Week #41

Hey Mis!

This has been the most bizarre week of my mission. It started off awesome. I did an exchange with Elder Keller, one of the ZLs, and he's a super cool dude. We were teaching an investigator named Ronnie, and we were studying out of the Book of Mormon with him. Ronnie's little dog kept jumping on my lap during the lesson. So, while Ronnie was reading, I had a Book of Mormon in one hand, and the other hand I used to try to pick the little dog up and set her down on the floor. When I picked her up, she started to squirm, and she felt out of my lap onto the floor, and landed on her head. She yelped, and Keller and I, horror coming across our face, looked up at Ronnie. Luckily, Ronnie was still reading and didn't even notice it. Elder Keller and I tried SO hard not to laugh during the rest of the lesson. The dog gave us dirty looks the rest of the lesson, and has since ceased to jump up on my lap.

The rest of the week was very odd. We had 4 people with a baptismal date, and we had to drop three of them. It was super frustrating, but they just didn't have the desire any more. We're still trying to help one of them quit smoking, but the other ones are super flaky. Saturday was the weirdest day this week. First off, I woke up Saturday morning, and rolled out of bed to pray. As I was praying, I started to feel really itchy. I finished praying and looked at my arm. There were a bunch of red bumps on my left arm 😳. I look at my right arm, and it has some bumps too. I started to freak out, ran into the bathroom, and checked to see if I had any more. There were bumps all over my neck and arms 😳 I called the ZLs, who told me to call the mission office. Turns out, I had bed bugs. The mission office said that they would take care of it Monday (today) so I spent the last two nights sleeping on the couch.

But, that didn't stop the work. We went out to our lessons. We had an appointment with Ronnie at three o'clock. As we turned onto his street, we saw another car pull into his yard. We pulled up to his house and saw a larger woman leading Ronnie to her car. I was driving so I rolled down the window and said "Hi Ronnie!!" He smiled, but then his smile disappeared as the lady walked over to us. She asked who we were, so we told her the missionaries. She then went on a rant about how she is a pastor and how Ronnie goes to her church and that she doesn't agree with our doctrine. So, we asked what doctrine she disagreed with, and she said Joseph Smith. We asked what she knew about him, and she said that we worship him, that he wrote the Book of Mormon, and that he was a liar, and that whenever we have "Bible study" with Ronnie, she has to be there. We tried to explain who Joseph Smith really was, and she just kept yelling at us. Then, another car pulled into the yard behind the lady. An older man stepped out of the car, and under his breath we hear him say "It's stupid people like this that make me want to..." It was Bro. Tarone, the member that we had invited to Ronnie's lesson. Bro. Tarone is a 75 year old, ex-military member of the ward. He's a little rough around the edges, to say the least. All of a sudden, he comes up from behind the pastor and starts yelling at her. She then turns around and starts yelling at him. Meanwhile, Ronnie is just standing there, so Elder Peterson and I start to talk to him. We invited him to keep reading the Book of Mormon, and to ask God, because He is the only one that truly knows everything. He agreed that he would. Then his pastor turned away from Bro. Tarone, took Ronnie and left. Bro. Throne's face is bright red, and then he stares at us. Then, he quietly said: "Let's go get some ice cream cones. We need to talk about this." So we did. It was pretty interesting.

So the next day, Sunday, we visited Ronnie again anyways. We sat down and talked with him. He said that his pastor ripped up his copy of the Book of Mormon. So, we gave him a new one. Then, he sat there and was quiet. Then he said, "She was really rude to you guys, and she has no right to tell me what to do. I still want to get baptized in your church on July 23rd!!" It was super cool! We're wayyy excited for him. We also had a really good lesson with a guy named Larry as well. He had a lot of questions, and ultimately, he opened up about how he lost his sister when he was 14 in a car wreck, and asked how he gospel was supposed to help fix that. I shared with him about mom's passing, and how the gospel didn't necessarily fix the problem, but that it was more to prepare us for these trials and to provide a foundation for us to lean upon. For the rest of the lesson, Larry was very different. He was very quiet and receptive. The Spirit was SUPER strong. It was really cool.

