July 24, 2017

Hey fam! This week was a way good week. Wednesday was awesome, we were able to go to the temple with our investigator, J-- which was so cool! It was really fun and a super neat experience. Although we couldn't go into the temple past the front desk or anything we were able to spend a lot of time walking around and enjoying the temple grounds. We taught him all about the temple and told him how special of a place that it is. He loved it a lot. He had a lot of great questions and we were able to have a good conversation with him about how it really is the House of the Lord and a truly sacred place. J-- is a champion. 

Another amazing thing about going to the temple was on the way we went to the city of Lexington, Mass., which was awesome to see all of the cool history there as well as just be in the place that the revolutionary war started. Then after we went to the temple she pulled over at a cool spot and we had and AMAZING picnic--she made all kinds of great food as well as different lobster and crab stuff too, it was purely amazing. I love seafood. 

This week we also had Zone Conference and those are always super fun, because the spirit is always so strong as well as a bunch of my other missionary friends being there. Part of the meeting Elder Thorpe and I had to give a two hour training which was really fun. We were able share a bunch of stuff on working with members, building trust in the ward, obedience and consecration, and setting goals and working to accomplish them. The setting goals part of the meeting was by far my favorite part to teach on. We had all the missionary's go outside and then we had an interactive lesson using water balloons and chalk. We had them throw the water balloons however they wanted and then after went and drew a circle around where it hit and told them that they did great. Then we drew a giant target in the middle of the parking lot and had them throw the balloons at the target and taught the principle of setting targets to shoot for instead of drawing targets at where ever we hit. It was really fun and a great way to show the importance of setting goals. Preparing for it taught me a lot. It was basically from the talk by Dieter F Uchtdorf where he says life without goals is like shooting an arrow at the wall and drawing the target around it. 

We had some really cool experiences walking the street and running into people that were really prepared! It's always a cool thing to turn back and think about the experiences and see how the spirit helps us. Like random prompting to go down certain streets and run into someone outside, or feeling that even though a person may not seem interested to keep pushing, and keep trying to get them to open up, and then they start crying because they explain that the reason they stopped believing in God is because their Dad committed suicide, and then being able to testify that they can see them again one day and that Christ can help everyone to know that, and see their countenance change and their burden lifted.....it just doesn't happen anywhere other than the mission. Well, at least not as often. I'm lucky I get to do it every day! Trying to take advantage of it while I can. 

Love you guys! Have a good weeeeek

July 16, 2017

Hey fam!

Ok no problem for my homecoming, whatever works! And cool I'm excited
for that topic.

Well this week was way awesome but it also was super long. It started
with a leadership meeting Tuesday that went from 8:30-6:00, then
District Meeting the next morning, and then another leadership meeting
that afternoon with President. Then we were given the assignment to
put together a bunch of excel spreadsheets for our stake meeting which
happened the next day too. So up until Thursday we were completely in
meetings and I am not the biggest fan of meetings but oh well it
happened. It is hard to start your proselyting week on Friday because
you set these goals and then have so little time to try to accomplish
them but we went at it and saw some amazing miracles. We have really
pushed to get our investigators to Sacrament Meeting. Doing anything
and everything we can. So we had a church tour with our investigator
D-- and took him around and showed him everything and it was really
spiritual and we felt prompted to try to set a date with him and he
did! August 26! It was way cool. So we talked with him about the
importance of coming to church but he said he didn't have church
clothes so I gave him some of mine and I'll be honest he was looking
really good.


So we get to church and first D-- walks into church and we were
really excited, so we walked with him into the chapel and then we saw
our other investigator, J--, and we were like "hey cool" and so they
both came and sat with us. My comp and I then looked at each other and
were like "Hey, we called C-- last night, I hope she will be able to
make it." And we then look over at the door and C-- starts walking
in haha cool stuff, but then while we were sitting, maybe like 15
minutes into the meeting, a member comes up to me and says "Come with
me" and so I did I started following him and he took me to the back of
the congregation where he said one of our friends was sitting and it
was a guy we met a few days earlier--haha I was so pumped he came. Then
I realized we texted our investigator J-- to come, too, and thought
"Hmm pretty sure he said he would come" and I looked over and he's
there and he brought his little family too! Then I look over at the
sacrament table and G--, the guy that was baptized about 3
weeks after I got in this area, was passing the sacrament. It was such
a cool thing to look around and have the spirit testify to me of the
power of missionary work. Seeing a recent convert passing the
sacrament and our investigators at church. It was one of those moments
where I am kind of ashamed to admit (only because I don't like doing
it), but I got a little emotional just seeing these people fulfill
their potential. At least taking the first step to fulfill it. Cool
stuff! Definitely made my week.

I had interviews with President this week and it was really good
talking with him about stuff. It was really nice to know it wasn't my
exit interview haha-- I was able to have one last regular one! He is so
helpful and gives me good advice. Definitely lucky I have a mission
president like him. And his wife, too, she is awesome.

