2/26/18...Tom and Hermie's wedding!

Holy cow! That is so much caffeine haha I'm glad you are doing better that is seriously the worst feeling to have migraine. Early on my mission I took a pre workout called b nox I think and I got the worst migraine and my whole right hand went numb for a whole day, I thought I was going to die lol! 

I'm stoked for Tyler though! I hope it works out with this girl! Make sure the wedding is after my return date tho pls haha. 

Dad also said grandpa is doing worse again, I'm starting to get worried and even wonder if I'll get to see him again.

I did not have time to write the application stuff, I'll have to do it this week tho, unless you need it soon? Let me know and I can get it quicker if you need, I think President lets you do school application stuff if you really need to during the week. 

I'll pray for Sarah too! I really hope she gets that spot that'd be so good for her. And if she doesn't it just wasn't meant to be, heavenly father knows more than we do 

This week was pretty hectic actually! 

Tuesday we had Tom and Hermies wedding! It was really fun, I think it was the first wedding ceremony I've actually ever seen, or at least remember. It was funny, they had us be the official photographers haha. We took pictures the whole time of them and the wedding. They had Shelby Cafe cater which is a super good restaurant here so we ended up getting a lot of left overs for that. They are such a good little family. Hermies is such a humble person. We taught them this Sunday we went over some commandments and what they mean. He is very committed and excited to make this journey, we set a baptismal date for him for the 17th of March. He is really smart and understands pretty well what we teach him, it's so different teaching someone that doesn't have a strong Christian background which is totally what we are used to out here.  Most every one has a fairly good background and knowledge of the savior out here. He good though, it makes us have to break things down a lot simpler which is great for us to work on and get better at. I think That's a good skill to have is to be able to break something down until a kid can understand it. 

Elder Zesiger and Withers came down to our district meeting, which I thought went pretty good, we had a little testimony mtg for part of it in what we are learning about the doctrine of Christ that was pretty powerful. For those that aren't familiar with that term it's in a nut shell the first principles and ordinances of the gospel which are faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. There's so much power when these are connected in one, I think that our partaking of the sacrament every week ties it all in. I have gained a lot greater love for the Savior through partaking the sacrament. It has helped me understand the doctrine of Christ a lot more. 

This one day we go see this guy who we talked to a few weeks earlier named Tom. We go in, he is really friendly, we gave him a Book of Mormon last time and we asked him about it and he said he read a little bit of it. Then he started bashing prophets and people that say they are prophets today, which there are false prophets today. But he kept going off and saying that John the Baptist was the last prophet, and that it said that it's  in the bible and that God won't call another one. So I said, no it doesn't say that, show me please. And he pulled it his phone and said ah i found it, yup he was the last prophet (didn't show me the phone). I said asked to see it and he pulled it out again and it was some article about someone's opinion that he was the last prophet. So I told him it was just opinion and he got a bit heated after that and said well how do you know God would call another prophet, we shared amos 3:7 and bore testimony of it and he gets up and kicked us out of his house! Can't say it was the first time thats happened it but we were able to laugh it off and just keep going. We weren't even bashing, I think there's a difference between bashing and sharing your beliefs boldly sometimes if you feel the prompting too. 

Saturday we had dinner at Destany's house with her family! Her mom is still not a member and her 2 sisters aren't either. The mom knows it's true but is having a hard time being confident with her family bashing her sometimes. But we had a great lesson with them, we talked about the temple and about the prophesy in Isaiah 2:2,3. It went really good, her sister is a strong Baptist so she knows we have different views on things but she asked about the spirit world. We read some verses in 1 Peter 3 and 4 about the gospel being preached to the dead and she understood it and it made sense to her. It ended really well, she totally believes in the spirit world now and we will have to teach her the rest!

Transfers are this next Thursday and we find out on Tuesday so it's totally up in the air, I have no idea what's going to happen. Someone said when they saw the transfer board we were staying the same, but a lot happens in that time haha. 

I'll point you to what I wrote dad for my answer when we should put my return date!

more Qs...

Did you write those essay questions for the financial aid/scholarship application?  Email them back and I'll edit and type them in the form.

I'll have to do them this week. I didn't open the email until today.

What did Coach Waddoups say?

He said that I will be a walk on and I have a spot on the roster already but like everyone will need to earn innings and playing time.

How are things with your companion? 

Its going a lot better this week, we been talking a lot more and trying to just stay on the same page.

How are YOU?

I am doing a lot better now, last week was just kind of stressful I guess with the drama and stuff which i really don't like.

What are you studying in the scriptures?  

