The Way Life Goes..

 Grab a snack, sit back, and relax

The remainder of my p day was so amazing. We got to go eat with some of the elders and zone leaders in our zone. We all went to Olive Garden for Elliotts 19th birthday. YESSSSIRRRRR. His grandma was nice enough to send a $100 gift card to Olive Garden to pay for himself and three other elders. I got blessed by my trainer. We were there for about 2 hours and you already know we got the chicken Alfredo. It was bussing. Right after we had to zoom home because we had a meeting in person with a girl named Margie at 6:30. The lesson went amazing. She is so elect, we can see her in white already. In case you guys are wondering, that means we can see her in baptismal clothes because we dunk her in all white. She was so intrigued about temples and life after death. So of course we sent her the most clutch temple video the church made. She said she would be interested about baptism, but she needs to learn more first. One thing you might catch on is that from 6-9 pm on pdays is grind time. I will not be texting that much because you are supposed to be doing missionary work, but you know how that goes with some people lol. I had this mindset that everyone would be super good missionaries in the field. That quickly shattered the first full day I was here…

Here's something I needed to write about because it is kinda funny yet depressing. I mentioned about two weeks ago that I have been in contact with a kid named Tyson that we were going to hand off to the Pennsylvania elders. Turns out he was just gay for me. Sadly this happens a lot to elders during Facebook Finding. I was a little depressed because I thought Tyson was elect, but instead he was just mad sus for me. It is all good though because I will continue to be diligent in my finding and not be let down when stuff like this happens. It's frustrating, but it's also funny because people are mad suspicious. 

On Tuesday we went over to Sister Andrews home for a visit. Sister Andrews Is an elderly lady in our ward who is a legend. Her husband just recently passed away five months ago, but she has taken it like a queen. When we asked her about it, this was her reply, "I know where we are going, we are going to the Celestial Kingdom!" I love her confidence in that. She also was kind enough to hand over all her husband's old suits to us. We went into her basement and tried all of them on. Each of the elders took a suit because they fit good enough so we could go tailor them. This week we went to get those suits altered to fit us on Wednesday and they were done on Friday. It was about 20 dollars to get them fixed up. They are really baggy on me still, but it mixes up my outfits throughout the mish! I finesse a nice brown striped one that has three buttons on the coat. I'm the next best grandpa in town. Grandpa Dale watch out!

One thing I also got to mention is that we love to cook up some goodies at home. We are cooking at least twice a day because we don't get fed by members and we are too broke to go out to eat. I am trying to master the Creamy Jalapeño. Elder Candland and I invested in the ingredients for it. The first attempt was a complete fail. We added way too much milk and it was depressing because we only bought enough for one batch. One week later we decided to do it again. Candy and I invested yet again. This time we NAILED it. I am becoming more like mom everyday. I did not have the chance to make stir fry this week, but hopefully we will next week. PSA: this is mainly for Weston, but do not take mom's cooking for granted. Right now I would even take crockpot meals because I miss food I don't have to make. I took mom's food for granted and I'm sorry about that mom. I will cherish it when I get home in 22 ½ months. I found out my coming home date. Set your calendars for July 23rd 2023!!!!!!! A full two year mission is ahead of me.

On Wednesday there was a high and there were some lows. We had three member lessons scheduled for Wednesday. As the day went on the first one canceled, then the second, and who would've guessed the third one did as well. As Lil Uzi Vert would say, that's "The Way Life Goes." It was another full day of just finding, sitting in our apartment and us going out to knock. I am working on how to fix my attitude about preaching by the way. I will master it before I get home. As we were knocking on some doors in our Area Book we decided to stop at this yard sale. We copped a Ripstik for 8 bucks. You hear that, eight bucks. That could be the high for the whole week! We probably won't use it much, but it was for the memories.

One of the nights this week I decided to sit down with Elder Reynolds and just talk about his life. Before I had this discussion with him I viewed him poorly, I was not a good example of loving one another. Reynolds doesn't like to be around us and other people. When we go into a room he leaves immediately. So I decided to chat with him and get to know him. Sometimes people need to just talk about themselves and Reynolds has not done that in awhile. He was into video games and when we began talking about them, he just lit up. I really have never seen that man be so intrigued and happy about a subject ever. I learned a lot about who he is, his background, why he is here, and what are his motives. This has made me rethink everything about him. I never viewed him how Christ would view him. He has struggled with things that none of us knew about. Rumors are always constantly being spread about him due to his actions in the mission field. What I took out of this is that we need to view everyone how Christ would. Christ has given everyone different gifts. Christ knows what people are going through, you however do not know. This wasn't meant to be a spiritual thought lol. I still have a ways to go in this email, sorry not sorry.

Had my first interview with President Heap…virtually. It was cool finally being able to talk with him one on one. I never had the opportunity to meet with him once we got into the mission field because you know the story. I believe next transfer we are meeting in person so I hope that is the case. I asked him some questions, which made me think of questions that I wanted to ask all of you guys. If I don't get a reply from you about this then I know you don't read my email…

How can I have better faith in door knocking?

