Teaching Investigators

Hey family!

It sounds like you've had a really good week. Congrats on the games this past week Whit and Braydy.

Well I'll just hit a couple of the highlights from this past week. The missionaries in the Temple Terrace fortunately have this habit of finding people to teach that are YSA aged; consequently, we were invited to two lessons on Saturday. There were some bike racks that we needed to deliver around the mission though, so we ended up going on exchanges so that at least one of us could be there for it. I stayed with Elder Khan, and honestly I was a little anxious. One of the lessons scheduled was with a girl named Megan. I'd already met her for a lesson before, and it didn't go over very well the first time. She had brought a friend with her then that didn't have very kind feelings in regards to the church, and wasn't afraid to express them. I guess after the lesson she called Temple Terrace and apologized for how things had gone over. Well unfortunately Megan texted us and canceled for the meeting, but the other one we had scheduled ended up working out. That lesson was with David and Nicole. They're both in their early twenty's and are cross country runners for Florida College. Most of the students there are members of the Church of Christ, and generally that means they want correct the wayward LDS missionaries. Surprisingly though, they were both really genuine and nice. Elder Khan and I took them on a tour of the church and then we went into a classroom and taught the Restoration. The Spirit was definitely present and at the end of the lesson they committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. They had good questions at the end of the lesson like, "Why do we need a prophet?" "Isn't the Bible all that we need?". It felt like they were truly asking with intent to know, not to be contradictory.

Another cool experience was with a less active in our ward named Erin. A couple of weeks ago Elder Cook and I were trying to find some of the people on the roster that we didn't know. Our ward covers three stakes by the way: St. Pete, Tampa, and Brandon. That makes for huge ward boundaries. Anyways, she wasn't home when we went over, but we left our number with her roommate. She actually called us back that night and was interested in meeting up. Unfortunately, we kind of dropped that ball after that and took a while to get back to her. On Tuesday night we decided to give her a call, right off the bat she invited us over for dinner on Thursday night. We ended up going over there and it was a lot of fun. It turns out that she has been a member all her life, but her life got busy and she just hadn't been back to church in a while. She was interested in getting back into activities, and I'm excited to work with her. Erin knows where she needs to be, I think she just needs the motivation to do it.

This next week is going to be really busy because it's the last week of the transfer. I'm just going to try and buckle up and hang on for the ride.

I love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Kade Bartschi

President’s Letter

Dear Sisters and Elders,

I just feel such great joy in my heart for the Florida Tampa Missionaries. I had a special experience over the week end in the St. Petersburg Stake Conference. The witness came to me of your goodness, and of the joy you bring into the lives of those you are nurturing-a companion, a member, a less active, a part member family, an investigator and your Mission President. All with the beautiful desire to grow and establish the church by loving them and serving them. I was further instructed by the spirit that you, the Florida Tampa missionaries, are the angels on my right hand and on my left hand and in front of me who bear me up. I was allowed to feel of God’s love for me through you.

In this short letter, I just wanted to thank you for your faithful service and to express my heartfelt love for you. I also feel to bless you to fully understand who you are and who you represent and serve, the Lord Jesus Christ. I bless you that your mission can be filled with happiness, peace, love and productivity. I truly believe in each of you. You have my love and confidence.

President Summerhays

A Good Week

October 10, 2011

Hello my Family!

It sounds like you've had a pretty good week. Wow, it's hard to believe that the snow has already started up back home. Like I told you, it's just starting to get beautiful here. During the summer months I forget what nice weather feels like, and I just can't understand why people would live in Florida. Then, suddenly, the late fall weather starts to kick in and I'm reminded that it can be a great place to live. In a twisted way, that's exactly what it's like in good 'ole Idaho. Just flip the summer for winter and you have the same thing.

