Last Weekly Update from SLC

Wow. It's kind of crazy. I'll keep things pretty short since I'll just be able to update y'all in a couple of days. But things here have been pretty crazy. I've been getting ready to leave and starting to do all my goodbye's. It was kind of crazy on Sunday. I gave a farewell talk. They had the dad's with missionaries out talk, and then I talked at the end. There wasn't much doctrine taught. It was mostly just me up there reflecting on my mission. It made it harder because I saw so many people from a year ago that I taught and they were all there with their church clothes on, preparing to go to the temple. And that's what true joy is. Saturday I had my departing interview with President Winn. It was great. It helped me feel more ready to go home. So it helped me calm down a lot. Then today I said bye to the Lopez family. They might be able to get sealed the weekend we're up here. Hopefully. Well today is p-day, tomorrow I'm going to the temple and out to lunch with all the missionaries that are leaving, and then Wednesday transfers, then that evening will be the devotional. I'm still kind of in shock. But I will see y'all soon!

End of the World

Hey! I'm glad I'm able to write to y'all today especially considering I thought the world was going to end on Saturday. Pretty scary stuff. Friday a bunch of people walked up to us and asked us if the world was really going to end. That's how we figured out about it.

Everything here is going well. We have a baptism on Saturday of the Puerto Rican girl. And we're working to get the family baptized. We'll be able to do it. This weekend was kind of crazy. Sunday came and we were pretty mad because the family that we're trying to get baptized, didn't come to church on Sunday. Neither did one of our converts. So we were mad standing at the doors greeting people. Then we saw a lady that we met the day before that we didn't think would come. And she came. So I was happy right there. Then half way through the couple we were helping to get married showed up. We ended up having 8 investigators to church which is the most we've had since we've been together. So we were pretty happy after church. Then after church we get a call from the couple we were helping to get married, and the woman said "I'm not getting married today we're going to have to cancel it. We've been having problems lately.." and just went off. So I told her we were on our way over. We called the branch president and he came. We ended up staying and talking with them for around an hour and a half, with them planning on getting married. It was great. So at 8 we had the marriage. We asked members to help with food and to make it a little special, and they pulled through. It turned out being really good. Oh and she said that she wants to get baptized, so we're going to put them on date this week. That's about all going on here.

The Real Mormons

Everything here is going well. The family that we had on date for the 20th is now on date for the 29th. We're going to help the kids get married when the girl turns 18 on the 25th. This week we also started teaching a little 10 year-old girl from Puerto Rico. Her mom is less active because she always worked on Sundays in Puerto Rico. We talked to her and gave her a Book of Mormon picture book. After the first day she already read half of it. She's great. She's so smart and catches on to everything pretty quickly. So she'll probably be getting baptized on the 28th. We're going by (to see) her today. We're continuing to try to find more people to teach. As we've been knocking doors we've ran into some interesting people. A lot of doors getting slammed on us. It's great. The other day we were on our bikes going through the trailer park and we saw these two girls on bikes, one of them with a Wal-mart bag. And they said they were "playing Mormons." They had 2 Book of Mormons in the bag. And when they saw us they said "Hey it's the real Mormons!" It was great. One of the things I won't miss is all of the stress that comes on Sundays of trying to make sure investigators get to church. It's such a stessful day, and always ends up being one of the busiest. It's getting harder and harder to wake up every morning. I'm just a tired worn out old man. I think that's about all that's going on for me right now. I can't really think of anything else. And if there is I can just tell y'all when I see y'all in a few weeks.

Happy Mother's Day!

Everything is still going good. Nothing new to report. I hope y'all have a great week and that everything goes well for y'all.

Finding the Elect

Well things here are going great. Like I said last week we were able to put that family of four on date. We're just trying to figure out how we are going to get the kids married. They're both underage and the parents of the girl live in Rock Springs. So we might have to wait until she is 18, which is on the 25th. On Saturday we were able to meet with some new investigators. They seem pretty interested. They're names are Jessica and Jose. They're living together and need to be married, so we're planning on helping them with that. We're also hoping to get them baptized on the 28th. They'll be ready by then. We were talking with them and she started talking about how she doesn't want to go to Catholic church because a lot of things have happened lately to disgrace it. So I think that they've been prepared. We'll see I guess. Their next appointment isn't until Friday.

We've been doing so much finding lately it's crazy. We're trying to make sure that we work with the elect. People that are really ready and prepared to hear the gospel.  So if they aren't progressing by the 3rd lesson we are just dropping them. Other than that there hasn't been too much going on this week. We met a guy that served a mission and is less-active now. He said that he found a book that was twice the size of the Book of Mormon. I guess he thinks that he found the sealed portion. It was kind of weird. Because he believes in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson, but he believes there's another prophet on the earth. It was just really weird I don't know. I think he just learned too much and thinks he's above the church now or doesn't need it. I think that's about all that's really going on. This Saturday a family I baptized a year ago is going to be going through the temple to get sealed. I'm excited for that. It will be good to be able to see them do that.  I think that's about all that's going on right now.

