18 Jul 2016

This week was great! On Monday we went shopping and then we went to get Elder Coleman a haircut. We went to the Hispanic ladies house again. And the daughter that got offered to me was there. It was kind of awkward. Then we went to our Zone activity. It was supposed to start at 1:45, but everyone was 20 minutes late so we sat outside waiting for everyone to show up. Only half the zone showed up. We played basketball and we also played a game called tiger. Then on our way home from the activity we stopped at 7 eleven with the zone leaders so we could get a free Slurpee. Then we dropped off my stuff off at the Thaxton's. After that we went to visit the McFarlane's.

On Tuesday we got a referral from the Salt lake mission for a Marshallese family in bountiful. So we might be able to borrow the mission van to go up there. We were talking to President Palmer and he said we might get a car in the coming weeks. So I'm excited for that. We had a lesson with Tommy Bean. It was just a short lesson. We have taught him everything so we are teaching home everything that will be on the interview. Then we had a lesson with the Kinere family. They are Marshallese. They are a part member family, the dad and their 10 year old son are non-members. The dad isn't quite ready yet, but the son Jefferson is. We taught him the restoration and put him on date for August 6th. Then that night we had a lesson with Bill Tate. He bought us Pizza so that was cool. We talked about repentance with him.

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference. It was really good! I learned a lot about centering my life on Christ. At the end of the meeting President Palmer had all of the departing missionaries that were there come up and sit on the stand. So one by one in the order we sat we would get up and give our departing testimony. They started on the opposite end so I was the 3rd to last to give mine. My Zone leader Elder Clyde went right before me, him and I were the only department missionaries that cried when we bore our testimonies. After the meeting I had a lot of people come up and tell me that I made them cry. I'm glad I have so many friends. I'm going to miss them so much. It became a little more real for me after the meeting. We ended the night by visiting the McFarlanes.

On Thursday nothing really happened except for weekly planning.

On Friday there was no district meeting because we had Zone conference. We had a lesson with Keven. It was really short. We gave him a large print copy of the Book of Mormon and talked about why the scriptures are important. Then after dinner we biked to Taylorsville to contact some Marshallese potential investigators. We started at 6:30 and when we stopped biking it was 8:30. The only breaks we had were when we stopped to knock a door which was twice. Since we were in Taylorsville we stopped at the Seastrand's house. I know them from when I was in the Taylorsville South Stake and Elder Coleman met them because he took their son teaching when he was in the YSA. So we got a ride home from their son. It was much needed.

Saturday was also a slow day. The highlight is when the Sisters gave us ice cream. The whole day was just contacting. We were supposed to have two lessons, but they both cancelled. Before we headed in we left a box of junk on the Sisters doorstep and then we plastic wrapped the box so that it would take forever to open.

Sunday was very churchy. We got to bless the sacrament in one of the wards. There were some really good talks in church this week! We ate dinner with this Samoan family and I got so full. They sent us home with more food than we ate at dinner. Then we had a meeting with one of our Ward mission leaders. That was pretty much our night. That was my week.

11 Jul 2016

This week was great! On Monday we got haircuts. We got them from a lady in the Spanish branch. We can't speak Spanish so the Sisters came with us.  While Elder Case was getting his hair cut the sisters were talking to this other lady who was there. Then I heard them all laugh and one of the Sisters turned to me and said, "She thinks you’re handsome and she wants to present her daughter to you." So the lady handed me her phone and showed me a picture of her daughter. I wasn't sure what to say so I didn't say anything. I've never been offered anyone's daughter before. After that we went to Donut Falls. It was really crowded, but it was the 4th of July so we expected it would be. It was a lot easier this time through and there wasn't any near death experience, so that was good. I didn't go all the way up to the falls cuz it got kinda steep for my liking. So I chilled with Sister Martinez and we watched everyone climb to the top. On the way back to the car we saw this family and they had a girl with them who was around 10 years old. She saw a chipmunk and said, "Look a little rat!"  It was really funny. 

