Transferred

Well turns out that it's actually Fort Smith Arkansas that I got transferred to haha. Doesn't matter really because I love it here. 

     It was sad saying goodbye to Elder Johnson but Elder Funk is the man. He was reassigned from Sierra Leone Africa and his language is so funny. We are in a quad and have tons of fun. 

     The service here is pretty intense. A lot of yard work and moving trees that have fallen down for people. Our Zone leaders are super nice guys and Spanish speakers. We have 6 Elders covering this one Fort Smith area. There are 800 inactives here so we have a ton of work to do :) 

      Just been embracing the sickness a little more haha. No point in trying to fight it! I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity and everything that its taught me so far. We talked a lot about the tools God gives us to bring to pass his will. Moses and his staff, Lehi and his Liahona, Joseph Smith and the interpreters, and us currently with our phones. We have so much capability to do good things and weve been seeing it with all the people we can connect to. This lady we talked with said she was losing faith in there being anymore good people in the world, then she saw our ad for service and all the members that came to move this massive tree and said how grateful she was that the worlds not all bad. We choose to be the bad or the good in the world :) love you all, have a great week!

Quarantine Week

  We are still quarantined! I'm going insane I think haha. But we should have results real soon here. They've had a huge overload in tests in the labs so it's taking 10 or more days to get results.

    We worked really hard this week. It turned out to be a blessing for us. We both are getting transferred out of these wards while other companionships are absorbing them into their wards. We were able to get a lot of things set up for them so that it was a smoother transition as well as really clean the apartment well. 

   To pass time when we had free time we tied things to the end of our fishing rod and cast them from our second story apartment. It was super entertaining haha. Life of a quarantined missionary. It was all fun and games until I got tangled on the power lines. Study got really intense too haha. The Bible can be kind of tricky but if you go to Gospel Library and look at the institute teacher manuals they can talk you through a lot of it which is extremely helpful. 

     I'm pretty sad to be leaving my dad of the mission. Hes a total goon that's pretty different from me who loves talking about getting married and wearing his suit non stop even on P days. But weve grown really close and I've learned so much from him about obedience and what missionary work really means. People tend to go out on missions with a whole bunch of fantasies of what there mission is going to be. So far my mission hasnt lived up to a single one of mine haha. But I have learned to endure, have patience, and understand why it is so important to love one another. Although I didnt want this experience of a Corona Virus restricted mission I am forever grateful for what I've been learning and what I will continue to learn. 

     I'm sorry I dont have much to say this week haha. Hopefully in Fortsmith Missouri I'll get out a little more :) love you all have an amazing week.

Sister Dorton wrote us a song and made an album cover for it that was pretty sweet 

A picture I really like

Busy Week :)

We had a solid week! Ended rough but over all solid. I'm sorry if service is getting boring but that's all I got. 

     Tuesday we woke up early and cleared out a whole dance studio with 9 missionaries, it was awesome she was just giving us whatever we wanted really with cases of Gatorade and Body Armors to take home along with an inflatable chair thing. Some other missionaries scored a Justin Timberlake poster that was pretty sweet but I felt pretty good about it. She was a super nice lady and loads of people came to help her out. We went and grabbed some Buffalo Wild Wings after it all thanks to half off Tuesday and ate them at a pavilion. Just some solid bonding time. Nothing brings Elders closer than some wings. Lol. 

      Thursday we helped out with putting up lockers for the riders at horses for healing. They were to hold their saddles and gear. It was really funny because they eyeballed everything so everything was kind of screwy and uneven haha. We also had to fix one of the mowers and sharpen up the blades on it. The workers all play the best music and it's nothing bad so I just soak it all in haha. It has been insanely hot. They sent us home from service when they said it was 105 degrees out. We were all for heading home early. 

