28 December 2020

 This week has been pretty exciting. My companion`s mom sent out some filled Christmas stockings and we both got our Christmas packages in time. Before Christmas, members have been known to mispronounce my name, but one member topped it off with "Elder Batman". We got Christmas dinner provided for us, since we aren`t allowed to eat with members, which included ham, potatoes, vegetables, rolls, and apple pie. Also in the package was a Christmas brownie in a jar, which just had the dry ingredients, where we would add other ingredients and bake it. Funny story with the ham, when we were trying to bake it, we put it in the oven and took it out to find out it still wasn`t very warm. After putting it in the oven twice, we found out we didn`t notice the plastic sleeve around it. It didn`t burn the plastic much, and we heard as long as we cut the edge off the ham, we should be fine.

Christmas day was also pretty good. I got to call in the morning, and we got a present from some Sister missionaries that had two ties, with a request to wear it to a meeting we were having that day. We went to the meeting later, and had training and played a few games. We found out the ties the Sisters gave us matched their dresses and masks. We had our Christmas dinner that day, and later, had a devotional over Zoom with our mission, where we heard a few quick announcements and some spiritual thoughts, and then my Mission President put on It`s A Wonderful Life. The whole Christmas time was nice. We reached out to a member and he took our bike to a shop and got it fixed.

Despite the cold, I haven`t felt too cold when going outside while on a bike. The hills here feel really steep, so when biking uphill, it really can get difficult. When I see my trainer easily biking up hills, and me struggling and breathing hard over them, it reminds me that I got some things to improve on.

Another little surprise came yesterday. My companion is getting transferred. I wasn`t sure if he would, he`s been in the area for a while, but I am getting trained. We have a lot of missionaries coming in, so I think I heard more transfers are happening. I am going to get a new companion soon, who will do follow up training. The transfers should be happening tomorrow.

We got pictures of the matching ties with the Sister`s dresses and masks.

Well, that`s most of what happened this week. Bye!

 

 

22 December 2020

 This week has been a little interesting with quarantine. Me and my companion came out of quarantine on Thursday, and got to return to teaching people in person. Before that, we just had to use Zoom. Me and my companion also had a little celebration, my one month in the field, and his one year. We celebrated with cheesecake and ice cream. We still mostly teach members. We got to visit some non members, one of which said we could return later. A mission quarantine was declared by the Mission President. We can still visit members, but can't have rides or activities with other missionaries. In a Zone Conference over Zoom, we got to hear from Elder Gonzales of the Seventy. We also heard from our Mission President that instruments were now allowed on the mission, so long as they met certain requirements. We got a good amount of snow here. It was sticking around pretty well until yesterday and today when it was melting more. Despite the snow, the weather was surprisingly warm. Not too warm, but warmer than I thought it would be. On Sunday, we got to enjoy the Christmas programs. Today, for a District Activity, it was proposed to have a gingerbread house building competition over Zoom. However, none of the other companionships could find what they wanted, so me and my companion were the only ones that did it. It wasn't the greatest, but it stood. Things have been going good for the most part.

 

7 December 2020

 The week has been pretty good. I got my bike. It has been getting pretty cold, but it is hard to focus on the cold while biking. There are a lot of hills, so it is either trying to bike up something steep, or praying your brakes will stop you in time, before you crash. Sometimes my trainer has to wait for me at the top of some hills because I haven't gotten used to biking uphill yet. We are waiting on a member to respond about some of the issues the bike has because we don't have a bike repair shop nearby that I know of.

We have been giving a lot of messages to members. There was a non member family last week we were supposed to teach, but one of them got sick. We have been trying to stay busy, but there are some nights where appointments cancel and you don't know what to do for the night.

Well, that is most of what has happened this week. I think we are giving a Christmas message to a non member today. Thanks for the emails!

30 November 2020

 Hi! It's been an eventfull week, the first full one in the mission. Things have been going good. I got to help my companion give some messages to members, and we are starting the Light the World message. Thanksgiving was good. We met as a district and got trained, then had a lunch we brought and played some games. Later we had a devotional over Zoom where the Mission President talked to us briefly and then we watched The Other Side of Heaven: Part Two. We were provided a Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and pumkin pie, which we microwaved before eating. It was pretty good.

It has been a little hard to teach new members because the member population is so high. I think I taught one non member so far, she is young and wants to be baptized. I think I might be able to teach a non member tomorrow.

It is getting a lot colder here. I'm still waiting for my bike to arrive, and I hope it arrives today.

Well, that is most of what has happened this week!

23 November 2020

 

 Hey mom, its been a bit of a crazy week. On Tuesday we arrived, filled out a bit of paperwork, got in a mission van, had lunch went to the mission home, and got trained for about two hours. We had pizza for dinner then a testimony meeting before we left for a hotel for the night. We got up the next day, had breakfast, and headed back out to meet our companions. I got assigned to Elder Gilbert, who is the district leader. We got to do a little bit of shopping that day because I didn't bring food for the week, but I was a little overwhelmed and didn't think too much about what I was buying. The food for the week has been a little repetitive, and I look forward to shopping today. I got assigned to the Cedar Hills mission. My trainer told me this mission was kind of hard, because I heard the member population was about 95%.

For most of the week, we have been giving Member Missionary Messages to members about Temples and the Gathering of Israel. We leave them with invitations to help the work by sharing the message with others, nonmembers.

The next message we are supposed to share is going to be a Light the World message, which we start after Thanksgiving. We have a discussion with a nonmember today, the first with a nonmember I will do. She is young and is about to be baptized. We got to do two service projects last week.

We don't use cars in our mission, and we were waiting until today to pick up my bike, so there has been a lot of walking. Utah in Cedar Hills is, you know, hilly. Lots of hills, some of them are really steep. It does give good opportunity for pictures because you can actually look up and down at places. We also have these big mountains around the area.

Our mission is allowed to visit member homes still. A lot of missions don't have that, and I heard we were allowed to because we stuck strictly to the covid rules. It also means that we are not allowed to accept food from families. There was one point when a family offered us a store bought cake, they talked about how they hadn't touched it or anything... I think I felt a physical pain when we declined. They insisted, and if not for my companion, I would have completely caved.

The area has also been really cold. We do some of our messages at night, and with the long walks, the cold gets kind of intense. I think my coat is completely insufficient for this weather.

Well, that's most of what has been going on. Thanks for the emails!