Time Has Flown By

June 1-7

Tuesday night we had a mission wide zoom call for all of the missionaries that wanted to share what they learned during the last month of studying all the talks given in this spring's general conference. We had our zone council the next day and it was pretty baller. Everybody pulled up to Bear City and the zone is full of so many great missionaries and leaders. During the council, we talked about how to effectively work through social media as well as how we can be natural with our interactions with others online. Right after the meeting, it began to downpour like no other. That made things a little difficult because we had a lesson with Jessica and her sister Flor.... outside😆. We actually found an awesome outdoor pavilion and had a fantastic lesson on the plan of salvation. I really saw them grow and eat up all the information we were feeding them! Saturday made for a fun summer kickoff for the primary kids. They had a game of slip and slide kickball along with cornhole. It was all fun and games until the CTR 5 kids thought it'd be funny to attack me with their water guns. That then sparked an all out war with me and 6 kids begging to be tagged in the face with my squirt gun. Anyways, Jessica made it to church and we had a dope talk afterwards!! Who knows what'll happen with her, she shows quite a bit of potential. Besides that, there isn't quite much to report... tchauu!

June 8-14

If I'm being honest, not a lot happened this week lol. We really buckled down and had a whole day dedicated to calling all of the people we are currently teaching to see if they were actually interested in talking more or just being polite. You know, just see their intentions and all. What was even more of a blast was when we had a mission wide zoom call with one of the directors of the MTC. We talked about truly teaching to the needs of an investigator instead of teaching full lessons to check more boxes off of the checklist. The next day, the APs pulled into town to go on exchange with the ZLs, and do you know what I did? Left town immediately!😂 I had a reason though. There were like 3 people who requested personal copies of the Book of Mormon. Sadly, none of them turned out to be fairly interested and 2 of their addresses weren't even correct. It's fine, just 45min of driving one way wasted lol. While at Union Point park, we were doing some Facebook finding when we were stopped by a guy named John. He was in a blue jumpsuit and had a bag with all of his belongings. He seemed very bummed and I had a great talk with him and shared some bible verses with him to get his hopes up. He said he was about to pass out from dehydration, so I brought him to the car and have him my Arizona jug that was full of water. After we gave him a bible and the water, we left to go to the church and a few hours later the other elders walked in and talked about how they saw a guy in a blue jumpsuit being pinned down by some cops at the park.... that was a funny exchange there. To end things on a high note, we had Jessica and Flor for church and they really enjoyed it!! Pretty exciting stuff, let's see how it goes!

June15-21

This week was started off the best way with visiting Morehead City and Cape lookout to see the beach and witness some of the big rock fishing tournament. Not only did I get to see more of NC, but I had the privilege of conducting to baptismal interviews this week!  We did some more phone tracting as well as calling those we are already teaching to clean up our area. This week at district council, I had the chance to explain to all the new people in my district how to properly street contact! Yes you heard me, we are getting back into street contacting! All of these missionaries in my district have had 0 experience with it, and they are all super nervous yet excited to get into it. After district council I went with Elder Skidmore to Woodington and performed an exchange with him.  We went to a pig farm and cleaned up the stalls as well as tended to their sheep. We also got a tour around the place and saw the piglets as well as fished for a little bit. All around, it was a good exchange, but the entire place is so back country that the work goes super slow. Jessica had had many questions about the restoration of the church, so we ended up watching the restoration video with her up until Joseph Smith went to Carthage. It answered many of her questions yet she still needed to know the truth.  To help her we said a prayer together and left her with the task and that day to have a real heart to heart with God and ponder if he was a prophet.  Later that night we talked with Jessica and she came to the conclusion that he was and that Joseph restored the church as well as her wanting to be baptized. We were so excited and we tried to put her on date for next Saturday, but then doubt started to creep in and she ended up not wanting to be baptized anymore:( I pray that she will continue to meet with the missionaries and proper to be baptized one day in the future!  On the weekend I got to visit with Lois, Johnny, and Adam to put up some feeders on their property.  It was really fun and I invited them to come watch me speak in church the next day. Sadly things popped up, but that's ok.  My talk was alright, but a good warmup for when I give my homecoming talk here soon!  Time really has been speeding up and I'm still trying to catch up and become the person God wants me to be every day. If I don't accomplish that entirely in the mission, then I will continue moving forward after!! #GodsPlan😂 Love y'all!!

Crazy Week

After talking with y'all we were returning home and we came across a bear that had been hit by a car. It looks like bear city has its name for reason!

Well folks, I have officially finished the first week of my last transfer! What better way to start things off than throwing a new comp into the mix of things. His name is Elder Zachary Palmer and he is from Portland Oregon. His family actually lives like 2 hours north of Spokane, Washington! He's basically in Canada. Elder Palmer has actually been out on his mission for about 20 months, so New Bern south has a couple veterans in the mix and it’s dope!

We did a lot of service for brother House again this week; we went to his house and helped with his humongous garden/green houses. In the same day, we went to the church and upgraded our phone to MAAS 2.0. It sucked because I lost all of my music, but it's okay, I only have one month left, right?! That evening we went to a baseball game for the Kinston wood ducks! The game wasn't very exciting, but when we went to a pitching booth, that made things really intense. Even though my arm was really cold, and I haven't thrown in 2 years, I threw about 74 miles per hour so it looks like I still got it in me!

On Wednesday, we had our activity with the primary kids. It was pretty dope and we all did our own things when making caramel apples. We may or may not have burned a little bit of the caramel, but the kids didn't notice it at all. For a quick spiritual message we related caramel apples to baptism. The caramel represented the water, and the apple represented the kid. When they go into the caramel they must be fully emerged and when they leave the caramel they are sweet and covered in something amazing, i.e. the Holy Spirit.  They all loved it! The only thing that might have ruined it for me was when I got burned by some caramel when I dropped one of the apples. It's okay though, I only got a little burnt:)

This past Friday was very special for Sean… because it was his graduation! He got us some tickets to go and all 4 of us went to some of his graduation though we had to leave a little early. While we were there, I noticed and recognized so many people that I have friended on Facebook! I actually got some messages from quite a few of them saying that they saw me - lol. One of the peeps was Jessica and she is actually pretty cool. We had a great lesson with her this past weekend and we hope to see her and her sister in church this next week!

One of the people that comes and plays Frisbee golf with us is Tyler Martin, and he will be moving away this next week :(  We had dinner at his house for the last time and we actually had so many people come together to play one last round of Frisbee golf with the Martin clan but besides that we didn't have much going on this past Saturday. 

When Sunday came around the 2nd hour was not good at all! The Bishop went on a rant for 40 plus minutes about the proper way to clean the church and when he was 10 minutes in we just took the people that were visiting and went into a different classroom. I was in charge of the lesson and I talked about 3 parables that Christ gave. It was really good and everyone seemed to enjoy the discussion and it was an all-around good time. After church it was perfect for pictures and so I went to Glen Bernie to take a new profile pic. After taking the pictures I was returning home and for some reason there were so many cops in the middle of the road and one of them waved me down and asked for my license. They must have just had that checkpoint to see if people had their driver’s licenses because after he saw my license he said for me to carry on with what I was doing! It was pretty cool and weird but that was a great way to end an amazing week!

I forgot to mention! One night we went to grandma Lois's house to eat some supper.  They really hit it off with Elder Palmer and we had a blast eating so much meat. I went off with Lois to help set up a family search account and get her started. While I was doing that, Elder Palmer was with Johnny and Adam and his friend talking about the gospel/all things you can imagine! It was really fun and I enjoyed my experience. I also invited her to come to church one of these weeks, but we will see how it goes because they are a high risk for covid.

At the end of the week we had a zone conference with president and sister Maura. While we were there I signed a contract saying that I will finish my mission strong. I also gave my parting testimony for my last ever zone conference which was scary, but super cool and everyone loved it!  The week was super fun and passed by so fast. We had so much work to do and we barely had time to eat dinner! I hope that every week can be as successful yet crazy like this one.

Special Softball

These past two weeks have blown by quick. I'll talk about some of the highlights! On Cinco de Mayo, we had our zone council. The entire zone came to Bear City (New Bern) and we talked about how the work is going. Instead of doing a roleplay for a training, we decided we should do a 10min meditation from the calm app. It was awesome! Our zone unity is really good and we all became homies after that day.

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to volunteer for a special needs softball tournament! We were invited by a family in the ward who has a son that participates in the games. We pulled up and another member gave us some customized red shirts with our names on the front. It was really fun and I had a blast getting to know a lot of those participating as well as volunteering to help the players stay on task and having fun haha. 

The last thing I really wanted to point out was something I tried and loved. What I'm talking about is meditation. As before mentioned in zone conference, I have been trying to get into meditation to boost myself spiritually and mentally. The last general conference discourses given by general authorities have really made me ponder about how I should really start setting time aside just to sit and listen. I only did it a couple of times, but it was such a great experience! I haven’t gotten any life changing revelation, but it was still good.

