Why God?

 Hello everyone!! We had such a cool week this last one.

   Last Monday night, we had the most amazing experience. We went and visited this guy named Kale, who we met a few days earlier. While we were there, his friend John was visiting him. Real quick into the conversation, John told us that his wife had been killed a few weeks before while grocery shopping. It was awful and he just kept asking "why god" over a thousand times. He was bawling and honestly we were all in tears. We read Mosiah 3:19 and talked about why we go through trials and how christ comforts us. But he was so distraught. He was so mad at God, and honestly for really good reason. 

   The idea then popped into my head to have us just kneel down together and pray. To pray and ask to feel God's love and comfort. So we knelt down and put our arms around each other and started to pray. It was a super simple prayer just asking God to be with us, to help John feel His love and comfort. The spirit was SO STRONG and after we said amen, John fell on the ground and was just uncontrollably sobbing. We grabbed him by the hand and helped him up, and he said he had never felt God's love stronger. It was a super special experience.

   Jaylon, one of our friends preparing to be baptized, is doing okay haha. She was doing great at the beginning of the week, and she was flying through the Book of Mormon. Everything was going great but then we didn't get ahold of her at all on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Late last night she texted us saying that she's trying to "sort some things out". So we don't know totally what's going on, but please pray for Jaylon!

   Our friend Patrick is now on date for May 28th! We're really excited for him. Other than that, we've been teaching lots and talking to tons of people. It's been going great and I love it here!

   One cool thought this week that I had came while I was studying the beatitudes. It talks about christ filling those that hunger and thirst after righteousness, because he is the Bread of Life and the Living Water. Its amazing how he fills us and quenches our spiritual thirst. Love yall! Talk to ya next week.

Love, Elder Ryan

Ice Cream Truck Miracles

Hey everyone! This week was another really good week. We had Zone Conference and we saw a ton of miracles.

     On Tuesday, we had a couple great lessons. First we taught this lady named Melanie. She is so sweet. The spirit was super strong as we talked about The Restoration and specifically Joseph Smith and it just testifies to me every time that this gospel is true. She was super sincere and really understood and wants to know if our church is true. But something she said that I loved is that "Jesus always kept His eyes on the Father." Such a cool way to look at it! Keep God and Christ the most important focuses of our lives!

     We had an awesome lesson with a family, Malerie, her husband who only speaks Spanish and their son Gerardo. Malerie told us her sister and mom passed away in the last 2 years. She has been desperately trying to figure out what the plan is for them and for her. We started teaching the plan of salvation and she loved it. We didn't get to the where we go after we die portion, but we will this week. She can't wait to hear it. As we were leaving, their 14 year old son Gerardo asked us "Why did Jesus have to die?" SO COOL! We gave him Mosiah 3, told him to ask God, and told him we'd talk about it next time.

     We taught our friend jaylon who is on date for the 29th. It went super well, and she had this moment during the lesson where she realized how important the restored gospel is. She looked at us and said "I was just that lucky that I found the only church who could baptize me." She is doing super good!

     I was on exchanges with Elder Weaver and had some cool miracles. First, we felt prompted to knock on a random door, and she answered and says "I was wondering when you were gonna come by!" She's a nonactive member, and her husband and kids aren't members! Then a little bit later, this ice cream truck stopped and gave us free ice cream and then asked when they could meet with us because they want to find a new church family!

     We then had an awesome visit with our friends Dove and Valerie on Friday. We talked a lot about the Saviors promises to give us rest, peace, comfort and so on. They talked about how sometimes those can he hard to find and Val talked about her issues with vaping and how she's tried to stop for 2 years now but can't. We had an amazing discussion about the Savior's power, and the way to fully access his power and grace is through the Restored gospel. It was really powerful and they both are on board! 

     Another cool thing. We were walking in a neighborhood and this guy sitting in his truck rolled down his window to talk. He's only 20 and his name is Angel. But he proceeded to tell us that his mom passed away in the last year, and he's been looking to find God to feel closer to his mom. Like what! So cool! We testified about Christ, and specifically the plan of Salvation. He is stoked and we're meeting with him again this week. 

     Anyways, those were the highlights of the week! It's so cool to see all the amazing people that God is preparing. Love yall! Talk to ya next week!

Love, Elder Ryan

Last Area: Odessa

 Hello everyone! I'm here in Odessa, my last area with Elder MacDonald. It's been such a good week and I absolutely love this area! I was a little worried about coming to Odessa but I'm loving it. 

    We had an amazing miracle on Saturday. We received a referral from a lady named Jaylon. She requested to learn about baptism. That night, there happened to be a baptism for another ward. We invited her to it, and she came with her one year old son, Nathan! During the baptism, Elder Mac and I shared a message about covenants. She loved the baptism. At the end, we asked how she felt during it. She said she felt so incredible, and she said that during the actual baptismal ordinance, she felt so strongly that she needed to do it.