Well, it has been a good week here in Tampa. We started the week with seven new cars that the mission needed to distribute throughout southwest Florida, and all of cars that are being retired needed to make it back to the mission office. Fortunately that worked perfectly with what we were planning on doing. We go on exchanges with zone leaders throughout the mission and at the start of this week we exchanged with the zone leaders in Fort Myers. I ended up going down there with Elder Berry, from Chubback, ID. So first off, that is pretty much the farthest south we go in our mission (with the exception of Naples), and the zone leaders we exchanged with are Spanish speaking missionaries. Haha so I was completely out of my element in two areas. I've spent my whole mission in the North half, so that was a neat experience to get to go down there. Also, it was really great to be able to experience the Spanish culture first hand. I've heard enough Spanish on my mission that I can pick up on key words and know the general idea of the conversation, but even so, by the end of our time together I was mentally fried. It was amazing to see how generous they all were though. Our exchanges last for one day, and by the time we met back up with Elder Cook we had been fed 5 times. For the sake of my waist line, I'm grateful to be serving an English mission. It was really neat to hear the gospel preached in another language though. Even when I couldn't follow the conversation, the Spirit was still definitely present.

Other than that, I was actually able to do some missionary work in a family ward this week. I love the YSA, but it's definitely a lot different than what I've done my entire mission. One of the Temple Terrace missionaries was really sick, and so Elder Cook and I went on a couple of day exchanges with them. Temple Terrace has some pretty ghetto areas, so I was having flashbacks of Gulfport. It was really fun though, and Elder Khan and I were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to an investigator. Her name is Vanessa and her daughter had been to the church before and really enjoyed it.

I hope you all have a good week! I love hearing from you and appreciate all of your love and support.

Love you all,

Elder Kade Bartschi

General Conference

Hello Family!

We have officially made it to October, and there's no better way to kick it off than with a conference weekend. Listening to the last few sessions has been amazing. There is no doubt in my mind that the leadership of our church has been called of God. The divine revelation they receive is pertinent to what we need and the challenges facing us. Now the key to all of this is going to be applying the messages that I hear instead of just listening, taking a few notes and then thinking "wow, that was really good!". Ha I'm really good at doing that last part, but I'm still working on the applying part of it.

This week has been pretty good. The institue building is located right across the street from campus. Its location is ideal for holding activities there and then invite people to come over and check out the church. The YSA is great at holding socials, and there's a monthly bbq that is great for inviting people there. Well, Elder Cook and another mission took to the corner with signs, enticing people to come and have some free dinner, and then some other missionaries and I ate food with the people who came and then invited them on a tour of the church. The members of the YSA are really friendly, and so it's easy for us to find people to talk to them. It worked out nicely, and we had a couple of people come that were really positive. There were two girls at the end that Elder Cook and I took on a tour of the church, and they seemed to really like everything that we shared with them. They especially liked the idea of a strictly college aged congregation for them to come and connect with.

Besides that we have quite a few less actives and recent converts that we're working with. One of which is Crystal Corona. I had to include her last name because it cracks me up. Ha but she is really great. She got baptized earlier this year, and is really solid. We taught her about the importance of patriarchal blessings, and a few weeks later she was able to go and receive it. She also just got called as the secretary in the relief society. They get put right to work in this ward, which is great for building a testimony and not getting lost in the background.

Well I'm sorry this is so short! We haven't had much time this week to get something written, but we're going to go watch the last session of conference!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kade Bartschi

September 24th

Hey my family!

This has been a good week for us here in Tampa. It's a completely different experience working on campus but I'm really growing to love it. Working with people my own age, particularly with the members of the ward, is a blast. Our church building is right across the street from campus, and the institute is built on the back of it. There is a class on every weekday taught by either an employee from the CES, or a senior missionary couple, the Leavitt's. Fortunately those classes fall on either our dinner or lunch break, so we are able to go over there and attend a class and get some food, and get the know the members really well. It's incredible to see how many members of the YSA ward are converts. I fully expected it to be a bunch of kids from out west that came here to school, or just life long members from the area. Let me tell ya, I was completely wrong. Many of them have joined within in the last year or two, and seeing how strong their testimonies are is pretty incredible. They're all so solid and fun to work with.

We're currently working with some of the recent converts at the YSA, and other than that we're trying to find some more people to work with. Now "finding" here is absolutely nothing like what I've dealt with previously. We walk around campus just trying to talk to people and strike up conversations. It's a completely different feel to walk around a University when you're not a student, and are dressed up in a white shirt and tie. Haha it has taken some getting used to, but I'm really enjoying it. Elder Cook is fun to work with, and we get along well. He has been serving here for the last 10 months, so I think it's going to shell shock the ward when he goes home. I'm trying to build as many relationships with people as possible before he goes but I'm sure it will be fine. Hopefully.

