Bye Bye Millersburg. Hello Johnstown! From November 6, 2017

Boy oh boy do I got a surprise for you.

I'm being transferred!!! I'm getting transferred to Johnstown! I'm

going to be in my first district. Which means I'll be able to go on

exchanges in somerset!!!!!! Haha I'm so. Flipping. STOKED!!!!!! Can't

wait!!!

Haha this past week I had been praying that I could get transferred to

somerset for my last run. I forgot transfers were this week and I saw

the transfer boards and I screamed. I absolutely went hysterical!

Can't wait to go on exchanges in somerset and see my people!

Haha I'm also very excited to be in Johnstown!

Man. Looking back at this area and the progress that's happened is

crazy. When I first got here (sorry Butikofer❤️) there was absolutely

nothing. No investigators or anything really. Elder Butikofer and I

worked our little booties off! Elder Butikofer and I labored with all

of our might. We would always talk about how hard we were working and

say how we have never been so physically, mentally, spiritually, and

emotionally exhausted. I can't describe how tiring it was! Haha but we

worked. And now we are starting to see the fruit of our labors. We had

a baptism last week. We have 2 baptisms coming up in 2 weeks. We have

been picking up awesome investigators. Members coming back to church.

So much goodness coming forth now! It's crazy!

So it's bittersweet to be leaving. Leaving all of this hard work and

fruit in the hands of others and not being here when it happens. But I

need a new scenery haha.

This week was pretty full of nothing. Lots of doctor appointments

because elder dey has been sick. But he's ok now.

So overall message of this email is that hard work pays off. And WE

CAN BAPTIZE ANYWHERE!!!!

More goodness!!! from October 30, 2017

Good things!
Yesterday Charlotte got baptized. It was so good! One of our
investigators, mike, was there and felt the spirit for sure. We talked
to him afterwords and he said he is super excited now to be baptized.
We handpicked 25 chapters from the Book of Mormon we want him to read
in two weeks so he can be baptized on nov 18. So sweet! So we will
have a double baptism on that date.
Mike went to the temple with the branch on Friday. We saw him Friday
night and asked how it was. He was speechless. He couldn't form words
to describe his experience. Even though he couldn't go into the
temple, just walked around it, he felt the spirit for sure. It was
perfect because it lead perfectly into us talking about how our bodies
are temples and we need to live the word of wisdom. So we committed
him to live it and he accepted. So things are going great here.
This week was pretty crazy getting things worked out for charlottes
baptism. Because we didn't even know for sure if she was going to be
baptized until like Tuesday night at like 9:30 pm. She was interviewed
and then president Bednar called us and talked about it and said she
could get baptized. While he was on the phone with us giving us a run
down he finished and said, "elders..... GREAT JOB!....... you have
done marvelous work" and then something along the lines that we
changed charlottes life. When he told us great job and stuff I felt so
much weight taken off my shoulders and I just felt soooo good! It felt
so good to hear president tell us that. It was indescribable how good
it felt. So we were setting up her baptism and such. We had to clean
the font which took a long time because this branch hasn't had a
baptism in years. But now they do. And they will continue to get them
as we are obedient and work hard! Got a couple more lined up so it
isn't stopping!!
So yeah, this week was us scrambling around getting ready for
Charlottes baptism.
During the baptism a video we were trying to play wasn't working, so
while trying to fix it I looked at sister kaiser(who sings
wonderfully), we make eye contact, and she nods her head, and I'm
like, "alright everyone we are actually going to hear sis kaiser
sing!!" Then she sang a song on the spot, man! She came in clutch!!!
She is the best!!! Haha it was so funny though. We both were thinking
the exact same thing! Haha.
Good things are happening. The field is white!


Perfect timing to catch some pics of the sunset over the Susquehanna river.
Also a bomb cheeseburger I made MYSELF!!

So much goodness!!!! from October 23, 2017

This week was bonkers!

First off we had 4 investigators, which 3 of them have a baptismal
date, and 3 members, who usually don't attend, come to church this
week! It was sooo sweet! It was so exciting and felt so good!

