16 January 2023

 I’m 1/16^th  Done with My Mission

Transfer week! I’m staying put with my companion but I’m losing a couple buddies. We say bye on Wednesday so that will be sad. I think last week I said 13 more transfers but idk where I got that number. There are 16 transfers throughout your whole mission and a transfer is every 6 weeks. This first one flew by, I’m excited for round 2.

It hasn't snowed anymore so that's good, it’s still really cold though. Let’s seeee,  I always forget what happened throughout the week. Oh, I bought disks so I can frisbee golf. I’m becoming so granola lol. You have to out here though because the area is just so pretty.

OH, my music is lowkey popping off out here. One of my friends at church told me she was playing my music and her mom came in the room and was like, "Ooh what is this? This is good." And she said it’s that one Elder’s! HOW COOL. I absolutely love the members here. I’ve made some actual friendships with these people they're great. 

People were meeting with:

Allysa - single mom, freaking dope 

Alica and Ava - mom and daughter, freaking dope. It’s been hard to meet with them recently tho

Heather and her kids - freaking dope, just started meeting with her. 

Will - lowkey ghosted us

Levi - his brother is Caleb who got baptized last week. Levi is a good friend of ours. We'll see what happens. His whole family is just great. Their mom sent us home with tamales and horchata

Ashlin - 9-year-old, grew up LDS but didn't get baptized when she was 8 so now we scheduled it

Allie and her son, Mitch - have been coming to church for years, have basically been members but haven't been baptized and finally decided to pull the trigger

Maeci - the absolute goat,[super cool] she’s a ‘theatre kid’ and super funny. My companion, Lenny, gave a talk in sacrament and she held up a sign while he talked that said, "Go Noah!!" It was hilarious. (His first name is Noah, but I could never call him that, he’s Lenny) Her dad is a seminary teacher who honestly does most of the teaching when meet. Love that guy, very wise.

Gwen and fam - met her at a gas station and they're fun. They have lots of cats

I didn't take any pictures this week sorry

Let me know how you guys are doing and update me with your lives!

9 January 2023

This Week Was Extra Fast

I don't even know what we did, we were just busy. We're meeting with a lot of cool people. We had a baptism too, that was great. Caleb is awesome. When I showed up, he was already on date for baptism, so I didn't really do anything for him, but it was cool to be there. Lenny my comp was really excited.

We decided to start being super obedient to the mission rules, even the stupid ones. The cliche saying, that I still don't like goes, "obedience brings blessing but exact obedience brings miracles," and honesty I can already say it's true. We've been desperately needing new people to meet with, and the DAY we go all in, we accidentally meet this awesome family. We were putting pass-along cards in this apartment complex and this lady waves to me across the parking lot. Eventually we go over there and start talking to her. She's super friendly and cracked out like literally on something, but a really nice lady. She loves missionaries and the gospel but hasn't invited us in. We met her son and his emo gf [girlfriend] and shared a message. We're going to go back. Juan and her son seemed really into it. He actually took our card a couple days before and kept it in his wallet. (We did half the apt then ran out of cards, came back later in the week and that’s when this happened.)

I think that's it y’all!

We got haircuts. The barber had two Boston Terriers in his shop

Oh yeah I was sleeping on the floor by the space heater and I accidentally kicked it in my sleep. It fell over and hit me in the face right on my eye so I have a cool cut on my eyelid

Next week is the end of the transfer. Crazy. Only 13 of them left. AND I've been in the field for over a month which is wild. It's already flying by. It's fun out here, okay bye

2 January 2023

 I Haven’t Emailed Since Last Year

Anyway! 

We're at a bowling alley right now, it's my companion and another missionary’s bday today. It's weird how all these people are younger than Kenedy. For his birthday we got to leave our area and go to Walmart!! That's how exciting missionary life is. Jk [just kidding] it's actually awesome but in other ways. I bought a lil strap bag to carry my things, which I learned in mission lingo is called a pros bag.

I've mentioned them before, but some of my fav people we’re meeting right now is a single mother and her 8-year-old daughter, she’s so cute. The mom is on disability so she's not bringing in a lot of money, so we brought them a couple fun stuff like decor and Martinelli’s for New Years, and it was fun. Their neighbor who is also a member brought them groceries, it was sweet.