Right now i am reading in 1 Peter and 2 Nephi. Just got to the Isaiah chapters so it's getting a bit choppy with understanding but it's coming, I'm understanding more every time I read it. I love 2 Nephi 11:4-7, Jacob and Nephi had such a deep love for the Savior and you feel it in that chapter.

How has your testimony grown

It definitely has gone precept by precept. Little by little. Little experiences everyday strengthen my faith and my testimony of the Savior and his restored gospel. 

Love y'all! 

Love you momma!

 

 

2/19/18... Destany's Baptism!

 Wow y'all had a crazy week in Fiji! That's a bummer it rained for a while!

Going to play basketball in a minute. 

This week was a lot of fun. Started with an exchange with elder zesiger which was a ton of fun! Man I love Elder Zesiger.  He's from Bountiful so we will get to hang out a bunch after the mission. But we had a good exchange.  We both felt super gross all day though for some reason.  I think I'm going to cut out soda for a while. We saw a family that used to live in Pineville. And taught this guy who said he was the last hippie alive.  He is 75 and just a stud, bikes everywhere still. Life goals. Then we got some bomb wings on Valentine's Day at a place called Whiskey Mill. Then drove back to Shelby to have coordination and Destany’s baptismal interview. Everything went great. The baptism was awesome. She even had more opposition from her cousins right before. There were so many people there.   She had her cousins come and they didn't want to talk to anyone pretty much.   But it was good to see them there supporting her at least. The whole ward came and supported. The ward was really excited to have a baptism here.  They are all wanting to do missionary work right now.  It's really exciting to see.  

Brother Wilson, the guy who we are teaching is progressing really well right now. You can just see the difference in him every week that we teach him, he has been keeping commitments and his countenance just keeps getting brighter, it's awesome. We had a really good plan of salvation lesson with him this last week and dinner.  She is such a good cook.  I love having dinner with them! They're so great! The son, Justin is the funniest 8 yr old I have ever met! He has the biggest imagination, I love it. 

We had a zone conference this last week—Super fun—had some great trainings on using family history work in our finding.  Also would like to give a shootout to mom for sharing the gospel on vacation, no vacations from missionary work right! That is an awesome experience and example of being a member missionary always.  I want to be like her when I grow up :) 

Playin some basketball today, haven't played for a long time lol so gotta knock the dust off today. Patrick from Salisbury was driving through today so he called and took us out to lunch, that was fun seeing him again. It was good hearing about Salisbury and how everyone's doing. Crystal is doing good over there.  She was called into the primary presidency so that was good to hear! I love that family. 


Qs
-Did you get your Valentine package??! Did you like it??
Ya I got it! LOVED IT! Seriously was not expecting that, I should have because of how awesome you are but It was great. 

-Oh. We need to talk about school...
Where do you want to live?
I'll have to email my coach right now. I like the idea of living by slcc.  I think it would be better for me to live in salt lake, and and then stay with friends in Provo if I want to go down there. I think that would probably be best.  I'll probably hang out with Tyler Brunson a lot down there so maybe stay with him, but he might be in dorms. 

I'm excited to play baseball again though I'm getting itchy haha. I've still got a lot to do out here though :) 

Love y'all!

Love you mom :)

Dad--Sorry it's coming in a bit. I've been writing it out to mom. 

Sounds like this week was a blast, I can't believe y'all drank kava haha isn't that stuff like a numbing drink. Mom said you bought 200$ of it haha. 

This week has been good my comp and I have been talking stuff out. It was just kind of annoying, I hate having drama out here, it is pointless and it hurts the worm. The baptism was great though, had a lot of none members come which was awesome, her family that antied her came and it was funny. They really don't want to talk to anyone there but I went and talked to them. 

How's grandpa doing? Do you think he'll get back to how he was before I left? 

Love you. 

2/12/2018... Great week with Destany and the Wilsons and other lessons

Yoooooo fam n friends! 

The week eh. 

Had some great lessons with our investigators this week. 

Yesterday we taught the Wilson family, and it was funny on Saturday our appointment with them got cancelled because Hermie ended up getting a nose bleed and it was her first one ever so she got super scared and wanted to go to the emergency room! Brother Wilson was able to calm her down :) so we got to teach them Sunday. We brought the whiteboard to draw out the doctrine of christ for him and it went really well! He has been reading and praying more and he said the closing prayer and you could tell he has already grown since the last time we met. They came to church too and seemed to really like it so we are excited for them, we'll probably put them on date for baptism pretty soon. They're getting married the 20th here at the church. 

