119b2f09-5f32-448f-8cb8-4c585bb8ff3b Sister Savannah Cannon Back to Missionary Letters Aussie for life 🥲 G'day friends!! This is my last email 😥 My heart hurts thinking about leaving Australia and the beautiful people I've met here. But I am excited to give my family a big hug. Last update: 》lots of lasts.. Which just broke my heart 💔 》a lot of teaching opportunites on the go this week! 》last few lessons with my best friends Raph, and Ata. I'm going to miss them! I know they will both be baptized so soon 🤟 》dinner with our new bestie, Lori! She is a BYU professor living in Aus for a bit. Been fun to teach her about the crazy australians 😜 》felt the australian ocean breeze one last time 》on P-day we last minute decided we wanted to do a little look out walk, we ended up doing like three hikes in our dresses in the heat of the day hahah it was so fun! 🌞 》met two guys on the street who told us they are in their church choir. So of course we asked them to sing us a song, and we returned the favor and sang I am a child of God for them. So fun haha I love it 😁 》last dinner appiontment with the Tahiti family. My fav people ever! One of my fav things on my mission has been being in the members homes..i will miss it 》took a crocadile tour today and they are officially my biggest nightmare. So so freaky. The words of our tour guide "you just have to be faster than your mates" But I did hold a baby crocadile today! 😅 》just want to say how grateful I am for my companion, Sister Fang. She has been a huge blessing to me and i'm going to miss her more than she knows 💖 My mission has been one of the greatest experiences of my life! When I decided to serve a mission I thought of it being a big sacrifice. I now see it as a huge blessing! I could not tell you all the things I learned, but know that they all helped me to be more aware of the love Heavenly Father has for each of His children. There were many challenges along the way, but I'm so grateful I chose to keep going and moving forward even when I didn't understand everything. I have been able to look back on experiences and see how God was helping me grow to become more like the Savior. I know God has a perfect plan for each of us, and Jesus Christ is the center of that plan. I'm so grateful to know that families can be together forever! I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet that restored the true Church of Jesus Christ back to the earth. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It teaches and testifies of Christ, and we can grow closer to Him as we read and strive to live by it. I know Jesus Christ lives, and His Atonement is a gift for each of us. He is my strength and I know it is through Him that we find true peace and happiness in this life. I leave these things and the last 18 months with you all in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. MY HOMECOMING IS THIS WEEK!!!! I'd love to see you there! March 10th @ 10:30am Address: 355 Virgin St, Bunkerville, NV 89007, United States I love you all! Thanks for supporting me throughout my mission. I feel so blessed to know each of you. JESUS LOVES YOU!! See you soon 🥰🥰 Love, Sister Cannon Previous Letter Next Letter

d1bc8b1c-0e52-420f-8d2b-d7187eddcd7e Elder Kiera Davis Back to Missionary Letters My First Transfer Sorry guys, we have tranfers this week so my P-Day was today. Just for this one time though, so still hit me up on Mondays 🙏 Transfer news: Im going to Cárdenas A!!! Its apparently a really bougie area and I'll get a car.... but I didnt do my drivers license stuff 🙈 so I aint driving dawg. Its also by the temple! AAAAHHH!!! My comp is Hermana Veliz from EL SALVADOR (shout out to my mtc peeps that are there rn) and she does NOT speak English, amigos. Buenoooo. Im a little bit terrified. That also means I have to dragón my two 50 lbs suitcases all around Panamá again.... comment down below which cuss word I should say in my head tomorrow. Monday, Monday. Such an iconic P-Day!! We left the house around 10 so my comp could get her finger nails done by the lovely miss Valentina, and that took like 2 hours. BUT sis was bumpin the Weeknd the whoooole time so I was feeling myself. 🎶Baby I would die for youuuu🎶 La verdad? I would die to be able to listen to the Weeknd on the mish!! After that we got some Wendy's at the mall and I ordered all by myself (¡kachow!). After, we went to go get pedicures!!!! Lets gooooo. Such an out of body experience. A missionary's crusty feet are no joke because all we do is walk yk?? But this chica meant business. She went to work and I got pampered. It was kinda like the time me and Cam went to Bath & Body Works and our bestie said we needed to treat ourselvessss. I'm talking gel foot bath, exfoliation, massage, nail polish. Beforehand, I had to give her a proper warning about my toe too.... My CCM crew knows all about my less than cute toe from the Suitcase Accident of 2024 right before I left on my mission. But I am here to say, shes back baby. This lady looked at that thing and said "uhhhh... im going to make