Email received January 19, 2015

Well what a week it has been here in Marion Indiana!! And sadly it is my last day here in Marion :( I will miss this area and the people in it and especially Elder Barrett. He's an amazing missionary and person and i know he will do wonderful as he trains a new missionary. I'm gonna miss him... Now I am off to another area to be a ZONE LEADER! Got the leadership call from President this morning and I will now be a Zone Leader somewhere in the Great Ohio Cincinnati Mission! :) We had a great last week of the transfer and the weather was a lot nicer to us :) We got around quite a bit, had interviews Wednesday with President and Sister Porter which went great and then exchanges with the wonderful Zone Leaders on Friday. Yesterday we had lunch at the Turner's after church and had the best meal ever ;) #welcometoIndiana #here'ssomesquirrel That's right ladies and gentleman we had squirrel for lunch ;) Prepared in a stew and it tasted amazing!! Still had a bit of hair here and there but it wouldn't be the same if it didn't ;) It was awesome i loved being at the turners :) #beatthatbrazil ;) anyways i will let y'all know somehow where i am and then return and report next week :) I love you so much!! :) <3 Have a fantastic week :)

Helping out at Center for Success

Found Brazil in Indiana (a bit colder though)

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Email received January 12, 2015

What an exciting week we had here in Marion Indiana! It was a fairly mild weather week with temperatures staying below 0 and sometimes the wind chill hitting down to about 26 below 0 :) Fun times ;) We were able to accomplish a lot this week despite the weather as we worked with our ward mission leader on the ward roster and continue to find people and bring them back into the fold. We actually found a recent convert who hadn't been to church in a long while and no one had any way to get a hold of her since she moved but we, through the grace of God, got into contact with her, met up with her, and she was able to come back to church with us! When one of the Sisters in the ward saw her there she told us she had been praying for that girl and her kids for the past month that they would be able to come back to church so it was an amazing testimony builder to be part of an answer to prayers! This is the last week of the transfer so we will be finishing off strong and ending the transfer on a continued high note. Something that I've started doing is I'm reading two chapters of the Book of Mormon each day and marking every reference to the Savior in red. I would admonish anyone who is reading this (yes that means you) to start making it a habit to read at least a chapter of the Book of Mormon and witness the power it will bring into your life and see the knowledge you will gain and your testimony strengthened. Please utilize this wonderful tool that we've been given.. it's at our fingertips.. now let's use it :) I love you so much!! Have a wonderful week everyone!! By the way... I'm no longer a teenager ;) Woot woot!! #hangloose? #party #iamgettingbetteratspreadingbutter #practicemakesperfect
Love,
Elder Conner Gunnoe

HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY ELDER CONNER GUNNOE

Email received January 5, 2015

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! 2015 is here!! What an exciting time this is to be able to reflect on the wonderful year of 2014 and recognize the Lord's hand in my life and see what He has in store for me in 2015. We had an amazing week this past week and it was very eventful and revelatory. P-day we did our usual emailing and a bit of shopping but we mostly cleaned the downstairs apartment which we moved out of (so that it could be ready for a new tenant asap) and then organized our apartment and getting settled in. Something really awesome we've started is our 8pm appointments during the week. So winter time here in the Midwest is complicated because it gets dark around 5. With it being cold out it's hard to be running around doing work and with that, we find ourselves scrambling around the 8 o'clock hour to be obedient by staying out and working. but that's hard to do when we can't find anything to do. So something that we've started doing is filling up our 8 o'clock hour with effective lessons with members. So Monday nights we are going to Derek and Honesty's to read through and discuss Jesus the Christ with them. On Tuesday nights we are going to the Hughes' to read through and discuss the Doctrine and Covenants with them. On Thursday nights we are going over to the Temple's to read through and discuss Preach My Gospel with their older kids who are preparing to serve missions. On Friday nights we will be reading through and discussing the Book of Mormon with Brother Stover. On Sunday nights we meet with the Cooks to bring them the sacrament :) So we're making the least effective time of the day as effective as possible and as time goes on we will work on having investigators to some of these discussions :) #revelation! So for New Years Eve we had to come in at 630 pm and we weren't supposed to go back out until 3 pm new years day.. One might ask why we were "stuck" in the apartment for so long. So we were given a pack of statements and direction from President and Sister Porter of things to do during this time in the apartment. It started with cleaning and then the revelation started to pour down. We had some talks and scriptures and questions to read and ponder and we set a vision for ourselves not only for this year but of who we want to be when we're 50, what we want our life to be like, what we want our marriage and family to be like and how we can achieve those things! It was an amazing experience :) So the New Year started and we got to work. We were able to teach 10 lessons on Saturday and after having 3 investigators at church we taught 7 more lessons on Sunday, finding 4 new and seeing the fruits of fasting and prayer!! #God'sgraceinourliveswasmanifest We taught 31 lessons this past week and it was a good mixture of member present/member/investigator/less active recent convert lessons :) So this was an amazing week :) Elder Berrett and I texted President Porter and let him know that we came to the conclusion (after companionship inventory) that we work really well together so we won't be able to make it to transfer meeting this time around ;) he got a kick out of that :) We are looking forward to having another amazing week and finishing these last 2 weeks of the transfer off strong!! I love you!!! Happy New Year!!! :) <3

