Clock Is Ticking!

 I'm staying here for my last transfer, yay! I love it here, now we need to pick up the work and get some solid investigators! we have many potentials and almost progressing investigators, but little things are keeping them back. A big one is work, many people are busy here!

 We had a cool experience on trade offs last tuesday. Elder Hawker from West Jordan Utah switched with Elder Miller for the day. It went real well, saw some people, beat 2 tall white guys in street ball, and got 2 new investigators! It was dark and so we didn't want to travel far, so we went to see some of the people in our complex. We knocked on the door that I thought was the right one and said to Hawker, what if this isn't her apartment? He said that we'll just say we were sent here to help you! The door opened and we didn't recognize the lady, nor her big doberman... it was a nice dog though! She thought we were her friend paul, and we weren't... She asked us if we would bring a load of stuff from her car up before we left, we agreed. Her car was filled with tubs and other stuff she needed moved in, so we moved it all. If only we said we were sent to help you...! We found out she was from West Jordan Utah also, another coincidence! We talked to her about what we do, and she said we could give the sisters her number! So it worked great!

 We are looking forward to halloween, we get to be judges of the chili cookoff, I'm excited! This week could very well turn out badly, with not many visits because of the holiday, but we'll pray and move along!

 I asked about tati and ashton because in your email last week you said you are going there to help them move home... but anything sounds good! I love hearing about the other missionaries! Nate is awesome, I wouldn't want to be in that predicament, it would feel gross and smell bad! But he will do very well! If it turns out anything like Carson, I wonder what he will look like when he gets back! :)

 Make sure y'all let me know what goes on with halloween! :)

 Love y'all and take care, till next week!

October 21, 2013

That sounds real fun! The biggest trip we took was 8 miles on our bike going east! It would've been much longer had we gotten to our destination, and had to have gone back, but a screw in my tire stopped that... :)

 This week wasn't the best of weeks, but we foresee this week going great! We have a return appointment tonight for dinner with a nonmember family interested in learning about the gospel. We had a great visit with them last week. It started with a nonchalant visit and when the time was right, asked them questions about their background and talked about what we offer, and now we are going back! I heard they own many boats, one is an optometrist and the other is a dentist. So they have plenty of money. haha. 

 The weather is continuing to cool down, and we don't have any hot days anymore. Things are looking up!

 Nothing much else exciting has happened. I learned that there is supposed to be a color run here in Destin sometime in November. I wonder if we could volunteer at it... :). And I did get the package, thank you! More than half the food is already gone, and the wrist band and head band are sweet! I also got a package of letters from the young women. There are many names that I didn't recognize, how many new move-ins have there been?

 It's weird to think that I only have 7 more emails! I don't know how much is going to be said in the last couple. 

 But I decided to wait to apply to college, and then have time to work on some scholarships and ldsbc takes applicants 10 days prior so that's good. I haven't found out much more info on how to send my bike home, but i will soon enough. And also, is Ashton and Tati going to be living with us next year?

 Love y'all and I laughed when you sent messages through sister Smartt, it made my day!

October 14, 2013

 I am sending the memory card today! So expect it later this week. You don't need to send it back...

 Cousin Jenna is getting married!? Finally! :) Jk haha. I think I said that about Ashton also, but I'm glad I'm going to be there for it! Maybe I'll actually get to meet him before their hitched! That is very exciting, and I'm way happy for her, and for us, it's good to have rich in-laws :)Jk! I'm also glad that Dad is alright. I bet he is making very good use of the time away from insanity. And how do you de-ice a plane? With an ice pick?

 Our week has gone good! Could have gone much better, but can't force anybody to be home or answer the phone! :) Good 'ol missionary work. I'm very glad we have members that are willing to take us around and see people. Bro Pehrson Hawkley took us around for 3 hours yesterday, and an hour and a half the day before. He is awesome.

 Our talks went real good yesterday. I prepared for a 14 minute talk, but only got 5 minutes to give it! It felt real good giving it, and the Spirit was guiding my words... Thank goodness for prayer! I had the feeling before the second speaker that I wasn't supposed to use my notes, have you ever got that feeling? You kinda think, Oh man... but thankfully it was only five minutes. We now have 2 potential investigators, and recieved 1 before the talks and also a nonmember decided to come back to this church after 20 years since he stopped taking the lessons. So yesterday went great, now we have to be sure to follow up and teach some lessons!

 Got a pretty good haircut last week, from myself...:) it doesn't look bad at all... plus Miller helped me a little. We used a set of clippers that almost didn't work!

 The weather is great here, how's it there? Any snow yet?

 Love y'all, and hope your week goes well!

October 7, 2013

We had a notice that we might have been evacuated, but the storm dissipated and there was no threat, just a day full of scattered rain fall. Conference was great, and I did get to see all 5 sessions. We had a member feed us breakfast and let us watch it there. We had to help them with their garage sale in return. This week we had a great lesson with an investigator, and now we have a baptism date scheduled! Elder Miller's first one, he is pretty excited. Here, it is hard to not get a member to come out with you for lessons. I love it! Everything is going fine out here, and things are still a little slow, but it is much busier than when we started!

Thanks for the information on the job and schooling, I talked to a member who is in that sort of stuff. He's not an agent, but works mainly with the information part of it, the name escaped me right now. I'm thinking of maybe taking online classes until I am able to get into school, and working. Do I have to apply to a school in order to do that? I know what classes I want to get into now, I'll email president and find out what I can do though. I don't feel like I need to immerse myself into schooling, but I do need to use the time I have and get some things done.