it pretty..." Say less. Now I'm walking around with a prosthetic toenail and my dawgs have never looked better. Needless to say, I felt like a princess after, even if my comp said it was the worst pedicure experience of her life😂 To make me feel even more like a princess, when we were walking home after all our lessons that night, I see a little movement in the grass. Its a freakin FROG. I snatched that thing up in two seconds and told that sucker to pucker up. But instead he peed on me.... Not chevere. My advice? If you want a girl to kiss you, probably dont pee on her. Tuesday was just soooo much traveling. We were going to have a Mission Conference on Wednesday so we were going to stay at another companionships house because it was "closer." That was such a joke. We caught a two hour bus ride which was crazy because me and Reyes fell asleep for like 45 minutes and when we woke up, we hadnt even made it out of Arraijan yet!!! Five thumbs down. Then we rode the metro for probably another two hours. But it was all worth it when I start walking down the street to our sleep over casa and I see freakin SHELLY. Literally the savior of my sanity. In my head, I totally ran to her arms in slow motion. Nah, it was more like a confused, sleep deprived couple of steps, but we spent a good long while talking and catching up about all things missiony and it was so refreshing. I've been thinking that I've been going crazy here, so it was quite lovely to exchange some trauma. And to be honest... she might have it worse than me out there in the jungles of Nueva Esperanza. Im prayin for ya Shels. You and your way too blue outfit lol. We were up at 4 the next morning to get ready and such. I was quite refreshed after my four hours of sleep on an air mattress with a pillowcase stuffed with clothes to lay my head on and no blanket. NOT. Just call me a minimalist🙏Then we left the house to get on a subway for two hours again. The metro in the morning is NO JOKE. Brutha. I have never been touched like that in my life. Maybe their moms didnt hug then enough as kids or sum, but there aint no love in the metros of Panamá. Aside from the 60 year old rando that stared at me quite literally the entire time. Cant you see this ladys a nun?? Plus it was soooo sweaty. When I left the house in the morning, my hair was all curled and almost cute. By the time we pulled up to the mission offices, I was pre-glowup Hermione. Big yikes. And of course we took a picture as a whole mission while I was looking like that. Que bendición! But that Wednesday was actually such a party!! We had a mini 12B reunion with all the girls and Elder Prince Charming. It was soooo so good to catch up with everybody and talk about how we still cant speak spanish. We had subway and brownies and after that, we had our special devotional. The first part, I definitely fell asleep. And I was in the front row. Awkwarddddd. But after that I was locked in and we were able to hear from Elder Olsen from the 70 and his wife!! He actually gave a talk in General Conference in 2022 that I love called "The Answer is Jesus." They are both super super cool people though. They gave very powerful talks and I'll have to include some of it in my spiritual thought. But one thing I have to mention right now is that this guy, this man of God, went up there and said "I wont tell ya how long to wait to get married after the mission, but it shouldnt be more than 6 months!" Mmmm.... listen. No puedo. Como se dice scary?? He was kidding for sure but still... huhhhh😂😂 Thursday was ultra boring and all I did was lessons and laundry, so this is an extended Wednesday. Remember how I mentioned we've been teaching Lloyd for a couple of weeks? Well, his dad and little brother have been there for every lesson. But Wednesday we go and first of all, their entire front porch area is filled with open red umbrellas. Like you cant even see the floor, it was hilarious. But anyways, we start teaching and while I'm asking questions during the lesson the dad stops and just casually goes "Davis... you know, the guy that baptized me was named Davis. But that was a really really long time ago." And I was telling him thats so cool and that my dad had served here too. I could tell he still didnt think it was the same person and I wasnt completely sure either but he said "....Joshua Davis." To which I nodded my head, and then he said "Joshua Maika'i Davis??" And then we both got super excited cause what the heck!!!! How cool is it and how much of a blessing is it that my dad was able to baptize Abdiel in his first área and now I have the opportunity to baptise his son in my first área???? I literally almost started crying, but it made me so happy. I wont lie, there are a lot of times that I wonder why I decided to ever even come on a mission, but its moments like that that make all the sucky stuff worth it. Friday Im in Love. Great song by the Cure. The weather was freakin amazing on Friday, very breezy, a tiny bit rainy. Perfect missionary weather. First we went to see Camila guys and