Servants of Christ

Well it's been a pretty interesting week. Wednesday we had transfers, and we stayed together. It was kind of sad to see some of the people go. I can't believe that it'll be me the next one. I'm not gonna lie, it's hard to focus sometimes but I'm doing my best to work hard.

We've had a lot of trials this week. We've continued to drop a lot of investigators and trying to find new ones. So one of the days we went out and tried to find some, and the whole day nobody answered the door. That was hard. I felt a little discouraged that day. So when we got home we sat and talked and tried to figure out what we were doing wrong that was preventing us from finding new investigators. We talked it over and figured some things out and decided to change. So we started changing it that night and started updating the teaching records. The next day we went tracting and one of the first few doors we knocked there was a white guy that opened up. And he started to try and bash us and pick all the things out of our church that were wrong. I was tempted to open the Bible and start bashing back, but I restrained myself because it wouldn't get us anywhere. So we just stood there I defended our points, through a few scriptures out and was just smiling and laughing about how ridiculous this guy was. Then towards the end of the conversation he started criticizing us for going by the title Elder. And how we don't deserve the title because we're too young and that we couldn't go around with that title when he has grandkids older than us and telling people about what they need to do. And I kind of got mad at that and explained about it again, and told him that only prideful people would get offended by that and that prideful people wouldn't want to listen to Servants of Christ that are younger than them. And he got defensive about that and so we left. That took about a hour and a half. Then later on we found a lady who seemed pretty interested. We talked to her for a few minutes but she had to go so we're going back this week.

Then Saturday we had the baptism of Humberto. I baptized him. Everything turned out well. There were almost no complications. The Spirit was strong the whole time. Sunday we were asked to give talks in sacrament meeting. So we were waiting for Humberto to show up and get confirmed but he didn't show up, so we started giving our talks. I talked about the Atonement. I think it went pretty well. It's my favorite thing to talk about. There's so much to it. But half way through Elder Zambrano's talk Humberto walked in. So he finished his talk, I gave mine, and they had Humberto come to the front to be confirmed. So the day went on and we were planning for Silvias baptism. The plan we came up with was for her to attend an english ward and have a translator. So she went to the english ward, it went well. So we had her baptism and confirmation on Sunday night. It was great as well. The Spirit was strong, there were a lot of people, it was great. Oh and Sunday we were able to contact someone we've been trying to talk to for a week or two. We found the whole family there and we talked with them. They've been talking to missionaries for a few years now. We talked to them, had a pretty good lesson, and at the end me and my companion sang a hymn for them. The Spirit filled the room, and we invited them to "follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God." Each one of them said yes. The son needs to get married and we're going to help him with that. We're going to the temple with them this Thursday. It should be good. It was a great way to end such a tough week. 2 baptisms and 4 people on date to be baptized!

Go Karts

Things here are going alright. We aren't sure if we are going to baptize Silvia because her schedule changed and she now works on Sunday mornings. So we don't know what we're going to do with that. We don't want to baptize her into a situation that wouldn't be good for her. And Humberto is still doing well. He's been reading and he came to church on Sunday with his family. So we're still planning on that. We're pretty excited for it. Things are going well for them. As for the work in the area, we're still working on getting the work going again. It's been tough. We've been dropping a lot of our investigators that haven't been progressing or that don't want to progress, and trying to find some new ones. We aren't doing so well in finding new ones. We're getting a lot of people that are not ready to hear the gospel. But we're still trying. We know that as we work hard the Lord will bless us and find those who are ready. It's been a little bit tough. But oh well.

Today we went Go Karting with a few missionaries and Sis Winn. It was pretty fun. They took a lot of pictures so you'll probably see some of them on Sister Winn's blog (http://www.mamawinnsplace.blogspot.com/). Other than that everything is going well. We found out on Sunday that we are going to be giving a talk on Easter Sunday next week. So that'll be good. I'm ready for that. I'm just trying to keep working hard and keep being diligent. It's kind of tough though. The area I'm in has planes that fly over it all the time. I can't believe that I'll be going home in 6 weeks. We have transfers on Wednesday. So I'll probably be staying in the area. This transfer has been going by so fast. It's crazy.

