Last Mission Email!

 Monday Jan 20, 2020

Well its official, this is the last weekly that I will ever write on the Mission. It's a little sad to see the end of my mission but I got to learn a lot over the course of these two years.

We pushed as hard as we could this last week to finish off the Transfer. There has been a lot of really good things going in Gilmer and I'm glad to have been a part of the great work here. We got to meet with Verna and Karen again this past week. They are both doing really good and they still have the desire to meet with us. I am hoping that Karen will be able to get time off of work so that she can come to church in the future. We also went tracting a little bit this week and met a couple interesting people. There was one person that mentioned some Anti to us which is always interesting to listen to. Usually it points out the fault of men in the Church more than anything but they still can't prove the Book of Mormon to be False. It's true and has brought Millions to Jesus Christ. Something I learned about studying the Book of Revelation is that those who keep the Commandments of God will be saved. I wanted to read all of the Standard works by the end of my Mission and I finally finished the New Testament which was good for me. I should be finishing Doctrine and Covenants again tonight as well.

I also had my last District Council this week which was pretty good. I absolutely love the District in this area because of how close everyone is. I'm glad to have served around them because of the Faith they all have in Jesus Christ to get the work done. My last training was based on being Consecrated in the Mission Field. I would say that being on a mission with Real Intent is very Important. We have to Study the Scripture with real intent as well as living the Gospel with real intent. There is nothing more important in my life than doing the work for the Lord. I have witnessed a lot of really cool miracles over the course of my mission and a lot of funny events that happened. From hunting Mice in our apartment in Paris to having kids running around in their Underwear at a Birthday Party you can say that a mission is like no other time in life. There was even a time where I was making a Facebook Profile and to get that approved I had to ask Sister Dalton if it was ok. There is a picture about the text I got back after that which still makes me laugh even today even though that was the first week I was out on my Mission.

I served in 5 different areas on my Mission which are Paris, Allen, Frisco, Stonewall and Gilmer. In each of my areas I learned a lot about how to be a more effective missionary. There has been a lot of things that I learned since I have been out here. I learned how to have Faith in Jesus Christ on my Mission and I was able to understand the power of the Atonement and how it changes peoples heart and mind about Jesus Christ. If I was given the opportunity to serve a Mission again I would totally jump on that opportunity. I didn't know the Gospel that much before my mission and I felt like the average Church attendee every single week. Just go to Church every Sunday and cross it off the list. I am glad that my perspective has changed since then and that this work does have a purpose. That is to bring people to a Remission of their sins through the Authority that Jesus Christ has brought to this church. I am hopeful for what lies ahead even though I don't want to leave the mission field. I plan to be a Disciple of Jesus Christ the rest of my life. I hope you all have a great week and I will talk to you all again soon! 

                                                                        This pic is from early on in the mission

The Good and the Bad....

 Monday Jan 13, 2020

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic week. This week was pretty awesome and filled with good and bad. On Wednesday we had a pretty rough day with people not liking us but that is the point of the work right? We usually do our studies at Taco Bell in the Morning and some guy sat right by us. The Spirit left as soon as he sat down and we soon figured out why. We asked him how he was and he mentioned that he thought we were a Cult. A great start to a contention filled conversation. He told us that he didn't believe in anything we talked about because of the lack of Archeological Evidence for the Book of Mormon and that he has been down to South America before and hasn't found anything about the currency in the Book of Mormon. We talked about a lot of things but among those there was a point that he told us we were going down the wrong path. Out of the blue I asked if has ever searched the scriptures for himself and that if he did that he would find there are commandments that God wants us to follow. I then said that if he doesn't follow Gods Commandments that he would be going to Hell. The Conversation ended with him saying that he has a Brain and that God gave him that Brain to think. However he doesn't pray about anything so that is his problem. Something I learned on my mission is to not condemn people if they aren't on the same idea as you are. If that makes any sense.

Another interesting event happened on Wednesday Evening as well. We met a person named Zoe that seemed pretty promising and invited us to come back the next evening to meet with her and her Fiance. We went back and someone else answered the door. They said that she did not live there and they were not interested. As they closed the door we could hear them and others mocking us knowing that she did live there. When we went back to the car we felt prompted to go back and knock again. When we knocked on the door again someone else answered. They said that they were not interested and that she did not live there again. We asked if we can share a Message about Jesus Christ to them and he said he was already a Member of the Church of Christ. We asked if he can share some of his beliefs and he said that he didn't. Elder Riley then asked if he was telling the truth looking straight at him and he said that he was. I can't remember what I said but I asked if he can say the same thing in front of Jesus Christ at the Judgement Bar and he said that he could. We knew that they were lying but that will be on their part now. Kind of sad to see people openly lie in front of us but that will be held upon their own Judgement. We did at least get to meet with someone named Krista that evening who sounds promising.