Thiago gave us some sparklers. Later, we went to this members house, Hermana Guillen, and after the lesson they said my spanish is much better than when I first came!!! So thats sure something. After that, we went to my favorite bench to study the lessons and the cutest coincidence happened. While I was studying the law of chastity, a little chastity packet was on the floor next to me, if youre pickin up what im putting down. Nastyyyy. Im sure somebody was looking everywhere for that thing earlier. But anyways, we taught a lot of lessons, but nothing too crazy. That night, we lit the sparklers from Thiago and I know for a fact I gotta have those at my wedding and every birthday party for the rest of my life. Hashtag I love light arson and playing with matches. It was also fantastic weather on Saturday. During cosechas there was a light breeze that made my life ten times better and me and Hermana Reyes talked about the beach and pools and stuff. And... look I knew that people would be different than me on my mission, but this girl said the beach is boring!!!! 🤯 I dont know if I knew it was possbile to think like that. She said for her, the beach and the pool are only for little kids. Oh well, more pools for me 😈 We played superheroes with Alex David again last night and I dont speak spanish very well, but I do speak gun shot and explosión and super power noises. He also made me pinky promise something, but I have no clue what I agreed to. Might wind up in jail soon. Sunday was another day of me trying not to fight certain people. Guys, trying to stay positive while being up in this joint is a struggle!! I am learning patience, thats for sure... which is crazy because I thought I had some before, but I am being HUMBLED. We had an amazing Monday. Instead of our P-Day, it was chalk full of lessons and a baptism!!! My first one of the mission 🥹 it was a ward baptism because hes still 8, but it was a special day for Abner David! We have been teaching him since I've been here because his mom wanted him to fully be prepared and know the importance of what he was going to do. And he is so smart!!! At the end, Bishop asked him if he wanted to bear his testimony and when he did, He started crying. His mom was sobbing and I had tears in my eyes, but it was so so sweet. I just had the strongest little feeling that this is right. This is the right church and this is the right decision. And just to see how much he loves his Heavenly Father and knows his Heavenly Father loves him was such a blessing. Another experience that was cool was a recent convert had the opportunity to go to FSY this last week. She said it changed her life and now she knows she wants to go on a mission when shes old enough. She said shes even planning on selling her dog to save up enough money. It was a testimony building kind of day for sure. OK, this spiritual thought is going to be a banger. I feel it in my nuggets. Its long too. Sorryyyy I have been searching my soul for some peace because I knew a mission was going to be hard, and everybody tells you that up front too. But it is hard in different ways than I expected it to be. I can handle the heat, the walking, and the rejection without wishing I could be home. But I dont know if I expected to feel this alone out here. Being so far away from your family and home and having everything just the way it should be is HARD. Especially in the moments you realize that some things arent going to be the same when you get back. Its hard being with someone every single second, that you may not always get along with very well and having them be the only person you can talk to because you dont know the language. Thats hard bro. But there have been times where I just can't figure out why I have to go through this when I made suuuuch a good righteous decision to serve the Lord. Im doing exactly what He wants me to do, so why cant it just be easy??? I have found some pretty stellar talks to shut me up. My mom and the lovely Isela sent me some quotes from a talk I read earlier this week that said "Faith is not faith if never tested. Faith is not strong if never opposed. So dont despair if you have trials of faith or unanswered questions... faith is beautiful because it persists even when blessings dont come as we hoped for. We cant see the future, we dont know all the answers but we can trust Jesus Christ as we keep moving onward and upward because He is our Savior and Redeemer." Faith is powerful not because of what it knows but because of what is does. And faith is not just about believing, its about trusting completely in Heavenly Father, knowing He has something greater in mind for you than you can see. That is where true peace comes from. Elder Dale G. Renlund dropped a bar that said "Believing that life will treat you fairly because you are righteous is like believing the bull will not charge because you are a vegetarian." Similar to that, Elder Neal A. Maxwell said "How can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, 'Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences that made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!'" When we go through something hard and something that totally sucks, we need to have an eternal perspective. If theres a little black dot on an otherwise blank sheet of paper, and we assume that the paper goes on for eternity, we cant be blinded by the dot. Thats kinda like mortality. This is such a small part of our existence, and even though its difficult, its for our experience and will only help us to grow. Things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least. Sometimes, peace is more valuable than being right. Sometimes, theres no point in dwelling on one thing that drives you crazy. Whenever you ask yourself why, take a step back and figure out what matters most. Learn what is eternal and what is not. Trusting in Jesus Christ will give you purpose and direction. Yoke yourself to Him. Know that you are exactly where you are meant to be and the best is yet to come. "There is a connection between heaven and earth. Finding that connection gives meaning to everything, including death. Missing it makes everything meaningless, including life. " (Thats from the Other Side of Heaven because you know I like me some polynesian spice up in here 🤭) Also, if it ever seems like I'm ever being dramatic on here, take it with a grain of salt 😂 Previous Letter Next Letter

e4355e75-c817-4835-ba43-d4b5dd8e3abe Sister Bernice Fiso Back to Missionary Letters This week was amazing!!! I'm grateful to be participating in this great work of teaching repentance and baptizing converts!!! We were able to literally witness a beautiful baptism yesterday morning and I know for a fact that the spirit was present! I'm grateful that Heavenly Father provided Sister Bokai the opportunity to teach Terry and that the spirit was able to touch his heart in a way that no one could have. Terry loved his baptism day and his son was able to attend as well. We're starting to teach him. He told us he felt good at the baptism and he loved how welcoming and friendly the branch was. I love the fact that Terry's conversion process all began with a baptism. He attended a recent converts baptism, Kemal Cummings. He loved how he felt that morning. He loved the spirit. He loved every moment of that baptism and said he wanted to feel like that all the time. We invited him to be baptized, and even though we had some bumps on the road and curves Heavenly Father came through and really answered our prayers, especially Terry's when we needed it! And yesterday was his day. What an emotional day it was. Elder Allred baptized him, Sister Bokai and I witnessed and testimonies were shared. 'Twas a beautiful day indeed. I'm grateful for this opportunity that I get to share what makes me absolutely happy with those I love and meet. The gospel and the Book of Mormon is changing me. I know with every fiber of my being that this church is true! I've experienced too many miracles and blessings for it not to be true. I love my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives! Sister Fiso Previous Letter Next Letter

e81de0b4-19e4-4916-98bb-64d96140c881 Elder Nathan Reber Back to Missionary Letters In Wasilla Alaska wn by. The days are still cold and the nights are colder. I’ve got to see the northern lights a couple more times. They truly are indescribable. Pictures can’t do them justice but at least it’s a way to share a small inkling of what I saw. Makes me thankful for eyes That can see things that A camera lens cannot capture. We’ve been staying busy here in Wasilla. today we got to go dog mushing. The guy who taught us and allowed us to use his dogs came in second to last place in the Iditarone a few years back.He wrote a book about his experience and gave one to me and signed it. I will tell you it’s a very cold and loud sport. Between the dogs barking And shouting commands to the dogs it’s loud. What a thrill. It’s something I would definitely do again and would love to learn how to do well.I guess you could say the last week I have been living the Alaskan dream. I learned the other day the lake by us is 4 feet thick with ice. I’ve always worried about falling through I guess with 4 feet of ice I don’t have to worry about that. I think we’re going fishing next week. Someone’s offered to take us. I know I say it every week but I’m gonna say it again. The Lord loves all of us.Our heavenly father loves all of us. It doesn’t matter where we’ve been or what we’ve done we can always go to him. The atonement was for all not just a select few. I thought a lot about agency this week. How we can use it for good or we can use it for bad. For example we can use our agency to talk about the gospel or to talk about other people. At the end of the day our agency not only affects us but other people around us. So I guess the messages Is make sure we use our agency wisely. Also this week I was able to hold a woolly mammoth bone. A bag of gold, a rock with gold in it. I also met the guys who owned the claim that Todd Hoffman from Gold Rush used. It really is a small world. Well I’ll leave you all with my testimony that I know I have our Heavenly father loves us and I know He wants what’s best for us. He has given us ways to communicate with him ways for him to communicate with us and scriptures to lead us back to him. I love you all and I will write again next week. Love Elder Nathan Reber Previous Letter Next Letter

