Austin August 9, 2011 Kenosha, Wisconsin

Dear Family,

We are on fire here in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We just tore through another week getting 20 lessons and plenty of new investigators and referrals from members and non-members alike. It was almost just a hilariously weird week. It's almost guaranteed that the more you are out the more likely that just crazy stuff will happen. While we were teaching this one guy in his front yard I heard the engine of a bus driving down the road in front of his house. We kept on teaching the guy and it was going really well, he really understood the restoration and committed to read the Book of Mormon. Then I noticed this African American man and Hispanic-looking teenager walking up to us. The guy interrupted our lesson and handed us a pamphlet. He told us they were just talking to people on the street and encouraged us to read it and told us he wasn't trying to pull anyone away from their church or anything. So I thought, okay, fair-enough; we do the same thing so I can't be too annoyed. And then I thought he was done and then he started probing asking, "So are you guys saved?" I looked over at our investigator expecting him to answer because at that point it hadn't occurred to me that he was really just talking to us and I forgot our investigator didn't speak any English. And so I answer, Yes. And then he asked, "Well how do you know you're saved." "Because grace in Jesus' atonement saves me and through faith, repentance, baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost." I replied, hoping to be able to shake him off fast and get back to the lesson. But no no, he wasn't satisfied with my answer, "Well sir, the baptism isn't what saves us. That is merely a demonstration, it symbolizes His death, burial and resurrection. It is merely how we show to God that we are truly saved through Jesus." To which I possibly too boredly replied, "Which is why I said that I am saved through Jesus' grace and atonement." So I asked him, "Do you know what we do?"

-"No, I'm not sure I'm familiar with what you do."

-"Where are missionaries for our -"

-"Oh that's great, we have missionaries in Brazil and Peru. We support them as they spread the word of God"

I realized he was really just there are fight with us on no matter what we said. So I just stopped paying attention to him. He eventually tapered off and walked away. The whole conversation his co-hort shaking his head in agreeance to everything the Baptist pastor said. I looked over and saw them hop on the bus that I had heard earlier, like a SCHOOL bus with like 12 teenagers in it. I looked around and realized there was no one else on the entire block. He literally stopped that giant bus and got out to stop our lesson and argue with us. It was way lame.

Then another day we were riding to our last appointment for the day and I noticed a tiny, tiny rabbit in the road near the curb. I decided to stop to try to scare it in to the grass. When I approached him he tried and tried to jump above the curb but he couldn't even jump high enough. So I told Elder Woodward we should try to catch him. It was pretty funny with us running around the street, bent over trying to catch him. He'd only run from one side of the street to the other and when he'd get to the curb I was sure he would just run and jump over it and head off in to the grass but instead would just jump straight forward and slam his head in to the side of the curb. It was so cute and sad. He did it like 4 times and finally got so disoriented that we were able to grab him. He was no bigger than one of my palms. We took the spur of the moment and decided to keep him (against our best judgement). So we went to a nearby member's house to get a cage for him (after we figured out that the investigator we were going to visit wasn't home anyways.) And we biked him with a little rabbit in a cage. We got home and realized we had no food for him and so we headed back out to this Italian family that we met on the street that sold vegetables from their front yard (that's a funny story, I'll have to share that one next week) and he gave us some rabbit food because we knew he owned rabbits. We also ran in to his neighbor and had a way sweet lesson and passed him on to the English Elders and they tell us that he is doing well (which is about the only good thing that came out of all of this). We headed back home and tried to feed him but he wouldn't never do anything but just sit in the corner of the cage and just stare at nothing. So we hit the sack and just left him in the cage. When we woke up (Sunday morning) he wasn't in the cage. Yeah we didn't put the top on the cage but the walls are a good foot high and he couldn't even jump 5 inches on to a stinkin' curb. We were befuddled. We started tearing through our apartment to find him and eventually Elder Woodward took some stuff from under his bed and I could tell he found him because he jerked back. It kind of startled him; there was Genesis (we named him Genesis) just sitting there....in the dark...staring back. So we rounded him up and put him back in the cage and left for church but THIS time with the cage closed. But then when we got back from church HE GOT OUT AGAIN. So we declared him a devil animal and we found him in the corner of our closet and we went outside and put him in the grass in the front yard. We sat there for 5 minutes and he didn't even go anywhere. It was so bizarre just like a horror movie or something, it's like he doesn't move if we are looking at him and then he just POOF and then reappears under beds and in closets from an ENCLOSED CAGE whenever we're not there.

