A trip to the hospital

Hello,
From what seemed like a previously uneventful week turned into a very, very eventful week. Don't react badly because of the subject line, nothing bad happened to me, haha.

Thanksgiving

Everyone,
Happy Thanksgiving! It was a great week out here in Idaho, except for the fact that most of our appointments cancelled because people were out of town. Glad that everyone had a good thanksgiving and now that the Christmas season is upon us, that everyone continues to have a ton of fun. I'll have more to write about next week.

Fun Ice and painful Hail

Hello,
I ran out of time for emailing so it will be a lot of condensed information, enjoy!

Thanksgiving in Spanish

Hola,
We had a lot of stuff happen this past week, which included some new investigators, some progress with those we're already working with, and just a lot of fun that Elder Wheelock and I are having in this area. It's been great to serve here 4 months already, and see the Hand of Lord so often in this work.

A Slower Week

Hello,
I kinda ran out of time today, so here's what happened in the past week. 

Sick Days: Elder Wheelock came down with a bug that just drained him of energy and so while he was resting I got a lot of extra time to watch Church Videos and to study the scriptures. The Lord has a will and it is what helps us grow into the people He needs us to be. Patience is a virtue, and despite the slowness of the week we still had a miracle. One night, I looked through the Potential Investigators that we had for Spanish and all of the ones that we have a phone number for. One of the people we called was a brother of another past Potential Investigator that had read the Book of Mormon and was ready for the Gospel. He was contacted about 5 years ago and there were no updates. I gave him a call and he still lived here, was willing to meet with us, and now we have an appointment for this Tuesday. Miracles.

The Basics

Hello,
It was a good week. It went by fast. This is how it went.

Transfer Day: So this past week was transfers, and despite neither of us transferring we needed to go and help out with the transportation of some missionaries in the Zone. It started at about 10:45 and went until about 6 because of a lot of stuff that happened. First we needed to take the luggage of some elders moving into an apartment in our area who didn't have a car, then we waited for the rest of the missionaries to get down the transfer train (the bus that carries all of the transferring missionaries). 

Busy Week of Miracles

Hello,
This is my week, hope you enjoy. Things are picking up in speed again. We have already reached the end of another transfer and nothing is happening. I'll be here for at least another 6 weeks with Elder Wheelock as my companion.

Just a tad sore

Hello Everyone,
This was an interesting week full of surprises, and the day of most surprises was Saturday. All in all though, i felt like I was writing yesterday, so here's my week.

Ups and Downs, building Patience

Hey there Everyone, we had a super busy week, but it was a good one.

The Family History Center: So one of the people that we met last week was Ryan, who was Irish. This Wednesday we went with him to the Family History Center, and he loved it. He connected one side of his family and loved looking through their history. We had to leave before being able to teach much, so we planned on visiting him on Friday. We did, and we found him outside just as we were walking to his house. After talking to him and teaching him a little bit, he admitted that he was a Less Active member, and then we found out he wasn't interested in coming back or meeting with us to be taught. He did say he'll go back to the family history center though, because he loved it. And that we'll see him around. It was sad to hear, but we'll find more people that are ready.

General Conference

This week just flew on by, it seems that I was just emailing yesterday. If you have any requests for what to put in my emails, please ask away. I don't want to make it get old or routine after a good amount of time. This week was amazing and it was mainly focused on General Conference, but here's about that and a few other points.

A dog that does bite

This week was super eventful. one of the main things was the sudden drop in temperature. It went down from 90's to 40's in about 2 days, so my reacted badly at first but I am not acclimating. Winter is starting again, which means thermals, coats, long sleeve shirts, wool socks, boots, gloves, hats, and hand warmers. Here's some of the highlights from the week.

