Week #72

Hey Mis!

Dang! Chill with the dates! Hahaha. I'm glad you're having fun out there, and I hope your presentation went well too.

My week was pretty good. We had some interviews with our mission president. It was really good to sit down and talk with him! I think I had probably the longest interview of my mission last week haha. We were there for almost an hour talking about stuff. Yep, I was that guy that held everyone up haha. I just had tons of questions cuz I had been freaking out a little lately haha. Being double transferred into an area, double transferred into a struggling zone who hasn't had a baptism for 4 weeks, training a brand new zone leader who had never been in leadership before, and building up two brand new district leaders, I've been freaking out lately. He definitely talked me through a lot of stuff though, it was a good experience. 

We also had three exchanges this week 😵🔫 haha. I was first with Elder Beaumont in our area, the district leader's companion. He's a good guy, he's only been out 8 weeks, and he's from South Carolina. He's a little timid, but we had some good lessons on our exchange. One of the bishops had set up two lessons with PMFs for that Wednesday, so it was super cool because they are really solid. It was a good experience for him. Then we had an exchange with the APs. Since the Kingman Stake had interviews one day, and the Lake Havasu Stake the next, they stayed the night with us and blitzed our area. Elder Wightman was with Ramirez, and I went with Elder Excell. It was kinda crazy haha, but it was a lot of fun. We called one of our ward mission leaders, and we did a 4 way split, it was super cool! We found a lot of people to teach, and had some pretty bomb lessons! I learned a lot from Elder Excell too. He's suuuuuper organized, so he gave me a lot of tips on how to keep my head above the water with everything that's going on haha. It was definitely good. We officially exchanged back after interviews in Lake Havasu, where I did an exchange with Elder Cook, a district leader in Parker. I got to go back to Parker for a day!! It was pretty sweet. We had dinner with a RC family, the Grenwalts, that Rigby and I taught. They gave me a present! It's a sweet Native American blanket! I forgot to take a picture, so I'll send it next week. It's pretty dope. And they fed us fettuccine alfredo, which was awesome too! Haha. Elder Cook works super hard too, it was fun working with him that day!

Also, there was a missionary broadcast this week, and they made some big announcements! We only keep track of people baptized, confirmed, with dates, who attends church, and new investigators. That's it! Makes my job easier haha. They also changed the schedule! Instead of planning at night, we plan the morning of! And companionship study, lunch, and 12 week training got reduced to a half hour instead of an hour, and you can place them wherever you want in your day. And personal study starts at 9am instead of 8am. It's pretty crazy. So we plan at 8:30am, do personal study at 9am, and do comp study whenever, and lunch and 12 week whenever. It's pretty crazy! Plus, p-day now starts at 8am instead of 10!!! And we only study for a half hour at 7:30. It's pretty crazy.

That was pretty much my week! I hope you keep doing well, and that you have a great week too!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Weel #71

Hey Mis!

Sounds like a busy week! Haha careful with those dates, don't get married till I get home lol. I totally forgot about inauguration haha. But hey, it happened! It'll be interesting what comes of it. 

My week was busy! First off, the day before I found out about being transferred to Lake Havasu, Elder Hatch and I had a lesson back in Vegas with Karen who was getting baptized. At the lesson, Karen asked if I would baptize her. I was totally honored! But then, we found out I was going to the one place that was pretty much impossible to come back to a baptism for. She was really bummed, as was I, but she said that she would find someone else. After I arrived in Lake Havasu, I realized that we had a meeting back in Las Vegas on the 18th. Her baptism was the 17th, at 8pm. So, I called the APs and asked for special permission to drive down early for the baptism, stay the night with Elder Hatch and his new companion, and attend the meeting in the morning. The mission has had some issues with sleepovers and groups of missionaries being in one place, so I was worried it wouldn't get approved. But, IT DID! So, unbeknownst to Karen and her family, Elder Ramirez and I drove to Vegas Tuesday night for the baptism. When we arrived, we snuck into the back of the stake center, and I quickly went into the locker room and changed into a white jumpsuit. Then, Elder Hatch and his new companion led me and Elder Ramirez to where the baptism was taking place. When Karen saw me, she screamed and ran over to me! It was pretty awesome haha. Elder Hatch had printed out the programs, and had put that I was baptizing Karen, so they were hiding the programs from her haha. It was a pretty cool experience.

The next day, I got to see Elder Aitchison!! He's serving near Lake Mead and the outskirts of Henderson. It was pretty cool to see him. The conference was pretty cool, I definitely learned a lot from President Snow. The people that the Lord calls are definitely inspired, I definitely learned what I needed to from him that day. Our area is doing pretty well. Troy, someone that we found the first week in the area, came to church again, and he brought his 1 1/2 year old son, Liam. Elder Ramirez and I got worried cuz Liam got loose a couple times, but the members helped out a lot with controlling him. Troy really enjoyed church, and stayed for all three hours!! His friend who the missionaries had been teaching, Chris, was at church too. Chris cut out early and tried to convince Troy to go with him, but Troy told him he wanted to stay instead, and he did! Which was awesome. 

And then in the other ward, the Godfrey parents came to church. Sister Godfrey had a lot of concerns, but the stake president, President Lundin, knows them well and wanted to come to a lesson. So we brought him, and he threw down some pretty insane doctrine. My mind was blown, and I'm pretty sure the Godfreys' minds were too. They came to church and really enjoyed it. Bro. Godfrey was sick though, so they cut out early, but that was more progress than what was going on lately, so that was good! I also went on exchange with Elder Fenton in Bullhead City. I knew him from North Las Vegas and Green Valley, so we're pretty good buds. His area was struggling to find people to teach. So, we prayed at the beginning of the exchange to find elect people. By the exchange, we found 6 new people to teach!! It was pretty sweet. The Lord definitely blesses us if we ask and do our part!

