Go and Do Oct. 11

Hey guys! Its been a super busy week over here. But its also been a fun one. So last Tuesday we dropped off Elder Dressen (our mini missionary) and he is in Guatemala now. So it was back to the dynamic duo. Major & Romney out fighting crime and preaching the word in the streets of Bonsall. Not so much fighting crime but this week we taught a lot more than we have been. We have been teaching our investigator Kenny and its powerful to see where he started and where he is at now. He is changed and you can tell just by looking at him. We are also teaching Norma. That sweet old lady. This past week she has been telling us over and over how much peace she feels in her life because she has been feeling the Spirit on a regular basis. To me as a missionary seeing those changes and blessings in other peoples lives makes it all worth it and makes me happy.

One thing ive been trying to work on lately is following the Spirit. It seems easy enough but i struggle with it. On Sunday our Bishop shook things up a little. We had our regular sacrament meeting but second hour it was all combined. We watched a talk from Elder Bednar about going and acting on promptings. So after second hour the ward went out and acted on promptings. We visited less actives or non members that we were prompted to go by. It was a really cool experience for everyone. Not just because we only had 2 hours of church but that people were actually inspired by the Spirit on who to go by. The more we act on inspiration, the more promptings we are going to receive from the Spirit and the more clear things will be to us. 

Hope you all have a great week, love you guys!

This is the squad. Love these guys

Conference Weekend

Hey guys so like most weeks we have there was good, and then there was bad,.So this whole week we have just been knocking doors like there is no tomorrow. We picked up a kid, Elder Dresen who got set apart on Thursday and is flying out to Honduras next week for his mission but is spending a couple of days here before he takes off. We literally picked him up, let him drop his stuff off, and knocked from basically 10 to 5 haha, he didnt even know what hit him. Thrown straight into the fire. I honestly wish that i could say that we saw a crazy cool miracle, that we tracted into an elect family, but honestly it hasnt come yet. But one thing I can count on, is the fact that it will come. We just gotta keep working like we all do with everything else in life. The talk the President Uchtdorf gave in the saturday morning session definitely helped out a lot, he talked about how the more you become familiar with something, the easier it is to treat that thing as commonplace or take it for granted, its easy to forget about the blessings of being a missionary, its easy to look past all the added strength we are promised, because its always there, its like being a fish that doesnt know he is wet. Another thing that stood out to me during conference is that "The Restoration is a process not an event". We are all part of bringing forth the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Its our responsibility and blessing to share it with everyone. God ALWAYS has a plan for us and for others, so through patience and perseverance, blessings and miracles will come.  

I love you all, have a great week

- So this picture is actually pretty cool, so this is Brother Dawson, he is 98 years old and he made this wind mill for his "Darling wife Annie" who he was married to for 68 years, he has been working on this for two years and we got to help him put it in this past week! (thats Elder Dresen on the left, he is leaving tomorrow to Honduras)

 

September 26

Hey world. So we got transfer calls this past weekend and me and Major are staying together for another one. This will be our 3rd transfer together and that rarely happens that companions stay together for 3. Im pretty pumped about it. So Major & Romney will be in the Fallbrook 5th ward for another 6 weeks.

This past week not too much happened. We had a couple lessons. Our 82 year old investigator came to church. It finally rained here so that shook things up a little. It wasnt clear blue and 72 for the first time in like 5 months. I had to go back up to Murrieta this past week and do a baptismal interview in spanish. Its nice speaking spanish cause i get to tour the mission to do baptism interviews for investigators that dont speak english. 

General Conference is coming up this weekend. Im pretty excited. Conference is different as a missionary, its a really cool time. I hope all of you take questions that you have to conference cause they WILL be answered.

Thats all i got for this week, if you want to know more email me questions you have.

I love you guys.

Me, Major, Phillips, Ruhl and all the Norris kids. 

 

 

 

 

***September 18th he didn't write a group letter but heres an experience from that week.

 

So My brother Matt got a text from Elder Romney saying their dinner apt fell thru and he had a Spanish interview over in Temecula by Matts house that night, he wondered if Matt could make them dinner.  Matt just laughed and said well if you don't care that Grandma allen is here!  Matts wife Shannon had gone to New York to visit her brother for the week so my Mom was there to help with the kids.  My mom fixed Baylor and his companion dinner and was so giddy when she told me she got to feed and hug Baylor!  Hes having lots of different experiences on his mission that most missionaries don't get! 

