Weekly Email from Last week

I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW, I have been absolutely horrible about this whole weekly email thingy. So I may or may not have a good bit of info for you all. Since it has been so long...

So to start off with I am still in Panguitch or if you never heard that I was in Panguitch, well I am in Panguitch Utah. Which is about 50 miles north of my last area. So I did not go very far at all! Panguitch is a small town of about 1500 people. We are about an hour from the closest sizable city. Which would be Beaver. But it is really close to Bryce Canyon. 

So as for the work, we have a pretty good size teaching pool out here. We are teaching around 10-12 people. Not as often as we would like. Sometimes we are only able to meet every other week. That is super difficult, because then they really don't progress at all. You just can't teach once every other week and help someone get to the waters of baptism. Just doesn't work.... So we do have 2 cousins that are on date for this week end to be baptized. Their names are Adrian and Andrew. They were on-date for the 17th of may, but one of their moms couldn't be down here so they didn't do it. But they are pretty solid for the 7th or this Saturday. Also we are teaching 2 other cousins named Jay and Jad, they are both 9. So their parents want them to get baptized so we are going to put them on-date for hopefully later this month, probably 3 more weeks or so... So we should have a pretty good month. 

So this past Sunday (the 25th of May) Was the beginning of another transfer. I believe transfer number 8 for me.... Which is super scary that It has already been that long!!! I don't understand where time is going!!! But yeah, I have been out almost a year............ But so I got the transfer call from president Saturday night, which always means something when you get the call on Saturday. So he asked me to train. So I am training a new missionary. On Tuesday my old comp. and I went down to St. George. I stayed down there that night and on Wednesday picked up my new companion. His name is Elder Sae-dan. He is 19 and is from Thailand. He spent 8 weeks in the MTC learning English. But he is super funny. His English is not that good, but we are working on it. We get along really well. But yesterday we found out why he was called here. There is a decent little Thai community in Beaver and they have a family home evening over there the first Sunday of every month. So we went over there for the evening (with permission from President of course, because it is so far outside of our area) and met with them. Elder Sae-dan actually found out they want to be taught in Thai. So we got permission to start teaching them. But yeah, at the home evening there are some members who speak Thai and they taught the whole first lesson. It was really cool. In talking to the members they said they have been praying for a long time to have a missionary that speaks Thai. So that is where Elder Sae-dan enters the picture. We are going to try to start teaching them. Which means I am going to have to learn some simple Thai. But Elder Sae-dan was super excited. It will be really good for him to help these people. So it seems like work is popping out of places I would have never expected to find it. Every time we pray and fast to find new investigators, things which I would never have expected just happen. The Lord really is aware of us and he does answer our prayers, I know that for certain. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen that on my mission.

So yeah. Lots of things are going on. We continue to seek after those the Lord has prepared. But the work out here goes on! It is quite amazing really. 

Well I love you all, this is going to be a really good transfer. I hope you all are doing well.

The Church is true, and the book is blue!!

-Elder Valentine

Weekly update

Well sorry it has been so long since there has been an email. It hasn't exactly been a happening transfer this time. But that is ok, You have to take the good with the bad. We have struggled the past few weeks to teach more then 3 or 4 lessons a week. We got dropped by 2 of our 3 investigators and then we dropped the 1 remaining. So we plugged away at finding someone new to teach. To no avail. So we made the recommendation to President that he close down the area and just re-consolidate it with the sisters that are down in Kanab. Between the two areas there just is not enough work for 2 sets of missionaries. So they are going to taper back down to 1 set for the stake. I don't like admitting that we struggled, but we did. 

But that means we both have to go somewhere new! And while I am excited to get to go somewhere new, I am going to miss having served here in the Valley. Like a lot. But as for where I am going, I am headed up to Panguitch. Right up the road. No lie. It is like an hour to an hour and a half north on 89 from where I am. So that is pretty exciting. That is where Elder Day was trained at (the other missionary in this mission from the Swift Creek ward). So I talked to him so he said it is a great area. I am looking forward to going there. It should be very interesting.

