Man! What a week! - from 8/21/2017

Man, what a week.

Just an FYI I got a gift card to subway from Greg and Lauren!!! More
food blessing! Thank you!

So this week was good. Elder Butikofer, as I mentioned last week, has
poison ivy again. So on Sunday last week I gave him a blessing. It was
short. One sentence even. I said, "I bless you that this will not
interfere with your ability to go out and work hard." So after that
elder Butikofer and I talked about what it meant to have faith and how
it means you need to work through the pain as if you didn't have it.
This week as we were out in the humid heat of PA, sweating and
working, elder Butikofer all of a sudden, out of nowhere says, "you
know what's weird? My poison is numb. God has blessed me with
endurance. When we are out here I don't even feel it." So that was
pretty cool. The power of the priesthood is real.

Tuesday was a difficult day. We made plans to work in this one town
about 10 miles away, and while we were there walking around in the
humid heat of PA (again), my ark started bleeding randomly and it got
all on my shirt so we had to go home and clean that off and stuff. So
all of our plans were ruined because we didn't have enough miles to
drive back to that town. So we made new plans to work in Eville...
nothing was working. People dropped us, and nobody was interested, and
it was miserably hot, we walked a mile down a wrong road before we
realized it, and everything was just going wrong. And with all this,
after a investigator made it clear she didn't want to meet with us, I
began to get so discouraged. I was just murmuring. Just like laman or
Lemuel would have. I just was saying, "I didn't come out here to knock
on doors for 2 years, I came here to teach.", "it doesn't work elder,
it doesn't happen, people don't change." "Sometimes I just want to
quit man." And so on and so on. I started to doubt why I was out here
and wonder if I was wasting my time and if I should be here. Started
to doubt my testimony even. Then we had a lesson with Danelle. Our
homie! And we had a typical "Danelle lesson." Where she just gets
super distracted a lot and we get off topic super fast and so on. But
after that lesson I felt so much better. But man did I learn about how
easy it is to get discouraged if you are being negative. So I repented
and will strive to be more positive.

Been a good hot and humid week here in PA.

We cooked three pounds of bacon this week! It was awesome!! Also tried
birch beer for the first time ever!!! Pretty good.
PA Dutch foods are so good by the way! Even just weird normal PA
dishes are good!
I'll send a list of things for yous to look up and make!

My favorite line in the bacon video....
"Oh booyyyy, OH JEEZ!!! It just squirted at me!!" Hahahahaha so funny

Miracles of Food - from 08/14/2017

So I have lost weight in this area because we hardly get fed here. So
I was praying and praying for Heavenly Father to help me gain my
weight back and stuff.

So mommy sent me some food because I told her and I was soooo happy to
get that food!!! It was amazing. Then Wednesday a member brought by
some groceries for us to have. So I was stoked! That same day we meet
a member who is so cool and his whole family loves us missionaries.
That night they called us and told us they bought us some groceries.
In the morning of the next day they brought it over and they bought us
seriously so much food. It was a big big big shop! Like it was how
much a family would need! And they gave us all of it! I was
speechless!!! And now Cathy, mommy number 2, has said she is shipping
me some food! Oh my gosh. It was seriously a miracle. All of you are
probably laughing but I'm serious. That was a testimony to me that God
does care and He does perform miracles!!

This week was good! We set our homie Danelle up with a baptismal date!
She is such a stud! So I'm pretty pumped about that.
That member that bought us a bunch of food is so cool! Haha we did
service for him. Cut down and hauled trees away. That was fun!
My companion has poison ivy again... so that's a little upsetting but
we will be ok.

Yesterday we had a meeting and I was a little frustrated because
sometimes I feel like this branch just doesn't care about helping us
at all and they expect us to do their work for them and it's
frustrating. So we had a meeting yesterday and I told them a little
bit about how I felt and we had such a good meeting. We talked about
how we are going to change things and we made plans and it was so
good! Haha.

We almost had a tornado! It was crazy!!

The Great Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. He truly does know how
each and every single one of us feels because of His undying love. I
have experienced how love truly is an agent to feel what others feel.
I had a crazy experience this week. I won't go into details but
Tuesday I felt aweful. Not physically but something was just wrong.
And I kept asking my comp what was wrong and stuff and I just felt
horrible. It's undescribable. But the next day we found out that a
member wasn't doing too good. When I that out, I knew without a doubt
right away that was why I was feeling horrible. I didn't know about it
yet, I wasn't with him that day, but my love was there, and I felt his
pain. It was my love for that member that made me feel how he would be
feeling at that time. Jesus truly does know how we feel. No matter
what you say or think, He knows what it's like. In the name of Jesus
Christ, amen.

