Teaching people to pray is one of the coolest things ever.

This week definitely had its ups and downs. We had two really cool people we have been teaching who decided they weren't ready to make the commitment to follow Christ yet and wanted a break from meeting with us. So that was really upsetting to hear this week. It's so weird to see how much love that I have for these random people we met all the time. They choose not to meet with us or not get baptized or whatever it is and it makes me so sad for them. Blessing and a curse of missionary work. But there are always way more ups than downs. 
We had another awesome lesson with Ram this week. Since he has no prior knowledge of who God is or who Jesus Christ is and so that is basically what we taught him and it was awesome. He is such a cool dude. At the end of the lesson we asked him to offer the closing prayer and it was so cool. It was the first time he ever prayed and wow the Spirit was so strong and he just gets it. I love teaching people like Ram who just want that direction that comes in life from living the gospel and coming unto Christ. Teaching people to pray is one of the coolest things ever. Ram came to church and loved it and wants to start meeting with us twice a week instead of just once. So that definitely made up for Anthony and Drew dropping us this week. 
Another cool thing that happened this week was the fact that yesterday was Mother's Day! It was really nice to skype home and talk to my family. Pretty crazy two out of my four skypes home are done.Time is really picking up. But something I have come to realize on my mission is how I definitely took my family for granted. I love my family so much and I am so excited to see them when I get home. Family is so important. The scripture I want to share this week has to do with family. The scripture is from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It talks about love that should be within family. It says, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." I love this scripture because it doesn't say love is only there when everything is perfect. Love has to endure and bear all things. No family is perfect. Everyone has their trials but it is how we overcome those trials and grow closer together because of the hard times. That is something that is so important in today's world. A lot of people when faced with trials just crumble and fall but what matters is how we can take the punches and keep going. That's all I have for this week! I hope everyone had a great week and all the mom's had a great Mother's Day! Have a great week!

I just relied completely on Jesus Christ to help get me through it.

This week for me was a pretty weird week but it was a great week. Started the week off with exchanges and it was so much fun. I got to go with Elders Smith and Quinnelly. It was a productive day and we had a blast doing it. I have been serving around both of these guys for a while now and have gotten to know them really well so it was fun to serve with both of them for a day. 
We started teaching a new guy this week named Ram. He is from India so that was definitely different. But he is super cool! He grew up Hindu so he has very little Christian background. By very little all he knows is that Jesus was "assassinated." So lessons should be interesting with him. It's pretty cool to see how much he is wanting to learn and find the right religion for him. 
I'll keep you updated on him. On Thursday, Elder Wilcox and I had MLC, Mission Leadership Council, which is a super long meeting with our mission president and all the other missionaries who are in leadership positions. It was an amazing meeting. It was such a different setting compared to the other large meetings I've gone to on my mission because it truly was just a discussion basically the whole time. We talked about the importance of willful obedience which was really cool. But probably what I got the most out of it was our discussion about trials. Often times trials that come our way lead to us sinning or they come as a result of us sinning. Sin obviously isn't good a thing and so we view trials as negative things when in reality they are the only things that help us grow and improve. If everything was just perfect in life we wouldn't reach our full potential of who we are supposed to become or who we can become. Sin is like separation anxiety from God. All it does is push us away from Him leading us to feel guilt and shame. But sometimes trials just come and it's not because of anything we do. Life just happens. 
As you might have heard, my sister, Ella, didn't have such a good week. My Mom gave me updates on her and asked for me and the other missionaries to pray for her and so that was on my mind this week quite a bit. Nine months ago if this had happened I would have been a mess. I would have been so worried about her and so scared about what might happen it would have been impossible to focus. But that's not what happened this week which was kind of weird. I prayed about it and prayed for her and fasted for her on Friday and I kept feeling like she would be okay and so I didn't really worry about her all that much. I was definitely still worried about her but I knew God was looking out for her. I was still able to focus on missionary work and I just relied completely on Jesus Christ to help get me through it. I knew that Ella was in the Lord's hands and He would take care of her. I could feel my Savior's love for me throughout the week when I would get emails letting me know she wasn't doing so well. Really strengthened my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. The scripture I want to share this week is from 1 Peter 1:7 and it says, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that He loves me and that He loves you too. When we are faced with trials He is begging us to come unto Him rather than turn away from Him and put the blame on Him. Let Him work in your life when the hard times come because they will. Building our faith in Christ doesn't promise that floods won't come. What it does promise is that we will be able to withstand the floods. And I know that to be true. I've seen it the last nine months. That's all I got for this week. Have a great week! Thanks for all of your prayers for Ella. My family and I really appreciate it!

