Howdy y'all!

This week was so hectic. We went to Hickory twice and then up to Winston and then had a meeting with President and had to do two exchanges and find 5 new investigators and on top of all that I rebound my scriptures with alligator skin.

On Wednesday we went up to Hickory for their zone meeting. It was the first time I've seen mountains since I came out. The Appalāchians are pretty weak looking, but it was still it was neat to see what the rest of the mission looks like. I've never been west of Charlotte, which is where all the good hiking is. Their Zone Meeting was pretty fun. The theme was "Potential is Out There", a spin off of "adventure is out there" from Up. At the end they had us all write things we want to give up to be more consecrated on a piece of paper and put it in a house that was strapped to a bunch of balloons. Then they let it fly into the sky. After that I was on exchanges with Elder Hatch. He's from Cali and played competitive water polo so we had a lot of fun.

A few days later we went to Winston for their Zone Meeting. I got to see Elder Watson  and eat at a place that played really good music. That was fun. After that we had to drive to Lexington to drop something off and then get back to Charlotte in time for our appointment so we could exchange with the Pineville Elders and it was so stressful because traffic is the worst thing ever!

David should be baptized this week. He got sick and couldn't come to church Sunday, but he should be doing okay. Maxwell came and loved it. We also had a guy named Gary come. His family is from Cambodia and were refugees of the Vietnam war. He wants to be baptized and we're teaching him this evening. Pray they continue to do well.

Welp I'm super tired and I need a nap. I'll send you pics of my alligator skin scriptures next week. Love ya!

This week Elder Peterson and I found this elect African guy. He was taught two years ago and got all the way to the baptismal interview, but because of some problem he got offended and disappeared. We knocked on his door this week and he let us right in and started to tell us about how he'd repented and how he's now ready to be a member of Christ's true church. The guy was jumping up and down and crying and going through his whole life story about being raised in Sierra Leone as a Muslim and getting moved to Russia where he converted to Christianity and then God brought him to America where he could find Christ's true church. At the end he prayed and asked if he should be baptized on February 4th and at the end he said, quite loudly, "by God's grace I will be baptized on the 4th of February and no one can stop God, not even myself!" It was incredible. We're still trying to figure out how no one found him for two years straight.

David Blackwell is also doing really well! We had some great lessons this week with him. Yesterday after church the old stake president invited us over for lunch and we brought David too. It's pretty incredible how much this guy has changed since I first met him a year ago. He's pretty much gone from a godless man to a regular church attender. It'll be a pretty special day for a lot of missionaries when he gets baptized in a few weeks.

I also went on exchanges twice this week. The first was back to Welcome Ward. That was kinda odd, we had ward coordination and I hadn't missed one since I left. The new Elder there had to come to Charlotte for a doctor's appointment so we made an exchange out of it. Elder Hampshire is still doing really well. I got to teach Nancy and the Crouses so that was fun. Then on Friday I went on exchanges with the Charlotte Central Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Bingham. He just got called as a zone leader and has been out just a transfer more than I have. He's a solid missionary from northern Utah and owns a big ol' ranch. We had fun finding all night in the freezing rain. Doesn't sound like fun, be we found two new investigators.

Elder Peterson and I get along really well and are having a ton of success. It seems like all the people are super solid and ready to be baptized. We have four with a baptismal date right now and statistically 50 percent of the people we put on date get baptized.

Alright I love y'all!

Howdy y'all

Back to the big city! It's so nice to have more shopping options than Walmart and Lexington BBQ!!! Today I bought myself a new tie with some of the Christmas money I received.

Matthews is a pretty great ward. I feel like I know a ton of people already. There are two families that were in the Providence Ward and another couple of families that are related to members in Providence. Our ward mission leader is a super solid guy and the Bishop is pretty fired up about missionary work. They've had 6 baptisms in the past two months so the members are really excited too. We've got a few solid investigators and are spending lots of time out finding new ones. David Blackwell has a baptismal date for the end of the month. I taught him in Providence and now he lives in Matthews. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the job this time. I almost feel like God has given me a second chance from Providence here. It's pretty much the same area, same dynamics and everything, except this time I'm gonna harvest some real fruit.

