WEEK 26

Hey guys! So Amanda and Rourke both passed their baptismal interviews! They will both be baptized this Saturday at four! I am pretty excited. They are probably one of my favorite families I have met on my mission! We had dinner with the Berniers on Saturday and had some pretty tasty steaks! The McGraths were there as well because Sister McGrath invited herself haha then after that there was a game night for all the adults and Blaine and Amanda went and we just played a bunch of board games! It was Aidan's birthday on Tuesday so we went over there and had cake with him and watched him open his presents. It was kind of funny when we were singing happy birthday and then after Xander blew out the candles, haha, he is my favorite! We were going to try and get Aidan some ties for his birthday, but we didn't have time so we just gave him some of ours and signed them on Sunday. We went over there and planned the baptism so it's legit now! 

We went over to Brant's again with Brother Gram and we set another date with him! He is ready this time and I think he definitely has a testimony and he has already been off alcohol for a few weeks now! He told us that Friday was his first day at work without coffee. When we were there he pretty much taught us the lesson, haha, he has known the church since he was 14 and he says it keeps coming back to him. His date is February 25th so that will be next transfer, so one of us might not be here. We only have one more week until we find out about transfers! Brant also went to the game night and I think that was really good for him to get to know more people because he is a quieter guy and usually won't talk if he doesn't have to. 

So today isn't actually my p day because we are going to have a zone p day on Wednesday and we will be playing games and we got the movie Finding Dory approved so I am pretty excited about that! So they are giving us a little time today to email and to shop. I think I can still email on Wednesday too so if you want to send me an email then too you can! 

So as some of you know there was a World Wide Missionary Broadcast and they switched up the schedules a little bit. So all of the missions changed, but they may be a little different from each other. My mission stayed close to what it was, but we had a few changes, which I really like. So before our schedule was like this:

Wake up at 6:30 am, pray and then go work out for a half an hour. Then we had an hour to get ready to be at studies at 8:00 am. We studied for an hour by ourselves then after we would study for another hour with our companion. Then we would go out and proselyte and come home at 9:00 pm. Then we would plan for the next day for half an hour, then go to bed.

Now it is like this:

Wake up at 6:30 am, pray and then go work out for half an hour. Then we have an hour and a half to get ready, which is super nice. At 8:30 am we do our planning for the day, so we don't have to do that at night. Then at 9:00 am we study by our self for an hour then we get to choose when we do our companionship study that day so maybe after lunch or right after companionship study. Then at 9:00 pm we get home and we write in our journals and now we can go to bed at 9:30 pm if we want to get more sleep, and I have been doing that.

I really like the new one and it makes the mornings a lot better to be able to get ready because I am a girl and take forever haha and then at night it is a lot better when we don't have to plan when we just want to go to bed. Our p days are a little different too and we don't have companionship study and we don't exercise in the morning, but we still study by our self. That way we get out at 800 am and we are able to get more done on p day. Some missions are different and they get to wake up later and get home later and other ones wake up earlier and get home earlier. 

We drove up to Burnsville to go interview a guy for baptism. We have a lot of miles so that hundred mile trip wasn't to bad! I even got to be kind of close to my last area! I kind of miss that place. Anyways the Eagan Sisters had a guy named John that we interviewed and he is super cool and he is from Liberia. He is getting baptized the same day as Amanda and Rourke. We have been trying to drive a lot because we have a lot of miles so we drove to the McGraths for haircuts and I really like it. I also bought me a Rubik's Cube and taught Elder Huntley how to do it haha. 

We had a new investigator at church today and I think I talked about her a little, but Sheila came and she got a ride from the Grams. She said she really liked it and she says she wants to come back! She stayed all three hours and we even had a linger longer after church and she stayed for that as well. 

Anyways I think that is all I got for this week! I'll talk to y'all next week!

1 Nephi 20:10

(Btw the scriptures are just scriptures I read this week that I liked.)

Elder Bullock

WEEK 25

Hey guys! 

This week was a pretty slow week, not a lot happened, but it was still good! The best part of it is that Amanda quit smoking on Saturday! Friday night they went shopping and Aidan bought her some suckers and gum so she could use that to help. So far so good, but its only been a few days. I know she can do it though and she knows too. She told us that she wants this more than anything and just wants to be baptized to be able to feel clean and start over. It is super exciting! We have been over there a lot this week and taught Rourke a few of the lessons. 