      Saturday was a different day for sure haha. We went and bought some pop it's to celebrate with because it's the fourth. Then we went to service and filled in a sink hole with rocks on the side of this house. There were these baby snakes everywhere so we caught a bunch which was way fun. The guy that we were helping out was insanely nice and was cracking some classic jokes. Never sweat so much in my life it's seriously nasty. Later that day we went to grab dinner from a family because we haven't been able to eat In homes, when we went there one of her daughters boyfriends was there who was a full blown satanist. He was a nice guy but very off. He was decked out in leather and had a pentagram necklace so naturally we started asking him boat loads of questions. He told us all about how they kiss snakes, speak in tongues, write in their own blood, drink snake venom in a diluted form. He wasn't exactly a picture of health. He was playing with his piercings through his shirt and I couldnt help smile. We spent our night playing tag with pop its. About as crazy as it gets as a missionary on the fourth. 

     Sunday was full of meetings with the Stake presidency. I just get to kind of stay busy while Elder Johnson talks with them. Its just endless amounts of time on zoom. Then to our surprise a family that we interacted with let us know they tested positive for the Corona Virus. Not good. We are not allowed to leave our apartment for two weeks now. We went and got tested but havent recieved our results so hopefully we wont be stuck inside for the full two weeks. They really ram those q tips up your nose though, it's no joke. They scratched my brain for sure. Looks like I'm about to get crazy at knitting lol. 

      Meeting that satanist really opened up my eyes to the opposites in this world. Here this guy is, spending all of his money to be a member of a church that makes him cut himself and drink venom that makes his stomach hurt. Shaking like a leaf even after he roasted two cigarettes in front of us, cuts all over his arms so he can draw on his walls with his own blood. Just immensely lost. It made me so sad and made me realize how many people need help. He was raised a satanist and that's all his normal. It can be extremely hard to follow the Gospel sometimes, but I dont think it could get any harder living without it. Love you all have an amazing week:) please send me emails through the week so I dont go insane! I wont be able to respond but I will read them!

Wings with the Elders

Juan under the mower

Polly Cutting up Wood

Shy Snake

4th Celebration

Tons of Spiders

   Elder Johnson and I have been living the high life. We straight up just been eating way healthy and going on good runs trying to make ourselves feel as good as possible when we tend to spend a lot of time on a screen. Everyone walks around our apartment building all day long so we see tons of faces but none that we are allowed to stop and talk to :(. It totally kills us both to just have to walk on by people that we know could use a little light:).

     I got to have my first one on one meeting with President Strong! Although it was brief it was a conversation haha so that was good. We have more rules put on us due to the seriousness of the virus in NorthWest Arkansas so any conversation with someone besides my comp (who is a great dude) is very welcome. 

      We helped a lady weed her garden beds that were full of caterpillars that when you squeeze em they shoot out orange antennas and release a weird smell it was fun to play with. But loads of spiders are everywhere it makes me wig out. We have tons of service coming in but almost as many backing out last second so that's always frustrating. I got to build a little kid playset for a new preschool that was getting put together and it was awesome. It's for reals was like legos for adults. We also mowed this guys yard and trimmed all his bushes which were covered in webs. We load up all this yard work equipment into the back of the mini van and take off on adventures haha. 

     Sunday was pretty ridiculously sweet, one of the most missionary minded families ever just called us and were like hey we invited three nonmembers over who are all interested in our church if you guys wanna come to dinner. We were calm and collected but freaking out inside because it was the first time weve taught some nonmembers in a while! They were all really cool. We talked a ton about the difference between happiness and Joy and how we can recieve more Joy. I kinda sucked at the lesson but Elder Johnson killed it so it turned out ok! One of the guys was super curious about the temple and asked how to get a recommend, we told him all the things that he would need to do and he was all for it! Great way to end the week. 

     Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding"

I have found myself leaning on my own understanding so much in life and it has led me to fail in so many circumstances that I seriously can't even number them. Not even just on my mission. There is a reason we have the gift of prayer and of the Holy Ghost. I did not use them enough. I neglected such a powerful gift our Heavenly Father gives us and I seriously am so sad because of it. But now I am learning on how I can lean more and more on the Lord and really understand how outmatched I am here on Earth without His help. The mission is humbling lol. 

