Hello everybody!

I enjoyed this week. It sure was a lot of fun! There was quite a bit of training involved as well. We had a world wide missionary broadcast for 2 hours, then an 8 hour zone conference on Friday. If you have not heard yet there was a couple big changes to missionary work throughout the world. 1st change was the missionary schedule. Before schedule was: 6:30-7:00 wake up, pray, exercise. 7-8 eat and get ready, 8-9 personal study, 9-10 companionship study.  10am-9pm proselyte with 2 hours for lunch and dinner. 9-9:30 plan, 9:30-10:30 get ready and go to bed. The new schedule is a lot more free and our choice when to do things but between 6:30-10:00 we must accomplish exercise 30 mins, personal study 1 hour, planning 30 minutes, then 10am-9:00pm you must accomplish proselyting, 30 minutes comp study, 30 min lunch and 1 hour dinner.   From 9-9:30 write in your journal, 9:30-10:30 get ready and go to bed.  Pdays also start at 8am and go till 6:pm rather than 10am-6pm. It is really neat. It gives a lot more options and choices as to how you use your schedule.

The second big change is we used to track 9 key indicators of:  baptism, confirmation, on date, at church, member present lessons, other lessons, progressing, referrals received and contacted, new investigators, and less active or recent convert lessons. Now we only track b+c, on date, church, and new investigators. It really is quite nice.

Laura Smith is continuing to do amazing. She is studying a lot and has been to church 3x now, please pray for her that she will receive a witness that these things are true! Also that Greg(boyfriend) will not hold her back but continue to press forward with her.

Our new investigator Eva is amazing. She is from Africa and is real elect! She has been reading and praying. We called to set up a time and set 2 appointments this week. She called back a couple minutes later and said she is coming to church Sunday and will bring a friend. SO COOL!

Hope you all have a great week. Love you all.

Good morning! I hope everybody's week has been as great as mine. I enjoyed it a lot. :)

This past week was a blast. So much is happenning so I will give a couple highlights:

1) Missionary work is taking a new focus at working with youth/young adults ages 14-25 as this age of people is still open minded and more sensitive to the spirit. They have many friends, and they are at an age where they are still deciding what to do in life and are looking for direction. One of the ways we are going to be doing this is through social media! What??? Thats right. Sharing the gospel through social media. Its pretty tough, all you need to do is take a picture or write a scripture or quote etc... and post it on your facebook. Or if you are really daring, you may take a picture with the missionaries and post it on Instagram. ;) I would challenge all of you to share the gospel in some way over s.m. this week. The gospel is important. It is true and it changes lives!

2) We had our first appt. with Eva after giving her a Book of Mormon a week ago. She is doing great! Guess what page she is on... 521. :D Holy Goodness thats a miracle! She has had it 1 1/2 weeks tops. She believes it to be true, committed herself to come to church this week and is wanting to be baptized. We will be extending a date to her this week.

3) Laura is still pressing forward and being incredible! She keeps all of her commitments and then asks for more. She has been diligently studying and praying and pondering. We had a lesson with her this past week and with President Welch and Sister Jones another night. Both lessons were powerful. I have no doubt she will receive a personal witness and soon be wanting to follow Christ into the waters of Baptism.

I hope you have a great week. Love you all!
This week was a blast! Our investigators we are working with are doing outstanding. Laura, Eva, Rasheen and Anna are all keeping their commitments and progressing. They are excited about and loving the gospel. It is so much fun. We also found a few new people to teach this week. One of which is a part member family from Camaroon. We may be playing soccer or speed ball with one of them later.

I just want to bear a quick testimony on the Book of Mormon. I know it is true and I know it contains the word of God. In it is contained the fullness of the Everlasting gospel. The only way to Eternal Life and lasting happiness in this life and the next. If we read it regularly, as commanded by God, and hearken to its teachings, Christ will change us to become as he is. I know it is true. I know it was translated by Joseph Smith who was and is a prophet called by God. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

This week was a blast! Elder Tingey and I receive lots of opposition but we don't let that get us down and we are pushing forward. There have been miracles everywhere and it is wonderful as well! 

We are working with a lady named Laura. She is a champion! She has been reading and praying a lot and is loving it. She has come to church 2x now as well. When we asked her what she feels when reading the Book of Mormon she responded, "Thirsty for more". She also has said she feels her faith has grown a lot. A member had her over for dinner and called us afterwords saying that Laura told them that when she gets baptized she would like it to be in the Fairfield Ward. So much fun!

