SLC WEEK 38

Hola todos!

This week was pretty good. Very busy once again and not really anything new this week. Also I don't have much time to write my email so it'll be pretty short. 

I had a pretty cool spiritual experience this past Sunday. I really took the time to listen to the spirit throughout the whole meeting and I was able to get a lot more out of it than usual. Basically the spirit will give you the answers you are searching for just sometimes you have to listen and prepare yourself to receive it.

Also it is really cold again  I once again thought it was summer but I was wrong. I should stop getting my hopes up when it starts heating up

I love you all and thank you for all your support! I hope everything has been well and I hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Randall 

-Burger King crown run

-Glow in the dark volleyball zone activity 

-Zone leadership in the mission 

-Elder Lancy (not my comp)

-ZLC

-Service moving a printer from 4 flights of stairs

-more service 

-Us setting goals

-Dog

SLC WEEK 37

Hola todos!

This week has been pretty dang crazy. Our schedule has been packed every single day. But one of my favorite weeks of the mission so far!

Basically everyday has been packed with lessons because this area is crazy. There are so many Latinos here and it's been awesome. We have so many people progressing which is awesome to watch.

Friday was prob my favorite day in my mission. It was my birthday so that all of you for the birthday wishes! Also I got to see my awesome grandparents and we went out for dinner! AND on top of that Jose got baptized! It was an amazing day and I'm very grateful for everyone who helped make it an awesome day for me!

Also I'm a Zone Leader now for Herriman as well. That has made my week even crazier. Everyone is cool in the zone. And I love my comp Elder Smith. He's a very hard worker and doesn't like to have any sort of break. So we have been going crazy. It's been a grind but I love it. 

Thank you all for everything! Hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Randall

I've been finding more frogs to aend back to my old comp elder santos so hope you enjoy haha. 

-Part of the zone call

-Jose

-Us with some awesome members from my last ward

- but balcony 

-Jose!!

- thanks Kelly hahah

-Dinner with my grandparents!!

-Elder Atilanos birthday dinner

-me and Smith

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SLC WEEK 36

Hola todos!

An awesome week again. Lots of cool news. Big email. But basically to sum it up Santos is a goon. Transfers are tomorrow. And I'm going to be ZL. And there were some cool miracles this week.

Santos catchphrases. Santos has been a goony companion and this has been one of my favorite transfers because Santos likes to work but also knows how to make the work fun. He has a few dumb catchphrases he has said his throughout these past transfers. He always says "missionary work" or "I was YSA" in the most random moments. For example, we will be talking to a member and they will be explaining to us information on someone we're looking to teach and santos goes "uhuh.. yeah.. yep.. uhuh.. I was YSA.. uhuh.."  we will be talking to someone in English or Spanish no matter who it is he always will just randomly say one of those phrases. Even while we are teaching people in the middle of a lesson, making a first contact, talking with members in the ward, or literally just anyone we walk by. If we talked to them they have heard "missionary work" or "I was YSA." And people just ignore it or give him a weird look, but EVERYTIME the conversation moves on with no explanation hahaha. There has been a few times where people ask "what does that mean?" And Santos always replies with something dumb like "missionary work" or says something clever like "I said have a blessed day" haha. But so many people think he's just weird. I'm going to miss Santos. He's been one of my favorite comps

Transfers are tomorrow.. and I found out I'm going to be a Zone Leader in Herriman. That area is cracked and they should be having a lot of baptisms this next transfer. I did an exchange there this week before I found out I will be there and it was crazy. I felt like a chicken with my head cut off. We talked to more Latinos in 5 minutes than I have in the past 3 months. That area will be fun to work, but I will miss this area a lot. There was a bunch of really cool members and people I will miss. Especially the Montezuma family and Jose y Junior. Jose should be baptized this Friday so it will be awesome to see them again!!

I saw Eduardo and Jose again! On that Exchange with Elder Smith I just ran it to them. It was definitely part of God's plan. I can't wait to move into their area as well and start teaching them.

