May 18th

Guess what mother, in Casper there is an Elder Lete, and he is the same Lete that was in my deacons quorum in Cary.  Bro Lete's son, Jacob.  It was super weird but we are used to it now. I do cover all of the spanish for the city.  President will be putting in another set next transfer or the one after it.  Im really excited for my birthday, but I forgot about it until yesterday.  It hit me, I didnt realize before it was only a week away.  For news on my comp he is awesome, we are very similar.  His name is Elder Baum.  He is from St. George and went to the same high school as Jonah but didnt really know him.  I would love to hear birthday wishes!!!  I love you mama, send my regards to everyone and wish danno a happy birthday from me

Mother's Day Skype

April 27th

I was asked to give a talk on Sunday by the President of our Spanish Branch, it went well.  Since I'm no longer a youth I had to speak for an adult amount of time.  The talk was on Baptism and I think it went well.  The day before, however, I had a talk guy moment.  I was coming down some stairs and before the last two steps I slammed my head against the ceiling and that caused my body to still go forward while my head didnt so I landed all weird on my ankles and in some random way bruised up my right arm.  My companion laughed so hard he said he started to hurt.  I love you all, have a great week! 

April 13th

So this week was good.  Two good things and one story.  For the good things, one:  I have started writing a cook book in my spare time.  Its going to be called, "It turned out alright:  Meals invented while on a mission budget" 

and for the second thing: The elders we share a car with and the ones in our house were all together and we had a good meaningful spiritual conversation.  We talked about what we have learned being on a mission and some of the weirdest things to happen to us so far.  It was nice to sit back with some other elders and really bond as a district.  It all started when one of the elders in our house asked for a blessing.  This of course was at night and after 9:30 so we stayed up until midnight but it was worth it.  Those are the moments you don't forget.  That and bringing people to Christ.  For my story:  So we were playing volleyball this morning with some random friends of an investigator of ours and with some other elders.  Everyone is telling me to jump super high and own the court.  And I got my chance when the ball came high and I jumped up and back to reach it and while doing so i felt as if someone had thrown their body against mine and had bounced off really fast.  I toatally made the spike but when I turned around a woman that was playing behind me was on her back in the sand laughing.  I helped her up and apologized.  Someone else turned around and asked what happened.  The guy behind him said, "she ran into a wall."  Accurate, no arguments there.  I have also hit my head nine times in the last week and a half.  I started counting after five.  Because four is normal but five is absurd.  At one point I hit my head on the top of the shower door frame and in an attempt to get out of hitting it again I hit the actual shower door.  Looking at it now I must have looked like an animal trying to escape the feeling of being trapped.  One of them I slammed my head against the corner of a dresser while trying to catch a football that was thrown to me.  That one hurt.  Well to leave on a spiritual note, if you haven't watched the Because he lives video I highly recommend it.  Here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZqTRSVA1YA   I love you guys and hope you have a great week.  Also here is some fortune cookie wisdom, "Luck visits the fool, but doesn't sit down with him."  We create our own luck when we work hard and apply what we know to real life situations.  Also on the back it said, "learn Chinese  Teapot: 茶壺"  That is important to because teapot is a very common word in China.  Later amigos!

This week had a lot in it.  We got the transfer call and I am actually headed to Greely to be in the Greely 5th Spanish Branch.  I'm excited to leave the small town of Yuma and finally be in a city.  Another pinnacle moment (and a little more spiritual) was in our district meeting this last Friday.  It was like a normal meeting, we laughed a bunch and didn't discuss much until the person sharing the message (or training) started talking.  It was on spiritual promptings and how we need to use and constantly have the spirit.  It was good and we ended with having all of us one by one share their conversion story.  Some of us in the room were converts, some raised in the gospel, some raised in the gospel but fell away for a while.  We all had different experiences that led us to be in the church and on missions.  When it was my turn I talked about the moments I had growing up and all throughout my mission so far.  Moments that gave me the chance to grow my testimony.  I talked about when I was 13 and visited the Sacred Grove with my family.  I could feel the spirit so strong and understand why its so important for us to share our testimonies.  It was a great experience for me and all of my district.  One last thing that happened was at church when they asked me to "share my testimony"  (take up time)  And I always think that I can come up with something from my seat and then relay that but I don't.  Its not what comes out in the end.  Its what I need to say that is spiritually prompted.  And I wasn't nervous.  Which is strange, I don't seem to get too nervous anymore.  I love this Gospel and what it does for me.  Thank you for being the few who still care to read my blog!  I care about all of you and wish you a happy and productive week.

