Last gallon of milk- this one expires after I’m home

I can’t believe it but I’m down to only two weeks left! It’s kinda scary to think about but also really exciting. Elder Whittaker and I had a really good week. God was really good to us. On Monday night, we were headed home and came across the aftermath of a really really bad car accident. We decided to get out and see if we could help because it literally happened maybe 20-30 seconds before we got there. A kid ran a red light and t-boned a car on the driver side. The lady who got hit was in pretty bad shape and her husband was pretty frantic and so there wasn’t a whole lot we could do but we offered to give a blessing and so they had us wait at the scene and then we met them at the ER to give them both a blessing. It was a really cool experience because we didn’t know these people at all. But God led us there so we could help and thankfully He was watching over them because they should have been worse of then they were. I also have been really praying for some more people to teach. Our teaching pool has shrunk considerably and I really want to be able to finish strong and keep teaching. So we had dinner with this family whose daughter’s boyfriend came and he is interested in meeting with us. His name is Simon and way cool and so we are going to start working with him so that was a huge answer to my prayer. Unfortunately he will be going to Mexico for two weeks and won’t be back until after I’m home so I won’t get to but it was still a huge blessing. I got to speak in one of our wards this week and talked about strengthening our conversion to Christ. I have come to realize the more I have focused on others the more I’ve become converted to Christ which really makes sense if you think about it. When Christ was here everything he did was for others, never himself. I strive everyday to be more like my Savior. Thanks for all your prayers! I hope everyone has a great week!

Some other highlights were Saturday we got to do service basically all day.

 Well this was a short 4 day week so my email will be a little bit shorter this week. But those 4 days were crazy busy! We had Zone Conference on Thursday which means I’m now officially done with Zone Conferences. I’m really going to miss those meetings meeting together and being able to learn from a bunch of different missionaries. I also got to meet our new mission President, President McBeth. He seems like
a really awesome guy who is really close to God. I wish I had more time to get to know him but that’s part of it. At your last Zone Conference all the missionaries going home get to give their “departing testimony.” I got to do that and that was a pretty crazy experience. I still remember my first Zone Conference and thinking
that I was never going home and now all of a sudden it is here. It was really cool to be able to reflect on my mission and think about how good God is and share my testimony on how I’ve gotten closer to God.
Some other highlights were Saturday we got to do service basically all day. Some random guy we met a few days earlier said he was moving and would need some help and so we helped him almost all day. It was
really hot but I’m going to miss being able to do things like that all the time. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue serving people when I get home. We also started teaching a new family, the Woods! They just
moved here from Vegas and are a super cool family. We were able just get to know them a little bit better and they want us to help them straighten their relationship with Christ so I’m looking forward to
working with them over the next few weeks. I hope everyone had a good 4th of July and has a good week!

I have found that the happiest people I’ve taught and met over the last 2 years are those who let Christ into their life the most.

Another week in the books! We had a really awesome week. It was a longer week because our Pday got moved to the 4th but it still went by so fast. First off, Elaina got baptized last Friday and it was so awesome. It was very easy to tell that she was happy and excited about the decision she made. She has changed so much over the course of the last few weeks that we have been meeting with her. There is just a different light about her and she is so much happier. I have found
that the happiest people I’ve taught and met over the last 2 years are those who let Christ into their life the most. That’s something I’m still trying to work on but I feel much happier than I did when I left. We also got to go to the temple with Jenn who got baptized about
a month ago. It was really cool to go with her since it was her first time and to experience that with her and her boyfriend, Nathan. I love going to the temple so much. I also got to go to the temple on Saturday as well. I have some family that live really close to where
I’m serving and so I’ve seen them a couple of times. One of my cousins is about to leave on his two year mission to Samoa the week after I get home. Something we do before our missions is to go through the temple and receive what we call an endowment. It’s an awesome experience and really we just learn more about what God’s plan for us is. Well on Saturday my cousin was receiving his endowment and I got to go with him as well as some other cousins and my aunt and uncle and it was a really special experience. Now that I’m at the end I can
really look back and see why God has sent me to the west side of Salt Lake City, Utah. At first I wasn’t sure at all why I was sent here and how I would be able to help others but God has helped me so much and
I’ve been blessed with so many amazing opportunities to serve and bless the lives of other people and I’m so grateful for that. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and has a great week!

I am so thankful that I’ve gotten to learn from both of them.

Another week in the books! Pretty nuts. This week went by so fast. It seemed like everyday we had only two or three things on our schedule but they took basically all day so it made the week go by really fast. We got to do some service this week which is always nice. Elder Whittaker and I and some other guys helped this older lady dig a ditch. She runs a small farm all by herself and she is about 75 years old. It was pretty cool to be able to help her out with something that will make her life easier. We also got to help out at a camp for 11 year old boys who are involved in Boy Scouts. We got to teach them about missions and what it is that we do and how they can help people get closer to Jesus Christ. It was also a really awesome experience to get to try to influence the lives of those 11 year old boys. One of the wards we cover had a neighborhood fish fry so that was pretty awesome to go to. They had some halibut, salmon, and rockfish from Alaska and it was so good. We of course had some really good lessons this week as well. The one that stood out to me the most this week was with this couple named Steve and Crystal. They actually cancelled our scheduled lesson but called us at about 9:30 on Sunday night and asked if we could come over and give them a blessing. 9:30 is past our curfew but we couldn’t tell them no and we couldn’t find anyone else and so we went and briefly visited with them and read from the scriptures and then gave them each a blessing of comfort. It was really cool to be able to do that and to tell them things that obviously touched them. I could really feel the Lord helping me to know what to say to bring peace into their lives. God is so good. This week is the last week that I’ll have President and Sister Palmer as my mission president and wife. I’m definitely really sad about that but I am so thankful that I’ve gotten to learn from both of them. I’m also excited to learn my last 4 weeks or so from my new mission president and wife, President and Sister McBeth. What’s cool is nothing really changes. We keep doing the same things and go out and work hard everyday. Here is to another good week!