790fb58c-36ab-4954-a97c-d7567d814e3a Sister Dantzel Price Back to Missionary Letters I send the "bubbles" when I feel awkward What a week! I hope that everyone is doing well and has found something positive in this week. This week has been just like every other week here at the MTC... In case some of you don't know the schedule, we started HSI which stands for hablo su idioma (speak your language). This means that we are only allowed to speak Spanish no English... our days start with a 3 hour class in full immersion spanish. Then we eat lunch, then have an hour tutoring session. We do our personal study, companion study and language study before dinner which takes around two and a half hours. Then we go to another 3 hour class in full immersion spanish. And we are speaking spanish constantly and yes I have a constant headache learning new words and interpreting hand motions from others. But, it is so fun to see myself progress in the language! I am starting to understand and pick up on regular phrases that people use a lot. I know how to get my idea across as long as people are paying attention. I also love talking with my hands and I look like a bird trying to fly when I am speaking in Spanish. I can confidently pray, testify, and ask to use the bathroom! All big improvements!! I sang in choir again this week for the general authority! We sang I will walk with Jesus which is one of my favorite songs. It is one of the new hymns that came out last week and singing it with so many young Elders and Sisters who chose to walk with Jesus was so powerful. If you have not heard the song before I totally recommend it because it is so comforting to know that if you choose to walk with Jesus He WILL walk with you. Not only will He walk with you but He will carry you through the hardest things you are going through or will go through. I am so grateful to be a missionary for La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias! Yo testifico que Dios es nuestro amoroso Padre Celestial. Yo se que con Dios ayudar en nuestas vidas nosotros crecemos a ser llegar como Cristo. Yo se que con fe en Jesucristo nosotoros puedemos hablar con Dios en un oracion. digo esas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo amen. Previous Letter Next Letter

7415ddc2-0b41-4860-ae6f-73a73c855b02 Sister Savannah Browning Back to Missionary Letters Week….8 (Christmas!) Hey everybody! Sorry no email last week. I just didn't get around to it haha Things have been good for the last little bit. I'm still in training and still getting used to missionary life, so it's hard, but getting better:) Thank you so much to everyone who sent cards and gifts and messages for Christmas. It really helped me get through the days and feel loved and remembered. Sometimes it's easy to feel forgotten all the way out here in Waxahachie, so hearing from you makes a big difference. Not too much has been happening except Donna got baptized on the 18th! It was awesome. She was so happy and full of the spirit and it was really good for me to be able to see what it's all about:) it was also fun for my trainer and I, planning our first baptism and having no idea what we were doing. (Needless to say, the font water wasn't exactly warm and the bishop had to make last minute changes to the program) but despite the odds, we had a successful baptism and confirmation and Donna now gets all the blessings that come with those sacred ordinances and covenants:) Christmas was fun. We had meals with members of our ward and some people we do service with and it was all awesome:) I'm not sure if this is a Texas thing or just a coincidence, but all of our meals at Christmas parties and members' houses on Christmas were breakfast food...so it was kind of sugar after sugar after sugar haha I have been so impressed ever since I've been here with the people in our ward. They do so much to love and welcome and care for us. They gave us Christmas gifts and they took us caroling and they had us over for meals with their whole families and so many other things. It's just been really nice to see how much they care about us. It reminded me of the good people I got to grow up with in Bunkerville:) We had a multi-zone Christmas party that was super fun. We got to hear some inspiring words from President and Sister Farley and then we had treats, decorated cookies, and played some fun games. They taught us a paper plate dance that I imagine you can watch on the mission Facebook page, and we also made our own missionary version of the 12 days of Christmas song:) Another cool thing about Christmas here is that it was 85 degrees! So I guess not actually cool...