1. The storm
2. Our homie Danelle.
3. The district.
4. The famous Ned smith center.

Roller Coasters - from 08/07/2017

Man,
This week was a roller coaster!

So the lady we met that loved the restoration dropped us. I was so mad
when it happened!!! I felt like I lost the super bowl! So much
disappointment, anger, sorrow, and much more. So the whole day I was
just waiting for Heavenly Father to kind of like surprise me with a
miracle. And it seemed like it was never going to happen. Then finally
it did. We talked to these 2 people that opened up with us a lot and
told us about some struggles they have and they talked about their
testimonies and stuff. So we taught about Holy Ghost and praying and
stuff. We will be going back next week.

We then were having another rough day and then we went and tried this
girl we met a couple weeks ago who hasn't responded to our texts. She
came out and was super awesome. We shared a video with her and she
said she really wants to meet with us despite her parents not really
liking us meeting with her, and she is like 20 so it works! We will be
getting a text from her friends number from her about a place we can
start meeting. We bore out testimony about the decision to hear our
message kind of and the spirit was there for sure.

Oh we called a member one morning and she said we could come over and
share a message with her! So we went over and talked to her and got to
know her and we simply asked when she would be able to make it to
church. And she thought for a while and then said, "I can come on
Sunday." Sunday came around and as elder Butikofer were sitting in the
front to bless the sacrament she walks in! I was so stoked!!! Then in
elders quorum they all talked for 30 minutes about how shocked they
were that she came. They were saying they thought they were sleeping
and that they almost fell over when they saw her. They said that they
had been trying to get her to come to church for 20 years. They also
said her husband was the reason why it was so hard because he didn't
want missionaries or home teachers coming to see her and how they were
all scared of her husband. He was super nice to us though!!!! Haha
really nice!!! Haha so that was awesome!!!

Roller coasters. I just got back from Hershey park. I rode every
roller coaster! Conquering fears! Roller coasters are soooooo fun! Oh
my gosh! So fun! We got tickets for free and all so fun! That's what
most the pictures are.

Elder Butikofer and I set some big goals this week. We set goals to
get 2 baptismal dates, 4 new investigators, and 15 people's contact
info! So it's going to be a big week!

The work is true!! It is! Jesus is King!

Straight Miracles - from July 31, 2017

So this week was fun!

One of the mornings this week I had prayed to know if the Book of

Mormon was true, and to know if the first vision really happened. As I

did that all I could think of was how happy Jesus Christ must have

been to restore His gospel back to the earth! So I felt a great desire

to share the restoration with others. That day we went out trying so

many people but absolutely nobody was home. We tried this one person

and they weren't home, but as we were trying them their neighbor came

out to smoke. So we asked if we could share something with her. So we

taught about Jesus Christ and his ministry and the apostasy, and

restoration. This lady, Tracy, absolutely loved it. The whole time as

we taught her she kept getting more and more and more excited! She

would say oh that makes sense, or oh I never knew that, even at one

point she said, "the message you guys have shared has strengthened my

faith!!" She asked us if we would come back and we said, "YESSSSSS!"

Haha as you can imagine. She said her step mom would also love the

message of the restoration. She set up a day and time for us to come

back and teach her more. I seriously can't fully explain how excited

she was.

I had the chills all over as we talked and taught her. It was so amazing.

We also met a lot of other really cool people this week. That

hopefully we can continue to meet.

We helped set up a festival and it was so fun. The festival had like

2000 people and the person that was in charge of it invited us to go

to a restaurant with them after . So there was about a group of 8 of

us. For a while when we were talking they all were going on and on and

on about how cool it was that we were serving and how much of a

commitment it was. They were just like breaking it down and just

totally talking us up. Haha I defiantly felt weird because they just

made it sound like we were angels or saints or whatever you want to

call it. It was cool but also weird.

During district meeting this week Elder gray asked me to give a

training on diligence and man. I cried like a little baby as I bore my

testimony about diligence. Just cause I have experienced that when we

are not diligent we will suffer, literally spiritually suffer. But if

we are diligent we will fly with wings as eagles!!!! It was good!

I love Pennsylvania!!! It's the best!!!

This is where I am supposed to be for sure.

Love you all.

Elder Segon 👨🏽‍🚀👨🏽‍🌾

Ps. My PA accent is getting worse. I'm starting to say yet at the end

of sentences even when it doesn't make sense. I'm a monster.

Baseball Game - from 07/24/2017

This week was seriously so good.

