Even the bad days and the doors slammed in my face and the death threats and everything else bad that happens. It's all worth it.

    This past week had its ups and downs but the ups definitely outweigh the downs. We taught quite a few lessons which was awesome. 
     We got a decent amount of snow.  We got a ton on Christmas Day - 13 inches in one night, but haven't gotten a ton since then.  Yesterday it got to be almost 50 so everything started melting but in the morning it was snowing ice balls so the roads are terrible.
    We did lots of service this week.  We helped a guy move and we shoveled driveways.  
     Elder Muse had never seen snow until his mission and loves it but wants to play in it a little too much sometimes!  He had only driven a car twice before his mission so I basically do all the driving which is fine by me.  I did get high centered in the car leaving a lesson but they hadn't shoveled their driveway yet so there was really nothing I could do about that. I was annoyed but we got it out pretty easily.  We did get the lost phone taken care of but never found it.  It's in a field the size of Emerson's (Colton's elementary school) in roughly 15 inches of snow.  (He and Elder Muse were playing in the snow last week and it fell out of Elder Muse's pocket somewhere in the snow.).  
     Since I've been in the same area for so long I really am starting to get to know the people really well and have built some great friendships. Jennie and Jose are two of those people for sure. Jose is definitely at a stand still for when it comes to quitting smoking but he is really trying. He has so much faith and I love that family so much. Jennie is still trying to find her faith but she is awesome too. On Friday, we had a lesson with them and we talked about how sometimes we have to make what may seem like a sacrifice but in all reality the blessings we will receive as a result will make it so worth it. And I've definitely found that to be true on a mission. Ever since I was a little kid I've wanted to serve the Lord for two years but last summer as it was getting closer to leaving I really didn't want to. I didn't know what to expect or what the future held for me. I felt like I was sacrificing so much to come serve a mission but the blessings I've received have easily made it worth it already. I love the people here so much and as I get to help them come closer to Jesus Christ, I myself get closer and closer. I know that God lives and he sent His Son to suffer for our sins. For my sins. I know that only through Him can I be forgiven and saved from physical and spiritual death. I know He loves me and that He loves you too. I know that as you put your faith in Him he will deliver you. He will help you overcome your trial. Maybe not right away but at the right moment. I love the people of Utah that I get to serve on a daily basis. I love that through my efforts families can be brought to the knowledge of how they can be together for eternity. I love everything about serving a mission. Even the bad days and the doors slammed in my face and the death threats and everything else bad that happens. It's all worth it. Like always I thank you all for your prayers for me. Have a great week! (As a mom I did follow up on the death threats comment - he said twice in the last month he was told if he came back to two separate places they would shoot him.  He said they wrote down their address and made sure they will respect that and not go back!). 

Christ is standing there with His arms outstretched waiting for us to come unto Him because He loves us.

As for my week, it was pretty slow. A lot of people we usually teach cancelled because of the holidays so that kinda sucked. But even during slow weeks I have found that they are still good weeks because I am helping others come closer to Christ. One lesson in particular this week that stood out to me was with a girl named Tiffany. She is 17 and she has so much faith. She has been meeting with missionaries for two years without telling her dad and wanting to get baptized. Her dad is basically an atheist and hates all religion but she is not. She finally got permission two weeks ago from him to be baptized which was really exciting. For our lesson with her we read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon about when Jesus Christ comes to the people in America after he has been resurrected. It is one of my favorite chapters ever and some of my favorite verses are from this chapter as well and I'd like to share them. So it is from 3 Nephi 11:14-17 and it says, "14 Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.

