Blake Is On Date

This last week has been great. We taught the older guy, John and he asked us where our Church was, which we had told him a bunch already but he can't remember a whole lo,t point is he asked us, so it is a step in the right direction. We taught Duane's family and it was so neat. In the middle of it Elder Meyer asked Christine the girlfriend if she would like a priesthood blessing which she accepted and the spirit was so strong. Things have been going so good for them and they are not moving like they had planned on doing. Duane left us by saying "Guys, the idea of baptism is a whole lot better now than ever before and I think I would like to have me and the family baptized, I just don't know when." So we need to figure out a time that would be best for them but it is another step in the right direction. There is a man who went less active and he lives just outside the stake and ward by one street, anyways his son (14) had been invited by the youth in our ward to come to church with them and so his dad took him and they both have been coming to our ward for the past 4 months. The son's name is Blake and he was so prepared for baptism. He went on trek with Queen Creek South stake and loved it, they had a three hour space of time for the youth to read the Book of Mormon which is the first time that Blake started to read, he is now in the middle of Mosiah. We taught him directly after church on Sunday and he accepted the invitation to be baptized of September 26. His mom is not a member and doesn't want missionaries over at the house so we can only teach him once a week at church, that is the only reason that the baptism is so far out.

Morning Sun Baptism

So, this last week was crazy in a way. Elder Barney got a call from Salt Lake with their decision on him going home, he left back to Maricopa last Tuesday. So, it is just me and Elder Meyer covering the same old Morning Sun Ward, which has picked up in the last transfer and a half.

We have a few return appointments that will hopefully result in some new investigators. I have decided that less-active work is extremely important, it has been a huge blessing in this area as we have just recently focused on the help that we can render to the ward, besides just baptisms.

About two weeks ago, we got a referral from mission office for  Stephanie, but every time we stopped by she wasn't home. Come to find out that Stephanie had visited the Mesa visitors center and was blown away with the Joseph Smith story, she wanted to have the missionaries come over that instant, only she specifically requested Sister missionaries, which I don't mind at all. Stephanie lives in the Morning Sun boundaries but is being taught by Sister Bulilon (Philippines) and Sister Holbrook (Alaska), it is the coolest thing to see the morale for the whole ward sky rocket because of one golden investigator, they will set a date for her baptism sometime this week. It is also cool because Sister Bulilon goes home after this transfer and this is Sister Holbrook's first transfer.

Just yesterday we ate dinner at Bishop Brown's house and he invited his friend over. It was really neat to see the spirit work, Elder Meyer and I prepared to teach a short restoration message but on the way to dinner we felt prompted to share the significance of the Book of Mormon and it turned out pretty well with Bishop's friend both accepting a copy and an invitation to learn more.

That is what has been going on in San Tan Valley, Arizona and it has been a huge blessing to see the ward get really excited about missionary work, we got members already planning on accompanying us for the return appointments going on later this week.

I love you guys and am enjoying my mission more and more every day.

-Elder Throckmorton

115

So, the temperature this past week has been "up there", last Friday the temperature in the shade was 115 Fahrenheit around 2pm - 5pm, in the shade! We put a thermometer in the sun and it got up to 152 Fahrenheit, so yeah it was warm. It has gotten to the point that our house sits at 80 Fahrenheit and it is pretty cold in there.Just the one ward has had more going on since the start of the transfer than it ever has for the past 9 months. We haven't got any new investigators yet, but this week is full of return appointments with different potentials. We have also been teaching a few less actives, including a single sister in the ward who just got her children taken away from her by CPS. She loves it when we come over. She also is going to the addiction recovery class twice a week by her own free will,l because nothing makes her happier than her children, so she is doing everything it takes to get them back. I knew Elder Meyer in the MTC, but he was in a different zone, so we only saw each other from time to time, but we knew a lot of Elders and Sisters that weren't in our zone but were going to Gilbert, Arizona. We get along pretty well and I would say that I got along better with my MTC district than any other missionaries. I guess I just keep getting better and better missionaries haha Elder Barney didn't go home and might not anymore depending on what Salt Lake says, because they still haven't made a decision, but I am pretty sure that he is staying the rest of the transfer because it is already half way over.

Triple Companionship

Transfer day was really different. We got there expecting Elder Barney to be heading home but apparently Salt Lake never got back to President Nattress. I am currently still with Elder Barney but also Elder Meyer who was in the MTC at the same time as me. He is from Texas and works hard. We are in a tri-companionship because Elder Barney might be going back. Elder Barney is from Maricopa, Arizona and when he received his call it was for two transfers here and then the rest on a different call, he has been a great Elder and has helped us get out and work ALL the time, very exact with the rules kind of guy. Anyways if he goes home early it will be for him to take care of things and he will be able to come back out. Salt Lake has been reviewing all the information on him for 2 weeks now and we don't know what is going on, but for now Elder Barney, Elder Meyer and I are in a tri-companionship covering one ward, Morning Sun, yes still haha.

Early August

So, transfer calls came last night and we found out that Elder Barney (My Greenie) is leaving. This wasn't really a shock to us though because he has been talking to his Stake president and President Nattress, who are such nice people, all last week. He just has some stuff to take care of, I am so glad I was able to be his companion for the time I was. I learned a lot from him, like I need to actually have a weekly planning (every week).  At the beginning I wasn't really great at weekly planning, but we steadily improved over the course of this transfer. I also learned that we need to teach concepts more simply than we have been because he didn't get some stuff I was trying to tell him and that's because I tend to over-complicate things, but that is just me haha.

Not much happened in the Morning Sun Ward this week.  Alice got knee surgery last Monday, she has been in Mesa with her grandchildren recovering. Stacy has been really flaky and we haven't been able to get a hold of her in a while (around a month) so we have decided to just forget about her for the time being. Aaron and his children dropped us due to a busy summer schedule, but I am pretty sure that they will come back once they get back into school. Brenar pass ward has been awesome, we have found a total of 5 new investigators in the last 2 weeks and they had a couple of baptisms right  before we became a triple companionship.

With Elder Barney leaving we have been informed that the trio will be split up on Wednesday, if Elder Barney had stayed we would've been kept in a trio. And about the comment on it being early August (in my letter to Trenton this week, I commented that I was excited that it was August and that means that soon the temperatures are going to start coming down), natives say, that from here till about October is the worst time to be in Arizona because of the weather, apparently it is going to get more humid but not cooler until about November.


I love you all and hope that you are doing well.

-Elder Throckmorton