We were able to meet with Brant J. again. He was set to be baptized, but he wanted to take a break from it so he told us to text him on January 12th so we did and set up a lesson and we took Brother Edwards and we had a really good lesson! He didn't want to set a date yet and said that he wanted to start fresh so we taught him the restoration again and it went well. He said he remembered most of it, but it gave him a lot to think about. I think this time it will go a little better, he said that he has already been a few weeks sober so that is really cool. 

We saw William W. on Sunday and that went really well. We hadn't seen him in awhile because of his surgeries, but he let us in and we talked for awhile with him. It wasn't too much of a lesson, but a lot happened from it. We got a referral from him, he said he is coming to Amanda's baptism, he invited us to a loaves and fishes, and we told him there are lessons that we teach and asked if he and his wife would like to take them and they both said they wanted too! He even told us he is going to be making some more jerky and that we need to come get some! 

So I told you guys last Sunday we helped the McShane's with family history, and then this week we took Brother Edwards to the family history center to do some. Elder Huntley kinda taught me how to do it too so I actually found some names to take to the temple! 

Since Friday I decided I wanted to do the gallon water challenge where you drink a gallon of water a day. So Friday I started and I almost finished it, but not quite and Saturday was the same. On Sunday I did finish it and I think I should be able to finish it today. Now if you know me I really don't like drinking just water, but one of the members, Sister Hadler, told us about it and she was doing it and all the benefits from it so I decided to try it and so far I like it! Usually I am always dehydrated so I thought this would help. 

Last Monday we had a freezing rain storm and the roads were pretty bad! We were actually in Lake City, which is like a 30 minute drive, so after our dinner out there we had to drive home in it. It wasn't that bad since the roads were pretty well salted, well at least the highway was. When we left from dinner we got a text saying to get home as soon as possible haha the only really scary part was trying to get up our hill to the apartment. I almost made it, but then I got stuck so Elder Huntley got out and I tried to back down the hill to park down there, but I just started sliding down and I had no control! Luckily I hit a snow bank and it flipped the car around and everything was okay! 

On Thursday we went to the temple and it was really cool! This one is a lot smaller, but super pretty and it was cool to be able to talk with Elder Last in the Celestial room! We had 16 missionaries from our zone and I think there was some more missionaries that came after us. After we were done the members that took us up, the Jones, took us out to eat at Famous Dave's! Super good! 

At church we had two less actives that came and one of them about gave me a heart attack! We were standing by the front door saying hi to people that came in and then all of a sudden Sister Dorado came in! We have been trying to get her to come since I got here! At first I didn't recognized her, but it was really cool to see her there. She came alone without her husband so hopefully we can get him to come eventually too. I feel like him not wanting to go makes it harder for her to go. We actually went over there on Saturday and taught the Plan of Salvation to them and I think that is what got her to come. Elder Huntley said that they have been taught by missionaries for years and they all usually gave up. Elder Huntley hadn't met her until he was with me because Elder Creager had stopped by them before Elder Huntley got here and didn't think that she would come. So hopefully this wasn't a one time thing! The other less active was  John Johnson and he is less active right now just because he has cancer and is going through Chemo right now

Anyways that's about all I have! So I'll talk to y'all next week!

1 Nephi 11:17

Elder Tayson Wayne Bullock

WEEK 24

Hey everybody I don't have a lot of time to email today because we have our P day switched to Thursday so we can go to the temple. They are still giving us a little time to email today though so this onewill be a little shorter.

Last P day we watched Ephraims Rescue with the Berniers and I really love that movie. We have stopped by a lot to answer all of Amanda's questions she has had from reading the Book of Mormon. It seems like she has been reading nonstop and always has really good questions.Yesterday we went by and she asked a lot of questions that I never asked myself that I wanted to know the answer. We figured it out though so that was cool. She just started Mosiah!

We went out with Aidan again and went and saw Alicia with him. She let us right in which was kind of surprising. She had a friend there named Lisa and we kind of talked to her a little bit. She knew a little bit about our religion so we tried to talk to her and see if we could teach her anything. I soon realized that she was anti about our religion. Elder Huntley kind of started to Bible bash with her, well she actually started it, but Elder Huntley bible bashed back. Shewould ask us what we believe on a specific thing,  like where we believe we go after we die or something like that, and then she would take a scripture out of the Bible and tell us we are wrong because of this Scripture says this. I was getting a little frustrated and I was trying to get Elder Huntley's attention and tell him we needed to leave, but she Bible bashed on Aidan a little so Elder Huntley didn't like that. Anyway after we left Elder Huntley felt bad for Biblebashing, but it happens to everybody.