I gave a talk in Sacrament, and I was SO NERVOUS, like irrationally so, but I didn't embarrass myself too much. It was lowkey clutch because people said, “good talk” or “thanks for the talk,” and it was a good opportunity to meet new people 

Hmm what else

I swear my memory is as bad as my dad's hahaha, sorry dad. 

OH it was like warm and sunny this week. The snow is melting, and it makes me so happy. I can finally see the grass and MT Is beautiful. 

New Years was fun, we just stayed in.

I guess that's it. The week does fly by. I get why people say the mission goes fast. I’m not gonna lie, I’m still more excited to come home than I am to stay for two years, but I'm getting the hang of things. But I'm excited for the version of myself that will be back after all of this. So I have to stay.

I get to

I'm trying to think more outwardly and selflessly, but dang it it's hard haha 

It'll come with time. 

Oh we went Frisbee golfing last week. It was so fun, my district is the best  AND we had cake for the bdays. 

26 December 2022

Record Lows in MT

Apparently this is one of the worst winters they've had in a long time. The valley I'm in isn't supposed to go into the negatives but one day it was -20° WHICH IS COLD. We two Arizona boys decided to walk to the gas station across the street that day to see what the cold felt like. My face was burning let me tell you. I used my beanie to cover my face as I was walking and ran into a trash can because I couldn't see. BUT then it got warm, like up to the 30s and low 40s, it felt like AZ a little. Made me happy. 

Christmas was fun! It actually wasn't that emo away from the fam. We hung out with the other missionaries for a bit and decorated cookies. Oh I thrifted an ugly Christmas sweater, and we also ate at the Bishop’s mom’s house for dinner, it was so fancy. Some of the properties here are insane man, like super nice houses in the middle of a picture-perfect mountain/forest scene. 

It was a slow week teaching-wise. Everyone was busy but we did get some work in. We started meeting with Alyssa, she’s dope. She was watching Miraculous Ladybug in the background. We have a baptism on the 7^th, Caleb, he’s a cool guy. We met his fam and his mom made us the best horchata. There are some amazing families here that I already love so much. It’s honestly fun, I can’t lie. I’m getting used to everything, I think. 

I get annoyed when people tell me the mission will fly by because it doesn't feel like it will, and 24 months is a lot, but I’m starting to understand why they say that. This week is the halfway mark of my first transfer, kinda wild. Doesn't seem like I’ve been here long at all. Well I really haven't, but you know what I mean. 

I think that’s it, nothing crazy is happening so far. Oh at dinner I was talking to Bishop and he was in scientific research for a long time and I’m entertaining going that direction so we had a really good convo about that line of work and how it all fits together. It sounds dope, he’s a smart dude. 

I think that’s it, nothing crazy is happening so far. Oh at dinner I was talking to Bishop and he was in scientific research for a long time and I’m entertaining going that direction so we had a really good convo about that line of work and how it all fits together. It sounds dope, he’s a smart dude. 

Also most of these pics are from a digital camera that my grandpa sent me, thank you grandpa you're a beast

 Also the dogs chase you while your diving here like in the movies, and look at that cat, he has extra toes

Love you bye

19 December 2022

 La Croix is Actually Good

We've been drinking way too much Red Bull so I and Elder Leonard are weaning off our caffeine addiction and replacing it with La Croix. At first I hated it but then I couldn't put the can down. lol so we buy them by the case now hahaha.

Uh!

We've been teaching a lot, it's been really fun. I'm getting used to this, still, I have a lot more skills to develop but it's slowly becoming less foreign. It's been hard I can't lie. I haven't been that homesick but with Christmas approaching, I can feel it creeping up on me. Just all of this in general is super weird, getting out of my comfort zone is weird, but I'm getting the hang of it. 

I love these people tho. I've made lots of friends and all the kids call me pepperoni because they can't remember how to pronounce Verdoni. 

We named our Tacoma Shawty Red. Love her, but I'm NOT ALLOWED TO DRIVE FOR THE FIRST 6 WEEKs which is inconvenient but it's okay.

I did an exchange in Missoula, it was actually dope. I was not excited about it at all but the Elders up

there are great. Did some good work with them, I wouldn't mind being transferred there one day. 

Hmmm, I think that's the bulk of it. I've been good for the most part.

