This week we had Elder Zeballos come our mission. He's in the 1st Quorum of the Seventy and is from Chile. He and his wife were here Thursday and Friday and then went to the Gastonia stake conference. They gave pretty good talks and he had a special MLC with us afterwards. They were super humble people and really care about missionaries. Because of the storms up north they almost couldn't come but ended up driving 11 hours to get here. Even though it's been really fun to have all these General Authorities here, I'm glad it's over for a bit. We've spent a ton of time the last two weeks making sure our sound system works and setting up tables and chairs for all these meetings. Now I'm ready to get out there and baptize some more people.

We also found this really great investigator yesterday. He's from China and his father attended BYU. He's got a lot of Mormon friends and he's coming to church next week. His name is Shane, and I feel like he has a lot of potential. If he joins the church he'll be an Elder's Quorum president for sure. Gary is still doing well. He really fits in well at the YSA Ward. He told us this week he fasted for like 4 meals for God to help him stop smoking. We didn't even invite him to fast or anything. I love Gary so much!

Yesterday Maxwell received the priesthood! He would have gotten it way sooner but he was sick one week and then we had the conference with Elder Cook. Maxwell is such a solid convert.

So I'm pretty tired. I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life. Transfers are this week which means I'll be even more tired in a few days. So much work and on top of all that I need to find people to baptize next week. I'm getting a new companion next week because Peterson goes home. I'll be sad to see him go. He's been really fun to work with, and we've gotten along swell. Crazy he only came out 4 months before I did. I'm starting to get anxious about choosing a career and a lifestyle and everything. Good thing I've had 4 General Authorities here over the past few weeks to show me how it's done. It's been really interesting hearing their life stories and how they got to the point they're at now.  

Sure love ya!

Howdy.

It was a good week. I'm pretty tired. On Sunday morning it snowed which was really strange.

Elder Cook came with his wife and Elder McArthur and his wife and Elder Klebingat and his wife. On Saturday we had a meeting with them and the whole mission at the Charlotte Central stake center. It was amazing. The Cooks and the Klebingat's both spoke. Honestly, if I could choose between sitting down and having a conversation with Elder Cook and Elder Klebingat I'd choose Elder Klebingat. Elder Cook really blew it out of the water, but Elder Klebingat said some really insightful things. That guy knows the scriptures really well. He talked about why missionaries go inactive when they get home, and what you can do on your mission to avoid that. Then yesterday at the big conference he talked about the pre-mortal life and the war in heaven and he dropped some serious deep doctrine bombs. Apparently he's a convert and he's only like 45. He's the youngest 70 in the 1st quorum. Elder Cook's testimony on Saturday was fantastic as well. Gave us a few things to focus on to be better missionaries and said the church needs more outgoing and personable missionaries.

On Saturday I saw a ton of members from my past areas which was really neat. The Clays from Danville and Dusty, one of the recent converts Elder Everette and I taught together was there as well. I saw a few people from Welcome and a ton of people from Providence.

Most of my week was just spent preparing for that conference. One day we had to go to Best Buy and get some audio equipment and another day we had to spend a ton of time making sure all the audio equipment worked, which it didn't, and we had to figure out why it didn't work, that was a headache.

My birthday was wonderful! We went out to lunch at Sabor and in the evening Kevin had us over and made this Columbian dish that was super, super good. It had a ton of rice and beans and avocados and eggs and sausage. The Jacksons, our ward mission leader, got me a cake and we ate it at ward coordination. Don't feel bad at all the package came late. I was totally fine, just worried about my voice recorder. The Lexington Elders said the package was slightly open when they got it so hopefully nothing was taken. When I got it it had a bunch of snacks, a piñata and my voice recorder in it. Thank you again for it!!!!

This week we've got another 70 coming, Elder Zabollos. He'll be here for a few days. Tomorrow we start transfer planning, which is always fun. Should be a big week.

Okay I love you!

Hola family,

This week we had 6 elders living in one apartment. The Charlotte Central Zone Leader's dishwasher pipe exploded and when they got home one night it was completely flooded. Like an inch of water all around. So they had to come live us. Then the Reedy Creek Elders apartment need to be carpet cleaned, but the people took like 5 days to get over there so they had to live with us too. It's been an interesting experience. I'm realizing now this is what my college life will be like. Speaking of that, when will I find out who my other room mates are? After hearing of Luke's roommates I'ma bit worried.

On Saturday we went down to the local market and this member that runs it got us a bunch of food. It's kind of a maxi market, but the food there was sooooo good. She got us tortas, sliced paprika mangos, corn on a stick, and funnel cakes. It was the best!

I also went up to Hickory this week and on the way back we had to stop in High Point so I stopped at the Crouse's to say hello. I really like them a lot, they're so nice and humble.

Right now we're at this really high end Hilton hotel up town. There's a member that works at this little barber shop in the gigantic lobby that cuts missionaries hair for free. We've got to be looking fresh for when Elder Cook comes. This barber is like a world class guy. Everyone that comes in is like super high up CEOs and he's totally pals with them. He said his business has really taken off lately and I could tell because we had to wait like an hour because every time it was about to be our turn someone new walked in and asked if he could
cut their hair.