Over looking Wray with the comp.

Classy me in black and white 

 A rolling turd in Yuma, brings back memories...

My thrift store obtained trench coat.  Its funny because most of our service is at thrift stores and the sweet old ladies always give us stuff. 

 The bird we saved on P-Day.  Well it ended up dying a few minutes later...  but we moved it out of the road when it couldn't fly.

Tracking!

March 9

Probably one of my favorite quotes of all time is, "Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory" - Dr. Seuss  I say this because I was reflecting on my journal last night as I was writing in it.  All the things that have happened on my mission so far, all the people I  have gotten to know, have influenced me in amazing ways and it was a little strange to think about.  It was like remembering when I had a good time with a friend or hugged my mom before leaving for the summer to have tons of fun with my cousins in Mexico.  Riding horses and lighting dangerous fireworks, falling out of a truck and hitting my head really hard (that ones not so fond), and getting to drive for the first time (I was 11 for that one).  These moments create us, they define us.  Its through these that we grow into something better than what we are now.  It works the same with mission experiences.  They define what kind of members we will be.  If we can't even work hard on the Lord's time how difficult will it be when its our own time.  I love being here for a few reasons but the foremost one would be because this time with these wonderful people is helping me to love who I am and can be, just like the Lord see's me.  Doing the right thing feels good but being the right kind of person is one amazing experience.  I hope that I don't forget these feeling when I go home.  Love you all.

March 2

The weather cant make up its mind.  Today I wore jeans and a t-shirt and nearly froze to death, but yesterday seemed to be to hot for a jacket.  And that's still the most exciting thing to happen to Yuma Colorado in the last decade.  I'm doing fine, naturally of course.  I am not to usually one to demand more from situations.  The work is good too.  We have almost switched from a bigger investigator pool to a bigger focus on less actives and recent converts.  It just worked out like that.  But its what needed to happen which is the strangest part.  I seem to also always be tired but that's something I could post in every weeks blog.  My time is measured in a particular way too.  It seems like either last week or last year I left home.  I don't know which one it is.  I'm hitting my 1/4 mark tomorrow and I don't know how to celebrate.  Perhaps I'll treat myself.  Even better than hitting a mark is that as I was thinking about it, I'm in the swing of it.  I know a lot of things pertaining to a missionaries life.  I have had tons of experiences, spiritual and more trail based ones too.  Enough to help me for a lifetime.  But the Lord doesn't put us on 6-month missions for a reason.  Its my opportunity to use what I've learned and be a good missionary.  Then continue to learn more and more and so much more.  On Sunday I got up and bore my testimony.  (As I normally do every fast Sunday because not a lot of people do).  And even though I "prepared" what I was going to talk about so I wouldn't be so nervous of going up there and not being able of saying anything as my mind would probably go blank.  As I started talking my babblings went to a different set of subjects.  I talked about what the Lord wanted me to say even though I didn't have the faith to know it would have happened anyway.  Its that kind of faith that separates a person serving a mission from a missionary.  If a mission has taught me anything (which it has, a lot of things) its that if we work hard to do the right things, eventually something will happen for our benefit.  Its a seemingly open promise but It will always hold true.  I love you all.  Stay strong in the gospel.  Later!