Talmage Mission

Good Morning!  It has been a week! This is one of those weeks where everything feels a bit off. We began the week with our Zone Conference, it was fantastic as usual. The theme was "Believe", and there are a few things I really enjoyed! For example, I've now realized that I can invite my friends to believe in the message we carry as missionaries. That was something I hadn't understood before. I'll be using that this week for sure.  Now although trials come in our lives, God is a God of miracles. After the Zone Conference we began an exchange in Panguitch, with Elder Payne. It's a beautiful area, but by the end of it I wasn't feeling too well. I ended up sick through the next couple days, mostly recovering by Friday (when I began another exchange, this time with Elder Dickey!) The miracle was that, despite being sick, it happened just after and just before some pretty important events during the week.  Because I was sick, and unable to do much work, and the...

Good Morning! This has been a fantastic week! I never thought I'd have so much fun in the snow, I've been kicking it and jumping in snow drifts all week! Okay, maybe not literally, but it's a welcome change of pace. It's been a fantastic week with regards to missionary work though! My new companion is Elder Jorgensen, he's been out a while and has been teaching me a few things! We've had a lot of fun together, and are teaching almost twenty people, so I'd say the work is very healthy over here.  On the transfer van up, somehow I was dropped off, and there ended up not being a place for me to stay. Luckily Elder Gibson was homeless and single, just like me! So we hung out for a few hours and did some work in the Cedar North Stake. I enjoyed being with Elder Gibson again, we really hit it off, and talked about our time together in La Verkin a little. He's a really good missionary, I'm grateful to have spent some time with him. Oh, and there were chicke...

Good Morning! This has been a fantastic week! College is back in session, and thus the campus is alive again! Elder Koyle and I were questioning if the Institute was really as busy as it feels, but it's likely just the perspective shift from nobody being around to everyone being back in town. I still personally feel that it's never been this hard to find a parking spot at the Institute building, but maybe that's just me . . . One of our friends, Zaylie, was baptized this Sunday! It was such a sacred, special experience. She's come a long way. We set her date before the break, then went 3 weeks without good contact with her. But when she came back, we resolved her concerns and helped her prepare for her baptism! I confirmed her (gave her the Holy Ghost), Zaylie has been wonderful to work with. Elder Koyle and I never knew for sure how it would turn out, but we're glad she's committed to live a covenant lifestyle.  We also found a number of new people this week, a...

Good Morning! This week was awesome! We put Sarah and Claudel on-date for baptism, they are very prepared. The way our area is set, we will have a baptism every single weekend in January! Elder Koyle and I are very excited. Deagan was our friend baptized on Saturday, he's prepared a lot for this day and is ready to live a gospel-centered life. I spent Thursday with Elder Speed, I really enjoy working with him. Then, to end the weekend off, we attended Elder Holland's YSA devotional in-person! It was fantastic! I'll briefly mention Deagan's baptism. It was a sweet experience, watching him make a covenant with his Heavenly Father. He's worked hard for this and grown a lot in his faith. I can see him serving a mission someday!  We did service at the Utah Food Bank last week, where they asked us to clean these bright yellow fences they had inside the warehouse. However, not all were easily accessible. Elder Koyle took photographic evidence of my endeavors to be as thoro...

Good Morning! Happy New Year! We started off strong, with a fantastic Zone Council! Then on Friday, Elder Koyle was temporarily out of commission, so we cleaned our apartment all day and did menial computer work. We didn't find any new friends to teach this week, but three of our current friends attended church! This is the week where everyone should come back for school (to be converted of course). So it might not be an exciting week until the weekend, but that's okay!  I mentioned Zone Council. Elder Koyle and I put it together, and all the missionaries in the Zone gathered to receive some skill training! This was a first for the mission that I'm aware of, but I think it was a pretty big hit! I loved spending more time with missionaries in the Zone, and building missionary skills with them. Maybe I've said this before, but I just love being a missionary, and I especially love all the fantastic missionaries I've served around. They've been such a blessing to me...