's from Cottonwood heights in Utah

( He said he has been having trouble with his eyes and was going to get them checked)
I haven;t gotten my eyes Chrcked yet, but it's my plan for next week. Last week was really busy with exchanges.
I reallty missed our wards Christmas program yesterday. It's just not the same. Haha. It was good thuogh. Some really good talks about the Savior and the light of Christmas.
I did get the Christmas! Thanks! I haven't peeked! :) On Christmas, i'll call around 12ish...that would be 10ish your time and let you know to get on the computer. I'm sooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The rule is a 1/2 an hour on Christmas, just to give you a heads up.
I don't know what to say today. Haha. I got to see you so soon! Elder Brockbank and I are having a good time. This week should be really fun. We've got a zone goal of 32 baptisms for the month of december and we're 6 away!!! We're so excited!! We've been working really hard on it and we know we're going to reach it!!! We found a lady named Nakita last week and she's preparing to be baptiz3d this weekend. She's ready to make this step in her life, especilly for her kids.
We had an amazing visit with Ronald yesterday. He invites the Spirit better than any person I've ever met before. Someday, you're going to HAVE to meet him. Maybe we can adopt him. haha.
Christmas week has been really warm! 83ish. haha. It's rediculous. Everyone says it gets colder in Feb and January. Crossing my fingers. Elder McMullin said he had to wear a jacket twice last fabuary. Haha.
Love you!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! See you on Tuesday!!!

2-17-13 email

I took some pictures of them so you could get to know their faces. (the family we sent christmas to).

WEll, I'm staying in Ft. Lauderdale. Elder McMullin is leaving though. That's so wierd! It'll be fun to get a new companion, but it's so strange too. I love this area so much, so does Elder McMullin. It's hard for him to go, and I really don;t wan to either someday. 
I think that goal sounds great. The ward here had to make a ward mission plan for the new year and send it to the stake. Their doing a stake mission plan too. It'll keep us on our toes, but mostly we just need to ward to retain the people we baptize. WE had a really fast paced mission even without the ward. WE do 2 week baptisms here, and some of the ward members really don;t like it very much, but it's what our mission President decides and they just have to get a testimony of it. I plan to go out with the missionaries as much as I can when I get home from my mission. I also plan to visit Haiti too. Not sure when, but I have every intention of going there and doing service. 
 In our mission, we are told we should express our love verbally to pretty much everyone. So I've learned to say 'I love you' at the drop of a hat. You probably notice I say it a lot in my letters at random times.
we had some amazing miracles this week!!!! WE had 3 baptisms!!!!!! WHOOOOOO!!!!! 
Chaquanna! She rocks. She was a media referal and she just hooked onto the gospel. She was so ready and prepoared. She loves church and the ward loved her the second she came which was awesome. WE had a great lesson with her at a members house. That was great. We need to try and do more of those. 

 Chaquanna

WE also had Sandra and Chelsea. They're an even bigger miracle. Their family has slowly been getting baptized one by one. The mother of the family is the only one left and we've had a lot of trouble with her. We had been praying and praying that her heart would be softened. One day she would tell us they could be baptized and she'd come and watch, the next day she'd tell us no to both. On the day of the baptism, she agreed to let them be baptized, but wasn't going to come. We went over to the house and she said she had a hard day at work and was super tired. We told her we would help her around the house and we worked and cleaned. We asked again and she said she'd come!!!!! We told her she could just wear her scrubs from work, but she insisted on changing and we continued to help around the house. She came to the baptism and it was one of the most powerful baptisms we had. It was also probably the biggest miracle I've seen so far after knowing the mother and the family! They are an amazing family and I love them soooooooooo much!!!!!! The mom even agreed to come to their confirmation next week! It's only a matter of time before it's YOU, Marie.....;) 

Sandra and chelsea and fam

WE had an amazing time at Christmas Mission conference. It was soooo much fun singing!!! The number turned out really well. I was pretty happy. :) We also did white elephant. I got a little dragon figure of toothless form How to Train YOur Dragon. Haha. It was so fun. It was also really spiritual. President teaches some amazing things. He gave us all white hankerchiefs with the Ft. Laud temple embroidered into it for the temple dedication. Their super cool and a temple recomend holder with the temple on it and our mission's ....mission statement....? I don;t know what to call it. haha
Anyways, I love you all!!! I can;t wait to talk to you next week!!!! I'm not sure what time or anything, but I'll let you know next Monday. 
Jwaye Nwel!!!!! (Merry Christmas!!!!) 
Elder Felkins

12-9-13 e-mail

 I don;t think I'll ever have to move in the Snow here, but it can get plenty hot. haha.

