Back to back to back transfers! Now back in Tempe!

Hello everyone! Well I am currently in Tempe Ward in Tempe! Im back from Chandler.  Got the call Tuesday night saying I was leaving again.  I should maybe just not unpack and live out of a suit case or something! haha.  I wasnt expecting them to take both me and Elder J out of the area.  I loved the people there and the members were so awesome, but I'm definitely not as upset as I was when I was leaving ASU.  These transfers keep going by faster and faster.  And it has now been about 9 months since I left! Isnt that amazing!  Well I will include more it here instead of in the weekly part but I got white washed into Tempe Ward.  Which means they take both Elders from the area and transfer them.  So Elder J and I got white washed out of Chandler and I white washed into Tempe with two other Elder!  So I am in a trio!  White washes stink because you literally dont know anyone and you dont know the area, investigators etc.  I am training an Elder named Elder M!  He is a total stud, from Idaho!  I also have another companion named Elder G.  Elder G is a good missionary just very quite and doesnt say much if anything, just sits and reads scriptures.  But when he says something it is usually really profound.  He did a mini mission in Wisconsin before coming out.  Im am still District Leader.  I have to say it is good to be back in Tempe.  I really enjoy Tempe, and i have a little better sense of direction up here then down in Chandler.

Sounds like the highlight of the week was Emily's birthday!  I just want her to know that I did infact remember her birthday, and had a letter all written out but transfers happened so I didnt get a chance to send it off!  So HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY! Hopefully I can mail off the letter today! Sounds like a pretty roller coaster though with Youth conference! No braces! And a Car! Thats freaking awesome! I wish you would have captured her reaction!  I know it may not be the most exciting birthday doing service. But as king Benjamin says "when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of you god." So I know Heavenly father was proud of emily for helping others on that day! But it sounds like she had an awesome time at the end!  

Since I made the first part long Im going to run through my week pretty quick!  Lots of heckticness with the transfer.  

Monday: So we actually had a normal day this day except for emailing.  Our p-day got moved to transfer day which is Thursday.  So we were given two hours pday then to get hair cuts and email and then to treat it like a normal day.   We had three lessons set up with people that we tracked out.  We had a member come out with us during the day which is hard sometimes to do.  one fell through, one the kid was kindof a jerk and crazy but it went alright, and the last went great and she said we could come back and share more.  In the evening I did a baptismal interview for a guy named mark! Total stud.  Gotta love the opportunity to talk with them about their conversion and testimony.  Their is a missionary named Sister Clemens, who was in my district in YSA and in Chandler and she just keep bring me people to interview! She is one heck of a missionary!  

 Tuesday:  was district meeting!  It was on teaching the commandments more simply and powerfully.  It went well! Its amazing how each district meeting takes different turns and different discussions come up and its cool to see the spirit work and follow it.  Becasue I barely got to anything I planned but thats Ok! Im always happy when people are participating and it edifies us.  We went and visited a few part member families.  One college age guy we talked with was pretty intense about science and hated heaven vs hell and had a lot of misconceptions about mormons.  We handled it pretty well but hard to talk to those people.  We went and were supposed to give a blessing but the lady never showed, so we waisted a ton of miles for nothing haha

Wednesday:  It was my last day in chandler because I got the transfer call the previous night.  We went worked at a food bank and ended up sorting papers that they had done a poor job keeping track of.  So we were more like office workers for the day.  We stopped by a few people to say goodbye to our investigators and to a few members.  We sent a lot of time writing down notes for the next Elders so they will know what they are doing and wont be to lost.  Had a great lesson with a less active she was very nice and said she needed to try and come back which was cool.  Then made a few visits but not much luck

Thursday:  We had transfers today!  I got the call that I was supposed to be in a trainers meeting that morning which was funny because they said that since I was second half training I didnt need to go but they changed their minds.  Elder M actually was out for 6 week a few months ago but had to go home because of family issues, and so he was coming back out.  So when i was called to train during the meeting him he came down from the stands and I gave him a big hug, like all trainers do to their new missionaries!  Pretty awesome!  The rest of the day was pday so we unpacked etc.  and then in the evening we had dinner with a crazy lady from the ward.  Legit crazy.  He house was a total pig sty and it was so bad she didnt have any dishes for us so we had to clean, and then we stayed and helped he clean more dishes.  Very very very odd.  Then tried to find our way around visiting some of the investigators

Friday:  Well this was our first day in Tempe Ward.  Had weekly planning kindof got more acquainted with things.  The previous Elders were really really loved and had been there a long time so its going to be tough to fill some shoes.  Had some studies training hour,  then met with a few members and less active.  All very odd.  So our first impression of this ward was not great haha.  

