Big Time Week

   Hey yall! This week was a busy one! It was super great!

   This week I was able to give a blessing to one of our members who is going through a lot and feels lost. After the blessing he gave us hugs and said he knows he needs to serve! We're now studying Preach My gospel with him and preparing him. 

  On Wednesday I went on an exchange to Amarillo and it was great! We taught a few lessons and found a new family up there!

  On Thursday we had a Zone Conference in Amarillo. I got to see my old comp Elder Jensen again so that was super fun!

    Okay so Friday was such a good day. So many miracles. We went street contacting in the morning and found two older ladies who wanted to learn more. Then we went to contact at Texas Tech. Lately it's been incredibly difficult because it's only Summer semester right now and everyone we meet is planning to leave Lubbock in less than a week. So we prayed and fasted for some prepared people! We were able to find and teach 5 new people! It was so great! We gave all them copies of the Book of mormon, read a passage with them and talked about the restored gospel. They ALL wanted to learn more. One experience in particular was with Alicia. She works at Tech, and we stopped to talk with her. Elder Tovey and I both felt prompted to share Ether 12:27, and then we testified of Christ's ability to help us in our trials, and fix our flaws. She took the Book of Mormon, hugged it and started crying. She said she has a lot of issues right now and she's been praying for the Lord to send help. She said "it's no coincidence I found you today." So cool!

   On Saturday our friend Kavazzeyah accepted to be baptized! She's gonna be baptized on July 23rd. Pray for her!

   I was also able to go to the temple this week. It was so good to be able to be back! 

   This week I've been thinking a lot about Charity and Christlike attributes. I've realized we don't develop them, but we receive them. And it's so important because our love and attributes are imperfect. No matter how hard we try it won't be perfect! So that's why we need to clean ourselves of all impure things, and do our best to be filled with charity and all christlike attributes. Because then it's not our imperfect love or attribute, but it's Christ's love and his attributes shining through us! We can be vessels for him. I challenge yall to pick a Christlike attribute and work on receiving it! I love yall!

Love, Elder Ryan

June 12-19, 2022

Okay so its been forever since I've written in an email because my last Pday was changed so yeah sorry about that. Anyway it's been a WILD week and a few days. 

On Sunday I went to the YSA ward for the first time and got to meet everyone. It's so weird because they're all super close to my age, and it's just so different to be around them. Its super fun though! Although I've found I can connect with the adults a lot easier now because all the YSA people talk about new trends and all this stuff that I know nothing about hahaha.

   On Monday I got to drive to the airport a few times to pick up the new missionaries! It was super fun. Except, I drove a U-Haul and parked it in the pick up lane at the airport, and we went inside to pick up the missionaries. After awhile, the airport announced that a U-Haul was about to get towed, so we went outside and talked to a cop who was investigating our Uhaul. He started yelling at us and told us he thought we were terrorists. He called the bomb squad to come investigate the trailer haha it was wild.

   On Tuesday we did a huge orientation with all the new missionaries, and it was fun to help them try and get comfortable with the new mission life. I was also in charge of making sure that all the missionaries got to their new areas that day, so it was stressful but it all worked out!

   So it was a super busy week and we didn't have tons of time to proselyte at the beginning. It's also a little tough right now because all of the college students have moved home for the summer, but there's still some people here for summer school. In the end of the week, we spent a lot of time at Texas Tech just talking to everyone we could see. It was so much fun, it's definitely one of my favorite parts of the work. We found tons of potentials, and over the weekend gave out around 15 copies of The Book of Mormon!

    We found a new girl named Kavazzeeyah (Good luck with that name) and she wants to be baptized! She wasn't able to come to church on Sunday because she had to drop her cousins off at the airport, but she was very upset and wants to come. She has no problems with the word of wisdom or law of chastity, and she is just so prepared! Everyone pray for KK that she can come to church and be baptized in the next few weeks!

    On Sunday we spent a lot of time preparing Zone conferences, and then we also went to the cemetery with one of our members to visit his Mom. He shared his and her story, and how he feels so alone and comfortless. We were able to bear our testimony of Jesus Christ to him and the spirit was so strong. He was in tears and told us he feels like he needs to serve a mission. He's starting his papers this next week! 