This morning we had a lesson with Eric. We're officially making the transition with the Seffner Elders so that we'll be teaching him now. He's 22 and we've decided that he would really like going to the YSA ward rather than down in a family ward. It was actually pretty cool because we ran into him on campus this past week. Elder Cook and I decided that it was definitely a sign that we would be taking over his teaching haha. Anyways, we went down to Seffner today and were able to teach him the first lesson. It was actually pretty neat teaching with 3 other missionaries and to feel the power that bearing testimony brings. When we taught about the atonement and Joseph Smith and the first vision we each took turns sharing with him our personal knowledge of the truthfulness of the message that we were sharing. The Spirit was present and I know that he felt good about what we taught. He'll be out of town this weekend, but he was excited about the idea of going to family home evening with us on Monday.

Well, that's about the extent of things that have gone on this week. I love you and look forward to hearing from you!

Love you all,

Elder Kade Bartschi

President’s Letter

Dear Sisters and Elders,

I know we are all anxious to listen to the messages which will be presented at General Conference this weekend. When Elder Nelson was here, he shared that he was on his 15^th draft of his talk. He said that all who will be speaking have sought heaven’s help and direction as they prepared their messages for many weeks. I felt that the responsibility weighed heavy upon him and the others who would speak. Elder Nelson also mentioned that even though Elder Boyd K. Packer’s mobility has been reduced, his capacity to receive and respond to revelation is being increased. He said the brethren observe this every week. How blessed we will be to listen to him counsel us. Elder Packer frequently says, “If all you know is what you see with your natural eyes and hear with your natural ears, then you will not know very much.” His observation should help all of us to desire and seek to listen by the spirit as we are taught.

We will be privileged to hear from all of the Apostles and the First Presidency as well as other General Authorities. Elder Bednar said that, “An Apostle is first, foremost and always a missionary” which gives confirmation that we are all fellow servants of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and there will be much for missionaries in conference.

As you watch conference, I pray that you would all be as Mormon, when he was described as being “quick to observe”(Mormon 1:2). Ammaron counseled Mormon to both remember and record all of the things he observed. His ability to look, to notice, to respond and to obey provides an impressive example for us to study and to follow. Elder Bednar said that being quick to observe is vital to receiving the gift of discernment. Discernment is seeing with spiritual eyes and feeling with the heart---seeing and feeling the falsehood of an idea, the goodness of another person, or the next principle that is needed to aid an investigator. It can be easy to fall in the trap of listening without conscientiously observing, listening or discerning.

This is a wonderful opportunity for us to receive revelation if we come seeking through mighty prayer. We have been promised by the brethren that there will always be something for us in Conference. We all have questions, maybe even questions relating to our 40 day purification. Answers will come to help us, if we desire to know. If we ask with a sincere heart, having real intent, and having faith that we will receive, answers will come. Just like our investigators, we can receive answers through the Prophets, Seers and Revelators. Expect answers to your prayers and they will be given.

We are Preach My Gospel missionaries who listen and learn with spiritual eyes and ears. I pray we may be filled with the Spirit of the Lord and be uplifted and inspired as we listen and learn from conference. I love you and pray that you will always remember Him and allow the Holy Ghost to teach you what is needful in your lives. I pray that you will learn to observe, listen and discern. Learning to observe, listen and discern will bless you on your mission and for all of your lives. Conference is going to be beautiful!

President Summerhays

Busy, busy, busy

Hello Family!

It feels a little weird to be emailing you twice this week, but now I can finish some updates. Reading over my last email I could tell that I was more than a little scatterbrained when I sent that off. Ha but fortunately things have simmered down a little bit, so I can organize what I'm thinking.

