11/27/2014 HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

11/17/2014..Winter begins!!!

 SNOW!!!

We got the chance to take one of our investigators to the visitors center! Whoo!

11/17/2014...Miracles!!

11/17/2014

This past week was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!
Miracle #1- I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous email but one of our investigators, the Brown's youngest daughter, was not able to be baptized because her father said no BUT after a very determined Brother Brown whittling away at him, she will be baptized this coming Saturday at 6! We have a lesson with the family this evening and her birth father is going to be there to "see what it is all about." I'm SO excited!
Miracle #2- Our other investigators are doing SO good! The ward support has been amazing and they have been coffee and smoke free for quite some time!! They will be baptized on November 29th at 1 o clock! On top of that, Thanksgiving is going to be amazing! :) Also, if I didn't already mention is before, Brother and Sister Axline are going to be sealed this coming December 2nd at 3:30! Elder Abbott and I get to go!
Miracle #3- Our zone is doing SO AMAZING! We even got a call from our Mission President this morning and we talked about the outstanding work that the zone is doing! We are on track to baptize 18 INCREDIBLE individuals this month and many more people will have the opportunity to enter into the fold of the good shepherd this coming month! :)
Miracle #4- SNOW! It has been snowing SO much! :) Also, the other night, we acquired many boxes of raspberries and took them to our investigator's houses and gave them out to random people. It was FANTASTIC! ON top of that, we had our Missionary Leadership Counsel with President and Sister Brinkerhoff, the Assistants, and Elder Martino of the Quorum of 70! It was phenomenal! I learned more fully that if we have the right vision and the right motivation, nothing can stop us. All it takes is an attitude change and we WILL be able to get to where we want to go! We also got to have our Zone Training which was a phenomenal experience! :) These missionaries are incredible!!!
Miracle #5- I got to go on exchanges in the Spanish Branch with Elder Ibarra! We got to teach an amazing family in English and the I got to be part of a lesson in all Spanish! As you can expect, I didn't say much! Haha! Elder Ibarra would ask me questions, I would answer and he would translate though! That was pretty cool!
Overall, it was an amazing, snowy, up and down, roller coaster of pure amazingness kind of week! I love you all! Be safe and have a fantastic week before Thanksgiving! :)

11/10/2014..Short and sweet

11/10/2014

It was an absolutely incredible week!!!
Highlight 1- We had our Zone Training! It was so good! The Zone was so excited about everything we were able to achieve in October and we are all very excited to see what can be done in November. God is blessing us!
Highlight 2- We were able to meet the son of one of our investigators. We hadn't been able to ever really talk to him but Saturday evening he let us in and we had a fantastic conversation with him! After sharing a message, we invited him to be baptized and he said he yes! WHOO! Also, we invited him to church and he said he'd go! He was there! Dressed up in a shirt and tie and everything! Also, we have an appointment with him this evening. This guy is awesome!
Highlight 3- We hadn't been able to meet with some other investigators for quite some time BUT we got to see them yesterday! We were worried that some of the opposition that they've been facing had gotten to them and they were starting to question everything BUT, when I saw her on Sunday, she walked up to me and said, "Guess who is smoke free!" AHHHH!!! It was awesome! Her and her daughter and son are set and ready to go for the 29th of November! We are starting to get everything set up. Truly, this will be the gift of Thanksgiving. :)
Highlight 4- I got all the info for Brother Axline! He will be taking out his endowments on December 2nd at 1 o clock and will be sealed to his wife at 3:30. A dinner will be held at 4:30 as well! AHHHH!!! I'm SO excited! :)
Highlight 5- It's a highlight just to be on a mission! Idaho is SO beautiful, the Gospel is INCREDIBLE and as a missionary, I'm immersed in both! Whoo!

11/3/2014...Baptisms and 'awesomeness'

The whole group at our P Day birthday party!

The whole gang! Elder Abbott was my trainer, I trained Elder Bertoch and Elder Bertoch is now training Elder Green! It's a 4 part line of pure awesomeness! :)

Bryan and his daughter were baptized Oct 29th after an amazing adventure of faith! there baptism was such a wonderful experience!!! I

11/3/2014..BAPTISMS and a hurt back!!!

