Exchanges & Stuff

This wasn't a super eventful week so the email will be shorter haha. So last Tuesday I did an exchange with Elder Fielding and it was so fun! Elder Fielding is from a super small town called Furth, Idaho. I don't even know if I spelled that right but he's a potato Farmer and loves his potatoes haha. We found a super cool guy named Terry and we taught him the Restoration! He seemed super into it and wanted to talk more. Super cool! 

 Elder Checketts and I decided for street contacting that we'd have no Plan and just go where the spirit wants us. Well we drove around and eventually felt like this trailer park was the place to go. We found no one but then at the end this dude came to us and was like "You wanna know my problem with Mormons?" And went off for about an hour and a half. Super nice guy but he just had some stuff he had to get off his chest haha. I guess his last marriage with a member went bad and ya I don't really know he talked for a long time but hopefully he can start to move forward now haha. 

 The sisters are teaching someone named Lisa, and we blessed her house. Lisa is on date to be baptized. Then her daughter, Esmie, wanted us to bless her house too. So we did and it went so well and the spirit was so strong and now she wants to baptized! 

 We helped one of the English members build a shed for like nine hours and it was just a joke but then on p day we also carved pumpkins. But I stabbed myself really bad hahah so I don't know if it was worth it. 

 So on Saturday we had the coolest lesson of my mission so far. It was a with girl named Joanna. She has a husband and 2 kids and her mom is baptized but now Catholic. We want to talk to her mom but we met Joanna and she was like oh my gosh I've been looking for a church! She told us that her friend is a Jehovahs Witness and is trying to get her join but she just has zero interest...but she said for some reason she's really drawn to us. So we started teaching her and we testified about how the Gospel has blessed our families and she started crying and said how she needs that for her family. Then, when I explained the Apostasy to her she was like OH MH GOSH that makes so much sense! It was awesome and then we hit her with the First Vision and the spirit was so strong and afterwards she told us that the she felt the spirit strongly and wanted to cry during the first vision. So cool! And she said she told her husband about it and The Book of Mormon and she said he seems really curious and interested! 

 We went to the Primary Program on Sunday and it was so fun haha I love those. Anyway that's about all that happened this week! Not a super eventful week. Love you all! Talk to ya next week! 

 Love, Elder Ryan

Batman Pumpkin

Bandidos & CTR

Hey everyone! This week wasn't a super eventful week not gonna lie but that's okay haha. And for those of who you are wondering CTR does not mean Choose the Right...it means Crazy Town Roswell. I think it sounds like a junior high name, but the Bandido's and CTR are the two bigger gangs around here and I met members from both this week so that's awesome haha. 

 So on Tuesday I did an exchange with one my Zone Leaders Elder Bush. He's just a huge funny dude. We went street contacting and we knocked on this guys door who happened to be a Catholic Deacon so he didn't want us there but then some crazy lady came up to us and started talking and like yelling at us. She was giving people childrens books about Jesus and she asked us to quote this random Bible verse and was mad when we couldn't haha. Then she made some false claim so I went to correct it and I move my hands when I talk and she thought I was trying to hit her haha. She also accused of me being high because my mouth was dry because I hadn't had water at all. 

 On Wednesday we had a really cool lesson with Donna! She's the one who's been on date before but kinda got lost and her house was creepy. But, she read 3 Nephi 11 and her house got WAY brighter and happier. So that's awesome plus she had tons of questions about it and we were able to sit their and answer them and have a really cool conversation about Baptism! The spirit was super strong so that was awesome. 

 Thursday was kinda rough we did service for someone we're teaching named Allondra and then she canceled and we were never able to teach her. We had like 3 other lessons that day with some of our best people and they all canceled. So that was rough. Especially because one of the families told us they're going to Nebraska so they can't. The only thing is they told us that like 3 weeks ago haha im not sure how many times you can go to Nebraska in 3 weeks but hey we'll keep trying haha. 

 So we were street contacting and this guy was setting up a telescope so we started talk to him and he told us to come back later to look through it. So we did and honestly I could see the moon better with my naked eye than the telescope haha. But he invited us into his house and he had all these Bandido signs everywhere and had all these shotguns and pistols laying everywhere. Kinda cool haha 

 The next day we met someone from the CTR gang. He told us the rules of the streets and let's just say it didn't make me feel more confident haha. He told us all these rules about people they can and can't shoot or whatever and we made a joke about missionaries being off limits and he goes "oh absolutely not." So we could be targeted but hey it'll make for a cool story. 

 On Sunday we had an inactive family come to church so that was cool! And then one of the people were talking to, Heber, told us to go to his church on Sunday night and he'd come back to our church next week. So we showed up to his church sat down and waited and then the service started and he never showed up haha. So we were just stuck in between these two women. And these people just scream the whole time and holy it was the weirdest thing. But hey it grew my testimony because I never even kind of felt the spirit in that building haha. 

 Well sorry this wasn't a super eventful week at all so kind of a boring email haha. One of my favorite parts of my personal Study this week was in Alma 37 when Alma is talking to his son Helaman about the Liahona. He explained that it guided them "according to their faith in God". And then in the latter half of verse 41 it says "....They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey". I know that if we have faith in God and Jesus Christ, and continually exercise it, they will guide our lives! And as they guide our lives we will progress far greater on the covenant path. I challenge each of you to continue or start to exercise faith in God by letting him guide your life! Love you all! 

 Love, Elder Ryan

Nightmare on Sacrament Street

 Well the first full week of this new transfer was busy! We found a ton of new people to teach and I had to speak a lot more Spanish. Church was a genuine nightmare so if you don't read the whole thing you'll wanna read that part for sure haha.

    So on Tuesday we had to drive out to Hobbs, New Mexico which is about 2 hours away and we had to drop off Elder Alvey and pick up my new comp Elder Checketts. I'm gonna miss Elder Alvey a ton! He was such a good first comp but Elder Checketts is sick! So that'll be exciting. The first night we got here we went to a members house to eat and she's a psychopath. She just screams and throws silverware but she makes good food so it's worth it.

    We've been taking care of some horses and we showed up one morning and one of the horses had some gnarly cuts and gashes. So we're bad horsesitters.    

    We went to the State Fair here and handed out pictures of Jesus with our number on them. And then we accidentally tried handing the pictures to a group of people from some Apostolic church and they started bashing about baptism and going off haha. "Never start a bash but never lose one either" -Elder Alvey

    One of the nights we double booked and had two Spanish lessons so we did some splits with the ZLs because they both speak Spanish. Elder Bush came with me and he's just a huge lovable man. But the guy we taught just wasn't super educated. We read James 1:5 and it was supposed to be fast but then he didn't understand the scripture so we spent like 15 minutes on it because he was confused and then by the end he forgot who Joseph Smith was. So either I'm a horrible teacher or he was an idiot (probably a bit of both). But the other lesson with a family named Oscar and Jasmine went well!! They love the Book of Mormon and were getting super into the story of the same Jesus as the Bible coming to the americas and stuff. So that was awesome!

    One night we found this lady named Donna who has a crazy story. She was taught like 30 years ago, set to be baptized, and then the week of her baptism our church building burnt down and she was never baptized. Then about 5 years ago she was taught again and the missionaries basically taught false doctrine. She thought the Book of Mormon was written and created by Joseph Smith, and they told her she has to wear a dress or skirt to church so she never came. But we're teaching her, and clarified the Book of Mormon and she's a lot more interested now! Only problem, she's kinda into Black Magic and her whole house has symbols and statues that just invite it all in. So it's gross in there but hey she's interested so we'll take it.