15 And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come.

16 And when they had all gone forth and had witnessed for themselves, they did cry out with one accord, saying:

17 Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him." We talked about how cool these verses are. Earlier in the chapter it talks about how there were tens of thousands of people there to witness the coming of Christ and He let each and every single one of them come witness Him for themselves. He didn't just let the prophet or apostles come and feel the prints. He didn't just let the closest hundred, thousand, or even ten thousand. He let everyone. Although none of us have ever seen Christ in this life that same thing is still true for us. Christ is standing there with His arms outstretched waiting for us to come unto Him because He loves us. He wants us to reap the blessings we can get because of all He has done for us. And after we have witnessed him for ourselves and felt the love He has for us personally, we must fall down and worship Him just like the people in the scripture do. And the way we worship Him is being loving others and following God's commandments. Try to follow Jesus's perfect example. Do everything that He did. And when we try our best to love everyone and put others before ourselves, that is when we become the most happy. I've seen that over the last 5-6 months. Everything we do from 9:00 in the morning-9:00 at night is for other people and I've never had so much happiness in my life. I definitely miss home and miss the comforts of my old life. I miss my music, movies, sports, but I would not trade these past few months for anything in the world. It is easily the hardest thing I've ever had to do but easily the most beneficial as well. I love my Savior and brother Jesus Christ. I love His gospel. And I love serving Him. That's all I got for this week. I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years! I know I did. Hope you all have a good week!

We were talking about what we call CPR, or church, prayer, and reading.

    

This week went by almost too fast. I spent all week looking forward to Christmas and now it's already over. Pretty crazy. But it was still a great week! With the holidays we unfortunately had a bunch of people cancel lessons on us but we did have quite a few that happened. 

      One in particular really stood out to me this week. It was with this girl in the new stake we are covering named Tiffany. She is 17 and seems like a super cool girl. She wants to be baptized but her dad was very against it. So she and her friends fasted and prayed the day before she was going to ask and he actually consented so that was cool. She will be getting baptized on January 21. But in our lesson she had four of her guy friends come to support her (her girl friend that usually attends just left for her mission!). We were talking about what we call CPR, or church, prayer, and reading. And it was just really cool to see how literally every person has had a very significant event in their life where they used CPR to help them either strengthen their faith and keep going or to overcome a trial. It was an awesome lesson. 
     We had a really good lesson with Jose too. He is seriously such a great guy. He is willing to do whatever is needed so he can get baptized. He had been smoking about 15 cigarettes a day and in two weeks he has gotten it down to about three. He has such a strong testimony and will to become better and I love teaching him. 
     For Christmas Eve, we had P day from 5-9 and we spent most of that with other missionaries playing games and stuff so that was fun. For Christmas, we went to a beautiful church meeting, came home shoveled the driveway since we got 8 inches of snow Saturday night, ate, and then got to skype our families. It was so nice to be able to see and talk to my family. We spent the rest of the day with some families in our area and ended the night playing monopoly. All in all a great Christmas.
    Probably the greatest gift I got this year though was from our mission president. We had interviews with him on Wednesday and he walked up to me and said "Hey I got you a car. You need one in your area." And then he walked away. We got a brand spanking new 2017 red Toyota RAV4. It had 53 miles on it when we got it and it is fun to drive. First time driving since I left home and man does it feel good. I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year and everyone has a happy new year too! Love you all!

When we focus on God's will for us, we become more like our Savior.

    
 I had a very frustrating, challenging, but still really great week. It has been so hard to try and schedule lessons with people from the other stake that we are now covering. (A stake is an intermediate level in the organizational hierarchy of the LDS Church. The lowest level, consisting of a single congregation, is known as a ward or branch. Stakes are organized from a group of contiguous wards or branches.) It has been hard to try and get a hold of the people who were being taught but I have seen how the Lord has helped Elder Muse and I to accomplish His will for us. I love the Lord and love serving Him. We spent many hours this week walking
from house to house trying to contact these people and with some we had no luck but with others we were able to actually set up some lessons and teach which was awesome. 
     A little about Elder Muse! He is from Houston, Texas and he is a super quiet guy but he is awesome. I love him so much. He is a super hard worker which is always nice to have as a companion. Something really cool about him is that he was only baptized 2 years ago so he really doesn't know very much about our beliefs and the scriptures and it has been extremely humbling to see how even though he has such little gospel knowledge he has been able to truly help others feel the love Heavenly Father has for them through Elder Muse. He's a great guy. 
     Anyways  on Thursday our district leader asked if Elder Muse and I would be willing to do exchanges so we did. Basically we just switch companions for a day and so I spent Thursday night to Friday night with Elder B. Elder B was definitely a challenge. He is super super ADHD. I started my day off Thursday just praying and asking for patience and wow does the Lord really answer prayers. It was actually a really good day and we had a bunch of lessons and they went really well for the most part even if he struggled to stay on topic at times. The Spirit was so strong and I never really got annoyed with him. Even when we were walking through a super cold windy snow storm and all he did was complain for an hour and a half. God definitely answers prayers.
     Jennie and Jose finally made it back from California and we got to visit with them again. Jose has almost quit smoking which is amazing and I'm so excited for the progress they are making even if they couldn't get married yet. He is such an awesome dude. But definitely the highlight of the week was going to Temple Square with Devin and his family who we have been teaching for a while. Wow was it just absolutely gorgeous!  The Christmas lights were beautiful and even
though it was like 20 degrees outside I never really was too cold. The Spirit filled my body with warmth walking on those sacred grounds. It was truly amazing. 
     The coolest part was getting to see the Hales, a family that I knew from Seymour! They went to my church the whole time I lived there and I babysat their three kids for like three years. I love that family so much. I had a really special relationship with their son, Henry who has special needs and it was so cool to be able to see him again. (Henry's mom, Robyn sent me a text of this picture and it completely made our day too.  What a special Christmas blessing for them to meet up!)