Crazy Times

Well everything here is going well. I guess the biggest thing that happened this week was while I was sleeping. Apparently at around 3 a.m. somebody came and rang the doorbell at the house we live in. And the member opened up the door and it was some guy and he said you got to help me. And then he forced his way inside. She asked him to leave and he wouldn't. He said his friend was shot and he needed to call 911, and so she called 911 and they got there in a few minutes. Apparently when the cops talked to her they said the guy was a mental case/strung out on drugs. But nothing bad happened. She attributes nothing happening because she has missionaries living in her house. But my companion and I slept through the whole thing. Sirens and all.

Well we have 2 people preparing to be baptized and confirmed right now. One is Silvia, she's the sister of the person we baptized last week. Before she said she didn't want to get baptized, and so we went over testified of Christ and sang "families can be together forever", we did a pretty bad job but told her to pay attention to the words not our voices. After we sang we asked how she felt/ what stood out to her and she said "if I want to live with my family I need to get baptized." And so she said she would get baptized, she just needs to figure out when her work schedule is. Then the other is Humberto. We're helping him to stop smoke and drink. He's the one that used to be in a gang and wants to change his life. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully he'll be able to be ready by that date. If he does the stuff we tell him to he will.

Tuesday we had zone conference. It was pretty sweet. We talked about putting on the whole armor of God. It was also my last zone conference of the mission. It's pretty crazy to believe. I had to give my departing testimony. That was kind of weird. But everything is going well.

Awesome General Conference

Well it was such a good weekend. I loved conference. It's kind of hard to believe that's the last one of the mission. We started off the weekend with tickets to one session, the Sunday p.m. one, and ended up getting into the conference center for all of them. It was pretty sweet. I was able to make it in the conference center for every session of my mission. I really liked the talk by Elder Pratt about being and doing because all of those principles not only apply to kids but to our investigators as well. There were a lot of good talks though. A lot of them seemed to be focused on marriage. So that was pretty weird. I can't apply any of those. I'm looking forward to receiving the Ensign/Liahona and studying out the messages. I can't believe that before the mission I didn't look forward to conference. It's the best time of year!

It's been a tough couple of weeks. It seems like the work has slowed down a little. It's been hard for us to get into houses. It would be pretty easy to get discouraged. But I know that the Lord didn't send me here to plant seeds, he sent me here to be successfull and to baptize. I know that as I'm prepared to receive His children He'll send them to me. Even if it means He has to bring them from other parts of the world. I'm not called to fail.

The temple service went well. We set up for the solemn assembly again. So we went up to the 4th and 5th floor of the temple. It's kind of crazy I've been able to go everytime and see these things that most people never get to see or never even know are there. And I feel like I could give a tour of it.
 
We were able to have a baptism this weekend. It was kind of a crazy one. I felt so unorganized and so rushed, there weren't a lot of members there, her family couldn't go. The time we scheduled for the baptism was already occupied by another one, so we had to move the time to eight. We were ready to cancel it. I felt bad because I wanted it to be a day she would remember, and not because it was so crazy. So we were ready just to cancel it and do it next weekend when it could be more organized and all that. So we started talking to her and explaining and we gave her the option to move the baptism to next week. And she said "no we can do it this week. I'm already here, and all those things going on is just satan trying to stop it." That kind of blew me away. The faith that she had to know she was entering into a covenant with God amazed me. That's why I love this work so much. To see the change in the lives of others and to see their faith increase is amazing. This work opens up the doors of salvation to them. It's great. Anyways our baptism ended at 9:15, and the sisters had a baptism after us and they needed someone to baptize so I was getting ready and then they had somebody else do it. But by the time we were ready to leave the church it was after 9:30, our curfew. And we hear a knock on the door and it's President Winn and his wife. And I got scared I thought we were going to get in trouble, and I didn't know how he know we were there. So we explained all of that and Sister Winn went into the baptism and we stayed out in the lobby and talked about stuff with President, joked around a little bit. It was great. But by the time we got home it was around 10:10. It was a late night. Well this week we have zone conference and I'm pretty excited for it. I can't wait.

Conference is Coming!

Well everything here is going great. We weren't able to have our baptism on Saturday. The person that was supposed to get baptized ended up smoking 1 cigarette on Friday. So she wasn't able to get baptized. So that was a little disappointing. But we went to temple square with two of our investigators, Angelica and Silvia, and Angelica is preparing to be baptized this weekend. We're still hoping that Silvia will be baptized this weekend too. They're sisters so it would be pretty sweet to see them get baptized together. Then we talked with another kid who agreed to be baptized next weekend. He's had a pretty rough life. He's been in some gangs and stuff but he has a desire to change. So we're helping him with that.

