Goodbye St. Johns, Hello Snowflake!

Well, I don't know why our member had to go and spoil the surprise that I've been transferred to Snowflake. But we all have our agency, and some people use that agency for bad things.

JK, that lady has a son out on a mission and I'm sure she was thinking she would want to know ASAP as possible if and where her son was getting transferred, so she was just following that golden rule.

But yes, I am in Snowflake. I am senior companion to an Elder Pyper, who has been out for 3 months. I am also the Snowflake District Leader over the zone leaders, a set of sisters, and a set of hermanas. And best of all, I'm on a #@~% bike. For some reason I'll never understand, mine and Elder Pyper's house is actually inside the sisters' area and there are some serious hills to get up to our area. And then the zone leaders live in a separate house... in our area... I... I... I just don't know...

It's whatever. I'll get used to it.

I don't have my planner with me, so I'm trying to remember what happened last week. I don't think anything all that important happened last Monday or Tuesday... But Wednesday was interviews with President. I told him my concerns, and he told me that if I'm distracting from the message, that's when it becomes a problem. And he's right. The message is far more important than anything else, and if I'm distracting from it, that's a problem. Now, I don't think I really have a problem with distracting from the message though. But Chad has sources and knew I was going to Snowflake, and he told me he just didn't want me to accidentally offend all the "snobs" here. President told me too that the people of Snowflake watch the missionaries closer than in most areas and warned me to be careful. But he trusts me enough to make me senior companion and district leader though, so I can't be that bad.

What I forgot to tell you last week is about what an earful I gave Elder Knight during companionship inventory about asking Chad to take care of his problems instead of coming straight to me with these issues. 

Anyway... My last days in St. Johns were filled with goodbyes to the people I came to love in my six months there. And I've got plenty of pictures of those goodbyes which I'll have to space out of several e-mails, cuz I can't just send a bunch at once for some reason.

But I couldn't have asked for a better way to leave St. Johns than what we did on Monday morning. Louie got baptized and confirmed! That man is a champion. I'm attaching the picture of his baptism to this e-mail. 

 

 

So it was a good week, and I'm excited for the time I get to spend here in Snowflake. I have high hopes for the area.

I love you all so so so so so so so so so much!

<3 Sam

First Baptism! (1/12/15 email)

Um, not to make you feel bad or anything, Mom, but I'm surprised to open my inbox this week and not find something from you. I don't know if you wrote one that didn't send or if you were just really, really busy this week. I don't want you to feel bad if it's the latter reason, but if it's the former, then you should know I got no e-mail from you.

But anyway, it was an interesting week with a lot to think about. I dunno, I just noticed this week that when people talk about my strengths, they always say it's really cool that I can be myself and relate to people while still being a missionary. But when the same people talk about my weaknesses, they say I'm too unrestrained or unprofessional, and I don't really know yet how to find that balance between being myself and recognizing my faults and changing them. Anyway, that's been my concern this past week. Well... I've been thinking about it longer than that, but it seemed to escalate this week. Chad pulled me aside last P-day and told me he and Elder Knight are concerned about how I'll be in my next area if I don't tone myself down. But he also told me he loves my personality and the work I've done here. So... I dunno. What he said is the exact same thing every elder tells me when talking about my strengths and weakness. That they love how I'm myself, but to stop being myself. I dunno, I'm going to talk to President about it in interviews on Wednesday.

It was a pretty decent week otherwise. I mean, I had my first baptism on Saturday! Brandon Ballejos entered the waters of baptism on Saturday and then received both the Holy Ghost AND the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday. Our bishop felt he was that ready, and boy, is he. The guy is absolutely on fire with the gospel. And it's weird for me that after laboring for 5 months in St. Johns, my first baptism is a guy that came out of nowhere and who was so ready, I barely had to do any work. But, hey, it's awesome too.

Louie, unfortunately, had a pretty sad week. On Monday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was sent down to the valley on Thursday for surgery, and he went into it still prepared to be baptized on Saturday, but his recovery isn't as easy as he thought it would be, so the baptism understandably postponed. We're hoping to get it done this Thursday night. We'll see.

Another big event this week was getting to go to baptisms for the dead on Friday night with our friends, the Pages: Tanner and Jamie! Elder Knight and I didn't get to go into the water, but we gave the Holy Ghost to a lot of people waiting on the other side. And the Pages are the coolest, hippest people in St. Johns, so it was super fun. They're moving this Saturday to the valley since Tanner enlisted in the army, which is sad, but I'm probably being transferred anyway.

On Sunday, at 6:45 AM, I received a text from one of our bishops asking me to speak in church at 9:00 AM! Lucky for me, I did speech and debate, where I was always preparing 5 minute speeches in 2 minutes, so to write a 20 minute talk in 2 hours is kid's stuff. My topic was on how knowing I'm a child of God helps my self-esteem, and I think I did pretty good. I of course used the Lego Movie quote about "You are the most special, most interesting, most extraordinary person in the world" and pulled out my new Emmett mini-figure that Tanner page gave me as a visual aid. The 2nd counselor in the bishopric said he appreciated my testimony on how great The Lego Movie is, so I guess I succeeded.

And then in another ward, we ordained not only Brandon to the priesthood, but one of our less-actives, Brother Ken Martin, and I got to be the one to ordain him.

So yeah, it was a good week. I'm glad Brandon could have a good birthday. And Dad, I'm absolutely positive we'll all talk about you the same way people talk about Grandpa Arvo. You're right up there with him. And I love the pictures you send and encourage more.

I love you all soooooooo much. I'll talk to you next Wednesday, maybe, probably in a different area!

