Week 34.

 This week was exciting and a lot happened so without further ado, the highlights:

Programming - the social media Elders need some help with programming and my companion is beast so we go and help them and I was even able to write some code and help out so it was pretty awesome. 

Miles - Miles is doing awesome! We taught him the plan of salvation and he loved it. Then he came to church for the first time and it was pretty good. I'm so glad that members can help 

Stalkfleet - met with them again and sadly they didn't make it to church. But teaching them is definitely going to help me teach better. 

Rashi - we met again with him on Wednesday and taught the whole Plan of Salvation. He understood all of it and was very involved. We asked him to read some chapters on his own before Friday and ask us questions about it then. Come Friday it didn't happen because of a flat tire. 

Flat tire - anotha one, hopefully new bike soon. Had to cancel our lesson with Rashi that night but then he was like, give me more time to read those scriptures you gave me and that made me so happy. 

Khimani - she was doing so awesome and everything was going well, and then Satan got in the way. Now she's ghosting us, but we are just going to try our best to show that we love her. 

New training thing - so there's this new way of training in the mission field that involves the MTC. It was cool, but the really awesome thing was I got to see and talk to Elder Matt Terry from my high school. So that was legit. 

Mohamad - I might have talked about him before, but at Walmart he stopped us and we had no clue he was the same person until at the end when we asked his name, but it was so funny because he has good questions and believes very similarly but he for some reason doesn't like the commandments too much. But we are going to try and teach him more next week

Hoods - they are a convert family that we were finally able to meet with the Sisters' help. They haven't been to church in a while but I know a man with a 7 passenger van so things are about to change. 

Bishop - had an awesome discussion with him about the Plan of Salvation. He gave a cool way to look at it and also some insight I had never thought of before. I loved it 

When I first thought about the past week I thought it was bad, there were definitely some not good parts, but I love writing these emails because I can look back on the week with my 20/20 hindsight and just see how much God was in the details. In lessons, in our activities, and even in the flat tire. He was with me and I was able to feel joy. This week I even decided to try and count them. I started on Wednesday and so far I'm around 45, although I'm sure I missed a ton. 

2 Nephi 2:25

"Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."

If you feel like your week or your day isn't going well I encourage you to look for those times you feel joy. As you do you can come to realize, as I did, that even through hard times we can still feel joy. Because our Heavenly Father made a plan for us to be happy. And as we focus on that, the bad parts start to slip away and we can make every day a great day. 

I love you all, but not enough to take more pictures  have a great week and don't forget Jesus loves you too!!!

-Cool flower

- cool tree

- my face looks like an emoji

- brownie and oreo milkshake soup for dinner

-District +STLs

Week 33. "I will...pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

 Thank you all for your emails and doing my challenge. I loved hearing from all of you. This week has been awesome and I've definitely been blessed. Today's challenge is to find the scripture before I tell you at the bottom of the emai. 

This week's highlights 

Last p day- it was stk p day and so we had a ton of fun and played basketball for like 4 hrs. Then did a scavenger hunt and played a depressing game of volleyball. And everyone got mad at me for spiking on a women's net. 

Stalkfleets - finally met with this convert family. They are pretty awesome and sweet and we were able to set a time to keep coming back. 

Miles - we brought a member with similar experiences and they hit it off. The spirit was so strong when he shared his testimony. We set a baptismal date for him and he's going to be so ready. 

Rashi - is part of a part member family and never got involved with any of the lessons beforehand. But one morning we got an online referral and we he wants to change his life and have a better connection with God. Honestly one of the coolest miracles ever. 

Khimani - had a lesson with her and found out she has a problem with the Word of Wisdom but is totally fine and completely ready to just give it up, so please pray for her!!! If all goes well she'll be baptized on the 30th!

Friday night - made an Easter video that was supposed to go up yesterday wups 

Member Baptism- I was able to confirm him and it was pretty cool. Also funny because autocorrect changed my name on the program. So now I'm Elder Tomlin. 

Zone blitz - This week we also had a zone blitz in our area and so missionaries from our zone came and tracted in our area. It was my first one and it was pretty awesome. I didn't find anyone but other Companionship did so that's awesome. 

This week has been something else. It had its ups and downs, but the miracles I've seen this week have been amazing. The scripture I quoted in the subject is so true (Malachi 3:10). When we follow Christ and keep his commandments we can receive these wonderful miracles. The blessings are promised, if you aren't seeing them then maybe He's saving them for the future, when you're really going to need it. Don't give up if you're having struggles. "Thy walls are continually before [Him]." He knows your struggles, and He promised to make your burdens lighter as you follow Him. That can happen in lots of different ways, so if you aren't seeing the blessing in the way you're expecting, don't quit. He's blessing you so much, you just haven't seen it yet(song below) Don't quit, keep going, keep praying, keep reading, and keep believing. And I can promise you that miracles will happen.

I love y'all. And I hope that has helped someone. Also I swear pictures are being taken by other people but they don't send them to me so....

Week 32. If you read this you should send me an email, part 2

 Shout out to the 9 people who read my emails. You know who you are because you emailed me. Thank you, I loved reading your emails. And for all of those who didn't: because of the Savior we can change, and so if you missed last week you can write to me this week  jk

I love you all, email or no. 

Here are the highlights of the week:

Rubix cube - not really gospel related but I can solve a rubix cube now.

