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

 

Yo so this week was actually really good! I did find out that I am going to central point zone, Medford 3rd ward this transfer though so that is a bummer but I will make it great!
It's crazy how this Bandon branch has become home to me and I really don't want to leave at all even though 6 weeks ago I was hoping I would be taken out of the area. Bandon is doing so well now! We found 3 new investigators this past week and several potentials that they will set appointments with next week. We have a good pool progressing and it's so awesome. 
Kim graves, a guy that Ybanez and I found has been having us over for lessons every week for like 8 weeks and he is so awesome and he will definitely be baptized! He told me yesterday at church that when he gets baptized he doesn't care where I am but he will have me baptize him and that I better call him every week! It was so awesome to see how I've been able to be a part of his life and conversion. 
Also Bob Barry is another guy that elder Nelson and I found and he is so awesome! We stopped by his house yesterday and said bye and dang I'm going to miss teaching him. I'm also going to call him weekly. 
The two hardest people to leave will definitely be the Talbots and the Youngs though! The Talbots are the senior couple in Bandon and they are like my mission grandparents! They would always take us out and they are like the nicest people ever. We are also going to stay in touch and I will probably stay in touch with them and visit them after! 
Then there's the Youngs.... They are literally like my family now. It is such a drag to leave them because we have become so close but I guess that's why transfers happen. I can't even describe in words how much of a blessing and testimony builder it has been to be a part of their lives and conversion. It was one of the best moments of my mission yesterday when both of them got up for fast and testimony meeting and gave their testimonies. Seriously so crazy. Really sucks to leave them but I will be back to visit them! 
It's so crazy to me still that I'm leaving this area that I have put so much effort into and come to love. At least my new area has an In n Out--the only one in the entire mission! lol. That's uplifting! Last transfer flew by so hopefully this one will be really good too and elder Baxter and I work well together. I'm Definitely going to miss elder Nelson!
Love You
Stay Solid 

Kim Graves

Brother Sturtevant

Elder Nelson and Elder & Sister Talbot

Medford Temple

                                                               

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!