Time is going so fast out here. Gotta make the most of it!

Being a Zone Leader is a lot of extra work I didn't really expect. Basically we get to serve other missionaries who need stuff which is really nice but can be annoying when they don't really need it. We live with what's called the AP's or assistants to the president, as in our mission president. In our mission right now we have less missionaries then we did a couple months ago so we aren't using as many apartments as we were before. So we got to help the AP's close down four apartments this week which took up a lot of our time. But it is always nice to do some service. 
I love my new area! We are teaching some really cool people. It's really fun to basically spend all my time around people my age. We aren't teaching very many people right now but hopefully that will change soon! Another cool thing about the area I'm serving in is I get to cover a college campus. Its Salt Lake Community College but a ton of people go there and it's cool to meet so many different people there everyday. I'm super excited to continue serving here for the rest of the transfer. 
Since we only taught for lessons this week I didn't have really any super cool teaching moments this week but I do have something I'd like to share. There is this guy named Mike that Elders Wilcox (my current companion) and Dolan (Wilcox's last companion) were teaching. He is a super cool guy but has just kinda gotten burnt out from religion. He feels like he has done so much to try to give back to God and because he is like 26 and still hasn't found a wife and doesn't have a great job, among other things, that God doesn't love him. He served a mission like I'm doing right now and after his mission he was a counselor at something called EFY. EFY is a week long summer camp for Mormon kids who are in high school. I love EFY. It's such an amazing and powerful spiritual experience. I went to EFY all four years of high school and it really helped me make the decision to go on a mission. Well, Elder Wilcox showed me a picture of Mike and it turns out I know him. He was a counselor at two of the EFY's I went to. Never mine but I saw him and know him. At one of the EFY's I went to, they pulled all of the boys that were there outside and all the counselors who had served missions basically bore their testimony about their missions and how it changed them. I remember two of those testimonies that really hit home with me and helped me solidify in my mind that I needed to go on a mission. One was my counselor that year, Alex, and the other was Mike. I'm so excited to start teaching and meeting with him and to get to share my testimony with him that this is all worth it. So that was something cool from this week. 
The scripture I want to share is a great one. It is found in the scriptures a lot but it is one of my favorites. This one is taken from Enos 1:15. It says, "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it." That is such a cool promise. When we have a question if we pray and ask God in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, we will receive that answer power of the Holy Ghost. So I want to invite you to think about questions that you have that need answered and then to go to prayer and ask God that very specific question and I can promise you that you'll get an answer. That's one of the many reasons we have the gift of prayer. Weird thinking it is already May. Time is going so fast out here. Gotta make the most of it! I hope everyone has a great week!

Sometimes God asks us to do hard things but if we trust in Him and rely on Him and just do it, it'll be worth it.

   
  So transfer news! Elder Ledbetter and I will no longer be companions. We were both glad to hear that so that we can be better friends. This transfer serving with him was a blast and I learned a lot from him. Definitely bitter sweet. 
     So I found out I'm going to be leaving the area (kinda) and will be covering Taylorsville YSA. YSA means young single adults so 18-30 year olds will be all I'm teaching and working with so that'll be different. I'll be with Elder Wilcox and I'm super excited. We are going to be zone leaders so that was a surprise but I'm really excited. It should be a lot of fun! I'll be over 40 missionaries so that's a big change from 12 but I'm excited! I'll send our transfer board in this email so you can kinda get a picture of what I mean. 
     Elder Ledbetter will be serving with Elder Miller one of my former companions so I'm excited for him. This week was a great week to end my time with Elder Ledbetter. We had some really cool experiences and lessons with people. We invited both Marcus and Jackson to be baptized this week and they both accepted which was awesome. Super cool kids. There were definitely two major highlights though. On Saturday, CJ got baptized which was really cool. He gave the opening Prayer and it was the sweetest thing ever. I've never seen someone so happy to be baptized in my entire life. He was smiling from ear to ear. Really cool day. 
     On Sunday, we had a musical devotional that was put on by our mission. Elder Ledbetter is one of the missionaries in charge of running it so I got to help set up for it basically all afternoon Sunday. The devotional was amazing. We always have a Polynesian choir sing at it and they are phenomenal. The spirit was so strong there I was crying. It was really cool. The devotional was centered around Easter and Jesus's atonement for us. No better way to end a transfer then celebrating what Jesus Christ did for us with music. I wish you all could have been there. Words can't really describe what it was like. Really cool night. 
     The scripture I want to share this week says, "I am Jesus Christ I came by the will of the Father and I do his will." This scripture is probably my favorite right now. Jesus Christ died for us on the cross because he wanted to complete God's will for Him. He did it because He loves God and He loves us. He didn't want to do it because He thought He might enjoy it or it might be fun, but He knew He had to do it. It's the same for us. Sometimes God asks us to do hard things but if we trust in Him and rely on Him and just do it, it'll be worth it. I've seen it countless times these past 9 months. Pretty incredible. That's about all I got for this week. It's been a great transfer but I'm excited for the big change! It'll be fun. I hope you all have a great week!

