Another week in paradise

Hey!!!

Dang, I miss Bailey Day!!!!

I miss Bailey and the cooler weather! It’s so hot right now and I spend the whole day sweating cause I sweat anyway and it really hot so yeah... but other than that life is good. We finally picked up a new person to teach named Blake. He is very cool and he has been going to church with his friend in a different ward about an hour away and so he got into contact with us so he could go to church and learn about the gospel in a closer area so he is really excited and so are we! So we will continue to meet him. Hopefully his schedule clears up so we can meet more but we will have to see! Other that, not much going on just continuing the work of Jesus Christ to help his children and our brothers and sisters come unto Christ. I love missionary work!!! Elder Victorino and I still get along so well. We get fed really well, sometimes too well. that’s why I’m fat, haha. I am still in the Canyon Crest Ward! I’ve been in this ward for almost six months now but I am not complaining! I love the ward, it’s awesome. I did have a super home sick moment yesterday. There was an elder that came home to this ward from the Colorado Fort Collins Mission. his name is Elder Mills. Do you think anyone there knew him? 

The older elder in the pictures is Elder Johnson. He is in my district and we were on exchanges so we took pictures, haha. Oh, and one is with a cactus!!! Haha! In the mountain picture I was so tired. But we luckily still have a car so I may be tired but I don’t have to die!!!

I have been doing studies about the Atonement and a talk everyone should listen to a lot is " Purifying Power of Gethsemane" by Bruce R. McConkie. It talks perfectly of the Atonement

So yeah, that’s my week. I love you all so much, thank you for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stubborn

I haven’t heard Mom give a talk in sacrament meeting for a long time! I wish I could have heard it! I love my family! I’ll pick the packages you sent up tomorrow.

This week has been pretty normal for me, or as normal as a week can be for a missionary haha. We had a lesson with our investigator David again and that was good. We had a bit of a crazy lesson but he said he wants to read the Book of Mormon more, so that’s good, but other than that lesson we didn’t have too much happen this week. 

We had an exchange with our zone leaders, which just mean that we switch companions for a day basically and we do work in their area.

It was really cool! And I had one of the coolest things of my whole mission happen. I got to contact and have a conversation with a deaf guy so I "talked" to a guy in sign language. It was so cool! He wasn’t interested but we talked for a few minutes about the Book of Mormon and about how he has a lot of friends that are members of the church. It was so cool!!! And I understood everything he said.

These are the photo descriptions

1. A cactus with faces in it

2. A weird statue

3. A mailbox that I thought was cool

4. A super nice Firebird

5. The district leaders meeting. Can you find me?

6-8. Our district on Mount Rubidoux

9. A cool shadow picture

10. Me with two cool elders. Elder Johnson and Elder Victorino

11. Us at Wal-Mart with a big truck

Other than that I think the Lord is still teaching me patience right now. But that’s good! Honestly I’m doing the best I feel like everything an anything that could be going wrong is going wrong but whatever I will get through it we always do cause we are stubborn. I know you said I am strong. I don’t feel strong but I guess it’s a process.

A week of study!

Hey!

How is everything? How is the family? I’m doing pretty good this week. It was hot and we walked a lot! Like always! I miss clear air and the trees and the mountains!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is what you are seeing on the pictures:

1. Me and three of my pals from the MTC 

2. Nice sunset!

3. I made a new scripture case out of a Kool-Aid box haha 

4. The other side of the scripture case

5. Weird seeds that looked like little pumpkins

We have one guy we are teaching and he is doing good. He still has a problem with drinking and smoking but he is working on it and he has the desire to change.

I think the Lord wants me to learn patience...

This week has been kinda hard. My companion got sick and we had to stay in for a day which is the worst thing ever as a missionary cause you can’t do anything and you can’t do the work you want to do. So I had a lot of time to study and I was reading conference talks a lot and there was one I was reading from October 2000. It is by David B. Haight. I am going to challenge the whole family (and everyone else) to read this one. It’s called " Be a Strong Link". It’s all about families.  

This week we also had one of our investigators block our number and won’t get back in contact with us ... and the app that we use as missionaries had some problems but we got that fixed and we are okay now but I do think the Lord is wanting me to have a patience lesson this week. But its good...Just remember that we have to have the bad days to have and know the happy and good days! It’s hard but Elder Holland and Malachi (when he writes to me) always say that hard things are good!

Wow Britt and Darren’s wedding sounds amazing! I’m so sad I missed it. Tell Britt congrats and that I love her and I am sad I missed it! Wow that still doesn’t seem real that she is married!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s awesome how you managed to be in both Colorado temples within a 24-hour time span!!!! And you even dragged my little sister along to do baptisms. I’m so proud of you!!!!!! I’m so excited for Josh. He is such a good guy and I’m glad he has the chance to serve cause he wants it so bad.

Dang!  When did my little sister start growing up!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!? Do you have any more pictures of things? I just want to see pictures of the family and just random things. The mountains, the animals, just whatever. I just want to see some pictures please!!!

Love you all! 

Staying put! Yippee!

Hey!!!

How are you? How is the family doing? Anything fun going on?

It’s been fun here. It’s getting hot fast. It’s been in the 90s all week and it’s killing me cause I don’t like hot but I’m doing my best to not die! 

This week was a very good week for the work. We have two people we are now teaching, Brother Z and a guy named Dave. They are both very excited to hear the gospel! Which makes me excited!!! Because I love sharing the gospel and helping others come unto Christ because that is my purpose as a missionary. My investigators are super cool. The one just walked into church last week. Then we taught him on Thursday and he accepted the challenge to be baptized on July 8th so he is super ready for the gospel. He told us he doesn’t need to pray about the Book of Mormon because he knows it’s true already. So he is awesome. The other one is gonna take some more work but he wants to know truth. He has some struggles and problems with alcohol and pot so that will take some work.  I only know them by Brother Z and Dave. I don't know Dave's last name, he wouldn't tell us. Hopefully he will trust us soon and tell us his whole name.

Other news… we got transfer calls *drum roll* I’m staying in the area and I’m staying with Elder Victorino!!!! I’m happy with what I’m doing here. It is a bit of a hard area but I like a challenge and we have people to teach so I’m happy! I still have not left the Riverside zone my whole mission. I will spend probably 6 months in this one ward, so that’s fun. Other than that nothing much happened. We hiked Mount Rubidoux again, so that was fun.

That’s so cool that you and Sister Victorino are talking. I think you guys should be friends because Elder Victorino and I are really close now and i think he has been one of my top two favorite companions. I love Elder Victorino!!! We get along probably too well haha. People keep saying we are the same person, but he’s skinny haha! 

About the pictures: the skunk is not close to our apartment. My hair is really short and I don't like it too much and there's is a volleyball on my head haha. We play a lot of volleyball and we hit that one so much it blew up and we made it into a hat. Haha we are weird.

I love you all!!!!!!!!!!