So the next week is going to be tons of fun. Lots of new people to meet. Lots of new places to learn. so there should be some more news next week. But I love you all. Thank you for all of your prayers and support. The Church is true and the Book is Blue (missionary copies) 

-Elder Valentine

Week 30

Well another week and another transfer and another month have come and gone!!! Crazy huh??

So yeah this week begins week 31 and transfer 5. 

So update for transfer info. Elder Read and I are staying together for this transfer. He was made district leader over the district and they shrunk the district down to just 3 companionships. So we are now centered in Kanab. I am happy we don't have to drive out to Hurricane every week for meetings. We just have to drive down to Kanab now. But we are actually in Cedar City right now doing emails. We came over here to do our shopping at Walmart. Because it is literally half as far to Cedar as it is to Hurricane. So yeah, we are outside our zone at the moment. But! that is ok because we have permission. It is amazing what you can get permission to do if you can save 90 miles on one trip. So yeah, good times.

But this past week was a good one. We went and hiked a slot canyon on P-day. It wasn't very long. It just ended at a rock face that you need ropes to scale. So we just hiked back out. But then this past Sunday Cobe got confirmed. We had 2 lessons with the Morgan Family and finally got a time set up when we can have a lesson with someone that we have been working on since we got to the area. Well since Elder Greene and I got there. But we had a few other lessons also. But anyways this transfer is going to be a good one. There is some really good potential so we have a goal for 3 baptisms this transfer. And we have names to back it up. So we will see how things go. We just have to work hard and miracles will happen. 

Well that is it for this week. I hope everyone stays warm this coming week. I hear it is supposed to get really really cold. So everyone be safe and stay warm.

I love you all. Have a great week!

-Elder Valentine

Week 29

Greetings all! Another week has come and gone and what a week it has been! This is actually the last week of this transfer. Scary to think about really. So this will be the end of my 5th transfer. Time is going by so fast.

BUT! We had a great week! So long as you are working time can fly by. This weekend we had 2 baptisms! (I will include pictures.) So Pam got baptized on Saturday and then on Sunday Cobe got baptized. It was a great weekend. Those were the first baptisms we have had in this area. So now that we got the ball rolling we need to have 2 more next month. (Which we are going to do) Now we just need to find more investigators to teach. We have 3 people that we are still working with, we need to find about 3 more, so we can stay busy. So that is what we are going to be working on in the upcoming week. 

I feel like it is a huge blessing to be able to feel joy when people enter into covenants with the Lord. I feel like it is a blessing that he gives to us to be able to experience to a small extent what He feels. Well I love you all. Know that I pray for you and wish you all the best. 

-Elder Valentine

1. Pam and her husband

 

2.Cobe!

 

 

Week 28

Greetings once more everyone! I have been hearing about a whole lot of wintry weather that has been happening out there this past week. I hope everyone was able to get unfroze and resume their normal day to day things and be safe. 

Things out here in the Valley are going well. We had a bit of slow week last week. A lot of appointments canceled on us for whatever reason. But we did find 2 new investigators. So that was really really good.  We need to increase our teaching pool because pretty soon (this weekend) we are going to be losing 2 of our investigators. But it is all good, because.... They are getting Baptized!!

Pam has been working with missionaries for almost 7 years. She is on track to get baptized this Saturday at 4:00 P.M. Then on Sunday at 5:00 P.M. We will also be baptizing Cobe Reck. So this weekend should be a really good weekend. We have the Mission President coming this evening to interview Pam for Baptism. So long as everything goes well we will help her to enter in at the strait gate. So that is very exciting. 

Otherwise I have been doing really well. I have begun to memorize scriptures. I started doing that about 3 weeks ago and then last week the mission president announced we will begin having scriptures to memorize as a mission. So I know that was inspired. I have already seen the blessings of having scriptures memorized. It helps me to be able to teach with more power and authority. It really is an act of faith on our behalf to start memorizing them.  And when we act in faith then miracles start to happen. It takes a lot of commitment and work to memorize scriptures word for word. But it pays dividends when people hear that and the Spirit can follow through more powerfully because of our efforts. Just something I noticed. But that really applies to all areas of our life other then just in a spiritual sense. When that same effort is applied to anything blessings will follow. That I know to be true. When we work, Things happen.

