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

Elder Rylie Waite Back to Missionary Letters 3 Weeks/Tornados/Miracles Well everyone sorry I haven't written in a couple weeks, we're already halfway through the transfer and it's been great! The comp is good and we're working hard and getting a lot of work done and it's been honestly just a grind! We're teaching a lot of people. I'd say the biggest miracle we've seen so far is a lady named Caitlin, she was a referall and immediately accepted the Gospel and came to church last week! Im just loving to the end, can't wait to see yall! Previous Letter Next Letter

Sister Jamie Bundy Back to Missionary Letters Quarantine Week 22: Last one Well hello. I can't believe it. This is MY LAST weekly email. This last week was the week of lasts. I had my last District Council, my last service project, my last Zone Conference, my last correlation, my last weekly planning, my last sacrament meeting, and today is my last PDay. I had my departing interview and I gave my departing testimony. And throughout it all I have had so many sweet moments that have brought me some closure, which is something that is really important to me. I've been asked numerous times questions like the following: "What's the biggest thing you've learned from your mission?" "Whats the biggest piece of advice you would give?" "What are some of the best experiences you've had?" "Whats the first thing you'll do when you get home?" "What are your plans for when you get home?" HAHAHAHA WHAT? I think it was just yesterday that I was telling people that I was still just a baby missionary and only a couple months out. Lol turns out that it was actually last year. I can't believe its all coming to an end. The time I have left to proselyte is LIMITED. I am seriously just down to hours now and every time I think about it, it makes me a little anxious hahaha. There really will be so many things I will miss about serving a mission and being a missionary. I truly have gained so much from this time and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am so grateful for everything I have been able to gain because of it. I am excited to come home though. Even though it does make me sad to think that its almost over, it also just feels right. I feel ready. Don't know if I'll be saying the same when I'm boarding the lane lol. President Dunnigan gave me a promise about 14 months ago that leaving the mission would rip my heart out....I have yet to feel that so I'm sure there will be more emotions to come hahaha. But anyways I guess I can give you some updates on how my week actually went. It was a really good one to end on. We were VERY busy and it was honestly the best thing ever. On Tuesday I had my last district council. This last district I've served in has been a good one and I've been so blessed to be a part of it. They are all great missionaries and I've had a lot of fun with them. I will miss them. On Wednesday we did some service pulling weeds. It felt pretty good to DO something for once hahaha. I got all sweaty and dirty and even got scratched up. Twas the best. The best part though was when the service coordinator couple were so proud of us and sent the picture we took to President Dunnigan hahahahaha we got rebuked for not wearing masks and because we had more than two companionships there lol. I would say that I felt bad and that I apologized and all that, but then I would be lying to you haha. So yes that's the most rebellious I have gotten on my mission. On Thursday we had a mission tour with Elder and Sister Basset and we had a Zone Conference with them. It was really good and I really enjoyed it. I also had been informed earlier in the transfer that I would be giving my departing testimony at this Zone Conference. So the whole time I was just anxiously waiting for when they would announce for me to go. But then they didn't hahaha. So I was pretty convinced they had either forgotten about me or didn't actually wanna hear my testimony lol. I honestly would not have been surprised for either one of those. On Friday we did some service for the last time at the Food Bank of Delaware and it was really good. I've been goin to that place for a long time so it felt kind of weird knowing that I probably would never see it again. We also had our VERY FIRST, I N P E R S O N N O N M E M B E R lesson on Friday with this SUPER sweet lady named Rosemary! It was amazing! It seriously felt so good to have an in person nonmember lesson. And it was so good for me to be a part of Sister Kent's experience with it as well. It was awesome. She was happy to receive a Book of Mormon and we....well...the other sisters, look forward to meeting with her again and I look forward to hearing about it and eventually attending her baptism. On Saturday I had my departing interview! It was good. YES! President Dunnigan did talk to me about marriage hahaha, which I had no problem with. It was good though. Glad to be ending on a good note. On Sunday I gave a talk in our Zone Church service where I spoke about some different experiences from my mission and then I also finally gave my departing testimony at mission devotional haha. I lucked out though because instead of only doing it in front of my Zone I got to give it in front of my whole mission hahahah just kidding I don't think that was luck because I was dang nervous and didn't know what I was gunna say. But just Heavenly Father always does, He helped me out and gave me the words to say. Well ya'll I think that about wraps it up. Thank you all so much for the love and support you have given me. I can't believe I've made it and I can't believe who I've become because of it. I am changed forever and I'm so grateful because of it. SEE YOU ALL SOON! Love, Sister JAMIE Bundy Previous Letter Next Letter

