BYU Home Teaching Companions become Missionary Companions !!!!

Elder Hemsley's 20th Birthday Celebration

Elder Hemsley's Birthday Surprise

Hello! This is officially the start of week 1 of the transfer 9! Sorry
for the late email today we went hiking in the morning and then guess
who went golfing this afternoon?!  This guy!!  We aren't allowed to use
computers to email just iPads so I can't Download any of my golfing
photos! It was so awesome! We went to a place called Club west golf
club. It is in the foothills area. It wasn't a bad course and for 20
we got to drive the cart. We only got through 9 and I shot a 43 not to
bad. Thought at the beginning it was going to be super low round but
struggled coming in haha. It was 110 degrees as we played. Don't worry
I was covered in sun screen the whole time, and I used a towel over my
head the whole time to shield my face.

That's terrible to hear about the two sister missionaries hit by the
truck. Really makes you sick to your stomach.  Yes missionaries are
protected but sometimes things happen. Don't worry im doing my best to
be safe!

Ha that's funny the missionaries are always over looking to do
service. We actually are told that service on Saturdays isn't allowed
anymore because missionaries just decided to do service all day and
Saturdays are supposed to be your most productive day proselyting.  We
are also told it takes aways from the role of hometeachers when
missionaries help with tons of member service. I guess every mission
is different though!

This week was good! The 3 boys mom is back on date for baptism. It
will be interesting to see if she can pull through. Just the smoking
and drinking is hard for her to kick. So more to come on that.  We had
a pretty good teaching week. This week I got to go on exchanges with
elder Bradley! So BYU home teaching buddies are now mission companion
buddies! We had a great time taught a few lessons together (much
better than our home teaching lessons). We had a member literally
forget about a lesson and so we weren't able have the lesson and the
investigator was upset and we haven't been able to get in contact.

Saturday we got to be the judges for the ward chili cook off! It was
really fun. It was for the scouts to raise mom for scout camp, glad I
don't have to go! Haha my tongue was raw after so many chilies .

So I guess max is coming from the Mtc tomorrow! Maybe I will see him
but most likely it will be on Thursday! It will be cool to see who his
trainer is! Hopefully he is with someone good!  Yes we are back on
Facebook. No posting and talking to people outside of our area for the
time being. 

This past transfer flew by! Just like all of them! Hopefully another
great transfer is ahead! Gotta go! Love you all! 18 days until June
18th which is my one year mark. It's pretty insane to think about!
Miss you guys and can't wait to be back together!

Love
Elder Hemsley

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

Missing my Missionary!

Hello everyone! This transfer is honestly flying by faster than any other one. Wait didn't I say that about last transfer? Haha idk week 4 done! This week was pretty rough on the teaching but was still a good week!  Nothing big happened actually, just kindof  the normal routine.  I forgot my journal so here's the best of my memory of the previous week haha

Monday: we had a district activity where we just went to the park and played basketball, volleyball, ate donuts and talked.  It was pretty fun.  Anything out doors in normal clothes for missionaries usually means a good time! Haha there acouple of gamers in my district so one of them talked about his favorite video game for like forever.  He's a really good story teller so it was actually really entertaining.  After we stopped by a few members one of which is a recovering drug addict that has kicked all of it and is now active in church and is trying to kick smoking.  So we stopped by him checked up on him and shared a message.  Pretty cool story he has.  Stopped by an investigator who is now at the point of just trying to gain a testimony.  Nice family and had a lot of lds influence.  The wife's whole family is lds but she refuses to really even give it a chance, but hopefully we can help him out!

Tuesday: we had our first district meeting of the transfer and it's already like more than half way done haha.  There are just so many meetings that happened instead of if.  I use the iPads and send the notes and topics for district meeting to everyone, but the zone leaders decided to do iPad check during my district meeting. So nobody had scriptures, PMG, or my notes because they are on the iPads.. Haha so that was kindof dumb.  But it went well. My district is pretty cool. Some are really quiet while others love to joke during it.  Supposed to have a district leader meeting after but the zone leaders got caught up. Up didn't tell us so we just sat there for a while waiting wondering where are they. Eventually we just all left and told them we would do it another day haha. In the afternoon we actually made a giant list of everyone in the ward and typed up a little about them and now we and future missionaries will have that to reference.  That evening we actually knocked on a door of a former investigator of mine from my first area! He moved and now I got transferred into his area. No such thing as coincidence there! Haha