11/3/2014

This past week has been a crazy blur of awesomeness! I experienced something I've never experienced before too! Turns out, I have a stretched nerve in my lower back! It isn't correlated with any sort of strenuous activity I did, just that I slept on it wrong! But, overall, it's doing some crazy things to my right leg. On the plus side, I got to visit with a Physical Therapist and he basically turned me into a pretzel! It worked though! It was SO cool! Physical Therapy is incredible!!!! :) I should be healed up soon! Cross your fingers! Also, I got to take a nap this past P Day. Up to this point in my mission I hadn't really ever slept on a P Day. My goodness...... it was Heaven! It was SO nice! Also, one of our wards had a Chili Night Halloween Party this past Tuesday! It was SO much fun! I met some amazing people and we were led to 2 or 3 more families to start visiting. The members are absolutely incredible! They are so supportive and they make you feel like a celebrity as a missionary! Haha!

10/27/2014..The Tin Man and Our church is so cool!!

10/27/2014

My week in review: Oh man...... picture the best week EVER and place that week in Idaho and you will get a good feel for what my week was like! P-Day was AMAZING! We had a surprise birthday party for one of the Sisters in our zone! We had donuts, played basketball, soccer and wrote letters! It was SO much fun! On Tuesday, we had an absolutely incredible meeting with the other Zone Leaders in Idaho Falls and the Assistants. It was an emergency COUNCIL OF WAR as Moroni would say. We talked a lot about the mission, where we are at and what we are going to DO to grow and grow and GROW! Overall, it was an amazing and very inspiring discussion. A lot of ideas were thrown around and I feel very strongly that we can expect more amazing things here in Idaho in the coming months. Also, on Tuesday, Elder Olson and I were privileged to conduct 2 baptismal interviews for a boy and girl getting baptized Saturday1 They passed with flying colors! Then, we RACED back to Idaho Falls because we had previously been asked to speak in one of our wards Young Woman and Excellence thing. Basically, the theme was the Wizard of Oz so I got to dress up as the Tin Man and we talked about charity and love and tied it back to our Savior. It was pretty much the best experience ever but don't worry! I put my tag on the outside. ;) Also, we got to teach the Browns another lesson! They are AMAZING! :) On Wednesday we had Elder Eldredge, one of the Assistants to the President with us!! AHHHHHHH! It was so wonderful! He had previously served in this area so it was a joy for him to come back and see what was going on first hand! We were able to teach a LOT and have a fantastic discussion about the zone and the mission, where we are at and SPECIFIC things that we are going to do to grow and achieve our goals. It was SO inspiring and a wonderful thing to be a part of. Man, I love being a missionary and being able to do so many cool things. :) There was an elder a little while ago, Elder Gulisane that after he watched Meet the Mormons made the statement, "why is our church so cool?!" He is so right!!!! ;) Basically, it was an AWESOME day for the three of us! Elder Eldredge himself said it was one of the best days of his mission! WHOO! :) Thursday was awesome as well! We were able to teach a bunch of great people and also weekly plan! Whoo! Also, we found a new family to start teaching! :) Friday was CRAZY! So, we taught our investigator family every night this past week I believe. We got through all the lessons and made it to tithing. We expected a little hesitancy just because they don't make a lot of money as it is. And, we were right. We walked out of the lesson openly accepting the possibility that they weren't going to be baptized this month. BUT, the next day we brought the Bishop with us and he promised them that the FLOODGATES would open if they paid their tithing, not just the windows but the floodgates. It was an amazing thing to be a part of. The spirit was tangible and they are getting baptized this coming Wednesday! They passed their interviews and it was announced in Sacrament meeting! :) ALSO! The father has asked me to baptize him and Elder Olson is going to baptize  one of the daughters! Sigh.... best thing ever. :) We also took a Preach My Gospel questionnaire this past week! PMG is the best! :) Also, we had to give a bunch of missionary information! I have had 12 companions and been in 5 areas! WOW! Basically, the whole day was great! On Saturday we went to a baptism in our zone which was wonderful1 Also, we were able to meet with one of our investigators. She is gearing up to be baptized in November! She has so much faith and wants to change SO bad. Her determination is very admirable! Sunday was great too! We were able to teach a recent convert . We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him. It was awesome! Also, we met with 2 of our investigators. They are progressing well! She even performed in the Primary Program and he came to church for the first time in quite some time! Everything is just falling into place and we are standing in the middle of it dancing in the miracles! It's the BEST! :) God is so good and is so kind and loving. :) This upcoming week, we have baptisms as well as Halloween and our Missionary Leadership Counsel! It is going to be the best week ever as well! :) I love you all! Be safe, listen to the spirit, laugh and have fun! :)