Catching up with old friends!

So this week had its ups and downs. But it was all made up for when
the entire mission got together for a conference!!

So the all mission conference was because Elder Stevenson came so we
gathered the whole mission together in Altoona. And we got to hear
from Elder Stevenson (quorum of the twelve), Elder Hallstrom
(presidency of the seventy), and Elder Kunz (area seventy)! So Elder
Stevenson grew up with President Johnson and Elder Stevensons son is
in my ward so no question on why he came here for a visit. Hahaha but
it was so cool to hear from him and the other General authorities. It
was such a great spiritual experience. I learned to always take
something from the meeting and act on it, and how to be an overall
better missionary through commitments. And it was just great to be
able to see a lot of old friends and companions!

So another highlight was one day this week me and Elder Holley were
walking around Hazelwood, one of the more ghetto places we cover and
we realize we are close to our less-active Alisha how has been gone
for a long time. Elder Holley said call Alisha and she if by some
random chance she is home and we can stop by. And so I did and she
was!!! So we went over there and it was exactly what we needed to do.
She was going through a hard time and so we were able to share a
message of hope with her. And she thanked us so much for it and she
actually came to church this Sunday!! We had no idea why we were in
Hazelwood until that happened.

Another highlight was when I went on exchanges with the zone leaders.
I went to their area with Elder Richens. And we were able to teach
their investigator Jackson. We started teaching him about some basic
commandments such as prayer, scripture study, and the Ten
Commandments. He said in the middle of the lesson "I'm surprised this
is stuff we have to go over. I thought this was common sense stuff."
Hahaha it was so great to hear that. He is defiantly an awesome kid
that is going to be baptized soon.

Funny story I made a bet with one of my Zone leaders that I could pass
out at least 1 Book of Mormon a day for the next week and a half and
so I was determined to do this. So the other night it was getting late
and I was running out of time to pass one out. We were walking downt
this road and saw this lady coming towards us and I got a little to
excited I literally ran up to her and almost just yelled "Have you
heard of the Book of Mormon?" I'm pretty sure I scared the crap out of
her. But it was hilarious and so once I calmed down I taught her about
the Book of Mormon and she was so excited to read it. She told me "you
were so excited to share this with me because the spirit told you I
was special." And I was like exactly!! It turned out to be fantastic.

So those were my highlights hope you are all having a great week. I
love and miss you all.
Pictures: me and all the friends I got to see again!!

Crazy Week!

So this week is full of interesting stories so hold on to your seats
as you read...

So it started with a lesson with an old lady named Carol she is old
and says she feels lonely so we dropped by to visit her with a team up
and we were going to teach her the Plan of Salvation. Well it was
going pretty good except she was an expert at the PA ramble. So we had
to interrupt her every single time she started talking so we could get
back on track. Well we invited her to church and she said that she
wants to come but she cannot physically walk through any church doors
since her husband passed. And so we didn't give up we tried to find a
way she would be comfortable in coming to church but we were
unsuccessful so we instead committedher to pray and she said "no I
will not attend church!" I was so confused... we then invited her to
read the Book of Mormon and she replied "No I will not attend church!"
At this point I had no idea what to say. Because everything I said
this lady responded with "No I will not attend church!" She was like a
broken record! Finally I looked her straight in the eyes and said I am
not inviting you to church! I probably could have said nicer then I
did but she looked at me and said "oh good." And that was the end of
that lesson... kinda frustrating... hahaha

So next lesson me and Elder Holley were walking down the road and
these guys were painting the inside of a house and they called us over
to talk to us. One guys would not be quiet and he kept talking about
how he was feeling like God hated him. Finally he let us talk after an
hour and we shared the Book of Mormon with him and he said "thank you.
You guys might have just saved me from killing someone. Because I was
on the edge of it." Yay I was a little scared after that but hey I
guess we saved a life!

