1/29/2018 Week 13: I Nearly Died

HA, just kidding. I made you look at the email so now you have to read it. Why would I talk about that in this email, my mom reads these, come on. This week was pretty swell. Good things in motion. I get the smart phone tomorrow so now I don't need to care about the dinky little smart phone that nearly caused hypothermia and mental breakdowns multiple times. Not really. I was admittedly very stressed out at the start of the week because I was set with many things on my shoulders at once I felt. So of course we had transfers and I stayed and got a new companion, that's tolerable. The problem occurred when I learned that my previous companion took has bus pass with him to his next area so that made it hard to get around especially because we needed to somehow get to the church building and we can't walk because it is, 1. outside of our area, and 2. a couple hour walk. And we couldn't get a ride. So I contacted my companion and told him to send it back to us. Then there is the fact that I am leading the area so I plan everything until my companion now is up to date with everything. Then we have members of our ward to care about and also investigators. And our plans which all fell through. And we were riding bikes and my bike does not have any shocks or anything to absorb any bumps, they rarely repair roads here so its a lot. Thankfully the next day was a lot better. I was actually very depressed from everything that has happened to the point that it showed and thankfully that all change with some great news. Like finding new people, having a new senior missionary in the area who can give us ride anywhere, not riding bikes, and another thing that I will explain in a minute. But everything was lifted of me and I know it is because of the fact that even in time where I was struggling even for a moment, I kept my faith and was rewarded for it. Now things are going amazing.

 So an amazing experience I had the past two weeks was that there was a man in my ward who was very inactive and just a bad man. He fell (that sounds bad), and he ended up in the hospital with his divorced wife and their kids there. They found out that he has cancer but were not sure so bad. He actually asked for a blessing because he was scared of the fact that he was going to possibly die. So the Bishop, brother Miller, my companion and I went to the hospital to give a blessing. We had just gotten there and was about to give the blessing when the Doctor came and told everyone Except for him what it was exactly. He had stage 4 cancer in his brain, it was terminal, there were 2 tumors on the right side of his frontal lobe the size of 2 grapefruit, and if you know about cancer it doesn't start in the brain without starting somewhere else first. It was also in his lungs. I was so bad that if he had not gone to the hospital he would have died 6 week to 5 months later. We gave him a blessing and even with the faith of the blessing, we all thought he was going to die. It wasn't until Wednesday night that I get a call from his ex-wife giving me news that he is going to live. It is a slow growing cancer in his brain which means it is more responsive to the chemotherapy and the cancer in the lungs is cure able with medicine. He is having surgery tomorrow to remove the tumors in his brain. We brought him the sacrament yesterday. He is coming to church next week to bear his testimony.

 I have a testimony that the Lord's hand was one of a softening touch to everyone involved including me. I didn't know this man, nor did I know his name. He was set on a different path that was not only going a way from me but also away from the Lord. I know that the Lord and our Father in Heaven care about the actions of every one of there creations. I know he is worried of every sparrow that falls, and still leave time to make sure that I am not struggling. He loves everyone of his children, even the ones whose don't always make the right choices. He is a Father who is never going to take his eyes of of us, not even for a millisecond, not every to blink because his love and happiness is above anything we can comprehend. I have seen that Lord perform His miracles in this family as they struggled with this difficult trial. He will never lead us a stray. If anything he is checking the path ahead of us to see if they are safe and paving them at the same time. 

The rest of this week was great because I had been blessed with these experiences and funny enough the thing I have noticed is that whenever I think that I have it hard, the Lord never fails to prove me wrong. 

 I hope you all have a great week. Talk to yall next Monday, (maybe on a new phone). bye.

"preach my gospel to every creature upon the face of the earth"

New companion

what I had to deal with for the past 3 months

1/22/2018 Week 12: I'm Finally Done With Training

It is about dang time. lol 😂. This week was eventful I guess, the main thing I learned is that I should stop trying to use the oven. I just always end up burning something or making a mess. I am surprised I haven't burnt ramen, yet. I found Mochi at the Kroger's today, if you don't know what that is, it is ice cream with rice flour on the outside. They are so good and I am super happy about finding it. The picture of the Newport plaza below has the hill I live on in the background. We got transfer calls this week and I am staying and receiving a missionary who has been out for a minute. My companion on the other hand is leaving to become a district leader in Muncie. the picture of him packing below as well as him hold back tears (he wasn't crying). He is going to be the district leader in his new district so he has a lot on his plate. Don't mind the things written on the journal its from Mosiah 3:25-27 I think, I don't have it on me. I am receiving Elder Smith and he from what I have heard is a hard worker so this will be fun. The last picture is a mural in one of the towns in my area, great town. I found out that they are filming a Ted Bundy movie, you know the serial killer, with Zack Eferon in it play the murderer, and when I heard that the first thing that came into my mind was one of the High School Musical songs. We're all in this together, am I right? 😂. We get our phones in 2 weeks and I am excited, some people think its one more, oh how disappointed they will be. I am enjoying every moment of my mission as possible. Sadly some of the people I have made friends with over the past few weeks are leaving. I have had fun with them but they have to go. Besides they have all basically came out around the same time as I did so I will be seeing them around. I am tired still and you are now able to see the bags under my eyes but it is worth every moment of it. I am have a great time and the thing is the mission feels like you are just walking around sometimes but in reality you spend more times in lessons than you do walking its weird. Have a great week everyone!!!

