Hello Summer! Great P-day (Videos Attached) He can still run.. He can still jump!

Hey guys!

This week started off awesome with p-day. We played sand volleyball and ultimate frisbee with the youth at the high school and then we were able to go to the bills stadium and get a tour of all of the facilities there because a member works there. So we got to go down on the field, walk through the tunnel, into the locker room, into the weight room, the practice field, and in the Fieldhouse with the indoor field, and offices, film rooms, etc... So that was awesome! Not very many people get that opportunity so I'm really grateful that I was able to do that.

As for missionary work this week we did a lot of tracting and looking for more service. The worst part about that was that it was in the mid to high 80s and really humid! But it was good. We were able to give out a couple of Book of Mormon this week and a few people said we could possibly come back. And one guy said we could help him put down some pavers in his yard this week so we are going to help him and hopefully it leads to something. We did some service painting again at the park in Orchard Park. We also went and found some more opportunities in Lackawanna and West Seneca. So we went to the town hall in West Seneca and asked if they had any more abandoned houses that we could help clean out for them and they say yes and that they were so grateful for what we had done already and we did a great job!

So we will have more of those to do this week and we went to the

Lackawanna town hall and it was kind of funny to see the difference of just a few miles because to get into the town hall there you have to go through security, metal detectors, and they have police at every door but they said they have some houses for us to do to. The little black lady at the desk there after we told her that we were looking for service said " Oh goodness my boss is going to loooove you!"

We met with a couple less actives and active members. We did service for one less active and he wanted to pay us but instead we shook on him coming to church. We had zone conference and the stake president came and he wants us to go and kneel in prayer will all of the active members and ask for missionary opportunities so we've been doing that with the active members. Going and teaching a lesson and then praying for missionary opportunities so hopefully they start coming soon! We had dinner with the Welkers, Robisons, Alessi's, and got to interact with quite a few other members. So that's it for my week!

 Also I had to run through a couple sprinklers this week while tracting to cool off and I almost got attacked by a raccoon throwing away the trash in the dumpster.

Have a good week!

Love you!

May 23, 2016

Hey guys!

This felt like a pretty packed week but I honestly can't remember all of the things that I did. I know one thing for sure is that we did a ton of tracting! One thing about this area is that there are unlimited streets to tract. So we talked to hundreds of people this week and I think three said we could maybe come by sometime so hopefully they have some potential. We ran out of empty lots to clean up for the town so we have been looking for more service to do as well. That's pretty much what every day was like... Tracting. But, during the other times we helped paint some rooms at a park down in Orchard Park, and we did a lot of stuff with the youth again this week.

On Monday, we had them come right across the street after school to the church and play basketball with us and that was a lot of fun! One of the day's, four of the youth had a track meet so a lot of the ward was there and we went to support and I think the ward really appreciates the things we are doing with their kids so that's good. We are getting really close with all of the members here.

Then on Friday, there was a stake youth activity at Orchard Park High school so we went and helped set up for that and we were able to participate a little bit as well and got to fellowship with all of the youth from the stake, playing volleyball, capture the flag, ultimate frisbee, etc...

Then on Sunday we had the usual meetings, which were really good and then we went to the Alessi's for dinner after church and then rode with them to Buffalo for a stake musical fireside. We were in the ward choir and we sang “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” and all of the other musical numbers were awesome as well! Our ward had a lot of talent there!

I've been thinking lately about why I was sent to this area and why it was my last area and I think it's because of the missionary reasons for sure but more importantly I think it was to meet the people here in this ward. I don't know why yet but I developed really close relationships with a lot of them, lots of them are from Logan and most of the youth are going to Utah State, Brother Alessi who is one of the ones I'm closer too has given me a lot of good advice about the future, school, jobs, as well as a few of the other members.

So I don't know if someday I'll work for or with one of these people, I'll be good friends with one of the youth at Utah state, or if I'll have a relationship with someone from this ward in another way but I'm fairly certain I was sent here to meet some of these members for my future so that's pretty cool!

Anyways have a great week!

Love you!

May 16, 2016~ Two Months Left

Hey guys!

This week was pretty good! On Tuesday we had the transfers so most of the day was spent trying to figure that out and getting people where they need to go. Then, for the last part of the day we walked around West Seneca and tried to contact some of our potentials.

As for the rest of the week of missionary work we have spent a lot of time trying to find new people to teach here in west Seneca, down over by the lake, and also in parts of Orchard Park. It's kinda what the whole district is doing right now just trying to find people to teach.

All we really had was the Mashburns, but now that they are baptized the ward had really done a good job of taking them in. So a lot of tracting has been done the past week. The bishops son had his eagle project on Friday and Saturday so we went and help with that and he had a ton of support. A big portion of the ward was there and all of the youth to help. So it was a really good activity and great opportunity to fellowship with the members some more. The youth in this ward are really fun and most of them are planning on going to Utah State after their missions. One is actually signed to play football there, so that will be cool to have that connection with them when they go there. Then we went with bishop’s home teacher to help take some stumps out of bishops yard which was a lot of help to him because he is a super busy man!

Saturday night we had stake conference and Elder Coonie of the Seventy was presiding there and we rode with the Alessi's up to that and they had to stay after for an interview so I got to have a little one on one conversation with him while they were in the interview which was really neat! 

Sunday, we had the stake conference again and there were some great talks by the stake president, Elder Coonie, the Alessi's daughter from our ward and a couple of other members from the stake but it was just a really good conference!

Also the missionaries in the stake were the choir so we got to do that. Then after conference we went to the bishops with the other missionaries and the Hughletts from the ward and had dinner and games and that was a lot of fun! He said it was a get to know the missionaries better/ family fun so that was great!

I've really got to know the members even better this last week and things are going great! Last transfer I kinda just let Elder Self do what he wanted to do because arguing wouldn't help at all but now I've got another new companion and it's nice to start doing things differently again and it seems to be going good.

Also all four of us missionaries in the ward like to play basketball so a couple mornings a week at 6 we go play at the church and the youth have seminary then so they come and played a little bit with us and today after school since it's right across the street from the church all of the youth are coming to play with us so that should be a lot of fun!

Have a great week!

Love ya!

May 8th, 2016

Hey guys!

It was great to talk with you for a little bit yesterday and I hope you had a great Mother's Day mom!

This week was pretty good. We did a lot of service again, we finished cleaning up one of the abandoned houses, we helped an investigator to pull out her lawn so she can put in a garden, we went down to chestnut ridge state park and helped plant some trees, and we went to the Alessi's and help them with some service around their yard so it was a pretty good week of service. This week we've done A lot of cleaning out the area book and getting in contact with the potentials we have and actually determining if they have potential. We had dinner with the Alessi's and the Robison’s this week and did a bunch more of the usual stuff. I told you most of what's going on yesterday so it'll be a short letter.

Have a great week!

Love you!