Sunday was the first time that the Granger 2nd branch met together in the new chapel. It was kind of crazy. Nobody really knew where things were. But it was a good beginning. Everybody is pretty excited about it. It's tough for some of the members just because it's like splitting up family, but there will be more growth now. And more people will stay active because they'll have callings. One of the families I baptized last year was at church and told me they're going to be getting their temple recommend interviews done pretty soon and enter into the temple. I'm pretty excited about that. The Lopez family, who I baptized a year ago and sang to mom for her birthday, are in the middle of their temple prep classes and will be getting sealed in late May or early June. I'm hoping that they'll be able to do it in May. It's exciting to be able to see the families I baptized still active in the church and a little sad seeing the ones that aren't. Which I guess is the reason I'm here. To help more people come to Christ and to help those I baptized return.

I'm really excited for general conference this weekend. I can't wait. Tomorrow we're going to go do temple service again. It's crazy it'll be my last time. But it's all good. I only have tickets to the Sunday P.M. session of conference. So hopefully we'll be able to find some more tickets. We don't even have enough to give to investigators. But either way I'm excited for it.  I love this gospel and I love being a missionary in the work of the Lord. There's nothing better.

March Madness, Utah Salt Lake City Mission Style

Well everything here is going well. Sunday at church President Winn came because they split the branch I'm serving in. I'm no longer in the Granger 10th branch, but in the Granger 2nd branch. It'll be good. I look forward to baptizing like crazy. It's amazing how well the mission is doing - 295 baptisms in February. We were able to have a baptism on Saturday for Brenda. She's the girl that I told y'all about last week. She's 11-years-old and she's deaf. It's kind of sad because her parents don't really give her the care/ schooling she needs. But she's an amazing kid. We should be having another baptism this weekend too. A person who just needs to quit smoking and then she can be baptized. So hopefully she'll be able to give up that addiction and follow the example of Jesus Christ. I have been able to see some of the people that I worked with a year ago which has been pretty sweet. I'm working on reactivating one of them. And some people that never got baptized,  hopefully I'll be able to help them get baptized. I did see the Lopez family yesterday. They're planning on getting sealed in the temple either in May or June. I'm hoping that they do it in June while I'm still on the mission. It would be great. So things are going well here I don't really know what else to say. March and April have been tough on me both times during the mission. It's that dang March Madness. Luckily everybody keeps us updated on how things are going. Well I can't wait to keep seeing miracles and to keep working hard. I'm excited for general conference coming up, even though I haven't received any tickets yet. I can't wait to hear the messages from the leaders of the church.

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks for the birthday cards and for the birthday cake and ice cream. We got a call from the bishop saying somebody wanted to drop something off at our house and I was kind of confused. But then I got the surprise.

Well everything here is going great. Monday and Tuesday I went around saying bye to investigators and members and converts. Most people were surprised that I was leaving so soon. So was I. But anyways, I'll be going back and visiting the people there. I can't believe I'm down to my 2nd to last transfer. I now have like 11 weeks left. It's crazy. I'm kind of scared to go back home I want to stay a missionary. But I guess it has to come to an end sometime. So Wednesday at transfers I found out that I was getting transferred to the Granger West stake, the Granger 10th branch out in West Valley. It's in the same area I served in last year. And I'm living next door to President Kendall, which is where I lived last year. They're related to the Harris's. I'm excited to have the same success here that I was able to have last year. The baptism they had planned for this weekend fell through so we were hoping for a miracle baptism. Friday night we find out that the Sisters in the other part of the stake were having a miracle baptism for an investigator that moved from another area, and that his cousin had been waiting to get baptized but never wanted to do it alone. His cousin lived in our part of the stake, so we were able to have that miracle baptism. Her name is Wendy. We're going to start to teach her parents tonight who are also interested in learning more about the church. Then this weekend we will be having a baptism that was supposed to happen last week. It's for a little girl named Brenda. She's deaf so it makes the lessons interesting. We have to use an interpreter that knows sign language. We're working on getting this area back to being overloaded with investigators. In two weeks they will be splitting the branch. So I don't really know what will be happening with that. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Oh yeah and my new companion is Elder Zambrano. He's been out for 4 transfers now. He was trained by my last companion Elder Byrd. He's originally from Ecuador, but came out from his mission from Magnolia, Texas. So things are going pretty well here. I'm just trying to work hard and not slack off. Even though it's kind of hard not to think about home when I have to figure out everything with school, and housing, and summer jobs. Speaking of which, I applied to be a counselor and got invited back for an interview. I guess I'll have to do the interview when I get off of my mission, if I understood your e-mail right. I got a pretty scary phone call on Thursday from the mission office. They called and said "are you flying home or are your parents going to be driving and picking you up?" I didn't know what to say. I was so shocked. So I'll probably be getting an itinerary in a week or two. I can't believe it. Oh yeah and I had a pretty good birthday I guess. I didn't really do to much. I guess I've just been lost in the work and trying to stay busy.

