Fiesta Time!

JOHNNY!!! We are getting so close with Johnny! We had an incredible lesson with him the other day. Johnny has been having a hard time understanding and finding an answer to his prayers...so we talked about the Holy Ghost and different ways it works and speaks to us. We testified so much in that lesson. We read together in Moroni chapter 7 verse 13...and then i asked him, "Johnny, do you feel good when you read the book of mormon with us?" he replies,"Well...yeah, yeah I do." Well that's the SPIRIT my friend!! Whatever thing invites us to do good IS of God. And that is what the book of mormon is all about. GAH, you guys just needed to be there...but it was incredible. We're are having his baptism on the 21st...right before the big branch party that my companion and I are putting together. I'll have to show you the awesome flyer I made ;) It's pretty sweet if I don't say so my self...but I'll admit i don't think this party will be as awesome as the one back home =D

We found another great man named Jose. He's only lived here in Idaho for about 3 months. He's never talked with missionaries. He wants to learn more and take the discussions. But the only problem is...he doesn't know how to read...so we are going to teach him! He's so ready. I've never seen a more golden investigator as this. I just feel so blessed to find great people like him. Elder Clarke of the Seventy said that when the Lord trusts you He will put people in your path. I hope and pray I can live up to that trust. 

We've also been trying better at extending a baptismal date daily. And it's been awesome with the results. We've had a host full of them say yes right on the spot! Like yesterday...remember the Padilla family? Well we had dinner with them again and they invited one of their neighbors over. We taught them a lesson, invited them to follow the promise of Moroni and then invited them for baptism. The father thought about it for a moment...and then said YES! woo! 

Scriptures for the week: 3Nephi 3:15 and D&C 18:10-13,14

Along with all that good news...the past couple days have also been hectic. We finally got our car back...but then we found a bunch of other stuff wrong with it. NEVER am i taking our car back to that dealer ship. and I've had to be dealing with a lot of things in the district. Disobedience, laziness, and a pretty crazy bi-polar elder that hasn't had his pills in the past few days. Oh the joys of dealing with all that. It can be stressful at times...but you just gotta love 'em.

YES!! POTATOES FROM BLACKFOOT!!! never in a million years did i ever think i was going to be speaking spanish in the potato capital of the United States. Boy do i have some stories to tell you when we skype on Christmas =D

Well I gotta get going y'all. Take care. Con mucho amor!

Elder Petitt 

More Luke

well we had a good week..well it was actually like a roller coaster ride to be honest. We took Noah Zamora, our awesome investigator, to see a baptism. He was so excited to go see a baptism and see what it was all about. The spirit was strong, and then we taught him in the chapel about the importance of baptism and set a date with him. He struggled to except a date and then confessed that he had 5 more years of parole....dang. My companion and I were just soooooo bummed out about that. Someone can't can't baptized if they are still on parole just because that's still part of the repentance process...man. He's been coming to church and everything...i guess we can set a baptismal date for 2018? yeah. 

We had a lesson with the Espinosa family. They were found through a member...And that my friend is a perfect example of member missionary work! We had a dinner, taught the restoration, and the member testified. It was an awesome lesson. We invited them to be baptized and they accepted. The dad seemed to be just soaking it in. We focused a lot on family...and how the gospel really does bless families. 

An explosive fiesta is about to happen in the branch with the joined forces of the members . Our ward mission leader (who really isn't our ward mission leader...but we like to think he is) is hooking us up with his DJ skills, tons of tamales, and some fun things to do for the kids. OH SNAP. Can't wait for this. The branch hasn't had an activity like...all year! So, it's time to end that and get some investigators out and have a blast. This well be a perfect way just to unify the branch. 

Thanksgiving was delightful. In the morning we helped out at this Catholic church for a Thanksgiving meal for the poor and the needy. It was awesome to join with different religions for a common cause. Apparently the lds church and a lot of the other churches in Blackfoot do this ever year. I just felt so good helping them out. After that we kicked it with some awesome members. But there was only one thing missing...Mom's home made mac&cheese! gah! oh how i miss the mac&cheese. oh, and we went on a little hike because it was absolutely beautiful on thanksgiving day. those are where most of those pics come from =)

 

Thanksgiving Service

"My husband is the Stake President of the Blackfoot, South Stake, and for Thanksgiving we helped prepare and serve the community in need a special dinner. I wanted to share these pictures and report that the Elders were a big help, happy to help, and made a great impression on those they served." Sister Cannon

***

yerp, it's thanksgiving this week. i can hardly believe it. we don't really have any plans for thanksgiving...actually we might be eating with a family this week with some other elders. we'll see what happens. On thanksgiving day we are just going to do service. Woo! just finding people to serve, especially some of the less actives and recent converts in our branch. 