1/15/2018 Week 11: Last Week Of Training

It is about time, I hated training because it felt like an excuse for the trainer to give you all the work. I dont have any pictures this week. We are told to not to use our camera too much because it makes us look like tourist. I am teaching my companion how to play piano still. I still dont know how to play it my self but I guess that isnt a problem. We have been struggling lately with keeping appointments because of things like weather or every day responsibilities. The problem is that they dont tell us until we knock on there door and find out the reason why they havent opened the door is because the are not there. This has happened for the past 2 days. It is annoying because as a missionary you try to feel love for all these people but the thing is when they regularly dont keep commitments or appointments you struggle to keep loving them. I have been so outside of things around me. We usually dont hear about a lot of bad things because usually when we talk to people we talk about the plan of salvation and eternal happiness. So for this reason you dont here bad things unless its about the church. So we dont hear anything about politics, natural disaster, and other stuff. I am tired now because we have had to wake up early and stuff or at least earlier than normal. I do enjoy being here though, I dont feel like I am being pressured by really anything other than how much personal study I have had and it is nice because you get to be in sync with every thing the Lord has planned with you. All you have to worry about is listening to the spirit. I have learned about my self in the last few weeks, for example I realized I have slight anger problems and will freak out if something not all that bad happens to me. I need to work on that. Also I need to talk more in lessons because I have been trying to build up my listening skills and the blessing of discernment. I have done it but I have neglected working on actually teaching people which is a slight problem. I have been reading a lot in hopes of keeping my study habits good and efficient. I need a nap, I will try to squeeze in a 15 minute one today if I am lucky. I also need a haircut. Love yall and email you all next week, I realize these emails arent that great but that takes time to improve I guess.

1/8/2018 Week 10: Look What I Found

Good week so far. Start with us having a little bit of a district fun day with the Elders in the district. We went to the mall, there was a legit reason why because as a missionary your shirt gets untucked really easy so we went and tried to find some of those things that attach to your sock and shirt to keep it tucked, couldn't find it. Also there is a Canes next door but they where closed. The original plan was to go to the Lakeside Elders apartment area to play pool but that was closed to because people like to have days off on new years. We also just started to teach a family of around 11 people 7 of them old enough to be baptized. They love the lessons and begged the mom and dad about going to church and being baptized. Also Jay jay the jet plane is as creepy as I remember of course. Also I have finished my goal of baptizing the city and now I am moving on to the state. Just kidding that will take another week. Love the ward, they are all really friendly. I also need to do my laundry today.  We'll be getting phones soon. I am going through training for smart phones and I just have to do like a test or something. I hate this computer I am using because it is a public computer so the keyboard is super gross and greasy. Another great things about phones. Off topic but I laugh at the fact that a 2.5 liter bottle of soda (pop as they say here) is cheaper than a normal bottle of water. Money is weird. The prices of everything is changing now though because tax stuff which sucks. Sucks almost as much waking up and not an hour later hearing that your leader and the mouth piece of God had passed away. Its weird though because even though he was a true prophet of God and you have known him and heard him talk and teach you for 10 years, being the majority of your life I might add, I wasn't sad or angry or disappointed or anything of the sort when hearing the news and its because the fact that I teach and study and learn more about the Plan of Salvation that the idea of death didn't really bother me. I just didn't mind I guess. I had no doubts or worries. I miss you but the thing is I think of a quote from President Monson where he said, "I gave up something I love dearly for the God I love more."That's all I can think of really this week. I am not good at writing emails about my week.

1/1/2018 Week 9: Why Is It So Cold?

These past 2 weeks have been great. I skyped the family on Christmas, that was fun and great to see them. The next day was when the adventure really began. So the picture of the glove is when we were chasing the bus and I was given a bag of cans which was at least 10 pounds and I tripped and caught my self destroying my glove a little the bag continued to pull me because science allows it to do so. So at that moment I probably slid 2 feet on solid concrete so we had to spend the rest of the night bus-less, glove less, and angry because they were good gloves. I bought new ones so don't send me any. Thankfully I wasn't wearing my suit. Its too cold to wear a suit. I did skin my knee but there is no hole in the pants. The next day started with me not wearing a hat because it wasn't too cold but eventually it started to snow. It snowed so much that there was a layer of snow on my hair after it was frozen solid. Then New Year by the way. Not much else I guess except weather. Talk to you next week. I'll try to write stuff through out the week to email.