Advice from the Elders

Everything here is going great. I guess the biggest news is that on Wednesday we had interviews with President Winn. In it he talked to me about how for my last two transfers he's going to put me back down in the valley. So I'll probably get transferred this Wednesday. The plan is to have me train again for my last transfer. He asked me if there was a particular place that I wanted to go, which I didn't have any. I figure I'll go where I'm supposed to go. I did ask if I could serve around Elder Hiatt or Elder Morris though. Then midway through the interview he realized that there weren't any new spanish missionaries coming in on the April transfer, which will be my last one. So hopefully he'll keep me here a little longer. We've been able to see so many miracles this past week. We have a copy of the consent form for getting the kid baptized. We're still waiting on the parents to humble themselves and pick a date. Then on Thursday we received a referral and checked it. The dad opened up the door and started talking to us and he said that his daughters wanted to ge baptized so they had their friend send a referral, and they had another friend send another one just in case the first one didn't work. He also wants to start coming back to church. We'll be going back to visit them next week. They're down in Vegas getting married and all that stuff. And it turns out the mom might not be a member. So we're excited about them. As we were leaving their house a man pulled up in a truck and motioned for us to come over. So we walked over and started talking to him. He told us that he has a friend that's been reading the Book of Mormon and is sincerely considering baptism. But he had a bad experience with missionaries in the past so he doesn't want to be taught by us. So hopefully we'll be able to get him baptized pretty soon as well. Then a week ago we tracted into a house with a less-active mom and a non-member dad and a kid. So we set up an appointment to go talk with the mom and dad. Come to find out the kid isn't baptized either. But the dad doesn't want them taught in their home. So we get a call the day before the appointment from the mom cancelling our first appointment. As she's talking she mentions "you know, it's a weird coincidence. The day y'all knocked my door, my son came home from a band trip and said 'mom I want to start going back to church.'" So he had been taught by the missionaries before, but the dad wanted him to wait until he was older to decide to be baptized. Well it's been a few years and the kid is now older and is leaning towards baptism.

This week we also taught the young women in one of the wards for their mutual activity. It was kind of weird. I can't even talk to girls any more. I guess that's a good sign? But it went well, there wasn't much participation though. Yesterday we had lunch with the young womens leader who has been helping us with one of our investigators, Kayla. So we went over there after church and talked with Sister Adams and her husband and Kayla, just chatting. And one of the laurels came over that is Kayla's friend and Sister Adams told her to ask us for relationship advice about a boy she likes that is going on a mission. Naturally I deferred to Elder Byrd because I don't have any experience with girls. So I let him take that question. We came up with a plan for her. So that was pretty fun. Then at the end when we had to leave Kayla said that she wanted to start meeting with us more often. So that was sweet. It's been an amazing week.

So a little fun story for y'all. Saturday was prom here. And it is A LOT different than back home. They go out on an all day date starting in the morning, then go home get ready, go out to dinner, then go to their prom. They only have junior prom here, not senior. They have Senior ball. Anyways what they do for prom is have them walk out with their escort, introduce each of them and who their parents are, then do a choreographed dance that they've learned for the past two weeks before school starts, then have a dance with their mom/dad. And then it's pretty much over. So it's more of a community event here. But it's what they've grown up with, so to each his own I guess.

Oh and for the month of February the zone had 27 baptisms and 26 confirmations, which beats the Wyoming zone record. This weekend we had 9 baptisms and 10 confirmations and have 38 people on date as a zone. So we're doing pretty well. And as a mission we finished with 283 baptisms for the month, which is also a record. And there were 86 baptisms and confirmations that weekend. Another record.