Farman and Himan are heading out this next week so Bear City will really be taking a big hit with this up and coming transfer, but I have hope that this last transfer will be great and that I'll finish really strong!!

Hidden Family in My Area!

We were supposed to do some service for some members on Pday by laying down some pavers in their back yard, but when we pulled up, we were stopped by their non-member friend that was going to help us. The friend told us that we’ll have to do it another day, then pointed out the ginormous gash in her head that she got from falling down their stairs and tagging it on the corner of her house. She got to the hospital safely and got some stitches and we were able to get that service done later in the week.

Our teaching pool is a little up and down at the moment. Jarrell was supposed to watch church tomorrow over Zoom, but was a no show. We had an amazing lesson with Tracie during the week and even got her on date to be baptized May 22nd! She has so much going on in her life at the moment that she hadn't really been able to talk with us throughout the week and she didn’t go to church. She knows how important baptism is and even asked us to start teaching her son and help him to be baptized as well! We thought, "Yeah, we’ll help your son when you actually talk with us more often" haha. 

We had a zone social media conference again over Zoom and yet again... it all could've just been sent to us in an email, instead of taking 90min of our time haha. It's alright, because later that night, we had ANOTHER mission Zoom conference, but this time with the Maurers and their special guest. The special guest was a blind guy that they were friends with back in Australia and he shared life stories with us. He is outstanding on the guitar, a motivational speaker, and an avid cyclist! He was actually the first person to ride a tandem bicycle from coast to coast in Australia. It was dope to hear his testimony and the efforts he has put in to keep his faith strong.

I finished my first of 6 parts of the 'my plan' program and it was a big “bruh moment”. It was basically an overview of what I will be doing in the program and it had me write down three things I've learned in the mission and three attributes of Christ that I've been better at applying because of the mission.

Speaking of applying something better, I really put in a lot more effort into adding people in my teaching area and sending messages when they add me back. I was doing so good in fact, that I got sent to "Facebook Jail" for two days. When you get sent there, you can’t add or message anybody for the allotted amount of time they give you. It's alright, because I was able to find 5 new souls through that in this past week!

To end things off I wanted to talk about the amazing opportunity I had to meet with my Great Aunt Lois, her husband Johnny, and my 2nd cousin Adam! They are 100% southerners alright and they were just as excited to meet me as I was to meet them. We talked and talked and talked. I showed them pictures of the family back home and we talked a little bit of what I do as a missionary. Lois is my great grandma, Gigi’s, little sister. While Lois was pointing out all of their property, I took the opportunity to talk to her. I was talking about how much of a pleasure it was to finally meet her and how I hoped we could all get in contact with the Friedel family again. She actually made mention of her wanting to get all the ladies together at least one more time. I also got her hyped about family history and she said that she acquired the guest book that everyone signed from her dad's funeral! I thought that would be a fantastic thing to start out with. Anyways, that's my awesome week! Be sure to let me know if you need/want anything – t-minus 8 weeks people until I get home! 

Ahhh....The Mission Life!

After talking with the fam last Pday, we got our suits on and did some contacts until we had our mission wide video conference with President and Sister Maurer. Because they are unable to go around the mission for “in person” zone conferences, they have planned out three or four virtual conferences spread throughout the entire transfer. It has its ups and downs, but the conference went well. It was only an hour long and they basically talked about all of the missionaries that will be returning to their missions and they gave them the chance to give their parting farewells. They also gave everybody who wanted to share what they learned from general conference the chance to do so with the entire mission. Let’s just say the majority of the people who had comments were sisters (as usual) haha. It was pretty neat. They also made sure to let everybody know that if you are getting the vaccine, or you know you won’t get it, to let the mission nurse know so that she can get a head count.

Tuesday morning, we went over to bishop's house for a "fun" service project. He had us carry a bunch of wood down to the end of his 300ft dock. By a bunch of wood, I'm talking about 40 sheets of treated oak and 100 2x6x20ft treated planks. It’s all fine though, in return from destroying our bodies, we got some lunch. Fair trade.

The next day, we had in person interviews with the Maurers in the nearby town of Kinston. Things went well and I'll tell y’all the deets in our next call. I also have been grinding out my Japanese with Elder Farley Sensei! I now have all of the kana in the hiragana alphabet memorized and now I’m going to start working on reading and hopefully understanding kanji. It's a beast and I hope to get a good foundation so I can further my language studies for when I'm home and don't have a companion that speaks it!

To end the week off right, I was able to watch (over zoom) Sophia's baptism!!! It truly was quite an experience to remember. Ever since the first day I spoke with her back in Fuquay, I knew that she was going to be baptized. The elders in Apex did an amazing job getting her some fellowshippers and friends in the ward as we all waited for her mom to let her enter into Christ's fold after she turned 15! It was an amazing service and Sophia is sooo happy! I was texting her and she is just so glad to have been baptized and she feels even “amazinger” now that she has the gift of the Holy Ghost. Who knows, if the temples start to open up here, maybe I can go do baptisms with her (and maybe even Sean)! 

I have a lot to look forward to in this up and coming week and I hope the best for y’all. Love you!

Find, Serve, Teach, Love (and Play)

This week blew by faster than you could say the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Speaking of the preamble, boy am I sooo happy to be a citizen in God's country – #PresOaks2024.

I finally tried doing some dry calls this week and it was actually super productive and we even found 3 new souls to teach! What we do is we pull up a google doc that has the phone numbers of people in our area, and then we just call away. If a number doesn't work, we write that it's invalid, and if it does work, we say it does work and we call back and so on. When somebody does pickup however, that's where the real fun begins! I usually say something like, “Hi, I'm a missionary here in the local area going around sharing a quick 30second message of Christ. Would it be alright if I shared a scripture with you?” A lot of people either yell at me for invading their privacy, or they might be interested. Either way, it's a blast!

This week has been pretty rough for Sean. For some reason the devil had truly taken control of his mind and made him believe he can't do anything. The saddest part is that he isn't really doing what is needed to take control again. It's like he wants to just be the victim in things... but on a brighter note, Sophia is still going strong! As well as Sharroya and Ejay! Sharroya has been super busy, but she still has the desire!

We have been working to clean up our area book also – to find out if the people in it have any real interest in the church or not. We ended up dropping Nick because he just doesn't want anything to do with Christ's restored church. It's all Gucci though. We tried to do some fun finding as well. We pulled up to a park and started to play some Kubb (a game where you throw some sticks at blocks, kind of weird, but yeah...). It is a very interesting game and we did it in hopes of starting a conversation with strangers and maybe have them join the game. It didn't really work out, but it was a blast!

We went over to brother House's place again this past week and continued our work on his greenhouse. It is starting to come together and it looks pretty dope! I got to move cinder blocks, put up some planters, and transfer a whole pallet of 60lb cement bags! Super fun stuff, I know. I keep getting compliments from brother House about how I should be a professional greenhouse builder after the mission. Yeah, suuuuure. He's a really great guy and we are mostly there to be good examples to his grandson who isn't a member yet, cause his parents want him to wait until he’s like 14 to be baptized. So I won’t be dunkin him anytime soon haha.

Elder Farley has been preparing to go to Japan even though he has no faith in him going, but I am doing my part and making sure that he DOES HIS LANGUAGE STUDIES. I have been improving on my studies of the Japanese language and even have all Hiragana (main kana, dakuten kana, and combination kana). I still don't know how to speak at all or translate but at least I know how to sound out words! My comp is so good at it though! He hasn't even been to Japan and he could probably be fluent after a week of being there. He’s a baller and is just too afraid to own up to it. 

Frisbee golf has been super fun and I’m going to become a pro at it so I can show y’all the ropes when I get home, but yeah... I’ll catch ya next week!!

Baptism in USA!

Hello my friends hello! I have officially finished my first week here in New Bern, North Carolina (aka BEAR CITY). My new companion is Elder Luke John Farley. He's from Frisco, Texas and loves video games, anime, and having a good time. He is a funny dude and loves to be productive in the Lord's work.

All I can say is wow! My first day here, I had a lesson with Sean and we taught him a few of the remaining ordinances and commandments that he was missing. He is such a beast and goes out of his way to promote the church and share with others what he has been learning on his social media feeds. Along with him, I was able to get a feel for the others we have in our teaching pool. There is one guy, Nick, who has been meeting with the missionaries for almost a year, but hasn’t been baptized yet. I talked with him for a little and he agreed that if he received an answer that he would be baptized on the 17th, so be sure to keep Nick in your prayers!!! 

One day this week, we had over 4 hours of service that consisted of building a greenhouse all the way to moving bricks around to construct a wall! It was really hard and hot work, but it was a good time lol. Along with being outside, we have played soooo much Frisbee golf and I am learning from the masters themselves! I really like being with these cool elders that know a good balance between working diligently and having fun! This is going to be the best way to finish my mission :)

Elder Farley was originally called to serve in the Tokyo North mission, so I'm doing my best to keep him diligent in his language studies!! I have taken up learning Japanese along with him and I am loving it! I'm so close to having the entire Hiragana alphabet memorized, so I guess you can say I'm fluent, jkjk.