Also I thought you might be interested in how our mission does transfers. With everyone having iPads (android tablets for the ones who have been out for 4 months or less) it's really easy to stay in contact with other missionaries with iMessage and stuff. So they call everyone and tell them their transfers on Saturday morning and then then they email the Zone Leader the transfer board and the Zone Leaders send it to the district leaders who sends it to their districts. So by 10:30 everybody knows where everybody is going. It's pretty cool. So here is what our transfer board looks like. Also last night I was talking to Elder Tyler (my trainer) at the musical fireside and our mission president came up to us and started talking to us and was joking about what was God thinking making us Zone Leaders (Tyler just became a Zone Leader too). But then he told us that for most of the process on working on transfers Tyler and I were supposed to whitewash into being Zone Leaders together. But then at my Zone leader's baptism two weeks ago I got to present the 4 minute restoration with Elder Wilcox, who was already a Zone Leader, because his companion, Elder Dolan, was performing the baptism. We present the restoration lesson in four minutes while the person baptizing and being baptized are changing after their baptism. After the baptism, our mission president came up to Elder Wilcox and I and told us that he couldn't believe how well we taught together and how natural it was. So that's apparently why he put Wilcox and I together. Pretty crazy!

There is nothing more humbling then kneeling down and confessing our weaknesses and pleading for help to God.

I had a really cool week. First off, we found this 15 year old kid to teach named Marcus and he is super cool. He's one of those kids who tries to act like they are too cool for school but really they aren't. He is a super sincere kid. We had an awesome lesson with him. He told us about this experience he had recently where he finally realized that Jesus Christ is real and is really there. That's what led to us teaching him. He said basically he just woke up one morning and was laying in bed and just felt like Jesus was there and He loved him. So I asked him how that made him feel and he responded with "I don't know I was still tired." Really funny kid. I'm excited to keep teaching him. On Thursday we had something called Mission Tour. Basically one of the leaders of our church comes and visits all the missionaries in the mission and speaks to them. It was super powerful. So the guy who came and spake to us, his name is Elder Christensen and he used to play football for BYU. He is a big dude. Super cool guy. He shared lots of cool thing but I want to share just a couple of them. First he said, that sometimes we want to improve ourselves and we don't know where to start. So we don't really know the question we need to ask God. So instead ask God what is it that I need to improve on? What can I be better at? What are my weaknesses? Questions like that. And then answers will come and more questions will come and then you can go to work. Really cool idea. Another was how we need to be humble. In order to become humble, we have to become less prideful. And the antidote for pride is prayer. I love this so much. There is nothing more humbling then kneeling down and confessing our weaknesses and pleading for help to God. Another really cool idea. Also another thing I want to share is from my training I prepared for my district meeting this week. I taught from a chapter in a book we use a lot called Preach My Gospel. I focused on chapter 6, which is my favorite, which talks about developing Christlike attributes. I came to realize how much they are connected. When we increase in one, all the others increase naturally. So when we strengthen our faith, we naturally have more hope and more charity and more patience. When we gain more knowledge, our faith increases and when our faith increases it makes us want to be more obedient to God's commandments. It was an awesome training and a really cool discussion that I got to lead. I learned a lot this week. With yesterday being Easter, I hope you got the chance to think about Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for you. I spent a lot of time in the scriptures and thinking about my Savior. Church was amazing today. The spirit was so strong. I hope you had an awesome Easter Sunday as well. The scripture I want to share this week is about Easter and is from 1 Corinthians 15:21-22. It says, "21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Basically what it is saying is that because of Christ we will all be resurrected again some day. Because of Christ's atonement we can overcome both our spiritual death and suffering as well as our physical death and suffering. That's what makes His atonement the greatest gift. I hope everyone had an amazing Easter! Until next week!