    Okay for Sunday haha. If you skipped the rest read here. So it started out in the morning we were daily planning and right after I got the impression to call one of the people we met on the street a few weeks back. Weve met with her once or twice. So we did anf she was just crying and anxious and depressed because her mom just got readmitted to the Hospital because of a brain bleed. She also has like 17 people living in her house and three of them have special needs. And her life is kinda in shambles right now. So we went to the Hospital and gave her mom a blessing. And the lady said every time she prays and needs help we always call. She called us her Angels haha. So that was awesome! And how she's willing to meet with us more.

    okay now for our nightmare. So first we ate Lunch with an excommunicated member. WILD. Then, one of the people we met on the street randomly showed up to church. AWESOME. But, we ran out of sacrament cups. So our meeting started 30 minutes late as our guy is just sitting there all confused. So, we got two huge trays from the Kitchen and put normal cups of water on them. So the sacrament just looked like waiters at a restaurant. And, in our opening prayer they said the words "please bless the investigator who is here investigating the church." So awkward. Then, the 2 speakers legit just printed conference talks and read them haha. Which was kind of okay because the message was at least good but it was sooo boring (my comp Elder Checketts fell asleep lol) and the two speakers could barely read or speak Spanish so everyone was confused cuz no one understood and then they kept jumping back and forth between Spanish and English. Needless to say, our guy is not coming back haha.

    Okay sorry for the long email everyone! Love you all! Talk to ya next week!

Love, Elder Ryan

    

 

Two Transfers In!

So my first transfer in the field us done! But I've done 2 transfers overall and time has really flown by! Sadly, Elder Alvey is getting transferred which kinda sucks. He's been an awesome trainer and I'm so glad I got him as my comp. My new comp is Elder Checketts so I'll meet him soon and I'm pumped for that! 

 It wasn't a super eventful week but still a good one! We had a lot of meetings and presentations that we gave to our Zone about social media work and also we Led a huge Zone Study thing. 

 So we found an awesome new family who speaks Spanish! It's Jasmine, Oscar and Isaac. They're super awesome and wanna learn more so I'm excited to head back there this week! 

 Our neighbor Brett likes to show us his video games and then we leave him with a message so we did that again this week and he said wants to start coming to our weekly volleyball and bonfire we do so that'll be fun. 

 So we went visiting inactive members and one member we visited has an older daughter who is super super interested in our message and she said she's been looking for a church to join so I'm so excited to go back and visit her as well. 

 On Thursday I went on exchange the other Greenie Elder Lerdall. It went really well! We taught like three really good lessons to some new people we met! We also had a really powerful lesson with a guy named Dominic who wants to be baptized but he's struggling to quit chewing tobacco. Also he doesn't speak Spanish so whenever we met someone he spoke Spanish I had to speak and it was good for me to see where I am and what to work on haha. 

 P-Day was sick we had a huge cornhole tourney and I choked in the finals. So other than that we all hung out at the other Elders apartment and watched General Conference. A super awesome member made us some delicious waffles for conference too. Conference was so amazing! And Brad Wilcox is the freaking man. All the other missionaries freaked out like watching a Marvel movie cameo. His talk had amazing messages about Grace and the love of Jesus Christ. "Worthiness is not flawlessness" was my favorite quote. And it's so true! Being worthy isn't being 100 percent perfect or clean because that's imposible, it's all about the intentions of your heart. And improving and repenting every day. 

 Some of the apostles just absolutely threw down this conference and I loved it haha. I loved D Todds talk and his quote "ours isn't a religion of perfection, but a religion of redemption through Jesus Christ." I loved his message about no matter what we do, Christ will always love us. Our sins don't change his love. But, that doesn't mean that were just exempt from sin. There's a difference between God always loving us and condoning sin. Such an awesome message! 

 I could go on and on about all the amazing talks but I want to finish with one of my favorite themes which was brought a few times. It was Following the Prophet. There were a lot of promises about how if we follow the prophet we will not go astray. But, that means completely following him. We can't just pick and choose when and where and what we want to follow. Super awesome message and a powerful promise! 

 Love you all! See ya next week! 

 Love, Elder Ryan