Week 70

This week was pretty wild!

To start this week off, we got double prank'd on Sunday. We had a bunch of awesome lessons this week with our amigo that we now have on date for the 12th of June, Jose. He missed church last week, but we were able to commit him to come this Sunday. Everything was set up, nothing could go wrong... until we received a voicemail from him 15 minutes before church started saying that he wasn't able to come. Can I get a #bruhmoment in the chat?

The second prank was that we asked our WhatsApp group chat who could come to an English class if we did one later that day at 2pm. We got a couple of responses, so we printed out some student guides, set up the class, and waited for the people to come flooding in...

*tWo hOUrs LaTEr*

No one came.

Last p-day we did a hike called Grandeur Peak, which had to have been the most physically challenging hike I've ever done. It was only a couple of miles long, but also a couple of miles high too. The trail was basically a 45 degree angle all the way up, and boy were my legs not built for that. I wanted to quit on many occasions, but we pushed on and were rewarded with some almonds and a pretty sick view. And then we booked it down the whole mountain - 2 and a half hours up, 1 hour down!

So there we were, getting ready for the day, when 8am hits and we start hearing some jams. We peek out the window, and there's a gosh darn mariachi band playing outside our neighbors home. We opened the door and enjoyed the free music for the next hour. 

Our ward mission leader asked us to do some service for him. We showed up to see that he wanted us to flip over a trailer bed that must've weighed about a ton. It took 5 grown men to deadlift it, and not as many to knock it down. (video down below)

Gracias por escucharme. Les quiero! Que estén bien :) 

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1-7) Some cool photos from the hike

8) Mariachi band outside the house

9-10) English classes

11) Puppy at a service project

Video:

12) Us knocking the trailer bed over

Week 69

Hola guapos! 

So this past week, for the first time in more than 15 months, we had a Mission Conference! As an entire mission, we got together to hear some amazing trainings from some missionaries and all of the presidents of the mission (btw we still have three mission presidents because of COVID). It was also cool cause I got to play the piano for this conference as well... so you could say I'm getting my name out there 🎹

Also, after three whole weeks of not having any success with our district english classes, we finally had a class on Saturday where 6 first-timers decided to come, and they loved the class and the spiritual message so much that we did a bonus class the very next day just for them. At that extra impromptu class, we had another 3 first-timers show up!! And the people that have been coming to the classes are posting in our WhatsApp group chat of almost 100 people just to tell everyone how great the classes are, so our classes are hopefully about to get a lot bigger 📚

In addition to our English classes, we are also teaching some other friends about the Gospel, and we put one of our friends, Jose, on date for baptism for June 5th! The sad news is that he needed to go to church two more times in preparation for his baptism, and he didn't come this last Sunday so we're going to have to push that date back :((( But hopefully we can stay in contact with him and help him come this next Sunday!

This past week I studied more about using members in missionary work, and I know that especially here in Utah we rely a bunch on the members to help us find people to teach. It states in Preach My Gospel that way to have a greater desire to do missionary work is to better understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So if sometimes we feel nervous to share the Gospel with others, we must reflect on the blessings that we've received from living the teachings of Christ. By doing so, we will grow this desire to help others have the same blessings in their lives. Hopefully you can all reflect on the many blessings that you have received even during these difficult times.

Thank you all for being a blessing to me as well. I love you!!!

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1-2) Our awesome English class with all these wonderful people!

3) So literally one companion from each companionship in my district wanted to go on a hike, so we did 4-way splits to hike Ensign Peak, and we've become the Hike Hunks™

4) We realized how much of a dump our mission is from this view. You have the big city, the nice mountains and green hills, and then our mission at the top right is the land of Desolation

5) As District Leader, I collect my district's numbers (of lessons and new people found during the week for example) and I decided to spell it our with some cereal (of which we received 10+ boxes from the food bank) 

Week 68

 Helllloooooo everyone!! 

There wasn't anything too crazy this week. We did a bunch of service and had a surprising amount of encounters with dogs. 

Some of the best news we got was that our missionary COVID restrictions were loosened up a bit with the majority of missionaries being vaccinated now. We now don't really have to wear masks anymore 😷 except in places that still require masks and in lessons if someone in the room is not vaccinated. I'm glad things are looking brighter here in Utah, although Perú still ain't lookin too good 😔

One of the highlights for me was going on exchanges with my Zone Leaders back to my area that I was in last transfer, Rancho Vista! It was cool to see how the people I taught were progressing even more, and by the looks of it, they should be getting a couple of baptisms this transfer, and hopefully I get invited 🤞

We also had an awesome Zone Council and I gave a training on using time wisely, which is a topic I myself have battled throughout my whole mission. I ironically put a lot of time into this training, and I had a lot of fun prepping it and performing it, and was told afterwards that it was fire 🔥

I have been studying a lot this week about prayer and faith, and one of the interesting thoughts that came to mind is "would God ever hold back if we asked Him for blessings?" Sometimes I'm indirect in what I ask for in prayer, but I know that God loves each of us so much and He wants to bless us. The only thing stopping each of us from receiving all of the blessings God has in store for us... is us - our worthiness, our desire to keep the commandments, and even our lack of asking for blessings keeps us from receiving true joy in this life. Ask and ye shall receive. 

Thank you all for supporting me all the time! Keep praying for me, cause I know I've already seen the blessings from your prayers! 

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1-2) So some Elders found a stray dog, and for the time being, it was brought to the backyard of the other Elders in my district. We named her Lawnmower, cause it's a bulldog and breathes real loud. We officially have a mascot of the Decker Lake District 🐶

3) We also met another dog, Bam Bam, at a service project

4) We did some more service where we broke up some concrete around a tree with some roots that were growing out

5) We did even more service helping the bishopric 2nd counselor move to West Jordan

6) Elder Schneider and I at the Decker Lake, which is in our area, so we're gonna have to start teaching some fish if we run out of people to call

Video:

7) On exchanges, we walked past this dog with a Frisbee in its mouth. It walked up to us, clearly gesturing us to play catch. After playing a game of tug-of-war for the Frisbee in its mouth, we got this sick video of the coolest dog ever

Week 67

 Hola holaaa!

