This week has actually been pretty good. We  got a good amount done and I have been pretty motivated throughout the week.  We taught probably close to 10 lessons which is pretty good for Bandon!  We have had some good meals too surprisingly! I have started to eat a lot more sea food and now I am not even close to as picky as I was before.  Church has been good. We either bless the sacrament, do one of the prayers or talk every Sunday lol. So being in a branch, you have to be way more involved!

We also had zone conference Wednesday so that was good. Zone conference was extremely long and it was only our zone since we are the biggest zone in the mission but it was awesome and motivating. I love president Lowery who is the 1st counselor in the mission presidency. He lived in my last ward so we used to go see him all the time and at conference he talked about working hard and not slacking! I really needed that because it's hard for me to be motivated sometimes and that really helped me!  

This week has been really good with our investigators though so that has been really exciting.  We have two new investigators and a third that is coming lol. We are teaching Kim graves and he is doing super well. We just had a lesson on baptism and he said he would pray about it. 
We are also teaching Mary Lou and she is doing really well and we will hopefully invite her to be baptized soon. 
Timmy and Cheyenne (Angela and Tim's kids) are both interested and want to meet with us. It's super cool. Angela brought two of her "grandkids" to church yesterday too! They are kids on Tim's football and baseball team and it was so awesome. 

My life is so weird, like I think about it all the time.  I haven't changed really other than I wouldn't do stupid stuff right now like I did before lol but this lifestyle is so difficult. Like I find myself just wanting to go do all sorts of stuff and it's so rough but there is good that comes from doing all of this too. 

Today we just got a call that elder Nelson is the designated driver so I'm pretty sure I will be transferred on Monday. That's a bummer but we will see what happens

Stay Solid 

So this week there were a couple cool things that happened. 

In order-- first on Friday we had ZTM in North Bend so we went up there and had a good meeting. The AP's came too and that was the first time seeing them down here in a while. It was a good meeting though and the zone leaders did a good job. It is nice to not be a district leader anymore and not have to talk in any conferences or trainings. 

Saturday was the cranberry festival and Angela's baptism. So the cranberry festival is the biggest day in all of Bandon lol. It's just a huge festival and people come from all around to hang out and buy a bunch of stuff. It was pretty cool because we walked around like all day and OYM'd (open your mouth) people and had a good time. Elder Nelson also bought a bonsai tree.... I don't think he understands the whole concept of moving every month or two lol. 

That night was Angela's baptism and it was so awesome! She was so excited and it went so well! Tim was so nervous to baptize her but he did so well! So many other missionaries are so stoked because she has been seeing missionaries for 3 years and now we finally got it done.  They felt the spirit so strong and both of their kids came and felt the spirit too! Their son asked if he could take the lessons too so that was awesome! We already see their daughter pretty often since she lives at home and she loves us haha. Sunday Angela was confirmed and standing in on that was so awesome too! It was so cool to see all of the work that we all put in and how much it all meant to her!  So that was all awesome! 

Other than that, all of our investigators are doing well and we are trying to find many more people. Probably the best news though is my push up count is going up and I'm getting buff while all the other missionaries are getting fat :) 

Stay Solid!

Yo so this week was a pretty long week. Not much exciting happened really so that's kinda sad but that's life. We did a lot of finding and it didn't seem like very much of it was successful but that's alright. We had a few good lessons and found a couple people though so that was a little uplifting. 

The biggest thing that happened this week was that Angela had her interview to be baptized and so that will for sure be happening on the tenth at 7! That's kind of exciting. She's doing awesome and it will be super cool to see Tim baptize her. 

Other than that, probably the only other exciting thing was going on a hike today at sunset beach. It was pretty sick because it was like an actual beach not like a typical Oregon beach lol. I think I'm getting fatter now so I decided to start buying healthier food (which is super expensive) and we get up every morning and go running and work out. the struggle to stay in shape is so real out here! Anyway, I'll try to do something exciting this upcoming week so you guys can have something cool to read next time lol. Love you guys and I appreciate all of you who have emailed or written me! Stay solid back in so cal.

Stay solid

This week went by pretty quickly but it was a pretty good one. Its super cool to see the progress of some of our investigators finally!

So Angela young has set a date of being baptized on the 10th of September! It is so awesome! We have already gone over all of the baptismal questions with her this week and she answered them all perfectly! Her husband Tim who got baptized in December should be the one baptizing her so that will be so awesome! It's so funny to see how excited Tim is about it too! They are so awesome!  they have us over for dinner like every week and we have lessons almost every day and they are both doing so well! 

Kim graves, one of our progressing investigators is doing really well too! He has come to church two Sundays in a row and he is doing really well with the lessons! 

