The End

Well this will be the last email from me.

It has been a great 2 years and I have come a long way.

This past week and a half has been pretty surreal. We did pretty much the usual missionary things. I got to teach a lot of lessons and visited a few members.  Had a couple fun activities (burning a suit) and a lot of goodbyes.  Nothing amazing but just a solid last week.  

I wish that I could summarize all of the things that I have learned and experienced in the past 2 years of serving, but it doesn't really work like that.  I have met a lot of successful people and have gotten a lot of life advice in the last little bit.  I am looking forward to moving forward to this next step in my life.

Hope you all are doing well and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Love you all

Busy Week

Hello Everybody!

 It has been a great week.  On Tuesday we had a conference with Elder Cornish of the 70  it was great and i learned a lot of things that i should have been doing for the past 2 years, but we live and we learn. during the conference i had to give my departing testimony, strange to think that is almost here. I shared D&C 88:67, and Alma 19:6  We also had the opportuity to go to a fireside with him and bring an investigator, ours didnt show, but i got to see the Evans family that i taught in Grove! 

Then wednesday we were on exchanges. Thusday we had interviews and i was in charge of organizing the zone meeting during that. We just practiced teaching but i got kinda crazy at times. Stressful day.  Then i left there to go on exchanges with the Grove elders. I got to see a few people that i had met there over a year ago. It felt good to come back.  Friday we got back to normal for a few hours and taught some people.  Saturday we helped at the Stake Emergency Preparedness fair. had a lot of fun there.   And then sunday was the Primary Program  and we had a lot of people come. close to 100 more than normal.  Crazy stat that we learned  of a membership of 450 we have ~100 kids from 3-11 and then ~50 from 0-3   so 1/3 of the ward is under 12.   Lets jsut say it gets reallly noisy.

It was great though because everyone is getting excited about missionary work now. it is so much fun to see.  Loving the work here

Hope you enjoy conference this week.

Missionary Work

Hello Everybody,

It has been a pretty great week here in Elm Tree.  We have had 3 investigators commit to be baptized and have met a lot of new people this week. There was a big city event On Saturday and our ward had a Booth set up  We handed out about 150 Book Of Mormons and a lot of other good stuff    it was a ton of fun.  From that we found a lady from Israel that wanted to take the lessons.  Pretty neat back ground.   I am really enjoying being in a trio with Elder Sullivan and Franks   they are both a lot of fun.

On Friday we had a mission conference With Elder Villareal.  I got to conduct and learned a lot.  It was really fun.

Got a lot of work still left to do here   getting to be crunch time.  Just makes everything more exciting.

Love yall

Labor Day

Hello everyone,   happy labor day.

Today i am emailing from the mission office, so president and sister loveland have been roasting me for the last hour. Not really sure what to write about.  Since last Wednesday not a whole ton has happened. Transfer day was a lot of fun.  I got to drive Presidents car around for a while and keep track of missionaries.  Then i managed to grab a brand new Malibu so we dont have to bike any more.  It has been neat being in a trio. we have been able to split most every night and that helps us get a lot more work done.  Elder Franks just came from Cassville which was in my last Zone.  He had a pretty rough go of it and has been struggling.  He seems to really enjoy serving here though, it has been neat to see him just be more happy. Sunday was exciting.   Had church for about 8 hours.  I got a call at 7:05 saying i needed to be at a stake meeting at 7.  Got stuck in a bike race and didn't make it there till almost 8, then had ward council, then Missionary correlation, then church.  It was a long day. I am really enjoying my time here though. Good ward. Good Companions. cant complain :)

Hope you all enjoy your day!

Final Countdown

Hello everybody, i have made it to my last transfer without dying   so thats exciting

I will be staying here in the Elm Tree ward with Elder Sullivan, but will also be getting a new trainee also   This past week we have put in over 100 miles on our bikes. My legs are pretty dead.  We are making progress with a few investigators but most of them just stand us up when we have set appointments   so that is fun when we bike to their place.   Also been doing some tracting    we have found a few people that said we could come back.  I feel like the biggest thing that i have learned in the past little bit is that when we are pushed to our limits that is when the Lord steps in and gives us strength. Monday we got up at 5 for seminary and then didnt go to bed till after 12 due to transfer calls.  after biking 100 miles in the past 4 days.   I know that the lord strengthens his servants.

Love yall

have a great week

Eclipse

Hey everyone.  Hope you have had a great week.  Looking forward to checking out this eclipse today

This week has been pretty good  although the heat cranked back up again. and we have been doing a lot of biking so it has been a sweaty week too. We had interviews early this week and that went great as always.  Although Sister Loveland had to ask me if it was our last one or not...  Havent really been able to meet with any of the investigators that we had set baptismal dates with this week so we  did a lot of finding and tracting and stuff. Nothing much came from that. One day we biked the perimeter of our area and tracted.  We got poured on and i almost hit a car. It was about a 15 mile bike ride with lots of hill so we were both sweaty and muddy at the end.  I took some fun videos with the camera mount on my bike. That basically describes my week right there haha.   today we are going to our bishops house for lunch and to watch the Eclipse with the zone   should be fun  he has a zip line and a full outdoor basketball court.  

Love you bunches  

Simple

If you keep it simple, simple is understood, understood is implemented.

 - Someone at Wal-Mart

Hey Yall.  Hope you have had a great week. It has been pretty good here.  The past few days have been overcast and rainy so biking has been extra fun (got pretty muddy last night)

For the most part things are pretty normal here,  we have been doing a lot of tracting and such but we have seen some results.  it seems like when we work hard, we are blessed in a totally unrelated way.  This week we had 3 new investigators that accepted baptismal invitations, and a few other families that we are going to teach, all from members inviting their friends.  We knock on lots of doors and bike several miles and then the Lord blesses us with other people to teach.  Almost feel like he is saying "nice try, here you go"  haha   its the best.

We have interviews with President and Sister Loveland tomorrow, looking forward to that. 

President Loveland shared this with us in his letter this week   I enjoyed it, has some good thoughts​​

 The father of a young man at the peril of death approached the Savior, seeking a blessing for the young man, his interaction with the Savior went like this:

“If thou canst do any thing,” he said, “have compassion on us, and help us.

“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

“And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” 

See Mark 9:22-24

Elder Holland talks about how the man started with what faith he had and then acknowledges his limitation. He said "Hold the ground you have already won, even if that ground is limited"  

"The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue--it is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth you already know."

Love yall