Heating It Up in Tempe

It's hot. Hello everyone!! As you may or may not know, this week is the final full week of my missionary service! That is a really crazy things to say but I am so grateful for the things that I have learned and the people I have built strong connections with. I wanted to share with you three lessons that I have learned during my missionary service. There are many, but you’ll have to ask me for details later ;)  First off, I have a deep conviction of how much God truly loves all of us. I know that we are His sons and His daughters. There is nothing more valuable to me than that important fact. I get to interact with lots of different people as a missionary, and the coolest thing I have experienced is that for some reason, whether I know these people well or not, I develop such a strong love for them and a desire to help them. I know that is because I am doing what I can to help people come closer to God. So remember that! God loves you and He always will! Second. It

Happy Monday everyone! Today is a good day. We had a ping pong tournament, went to MOD pizza, it doesn’t get much better than that. And the week was really awesome! Last week I told you about the Murietta Family! They had some pretty big trials this week, but it was awesome because through it all they still made the decision to join us at church on Sunday! It was the first time they had come in over 2 months, so it was a huge leap of faith for them. Unfortunately, the baptism won’t be on the 14th, but it was great to see them there and they had a very positive experience, so that was really cool.  Also, our good pal Jason, who got baptized back in May, was able to go to the Gilbert temple for the first time this week! It was a really awesome experience for him and he is doing super well! Some of his family members have been coming to church with hm, so great things are happening! :)  Anyways, those are the highlights from the week! We have gotten the impression that we need

Gilbert Arizona Temple - Squad Hey everybody! I probably psyched you out on Monday, huh? Just kidding. We went to the Gilbert Temple this morning so our preparation day ended up being today! The temple is the greatest, I could be there all day. I always feel so motivated and strong afterwards. So yeah, life is awesome.  We had some cool experiences this week! We have been working our tails off to try to find more people that we can serve and help. We have been trying to bike as much as we can without falling over dead...it’s been hot this week. But the best is yet to come, haha. We actually had a ton of miracles! We have struggled to help the people we are teaching to see the importance of baptism, but last night we were teaching the Murietta family, and two of their older children accepted the invitation to be baptized! We talked about the date of July 28th, but they were like, can we do it sooner? So, we talked about the 21st, and they were like “no, let’s do the 14th!” So th

Feed My Starving Children - Mesa & YSA Squad Hey there everyone!! This week has been a good one, lots of trials and lots of opportunities to share my testimony. It has been legit. Here we go: So first off, the coolest thing happened this week, there is a guy named Brad that I used to teach in San Marcos, and he got baptized!! I got to go, and it was funny how it worked out because Elder Smith (my old companion) called me on Friday and said that their church building was already scheduled for the time they wanted to have the baptism, so they called to see if they could do it at our building! So it worked out really well, the baptism got moved to our church building, and our new investigator Michael got to come! He really enjoyed it. It was the first time that he had seen a baptism of any sort!  Michael is a great guy, this week he has been reading tons of the Book of Mormon, he wanted to help clean the church building on Saturday so we went to go help with that, and

Hey everybody! This week I achieve Michael Jordan status...(23 months). I can't  say that I am thrilled about that. But it's alright, 5 weeks is a long time to change the world! ;) We had an awesome week. Here are some highlights: We had transfers this week, and not much changed! The zone overall stayed pretty similar, which is cool. Every transfer weekend the stake presidency has us over for ice cream, and last night they had us share our favorite scripture! Mine was Alma 36:24 in the Book of Mormon: "Yea, and from that time even until now, I have labored without ceasing,  that I might bring souls unto repentance; that I  might bring them to  taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste; that they  might also be born of God, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." And the coolest thing about this experience was as soon as we started sharing the scriptures, a very powerful feeling entered the room. I know the scriptures are the word of God! Read

Happy Monday everybody! Just so you know we are very short on time today. We have transfers stuff going on, so there are missionaries that need some help moving around and all that. Elder Jacobson and I are sticking it out for the next 6 weeks!! Wooo! There were two cool broadcasts that happened this week! There was the “Be One” celebration on Friday. A celebration of unity and revelation! I saw about 5 minutes of it but the music was cool. I think that the concept of unity is not being emphasized much in the world today and we all need a little unity! What does it take to be unified? Humility! Life is not all about us, and that has been made very clear to me this week! :) The other thing was a broadcast from President Russell M. Nelson, who we believe to be God's prophet on the earth today, and he spoke to the youth of the church. I didn’t watch that either, but I saw some of the challenges he gave to them: a 7-day fast from social media; praying for the blessing of Christ

