Week 22

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! I hope that the holidays have been great for each and every one of you and that you're all excited to start off the new year. This week was pretty great just because of all the holiday cheer we felt in our work.


MONDAY started off pretty great with everyone calling their families and opening their presents. After that, Elder Stanger and I had to head out because some members invited us to have breakfast with them and their family. It was really nice getting to know them and feel their love for one another. While we were there, we got to listen to some of the tabernacle chair's old Christmas concert and see all the decorations that they would put up. It's really amazing to me just how much effort they must put into it. After all that, everyone in the northwest and east zones got together for the Christmas party. It was great seeing a lot of the missionaries I had been serving with in the east again and just hanging out with them playing basketball and board games. We had dinner, hung out some more, and then got to watch our one movie of the year, which ended up being Narnia. While we were watching the movie, President and Sister Edwards got there, so we paused the movie and visited with them for a while. After the movie, we cleaned up the building and headed home to do studies.


TUESDAY we had zone conference and vehicle inspections, so we got to spend some time talking with everyone and seeing how their Christmas was. Something very exciting to all the missionaries happened while we were there. Everyone got a physical copy of the new "Preach My Gospel" book that was made. Kind of funnily, they gave them to us at the end because they knew we'd all be looking through it the whole time if we got it earlier lol. Once we got back to our areas, we got right back to the work with Elder Stanger and me going and having a lesson with a less active family which went really well. After we finished up the day, we headed home and got ready for bed. We got a call from one of our bishops asking me to give a talk on Sunday. So you can imagine what I was thinking when I went to bed that night.


WEDNESDAY I started to work on my talk and just try to figure out what stuff I wanted to quote and any experience I could talk about. The topic was "how can we learn to hear and speak the love of Jesus Christ," so I got a lot of stuff from this last general conference.


THURSDAY we started off our day quick because right after personal study, we had a lesson we had to go to and some visits we needed to make. They all went pretty well, so I'd say we started the day off good. After all of that, we headed to what I'd say was probably the best lunch I've had so far, Longhorn Steakhouse. Some older members had offered to take us there for lunch, so it was a pretty awesome time. Afterward, we headed back to the apartment to do exchanges with the Zone leaders. It was pretty fun, and I feel like I learned a lot because the Elder I was on exchanges with is going home soon, so he's learned a lot.


FRIDAY we had zone council, so we spent a lot of time setting new goals for the new month and seeing how we did this month. It's pretty fun to see each area's own goals and how they plan to help the people they're teaching. The rest of the day was pretty normal for us, just more finding and teaching.


SATURDAY was pretty normal, but I focused hard on writing my talk. I had worked on it some throughout the week, but I still had a lot to do, so during lunch, dinner, and evening time I just focused on finishing my talk.


SUNDAY I gave my talk in sacrament meeting, and I think it went well enough. I was definitely nervous to talk, but having the feeling of the spirit telling me that what I was saying was true was great. After church and studies, we got back to finding and teaching for the rest of the day. Because our mission had us come in early that night so we'd avoid all the craziness, they had us study the new "Preach My Gospel" as an apartment. It was fun to be able to just talk about it with others and learn more about how we can be better missionaries.


It's hard to believe that I'm going into my first full year as a missionary, but I'm excited to keep soaking up the culture and teach the people. Thank you all so much for reading my email and sending me emails. My spiritual thought comes from one of the general conference talks I read while preparing for my talk. In his April 2020 general conference talk, President Nelson said, "Our Father knows that when we are surrounded by uncertainty and fear, what will help us the very most is to hear His Son. Because when we seek to hear—truly hear—His Son, we will be guided to know what to do in any circumstance." In this upcoming year, we are sure to face circumstances that we won't expect and that will cause us some anxiety. But I know that as you search for Christ in your life, he will give you greater comfort than anything in this world can. Happy new year, everyone.


1- sister Edwards first .5 photo
2- sunset
3- gotta get those gains
4- steakhouse
5- Christmas breakfast
6- apartment studies





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