Bell, Rigdin PT

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you had a great time with your friends and family. This week was pretty fun for me and really showed the kindness this world can have. MONDAY was mostly a normal P-day with activities like basketball, volleyball, and a game called Signs. Something that was pretty fun for me, though, was that some of the other missionaries taught me how to play Magic: The Gathering. It was enjoyable, and they were good teachers, so I'll probably try it again if I get a chance. TUESDAY felt pretty short because we had weekly planning and didn't have a ton of time scheduled for tracting that day. As much as I love the work and love finding new people to teach, knocking on doors for 3 hours can get pretty tiring. During the short bit of tracting we had for that day, we actually talked to this guy for a while about the beliefs of the Native American people in New Mexico and how they are really similar to our beliefs about the Book of Mormon, which was interesti...

Another week is done, and Thanksgiving is on its way. Something I'm thankful for this week is the members in my wards who have been giving us so much food. MONDAY wasn't anything too special. Just the normal P-day activities and some tracting once it got later in the evening. It's getting really cold out now, but that just means I can wear my sweaters. TUESDAY was zone conference for the northern zones, and as always, that's a lot of missionaries in one spot. It was great because we got to hear President Edwards talk about his experience on his mission, which just reminded me that on the mission, it's normal to have hard times and to be rejected, but we're able to take strength from the covenants we've made and keep going. Afterward, all the northern zones had lunch together, which was pretty fun because I was able to meet and get to know a lot of missionaries I've never talked with before. WEDNESDAY we had house inspections in the middle of the day, so ...

This week wasn't super exciting, but there were a bunch of meetings and a couple of lessons that went well. I even went on exchanges for the first time in this area. MONDAY was a lot of the normal p-day stuff like shopping, writing my email, playing games with the other missionaries, and talking with family. As soon as p-day ended, it was right back to work because we had a lesson with one of our friends right at 6. The lesson went really well, with us taking time to get to know them and going over the restoration of the gospel. They even said that they felt the spirit really strongly during the lesson. TUESDAY was a busy day because of interviews, tightly packed lessons, and traffic. We had been able to set up a bunch of lessons for today, so we ended up having to really focus on staying on schedule, or else we'd end up being late to everything. The lessons all went pretty well, with us being able to share the restoration, plan of salvation, and a couple of other topics too. I...

Fall back with daylight savings has finally happened, and it's both good and bad. We get a bit more sleep now, but we also get less daylight for finding. Ups and downs of missionary work, I guess. It just means I have to find a better use for the evenings. MONDAY started off pretty early for Elder Holbrook and me. Apparently, an Elder who had been here months ago had signed up for this area to clean the temple, and the sign-up stays with the area and not the missionary. It was pretty cool to see the amount of care they put into cleaning the temple and all the different rooms in it that you'd normally not see. After we finished up at the temple, we went shopping for the week and got ready for P-day. P-day is really different now that I'm in a bigger zone. Before, it was just basketball every day, but now they do a bunch of different sports, board games, and card games. TUESDAY, we got all our planning for the week done and then headed out. We actually went tracting with one ...

I've officially finished with training! It's a bit of an unreal feeling to be here, but I've known it was coming for a while now. I'm grateful that I've been able to make it this far. MONDAY was an awesome p-day with the Trapp house and the zone leaders. Early in the morning, while we were deciding what we wanted to do, we got a call from the ZLs. They wanted to see if we wanted to come with them to the top of the Sandia peaks since it was the last p-day of the transfer. We didn't have a ton to do that day, so we said sure, changed into some warmer clothes, and hopped into the truck with the other Elders to meet up with the ZLs. We'd decided to meet them at a gas station not too far from the start of the road to the top of the peaks so that we could follow each other up. They'd said to meet them there at 8:30, and we were there at 8:30, but with no sign of the ZLs. Because they were taking so long, I just took the extra time to work on my emails for the ...

Another week of New Mexico on the board. Mission life can be pretty hard at times, but it's fulfilling to see the progress people are making as they accept the gospel. MONDAY, we started off with going grocery shopping, where we got to see all of the Christmas stuff they're already setting out. They're going for it early this year, not even giving Halloween a chance. Afterward, we headed back to the house to drop stuff off and then went out for zone p-day. As always, we played basketball for a couple of hours and then talked to our families for a bit before getting back to work. Because it's been getting so dark so early, we decided to spend some time just walking through a neighborhood and try to talk to anyone we saw outside. I actually saw a shooting star for the first time while we were walking around. It was pretty cool to watch it go across the sky and then just disappear. At the end of the night when we were about to head home, we happened upon someone who said t...

This week was pretty fun because I got to really see the better side of Albuquerque for once. I also got to see a ton of missionaries this week, so I had to learn a ton of new names. Probably going to forget a lot of them over the next few weeks, but I've got 2 years to learn them all, so I think I've got time. MONDAY started off with all the missionaries in the Trapp house (that's the name of the house out here, I don't know why) getting up at around 5:30 so we could get ready to leave for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. The Balloon Fiesta is probably one of the biggest things happening in Albuquerque throughout the year, and all the northern zones were given special permission from our mission president to attend it this year on our p-day. When we got to the site, the Fiesta had already started, so there were a couple of balloons already in the air, but we were still able to watch a ton of balloons go up and enjoy ourselves. Because all the northern zones were given p...