Elder Booker Wakefielk Back to Missionary Letters First week in Salto Well our phone finally started working on Saturday. We had a few lessons drop because the streets are so messed up and we couldn't call them to find them😪. But we found a few and had some fun lessons. Elder Hopkins doesnt understand hardly any Uruguayo Spanish, but he speaks really well so I will translate for him sometimes then he can teach jaja. We took 1 whole photo since last pday so yeah. Our bishop is a police officer and he laid out all the areas where we can't be at night(like half of our area) and said to keep your phone in your pocket as much as possible. So that's been fun, we're in a pretty poor area here but the people are really humble and want to learn, it's been different than any area in my mission. I studied an awesome BYU devotional called, "Putting off the Natural man and becoming Saints." It's by Elder Cook and I love it! He relates a story about 2 horses he bought, Bob and Stubby. Bob was super friendly and stubby not so much. But after riding him for years he became a good horse and changed for the better, and how we need to be meekand to change. He tells is a LOT better than I just did so go read his talk. Have a great week!! Previous Letter Next Letter

Sister Macie Bowler Back to Missionary Letters Last one Hey everyone today is my last ever email as Sister Bowler!! Actually insane! This week has been full of just saying goodbye to all the members and finishing up last minute things. This week we went back into the negatives. We got to about -30° I guess it's just a good send off from Montana. Oh also this week we went and said goodbye to someone who lives in the heart of uptown Butte. We were walking and on the side of the road was a human crap. It was absolutely disgusting!! Okay lets bring the spirit back lol. I have felt so blessed to have written emails every week and to testify of the Savior. I was thinking a lot this week of what I want to write for my last email. It could go in so many different directions but I wanted to write down my testimony. How amazing is this gospel and our Saviors love. I know and I have personally witnessed how aware he is of each one of us. He wants us all to have joy in this life and become like him. Without trails we wouldn't have been shaped into the person we are today. With the Lord wanting us to be like him that means that sometimes we have to struggle. In that struggle we learn to rely on him. His Atonement is so real and nothing we ever do will be out of reach or too deep were the Savior hasn't already been. He reaches out in love constantly. I know that one of his biggest signs that he loved us is that he restored his gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with Heavenly Father directing him. Never doubt his love for you. Never doubt your faith because it is good enough! I love each of you all and I know that as you let God prevail in your life you will have joy! Can't wait to see some of you soon! Love, Sister Bowler Previous Letter Next Letter

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

Sister Kari Wakefield Back to Missionary Letters Mindful of you | Moroni 8:3 Alright amigos!! It is nearly unbelievable that this is my last week as a full time missionary. I have love my time here and am so grateful that I have been so blessed by my loving Heavenly Father to be able to come on my mission. It has warmed my heart and amazed me to see how many tender mercies the Lord has placed in my path as I have been placed exactly where I needed go be. He has been so good to me - as always! When I have had to say my goodbyes to those I love on my mission, I choose to share this scripture: Moroni 8:3, "I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end." I feel the same for you all. Thank you for all the love and support you have shown me! I hope you have felt my prayers in your behalf over these past months. I know God loves you and Jesus Christ knows you. Keep the faith and endure to the end. I love you all! See you soon! Con mi amor, Hermana Wakefield Previous Letter Next Letter

Sister Hanna Haviland Back to Missionary Letters tapos na...full-time anyways Hello my dear Friends and Family! As most of you know, this last week I finished my time as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I don't really know how to express my feelings about the last 18 months of my life if I am going to be completely honest. There really are not any words to begin to explain what I have seen and what I have come to know. But I can share some of the simple thoughts of my heart. I love our Savior. I love our Father in Heaven. I am grateful for the influence and gift of the Holy Spirit. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only Church that has all the necessary ordinances and proper authority that we need in order to fulfill our role in our Father's plan for us. We are led by a living prophet. The Book of Mormon and the Bible are the words of God. Repentance is a gift for everyone made possible through the Infinite sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is sent to lead us home. Our Heavenly Father loves us. Our Savior loves us. The work never stops. no matter how old we are, where we are, or who we are, we are called to be the Hands of the Lord. We have a responsibility and obligation to fulfill that calling. When He calls, we say "yes". I have been beyond blessed for doing my best to live by this phrase. You will too. He will magnify or seemingly futile efforts and lift us to highs we cannot ever reach on our own. stay firm in the faith. Hurrah for Israel! -Sister Haviland Previous Letter Next Letter

Elder Isaac Iverson Back to Missionary Letters Final Stretch It's been a while since I've updated all my folks, so here's what I got. I'm still in Culebra Creek/Wildhorse. I've had a load of responsibility thrown on me as of late, which is great because I prefer to be busy. Right now I'm zone leader of west zone and training a new missionary. My mission president is also having me pilot tracting in this mission before we open it up to the whole mission, which has been great! Since I've done it before, it has been super fun to go back. We've found a few people, but tracting never was or will be the most effective way to find people to teach. We have a A LOT of miracles as of late (all credit to the Lord🤍)! Thanks to our members and faithful friends we are teaching, we were able to have 7 nonmembers at church last week! It was crazy and because of overlapping meetings we had to leave some of our friends in the hands of our members. It was awesome!! Nobody committed to baptism yet, but we are getting really close with more than a few! 🙏 I don't know if I'll send out another one of these updates before I go home because I'm a terrible emailer. I hit my 22 months on Sunday and I go home at the end of September. I love y'all, but I'm not ready to go home. This mission has meant everything to me! I love serving the Lord with all of my heart, so I do my best to give my all to Him. I have such a firm testimony that Christ has a church on the earth today and that is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! The Lord has been so wonderful to me, and I hope to turn that around and help others! Previous Letter Next Letter

