Week 23

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! We are officially into 2024 now, and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be my first full year on the mission, so I'm excited to see what I'm going to learn and how I'm going to grow.


MONDAY was pretty normal for us. Shopping, talking with family, and then zone p-day where I finally learned how to play Catan, which took way longer than I would have expected. After all that fun, we got back to finding and teaching before dinner. If I take at least a couple of things home from my mission, one of them will definitely be life advice from members. We get given so much life advice from them at dinners; I might need to start taking a notebook with me to dinner.


TUESDAY we spent around 3½ hours just walking to different neighbors we felt we needed to tract, talking to anyone we met on the way. By dinner time, my legs were pretty sore, so I was happy to sit and be given even more life advice.


WEDNESDAY was really good just off the fact that there wasn't too much empty time. We had a lot of lessons that morning to the point where after studies, we didn't stop having lessons until 1 when we took lunch. The rest of the day we had a couple more lessons, but it was mostly just more finding.


THURSDAY while we were walking in the morning, trying to find people to talk to, it started to snow. Walking around in the snow was obviously cold, but it was really cool to just be out in it. After a bit longer, we headed back to the apartment to start cleaning for our housing inspection. But because of all the snow that was coming down, the senior missionaries texted us that they would have to reschedule because they didn't want to take the chance with Albuquerque drivers. Later in the day, once we got back to it, we were trying to find our way to the house of someone we had talked to in the past when we took a wrong turn into some deep snow. Thankfully our truck has 4-wheel drive, so we didn't get completely stuck, but it was kinda scary for a second.


FRIDAY was a lot of walking around in the snow. We had to be pretty careful walking because a lot of the snow had melted and refrozen so there was a lot of ice on the ground. We got bashed a bit and had a couple of lessons while out and about, so it was a pretty good time. During our last lesson for the night, we were talking with one of our friends who was progressing really well, and we set them on a date for baptism! It's pretty exciting to be able to see them making so much progress, and I'm excited to see them make that covenant with God.


SATURDAY wasn't too interesting overall. Just really cold.


SUNDAY was fast and testimony meeting, so I went up to bear my testimony for the first time this year. It's always nice to feel the spirit during those meetings and just see the sincerity they all have. Otherwise, it was a bit of a calm and slow day.


All the snow this week was really cool, but it was very cold to be out in it. My thought for this week comes from 1 Nephi 1:15 which says, "15 And after this manner was the language of my father in the praising of his God; for his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled because of the things which he had seen, yea, which the Lord had shown unto him." When we have joy in our connection with God, we can have a much fuller understanding and happiness in life. I hope you all have a wonderful new year!


1+2- snow 
3-cold 
4-sky



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 43

Image
This email won't be too long because the only thing that really happened this week was that both Elder Shawcroft and I got a stomach bug which knocked us out for the week. It was a rough couple of days, but we're back in shape and are excited to return to the work. MONDAY we had our last p-day of the transfer down in Santa Fe. We played a bunch of dodgeball with the whole zone for a bit and then a handful of us started playing the one board game called 7 Wonders with one of the senior missionaries. The rest of the day was pretty normal, except at the very end when Elder Shawcroft started having symptoms from the stomach bug. TUESDAY we just stayed inside and let Elder Shawcroft work on recovering. WEDNESDAY we managed to have a phone lesson with one of our friends we had been teaching for a bit, Anna. It went really well and they are loving the gospel so much. Then that night I ended up getting hit with the stomach bug which was really rough. We also found out that both of us a...
Read more

Week 24

Image
This was a really good week, but a lot of it is kind of blurred together. There's a day where I'm thinking that we talked to a certain person just yesterday, but it was really three days ago. At least that means the days are going quickly. MONDAY was a fun and sad day. At zone p-day, we had a lot of fun playing basketball, board games, and just hanging out, but we also said goodbye to a sister who was going home early. It's sad to see missionaries go home early in every case, but I know that the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us. At dinner that night, we got to hold some snakes that this member family had. It was pretty cool to be able to hold them and feel them, but Elder Stanger was not as excited as I was. For the last bit of the day, we were able to have a lesson with the bishop of one of our wards and a less active family that we had been meeting with, and you could just feel the bishop's love for them. It's always amazing just how much the gospel un...
Read more

Week 73

Image
Don't worry, I didn't miss a week; we just had our p-day moved to Christmas Eve! This email will be slightly longer, but next week's will be a bit shorter. MONDAY we made cookies with our district before everyone got together for p-day. We didn't have a mixer, so they just made me use my hand to mix the dough. TUESDAY we had a couple of really good lessons with some of the people we met. I also had a meeting with all the other social media trainers in the mission to help get them prepared for the new transfer. WEDNESDAY nothing went as we planned. We had everything set up a certain way that morning during daily planning, and by the end of the day, our schedule was completely different! THURSDAY I took a bit of time getting some presents and letters ready for my last and current mission presidents. FRIDAY we woke up with no hot water in the apartment, which really sucked when we had to get showered! This last transfer had mixed up the zone a bunch, so I had a good time g...
Read more