This past Saturday I had the awesome chance to take part in the baptism of Sean Stansberry!! My companion baptized Sean and I confirmed him right after it. His mom even came and she was really feeling the spirit. I looked at her after the confirmation and she was crying, tears of joy, of course haha. I just hope Sean continues strong and keeps being a baller.

That's it for my week y’all, I'll catch ya on the flipside!

God is Great!! So Many Great Experiences!

Spring is in full effect here in North Carolina and I have actually been taken by surprise with it all! There is a bunch of moss that grows in every nook and cranny that isn't filled on roads or buildings. On top of the merciless moss, the pollen here has covered all of the roads and cars, and my comps haven't stopped sneezing! It's hard for me to remember to say "bless you" every time lol.

Earlier in the week, we had a small zone council in Goldsboro where we just got together and made some goals for this next month. For an activity, they had us say what some of the struggles of being a missionary are and they would write them on a chalkboard up front. It was funny because they had to stop us from listing TOO many complaints haha – but anyways, they had us then list off gifts that we can receive from the Spirit through our obedience to the Lord's commandments, standards, and safeguards. It was a good perspective to see how the Lord can and will bless us with just the thing that counteracts the things that are hard or annoy us in the mission.

Sharroya had a family emergency and sadly was out of town until this past Saturday. Everything is okay and she was actually able to watch most of General Conference on Sunday!! That family is just so awesome! It sucks that they couldn't come to the BBQ this last Friday at the Reid's house. There were just 3 families there, and the main point behind it was because Elder Hansen (who finished about 5 months ago) was coming to visit the mission with his family, so Sharroya not coming wasn’t toooo bad, but it would've made things even more lit. While there I entertained the kids with my vast knowledge of Pokémon and was looking at Kendru's cards with them all. My collection is bigger, but who’s counting, am I right?? jk

This general conference was definitely one for me to remember! We actually stayed down in Wilson for 2 days to watch it all in their chapel as a district. The first session had me like... speechless. I legit cried you guys. I haven't felt a spirit that strong probably for this entire transfer up here. Especially during Elder Eyring's talk, when he spoke about his little girl replying with an enthusiastic "Yes!" every time the temple worker asked if she could do more. It made me think of my life, have I replied with a "yes" every time the Lord or His servants have asked for me to do something? Have I taken heed to the challenges they give me? I looked back on an experience I had, before my mission, in the temple that was quite like that. There was an older lady that came in with family names, and because I was the only young man present, they asked me to be baptized for all 20+ people! I said "yes" that day, even though I thought I might be losing time to be with friends later that day. But because I decided to stay, I had an amazing experience that I hope I never forget! 

Right after the first session, the sisters in Wilson had a baptism! It was AMAZING! They had fantastic speakers and people in attendance that have been so supportive to the family being baptized. The father, who used to be a pastor, was baptized a couple of months ago and was actually able to baptize his family himself! It wasn't perfect and there were a lot of things that were unexpected, but the Spirit was ever present through it all and the Maurers even came to watch! It was an 10/10 experience and I want to make sure my future baptisms are as well prepared and hyped up as the sisters made it. 

I got transferred and I am really excited to head out to the coast and finish my mission strong out in New Bern. I actually received a phone call from president yesterday where he reminded me to "leave it all out in the field" and continue strong for the remainder of my time here in the NCRM. I’m guessing I’m going to "die" as a DL out there and try to keep the party boppin' out there for whatever time I have left. It sucks that I won’t be able to teach Sharroya and her family, but I hope to be able to attend their baptism here in the future!!! Have a blessed day y’all!

Any Way We Can Find Them!

Oi Gente! This week was pretty mellow, but that doesn't mean nothing happened! We started the week off with a Zoom call with the entire east half of the mission and the social media specialists. They wanted to give a few more points on how the new 🎉Mission Wide Facebook Page🎉 will work/what we should do. Holy cow did they talk forever, but it’s alright. There was a Q&A portion at the end and I actually was intending to ask something, but when I began to speak, our connection fell through and the Wi-Fi didn't work for hours. Just my luck, right?!

Of course, what would missionary work be without some service right? This past week gave me the opportunity to serve two awesome families. One of these families lives just a few blocks from us, and we found them through them responding to a Facebook service post/ad thing. They asked for us to literally take out an entire wall on their house, for they planned to have a garage door placed in its stead. With that task in front of us, we utilized the couple of hammers and the one drill that we had and we successfully took down their wall without a single casualty! The other person we served was actually the first councilor in the ward bishopric, whose daughter just turned 8 (we'll get to that momentarily). We trimmed some bushes and took things to the dump, nothing too crazy. Then with the same family, we went to a Baptist church and helped them with a food drive!

For the youth's activity, we were invited to come and talk about what it's like to be a missionary, why we came out on a mission, and what we wish we knew before coming out. It was pretty cool, and let's just say... I came with visuals haha. The boys really enjoyed themselves and when I ran into them throughout the week, they would come up to me and say how really grateful they were for my advice. They're a bunch of beasts. Oh yeah, there is only ONE YOUNG WOMAN in the entire ward! Well, active that is. I am getting to know more of the members and I hope to use that to my advantage in future lessons in fellowshipping other people. 

I also was blessed by the Lord with the opportunity to be introduced to a family that had been referred to us! This family was given to us by some missionaries up in Massachusetts that found the mom (Sharroya) and had her come to church with them until she finally moved down here! The family consists of Sharroya (40ish), Ejay (17), Layla (13), Nalya (9), and then two other little girls who are also named Sharroya – lol. We had a weird first encounter with Sharroya, but since then, we've become homies. Our first time seeing her and the fam in person, was at the baptism of Quinn (the girl who just turned 8). They enjoyed it and I had the chance to take the younger girls up to see the baptism up close:) After the baptism, we gave them a church tour and it was quite the party. It wasn't as much of a party as the lesson we had with them AFTER THEY CAME TO CHURCH!!! There were a lot of distractions going on with all of these little kids in the room, but the spirit was still strong and we were able to put Sharroya and Ejay on date for April 17th! Trust me when I say that this family is elect. I will be sure to give it my best and be the missionary they deserve and help them come unto Christ's fold through the gates of baptism! CHOO CHOOOO!

Angels Among Us

I'm sorry that I was unable to write y’all an email this last week, so I'll just make a short yet detailed list of the big events that happened in these last 14 days of mission life. At the beginning of the other week, I had dinner at a member’s house. Everything was going great, and after the meal, their youngest son wanted to shoot some hoops with us. I placed my phone and wallet on the hood of his mom's car as we were playing and it wasn't until his mom hopped onto the freeway, that I realized I hadn't grabbed my things off her car. I frantically searched the sides of the road where she drove, all the way up until the entrance of the freeway. Nothing! We finally gave up and headed back to the car, we then received a call on our other phone from the Reid family who lived quite nearby and they said they had my phone AND wallet! I guess angels really do look out for me. Brother Reid said that a lady knocked on his door and said that she knew he was from Utah and saw that my license is a Utah one, but the weird thing was, he had never seen this woman before. It was an awesome blessing for me personally and it has really strengthened my testimony of how God is always keeping His servants safe and in good care.

The next day, we had a zone conference with the Maurer's in Goldsboro. It was reaaaalllly long, and they tried to keep us engaged the best they could. They started off their PowerPoint by bringing up "Racism in the Mission", which I thought was weird, but okayyy then lol. It was pretty good though, and they were really focusing on how many different ways missionaries can find people while here in the NCRM. One of those ways just so happens to be us (the missionaries) putting our area code into the phone, and then typing some random numbers afterwards! Looks like we are the newest line of telemarketers in today's world!!

Throughout both of these weeks, I have focused on cleaning up our area book by calling people who haven't been taught in a while, or referrals we’ve received but haven’t gotten in touch yet. I happened to get in contact with a few people who are pretty cool, so I’m going to give a quick intro to these cool kids.

-Jia is a gal who talked with missionaries in the past and we taught her the Restoration right on the spot when we called her.

-Ikea is her daughter and overheard our convo. She is interested in talking with us and one day being baptized!

-Stephanie is a referral who wanted to learn how to truly follow God (through baptism) and she has such a passion for it.

-Juanita was also a referral who originally wanted to know how to pray the right way, and she is planning to come to church this next week, if we can get her a ride!!

-Skip was a guy who wanted some clarity in what he sees going on around him. He has so many beliefs in common with us, but uses different words (Ex. Says "energy" and not "spirit")

Lastly, I wanted to talk about what I have been studying this week. In preparation for this up and coming General Conference, I wanted to go back and see what the prophet has asked each of us to do in the 6 months before this next conference. One thing that President Nelson really pointed out was that we all should study up on all of the blessings that are promised to covenant Israel. With that on my mind, I tried to read up a little bit about it on the church's website and came across the article 'The Abrahamic Covenant: a blessing for all people'. I really like how they narrowed a lot of the blessings into 4 promises given to Abraham from God: A promised land, a great posterity, priesthood and gospel blessings, and lastly, a mission of salvation to others. One scripture that they used in the article (Galatians 3:27-29) really brought it home for me when it says,

27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise". 

