Heating It Up in Tempe

Hey you guys!!! (Reminded me of the Goonies) anyways, I hope you all had a great week this  week! If I didn't email you directly this week, it's nothing personal, but I have had a very busy day. A busy week at that.  First off, whether it's a street fight or a change of heart, you get to witness so many things as a missionary. There's always one weird experience every now and then that gets you, but I've discovered that I have the opportunity every day to witness and testify of Jesus Christ as my Savior. That is the coolest thing in the world.  Cool experience!! We stopped by to visit Kyra, our awesome recent Convert who was baptized back in April, and have been trying to get her sister, Gloria, to meet with us for AGES!! We finally caught her when they were both home, so we sat down and talked about God's plan for us and Gloria was so enthusiastic about it all!! It was so cool to see that once she had the desire to learn, her whole countenance began t...

ABC15 Photo of a Haboob over Phoenix Hello everybody!!! Hope you have all been doing great :) I sure am. Part of that is because for the next 3 days it will be in the high 90's which is quite the break for us!! We have been outside a lot today just enjoying it. You might think I'm crazy, but welcome to my life.  We are at the time of year that is referred to as 'monsoon season' here in AZ. Basically there is a small dust storm that rolls through and immediately after there is a huge thunderstorm to follow. We hadn't had one until last night! On top of that, instead of there being just a small dust storm, there was a "haboob"!! For you movie fans, if you have seen Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, there is a huge dust storm that looks pretty intense, that is what a haboob is. So we had one of those last night, it was super sweet because there is dust, lightning, rain all at the same time. I loved it.  This week has been full of some great exp...

Hey everyone!! Another pretty crazy week here in Phoenix, but another great one! :) I don't have a lot of time today so you'll have to bear with me, but there are a lot of good things going here too. Here we go!! First, I finally have a set-in-stone companion for the next 6 weeks!! His name is Elder Gardea. He is originally from Mexico but his family now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so that is pretty awesome. He was baptized into the church two years ago and his mom actually just got baptized a month ago!! So that is pretty awesome if I do say so myself. He has such a strong testimony and a great love for the scriptures, so we get along super well. :) The best experience from this week was on Saturday, we went to teach an investigator named Barbara, who has been hard to catch and has had lots of concerns. We set some hardcore expectations with her and taught her about the Restoration, and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had!! She was super en...

What a week. Crazy stuff was happening all week, I don't even know where to start. But I have to start somewhere.  So, since the last time I have emailed, I have had 4 different companions, covered 2 areas, and had 3 conversations with people  in French. How does that make sense?/ Buckle up .  Elder Francis, my companion for the last few months, got a call  on Tuesday night  to become the new assistant to our mission president, so he packed up that night and left  Wednesday morning . I was absorbed into a Spanish companionship for a day and a half, and you know how fluent I am in Spanish, so that was an adventure. Then on Thursday we drove to our mission home in Tempe to pick up my new companion, Elder Saulle, who is actually from France!!! He has a pretty awesome accent, and is headed home in a few weeks so they brought him closer to the mission home to make things easier. However, I was only with him until this afternoon, so now I do not have a ...

I survived. It reached a solid 125 degrees this week, but I am still  here!! Haha!! Not today Satan. Just kidding. Anyways, I hope you all  had an awesome week. Ours was pretty intense in a good way! So to describe to you what it feels like to be a missionary in 120  degree weather, here is my description. The farthest distance we  walked at one time was probably about 200 yards, and after that trek  we were drenched in sweat. And once you start sweating, even with AC  blasting for 45 minutes in a lesson, you just don't stop sweating and  literally EVERYTHING is hot. I would get into the car to drive and  burn my hands on the steering well. Legit. I have a blister. Don't  worry, it only happened once because I learned my lesson. Anyways, you  basically can't breathe and it feels like someone is constantly  pushing you backwards as you walk, and there is no escape. That is  essentially what Tuesday and Wednesday felt like. (T...

Hello everyone!!! Things are STILL heating up here in good ol' Phoenix,  Arizona. The high temperature for this week was a solid 117 degrees,  and tomorrow it will reach 120! We discovered this week that the  hotter it gets, the more people we find that just sleep. All day long.  Not even kidding. We were out visiting tons of people this week and  about 70% of them had someone answer the door, we asked for someone by  name, their response was that they were sleeping. This is at 2 in the  afternoon, 5pm, you name it. People sleep a ton during the summers  here. Not us. No sleep for the missionaries. You can count on us. Anyway, we had a pretty awesome experience this last week. We have  been working with this guy named David, he is from Jamaica  (shout out to my sister for serving there 🇯🇲). Davis is super  awesome. We hadn't been able to contact him all week, so we felt  prompted to go by last night after an appointment fe...

  I wasn't kidding about naming every email the inferno. Man it is hot. I  thought I would be used to it but I don't know how you can physically  get used to 110 degrees. It makes for some good tanning though!! ;) I hope you all had a good week everyone, because I sure did!! There is  no such thing of a bad week as a missionary. This is the best work and  the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I love every minute  of it. I am coming up on 11 months this week, and that honestly blows  my mind. "Time goes by so slowly, but time can do so much"...good line  from a great song, "Unchained Melody". Anyways, we had lots of cool  experiences this week that I wish I could share with all of you, but  there is one in particular that I had personally that helped  strengthen my testimony of repentance. This Wednesday was the Mission Leadership Conference, where the  leaders of the mission get together and talk/pray about the...