We taught this other man named Noah Zamora. Our lesson was so awesome...he's about 40 years old but he has had a super rough past. Been in jail quite a few times. But the past five years he's had a "change" and he's been sober from alcohol and drugs for about 5 years. We've been seeing him at church for the past month but never really had the chance to teach him or talk to him until now. He started to really believe in a higher power when he was in prison...all he could do was pray and read the bible...and that's kind of why he started going to church because he wants to focus his mind on good things. We talked about a lot about faith...and then invited him to be baptized. He said that it was something he felt like he needed to do.

 He's so awesome...he asked us how you feel when you are baptized. We invited him to pray about January 4th to have his baptism.  My companion and I both knew he was feeling the spirit =)

This week should be pretty busy for us. We have a lesson with a family the day before thanksgiving. A member from the High council introduced us to this family and we're going to have dinner and everything with them. I'm super excited to teach a family like this!! Our mission has really been stressing the importance of finding and teaching families. 

that scripture you just quoted was in my personal studies this morning...awesome!! I'm going through the whole book of mormon again...but this time i'm highlighting everything that pertains to missionary work and what kind of attributes a great missionary has...and i must say, it's been really great to do that...and almost everything that is highlighted is IN preach my gospel! so the apostles and prophet knew what they were doing when they put that inspired book together. 

bad news is that some kids broke my glasses...but don't worry! I super glued them together lol. yah...long story...but i guess that can be my Christmas present now. weeeee

well have a grateful attitude this week! love ya and take care!

Sweet People!!!!

Hi
My name is Kathy Dietrich I'm a member from Blackfoot Idaho and stopped to give your son's a ride in our cold weather  It is about 24 degrees today. I have a missionary serving in San Diego California and have a soft spot for helping the missionaries out. I could resist taking a picture and telling you your sons are doing great.


Kathy Dietrich | Specialist, Relay For Life

Reactivations and Photos!

This sums up our area.

Look who I met...

Our view...most everywhere.

We were just out walking and boom! snow!

Hello once again everybody

The Padilla family came to church again! wooooo! I'm so happy to see them coming to church. As you know, this is a less active family we have been working with. We had an awesome lesson with them this past week about conversion. I shall quote some parts about conversion in the bible dictionary, "Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing. To labor for the conversion of one's self and others is a noble task." The kids were participating a lot more too. 

This past Sunday more people came to church. We had a couple more less active families show up to church, and one bore her testimony...The relief society president bore her testimony and it was very touching. Her husband is very less active, but she shared many stories of missionaries coming over. She has a special place in her heart for missionaries. It was really cool to hear that because it just reassured me that I actually am making a difference. My companion and I have been praying and fasting a lot for the branch...and we ARE seeing a difference. But it's usually just a little bit at a time. We see some more members reaching out and having more concern to visit and reactive those that are struggling. 

I did two baptismal interviews this week. One of them was with this 30 year old man named Sam. He grew up in Idaho all of his life, but he didn't really like the mormons. When he was growing up he used to play with his mormon friends, but then their mothers told them they couldn't play anymore because he wasn't mormon. Because of that he had a sour attitude, along with other factors as well. Annnnyways, he got reintroduced to the gospel by his wife he married 4 years ago...slowly his heart changed and then he took the missionary discussions. It was really awesome to interview because I could tell he was converted. He had a beautiful baptism...it kind of got me thinking about how much work really goes into a baptism! Blood, sweat, and tears go into each baptism. man. It's a miracle when anybody enters the waters of baptism. Going to that baptism made me want to rededicate myself to find that "one" who is prepared. 

Yes it snowed today and yesterday. weeeeee! it's cold! Whenever it's cold i just want to snuggle in my blanket, drink some hot chocolate, and listen to some Michael Buble's Christmas album...but that's not what I was called to do haha. That's crazy that Erica got her license! I remember those seminary days...I always liked it when you guys drove me so I could get to sleep an extra 15 min =D

Love ya, and take care!
Elder Petitt  

This is the gospel of HAPPINESS people!!!