Last Day of February

Everything here is going well. We were able to have our baptism on Saturday. Everything went well with it. He was baptized and confirmed at the baptism. The story I told y'all a few weeks ago about the kids who's dad went apostate and wouldn't let them get baptized is still not over. We sent him a copy of the baptism record on Thursday and received a call from him on Saturday saying that he sent a consent form on Tuesday to the Bishop. So we cleared that hurdle. But the thing is, is that he wants to be at the baptism and the family doesn't want him to, so now we have to wait until they let down their pride. It's kind of funny how they're the ones holding him back from being baptized now. Other than that nothing new has happened. We've been doing everything we can to find new investigators lately. We've found a few spanish people. But they're pretty prideful. And they really love their virgin of Guadalupe. So we haven't been able to get them away from that. So that's always fun. But the work keeps going on. Something I've noticed and seen a lot is pride. I've seen how big of a stubling block it is for everyone. It's what keeps missionaries from reaching their potential. It's what keeps investigators from giving up their past ways. It's what keeps inactive and less active members from coming back to the church. It's what keeps active members complacent with where they're at and reaching their potential. It's so sad to see all the effects that pride has on people. But it's a universal sin and as the scriptures say, either you can humble yourself or God will humble you. It's a pretty scary thought of having God humble me, so I'm working on humbling myself. There was a referral we received a few weeks ago and we finally contacted him on Monday. This guy had been married and now divorced to a member of the church, and used to receive home teachers. But he never got baptized. So we went by him and started talking to him. And he seemed pretty focused on finding out who sent us. He thought it was one of his friends he talks to a lot. But we assured him it wasn't and told him who sent us. And he was surprised and said he hadn't talked to him for a while. We come to find out that earlier in the week, or last week he was diagnosed with cancer. And so we were talking with him and told him it wasn't a coincidence that we showed up that day. And we talked to him for a while he was trying to find out how the answer would feel and all that. He was kind of shut down to it the whole time. Then before we left we offered to give him a blessing. He agreed. We gave him one and after that his countenance changed and he was more receptive to us. So we're planning on visiting him again this week to see how he's doing. It was pretty sweet.

What a Week!

Things here are great. On Valentines day last week we treated ourselves to Tucano's. It's a Brazilian steak place. It was a pretty good day. It's been a good week though. We had a baptism on Saturday of a 15-year-old kid named Dylan. He's the brother of the girl we baptized a few weeks ago. It went great, everything went smoothly. And yesterday we had the baptism of Maddy and Chloe, the 2 girls we've been working with in Randolph. So we spent all of Sunday up in Randolph and Woodruff. We went to a PEC meeting up there and for the first half hour we talked about how the girls basketball team won state in the 1A division. So that was fun talking about sports for a long time... not really. But the baptism was amazing. I think every baptism should be like this one. We had everything set up in the Relief Society room for the baptism. A few minutes before it was scheduled to start we had to switch it to the chapel because there were so many people there. The older girl, Maddy, was so nervous about it all so it was fun watching her be stressed out about it. But everything went smoothly with it as well. The only thing we had to do as missionaries was bear our testimonies. They're such a great family. So we were able to have 3 baptisms this weekend. We've truly been blessed. Follow up on the miracle from last week about the kids whose dad wouldn't let them get baptized. They had their visit and we wrote up a consent form, but he wouldn't sign it because it wasn't the official one from the church. So we're working on getting that done, and hopefully getting it to him as soon as we can. And the other girl we've been working with, Kayla, is struggling. She knows it's true and has felt the Spirit in the lessons, but I think she's afraid of the answer she'll get. But she's keeping most of the commitments, other than praying to know if the things we've taught are true and praying to know if she should get baptized. So that's a little tough, but the Young womens president is helping us out so much. She's answering her questions, encouraging her, and helping her out. So we're hoping to see a miracle with that. This weekend we have a kid preparing to be baptized and confirmed as well. And we're hoping that the other kids dad will let them get baptized this week. So when I write home next week I'll be telling y'all about the two baptisms we had. The work is going along great. I love it. I love this gospel and I know it's true. I know this is the work of the Lord. I love y'all, miss y'all, and pray for y'all. I hope y'all have a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentines day!

Anyways things here are going great. Right now we're down in the valley at the Gateway mall. One of the missionaries has to take a driving test so we had to come down here. I definitely don't miss it too much. I love it out in Coalville. The work is going well. As y'all saw we had a leadership training. So those were a fun couple of days. This weekend I think I've been the most tired and most exhausted in my whole mission. So there's this kid we're working with that's wanted to be baptized for a few years. But his parents are divorced and the dad won't give him permission to get baptized. So we felt like this weekend there was going to be something different. So we went over on Wednesday and had a lesson and the Spirit was really strong. We promised him that if he talked to his dad at the supervised visit it would be different than last time. So we went by Saturday to pump him up and they said the car broke down and they weren't going to go. So we felt a little discourgaed but had him call his dad right there. He called and the dad didn't answer. So we had him call at 6 p.m. The whole time I'm praying my heart out. I think it was one of the most sincere prayers I've prayed during these couple of days. We called them and they said they talked to the dad and he said no. So we figured out all our options and thought about what we could do. Then we called the assistants and President Winn. One of them told us to call the dad, and the other told us not to. So we were kind of confused and kept praying Saturday night. Then Sunday we were seeking revelation in sacrament meeting. We felt like we should call the dad. So we went to a janitors closet and prayed. The Spirit was strong again. We gave him a call and talked and he agreed to talk to the kids about baptism on the next visit and would consider signing the consent form. So it was a pretty big miracle. The baptism we were planning for this past weekend got moved back to this weekend. So we'll be having 3 baptisms this weekend. I'm excited for them. They should be good. I think that's about all that's going on here. Just working hard trying to help everyone come closer to Christ. It's the best thing in the whole world. I love it. And I love learning new things about the gospel everyday.

