June 18, 2016

Hey fam!

This week has been a really good week. It started out with another
exchange up in Plymouth, and I went with an elder named Elder Luu.
It's funny because he's followed me to every area and I've been
companions with the district leader, or else he has been the district
leader, so we've been on exchange like 4 or 5 times. He's one of my
good friends from the mission so it was really cool. This week was
crazy too because of bike week. It's kind of like sturgis, that huge
motorcycle gathering, and it's CRAZY. There are usually around 400,000
bikes that go around lake Winnepasakee and hang out in town and in the
towns surrounding it. It's the oldest bike gathering in the country
apparently, so people from all over the country come. It's been
insane. And so far it doesn't seem like they love the missionaries
LOLOL but it's been fine.

We met with K-- and D-- and T-- when we got back and we were
supposed to read with them, and about 10 minutes into our meeting
their uncles come in (who were in town for bike week) and cancelled
our lesson, hahaha it was weird. So we did what they wanted and got up
and left! K-- felt bad, but we will meet with them soon again. They
aren't progressing really though. They do come to church! But yeah
that's about it. We are trying hard to help them keep commitments and
I guess time will tell if they will start.

We met with G-- once and things are looking brighter. His
neighbor/friend who was a bad influence on him is living in Manchester
now, and his sister that has a lot of disabilities will be going to a
care home at the end of this month so G-- will be able to focus on
his own life soon. He's such a funny guy ha I love G--. He said he
will be coming to church this week so hopefully he will.

N-- has been sick for a really long time, we aren't sure what is
happening with her. She's been at the hospital for a while and she
only has a home phone, so we haven't been able to have any contact.

L-- is doing great still. We actually just got back from the
temple which is why I'm writing today, because our p day changes if we
go to the temple. But Elder Washburn and I and some branch members did
confirmations and then the youth and L-- did the baptisms.
L-- didn't want to leave, she loved it. It has really been cool
to see her entire progression from the time she decided to take the
lessons and then baptism and then the Joseph Smith Memorial and now to
the temple. It's been a really cool transfer! We have transfer calls
tonight and it's a total toss up of what could happen. I obviously
want to stay! But it's been 3 transfers so my time might be up haha I
will let you know next week though! Love you! Have a good week!

Picture 1: A member in Plymouth after giving service, took us to
Burger King. I found his daughter's glasses in the back.

June 13, 2016

Hey Fam!

Man this week was a good week. It was sad saying goodbye to President
this last Tuesday! I can't believe he will be leaving. We had a
conference and it was so good, I swear President will be a general
authority. A lot of missionaries probably say that about their
presidents hahaha but I literally think so. I'm excited for President
Blair though! I have heard a lot of good things about him. 

I can'tbelieve Tanner is leaving already--that's crazy! I'm sure he will love
it though. That's too bad about the toilet paper though. Bless his
heart. I'm scared to ask what they even use, though.......actually I
want to know haha.

As for work this week in Wolfeboro, it was an interesting week. So
because of the conference at the Joseph Smith Memorial, we had to go
Monday night after p day to go to Lebanon and stay at their place, and
then we had a conference all day Tuesday, and then we went on exchange
Friday and Saturday with the district leaders. So we were in our area
for just a few days but it still was really good. 

So yesterday we went to the Joseph smith memorial again with some members
and L--, andwe got the tour from the senior missionaries and got to go up to the
monument with just us 5 there. It was so cool. The jsm is one of my
favorite places. Jeffrey R. Holland said it's one of the most sacred
places in the world, not because of some extended history of the place
but just the fact that Joseph was born here is what makes it so
special. It's a sight to see, that's for sure. And I feel a spirit
similar to what I feel in the temple. Speaking of the temple we will
be going this weekend with L-- and the branch to do a temple
trip, and she will be taking her own names. It will be cool! I haven't
been to the temple out here yet, so I'm excited to head to Boston for
that.

N--, our investigator, has been really sick this week so we haven't
been able to see her. Her dialysis makes her pretty weak and it's easy
for her to get sick. She wasn't able to make it to church but it's ok,
we will be seeing her in a couple days. We haven't been able to catch
G-- at home either, he lives so far away so it's hard to stop by all
the time, but yeah his phone broke is what we heard so yeah G-- is
MIA but we will be back with him soon enough. K-- and her family are
doing well, they all came to church and enjoyed it, and we had a
lesson with them this week, too, about prayer. They are nice people, and
are easy to talk to, but they don't keep a lot of commitments so they
need a little more time to understand the importance, because they
have never really been religious in their lives, so it's a process but
it's good!

