Week #19

Hey Mis!

Glad you had a good week. I forgot it was Grandma and Cheryl's birthdays!! Dang. Glad you had fun though! My week was a struggle. We had a lot of cancellations and things, it was frustrating. I was really stressed on Friday. Balajadia was on an exchange to teach a Filipino family in Tagalog, and so I was leading the area that day. The elder I was on exchange with shot me in the eye with a Nerf gun when I was studying, and so my eye was bothering me the whole day (and it still sort of does right now). Elder Balajadia also decided Thursday night that he would attend ANOTHER baptism in Henderson, so on Friday I got to scramble to find members to hang out with me for four hours on the next day, again. Then Manish kept calling us because he had no food, and the bishop's storehouse was closed until Monday. So, I got to again scramble to find some food for him to last the weekend, while still planning for five lessons that day. I got in touch with the Relief Society, who said they would address his needs and help him fill out paperwork for food assistance, and then the Foremasters and another family donated a lot of canned goods and stuff like that to help out. We were lucky that we found so many people to help out on short notice. A good part of my week though was the missionary broadcast. It was awesome. It really helped me strengthen my understanding of the true purpose of missionary work, and how to help people in the best ways possible and to be the most effective missionary I can be. Also, there was an emergency transfer with the sisters in my district. Sister Kaufusi was put in with Sister Paa for the rest of the transfer. However, neither of them can drive. So, they coordinated rides with their members for the week, and guess who has a car for a week and a half??? WE DO!!! Which is exciting. I drove for the first time in four months yesterday. It was.... eventful. But we didn't crash or die, which is good. We have a lot of lessons lined up this week, so this week should be a lot better. I had a sit-down talk with Balajadia. I explained to him that he needs to focus on Sierra Ranch more, because he still has one foot in Henderson. I told him that I'll help him out to get him to transition. I explained that I'm probably going to leave in a week and a half, and so he would need to have his whole heart and mind in Sierra Ranch to lead the area. He broke down and said he missed Henderson, but he knows he needs to focus more here. It was a good chat, hopefully that will help him regain focus. That was my week! Manish has been doing well. He hasn't smoked for a week, and Anthony hasn't for almost four. The Flipper Bowl activity is Saturday. It's the paper football competition, and the guy running it asked us to be refs hahaha. He has striped shirts and whistles and everything. It'll be great. We have invited a lot of our investigators to that too, hopefully they'll show! Also, Aunt Sherrie sent me a care package through one of her friends here, Jim Fontano. It had a bunch of stuff to make tacos and some personal need stuff too. Tell her I said thank you! Sounds like Asia had fun with Damon. Was it a church dance or a school dance?  I hope you have a great week!

Love you Mis!

Trev

We street contacted this kid and he asked us to take a selfie with him. He's awesome haha we're going to visit him and his family Wednesday (Sent 1/25/16)

Week #18

Hey Mis!

Glad you're enjoying school. That's crazy that everyone is getting married! I love the Becks! That's awesome that they came to visit. I'm excited for Brittany. Which roommate got married? Do I know her? Is Marshall still hanging in there? Have you heard from him lately? That's crazy that Josh is already expecting. Put in a bid for Trevor, would you? Haha. That's awesome the Leiters had their baby! What's her name? Dad told me Chelsea delivered, glad to hear she and the baby are doing well. That's gonna be weird when I go home, because that baby is going to be 20 months old... My week was good. I think Elder Balajadia and I are starting to figure out how to work with each other now. It had been a little difficult because we have different ways, or styles I guess, of doing things. We had the best numbers in our district. Not that numbers are everything, but I was really happy with how the week turned out. We had two investigators come to church! One was Manish, and he's awesome. We're still trying to get him to quit smoking, and we think he can do it! He's still set for Feb. 27th. A guy named Armando also came to church. He's a super humble guy, but he has a really big anxiety issue. He was only able to stay for the first hour, but he enjoyed it, and says he wants to stay for the second hour next week, and the third the week after. He's doing well though! He said he wants to be baptized, but he wants to get his feet planted first. He's a really good guy! We had a mini exchange with the Zone Leaders on Friday. They came to our area, and I went with one ZL, and Balajadia went with the other. I went with Elder Rockwood, and it was awesome. We taught a couple named Stacy and Greg. Greg has a drinking issue, so we've been trying to work with him and support Stacy. They've been studying with the JWs, but when we taught the Restoration, they said that they know it's true. It was awesome, the Spirit was so strong. Elder Rockwood is awesome too. He's prolly one of my favorite missionaries I've met out here. He played basketball at BYU-H, and he's a realllly hard worker. He's an awesome guy. Elder Balajadia and I helped Brother Jackson move on Saturday. He went teaching with us a lot, he's a really good guy. They're moving up to Ogden, Utah, and we got to help them out. They had some really heavy furniture, and the only people that came to help was a member of the Stake presidency and his family, and a couple other of Bro. Jackson's family members. Elder Balajadia and I ended up lifting the heavy stuff like the entertainment center and dressers haha. All those move we did back in the Binghamton ward really helped prepare me for the mission hahaha. That was my week! That's a good idea to help Manish quit. We'll have to do that. He wants to so bad, and he knows the church is true, it's just that one hiccup that's hurting him. The ward has actually been awesome with fellowshipping him in too. He already has like five friends haha. Hope you have a great week!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Week #17