But otherwise this week is very promising. We are going to go out and find some more people to teach and keep this area going. Everyone is saying that once spring gets here there will be a lot more people here. So if I end up staying here that long there should be some really good progress. 

Well time is running out. I should be going. But I love you all. 

As one of the other missionaries said recently. The Church is true and the Book is Blue. 

Until next week 

-Elder Valentine

Week 27

Greetings everyone! I hope this email finds all of you doing well. I have to say that I am doing well. This past week has been a great week. And I have to say this coming week also looks promising. 

Last Monday we went and did a little bit of light hiking in Colorado City. They have some pretty good hiking surprisingly. Then we had appointments up on the Mountain and picked up a new investigator. Always exciting. Then on Thursday we also picked up another new investigator. He is our next door neighbor. His name is Roger. He is in his 60's and hasn't always been so nice. He actually quit drinking about 5 years ago and decided he wanted to quit smoking now too. But anyways he told us we were not going to convert him.  The Bishop of the Orderville 2nd ward actually got us through the door. He told Roger that we are not teaching enough and that we need someone to practice on. So Roger agreed to help. So that is why he told us he isn't going to convert. But he was talking about how he believes that Adam and Eve lived on the American Continent and how he believes that it is selfish to think that of all the worlds that exist that we are the only one that is inhabited. I just got so excited when he said that. I just told him everything that he was saying is pretty much what we believe. So much so that he actually agreed to take a Book of Mormon and read it. Which is awesome!!!!! I just get really excited about that. He says that he is not religious but that he is spiritual. So I have faith that he will want to learn more. If he truly reads the Book of Mormon I know he will want to learn more. 

Then I don't remember what days but we gave 4 blessings last week. A lot of people have been sick around here. A lot. So we have been giving a lot of blessings in general. It is amazing to be able to administer to those that are sick. It is truly following in the footsteps of Christ. 

Another thing that I have been working on is to memorize passages of scriptures. I have memorized 6 scriptures so far. Maybe 7. President Monson made a promise that if we would memorize one scripture a day for our whole missions we would have a photographic memory. So I started kinda late but I am going to try to memorize as many as I can. Plus the mission president is going to come out with a list of scriptures to memorize. I got very excited about that. It really helps you to teach with more power and authority when you can verbatim, quote the words of the Lord. It helps the spirit to work more strongly. Like reading out of the scriptures is great. But having the scriptures become part of us gives us greater power. So that is something that I am working on. 

well that is just a brief summary of my week. I have a hard time believing another has come and gone. We are already half way through this transfer. Hard to believe. But anyways. I didn't take any pictures this past week. Horrible I know. I will try to have some for next week. But anywho, I love you all! Have a great week.

-Elder Valentine 

Week 26

The only way that I know how long I have been out is to write this email. I have to go and look at what week we were on last week.... But It is hard to believe that last week was my 6 month mark. I don't know how that happened. But anyways I didn't burn anything. I feel like that is a waste.

But anywho this past week has been a great week. We have been finding new people to teach and have been helping those we have been teaching get closer to being baptized. One amazing experience that we have had out here is the fast we had yesterday. The whole southwest area fasted for rain or snow yesterday. Literally around 5:30 it started snowing. It was clear during the morning. And the weather forecast for this week said highs in the 60's and clear when we looked last week. Now they are saying snow and more snow. So I just have to say fasting and prayer really do bring about miracles. And if as a large region we can pray and fast for moisture and then receive it think about what other miracles we could experience if we exercised our faith accordingly.

So otherwise not too much else to report on. We are just keepin on keepin on. Things continually improve here in the Kanab 2 area. I love you all and hope that everyone is doing well. I will talk to you all later.

-Elder Valentine