Week #32

Hey Mis!

Sounds like a really fun week! We had another baptism, but I haven't gotten the pictures yet. We're still working on our Batman video, but it's looking pretty awesome. I'm jealous of your trip next week! Sounds like a fun time!

I had a busy week! We had a really good lesson with Kim Nester and her fiancé, Donovan. They gave us this amazing brownie dessert too, which is always a plus. I got to go on an exchange this week. I went with Elder Dodge, and he's from Indiana. He's been out for four months. He's a really good, hardworking missionary! I had a lot of fun working with him. We got kicked out of an apartment complex on our way to an appointment because someone called the apartment security on us for "soliciting". Old me would've stated that we technically weren't soliciting, but we didn't want to get into trouble, so we called the person we were visiting and left the complex. It was an interesting experience haha. On Wednesday Elder Moen and I had a really good lesson with Bert and Vicki Thompson, an older couple who had lost their daughter to homicide. We brought Sis. Clauson from the ward, and she talked to them a lot about it. Little did we know she had lost her brother to homicide as well, and his case is still open. It was one of the coolest lessons I had been a part of. We also taught a lady named Katie, who has three kids. We taught them the principles of the gospel, and they're set to be baptized May 21st! 

We're super excited about it. Plus, we had a baptism on Saturday! Her name is Zeydi Garza, she's 9 years old. Her mom is supposed to send us the pictures, but she hasn't yet haha. I'll send them when I get them. That was pretty much my week. Me and my comp are doing better, we've been doing super well lately. Have a great week!!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Week #31

Hey Mis!

Sounds like an awesome week! Mat Kearney came to BYU??? That's awesome!! That sounds like a fun date too. Is he still a potential investigator? Or is he progressing? Hahaha. That's cool that you're taking the job at the MTC! Sounds like a fun time. Those are a lot of goals! That's awesome. They sound like good goals! I highly recommend independent study. It was a super easy program to use, and the course wasn't terrible. I highly recommend it. I had a really good week! There was zone conference this week. We met with the Anthem/Warm Springs and Eldorado/Lake Mead zones as well. It was really fun!i got to see my trainer, and his trainer as well. We got a picture of our "posterity" haha. I learned a lot from President Snow, and pretty much all the trainings. They really hounded obedience, which is what I think we needed. I went on an exchange with one of the ZLs, Elder Wasden, this week too. It was really fun, and I learned a lot from him! Plus he played baseball growing up, and brought his glove, so we played catch in the morning. I also did an exchange with Elder Glunt. It was an awesome exchange! We found SEVEN new people to teach in ONE DAY. It was awesome! It wasn't like a big family, it was just a lot of people, and it was fun! They have a fun area. We had some really good lessons this week too! Kim Nester and her fiancé, Donovan, are getting married July 17th, and she's getting baptized July 30th! We're really excited. We also found a family of three recently, and we taught them again. There's two younger kids, so we taught the Plan of Salvation with little cut-outs, and it was fun! The kids loved it!

We also found a couple named James and Hannah McDonnell. James is from upstate NY!! He's from Poughkeepsie. He said that he dated a girl from Binghamton, who went to Seton haha. He graduated four years before me, but it was fun seeing someone from upstate! They're Catholic, but they wanted to learn more about the Church. We talked to them for probably two hours, because they had TONS of questions!! We covered both the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation in one visit, that's how long it was. But it was awesome!! We had a really good discussion with them. We also got a self-referral named Chumani while I was on exchange, and Moen said they had a really good lesson with her! This area has a TON of work, and I love it. Our recent converts are doing really well too. Rob Dietz has a calling as a ward missionary now, and he comes with us all the time! Nina Moxley is doing super well too, she's getting a calling soon. And Nancy, is Nancy haha. We're helping her get ready for the temple now. We have a baptism in  Shadow Canyon this coming Saturday too, which we're excited about. I love the mission! That was my week! I hope you have a great one!

Love you Mis!

Trev :D

(Oh we saw this too, we thought it was pretty funny (Sent 4/18/16)

Wightman (Dad), Summers (Grandpa), me, Wagner (Uncle), Alvarez (random guy who popped in the picture) Sent 4/18/16

Week #30

Hey Mis!

Sounds like a good week! That's awesome BYU is killin' it in baseball. Do you know how Brailsford is doing? I can't remember if he's playing or redshirting this year. Have you seen him much on campus? That's awesome you got offered a job at the MTC! Idk what I would do. I think it would depend on my options back home. I'm sure Dad would love to have you back at Gitto & Niefer, but then again, I don't know if that's what you want to do.

I had an awesome week. We had another baptism. Her name is Nina Moxley. She's a single mom with a 5 year old son named Bryson. It was funny when we first met her, because when we first met her, she said her friend had been trying to get her to come to church. We told her where ours was, and she was like "that's the same one my friend invited me to!!" So that worked out really well. She was confirmed yesterday, and since it was testimony meeting, she actually got up and bore hers!! And it was an awesome testimony!! The counselor in the bishopric who was conducting bore in his testimony about how he loves new converts. Then a couple other people got up and bore their testimonies about missionary work. This area has really been turning around! Since Moen and I have been together, both wards have already had more convert baptisms than they did all of last year. It's been such a neat experience being able to witness these wards turning around so quickly.

