4th of July

(Elder Slade)

So, this was a fun week. I ate a lot of food on 4th of July! I went to 4 or so picnics/BBQs. By the last one I could hardly eat any more. The people up here are too kind. We also were able to watch a parade that day! They weren't allowed to throw candy or anything (lame), but I jokingly thought they should throw out hand sanitizer. We had to be in by 9, but we were able to watch a few fireworks from the apartment. Other than that, the only difference from a normal day, was that we were able to call home. Our mission President suggested we could run a 5k as well, as long as we ran in our proselyting clothes. Color me lame, but I decided I didn't want to run 3 miles in a white shirt and tie. Maybe next year.

On Tuesday, we had our first in person zone conference in about 4 months. It was a great experience with lots of helpful trainings. A big topic we talked about was conversion. Rather than a testimony, which is knowing the gospel is true, conversion is more of being true to the gospel. If we know something to be true, it should cause us to make changes to our lives, and even changes to ourselves. Sometimes we know things to be true, but for some reason it doesn't result in anything. For example, we may know that Krispee Kreme donuts are the best donuts in the world, but we don't put in the effort to drive to it and buy some (man, I wish there were Krispy Kreme Donuts in Rexburg 😥). We may know that family is the most important thing, and then spend all of our time working, or doing other things. My invitation to you is to evaluate what you know to be true, and then make changes accordingly. I for myself know that the Gospel is true, and know that my Savior lives, and thus I will try my best to follow Him, even if it seems like it's too hard sometimes. As long as we keep improving and trying to become better and to change, we will be alright.

This week, we also had an exchange Wednesday with some other Elders. I with an Elder Moore from South Fork Utah. He's a funny guy! We got lost looking for a house that were going to do service in, and we ended up in the middle of a field on some back road, our car extremely muddy because we had to drive through some really large puddles. Also, today we went on a hike to Mesa Falls! It was beautiful! I'll include some pictures. This week I learned that apparently Idaho sponsors a semi-truck that pulls a giant fake potato that drives through all of the 50 states. It's apparently called the Big Idaho Potato Truck. Very creative name. You'll have to look it up though. Apparently if it was a real potato, it would take 7000 years to grow.

Pictures:

1-4. A few or the many pictures at Mesa Falls. You should go if you are ever in South East Idaho.

5-6. Elder Baron and I next to a giant gorilla.

I didnt know you guys existed in this town!

(Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for,

This week's title came from a time when we were on a crosswalk in Rexburg, and the cars that were stopped starting yelling at us. One guy yelled where we were from (a question I've probably been asked 1000 times) and told us he loved us. Another guy screamed. "I didn't know you guys existed in this town!" I think being a missionary in south east Idaho is the closest I'll ever get to becoming a celebrity. Some people get so excited when they see us, it's weird. I'm not used to getting so much attention.

Time is moving like crazy though. I can't believe it's almost July! The days feel super long, but the weeks feel short. Tomorrow is zone conference again, but this time it's going to be in person! Yay! Unfortunately we'll have to wear masks though. Less yay. Apparently there's a surprise speaker. I'm thinking it's going to be Shia LaBeouf telling us to just do it. Just kidding. I'll let you know next week who it is.

This was my first week leading our district council as a district leader. I gave a training on improvement through the atonement. The reason we are here on earth is to improve and become better.  And the thing about improvement, is that it's hard. It's hard to change bad habits, and start good ones. It's hard to grow the attributes that we and our Heavenly Father would like us to have. But change is definitely worth it (unless you're Batman. Then there's no need to change), and is possible. Pray and ask Heavenly Father for help. Make goals. Set plans. I know you can receive strength to improve as you put in the effort.

Happy July 4th everybody! Don't let your dreams be dreams! Just Do it! Idaho'nt give up!

Pictures:

1-2. Beautiful Sunset!

3-4. There was a bunny rabbit outside our window!

My foot is vibrating!

(Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for,

Not much happened this week. Same old text, calls, and sharing messages with members. It gets a little repetitive sometime. The title comes from a texting session where my foot was falling asleep, and I said, "My foot is vibrating!" Then I repeatedly tried to hit it against the coach to get it to stop. It didn't work. But one thing we've been working on more and more is Facebook proselyting. I'm not too much a fan of it, but the variety makes it enjoyable. We have made music videos, teaching videos and all other assortments of social media propaganda. Haha, just kidding, I wouldn't call it propaganda. But if you have time, you should check out our page, you'll probably see me in some videos! It's called Church of Jesus Christ In Rexburg.

