Week #80

Hey Mis!

Sounds like a pretty normal week haha. That's funny that you're first in your brackets. It's always fun surprising everyone haha. Make sure to talk it up even more! Haha. I did not hear about the shooting in Vegas by the Cosmopolitan... Glad I'm in Havasu!

This week was pretty good! We had Priscilla Koon get baptized! The Koon family wanted to keep it pretty low-key, so it was just us, the WML and his wife, the Koons and their visiting uncle, and two other families. It was pretty neat. At the end of the baptism, Priscilla wanted her brother to say the closing prayer. He's 15 and a member, but he hasn't gone to church in a long time. But, he said the closing prayer, and at the end of it, Priscilla ran up to him, gave him a big hug, and started crying. It was a super cool moment for their family. Slowly but surely, all of their family is coming back to church. All of them except for the brother came to church for Priscilla's confirmation. It was still cool to see Bro. Koon at church!

I also went on two exchanges this week. My first exchange was with Elder Latu in his area. He's a Tongan from Salt Lake. He's a goof! It was a really fun exchange. We saw some super cool miracles too, like two girls that they were teaching committed to a baptismal date! It was pretty neat to see. We had some good talks to about some leadership stuff. He's a good leader! He also talked about how he has a couple friends that are missionaries in the New York Rochester mission, so I told him I'd keep my eye out for them if I went to Palmyra after I got home haha. 

I also exchanged with Elder Delos Santos in Golden Valley, which is just outside of Kingman. He's from the Philippines! He's been in the states for about 4 months. When he got to the states, he got sent to Paradise/East when I was zone leader there. We helped him move in, so I already knew him pretty well. It was fun! We saw a really cool miracle. We were looking for a less-active family, but we didn't have the complete address. So we started to knock on the houses and trailers in the general vicinity of where it should be. We knocked on one door, and this teenage guy answered. He looked about 15. We asked for the family, and he invited us in. We started talking to him and his brother, who was about 18, until his mom walked in. We sat down with them, and got to know them really well! We shared a brief message, and set up a time to come back. As we were leaving, the mom followed us outside. After the front door closed and we started walking away from the house, the mom started bawling. She then told us everything that had happened in her family. Her husband joined the Church a few years ago, and when he did, she felt that the members seemed indifferent about them, and that they even started to act a little rude after he was baptized. So, her and her family stopped going to church, since then, her 15 year old son was born, she had gotten divorced, and she was having some issues with her kids. She had been praying for help that day to Heavenly Father, and she said that right when she finished her prayer, we knocked on their door. She wanted her kids to be baptized, and she wanted us to come back. It was SUCH A COOL MIRACLE!! It bums me out that it happened in exchange, but hopefully the elders take the opportunity and run with it!

That was pretty much my week. I'm stoked for Conference!! This week is transfer calls, so we'll see what happens! I hope you have a great week!

Love ya Mis!

Trev

Sent 3/27/17

Week #79

Hey Mis!

You were in Vegas again? Hahaha nice. There were some kids from BYU in Lake Havasu for spring break, they came to my ward for church. I got to talk with them a little bit, it was cool haha. Look at you and your brackets! Haha Dad told me about the snow. That poor guy haha.

My week was pretty good. I had two exchanges. I was with Elder Owens in Havasu for the first one. It was pretty cool, we got Troy all set up to do some family history now that he's baptized! And we're slowly working on his mom. Her son is Mormon, and so is her mother, and they live in the same house, so it's inevitable hahaha. Just a matter of time :P

I also was on exchange with Elder Stucki, again in Havasu. It was fun! We saw some pretty cool miracles! We found some cool people to teach, one of them being a part member family. The mom is a less active member, the Dad is not a member, and they have 5 kids. The oldest is not a member, then the next two are, and then they have one who is not, and then the youngest is too young to be baptized. They're a cool family! The missionaries used to visit them, but the oldest said that she never got baptized because she never understood why it was important. Well, we can help her with that! Haha. We had a really cool lesson about just baptism. She said that she understands it, but that she doesn't feel ready. We taught her about Christ's Atonement, grace, and repentance, and so she said she wanted to work towards it!
We're super excited.

Another cool miracle: a lady that we're teaching, Shari, loves everything and the church but has some concerns that the missionaries couldn't quite answer. We talked with our WML about it, and came up with some ideas about it. Unbeknownst to us, his wife walked into our investigator's shop that she owns in town. Shari was there, and got talking with her, and Mormons came up some how. Our WML's wife said
that she was Mormon, and Shari just started asking a bunch of questions. She said up a time to have lunch with Shari and some Relief Society women next week! We were shocked when the WML's wife told us. Their family is pretty much the definition of member-missionary work! It was cool to see.


Priscilla was supposed to get baptized today, but we pushed it back a week because her uncle will be in town next week and wants to see it. Priscilla also asked for me to baptize her! So that'll be fun.


Have a great week! Love ya Mis!
Trev

Week #78

Hey Mis!

I'm glad you had fun in Vegas! Bummer that both of the BYUs lost though. That's fun that you got to do the Rex Lee cancer run! I'm glad Uncle Chuck and Aunt Lori are doing well. I hope you feel better soon! 

My week was BUSY. I had an exchange with Elder Bybee, one of the district leaders. He's from Utah. He's a nice guy, and we were in my area. That was kind of a crazy day because we made some Easter invitations for all the missionaries in the Lake Havasu Stake, and they were printed that day, but they weren't cut... :/ So, Elder Bybee and I got to spend three hours cutting out 1,200 invitations. Haha, it was fun though, we had some good discussion about missionary work and leadership responsibilities. 

