Email ciento y cuatro: El Último

August 13, 2018 

Family and friends, this is it. The last email. I want to thank everyone on this list. Those who wrote me and those who did not. Those who actually read these, and those who do not. Your love and concern is felt and appreciated.

This last week was awesome. On Saturday I got to attend a baptism down in Oxford for a Venezuelan family that I had the privilege of being involved in the teaching process with. Their names are O and N, and they have a special needs daughter named L. Their story is pretty incredible. He was a successful engineer in Venezuela, but because of Government corruption, inflation rates are ridiculously high. He said that if he got paid in the morning, he would have to buy food right then or else it would be too expensive in the afternoon. So they came here to Mississippi, and started with nothing. As they looked for assistance with taking care of their daughter, they ran into someone who’s father is a member of the church, and they told them about the church. Their first Sunday, they decided they would go to the first church that had Jesus Christ’s name in it, and it just happened to be the same church that that person had told them about. They knew it was a sign from God. They showed up at church and started meeting with the Sister missionaries and having a
member translate the lessons for them. Then I was able to come to a couple lessons and teach them. They are the definition of golden! They knew right from the start this was the truth. They love reading the Book of Mormon as a family, and are such wonderful people. It warms my heart how tender and patient they are with their daughter. At the beginning of the transfer, I fasted that I would be able to find and baptize a Hispanic family, since I had not baptized any Hispanics on the mission. Though we were able to find a teach many Hispanics, none of them kept commitments and progressed, which was very discouraging. Heavenly Father has answered my prayers through this family. They are my Hispanic family. I love them, and I’m so grateful that Heavenly Father let me be a part of teaching them the Gospel. I’m so excited for there to be a Spanish Branch in Oxford and for O to be Branch President. I know that Heavenly Father will grant us our righteous desires, even if it is in a way we don’t expect.

This week was full of hard work. I’ve been trying my best to finish strong and talk to as many people as I can, and have seen some little miracles from that. Honestly, it’s been hard, really hard. The temptation to ease off the gas and coast to the end is so strong. This whole transfer I’ve felt fine, but last Wednesday for the first time since Erinn’s wedding day I truly felt trunky. I’ve missed and thought about home before, but that same paralyzing feeling came back just knowing that I only had a week left. I decided to talk to Elder Paopao about it, and that really helped. Elder Paopao is such a stud! I’m super grateful to have served with him, we’ve become good friends and are definitely going to hang out when he gets home in December. He has a great testimony of eternal families, especially since his mother passed away from breast cancer when he was 10 years old.

Last night we had dinner with the Sloan family. They recently moved here from Dallas Texas.

Brother Sloan is awesome, he served his mission Spanish speaking in Salt Lake. It’s kinda weird talking with him though because he looks like a 30 year old version of my best friend Tanner Stallings. Actually he probably looks looks like a mix between Tanner and Hunter, but anyway he’s a way cool guy. We shared a spiritual thought and then asked them to pray and ask where we should go finding that night. He took it a step farther and actually went finding with us. We drove out to Walls, a small town close to the Mississippi River on the edge of our area. We talked to everyone. The first lady we talked to let us in, but the husband was drunk and made it hard to teach her, so we said we’d come back another time. We then talked to a dad named B playing with his daughter at the playground. We got his number and address and set an appointment for Thursday. Brother Sloan has a really powerful testimony. I’m super grateful he came with us. He also gave me his sister’s number and made me promise to call her when I get back haha.

Y’all aren’t going to believe what happened today! Elder Paopao and I went to a Chinese buffet, and I’m getting my food when this short Hispanic man starts backing into me saying excuse me while pulling a cart of dishes. At first I was like “what on earth?!” He turns around, and it’s R! The Colombian man I almost baptized in Memphis! He started laughing and gave me a big hug, which was really weird. (I offended him super bad and he said he never wanted to see me again and dropped us.) Turns out he’s living in Southaven! And working at the Chinese buffet! He said he’s completely forgiven me and gave me his number to call him when I go home. That was just another little miracle. When Ricardo dropped us was probably one of the hardest days of my life, and Heavenly put him in my path my last day in Southaven, and our friendship is restored. Such a tender mercy.