So another great lesson of the week was with a younger guy. We took
Brother Dushku with us on a team up and thank goodness we did. So we
sit down with him we noticed something is a little off about him. And
I asked him if he has ever wondered why challenges have happened to
him and he tells us he is autistic. And it made sense about some of
the answers he gave us to questions. So I didn't know how to go about
this but then out now where during the Plan of Salvation lesson he
asks us a really uncomfortable question about morality.  I was caught
completely off guard. And Elder Holley's face turned bright red.
Hahaha Brother Dushku then proceeded to teach very simple the law of
Chasity and so what was only our second lesson with this kid turned
out to be a very interesting lesson. He then asked about pornography
and so I guess it was a great lesson we taught him about repentance
and how to pray and he said he would work on fighting temptation.

So yay we had so wonderful lessons this week that consisted of no
church, killing someone, and Chastity...

Well I hope your week was more normal then mine. Hahaha but thank you
for all your love and support have a great week!

The pictures are of a place called Forest Hills. And the panorama
Elder Holley took he was not expecting me to be standing there. Haha
the other picture was Elder Holley after he fell out of his chair!
Haha

The Swishtrict (Britton's district)

This week has been full of trying to find the elect, and eating till I
almost puked!

So we did a lot of finding this week and ran into a couple people who
have been surrounded by mormons their whole life. It is awesome how
Heavenly Father leads us to these people. We knocked on a random door
and a lady opened up and said now is not a good time but come back
later because I love mormons my prom date served a mission just like
you guys! Hahaha funny how small of a world it is.

So we got a referral from https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https://Mormon.org&c=E,1,jgqI5oh6hMarT03tUu8QOsGYODy_vjbcAiAyJoCWUyRUu9yoIub36pg1QSSAmOC9M3CqRoyU01XpdwzIrRDVP2g1iWvHEiVK1iECPitIQZVB7Z45dP4rUPgz&typo=1for someone who ordered a bible.
So we went to his house and his mom answered invited us in and we sat
down with her and her son. We sat down at the table and proceeded to
talk about the restoration. The son is very quiet but he couldn't stop
smiling when we were talking about the Book of Mormon. The mom
surprised us she loved to talk but what surprised us is that she would
finish our sentences. We would say something about prophets and she
started talking about how of course it makes sense to have a prophet
on the earth today because Heavenly Father has always been the same.
And she said stuff like that the entire lesson. It was so cool to be
able to teach them. They are definitely prepared!

We had our ward Halloween party Saturday night. And the missionaries
were asked to be the judges for the trunks, the costumes and more
importantly the dessert!! We were told we had to try every single
dessert there and there was a lot! It took me 3 plates to fit it all.
Let's just say I felt so sick by the end of the night but it was the
greatest thing ever! Hopefully I don't get diabetes now. Hahaha

Well that was my week. Today for Halloween we were told to get home by
6 so it is going to be a relaxing day today. Hope you have a great
week I love you all so much.

All you can eat ribs

So this week was a pretty good week we were very busy and had a lot of
solid lessons. We also got fed every day this week so I was happy
about that.

So highlights for the week:

First it was my birthday on Friday and it was probably the best
birthday I have had! Because it wasn't centered on me at all and was
completely centered around serving Christ and fulfilling his work.
That day we worked are butts off and I couldn't believe how just great
of a day it was. I couldn't tell you why it was so great it just was.

The day before my birthday we had dinner with the Khalils again and
they made me a birthday pie and since they are from Syria they sang
happy birthday to me in Arabic! They are just such a great family.
They also expressed how their grandma might have leukemia. And so I
guess I am meant to be here at this time to help them through this
hard time. I find out more and more reasons on why I was saved and why
I was sent here.

We had dinner with Sora and Martez. Martez has been reading the BOM
and now has work off on Sundays so he will be able to start attending
church! He has grown so much in the gospel at dinner we were talking
about the importance of the BOM and he said "I know that reading will
make everything in life better and will give me more meaning in life.
I know that for a fact." It has been great to be able to watch him
progress and grow so much since the first time that I taught him.

A lady in our Ward also took us out to eat at this BBQ place that was
having endless ribs so I ate as much as I could! Well those were the
highlights of my week.

Have a great week I love you all so much.