We have also been working a lot with members to receive member referrals. And we have been seeing some good success so far. It takes a bit of work and time, but the results are far better and more lasting normally than finding through personal efforts. Invitation: if you have people whom you love, help prepare them for the gospel by being their friend. You do not need to teach them the gospel. Let the missionaries do that. But provide opportunities where they can meet the missionaries so the missionaries can offer the gospel. It works. I promise!

Have a great week everybody. Love you all!

I was transferred to Fairfield Ohio this past week. I am serving with Elder Tingey. He is so great. I love that Elder. I have been learning so much from him as well! Our address is 11651 Norbourne Dr. Apt 216, Cincinnati Ohio 45240.

This past week we have seen lots of good happening, we gave a church tour to this wonderful Ghanaian women. She has such a great spirit about her and is progressing well. She is here and has her family (Husband and 1 or more kids) back in Ghana. This area is so diverse in the cultures. We have Brazilians, Africans, and lots of Micronesian's. At the end of the church tour she was expressing how great she felt and she accepted the baptismal date of February 18th. So please keep her in your prayers! 

We are working with another lady named Laura, and we had leadership council which is a training for zone leaders and sister training leaders. It was great. All about connecting to our purpose as missionaries which is to teach repentance and baptize converts.
This transfer has been a blast. Serving with Elder Westover taught me much. I have been humbled and changed a lot and I am grateful for it. Serving with new companions is always a growing experience and can change you for the better when you choose to allow it to. The same with each area and the people in it. Serving in Auburn/Kendallville was incredible. I loved my time here in this area of the vineyard but am excited to move forward. I am getting transferred to Fairfield, Ohio and will be serving with Elder Tingey. I love that Elder and have heard many great things about him.

A couple highlights from this past week!

1) We planned a branch activity and had around 45 people show up, 24 of which were non-members and a few returning members. Everybody LOVED the activity, it was a hit! After the activity one of our investigators who has not been to church in 15 or so years (been backstabbed badly multiple times and was scared to get hurt again) text us asking when our church service was and committed herself to all 3 hours of church, it was a miracle!
2) Sunday we had 9 investigators show up to church and 3 returning members. One of which is a part member family we have been working with for a little over a transfer. The husband is a returning member we reactivated and his daughter has come 5 or so times but the mother Amanda had no interest. Then we had a powerful lesson with her and resolved some concerns. She then came on her own to church last Sunday with no invitation, it was quite a nice and welcomed surprise! The work is truly going forth and it is a marvelous work.

Elder Westover is now training and will do a marvelous job. I am proud of him. I hope you all have a great week. Love you all!

Good morning everyone, its a beautiful -4 degrees here in Indiana this morning. Hope it's warmer for all of you. It's supposed to get to -20 today, I was just told, isn't that special? ;)

This week has been a week of miracles. We have found multiple new families to begin teaching and a couple of other elect individuals who are excited for the gospel in their lives. I am going to leave the miracles and share a neat experience I had though.

This past Sunday I had the special experience to pass the Sacrament with the youth. While passing the Sacrament, I handed the bread tray to a mother and her 2 year old son, with a look of "excitement" and "need" for the bread, thrust his hand out and grabbed a handful of the bread! Then, of course, his mother corrected him and he partook of the bread as he should. Well, while I know that his need and excitement for this bread was motivated by physical hunger, it made me wonder and think. How many of us have such a spiritual hunger and need for this bread that we feel similar to what this child was feeling? How many of us truly are excited and ready to partake of the sacred emblems of the Sacrament? And how many of us truly repent daily the week before in preparation of partaking the Sacrament? It helped me to realize how much more I need to be doing to prepare myself to partake of the Sacrament to truly make the Sabbath more holy. I leave my testimony that Christ has asked, and desires of us, to partake of this sacrament, but he desires us to do so worthily. As we worthily prepare and partake of his Sacrament, the spirit truly is poured out without measure upon the faithful.

Brothers and Sisters, I love this Christmas season. It is miraculous. Day after day, Elder Westover and I, have been witnessing miracles. I want to share one of my favorites with you. 