We went and saw Steve again, he is letting us use his tools and some pen parts and wood to make our own pens. As were making stuff we would answer his questions or teach them something. We didn't get to finish making them so we will finish this week. We went and saw Neil, the guy who we helped move out, and they are super open to having us come over and teach them. Neil is Jewish and his wife goes to a bunch of different churches. It was kind of weird because like a week after we helped him to move out his house caught on fire and he lost a lot of stuff.

After church yesterday we got James and Bernie started with family history so they can take names to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. I didn't know a lot so it was mostly Elder Huntley but I helped where I could. We got them a few names to start with, but they are going to come to the church on Wednesdays and do family history with one of the members here.

On Saturday we went up to cottage Grove with the Amanda and the kids to see a baptism of a family of four. Amanda drove us up so that we could save miles. The baptism was of a single mom with three kids. It was really cool to see and Amanda really liked it and also liked the talk that was given. Blaine wasn't able to go because he had to take Amanda's mom to the cities. But on the way back we went and ate at Burger King and when we were leaving we saw Blaine in the parking lot. That whole family loves Burger King so it was kind of funny that they both wentthere.

Anyways not much happened this week anyway so I look forward to talking to you all next week!

Elder Bullock

A member made these scarves

WEEK TWENTY SOMETHING  (23)

Hey guys! This week was super good, but it feels like forever since
last week though. Well I guess I will get started!


So James got baptized on Saturday, January 7th! It was a little rough
for him. We had to wait until Wednesday to have the interview because
the Fickles said he wasn't keeping the word of wisdom so we had to get
that all figured out. On Saturday we went to go start filling the font
and then we went to go teach a lesson. When we came back we checked on
the water and the font was empty. We don't know how but the plug came
out so we got the idea to get the garbage cans from the classroom and
some pitchers from the kitchen and turned on the hot water in the
bathroom sinks and dump them into the garbage cans, then we would dump
the water into the font. I did both sinks in the men's bathroom and
Elder Huntley did the same in the women's bathroom. It usually takes
the font about four hours to fill up and we had two hours until people
were getting there. So for two hours with no breaks we just went back
and forth filling up the font from the sink while the font ran to help
it go a little faster. By the time people were getting there it was
getting pretty full and I think we did a pretty good job. It was a
little shallower than it should be, but James isn't that tall so it
worked out. It was also a little colder than it should be, but James
is pretty tough. When they got in the water people asked him if it was
cold and he said no so that was good. The floors got a little flooded
but we just mop them up right before people got there. So that is the
story of James baptism! He got confirmed yesterday and then went up
and bore his testimony since it was fast and testimony meeting.
James and Bernie both got callings yesterday as well, we don't know
what they are yet though.


During James interview Elder Huntley was interviewing a family for
baptism from the cottage Grove area. There were five people total he
had to interview so it took a while. Since he is the District leader
he is the one to do the baptismal interview.  So in the mission when a
missionary speaks a different language like Cambodian or Korean they
get to take a two-week break whenever they want, but only one. So one
of the sister missionaries in Saint Paul decided to take hers and so
she  switched places with one of the sisters in our district. So
Sister Frank, who is in our district, is up in St. Paul learning korean
and Sister Heath is serving in cottage Grove right now. I thought that
was kind of cool since I really wanted to speak a language.


We have been over to the Berniers a lot this week and Amanda has been
reading a lot of the Book of Mormon. So every time we come over she
always has a bunch questions of where she has been reading.  We have
also been teaching Rourke the lessons so he can get baptized.
Amanda has already had the lessons when Aiden was taught them. Unfortunately
they did not come to church, but they really wish they could have came and Amanda
said she was going to bear her testimony yesterday so that's cool.


