District of Beef

I had a lot of things happen this past week but the highlight was calling the family back home! They are all doing good and have changed so much! Well, my brothers have changed a lot and it is weird because I remember my thought processes at their age. I still look at them as my little bros so it is weird to see them grow up. Sister Oscarson, my sister, is also home from her mission - whoah!  It was crazy to see her on the other end of the call.  I also was blessed to see Malori open her mission call!  She is going to the heart of the restored gospel in the Rochester, New York mission! She will be serving in the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center!  Whoot! It’s not the south but still good. Ha!

We had Zone Conference this week and I absolutely love those! Fun fact, our zone could pretty much eat the other zones based on our size. We discussed the mission culture and the doctrine behind it. For those that want to know what it is, it is this:

Tennessee  Nashville  Mission
A Christ-centered  culture  of  high  expectations  and  charity
In the Tennessee Nashville Mission we  voluntarily  and  joyfully:
Love God, each other and ourselves
Find constantly, teach repentance from the  Book of Mormon, and baptize converts
Work with a faithful attitude
Prioritize the repentant
Know the doctrine
Work and practice all day, in the Preach My Gospel way
Obey and repent, with consecration

We went into the doctrine behind this culture and it was awesome!

I also had exchanges with the APs. I mobbed around Nashville with Elder Doman. I absolutely love that man! He is so cool! We found some peeps and talked to some interesting people. We talked to one man who had the same philosophies as Korihor and I was trying to reply like Alma did but I did not feel moved to strike him dumb. Ha! It was a good time.

For Christmas morning the district got together and we cooked a ton of meat! If I remember anything from Christmas on my mission it will be all of us grubbing on meat and singing joyous Christmas hymns. Elder White and I helped this old lady with splitting firewood on Christmas too! That was so fun and it took me right back to the good ol' Troy days. There is something so satisfying when you split a round so cleanly.

I love y’all and hope that Christmas was awesome! Can you believe that it is the end of transfers next week? I will let y’all know what happens.

Love, Elder Q

Frog Giggin

I will start this one out with a story. E. Horsely and I were on an exchange this week. He is a super awesome missionary and very good at talking with people. Anyways, we were tracting and got our usual tracting dog. This time it was a tiny chihuahua that’s followed us. We ended up calling him Homes and then we even grabbed a tracting horse for a bit. We got to the house of the owner of the horse and right as he opens the door a huge German Shepherd comes out and chases Homes. Luckily the owner stopped him from eating the tiny dog but it did get a good nip on Homes. We left and Homes was lost. We got back to the main road and a car came zooming and honking behind us. The owner of the German Shepherd said that we had to rescue Homes. So we ended up saving the little thing and taking it back to it’s house and by this time we were so embarrassed that we just threw the tiny dog into his house.... ha!

Other than that this week has been pretty normal. We had our Christmas program at church and that was awesome! I also got a lot of Christmas presents from home so thank you everyone so much! I absolutely love them! It made my whole week.

We will not have a "white Christmas" this year but we are teaching some solid people. Last night we met with a man who hasn’t come to church because of the sabbath day being on Sunday. Hopefully my explanation helped him out but he is coming to a church tour so that is awesome! We also met this one guy who is about our age and he is so cool! He is not originally from the mountain so it has been nice teaching him. He is just so cool and willing to learn.

Oh yeah one last thought. We went tracting and I got two free hats ha! Love y’all and can’t wait to see you on Christmas!

I'm in Alabama

I have now made it to 5 states on my mission, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama! My step-sister, Megan, is serving in Alabama.  I felt so close to her this week! She goes home tomorrow and that is just crazy! Glad we were in the same state for just a little part of both of our missions.  Anyways, I went on several exchanges this week and will be starting another today.  Can I just say that I absolutely love the south? It is so beautiful here especially here in Altamont. We go hiking for our morning workouts and do trail running. We did Greeter Falls this week and that was so awesome! I think it looks like a place where during Christ’s first coming to the America’s that it was one of those cities that fell into the earth. It is beautiful.

We saw the annual tree lighting here in Altamont and a veteran that was 94 lit the tree. I love how in public events that we pray and read from thee bible, it is amazing! I am really loving the members here because they are so southern. I am hoping to slip back into a more southern drawl ha! We went into the gas station there and everyone knew everyone. Man I love small towns! We have talked to probably half the mountain already but the work is still going well.

