When we are obedient to the commandments of God then He has no other choice than to bless us and He wants to bless us because He loves us.

This week went by so fast. We got a lot of snow this week which meant we got to spend a lot of time shoveling driveways. On Tuesday, I was on exchanges with Elder Burner and we spent all afternoon shoveling. In total I think we did either 4 or 5 driveways so that was pretty cool. I hate shoveling but I love serving others and seeing how it makes their day. Logan and Bowen also got baptized this Saturday and it was a really special day. I’ve never really seen two kids so excited to get baptized and the spirit was so strong at the service. It was pretty cool. We had Zone Conference this week as well and we talked a lot about the commandments and why God gives us commandments and why He wants us to follow them. They aren’t to restrict us in anyway. Commandments are there to bring us joy and blessings. When we are obedient to the commandments of God then He has no other choice than to bless us and He wants to bless us because He loves us. Blessings bring us happiness. In the scriptures it teaches us that “Wickedness never was happiness” and that’s so true. If you look in the world you’ll notice that most of the people who are unhappy are those who aren’t doing the things that God has asked us to do. I know that if we follow the commandments of God that our lives will be filled with joy. I’m excited to keep working hard these last 5 months to help people find the joy of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope everyone has a great week!

If you are struggling to get along with someone or love someone in your life, serve them.

Well we finally got snow this week. It has been a very mild winter with most days being in the 40s all winter and especially this past week until Sunday and Monday. We got quite a bit of snow and it is supposed to keep snowing on and off for the rest of the week. I was hoping we could just skip winter this year but it decided to just come really late. It was still a really good week though and this week should be a great week too. Logan and Bowen are both going to be getting baptized this coming Saturday and Elder O’Neal and I are both really excited about that. It has been so fun to get to teach and to get to know these kids. They both are just so excited about getting baptized and about reading their scriptures and doing their very best to follow Jesus. After being on my mission for this long and working with so many young kids, I definitely understand why Jesus in the scriptures says to become like a little child to be worthy to enter the kingdom of God. They are so humble and ready and willing to learn. Logan and Bowen are definitely great examples to me. It was a pretty typical week for the most part. We had some lessons and spent a lot of time contacting but Saturday was a really fun day. We got to play basketball in the morning with some people in our area and it was a lot of fun and then we spent the rest of the day doing service. We spent most of the afternoon helping unload a moving truck and there weren’t very many of us there to help and a lot of stuff so it took us a while. When we finished that we went and helped a guy in our area build a gardening box for his wife and we helped dig up some pretty big roots as well. And after we finished that we spent the rest of our night helping the same people from earlier in the day unload a second load in their moving truck. And this time Elder O’Neal and I were the only ones there to help. I definitely slept well that night and woke up pretty sore on Sunday. I’m so thankful for the opportunity I have to get to serve others. I love the people here so much. If you are struggling to get along with someone or love someone in your life, serve them. By serving them you will set aside your pride and your differences and be able to see them the way God sees us and it will completely change the way you look at them. I’ve got to do that for the last 19 months and it has truly changed my life and I’m so grateful for that. Until next week!

Tony got baptized on Saturday and it was such a cool thing to witness.

We got transfer calls this week and found out that Elder O’Neal and i would both be staying together another transfer so I’m super excited for that. I’ve loved getting to serve with him these past 6 weeks and look forward to the next 6 weeks. We had a pretty exciting week. Tony got baptized on Saturday and it was such a cool thing to witness. The Spirit was so strong there and it was pretty evident how excited Tony was to get baptized. I’m so happy for him and for his family. We also had some pretty cool lessons this week. For whatever reason it seemed like all of our lessons this week seemed to be on a lesson we call the Plan of Salvation. I love teaching this lesson. This lesson teaches us about our relationship with our Heavenly Father, where we were before we came to Earth, where we go after we die, and what our purpose is here on Earth. This lesson gives me so much hope. I’m so thankful for the knowledge that I have to know that I’ll be able to see my family and loved ones again even after death. We have a loving Heavenly Father so why would he make it so after our life on Earth there is nothing else? To me that just doesn’t make sense, and I know God loves us and wants all of His children to return and live with him again some day. God is going to do everything He can to help us return and live with him and that is why he sent Jesus Christ to suffer and die for us. Jesus came to help us overcome both physical and spiritual death and it is only possible through Him. I love a scripture that talks about this. It says, “And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.” I’m so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for His suffering and sacrifice for me. 

I feel so blessed to have the knowledge that I have a loving Heavenly Father who was willing to send His son to die for me. That is so powerful!

Week 5 of the transfer was another great week. The Lord was so awesome towards us and we received so many miracles this week. We got 4 new investigators this week which was awesome. When we got to the area we really only had one investigator that was committed to meeting with us and learning and the more time and work we have put into this area the more we are being blessed. We are now up to 8 and have the potential of getting at least 4 more people to teach this week if our lessons don’t fall through. God is so good. First of, Tony is getting baptized this Saturday which is going to be so exciting! I’m pumped for him to take this big step in his relationship with God and it’s a big step for his family too. Hopefully all will go well with that. So I wanted to share a really cool miracle that happened this week. We had a lesson at one of our church buildings with Logan and Bowen, who are both also doing so good, and we walked out of this classroom and this guy says to us, “Hey I think you guys were looking for me.” We had no idea who it was so I was like, “ Ummmm I don’t know, what’s your name?” And so he told us his name and then it clicked. One of the families we are with said that this guy’s family would be really good for us to visit and so we had tried knocking on their door a few times and hadn’t had any luck but I know it wasn’t a coincidence that he happened to be at the same church building as us standing right outside of a classroom we happened to be teaching a lesson in. We set up a lesson with him and his family and will have our first lesson with them this week. That was a really cool miracle. We also had a great first lesson with this kid named, Kohen and I’m excited to keep working with him. He basically came to us and told us he wants to be baptized so that was also pretty cool. God is so so so good. I feel so blessed to have the knowledge that I have a loving Heavenly Father who was willing to send His son to die for me. That is so powerful! It means so much to me and I will always cherish that and hopefully allow that knowledge to lead me to do good. Also I know God is blessing me for serving because the Patriots lost in the Super Bowl! Another blessing! Here is to another good week!