This week was good. We met a couple people that seemed pretty
promising. One lady was so excited after talking to us she told us to
come back the next day and she thanked us for stopping her. That was
sweet. Met this dad that said we could come back. Hopefully things
will go well there. We stopped by this lady we have talked to before,
she knows a member in my old companions (elder Butikofer) area. So we
showed her the prince of peace video and she liked it. She started
crying and told us she hasn't felt gods love or anything before and
always feels like she gets cold shoulders from churches. So we
promised our message would help and then we set an appointment for
Saturday. It's cool cause she told us in the beginning, "I wish you
guys were located down here." And we were like, ".... we are!!!!" Haha
it was great.

We texted a girl from last week that we met and we have been texting a
lot. She can't meet because she is a nurse person for someone and
literally works like 24/7 and lives with the guy she takes care of.
But she is so cool. She said she read every summary of each chapter in
the Book of Mormon and then read the chapter if it sounded super
interesting. So things are cool with her!

Friday as we were planning for our week elder dey and I had a super
strong impression we needed to move someone's baptismal date up. The
feeling felt super urgent. It was crazy because her previous date was
for nov 4. And that's already pretty soon. But we felt like we had to
do it. And so we looked at the next weekend and on Friday the branch
was going to the temple so that was out, Saturday was the branches
trunk or treat party. So we were figuring out what day and time. We
also had to figure how we were going to teach her everything we need
to teach her before her baptism cause we have to teach her a lot. And
it's one week away. So we set to have her baptism on the 29th. And we
made lesson plans and figured it out how we can cram it all in before
then and we pretty much have to go over every single day this week to
make it possible. But it's going to happen. As long as she passes her
interview all will be well!! So that was pretty crazy! That's never
happened to me before. The prompting was so strong and I knew we had
to.

Anyways. Our other 2 people with baptismal dates are doing awesome!
They are so solid!
So things are going so good here in Millersburg!
Anyways that's my week in a wrap.
Oh yea, Sunday elder dey and I gave talks. I gave a talk about faith
using the story of David and Goliath. I finished it literally like an
hour before I gave it. Anyways mom or anyone else that wants to read
it I can send it to you if you tell me.
Love you all! Miss you all!
Breakfast at the bopps!!!

Momentum - from October 16, 2017

This week was absolutely nuts.
Went on 2 exchanges. Elder Brooks and then elder Olsen. Elder Olsen is
a stud missionary. We killed it together!!!
Haha funny story. We went and got subway. As we were in subway elder
Olsen went first and got his sandwich. The lady at that was checking
him out started flirting with him so hard. While that's going on I was
sitting there waiting for someone to put condiments on my sandwhich. I
sat there for a good 4 minutes while elder Olsen gave her a Book of
Mormon and she googlaly eyed Olsen. A different worker came over and
out some people on hold to help me. She says I'm sorry that she isn't
helping. Haha I laughed. I got to check out and pay for my sandwhich.
That girl that flirted with elder Olsen says 2 things to me. 1. What
was your sandwich. 2. The cost of it. So we went back to the car and
we laughed pretty hard about it. When we parked and started eating
elder Olsen says, "she put god bless you on my sandwich!!" I was
like.. what. I don't even think she wrote on mine. So I looked and she
wrote nothing. Not even what my sandwiches were. Then Olsen again says
"she wrote it again on my other sandwich!!!" I checked my other
sandwich and there was nothing. I was like dude! She didn't even write
what my sandwich was. Not one drop of ink on that thing. Hahahahaha we
laughed about it pretty hard. That was super funny. Anyways.
We set 3 people with a date and got 10 new investigators.
We received a media referal and he said he has met with the
missionaries before and we set him with a date.
2 weeks ago a former investigator came to church and her grandma bore
her testimony and told us that she wants to be baptized.
We met someone who's fiancé has read the Book of Mormon and believes
if it. Crazy story with that person. I have felt like we should knock
that door before. We did and no answer. On exchanges another elder
wanted to knock on that door with me. We did and no answer. And again
on another exchange an elder wanted to knock it and we did, and she
answered!!! She was way cool! Hopefully something will get set with
her. But yea it's just been an awesome week!!!
Miracles upon miracles upon miracles.
Miss you all and love you!
Miss my family so much! My friends too.

The Holy Ghost - from October 9, 2017

So I'll tell for my weekly an experience I had a while ago that I keep

getting reminded of.