It was a good last week. I can’t even begin to fathom that my time as a full time missionary will come to an end in two short days. It still feels like it just started. I remember the day I entered the MTC crystal clear like it was yesterday. Me getting up at 6:30 and finishing packing my suit cases. Me going up stairs at 8 am. Mom asking me what I wanted for breakfast and me responding by bursting into tears. Me sobbing uncontrollably for an hour and a half. Joel laughing at me as I tried to eat my French toast while crying like an infant. Good times.

In all seriousness, I don’t even know how to begin this email. There’s nothing I could say that could do how I feel about my mission justice. It’s ironic that I talked about personal conversion as my topic for my farewell, because on my mission so much conversion and personal growth have taken place. I’ve grown in my maturity, humility, charity, obedience, faith, and ever other attribute of Christ. I don’t want to sound like I think I’m exceptionally humble, mature, loving, and obedient compared to others, because that’s not what it’s all about. President Wakolo said it best: “I don’t want to be better than others, I just want to be better than I’ve been.” I know that I am better than I was. This has been made possible through Repentance and the Atonement of Christ.

I have such a testimony of repentance.  My relationship with the Savior has improved so much. I see Him now as He is: someone who suffered a very dear price for me, who wants to forgive, and wants me to be free of the burdens I carry. He wants me to lay them down at His feet, because He loves more than I can even comprehend.

If any of you feel that repentance or confession are simply too difficult, I beg you to give up the

burdens that you were never meant to carry alone. We came to this earth to make mistakes, repentance IS the plan, and it is the way to peace in this life and eternal life in the life to come. Our Savior died to get rid of the guilt and the shame that we cannot remove by ourselves. To quote one of my favorite songs performed by Elder Paopao and Elder Armstrong in the last musical tribute: “If He carried the weight of the world up on His shoulders, I know my Brother/Sister that he will carry you.” The Savior Jesus Christ lives. His Atoning sacrifice paid the debt in full for all of our sins, mistakes, short comings, sorrows, pains, regrets, heartaches, you name it. I testify that that is true, because I have lived it.

Another great lesson the mission has taught me is charity. I could talk about this forever, but I think this email is all ready too long and Jesus can sum it up in two scriptures better than I could in two pages.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

“34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

The most important things we can do in this life is love God, and love everyone.

I testify that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church of Christ restored back to the earth. The Book of Mormon is true. If I know one thing, it’s that this is the truth. I’m so grateful for the time I’ve had to share it with the people of the South full time. I will continue to share it when I go home. My mission is by no means over. It’s really just beginning.

Love y’all!

Email ciento y tres: GONE FISHIN’

August 6, 2018 

Well sorry this email is going to be reaaaaaaaaaal short, we been fishin all day. I caught me a couple nice bass. Hopefully y’all won’t be upset, after all, I’ll see ya in a week. Crazy to think that this is my last week of the mission! It doesn’t feel real at all. Next week I promise I will send a detailed email of what my mission has meant to me, and some of the greatest lessons I’ve learned. These certainly have been the best two years, and I will cherish them forever. This week was another awesome week. Busy busy busy again, but we are working hard and loving life. I’m so grateful for my companion Elder Paopao, such a stud. He’s another of the really good friends I’ve been blessed to meet on the mission. We found a few new Hispanic people to teach including R, D, and A. My Spanish is a little rusty haha, but the work is awesome!


I love y’all! Have a wonderful week, seeeeeeee y’all soon!

Email ciento y dos

July 30, 2018 

Hey folks, this week was a dandy, and like I said we were super busy. We had a lot of service and a lot of meetings, and unfortunately not as much time for proselyting.

On Tuesday we went to Senatobia and did exchanges with the Elders their. I went with Elder Stewart. Elder Stewart rode bucking broncos back at home and is a total country boy. He’s a workhorse and an incredible missionary, and we’ve become good friends. Then on Thursday we drove down to Little Rock for Mission Leadership Council.

The instruction was on leadership and also finding. Instead of doing a role play, we did a real play and they told us to go outside and just talk to every single person we saw. The transfer van dropped us off in a neighborhood, and President Faulkner, the first counselor in the mission presidency came with us. We found a lady named Victoria, who let us in and told us she had gone to church before. It was awesome having President Faulkner with us, he knows so much. He is African American and a convert to the church.

On Saturday we had an all day service project in downtown Memphis at FedEx forum, where the Memphis Grizzlies play. We packed meals for senior citizens in poverty. They had a live dj, so we had a ton of fun jamming out and dancing to the music.

