FOOD

Elder Conley and I couldn't stop laughing at how 

lame this quote was so we took a picture.

Elder Conley and I have had so much fun serving together and it is so easy to be excited about the work with him. I can't remember if I told you this but there are often times where we found ourselves running from place to place trying to move as swift as possible so we could accomplish more. I haven't felt that excited about the work that many times in my mission but it is the best.

Tuesday we had dinner at our Bishop's house and Tay and Georgette were able to come over again. There we taught about keeping the Sabbath day holy. For dessert we had brownies and on the top were melted Andes mints. WOW super good. Mint is probably my favorite flavor of sweets. That or cinnamon I've recently developed a craving for cinnamon flavored mints. Tay has not yet been able to choose a date for baptism because the work schedule still isn't set. But what she does know is that she will have one weekend in March off and that is the week she wants to be baptized on. Hopefully she can convince her boss to give her Sundays off or let her go in on the later shift on those days.

That night we found out that Elder Conley was being transferred. :( Very sad day. It came as a pretty big shock to us honestly. That was only his 2nd transfer here and we were putting in WORK! But what are you going to do! 

Wednesday we went and visited an older gentlemen in our ward named Brother Clay. We learned that he is fond of doing family history and has in fact document his mothers entire life in a bound book. He also typed up all of her journal entries which is now printed into a bound book. The third book we were shown was about his older ancestors. Brother Clay shared with us a story about how his ancestor was the man who helped David Whitmer come back to the church. We asked if we could have print outs of the story and he gave it to us. I'll have to send you a picture of it so you can read it. Very interesting.

Generations picture.  Training progression

Thursday we got a text from Sister Whittlow and she asked if we could come switch her dead bolt on her door and so we swung over there around 8 and then drove out to Independence for transfers. We arrived right at 9. Elder Conley is now serving with Elder Taylor and Elder Taylor's old companion, Elder Blake, (who also served with elder Odland) is now my companion. Many of my companions have all now served with another one of my companions. It is weird. Elder Blake is from St. George Utah and grew up on a small ranch out there. He also graduated in 2015 and has been out for 18 months now. 

Elder Blake and I

Friday was a great day. We went over to a less active woman's home, Sister Foster, and did some service for her. She also fed us. She grew up on a farm and so everything was very country style. Thick gravy with heavy potatoes and pork chops. Holy guacamole it was so good.

 We met with Tay again and she told us how she is almost done with the Book of Alma. She told us that when she read the story of the Strippling Warriors ,"When they was looking to see how many had died and they said none of them had died! I thought I was going to cry like they were my own boys!" It is always exciting to know your investigator understands the BofM. 

Dinner was grilled shrimp and chicken ratatouille creole. Again WOW. Elder Blake and I were very very full that evening.

We also had a lesson with Kali that evening. We had the YSA sisters come teach her with us along with a male team up and so there were 5 of us. Thankfully Kali is super cool and easy going and told us she wouldn't mind. We taught about the importance of the Spirit and then explained what the gift of the Holy Ghost is. Kali told us that she is leaning towards being baptized but is very nervous. She has been reading the BofM as well and told us that she feels like those people who partake of the fruit from the tree of life but then feel ashamed when they look at the great and spacious building. Her parents are both "PK's" (Preacher Kids) as she puts it and Kali is nervous that they will be mad. That was our last lesson with her now that the sisters will be taking over. I forgot to take a picture, unfortunately of that lesson but hopefully we will be able to go to her baptism soon and I can snag a pic there.

Saturday we got a referral for a guy name Tjaun (twan). Went over and he let us right in. He told us that he feels that there is something missing in his life even though he has come much closer to God over the past few years. He actually knows quite a bit about the bible. He told us that he had been studying on his own and was curious about baptism. Tjaun wanted to know if it was necessary for salvation and came to found through the bible that it was. But when he had the opportunity to be baptized he felt like people were doing it to just do it. He didn't think that was right and didn't want to be a part of it. We told him that baptism is our hope for him and he seems all game. We have our second appointment with him tonight and it should be fun!

Something that the Spirit has taught me this week is that God loves us so much!!! We make so many mistakes but he just can't help but love us! What a wonderful truth. We must simply learn how to show our love for him.

On Elder Conley's last night the Diaz family

fed us tacos...so many tacos!  Mmmm