<3 Sam

P.S. Here's a picture of (from left to right) me, Brandon, Chad, and Elder Knight at the baptism.

Christmas

So I know we just Skyped and all, but there's still stuff to tell you guys about the week.

Honestly, it was one of my best Christmases ever. It was hard as crap too, being my first Christmas away from home, but it sure did mean a lot to me. We had a list passed around to our relief societies last Sunday for people to sign up for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day visits so that we weren't just stopping by unexpectedly or wasting time at the house. And when we made these visits, I may have been completely sick of He is the Gift, but it was worth it to get to talk to all these people I've met and come to love the past 5 months and hear them bare their testimonies and know that my time here is being well-spent. 

The last family we visited on Christmas Eve has a 20-something year old depressed and probably autistic son. The last couple times we had gone over there, this guy straight-up told us he wasn't sure if God loved him or even existed. But this time, after the video, he was just sobbing saying how grateful he is for Jesus Christ. That was a visit I'll remember.

On Christmas Day, we walked out of one of visits to find it was snowing! A Christmas miracle! And then we went to Chad's house. After the video, his wife, Raj, told us her conversion story about how she immigrated from India to Africa where she met Christians for the first time. Then she immigrated to California, married Chad, was led to St. Johns for no apparent reason at the time and then joined the Mormon church. The spirit there was incredible.

Nothing important happened on Friday to be perfectly honest. Other than me being super on-point with my new sweater vest. But on Saturday, we went down to a town called Young for a baptism of Elder Knight's. It was pretty cool. We came back, taught Edgar (we're talking about January 17 for baptism) some commandments, and then we presented Matt and Gloria with a 15-step program to quit smoking that I guess our mission uses. There's 15 steps they have to follow every single day for a week, but the coolest part was when Matt and Gloria had to crush their cigarettes before we taught the actual steps. Matt did it without hesitating, but it took Gloria a moment before she could bring herself to do it. But with tears in her eyes, she crushed them in her hand and threw them away. And then even though she said she didn't know how she could live without it for seven days, she gave us her coffee to hold onto for the week (cuz one of the steps is no coffee, tea, or alcohol). 

Guess who came to church on Sunday! Louie Quiroz! And guess who pulled Chad aside and said he wants to be baptized! Louie Quiroz! After a few months not knowing if we'd get him back, he came on his own, knowing what he needed to do. We have a date for January 10th! I'm so ridiculously happy about it!

It's gonna be a good transfer, guys.

I'm glad you enjoyed Into the Woods. I really want to see it. And I'm glad Dad's talk went well. I enjoyed the pictures too! Here's a picture of my cat shirts from Sally Jones. They're pretty fantastic.

I love you guys a whole lot! I'll write you next year! ;) Hahahhahahahahaha ugh puke gross

Man o Man, It Was a Wonderful Week!

Man, oh, man, it was a wonderful week! I already wrote about how Louie came to church and said he felt like he needed to be baptized. So we're baptizing him on Saturday at noon. But then another guy came into our lives our of nowhere named Brandon Ballejos. He was living in Phoenix and got taught by the missionaries and was ready to be baptized when he got in a fight with his wife about joining the church and ended up having a drink just a few days before his baptism. His baptism was postponed indefinitely. Well, fast forward six months, and he shows up in Elders Adams and Rayas's ward saying he wants to be baptized. It turned out that Brandon actually was living in mine and Elder Knight's area, so we've reviewed the lessons with him, and he is so solid it is unreal. So Brandon will be baptized this Saturday as well at 10:00 AM. #Miracles

So we finally have baptisms coming up in St. Johns, and all is well! It wasn't for a lot of the week though actually. Elder Knight got sick. Like really sick. So he had to stay in the house all day Tuesday and Wednesday and most of Thursday. I got to leave the house a few times with one of the other elders, but for the most part, I was stuck with Elder Knight. Oh well. 

But even with Elder Knight's illness, New Year's Eve isn't much of a New Year's Eve when you have to be in bed by 10:30. Oh well. We bought a couple Martinelli's and opened them up, but it was a pretty bland night. On New Year's Day, Elder Rayas volunteered to stay with Elder Knight while Elder Adams and I went to the tri-zone New Year's Day activity in Eager. For some reason, Eager- a town no bigger than Nephi- has a humongous sports dome at their high school. The story is that when a power company wanted to put their power plant there, the town was very reluctant. So the power company offered to build them a dome, which the city accepted. 15 years or so later, the city is now realizing they don't have the money to do the needed maintenance on the dome, so it's future is in question, but it's a really impressive structure. In there right now, they have a couple full size basketball courts and a practice football field. Sports aren't my scene, of course, so I went into the room where they were watching It's a Wonderful Life on a loop and stayed there. 

On the drive back from Eager, one of our tires blew out which was bizarre. But a nice man in a cowboy hat helped Elder Adam's and I put on the spare in like 5 minutes. So on Friday, Elder Knight and I had to got to Show Low to get a new tire, and they ended up giving us 2 new tires for some safety reason or whatever. That's Big O Tires for ya. 

I spent Saturday in Concho on exchanges! I met some interesting people (everyone's interesting in Concho) and learned how to play Phase 10, so it was a good day. 

And on Sunday, I taught Gospel Principles in Louie and Brandon's ward and they both really enjoyed it. It was about Heavenly Father and what He's like. There were more people there than at your Gospel Essentials class, Mom and Dad.

By the way, Matt and Gloria didn't quit smoking. Blargenslargen. 

I really enjoyed your story about the hot chocolate at Sam's Club, Mom! I hope Brandon has a good birthday! I really, really like Dallin's Christmas present from Brigham.

I love you all soooooooooooooooooo much!

 

<3 Sam