I feel that if others could truly see how easy it is to be one with Christ and receive the blessings in store for those willing to "Let God Prevail" in their lives, then people would be much happier and the world would be a much better place! 

But what are your thoughts on this subject? What all have you studied about through these last 6 months? I hope that everything is going great and things aren't getting too crazy over there. But anyways, I suck at writing so imma end this here. Tchauuu! 

This Week Was Sick!

This week has been pretty sick! Both literally and metaphorically. Let me explain. On Tuesday, we got a call from my boy, brother Stroman, saying he was in the hospital:( We kept in touch with him throughout the week and instead of just having some intestinal issues, he also has pneumonia now! Be sure to keep him in your prayers!

We had a zone council in Goldsboro and my zone is pretty hype. While there, we had a game of Jeopardy, based on how well we know our companions. It was really fun and we ended up winning the grand prize – a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts! I also found an awesome leather bound copy of Jesus the Christ. I took that as a sign that I should study my scripts more. There are actually about 6 or 7 people in this zone that have the same release date as me so that's pretty cray cray. We set a zone goal of having 8 people baptized for the month of March and I have faith that things will work out!

Throughout this week, I decided that even if my comps don't want to do too much, I’ll get all of our contacts done for the day and set up future lessons. The Lord has seen my efforts and knows my limits. Through my hard work, I have been able to find 2 new people and one person who came to church. Her name is Melinda and we actually put her on date for the 20th of this month!:) I am soo pumped and I hope that I can continue to keep up this intensity. I can see that I sound a little bit selfish when I've been talking, my companions are actually really great missionaries and they have so much experience, they just don't really have the drive to do much if there's nobody on the schedule to teach. So I’m going to keep us busy by setting up lessons!!!

I was able to finally meet Momma Reed's husband this week and boy is he cool! Brother Reed is a pilot for a company that flies around celebrities and other famous people, so he was sharing some of those stories with us when we were over at his house this last week. They were generous enough to get some of the best steak filets I've ever had! These cuts of meat were sooo tender and juicy and the Reeds were just sooo over the top kind to us that evening. I love their family! 

We also had the chance to help a family move out of their house. It was a young couple in the ward that wanted to head out to Morehead city. There were little kids running around the entire time, but they were usually in their giant backyard. After moving the stuff into their moving truck, I was tasked to take down their kid’s big wooden playset thing.  When I was taking it down, we lost the drill bit. I started looking for it with the girls and found nothing. After a while I asked them, "Do you think God knows where the drill bit is?", And they replied, “of course He does”. So we knelt down and had the oldest daughter say a prayer for us to find it. When she finished the prayer, we started looking again for the part on the ground. After about 5 minutes, I looked up and found the drill bit resting on a piece of wood above my head. Upon finding it, I showed it to the girls and the youngest one said, "I think God wanted us to look up towards Him instead of looking down, huh?!" It was a very special experience to me and I am grateful for this amazing new memory!!

These past 3 days I've also been feeling suuuuper sick and in a lot of pain, but that's fine because the more I prayed and relied on the Lord's help, the more I was able to withstand the pain and keep up the work that I'm a part of. It reminded me of when President Ballard just had hand surgery but still needed to do quite a bit of paperwork, so instead of giving up, he said a prayer and asked the Lord to not take his pain away, but to make it bearable and allow him to do the work he needed to do. Kind of how the Israelites or Alma’s people, when they were in bondage; the Lord did not immediately free them from bondage, but first made their burdens light so that they could endure the trial and then they were freed in His time. Anyways, I'm feeling a little better and I hope y’all have a great week. Valeuuu!

Get Out When The Spirit Tells You!

Boa Noite Gente! These past couple of weeks flew by h*cka fast, even though not too much happened. Elder Stohl and I were able to get in quite a few lessons with former investigators and grind out all that needed to be done. We also were able to go with Sophia to her church in Apex!!! Before we left for the meeting, I learned the lesson of not squeezing a Tide Pod too tight... WITH A SUIT ON NO LESS! Needless to say, it got all over me. It's alright though because I just put on my next best thing and headed out the door. Anyways, the meeting was really awesome and we had an amazing opportunity to see the temple in Raleigh once more. Sophia instantly was introduced to quite a few girls her age and made some new friends in her ward! I enjoyed my visit with the APs and even got to see the Maurers as well (and a quick glimpse of my boy, Pres Henderson). When Sophia left, I low key got roasted by President and Sister Maurer about my apparel and hair, along with Elder Stohl. It didn't leave the best taste in my mouth, but it's whatever lol. 

After church, I did the tradition of going to bass lake one last time, and after that... time truly began to fly. First thing I did on Monday morning was take my suit to the dry cleaners. Then that night, I started to explore the attic that I've been eyeing for the past 6 months. I was lucky to have some help from other elders:) Tuesday morning, I started off by finally lighting and sending off the lantern I've had kept on hold for Papa. We then took a picture in front of the Masonic Lodge in Fuquay. I took one last pic with the squad before grabbing my suit and leaving for Raleigh. While at transfers, I only saw President for a few seconds before he disappeared to help some missionaries get ready to return to their original assignments. I went to the table with transfers on it and finally found my name. I’m being transferred to the Rocky Mount area with my new companions, Elder Chapell and Toso. Elder Chapell is from Spanish Fork and is number 6 of 13 kids in his family lol. Elder Toso is from Washington State and was actually in Samoa for the first 2 years of his life. They are both amazing athletes and have about 20 months of mission experience each!

My first "full day" in my area was cut short with a surprise exchange after district council with my district leader's companion, Elder Wilson. I wasn't too happy to go, but it was a pretty good day in the end. While there, we had a lesson with a guy named, Napoleon. All I knew before going to his house was that the sisters passed him off to the elders and that he only likes reading from the book of Revelation. He kept making comments about how he receives revelation for the Mormon Church on how to save them from themselves. Every time I brought up something about our church, he would change the subject. The only time he seemed interested was when I mentioned how we can give blessings, like in James 5:14. He said he wanted us to anoint him with our special oil, so I was like "ight but let's do it inside so there's less distractions" (cause we were in the hood and a lot of crazy was going on around us – lol). We finally got into Revelation and right as we started to explain what we understood for those scriptures, he cut us off yet again and had us read a scripture that talked about false prophets and how they shall be judged of God. I asked him why he wanted us to read that, and he said that those who preach false doctrines need to know the consequences, then he said the lesson was over and that it's time for us to go give him that blessing in his house. Throughout the lesson, I was feeling a little uneasy and I brushed it off because I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt, but by now, I didn't feel good at all. As we were grabbing chairs and taking them back to the house, I grabbed Elder Wishart and asked him how he was feeling. He was also feeling unsteady, and then I told him that I had heard a voice tell me, "You are going to be physically harmed if you go into that house", so we pulled an excuse out of nowhere and GOT THE H*CK OUT! I decided to call the sisters and ask why they passed the guy onto the elders and then I recounted the story of what just happened. When I finished the story, the sisters told us that was the exact feeling they had with him and told us to not see him anymore! Scary! 

Anyways, the rest of the week went by in a flash and I am loving this ward! Brother Stroman and Momma Reed are the greatest and have really helped me feel welcome. Y’all will hear more of them in the future! I also had the chance to share my testimony in church. Even though it was last minute, I was still able to think of some zingers to add onto my short and simple testimony. Sorry for this lengthy email, but y’all deserve it hahaha. Falou!

It's All About Service

Hey y’all! These past two weeks have zoomed by with some interesting things that happened along the way. If there was one thing we did a lot of, it was doctor visits. Nothing bad has happened, and it's good to know that the visits will soon be over haha. Actually, this last Friday, we carpooled with some other elders that had to go up to Raleigh for a doctor's visit, so that was a fun little road trip for the day!

There has been an emotional rollercoaster with Jake and Sophia, so I'll start with Jake. We ended up having to scrap their baptismal date after they revealed their true thoughts to bishop in a talk they had together. Jake still wants to talk with us and have us answer their questions, but Jake's not going to be baptized until they're willing/ready to accept and live ALL of the guidelines the Father asks of us to abide by. As for Sophia, she is doing really good and learns more every time we're together! One downside to things is that her mom does not think she is ready at all and demands that we wait for her to be 15 before she is baptized. Since we don’t want her mom to be any more angry, we accepted her request to delay her baptism until Sophia is all in and knows everything her mom wants her to know. Looks like I'll just be Johnny Appleseed out here and plant seeds for all of these future missionaries. LOL

If there is one thing I really enjoyed over these couple weeks, it was the kinds of service I got to do. For one lady, we had the chance to spread some dirt over by her house and have it at an angle where all the runoff water would be directed away from her garden. At a couple of other projects, I was able to speak some Spanish!!! While at habitat for humanity, they have me help people who are looking for certain things or need help loading things into their cars or trucks. I also helped a member move into their new home and they all spoke Spanish. Actually, the wife could only speak Spanish, so whenever she wanted to tell the other elders to do something, she would yell to me to translate lol. I love speaking Spanish and I really hope I can get better after the mission, but I wish I had even more chances to speak Portuguese! I need to master my Portuguese skills and get to Brazil ASAP so I can help the people I haven't gotten to meet and bring unto the fullness of the gospel! I pray I can return soon and that I can finish what I started 19 months ago!