Transfers will be this weekend--pray that I stay! I'm joking but I'm
not at the same time. I love this place. I wouldn't complain if I got
transferred because as Elder Rasband put it a couple weeks ago to all
the mission "if you complain about your new area or companion you are
basically blaspheming the Lord" soooooooo I won't complain. But I'd
love to stay! Lol

I'm sending a package for Dad (one thing is for Jared) but yeah it
probably won't get there by Father's Day, but happy Father's Day, Dad!
And happy birthday! Quit getting old! Thanks for being a cool Dad.
I'll send a letter, but it will probably come sometime next week.

Love you all! I think a cool thing that I did this week was study
Joseph Smith and try to strengthen my knowledge and testimony of him.
It's amazing how humble he was his entire life. He never gave credit
to himself he always gave it to God. He was amazing. So read up a
little more on Joseph Smith! Or do the next actual best thing which is read
the Book of Mormon. Because that alone shows he's a true prophet. So
that's my challenge to you all! Love you,  have a good week!

June 6, 2016

This week was a pretty good week. A lot of disappointment but still
good! We saw G-- a few times this week and had some good lessons with
him. He's not really progressing though, so it's frustrating because
we meet with him so much and he always says he knows it's true, but
actions speak louder than words and so far there's nothing really. I
love Greg! But sometimes I want to take away his agency just for like
10 minutes to get him to church!! Just kidding. Well kind of. 

We were supposed to have 6 investigators at church this week, K-- D--
J-- T-- (all one family) N-- (her son O-- too but he isn't an
investigator since he isn't accountable) and G--. And we had all
talked to them on Saturday about coming and they all said they were.
ALSO there is a thrift shop by us and we stopped by a while ago and a
lady gave me a free suit so I gave it to G-- to come so he feels
normal being there, on Saturday night, and he still didn't come. None
of them did! It was frustrating. But kind of funny at the same time
haha one of those moments where you're just have to laugh about it. 

L-- is doing great, she was supposed to go to the temple this
Saturday but it got cancelled, so she is going in a couple weeks. And
she has found names to take and everything so she's extra excited.
It's cool! She leaves for Utah in a couple months to go to school, so
we are trying to get in the new member lessons pretty quick.

We met with our investigator N-- as well and had a way good lesson
about the apostasy and it led to a lot of good questions and she
actually started to cry because what we were talking about hit home
for her, so that's always cool! She's a tough one too, so it was cool
to see that it touched her.

We have our last zone conference tomorrow with President and Sister
Stoker and it's going to be way good. It's crazy they are leaving!
They only have a couple more weeks! It will be sad to see them go but
I'm excited to meet President and Sister Blair!

There is a crazy influx here during the summer and it's starting, it's
getting crazy. The population multiplies by 10 in the summer. And
Wolfeboro isn't that big haha it's crazy. Church goes from 50 people
in the winter to 350+ in the summer. We are starting to talk with a
lot more people which is good! But it's hard to find the ones that
stay in town.

Picture with Ferrari: We gave service at the Marriotts this week like
usual and we pulled up when they were delivering their sports cars.
They bring them from across the country in semi trucks so we took
pictures with one but that's all the truck driver would let us do. But
there were like 10 cars. Like a Ferrari, a couple Lamborghinis, Aston
Martin, and a few other ones. It was pretty cool!

We went to this ice cream place with a member literally in the middle
of nowhere and it was the best ice cream I've ever had. It's in a city
named Sandwich, too. Kayyyyy

Love you fam! Have a good week!

May 30, 2016

This week was a good week. L--'s baptism went great!! It was way
cool to see her as excited as she was. And of course me being me
forgot to get a picture of her and us in her baptismal clothes soooooo
but we got a pic after. She is doing great though, I confirmed her
this Sunday and it went good I guess. The branch is so good here at
fellowshipping so I'm not worried about her at all losing her way. I
went golfing with her guardians today actually and it was really cool.
They said L-- is very excited to start new in her life.

Our other investigators are doing ok, we are meeting with G-- tonight
and he's doing ok, but we are teaching a lady named N-- (pretty sure
I've said some stuff about her and her son but just to clarify) her
son Oliver is like the guy on the movie Rainman, he's a genius. He
actually has the exact disability as him. But they came to church! And
they loved it so much. N-- really liked it, and they had a linger
longer after church and they stayed and O-- ate SO MUCH and the
branch loves him now. They are doing really good, N-- is pretty
stubborn and she has her own strong opinions, but they are starting to
fade a little, and she's opening up a lot so she's doing good! Our
other investigators aren't really doing much. So only a few right now!
But still going really good.

