This week went by oddly fast. This was the last week of the transfer so there has been a bit of packing and saying goodbyes for elder Baxter. We found out Saturday that I'm staying here as district leader again and I'm getting another missionary who has been out 3 months named elder Clark. I've already met him because he came out at the same time elder Nelson did so I'm pretty happy because he seems pretty cool. The craziest thing about this entire transfer is that the 8th ward elders who live like 5 minutes away from us are going to be elder Falatea (my trainer) elder Nelson (who I trained)! It's so sick! I'm going to be able to see them all the time which is awesome! So this transfer could be great.

I'm also really excited because this transfer is Thanksgiving, which means turkey bowl! And also Henry will be baptized! This last transfer was good because I was able to meet all the investigators and figure out who to focus on and how we could best help this area so this next transfer we are going to go hard in the work and get'er done. It's only a five week transfer because of Christmas but it will be good.

So for this past week, we were able to have a few pretty good lessons. Had my first lesson with a great family. They are super awesome. They are a young couple who are a less active and part member so I think it will be awesome to focus on them! 

Also we have continued to have lessons with Henry even though we have finished all the lessons twice haha but it is so awesome because he sends us texts almost daily talking about how excited he is to get baptized. So that will be so awesome to see this next week! 

Also taylie was baptized on Saturday in Utah! So that was cool, it was elder baxters first baptism so it was good to be with him during that. It's definitely not as exciting when it's in Utah but it's whatever haha. I will send pictures with her probably next week because they aren't home yet. 

Other than that the only other thing we did this week  was attend a conference with half the southern half of the mission on Thursday and it was pretty much like 5 hours of getting chastened real good haha. Like it's crazy, missionaries are usually like 18-20 year old kids and as soon as you become a missionary no one even sees you as that anymore, they all of a sudden think you're very responsible and a perfect person. Let me tell you, it's not true lol. Well anyway that's all for this week I think.

Stay Solid

 He said he didn't take any pictures this week so he just took a picture off the wall at the church and took a picture with it???

Pig Farming

Happy Halloween!!

This week was pretty whatever!  There wasn't anything super exciting, but luckily there wasn't anything really bad either.

Henry got his second baptismal interview and his baptism was moved to November 19th, but its all good.  He'll just be more ready once that date gets here!  He's still super excited even though the date's been pushed back.

Taylie had her baptismal interview yesterday and she'll be getting baptized this Saturday.  Sadly it'll be in Utah where her family is so we won't even be able to see it!! LOL  But it's all good, she's super awesome and I can't wait to see her go to the temple.

We did a good bit of service this week including one service project at a pig farm owned by one of the members.  We moved pigs from one pen to another and MAN! some of those pigs weighed more than me so it was a good workout!

Its the last week of this transfer so I taught my last district meeting since next week is a zone meeting.

That's about it for this week.  Hope everyone had a good week and I miss everyone.  Have fun tonight and send some picture of y'all partying
Stay Solid

Pig Farm Service

So this week was freakin long and asinine. But you know, doing the lords work can't be that asinine so it was alright. 

This week was a lot of walking around contacting and having lessons. We finished all of the lessons with Henry and he will be having his interview to be baptized soon. He might get baptized on the 29th if the interview happens so that's exciting. 

Also Taylie, the 13 year old that we have been teaching, will be baptized next week so we are getting ready for that. Other than that, we got dropped by our other on date out of no where so that was rough but we are going to continue to talk to her and see if we can resolve it.

In other news, I'm getting closer to being able to dunk (basketball) so that's exciting and also I'm pretty sure I'm losing weight because of how much we walk :( 

We also got an announcement that starting next transfer very few elders will be getting cars anymore lol so that should be fun considering it rains like every day!

Also we had Book of Mormon week this week where the whole mission focused on reading a single book out of the Book of Mormon and giving out an open Book of Mormon everyday. I read Ether and Moroni and it was really good for me. I think choosing a specific book out of the Book of Mormon is a really good way to get new things out of the Book of Mormon. Anyway, that's about it. Have a great week and I appreciate the support.

Stay Solid! 

So this week was a super long week.  Pretty much a summary of this entire week was we walked like 25 miles and it was raining the entire time!

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was just all contacting, tracting and lessons falling through, so that was super tiring and frustrating at the beginning of the week.  But we got through it like always and it was a good set up for the weekend.

On Friday I taught district meeting and president decided to come so that was slightly stressful but he seemed super happy about it so that was cool.  He has been super happy with what we have been able to do here in Medford third ward in the past few weeks.  We have two solid baptisms coming in the next two weeks and we are teaching a lot more people so we are all pretty stoked.

Saturday was super awesome!  we went to the Medford temple in the morning and did a session and then just had a Pday from then until the conference we had that night.  Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and it was super awesome.  We got to sit up front since they reserved seats for missionaries who brought investigators.  Henry was our gator that came and it's so awesome because we put him on date on Tuesday for the 29th of this month and Elder Christofferson talked to Elder  Baxter and I and then he talked to Henry and it was just super cool to have him have that experience.  