We also found some awesome people to teach this week. We had a traveling missionary visit our area, and so he showed us a lot of how to find people effectively. I really learned a lot, it was awesome. We found an older couple named Bert & Vicki, and they were super open. They have a pretty religious background, and they said that their faith was really tested when they lost their daughter to homicide. They've been trying to find the right church for them since then, and they've had a tough time. They're SO NICE. They're like my favorite old people in this mission. Another investigator, Kim, has been progressing really well. We met with her this past week, and they came to church yesterday! She and her LA fiancé, Donovan, have both had issues with alcohol, so they've been attending an AA program, and it's been really been helping! They're getting married in July, and then Kim wants to get baptized after that. I prolly won't be in this area for it, but it'll be awesome when it happens!

It was a really good week, but it was long and tiring too haha. But such is mission life. Do you get to hang out much with anyone from our stake? I haven't heard much from anyone. Except how Dalton and Sammy are engaged haha. How's Joanna? Whitney? Marshall? Marshall emailed me a week or two ago, which was pretty sweet. Well, hope you have a great week!

Love you Mis!

Trev :D

Sent 4/11/16

Week #29

Hey Mis!

Conference was awesome. Bednar was my favorite talk, but Uchtdorf was awesome too, like always. I saw one of my efy counselors in the choir during the priesthood session! It was pretty sweet. Sounds like you had a good week! We had a baptism, I'll tell you more about it later in the email. I'm jealous Asia is in Hawaii too. It's ridiculous. Haha but I'm happy for her.

I definitely learned a lot this week. We really had to grind, it was sort of a struggle. We didn't get to teach as much as usual. On the brightside, we had another baptism!! Raymond Canales was baptized Tuesday. He showed up in an all-white suit, and he looked like a STUD. It was pretty awesome. He's 9 years old. His mom is a member, but his dad isn't. For a long while his dad didn't want him to get baptized, but eventually he gave permission, and even attended the baptism! AND he teared up during it. It was awesome!! What was also cool was that we are teaching Aurora Garza's 9 year old daughter, Zeydi, and she's been afraid to get baptized. We invited her to Raymond's baptism. She LOVED it, and said she wants to get baptized. We're helping her get ready for the 16th. We're excited!!

Wednesday was a tough day. We had one our investigators drop us, which was frustrating, but it just means he's not ready. He's a 15 year old guy, and we think he's just a little hesitant, so we're going to give him a little more time. As difficult as Wednesday was, Thursday had a lot of miracles. First, we had lost touch with Charlie because his girlfriend was in town, and Tommy got a new job and had been working a ton. But on Thursday we knocked on his door because we were in his complex, and he was there! We had a really good discussion with him there. He's probably not getting baptized here, because he moves to California at the end of the month, but it doesn't matter. We're preparing him for other missionaries. He had a lot of questions, and we were able to answer them, and it was a really neat discussion. Later that day we visited a former investigator named John, who had lost a family member recently. We knocked on his door, and he answered and invited us in. We talked to him for a good 40 minutes, and I shared the similar experience that our family had. He's out of town for the month of April for work, but he invited us back, and we exchanged contact info.

On Friday we got to meet with Nina to help her get ready for her baptism the 9th. We're really excited for her, and she is too! We've actually had people ask us when we're teaching her again, because THEY are asking US to go teaching. It's been a neat experience seeing how much this area has changed. Friday evening, we had dinner at Nancy's. Since she's a single lady, we had to bring a member, so we brought Bro. Wardle. When we showed up, Nancy asked us to help finish cooking. In case you didn't know, Nancy is 81 years old, and she has a reallllllllly difficult time seeing and remembering things. She had cooked pot roast AND pork roast in the same pot, and had cooked some chicken too. As we were cutting the meat, the pot roast was still bloody, so we were afraid what condition the pork was in. She had steamed some broccoli and carrots as well. The carrots still had the skin on them, but the broccoli didn't look too bad. She also had thrown together a salad, and had five or six dressings on the table.

All but one dressing expired in either 2014 or 2015. Finally, she made dessert with peaches and cottage cheese. As we sat down to eat, Elder Moen didn't have a fork. So, he stole mine. He took one look at it and put it back at my plate. He chuckled and told me to look at my fork. I looked, and it had some old food on it. I looked at it for a moment, deciding what to do. When Nancy turned around, I "dropped" my fork on the ground. I acted embarrassed and insisted Nancy that I go and wash it. She agreed, so I got up and washed it. I came back to my plate, only to find my knife was in the same condition. So I did the same thing again. "I'm sorry Nancy, I'm such a klutz! Let me get that." I said. "Oh it's fine darling, it happens!" she said. Bro. Wardle and Moen were trying so hard to not laugh as I cleaned my knife off. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience. The chicken was actually pretty good, so was the broccoli. The peaches and cottage cheese was pretty good except the peaches had bits of the pit still left in them. But I live to tell the tale.

That was my week! How's Marshall and the squad doing? What about Borgia? Have a great week!

Love ya Mis!

Trev :)

Sent 4/4/16

Sent 4/4/16

Sent 4/4/16 

Sent 4/4/16