We have found a few new investigators this week and a few solid potentials also! We found a lady named Cheryl and she is a new investigator and is super awesome and she gave us a referral for one of her neighbors who is a potential and soon to be investigator. Things are looking up so that's all really good. 

 We did pretty well for only being in Bandon for like half the week! We got stuck in north bend for two days and had to stay the night at the zone leaders Tuesday night because our car was having problems and had to get fixed. That was a little frustrating just tracting for hours in their area when ours is the one we need to be working on but it was alright. We found some pretty cool people!

 Elder Nelson and I work really well together and he is doing super well! He is really a cool kid.  He is pretty talkative which is good because I tend to be quieter a lot now. 

I have to say also that I really appreciate those that have sent me letters this week. It is really uplifting because when you think about it, missionaries have like three things to look forward to; food, Pday and letters/ packages! Well that's mostly true other than the missionary work itself also haha. well I hope every one is doing great. I miss you all so much and I can't wait to see you guys in less than 20 months lol....

                                                                   Tim and Angela

This week was pretty crazy! Last Friday I found out I wold be training so on Monday morning elder Ybanez and I drove out to Roseburg.  He was going to his next area and I was staying there until Wednesday when we would then go up to Eugene to get our trainees.  

Wednesday we drove up to Eugene and went to a meeting that night on how we should be as trainers and all that good stuff. It was kind of crazy because elder Falatea is also training again so I got to stay with my trainer in our old apartment before we both got our new missionaries. So that was kind of cool! 

Thursday morning we got to meet our new companions. President would call up a trainer and talk about what area they are in and all that good stuff and then call up the trainee.  My new comp is elder Nelson! He's super cool! He's from long beach and he's already a really good missionary.  I already see why we were put together!  After all of that we drove back down to Bandon and by then the day was pretty much over. 

Friday we go hard in the paint and we get a couple new investigators and elder Nelson invites Angela Young to be baptized!! She said she had to think about it (even though she already knows it's going to happen)hahaha. So then Sunday they both go to church and we go over last night to talk about the lessons and Angela says she wants to set a date today (Monday night at FHE)!! So tonight we should be setting a date for her baptism!

So this week has been pretty good over all. We did run into several serious anti Mormon guys on Saturday and one of them had even written a book about how we are wrong lol. It was entertaining but it didn't phase us. So we are just going HAM building this area! (hard as mormons)
Stay solid, Love Sawyer

So this week has been pretty crazy but also super sweet. I'll share the couple cool things from this week. Monday started off super fun going up to north bend to hang with the zone for Pday. We played some basketball and then we went to the beach. We played soccer at the beach for a while which was super fun until I realized that the tide had come up about 20 yards and had completely soaked my shoes! The shoes were the least of my worries though because the car keys were in my shoes. they keys were completely soaked and so I was really worried since those new keys can be pretty expensive. So we go back to the car and I press the button to unlock the car and it works and I'm super relieved but then I get in and try to start the car and it won't start because the security chip in the key had gotten wet. So we try a bunch of stuff and we can't get it to work so we end up having to drive back to town with the zone leaders and the other elders (6 of us in a Chevy Cruze) hahaha it was such a mess. Then we put the key in rice and bought a new battery so the zone leaders could go back the next day and try it. We took a different car back down to our area and the next day the zone leaders went back to try it and it worked! I was so lucky and that was quite the tender mercy!
 
Wednesday was also a pretty nice day, the sisters came down and helped us in our area. It was good to have them back down here and they really helped us. We found 2 new investigators and several pretty solid potentials. This area is going up slowly but surely. It can be pretty frustrating though because a lot of people respond to sisters better than they respond to elders, but there are those few that will actually talk to elders haha.
 
Thursday we had a lesson with one of our investigators but I think he was high HAHA. Man it's hard to catch a break around here!
We also went over and helped the Talbots who are the senior couple in Bandon and they are so awesome!
 
Friday was the last district meeting of the transfer and also the last district meeting I will be teaching haha. So I got released as district leader and got called be a trainer. I'm pretty pumped for that! I will be in Roseburg for a couple days and then I will be in Eugene until Thursday, then I will bring the new missionary back down to Bandon. I think it will be super awesome and I'm going to try to set the tone for his mission! I hope that I can be a good trainer and start him off well. Also 4 other elders were put into this district and two of them are my buds from these last transfers so I'm super pumped.
So for the people we are teaching at the moment, we have Angela young who is a part member family and she is doing so awesome. She loves us so much and she believes that everything we have taught her is true. She has a few questions but she is so close!
We also have an older guy that we do service with every once in a while. He is super spiritual and believes in the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith but he smokes a lot of weed. lol.
Then we have several new investigators we are trying to get some more lessons with, so things are improving in Bandon.
Love You!

