Cory's Address while he serves in the Utah, St. George Mission

Elder Cory Austin Vernon

Utah St. George Mission

107 S. 1470 E. Suite 304

St. George, UT 84790

Arrived in Salina, Utah- Trainer is Elder Betham from Hawaii

Ollo Family! :)

This is Elder Cory Vernon. I am now in the Salina, Utah Stake and my companion and I are over 8 wards and 3 towns in central Utah (Salina, Redmond, and Aurora). One guy I talked to said that Brother Richard Johnson was his nephew so is Brother Johnson from Aurora Utah? My trainer and companion is Elder Betham and he is from Hawaii, Oahu is the island he is from. He really connects well with the people we teach which is cool. The mission President is President Center and I think President and Sister Center know the Sabey's somehow. I also still get language study time even though no one speaks Portuguese. I am currently striving to find someone that speaks Portuguese to so I don't forget everything I learned in the MTC. :)

The first day there was a bit of training and then we met our companions and then drove to Salina. We have a car that we use which was a bit of a surprise too, I don't drive it since all the visa waiters could be shipped off anytime they don't want us using the cars, so my companion drives everywhere.

It is strange being in Utah where it seems like everyone is Mormon; it is way different than at home because there are lots of people who just don't go to church, but there are also a bunch that do stuff. Everyone seems really nice and practically knows everybody else in their towns and are always happy to talk to the missionaries. We teach fairly consistently which is nice too.  I've even seen snow falling on my mission which came as a little of a surprise until I remembered that Salina is in the mountains. We get fed well, one time I ate 3 Navajo tacos followed by 3 scones. :)

One spiritual thing that happened is that Elder Betham and I were at a rodeo talking to some people that Elder Betham baptized in his last area and a lady came up and asked us to give her a blessing. It is a really strange but neat experience to give other people blessings because you rely on the Lord to know to say the right things.

We are also teaching a fun family named the Butterfields. It is fun talking to them and they really like learning about the gospel. We had a yummy dinner with them and watched some of the I'm a Mormon videos with them. Brother Butterfield is in the Elder's Quorum and seems super excited about church and stuff which is fun and cool. :)

There was a baptism for Matti Morayle my first weekend here so that was neat too. Her dad baptized her and she had lots of family supporting her and her sister. :)

Tchau! Tchau! Ate logo!