First Mini Zone Converence

It's been a great week. We started it by digging up water lines at horses for healing and replacing the faucets. It's always nice going some odd jobs around instead of the usual chores. Wednesday was my birthday so we celebrated by shaving my head and it feels so good. I look like a goon but I don't even mind it, I just wake up and I'm ready for the day. That's about as fun as it gets as far as birthdays on the mission go! A family ordered us a dinner and some cake! They are a seriously great family they hook up the missionaries all the time.

      This week was more successful as far as Facebook goes! We had multiple calls with people where we just talked and said a prayer with them, then scheduled more conversations. It's always a little awkward for a second but people love to talk about themselves so you just ask them a ton about themselves and they can just go on and on. We called this lady and after a while we asked her if she went to any church, she told us she went to some "mormon" church like 10 years ago and hadn't been back! We had no idea! Shes really struggling, she found out this week she has stage 4 colon cancer and some had spread to her lungs. She has a two year old son and the whole family has really taken it hard.  So we call her every day and talk then say prayers with her to hopefully give her more comfort in her life. Kind of weird but it's one of the only ways we can really do missionary work! 

      On Thursday we loaded soooo much hay out of this semi it gave me the worst allergies of my life! I could barely see after it haha. Then we power washed these nasty rubber Mats that were covered in horse it reeked.

Saturday we had zone conference but only with our stake due to the virus restrictions. I still got a lot out of it. President and Sister Strong are very good speakers. Made me want to push myself a lot harder. The biggest thing that stuck out to me was the two choices we have everyday. We can be a creature of light or a creature of darkness. Every single thing you do everyday takes you more towards one or there other. It helps me focus on my actions and think about what I do and how it will effect everyone. D&C 50:24 says, "That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day" I don't know about you guys but I wanna grow brighter every day. We also talked about how "by small things the Lord can bring about great things" which has really helped me focus on what I can do now and move day by day instead of getting overwhelmed looking a couple months or even years in advance. It's all about getting 1% better every day. Or even less than that. But growth is growth.
Sunday was kind of fun, I got the chance to have dinner with one of our oldest family friends Marianne Presley/Burkett. It was awesome to talk with her and her new in laws that just so happened to be in our ward!

We are losing two of our sisters and the other Elder companionship is getting a third to them but now our district contains 4 of us so these meetings are just going to be weird. It's pretty sad I liked the sisters that were leaving so kinda bummed.

That's about all, I hope you all have a great week, lots of love

Elder Toronto and I after digging holes all day.

Our stake after zone conference.

New birthday haircut and cake from the members:)

Our stake after zone conference.

The Burketts and the Elders!

Things I hate, I love

Days fly by even when we have to be inside a lot haha. I learned a lot through study this week. We email our mission presidents once every other week and just kind of give him a run down on what's been going on and I asked him some questions and like a teacher would he didn't really tell me the answer but he did tell me where I could find it. So I spent a considerable amount of time studying patience. Elder Uchtdorfs "Continue in Patience" is an amazing talk by the way. But I studied mostly for myself and also a little for what's going on as far as missions go right now. I'm learning more and more about how to have effective studying and I enjoy it. Scriptures are pretty sweet. I also began to read saints and its intense haha. Lays it all out. But it has helped me grow my testimony more for the restoration of the church and I love it. Joseph Smith is an amazing guy haha I'd like to say I could handle hate like that but I don't think I could. It also makes me ask myself why the heck I am whining haha. So many amazing people brought this Gospel forth for us and I am forever grateful for them. 

      Other than that it is still a lot of the same old :) weed whacking and mowing huge pastors and cleaning up after the horses. Makes me appreciate the gift of education and not having to do this for the rest of my life. 

     My comp is a great dude and some super weird dramatic stuff happened in our district council which is so annoying. People are so interesting and people love attention haha. All that I'm gonna say. 

     We had a youth devotional for one of our wards that seriously rocked. Everyone participated and accepted out challenges and we made awesome comments. I finally got to meet some more people in the ward! I seriously can't wait for church to start up! It was funny, the audio doesnt work a lot of the times when you screen share videos on Zoom so my comp decided to read out the whole "a man without eloquence" video in his best Brigham Young voice. It made me cringe pretty hard hahaha but hes a stud for trying. 

