5 Sep 2016

Well, things are different. So I no longer live in Idaho. So the stake I cover now is in the very bottom of Idaho and covers Cokeville Wyoming (where I am now living) so it’s pretty cool but way different. So Cokeville, for those back home, is about the size of Gresham only even more populated with Latter-Day Saints. It’s about 90% and most of them are active members. We also cover the Geneva ward which is not a town it’s a stretch of High way and a couple of farms make up the ward. Then there is dingle it’s like Geneva only it’s a bit more populated. Then we have Montpelier which is like the size of Clintonville, and we only cover half of the town. So it’s taking some adapting from serving in the middle of the largest city in the mission with the lowest percentage of Latter-day Saint, to where I am now.

Monday- I was still with Elder Magallon and we burned his tie, played some b-ball for p-day, and saw a couple of families to let them know I was heading out. Said good bye to my man Charles, funniest guy we taught well, mark is right up there with him.

Tuesday was pretty busy, we had a district meeting before transfers, it was pretty cool, and since everyone was training we focused it around training. In the afternoon we did stuff but I don’t remember what. The evening was crazy busy, we had said by to the Stoddards, Had a lesson with the Nielsons, it’s a bummer to leave those two.  I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it back for her baptism. Then we had a goodbye party kind of thing with Mark. We and his fellowshipper came over and we had Pie and stuff, Mark is the funniest guy. He got us a Chocolate cream whipped pie. Super rich. Any ways he cut it in fourths and decided to eat it with us. And he's diabetic and that pie was like pure sugar. So we kept telling him to stop, but he insisted because it was my last day there that he had to eat all of it. So I hope he didnt end up dead shortly after I left.

Wednesday-Transfers!! It was crazy, so many new missionaries I don’t think there is one companionship that stayed the same except for the APs and the ones already training from last transfer and even some of those changed. So we spent the day getting everything all organized and people moved around. I met my new companion, Elder Curtis. He is a straight up cowboy along with like 90% of Cokeville. It’s like real cowboys though they ranch and herd cows and stuff.  Elder Curtis is a rancher from Wyoming so he basically is at home in Cokeville.

Thursday- Trying to figure out how this area works, meeting a lot of the leaderships; stuff like that.

Friday- Zone training, it was super good and we have the biggest zone I’ve ever seen. There are about 35 missionaries in it. That might change soon but one of the exciting things is that living in this zone we will have an awesome opportunity to work with the Star Valley temple!  We did have a lesson today and it went pretty well. We taught the Plan of Salvation. It’s a strange part member family. The daughter is a member; mom isn’t and I don’t think the rest of the kids are. Mom has been to a lot of different churches and was always told crazy things about the Church. The kids are going to be helping with the ceremonies for the temple. They are in one of the dance things for it.

Saturday- stuff happened I don’t really remember

Sunday- Good wards. Had some pretty good fast and testimony meetings in Cokeville. It scared me at the start. This old lady got up there and started talking about the election and how it was freaking her out but the rest of them were more spiritual. After we taught the young women class about how our words have effects. We had tried to plan for this a couple of times but couldn't figure out what to do, then as we were about to start I got an idea for a demonstration (thank the Spirit for that one) But I did a missionary role play with the teacher. And sat there in silence for a bit. Asked her how she felt, she just said awkward; handed her a Book of Mormon didn’t say anything, same answer. Then bore testimony and talked about the gospel. Asked her again. This time she said she felt the spirit, peace, joy (see fruits of the spirit see Galatians 5:22). Then we talked about the influence our words can have and how as much as they can bring the Holy Ghost they can bring the spirit of contention. Hopefully it helped. Then we met the Farmers for dinner. Cool family, they have like a prodigy son on the piano. He composes his own music and has since he was 12 maybe even a little before that. Then we met with one of the bishops. Turns out they were having a family reunion so we didn’t get to talk to him as much as I would like to have. Then we crashed another family reunion and the Grandma made sure everyone was gathered so we could leave with a message. So we talked about the blessings of the gospel in our families. and about how we can’t lose hope for any family members who have chosen a different path. It was a pretty good Sunday.

 A district farewell.

 My man Charles

Dingle. Capitol of the world?