Hey Mis! I'm glad you had a fun vacation. The pictures looked like a lot of fun, especially the helicopter. I got the packages! Thank you guys so much! I hope you travelled safely back to Utah. I had a very eventful week. We helped with two moves this week, both were miserable, but on the bright side, they were opportunities to serve. The first was last Monday morning. The lady didn't box anything up, and her house was a mess. She had cats, and let's just say she didn't take care or clean up after them very well..... Then on Thursday, we helped one of the STL's investigators move. She had three dogs, a cat, two parrots, and a snake. Same thing as the other, she didn't box anything up, and the house was a mess. It smelled like dogs too. The move on Monday took two hours, then the move on Thursday took almost 4 hours. It was tough honestly. On the bright side, I did an exchange with Elder Aitchison again! I went to his area, and I loved it. The members in his ward are suuuuper helpful, and he has some really solid investigators. I think we taught 5 or 6 lessons on the exchange, and it was awesome. One of his investigators agreed to be baptized on Feb. 20th! He's a great missionary already, it's always fun working with him. Me and Elder Balajadia taught a guy named Manish Quinnie twice this week. He's SO open and ready. He accepted a baptismal date of Feb. 27, and he's awesome! He came to church yesterday too and he loved it! It was funny because Bro. Vogann met him and talked to him for a while. (Brother Vogann is the goofy guy who has TONS of guns.) Brother Vogann is really good with cars, and Manish had been having car trouble. So, Brother Vogann took us outside during third hour, and we ended up skipping third hour. That's usually not good, but Brother Vogann really helped him out, and it was an awesome way to fellowship him. Manish got to meet a ton of people too. He's a good guy, and he's totally solid. The only problem is that he's a smoker, but that's nothing we can't work through. We also got to teach all three of our recent converts this week! Sis. Melissa Litz is so awesome, she already seems like a lifelong member. We had dinner with Sis. Martha Paredes, and she's doing really well also. Sis. Tawnee Fife is really busy, but we were able to visit her and her family again which was cool. Hopefully Martha and Tawnee can get callings soon! That was my week! I don't have any pictures, sorry :( I hope you have an awesome week!

Love you Mis!

Trev :)

Week #16

Hey Mis!

Glad you had fun at the wedding. I heard vacation has been rough, but hopefully things will get better for you! It's been low 40s all week.... Could be worse haha. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of vacation though. Also, I can take the daybed. In my room? I'd be fine with that.

My week was frustrating, but busy. I'll start with the good. We met a kid named Chase on the street. He's a senior in high school and is going to join the Marines. He said he's atheist, but he has a bunch of Mormon friends and wants to learn more about the religion. It's cool cuz he has pretty dang good morals, especially for a teenager. Sadly, we met him on his way to his girlfriend's house, and he actually lives in the West mission :/ Hopefully they'll take care of him! We also met with Chris, who almost died because he was shot nine times. He has a cool story. He said he isn't quite sure about organized religion yet, but he said he definitely knows there's a God. We talked to him a bit about the Plan of Salvation, and we're going to talk more with him next time. Also, last night we were really tired. We were way behind schedule, and we had an appointment that was scheduled for 8pm. It was 8:50, so we were tempted to just go home. But we decided to go anyways. 

We met with a guy named Murnur Vircher. SUPER COOL GUY. He grew up in Compton. He had a rough upbringing, and spent some time in jail, but he is one of the nicest guys ever. He was so great to me and Elder Balajadia, and his family was too. We only met a couple of his kids, who are full grown, but they were really awesome too. One of them said, "Mormons are chill, I balled with them when I was in Long Beach." Hahaha. Something about basketball and the gospel! Haha but anyways, we talked to Murnur about the Plan of Salvation and about Christ, and it was awesome. We're supposed to see him tonight too! We helped a less active In a different ward move this morning. They didn't have anything packed, which was frustrating, but it was a good experience to help serve. We had a lot of cancellations and other stuff, which was tough, but hopefully things will get figured out. We'll keep trying. Anthony has been sick lately, so we went over the other day and have him a blessing.

That was my week! I'll send pictures in a separate email. I hope you have a great week!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Trevor caroling (Sent 1/4/16)