Yesterday we re-contacted a former investigator named Darwon. We were teaching him for a bit and then he fell of the grid for a month or so. Turns out he was in Sweden visiting his girlfriend who's a member and while he was there he went to church and met with the missionaries. Now he's pretty interested in being baptized. He and his girlfriend are both from Liberia so I'm not sure how one ended up in Charlotte and one ended up in Sweden but if they get married in the temple like they want to it doesn't really matter.

I'll thank you in advance for what's in my birthday package. One of the recent converts that got baptized my first week here is feeding us that night. He's from Columbia so he's making us some really good Columbian food. I'm pretty excited.

Love y'all

This week went real quick. I went on exchange in Reedy Creek with Elder Jackson. Started off the exchange right with all you can eat sushi at Pisces uptown. It was the best thing ever. Then we taught a few people and went to go contact a referral who just happened to live next door to their investigator, Mupeni. As we arrived I could hear screaming and wailing from one of the homes and Mupeni's brother came out to greet us. He informed us that Mupení had died two hours earlier. The whole family just moved here from Africa and couldn't speak a lick of English. They had us come in and sit on their couch and they were just absolutely hysterical. It was really sad. All the women were singing and yelling in Swahili and the men were all somber just staring at the floor with wet eyes. It was really a miracle we just happened to be there that night because of the referral they received. It was comforting to be able to hug them goodbye and tell them it would be okay because they'll see their brother again. It was pretty awkward though because while we were sitting there the mom, who was this gigantic African women, leaned hard core onto Elder Jackson and just sobbed all over him. 

I also went on exchanges with Elder Hampshire. It was fun to be with him again. We hit up the crepe shop in High Point, best crepes ever. They had a super good Zone Meeting, the Alexander's grandkids were visiting and they went too. Their 12 and 14 year old were better teachers than some of the missionaries in the room. Some real protégées there. The theme was of course, the family. Particularly ohana and focusing on making sure none of our spiritual brothers and sisters get left behind. At then end we all sang the EFY theme song and it was pretty spiritual. Everyone was crying. 

Yes, Selena was baptized!!!! It was pretty great. Her mom is a member but doesn't ever come to church and her neighbor/close friend Leticia just got baptized with her family in December. The missionaries have tried with her for a long time, but it never really clicked until she had a close friend to go to church with. Now we're teaching her other friend Ariana and their other neighbor too.  

Alright I love y'all! 

Sup guys.

So I had no idea they were going to teach Aliyah in our home so when I Skyped in the other night I was kinda surprised. Luckily President is still cool with it as long as we keep it purpose driven and don't let it get me home sick or anything.

This week was kinda weird, I went on exchange with Greensboro and Gastonia. It involved a ton of driving. I listened to this talk while we were driving called "The True Meaning of the Atonement" by Cleon Skousen. It was super good. I really enjoyed it. When I was in Gastonia I was with Elder Brown who's from Sandy, Oregon. He played water polo for Sandy which means we played each other a few times. Small world. I also met the new office couple today and they're really good friends with the Carrs in our ward. The Deweys, the other office couple, used to live in Corvallis and they know the Schultzes.

This next week S is getting baptized. She's come along pretty well. It's been really nice because L is really good friends with her. L's whole family just got baptized and we've been teaching S at their house. G is on the stop smoking lesson again. He's doing alright with it. Yesterday we stopped by after church and caught him smoking. He'd literally been home like 3 mins from church and he lit one up. Dang it, G. Then when we left his place we waited down the road and like a minute after we left he came out and went to ask this bum hanging out outside for a cigarette and we pulled up really quick and he saw us and hid behind a tree. It was pretty funny. He still went to ARP that night and called us this morning to stay accountable. He's doing pretty good now😂

Maxwell flipped a cow when he found out an apostle is coming. It was really funny. He wants me to record his life story and write a book about it so I'm pretty pumped. If you can send the audio recorder by the first week of March that'd be great because Elder Cook will be here on the 10th.

Today we played sand volleyball and rugby with the Zone. That was pretty dope. This week I'm going on exchange with High Point! I'm pumped for that. I can't think of much else that happened. Pretty fast week yet not much happened. We did go to this super great crepe place! It was delicious. Okay I love y'all!

So perfect timing on the $40 because today is our 'treat yo self' day. Honestly I think I prefer the money over a package. We're at South Park mall living it up. I bought a new suit, and it's slick. Got a super good deal on it, 20% off and it's some solid material. I tend to wear a suit like every other day here and with only two suits I'm running out of variety. Plus I want them to last and it'd be good to get another in the rotation. Elder Peterson and Elder Everett both bought the same suit as me so we'll all be twinning. Oh yeah totally forgot to tell y'all. Last week when we were driving back from Greensboro we got a call from an unknown number. It's Elder Klebingat of the 70, he gave a really good talk in conference titled 'Approaching the Throne of God With Confidence'.  Anyway he wants to get a hold of President asap but Pres is in interviews with missionaries so we give him Sister Alexander's number. The next day we find out Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve is coming to our mission in like a month with Elder Klebingat. He's having a big meeting with our whole mission on Saturday and then Sunday all 7 stakes in our mission are going to a giant conference in Charlotte. I'm gonna hear an apostle speak in the  Bojangles colosseum!!! So of course we all had to get new suits and the rest of 'em are buying new shoes too but I just got some so I'll hold off.