Miracles and Food

Antolin: So this was an amazing miracle in this past week. On Wednesday night, my last night being with Elder Chojnacki, we got home and were about to go in for the night, when we thought to check the mail. So we go and check the mail, and then look across the street because we just got junk mail and saw someone fixing and working on their car. We felt to walk over and start talking to him, so we did. The only thing that we were able to help with was holding a light while he fixed it, and it started and worked. He then suddenly told us his story and his situation. His name was Antolin, he is in his 20's. He was baptized a member of the church when he was 8, but a year or two later when his mom left the church he went inactive. His dad told us to just get religious, and he wants to come back to church. 

Transfers

Everyone,
This past week was really really amazing. There were just 3 major parts that stood out from the week, so here it is.

Hay on a Saturday

Hello,
Here it is.

Wyatt and Adam: So last Tuesday we had an interesting lesson with some of our main investigators, Adam and Wyatt. So they have been progressing really well, but we had a funny surprise. When we asked them on Tuesday what the Spirit was, because we were talking about receiving an answer if the Book of Mormon was true, they answered with all three members of the Godhead. So we had to back pedal quite a bit, and we taught about that this past Friday, and for the lesson on Tuesday taught what the scriptures were agian. Because they are younger, 9 and 12, and don't have the greatest attention span, they were 'paying attention',  but not retaining too much of it. 

Fishing

Heriberto and the Visitor's Center: So this past week, we had a lesson with Heriberto on Thursday. The plan was to pick him up and go to the visitor's center with one of the branch missionaries for the Spanish branch. So we get to the VC, about 10 minutes late, and they gave the theater over to someone else. So we sat in the Witnesses of Christ room and watched an old conference talk in Spanish and discussed it. Then on Saturday we tried for the second time. With the Salazar's, we drove to the VC again, and we were able to watch the videos. the videos were "Days of Harmony" and "Day for the Eternities". They teach about the translation about the Book of Mormon, and the coolest thing that I hadn't noticed before was about what Joseph and Oliver did at one point. They had to get out of Harmony, and they felt impressed to write a letter to the Whitmer family and ask to stay at their home to finish the translation. It might've offended them, and it was probably scary, but they still did it and the Lord prepared a way for His work to be completed. It was great for Heriberto too, the major things that stood out to him was the faith in Christ that these people had. 

Zone Conference with 70's

Everyone,
This past week was pretty awesome. We had so many cool things happen, and I'm grateful to be serving God right here in Idaho. I'll get right into it.

Week 2 in Ammon

So I am running out of time this week, but it was a pretty amazing week. I have become a lot more accustomed to the new Area and to my new companion, and there is a lot of work and progress that the stake can make. 

Surprises in Ammon

Hello Everyone,

This past week was really really crazy, but those are the best weeks. I was tired at the end of every day and we were already able to see some miracles from this area. Here are some of the main surprising things that happened, some not so much, in my new area. I know this is the work of God, otherwise it just wouldn't work out like it does.

Transfers and Change

So this week is the week of transfers and I received news. To find out what that news is, if you don't want to go through the entire email, you can go down to where it says Transfers. It was a pretty wonderful week, and some crazy things happened. A lot happened because of the meeting that I talked about last week. Because of that Exchanges were amazing, District Meeting was fantastic, and Transfers are very exciting for some change in the mission and in my mission.

Finding of the Elect

Hello Everyone.

This past week was pretty great, especially this past weekend. A lot of what happened was from Friday on in the week, but the days before that were great as well, just not the most important things to try and fit into this email. This is the last full week before transfers, so by next Monday I'll know what is going to happen to me. These past 5 weeks have gone by really fast, and it has been great serving with Elder South. Send in your guesses of what will happen and by next Monday when I'm able to see, I'll tell everyone who was right (kinda like guessing for a mission call opening). Hopefully reading these emails helps to invite the spirit, and because of the spirit and the love of God, y'all will be able to have a wonderful week!

The Power of God

This past week was pretty amazing, and there were some tings that just made is spectacular, and one of the reasons being that it kinda all centered around Christ and his Priesthood. It has been amazing to serve here. I'll just get right into it.

