I've never been so happy in my entire life!

This week was pretty darn slow. Not a whole lot went on this week. I'm mean we did missionary work and visited some less actives but no really cool experiences. We've been trying to meet with some people I taught while I was here. It's kinda cool to see the people drop off and think they don't really need the gospel and then realize something went missing in their lives. 

Well one night we were walking through an apartment complex and somehow my comp and I started talking about how we become happy and what makes us happy. We talked about sports and dates and food and more food haha but it clicked that I've never been so happy in my entire life. I thought it was kind of crazy. The things that make me happy was all left at home for two years and I've never been happier in my life. Just kind of reminisced in the car on our way home about how much happiness the gospel has brought me. There's no better feeling than the feeling that God appreciates your choices and what you are doing. I've experienced it a couple times before I left but so much more since I've been on my mission. I think it's all because I've had the chance to live the gospel more fully. "And moreover, I would desire that you should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments". Never have I been a happier person :)

I'm back in the Valley!

This week has been pretty good. It's not feeling too hot in the valley yet. It feels pretty good actually. Almost exactly like the mountains right now. Elder Kaufusi is good. He's a poly and wants me to gain as much weight as I can while I'm with him. I've already gained 7 pounds in this first week. This guy is just constantly eating. He is really good though. We get along. He is from Tonga and has lived in he US for about 5 years. Salt Lake City. 

The area is still the same as I remember it. The members are all super nice and even nicer because my comp. for some reason people just love Polynesians. Hey are so lucky. White boys work their butts off and nothing happens and then a poly comes around and they are like "Ooo, want to come in and talk". It's so dumb how much people love them for no reason haha. It's alright though because I'm his comp. 

So we had a Stake Conference yesterday and it was really good. Our Stake President talked about a meeting he went to with tall the Stake Presidents in AZ. There were some apostles there and they opened it up to a Q and A. Well our Stake President had a question that had been on his mind for a couple of months that he thought he would ask. He asked Elder Ballard and Elder Rasband "Our Stake has 3200 members and 2500 are less active, for the past seven years I've been Stake President we have had President Monsons invitation to rescue on the forefront of our minds and there seems to be not real change. What can we do differently?" They had him turn to a scripture and read it. It was 3 Nephi 18:32 "Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them." Wow what a powerful scripture. The apostles and a couple of general authorities told them to just keep ministering. Not matter what, not matter how hard it seems. 

At first when I got the call to get transferred down here I was pretty mad. This was my least favorite area. I felt like I worked my butt off last time I was here and didn't see any of my work pay off. I thought it was almost worthless down here. But as I've come back and listened to the talk I've had a new out look. I wanted to see my work pay off. I wanted to see others lives change and become better. But it doesn't really matter. We are here to minister. A lot of times in life we are not going to see the success of our work. We might not see the lives we've touched. We might not see if we got our children on the right path. We might not even see if our work is paying off in our own lives but sooner or later we will see he fruits of our labors. The atonement works if we are using it. Whether we see it or not. I'm so grateful to be ministering as a full time servant of the Lord. I hope all of you stay on the straight and narrow path and minister no matter what, even when you can't see he success behind the work. 

Y Nation (Were pretty sure Elder Lange wore this sweatshirt in honor of BYU beating the #1 team in the nation; Gonzaga this week!)

Missions can be full of heartbreak

This week has been alright. It was really slow and kinda hard. So all the Elders here in Payson got sick except me. So all of them were down with the flu and didn't want to spread it to anyone else. So I was stuck inside for like 3 days without doing anything. It was so boring and I just wanted to work so bad! Well Sunday rolled around and we went down to Young for church. I had to give a talk and it went pretty good but I still don't like speaking haha. Well at the beginning of the week we got a call from some members that had been fellowshipping Dani Brown. Our recent convert. She told us she had some bad news and told us that Dani had shot herself. They took her down to the valley hospital to try and take care of her. Her heart failed 5 times and ended up passing away that night. It was a heart breaker! I had dreams the next two nights about finding her. But it just helps strengthen my testimony in the Plan of Salvation. I don't understand how people can go through family deaths without that knowledge. It's so hard. But that's why I'm out here. Is to help other people with their lives. And to top it all off I'm getting transferred to an area I've already been in down in the valley! Man this week was pretty hard. But I guess you just gotta put your shoulder to the wheel and push along. It's a good thing a mission isn't about me, it's to help as many other people as I can. :)

Good thing my mom send me out with Uno cards because that's what we did most of the week.  

Here is Dani at her baptism

A Happier People

We had a pretty good week this week. We went down to Young this week and just did farm work the entire day! We cleaned out coops, laid new hay down, fed horses, shoveled dirt, dumped pools, realigned fence, really anything you could think of to do on a farm we did it. It was a pretty long day. But Young is really good. We are heading back down there this Saturday and Sunday.