We had a really good Sunday too running back and forth from one ward to another but I'm really excited to see how this transfer turns out. Probably the coolest thing I learned this week was the difference between a prayer and a prayer of faith. Why even pray if we don't have the faith that it will be answered. It is a commandment to not take the Lord's name in vain and also not to offer vain repetitious prayers. So in that sense if we are just offering a prayer because that's what we are supposed to do and there is no meaning behind it then we are technically taking the Lord's name in vain. I thought that was very interesting so I'm definitely trying to make my prayers more meaningful. Another really cool thing was that a lot of times we just focus on the fact that Jesus Christ was perfect. But he didn't have to be. He could have sinned and he could have chose to not suffer and die for us but he loves us so much he chose to do that. It was HIS choice. Nobody forced Him to do it. That's why God's plan works. That's why we can be forgiven of our short comings and have our weaknesses turned into strengths through Him. It's because Christ had that choice and He chose us over Himself. But the scripture of the week that really stood out to me is from John 6:38 which says:  "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." Jesus Christ accomplished Heavenly Father's will for Him. Heavenly Father has a will for us to. We may not be perfect like Jesus Christ but we can still accomplish that will and become better and better every day. That's what I'm trying to do. When we focus on God's will for us, we become more like our Savior. That's it for this week! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Continue to look for opportunities to serve!

   

  So we got transfer calls again. Can't believe how fast time is flying by! But I'm going to be staying in Hunter South again and Elder Miller is going to be headed to West Jordan. I'm gonna miss that kid. But unfortunately I won't only be covering Hunter South. I'm also picking up and whitewashing a second stake this transfer so instead of covering 5 wards I will now be covering 11 and over twice the amount of area. ( I had to ask him what whitewashing was - I guess it's when both former missionaries transfer out and you pick up the area with fresh missionaries). It'll be interesting to see how it all works out but I'm excited to see how things work out. 

     My new companion's name is Elder Muse. I don't know much about him except that he has only been serving for one transfer, so the same amount of time as Elder Miller. I'm super excited to work with Elder Muse. 

     As far as the week went, it started off with some really bad news. We got a call on Monday from Jose informing us his father passed away and so that meant their family had to go to California to deal with that which was really sad. It meant they had to postpone their wedding. Then Friday they called me and said they got informed they have a three day eviction notice so please keep them in your prayers. 

     But besides that, it was a really good week. We had four Christmas parties so those are always fun to go to. But we had quite a few lessons this week and we are starting to really make some progress with some people. I'm really excited to see what happens this transfer. 

     On Saturday, we got to go down to temple square with Kinzie, who just got baptized in November, and her parents. It was the first time I had been to temple square in a while and Elder Miller's very first time so it was exciting to take him there. The spirit was so strong and I'm really hoping Kinzie's dad was able to feel it and maybe make a change in him. He is such an awesome guy, he just has no interest in anything related to religion but he loves his family so much and one of the videos focuses on God's plan for families and it is amazing. Hopefully he felt something during that but I guess we will see. 

     That's it for this week! Thanks again for all your prayers. Have a great holiday season and continue to look for opportunities to serve!