I also got bit by a dog this week. I figured at some point on my mission it would happen I just didn’t know when.

This week, like any week, definitely had its ups and downs. I’ll start with the downs. On Wednesday, my companion and I were running in the morning and I slipped on some ice and sprained my ankle pretty bad and so that definitely wasn’t fun. It wasn’t terrible but for about a day and a half  I couldn’t really put too much pressure on it and so we couldn’t go out and contact and were stuck inside a lot. Not fun. But luckily another missionary gave me his ankle brace to borrow and so starting Thursday night we were able to get out and work again which was really nice. I also got bit by a dog this week. I figured at some point on my mission it would happen I just didn’t know when. Well on Saturday we were walking to go help someone unload a U-Haul truck and this dog came out of nowhere and bit my on the back of my knee and then it ran off. Luckily it wasn’t too bad but still it wasn’t really ideal. But it was still a great week. We got a new investigator, Christopher, who is a really cool guy and I’m excited to keep meeting and working with him. He has struggled a lot with addictions in the past and is working on overcoming them. We had a really good first lesson with him and talked a lot about how Christ can help us overcome our weaknesses and is willing to forgive us of our sins. There is a scripture I love that says, “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” I really love this scripture. Our weaknesses can become our strengths if we humble ourselves and turn to Christ for help. And that’s exactly what Christopher wants to do and hopefully we will be able to help him a little bit. I can definitely testify that this scripture is true. I have truly come to love my Savior and to rely on him so much over the past 18 months. I’m definitely not perfect and still have struggles and fall short but each day I get closer and closer to being the man I know my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I hope y'all have another great week!

I know the Lord is aware of us and puts people in our path to help us and for us to help them. We just have to be ready and willing to act.

Well we had a really awesome week this week. The work in the area is really starting to pick up and the Lord is truly blessing us with so many awesome people who are prepared to be taught and who want to strengthen their relationship with Christ. We have two more investigators who are going to get baptized in February! Their names are Logan and Bowen and they are two awesome kids. One is 10 and the other is 9 but they both love to read their scriptures. Ever since they started meeting with missionaries they read their scriptures every night before bed and it’s awesome to hear them talk about how much they love the scriptures especially from such a young age. We had two very similar miracles happen this week as well. So there were two different nights where we were walking around knocking doors trying to find people to teach and nobody was answering and it was pretty frustrating. It was cold and kinda miserable but we were determined to find someone. The first time, the very last door we knocked was a family we had tried before, the Wares. They let us in and we talked for a while and before we left we shared a scripture about how Christ can help us overcome trials and it led to a 30 minute conversation about Christ and about trials we have in life and it was such an awesome experience. A couple nights later, it was snowing like crazy and I had slipped and fell on ice twice and my pants were soaked and it was miserable. But again we knew there was someone who needed to talk to us and so we kept knocking and knocking. Finally the last door we knocked on answered and let us in again. Funny enough they, the Kelsey’s, are next door neighbors to the Wares. And so we had a really good 45 minute conversation with their family and set up an appointment to come back. It was a pretty awesome way to end the night. I know the Lord is aware of us and puts people in our path to help us and for us to help them. We just have to be ready and willing to act. I hope everyone has a great week! 

I feel so blessed for all the amazing people I have gotten to try and help a little and make a difference in their life. Although it isn’t me, it is Jesus Christ. Without Him, I am nothing and with Him I can do all things and I know that’s true.

We had a really productive week this week. Whenever you whitewash an area (when both missionaries in an area get transferred out and replaced by two new ones) it is a little hard to stay busy because neither of you know anyone in an area so we have been trying to stay busy and to go meet and talk to as many people as we can. We still haven’t necessarily seen a ton of results from our efforts but I know that the Lord is blessing us and the area. We had another great lesson with Tony this week and we talked with him again about where he is at in his relationship with God. He told us last week that he knows he wants to get baptized but he just doesn’t know when and so we had a good heart to heart with him and the Spirit was so strong. At the end of the lesson he told us he wants to get baptized and so it looks as if he will be getting baptized sometime in February so we are really excited for him! Another cool thing we get to do in this area is we get to teach a class called mission prep every Sunday night to high schoolers who are planning on going on a mission. The past two Sundays have been awesome getting to teach them and answer questions they have regarding a mission. And it was really cool to hear myself share some experiences I have had that led to me making the decision to go on a mission and some experiences I’ve had over the past 18 months that have made all the sacrifices I’ve made worth it. I feel so blessed for all the amazing people I have gotten to try and help a little and make a difference in their life. Although it isn’t me, it is Jesus Christ. Without Him, I am nothing and with Him I can do all things and I know that’s true. I’m excited for another week ahead of me!