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:)

WEEK 43: On high

Not to much to say this week! Thanks for the big old update tho:) this week was pretty good, we didn't have a thanksgiving dinner so we just ate what we had around the apartment. We did some clean up at a cemetery for a service project, and it's been pretty cold here lately. I think my companions might get transfered out for Christmas so we will see. I'm about out of time but I love you guys and I hope you have a good week!

WEEK 43: Watch the sweets

A year has gone pretty fast that's true. But I still have a year to go😆 thank heavens. Not to much happened this week, we just had zone conference and I had exchanges up in Pulaski Tennessee, they call it Klan town because that's where the KKK was started. It's kinda a old town. So I was happy when I got to come back to Dickson. Dickson is way small to but its better than Pulaski. We got flu shots this zone conference to so that's awesome. The proactive is working pretty well. I honestly haven't been able to get in a rhythm with it yet. I've just been able to use it here and there. But I'm gonna put more effort in and that will help I think. I'll think about the Christmas list more. But I do not want any candy or junk food of any kind. The holidays are The hardest time of year to eat healthy so I don't want all that candy and crap staring at me. Love you mom and I hope you have a good week!

WEEK 42: Gotta be fast

So I finally got transferred after camping out for 7 months in Bowling Green. I didn't realise how much junk I could acquire after being in one area that long but it was a lot, so when I had to pack up I had to leave a fair amount of stuff behind, it was a super awesome area tho and I'm glad I got to serve there. 

  

Now I'm in a tiny town about an hour and a fifteen  mins west of Nashville. They do have a Wal-Mart so I guess it not to small of a town, but man I've never been anywhere as country as here. Everyone is driving big old trucks and smoking, and it's not good food here unless you slather it up with butter. Most everyone is super nice tho which is really cool. 

My new companions are awesome and I love them a lot. Elder Hamblin is my zone leader companion, and he is from California and like 23, and is on his last transfer out. Elder Shaw is our trainee, and he is the coolest cat out there. He is basically Dwight from the office, I never know what he's going to say next but usually everything he says gets me laughing so hard my abbs hurt. I'm super excited to get to work with them and to be here in this area. It's crazy that a year has flown by already!  Also the other day I found out why you should never cut chili's and touch your eyes after. I lost my sight for like 10 mins and my eyes were so bloodshot for the rest of the night. Lesson learned I guess I hope you all have a great week and that you'll enjoy this picture of me holding a chicken. That thing was beepin fast and I had to chase it and catch it. Me and the chicken ended up getting in a fist fight inside of some bushes but I beat that little sucker so I had to get a trophy picture. The other picture is just another one of the crazy Baptist churches around here. 

Week 41: Back to Tennessee

This week was a blast! As you could probably tell, my p day is on Monday this week! It's because of a weird incoming transfer but it all works out! This week has been super good, we set another one of the people we are teaching on date. That's 3 people on date now! That's the most I've ever had in one area so it gets me pumped.

We got transfer calls and I'm out of here. It's kind of sad honestly, after serving in the same ward for 7 months you start to feel like part of the ward. I got to bear my testimony on Sunday, and everyone expressed they were grateful for me serving there. It kinda sucks because I made a lot of friends in this ward. But I know I've got to move at some point. Now for the big news!! I'm getting transferred to Dickson Tennessee. I'll be a zone leader there with elder Hamlin, he's from California. And we will be in a trio finishing the training of a new elder named elder Shaw. And I leave for that tomorrow so I'm stoked!

We had a ward party this week called the fall festival, and it was so sick! There was a trunk or treat, and a chili cook off. We had 3 families come that we are teaching and then around 5 of the other people that we are teaching. It was awesome to have so many people come out to it and have a good time! I ate some chili with some Carolina reaper peppers in it and I was pretty disappointed. It just made my lips and throat burn, it didn't even make me cry tho so that was a bummer.

Since today is p day we are gonna go slack line and set up our hammocks at the park. We had Darnell who got baptized this last Saturday which was awesome to! It's starting to cool down here a bit and you can tell winter is coming, so it's been sweater weather which is my favorite time of the year. Love y'all and stay blessed. 

WEEK 40: Big news coming

This week was a blast! We had Elder Bowen of the 70 come and meet with us. We had a MLC meeting first and then he ran our regular zone conference right after that. He spoke in general conference this time. He is a super nice guy and energetic for his age. We talked about how this mission can be doing way better than it has been. We just need to have more faith and work harder.

We also this week had a big family history activity on Saturday that so many people came to! We brought some of the people that we are teaching and they loved it! Also this week we didn't get to shop until Saturday so on Thursday and Friday we were in like survival mode because we didn't have any food in the apartment. So we were just like eating anything and everything, but now we are back on track.

We played some sand volleyball today and it was super sick! It's been forever since I played some good volleyball. I had to buy some new shoes today and I love them. That's about it for this week! We should be getting transfer calls hopefully this Sunday and I'm bound to leave so I'll be really shocked if I stay in Bowling Green for another transfer. Love you guys have a good week:)

WEEK 39: Conference time

This week was pretty fun!, it flew by so fast😆 I managed to stay awake for all of conference this time around. Which was way hard because we went to a Spanish member of the wards house and I had 14 taquitos for lunch. So it was hot and heavy and I was falling asleep. But I stayed awake for all of it.

