No Soliciting

Well this week has been a pretty sweet! We knocked some HUUUGE houses.
I'm talking about huge plots of land with horse stables, 5 garages,
and a different Tesla for every day of the week.

Okay so maybe not that crazy but they were pretty big, I'll include
some pictures of the medium sized ones. We also had a lot of people
yell at us for "soliciting". One guy chased us off his lawn haha, it
was pretty fun.

This week has truly been humbling because we have seen how little we
actually do and how much God does for us. We set a goal to earn the
trust of the members and then out of nowhere we had so many
opportunities to build good relationships!! On Tuesday we were able to
go teach a Seminary classs and talk about missionary work, and this
Tuesday we are going to the mutual activity to talk to the Priests and
Laurels about missionary work. Then, in Ward Council a member of the
bishopric commented that he had never been in a Ward Council where the
missionaries contributed so much, so that was awesome.

Okay now for the miracle of the week: So we were calling down this
list of less actives and we get to this older single sister. We call
her and ask if she needs any help and she tells us she has the Nora
Virus and was super sick. She asked us if we could walk her dog and
get her some Tylenol and give her a blessing. So, being the great
missionaries we are, we ran to Walgreens, grabbed some Tylenol and
chicken noodle soup, walked her dog, and gave her a blessing. After
the blessing she got emotional and told us that all of her kids were
sick as well so no one could help her, so she decided to pray and ask
for help. Seconds after her prayer we called asking if she needed any
help with anything. #MIRACLE. It was so cool!!!

The best feeling in the world is being able to be used as a tool in
God's work. As long as Elder Wolverton and I stay obedient and unified
then God makes stuff happen, we literally do nothing haha. These
amazing situations just fall into our laps.

So yeah, it's been a pretty humbling week to say the least. I hope
everyone is doing well! Love you all!!

Pics
1. Mansion 1
2. Mansion 2
3. Club Tuna 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Elder Wolverine 🐺

Hey y'all, my new companion is Elder Wolverton, but Wolverine sounds cooler haha. He's 25 and from Kansas. He used to be an atheist but he converted 3 years ago so that's pretty sweet.

We have been talking to literally everyone! It's crazy, this has been the most rewarding and stressful week of my mission by far. This area hasn't had any baptisms in a long while but Elder Wolverton and I set a goal for 3 so we have been trying to find people like crazy.

It's amazing to see how sensitive to the spirit Elder Wolverton is though. He will literally just take off in a direction because he "feels like he needs to". Then next thing you know he's talking to some random member we see on the street who just happens to have a referral for us, the guy is insane!!

So I've definitely learned a lot from him and I'm starting to get better at recognizing when it's actually the spirit telling me something and when it's just me wanting it to be the spirit.

Other than finding people though this week has been pretty uneventful. But we really feel like the work is going to explode in this area really soon. So I'll keep you guys posted!!

"Just when all seems to be going right, challenges often come in multiple doses applied simultaneously. When those trials are not consequences of your disobedience, they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more. He therefore gives you experiences that stimulate growth, understanding, and compassion which polish you for your everlasting benefit. To get you from where you are to where He wants you to be requires a lot of stretching, and that generally entails discomfort and pain." -Richard G. Scott

I really like this quote because it shows us that everything that happens to us is for our benefit. Heavenly Father loves us so much! We literally cannot comprehend the love he has for each of us. So why would a God who loves us that much do ANYTHING to harm us? Sure we may have incredibly hard trials, but God knows that they will make us stronger and more like him and the savior. Heavenly Father knows each of us perfectly, better than we know ourselves. So all we have to do is out our faith in him and the savior. 

I hope everyone has a solid week this week, I love you all!

Pics 

1. The humble abode of former NFL player Deangelo Hall (knocked it)

2. Final pic with Elder Griffin

3. Heart shaped pizza for Valentine's Day

4. Our Area Book from a couple weeks ago 

6 Months 😱🎉

So I've been gone six months now which is crazy, I have no idea where the time went haha. I don't know how I feel about it, I kind of wish life would slow down for a second. I celebrated by grilling up an old tie, I'll include the video.