We were able to do some emergency service this week. We were
driving to the church to use the computers really fast and pretty
close to the church when we saw a car that had spun off the road. So we
pulled over and went to go talk to them and there were some teenage
girls on the way home from school and the driver was on the phone and
the other girls wouldn't roll down the window to talk to us. They just
held up a finger to tell us hold on. Well finally this lady, who I
guess a knew them, came and started talking to them. Well being the
Boy Scouts Elder Huntley and I are we had some snow shovels in our
trunk and we were able to dig them out and push them out.  The lady
that stopped thanked us but the girls just drove off and it was kind
of awkward. Another person we were able to help was this old guy named
John. He was shoveling his sidewalk and driveway and we offered to
help so he went inside. When we were about done he came back out with
some granola bars and money, we only took the granola bars. So that
was cool.


We did a little tracting this week too even though it was pretty cold
when we did. This whole week was in the negatives with the windchill.
The secret is you just crank the heat in the car until you're
sweating and then go outside and it feels nice. So it wasn't that bad,
but we didn't really meet anybody who was to interested. A lot of the
doors we knocked on no one answered, but after we were a few houses
down we would see them pull out of the garage or they would go out on their
porch to have a smoke. This one guy just started laughing at us when
we told him who we were, but that's OK ha ha.


Last Monday after emailing we went and saw the boot! For those that
don't know the Red Wing boots they are a famous boot store that is
based out of Red Wing. In the store they have this super big boot that
is the worlds largest boot! Don't worry I took pictures!


So one night we went to go see Alex again after the holidays and when
we knocked her dad answered and said she wasn't there she was at her
moms, but he said that she told him that she wasn't interested
anymore. I really did not believe him at all, I just think that he was
annoyed of us showing up all the time. So we will try again later and
maybe try stopping at her moms instead. After that we went to go to a
dinner at the Voigts. Earlier that day, at James's baptism, Angela
Voigt told us that dinner was going to be at 6:15 because Angela would
not be home until then. Well I didn't think that we had a dinner that
day with them, but when I told Elder Huntley he said that we had
dinner with the Voigts today. Well apparently he thought I said that
the Voigts we're going to feed us since we didn't have a dinner. So
long story short we show up to their house and knock on the door and
they weren't answering. Well finally Brother Voigt came and answered
the door and was surprised to see us. He asked if we were coming over
for dinner and we said yes. Well they actually had family over and did
not sign up to feed us that day. They still did feed us some pretty
good lasagna though so it all worked out in the end.


Well that was my week! I think it was a pretty good one ha ha well I
look forward to talking to y'all next week!


Elder Bullock

James' baptism

5 Month Mark

Hey guys this week was awesome and I had some super cool miracles! You may want to be seated before you pass out from the excitement!

So the biggest miracle this week was when we talk to Amanda and asked her if she has prayed about a date. She told us she had and that she doesn't know when because she is having back surgery in the beginning of February but she wants to do it before one of us leaves. So we told her that we think that she will be ready by February 4th! She agreed with us and we also mentioned how we think Rourke should be baptized on the same day, so we set a date with both of them!  Blaine only agreed if we can try to have a Rourke baptized in a river. He thinks that if we do something like that to make it more memorable for him that it will help him stay active and want to go to church. Amanda has been super awesome this week and we were able to give her a blessing to help her stop smoking. At the beginning she was smoking two packs then overnight she cut it down to one pack then she smoked five the next day and is still working on cutting in half. To help Amanda we told her we are going off sweets until she gets baptized so a lot of our candy is going to have to sit in our drawer this transfer.

One night when we went over to Amanda and Blaine's we ended up teaching them a lot and technically taught three lessons.  Elder Huntley was talking with Amanda about family history and they actually got her started and she went back 12 generations. While he was doing that I was talking to Aiden about some questions he had about the Scriptures and was able to teach him some things and help him understand what they were talking about. I also taught him about the storyline of the middle of the Book of Mormon. I started with King Benjamin and told him he had a son named Mosiah who became king and was super righteous. I also told him about King Noah and who was a wicked king. I taught him how a prophet named Abinidi came and started preaching to the king and his wicked priests. One of those priests was Alma the Elder who believed his words and when king Noah told them to kill Abinadi, Alma the Elder stood up for him and told them not to kill him, but then King Noah sent them after Alma.   So Alma runs off and hides and then repents and baptizes many in the Waters of Mormon and started the church. Abinidi ends up getting burned at the stake and promises King Noah that he will end up the same and later King Noah does get burned at the stake. Then Alma has a son named Alma, who is referred as Alma the Younger. King Mosiah has 4 sons, Ammon, Aaron, Omner and Himni, and are referred to as the sons of Mosiah. Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah are wicked and go around trying to destroy the church. Alma the Elder prays for them that they will repent and an angel appears to them and tells them to repent and Alma the Younger falls to the earth and can't move and the sons on Mosiah carry him back to his father.  When he awakes he tells everyone that he has repented and him and the sons of Mosiah end up being amazing missionaries.  Alma the Younger becomes the prophet and in the end is taken up without tasting death. That is why he is my favorite in the Book of Mormon. Then after that I started talking to Blaine about a whole different thing and about the Plan of Salvation, mainly the three kingdoms.