So I always knew that things were probably pretty busy in the office around transfer time, but I had no idea to what extent. After I emailed you on Monday morning I saw everyone at the office kick it into high gear. We went home and grabbed our suits after a little while and enjoyed a minute of P-Day before heading over to the airport to pick up the incoming missionaries. It was really crazy seeing the airport again and having the flashbacks of my first day in Tampa. Their plane was right on time, and it was truly awesome to see 14 missionaries walk off the shuttle. After greeting them with President and Sister Summerhays we loaded up all of their things and took them to the mission home. Another place I have been to except for my first day. We had dinner there and got to know the new missionaries, which was cool. Most are from Utah, California, and one from Malad, ID. Following that president interviewed them one at a time as we gave a short training on what some of the missionary work is like here. I observed for a lot of that because next transfer I'm going to be the one doing a lot of that because this is Elder Cook's last transfer. Elder Cook is great by the way. He's the first companion that I've had from Idaho, and he went to a year at Utah State before his mission as well. Anyways, after that we entertained the missionaries until president was done with interviews (10:00 pm), and then went into his office and we started placing trainees with trainers. It all seemed to fall into place, and after about 30 minutes, we had it where we felt like everyone was supposed to be. By the time we got home it was about 11:30, and rushed to bed to get a few hours of sleep before heading out again. We got up at 3 am so that we could head down to Ft. Meyers to pick up the new trainers there and a couple on the way back up to the office. It's about a 3 hr drive, and we got all of the trainers to the church by about 9am. Not too shabby. We changed into our suits following that and got ready for the trainer-trainee meeting. Seeing as how it was tradition, I got to conduct the meeting and tell them all who their new companions would be. That was really cool, and quickly after the meeting we sent everyone on their way. I won't get into the details of the rest of the day, but we spent it moving everyone around and getting situated. All in all, we crawled into bed at 12:30 am. 21 hrs straight. Ha ffortunately we haven't had to do that again this week because I'm not sure how well my body would handle that.

So the area that I'm serving in is the Tampa Bay YSA. We cover USF's campus, and so far I love it. I almost feel like I'm back at college again, except for this time I don't go to classes and stress over homework. But instead, we're trying to help college students realize that they need the gospel in their lives. It'll be a blast, and I'm really excited about that.

Well the rest of the week hasn't been too eventful besides taking things around the mission every now and again. If nothing else, I can see that the Lord's hand is in his work. There is no possible way that we would have been able to accomplish the things that we have without Him. There were a couple of time this week where we looked at our watches and saw that we were right on time for something even to the exact minute, that I was positive that we would completely have missed. It's amazing to see how it all works out.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Kade Bartschi

New Assignment . . . Assistant to the President

Hey family!

This has been quite the week. I'm even having a hard time right now remembering what has taken place. Elder Nemelka and I have gone on two exchanges, so that helped make the week fly by, but also we've been looking forward to having Elder Nelson come into the mission. I was able to stay in Seffner for the first exchange and then I went to Riverview for the second one. Both of those were a lot of fun but I really like going to other areas and seeing what they're like.

This week Elder Nemelka and I have done our best to follow up with our investigators. We weren't able to have more than a door step discussion with those that we have as investigators, but that was definitely better than nothing. I can't remember if I've told you about him before, but we were able to make good contact with Eric this week. We tracted into his mom, who was raised RLDS, and he sat in on our visit with her. About a week later we tried to go back and visit and just Eric was home. He's 22 and has just graduated from school to be an air traffic controller. We tried to have a lesson with him this past week, but because of his busy schedule we weren't able to go and visit him. He called us though and promised to be to church on Sunday. I've heard people promise that before, but I really felt like he was sincere. Well, on Sunday morning Elder Nemelka and I were greeting the members at the doors into the chapel and sure enough Eric came walking in. He was able to stay for sacrament meeting, and I think he really enjoyed it.

Leading up to Saturday's mission conference, I was a little bit stressed. I've had to sing in front of different audiences before, but never for an apostle. Fortunately the missionaries that I sang with were great. Elder McDougal, a missionary in the quartet, actually arranged the version of "Be Still My Soul" that we sang. I was pretty terrified in the beginning, but Elder Nelson was so nice. We all had the opportunity of introducing ourselves and shaking his hand, which was really neat. I was still shaking a bit when I got up there, but I think it went well. The spirit could be felt and I was really happy to be apart of it. Elder Nelson's training was great though. He took questions for a little while, and then began asking us questions. He had a topic prepared for us, and before he started teaching it he paused for a second and then told us that he was prompted to talk on something else. He ended up teaching us about the Book of Mormon and how it is the main tool we should use in teaching others about the church. It is a convincing witness that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and is a great way to feel the Spirit.