So that person that was "lead to us" is awesome. We decided to go stop
by the place we met her and she wasn't there when we looked. But as we
were walking away I heard a door open, I turn around and she came out!
Boom! So we talked to her for a bit and she made a joke about how
maybe she should get baptized with us and then she'd be happy, and
elder Butikofer and I defiantly feel like that wasn't 100% joke, we
think that was some seriousness in it. She then told us to come by
whenever cause she is always home. So that was cool.

We found a bunch of people this week, members and nonmembers so that
is exciting. So we are just on fire. Things are good. People are
awesome.

We helped this family who only the mom is a member, but doesn't come
to church, move, and they are awesome. Yesterday they told us they all
were about to go to church, they were getting ready and everything,
but couldn't find all their stuff. We hadn't even invited them yet and
they were about to go! So much potential!! Brother hause from
lewisberg works with the dad of the house, joe. So that's cool!

We had zone conference on Friday! It was sooo good! I love President
Bednar. He is absolutely amazing! He is so powerful. Man he is just so
powerful to the point where everyone is crying man! He is awesome. I
love president and sister Bednar! I love them.

Saturday we went to the Harrisburg Senators Baseball game!!! It was
sooo sweet! The whole zone got to go because it was Mormon night. It
was soooo fun!!! Seriously one of the funniest things I've done so far
on the mission. The senators are pretty good! They won 7-3 with back
to back diving catches to close the game! So nice! There was a beer
vender there that was super funny and took pictures with all of us and
stuff! So funny.

Yesterday I gave a talk in church. It was seriously the longest talk
I've ever given by far. It was like at least 30 minutes.

Jesus is the Christ. The King of Kings. The master. He lives. Because
He lives we can find peace. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


Elder Segon 🐅👨🏽‍🌾

If you listen to the videos you can hear all of us elders going "yeeee
yeeee.." haha. Or "yeee ha!"

Lead them to us - from 07/17/2017

This week was sweet.

We played some prosball, which is basically you find some basketball
courts somewhere and see if anyone is playing and you ask if you can
join them while you are all dressed up. Then they ask questions about
why your dressed up and etc. It also helps if your good so that they
"respect you." Haha. So we did that this week with some guys and they
thought that what we did was cool. We played horse and my companion
and I eliminated both of the other guys. Then it was a showdown
between elder Butikofer and I.... I won. So they play there a lot and
they are going to text us whenever they are playing so that cool.
I miss my family so much! I miss you! My wallpaper right now is of my
family. I miss them so much. I just feel like since I've been out here
I've been able to learn more about how important family is and I've
been able to look back and see why I was put with this wonderful
family. We just kind of mesh. I feel like if I was in a different
family I would just not feel right. I know families are ordained of
God.

We have picked up a couple investigators.
This Sunday we had 14 members of our unit at church. That's pretty
slim. So if elder Butikofer and I want to make this a ward we got to
get working even harder!

I have been studying about the Book of Mormon a lot this week. I've
been using preach my gospel. Preach my gospel is so sweet! I wish I
used it more at the beginning of my mission. It is so good!!!
Something I've learned this week is that the gospel itself resolves
any concerns or challenge that anyone is facing. In preach my gospel
it teaches us that and it gives a couple examples of how it answers
pretty much ANY question. I'll let you study it.

We went out one day and in our prayer before we went out I asked
Heavenly Father to lead people to us. In preach my gospel it says that
either He will lead us to the people or the people to us. So I asked
Him to fulfill that promise. We were out walking on the way home and a
lady randomly asks us if we were hot because it was super hot and
humid. So we laughed and talked to her and then we asked if we could
share something with her and we went and shared the Book of Mormon
with her. She liked it and took a copy! So that was way cool!
The work is true, it's that simple. The work is true.

I love this mission experience so much!!! It's the best, hardest thing ever!!

Companion starting to heal - from 07/10/2017

Well this week has been better. My companion is starting to heal and
we are able to go out more and more.

This week we had our meet and greet with our new mission president.
President Bednar is so cool!!

We were all waiting for him in the chapel super reverent and he walks
on and shouts, "WERE HERE!!" Everyone then started laughing. He is
super funny!! Haha. He is awesome. He is shorter than I thought he was
going to be. He talked to us about being preach my gospel
missionaries. He shared his testimony and conversion and his mission
experience and wow. He is powerful!

It was so funny. Because he is Elder Bednar nephew he would say a
quote by him and say, "does that sound familiar?" or "you can tell we
are related huh?" Haha he is so funny! He is awesome! He would talk to
us about when elder Bednar got called as an apostle and just "uncle
David this and uncle David that." Haha so funny.