Zone Conference and the Holy Ghost

Hey everyone, this past week had a couple of weird days mixed in with some normal ones, but it has just been amazing. Elder South and I are getting along really well and working hard, and the weeks are just flying by. Hope that everyone has a good week, and if you would like to be added to my weekly email list or taken off of it, just let me know. Here we go.

Dog on the loose

This past week was really really exciting. Hopefully everyone had a wonderful week, and to everyone reading the blog post and not only the email (meaning all of the scoresbys who know my every transfer and location and spread that information around the town), continue reading and send me an email if you would like to. This transfer is already going by really fast and that is because the work is starting to pick up bit by bit. Thank you all so much for all that you do, all of you, and hopefully y'all have a wonderful week.

New Comp and New District

Hello,
I'm running out of time and so this email will have to be pretty fast. Hope that everything that I feel I should write will make it down. Here we go.

Transfers: So Wednesday was the day of transfers. Elder Velarde finished packing up and we headed to the transfer site to send him off. It was a little sad to see him go, but it's for the best. It is crazy how close you get with people when you struggle and work hard right alongside them. After he drove away, I went with Elder Syring (a good friend in the mission), because we had another appointment that I needed to be at. After having that appointment fall through, we tried some other people in the area. Elder Syring came out with me in the field and he served in this branch before I did, so it was cool for him to serve for a short time in one of his old areas. After getting some lunch we headed back and I got my new companion, Elder South. He is from the Dallas, Texas area and has been out for about 6 months. He was previously serving in Salmon, and now he is with me. It's strange to have a new companion again, but it seems that we get along well and that we will be able to work hard in this upcoming week. The rest of the day was great, with some good appointments and Elder South getting to know some people in the wards.

Transfers!!!

Hello,
So this week is transfers, and things are changing up, but looking on this past week here is some news. It was pretty exciting and things are progressing really well working with the members and teaching the people we already know.

Olivas: We had two lessons with the Olivas this past week. On Tuesday I was on splits with a member of the ward, Brother Nukaya. We went and taught the Olivas, and Izzy's older brother was there. He has been through a really tough time and Izzy invited him to join in on the lesson. We reviewed and taught again the role of the Book of Mormon in conversion while reading through the introduction and when we read the paragraph of "We invite all men", Alan, the brother, said that those words just made him feel something amazing and just spoke to him. He is moving to Boise, but for when he is taught over there, he is absolutely ready to hear the gospel. Then our next lesson was this past Saturday where we had breakfast with the fellowshipper family, the Buxton's. We had pancakes, others had eggs, and then we had our lesson. We taught more of the commandments, including the 10 commandments, Keeping the Sabbath day holy, and talking about receiving answers to our questions. Izzy has been expecting a huge answer to come, but has not focused on if he has already received lots of small ones. He and his family have completely changed, they have been much more like Christ and just radiate with the spirit. We have a lesson tonight with them, and he is getting baptized the first of July!!!!

The Soda Fridge Miracle

A lot happened this past week, and it flew by. This week will be pretty calm, but the week after that there will be a lot of changes. It has been wonderful being companions with Elder Velarde and serving on the west side of Idaho Falls, but there is always change. Hope y'all had a wonderful week!

District Meeting: This past district meeting was amazing. The whole district that we have are all wonderful missionaries, but it was a very spiritually uplifting district meeting. It started out with learning more about obedience, and how obedience to the Lord through the Commandments, Mission Rules, and the counsel of your Mission President, and about how it doesn't always seem to make a difference in the work. It is not about what we see, or the results or the blessings that are given and shown before we act in faith, but it is about following the will of God, whatever that may be. One of the talks that really taught this in the past general conference was the talk by Elder Whitney L. Clayton "Whatever He Saith unto You, Do It". It is mainly about obedience, without thought of the evidence, but because we want to follow God. That is how we have and grow faith. Then we had a training on the Work of Salvation and Oval Chart. One of the things that has helped us work with leaders and help them follow the revelation for how to work together as members and missionaries is all found on the website for LDS.org under the Work of Salvation. It is amazing and the videos that are on there are super powerful. The district is wonderful, and as one of the MLS Senior couples said, the Gospel and the Principles never change, it's we who change and decide whether to follow them or not.