So that was weird and kind of funny.

Well, I got to go. Everything is going sooo well. I started P90X today and it was ROUGH but hurt oh so good.

Much love,

Elder Papritz

Amy August 7, 2011 Taiwan

Dearest jiating,

Whelp another great week has come and gone. This last p-day was epic. Between meeting Alden and moving to our new apartment we were both exhausted. This week was back in the normal swing of things. We met with Li xian min. She is the investigator that said she wanted to get baptized in two weeks. We made the plan to teach her 3 times a week. We only met with her twice last week. She did a temple tour on tuesday and really loved it. She told us that she has been thinking about it and doesn't want to get baptized on the 20. She says that she thinks it will be too fast. We told her that Heavenly Father would help her understand what we will teach her but she still thinks it will be too fast. We are still going to keep meeting with her and teach her up until she goes back to China. I hope and pray that when she comes back in 3 months that she will keep learning about the Gospel.

This week Sister Jensen and I also had the great opportunity to do temple tours. Having the temple so close is such a blessing. The spirit is so strong whenever we introduce the temple to people. Just a quick trival fact for ya'll, the asia area where our mission is goes all the way up to mongolia down to indonesia and from taiwan all the way over to Pakistan. In that large area with the worlds most populated areas there are only two temples. Hong Kong and Taipei. Luckily for us it is only 20 minutes away. We are soo blessed!!! I love the temple. I love going to the temple and feeling the Spirit so strongly. Whenever I look at the outside of the temple I can feel Heavenly Father's love so strongly. Everything we teach is to point our investigators and new members to the temple. I also think of my own family and the blessing that we have to be sealed for all eternity. It brings such sweet peace to my heart to know that no matter what as long as we are all faithful to that covenant that we will be together forever.

On Saturday our dear Liu cai xuan got baptized!! It was great!! She has such a sweet testimony of the Gospel. When we started to meet with her she didn't seem that happy. Now she is beaming! The second or third time we met with her she asked us if she could quickly get baptized! She said she will do whatever she needs to so that she can get bapitzed! I love her so much! So much faith. The great thing about her baptism is that He dixiong baptized her. I dont' know if ya'll remember but he just got bapitzed about a month before. I taught him. It was so great to see how much progress he has made. He is now a worthy Priesthood holder and being a great example to his two boys. The Gospel really does change lives like Autumn said in her e-mail.

I could write so much more. A lot happened this week. Blast that we only have an hour to e-mail. I love you all so much. The work is going so well here. Despite the bad things that are happening in the world, the Gospel continues to spread. Even though there might be the temptation to be pessimistic about the world and the future. I think we have every reason to rejoice and be optimistic. The gospel is the only thing that can save this world from its own self destruction as President Benson says in Preach My Gospel page 2. I love this work.

All my love,

Sister Amy Papritz

Alden - August 7th 2011 - Taiwan

Hello family.

So once again TAIWAN IS AMAZING!!!

Ok so this week was mostly a normal week in the field. Except every day my companion had some meeting. Or we had exchanges or some other odd thing during the day this week.

Ok a lot of it is a blur. But there are still some amazing things.

First, last week I Saw AMY!!! yay!!!! It was an epic reunion!!! Tears, laughs, awkward silences. Yep it was amazing. It ends up that I will see her a lot. With so many mission events and exchanges. It is going to be great.

Ok, so this week. I have had a lot of great experiences. Especially dealing with the members here in Taiwan. They are great. I am making such great relationships with them here. One member, named Huang Jiemei. She is great. She just got baptized 5 weeks ago, and she is amazing. Right now we are teaching her husband. He is going to get baptized on the 27th. It is so amazing. We saw her at least 4 or more times this week. And every time she brings us food. It is so crazy. She is so great! Ok well I am really starting to draw a blank now. Well it is amazing here. Next week I need to write down what I plan on emailing because there is so much I could say.

Well its all good here in Taiwan. I can’t believe I get to wake up every day in Taiwan and I get to do missionary work. I love it. Well If I have time and if I can think of anything else I will email again. But for now. Love you All.

Sorry I am so terrible at emailing. But. yep.