Elder Conner Levi Gunnoe

Email received December 29, 2014

Wow what an amazing Christmas week that was! Despite it being the Christmas season and everyone being busy with family and errands we were still able to get around to see quite a few people! We saw a couple of our investigators before Christmas and then on Christmas eve and Christmas day we saw some members and we were fed some amazing food and had a wonderful time getting to know some more of the members :) Wednesday we still had District meeting which went really well :) I decided to lighten the mood by starting off the meeting watching the District meeting movie that the mission put together with the Shoulder Devil video in it.. so funny :) Shoulder Devil loves his Snowflake ;) (inside joke) But then in the rest of district meeting we talked a lot about companionship unity and the important role it plays in the work. It went really well :) Christmas eve we had dinner with Sister McFarren and a lot of her family and it was awesome getting to know a lot of them and talking about the gospel and the way it has impacted our lives and sharing with each other what "gift" we will give to the Savior in this coming year as a birthday gift (awesome tradition I'm going to keep going in our family) :) It was awesome this week to be able to move upstairs into the new apartment! It's a much better fit for us and it's a good change :) Our investigators were awesome this week! A couple of them committed themselves to come to church.. One was last minute mandated to work this Sunday and he told his work he would grin and bear it this week but if they mandated another Sunday he said he's going to church.. he's putting God first in his life which is amazing to see :) Something that we talked about on Sunday in Priesthood was Elder Scott's talk from conference and we focused on the 4 things that he says will improve the quality of our lives and that is 1: Prayer 2: Reading 3: Family Home Evening and 4: Temple Attendance. I have seen all of these make a true difference in the lives of those we work with. Something I emphasized was the importance of the Book of Mormon in someone's conversion. If someone is rooted in the Book of Mormon than they will have a sure foundation to go off of and they will have the Spirit it brings constantly in their life. Temple attendance is very important as well and I can't wait to regularly attend the temple when I get home. I have seen the difference in my life when I am not able to attend the temple for a period of time. I know of the power that rests in the House of the Lord and I can't wait to draw off of it constantly for the rest of my life. I can't believe it's 2015 already!! Time is flying by so quickly and I only have a short 6 months left. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve the Lord in this Mission and I look forward to what He has in store for me after I finish serving Him full time. I Love you!!! Have a wonderful week!! #Redsweatersarethebest #Lifeisgood #Peace :)

Elder G

Photo's from Elder Gunnoe on December 25, 2014

Letter received December 5, 2014

Wow, what a transfer it has been...Time is just sailing on by!  We have been so busy and running around so much.  Last week we had leadership council, then p-day, then zone meeting, then weekly planning, then zone weekly planning and a baptism, then Saturday, then church...It's been crazy but it's so much fun!  I love being a part of the Lord's work.  Stuart and Jennifer got baptized which was an awesome day.  We are now in December and the last week of the transfer which is scary.  Christmas is on its way.  I'm hoping to stay here for Christmas.  I love this Ward :)  Winter weather keeps coming and going.  Some cold days, some rainy, some warm, not too many sunny days.  The "He is the Gift" video is amazing!  We've been sharing that so much and helping others Discover, Embrace and Share the gift.  #sharegoodness #HeistheGift  I bet that video would be a wonderful video to use back home this Christmas season *wink wink* - use it!  I hope all is well.  I love you!  #lifeisgood #super
Elder CLG

Letter received November 7, 2014

Parents!
Wow!  What a transfer!  I'm in the Hebron Kentucky ward serving in Burlington Kentucky with the zone leaders Elder Glissmeyer and Elder Tavake.  This is so awesome!  It's fun being in a trio.  We are going to be able to accomplish a lot of great things with this set up.  All it takes is one other priesthood holder and we can split up and teach the many wonderful people here in Burlington all at once.  Plus being with the zone leaders means we'll be super busy in general.  We'll be attending leadership council (all the zone leaders, Sisters training leaders and the Mission Presidency) this week.  It will be amazing to be a part of.  I'm going to miss Connersville a ton...It's quite a bit different here.  One cool thing though is I just left MY town of CONNERsville.  On our way into Hebron we drove past CONNER High School, Middle School AND Elementary School off of CONNER Road!  :)  I'm popular!  So leadership council on Friday was amazing and revelatory.  We spent all day at the mission home learning from President and Sister Porter and the Assistants.  The focus was on being a consecrated missionary.  So we talked a lot about giving up our will to submit to the Lord's.  Lots of revelation was received and the Spirit was felt.  I've really learned to listen to the Spirit when it comes to what the Lord wants for me.  So far this area is amazing!  I love the people and I'm looking forward to the next five weeks.  I hope all is well at home.  I love you so much!
Much Love,
Elder Conner Gunnoe