Getting to spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week devoted to serving God has been just an amazing experience.

Colton fell for the quarter tracing prank....:)

I had a super good week. The Lord is really blessing this area so much right now. We have so many amazing people we are teaching just falling into our lap. This week we got a text from a member telling us about a 13 year old girl that has been coming to church for a few months and about how she wants to get baptized. So we went to her home to meet her and to talk to her about setting up lessons and she is just awesome. She told us she wants to get baptized as soon a she can so we put her on date for September 23rd. We had our first lesson with her the next day and she is just so excited to learn more and to strengthen her relationship with Christ. She told us she has been going to the temple with her friends and just waiting in the waiting room while they are in the temple. So that was a pretty cool miracle that happened this week. We had a really fun lesson with this 9 year old boy named Myles and his family. Myles is pretty hilarious and so during the lesson he kept assuring us that he met Jesus Christ when he was on the earth and that he has lived for over 2,000 years. It was pretty funny but he is a really sweet kid and is going to get baptized in October. We had another really good lesson this week with Paige and also with the Browns. The work is just really progressing and we are seeing a lot of success right now. 
I've seen so many blessings over the past 13-14 months of being on a mission. I love the people here so much and I love getting to serve them. This week we got to spend four hours shoveling top soil into wheelbarrows and dumping them and spreading the top soil over someone's yard for them. I had never even met the guy but he needed help so we helped him. Getting to spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week devoted to serving God has been just an amazing experience. I've truly come to understand the gospel of Christ and how important it is to follow Christ in our lives. All it does is bring us true happiness. It replaces temporary pleasure with true lasting happiness. I hope everyone has a good week!

I love this area so much already. There are some pretty awesome people out here.

Well my first week in Stansbury was very different then serving in West Valley. Colton was transferred and moved to a new area. West Valley is much more of a city life whereas Stansbury is kinda in the boonies and much, much more laid back. Nobody is home from 9-5 because they are all working in Salt Lake but I love this area so much already. There are some pretty awesome people out here. 
We had a very successful week teaching wise. We had quite a few lessons and found two new investigators and put three new people on date for baptism. I still don't know a ton of the people we are teaching yet very well but we did have a really cool thing happen this last week. So my last week in Taylorsville this girl named Paige came to church and turns out she was actually from Stansbury and was coming to church all the way in Taylorsville which is easily an hour drive. So I introduced myself to her and then Elder Smith and I had a lesson with her on Wednesday this past week in Stansbury and she came to church here this past week. So that was pretty cool. Also I found out my cousin goes to one of the wards I cover so he walked in and we started talking and stuff and he invited me and Smith over for dinner so we went. Pretty funny it just happened to be my cousin, Brittany's birthday so my whole family was basically there which was pretty awesome. I got to see Kyrie, and my grandparents and a ton of cousins so it was a really good day. Kyrie flew in on Saturday and was spending the weekend with her grandparents.  They stopped by for the family birthday dinner and were super surprised to see Elder Potter there! It made me smile to think that they had that little bit of time where their paths crossed again. It ended a really good first week in Stansbury. I hope everyone had a great week and a great Labor Day! Love y'all!

I have seen it countless times where people are ready to give up but try one last time and then Jesus steps in and helps them see just how much He is there ready and waiting to help them in their life.

My week was again a week full of ups and downs. But the ups always seem to outweigh the downs which is nice. God's pretty great. We had a couple really good lessons this week though. We met with Valentin and he is still doing awesome since his baptism last week. We were supposed to go to the temple with him on Saturday but he had to cancel pretty last minute so that kinda sucked. But we got someone new to teach this week! Her name is Andrea and she seems like she will be interesting to teach. She's kind of different in a lot of ways but that's what is so great about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is literally for everyone. Different isn't bad at all because we are all the same in Christ. He puts us all on equal ground. She came to church this past Sunday and loved it so we will be teaching her starting this week. Church yesterday was honestly something I really needed this week. I think everyone has a week where they just aren't all in it for some reason or another but I was out of it for a portion of the week and just couldn't seem to get out of it but we had a pretty awesome church service that got me out of it. Both Ram and Andrew were asked to speak to share their conversion stories and to share their testimonies and it was so powerful. It was really cool to hear their conversion stories from themselves and to hear them talk about how I was apart of it and helping them come closer to Jesus Christ. For some reason I just needed to hear that and it was pretty awesome. We also got to go to temple square a couple of times this week and they were some pretty spiritual experiences for the people we took there. I just want to bear my testimony to y'all that Jesus Christ lives and loves you. He is aware of you and of your needs. I have seen it countless times where people are ready to give up but try one last time and then Jesus steps in and helps them see just how much He is there ready and waiting to help them in their life. It's pretty cool to witness and to be apart of it all. I hope everyone has a great week and enjoyed the eclipse today! Remember God loves you all! 