Ok well I love you all a whole lot.

LOVE YOU!!

Elder Alden Papritz

Yang Zhanglao.

Alden - Taiwan - August 7, 2011

Hello family. so once again TAIWAN IS AMAZING!!!


ok so this week was mostly a normal week in the field. except everyday my companion had some meeting. or we had exchanges or some other odd thing during the day. so this week.

ok a lot of it is a blurr. but there are still some amazing things.

first: last week I Saw AMY!!! yay!!!! it was an epic reunion!!! tears, laughs, awkard silences. yep it was amazing. It ends up that I will see here a lot. with so many mission events and exchanges. It is going to be great.

ok so this week. I have had a lot of great expiriences. especially dealing with the members here in taiwan. They are great. I am making such great relationships with them here. one member, named huang jiemei. she is great. she just got baptized 5 weeks ago, and she is amazing. right now we are teaching her husband. He is going to get baptized on the 27th. It is so amazing. we saw her at least 4 or more times this week. and every time she brings us food. it is so crazy. she is so great!  well it is amazing here. next week I need to write down what i plan on emailing because there is so much I could say.

well its all good here in taiwan. I cant believe I get to wake up every day to Taiwan. and missionary work. I love it. Well If i have time and if i can think of anything else I will email again. but for now. Love you All.
ok well I love you All a whole lot.
LOVE YOU!!

Elder Alden Papritz

Yang Zhanglao.

Austin August 2, 2011

Dear Family,

Elder Woodward and I have really been owning people lately. We have just been really blessed with a really good turnover rate when going out contacting people. We had 5 new investigators this week and set an appoint for 2 more investigators this week. Including this one family which has potential, I think, to just rock the branch's world here. They are a huge family, the Mom is solid, outgoing and smart (she reminds me of Mom), and then she has SIX kids that are all fantastic and would be great additions to the branch. We even found out that the 14 year old daughter has a friend that is a member in the English ward. The only thing is that the Mom works 7 days out of the week! It's going to be tough to work with that, we'll see what happens. Another investigator, Irene, is also just really intelligent. She accepted a baptismal commitment and after reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon understand that she needs to read the book and pray about it and already knows that God will answer her prayer. She set a goal for herself to read the whole book in a month! I was like, are you sure? And she said, Yeah no problem I'm a fast reader.

As you can tell things are just going really well, which interestingly correlates with the success that everyone else in the family seems to be having. I'm glad we're just kicking butt throughout the world. I'll tell you guys, I have seen some kind of light being in this new companionship. Things are going a lot smoother, we speak Spanish full-time out of the apartment. We study hard and well and it's just nothing I've really experienced in my mission. It's been tough having trained for 6 months of my mission. I almost forgot what a normal companion should be like.

Loove you guys, I was ecstatic to read about the reunion over there in Taiwain. It's going to be just so, so cool when we are all together again.

-Elder Papritz

Autumn August 2, 2011 Duna Hungary

Kedves családom és barátaim!!

The RAINS are still falling in Duna... seriously everyday since I got here it has been raining. but it makes for some FUN days.. and I would kind of rather be wet in the rain then sweating my brains out in the humidity.

Well lets just say.. this week was AWESOME. The work here in Duna is going sooooo good. Like unbelievably good. I thought the miracles might not follow me to Duna.. once I left Pest... my first land of Miracles.. but low and Behold there are MIRACLES here TOO!!!!! AWESOME!!!!

This is our formula for miracles: 1. We wake up every morning and stand at our 9th floor apartment balcony... look over the city of Dunaújváros and then at the top of our lungs... yell " REPENT YE PEOPLE OF DUNAÚJVÁROS!! REPENT! REPEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNTTTTTTT!!!!!" ..and we start our day off with a little bit of repentence calling to the entire city. Its pretty epic. 2. then we just basically... find a bunch of miracles. seriously dont know how we find so many awesome people. it just happens.

