Sundays are sacred

 Chat!!  what is up all you fine males and females?  I hope all is going well. I hope life is good and the sun is shining! much has happened here is Oklahoma so let's get into it 

Google photos link ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Spiritual thought  

Much has happened since my mission began 4.5 months ago and my spiritual thought today is more parts of my testimony.  As I have grown and learned more I have seen how important it is to have a strong relationship with God and Jesus Christ.  We can use prayers and reading from the Book of Mormon and Holy Bible side by side but attending church is a powerful way to strengthen our relationships with Them, to put Them first. We have 6 days in a whole week to work and do whatever we want, go fishing, swimming, go out with friends, go to partys and God only asks you to take 1 day to put all that on a pause and sacrifice 2 small hours to go to church and to remember what He has done for you and yet we find that so hard to put forth 2 hours a week. And while at church to put forth our best focus.  My eyes have been opened and I realize how much I took it for granted in my youth but now I have the time to represent Him every day and to share his love and my love to everyone.  

To me its honestly so interesting how people make it sound like its so hard to go to church and they can't possibly fit 2 hours in a week to go to church when I have seen family of 8 with young kids make the time to attend church as well,  I have seen single parents who work almost every day make time to attend church 

My invite to everyone is to make this following Sunday more sacred.  Remember what your Heavenly Father has done for you, remember the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for you and if you have not gone in a long time I invite you to go to church! Make that time- make the time to go to church for 2 small hours of your day and I can testify the love, peace and comfort of the Savior will be with you. Your week will go by better and you will have a break from your crazy life. You will get rest. You will be able to feel the Holy Ghost more to help you discern between true or false things in this world. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen. 

May 20th 

Had a fun prep day-played monopoly like always and then had a cookout with other missionaries in my District– the Claremore elders/ Lake Valley elders/ Ranch Creek sisters and Elm Creek sisters and it was a good time! We had hotdogs and burgers and played some random card game. I have no idea what it was called but it was pretty fun. After that me and Elder Hunting came back to our apartment, cleaned our kitchen and  called our familys. Mine was good, I had fun talking to my family but then had to go back to the real world and try figure out some tax things and I did not like it since I really don't care for it right now because I’d rather focus on my mission than tax forms but in other news it was good to talk to my family with the little time I had.   

May 21st 

Had an awesome lesson with Abigail again and talked over the 10 commandments and 2 great commandments and she loved it.  We also answered some questions her mom had since she is a recently activated member, again both are super awesome. 

 Also I was on exchanges and I was with Elder Ricks, super nice guy fun to talk to- over all a good day. 

May 22nd  

Not a whole lot to talk about from today,  lots of walking and street contacting people.  We had a small lesson with our friend tonda but outside of all of that, it was a good day 

May 23rd  

Same old same old walking and talking with lots of people but it was a fun day. We had dinner with some members of our ward and they are the Buchanans and a super nice family. They have a daughter in the Kenawick Washington mission so I asked if their daughter knew Sister Atkinson (who is an awesome friend I grew up with and also was in my home church ward)  they said they would ask  her on her prep-day when they get to call. So super cool but overall a good day.

May 24th 

Sunday, golden day!  Our ward had an awesome sacrament meeting and also Abigail asked Elder Hunting to baptize her and asked if both of us would be in the Priesthood circle to confirm her a member of Christ's church and bestow her with the gift of the Holy Ghost. So super, super fun times ahead.  After church we had a ward potluck, we had lots of food and got to talk to all the members so that was super awesome. After that we did our weekly planning and ya not too much to talk about after that, but a good day . 

To learn more about the Holy Ghost, click here

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/holy-ghost-gift-study-guide?lang=eng

May 25th 

Man oh man, special day today! First off we had a lesson with Abigail and it was super awesome. We showed her the baptismal font and where she will go on the day of her baptism and went over the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Turns out that she loves sweet tea. It was a little hard for her to think about giving it up at the beginning of the lesson but at the end she was on board not to drink it at all. So it’s all good and then we asked her mom, Rachel, how she was doing on my covenant path and she said it was going good. She has been reading a lot,  so awesome. We also made a new friend named Johnny and he is a super awesome guy and we are teaching him on Thursday. After that we headed to dinner at a home of some of the members of our church.  It was an awesome dinner with the Thaka's, they are awesome people and after that we went to Claremore to start another exchange with our Zone leaders. But remember how I said my friend Sister Atkinson was in Kennewick Washington Mission?  well Sister Buchanan messaged us and said if its the same sister Atkinson I was talking about, her daughter is training her on the mission which was so cool to hear, small world 🌎