the MOD life=the good life Hey everybody!! Just so you know, I love MOD pizza, and we got to go today so it has been on my mind haha! :)  Life is good here in AZ!! We are creeping up on June, which is really weird, but it's all good. :)  This week was pretty awesome!! We had lots of cool experiences, and Jason is doing great! He is the one who got baptized last week, and he received the priesthood this week, which was a really cool experience! Elder Jacobson got to give that to him, which is super cool and the first time he has been able to do that!  We did some service this week, which was fun. We went to Feed My Starving Children and I scooped rice for 2 hours so I was feeling pretty ripped afterwards. We also got to help with a move on Saturday, and me and one other guy lifted a piano by ourselves, that was intense. But yeah, life is good. Service is always awesome! You feel so good, and you are helping people! What could be better than that?! Get out in your commu

Mesa Temple Trip Hey everyone! man, this was quite the week! Lots of cool things happened, I learned a lot, and there were lots of good memories made. Let me tell you about them! Jason's Baptism! First off, our awesome investigator Jason got BAPTIZED on Saturday, and it was amazing!! He had a bunch of his work friends come to support him, and we had multiple lessons with him this week to prepare him. After all of the events of this weekend, he has definitely changed a lot. Part of baptism is receiving the Holy Ghost, which is done by God’s authority, and he said that was his favorite part. When someone receives the Holy Ghost, they also receive a blessing from God. Someone holding the priesthood authority puts their hands on his head with a few others holding that authority, and speaks and blesses them with some awesome gifts. He said that was his favorite part for sure.  Something else that was fun this week, we did exchanges with our awesome zone leaders, and I w

  I don't know about you, but I’m feeling 22. Pretty crazy stuff, I hit 22 months this week, I can’t believe it!!! Time is the weirdest thing. Anyways, this week was awesome, and I am very tired today but hopefully I can crank out some good stuff!!  This week was full of lots of explaining, helping Elder Jacobson to get the hang of the mission life, and he is doing a great job. He is willing to try new things and get out of his comfort zone, which is very important out here, haha! We have had a good time. Every time I ask him to try something new, he makes the kind of face when there are fingernails running down a chalkboard, and through gritted teeth says “sure”. It is hilarious, and he always does an awesome job! :) It has been really cool because he definitely reminds me of me when I first got to Arizona. We have this awesome investigator Jason, and he is getting BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!! So exciting. He has some family members who are in the church, and just started m

The New Dynamic Duo! Sorry everyone, I didn’t have the creativity for a subject title this week, but life is good! My companion made it, so I am solo no more! His name is Elder Jacobson, and he is from Kaysville, Utah! He is awesome! He actually did fencing (the cool sword fighting thing) in high school, which is much cooler than anything I’ve ever done, except tennis because tennis rules all. But yeah, he made it here on Saturday and things have been awesome!  Cool experience from this week: We were having a cool conversation with our investigator Jason, who is on date for baptism next weekend! He has lots of really good questions, and we were able to answer every single one of them with Book of Mormon scriptures!!! That is pretty awesome. The Book of Mormon has so much power in it, and no matter what your questions are, you can find your answers in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Try it out! For p-day today we had a good time at the Mesa College Institute, with the wh

Transfer planning... Hey everybody!  It was quite the week this week. Found out that the Han Solo movie is coming out next month, I was surprised. Totally thought I was only missing two Star Wars movies...#ItsFine. HOWEVER, there is a better reason for that subject title. I told you last week that I was training a new missionary. Plot twist: He is not here yet! He got sick coming out of Utah, so he is still there until he gets better. SO, with that in mind, I have been by myself in the two new wards, going back and forth from other members of the church to the two other Elders that I live with. Crazy stuff. Not common at all, but I am making it work.  We had a baptism this week for a guy named Ricky, he is 10 and really energetic! We taught him a few lessons this week and he had an awesome experience being baptized on Saturday, so that was fun! I got thrown under the bus and asked to play the piano...two songs I had never played before. I would give myself a 76% on guitar her

