WEEK 50: Staying strong

This week has been just a complete blur already. We had zone conference on Monday in Brentwood. And then exchanges in mule town USA. Columbia TN. We went on exchanges with some Spanish Elders and man after sitting through like 4 Spanish lessons and trying to understand what was going on I'll tell you what, I'm so blessed to be on an English speaking mission.

In Columbia there is shop that was started by members called The Pie Shop and it's sweet! They give missionaries free pie, so naturally while we were in Columbia we had to go get some free pie. That exchange were pretty fun!

Besides that we've been scrambling trying to catch up on the couple days we lost and it's been pretty hectic. It snowed again about 1 cm and they canceled school today. Classic. One of our members made us some deer jerky this week and it was sooo good! I'm a fan.

😬 all in all it's been a pretty solid week. I got in a low key Bible bash with a guy in Columbia. Except everything he was saying was all wrong. So I just nicely told him what's up and invited him to learn more if he wanted to. But he already knows everything about the church🙄😆. Those are always kinda fun because you walk away with your cheeks burning, and you wanna help them. Understand how wrong they are, but they won't here it. So what can you do🙂 just testify I guess. Love you all and hope you have a great week!

WEEK 49: Follow the spirit

Hey family:) it's really good to hear from yall. We got to go and watch conference with the family We are teaching because church was cancelled since we got so much snow. It's kind of a joke hear😆 everyone was like be careful while your driving because of the snow and ice, and I was like are you serious.

We went on exchanges with the assistants this week, and spent a whole day out knocking doors and freezing to death. It was So cold! And the next day We had to end the exchange early because both of the elders were way sick. Hopefully me and Elder Jackson don't get that sicknesses.it was pretty bad!

Besides That we have just been working our tails off, really trying to help our zone to increase in its missionary efforts since things have gotten kind of stagnant.

I hope dad's enjoying his new my bike, there is a bunch of trails in my area and if I had a bike I'd definitely be out on them on p day! We Are playing some indoor soccer today for p day and it's way fun! We had a cool experience finding a lady to teach yesterday as we were walking down the street she was sitting in her car and I hate talking to people in their cars. It's way awkward, but I felt prompted to ask her if I could share my testimony with her, it was so cool and we ended up giving her a copy of the book of Mormon and inviting her to read it! It was a good experience following the spirit even when it was something I didn't want to do. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

WEEK 48: Setting goals

Hey family,

It sounds like everything is going good back home! We still have no snow 😆 crazy right? Things Have been going really well here. We put one of the people we are teaching on date to be baptized yesterday for the 2nd of February so I'm super excited about that. Transfer info! I'll be staying here for another transfer with Elder Jackson which I'm super pumped about. He's from Farr West where Smith and Edwards is. And we get along real well so it's been a fun transfer. We have a lot of fun throwing each other around and playing guitar.

President asked us What our goal was for this year, and the goal that I set was to become the missionary the savior wants me to be. So interestingly enough that has a lot to do with obeying and repenting with consecration and agency. Its been pretty cool this past transfer because me and my companion have been working on being obedient to the mission rules, and looking for ways to consecrated ourselves more. We've definitely seen so many blessings from that. So for the rest of my mission I'm just gonna focus on working hard and strengthening my testimony. And I'll worry about the rest when I get back:)

But anyway I love you all!

WEEK 47: Warming up

Hey family:) I hope y'all had a good week!

Mine was pretty great, the weather here has been really good. The hottest it's been is a sunny 67 degrees which I can't complain about for January😂 Elder Jackson and I have been doing really good. We had an awesome lesson with one of the families we are teaching where we read 2nd Nephi 31 with them and talked a lot about baptism. They want to get baptized as a family soon! The spirit was way strong as we read that chapter together. It was a great lesson, a really good reminder that the Lord is preparing people everywhere.

Besides that we had exchanges down in Lawrence burg which is about 40 mins from Alabama, and it was super southern. Everyone said yes ma'am and yes sir. And it was just a tiny little town filled with Amish people😆. I loved it. I got to work with an Elder I cam out with and it was so fun to get to go out and work with him. Good old Elder Stucki.