On my exchange with Jasper, I went with E. Merchant. He is so cool, and man can he cook. We had a fun time knocking doors and teaching in ‘bama and Tennessee. The next exchange with Lewisburg was after an awesome district meeting. Story time, so gps are not good ha! We went the most skewampus way to Fayetteville for the meeting. It spit us out in the middle of some farmer’s pasture. We open this man’s gate to get out and I see this side by side zooming over the hills. I run into the car and say punch it! We barely got out of there alive! I was laughing so hard because picture this from his angle. He sees two men rolling around his field in suits and sunglasses. He probably thought that we were with the government. Man I was dying! In district meeting we did a role play that just got everyone laughing. That district is so fun and great missionaries. I went with E. Jensen for the day and we did more knocking and had a fun time just talking about the mission. (He came out with me)

Anyways this week was busy and so will next week be busy. The time is just flying by! I love y’all and hope y’all have a blessed day!

Love, Elder Q

Christmas Time is Here

It is finally getting colder here. We got some Christmas decorations and put them up last night. We listened to some Christmas toons and put it all up. It was a good time! We also put up a ton of trees for the Christmas program for the stake. They do this huge nativity deal and man, I know how to put up every tree in the book! It was way fun through with all those dudes.

We had MLC this last week and it was so good! We did a legit council in the fact that we had a very little agenda and discussed how to help the missionaries. Change of subject, I am excited to about the new lesson plans the church is putting out for the 3rd hour of church. I was as gitty as a school girl when I was reading up on it. I think this will be super effective if people actually use it. Side note about church, I went to the oldest standing LDS church in the southeastern states. It was est. 1909 and it was super cool inside.

I am back to eating real southern food. I love it so much! I wish I could learn all the recipes and cook them just as good. I had some fried oakra! Been missin that for a bit. I ate at both restaurants in town and Walker’s is the best! I had the big ol’ burger! Sad to say that I did not finish it. Another cool thing happened to us with food. We were running very low and we went to the store to grab a few things to last us. Then one of the sisters in the ward came in the store and told us that a little birdie said we were running low on food. She grabbed us and like a mother, took us round the store and bought us groceries. She was gonna get us food anyways but it just so happens we were there at the same time. The lord really does take care of his missionaries.

Story of the week. This member had to cancel on us so we decided to see this other member. I have never met him before so when we were walking up his drive way the dog started to bark. They cam out to meet us and he started to pull our chain and acted like we were Jahova witnesses. We got to talking and I notice the dog was really taking a gander at Elder White’s leg. Then, what seemed like slow motion, the dog lifted it’s lef and peed on Elder White’s leg. I was dying! Haha! We don’t even go home to change for like 2 hours.

That is it for the week. Have a blessed week y’all!

Love, Elder Q

The Mountain

Altamont is nicknamed “the mountain” in our mission. We are sitting about 1800 ft. above sea level so I guess for TN standards that it is a mountain. The views are a lot like Linden’s and the people, believe it or not, are more redneck here. We live right next to a national park that we go running in the mornings. It is a very pretty place! I am loving the ward and loving the ol’ southern feel. My language has already slipped back to being more southern with these people. They say youins here instead of y’all for some reason.

This week was packed with things! I had to say goodbye to some amazing people in Thompson’s Station. I absolutely love that ward and I was really sad in leaving but all good things come to an end. When I got to Altamont, we had no one in our teaching pool so we have been finding fools! Elder White is a really great worker and loves to tract so we have been doing that more. We have found a couple of people but the coolest thing is we set a baptismal date for December 23! In this mission we have a goal to baptize monthly and the Lord is helping us out with that goal. I missed November but the future is looking bright.

We met with the bishop of the ward and we did as one of our mission president councilors directed us to do. That is to ask the bishop for a blessing because he holds the keys to missionary work in the area. That was a very powerful experience and it created a better relationship with him.