Happy Birthday, Stacy!

GOOD MORNING! And Happy Birthday to Stacy!


Around here it got pretty cold earlier on in the week. On Tuesday we started off in Evanston, and there were strong winds and it with the wind chill it was around -30 degrees. So we started exchanges and my companion stayed there, I went back to Coalville. It wasn't as bad here. While we were driving it was around 0 degrees. Then we went up to Evanston the next day to end exchanges and the car said it was -18 degrees. So it's been a lot of fun. While we were making our visits on Tuesday, we'd heat the car up right before we got out, ran from the car to the door, then ran back to the car. It was freezing. Monday night, we were able to put those two girls, Maddie and Chloe, on date for baptism and confirmation for the 19th. We were talking to them and committed them to be baptized and they said alright. They said they were nervous/scared about it. So I told them to pray and ask God if it's what he wants them to do and Maddie, the older one, said "I already know the answer." It was amazing. It's actually her birthday today. She's the same age as Stacy. So right now we have 4 people preparing to be baptized and confirmed. All of them are solid and prepared. We have a goal for 5 during this month. We were in a council and theygave us the assignment to give a training to all the leaders of the mission on helping people get married. So we've been preparing that a little bit. We'll be giving it either tomorrow or Wednesday. It'll be good. Our zone is doing great compared to the other zones in the mission. All the zones in the valley (6 of them) all have three districts and around 24 missionaries, we have two districts and there are 16 of us. For the amount of people on date to be baptized and confirmed we have the third most right now. So we're pushing forward. We have over 30 people. I love this work.

Friday night there was a big rivalry game here in town between North Summit and South Summit. North Summit is in Coalville, and South Summit is somewhere in the south mission. So we don't like South Summit because they're in the south mission. But we made plans and they all fell through. So we went out to visit some of the members. But nobody was home. Everybody was at the basketball game. So we called up President Winn and got his permission to go to the game, because we wanted to get some referrals. So we went and talked to the people working the concession stands, and then caught people leaving the game when it was over. It turned out to be pretty productive. Everyone was excited to see us and it got our faces out in the community. We were also able to receive 5 or 6 referrals and set up dinner and correlate with a ward mission leader. All in about 30 minutes. It was great. Well that's about all I can think about going on right now. I just love being in this work and being able to see the changes in the lives of those we're teaching. There's no greater thing to do than proclaim the gospel. As I've been out here my love and understanding for the gospel has gone way up. And I know as y'all continue to study the scriptures, individually and as a family, your love and understanding of it will increase as well.

Almost a Record...

Things here are going well. The month is ending and we have the final baptism count in. We had a goal for 24 baptisms, and a final count of 21. So we came up 3 short of the goal and the record. We're going to be working on it again in February. We have a goal of 31 baptisms. So it should be pretty good. We currently have 30 people on date for baptism. It'll be pretty close. As a companionship we have a goal for 5 baptisms, with 3 people currently on date. We have 2 more that we're hoping to put on tonight. The 2 sisters out in Randolph. The work here is slowing down some, but we're still managing to stay busy. Right now we're still working with some Peruvians that are pretty humble. They're great guys. We were in a lesson with them and some JW's walked in. We were just smiling and talking, they felt awkward and uncomfortable. It was great. We're still working with the brother of the girl that we baptized a few weeks ago. He'll be getting baptized on the 12th. Then on the 19th we have a girl from Randolph. We'll be meeting with her for the 2nd time tonight. Her mom is LA, but supportive of it. And then on the 26th we have a baptism for a boy name Hyrum Yates. He's here on Thursdays and every other weekend. He's ready right now, they just have to wait for grandma. Yesterday was stake conference here. We got up and gave our testimonies. I got up and saw 700 people looking back at me, plus whatever people were at the other building receiving the broadcast. It was a fun time. We ate lunch afterwards with a part member family and one of the high councilmen. We had steak and shrimp. I didn't have anything to complain about. We had transfers last Wednesday. Elder Salisbury left and Elder Byrd came in. He's been out for about a year and is from Boonville, Mississippi. Things are going good. I received my acceptance into BYU this week. So I will be able to go back there. I was pretty worried about it. But it looks like they'll accept me back after I'm done. I haven't messed up too much. Well I'm excited for this upcoming month of February, and can't believe it's already here. Time is flying by, and I'm loving it. I'm kind of scared to go back, but it's part of life.