Another week has gone by. 

We're working with this investigator and his name is Johnny Martinez. He had a baptismal date for this week but we, unfortunately, had to push it back. We had a solid lesson with him and we were just straight up with him...we asked him if he even wanted to do BE baptized. He's still unsure and doesn't have any sort of testimony of the Book of Mormon...so we talked about the holy ghost and how he really can get an answer from God. There's a scripture in Galatians chapter 5:22-23. It talks about the fruits of the spirit, and my companion and I testified that we have felt those same fruits of the spirit when we read the Book of Mormon. I love Johnny to death, and I've only known him for about a week and a half. 

Johnny has a brother that was baptized about a three years ago. His name is Carlos, and he is one of the coolest members I have ever met. He used to drink and party all the time. Before he was baptized, the missionaries kept knocking and knocking on his door. He would ignore them...actually, he ignored them for three years until something finally clicked. He finally let the missionaries in, he stopped his drinking habits, and now he's a faithful latter-day saint who attends this tiny branch. Man, let me tell you...I have mad respect for this man. He's also the most missionary minded guy I have ever met! He knows like...everybody in this town! He's really been working hard with us to find people to teach. Carlos took us to a fiesta this week and we got a return appointment to teach this family. If every member was like Carlos we would have about 30 million members in the church! 

We had church yesterday and it looked like everyone wanted to fall asleep. This is the gospel of HAPPINESS people!!! IT'S THE TRUTH! My companion and I are going to do a lot of fasting and praying to help strengthen the branch. We've begun to do this by visiting all the less actives in our area. These less actives are the nicest people ever! they always feed us delicious tamales and carne. We were able to get one less active family to church this last Sunday! They're name is the Padilla family. We taught them about different prophets in the scriptures and then played some scripture games with the kids. It was pretty awesome. 

I love this church. Sometimes it's hard to stay strong, but if we really are strong in the gospel of Christ then NOTHING can shake our foundation. Helaman 5:12 talks about this. We actually shared that with another less active family last night. 

Well, I'm glad the birthdays went well for Dad and Erica. I'll be sending some things for y'all in the future =) There's some legit stuff in the Potato museum here in Blackfoot! 

Thank you for the prayers on my behalf. I appreciate them and I do feel them. Take care. 

Love, Elder Petitt

 

Blackfoot Nation

Blackfoot IS AWESOME.  This area is the greatest area EVURRR!  

There's literally like...nothing here hahaha. It just a bunch of open fields...it's the greatest thing ever. I think I like it so much because it kinda reminds me of the ghetto places in St.Louis. Makes me feel at home =)

There are Hispanics EVERYWHERE here. we are finding people to teach left and right. Last week we were tracting and we weren't having a ton of success...then we each said a prayer that we could find someone to invite to be baptized. We knocked on this house and this Hispanic kid came out and started talking to us. We started talking about the Book of Mormon, life itself, and where we go after this life. We invited him to be baptized on the spot if he came to know that the BoM is true. He said, "yeah! I just have to ask my mom. Are you guys going to be here next week?"

Well sorry to keep this short. But things are going great. There's lots of work to do. Our Spanish branch had 14 members there. We actually did a fast and testimony yesterday. We have 3 sets of missionaries and we all bore our testimonies. It was one of the best testimony meetings I've ever been in in. 

Well take care familia! have a fantastico weeked!

Elder Petitt

Blackfoot.....the Potato Capital of the World!

Blackfoot.....the Potato Capital of the World!  Home of the Idaho Potato  Museum and gift shop.  Sounds like a great place and a step up from his little two by two area.  This is 5.7 mile and has a population of 12,000. (By Pops Petitt)

Erm, I know the lighting is kind of wacky, but whatever. The Elder on my left finally got his visa for Argentina. He's been here for like 3 months...I was in a tri-panionship with hime for like 2 weeks with Elder Bustamante. It was sad to see him go today. He is the craziest missionary I've ever met. He reminds me of Kyle...but like...1000 times crazier hahaha.  

Gahhhh! We just had transfer calls this Wednesday...there were a lot of unexpected changes that are going to happen. Apparently I'm going to Blackfoot!! what!? No one expected that. I thought for sure I would be here for another transfer. So I'm going to be a district leader down in Blackfoot, and I'm going to train a new native missionary...annnnd we are both going to be brand new to the area. Sounds like fun!