    Sorry it was kind of long and quick, and not too eventful. I love yall! Talk to ya next week!

Early Transfer News

 Hey everyone! So today is my Pday for this week! I got transferred at the beginning of the week this week to be in the office. I'm still in Lubbock, and my new comp is Elder Tovey. I've been with him and Elder Anderson, who goes home next week. Elder Checketts, my old comp, is with other missionaries until this Tuesday. It's been a wild week.

   I'm super sad about leaving the area just because I've only been here 5 weeks, and Elder Checketts and I have worked really hard to get things going. We finally have a lot of good stuff set up this next week but, that is alright. It's not my plan, it's God's- so everything will work out. I'm really excited for my new area! It's a YSA and I get to serve on Texas Tech campus.

   So this Monday we did the car wash and it was awesome. We found like 4 families from it and it seriously just went so well. I got really sun burnt haha but other than it was great. 

   On Tuesday I got the call that I was leaving so we planned to say goodbye to some members but our day didn't really allow that. We helped like 3 families move in, and then we had a lesson with Ermina. It was SO GREAT! We taught The Plan of Salvation and it was so cool because her daughter, Evelyn, was just baptized 2 weeks ago. So we were able to talk about the decision Evelyn made and how it'll help her in the whole plan. At the end, I asked Ermina if she wanted to follow Evelyn's and the Savior's example and be baptized, and she said yes! She wants to learn a lot more but she wants to be baptized. I'm so sad because I'm now leaving the area, but I'm staying in Lubbock so she made me promise that I will come to her baptism.

   On Wednesday I got picked up by Elder Tovey and Elder Anderson. We went to a bunch of meetings about transfers and it was really long and I hadn't eaten yet so that was tough. 

   So in my new area I now cover Texas Tech and it's seriously so fun. We went contacting on Tech and I loved it. There are so many people, even now during the semester. We handed out 8 copies of the Book of Mormon and 2 people got so excited, and scheduled a time for us to go meet them. It was cool to just let the spirit guide on what I should say next, and every time one of us would say something that the person needed to hear. Super awesome!

   On Friday we took a huge van and drove it up to Dumas, Texas to pick up some missionaries. It was 6 hours round trip. It was super fun we just got to listen to Conference talks and music. 

   Anyway, thats just a quick rundown of the week. Love y'all! Have a good week!

Love, Elder Ryan

Highlights of the Week

Hey everyone! So sorry I didn't write an email last week, but you probably didn't notice anyway haha.

 Last week was a long week and I wasn't in my area most of the week anyway. I had to do exchanges in two small towns, Snyder and Seminole, and wow I'm so glad I'm not in a small town anymore. 

 So this week we've been fasting and praying hard for some miracles and to find some elect people. I can testify that the Lord definitely answers prayers! We had some great things going, and it was cool to learn that it didn't just drop into our lap. We had to work and grind. 

 Anyway, this week started by doing blitzes in Hobbs. It was so great. Ever since I got to Lubbock I haven't been able to use my spanish much, maybe a few times a week, but in Hobbs we found 3 whole Spanish families! And I'm happy to report my Spanish is still doing really good haha. 

 On Wednesday we went to a members house and she happened to have two people living there. They're Summer and Sam, so we started talking and Sam has visited churches his whole life looking for what he thinks is right. We were able to share the Restoration with them and they loved it. The spirit was so powerful and during the first vision they were locked in. They took a Book of Mormon and said they want to learn more! 

 We had MLC this week and Tanner and Elder Holgreen were able to spend the night so that was dope. So weird being around Tanner on the mission but I love it. 

 Saturday we found the Shaw family! They're seriously so cool. They had already been reading The Book of Mormon and they had so many questions for us. It was such a cool lesson and they are so prepared! So cool to see the Lord answer our prayers. They couldn't come to church but they said they would be the next week. 

 Sunday night we were biking and we stopped to talk to a guy. I had such a strong impression to talk about prophets, and how they can guide us and keep us and our families safe in an unsafe world. Immediately the guy was asking for our info, pamphlets, books and church address. So we shared about the Book of Mormon and scheduled a time to go back! Anyway that's a highlight reel of the week. 

Love y'all!