A while ago we were contacting some people we were about to see

someone but as we got to their house we realized that the reason we

thought we should see her was invalid. So we started to drive away and

I felt this constraining feeling that we should go see her. And I

really didn't want to go back, I just wanted to keep going. But I just

felt so strongly that we needed to go back so I stopped the car and

asked elder Butikofer if we should go back. He said yea. So we went

back and knocked on her door. She came to the door and we offered

service and she said no but thank and kind of said bye.

A week later she told us we were angels.  She told us about how she

was having a horrible day because the passing of her husband and she

was yelling and crying and asking why he left, that he said he'd

always be with her to help her, and where is her help and so on. Then

she heard a knock at the door and it was us. She closed the door

quickly because it again made her emotional because it was an answer

to her prayer. She has toLd that story many times. I finally told her

our side of the story recently and when we did she just broke down in

tears again and thanked us and thanked us and couldn't talk.

Follow the spirit!

Good week. Nothing new really to tell.

Love you all and miss you all.

21 - from October 2, 2017

Thank you for all the birthday wishes!! Can't wait to go buy thousands

of bottles of rum. Then I can be capt jack sparrow. Haha JUST KIDDING!

Man. What a week. Months are turning into weeks. Weeks are turning into days.

I don't even remember what happened this week.

Got my new companion. He is a visa waiter. Which means his visa to go

to India didn't come yet so they just threw him to some mission. So he

is waiting to go to India. That's pretty cool. I knew I would be

getting him before president said so. As we were all eating lunch

together, the trainers and trainees, the trainer and his trainee just

kind of sorted out and that's who our trainee was going to be. It was

like they just gravitated to us.

Elder Dey is his name.

Conference was awesome. We had 3 investigators attend it. Mike stayed

at the church all Sunday and watched both sessions. That was sweet. He

is prepared I hope.

Then Neil came. It was funny because Neil always just get hung up

about the Book of Mormon and the evidences and stuff. And while he was

there a 70 gave the talk about the Book of Mormon and threw down about

how it's ridiculous that anyone would try to say it's not true. Haha

afterward I told Neil that talk was for him. He laughed and said "yea,

but where are the gold plates?" Haha so dumb, I've answered that so

many times!!! Which is this:

God does not reveal super sacred things to everyone while they are

here on earth. There are some people that were ordained and called

before they came here to see and experience such sacred things. For

example the risen, resurrected Christ. How many people saw him?? How

many people saw the risen Christ shortly after His resurrection? About

12, plus or minus. Now with something that is about Jesus Christ,

which the Book of Mormon is, it will mirror, reflect, and compare to

His life here. Therefore there were chosen ordained people, 12 of them

in fact, who have seen and handled the golden plates just as they who

have seen the risen Christ. And if you cannot believe in the Book of

Mormon because you have not seen the original plates, well then you

can't believe in the resurrected Christ because you have never seen

Him either.

I always am amazed at how reflective and comparable this church is, or

life within this church is, with the church of Jesus Christ, or the

life of Jesus Christ.

Why does the church receive persecutions? Who do people fall away from

the church? Why are there so many rumors about the church or that we

worship Satan or are a cult? Why do people always try to question us

and test us? Etc.

Jesus Christ and His church were persecuted! Jesus' followers fell

away because He would "ask for too much." The scribes and pharisees

would always make things up about Jesus such as that he was beelzebub

even when He casted away evil spirits.  The elders and scribes always

questioned Jesus and tried to make Him fumble on His words. Etc.

This truly is the church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. And

because it is we must be prepared and expect such persecutions because

Satan has always tried to tear righteousness apart and always will.

I loved Elder Anderson's talk. That made me defiantly get chocked up.

I'm pretty sure a lot of his talk was just on the spot, you could

tell. It is amazing to see Gods hand. Elder hales passed away

inbetween conferences and President Nelson was inspired to go to the

hospital immediately after the morning session and skip lunch to go

see elder hales. Then to come back and report the news. And then to

have elder Anderson give that final talk and include part of Elder

Hales talk he prepared which talked about preparing to meet God. How

beautiful. I can feel the spirit whenever I think about it. That was

absolutely wonderful. I'm so glad God is so dang good at what He does.

He gives joy to my soul!!!!

