13b25d89-0cb8-45ea-8413-c59bea0715f8 Elder Kade Haviland Back to Missionary Letters Well, this is it! I'm at the end of my mission. That's crazy! By this time Wednesday I'll be home. It doesn't feel like it has been two years, although I can't tell you if that means it feels like it has been longer or shorter than that. It seems like my mission has been shorter that two years, but it also feels like I have been doing it for all my life. It's weird. Elder Bridenstine and I were surprised this weekend when we got transfer calls, to learn that Elder Bridenstine will be leaving Richmond as well! And not only does that mean that Richmond will be getting two new missionaries (we call that white washing), but one of those missionaries will be in training. In fact, 2 of the 4 areas in our district will be white washing this transfer, and 3 of the areas will be training. This district is really getting moved around! Other crazy news about transfers, Elder Brownlee, the missionary I trained, is going to the the zone leader in this zone. Man, they grow up so fast. I want to thank you all for the support you have given me throughout my mission, whether it was from prayers, emails, letters, or lessons taught. I have been thankful to receive them all! The mission has been a great time for me to learn and to grow closer to our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I've come to know that God has a plan for each one of us as I have had the opportunity to help Him put that plan into action. I know that Christ took the penalty for all of our sins and felt the misery of all of our shortcomings because I have felt the peace and love He has for me and seen others feel it as I and they have repented and aligned their lives with God's will. I've come to know that I can trust the Holy Ghost to never lead me astray, because I have seen Him guide me to do what's right and testify of Christ and God to those I've taught and to myself. These truths I've come to know thanks to the Restoration of the fullness of the gospel through Joseph Smith. I'm thankful for the Book of Mormon; it is the word of God. I'm thankful for the Prophet; the teachings God sends us through him have helped me a lot. These two years have been fantastic, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. I really do love you all, and I look forward to seeing you when I get home. Au revoir! Faaitoito! Elder Haviland Pic My district and how many months they've been out. It felt weird to be holding up a 24. Previous Letter Next Letter

4eb3d9e7-e3b6-49a9-9271-a859248821d3 Elder Chandon Jensen Back to Missionary Letters I’ve currently been in the mtc for just under a week but it is so much better then zoom. Our district is great and my comp Elder Anderson is a DAWG. We’ve had a lot of fun. We’ve played basketball a couple of times and spikeball and wiffleball which were so much fun. The food here is not good but we found a bright spot in the ahoha plate which is amazing so we pretty much eat it for every lunch and dinner. The spirit here is insane. Sacrament meeting was so quiet and the entire Sunday was set up to feel the spirit which is really cool. The studying is way cool too. It’s crazy how much I feel like I’ve grown in just a week. The scripture for this email is 2 Nephi 2:6-7 6 Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth. I love this scripture because I know that Christ’s love and grace is infinite if we choose to come to him. Picture 1: Me and Elder Anderson getting ready for our first baptism. Previous Letter Next Letter

9bf1fe06-7b48-4125-9fda-1258c7018bc5 SisterTalia Hansen Back to Missionary Letters WAW What a week Well we lost sister Lewis so now our 🎶trios down to two🎶 I went to the dentist a couple of times this week cause ya know Cavities... so that was fun... And we a had a few more doctors appointments. But the craziest thing that happened was ZONE CONFERENCE. Which I helped plan because I'm a sister training leader in the zone and they decided this time around the leaders in the zone were going to plan everything for it. So...yeah... it was America themed. I think it was actually pretty good! We gave some trainings about the doctrine of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and joy. It was really good because during my time to speak everybody spoke up and answered questions! So I didn't need to talk too much haha oh yeah and I also sang...it wasn't too great lol but that's fine. Anyways we had tacobell for lunch. Cause ain't nothin more American 😉 We sadly attended a funeral this week. There was a great man in one of our wards that had a heart attack in the middle of the night. Nobody was suspecting it. We actually had talked to him less than 12 hours before it happened... so we felt like it was important for us to be there. It was a really good service and there were so many people there to celebrate him. Made me think a lot about my life and my family and lots of different things. But life happens, We had a really cool experience. This lady called us one day and she was telling us she was in the hospital and she wanted us to pray for her. We talked to her about the priesthood and asked if she might want a priesthood blessing. She said yes please and so we were able to meet at the hospital with a few of the elders and get her a blessing! It was really awesome and she was so appreciative. When she gets out of the hospital we will be meeting with her again! Another tender mercy. We reached out to a girl we haven't met yet, but she has seen missionaries in the past. We asked if we could meet her sometime and she actually messaged back and we were able to get a time set up with her! It was great! We also had a chance to speak in the old folks branch, that means 3 meetings haha. There are 3 different retirement/care centers that are in the branch and each have their own meeting. All the elderly people always come up and thank us for sharing our thoughts and I really like it cause it helps me feel loved. Last little funny thing that happened. We went to teach Lil bridger and when we sat down he came in and looked sister Newman deep in the eyes and went "oh wow" in a very breathtaking, amazed tone 😂😂 we just thought it was really funny. We sure love that kid! Ya never know what's going through his mind! Love yall! -Sister Hansen 💕 And this is my district! Elder Pope is the blond in front, and behind him is Elder Diaz. The read head in the Middle is Elder Hollenbeck, and he is our district leader with Elder Diaz. Behind him is Elder Rodriguez who is companions with Elder Pope in the front haha and then me and my comp being cute in the front lol That's all! Until next week! Chao! -- Hermana Price Previous Letter Next Letter