Really besides that not to much happened this week. We did a lot of service on Monday and Tuesday and we got to do some more alpaca wrangling which was way fun. The lady who owns the place is going to make us all alpaca fur ties! Which I'm way excited for. I ruined my temple tie today ironing it. Apparently your not supposed to iron certain ties so that's cool that I learned that. It's flippen October and it's still like 85 degrees here it's ridiculous.

We had one of the people we are teaching come to conference and he loved it. He wasn't able to make it for all of the conference, just Saturdays portion. But that was still good enough! We got to go to the temple again today and that was awesome! I love the temple so much, the Nashville temple is pretty small but it's really pretty.

Besides that not much else has happened, we are just on that constant grind, trying to find the people who are open to the message of the restored gospel. I know this church is God's true restored church on the earth, and I know the book of Mormon is true. Hope you all have a good week!

WEEK 38: Working hard

This week has been pretty solid! A storm has been passing through Bowling Green, which has made everything really nice and cool, except for when Elder Horsley got a flat tire and we had to walk our bikes back a mile in the pouring rain. Besides that it's been really good! That same day playing a bit of pros ball I split one of my pairs of pants and ruined them. And also one of my shoes came completely apart. WE STILL BEAT THEM. Even with a split pair of pants and a ruined shoe.Interestingly enough they didn't split because I've gotten fatter, it's because my thighs have gotten pretty big with all of this biking and running like 3 miles every morning. What a day. 

We are teaching a couple member referrals currently and they are all super cool people. We are teaching a lady from China who has no Christian background and she is so sweet! We are also teaching a members boyfriend, and another members close family friends. I've never had on my mission before members who invite their friends to learn more. Usually members look at missionary work as something that only the full time missionaries do. So it's been awesome to see that the members in our ward are being so involved! 

The tiny Filipino lady is ofelyia a person we are teaching. She a spunky old grandma who throws shade at everyone, it's the best!  Elder Horsley is such a hard worker and a fun companion to have. I'm sure he thinks I'm a weirdo but hey you win some you lose some right.  

We met this college student named Cassie who is super nice, and we've been able to teach her about the book of Mormon and the restoration. We taught her that she could pray for help with her studies and for understanding when reading the scriptures. And that night she texted us and told us how grateful she was that we came over and taught her about that. It was really cool to see that someone was actually excited and grateful for the opportunity to learn about God. 

Our district leader has been making us banana bread for every district council and it's dang good! I'm going to have to get the recipe. And today we are headed back out to the alpaca farm so I'm way excited for that! Well the alpaca farm was dope as usual. The lady who runs it fed us a fat lunch and we did some service and threw the old pig skin around a bit. Good times for sure. That's about it for me this week! Sorry it's been a while. Stay Blessed

WEEK 37: Slice of humble pie?

Hey guys! It was good to hear from you all! This last week has flown by so quick. I guess being a zone leader all of a sudden makes you way busy and I don't know why but I didn't expect that. Elder Horsley is a pretty dope guy. He's like 6'4 so that's pretty cool. Since we are zone leaders we get extra miles  so we can drive to the other Elders apartment in our area. Its way sick! I've already lost like 4 pounds so that's fun, this transfer we are just gonna slice off that weight so I'm excited for that. Elder Horsley definitely knows how to have a good time but also how to work way hard. He loves fishing to so that's a huge perk. We went fishing today( first time for me since I left on my mission) and it was heaven. We didn't catch anything huge but it was just so fun. I caught a little pumpkin seed panfish that is a cool looking fish. Hopefully we will get to go fishing every p day now.

The work here in this area is going good. Elder Horsley does missionary work a little different than I do so that's gonna take some adjusting. Its also weird not to be training anyone anymore and to be more equally yoked I guess. Not so stressful when you don't feel like you are pulling most of the load. It looks like you guys had a way fun time up in bear lake! I was glad to see everyone's smiling faces for sure! We also got to go do some service at an alpaca farm this week and it was a blast, we got to throw some hay bales around and mess with the alpacas a bit so it was a good time😆 these next couple weeks are going to be pretty crazy because elder Bowen( he's a general authority) is coming to visit the mission. And we have a ton of exchanges to go on so that's exciting. I'll just share one experience, the other day it was like 8:45 pm and I wanted to drive back to the a
apartment and start doing the paperwork side of missionary work, and Elder Horsley convinced me that we needed to stay out for a little while longer and talk to more people. So I did it, and had a bad attitude about it cause I didn't think we were gonna find anyone. But sure enough we ended up finding two new people to teach, so that was a bit humbling and I felt like a scrub after having a bad attitude about it. But it's cool that the Lord will always lead us to the people as long as we just trust him and do what he says. I love you guys and hope you have a good week!

WEEK 36: One more time in BG

Hey y'all, hope everyone has been doing good, just wanted to shoot an email out to update everyone on what's been going on.