The next day was zone conference, as well as zone training council right afterwards. We handed out the invitations to the other missionaries, and they were pretty excited about them. Zone conference was fun, I definitely learned a lot. ZTC was fun afterwards too. 

After ZTC we drove back to Havasu with the APs, where we exchanged and blitzed our area. I was with Elder Foiles. It was a fun exchange! We found some pretty cool people to teach. One turned out to be a less active, part member family. We were just knocking doors, and a guy named Robert answered. He said that the missionaries used to visit him and his wife a few years ago, but he hadn't heard from them since. He's engaged, and his fiancée is a member. He invited us over for dinner the next day! It was pretty cool. They're a fun family, we're going to try to visit them a little more often! He had a lot of deep questions. We tried to answer them, but also tried to explain in the importance of faith. It was a pretty cool visit.

We also had interviews with President the day after zone conference. It was good to talk with him, he answered a lot of questions I had! It's crazy that he goes home in about 3 months... which means I go home in 6 months.... yikes! 

After interviews, we proselyted some more with the APs, and then we drove them up to Kingman, where President was finishing interviews there. There, we had ANOTHER exchange. I brought Elder Beaumont back to Havasu. He's from South Carolina, and he's a nice guy. Kind of quiet, but he's really kind. We had some cool lessons, one of which was the last one before Troy's baptism!! 

The next day, we exchanged back, and Elder Ramirez and I went to Troy's baptism! Awkwardly, the person who was supposed to say the opening prayer and the talk on the Holy Ghost called and said they weren't able to make it. So, we got to do some last second scrambling. I ended up pinch hitting and gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. It was definitely interesting haha. Hopefully it worked out okay! We challenged Troy to write his testimony in a Book of Mormon and to give it to his mom, who isn't a member. His mom was BEAMING at the baptism, she was super excited for Troy. We asked him about the Book of Mormon, and he said that she started to tear up. The Spirit definitely works wonders in people! On our first couple visits with Troy, she kind of ignored us, but now she's at the point of showing interest. It's cool to see how the Spirit works in people!

That was my week! I'll send pictures and a video in a separate email.

I hope you have a great week!

Love ya Mis!

Trev

Sent 3/13/17

Sent 3/13/17

Week #77

Hey Mis!

That's funny that you guys are in Vegas right now. Fun fact: I went to Vegas twice last week. On Wednesday for MLC, and then Saturday for the temple. Yep, slipped right by ya! Haha. We got to he Temple at about 9am Vegas time, and then left at about noon. So if you were ever on Charleston, Hollywood, or Bonanza, ya just missed me! That sounds like a really fun week though! That's cool BYU won, hopefully they'll keep winning!

I had a pretty busy week. We had MLC Wednesday. Definitely learned a lot! President rolled out some deep knowledge like usual, and my mind got blown. It was kinda funny though, I guess MLC was at 8am instead of 9am, like usual. It sounded like the APs kinda dropped the ball, cuz us and all the zone leaders in Henderson (so four companionships of ZLs total) got there late because they thought it started at 9am. Awkward. So Ramirez and I got there at about 8:25am, and we were last haha. Turns out they sent out a last minute reminder to everyone, but since Ramirez and I were driving through the desert of Arizona, we didn't get the message until we got cell service about 20 minutes outside of Vegas, so that's why we ended up being last. Whoops. It was still a good conference though! And, I got to see Elder Aitchison again, so it was definitely a party haha. 

We helped Troy's grandmother move in his week, so he is officially ready to go this Saturday! Finally. We're ready to get him splashed! And he's been ready for like a month lol. Hopefully it'll be a good opportunity for his mom, as well as his grandma. 

We weren't able to see the Koon family last week, but we're going to see them tonight and have dinner! Their daughter, Priscilla, should be getting baptized next week! 

The zone has gotten better too, we've been finding more people to teach lately as a whole, which has been great to see! This coming week will be crazy, because we have zone conference, zone training council, and interviews with President. This week is definitely gonna be busy! I went on an exchange with a missionary named Elder Brown. He's a farmer from Coalville, Utah. He's a really cool guy! Like he's super humble and quiet, but he's secretly a smart dude and works super hard. He has his own business back home selling pocket-sized, transportable fire pits. Pretty random, but hey, I'd never heard of that before! He says it's actually been pretty successful. He's a smart guy. 

On the exchange, we met a lady named Monique. She had requested a Bible. Bible requests are kind of awkward in my mission, because they still have us go by even though it takes a couple weeks to get the actual Bible... So, we showed up at her door and talked with her. She's going through a divorce after only being married three months, and so she was looking for something to help her feel peace. We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and explained the blessings of studying it and applying the things we learn. We set up a time to see her again on Sunday. When Sunday rolled around, I was back with Ramirez, and we had a super spiritual lesson with her. She lives with her mom who doesn't like Mormons, so we sat out on her porch. It was really cool, the desire and humility was definitely there. She showed a lot of promise, it's cool to see miracles like this every day!

That was my week! As for things I need, I'll iMessage it to you. Thank you! I hope you enjoy the rest of the time you have in Vegas! If you stayed on the Strip, then you were in my old area. Haha. Have a great week!

Love you Mis!

Trev

Sent 3/7/17

Sent 3/7/17