The Zone leaders gave us a ride home to change our shoes, because they were wet from walking through the water. Then we met at the zone building and played games until 9. I got sick at around 7:30. It's probably because I ate 3 double cheeseburgers and then played basketball right after.

Transfer day! We got Elder Case all packed up and shipped him off to Grantsville. His new companion is Elder Bowler. He is the Shortest Elder in the mission standing at 5'4" and Elder Case is 6'9". So that's pretty great. They dropped me off at the new zone building and I waited there for like an hour for Elder Coleman. He had to take a detour through Magna so his companion could pick up his new companion.

We eventually got back to the house and unpacked and then went off to some lessons. We taught a lesson to a lady named Amanda Powers. She is a non-member who is engaged to a less active member. We taught her the restoration, but when we got to the end of the lesson we felt impressed to hold off on inviting her to be baptized. And that was our first day together.

On Wednesday we taught Tommy Bean. He was supposed to have gotten baptized on Saturday, but he wants his grandpa to baptize him. His grandpa isn't super active so he met with the bishop and they agreed that the grandpa would be ready next month. So he is getting baptized on August 20th. The grandparents are also starting to work towards the temple again, so that's super exciting. Then that night we met with brother Neff. It was a great lesson as always. We talked about scripture study.

Thursday was pretty uneventful. We had weekly planning and that finished a little early so I did some additional scripture study. We had Cafe Rio for dinner so that was good. I love Cafe Rio it's like my favorite place to eat. Then we visited people for the rest of the night.

On Friday I studied D&C 106 and 107 for my studies. It was really good! Then we headed off to district meeting. The Sisters were 15 minutes late. We did a small intro thing with everyone. I told everyone that I had been out a little over a year, and then everyone laughed at me. It was a good district meeting, but it felt weird not being the one giving the training. I didn't think I would miss being district leader, but I actually do. I miss the extra opportunity to serve others and checking up on everyone and asking how there day was. I feel like a mantle was taken from me. Oh well maybe it's just to give me a taste of what going home will be like. 

Then we went to Cafe Rio for lunch. After we went and taught Keven about prophets and scriptures. It was a short lesson. So we actually didn't have dinner this week and neither did the Spanish Sisters so we all went and ate dinner at one of their members houses. It was pretty good. I'm not used to eating Hispanic food. Not much happened that night.

On Saturday we had a morning workout with the Zone. We did Zumba. It was interesting. Then we got home and left at 8:30 to go help the District Leader with a service project. We mixed and layed concrete. I've never done that before, it was cool I guess. Then until dinner we visited Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders. We have some great support here. All of the auxiliaries seem to love us. So hopefully we will have some work spread evenly around the stake. We had another lesson with Rose. We teach her at Brother Aini's house. He is from the branch and he is on the high council. So we really can't move on with the lessons a whole lot because she hasn't prayed about the Book of Mormon yet. So we went a little more in depth about prophets and the scriptures and why they are so important. She said she would read and pray about it before our next meeting. It was a really good lesson.

On Sunday we gave talks in the 7th ward on missionary work. It's weird to think that this could have been the last talk on my mission. Everyone seemed to have liked it. I wasn't super prepared for my talk because I was going to put finishing touches on my talk Sunday morning but I ended up redoing the whole thing. It turned out good though. Then we went to the Marshallese branch. After Sacrament meeting we were talking to Brother Aini and he asked us if we like teaching Marshallese people. We said, "Of course. We especially love teaching the Marshallese people."  He got this really excited look on his face and said "Oh, I will get you two or three more people to work with then!" And then he went over to this lady in the branch and asked her for referrals for us! He was so excited. So I guess all you have to do is ask. Then we went to 3rd Ward Sacrament meeting. After that we had a lesson with Diana. She now lives in an RV so that's kind of interesting. But there are no signs of her giving up hope. She gets so happy and thankful at everything we say. We told her we would get her a gospel art book so she could picture things better and she said thank you so much and started to cry. She is awesome! Then on Sunday night we got 5 referrals from the Marshallese branch for people that come actively but are not members. So things are really starting to look up!