😉 Overall, I'm doing well. I'm getting used to being here and being a missionary and I'm going to be okay I think:) I am really excited for the new year! I love this time of year because I love making goals and having a fresh start and fresh motivation:) I am also really excited that we'll start studying the Old Testament because it's been so long since I studied it in seminary and I feel like I'm at the ideal point in my life to get a lot out of studying the Old Testament. It'll also help me be more familiar with the most common Bible stories that people here know super well. I started today with Moses chapter 1 and learned a lot about how knowing we are children of God can give us great power over temptation, so that was awesome:) Well I hope you all have a great week and involve the Lord in making your New Year's resolutions! And Merry Christmas of course:) Love love love love love, Sister Browning💚❤ Previous Letter Next Letter

87040bef-8e63-40ce-8d46-b8dbb1ea1fa9 Sister Veyo Bundy Back to Missionary Letters Road trips and Disney princesses Hello! Wow, this week was super eventful. All good things though. A few fun stories from this week! -we had another hour and a half long Bible bash! We love when people take up all our finding time so we can't talk to people who might actually be interested in talking to us ♡ we decided that we gave this fam a fair shot and they're just not ready yet. One day though. -On Wednesday my compie had an appt in.... LA QUINTA!! Soooo. We got to roadtrip down there and I got to see my home. Love that place. Also our roadtrip was a BLAST. We made PB and J sandwiches and played lots of Jesus music and it was a party and a half -Thursday we had zone conference in Rialto, so I got to see my OTHER old stomping grounds. Lots of good mems. We love the ghetto. ♡ -This weekened we had a giant service project at this big mansion in Redlands. The mansion used to be occupied by nuns, is definitely haunted, and now houses events for little kids. The event was basically like a drive through Disney thing and so there were all these Disney princesses and Jedis and all that fun stuff. Our job was set up and clean up so we didnt get to actually drive through but it was a party working with the zone. -today we had a zone activity at President and Sister McKinnon's house! I love being with the zone. It's my favorite thing ever. That's all. -we found a new person to teach and she is so awesome. She's a referral from a member of another ward and she is so prepared. We love her! Pray for her please, her name is Ramona. On a spiritual note, one thing that's been on my mind this week is the importance of family and of gospel learning in a family unit! I have been so so soo lucky to grow up in a family where we are all members of the church. So many people dont get that. I also re-read the Family Proclamation this morning during my personal study and I had forgotten how good it was. Go read it sometime! The Family Proclamation https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world/the-family-a-proclamation-to-the-world?lang=eng Kk. That's all. Love you. OH! If you're looking for people to pray for->> Bryce + fam John Kim + Kyle Hajee Marlina Elizabeth Eddie Ramona Amy Dawn Luis Kayla + more if you want em. Also pray that we find families here in Redlands! Love you all!! -Sister Bundy 7000 central ave Highland CA 92346 Previous Letter Next Letter

6d00163c-4db7-4df9-aa12-b6c86bcc8e72 Elder Zachary West Back to Missionary Letters Hey everyone I know it has been a while since I last sent out an email, but I'm going to try and send one out regularly now. So a lot has happened since I last wrote an email, so i will try and not make this one too long. So Elder Rushton and I now have a new companion that we got a few weeks ago. His name is Elder Hatch and he is a cool dude who just got done with the online MTC. We were able to go and do some service this past week which was pretty cool. We have some members who have a big 40 acre property and they have apple trees. We were able to help them cut up some apples and make fresh apple juice out of it. They let us take home a bottle of it to try and it was really good. Another really cool thing that happened this week was getting to go to a wedding on Saturday for 2 of our investigators David and Josie. They are really awesome and the next day on Sunday, they were baptized. It was really cool to be a part of that. Other than that not much that is really exciting has gone down out here. I hope you all have had a good week and hope to hear from you soon! - Elder West Previous Letter Next Letter