Hopefully we get an Apostle visit from Elder Bednar while I'm here.
I only got 8 months left officially. That's not good. We got to do
something about this and get me more time!!!

The mission has gone by super quick! I don't like it but at the same
time I do. I miss home so much, but I love Pa. So torn.

Nothing much to report this week - from 07/03/2017

Well there is nothing really to report about this week.
My companion has had poison ivy so we have been staying inside all
week pretty much. We went out to dinner 2 times.
I've watched Ephriam's rescue like a thousand times, read half the Old
Testament, done lots of push-ups and sit-ups,  have a 20 pack of abs,
cleaned our house, caught up on sleep, went insane 2 times, and ya.
Our new mission president called me and told me to find scriptures to
support the commitments we give to people, such as prayer or scripture
study. And to also find scriptures that talk about the blessing of
doing it.
That was pretty cool!
Oh yea.... our apartment... it's actually a house. A 3 story house. It is so nice!!

This Week Was Insane - from 06/26/2017

This week was insane!

I've never been more excited to get a new start in a new area. I'm
going to be in Millersberg, PA. It is where my trainer was born. It's
literally 2 areas over from Lewisberg so I am not going far at all.
Last week we set a goal to pick up 15 potential investigators and we did it!
In the beginning of this week I went to Williamsport to go on
exchanges with the zone leaders. It was weird seeing all my old
people!!! When we walked into a dinner appointment Shawn, a member
that had dinner with us 2 times a week, sees me and says, "holy
crap!!! It's Segon!!!" Haha it was great.

During the exchange I went so hard. It's funny because the ZLs have
some of my old area and I had people's addresses in my notebook that I
never tried to see again for some reason. So we went and saw those
people and they were awesome! We met some awesome people that told us
they are looking for change in their life! We picked up like 4 new
investigators for them. It's crazy that I had never tried to see those
people again when I was in Williamsport. I defiantly learned a great
lesson.

Saying goodbye to everyone yesterday was so hard.  Especially the
hause family. I haven't gotten that close to a family ever since
somerset. They are defiantly on my tops for favorite and closest
families. Man I definitely had to keep my mind off of them so I didn't
cry while I was saying goodbye. Going to miss them so much! Man this
week was just so crazy!

It was a good week though. We were in the second biggest parade in the
nation!! It was sweet! We met this old lady Betty, and she knew
everyone. She knows the missionaries and she wanted us to come sit
with her and meet babe Ruth's granddaughter and a bunch of other
famous people but when we went to sit with her people were giving us
dirty looks so we left. It was awesome though!
Going to miss everyone here in Lewisberg.

Sweet Week - from 06/19/2017

This week was awesome!
We worked so hard. We talked to everyone! It was great. It's pretty
funny how the week we worked hardest we didn't really pick up any new
investigators or anything but we did what we were supposed to do.
We saw Cathy and Slader, the broken finger lady and her son. We began
to teach the plan of salvation and then both of them just started
asking a bunch of questions about life and death and stuff and they
were all questions that go into the plan of salvation so we told the,
we would come back and talk about it more in depth. Cathy said "oh
good! This was fun!! I'm excited." And then Slader talked about how he
has been reading the Book of Mormon and how he likes it a bunch.
We helped out with a parade in Milton that was celebrating its 200th
birthday! It was pretty fun! We also then helped in primary by eating
baby food. However well the kids sang a song they got to feed us more
and more spoons of baby food! Haha so that was fun!
This week I read about Dan Jones. Dan jones is the coolest missionary
story I've ever heard of! If you haven't heard about him look him up!!
This week I had almost all my dreams were almost the same. It was this:
I got home from my mission and I go see my family and hug my mom and
stuff. And then the rest of my dream is me just crying the whole time
because I just miss the mission.
Every morning I wake up and I am so grateful for that dream, I know
that it was inspired from god, because it makes me work so hard
because I know how much I'll miss this.
Last night we set a goal to get 15 people's contact info this week. We
also just were pumped and screaming that "we fear no man! We have no
fear!" We we're just jumping around pumping each other up. It was
pretty funny. We also set a goal to do some soap box preaching! And we
practiced it! So we are going to try it! It's going to be awesome!
Literally right after that I began to just lose it super fast while
studying. But I then just started to open the bom in random spots and
every time it was a scripture about serving God to our best. Then my
discouragement went away. Satan is crazy. He tries so quickly to
discourage us when we make a good decision!
And then we started practicing soap box preaching and then "booom!!!"
Thunder and lighting and rain just started coming so fast! It was
insane! Every time we would get pumped and talk about sharing the
gospel there was then a huge lighting and huge thunder! It was so
weird... I took a 20 minute long video of it. The streets were like
flooding, the street lights went out, and water started getting into
our apartment through the AC. It was so weird. It was awesome though!
We were so pumped!
Love the mission. I truly do. Whenever I think about 9 months left it
makes me a little emotional because I know that 9 months is nothing
and it's going to go by so quick!
I love this work. It is the greatest thing anyone could be engaged in.
It is true. It is the work of the Almighty. In the name of Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Love you all! Miss yous!


