"Now's not really a good time..." -August 16th, 2016

Hey guys! 

What a swell week! 

Russellville has been treating me very well. The area is filled with tons of lovely people, both in the ward and outside of the ward. We have a solid pool of investigators and almost all are progressing very well. A few have baptism dates too so we're really hoping and praying that everything will work out for them and that their testimonies will continue to grow. 

I was able to go on a couple exchanges this week with some elders in our zone. The first was with the Red Bay Elders and you won't guess who I was with.... Elder Prestwich! When we both left Bessemer he came to Red Bay and I went to Clanton then up to Russellville and we're back around each other again! We're actually serving in the same ward as well. It's been pretty fun being around my son again:) 

Our exchange was great! We really pushed ourselves and got to the point where we were contacting groups and crowds of people. We also had some great lessons and really felt the spirit. It was a ton of fun! 

I also went on an exchange with one of our District Leaders in the zone named Elder Estrada. He's been on his mission for a good minute now and is an excellent Elder. We spent a good portion of the day trying to find this less active but we were basically just tracting in this trailer park but that's okay! We had some really great lessons and talked to some very interesting people:) We then spent a while with a part member family and they ended up feeding us steak so I can't complain at all with that! We then called it a night and exchanged back the next morning. 

We then had a pretty interesting experience that afternoon that coincides with the title of this email. 

So Elder Diede and I had contacted this man a week or so ago and he gave us his address and said he'd love to have us. So we went searching for his home and eventually found it. We knocked on his door, waited, then knocked again ("once for our salvation, twice for theirs"). And after waiting for a while the door eventually started to slowly open. The man opened the door and stood in the doorway. We were so thrown off guard. He had hospital bands on his arms and had a bunch of bandages around his arms and legs as well. His head was COVERED in fresh blood and one of his eyes was looking north and the other south...  and all he said was "now's not really a good time..". I mean, no joke... if anyone had a reason to reschedule and turn us away it was this guy! He went on to tell us that he had just gotten in a car accident a few hours ago... I honestly have no clue why he wasn't still in the hospital. But we asked him if there was anything we could help him with or do for him and he said to just pray for him so we did! Right there on his porch in the rain. So yeah, that was our interesting experience from the week! haha 

We then had a great sabbath day and ran into a few more "interesting" people... apparently we keep running into these people because we're so close to Mississippi haha! 

But Elder Diede and I made pizza! From scratch too! Honestly, it was mostly Elder Diede but I helped:) I include some pictures at the end. 

This is going to be a great week though! We have Zone Conference so we're all really excited about that because it's President Sainsbury's first. He's been doing really well so I'm sure it will be amazing. Hopefully it'll include something about ipad's as well;) buuuut probably not. We also have some exchanges planned also so we're looking forward to those too. 

Oh yeah, my year mark was a while back and I forgot to talk about it in my weekly. I just wanted to give a big thank you to everyone for all the support and love I've been shown this past year. It means the world to me. It has been an absolutely amazing year and I am SO excited for this next year and all the things that the Lord will be teaching me. 

Hopefully this email was a bit better than the last few! I hope all of you have a great week. I'll talk to y'all next Monday!

Week of Meetings -August 8th, 2016

Hey Everyone!

Not much to report this week really. We had MLC, preparing for Zone training, and then Zone Training this week so we had a lot of random stuff we had to take care of. It was still a great week though and Zone Training went really well! It was a ton of fun and we had some great spiritual experiences as well. 

We also were able to squeeze in some great lessons with most of our investigators. We have one investigator specifically, who amazed Elder Diede and I this week. We assigned her to read 2 Nephi 31 the previous visit. We come and she pulls out this paper and unfolds it. She drew the gospel of Jesus Christ! There were quotes and scripture references and everything! Elder Diede and I were both speechless and amazed. Her name is Rhonda and she is progressing very well. She gave us her drawing and it is proudly hanging on our fridge in the apartment! We're very excited about her progression. 

Sorry for such a short email and the lack of pictures recently... Next week will be better, I promise! 

Talk to y'all later!

Hit the Ground Runnin in Russellville! -August 1st, 2016

Hey everyone! 

My first week in Russellville has been fantastic! Ever since I've gotten here it's been go, go, go and I love it! We have a pretty big and solid pool of investigators that are progressing so we've been able to teach quite a few lessons and have some amazing experiences! 

