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

Week 25

Good day everyone!

This past week has been a great week! I mean great. We had transfers last week and I got a new companion. His name is Elder Read. And he is a Georgia boy. I guess they only send southern people to southern Utah. Maybe. 

But we hit the ground running as soon as he got in the area. We met with Pam again on Wednesday night and she told us that she wants to be baptized on the 22nd of Feb. So that was exciting. She has been working towards that for the last 7 years and she has decided that now is the time to really do it. So we have gotten the ball rolling on that. Then yesterday we met with Cobe, and we felt prompted to ask him to be baptized so we did. He accepted and we are planning on the 23rd with him. So I am super excited about that as well. We have been working hard here and things are really starting to pick up. I have a feeling that this transfer has to potential to be great. We are just going to have to work harder and keep our eye on the prize. 

It is really amazing to me how the Lord prompts us to act and when we are filled with love for those people that he is asking us to help, we are not fearful of that prompting, but rather we do it because we want what is best for that individual. I can think of 2 very specific examples of being prompted this weekend where because we acted in accordance with what the Lord asked, peoples lives were blessed. But the big thing about it was that love preceded the promptings. We have been meeting with a man here in Orderville that has been struggling for decades with alcohol and going to church. We stopped by his house on Saturday and he didn't answer. We knocked more then normal and then left. Driving by later in the day I felt prompted to go there again. So we went and knocked on the door again. He immediately answered. We sat down and talked for an hour and a half. He was feeling very low and depressed. We built up a relationship with him over the previous 3 months. And when I felt the prompting to go over the only thing I really cared about was making sure he was ok. When we love we put those people who need our love above our worries or our cares. I am not saying any of this to toot my own horn, but rather to stress the importance of love. Love everyone. From love miracles happen. I have seen that this past week. It is something that I definitely need to apply more in my own life. 

But I Love you all!

I hope you all have a great week.

-Elder Valentine

P.S. While waiting for my companion I went out for the day with Elder Lewis, while tracting we came upon this, so naturally I had to have a picture....

Week 24

So another transfer has come and gone! It is hard to believe that I have already been out for 4 transfers. But on Sunday we received our transfer calls. I am once again staying in the Kanab 2 area. So I did not get transferred. Elder Greene, my companion, go transferred to the Enoch west area. He is going to be right next to Cedar City. If anyone knows where that is. It is a little bit north of St. George on I-15. So overall he really won't end up too far away from where I am. It is about 45 minutes northwest of my area. So not too bad. But that is where he is going. My new companions name is Elder Read. Right now it is about 10:30 and I dropped Elder Greene off at the St. George East stake center at 9:00. Elder Read is supposed to be down here in St. George at 5:00 this evening. So we will see if that is right. But I won't be getting back to my area until like 7-8 this evening. But anywho that is going to be this evening. So I am going to be here in St. George for the day with one of the Zone leaders. 

Anyways, this past week has been another good week. We have been improving in our area a lot. We have found a couple of new investigators over the last few weeks. So that is super awesome. We are teaching a 14 year old boy named Cobe. And we have just started teaching a 9 year old girl named Mercedes. And then we have a couple of other kids that we might start teaching. It is really remarkable how many kids we teach. And I use the term kids for anyone under the age of 18. They usually are the most easily taught of anyone. They aren't hardened like some adults are. So it is really interesting. I thought I would teach more adults then anything else. But not true. But we are also meeting with a woman named Pam. She has the goal of being baptized this coming February. So we are going to work with her towards that. She has a thing or two holding her back. But nothing super serious. But we have slowly been increasing our teaching pool. It takes a lot of prayers and hard work to get out there and find people and work with them. We have had amazing help from the members in the area though. They have been the main reason that we are able to teach as much as we have. I really appreciate all the work that they do. 

So that has been our past week. It was quite the adventure. But I hope everyone back home is doing well. I have heard that there is a lot of cold weather and possibly some snow back there. I hope everyone is staying warm and safe. I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week.

-Elder Valentine