I love you all and hope you all look for opportunities to serve those around you who might have less then we are blessed with.

     This week has been a rather good week especially coming off such a weird week as last week. Really the only negative is it is getting so cold and I'm really tired of walking everywhere but I'll just have to get over that since I have a while until I don't have to worry about that anymore. 

     Tuesday this week we had our follow up training meeting for the new missionaries and since Elder Miller is new I went to that and it was actually a really uplifting meeting. Sometimes that meeting gets the bad wrap for new missionaries to gripe about their trainers but that didn't happen which was good. There was really only positive things shared and so that was really cool. 

    On Wednesday, Elder Miller had a meeting with President Palmer and so I got to hangout at the mission office for a little bit and got to decorate the tree which was nice since I didn't get to do that at home. We taught some really good lessons this week. We met with Christopher again and finally had a lesson that actually seemed to have changed his attitude towards everything. He really desires to have physical proof but we were able to use the Spirit to guide our words in a way to motivate him to take the leap of faith and read the Book of Mormon. We had another lesson with Devin that went well and we are excited to get to go to temple square this Saturday with him and his family. We actually are going to be going to temple square twice this Saturday. We are going to also go with Kinzie, who just got baptized, and her parents which will be awesome. 

     In other exciting news, Jennie and Jose decided Friday night that they are going to get married on December 10, this Saturday! We are so excited for them and their desire to come closer to their Savior. Saturday is going to be an amazing day. 

     This past Saturday was an amazing day. We were blessed, as a mission, with the opportunity to be addressed by Elder Rasband of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles as well as Elder Born and Elder Maynes of the seventy. What a beautiful meeting it was. The spirit that entered the chapel as those brethren entered the room was astonishing and indescribable. Probably the thing that stood out to me the most was something Elder Rasband promised us. He challenged us to study only about the Savior and his life until Christmas and that if we did that, that by Christmas, we would know the Savior better, which would lead us to love him more, which would lead us to have a stronger desire and will to serve him. I'm so excited to put that challenge and promise to the test and see the blessings that come from that promise from an Apostle of the Lord. I would like to challenge you all to do the same thing. What a better time of the year to learn about Jesus Christ then Christmas. I hope we can all always remember the true meaning behind Christmas. This is the last week of the transfer, so I'll find out sometime Saturday what will be happening for the next seven weeks. So please don't send me anything after Wednesday! This time I have absolutely zero idea what is going to happen so it should be interesting. I love you all and hope you all look for opportunities to serve those around you who might have less then we are blessed with. Have a great week!

"I quickly earned the nickname Aaron Rodgers so all in all not a bad day"

     This week was really slow. Elder Miller had pink eye so we were stuck inside all day Sunday, all day Monday, and most of the day Tuesday which really stunk. It was the longest three days of my mission so far. We couldn't do anything and had to cancel 5 lessons so that really was hard. And then with Thanksgiving on Thursday we got another day off from missionary work so it was definitely a little different of a week. 
For Thanksgiving we started off our day by playing about four hours of football with a bunch of other missionaries and a huge Polynesian family. I couldn't find cleats and it snowed the night before so I was in my tennis shoes and so I just played quarterback but I quickly earned the nickname Aaron Rodgers so all in all not a bad day. We had Thanksgiving dinner with Jennie and Jose and it was awesome. Food was bomb and it was a good time. We ended our Thanksgiving by hanging out with a bunch of missionaries playing ping pong and other games so that was super fun too. 
   We had a lot of lessons that got cancelled because of the holidays but we had a really cool experience on Saturday. We are teaching a kid named Devin who is interested in being baptized and his mom doesn't go to church anymore and so we were just focusing on teaching him but she said she felt the Spirit so strong when we came over she wants to start coming to church again. It was so cool to see how the Lord used us as his tools to deliver a message not just to Devin, but his mom who was sitting in the other room. I love serving the Lord. I have seen so many miracles in the past four months it is amazing how God uses us to help bring others closer to him. These kind of moments make the hard times and the days where all I want to do is jump on a plane and fly home worth it. God is good all the time. This coming Saturday we get to have a devotional as a mission with Elder Rasband which is super exciting. I'm really looking forward to that. I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! Thanks for your prayers. Love you all!