This week was freakin cold!!  Well it was cold for me which probably isn't all that cold for a lot of other people.  lol  Luckily it didn't rain a lot this week but it was very frosty and a little windy.  

This week we were able to teach some good lessons and contact quite a few people. We also had interviews with our mission president which were good.  Not very eventful or exciting but they are usually good.  

We were able to go out to dinner with the Sharps from Grants Pass and it was awesome to see them again.  It's awesome to be able to see the great people from my past areas that helped us so much!

Also, we had our ward Christmas party so we got to have dinner and be with a lot of the people in the ward. I'm still trying to meet everyone and I forgot how hard it can be when you aren't in a YSA ward where you see most of the kids every day.  

On Sunday both Elder Vuki and I gave talks in sacrament meeting.  I spoke on the gifts that God has given us and i think it went pretty well.  It definitely helped me to stop and think about what I have to be thankful for during this season.  

Sunday night we went around as a zone and caroled to people which was actually pretty cool even though I don't love singing!  It was cool to see families together at the door listening and enjoying the Christmas season together!  

Other than all that, I hope everyone is doing well down there with all the fires and I hope y'all are enjoying the Christmas season with the fam!  Love you all!

Stay Solid
Sawyer

 

As you know I was transferred last week to Springfield which is right by Eugene.  I'm now a District Leader serving with Elder Vuki.  It is so frustrating to leave Corvallis when Elder Anderson and I had so many people we were teaching and that were progressing. The worst part is that Elder Anderson is being transferred too.  We put in so much work just to turn it over to two other missionaries.    But i guess its whatever!

This week was a long week but we got a lot done.  We had a challenge to find new people to teach so we did a lot of texting.  Most of the good areas to talk to people are about 2 miles away so there was a lot of walking too.  We were able to find some cool new people to teach and some of them seemed really sincere. 

One of the girls that we teach also had her baby this week.  Her husband asked us to come to the hospital and give her a blessing which was cool to be blue to do.  Hopefully we will be able to get some exciting stuff going on here pretty soon.  

We also had the nativity festival Friday through Sunday so we got to go to that and take some of our investigators.  

It's definitely getting colder here and the rainy season is definitely coming in so we try to stay dry as much as possible.  Most of the time though, it's not possible.  haha

I taught District Meeting again this week as usual and it went pretty well.  It's good to see not only our area getting better already but our whole district.  It's good to have the Christmas Season here again.  Hope everyone has a great week and has an opportunity to serve someone around them!

Stay Solid
Love Sawyer

This week was interesting.  Here are a few highlights--

At the beginning of the week Elder Anderson and I went to a cool pumpkin carving Halloween themed FHE.  

We also had a leadership meeting where we found out we are now able to use Facebook, which includes messaging family and friends from back home about our purpose.  So that's a big difference that we can use Facebook and even talk to some of you back home.  

We also had zone conference with our zone and the Eugene zone.  It was a really good meeting.  President Cropped and President Lowery are some of my favorite teachers and they both had really good segments.  

Through the rest of the week Elder Anderson and I were able to teach a lot of our investigators!  We have some really solid people and some really cool people to teach.  It's a lot of fun teaching here on campus because there are a lot of cool fun people.  We also found several new people to teach this past week so hopefully we will be able to have some more great lessons this week.  We had a couple people come to church this past Sunday also and it's good to see them enjoy the classes.  Our zone is also doing super well!!  We have a lot of people to teach and we are consistently finding a lot of new people to teach.  

Transfers come up in 2 weeks and we'll see what happens until then!  Wish me luck going into another Oregon winter....I'm gonna try to make it through!

Love you guys
stay solid

Yo, this week was a really good one!  We were able to find and teach many people and have a really good time.  

Throughout the week we were able to do really well in our area and as a zone.  In our area we are teaching a lot of people consistently.  One of them is Mackenzie who's from California.  She's doing really well and came to church this week.  Her baptism should be happening pretty soon!  We are also teaching another girl from Brazil and she is also doing really well.  

This week we went to Newport again to help the other elders and it was really good.  Also, this weekend was Halloweekend and there was an insane amount of parties and students out all night.  We still walked around but everyone thought the missionary attire was our costume.  LOL  Anyway, we passed out a lot of cards and it was pretty entertaining.  Our zone is doing really well and it's probably one of the best in the mission.  

We have leadership conference tomorrow so hopefully that goes well.  Other than that, we are doing well and we even have 5 dinners this week for like the first time since I've been here.  lol
love you
stay solid

This week was a great week really!  We started it off with a mission leadership council in Eugene on Tuesday.  That went really well and it was good to see Elder Hatch for the last time before he goes home.

Wednesday we had several good lessons and had a good day finding new people too.  Sometimes Elder Henley and I split up to each side of the street so we can talk to twice as many people and it's awesome.  We must talk to so many people and it's probably the most fun that finding new people can be.  That morning we got up at 6 to play soccer with a few of the other elders and sisters and some of the people in the YSA ward.  We have some super fun people in the ward so we play with them pretty often!  Later, we went on splits with Elder Knell and Elder Clem again and Elder Knell and I were able to go to institute with one of our investigators.  We were also able to give one of the OSU football players a blessing.  That night we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner because Elder Knell is going home.  One of the members paid for us so that was a straight tender mercy for this week.  We were also able to go to the fields that night and play soccer with some people.  We met a couple girls who were down to talk and learn and we are meeting with one of them this week.