Awesomeness from the week

1. My old buddy László from Pest... my first miracle man... surprised me this week and CAME TO DUNA!!! He just showed up in sacrament meeting and it was such a good week for him to come because I gave a talk in church and sister Roderick and I did a musical number. So he came to church and sat in the congregation and just beemed like a proud papa during my talk and our musical number. The best part of it was... when we walked into the church there he was standing with this HUGE grin on his face and he was wearing A SUIT AND TIE!!!!!!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! It was just the PERFECT TRANSFORMATION!!!! Roderick and I found him on the streets in Grubby, gross work overalls and nasty shoes. He came to church in those grubby overalls for several weeks, he didnt have any clothes... then slowly miracles started happening in his life, he found work, steady daily work, he got promoted, he got baptized... and then boom. He shows up in Duna wearing a suit and Tie looking like a million bucks. It was just the epitome of what kind of transformation the gospel can have on someone. Best day ever.

2. The J-Dubs.. or jehovah witnesses... are basically the beign (dont know how to spell that word in english) bane? of our existence here. Apparently years ago J Dubs taught a lot of people here.. and then LITERALLY kidnapped children and took them to their church to baptize them. So parents are TERRIFIED of us because they see us in pairs like the J Dubs... we knock doors like the J Dubs... and apparently they think we kidnap children like the J Dubs. WELL.... we had a little victory over the J dubs. Our churches are basically just down the road from each other in this small town. On sunday we had a little army of investigators we were walking to church with.. and we decided to march RIGHT in front of the J dub church. SOOOO... we had our army and proudly walked with our tags on and chests held high as SOLDIERS OF THE GOSPEL.. and marched passed that J dub church, and all of those people glared at us and gave us the stink eye.. and we just smiled and yelled "JÓ NAPOT KÍVÁNOK!" and just marched our little army over to the mormon church. take that J dubs. (dont worry.... this may reek of pride... but we were pretty happy to be representing the Lord just then)

3. We did some awesome tracting this week. (door knocking) and well I love tracting because its basically like that tv show that says "whats behind door number 1?!" and they throw the door open and its either a new car or like an ironing board. and the person is totally excited or totally bummed at what they get. Well tracting is kind of the same thing... i just get so excited at the surprises that are behind the doors. Here are the spurprises from this week. Behind door number 1:

• An old drunk man in his whitey tities opening his door...and talking to us.. standing there in his underwear.
• An old old néni (old lady) that opens the door with her fly WIDE open... and talks to us FOREVER and then invites us in, only to find her house is STREWN with a lot of REALLY REALLY hard liquer. like REALLY hard stuff... and at the door she seemed like such a sweet innocent néni with her zipper down
• a Different 90 year old Néni that opened the door, quickly started shutting it saying " I DONT HAVE ANY TIME!! NO TIME AT ALL!!!!! IM SO BUSY!!!!"... she definitely was like 100 years old, and 100 year olds just sit at home all day with NOTHING TO DO.. and ALL THE TIME in the world. so.. she definitely wasnt " SOO BUSY"
• We got let in at this house.. of this néni that had two little kittens that were near death crawling all over us, flies were flying every where, and her dog hadnt been bathed in a month AND there was a GIANT HUMONGOUS GOOSE that was just flying around in her back yard. and she had just peed herself. literally.... peed herself when we came to the door. she was too old to realize she had done it. poor thing.

So those are some of the surprises behind those lovely doors that we knock.

Also we had some miracles getting let into this old apartment of this man that had seen missionaries 10 years ago.. and his super rendes daughter, 16 years old, was there that was so sweet and had so many questions about the gospel... then we went back to teach them the next day and she had brought her AWESOME RENDES friend to her house.. and we taught her too and we asked them what kind of questions they had in life and they said " i just really want to know whats going to happen in this next life? where are we going?" ... WELLLLLLL.... we JUST SO HAPPEN to have the answer to those VERY questions. It was such a great program, taught about the restoration, they loved it and loved the Book of Mormon..and then after that is when they asked us all of lifes questions. Boom.... golden. We told them to stay tuned..cause next time their minds are going to get blown with THE TRUTH!!!

So as you can see. life is awesome. and I get to experience my first (well and only) BIRTHDAY AS A MISSIONARY!!! tomorrow is my big day... its gonna be weird. but awesome. i can feel it.