Teachers Quorum - so that morning we were asked to teach the teachers on preparing for the missions. We didn't really have time to prepare for it, then our data stopped working and we missed institute, so we were able to study. Then right after institute ended our connection came back so... divine intervention or something like that. Pretty cool 

Bike problems (Wednesday to Thursday) -I'm starting to wonder if there will be a week without problems. So Wednesday we got back from district council and found out I had a flat tire. But we didn't have time so my comp biked and I ran to a service, then changed and sped walked to some lessons so that was exciting. 

That night the Elders joined us for a dinner, we had an awesome lesson on Pres. Nelson's talk on spiritual momentum (must read) and got a ride home from them. The next morning the Elders gave us a ride to Walmart and I bought a pump. Then found out the tear was on the nozzle and so I pumped it up as much as possible then we biked to Walmart, because the Elders couldn't give us a ride again,, and bought a new inner tube. So the tire got fixed but I accidently moved the brakes and so I ended up crashing into a blackberry bush. I'm so talented

Exchange miracles - we went on exchanges and so I was with Elder Juarez. That day we found a referral who wants to be baptized and some new friends nearby. It was super cool. 

Weather - Church was awesome, but the weather was terrible. The morning was nice but after church the rain came tumbling down, then the hail came. It stung, and then it poured. By the time we got home that night it had stopped.  

In church we talked about "A Mighty Change of Heart" and it was super cool to talk about what it means to have a broken heart and contrite spirit. Someone explained it as seeing a cop while speeding and so you immediately have a change of heart and start following the speed limit. Granted it might not be the right reason but it's still a change of heart. But it isn't permanent, just like conversion, it's an ongoing process. There are those times when we will have a large spiritual moment and have that change of heart, like right after Conference. But later it might not be as strong, so we can pray and study the scriptures to keep that change of heart going. 

I love you all and I hope you all can read back through General Conference and find the message that was put in there for you. 

Have a great week! 

Here is the one pic I took. This was when I was running 

Week 31. If you read this you should send me an email👀

 This week has definitely been something. Really interesting and really good. And odd, for whatever reason they took the bike they gave me and replaced it with another one. Haven't tried it yet but knowing that it came from the mission it's probably old and something is wrong. But that just adds on to the fun. Here's the rest of the week:

Rob - he's one of our neighbors and is super awesome. He's got lots of faith, but doesn't like organized religions. But then we invited him to watch conference so we'll see how that goes

Khimani - we talked about scriptures with her and then Elder Albright just brings up baptism and if she has any reservations. She says no and then we set a date for the 30th! It also seems to be a trend, both of my trainees are more bold than me so I think my President is trying to get me to learn something 

Spider- it wasn't big but it was smart. Underneath one of the heaters was a spider. And because my mom raised me I am terrified of them. But this one looked dead. Sometimes it would move a bit but never when I was looking at it so I assumed it was the fan. Then 3 weeks after I first saw it, I saw it move, and it knew I saw because after that it stopped caring. It was super scary, and it escaped into the wall so now I'm scared this intelligent spider is waiting for a time to strike back. 

Spanish - let's start off with a story. Once upon a time there was a Puerto Rican mother and a father who served a mission in Chile. Both could speak Spanish and thought about teaching their kids as they grew up. But for some odd reason a 2 year old was more stubborn than they. And so they stopped. This is a true story. It's sad isn't it. Think of the blessings that 2 year old could have had if he knew English and Spanish. 

This week I met 3 Spanish speakers. My conversations with them were terrible. I've taken 3 years of Spanish in high school, memorized some scriptures in Spanish, and am doing doulingo. And the conversation ended up being very broken Spanish. But I tried. 

New foods - so the new foods this week was sushi, it's alright, but I definitely made sure the meat wasn't raw. And Cafe Rio. First time going there, I thought it would feel wrong (because I worked at Costa Vida) but here's a secret *there pretty much the same* it made me very nostalgic.

General conference - it was so fire! I loved all the talks and I wrote some good notes. I love how we can get answers from personal revelation while watching conference. The talks are the same but because of the Holy Ghost we can all get different things out of it. If you missed any I encourage you to read them once they come out, and if you watched all of them: share what you learned with someone! If someone asks you about your weekend tell them about conference and what you liked (that was from a talk). Saturday night I spent a while making cornbread and muddy buddies and I ate most of the cornbread and literally nobody else had the muddy buddies. So I might get a lot of cavities now from the amount of sugar I'm about to eat. 

For the spiritual thought I wanted to talk about a quote I loved. I don't have my notes with me now but it said "God's love for us is perfect, but our ability to feel it isn't." 

I love that because we all go through those times where we don't think God loves us or He isn't with us through our trials because we can't feel Him. But He is, He truly is. He never leaves your side and we can't feel Him because we aren't letting ourselves. 

I loved General Conference because it gave us some ideas on how we can feel His presence more. 

1. Focus on Christ 

2. Get rid of contention in our lives

3. Trust in God and His plan

4. Be patient 

5. Don't demand things from God

6. Read and study the scriptures

7. Pray always

These things really do work and so I would like to invite everyone who reads this to try these 7 things with me so we can all have that peace, that joy, and that great love which comes from our Heavenly Father. 

I love you all and hope you're all doing well. Until next week here's some pics.