We got transfer calls this Tuesday and I'll be staying in Bowling Green for another transfer and receiving Elder Horsley and we will be the zone leaders. My greenie who just finished training, Elder Wales, will be going to a small town in Tennessee to train a new missionary, with the help of an older missionary.

I was kinda hoping for a change of scenery since this will be my 5th transfer here. But there is a lot of potential in this area so I can't really complain that much. We just put a guy named Alex on date for baptism on Monday. He is from Tanzania and speaks swahili and French and a tiny bit of English. But we have been making it work. He is so dope, he's way short and always smiling. He's helping me learn a bit of swahili. It's a hard language that's for sure. But we have lots of swahili people here so it's nice to know at least the basics. I guess bowling green is a designated safe city for refugees so that's why we have so many here.

Besides that everything is still going pretty good, every week we find more apartment complexes to tract, I swear there is a new complex built like every week. I'm excited to be a zone leader but a little nervous to. I only got to be a district leader for one transfer so I don't really know what I'm doing. I'm excited tho because now I get to go on exchanges with the aps and one of the aps Elder Bollinger trained me, so seeing him again is gonna be sweet! It's starting to cool off a bit here and the temps are mostly in the 70s and the humidity isn't to bad so fall is coming. I hate all the bugs here tho. The cicadas are so loud it's rediculous.

Also the new church history book that came out called Saints is way good. I read it all already and it was sick. It's all I did for like a week during our dinner and lunch breaks since the members don't feed us to often. That's about it for me tho. Love you guys and hope your all doing well!

WEEK 35: Bar burgers are the best

Not to much to talk about this week. No word on transfers yet. Not a whole lot has changed. We had a good exchange this week with the zone leaders. It really helped me to learn how I can be a better missionary.

We also had a member accidently take us to a bar for dinner. I had the best burger I've ever had in my life there. It was fantastic. Love y'all and hope ya have a good week.

WEEK 34: Responsibility

Hey family!

It's good to hear from you guys, yeah I'm still in Bowling Green probably till half way through September. This week has been pretty good, it's been a long week for sure and we've been biking a lot. It's been hot hot hot. We have some baptisms this weekend so I'm pumped about that. I have been doing a lot of swahili lessons lately, it's a really hard language to understand but I'm picking up words here and there. Just the basics for sure, maybe Bowling Green will get some swahili missionaries sometime soon.

Being district leader has been interesting, we have these calls that we have to be on Monday night's and this week me and Elder Wales totally forgot about it and so we made everyone wait for us before they started. When we were driving around we saw these two guys larping, they were fighting with big old foam swords, it was so funny! I almost crashed our car! We also have an senior missionary couple in our district.

The new announcement from President Nelson about the churches name is going to be interesting for us for sure, nobady here in the south knows our church full name, they all only know the nicknames. ( side note/funny story) we went to a Christian store today, and they literally sell anti Mormon literature in a Christian store😂😂 how Christian. Anyhow the little Africans we are teaching are getting baptised this saturday!! Crispin and Nadine are sick, they are so fun!!

They thought it was funny in our last lesson to smack lder Wales in the back of the head a bunch. It was way funny! Besides that yeah not much, I'm thinking this will be my last transfer here but we will see, I'm really excited about grandma going to the temple! I wish I could be there but I know it will be an awesome experience!! Love you guys and hope you have a good week!!

WEEK 33: Speedy delivery

Hey family!! It's good to hear from you guys! This week went by super quick. It just seems like the weeks are flying along. This week we had a zone conference where we got new tiwis in our cars. Tiwi is a computer device that in real time coaches us on how to drive. If we get to many warnings we get a violation which goes on our driving record. Also at zone conference we had David Archuleta talk with us and sing us some of his songs. Glorious was way cool in person. I think he's better live than like his recordings. He is one of the most humble guys I've ever met and he has a really cool back story. I'll attach pictures below. I hope to serve in one of the wards he's in that would be way cool.

Besides that not a whole lot has happened. We will have some more baptisms this next weekend so that's exciting. I've had to do a few swahili lessons lately and they are so hard, I can use Google translate to speak it but Idk what they are saying back😂. Translators are so helpful.

The red rocket, my new bike, is way fast! All the gears work it's so exciting, I haul but around this city. I've been here for quite a while now so it's starting to get a bit repetitive but feel like home. Today for p day we have been playing some friendly sting pong which has been way fun, and we are gonna go get some new couches from a senior missionary couple who is leaving. Thursday we are heading down to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with our recent convert Chris. Love that guy. The gospel is helping him get his life on track.

In my last interview with President he said he'd need me as a zone leader soon so we will see what happens. I think this might be my last one in this area. Me and Elder Wales are still working hard and finding lots of people to teach, they just don't always speak English which is hard. Besides that mom was pretty much right when she said it's probably like ground hog day. Once again everything sounds like it's going good back home! Happy birthday to Jake, 22 wow!! Time flies, 😂😂 he'll probably have like 4 kids by the time I get back. Well I love you guys! Bye bye

Week 32: Blessings of Baptism

Hey family! Hope you guys are doing good. Not much to report on this week except I had my first baptism I was able to do on Saturday for my man chris!! And me and Elder Wales will be staying together and I will be the district leader. Love you guys and hope you have a good week!