After almost a full year of being behind on emails, I finally caught back up!! Fortunately, that isn't the biggest highlight of this past week. Tuesday was transfer day!! And boy has this transfer already been a weird one...

Things that didn't change:

- .......

Things that changed:

- After serving with Elder Brume for the past two transfers, my new companion is Elder Schneider! I am follow-up training him (meaning he's on his second transfer) and he's from Colorado. He has the biggest heart and I'm excited to see us grow together this transfer!

- After my third transfer serving in the Rancho Vista Spanish ward (and some English wards), I am now serving in the Parkway Spanish ward (and no English ward). 

- After my fifth transfer of serving as a Zone Leader, I have now completely upgraded back to a District Leader of the Decker Lake District. I say upgraded cause I'm now going to have a fairly consistent schedule, studies, and my sanity (hopefully). Also my whole District is just Elders (aka an Elder's Quorum)

- With a change in area, I also moved into a new apartment which I will mention has been the grodiest, disorganized apartment I have ever moved into. I have already put hours of cleaning into it and I feel like I've barely made a dent... but boy is it fun! This was an easy move as well cause the Parkway ward is like 7 minutes and 39 seconds away from where I was serving in Rancho Vista

- Ya boy is driving again!

- I got some new roommates, Elder Cardenas and Elder Moya, who we are splitting the Parkway ward with

Apparently the Parkway ward is the sketchiest area in the whole mission. They only send Elders here. Last year, some Elders were held at gunpoint and were forced to watch some inappropriate content. Elder Schneider also informed me of an apparent meth lab that's right across the street from our Ward Mission Leader. I'm pretty hyped though cause this is where all my cool missionary stories are gonna come from haha.

I went to Target with Elder Cardenas to get his COVID vaccine, and the worker told me that they had extras, soooooo I full sent it and got vaccinated as well... SURPRISE! I tried to play it off that I didn't feel any side effects, until the next morning came... and I was dead. I was tired and sore and it hurt to move my eyes. But anything for invincibility I guess.

So this past week has been rough to say the least. We made approximately 570923485 calls and only like 5% of the people we call, including members, answer us. The people that we're "teaching" haven't been taught for months. All my efforts seemed in vain as well - my mission president, President McBeth, had called me before transfer news even came out, and he told me that he was putting me as a District Leader in this district and area specifically because he sees great potential in teaching English classes. However, the only people that showed up to both our English classes this past week were just this one Taiwanese family (who are super cool by the way, but that's besides the point).

I think my Heavenly Father is trying to teach me to trust more in His plan than my own plan. I already know that this will be a transfer of motivation and innovation, and I'm very excited for what will come of it!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! And happy Mother's Day!!! I love you Mom!!!!!!!!!

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1) Elder Schneider and I at the English class with the super cool Taiwanese family

2) My family sent me a really cool Easter basket made of candy for either a late Easter present or an early birthday present

3) One of the amigos that we're teaching had this bag full of........ uhhhhhh..... fish(??!?) on his bike handle and it fascinated me so much that I had to take a picture of it

Week 65 & 66

 Holaaaaa!

Our two most progressing people that we're teaching right now, Cristian and Diana, are super awesome! They are both so willing to make changes in their lives, which was perfect when we taught them about the commandments. It had been hard for Diana to go to church because she works on Sundays, that was until she had a "my life flashed before my eyes" experience where she almost lost her leg, and the conclusion that she got out of that was that she needed to quit her job that makes her work on Sundays so that she can start going to church... God works through mysterious ways, but a miracle nonetheless.

So some sad news about Cristian and Diana. They were both on date for baptism for May 1st, but Cristian ended up going on vacation to California for that weekend, and Diana ended up dealing with some financial and relationship problems, and her baptism got pushed back a couple of days after transfers. The good news is that they both still have the desire to get baptized! The bad news is that I found out that I'm not staying in the area :((((

So we went to Texas Roadhouse, and as we were about to leave, I noticed there was still one lonely bread roll left in the basket. I grabbed it and shoved it in my mouth as we left the table, and although there was a bit of roll sticking out my mouth, it was all good cause you couldn't tell with my mask on. However... as we were on our way out of the building, someone said hi and asked us where we were all from... I was in great danger. In a split second, I spit the bread roll out of my mouth just in time to tell this man that I was from California. Crisis avoided, mission accomplished 😎 

With the whole district English class initiative in the mission, we've been struggling to get people to these group classes averaging about 3 people per class. But for this last week of the transfer, we managed to pull in a good 11 people and it was a party!! Hopefully these classes will keep proving to be a good source of finding people that are interested in the Gospel!

I love you all!

(Weeks consisting of 4/20/21 - 4/26/21 and 4/27/21 - 5/3/21) 

Elder Terry

Fotos:

1) Us at Texas Roadhouse. My favorite part about this picture is that the bread roll was still in my mouth, and the other Elders were cracking up while I took the picture

2) Us at Arby's 

3) There was a nice sunset so you know I had to take a jumping picture 

4-5) We decided to feed the neighborhood cat (which we named Mishu) a can of tuna, and now it absolutely loves us... or rather it only loves the tuna that we give her :( but she bolts over to our house every time we come home at night and that's pretty cute

6) We came across these awesome dogs, and I pulled out my phone to take a picture, and the second I did, the dog posed for the camera with a super cute head tilt

7-8) We get bored making phone calls all the time