00ee6472-c24f-4040-a9f3-080ceadecab9 Sister Dantzel Park Back to Missionary Letters A Peruvian Christmas Hey everyone, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and that you are preparing for a New Year! My week has been crazy but I don't have a lot of words for it. Let me explain… Bulletpoints ♤ Crazy divis with Primavera, they found a new house and a new pension in the day I was there and moved the next. ♤ Because of the season people just light off fireworks in the middle of the day here :) ♤ Divis with Bolognesi, I was with Hermana Lisintuña <3 She is from Ecuador and is a little ball of energy. I just love her. ♤ Divis with Parachico, I almost died. I got super sick and we had to spend all day inside, when we finally left… you could have found me lying in the middle of the road :) #HnaCastroEsLoLaximo #Ecuador ♤ Christmas, So for Christmas here they celebrate on the 24th until midnight! So we had permission from the President to stay up and see the fireworks. Of course I washed all the laundry in the extra 2 hours I had that night… ♤ It rained, I think this was the second time in my whole mission I have seen rain. I call this a miracle! ♤ A taxi driver told me my eyes are beautiful :) ♤ We sang Christmas Carols as a zone on Christmas eve <3 We went to an empty plaza and only members showed up. And we stood on this super awkward platform? It was super fun! ♤ We watched a bottle rocket fly into someones house… so we went into our and closed all the windows!! ♤ Alexander (a recent convert from Ilo). Found me and gave me a Christmas gift!!! It was so sweet and my only gift I received this year! Spiritual thought Today I am going to write about fireworks!! Fireworks are so beautiful, light up in different colors, can be seen from far away, and are used at night. Like our testimonies full of color and light. We light it with the desire of our hearts to share our knowledge. You can watch the fireworks shoot up in the air with the anticipation of seeing the colors burst into a beautiful shape. You can say the words but they don't burst until the spirit guides in what to say. The feeling of seeing the fireworks is the same feeling I get when I share my testimony. Showing the light of Christ that I know to be true even during the darkest of nights. Every time is just a little different but just as stunning and perfect in every way. I love you guys so much and I hope you can feel the savior's love for you. Have such a Happy New year!!! <3 Hermana Park Previous Letter Next Letter

add9fbdd-a92d-4a7a-8d69-b39321df93bc Elder Joshua Abbott Back to Missionary Letters I Milked a Goat! Hey everyone! This week was pretty sweet. We found a couple of new people to teach and had tons of lessons. Other than that the highlight of the week was service. And more specifically milking goats! So milking an animal has always been on my bucket list but I've never really gotten the opportunity. So we went to do service for a member and he said he needed his goats to be milked. Well of course I jumped on the opportunity and he let me milk his goat. It was super weird but also lots of fun. I'll send a video so yall can see it. Other then that missionary work is about the same. I'm getting the hang of this while technology thing so hopefully soon it'll be easier to do. I know that God lives and that He's hastening His work at this time. I hope yall can feel His love as much as I do at this time. Love ya 😁 Previous Letter Next Letter

c3236bf2-84bd-45ac-9bda-397e2d7c5c08 Eder Chance Thornton Back to Missionary Letters MY FIRST EMAIL!!! I'm so sorry everyone! Forgive me for not sending emails sooner. I'll try and do better haha. The MTC was amazing and I learned so much there. When you're in the MTC you feel the spirit so strongly and for me leaving the MTC was terrible. It feels like the spirit weakens when you step back into the world. My first day in the field we taught a lesson. Oh and my companion's name is Elder Brown. Anyways, the person we taught her name is Amani and it was her first time meeting in person with the missionaries. We already scheduled her baptism date for next Sunday, 11/19/23. She came to us with the strongest desire to be baptized. She has studied everything that we've asked her to. Amani has already attended church twice. She faces opposition from her family but still wants to be baptized. I feel the spirit around her so strongly. I have a feeling that she will go to the temple some day and I hope that I will be able to attend when she does. I met someone that's been being taught by missionaries since August and he's an awesome guy. His name is Matt. He's a VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTER! We bonded so quickly. As soon as I told him that I graduated Fire Academy in May he was like "No way, I'm a firefighter too! Wanna go see our fire station!?" He showed us around their