Transfers happened last week. We picked up the new missionaries and brought them to the mission home Monday night. Had dinner there and told them what North Carolina was like. Then the next day we got up and trained them and sent them off with their new companions. We also had MLC this week which was pretty crazy because they happen once a month and I feel like we just had one. I conducted and Elder Peterson and I trained on the Book of Mormon. After that I went on exchange with Elder Murray. He's from Idaho and goes home in a few weeks. We taught a ton of people, which was super nice, and even found a new person to teach! The next day we drove up to Mt. Airy (aka the place Andy Griffith was filmed) and went to Elder Zesinger's district meeting. And then after that we went to this Mexican restaurant and the owner loves missionaries so he have us all like a huge discount! It was great.

We also dropped Elder Blanco this week. I was pretty sad, but I'll see him soon. Took him to the Holy Stake and Hoagie, best sandwich in town. I'm actually on my way there now #TreatYOSelf.

Alright time to play some bball. Thanks again for the Valentine's money! Hope y'all have a great week.

This was the busiest week of my life. We had three Zone conferences, transfers, and a baptism. Don't tell anyone, but yesterday we both laid down for a 30 min nap during our lunch, and woke up 2 hours later. I was so tired. But all in all Maxwell still got baptized and S accepted a baptismal date for February 25th. It's really quite amazing, all this success in Matthews. 4 months ago this place was not so successful. We used to make fun of the assistants because they hadn't had a baptism in like 9 months and they were supposed to be the examples to us. Elder Clarke and Elder Blanco really put a lot of hard work into this area while they were here. And now Elder Peterson and I are fueling it further. February is going to be the 4th month in a row Matthews has had a baptism every other week. (Or twice a month). I'm just praying and trying my best to keep up the trend. Hopefully I'll finish my mission here, I'd hate to have to spend my last transfer somewhere else, unless it was Danville of course. Speaking of Danville, Elder Beaulieu is getting transferred there!!!!!!! I'm really happy for him.

So here's how my week pretty much went:

Tuesday was super quick because we had to spend a big chunk of the day preparing for Zone conferences in the office. Then Elder Monteleone took us out to lunch at Moo and Brew, a burger place uptown. He's our favorite office missionary. He and his wife live in the Weddington Ward and are over housing and bikes. They're hooking us up with a new apartment soon because ours is pretty old and gross. Anyway, that day flew by real quick because we spent the evening teaching and helping G quit smoking.

Then Wednesday we had the two Charlotte Zone conferences together. It was a little rough because some trainings took a lot longer than others but we got through it alright. In the evening we drove up to Greensboro and stayed the night with Elder Everette. Remember him? The one I trained in Danville from Alaska that's kind of a wild animal? Yeah him. He made me a tie and baked us brownies. It was nice. He actually just got transferred down here to Reedy Creek and will live in the same complex as me so I'm pretty stoked.

On Thursday we had the Zone conference in Greensboro with the Greensboro, High Point, and Winston Zones. It went a lot better. That night we drove back to Matthews for our dinner and to check up on G and then up to Hickory to stay the night with Elder Hatch and Christensen because the next day (Friday) we had Zone conference up there with the Hickory and Gastonia Zones. It was kinda odd sitting through the same 6 hour meeting three days it a row. The theme was the plan of salvation and President taught us all the doctrine of the lesson so I learned a ton from that. Each time my understanding of the fall deepened. The fall has been one of my favorite study topics lately.

On Saturday Maxwell was baptized. It was a fantastic service. Brother Yessay baptized him. He joined the church in Liberia so they bonded pretty well. Maxwell cried a lot and it was a pretty spiritual meeting. Afterwards we went and got giant nachos uptown with the Reedy Creek ZLs and then went over to President's to finish up transfer business. Well by 5 that evening President wasn't quite feeling right about the transfers (he'd go in his room and pray about it, then come out and we'd make a few changes and he'd pray some more.) so we went to our dinner and proselyted till about 8 and came back. By then he was feeling pretty good and we went through the leadership calls he'd need to make and typed it up for him. We got out of there about 9:30, got to the office around 10 and then started working logistics for where everyone would meet to get their new companion. That was a lot more complex then you'd think because you have to chain each companionship until you get a full circle of companions that are all swapping companions. Add in missionaries going home, training new missionaries, and a few car changes and we didn't leave the office till 1:30 am! Then at 6am we got up and called all the zone leaders to give them the transfer news for their Zones and hurried to church at 9. Maxwell was confirmed and we came home and took a nap. Last night we also had the mission president's fireside. G came and I think it helped him a bit.

Alright here the pics from the week: