Clinton,Oklahoma- Week 14

Hey!

Last Monday was pretty fun, we went to thrift shops to look around and had some pretty cool stuff there, got some cool ties and a got a awesome hat (it's my Indiana Jones hat! It's really funny how I got it. We went to this really nice store that just sold suits and other nice things (lots of money), when I see that hat and I'm like yes! I look at the price, $9.00, double yes! cheapest thing in the store and i found it! :) ) Tortilla tally is 3 for this week and then played football and soccer the rest of the day so it was a good day. This has been a really good week, lots of success with investigators. Clinton is the best place ever! We are meeting with a lot of people and we went on exchanges with Elk City over the weekend so that was fun to do. We had some awesome lessons this week and talked to this one guy who we are now going to teach more on Tuesday so I'm excited about that. Saturday was a really busy day, we had a really long lesson with one of our investigators named Emerson. We go up to his house and he is outside with a few friends over. We ask him if he wants us to come back later and he says "No, you guys are cool, come and tell us the word for today" and he made his friends listen to us too, it was cool. He likes us coming over. So we had a good lesson about the Plan of Salvation and after the lesson we are going to get up when he says "Can I ask you another question?" sure! He asks us if we could stay for another 30min so we could read the Book of Mormon with him, Yes! So we read with him, so he is pretty awesome. Saturday night, the ward had a game night! Lots of food and games, it was a really fun night and lots of people came. The best and craziest day was Sunday though, there was soo many people at church. We have been really trying to invite investigators, and less active members to church and it paid off. We had 7 of our investigators at church and lots of less actives and recent converts; there were no more parking spots in the parking lot and so people were just parking anywhere they could and the overflow area in the building was almost filled. People were telling us that they have never seen so many people at church before! So we were very busy after church with talking to everyone. I'm also thinking about making a few halloween decorations, because halloween is the best! First holiday out on a mission! On Halloween im wearing my brown or maybe black pants, my halloween tie and some glow in the dark glasses I got. It's going to be good! Oh and Ashley and Marty are awesome, hopefully married and baptized on the 8th! Love you guys!

My New Hat!

Love my box!

Texus and I

My Halloween Tie!

Clinton,Oklahoma- Week 13

Hey!
I got the package! I love everything and the Halloween tie! :) tortilla tally is 2. This week felt really long, and not the best in terms of injuries( I'm fine now). So many miracles too, that made everything ok. So first, last week I stepped on a nail while doing a service project, it's ok now, and this week I got bit by a dog. TRUST ME, IT WAS NOT THAT BAD AND I AM TOTALLY FINE, we called the mission nurse, and the owner of the dog, the dog had all its shots so everything is all good. I just have a big rip in my pants. We called our Ashley and Marty (the one who came to the church looking for help and her boyfriend) to tell them we might have to cancel our meeting with them because of what had happened and they drove immediately to our place to make sure I was ok. They are soo awesome! They are like our "parents" and they drove us around so we could get some stuff for the bite and drove us to the place where the dog was so we could talk to the owner. We are taken care of here so there is nothing to worry about. Back to the miracles this week- first, we went to this one neighborhood and were able to talk to this family outside and have a lesson, they really liked it and wanted to be baptized. One of them is a bull rider, he is really cool. Next, we found a Vietnam vet and he carves stone sculptures, he is really good. He wasn't interested at first, but as we were talking he let us teach him and likes the message about how it can bring peace and calmness into our lives. That is something he has been trying to find ever since he got out of the military. I also met this guy who looks like "The Rock", he is cool! Taught him and he accepted the message, then asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said, "well if this is true ok course I would", said he would pray and read the Book of Mormon! Last miracle for the week, on Sunday we had three people that we have never seen before and they didn't know one another, walk into our church and said to us, "we are not members but we have seen you on your bikes and felt that we needed to go to your church". It was soo cool! Highlight of the week! Marty is still so much fun to meet with, because every time we meet with him, he is always coming closer to Christ. We fasted with them, and huge miracles came from it. No more smoking and their landlord called them and asked them if they wanted a bigger house, Yes!! and he will clean it all up for them and mow the lawn, job opportunities, and got a phone call that it was a price that they can easily afford. God takes care of us for sure. My thinking has changed a little I think, I can see more of the gospel in everyone's lives and blessing that come from receiving it. We had exchanges with the zone leaders this week because Elder Jolley is now District leader. Elder Meimet and Elder Whitehead are awesome and we had a pretty fun day with them. Then we got to have dinner at  the bishops house, it was really good food. It's almost Halloween! that's crazy, how is everyone doing? and good luck with all the school stuff! Love and miss you guys! Have a great week!