    The next day, she came to the sacrament meeting on Easter. Sacrament was amazing and then she asked at the end, "so how soon can I be baptized?" She's now on date for April 29th. She is so excited! 

    We have another friend Patrick we are teaching who has had a rough life. He's been addicted to everything you can think of, and he's now preparing to be baptized soon. In my little lesson with him i learned that Christ truly can change anyone and anything.

    We were walking in a neighborhood and found a lady named Haidee. She has been in and out of prison, but she's been out for 4 months now and is living with her kids. We started explaining what we do, and how we help people. She is desperately searching for her purpose in this life. She's at the point where she doesn't really believe in God. We testified of God's plan for her, Christ's ability to bring her joy, and how it's available for her. She said "you guys look really happy, so I'll try it out." Pray for Haidee!!

    We had some awesome other experiences with other friends. This area is incredible. I get to use my spanish, and the members are amazing! Love yall, talk to ya next week

Love, Elder Ryan

Last few weeks in Amarillo

 This last transfer was super super good. Sorry its been awhile since i wrote, so this email encompasses the whole last transfer. I learned that I'm being transfered to Odessa for my last 2 transfers in the mission. This area in Canyon has been my toughest for sure. I've never been rejected, cussed at, yelled at, kicked out, targeted, and had food thrown at me more in my life than here in this area. Especially the last 6 weeks. Their are a lot of Christians here who are VERY firm in their ways. But I learned a lot about how much God loves effort and faith, rather than outward results of success.

   We had a really cool experience the other week. So the other week we were walking in a neighborhood and we felt really prompted to knock on this door. We knocked and we met Manuella and George. They instantly invited us into their home and we just got to know them. Then without us saying anything, Manuella said "I must come to church with you." That was 3 weeks ago. And she's come twice in the last 3 weeks. She loves it. This last Sunday she even brought a friend to church, because she's struggling in her marriage, and Manuella told her she needs our church.

   Anyway, this last week we taught her and George about The Book of Mormon. They loved what we shared and the spirit was so strong. George is 92, and he said he would never read it though because he hates reading. He doesn't even read text messages haha. But we went back over 2 days later, and he had read from the Introduction to 1 Nephi 13!! Then by Sunday he had read even more! He can't put it down, it's so cool. Manuella and George have sadly moved to Georgia, but they're already working with the missionaries down there! I'm super excited for them.

      I went on exchanges with Elder Regen down to Lubbock. It was super fun, especially because it's my old area. We got to go to Texas Tech and we found like 4 people as we were there. The coolest was a guy who claimed to be an atheist. He shared his reasoning as to why he doesn't believe in God, and then we shared why we believe in God and Jesus Christ. He explained his outlook on life and it was very sad, he said he just lives his life to the fullest and then when he dies it'll be the end. And he also said he views Christ Atonement as unfair, almost like Christ paid our price and is now holding it over our heads and requiring us to do things. He said he didn't ask for Christ to do that for him.

     We gave him a scenario, I said imagine if you were in a white room where everyone was dressed in white and everything was perfectly clean and pure, and then you came in covered in mud and started hugging people and sitting on the couch spreading your mud stains everywhere. Would you feel comfortable? He said no not at all. Then we explained that we are all muddy, and cannot clean ourselves. Christ paid the price to clean us. As we follow Him we are cleaned, and we will be comfortable with our Father in Heaven. We were able to testify that he is a son of God. He suddenly became super interested and asked if he could read The Book of Mormon and for us to explain it to him! He said he'd never heard of a relationship with Christ that made sense in that way. Super cool!

     Our area has been super slow recently. We've been really struggling to help what friends we do have progress, and to find new friends. We've been praying and praying and working and working some more. Finally this week we saw some fruits from our efforts! While walking and knocking doors on Saturday we found 5 potential People to teach, and one of those people has a family we are going to try and teach. One of the ladies we knocked on said she was just praying the night before for a new church to attend in Canyon! Such a cool little miracle. Please pray for Olivia, Joseph, Albert, Alvin, Margarita, Amy and Brad! 

     Had kind of a crazy xperience, our recent convert Melvyn got scammed by his online girlfriend. He met her on Facebook and then 3 days later sent her 300 dollars to come visit him, then another 300 dollars a couple days later. Poor guy doesn't know what scammers are. After talking a lot with melvyn, we learned he is struggling a lot with depression. He told us he doesn't want to go on anymore. We've had some powerful lessons trying to help him find joy in his life. Please pray for Melvyn!

     Anyways, there was a lot that happened this last transfer, but these bits were the highlights. Love yall! Talk to ya next week!

Love, Elder Ryan