Week 60

AREA: Central Tucson  
COMPANION: Elder Esplin

 

Family and Friends,

Highlights of last week... 

General Conference on Saturday and Sunday for sure! I got so much out of General Conference this time around. This is the first time ever that I have not fallen asleep while watching it. The Saturday session was super good. I was slightly distracted while watching it because my good friend Travis from the food bank was there and wanted to help him have the best experience he could. Percy was there as well and he kept falling asleep which was difficult to help with that. Travis stayed for two sessions of conference which was awesome!! And Percy stayed for only one which is better than none so I'm happy. For the priesthood session of conference Cody came which was great! Super cool thing is we asked him afterward if he got anything out of it and he said that he liked the talk given by "Thomas Munson" we asked him what he got out of it and he said I dont remember but it felt good. Really cool thing is that a few day previous we told him that he may not always understand the things that he reads but you can know of its truth by how it makes you feel. It was cool to help him recognize the spirit while watching conference. Afterward we went to get frozen yogurt with some of the other missionaries. 

Sunday Session was AMAZING! I focused on it the whole time and got so much out of it! (I love being on ADHD medication) Before watching general conference I prayed that I would have question I had answered and I DID! I felt like some of those talks were spoken directly towards me! I love that we get to listen to the leaders of our church speak about inspired topics that they feel the world needs to here. Hope that you were able to get a lot of General Conference as well, if you didnt get a chance to watch it you can read them all now on the gospel library app which is what I'm in the process of doing now. 

Monday: Pday was pretty typical, did our normal pday things. Felt like it went super fast which was unfortunate... its all good though. While we were at Roys we watched Ephraim's Rescue, which is about the pioneers crossing the plains. Cannot imagine what it would have been like to be in their situation.  

Tuesday: This morning Tyna was moving into her new place because he niece got her kicked out of her old place. Ended up spending alot of time there and missing foodbank. "Borrowed" her cigarettes while I was there.... haha Found her cigarettes so I brought them home with me. So she did get super mad when she found out I took them I told her before we left... I left her 6 cigarettes for the rest of the week which came out to about 1 per day for the rest of the week. Was not happy when I told her I took them and started to cry and stuff... pretty ridiculous but she is over it now and I believe she appreciates that i took them. Still have them too... she just needs to ask me for some more cigarettes and Ill give them too her, problem is that she doesn't want to ask a missionary for cigarettes haha:) Had dinner with Travis tonight at his apartment which was fun, first time going to his place. Learned a little more about Catholics which was great! 

Wednesday: Had zone meeting today so spent alot of time in meetings learning about "calling people to repentance." Area has been moving slow recently so we spent the rest of the night kinda looking for people to teach. 

Thursday: Had foodbank which was fun and after the foodbank we went to the Library to print off some pictures for a poster that I made for her to help her quit smoking, cussing, and drinking coffee+Tea. We're working on things one at a time but it is still nice to have a friendly motivational poster hanging on the wall when striving to overcome an addiction. After that we went over to Richard Anderson and spent quiet a while there. Richards wife came home while we were there and joined in on our conversation which was nice. I have not really ever met and talked with her before and we ended up talking for about an hour. Had a lesson with Payge and Payton after that then spent the rest of the night constructing Tyna's poster which was fun. 

Friday: Spent practically all morning making Tyna's poster. Total pretty sure I spent about 6 hours working on the poster... Ill upload a picture of it bellow, but after finishing it we brought it over to her place, set some goals with her, and shared a message. Came home and started to weekly plan until the north elders for some reason decided to stop by for a visit which distracted us from planning for a good hour. Tried to get as much as we could of planning done but unfortunately we didnt. 

Saturday: Had a mini missionary with us today. His name was Caleb and he was from sierra vista. Once a year their youth group goes on mini splits with a bunch of the Tucson missionaries. So we started out the day by stopping by the Tucson Temple to get some pictures and stuff. Went home and did some studies before then meeting up with the North Elders for lunch. Thought it would be fun to introduce them to Tyna so we had a brief lesson with hannah and her. After the lesson we went and tried to contact some people in a sketchy trailer park, the person we were looking for was not home though. Contacted a referral that we had which went fantastic! Michael invited us in and told us alittle about himself and what got him curious about looking on Mormon.org to request a Bible and Book of Mormon, said that his sister had died a few years back and has been having a difficult time with it. Taught him the Plan of Salvation which brought great comfort to him and invited him to be baptized! He accepted a date for the 29th of October. 

Sunday: Really good Sunday, not too many people we invited came to church today, alot of them had to work which sucked... There were some good speakers though which was nice. After church we ate lunch, I played some guitar, we did some studies, had dinner, and then went out to contact a referral who didnt even know English. Came home and finished up with weekly planning so we can be ready for next week. 

I would like to share my testimony with you that I know Heavenly Father answers prayers. Last week before general conference I knew that if I had a question and asked that I would receive an answer during conference. I prayed and pondered over this question a few days before conference and had faith that I would receive an answer. Going into Conference with a goal of trying to get a specific thing out of it was a really great experience and receiving the answer was even better. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and gives us comfort when we need it. Not always does he answer it in the ways we expect it but he will always answer our prayers.