I'm ready for the change though...I feel like I've done everything I can for the Spanish branch. I just hope I've left an impact on the leaders and the members in that branch. It's kind of a bitter sweet feeling. I'll miss a lot of the people I've grown close to...and I'll miss my new companion that I've only been with for 6 weeks. He is so awesome and we easily get along.

Last night we had a BOMB lesson. It was so good. We found this less active family called the Orozco family. We found them because we've been talking to all the different ward mission leaders in our stakes. Their record isn't even in the Spanish branch. gah! This family speaks Spanish, and they kind of struggle with English...so that's great! that's where we come in! woo! Anyways, we talked about the Atonement and talked about their experiences when they were baptized. They still have testimonies...it was incredible to hear their conversion stories...but it's also sad to see people just forget those precious experiences. Before Brother Orozco was baptized, he had dreams about how he would see buildings like the mormon church building, and even things similar to Lehi's dream. It's interesting that a lot of Latinos have dreams like that. I wish I had that ability...my dreams are always pretty crazy haha. I'm sad I don't get to continue working with them though! They are so cool. They just need a lot of fellow shipping from the branch. This week we're going to have the Branch President come out with us to meet them.

General Conference was fantastico! I agree, I was going nuts when Elder Ballard was talking about missionary work...General Conference is like the Super Bowl when you are a missionary. I loved Elder Bednar's talk as well...I think he's my favorite because he loves to rebuke and he's so bold. AWESOME! My favorite quote was "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"- Dieter F Uchtdorf. I miss the tradition of going to Culver's after conference...but instead some members from the Spanish branch went to a Chinese buffet. It was funny to see a bunch of Mexicans eating Chinese food and sushi.

Well, I'm looking toward the future. Just like what Elder Dube said..."Faith always points toward the future!" I'm ready for the change, and I'm excited for this new assignment. I'm ready to tackle on the challenges that lay ahead. 

Have a great week familia!

Love, Elder Petitt

Gone fishin'

Gone fishin y'all!!! look at it! she's a beaut

So the sister on the left of me is from England. She's 26. She is one of the best missionaries in the mission and she's in my district...annnd she's got an awesome accent. good times in Idaho. 

Today some members took us out fishing. I actually don't even like fishing...but this time I kind of enjoyed it. Well, I probably liked it more this time because I actually caught a fish. I caught 4 actually! and some green seaweed gunk. yay. The family made some super delicious french toast with home made caramel sauced drizzled over the warm french toast of freshness. ahhhh!

It was da bomb. 

This week we went to the Idaho Falls temple. It was a very good experience. I love the new temple video. But anyways, my companion and I were both praying on how to strengthen the branch and find people ready to be baptized. We got our answers. We needed to focus on all the less actives and part members again. We really have a lot, and it's quite sad to see so many people that were baptized that lost their way. So, we've been visiting every single less active in our area. We've been just trying to get to know them, offer service, and love them back into the church. We even had a less active family come to church on Sunday! When we went to the ward council we showed them all of the less actives we've contacted and had success with. It's good to show them that we are here to work. 

Well that wraps up another week in Idaho. Chao chao for now. 

Love, Elder Petitt

Teaching & trials

(Left) We were walking through the neighborhood when a random Hispanic lady gave us some Mexican soda! yay! Too bad that lady lives like 40 minutes away =( nonetheless, the pineapple soda was quite refreshing

(Right) Annnnnd here we are locked out of our car lol, i accidentally left the keys at a member's house. woops. 

This week was a pretty good for us. We've been teaching these twins the past couple of weeks. They're 14 years old and they are great kids. For a while the WHOLE family was being taught and the whole family was coming for 4 months straight! buuut then the dad got offended because there were some mormons in his work place that were doing "shady stuff" with money. Ugh. There are pros and cons to living in a highly populated mormon town. The dad likes to drink and smoke too....super tough habits to break. The family needs to be baptized BUUUT the kids want to be baptized. So we challenged them to ask their dad for permission to be baptized. We will see what happens. Teaching the twins are the highlights of my week and we get to teach them tonight! 