( I ask who he will be singing with at the mission christmas conference) Her name is Sister Bean. She;'s from southern California but attended BYU before. She's super fun. 
I got a really fancy toilet bowl scrubber from the swap shop. Haha. It's pretty cool. I'll take a pciture of it. ( I think for a white elephant gift)
Elder Felkins got to talk to people after the book of Mormon play that was showing in Ft. Lauderdale,. I ask him how it was).
The play thing is going well.  People leave everyday becasue it's so offensive and we're in south Florida. It's an interesting opportunity. A LOT differnt then taching in the Ghetto. haha. 
It's really fun to look for miracles in our lives, big and small.
I've been studying the words of O Holy Night becasue that;s what Sister Bean and I are singing. It's been so fun. I've pared scriptures from the Book of Mormon and the Bible to each line. It's given it a lot more meaning. It's hard to feel very Christmas-like when it is 88 degrees outside, but that has helped. I'm doing my best to feel the Christmas Spirit. It's so importnant to me, and even though it's hard, I wnat this Christmas to be special. 
This is my last week with Elder McMullin..we think...haha. Yu never know whith transfers. It's also my last week of training. That's wierd that I won't be green anymore. I've had a good time being his companion. There'll be a lot of changes made in our district next week. P-day will be on Tuesday again next week. 
Ronald got to go do baptims for the dead last week. He loved it so much! He said he didn;t want to leave and jst get dunked over and over and over and over. I lvoe him so much. He;s the greatest example of faith I've ever met in my whole life. 
I miss my viola so much. I wish so badly I could bring it, THat;s one of the hardest things here; being away from my viola.
One miracle from the week was a lady that we had dropped several months ago. She called us one day and wondered why we hadn't been by to pray with her in so loing. So we went and saw her and she said her life has been so hard the last few weeks. We were teaching her the third lesson in Chapter 3 of Preach my Gospel. When we were teaching about baptism, we hadn't gotten very far when she told us she needed to be baptized. It was before we could even invite her!!! We were so excited. She;s set to be baptized in 2 weeks.
I lveo you all!!! I hopeyou are having a great Christmas time!! 
-Elder Felkins

12-2-13 Email

Thanksgiving was good. We ate at the Church because the ward did a dinner for the people in need, but we also had a member feed us. Just before they fed us we harvested a haitians house and they fed us a ton! So we had just eaten a lot and then we had to go and eat more. It was crazy. Haitians love to give us food. They make thyis crazy macaroni that's pretty good.
The Mabou family hasn't been baptized yet. We're still working on it. Haitians hav e a hard time understanding why they need to be baptized in another church after they've already been baptized even after you explain it to them. But we had an awesome week and got 8 investigators to sacrament mnetting!!!! We were so happy!
The Christmas fireside kind of fell through. Bishop sort of forgot about it. HAha. We didn;t have a lot of timne to prepare anyways. But I'm singing at the Christmas mission conference on the 11th with a sister in our zone. Each zone does a number. I'm really excited. WE're singing O holy night. She's really good singer so it'll be way fun. We also have to take a whiteelephant gift so I'll need to pick one out soon.
I think the family that I'll have you do Christmas for is Vivaldi's. There names and ages are Chris- 2, Vivaldi -8, Shirley -12, Billy -13, Wiki -15, Erika -16. I'll have to send the address next week. sorry.
We kind a had a long day so I'm tryin gto write as much as I can without sleeping. HAha. WE had to help a member of the Stake Presidency move today which STUNK on P-day and we really aren;t supposed to, but oh well.
This week the Book of Mormon Musical came to Ft. Lauderdale and president anderson asked us to hand out Mormon.org cards to the poeple going and answer questions. Everyoine in our zone does it 2 a weekish. It's really interesting. It's wioerd not working in the ghetto. It's strange talking to richer people. Some itmes people are a little rude, but not to bad. Last night we worked after the show becasue we thought it started at 8, but on sunday it starts at 6:30. People thought we were much more of a joke after the show. We met a couple of the cast members and lots of people thought we were part of the cast. One guy even wanted a picture with us, and even after we told him we were the real thing he still wanted a pciuture. haha. There are 3 companionships that do it everyday for the matine and the regul;ar show.
We had intervies with President this week. They were good. One peice of advice he gave me was to introspect about the changes that I've made. He's a really cool guy.

It';s still super warm here. It's about 77-80ish right now.
I love you all! Hope you have a great week!!!!
-Elder Felkins