The Idaho Falls Temple

This past week I had a wonderful week, and it was really focused on the temple, which was amazing. The time is flying by and it is amazing to serve here in Idaho Falls. Thank you for all of your emails, prayers, and support. It is amazing to have all of it on the mission, and I pray that you can build your testimony in our Savior and serve God in all ways that He has asked us. Little bit of a shorter email this week, but the next one will be longer.

Forget Yourself and go to Work!

This past week was a lot of ups and downs and a big learning experience for me. The time is flying by and there are about three weeks until transfers, and I might move out of this area for good, so we'll be working hard on getting everything we need to do, done. It was a wonderful week.

George: This past Tuesday we had a lesson with George, our investigator, at the home of our bishop in tone of our English wards. It was an amazing experience and the spirit was there strongly. This bishop was one of the eternal investigators before he joined the Church, and it was a real struggle and change in his life to learn and accept the Gospel.

The Gathering of Mine Elect

This past week was wonderful, and next week is going to be amazing. The temple open house has come to a close here in Idaho Falls, and we have Zone Conference this upcoming Wednesday, so it will be an exciting week. Thank you for your emails and for your constant support!

Olivas: We had two appointments with the Olivas family. The first one was the first half of the plan of salvation and after we taught up to the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it is the center of the plan of salvation and the thing that holds it all together, it got wayyy off topic. It wasn't bad, but it was unexpected. It got into a discussion on Tattoos and piercings, along with obedience, and then their 3 year old needed a priesthood blessing, so we gave him one.

Go Ye Forth Into All The World

This past week was great, and it was mostly divided up into the last days of the week, and those were the most exciting and the most busy and crazy of all of the days of the week. Happy Mother's day to all, and have a wonderful week.

The Doctrine of Christ: During this past week my studies and the things that we have taught have been focused back on our purpose as missionaries. It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. In this past week I have studied a lot on faith, and we had something amazing happen.

Temples

Happy Tuesday. It's one day late, but this is my weekly email today because I took a temple trip. Next week will be Monday, just like normal. Hope that everyone has a wonderful week!

Exchanges: Going out of order for everything that happened this week, but one of the interesting things was Exchanges with the Elders that are serving in Arco. It started Friday night, when we had to drive up halfway to Arco just to switch.

Good view of the talks

Hello Everyone,

This week, most happened on a day basis, so that is pretty much how this week will turn out in the format for emails. hope that everyone is enjoying the end of the school year throughout Georgia, and that everyone has great plans for summer. Here it goes... 

Miracles

This past week was amazing.

Temple Open House and Monday Miracles: So last Monday was absolutely amazing. The first cool thing that happened was just talking to people about the gospel while we were shopping in Walmart. Then we met up at the North Stake Center to go on the temple open house tour. It was VIP tour that someone we met invited us to go on with a lot of Hispanics that he knows. The tour started with a 10 minute video explaining about each of the different rooms in the temple and giving an overview about what goes on in a Mormon Temple. Then we went through each of the major rooms.

Novel of IF week 10

This was a great, fast, big, exciting week. Here y'all go, and please email me with any questions and just to let me know how everything is going on the home front.

Donna: So we had the last appointment with Donna that we are going to have for a while. On Monday night we went to the visitor's center and watched the two new movies about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One is called Days of Harmony, and the other is Day for the Eternities, about the translation of the Book of Mormon, the Restoration of the Priesthood, the Calling of the three and eight witnesses, and the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. After we watched this movie we continued with a lesson, and she told us something. After a lot of discussion we finally figured out what was going on. She told us that she knows all of the information, of Prophets and Apostles, of the Restoration, of the Book of Mormon, but it is all in her head, and it hasn't moved down to her heart. She told us that she is not ready to take action because it hasn't moved down into her heart. She knows the truth, but does not believe it, and because she does not have a sincere heart, she will not at this time receive an answer of the truthfulness of the Gospel.