OH one of the sister missionaries sent my music to her dad and he saved it to his playlists. AND a couple of my buddies from the MTC gave me shoutouts in their emails. Y'all are AWESOME ILYSM [I love you so much.] I miss my MTC buddies.

To be honest I can't wait to come home. I'm putting in the effort to feel less of that so I can make the most of the opportunity I have here. Like I'm excited to come home but I'm also excited to be here so I'm just trying to be more excited that I'm here because I really won't be for that long. I'll get the hang of everything soon. 

This church is not led by man. This is truly Christ's church. He's personally involved in all of this and in my personal life. Once you kinda wrap your head around that it changes so much. I don't like bearing my testimony online because it feels weird and corny but I know it is all so real.

Merry Christmas!! 

K bye

ALSO WAIT I'm just gonna put all my pics in a google drive photo so click the link to see my handsome face

12 December 2022

Corvallis MT!!

I made it to Montana! I got assigned to Corvallis. It's in what's called the Bitterroot Valley. It's an hour south of Missoula so I'm pretty close to the Idaho border. There are two mountain ranges that run parallel to each other and stretch north and south. There's a string of small towns in between and at the heart of it is a homey little town called Corvallis. There are lots of trees and a big river that flows thru the valley it's so pretty. 

My trainer is this dude from Winslow, Elder Leonard. He's pretty dope, we have a lot of fun but he's also down to earth and puts in the work. He's teaching me a lot and we have plenty of work to do here.

 Never have I been on the receiving end of this much charity and love from strangers. The members here are cracked. Every Wednesday the Wridges feed us. Every Wednesday. Super nice fam and they make us name all 20 dead animals on the wall, in order, before we are allowed to eat. But yeah everyone here is so nice our dinner calendar is pretty much full all the way thru January. 

Part of the reason they treat us so nicely is because we really are needed here. There's a ton of growth. In the whole mission, there are 4 temples in construction and it is the 2nd highest successful mission in the country. So there's lots of activity, specifically in the Corvallis area too.

I've taught a couple of lessons and it goes fine but I have a lot to learn and have to learn how to missionary. It's weird but exciting. 

I miss my MTC friends but we keep in touch. My new district is pretty cool too.

Hmm

It's an interesting feeling to realize I have literally nothing to do all day but serve these people and befriend them. And idk [I don't know] it's cool. We helped this one lady move out. I gave her a blessing the very first night I got here, it was dope.
I'm getting used to the cold! Corvallis is relatively warm to the rest of the state bc [because] we're between the mountains but it's still close to 0 degrees.

So there are these beautiful big mountains all around me. And tons of deer. Like everywhere. I have yet to drive somewhere and not see them running around and in front of us. 

I thrifted a cool grandpa shirt!

I go to Montana next week and I'm scared 

For real this week was so much faster than last week. I'm at the Missionary Training Center in Provo for my new friends who just subscribed to my annoying emails. I fly out to the real-life mission field on Tuesday. It's wild. I'm somewhere in between wanting the MTC to be over so I can face the source of my anxiety and wanting my last MTC days to be long so I can enjoy the limited time I have with my amazing friends and procrastinate dealing with real life BUT it's cool.

It's cold and snowing now but tbh [to be honest] I'm getting used to it. It's a rude foreshadowing of what I'll be walking into this week. lol

Hmm

Classes are fine

I'm typing this in the laundry mat while my clothes are drying but I forgot to bring hangers so there's a pile of damp dress shirts on my lap.

I thought after I left on my mission my music would die with me, but from the looks of it, there's still a lot of support from my friends and fam and that makes me so happy.

This cafeteria food is not it. I can't complain because I don't make 3 meals a day but MAN some of the stuff they feed us is boofy.

OH, I got some of the sisters in my district to do the anime voice, funniest thing. You know the TikToks where it's a cliche anime stan and they talk like anime characters and it's super cringy? Kenedy, my sis, got me in the habit of talking like that every once in a while and the habit never died. My whole group always yells at me when I do it.

Knowing that I'm just a vessel in the Lord's hands and that He's really doing all the work is something that keeps me going. It's so nice to just trust Him and let go of everything. I can't imagine not being able to lean on him, I guess that's why I'm here, to show people how to do that. God bless

NEXT TIME I WRITE Y'ALL I'LL BE IN MONTANAAAAAA 

Peace