I love you all

SOK SOK SZERETETTEL!

papritz nővér

Amy August 2, 2011 Taiwan

Dearest Family,

Ok now that I have semi caught by breath I can write you. This week has been insane! It started off with Sister Jensen now starting to cough. Great! Now she is sick. So Elder Calvert on Tuesday told us on that we needed to deep clean our apartment and that we were moving. He found out that the sisters that lived in that apartment a year ago had the same problem and they couldn't figure out why. One of the sisters even had to go home early because she was still coughing. So for district meeting the Elders in our district came over to our apartment and we cleaned the place. Its was definately a first having all 6 Elders in our apartment. Well we found the source for the problem. Both of our air condintioning systems were covered in black mold! Poor Elder Brunson, our zone leader, took both of them apart and cleaned them. He is great! So after that deep clean we haven't been coughing as much but we also haven't been sleeping as much. So we moved over to the nearest apartment which is 20 minutes away in Taipei. So the end of the rather long adventure is that we are switching apartments with our Elders today so everything should be great now. That is the health update. Sister Jensen and I have both haven't been coughing as much which is nice. But in this whole health adventure we have made a total 5 visits to the hospital with one more on Friday for me so we will be at an even 6. Elder Calvert pulling his magic strings of some sort and getting us moved AND having to even go all the way up to President Grimley to get us moved. We are just trouble makers. hehe

Anways, Chen yi xuan was baptized on Sunday. That was a crazy day. First she didn't come to church on the day that she is getting baptized. She as then late for her own baptism. She forgot the permission slip that she needed her parents to sign. But in the end she got baptized. We found her old record and she started to investigate the church 4 years ago. It was a great day. Elder Brunson and Huang had two of their investigators get baptized too so it was a triple baptism. Yahoo!!!! Next Saturday Liu cai xuan is getting baptized! She passed her baptismal interview on Saturday. I am sooo excited!!! Now we are preparing for her baptism. I have taught her from the very beginning and now I get to see her baptized!! Yahoo!!!!

We also met on Sunday with one of our investigators Li Xian Min. She is from Chongqing, China. She really wants to get baptized. She has come to church now every week for a month and gone to every church activity that we have had. But for some reason we haven't been able to meet with her until yesterday night. We found out that she is going back to China on the 22 of Augest for 4 months. She wants to get baptized before she goes back. Which means we have to finish all of the lessons in TWO WEEKS!!!!! But Sister Jensen asked her if she really wanted to get baptized and she said yes. She is also willing to do everything that she needs to do so that she can get baptized! GOLDEN! We are going to start meeting with her three times a week so that we can finish the lessons. Its going to be a crazy transfer but so exciting!!

The new transfer starts today. I am staying in Shuanghe with Sister Jensen. I am so excited to be with her one more transfer. We have way too much fun together. We have seriously seen so many miracles. We spend half of our day just laughing over the dumbest things. Its a blast! I love her to death. This will be starting my 8th transfer and my third transfer in Shuanghe. It is the first time I have been in an area for this long. I'm so excited!!

As far as seeing Alden. Oh man, Elder Calvert is the greatest! From the time that Alden got on island everyone kept saying, "oh I saw your brother!" I was so bummed I hadn't seen him yet. Elder Calvert called his companion and set up with him a time when they would be at the mission office so that I could be there to meet him. It was seriously the greatest moment of my life. The office was crazy busy with all of the missionaries who are moving and going home. I as standing talking to Sister Calvert and Sister Grimley when Alden walked in the door. I ran to him and we hugged and cried. Everyone cheered and then got really quiet just watching us. I didn't even care. It seriously was like the whole world just melted away. My little brother was finally here!!! I think I finally know how Alma the younger felt when he met the sons of Mosiah in Alma 17:1-13ish. It was a great moment. I can't even discribe it. I still can't believe that he is here!!! We just sat and talked for a while. I introduced him to a lot of the missionaries that came in the same time I did. Alden is here!!! Now the fun can really start! Two Papritz kids in Taiwan. Can you believe it?!?!?! I found out too that I will be the coordinating sister for my zone and a few of the other zones including Alden's. Which means that I get to exchange companions with the sisters in his area and will get to see him a lot! Yahoo!!! I am sooooo excited that Alden is finally here!!!! I kept saying that over and over to him.

I think that is. I think I have told ya'll about everything this week. Holy cow it has been crazy! This next week is also going to be crazy! Yahoo!! Another transfer starts in the greatest mission and place on earth! Taiwan!!! I love you all. I hope that you all have a great week!! I love this Gospel. I am so grateful to have it in my life and to be sharing with others.

Love,

Sister Amy Papritz

Yang Jiemei