Good morning all you fabulous males and females. I hope you have had an amazing week so far and are
all doing so well. The scriptures of the week are 2 NEPHI 2:22-25 read it!!!!!! Download the
gospel library app on the app store and find it :)
Well today was my weekly mission preparation day, p-day for short. And just to give a little information.
I write me email letters throughout the week and send it out Wednesday morning so you never hear me
say anything about p day till the next week hopefully that makes sense.
Now let's get into writing, to start off the email me and Elder Douglas along with the Muskogee Spanish
speaking elders Buck and Muscoso went to the Muskogee county fair and watched the heifer and steer
livestock showing and it was super fun to watch. It brought back memories to when I did livestock showing.
I would show lambs how I miss it so much but I have fun memories with all my friends who made it all
worth it to do. At the show we got to talk to some people from church, the Brileys whose granddaughter
was showing a steer. Sadly her steer was not being so nice and was getting jumpy. She placed second so
good job but it is unfortunate when your animal does the exact opposite of what you want it to do.
Sometimes we as humans do the exact opposite of what God wants so a Savior was needed and we can
repent because of Jesus Christ's atonement. The Brileys got us some pretzels to all share and they were good.
Eventually we had to leave but I enjoyed being in an environment I love. Hopefully when I'm a dad my kids
will want to show livestock and when I'm a grumpy old man I will have grandkids that show livestock. its so
much fun and is such a good skill to develop. The discipline of how to have the will to train with your animal
you are going to show in the ring and to keep working every day even when it gets hard. Just like any talent
takes time to develop and get good at, our spiritual talent to be in Tune with the Holy Ghost ( a member
of the God head) is something we develop and grow as we get older and tune our will with God’s. We need
to treat ourselves like a temple and do things to invite the Spirit into our lives. Alma 24:8 says ( and behold
I thank my great God that has given us a portion of his spirit to soften our hearts) that scripture is powerful!
As we chose to listen and not let worldly things get in our way we can feel Christ's love and feel Him reaching
out His hand inviting us to follow Him. I do testify that as you all do this you will see the truths and the power
of God as He fills your heart with comfort, humility and peace. After the fair we went to a local rancher store
where we got some black wrangler jeans since here in Oklahoma we have permission to wear them and I also
got a rope so me and elder Douglas can rope together. After that we just chilled and went to a few other
stores and looked around.
February 14th
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope you all have a blessed day, we had another chill day. In our personal time,
me and Elder Douglas have been roping everyday with a custom roping dummy made out of a piano chair-works
great! Our goal is to be good enough so when we get home from our mission we could enter team roping for fun.
We also helped a younger girl by the name Mya who was moving out of her parents house. Her family helped
us take her stuff to an apartment 10 minutes away from their home, we got done fast.
February 15th
Well today was another day at church! Pray for me and Elder Douglas, its been a little hard to find people to
teach since we started a new mission area. Pray for Jerry too. He is super nice and fun to talk to but we did
not get a lot of time to talk to him yesterday when he came to church. I have cut out a bunch of food and
eat low calorie foods and my breakfast consisted of a single protein drink and a chewy chocolate chip granola
bar and I have already felt gains. I do 20 push ups every morning, lunch time and before bed for small exercise
and burn about 2000 to 3000 calories a day. I'm pretty sure I have lost somewhere from 5-10 lbs i think, and
I feel good. I eat at most 2000 calories in a day so gains are happening people. My goal is to lose 30 lbs by the
end of the mission, my companion has done it, he started his mission at 207lbs and is now at 170lbs so as long
as I lock in on my diet I can do it 💪
February 16th
What a day it has been so much has happened and the spirit was with us today. Today we had a Zone exchange
and I was put with Elders Lowe and Hayphen and we made a goal to make 4 new friends and we actually made 6
friends. Before we started, we prayed to ask for guidance and to feel any promptings from the Spirit as we biked
around. After we prayed we biked for a bit we actually went past the original turn we wanted but I felt prompted
to go knock on a house down the road. There we met a pretty cool guy named George. We shared who we are a
s missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and why we chose to make the sacrifices to serve
for God. He then asked questions about how the Book of Mormon came to be about and we were able to give
him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read it and pray to know if it’s true. man I felt the spirit there so strong
and cant wait to hear what he thinks.
Then we met Dominique and he was so happy we came to talk to him . He talked to us about how he had made
some poor choices growing up and he had 8 kids most of which have different moms but he wanted to start
turning his life around and be an example to his kids and wants to have God back in his life so we gave him a
Book of Mormon. He was so happy to get it and was so happy when we invited him to church, He said he doesn't
have money for gas but if we found him a ride he would love to come, we also said a prayer with him before we
left and I’m so excited to meet him at church as well.