Our District

These are the pants the dog got

Elder Santana finally sent me the pictures from the MTC!

My Rocks!

I made myself a cool tie clip out of a horse shoe nail

 

My family history back to Adam!

Clinton,Oklahoma- Week 12

Hey!

First of all, it's raining outside right now, and we had to bike in the rain to get to the church so yeah, our pants are pretty soaked right now. At least we have waterproof jackets that kept us warm. The tortilla tally is 4 for this week, and okay for transfers...... Elder Jolley and I are staying! And Elder Jolley is also now District Leader. Hermana Austin is transferring, so Hermana Haddock gets a new companion and Elder Scofield is going back to speak Marshallese so Elder Lyman also gets a new companion. It was a good week, last Monday we played volleyball and that was fun. Elder Scofield and Jolley got trapped on those spinning table things in the park, they got soo dizzy and it was spinning so fast that they couldn't get off. All we hear is them yelling," make it stop! make it stop!" and "I'm going to be sick!" it was soo funny to watch. Also during the volleyball game, I was collecting little clear rocks, so now I have a cup full of cool rocks on my desk. :) It's been raining since yesterday here so we are finally getting some rain and it's gotten a lot colder outside. I don't know why, but this week my allergies have just been horrible. I have tried dusting the apartment and I think that helped, but they really don't give us time to clean. I really wish that they did. My side is starting to get messy again and not much I can do about it. It is awesome meeting and talking to people here, huge miracles. Sadly we did not go to the wedding that was this Saturday. Elder Jolley kept having a feeling that we shouldn't go so we didn't. But the next day was actually a really good day. We got to talk to a family and they were interested in our message, so that was defiantly a miracle. They live in Weatherford so the sister missionaries up there will teach them, but his brother lives here and he was interested too so we will teach him. I think that was the highlight of the week.  Sorry if this email isn't as long as the others, I forgot my journal in the apartment and I really don't want to ride back through the rain to get it, so I'm going off memory and mine isn't always the best.

 Love and miss you all!

I got the Packages! thank you! I love everything!

If you go off one more time at 2:00am and there is not a thunderstorm outside, next time there is, you are going outside!

Thought this was really cool, got to go on Family History and checking out my tree and some of the lines go back really far

Pictures of the storm

It rained a little here!

Clinton,Oklahoma- Week 11

Hey!

This week went by really quick, and it was a pretty good week! I have been getting your packages and I love them! I love you miss you guys. I finally made salsa this week, it still tastes good :) so that was really nice to have with food. We got to see Meet The Mormons on Thursday, I don't want to say too much about it, but you need to see it, it was really good. We were able to find some more people to teach this week so that is always a miracle to have. It is always amazing to find people that are totally ready to hear our message, we had a few people this week that were like that. We had a service project this week too. We were helping this one sister in the ward put up a new fence, so that was a nice change of things to do for the week. One of the Elders in Elk City got a Boston record at a thrift store which I am so jealous of! I told him that he needs to get me one! General Conference was amazing as always! Of course I liked the talk by L. Tom Perry because he is my favorite and how David A. Bednar spoke to non-members, that was really cool to hear. In between the sessions of General Conference, we went on super splits to teach people (that's when Elder Jolley and I are not together and we have members with us and are teaching people). So that's how I know that everything is getting better, because I was able to have a pretty good lesson during that time, so it is pretty cool how much I have been learning! Transfers are on the 15th. I don't think I will be transferred (because I'm still new here), but it has happened before, but it's not likely. That's crazy that everyone is on fall break already! The time is going by fast, for me at least. This week went by so fast, I only took a few pictures, sorry. I promise that there will be more next time! How is everyone doing, how is fall break going? Elk City is pretty fun, lots more stuff to do there and have all the cool stores with cheap awesome stuff in them, I keep telling them when ever we have splits with them to take me to one of them... but they are always closed on the week ends :( but there is a lot more work in Clinton so Clinton is awesome to be in. I am glad this was my first area. It's cool to think about, I will be home in 3 more General Conferences, so in a way, I'm 1/4 of the way done. so cool ;) Love you guys!

Went over to someones house and they had Duck Dynasty hats!

Elder Scofield has a Boston Record soo jealous!!! 

Clinton,Oklahoma- Week 10

Hey!!

So last Wednesday was really cool. We went to a Route 66 museum and it was really fun, defiantly one of the more fun days. I took lots of pictures. We have this one investigator that we had him join us on a dinner appointment, so that was good. But then on our way back to drop him off, the person who was driving us speed past it and looked at him and said, "Well it looks like your going to church dude." It was sooo funny but he had a good time at mutual with everyone. So many meetings this week! I think we are finally done with them for a while. We had zone conference so most missionaries from Oklahoma were there. Meetings can be annoying at times, but you always learn something from them. We had a day this week that was entirely for service (we didn't get to teach anyone that day), helping at bishops storehouse, and then setting up for the woman's broadcast. It was a busy day. I went to Elk City again for the weekend, it is so much fun going up there. There is always a huge miracle that happens up there- this time Elder Lyman and I were talking with these four people for about 2 hours, it was awesome they had so many questions and we were able to answer all of them. They were interested and wanted to know more. And also have you heard of the movie Meet the Mormons? This week has been pretty fun. I heard it was raining again? any more floods? Love you guys, not that much to write about this week but I have more pictures!

The District

Cooking chicken one night when suddenly... Whale Chicken!

Oklahoma Sunrise

We found some old hats at the museum!

P-day in the Route 66 museum!

Arizona!

Oklahoma!

And at the Route 66 museum there was a small old church part of the tour so Elder Jolley wanted to preach to us. 

Clinton,Oklahoma- Week 9

Hey!

The week was so crazy, so much to do, we are so busy with everything. Lots of lessons. Last week, we had zone p-day, so everyone went to the city and we had a big game of dodge ball, it was so much fun. We were all sore after that, but it was worth it. After that we went to a place called Which Wich, it is a really good sandwich place. It was a fun day, but we got back really late. Last week I was telling you about the one woman and her fiancé, and how we talked to them. Well, her fiancé the last time we talked to him, wasn't sure about God, why he would do this to us.... things like that. But he was also willing to give everything a chance and change his ways. So, this week we go over there again, and the first thing we notice is him. All I can say is wow, he was a totally different person, you could see it just by looking at him. We could see that he honestly wanted to change and was doing that, one week and he was a different person. That is definitely a huge blessing of the spirit in someone's life. He is one of our best investigators now and we look forward to whenever we can teach him. One of the first things he said to us was "I felt like someone turned on a light in my head and I can see now". He is definitely a light and strengthens everyone around him, it has strengthened my testimony about what we are doing. We met another kid with week, and it turns out they he knows the couple and are good friends. They talk to him about how great the church is. It is because of  them, that this kid will really learn and grow in the gospel. It's soo cool to see how everything connects. And add 10 to the tortilla tally, I have been forgetting about that for the past few weeks. I love the lessons with our investigators and members, everything is going pretty good, and I got the cookies! They are soo good! Thursday was a funny day, we had dinner with some members and after that we had to go straight to a lesson with a Spanish family. So dinner was good and we leave to go back to our apartment to get picked up by another member who was going with us and he only spoke Spanish, but he couldn't find the apartment so we were trying to tell him where we were in Spanish which was really hard to do and he spoke really fast, so we ended up finding this guy who also only spoke Spanish on the side of the road and told him to talk to the guy on the phone to tell him where we were. It was all funny and with the help of that guy, he found us. So we get to the house and it turns out they made dinner for us too without telling us, so Elder Jolley and I were like great, we literally just ate, now we have to eat again to be nice, so we did... so full! We had a interesting lesson, they didn't quite agree with what we taught, but it was okay. On Friday we went on splits with the district leaders, so I went to Elk City for the weekend with Elder Scofield. It was nice up there, not that busy, but we had a car so that was better. Up there, I finally meet the drunk crazy, it was different... luckily there was an older guy who was sober; he was pretty cool, and so nice too. We left the others inside and just talked with him outside. He apologized for the others, he found them a while ago and gave them place to live and checks on them once in a while. It was really cool that we were able to meet him, and seemed interested to hear our message. The this week in science page is really cool, science rules! In Clinton, there is just Elder Jolley. That's funny about Elder Jolley and Elder Naeta's story, being spied on, hahaha. The food at the members houses is really good.

Did you see the pictures from last week? First baptism! She is awesome, she went to church for 5 months before she stated taking lessons so everyone thought she was a member. Then after another person was baptized, she went up to the missionaries and asked them to teach her. She really wants to go to the temple. She said to them the first lesson when they asked he what she wanted, "I want to go to the temple1 I don't know what they do in there, but I want to do it". She is amazing!

We went to a birthday party a investigator was having at a skating place.

I have not found any caterpillars yet, but I found a butterfly.



outside the skating place, we were in the parking lot and looking for it because it didn't really look like one from the outside. 

Elder Scofield and I with our jackets.

Elder Scofield during our intense chess game.

Clinton,Oklahoma- Week 8

Hey! 

This week was a little harder, but a really amazing week as well. We are teaching a lot of people and most of them are very receptive to the lesson. I think the funniest one was when we were teaching at this one house and talking about the Plan of Salvation and for their son (who I think is around 11), I explained the Plan of Salvation through Minecraft. Yes I said Minecraft... and it actually worked out pretty well, he loved it. I knew that video games would help on a mission. And after that, they were asking us if we watched Doctor Who, Elder Jolley had never heard of it, but I have! So we talked about that, who was our favorite Doctor, Companion, episode... it was fun, and so the new season started recently so, you guys need to write that down on my things to watch when I get back. One day we had a person stop us while we were riding our bikes and tried to sell us this all purpose cleaner, she really wouldn't take no for a answer. We were trying to explain to her that we don't have any money on us- so her answer was, "so you want one?" Eventually we got away. We have been getting some cooler weather recently, and the mission rule about weather is that if it gets below 60, we have to wear suits, so for 2 days we had to wear suits all day. But that is a lot better than riding when it is hot and humid. Best thing this week- one of our investigators got baptized! And I was able to give a talk on the Holy Ghost, it was amazing and I am so glad we got to be apart of it- definitely something that I will remember! It was funny that morning, some other elders were going to pick us up in the morning so Elder Jolley and I were in another room studying while we were waiting for them. Then Elder Jolley goes out of the room, and the next thing I hear is," How did you get out here, wait what?" The other Elders picked our lock and were already in the apartment, and Elder Jolley thought that I was one of them, so he was wondering how I got out of the other room with out him seeing, it was funny. We had lots of dinners with members with week, everyone is so nice here, but I still question everyone's sanity at times. Also, people here really like guns, and want to show us all the guns they have. I'm not complaining about that, it's pretty cool. I think here in just these two weeks, I have handled more guns than in my entire life, because with them, its "Here are my guns, now you have to hold each of them!" Like I said, nicest people in the world, but different at times. There is a older couple here and they feed the missionaries every Sunday for lunch. They have been doing it for 31 years! It's awesome, they tell us about all the missionaries that they have had over the years and remember them all! They are awesome. Last Tuesday, Elder Jolley and I were in the church emailing, when this woman came in crying and looking for the Bishop, so we talked to her for a bit to see what's going on. Turns out that she was a less active that we didn't know about, needed help with rent, and just needed help in general. So we got her Bishop's number and she told us to come over that night and teach her and her fiancé. So we go over and she really wants to get back to church and her fiancé just flat out told us that he wants and needs God in his life, and will listen to our message. It was soo cool, I know that it was a miracle that she came into the church and we happened to be the only ones there at the time, and that we were able to help her. This is a really small town and there are not many members here, most are from Weatherford. I got your package and love everything! Thank you! So I haven't been to the temple yet, and I don't know when will be the next time, it might be a while. And in Clinton, we don't have that many opportunities to speak Spanish, maybe 3 lessons a week, but we do have a language study most mornings and Elder Jolley helps me with that. The food is pretty good here and that is so funny about Elder Naeta trying chocolate milk for the first time. And ok Lu, with the number riddle I think I got two of the three letter words messed up, but just use the books, if you knew the stories, you would know the answer. And with that, I'm asking where does it say to go? and A! how's Titan Fall going? Anything new on BudK? And that sounds awesome about the App, what are your ideas on it so far, and how are you making it? I can't wait till you finish it, I want to get it. And I love the spices and snacks. 

I haven't had any tortillas here yet and of course they played Back in Black with Reddinton, they are both awesome! I love the senior quote, what book is that from? And I love the video game news. You guys are the best, thank you for everything and I love the meanwhile in phoenix picture.

First Baptism! Me, Elder Jolley, and Melody

I love my fish tie!



Our Apartment

Tie Buddies that we made- They go behind the tie and keep it in place.

This is my planner Elder Jolly made for me, he likes Texas