Ya, so I went golfing today and my driver was on fire but I putted
like a a fool with no depth perception but it was still fun. And I got
a sick shirt too from the member that took us, he bought us shirts in
the pro shop so we will have something to remember when we come home
haha.  Oh mom, you would be proud too-- so I went to a thrift shop and got
a suit that is a thousand dollar suit, for free. The people that
donate clothes sometimes donate crazy nice stuff, they are just really
rich so they don't care about it anymore and some guy brought in this
crazy nice suit and I got it for free because this lady likes the
elders lol. So I'm shopping cheap, I promise.

This week was a good week. We had a lot to prepare for the baptism,
with driving around for signatures and teaching her the last of the
lessons. But very spiritual week! And lots of fun. Love you fam! And
everyone else.

May 23, 2016

Hey fam!
When I think of what has made my mission and
what has changed my life is simply my attitude. I remember Connor
Copeland telling me "attitude is everything" and it's so true! No
matter what mission you're in. Whether you baptize all the time or
whether you never get a baptism it's all about attitude and then when
you have a positive outlook then your eyes open a little more like
Heavenly Father's. And it also becomes fun. If you have a bad attitude
it will effect the work, which will mean less people to teach,
baptize, and create relationships with which then leads to your
mission becoming disappointing. It all starts with attitude. It
seriously has done so much for me, and I've loved my mission. 
Attitude is everything! And also if you don't have faith in yourself when it
comes to teaching or learning the language then it will take you so
long to learn. Ether 12:12:  It's one of my favorites! 

This week was such a good week for a lot of reasons. First off
L-- passed her interview! So she will be ready this next weekend
to be baptized! We are way excited. We have met with her a couple
times this week to get in the last few lessons and she is doing great. May 28, 
put it on your calendars! Mom I think it would be cool if
you could write her a note or something about her being baptized and
send it to her. Whatever you want to do, but just a thought if you
would like to.

I think the coolest thing about this week was we had the chance to be
with Elder Rasband. He came to our mission and the past few days we've
been able to spend it with him at stake conference, the adult session,
and a mission conference and it's been crazy. What else makes it crazy
is that his grandson is one of my friends from high school, Elder
Chase (who is in this mission too). So it was fun to see them together
and hang out. We've done a lot of driving in between Wolfeboro and
Concord the past few days so I'm way sick of cars but it's still been
good haha.

We also had a member of the Quorum of the Seventy with us too,
and he is the newest Seventy member in the church. He was way cool too. All
I have to say is those guys are inspired and I've always had a
testimony in the leaders of this church, but since I've had the chance
to be with them personally for the past few days hearing them speak
and testify of their "special witness" really solidifies any doubts.
Especially Elder Rasband's. I know without a doubt he is an apostle of
the Lord. Whenever Elder Rasband talked about his "special witness" he
always started crying, and to me it made me think that since he has
been called he's probably seen some incredible things. It's way cool
how humble these leaders are, as well! They are so down to earth.

It was a crazy weekend! We have been way busy lately with meeting with
G-- and L-- and that's pretty much it. We've tried to stop by
our other investigators but not really any luck this week, but it was
still an incredible week.

This morning we went on a hike to the Castle in the Clouds (look it up
on google it's way famous apparently...?) and it was so cool. We went
with Brother Walker, a member of our branch, and he's like 75 and uses
arm crutches and he flies like an eagle up mountains I totally was
winded trying to keep up with him. But the view was amazing! We could
see all of Lake Winnepasakee and it's massive. It was cool.

May 16, 2016

Hey fam!

Man this week was a great week. We are totally in a rush now for
L--'s baptism since it's less than 2 weeks away now, so we are
trying to teach her all the lessons before it, and we have to cram a
lot! But it's a good stress. We are so excited for her! She will be
interviewed this week so let's hope it goes well! 

But also G-- is fixing his house situation, so now he is able to Improve! 

We met with him about 3 times this week and are really trying to be in contact
with him daily to help him progress as much as possible. We also had 4
investigators come to church this week too which was really cool,
K--, D--, J-- (D--'s friend) and L--, and K-- and D--
are also doing very well. They hopefully will have baptismal dates
before this next week. D-- said he totally wants to become Mormon
hahaha so he's cool. 

But yeah things are going well. My new companion
is Elder Washburn, and he's way cool. We have a lot of fun, but he is
very diligent, as well, so I love it! We have had a way good week and we
were so busy. I'm sorry it's so short this week but we are at District

P day so I'm jumping from emails to basketball and I realized I'm
running out of time, but I love you all so much. Thanks for being such
great examples to me and especially for the prayers. I wish I could
have seen Jared, Lindsey and Dallin when Jared flew out to Boston

to spend time with Linds and Dallin, but yeah I couldn't, but I heard they

 had fun which is way cool. New England is the best so of course they 

had fun! Love you, fam!

Btw I went golfing and my swing hasn't skipped a beat. It was awesome.
Oh and I saw a bear! Kinda crazy.