With all your heart brethren--believe

Hey y'all, this week was pretty good, and the spiritual power that come into the work was just amazing. Hope every has a wonderful week this week.

P-Day: Last P-day was great. We all played Chair Soccer and peppered a volleyball for a little bit before we headed out to have dinner. The exciting one is today. We found a bass and we just need to find a bow, but today I will get to play the bass. Woot woot! I'll take a video and send some pictures for next week. The Zone all came to the activity, except for one companionship of Sisters, and we all had fun, despite some of us not being in work out clothes to play the game.

Genearl Conference April 2017

Here's the week. I hope everyone is doing well and that with the school year coming to a close for college, and spring break for high school, that everyone is excited for a break. Maybe there will be more time to email people on missions. This week was great, I'll get right into it.

It's a long one...

Hey Everyone,
Quite a lot happened in the past week, so this is going to be a little bit long of a letter, but it's a good one (hopefully). Hope that everyone had a great week. For us here, everyone was on spring break this past week, and it didn't seem to change the effectiveness of our proselyting, which was awesome. I continually pray for you all, and hope that you are doing well around the world.

My Purpose as a Missionary is to...

This week was pretty weird, and most of our set appointments fell through, but there were many miracles and blessings that come unto us. We are blessed by obedience to the commandments. I'll start off the email this week with what happened on P-Day last week, and then go into the more spiritual important stuff (expect for the move).

Mind Blowing Meeting

Here's another week for me, and this one went by really really fast.  I'll go straight into the details, but if anyone has any questions for me on the mission, ask away. I love answering questions and telling people about what I'm doing.

Idaho Day

Hey Y'all,
This past week was pretty exciting and really really awesome. One of the coolest things was that Saturday was Idaho Day!!!!!! Here you go!

P-day: So last P-day after emailing and stuffs, we went over the the Idaho Museum. The exhibit was about Rome, which was pretty cool and really nostalgic. The cool thing about it was it was just a tiny museum with a couple of fun cool things, and things that I didn't know before. I got to try on a suit (not a missionary one), got to break down a wall, and I also got to go through an exhibit on Idaho History (pictures actually included this week). After that we kinda just chilled and studied a little bit until our dinner that night. This week, because it is the birthday of one of the sisters in the district, we are going bowling! So it should be pretty fun. 

Week 3 of Entrenamiento

Hey Y'all,

Glad that be writing another week, and man the time is going by fast on the mission. This past week I hit my 6 month mark, which is quite sad, because I have less time than I would want. But this past week was good nevertheless, and was an exciting one. And because of what happened this past week, we are going to have a very very busy week for this upcoming one.

Semana 2 of training

¡Hola!
Glad to share another week with y'all. Hope everything is great in Georgia and other parts of the world. Here is a very busy, good week.

District Meeting/District Leader Training Meeting: I'm part of a new district down here in the Idaho Falls area. Unlike my last district, this one has two other companionships of Elders, so we are no longer part of a all sister district. This past district meeting was good, but there was a lot that I saw that I could work on leading it out. And all of my questions were answered this past Thursday, when we had a training for all of the district leaders in the mission, given by our mission president and the assistants to the president. 

Training! v2

This week was the start of training! It's a good one!
Sorry for the short email this week, I guess I'll give your eyes a rest for a little bit.

Whitewash Wednesday: So one of the craziest days that I've had in a while happened this past Wednesday. After waking up and packing the rest of my items for the transfer train and stuff like that, we headed out to the transfer site.

Training!

Hey Y'all,
Very very very interesting week this past week. It has been full of sadness and joy, so here we go.

Funeral: We'll start it off on an interesting note. So on Thursday morning we got a call from one of our ward mission leaders. He tells us that someone in this apartment complex in the ward just died, (most of the people in this apartment complex are older) and that the Latino neighbor of the deceased needs a translator for the funeral. We got over there in a couple of minutes and the funeral started. It was interesting because I was trying to translate the whole time, but translating English to Spanish is harder than you would think. 