It's hard to make changes in our life but when we make the decision to follow Christ it is always worth it.

So this week was a pretty hectic week. We had a lot of things going on and not so much time to get them done. But the week turned out pretty awesome. Both Dalton and Valentin got baptized on Saturday which was really special. Baptisms are seriously the most rewarding things ever. As a missionary, I spend a lot of time thinking about and praying for people to make the changes in their life to come unto Christ. We spend basically all day doing what we can to help people take those necessary steps and helping them anyway we can. At the end of the day I'm always dead tired and just mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. But when the time comes around for someone we have been working with to get baptized it makes it all worth it. And the same goes for the people we teach. They all have to make changes in their life to "take up the cross" and follow Christ. It's hard to make changes in our life but when we make the decision to follow Christ it is always worth it. It'll never be easy but it'll always be worth it. One of my favorite quotes is to "choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong." That is so true. It's always easier to do what is wrong. But doing what is right is always the most rewarding because it brings us true happiness. We are already coming up on the end of the transfer which is crazy. My very first companion, Elder Tyler, goes home at the end of this transfer which will be really weird. He will be my first companion I've had to go home which means I'm starting to get closer and closer to when I go home. This week should be another good one. We have a lot of temple Square lessons set up. It is always pretty refreshing to go downtown and just feel of the spirit that is present there. That's all I have for this week. I hope everyone has a great week. Love and miss you all!

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Potter!

Colton had the good fortune of his birthday falling on P-Day.  So he was able to fit in some golfing and taken to both lunch and dinner to celebrate.  But we didn't get an official update. He said it was a fantastic birthday.

I just can't stress enough to anyone the importance of trusting God. He truly loves you and wants what is best for you and it is so important we never forget that.

     
What a crazy, awesome week. First, we got transfer calls and Elder Greer and I will both be staying in the same area again so we are super excited about that. We have a lot of fun together and a lot of good work going right now. We also have birthdays the same week and will get to celebrate them as companions this transfer. We also got to celebrate our last birthday as companions so that doesn't happen very often. But this week was a great week. 
      On Tuesday, I got to go with one of my old companions, Elder Muse, to the temple with Amanda, someone we taught. It was such a special experience. She and her whole family had changed so much over the past 9 months since I started teaching her. On Friday we got to go to the temple with Ram to do baptisms for the dead and did the same thing on Saturday with Andrew. I'm sure that probably sounds a little weird so if you have questions about it, ask and I'll explain. What are baptisms for the dead?
     We also put our investigator from Chile on date for baptism for August 5 so that'll be exciting. He is a professional table tennis player and we got to play him before church yesterday and he absolutely destroyed us. He's a super cool guy. 
     Something that I learned this week has to do with God's Plan. Sometimes, we as God's children, think we know what's best for us and what our plan needs to be. We sometimes forget that God knows best. I know I've had some struggles in life where I looked to God and asked why he was putting me through that trial or if he was even there. Looking back on my life from where I am now it is so easy to see just how much He has been involved in my every day life and how He has used me to help fulfill His plan. I just can't stress enough to anyone the importance of trusting God. He truly loves you and wants what is best for you and it is so important we never forget that. That's all I have for the week. Hope you all have a great week!

I had probably the best week of my whole mission so far.

Elder Potter and his good friend Logan

He did get very sunburned at a baseball game last P-Day.

4th of July P-Day Fun

Watching the Bees

I had probably the best week of my whole mission so far. Seriously everything that seemed to happen was something good. Andrew and Ram were so prepared for their baptisms and their services were so awesome. The spirit was very strong there and you could tell Heavenly Father was happy with the choices they were making to follow Him. They got confirmed  (What is Confirmation?) on Sunday and Ram asked me to be the one to do that for him so that was a really cool experience. I also found out about a recently reactivated lady, Amanda, I taught a while ago is going to the temple for the first time tomorrow so I get to go with her and I'm so excited. She has come so far since I met her in November. On Saturday night we had a really great Temple Square lesson with a cool guy named Tre that we are teaching and his girlfriend. They really opened up to us and we have built a super good relationship with them and they want to start going to Temple Square with us weekly. So that'll be really fun. We ended the week by going to a recent convert/returning member devotional put on by some missionaries. Andrew was asked to speak at it and did an awesome job. It was pretty emotional. I was also asked to sing at it so that was pretty cool. It was a pretty awesome week. This is already the last week of the transfer so transfer calls are coming up. I'm not sure what will happen with me so we will have to see! Hope everyone has an awesome week!