How can I be a better example to other missionaries?

Am I communicating well with you all on pdays?

Do I still look good in photos I am sending home?

How is life at home without me?

You do not need to answer all of them. I was just curious if you had some input because being a great missionary is sometimes not easy for me at least. If you are struggling to answer one of these, that's just sad. I will appreciate any replies from these questions if you got this far on my email :)

When I was Facebook Finding this week, I messaged a mother probably about the age of 40. She was chatting with me and I sent the video of us talking about what missionaries do. She saw I was the same age as her son and she asked me if I knew him. I said I don't think so, but she said,"yes you do." I was like how??? Then she went on to say that her child had a famous vine that has millions of streams. She told me to look up, "the Crack kid" on YouTube. But of course me being the cultured man I am, I knew who that was. The crack kid was a younger boy on vine who would scream when he would get hit in the face by a basketball. I know society is amazing. I then compared pictures on her Facebook of her son to the video of the Crack kid and it was him. The Crack Kid grew up in Bay City, Michigan. So the moral of the story is that I know the Crack Kids mom and mothers will brag about their children in any way even if he is known as the Crack Kid.

Every night in the mission field is definitely the highlight of my day. Elder Candland and I mess around either wrestling, making a dessert, or just throwing a soccer ball at each other. Elder Elliott I think gets frustrated a bit when we do this. On Wednesday night he wanted to do areabook calling from the church building which was a little strange because it was already 8:15 pm. When we got to the church we had to drive all the way back home anyway because we forgot the list of people to call. I think Elliott attempted to do this to get me away from Candland so I do not mess around before 9 o'clock hits. When we are grinding for 12 hours, I think it's normal that I begin to lose my urge to do missionary work at night. I know Elder Elliott is trying to push me to be the best missionary I can be so I can't be annoyed at him.

I thought my face was gonna be chill since it has not been humid, but it has been breaking out. I am always washing my face and putting all the stuff on at night (Yes mom I used witch hazel) and it's rough. Hopefully my face gets used to it because I can't be fat and ugly when I get home. 

Sunday was long. I had to fast and you know how that goes, but it was my first fast and testimony meeting which was dope. When Elliott and I woke up we decided to start cleaning. Our apartment was so nasty, I hated it. So at 6:30 am we cleaned the whole apartment. I was not a fan when mom came in my room at 6 am vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom on a Saturday morning waking the kids up so I know how the elders living with us felt (I am grateful for it though mom). We deep cleaned the oven, stove, mopped the kitchen floor, vacuumed the whole house, and made this apartment look immaculate. I wore my newly "tailored" suit to church to impress Sister Andrews and she loved it. I decided to go up and bare my testimony about families. Seeing me bare my testimony in her husband's old suit put her in tears. It really touched me just because something so simple brought an immense amount of happiness to someone else. It was also kind of funny because Brother Andrews was an extremely spiritual man and was Bishop for a handful of years, so everyone wanted to shake my hand because they miss shaking Brother Andrew's hand haha! 

The other elders that live with us had a baptism on Sunday. It was for an elderly woman named Barbara, her being baptized is a miracle because it took her two baptismal dates to get dunked. She got cold feet a bit. This was an answer to our prayers! Also, update on Jazzii (who is on date for baptism), she told us she wanted to stop meeting with us for a bit because she would like to explore other churches. Hopefully she isn't just a spirit world referral and she decides to enter into her first covenant with God soon. Hey Alexa play the feels playlist This made us stumble, but missions aren't easy so you already know we got right back up. 

We didn't break our fast until 5 pm on Sunday, I am nuts. We had a meeting that ran long so we did not truly eat until 5:30. During our lessons I finally am beginning to be more confident and Elliott is letting me lead the lessons. I love this work!!! Candland was kind enough to make us dinner while we were gone. I prepped everything, but him cooking the meat was mad clutch. It was literally the best grilled chicken I have ever had. 

This week I feel like sharing about charity and prayer. In Moroni 7:47 it speaks on what charity is:

47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.

Charity is the pure love of Christ. As a missionary I need to increase my ability to be charitable and serve one another. In the next verse it says:

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God… 

If you begin to become more Christ-like and charitable your prayers will change. Pray unto the father with ALL the energy of heart. Sometimes praying feels like a chore. It is not. Prayer is a testimony builder. Talking with our Father in heaven is not a chore, it's a blessing. We have all been blessed with growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, let's not take it for granted. Pray with all your heart. Pray out of the love you have for Christ. Pray that you may be filled with charity for other people. Pray and express gratitude for what our Heavenly Father has done for us. Heavenly Father has blessed me in the most beautiful family unit I could have asked for. I have two parents who love each other and are examples to us. I have four amazing siblings that continue to help me grow. I have awesome friends. I have been blessed to be around outstanding missionaries in the mtc and in the field. We all have been blessed with the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This is all thanks to our Father in Heaven. Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you. Pray to Him like you have never prayed before!

I love you guys! I continue to pray for all of you daily. You know the drill by now, pictures are on messenger, and hit me up because no one talks to me much throughout the day:)))