Really cool miracle. I went on exchanges with English again. But this time I stayed in my area with Elder Lawson. We had a lesson with Jose and Junior that was kinda hard to control because they kept bringing up doubts they had that were completely off topic and our fellowship member was no help in solving the situation either. Everyone kept fueling the fire and started talking about random things away from what we wanted to teach them. It was good because we showed them you can find the answers to your doubts with the scriptures, but at the same time it was a bad lesson. UNTIL Elder Lawson came in clutch. He started by speaking up and said in Spanish, "I have a scripture I want to share." Everyone got quiet and he continued to share Moroni 10:3-5 and testified of the power of prayer and that is the way we can know if what we are doing is right. He literally couldn't understand much with his high school level Spanish, but the Spirit allowed him to know enough to bear his testimony. Everyone was shook and I'm not going to lie, I'm not a crier when I feel the spirit strong, but I cried for the first time in my mission during that lesson. Because of how powerful his simple, broken, sincere testimony was, we were able to help them feel the spirit and help them realize they just need to pray to know and the Lord will recognize their faith and answer it. That lesson became one of the most powerful lessons I've been a part of. It was a sweet reminder to me of my testimony of the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues. I relived through Elder Lawson, the early days of my mission when I was unable to speak much of the language. And it was a reminder of how far I have personally come during my time as a missionary. And the power one has to show the power of God as they speak.

Que le vaya bien!

Love,

Elder Randall 

-The Elders in the district 

-Contact grind

-Santos doing missionary work

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-more  

-mountains 

-Eduardo and Jose

-exchanges w my new comp Elder Smith

-The ZLC meeting

SLC WEEK 35

Hola todos!

Que anda

Zone conference part 2. We started doing 2 parts of zone conference in our mission so they can follow up on things and also so we don't spend literally all day sitting through a lecture. It's been pretty nice. They talked a lot about finding and it's helped me focus on a lot of things I should work on.

I love this area but Holy crap nobody can live here. It's a more expensive part of the mission so when people move here they either struggle and live pay check to pay check or they have to move away. We have had literally 5 families move or are looking to move very soon this transfer. There just isn't anywhere to stay here and so the people HAVE to move away. It's been kinda rough but its alright. It's just frustrating when things don't aline or quite work out the way you want it to. 

One of those families was Alexandra and her 3 kids. So now Alexandra is officially gone so we got her some goodbye snacks and stuff. And did one last lesson. They were some of the most Elect ppl I've ever met, but the Lord has His plan and I know he'll help them through their trials and find the gospel there.

But apart from the sad part of the week we had a cool end to it. We have been in a bit of a struggle lately trying to teach people. Everyone is our teaching pool either moved or isn't progressing . And for whatever reason everyone we talked to these past 2 weeks haven't been interested  but good news is we finally broke the streak and found 2 new ppl. One is someone we taught in the past and he has potential but is a little hesitant to talk to us ab church, but he just opened up to us so hopefully he continues to learn and progress. The other is someone we have been trying to teach for a while and we finally got in contact. She is YSA so we are going to pass her off, but I'm glad we got to start teaching her. She'll prob be baptized which is cool  

Also something funny. Latinos are known for having little frog statues in their front yards. And the mission presidents wife mentioned that in zone conference and Santos told me that was a big fat lie because he's a latino and he has never heard of that or seen it before. I told him it's true. We then went on with our day and we were driving in a neighborhood and I noticed a house that had a frog statue out front. I pulled over and said how much you want to bet this is a latino. He was like no way because we had no record on this house. We knocked it and someone answered the door and yes, I was right.  Santos just kinda blew it off like ok just this one time. But right after that we went to knock a members door for referrals and they said that there were 2 different houses of Latinos right next door on both sides. We knocked one and of course frog statues. Then knocked the next and as we walked up to the door Santos said "don't even say it.." I said "yep frog statue" He was pretty shook haha. So Latinos are known for frogs  

Also something else funny. Elder Santos is one of my favorite companions bc he is Dominican and just is funny. Like sometimes he just says the most random stuff that is so dumb but so funny. There has been a few things that he has said consistently throughout our 2 transfers together. First is he trys to make all the English missionaries think we are diso (disobedient) by telling them we have a wii at the church and we play Mario kart haha. He always asks them if they have extra wii controllers and stuff to play and I'm pretty sure most of them believe him haha. His goal is to have our mission President bring up in an interview "so whats this im hearing about Mario Kart." 

Also I almost ran over a dog and Santos almost ran over a bird.. Key word Almost

Also happy mothers day! Love you mom!! 

Hope ya have a good week!

Love,

Elder Randall

-District Lunch

-missionary work

-sunset

-more missionary work

-gift for Alexandra and the kids

-even more missionary work

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-it rained again.. oof