The whole family came to church for all three hours for the first time. They all really liked it and Rourke, who is 11 and in the primary, told us he really liked it and he loved the third hour. For second hour Alexander, who is 4, went to the gospel principles with us and Amanda and Blaine.  He was bored the whole time so we asked Blaine if he would be comfortable letting Alexander go to primary and he said sure. Blaine wanted him to stay because he didn't trust the people here yet, but he ended up letting him go. We heard from some of the members that they were participating and Rourke even said the closing prayer. One of the sisters asked him if he was ready to say a prayer and he said yes and said a good prayer. They were both answering questions from things we taught them which was super cool.  They said that they thought it was awesome how Rourke was helping Alexander and things like that. We went over to their house after Church and when we got there Blaine asked us if we would play him in chess, but for every piece of his we took that would be one chew he had to give up for that day. So if on average he had three chews and then we took one of his pieces then he would only have to have two chews. So Elder Huntley played him and ended up taking 16 of his pieces so that is 16 days that he has to go with one less chew. I feel like that is a sign that he can quit and that he is working on trying to quit. Hopefully we can be able to be at his baptism someday.

We went out to go tracting with Aidan because he wanted to go. He was super awesome and after the first door he asked if he could take the next one. He ended up doing most of the talking and the lady we met even said we could come back sometime. He literally has no fear of talking to people and is going to be a great missionary someday! He also talk to this other lady and at first she wasn't interested. We asked her if she was religious and she told us she used to be, but her parents forced her to go to church and that kind of push her away. Then Aidan just blurts out that we are having a competition to see who can pass out the most copies of the Book of Mormon. Elder Huntley and I were both like, "What are you doing!" And we looked at each other. We actually didn't say that but I could tell that's what he was thinking. This lady we met told us that she thinks she can be pretty open minded and told us that she would take one and call us after she reads it. I'm not sure if she really will, but it was still a super cool experience. It pays off to have a 12-year-old with you while tracting. Aidan was always saying how he got baptized a few months ago and that he is just learning how to be a missionary. It was kind of funny to us, but it seemed like it softened peoples hearts. He ended up coming out with us for about three hours. Also I put a picture of this car we saw while tracting.. it is the same car I drove at home!

So James is set to be baptized this Saturday, January 7. James has told us multiple times that he has been obeying the word of wisdom, but the Fickles, who live with them, say there have been a few times this past week that they saw he was high. James has a problem with alcohol and marijuana so that is what we are concerned about. We have to take James word unless we can get real proof so he is set for the baptism. Elder Huntley agrees with James and believes him. I feel like that the Fickles wouldn't tell us this if they didn't know for sure. But there's nothing I can do but trust the zone leaders to have the spirit with them in the interview to see if he is living it or not. I will try to assume the best and just love him. He is definitely ready to be baptized and does have a testimony, But I still have that concern that he is lying to us. Our ward mission leader had a talk with him and James said to him that he was sober as well. James does call us  occasionally to ask us questions about the Book of Mormon or the studies he has been having.

So this past P day we went tie shopping at a thrift store and they were super cheap so we decided to get as many as we could that looked good. We each ended up getting six and when we went to pay for them we were told that there was a sale so they would be even less. All I had was 20s in my wallet so I pull one out ready to pay and they tell me that will be $.75! We got 12 ties total for $1.50! When we got home we hung up all our ties and then proceeded to count them all. We each had about 30, not quite sure exactly, so deciding which tie to wear gets a little difficult. We took a picture of all our ties so you can see for yourself! 

Anyways it has been a super good week and we saw a lot of miracles this week! I look forward to talking to y'all next week!

Elder Bullock

Got ties?

Almost like the car I have at home

Elder Huntley playing chess