Saturday: We went and did service for two different members and then came back got ready, studied and trained.  I love training hour fun to talk about and how to apply different things.  Then Spent the day in our really ghetto part becasue we cover parts of phenoix.  very interesting layout for the ward.  A lot of diversity  At this point we still hadnt met our bishop or ward mission leader.  They were both too busy to meet with us.  I do sometimes feel like I have to todlers following me around because one Elder is just new and the other is just dead silent haha.    We met with a family that is getting ready for baptism but looks like the mom is still having word of wisdom issues.  

Sunday: We had church finally got to meet people and introduce ourselves.  The ward is awesome.  A lot of old people a lot.... haha but after we had meetings, after meetings.  Then we had a mission presidents devotional to finish it off.  It was one of the best ones yet! it was super powerful president toone never ceases to amaze me! I also got to See Elder O!! he was down visiting and came to the devotional! SO good to seem my old mission daddy! haha then had to send in stats

That was my week!  Hectic as ever!  Not much time but im running low on pill to! Our address for our new place 2155 s 55st #2004 Tempe, Az 85282! Gotta go!! love you all! Oh and their is a change in mission policy since we need our myldsmail account during the week to send us info they are now letting us read emails through out the week! I cant respond till monday! But I can read them! Just a heads up!

Love you
Elder Hemsley 

Loving Arizona!

Hello everyone! Week 5 is in the books and now onto the last week of
the transfer! Pretty crazy right? This week was pretty crazy to.  Lots
of different stuff happening! That's awesome about the circus! I was
about to say, I don't think I have ever been to one but I guess you
took me when I was super Young's! Sadly don't remember it! That would
be fun to go to though! It seems like Mondays just come so fast! Tell
Grandmom! I said happy birthday! Or could you send me her email so I
can send one!
I got my package! Thank you!


Monday: we were supposed to have a district activity but we just
decided to make it companionship. So their is a lady from our ward and
she is from Ghana! And we have a missionary in our zone from Ghana! So
we wanted them to meet. So we set the thing up and she made us lunch.
She made  food straight from Ghana called "foo foo" haha it was
basically dough in soup.  You use your hand to pick the dough out and
then you swallow pieces of the dough whole.  Can't chew it you kindof
just swallow it and it's kindof slippery going down haha.  It's
filling to.  I didn't even eat dinner because I was still full.  The
soup was really good to and you drink that with you hand to. They told
me I could be an adopted citizen from Ghana because apparently I eat
foo foo well! Haha so they got to chat in their native Tongue which
was cool to! The evening we visited a lady who we had previously given
a blessing to and talked to her nonmember husband and he said we could
come back and do a little bit of bible and Book of Mormon study! Then
visited a less active group of brothers in their 30s. Their are four
that live in one house. All less active with different stories though.
Pretty crazy! They are nice though.