It was a good week! Excited for the one upcoming. Nashua is such a fun
place to serve--there really are a ton of good people here. There are
ton of crazy ones too which makes every day enjoyable. If I proselyted
in a place full of normal people I would feel pretty out of place.

Love you guys have a good week!

July 10, 2017

Woahhhhh camping trip.  And kkkk when did we get a UTV? Never got that

update. That's cool though! Glad the trip was good. Definitely the
group is shrinking but gotta keep it alive! Nothing better than
Wasatch. One of my favorite places in the world.

Well well well this week was a good week. We worked hard this week
trying to get people to church. We were able to find a few people that
seem really solid. One of them is named J-- and we picked him up by
shooting baskets with him in his driveway. He's a YouTube maniac is
how he explained it, he posts trick shot videos so I asked him if I
could try one and he let me so I went and shot from like 30 feet
behind the backboard and had to make it over and I made the shot and
he lost his marbles. He posted it to YouTube because he said he was
filming it and said we would get good publicity from it.  So hey,  not
complaining. He probably doesn't have any subscribers so no one
probably could even find it but hey I made it on the internet so I'm
officially cool even if no one sees it. He also became an awesome
investigator so we are excited about him.

So we really put a focus on sacrament meeting this week. We were
outside of our car at the very least a few hours a day and every soul
we met we invited them to church. Literally not a single person
crossed our path that we didn't invite to church haha we had some
awesome miracles come from that. They didn't necessarily come to
church but it was interesting to see their hearts soften to an invite
to church rather than an invite to meet with us....honestly from my
perspective I'd rather meet with any missionaries than go to some
random service I've never heard of,  but hey whatever works I guess! It
was really good. We are going to continue to try that.

We did have some people come to church though! The A-- family
from Iraq. Well, the 3 kids came because the parents had to work. It
was so cool though, because we tried SO hard to get them to come and
they finallyyy came. And they loved it so much! The ward loved them
too.  One is 16, the other is 13, and the youngest is 7. They are
planning on coming every week now. It was really cool to see people
come to church and the young women came and swarmed them and instantly
became their best friends. They even participated in the classes from
what we were told,  so it was awesome. Definitely a good way to end the
week.

I've been seeking some advice from people about my last transfer and
it's been like the best thing for me. Legit--whoever reads this and is
on a mission, on your last transfer you need to find the balance of
preparing to go home but still staying super super focused, and asking
for advice is awesome because there are so many good ways to keep that
balance. I had a conversation with a rm in our ward last having dinner
at their house, and he got back like 6 months ago and we had a good
conversation. It was really helpful. So don't try to do it on your
own! Ask for advice--it's the best thing you could do.

Love you guys have a good week!

1. Nashua is full of crazy cool street art. Here's one example.
2. We have a sweet view outside of of our apartment window but you can
see it way better from higher up so I amped up my study desk🤘

July 1, 2017

Hey fam! Surprise! Our p-day changed because of transfers on Monday.

Ps.  I'm staying in Nashua for another! My last transfer! I'm definitely
excited to stay in Nashua though! I knew I'd stay because President
basically told me in my interview but to get the final answer was
good. There are  so many awesome people here so I'm way excited.

We had a crazy week, not too much finding. Which hasn't happened in a
while, but we taught most of the week! It was a good feeling to see
though because it shows that there finally is a foundation here with
the people we teach. Now it's just helping them progress and
continually rebuilding but we have some awesome investigators with a
lot of potential.

So I told you about J--, the kid who accepted a baptismal invite
this last week and really understood everything well. Well we went and
taught him again this week and his Mom came in and joined us. She knew
basic beliefs of the church because she has a friend in our ward, and
they were the classics about polygamy and blacks and the priesthood
etc, and then tithing. We were able to manouver it well back to the
restoration and she kept asking about tithing so we explained the
basics and then moved on. At the end of the restoration she of course
brought up tithing again, and she said she has a problem with the
money going to pastors and evangelists and how they are millionaires
and have the nicest stuff and yet preach to give to the poor. We told
her our church's tithing goes straight to helping people and she then
said "well I'm going to talk to Sister Favey (the member in our ward)
and give her my 10% so I can pay my tithing to your church. I'm
excited to read the Book of Mormon so I can really know!" First time
I've ever taught the restoration and then afterwards they commit
themselves to pay tithing! It was actually really cool. They are a
solid family. We are excited to help them move forward.

We also helped M--l download the gospel library app and he was
PUMPED. He's into technology,  and as he was flipping through it he was like
"Wow, your church does well with the technology stuff".  It's true! But
yeah he was way excited.

I finished the Book of Mormon again this week and so I'm going through
each book that I read throughout my mission and going through all of
the markings and taking notes on them and it's been way interesting.
I'm glad I did it that way on my mission. Picking up a fresh Book of
Mormon and marking it and then seeing how much different they are
because of the different positions I was in during each time I read.
Don't even know if that makes sense but hopefully-- lol. The Book of
Mormon is just crazy cool. Finishing the Book of Mormon always is such
a cool experience reflecting on what you learned.

Love you guys!