Other than that we got to meet with Verna and her mom Karen this last week. They both are interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon and Verna has been to church twice already. I am excited to hear about how they progress in the Gospel in the next coming months. The area of Gilmer is really awesome and I am glad to see so many miracles happen since I have been here. One of the last things I can think of that happened this week is Interviews. Unfortunately it was my final Interview but before then our Zone Celebrated breaking the High Watermark in December where President Dalton gave us Bubbas. It was awesome and everyone enjoyed being there. In my final Interview I got some really good advice from President Dalton and got to learn about what he wants best for me. There was some tears shed as well during the process of it. I also got to learn when President Daltons hair started to turn gray and it started when he was a Missionary. However he has a brother that is going bald so he prefers Gray hair over that. I am going to miss this family a lot but I have been told to stay in touch with them whenever I can. Anyways that is all that happened this week and I hope to push hard and Strong this next week. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon.

Exchanges and Miracles

 Monday Jan 6, 2020

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a great week. This week has went by pretty fast and I mean really fast. However there was a lot of cool things that happened this week to talk about. One of the first Miracles of the week happened on Monday night. We had all of our plans fall through that evening and we were sitting in our car by a couple trailer homes trying to figure out what to do. After about 5 minutes went by a Truck pulled into the neighborhood. This truck turned around and the person inside started talking to us. His name is Jacob and we got to tell him our purpose as missionaries and got to meet with him and his family. It turns out that he is a part of a Part Member Household and we had a really great conversation with them. They are open to meeting with us and I really hope that it goes somewhere. We also had another Exchange this week with the Zone Leaders even though we see them like once a day it feels like. I went out with Elder Jager and got to work in their area. It was a lot of fun. At one point of the exchange I had to use the Bathroom so we decided to pull off on the side of the Road. Right as I was about to use the Bathroom I had to jump onto the side of the car because a Car came flying down the road. Hopefully they didn't see my nametag after that. We also had a bunch of Cows follow us around at one persons house and had a couple really good contacts with Potential Investigators.

Later on in the week we got to go to Bubba's with the other Elders who were on exchanges. Bubba's has to be one of the best Burger Joints in Gilmer and I highly Recommend getting the Monster Burger. It has a lot of meat on it and is a little pricey but it's worth the money. We also received a referral from the Elders about a Lady who wanted to come to church on Sunday. Well she did come to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. We got to meet with her that Evening with her Mom as well and it was a very good visit. After having to deal with a couple negative experiences at church they are willing to listen to the message we have to share. We also went knocking doors earlier on Sunday and met someone named Keith. He has an Uncle who is a member who was not able to answer some of his questions so we answered them for him. He respected us coming by and accepted a Book of Mormon. The craziest thing that he told us is that since he has lived there for the past 12 years a Missionary has never knocked on his door before. Keith told us he will sincerely read and pray about the Book of Mormon before we come back.

Other than that we met with Gary Bradshaw last night as well. We will have to push his Baptism back a couple weeks but I think its best to help him live the Word of Wisdom. It is kind of sad to see my Mission coming to an end but I want to push as hard as I can for these last couple of weeks. Anyways I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon!

Christmas and lectures....

 Monday Dec 30, 2019

Hey Everyone, I hope that you all had a really good Christmas last week. There wasn't a whole lot that happened in the area this week due to the Holidays but there were still a couple things that did happen. On Christmas Eve we decided to go out and try to get in touch with a couple Members that we have never met before. We had one person say we can come back next year which was weird to hear until I realized there is only a couple days left of this year. We decided to go by a Former that night as well and at first he wasn't home so we decided to work around in the area. Right as we were about to leave he drove up onto his driveway and we talked with him for a little bit. He had a couple misconceptions about the Church from a previous visit so we cleared that up for him. We are hoping to be meeting with him again soon because he does sound pretty promising.

Christmas was alright this year, it felt basically the same as last year which included going to the Zone Leaders Apartment and opening up Presents. I remember doing that last year with my Zone Leaders in Allen, shout out once again to Elder Fox and Elder Richard's. We also went to a Members house for dinner but I guess they never got our text about us coming later on so that was kind of embarrassing. The Member gave us a lecture in a way by telling us to text back when people text us. I guess we just have to live by that now. Later in the week we met with Gary again and went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Law of Chastity. We extended a Baptismal date for January 18th with him so I am pretty excited for it. I am really hoping that he gets through it and makes that date because it may be my last Baptism on the Mission. Another really cool thing that happened this week is that we got a couple referrals. We texted one of them who was Hispanic who texted back saying they weren't interested. After having a conversation back and forth we learned that he isn't home a lot of time so we gave him a link to the Book of Mormon app. He is going to start reading from it and I am hoping we'll be meeting with him next year. Other than that we have been clearing up a few other misconceptions about the church and have people that want to learn more. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again next year. 