2 hour church this week was awesome. And I love the emphasis on the new testament. It's so awesome. The 4 gospels in the new testament and 3rd Nephi are such amazing books. We had 4 people at church and they all loved the flow of the meeting. I couldn't believe how fast it ended. I hope y'all are enjoying the new come follow me curriculum. I wish I had more time to spend on it but I'll check it out a lot more when I get back.

And lastly to finish the week off we went hiking in Montgomery Bell park and it was pretty awesome. A good way to relax on p day. I wish I had a mt bike cause they have lots of trails here. Anyway I love all of you and hope you have a great week!

WEEK 46: Let in rain

Lol mom 😆😆 I was just messing around!! I'm shooting to come home the October transfer. But I am getting a new Mission President in the next few months so we will see when he says I can go home!

I love you all a bunch. A visit to a less active member got me kinda thinking this week. This man had been an AP on his mission and then in lots of leadership callings in the church and then because he got offended and hasn't been reading the book of Mormon, praying or coming to church, he hasn't been to church in 20 years. He is an amazing guy and he could do so much more to help our heavenly father. He's going to come around eventually and we hope to help him. It just helped me realize how important frequent scripture study and church attendance and prayer are. It's so simple but we make it so hard. Please let Uncle Nate's family and Aunt Jens family know I'm very grateful for the Christmas packages.

Quick funny story, we had just finished this lesson that went awesome and then we started knocking some doors in this loop and it started sprinkling a little bit and we weren't to worried about the rain. About exactly 2 mins later it started pouring down from heaven above and we got soaked through and through. We laughed about it the whole way home. Love y'all and hope you have a great week!

WEEK 45: Light the way

Well We are definitely not snowed in and I'm not sick so that's 2 for 2😆😆we had a little bit of snow as well but it wasn't to much.

This week has gone by pretty quick. Me and Elder Jackson are getting along really well. He's from FarrWest Utah and is a good old country boy. We've been doing a lot of guitar playing every day. And we've been doing a lot of work with the less active members of our ward. We had a pretty good Christmas party this week and we got to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead with recent converts in our area. I got baptize Elder Jackson and another elder and then I got baptized so that was really Cool! The temple is such an Awesome place! I wish I go more on my mission. But I can go as much as I want in a year. I bet y'all are having fun with the hot tub this time of year! Hopefully me And Elder Jackson will have someone on date to be baptized in the next week or two. We will just keep working hard. That's about it! Love yall:) have a good week

WEEK 44: Christmas is coming

Hey fam:)  I'm not being transfered but both of my companions will be heading up to Clarksville, and I'll be getting a new zone leader comp named Elder Jackson. I'm pretty excited to take over this area but also a little nervous. Apparently Elder Jackson likes a lot of the same stuff I do so I'm sure we will get along good. I'm definitely going to miss Elder Hamblin and Elder Shaw and I would have loved to spend Christmas with them, but the mission doesn't work like that and you don't get to choose those things.

I'm glad everything is going well and that you guys are keeping busy. Mom your job sounds crazy now and since it's getting colder I bet your loving the hot tub. I haven't gotten to watch the devotional yet either but when I get a chance I'm really excited to watch it. We had to swap cars with the Fairview Elders so we are not driving a Nissan Rouge, all the sisters make fun of us and tell us it's a mom car. But it's got way more clearance than our last car which is way better for some of the crazy dirt roads we have to take it on.

I'm really excited for Christmas, and seeing yall over the Skype call. Hopefully you guys will have some questions for me:) Everyone is better now but we had a couple sick days last week that were really boring. I did get to go on an exchange with an Elder that just came out who was from Smithfield Utah so we chatted it up about cache valley the whole time and it was way fun. We did service at a horse ranch and I got to teach quite a few lessons this week which was awesome because I love teaching. And that's about it for me! I love you guys and I'll see ya soon:)