Today, our new district and another district went to the sand dunes in St. Anthony.  It was super fun! It was sandtastic! We spent the time running and jumping off of the dunes as far as we could go. We also did some front flips off of the dunes. Suffice it to say, sand got everywhere.

One of the videos for Facebook we've been working on is about the Book of Mormon. What's amazing about the Book of Mormon is that it can answer all of life's questions. It teaches us. Why we are here, and where we are going. It teaches us the purpose of families, and how to strengthen them. It teaches us how to receive forgiveness, and how to forgive. It teaches us how to love, and that we are loved. It teaches us how to find peace, happiness, comfort, strength, patience, and faith. But above all else, it teaches of Jesus Christ, and that He lived died and was resurrected for us. If you would want to learn more about any of those things, I invite you to read the Book of Mormon. I promise you in the name of Jesus Christ that if you do so with an open mind, you will find those things.

Interesting fact, Idaho grows roughly 1/3 of the U.S. fall potato crop. Given that the average American eats 140 lbs of potato per year (though the internet has been wrong before), then that's a lot of potatoes. Anyways, love yall!

Pictures:

1-3. Taking pictures with Elder Baron next to a potato field and a canal.

4-7. Various sand dune pictures. I wish I could fly. :(

8. Nuff said.

June 24th 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey everyone how's life been?

So the past couple of weeks have been really interesting. So it started out Wednesday the 10th when I got emergency transferred down from Malad to Providence Utah where I have now been living for the past two weeks. I got down here and found out as I looked at our schedule for the next couple of weeks that we had nothing there absolutely nothing so, my new companion Elder Bedah and I spent the next couple of days calling as many people as we could to set up times in which we could meet with them and share a message. So doing this started to fill up our nights so that we were actually semi busy every day. But the really interesting and stressful part about the last couple of weeks was that we had a transfer last Wednesday in which we had to drive a missionary down to Ogden so that he could get to his new area. But even though that was supposed to be one of our regularly scheduled transfer days it didn't end up being that way because most of the Missionaries that we are getting whether by reassignment from another mission or through reassignment at the MTC most of them were going to arrive on this next Wednesday. Those two transfers were probably the most stressed out that I have been in a while. It has been a nice couple of weeks however being back in Providence Utah due to it being my first area of my mission and being able to talk to and get tk know again some of the amazing members in this area. But that has honestly been the highlight of the past couple of weeks. Now I honestly after these past couple of months really am not sure what to write about anymore so if y'all that are taking the time out of their days to read my bad emails want to hear about anything specific about my days or Missionary work right now email me and tell me please.

Love your brain dead missionary (because all he does is call people for 12 hours a day)

Elder Petersen

Faith is like a cinnamon

(Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person can hope for,

It's been a good week. We did lots of service this week, consisting of helping someone move a dresser, building a fence, and painting a woman’s house. (Not all at the same time, though that would be pretty impressive!) It felt good to take a bit of a brake from all of the teaching, texting, and calling and just help someone out. We also did an exchange this week. I went with Elder Vea, who was a reassigned missionary who served in Zimbabwe, and who's from Tonga and the U.S., so it was fun talking with him. During that we got tons of food! We got zucchini bread, cake, ice cream, hot dogs, potato salad, and coleslaw, all given to us to take home. The struggle is real.

This week, we've really been focusing on finding new people to teach though. Most of our prayers included asking to help us find. We've also tried to especially focus on activities that would lead to finding in our planning. Because of this a miracle happened! We went to one of our dinner Appointments the other night and when we got there, they said that they had just randomly invited an entire nonmember family to dinner as well! We started talked with them, and they said we could stop by sometime. So, we stopped by a few times this week, began growing a relationship with them, and they said we could come over next week sometime and start teaching them! Hopefully we'll be able to catch them! But this to me shows how the Lord really does answer prayers. There are many blessing in store, that are just requisite on us asking for them, and trusting in God's will. The power of prayers is real!

This morning we also got transfer calls. While Elder Baron and I are both staying in our area, we are being moved to a different zone, the St. Anthony zone. They are also making me a district leader. I don't know what they were thinking, but I know that the Lord will help me! As far as I know, my role is to organize exchanges with the Elders in my district, and lead our district councils. It will be good. The title this week actually comes from a few weeks ago, when Elder Baron was trying to say "Faith is a synonym " when he actually said "Faith is a cinnamon". I think Elder Baron was on to something there. If you think about it hard enough, I think he found the meaning to some of life's greatest questions.