Wednesday: we volunteered at the local food bank for a few hours! It was pretty fun helping out there and creating the meal packages.  At one point everyone had to leave that was working in the back except us so we were kindof stuck running the back part of the food bank by ourselves haha. We went taught a few lessons outside because people are just out loving the weather! We went and tracted in the really rich part of our area.  Some funny no's but nothing to out of the ordinary.  Then had dinner with a part member family who are all awesome.  The dad is an ex-navy seal and really doesn't care for the whole religion thing in general. I can imagine he's seen a lot in his day.  Went on splits with members of the ward visiting a few people and that took most of the evening

Thursday:  we biked all day because of the limited miles.  It seems like there are those days when you go through the same list of people and nothing ever changes.  They either aren't home, or to busy but say we can come back or don't have the courage to say no to us.  I would rather them say no thank you than us showing up them not being there and it waiting our time.  Especially if we have members out with us, because you want to make that the most productive part.  We got a call to help a young couple move so we went over and did that for a while.  They had a lot of stuff that's for sure.  Then I actually skyped Robert cottingham! I've been trying to set that up and trying to align our schedules! We caught up for a little bit, and joked around. We talked about religion and the mission for a bit.  It was pretty sweet! I've been trying to set that up with others as well!

Friday: let's see was weekly planning we had a little meeting for district leaders after and then took lunch and those stuff.  To be honest I forgot what happened mostly this day.  I know we stuck out on a lot of doors. Everytime we get members out with us nobody is home or cancels appointments pretty frustrating.  

Saturday: was a day of service,  we went and helped a couple move into a house with the other elders we live with! I love moving people, it's like a good work out and you just feel good after getting everything out of a moving truck and into a home situated! Then went to their area and helped move in an old lady which happened to be a lady who was had moved into the Tempe rural ward! So we helped her move and there was a bunch of members from my old ward there so I got to say hello and catch up! Then we got asked to go give a blessing so we went got a member and gave a lady who is fighting breast cancer a blessing.  She turned out to be a member. It's pretty crazy how many people are members but they just kindof floats around with no records following them,  we find them all the time and the ward has no idea they exist. 

Sunday: we had church and taught gospel principles. It was on prophets and I think it went really well! It seemed to flow well, people participated and there was actually a few people there that weren't members so I was glad we had the turn to teach.  We then had PEC after church which went way long but i think I'm finally getting to know all the names, people focused on etc. The leadership of this ward are studs! But if only we could get the rest of the ward to have the same fire. we have started the family mission plans with people so hopefully that gets people missionary minded! That's pretty much all we did the Sunday!

That was my week!  Not to much to report! Sounds like everyone is freezing their butt off! Haha sorry to hear that! Sorry to give everyone a scare with the crazy dude. It sounded worse than it actually was haha but still pretty crazy stuff! 

Gotta go love you! 

Faithfully,

Elder Hemsley

Successful Week!

Well that completes another transfer! This last week was super busy
but awesome! Bishop And Sister Morris are the best! She loves to take
pictures haha.  I'm glad you got them! Well for some reason transfer
calls aren't going to happen until Tuesday, so not sure what is up for
that.  I just got here so I hope I stay but Elder Smith has been here
for 4 1/2 months so I wouldn't be surprised if he gets moved. But also
since this is our first transfer we should be alright!

Like I said this week was pretty busy!

Monday: we had the normal routine.  Since the other Elders rely on us
to get around that day it's sometimes makes our day pretty busy.  So
we went and drove them to get hair cuts since one of them is going
home so he needed a nice cut before he leaves haha.  Then we shopped,
etc. We went bowling, which was fun! We showed up at the place and it
was really expensive so everyone was like lets go to a different one,
well we drove the other Elders who are part of another zone and they
were bowling there to. So we had to leave the car with them, and wait
for another set of missionaries pick us up since there was no room in
the cars. Soo by the time we got there everyone had started with out
us and we ended up getting to play 2 games compared to everyone who
got like 4.. That was kindof dumb.  The. That night YSA is nice
because of FHE we show up and it is frisbee dodgeball.  People
chucking frisbee at each other in the gym.  We meth with our
investigator Seth who is getting baptized to and he's all set!

Tuesday: we had district meeting.  A few people in my district got
sick, so it ended up being like 4 people in district meeting haha but
no worries! I trained on recognizing the Holy Ghost.  It went pretty
well! We had a lesson with Zedong our Chinese investigator.  He is so
awesome and just has a hard time understanding religion in general.
He always ends up asking what if this or what if that questions. Then
in the evening we had sets baptismal interview done by the ZLs and
Seth passed with flying colors! He gets baptized the next day! We then
just visited some less active members that weren't to friendly but
thats ok haha!