Like I've said in some previous emails, we've been contacting allll of the ward mission leaders in our 2 stakes we cover. We've been asking for ways we can help and people that might speak Spanish in their wards. A wml gave us a name of this guy who is from Puerto Rico and he speaks Spanish. We went over to go check it out and the wife opened the door. Wife told us we were an answer to her prayers because the dad has been less active and struggling with his bipolar disorder. He's going to teach us Spanish as we teach him the discussions and help him and his faith =). It's awesome how the Lord works like that. 

Gahhhh! My O'fallon people are leaving on missions!!! Too bad the places that they're going to isn't as cool as Pocatello, Idaho =P. Yesterday my companion and I gave a talk in one of the English wards that are in our stake boundaries. Both of our talks went very well. The topic was about missionary work of course! My favorite subject EVER!! But....a really good talk about missionary work is 'We Are One' by Henry B. Eyring in the last general conference. Holy cow I love that talk because it perfectly outlines how a ward or a branch should function. And of course if you get the chance go ahead and read Oak's talk again. He just talks about how awesome and true the church is. One of my favorite quotes from that talk is "Jesus’s teachings were not meant to be theoretical. Always they were to be acted upon."

Oh, haha, we showed up to one of our dinner appointments this week and nobody was there...so we called our dinner appointment. He answered his cell phone and was like, "Hey whats up Elders!? Oh...my wife isn't there?? Oh man, well hey, uhhh...I'm actually being pulled over by some cops right now because I didn't show up for court...sorry about that Edlers" then he hung up lol. yah. only in Idaho. 

It's starting to get cold again in Idaho. Winter is coming. Not looking forward to a loooooong winter. I LOVE the summer here in Idaho! oh well. Well stay classy everybody. That wraps up another week in Idaho. 

Love, Elder Petitt  

***

Last week:  HELLO! 

This will be pretty short. 

We've been contacting a lot of ward mission leaders to find Moooooore Hispanics! 

Let's see, the highlight of the week is was Zone Conference. We talked a lot about finding families and teaching more families. Families are like...THE most important thing in the church, so it was a good reminder to refocus our efforts on finding and teaching families. There were these two sisters that sang this hymn and HOLY COW...almost everybody was crying cuz it was like the most beautiful thing anyone ever heard. I wish I had singing talents like Josh Groban so I could melt people's ears off. 

This week we have another big Spanish fireside/activity combined with all the other Spanish branches in Idaho Falls. I love those giant fiestas because there are always plenty of food, spanish, hot sauce, dancing, trumpets, and more Spanish! We celebrated one of our missionary's birthdays last night. It was super fun. We had the Zone Leaders over and we had some cake and ice cream for him =D Speaking of birthdays...Erica's birthday is coming around the corner! wooot! I can't believe it. and Father's birthday, of course, is around the corner. 

And the shark week shirts have been a big hit. I get lots of compliments on them =)

Well, that's about it. Have a super fantastic week everybody!

Cha cha cha changes

So long Elder Bustamante ... my Chilean friend. ;0(

I'm am sooooo stoked for Rex to go out on a mission! man he's going to do awesome down there in Brazil. Maybe he will run into Cody Buhler?! Awesome news. Thanks for letting me know about that. It's always good to hear what's going on with my people back there. Sounds like Youth Conference was a blast too. 

But yeah! You got the letter...I am a now a district leader..annnnd a trainer..annd I'm still learning Spanish all at the same time hahaha. Holy cow. I'm super nervous but it should be way awesome. I think I'm going to learn a lot during this next transfer. My companion, Elder Bustamante, just left today. I'm so sad to see my Chilean friend go. He has had a huge impact on me. I'll never forget that guy. He has taught me so much.

Well I just moved out of our apartment a couple days ago into some member's home. They are awesome!!!! It's a thousand times better living with these guys. One morning we woke up and they had a ton of pancakes for us =D Yeah, the dad is a cop so that scares me sometimes. But anyways, I'm already loving it in the new place.

But this week was a solid week though. A couple days ago it was raining, and we were just outside walking. We saw this Hispanic lady and her family running down the street, so we stopped by and started to talk to them. It turns out that this lady is a less active member! (You'll find a lot of them in Idaho). She graciously let us in her home. Immediately she starting unfolding her story about how she lost her husband a year ago and how she has lost faith in everything. We were able to testify of God's love for her. We taught a wonderful lesson and we gave her a priesthood blessing afterwards. It was a  super special experience.

Luke is a District Leader (and he's also a trainer of other missionaries)!