Sister Savannah Browning Back to Missionary Letters 4 months people!! 🌸Hey everybody🌸 So tomorrow is my 4 month mark as a missionary. Pretty crazy! I love how when you’ve been out for 4 months, everyone’s like “Oh, so you’re still pretty new.” It’s honestly true, and I don’t feel like I’ve been a missionary for that long, but also, like I’ve been here for 4 months of my life. That’s like more than a semester of college. It’s more than summer break. It’s a while! This week has been something, I tell you what I hit speedbumps and hills, but I’m still climbing the mountain! One of our recent converts is a mountain climber from Colorado and he told us a story a few weeks ago about how he was going to climb a mountain with his brother, but they got to the start of the trail, looked at the huge mountain, and wanted to turn back. But then he thought about how it would feel to be at the top and take a picture of where they had been standing at the bottom, seeing it from the peak. So they climbed and took the picture and found that it was worth it. That really inspired me and even though I’m not too far up the mountain, I can already look back a little and see that I’ve come a long way. It helps to congratulate myself on how far I’ve come. Our people who had been progressing have all but stopped progressing. Hopefully it’s just that it froze again this week, but we’re down to less than 10. And nobody is keeping appointments! So we’re going to have to find some more people this week or something. Idk, but we’ll keep trying. Also, how hard is it to get a haircut and color when I’m not living with my mom who will do it for free? The answer is very hard. I looked on google maps for a salon for like 3 minutes and I got worn out. So I’m going to push that one off to next week haha But really, I’m okay. We had a cool lesson with a girl on saturday who is an exchange student with a member couple in our ward. She has been going to church with them for a while and she had some questions for us. We talked about how to get answers through scripture study, pondering, and prayer. She shared a little bit of her testimony with us of how going to church has given her hope and she wants her friends back at home to be able to feel the same thing. It was so sweet and the Spirit was so strong. Also, the tender mercies of the Lord have been upon us. On Tuesday, we – I should say on every Tuesday – we have dinner with a couple sweet old sisters in our ward and they try their best with the food. But sometimes things are expired and that's okay. Haha but this tuesday, we were hoping for a good meal and on the way there, Sister Norton said she was hoping for tacos, because that’s hard to mess up. We got there, and lo and behold, tacos! And they tasted great! Another cool little miracle was that when we went to the gym a couple weeks ago, we saw a couple there and then on Sunday, they were at church! So we are going to be trying to connect with them and see what's going on. But we talked to them at church and they’re really nice:) This last week, our mission had some visitors. Some missionaries who were flying to their missions in Arkansas got stuck in DFW because of the ice and their flights ended up getting canceled, so they got to stay with our APs. The APs live with some tech missionaries that we talk to because of our assignment, so we got to meet a few of the Arkansas missionaries over zoom and that was fun. They said they got to have a 9 person companion study with four of our missionaries and 5 Arkansas missionaries and it sounds like they were having fun. Thankfully, they all got on their flights and they’re safely in their mission:) I’m still figuring out how to be a missionary, but it’s getting better. I love you all and I appreciate your prayers. Write me back if you want! It’s nice to hear from you any day of the week. Love you! Sister Browning Previous Letter Next Letter

Elder Shane Zarate Back to Missionary Letters The final countdown Well people this I have officially started my last transfer in the mission, which is crazy. The time has definitely flown by, and it's been great. Im in an area called Sarmiento in the city of Mendoza now, and I'm with a peruvian companion which is sweet. Im sorry i havent written much, I would like to have a good excuse but its mostly laziness. We have been teaching a goup of people in this area who have very good potencial of being baptized. We dont find a lot of new people because this area is a little difficult in a lot of ways but its still good. Im very greatful for my time here and for everything ive learned. My spanish is good but im still improving. Its always good to have a latino companion. Anyway thank you guys for all the support and I will try too write at least once more before I end. Elder Zarat Previous Letter Next Letter

Elder Kaori Iverson Back to Missionary Letters This week was pretty chill. Not too much happened Funny moment: we had interviews with president on Tuesday. I asked him how I can put off a more confident first impression. He says: *you need to stand up straight with your chin up. I don't want to be culturally insensitive...but IDK if YOUR culture is always standing like this *proceeds to awkwardly stand in a bowing position*." He was completely serious and it was so hard not to laugh at him. I'm thinking in my head "he knows I'm from Nevada right?". Anyways it was super funny😂 Tuesday night I took a pretty hard tumble on my bike due to the rain and my bad angle taking a curb. I scraped up my knees pretty good and sprain my wrist. I still have to call my mission nurse😬. It hasn't slowed down my effectiveness too much. We've been teaching this guy named Johnny. He's progressing a lot and attributes all his happiness to the Lord. He's so cool We found this new couple this week who we taught a sweet first lesson to. I'm excited to see where it's going. The work is great. My wrist hurts. God loves y'all Previous Letter Next Letter