August 8, 2016

Dang sounds like some cool stuff happened this week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I sent a card so it should get there soon!

Bandon is difficult but we keep trying!  Transfers are next Monday so we'll see how that goes.  

Angela and Tim are doing awesome. We had the huge plan of salvation plan with her since that is the only reason she hasn't gotten baptized. It was such a stressful lesson and we studied so much. She had a lot of hard questions and there seemed to be so many distractions during the lesson! But we got through it. She was concerned if she gets baptized and her kids won't that she will never see them again. We explained everything and then I started talking about uncle Mickey and shed a tear or two and she cried and then we asked her if she would sincerely pray about it and she said she would. The next day she told us that she felt a lot better about everything after she prayed so that was awesome!

The night before that lesson too, we had one specifically on Joseph smith and it was kind of funny because at the end of the lesson Angela was like "wow, I didn't even feel like it was you talking right there like I could tell it was the spirit!" And so that was super awesome to have her notice that.  So things are going good there. Tim got up in sacrament and bore his testimony and it was so freakin sick. He got up there and talked about how much this church has changed his life (he was a drug addict all the way up to last year) and how he knows it's true! It was so awesome! I bore mine too after and it was kind of funny because after I did sister Sturtavent got up and was like, "you know the talk 'good, better, best'? Well I think elder Hoskins version of that is "super, awesome, and super awesome'" hahaha so now everyone makes fun of the way I talk lol. Well that's it for now.  love you guys.  Stay solid!

August 1, 2016

So this week has been pretty interesting. This was probably one of hardest weeks so far but there were also several good things that have happened. So Tuesday we had specialized training and that was in north bend so we got to get out of town and see our zone again. For the actual specialized training, it was 5 hours of the AP's, president, and sister Russell talking to us. The main topics were teaching by the spirit, being a successful missionary and Joseph smith. It was good but it was long. After specialized training we had a zone activity since president actually approved it and we went to the beach and played soccer and volleyball and all that good stuff. We have a pretty cool zone and we have been lucky to see them almost every week this transfer now.

While we were up in north bend we went to the Walmart and that was like the highlight of the week since we don't have any real stores here other than dollar tree. That took up all of Tuesday and it was a pretty fun day.

Wednesday was a long painful day of contacting. We contacted a bunch of people from the area book and the few that answered were mostly not interested. Then we went to have a lesson and they weren't there so it was just a pretty unsuccessful day.

Then Thursday was also a pretty rough day. We weren't able to do much of anything. We had to drive back to north bend to get our car fixed since it was being super lame and that took up a big part of the day. One tender mercy though was that we have a member who signs up every week to have us for dinner and she said she would do our laundry until we can get another washing machine. She is super awesome and has been through so much so that's really something cool.

So anyway, Friday was probably the worst day of the week. There isn't even anything to say about it other than it was unsuccessful. I was feeling super down the whole day too so it was just super tough and I will explain more about why at the end. Then Friday night I decided to pray that hopefully some good stuff could happen or we could have some sort of uplifting experience. So that night I had this crazy dream and it doesn't really matter what the dream was but I woke up Friday and I was just thankful to be here and I was ready to work and have a good day because of how thankful I am to be here.

Then Saturday went pretty awesome. We OYM'd in old town and talked to quite a few people and had some good conversations. After that we went tracting and found a few potentials and a new investigator so that was sweet. And for the best thing, we actually had a real lesson with one of our new investigators we found last week. He was super awesome and he had done what we invited him to do which was to read the intro to the Book of Mormon as well as the restoration pamphlet. He said he read those and he prayed about it already and felt that they were true. That was super awesome because he was already ahead of us and that was like the first awesome lesson we have had this entire transfer. So Saturday was super awesome and it was good to actually see some of our work pay off.

Sunday, was pretty average other than I gave a talk in sacrament so that was whatever.

I guess the struggle I have been facing this past week is just all the things that have been on my mind for some reason. One thing is that I always think of how everyone is doing at home as well as what my old friends are doing and all that and that really isn't stuff that I should focus on so it has been a little tough this week. The other thing is that even though this area is going uphill it is still super tough and we have literally tracted most of the town and gone through most of the area book so I am stressed because I know that there is a high likelihood  that I will be staying here for at least another transfer.  It is a serious struggle to feel productive here in Bandon so I'm a little worried about that. The struggle to stay positive and not depressed is real. I'm just thankful to be here though. anyway I wish I had more cool investigators to tell you guys about but we are struggling lol. So anyway I hope all is well with everyone. 

Senior couple serving in Sawyer's district

Branch President and his wife