station and it was so cool to check out their fire apparatuses (fire trucks). He let us sit inside and they are all different from the ones Mesquite has. We had our lesson at the fire station; I'll send a picture of the bar that we sat at while we taught him in the station. After meeting Matt I knew I was called to serve here for a reason. There's a convert named Bob that enjoys having the missionaries over. Bob is blind, so his entertainment is limited haha. He gets pretty bored so we go over to his place on Sundays and hangout with him. Bob gave me a nickname the first time I met him. He gave me the nickname "Second Chance" haha. I actually like it. He gave my companion the nickname "Father Brown" haha. I've come to love the people that I've met here in New Jersey. They start to grow on you a little bit haha. The ward members are also amazing; they are like a second family. Also I give my first talk on Sunday. They didn't give me a topic though so if anyone has any suggestions let me know lol. I love you all and hope everyone's doing well, Elder Thornton Previous Letter Next Letter

48e298f0-49a8-40c6-9320-95812bd62d09 Elder Tauaimalo Fiso Back to Missionary Letters God Bless the USA🇺🇸 Happy 4th of July! It's been a while, I can't remember what I put in my last one so I might repeat some stuff, but here are some updates: - I got transferred to New Town, ND and will probably finish off here. Great members, great people, great food. Nothin' better. - One of our members who is from Alaska fed us muktuk. I'll let yall figure out what it is😂. - Our friends Artis, Tristan, Alaina, and Trake all got baptized this last transfer! They are so awesome. Their baptismal services were so spirit-filled. Missionary with members is THE WAY. - Trake's grandparents, the Good Bears, from Wolf Point (my last area), came down for the baptism. They gifted me and my companion a star quilt which is a very special gift in the Native American culture. In the 1800s, the native americans starved because of a near extinction of buffalo. They also suffered from freezing temperatures from the bitter winters. When someone was wrapped around with a buffalo pelt, it was a sign of love towards that person to keep them warm during those brutal times. The star quilt is a modern version of that, it being a gift of respect, honor and love. The Good Bears and Granchamps are such awesome people whom I will always remember. - I taught my comp how to bead. We have matching bracelets now. - I attended my first pow wow, so sick! The dances that were performed were waaay cool. Sometimes during the sacrament, I try really hard to think about Christ. My mind likes to wander A LOT, so it's kinda difficult for me😂. As I partook of the sacrament yesterday, I thought of the song, "The Greatest Among Us". I love these lyrics of the song (don't know if they're completely correct, this is coming off from my memory) "The Greatest Among Us taught us to love. To serve one another as He willingly served. And if I will follow Him, such is my call, for the Greatest Among Us was the servant of all." I testify that the Jesus Christ truly is the Greatest Among Us. He loved and served like no other. As we do our best to follow the example of Jesus Christ by serving others and showing love, we will experience so much joy in our lives. I love you all and I love this gospel. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. Elder Fiso Previous Letter Next Letter

e378f641-b668-40e5-823b-c13a3b918a62 Elder Jeremy Vogel Back to Missionary Letters Solomio (Harare), Zimbabwe Hello everyone this week has been a little crazy so let me try to sum it up. But first things first. Happy Birthday Dad! I would have called if it didn't cost all the airtime in our phone to call you for 2 minutes! Love you! Last Monday we actually had a combined dinner appointment that we attended to after we did our regular P-day stuff. We were with the other companionship in our district and we went to a small families house. The father of the house loves to have missionaries around and he is in charge of all the seminaries and institutes in Zimbabwe. His family is lovely and always likes having us around when we come. But this is the first time I would be able to talk to them all at once since I got here. So we used a good crowd pleasing object lesson (listen up David). We brought a bunch of vanilla Ice cream and a few toppings. Bring a few different things out and put it all on the table. Get everyone their bowl of ice cream and let them start putting on their topping from all their different choices; chocolate chunks, sprinkles, caramel, ketchup, pepper, and last but not least vinegar. Start asking them if they want some of the other things. But you start asking why they are not taking other things like ketchup and vinegar. After the "it doesn't go with ice cream" you start talking about how you