What Are You Sharing With The World?

Legit – after I got off the phone with my family, I jumped into gear and got a whiteboard and scriptures prepped for my lesson with my new investigator Sophia. We came out of the gates with the plan of salvation and drew the picture of two holes and how Christ built a bridge over the first one, but we need to climb a ladder out of the second one to get to God. It was a great lesson and the spirit was strongly present there. Sophia received the answer she needed and said that she would like to be baptized, so we marked a date right then and there for the 5th of February, but we are most likely going to move it back to the 13th. The only obstacle we have is that her mom wants her to know, not just the teachings/doctrine of Christ, but ALL THE STORIES TOO. It's going to make things harder, but I have faith everything will work out and she is super strong. We've met with her quite a bit this last week and it's been fun being with her and her member bf, Ben. We also had a lesson with Jake and Glen and they will also be preparing themselves for baptism, but there is no set date for them yet. I had the opportunity to go on a quick one day exchange with Elder Jack. I had a great time and it was good working with a diligent missionary who has been in the mission almost as long as I have. It was like two pros pulling up to a pickle ball match, we just wiped the courts with our gospel and spiritual knowledge. We were able to watch the baptism of Mark who was taught by the Sunset Lake Elders. Sophia and Ben attended with us and they both really enjoyed themselves which made me super happy. In this week's missionary devotional, Elder and Sister Vinson (who are from Australia) talked about the message we as missionaries are here to share with the world. With that in mind, he broke down all of the 9 paragraphs of "The Restoration Proclamation". He also invited us to study it more and apply what is written into our teachings because they truly are inspired words given to the entire world from living prophets. So I invite you to read over that proclamation this week so we can talk about what we both learned/thought was interesting in the coming week:) Tchau!!

What Brings You Joy?

So we had a pretty dang good week if I do say so myself. We had a lesson with Jake and their awesome brother Glen was there to tag along!! We discussed the plan of salvation with them and it was fantastic! When we read verses 23-25 in the 2nd chapter of 2 Nephi, their minds were blown with how simple the gospel was and that God has a purpose for LITERALLY EVERYTHING. We did quite a bit of service with our awesome friends at MMIA (Mike and Jillian). While helping them out, they were generous enough to inform us of some suits and coats they wanted to get rid of, and I found me an amazing coat that looks spiffy. We received a referral from some elders in the mission, Donald’s the name. He had requested a Book of Mormon and so we fulfilled that request and it turned into a nice discussion on the book and where it came from. We hope to see him soon because he's got a lot of great potential! This week, we were tasked with the job of making the quality post for the Facebook page and I had noooo idea what I should do it on. We decided to make it in hopes it would benefit those we are teaching, and they needed some joy in their lives. Thus, we made our video on joy lol. It was a prayerful process and for some reason, I was having a STRUGGLE staying on task. It's alright, because in the end, it turned out to be a pretty great video and I enjoyed making it. That makes me begin to question, what brings you true joy? Be sure to let me know this next week and to share my video if you'd like;) I have started to work on my language skills even more because all of these Brazilian missionaries are getting calls from their mission presidents telling them that they will be going back this February!! Who knows, maybe I'll have received a call by the next time y’all hear from me! That's all for this week, falouuuu!

Keep Dancing Till Your Blessed

This past Tuesday we had transfers and I had to say adios to some of the great people I've been with the past 4 1/2 months. Elder Stohl and I will stay here for another transfer, but we ended up going to transfers because we had to bring up the other elder's stuff. What was really funny was that we had just finished up doing service for Lola and we were covered in mud and wearing service clothes while everybody else was wearing suits and dresses, lol. While saying my goodbyes at the mission office, I came across one of my old friends, Sister Breanna Green! She looked as stunning and full of the spirit as ever and it was nice to see someone from home out here serving the Lord along with me. We had to hurry up to go to Wake Forest for an appointment, and on our way back, we returned to the mission office to pick up the new elder's stuff. As we entered into the building, we said “hi” to President Maurer and he looked at my comp’s missionary tag that was flipped around which revealed sticker on the back with a price tag. In response to seeing it, President said, "Elder Stohl, you must be a very expensive man as you seem to be $420" hahaha. He also turned to me and asked how much my tag says I’m worth and I responded with, “I’m priceless President”;) 'Twas a very memorable day indeed.

Throughout this week, we have tried to get in contact with many members to set up a time to share spiritual thoughts in hope of receiving referrals or promoting the Facebook page, but we haven't had too much success. BUT that's totally fine. In the letter from the Maurer's this past week, they told the story of an African tribe that confounded all of the anthropologists. It seems that this tribe had for centuries enjoyed a 100% success rate with its rain dance. In comparing this tribe to other tribes who did rain dances, but who didn't always experience success, the experts couldn't find anything that differentiated the one tribe. They performed the same rituals, praying the same incantations to the same gods, in the same costumes. Like all the tribes, they sometimes danced for days, even weeks on end. Finally, an astute observer noticed something very telling. The successful tribe did one thing – and only one thing – different than the other tribes. They ALWAYS danced UNTIL it rained! So that’s just what I'll do, keep dancing till the Lord rains some blessings on me.

Like I talked about a little last week, I watched the devotional with Elder and Sister Gong. They were amazing (of course) and I wanted to share two President Nelson quotes that they used. The first is, “education is the difference between wishing you could help other people, and being able to help them" and the second one is "nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work. A covenant path to enduring joy." I thought these were some pretty amazing quotes from our living prophet and I thought I'd just leave these with you for your pondering pleasure for this next week.

Goals Are Meant to Stretch Us!

Howdy! This week was pretty good. I went on an exchange with Elder Jack (my DL) and we had a great time. On Tuesday morning, the Maurers had a zoom call with all of the missionaries to talk about their plan for this mission. They talked about how they feel like they haven't been showing any faith in us and want to start showing it by implementing the new mission standards of excellence. Now our goals for each week are: 10 new people, 5 investigators to sacrament, and 2 investigators on date for baptism. These new goals are meant to stretch our efforts and faith in the Lord’s work and I am excited to see how things turn out. They told us to think, "if President Nelson called you on the phone and said that he needs you to double your numbers and efforts, what would you start to do differently?” That question really made me want to buckle down and get to work even more – haha. I had a pretty good week and I am starting to see some fruits come from my labor, like having 3 people come to church!!! It was awesome and it makes me eager to do more and more:)) I'll catch y’all on the flipside!

#NoRegrets

The work is moving forward as always, but if I am being honest, I did not feel too accomplished after this week. Nobody really talked to us and we spend a lot of time at home because we didn't have the car this last week. This area is still pretty good and I wouldn't mind staying another transfer if I’m not going back to Brazil just yet. The main reason I wouldn't want to leave this area is because Elder Stohl is such a beast and this transfer with him has gone by wayyy too fast. Even though we butt heads a lot, he’s a heck of a missionary and I really enjoy being with him. I just hope I can give him more of my knowledge on teaching so that he can be as confident and smooth in lessons as me. ;) This past week was full of some cold rainy days where nobody got to see the sun for some time. So it was my favorite week weather wise. Haha. I think one of the main goals I have for this year is kind of what I’ve already been doing in my mission, with the #NoRegrets attitude. Elder Stohl has received many things from family and friends, one of these things were his lacrosse sticks. And since we both need to go outside to stretch our legs every once and a while, he has been generous enough to teach me the ways of the lax. I have been grinding out conference talks when I’m at home; I think I’ve listened to all of the past 3 conferences. I have noticed that whenever I am in a lesson, or just talking about the gospel, I somehow make a connection with one of the talks I’ve listened to – haha. I think it’s pretty cool and I've received some really great insights. I love you guys and I am going to be better about writing emails, Tchau!!!

New Comp Arrives!