 We have been teaching a couple, Chris and Karen Crooks, who have been married 18 or so years but are on the brink of divorce. Karen was reactivated back in March, and Chris was reactivated as we transferred into the area we started to teach him because he took leap of faith and was willing to meet one time. Well, Chris and Karen have been arguing almost every day for years, they are pretty much just roommates at this point. Elder Westover and I, last Tuesday, urged them to pick up the scriptures and to read and pray together every morning and we promised they would see the fruits of the truth and atonement in their life. They committed. We went over on Saturday (Karen not home) and after sharing that they have been reading and praying together Chris covers his eyes and with emotion shares with us,"The past two mornings Karen has hugged me. That has not happened in years." As he uncovers his eyes, tears are strolling down his face. The Atonement is healing their marriage. It is a miracle. I know that Christ wants to heal us. All he asks is for us to come unto him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I love this gospel. I am grateful for it and I bear my witness that I know Christ lives and he loves you. I leave you with my witness of that and hope you have a happy new year. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

This week was a blast. This work is so much fun. I love it with all of my heart! This week Elder Westover and I had the opportunity to speak to many different people about the gospel. Many of our lessons fell through but the Lord guided us to many potential families whom we are excited to share our testimonies with! 

In the past 2 days we have received around 8 inches of snow. Which was perfect because we had our Branch Christmas party Saturday night! The Branch party was a lot of fun and we were able to see many less actives and non members come. It is exciting to see the work going forth as the members fellowship and invite their friends to come to these activities! For one of the activites we had a lip sync battle which turned into a bit of a dance off battle as well. Which was hilarious! They had 1 for women, 1 for youth and then they had myself, Brother Segovia, and President Powell go at it to the song, "All I Want for Christmas is You." It was great! Brother Segovia is latino and busted some real moves. It was great! He and I were going at it! :P I am quite sure though I embarrased 2 of our members during the dance by some moves I pulled. It was great!

Real quick spiritual thought from my studies this morning. It is a quote by Elder Thomas S. Monson. "Regarding ones testimony, remember, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he loses..." I testify of this truth shared by our prophet and I invite you during this Christmas season, specifically this week, to find someone whom you can bear your testimony to and do it! I know your heart will be filled with the warmth of knowing you have a loving Heavenly Father and a Savior who died for you.

Have a great week! Sorry it was so long this time.

My week was amazing. We found a way cool new investigator named Ethan. He is a lot like J.C. Silotti. Just not a latter day saint. He is great! He even lives in an old Baptist church that was turned into a home. So his living room is a huge cultural hall. It's pretty sweet. Elder Westover and I are doing great. It was fun this morning. We went and received a free private kickboxing class from a member in our branch that is huge into martial arts and is extremely great at it!

We also had our first bit of snow for the year. That is quite exciting. :) 

Training is still a lot of fun. I am loving working with Elder Westover. It was quite funny. This morning Elder Ekpgaha came over and Elder Westover was in another room and I guess he has picked up on some of my language I speak or phrases so to speak. Elder Ekpagha heard Elder Westover say some of those things and said, "Ha! He is so much like you and even talks like you!" It made me laugh but I realized how much of an impact I do have on him and all those around me as we all do. It motivates me even more to want to do better, because I know that when it comes to being a husband, a father, and any sort of calling or other leadership positions I may be in, people will follow my lead and example. If I diligently read my scriptures, pray and go to the temple, my kids will follow. If I am kind and serve others, if I open the door for ladies and the elderly and others I love, my children and those close to me will follow that example. I won't even have to tell them to do it! Its great. :D Unless I am naughty. Anyways, always remember the impact your example has on others and be a light to the world. Love you all! :D

This week was superb! Always so much fun on the mission. :)

This Thanksgiving was neat. We started teaching a new investigator named Daniel. He is from Mexico but has been here for work. He has a wife and 2 beautiful young children who still live in Mexico as they don't have the paperwork to come to the United States yet. So for Thanksgiving he was going to be all alone. We asked our Branch Pres. if he could join us and he, of course, said yes. Daniel was grateful and filled with joy. It was a beautiful Thanksgiving miracle!

Transfers, and the way the mission is running, has changed up a bit. We hear who is getting transferred on Saturday evening instead of Monday morning now. 2nd change is that in a Stake their used to be 2 zones which included 2 zone leaders, 2 sister training leaders, 1 district leader. He switched it so there will be 1 zone per Stake so everything in size will about double. That will be exciting! Anyways it was a great week. Love you all! :D