Zone Visits

Everything here is going great. We had a baptism on Saturday that went well. It was for a 13-year-old girl that has been going to church for a couple of years. It was good. Our trip out to Rock Springs and Green River went well too. It was kind of a long drive, and not the best drive. Wyoming isn't the best looking part of the U.S. Rock Springs isn't too big of a city. Most of the cities in Wyoming have less than 15,000 people. The work is going great in our area. We are working with a family in Randolph. The dad is less active and he has two daughters that haven't been baptized yet. That's the one that I talked to y'all about last week. With the girl that asked the bishop about baptism. The baptism that we were supposed to have next weekend got pushed back. The parents pushed it back to February 26th because the grandma couldn't make time in her schedule for a baptism. So we're going to keep working with him. Another person we are working with is a Peruvian sheepherder name Anibal. He came to church on Sunday. He's very humble and loves to read. So he's excited about reading the Book of Mormon. Things for the zone are looking great. Not as good as we were hoping, but we're still going to beat the record for baptisms in the zone for a month. So that will be exciting. The work is continuing to go forth. On Sunday we gave talks. They were for about 20 minutes. I talked about making Christ a foundation in our lives. And in another sacrament meeting I translated it all for Anibal into spanish using the transmitter. It was a lot of fun. Well that's about it going on right now.

Happy Tuesday!

Good morning!


Well yesterday we couldn't really e-mail because everywhere was shut down for MLK day. So we get to e-mail today.

As for things here, they are still going well. We had a baptism on Saturday which went great. And this Saturday we'll be having another baptism. So we're staying pretty busy. We don't have a baptism for the week after this Saturday though. Not until the 26th of February. So we're going to be working hard to get some more baptisms before then. We should be able to. We're working with a few potentials in Randolph, Utah and a few more here in Coalville. So we'll see what happens there. The work in the area is kind of slowing down a little bit. We're struggling to find new investigators and more people to work with. It's a low populated stake with a lot of members. There's some of the members that are less active or inactive, and not too many non members. We're working with one right now who's going through a divorce and is looking for a church that'll be good for her kids. She has 3 kids, and is working 3 jobs, and going through a custody battle. So she has a lot of stress right now. But she seems somewhat receptive to the gospel. So we're going to be working more with her. Then last night we were in Randolph and teaching this family. The dad is less active and he has two daughters that aren't members. The younger daughter has talked to the bishop to see what she has to do to get baptized. So hopefully we can help her with that a little bit. On Thursday we're going to be going up to Rock Springs and Green River to work a little bit with the missionaries there. It'll be a good trip. I can't believe how fast the past transfer has gone by! Transfers are in a week. It's hard to think that I'll only have 3 more left after this one. This Sunday we spoke in one of the wards here. I planned a talk about prayer and it's importance. But later felt that's not what I needed to talk on and changed it to the Atonement. I think it went alright. With all these talks I've been giving on my mission, they're becoming a lot easier. But I still get nervous every time.

Study the Scriptures

I've been learning a lot doctrinal wise as I've truly studied the scriptures and not just read them. It's been great because it's helped me realize I still have a long way to go, and a lot of things I still need to do.

Things here are going great though. As a zone we have 36 people on date, 31 of those are on date to be baptized in January. So we should be able to pass the record the zone has for baptisms in a month, which is 23. If all goes well we'll have 38 baptisms. That's what we're hoping for. The baptism wasn't able to go through last week, but this week we are having one for sure. It's of an 11-year-old girl. She's been so solid. We were talking with a member and they told us somebody they visit teach has kids and thinks it's time for them to get baptized. So we went over and they'd been going to church for a few weeks and since then we've been working with her. Then this Sunday we went out to Randolph, which is another area we cover that's about a hour and 15 minutes away. We visited a Peruvian that works on one of the farms. And we taught him last week, so we were following up with him. And he told us that he wants to go to church now and that he wants the missionaries to talk to his wife and children in Peru. They live a few blocks away from a church there. He went out and bought a copy of the Book of Mormon in Peru and read half of it and believes it's from God. So now we're working with him to get him baptized. We also visited another family that we got a referral from. It was for a less active family with two unbaptized kids. So we went by and talked with some of the kids, but the dad wasn't there so we said we'd return in a hour. So we went and taught the Peruvian, and came back. The dad was bringing in groceries. So we went in and talked with them all. And as we were talking to them the dad said "I guess you're here to talk to Chloe" and we didn't really know or not. So they tell us she's been talking to the bishop to find out more about the church so she can get baptized. It's been amazing to see the people the Lord has prepared for us. The zone conference went well yesterday. We gave a training on how to develop social skills and communicate better with the investigators, and how to address their problems. It went well. It was good. Learned a few things. It was the zone conference that Sister Winn told the missionary he couldn't earn an award postpartum.