spend your time. Because these things if you put them into your ice cream they don't come out. Tuesday started with a bit of a disappointment. After our District council we went to go get our lunch. We wanted to pick up a platter of meat we had ordered Monday morning. But the meat platter hadn't been prepared. So we are trying to do that again this week. We have gotten some new contacts at the mission office. These were people brought under pretenses that we were going to provide passports for people wanting to do missionary work. We are happy to help them figure out paperwork but we were not going to pay, especially when it was found out that these few were not members. And they were led over to the church by some members promising this is how to get free passports. But they are now interested. We went over to where they stay and it is an orphanage. And we are teaching them. But what is also interesting is the woman running the orphanage. She loves having preachers around her house. But she is a strong interdenominational person. Loves to have people from everywhere come and preach but never lets kids go to any other church than the interdenominational one run at the orphanage. We are working on her as she is a linchpin for a bunch of people. But she probably won't progress as many of the other children live at other peoples houses usually bring preachers of other faiths and now some of these kids are now like missionaries for hire. Taught them on Sunday after their session and we had like 15 new people from one lesson, so hopefully if we don't get through to the woman maybe this mass of children will get into her. Wednesday was interviews with President Makasi. Since the zone is smaller then before they decide just to combine everyone into one meeting. So we had a nice time just chatting about whatever we wanted. We had had exchanges cancelled that day (this is the third time in a row if you are counting). We are in the same zone as the Assistants and they showed up during the middle of their exchange. Weird but whatever. But then when lunch was decided the assistants were out, but ordered food for them but not the people they were on exchanges with, then told us to save their food. Hmmmm some elders decided to just help themselves. (I should mention that this was only one of the AP's ideas). But later the phone call if we had their food. Answer was no. Other then that we had a pretty regular week. Went around teaching. Shared what we could. But things got good during the week end. Saturday was the last attempt to do exchanges. I went with Elder Crook to Eastview while Elder Mhangwana went with Elder Ndlela to Solomio. We had spent almost all day at a wedding. At the end of it I did the baptismal for the couple. We only taught one lesson the whole day. During the wedding however we got a call from the Elders in Solomio. They had been joking with someone we were teaching. Then they told them I had got Corona and that I was being shipped home under critical condition. And she got uncontrollably emotional. They had to call me just to help her calm down. Apparently she had tears and everything. I had to talk her down for about 10 minutes between her sniffing and crying. Sunday was the last day for missionaries to Baptize. We walked all the way to Ruwa to baptize a member's little sister. He just barely received the priesthood so he got to baptize her. And another person (Edith) we baptized came to help. She had been baptized last month and she helped this girl when she got out of the font to get changed and redressed. But I am still trying to find another card reader for my photos. Because this is crazy So hopefully things come around. But I hope you all have a great week! -Elder Vogel Previous Letter Next Letter

8d7ac15d-eb0b-4f40-8736-fdd8a8058fcf Elder Keith Rushton Back to Missionary Letters The Final Email Hey everyone! So technically I do have one more P-day after this but you know how I am with writing these emails... so this'll be the last one 😂 I will be flying home on the 27th! It's wild that my mission is finally coming to an end! I'm definitely excited for the next step in life, but I'm also very grateful for the experiences I've had and things I've learned throughout my mission! I'm thankful for all of you and the support you've given me along the way! The past couple weeks have gone by decently quick! As they've gone by I've experienced a lot of my "lasts". My last zone conference, my last missionary exchange, my last fast Sunday as a missionary. There are still a few more "lasts" that I have yet to do, this week being the last full week, I have one last P-day after today, and I will have my last District Council this week. Like I said before, I'm definitely excited to move on from my mission, but there has still been a part of me that is a little anxious about leaving this part of my life