"Before you reach the Age of 30 make sure the woman you marry is a Fashionable woman."- Pres Dalton

 Monday Dec 23, 2019

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a great week so far. This week was filled with a couple miracles and one really fun Christmas Party. This transfer has been pretty good for us so far and I've enjoyed every moment that I have had in the Mission. We went on Exchanges this week and I went with Elder Staker. We had a really good time working in the area and got to meet quite a bit of people. By the close of the night we went to a Gas Station and went to use the Bathroom. As we were about to leave one of the employees that was there asked us what books we were holding in our hands. We told her it was the Bible and the Book of Mormon and the importance of them. She asked for them and said that she plans on reading them while at work. It is always super cool when people come up to us and ask us what we do and are open to learning more about the Gospel. While we were doing our exchange Elder Riley and Elder Jager went out to meet with one of the people in our area. However they did not answer so they decided to compass 5 around them. Elder Riley felt inspired to knock a couple more houses and because of that they met someone who just got out of Prison that morning after being in there for 12 years. It is pretty amazing when people are found just in the right place and at the right time. 

This past week we also got to meet with Gary again. He is doing very well and sometimes asks why others can't give the church a chance. He is very committed to learning more about the church and wants to push hard at accomplishing his goals. According to his fellowshippers they say he is the most open at this time than he has ever been before. I am hoping and praying that as we meet with him again this upcoming week that we will be able to extend a Baptismal Date in January. It is definitely an exciting time to be serving in Gilmer and while the Holidays is making everyone busy I believe there are people prepared to receive the Gospel out here.

Other than that one of my favorite things to talk about this week is going to have to be the Christmas party. It was a Zone Conference and a Christmas Party combined into one. There was only a couple trainings but afterwards we got to have a really fun time. Now I just want to give you a little background on what happened last Sunday Evening. As I was getting ready to bed the Assistants called me and a couple other Missionaries and asked if we can be a part of a Skit for this Christmas Party. I was super excited for this Skit and we came up with a lot of ideas but the end result was awesome. At the Beginning of the Skit we had Elder Solaegui and Elder Reynolds wake up out of Bed getting ready for the Day realizing that it was late but still doing the best they could to get ready. It went on to where Elder Reynolds was sitting at the table with Elder Solaegui in the Background with a blanket over him making the food with his hands. They made a crazy Egg Nog Drink with extra Eggs, Ketchup, Toothpaste, Broccoli among other things. It was super funny because they mixed it all up and Elder Reynolds had to drink this with Elder Solaegui acting as his arms. The next scene came on and it was me sitting down acting as President Dalton waiting for an interview. After all the cheering went through and waiting patiently the Assistants finally came in and I got to talk with them about why they were late. After that Elder Gonzalez dressed up as Sister Dalton came in and we had a pretty heated Companionship Inventory. However after all the bad things I talked about the things I liked about my wife and yes that line in the Subject line is one of those. I only learned about that because President Dalton gave me that advice at my last interview. I wonder what other advice he will give me soon? At the end the Curtains closed and we came out singing I want to be a Missionary. This was by far one of my favorite moments on my Mission and I will never forget it. Afterwards we listened to people play Christmas Songs with Chimes, a couple singing performances and I got to take a Picture with President and Sister Dalton. At the close of the meeting I will admit that I cried after realizing it was my last Zone Conference on my Mission. These are some of my favorite meetings to attend on the Mission and I will never forget the Spirit that is in them. I honestly love attending these conferences more than I do regular Church Meetings. I hope that isn't a bad thing to say but I do truly feel that way. Even though they feel like another General Conference I prefer them over anything else I have ever experienced in my life.

Anyways I hope you all have a great Christmas and I will talk to you again soon!

                                                    Elder McMullan dressed as Pres Dalton 

Transfers, long car rides, Basset hounds and the Monster Burger!

 Monday Dec 16, 2019

Hey everyone, hope you are all having a great week. There has been quite a bit of events that happened this past week including Transfers. So I am staying in Gilmer for my final Transfer and Elder Riley is going to be my final Companion. He is from West Jordan, Utah and he has been out for 4 months now so I am Greenie Breaking again. Anyways we had a lot of fun going to and from Transfers. We started doing Riddles on the Car Ride to Frisco Texas. I was really hoping we would stop by Laynes but unfortunately we didn't get the chance to do that. Oh well, I will have to go by another time. The Car ride is always long going to transfers but the experience is a lot of fun. That is something I have realized as a missionary is that you can make Car rides super entertaining.

On Wednesday we went over to an older couples house who were tracked into last week. They have a ton of Basset Hounds over there and explained to us that they Show Dogs at events. When we asked them what they knew about the church they told us that they have both read the Book of Mormon before and have even done their own Family History. When we asked if they have been able to read from the Book of Mormon since last week the Wife told us she has read the entire first book of Nephi which is pretty amazing. They are open to meeting with us and I hope that they will keep more commitments up to the point of Baptism. We were also able to meet with Gary Bradshaw again this past week and he is really starting to understand the Gospel. We taught him with the Sallings again about the Plan of Salvation and it is making sense to him at this moment. Although he won't be able to be Baptized this year I am very hopeful that it will happen next month. I am so excited to be here for another transfer and to finish off my mission in Gilmer. 