f0e89a04-4500-4f2b-ab37-6ea8b9d4b87b Sister Malia McOmie Back to Missionary Letters WELP... IM BACK QUE PASO AMIGOS?! I debated on writing an email this week... but i wanted to hop on this before all the other talk did cause yk lol <3 #ALLNIGHTER Tuesday at 11pm me and Hermana Longhurst went to the hospital, it was a literal fever dream. We were there until 4pm on Wednesday. staying in the ER all night long is no joke, it was like a simulation or something. We are HIGHKEY paying the price still to this day for that all nighter, missionary work is exhausting as it is haha. The hospital didnt find much, and I wasnt getting much better. SLC, the mission president & doctors decided it was best if I came home and got it all figured out. ET ET ET Emergency transfers aren't fun... my poor mission president had 2 of us... FROM ONTARIO leave today. This whole week is just a blur... I got told yesterday I was coming home, packed up last night and left today, it's been crazy. Im so sad I didnt get to say goodbye to like anyone. But don't worry yall! It is just a TEMPORARY return home, and I plan to get back as soon as I can! #cantgetridofmethateasy READ THIS X100 the last week was DEFINETLY a rollercoaster of emotions. & I definitely said "if only I could BEGIN to see God's plan" about a million times. I think sometimes there are things in life that make it HARD to be submissive and willing to follow God's plan. Things we don't want, things we don't get, things we miss out on, things that suck, things we never expected, A MILLION THINGS. But I was reading in Ether and found this gem of a story. Yall know the brother of Jared, the boats, the rocks that God lit with his hand... thats where we are at in the scriptures. Well this is after they had gotten the cool rock lights, made the boat and now they are on the way to their promised land. Ether 6:5 "And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land ; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind." HOLD UP, HOLD UP, reread that... I love love love the wording on this. It is SO applicable to trials that just happen, sometimes for no rhyme or reason . God could have just let the boat move slowly and calmly. But no, He CAUSED the winds to blow (aka our hard times) the next few verses explain how terrible of a storm it was. But, I love that He did it to move them TOWARDS the promised land. There is always a reason for the things that happen. Sometimes we might know that, sometimes we might forget it, or we might not even realize it at all!!! I know that sometimes life will toss ya around. But I also know that God is in control of everything . God is loving, He is the author of everything, and I KNOW He wants what's best for everyONE. Personally, I dont understand right now why I had to come all the way home when i like just got started. There could be a million reasons why. But I do know that this storm will pass and will lead me to my promised land, even if I don't know exactly what that looks like. God has a plan for you, even if it doesn't match your plan! Keep sailing cause it'll end for your benefit eventually. Trust in God and His eternal perspective & who knows I might see yall soon :P MUCHA AMOR -Hermana McOmie Previous Letter Next Letter

dabfd6b9-1a72-4b9d-aadc-6acb60144b03 Elder Hayden Johnson Back to Missionary Letters The Power of the Book of Mormon Gonna be a quicker weekly email due to the District on Rarotonga wanting to bike around the whole island on electric bikes. 😂🏝️ In this email I could share about all the days and events that have taken place, but I will leave most of that for my journal. Today I want to testify of The Book of Mormon and share some awesome experiences that come from the power within these pages. Recently in preparation for the April General Conference I have been studying heaps about the Restoration, Joseph Smith, and The Book of Mormon. The more and more I read everyday from the Book of Mormon, the more I understand its contents and am thankful to have in these Latter Days. I began to study Chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel to find other ways I can share this love of The Book of Mormon with others as I am tracting. The first cool event that happened was during an exchange with one of the Elders in my district. We were in His area and scheduled to visit a man they have been teaching for a long time named Simran. Now Simran comes to church and seems to love the church, but the Elders have always been curious if he actually understands what they are teaching. It makes it hard to teach him due to his wife (who is a returning member) that loves to talk. So during this lesson we felt prompted to read from the Book of Mormon. Moroni chapter 10 to discuss receiving answers to questions. During the lesson we went slow, we asked Simran if he believed in The Book of Mormon... He paused then immediately began flipping through the pages of The Book of Mormon and turned to 2 Nephi 29. Simran began reading these verses '3 And because my words shall hiss forth—many of the Gentiles shall say: A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible. 4 But thus saith the Lord God: O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles? 5 O ye Gentiles, have ye remembered the Jews, mine ancient covenant people? Nay; but ye have cursed them, and have hated them, and have not sought to recover them. But behold, I will return all these things upon your own heads; for I the Lord have not forgotten my people.' He then said that he use to