What’s up everybody???  Hopefully things are great wherever you are, because things are heating up both literally and figuratively. We have started to hit 100 every now and then, and transfers have struck again. After only 6 weeks in San Marcos, I am headed out to Mesa to cover two wards and train a new missionary! Basically that means that a brand new mission will be my companion and I’ll show him the ropes. I am super excited. Should be a good time.  This week was legit. We found this new guy Brad (shout out to the best Brad ever, a.k.a. My dad), but this Brad is pretty awesome too. He came to the Mesa Temple Visitors Center on Friday, came to church with us on Sunday, and is preparing for baptism  on May 12th !! That will be super awesome. Very excited for that. He was a referral from the Towne Lake sisters, so that was pretty cool to get a referral from my old ward. But anyways, he is a baller, so I will hopefully get to come back for his baptism.  Had a dentist appoint

  Alright everybody, I have learned some very important lessons this week that I would love to share with you. It was quite the week, so here we go: 1. Never Judge A Book By Its Cover. Pretty cliche, I know, but it is very important. We were eating lunch at a church class building near our community college campus, and we were eating some  Little Caesars Pizza  💰 and this guy walks in that I had never seen before. He honestly looked a little out there. Elder Smith and I went up to him and asked him if he wanted to play some pool, to see if we could invite him to one of the classes. He turned out to be the nicest guy ever. He is from New York and is here all by himself for school, no family or anything. We talked to him for quite some time, taught him about the church, and he wants to meet up this week!  2. Never Park a U-Haul Truck Close too the Garage. We were back in Phoenix helping a member of the church move down the street. Elder Bruce and I grab this pretty big dresser

Best food truck in Phoenix.   Hey everyone!! Sorry for the failure this last week, we were running  back and forth from our apartment to the church for a lesson, so I did  not have time to email!! But, here is the crash course from the last  two weeks!! General conference was so amazing! I learned so much from it and I  hope you all got the chance to listen or read some of it. If not I  forgive you, but you are missing out!! I got a huge awakening to how  important it is that we are all unified, in our families especially.  Hard times are coming for all of us, so having unity in our families is so important. Do  whatever you can to get a close relationship with your family members  and friends, because that is such a blessing! Contention is no bueno!! Biggest thing from this last week was exchanges and multiple  trainings, so we were very busy!! I love giving trainings though, it  is so much fun to interact with other missionaries and help them learn  some of the things that I hav

Lunch in between conference sessions! Hello everyone! I am literally out of time today, I will totally give  you an update about everything next week! So sorry! Love you all!  Sorry for the lateness, we did not have WiFi until after 6 so the emails sent afterward! (From Trevor's mom...this is the funniest email I've gotten from him! This is all he sent! These photos were sent to us this week by members living in his area, or downloaded from his Facebook posts.)  This is something he shared in his email to me regarding the LDS general conference which was held this past weekend: " I loved  hearing your thoughts from conference, it was super powerful for sure!  I don’t remember the last solemn assembly very well, but I do remember  there being an eternity of new general authorities with their names  called much like this one haha. This time I felt an overwhelming spirit  though! We were in the chapel with a bunch of missionaries that are my  best friends, sta

Exchanges with Elders Murphy & Wadsworth Hello everyone! Man, was it a week to remember or what. The awkward thing is I can’t remember a lot of what happened, but believe me, it was awesome. You can take my word for it.  The Baptism I was lucky enough to go back to Phoenix for a bit, we got to go see Ryan Shea’s baptism, he is the husband of Heather Shae who got baptized a few weeks ago. Elder Gardea and I found their family a few months ago, so we got permission to go to the baptism and it was awesome! Funny story time first: He asked Brother Thrasher to do the baptism, so Sister Thrasher was sitting on the row behind them when the service started. Sister Thrasher went up to give the opening prayer, leaving her young child alone on that row. Her son saw his opportunity. Without hesitating he made a mad dash for the hallway, with no one to slow him down. His dad saw it coming, and in a white jumpsuit, literally hurdled the row of chairs and literally SAT on the kid righ

Devotional with Elder Christofferson He y everyone!  Man, it has been a busy week for sure! Running to and fro, north to south, east to west, you name it we did it! We had transfers this week and I found myself in the Chandler/Gilbert part of Arizona, which is super cool! It is a lot different than any other part of the mission I have been in. Lots of members of the church, lots of really nice houses, and everybody already knows who we are! Haha.  I’m now covering a small place called Chandler-Gilbert Community College, so I’ve now covered all 3 colleges in the mission! That is pretty cool, haha. My companion, Elder Smith, is the man! We already know each other well! He is from near Provo, Utah and we are having a good time. I’ve definitely found a 4-leaf clover here! 😎🍀 The New Squad We had lots of lessons this week! I got to know everyone which was super cool! We have a girl named Codi preparing for baptism in April, so we met with her and it went really well. We a