Automobile Antics - August 24th, 2017

Happy Monday everyone! Another week has passed and another weekly email is here. 

This past week was good. We're able to do a ton more stuff with a car! We did quite a lot of service actually! We volunteered at the local library and a cool museum in downtown gadsden! We also worked on a few different peoples yards which obviously is a ton of fun! Workin' on my farmers tan;) haha for one yard we had to transport a lawn mower in the back of our car, and since it's so new and nice we took every precaution we could to make sure it wouldn't hurt the car.... I'll attach some pics:) btw we succeed and didn't harm the car.

We actually had quite a lot of success with finding less actives this week! Our ward has over 700 people in it and only around 100 are active so there's so much work to do in this area with those who have fallen astray! We've recently been working with the Dukes family who are less active and have a couple of unbaptized children. They're an awesome family and we're excited to help them on their journey back to activity.

Y'all probably remember Elder Opare who was a previous companion of mine, well he served here in gadsden as his first area! And this past week we actually found a couple teenage boys who he baptized that had gone astray. We're also working with them now! 

So as you can tell we're really excited for this area and the people that we've been finding. The power of a car is pretty amazing and has been such a blessing! ... one that i definitely didn't fully appreciate for most of my mission.

Other than that, this week we had the first district meeting of the transfer! It was great. We've started making the training's in meeting more of a discussion set up, similar to Sunday school and what not, and I like it a lot! I really focused on having the other elders in our district be involved and lead most of the discussions. We have a few potential leaders in this district so I wanted them to get as many chances to prepare as possible! I took the main discussion which president wanted us to have which was about baptism! Basically just making sure everyone understand all the small things that go into making a baptism successful! I thought it was a really great meeting!

After district meeting Elder Gwira and I walked out to our car and found that we had a completely flat tire! So I got to teach him how to change a tire haha it was hot and we got sweaty but it was fun haha I'll attach some pics of that as well! 

Well anyways, that's all i've got for this week! I'll talk to y'all again soon:)

Pics! -April 17th, 2017

Hey everyone! 

Not much happened this week. Most of the week was spent finding, with not much success there... but hey that's okay. We also were able to attend the temple! We went Thursday morning and it was amazing. We also had Zone conference that afternoon so it was a pretty long day.... good day but long. Since I don't have much to report on, I'm dedicating most of this email to pictures (You're welcome mama;)), it'll take a few emails to get them all to you so be patient! These pics are from various times throughout the last two weeks plus today's trip to the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham. My beautiful companion is the star of most of these pics haha Enjoy! 

Grinding in Gadsden -April 10th, 2017

hello everyone! Hope you've all had a great week:) 

As you know, this past week was a bit hectic! On Tuesday we had Zone Training, the last one that I had to prepare, and it went well! Our Zone was great and i miss all the amazing missionaries that I was able to serve. On Wednesday was transfers and that was crazy! That day we had a massive storm covering the whole south. Thunder, tornado warnings, the whole nine yards! But a miracle occurred and the rain stopped just as everyone had to move their luggage. Elder Gwira and I then drove an hour up to Gadsden in the rain. 

Elder Gwira is awesome! Like i said he's from Ghana but he lived in D.C for a few years before his mission. He's a great missionary with a ton of potential! He's been on his mission for about five months so I'm really excited to be around him and feed off of his freshness and energy. 

Gadsden is a great area! It's surrounded by rivers and hills which makes it beautiful. It's currently a biking/walking area because of some different reasons but we're making the most of what we've got! Aka houses... Which is what we've spent most of our days doing, knocking houses! Elder Gwira and his last companion were doubled into the area so they had to start fresh, they did a lot of tracting and found hardly any success so we're still starting fresh haha! It's a difficult situation because we're trying to get this area going but without a car and due to our location we're having a hard time with it. All we have is houses within a two mile radius so we're trying to figure out a different way to attack this. This is all new to me too because I've always had a car in each area so I'm learning on the fly as well. It's a big project but I'm excited to be able to end my mission on a note like this. 

This ward is great too! It's a small ward but it's full of very nice and welcoming people who love the missionaries. Quite a few missionaries who I've been close to have actually served here as well so it's been cool to talk to the ward about them. Oh yeah! My bishop has actually lived in Hawaii as well! He was the softball coach at BYUH. We went to dinner there last night and had a ton to talk about. His name is Bishop Allred and he knew a ton of the people from our ward. Such a small world!  

Also... i have pics but just realized that I forgot my camera cord at the apartment so they might have to wait til next week... Sorry!:/ 

Well, that's all I've got. Talk to y'all next week! 

The Time Has Finally Come... -April 3rd, 2017

....That Elder Honn leaves Prattville.... that's right! I received my transfer news and after 7 1/2 amazing months in this area I'm packing up and heading North. I am being transferred to the Gadsden area which is about an hour north of Talladega, an old area of mine! 

I'm so very grateful for this area and the fantastic people that I've been able to meet and develop relationship with. I've had so many amazing experiences that have have taught me so much and helped my testimony increase even stronger. 

As always, it's a mix of emotions because I'm sad to be leaving but I'm really excited for a new adventure in a new area! I've heard a lot of good things about Gadsden and I look forward to working there. 95% sure it will be my last area so I'm planning to give it everything I've got. I'm going to work my hardest for these last two transfer and leave with no regrets of how I finished my mission. I promise that I will sprint through the finish line! 

Other than that, this past week has been good! Like i said last Monday, we had a lot going on. Interviews were good. The district meetings were good. And MLC was good as well! This week we have Zone Training tomorrow, then transfers the very next day... It's going to be a crazy few days doing all that and also fitting in goodbyes but I'm looking forward to all of it.

I loved conference as well! One of my favorite talks that I thought I'd mention is Elder Bednars that he gave in Priesthood session. I'll include the link and let y'all watch it for yourselves:) 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/04/media/session_3_talk_4/5381933379001?lang=eng

I loved it because he taught something that a little over two years ago, I was struggling with myself. And i think a lot of missionaries preparing to go on missions struggle with as well. I testify of what Elder Bednar teaches though... that while we are called to a specific place, our main calling is to serve. Regardless of where. I wish I would've heard this talk back in the summer of 2015 when myself and everyone around me was receiving mission calls. Luckily, I learned this for myself but I hope that his talk can touch the hearts of any young men preparing to serve. 

That's all I've got for y'all this week! I love you and I'll talk to you again next week! 

*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:)