believe in just the Bible like many others, but then through prayer he has come to know that God has spoken to others in the Americas as well, that God has not stopped speaking to His people. That the Book of Mormon is true....... My jaw just about hit the floor. My heart was full of love and awe for this man. The other experience was on another exchange during a couple hours of Door Knocking and contacting people. My companion for the day felt pressed to go knock on a house I have already contacted a couple of times without them being interested, but this time another man came out that I have not met before. He talked about religion and how he was the only one in his family that didn't go to any church and didn't believe in God too much. He discussed about faith and how it had a different meaning to him than to others. Thankfully I was holding the Book of Mormon in my hand so I felt impressed to open to Alma 32:21. I gave him the book and asked him to read it out loud. '21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.' My companion and I shared testimony of faith. That we were both young and didn't know everything, but we have gained a spiritual witness of the truth of who God is and that our Heavenly Father loves us. That for himself he could also gain faith and gain all the joy and happiness that comes from following God. He told us that he had never read anything like that before and it made sense to him. He wanted us to come back next week to teach him more about Faith and who God is. Well I love this mission and I am still so blessed that the Lord has allowed me to stay here in the Cook Islands another couple transfers! The members and people that live here have such a different lifestyle than back in America, it makes me grateful that the gospel if for all the people around the world. Hope you all have an amazing week! Ka Kite -Orometua Johnson 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

8cab1e0d-fa78-4ef9-aa2b-d6b6414c9ff3 Elder Nathen Abbot Back to Missionary Letters Busy Hey everyone! This week was super busy. So like I mentioned last time, we are covering 3 areas. Mladá Boleslav, Jičin, and Liberec. So this week was just a lot of us trying to meet with people and get in contact with all of the investigators here in the areas. Plus we had to move to MB this week which we did on Wednesday because we had a meeting Tuesday night at 8:30 in Liberec. So we were just like eh, we'll move Wednesday. So we did that. Then we also traveled back up to Liberec 2 other times this week and 2 times to Prague. We have used half of our kilometers this week and it's only the first week. 😅 These next few weeks should be better though. We just had stuff in Liberec planned so we are going to be better at when we plan stuff and when we will be there. It should be good. We had a couple really amazing lessons with people this week. One guy has just had a super hard past and is still struggling with some things. It was amazing to just love him and help him to feel Christ's love for him. And to testify of the atonement of Jesus Christ. He is really looking to change his life and has given us some amazing opportunities already so that he can change his life and align it more with Christ. It is very touching and I really felt love for him as we were talking. I know that God and Christ love all of us. No matter our situation. And that is what we got to testify to him. The other meeting was with a guy who is actually from close to London. I found him on Instagram. He is way cool. He has also been looking to improve his relationship with God. So it's cool. We are gonna meet with him again soon. We were also going to just teach a Restoration lesson but only taught like half of the Resoration then he asked some questions and we ended up talking about the word of wisdom and briefly on the law of chastity. He doesn't speak any Czech, but his fiance is Czech. We are wanting to start teaching her as well. That would be cool to teach the both of them. Other than all of that we had a few more meetings with people and an inspiration night with the MB/Jičin members. They are so cool and love missionaries so much. I'm excited to get to know them. Last week for p-day we hung out a little bit in Prague. Didn't really see anything, but I did get to see my Sisters before they left. Which was such a blessing. I'm glad that I got to see them and talk to them for a little bit. They are super cool. Shout out to Sisters Goodworth and Stilson. This week we had such amazing weather. Like I'm talking shorts and tshirt weather. So me and the boys went and walked around Prague a little bit. Saw a few statues and cool places. Unfortunately I didn't get as many pictures that I would have liked of different things, but that's ok. I was too busy just enjoying. I did get some though. One of the cool things about covid is that Prague is just so empty without all of the tourists. So that's cool. That's all that I have for today. I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Previous Letter Next Letter