Sorry this email is all over the place. Not only do we have bed bugs, but our water randomly stopped working today too. Life in a trailer. It's great. It was a weird week, but there were some bright spots too!

Love you Mis!

Trev :D

Sent 6/27/16.

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Week #40

Hey Mis!

That's cool that you had a good Fathers Day with Dad. Those are some cool gifts that you guys got him! I still can't believe Dalton and Sammy got married. But, good for them! Oke looks ridiculous haha. She probably gets spoiled haha.

This week has been verrrrrry interesting. First off, my new area is a couple of small towns. We live in Parker, which is the largest town in the area. It has a whopping 3,000 people. My area actually goes into California a bit. The Colorado river runs right down the middle of my area. The ward is small (maybe 110 people). I live in a trailer park, and yesterday it reached 121 degrees. However, this area has a LOT of potential. 

When I was talking with the members, they were saying that it's been a rough stretch of missionaries the last 6 months, so hopefully it'll turn around! We had a couple people that were progressing in this area, and so we focused on trying to find more people to teach. We visited some former investigators, one of them whose name is Ronnie. He's a really good guy! We visited him twice his week, and he said he wants to get baptized! So that was pretty sweet. He'll most likely get baptized near the end of July. 

One of the investigators that is progressing is named Randi. She's been doing well, except she's still trying to quit smoking. She's cut back a lot though, which is really good! She's supposed to be baptized July 2nd, so hopefully she'll be able to make that! 

My new companion's name is Elder Peterson. He's an interesting guy. He was born in Idaho, lived in Kingman, AZ for 5 years, and then recently moved to Alabama before his mission. Since he's been on his mission, his family moved to North Carolina. He's been out for 7 months, and came on his mission when he was 18. He reminds me of Dwight Schrute from The Office. He's very matter of fact, and blunt. It's sort of amusing how he goes about his business. I have had to remind him a couple times to relax this week. When he first picked me up from transfers, we were driving down to Parker, when we started to see signs for Needles, CA. Peterson realized he was driving the wrong way, and got frustrated and pulled over. After looking at a map, he figured out where we needed to go, and started to pull out. The problem was, our tires were moving, but we weren't going anywhere. He had parked in some deep sand, and we were stuck. So, we tried digging the wheels out, and I pushed while he steered, but to no avail. Then after about a half hour, a member from the Needles ward luckily pulled up. He and his family took some mats out of the truck, and stuck them under our wheels. We all pushed while Peterson steered again, and luckily we were able to get out. It should be an eventful 6 weeks! 

I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Day. He's serving in Blythe, CA. He's a really cool guy. He's from Washington, and has been out the same time as Peterson. I got to meet most of his investigators, and when we did the baptismal interview for one of his investigators, it was really fun! That guy was super prepared. It's funny because Elder Day and I both had parents that met on the mission while they were serving, and we both have an older sister who served a mission. So that was a neat little similarity. Tomorrow we have our first meeting as a whole zone, and afterwards I'm going on an exchange with the ZLs, so that'll be interesting!

That was pretty much my week. It's an interesting area, but hopefully

it'll still be fun! To answer your questions:

1) It's small, but big. Population, 3,000. Lots of drunk Natives. Roughly 40 miles across each direction. Ward of 100-120 active members, including children. I live in a trailer.

2) He's an interesting guy. I gave pretty good background in the paragraph, but I can learn a lot working with him. I feel like I've already gotten a little more patient haha.

3) I told you about Randi and Ronnie, we're also teaching a family named the Diaz's. They're an awesome family of four, and they came to church yesterday! Besides mom, because she had to work :( there's a lot of potential here!