(the word art is this letter)

Dear Elder Petitt,

Congratulations on your assignment to serve as District Leader. With this assignment, great trust has been placed in you. I encourage you to be an example for all over whom you preside in at least the following ways:

Exact Obedience-the blessings that come to missionaries, who are obedient with exactness, are immeasurable, and by being an example you will be able to help the missionaries in your district be obedient.

A Preach My Gospel missionary so that you can show the missionaries in your district how to be successful.

A Leader who lifts and inspires the missionaries with love.

A Missionary who is focused on your purpose to bring others to Christ

A leader who is diligent, humble and hard working.

Teach the missionaries that baptism is central to our purpose to bringing others to Christ, and through your example show them how to baptize. Remember to call upon your Heavenly Father and He will qualify you for this work as you rely upon him in faith. You can also call on your zone leaders, and me for counsel and guidance.

Serve with all your heart, might, mind and strength in furthering this work. It is a privilege to work with you in this leadership role.

Love,
Marvin T. Brinkerhoff
Mission President

Not just potatoes . . .

Preaching the gospel to all nations, kindred ... and tongues.

It's not just potatoes in Idaho!

People just need to be loved

There's one thing I have learned about being in the Idaho Pocatello mission. People just need to be loved. In this mission, EVERYONE knows who the missionaries are. So, you simply can't knock on a door and say "Hello! We are missionaries of the..." yah. You have to really relate to the people and get to know them...then they'll ask more about you and why you are the way you are. One time I tried giving a mormon.org passalong card to this lady, but she absolutely refused to accept it. But once I just started talking to her and asking her questions about life, we started laughing and having a great time...then she accepted the card. So ya see?? people just gotta be loved.

 

The other day we had a huge all-day Spanish activity with the other Spanish branches in Idaho Falls. It was a blast! There was a huge soccer tournament, super delicious food, and lots of Mexican music =D

 

Let's see, what else happened? Oh yeah!! We got chewed out by a Jehovah's Witness hahaha. Man, people really don't know what we believe. She was telling us that we didn't believe in the Bible and lots of other crazy stuff. Well of course we believe in the Bible people! We just continued to smile, offer some service ,and explain clearly our beliefs. I don't think she really listened to us though ha.

 

I've just been thinking though...I'm already going on my sixth month and i still haven't gotten a baptism. It's easy to feel discouraged for going without a baptism for that long...i can't remember what kind of success Skylar and Kyle had, but it gets to me sometimes. But this morning I read in Helaman chapter 10 verse 4 and 5 and that kind of gave me some hope that I'm not a total failure! 

Blessed art thou, LUKE, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

I remember when Brother Gardner talked to the youth and shared his mission experience. he didn't baptize one person, but he planted so many seeds. Maybe that's my calling in this area.

 

We did find this guy who randomly stopped us and asked if we were Mormons. Apparently he took the missionary discussions for like 6 years, but somehow he lost touch with them. He wants us to come by like every week and teach him!! He's pretty solid too. He loves the mormon missionaries because they help him feel good =D sooooo we are way excited to work with him.

 

Our Branch President wants us to put on another fireside. The leaders really liked it and it really helped out with the unity of the Branch. woot woot!  

 

Well take care familia!

FHE with the Blakesees

The Blakesees sent another short video clip of Luke doin' a bit of soccer.  

"We are cooking panini's, cookies, Brazilian bread pudding, and Pizza. What else can can a missionary eat!!!!"
Tony Blakeslee 

Catching up!

This is a pic of the Spanish missionaries. As you can see I am ready to feast on my prey. 

Holy cow! This week has actually been full of ups and downs. Sheesh. One of the most annoying things on the mission is dealing with apostate missionaries. There's been a lot of fishy stuff going around in our zone, and this week we found 2 companionships being way apostate...sleeping in, being lazy, abusing internet privileges, and who knows what else. Urgh. so annoying. Also last week we found 3 new investigators but they totally stopped taking the lessons. One investigator kept hiding from us, another just didn't want to be mormon...and yah, the other one just dropped off the face of the planet. We've been cursed at a lot this week lol. We would just say hi and offer to help out people...but then they would curse us out, tell us our values are stupid and what not. People just don't like us I guess haha. 