I know that God loves all of His children no matter what color they are, where they are from, or what they are doing in life.

Transfer calls came this week and so I found out I will be finishing out my mission in the same area with the same companion, Elder Whittaker. I’m super excited to keep serving with him and to be able to continue working with the people we have been working with. This was a pretty awesome week. We had two baptisms this past weekend, Sydney and Jon. Sydney is a 10 year old girl who we have been working with for a while. Her baptism was so awesome. Most of her family isn’t super religious except for her mom so it was cool to see them come and support her. I could tell that they were touched by the spirit that was present there. Jon is in our young single adult ward and he is just awesome. He is in his mid-20’s and has really changed his life so much in the past year. A year ago he was addicted to drugs and alcohol and now he is free from both of those addictions and has found Christ in his life. It was such a blessing to be able to be apart of both of their baptisms and conversion processes. I know that God loves all of His children no matter what color they are, where they are from, or what they are doing in life. I wanted to share something briefly from what I studied this week. I was studying about the correlation between faith and repentance. And so I was reading about a guy named Enos in the scriptures and wanted to share a few of those verses. It says: 

“4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

5 And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.

6 And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away.

7 And I said: Lord, how is it done?

8 And he said unto me: Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore, go to, thy faith hath made thee whole.”

I thought that was really cool. Enos prayed and prayed and repented and wanted to be forgiven of his sins. Although that was necessary and important that’s not why he was forgiven. It was because of the faith that he has in Christ. The action of repentance is a way of showing our faith but if we just pray and ask God to forgive us without any meaning behind it or without believing He will forgive us, He can’t forgive us. It is so crucial that we develop our faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. I know that’s true. I hope y’all have an awesome week!

Something that has really been on my mind a lot lately is how well God knows us and our needs.

Somehow it is the the last week of another transfer. I have interviews with my mission president tomorrow so maybe he will give me some hints about where I might be next transfer but if not I’ll get the call on Saturday! I’m excited to see what this next transfer has in store for me. This week was a good week. We got to go to the Jordan River Temple Open House one last time before they dedicate it which was pretty special. We went with Tucker and his family. Tucker also came to church on Sunday for the first time and he was really excited about being there. We went to the church beef ranch and fixed fences for several hours and that was cool. So it was a good week. Something that has really been on my mind a lot lately is how well God knows us and our needs. I know that God is aware of us. Sometimes we need someone to reach out to us when we are going through a hard time and sometimes we are the ones who need to reach out to help someone else. We don’t know what people are going through. We don’t know where their mind is at. But God does and He loves all of us and so he will help us know to reach out and what to say to someone if they are struggling. Sometimes bad things happen. That’s life. We should never let the bad things that go on in our life define us. Every challenge we face or obstacle that comes our way can be used to propel us to new heights. I know for me it is natural to act tough and like I’m doing well even if sometimes things aren’t good at all. We can’t be afraid to be weak. Recognizing our weaknesses will only help us defeat them. Mental health is important and should be treated just as seriously, if not more, as our physical health. And speaking from personal experience as someone who has battled depression at times and has definitely battled a lack of self-esteem, I know the best way to overcome that is to ask God for help, as well as some close friends and family. God made you to be you and you are good enough. If you’re good enough for God you should be good enough for yourself.

If you feel prompted to reach out to someone or stop and talk to a stranger, do it! It can make the biggest difference in someone’s day and often times their life.

This week went by really fast even though it was a bit of a longer week because our Pday got moved to today instead of yesterday. It was a good week though! The work is really picking up. We had some pretty cool miracles. Last Sunday, our landlord asked us if we could teach her Sunday school class while they were out of town. We were teaching about the importance of having a testimony and how to gain a testimony. The lesson went pretty well but the miracle that came from that lesson was so cool. There was a girl there who had just recently started coming to church but felt really nervous being there because she felt like her testimony wasn’t strong enough. So the lesson was perfect for her. She approached us afterwards and asked if we could start meeting with her and so we had our first lesson with her on Thursday and she told us she wants to get baptized so it was just overall a really cool experience. God is so good. Another cool miracle also happened on Thursday. We were trying to come up with something to do for the last 30 minutes of our night and we felt like we should go to the institute building, which is just a building where they have religious classes and activities for college aged kids. So we went and were just walking around and I felt a really strong prompting to stop and talk to this kid. There were a bunch of high schoolers there playing ping pong and pool but he was just standing outside the room by himself and so I went up and introduced myself and started talking to him. After about 10 minutes of talking to him it was very obvious he was struggling and just needed to talk to someone and God blessed me with the opportunity to be the one to talk to him. If you feel prompted to reach out to someone or stop and talk to a stranger, do it! It can make the biggest difference in someone’s day and often times their life. God uses us to help strengthen and uplift all His children. Pretty cool if you think about it. I know God loves us and is going to help us overcome our trials if we let him and we can be a source of hope and happiness if we follow those promptings we receive. It’s pretty weird to think I only have 8 weeks left. This has been my life for the past two years but I’m excited to come home and I’m excited to finish strong! Until next week!