behind, there has been a little sadness thinking about my mission ending. I was reminded a few days ago of a quote given by, I think, Elder Ucthdorf. He says something along the lines of "the reason humans don't like endings, is because we are made of the stuff of eternity". It's natural for us to dislike the idea of things coming to an end, because we are naturally destined to have eternal life with our Father in Heaven! I think that is such a wonderful concept and I'm grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation! Even though endings may be difficult, I know the Lord will always be there for me and for all of you as we persevere through those changes! I hope that we can all continue trusting in Him and allow Him to guide us through the path He has set up for us! I know that He will lead us back to Him and our Father! I'm excited to be able to reunite with you all soon! I do know that I will be speaking in my home ward in Mesquite on the 31st and would love to see you all there if you'd like to attend! The meeting will start at 12 o'clock (you can reach out to me if you'd like more details!) I hope you all have a fantastic couple of weeks! Thank you again for your love and support throughout the past 2 years! I'm grateful for this mission experience and have truly come to know that this church is true! I know Heavenly Father sent His only begotten son to die for all of us and allow us to have someone who knows what we go through perfectly, He can help us and can forgive us! I know that He will as we trust in Him and follow His guidance! I know the Book of Mormon is true and holds the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I know that we have a living Prophet who receives revelation from God to help us in these latter days! I know that there is a plan for us, and that we can live with our families and God forever! I'm so grateful for this knowledge and so many more things that I've learned! I love our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I know they love me and all of you too! And I love you all as well! ~Elder Rushton Pic: .Top Golf last Monday! Previous Letter Next Letter

5883fa2a-9a25-408f-babe-f8ad43b76789 Elder Chance Thornton Back to Missionary Letters We had a BAPTISM!!! Hey everyone! The past couple weeks have been awesome. We baptised our friend Amani and I got to confirm her! This last Saturday we got to go to the Manhattan temple with Amani and the ward I'm currently serving in. It was an amazing experience. Most likely will be the only time I will get to go to the Manhattan temple during my mission, since they are closing it sometime in the beginning of 2024. Unless I can get another person baptized before then lol. The Manhattan temple is super interesting, I guess it has a gym inside it like other chapel buildings do, and also serves as a stake center. I thought that was really cool. I went on an exchange with a Spanish speaking elder (Elder Logan) to his area a few weeks ago and that was interesting since I can only speak a little bit of Spanish. He would ask people if they wanted to come to church with us and have a whole conversation with them, just from that one question. I thought that was awesome. The people that we would meet would ask if I speak Spanish and I would say "poquito" haha. I spent a whole day with Elder Logan observing, but I could still feel the spirit when we (meaning Elder Logan) would talk to people. We met a guy on the street named Guiermo, and he talked a lot with Elder Logan. I understood a couple of words, and he said he was a singer/artist, which is really cool. I was just happy to see that just by Elder Logan asking him "Hey, do you want to come to church with us," that we got him to talk with us for 30 mins. He would smile and laugh and it made me so happy to see that, even though I couldn't understand anything. It was a neat reminder of why I chose to serve a mission, which is to bring joy into other people's lives. Which reminds me, it's Christmas time! I invite everyone to look for opportunities to serve others or even just smile at someone. You never know how much they could have needed that smile. With that being said, yesterday I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2 and king Benjamin said "...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." He goes on saying that we are indebted to God, forever and ever. We should serve God with all our might, mind and strength. A couple ways that we show thanks is by keeping His commandments and serving others. I would like to end by encouraging you to read Mosiah 2, to find out what you understand of it for yourself. Think about how you can go about this Christmas season and spread His light! I love you all and please don't judge my grammar. English class was not my strong suit haha, plus I didn't proofread this email to see if it makes sense, oops. Also, feel free to email me! Only if you want to though haha. Love you all, Elder Thornton🫡 Pictures: #1- My companion and grinding out calls, #2- George Washington Bridge, just thought it looked cool lol, #3- District P-Day with other missionaries, #4- "#401becauseoftheson", the New Jersey mission baptism goal for 2023. Everytime you see 401 you have to take a picture with your companion and send it to the mission group chat Previous Letter Next Letter