79d03653-59e5-4c78-a659-05c5873e08e3 Elder Joshua Abbott Back to Missionary Letters Transfers😬 Hey everyone! This week was super awesome! We had MLC on Tuesday which was lots of fun. We talked about the new missionary handbook and becoming more committed missionaries. It was a good time and I definitely learned a lot. We got a good amount of snow this week, like 8 inches or so, which made being outside so much fun. We actually had a super nice family let us in and feed us dinner on a freezing night so that was super awesome. On Saturday we had a Sacrifice Saturday so we just went finding for like 8 hours with the Zone. We found lots of awesome people and hopefully helped out some other missionaries in the Zone with their areas. We got to talk in sacrament meeting yesterday, I talked about revelation and used the story of Joseph Smith as an example of receiving revelation. It was a great experience and made my last Sunday in the ward a great one. And with that being said, yes I'm being transferred... to Colville. That's a small town north of Spokane about 2 hours. I'm super pumped about it though because Canada is in my district so I'll be able to go up there for exchanges and stuff! I've loved serving in the Lincoln Heights ward so much and I'm definitely going to miss serving here, but I'm super excited to go serve more of God's children in another part of His vineyard. I know God lives and He loves all of you so much, have a great week! I'll talk to yalls later! Previous Letter Next Letter

c4cb8cbc-b5b6-4aa2-b5d7-a78ea9690cd3 Elder Scott Sperry Back to Missionary Letters Hola everyone!! Hope all is good and things are good back home and where ever you are. I wouldn't know because a only hear from a few of you (shoutout to you, you know who you are). Not meant to be a guilt trip, but is kinda meant to be a guilt trip (I'd like to hear from some of you.... or all of you...) Love you all ❤ 😁 ❤ Tuesday- It was raining almost all of Tuesday so we mainly did a lot of studies in our apartment and called and texted our people. In the afternoon, it was still gloomy and wasn't raining so we decided to stop by our friend Andres. We took a taxi there because it was sprinkling a bit and my companion didn't feel like walking in it. So we went to his house but he wasn't there. We had an English class in an hour and we decided we had plenty of time to walk there and the weather was ok. But as soon as we decided to start walking, rain just comes down HARD.... so you could say we had some fun walking haha. And when we got home after English class, my companion and I watched President Nelson talk from Sunday (because we didn't have time Sunday) and President Nelson spits BARS 🔥🔥🔥. Grateful to have a modern day prophet! Wednesday- We had our district council and it was also Hermana Clark's birthday so we celebrated afterwards. My companion and I bought her a balloon that said Feliz Cumpleaños (we tried to find a piñata but no one sells piñatas for some reason) and we had some fun. Then we went back out east and did some contacting around there. Thursday- Had a recent convert lesson with Raul. He was someone the Sister's taught and baptized right when I got here. After we had lunch with the Stake Patriarch. It was a fun time and him and his wife are amazing people. He even showed us some pictures of him and President Nelson (yes, that President Nelson). Later that night we had a lesson with Daniel, a less active member who is wanting to get back into it. He is a stud! Friday- We went to the north again to Shacktown (Shacktown is what we call it) and we're going to have a virtual temple tour but she was sick and so we decided to walk around and talk to some people and ended up getting a couple return dates set up. Saturday- We had nothing planned for Saturday so we spent about 6 hours in the streets contacting people and we got a few numbers and found a couple people but a big problem here in Carrasco is that a lot of the people we talk to don't live here so it's a bit difficult but it is what it is... Sunday- We had a FIRE 🔥 sacrament meeting. We had two missionaries give their farewell talks and a missionary give her homecoming. The Sister that came home is the daughter of President and Sister Dunford of the Montevideo West Mission (where Elder Wakefield is) and President and Sister Dunford spoke as well. A very spiritual sacrament meeting. Hope y'all had great week and will have a great week. Talk to you all next week! Previous Letter Next Letter