Wednesday:  was interviews! So we had a bunch of training done by our
technology guy, the zone leaders, sister training leaders, and APs.
It was all really good but kindof long at times.  Got to interview
with president! It's like the only time you get to be one on one! So
if you don't have questions to ask him it goes by really fast.  I
asked about making district meetings because I feel like people have
all heard is stuff many times before. So he gave me some advice but
also said to not worry about that to much!  That took most of the day
up. At dinner we got a distress call from the sisters because someone
needed a blessing so luckily we were having dinner with one of my
favorite members who was like go dudes! So we left did that and came
back and finished eating.  Then we had to rush to go fill the font and
prep for the baptism! It was like a flawless baptism! Speakers were
great, no mess ups! The spirit was so strong there! Serbs family got
to be there who aren't members so it was awesome! Idk if sister Morris
sent those photos so I will!

Thursday: we met in the morning with a returning to activity member
who is such a cool dude and we always get super deep with him haha.
That ran pretty long, so after we did that we had to rush to the
institute to have a lesson with Seth now that he's baptized! He's so
awesome! We taught about the priesthood and are helping him work to
receive that!  That night was the night we went to dinner with bishop
and all the Chinese members and investigators! It was so fun! We ate
so much food, and I even had jelly fish because one of the Chinese
members ordered it! It's hilarious being around them sometimes! The
one to my left in the video is Zedong and he's the one we are
teaching! So we have to admit at took a long time and by then there
wasn't much time to do anything else haha

Friday: we had weekly planning and planned for week one of transfer 6!
Wow! We met with Zedong again! We meet with him a bunch cuz he really
wants to learn.  He committed to baptism but just won't set a date yet
and still have about a million questions.  YSA can be tough at times
because we have a hard time filling out our days with productive,
efficient things because if not we end up burning tons of our limited
miles! Well after eating at the Chinese place yesterday, one of the
older couples in the ward took us out to none other than Panda Express
haha. Reminds me of the good ole days of byu! That night we had a
member come out with us, idk if I mentioned this but he served in
Jason's ward when Jason was the ward mission leader. His name is cole
Baxter and he is such a stud! We taught a lesson in star bucks to a
less active.  Kindof weird teaching a guy who works at Starbucks as
missionaries. But he came to church after we talked to him which was
sweet!

Saturday: another busy day! We had two baptisms today one from our
ward that the sisters had and another from our district. The first was
a Chinese man named Jonny.  His baptism was small but really amazing
he's got the biggest heart on the planet! He during his testimony in
his little English thanked all of us and then said he feels like God
is here today and he turns to his right and says thank you Heavenly
Father for everything. It was sooo sick! Then we went to another
baptism where we took Zedong to.  There were so many people were
there! Holy cow we could barely fit in the baptismal room! It to was
freaking awesome! The spirit in both were so powerful! Gotta love
baptisms!

Sunday: we had meetings in the morning and after church.  We have been
putting a lot of effort into this one less active who said he would be
at church again, but didn't show. But church was awesome! Yet another
linger longer with more food! Singles wards... Haha So many new people
because of the new semester  and everyone is getting back from their
missions! We taught two lessons at once elder smith and I split up and
went with a member to teach them.  Both went well and hopefully will
turn into them being new investigators.  Then that night we stopped by
the less active we tried to get to church and read the Book of Mormon
with him.  He's got a bad situation going on back home but still he
needs to act something he refuses to do.  Then after that it was stats
night and sent in the numbers!

That was my week busy busy haha but great! I should stay another
transfer but you never know! Hopefully I do because I'm loving it
here! Anything else cool and new and exciting happenings? That's crazy
elder Anderson is home! I will have to FB him! Haha 

Love you all!

Faithfully,
Elder Hemsley

Ward Luau and a Baptism!

Well this was a pretty eventful week! I will go ahead and just start
off with I am getting transferred.  Don't know where yet but Thursday
I will be in a new area.  I also got a district leader call.  I was
sitting waiting for the zl's to call if I was leaving instead
president toone calls haha.  He calls all the leadership positions so
when I saw that I was like here we go! Haha I'm super excited but at
the same time feeling a little bit of inadequacy about it! We also had
our baptism this Saturday! It went great! So we helped hit the ward
goal for the year!   So those were the two big things to happen this
week! Pretty exciting!

