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.