Tuesday: What a day! So instead of district meeting it was zone
conference! We got a huge training on teaching more simply and
powerfully.  That has been the goal and focus lately and president
Toone said it will be for a while.  Missionaries getting into deep
doctrine to much.  Then we got some training about how to use FB more
effectively.  We also found out their is a general authority coming on
the 4th to do more technology training, and that is when we will be
turning in our old iPads and getting new ones, that eventually I think
we will have to buy. They are going to be making some changes and so
they may be changing the way we use them.  So they may have us hold
off on facebook and Skype lessons until they figure some things out! I
started a "I'm Grateful series"! And I guess you saw my corn photo!
Such good corn! Chili powder, mayo, and a bunch of spices. Haha.  It
was also in a part of our area I have never been in to! Nice trailer
parks... Not.. Haha then after that I got to leave conference early
and go to Zedongs baptism! ReMember the awesome Chinese investigator I
had up in YSA!? Yeah he was getting baptized that day! So president
let me and another Elder who does tech training leave and who is
teaching him now leave early go meet up with Elder Smith and head to
the baptism.  I got to give the talk on baptism too! The whole thing
was awesome! Probably the most powerful baptism I have ever been in.
Zedong gave an amazing testimony, and all the Chinese converts got too
as well!  So I got to see some members and the bishopric from the asu
ward! Then finished the night getting back to my area and linking back
up with Jensen who was with another companionship! So awesome!

Wednesday: was district meeting! It went pretty well! I made the whole
training on plan of salvation and asking questions.  He way I did it,
I had all of us outline the different levels that happened in
inception the movie.  Then we came up with how different questions go
deeper into concerns etc. It was pretty sweet! I told them I was about
to make them all really trunky and by the end I think I accomplished
that! Then finished the meeting off by making plan of salvation out of
play doe! So it was a pretty fun district meeting! We had a district
leader meeting. Then I went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I went
to their area, which was hilarious because it's a Spanish area! So
most of the lessons I was dead silent and had no idea what was going
on.  Luckily some spoke English.  Spanish elder do get fed extremely
well.  The zone leader I went with is elder Carter who is like 6'4 240
and is a football player so I have to say it was a funny looking
companionship!

Thursday: was probably the first normal day! We exchanged back at
noon, in which
Went and taught a few less actives. Then did a little bit of tracting
till dinner.  Had dinner with a cool family who has like tons of
adopted kids so it was a little hectic.  We went out with our Wml for
the night visited a few people and had correlation meeting


Friday: we went helped do service with two other elders and we show up
and the guy has no clue what he's doing so most of the time we were
just debating on how we were going to level his yard with so much
stuff. Not much got done haha. The guy is crazy to. Convert, nice but
crazy! Haha we had dinner with a old couple who took us out and they
even got a us a referral just from talking to people at Wendy's haha.
They are super nice.  Old people feeding the missionaries is the best!

Saturday: we went and did service for a member in a different ward and
helped him pull tons and tons of weeds.  we had like 8 missionaries
and it still took a while! Pretty crazy! After we were supposed to
help a couple move in but he kept pushing it back and pushing it and
we were kindof just on call and ready then he calls and is like oh
it's all done. And we were like wow thanks for letting us know... So
that was dumb. Since our area is so weird miles are always tight so we
keep having to bike to pretty long distances. .  We had the adult
session of stake conference at evening and we were allowed to go.  So
the two missionaries we live with were running late so we brought them
suits so they could just come to the building change and then watch
conference. It was pretty funny.


Sunday: we woke up super early to go to the elder quorum presidency
meeting. We want to try to make it to all the presidency meetings to
try and get more involved. It went super long and then we had to go
straight to stake conference.  Not going to lie I was pretty tired at
that point and was struggling with keeping my eyes open during stake
conference haha, but it was really good and our stake president is
really an amazing guy! After we spent the day visiting members after
some studies and then went to dinner! With an awesome family named the
Bensons! So his wife was out of town and it was just him and his two
daughters so he sent them to go get Panda Express for us haha. It's
Sunday Kindof funny, didn't have much else to make to give him the
benefit of the doubt! Haha the night was so beautiful we decided to
walk everywhere. We set up family mission plans with people and tries
a few less actives.

Still not to much work going on right now, but we are working on it!
a few people to teach and most of the less actives have told us to
pretty much get lost haha.  So right now it's a struggle. Hard to keep
busy.  Just have to keep praying for opportunities.  We have been
giving out tons of family mission plans. Just got to get people
talking to their neighbors!

That was my week, pretty good! sounds like everyone is kindof in the
rut right now! Miss you guys a lot! Time just flys by! We are going to
skate land so that should be fun zone activity! I get to be back on
skates!

Love you all!


Faithfully,
Elder Hemsley