For those of you who are potato enthusiasts, put in your calendars August 19th and October 27th. They are National Potato Days! Exciting!

Pictures:

1. An awesome bumper sticker. I'm Elder Slade, and I approve this message!

2. A cute dog at on of our service projects.

3-4. Elder Vea and I with the house we helped paint. If you look closely, you can see that I got brown paint in my hair. I'm not very good at staying clean when it comes to paint.

Do tapeworms have ears?

(Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person can hope for,

This week has been a good week! Above all else, we had the baptism for Jessie and Jill Bough! Yay! It was a wonderful experience. After 3 or so months of teaching them, it felt great to see them take the next step. They were so happy and I could see how much it meant to them. If I don't find anyone else on my mission, I'd be satisfied because I've been able to meet and teach them. I saw so much change in their lives. They have a better relationship with each other and their family. They are happier, more patient, more loving. They've seen several miracles in their lives that have shown them how much God loves them. I know that when we follow Jesus Christ and the gospel He's given us, we will be blessed in ever aspect of our lives (see Mosiah 2:41). I've seen it in my own life, and hundreds of other lives as we've met with members and nonmembers we teach while here.

Another highlight or my week was that I was called a Sister by a General Seventy (basically one of our leaders) in our church. We had a devotional over zoom with him, and a sister, Sister Varney was asked to sing a song for him. So she asked me to be her accompanist for it. Afterwords, the General Authority was mentioning the musical number and called me Sister Slade. Do I really have that feminine of features? It hasn't been the first time I've been called feminine. Is that a bad thing? I don't know. I'll take it as a compliment though! But, it was a cool experience to hear him speak!

Other than that, it's been the same old thing, lots of texting and calling to see up member messages. The title this week came from a question I had during a texting and calling session. My thought process went something like this: "Why does my stomach rumble so much? How does the sound even come out? Through my body? What if I have tape worms in my stomach, and they're causing my stomach to make lots of noise? Or maybe, there just along for the ride. Is the rumbling louder if you're in my stomach? Could tapeworms hear it if they were in there?" I then spoke out loud, giving no context to Elder Baron and asked him if tapeworms have ears. He was a bit taken aback, and pretty confused. Pretty funny though. We were able to do some service for a nonmember family this week as well. We helped him pull the plastic onto his greenhouse he was building. We also met someone from Russia, which was super sweet! I was thinking of giving some Russian puns to her, but we're meeting with them again next week, so, what's the Rush(ia)? I know what your thinking, "(Ru)shut up Elder Slade! Your pun's aren't even good!" Which you're right. They're not. But, interesting enough, the fun fact for the week, is that a popular drink in Russia, Vodka, is made from potatoes! Logic time! So, alcohol's bad for you and makes you do stupid stuff. Vodka has alcohol. Vodka's made from potatoes. Thus, potatoes must be bad for you and make you do stupid stuff. Nuff said.

Pictures:

1. Jessie and Jill's baptism. I'll probably have more pictures next week, but I was only able to get this one for today. Jill and Jessie are in the left, Brad Hirschi, their cousin is on the right, who baptized them. Elder Leavitt was able to come as well!

2-4. District pictures

5. A family we visited had baby kittens. So cute! They also had about 200 rabbits. I should have taken a picture.

6-8. Another family we visited had peacocks and a beautiful view.

June 10th 2020

(Elder Petersen)

Hey Y'all what's. So this last week a lot has happened ranging from a transfer board last Monday to breakfast at and area 70s home.

To start out as I just said we got a transfer roster Monday and had transfers Wednesday due to an influx of reassigned Missionaries into our mission. Nothing changed on my end however I an still up here in Malad Idaho with my companion Elder Davis. On Wednesday we got a call from the Assistants to the President telling us that we were getting our truck back Thursday which was really nice. Then we had a few uneventful stress filled days with meetings and setting up meetings. On Sunday however we got a call from an area 70 named Elder Hess who lives in our area asking us if we would like to come over to his house the next morning (this morning) and have breakfast with him, because of COVID-19 and all that we are still in isolation so we were uncertain if we could accept his offer so we told him that and just don't worry about it I'll get you permission which I'd how we ended up having breakfast with an area 70 this morning.

We also went on a hick during P-Day today it was an amazing hike with beautiful scenery. Enjoy these pictures!

So that has been my week this week hope yours have been going well.