Winter has already come, and hopefully is going away

Despite the tone of the subject, the weather has been pretty nice up here in Rexburg. It has only been about 10's and 20's, so not under 0.

This week has been a good one, and as always, you know I like to write a lot, so prepare y'all selves.

Week 4 of transfer, I'll come up with something eventually for these emails

Everybody,
Thank you for constantly reading all of the long long emails that I write each and every week. I'm enjoying the snow over here and all of the blessings that come from being on a mission. Enjoy the letter for this week. Also, send me some emails, I love responding.

Susan: So we were finally able to meet with Susan again. When we finally sat down with her and learned about how the past couple of weeks had gone, we started talking about the Book of Mormon and her reading. It turns out that she was a little bit scared to read in it, because she felt that she was cheating on God or something. When we really deeply discussed what she felt we learned that she was a little bit scared about learning weather it was true or not. We asked her what the worst thing that could happen if she read in the Book of Mormon and prayed about it, and her answer is beautiful: The worst thing is I don't get an answer. And then we asked what she thinks would happen if she read it and got an answer: She said that she would know that it is true and that the church is true. All we are asking Susan and anybody on a mission is to read in the Book of Mormon, because no matter what you may have heard about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, if God sends his Holy Spirit and gives you the answer of the truthfulness of these things, then wouldn't you come to a knowledge that it is true? Susan is amazing and she is the only southern person that I know up here in Idaho. Her strong faith will lead her forward, even if I am not here to see the destination. 

New Stuffs, more Stories

Hey Everyone back in the US and some people around the world, 
This week has been one of a lot of personal growth and working hard, so it's an exciting one.]

Zone Conference: Last Tuesday we had another Zone Conference. Because of some changes to missions everywhere, we will now be having Zone Conference every transfer, which means once every 6 weeks. It was all spiritual prep this time and there were main things that we went over in this Conference. Personal Conversion, Working with Youth and Young Adults, and Teaching Repentance. One of the best parts about all of this was the discussion we had. It was also really cool because our 2nd Counselor in the Mission Presidency shared a lot of experiences and told it how it is. He is a very bold leader and missionary. One of the coolest things that we did talk about was Personal Conversion. We need to cleanse the inner vessel before we can help others to repent. The scripture that was shared was Alma 60:23 and we learned about how repentance is never bad. It may seem scary or hard to do, but repentance is how we can become a  little bit better each and every day by repenting daily, and then weekly touching the atonement through the sacrament.

New Fun This Week

Hey Y'all,
This week was a good week and it was pretty interesting. 

Risa: This week I had the amazing opportunity to teach a lesson to a Girl named Risa. She is one of the foreign exchange students that is staying with a family of members here in Rexburg. She is from Japan and since my trainer left I was the one who got to teach and learn with her. We had a member of a bishopric in the stake who served in Japan on his mission and still speaks Japanese join with us in the lesson. We talked about her experiences going to church and learning more about God in her life. She came from a non-practicing Buddhist home and has had a very different experience here in the United States. She has read a little in the Book of Mormon and said something that stood out to me. She said that the story of Joseph Smith was weird and strange. I suddenly thought about what we are teaching, that a 14 Year-old young man had a question about which church is true, read James 1:5 in the Bible, and decided to ask God. he then had the first vision, Where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him as two separate beings and called him to be a prophet to restore the true and fullness of Christ's church on the earth. He then had visitations from an angel and received ancient records, which through the power of God, translated and published the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. For me, if I had not received a testimony from God through the Holy Spirit that this happened and that the Book of Mormon is true, it would be weird and strange. It's something that I on my mission and inviting others to read and pray to find out if it's true and it is something I have done in my life and received that response that it is.

Done with training, on with the rest of it

Hey Y'all,
Back again, this time after a very very strange week. It was very weird and my schedule was really messed up, but this week is going to be great, so it doesn't even matter.