Other than Young, our other two areas are doing pretty good. We still have the Gonzales family on date for March 4th. They are still on track for that date too so that's good! As we have been teaching them I've kind of noticed how much we expect from them. I mean between each visit we expect that they are reading every night, pray as a family, coming to church on Sundays, keeping commitments we leave with with along with the commitments from all the previous lessons. I notice we expect a lot from them. So I thought about the church in general and how much is expected from all of us. We are expected to do a lot! Keep ALL the commandments (at least to the best of our ability), go home teaching every month, visit families in need, prepare lessons for church, render service. All these different things and so much more. I started think about why we do it all. What makes it all worth it? Well first of all, the Lord expects a lot from us. He know we can do amazing things but also knows we make mistakes. He wants us to stretch ourselves. Grow and learn from all of our experiences. It's not just the church that expects a lot from us but Heavenly Father himself. And second of all is the happiness we can find in living the gospel.  "and surely there could not be a ​​​happier​ people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God" 4 Nephi 1:16. This is after they have gone through so much war, bloodshed, robbing, and loss but yet when they lived the gospel to the fullest it brought them so much happiness. We might be expected to do a lot but the lords blessings for doing so are 10 fold what we could ever imagine doing without Him. 

Huge miracle this week!

Man this week was so good. We had a huge miracle this week. So the family with the single mom and two daughters came to church. They couldn't find their Sunday dress so they were only planning on coming for one hour. Well they got to church and everyone was so nice to them. The two daughters begged their mom to stay for the rest of the block... So they ended up staying! It was soooo good for them. The two girls got up in front of primary and everyone sang to them and they had the biggest smiles on their faces. It's amazing the joy that comes from the gospel! The mom was happy she stayed for the whole block. They are doing sooo good and progressing a lot. They are going to be our next baptism on March 4. I really love that family. I feel like sometimes I can see how Christ sees them. I can see the simple knowledge of the gospel they have working in their life. Every time we go over the have the light of Christ more and more. There are amazing blessings missionaries have to be able to do the work of the Lord. Being able to see through His eyes and finding out exactly what they need. I'm grateful for the blessing the Lord gives me! I'm grateful for this gospel and most of all I'm grateful for Christ and His loving atonement He preformed for us all! 

Enjoy to the end

This week went pretty good! We started meeting with a family that wanted to quit smoking. It's a single mom that has two girls. We went over a non smoking lesson with her that helps people quit in 7 days. She is going strong and hasn't smoked in 4 days. We are starting to teach the lessons to her. She is super awesome and the kids love us. They are so excited when we come over. 

I've seen a lot of things happen with investigators this week and most of them are impatient of just don't want to change their life style. It makes me sad knowing how happy they could be (knowing from experience). I mean this was e reason I came out on my mission. I knew the gospel worked and helped in any situation you're in. Whether it be me or you. The gospel could help and I knew that. It's hard to see people just give up after starting the race. They lose interest in the race they started or lose energy and think it's too much to handle. I just want to grab them by the shoulders and look them in the eye and tell them to hang on just a little longer! God is always willing to help us and just gives us little bumps in the road to help us grow. It's hard to see people trying to sit on the fence. In Joshua 24:15 it says "And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." We can't just decide to do what ever we want and then choose Christ on the last day. We have to choose today to serve Christ and let His gospel help us. ETTE (Endure to the End) or by that, enjoy to the end. 

A broken heart and a Contrite Spirit

It's been a pretty long week. We were down in the valley Tuesday having zone conference and spent pretty much all day down there. Zone conference  was pretty good though. We learned a lot about the importance of the restoration and why we teach it for the first lesson in most situations. Hopefully we can all be a little bit better teachers. 

Well we got a call Wednesday night from President and he told us we had to leave to the valley at 7 in the morning the next day. He wanted all the missionaries safely down in the valley and there was a big winter storm warning. There was supposed to be 8-12 inches of snow that day. Well we drove down to the valley Thursday and spent our time down there till Sunday morning. It stopped snowing Saturday night. We were on foot the whole time just walking around while it was raining. I didn't have a jacket either so I was walking around in a short sleeve shirt tracting for 4 days. That was pretty crappy. I was soaked. 

Saturday was really good though. Elder Oaks came to talk to us. He said he was really proud and could really feel the obedience and diligence in our mission. He didn't come and spit fire like everyone wanted him to do. It was more of just advice and he also opened it up to Q and A. It was super good. The spirit was really the teacher in the meeting. 

A lot of his answers were centered with taking the sacrament with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Moving our faith to be more like the brother of Jared, developing a stronger relationship with our Heavenly Father, staying focused throughout our mission, etc. Everything starts with taking the sacrament with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I thought that was really cool. It put a lot of perspective on how important the sacrament really is. Don't just take it remotely. Let it help you in you life. There's a lot of power that can be found in taking the sacrament!