September 12

Hey fam, this is gonna be a short one. This past week has been really fast and really busy. Me and Elder Major put together a zone meeting. I gave a 45 minute discussion on obedience and hard work. I had an interview with my mission president, President Thomas. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it. Something is missing from us if we don't read it everyday. Ive seen how my days are better when I read from the Book of Mormon. There is something special about that book. I encourage all of you to make it a priority to read it personally every day. It WILL make your day better.

That's all I got for this week but here are some pictures. Love you guys!

September 6

Hey fam, im inspired to be a surf bum. This past week one of our favorite families (the Wallaces) found the video of me when i was a teacher doing that one direction video.... They wont let me live it down. It has caused some serious PTSD haha. I hear its football season. The most wonderful time of the year. This past week we had meetings on meetings. So many meetings. We had Zac Wallace , a priest in the ward come on a 24 hour mini mission with us. It was a blast. Zac is a stud.

Other than that its been a tougher week. Things either are going great or tough in this area. There isnt much in between here. If there are any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to email me and get some more information. But other than that here are some pictures from the week

Matching companion ties from elder majors mom

Tracking in our usual neighborhoods with a usual sighting of a lambo

Us with Zac

August 29, 2016 translating

Hey fam, its been another great week as a missionary. This past week we had a General Authority come and visit our mission. Elder De Hoyos from the 70 and his wife. We had a zone conference with them and they dont speak very much english so i was their personal translator! I didnt know translating was so tiring. I translated all of the english talks to spanish for them and when Sister De Hoyos gave her talk to all the missionaries i translated from spanish to english for everyone.Translating is a tiring job, It was a super cool experience and a great meeting!

So as you found out from the grape vine we had a baptism this past week and this wasnt my first one. I appreciate mom shredding me in a loving way through via email. The reason i havent shared my baptism experiences before is because words dont do it justice and they are pretty sacred to me. But this past Saturday Parker Wallace got baptized. He is a 10 year old from a part member family that is coming back into activity in the church. Coolest family every. I love them all!! Ive grown super close to them over the past couple of months and seen them all progress in the gospel as they have come back to church. One of Parkers older brothers Zac got the priesthood recently and was able to baptize him. Me and Elder Major were put in the right place at the right time to be able to help this family out. 

Love you all have a great week!

***Yes I had heard thru my brother Matt that he had a baptism this week, we were excited that finally the work was progressing, but our knucklehead missionary kind of overlooks things that happen in his mission as he writes us each week.  ITs good to know he is out there serving not just for the stats :)

 

 

Elder major me Zac Parker elder Anderson elder wight

Major, Zac and i

The Wallace fam

Fallbreezy

Hey fam, its been another busy week here in the Fallbrook 5th ward. There was a fire on the Marine base that is close by and it started raining ash. The fire nation was upon us (i hope my siblings get that one). But that isnt something that happens everyday so it was cool. Me and Elder Major were doing our daily morning run and we saw a chicken in our neighborhood and it crossed the road. We welcomed all the new missionaries into our zone, we have 5 greenies in the Fallbrook zone!! Its crazy. Im not that old mission age but im one of the oldest here. We were out knocking doors Thursday morning and got shredded by a grumpy dude and kicked out of an apartment complex. He wasnt a happy camper. One of our investigators BBQed for us and made us every meat imaginable. If you can think it he made it for us. He spoiled us. I have pictures to prove it. LOTS has happened this past week and its something new everyday. I wake up in the morning not knowing what kind of craziness is going to happen that day. I love it though and im learning and growing so much.

We have an 83 year old investigator named Norma. She is the coolest. She loves texting us and its awesome. We talked to her son on the street and he said to come by. So we went by and Norma answered the door and said come on in so we started teaching her! Its been about 3 weeks since we have started teaching her and she is so solid!! She eats the gospel up and loves to learn. What she tells us that she believes in is the same doctrine we believe in and its just so cool to see everything click with her. She has been jumping religions her entire life but has never found the place to call home and the place that feels right. Yesterday was her first time coming to church. I have never seen anyone so sensitive to the Spirit. She cried and cried and cried again. After church she told us how much she loved it and how much she felt at home. She told us she loves us and is adopting us as her grandkids. There isnt much that can beat the feeling of an investigator expressing their appreciation and love for you. Its the coolest thing ever to watch someone grow and progress in the gospel. 

Its hard to complain where im at right now. Yeah its hard and yeah its tough, but its worth it. To all you chumps that are thinking about going on a mission or arent sure, do it. Itll be the best decision you will ever make. I love you all have a great week!

Morning hike 

The food Kenny sent home with us

Monday morning hike 

Elder Phillips caught a crawdad 

Another morning hike under our local bridge

Brother Dawson. He is a 98 year old dude that we read the BOM with every Friday