3ec707f8-8886-4e2c-a678-e8c516fbe443 Sister Lara McOmie Back to Missionary Letters PARKOUR. PARKOUR. PARKOUR QUE PASO? What a week wow, also I feel like I just wrote to you guys?!?! time FLIES let me tell you. THE DAY OF STRAIGHT MIRACLES Tuesday was one of those days that's like a high of highs. Miracles were coming left and right. Our friend Amalia who we've been teaching IS ON BAPTISM DATE and it was so unexpected! Then we called a grey dot... HES COMIN TO CHURCH... then we got in contact with someone we havent been able to for a long time!!! There were lots of other things today but guys God really is good :) EXCHANGES. ZONE CONFERENCE. CHINESE PARTY? yall this week was lowkey a VIBE. I had exchanges with Hermana Church and it was soooo fun, it was cool to go and work in a different area and meet amazing people. Zone Conference was SO good. Okay. Pause. Wait. Because I NEED to tell you this miracle. We learned about baptism and being better at inviting at ZC. Later that day... we had a lesson with one of our newer friends. We were teaching the resto again cause the first lesson was interrupted many times. ANYWAYS... he had no questions about it, we talked about the Holy Ghost read some scriptures #moroni10:3-5 duh. THEN this man brings up the fact he isn't baptized for HIMSELF. Then we whipped out our ZC training... Matthew 3:15 and 2 Nephi 31:6-7 to follow... BAM baptism in 2 weeks. The Spirit was working all the magic during that lesson. Oh also kinda cool... I was the one who invited him to baptism... did I mess it up so bad he didn't understand what I was saying the first time? Yes. BUT I asked again anddd he said YESSS. Anyways back to the Chinese party... my district is like all Chinese speaking except for us so it's kinda hype. They posted on their story that there was a Chines New Year party and we were like bet. So you already know we pulled up. HYPEST WARD PARTY I HAVE EVER BEEN TO. I am sorry to every other ward, but they just knew how to do it. Were we out of place there? Yes. But it was still the funnest thing ever. I wish I took more pictures... I will try to be better at it HMM... WHAT ELSE? I honestly don't know what else to tell yall... sorry this is boring BUT I'll have a little Pday talk with yall. Pdays are hype cause we always hang with the zone and it's so fun. Ontario zone is one of the bigger ones so it's a PARTY. Today we hiked a mountain and me and Hermana Morse did parkour + spin jitzu until that was banned. Then we only did parkour :( it was a party, right now we are headed to the church to play some games. Secret Hitler is our top favs. Oh me and Hermana Longhurst my trainer have THE WORST LUCK, we got a flat tire this week and 80% of our lessons cancelled... BUT we did have 7 friends at church. So it all evens out in the end. READ. READ. READ. READ. READ. X10 THIS WEEK... there was really only one thing I could talk about. Sooooo... Let's talk about the scripture example of... ABISH . An amazing example of member missionary work. Little background... the first 2 weeks we struggled with member realtions because the past companionship was here for 6 months! SO we are a lot different and it took a little getting used to I think. We made an effort this last 2 weeks to work with members. LET ME TELL YOU!!!! OUR WORK EXPLODED. The amount of influence members have on missionary work is more than you can imagine. We have so many awesome members in our small ward that have... invited our friends to church, given then rides to church and our English class, come to the essons with us, testify, invite them to come over for FHE, move from their family to sit with our friends that sat alone, and SO MUCH MORE, little and big. So let's see what we can learn from Abishs example of missionary work when you're not a full time missionary... Alma 19:17 "Thus, having been converted to the Lord , and never having made it known, therefore, when she saw that all the servants of Lamoni had fallen to the earth, and also her mistress, the queen, and the king, and Ammon lay prostrate upon the earth, she knew that it was the power of God; and supposing that this opportunity, by making known unto the people what had happened among them, that by beholding this scene it would cause them to believe in the power of God, therefore she ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people. " FIRST... I love the first bolded part, ITS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU ARE CONVERTED FIRST!!! You need to make sure and CONTINUE to fill your own buckets before you can help others fill theirs :) SECOND... I love how she took that situation was that she needed to go tell everyone!! She ran house to house telling people what was going on so they could see for themselves! We can all do that more!!! If you're truly converted to the Lord, you will WANT people to come and see for themselves! SO... go help the missionaries, open your mouths and TELL THE WORLD ABOUT JESUS and all the goodness He can bring into this crazy crazy world :) Go spread some JOY I love all of you awesome people MUCHA AMOR -Hermana McOmie <3 Previous Letter Next Letter