With this Sunday being Easter, I'd like to personally invite you all to remember Jesus more this week in everything you do.

   I had a pretty good week. Nothing too crazy or unexpected happened this week. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Quinnelly this week and that was a blast. It's always nice to get a little break from your companion, no matter how much you love them and get along with them. Elder Quinnelly is super cool and we have gotten really close this transfer so it was super fun to spend a day with him and have a good time. We have basically all the same interests so it was fun to talk about that as well. 
     As far as cool stuff that happened in lessons this week, I had my first lesson with this 9 year old boy named Taz. We taught him once but I was on exchanges so it was my first time meeting him. We talked about the Plan of Salvation, or God's plan for us. At the end we had him try to teach it back to us to see how well he retained it and it was super cool to see him do it just about perfect. He's a super smart kid. At the end we asked him if he had any questions for us and he started to cry and basically asked what's going to happen to his dad. His parents are divorced and his dad isn't making good choices and it was really sad to see Taz so upset. We assured him that he has nothing to worry about and that God would take care of it and it will all work out. As we were leaving he came up to me and gave me a huge hug and it made me so happy.
     It's moments like that, that make giving up two years to come here to serve the Lord so worth it. Bringing hope and love and happiness to people's life through the gospel of Jesus Christ is easily the most fulfilling thing I've ever done. I've come to realize that people are going to fail us here on earth. At home, I used to rely so much on other people for my own happiness. But ultimately unless your faith is built on Christ, you'll never truly be happy. Or at least as happy as you can be. Jesus Christ loves us so much he was willing to live, die, and live again for us. He did that so we can all live again. If that doesn't bring you peace and joy, I don't know what else can. With this Sunday being Easter, I'd like to personally invite you all to remember Jesus more this week in everything you do. Be more thankful for the gift He has given you. Be more thankful for the sacrifice that He made for you. He loves you. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I love serving Him. 
     The scripture I want to share this week is from John 3:16-17. Very popular verse but it's so true and so great. It says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." Great scripture to remember as we head into Easter weekend. Always remember to give thanks to God for the sacrifice of His son, and our brother, Jesus Christ. Hope you all have a great week!

It was a great day and a cool learning opportunity for me to realize just how important it is to take life slow and help those who are in need.

    For P-Day this week the missionaries got to go hiking again.  Here are some of the pictures he sent us:

     This week was an amazing uplifting week. Especially with it being general conference! What is General Conference? I was lucky enough to get to go to sessions on both Saturday morning and afternoon as well as Sunday morning. I got so much out of conference and got a lot of cool promises and answers to questions that I had. Some things that specifically stood out to me was how much the Apostles especially expressed their love to President Monson. It was just a little thing but I thought it was really cool and goes to show how great of a man he is and how great of a prophet he is as well.
      Another thing that really stood out to me was how often the Holy Ghost was mentioned. Specifically responding to promptings from the Spirit. We must respond quickly and to the first prompting we receive from the Spirit. We tend to overthink things and I know I'm a victim of that as well. Conference was amazing and there were so many other cool things talked about that I wish I could share but this email would be a book if I wrote all the impressions I got over the weekend.
     I do want to share a cool experience I had this week. I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders this week and so I was with Elder Dolan. He goes home in three weeks so it was cool to talk to him about all I have to look forward to the next 16 months. But as we were driving through an apartment complex we saw three kids cleaning up flour from the road. So we stopped to help them and one of them ran off and told her mom. The Mom then asked us if we could help them move. So we spent the next three hours helping this family of 14 move out of this tiny apartment. It was crazy. Half of them were moving back to Georgia and the other half back to Louisiana. It was an adventure to say the least. But after we helped them for three hours we were able to share a message about Jesus Christ with them. The husband's mom had just come into town to help with the move and was only going to be in Utah for one day and it happened to be a day where she met missionaries and she told us she wanted to learn more so we were able to send her information to missionaries in Georgia which was so exciting. The family was so funny too. The lady who was there for one day was getting what she called "Baptist Excited" when we started talking about Jesus. It was a great day and a cool learning opportunity for me to realize just how important it is to take life slow and help those who are in need. The Lord is ready and willing to use us as tools we just have to be prepared. That's all I have for this week. I hope everyone who got to watch Conference enjoyed it and got something out of it. Have a great week!