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