c244a4cc-d6ce-434a-b50e-c7adcb8e8009 Elder Riley Waite Back to Missionary Letters Hey everyone! Today's gonna be short because I don't wanna write. We've had a rough but amazing 2 weeks, I'm still loving it here in Sioux Falls and my comp is a stud. We've been grinding but have been facing a lot of rejection which has been hard, all missionaries go through that so I'm not complaining but it's just pretty annoying listening to excuses and lies over and over again! however I did hit 21 months the other day and it's just crazy to think about how fast the mission goes by! This last weekend our friend Ramone got baptized! It had been a long time coming for that man, he's been talking to missionaries for a while and has now fallen off 3 times before this so we were pretty worried but the dude was all smiles after the baptism and confirmation the next day! After the baptism he came up to me happier than a kid in a candy store and was like, "I'm Saved!" That was pretty funny and we'll break the news to him again later that he's still got a lot to do but I wasn't gonna raid on his parade. Anyways I hope y'all have an amazing week, love you! Previous Letter Next Letter

575fc340-9412-4068-bf2c-eb21c225880a Sister Dentzel Park Back to Missionary Letters I Didn't Say You Could Kiss Me I don't know who decided to let time pass again but here we are in October. At least I have a few interesting things to say this week. So I guess let's jump in :) Bulletpoints > Fun fact about Puerto, we have a lot of people who do drugs here. This week one of them came up to me and tried to kiss me. Luckily he went away after I told him no (firmly) and backed away when he leaned in for the kiss. Getting kissed is NOT on my mission to do list! > Service!!! It's always so fulfilling to serve. We bathed a dog named Blondy and I now think he is the only dog in Peru I'll pet because he is clean… not for long :( > It's Spring!! It's not so cold and it makes me so happy :D > I officially hit one year in Perú!! It's definitely weird to feel like nothing has changed… I am in the same place I was when I was born (in the mission). But, at least now I understand what I am doing haha! > We bought cake from a lady in the street because Hermana Encalada felt awkward asking her if she knew the person's house we were knocking at. So to keep her from embarrassing herself I bought a cake from her :) At least the cake was good. >My bottom retainer broke… it was not connected to 4 of the 6 teeth… So I got it removed, and replaced :) > A real kiss, from a 4 year old. At least it was just the cheek haha! > We started teaching Jamie how to use a hymn book. We didn't get past the first two lines of I am a child of God… >It was the week of Math… all the schools had banners and all the kids were crying. Pobresitos. > Miracle of Mafer, so Mafer has had 3 or 4 bautismal dates and for some reason or another she never got baptised. So we invited her to watch conference asking if she should be baptised and after watching and explaining a little more we invited her to be baptized again. We didn't give her a day but she said yes this sunday i will be baptized… so she had her baptismal interview right then and there :) 12 of October!! > Kristel, she is also getting baptised this weekend. She is so cute and I just love her. She is so excited for her baptism and we celebrated her birthday with her this week too! Happy sweet 16 Kirstel!! > Ok, one more friend. This week we also invited Julio to be baptised. He is really cool and we found him by knocking random doors. He had a lot of questions about the restoration but the spirit told me that he knew it was true. So we cleared up a few things then invited him to be baptised after watching a sesión of general conference. I am excited to keep teaching him :) Spiritual thought Of course it was the weekend of General Conference so I am going to share based on my experience. It is always so inspiring to listen to the messages prepared for us in general conferences. I learned especially about “the one” . There were so many talks that connected missionary work and I can't wait to go back and listen to them. But today I want to focus on