Down in the Arkansas

Arkadelphia is beautiful! There are hills and trees everywhere. The city of Arkadelphia is a small college town. With a population of 10k, there are two universities, Henderson State and Ouchita Baptist. So about half the population either goes to or works at one of the universities.  While I am in the Arkadelphia area. I spent a full day in Hot Springs before Arkadelphia. We had an exchange on the day after transfers, and I was with Elder Short in HS (yes, he is taller than me. I am Elder Shorter). Hot Springs is also very scenic as it's right next to Lake Hamilton and a national park, so it very much felt like a resort town.  My companion is Elder Green. Like I said in my last email, he only has 2 transfers left. He is very tall as well. He is my first companion from Utah. I made it half of a year before having a companion from Utah, which I think is an accomplishment.  The apartment is very nice. 2 bathroom/baths, very quiet part of town, forest right o...

After 4 transfers, I have been called to a new area. I loved my time here in Memphis, but I am excited for my new area: Arkadelphia.  No I did not make up that name. It is a place that exists. It's a small town in Arkansas, southwest of Little Rock. As a small, rural southern town, it's going to be quite different than the middle of Memphis. My new companion is Elder Green. I haven't met him, and he only has two transfers left, so I'll probably be his last companion.  Anyways, I want to pay tribute to the Central Gardens Branch. I cannot thank the members of the Central Gardens Branch enough. They are fantastic. Every time a new person came to church, they were incredible at welcoming them and helping them with whatever. And Kortavious. Special shout out to him. He's got great things going for him. Very determined, loyal, optimistic, and willing to learn. He's gonna a go places. Also to the senior missionaries, the Davises and Steeles. They are champs. The...

It's been almost exactly half a year since I left home for the MTC. It's crazy how much has happened in the last half a year. I am thankful for all the people I have had the pleasure of meeting so far: companions, members of the branch, other missionaries, church and mission leaders, and the countless many people we have met walking the streets of Memphis.  This past week has been interesting. I spent two days outside the area on exchanges. I went to Highland Heights with Elder Rivera. We had a guy try and steal our bikes. We walked up with our bikes to talk with him and he walked to us and grabbed my bike (which was actually Elder Hunt's, E. Rivera's usual comp) and said he just wanted to see how fast it goes. As we biked off I turned back and said "it goes this fast." We also got threatened of being drop kicked over the phone. That was funny. Then the next day I went to Millington with Elder Broadbent. That was also good. It was nice to be doing miss...

We had quite a few this week. We had a Zone Conference and obviously General Conference. Zone Conference was really good. We are implementing a new way to teach people when we first meet them. People in the south pray, but a lot of them pray to Jesus Christ, which as the Bible says (John 16:23), we should pray to the father in the name of Christ, our advocate with the father. By relating Heavenly Father to one's actual father, it adds a lot of meaning to prayer.  Also, General Conference. It was really great! No big announcements, which I'm sure a lot of people were let down about, but General Conference is not about announcements. The Priesthood session was super good. Kortavious came to that session. It was a great first session for him. I really liked Elder Stevenson's talk about making a playbook. As far as general sessions, we missed the last session but we've watched a few of the talks. Elder McKay, the seventy who toured the mission, gave a talk. We haven...

Hello all. I hope everyone is doing well.  Being in the District Leader companionship means more frequent exchanges. This week we did 2 exchanges. I was in Midtown with Zone Leader Elder Dawson. It was mostly dropped appointments. But we did teach a man at Taco Bell. That was really cool. Taco Bell lessons are always great.  Then I did an exchange in Midtown again with Elder Steele. This was probably my 4th or 5th time exchanging with him and were at the MTC together, so we understand each other quite well.  Anyways, this Sunday was incredible. Our Branch Mission Leader Brother Jackson had his baby to bless in sacrament meeting, but we also needed to pick up some people were bringing to church, so 30 minutes before church Elder Jolie left with Brother Jackson and I left with the senior missionary Elder Steele to pick other people up. When Elder Steele and us arrive, the building is PACKED. less actives, family for the baby blessing, and other visitors fi...

The weather has really started to get good. We've been biking most of the week. Besides the sometimes rough Memphis sidewalks and streets, it's felt great to get out biking again.  Biking has also been good for our finding efforts. We found a lot of people this week, a record even. The nice weather has brought people outside and we have had many more opportunities to speak to people in the streets. Sadly, most of the people we met didn't keep their appointments, and none of them went to church, and we invited most, if not all of them.  Also Kortavious got the priesthood this Sunday. I ordained him, which I had never done before, and was put on the spot for it. But it was awesome. He truly is progressing further and further and it's been awesome to see his progression. And he used it an hour later when he blessed the sacrament for someone with a (wheat?) allergy had forgotten to take something to church and wasn't able to take the sacrament during the meetin...