One other thing I wanted to share is that there was one point this week where we were tracting out in the Country and of course when you are tracting out in the country you park you car somewhere. That is what we did and while we were knocking doors someone saw us and said that he was worried. We asked why he was worried and he said that his Father in law called the cops because he saw our Car parked and wasn't sure who it was. We didn't think much of it so we went out and knocked a couple more houses in the area. As we drove off we passed by a Cop car and thought we got away with it. However after driving down the road a little bit more we had another Cop car follow right behind us and then after about a Minute he pulled us over. He got out of his car and talked with us. It turned out to be a member so he understood what we were up to. I am excited to see what more events will unfold this next Transfer. Finally we went to Bubbas with the Zone Leaders on Saturday. I got the Monster Burger and I think the picture best describes this beast. Anyways I hope you all have a great day and I'll talk to you again soon!

Staying in Gilmer for last Transfer!

 Monday Dec 9, 2019

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a great week. It has been a really good Transfer here in Gilmer and I found out last night that I will be staying here in Gilmer as my last area. I really love this area and I'm excited to see miracles for the next 6 weeks while I am here. As far as how this week went there wasn't a whole lot that really happened but I will go over those events in this email.

On Tuesday I went out on Exchanges with Elder Staker who is the man. He is an Astonishing Elder and I'm very glad to have worked with him for a Day. I am really glad that he will be staying here for another Transfer so I can try to beat him at Pinball if that is even Possible. While on Exchanges I got to do a Baptismal Interview for two of their Investigators which was awesome. They were Baptized and confirmed this last weekend and I am so proud of them. The Mission has been pushing hard for White Christmas this last Transfer and there has been a lot of success because of that. A lot of people are coming unto their Savior Jesus Christ and have tasted of the Fruit that Lehi speaks of in 1 Nephi 8.

We also had a really good lesson with Gary Bradshaw yesterday. The Zone Leaders were able to come with us as we met with Gary as well as the Sallings. We answered some of his questions and he says that he did want to commit to being Baptized. We extended a date for December 21 and he will be praying about it this upcoming week. I know that anyone who accepts the invitation to be Baptized will be blessed for the rest of their life. Other than that there has been quite a bit of knocking doors this past week as well as following the new mission plan. We have been getting in touch with a couple people that have potential and pushing hard to get people to commit to coming to church. I am very excited to see how this next Transfer goes in Gilmer. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon. 

Last Thanksgiving in the Mission

 Monday Dec 2, 2019

Hey Everyone, Its been a fantastic week over here in Gilmer. And when I say that I mean there has been a lot of things changed to the Area. Most of this week if anything was filled with dropping quite a bit of people in our area. We had one guy who we were teaching that believes in almost everything we believe in except that we are the Only True Church out there. We did everything we could to explain it to him but unfortunately it did not go anywhere. Maybe someday that will change when Missionaries go and stop by again in the future. I have been reading from Doctrine and Covenants a lot recently and in one of the Sections it says that those that reject the Gospel in this life but accept it in the next life will not receive Celestial Glory. I kind of thought a lot about this after my experience with this person and how he will be missing out of a lot of blessings if he does not come unto Jesus Christ in this life. That is a huge bummer for a lot of the people I have met on my mission but lets skip over to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving this year was actually really good and I enjoyed it a lot. This unfortunately was the last time that I got to have Thanksgiving on the Mission which kind of makes me upset. Last year I had a Smoked Turkey Leg for Dinner so I decided to skip that this year which was good. Throughout the rest of the day we went knocking doors and got in touch with a couple people who weren't super interested in meeting with us but we were at least grateful for the day we had. On Saturday night we went down to Big Sandy to invite as many people as possible to Church but nothing really happened besides finding a new person and also getting in touch with some formers. They sound like they are interested along with some other Potential people that said we can come back another day.

Sunday was actually a really good day for us in the end. We contacted a lot of people and we had Gary come to Church. This is the first time someone actually came to church since I have been here. Sometime after church we got a text from his Friend that says that Gary knows that the Church is true and we plan on meeting with them tonight! This is exciting news and I know that the Lord is ready to rain down Blessings in the Mission for December. Light The World has also kicked off this month and lets just say we had a really good spiritual lesson with some members last night. While we were over there we asked if there was anyone who may be interested in this message and they gave us a couple people who may be interested in the future. One of them who actually lives in our Area has read the entire Book of Mormon already and wants to be a part of the Gospel. I know that the Lord has his hand over this mission and I am very excited for the Miracles that are going to happen next week. Anyways I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon!