     We had a BBQ with a way fun family that have crazy kids that remind me a ton of my nephew Gabe. Made me miss the little guy like crazy. But we stole some rocks from the church and painted them with Bible verses on them with the kids then left them on peoples doorsteps it was a good time. 

     We set up these ads on Facebook listing us as free service to try and just get out and help more people. This lady asked us to help pack up her dance studio. Because of changes in the family life she had to close it down and she was so sad but extremely grateful. After we moved everything she let us take some things if we wanted so I grabbed some pins that were from winning different competitions and put them on my hat haha. She then shared her story with us and asked us if she could say a prayer before we left. Shes straight gold but shes leaving so hopefully she is recieved by the missionaries well wherever she goes.  :)

     We met with this super catholic guy at sonic and all he wanted to know is if the sisters in our mission were "hot" so that was awesome to get excited about talking to someone for nothing haha but hey the sisters have an in if they want to try. We asked if he had any questions and he told us we didn't know enough for him to ask us questions and asked for our mission presidents number lmao. Hes probably right if hes talking about me but my comp is a freaking scripture smart dude. 

     A lot of things really helped my testimony grow this week. Things I hate have been turning into things I love and things I used to love from home are turning into things I hate. I seriously wasted so much of my time. I hope you guys are anxiously engaged in a good cause cuz I know I rarely was. LOVE YOU ALL HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK! 

BBQ with a Family

Placing on porches, Scripture Rocks

Lady pins that she gave to me

Loving the Ranch

More Service LOL

This is the first week where I've really felt the heat. It was 94 before 9:30am. It's pretty terrible with humidity haha. But Pday we got to spend some time with an awesome member to go mountain bike for a bit then we went over to this ranch that had a bonfire (even though it was insanely hot outside) and a zipline and hammock and stuff. We went with the district and got to hangout with all of us before transfers. I stayed in my wards with my comp but we had two sisters leave and one sister brought In to make the sisters a trio which has been interesting cuz they are some different personalities haha. We went to that horse ranch to mow and weed whack some more but found a bunch of turtles everywhere which makes it a little more fun haha. One of our friends that's exploring the church decided it wasn't for him which was sad but we are still working with him. Angel is still killing it. That was all pretty much for the week. Pretty slow week. But then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were just packed full of meetings over zoom for hours and service. This single mom in a neighboring ward moved into a house that was abandoned for 7 or more years so it's pretty wrecked but we got a ton of yard work done for her. The pool in the backyard is just jammed with tadpoles and frogs it's pretty sweet. Water was disgusting but as we worked in the heat it was looking pretty good. Thought about fake tripping to fall in haha. A lot of southern accents too which is funny to hear them say "over yander" and just weird little things, I eat it up, makes me smile. Then we moved a family out of there house in a speedy fashion, all with face masks on not being able to freaking breath. We pulled out yet another tree and planted a garden in another yard. This wasnt one of my families but she told us she wanted to get baptized while smoking a cig which was exciting but we arent really sure if she understands what's gonna need to happen haha. Shes an awesome lady though. But we did it all in some crazy heat and humidity. Sweat through EVERYTHING. Got my first tick too. We did a canned food drive as well with the sisters which was pretty fun to just hangout and talk about fun stuff. I got pretty sick Saturday night and all Sunday day (I think from some fried liver). And it was fast Sunday so I was just straight up not having a good time. But right as we broke our fast a member texted us and brought us over a steak dinner out of no where. Happy days. I honestly can't believe two things. How bad I hate Samsung phones and how much I love morning personal study and comp study. I'm not a morning person really at all so for me it's a miracle haha. Not only that but getting put in two amazing wards with a baller comp. I know theres a lot of things going on out there right now but theres this song that a little girl sings on Facebook about there being no peace on earth but PEACE IN CHRIST. Take some time to find permanent peace in your daily life :) love you all.