Being an assistant is pretty okay. It's not too much different than being a Zone Leader, just different responsibilities. Some missions have what they call office missionaries that pretty much sit in the office all day, but instead we have all of the administrative responsibilities along with full proselyting responsibilities. So we have to work crazy hard to hit all the standards of excellence and have to be super great at planning. I get to see President a bit more often but most of my time will be spent on exchanges and out proselyting like a normal area. I'm really enjoying it though.

I really like my new companion. For some reason he really reminds me of Luke (Sam's cousin). They have really similar personalities. He's a really hard worker and I think we're going to see a lot of success.

Here's some pictures from the week.

Sup...

Welp, it's been good. I had fun talking with y'all yesterday. Let's see if I can fill ya in on what else happened this  week.

On Wednesday we had a Christmas Conference with a ton of missionaries. I got to see Elder Watson and Elder Everett and Elder Clarke and Elder Andersen and Elder Blanco. Pretty much all my friends except Elder Galvin. They let us watch a new restoration movie the church made that doesn't come out until next year. It was from the perspective of Oliver Cowdrey. Kinda funny how he and David Whitmer ended up leaving the church but never denying their testimony of the Book of Mormon. We also played a giant game of jeopardy which was super fun.

I kinda had trouble explaining what I'm studying in the Book of Mormon. When you receive the Holy Ghost when you're confirmed you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost can be felt in different radiances just like how light has different brightnesses. Just because you've received the gift of the Holy Ghost doesn't mean you have it in full radiance all the time. That doesn't really happen until you're perfect. So what I'm studying and looking for is how you fully receive the Holy Ghost to be able to feel it in greater radiance more often.  Sometimes we feel the Spirit a lot in Sacrament or during prayer, but I'm wondering how you can feel that amount of spiritual light when you're out and about playing sports or driving to work or whatever. Should be fun.

Thank you again for all the Christmas presents! I loved them all of them. And tell grandma lark I laughed opening most of the ones she sent.

I think I've read that talk you sent dad. It sounded pretty familiar, I like that each of the three groups lacked either faith, hope, or charity.

Alright I love y'all here's a ton of pictures.

Howdy fam,

Yesterday was like the best day ever. Brother Cartrette confirmed the priesthood on his son Zemore and then baptized and confirmed Zianna. When I got here six months ago they were less active because the mom had to work on Sundays. Then God blessed them with a job so they could attend church and they started taking the temple prep class and everything fell in line. We were visiting them one or two times a week. They're going to the temple next month to be sealed as a family and I'm so happy!!!! Brother Cartrette suffers from severe nerve damage, so he asked me to get in the font with him because he was worried he'd fall or drop Zianna. Luckily he did just fine and remembered the prayer perfectly. I had to whisper the confirmation in his ear, but we're getting there. He's only been a member three years or so and probably has only had the Melchizedek priesthood for a year or so.

Nancy is getting baptized this Friday!!!!! She told us this week she considers herself a nonsmoker and at church yesterday she was inviting people to come. She's probably been my favorite convert to see progress through conversion. It's crazy how much she's changed lately. I'm pretty sure she suffers from depression, but lately you wouldn't even be able to tell. We were going to have Tony baptize her, he's a recent convert that got baptized in March and just got called as the second councilor in the Sunday School presidency, but it sounds like he has to work so I may end up doing it. Either way it's going to be a white Christmas.

Shirley and the Crouses came to church yesterday. That made me pretty happy. Sounds like the Crouses' grandson Dwayne, who we were teaching for a while, just got a girl pregnant. Bless his heart and Lord have mercy on that child. He's crazy and according to Brother Crouse the gal is clinically insane. There's never a dull moment in that household. Did I ever tell you about Sister Crouses' mother? She's tried to kill Brother Crouse twice and when we were filling out the baptismal record for them we asked Brother Crouse how to spell her name and he said "D-E-.....let's see, oh V-I-L." The funny part was Elder Toki wasn't paying too much attention and he wrote devil on the record. Don't worry, we scratched it out.