How's it going fam? This past Tuesday I pulled up to the mission office to pick up my newest companion Elder Isaac Stohl. He is from Bountiful, Utah and he is a beast! He is a natural born athlete like me and spent a lot of his time at home playing lacrosse and hitting the slopes with his skis. We went throughout our week with a lot of service from the "service ad" I put up on Facebook marketplace! The members here have been really awesome on their part of getting that service ad into the community Facebook groups and I am starting to see the fruits from social media for once! We went to a lady's house to chop down a tree with an axe and trim her bushes. Afterwards, she said that she would be very interested in having a bible study with her this next Thursday and I'm so pumped!! She is neighbors with some members and she has actually gone through the temple open house before. Let's hope that everything works out with her. We were also able to have a lesson with Lisa!!!!! aka, smoker lady lol. The "lesson" was mostly just us sharing our beliefs with each other and her asking us really weird questions like why we have to sleep in the same room or about how we have to go by elder all the time. Overall, it was a good time. Elder Stohl and I have been having fun with his new camera that he just got, so we've been taking a lot of photos and he is getting pretty good. We actually were asked to take a picture for the zone Facebook page because we had access to a good camera. Maybe we will make some dope videos in the near future?? I also got a bike, so this Pday we went trail riding and I got destroyed with mud haha. It was really fun and I hope we can do that again sometime soon. Anyways, it's been a pretty great week and I can't wait for what this next week has in store!

Christmas Tree Fun

This week was cool, literally and figuratively lol. Of course I talked about how I got a turkey in bowling last Monday. But even better is that on Tuesday, we took over one hundred Christmas trees off of a trailer, drilled a hole in the bottom of them, then set some of them up for display on a tree lot that sold trees for a charitable cause. It was really fun and we went back later in the week to load them up on people's cars and it was quite the experience! Transfers came in and I will be staying here in Fuquay-Varina through new years. I don't know who my new companion is yet. Throughout this last week, I've been reading through the come follow me and it's been awesome. I'm trying to get into the habit of doing it so that I can be used to doing it when I get home. I also have been listening to a lot of talks lately and my testimony of living prophets and apostles grow each day! I have been teaching a lot of members this past week about the light the world challenge for this year, it'll really complement the challenge president Nelson gave us last week and it'll bless us more than we think it will. I invite you all to do it with me and be sure to post on social media how it goes! Also, I posted an ad on Facebook for free service and people have been HITTING ME UP. This whole next week is going to be jam packed with service and I'll be sure to do some contacts with these peeps and invite them to learn of Jesus Christ. I'm sooo excited to see what this next transfer has in store and that I can have a clean slate with a new comp that'll go off on all of these potential members out here. I hope that he will be like Elder Lima, that would be my perfect match as we do the Lord's work. Just know that y'all are in my prayers and if you need anything, whether it's prayers or help understanding a gospel subject of any kind, let me know! Love you guys! See ya!

Amazing Messages

Hey all! We got together with a lot of the surrounding missionaries and played some games at Womble Park. Elder Hill brought some gloves and I played catch with him for the first time in like 2 years. I was surprised to learn that my knuckle ball has become exceedingly nasty to where it moves like somebody under the influence without spinning at all. I guess it just needed a little rest lol.

We were tasked with the special assignment this week to get anybody and everybody to watch the message from President Nelson. I took that to heart and doubled my efforts in speaking to anybody who would listen to my voice. I started going off and even made some pass along cards for the event. I caught the attention of my neighbor and started to talk with her. Her name is Lisa and she is a beast. Before I knew her name, she was known as "smoker lady" hahaha. But anyways, she starts saying that she would be interested in watching the message and then began to ask all of the weird questions about our church (multiple wives, if coke is banned, etc). Then she tells us that she was the 8th grade sex ed teacher for none other than DUSTIN JOHNSON as well as a few other athletes that play in college sports. We sadly haven't seen her yet, but I know that we're gonna have a lit conversation when we do! Another cool contact that I had was when I called an atheist that I found named Amin. He doesn't really care to learn much about God, but he seemed really excited to talk with us and asked us to send him the link about President Nelson's message and the church website! I wish that every contact was as spiritually uplifting as that was.

When the message came on Facebook, I was sooooo pumped. After watching, I felt weird because I was underwhelmed, yet my mind was still blown if that makes sense. I guess I was expecting things for the second coming, but then I was blown away because he was like, "It's not like I'm a doctor... oh wait, yes I am, and y'all need gratitude!" or when he was like," Don't be bummed about losing loved ones, because I have lost plenty, yet I move on in life". It was awesome and our whole zone had a zoom chat where we talked about what we liked and felt about the message.

This weekend, our stake had the first stake conference in over a year and the Maurers pulled up without any of us missionaries knowing on Saturday. Luckily, I didn't have anything I was scared of them seeing, or so I thought... They both spoke and Sister Maurer gave a talk that I think the whole family needs to listen to about if others know that we are Christian. After the meeting, they came up and Sister Maurer CLAPS me with a roast about how ugly my hair is. It's alright though. They are a hoot and I love them. Then on Sunday, President Runyan came up and spoke passionately about how the parents need to prepare their children to serve missions and build the Lord's kingdom here on earth. He also gave a shout out to the missionaries saying that we are the best ones he has ever had in this stake, then when I gave a little fist pump to him, he said "I see even one of the missionaries present is giving me a fist pump of excitement" lololo. He called for everybody to be better about making their home a Christ centered home. I felt the spirit so much as he spoke and I was so glad to know that my family has been good about helping me be able to choose to follow the teachings of the church because I wanted to instead of forcing it upon me/them giving me my testimony instead of me getting it for myself. 

The APs cracked down on us (the entire mission) the other day about us not wearing masks AT ALL TIMES, leaders and companionships alike. So yeah.... I'll try to be better this next week lol. That's all folks, I'll see ya next week. Falouuuuu

Service, Rain, Star Wars and President Nelson

What's poppin? This week was pretty dope. I did a lot of service throughout the week and it was a blast. One of the things I did was move a giant pile of gravel around to the other side of a lady's house and make a path with it. It was going pretty good until the wheelbarrow tipped and the two handles snapped when I was pushing it. The work didn't stop and my forearms got destroyed haha. Another form of service I did this week was at a golf tournament for the MMIA. While there, I held more liquor in my hands than I have ever held in my life hahahaha. I also saw Ms. North Carolina and decided to take a picture with her. She saw me and eagerly put her arm around me as I asked to take a picture with her and I didn't have the strength to tell her not to put her arm around me. ;)

Thanks to some of the season's last hurricanes; I had to stay inside for a full day because the heavy rainfall caused the streets to flood. Instead of trying to bash in the bible groups like usual, I decided to take a different approach and join a star wars interest group and make posts related to the gospel. I had so much success on just one post that it makes me wonder why I hadn't given this a try 4 months ago haha. Besides that, not much really happened this week. One thing is for sure, Y'ALL NEED TO WATCH THE VIDEO PRES NELSON MADE FOR THIS FRIDAY! All the missionaries are in charge of literally telling everybody to watch so I expect nothing less from y'all as well. Tchau!

The Living Christ

Howdy y'all! I'm sad to say that things didn’t quite work out for Gabby this past week. Due to the recent elections, we had to be inside our houses at an earlier time for fear of riots. But ya know, since Biden was in the lead, the rioters had no reason to go looting, I guess. I had interviews with President and Sister Maurer and that went well. I love every chance I get to meet with them and chat. 

On top of having interviews, we had a mission wide zoom call where we discussed about a talk given by Elder Bednar in a mission leadership conference in 2018. It was on what revelation is, how we can get it, and what we need to do when we receive it. It was really awesome. One thing that struck me was when he said, "Repetition is a vehicle through which the Holy Ghost can enlighten our minds, influence our hearts, and enlarge our understanding." He continued to say that if we ever are listening to others in sacrament meeting or conference and we think "wait, I already know this", we should not turn off our minds and not pay attention. If we ever do this, Elder Bednar has called these people to repentance hahaha. 

Idk If I told y’all yet, but it is a new goal of mine to memorize the entire document of The Living Christ. President Maurer asked our zone to specifically memorize the first two paragraphs, but I want to know all of it, so that's what I'm working on. 

Even though we didn’t teach many people this week, we got to do a lot of service. I went multiple times to volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, and even had the chance to get things prepped for a Veterans Day golf tournament through the MMIA. It was really fun and I am satisfied with my efforts. There isn't much left to say besides that I am grateful for this opportunity the Lord and my family has blessed me with to come out and serve a mission. I am sure to make every second count and lose myself in the work. God's the GOAT!

Halloween Horror - Missionary Style

Yoyoyo Fam Jam,

This week was quite one to remember. We were super busy and I went to the chiropractor not once, but two times! My back has never felt better and it is yet another motive for me to get rich when I'm older so I can go get my back fixed often in the future. Our schedule has been hectic as well as the schedule of the people we've been teaching, but we try to make use of all of the time we are given.

Last Friday, we had our zone conference with President Maurer, and sadly Sister Maurer wasn't able to make it because she was feeling under the weather. We spoke about many things. One thing they really focused on, was getting back into the "normal" missionary schedule by trying to drop out our "outside time" permanently. I can see why they decided to implement that because a lot of missionaries have taken it waaaay out of proportion by just playing games all day instead of doing the Lord's work. Another thing we spoke a lot about in our conference were who the stripling warriors are. For those of you who didn't know, like me, "stripling" means young. We split into three groups to write down the attributes described in 3 chapters of Alma (Alma 53, 56, 57) on 3 separate white boards. I kind of took charge of one of the white boards and wrote down the attributes the people in my group were shooting my way. Then, President had us pick the top 5 attributes we wrote down. The 5 we chose were: courageous, power of the word of God, exceedingly valiant, men of truth and soberness, walk uprightly always. These were great and President Maurer "volunteered" me to present the 5 things to the whole zone and why we chose them. He went on to explain that we as missionaries must be like the stripling warriors, courageous, walking upright at all times and being strong with the word of God which we are commissioned to proclaim to the entire world. Because we literally are called to go to war against the adversary to bring souls unto God, there isn't much of a difference between us and the young men under Helaman's command.