I just have such passion when I say that I know this is Gods work.

This is Gods church. There is no other explanation for this church.

The fact that it has not faltered and diminished after such

persecutions. The fact that it has not faltered and diminished with

all the tricks of Satan to the world. The fact that is has not

faltered and diminished with 18-25 year old kids running around as

representatives of this church- that us missionaries haven't burnt

everything to the ground. Absolutely everything points to it and fires

my conviction with a flame hotter, bigger, and stronger than the one

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were thrown into, which killed the

servants who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego into the fire

because they got even close to its great heat. My conviction of this

work is like the chocolate and spaghetti and ketchup stains on all of

my shirts- THEY WONT GO AWAY! In the name of 

Jesus Christ amen.

Best week in a long time. 3 stories and the GA visit - from September 18, 2017

Man last night elder Butikofer and I were talking about how we feel
like this last week was actually successful and how it feels so good!

So we were walking down the street and I asked this guy on his porch
if I could give him a card and he said no. He said he wasn't a
"believer." So I had no clue what to say and so I said, "... oh.....
why?" Haha. He didn't really give a specific answer. And again I
didn't know what to say so I just said, "we'll have you ever heard of
the Book of Mormon?" Then explained that if he read it and prayed
about it God would tell him it's true therefore he would know God
exists and that Jesus is the Christ. He said he would read it and said
we could come back. So he went from saying no to a card and saying he
wasn't a believer to taking a Book of Mormon and saying we could come
back.

Then we also talked and shared a Book of Mormon with this other guy.
We grabbed the car and left that town. As we were driving out we saw
him reading the Book of Mormon already. We texted him and he said he
read the witnesses and all of the entire index. Haha so sweet. He
loved it.

Then we went to see Danelle, our 13 year old investigator. She comes
out and 2 other girls follow her and they say, "what are we doing?"
And Danelle said, "were having a God lesson!" Haha so we taught all
three of them. 1 of them didn't know who Jesus Christ was or why he
was important or anything. She didn't really know anything about God.
It was sad. So we taught them about the Godhead and then the
Atonement. They were all super into it. We taught them how to pray
because they said they didn't know how to. As we taught them they were
so into it. They kept yelling at each other to shut up haha and stuff
because they were "learning cool things." Danelle said something about
them not being here again for a lesson, and one of them said, "you
don't know that!" Implying that she might. Then 1 of the girls said a
prayer and Danelle prayed too! Which was cool cause she is always
scared to pray.
But it's crazy that there are people who don't know anything about
Jesus Christ. We have to find them and help them.

Elder Brent h. Nielsen visited the mission. He is so cool. He is the
missionary Director over the entire church. He was awesome. He talked
about the atonement and how there are two parts to it- the redeeming
power and also the enabling power. That was so cool. I asked him what
his greatest experience was on his mission, he then told a story about
a guy he taught that turned out to be a stake president after
struggling with accepting the gospel. Then at a mission he, elder
Nielsen, visited which was his old one, he met a missionary with a
name that sounded familiar. It was the son of that stake president. He
said it was just super cool to be able to see the fruit of his
teaching and that it produced a missionary and is now a rolling stone.
He cried as he told us that. It was cool. He was so cool!!!!!! I love
him! Then he told us about some technologies the church is coming out
with for missionaries, so insane. We are going to be getting iPhones
and we will begin to teach people online and just a bunch of other
crazy awesome things the church is coming out with for missionaries.
It's so sweet.

Things are really starting to come together in this area. The high
counselor of missionary work is working with us and the branch now,
the branch president and us had a talk last night and it was so good,
we got him and his wife excited about missionary work, and things are
slowly but surely moving forward!! It's looking good. We made goals
this week that are very accomplishable and that will help move the
work in this area. Man just things are looking so up right now
compared to the past like... 2-3 months. Haha. So things are going.

The work of the Lord is real. This is His work and nothing can stop

it. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Same Old Same Old - from September 11, 2017

All is the same here in Millersburg really.