I've discovered that we do a lot of driving in this area. So there are two districts in this zone and we go to both district meetings each week and they're both about an hour and a half away, plus all the exchanges we'll be doing. We then also go to Birmingham multiple times a week and that's two and a half hours away... so yeah, quite a bit of driving. But that's okay, it's given Elder Diede and I a good chance to get to know each other better pretty early on in the transfer. 

Russellville itself is a smaller city that had a big Hispanic presence. This area is usually worked by two Spanish missionaries but for some reason they sent me here with Elder Diede! So there have been quite a few occasions were we'll be contacting or teaching someone who doesn't speak any English so I just kind of sit there and smile but that's okay. Elder Diede is a fantastic missionary and has a way with Spanish speakers so it's been cool to watch him work. 

It's a smaller ward but one that is very missionary minded and supportive. So I'm very excited to be able to work along side the members here to help bring others to Christ. 

We've also been trying to make our planning as productive as possible. So we've got a packed couple of weeks and also have some big plans for this Zone and this Transfer! We're really excited! 

Other than that, transfer were great. It was good to see a bunch of friends and say goodbye to some older missionaries who taught me a lot at the beginning of my mission. 

Anyways, I hope y'all have a great week and as always, I'll talk to you next Monday!

One and Done...Round Two! -July 26th, 2016

Hey y'all! 

This past week was fantastic! 

We started out by having interviews with President Sainsbury on Tuesday! Mine went really well and it was awesome to be able to spend some personal time with President and get to know each other better! 

Then on Wednesday, I had the immense privilege of going back to Bessemer for Jeff's baptism! I also was able to be the one to baptize him and it was an amazing experience. The night was perfect and it was so amazing to be able to see their whole family now members of the church and thriving in the gospel. If y'all remember, Jeff is Nickie's husband and I told you that Jeff was having trouble quitting smoking to be baptized while I was there. Well, a few weeks after I left, he got sick and when he recovered he absolutely hated cigarettes! The taste mad him sick! So because of that miracle and blessing he was able to quit and get baptized! I'll include a picture of me with their family! 

The rest of our week was great as well, but those were the two main highlights!

Well, besides transfer calls on Saturday...oh yeah, I'll be leaving! Surprise! I'm being transferred to Russellville! Hence the title of the letter, this will be my second area in a row where I only serve for a transfer then leave! I will go where He wants me to go though! I'm excited for the new adventures that I'll have there and all the new people I'll be able to meet! I'll shoot yall an email on Wednesday and let you know my new address! 

I'll include a few pics from the week as well! The first is like I said, of Jeff's baptism. The next is of the awesome district that I've been able to serve while in Clanton. And finally, when it gets so hot that you just give up and get in the fridge to cool down lol

I hope y'all have a great week and I'll talk to you next Monday! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Droppin' Like Flies! -July 19th, 2016

Hey everyone! 

I hope you all had another good week! It's crazy that it's Monday again, the weeks are seriously going by so quickly! They're just... *insert title of email*!

Not a whole ton happened this week, just your average week of missionary work! 

So since I don't have a whole ton to report on I thought I'd share one of my favorite Mormon messages! 

It's called "The Will of God" and its about how God uses love-inspired correction to guide us to a future we do not or cannot now envision but which He knows is the better way for us. We all have trials and struggles in our lives. Sometimes we can't understand everything that happens to us and we find ourselves asking "Why me?". But this message teaches us why Heavenly Father puts those trials into our lives. All out of endless and incomparable love for us. 

I hope yall enjoy:)

The Will of God- https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/the-will-of-god-2

Oh yeah, and this is the last week of the transfer so we'll get calls this Saturday and find out what's happening! So I'll let yall know on Monday!

Love all of you so much! 

An Emmausing Experience -July 11th, 2016

Hey y'all! As always, I hope each one of you had a good week! 

Our week here in Clanton was pretty good! Whenever we have a week with p-day on Tuesday the rest of the week just flies by! 

We had some amazing lessons with our investigators and most of them are progressing very well! We're also starting to focus our efforts on the less actives and part member families in our branch. We have something like 300 people on our roster, enough to make a ward, so we going to try our hardest to access all the potential there!

I wanted to share a pretty amazing experience that I had this past Saturday though for most of my letter. 