4) The ward isn't actually huge into missionary work. Rees a few members who are super solid in helping us out, but overall the ward isn't too missionary-minded. Hopefully we can change that! Also, if you send any mail or packages or anything, send it straight to my trailer. The ZLs don't get mail from the mission office. If it gets sent to the mission office, they'll forward it to me, but it takes longer. So, my address is 425 Bluewater Drive, Parker, AZ 85344.

Are you guys doing anything fun this week! Have a good one!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Steve and Laura Clauson. He's the ward mission leader in Castle Ridge, and she's the Stake Relief Society prez. He's super sarcastic and scowls all the time, so we were making fun of him in this picture. But he's an awesome guy, and I had a lot of fun working with him! (Sent 6/20/16)

Steve and Julie Baird. He's the ward mission leader in Shadow Canyon, and she's a ward missionary. They're some of the nicest people ever. It was awesome working with them as well. Sis. Baird is one of the sweetest people I've met! She always sent us home with groceries and toiletries and stuff haha, they're awesome! (Sent 6/20/16)

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Week #39

Hey Mis!

Sounds like you had a really good week! How's it been being home? I've had a busy week. 

First off, I am getting transferred. I'm going to Parker, AZ. It's really sad cuz I lovvvvve this area, but it was coming eventually. My new companion will be Elder Peterson. I don't know much about him, other than that he's been out less time than me. It should be interesting! We also had a baptism this week! A girl named Zeydi Garza got baptized a couple months ago, and her Grandma just got baptized on Saturday! It was super cool. It's he sixth baptism that we had in the area, it was awesome. The whole service was in Spanish because she doesn't speak English, but it was cool because the Spirit was still super strong! She has interpreters at church to help her, which is really cool. I've been saying goodbye to some people this weekend, and I'll say goodbye to the rest tonight. I have some pictures, and I'll send the rest next week. Things have gotten a lot better with Leakehe, he's been able to lead the area now, so the area should be okay. I'm super sad I'm leaving, but it'll be a good experience to serve somewhere else.

That was my week! I'll send pics in a separate email. Is there anyone that came back to NY too? Like Marshall or any of them? How was the ward on Sunday? I hope you have a good week!

Love you Mis!

Trev :)

Pics: Dallin Cox, and his dad, President Cox

Super awesome family! The rest of the family were taking naps when we took pictures haha. Dallin came out teaching with us all the time, and President Cox is one of the nicest guys I've met, he's one of the counselors in the stake presidency. They have a daughter/sister serving a mission in Mexico right now, and Dallin leaves on his mission to Honduras next week. They're one of my favorite families, and they helped so much in the missionary work of these wards. They're awesome! Plus, they love Nacho Libre, which is a definite plus haha.

Sent 6/13/16

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Sent 6/13/16

Week #38

Hey Mis!

Sounds like a fun week! Sounds like a good guy from what you were saying. That's cool you're heeded home this week. Are you excited? Or sad? Or both?

I had a good week! Elder Leakehe led the area most of the week, which was really good. We found this homeless lady named Desirae. She's been meeting with bishop this week, so that's been good. We also got a referral from some members named Lisa. She's a pastor from another church, but she noticed a special "spirit" about the couple that referred her. She came to church this week, and she loved it! Especially testimony meeting. We're going to teach her tomorrow, and we're super excited. We also have a baptism this Saturday!! It's a part member family that we started to teach, but the Spanish missionaries took over. She went to church in the Spanish ward and hated it, so she wants to come to our ward. So we're finishing teaching her, and baptizing her. We're stoked. We also met a lady named Amanda. She's from Ecuador, but lived in NYC for 10 years. She was taught by missionaries there, so we're starting to teach her! We're going to try to teach her daughter and grandson too. Other than that, me and Leakehe are getting along really well. He's getting me back to lifting, which has been really good! I just got my email from President Snow, and he said I'm probably being transferred. I'll find out Saturday.

That was my week! Have safe travels. I hope you have an awesome week!

Love you Mis!

Trev

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