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!