Talmage Mission

Good Morning! It's amazing how much can happen in one week, especially after a week of doing almost nothing. I've actually had to reference my journal to see what has happened, and I'm surprised by how many talking points I have.  One thing to note is this past week I've done a remarkable job of keeping up on my study goals. I've read gospel books, studied the Book of Mormon at night, and read through other study materials in the mornings. I missed a night or two, but otherwise I'm impressed. I've surpassed my expectations, and I intend to keep this success going.  As a fun side project, I watched a movie called "The Best Two Years". I really enjoyed how it highlighted the difficulties of missionary work, as well as giving the missionaries fun personalities. It's a fun movie, definitely one I recommend! Since we've revisited the ranch, a lot of cool things have happened. I dug more holes with my brothers to search for buried pipes, and we w...

Good Morning! A terrible tragedy occurred in our family last Wednesday . . . My mom tested positive for Covid-19.  Well, luckily it's not as bad as it sounds. Most everyone in the family experienced some level of headaches or fevers, and some slightly congested noses, but that was it. My mom was the only one who took a test, as it was safe to assume the rest of us had the disease. She was tired for a few days, we all were, but we're moving past it now.  Instead of attending church yesterday, we stayed home and watched sacrament meeting through zoom. I enjoyed it because it helped bring the spirit into our home, which hadn't been super present throughout the week because of everyone's general lack of will. I have been improving in my scripture study, and I've found my burdens to be lightened. If you're feeling heavy, that's my suggestion. It's only a suggestion, but you never know until you try.  I enjoyed the privilege of poking our Instapot and making d...

Good Morning! My youngest brother, Clark (#5 of 6) recently got his first email account for becoming a Deacon this past week. Don't know why, that's just usually when my siblings and I would get to create our first email, at about 12. So naturally, being the wonderful older brother I am, I throw him into the next mass email so he can hear about spiritual stuff.  Later that week, on Saturday, Clark made some comment about reading my email. I was thrilled, my younger brother actually cares about me! (Clark's awesome, my favorite brother currently shorter than myself.) I ask him what he thought of my email, and he says it sounded like I was giving a talk in church! I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but hey, why not have Sunday all over again on Monday? Life is going at a regular pace now. I still feel like I'm wasting my time, but that's a bit unavoidable. However, I am choosing (more or less) to stay busy with the time I do have. I end up on the ranc...

Good Morning! I hope this email finds you well. I keep adding new people in, so this is fun for me. I'm going to continue sending emails out, partly to update you on my progress and partly because it gives me something fun to look forward to on Mondays. I'm on like 15 missionary email lists, so I get enough emails that I can read two or three a day and have my week booked with inspirational missionary stuff. Then I stare at an empty inbox wondering why I read them all on Monday evening.  I try to remember everything I send and what I say each week so none of my emails are repetitive, but I don't catch everything. For example, I have a photo below of a Mammoth skeleton on display in the Fairview Museum I took a month ago, but just forgot to add into whatever email it was supposed to be in. Now that I'm less of a missionary and more of a sort-of-home but also kind-of-an-adult-child, I take less photos of what's going on around me. Granted all my Utah photos seem to be...

Good Morning! I have returned home from my mission a little earlier than expected. There are some things I need to take care of, which I was unable to accomplish in the mission field. I am not entirely certain how long I will be home, my goal is to be back out in two or three months, but we'll see. My Stake President and I are working together to send me back out as soon as reasonably possible.  Coming home wasn't fun or easy. I knew about this a couple weeks ago, had some time to pack my things, enjoyed Christmas and a baptism in Mt. Pleasant, and then flew home Monday morning. I sent last week's email from the DFW Airport. However, I have found contentment in knowing that, even though I feel a little out of place here at home, I know it's where I need to be, at least for a time.  Besides getting to watch all the extended Lord of the Rings movies with my family, I do have some personal goals to still 'feel' like a missionary. I'm trying to stick to a consis...