6112d420-646b-4d86-ae75-64dee278fbea Sister Kallie Grave Back to Missionary Letters Mailbox Backstory: Every day between the hours of 10:30 and 12, Denise (the mail woman) comes. This also means at around 10 we go to the mail to drop stuff off. Then again at 11:30 to pick stuff up... then again at 5 just to make sure we didn't forgot anything. We were Facebook finding and contacted a man who said "I live on Valley ct. I see yall walk to the mailbox all the time." I don't mean to brag here but... we're making quite the name for ourselves here in Gatesville. "The weird barefoot ones that are always in dresses and go to the mailbox 100 times a day." Sorry world but that title is already taken. One thing that I love about the Book of Mormon is that it focuses on the resurrection more than anything else and in Mosiah 16:8 it says "But there is a resurrection." How simple it really is. Why do we follow Christ? Why do we sometimes go through trials and persecution for our beliefs? Why does it matter what we do here? Why do we even have the other parts of the atonement? Because of the resurrection. You will live again. You will have a perfect immortal body at some point and because of that you will have to look Christ in the eye and receive your reward for your actions. Why do we have purpose? Because of the resurrection. I invite you this week that while you are reading the Book of Mormon mark every time it mentions the word or concept of the resurrection. You will be surprised. I know that when we come to understand the full effects of the resurrection, we will have a stronger desire to follow God and be obedient. I know that we will be resurrected and we will live again. We get to choose now what that resurrected life will look like. Love you almost as much as Sister Eckhardt and I love Denise. If only we knew her actual name. -Sister Graves Previous Letter Next Letter

c1637799-d734-4017-a33d-12ab228df0f3 Sister Kallie Graves Back to Missionary Letters The rains came down I signed up for classes this week. That sentence in itself is a joke, so enjoy :) General Conference was this weekend and I really liked President Nelson's talk on Sunday morning about faith. He told a story of 2 groups of islands. They both had a massive conference to go to and both had a massive storm that would ruin it. They both fasted and prayed for the storm to stop. In the first group, the storm stood still and the conference went on without any rain or problems. In the second group, the rains continued despite their cries to heaven. Yet they still went to the conference and sat in the downpour. Who had more faith? Those at the conference. Will you be at the conference? Love yall Sister Graves Ps my homecoming will be on April 25th at 11am Pacific Standard Time in Mesquite, NV at the Littlefield chapel at 3260 E Old Hwy 91 LITTLEFIELD, Arizona 86432 United States. Just if anyone wanted to come. Previous Letter Next Letter

d8002f7c-d196-4de8-bc4c-f2c60f04c96c Elder Drake Wakefield Back to Missionary Letters Transfer😮💨😮💨 Pagi yall, got some transfer news and I am finally moving cities🙏🙏I'm going to Bogor😁😁it has bikes and it's colder and it has mountains I can climb, that's all I need to know. District leader while training again, training arc pt.2 But this weeks been great, kinda been anticipating transfer news a lot cause I knew it was coming. But we were able to work hard and go to lots of janjis. Really have grown my love of the people in Indonesia by meeting with the members here. They are so awesome and fun, definitely one of my favorite parts here. Went to this LOADED family's house. Rich in like they had a pool with dolphin statues over it. There was a big Chinese New Year party there and after we ate, Brother Leo took us to his gym room, he had a whole Smith Machine and he let us bench🙏🙏 He whipped out his golf clubs too, hit a couple nice putts, he asked "when's your p-day?" Told him I'm moving cities, he said "if you go to Bogor or Bekasi, you have my number". A wise man once said, "let's go golfing" FOOD Buy one get one for Chinese New Years was fire Mixue is always fire for WPS (Boba sundae 🔛🔝) First shoutout to the Aston family, @mymom too cause they made their version of tacos in a bag, it was epic Some great indo food too, I actually enjoy it now that it doesn't give me the runs (no pics cause I forgot) Now that 6 months have passed and I'm moving cities, it feels like a new phase is starting, and it makes me excited to see what I can do even better in this new phase, how I can give my will even more to God Romans 12:1-2 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. This sums up my my mission, but more than that too. Because of the mercies of God, I am able to present my body for not just two years, but my mortal time on earth to God. That's my reasonable service to Him. A limited mortal experience for an eternal one. The mortal experience however, is where we are transformed. “No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven" (Elder Wilcox, His Grace is Sufficient. BYU Speech). I gotchu Mrs. Quinn for in text citation🙏 This is our time to learn Heaven. We know no unclean thing can enter into the Kingdom of God, so all we can do is give our will to God, and know that His grace is sufficient -Elder Wakefield Brother Liliek Cool guy we met on the bus, bros gonna become a missionary too super sick that gas station is where the temples gonna be😁 (if they can actually build it bro) Previous Letter Next Letter