Destany has been doing really good. She even got her own ride to church without anyone in her family yesterday. Her baptism is Saturday still so this week is big for her. Satan always tries to mess things up the week before. But I have faith and she has a really strong testimony! She went to a fireside Sunday night as well. I wish we could have gone to it. It was about dating the Lord's way...I could have taken some notes and save it for when I get home :) 

Brother Hickman came out with us to visit some people on Thursday and we met this guy who is on the records and we go talk to him really nice guy, and he wanted so badly to play on his guitar for us so he whips it out and he just jammed on this thing, he sang Elvis and it was seriously dead on. Then Saturday night we had a big dinner with a part member family and she was super excited and wanted us to teach her husband and son, it ended up being a lot of fun and i gave the son a pitching lesson because he is 5'9 and he is 11. The kid could be an all-star if he can hone in some pitching skills. So I tried to help him get some good mechanics haha. And she also made the best banana pudding! So bomb I loved it. That's one thing I want to take back to Washington banana pudding. Wayyyyy good! 

We also had a very spiritual experience giving a lady a blessing this week. She had just been told she isn't going to make it and the spirit was so strong in the house, it was really sad to see her in pain but she had so much faith and hope that she will be healed. It was amazing I was so humbled to be there and give a priesthood blessing. 

Overall super fun week! We just hiked crowders mountain, super fun hike. Elder Carroll came with us it was good being with them again. 

Love you mom! 

Love y'all!  

2/5/18... Shelby is pretty great... and Destany is super stoked to get baptized!

Yooopppp 

A lot happened this week! 

Tuesday a member needed our help doing a bunch of stuff so we got to go split a bunch of wood and things. It was fun doing that stuff, everyone out here has a good amount of land and usually some chickens and other livestock. I think I want some chickens one day, it'd be so fun having chickens! 

On Wednesdays we usually have coordination with our ward mission leader and it's also mutual for the youth.  Destany comes to the youth night's, so we had her try on her baptismal suit and she was showing it off to everyone.  She is super stoked to get baptized. Unfortunately she has been getting a lot of people resisting her getting baptized, that have a lot of false information about the church. Satan tries so hard especially out here in the south to spread false information. But she is taking it really well, and staying strong. It would be pretty hard having family not support you.  I think it was Amulek who had to give up all his money and friends and family because he knew it was more important to follow Heavenly Father. 

Saturday.....this is crazy! So remember the family that walked into church last Sunday?  The mom just came from the Philippines, I told her one of my really good friends is in the Philippines right now.  She told me told me she is in the Sevilla area and I realized he is there right now! So she was so stoked to see that he was in her area. It was so crazy! We had dinner with them and it was a really good time. We taught the restoration and he loved it. He doesn't have much of a religious background so it was a lot different teaching and helping him understand, because we break it down a lot more. Then we also taught them Sunday, we broke down the Godhead, and talked about prayer. The wife wants us to teach all the lessons like right off the bat, but there is no way he will understand all of it if we firehose him. So we are slowing it down. But he is progressing well right now!

The weather called for ice on Sunday so church got cancelled and then it just rained and it wasn't even icy, so we had no church unfortunately which was a bummer. You recognize a difference when you can't partake of the sacrament, you feel like something is missing when you don't. 

Qs

How is the pilot program going?  

It's going really well.  We wouldn't be having a baptism in February if we weren't able to teach Destany over Facebook messenger so its a huge blessing!

Is the Face Timing lessons part of it?  

Yup!

What would you say are the biggest changes positive and negative from before, now that you've been doing it for awhile?

You can teach more lessons, save miles on the car and when people only have like 15 minutes you can just call them over video and have a short lesson. Negatives would probably be you aren't out and about, most of the time you teach in your apartment when you call. 

I know it is off in the future, but have you decided with your mission pres about your release date?  

He just said whenever from 4 weeks, just let him know. 

When are transfers again?

March 1st so a few more weeks. 

How are you liking Shelby? 

Shelby is pretty great, the people are super nice. It's a very southern area so people are super Baptist most of the time but we are using family history more and helping people do family history actually. 

Quote of the week

People are joining the church because of the prayers of their deceased ancestors. 

Love y'all so much!

Love you mom!

Wow so much is happening right now! 

Y'ALL are seriously the best! I love our fam. Parker stuff was so funny, he's such a stud! 

Sounds like you are seeing miracles in your calling I'm so happy for you!  I will be praying for grandpa this week that is so pretty scary about what is happening! 

Were you able to send in my application? Not sure how that'll work you'll have to get me in some good classes too! If you can try and get me a business class or something, and or leadership. 

I'll send a more detailed letter now lol! 

I love you so much