Attachments area

Zone Conference

 Monday Nov 25, 2019

How have you all been doing this week? This week went by pretty quickly. Most of the time we were dropping people that were not progressing but we hope to change that to finding a lot of people this week. There was someone who came to church this Sunday who is the Boyfriend of a Recent Convert so hopefully I will have information about that next week. One of the big things that happened this week was Zone Conference that lasted about 8 hours but was filled with the Spirit. Elder Klebingat from the Seventy came and addressed us and gave us a lot of really good invitations. Some of the things he invited us to do is Exercise daily and to Role play everyday. I haven't been the best at either of those but I want to do everything I can for the Lord. He was also super bold about telling us what we needed to do. I mean he was German so I guess that makes sense. There was a lot of great trainings and we got to take a picture with everyone during lunch. We also learned about a Training about creating our own Memory Palace on Scripture. Yeah it doesn't make sense at first but Elder Klebingat explained what it mean't. Basically you create a setting in your head and fill it in with different objects or numbers about things. He said that it works well with Scriptures such as the Following Memory Palace. "Luke Skywalker clears the path in Jerusalem for the Apostles. They come upon a Cougar who doesn't look well. One of the Apostles (probably Peter) takes out a swan from his Garment and breaks its neck and feeds it to the Cougar." That is in reference to Luke 9:2. If you don't understand how it works now just think about How Luke Skywalker is the Book that its in, the Cougar has 9 lives and the Swan looks like the number 2. All in all it was a really good Spiritual Conference and I enjoyed every second of it.

Other than that we knocked on a couple doors this past week and didn't find a huge lot of success. We were able to get in touch with an Unknown Part Member Family that may end up being interested. We aren't sure where its going to go yet but the Bishop was able to meet with them this week and had a really good meeting with them. There was also two different occasions where we were bashed. One lady told us that she said we are brainwashed but refuses to read from the Book of Mromon and another family that was well scriptured but kind of had God at a Limited Level. Kind of sad to see that people won't do the Research on their own but that is their fault. However on Sunday night while we were finishing up our Daily Contact we walked back to our car and a car parked right next to us had people unloading some Blankets. We asked if we could help and they said that we can. As we started unloading their blankets they invited us to come over to their house for Dinner but that they were Baptist and didn't plan on Converting. However the Lord always has a way to help people come closer to him and we plan to meet with them sometime in the future. 

I honestly believe that Miracles are going to blow up in our Area in a couple weeks and I have the faith that it will happen. Even though we don't have a whole lot going on I do know that the Lord will provide a way not only for us but for other Missionaries out there to see success. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and I will talk to you all again next week!

Interviews and more miracles

 Monday Nov 18, 2019

Hey Everyone, how has everyone been this week? This week was pretty alright from start to finish. We had Interviews this past week with President Dalton which unfortunately is my second to last Interview with him. I have tried to extend a couple times but I guess I am stuck with being released in January. Anyways I took a lot out of that Interview and took some advice on what I need to do at this time. I also got MyPlan this past week so that was depressing to see but I guess I'll have to live with it.

Something that did happen this week is that we got in touch with a Spanish Lady named Maria who sounded interested in the beginning. Her Husband passed last month so of course we left her with a Spanish Plan of Salvation. We went back the next day to check on her and she said that she was able to read from the Pamphlet. We set up with a return appointment on Sunday and had a pretty interesting lesson with her. We went with one of the Mission Presidency Counselors and his wife because they both spoke Spanish. When we went over we were in for quite the surprise. She told us that she knew about Joseph Smith being a Mason in the passed and wanted to know why there had to be another record. We helped her understand but she wasn't interested in being Baptized or her Ancestors. For the past two years she was watching some Pastor who apparently fed a lot of anti to people about the church. Kind of sad that people are like that especially if they want to represent Jesus Christ. Criticizing other religions only paints you as the bad guy. Really nice Lady though and expressed a desire to Learn English so hopefully a seed will be planted in that way.

I guess one miracle that we did end up having this week is that we knocked on someone's door who told us that he has been on FamilySearch for a while and would like to be at the Family History Classes at the church. We are pretty excited to see where this goes because we have been struggling to get people to church these past couple of weeks. There was also one night that we were able to meet with the Bells finally. Dale Bell has been sick in his stomach for the past couple of weeks and we were finally able to give him a blessing on Saturday night. The spirit was very strong in that household after that. This visit even had us cleanse the house from evil and dedicating the home afterwards. Definitely one of the highlights of my week. We also had this one day where we went knocking on doors and some cows and horses started watching us. It was kind of weird and one of the cows mooed at us quite a bit. May have been a Guard Cow or something? Other than that we are still looking for people to teach and I really hope we can work hard enough to see blessings rain down in Gilmer. Anyways I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you all again soon!

Exchanges

Monday Nov 11, 2019

Hey Everyone, hope you are all doing well. This week went pretty long so that was interesting. Now that I look at it this week went pretty fast but that is not the point of these emails. So this last week I Conducted my first District Council so that was pretty cool. I never done it before and I feel like a lot of missionaries were worried about what was about to go down. We ended right on time and I'm excited to be a part of this District. Hopefully next week I will have some District Photos put out. One of the things I invited the District to do is have a Baptismal Date by the end of the week. Well one of the companionships was able to pull it through but this week proved to be difficult.