We also had Zone Meeting this week and it went super well. We had everyone write things they want to start doing and things they want to stop doing on each side of a paper. At the end they tore it in half and put the bad stuff in a fire. Also President came which made it even more fun!
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Okay so I have a ton of pictures for this week I'll send in two emails.

Howdy y'all!

Time is going so fast. Nancy is getting baptized in two weeks!!! She gave up smoking this week and has been doing SOOOO well. I'm super happy for her. We gave her a blessing and she hasn't smoked since. That night she messaged us that her son-in-law smoked in front of her and she didn't even have any desire to smoke. Plus all the Relief Society sisters are swarming around her. There's been a few times they've gone over there without us even asking them to see her. This ward is so perfect.

Millicent is also doing pretty well! She told us she definitely wants to be a member of the church and committed to come every single week so that's looking pre' fly. Now we've got to just figure out the law of chastity details with her.

We also had MLC on Tuesday. It was a pretty good one we counseled a lot about a mission culture document we're doing. Afterwards we went out to sushi and got a $50 sushi boat. I've never had sushi before, turns out it's not too bad. I was pretty surprised when Elder Craig just grabbed a raw piece of tuna and threw it in his mouth. Elder Clarke was there, he goes home after Christmas. That's going to be super weird because that means I'll only have 7 months left when he leaves.

We also had the Ward Christmas party this week! The food was pretty good. Sadly no flaming hot chili.

I went on exchange with Elder Grieve this week too. He was serving as a zone leader and is a district leader here now. It's been really really nice having him as a district leader because all our other district leaders are super young and have only been a district leader for a transfer. We talked about different leadership styles. There's a chart that depicts what motivates you as a leader and has a color for each one. Red, Yellow, Blue, and White. Everyone has a primary and secondary. Turns out we're both Red with Blue. You'll have to look up what all that means because I can't really remember.

That's pretty much all I've got, but here's a bunch of pictures! We went disk golfing today and there's a picture of Dusty at the temple!

Wow, what an amazing week! So this week I went down to Matthews for exchanges with Elder Peterson. It was pretty great, they have a really nice weight set for working out in the morning. It was pretty fun being in Charlotte again. Transfers are in a few weeks and it's likely I'll get transferred, maybe I'll end up in Charlotte again! Charlotte is a lot better of a place for P-Days and shopping I tell ya! Don't worry, the transfer day is after Christmas. As far as the works toilet cleaner, I actually already have some. When I was in Danville I lit one off and about scared the other missionaries living there to death.  

After exchanges with Elder Peterson I went on exchanges with Elder Snyder. Funny guy. We had a good laugh talking about the good ol' days in Providence. And while I was gone Elder Hampshire and Elder Blanco set a baptismal date for Nancy! She gave up cigarettes yesterday and attended the ARP class too! I'm real excited for her and I really think she can do it this time. Please pray for her! Also Millicent came to church too!!! And we found 3 more people to teach this week! One of them is this great guy who's a child of record and wants to be baptized. His wife and kids aren't members either and it sounds like they're coming to church next week.

We've been doing a lot with the Light the World stuff. Mostly just inviting other people to join in. Our Elders Quorum President had us teach the lesson yesterday on service and talk about it. We've got Lisa, the lady at the soup kitchen, doing it too and giving out cards to all her SDA friends.

It's kinda starting to feel like Christmas here. The 70 degree weather at the lakefront today playing beach volleyball kinda didn't but, ya know... We do have a Christmas tree and it's pretty swagger. The only Christmas traditions I can really think of is the whole open one present on Christmas Eve kinda thing and then taking turns opening them all together. That's always fun as a family.  How's Vickie doing? I kinda miss that lady. Tell her I say hi! Also how the heck are the Lakeys!?! Remember that sweet walking stick he gave me? For some reason I'm super excited to use that thing when I get home. You should take a picture and send it to me!

So yeah things are pretty fantastic here! Hope the nutcracker goes well and that Jonas keeps teaching like a champ! Love ya!

Sam