The field is white already to harvest baby!!!!

I love Pa!!'

This week was good - from 06/12/2017

Hello Familia,

This week was so good!

We had Zone Conference this week and it was the best Zone Conference of my mission for sure. It was President and Sister Johnsons farewell Conference. So it was a very emotional Zone Conference for everyone.

I got to hug sister Johnson!!!:) ha ha man. I love the Johnson's. They have helped me out so much and i will NEVER forget them.

Zone Conference was about "developing the faith to find people to teach." It was so good! I got so pumped to just go out and find!!! The Zone Leaders gave us a commitment to do some activities from Preach My Gospel chapter 9.

I did one and i learned so much about my purpose as a missionary!! Like i am called to share the gospel with everyone, period. I feel like i have been prideful in a way that i didn't want to come off as prideful pushy or nosy so i have refrained from sharing the gospel sometimes and focused on just being a friend, which isn't a bad thing but that isn't what i was called to do. so this week has been great!

So nothing really to report this week other than that i have learned so much about why i am out here and felt the great importance in just working sooo much harder and sharing light!
like i only have 9 months left now and i feel i haven't worked hard enough or made the most of my mission experience so far so these next 9 months i am just going to work so hard! i am going to share the gospel with everyone!!!! I'm just so motivated now!

something i wrote in my studies is:
I am a Farmer, i am a steward. I am a laborer, i am a servant. I am a sower, i am a reaper. I am a warrior, i am a representative. i am a fisher of men. i have been called to do hard things. I can do hard things. i am a missionary.


and that's my testimony. I know that the cause i am engaged in is great. it is most important. and so now i am going to just work so hard! i am going to make this the hardest thing ive loved to do!
 love you all! miss you!!!

Church - from 06/05/2017

So Cathy and her son came to church. Cathy is the lady that broke her
finger because her dog. We stopped by one day and her son said he
checked out the Book of Mormon and that he thought it was cool. When
they came to church he was holding the Book of Mormon in his hand,
looking all excited. So cool!
One of the members we visit finally got on the role for not smoking.
She has tried again and again and again to go cold turkey and would
last only a day or two. Today she in on day 10 I think! So exciting.
Never give up!!
Then we, with another member couple we visit, talked about a program
we can do to help them overcome the urge they get.so they said they
wanted to do it and so the next day we began the program. In the
program you have to get all their Tabasco and have them give it to
you. So he gave us a huge bag of tobacco. It's really cool because the
day before we started the program he told us that his wife is
expecting a baby!!!!!! And that he is super motivated to quit now! So
exciting! So they have been clean for 2 days!:) soooo exciting! I love
it!
It is so exciting! Agh I love these Pennsylvanians.
On Wednesday we went to a funeral for a member that passed away. It's
crazy how you can come to love someone so quickly. It's weird because
we met this member at a Mcdonalds right after he got out of a nursing
home and he like bore his testimony to us. Then he bore his same
testimony that he shared with us at church a week or two later and
then that week he asked us to give him a blessing and I remember the
blessing was a spirit filled one. Then he passed away only 2 or so
weeks later. I am so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to meet
this man and hear his final 2 humble touching testimonies. His
testimonies that he shared was that his wife was very sick and was in
a lot of pain. He said a prayer and told God He could have her back
that he was ok with Him taking her back now. Then she passed away very
very shortly after he said that prayer. And that was his testimony.
That she is in a better place and that God has her now. That was only
6 months ago and now this member is with her in the spirit world.
I love this gospel. I love the Lord. Whenever I give my thanks for
Jesus Christ and his Atoning sacrifice I am always filled with Gods
love. I cannot help but be overcome with swelling emotions or joy when
I truly express my gratitude for the savior. Jesus is the Christ. He
is my redeemer. He has redeemed me from my mistakes. In the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.

This is Joseph. I love this buddy of mine! He always comes up to me
and grabs my arm, and looks at my watch.