May 26th  

Chat we had a zone exchange and me and Elders Hunting, Byum and MacIntyre all cooked up 😎 i was in Skiatook with Elder MacIntyre and we cooked up big time and made a possible new friend.  Her name is Chloe. she was in a rush when we talked to her but asked if she would be interested in learning more of the BOM and she said yes and her and her husband have talked to both of us in the past so hopefully we can talk to her more. we had a lesson with devin and went over all 15 steps of the stop smoking workshop and he was committed to do it. pls keep him in your prayers to help him with this next week.  We had a meal with the Bair family from church and they are all awesome. they have 4 kids who are all goofy but so awesome and then we drove to Owasso to end our exchange and then drove back and I clocked out at 10:12 which is crazy idk how I was going to bed at 11:55 before my mission but such a fun week! 

Alright yall that's all I got for today and for anyone who did not get on my Google Photos last week to see I got a second mission call to continue my mission in the new Oklahoma Tulsa Mission! It's going to be awsome😎😎😎💰💰💰 but have a fabulous week and hope you all are safe in life bye bye for now 

Elder Saunders 

The Need for a Church | Dallin H. Oaks | October 2021 General Conference

Spiritual waterfalls

 Goooood morning and what is going on all you fabulous fine males and females! we are back at it again with another email from the blessed land of Skiatook Oklahoma!!!! 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

Much has happened- some crazy spiritual experiences have happened this week so let's get into it…y’all grab your popcorn, grab your treats and take a seat- let's begin… 

Google photos link ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://photos.app.goo.gl/42qxgw7eh8fMM1sZ8

Our mission has been growing so it will be soon splitting into two!  Watch me open a letter from my mission president to know what mission of Oklahoma I will be in! Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Mission or Oklahoma, Tulsa Mission

Address for any mail

 704 W 5th St, Skiatook, OK 74070

Scripture of the week

Man, the weekly spiritual thoughts have been lowkey slacking so I will try do better at this hahah 

But today I’ll share something from Thursday’s Zone Conference. Something I really loved was how personal the messages were to all of us missionaries. President Huffaker really expressed that it's important that we give it our all.  If we do only a half job at our work the Lord can only magnify our best efforts. He encouraged us to try to do a 100% job all the time but he also expressed how we are all different and our 100% might look different to someone else's 100% so it's important we don’t compare, just do what we can.  We are all working on our own journey and as we let go of our faults and let the Lord work with us, let Him guide us, we will be more centered in Him and feel the Holy Ghost more in our life.  Elder Ulisses Soares said, “I know that when the Lord sees even a spark of desire or a flicker of righteous effort in our willingness to center our lives on Him and on the ordinances and covenants we make in His house, He will bless us, in His perfect way, with the miracles and tender mercies we need” 

May 13th 

P-day was an awesome day, we started off the day going to a member of our ward's house and went into their home built sauna and it was so relaxing. Then we did a polar plunge. they had a little water tub that was super cold and man it was a shock! After we headed over to the play monopoly with the Lake Valley elders. Elder Hunting won again so we need to change that next time but after  that we just chilled at the house and watched The Chosen. overall a good day prep day. 

May 14th 

Man today was so spiritual. We had Zone Conference and it was so good to see other missionaries I haven’t seen in a bit.  I got to see my MTC companion Elder Stinson and it was so good to see him again. I also saw Elder Cook, Fonohema, Douglas and Bauder, the original squad in the gore zone and it was good to see everyone. We got to hear from Sister and President Huffaker and the APs and they all taught really good lessons. They talked a lot about our personal conversions and it was so good.  And then, after the zone conference, it was just a spiritual waterfall. 

First we called Devin and he told us how he had been having a bad day and he was saying a pray asking God for help and right as he said his prayer, we called him We read in 2 Nephi and he had not cried in a long time but he felt the Holy Ghost and said he was crying because he knew God was telling him He was aware of him and he wants to keep growing his relationship with God. (please pray for him, he wants to quit smoking)

After we talked to him, our friend Abigail's mom reached out to us asking for two Book of Mormons. Her dad and grandmother were wanting them and it was so cool to hear! but man what an amazing day. 

May 15th 

Friday was a good day 

We had a lesson with Devin and have been teaching Gods plan of salvation to him and he loved all of it. its clicking for him and he just loves having us over and we also gave him a priesthood blessing and he was overcome with joy and really wants to keep growing his relationship with God and he said we feel like real friends to him more than his actual friends. It's amazing how God can help those who seek him. 