We had an investigator named Ceciley come to church this week! We actually didn't think she was that solid but she came and stayed for the whole first hour. After that she had to leave to VCU since she is a nurse there.

We've also been having off and on lessons with this guy named Rodney, he is the superintendent for the Juvenile Detention Center in Richmond which makes it really hard to meet with him since he works so much. We had been having trouble getting him to read so the last lesson we had with him we decided we were really going to try to go by the spirit and use the gift of discernment to figure out what his problem was. We just talked about his work and the conversation naturally went into the gospel. We quickly found out that he thought he had never felt the Holy Ghost and didn't even know if he believed in it!! BINGO! 10 points to Griffindor, found the problem, thank you Holy Ghost 🙏🏻🙏🏻. So we said a prayer asking for the spirit and read 2 Nephi 31 out loud with him. At the end he was totally feeling the spirit and said that he felt more at peace so that was awesome. Now we just need to find a way to meet more frequently. 

Elder Griffin is getting transferred this week to who knows where so I'll be staying here in Midlothian for another 6 weeks and getting a new companion.

Our Area Book Planner on our iPads had a worldwide crash on Saturday which was pretty lame, we never have any set appointments anyway though so it didn't effect us too much haha.

I was reading in Moses this week and I thought I'd share a quick little story from chapter 6. So the Lord commands Enoch to go prophesy to the people because they are being wicked and as soon as Enoch hears his words he feels SUPER inadequate and replies to the Lord by saying:

"Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant?"

This is how I feel ALL THE TIME!!!! It was comforting to know that even a great prophet like Enoch had doubts. However, the Lord gives Enoch some awesome counsel that I've tried to apply throughout this week and hopefully the rest of my mission. He says:

"Open they mouth, and it shall be filled... Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me."

I love this exchange between Enoch and the Lord so much. If we just put our trust in God and know that through his power we can conquer anything, then life will be a whole lot easier for us.

I hope everyone has a super awesome week and a killer Valentines Day!

Pics

1. Bowling for Zone P-Day

2. The District 

3. The District pt. 2

4. 6 month tie barbecue 

The Book of Mormon Play 😐

Well, the Book of Mormon Play is showing in Richmond all week this week so we are pretty much celebrities. Random people come up to us and say "hey, you guys are the Mormons!". This one guy drove up to us and waved, said that he just wanted to say hi to a missionary, then drove away. Last year when the play came all the missionaries in nearby areas passed out copies of the Book of Mormon as people left the play and they passed out 2,000!!! But this year the public relations people in Salt Lake said it causes too much contention so we aren't doing it.

Yesterday morning we walked out to the car and our tire was totally flat!! We were super confused because it was fine last night and we couldn't find any nails or anything in the tire. Anyway, thankfully I changed a tire with my pops a week or so before I went to the MTC so I changed the tire and we were are taking it to Firestone today.

Elder Griffin and I decided to make flyers for free family history lessons to try and find some investigators. So we went to the library and whipped some up real quick and put them all over town. So far nothing has come from it but we are going to put in all the work we can wether or not Heavenly Father chooses to bless us with success.

I found a quote by Joseph Fielding Smith that I think is so powerful!! It testifies of the power of the Holy Ghost and how important his role is in peoples conversion. Before the quote he talks about how all 3 of the Three Witnesses fell away from the church but they never denied their testimony of the Book of Mormon. I truly believe that we don't need to have a vision or see an angel or hear a voice to know that the Book of Mormon is true. I have never had an experience like that and I probably never will, but I know, through the small feelings given to me by the Holy Ghost, that it is true.

I hope everyone has a great week!!

“Therefore, the seeing, even the Savior, does not leave as deep an impression in the mind as does the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the spirit. … the impressions on the soul that come from the Holy Ghost are far more significant than a vision. It is where spirit speaks to spirit, and the imprint upon the soul is far more difficult to erase.” -Joseph Fielding Smith

Pics

1. I realize I haven't really included any good pictures of Elder Griffin, so here is the man, myth, and legend

2. Family History Flyers (I crossed out our number so you don't get tempted to call your favorite missionary)

3. Flat Tire

4. Timelapse of changing the tire