10 more weeks, it's going fast! For our mission to reach it's baptismal goal, our zone needs 30 baptisms, which divides it to 6 baptisms for our district, and we have one coming up in november now. We have plans to work with certain people, and know what people God wants us to prepare, now we need to get working! Our branch mission leader and us 4 missionaries depict at least 4 baptisms here in november, it is a good goal with names behind it! Definitely not a time to slip up!

Thanks for all the support and encouragement. Love y'all!

September 30, 2013

I will talk to sis smartt again about the video, not that it's great or anything...:) This week went good! For some reason no less-active members are letting us in, but we were able to teach 2 new investigators, we are excited about them. Funny story, we ate with two members at longhorn steak house, and they let us order what we wanted. I ordered a 10 oz. NY strip, my comp ordered a 20 oz. steak, it was pretty big. As we were all talking having a good time, my companion spits out his lemonade on the table. I look, thinking he just laughed it up out of his nose, and he stands up motioning to jay shaver, the member, that he had something in his throat. Miller turned and jay stood behind him and did the Heimlich. A huge piece of steak came out on the floor, and miller picked it up, and we continued to eat. It happened so fast, it was funny! We were laughing so hard about the experience, and it was jay's first time doing it, so he was making tons of jokes. It was the hardest I've laughed on my mission! There were many people staring, but we didn't care. I wish my camera wasn't dead when it happened... then after we biked home, and I was still laughing about it! What added to the humor is the seriousness of the situation, yet it happened nonchalantly!

Well, two weeks in and we've already made a name for ourselves! haha. Next week is General Conference, so stoked! We are giving a talk the week after, a little less stoked! And before we know it all the holidays will come up and it will be time to go! We have a goal set for two baptisms before I leave, we are going to accomplish it. I have one in mind, but we'll have to find the other, but I have a good feeling that there are two prepared for us. We'll see what the Lord has in store!

Love y'all lots!

Destin!!

So I have no clue if the picture is huge on your side...But I'm here! Took a little time. I do look goofy...anyway the other picture I attached is of kellie Mecham Rowberry, and Her husband bro rowberry!

Sorry I didn't send pictures, I didn't think I took a lot, but turns out I have! :) but I will think about sending it soon, or maybe keep it until I get back! :) Anyway things are going great here, I already love the ward, and Sister Smartt and her son TJ, have helped us out a ton already! She is the one who sent you the video of me performing... They bought groceries for us the first day, and they are always asking if we need anything, they are going to take us to get my bike fixed today also, they are awesome!

We had a talent show and the sisters twisted my arm, so I played what I was preparing for half mission conference, I needed it to, I was super nervous! There are so many people here that are familiar to me, and I know that this is where I'm supposed to be the rest of my mission. The Ward is way excited to have elders again, and so there are tons of people willing to help us out with the work and anything we need. We also heard that we might be getting a brand new car this week, so our area will have two cars!

Elder Lane told us that the sisters in Pine Forest didn't really showed if they liked the scavenger hunt or not... it was awesome though, I should've took pictures of the poems we wrote!

Lots of good things are happening here, we haven't been able to have any lessons, because my bike tire is giving me problems and it has been raining on and off. It's supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow, but it hasn't happened yet, although there are huge black clouds coming in fast outside my window...

The sauce and spice is for y'all. The flag was from a member's non-member husband, he says he gets free things all the time, so he just gave me it! I did want a confederate flag, but I still got some time left. :)

This week a seventy is coming to speak to us, and I think this is my last half mission conference. It's going to be good!

Our address is 4010 Dancing Cloud Court # 392, Destin Florida, 32541

Love y'all and have a good week! I'll still be praying for y'all and Grandpa and great grandma!

September 9, 2013

I heard about the game, and I was way excited to hear they won! When I heard they were playing texas I thought the same thing, "Oh, no..." But That is way sweet that we have a good team this year. Do I know the quarter back? I'm not sure if I remember who he is... But it's going to be exciting to see Paul Lasike play, he sounds really good! I always admire a good rugby player! Our ward mission leader loves LSU and football in general, so he keeps us updated.
 We have been doing a lot of service here in Pine Forest. Mainly has to do with trees... and spiders... We cleared a corner of Bishop's yard that was over grown with trees and it was fun, and tiring. There was a huge Caterpillar in a branch that we cut down, so we took pictures of it, it was cool! I need to send my card, plus some other stuff, hopefully I remember!
 We had a real cool lesson in elder's quorum. It started with talking about some of Lorenzo Snow's experience, and somehow ended up with us talking about traits that we all have that help others. It was neat, and it felt good to compliment others on what they do well and what gifts they received from God. It goes to show how we all have things about us that add to the surroundings, either church or everyday life, that are given to us for that purpose.
 One more week, and we are transferring to Destin, hopefully... You never know with the mission! Not that I wouldn't want to stay here. I love the members here, they are great people.
 I am going to pray hard for Grandpa, that is a tough surgery he is going through. Our ward mission leader in Eufaula was out for months because of a heart surgery. Of course he was in his upper eighties... Good 'ol Bro Grafton!
 Also something funny. We had Zone conference last week, and they asked all who were not going to be here for the next one to bear their testimony. I wasn't sure if I would be or not, so I asked. Pres Smith said it would be in three months. I am still here for 3 and a couple weeks so I didn't give it. But then a missionary told me that the next one is a couple days after my departure day... So I might not have that opportunity! :O haha. We'll see, I might have to do it on a conference call or something.
 But that's about it for the excitement here this past week. So I'll try to find some cool things to do, or experience while I'm still here! :) But until next week, Love Y'all!