That was pretty much my week! I hope have an awesome week!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Zone pic (Sent 1/23/17) 

Karen's baptism (Sent 1/23/17) 

MLC (Sent 1/23/17)  

Elder Aitchison (Sent 1/23/17)

Week #70

Hey Mis!

That's cool that school had a pretty good start! And that's fun you went to Moab! I hope Asia is transitioning well at UVU. My week was tough, but a lot of fun! 

The tough stuff: being doubled into an area, covering two new wards, taking over a zone with three brand new district leaders, and training a new zone leader. The missionaries before only had two semi-progressing investigators, and left little to no notes on the area or members too, so that made it interesting. And, the apartment was wrecked. So! It was definitely a fun start to the week. Since we didn't have much info, and the area book didn't transfer us over until Thursday, we just went out finding. Street contacting, tracking, old referrals, etc. 

The fun stuff: We ended up finding some pretty cool people! Ones named Theresa. She just moved to Havasu from Mississippi, and was looking for a church to go to. We taught her the Restoration, and invited her to come to church, read the Book of Mormon, to pray about it, and to get baptized, and she said yes to all of them! The bummer though was that she has some social anxiety, so when Sunday morning came, her ride went to pick her up, but she was too afraid to go. :( We're going to see her tonight to resolve some of those concerns she has. She has a lot of potential though! 

Another person that we found was named Troy. He was a reallllllly old referral that missionaries never contacted. We visited him, and we sat down and talked. We taught him the Restoration as well, and he loved it! He wants to get baptized in February! We had an appointment with him Saturday, but we were stuck in Vegas at a mission conference, so we couldn't make it. BUT, on Sunday, he showed up to church, and he brought a friend!! And it just so happens that his friend was one of the two semi-solid people the previous missionaries had been teaching, Chris. It was pretty cool! We also set up appointments with both ward mission leaders, and one of the bishops. Both wards are super missionary minded! It's going to be a lot of fun serving here. Elder Ramirez and I have been getting along pretty well, which has been nice. He's learning pretty quickly, which has been good. Lake Havasu is a really fun place to be in, too. Fun fact: I guess the old London Bridge was rebuilt here in Lake Havasu City. I don't know why here of all places, but hey, I got to take some pictures by it! I'm going to enjoy serving here, I can feel it! Oh also, the big mission conference that caused us to miss Troy's appointment was pretty cool. We were visited by PRESIDENT RUSSELL M. NELSON, President Lynn G. Robbins, and Elder William H. Stoddard. It was an awesome experience. Just like the Holland visit, we went forward in a line and shook their hands. It was pretty sweet! And they taught a lot of great things too, it really opened my eyes more on the eternal perspective of missionary work. That was pretty much my week! 

Also, if you send any letters or packages, send them to:

1755 Magnolia Drive #103

Lake Havasu, AZ 86403

Have a great week! Love you Mis!

Trev

Sent 1/16/16.

Excuse my face, it was super windy! (Sent 1/16/16)

Sent 1/16/16.

Sent 1/16/16.

Sent 1/16/16.

Week #69

Hey Mis!

I hope your week was good! Here's my week: This week was interesting! First off, we had transfer calls, and....(drum roll).... I'M GOING TO LAKE HAVASU!!!!! It's an hour from Parker, my last area haha. It's pretty rare that someone goes out of the valley twice in their mission. There's only 2 other missionaries that have gotten to do that. It's crazy though, because both missionaries in Lake Havasu are leaving, so I'm being double-transferred in! And my new companion will be Elder Ramirez. He's actually in my zone right now, and he was training a new missionary. He's never been a district leader, so it'll be interesting to see how he adjusts to taking a bigger leap! It'll be interesting training him up, and being double transferred in, but I'm excited! Plus I'll get to do exchanges in my old area haha. I loved being out of valley, it'll be exciting to be able to go back! 

Other than that, Karen has been clean of smoking since Tuesday! It's been remarkable to see someone change so much because they want to access the Atonement of Jesus Christ so badly. She's smoked for over 40 years, and she's cut it cold turkey on Tuesday! She's getting baptized on the 17th. I won't be there for it, but it's cool to still see the progress she's made! Other than that, nothing too exciting happened. I'm gonna be saying goodbye to people tonight, so that'll be hard, but I'm excited for Lake Havasu!!!

Have a great week!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Week #68

Hey Mis!

Sounds like a great week! That's funny Oke is at Rob's now, sounds like Dad has no regrets about that haha. The trip looks fun from the pictures! I hope you guys had a great New Years. 

My week was pretty good. This week wasn't as stressful, and it was actually a really good week for our zone! It seems like the stress and work is starting to pay off for the zone. I had three exchanges this week. The first was with Elder Andersen, then with Elder Gonzalez, and then with Elder Wightman. It was weird doing two exchanges with former companions haha. My exchange with Elder Andersen went pretty well. He's from Boston, so it was cool talking with someone from the east coast again. We had some good lessons, nothing too crazy. The exchange with Elder Gonzalez was actually really lame haha. He complained about how his companion doesn't know Spanish or how to be a missionary. I was kinda like "well, he's only been out five weeks, maybe you should train him?" Lol. He's really slowed down in his missionary work, it's pretty sad. After that I did an exchange with Wightman! It went pretty well. He came to our area, and we had some good lessons. One of our investigators, Karen, said she's quitting smoking cold turkey on Tuesday!! So that should be fun. 

Transfer calls are this week. My gut feeling is that I'm leaving. Hatch needs an opportunity to take the lead of our zone. I don't know where I'm going though, so we'll see

where I'm needed!

That was my week! I hope you guys have a great week!

Love you Mis!

Trev