Heating It Up in Tempe

Sloan Field with the Squad Hey everyone!! I know that most of you are dealing with snow and all that good stuff, but it definitely feels like spring down here so that is what mindset I am in! Also, Spring break for ASU starts next week, so I don't think I am too far off. Anyway, my week was awesome! Let me share with you some awesome stuff. I emailed you all on Tuesday last week because we went to the Mesa temple! I am not sure how many of you know, but the Mesa temple and the grounds around it are being closed for renovations for two years starting in May. Pretty crazy. We have a really cool opportunity to attend something called an “Easter pageant”, which is a play depicting the life of Jesus Christ!  It happens every year around easter, so we are really hyping it up because there is no guarantee on when the next one will be. So excited for it!  I went on an exchange with Elder Astle on Saturday. He is one of the assistants to the president, and it was such a...

Rainy Valentines Day Heyooo! Was it Valentine’s Day? Yes it was. I hope it went well for you guys, it was definitely just another day out here, so I hope you all were able to show love to those that you care about! Let’s just make every day Valentine’s Day, everyone would be so much happier!  I guess the reason I say that is that on Wednesday it was RAINING! In Arizona! So we decided to go onto Mesa Community College campus and hand out Valentines to people, and I was very surprised as we talked to so many people, so many of them didn’t like Valentine’s Day because they felt so alone! Why is that? I mean, why aren’t we showing more love to people? Why are we focused on ourselves? Maybe we should do better about that! It was super fun though, because even giving people a starburst and telling them happy Valentine’s Day brought a smile to their face. Happiness is a simple thing, because it is lots of simple things that make up some of our most happy moments.  Beebe ...

#bikeboys Hello everyone! Today was a great today and this week was a great week. So many crazy things happened but it was tons of fun. Let me get started: First off, we had mission leadership council this week, and it was entirely centered on using the Book of Mormon with more power. It was really cool because I got to remember and reflect on how much the Book of Mormon has meant to me, and motivated me to use it more frequently throughout the week. So I did! We had a really cool experience with a guy named Moses on Saturday. He goes to a different Christian church, and was not happy to see us at first. However, I felt like I should share a scripture from the Book of Mormon! I read 2 Nephi 25:26, which basically says that everything goes back to Christ! We had a great conversation after that and he was a lot more willing to listen to us once he realized that everything that we teach is centered on Jesus Christ. I just wanted you to know that I love the Savior and I know how ...

Transfers...ignore the double chin - it's the collar's fault! Hey all! I just want you all to know that Arizona is awesome. Is it a desert? You bet. Have I learned to love it? Of course. The reason I say that is, I have met, and am close with, some of the most amazing people ever as a result of serving here the last year and a half. I highly recommend it! I love being a missionary with all my heart. You’re probably sick of hearing that, but it’s the truth.  This week was crazy! First, I have a funny experience for you. We were out visiting some people on Friday and we are talking with a member of our church and in the middle of our conversation, her neighbor busts out of their apartment, stops, stares at us for a second, says “Hey, you guys good at math?” Elder Morgan and I simultaneously look at each other and say, “Sure!” In unison. We finish our convo with the member, then we walk into this guy's apartment and he is doing college algebra! Keep in mind, I have n...

Cafe Rio pic taken by local missionary moms! Hey everyone!! I don't have a lot of time today, but I just want you to know how much I love this work and that I am a very lucky person to be a missionary! This week was pretty awesome and one things sticks out about it all, I know that God is mindful of each of us on a daily basis and that he loves us and cares about us.  This week the Sister missionaries that came out the same time I did returned home! I have been out for a while now, and it has put things into perspective that time never is and never will be something we can control, and we shouldn't try to or we will always lose that battle. But I have felt the power that comes from a simple belief that God loves us and wants us to succeed. I know that he wants that for each of us! I'm so happy that I have 6 more months to share that with people.  This week we had another dinner with the Evans and Bushnell family, and they are so awesome! They are doing well, and...

BBQ at the Mission Home...Tons of Fun! Hey everybody!! This week was pretty busy. We were actually out of our area a lot due to exchanges and we gave a number of trainings this week, but here is one thing I'll share that was awesome from this last week! Thursday, we did an exchange and I went with the one and only....Elder Grigsby! For those who don’t remember he was my first mission companion, in other words my “trainer”. It was a ball, we had tons of fun and it was a blast to the past for sure. We met with a number of people who were recently baptized in the last few months, and then we had a lesson with a guy named Richard, who has been looking in to the church for the last few weeks. We had a really cool lesson with him, the first question he asked us was, “Can I learn more about this whole baptism thing?” Our eyes lit up, we taught him about baptism, and he is now moving towards getting baptized at the beginning of March! Such a cool guy, and it was a cool experienc...

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!  I honestly am still in awe that 2018 is already here, so hence the subject title, 2017 came and went like none other. So many amazing memories, it is a year for the record books in my solid 20 years of life.  Cheers to a new year.  This week was AWESOME!! Adrian got baptized, which was one of the coolest things ever. So much to talk about, but the coolest thing is that Adrian does not cry very often. In the last week he has cried three times!! It isn’t a bad cry, but a cry of joy, because he has told us over and over again that this is the greatest decision he has ever made in his life. That is a bold things to say, but we can see it in his eyes. He is such an example to me. He lives in a house with 33 other members of the church and 1 person named Josh, who Adrian shared the Book of Mormon with yesterday and he committed to read it. It is going to be a good time. I know that the more that we seek joy in our lives, the greater d...