The weather has also taken a drastic turn into utter cold of fall. Luckily, I have a furnace within me (aka the spirit), so I don't get cold easily. But MAN, just wearing church pants and a light jacket doesn't do quite enough sometimes lol. I didn't do anything for Halloween besides watch a devotional at the church and go all out to make the best horror movie ever. That sucker is a true nightmare for anybody not of our faith hahaha. Besides that, there hasn't been too much that is email worthy. I am starting to get in touch with more of the members and I am about to rack in a butt load of referrals, I'm feeling it!

The spirit can teach us ALL things!

Hey hey hey! This was quite an amazing week. There were so many miracles, I couldn't keep track of them all. But to name a couple, one would be our amazing lesson with Gabby on Wednesday. In that lesson, the spirit could be felt soo strongly that she stopped us and asked what the feeling was that she was having. We explained that it was the spirit and she could feel that always if she would be baptized. And when I slid in with the question, she agreed to be baptized on November 4th!!!! Not only that, but we are planning on going to Cole’s house and teaching his whole family! 

One of the other wards had a drive-in movie on Thursday and watched “Onward”. I'm salty that I didn’t see it when I had the chance, because it looked so good! But instead of watching that, we watched our weekly devotional and boy did we get a treat. We heard from President Ballard and Elder Holland! They beasted it and started preachin to the choir! One thing President Ballard said that I loved was, "if you ever feel depressed or grumpy, get over it!.... get over it on your knees." I really needed that advice and will be better about keeping the best of attitudes through everything.

Even through all of these miracles, I have felt the spirit of contention a lot this week and especially these last couple days. I keep praying and that gives me most of the relief I need. All in all, I just think this is a trial of my patience and endurance. I know I can get through this and that even when opposition may arise and ‘the very jaws of hell shall gape open wide to swallow me’, this will all be for my good and give me experience and knowledge for later times in life. I love you all so much and feel your prayers each day. I hope y’all feel mine! Falouuuu!

 

Testify!

This week I was balling it up in the name of the Lord and went to visit a nuclear plant that's in my area. By balling it up, you know I mean literally. When we played volleyball with Gabby and Cole on Wednesday, I decided to take it a step forward with Cole and give him a Book of Mormon. We explained how it came to be and about Joseph Smith. Cole talked about what had been happening in his life and his relationship with God, and I decided to bear my testimony. In my testimony, I said that I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that he loves me. After I said that part, I was just over taken with the spirit. I had already had faith and known that He loves me, but dang, that just hit me hard at that moment. We are planning on following up with him this week on how reading 3 Nephi 11 went and to answer his questions. Over all, this last week was BEAST and passed quicker than I expected it to. I just hope I keep using my time for good and the improvement of God’s work here in Fuquay. Have a good one y'all!

Games for God

Yoyoyo everybody! This week was a dooozy. On Wednesday, we went to a grass court to play volleyball with Gabby. She took soooo long to get there so we decided to play before she came. A guy named Cole came up and asked if he could join in. While we were playing, he asked about what we do and said he would be interested to learn more about our beliefs and the next time we play volleyball. She finally showed up and we played only a little bit before we had our discussion. On Thursday, I pulled up into the church parking lot and the young men were playing one of the best games ever! It's called gaga ball. It's like free-for-all dodgeball, but you are in an arena and you are only able to slap the ball at other people's feet/legs. It was my first time ever hearing about it and it was way more fun than I expected! On top of all these fun games, we played even more games the next day by going to Womble Park and playing frisbee, soccer, and football! A bunch of people showed up and they all asked when we will do it again. Cole and his friend Dylan even showed up!!! We are going to do that every Friday and have the priests bring their friends. At the end of each time, we will give a small spiritual thought and challenge. Elder Morlaunt is going home, which means one person will be filling his spot, but besides that, the whole district will be the same for another transfer! Crazy I know! I guess it's a tradition for the Elders to go to Bass Lake and wait for our transfer results. And while I was there, I caught this ‘lil snek’. Besides that, it was a good week and I can’t wait to see how the Lord will bless me even more in this next one!! 

General Conference Slapped!

This was quite the spiritual peak for me in the mission. General Conference was more exciting than watching the superbowl and I learned sooo much! Idk how it was for you guys back at home, but listening to conference in the field slaps differently. I wrote down a butt load of notes but I forgot them at home, so sorry I won’t be able to state a lot of the things that I liked. If I were to state one of the things which stood out most to me, it was when they kept saying to prepare and secure yourselves – especially in the women's session. Gosh, why does the prophet have to drop all the knowledge during the girl stuff instead of telling everybody. Y’all don’t know how happy I was after President Nelson's talk on preparedness because I know that the Durante, Krispin, and Hunter clans have food storages and enough guns to arm our armada of a family!  But besides conference, I still had quite a good week and am proud to say that I have the opportunity to be teaching such an awesome gal. Her name is Gabby and she is the BOMB! She played volleyball in high school, so I am going to have to show her what real volleyball looks like when she comes to play with us this Wednesday! We had a lesson with her this past Sunday after conference and she said "when are we going to do this again?!" And I was shocked because I've never had someone so excited and golden. Transfers are next week so everybody place your bets. Will I bop out of here? Stay? Train? These are interesting times and I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me. Like President Nelson said, "The Lord is gathering those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives. The Lord is gathering those who will CHOOSE to let God be the most important influence in their lives. For centuries, prophets have foretold this gathering, and it is happening right now! As an essential prelude to the Second Coming of the Lord, it is the most important work in the world!" Let me emphasize the part where he said the gathering of Israel is the most important work in the world. Wow! I think he said that a few years ago too, but it didn’t slap me as hard in the face as it did yesterday. The work truly is going forward and I am glad to say I am a part of it. And let me tell ya....I ain’t about to stop this grind any time soon, in or out of the field. Love yall!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Hello there...It’s ya boy Elder Durante. This was quite a good week. I am enjoying service with some great elders, but I'm still set on seeing all of North Carolina, especially Greenville. I am most certainly excited for General Conference this next week and church is finally starting back up. It's been way too long for me. Sadly, I haven't heard any news about Andrea, but it sounds like it won’t be progressing more for a while. We finally had a lesson with a new investigator for the first time in foreverrrrr! It was good, but it seemed like we bashed more than had a clear lesson. We did have some good discussions though and she said she is excited to make more questions for us next time sooo....lol. I finally had some one on one time with president with interviews this past Sunday and we really hit it off. I bribed them with some of our chocolate so they won’t be upset with what went down with my video haha. Sister Maurer is hilarious and President is awesome! He played rugby as well;) While talking with him, he told me that 40 missionaries will be coming in this next transfer and it seemed like I might be training, but idk. On my way out the door, the Maurers said that I will be called out in our zoom meeting that night. And low and behold, president starts out with saying, "for those who want to talk in this discussion, raise your hand. But we'll have Elder Durante show us how it’s done." they're great and I am excited to be serving under their guidance. Thanks for all the amazing gifts and birthday wishes! I can’t believe I’m 20 years old! Falou!

Meet, Eat, and Greet

Howdydiddilydooo! This week was awesomesauceum! We tried getting into contact with more members and set up some lessons throughout the week. It was a blast finally talking to people here. We are finally able to eat at their houses and at one of the places we had dinner, we roasted hot dogs and s'mores! 

Church is starting to get up and running again, and one of the wards had sacrament last Sunday. Our ward’s first sacrament meeting will be after General Conference! Speaking about conference...I want to know what some of your predictions are. I think Elder Bednar will be going to the middle east, if you know what I mean;)

For some reason, it jump started into winter this past week where one day it was 90°, then the next day it was in the 60’s. With that crazy drop in temperature, we were able to get in more service and meet new people. Sadly, we had no new investigators this past week, but MAN WILL WE HAVE A FEW THIS NEXT ONE! I'm ecstatic to finally be able to teach some people this next week and it actually gives me something good to study about. We are talking to a college gal who has been talking with some sister missionaries for a while. She has 2 jobs and goes to school, but we'll find a time to squeeze in a lesson. We have also been getting to know her more over Facebook messenger. 

We got to meet President and Sister Maurer this Monday. That's why we are doing everything today. They are really cool and Sister Maurer is hilarious! They have really given a boost to my morale and I can’t wait to reach the potential the Lord knows I have! I can’t wait to see y’all today. Tchau!