Then on Sunday we had conference and heard from Elder Randall K Bennett and that was really awesome too.  This upcoming week we have lessons with Henry every other day and we will be setting up the baptismal interview.  We will also be meeting with Taylie and setting a baptismal interview also for her.  We are working with a bunch of our other investigators and things are going well.  
Stay Solid

Medford Temple

Sawyer said he won

What the?  He never did this at home!

This was a solid feakin week!

We found 6 new solid homie G's to teach (new investigators)  So this is the second week in a row we've found a bunch of people to teach and now Elder Baxter got his finding award (which is 8 new investigators in two weeks) so that's sick.  What's cool about that too is that we found three of them on Saturday and they were almost one right after another, it was pretty awesome!

So now we are teaching this guy who likes football so I'm hyped!  And also another guy (Henry) called us and asked to have a lesson and said he was going to come to church out of nowhere.  It was so crazy because he literally got our number and came to church and found us! haha

This is not completely about missionary work but it could be useful somehow.   I work out with one of the other elders here in Medford every morning, usually running at the school and using the high schools sick work out area but they also have a nice bench in their apartment.  So I benched for the first time in probably8 months and I did 205 a couple times!  That might not sound crazy but that's a freakin record for me so that pretty much made my week.

okay, anyway, back to missionary stuff.  Elder Baxter likes cooking so we made some cookies to take with us while tracting our apartment complex.  It was a funny night of tracting.  lol  There were some people that were really appreciative and so happy and then there were others who yelled at us to leave until they saw we had cookies, or someone else in the house told them to be quiet because we had cookies. lol  All in all we met our neighbors and found some potentials.

MLC was this weekend so that took up the entire day Tuesday.  The zone leaders and the other DL's and I drove up to Eugene and sat in a 7 hour meeting...yeah it wasn't super fun but after, we stopped at Super Burrito which is this super good burrito place in Eugene, so that was awesome.  And its always good to see my old area.

Another great part of the week was that I went to In n Out several times this week.  I've never even been like obsessed with In n Out but having it here and knowing this is the only time I will have it for the next year and a half makes it so much better.  Kinda makes me feel more at home too.

Also, I talked to the Talbots who are the senior couple in Bandon and they are coming out here to the temple two times in the next two weeks so i will get to see them!  And also they are bringing Elder Nelson and his comp Elder Borden so i will be able to see my boy again!  So that'll be cool

Other than all of that, our investigators are doing well. Taylor is still doing well, we are hopefully going to have a lesson with her in the next couple days and that will be on the gospel of Jesus Christ. Taylie is good too, we haven't seen her or her family this past week though.  We have a guy named Jeff who is progressing and we are going to go over the plan of salvation with him since he is taking care of his mom who is 89 and in poor health.

We also had a lesson with one of our "investigators" yesterday and he was just an anti and like to lecture us about the 100's of reasons Joseph Smith isn't a prophet.  I guess elder Baxter and his last comp went over for "lessons" several times and got lectured every time.  haha  Elder Baxter doesn't like to talk and i really didn't have the patience for that so e just told them they are wasting our time and unless they actually wanted to learn we wouldn't be coming back.  So we dropped some peeps this week that aren't willing to learn and we found many that are.

There are definitely some tough things about being here-a million rules, hard work, personality differences, missing home.  but all in all it was a good week and I'm going hard and hanging on.  I just keep my head down and do the best I can.  Anyway, next week we are having a super sick regional conference with D. Todd Christofferson! I'm so pumped since I have never seen him in person and he's my favorite apostle to listen to.  Also, we are going to the temple on Saturday so that should be cool!
Stay solid

 Medford Temple

Sawyer's message to the seminary students

So this week was actually surprisingly a pretty good week. As I said before, i've been  transferred to Medford/Central point and my new companion is elder Baxter. At first I was not the slightest bit pumped about this, but I decided we should just go hard in the work this week so I could forget all of the things that have been on my mind lately.

So this week we found five new investigators! It was awesome because this area has not been doing well in probably close to a year. President Russell seems to have a lot of confidence that I can get the area going so I hope we can keep it up! All five are really solid and we have two people on date also!

We have a girl named Taylor who is on date for November and she is super solid. We are having a lesson with her tonight and then we are teaching a 13 year old girl and she is definitely getting baptized in November also.  

So it has been pretty good. I've really had a hard time focusing on the work and not home lately but getting a lot done this week really helped. 

Medford is pretty cool.  It reminds me of a smaller less scary version of LA lol. The weather is getting cooler and it's been raining the last couple of days. We are in a car share so we drive 3 days and walk/ bike the rest of the week. My bike just broke so that's awesome! The ward is big but I haven't been to church yet. I have given several priesthood blessings since I've been out and we just gave one this week. It really is awesome to see how they work!

 Anyway, I do have to say one thing, a lot of people tell me how much I have changed, which I don't really think i have. I think it's just that I have temporarily stopped doing stupid things while I'm out here (for the most part).

Well that's it for now.  We're gonna go to In n Out.  lol   Well I appreciate all the support and emails. Have a great week.

 Elder hoskins and Elder Baxter