We talked with some people who had been taught in the past by missionaries and we got to talk to a guy who does welding for the union and he said it's definitely worth doing for a little while because you get crazy money. We mostly knocked on doors and talked to people on the streets. Good day tho. 

May 16th 

Welp today we got bashed again by someone who believes differently and doesn’t know how to be civil about it 😆 but somehow I was calm and collected and honestly was surprised at what I said but it definitely was not fun 🙃  so luckily we got out with no bumps or scrapes.

We went to a small town called Havant and walked around there to talk to people  and met a guy named Dakota who is a absolute goat 🐐 He lives in Tulsa so it’s not our area but we gave him a card that has an address to the church in Tulsa and he said he would check it out . We also stopped to talk to a friend but he wasn’t there, we spoke to his wife and well, umm he may be in jail till next month soo ya but also stopped at a members house which was cool and overall all good day. 

May 17 

Well ladies and gentlemen some big stuff happened this glorious Sunday so let's do it– 

First off, church was awesome! Our friend Devin came to church, he was ready and waiting at his house for 20 minutes before his ride came and he was so happy to be at church- so much so he shed some tears so he definitely felt the love of God and the Holy Ghost.  It was awesome to see his smile the whole time. After church we headed back for lunch and I had two hotdogs hahah super good 🌭🌭 

After that we did our weekly planning and then headed to our member meal and we got to talk to the Mcdormans who are awesome. They have 3 kids and one of them is working towards a mission!!! 🎊🪅🎉 We had a super fun time and taught an amazing lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ and after that headed to the small town of Vera. There we walked around looking for people to teach. We talked to kid named Wyatt and gave him a BOM ( book of mormon) and then I got a email from President Huffaker and for those of you who don't  know the Oklahoma mission has grown so much that it is being split into two missions (Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Mission) and (Oklahoma Tulsa Mission) so this email I got was a letter telling me where I will serve my mission for the Lord going forward and if you want to know where I am going you will have to ( go to my Google photos album and watch the video of me reading my letter)  I know where I am going but you will have to watch but over all a good day. 

May 18th 

Well Monday was a little slow. We just did a lot of knocking on doors and walking. Elder Davis joined us for the day, he us a service missionary here in Skiatook okc and we had a blast. We tried to cook enchiladas but failed miserably 😢 it's ok.  Then we went to bible study at the church and man what a great discussion we had. We covered how important it is that we give it our all as we follow Christ. You are either all in with Him and obey all His commandments or you don't follow one or more of them and you can't be with Him but over all a good day.  So grateful for Jesus Christ and His atonement so that we can repent every day as we work toward following Him perfectly.

May 19th

Man what a good day! To start off the day we almost got struck by lightning so that was fun. Watched a barn catch fire 🔥,  had to sit under a tree for a lesson while it rained, such a fun. Day. 😆🙃😆🙃 

First off we had a lesson with Devin and we finished teaching God’s Plan of Salvation and he basically is so committed to quit smoking its so awsome, pls keep him in your prayers. we all have matching dog tag necklaces that say ( Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) After the lesson we came back to the apartment and changed in our suit pants and grabbed our suit coats and headed to teach Abigail.  We taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to her and she loves it so much.  Abigail has the strongest testimony I have ever seen in a 8 year old and fun fact-she is reading high school level reading which is crazy. I was not reading like that at 18 let alone 8. We told her we may leave around June 10th,  Elder Hunting will be moving because he is staying in the Oklahoma, oklahoma city mission.  It was so cute, she was so sad to hear it she started crying. She truly has loved being taught by us and so we scheduled her baptism for June 9th of 2026. We are so excited to continue teaching her and she is ready for baptism! Afterwards, we headed to Tulsa to have our interviews with President Huffaker and we had an awesome conversation together and just talked about some questions that I had that were a little personal to me so I will not share in this email, but definitely were some things I needed to talk to him about and have just helped me further direct myself in life.

After that we headed home for the day. It was an amazing day. 

Well folks thats all for this week hopefully you all have a great rest of your week and hope life is happy as always see you on the next one!

Elder Saunders 

My first tornado

​Good morning and what is up all you fine males and females! Back here again with another awesome email from beautiful Oklahoma and man I’m loving it here!  This past week was a good one,  we had our ups and downs but over all a good week so let's get into to it..

May 6th 

P-day was so awesome. We went and got a cool belt buckle from a thrift shop for 5 bucks. We also got our groceries at Walmart and we got a monopoly game which we played at the library  later when we met up with the elders from the Lake Valley area.  Elder Hunting absolutely destroyed all of us in the game. It was fun to be with the other elders whose names are elder Divall and elder Ricks. They are super cool and fun to be around. After that we went to the youth activities  night at church and all the youth gave me the nickname elder sandwich and also elder sandy soooo ya- there we go. They are all super crazy and funny, I love the ward here. We also saw our friend Devon there and he had such a fun time being there so that's good for him.  overall a good day. 