e3d7c6ae-3b77-48ea-b5a2-67fefd8e3aa0 Sister Emily Leavitt Back to Missionary Letters I LOVE church!..but I haven't always In college I attended a congregation of my church that was just made up of young single adults. Most of them were my age and attending the same school as me. I loved to feel the spirit there and I loved learning about my Savior. However, there were always so many new people I didn't know. I had a lot of anxiety trying to talk to people, especially people that seemed so much more confident and faithful than me! Eventually, I made many new friends and they have been a source of inspiration and strength to me in my life. I learned that church is about more than growing closer to God. It is also about community, supporting fellow believers, and finding strength in others. When I moved across the country to Michigan, I found that same community. I love my church family! Previous Letter Next Letter

9cba951d-8438-446e-be75-970806f4bb1a Sister Taylor Allen Back to Missionary Letters double the fun in apt 6 As time goes on throughout my mission I have been slowly getting worse at writing these weekly emails but I promise I'll try to be better 😅 but hello everyone! Crazy that this is the last full week of the transfer but we got some exciting news that we will actually be having two more Sisters move in with us next transfer! The past few days consisted of us going shopping with the senior couple to get more beds, dressers, desks, silverware and anything else they could need! Our apartment is not small but by all means not huge so it will be interesting to see how having 4 missionaries in this one space will be! I am looking forward to it though 🤩 there is gonna be a party at 85 wall street Last Monday we were able to go with the Elders to the Ausable Chasm which is what everybody here calls 'the grand canyon on the Adirondacks' (the mountain range we live in)! It was real cool then we also were able to drive down to Lake Placid and see where they had the 1930 and 1980 Olympics! New York always just blows me away with the views and I am in awe whenever we get to explore!! WE PUT OUR FRIEND REBECCA ON DATE WAHOO she is soooo elect. It was really neat to hear how she connected the Book of Mormon being true to the church as a whole! Our friends Jose and Kasey are also on date so the next few weeks are going to be filled with baptisms! Funny story so on Sunday we actually had tons of friends and returning members come that they were really short on bread so they had to do it at the beginning and again at the end after someone ran home to get more! Our mission President actually came to our branch to do interviews with us this week and joined for the church service as well so we were glad he was able to see the progress of our area by a shortage of resources 😂 Here is a little spiritual nugget-> Elder Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer and no trial that we experience is wasted. All that we anquish and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable.… It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.” I have been thinking a lot about past hardships that I faced and how the different tests we go through in life can be excruciating. Whether it be illness, betrayal, temptations, loss of a loved one, natural disasters, or some other ordeal, affliction is part of our mortal experience. As missionaries we get asked alot why we must face difficult challenges and I know that they are vitally important to the process of recognizing our divine nature. If we handle these afflictions properly they will be consecrated for our gain! Stay strong and push through! God always has great blessings in store 🥰 I love you all Previous Letter Next Letter

ebec0bd9-c792-4c81-a8ac-950bd84e9a9a Elder Emily Leavitt Back to Missionary Letters We moved Anthony's date back a little but he is still progressing towards baptism so that is exciting! JJ actually accepted to be baptized this week when he comes to know it is true( which he will)!!! We are excited to see him progress as well! We are heart broken to have to pass off Juan to the Alaska missionaries because he isn't coming back for school but we thing it's going to be really good for him! We are blessed to be working with some cool people! I have survived another transfer call! Sister Johnson and are both staying in Strongsville and... we are going to be training sister Ellingford!!! We are so excited to pick her up from the airport on Wednesday!!! We also got to go to church in person on Sunday! I don't think I have ever been that excited to give a talk in church!! I have been in this ward for over 4 months and this was my first Sunday in the building with ward members!! Because us and the elders in our district have been using the church the last 4 months, we all went and cleaned it together for a few hours on saturday and it was actually a lot of fun! We wont be using the church much any more due to the fact our ward is starting to go back and we want to keep it sanitized. We also had our district activity today!! It was a lot of fun! The elders made some food and we all just played games out side! There are only a few people leaving our district so it is staying the same for the most part! We moved Anthony's date back a little but he is still progressing towards baptism so that is exciting! JJ actually accepted to be baptised this week when he comes to know it is true( which he will)!!! We are excited to see him progress as well! We are heart broken to have to pass off Juan to the Alaska missionaries because he isn't coming back for school but we thing it's going to be really good for him! We are blessed to be working with some cool people! I love you all! Wish me luck with training! Our trainee and I could definitely use all the prayers we can get! Love Sister Leavitt Previous Letter Next Letter

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