names. Our names are important, it is how we are able to say who we are and how people identify us. We all have many names, nicknames, and titles. For example I am Dantzel, Dance, “Grandma knit knit”, “Tabby”, I am a daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend, I am Hermana Park, a missionary, and so much more! But, something I took away from the conference is that it doesn't matter how many names, nicknames, or titles we have because Heavenly Father knows exactly who we are. And no matter what I will always be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. I am a disciple of Christ, and a follower of Him. I know with all my heart might mind and strengthen that this is the Church of Jesus Christ. The church He established here on earth. I know I am a beloved daughter of God with a divine purpose and eternal destiny. I also know that each one of you is also a beloved son or daughter of God. That you have access to His eternal love and the atonement of Jesus Christ that can take away any pain, suffering, or that feeling of being lost in the world. Find your purpose in Him. Find yourself in Him. And I know you can do it by following Him. I love you guys and share these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Previous Letter Next Letter

0292e431-47a9-4efa-9a08-f863dfb00440 Sister Taylor Waite Back to Missionary Letters My final zone conference: something i never thought it would reach. this is the group of all the departing missionaries in our zone. we each got to bear our departing testimony during zone conference and it was such a sweet moment. I love and have learned so much from these missionaries. they are examples of people who have sacrificed everything and become truly converted unto the Lord. what a blessing it has been to be surrounded by such spiritual giants. Previous Letter Next Letter

dab03780-35b2-4914-9c45-f9b461560bb9 Elder Emmanuel Navarro-Gonzalez Back to Missionary Letters Week 8 Hola y'all! This week I've definitely been practicing my southern accent this week! It's hard not to practice cause some of the mission leaders have really thick accents. It's pretty fun to take some of their best quotes and say it the way they say it. The best one this week was our vehicle coordinator this week telling us that he's busy mowing his lawn on his riding mower and that he "couldn't talk" but then proceeded to talk to us about his mission and that he killed it back when he served. Once twenty minutes of stories passed I let him get back to his mowing. On Thursday we had a zoom call Zone Conference! It was with Elder Martino so that was awesome hearing from him. My biggest take away was that we as missionaries should find someone that is in the same situation as the investigator. That will help the member to "astonish" the investigator with their testimonies. As Amulek did for the people of Ammonihah with his powerful testimony in Alma 10:12. But we sat there for 5 hours which was sooooo long! Afterwards we went to one of the best barbecues in the whole mission. It was called Mission Barbecue and it was honestly the best stuff I've ate since being here! So our Spanish page needed a talent portion for the weekly live so I decided to do frisbee golf. So my companion takes us to this random park and he bring some tortillas?? So then he gives me the phone and says start recording. So I record this kid start feeding ducks as his spiritual talent and I honestly lost it. We stayed there for like half an hour and just enjoyed the ducks. It was fun but I couldn't believe he took us there randomly. Go check it out on the page if you want to see this Elder feed some ducks! This Saturday was especially awesome because we ordered some Bolis! If anyone doesn't know Bolis are like Mexican ice pops. So there's this guy from Mexico that makes them in Nashville and drives around Tennessee delivering them to people! So we ordered some and he brought it to our apartment complex! I got some jamaica, coco, chocolate and fresh! They honestly hit the spot when you get done with work for the day. I would definitely recommend going on Facebook and liking Bolis Babys! I had my first dinner on the mission on Tuesday! We went to shoot a kitchen segment for the live and an Hermana taught us how to make huaraches! They were so fun to make and she let us eat them after! It was so fun to have in hour dinners! I can't wait for things to open up again because it was awesome! I hope y'all have an awesome week! Thanks so much for all the replies! It makes my week so much better. I appreciate all the love and support! If you guys want any awesome reads for this week I'd go to 2 Nephi! Its grown to be one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon! Love you guys! Elder Navarro-Gonzalez My mailing address for the next week maybe: 952C Reach Lane, Murfreesboro TN 37120 Previous Letter Next Letter