May 7th 

Was another chill day today we had a lesson with our friend Sophia and her aunt, uncle, brother and grandma and they badly want her to be baptized but she is waiting for her dad right now to be worthy to have the priesthood to baptize her so pray that as we continue to teach her she can do the things she can to be ready for when her dad can baptize her.

May 8th 

Well folks,I  had my first tornado!  I was taking pictures during it out in the rain. We were with a family from church and we were right next to a tornado shelter just in case things got too dicey but we didn’t need to go in it. It was crazy to hear the sirens and see the weather turn from sunny to absolute crazy like that but afterwords we just biked in the rain 😆 I enjoyed the whole of it.  

May 9th 

Unfortunately not much happened on this day, just a normal day in the life of a missionary— lots of biking, walking and talking to everyone.  

May 10th 

My favorite day of the week, Sunday!!  I have grown to love church even more and enjoy partaking of the Lord’s sacrament more. You truly don't realize how much the mission can change you till you’re 3 transfers in and see how far you have come.  church was awesome,  I sang in a church choir for mother’s day and got to hear some amazing talks and it was all so good.  In class we talked a lot about following God's commandments and we can't call ourselves followers of Christ if we don't fully commit to his commandments and Strive to repent when we have our shortcomings. I got to FaceTime and talked with my mom too. It was a great day. 

May 11th 

I had an exchange and I went to the town of Claremore, ok and man it's such a beautiful area.  I was with the Zone leader Elder Byum, he is from Alberta Canada.  We had an awesome time together, had some deep conversations and also met some cool people. I had some crazy spicy hot candy that people in Oklahoma call cowboy candy.  It was comprised of three crazy hot peppers with a candy flavor liquid. I could not tell you what it is and I took 3 spoonfuls and it was super good and for 1 minute it was crazy hot but after that I was good.  I got told I can officially roll with the big dogs 😎😎😎. We also had a good lunch at Braums and it was so good,  over all a sigma day 

May12th 

Welp not much today,  we did a lot of knocking on doors and yeah,  slow day today sadly but its ok not every day can be sunshine and rainbows 

Well folks thats all for this week hopefully y’all have a wonderful week and enjoy it! send me emails to read. I love hearing what's going on in y’alls lives. 

Elder Saunders, Baunders, Sandwich, Sandy 

Google photos link ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://photos.app.goo.gl/42qxgw7eh8fMM1sZ8

Also send me graduation cards, I want to have them so I can see all my amazing friends who are graduating!  

Here is my address 

704 W 5th St. 

Skiatook, OK 74070

Skiatook has me took

Good morning and what is up all you fine males and females! I hope you all are crushing it and are doing good. currently i am in Skiatook, Oklahoma and feels just like West Haven, Utah-  except no mountains. Low-key, thinking of living here after my mission. The church ward is so, so awesome here and everyone is so nice and so much has happened so let's get into the nitty gritty… 

New address: I'm in a house, not an apartment!! ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

                                                                        704 W 5th St,

                                                                   Skiatook, OK 74070

Hop on my Google photos to see the tour of our lovely house in Skiatook ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://photos.app.goo.gl/42qxgw7eh8fMM1sZ8

All that are graduating, I would love to have a graduation announcement sent to me if you still have any. can't wait to see all who are graduating! 

March 28th 

Short and simple- we just packed all day and we called and visited our friends and said our goodbyes and told them they would have new missionaries teaching them and we had a dinner with our friend Chuck. he took us to Olive Garden and it was sad to say goodbye but he was happy to see us going where the Lord needs us to go.  

March 29  transfer day!!!! 

Well the day started off good then some problems arose. We got to the “pen” building -the gathering spot for the OKC missionaries before they transfer companions and areas, and I sadly said goodbye to my “dad” Elder Siddoway who is going on to train again before his mission is complete and probably saw him for the last time.  Got my keys for my car and was waiting for the elder I was supposed to travel to the Tulsa stake center with but he ended up not coming to the pen building. So the first problem was we had to find someone to go with me to the tulsa stake.  luckily I got someone to go. Second, there was no SIM card in my phone and we thought my new companion, Elder Hunting had the SIM but after we got all the way to Tulsa we learned that Elder Hunting didn’t have the SIM card either.  sooooo we were cooked and it turns out it was still back at the pen building so we had to go to Skiatook with no sim card which was fire. I want to live here so bad, unfortunately idk how my mother would feel she might be sad if I’m so far away but it's cheaper to live here- food and gas are cheaper too so everything makes me want to live here. So overall all loving it here and love my new companion Elder Hunting. 