Sorry this is so short! I’ll make sure and include a lot of details next week, but the Church is true and I love y’all!

Also, I got to have dinner with the Benitez fam on Saturday! So great to see them again! I also got to visit my old apartment!

Email ciento y uno

July 23, 2018

Hey folks, I have NO time today. Zone Pday. It’s a struggle.

But things are going great, I’m loving life, loving the work. We received an awesome referral named William this week, and we have a lesson with him tonight. We are super excited to teach him because he is very interested.

I had my very last Zone Conference this week. It was definitely a weird feeling. Elder Paopao and

I got to instruct on working with members, and it went super well. I got up and bore my testimony about how an email from Dad changed my whole mission, and I started to get emotional. The Spirit I felt during the Conference was incredible. I haven’t had a single Zone Conference that didn’t inspire me to be better and give me a recharge to go and be the best that I can be. Zone Conferences....you will be missed.

This next week is packed full, we are gonna be BUSY. Lots of meetings and lots of service, as well as many teaching appointments. It’s gonna be awesome, I’ll tell y’all all about it in a week!
Love y’all!

Email cien

July 16, 2018 

Hey folks, another week has gone and I am loving life in Mississippi! Unfortunately I have very little time to tell y’all all about it...

THE 100TH EMAIL!

On Tuesday we drove up to Collierville Tennessee, a suburb of Memphis. The Collierville Sisters are in our zone, and in the same District as the Holly Springs Elders. We went to their District Meeting to see how the District is doing. The Sisters totally forgot that we had District Meeting so they showed up a half hour late. Sister Hawkes is training Sister Uli’i, who is from Hawaii and is Native Hawaiian. Elder Paopao is pretty stoked to have another Polynesian in the Zone. We then did exchanges with the Holly Springs Elders and I was with Elder Billman. Man I like that guy. He’s such a funny guy and a great missionary. We talked to everyone and worked really hard.

Then we had exchanges with Elder Garn and Elder Caringer again. I went with Elder Caringer, and
man I love that guy too. This Zone is just stacked with a bunch of awesome Elders, I feel really lucky to be working with all these studs. This mission is just full of so many cool people that I am going to miss so much. Elder Caringer and I have become really good friends. President Hansen called him and told him that his best friend’s mom passed away, so he was sad about that, but didn’t really want to show it.

The bad news for this week was that T got evicted from the house he was living in. He owed some rent and the landlord wasn’t thrilled that he joined the church. Luckily Bishop was able to work out some living arrangements and he is okay now.

We are teaching a couple named P and his wife T. They are really awesome and really want to have a strong marriage and turn their lives around.

Yesterday, we sung the closing hymn in Sacrament Meeting, The Spirit of God. That hymn has become my favorite on the mission. I love the hope and power that it testifies about concerning the Restoration. I began to cry as I thought about these wonderful two years I’ve had to proclaim this message. I’m so grateful for my mission and all it has taught me.

I love y’all! Have a wonderful week!

Email noventa y nueve

July 9, 2018 

Hey folks!

Well I’m already a week into my last transfer! Craziness. I’ve officially started the MyPlan program, an online course that missionaries take once a week during their final transfer. Fun stuff!

Enough of that, I don’t want to talk about going home stuff. Gross.

I want to start off by saying that my new companion, Elder Paopao, is awesome! He’s from Barstow, California, a town in the desert of Southern California just off I-15.  He is Samoan. He played football in high school and actually has a scholarship to play football for Snow College. He’s about my height and size. When he got here, he told me I need to help him get back into football shape, so we have been hitting the gym hard this week. Last transfer, President gave us approval to work out for an hour in the mornings

instead of 30 minutes only. We also have a really nice gym at our apartment complex clubhouse, so we have been going pretty ham in the mornings. Plus Elder Caringer is a workout junkie. He gets pretty nerdy about it, he brings this textbook full of workouts for each muscle group, it’s like having a personal trainer. This last Friday was leg day, and we are still sore lol! Everyone at church yesterday was wondering why all four of us were limping.

