*Insert Witty Subject Line That I'm Too Lazy to Think Of -March 27th, 2017

Hello again everyone! I apologize for the subject of this email haha it's been an exhausting week. 

I hope y'all have had a good week! The weather has been super nice here and has been warming up! 

This past week has just been a week of grinding (mission term.. meaning hard work). Not really much to report on honestly. We've been struggling to get our investigators fully involved and committed. So we've been focusing most of our free time on finding as much as we can. Those who are prepared to hear our message are out there! We just need to work hard enough to find them. 

Something that I wanted to share from this past week is an activity in Preach My Gospel, which is a book designed to help missionaries become better teachers. The activity is within the Christlike Attributes chapter. It's actually a little quiz that helps you gauge where you are in your progression to becoming more like Christ! I've taken the quiz multiple times throughout my mission and it's always helped me realize what exactly I should be working on! I took the test again this past week and chose another attribute that I'm lacking in and it's become my focus for the next period of time. I invite all of you to take the time to take this quiz as well! I found it on LDS.org and will attach a link right here :

 https://www.lds.org/new-era/2016/10/which-christlike-attribute-should-you-work-on?lang=eng

The purpose of this life is to progress and how can we progress if we aren't even aware of what we need to work on? I promise that as we humbly take this test and try to find ways that we can be more like Christ and draw closer to Him, we will be blessed! In that link there is a paragraph that I love, it says:

 "One of the beautiful things about the commandment to “press forward” (2 Nephi 31:20) is that it implies a process, a journey. It doesn’t say, “Arrive at perfection right now.” Pressing forward toward eternal life is a step-by-step journey. We become more like Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ by keeping covenants and striving to improve—little by little, attribute by attribute. Which Christlike attribute could you focus on?"

Well, we have a very busy week planned! Interviews, district meetings, exchanges, MLC, and General Conference! We also receive transfer instructions on Saturday so we'll see what happens with that as well. I hope y'all have a great week and enjoy conference!

"True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior." -March 20th, 2017

Hey everyone! Don't have too much time today and not much happened this week worth talking about so I just wanted to share a thought:) 

Something that I've made my focus these last few weeks is making sure that I fully understand our church doctrine so that the Lord can change me as much as He can in this life. 

The quote from my subject line is from Boyd K Packer and goes on to say:

“The study of the doctrines of the gospel will

improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior

will improve behavior. … That is why we stress so

forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel”

As I've been in Alabama serving the Lord, I've noticed this in my life and in the lives of others. I've also seen when people made changes by themselves and didn't fully understand the doctrine and ended up reverting back to their old ways... and nothing is harder to watch to watch than just that. So! I challenge all of you to study the basics! Just because they're the basics of our beliefs doesn't mean we don't continue to learn from them. 

Here's a link to the rest of the talk which I hope you'll all watch or study:) 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1986/10/little-children?lang=eng

Now if you're wondering what true doctrine is and how we find it... I've got a talk for that too! haha 

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/what-is-truth?lang=eng

I probably don't say this enough but... thank you! Thank you for the love and for the support that y'all have showed me this whole time that I've been away. All the cards, emails, packages.... I appreciate them all so much! I have an amazing family and great friends and don't know what I would do without y'all!

I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon! 

Conference x2 + Goats -March 13th, 2017

Hey everyone!  I hope y'all enjoyed the little math problem for the title of this email, send me your answers and I'll grade your work;) 

Elder Matthews and I had another good week! Very busy and tiring week but it was still a great week. I'll stick with the main points from the week though! 

Thursday was a pretty crazy day! We started off the day by waking up at five to go to seminary and teach the kids with all the missionaries in our district. We taught about Romans 5 and 6 which speaks about the lust of the flesh vs the fruit of the spirit! It was a lot of fun but i havent been up that early in a while.. We then went directly to a Zone Conference! We trained/taught at the Conference as well which went really well. We trained on getting members excited for missionary work. One of the main points of our training was a dinner appointment role play where we pulled President and Sister Sainsbury into it to spice things up. The training went really well though and the two Zone's said they loved it! 

So the days before Thursday were mainly spent planning for those two trainings. Then on Friday-Saturday we were on an exchange with the Millbrook elders but we had to cut it short to take care of some stuff with a companionship in the Zone. 

Then Yesterday we had Stake Conference which was great as well. A member bore his testimony about his difficulties with being addicted to alcohol and his journey back to the church and the Savior and it was extremely touching! Later that night we ate dinner with the Fenns and I love that family so much. I'm going to miss them a lot when I leave Pville! Sister Fenn made me my favorite chicken wings and I almost died because of how many I ate.... 

Then today we had our Zone Activity! We went to the Big Fish set in Millbrook and played Capture the flag! I can't remember if I told you about this set a few months ago but it's basically an abandoned town so it was a perfect place to play capture the flag! We took plenty of pics so I'll attach a few:) 

And that's all I've got to report on for this week! I love you all and I'll talk to you again soon:) 

Aloha! -March 6th, 2017

Hello again! 

This past week was another MLC/ Zone training week! 

MLC was great! We were there for most the day then got stuck in Birmingham traffic so we didn't get back till late. We went straight to basketball and had a great time! 

The next day was spent planning Zone training. This had to have been the most i've ever planned and prepared for a meeting. We wanted to really hit home with our theme of Ohana and we went all out. I'm talking leis, tikis, hawaiian music, and even a beta fish as our mascot! (don't worry, the senior couple is taking care of it because we're not allowed to haha) but anyways it turned out to be a great meeting that the whole zone loved. I'll attach a pic of post zone training five guys! 

The rest of the week was spent doing all we could to move this work forward in Prattville. We were able to set a baptismal date with a really cool kid that we've been teaching named Dee. We actually met him and got to know him through basketball and a less active boy that's his best friend! We're pretty excited for him if y'all could keep him in your prayers! 

Elder Matthews and I are having a great time! He's such a fantastic missionary. Always wanting to be perfectly obedient and work his hardest. He keeps me laughing non stop too so it's been a lot of fun. He's teaching me a lot as well. He has a great understanding and knowledge of the doctrine of our church and it's been a blessing to serve with him already. 

Today I was shown an amazing video about the First Vision that I thought I would include for anyone who hasn't been able to see it yet. It's so powerful and I felt the spirit very strongly as I watched it and promise that you will as well. 

Here it is: https://history.lds.org/story/first-vision?lang=eng

I know and testify that Joseph Smith was and is a true Prophet. He truly was visited by Heavenly and his son Jesus Christ and given the sacred responsibility of restoring the True and Living Church back onto the earth today! And what a blessing it is for us to have the fullness of the gospel in our lives! 

I love you all and am so grateful to have each of you in my life and for all the love and support you constantly show me! I hope you each have a great week!