Story of the week. I love the country because of the crazy stories, this week I have two to share with you. We were knocking on a door and this old man walks out. He mumbles something and then he pops out his bottom dentures into his hand. Fishes out some corn kernal and throws both the dentures and corn into his mouth, wipes his hand on his pants and holds it out for Elder White and I to shake. I was trying not to laugh so hard because he stuck it out to Elder White first! The second story is we were tracting and this beautiful dog comes out of the wilderness. At first we thought it was a wolf but then it comes running at us playfully. I bet it and then smell this rotting smell. It jumped up and I saw the reason why it stunk. It’s neck had been cut down to the bone pretty much. It was like it had a collar on and it rubbed him raw. So I named it Zombie dog and it followed us for a bit. We had multiple tracting dogs this week and man the dogs here are crazy! A couple were munching on a dead deer.

I went on an exchange with my son Elder Hamblin. He is doing awesome! He has a new missionary so that makes me a grandpa. His name is Elder Brätt and man he is a wizard with the guitar. Elder Hamblin and I talked to a interesting 7th Day Adventist that pretty much admitted that his religion is wrong but still believes in the Prophetess. It is weird being there though it was slime a little community.

Anyways, I am sure to have more stories for y’all next week. Have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Q

 

 

Altamont

It is transfer time again and I am headed to the mountain town, Altamont. Not only that but my companion is Elder White! God has been planning this one since 5th grade. I can’t believe that this is happening. Not only that but, my trainer Elder Ihler finished his mission in Altamont so this makes 3 areas that we have served in. Altamont is a town of like 1000 people and they have a ward so it is highly populated of Mormons. It is like I am headed back to Troy ha!

I am really sad leaving this place though. I feel like I am apart of the ward here. I would totally move back here and live in Spring Hill. All the members are legit and there is such a good family feel here. I am also sad leaving my awesome companions, Elder Melville and Elder Craig. It has literally been the fastest transfer of my life! It felt like we were together for like a week! I had a mid mission crisis as I thought that time is going by way to fast! I don’t want it to end! I still have a while but if it goes as fast as this last transfer has, then I really have like no time left.

It is weird having pday on a Wednesday. I get a lot less emails now ha! Plus, my friends all still have pday on Monday so that blows. This week and a half was pretty good. We went out to the boonies of our area and that was way fun! I will be in the stix again so I am happy about that. We got someone on date this week too! I know he will be an awesome member. The week really started tot take off! On Sunday we had so many people just show up at church or a member brought their friend. It was super cool! Patti is super legit because we had dinner at her house and watched the Face 2 Face there. Not only that but she is just a super stellar member. She has increased in light since I have known her and man she just has such a good spirit about her.

That was pretty much all this week. Love y’all and have a blessed week! Talk to you next time in Altamont!

Love, Elder Q

 

 

 

 

A Plethora of Answers

I started the week with a couple of questions and most were answered. On exchanges with the APs, I learned from Elder Richins how to have things stick better in my brain. I need to write stuff down or I really need to ask the question when I read scriptures “why is this in here?” Or “How can this apply to my life?” This has made my studies way more meaningful. Plus, I study things that I really want to learn. The exchange was also very fun and we ate at Angelos! I also got to see some members of my last area.

Then we had interviews this week and they were so good! All district meetings were happening at the stake center so we got to see everyone in the zone. I absolutely love the Franklin Zone! Anyways, in interviews I learned what Elder Maynes was talking about in his talk on integrity. I have had that question since General Conference. Pretty much what happened was say the next to lowest bitter was $100 but Elder Maynes offered $50. The boss man said if you can move it to $95 then we will get more money and we can split the extra $45 for ourselves. It is being dishonest to get more money for yourself. I also learned that I may be leaving this area on thanksgiving. That would be really sad, but I will do what the lord wants.

Then I had the question all week about, what can I do to improve. I have little patience in slow improvement ha! I was reading the scriptures and came a crossed Alma 32:43. I learned that I just need to be faithful, diligent, and patient to be able to grow. I need to realize that it is all in the lord’s timing not mine in how I grow. I have a stronger testimony in scriptures study and prayer. I have been trying to see the blessings from prayer but I realized that not only do I have to pray but I have to word for my answers. I can’t just say my list in prayers then not do anything about it.

Patti is still on fire as a new convert! Her husband came to church and is repenting so he should be baptized soon. Also, we are doing better in both wards to prioritize the repentant. I love y’all and have a blessed week!

Love, Elder Q