Friday we had new missionary training and had district meeting.  We also had our one and only dinner appointment for the week.  LOL

Saturday we got our transfer info and I will be staying here and Elder Anderson will be my new companion.  Elder Henley is going down to Santa Clara.  So this is my second area in a row I will be in for 6 months!

Saturday Maria also came up and we went to dinner with her.  I found out that her good friend that Elder Hatch and I had talked to before, had gotten baptized also!!  Its good to see her doing well.

Sunday was stake conference and a lot of packing for Elder Henley and Elder Knell.  We said goodbye to some people and then to end the transfer we had a zone testimony meeting.  It was a super good meeting and it was a good note to end on for our zone.

Love you
Stay Solid

This week was a good one.  We've had to do a lot of stuff for the zone and certain companionships so we really didn't have much time to focus on our own area.  But I will list some of the highlights of this week!

Number one is that this was the first week of school which is super exciting if you're in the YSA ward.  So everyone is back now and school started Wednesday.  Tuesday we planned a lot and organized the booth we were going to set up at the school fair they have on the first day of school.  

Wednesday was an exciting day where we had a booth on campus from about 11-5 and it went really well.  We bought a canvas board and wrote the question "WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?" in the center really big. We bought a bunch of sharpies too and  we would ask everyone to come write their answer to the question.  Of course they all did because they like giving their opinion.  haha  After they signed the canvas we had a survey there with a few questions and a place to leave contact info.  So we were able to get over 100 contacts that we split between the three companionships!  It was a super good time and really successful!

Second was that we had interviews with President Orton Thursday.  It was such a process to set up the interview schedule and all the stuff for President this time but the interviews themselves were really good for our zone.  My interview was pretty much about everyone in the zone and not myself.  haha  We have 20 missionaries in this zone and it can be so hard to stay on top of everyone and for some reason this transfer has been quite the time of trials for everyone.  But it was a good thing.  

Friday we had a good district meeting where we talked a lot about our areas and then we focused on Faith and God's Will. It was a really good meeting.  

On Saturday we were able to go to Newport with the other YSA Elders for a baptism.  President and Sister Orton were there as well.  It was just a good time to go out and see the Newport Elders and the Waldport Sisters and see how they're doing.  

Then mostly because of the conversation I had with President, we had an extra meeting with just our zone so that we could refocus on the important stuff.  We talked about the blessings we have and why we should be grateful.  It went well i thought.

Other than all that, hopefully we will have a little more time to focus on our own area this week.  It can be a lot of fun with all the students so hopefully it'll be good.  
Love  you
Stay Solid

This week has been quite the week! We had some good activities at the beginning of the week doing game night for FHE and playing sand volleyball for sports night. It's always a good time to be able to spend some time with the investigators and members to do something fun. 

We were able to have some great lessons this week with both of our investigators with baptismal dates as well as others that we are teaching. Every week we play basketball with one of our investigators, Jacob and this week we found out there is a ball group that plays every Thursday at the stake center so we went and played with all of them. We found out it's not just members that play but non members too so it's a lot of fun and a really good way we can talk to these guys!

Friday through Sunday was the more exciting part of the week so I'll give you a play by play of that! Friday we had new missionary training and district meeting which went well, not anything out of the ordinary. We talked about finding new people to teach and talking to everyone so when elder Henley and I went to go find people on campus that afternoon we didn't let anyone cross our face without trying to share our message. We talked to this girl and walked with her to the back of the football stadium where she was going to go in to work. We were able to share a good amount with her and in the middle of us teaching her, Zach Nyborg whose the Athletic Director for the football team and a member in our ward walks by. When we were done talking to her he asked us if we wanted to go on a tour of the stadium and there was no way we were going to turn that down. So we got to see everything, from the locker room to the coaches offices and equipment room. It was pretty dang cool! He's an awesome dude and always tells us if we need anything to let him know.

Then also friday our investigators Jacob and Anissa texted us and asked us if we could go to the OSU football game Saturday night with them. So I figured we might as well ask president Orton if we could go. So I called president Friday night and plead my case and for some crazy reason he totally wanted us to go! We were amazed and so excited! I thought about how awesome going to the game was going to be and for some reason I just felt like I should give my ticket to the new missionary we share our ward with because he was seeming pretty down recently.

 

Saturday morning we played soccer and after that I told Elder Clem he could have my ticket which was straight sad for me but I just couldn't go and feel great about it. I figured elder Henley and Clem could go with our investigators since they still knew both of them.

Saturday afternoon the Chinese sisters had a baptism and earlier that week their investigator Chelsea asked me to baptize her. So I was able to do that and it was really an awesome thing! It went super well and right after she was baptized she bore her testimony and it was so beautiful. It was one of those moments where you are just reassured of the truth that you already know. It was a blessing to help in that.

That night we went to dinner with elder Clem and Knell before they were going to go to the game and at dinner elder Henley said he didn't want to go and I could go. I think he just wanted me to go more than he wanted to go so it was so nice of him.

Elder Clem and I were able to go to the OSU NCAA football game on Saturday night and it was so sick! They lost but we had some great seats, got to hang out with our investigators more and had a great time.

Sunday I gave a talk in church on prayer. I prepared a lot for it and had way more to say than I had time for but I felt it went pretty well.  That night we had the YSA devotional by Elder Bednar.

 

This week had some highlights and a lot of blessings. It's good to be in Corvallis.

Stay solid🇺🇸