So Saturday morning we get a call and a text from a man we had never met. He said he had been talking to missionaries at the headquarters in Salt Lake for a few hours. He said that he didn't know anything about our religion but he had an experience that sparked his interest. So I called him back and talked to him for a while explaining some things about the church and trying to set up a time to go over. He said he would ponder what we talked about and call back in a few hours if he wanted us to come over. So a few hours pass by and he calls again but we were in a different lesson so we missed his call. Shortly after, we finally get a text from the referral missionaries telling us to go over ASAP and bring him a book of mormon. So instead of calling him back we decide that we'll just go over and talk to him in person. So we go over to his house and he lets us inside. We chat for a while, answer a lot of his questions and teach him about the restoration of the church. Then he told us more about what exactly sparked his interest in the church. 

He told us he had heard a story about how the church absolutely changed this woman and her family's life. He told us how she was at the lowest of lows, pretty much every bad thing you can think of happened in her life. He told us how she had come in contact with the church and how they had helped her turn her life around and how she's completely different now. Fully focused on the Lord and good things. Elder Stuart and I were both thinking this was just some mormon message he had seen. But he told us this story a few times and every time I had the feeling (prompting from the spirit) that he was talking about Nickie.

So, for those of you who can't remember, Nickie is a recent convert who I had the immense privilege of teaching and baptizing while I was serving in bessemer, my last area. I watched her as she and her family made this amazing change. Coming closer to the Lord and becoming completely different people. And now Jeff, her husband, has been able to quit smoking and is being baptized soon as well.

Anyways, the last time he told us about this story, I just took a shot in the dark and asked him if this had happened in Alabama. He told me it had! I got kind of excited and asked if by chance her name was Nickie and he was a little taken back, and at first said no. I explained how I taught some people back in bessemer that had a pretty amazing story that was pretty similar to the one he was telling. He stopped and just kind of looked at me and said that it actually was Nickie who he was talking about. He then told me that he is her Uncle! And that he had heard this story from his sister, her mother, who I had also met and tried to share the gospel with. I was so shocked and just speechless! I told him that I was actually the one who baptized Nickie and her son. I reached for my bag and pulled out my camera and showed him the pictures of us from her baptism. He became speechless as well and we both just kind of sat there in unbelief of what was happening.

I was only in bessemer for six weeks and while I was there I was able to be a part of this families amazing conversion story and then I was sent to Clanton where I then met her Uncle who we are now teaching and is now interested in the church because of her story. WOW! Just wow. We got back in the car and I freaked out to Elder Stuart a little and said a prayer of thanks in my heart. This was such a powerful Emmaus experience for me. Strengthening my testimony that the Lord is involved with this work and my life. I am in Alabama for a reason, and last week I found out one of the reasons why I was sent to Clanton as well as Bessemer. I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve the Lord for two years and help others draw closer to Him as I do the same. I LOVE THIS MISSION, THIS GOSPEL, AND THE LORD! 

I say these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. 

Till next week! Love yall!

The picture of Nickie's baptism. 

A Week of Festivities -July 5th, 2016

Hey y'all! 

It feels like it's been a while since we last talked! Well, I'll touch on a couple of the main things that have happened this past week!

Last week was, as I said in my last email, when President and Sister Sainsbury would arrive in sweet home Alabama. And on later in the week we were all able to meet them! Both President and Sister Sainsbury are spectacular, and are a perfect fit for this mission already. I'm so excited to be able to serve with them for the last year of my mission and learn all the many things they have to teach me. 

We also had a great 4th of July! A member in our ward fed us and took us to a pretty cool replica/reenactment place centered around America's history and independence and what not. It was pretty interesting! We were also able to catch some awesome fireworks that night in Prattville with our Zone Leaders. So it was a good fourth:) 

Other than that Elder Stuart and I have been working our hardest to get the ball rolling here in Clanton, and it's slowly coming along! We've had some pretty great experiences and met some amazing people.  Elder Stuart is awesome too! Such a great missionary and has so much potential.I don't know if I told y'all this but his family runs a mechanics shop back home and he's crazy about cars as well. So it's still in the making but we're actually planning on starting our own race team it's gonna be pretty cool.

So yeah it's been a pretty regular but great week! I was also able to go on a couple exchanges with the Elders in our District and that was great. 

Well, I hope y'all have a great week and I'll talk to you next Monday! 

Pics: While in Downtown Montgomery we found this pretty cool graffiti so we decided to go into GQ mode and get some pics. While there we also had some fantastic burgers at this hole in the wall restaurant that has been around for a good minute! Anyways, I hope y'all enjoy! 

*Also included are photos sent by a member on the 4th!