Transferred to Fuquay-Varina

Sup?! Nothing really happened besides me doing service and saying goodbye to the ward. But this week was pretty lit if you ask me. I am in an area called Harris Lake and it is located in the town Fuquay-Varina. I share one church building with 3 other companionships. There isn't much success investigator wise, but that will change soon;) but for real though because we literally aren't teaching anybody, we are going to become THE BEST video making missionaries in the world. We are working on something BIG, so be sure to see it this coming week.  During my time here, I have become addicted to the bang energy drink and I believe it has given me special spirit enhancing powers.

Every day this past week we have been tasked with reading 2 chapters from preach my gospel, then have a discussion with the zone at night. I loved it and have learned more than I usually do in times past from reading it. I encourage you guys to read it all through, especially chapters 4 and 6!!!

(Spiritual Time)

I was going through the potential investigators in my area book and found a guy who "believes his own god". So I thought he would be a perfect person for me to call! He picked up and I explained who I was and he made sure that I knew that he didn't want to learn of Jesus. That's when I started to ask him what he believed in. He said that ultimately he is just too busy with work for religion. Then he asked me why I chose to go on a mission instead of just staying home to go to college and help others when I have extra time. I shot back by saying, "because I have my whole life after my mission to do that". I began to complement him about him being willing to serve others and be a good person, even though he doesn't believe in God, and we had a really nice conversation. For some reason I had the urge to tell him that faith in God isn't just believing, but it is action, and I told him that if he ever prayed to God, don't ask Him to take away your problems (because that rarely will happen), but ask Him HOW you can solve your problems. He said that he really appreciated my call and offered for us to call him if we have any computer problems in the future (he can fix them) or if we don't have anything to eat. He even went out of the way to say my communication skills were so advanced that he would like me to keep his number and get in touch with him if I want a job with him after the mission! It was an awesome experience and I KNOW IT WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IF I DIDN’T SACRIFICE MY NAP TO MAKE THAT CALL! Just saying... sacrifice is key – and God will reward his servants for showing Him that kind of loyalty.

Life's an Adventure!

This week was pretty lit and I was able to get in a lot of work! We went golfing on pday at "the challenge" and I was suuuper happy that Elder Stapel lost a bet to me cause he paid and that course was EXPENSIVE. Our zone conference wasn't too crazy. We all did pretty good on the Alma 7:11-13 thing, I barely got out cause I mixed up one of the “wills” with “shall”. I was suuuper bummed when president said I wasn't going to Portugal or Angola:( on top of that, our facebook admins roasted all of us for not making the content they like. Ugh some people are just getting on my nerves in this zone, but it's all good! I went on exchanges and caught a bass, a snake, and an awesome salamander! The salamander sprayed some sticky stuff on me and it turned out to be some acidic defense and it took forever to get it off my skin haha. Life’s a party. I hope that everything is going great over there and I just want to say that the work here has not stopped at all! It may seem slow because nobody wants to answer their phones, but I have had more meaningful contact in one day than I did in Brazil! I have 3 investigators progressing now with many new potentials soon to follow. I know I may seem bummed at times, but in my normal day, I do a lot. I usually get up at 6:30, say my prayers, make some breakfast, read some scripts, have a lil discussion with my comp, get in some service, teach a couple lessons w/ members or investigators over zoom, hang at the church, and end my day with 1 straight hour of gains! Life’s treating me great and I wouldn't trade it for anything else!

The Mercado

Hola! This week was pretty dang full of service! We woke up bright and early on Tuesday morning to go fishing with a family in the ward and all I caught was rain on my clothes, a tree branch, and a fl*ppin turtle that ended up busting my line and half the pole when I tried reeling it in. After that sad fishing trip we started to crack down on the jungle of a yard the Perez family had! It was really hard work and the humidity wasn't helping me at all lol. After calling a bunch of inactive members, we finally decided to put our beds back into the house haha. My back was kiiiiilling me. I decided that I should start to work out and do it while I'm studying the scriptures, so after each chapter, I did 30 sit ups. It worked pretty well, but I think I should just work out separately and just study my scriptures on my own. We got a butt load of rain and all we could do was stay inside and we not able to do any service. So we ended up cleaning the entire church (because we basically trashed the place). On Saturday, we went to the “mercado” in Mebane! We went around with some Spanish speaking missionaries and tried inviting people to watch/attend our english classes that we will be starting on facebook. We had a few good contacts with people and my Spanish wasn’t half bad haha. Something funny that happened was when I started making a contact with some Spanish speakers, and they turned out to be members. Nobody wanted to learn English apparently, but at least I got in some practice! In the end, it really put into perspective how I can go outside of the whole facebook box and talk with some people:) Adios!

Hurricane Isaias?!

Let me tell you man, I want my money back after this weak excuse for a hurricane. My phone wasn't working and I got in trouble for not having called the people in my district to make sure they didn't die. I even had President Henderson call me, so you know it was pretty serious. Ooooof. We haven't done anything too crazy this week. Let me drop some of this week's highlights. First thing would have to be when we gave a CTR ring to Andrea and she replied "this will make an awesome toe ring". Second would have to be when I tried making our district council more fun by playing some Book of Mormon hangman. Lastly, I went on exchanges with my zone leader, Elder Hullenger. We had a party and I showed him some of the cool places in Mebane. I did a butt load of service this week and it felt good helping out the members. I haven't done any Spanish classes because, well, I would need some students first. I also haven't done anything with Portuguese, so sorry about that. Good thing we have had all of this service and stuff to fill our time haha. That's about it for the week so I’ll see you guys later!

One Year Down, Another One To Go!

I started celebrating my one year mark the right way by waking up with the awesome camel that Nana sent me that says (in her own voice), "happy hump day"! I also got the package from mom and dad! I LOVED IT!! Right as I opened it up and saw the Star Wars quotes on the sides, I knew it was gonna be epic - and it wasssss!! The way the story begins was such a hoot and everything was super creative. Thanks sooo much!!! I think the best thing in the package was the gobstoppers with the funny quote about "even if the jawbreakers of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee...". I also loved the towel I got, since I already have 2 towels in my bathroom, I decided to pin it up as a decoration on my wall lololol. I didn't really do much to celebrate besides burn a shirt in Tina Marie's backyard and have a zoom call with the boyz! The mission has been treating me well and I haven't been too down anymore since I am starting to be more useful with my time. I have been trying to read up on some more talks and I loved the, "See others as they may become" talk by Thomas S. Monson.

 

I was thinking of making a group chat with all the guys serving missions from my home ward this next week (when I get some time) to see what and how they are doing missionary work to see what is most effective for them. Hopefully we can exchange ideas and maybe be able to help each other out. I talked with the members in both wards, here in Mebane, about giving us some more service opportunities and they have really been calling us up more often to help them out. It's been great! I also got a ward inactive/part member family list that I need to hit up and start having lessons with them. I am also planning on starting English classes after this up and coming transfer. I'm excited for this next week and hope that these things move forward with power and guided by the Lord's hand!

Interviews

This past week was truly one to remember! On Friday I had my interview with President AND Sister Henderson. President Henderson is a doctor and is suuuper serious about our safety because he has seen the effect of Covid-19 on people and he doesn't want to tell any parents that their child has it. I first was with Sister Henderson and it was like a ‘breaking the ice and allowing her to know more about me’ type of thing. Then I met with President Henderson. He is such an awesome guy! We talked about my work experience and my plans for the future here in the mission. He used a term called "quiet obedience". He explained that phrase is like, "yeah everybody in the mission is obedient, and it's no big deal to even talk about how obedient you are or aren't". I loved that so much. We talked about some personal struggles and he was super chill about it and just told me to move forward and never look back, and so I have! I talked to him about making my area a "spanish speaking area" and he was all for me doing instructive videos or whatever to teach people English/the gospel. He did say that if these people are getting pretty serious, that I should turn them over to the hermanas because the hermanas are technically in charge of all the Spanish speakers in the zone. All in all, it was a great time getting to see and talk with the Hendersons! Right after the interviews, I went on my exchange with Elder Shafer in my area and it was awesome. He is such a good guy with good intentions. It was pretty good to get a break from our companions and we both learned so much together. At the end of our exchange, we went to an investigators house to give him a blessing and a quick lesson. It was this elder’s 2nd ever blessing and it was a great learning and spiritual experience. We ended up having another lesson with that investigator on Sunday with his brother in law, who is a member...Which means he had a "sacrament" meeting! The work may be different than before, but remember what the Prophet Joseph said that, “no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progessing"! And with that in mind I hope you guys have an amazing week and I hope y’all are feelin’ my prayers and receiving the blessings for my effort!!

New Mission President!

Since President Matthew S. Holland got called as a general authority in April, we need a new mission president. The new mission president is David Henderson. He got assigned to us temporarily until our new president get here from Australia. (I guess he is having visa issues!) My brother, Will, actually had President Henderson as his mission president when serving in the Peru Huancayo Mission! Crazy stuff!

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever!

(Happy dad's day to all you other dads too)