I haven't gotten the 2nd and 3rd package yet.  I got the pills but I
am worried I won't get them before I leave.  I also have Christmas
gifts for each of you that I am going to try to send home today! So
get pumped! Haha 

The only thing frustrating with leaving is I have worked super hard to
get this area going now we have a bunch of people to work with and 4
on date and now I am leaving😑.  But it's not about me and with
facebook I will get to stay in contact with them!!!

Monday: We just relaxed. I got a hair cut and stuff.  We had a
district activity to go shopping for our Christmas presents to the
family so that took a while.  I got you some pretty sweet gifts.  The
only problem is I am poor so I will have to use the Amex to ship it
all. Sorry😅.  Then after Pday we went and helped this family move
that was getting evicted. Their place was literally turned upside
down.  It took a long time and we cleaned more than moved. After that
we had to come home and wash all of our clothes because the beds we
moved had bed bugs.  And those things are the worst!

Tuesday: we had district meeting. It was a really good one to.  Elder
H did a great job and he was like that was nothing like I
planned.  It went a completely different way about sacrifice and
consecration.  After that we had a lesson with a mom and daughter who
are on date.  They are awesome! We taught the word of wisdom and they
struggle with coffee but they said that they know is is where they
need to be so they are going to give it up.  We then met with a former
member who had his records removed.  He's a cool guy but not
interested at all.  We then had a lesson with a former investigator
who really only wanted destroy our faith by anti'ing us about all the
evils about Joseph smith.  It's interesting because I have no problem
hay disagree with the church even strongly but people that try to
destroy your faith really annoy me.  But he will be a work in
progress. He has faith so that we can work with.

Wednesday:  We went helped someone move in the morning and then in the
afternoon got a call from a guy who wants to change his life around
and wants to join the rest of his family as members. So we went and
taught his family,  the only problem is his family is less active and
really only wants welfare. He hasn't mentioned anything about that but
the rest is like that.  The rest of the day was just finding with not
a lot of success.  We had ward correlation. Which turns into a meeting
where we just sit there and talk about who we are teaching and not
much else gets done.

Thursday: the beginning of the day was kindof unproductive but
finished really strong!  We met with the YSA elders my former zone
leaders! Who are the best! And helped them figure out a bunch of
unknown people in the ysa.  We then met with our ward mission leader
about the baptism Saturday and figured out the program.  We then had a
lesson with another guy on date to be baptized who is stuggling with
smoking.  He's not fully there I think and so he doesn't fully
understand all that baptism entails.  It was a good lesson though.
Our ward members are so awesome.  Perfect fellowship everytime.  Then
taught a part member family.  The daughter can't be baptized until she
is old enough to choose for herself because the mom is catholic and
doesn't want her to.

Friday: We had weekly planning and planned for week one of the new
transfer! Crazy this transfer went by so fast.  We planned but at the
same time people were setting up for our ward party.  We finished
planning early and helped them set up everything. The decorations were
awesome! Hawiann themed.  We had to wait cuz elder H was with us
because Elder U is a visa waiter and leaving but all leaving
missionaries go to the temple with president toone.  So we were
waiting till he got back so we could split back to our areas.  We
taught the part member family who the son wants to turn his life
around.  He just needs more interest.  Then it was time for the ward
party!  It was packed and the food was really good.  We mingled and
then had a bunch of activities. One being real somoan dancers came and
performed and of course they called people from the crowd to come. And
guess who got chosen... The elders woo so we danced in front of the
entire ward.  Haha I have pictures don't worry.

Saturday :  we helped decorate this home for an older couple.
Everything is slow with them so it took a while.  After that we helped
set up for the sisters baptism and then ours too.  We met with
Michelle one last time and then they were set!  We had the baptism .
Great turn out and spiritual.  Only bump was her husband who did the
baptism had no idea how to perform it even after we showed him.
Nervous I guess.  and it was kindof a mess at first it took 4 tries
but he baptized her. Haha but that's ok.  It was great to see everyone
support them and them do it together!

Sunday: last day of church in the ward.  I'm going to miss this ward
so much.  I think for a dieing wish when I'm going home I am going to
ask to come back.  How cool would that be! We had church a few
meetings. Michelle was confirmed.  We had a bunch of investigators at
church! We then we're supposed to have a lesson with a members
boyfriend but he bailed and we got stuck listening to a bunch of women
gossip on what she should do.  Had dinner with our ward mission leader
and then went in for transfer calls. I'm getting transfer and am made
a district leader.  Humbling, exciting, and scary haha.

That was my week!  Love you all!

Faithfully,
Elder Hemsley