This past week we went around to the members and taught them the
restoration. As we did so I felt the spirit testify to me that the
message I was sharing was true. Every time as we told the story of The
restoration I felt the power of the message. The members did as well.
A few of them actually geared up as elder Butikofer and I shared the
message.
Why do people not act on that feeling? I have no clue. But I do know
that they do get a feeling when we share that message.
I feel like I have tried everything that I know or can think of to do
and it just doesn't work. But you know what I'll keep doing it. I came
across this scripture of Mormon's epistle to Moroni in chapter 9 of
Moroni:
4 Behold, I am laboring with them continually; and when I speak the
word of God with sharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when
I use no sharpness they harden their hearts against it; wherefore, I
fear lest the Spirit of the Lord hath ceased striving with them.
6 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us
labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be
brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in
this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all
righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.

So I'm going to do it because I have been called and assigned to this
area and I have a labor to perform, no matter the results. Hopefully
we do get positive results but if we don't then let it be Gods Will.

Had interviews with president this week. He is awesome. He asked me in
my interview with him what kind of companion I needed. I told him one
that knows what he is doing and is ready to saddle up and go to work.
He said he will put that in his heart and will seriously pray and
consider it. He concluded the prayer and when he finished saying the
prayer he didn't move for a couple of seconds. He opened his eyes, sat
up, began to smirk and said, "missions are awesome... aren't they
elder segon?" Haha so who knows what he brewed up in his head just
then but it's was funny to see his reaction if the answer he got!

This work is true. It's is.

Amish Man - From September 4, 2017

This week was good. We went around to as many of the members as we
could to help them set up a family mission plan. That's been
exhausting. It takes all of my energy to be going out and pleading
with the members to do missionary work. We have had to be bold and a
lot of the members have not liked it, but a lot of members have. So we
know we are doing what it right. Being bold and feeling the anger of
others has been making us weary but we both feel with all our hearts
that being bold regardless of what the result is is what the Lord
wants us to do right now. Even though some members just get upset at
it we feel so strongly that we are doing what's right. And doing what
the Lord asks especially to people you feel would be on your team and
having them kind of get annoyed at you for doing it, is exhausting.
You feel like your just stuck. You're doing the right thing but it
seems like it isn't working or helping, only making things worse, and
you just are in this weird like agh. It's weird.
We talked to some Amish this week. Passed out 2 Book of Mormons to
them and they told us we could come back! That's exciting!!
I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday and I want to just copy on
here what I wrote in my journal after finishing.
"9/3/17 Sunday.

I have just finished reading the Book of Mormon again, and I feel to write down my testimony. I feel also to say I love my family. Although doubts arise, I still believe that the Book of Mormon is true with all of my heart! I was thinking as I was reading the last bit of
the Book of Mormon about how amazing it is that every time I read it, I can always grab something out of it that applies to my life and what I have struggles with or what I need to know to do in a situation. The words of Christ will tell you all that ye should do! I definitely
learn a lot as I study the Book of Mormon. Whether it be faith, pride, humility, charity, the Atonement, Heavenly Father, or repentance,
baptism, the Holy Ghost, or enduring to the end with all diligence, I
always learn. I feel like every time I read over something I have
already read, that I just get deeper into it, learn new things, get a
greater knowledge, and a stronger excitement to... life, really.
Stronger excitement about all aspects of my testimony, and stronger
excitement to be better. The teaching and power of the Book of Mormon
have given me the strength to be better and given me the knowledge of
how I can become better. I can tell a difference in myself on days
when I read the Book of Mormon and when I don't. There is a
difference. I have pondered hard about the purpose and message of the
Book of Mormon. I have come to see that God brought forth the Book of
Mormon because He loves us. He wanted us to have more knowledge of the
Savior and His Great and Redeeming Sacrifice. He enabled enabling. He
got the power and strength to give us power and strength! Jesus is the
Christ. He loves us. The Atonement is a Real, Holy, Powerful, Infinite
Sacrifice that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend. I know this.
The Book of Mormon has helped me come to know this. I wish every home
would read the Book of Mormon, for, truly the world would become holy.
Think about it. Well, by golly, Joseph Smith was a prophet! The Book
of Mormon is true! Jesus is the Christ. The gospel and the proper
priesthood have been restored back to the earth in full! In the name
of Jesus Christ, amen."

Love yous.

Winds - From August 28, 2017

This week was great!

I got sick!