One of the hard things about this week is Satan was trying really hard to have us fail throughout the week. We did have Exchanges and I went with Elder Nelson who is a great Missionary. It was a really good exchange and we found some success. One Miracle that happened during that exchange is that we were planning on meeting with the Sisters at two separate appointments. However they both fell through but we decided to go to the appointment that didn't go through earlier in the day. Thankfully this lady was there and we had a really good lesson with her. I'm hoping that the Sisters can extend a Baptismal date with her in the next week. We also had a couple appointments fall through during exchanges which was unfortunate. On another day we decided to try to get in touch with a Part Member Family at a Trailer Park but Elder Martin felt prompted to talk with the Manager. What happened next as we walked towards the office is that someone asked me if I wanted a Beer. I declined of course but as we talked with the Manager the other person named Bill we felt a terrible spirit in that room. She was pretty aggressive towards us as well was Bill. We asked if we could talk with the owner but she said No because she didn't want to lose her job. The strange part is that this Trailer Park had the Ten Commandments posted outside as well as Bible Class on Tuesday Nights. Also their claim that there was a No Soliciting Sign was a lie or at least we never saw one. Kind of sad to see people reject that hard but I'm hoping that one of the families we contacted there will come and see the blessings of the Gospel.

The rest of this week kind of went alright but again not a whole lot of success until Sunday. During their Exchange Elder Staker and Elder Martin put a goal of finding 7 new people that week. It was the last day and it looked like that goal was going to be impossible because we only had one new person. While we were driving down south into our area Elder Martin asked if we could tract a street that we both thought about a week or two ago. One of the only reasons why I wanted to tract it is because it was called South Park St. Yes that's right, the same name as the TV Show was a street in our area and also not listed on Area Book. We decided to tract in it and met a Hispanic Lady who sounded interested but we did not speak Spanish. We decided to grab Elder Nelson and asked to come with us. We went over and introduced ourselves and Elder Nelson gave a Powerful Restoration Lesson to these people. The Best part about it is that they had their extended family there and after scheduling another appointment we had now 7 new people in our area. This was a huge Miracle for our area and we are working now to find fellowshippers for this family. We also got in touch that evening with someone I have never been able to meet since I have been in this area. They sound promising and are going through some difficulties but I hope that we can meet with them often. I'm glad to see miracles in this area even if we do have doubts. I'm excited to be here this transfer and I will talk with you all again soon!

Life in Gilmer, new area, new comp!

 Monday Nov 4, 2019

This week was pretty awesome to start off in possibly my last area. Gilmer is pretty awesome and we had a lot of really cool stuff happen this week. We were able to get in touch with a couple investigators we have been working with. We got to meet with someone really cool named Zach White this week. Elder Martin and Elder Wilson tried getting in touch with him a couple times down in Big Sandy. We went down there this week and met with him. However it was kind of crazy because he had twin two year olds with him that were crying a lot. We had a really good discussion with him and he is even a freemason! Yes, my hopes and dreams have been finally recognized by the Lord. Also he had a couple of Deadly Tortilla chips that he showed me. Well, it was made out of Carolina Reaper and I could not pass that up. I did it and well, my insides are destroyed once again. I can't wait to get more in the future.

We also met with Cindy and Colleen this past week. They are so prepared for the Gospel and even said that the Bible has been changed over a period of time. I am so stoked to meet with them again and they even want to read and pray to see if the Book of Mormon is true. Of course we had to clear up some things about our religion but it went pretty well. There was also a less active member and his girlfriend we were able to meet with this week. She seemed pretty interested and we helped her understand the purpose of the Book of Mormon. When we asked her if she would want to be Baptized by someone holding the proper authority she said it will be a minute before that happens. It is pretty cool and I'm hoping that we can have a Baptismal Date scheduled for this week because White Christmas is coming up in this mission. We are hitting hard at the doors and going all over the streets but of course Daylight Savings has to make the day last shorter so that isn't fun. I am really hoping we can find the power hours from Five to Eight to find people.

Other than that we had some people Passive-Aggresively Bash us at Taco Bell the other night so that was awesome. While Elder Martin was ordering they were talking trash about Missionaries knocking on their door and how they get tired of us. I almost felt like we should have talked with them but I did not want to get into that mess. Also we had MLC This past week. It was probably the best meeting I have been in my life. We have a goal as a mission to have 100 convert Baptisms in the Month of December and I know that we can make it. Also I was talking to Sister Dalton with some other missionaries there where they commented that my hair looked like Matthew McConaughey. They all agreed so that was a little interesting. Too bad I already shaved my hair today so there goes that hairdo. I guess I am some other actor now? Anyways I hope you all have a great week and I'll email you all again soon!

Also,  I bought boots last Monday at Cavenders. They are Ariat Work Boots but I'll probably wear them every once in a while to church as well. I'll send you a picture of them. 

FANTASTIC Week! Also...getting transferred!