After him we met Joseph and we ran into him working in his yard cleaning his shed. He had had a hip replacement
from a terrible accident and we asked if we could clean it out for him and he felt it was an answer to his prayers
for help. We shared him our love of Jesus Christ and shared about the Book of Mormon as another witness of
Christ and he wants to come to church. He was not going to let anything stop him coming so I'm so excited to
see him there. PS we are giving him a Book of Mormon as well
After Joseph we met a man named Leeks, he is a minister of a different religion but wants to talk about how our
churches have both the same and opposite beliefs and he said he believes in God giving revelation and said
when he prays if he feels its true he wants to learn more. We also gave him a Book of Mormon.
We met a guy named Billy who is a priest of a different religion. He also wants to talk to us and see how our
religions have similarities and opposites and also loved how we go out and preach Gods good word so God bless
him!
Our last guy was unexpected but the most powerful experience I have ever had! His name is Tyler and he was
outside with his daughter Hadlie and we talked with him and he immediately said he knew that God had sent
us to him. He said how for the past week he wanted to change himself and the way his family was going about
life. He wants to be the best father and husband he can since his parents were not good parents and led him
down a bad path and he wants to change and he believes he needs God in his life. He wants to learn all he can
so he can set an example to his daughter and is so excited to come to church Sunday. His wife unfortunately
works so she cant come but he has such a strong desire he is going to come with his daughter. His desire to
change and become better and learn about God truly strengthened my testimony. Our previous prophet had a
talk called Decisions for Eternity. In it President Nelson said, “ We can change our behavior. Our very desires
can change. How? There is only one way. True change—permanent change—can come only through the
healing, cleansing, and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He loves you—each of you! He
allows you to access His power as you keep His commandments, eagerly, earnestly, and exactly. It is that
simple and certain. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of change!”
Today we gave out a total of 5 Book of Mormons to people and 3 for sure want to attend church so the Lord was
with us today magnifying our efforts. After we got to the truck we said a prayer and thanked God for everything
He did for us. Today God works miracles and puts certain people in our lives at the right place and right time.
I believe we needed to be where we were to meet every one of them today and through Christ, if we strive to
follow Him and make covenants with Him that He has asked us to make and to pray and repent when we make
mistakes and to try better each day and endure through the hardships, we will be blessed forever even after our
time here on earth. I also have gotten so much better talking to people. If my MTC District is reading this we all
know what I would do with my journal when I saw other missionaries- if you know you know- but I have taken
that same bold attitude and applied it here and I love talking to people. Even when they just say no and close
the door on me I don't look at that in a bad way, I look at it from the perspective that I need to try harder and
talk to more people. We can always find the positives in life even at the lowest points in life we can find the
positive. Sometimes we need to fight through the hard times to get to the end and at the end it is so amazing
and blessed.
February 17th
I heard my first gun shots!!!!! No idea where they came from but we heard them in the distance.
Don't worry we were not even near where it happened.
Today was full of highs and lows- to start we had another exchange with the District leaders
Elder Cook and Elder Baunder and I was put with Elder Cook and it was good to talk to him.
We both shared similar struggles we had to fight through to be able to be a worthy missionaries
but he helped me understand some important things and gave me some good questions I need
to search for while i'm here on a mission. We later ran into a man named Tony who was painting,
he said he has been shot many times but God still had Him down here for a reason. Unfortunately
we were running late to a lesson so we gave him a card about our church and asked if we could
come back later and talk to him more and he said he would like that. May God bless him. After we
went to Dominique I taught my first lesson to someone. It was nothing like they when we taught
at the MTC lol but that's OK. I felt the spirit there as we taught and I could tell he loved it as well
and invited him to read a few verses in the Book of Mormon and he said he would. We then walked
to Joseph's house and he never answered. We later saw him outside and went to talk to him.
He was not feeling good at all and you could hear it in his voice but he said if he felt good for Sunday
he would still come to church. After we went to Tyler, sadly he never answered we knocked a few
times and his wife eventually shouted they were not interested and asked us to leave. We told her
Tyler had asked us to meet with him at that time but she said he was asleep from a hard day at work
so we had to leave so please have Tyler in your prayers that we can teach him and pray that he will
come to church with his daughter and also that his wife will soften her heart so we can teach all of them.
Shout outs for this email --my friend Carrie berry got her mission call to Winnipeg Canada and that is
so exciting and i'm so happy for her, good luck out there bring back some maple syrup
Also a shout out to my friend Megan who got her mission call to Las Vegas West mission, excited for
her as well.
Also my friend Lexie started her new job this week so I'm happy for her. Hopefully all goes well.
Pls email me with life updates, Ii love reading what yall have to say and I am pretty good at emailing
back, if you have any questions for me pls feel free to ask away
Well that's all for today everyone, keep doing good in your life. God loves all of you and is happy when
we strive to do good in our hearts. Anyone who is wondering what they want to do after school, go on
a mission! It will change your life forever -pray about it, read the scriptures and go to the temple.
God will guide you to where you need to go.
Have a good rest of your week!
link to the talk mentioned above...Decisions for Eternity-Russell M Nelson