Tuesday night I didn't sleep at all cause I felt like throwing up all

night, the next day was the same, and then the following night, with

still some sickness the next day. Pretty much have had health problems all week but it's been great! I've been thinking a lot about the role of afflictions in our lives a lot. In the Book of Mormon this week I was reading ether chapter 6. This was a people trying to cross the ocean and they had made these ships that we totally enclosing. No sails, no paddles or anything. So God has to cause winds and storms upon the ocean in order to get them to move across the ocean. So these winds were blowing towards the "promised land" and the waves would come crashing down upon their vessels and they would then be tossed around and even sometimes totally submerged and deep in the ocean until they prayed and were brought back up to the surface to then again be hit with a wave. But a verse in this chapter is this: 8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

I can't imagine what these people were thinking. Maybe, "why is God

punishing us with all these stormy windy waves when we have been

good?" They may have wondered why God couldn't just have a gentle wind gently blow them over, across the ocean, into the promised land. But the fact is that God just doesn't work like that. He uses the recourses of the earth and the elements and season of the earth to perform such miracles. But what caught me in this scripture is that the winds never did cease to blow towards the promised land. We will always face some kind of wind, trial, or affliction in life. But the other half of this statement is that it will be for our good, it will always be blowing us towards the promised land, toward Him.

So this week when I got upset or something I just said, "keep blowing me to the promised land baby!!!"

Speaking of wind. A tornado happened across the river from us. We were driving home though and it started raining soooo hard. The winds just blew against the car so hard. We couldn't see out the window with the

blades going all the way even when we were stopped. I got so scared I had my comp say a prayer while I was driving. I thought I was about to die. Ahaha. But I was just being a baby.

Friday was super good! President Bednar had a special conference and he rebuked the mission! It was awesome. He set us straight! I liked it

so much. Haha. Why did I? Because he did it with such love. Love was his force, not power. I can honestly say I've never felt so much love from someone that is not family, than from president Bednar. He is

awesome.

My testimony this week I feel to share is that the words of Christ will tell you all that you should do. I know.... that is true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Miracles of the Priesthood - from August 21, 2017

This week was great!

I got sick!

Tuesday night I didn't sleep at all cause I felt like throwing up all
night, the next day was the same, and then the following night, with
still some sickness the next day. Pretty much have had health problems
all week but it's been great! I've been thinking a lot about the role
of afflictions in our lives a lot. In the Book of Mormon this week I
was reading ether chapter 6. This was a people trying to cross the
ocean and they had made these ships that we totally enclosing. No
sails, no paddles or anything. So God has to cause winds and storms
upon the ocean in order to get them to move across the ocean. So these
winds were blowing towards the "promised land" and the waves would
come crashing down upon their vessels and they would then be tossed
around and even sometimes totally submerged and deep in the ocean
until they prayed and were brought back up to the surface to then
again be hit with a wave. But a verse in this chapter is this:
8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards
the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were
driven forth before the wind.
I can't imagine what these people were thinking. Maybe, "why is God
punishing us with all these stormy windy waves when we have been
good?" They may have wondered why God couldn't just have a gentle wind
gently blow them over, across the ocean, into the promised land. But
the fact is that God just doesn't work like that. He uses the
recourses of the earth and the elements and season of the earth to
perform such miracles. But what caught me in this scripture is that
the winds never did cease to blow towards the promised land. We will
always face some kind of wind, trial, or affliction in life. But the
other half of this statement is that it will be for our good, it will
always be blowing us towards the promised land, toward Him.
So this week when I got upset or something I just said, "keep blowing
me to the promised land baby!!!"

Speaking of wind. A tornado happened across the river from us. We were
driving home though and it started raining soooo hard. The winds just
blew against the car so hard. We couldn't see out the window with the
blades going all the way even when we were stopped. I got so scared I
had my comp say a prayer while I was driving. I thought I was about to
die. Ahaha. But I was just being a baby.

Friday was super good! President Bednar had a special conference and
he rebuked the mission! It was awesome. He set us straight! I liked it
so much. Haha. Why did I? Because he did it with such love. Love was
his force, not power. I can honestly say I've never felt so much love
from someone that is not family, than from president Bednar. He is
awesome.

My testimony this week I feel to share is that the words of Christ
will tell you all that you should do. I know.... that is true. In the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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!