March 30th

We woke up and did our comp study  and then headed to a member's house to use their phone since we had no sim card to call anyone and we called the AP ( assistant to the mission president) and we planned to have them drop it off at our house so with that we went back to our house and did personal study and it was super sigma. After that we went and walked around for a little bit. We talked to some people and asked if we could share scriptures. We found these three kids and shared Alma 32:21-22 -21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

22 And now, behold, I say unto you, and I would that ye should remember, that God is merciful unto all who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea, even on his word. --they are good scriptures and one of the kids really liked what I shared and said, “thanks- it was what I needed to hear today.”  After,  we went and had lunch 😋 with a member who took us to and amazing BBQ restaurant called Mac's BBQ  -there is a hat there I plan to buy when the time comes. One small goal I have is to collect one hat in every area I serve so I have a small memory of where I have been. At Mac’s i had the most amazing ham in my life. Then we headed back to our house to get the SIM card and we ran into the APs Elder Cunningham  and Elder Huffaker. Super good to see them. once we had all we needed, we went to teach our boy Devon. He is super cool and we had a good lesson. He wants to grow closer to God and we enjoy talking to him. After that it was a pretty chill day. No drama, just good missionary work. 

May 2nd

To all the graduates this year for 2026 you're so close! Happy soon to be graduated!!!! 

Well today we did a lot of door knocking and we got to talk to some cool people. We also had some not so nice people 🙃 but thats ok. they can be not very nice poopy heads, God loves them no matter what. We also biked all day and it was good to do that. Elder Hunting and I are goofballs together but we work super hard together too so it's such a fun time. We also went to a crazy nice hood in Skiatook and knocked on the doors and had some fun conversations with people but most were not interested in learning more about the gospel. We taught a lesson to a members grandkids and it was super awesome, we also had dinner at a taco fast food and we also met a girl working there named Lily and she was talking to the member and said she was looking for a church to attend so we went over and gave her a card with our number and the address and time for church and invited her to come. She said she would consider it so hopefully she will come Sunday. 

March 3rd 

Well today was a good day. We started off our day getting ready and headed off to church at the Skiatook church building. It is so cool and the ward is so loving and welcoming. I want to literally live here and had an amazing time getting to know everyone. We had a good testimony meeting today after which me and Elder Hunting decided to join the ward choir so that will be fun. We are singing on Mothers Day.  

After church we headed home and did our weekly planning. It was so good and I had such a good time and we then tried to fix my bike but popped the tube that we bought sadly but we fixed it I think. Anyways after that we had dinner and then came back a chilled at the house 

March 4th

Well today I popped my bike tube again  2nd time in a row sooooo that's just dandy. I had to go get another tube for my bike but I got it changed quickly so that was good.  We then had two lessons- one with our friend Devon and we taught the gospel to him and all of it likened for him he is still struggling with a few things but wants to make the changes to be worthy to be baptized so pls pray for him.  After Devon we taught our friend Abigail. She is 8 years old and funny and her mom is a recent member who started coming back to church. Abigail loved our little plan of salvation puzzles we made for her and she was so happy to see us she ran up to us and said, it's the missionaries! Which was super cool. After that we had a bible study at the church and talked about last week's come follow me which was super good to hear. After all this, headed home for the day 

March 5th 

Today was definitely not the most exciting day but we did meet a super cool member of our church named Brother Colegrove.  He has been in jail but recently got his membership back and he saw us walking, parked in the middle of the street and asked for a blessing. so on the tailgate of his truck we gave him a blessing. He then offered to drop us back off at our house for lunch. He has a super cool 4th gen Ram 2500  that is EGR deleted and sounds super cool ( if you know what that means, you know what that means) it sounded like a jet airplane, it is super loud! he is super cool to talk to.  His daughter is someone the missionaries have been teaching but she won't get baptized because she is waiting for her dad to become worthy to receive the priesthood to baptize her which is so cool. And it’s cool to see brother Colgrove's commitment to wanting to baptize his daughter. After that we just did a lot of biking and burned 4,000 calories. We have an exercise tracking app and added all our time biking so that's super cool. After all that, I made cookies and we had noodles for dinner, definitely not the most healthy dinner. 

Well that's all for today folks hope y'all have a great rest of the week-- can't wait to see those graduation cards!