 Monday Oct 28, 2019

Hey everyone, hope you are all doing well. This week was great, in fact it was fantastic. I am not joking about that either. This last week we had a bunch of appointments set up for this next week which will be great for this area. There is a lot of potential here and I am hoping that the work goes forward. We had a couple small miracles happen this last week. The first one was actually quite surprising to me. There is a former in our area named Gary Jones who more or less can't make appointments work with us. We have tried setting up a lot of appointments with him but it never happens. I kind of gave up on him but we decided to knock on his door again yesterday and another house that he is usually at during the day. He was not there so we forgot all about it. Later in the day I felt impressed to check out an unknown member in our area. We are pretty sure it was not a Part Member Family but we decided to go over anyways. We knocked on the door and got nothing and we were about to be late for dinner. As I was about to get into the car an impression came to me to talk with someone a couple Trailers Down. We were about to talk with these people when Gary Jones came out of the Trailer. He was kind of shocked and thought we were spying on him with his phone but we told him that we were not. I believe it is a sign from God telling us not to give up on him. The fact that he was about 4 miles away from his apartment and that he doesn't have a car kind of blew my mind. I had something similar happen in my first transfer and saw it as a coincidence and not a miracle. What a fool I was then. 

Another cool Miracle happened last night where we were going home and again were impressed to go over to an apartment complex. Elder Peabody told me there was someone we should talk to so we decided to go with that. Her name is Samantha and she was telling us that she and her husband are separated at this time and was going through some trials. She didn't say she would join the church but she did mention that she does confession every single week (Now if only we can help tie that in for her with the restored Gospel). We talked with her about her beliefs and surprisingly there is a lot of things she believes that are not with the Catholic Faith. I really hope that Samantha embraces the Gospel because we plan on meeting with her this evening to give her a Family Proclamation and The Living Christ Document. She is super sweet and hopefully members in the area will help her out. There was a lot of other small miracles that happened this week that I cannot recall other than being able to get Emily Permenters Phone Number. The Permenter Family is so prepared and I really hope that they will accept the Gospel and be baptized on or before December 7th. They have been to church over 8 times and are so awesome. 

Other than that Transfer News came out and I am going to Gilmer! I wasn't sure what to think about this news because I would have loved to serve in Dallas but I am really excited to serve in this small town. I have also been called to serve as a District Leader so we will see how that goes. I am going to really miss Louisiana and all the members here but I'm really hoping to help Find, Teach and Baptize a Family while I am there this next transfer. There is a lot of work to do and I really wish I can be out on my mission Longer. Anyways I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon!

Baptism date, exchanges and a Chinese buffet!

 Monday Oct 21, 2019

Hey Everyone, how are you all doing? We were able to meet with Jamie McLamb last Monday Evening who is still trying to figure out if the Church is true or not. We talked with him about that and he said he wants to set a Baptismal Date on November 11th. What he means by that is that he will plan on setting a Baptismal Date hopefully in December. We went over the Baptismal Interview questions to see where he is stuck on and found out that Question 2 is the one question he doesn't have an answer for yet. He believes that Joseph Smith could have been the Prophet but not President Russell M Nelson. Well we totally forgot to tell his Fellowshipper, Sister Glass about this experience and on Sunday we learned that she texted to him this last week about something she felt prompted to tell him about something about President Nelson. He said that was his struggle and was glad to have gotten some help on this issue. We are super excited for him and we hope to help him out as much as we can.

I also got to go on Exchanges with Elder Coburn this last week which was Lit as usual. We went down to a place Jamie McLamb told us about called Rock Chapel. Apparently its an old church made back in the late 1800's and it is really cool. We got to write our names down on a piece of paper that said we visited it. It is down in Carmel Louisiana and is pretty hidden. I highly recommend checking it out if you are ever in the area. Along the way we went to Coushatta to get in touch with a Referral when a Dog tried to eat us. Thankfully someone directed us to the right house and we got in touch with the person. However they couldn't meet that day so we will have to try again soon. We also went down to Mansfield where we ate at a Chinese Buffet and knocked doors around Mansfield. The next day we ended our exchange where I bought two Footlongs from Subway and ate both of them within an Hour because why not? I had a coupon so I saved quite a bit of money. with that. It was worth the Money and being stuffed for the rest of the Evening. Other than that we went out the rest of this week knocking doors and meeting with a potential family. We can only meet them on weekends but we hope to see them come to church in the future. There Dog started charging at us when we got there but thankfully it stopped and turned out to be really nice.

Anyways this will be the last week of this transfer and I'm excited to see what will happen next. Also there was a crazy storm last night that occurred in most of the mission. Apparently Dallas had a Tornado which is the coolest thing ever. I was really hoping to see one in person and go skydiving in it. Also I had two McRibs today that are pretty interesting. Try it if you can because I had one last year as well. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon!