Buuuuuut there's good news!! We had an incredible fireside my companion and I put together! gahhhh it was great! It was just the thing the branch needed. More people came to the fireside than people came to church! We asked this way legit member to use his huge backyard for this fireside. Everyone brought their lawn chairs and we had some sisters from the branch help baby sit the little kids. This was a special fireside JUST for the members! Annnnd it was about missionary work! We talked about how easy it is just to invite people to church or talk about the gospel. I spoke and we had some other speakers. It was way interactive, and we did little practices with everyone. Everyone was laughing and having a blast. Thennnn we had some Smore's afterwards! We're only going to see success in the Branch unless the members get involved and excited about sharing the gospel. So I think this really helped change the attitude of the members. It's a team effort!

DEOR JORGENSEN:  I really appreciate the letters you send me, and that I always read them!! Thank you!!!! 

Love you guys! 

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JULY 15:  This week was probably one of the best weeks I've had since being on the mission. Our new visa waiter is crazy awesome. He's such an inspiration to me and my companion and he's only 18. He's on fire and we are all on fire. Haha, my companion and i were praying and hoping we weren't going to get an apostate companion, but luckily we got one that wants to do work.

SO this week we finally did it. We declared war on satan. In some previous emails i mentioned that our mission is striving to get 20 lessons a week for all the companions. Elder Bustamante and I were tired of ALMOST reaching the goal of 20...so this week we did everything within our power to get 20 lessons...annnnd guess how many we got? 27! woo! man, i'm so stoked!!! gahhhh! We saw miracles left and right...it was a great week =) We literally just talked to EVERYBODY.

We did some more pumping up in the branch this week. Man, so many members in the branch just aren't excited about the gospel, or the fact that we have a walking Moses on the earth today...so we've been visiting all the members and showing parts of the work of salvation broadcast. We like to show the clip from President Monson. IF y'all haven't watched it, then ya need to! That's proving to be super effective and now we have some members preparing families for us to teach.

This is Juan Carlos, an investigator. He ain't got time for that.

A message from the Blakeslees!

The Blakeslee Family sent us this photo and video with the following message! It made me cry!

Elders Family,
I must say, these two Elders have to be some of our families favorites!!! 
All of our 5 children love your missionaries. We have a 15 year old son and they are great with him. They came to my sons baptism last month and he thought it was the coolest. 
Thanks for having such great worthy missionaries. They are impacting our lives in a very great way. 
Please enjoy their message as we did tonight.  


Tony & Sunnie Blakeslee 

July 4th P-day

Thanks for the video. I'm not able to watch right now because the library here doesn't have head phones today =( But if it's the talk by Jeffrey R. Holland then yes I've read it. That's an awesome talk. I feel like I've been crawling, scraping, scratching, and climbing just to get a little success. I haven't had a baptism yet and I've been on my mission for almost 5 months. But that doesn't get me down. My companion and I are just working our butts off. We've been on fire since the broadcast. 

We're not going to see a TON of baptism UNLESS the members get involved in missionary work and want to serve others. We've been visiting less actives, active members, recent converts, everybody! We are helping members go to the temple, and we're extending invitations to fellowship other members. We've been visiting the leaders of the Branch just to pump them up for missionary work! I'm reminded of the scripture in Ether 12:12...If there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them..." I mean...let's think about it...If the Lord can create planets...then I'm pretty sure He can help us out with missionary work. We've been seeing a lot of good thing happen, slowly but surely! We really do see miracles on a day to day basis. 

 This week we were able to go see the fireworks for July 4th. It was pretty much an all day Preparation day for the missionaries. So we had a nice little BBQ with some members, went to a Chukars baseball game, watched the fireworks next to the Idaho Falls temple. Super awesome. Man, I LOVE July 4th. It's one of my favorite holidays. Thinking about July 4th just makes me want to punch some Nazis. Amurica! 

My companion was cracking me up at the baseball game. He's never been to one before. I had to teach him about all the rules and stuff. After the first inning he was like "sooo...this is it? this game is terrible! why do they even practice if they can't hit the ball?" hahaha yerp. I don't know how people watch that game either, but it was still fun. After the game the manager of the stadium took some pictures for us in the baseball field. Buuut...too bad the Chukars lost 11 to 2 hahaha. They were pretty terrible...but we had some good times. You wouldn't believe how many looks and stares we got from people at the game. It seems like every member in Idaho is a Mission President. They all ask "Is this a P-Day Elders???" Why yes...yes it is...you guys are so smart haha. Here's a pic with Mr. Chukar himself! woo!