Yesterday after church we got a phone call from President and he asked us to go and meet him at our church building in 30 minutes. We showed up over there and President and I stepped into a classroom and talked a little about the work. He then asked me to be an assistant this coming transfer. I'll be serving with Elder Daniel Cook from Shelley. He graduated a year before me and we actually played against each other in bkb and football. I found this all out yesterday at about 4:30 and then I had to have all my stuff packed and ready to go by 9:30. I was really caught off guard about all of that and I've been just going with the flow up to this point. President and the current assistants have been making phone calls all morning and I just have a minute to email you. I'm really excited to work with President and I hope that this all works out well. Obviously the Lord knows a lot more than I do.

Well I love you all so much! Have a great week and I think that I'll email on Saturday which I guess is when I'll be emailing for the next little while.

Blake, I'm praying for you buddy. Know that I love you and I'll keep you in my prayers.

Love you all,

Elder Kade Bartschi

P.S. Tell Grandpa and Jace happy birthday for me! I totally spaced writing this earlier. There isn't a better example in my life and I truly appreciate all that he does. I love you!

Elder Russel M. Nelson is Visiting!

Hello my Family!

So I must have told you wrong last week, but we don't have transfers until this next Tuesday. Hopefully I'll know what's going on by next Monday when I write. Things have changed a little bit since I last emailed though. President felt like Elder Escobar would do well with the Elders up in Plant City for the last part of this transfer, so Elder Nemelka and I are back down to a regular two missionary companionship. After having been with two other people for the last month it feels pretty different to down-size.

Everything seemed to slow down a little this week. We were able to make good contact with a lot of our investigators last week, but none of them would give us set times to come back and visit. I think the biggest issue we're running into is that the majority of the people we've been teaching recently have come from tracting. They likehearing what we have to say and learning more about the gospel, but they don't really understand the impact that this message can have on their lives. Because of that, it's been hard to get them solidly on board. When there's a member involved that's a friend or family member, they know that we're going to try and meet with them frequently, we want them to attend church and read from the Book of Mormon, stop habits that harm their health, and so on. The member is there to reassure them that the decisions they're making will help them and bless their lives, and to be the guide throughout this
process. Now it helps when we take members with us to meet the people we're teaching, but even then I think that the investigator view them as "people from the church". It truely is those that the Lord has
prepared that get baptized from tracting. We have received a couple referrals from the ward members though, and so we're hoping to follow up with them this week.

On Friday we went to a our ZLC meeting and found out something really cool. Elder Russel M. Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve is coming down this week to reorganize the Tampa Stake, and so this Saturday he is doing an all mission conference! The entire mission will bemeeting together, which I've never seen happen, and we get to hear from him for a couple of hours. I've been asked to sing in a quartet during the conference and I'm a little anxious about that. After I agreed to it, the assistants let me know that he has perfect pitch. Haha so we'll so how that goes. I'm really excited to be able to hear from him though, and to receive the direction that he has to give.

On Sunday we were a kind of disappointed because none of our investigators showed up, but it was really neat because Andrea got up and bore her testimony. She did a great job and let the members now
that it was because of their love and support that she was prompted to learn more about the church. She's great, and although she wasn't able to go to the youth this month to do baptisms for the dead, that's
what we're working with her on now.

Our most positive follow up this week was with Lyndey. We showed up on her doorstep and she took some time to talk with us. The last time we met and taught the first lesson I know that she felt the Spirit and so I've been really looking forward to meeting with her again. Well in the beginning she tried to drop us by talking about all the doubts that she has about the church and even in God, but we weren't going to
give up the easily. Elder Nemelka and I each bore testimony to her that the only person she can ever completely rely upon in this life is her Savior. She may be experiencing hard things in her life, but He
has felt those things. He knows what she's going through, and if she's looking for lasting peace in her life then that is the only place she can turn to. She started to tear up a little bit at the end of it and agreed to meeting again. We'll see her this Thursday.

Well I hope things continue to go well at home. I loved that story of Whit and was laughing the whole time. That's definitely my sister. Haha she kills me.

Have a great week and know that I love you!

Your boy,

Elder Kade Bartschi