So let’s take it all back to Tuesday. After staying with the other Southaven Elders, Tuesday morning, Brother M from the Southaven Ward picked me up to take me to Bartlett. We got there and saw all the Missionaries getting transferred to and from the Arkansas side, as well as all the missionaries going home from the Tennessee. I got to say goodbye to Elder Toomer and Elder

Barron, who served together in my old area in Memphis this last transfer, as well as Elder Janes, who I served around in Russellville, and Elder Stiles-Culver, and a bunch of really good friends that I have made on the mission. As I gave Elder Toomer a hug, he said: “You’re next.”

We picked up Elder Paopao, and headed back to Southaven. The M’s took us out to eat at Cracker Barrell. Their grilled chicken BLT is amazing.

Then, we went straight to work, knocking some doors. We met a man named P, who let us inside. He said he really wants to change his life. We taught him a little about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, and invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He said: “why would I even question it not being the word of God?” He has such great faith! That was a little miracle we saw on our first day.

The Fourth of July was an interesting day. We tracted most of the day, and not a ton of people were very interested haha, it was simply their day to relax and party. We went to a Ward 4th of July party and left pretty quickly because it felt weird just being there.

T got baptized this Saturday! We weren’t sure if it was gonna happen or not in till Friday night, so we had to scramble to get a program together. Everything went smoothly. He asked Elder Caringer to baptize him, and I confirmed him yesterday. He was so golden from day one! It has truly been a pleasure to teach him and watch his conversion take place! Now we are back on the hunt for more people like him that are looking for the truth. Elder Paopao and I fasted that we will be able to baptize at least one more time this transfer. We are going to have to work our tails off to do it, but I have faith! Pray for us!

Love y’all!

Above is a note I wrote to T, I drew some cats on it because he loves cats haha

Email noventa y ocho

July 2, 2018 

Well it appears my abilities in the Spanish language have still not enabled me to know how to count. I sent last weeks email out as number 77 instead of 97. Hopefully I can get this whole numbers in

Spanish thing down in my last transfer. The only trouble is I don’t have a Hispanic companion anymore.

That’s right, Elder Cepeda is gone. President Hansen decided to make him the new Assistant to the President. I don’t think President realizes how much of a goofball this kid is. President Hansen really likes Elder Cepeda because his dad is a mission President in the Mexico Tijuana Mission (Joel’s mission). I love the kid to death, but it’s going to be weird seeing him in AP mode knowing him like I know him.

My new companion will be Elder Paopao (pronounced pow pow). He’s from California, not sure what part, and is Samoan. I’ve seen him around the mission a lot and talked to him a few times. He seems like a really cool guy and a great missionary, I know a lot of missionaries really like him, so I’m excited to work with him. He gets here tomorrow from Benton, Arkansas, a Zone Leader Area just outside of Little Rock. He’s been a Zone Leader since November or December, so he has a lot of experience. I’m ready to work my tail off this last transfer and go out strong.

On Tuesday we went down to Oxford again for District Meeting. Elder Evans instructed on Teaching
in unity as a companionship, and Elder Cepeda and I were in charge of the role play. The Elder Evans then came back to Southaven with me on exchanges. By the time we planned our day, we had only 2 hours to work, so we hit the streets of Horn Lake and talked to everyone. Elder Evans is an awesome missionary, and really good at talking to people. He’s from the Las Vegas area, and is Fijian and Tongan. He almost looks African American, so black people are super down to talk to him. We really had a good time on exchanges, he’s a super funny kid. He just got called to be a Zone Leader in Jonesboro, and his companion Elder Sagel is going home, so they are actually closing the Oxford Elder area, there will only be sisters there now.

Then on Friday we did exchanges with the other Southaven Elders, and I went with Elder Garn. We were on bikes because once again we were OUT of miles at the end of the month. We talked to everyone, and really had a good experience. I love being bold and opening my mouth. Prefect love casteth out all fear, and fear is the opposite of faith. There’s a quote I like, and I don’t really know who says it, but I’ll attribute it Shakespeare: “If it is to be, it is up to me.” Nothing happens in missionary work in till we do something about it. We have to be proactive and open our mouths. We can’t let fear or laziness keep us from giving and doing all we can. I’m determined to give and do all I can in the next 6 weeks.

Love y’all! Have a wonderful week!
Pics:
Saying goodbye to Elder Sagel, he’s squatting down in the picture with him and I haha
Elder Sagel’s funeral
2. District Meeting featuring the Fijian flag
1. Before and after photos of biking again
3. Last pic with the new, current, and old APs
My new trio companionship