4 July 2016

 This week was great! On Monday we went and hiked Bell Canyon. It was super fun and really hot. There was a stream that was close to the path in some parts so we had a few water fights. When we got to the top there was a waterfall. So we went up the trail that took us up to the top of the waterfall. The creek runs through the woods and then goes to the rockface and then falls. So at the edge of the woods there was a big rock where the water comes out. So the Spanish Sister climbed on to it. The rock was covered in green algae and Sister Martinez slipped and her companion caught her. So one of the Elders went and grabbed her iPad out of her hand and then dragged her off the rock. So we almost lost a sister in the falls. When we were on the was back home Sister Martinez realized she left her iPad on top of the mountain. So the Zone Leaders went back to get it. It took them 2 1/2 hours to climb up and get it and come back down.

On Tuesday I went with Elder Hunt in his area on exchanges. We woke up in the morning and he was sick. So we didn't get out until 2. It was a slow day. We didn't have any lessons, but we did service for one of his Bishops who just had his wife pass away. They had like 10 kids and the youngest is a year old. So it felt good to help.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with two young recent converts after lunch. Then we had a pass off lesson with the Spanish Sisters. We taught a recent convert who wants to attend the English Ward. So that was fun. Then that night we taught Brother Neff. We had a lesson on service, it was really good! He is so excited to do his calling. Then after that we went and visited the McFarlanes. That was really fun.

On Thursday we went and visited Diana before we had weekly planning. She wants to be a missionary so bad. She is telling all of her friends about the Gospel. Then we had weekly planning. That went as well as can be expected. Then we had a lesson with Keven. We taught him about prayer and scripture study.  Then we had dinner and went finding the rest of the night.

Friday was awesome! We had a really good district meeting this week. We were doing accountability and then we went way off of what I planned. We started talking about what the Lord expects of us. So we decided to go back to the basics and make goals that are simple, but powerful. Then I gave a training on enduring to the end. Elder Andersen who is one of my ZLs said it was the best district meeting he has ever been to. So I thought that was cool. After lunch we did a Zone Blitz. Everyone in the zone went into two areas and got a list of people to visit. We didn't find any success on our list, but other people did. 

Then that night we met with our Marshallese investigator Rose. The lesson was super powerful and the spirit was really strong. It was probably one of the best lessons on my mission. She wasn't hesitant to accept any of our commitments. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about the Holy Ghost and read Galatians 5:22 and explained what the Spirit feels like. Then I asked her if she was feeling those things right now and she said she did. So I asked her if she would like to feel like that all the time and she said yes. At the end we invited her to be baptized. And she said no. I was legitimately shocked! She told us she was feeling the Spirit and it seemed like it was going to be the perfect lesson and she just shot us down. I was so sad on the way home.

On Saturday we had another Zone blitz. We found one person that said we could come back. So that was cool we helped some other missionaries find some work. The rest of the day was finding. Then we got transfer calls at about 9:55pm. Elder Case is going to Grantsville and I am staying and will be senior companion to Elder Coleman. I am so excited! Elder Coleman is one of my best friends. So I was really happy about that. Our Zone got dissolved so I'm back in the Granger Zone. I also got released as a District Leader, I'm sad about that. I really loved that calling. It gave me a chance to serve more  people and it helped me grow to love my district members more. But this last 6 weeks will be a blast and I am going to work my absolute hardest.

Sunday was pretty regular. We bore our testimonies in the first meeting we went to. The second sacrament meeting we went to was long. Three people bore there testimonies and left 10 minutes. A lot of it wasn't even testimony. That kind of upset me. But yeah that was our week.