Dreams and Miracles

 Monday Oct 14, 2019

Hey Everybody, how are you all doing this week? We had a Couple of really cool miracles that happened. One of the things I have been trying to do regularly is writing down the dreams that I have throughout my mission. I know that when I do that the Lord can trust me with things or visions that I need to learn about. One day this week I had a dream about going to some kind of temple with some other missionaries where on one of those days I received a phone call from someone named Victoria. I wasn't sure who it was but they said they wanted to eat out with us around 6pm. I told them about our hours but then they told us they were a Part Member Family. I know that there are no such things as Coincidences because the next day I looked in our Area Book and found a member with her name that was a Part Member Family. On that same day there was a Mustang that I saw that had a Towel in the front that attracted my attention more than any other car that day. When we finally did go over to her house the same Mustang that I saw earlier drove out of the driveway and Victoria was there. Her voice sounded exactly the same as in the phone call and we have never personally met with her before. It was so awesome to listen to the Guidance of the spirit that it helped strengthen my testimony in the Gospel. 

Another really cool Miracle that came out of this week was during weekly planning. For weeks now we have been wanting to meet with the Permenter Family because they come to church regularly and even enjoyed General Conference. When Elder Peabody was giving a very long but thoughtful prayer there was a text message that came through. It was from Courtney Yarbrough who was asking if we were coming tonight. We had no idea what it was about so we gave her a call. Basically the Stake President met with the Johnstons, Permenters and the Yarbroughs the previous night. Ron Permenter expressed his thoughts about the church  with them while they were all there and Ron, his oldest son Nolan and Trent Yarbrough all received Blessings. The Permenters now want to meet with us!!! We are so excited for this loving family and to now have them on the Living Board in our area. We had a really good lesson with Emily and Nolan Permenter and Ron wanted to be there but had to watch over one of his sons. They are such a Golden Family and from what we learned last night from our Bishop that they have paid tithing for the past two weeks. I have a strong feeling that this family will be the Family that is going to be baptized for White Christmas but we are still not giving up on finding another family this week. There will be challenges for them on this road but I'm glad to see them grow their faith in their savior Jesus Christ by taking this next step into their lives. 

Other than that this week has been pretty good. We are searching for more people to teach in the area and we hope to set the Permenters on a Baptismal Date as soon as we can. There is a lot of really good people in this area and I hope I am here for another Transfer to see the outcome of the meetings with the Permenters. We met with a couple people including a lady who was taking care of a lot of animals and was alone. She went off on Politics a bit but we kept trying to help her understand that the Gospel can help her. She really needed someone to talk to after being alone for so long. Anyways I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you all again soon. 

Interviews with the Pres, moving and General Conference!

 Monday Oct 7, 2019

This week was filled with events that felt like they lasted forever. Why I say that is because we had so many things go longer than I thought it would. Okay well we did have Interviews on Tuesday and that was awesome. I love talking with President Dalton and asking him questions that I need answers to. There was a lot on my mind this time and at the end of it I needed a Blessing on how to go forward. I'm hoping that I'll be able to stay in contact with this family after my Mission. Unless of course he becomes a Seventy in the Church so I'll have to get in touch with him through Email.

We also helped out a nonmember this week get some stuff into a Barn. It was only a couple of things that needed to be moved so obviously it should only take about an hour right? Well it took about 4 hours. The problem was that her Grandson kind of sabotages her home a little bit such as replacing the Lock on the Barn and taking things from her home. I don't know why this happens to her all the time but I wish it wasn't such a big problem for her. After trying to find ways to break the lock we were finally able to break it open with a saw that a Member let us use. It was a pain but I'm glad that we got the situation sorted out. I really hope that it doesn't happen again. We had to go to this persons house the next day and move some furniture around which took a long time as well. At least we got some service hours this week. 

Now for the big thing that happened this week and that was General Conference! I absolutely love sitting down on the couch and watching Conference Sessions for more than 8 hours. What can be better than that!? I can't really say what was my favorite talk but I did enjoy President Ballards talk a lot. He is the man and I can't remember if I said it before but I'll say it again. I really want to meet President M. Russell Ballard before he passes away. He is probably my favorite Apostle that I have listened to. It's not like I listen to his October 1997 General Conference talk all the time or anything. Listen to it if you have the chance, it's one of the best talks out there. Anyways Elder Uchtdorfs talk was pretty sweet when he went straight into the Hobbit. Such an awesome General Conference talk. We watched General Conference at the Johnstons house where the Yarbroughs and the Permenters came to watch. They all seemed to really enjoy it. I'm hoping that the Permenters will investigate the Church soon. That was pretty much our week besides knocking doors and cleaning out our Area Book so we can help people who are actually interested in the Gospel. In fact we went to one persons house where they went inside as they saw it. We decided to leave a card at their door and told them to call us if they are not interested. As we knocked the house next door they gave us a call and asked us to come over. They told us they were still interested and we taught a short Restoration lesson with them. They are going to start reading and praying about the Book of Mormon which is awesome! Anyways I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you again soon!